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Stuttgart's Secret: Randy Leffingwell Unlocks Porsche's Legacy · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast From the Sugar Shack Studios in Texas, usa.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: This is your place for all things automotive.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: The award-winning In Wheel Time Car Talk Show Coming up.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: We talk to author Randy Leffingwell about the Porsche 911.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: He's got a new book out.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Later, jeff has the racing calendar.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Mars has this week in auto history.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'll get you caught up on the stories making automotive news headlines.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Howdy, along with Mike out of this world, mars.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: We always need more.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Jeff Zekin, our chief engineer, david Ainsley, resting up for the big trip up to Granbury in a couple of weeks.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Glad you could join us on this saturday for a live broadcast.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: It's 11 30 central time in case you're listening on a podcast.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we do have a live broadcast and it airs saturday, as I mentioned in the promo, from 10 to noon central time.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Just want to keep it all straight.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Sure, above board, which is rare for this show, because usually we run kind of under the radar.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: We have loose boards, we do have loose yeah.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And some of them need to be nailed down.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, you get a nail in your foot.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Author Randy Leffingwell got a brand new book out.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: This is Mr Portia 9-11.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: You know, and that is a total compliment, randy, how are you?
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Good morning, it's good to see you again, my friend, uh-oh.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: He is muted.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: He went mute again.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: Are you muted?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Well, we can't hear a darn word that you've got to say, probably a good thing.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Well, he's looking at it.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: No, we can't hear him.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Is that better?
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, yes.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I didn't do it from my end.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: It's all your fault.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Hey, you've been around long enough to know it's always your fault.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: When my TV goes out at home, I yell Mike, I'm only shouting at him when the audio goes out.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Mike's 90 miles away, kathy goes.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: It's Mike's fault, so put me up full screen, would you, yep?
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: I remember talking with you guys once before and it was so much fun.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I'm so glad you've invited me back.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: This is great, Thank you.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm showing your book right now and it's nice, it's big, it's heavy.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It probably costs $1,000.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: This is the Porsche 911, every model since 1964.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And I know every Porsche-ophile who is watching this show right now is going, ooh, that looks nice.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: It is a nice book.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: It is beautiful man, Thank you.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Did you do the photography or did you steal some stuff?
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: How did that work out?
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Grand theft photo.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: No, I did about a third of it.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I'd say the front third of the book is mine and then the back two thirds come from a few other photographers and a lot of it from gracious, generous Mother Porsche's press department.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I have to tell you, I mean seriously, I really admire Porsches.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: I have a very close friend of mine that I went to high school with.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: He's got one, a pristine one that keeps in the garage under the cover and all that stuff.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I've ridden in them and there is really no other car that is like a Porsche and I can only imagine what it would be like in a 911.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is Germany's response to the Corvette.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely right.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: You really bring up a very interesting point, because if you look at the world, there are I mean, every one of the sports cars of the world represents the country.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: You've got Jaguar and Aston Martin for the UK, you've got Mercedes and Porsche for Germany, you've got Ferrari and Alfa Romeo for Italy, you've got Corvette and maybe something else for the US, but everything is purely representative of the country where it was born.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I'm a Corvette guy and I have to tell you that when I see a Porsche sports car of any kind, I always take note of it, look at it, see it going down the road, and I'm always impressed and I'm a.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Corvette guy, and don't forget, you go for Russia.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's that.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I had forgot Yugo.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: That's a shortcoming on my part.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: I'll broaden my horizon.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: We need the Yugo book next year.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the book, let's talk about the Porsche 911.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Obviously, at some point in your life, early on, because you've been doing this for a while now this is the fourth edition of the Porsche 911, that you're a Porsche guy.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: How did you become a Porsche guy?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: My uncle introduced me to it way, way back when I was six or seven years old.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: He had a Porsche Speedster and that's the 356 version that everybody calls the bathtub, sort of familiar to those Steve McQueen and Paul Newman movies.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: He had one of those and he raced a little bit.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: But he my father was a man who felt that the sun rose and set on the Buick Electra 225.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Yay, all right.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: So about as opposite as you could be.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: My uncle to my father.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And while I've always admired and have owned a couple of great big American highway cruisers, my heart kind of fell into those little kind of quirky engine-in-the-wrong-place German cars and I just got more and more interested in them over time.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Did my first book on them way back in 1991.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: More and more interested in them over time, did my first book on them way back in 1991.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: And since then it's just kind of become a I guess you'd say a magnificent obsession Do you own?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a Porsche 911 today?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: No, I do not.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: They're too rich for a poor author's blood.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Ah, okay, do you own any Porsche today?
