The early LA sun rises and you know today is going to be your day. The morning light is just right so you grab your camera gear and head down to your Lexus IS 300. You decide want to take the long route to work because you may spot that rare, and unique ride that you will want to share with everyone on your Instagram story.

On your route there are a few good spots: a Ferrari 458 Italia, Rolls Royce Phantom, and a Porsche GT3 RS… a few fantastic cars to start your morning and post to your Instagram story but not what you wanted. So you decide to mix things up and take a sharp right. And then you see it. Parked on the side of the road waiting for you.

It is the supercar you have been salivating over for weeks. Just there parked on the side of the road. You pull a u-turn, slam your car into park, grab your camera gear and head on over to that super rare Pagani Huayra BC Test Car. As you stand there admiring the sheer beauty of the Pagani you come to grips with the fact that you can now officially call yourself “The Supercar Hunter”.

Cars have been a large part of the American culture for many years and for most guys who grow up around some of the most beautiful automotive machinery in the world tend to find a passion for them. The same can be said for Cody Lewis.

Appropriately named The LA Car Spotter, Cody grew up surrounded by a father, several uncles, cousins and a brother who are or were either car collectors or automotive enthusiasts. Having this excitement and passion for something as cool as cars like his favorite car, the Ferrari F40, continued to grow as the years went by and eventually helped this budding cool car photographer to become who he is today.

While Cody’s first love was a powerful sports car, it wasn’t exactly the monstrous vehicle that would bring about this automotive enthusiast’s first set of adventures behind the wheel. Instead, the California sports car lover began his driving career in a hand me down Mercury Mountaineer with a roaring 5.0 L V8 and a pop out Alpine head unit with a JL W7 sub woofer in the trunk.

“I had so many great memories in that car and I drove it until it died and was left in the driveway until my parents sold the house,” said Lewis.

This automotive aficionado is back to digging the luxurious power that from his 2018 Lexus IS 300. While not as powerful as his dream car, Cody said that he loves his daily driver because he can open up some of its luxurious power on some of his favorite spots in California and feel like he is driving his dream vehicle.

While Cody’s Lexus is sweet as a daily driver he has been looking for a project car to build and customize. Being a wagon lover, and loving some German engineering he was torn between an Audi or Mercedes. But once he set his eyes on this 2013 Audi A4 Allroad his decision was clear. With a unbelievable center of gravity, exceptional agility, its a winning combo of comfort, capability, and driving refinement that is a delight to drive.

Cody is in the process of assembling his list of modifications while joining every Audi club, Wagon club and German car club he can in the LA area.

As a lover of classic automobiles, this enthusiast even enjoys the smell of a legend.

 “When a car is treated the right way, the smell is part of the story,” said Cody. “With that comes the story of the owner/s and what that car went through.”

As Cody reminds us, when you sit in an unrestored 60s Maserati you can smell the worn-in Italian leather, the oil and the exhaust, which is all part of this popular roadster’s personality. “The new car smell feels clean and sterile, but that is actually the smell of vapors from chemicals from the air conditioning and glue that really is not good for you,” said Cody. “New sneaker smell… sign me up because I will take the right old car over new car any day!”

So, how did this furniture aficionado become a successful automotive photographer? After leaving his home in New York and moving to sunny California, Cody found his way back to his first love – automotive artwork.

“It is definitely a different world out here in LA,” said Cody. “There are so many amazing cars driving around here all year round.”

After feeding his passion for taking pictures of some of the hottest cars on roads throughout this popular California city with his hard working iPhone, Cody began his popular LA Car Spotter Instagram channel. A short year later this born to be hot car photographer both gained a loyal following and even had automotive companies beating his door down to capture their vehicles behind his lens for fans all over the world.

“This all started with my trying to take my phone out as fast as I can when a cool car would ride by so that I could send a picture to my friends back in New York,” said Cody. “When I realized that my camera roll was primarily cars, I started my Instagram channel, but I never dreamed that it would take me this far.”

Along with doors opening to a fantastic new career, Cody has also begun to immerse himself in the varied car cultures available along with the people who are most passionate about each model. So, no matter whether you are driving a lowrider, an exotic, a street racer or even spend every second that you can with LA’s premier automotive enthusiast’s club – the Malibu Autobahn – you are sure to catch Cody Lewis and his camera catching some of the coolest scenery any automotive lover has ever seen.

It’s not always just about cars for Cody. He loves having the chance to meet the people at various meets and events throughout the LA area. Cody never gives up on the opportunity to meet and chat with a vehicle owner. He may even ask you to pull over so he can get those ever so epic shots for his Instagram account if he spots you riding the roads of Beverly Hills. From the famous automotive superheros people like Horacio Pagani, Magnus Walker, Manny Khoshbin, Jay Leno, Christian von Koenigsegg he loves to connect and say hi to everyone who is just as passionate about cars as he is.

