In America, cars can represent many things, but for Payton Brown, AKA Racin’ Payton, going under the hood is synonymous with family. This auto influencer may have a little motor oil in her blood.
Across auto culture, Instagram and TikTok, Racin’ Payton is well known. A descendant of fellow gearheads, Payton has found comfort in cars since long before being a licensed driver. These days, Brown works full-time in the manufacturing industry while juggling several personal projects. This comes on top of creating content for a fanbase of more than 230,000 followers.
Payton’s current auto lineup features a ’91 Foxbody, ’17 Chevy SS and ’18 CRF250R among others. Regardless of whether it has two or four wheels, if it has an engine, Brown is probably intrigued.
Let’s be real—sometimes “the best man for the job is a woman,” and Payton is here to prove that.
Playboy’s Gabriel Santiago was fortunate enough to catch this auto influencer for a quick chat. To see what fuels her (along with what grinds her gears), let’s go under the hood with Racin’ Payton.
Playboy: Let’s start at the beginning—where were you born & raised?
Payton: I’m from Charleston, South Carolina.
Playboy: How did you first fall in love with motorsports?
Payton: My dad and grandpa were into cars. My dad still works in the auto industry. My grandpa would always work on his own vehicles at his house. I remember the first time I worked on a car, it was putting brakes on his Lincoln Town Car and understanding how that works. Another time, my dad was working on a ‘55 Chevy — it’s still not done to this day — and he had me put gear oil in the rear end. Once I actually understood that it was the most vile-smelling thing, I realized that’s why he made me do it. Because it smells horrible.
Playboy: Sheesh. About how old were you when you first got into cars?
Payton: I was around 15. Whenever it was coming up on the time for me to drive. I was like, “I think I wanna have a cool car. I don’t want to drive anything too simple.” It’s not like my entire life was filled with car shows and working on cars, but just seeing a little bit through my dad and grandpa made me want to be involved. The hobby spiraled and snowballed, and now I have plenty of projects to keep me busy at all times.
Playboy: What was your first car?
Payton: A ‘97 Mustang GT. It was not fast at all. It was a rag, I won’t even lie about it, an absolute rag. There were so many things wrong with it. I didn’t get to keep it for a very long time. My mom was actually going through cancer treatments then, so my dad didn’t have the time to sit down and teach me how to work on cars.
Playboy: What vehicle followed the ‘97 GT?
Payton: After that, I got a 2010 V6 Mustang. That’s the car that I learned how to do cosmetic modifications on. I knew I could figure it out without my dad, so that’s where I went with that.
Playboy: This one often gets interesting responses. Tell me about your initial DMV behind-the-wheel test.
Payton: I don’t have a super cool story when it comes to the DMV. But at the end of the test, I went to parallel park. Well, fun fact – my dad always taught me to back into any parking spot, driveway, anything. It’s the safest way to pull out. He’s in the collision industry. Most cars get wrecked coming out of driveways or spots if they are backing up. So, at the end of my driving test, I parallel parked and the instructor was like, “this is some of the fastest parallel parking I’ve ever seen.” Still to this day, I don’t pull forward into parking spots because it’s ingrained into my brain to only back in.
Playboy: I love that rule. I think I may know your answer here, but are you an American muscle sort of woman or one for the world’s finest imports?
Payton: I’m absolutely American muscle. Everything about me is American muscle. I have a love for imports and specific ones, but I started with American muscle and that’s been one thing to stick by. Eventually, if I have a ton of money, I’d have a huge car collection like Jay Leno. At the end of the day, American muscle is my bread and butter.
Playboy: In that same vein, how about the age-old rivalry? Is it Fords or Chevys and why?
Payton: So, one of the cars I’m working on right now is a Foxbody that I’m putting a Chevrolet motor into. Clearly, I am very in the middle about this. At the end of the day, I think it’s Chevrolet and it’s mostly because in terms of engines, it’s what I know like the back of my hand. I can pull them out by myself, fix them, put them back together. I couldn’t say that I could do the same with any Ford. A lot of it is a bit over-engineered for what my brain has yet to come across and understand. I do love a Ford chassis, but I still love a Chevy engine. I dabble in both so it’s really hard to give a 100% answer.
Playboy: I see you have a preference for 5.0s and Foxbodies. What is it about that model/design that does it for you?
Payton: With a Foxbody, I like that they are very sleek. They’re simple. It’s from the ‘80s-’90s. The two Foxbodies I have are older than me, so it’s from a time that I was around or able to experience. I do like that it’s not entirely a classic look, but they do have that retro look. You look at the car and you can tell that it just fits the times. With 5.0s, right now I have a 5.0 Foxbody and I had a 5.0 S197 2013 Mustang. I’ve always had a liking to the 5.0. It’s a classic engine. You hear a 5.0 and you think of the songs that mention them, you think of the cars back in the day until now. They’re unforgettable. Everybody has a story with one at some point in their life.
Playboy: Is there a particular part of the car/engine that you most enjoy tending to?
Payton: My favorite thing right now is pulling the engine out and being able to tear it down. With the Chevrolets, I work on them all the time. Whether it was my Yukon or something different, I’ve had to pull the motor out and replace some of the internal parts. It’s something about tearing it down and being able to look at any failures that were happening and then replacing that. I enjoy all the cam swaps that I do because I like to feel I’m fully ingrained and embedded in what I’m doing. Overall, I think most of it is therapeutic unless I’m having a bad day.
Playboy: Tell me about your experience as a female working in a male-focused industry like automotive?
Payton: Over the years, it has changed. In high school, I was the “weird girl that likes cars,” and I got picked on a lot for that. But I’ve always been very strong-willed, so it was like, “If that’s how you think, then that’s it.” Starting from the beginning, I dealt with it from men a lot of the time. I do like to say that sometimes the feedback that I got was because I was 16 years old and I thought that I knew it all. I look at myself now and it’s like, “I have no idea what you thought that you knew back then.” So, coming from men, it may have been them trying to teach me things and maybe it wasn’t worded in the best way.
Playboy: Can you expand on that?
Payton: Looking back, I didn’t know half of what I thought I knew. Even now, you’ll never know everything about cars. There is always something to learn and that’s what interests me about them. Most people are proud and supportive, so I don’t have the negative feedback as much. Sometimes you’ll see women picking on one another because often, women are pitted against each other. It’s not women simply trying to be mean, but when you’re continuously pitted against each other by other people, it ends up just happening on its own.
Playboy: Are there any upcoming car releases you’re looking forward to? If not, anything classic on your radar at this time?
Payton: Classic. There’s actually a ‘57 Chevy that my grandpa owned. He ended up passing away before he could finish it. I bought it from my grandma and I hope to finish it at some point in my life. I need to finish my current projects before I take over a full frame-off restoration. That is a lot different and will be an entirely new piece to learn on. But yes, it is a ‘57 Bel Air and my holy grail. I hope one day I can finish that and make him and my family proud.
Playboy: Lastly, what does “a day in the life of Racin’ Payton” look like right now?
Payton: It varies day-by-day. I work full-time in the manufacturing industry. I work night shifts, so a lot of times it is work from 10pm-6am, come home to sleep for a few hours, go outside to work on a car or content and game-plan my next thing. Work. Sleep. Wake up. Go outside. Work on one of my many projects.
