Latest / That Car Show / Time Attacked! With author Steve Schlosser

Transcript

Time Attacked! With author Steve Schlosser · That Car Show

0:05
It's engineered for perfection, every contour sculpted for
0:12
uninterrupted motion, wider, smoother, more refined, and
0:20
drives like a dream. Introducing the 2026 E 470
0:28
experience. The difference?
0:30
Very happy. I mean, I love a happy ending.
0:32
That's it. There's not.
0:35
Like, hey, hey, it's that car show.
0:39
And tonight Lindsey and I are joined by Steve Schlosser,
0:43
author of the new book Time Attack, a car centric racing
0:47
novel. If you are anything like us, and
0:49
I think you are, you'd probably read more books if only they
0:52
were filled with cars. M Threes and Lotus Exiges and
0:55
Corvettes and Porsches and the kinds of stuff that fills our
0:58
own garages. We do talk about the book, of
1:01
course, but we cover a lot of other stuff.
1:03
Two track days, tuning and the power of authenticity.
1:07
This is a fun one. Time Attack is a good read and
1:10
Steve's a nice guy. I think you're going to enjoy
1:12
the conversation, so stay tuned. It's that car show.
1:19
Hey, it's that car show. Dan's away doing Dan things
1:23
tonight. So it's me and Lindsay.
1:24
And we are joined by Steve Schlosser, author of a new book
1:28
aimed at enthusiast folks like us called Time Attack, a car
1:32
centric racing novel. Hey, Steve.
1:35
How you doing? Yeah, It's good to have you on
1:39
it. You know, it pains me to admit
1:41
at age 50 that I am not much of AA reader anymore.
1:46
And it's not just because I refuse to buy readers.
1:49
It's just that it's, you know, as you guys know, it's too easy
1:52
just to grab your phone or turn on the TV.
1:54
And I'm also a little embarrassed that I've gotten
1:57
away from track driving in recent years.
2:00
Life is busy, the track can be expensive, and I'm fortunate to
2:04
have some really wonderful Canyon roads, you know, not too
2:07
far from me. And Lindsay, I think, can say
2:10
the same thing. But I will say that I read Time
2:13
Attack in just a couple of days because it's, you know, it's
2:17
unusual to find a book that incorporates M Threes and
2:19
Corvettes and GTS and GRE. Track.
2:23
Yeah, Lotus, right that. Was a great I.
2:26
Mean there were so many to choose from.
2:27
But yeah, it was very engaging. And when I finished it, I was
2:30
like, oh, that's right, I do love reading.
2:34
Yes, and. You know, so it's a great
2:35
reminder. Thank you for the excuse to sit
2:37
down and read a real book. I'm so glad you liked it.
2:40
And you know, reading just like being on the tracks, like riding
2:42
a bike, right? You come back to it and you're
2:43
like, wow, that wasn't scary. I did finish that book.
2:47
It was so great. I did those laps.
2:48
I did that session. Nobody died.
2:50
Right. But I can do that again, yes.
2:53
Yes, and and Speaking of nobody died, I mean, Steve, time attack
2:57
really is a cautionary tale. Little bit, little bit, Yeah.
3:01
There's, you know, it kind of started out.
3:03
It's funny, when I set out with the mission of the book, one of
3:06
the things that bothered me about, like racing fictional
3:09
media, was it's all centered around crime.
3:12
We love Fast and the Furious, right?
3:14
But they're all criminals, you know?
3:16
But. They're such lovable criminals.
3:18
There's such a lot of family and.
3:20
They're family. OK, but and and you know what I
3:24
said? You know what, I, I was trying
3:25
to think of the plot to start it.
3:27
What's the lesson learned to begin with?
3:29
And I said, I guess I could start it here, but it's gonna
3:32
be, it's gonna be 1 and done. It's gonna, it's not gonna be
3:34
this I did 2 years at Lombok or, you know, whatever the, whatever
3:38
the storyline is. And I need, I need the character
3:40
to yeah, true. And I need that character to
3:43
kind of to grow and evolve. Because you'd be surprised.
3:47
Speaking with people into cars, track or not, a lot of them have
3:52
done a couple overnight stints for street racing.
3:55
I mean, literally, I had three or four people reach out to me.
3:57
Yes, three or four people reach out to me.
3:59
And they said, how did you know I was in jail overnight?
4:01
Literally my buddy, I chat with a friend all the time.
4:04
He just had to do an overnight stint like one day, you know?
4:07
And I was like. You're like, I did not, but
4:09
thank you for sharing. So how did you like, what was
4:13
the inspiration for the book? And it sounds like you started
4:17
with kind of the mission of what you wanted to accomplish.
4:19
I mean, can you share? I know you share this in the
4:22
notes at the back of the book and I really like was drawn to
4:25
that part of it. So can you kind of talk about
4:27
what the goal was and then how you built the story around that,
4:31
like and what your inspiration was?
4:33
Stern still like to start out, it's probably been like a decade
4:35
for me where I've been dragging people to the track even when I
4:38
had periods of myself where I was unable to go.
4:42
You know, I'm just so passionate about it.
4:44
Like my best friend Zach, who I, my very good friend Zach, who I
4:47
credited in the book for kind of helping me.
4:49
You know, he was like a street, street motorcycle guy.
4:52
And now he's entering CVMA, you know, the race importance.
4:54
And I'm always talking about the track and getting people to go
4:57
to the track. And so it's something I'm very
4:59
passionate about. And I was in, in the winter,
5:02
Vince, you know, I saw this video with Vince Santpella, if I
5:06
remember his crash and his Ferrari on the Angels Crest
5:09
Highway. And I, I just, I had been
5:11
thinking about writing for a while.
5:13
It had always been a little bit of an outlet for me in general.
5:16
I've always liked writing, writing.
5:18
And you know, who has like, more of anything than the founder of
5:22
Infinity Ward, right. I, I had just watched him on
5:25
like a YouTube video where he had bought a McLaren Solace $4
5:28
million, like basically Formula One car.
5:31
Yeah, you know, and then here he is.
5:33
And it's so tragic. And when I lived in California,
5:36
we used to ride all the time on Hwy. 94 and stuff.
5:39
And, you know, I, I, I saw a person crash and get hit by a
5:42
car and you know, that was it. And I, there had been stories
5:46
where I had written with people and then couple weeks later, a
5:49
couple months later, we're having to that guy T-bone with
5:51
something, you know, I'm going too fast.
5:53
And so it's something that I rapidly grew so passionate
5:57
about. And I just had this draw that
6:00
I'm going to write about. I'm going to write a story and
6:02
I'm going to, I'm going to progress this, this just
6:04
personal mission I've been on into a sincere effort.
6:08
And I want to try to entertain people to, to, to get to the
6:11
point where they say, maybe I could try that.
6:14
And so it just started. Yeah, it's and you just decided,
6:18
hey, I'm not busy enough. I should I mean.
6:21
It just sometimes things just like explode out of you.
6:24
You know, I, I, I apologize to my wife a little bit because I
6:28
went like full Hemingway with this.
