B/F: The Drive Thru #3

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• Trevor Milton, CEO of Nikola steps down amid fraud allegations

• Netflix Is Making a Drama Show about Ayrton Senna
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• Toyota's Road-Going GR Super Sport Hypercar Looks Extremely Intense

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• After Three Decades Of Hibernation, This Group B Lancia 037 Is Ready To Get Back To Work

• Motorcycle Chariot Racing was a real sport in the 1920s and 1930s
• There’s a Jeep Wrangler Dangling Off a Cliff in California After Some Fool Drove Up a Bike Trail
• This Custom Built Giant VW Beetle Is Larger Than A Hummer!

• Record-setting motorcycle racer Ralph Hudson dead after 252 mph crash
• Jordan/Hamlin new NASCAR Cup team
• How Sébastien Loeb Ruined Rallying

• Aston Martin is selling $60,000 electric kiddie versions of one of its iconic 1960s sports cars — take a closer look
• Garmin Catalyst™ Driving Performance Optimizer

• The 2021 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Concept Is Here, And It's Huge
• Fiat New 500 review: smart pricing makes it a rival for all urban EVs

• Tesla Blown Away As Renault Dominates Europe’s July EV Sales Party
• Tesla Model Y Owners Have Found Home Depot Shit Used To Mount A Critical Part
• Model S Plaid will have 1100 hp and a 520mi range for $140K

Randy Pobst & Unplugged Performance – Pikes Peak 2020 Day 1 – Lower Section Qualifying Leader

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, Brake Fix, and all the other services we provide.

Crew Chief Brad: Hello and welcome to another installment of the drive through September 2020. I’m your host, Brad. With me as always is Mr. Eric. Hello. And Tanya, uh, obviously, uh, the drive through is our monthly recap where we’ve put together a menu of local racing and random car, Jason news. Now let’s pull up to window number one for some industry news.

I’m going to go ahead and kick us [00:01:00] off with the revealing of the new Nissan Z car. That. called the Proto. Uh, it’s supposed to be the new 400Z. Uh, it was announced on September 15th and it looks stunning. I think it’s gorgeous. I think it’s really cool looking. It’s going to be small, but

Crew Chief Eric: yeah, I mean, I think the only complaint I’ve heard by reading some of the comments and the initial feedback on the car is what’s up with the big rectangle grill.

But if you’re not familiar with the old 240Zs from the 70s, then it might seem out of place. But in reality, I think it’s. It’s the closest modern Z to the original styling. I actually, and I agree with you, I think it looks really, really good. Now for our listeners out there, we talked to our resident Z man, Portia Al, and he is all about this.

I don’t want to spread rumors, but I have a feeling the Jag might get replaced.

Crew Chief Brad: I have to say though, my favorite part is the taillights for some reason. I love the way the taillights [00:02:00] look. They’re just so retro to me. I think the design is just, it’s killer. It’s

Crew Chief Eric: exactly, it is a complete throwback. It’s really good looking car.

Executive Producer Tania: I am undecided on the front. Kind of looks like a fish with its mouth gaping open.

Crew Chief Brad: Now I like the BMWs.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, Oh, please. Um, my eyes hurt thinking about that one. No, I mean, I don’t dislike it. I really liked the back. Like you said, I agree with you completely on that. It’ll be interesting to see if they do some subtle changes between now and what actually gets.

Rolled off the assembly line, but I’ve always been a general fan of these cars. So I’m excited to see a new one.

Crew Chief Eric: I think it’s going to look a lot better in a color that isn’t canary yellow. And I know that’s a throwback color as well, but a Z in silver. Black a nice deep red, you know, something like that blue

Executive Producer Tania: and

Crew Chief Eric: red stripes white.

Yeah. [00:03:00] White with the dots and livery would be fantastic. I mean, I think

Crew Chief Brad: a brown Z cause I’ve seen a lot of brown two eighties.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a very period appropriate color.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. Personally, I really like the yellow though. I would never own one a brown or gray or like you were saying, like a deep red. Like a maroon or like a blood red would look stunning on this car.

So let’s talk about the specs a little bit. I mean, there’s not too much known. It’s going to have a 3. 5 liter twin turbo V6. Uh, it’s sourced from infinity. There are also plans to source the suspension and the brakes from the infinity as well. Going to come with 400 horsepower, 350 torque, and it’s going to come at launch with a six speed manual only, which is funny because it’s competitor is the Supra.

That is automatic only, or the, you know, the DSG, the floppy paddles. If it’s between this and the Super now, I’m Z Man all day. This thing does check all the boxes,

Crew Chief Eric: right? I mean, it’s a two door, it’s a manual, it [00:04:00] looks good, big power numbers. It’s actually decently priced. I don’t see any downside yet. When can I drive one?

Kudos to Nissan and Renault for putting out something that people might actually get excited about.

Crew Chief Brad: So we’re going to move on to the Bronco. There’s a little bit of news. It’s a little disappointing news. Obviously everybody knows the battle between the off roaders is heating up. There was news earlier in the month or maybe last month that Jeep was considering putting a 6.

2 liter V8 in the Wrangler. Well, Ford has responded. Saying, no, no, no, that’s not for us. Chief engineer, Eric Loeffler, basically came out and said that the Bronco is not going to get the five liter coyote motor. And part of that is because of emissions. So they’ve got a very lofty goal with government regulations and things like that, that they have to hit the appropriate emissions numbers.

Uh, and. Putting a V8 in something like this, I guess makes that more difficult with [00:05:00] their other, the rest of the cars in their lineup, and also they believe that the motor that it’s originally launching with the 2. 7 liter EcoBoost has got more than enough power to meet all the target wants of the customers that are purchasing the Bronco.

It’s got enough power. It’s got enough torque. It’s got enough. Fuel economy to make it a worthy competitor to anything else that the other off roaders are putting out. Now I say the other off roaders, namely that’s the Wrangler because Chevy and the trailblazer, that’s just going to be, you know, nothing.

That’s not going to happen. And then the new Range Rover Defender, I just don’t know enough about, but it’s probably going to be priced way out of the market of the, these two. So I’m comparing it to the Wrangler.

Crew Chief Eric: So I’m going to put it to you this way, chocolate ice cream has just enough flavor and just enough color and just enough taste and just enough cold for us to call it ice cream.

And that’s the Bronco versus Chrysler saying, you know what, how many toppings you want? What do you want in your ice cream? I’ll give you rocky [00:06:00] road. And then I’m gonna put moose tracks in it, right? They go bonkers over there. So all these excuses About emissions and this and that why does Chrysler not care?

They’re like, you know, what 6. 2 liters? And then we’re gonna put a blower on it And then we’re going to put nitrous and then we’re going to put a pro charger and then we’re going to give you skinny tires for a dollar. I mean, it’s like night and day difference between these two camps. As we’ve said before, Chevy’s kind of sitting on the side of the lines going, all right, what are y’all going to do next?

Crew Chief Brad: I haven’t researched enough to fully understand the, I guess, the emissions regulations to understand how Chrysler and Fiat are able to do that, but it may have something to do with if it’s not going into a brand new vehicle, or if it’s not a brand new vehicle, it gets grandfathered in and that’s why Dodge is using a 400 year old design with the Challenger and the Charger and they keep just [00:07:00] throwing more power and stuff at it.

I don’t know. I could be wrong, but you’re right. I mean, how does, how does Fiat get away with pumping 700, 800 horsepower out of these cars and just slapping a supercharger on it and calling it a day and not worrying about, you know, whatever,

Crew Chief Eric: you know, I don’t know. It’s I got to tip my hat to the Chrysler guys.

I’ve said it before. I mean, those guys are Off the hook. Now I feel for the Bronco folks. I mean, I’m excited. All of the pre deposits are sold out. You know, there’s a long waiting list for the Bronco. It’s a cool design. I personally like the concept better, but I think there’s going to be a lot of consumers out there that are just disappointed that they won’t be able to get a Bronco with a V8 like you could get back in the 90s or whatever.

Enjoy it guys. That’s all I’m going to say because it’s sad that it’s not coming. And I understand the argument that the three and a half liter turbo eco boost, you know, whatever makes the same kind of power and this and that, but it’s not the same when you turn the key [00:08:00] and you don’t hear that. I mean, I’m sorry.

Now I will say this is coming

Crew Chief Brad: with the 2. 7, but because you brought up the 3. 5, there are hopes and there has been no denial. So it’s admission by lack of denial that there could be a Raptor version of the Bronco coming, which then would be the 3. 5 liter twin turbo EcoBoost with 450 horsepower. Maybe that would be a competitor to the 6.

2 liter Wrangler. I mean, it sure enough would have the power, I guess you’re right. It would not have the, the auditory pleasures of that motor. So, and unfortunately I’m not in the market for a Bronco. I would love to be in the market for a Bronco, but. I need a tow vehicle and the Bronco is not that same reason.

I don’t have a Wrangler anymore. This car, this vehicle is nice as it is. It’s not something I would consider buying at this point.

Executive Producer Tania: Good for Ford for trying to be environmentally responsible if they’re trying to actually adhere to [00:09:00] changing emissions regulations and any fines that could probably come down along the way if you know they don’t adhere to changing regulations.

I don’t know enough about What’s going on in that industry and if there’s grandfathering in or who’s cheating the corner or not actually is pretty fascinating. I’d be interested to learn more, but I mean, why, why do you need a V8 in a Bronco to do what?

Crew Chief Eric: So Italian, there’s a sign over the door. When you walk in Chrysler and it says emissions, we don’t need your stinking emissions.

And they go about their business, right? It’s just pure arrogance. And I’m okay with it because at the end of the day, they’re pushing the envelope on what can be done. I respect what both camps are doing, but what gets my attention is what’s going over at FCA.

Executive Producer Tania: One could argue it’s all pointless because as things move towards more fuel efficient, more emissions friendly vehicles, guess what?

Chrysler doesn’t need to be investing time, research, money [00:10:00] in. Big huge gas guzzling V8s if they’re all going to disappear.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s very true. While all the rest of this news was coming out about the Z and the Bronco and all this, you know, people’s emotions are all over the place and all of a sudden, Volkswagen drops a bomb on everybody.

And goes, Hey, we’re going to sell Bugatti to Rimac. And I’m like, excuse me, what? So I did a little digging on this. It’s a bit misleading because Bugatti, even if it got sold to Rimac, it’s a bit of a reverse merger. If you read how this is being structured, what we now realize is that Porsche already has almost a 16 percent share in Rimac.

And Porsche is part of the Volkswagen and Audi group. So what’s going on is VW, that side of the house doesn’t want to continue pouring money into Bugatti and they’re making some crazy stuff. I mean, you want to talk about bonkers. There are some new Bugattis that have been released design wise that are, you know, next level [00:11:00] crazy.

And that’s fine. However, when Ferdinand Piëch, and that’s how you pronounce a lot of people say Peach and Pike and a lot of it’s Piëch, was still alive. He was very much invested in keeping Porsche tie to Bugatti and all this. Now, unfortunately he passed away in 2019. So the family and the estate is left to kind of make decisions on what’s going on, especially with the venture capital and the stock that he had in Rimac and things like that.

So what they’ve done is the Pieck family has come back and said that because they have a 50 percent controlling stock in Volkswagen, they still have a say in how all this is going to go down. So there’s a lot of infighting going on right now, and they need to be convinced to sell Bugatti, but it needs to be beneficial to Porsche.

So it’s really kind of awkward. It’s all this internal like politics and mafia stuff going on. And at the end of the day, what reporters are saying is the goal is that Stuttgart, you know, let’s, let’s wrap all of that [00:12:00] together. Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, et cetera. They want 49%. Stock in RIMAC. So they don’t want controlling stock in RIMAC, but they want to be as close as they can get without going over.

Again, this really isn’t a sell off so much as a way of VW and Porsche absorbing RIMAC’s electrical technology. And boosting what they’re already trying to do. So again, it was very misleading when this came out, people got all excited and hot and bothered about it. But I think it’s just more of the same and we’re just going to end up seeing the VAG portfolio expanding.

Another announcement that got the world kind of all topsy turvy again, was Jeep. Again, Fiat Chrysler released pictures of the final version of the Grand Wagoneer. Now this isn’t the first time that the Grand Wagoneer has been teased, but if I had to summarize, there’s one word I would use. Huge. 24 inch wheels look [00:13:00] normal on the Grand Wagoneer.

It’s a big vehicle. You look at the pictures of the inside, you know, multiple digital Outputs and screens for the passenger and the center console or whatever. It’s very plush. It’s very cool I like the way it looks it harks back to the grand wagoneer. A lot of people say it’s ugly I think it’s it’s cool but I think it caters to the wrong audience because the people that bought grand wagoneers were the people that were they were going fishing and hiking and camping with their family and It’s a people mover, right?

It was a third row people mover back then. That’s what it is today You You know, you read the articles about it and they say, Oh, well, this is the first dedicated three row SUV from Jeep since the demise of the commander, you know, nearly 10 years ago. And I’m like, yeah, flag on the play. I’m sorry. That’s not true.

The Durango was originally supposed to be the grand Wagoneer, a bunch of political infighting there too. And they decided to keep it with Dodge. It’s built on the Jeep chassis, which [00:14:00] as you pointed out earlier is a 400 year old Mercedes chassis. Right. So this is not the first jeep based third row seat SUV.

I think it looks better than the Durango, although I have nothing against the Durango, but here’s my big problem with the Grand Wagoneer outside of the flash and the panache and its bigness. It comes with an extremely large price tag in top trim. We’re talking a hundred thousand dollars. That would be the most expensive Jeep product on the docket today.

