Meet the Spider-Verse Artist Living Initial D Dreams in a Miata

Wynton Redmond turned a childhood watching 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.) He’s also got a great little first-gen Miata.

This episode of our car-plus-driver profile show CARISMA is particularly inspirational for anyone who’s ever wanted to bring their doodles of cars to life. Mr. Redmond has had an extremely cool career path launched by a love of Hot Wheels and a talent for drawing; his passion for cars and art have fed into each other.

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

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 that he knocked 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.’”

Like what you saw? Check out the whole CARISMA playlist on YouTube!