The Spider-Verse Artist Living Initial D Dreams in a Miata

“When I’m driving, it really is just pure flow state, and same with drawing. They’re 1:1,” Wynton says. “When I’m drawing I don’t hear anything. Just thinking about line to paper. And driving, it’s just line to road.”

Wynton Redmond turned a childhood dreaming of Speed Racer and Initial D into a career as an animation storyboard artist in Los Angeles. But even when he’s working on movies like the 2023 mega hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, he always makes sure to claim any scene with a car in it. (“My pet peeve is when you see a front wheel drive car drift,” he says.)

After moving from Atlanta to LA, he cycled through a Ford Crown Vic and a Honda Prelude before realizing a Miata was all he needed to love driving in the region’s famous canyons. He bought a completely clapped out first-gen model and set about learning how to build his own car.

He made a lot of mistakes, but eventually swapped the suspension, changed the clutch and flywheel, tossed the rear diff for an LSD, and replaced countless worn out parts. It’s about halfway to perfect in his view, but that’s where he wants it. “Some people want to have their car be a complete project, but I’m really happy to just always find something new to do it and keep tweaking it forever.”

A couple of years ago, Wynton had the chance to work on what he called a dream project: an Initial D-style Toyota GR86 commercial where he knocked it out of the park. It helped that he’d been picturing himself as Takumi every time he slid behind the wheel since he was a kid.

“It’s like a movie scene. Once I get driving and the car is heated up, I’m like ok, now is when the scene starts.”

Follow Wynton on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/wyntonred/?hl=en

Produced, shot, and edited by https://www.instagram.com/tomgorelik/

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