And I don’t know the Jeep customers want that. The comments I’ve read it’s ugly. You know, all the aesthetics comments. Most of the people are saying, find a way to cut the price in half. The grand Wagoneer is supposed to be affordable. It’s supposed to be a grocery getter, people mover, et cetera. But again, it’s cool.

They’re pushing the envelope.

Executive Producer Tania: Is it going to have wood panel trim?

Crew Chief Eric: On the outside, I have not seen that.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, there you have it, folks. No one’s going to buy this thing.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s a [00:15:00] 2, 000 option, I’m sure, right?

Crew Chief Brad: I’m waiting for the 150, 000 Trailhawk edition, or Trackhawk edition. Yeah, yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: Demon, red eye.

Crew Chief Brad: I have to say, if I’m looking for a large, full size SUV, if I’m spending 100, 000, I’m buying a Range Rover every single day.

I mean, if

Crew Chief Eric: I’m spending 100, 000, I’m going to go buy a Yukon and have money left over.

Crew Chief Brad: No, but I mean, if I was dead set on spending 100, 000 on getting a Range Rover, they’ve been doing it longer. They perfected it, even though the electronics are trash. If I just want a large SUV, I’m going to seriously consider the new Lincoln Navigator over this thing.

Cause I think it’s supposed to be cheaper, like around 60 and it’s a much better looking vehicle. I think this is like someone took the Navigator design and kind of gave it to a two year old and said, here, have fun.

Executive Producer Tania: You can get a Tahoe for 49. The

Crew Chief Eric: GM products are much, much cheaper. They’re much better priced.

Crew Chief Brad: Speaking of sports cars, Maserati has showcased the new MC20. [00:16:00] It’s an elegant mid engine supercar. Some people, like the article that we’re reading by Mike Duff, says that it’s a new renaissance for Maserati. Basically a $200,000 or less than $200,000 supercar. It’s supposed to be their new flagship for a whole gaggle of vehicles that they are going to release over the coming years.

It’s going to be a coop or a convertible. A little bit about this car. First of all, I think it looks amazing. I would buy this car over the McLaren’s or anything. I think it’s gorgeous. There’s going to be two versions. There’s going to be a V six and there’s also going to be an electric and the electric will come later.

It’ll have 235 miles of range, give or take a, let’s talk about the V six a little bit. It’s going to, it’s a 90 degree three liter V six twin turbo, 621 horsepower, and it’s going to be made it to an eight speed dual clutch, and it’ll be zero to 60 and three seconds with a top speed of 202 miles per hour.

I don’t know. I I’m, I’m really interested. Not that I’m in the market for one of these [00:17:00] cars.

Executive Producer Tania: I’ve never been a very large Maseratis. They just exist and that’s fine. I will say this one isn’t bad looking. I will say I like the 2021 Gran Turismo that’s coming out. I think that looks a lot nicer, but that’s all I got.

I don’t follow Maserati. They’ve never interested me.

Crew Chief Eric: When I read MC20, I immediately thought Successor to the MC 12. We’re getting another Maserati race car. This is going to be awesome. Like I’m totally ready to see this thing in IMSA. And then when I opened the article from car driver, I see basically a Ferrari 488 with a different nose and tail on it.

And all of a sudden I was disappointed because if you really step back and look at it and you ignore. The very, you know, marketing heavy drawing the car out with his black Sharpie and showing you how it was designed. Yeah, that’s great. But you look at it and you [00:18:00] realize, especially in the profile, it’s a Ferrari 488.

Okay. Different motor package, clip on the Gran Turismo tail lights and tail, put a Maserati nose on it and sell another car, sell a Ferrari at a slightly cheaper price. And it ain’t that much cheaper at the end of the day, 200 grand.

Crew Chief Brad: And this isn’t the first time that they’ve done this either. Cause the, the, the 3, 200 GT or whatever was a three 60.

Crew Chief Eric: So again, this is normal, but you know, people forget, and we’re going to talk about this in a minute about who’s linked to who. Maserati, part of Fiat. Ferrari, part of Fiat. They’re all part of one big family, so it’s not uncommon that this stuff happens. Just like everybody goes nuts, I hate to say, about their Cayennes.

I hope you like your Touareg, right? It’s the same vehicle. So this is no shocker to me. It’s very European for them to do this. Is it a cool variant of the 488? Yes. Would I have one? Meh.

Crew Chief Brad: That begs the question though, does [00:19:00] Maserati even need to be in existence? Is there a need for Maserati?

Crew Chief Eric: Our King for a day instead of the Stelvio and all that stuff.

I would have Maserati move into the luxury SUV market so that way Ferrari doesn’t have to build one. They can focus on high end exotics and race cars. Alfa Romeo comparable to maybe Pontiac if you kind of look at it from the GM tree where you started with the Chevy and then you got a Pontiac because it was a sporty one and then you got yourself a Buick and then you got a Cadillac, right?

Fiat needs to kind of structure themselves the same way and say, all right, the Fiat’s the bargain basement eco cars. Alphas, the sports cars, like for the everyday consumer, your M cars and all that kind of stuff, then you move up into your Maseratis and your Ferraris and stuff like that. So, I honestly would see Maserati getting out of the game and just building the SUVs.

Crew Chief Brad: Transitioning from the Maserati, there was another new Supercar hypercar. That was kind of previewed this past [00:20:00] weekend at the Lamar Race, and that’s the Toyota gr Super Sport. This is apparently a, a new hypercar that they’re, I guess, previewing, trying to generate interest and everything for it’s come out before people have seen it before driving around and everything.

This is the first time they’ve seen it with the top off. So clearly it’s gonna be a targa or vert. And not much is known about it. It’s apparently from the pictures, it looks like it’s going to be a very small chassis. Looking at it from the side and the way the, uh, the cabin looks is very reminiscent to me of the Ferrari F50, basically a road going race car, because this is going to share the same motor as the Le Mans winning TS050.

That’s a 2. 4 liter twin turbo V6 with a hybrid, and it’s a thousand horsepower motor. They’re planning to finish production and show it off next year. It’s a hyper car. So it’s going to be priced up there with the McLaren P one, the law Ferraris and the Porsche nine 18s and stuff like that, [00:21:00] personally, if that’s what it’s competing with much like the Lexus LFA, it’s going to fall flat on its face because people aren’t going to spend 750, 000 to a million dollars for a Toyota.

Executive Producer Tania: Seeing it without the top on for the first time is because apparently the two gentlemen they had doing laps in it are like 10 foot tall or the car is the size of a Miata. Yeah,

Crew Chief Brad: they, the only way they pass the broomstick test is because of the hood scoop on the back.

Crew Chief Eric: I think you had Tanya’s interest initially when you said GR for Gazoo Racing because anything with the GR badge, she gets all excited as we know.

Crew Chief Brad: But I’m sorry, I’m not talking about the RS.

Crew Chief Eric: No, no, I’d almost take a Yaris over this because, you know, we talked earlier today, as a matter of fact, about the C8 and how that fits. And it could be cramped for a lot of individuals. You know, some of these new modern hypercars are really small. This literally looks like a radical that they had to take the roof off of.

It is very, very tiny. Good for Toyota. I mean, if they want to compete in a class [00:22:00] where they might actually have competition for a change, and we’ll talk about this more later, this is good entry for next year at Lamont. And so I applaud them for making another car, but as a road going vehicle, I, yeah, I wouldn’t, no, I’m sorry.

Crew Chief Brad: I mean, my only hopes for this is that it, it inspires other auto manufacturers to make more sports cars. I’m happy that Toyota brought the super back, even though it was with a lot of help from BMW. Uh, I’m glad that Nissan is reinventing the Nissan Z. I’m glad Chevy and Corvette reinvented the C8. So I hope this inspires another Lexus supercar like the LFA or something like that.

I don’t know, but I love coupes. I love grand touring coupes too, which this is not. But, uh, so I’m, I’m, I’m excited to see what comes from the competition.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s talk about that. We’ve kind of alluded to the fact that there’s a lot of companies that are conglomerates, right? And there’s a lot of companies that we don’t realize are families or are [00:23:00] part of another group.

And there was an interesting article that came across our desk recently. I thought it was cool to add the visual aid and I won’t go through all of it. It’s on the show notes and it basically shows. Which companies are partnered together in the United States? You know, especially with the whole Stellantis merger going on with the merger between FCA and Peugeot and Citroen and all that, you’re starting to see those labels end up on this chart because there are talks about bringing those cars over here.

I kind of laughed when I saw the Lancia and Opel brands on there because we know they’re never coming back. But it was cool to see that now they’re all part of Stellantis, right? So that’s the biggest family. In that whole chart there. And then obviously you have the GMs, but the big thing coming out of all this is a recent announcement of an alliance between GM and Honda, the proposed alliance includes a shared range of vehicles, and they haven’t disclosed what that is yet, but I have a feeling it has to do with the hybrid market and [00:24:00] things like that, because Chevy.

If you follow them, they’re the last ones here in the hybrid space, they try, you know, we had that like really miserable, uh, hybrid suburban that they tried to put out like 10 years ago. And it didn’t, Oh my

Crew Chief Brad: God, that, that was great. Turd. That was terrible.

Crew Chief Eric: And granted they have the Bolt and the Volt, which are EVs, but they don’t have like a whole hybrid offering.

And you know, they’re really struggling on the compact and subcompact market where Honda continues to thrive, just like Toyota and Volkswagen, etc. So the proposed alliance brings a new range of vehicles. You’re going to be sold distinctly, you know, uh, this happened with, as an example between Toyota and GM a while back with the, with the Matrix and the Vibe, right?

They were the same car, different badge, different grill. So not uncommon for this to happen, but really, It’s a cooperation in purchasing. So it’s a game of strength and numbers. So by Honda and GM combining forces, when they go to go buy parts, and if they’re using similar parts, [00:25:00] it means they can get them at a cheaper rate.

So it’s all about bean counting. It’s all about the bottom dollar. It’s all about, you know, stuff like that. them saving money and maximizing profit. I totally get it. If they’re looking to share research and development and connect services, like, you know, they’ve been alluding to in the article, that’s great news for GM.

I think they need a shot in the arm because if you look at what we talked about, what Ford’s doing, you look at what Chrysler’s doing, they’re out there, they’re sticking their necks out. They’re trying to do something new and different. And GM’s just kind of been plotting along, selling us the same thing for a while.

And actually, They’ve been scuttling a lot of cars. So I think this is good news.

Crew Chief Brad: I just hope that Honda does not adopt GM’s quality control. If they’ve seen the history of what happens with GM and that there’ll be some red flags there.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey, and maybe the Malibu will get an Accord badge and the Suburban will have a pilot badge on the back of it.

Maybe the

Crew Chief Brad: Malibu and the Accord will disappear.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s switch gears. A lot of our listeners might not realize that we [00:26:00] record on Thursdays. And so in honor of throwback Thursday, we’re going to talk about some retro cars that have made news this month. So one of the articles that Brad shared with me was the best handling car of 1984.

It was cool to take a trip down memory lane and read this article and look at the best handling American. And I want to stress that American cars of 1984. So this was devoid of Cars do it basically obliterate anything that was on this list. Like, you know,

Executive Producer Tania: actually handle.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Like a VW rabbit would have killed everything on this list.

Uh, GTI version, mind you. I read the article as you guys did too. You know, it, it, it sings the praises of all these different cars. You had the Fiero, you had the Camaro, you had the Corvette, you had the, from all the major manufacturers. And if we look at them with today’s goggles on, they’re all flaming dumpster fires.

Every one of them is terrible. However, if you put your rose colored beer goggles on and you [00:27:00] read this for what it is, the test was done at Willow Springs. It was very thorough, you know, lots of good things. I found it really interesting that every car. In the test was a manual because you don’t see that anymore.

And a lot of road tests, it was nice to see a bake off between cars. Again, you don’t see these kinds of articles anymore on, on a big scale like this,

Crew Chief Brad: I thought the Camaro was an automatic.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I was getting to that. Yes. The only car on the list was with an automatic was a Camaro and that was pretty surprising.

And you might also be surprised to find that the Camaro one out of all the cars. It beat out the Corvette and a lot of it had to do with basically the points that were scored in the categories that were scored in. And so that had to do with, you know, ease of use, handling, road feel, noise, you know, all these kinds of things.

And so the Camaro being this big compromise car beat out the Daytona Turbo Z and the Corvette. Which were much better cars, performance wise, [00:28:00] because of all the other categories that it scored in. I mean, it beat out the Fox Body Mustang, you know, a bunch of other stuff. So,

Executive Producer Tania: kind of interesting. And what it didn’t get scored on, which it would have lost, is interior styling.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh God.

Executive Producer Tania: What, why is the word Camaro on every, like it’s, there’s literally 11 Camaros written on the driver’s seat. And then on the passenger seat, and then there’s three on the door. And I think there’s more in the backseat, but you can’t see. I mean, did we not know what car we were in?

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, if we’re talking the eighties, cause if you look at the stuff that Germany was pumping out with their blue jean interiors and checkerboard and pumpkin, it was all, terrible.

Executive Producer Tania: Give me the plaid. Why are you writing Camaro 18 times on the seat I’m sitting on?

Crew Chief Brad: I think that was the owner that did that. And that’s Sharpie.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh,

Crew Chief Brad: It’s on the doorsill, on the seats, on the hood, on the back. It’s big list. But this is not a, this is not a, a strange concept [00:29:00] because BMW does this today with all their M badges.