6:30
Like I started writing and I have my friend Zach and he read
6:33
the first chapter. He's like, this is interesting,
6:35
dude, keep going. And then I was writing 8 hours a
6:38
day. I mean, I was like, like on
6:40
weekends I was like, I was like, hey, Kate, my wife, you know,
6:43
what are you doing? Do you want to like watch TV and
6:45
maybe play The Sims a little bit or here and there?
6:47
And I'd get out the laptop and I'd start writing.
6:49
You know, we, we, we do dog trials on the side where it's
6:52
like dog agility time attack for.
6:53
Dogs. You said dog trials.
6:56
Yeah. So this is like.
6:57
Do you know, have you ever seen agility with dogs like jumps and
6:59
tunnels? So.
7:00
It's not a judicial system thing.
7:03
No, no. What is this?
7:04
He's sentencing dogs to hard time.
7:06
Yeah, that's right. It is.
7:08
It's called a trot. It is a dog sport.
7:11
And in this sport you have a preset, of course, with
7:14
obstacles. Oh, sure.
7:15
It's it's just like time attack for cars.
7:18
I know I'm I'm pairing. That's amazing.
7:19
But. But in literally it's it's it's
7:21
it's you and your dog in a ring. You get the only prior exposure
7:25
you have is about 15 minutes to walk it and figure out how
7:28
you're gonna handle your dog. Yeah.
7:30
And then one shot 1 kill you step up and you got to run the
7:33
course and make the obstacles with them.
7:36
And so we had a dog trial and I'm out there with my laptop in
7:39
between turns writing, you know, I, it just, it was, it was
7:43
exploding out of me. And so I did it.
7:46
Wait, I want to know more about this these dog trials.
7:48
I mean, do you want like a dog with low center of gravity?
7:50
Like because like like what wins?
7:53
What a very well balanced mid engine dog we're.
7:55
Going into. The test, yes.
7:56
You want a well balanced mid engine bar.
7:58
OK, so how the classes go are by height classes.
8:03
So there's height classes for the dogs and then there's
8:05
different ones you can do one that's like like the general
8:08
agility class has all the obstacles, there's a teeter
8:11
totter and weave poles and all sorts of stuff.
8:13
There's ones that's only jumps and tunnels, right?
8:15
There's all sorts of different classes you can compete in and
8:19
then the dogs compete on a height basis.
8:20
And I would say that the most popular dog is probably a border
8:24
collie. But you know, so we so we have
8:27
two shelties there, which are Shetland sheepdogs and hurt
8:30
them. And then I also have a freak of
8:32
the nature. She is a 70% whippet and 30%
8:36
border collie. So she's like a super smart
8:39
speed missile. Oh wow.
8:41
You know. And now do you have the issues
8:43
or no? Maybe I'm thinking of greyhounds
8:44
where like if they get out they just run.
8:46
So you have to make sure they don't get out.
8:48
She's very fast. I trained her a lot on recall,
8:52
you know, so thankfully. Yes, it's failing to know what
8:56
what people do when they're not behind the wheel and and that is
8:59
a first for us. So dog trials.
9:01
Yeah, we were just that one this past weekend actually, and I'm
9:04
proud to say we took home 2 firsts.
9:05
A second and a third. Congratulations.
9:08
Yeah, I love it. I love it.
9:09
I don't. Think a successful weekend.
9:11
Yeah, and it's good to know border collies are the Miata of
9:14
the. Okay, hold on a second.
9:16
I have thought about this. I have thought about this.
9:20
Okay, so border collies actually totally not them the.
9:23
Out of okay. Here's the deal with Border
9:25
Collies. They're very smart, they're very
9:28
fast. They take these big leaping
9:30
turns. They're very hard to keep up
9:32
with. So I've always thought Border
9:35
Collies like maybe you put that into like a like a like a like a
9:39
Shelby GT500. OK, it's so much power, but
9:43
you're lacking on the track. And the second you get behind
9:46
it, it's thumb, right? Yeah.
9:48
Sheltie's like my dog's 100% portions, like the running my
9:52
dog, he's not the fastest runner.
9:53
He's so easy to handle, like and and he's the and he actually
9:58
beat my whip at Border Collie even though she's so much
10:01
faster, right. Because I can, because he's more
10:04
consistent and I can get where I need to be and make his lines
10:07
smoother, right. He, he beat her by in the, by a
10:10
couple seconds. So, you know, things like that.
10:13
I spoke about this. So I was like, Oh yeah, this is
10:15
the analogy, you know? Probably is not always the
10:17
answer. This is the stuff that I love
10:19
where you're like, I didn't know that I was going to be applying
10:22
the, the lessons that you learn at the track to dog agility try.
10:26
I mean, it's like, like the number of things in life where
10:29
you're doing some form of traffic management.
10:32
You know, it's funny where I'm like, I didn't think that that's
10:35
part of skiing, but it is. That's true.
10:37
That's true. Everything you know when you
10:39
when you find passion and everything relates.
10:40
One last thing. So my dog, the Whippet border
10:42
collie, 100% of Formula One car, like I don't even know what I'm
10:46
doing. I'm terrible at handling her
10:47
because of course she's slower because she's just do it.
10:50
I'm catching up with her. I love it.
10:53
I love it. That's amazing.
10:54
Yeah, you never know where the conversation's gonna go, you
10:57
know, I know you. What?
10:58
We should probably bring it back to the book.
10:59
And this is the book their time attack Steve Schlosser.
11:03
A great cover, by the way. Thank.
11:05
You know what you want to see on the shelf right when you're
11:07
Yeah, looking for? But I got together with so the
11:10
the editor of my book. Here's a really cool story about
11:13
it. But when I was looking for an
11:14
editor, there's you go to the way, the best way to do it is
11:17
like there's a website called DFA and that this is like the
11:20
association that people who copy edit professionally go to and
11:24
you can see their rates. And so you kind of post an ad.
11:27
Here's my book and stuff. And I kind of reached out to and
11:30
her name is Chris Knight. I credit her in the book and she
11:32
says, I can't believe this is like the biggest thing I've ever
11:35
been drawn to before. I used to race American iron
11:38
NASA in my like 90s Camaro, you know, and and that was years
11:43
ago, but now I'm an editor and stuff and I was like, you are
11:47
hired. And so, so through her I found
11:50
Erik meant to be, I'm going to botch his name, but Erik Lebach
11:53
LOB A/C Z and and he was a great book, book cutter guy for me.
11:58
Oh, that's great. No, it's, you know, and it's so
12:00
important you got to have an editor who knows what you're
12:02
talking about here, you know, because I think Lindsay and I
12:05
were both looking to, you know, get you on something, right.
12:08
Like, you know, just all the details are like, are there very
12:13
descriptive? You know, I I guess we should
12:15
probably ask you to set the scene without giving the book
12:17
away. This is a tale of redemption.
12:20
It's a cautionary tale, as we talked about the protagonist.
12:24
Yeah. You want to start there.