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I was very fortunate I inherited a Cayenne plug-in hybrid from a very dear, generous friend, oh my God, that's an awesome vehicle.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, it sure is, it sure is.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I love it, and he puts some suspension things on it that make it really fun to throw around corners.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: But uh, yeah, it's a it's, it's a great vehicle when did that?
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: when did the cayenne come out?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: About 2000 ish?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: yeah, I think 2004 or 5.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I was talking to a buddy about it the other day and forgot to research it.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I, yeah, I know they were working on it.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: They were inventing it in the late 1990s.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I remember getting one when they first came out.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: They had one in the press fleet and I was fortunate enough to get it and I was thoroughly impressed.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: And that was at a time when you're going what, they're building an SUV, no, they're going to ruin it, oh my gosh.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: And what a brilliant manufacturing decision that was because what a successful vehicle it is.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Well, it essentially saved the company and it definitely saved the 911.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Porsche was in real financial trouble in those days and it definitely saved the 9-11.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Porsche was in real financial trouble in those days and there was risk that Porsche was going to be sold to Mercedes.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Toyota was talking to them, General Motors was talking to them, and the whole question was what's the future of this company?
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And Wendell and Wiedeking the chairman at the time had this crazy idea.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Well, there's five regions in the world that we don't, we haven't looked at yet.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I think it was Brazil, Russia, India, China and it's BRICS.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, Saudis, the desert countries, because there were fewer paved roads, 9-11s were never going to sell there, but they could produce something that would work for those cultures, and so that was the thinking behind the car.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: But its immediate, sensational success absolutely saved the 911.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Is everything still made in Stuttgart?
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: No, they make Cayennes, I think, are made in Leipzig, along with Macan.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: They make the Boxster and Cayman they make in Osnabrück in Germany.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: No, oh, I said Germany.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's Germany.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: They were making them at a factory in Finland, I think, for a while, but they brought that back onto the continent.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: So pretty much everything is within a few hundred miles of Stuttgart.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: But no, the Stuttgart campus is 9-11s and the Taycan electric car.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Have you been to Stuttgart?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Have you been to the factory?
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: A number of times.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Oh good, I was waiting for you to say no, I haven't, I'm going to go okay.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: So we're going to start a good.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I was waiting for you to say no, I haven't, I'm going to go okay so we're going to start a GoFundMe page for you to go, because you deserve it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're so kind.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: No, I've been for a while.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I was going as often as four times a year.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Wow, nice, yeah, and I assume that you got a lot of your information from the factory.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely correct.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: I've had a great working relationship with their archives department since my first book in 1991.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: And so, being kind of a regular visitor, they came to look on me as a credible real person.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: And well, you know how it is you're a journalist.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: So the first couple of times you show up to someplace you have to pull out open your suitcase, pull out the hoop, set it on the easel, spray gasoline around it, set fire to it and jump through it yeah.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I actually jump through the burning hoop a couple of times, then the next time they, as you've got it all set up, they say well, you don't need to light it.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, and then the last time you don't have, and then you don't even have to break out the hoops.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: They're going.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Randy, come on in, exactly right, have a brewski on us.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Well, that took a little longer, but yes.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: So what makes this book an expansion of the third edition?