Even cars that are not M’S get INM badges directly from the factory

Executive Producer Tania: question. ’cause the five cars. Chevy Camaro Z28, Corvette, Dodge Daytona Turbo Z, the Ford Mustang SVO, and the Pontiac Fiero 2M4. If you could have one of these cars for the weekend, which one would you choose? Oh, dang. And you’re going to do laps somewhere with it.

Crew Chief Brad: I Targa Top off the Corvette. And we rollin deep, son.

Executive Producer Tania: Mmm,

Crew Chief Eric: Fiero. I gotta go Fiero.

Crew Chief Brad: What about you, Tanya?

Executive Producer Tania: Uh, you know, the list, this list is, whew. But, I’m gonna go with the Dodge Daytona. Because I

Crew Chief Brad: You like turbos.

Executive Producer Tania: I used to have a little Matchbox car. Which I believe is in Eric’s collection. So just on that fact alone, I’m going with the Dodge Daytona.[00:30:00]

Crew Chief Brad: But if I’m doing laps, I want the Corvette with that super stellar skid pad figure of 0. 86 Gs.

Crew Chief Eric: Talking about the past, another article that came across our desk was 18 classic dream cars that we all love that are actually nightmares to own. Now, this is automotive clickbait at its best. So as you dive into this, there’s all sorts of cars that probably have been on your wall as a kid or whatnot, and there’s some on there that I have to say, I would never want to own, but there are a few that do stand out.

I think there is

Executive Producer Tania: one in particular on this list that a member of ours might be offended by this. But from what I understand by listening to stories, I’m thinking that FBRX7 is probably a nightmare to own.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, to your point, Tanya. I mean, the RX 7, I think there would be a few folks upset about that, but there’s a bunch of other cars on this list.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, the Spitfire probably was [00:31:00] atrocious. Those things never ran correctly, right?

Crew Chief Eric: Not from the day they came off the assembly line, but, you know, that’s a typical British thing. So, I mean, there are a bunch of British cars. on this list, and unfortunately and regrettably for a lot of people, the E Type did land on this list.

Now, I have to agree with John Wade, he said this on another episode, the E Type is more of a national treasure than it is an automobile anymore. It’s a historical piece, it’s a beautiful car, it’s a piece of art, maintaining one of those. I agree with that, you know, there’s a few others on the list, the Lamborghini Miura, uh, the Ferrari 308, you know, some other stuff on there.

Executive Producer Tania: I take my issue with this article. I mean, there’s plenty of cars on this article that I actually would be interested in. However, The clickbait part I think comes in. It’s like, okay, the Pantera is on this list. Yes, please. I would like to drive one of those around. And all it says is, like the Jensen, the Pantera used an American engine.

The thing is, 70s Italian engineering wasn’t much better than British engineering, [00:32:00] meaning build quality wasn’t the best on early cars. Still, it’s a stunner. Okay, so, that doesn’t actually tell me why it’s a nightmare. You’re just stereotyping that British cars and Italian cars back then sucked. I mean, we could argue in the year 2020 that all cars from the 70s sucked and are a nightmare to own compared to today’s standards.

I mean, give me a little bit more. Tell me about how you drive it down the road and, I don’t know, it catches on fire or shuts off every 30 miles or something.

Crew Chief Brad: I have to say, though, how is the Porsche 924 Turbo a dream car?

Crew Chief Eric: Ha ha, you noticed that, huh?

Crew Chief Brad: It’s the first one on the list. Now, I will say that I love the 924.

I like the clean lines as compared to the 944. But how is the 924 Turbo considered a dream car on this list of instant classics?

Crew Chief Eric: You could easily replace the 924 Turbo with the 934. 44 turbo, which is a car that is sought after and is a nightmare to maintain.

Crew Chief Brad: All [00:33:00] right, so looking at this list, which car on this list would you love to go bankrupt owning?

Crew Chief Eric: 308, please. It’s a simple one for me, Alfa GTV6. They’re all Italian. Hmm. Fancy that. Go figure. So what’s next? Up next, the iconic Volvo P1800 is reborn as a continuation special with 401. 14 horsepower.

Crew Chief Brad: Isn’t this a Chinese car now?

Crew Chief Eric: Uh, technically yes. According to our chart. Yes. It would be owned by Gigli.

This is a weird looking car. You could say that. So it’s reminiscent of the era, right? So the P 1800 is most famous for being driven by Simon Templar, who is the fictional character, the main star of the television show, the saint, which was redone as a movie. in 1997 starring val kilmer who then debuted [00:34:00] the c70 volvo which was supposed to be the successor as the two door coupe volvo so the p1800 has a sweet spot for a lot of people in the retro world it is a good looking car at first glance you’re right it doesn’t look like A Volvo, it looks like something else from the air, something Italian, you know, something German, like a Karmann Ghia, et cetera, gorgeous car.

I mean, if you consider it for what it is, it was actually a really good performer back then, lots of, you know, racing history, et cetera. And I like the fact that the P1800 is, we’re going to put quotes around this coming back because it’s right in line with the Eagle Jags, right? The replica E types it’s right in line with the singer, uh, Porsche 911s, right?

All these classic cars that are getting completely updated but keeping their original lines. I’ve been saying forever, I don’t understand why we can’t bring back old designs, modernize them, make them safer, and have awesome cars. So, you know, the difference between the old P1800, which made, you know, barely [00:35:00] triple digits in terms of horsepower, We’ve got the same body lines might not be the exact same dimension slightly larger because modern times because of safety equipment, etc But to put 400 horsepower in a car like that rear wheel drive again a two door coupe very stylish.

Good job

Crew Chief Brad: I think it’s probably too much of a handful to drive though I would think maybe 250 horsepower would be the sweet spot so I can imagine it’s not a very heavy car though

Executive Producer Tania: According to this it’s 990 Kilos. So that’s 21 almost 2200 pounds.

Crew Chief Brad: Okay. So 2200 pounds. It’s a

Crew Chief Eric: rocket ship.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s, it’s a handful and you’re not going to be able to get any traction,

Crew Chief Eric: but we have launch control and we have really smart computers and we have all this technology and automatic flappy paddle transmissions.

That thing’s a missile.

Executive Producer Tania: The problem is, what, this is like a, I mean, this is a resto mod, right? I mean, it’s, it’s very much probably dimensionally the same as the original one. I mean, it, it [00:36:00] looks lines wise, very much so. And I mean, these are going to be one offs. I love the idea of bring back the retro modernized cars of yesteryear and make them safe, but you know what that requires in today’s day and age, it requires 15 airbags.

And 15 airbags take up a lot of room in, in a pillars and whatnot. And it’s like, I don’t think this car. It’s street legal in the sense of, I’m sure for historic whatever, you can get away with it, but if you’re mass producing this again like this, it would end up being some bloated, wallowing, huge thing, because you gotta fit the airbag in the seat, and in the roof, and under your butt, and on the floor pedals, and here, and there, and, and then this, that, and the other, and the bumpers need to be this, and that, and, ugh.

I hate

Crew Chief Eric: to continue to go back to Chrysler. If you want to see it done right, there’s one word. Challenger. Yes, it is dimensionally larger than the original, but it maintains the spirit, the lines and the look of the original.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, the thing with, with American [00:37:00] cars is they’ve always been huge. So you make another huge American car.

It’s kind of like, okay, big deal. But you take a European car. There was always felt and then you try to make it adhere to all the modern regulations and this and the other. I don’t know that that Volvo would still be that size. I mean, you have the Mazda Miata. That’s a teeny car. So sure. I mean, I guess it’s everything, anything’s possible, right?

Crew Chief Eric: Very true. So let’s, let’s stop talking about old stuff. Nobody cares about old cars anymore. Now it’s time to. get into our newest section, and crack open a can of Jolt Cola, where we cover electric car news. And over to Tanya.

Executive Producer Tania: Staying in theme with some of the earlier industry news and partnerships, there was an announcement earlier this month about GM partnering with Nikola, which they’re the folks that have been touting their hydrogen fuel cell cars and this, that, and the other, and they’re going to have the, you know, first hydrogen semi, and they’re [00:38:00] going to come out with the Badger.

Uh, electric truck or hybrid hydrogen electric truck. They’ve recently partnered. What that means is their GM took a, an 11 percent stake in Nikola. And from Nikola’s end, that’s awesome to be partnered with a major manufacturer because you are getting, So much in return, because obviously GM has been around the block.

So they have all the technical capability in terms of manufacturing cars and the, and, and the supply chains and all that they can bring that to the table very easily. Whereas Nikola can now bring technology that GM isn’t familiar with. There’s a good opportunity for an interesting development. to come about.

So that’s exciting. They have said to that end, you know, they’re partners now, so there will be help around that electric truck, the Badger, which is apparently going to be some 900 horsepower beast. The Badger is more pickup truck looking. What we tend to think of when we think of a pickup truck, it doesn’t look [00:39:00] like it came from GoldenEye N64, unlike the Cybertruck.

So I don’t find it hateful looking in terms of pickup trucks, but I’m also not a pickup truck connoisseur. So I think it’ll be interesting to see how it develops. Unfortunately, two days later, after that announcement, there was another announcement that Trevor Milton, who’s been the CEO of Nikola, just stepped down, he, and I guess the company are fighting fraud allocations.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: bad boy.

Executive Producer Tania: Womp womp womp. Dirty

Crew Chief Eric: money.

Executive Producer Tania: And so what they’re saying is. You know, he stepped down as the chairman after a short seller has accused Milton and Nicola of misleading investors and overstating the value of a business deal. Based on that, he’s basically stepped down to, I think, fight that separately from the company and pull away and not detract from what the company is doing.

And part of those allegations also mentioned Milton presenting a prototype truck as being [00:40:00] closer to market than it was. And I’m wondering if that’s probably the Badger because that’s been in the news and in talks for a while now. And I thought I remembered some news about that, that they were close, that they were close to, you know, getting that out.

And obviously we haven’t seen it yet. So, so I have

Crew Chief Eric: one question. It’s very important. Ford has the Raptor and Chrysler has the Hellcat and Chevy has the SS. Does Nicola have the honey,

Executive Producer Tania: the honey badger?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: There you go.

Crew Chief Brad: What I want to know is when is GM going to pull out of this deal given the fraud allegations and how are the lawyers and everybody going to try to renegotiate the deal at a much more favorable cost to GM?

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I think this, this is similar to the RIMAC conversation, right? At 11 percent they’re not controlling. And it’s something they can probably walk away from. And I’m not saying that’s easy because, you know, we’re, we’re almost talking about this, like it’s [00:41:00] monopoly money. Porsche is going the other way with, with Bugatti and Rimac, where they’re trying to invest more.

They’re, they’re deepening their investment GM at 11%. I mean, they can take a loss, right? I hate to say it that way, but if it goes belly up, maybe who knows, maybe they end up buying out the technology, at least the patents or something. Cause sometimes company mergers aren’t necessarily about what’s produced.

It’s about what’s sitting in the patent office that they want to get, you know, control that too. So,

Crew Chief Brad: and I think this is all about, as you touched on the technology, um, because GM has been so slow to market with anything electric. I mean, they have to do something. This is almost like a Hail Mary pass for them.

So what’s, uh, what is Ford doing?

Executive Producer Tania: So Ford, you know, they’re not being left behind in this electric car race. Obviously we’ve, you know, they’ve got the Mach E that’s coming out and it’s going to be the next one out. And they’ve been talking about their electric Ford F 150. And that became a whole big thing.

Once the Cybertruck got announced, there was all [00:42:00] the comparisons against the gas F 150 and, and this, that, and the other. And, you know, they mentioned that they were working on, on the electric Ford, and my understanding is, you I do think they have a prototype and they’ve actually been putting it through a bunch of rigorous tests and mileage abuse and all that.

They’re definitely serious because they’re going to set up their Rouge plant out in Detroit to build the electric car. Ford F 150 700 million plant that they are in the works to get up and running. And it’s going to be the 2021 F 150. So I don’t know how late in the year that is. We’re obviously getting close to that.

You know, what exactly. The F 150 is going to bring versus the Cybertruck. I mean, they’re, they’re staying to their Ford built tough, built strong, whatever their motto is that they always say, this is, you know, this is the truck. Even though it’s electric, it’s still going to be the truck. That’s for a person who needs a truck, who knows how to use a truck, who gets down and dirty with their truck, not [00:43:00] just.

glorified garage queen and I’d like to drive trucks around not doing anything. They’re keeping that stance. They want to make a, build a workhorse that’s electric.

Crew Chief Eric: Will it have normal windshield wipers?

Executive Producer Tania: Uh, you know, if this photo is of the actual E 150, yes, it has windshield wipers and it has, I think, side mirrors.

Crew Chief Eric: So do we have any numbers yet on the F 150 in terms of. Range, cause that’s always important. I mean, I’d be interested in an electric F 150 if I could tow to the track with it, right? That’s always another thing too. So we have any numbers there yet, or is that still to be determined?

Executive Producer Tania: No, I don’t think so.

Cause this, um, this article out of Detroit, it’s all very vague that, you know, it will be the fastest F 150 ever. It will be the most powerful. This, that, and the other, it’s not going into any specifics yet. I mean, if they’re still doing testing, they probably don’t want to declare anything yet. That’s a numbers aren’t that good and they can rework things.

They’re going to want to wait.

Crew Chief Brad: And I do find it interesting that while Ford is opening plants, Chevy was closing [00:44:00] plants. Wasn’t it late last year or over the summer last year that they were in fights with even the U S and Canadian governments because they were trying to close plants. And here Ford is.

opening a 700 million dollar plant.

