Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Hot August Nights 2024; BLS

Transcript

Hot August Nights 2024; BLS · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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John Summers is the motoring historian.
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He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into
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a fairly inept sports bike rider.
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Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of
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cheap and fast, and not much reliable.
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On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new
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and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.
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Good day, good morning, good afternoon.
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It is John Summers, The Motoring Historian.
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Topic of today's prattling, August 9th.
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I just went for the first time.
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I felt a need to unpack it, frankly.
1:14
I've made an agenda, but let me try and, sort of, frame it from the top here.
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That, that, like Pebble, it takes place over a couple of weeks, but like,
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culminates in a particular weekend.
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Like Pebble, there was a sort of Genesis event, and then all these
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other events spun off from it.
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But, and it's an automotive festival on the west coast of America in August.
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But really, the similarities end there, and it's kind of amazing that our hobby
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has that kind of, like, diversity, because I didn't see one Ferrari, I didn't see,
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you know, beyond the old McCann in a casino car park, I didn't see one European
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car, this is an event which is focused on Domestic stuff, so, you know, stuff
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from, from American makers, but, but more than that, um, the craftsmanship that
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comes with either preserving or restoring or putting your own modified touch on
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Something which everyone's seen a million billion times before, you know, as a
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Mustang, a Camaro, and, and, and Impala.
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So, and, and this, this is an event which at its genesis is a cruise.
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It's a parade of cars, which you sit and watch go by.
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Which.
3:00
You know, sitting here in my spot in San Francisco here, looking at
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these jigsaws, some of which are functional, some of which aren't, I,
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I, I struggled with that a little bit.
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The first night we were there, we went out for a meal and just sat on
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the balcony of some restaurant, and you know, out west, when you live on
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the coast here, LA, San Francisco, when the sun goes down, it's cold,
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that's why hoodies were invented here.
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You know, you put the hoodie on, you have the hoodie in the car.
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Because when the sun goes down, it gets cold straight away.
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Well, inland there, it's not like that.
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When the sun goes down, it stays warm.
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So, that means it's like flip flops and shorts and, you know, cold beers.
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And, yeah, and, and cars passing you.
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And my word, that was a better spectacle by some margin than I expected it to be.
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That was, was really, um, a sort of enjoyable element of it.
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Not that we saw the parade.
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We just happened to eat somewhere where there were lots of cars, uh, passing.
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I went with, uh, a couple of neighbors.
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Um, so there were five of us, me and Ollie, my son.
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Um.
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A neighbor who has a late model Hemi Challenger, and his son who's about
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to leave home, you know, 17, 18, off to college, kind of age, and, uh, a
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guy who lives down the street who has, uh, a really nice feel for 60s and 70s
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Italian stuff, has Alfa Romeos, has Ferraris, uh, and, uh, Uh, it judges
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in the Ferrari community as well, and I mention that because that shows
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what a kind of sensitive eye can be.
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That he has, and, uh, we were friends before the trip, but certainly
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after the trip, I think we're all a lot closer to each other.
5:24
I had forgotten how a sort of road trip, and definitely a road trip where
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everyone's a car enthusiast, and it's about the drive as much as about,
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you know, no one needs to overtake.
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Nobody needs to say, why did you overtake?
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There like obviously you're going to overtake like we're doing a driving
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trip and we all all like cars here.
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So, uh, so it had, um, the whole weekend had that kind of feel for me.
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It had, I can best describe it as as being similar.
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To, to the times in the early two thousands when I drove down to to
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Lamont, where, you know, at the beginning of the trip, one drives in a
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way that one might normally drive in.
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By the end of the trip, one finds oneself driving in a way that one
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might normally reserve for a slightly brained out moment on a sports bike and.
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The route that we took from, from here, um, involved visiting Copperopolis.
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So obviously I'm familiar with, with, with that, uh, uh, neck of the woods and,
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and, and highway four, which is in, in parts English B road, believe it or not.
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European listeners, it really, uh, is that.
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Twisty and that, you know, you need a Fiesta ST, not a Chevy Camaro
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kind of, uh, kind of surface.
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But then there are also parts that, uh, you know, just French N Road, English
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A Road, you know, A4, where you can really just, just wring the things out.
