Built Different
Even though Gabby Downing never set out to be a drift racer and content creator, her steadfast attitude, willpower, and strong sense of self would make you think otherwise. As a former high fashion model and aspiring artist, her first car, a first-gen Honda CRX Si, led her to where she is today.
“I just fell in love with it,” she says. “It was the one thing in my life that I felt like I could control because in modeling you’re at the reign of everybody else’s decisions on where you live, what you look like, and what you do.”
She didn’t have the money to pay for car fixes, and when things would break, as they do on a nearly 30-year-old car, Downing turned to her late father’s tool set, the service manual, and forum threads.
“I felt so fulfilled and accomplished when I would fix something that I thought, ‘What else can I fix?’ And it snowballed to bigger and bigger projects.” Now she’s sharing her curiosity and passion full time on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok with a growing community of followers.
I felt so fulfilled and accomplished when I would fix something that I thought, ‘What else can I fix?’
clarity, goals, and donuts
Downing’s slogan is “Clarity, goals, and donuts.” Clarity is knowing what you want and why you want it, she says. Goals are the steps that you take to get there, and donuts (the confection and driving maneuver) are her reminder to enjoy the journey.
“I try to be the person that I needed when I started,” she says, “I aim to inspire my audience to believe in themselves, that they can do whatever they want, no matter what they look like, where they come from, where they're born, or how much money they have.”
If you scroll through Downing’s Instagram you’ll find her mostly working in the shop on cars like her Ford Bronco, C5 Corvette, and BMW M3 E46, as well as racing, and camping. Her art background has come in handy when painting and wrapping her vehicles, like her BMW which is satin black and pink chrome which, she says, “You can see from Mars.”
Looking to the future, Downing says she wants to continue racing and “driving anything under the sun.” She’s determined to keep telling her story and having fun with her content. She’s also trying to find ways to bridge the gap between social media and her audience and engage with them more in live streams or real-life events.
In an industry that still deals in negative female stereotypes, she’s extremely intentional with her content and strives to lead by example. “I hear everything from ‘That's her boyfriend's car,’ or ‘She doesn't actually work on her car, her boyfriend does it and she just takes the pictures,’ or ‘She's only doing it so that the guys will like her,’” Downing says. And while she doesn’t get many of these types of comments anymore, it’s a testament to how much she’s had to overcome to find success in both the racing world and as a full-time content creator.
“I try to be the person that I needed when I started”
gabby's work shoes
THE OVERTON
check out chapter one ft. will knox
FASHION MEETS FUNCTION
“Feeling good in whatever outfit I'm wearing is a must,” Downing says. The Overton’s throwback vibes fit the bill while delivering slip-resistance, toe-protection, and all-day comfort thanks to the KEEN.ReGEN midsole cushioning which returns up to 50% energy with each step.
HEFTY, NOT HEAVY
Overton’s non-metallic carbon safety toe offers a 15 percent weight savings over steel toes. “They look very similar to the shoes that I wear day-to-day — but it’s good to know I have that protection in the toe,” says Downing.
MADE FOR HER FEET
“I have extremely high arches, so having good footwear is a must,” Downing says. Built around a woman’s biomechanics and foot structure for improved fit and comfort, the Overton keeps Downing’s feet comfortable during long days in the shop.
gabby downing | Car builder and racer salt lake city, ut
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proof in passion
While researching these bigger projects, like engines and transmissions, Downing realized that she could “go faster,” which led her to discover racing. Her competitiveness tempted her to try rally, drifting, time attack, and autocross. Due to its lower barrier to entry, Downing pursued drifting.
“You can just take your car in, try to do some donuts, and then drive it back — you don’t need a truck or trailer” she says. “I like to say that it's a mix of dancing on the edge of spinning out and crashing, and driving the car.”
Like most other things in her life, she found content creation by accident, she says. After researching mostly in forums and feeling alone throughout the build process, she wanted to share her creativity and learnings with others. While Downing says she loves how forums let people share their journey, find a community, and help other people learn, she wanted to make her own version of a forum thread. “I hate words, I'm a creative and visual person, so I was like, why don't I just do that on Instagram?”
