What gets you passionate?
I remember my first ever heartbreak! For many it is their first relationship, but for me it was when he sold that car. Thankfully, shortly after, I got to fall in love with a new toy- the AE111 BZR. My favourite thing about this car was the way it sounded and the way it threw me back in my seat
What are you passionate about?
If you’re anything like me, the answer has always (and I mean ALWAYS) been cars. From as young as I can remember, I have been surrounded by petrol sipping chunks of metal on wheels, including the persons who celebrate them and come together collectively to share whatever they have to offer in the ecosystem we know as automotive culture.
The immersion that I have experienced since I was an infant is documented. Growing up in the late ’90s and early 2000’s surrounded by a wine-red Toyota GT turbo Starlet and later, a Toyota AE111 Levin BZ-R while going to shows and Motorsport events sparked my love for the whole automotive culture.
PS - if anyone from Barbados Rally Club or any other organisers are reading this, we need that Lower Brighton to Greens St. George stage again please and thank you.
Me at 3 years old
In fact, I grew up in Brighton St. George where the rally stage was just a stones throw away. I remember Paul Bourne’s Subaru Impreza WRC with the iconic Plus and Banks beer liveries, his rival Roger Skeete in his blue and yellow Havoline Peugeot and Ford Escort, “Electric Micey” Trevor Manning and my favourite of all, Josh Read in his then Automotive Art livery Toyota KPseries Starlet. There was just something about the way he drove so perfectly in control while on the limit that made him an absolute hero in my eyes and one day I would love to be able to have a conversation with him.
I have a deep love for rallying and many visceral experiences in my life step from these events. I can think about Kris Meeke’s first rally in Barbados with the WRC Corolla where he made a handbrake turn look extremely easy! This same turn gave everyone else, including Paul Bourne, a challenge to get through.
(Todds-Woodland) to the track and Mark Maloney’s fire breathing Mazda RX3 with the Guinness livery (still the best sounding car I’ve ever heard), Bizzy with the Silver Bullet and Roger Mayers with his ex rally Ford Focus that seemed invincibly and unfairly fast.
When I wasn’t at events, I was riding around with my old man in his GT Starlet. I would always grin uncontrollably whenever he did pulls. For a good part of my childhood, I loved the attention that a red 2 door hatchback would draw every morning when I was dropped off at school, always drawing a crowd of gleeful admirers.
me at 4,5 maybe?
I remember my first ever heartbreak! For many it is their first relationship, but for me it was when he sold that car. Thankfully, shortly after, I got to fall in love with a new toy- the AE111 BZR. My favourite thing about this car was the way it sounded and the way it threw me back in my seat. Absolute machine. When I wasn’t riding around or at the track or in the elements at rally, I was daydreaming about or drawing cars ( my mother still jokes about it to this day).
the Sheriff and I in 2013/2014 maybe?
Another thing I got into was capturing memories when I was much younger. Looking back, what was then just a casual young enthusiast getting a few quick photos with cars was really just a precursor to what would later become something I would take much further in content creation. Along the way, I got to meet a few of my heroes including “The Sheriff” Roger Skeete, as well as former Suzuki SX4 WRC driver Toni Gardemeister and GT3 driver Niki Lanik. In the meanwhile, I would be filling the storage on my BlackBerry phones and later iPhones with many car photos and videos. I would even take photos whenever I travel, especially on long road trips.
Race Of Champions or Top Gear. I can’t remember which but the MP4-12C and the very beautiful Ferrari Enzo
Audi Sport Quattro S1 replica at rally a few years back
photo of Mark Maloney’s Mazda RX3 in the Rockstar Energy livery taken on a BlackBerry 8320
my first attempt at photo editing
Everything came full circle! I grew up drawing cars but besides art, I always had an interest in mechanical engineering. I studied auto mechanics at the SJPP and recently I found a new way to express myself through my art and to combine the three things I love; photography, cars and engineering. After school I had a few jobs including ‘Island Safari’ and ‘Sun Tours’. I worked at the airport from December 2016 and during that time, I took advantage of the opportunities that were open to me. Some of those opportunities include learning and working on aircraft ground support equipment and when no one was looking, getting a few shots with the planes. I always had an interest in fighter jets but during that time I really grew to appreciate commercial flights as well.
me in one of the four turbines in an Airbus A340
Airbus A321 tail of a jet Blue flight
I worked at the airport until 2020 when the pandemic forced me out of work. During the time home, I began to take content creation more seriously and increased the quantity and more importantly for me, the quality of my art. I used this extra free time to let my creativity reign by learning how to use photoshop, taking inspiration from my favorite creators and most importantly- spending hours doing exactly what I want to do to share with the world and whether that means I have a style or I totally missed, I’m okay with the outcome because I know that I got to contribute my art to the community.
So, I told you what I get passionate about. Now I think it’s time that I tell you who I am. Some of you may know my Instagram handle, ‘@Holli.Art’. For those of you who don’t, I go by Shad Holli and I’m here to say that I’m now part of the Sleeper Forest family. I’m a content creator who puts an artistic twist on photos, videos and renders and very soon 3D modelling. Everything seems to be coming full circle, one day hopefully I’ll be designing parts for you all to enjoy but until then, I hope you enjoy the written content. Ciao!
Jaguar F-Pace S rendered as a rally car
Freddie Mapp -"Escort Specialist"
A few weeks back we at Sleeper Forest had the opportunity to visit Freddie Mapp's garage. It's interesting how race car drivers never really leave the race track, they just "race" in an another way.
A few weeks back we at Sleeper Forest had the opportunity to visit Freddie Mapp's garage. We never got to meet him as a race car driver, his glory days were before our time in the 80's but we got to meet him as the mechanic. It's interesting how race car drivers never really leave the race track, they just "race" in an another way.
Archival footage from the "The Barbados Rally Club" & Kaieteur News
Our friend "Sicky Back", gave us the invite.
We got the invite to tour the garage from friend of ours, you may have seen pictures of his 1jz swapped Toyota Cressida on some of our Instagram post, it's pretty great.
We got to see just few of the cars on the outside, they were works in progress. We deemed it the inline 6 alley, every Toyota with the space, received the inline 6 treatment. Some twin turbo, some single turbo, these machines were being built for drift, they were definitely not lacking in power.
Among these cars was something a little different and special but that's a secret...for now.
Once on the inside we were greeted by the smell of oil and metal. The garage wasn't much different from any other garage except for the six pieces of Caribbean automotive history laying around in the form of six ford escorts. They were just taking a rest from the hard work they put in over the years, catching some dust, winning races is hard work you know.
Way in the back of the garage was this blue escort shell it once carried a single cam engine, however it was modified to be a twin cam engine.
The engine started with a single over head cam, that was driven via a push rod method from the crankshaft, but with this conversion, the first cam, spun a second cam via a gear, and this allowed more airflow into the head, more air = more power, and more power = more fast. This was automotive magic and ingenuity.
Further to the front of the garage, we found more Escorts, one MK1 with the Cosworth 2.0L 16v turbocharged engine, makes around 300hp as well as his Mk2 Escort, the one he used consistently in rally. They were covered in tools and parts.
This really reinforces the fact that we need experienced persons to be able to carry on the passion and love for Motorsport to a younger generation, so it can continue grow. As Freddie stepped away from racing his mechanic shop continued to grow, taking the time to work with clients and help those he can.
We really appreciated the tour, and the chance to be able to photograph these amazing machines.
- Sleeper Forest Team