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So if, uh, if I tell you that the, uh, that the Ferrari guy chose to have
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air conditioning and reliability and brought his Generation 3 Prius, Um, we
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left him behind in, in the challenge.
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I used the, the E 55 for, for, for this.
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And, uh, yeah.
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Um, so the driving element of it was, was extremely enjoyable and yeah, rather
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like a drive, uh, down to to, to Lamar.
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And, uh, you know, obviously, uh, I, with that comes, comes
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risk and, and I felt like.
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Uh, we, we mitigated the risks reasonably well and didn't sort of act the goat too
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much whilst, you know, enjoying ourselves on some empty, quiet, fast roads.
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Um, I should say that we organized the route to take us over two
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different, um, passes in the Sierra Nevadas on the way up there.
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We went through Ebbets Pass, which.
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Is, is in places the road is sufficiently narrow for them to, you know, for them not
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to be room for two cars to pass, which is kind of, you know, one unusual hit in, uh,
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uh, and the Sonora Pass, which I'd driven over before, but, you know, you just,
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you're not expecting like sweeping pain.
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A road to turn into like alpine mountain pass, which is how it is.
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It's switchbacks.
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It's, you know, it's the Mercedes picking up.
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It's in a rear wheel and, and smoking it a little bit.
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If, uh, if, if you're not, if you're not careful, this
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feeling always the, when you stop in like a rest area, there's like
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a plinth that tells you about like a version of the Donna.
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Party and I'm not sure if you know the story of the the Donna party, but but
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you know, if you don't I'm not gonna Spoil it for you, but, uh, it involves
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being, trying to cross the Sierra Nevadas before there was a proper route, getting
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lost, getting snowed in, running out of food, uh, a general, like, you know,
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absolute, bloody, slow, nightmare, of, of, uh, Of a story where there are a
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lot of stories like this of the early pioneers trying to cross over the the
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Sierra Nevadas and I learned a few more when the others were doing selfies and
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and photographing cars and and things like that on this uh on this last trip.
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The event as I said runs a couple of weeks um we arrived the final weekend we booked
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an airbnb in Reno um now a word on Reno.
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Um,
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many of, of you non Americans will have visited Las Vegas, um,
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and perhaps have considered it a slightly tawdry experience.
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But if I tell you that Reno is a tawdry version of Vegas, um, you might get
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some idea of, uh, of what it's like.
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So look, it's, it's one of these desert communities, which, which didn't exist.
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Um, you know, years ago, it's a stop on one of the main runs
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West, uh, across the country.
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Um, my understanding is I'm not a gambler, but my understanding
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is, is the odds are better.
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In Reno, so this is why there is actually a casino here, because if
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you're a, you're somebody who gambles for entertainment, um, you're going to stay
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in the hotel, you're going to gamble, you might go to a different casino or
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something like that, you'd be to Vegas.
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The fact that Reno offers better odds, that represents, you know, a reason
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to, to go to, to the, the casinos in right in Reno do a pretty good
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job at doing other kinds of events.
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So, you know, I found myself going there.
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You know, when I was looking at the neon lights at the, the drag racing that we
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went to, I'll talk about it in a minute, I'm looking at the neon lights there,
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um, you know, I, uh, there's a Wasp show, there's like Testament and Death Angel
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coming up, you know, there's, there's like, You know, as well as obviously,
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like, country people and R& B people, who I'd never heard of, but, you know.
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There's like a full fist of shows coming up, and I mentioned Wasp and Testament, to
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illustrate that, you know, you too would, you know, stay at the casino, see Wasp,
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get plastered because you were staying at the casino, make a weekend out of it.
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eat in the casino, you know, and generally have a Vegas like casino
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kind of, kind of experience.
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So look, right, Hot August Nights is hosted in the car parks of most
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of, of a couple of the main casinos.
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So the event that we went to was, uh, the Grand Sierra Resort, I think it's called.
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There's another one at, like, Pepper Mill.
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That's another, uh, like, big, big casino there.
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If you've been to Vegas, you know the setup a little bit.
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Although, uh, it is a little bit like, um, Yeah, if you're trying
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to go anywhere or do anything in L.
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A., You always need a car because like one place is always 10 or
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15 miles from another place and even if it's only five miles away,
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there's like a freeway bisecting it.
