GLAM actress Sydney Sweeney’s mechanic and mentor is a long-time family friend who is a master at restoring historic Porsches to top-tier condition.
The 28-year-old starlet shocked fans after revealing she was a secret gearhead who spent her free time working on vintage beauties.
Sweeney swaps suspension components on her cherry red Ford Bronco[/caption]
The Emory Motorsports owner (left) taught Sweeney everything she knows[/caption]
Emory (left) walks Jay Leno (right) through his shop’s 356 “Outlaw” restomod[/caption]
Sweeney’s stunning looks at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards proved she can do it all[/caption]
Sweeney comes from a long line of mechanics, and previously said her love of cars ignited after she fell for a 1940s Ford pickup truck on her family’s farm.
But despite her blood ties with the craft, she has actually credited her restoration know-how to a family friend she lovingly refers to as her “second dad,” she said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in December 2023.
Rod Emory is the owner of Emory Motorsports, a shop in Oregon most known for its Porsche 356 “Outlaw” restomod, whose kids grew up with Sweeney in the Pacific Northwest.
He was first thrust into the public eye for his beautiful work after being featured on Jay Leno’s Garage YouTube series in 2015.
Emory said his son Zayne, who is also an actor, and Sydney attended the same school when they first started booking jobs.
He has considered her a “close family friend since 2010,” the mechanic said in an episode of Spike’s Car Radio.
Emory’s automotive history began with his grandfather Neil, who “was one of the guys who pioneered channeling and sectioning early hot rods,” he told Leno.
The mechanic said that Neil eventually worked for Porsche, which is how his passion for the brand began.
Speaking with Spike, Emory remembered first meeting Sweeney when she was about 16 and had just gotten her license.
She told the mechanic that she wanted to drive around Emory’s younger children in her Toyota Land Cruiser, and he joked that she would have to prove her driving skills first.
Years later, in 2021, Emory said that he got a call from Sweeney saying that she wanted to place a bid on a Ford Bronco.
She said she wanted to buy the car and restore it, and asked whether she could use his shop.
Emory said that there was a years-long wait for bays in his shop, so he made the actress swear she would commit to the project before giving her the spot.
After vowing that she was serious about the work, Emory told Sweeney to make an offer and began mentoring her.
GEAR CHANGE
Speaking with Clarkson, Sweeney said she and Emory changed the transmission, brakes, and the interior in the Bronco before it was ready to drive.
“He just walked me through every step,” she said.
Emory has a shop in Hollywood that provides Sweeney easy access to her projects in between shooting for her myriad roles.
“When I film Euphoria, I like to have a car in the shop to work on whenever I’m not on set,” she told Hypebeast, adding that it “grounds.”
In addition to her 1969 cherry red Ford Bronco, Sweeney also owns a 1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 convertible in Brittany Blue, hence its affectionately-given name “Britney.”
Fittingly, Sweeney’s next project in the Porsche-centric Emory Motorsports shop will be a Porsche 356 Roadster, according to the mechanic.
Sweeney has turned her passion into a new dedicated TikTok account, “syds_garage,” which she uses “to show girls and anybody else who has passions, no matter what they are, that they can pursue ‘em” per Hypebeast.
Putting her money where her mouth is, Sweeney’s informative videos include detailing fuel pump installation, how to fit a power steering motor to a vintage engine block, and more mechanical procedures.
Sweeney’s passion for cars, and her love for vintage Fords, gave her the opportunity to work with the brand on creating a custom 2024 Ford Mustang GT500, inspired by her own Britney.
Only two were made, with Sweeney taking home one and the other being given away to a lucky fan.
While Sweeney is certainly the most well-known Gen Zer to obsess over classic cars, she’s far from the only one, with more drivers from her generation collecting classic cars than Millennials per Hagerty’s annual Future of Driving survey from 2024.
Five steps for restoring a car
Restoring a car can be a massive undertaking. Here’s a simpler way to think about the process as a whole:
- Plan
- This includes setting a budget, preparing a work area, researching parts, and establishing a timeline to get the work done.
- Strip the vehicle
- This involves disassembling the vehicle and assessing the condition of the parts being removed.
- Bodywork
- This means stripping the paint and repairing any rust and dents, followed by repainting.
- Engine restoration
- This involves restoring a car’s power – including engine repairs.
- Rebuild
- After reassembling and detailing the car, all that’s left is to take it for a test drive.
Source: WeatherTech
Some of these Gen Z drivers and collectors are also documenting their own automotive adventures on social media, like Tati of “Over in the Rover” who is an English Land Rover enthusiast with her own 1985 Defender 90.
Others are taking a more risky approach to sharing their passion, like Andrew at the University of Idaho.
Better known as “The Dorm Room Mechanic,” he blew up on social media as he attempted to repair a Chevy V8 inside school housing, which the university quickly put a stop to. However, his projects have maintained pace outside of the dorm despite this issue.
CLASSIC CAR CRAZE
Gen Z’s love for classic cars couldn’t be coming at a better time, with so-called “car graveyards” filled with bonafide vintage vehicles popping up each and every day.
In Belgium, an abandoned Porsche dealership was found to have some of the brand’s most iconic vehicles locked inside, as well as some other shocking surprises.
August saw yet another similar discovery unearthed in the country, this time bringing vintage Italian sports cars to the light of day, including an iconic Ferrari model.
