Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Conquering Pikes Peak: Inside the Legendary Hill Climb & The Timeless Necessity of Hand Signals

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Conquering Pikes Peak: Inside the Legendary Hill Climb & The Timeless Necessity of Hand Signals · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Is we run in what they would call the oldest, the most historic class, which is the open-wheel cars?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Most of those cars are purpose-built, built just for the mountain, to go up and down the mountain.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: It's still a place where factories come to test the newest technologies that's out and that's what Ford is doing, and Hyundai are there with the electric vehicles setting records and flying up the mountain.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: But let's make this clear this is not an off-road event, this is an open wheel.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Climb the mountain on an asphalt road.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: For whatever, it is six, seven minutes yeah, um, it is uh, 12.43 miles and this year we did it in 10 minutes and 19 seconds um covering, I think it's, 6 000 feet of's 5,800 feet of elevation change in that section.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Man, I'll tell you what.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: As you may or may not know, I went to visit my daughter in Denver in July and I want to say I made the mistake, but no, it was a learning experience.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I white-knuckled that thing, that car that I was driving a beautiful Lexus RX 450 H+ up all that way, all the way to the mountaintop.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And I mean white-knuckled it.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I mean there were curves, there were switchbacks and I to this day don't know how I made it up there or how I made it back.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Talk about heartbeats, sweat and palms in the whole nine yards I had.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: If you watch our video that's on YouTube, we've got top speed is about 116, 117.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: That road's normally 30.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: And then we're as slow as 26 mile an hour in some of the switchbacks that you talk about.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: So it's pretty drastic in the speed changes and 153 corners that you're going up.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So you know like the Ford team, for example, brings in Romain Dumas multiple time, you know, 24 hours a month, winter, driver of all things with four wheels just absolutely amazing, superhuman talent.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Driver, two WRC world champions there racing with us this year as well.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: For Hyundai it was a pretty amazing year to even be in the finishing category, let alone to gain a feather in a cap of a third-place finish, 12th overall just breathtaking, did that really?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: high-ranked driver.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Cap of a third place, finish 12 overall.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Just breathtaking.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Um, did, did that, did that.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Uh, really high-ranked driver.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Did he know what he was getting into and said we're going to go up a mountain at that speed all the way to the top?
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: yeah, I mean most of the people that are doing this.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: It's literally a lifelong dream to race up this mountain Again.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Internationally, this race is so much larger than it is here in America.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: It's pretty astounding, but it is the longest running race in the US.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I mean Indianapolis 500 claims the same number of years, but this was the 102nd running this year of that race.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Man, I'll tell you have you driven that?
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Have you driven it in a race car?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Have you gone that way?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: In a race car?
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I have not.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: You have not I was told years ago not to drive it.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: But now that we've been married long enough, the wife says, yes, now I can drive it.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Does she have some sort of hidden meaning about you driving up the mountain?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Like well, if he makes it, great, if he doesn't make it, oh well.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: She's got the well, something about life insurance being paid up or something I don't know.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it is on the table.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I think my question is is it worth my risk?
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: At this point I really prefer the administrative side that I get to do with the race and then building the car is probably the most epic part.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Putting a capable driver in it, because that's what they do all year long is drive and go up the mountain.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: That is the goal is to get even higher, to be able to get to a second or a first place dream.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: An open wheel to a top ten finish overall at Pikes Peak would be a huge lifelong achievement.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Well, when I visited up there the week after 4th of july, they were already preparing for that race and getting things in place along that treacherous drive up there.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: You know, once you pay your money to go up the mountain, at that checkpoint down, it's not even at the bottom of the mountain that there's, it's like I don't know a mile or two up there.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Um, you, you really don know.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: If you've never been there, you don't know what you're getting yourself into, because that checkpoint down there that's no big deal.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's trees around you and places to walk and bathrooms and all that.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: But once you get past that, then all of a sudden it kind of gets desolate and I don't know what altitude it was, but it got real desolate at some point on the mountain where there were no more trees yeah, once you cross the tree line, everything changes.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Visibility.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: You can see further um.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: There's less vegetation and there's a lot of rocks, a lot of runoff, uh, so some pretty big cliffs, so to speak, or peaks that you could fall from.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So you make sure and stay to the edge of the cliff.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Always keep the cliff close and slow down for the corners and get back on the gas as soon as you can.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, does everybody realize I didn't that there are no guardrails on most of that trip?