12:26
Yeah. So you know, basically we have
12:28
meet Thomas. He's young, 20s, I don't
12:30
remember his exact age, young 20s.
12:33
He's a street racer, right? He just finished like an
12:35
associate's degree and got his certifications and automotive
12:38
stuff, and he works like a Chevy dealer.
12:40
He races as far as he goes to cars and Coffee, you know, and
12:44
basically chapter one starts off with him getting booked into
12:48
Denver County Jail. Yeah.
12:49
Can we? Stop there for just a second
12:51
because this was a very descriptive, I want to say
12:56
passage, but that's probably not the word.
12:59
Did you interview people? How did you is this, I mean, is
13:02
there a little bit of you in this book, Steve?
13:04
Like break this down for us because I learned more about
13:07
getting booked into a jail. I think that I've I've ever
13:10
learned from a book before. I have a friend, a very good
13:14
friend of mine who has been in the system before, sadly.
13:17
OK, so I talked to him about it. I also have a very good friend
13:21
in Larry Mccarry, Sheriff's. So I pinged a few questions off
13:24
him, but the rest is really, you know, you researched, right?
13:28
I can, you can, you can find a lot about the jail system
13:31
online, right? You can go and you can see
13:33
pictures and you can see what the jail system looks like and
13:36
you can see some of the programs and stuff like that.
13:39
And then so, you know, inner interweaving this story.
13:42
But the book in totality is a, is a fiction novel interwoven
13:46
with reality, right? So it's like contemporary
13:48
fiction. And so that's what I sought to
13:50
do like, and you know, some of the thoughts that Luke has as
13:53
he's going in, like I have to imagine myself, right?
13:56
I'm not a prison guy. I yeah, right.
13:58
I only know about it from TV. These must be the thoughts that
14:01
I would be thinking, Yes, I am getting checked into prison.
14:05
And we've all thought about it, right?
14:07
Yeah, it's in the back of our. You know, and I think you did a
14:09
good job of capturing just like you said, the kind of like this
14:13
can't be happening. The denial of like, this isn't
14:16
real. Like, Yeah.
14:18
Because I mean that that's like, you know, we see TV shows, they
14:21
sentence you and you know that the handcuffs are wrong and
14:25
you're off and you're getting booked in.
14:27
And, and that was it. And that that was the real
14:29
reality that Luke had to face is that, you know, you get, it's
14:32
very easy to get speeding tickets and you get your license
14:35
for votes. But then you can apply for a
14:37
work person. That's my friend Zach.
14:38
I'm gonna shout out he got his license for vote for carrying
14:41
out. No, but he's a track guy.
14:42
Yeah. So we're happy with him, but.
14:44
Good. Job Zach but yes, but you know
14:47
and and you can get your license as long as you use it for work
14:50
and then how many people actually you know abide by those
14:54
rules. It takes a long time and you
14:56
know I have to imagine that by the time it's like this is it
14:59
you are going to prison. You know the the the stark
15:03
reality of that must just. You know, it's fear.
15:07
Well, because I think there's so much in general, people go like,
15:11
well, but it'll never happen to me.
15:13
And then like you said, there's a process of like you lose your
15:16
license, but you can still drive to work.
15:17
And so there's, it's so gradual that you'd be like, well, but
15:20
there's got to be one more step in between me and jail.
15:23
Yeah, like I'm not so like you have a car.
15:25
Shoot me right? Right, right.
15:27
No, it's something I really liked about the book is it was
15:29
so well researched. I mean, the detail you set the
15:32
scene, it really to me almost read like a screenplay.
15:34
So you know, you know, is that was that intentional?
15:38
Yeah, yeah. OK, so when I first started,
15:41
like I just started dreaming about some of the details and
15:43
thinking about it. And at first I was like, this
15:46
would make for such a great like Amazon Prime series or
15:49
something. And then I was like, I cannot be
15:51
the guy who just says like, I will you read my spring play.
15:56
And, you know, my my favorite author, I was literally just at
16:00
a book event because he has a new book that came out last
16:03
week. You know, one of the things that
16:05
he says is he always likes to have the source of truth to go
16:08
back on. OK.
16:10
And I was like, and that's in the middle.
16:12
I was like, you know what, I, I'm going to write the book.
16:14
So who knows where this goes? It could go nowhere.
16:17
OK. I would love for it to be, you
16:18
know, passionate, inspiring and get that big appeal.
16:21
But I want there to be that source of truth where anybody
16:24
could go back and see what the original intent of writing the
16:27
book was. And so I decided this cannot be
16:30
a screenplay to start. It needs to be a metal.
16:33
I love that. And yeah, then you have that
16:35
kind of touchstone. You can see where everything
16:37
jumps off from there. And yes, the time attack Empire
16:41
and you heard it. Here time attack the time attack
16:44
empire. Well, that's the right, this
16:45
could be a whole series, right? I mean, you know, pretty pretty
16:48
easily if we get that lucky, right?
16:50
You know, I mean, and it's and I've seen a lot of the people in
16:53
our community talk about a post, you know, to social media about
16:56
it. So I think you're getting a
16:56
buzz, which is, which is great. That would be great.
16:59
Yeah. One of the things for me that I
17:01
think connected with me is that, you know, Denver's not London,
17:05
you know, it's not Paris. It's not a literary city as as
17:08
you know, as we know it. I think there've been a couple
17:10
movies here, things to do in Denver when you're dead and, you
17:13
know, but Denver's not real. You know, it's not Chicago for
17:16
that man, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's just
17:17
not, you know, on the map, right, when it comes to books
17:20
and movies and things. So it was really neat to read a
17:22
a story, right, that referenced things in my own world, you
17:26
know, whether it was the Adams polishes, you know, local, you
17:30
know, international business, but set set here, right, right,
17:34
headquartered here, you know, to the you know, the tracks, right,
17:39
You know that that that I've driven, which was cool.
17:42
You got all the details right, Even Snarfs sandwiches right?
17:45
Sandwiches made it in there. That's a real place.
17:49
That's a local. A local joint.
17:51
Yeah. Yeah, I think it started in
17:52
Boulder. Maybe.
17:53
We've got one not too far from me.
17:54
We can walk to all over. So much better right then your
17:57
typical like subway or you know even.
17:59
And even even like SCR performance like with with Mark
18:04
Berry shout out OK, they they are a premier race fielder.
18:07
Mark Baer is the owner. He wins all the NASA TT.
18:11
That's so. Funny in his class and you know,
18:13
I had them do some work on my Corvette.
18:14
I love those guys. They're really cool.
18:16
You know Harvey in the book, he actually owns Boost District in
18:20
Longmont. He's kind of notorious for being
18:22
one of the the go to tuner guys, you know, Wine country
18:26
Motorsports. I was just down there.
18:28
They they, they're they stocked this book.
18:30
They they got a couple books from me and, you know, they
18:33
helped me out get my Hans device and my helmet.
18:35
So again, I wanted to have that authenticity in there.
18:39
That's like, you know, because if you just make up places, you
18:42
can just do whatever you want with it, you know, and it's kind
18:44
of, it's kind of have some reality in there.
