Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Glowing Tires, 21+ get aways, and the Kia Sportage PHEV?

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Glowing Tires, 21+ get aways, and the Kia Sportage PHEV? · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:04
  Jeff Dziekan: Glowing tires.
• 0:06
  Jeff Dziekan: Let me fire this up and then you're gonna have to change these because uh of uh yeah, here we go.
• 0:11
  Don Armstrong: All right.
• 0:11
  Don Armstrong: Let me let me get it up top there.
• 0:14
  Jeff Dziekan: All right, thank you.
• 0:14
  Jeff Dziekan: All right, uh so Goodyear tires, bright idea.
• 0:18
  Jeff Dziekan: Back in the late 50s and 60s, Goodyear engineers were feeling enlightened.
• 0:22
  Jeff Dziekan: Their tires actually were.
• 0:24
  Jeff Dziekan: The glow unfortunately didn't last.
• 0:26
  Jeff Dziekan: More than five decades ago, and what the Ohio tire manufacturer called one of the most dramatic tire developments in history of the industry, Goodyear unveiled a custom car accessory unlike no other illuminated tires.
• 0:39
  Don Armstrong: Can you imagine that today?
• 0:41
  Don Armstrong: We didn't sell out of those.
• 0:42
  Jeff Dziekan: You know what?
• 0:43
  Jeff Dziekan: That's Martha.
• 0:43
  Jeff Dziekan: You know, we always talk about Martha, Martha right there.
• 0:46
  Jeff Dziekan: So Goodyear's translucent tire can be produced in any color to match the car, or perhaps the wife's new outfit.
• 0:53
  Jeff Dziekan: Some someday a wife may tell a husband, Charlie, can you go out and change the tires?
• 0:58
  Jeff Dziekan: I'm wearing my blue dress tonight.
• 1:00
  Jeff Dziekan: And that's what that's all about.
• 1:01
  Jeff Dziekan: Regardless of what you might think uh about the marketing strategy, Goodyear's illuminated tires off offered custom car enthusiasts plenty of exciting possibilities.
• 1:11
  Jeff Dziekan: This was a creation of Goodyear chemist William Larson and the and co-worker Anthony Fennelli.
• 1:17
  Jeff Dziekan: The tires were made of neothane, a synthetic polyurethane rubber that combined the hardness of plastic and the resilience resilience of rubber.
• 1:26
  Jeff Dziekan: To create the new fang dangled tires, the neothane was poured into molds, baked at 250 degrees, a temperature much lower much lower than required to make a standard tire.
• 1:39
  Jeff Dziekan: Goodyear uh then added dye to create a rainbow of different colors, and 18 small lights were mounted in the rims inside of each tire to create a glow that was particularly brilliant at night.
• 1:49
  Jeff Dziekan: Now people still do that to this day, putting lights in their fender wells and things.
• 1:53
  Jeff Dziekan: The invention caused quite a stir when Goodyear put a set of red illuminated tires on a Dodge Polera and drove it around Miami.
• 2:00
  Jeff Dziekan: It did the same for a Chrysler Silver 300, just same thing, driving around the New York City area.
• 2:07
  Jeff Dziekan: Although the tires went into production, one set made it into the hands of a person by the name of Jim Sakanis, who poured$75,000 or about$750,000 in today's money in creating the tripped out of Golden Sahara II in the early 60s.
• 2:27
  Jeff Dziekan: The second version of this was a George Barris custom that started with a 1953 Lincoln Capri called the Golden Sahara II.
• 2:35
  Jeff Dziekan: It wore gold paint mixed with pulverized fish scales that was adorned with gold plate and ornamental work.
• 2:41
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, I like it.
• 2:42
  Jeff Dziekan: Uh those new Fang Dangle Goodyear tires were referred to as glass.
• 2:46
  Jeff Dziekan: They were a cherry on a Sunday.
• 2:48
  Jeff Dziekan: In 2018, this vehicle sold at auction unrestored for$385,000.
• 2:56
  Jeff Dziekan: It's ugly.
• 2:56
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, and the tires were were not their the tires were solid.
• 2:59
  Jeff Dziekan: They weren't filled with air.
• 3:00
  Jeff Dziekan: Filled with air a little bit, but they were mainly solid.
• 3:02
  Jeff Dziekan: Now, Goodyear held tight on the idea of a sineothane tires would one day become a common, as common as the black rubber counterparts, but didn't happen.
• 3:11
  Jeff Dziekan: After 10 years of work, engineers threw in the towel.