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That means that, you know, you can't walk.
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There's no sidewalks for you to be able to, to, to walk.
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So it's one of those, um, kind of, of, of communities.
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So, and by the time that we were booking, we couldn't stay in, in the
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old, uh, Couldn't stay in the casinos.
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It was there were like four hundred, five hundred dollars a night for the room.
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So we were like, yeah, not doing that.
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So we ended up booking an Airbnb.
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I mean fine, right?
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But, but, you know, quite often with these things there can
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be a slip, twixt, cup and lip.
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And in this case we, uh, we didn't have the door code, so
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we could get in the room okay.
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Like from a corridor, but actually getting into the building, which was
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secured against Reno's like, you know, homeless meth head population of which is
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fucking vast, let's call a spade a spade.
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Um, you know, one of a particular class of blasted by the desert sun kind of
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meth head, if you, uh, get the picture.
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Um, Yeah, so I guess the trip was, was rendered a little bit more
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adventurous by virtue of the fact that at no point were we able to get
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into the building without assistance.
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So when we're coming back to, to the room, we're like hanging around
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outside waiting for somebody to come out and like, Asking them, catching
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the door or, or asking them to let us in or, or, or all that kind of thing.
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So, you know, that was not ideal, but you know, I guess not the end of the world.
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And then the restaurant that we ate at was two or three blocks away.
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It was like a walk.
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And, uh, yeah, the, the, as I mentioned previously, we, we missed like
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the parade, but there was so many.
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Cars about that.
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It represented like a mobile car show and and I wasn't alone in being really
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impressed by that We were all really impressed and really excited by that,
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um, I I'll be able to include pictures of of the bits and pieces and and
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this really, you know I'll be able to include pictures of what we saw.
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Um, Initially, it seemed to be an awful lot of Impalas, but as the weekend
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wore on, oh my word, it was Camaro.
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And through towards the end of the weekend, I, I began to, to realize that,
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that what you, what you end up looking at is not, oh, another F Body Camaro.
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Now you're like, well, does it have the LED lights?
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Well, how's the stance on it?
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Well, does it look better with the full width bumper, or does it look
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better with the quartered bumpers?
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You know, and that Z 28 pointy bit.
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I'm talking about the second generation Camaro, the Dave Hull's Camaro, which
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is a good looking, really good looking car when, when done right, you know,
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and I'm, uh, I was struck by that.
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And, of course, uh, I'll say, of course, the day after we got back, Ollie was on
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at me to, you know, Get our Camaro, like, in a state where it can be usable and
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drivable and, and get it like that, and I was, I was secretly hoping that Hot
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August Ice would fire his enthusiasm for, uh, for our muscle cars, uh, more, and,
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uh, it's definitely happening for the Camaro, so there, I have, uh, the gauntlet
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thrown down for me to, uh, get my car built before he is, uh, before he's 60.
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So the music this time, uh, so for a lot of the events, we just,
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the car parking was a bit of an asshole around where we were and
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it was like towing and all of that.
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So we ended up leaving, um, Lez's Gen 3 Prius and, uh, the E55.
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We left them on the street and we all rode in the Challenger, which I mean, it's just
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like, I mean, the car's orange, right?
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So you feel faintly.
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Dukes of Hazzard and, and, uh, you know, it's, it's just funny being in, in the
18:04
backseat of a muscle car with, uh, with the window down and, you know, not legal
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speeds on the, the speedo and, and the hemi roaring, you know, it, it, it's
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just makes you feel like Dukes of Hazzard and, and, and that's, uh, really fun.
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And, uh, as I say that I'd forgotten how much these kind of motoring events
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engender a sense of camaraderie and, you know, you, uh, you have adventure
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and you become friends with the people that you have adventure with.
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And this was, uh, and this was, was the case here, but, uh, uh, the
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soundtrack for, for this episode is, uh, is Sackwell Black Label Society.
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Um, I was not into them in period, but I've really enjoyed
18:51
them more, more recently.
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Um, Challenger guy had a volume humping on, uh, the, uh, the Black Label
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Society, hence me, uh, be doing that.
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So that was kind of the soundtrack of the weekend, so I feel like that should be
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the soundtrack of, uh, of this episode.
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So the E55, I mean, it sat for a year.
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I just like pulled it out.