18:46
Yeah. Yeah.
18:47
Well, again, it gives it kind of an anchor.
18:49
Like you talk about the book being the anchor for what you're
18:51
trying to accomplish. And it's nice to kind of anchor
18:54
the book with these little Easter eggs, especially for
18:57
people that are local to Colorado, because that's, I
19:00
know, like there was an author when I was growing up who lived
19:03
in my town, and it was Dean Koontz.
19:07
And so he would put these little Easter eggs of like a street
19:10
name or whatever. And I'm reading that as a kid
19:13
and being like, wait, what are we doing?
19:15
So it's really fun, like you said, Ryan, to see the real
19:18
names in a story. And Steve, I'll give you
19:23
something else like just the, the vernacular, right, like the,
19:25
the phrasing of, you know, in terms of phrase and things just
19:28
these, these sound like people. I know, you know, I felt like I,
19:30
you know, if I didn't know these people, I'd met these people
19:33
right out and about it a cars and coffee or, or whatever, you
19:37
know, you really the car casting.
19:38
So we had a guy, Oscar winner Robert Nagel, our buddy Robert,
19:42
he's done Ferrari, Ford versus Ferrari, basically every movie
19:47
that's got, you know, great. All the good car stuff.
19:51
Car action right? I think the book I didn't I
19:53
quote the the line. No, I took from somewhere else.
19:56
Didn't I like parts and the? Well, there was one.
19:59
Are you talking about the Sunny Hayes?
20:01
Yeah, yeah. I took it from Sonny Hayes, but
20:04
I almost put the quote in from Ford Ferrari, but I think it
20:07
was. Carroll, Shelby.
20:08
Yes, 7. 1000 RPM. Yes, I almost put that one in
20:13
and I was sorry, I didn't need to interrupt you, but I was
20:15
like, well, nothing really ribs to 7000, maybe the Porsche.
20:18
I was like, I'm going to go with the F1 quote.
20:19
Yeah, yeah. No, it's stuff shows, you know,
20:23
with Robert, we talked about, you know, CART casting and so
20:25
not just getting like the, the driving right and like the, the
20:28
racing line has to be correct and all this, but but casting
20:32
cars almost as if you were casting people.
20:34
And I thought you did a really great job of that.
20:36
Like, Oh yeah, that guy would drive a 06.
20:38
Yes. Oh yeah, that guy would drive an
20:40
M3. Or, you know, the the the the
20:43
the the the Cayenne, for that matter, the.
20:46
Light, right? It's such a great car.
20:48
Yeah, I think it's real, right? If you're in the car world, the
20:51
car is kind of an extension of your personality or your
20:54
interests. So for Liv, right, Luke's mom,
20:58
you know, very well established because this woman likes the
21:00
sporty stuff, right? Her her her boyfriend is, is a
21:04
race shop owner, so he's inspired.
21:07
So she's got the Porsche, but she went for the she went for
21:09
the hybrid that's even faster, which which probably pisses him
21:12
off sometimes, right? And but also kind of practical,
21:15
right? Yeah, but also practical.
21:17
Yes, exactly. And you know, even even at the
21:20
cars and coffee, right, we have the the football player who he
21:24
wanted something with speed, but he's a big guy.
21:26
So what's he gonna drive? He's gonna drive the Hellcat.
21:28
Yes, you know, yes. That was a funny detail.
21:31
Yeah. He's like, I'm enormous.
21:32
What? You know, I only fit in so many
21:34
things. Yeah, yeah, like his foot
21:36
catching on. Oh my God, yes.
21:38
As someone who wears size 14 himself, you know that.
21:42
So so. So his pain.
21:43
It's just, yeah, absolutely. You snag the top of the toes,
21:46
right? You know, I think, you know, I
21:47
think you had an episode where you just said, wasn't it the AR
21:51
your foot was catching? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:53
And it's terrifying because not just an alpha male, but an alpha
21:56
holics like a, you know, $750,000 car or whatever.
21:59
You know, it's just like this is not when you want to mess this
22:01
up. And I will tell you, used to do
22:03
a a show years ago before I even met Lindsay, called the steering
22:07
committee with Doug Fogler here in town.
22:09
And we had an episode that talked all about me getting a
22:12
new 718 Cayman and breaking the throttle pedal assembly three
22:17
times with my big giant clod hopper.
22:19
No way. And and it's funny, you know,
22:23
you can you talk about, you know, details and cars and
22:25
stuff. That was, you know, that was the
22:27
base car. That was the four-cylinder.
22:29
You know, that's a plastic unit. No, I've I've had this GT4 now
22:32
for several years. That's all metal, right.
22:34
So it's just, it's like little details like that, but that's
22:37
the kind of stuff that that you got right in this in in.
22:39
This. I'm so happy.
22:40
Yeah. I mean, I'm an enthusiast.
22:42
And so even like researching some of the small details, I
22:45
found it fun. You know, when I was, when I was
22:47
building the cars in the book, I went on the Porsche's website.
22:50
I was like, oh, Algarve blue. I hope I said that right.
22:53
I was like, what a cool color, you know, I was live.
22:55
I would I would choose that color because it's elegant, but
22:58
it's got some spice to it, you know?
22:59
Yeah. And then you know, I'm a sucker
23:01
for yellow Corvettes, right. So Lukes car had to be yellow.
23:04
Made sure I got the I think it's called velocity yellow.
23:07
I think it is for that made made sure I got that paint code
23:10
right. The same thing with the red at
23:12
the Hellcat. You know, I'm I'm an enthusiast.
23:15
I like stuff. Absolutely.
23:17
If we screw up, you know, we occasionally will say something
23:20
incorrectly. We we hear about it, you know,
23:22
and I guess you could probably argue that's good, right, for
23:25
Buzz or, or whatever. But people will catch you.
23:28
Yeah, people will catch you for sure.
23:30
You know. So there is a scene, talk about
23:33
authenticity, that of all the scenes, it's the one that, the
23:37
one that really just got to me, made me cringe.
23:39
The one where it's a detailing scene.
23:43
I'll, I'll leave it at that. Oh God.
23:45
Oh, I. Know a very nice car and that
23:48
hit way too far. There was a little bit of real
23:50
panic on both of our parts reading.
23:52
I know, yeah. And that, look, we, we've all
23:55
seen stories or maybe we've had some experience with it
23:58
ourselves where, you know, detailing culture is like
24:01
probably the fastest growing thing.
24:02
There's so many products. There's so many things, You
24:05
know, everyone's trying to, like, Serena coat their car and
24:09
prep it and do all this stuff. And Luke is, he's trying to
24:13
prove his merit in the shop, and he's trying to show, like, I can
24:16
add value. I'm not just a Porter.
24:19
Right? And that trust is bestowed upon
24:22
him by the shop's owner, Nick. And so, yeah, you know, some
24:28
mistakes can happen, right? And it's another inflection
24:32
point. It's another thing where like if
24:34
you're ceramic coating your car and and you don't get it up fast
24:36
enough, right? You get it all fast enough and
24:38
it starts to haze or something like take a breath, OK, we can,
24:41
we can figure it out. It's terrifying.