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: It's the addition of about two and a half dozen pages at the back that talk about the new generation, the 992 and the 992.2, which introduced the in my mind, utterly amazing 911 GTS.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: That's the Porsche you probably read about it that has a regenerating hybrid system.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: You can't plug it in, but, kind of like the Formula One cars, the braking and the coasting turn the alternator into a generator and feed the battery, so that when you then pull out of the corner and you need the extra oh hundred horsepower, you've got it.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Push button horsepower, basically yeah, yeah but this new book talks about basically, basically, the additions to it are the second generation, well, actually the entire 992 series, which is the current ones in production.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Are they still building the 911?
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, oh, yes.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: How much what's?
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Pardon my ignorance here, but what is the base price of a 911 in US dollars?
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: About um fasten your seatbelt yeah it's um 70, around 110, I think okay, so which is?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: is the new one, the one that's like 250 000?
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: that would be the turbo s?
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's that's been around for a couple of years.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: That has 7 million horsepower.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: It can change the rotation of the earth.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know to me, in the few times that I have been in a Porsche, I can tell you that you can't even compare it to BMW.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Bmw has got its own thing going on.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: This is a tighter, more compliant.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: It is a different feel than BMW.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: It is exclusive to Porsche.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know how they do it and I don't know any of the mechanics behind it, but they are a ride unto itself.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Well, their suspension engineers are incredibly passionate, but I think the real secret of Porsche's success forever has been their testing and development programs.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: You know, they have a test circuit at their VISOC facility, at their Vysok facility, and they run their cars around that until they break, and then they figure out what broke and they fix it, and then they run them again until that breaks again or something else breaks.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: And they do that not only with their series production cars, they do it with their race cars.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: And one of the most interesting things about the race car and the series car test track is that there's this thing that they call the ruttel stroker, which is the rough road.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and imagine a cobblestone street in europe after an earthquake.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: So instead of just being generally bumpy, those bumps are two or three inches apart and they run the car through there at speed, at 100 kilometers, 60 miles an hour, and then at the end of it there's a jump and they run the race cars off the jump and that jump is, you know it's about like this it's about a quarter of a meter or a third of a meter.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: That was a story years and years and years ago where Ferrari wanted to see Porsche's testing facility.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: They were thinking about whether they go into the series.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: The RS Spyder was in, spider was in and the man in charge said don't show them, don't show them.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: And Helmut Bott, who was in charge at the time, said no, no, invite them, because we will show them what they do and they won't enter.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: And so they took them.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: They showed them absolutely everything, took them out to the test track track.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: They had 911s running over the jump and then they had the race cars going over the jump and the the Ferrari engineers looked around and said you do this?
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: And the race car came around again and went over the jump and again and run over the jump.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: And they turned to to Professor Bott and said how many many times do you do this?
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: And Bott said until the car breaks and then we fix it and test it again.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: At the least it's 1,000 kilometers over this road and the jump.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Do you have pardon me for interrupting, but do you have?
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Do you address the testing facility in your book?
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, okay, yep, perfect Good.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, vysok is a hell of a facility and it's a major part of the story of the 911.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Well and clearly, now you're a part of the Porsche family, because apparently they've welcomed you into the fold.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Well, let's put it this way when I call them and ask if I can come visit, they don't say no, nein, herr Leffingholz, you cannot come.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: They're always very welcoming.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: They always are incredibly helpful to me.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: I'm very, very fortunate.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: If I bought a Porsche, would I be allowed to go to the factory and see it being built, or would I be able to get a tour of the factory?
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: How does that work?