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I mean, I'll show the picture.
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It's like a bloody barn fire.
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Bird poo all over one corner of it, because I guess a nest
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had been directly above it.
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So, you know, all of the poo from like, you know, mom, dad, and all the babies
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was down the side of it, and all the mess of the Anyway, so I hosed that off,
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but like the cast looks bloody terrible.
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Now it really looks like, with nail and eye, tired.
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On this trip when we were in Reno, I, uh, I don't know why my hand was on
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it, but I touched the roof in the hole.
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Section of, of paint, like two or three inches square came off my hand around
20:17
the sunroof because it's just, uh, you know, but it fired up fine when I took
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it out of, of storage and it came back over to the city fine and I, I, you
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know, didn't want to use something with a stick for, uh, uh, August night for,
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for August nights in Pebble Lake, I never like a stick for Pebble because
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there's so much sitting in traffic.
20:42
Okay.
20:43
Um, and you're driving a lot, so it's, it's tiring and, and, and the Mercedes is
20:48
just great at these kind of, of trips, so.
20:52
Yeah, so I put 700 miles on it since I took it out of storage.
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It sat for a year.
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I just took it out of storage, warmed it up gently, and then, you know,
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fucking leaned on it like I normally do.
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You know, check the tire pressure, check the oil, and they're just
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like, you know, brake fluid, water, you know, and all of that.
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Looked tickety boo, and you know, it fired up.
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Fired up, not quite first turn of the key, but you know.
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Still only took about, I would say, under a minute before it went into closed cycle.
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Bye Was running pretty smoothly when it was an open cycle.
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Um,
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yeah, so, uh, I guess, I mean, it has a little flat spot on the tires, but
21:35
it, I mean, by the time I'd run around from the storage unit into the edge
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of Lodi and, uh, you know, I gassed it up, it's rolled, it rolled that
21:45
out and, uh, you know, it's, yeah, so anyway, so, well, yeah, 700 miles.
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Since it came out of, of storage now, we did, uh, August
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nights and, uh, and, and back.
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Um, only thing is there is a sort of spatter of what looks like oil, but
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from the feel, I think it's grease coming out from behind the three pointed
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star center on the front right wheel.
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So I have a feeling that that is grease from a wheel bearing, which is giving up.
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But I did.
22:25
Cranked the thing up this morning, and I rolled the wheel, you know, got
22:30
the wheel off the ground and rolled it, and you know, is it the most
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silent turning wheel you've ever seen?
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No.
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Is it the grunchiest, fadingest wheelbarrow you've ever seen or heard?
22:43
No, it is not.
22:45
So, um, I'm gonna chance it for Pebble.
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That's why I'm recording this, like, right now, because, uh, when I don't really
22:54
feel ready for it, you know, because, uh, I'm not doing a conversation with Gammy
22:59
or anything like that, I'm recording it now because it's Pebble tomorrow, so I
23:02
wanted to, like, actually, like, formate my thoughts on this event, uh, before
23:08
they get kind of overwritten by, uh, But by another event, because it's as
23:14
simple as there is a correct when you restore a Jaguar E Type Unstable Internet
23:22
is saying that look when you restore a Jaguar E Type There is a correct way to
23:27
do it and an incorrect way to do it and you're just not I mean some people do but
23:33
You're not going to do slot max, hugger orange, and, you know, silver flame.
23:40
You're just not going to do that because it's just outside of the culture.
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So you might, you know, if you were, you might.
23:49
Do different wheels or, or something, you know, or something like that.
23:53
So I think with the , you, you tend not to see people doing that.
23:57
But you know what you might do, you with an MGB is fair, five speed
24:01
transmission from a master, my arch or something like that, just
24:04
to make it more drivable in modern conditions on, you know, on highways.
24:09
'cause this car that was designed before, there were motorways
24:12
and, and highways everywhere.
24:14
Fundamentally what I'm saying is, is that.
24:18
European culture is not, uh, modify, uh, beyond maybe, uh, a mild personalization
24:29
towards your own, uh, uh, preference, whereas, Uh, the American scene is
24:40
far more about, uh, modifying your own cars and, and in that respect
24:47
it's far more like the sort of classic Ford scene is, is in Britain where
24:52
it's not about the car, whether or not you've got an Escort or a Fiesta,
24:58
it's how, what kind of condition it's in and how that car reflects your own.
