B/F: The Drive Thru #1

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Volkswagen SP2 Widebody

Executive Producer Tania: [00:00:00] The Drive Thru is GTM’s monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations like HPTEjunkie. com, Hooked on Driving, AmericanMuscle. com, CollectorCarGuide. net, Project Motoring, Garage Style Magazine, and many others. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of the Drive Thru, look no further than www.

gtmotorsports. org. Click about, and then advertising. Thank you again to everyone that supports Grand Touring Motorsports, our podcast, BrakeFix, and all the other services we provide.

Crew Chief Brad: What’s going on, everybody? Welcome to BrakeFix. I’m your host, Brad. With me, as always, is Eric. Heyo! We also have Tanya with us tonight. Hello! Tonight, we’re going to do something a little different. Since it’s the end of the month, we’ve got tons of automotive news to talk about. We’re going to do, start a new segment called The Drive Thru.

And basically this is our monthly recap where we put together a menu of local, racing, and random car adjacent news. [00:01:00] So, let’s pull up to the window and get into story number one.

Crew Chief Eric: Hi, can I

take an

Crew Chief Eric: order? Give me a, uh,

liter of cola. A what? A liter of cola. Liter of cola. Do we make liter of cola? Alright, alright, relax!

Crew Chief Brad: This is just industry news. So first, the Mustang Mach E 1400.

Crew Chief Eric: So I watched the video. I thought it was pretty epic. And, and, I think it’s really cool.

Crew Chief Brad: I think it’s actually pretty damn awesome. At least the video was awesome. And after watching the video, it made me want to go out and buy a Mach E. Now I know that the Mach E that’s going to be the production model that’s coming out soon, if it’s not out already.

It’s going to be completely different. I think Ford, Ford was trying to make a statement because there’s all these people out there. We’re part of them. Poo pooing the idea of performance, like all electric cars. And I think Ford’s just making a statement like, look, electric cars can be, you know, performance cars.

We’ve, we’re going to take this thing all the way to [00:02:00] the extreme and show you just what it can do. And I think the race, the comparison between all the different types of racing, the different types of vehicles that they have in their performance lineup and their. They’re sponsored race cars and having this thing go up against them in the video.

Granted, it was probably edited to look like the car was performing a lot better than it actually was, but still. 1400 horsepower out of a grocery getter. Yeah, it’s pretty insane. They, it’ll never see the light of day for us, but I mean, nobody’s going to have their actual production Mach E and they’re not going to have.

You know, 1400 horsepower doing burnouts all the way down to the, uh, the Aldi’s, but I think it’s pretty cool.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s exciting. It’s, it’s just, you know, showing what you can do with electric cars. I, I mean, I think it’s trying to break the stigma that electric cars are just, you know, sort of like the original Prius and they’re boring and all they do is, like you said, go be a grocery gutter, but they’re capable of more and, you know, there’s already the Formula E series electric formula cars and, you [00:03:00] know, There’s probably going to be more electric racing in the future, so Ford is showcasing, you know, what they can do and they have a long racing heritage.

They should get into the game. Why not?

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, I don’t disagree. We were fortunate to see the Mach E at the DC Auto Show before everything kind of closed up here at the beginning of 2020. It’s a really good looking car in person. I don’t think the pictures do it justice. It has that kind of shooting break look to it.

It gave me some feels and I wrote about this in the article and I would love to test drive a stock one. I don’t know. It’s still very cool. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s a very cool video. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. But has it sold me any more on the idea of electric? I don’t know. We’re going to find out.

We’re going to talk more about electric cars here. I got to say though, at the end of the day, if the sound of that car. Is the future of racing.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s terrible. It’s

Crew Chief Eric: God awful. Let’s make it silent, silent film, please. Because that is, that is a sound that I don’t think I could tolerate for more than the length of that video, to be honest with you.

Crew Chief Brad: Okay. Well, let’s step away from the [00:04:00] Mach E, but I want to talk about the Tesla. I don’t care about them trying to compete at Pikes Peak. I want to talk about the car that they built. The article that we, we read, it was with the model three race car brakes track record. At Willow Springs. Buttonwillow. No, yeah, Buttonwillow.

Yeah, I’m sorry. Uh huh. And basically, yeah, they go through, they talk about the car. It’s this performance shop that only works on Teslas, or I guess electric cars, called Unplugged Performance. And they, they have their eyes, or their sights set on the 911s, the GT3RS more specifically. I mean, they mention it a couple times in the article, and then how they beat the 991 GT3RS’s lap time.

It goes into the kind of the electric cars can be great performance cars as well. Look at us, we can do it too. Or anything you can do, I can do better kind of thing. And they say you can buy this package for this car. It’s only 35 grand for everything that they did to this car.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, insult to injury, they did it [00:05:00] on street tires.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, they did it on a Michelin Cup 2 tires, which I don’t know what tires come on the GT3 RS. Probably something similar, I would guess.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I mean, that’s the only other similarity between the Tesla and the nine 11, except for their handling. ’cause if you’ve driven a Tesla with any sort of vigor, it handles a lot like a nine 11.

So it makes sense that they chose that to go up against, because I, I can’t see it going against a perfor or 4 88, you know, or anything like that. It’s just, I get it. It’s a David and Goliath story, but I think the nine 11 or the 9 9 1 in this case has graduated beyond. Consumer streetcar status for a long time.

The 9 11 was always kind of nipping at the heels of the supercars and the hypercars. I think it’s finally earned its place in that rank. But I don’t think a Tesla three has earned enough merit badges to get there yet.

Crew Chief Brad: But also, so I was reading through the article and it said that the quote from the owner, the CEO of Unplugged performance that they took this [00:06:00] Ascension R package of basically bolt on street tune upgrades.

So I went to their website and I looked at everything that they did. So yeah, they’ve got suspension, they’ve got brake upgrades, they’ve got body kits, you know, with carbon fiber bits and stuff like that. Everything says bespoke, everything’s a little custom and bespoke and one off. And I don’t know if they’re selling a package to a bunch of people, how it’s all one off, but whatever.

So they’ve got ultra lightweight wheels, the sticky tires, the Michelin tires and everything. Then they’ve got these bespoke racing seats. Now, I don’t remember them being a bolt on. And when I look at the pictures of the car, the car is gutted. It’s got the two racing seats, but there’s no back seat in here.

And in the video, you see part of the dash, there was no dash. All you saw was ECU and a bunch of other like wires and stuff. So that’s not a bolt on car.

Crew Chief Eric: And the same way that the Mach E 1400 isn’t your run of the mill Mach E. So yes, it’s another purpose built race car. David and Goliath story here. So, I don’t know, I’m still coming to terms with the whole [00:07:00] electric idea.

I don’t know that it’s for me yet. I don’t think there’s a car out there that gets my jollies. Like, you know, like I still like a petrol powered car does, but I think there’s a couple of the ones that we’re going to talk about here in a minute that, that, you know, may bend me in that direction.

Crew Chief Brad: No, it is.

Tanya actually has experience being in a Tesla on a racetrack. I don’t know. You didn’t even get a chance to drive it, but you were at least right seat. Can you tell us about your experience with that and if you think this is a good idea to build a Tesla performance, like straight on race car,

Executive Producer Tania: I did get to actually drive it on the track.

It was during warm up. So we weren’t, you know, supposed to go in full out. We weren’t wearing helmets. It was, you know, very spirited driving around the track. And I mean, for the most part, the car was fine and it was pretty neutral. The most disconcerting part was coming down straightaway into turn at Shenandoah and the nannies, I guess.[00:08:00]

I don’t know what it thought because I wasn’t fully all the way over to the right on the curbing, but it actually lane corrected. That pretty good speed, uh, down the straightaway. I don’t know what it sensed it saw, but it literally jerked the steering wheel. We made like a left lane change and I, if you can’t turn all that stuff off, I would be very apprehensive to drive one of those on the racetrack.

So hopefully there’s the ability to shut all that down. Otherwise, I mean, it does get tail happy. I have experienced one on the street before. It’s very easy to step out the rear end because lift throttle is. Huge because it’s on or off. It’s not, you know, it’s a lot more difficult, more to get used to with the whole feathering, the throttle and all that, because the power is instantaneous.

If you lift and mash the throttle back down, I mean, it’s going to want to step the rear end out on you. So. Obviously, there’s still a lot of work to race prep one of these. I mean, the article talked about how they basically grabbed all this [00:09:00] body kit, suspension, et cetera, et cetera, and threw it all together in three days.

And I wonder, okay, how much testing did you do? If you watch the video of him, the lap, whoever it is, he’s driving. Um, I mean, it’s the rear end stepped out a couple of times. It got swirly. And at one point they even corrected, they just drove off the track and kind of cut the turn a little bit, um, not to probably spin out.

I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s evolution, you know, there’s probably going to be a, who knows, maybe it’ll be a Tesla series and it’ll just be very quiet and a bunch of people whirling around hearing tire noises. SCCA, spec Tesla.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, I think a couple years ago there was an article that I read on Jalopnik about how they were trying to start a Tesla Model S race series and they were looking for drivers to, I guess, to compete.

Now, I’m looking here at the list of all the parts on the Ascension R package, and aside from, you know, the suspension bits, and the wheels, the harness, the seats, side skirts, and the [00:10:00] bumper, and all the, you know, the good bits there, it doesn’t say anything about tuning, so I don’t know, I mean, Tesla may lock down their tuning where you can’t, they can’t do anything to that.

They say that you can have a lap time as fast as a GT3 RS for half the money. So I wanted to look this up too, of course. So the Tesla is 54, 000 without the government, you know, the government credit of 7, 500. So it’s 54, 000. And then you add this package to get there to their results. So you add another 35, 000.

So what’s that 90, 000, a GT three RS, 253, 000. So yeah, it’s, it’s less than half the cost, but still, which would you rather have the Tesla model three with all this crap on it, or the GT three RS go Eric. Porsche, Tanya.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I need to know how many laps you can actually do before

Crew Chief Brad: you’re not going to be able to drive your Tesla home.

You got to tell it.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I probably would go with the 9

Crew Chief Brad: 11. I would go with the 9 11 even just to sell the 9 11 and buy 3 more [00:11:00] Teslas.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I’m not necessarily against the Tesla. I mean, they’re not being built to be at high performance. So, I mean, there’s there’s still got to be a lot of. Tuning of the suspension and things like that.