• 3:14
  Jeff Dziekan: Keith Buckley, senior engineer of Goodyear Entire Rubber Company, said in a brief phone interview with the promise of a longer conversation that would ever materialize, the new Fang Dangle tires were doomed for several reasons.
• 3:27
  Jeff Dziekan: Low melting point for the tires uh in the manufacturing process uh made it susceptible to melting while they were actually on the road.
• 3:35
  Jeff Dziekan: So they would just deteriorate and disintegrate.
• 3:37
  Jeff Dziekan: And then the cost would be one thing.
• 3:39
  Jeff Dziekan: Uh made them more dangerous in rainy conditions, and it would take longer uh before they were even covered by road grime, which negated the illumination to begin with.
• 3:48
  Jeff Dziekan: So there you go.
• 3:50
  Jeff Dziekan: Uh illuminated tires.
• 3:53
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah.
• 3:53
  Don Armstrong: Well, they've kind of got that today, uh, with like you said, the lights in the fender wells.
• 3:59
  Don Armstrong: Uh I you know, I I I'm not of that age group anymore, but I think back in the day, uh, had I had a big jacked-up truck or something with a lot of room in there with the wheel wells and some fancy rims, I'd probably do that.
• 4:14
  Jeff Dziekan: And you can make you there uh Hancook has red letter tires, blue letter tires.
• 4:19
  Jeff Dziekan: You can get the lettering different, but that's a different process.
• 4:21
  Don Armstrong: Well, I was gonna say that we wait, I mean, you can get letters to anything that you want, and they stick them on there.
• 4:26
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, you can.
• 4:27
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, well, that's that's a different process so far as the manufacturing of the color in the tire.
• 4:31
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, I got it.
• 4:32
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:32
  Don Armstrong: And we had remember we went through the red stripe era, yeah.
• 4:36
  Don Armstrong: Then we went to the raised white letters.
• 4:38
  Jeff Dziekan: Yep, exactly.
• 4:39
  Jeff Dziekan: And uh growing up back in the mid-70s, you know, in high school, and everybody's running around Telegraph Road and all that.
• 4:46
  Jeff Dziekan: Uh particular gentleman, young guy, had a white Camaro, Z, uh, split bumpers, and he put white, his car was white, so he put white light bulbs in his fenders as he raced it up and down the street.
• 4:59
  Jeff Dziekan: We used to call him Fenderwells.
• 5:00
  Jeff Dziekan: That was his nickname, Fenderwell.
• 5:02
  Don Armstrong: Really?
• 5:03
  Don Armstrong: Is this in Detroit?
• 5:04
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, because he and he didn't get arrested?
• 5:06
  Jeff Dziekan: No, because he only did it at certain times when he was running racing.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: But, anyways, make a crazy all right.
• 5:17
  Don Armstrong: We're gonna do driving destinations now, Mr.
• 5:19
  Don Armstrong: Mars.
• 5:20
  Don Armstrong: You got that cued up and ready to go?
• 5:22
  Don Armstrong: Oh uh Jeff's got it cued.
• 5:23
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, all you need to do is say the words, Mike.
• 5:26
  Mike Marrs: Um I'm ready for it.
• 5:27
  Mike Marrs: And I was really looking forward to this one because Mother's Day is coming up, so you've got to do a little planning ahead for some of these things if you want to make a nice little getaway.
• 5:35
  Mike Marrs: And so these five places are gonna be, they're less than a half a drive from half a day's drive from Houston, Austin, San Antonio, even Dallas, Fort Worth.
• 5:45
  Mike Marrs: So we're talking about a Hill Country getaway here, but we're not talking about a regular getaway, we're talking about clamping, Texas style.
• 5:52
  Mike Marrs: And what you want to do then is uh have you know, it's we're talking about open skies, a glass of wine, and uh maybe a hot tub.
• 6:01
  Mike Marrs: And no kids around for the majority of these.
• 6:05
  Mike Marrs: So the first one we want to start with is Safari for the Soul.
• 6:08
  Mike Marrs: Now, this place is outside of Austin in Marble Falls, built specifically for couples.
• 6:13
  Mike Marrs: There's no kids, no crowds.
• 6:15
  Mike Marrs: Got some luxury tents that are tucked along the river that's not very far from Lake LBJ.
• 6:20
  Don Armstrong: Would you please wait a minute, wait a minute, would you please define a luxury tent?
• 6:25
  Mike Marrs: Um I'm I'm working on that.