Crew Chief Eric: Again, good for them, right? I mean, pushing the envelope, I can’t say enough good things about that. Something’s got to happen. So speaking of mileage and range,

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, do you guys ever just feel a little bit overwhelmed with all this electric, like the range, the mileage and efficiency and all that stuff?

I mean, it’s something we all got to get used to. Gasoline, diesel, it’s very, it’s very simple to understand. You got this volume of liquid in it. Get you this far down the road and I think it’s a little more challenging for some people to wrap their heads around the whole electric movement because you can’t see electricity, right?

I mean, if you’re seeing electricity, shit’s gone wrong. Um, but, um,

Crew Chief Eric: consult your nearest physician. If you can see electricity.

Executive Producer Tania: You might be a

Crew Chief Eric: meta [00:45:00] human.

Executive Producer Tania: And you probably aren’t seeing it for very long if you’re seeing it. But yeah, so there was actually, um, Polestar. So that’s Volvo’s brand, one of Volvo’s line of cars.

And um, they’re, the Polestar is going to be, they’re coming out with an EV Polestar. And they commissioned a study because they wanted to do a little comparison against Their competitors around, you know, how far can we go? They wanted to compare themselves against a Tesla model three performance, the Jaguar I Pace and the Audi e tron.

The test procedure conducted back in July, actually, but you know, the guy gather all the data and write the reports and everything, but they did it on a three mile oval at Fowlerville Proving Ground in Michigan. Pretty straightforward test. The cars were going to be driven slowly from the staging and charging area to the oval, and they were going to be at 100 percent charge.

Once they got to the oval, they were going to be gently accelerated. Apparently at 0. 3 G to a [00:46:00] GPS verified 70 miles an hour, at which point they’d be put into cruise control and they would all run spaced out from each other in the same lane at the test track, and they would keep running each car until it could no longer maintain a speed of 70 miles an hour due to battery depletion.

So pretty simple test.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s fair.

Executive Producer Tania: And there was a couple other things like they had to have their headlights on because that was. Test track rules. And, um, I think they ran the air condition all, all of them. They had them all set to the same temperature on the inside that, that this, you know, things like that, not a real world stop and go going up hills.

It’s the middle of winter test, but I mean, it’s an interesting test. Everything is, seems fairly on an even plane. The results, I guess, not maybe shocking is the Tesla actually went the furthest. So it was able to do 234 miles. Which is apparently 75 percent of its stated range. The Polestar came in second.

So it did 205 miles, which was 82 percent of its [00:47:00] range. And the Jaguar came in at 188 miles, which was 80 percent of its range. And the Audi was pretty much spot on with the Jaguar at 187 miles at 92 percent of its range. So. The percent of its range thing, I mean, I mean, it’s an indicator. That’s great.

That’s more how much sandbagging is kind of going on or over optimism with what your range numbers are. I think it’s more interesting when you look at the cars in terms of kind of miles per kilowatt hour that they do.

Crew Chief Brad: A different or a better test of this would have been if you wanted to incorporate The percent of Officially rated range, you have them all run the same distance and then calculate the percentage.

Executive Producer Tania: So what’s interesting is apparently the Audi Died on track It didn’t have um, because because there’s a set point none of the evs actually let the batteries fully discharge Also as soon as their the capacity started [00:48:00] being diminished that it was more Strain on the battery to achieve the 70 miles an hour.

It basically came in Apparently, I don’t know what happened with the Audi. We’re just like done. Audi

Crew Chief Brad: electronics. That’s what happened to the Audi.

Executive Producer Tania: The other three cars, you know, pitted back in and apparently unfortunately makes me sad. I don’t know. Maybe something happened there, but, uh, yeah, I don’t know.

It’s just. And then the EPA ratings, it’s, there’s a lot of different ways that they measure it and there’s different standards and testing and everyone comes up with different numbers. And depending on the test method, you get different numbers of approved ranges. So, I mean, this was all done on apples, apples.

So based on the same EPA rating, so at least that’s good, but I don’t know what the best way is. I think the interesting thing is when you take the range. So if, you know, the Tesla, they say you can do 312 miles of range and it the 75 kilowatt hour battery pack in it, well that means you’re able to go 4. 2 miles per kilowatt hour.

That’s [00:49:00] actually really good because when you look at a lot of different EVs out there, 4. x mile per kilowatt hours is really high. So they’re definitely at the top of the leaderboard in terms of that. But we’re going to talk about the Fiat 500E in a little bit and not to spoil, but the new 500E, which only has a range of 199 miles.

And you go, what a, Oh my God, it’s doing that off of 42 kilowatt hour battery pack, which means it’s doing 4. 7 miles per kilowatt hour. So it’s actually doing better.

Crew Chief Brad: Give it to the Italians.

Executive Producer Tania: But the problem is when you look at these things, right. And that’s what we’re used to too. It’s like, I don’t, do I care as much if it’s 4.

2 or 3. 9? I want to be able to go 350 miles without wondering where the electric charge station is. I mean, at, at the point we are right now, this early in development of electric cars and infrastructure, I mean, that’s always tending to be the guiding conversation as well. What’s my total range. It’s like.

I don’t [00:50:00] know if that’s the whole story. And maybe as things evolve, that’ll become less important because if charging stations are a dime a dozen, like gas stations, well, then. Wouldn’t I want the 500E that gets 4. 7 miles to the kilowatt hour?

Crew Chief Eric: No, I want to drive 350 miles without stopping. I mean, that’s the whole annoyance is your trip becomes that much longer.

So the, the less I can go, the more times I have to stop, but granted the bigger battery means it takes longer to charge. So you’re going to eat it up one way or the other. It all comes out in the wash.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, and it depends what you’re using your car for too. If you’re constantly doing long road trips. Okay, that’s one thing.

If you’re commuting to work and the infrastructure becomes such that you go to your office and there’s a charging station there because a lot of office places and even grocery stores and, you know, Target parking lot, there’s now electric charging stations as the first couple, you know, parking spaces in the lot.

Well, does it matter if I’m daily commuting with my car and I don’t need to go 350 miles when my office is 12 [00:51:00] miles away or 30 miles away. I plug it in when I get to work.

Crew Chief Eric: Okay. Well, there’s that. And you have to realize too. And, and I think this is the, this is the problem with the European offerings is they still think in a European way and cater to a European market.

Because with your analogy, you’re a hundred percent correct. Oh, well, it’s three miles to work and

Executive Producer Tania: back. I’ll

Crew Chief Eric: charge it.

Executive Producer Tania: Electric makes sense because everything is so close. I mean, correct. 200 mile range, you’re going places.

Crew Chief Eric: Right. But in America, Where we are very car heavy and very, very big range is super important because let me put it to you this way, my rolling cold diesel, I can make it to Watkins Glen from my house without stopping and I’ll have fuel left over.

So I look at the range and go, I can make it there. Towing the car with no problem or I can make it to wherever I have an effective range of x and that gets me six hours, eight hours, 10 hours away or whatever it is. I [00:52:00] don’t want to be interrupted. Yeah. I need five minutes to grab a burger and go to the bathroom, but I don’t want to be sitting there taking a week to take a trip that would normally take me six hours.

Right. And that’s the bigger problem we have.

Crew Chief Brad: And I think that’s. That’s, that’s the test that we need to see when these trucks, the F 150 and the cyber truck and whatever GM and, and, uh, you know, Nikola are going to come out with. We need to see a test similar to this with them pulling a load up a grade.

How long is the battery going to last? How many battery charging stations are they going to put between here and national Corvette museum for example, or, or barber or road Atlanta is easy because you go up and down 95. But some of these other more obscure routes that we take to get to some of these racetracks I mean, how many are going to be up route 15?

I guess that’s a major trucking route. Uh, 81 definitely is. So going to Rhode Atlanta, you know, that would be fine, but unless it’s a major route, you’re not going to find a charging [00:53:00] station. And then what are you going to sit in line with all the model threes and everything, and how are you going to pull your trailer in?

Cause all of the charging stations I’ve seen you back into a parking spot. You can’t back into a parking spot with a 16 foot trailer behind you.

Executive Producer Tania: Right. I mean, the problem is. This is conversation that’s saying that where we are today is where the future is going to be. No, be real. You know what? As more and more governments and countries ban gasoline and diesel engines, guess what?

It’s going to move it to electric and it’s going to move the infrastructure there, which means maybe not in the next five years. In the next 10 years, the next 15 years, it’s going to happen, but eventually the system is going to be there and it’s going to be like we have gasoline, but it’s growing pains right now.

So you can’t expect like a light switch that suddenly we have 500 mile range, electric vehicle, and there’s a charging station every 30 feet. And in 10 seconds, my electric vehicle recharges. That’s

Crew Chief Eric: since we’re talking about this, I want to use the E 150. We’re going to call it not to be confused with the old Econo line, uh, E series Fords, [00:54:00] the E 150 pickup truck.

There’s no excuse for that thing, not to have a thousand mile range, because when I eliminate that V8 from under the hood, those electric power plants do not take up a lot of space. If you’ve actually seen how big they are, they’re tiny. So that front end engine compartment, if they’re keeping the body of the F one 50, the same in the electric version, you should be able to put batteries up there that.

Probably way the same as the V8 to keep everything proportional and to have that counterbalance, but should give you range from from here to Alabama and back. I mean, they’re making

Crew Chief Brad: it a frunk. So they’re going to have an oversized frunk. That’s a waste there.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s a waste.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t I don’t I think things will evolve.

I forget which car it was. That’s out now or that’s going to be produced now, but it’s one of the EVs. And they talked about being able to swap in and out battery packs. Well, guess what? If I can, if I can carry an extra 42 kilowatt pack in my new 500 electric and I swap it in in three seconds, guess what?

Oh, [00:55:00] I just went 400 miles.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, but it better be the size of our IOBE battery pack. I mean, where are you going to store this stuff? I mean, that’s, that’s crazy talk. I mean, again,

Executive Producer Tania: I got a frunk that I can put it in.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Yeah. So why isn’t it a battery that’s just there and is available to me? I don’t

Executive Producer Tania: know the answer to that.

Cause I mean, I,

Crew Chief Eric: I understand that. I understand that technology cause it comes from formula E. because they got away from having to put drivers in different cars to having the swappable battery packs. So it makes complete sense. I get it. It’s, but it’s no different than my cordless DeWalt, but I don’t want to be carrying around a battery.

That’s the size of my car to have a spare battery. You can’t, it doesn’t make sense, whatever. I mean, again, we’re evolving and every month we see something new, we see something different. That’s why we have this segment of the show and it’s exciting. So

Crew Chief Brad: now what they could do. Is they could build batteries into the trailers or have a way where you can have the battery in the trailer and the charge can come, uh, there’s 2 charging cables.

So, 1, [00:56:00] 1 cable on the trailer plugs into the lights and everything else for the rest of the truck. And you have another cable that plugs into a charging port on the back of the truck. So you can charge it, you know, when you need to, I mean, that’s a, that’s another thing they could do, I guess. And then you’re selling trucks and trailers

Crew Chief Eric: where you’re harping on the trailer aspect of it, but I’m, I’m still looking at from the consumer perspective, right.

And, and, and all the points you made are still valid, even if you had, and I look at it, let’s say, Hey, you bought an E one 50, you got to back it into that spot. You had to do all those things. I mean, and right now, yes, there are charging stations at your local target or Walgreens or whatever, but there’s two of them or three of them.

Executive Producer Tania: You’re acting like there’s going to be two for the next hundred years, and that’s not reality. Okay, one day, if you’re truly going to change everyone to be fully electric, that means every parking space in the target parking lot is going to have an electric power thing. So don’t act like, oh, this will never work because there’s two charging stations today.

Crew Chief Eric: We, we also live in this, this, in this idyllic mentality that we can [00:57:00] all of a sudden just rip up the target parking lot and put 220 volt power lines going to every one of those parking spots that are only eight feet apart from each other. So when you multiply that out and you start multiplying out the grid that needs to be put into underneath the asphalt and the amount of power that now.

Target is on the hook to deliver and all that. I mean, that’s crazy.

Executive Producer Tania: Reality is it was an exaggeration. The reality is you don’t need a charging station, every single parking spot in the target parking lot. I mean, let’s, let’s live in a real world. Well,

Crew Chief Brad: I, I will say that Eric, you mentioned that I keep bringing up the trailering.

That’s the one holdback that’s keeping me from considering. Uh, if it wasn’t for having to trailer and who knows, maybe I won’t be doing that in the future. I don’t know. I would 100 percent consider any of these electric cars because the range I think is fine. You can find the charging places. Yes. Right now it’s a, it’s inconvenient, but that’s the price you pay to be an early adopter.

And to [00:58:00] Tanya’s point, yes, this is not going to be the norm forever. We have to get. Past these growing pains, I’m sure there were issues with the internal combustion engine, then finding fuel and everything long back when in the early 1900s. So it’s the same, similar thing. I think if it wasn’t for the trailer, I would be all for these lectures.

I would have a Mach E hands down.

Executive Producer Tania: We’re witness to a huge evolution and the Mach E for America is another evolution. You know, Ford’s Mach E that’s going to come out here soon. Uh, there is Ford of Europe and Ford of Norway. And apparently the CEO over there decided one day he wanted to test the range of a Mach E.