I mean, the weight balance is completely different. There’s no honking. Hundreds of pounds of motor at the front or the back. Where do you dial that in? They probably still have a long way to go.

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, I don’t know why they’re going after the GT3 RS, but this is an age old story. You can buy the greatest performance car in the world for 1 million dollars, or you can buy an HHR and put 50 grand into it, and you can have the fastest thing in the world.

Who cares? You’re still driving home in a shitbox. I mean, a Tesla, Tesla should be compared to an M3. Or you know, an Audi S four. The things, I think those things are more in there,

Crew Chief Eric: but to your point, they’ve already proven that in a drag race, the Tesla is faster than an M five and an M three and all these other cars.

So, I mean, I saw what even recently where it was on fifth Gear, I think it was, [00:12:00] and they drag raced an S four with the V eight and all that stuff, or whatever. The latest engine they have twin turbo V six or whatever it is against the model three. And the model three obliterated it even. You know, even with just rear wheel drive and just putting his foot to the floor because the electric puts all the power to the ground.

But at the end of the day, what can I do with that Audi that I can’t do with the Tesla? And there’s a lot of things on that list. Yeah. Well, and I think that leads right into the next topic.

Executive Producer Tania: Um, I mean, there was an article from the new CEO of Audi and basically the headline was Audi admits behind the times, all electric cars.

And I mean, they’re not the only one and kudos for them for standing up and saying it, um, they’re behind on the technology. Audi and all the major manufacturers aren’t battery makers, right? And Tesla from the get go was all about the battery and the other technology that’s wrapped in the cars itself.

You know, the easy part is the sheet [00:13:00] metal, I’d say. I mean, the first Tesla was basically a Lotus. That they retrofitted batteries into so okay. Yeah, but the major manufacturers. Yeah, they have ground to catch up. They’ve got the assembly. They’ve got the designs. They’ve got the reliability

Crew Chief Eric: chain logistics.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, I mean, they’ve got a whole different piece of the pie, but they’re also trying to retrofit ICE, internal combustion engine cars, to have batteries versus Tesla was building a car around a battery. So there’s a bit of a difference.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, not only that, and I actually just had this conversation today at work.

Most people don’t realize Tesla is really a software company. I mean, granted they’re in the energy business because of the Tesla batteries and the power wall and solar city and all that other kind of stuff. And that’s really where their R and D is right in that electrical technology, wherever they’re getting their assistance from.

And we know for a fact that the original Tesla roadster was a Lotus Elise. There was rumors that the Tesla model S was actually a Jag, you know, [00:14:00] stuff like that, I don’t know how much of it is truth or fiction. It doesn’t really matter. But at the end of the day, everybody that’s bought a Tesla right now.

You got what you got, and I hope you’re happy with it. But everybody’s excited about the latest operating system update. So Tesla, they’re not offering you a new body package or wheels, like these guys are doing out in California, where they’ve devoted, you know, a new, you know, aftermarket business to it.

But Tesla is a software company at the end of the day, right? So I, one of the guys I know that had one at work, he said, Oh yeah, they just installed a What cup man or some arcade game on my dashboard on the tesla i’m like why who cares this isn’t a phone This isn’t a game boy to your point. Tanya. I mean Audi’s got an advantage right they’ve been around since When cars were invented, basically, if you look at their history, yes, people, Audi did exist before 2000.

They’ve been around since the early 1900s. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot of innovation. There’s a lot of research in there. There’s a lot of, you know, they’ve always been on the cutting edge [00:15:00] of the VAG family, right? Where it’s like, ah, well, we’ll use Audi to experiment on the latest and greatest thing that they’re going to come up with.

But to your point, they’ve got cars that look good. They’ve got cars that handle well. They’ve got cars that are proven in all sorts of weather conditions, and they have a reputation. They have racing pedigree. They have a history there that, you know, other manufacturers do and don’t have, but Tesla is definitely not on that do list.

And once they do catch up. And they can find a battery manufacturer, maybe they come up with their own. Maybe it’s, you know, Bosch comes up with it or Siemens, or they get it from Samsung. Then they will leapfrog over these startups, right? And just like a startup IT company, I think Tesla will be swallowed.

I’ve been saying it for years. It’s going to take a minute for it to catch up, but they’ll eventually, they’ll get absorbed by the board.

Crew Chief Brad: I think what the, it was the new CEO at Audi said is correct. Yes, they are behind all of the. All of the car manufacturers right now are behind Tesla. [00:16:00] But I don’t think it’s something that they need to worry about.

They are behind, but they’ve got the infrastructure behind them that they can catch up really quickly. Because they know how to make a car, as Eric was saying. Tesla knows how to make software, but are they really that great at making a car? I mean, there’s all kinds of videos out there about Tesla’s build quality.

I think the, uh, car manufacturers don’t have any problems. Yes, they need to come out with something soon, and Audi’s got the e tron now. Uh, and then they’ve got things planned in the future, but I don’t think they really need to worry

Crew Chief Eric: at the end of the day, cars are not software and I’ve seen it myself writing in Tesla’s where you have poor, you know, door seals and bad bill quality and things that are just kind of shoddy and almost look like they were just haphazardly put together.

You can’t roll out a software patch to fix a leaking door, right? These are things that, you know, Volkswagen, Audi group figured out forever ago. You know, and now for them, maybe they take for granted that, Oh, we can make a door that seals, you know, to, to 200 fathoms underwater [00:17:00] because we’ve done all the research.

I don’t think the Teslas are there and it’s going to take a long time for them to catch up on the build quality of a Mercedes or a BMW, or even that Porsche that we were talking about. It’s, it’s when, you know, you spend 250 grand on a 911. Look at what you’re getting for 250 grand, right? But you get my idea.

There’s something to be said about craftsmanship. The attention to detail versus this mentality of like software, slap it together. The users will figure out where the bugs are and let us know, and then we’ll fix it down the road, right? That just doesn’t work.

Crew Chief Brad: But I will say that my, my 2001 Audi S8 that I had.

Flooded after every thunderstorm. So it took him a while to figure out the leaking in the seals and stuff like that.

Crew Chief Eric: Every Mark four with the sunroof leaks. I mean, let’s get serious, right?

Crew Chief Brad: Exactly. So, so Tesla is not too far behind on that respect. No, 30 years. That’s all. All right, moving on. So we’ve got next.

We’ve got Tanya apparently wants to talk about an electric Bugatti. [00:18:00]

Crew Chief Eric: I think it’s the alternative to that 35, 000 Tesla package. What else could you buy for 35 K? Okay.

Executive Producer Tania: What else? Indeed. So I like the news article title that I saw Bugatti is selling a 35, 000 electric car for kids. And I read that and just said, what are you kidding me?

I think an alternative title might have worked here. They could have used Bugatti. Rich people doing rich people things again.

What happened to the couple hundred dollar, you know, pow pow power wheels? As a kid, I remember seeing, you know, oh, they have a power wheels. They must be rich. They got a lot of money. In hindsight, those poor destitute people. I mean, I don’t know how they got by with their plastic power wheels. So, but this article is about the Bugatti Baby 2, and yes, [00:19:00] 2, it means there was a 1 before it.

So Mr. Bugatti, uh, he made the Baby 1 for his son, his 8 year old son at the time. I mean, sure, you’re Bugatti, why not, right? But the Baby 2, this is geared towards teenagers. So we heard it starts at that modest 35, 000. It doesn’t look like a Chiron or Veyron or anything like that. It’s a replica of the 1920s.

Type 35 Bugatti, if you’re familiar with that, same Bugatti blue and everything. Right. You’ve got that base model that’s at 35, 000, but there are two upgrade versions that you could choose starting at 50, 000 or up to 68, 000 or 75, 000, depending on the article you read. And they come with the speed key.

Now, if you’re familiar with the Chiron, the Chiron has a speed key, which unlocks the pow pow power. So the models are the vitesse, [00:20:00] French for speed, and the pure sang, pure blood. And when you engage the speed key, these pre learner’s permit drivers can get up to 42 miles an hour. And drive it in the driveway, because they’re not street legal.

So I’m not really sure where these people are going, but I’m gonna suppose that if you have 70, 000 to spend on your child’s toy, that the grounds you live on probably are pretty impressive, so there’s Space to go driving? I don’t know. There’s a lot of, I have a lot of questions here. I don’t know about you guys.

Mainly mine are why? And the only thing I could come up with was rich people, rich people things.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, my immediate answer was it’s French and I was just going to leave it there.

Crew Chief Brad: I would need to buy two of them just so I can wear them around the shoes.

Crew Chief Eric: I think it’s cool. Let’s just say you have the budget and you were like, man, I want the coolest go kart that I can buy.

And it’s a replica Bugatti type 35. I mean. Yeah, that’s pretty slick.

Executive Producer Tania: What go karts could you buy for [00:21:00] 35, 000 that would go faster?

Crew Chief Eric: You can buy legitimate shifter karts for less money than that. But

Crew Chief Brad: here you go, you can buy your Bugatti go kart for 68, 000 or you can buy your little shifter kart for 15, 000 and dump, you know, 50, 000 into it.

And completely blow it out of the water for half the cost. That’s what Tesla’s doing now.

Crew Chief Eric: Can I drive it at Pike’s Peak? Yes. Ah, we’re set. That’s what the real reason is. Now we’re gonna do Junior Pike’s Peak Hill Climb in Bugatti electric replicas. This is how it’s gonna go. And then we can claim that we’re faster than a 1980 Chevette.

Crew Chief Brad: Let’s just claim that we’re faster than a 911 GT3 RS. Does that work? Who’s gonna compare them?

Crew Chief Eric: Ah, that’s true. That’s very true. I like this plan. What do we got next?

Crew Chief Brad: We gotta dodge. What? A do a what? We are taking 200 steps back, and we’ve gotta dodge Demon. That’s right, people. Wait, wait, wait. You’re talking about the Challenger.

No, no, no, no, no, no. I’m talking about the [00:22:00] Miata. Excuse me? So hear me out. So back in 2007, before the Challenger, Dodge was thinking about making a Miata killer. Well, a Miata competitor, not really a killer. And they gave the Demon nameplate to this little two seat roadster convertible thing that they were going to release to compete with the Miata.