• 6:28
  Mike Marrs: So you got the luxury tent, you're gonna have possibly private hot tubs, outdoor showers, movie setups.
• 6:34
  Mike Marrs: Sometimes some of these will have air conditioning, but this particular one doesn't.
• 6:38
  Mike Marrs: It's more of a tamp, it's glamping, more of a wine set out and look at the stars type of thing.
• 6:44
  Mike Marrs: And uh but that one's at Marble Falls.
• 6:47
  Mike Marrs: Now, if you want to, I got one up here I'm saving for you, Don.
• 6:50
  Mike Marrs: If your idea of glamping is a little towards more towards modern, the wall Walden Retreats Hill Country.
• 6:56
  Mike Marrs: So this is another 21 and up venue that you can go to.
• 7:00
  Mike Marrs: It's about an hour west of Austin.
• 7:02
  Mike Marrs: It's based on 96 acres out on the Pergnales River.
• 7:06
  Mike Marrs: These are architect-designed 500 square foot tents.
• 7:10
  Mike Marrs: Now they got big glass views of the Hill Country, they got soaking tubs, big decks all around it.
• 7:14
  Mike Marrs: They have air conditioning, they have heaters, they've got running waters, private baths, king's eyes bed, and even a kitchenette.
• 7:22
  Mike Marrs: So it's quiet, but it's out in the middle of the wine country, so you can also get you some wine, sit out, watch the sun go down, and have a big time with mom for the weekend without the kitties.
• 7:33
  Mike Marrs: Now, the other one you can go to is mom.
• 7:36
  Don Armstrong: Not your your mother.
• 7:38
  Don Armstrong: That would be that would be the mother of your children.
• 7:41
  Mike Marrs: Yeah, okay.
• 7:42
  Mike Marrs: Mother's Day, mother's children.
• 7:43
  Mike Marrs: Yeah, the mother of your children.
• 7:44
  Mike Marrs: You probably don't want to take your mom mom.
• 7:47
  Don Armstrong: Correct.
• 7:48
  Mike Marrs: Yeah, that's true.
• 7:49
  Don Armstrong: Just wanted to make sure that we got that straight.
• 7:53
  Mike Marrs: All right, so the uh Udiscope Echo Glamping Resorts.
• 7:58
  Mike Marrs: Now, these are some elevated glamping pods.
• 8:01
  Mike Marrs: They're kind of futuristic.
• 8:02
  Mike Marrs: They got a lot of sci-fi type stuff in, a lot of technology, but they got private jacuzzies, they got a dining area, they got a patio that you can sit out there and look down across the hill country.
• 8:13
  Mike Marrs: And because it's outside of Austin, far enough, you can literally see a lot of the stars.
• 8:18
  Mike Marrs: So it's not like a typical hotel that you want to go to for the weekend.
• 8:23
  Mike Marrs: Now, if you want something to get a little more laid back on the other end of the spectrum, go to the Juniper Ranch and retreat at Canyon Lake.
• 8:31
  Mike Marrs: Now, again, this is 21 Plus place, and they've got bell tents and vintage airstreams so that if you want a little RV feel to it, you can get that.
• 8:40
  Mike Marrs: They got it hammocks, they got hot tubs, and it's near Canyon Lake.
• 8:43
  Mike Marrs: It's about 30 minutes to New Bronsol's from there if you decide you need to go into town.
• 8:48
  Mike Marrs: And it's um it's a place where you slow down, you know, you can drink your coffee a little bit longer, but the phones don't work so good, and the internet don't work near as good as the phones work.
• 8:58
  Mike Marrs: But if you really want some more room to roam, go to the Space Camp Resort.
• 9:04
  Mike Marrs: Now, this is a resort out in Hunt, Texas, near Kerrville, so it's a little bit further out, but uh it's a little more West Texas, less crowds, but they got the glamping tents and the cabins, and you have access to the Guadalupe River and a private lake.
• 9:19
  Jeff Dziekan: So if you want to go do a little river rafting, yeah, you can do that.
• 9:25
  Mike Marrs: Um but again, it's a little bit further west, so you've got the cloud.
• 9:29
  Mike Marrs: I mean the the skies are a lot clearer because you're away from all the ambient light that's around.
• 9:33
  Mike Marrs: So it gets out there if you want to do a little nighttime viewing, it's a great place to go and do that.
• 9:39
  Mike Marrs: So you can do all of these things, and you can have a lot of the comfort of being kind of out camping, but but you've also got the comforts of uh air conditioning and heating.
• 9:49
  Mike Marrs: They're all in a head.
