Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Goldberg.
Hi Ryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Shadow Six Racing introduces the World’s first (AUV) or aquatic utility vehicle, the Shadow Six Typhoon. While the Typhoon looks like a work of fiction or even something dreamed up for the next James Bond Movie, the Typhoon is actually designed for rescue in extreme surf conditions and that’s where it best showcases its extensive capabilities.
Founder and CEO of Shadow Six Racing, Ryan Goldberg says that he first began designing the concept after taking a guy’s trip to Las Vegas in early 2015 with his then three-year-old son where they both experienced their first ride in a Polaris Rzr. Goldberg says ”The capabilities of the Rzr’z suspension were mind blowing.” Not only could the side by side’s suspension handle boulder impacts with grace, but the vehicle’s balanced design seemed to create the ultimate design for any terrain one could throw at the vehicle.
Unfortunately, the reality of soaring Florida real estate prices, disappearing riding area, trailer storage, and impressively warm summer days all made a Rzr feel like it would just be an expensive toy I would purchase and probably only use once or twice. Thus, I gave up on the idea of towing a Side-By -Side or trying to make one street legal. However, a few months later I took a weekend trip with my wife to the Bahamas and decided to talk her into renting a wave runner. Within five minutes I turned around to check on her, and noticed that I couldn’t hear her very aggressively yelling at me. She quickly explained that she had shaved her legs for me, and between them burning and the salt spray in her face I could either return to shore immediately, or take a few extra moments alone at sea for myself after dropping her off on the beach.
That’s when it hit me that I could create the best of all motorsports vehicles into one that was capable of riding freely on 99% of the Earth’s surface. This quickly led to patenting various aspects of the vehicle as well as drawing up the design for the initial concept vehicle. Unfortunately, numerous people gave it a short go and quickly decided that the project was not feasible. While I’m not actually an engineer by training at all, I made a quick study of what I needed to do to convince very intelligent engineers of the ways I found to work around their assumptions that would ultimately lead to “catastrophic failures” over time. Once I had enough ammunition, I was finally able to convince a custom vehicle fabricator named Michael Meives that the project was worth exploring. Roughly a year or two later, the first AUV prototype was born. In reality, the first version of the vehicle would have proved many Social Media engineers’ opinions correct but it was enough for us to learn just how much we didn’t know. This let to taking a second attempt at building the vehicle from a combination of modified OEM parts, and custom fabrication which ultimately opened our ideas to just how far the idea could be taken.
Finally, I realized that I was convinced enough to incorporate our final design into a pre-production vehicle. This ultimately led to Mr. Meives introducing Mr. Goldberg to Wamilton Librelato Tiexieria of Wamilton’s customs. Wamilton who designed the first stand up jet ski ever manufactured in the United States, has also won numerous racing titles, and become an icon in the world of freestyle stunt jet skis and racing hulls for Personal Watercraft. “When I met Wamilton his jaw dropped after seeing the original drawings, and he was on his way to pick up our prototype vehicle within days. I recall walking into the shop once Wamilton had returned with the vehicle and seeing Wamilton staring at the AUV with a giant grin on his face. Naturally, I asked him what he thought about the project and he replied “I only have one condition in helping you finish the project… It’s going to have to be really fast, or I can’t work on the project.
While a great deal of engineering, design work, and fabrication had already been done we were soon to find out that we were still over two years of unexpected challenges keeping us from completing the build. While many people presume the vehicle is actually just a Polaris Rzr mounted to two wave runners, this is entirely not the case. The Shadow Six Typhoon not only has a completely custom designed and fabricated frame and suspension system manufactured by our partners at Racetech Titanium, but the hulls are also completely custom designed and manufactured by hand with carbon composite at Wamilton’s custom’s. Te reality is that there is no safe way to use any either of these components in the build process, or one will indeed be met with catastrophic critical failure.