It had 2. 4 liters in line for about 172 horsepower, 165 pound feet of torque. Compared that to the Mazda Miata, it was two liters, four cylinder, 170 And, yeah, this was gonna be the demon. So, wait, wait, wait. Was it front wheel drive? No, it was rear wheel drive, and it had a six speed manual transmission.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, wow.

I wonder who they borrowed that drivetrain from. Cause I was gonna say, if it was front wheel drive, it was a Neon re skinned. Cause, you know, that time period.

Crew Chief Brad: I’m sure all this happened after 2007, but I’m wondering, maybe it was an SLK underneath. Maybe it was like a Chrysler Crossfire.

Crew Chief Eric: So yeah, that could be a possibility that it was maybe a precursor to the crossfire.

We’d have to [00:23:00] dig into that a little bit more, but oddly enough, all joking aside, it’s kind of, I don’t, I hate this word, but it’s serendipitous that this showed up this week on grassroots motorsports, because we just talk to one of our members about. Trying to fit himself in a Dodge Demon when it was at an auto show.

And it made for a very funny story, which you guys will hear on a later podcast episode. But we thought it was kind of cool that this came up, maybe big brothers listening or Skynet or the Borg or somebody, but we’re going to post the article so you can check it out about this little known concept car.

And we’re going to talk more about concept cars in a follow on episode, which is a. kind of carry on from an article we wrote a couple years ago entitled, Good Ideas and Bad Execution. So we’ll probably revisit the Dodge Demon concept a little later in the year. Good pull there, Brad. Since we’re talking about concept cars, have you guys seen the rendering of the new Fiero?

Crew Chief Brad: Yes. It looks like a Monte Carlo. Yeah, it looks like a Monte Carlo or a third gen Camaro. It looks like trash. I’m just going to [00:24:00] say it. I’m just going to come out and say it. It’s a turd.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, I had this reaction, like, when you were a kid, surfing the internet, and all of a sudden something popped up on the screen and you’re trying to close it as fast as you can because you know it’s something you don’t want to load.

That was my reaction to the new Fiero. I was like, close this browser window immediately, block the pop up.

Crew Chief Brad: I want to say that the Fiero, there’s no good looking Fiero. The only good, the best Fiero picture I’ve ever seen. Was when I was about 10 years old and there was like a half naked woman with giant breasts and like blonde hair sitting on the hood of it.

That was the best Fiero picture because I didn’t have to look at the Fiero. I just had to look at the girl. The Fiero was a turd. It still is a turd. It’s the biggest piece of shit. Whatever. The Fiero I hate it. I hate that part.

Crew Chief Eric: To give the Fiero a little bit of credit. Credit where credit is due. Makes an awesome kit car.

If you want to have a fake Ferrari, but I think they only got it right in the last [00:25:00] year with the two M six and all the other things, when they finally figured it out, they were like, all right, we’re done. We’re not going to make it anymore. They do still hold a decent value, especially those last couple of years of the Fiero, the early cars.

I think they’ve all just turned back into. Rust and dirt at this point. You don’t see too many of them on the road. I think if I got the opportunity and somebody handed me the keys, I would drive it to say I did. But I wouldn’t probably ever tell anybody about it.

Crew Chief Brad: I would, I wouldn’t drive it because I can’t fit in it.

But I would push it off a cliff.

Crew Chief Eric: I also think that the other thing that, It just had all the GM stuff. To include the T tops, right? You’re just like, oh man. Every 80s GM trope. We had to put it into that car.

Crew Chief Brad: But I love the T tops. I had T tops on both my Camaros and I thought they were fantastic.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m not a T top guy.

It’s just, I’ve grown out of sunroofs and T tops for me, it’s like, oh god, I don’t know. It’s one more thing to leak. Would I like to see the Fiero come back? Yes. [00:26:00] But as the C8 Corvette instead, like, I don’t know, I’m still hung up on the whole idea of the mid engine Corvette. It could have been called something else.

Maybe the Fiero, maybe the Corvair. Do I want to see whatever this,

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t know,

Crew Chief Eric: abomination, a good word for it is, it is not a pleasant looking car, especially with today’s design cues in mind, it’s just, like you said, it’s a combination of things. It does go back to the Monte Carlo. I could see them building a Monte Carlo off of this, maybe some sort of GNX.

Modern thing, but I don’t know this seems to be a recurring theme with GM because right after the Bronco came out GM decided they were gonna throw out a blazer Tease and and do a two door blazer like in the old days and so we’re gonna post a link to that as well What did you guys think of that?

Executive Producer Tania: I actually have to look at it again.

That’s how much attention I paid it

Crew Chief Brad: Well, while she’s looking at it again, I think it’s really cool. Now, was this a rendering that GM actually did, or was this something that somebody else put out [00:27:00] hoping that GM was going to do this? Because I know GM released the Blazer crossover a year or two ago. Too much, you know, complaints and criticism by the public, and I think they’re just trying to save face at this point.

If they’re the ones that releases it’s too little too late. I think the article that we read said that it was going to be a little bit softer. It was going to be more like the everyday off roader. So it’s going to have off road capability. But it’s going to be more user friendly for, I guess, everyday driving around on the road.

If anybody who’s owned a Wrangler, I’ve owned two of them. I’ve never owned a Bronco, but I can imagine it’s probably very similar. They are not fun to drive on the road. I mean, I made it fun to drive just because I liked, you know, balling down the street in a lifted Wrangler. But they are not comfortable.

There’s no room in them. They’re terrible just to drive down to the grocery store. You have to really enjoy driving a Wrangler. And I think this is supposed to Grab those customers that want [00:28:00] that look in that that kind of Wrangler feel or that they want to look like the lifestyle But they don’t actually want to participate in it kind of like athleisure wear the people that want to look like they work out But they don’t work out.

I think this is the athleisure wear of the

Crew Chief Eric: straight up yoga pants my problem with the retro cars is If you’re going to do retro, do it right. And I got to tip my hat to Chrysler. I know a lot of people call me a closet fan boy, but that’s one thing that Fiat’s done right. And even kind of Mercedes kind of set the stage there when they went and did the Challenger and the Charger at first, I didn’t like it, but the new one is really actually kind of cool and everything they’re trying to do.

And you know, the Durango was supposed to be the Grand Wagoneer and call it what you want badge engineering. But at the end of the day. They did retro, right? They look the way they’re supposed to. They, they outperform most everybody’s expectations, but to build a retro car and then end up basically with the FJ, you know, that weird two door thing that Toyota came up with, which was [00:29:00] supposed to hark back to the, you know, the sixties and seventies, it was too soft.

It was too blobby. It was like a marshmallow on wheels. And does it really have any off road capability? No, you, if you want to offer a capability, go buy a Jeep. Go buy something else. Right? If you’re gonna make a blazer, make a blazer. If you’re gonna make a Bronco, make a Bronco. Don’t give me a Mach E and then put different sheet metal on top of it.

So build something right, body on frame, build it the way people want it, because all you’re gonna do is end up with people disappointed. And like you said at the beginning of this, The new blazer that came out is a slap in the face to people that have square body blazers or early, you know, blazers and all that kind of stuff because it’s an equinox with a new badge on it.

Let’s, let’s just face it, right? And it has nothing to do with the blazer. Again, I say kudos to GM, but I agree with you. It’s a day late, a dollar short because they’ve been talking about the Bronco for. What five plus years now, like they’ve been teasing that it’s coming. I’m glad it’s finally here. I know people are putting [00:30:00] deposits on it and I think it’s going to be popular just like the Maquis.

And I think Ford did the right thing by sunsetting cars like the Mondeo and the focus and things that just really weren’t selling well. And they’re bringing out something exciting and GM. I don’t know. I just think they’re, they’re playing catch up, you know, and I think the Corvette was a fail and that was the most exciting thing they had, right?

Because what else did GM really have right now that gets you interested in coming into the dealership?

Crew Chief Brad: You know, I actually used to be a GM fan boy and my family, you know, when I was growing up With the exception of my 91 Honda Civic, all we had were GMs. We had a Caprice. We had numerous pickup trucks All GM, all Chevy Silverados, but with what they’ve been putting out lately, I would say from 98, 99 to now.

It’s all terrible. I mean, there’s not one car with the exception of the Corvette, which I don’t fit in, so don’t even try it. There’s not one car that I would buy of theirs. It’s, it’s terrible.

Crew Chief Eric: I will say, and not to diverge too far off, I will say the [00:31:00] Impala is pretty nice as an everyday kind of full size sedan.

We’re probably going to see that car disappear, but they finally got that right because the ones previous to the current one were pretty terrible. But that’s the only thing that I’d be like, yeah, I’d consider a GM. It’d be pretty much that. And a CTS, CTSV of some sort.

Executive Producer Tania: I had the unfortunate displeasure to have to be inside multiple mid 2000 generation Impalas.

Oh my gosh, those are the worst. No offense to anybody. I cannot. Stand those cars. I will never ever. I don’t care if the new one is nice or not

Crew Chief Brad: terrible. Wait, were you in the back seat behind plexiglass and barred doors or?

Executive Producer Tania: No, I was driving it and the thing had 20, 000 miles on it and it drove like it had 220, 000 miles on it.

It was horrific. I can’t imagine someone. [00:32:00] Willingly went to a dealership and gave up their hard earned money for one of these. That’s how passionately I feel dislike for them.

Crew Chief Brad: I think they went to Enterprise and got a rental and just forgot to return it. And I think that’s how all these people ended up owning Impalas.

They just forgot to return them.

Executive Producer Tania: And I think Enterprise was fine with that.

Crew Chief Brad: I think they were too.

Crew Chief Eric: And I can hear mountain man Dan right now. Well, you know, that’s cause you’re used to that sport tune, Bill Stein suspension, you know, in your German cars, you got to embrace the mattress suspension of that GM.