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Absolutely yes.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely yes.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: You'd have to arrange it in advance.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: You can't just walk up one day and say I'd like to go for a tour.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Sure, Because there's so many people that want to.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: But especially if you're getting a car built, you can maybe, if you're lucky, even time it so that, as you are walking along that fantastic assembly line, you will see them doing something to your car.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: I've known a lot of my friends that have had that and it's a real sensation.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Randy, it is a pleasure to talk to you, as always.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Please stay in touch with us, can we get your book on Amazon.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Absolutely on Amazon or through motorbookscom and the reason I say Amazon, because if you're a Prime member, you could get it delivered tomorrow.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: You know Well, we've got Father's Day coming up.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly that's what I was thinking Father's Day, even if you didn't have Prime, you could get it.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: So here's the book there.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: You can see it right there, and we invite you to check it out online Right back at you.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go the Porsche 911, every model since 1964.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Randy Leffingwell, our guest today, in the off of this wonderful book.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Randy, it's always a pleasure to talk to you.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining us today.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: You have yourself a great weekend, thank you, don.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Happy Father's Day to you all, guys.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Take care of yourself.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Just ahead, jeff has the racing calendar, mars has this week in auto history and I'll bring you this week's auto news headlines all coming up on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show back in a flash.
• 18:30
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  Speaker 1: Yep, our first show aired May 7th 2011 on a local radio station.
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• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Looking forward to seeing you at the Lone Star Street Rod Association State Run 50th anniversary in Granbury.
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  Speaker 1: That's coming up in two weeks from today, june 12th.
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  Speaker 1: We'll be there.
• 20:10
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• 20:19
  Speaker 1: You betcha and you get there and you go.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know where they are.
• 20:22
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• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Time now for the Racing Calendar sponsored by Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you, and Mr Jeffrey Zekin has that Thank you for that.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: The Detroit Grand Prix is kicking off.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: There's races today, the big one's tomorrow, the IMSA guys are running and it is a street race, street circuit, obviously.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: It's on Peacock at 3.30 this afternoon, oh boy.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: And then you've got the Indy guys.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: The open wheel guys are running tomorrow through the streets and it's actually a 1.64 mile track.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Is that in Detroit?
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, in the streets of Detroit.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: 100 laps and they go from the back straight to 181 miles an hour, and then you've got to make a left turn at 35.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: And are they worried about getting their hubcaps stolen there?
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: Well, no, nothing like that.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: Chicago is a different city altogether, or St Louis, or St Louis, or St Louis.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: But now I lost my train of thought.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: You got something on your shoulder there.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Okay, formula, I'll get back to it.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: I'll get back to it.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Sorry, it was the open wheel thing.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: It was the open wheel thing.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Train dropped the tracks.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, anyways, that's tomorrow, and then you've got.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: Well, that's the Grand Prix.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Formula One is going on, it is actually the Spanish Grand Prix, ooh la la.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: And you've got NHRA coming up, actually, this weekend as well.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: It's the New England Nationals, the New England Dragway.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: You've been there before, you know what's going on.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Actually, I've never been there.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Oh really, that was not on the tour when I was doing the drag racing thing and Erica was, I think, qualified fourth last night, which is a real change for her, and that's good.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're pulling for her Team's coming back.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: You know they didn't have pro stock cars for a month on the tour.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Bikes either.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: They didn't have bikes.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: They had bikes once Once.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but out of the four, yeah, I don't understand what they're doing there Not much.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: That's why I don't understand why they're doing it that way.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: Well, theoretically they could do whatever they want.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Theoretically, they could.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: Theoretically.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, mr Mars, it's your turn.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: For this week in auto history, we found a few things this week that I thought was really interesting, and the first one is kind of might seem a little odd to begin with, but it was President John F Kennedy's moonshot speech.
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: Now he made this very famous speech about NASA, and what it did was cause them to look for lightweight materials, advanced electronics, computers, all kinds of things that eventually worked their way into the automotive uh industry, and particularly they started picking up on these aerospace derived innovation for safety systems, fuel efficiency and emissions controls, because the government was figuring out how to do it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: So they just copied it and cheated and worked out really well.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Cheated, yeah, yeah.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: So then the second thing we found was in 1923, may the 6th, france hosted the first 24 hours.