• 9:50
  Don Armstrong: And if it just so happens that you smell weed wafting through every once in a while because hobs aren't nearby, they'll have to take them 30 minutes to get there.
• 9:58
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, you're in a minute.
• 9:59
  Mike Marrs: You gotta back up to the one up, I think it's up at Hunt.
• 10:02
  Mike Marrs: That's where you're gonna kind of get in that that secondhand smoke that you gotta watch out for.
• 10:06
  Mike Marrs: But anyway, so these play none of these places are very big.
• 10:09
  Mike Marrs: So if you want to go to these places or others like them, you need to plan ahead and make your reservations because some of these only have 11, 12 million.
• 10:19
  Mike Marrs: Absolutely.
• 10:19
  Mike Marrs: I'll give you a map and I'll tell you where to go.
• 10:22
  Don Armstrong: Oh, he's gonna tell you where to go, uh yeah.
• 10:24
  Don Armstrong: Well, he's told me that several times this morning.
• 10:27
  Don Armstrong: Well, thank you, Mr.
• 10:28
  Don Armstrong: Mars.
• 10:28
  Don Armstrong: That was entertaining and fun.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yep.
• 10:31
  unknown: All right.
• 10:36
  Don Armstrong: You will join us.
• 10:37
  Don Armstrong: Time now for this hour's car review.
• 10:39
  Don Armstrong: I had a chance to drive the 2026 Kia Sportage.
• 10:44
  Don Armstrong: Available trim levels include the X-Line and the X-Line Prestige.
• 10:50
  Don Armstrong: Our reviewed trim level was the PHEV, plug-in hybrid electric, X-Line Prestige all-wheel drive.
• 10:59
  Don Armstrong: Try to get that on the back of the car.
• 11:02
  Don Armstrong: This is considered a compact SUV, you and I think would most likely classify it as a mid-size.
• 11:09
  Don Armstrong: It's 95% Korean, Korean parts, Korean built, the whole nine yards.
• 11:14
  Don Armstrong: Uh, five seats in this thing, two rows.
• 11:17
  Don Armstrong: Exterior changes.
• 11:18
  Don Armstrong: This is the fifth generation that was introduced in 2023, but it does have a makeover for 2026, and it's pretty cool.
• 11:27
  Don Armstrong: Distinct front grille and lighting look great.
• 11:31
  Don Armstrong: Bulging fenders at the wheel wells, like that.
• 11:35
  Don Armstrong: Sharp looking rear glass with a nice sunshade over the window.
• 11:40
  Don Armstrong: Um, wide opening rear hatch as well.
• 11:44
  Don Armstrong: Uh, so if you want to try to get uh, you know, your other little car in there, you probably could.
• 11:51
  Don Armstrong: What I liked overall, the design gets high marks in my estimation.
• 11:55
  Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
• 11:57
  Don Armstrong: Uh wheel design.
• 11:59
  Don Armstrong: I wasn't a big fan of the wheels, um, and that was the charge port that you just saw there.
• 12:05
  Don Armstrong: The gasoline port is in a different part of the car, so you don't get the two mixed up.
• 12:12
  Don Armstrong: And I'm sure that some people well, what is this for?
• 12:15
  Don Armstrong: Uh interior highlights, clean center console, not cluttered with too many buttons and knobs.
• 12:23
  Don Armstrong: Same for the dash, it's uh the minimalist kind of design.
• 12:27
  Don Armstrong: Uh knobs and controls are just few and far between.
• 12:31
  Don Armstrong: Changeable instrument cluster, huge infotainment screen.
• 12:36
  Don Armstrong: Uh steering wheel controls are just right.
• 12:41
  Don Armstrong: Cargo room, adequate and competitive for its size and class.
• 12:45
  Don Armstrong: What I liked?
• 12:46
  Don Armstrong: Color options and seating material design.
• 12:49
  Don Armstrong: Very cool.
• 12:50
  Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
• 12:51
  Don Armstrong: I don't know.
• 12:54
  Don Armstrong: Um I will tell you that I plugged this in here at the house and I also plugged it in at the office.
• 13:01
  Don Armstrong: Only on 110 now.
• 13:03
  Don Armstrong: Just a regular standard thing.
• 13:05
  Don Armstrong: And uh I think that you'll be interested in this 1.6 liter turbo with the plug-in hybrid, so it's got electricity as well.
• 13:16
  Don Armstrong: That combined makes up 268 horsepower and 271 pound feet of torque.
• 13:22
  Don Armstrong: That's a lot, my friends.