Executive Producer Tania: Sure. Where’s my dromamine motion sickness medication.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s jump, let’s jump to this new. New, but old since we talked about retro before Morgan is bringing a car next year is what I’m to understand 2021. Yeah, so when did BMW buy Morgan? Like when did that happen? That’s all I’m gonna start with that [00:33:00]

Executive Producer Tania: That’s

Crew Chief Eric: the thing that I was a little bit unclear on because I didn’t know that there were any British wholly owned Companies anymore in terms of auto manufacturers, they’ll be kind of either bought up by the Indians or, you know, the Germans or, or whoever.

So I was like, ah, Morgan. So when I, when I read about the BMW cooperation, their collaboration effort, I was like, oh, that’s interesting. And now it does look like. Every other Morgan from back in the day, which they’re hard to tell apart. Like, you know, there will be an episode coming out where we interview two members and one of them has a Morgan plus eight and it’s like an 85 or 86.

And I, to me, it looks like a 1956. I mean, they all kind of look the same and the new one harks back to the same thing. So it’s. It’s a retro car, but I mean, they’re still using the same size and dimensions and bucks and wooden frame. And so is it really, is it really new? Or is it just got a new engine in it?

You know, I, I don’t know.

Crew Chief Brad: From what I read, it’s, it’s completely new. I mean, yeah, it’s still using wood, but they, they’ve got control [00:34:00] arms all around. They’re no longer using leaf springs in the back and the live axle, and they’ve got more power out of it, thanks to the BMW. In line four. It’s supposed to be a wider car.

So people larger than, you know, five foot seven, you know, can fit in it comfortably, I guess, and it’s, it’s supposed to be a brand new car. It gets up to 149 miles per hour. It’s 0 to 60 in 4. 3 to 4. 7 seconds. It’s, I mean, it’s not too shabby for the low price of well, see, that’s the thing. It’s the 4th of the price of the GT three RS.

It’s, it’s 70 grand. They’re not being sold as production cars. They’re being sold. They’re using the loophole because they don’t sell a lot of vehicles here in the United States. So they’re not selling it as like an auto manufacturer, it’s like a kit car. It’s going to be sold as a kit car, much like the three wheeler that’s sold here now, which I love by the way.

I would never be able to own one, but I love them. They’re sold as motorcycles.

Executive Producer Tania: So the internet, Oracle of all things, it is [00:35:00] It’s not owned by anybody but themselves. They are still the Morgan Motor Company. Um, I think they have an, uh, apparently an Italian investment group, um, maybe is backing them right now, but their parent organization is still the Morgan Motor Company Limited.

Crew Chief Eric: All right. So let’s switch gears. Let’s talk about, you know, we’ve talked about a lot of different cars and retro cars, whatever. Let’s talk about a car that never came to the States, was never destined for the States. But has to be one of the coolest cars you’ve never seen or never heard of. And maybe some of you have, if you’re a, if you’re a, a German car fanatic, like some of us are, we posted a video to a recently released wide body conversion on a VW.

SP2. And for those that don’t know what an SP2 is, it was presented in 1971 as Project X. The SP2 is a sports car developed by Volkswagen of Brazil for the Brazilian market. And was produced from 1972 to [00:36:00] 1976. It’s actually built as a variant on top of the carbon GIA chassis and was equipped with a 1. 7 liter flat four over that four year period, 11, 000 units were produced in South America.

There was a short lived and very unpopular SP one. That came out before and there was actually an SP3 prototype, which in my opinion is better looking and we can post some links to all that stuff where you guys can look it up on Wikipedia. But this particular wide body car came across my desk and I was completely glued to the screen.

It is gorgeous. It is a color that I don’t understand. Uh, it changes because it is technically midnight blue as, as the title of the video, which you don’t really see until the second half, but wow, what an amazing bill, the guy that put that car together, it’s, it’s really, really cool. And you definitely got to check it out.

So I know you guys watched it. How about some feedback?

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t actually think it’s a real car. I think it’s all CGI because I follow, I [00:37:00] follow that guy on Instagram and stuff. And he’s got a whole bunch of different renderings and stuff. I, I could be wrong and the listeners will tell me where they won’t because nobody’s listening.

But I think that it’s, I think it’s all CGI. I don’t think it’s a real car. That’s why you get the color change because it starts out as gray. And then it’s, then it’s midnight blue all of a sudden. I think the gray is when he’s first. You know, like, like the first draft or whatever. I don’t think it’s an actual real car.

Crew Chief Eric: But the videos of the car going down the road and just kind of watching the suspension travel and, you know, and everything like that. If it is CGI, it’s damn good.

Crew Chief Brad: Watch the driver. The driver’s head does not move.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, I was just annoyed at the audio track being so loud. You couldn’t hear the sound of the engine.

It’s like, can we turn that down? It’s fabulous music, but please. I’m interested in the sound of the engine. And I wanted to downshift. And I wanted to see him go bruhhh. Nothing.

Crew Chief Eric: There was a moment there where you did hear the car And it sounded like it was a six cylinder. [00:38:00] Uh, I don’t, I couldn’t tell if it was a flat or a VR of some sort, you know, like all those crazy, all those crazy conversions out there, but you know, that is a rear engine car.

I mean, obviously built on the carbon gear chassis, so you could fit probably a lot of things back there, but rendering or not you guys, come on, it’s a sexy car. I mean, it’s, I think the only detractor is that nose and that’s, it’s a face. Only a mama can love, you know, it’s kind of goofy, but I thought about it.

If the SP two had a different nose, then it would just be kind of a weird looking nine 11.

Executive Producer Tania: I like the SP two, even just to stop on. I mean, it’s different. I like different, I like all those. It was older cars, so I mean with the wide body kit, it definitely looks nice. I mean, there, there could be some slight different fits and finishes that you could do, but I mean, overall it was an attractive car.

Crew Chief Brad: I thought it was really cool looking. It actually reminded me a lot of like a 280z or like an older Z car. I thought it was really cool. I don’t fit in them, so I don’t care, but [00:39:00] I think it looks good. Somebody else would have a lot of fun with that car.

Crew Chief Eric: I, I would. A hundred percent. So bad. And for, you know, the only SP2 you can own in the United States, not imported through the gray market, you can pick up at your local Walmart because Hot Wheels has cast them for the last couple of years.

And I have a small collection of SP2s here at the house. So just letting you know, you know, they only cost about a dollar. So it’s a huge savings over that Tesla we talked about earlier. So let’s go to our last bit of industry news.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, we’re going full circle here, right back to the electric talk that we started with.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh,

Crew Chief Brad: why? Oh,

Executive Producer Tania: but this is nice. This is fun. This is, this is electric buses.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s the Gary Busey, right?

Executive Producer Tania: So there’s a German company called Electric Brands, and they’re developing a modular electric bus that’s not just a bus, it’s a pickup truck, it’s a camper van, and much more. It’s called the eBusey. An unfortunate name, but maybe they’ll change it, you know, right off the [00:40:00] bat.

I’m thinking, you know, this thing actually gets made and sold. Is this a competitor to VW’s ID buzz, which you haven’t heard the buzz about the buzz ID buzz is the new VW bus, the iconic love and hippies bus that we know the type two, the transporter, as it was called, and this. This e bussy is very reminiscent of the Type 2.

Uh, the Type 2 came in a wide variety of configurations. You know, it had the panels, it had the flatbed, the pickup truck, the Westfalia was the camper van, and so on. So the e bussy is going to have two chassis options. It’s going to have urban and it’s going to have off road. It’s also going to have 10 configurations from bus to flatbed pickup truck to traditional pickup with the side walls to camper van and so on, just to name a few.

Now, the other interesting thing about this bus, since it’s so modular, so not just [00:41:00] removing panels and reconfiguring it like Legos steering and the pedals are not mechanical as is modern day drive by wire, right? You will be able. To slide the steering wheel and pedals left to right in the cabin. So you can go from left hand drive to right hand drive.

Which is very interesting. I’m not sure useful, but interesting.

Crew Chief Eric: Can I sit in the middle like a McLaren?

Executive Producer Tania: Actually, you can. I watched a video on it and there seems to be three positions. Left, center, and middle. And you kind of rearrange the panel box in the dashboard, apparently. So, alright, you’ve got that.

Aesthetically, if you haven’t seen it, I would categorize it as, quote, cute. I mean, if there was a sequel to WALL E, this would be the star, and it would convert into a wheelchair moving the humans around.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s Wheely. [00:42:00] Voiced by Gary Busey. Yes. Disney, give us a call.

Crew Chief Eric: We got this figured out.

Executive Producer Tania: Okay, so some more about the bus here.

So it’s not very heavy. It’s 1000 to 1300 pounds. I’m sure that’s based on what the chassis is. It’s only going to be all wheel drive. Um, it’s also going to have 20 horsepower, but 737 foot pounds of torque, which to me sounds incredible in such a small, light vehicle.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s going to do a wheel stand.

Executive Producer Tania: I’m getting excited.

The smaller 10 kilowatt battery, it’s going to get you about 120 miles of range, but there is a 30 kilowatt battery that will get you around 370 miles of range. In terms of price, we’re talking on the low end and 18, 000 on the higher end. If you want to go off road camper version, um, it’s closer to 33, 000 do not foresee, unfortunately, I guess, this ever coming to [00:43:00] America and despite it being clearly influenced by the.

VW Type 2. I’m not sure it’s going to be a competitor to the ID Buzz. I actually think, because if you’ve seen images of it as a flatbed or a pickup truck, it reminds me of the little three wheeled trucks that run around Italy. Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: The Apes. Yeah. The Piaggio. And Ape, fun fact, is being Italian and they’ve been around since 1948 and they’ve been making this little three wheeled delight.

I mean, it’s a Vespa with a truck bed on it. I mean, they’re fantastic, really. I mean, Piaggio is the company that made, makes Vespa. So, I mean, it’s not a leap that they got there. So. Considering how the off days use where it runs around small city towns, and, you know, it’s very commercial. You’ve got guys just doing maintenance things running around doing deliveries, commercial things of that nature.

You know, this, I would see actually, it’s more of a [00:44:00] competitor. To them, then, you know, I’m going to cruise around town in my VW bus that doesn’t, you know, turn into a transformer,

Crew Chief Brad: but I can see this competing with the transit to the for transit because they they’ve got different configurations. I mean, they don’t have a pickup truck configuration, but you can get different van sizes and you can get the tall 1, the short 1, a little bit longer.

