About Me

Hello everyone, I am Raphael Montes, otherwise known as "Redline Raphael" across my social media platforms. I have been into all forms of transport ever since I was a toddler, so much so that my 4th birthday was held at a train museum with a Thomas the tank engine theme. My passion for cars started from the same place as most Gen Z car enthusiasts, the Disney-Pixar movie "Cars" in 2006. 5 year old me immediately became obsessed after seeing those 4 tuner cars show up on the big screen.

Throughout my childhood, I was fortunate enough to travel to Germany to visit my family, which heavily influenced the type of cars that I liked. Seeing BMW's and all other European market cars fly by at 200+ KMH on the German Autobahn fascinated me and I began to compare the differences between US and Euro market cars. When I was in elementary and middle school, the only books I really read and soaked in were car books. I didn't have unmitigated internet access so this was my only way to learn, and in school it got me in trouble.

As a teenager approaching high school, I started reading Wikipedia articles about every single car that I saw, no matter how uninteresting the car was. This really gave me a deep appreciation for cool/quirky versions of regular cars and I quicky became known in my family as a walking car encyclopedia. In high school I started watching automotive Youtubers such as Doug Demuro, Regularcarreviews, Hoovie's garage, and Vehicle Virgins. The very concept of being able to make content on my hobby was appealing and deeply influenced me, however that wouldn't happen until after High school.

I got my first car when I was 15, it was a 1979 BMW 528i "E12" that I got off Craigslist for $900. It had a 4 speed manual, ran like crap, and had a hole in the floor, but it was mine!

The name "Redline Raphael" came when I was making my Instagram in 2017. I wanted some automotive tie to my username and Redline started with an R, plus it sounded smooth in my head.

I didn't make my first TikTok until mid 2020, mainly because I was scared of how people would perceive me. That all changed when one day, I was in a Starbucks drive-thru with my BMW 328d and a garbage truck backed into me, severely damaging my quarter panel. That night, I decided to make my first video which was about all of my parent's cars, which got over 7000 views and 100 followers in 24 hours! Keep in mind, I had around 4 followers when I posted. That instantly gave me motivation to make various videos. My first video to "blow up" was an ASMR video of me peeling a new VW GTI that we had at my job. It got 250,000 views and over 1000 followers!

5 years, 15 cars, and almost 400,000 followers later, I am a full time content creator who has met and worked with some of the big Youtubers that I watched after school a decade ago. This is something I truly enjoy and has lead me to meet some amazing people in my life, and it's all thanks to the movie "Cars" and a careless garbage truck. Thank you to all of my fans and supporters, I couldn't do it without you :)

-Raphael