25:07
You know, ideas about what's cool, and in many cases, your own personal
25:11
craftsmanship in making it that way.
25:14
Um, so, you know, I, I, uh, well, as I say, this is the comment I made about
25:20
the Kamaras earlier, that when you see loads and loads of them together, you
25:23
find yourself comparing them together.
25:25
And of course, that's what people in the scene are doing, and then it's
25:27
about what represents good taste, what represents bad taste, what
25:31
represents Something different from what, um, other people have been doing.
25:38
So one thing that, that we talked about, um, that Oli and I talked about that I
25:43
didn't think he'd noticed was, uh, but I did notice, was, uh, Forgiato wheels.
25:49
Um, they weren't to his taste.
25:51
He didn't like the way they make the car look.
25:53
He didn't like the design of the wheel.
25:55
He particularly didn't like the steering wheel design.
26:01
And You know, this is the nature of an event like that is that
26:06
you're going to have some cars that you look at that you're in love
26:10
with and others that you're not.
26:12
But what was interesting to me was it took, um, I would say most of,
26:18
so the first day we went to that, you know, we, we, we ate at meal
26:22
and watched the cars drive past.
26:23
The second day we went to the Grand Sierra and looked at cars.
26:27
I would say we looked at probably a hundred or 150 cars.
26:32
Um, that were in the parking lot, basically, in the bloody roasting sun.
26:38
I mean, let's make no fucking mistake, it was balls, balls hot, right?
26:47
When I realized how many cars there were, I went like that, we arrive in the
26:50
corner of the car park, and you can see like, acres of bloody Camaros, basically.
26:57
And you're like, and when I'd realized that, The guys that we were with are,
27:05
maybe move faster than my dad, but they certainly move at a pace which is much
27:11
more like the pace I like to move at, rather than the pace that, you know,
27:16
my wife and her family like to move at.
27:19
Um, I realized we were going to be going slowly and we were going to be not looking
27:25
properly at every car, but certainly every third or fourth car was going to
27:30
warrant a proper walk around and, uh, you know, sprint through the window and,
27:35
uh, stand back and maybe take a photo and the, the, well, when I realized that,
27:41
I mean, that, and then plus the heat, I was like, Jesus, at first I had a, I
27:46
had a moment where I thought, is this going to be, If this is, I was thinking
27:49
is this is feeling like too much for me.
27:51
How is, I was used to feel when I was a tour leader.
27:54
If it's feeling too much for you, the packs, they're definitely struggling.
27:58
And, and I always feel like that's a good thing to apply for, for
28:02
Ollie is, is, you know, if I'm feeling, Christ, this is a bit hot.
28:07
I'm a bloody hungry.
28:08
I could do with a sit down.
28:09
Is he not feeling like that too?
28:12
But you know what happened was after a bit, the sun went in.
28:16
And that moment where the sun was just behind clouds, suddenly
28:20
it was actually pretty pleasant.
28:22
But then when the sun came out again, you were just like, Jesus, I feel like.
28:26
I'm like, you know, an, uh, an egg roasting in a, in a pan.
28:31
But anyway, whilst I, instead of moaning about that, why don't I talk
28:36
about the, the cars that, that we actually saw in, in that parking lot.
28:43
You really get a mixed bag, you know, when, when you go to Pebble Beach,
28:48
they say, Oh, it's so eclectic.
28:51
Now, it is, right?
28:53
You know, there's going to be like a McLaren F1 next to a, you know.
28:58
Packard owned by president kind of thing, um, on the field this year.
29:03
And they do all of that with a hundred cuts.
29:04
So there is diversity there, but.
29:08
The diversity at this event, although it's all domestic stuff, little bit of Japanese
29:14
stuff, few Corollas, that kind of stuff.
29:17
No European stuff whatsoever.
29:20
Zilch.
29:22
Um, few hot rods, few, you know, but mostly
29:32
You know, what am I thinking of?
29:34
I'm thinking of a one owner Well, all one family owned Mustang that
29:39
had this like rare competition, uh, option pack that made it faster
29:45
than the GT 350 of the, of the era.
29:49
Well, if she was like early, it was a, well, it was a 68.
