It's been over ten years since movie fans heard the tragic news that actor, car enthusiast, and philanthropist Paul Walker died in a car crash while riding with his friend Roger Rodas just north of Los Angeles. The ripple effect of this "Fast and Furious" star's death hit home for many, none more especially than Paul's family, including his two younger brothers, Caleb and Cody (who is the youngest). In the wake of this tragedy, Caleb and Cody stepped into their older brother's shoes on the 2015 "Fast & Furious" franchise film "Furious 7," which was already under production at the time of the late stars' death. This encounter with the cast and crew was a no-brainer, given the camaraderie they already had with the Walker brothers from the start.
Flash forward several years, and Paul's legacy is still alive in the crowds' thunderous roar filling the now 7-year-old car extravaganza known as FuelFest. This rolling car show meets live concert — meets food event — will be rolling through Fort Worth at the Texas Motor Speedway on April 20. This giant gearhead soiree will also help keep an initiative Paul created, with a portion of FuelFest's proceeds helping to fund a non-profit Reach Out WorldWide. Overseeing these ventures, in honor of his brother, is Cody Walker, who is now considered the elder statesman of FuelFest. Fort Worth Magazine recently talked with Cody about his passion for cars, a new Japanese-inspired food event at FuelFest, and what it was like stepping into his brother's role after his untimely death.
FM: So, tell me about FuelFest. It looks like it's going to be epic this year, especially here in Texas, right?
CW: Yeah, this is one of our bigger shows in Texas. This will be our third year at Texas Motor Speedway. We'll have over 600 plus cars on display. We will have over 70 drift cars that are going to be doing drifting. We'll have a competition in the latter half of the day, but people can do ride-a longs with our vetted professionals on our drift course. That's always a really big hit. And then we'll have a big stage. We'll also have Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs‑N‑Harmony headlining for us there.
FM: How did you get involved with FuelFest in the first place?
CW: I started doing this back in 2018. Obviously, the pandemic slowed things down quite a bit, but we came out the other side. So yeah, the whole reason I did this, the catalyst for this, there is an organization that my late brother Paul founded called Reach Out WorldWide. It's a charitable organization. They put boots on the ground after natural disasters, medical professionals, construction specialists, tree fallers, arborists, stuff like that. It comes in and helps communities after tornadoes flo,ods fir,es, and earthquakes. And Paul funded the organization. That was his thing that he did privately on his own. He funded it and after he passed away, obviously a lot of that funding just kind of vaporized because he was it. And so, I wanted to create a way to generate awareness and funding for the organization. Now a portion of the proceeds of every event since the beginning have gone directly to benefit Reach out WorldWide. We are close to half a million dollars raised for charity at this point, and that's the big reason why I started it.
I wanted to do that. I mean, the big reason I'm part of the whole car culture is I'm 15 years younger than my oldest brother … Paul. So obviously he had a huge influence on me, huge, massive influence on me. My parents separated when I was in middle school. That was really tough. And Paul, in a way, became a secondary father figure for me. I have a great relationship with my dad, too, but that age gap was more than just a big brother. So that's just the way that it worked out. My dad was a big motorhead too. Motorcycles especially, although we were all raised to be terrified of motorcycles. No motorcycles allowed around the house, no way. But yeah, there was always something motorized and pretty cool at the Walker household my whole life.
FW: Did you grow up wrenching on cars since you were exposed to car culture at an early age?
CW: I wish I could say I grew up wrenching on cars. I sure wish I had learned how to do my own wrenching outside of the basics of brake pads, oil changes, how to swap a tire, or rotate tires. That's kind of the gist of what I can do. But I sure think it's awesome when somebody can freaking pull a motor and dismantle it and do all the things. I think that that's definitely an art that fewer and fewer of the youth know how to do these days.
FW: What are some of your most memorable experiences while hosting FuelFest?
CW: Yeah, granted, I've been able to drive in some of the coolest cars on planet earth at some of the coolest locations here and abroad. But I say at our shows specifically at FuelFest, drifting is still such an unknown to a lot of people. I think a lot of the time you say drifting, people don't necessarily know what that is or that that's even a discipline of racing. They think of, oh, when the cars are sliding like 'Tokyo Drift,' that's exactly that scenario. It's like that's what comes to mind. And that's totally valid and fair. But drifting like Formula Drift, all of that is very popular and it's grown a lot here in the United States. Granted, it started in Japan, but it's grown pretty big.