And went from Oslo to Trondheim, Norway on a, on a little jaunt of 301 miles. And when he got to his destination, the infotainment panel said that the car still had 14 percent charge left. So that’s [00:59:00] pretty good range and the car is ranged at 300 miles. So it exceeded what Ford is saying the range of the Mach E is, and there was still capacity left on the battery to go further.

So when you do a bit of math back and forth, the range should be about 350 miles. That beats just about three out of the four Teslas right now. So the thing with the test is it wasn’t really a sanctioned test by any means. So like, there’s really no, you have to take it with a bit of a grain of salt because we don’t really know the conditions, what the weather was like that day.

Is this guy a, you know, a hyper miler and he’s just really good at, you know, eking out every little thing. He did it at midnight and there was absolutely no one else on the road. Like what speeds was he doing? I mean, I’m assuming Norway has hills, so I’m sure there was, it wasn’t, you know, like driving through Texas dead flat or anything.

So nonetheless, it’s real world conditions. And if he really, truly on a full charge went 301 [01:00:00] miles, he beat what Ford is saying is advertising on their website right now, saying that their range is 300, which means normally, you know, stated range of this, and they always do lower than that. So there’s something going on here that maybe they’ve taken a very conservative approach to their ranging.

And. If that’s the case, what I find interesting is watch out Tesla. They’re knocking on your door.

Crew Chief Brad: And we’ve been saying this all along. Eric definitely gets on his soapbox about this. It was only a matter of time before the other major manufacturers caught up and surpassed Tesla. And Eric still holds the position that Tesla will be absorbed.

Or defunct, you know, in the near future, because as these manufacturers with all this infrastructure get ramped up and catch up and surpass, Tesla’s not going to have anything to do.

Executive Producer Tania: And now following on with your, is Tesla still dominating? Registration numbers, so sales of cars in Europe is indicating Tesla is not in the top 10 at [01:01:00] all.

Interesting.

Executive Producer Tania: Selling EVs right now. You know, Tesla doesn’t exist. And you have at the top. Is the Renault Zoe. So it is the number one selling ev, and what I didn’t realize is actually the Zoe’s been around for a while. Next comes the Hyundai Kona, the VW E Golf, the Kia Niro, the PEO 2 0 8, the Nissan Leaf, the VW up, the Audi E-Tron, the Smart for two, and the BMWI three.

Closes out the top 10 list. So that’s pretty interesting. And to your point just now, Brad is like, yeah, it didn’t, you know, Tesla had it from the beginning, but everyone’s kind of said the same thing. It’s like, it’s not going to take the majors very long to catch up because they have all that infrastructure in place to build the cars.

I mean, they can just retrofit retrofit platforms. Now, a lot of them are starting to completely redesign platforms from the ground up specifically for their electric models. Yeah. And it’s a

Crew Chief Eric: good opportunity for the majors to scrap some cars like [01:02:00] Brad said earlier, like these 400 year old Mercedes platforms that have been around just for up since dinosaurs were new.

It’s like it’s time to scrap them. And if you’re in the middle of scrapping and redoing. It makes sense. Let’s just make him an EV,

Crew Chief Brad: but not only can they build cars that compete with Tesla and surpass Tesla, their build quality is significantly better. We’ve heard time and time again, issues and reviews about the Tesla’s terrible build quality.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. We’ll comment on that a little bit later, but part of this. News is also that in general, EV registrations have increased pretty dramatically over the last year. July 2019, there was 8 percent of the vehicles being sold were electric. And July of this year, it’s up to 18%. So there’s definitely a shift happening across Europe and granted, a lot of that probably has to do with major city centers saying, Nope, you can’t come here with your gasoline and diesel engines, um, and just general bands and plans to [01:03:00] phase out ice cars.

So, interesting news.

Crew Chief Brad: And I will say, If that is foretelling of what’s happening in the future, please run out and buy your ICE sports car now because you will not be able to in 10 years.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s

Crew Chief Eric: very true.

Executive Producer Tania: You know what this also article makes me a little sad because it just, it’s like, Everything is in Europe.

Like, how many choices there are? I mean, that was just ten choices. There’s, I think, 38 different models of various electric cars currently that you can get, not including ones that are in the works, you know, to be built and whatnot. It’s like, I feel like over here, it’s, you know, Tesla or Tesla or my choices, and it’s, or, you know, the Prius it’s interesting that I feel like we are not hearing how Renault and Peugeot and, and all these other manufacturers have all these electric cars out.

We don’t hear that on this side of the.

Crew Chief Eric: Once Stellantis takes root, we are going to hear about it because that’s a massive merger there. And I think that’s going to really put a shot in the arm in the American [01:04:00] EV market. But on top of that, we recently saw some photos through a member of GTM that showed us the VW ID4, you know, we talk a lot about the Mustang Mach E and it has to be, you know, in our opinion, at least probably one of the best looking EVs on the market right now.

It’s cool. It’s got that shooting brake design. It’s attractive in person. But when I saw the Volkswagen and I am a diehard Volkswagen guy, I can’t not admit that. It’s very similar. And then I, for a second there, I went, well, I’d almost rather have the Volkswagen, you know, I don’t even know the numbers right now, the ID4.

I

Executive Producer Tania: mean, I don’t dislike the way the ID4 looks. It’s, it’s, uh, maybe a little more bubbly than we’re used to. to seeing, and that’s, that’s a strong word to say, but it was a little more rounded than when we’re used to seeing the new GTI is engulfed in a very angular in their headlights and all that. And, you know, this one’s not like that.

And I kind of like it, but in terms of numbers, I mean, I forget how much it [01:05:00] costs. I think it was a little bit on maybe on what we would consider on the expensive side. And I would say in terms of its range capability, it’s probably a middle pack EV. It’s not up there with, you know, the miles per kilowatt hour of the Tesla, but it’s not at the bottom, like the Jaguar I Pace or something like that.

Crew Chief Brad: I was just going to say, I think to Tanya’s point about how there are so many over in Europe, the few that they have brought here, like the e golf and the The Nissan LEAF and things like that, I think they just, they were not welcomed into the American market. Nobody bought them. Nobody cares. And it has to do with our emissions and our administration and the, you know, the government regulations and things like that.

That just are not forcing people to change. But I’m actually looking forward to seeing more electrics come on the market just because it’s something different.

Executive Producer Tania: Speaking of best selling cars and whatnot, Porsche has the Tecan, which is their electric [01:06:00] model, and it is the best selling Porsche in Europe right now.

Crew Chief Eric: It is a good looking car, I gotta give it that.

Executive Producer Tania: So in fairness, though, you need to say that if you group the Cayenne and its baby brother, the Cayenne Coupe, together, and you’re calling those all SUVs, the Porsche SUV is the best selling. The biggest selling Porsche in Europe, but they actually had a table that broke down specifically by model.

And so by differentiated model, the Taycan is the number one, like by pretty fair margin. I mean, number two is the 911. So, and, uh, the Macan actually is going to be getting, uh, an EV sibling, um, in the future. I think that one’s still two years out though.

Crew Chief Brad: God, I wish I was in the market for some of these cars.

I wish I was in the market for a, for a Mach E. I would buy that the day it came out if I was in the market for something like that.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s got my attention, that’s for sure. So what else is going on in this electrified world of ours?

Executive Producer Tania: So we did mention the 500E earlier, and there’s already a [01:07:00] 500E that’s available right now, but there’s going to be the new 500E.

And I’m not just saying like, Oh, it’s new. Like new as in the new Beetle, the new 500. I think they’re branding it now as the Fiat new 500 electric. Mentioning earlier about how a lot of folks are now starting to develop EV specific platforms for their EVs. This now is no longer, I guess. Assuming the current one is probably just a regular Fiat 500 ice that’s been retrofitted for electric.

They’ve actually redone the platform specifically for the batteries and whatnot and to that end getting dimensionally a little bit bigger. Brad, don’t get excited because it’s only a whopping six centimeters wider and longer.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s that is enough. That is enough room. Does, do I get six centimeters in roof height?

That’s what I want to know.

Executive Producer Tania: No, I was, I was curious about that, but I didn’t see that mentioned. They did say it’s not that great if you got backseat passengers, which it’s like, yeah, okay. I mean, none of the Fiat [01:08:00] 500s were ever great. If you needed to put someone in the backseat, I mean, it’s not that great.

Or

Crew Chief Eric: in the front seat if you’re six foot eight and listen to, uh, this, this month’s, uh, big man, little car episode.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, you know, if you’re a normal sized, well, well, average size.

Crew Chief Brad: Italian.

Executive Producer Tania: Stereotypical normal person, the Fiat 500s. It was great. I mean, for me, you know, five foot six or seven, I mean, there was plenty of room in it.

Crew Chief Brad: If I was Tanya’s size, I’d drive in a bar three.

Crew Chief Eric: I know, right? But for the anti metric people out there, six centimeters is just over two inches. So that’s significant for a Fiat 500 if you think about its size. It’s a 500L now. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. It’s probably more along the lines of the 500L.

Executive Producer Tania: In terms of its, its range, I mentioned it earlier that it’s only going to have a You know, 199 mile range, which is actually higher over double what the current 500 E can do. So they’ve done a significant upgrade in terms of their range capability. And that’s all done with a pretty small battery pack. It [01:09:00] seems I only see any of these people increasing range, increasing capacity out of their batteries, right?

Especially as technology evolves. But the interesting thing is, you know, as they’re retweaking it, they mentioned in terms of styling, they’re definitely trying to, already the Fiat 500 was a retro redesign, right? It very much looks like, it’s very reminiscent of the original one. Well, this one is going to take even more cues off the original one, which it can do because if they’re redesigning it from the ground up.

The original had the engine in the back, so you don’t have to worry about all that front end cooling airflow stuff, right? They can make the front end look, you know, a little bit more reminiscent of the original, which is what they’re going to do, and they said there were some other accents and features, and even in the interior was going to be more reminiscent of the original 500.

So I think that’s kind of exciting, just because the 500’s an icon, whatever the mileage it gets. It’s a fun, great little car, so I’m excited to see it, and hopefully, we should get it, hopefully.

Crew Chief Eric: So if they do an electric panda, will it be called the Pandy?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t care [01:10:00] what it’s called! If they do it like some of those mock ups, I will, I will buy it!

Okay.

Crew Chief Eric: Ladies and gentlemen, this woman has a fascination with the panda. If you don’t know about it, check the website. It is, it is pretty deep and ongoing, but, but with that, what else is on the docket?

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. So jumping back before we talk about, I think the Tesla again, we were talking about the Tesla range and this, that, and the other.

And actually an article came out the other day, about the new Tesla that’s coming out. Before I talk about that, I want to hit on the Lucid Air, which I feel like is a very fly under the radar car so far. So if you don’t know anything about Lucid, the company, they apparently were first founded back in 2007 as, uh,

Crew Chief Eric: That’s a sugar replacement, right?

Executive Producer Tania: I hope I’m pronouncing it right, I apologize. You’re now called Lucid Air, much easier to pronounce. That company started out making all the high performance [01:11:00] batteries for Formula E. Okay, so you’re telling me off the bat that you hopefully know something about electric cars and batteries, right? And the interesting thing is, so the car, the Lucid Air, the electric sedan that they’re coming up with, is taking direction from former Tesla Model S lead engineer, Mr.

Peter Rawlinson. So, I’m pretty sure this guy knows a thing or two as well, and they’re touting that their luxury electric sedan is going to have a thousand horsepower. 517 mile range, and it is going to be priced for the faint of heart. I mean, it’s going to be anywhere from 80, 000 to 169, 000, depending on the package options and whatnot.

And a couple of days ago and, and someone else actually posted today about the same thing as the Tesla, not to be outdone, they had their battery day event two days ago on the 22nd of September, and they announced the. The plaid version of the model S that they’ve been talking about for a little bit now, but apparently it’s actually going to come to [01:12:00] fruition and it’s going to have 1100 horsepower and a 520 mile range and cost 140, 000.

So, I mean, it’s definitely. In terms of, you know, the insanity of what these two vehicles are priced, they’re definitely side by side competitors, very close to each other. And Tesla just eked out stats that are slightly better than, than the Lucid Air. So we’ll see what comes of that in terms of the styling of the Lucid Air.

I don’t know that I’m in love with it. I don’t think I like this weird chrome trim piece that they seem to have across the front of the hood. I think that detracts from it. I think if they got rid of that, it would probably be a much more elegant looking car.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, I think that’s the 13th Cylon. It definitely looks like something out of Battlestar Galactica.

But, uh, yeah, we’ll just leave it there.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know. We’ll see what it is. We’ll see if they can do fit and finish better than Tesla. We’ll see if they have to design their cars with Home Depot parts.

Crew Chief Eric: But what are you talking about? [01:13:00]

Executive Producer Tania: It’s ironic that a lack of craftsmanship revealed a lack of craftsmanship.

So we’ve all kind of heard these horror stories about the fit and finish of Tesla. It’s not there because they’re not known for manufacturing cars like all the majors. They haven’t been doing this for very long and they, you know, there’s been a lot of complaints from people on Tesla forums about doors not aligning and, and panels, panels.

Being, having gaps and this, that, and the other. And I guess this one fellow posted in a Tesla forum, his discovery, because as he was trying to address all these panel gaps in his frunk that were bothering him after he spent tens of thousands of dollars on this car. And I think Tesla wasn’t going to help fix it.

He removed a lot of the, the frunk paneling and underneath the frunk is where the liquid cooled condenser sits and is where he discovered that it was installed using metal strapping. And the article from Jalopnik jokes about, you know, what is this shit found [01:14:00] at Home Depot, you know, in this car. And it didn’t sound like this was the only Tesla to have been found with this kind of what I’m going to consider patchwork.