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: up there.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: There's nothing, I'm out.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like you go off the road.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: You're going to go off-roading for a long time.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: There are some guardrails up there.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: There's got to be six or seven of them.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, six or seven.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And how many miles is that Six or seven?
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Over all of those miles?
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: 12.43 miles.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: So you plan your drive very well and be accurate, be on point, and all the drivers go through simulators before the race.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So you are doing a simulator, usually twice a day, making a full course run, and then they'll actually watch videos of other drivers on board from years before and you're usually watching cars a little bit faster than yours, watch a couple cars slower than yours and you're just learning the course and how to do it and that's what our driver did this year.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: That helped him get, in my opinion, further up the pecking order was what we call four a day.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: You know you're watching two runs and then you're driving two runs every day the 90 days before the race plus all your practice time in the car.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Wow, it truly is amazing.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: It's an amazing feat to do it and do all the cars have cameras.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cameras are required and that's basically for history of the event and verifying what's going on with the car, if there were any issues, safety issues concerns or accidents, how we learn from it, what we can make things better.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, cameras are there.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I'll send Mars a link to our YouTube video that's got the overlay of the data on it so you can tell exactly how fast we were going compared to you up the mountain, and take a good look at it.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: It'll make you smile.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: No, it'll make me pinch my butt.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Cheeks together going.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: There was something on youtube not very long ago couple couple days ago, of a driver had, uh, his view of it out the windshield from like a helmet cam, and then a different overall view and uh, it wasn't a very long video but it was very interesting and and exciting and how they get started and move up the mountain.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: It really was yeah, I, I just so.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Did you learn anything from the owner manager perspective that you can make better next year?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Always, Every, every time we start the car, every time we're out there, there's something we learn, and this year was kind of our year of what I'll call data growth.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: We work with a company out of Dallas, ECU Masters standalone ECUs, but I mean we're even monitoring what our crankcase pressure is on the car.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Now it seems simple to measure fuel pressure, but we data log our fuel pressures so we know what the fuel pressure is doing at every RPM, at every altitude and correspondence going up Pikes Peak.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: We have a new system that measures our tire temperatures.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: A new system that measures our tire temperatures.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: It takes eight readings across the tread of the tire, 32 times a second on every tire, and it records all this data for us.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: So we can come back after a run and go okay, well, we've got literally too much tire pressure here.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: We can take a half pound out and it's these small leaps in data knowledge that is making our cars substantially faster.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine, so let's just use the crankcase pressure.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Is that what you said, crankcase pressure?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so as you go up the mountain, how much does it change?
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Does it grow or does it shrink?
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: It actually grows, but we have a dry sump system, so in theory we're keeping it negative or zero or below at all times.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: And you do that because?
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, why do you do that?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Well, the dry sump's actually creating vacuum.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: By creating vacuum, you're actually creating more power inside the engine.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: It makes the engine freer to work.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Dry sump also takes all the oil out of the pan, so your crankshaft is not slapping through the oil every time.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: It revolves around as well.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: So you're freeing up horsepower.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: That's already there.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: It's just a more efficient system.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: What kind of engine did you run in this thing?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Little baby LS 7 liter.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: 427 cubic inch normally aspirated LS.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: And it likes oil.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: How much oil do you run in a dry sump system?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Ours is right at 3 gallons 3 gallons of oil when a normal car would run probably 5 quarts a little over a gallon.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and how did?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: How do you do an oil temperature?
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Oil temperature.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: We actually run a large cooler as well.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Because of the sustained altitude the air is thinner, everything heats up faster.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: So at sea level we are what we call overcooled, but at Pikes Peak we are barely cooling it to the range that we want.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: And what is the normal water temperature that you're trying to maintain?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: We like to be at the 180 on water and then we like for our oil to be as close to that as possible.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: But it's running about 10 degrees hotter right now, so it'll be a 180, 190 split, is what we'd call it Race day.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: We saw as high as 210 on oil temp.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Still nothing to be concerned about, nothing to worry about.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: But modern cars will run 230 240 on oil temps.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: So we're cool.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: But it's cool based on viscosity of the oil that we're running, which is another trick to free up a little bit of horsepower in the car as well so do you run thinner oil?