The decision to manufacture the frame and suspension components from Titanium is not only due to the face that it’s much lighter and stronger than other material choices, but it’s also resistant to oxidation over time at a molecular level. Much like the bond structure of Aluminum Titanium is also nonmagnetic and will not rust. In fact, our frames can sit at the bottom of the ocean for 10 years without rusting or c compromising structural integrity.
With 8 years, countless dollars, and numerous people’s lives invested in the project the Shadow Six Typhoon Pre-Production vehicle was finally completed in the early summer of 2022. To be honest everyone was shocked when they witnessed the vehicle operating for the first time. I don’t think anyone besides myself expected exactly how well the Typhoon would ultimately perform. With over 650 HP driven by twin Yamaha GP 1800R SVHO engines, the Typhoon rockets to speeds of 90 mph or more in just about any condition mother nature can throw at it in mere seconds. The reality is that the vehicle was so well dialed in that it just seemed logical that the vehicle should be produced for sale. The Fox 3.0 Dual Rate suspension is completely adjustable, and even uses different settings based on both the condition of the seas as well as between fresh and salt water due to buoyancy differences. The Typhoon can do things that no other vehicle can, and it’s as simple as that. There’s no question that the Shadow Six Typhoon is the Trophy Truck of the Sea.
The Typhoon’s custom carbon fiber cockpit incorporates twin GP1800R full-color “Helm Control” digital dashboard. The 4.3-inch Yamaha Connext dash is controlled by a touchpad located beneath the steering on the right-hand side. Drivers can freely scroll through pages offering fuel mileage and consumption rates, a PIN security code and even pre-setting a maximum speed.
The Typhoon also includes two computer-controlled handling features first being “Launch Control” that digitally toggles the trim as the vehicle pulls hard from a standstill or idle speed; and second, the Auto Trim system, which or “Cornering Control,” the Auto Trim feature operates independently from the electric trim system on the dash.
When activated, “Cornering Control” automatically trims the bow down when decelerating for a tight corner. This action “loads” the hull’s surface tension prior to accelerating out of the apex of a corner. As the driver accelerates out of the apex, the Auto Trim will rise back up to plane as speed increases.
Goldberg says that Shadow Six Racing had no intentions of any videos going viral, or even moving to market as quickly as we’ve adapted to unanticipated growth as a result of social media. Since the company’s first TikTok post in late October, the brand has attracted over 200,000 followers, and had its videos shared around the world while racking up millions of views.
With the company’s dramatic stumble onto the World’s Main Stage, Shadow Six never skipped a beat in aligning with the necessary suppliers and partners it would need to successfully bring mass production of this vehicle to the recreational MotorSports Market. This is impressive in light of the fact that Shadow Six Racing remains a privately held debt free company.
We’ve been extremely fortunate to have companies like RaceTech Titanium and Riva Racing partner with us like one big family without ever questioning the potential risks involved. The beauty of our partnership is that we all prefer knowing we would also prefer to put smiles on as many people’s faces as possible over all other forms of currency.
The excitement and thrill the vehicle gives its driver can easily be seen in an ear-to-ear smile that is simply contagious. I recall the first time Dave Bamdas, the president of Riva Motorsports drove the Typhoon. When I saw the glow on his face, I asked him what he thought, and he replied, “We’ve just taken the fun level from 10 to like 15 or 20!”
While this vehicle may seem like an easily recreated feat, the reality is that the project took numerous brilliant people working together with one common vision over the course of eight years and three prototype vehicles to become reality. However, every success, every failure, every dollar, and every drip of sweat was well worth having the pleasure of climbing behind the wheel of the Typhoon.
Within the first few days of releasing footage of the Typhoon on social media, we were overloaded with amazing opportunities to work with other influencers and various brands. While we we’re lucky enough to make things work with a few media collaborations including the C-Boys, Crank It Up Garage, and a handful of other appearances, we also realized that we had to be practical about the fact that we are a manufacturer, and not Social Media influencers.