29:54
Yeah.
29:54
Cause the lad that we were with loves the 68.
29:57
And, uh, Uh, we were talking about the Fayette Faux air intake that
30:03
was a 68 only thing for the Mustang.
30:06
The faux brake ducts in front of the rear wheel, which of course I'm
30:10
familiar with because they made it onto the side of the Mark 1 Ford
30:14
Capri and were always a feature that I thought was, uh, was cool as a boy.
30:19
Um, you know, and that's the eye that you're looking at
30:23
these, uh, these things with.
30:25
I can't get out of my mind.
30:26
Um, this Buick that we were, that I was looking at, which was black.
30:31
It had the Kelsey Hayes wheels on it.
30:33
It stands just right.
30:35
Radial wheels on it.
30:36
Uh, radial tires on it.
30:38
Um, I'm not a fan of the Kelsey Hayes wheels.
30:40
I'd have done black steelies on it.
30:42
But, you know, this is the thing with it.
30:43
down to, to your own personal taste and, and I was ashamed to say I missed
30:48
the car on the first pass and then on the second pass I was looking at the
30:52
hood because it has this one of these cool side hinge hoods and you know
30:56
they've done the old toothy grille just right and got the stance of the car
30:59
just right so that toothy grille really looked like it was gonna bloody eat you.
31:04
Now I looked under the hood and it had a 65 401 nail head in it and I was like
31:10
oh wow what a cool Period modification car was black interior oxblood.
31:18
Um, yeah, cool car.
31:23
Next one that's springing to mind for me is, uh, uh, a 66
31:30
Fairlane stack headlights.
31:31
I'm a sucker for the stack headlight, aren't I?
31:33
Not just the stack headlight, the stack headlight with the lean.
31:36
You got to have the lean forward, which, uh, which that
31:40
Fairlane has, um, uh, in green
31:47
little slot mags on there.
31:49
Um, and a coyote under the hood and a stick,
31:54
I mean, just nicely done.
31:57
Just, yeah, just really, uh, really a nice, simple, good, just, yeah, just
32:07
something which you found yourself thinking, you know, the craftsmanship
32:12
here, you just want to buy it rather than, you know, you could spend a and never
32:19
create something that was as, uh, just as right as, uh, And some of those cars
32:27
looked, and that one in, in particular.
32:30
Um, whilst I'm thinking about individual cars, Um, I think my favorite car of the
32:36
whole weekend was, uh, a very original looking, um, 69, Cleveland 351, Mustang
32:46
with a four speed, white, black hood, big Cooper Cobra radials on it, stamps just
32:54
right, bit of rust in the bottom of the door, You know, just, just looked bang
33:03
on from a, from a standards perspective.
33:05
Ollie, love that one as well.
33:08
Um, really the kind of car that made you think, how the hell should I scrape
33:14
together some, you know, get liquid with some of the stuff I've got and,
33:18
and try and get hold of something.
33:20
Like that, really, really nice like that, rather than, you know, shattered like
33:25
my Camaro is, or, you know, not really true, you know, not late era muscle like
33:32
my, you know, 63 Pontiac Grand Prix is.
33:36
Um, and also, you know, neither of those cars were, are cars that
33:40
I, um, felt comfortable driving to, to bloody hot August nights.
33:45
Yeah, this is obviously what this Mustang had, had done.
33:48
Well, who knows, maybe it had been trailered, but, uh, but
33:51
yeah, I love that Mustang.
34:12
Also, on the, on the last day, we took a cruise through, uh, through
34:17
the pepper mill and, uh, looked at, uh, uh, looked at, uh, just, you
34:24
know, what they had in the car park.
34:25
I guess we expected.
34:27
That there would be a show there on Sunday, but actually it
34:29
finishes on the Saturday night.
34:32
First thing on a Sunday morning, there's like a closing ceremony or something,
34:35
which, uh, we, which, you know, we, we weren't aware of until we missed it.
34:40
So, but we went to the Peppermill, we walked around, and in the car park
34:43
there, there was a really, really lovely, Uh, four speed, um, 69, Judge, GTO,
34:54
orange, faded, hideaway headlights, you know, the, uh, spoiler was faded
35:01
a different color from the, uh, from the trunk, uh, a different orange.