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: thinner oil, the higher the temperature.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: You use a thicker oil to help reduce that temperature, so lower you can keep the temperature.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: The thinner you use a thicker oil to help reduce that temperature, so the lower you can keep the temperature, the thinner you can go.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: The viscosity the faster everything revs up, the faster the oil runs through the block.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: It makes everything happier.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: What kind of filter do you run in a race engine like that?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: We are Wix only here.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Wix yep Go ahead.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying Wix is the one that has been for years.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: It's our standby that we run and we probably need to buy stock in that, because we use a lot of their filters cutting things apart, making sure what's going on inside the engine.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Right, making sure there are no shavings in there.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: No shiny, no glitter, nothing of the sort.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: And then you just top the oil filter off and put it right back on the car, put a new one on and go now, did you bring a spare engine?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: We did not take a spare with us this year, but we did have a spare ls in colorado springs that was available for us if we needed it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: So paid them a small retainer to make sure there was a motor available if needed.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we actually had replacements of everything we needed this year we could have needed, with the exception of the chassis of the car or a transmission.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Everything else was in hand or located in Colorado Springs, nice.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: First year we've been that far along.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was a year of change for the team and it showed in our results and I can't wait to see what next year brings for us.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I assume that there are some aspects of that run that you're working on for next year already.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: There are plenty.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Car is sadly still in the trailer.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It's been out a couple times.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: We've got the wheels, watches and whiskey.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Next weekend in College Station, the Selt Hotel, it'll be out for that and then, once that happens, it'll be going through another teardown to try and reduce some of the weight that we put on.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: This year the car actually gained more weight than we wanted and when you're running up a mountain every ounce counts.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: So got to shave some weight Wheels watches and whiskey.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been talking about that the past couple weeks, yeah.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: All right, one of you needs to come hang out with me.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Mike, mike's going to take the in-wheel time truck up there.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: I would like to do that.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: He's going to put some road tires on it.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: We can pick you up and come through.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: We come right through in Needville.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: We'll just pick you up.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be good.
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: I just got to be back in Houston by one.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: It's the only problem.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Ah, okay, Well that's when the drinking starts.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the whiskey part, I see.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Well, Richard, great to talk to you.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Congratulations, man.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a huge feat and we feel like we've kind of been along the road with you, so to speak, absolutely.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: It's great to talk to you, uh and uh.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks again for joining us on this saturday morning.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Richard tomlin with the apex auto works team.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you, sir we'll see you appreciate thank you, appreciate you.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding it's, it's mind-boggling.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: I'm telling you one of those things that, in your mind, you'd like to try driving.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: No, you wouldn't, not me.
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: Well, I don't know that I would try it that hard.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: We'll stand on the side of the road with our arms folded going.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Are you kidding?
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: I'll be down on the bottom of the mountain.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Hey, the In Wheel Time Car Talk show is available 24-7 through the iHeartRadio app.
• 14:26
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• 14:32
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• 14:38
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• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the In Real Time Car Talk Show.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: By the way, I don't know about you, but back in way back in the day, when I took uh driver's ed, one of the things that we had to learn was we had to learn hand signals.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: You did, but I already knew them because I had to take a.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Just go with this.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, I had to take a test for a bicycle license, which was kind of stupid, but I had to go there and take the test.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: You know road rules.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Basically, it was a driving test for riding your bike on the street.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: This is way back when yeah, way back, and one of the things was you had to learn your hand signals.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if kids know what a hand signal is other than the middle finger.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Cars, bikes and motorcycles have hand signals.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and what happens when you need a hand signal?
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: What do you do?
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: Well, there's actually three, technically four, but there's three that we use all the time.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: So blinker, failure, turn signal, stop working To make a lane change or signal your intentions to turn your arm first has to start out.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Hold that right there.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: It has to start out the window For a left turn.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Don your hand signal simply stick your arm out the window straight, keep it parallel to the ground with your palm facing downward.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: That's the left turn For the right one.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Now you're looking at this from behind.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Right, okay, right.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: Just want to make sure, because you're not going to signal a guy in front of you.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, because that picture is confusing.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Well, it's Go ahead.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I think it's a Nissan.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: It's fine For the right turn a hand signal.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: The elbow should be bent at a 90-degree angle so that your fingers are toward the sky, your palm is facing forward and your forearm is perpendicular to the ground.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Although this is difficult to do if you're trying to go to the right with a car, it's over there.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: It's kind of hard to see, so just be careful.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Look over your shoulder.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: So what happens when your brake lights go out?