With that in mind, we very quickly decided that we needed both more time and the right venue to release our final production version of The Typhoon. While nearly every trade event we would want to attend reached out to us, WetSounds Inc actually reached out and threw out the idea of attending SEMA with them in November of 2024. Fortunately attending SEMA was on my bucket list, let alone being an attraction at the highly coveted industry-only trade show. We’re also currently in talks for a television series, which will follow us through the production and delivery of eight of our production vehicles, which we expect to happen by the second quarter of 2023. Our goal is to then ramp up to 30 units per year, and eventually, one day produce as many as 100 units per year.
My long-term vision is a whole new class of racing, which would begin with a race from the Jupiter Inlet to Bimini and back. However, we’re also lucky enough to be in talks with RedBull in regards to partnering with them for an F1 event in Miami next year where the team drivers will compete in time trials. I’ve suggested answering the ultimate question. “Who would win an AUV race, an F1 driver, a professional PWC pilot, or someone who races side-by-side vehicles?”
If you want to call one of these vehicles your own, you’ll have to get in line by contacting our global distributor, Riva Motorsports in Pompano Beach FL. For now, we’re still figuring out how we want to incorporate recreational vehicle sales into our various business interests, but we’re quickly becoming very comfortable with being an adrenaline, innovation, and quality-based lifestyle brand who’s happy to prove that anything is possible. Our goal is to produce vehicles without compromise that will stand up to anything we can throw at them. While that could be seen as limiting our market potential, my father always said “There’s always lots of room at the top.”
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a smooth road to success creating the world’s first AUV everywhere except inside of my head. Like many complicated projects I’ve been involved with, it was easy to start doubting myself over time, and even easier to want to quit when I was faced with unexpected challenges. However, explaining my choices over time to people the I care about most was probably the most difficult part of the journey.
It’s hard to explain to the people you love that you have to work because something inside you won’t let you stop, even when you’ve reached the point when work isn’t a financial necessity. I used to believe the only thing we did in our careers was trade time for money, but now I see that time can be traded for putting smiles on others’ faces, inspiring others, and most importantly giving others opportunity.
In the end, that very realization is what made the idea of “impossible” nothing more than a false sense of frustration throughout the years.
For others around us, failure is often the assumption if success isn’t an instant outcome. It’s important to recognize that this isn’t a matter of others doubting your abilities, it’s simply an assumption based on the outcomes they’ve been most exposed to in life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Shadow Six Racing?
Shadow Six Racing is a group of brilliant minds working hard together to redefine impossible by leading the evolution of the motorsport’s world. Our brand is an outreach for our passion for precision, perfection, and performance aimed at building the world’s most innovative power sports vehicles.
At Shadow Six Racing we are committed to always looking for new opportunities to push our boundaries by making each and every component of our vehicles lighter, faster, and stronger. Simply put, we source the best materials, teams, and technologies available in the world into everything we create.
Shadow Six Racing was founded by CEO, Ryan Goldberg after being awarded an initial patent on an invention called the A.U.V. or Aquatic Utility Vehicle. The A.U.V. was loosely based on the concept of designing a high-performance side-by-side vehicle which could retain or exceed its driving and handling characteristics while maintaining a fully functional FOX 3.0 active suspension system capable of tackling extreme surf conditions unlike any other vehicle on the market.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I’ve never been a fan of social media or even had my own personal social media profiles. I have always been opposed to social media because I felt it encouraged giving others a false impression of what to expect from life in a made for television like format. However, it’s important to see that its value isn’t always obvious for everyone, in a world of rapid design and prototyping, meeting the contacts I would need to take a prototype vehicle into mass production in over a few months without outside investors was only made possibly by the individuals I met through social media.
My best advice for finding a mentor is simply to have the courage to ask for help, and the humility to receive it. Nearly everyone I’ve ever met has had many things to teach others.
Pricing:
- $250,399.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shadowsixracing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowsixracing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shadowsixracing/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shadow6Racing
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJLQD43B3Q8A6XqMnu4BcMA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@shadowsixracing