So I would see it as a competitor for that. Two questions. One, do I fit? Would I sit in the center and nobody on either side of me? And then two, is it just me or does the logo look like the Bugatti logo? Is this a Bugatti bussy? Bugatti bussy?

Executive Producer Tania: You would cost a lot more if it was.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes, true.

Executive Producer Tania: And there was no mention of a speed key.

Crew Chief Brad: No,

Crew Chief Eric: okay,

Crew Chief Brad: okay.

Crew Chief Eric: What I really want to know is What does it do at Pike’s Peak, and what can I compare it to?

Crew Chief Brad: Is there a 35, 000 Ascension R package for it?

Executive Producer Tania: It might be coming.

Crew Chief Brad: And if it did, would you buy one?

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, honestly, I would go look at

Crew Chief Eric: one. It’s

Crew Chief Brad: like your [00:45:00] electric Fiat Panda.

Crew Chief Eric: Alright, I’m putting it in the universe.

We need a Fiat Panda. Fiat’s here in the us It’s gotta happen,

Executive Producer Tania: but it’s gotta look good. We need to be on the retro panda wagon, not the new, the new panda. Least that’s have gotten the Jordan one drive. One of those I one day maybe we’ll drive one of the older ones.

Crew Chief Eric: Alright, so let’s go behind the pit wall and just let’s do some local news real quick before we get into some of the fun stuff and, and, and wrap up.

Today’s episode. So real quick, HOD has put out a call for coaches for all August events. That’s Pocono summit point and pit race. So if you’re a coach and you’re willing and able to help, please reach out to Kenny Ivner at Ken E that’s K E N E at hooked on driving. com for more information. More importantly, HOD has changed the format of their August eight, nine summit point event.

It is no longer three days and is no longer on three tracks. It is now two full days on summit point main. You can find more details about that [00:46:00] particular event at www. hookedondriving. com and then click on Northeast and it’ll show up there. But more importantly, HOD has authorized GTM to extend our discount to any of our listeners.

So if you’re interested in participating in this event, you can use our discount code of GTM10 during checkout and save yourself 10 percent on the Summit Point entry fee. Now some COVID related changes to the track world and to the motorsports world in our local area. This may apply to areas outside of the DMV, but I’m just going to pass this information along.

If you’re interested in tracks in our area like NJMP, Summit Point, etc. EMRA, the Eastern Motorsports Racing Association, they’ve recently put out a press release talking about how Travel restrictions within New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have changed. There’s a lot of States now that are on basically a no fly list.

And that is causing issues with registration at events and locations like NJP Watkins Glen, et cetera. As of the 23rd of July, they had said they were very short of [00:47:00] registrations. And they were on the verge of potentially cancelling the event because many people from outside the area weren’t able to participate.

With that being said, they were supposed to follow up the same day and they didn’t. But I recently checked their website, emrahracing. org, under upcoming events. And the event for August was still listed on their website. It’s two days at NJMP Lightning. And then they do have some follow on events later in the season that you can look up as well.

Crew Chief Brad: If you plan on going to any of the events, Make sure you check what state the event is in and if that state has any restrictions for who can come into the state. We had 1 guy at Watkins Glen get turned away because he was from Maryland. Another guy almost got turned away because he lived in Florida, but he had a Delaware license.

I mean, he had a Delaware property and he was able to use that address to get into the then. So. Be very careful what you register for and make sure that you can actually go.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. And stay tuned because changes are happening all the time. Uh, and every [00:48:00] state is different and state by state. So, you know, there’s events happening all over the country as of, you know, the beginning of June.

So, and we’re going to talk about that a little bit more here. Another press release from SCCA. came out and the governor of West Virginia has outlined a status on West Virginia’s recovery plan. It’s kind of short and sweet to the point. They’ve changed a lot of their focus on different counties in West Virginia.

The county that summit point is in is not affected. So they’re basically, they’re continuing to move forward with the way they’ve done business up until, you know, as the track had reopened. In June, the mandates for endure use of mass remains in place. So if you’re a novice or intermediate student, you’re required to go to class, you’re required to wear a mask, you know, look at the guidance of the club to see if master required when you have a coach in the car, or if you’re a coach, you know what the rules are they doing lead follow in car, etc.

The good news for the DMV, especially for the WDCR region of SCCA is they’re gonna move ahead with all of their scheduled [00:49:00] programming, which means competition race school, which just happened, and, and Brad will talk about here in a second, as well as their chime trials, HBD events, auto crosses. Uh, all of that is gonna continue is to include the rally cross events at Summit Point, et cetera.

So the Mars 2020 club racing season is now basically underway until Summit Point closes. In addition to that, I got a news flyer came across my desk with respect to our friends at National Corvette Museum. We’ve had the opportunity to go out there many times over the years. Great facility out in Bowling Green, Kentucky, just down the road from the Corvette factory.

And I was shocked when I read the email, and I know a few other people have probably received this as well. It looks as though they have crammed their entire season into the month of August. They are doing HPD events, club racing, club driving, autocrosses, trek at the track, which is a walk, bike, run, Corvette C8 experience day, pro touring truck shootout all in the month of [00:50:00] August and they’re basically running events.

Throughout the week and throughout the end, you can look up what’s going on at ncmm by visiting motorsports park.org/events, and you can see the crazy schedule they have laid out. I wish I lived closer to ncm because I would probably jump in on some of these events. It’s a really cool track, unlike anything else you’ve ever driven, because of factory test.

Track is not a race track and NCM specifically is designed and modeled after down to, you know. inch scale of corners at Le Mans and Daytona and other places. It’s a really interesting track to drive at. So if you’re in the area or are planning on going out there, it’s definitely worth doing. But again, check those state by state restrictions to make sure that you’re allowed to travel, you know, into Kentucky, especially to go to NCM.

In addition to that, two other pieces of news. If you’re a fan of indoor carting, especially electric indoor carting, Autobahn Speedway, which has facilities all over the DMV, and now I believe in Pennsylvania and some other places, [00:51:00] they have opened all of their locations. By reservation only. So if you want to go carting with your buddies, you want to do an Enduro, you can get a block of time, check out their website, autobahnspeed.

com for more details. One of the things we were planning as a, as a club this year, as an extended cannonball was to try to go to the Canadian F1 Grand Prix, that event. Many people don’t know is actually a limited number of people can go there because the track is on an island. You can’t actually drive onto it.

There’s shuttles, things like that. It’s very complicated logistically, and it sells out like within 24 to 48 hours. So we’ve been keeping an eye on it. We really wanted to go this year. We actually kind of missed our opportunity. But unfortunately and regrettably, the Canadian F1 circuit has responded and said that they are canceling the F1 Grand Prix.

They’re very disappointed. It’s very difficult. It’s very challenging. A lot of people traveling from all over Canada has different restrictions in the U. S. due to COVID. For people that already bought tickets. By the [00:52:00] 27th of July, you should have received a communication from the Canadian F1 Grand Prix track about the status of your tickets and what they’re going to do.

They want to thank everybody for their loyalty, and they’ll let you know, you know, when they can open the track back up.

Crew Chief Brad: Um, well, this past weekend, the SCCA held their, their annual competition school. I think it’s annual. There may be one or two a year. Two of our members, Matt Wood and Jordan Furman, both entered the school and passed.

Matt Wood continued on through the weekend and competed in his first real SCCA sanctioned races. So let’s give a round of applause to them. Congratulations guys. Also, I think the weekend before that, one of our other members, Sam Harrington, went to an event at New Jersey Motorsports Park. It was called the Jersey Devil Majors, where he finished first place in his race in his Formula Enterprise 2 car.

So congratulations to Sam as well. And then other than that, I mean that’s, that’s pretty much it. The SCCA competition school is [00:53:00] interesting. I was there and I worked with Matt and Jordan as pit crew. Because the way it works is you’re in the classroom, you’re in the car, in the classroom, in the car, just in and out all day long.

Uh, you really don’t have time to set up the car like you would at, at an HPDE event, so you need some help. It was very interesting. We hope to have them on later to get some more inside information about their experiences at the school, so please stay tuned for that.

Crew Chief Eric: Switching to some international news, just some two pieces of information that came across our desk that we thought were a little bit interesting.

Team Acura is separating from Penske at the end of this season. I know the IMSA season has been a bit of a wash. You know, some of it being done on iRacing this year and a lot of the races being done without spectators and, you know, IMSA TV is a little bit restricted. I wish it was a little bit more open like Red Bull TV is where I could actually watch the races.

Acura’s had an interesting history with Penske over the last You know, let’s call it four or five years, but it seems as though they’re going to kind of branch out on their own or maybe find a different [00:54:00] major sponsor from what I read in the article from motorsport. com. It sounds like Acura is going to continue to participate with their Daytona prototype car, but they are just, you know, they’re, they’re looking for a new home.

There was another article that came out that Some of our members got excited about that. McLaren is now set to bring the iconic Gulf oil brand back to formula one as part of a new sponsor. I don’t know why. I mean, so here’s the problem I have with it. I love the Gulf oil color scheme. It’s been around since the sixties.

I know that Gulf oil sponsor Bruce McLaren back in the old days of formula one, but. There was something in the article that stuck out at me and it was actually my initial gut reaction. And I’m just going to read the quote. The golf logo went on to become one of the most well known in motor racing. It was featured heavily in the 1971 movie Le Mans with Steve McQueen driving for the golf team.

And I’m like, yeah, the golf logo, [00:55:00] the golf livery, in my opinion, is synonymous. With the Porsche 917 and I know there’s listeners that are out there going to tell me. Ah, you’re full of it You don’t know what you’re talking about, but for me and maybe for a lot of our listeners. I just feel like there’s a bigger mental relationship there between golf and Porsche like even The golf Porsches, right the golf Porsches.

I don’t really say the golf mclarens now. I know You know, back in the nineties when the, when the McLaren’s went into IMSA with the, with the McLaren quote unquote F1, which was actually a, you know, BM BMW powered supercar, they bore the golf livery. But again, it’s something I forgot about. And when somebody says golf livery, I think Porsche, what about you guys?

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, they were

Crew Chief Eric: also on the GT forties, right? That is correct, yes. With the Fords.