Okay, maybe something happened, you changed the size of this condenser and suddenly your mounting system no longer worked. But I feel like any of the other majors would have stopped production, got engineering to fix the problem before they, you know, rolled out all these cards with the patch. I’m pretty sure the hope is, well, no one’s gonna go dismantle their frunk and go find this thing.

So what we’ll do is we’ll just fix it during the next, you know service interval or have a special recall and update it once they get the engineering figured out but it’s like wow really

Crew Chief Eric: maybe it’s because elon musk is south african we all forget that and that’s british adjacent and therefore tesla is just being built like all the other british boutique cars as we discuss and you guys will hear on our british car owners episode.

They’re just [01:15:00] cobbled together. It’s cobblers all the way down, as John Wade would say, right? And these are high class cobblers.

Crew Chief Brad: I wish more manufacturers would do this. I would love nothing more than to be able to run down to the Home Depot and get all my parts to rebuild my car.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, if you look at any old Lotus.

Crew Chief Brad: How about with a Morgan? Morgans are made of wood, just go get some 2x4s and get it done.

Executive Producer Tania: You know, you read the comments section and there’s, there’s nuggets of joy. You know, I 100 percent agree. You know, that’s, it’s one thing when you find yourself stranded somewhere, and the only thing you have is Home Depot to help fix your car to get your ass home, and you do that.

But when you pay 30, 000, 60, 000, 80, 000 for a car? You really? I don’t want it taped together. I mean, come on now.

Crew Chief Brad: Tesla could have avoided all of this if they painted it all black. If they painted the wood pieces black and they painted the tape black or used black painter’s tape or whatever.

Crew Chief Eric: Carbon fiber.[01:16:00]

Crew Chief Brad: Yes, yes, yes. It’s carbon fiber, wood paneling.

Crew Chief Eric: Meanwhile, you flip it over in the Home Depot barcodes on the bottom with the aisle number on it where you can pick the replacement part up. Can I return it? The receipt was accidentally left in the trunk. Oh man, that’s brutal. Oh, Tesla. Oh boy.

Crew Chief Brad: Speaking of Tesla, uh, we’re going to do a little bit of an update on the Tesla model three performance that whooped ass at Buttonwillow a few months back.

Basically Randy Pope’s took that, I think that very car from unplugged performance and they decided they were going to try and run Pike’s Peak. I think that was the plan all along. He didn’t have a lot of fun. During the practice session, he went off track. I mean, there’s videos of it everywhere online.

You can find those. We’ll post a link. Um, yeah, he went off and destroyed the car pretty much, but after a lot of ingenuity and a lot of hard work, they were able to get the car back together. Uh, and it went out, it ran its [01:17:00] session and it ended up second in class. So, as much as we like to harp and give Tesla crap and, you know, electric cars aren’t going to be race cars and all this, that, and the other, I would like to give a round of applause to Randy Popes for posting a pretty impressive time up that really challenging and dangerous hill climb that is Pikes Peak.

So, good job. Congratulations. And

Executive Producer Tania: thankfully, he was unharmed. from that crash, which was pretty epic looking and very scary. Actually, when you consider there was a cliff on the other side, so

Crew Chief Brad: he was four wheels in the air at one point.

Executive Producer Tania: Basically what happened was there was a, there was a dip in the Hill. It basically lost traction.

And when it came back down, it got squirrelly and he wasn’t able to recover it. And he, so. airborne and basically just slammed into the side of the mountain.

Crew Chief Brad: I believe they call that a nosedive.

Executive Producer Tania: Yes. There you go. Yes. Nosedive into, into the rocks there. And I mean, he’s, it’s very, I’m, I’m happy that he’s, he’s unharmed.

He was able to, you know, Basically [01:18:00] walk away and get in a couple of days later and redo the run. So definitely a round of applause for him.

Crew Chief Eric: So let’s round out our electric car segment with one more piece of news. What do we got?

Crew Chief Brad: I think Tanya has got some Christmas shopping ideas for

Executive Producer Tania: us. Do you remember the Bugatti baby two?

Crew Chief Eric: Oh man, did they got a Bugatti baby three?

Crew Chief Brad: That’s my pair of shoes.

Executive Producer Tania: No, but Aston Martin doesn’t want to be outdone by Bugatti. And they too are offering an electric kitty version of one of its iconic cars. The DB5.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, James Bond.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s Jimmy

Crew Chief Eric: Bond Jr.

Executive Producer Tania: So it’s not for your everyday person. Okay, it’s rich people stuff again.

So let’s just.

Crew Chief Eric: She’s like, I, you get it? Rich people doing rich people

Executive Producer Tania: things yet again. [01:19:00] Let’s just calibrate here for a second. Okay, because 60, 000. For your child to have an electric car.

Crew Chief Brad: Now, wait a minute. That out, that outspends the Bugatti. Wasn’t the Bugatti 58 or something like that?

Executive Producer Tania: The actual cost range.

Cause of course there’s different models.

Crew Chief Brad: Right. You get one

Executive Producer Tania: as low as 47, 000 or as high as 60, 000. Now you’re absolutely right. The starting price of the baby too was 35, 000, but it’s top of the line speed key, blah, blah, blah. With 68, 000

Crew Chief Brad: 68. That’s what it was.

Executive Producer Tania: So they are in line with each other. Okay. And not only that, so there’s, so there are two models of the DB five electric junior, the junior it’s top speed is 30 miles an hour with a 20 mile range.

And then there’s the Vantage model, which goes faster. And that’s all they said. So I don’t know how much faster it goes, but it goes faster. And if you recall the baby too, [01:20:00] it also had a 30 mile range. And then it’s expert mode would go 30 miles an hour, but then the speed key is what brought it up to 42 miles an hour.

So I can only assume that the DP five is going to be something on par with the Bugatti and be around 40 miles an hour as well. The real question is, is there a James Bond version that has like, I don’t know, oil slicks to come out of it or something.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s way better than the speed key. I need all the booby traps and grenades and smoke.

And on that note, I think it’s time to make some donuts as we go behind the pit wall for some motorsports news. So if you’re like me and fall asleep watching most F1 races, you’ll have noted that this past weekend there was no F1 race on TV. The reason is because Le Mans was on instead. And many of you have might have forgotten that it was postponed from the traditional Father’s Day weekend in June until the 19th and 20th of September.

So I’m going to wrap it up for you real quick. Toyota won [01:21:00] because they’re the only car in their class. They forced Rebellion basically to put a car that is realistically a LMP2 car into P1 so that Toyota had somebody to compete with because everybody else is pulled out. That being said, even during qualifying, Rebellion came out and said they stood absolutely no chance against the Toyota.

I will hand it to Bruno Senna that he did a fantastic job piloting that car. They positioned second in qualifying, but he said that was pretty much the best lap they were going to get out of the car and it was not repeatable for 24 hours straight. The other thing that Rebellion said, had the weather been less than optimal, the race would have basically been immediately over for them.

They are still in a rear wheel drive Gibson powered car, you know, standard petrol V8. The Toyota is a hybrid and it’s all wheel drive. So in less than optimal conditions, they were going to win as long as they didn’t wreck. So again, my, my [01:22:00] applause to Bruno and his team. We talked about him on our gentlemen drivers episode, but they ended up at the end of 24 hours.

They were five laps plus down from Toyota. And realistically. Lmp2 was more of the same. 27 cars that look exactly the same with different liveries on them. And you could care less about who was driving the real race as always was in GT pro, unfortunately, this year, Porsche pulled out, Corvette pulled out a bunch of other manufacturers pulled out.

And that left a really interesting battle between Aston Martin. and Ferrari. And that was really the race to watch amongst the four races that are going on at all the same time. That was the one to watch. Aston and Ferrari were really tight. The racing was good, lots of back and forth, but in all honesty, it was Aston’s race.

They have a better car. The Ferrari is older technology in comparison to the new Aston, but overall, that was a great race. I’m sad to see that Corvette pulled out. It would have [01:23:00] been nice to have the Corvette in there just to mix it up. I can also understand why Porsche pulled out. However, there were Porsche’s campaigned by privateers in GT pro.

Those were the number 91 and 92 car, but unfortunately they came in sixth and seventh due to issues with pit tires, et cetera. And at the end. We have the GT AM class or the amateur class. And if you want to know about that, just listen to our gentlemen drivers episode, because that pretty much summarizes everything that happened in that race.

Because otherwise there were just cars lapping the track and they’re rolling chicanes. So overall, Le Mans was uneventful. No major wrecks that were really of any substance. You know, just some breakdowns, this and that, it was just 24 hours of cars going around. It was cool to see it on multiple streaming platforms for a change where you didn’t have to get velocity that only like three people have access to, you know, it was on Motor Trend and Motor Trend was then showing it on Hulu and showing it in other places and streaming it, you know, via multiple services.

So [01:24:00] accessibility to Le Mans this year was really, really good. It was very strange though to watch it and notice that there was nobody else on track outside of the cars, the teams, and the marshals. There was nobody in the grandstands, there wasn’t your typical people at the fence line. It was very barren and so it made it a very somber experience to watch Le Mans.

I still watch it because it’s tradition. Overall it was a solid race, but I look forward to next year.

Crew Chief Brad: Two more little tidbits on the LeMans race this year. Uh, one, one of the drivers in the first place car was Brendan Hartley. Some of you may know that name from Formula One a couple years ago. I believe he was racing for, uh, then was Toro Rosso.

I don’t know if he ever got into the actual Red Bull proper car, but he was racing in Formula One a couple years ago. Uh, and then also that red Aston Martin. Oh my God. Yeah. That car made my heart skip a beat. That car was beautiful. I’d never seen an Aston Martin in that color. Uh, the green ones are cool and [01:25:00] all, but that red one was just like, so a little bit of news from NASCAR, but you all know who Michael Jordan is, right?

You know, basketball player has five or six rings with the Chicago bulls, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He also owns the Charlotte Hornets. Michael Jordan is partnering up with Denny Hamlin for a new one car NASCAR team, and it’s going to run in the cup series next year. And their driver is going to be Bubba Wallace, who, if you might remember, was recently with Richard Petty Motorsports.

He left Richard Petty in July. And I guess now we know why. Denny Hamlin is a minority owner in the team, but he will continue to race for Joe Gibbs racing next year, 2021. The thinking behind this is that Michael Jordan has been watching NASCAR. You know, he’s been a huge fan of NASCAR ever since he was a little kid.

He grew up in North Carolina. His parents took him to races and everything, him and his family, his brothers and siblings and everything. Uh, and they, it’s just a sport that he loves. He’s excited about the recent changes in NASCAR, especially [01:26:00] over the last year. With the, the new diversity that they’re bringing to the sport, the exclusion of the confederate flag or the banning of the confederate flag and things like that.

Uh, so he is hoping to bring even more diversity to the sport and give minorities a place to come and bring more people that wouldn’t otherwise be interested or even know or have a chance to participate in NASCAR. He’s giving them a platform to be able to come in and And just show them that you can do this too.

I’m excited for the jump man, racing suits and the air Jordan helmets, the Jordan special branding, but I have to say, given his history with. how he’s run the Charlotte Hornets organization. Their team is not very good. Hopefully he lets Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace kind of take over controls of the NASCAR team and let them kind of do their thing.

But I’m excited. I like Bubba Wallace. I think he’s a great personality. I think he’s a great guy. I follow him on Instagram [01:27:00] and I’m looking forward to seeing him do some good things in NASCAR next year.

Crew Chief Eric: Switching to some local news. This time autocross. So as you guys know, you can go to WDCR SECA. org and look up solo for autocross schedule in our local area.

They, as we’ve mentioned on multiple episodes, they pretty much have the lion’s share of events in the DMV. However, there are other groups like PCA and etc. and even the Corvette Club that run their own events outside of, you know, let’s all go to FedEx field and drive through a sea of cones. The Corvette Club still has two events left on the schedule in October.

They’re at the BWI overflow lot, and they will be held on October 4th and October 25th. You can learn more about going to a Corvette Club autocross by visiting www. vet. com. Dash club dot O R G. And all the information is there on their newly redesigned website, which looks really, really sharp. In addition to that, we’ve recently partnered with Dave Peters and the [01:28:00] folks over at H.

P. D. E. Junkie dot com who deliver up to date schedules for all the D. E. Events around the country and soon to include Canada. And we’ve most tightly integrated with their website through our tool, paddock pal. And that can be found at www. paddock pal. com, which is your track site assistant, giving you track travel information, uh, information about the, about the event, you know, scheduling, one lap information, weather conditions, et cetera.

So we’ve integrated HPDE Junkie into Paddock PAL so that you can get more information on when the next event Is going to be at whatever particular track that is in our system. Now, kind of looking at it, just in a general area to talk about the big tracks, uh, looking at HPD junkies website right now, summit point has about 10 events left in the year from September, the end of September here through the end of November.

Watkins Glen has another four events to go, including an [01:29:00] event in October that we’ll probably be going to. it in with hooked on dri to that, V. I. R. Has abo to go, including hooked o the Audi club, all runnin through almost december.

In the DMV and you can get all that information and direct links to where to register and get more information on all those events by visiting hbdejunkie. com and we thank them for that information. In addition to that, congratulations to Sam Harrington, one of our members on winning the Northeast Conference Championship for the 2020 SCCA season in the Formula Enterprise 2 class.

