I decided to roll through the Texas Motor Speedway parking lot Sunday morning after Mopar® Heaven 2025 to see who was still packing up. What I stumbled on tells a story of dedication, passion and the unmistakable sound of American muscle. Amid the scattered tire debris and lingering smoke from the weekend’s festivities stands a man whose love affair with Dodge Chargers has evolved from teenage dreams into a full-time calling. This is the world of Gushi Burr Man, where the roar of HEMI® engines and the screech of burning rubber have become the soundtrack to an incredibly interesting career.
For the man behind the Chargers, the journey began with a simple truth: he’s loved Dodge Chargers since he was a youngen. His first car was a 2009 Dodge Charger, and that initial connection would be the foundation for everything that followed. What started as a single car purchase has expanded into an impressive fleet spanning multiple platforms and states.
“We got two Chargers and then a few other driftable cars down in Florida that we gotta go back and pick up,” he explains. But among all the cars in his growing stable, the Chargers remain closest to his heart. These aren’t just any Chargers, either. One carries a legacy that directly connects to the golden age of drift culture in the United States, while the other represents his journey from novice to professional sideways specialist.
Most drift enthusiasts and modern Dodge//SRT® fans would consider the centerpiece of Gushi’s operation a holy grail: one of Sam Hubinette’s original competition Chargers, complete with the iconic blue SRT livery that became synonymous with SRT and drift culture. The story of how this car came into his possession reads like it was simply meant to be.
“I was looking for a Charger online, and looking at pictures and videos of the Hubinette Charger, and I’m like, I’m gonna try to model the car I find after Hubinette’s Charger,” he recalls. But fate had other plans. Two weeks later, a friend tagged him in a Facebook post. The actual Hubinette Charger was for sale in California!
The car had passed to Trevor Carlson after his brother Shaun, who built the machine, had passed away. Trevor was moving and found the car carried too many painful memories. Rather than sell it to the highest bidder, he waited a month for Gushi to gather the funds, convinced by the passion evident in his Instagram posts that this was someone who would genuinely appreciate the car’s significance.
The Hubinette Charger’s arrival at the shop remains one of the most potent memories in Gushi’s life. “When I got the Hubinette car, and they rolled it out of the shipping container, it was so clean. It was so beautiful. I actually cried.”
That emotional connection extends beyond mere ownership. While many might have relegated such a historically significant car to museum status, Gushi has kept it active. “It probably would have gone in a museum or something. And now I still beat on it,” he says with pride. The car has required extensive maintenance – a rebuilt motor, new transmission, Holly Terminator system and complete brake overhaul – but it remains a working machine, not a static display.
What started as a hobby has evolved into something much more significant. I asked if the transition from weekend warrior to professional happened quickly. “No, not really… most of us are just like, yeah, I just want to play with cars, and then all of a sudden, we get to make a living playing with cars.”
The realization came after a year of doing drift/burnout pit shows with Big Indian Motorsports. “After the first season’s winter break, the realization hit. It’s like, damn, we’re actually still doing shows. I’m actually doing this!”
This evolution represents a broader trend in automotive culture, where social media and grassroots events have created new pathways to making a living with cars. The work isn’t always glamorous, but the freedom to “beat on your own car and be your own mechanic” has proven irresistible for Gushi.
While drifting remains a core focus, Gushi and Big Indian Motorsports have embraced the burnout scene with his original 2009 Charger. This car, equipped with an extensive list of mods designed to help get the car sideways and keep it there with the tires on fire, serves as his “burnout car” and represents a different but related discipline within the tire-smoking community.
The technical challenges of drifting Chargers aren’t insignificant. Unlike purpose-built drift cars, the platform requires adaptation. “I just have been running stock suspension. I put coils on them obviously and remove the front sway bar,” he explains. The lack of available angle kits remains a limitation but also represents an opportunity. “That’s what I feel like the whole Community is missing. If we had angle kits, it would help push the Charger platform towards drifting.”
As Gushi Customs and Big Indian Motorsports head deeper into 2025, the focus remains on expanding opportunities and pushing the Charger platform further into mainstream drift and burnout communities. The Hubinette car has finally reached a state of reliability after two years of development, marking a significant milestone.
“We’ve been tinkering with it for the past two years, and it’s finally at a state where it’s reliable. I could get in it, go ripping, and nothing’s wrong with it,” he says. This reliability opens doors to more ambitious events and competitions, including major burnout competitions like Burnout Wars.
Perhaps most importantly, Gushi sees an opportunity to help legitimize the Charger platform within drift culture. The development of proper angle kits and suspension components could open the floodgates for other Dodge enthusiasts. “If you can put an angle kit on the car, that’s a step in the right direction. And then more people get on board.”
What makes Gushi’s story compelling isn’t just the cars or competition; it’s the genuine passion that drives every decision. From the emotional moment of acquiring the Hubinette car to the daily dedication required to maintain these machines, this represents something authentic in automotive culture.
Preserving a legitimate piece of drifting history through active use, rather than static display, represents something valuable. The Hubinette Charger could easily live in a museum, but instead, it continues to fulfill its purpose as a tire-smoking, crowd-pleasing machine. Gushi says proudly, “I’m a part of the history now.”
As Gushi continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible with these machines, he’s not just chasing victory laps or prize money – he’s preserving a piece of automotive culture while creating new chapters in the ongoing story of American muscle meeting sideways action. In 2025, stories like this remind us that the connection between human and machine, between passion and purpose, remains as powerful as ever.
If you would like to follow along with Gushi and his ever-growing fleet of Drifting Dodges, give him a like and a follow his social channels:
https://www.facebook.com/gushicustoms
https://www.instagram.com/gushicustoms/
https://www.bigindiandriftpit.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bigindianmotorsports/
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