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From Brass Era To EVs: Five Must-See Museums And A Bold New Polestar · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Mr.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Mars has a biggest car museums, Mr.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Mars.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: I guess he does.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: I can't hear you, Mike.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, we can't hear him.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Is he even on with us?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: We can't hear you, Mike.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: My bad.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh communicating with David, sorry.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: So um it's time now for um, as I mentioned, your biggest car museums.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I just thought that uh with all this weather impacting the whole country, some people let's go somewhere.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Get out, get about.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So um the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is one of the largest museums in North America.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's set on a 90-acre campus.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's got over 400 vehicles that run from the brass era cars up to the classic American iron and even into post-war icons.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different buildings, and they're all dedicated, got some of them dedicated to the Cadillacs Pierce Arrow, the Model A Ford, and even some others that you can kind of walk around between them and see how the different history blends in.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's another one up in Tacoma, Washington, and I've actually been to this one.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the LeMay, America's Car Museum.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh again, these are one of the largest automotive museums.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: They've got 350 vehicles, and it's really a very modern-looking architecture, and it's all designed and drawn from the Harold LeMay's collection.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is his personal collection over the years, and that's how he built this museum.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: They have different displays that rotate in and out, and they do a lot of educational things for people, including uh industry and personal freedom, that that shows what's how the Americans have dealt with the uh automotive through the years.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Then you get into what probably is the most famous one, the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I went to this one once and it was under construction.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to go into the basement and I got to see about what's on the screen, and that's about it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: But uh it's a big place.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: They have over a hundred vehicles on display all the time.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: They specify or they they look a lot at the automotive design, engineering, and motorsports, so they kind of bring a lot of stuff in and out.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hollywood cars are very easy to get to, a lot of concept vehicles here.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's really one of the more famous museums in the country.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the ones that I'm most impressed with was the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it really goes into a lot of things.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's really America, and but the automobile sections of it, it just goes from beginning to end.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and it just got everything from the Model T's, historic, historic race cars, presidential vehicles.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there is just so much there that uh you just can't see it all in a day.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think Don and I were there for for less than a day, and it was just amazing the amount of stuff that's in there regarding transportation and manufacturing.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then uh the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is of course in Speedway, Indiana.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and it's all about motorsports.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's got uh a collection of the Indy 500 winners, got some legendary race cars, some pace cars, a lot of the trophies, a lot of a lot of things about the race itself, but it's also got more than that as it considers the automotive motorsports across the country.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a race car fan, this is the museum that you really want to go see.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there'd be like five museums across the country that you might be able to get out to if you uh get tired of all this rotten weather we're having.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's that okay.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Time now for a break.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: All right, time now for this hour's car review.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: I had a chance to drive the all-new 2026 Polestar 4 dual motor.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Now, let me go back here just for a moment.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because when Polestar began a few years ago, it was under the Volvo umbrella.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that ended a long time ago, and I was not aware of that because I had to do my research.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: Who builds the Polestar?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's a company called Geely Motors, G-E-E-L-Y, Geely Motors, China.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it comes in several versions: the Polestar 2, 3, and 4.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: I had the four that had dual motors.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: You can get it with the single motor because it's all electric.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Standard electric SUV is what uh the government calls it.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh seats including a driver, five, built in South Korea with 96% Chinese parts.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not exactly sure what's going on there.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe they just needed another assembly plant.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, we've got one open over here uh in South Korea, so we'll build it over here.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: But 96% Chinese parts.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell the difference?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: I can't tell the difference.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh whatever, it's all new.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: Exterior features.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: There's no rear window.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: What?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: No, there's no rear window.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want to look out the back, you've got a back camera back there.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um it it sounds like it's weird looking, but on the back, if you're looking at the vehicle from the back, it doesn't look weird.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: How they did that paint and uh the way that they've got there's a good picture of it right there.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: It looks like it's got a rear window, doesn't it?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well it doesn't.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: So forget that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh split headlights, uh horizontal split in the headlights.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting and cool.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: Stylish horizontal taillights that kind of go along with the headlights.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it does have a glass roof, and there is no shade.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now, obviously, I drove it a couple of weeks ago, and the weather was just fine.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I got a little tip of the fact that I parked it for about an hour, total sunshine, and I got in, and it was a little warm in there.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, because it was turned off.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you turn it on, it's got one of those roofs that dims.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: It has, yeah, the that when it when it sees the sunlight when it's running, yeah, it dims.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of like a tint is on it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's really cool.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now, how it works like that, I don't know.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but I drove it basically in the early morning and after the sun went down.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something that you might want to consider, especially here in Houston, Texas, where we are.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it could be a problem without a kind of shade up there.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, again, one could use improvement shade for the glass root.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: Interior highlights, 15.4 inch center display.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know how big that is, that's huge.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: 15.4 inches.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it has a Scandinavian style minimalist design.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: And you'll have to do the research on it because where you would normally have knobs and buttons and that sort of stuff.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: No, you got to go to the screen.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Knobs.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Knobs.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: It could be knobs, sure.