35:06
Um, yeah, I'm just a sucker for when the car looks really, um, original.
35:13
That Fairlane was an exception.
35:15
Um, uh, there were a number of, uh, second generation, well, there were a
35:22
number of really nice first generation Camaros, but there are a number of really
35:25
nice, um, second generation, um, Camaros.
35:29
Um, you know, done right, those cars really do look so good.
35:35
I really do need to, um, build my own.
35:39
Um, also would want to mention on that, that day at the Grand Sierra, there
35:44
was a green, Sort of Yenko clone, um, RSSS69 Camaro, um, side pipes, torque
35:56
thrusts, kind of a bit much but kind of just right as, as well, uh, Oli,
36:04
Oli also loved that car, I liked that car and he really highlighted to me
36:08
what a great, what a great car it was.
36:32
So I guess the climax of the event for us was, uh, Uh, we went to the Nugget, um, on
36:38
a Saturday night because, uh, we'd read in the agenda thing that if you Google it up,
36:45
events are August 9th and they, there's like a list of stuff that's published.
36:50
So although the events are distributed over a number of casinos, you know,
36:54
they were like coordinated, like producing a part of it, I guess, I
36:58
guess there's a chamber of commerce involved in all of that, all of that
37:01
good stuff, but, but look, right, this is neither here nor there.
37:04
Uh, we went to see this drag racing.
37:08
I guess it's in a car park.
37:10
I guess there was no center divider.
37:14
So, um, there was like, we were in these bleachers.
37:18
And I would have said when you walked around the front of the
37:21
bleachers, you were probably, I don't know, 20 feet from the car.
37:27
There's this concrete barrier in the way.
37:29
And, and I guess we were there right at the beginning and they're like emergency
37:35
services were like racing their different vehicles against each other and, uh,
37:40
you know, people were doing, you know, practices and that kind of stuff.
37:44
And, you know, it's one bloke at a common gear about the only victor, um, their
37:48
only European car I saw the whole time.
37:50
So in other words, you know, there was general, like, not exciting stuff.
37:55
But this bloke took this Pro Street Vega up the track, and I kid you
38:01
not, he had the back so far out of line, that if he'd done it the other
38:06
way, he'd have tagged the concrete wall and the Citroen afterwards.
38:10
Like, do you think that concrete barrier would have held that car
38:14
back if it had gone the other way?
38:16
And he went, no.
38:18
And I'm like, yeah, if a bloody nine year old can spot that this is, a little bit
38:24
more of a loosey goosey form of motorsport than you might see in California.
38:29
Yeah, so, uh, So yeah, we were high up in the bleachers.
38:33
We went down at the front and uh, at the place where it said no
38:37
standing behind the catch fencing.
38:39
We did not stand there or dither in, in that place.
38:43
And uh, yeah, and, and um, that was a really fun, fun time.
38:53
Event to go to.
38:54
We, uh, we struggled to park and sat in traffic and that was a bit irritating.
38:58
But, you know, it's part and parcel.
39:00
When you've not been to this kind of car event before, you know, now we know that
39:05
you bloody just street park and walk.
39:07
You know, now we know.
39:27
I guess, uh, uh, yeah, it warmed up slowly.
39:32
Um, started at six, went on till midnight.
39:35
Um, so we like, watched for a bit, went in, had some food.
39:38
Um, a bit of a funny turn in the restaurant actually.
39:42
Like, had a, like, bloody weirdness.
39:46
Like, just as a result of the general, like, excessiveness of, uh, you
39:51
know, like, hot and dragsters and shitty food and, and all of that.
39:56
But, uh, yeah, um,
40:02
uh, and I had a little nap after the meal.
40:07
But then, uh, we went out and caught the end of the drags, and that really
40:12
was the, the, a really good way to, uh, you know, to, to end the trip,
40:19
because, uh, or end the activity in Reno.
40:23
Then, of course, we, like, slept in late, and then, uh, did the drive home,
40:27
and the drive home we did Sonora Pass, that, uh, on the way back, as I, uh, as
40:33
I mentioned, and, uh, enjoyed the drive.
40:38
So
40:41
I'm looking at my, uh, list here to see if there's anything that I might have, uh,
40:50
I might have missed.
40:51
'cause I haven't consulted it all of the year, all of the way through.