24:43
Total, right, Right. It's going to be OK.
24:46
Yeah. And so, you know, that that
24:49
scenario was just another level of inflection point.
24:52
And I also wanted to use it to show, and I think Nick makes a
24:57
statement around this about like the most important thing about
25:01
being a race car driver or racing is not necessarily being
25:03
the fastest guy in the track. But you have to constantly
25:06
respond to variables and different things and unexpected.
25:10
And you have to do so decisively but also calmly.
25:14
And if you lose that emotion, then you're if you let that
25:16
emotion control yourself, right, you're going to you're going to
25:19
make a mistake. Yeah.
25:22
It hit me doubly hard because I actually have an appointment
25:24
tomorrow. Our friends at Spyder auto
25:26
detailing buddy Jaden's coming out to detail my GT4.
25:29
And so I think I'm a little little sensitive right now, a
25:32
little a little vulnerable are. You going to make him read the
25:35
book 1st and you're like pay particular attention to this and
25:38
now you may go near my car that. That's that's right.
25:41
Yeah, Steve, I actually, I mean, like I had to stop and sort of
25:43
like got the vapors for a second.
25:45
Like it really, like I got into it and it was just like the fear
25:49
of. I had to.
25:50
Keep reading and I'm like how is this going to like?
25:53
What are they going to do? I know, especially because I
25:56
don't. Again, I don't want to give the
25:57
the car or the details too much. Sure, imagine that car and
26:01
imagine. Imagine being them.
26:03
Oh my God that car has such a title.
26:06
That would be the one when I was in high school.
26:08
I'll never forget this guy's name, Stuart Altemeyer.
26:11
He was a year older than me. He's a lawyer now somewhere.
26:13
Go look him up. Much more successful than than
26:16
than me. But he was one of these guys
26:17
that was, you know, go getter and he decided to open a, you
26:22
know, detail shop. He took on an XJS.
26:25
Remember the big V12, you know. Jaguars.
26:28
Yeah, decided he was going to steam clean that engine with
26:33
pretty quickly that engine was was ruined and that was the end
26:35
of that enterprise. But there's something just when
26:38
you're working with something, it's going to be the expensive
26:41
car, right, is what I'm getting at, right.
26:42
And, and back then that was expensive as, as anything in
26:45
Indianapolis, IN, you know, so those details, you did mention a
26:49
podcast in the book. I did.
26:51
I did. I read the word podcast.
26:53
I'm like, yeah, please let it be us, please let it be us.
26:55
Maybe future editions. But what was that podcast?
26:59
Okay, so the podcast the podcast is the perfect lap podcast and
27:04
the reason why I chose them. Not only do I love what they do,
27:07
but they are the, they are, at least for me, they're the real
27:11
source for like time attack racing.
27:14
You know, they talk a lot about grid life.
27:15
They talk a lot about the major racing events and time attack.
27:20
You know, Jaeger and Kilgore, they are extremely knowledgeable
27:23
on the subject. They are super passionate about.
27:26
They talk very well. And you know, it's really, and
27:29
it's really informative. You know, after a grid life,
27:31
when I or, or global time attack or, you know, pick your own,
27:34
pick your event. They're the ones that I go back
27:36
to, to I really understand like what happened because you know
27:39
when, when you, when you're watching these events live, I
27:41
mean, like Gridlife Rd. Atlanta, right?
27:44
There's 5 or 6 sessions that are like 15 minutes long and then
27:47
there's a podium Sprint that's three laps.
27:50
And all you get to see is the car that the camera's focusing
27:53
on. It's not a wheel to wheel race
27:55
where all these, you know, and so, so you get to see the
27:58
tidbits they pick up, but not the, but some of the other stuff
28:01
like for example. And, and I love them for this.
28:04
Yeah. One of the things they, they
28:05
featured this driver Jimmy Rock and he has a Honda Civic that is
28:09
blowing people away. And something I didn't realize
28:13
they mentioned this at Rd. Atlanta.
28:14
There's, there was another car in the unlimited class 2000
28:18
horsepower Camaro, like a 67 Camaro super arrowed out.
28:23
Like they even, they even redid the front to make it like a
28:26
spoiler instead of that flat, like where the headlights.
28:28
I mean, it's a very, very awesome car.
28:31
And they did this breakdown of Jimmy Rock, yes.
28:34
And they did this video Jim, they, they, they were looking at
28:37
the timing of Jimmy and his extremely modified unlimited
28:42
Honda Civic. And they're like, look at this.
28:44
He is only like 2 or 3 seconds off this 2000 horsepower Camaro
28:50
in his 500 horsepower front wheel drive Honda Civic.
28:54
Wow. And, and you, when you watch him
28:55
go through the turns, it's incredible.
28:59
And so there's things like that, you know, as a viewer, you can't
29:01
tell how fast people necessarily are going through the turns.
29:05
Either way, they do a really great job.
29:07
You know, they might pick me up to be on the podcast maybe.
29:10
They should a little bit, you know, I mean how good you are
29:12
here, right? You know, and the the minor
29:15
leagues right, you know, so they should pick you up.
29:17
It's yeah, that's shout out to them.
29:19
You know it's you mentioned civic too.
29:22
There's a there's a civic type RI think it's a 17 type R in
29:26
here yes, 17 type yeah and that that also was exactly the right
29:30
car for that that character. So so.
29:32
Kudos. Yeah, I thought so too.
29:34
You know, he's going. I can't remember the character's
29:35
name at the top of my head, but he's, you know, he's a he's a
29:38
kid. He's he's in college for
29:40
engineering, right? What's a what's a college RAF?
29:43
Thank you. That's right.
29:44
I'm like what's a what's like a college sporty car.
29:48
You know what a Civic type R, you know, you know, you can put
29:51
a little exhaust on it. He did a couple mods to it.
29:53
That's like the perfect car and it's a super great sports car.
29:56
I love type bars. Yeah.
29:58
I had the laugh because when I first got this GT4I rolled up to
30:02
the, I don't know, the the Conoco whatever is there in
30:05
Golden right by the school of mines.
30:07
And I was so proud of this thing.
30:08
And I was also so pissed off that no one had come up to me at
30:11
a gas station yet and said, hey, you know, nice car or whatever.
30:13
Well, that's where it happened for the first time.
30:16
And there was a college kid in a Type R, you know, but it's just,
30:19
it's like, you know, you read their minds, you know, it's so.
30:22
Foreshadowing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:24
Just again, authenticity. It's so important.
30:26
It just takes one small thing to take you out of a out of a
30:28
story, right? Yeah.
30:30
And that's yeah, that it goes back to casting a car, right?
30:33
And same thing with the football player, right?
30:34
Like in my mind, if he's got a full ride scholarship to see
30:37
he's making a little bit of money because you know, college
30:39
athletes can make some money, right?