Her following has grown steadily since she first started posting seven years ago, which she attributes to keeping her content fun, authentic, and community-driven. “I was trying to find community and sharing what I was doing, and I wanted to keep it purely fun-based,” she says. That formula appears to have worked, and content creation is now Downing’s full-time gig.
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These industrial makers are also digital creators. Their careers — and their trades — are better for it.
A versatile, throwback-inspired work shoe with energy-returning cushioning, lightweight safety features, and dependable traction.
FROM THE FEED
@_GBABZ_
An unexpected breakthrough
It didn’t take long for Knox and his wife to realize they were onto something.
“The sixth reel we ever posted was something that I thought was dumb. I told her, ‘don't post it,’” he recalls. “It hit 13 million views in a month when we had maybe a couple hundred followers, most of which were my friends or our work connections.”
What began as a shot in the dark to bring business into their humble one-bay shop quickly snowballed into something much bigger. “The content has almost become the business,” he says.
TikTok, it turns out, has made #bluecollar cool. Knowingly or not, Knox joined a trend taking social media by storm when he began sharing his hands-on automotive work digitally. Everyone from plumbers and electricians to landscapers and warehouse workers have successfully found mass audiences for their content niches. And, in more than a few instances, they’ve also found income streams that quickly surpass their day-job wages.
The original plan, Knox says, was to find as much paying work as possible, no matter how trivial, to fund the dream work: welding oil coolers for clients to cover the cost of parts and materials for the duo’s 1969 Mustang sitting on the lift. With the momentum he’s found on social media, it seems that Knox and his father may be able to prioritize the fun stuff sooner, and with more regularity, than he ever expected.
A little over a year since that first viral post, @robandstu now pushes out a steady stream of content to nearly 60,000 engaged followers. The attention has not gone to Knox’s head. He remains focused on building cool stuff, expanding his skills and learning to share that journey with others.
“I wrestle with almost an imposter syndrome. It's not natural for me to say, ‘I need to record this. I need to share this with someone,’” he says. The more he shares, though, the more he realizes that the value of doing so isn’t limited to the positive impact it has on the shop.
“It's rewarding to know we're not just putting random stuff out into the ether, and people are not mindlessly just scrolling by it," Knox says. "Even if just one person saw it and thought, ‘Hey, I'm going to give that a shot,’ then I know we did good.”
Funding the dream
Though gaining followers has never been Knox’s priority, his success has shined a light on a previously nonexistent path to achieving his goal for the shop, which has always been to build custom project cars with his dad.
The original plan, Knox says, was to find as much paying work as possible, no matter how trivial, to fund the dream work: welding oil coolers for clients to cover the cost of parts and materials for the duo’s 1969 Mustang sitting on the lift. With the momentum he’s found on social media, it seems that Knox and his father may be able to prioritize the fun stuff sooner, and with more regularity, than he ever expected.
A little over a year since that first viral post, @robandstu now pushes out a steady stream of content to nearly 60,000 engaged followers. The attention has not gone to Knox’s head. He remains focused on building cool stuff, expanding his skills and learning to share that journey with others.
“I wrestle with almost an imposter syndrome. It's not natural for me to say, ‘I need to record this. I need to share this with someone,’” he says. The more he shares, though, the more he realizes that the value of doing so isn’t limited to the positive impact it has on the shop.
“It's rewarding to know we're not just putting random stuff out into the ether, and people are not mindlessly just scrolling by it," Knox says. "Even if just one person saw it and thought, ‘Hey, I'm going to give that a shot,’ then I know we did good.”
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Then, with some not-so-gentle nudging and creative help from his wife, he started posting videos on Instagram to promote Rob and Stu, a custom automotive fabrication and restoration shop he founded with his father in 2022. (“Rob” and “Stu” are Will and Jamie’s middle names, respectively.)
“I have since learned that being a content creator is really hard. It's a lot more work than I expected,” he says.
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These industrial makers are also digital creators. Their careers — and their trades — are better for it.
Built Different
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