And so, in a way, it's kind of like we're educating more of the public on drifting. And then when we tell them, 'Hey, if you want, you can go for a ride and one of these high horsepower cars and the driver's going to deliberately throw the rear end around and you're going to go through our course,' they go, 'no way.' They get out of the car and its life changing — beaming ear to ear. It just adds the full experience. It's not just a car show, Stephen. It's like a full-on experience. You're seeing the cars, but then you're hearing the cars, you're feeling the cars, you're smelling the cars, there's tire smoke in the air. It's just the best thing in the world and everyone is just laughing and smiling and just having the best time. And I think that we're contributing to the welfare of car culture moving forward. We're harnessing those that are already in, already know their car enthusiasts, and we're bringing in the next generation and exposing them to how wonderful and fun and mechanical these machines are.
FW: I know you and your brother Caleb were in 'Furious 7' in 2015. What has the camaraderie between you and the 'Fast and Furious' crew and actors since that stint? Have you guys become close? Tyrese (Gibson) will accompany you to the FuelFest event in Texas. What was it like to assume your brother's role in that scenario?
CW: I'll say, number one, everyone on that cast has been so supportive. Yes, I came in to help finish '7' along with my other middle brother, Caleb. The two of us worked on that project for three and a half months to finish that. For Paul, what made it unique is, that it was a 'Fast' film. It wasn't any film that Paul was just working on and they decided, oh, his brothers look similar. We can CGI this stuff. No, this was a 'Fast' movie. I grew up on the sets of these movies. They've known me. The whole cast has known me since I was a little kid. Paul and Vin (Diesel) and Ludacris and Michelle (Rodriguez) and all of them. They grew up in a sense on screen together from their early twenties. So, it's very much a family and I feel like that's overused all the time. But it really is true. They've all spent the better part of over 20 years together. And they were all just very welcoming, very supportive.
There [were] emotional days on set that were really difficult to get through for all of us, but we got through it. It was a healing process for Caleb and I to be able to spend so much time together as adults. It's usually impossible. You don't get to do stuff like that. But Vin, Michelle, Ludacris, Tyrese have all been incredibly, incredibly supportive of me and the whole family. They've all done wonderful things and so a big thanks to all of them. We've had Vin, who's made surprise special appearances, now at a couple of our FuelFest events along with Ludacris, and Tyrese. I mean, they're all extremely busy global celebrities, but they haven't let all that go to their heads and they've just stayed really grounded and just really supportive.
FW: Tell me about Taste of Tokyo. FuelFest is supposed to have a Japanese underground car-meet vibe this year, right?
CW: So, we actually started doing that last year. And obviously, I mean at a FuelFest, we have a little bit of everything at the show, exotics, JDM, your tuner cars, your muscle cars, off road, full custom builds. But we of course have a big influence with the Japanese tuner scene because of 'Fast and Furious.' And so we thought it would be fun to have a more curated section of the show that's more dedicated to vehicles that you might see in Japan. So, this includes a lot of Japanese imports, and we'll park them in their own section, and we theme it like Japan and it's pretty neat. We're actually able to use some of the paddocks there at Texas Motor Speedway that's covered as our Taste of Tokyo section and it looks really cool.
FW: Having access to some of the world's best cars at FuelFest, do you drive a fast car personally?
CW: I got to say this, Stephen. I've always been pretty well-rounded when it comes to cars. Of course, growing up here in the U.S. as an American kid, my dad was more into the muscle cars and the V8s and whatnot. And so that's kind of how we were raised until a point. Again, Paul was 15 years older than me, but I remember before 'Fast' it was more older cars or even Resto mod stuff. And then he landed 'Fast and the Furious,' which then kind of brought him in and indoctrinated him into the whole Japanese tuner world. And he was just freaking obsessed with it and decided I'd rather have this high-performance precision versus this classic kind of very fast in-a-straight-line sort of a situation. And so, he really got into the tuner scene and then later on also started to fall in love with Porsches and German engineering. And so, I'd say by the end, it was really Japanese and German for him. And so, therefore, I had a healthy exposure to the coolest cars from both sides. And so that's kind of where I fall. And even as I'm talking to you right now, I'm driving around in my Raptor R, which is a supercharged V8. And with the way that emission standards and everything's going, I'm kind of looking more and more over at anything with a V8.
That's not very Japanese of me. So yeah, I'm all over the place. I have a Honda S 2000, which is my hardened track prepped car that I go and do just fun track days with, but it's fully prepped for that duty. I have the newer Nissan Z, which has been really fun, but I'm getting rid of that. And I don't know what I'm going to put in its place, but I'm eyeing something with a V8 for sure.
I get asked all the time what my favorite dream car is. I'm envious of people that know what that one dream car is that they've wanted their whole life. For me, I refuse to pigeonhole myself with any specific brand. I'm not a brand loyalist at all. I'm not. I appreciate cars individually.