30:41
So the next step up cost wise from a type bar is probably like
30:44
a hellcat, right? And so I could you know, it
30:48
checks out. Yeah, absolutely.
30:49
Well, and I love thinking about that part of it because it's
30:52
part of building the character. Like you said, it's an extension
30:54
of the character. And we've talked about that
30:57
before. You know, people will say like,
30:59
yeah, it's it's a way to indicate something about
31:02
yourself to the rest of the world because sometimes they'll
31:05
see the car before they see you or it's an extension of your
31:08
outfit or your personality or whatever.
31:11
And so I love the amount of thought that you put into
31:13
finding the right car, even the right color for each character
31:16
because it really did paint a picture and it introduced the
31:20
characters through without you saying, you know, well this
31:23
person is a go getter or this person is a whatever.
31:26
The way to illustrate who these people are indirectly.
31:30
I love that. Yeah.
31:31
I, I love that. I, I spent a lot of time
31:33
thinking about it and, you know, I love that.
31:37
The the the guy in the semi private jet, right, We all know
31:41
that type, right? We all know that type, right and
31:44
he's going to have it on Instagram too, right.
31:46
So I appreciate that. Well, let's talk about your car
31:49
because, you know, Lindsey and Dan and I have realized if we
31:52
stop, you know, talking about Porsches once in a while and
31:55
mention, you know, other cars like Ferraris and Corvettes and
31:58
you know, BMW's, then then that's great SEO for us.
32:02
And you've got a a Corvette. So yeah, we M threes.
32:04
You know what? So tell us about your car.
32:06
OK, so I have a 2025 C 8 Stingray Z51.
32:11
I love that car. It's the best thing I've ever
32:13
driven. You know, I've done a couple
32:16
things to it because my my goal with the car, ultimately I want
32:18
to race in NASA TT three. I'm working up to that.
32:22
I'm, you know, I'm on the way to make sure that my times are
32:24
pretty competitive before I like just jump into it and then, you
32:28
know, pay the money and kind of like walk away, you know, so far
32:31
away from the group. You know, it's it's an amazing
32:34
car. I've really never been in a mid
32:37
engine car and in in a track environment and it's incredible
32:42
to me. You know, it's, it's a different
32:45
experience. I'm sure you know, a Porsche
32:47
guy, right? Like when you when you do it and
32:48
it and it just works. You're like, I can't even
32:50
believe this. It's so, so smooth.
32:53
And anybody that I'm taking in it, they, you know, you're
32:55
you're, you're you're hauling down the track.
32:57
The DCT hits. It's so smooth.
32:59
You know, I've done some upgrades so I'm not crashing
33:02
into walls at Laguna Seca too soon, Jason.
33:07
So you know, I've got so I've done couple things.
33:09
I've done AP brakes in the front.
33:11
I've got a really great used deal marketplace shout out
33:13
right. So I got a a great used job put
33:15
AP. Brakes Tracy is that is
33:17
marketplace where you want to buy brakes.
33:19
Oh well, A. Fair.
33:21
A fair question. We got I'll say yes, if the AP
33:24
racing brakes, you could probably buy them off a dumpster
33:27
and they'll still work. You know, true, true.
33:30
So yeah, that's. Awesome.
33:32
So I got, yeah, so I have the AP brakes in the front, which was
33:36
such a weight savings too, about £20 a wheel probably huge
33:40
difference. Did the sway bars SCR
33:43
Performance help me with the sway bars?
33:45
Because you have to drop like a front sunframe or something to
33:47
get the sway bar and it's kind of asinine.
33:51
But I also it's worth it, right? The pay off's so worth it.
33:54
Yeah, I just did an added radiator mob that it's kind of
33:58
interesting when when GM ships these cars to the Middle East,
34:02
Abu Dhabi or whatever, they throw in a third, fourth,
34:06
whatever the number is radiator and we don't get it here in the
34:09
States sounds. Like something Porsche would do,
34:11
to be honest. Really interesting.
34:14
So you could buy these parts direct from GM or there's a
34:19
company that did a little testing and put it together.
34:21
And cuz what I was noticing is on the summer temperatures,
34:24
we're at altitude here, I'm hitting oil temps of like 26265.
34:32
Sometimes the coolant's getting up there 23235, you know,
34:36
certainly not engine blowing temperatures, but to the point
34:39
where it's going to start pulling time.
34:40
And you know, I, I definitely saw my lap times drop like a
34:43
second and a half or two seconds.
34:45
So I went ahead, I added that radiator in there.
34:48
You know, I got the harness bar so I can I have some 5 point
34:52
harnesses in it. In High Plains, if, if you're
34:55
not local here, it can be 85 in Denver and it feels like 110 at
35:02
high points. There are a few trees, you know,
35:04
but it's pretty open. You know, it's.
35:06
It's Kansas almost. Yeah.
35:08
It really, it really is. It feels that way.
35:10
You know, In fact, it's so Kansas that often times big
35:13
storms will roll in while you're out there, as I'm sure you've
35:16
experienced. But.
35:17
Yeah, I had a friend of mine, He has a famous picture of his.
35:20
I think it's an S14 going down the back straight and there's a
35:23
tornado in the background. Yeah, the time planes, yeah,
35:27
that is upframe, yeah. That sounds like Oregon Raceway
35:30
Park. That's like.
35:31
You can be out. There, it's brilliantly sunny
35:33
and then just like line squalls come in, you're plastered up
35:36
against the fence because of the wind.
35:37
And then like 15 minutes later, all better.
35:40
So I mean again. Yeah, Lindsay's our track.
35:42
A resident track expert here. Love it, That car show.
35:45
Dan and I, we, we dabble, but Lindsey grew up on the track and
35:50
I think can probably, you know, we can both back up the the mid
35:53
engine thing. It's kind of like a chica.
35:55
Lindsay's got a 16 GT 4. You know, I've got 20 and it's
35:58
just, yeah, you just feel like you're getting away with
36:00
something. But Lindsay's also got what, an
36:02
M3? What are your other cars
36:04
currently you've got? AN-836-M3, that's the track car.
36:08
Love it. Love it and it's a sedan, but
36:10
it's now a 2 seater of course because everything up pulled
36:12
out. So that was another scene where
36:14
you're like, I don't remember which car it was, but you said
36:16
everything's been stripped out. You know, it's got a cage in it,
36:18
and I'm like, Yep, that tracks, Yeah.
36:21
And then I have a 2007 BMW X3 that's a manual.
36:30
Oh, that's a rarity. That's.
36:31
So it's pretty fun, but I met someone this morning, I met a
36:34
gal this morning and we were chatting and she said what do
36:37
you do? And I mentioned the podcast and
36:39
she said, well what's the podcast about?
36:40
And I said it's about cars. And she goes, I love cars.
36:43
And she said you guys will like this.
36:46
She said, what do you guys talk about?
36:48
And so I was telling her, you know, kind of generally.
36:50
And she said, well, do you ever talk about the Honda Fit?