40:59
Yeah.
41:00
I guess at Pebble they like curate it for you, so it's all great cars.
41:05
Um, and one of the things you, you may have found yourself feeling disillusioned
41:11
with local cars and coffee 'cause you see the same cars over and over or.
41:16
Maybe what you look at, it's like a lot of modifications
41:21
become really cliche, don't they?
41:23
So you can be like, Jesus, you know, I remember, um, a guy in a, you know, a
41:28
really well known Porsche collector saying to me one time, Um, you know, if I have
41:34
to look at another fiberglass bodied Model A hot rod replica, With a Chevy
41:42
small block and an automatic transmission, I'm going to gouge my eyes out and,
41:47
and I do know how, how that feels.
41:50
And I suppose I've been feeling a little bit like that about the, I was worried
41:56
I'd feel like that about the whole event, but I realized in the first car
41:59
park I looked at when there were three.
42:01
Camaros that were either 70, 71, 72, or 73s, and each of them being done in a
42:07
different way, and sat in a different, and sat on the road in a different
42:10
way, and one of them I wouldn't have wanted, but two of them, I don't,
42:16
yeah, that is the moment where you realize that this is about riffing on
42:24
a classic, rather than, you know, The recipe of trying to do it just right.
42:30
This is like, how do you garnish your burger rather than the Michelin star?
42:34
You know, like a pebble beach where, you know, you restore the car, right.
42:39
You know, you get, you win.
42:40
Whereas if you, you know, don't restore the car using exactly the
42:44
right fit and finish, you know, you don't even get invited to the event.
42:49
Um, so yeah, I guess you need to, it's more of a.
42:56
You know, you can look at anything at Pebble and it's awesome, not at the show
42:59
Pebble itself, but also at many of the, you know, accompanying shows, like if you
43:05
go to a show like, I don't know so much about Concorso now, I understand that's
43:09
maybe going off the boil a little bit, but if you go to, um, you know, an event like
43:14
Legends of the Autobahn, traditionally Legends of the Autobahn was always a
43:18
really exciting way to see some really high caliber late model German cars.
43:24
Um, Yeah, I was sub 50 grand collectibles.
43:29
It was sub 50 grand German drivable collectibles.
43:33
It was, you know, an awesome, awesome place to, to, to go
43:36
see these events in Reno.
43:40
Um, you always need to sift more to see the really good stuff because there's
43:44
going to be some builds that you look at and you're just like, oh, wow, that's,
43:48
that's not for, that's not for me.
43:51
Um, because, you know, not everybody's taste is, is, is the same, is it?
43:56
And then there are the original cars that I mentioned that Mustang with the
43:59
competition pack on it or wherever it was, but, you know, um, Yeah, it's, uh,
44:07
it's, it's enjoyable, I guess, because you do see cars like the Fairlane, um,
44:13
where you can just really appreciate what people are, uh, uh, getting out.
44:17
I should mention, um, this Duster that I, I spotted that was just
44:22
such a, a simple, clean build.
44:26
It was obviously built to be a great to drive muscle car.
44:32
Um, and it just, it had all of the bits that were good for driving and absolutely
44:38
nothing else, including decent paint.
44:40
It had terrible paint and a blue door on one side and I bloody loved it.
44:56
So I guess what I'm really struck by, and this is what I'm gonna wrap up
45:02
with, is, is that you come back from a pilgrimage like that, you know, with
45:07
your fur fur fur the A religion you've worshipped at the, uh, the pilgrim
45:16
shrine or, or, or whatever, uh, you, you, you've been amongst your people.
45:23
And it's a terribly affirming experience.
45:27
This is Editor John, by the way, and I don't know why I was struggling to get
45:31
the point out But that's really what I was saying is that the it was awesome
45:36
looking at the cars It was awesome getting to be closer with the people
45:40
that I went with and and it was awesome.
45:43
Um, being part of something that's a little bit bigger than yourself
45:48
and that was perhaps a little bit more of a Deeper profound point than
45:53
I was really You know, expected to make it, but yeah, really fun event.
45:57
And if you get the chance to go, if you like cars, go, if you like muscle
46:00
cars, really, at some point in your life, you must go to hot August nights.
46:05
Thanks for listening.
46:41
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