Meet the Car Club Helping 1,000s of L.A. Fire Victims

And how you can help.

Mar 19, 2025

HAPPY RACE DAY! especially to journalist Brendan MacAleer for reporting that U.S. tariffs could increase the price of JDM classics such as — oh, I don’t know — the Nissan Skyline GT-R, by “tens of thousands in extra costs.”

Read the full piece on Car And Driver here.

“I saw so many people lose everything they own, I felt it was incumbent upon myself to leverage resources as a call to action.” — Omar Taylor, founder of the nonprofit organization Rally Way, as interviewed below.

QUICK BOOK UPDATE: Carrara Media author Kevin McCauley recently posted a sit-down interview with designer Chris Nguyen about his coffee table book Waiting for the Sun to Come Down. Check it out above!

If you haven’t ordered the book yet, grab your copy here. If you already have yours? Leave us a review on Amazon!

And now here’s our top feature.

Black History Month Event at VJMU

CAR CULTURE RELIES on catalysts. The organizers who set up cars and coffee, or the visionaries who start a racing team. In Los Angeles, two catalysts making waves are Savant Young and Rashod Bacon. Both are enthusiasts making a distinct mark on local car culture, and in February they joined forces on a special event.

The pair hosted a Black History Month celebration and conversation at Vintage Japanese Motorsport Union in the L.A. Arts District. Owned by Savant, the VJMU space has been a gathering place for creatives and car nerds since opening last year. The event, titled “Cars Culture Conversation,” fit the venue perfectly.

Cars were situated throughout the VJMU warehouse, including inside the garage and outside on the back alleyway beneath the 6th Street Bridge. You could have spent the entire time admiring Mazda trucks, modified Porsches or classic Mercedes.

But it separated itself from other car events by focusing on connections. VJMU is designed to spark conversations, thanks to its inviting decor and homey feel with couches and benches in every corner. Young added a dominoes table to encourage people to sit down and relax together.

“There’s no hidden agenda,” Savant told the crowd. “We just want to see faces and see where everyone is trying to go. We want to know that network and connect.”

Bacon echoed those sentiments, but offered a different perspective. This is his third consecutive year hosting car culture events for Black History Month, and he explained the first two were about connecting folks and building a collective.

“This time around,” he said, “it’s not enough to know each other. We need to carry it forward.”

Both hosts have been featured in Race Day before. We spoke with Bacon way back in 2021, and Young more recently in 2024.

Now in 2025, it’s clear they’ve found a fit with one another, and a common ground between their goals to establish tight-knit communities. The event drew people from multiple walks of life, who were encouraged to meet and connect with strangers. Many said they’d never been to a car show like it before. Others said it was their first time at a car show, period.

In an online world, real-life connections are more important than ever. The old saying is that the best part about car culture is the people, and Young and Bacon were willing to bet on it. As the party continued into the night, and hangers-on shared drinks and laughs in the warehouse while the tunes blared on, it was obvious this won’t be the last time.

“Use this place,” Young told the crowd. “This is what it’s for.”

Omar Taylor and Jessica Bryant, Rally Way

AT THE VJMU EVENT, a few guests were invited up to speak in front of the group. One of those guests was Omar Taylor (above, left), founder of the nonprofit Rally Way. A native of Altadena, which suffered terrible losses during the Eaton fire in January, Taylor has been working alongside Jessica Bryant (pictured, right) to help fellow Angelenos get back on their feet.

Last month Rally Way hosted its first-ever Afterburn Rally to raise funds for fire relief, and totaled $5,000 in donations. I spoke with Taylor and Bryant to get the full picture about their efforts. Follow them on IG, and learn more about Rally Way below:

On the goal of Rally Way

Our core mission is to be a bridge between the car community and at-risk youth, by merging adolescents with people who own cars they aspire to own one day. They can learn that these things are attainable, they’re actually possible. We use rallies as our principal fundraising arm to help kids, from buying school supplies to linking them with mentors or trade schools. The goal is to eventually have them participate in rallies.

Organizing After the Fires

A lot has happened since the wildfires. I’m a native of Altadena and saw so many people lose everything they own, reduced to ashes in a matter of hours. Obviously it affects people and, I guess it motivated me to take this organization and broaden the scope to include disaster relief. With any disaster, some of the most vulnerable are the kids, so I felt it was incumbent upon myself to leverage resources and relationships as a call to action. I wanted to find a way to collect donated items. I called a friend who offered us 3,500 square-feet of space and that quickly snowballed into a 19,000 square-foot studio. We were able to get a forklift and a big box truck and now we lease a 35,000 square-foot warehouse in Santa Clarita. We’re getting a large volume of products and non-perishable goods too. Now we can get them into the hands of people who need them.

Getting People Back on their Feet

I believe that my home was spared so that I had the emotional capacity to help those who lost everything. I know so many folks who did, so I’m doing my best to help folks get stabilized again. We weren't intentionally preparing to blend our commercial real estate and residential real estate expertise, but that experience got us into these warehouse spaces. So I guess this is what everything was for, because we were able to provide all these things. I envision us being able to help people secure their homes if they want to rebuild, or help them locate new homes, because that is a part of disaster relief. We can actually help them fully outfit their home.

Combining the Missions

We can also leverage our existing population of young men and women who are looking for trades and skills. This is our opportunity to teach them some skills, teach them trades, get them involved in gaining skill sets that will last and persist throughout their life. If you have a reason to wake up early, you won't stay out late. That’s what we're trying to do, and how we can work within our original mission and purpose into this new frontier we’re embarking upon.

Visit RallyWay.org to learn how you can help.

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And Finally…

Formula One is off to a torrid start after the season opener in Australia last weekend. You can watch highlights here, and see how this year’s rookies are doing here. (Spoiler alert: Not great.)

There are tons of changes this season. What did we learn? This video sums up the main points nicely and sets the tone for what we should expect going forward.

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