• 13:23
  Don Armstrong: But with a combined gas and electric, six-speed automatic transmission, standard all-wheel drive on this one.
• 13:30
  Don Armstrong: Now, the electric and gas mileage that is advertised is 83 miles per gallon.
• 13:41
  unknown: Wow.
• 13:42
  Don Armstrong: Gas only is 36.
• 13:43
  Don Armstrong: Now, this is the first time that I've ever done this where I plugged the car in so it had electricity, so I did both.
• 13:52
  Don Armstrong: It the car did it for me.
• 13:54
  Don Armstrong: The both gasoline and electric.
• 13:56
  Don Armstrong: I got 61.3 miles per gallon.
• 14:01
  Don Armstrong: Wow.
• 14:01
  Don Armstrong: Over 468.83 miles.
• 14:04
  Don Armstrong: Pretty impressive.
• 14:06
  Don Armstrong: Yeah.
• 14:06
  Don Armstrong: Yeah.
• 14:07
  Don Armstrong: Uh what I liked, hello, mileage.
• 14:11
  Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
• 14:13
  Don Armstrong: The downshift needs improvement and delayed acceleration.
• 14:17
  Don Armstrong: There's a little bit of a disconnect there, but you know, I'm a two-foot automatic kind of guy.
• 14:22
  Don Armstrong: Left foot for the brake, right foot for the, and I may have been too fast for it.
• 14:26
  Don Armstrong: Whatever.
• 14:27
  Don Armstrong: Ride and handling, smooth ride, easy, easy handling.
• 14:31
  Don Armstrong: Uh, this is not a car that's meant for road courses.
• 14:34
  Don Armstrong: What could use improvement?
• 14:36
  Don Armstrong: Um Kia did not make the battery weig down the handling.
• 14:42
  Don Armstrong: So it doesn't need improvements, just another thing that I think attributes to look at.
• 14:47
  Don Armstrong: Yeah.
• 14:47
  Don Armstrong: When you drive the car.
• 14:48
  Don Armstrong: Base trim price,$47,190.
• 14:51
  Don Armstrong: Price is tested$49,730.
• 14:54
  Don Armstrong: But the base model price,$40,490.
• 14:59
  Don Armstrong: Competitors, uh Hyundai Tucson, its cousin, starts at$40,325.
• 15:05
  Don Armstrong: Uh Toyota Rav 4, PHEV,$41.5.
• 15:09
  Don Armstrong: And the Ford Escape PHEV.
• 15:11
  Don Armstrong: First, I didn't even know that they made one.
• 15:13
  Don Armstrong: And second, the price was kind of astounding to me.
• 15:16
  Don Armstrong: It went for$31,495 as a base price.
• 15:21
  Don Armstrong: Wow.
• 15:21
  Don Armstrong: So that would be something that I definitely look into.
• 15:24
  Don Armstrong: Next week I'm going to review the Chevy Blazer EV.
• 15:27
  Jeff Dziekan: Especially for uh, you know, the the hybrid gas 31.
• 15:32
  Jeff Dziekan: That's that's pretty plug-in hybrid.
• 15:33
  Don Armstrong: Plug in hybrid a plug-in hybrid.
• 15:35
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, I really never toyed with that.
• 15:37
  Don Armstrong: I just thought, I'm not gonna plug it in.
• 15:38
  Don Armstrong: Why that don't have to?
• 15:40
  Don Armstrong: Well, I did.
• 15:41
  Don Armstrong: I was disciplined enough to plug the thing in, and I was surprised at the mileage that it got.
• 15:46
  Jeff Dziekan: And you say it's how much percentage is is where?
• 15:50
  Jeff Dziekan: Korea?
• 15:50
  Don Armstrong: 95% Korean.
• 15:52
  Don Armstrong: Oh.
• 15:52
  Jeff Dziekan: It's Korean made, it's Korean assembled.
• 15:54
  Jeff Dziekan: So if you drive it and you get out of it, 30 minutes later you want to drive it again.
• 16:01
  Don Armstrong: Did I is that Mars giggling over there?
• 16:05
  Jeff Dziekan: Just asking.
• 16:07
  Jeff Dziekan: Why is he even on?
• 16:08
  Jeff Dziekan: Why is he even on?
• 16:10
  Don Armstrong: Why is he even on?
• 16:11
  Don Armstrong: This was my review, and you have nothing to do with this.
• 16:14
  Don Armstrong: You just stay over there and giggle all you want.
• 16:18
  Don Armstrong: Giggly.