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: If your brake lights and your turn signals are temporarily inoperable, you know the correct hand signals.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: You can continue to operate your vehicle to a safe place.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: You may also need to know these.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Like Don said in a test.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: The signal for slowing down or stopping should be used in the event of brake or light failure.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: The driver's left arm is extended out the window.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: The elbow is bent down this time, palm facing backwards and your index fingers toward the ground.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: So that means you're going to slow down or stop.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: It's important to note that these signals are difficult to use at night, so be careful when driving at night.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: They may not always see you, so be careful of that.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Cyclists and motorcycles, like we talked about may have.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: They can use the right or the left side, so it doesn't matter to them because their body is open on that particular vehicle.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Signaling to the right turn may stick your arm out right to the left is out left, and these are all part of the national highway traffic safety administration signals and the guides that they produce for motorcycles and bicyclists.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: So the same thing.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Let's review, let's do a final thought on this.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: So what do you?
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: do the girl that's screaming here with the right hand.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: No, I know uh, the final thought on this is to bend your left arm down.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, take that back.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: The left arm out the window, bent down the palm facing behind you to slow or stop.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Left arm out extended straight out the window, parallel to the ground, with your palm facing downward for a left lane change.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Left arm out the window, bent up at a 90-degree angle, is a right turn.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: And, of course, cyclists and motorcyclists you all have your workings to make safe lane changes.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Look at that.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: That's my favorite right there.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I use that one a lot.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: You know mine's usually just one finger, Forget about it Forget about it.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: One finger pointing the direction you're going.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you stay out of this, morris, because we know that you bring nothing good to the table when it comes to hand signals, when it comes to lane changes, exactly, he's got to put down his brown water, all right.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Time now on the Wind Bull Time Car Talk Show to get our car review from Mr Morris, who's been driving the Chrysler Pacifica.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: Very cool.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir, now this is the 2024 Chrysler Pacifica.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir, now this is the 2024 Chrysler Pacifica.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: This was first introduced in 2017, and it is the only model left in the Chrysler brand lineup.
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: That's all Chrysler makes now is the Pacifica minivan Wow model, and it actually for 2024.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: You can actually get two different trim levels on it to select, which is a basic model, or you can step all the way up to the top, which is the pinnacle, which happens to be the one we're driving front wheel drive.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: We had the seven passenger model because we had the captain's seats in the second row up front.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: You're going to find the led projection headlights, got power folding heated side mirrors.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: Roof racks had a dual pane panoramic sunroof.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: Seemed like the whole top was coming off of that thing.
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: It's got hands-free sliding side doors, which are real convenient.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Got a hands-free power lift gate.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Again, these are things that make it a little bit easier to get in and out and get your cargo in and out, and the Pinnacle happens to ride on some 18 by seven and a half inch gray aluminum wheels, so it looks kind of a nice elegant look to it.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: And on the inside of it.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Now this is the plug-in hybrid.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: So it does not have the stow-and-go seating for the rear seat, because the battery is there.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: They do fold, they are, but they don't actually fold down into the floor, they'll actually just fold over.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: Now the third row will fold into the floor for more cargo space.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: The front seats all the interior is quilted, napa leather seating.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: The front seats are heated and ventilated.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: So it's got a real nice look to it with all the stitching, got some pillows.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: It's got a 10.1-inch touchscreen in the center stack.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Now this is your main monitor.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: There in the dash you can find all your convenience controls and navigation, your 360 degree camera.
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: But it's also got some 10.1 inch monitors on the back of the seat.
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: Now this is where you're going to find your infotainment, including the Amazon Fire TV that comes standard with this, so all your rear passengers can watch TV.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: But you also have the FamCam in this vehicle and that's your interior camera so you can watch them, to watch what they're watching.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: Plenty of USB chargers, usb USB-C, apple CarPlay, android.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: Got a lot of technology throughout this thing, including 20 Harman Kardon speakers in the audio system.
