The Philosophy of Clean: Master Car Detailer Finds Calm in Chaos

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Did you expect a lesson on inner peace from one of the most talented car detailers of our generation today? No? Well, take a seat.

“Being dirty is disorganized to me. Things are not in flow. And if I can clean that and take the chaos away and bring calm, then my life is great.”

On this episode of Carisma, step inside the mind of Larry Kosilla, founder and owner of the renowned car care company AMMO NYC. Larry is the the definition of a successful entrepreneur: detailer to the rich and famous, inventor of his own line of cleaning products, and YouTube host with millions of subscribers. But he's still happiest in his shop, headphones on, detailing the crap out of a car.

Larry was always obsessed two things since childhood: cars, and keeping things tidy. But it wasn’t until he quit an unsatisfying career on Wall Street as a natural gas commodities trader in his early 20s that he realized detailing cars was more than a fun side hustle. It was his religion, his source of inner peace.

“I want to take things that are chaotic and bring it back to calmness, back to order. And it's not about how dirty it is, it's about the act of going through that ritual. And I realized over time that's really what I was seeking.”

It doesn’t matter if it’s a $4M Aston Martin Valkyrie, or a VW Golf filled with mold, or a ’79 Triumph Spitfire someone found in the woods. If it’s dirty, he will clean it, because he needs to. He doesn't call it art—it’s solving an existential puzzle.

“The closest thing to artwork or the closest thing to beauty in terms of the system of detailing is figuring out that Rubik's cube, because it's all this mess. You take what [the client] wants, you take what the car can give you and then you have to figure out how to achieve those two things with the method. And it's different for every single car.”

All of Larry’s successes—from opening up his first car wash in upstate New York, to hosting /DRIVE CLEAN on this very channel 14 years ago, to launching the AMMO NYC brand and the #1 car care channel on YouTube—are the result of him chasing the feeling he gets just finishing a car and handing the keys back to the delighted owner.

“It’s sort of like when you're vacuuming floor in your house and you're like, ah, ok, order is here again. That’s what I feel when it leaves. And I get that rush. I just did all this crazy work that he'll never notice or she'll never notice. And then when it goes away, I know I put everything I possibly can in that. I get that high and then I go, when's the, where's the next one?”

And so is his 1991 Porsche 911 Carrera 4. Buying the 964 was a turning point in his life, where he finally felt what he calls the “right fit.” He put the same fanatical level of attention into turning it into his 964—RZ RS Pro suspension, 3.6 to 3.8L upgrade with new pistons and cylinders, a full rotisserie restoration when his mechanic uncovered hidden rust, new Bentley Beluga Black paint (“the deepest, richest black”), and more.

The car also represents his approach to business in running AMMO NYC as a small, independent, highly impactful place in car culture. It’s not the biggest outfit. It’s not the fanciest. It’s just his.

“Every little thing that we did was so thoughtful and so strategic on what we wanted, what I wanted and what I was using it for. And we aren't trying to be bigger, we're trying to be better. This car is just a huge metaphor of like, what can be done If you focus, you love something enough, you can get something like that.”

Subscribe to the AMMO NYC channel here →    / @ammo-nyc  

Produced, shot, and edited by →   / tomgorelik  

Previous episode →    • Why I lived in my Nissan 240SX for six months  

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