36:53
And I said, I don't, Should we? And she said, I have one and I
36:58
think they're the best. I'm like, yeah, it sounds like
37:00
you have thoughts. And she said, and I did a stage
37:03
2 transmission swap. And so she turned it into a
37:07
manual. Nice.
37:09
So actually in in brid life, I think it's it's like one of the
37:14
bottomless classes of time attack.
37:16
The most popular car is a Honda Fit.
37:18
All right, I am a huge fan. When my wife and daughter and I
37:22
moved to Denver from Chicago about 11 years ago, we had a
37:27
nine and seven Chorus and a Honda Fit, both manual.
37:32
And we, you know, I got got the Porsche later, but we came out
37:35
here in that Honda Fit, you know, plants in the backseat,
37:38
everything else. It was a manual.
37:39
It was, you know, 80, maybe 110 horsepower, right?
37:42
I mean, that's what, yeah, my 81320I BMW had, you know, so
37:46
many years ago. And it was fine in Chicago,
37:49
right, as a city commuter. And I'll never forget the first
37:51
time we tried to go up like Floyd Hill, so Lindsey Floyd
37:55
Hill. So I-70 going into the mountains
37:57
from Denver and having that car with the, you know, two adults
38:01
and a, a baby basically in 3rd gear, just pegged and just
38:05
trying to maintain maybe 60 miles an hour, you know, and.
38:09
The auto it was. Within a year we got a turbo.
38:11
You know, take one, right? Just because.
38:13
We're like, this is not going to work.
38:15
But that said, that car shifted like a sewing machine.
38:19
You know, it was quick enough in traffic.
38:21
It was all glass, which I think is the most underrated, you
38:24
know, sort of, yeah. Thing we don't have visibility
38:27
is a good thing. Right.
38:27
Yeah, Visibility, the biggest safety thing you can have,
38:30
wonderful car, would still have that car today as a third or
38:33
fourth car. But you know, got involved with
38:36
those Colorado hills. We totaled the car.
38:39
We actually made money then. But I will, I always wanted to,
38:42
if nothing else, turned that into a track car, right?
38:45
Because, you know, it's kind of like a built in excuse, right?
38:48
Because you've got Miatas flying by or whatever.
38:50
But it was just such an inherently good car, right?
38:54
And anyway, all the praise in the world for a fit.
38:57
There you go. There's like this polar opposite
39:01
with with cars on the track and the Honda Fit falls into the
39:03
category where if you get past doesn't matter, you're in a
39:06
Honda Fit. But if you pass people, oh boy,
39:09
are you a cooking and it's the same.
39:11
It's the same opposite excuse with like a GT3RS, right.
39:15
If if you're passing people in the GT3 Rs, like pat yourself on
39:18
the back, congratulations. But if people, if people are
39:21
passing you, you know, you better, you better look the
39:24
other way. Yeah, if you if you get to be
39:26
the driver that's passing the GT3 Rs, you're like, good on me.
39:29
I did. Yeah, I'm yeah, I'm
39:32
accomplishing things. Yeah.
39:34
So yeah, thanks to my new friend Grace for inspiring us to talk
39:37
about the Honda Fit. Hey, Grace.
39:39
And if you don't mind, I just something that was really
39:41
passionate about bringing it back to the book females and the
39:44
motorsport industry. Like you see this with like F1,
39:48
there's really popular female race engineers.
39:51
There's there's up and coming female racers in US.
39:54
And it was really important to me that the protagonist, Luke,
39:57
he's actually guided along this story by some really strong
40:00
female figures, right? We have Emmy, who's the really
40:03
brainy, like engineer Sabrina, who's like the kind of like
40:07
edgy, you know, mechanic racer. She's kind of based off a off a
40:12
friend's girl or fiance that I know.
40:14
And and live obviously his mom again, strong independent
40:18
business owner. And so I wanted to capture that
40:21
too because, you know, even if it is mostly men reading the
40:24
book or who knows. I just wanted to to highlight
40:27
the fact that like the space is nobody cares about who you are
40:32
or what your background is or you know, what your opinions are
40:36
about anything in a race track or cars.
40:37
We all come together in this in this car environment.
40:41
And it was important to me to sell that story and, you know,
40:44
write that story. Yeah, yeah.
40:45
And they were very believable characters, too.
40:48
I feel like I I don't people like that.
40:49
And there are a lot of women involved with the race scene and
40:52
the vintage race scene here in Colorado, which is awesome.
40:55
But Lindsay, sorry I cut you off.
40:57
No, you're good. But yeah, they, I loved that the
40:59
women were involved and I wanted to, I wondered if you could
41:03
share, like, how did you get involved with track driving?
41:05
Because that's kind of what started this.
41:07
Whole thing. Your love of writing.
41:09
A good question. OK.
41:10
OK. So with track stuff, this goes
41:14
back to, I don't even know, 2012 or 2013.
41:19
Two years ago, Steve, what are you talking about?
41:21
Yeah. I know right, So I was the
41:23
smartest kid ever and I for my for basically for I had some
41:27
motorcycles as a kid like kind of small stuff, the very first
41:30
like real sports motorcycle. I had of course, ACBR 1000.
41:34
Why would anybody start on anything else, right?
41:36
And I had started riding it and I had a guy, I had a friend of
41:41
mine who his landlord was really into track racing and stuff like
41:45
that. And he was like, come on out.
41:47
He helped me get a suit and stuff like this.
41:49
And I told myself before I should do this before I really
41:53
take my 1000 on the track. Let me go do.
41:55
There's a company out in San Diego called Socal Supermodo.
41:58
Shout out to them. And they basically, you know, at
42:01
the time it was like 250 bucks and you get the bike, you get
42:05
the track time and it's on go Kart tracks and you learn on a
42:08
super motorbike, right, which is like dirt bikes with stiffer
42:11
suspension and you know, it's like 200 or, you know, street
42:15
tires, right? And I fell in love with it just
42:17
like that. I'm out during that track day.
42:19
It was amazing. And that just like catapulted
42:22
me. You know, I just continually got
42:24
more and more and more into track or private Motorsports,
42:29
whether it's dirt or something like that, You know, because I,
42:32
I then I did my CVR 1000 for a bunch of times and you know, you
42:36
kind of pour one out. That bike got stolen, but it,
42:39
but then I was able to buy a supermoto because you know, the
42:42
insurance, right? And then it happens.
42:44
Silver lining. Right.
42:45
So, so really so sad. That bug is so beautiful, you
42:49
know. And then I raced supermoto for a
42:52
bit. And then the part that I loved,
42:55
I really loved about supermoto was the dirt section.
42:57
Because that's the other thing with supermoto is you're on
42:59
street times, but there's a dirt section in between the, the,
43:03
the, the track section. And then I realized, man,
43:06
swinging that rear out, you know, that's so much fun.
43:08
Then I got into doing dirt bikes and motocross and enduro and and
43:13
finally came the time of my life where the the the high school
43:17
dream car I was ready to buy, which was an STI.
43:20
OK. And I said I'm going to track.
43:23
Nice choice. You know, I've been doing.