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: Now, up front, you're going to find that it's got a 3.6 liter V6 plug-in hybrid.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Now this is equivalent to 260 horsepower.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: It will run approximately 30 miles on the electronic by itself.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: Excuse me, 32 miles on the electronic by itself.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Now I drove this vehicle 282 miles.
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: I averaged 26.1 miles to the gallon across that.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: Of course, I used the battery up really quick and um the base model.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: Now if you get the gas model, are you lost?
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I am 41 000 miles.
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to watch the clock and do this 41 000 to get you into a base model.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: But the plug-in hybrid model will cost you $52,460 to get started.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: Of course, you can qualify, hopefully, for the $7,500 EV credit.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: Now the base trim price that we were driving is $59,495.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: The as-tested price is $61,685.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: And again, this is the only product in the Chrysler lineup and it is also the only plug-in minivan currently on the market.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: Toyota Sienna has a hybrid that starts at $37,600.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: The Odyssey hybrid starts at $37,800.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: The 2025 Kia Carnival hybrid will start at $41,000.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: For 2025, kia Carnival Hybrid will start at $41,000.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: And so if you're looking for a hybrid in the van, you can find them several different ones, but this is the only plug-in hybrid that you're going to find and that is in the Chrysler Pinnacle or Select model Pacifica.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: Sounds to me like you had a little Don Armstrong going in there.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it got down there towards the end.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: It was, like you know, trying to, but I made the clock.
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: You certainly did, congratulations on that so here's a quick question for you.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: What year was the original minivan introduced?
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: 1986.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: Wrong.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: I'm going to say 78.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: Wrong 84.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Actually it was an 83 model.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Sorry, 83 year for an 84 model year.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And that was the Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Gremlin.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: You there I want to say Voyager, voyager.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Very good, that was your test for the morning, barely got through it.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Voyager, very good, that was your test for the morning, barely got through it.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I know Again Today's In Real Time Car Talk.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Show is sponsored by the group of original Loopy Tortilla restaurants in Houston, beaumont and College Station, gulf Coast Auto Shield and Pro-Am Auto Accessories, we continue the In Real Time Car Talk Show.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: After this quick break, the original group of Loopy Tortilla restaurants will have you telling your family and friends just what the original recipe means when it comes to the best fajitas in Southeast Texas.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Founder Stan Holt invites you to visit the first Loopy Tortilla near I-10 and Highway 6.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Here is the original house that inspired the design of all the rest and the original charm that helped make Loopy Tortilla the go-to destination for Houston Tex-Mex.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Nothing can compete with the original lime pepper marinade.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: That everyone will agree makes Loopy Tortilla award-winning beef fajitas the best anywhere.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Loopy Tortilla Katie's another location that gives you the same quality and service Houstonians have come to expect at Loopy's.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: It's located on 99 the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard in Katie.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Find yourself in Aggieland Head to the Loopy Tortilla in College Station, located just around the corner from Kyle Field, it's a great place to enjoy those famous frozen margaritas before or after the game.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Going to Louisiana, the Loopy Tortilla in Beaumont is on I-10, so you can't miss it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: The original group of Loopy Tortilla restaurants has the best Tex-Mex anywhere and you're invited anytime.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Your car is a direct reflection of you, so don't be satisfied with color fade or a dingy, dull appearance.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Get rid of those terrible automated car wash scratches.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your save-the-paint company.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: John Gray and his team of detailing experts can help your cars finish without a full repaint.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Searching for the real experts in window tint or windshield protection?
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Dash cams, radar detectors Gulf Coast Auto Shield.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Got a new car.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Get that thing protected as soon as you take delivery.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: If you don't know which of the multitude of protection products to go with, john Gray will give you an honest opinion and won't sell you something you don't need or can't afford.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: John will help you understand the many options and pricing right on the spot.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: He's your guy to have your ride looking its best and protected too.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: See the state-of-the-art shop yourself.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Free tours anytime.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield is easy to get to, located just south of the Southwest Freeway on the Sam Houston Parkway.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Gulf Coast Auto Shield Full service, luxury car care today.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: And online at gcautoshieldcom.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, spotify, stitcher, iheart Podcast Podcast Addict TuneIn, pandora and Amazon Music.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Keep listening and we'll see you soon.