Crew Chief Brad: I’ve only got one question for you. So what is the, the team Porsche F1 car look like again?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, I don’t have an answer for you there.

Crew Chief Brad: So I don’t care what car it’s [00:56:00] on, especially in Formula One where all the cars look the same.

It doesn’t really matter. I just think the fact that they’re coming back to motorsports and sponsoring a motorsports team is what’s really cool. And me, being a Daniel Ricciardo fan, And he’s going to be driving for McLaren next year. It’s just, I’m, I’m ready to spend thousands of dollars on my golf merchandise.

You know, my golf McLaren merchandise, my Daniel Riccardo hat and replica helmet and all this good stuff. I’m ready to go. I can’t wait. All right. Well,

Crew Chief Eric: let’s head into

Crew Chief Brad: our next

Crew Chief Eric: section, which is.

Executive Producer Tania: Would you like some fries with that? Because every, every good story seems to start with a Florida man. So I’m going to start with a Florida man. Sets his car on fire, driving with a candle. I really like this story. Now, [00:57:00] before I break it down, I wanted to say nobody was hurt, thankfully. Um, I think the only injury was obviously to this man’s vehicle, and his pride and ego, and whatever else goes along with that, but

Crew Chief Eric: Can I ask you a question before you dive into this?

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a Chevy Malibu, so who really cares? It’s not much of a loss.

Crew Chief Eric: No, no, no! I wonder, because he’s driving with a candle. And you guys are going to hear about this on a later episode. Was he trying to recreate the ambiance? Of the night scene in Gone in 60 Seconds. I think he was on a date.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, let’s break it down here and let’s see what we think when we get to the end of this.

Who

Crew Chief Brad: is this Florida man?

Executive Producer Tania: I’m gonna leave the nameless nameless, okay? See if I can get this with a streak. So a man was driving with a scented candle in his car at this point. Okay. I’m more interested In why it’s a scented candle.

Crew Chief Brad: What is the scent? What’s the flavor? What flavor candle is that? Black ice like you [00:58:00] get at track auto.

Executive Producer Tania: I want to know how bad does this guy’s car smell that a pine cone air freshener from the corner gas station wasn’t enough Okay, he needed a scented candle. Okay. Candle tips over, ignites some paperwork. Probably

Crew Chief Brad: divorce papers.

Executive Producer Tania: Who manufactured this candle that it tipped over, didn’t snuff itself out, and then ignited paperwork?

Also, where was this candle that you didn’t see it fall over? Subsequently, ignite paperwork that you couldn’t put the fire out very quickly.

Crew Chief Brad: It was in the backseat for safety.

Executive Producer Tania: Also, was there accelerant on this paper? Because, I don’t know how it lit this quickly. We read Fahrenheit 451. Now, the man pulls over.

grabs a trash can, goes in search of water. At the risk of minor burns, why would you [00:59:00] not grab the paperwork, chuck it out the car, or, I don’t know, grab the floor mat, start beating the flames to put it out? Like, at what point do you decide that, there’s a trash can, now let me go find water?

Crew Chief Eric: Well, that’s what you need the candle for, because you keep putting trash water in your car.

So,

Executive Producer Tania: he presumably returns, I don’t know with water or not, in this trash can, but the car is engulfed in flames. He

Crew Chief Brad: returned with marshmallows.

Executive Producer Tania: Maybe. Again, I want to know, where was this candle, but more importantly, who made this extraordinary candle? This lit this car on fire, okay, and that’s basically the article.

But even further, I’m left with, what do you say when you call up the insurance company?

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, the candle excuse has been used for every meth lab explosion on the east coast that I know of.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, from the picture, the candle was in the [01:00:00] front, okay? It looked like it was in the front passenger seat, so I don’t, I just Can’t even imagine.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, only in Florida. Statistics have shown that people flatulate up to 14 times a day. So maybe this guy spent a lot of time in his car and therefore the candle was a necessary evil.

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t think he has to say anything to the insurance company. I think when they look up his record and see Florida man, I think they’ve got a whole special department for Florida residents.

A hundred percent.

Executive Producer Tania: Public service announcement listeners, please, you know, do not drive with candles.

Crew Chief Eric: I imagine seeing that on the digital board going down 6. 95 next week.

Crew Chief Brad: So Tanya, tell us about the next Florida man.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, so he had another Florida man, and this is very annoying, okay? Gets 4 million in COVID PPP and buys a Lambo.

Now, I, this whole time, have misunderstood what the Paycheck Protection Program was for, because it’s apparently for buying a Lamborghini Huracan and [01:01:00] not for paying your employees during the time of COVID. Like this jackass is gonna say it. I mean, it’s utterly disgraceful in a time like Now, where people are under real crisis, they’re without jobs, small business owners are struggling to make ends meet to pay their employees.

You’ve got this guy defrauding the paycheck protection program for 4 million. And he was shooting for way higher than that 4 million to support his alleged four businesses. And I’m wondering again, if the missing link, what we don’t know is that one of his businesses. was to drive around the Lamborghini Huracan.

Crew Chief Brad: That still only falls under marketing expense, in that the way the Paycheck Protection Plan worked is you had to spend at least 75 percent on your payroll costs, which included health insurance and taxes and stuff like that. And

Crew Chief Eric: that leaves you with a million bucks if it’s 75%, right? That’s good enough to buy a Lamborghini or

Crew Chief Brad: Correct, correct, but that means he doesn’t get to write all, or he can’t get that million [01:02:00] dollars forgiven for that Huracan.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, apparently it was a 318, 000 Huracan, so I don’t know what they actually go for, but

Crew Chief Eric: Slap some vinyls on the side of that thing. It’s marketing, baby!

Crew Chief Brad: And I will say that it was dirt simple to get approved for the PPP loans. I’m an accountant, and I’ve had to do this for a couple clients. And, I mean, they asked for some information, but you basically fill it out yourself.

You go through your bank, and if you’ve got a good relationship with your bank, they don’t look, they don’t ask questions, they just say, oh, you’re approved, here you go.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s unfortunate. I mean, it wasn’t just a Lamborghini either, I mean, he was buying lots of other high end luxury items. With a million

Crew Chief Eric: bucks to spend, of course, but what I want to know is What type of candle did he buy for his name?

What scent do you think it came in?

Crew Chief Brad: See, that’s gonna be the next article. Florida man burns Lamborghini to get rid of evidence.

Executive Producer Tania: It smells like donkey.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, I was gonna say, does it come in shit bag? It smells like jackass.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, he was caught, he’s [01:03:00] facing serious criminal charges as you should think. Bank fraud, falsifying, you know, statements to a lending institution, engaging in transactions with unlawful proceeds.

It’s, it’s, it’s serious. It’s a million dollar fine and 30 years in prison. So, I mean, hope that was worth it.

Crew Chief Brad: This reminds me of that story a few years ago where another Florida man bought that Bugatti Veyron and tried to sink it in the, I guess, in the intercoastal because he didn’t have the money. To cover the loan or whatever.

So we tried to do insurance fraud.

Executive Producer Tania: Our last Florida man on here actually isn’t a Florida man, but a Michigan woman who sets her boyfriend’s Jeep on fire.

Crew Chief Brad: I’d say ex boyfriend.

Executive Producer Tania: I, yes, at this point, uh, I do believe that would be accurate. I also think that this one could be retitled Michigan woman reenacts waiting to exhale an apartment parking lot.

Cause I’m going to go out on a limb here, Angela Bassett fan. Has the waiting to exhale DVD extended cut, [01:04:00] and not too big on science. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. The boyfriend was not, or the ex boyfriend, was not in the car, was not in the Jeep. I mean, the arsonist, no doubt, bumps and bruises and some burns, but nothing that was reported as life threatening.

Crew Chief Eric: Did they use a candle?

Executive Producer Tania: There’s a comments team here. I mean, if you haven’t seen the video because somebody in like the, uh, another apartment building videoed the whole thing on their phone. So it’s, it’s, it’s spectacular. It’s definitely a what did I just watch moment. It’s out there. Go look at it. I mean, she doused the interior of the Jeep.

With gasoline and then she sticks a stick lighter inside to light it, presumably thinking that it’s just going to gently light, maybe like the candle.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s what the movie show is. The movie show is a gasoline lights nice and slow and just takes a trail.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, no, except in reality, what happens is all [01:05:00] those, the vapors.

Ignite first and create a blast that sends you Rocketing into the parked car that’s right next to the jeep. That’s what happened. She slammed into it like WWE. I mean it was Incredible I mean she quickly picked up all our things and scampered off as the video showed craziness in Michigan

Crew Chief Brad: Florida man, Michigan woman, there you go.

Crew Chief Eric: So speaking of craziness, I think now it’s time for us to order up a side of Golden Mike. Some random car adjacent news. So first up, Mountain Man Dan discovers a lime green Geo Metro Ute for sale on eBay.

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, it’s eBay, of course. Uh, it’s probably sitting in his yard now.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m disappointed I did not get time to bid on it, because we would have bought it for Matt.

So Matt, if you’re listening, that would have your name all over it. It’s the [01:06:00] ultimate sport utility vehicle there. Meanwhile, speaking of crazy time, how about that 88 BMW M3 that sold on Bring a Trailer for a quarter million dollars?

Executive Producer Tania: Is the BAT, does that actually stand for BAT shit crazy? It

Crew Chief Brad: stands for bring a trash bag full of money.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, yeah, 100 percent and get yourself a Paynos. But, in reality, I don’t understand those kind of purchases. I know some people are going for Guinness Book of Records for most expensive car sold or something like that. But to me, I mean, the E30 M3 is a fantastic car. It was Trend setting and the whole nine yards, it was really a step out for BMW.

And they’re, they’re very sought after, but I just think there’s an extra bunch of zeros on there. Like I could see a pristine low mileage E30 going for 25 grand, but I can’t see it for going for a quarter million dollars. I [01:07:00] mean, who has that kind of basically F you money to throw around on a 30 year old BMW.

I mean, it’s just, it’s not that special at the end of the day.

Executive Producer Tania: A, they also just bought their child a 70, 000 Bugatti baby too.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, okay. You stole my thunder. You know, I wonder which PPP loan he got to buy that E30.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, I don’t know, the E30 M3 checks a lot of boxes for me. But not at 250, 000. I’m back in that 9 11 camp for an extra 3, 000 if I’m spending that kind of money.