We wish him the best of luck as he continues his journey. at the runoffs starting at the beginning of October, which are going to be held at Road America. If you want to follow Sam’s [01:30:00] progress, we’ve uploaded the entire runoff schedule, which if you read it in its original form, it’s really hard to follow.

We uploaded it to Patek Pal. to include qualifying and race day so you can follow his progress throughout the week and when to tune in to look at the live feeds and live streams that SCCA will be broadcasting during the runoff. So we’re hoping to cheer on Sam. We will talk more about his runoff experience in the October episode of the drive through.

Go

Executive Producer Tania: Sam,

Crew Chief Eric: go! For all the coaches out there, a little bit of information came across our desk from track days. They’ve put out some new guidance and I think this is a common theme amongst many DE organizations. So I’m going to read this verbatim. We’ve had some requests for instructors to get back in the cars.

There seems to be a mix of instructors that are not ready and those that are. On the other side of the coin, there are students that are ready for in car instruction and those that are not. If you’re ready to get back in the car, please indicate to [01:31:00] your group leaders, chief instructors, et cetera, when you register for these events.

So organizations are now asking to And I’ve seen this personally on events that I’ve recently coached in where they want to know, are you doing in car? Are you doing lead follow? Are you just not comfortable with the whole thing in general? And as we move into the fall with flu season coming around, potential of COVID resurfacing, et cetera, obviously we’re all at maximum awareness.

We’re all at maximum concern. We want to stay safe, but a lot of the DE organizations are pulling back and now making it basically coach’s choice. If they want to get back in the car. If they want to do lead follow, but if you do get back in the car, please remember your PPE, right? Your personal protective equipment, you know, mask up, do what you need to do.

I can personally attest to the fact that the chatterbox is still work. If you’re wearing a mask inside your helmet, all that kind of thing, it’s not a big deal.

Executive Producer Tania: So if you find yourself out in Ohio, outside Columbus in mountain [01:32:00] Vernon, Ohio, you could find yourself at the Power Wheels drag racing event on September 26th, which is only in two days, people, so get yourselves out there.

This is a children’s drag racing event using Power Wheels, and there is a 12 volt stock and 12 volt modified class, as well as a 24 volt modified class. There’s some pictures of cute little kids in racing helmets, and um, All sorts of, you know, Corvette Power Wheels and whatever else, Mercedes GLS Power Wheels and all these things.

So it seems like it’s probably a really fun event for the kids. I want to know, who’s bringing their DB5 Jr. or their Bugatti Baby 2 to this? We need to know. So if you’re out there, you see these at this event,

Crew Chief Eric: I want to know what it does in the quarter. I mean, we talked about what they do at Pikes Peak, but this is way more interesting.

Two other pieces of motorsport news here as we wrap up [01:33:00] record setting motorcycle racer, Ralph Hudson died this month. He was involved in a 252 mile an hour crash. He’s a 69 year old veteran motorcycle racer, and he holds several speed records, including reaching 300 miles an hour on the Bonneville salt flat.

So a motorcycle legend has passed. We’re sad to see that him go, but you know, an incredible story. If you look into his history, I mean, that’s again, we’ve said it many times. Motorcycle riders. It’s a whole nother level of just. Adrenaline and ambition and craziness there compared to us guys with the four wheels on the ground.

In addition to that, Netflix is apparently making a drama around Ayrton Senna. It’s going to come out sometime in 2022. It will be filmed in English and in Portuguese, and it’ll be an eight episode fictional miniseries based on the life of Ayrton Senna, according to Variety Magazine. It will [01:34:00] dive into Senna’s personality, family relationships, and illustrious.

Kicking off following his racing debut with his move to England, where he ran Formula Fords, uh, that was after he finished carding and all that and in Sao Paolo and it will end with his championship and his tragic death at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. Honestly, if you’ve watched the Senate documentary, this movie or this, Mini series does not need to exist.

I’m still gonna watch it because I’m a fan, but it to me It just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know what there is to elaborate what there is to embellish If you’ve read his biography or watched the documentary, you know, he was a playboy, you know, even though somewhat modest. He was still larger than life.

He’s, he’s a hero. He’s a national hero in Brazil. He’s a fan for many of us that grew up in the eighties. Again, curious to see what they do with this, but not a hundred percent necessary.

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t like the fact that they’ve given away the ending. Now there’s no chance for a second season.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. It’s pretty much like Titanic.[01:35:00]

And to add to your Christmas list, and we’ll talk about this more in our holiday shopping episode, keep your eyes out on the Garmin Catalyst driving trainer, which is now being sponsored in part by Ross Bentley, who many of us know through Speed Secrets and his many webinars. And he’s come to personally coach some of us through the Motorsport Safety Foundation.

And he makes guest appearances at many clubs. He is involved in a aim like device, which looks like an old school Garmin that you’d have up on your dashboard, GPS base. And it’s designed to coach you through a lap, make you faster, work with you. Um, kind of eliminates the human factor, but it uses a bunch of AI to analyze your laps and make you go faster.

Crew Chief Brad: Before we move on though, I want to say about that Garmin, I pray. That the person giving guidance and, uh, advice and stuff, the computer, the AI, that’s talking back to you is Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s got to be. Dude.

Crew Chief Eric: I, uh, I still want to get to

Crew Chief Brad: the chopper. If you do not take the turn and get the [01:36:00] apex,

Crew Chief Eric: you got to get to the apex is out.

You must track out.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh my god,

Crew Chief Eric: that’s my tortilla Anyway

Executive Producer Tania: I will say the price tag is hefty on this thing And if it wasn’t for that boy, does it look gorgeous the the user interface in it and everything like that I mean, whoo looks like it would be a high quality product, but outside my budget

Crew Chief Eric: I think we all gasped at the price, but it is cool Price competitively against the aim solo two, and especially the solo two DL, the ones that offer the OBD two services and things like that.

So I don’t think it’s too far off. It’s a little shocking because a lot of us don’t think you bought your aim so many years ago. And it’s one of those tried and true devices that you’ve made the investment and it pays for itself over the years. This is the next generation of a tool like that. Now, I, what I’m really excited for is what’s aim going to come up with.

In retaliation to this device from Garmin because Garmin’s the new kid in this space, right? But we need to really move into [01:37:00] our combined section now of would you like fries with that? Where we’ve scoured the world looking for the best in car adjacent news.

Executive Producer Tania: We might be remiss without a little bit of COVID car adjacent news, I suppose.

I think we’re all aware because it was in the news quite a bit leading up to the event. During the event, after the event, uh, the yearly Sturgis motorcycle rally, a lot of people were very concerned prior to this event taking place that it was going to be bringing, you know, thousands of people that weren’t going to be socially distant and using masks.

Et cetera, et cetera, lo and behold, it’s exactly what happened at the event. And then, you know, the bigger headlines were 250, 000 cases of, you know, the coronavirus because of the surges rally. And, you know, that, that got people excited. And then there was back checking. Well, you know, really probably wasn’t 250, 000.

And that was really a number that was just kind of generated from predictions of what, you know, the [01:38:00] worst case could be at the end of the day. None of us really know what the true numbers are. It’s probably accurate to say that COVID was probably brought to this small town of South Dakota if it wasn’t already there as a result of this, um, event.

I’m sure that, you know, it wasn’t zero cases. We’re still in this thing, whether you want to believe it exists or not. We all got to do our part, um, so we can get through it. So just, just be mindful of that. All right. So I’ve got a question. So we’re still in an age of remakes, sequels, and all that, right?

Yeah. We’re still living in this, in this age. So who thinks it’s time for a Ben Hur redo? What? So I know this sounds ludicrous, and what am I talking about? And nobody wants to see horse chariot racing, but what if, in this modern remake of Ben Hur, it was motorcycle chariot racing? What?

Crew Chief Brad: So they’re riding motorcycles being pulled by horses?

I don’t get it.

Executive Producer Tania: [01:39:00] No, they’re riding a chariot being pulled by motorcycles.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, wait a minute. How does that work?

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know, honestly, how this could possibly work.

Crew Chief Eric: Is this legit?

Executive Producer Tania: This is legit. Apparently, this was a popular form of motorsport in the 1920s and 30s. You can look this up. There’s an article, there’s lots of vintage pictures in there of these people literally in, in the chariot wagon.

And, and they’ve got straps attached to the throttles on these motorcycles. And apparently that’s how they’re controlling and steering, I imagine, because I, I don’t think they were just going in a straight line. And, you know, they talked about, you know, the really adventurous guys would have more than one motorcycle.

And I’m like, there was a picture of like a dude with like three motorcycles in front of his little chariot wagon. I mean, on a scale of what?

I mean, this is pretty far on the dumb AF side. [01:40:00]

Crew Chief Brad: I, I think you’re, I think you’re wrong. This is clearly from the onion. This can’t be real. I mean,

Crew Chief Eric: this just reinforces that motorcycle riders are on a completely different planet than the rest of us.

Executive Producer Tania: You know, I didn’t do, you know, in fairness, I didn’t do a lot of fact checking around this, but it

Crew Chief Brad: originated in Florida.

It

Executive Producer Tania: might have, I mean, these look like legit photos. Um, unbelievable facts. com, uh, has this article on motorcycle chariot racing was a real sport in the 1920s and 1930s. And then they have, I think at the end of the article, They’ve got some more modern age photos. People still doing this apparently. These guys got a west coast chopper style motorcycle pulling their little chariot wagon thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Let’s

Executive Producer Tania: move on from that. We think that’s crazy. Well, we can go to a crazier town. There is, what could possibly go wrong speeding around [01:41:00] well in excess of 100 miles an hour on public highways in an 1100 horsepower DIY Audi RS3? What could go wrong?

Crew Chief Eric: That’s legit.

Executive Producer Tania: I think absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong.

Crew Chief Brad: It says home built. Oh

Crew Chief Eric: good. Well, we got to do something now that Garrett’s declared bankruptcy, right? You can build your own turbo.

Executive Producer Tania: So I’m gonna cut right to the chase on this one. A brake line breaks on this car that’s doing almost 150 miles an hour. Brake fluid obviously spews out onto the hot brakes, which then ignite, and essentially by the time they get the car stopped, because they didn’t have any brakes, the whole freaking thing goes up in flames because a fuel line melted and then everything catches on fire basically at this point i i i mean i like there’s a video because these guys were go proing this whole thing and they were their street racing there was other people in um mclaren and And then the [01:42:00] GTR, this, that, and the other, and they were doing hot pulls on the highway and all those shenanigans that you shouldn’t be doing.

And so there’s footage of the in car and the dialogue between the driver and the passenger. And then there’s some later GoPro footage of the other people that saw the car sparks and smoke coming out of it. But I do imagine that it must’ve been pretty terrifying to be going that fast, have smoke start coming into the car and then realize that you don’t have any brakes.

But these people were buffoons.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, man.

Executive Producer Tania: Okay. At one point, the passenger asks, Can you turn the motor on and downshift? To which the driver answers, No, it’s dead. So, they have that conversation about turning the car on. They can’t turn the car on. Shortly after, in the GoPro in car footage, you see the passenger door has opened.

And they’re still going. They’re going. Quick. And you hear this scraping noise in the video. Yes, we’re trying to Fred Flintstone this [01:43:00] thing. Laughter.

And at least the response was accurate. My foot not gonna do shit. You’re damn right it’s not at like 60 miles an hour how fast you still were going at this point. All right, then the next thing we hear, I don’t want to put you into the wall. To which I’m assuming it’s the driver talking to his car and not concerned about like, you know, the passenger side, the passenger going into the wall.

Um, but honestly, I think at this point, that’s probably what I would have done in this situation. Well, I would have been in the situation to begin with, but if I found myself in a situation where I couldn’t stop my car and this is nighttime, there’s not a lot of people around, I mean, pull up gently next to the jersey wall and scrub some paint from the video.

They just kept going perfectly in the lane as if they also apparently had. A parachute that they couldn’t deploy for some reason or another.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, you buy all this stuff on eBay. I mean, what do you expect? [01:44:00]

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t, I don’t know. I mean, I imagine there’s, there’s a, there’s a lot of panic that was probably going on.

So I’m sure they’re not thinking clearly about all their options. I mean, there was a lot of, Oh my God, we got to get out. We got to get out. How do we get out? Nonetheless, eventually they, they creeped the car to a stop. And then some of the other street racers, they were there, they, you know, they came rushing up, they had these little baby fire extinguishers and they were trying to, you know, extinguish the flames that were now coming out of the hood.

I will say at least a very intelligent thing happened at this point when someone said. Don’t open the hood. I mean, despite the fact that you probably couldn’t touch the hood for how hot it was with, you know, flames shooting out from under it, but you know, it would have been catastrophic to lift the hood and introduce all that oxygen and feed that fire.

So thank goodness they didn’t do that. The second intelligent thing was, One of the guys saying, I’m not going to go back and get my GoPro. He damn right. You shouldn’t go back. The freaking car is on fire and golden flames at this point.

Crew Chief Brad: But the footage, [01:45:00] that’s some pretty awesome footage.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, he did later, like you see him, he’s holding the GoPro.

So I guess it didn’t. So kudos to a GoPro. It didn’t melt. It did look like it had a little bit of. damage, but it didn’t, it didn’t melt. So, and they had all this footage. So clearly the GoPro survived. So kudos to GoPro. The video goes on for a while. You see what they’re saying. Oh, the tire just exploded.

Like, and you see these big pops and stuff, which is probably possible with all the heat and flames coming out right there against the rubber. But

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, I got one thing to say about that. Good luck on that insurance claim, bro.

