Los Angeles has defined global car culture for decades. From the birth of hot rodding and lowriders to the cutting edge of modern car design, LA has shown the world how to roll. But it hasn't shown us how to drive.

Why not? You’d think with over 600 miles of freeways, 50,000 surface streets, and millions of cars, we’d have figured it out. But we aren’t drivers, our stereotype is “stuck in traffic.” I wanted to aim hood for horizon and take us off that grid-locked path.

In Northern California, there is a long tradition of Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rallies, run to a routebook over a prescribed course on public roads, in stages. Not a speed contest, but a day or weekend out in cars, driving for the sake of driving. I wanted to rally, but didn't have a car that met their criteria. Thus, an idea was hatched: What if we brought that tradition south, lost the gatekeeping attitude and cost, added a healthy dose of irreverence, and gave it a Hollywood twist? The 50 Year Storm was born.