Along with his passion for cars, this car spotter also has a talent for industrial design, namely in the world of furniture design. After growing up in a home that his grandmother furnished with trendy furniture from the 50s and 60s, the born to be furniture designer decided that he would learn to build some of the most stylish and chic furniture on the market today.

As most young boys, Damon’s passion for cars stemmed from his father. He frequently used to read and re-read the car magazines his father bought, and things sort of escalated from there. His most beloved car magazine was one which featured the wonderful De Tomaso Pantera, a magazine he still has in his possession to this very day.

Needless to say, the De Tomaso has stuck with him ever since and has became his first car love. This admiration expanded from there on, with wonderful editions such as the Lamborghini Countach, the Ferrari F40, and the brilliant Porsche 911 Turbo. His childhood dream of owning a black Porsche 911 did become a reality later on in his life, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Damon’s first car was, unsurprisingly, was not an exotic. Like most of us, he received an ordinary car from his dad on which he could learn. In his case, that was a Rover Metro with a tiny 1.1-liter engine. He says it was a great basis for learning, but one of the slowest things on the road.

Damon’s current fleet is more impressive than the first Metro he started with. He currently owns a Porsche Cayman GT4 finished in gorgeous Carmine Red, as well as a BMW i3 Range Extender. His childhood dream of owning a 911 was finally realized last year in the shape of a 991 Carrera S. Finished in Jet Black with upgraded Turbo wheels, Porsche Sport Design front splitter and side mirrors, this car had to be sold in order to make room for the GT4 we mentioned earlier. (quite the upgrade if we’re being honest.)

The i3 is his daily driver and the GT4 is a fun canyon carver. Damon says that the i3 is not as exciting as his previous BMW, an M4 finished in Mineral White, but it does come with its own advantages. For starters it’s awfully economical, he reckons he’s spent less than $10 in gas in the last year alone. There’s a similarity in its controls to those found in the M4, plus it keeps him closer to the BMW brand, which he claims he adores.

As for the weekends, Damon claims he’s extremely fortunate to live just down the road from Angeles Crest Highway, the famous twisting part of the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles. A Cayman GT4 together with an incredible ribbon of tarmac make for some epic drives.

Damon’s a fan of new and old cars just as equally.  Which is hardly a surprise given his wide range of car ownership history. He’s particularly attracted to that old car smell. Especially those old leather seats.

Damon is not just your average car enthusiast though. He lives and breathes cars, and he does it for a living. He finished Birmingham University with a Bachelor of Engineering and immediately started working at MG Rover. After several years he migrated to yet another British car manufacturer you may have heard of: Aston Martin Lagonda. You think most people would be set for life working for such a prestigious company, but not Damon. Six years later we find him in yet another British firm, this time perhaps the biggest one of them all: McLaren Automotive.

Working at McLaren was a blast for Damon. He’s one of the parties involved in the MP4-12C, the original McLaren supercar, which kick started the company after its F1 car back in the late 90’s as well as other notable projects such as the 650S, 675LT, 650LM, P1, 570S, 540C and 720S. As Damon himself likes to put it: ‘They all just have two doors and four wheels in the end’.  He fully enjoys the growth of a company but once they are all organized and churning out different variations of the same thing it becomes less exciting for him. Damon loves a challenge.

He visited Singer Vehicle Design in search of a new challenge, and that’s exactly what he found.  A brand with a solid reputation and massive potential. Singer Vehicle Design is a company that restores and reimagines Porsche 911’s (1989-94).  They take these now classics and reinvigorate them into automotive pieces of art, both inside and out. Modern Porsche’s envy the build quality and materials in a Singer, so why wouldn’t Damon join the major nerd-fest going on there as the Vice President of Singer Vehicle Design.

Damon is presented with many opportunities to drive a lot of incredible cars in his line of work, but he’s so infatuated by his Cayman GT4 that he often turns some of them down just so that he can enjoy his own Porsche. This automobile is a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car with a proper six-speed manual and is a thing to behold. Damon says he loves the way the car drives and how connected it feels to the driver.

Damon’s other love, besides cars, is architecture. He often visits homes with architectural significance or does a drive by (without any guns) whenever he can. You can say he’s found a way to combine his two greatest passions in life (driving cars, and architecture). Though he loved London and its architecture, Damon says LA has really spoiled him. The incredible buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Schindler and Richard Neutra never cease to amaze him. Recently Damon has had the pleasure of moving into a mid century modern house in silver lake designed by architect Allyn E. Morris who was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright’s.