Crew Chief Brad: It checks the no box for me at

Crew Chief Eric: 250,

Crew Chief Brad: 000. 100%. That’s a no for me, Alex.

Crew Chief Eric: So, in other random news Some of our listeners may know the Xbox One is sunsetting. The new version is about to come out, the Xbox. The

Executive Producer Tania: Xbox Series X.

Crew Chief Eric: There we go. The Xbox Series X comes out for this holiday season. Now, all of us aren’t going to rush [01:08:00] out and probably buy it day one, although some of us listening probably will, but there is a title that is, I think, worth pre ordering.

Some art people would argue not, that’s going to come out on the PS4 and the Xbox One, and that’s Project Cars 3. The best part of the article that I read about it was actually what engaged me the most. And it says at last a driving SIM that’s properly playable with a game pad. And for those of you that don’t have full racing rigs at home, you’ll know that the previous project cars were near impossible without major tuning to play without a simulator rig.

But it is a fantastic game. It has a lot of more realistic features than some of the other games that are out there. It’s a little bit more entry level. There’s a lot of articles describing pros and cons of all these games, like a set of course, uh, and I racing, et cetera, and barriers to entry in terms of costs and project cars is really sits in the middle between a Forza and a grand Turismo and all these other games that are there.

The new version, thankfully is a partnership. Mostly [01:09:00] because Codemasters bought Mad Game Racing, and therefore it is now under the same publisher as games like Grid and Dirt and all the Formula 1 series games, etc. And with the influence from Codemasters, It means that project cars three is going to have a lot of the features and functionality that we’re used to seeing in, you know, a dirt or a grid, et cetera.

And it’s going to be a lot more playable. It’s got a lot more fun. I’ve seen some of the early videos of project cars three. It looks amazing. And I have to say, despite the fact that it’s coming on a, on a chassis, that’s. Basically out the door. I still pre ordered a copy because I’m going to play it. With that being said, we may or may not pursue the idea like we’ve said in the past of doing a virtual racing league with a game that isn’t.

Forza, with that being said, Forza 8 will debut on the new Series X platform, which again, we may or may not run out and buy. So this might be an opportunity for us to use Project Cars 3 to bridge the gap as [01:10:00] we decide where we’re going in 21 with our virtual racing league.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean I’m looking forward to more information on the game.

I’ve been trying to, I go to the Project Cars 3 website pretty routinely to see if they’ve updated anything because right now they’re still sticking pretty generic to over 140 cars or track configurations or whatever the stats are. They’re not, I’m waiting, I want to see like a track list, what’s new, what’s different from the old ones.

There are snippets of articles that talk about a couple new tracks. But then also some tracks that I guess they don’t have the licensing rights for anymore and might be disappearing like spa apparently. So, I mean, we’ll see what, what’s actually true. I’m waiting to actually have Codemasters and Mad Game, you know, officially reveal that on their website.

And we’re, we’re a month away. Cause it’s supposed to release in August 28th. So hopefully they update their, their information pretty soon. But I mean, I’m excited for it. I, Project Cars 2 was definitely very different than Forza. You did have to configure [01:11:00] that controller very heavily to make it drivable.

It’s different in a good way, and it was enjoyable, so hopefully Project Cars 3 is, you

know,

Executive Producer Tania: they keep a lot of their physics engine intact, even though they’re making it more user friendly. I

Crew Chief Eric: think it’s going to be a lot of fun with the tweaks from Codemasters to make the game more playable, make the UI better, probably make the multiplayer experience better.

I think it’s going to be an all around win. And with it coming out in August, That means we still have four to five months before the new Xbox comes out, if it releases on time. So, in anxious anticipation of the Series X coming, I need something to do in the meantime. So I think Project Cars 3 will be a great excuse for something to do when the track season closes.

And God forbid, if there’s another COVID shutdown and we’re all kind of stuck at home again, I think it’ll be a nice distraction to have a new game to play. With my friends and with the virtual racing league people, and we’ll see where things go. Kind of switching gears a little bit to kind of talk about filling time.[01:12:00]

Tanya brought to my attention the other day. There are a ton of rally documentaries on, of all places on Amazon prime. I happened to watch one the other day that was kind of short, sweet, and to the point about group B. I’m a big WRC fan, probably one of the few people in the club that is. I’ve mentioned that before, but especially group B, it’s kind of the sweet spot because I grew up as a kid actually watching those races, you know, on television, you know, or live on what was, you know, cable.

This particular Documentary is called rally the killer years. It’s 53 minutes. So it’s very easy to just kind of blaze through and it gives you a great overview of group B and why it ended so abruptly in 1986. I actually discovered some information that I wasn’t clear on. And there’s three big Kind of catalyst that caused group B to end and kind of a little spoiler here

Two of them involve Aloncia [01:13:00] and one of them involve a Ford a death at the hand of an 037 and a Delta s4 two of the drivers went off track, one of them at Corsica and the other one was at another location and they died. And that was part of the impetus. Most of us feel that it was, Oh, somebody got killed in a crowd or whatever.

That was part of it. And that’s really the Ford story. And that’s a really. A tragic story about driver hubris. And so there’s kind of an underlying message there because it was a complete send it moment and the driver that Ford hired to drive the RS 200 at that race in Portugal, unfortunately, he had never driven the car before.

He was very ambitious is the word I’m going to use. And he literally said before going out at that stage, he goes, I’m just going to learn how to drive the car while I’m out there and what had happened. as they show the footage and it’s pretty gruesome. So if you watch it, you know, make sure you explain to your kids or anybody else that’s watching what’s, what’s about to happen.[01:14:00]

But basically somebody from the crowd wanted to reach out and touch the car. Cause that was the thing back then. And the driver freaked out and because he was unfamiliar with mid engine rally car and the rs200 was notoriously twitchy He over corrected and basically spun into a crowd of people and hurt maimed killed many many people and He actually walked Out of the car after it all went down, he actually sat in the car for a period of time, kind of with his head on the steering wheel, probably contemplating the rest of his life at that point.

But, you know, he walked away from the crash, whereas many other people didn’t. And that was one of the most horrific crashes in group B. And it was kind of the nail in the coffin with respect to that most extreme of motorsports. And that’s why rally is now finally very regulated, et cetera. And in the short time that the film.

Runs. It covers all of this. There’s great interviews with people like Michel Mouton, Walter rural, and Ari [01:15:00] Vatanen. And it’s very insightful, you know, firsthand accounts of what happened back then and all that. And it’s very cool. And I highly recommend watching it. If you want to get a really good high level overview of what group B rally was like back in the eighties.

Moving away from that and and unfortunately kind of, you know, more somber note, we wanted to also kind of tip our hats. Regis Philbin passed away this week on the 25th of July. So Regis passed away at 88 years old.

Executive Producer Tania: So I tried to see if there was any car adjacent to him and I didn’t really find anything.

I don’t know that he was. Probably particularly the car guy. But, however, I did find that there was a show in the early 2000s, Faith and Hope, which starred Faith Ford and Kelly Ripa, who Kelly Ripa was his, one of his co hosts after Kathy Lee Gifford, and he was, I think, on two episodes of that show, and he played a used car salesman.

Crew Chief Eric: Boom! There it is! Car connection.

Executive Producer Tania: He was Handsome Hal.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh man. This is like six degrees at Kevin Bacon. [01:16:00] That’s why it’s car adjacent. Car adjacent. And we have one more piece of random news before we close out.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a future Florida Man story.

Executive Producer Tania: Yes, this is. Folks, we are going back to Florida on this one. I could not pass up this article when I saw the headline.

It’s new drive thru Halloween experience coming to Orlando this fall. And I’m just going to go and quote directly the Orlando Weekly. At a time when most Halloween events are canceling on 2020 completely. A group of Central Florida creatives is hosting a drive thru experience to scare the crap out of you in the safety of your own car.

The quote, haunted road builds itself as Orlando’s first immersive, completely contactless drive thru Halloween experience. They plan to tell an original theatrical story through twisted creatures and quote, unexpected scares in every drive thru scene. I love this, and I am extremely worried. about the [01:17:00] execution of this.

Crew Chief Brad: If there’s one thing that I loved or that I love, it’s being scared while behind the wheels of an automobile. I just love that. It’s just amazing. I can’t wait for the Florida Man stories to come out of this. I mean, how many, what’s the over under on how many people are going to get killed in crowd

Crew Chief Eric: control?

Well, it’s going to look like that Group B rally documentary that I watched. And then some genius, because you’re probably going to do this with your headlights off, is going to have a candle in their car because they can’t see where the hell they’re going. So it’s a win across

Crew Chief Brad: the board. Stay tuned, folks, for more, more on this story.

Executive Producer Tania: I can’t even imagine. All I know is that when I, I like haunted houses and haunted forests and all those things. Sign me up. I won’t watch a scary movie, but I will go walk through a haunted forest. It makes complete sense. But I will say that I instinctually take off running at the sound of chainsaws. So I do not know what would happen if I’m in my car and I hear a [01:18:00] bunch of chainsaws going.

Oh, I

Crew Chief Eric: know what would happen. It would look like, you ever see those Florida flea markets? Where the guy, like, drives right in there. I mean, I’m sorry. It’s not funny, but it is.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I, I sincerely hope that it goes off safely and it’s a great production. It could be a lot of fun.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m waiting for the YouTube videos on this one.

I am ecstatic. Well,

Crew Chief Brad: I, I don’t think this is something that I can go to. Being somebody that has been thrown out of a Six Flags at one of these Halloween events. I probably will not be going to this. Woo! That is just, wow, so much Florida. So

Crew Chief Eric: much Florida action there.

Call this fast food. Uh,

Crew Chief Brad: hi?

Fifteen Big Macs, please.

Crew Chief Brad: Excuse

me? Fifteen Big Macs, please.

Executive Producer Tania: How much Big Macs?

Fifteen.

Executive Producer Tania: Trios or just the Big Macs?

Just the Big Macs.

Executive Producer Tania: Fifteen

Crew Chief Brad: Big Macs? Yeah, it’s 76 and 73 cents.

Okay, can I get a [01:19:00] liter of Big Mac sauce on the side?