Executive Producer Tania: Total loss. Perhaps the lesson here is not the street race. Take your 1100 horsepower to your local track, folks, and do it safely.

Crew Chief Eric: The hits keep on coming.

Executive Producer Tania: I’m gonna read this headline because I thank my local radio for giving me these nuggets. And this is a North Dakota man. Combine crash. Man arrested for DUI after flipping farm equipment. So for anybody who doesn’t know what a combine is, it’s a gigantic harvester, essentially, okay?

It’s a gigantic piece of farm equipment. [01:46:00] And I don’t know much about farm equipment, but based on the picture of the flipped over combine, I could tell that it is John Deere. And I could see the model number, so I looked it up. So it’s an S670 John Deere Combine. Because I was curious, how do you flip farm equipment?

Because I imagine they’re pretty heavy. And so I want, I looked it up, because I want to know how much one weighs. So, any guesses? I’m going

Crew Chief Brad: to go 50 tons. I’m going to say 50 and a half.

Crew Chief Eric: And a half. And one dollar, Bob. One dollar.

Executive Producer Tania: So, so that’s high. That’s very high.

Crew Chief Brad: Was it like 27?

Executive Producer Tania: You’re getting closer. So, my research indicates that with attachments, It weighs 41, 178 pounds, so 20 tons.

Take the attachment off, which, based on the photo, either it was never on to begin with or it came off in the flipping, um, you drop two tons. So, this person [01:47:00] managed to flip 18 to 20 tons of metal in a field. Presumably. I can’t tell where exactly he was.

Crew Chief Eric: I got one answer for this.

Executive Producer Tania: How?

Crew Chief Eric: How? I got one answer.

One answer. Aliens.

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, this reminded me of cars where they go tractor tipping. You know?

Crew Chief Brad: I love the fact that he was driving the combine. Because they revoked his driver’s license from an earlier DUI.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean,

Executive Producer Tania: Don’t drink and drive people.

Crew Chief Eric: Maybe he ran over the attachment part with the tractor and then he flipped it over.

I mean, that’s so, I mean, you’re in the middle of a field. What the hell? He was pulling

Crew Chief Brad: a grave digger.

Crew Chief Eric: Or he discovered a landmine left over from World War II.

Executive Producer Tania: The tractor looked pretty, or the combine looked pretty intact, so. I’m just giving you,

Crew Chief Eric: I’m giving you possibilities for an unexplainable scenario here, okay?

Executive Producer Tania: Your alien scenario sounds [01:48:00] the best so far. Let’s go a little further north and show that it’s not just our friends. Florida or North Dakota or Michigan. You know, I’m disappointed by this next one because I, I, I, I tend to hold our northern neighbors in pretty high regard. There’s some, there’s some top notch folk that I’ve met coming out of Canada, but such is life.

There’s always one that ruins it for the rest of us. And in this case, They’re giving self driving cars a really bad rap. So a Canadian driver of a Tesla was found asleep at the wheel doing 150 kilometers an hour. So for us, south of the border, that’s more or less 90 miles an hour. They were on a Canadian highway where most speed limits are 110 kilometers an hour or 70 miles an hour.

Obviously, This is incredibly reckless, and not at all how Tesla Autopilot is intended to be used. So, soapbox time. Wake up, fools of the world. Alright, this stuff isn’t fully autonomous, okay? You cannot go to sleep and not expect to rear [01:49:00] end a slow moving tractor trailer and die, okay?

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, brutal.

Executive Producer Tania: Off the soapbox.

So, the best part, the driver had the seat fully reclined. And not just the driver! But there was a passenger as well. So there are two fools in this story. Were the tray tables down also?

Crew Chief Eric: You need to be in your upright and locked position at all times.

Crew Chief Brad: And I have to say, I’ve got an argument or I’ve got an issue with the self driving car part.

There’s no such thing as a self driving car. There are cars with self driving capabilities. But there’s no such thing as a self driving car.

Executive Producer Tania: No, and it irks me because it’s really not even, it shouldn’t even be called self driving. We should be calling it driver assistance. Because until these things become fully autonomous, then they will be self driving.

Now, there’s a confusing part to the article, and I want to see what you guys think. So I’m going to read it verbatim, okay? The car appeared to be self driving, traveling over 140 kilometers an hour. With both front seats completely reclined, and [01:50:00] both occupants appearing to be asleep. After the police flashed their lights, the Tesla electric vehicle reportedly sped up to exactly 150 kilometers an hour.

According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I really confused about why did it accelerate?

Crew Chief Brad: So it turned into a getaway car.

Executive Producer Tania: I have no idea. Like I literally had to read that several times. I don’t understand why they even mentioned it, but maybe it is a self driving Tesla. He wanted to get away. So nonetheless, this driver was charged for speeding, given a 24 hour license suspension for driving while fatigued and further was slapped with dangerous driving charges for which they have to appear in court.

So all, uh, deserved fail in life.

Crew Chief Brad: So we talked earlier about off roaders. We talked about the Bronco. We talked about the Jeeps. I talked a little bit about the new Range Rover Defender that’s coming out. But let’s talk about off roading in general and something that you’re not supposed to do when you go off [01:51:00] roading.

And one thing you’re not supposed to do is drive down a hiking or bike trail. And in California, one driver figured that out the hard way. There’s an article on The Drive about a California man that took his Jeep Wrangler that looks fairly stocked. You know, looking at it, it looks like he’s got big tires and that’s, you know, pretty much it.

Not too much else going on here. And he drove up a bike trail, uh, near Loma Linda on the, it looks like the West Ridge Trail. And there’s a part of the trail where it gets super narrow, and on either side of this, what looks to be like a maybe three or four foot trail, it’s just drop on either side. And this guy got this car stuck, freaked the F out, and just rolled.

Now there’s a jeep just parked on top of this bike trail, on top of a mountain, and it’s just there. So there’s talk, how are we going to get it out? People have suggested use a helicopter, you know, and go in and lift it out. That’s really the only way. Uh, they could get a couple other jeep people to drive illegally to get to it and then try [01:52:00] and haul it out.

Anything like that is probably going to upset the balance and it’s probably going to end up falling down and if any winch is attached It’s probably going to end up taking the recovery vehicle with it So if you’re looking for a jeep and you’re up for a challenge Please go to Loma Linda to the West Ridge bike trail and hiking trail and see if you can get one.

Crew Chief Eric: So speaking of cars falling off of things.

Executive Producer Tania: A Michigan man.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh god.

Executive Producer Tania: Back to the great state of Michigan. A 26 year old Michigan man pulled what reporters called a dukes of hazard over the Fort Street drawbridge in Detroit. Reports say the bridge began to rise. The man gunned it in his Dodge Sedan. It’s unclear how wide the opening was at this point, but he nonetheless made it to the other side.

Quite what one may have seen in the Dukes of Hazzard show, the man did not keep speeding away. He blew out all four tires on landing and then smashed into the safety gate on the other side. Ha ha

Crew Chief Brad: ha [01:53:00] ha ha! In his Dodge Stratus. Was it or was his Stratus orange?

Executive Producer Tania: I was hoping there was more information on the car, but they just left it at Dodge Sedan.

I mean, oh God.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, that’s why he blew everything out. He did it with the wrong car. He needed a charger.

Executive Producer Tania: So last but not least. We’ll close out with a little bit of proof. There’s crazy people all over the world. And this next one brings us across the pond to a London woman who fell out of a car onto a busy highway while filming a Snapchat video.

I agree with the police. It truly is lucky that she wasn’t seriously injured or killed, or let alone somebody else be traumatized by hitting her on the highway.

Crew Chief Brad: But think of the views.

Executive Producer Tania: But the best, the best part of the article. And I assume this is in response to a Twitter post from the London police.

Quote, asked by a user, if officers explain the dangers of the attempts to the [01:54:00] woman, the police replied, every chance they worked it out before we spoke to them about it. This wasn’t the first time this woman dangled out of a car on the highway, trying to do Snapchat videos. I mean, was it the first

Crew Chief Brad: time she fell out?

Crew Chief Eric: Those are all on TikTok instead. So you know,

Crew Chief Brad: she was doing some stupid, you know, happy hands dance. Like she’s doing

Crew Chief Eric: the flo, she’s doing the floss like out the window of the car.

Crew Chief Brad: Kiki, do you love me? Are you riding? Let me fall out on the freeway.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, that’s good. That’s rich. Wow. I mean, we know no bounds when it comes to this sort of stuff.

Executive Producer Tania: Thank you to the world for, for giving us this.

Crew Chief Eric: Maybe she could have taken a ride on the front of a tractor trailer like the guy from last month. I mean, you know, it all comes full circle. There’s so many ways.

Executive Producer Tania: Next month, Combine tried to be taken across Detroit drawbridge.

Crew Chief Eric: The [01:55:00] Combine was used to pull the Jeep off of the bike trail. I don’t know. And in our final segment, the secret sauce, we cover very quickly GTM specific news. We got a lot of really great episodes to look forward to. So we’ve got some interviews in there.

We’ve got industry partners coming in talking about safety. We have a quiz slash game show that we did, and we’re also going to talk about Dirt track racing. So I don’t want to spoil all the surprises, but those are what you get to look forward to in October. And if you haven’t checked out the September episodes, go back to gtmotorsports.

podbean. com or visit our website to check out what has been put out so far. We have a late submission came after our last drive through episode. We’re going to be posting a link to the recording of the Summer Bash 6 Karting Showdown, courtesy of Max Sonderby. It shows from the beginning of the race, most of the way through it before his GoPro batteries ran out.

Some [01:56:00] really good action in there, some really crazy stuff. It’s worth watching. We’re going to post that link with the show notes. And I guess now it’s time for some shoutouts.

Crew Chief Brad: Let’s give a shout out to Dave Peters at HPD junkie. com for coming on the show.

Crew Chief Eric: Absolutely. And for the partnership that we have now with HPD junkie.

com. So we want to thank Dave for that. And we’re looking forward to that going on in the future. We also had a new Patreon this month, Dr. Ben Smith, who has returned to GTM from a stint. in Hawaii. So he’s been kind of MIA for a while. There’s no tracks out in Hawaii so that, you know, but now he’s back.

He’s back in full swing. He is back behind the wheel of an E30 BMW, and we thank him for contributing and sponsoring us through Patreon. Again, if you haven’t signed up for Patreon, please consider signing up. It really does help us. It helps us keep the lights on. It helps, you know, feed Brad Gummy Bears Monster and Fig Newtons.

And, uh, just keep kind of things moving here as we continue to bring you all this great [01:57:00] content month after month and week after week. So, if you want to learn more about that, you Visit our website or go to www. patreon. com forward slash GT motor sports.

Crew Chief Brad: And of course we want to give a shout out to our co host, Tanya M, our very own Texas woman who hopefully never has her own little story in the, would you like fries with that section?

So thank you, Tanya.

Crew Chief Eric: And again, a shout out to Tanya. She does a lot of work in putting together the drive thru episodes, uh, every month. So this is really cool. And we thank her for doing that. And again, thanks to all the members who support GTN because without you guys, none of this would be possible. And on that note.

I think we’ve reached the end.

Crew Chief Brad: Are you sure we could probably go another hour? Oh God, no. .

Crew Chief Eric: See y’all next month of

Executive Producer Tania: us [01:58:00] all just waiting to order. There’s

Crew Chief Eric: some idiot in a Volvo. It’s on behind me. I lean out the window and scream, Hey, watch at trying to do

blind me. The wife says maybe.

Crew Chief Brad: If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to check us out on www. gtmotorsports. org. You can also find us on Instagram at Grantory Motorsports. 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 [01:59:00] broadcast all of your favorite content. So be sure to visit www. patreon. com forward slash gtmotorsports or visit our website and click in the top right corner on the support and donate to learn how you can 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 Sponsorships
• 00:58 Nissan Z Car Reveal
• 04:13 Ford Bronco Updates
• 10:05 Volkswagen and Bugatti News
• 12:34 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Unveiled
• 15:54 Maserati MC20 and Supercar Comparisons
• 19:52 Toyota GR Super Sport Preview
• 22:48 Automotive Conglomerates and Partnerships
• 25:57 Retro Cars and Throwback Thursday
• 37:30 Electric Car News: GM and Nikola Partnership
• 40:34 GM’s Electric Gamble: Will It Pay Off?
• 41:40 Ford’s Electric F-150: A Game Changer?
• 44:19 Electric Car Range Anxiety: Real or Overblown?
• 45:03 Polestar’s EV Challenge: Can It Compete?
• 49:10 Fiat 500E: Small Car, Big Impact
• 52:13 The Future of EV Infrastructure
• 01:10:32 Luxury EVs: Lucid Air vs. Tesla Model S
• 01:13:05 Tesla’s Build Quality Issues: A Closer Look
• 01:16:22 Randy Pobst’s Pikes Peak Adventure
• 01:18:09 Aston Martin’s Electric DB5 Junior: For the Rich Kids
• 01:20:27 Motorsports News: Le Mans Recap
• 01:20:58 Toyota’s Dominance and Rebellion’s Struggle
• 01:22:17 GT Pro Battle: Aston Martin vs. Ferrari
• 01:24:58 NASCAR News: Michael Jordan’s New Team
• 01:27:04 Local Autocross Events and Partnerships
• 01:32:56 Motorsport Tragedies and Netflix Drama
• 01:37:04 Crazy Motorsport Stories
• 01:55:03 GTM Specific News and Shoutouts

• Throwback to SB6 >> Karting Video by Member Max S