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh awesome materials throughout.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's well laid out, it's really kind of cool if you get into it.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, I know that I'm an older guy, and I kind of like some knobs for certain things, like yeah, volume on the radio.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: You're coming back.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, and that's the new thing, is they they realize that yeah, not everybody's all into that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, cargo, trunk room, small with the rear seats up, as you can imagine.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: What I like about it, it's cool environment inside when you get in.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: But it could use improvement.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Again, some buttons to control often used features.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: The problem here lies that eyes have to go off the road to locate the functions via a screen.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: And stop, think about that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think that you'll agree with me.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: For many of the functions, it's really not necessary other than to clean up the dashboard.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Engine, dual electric motors that turn out 544 horsepower and 506 pound feet of torque.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Transmission, none, direct drive, range 310 miles.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Tell you about more of that in just a second.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Miles per gallon range in the city, 90, highway 80 for a combined of 85 miles per gallon E.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I got, I don't know how many miles, but I didn't have to stop and put a DC charge on it that cost me$35 and took it almost an hour out of my day.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's a problem for me personally.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: What could use improvement?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: A level two charger in my garage would be nice.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: So next time you send me one of those down to drive, please install that charger in your drive.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, ride and handling, nice ride, although, like other electrics, it felt heavy.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: What could use improvement?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Load pretty good, I guess, overall.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Base trim price 62.9.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Price is tested, 67.4.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: You can get in one of these for a base model price of 56.4.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Competitors, Hyundai Ionic 9 SUV for 58,953, Hyundai Ionic 6 Sedan, 37,850, and the Tesla Model Y SUV starts at 44,990.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it does have competition.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Next week I'll review the Toyota Supra with 400 horsepower through that BMW straight six in it.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: You like cars, race cars with a license plate on the back of it?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: Here is your ticket.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Go kart.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, if you like to get a hey, we want to get to Jeff's car culture.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: The five longest tunnels in the United States of America.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Do I really want to know this?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: When you're outside the longest tunnel in the U.S., you can't help but wonder how did they build it?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what did it cost?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: How many people?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Is it really an engineering marble?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, to all of that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, some of this stuff you've got to be a real good engineer to figure all that stuff out.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: So here we go, Michael.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: The Lincoln Tunnel is another tunnel under the famed Hudson River that connects New Jersey, forget about it, to New York.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's a massive 1.5 miles in length.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's the third largest traffic tunnel in that area.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's created off of the Route 495, uh and this is one of New York's most iconic traffic destinations.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, what really makes the Lincoln Tunnel unique is the three separate tunnels that are involved.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: One was built in 1937, one was built in 1945, and the last one was built in 1957.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Lincoln Tunnel averages over 100,000 vehicles daily, and it's one of the most driven tunnels in the US.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So the next one we have is uh the Ted Williams Tunnel, and it's a renowned tunnel located in the famed Boston, city of Boston, with a length of 1.6 miles.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the longest tunnels in the United States, established in 1995.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're there and you're in the car park or you you know all that stuff, you gotta take the tunnel.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh established in 1995, Ted Williams uh extension of I-90, which is the longest interstate highway in the country.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: The tunnel is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and consists of six lanes.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: The tunnel has a speed limit of 40 miles an hour, and it's a toll tunnel, and you can pay anywhere from 20 cents to$2, depending on where you live.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess these different accesses to different neighborhoods have to pay certain things to get on the road and get in the tunnel.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what it's that's what they're all about.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: The next one, Mike, is uh situated under the Hudson River and is called the Holland Tunnel.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is the second longest tunnel in New York City and it connects New York to New Jersey.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Again, if we've missed it, forget about it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the tunnel is a four-lane tunnel that carries traffic from both I-78 to I-39, and it's about 1.62 miles in length.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, it's the longest tunnel in the U.S.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the Holland tunnel was first opened in 1927, making it the oldest road tunnel in the history of the country.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And this was pretty unique.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Don, you may know this one.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably been on it.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the Colorado Rockies, it's the Eisenhower tunnel.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's 60 miles east of Denver on Interstate 70, and that's where the tunnel's at, in the highest tunnel in the world with an average of 11,112 feet.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it's up there, it's up high in the in the mountains.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: It runs through terrain, and the average uh annual snowfall from that terrain from November to April is 26 feet.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got a lot of snow around you, a lot of mountains.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Two tunnels measuring just a hair under 10,500 feet each direction, and it was finished in 1973.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: It spans two watersheds and the continental divide.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: The federal government purchased it uh a long time ago and they paid 90% of the cost, and the city or the state uh picked up the 10%.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Averages about 30,000 to 50,000 vehicles, so it's a lot, and it's pretty high up there.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you got you know anything to do with altitude or tunnels, uh we can do it.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Baltimore Harbor, Michael.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: This one is uh prior to the Baltimore, prior to the Baltimore Harbor, it's being built and placed in a list of the longest tunnels in the US.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Baltimore's narrow streets were the only direct roads between the city, uh city, the south side of that of Baltimore and Philadelphia.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: So this was built in 1940, and uh it was because of the terrible roads and everything.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's just pretty crazy, right there.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Construction the tunnel began in 1955, and by that time uh it was it was pretty well built and over budget.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh has 21 twin tube sections, about as long as a football field.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're into taking those tunnels, uh good luck.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I gotta say.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to worry about me taking those tunnels.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Now there's a tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, and that's a little under a mile.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we've got one here called the Washburn tunnel that goes underneath the Houston Chip channel, and I just assumed I go on that either.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, look, yeah.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I don't know about that, but uh you know, I'm I'm not real comfortable with that.