Crew Chief Brad: No problem.

Thank

Crew Chief Eric: you. Alright, our final segment, we call it the secret sauce. We cover specific, uh, GTM news.

So we know you’re listening to a podcast right now, but we want to give you a little sneak peek of some upcoming episodes in the next month that are scheduled for August next week, or right after this episode, you’ll be listening to a member story from Portia Al. After that, we’re going to have a special, what should I buy episode entitled regrets and the desert Island.

We have a two parter called story time with crutch. And then wrapping up August, we’re going to have the Latin lads racing team on and to talk about the case of the cursed mini. So those are the episodes you get to look forward to here in the month of August. Just so you guys know, depending on how you’re listening to the podcast now, Break Fix is now available on all the majors.

That means Apple, Google, and Spotify. There’s people using all different ways to connect to us. But, uh, you have the [01:20:00] option to use any of those three major services. If you would like to listen to us on another service, like maybe a Pandora or Prime, we do have those options. Just let us know if that’s something of interest.

But we think we have everybody covered with those three. Summer Bash 6 is going to be held the weekend of August the 25th. First at pit race this year, this is the first year where we’re not holding it at summit point. It was a long and kind of drawn out board meeting with respect to where we were going to do the event, why, and et cetera, it just seemed to make more sense with the logistics that you heard earlier about HOD changing the plans for summit point, that we would do it at pit race, the pit race facility is great.

If you haven’t been there, it’s probably one of the best laps on the East coast these days, especially for a track that was built, you know, in the last, let’s say decade or two decades. A lot of fun, really long track and a full configuration. Lots of elevation changes. It doesn’t particularly lend itself to slow cars or fast cars.

It’s a great mix of technical and speed, but at the same [01:21:00] time, it has a go kart track and it has a lot of other amenities. And so being summer bash, what it is. And if you participated in the. Paddock party at pit race last year. We’re basically combining those two events thanks to COVID and we’re going to make the best of an excellent weekend and out in Pittsburgh.

So if you haven’t signed up for that already visit www. hookedondriving. com and register or visit our website and look for summer bash six for more specific details about the summer bash six sell our six. anniversary celebration and everything that comes along with that. You can buy your e tickets on there.

You can buy your t shirts on there. You can pre register for go karting, all that kind of stuff. We don’t, we have a ton of really interesting, uh, Instagram posts to follow up on this month, but I will remind people that there are some hashtags you may want to watch. If you’re into Italian cars, GTM spicy Italians.

If you like the oddball ones, I’ve been posting a lot of French stuff thanks to our French appreciation week that we did a couple months ago. Uh, GTM , we also have for the Mark four Volkswagen people, we have GTM Mark four [01:22:00] VWs could follow my slightly stalled nine 14 build under GTM Project nine 14. You can follow Summer Bash under GTM Summer Bash.

And of course you can always follow the podcast under hashtag GTM Break Fix in other GTM specific news. May not come as a surprise. You know, a lot of us are very much invested in the European cars, but a little announcement to the members and anybody else that’s listening and it’s interested, we are now officially an FCP Euro reseller.

So if you’re interested in getting some discounts, want to talk to us about parts and availability, stuff like that, please reach out to us. You can listen to that at the end of the podcast, all of our contact information, and let us know what you’re looking at. We can get you some pricing on parts for your European car, especially for your track car.

And I think here kind of wrapping up, we want to do some shout outs to people that helped us this month, especially with the podcast and with different things around, you know, GTM HQ, Brad and I are going to go around and just mention all these folks. And we want to say, thank you [01:23:00] again for supporting us, but go ahead, Brad, let’s kick it off.

Crew Chief Brad: Uh, we want to say thank you to John for being on a couple of our podcasts that you’ll be hearing soon. If you haven’t heard already. So the Wade brothers, Steve and John Porsche

Crew Chief Eric: owl, who’s no longer Porsche owl, but Nissan out. Jason Ferguson for helping out with our Big Man in a Little Car episode.

Andrew Mason also for helping out with the Big Man in a Little Car. And the coolest dentist you’ve ever met, Gordon Bell, for the same thing. And Brian Young, my brother from another mother. And Mike and Chrissy, the Crutchfields, for participating in multiple podcast episodes over the month and also recording their individual member profile episodes which are going to come out later in the year.

Crew Chief Brad: Uh, we’re going to say thank you to, uh, Kerwin, who’s a longtime listener, no time caller. Hopefully we’ll get him on eventually at some point. Judd, thank you for being on the, the contest that we had. The You named that tune contest, even though you named exactly zero of them [01:24:00] and Matthew, Matthew. Yep. Thank you for being on.

Crew Chief Eric: Now, man, Dan, my, my brother from another mother, he has been on multiple episodes and multiple episodes to come. And Dan’s going to be a recurring figure on here. He really enjoys the whole podcast format. So look forward to more things coming from Dan and a special square bodies episode somewhere in the hopper there.

So if you’re into GMs, no offense to earlier statements. Dan is your man when it comes to that.

Crew Chief Brad: We want to say thank you to the Chivalry family for always, you know, supporting GTM. We also want to throw out some thoughts and prayers to their son, Chris Chivalry. He was in a motorcycle accident about a week or two ago.

He’s been in the hospital. He’s got a GoFundMe page set up. We’ll try and put a link in with the Patreon. I think we can get access to that. But please go help them out. They’re great people. He’s a great kid. We hate to see him down like this.

Crew Chief Eric: Special thanks to Gunther Hoyt. He is the president of the Old Dominion Packer Club and he’s part of the Classic Car Club of America.

He and I [01:25:00] had a very interesting interview about classic cars and how to get, you know, younger people involved in that and that episode will be coming out later this year. It’s really fun, especially if you’re into older older cars. So thank you again, Gunther for coming on the show.

Crew Chief Brad: We want to throw more thank yous and more thoughts and prayers out to the Sonnerby Clan.

Max, Brett, and Michael. We plan on having them on as a part of our Generations or Origins story future podcast, but some of you may know Max was in an accident in Watkins Glen a couple weeks ago, and they ended up. Uh, totaling their C7 Corvette. So thoughts and prayers with him. Uh, and Brett, all I’m going to say is Panos.

Crew Chief Eric: And thank you for the Sonderbeest to, uh, for contributing and supporting the podcast. I know Max is a Patreon member And, uh, Michael donated as well. So thank you again. Every little bit helps and you know, we we’re fueled by volunteers. So it’s So it all adds up. In addition to that, I want to thank Garrett from Chazz’s Used Auto Parts for always being a top notch sponsor of GTM, but in [01:26:00] addition to that for coming on and doing a recording with us for a future podcast episode where he tells us all about dirt track racing and motorsport that probably many of us are not familiar with, but it actually is very interesting and has a lot of parallels with some of the things we do.

So thank you Garrett for doing that and for extending all the courtesies you do when we come out to the shop. And for just being an all around great guy and thanks to your dad as well and everybody over at Chaz’s and we look forward to continuing doing business with you in the future.

Crew Chief Brad: And we would be remiss if we didn’t thank our wives.

Thank you, Jessica, for allowing me to have Eric, you know, for all this time that we spent on this. And thank you, Adrian, for putting up with all my craziness. I know you’re not a car person, but you you put up with me being a car person. And, you know, we greatly appreciate it. That is the

Crew Chief Eric: key to success right there.

We’ve said it once. We’ve said it a hundred times. This goes to all of our members. This goes to all of our listeners. This goes to everybody that supports GTM, whether you’re following us on Instagram, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, through our [01:27:00] articles, you know, everything that we do and all the way we try to touch and influence people’s lives and bring motorsports enthusiasm to the world without you guys.

None of this would be possible. So a big round of applause to everyone that’s out there that’s, that’s helped and contributed, that we didn’t mention on this list. Again, thank you so much.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, without you guys, it would basically be me and Eric sitting in his basement, talking about cars that we wish we could afford.

Crew Chief Eric: And on that note, I think it’s time to end. And have a great rest of the month.

Goodbye.

Here we are,

us cars in back of us, all just waiting to order. There’s some idiot in a Volvo with his bright son behind me. I lean out the window and scream, hey, whatcha trying to do, blind me? My wife says maybe we should part.[01:28:00]

Crew Chief Brad: If you like what you heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to check us out at www. gtmotorsports. org. You can also find us on Instagram at GrandTouringMotorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call or text us at 202 630 1770 or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.

org. We’d love to hear from you.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey, listeners, crew, chief Eric here. Do you like what you’ve seen, heard, and read from GTM? Great. So do we, and we have a lot of fun doing it, but please remember, we’re fueled by volunteers and remain a no annual fee organization, but we still need help to keep the momentum going so that we can continue to record.

Write, edit, and broadcast all of your favorite content. So be sure to visit www. patreon. com forward slash GT motor sports, or visit our website and click in the top right corner on the support and donate to learn how you can [01:29:00] help.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction and Sponsors
• 00:34 Welcome to Brake/Fix
• 00:43 Introducing The Drive Thru Segment
• 01:20 Mustang Mach E 1400 Discussion
• 03:58 Tesla Model 3 Performance
• 12:28 Audi’s Electric Car Challenges
• 17:56 Bugatti’s $35,000 Electric Car for Kids
• 21:49 Dodge Demon Miata Competitor
• 23:47 The New Fiero Rendering
• 26:29 GM’s Retro Car Strategy
• 32:44 Morgan’s New Car Collaboration with BMW
• 35:30 Volkswagen SP2 Wide Body Conversion
• 39:39 Electric Brands’ Modular eBussy
• 41:32 Aesthetic Appeal and Design
• 42:08 Technical Specifications and Performance
• 42:45 Market Comparison and Pricing
• 45:21 Local Motorsports News
• 46:21 COVID-19 Impact on Motorsports
• 53:23 International Motorsports Updates
• 56:42 Florida Man Stories
• 01:05:28 Random Car News
• 01:19:03 Upcoming GTM Events and Announcements

• Hooked on Driving – NorthEast Region Events
• Eastern Motorsports Racing Association
• Washington DC Region SCCA
• National Corvette Museum
• NY/NJ/CT incoming visitor restrictions
• Autobahn Indoor Karting
• Chris Chivily’s Go-fund-me Page