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: Le mans now this was le mans, this was the uh started the whole endurance racing thing, and the idea at the time was for reliability, fuel efficiency and teamwork over pure speed.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Of course we know how that well worked out, but it did give them a chance to test things like disc brakes, aerodynamic body work and a lot of other things that shaped automotive advancements.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: Then in 1934 this week Citroen introduced the Traction Avant, and it was the first mass-produced front-wheel drive car with a unibody frame.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: Now, this was important because it did end up influencing generations of cars, particularly if you think about the Chrysler unibody cars that they came out with, and so this is where it all started, back in 1934.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: Good-looking car.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Now this one, jeff, is for you.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: All right, I found this just for you.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: This just for you.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: In 2005, danica patrick makes indy 500 by leading 19 laps of the race.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: Now she did finish fourth, uh, which was a first for a woman, and but it did help female racers across the industry and if you look at certain things, you know, particularly in drag racing, there are a lot of female racers.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: They're not necessarily like up there with erica, but in the categories right down below that the alcohol dragsters and things like that there are a lot of female racers.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: They're not necessarily like up there with Erica, but in the categories right down below that the alcohol dragsters and things like that there are a lot of ladies coming up and she helped out some of that.
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: Jeffrey, you're not getting a Christmas card this year.
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: The other thing we found the first Indianapolis 500 took place in 1911.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: Look, there's Don Armstrong and the guy that won Marmon Wasp.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: Now, he had.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: No, that wasn't his name that was the car was the Marmon Wasp.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: No, you're right.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: I can't read my writing now, oh my.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: God, that was Larry the driver.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: I was reading ahead about the rearview mirror because he had the rearview mirrors, which eliminated a riding mechanic that came along Just trying to tell him Martha fell out.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: That was his Martha, she fell out of the car, 1927.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: After 19 years and 15 million cars, ford ceased making the Model T.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: Now, this was important because that allowed them to transition into the Model A and start actually making some major changes in their cars that they looked at.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: But the Model T was so successful they never made the change, which is the reason they did it for 19 years.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: Just a few things from this week in automotive history.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Perfect.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Customer's lawsuit accuses the Chicago dealership of systematically misrepresenting financial and employment information on credit applications it submits to Santander Consumer USA, knowing customers otherwise wouldn't have qualified for financing.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: The suit against Western Avenue Nissan does not accuse Santander of misconduct.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Rather, the dealership took advantage of Santander's legitimate business operations to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: The complaint said it seeks class action status and triple damages for mail and wire fraud under the Racketeer, influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: According to the federal court complaint, the lead plaintiff, tanisha Burris, found a used vehicle within her budget on the store's website.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: She was unemployed at the time and intended to pay cash.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: When she went to the store, however, she was told the vehicle was not operational and thus she could not test drive it.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Instead, a salesperson steered her toward a more expensive 2019 Nissan Sentra, and she couldn't afford that either.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: The complaint said Burris was overwhelmed by pressure sales tactics that agreed to buy the Sentra only after being told she would qualify for financing despite having no job.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Salesman was persistent, told Burris she could get a loan and pay for it by driving Uber or Lyft.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: She relented and signed a three-year retail installment sales contract for $14,000 at 24.9% interest.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Burris wasn't told how driving a ride hailing service would increase her insurance premiums, which it would.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: It also said she was told she could return the car in three months if things didn't work out.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: That proved untrue as well.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: What a mess.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: We'll be back right after this quick break.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Stay with us.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: You own a car you love.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it?
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state-of-the-art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts.
• 27:45
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• 27:47
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• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Curbed your wheels.
• 28:03
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• 28:05
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• 28:08
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• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Get a peek inside the shop and look at the services offered by getting online and heading to gcautoshieldcom.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Better yet, stop by their facility at 11275 South Sam Houston Tollway, just south of the Southwest Freeway, and get a personal tour.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Call them today, 832-930-5655, or gcautoshieldcom.
• 28:33
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• 28:38
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• 28:49
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• 29:00
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• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Well, that's all for this week's In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 29:06
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• 29:09
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• 29:14
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• 29:17
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• 29:20
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• 29:27
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• 29:38
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• 29:43
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• 29:46
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• 29:50
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• 29:55
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• 29:56
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• 29:57
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• 30:01
  Speaker 1: See you next week.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 30:24
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• 30:34
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• 30:43
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