From Hot Wheels to Horsepower: A Life Obsessed With Machines

Introducing Louis Yio. He’s a talented photographer, part of Larry Chen’s team and one of Turnpike’s core contributors. He’s here to tell us a bit about himself, but also to discuss a topic we can all relate to.

LY: I didn’t grow up in a car-loving household. I think about it from time to time, growing up jealous of friends building motors with their dads.

Both of my parents worked all day, with no hobbies that I picked up on – at least initially. I spent my early years playing with the cheapest toys available at our local stores, and by that I mean Hot Wheels.

My dad fell into photography as a hobby as I got a little older, which led to a cheap film camera as my 10th birthday present.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the combined enjoyment of Hot Wheels, a cheap Olympus around my neck, and an anime about delivering tofu in an old Corolla would lead me down a wallet-draining hobby and career path. Man, do I love it though. 

I’m here talking about cars and cameras, but I feel like my appreciation for all things mechanical goes deeper. I find myself fascinated by bikes, planes, jets, Gundam models, RC cars, and 3D printing to name a few. But why?

While at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway a few years ago, I was photographing the Ford Performance team, testing their all-electric Mustang Cobra Jet drag car. In between runs throughout the day, we saw jets of all shapes and sizes flying over us. 

Nellis Air Force Base was right next to us, for some context. I wondered why dozens of F16s, A-10s and F35s were all flying into Nellis. It turned out, it was for Red Flag- a large-scale training exercise the US Air Force hosts with allied nations every few months. I could talk about jets for hours on end – maybe even longer than cars – but I don’t want to sidetrack this article.

The other camera operators and myself spent a large part of our day pointing our cameras up to the sky, capturing the overhead jets purely for our own enjoyment. I turned to one of my colleagues after another F16 flew past us and asked why we were so fascinated by them. He replied,”I just like anything mechanical, man.” 

I thought to myself for a moment. My brain was calibrating what he had just said to me. That’s when it clicked.

Cars may be my focus, but I’m as equally as amazed and curious about a carbon-framed Tour de France race bike as I am about a Z-Tune Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R.

I nerd out on RC plane steering servo motors as I do for a close-ratio steering rack for my Subaru. I’m going to have as many questions for the person rebuilding their Suzuki GSX-R 1000, as I will for someone swapping an RB26DETT engine into their Silvia.

So why bring it up, this love for all things mechanical? I feel as though many of you reading this will feel the same, to be honest, and I wanted to share with you how I came to understand it.It’s our shared love of gears, metal, speed, electronics, 77mm CPL filters, studio strobe lights and anything mechanical that brings us all together, to a place like this. It might not be something that I’m knowledgeable about, but if something mechanical catches my eye, I’ll definitely end up several hours deep into researching it online..

So now’s a pretty good time to say hi, I’m Louis. I drive 90’s JDM cars, I take photos occasionally, and I like to obsess over mechanical things. I hope you do too.

Welcome to Turnpike. This is going to be fun.