43:25
It here. It's like it's a little bit of a
43:28
don't meet your heroes story, but I still, I still have some,
43:32
you know what I mean? Still have some heart for it.
43:35
But and, and, and, and then I said, OK, I've been doing this
43:37
for a while on two wheels. I'm ready to, you know, it's I
43:41
want to do this in cars. And so I started doing it with
43:43
the Subaru, did 567 track days, did realize due to some, you
43:48
know, fall backs with the platform that it maybe was not
43:52
the card for me, for someone who just wanted to go and be able to
43:54
go 20 to 30 minutes repetitively, you know, and then
43:57
really get that seat time in. And now I get the Corvette,
44:01
which is just phenomenal. Yeah.
44:03
Yeah. Did you grew up wanting
44:04
Corvettes? Or I mean, what were you, what
44:06
was on your wall as a kid other than motorcycles?
44:10
What was on my wall was the Smokey and the Bandit, 1978 Burt
44:15
Reynolds Firebird. I don't even can I guess your
44:18
age, Steve, right? Younger than you think, but.
44:22
I don't need to say I feel like that's a vintage.
44:23
Steve was making vintage choices, even.
44:25
OK. Yeah, Yeah, you do.
44:26
You do seem pretty young, but I was hoping, you know, you're a
44:29
little older, but yeah. I don't even know how I got into
44:32
it. Somebody gifted me in some
44:34
random birthday because I was like into cars like like a toy,
44:37
like a, like a Firebird toy. And it was and it was an act.
44:40
It was, it was a 73. I remember the toy and it was
44:43
red and had to stream an eagle on the hood.
44:45
And I was like, I need that. And then I remember I was in
44:48
summer camp at like 11 and one of the camp counselors, I swear
44:52
his name was Andrew. I still remember that.
44:54
And I think he was, I think he was kind of calling out at one
44:57
of the other female camp counselors and he had a black
45:00
Firebird, right. And so my first car as a kid was
45:05
a $1000 nineteen 74 Firebird with a inline 63 speed manual on
45:13
the floor. And so that's how I'm going to
45:15
drive, you know, and, and, and, and then I had a, a 97 Firebird,
45:20
which, you know, I worked at Wendy's and Publix and, and I
45:23
saved up and I bought a 97 Firebird and, you know, I just,
45:26
I just went from there. Oh yeah, those are great
45:28
letters. It's.
45:29
Like the automotive. It's like the automotive version
45:32
of like a baby animal imprinting on their parent like.
45:35
Yes. Imprinted on the Firebird.
45:37
Yeah, right. It's funny you mentioned that
45:39
Smoking the Bandit Dan, who's not here tonight, is a huge fan.
45:43
He you know, he's from the Uki think, you know, he was way more
45:45
into it than than even I was over here.
45:47
But yeah, that was the that was a, you know, that was a Seminole
45:52
movie and. You know, Jackie Gleason?
45:54
Come on. Yeah.
45:55
Yeah, you know, and watching it now, it's kind of amazing that
45:59
was ever made, but I know. But that's what makes it so
46:03
great as you go back and you're like, this is fascinating.
46:06
I. Mean it was definitely, yeah,
46:08
it's one of those classic car movies for sure.
46:11
And that's one of the great things about fiction, too, is
46:13
that whenever you ride at that point in time, snapshot, you
46:16
know, very rarely as someone, you go back and be like, I can't
46:18
believe I said that or whatever, you know, Like it's part of that
46:21
era and that beauty of it. Yeah.
46:24
Yeah. Just real quick, I want to give
46:26
a shout out to a friend of ours, a friend of the show, Willis
46:30
Wood. He is putting on his very first
46:33
cars and coffee here in Denver this weekend.
46:36
It's Saturday, May 23rd. Willis was a sponsor of my
46:40
previous podcast. He had a business called Rhino
46:42
Signworks and he's now moved on, but he's still into cars.
46:46
He has an M Coupe, he's got a A190 E Cosworth, which is a
46:51
super cool car and he's got a lot of car friends in the
46:54
community automobile rally. And anyway, they're all putting
46:57
on this, this scars and coffee Saturday, May 23rd from 1:50 at
47:02
the Denver Design District, which is at 675 S Broadway in
47:07
Denver. If you know the big giant yellow
47:09
sculpture, it looks like a stack of French fries.
47:12
That's that's the place hungry and now you're hungry and and
47:17
you should definitely go check this out.
47:18
I just wanted to get that in for him because Steve, you're a, you
47:22
know, a local guy. I think we probably know a lot
47:24
of the same people. Lindsey knows this.
47:26
I've talked about this before, but we have a really tight car
47:29
community here in Colorado and in Denver.
47:32
I think we have a very outsized car community that the quality
47:35
of the cars that are here. I don't know if it's just, you
47:38
know, the monies that it's here, the streets, it's just the
47:41
roads. Rather it's just it's a
47:42
fantastic car community. You've lived at other places.
47:45
What do you think is different about the car community here in
47:48
Colorado? That's a good question.
47:50
I see. I see a lot of variety and I
47:54
think when when you're living in California, when you're, you
47:56
know, I grew up in South Florida, what you really see,
47:59
you see exotics, you see the big stuff out here.
48:02
You get a lot more Jeeps than a crazy modified.
48:06
You get the Broncos right, the guys that do the off road.
48:09
All those kind of really cool cars are out here.
48:12
You know, I had tipped to the author I was talking about
48:15
earlier, but I had tipped with an LS3 Land Cruiser.
48:18
You know, that would be a problem that you would that
48:21
would be a car that you would see out here in Colorado would
48:23
be a super modified the Land Cruiser.
48:25
And so I think you get some of the really cool things out here
48:28
in Colorado that, you know, may not necessarily appeal to the
48:31
San Diego or the Miami elite. Yeah.
48:36
They say in Anchorman, San Diego and.
48:38
Yeah, I think. People drive them here too.
48:42
You know, we have such wonderful roads.
48:44
I think I'd put our roads up to anyone's Southern California
48:47
included, And we've just you know, it's fantastic because
48:49
those roads are I will put squat pass or I'm sorry, it's called
48:56
Mount Blue Sky against any road in the country, but.
49:00
You know, yeah, There you go. The only thing I'll say OK is
49:04
California roads for sure. You can drive your Rd. in
49:06
Florida. They don't really have any good
49:08
roads anyway, but you know. You got to watch out for
49:11
alligators. Yeah, California, pretty great.
49:15
And, you know, I think, you know, we've talked about this
49:17
before, but it is kind of the mothership for those of us, you
49:19
know, I mean, who don't live there.
49:21
Peterson Museum is there and just the great roads.
49:24
And this is the iconic stuff from the movies.
49:25
And you got the ocean right there.
49:27
I mean, it's just even if you're out for a cruise, it's it's
49:29
pretty wonderful. I mean, it's just yeah.
49:32
You know, it's it's, yeah. Center of the automotive
49:34
universe. I guess there's a reason, you
49:36
know, Fast and Furious, you know, was, was filmed there and
49:39
I guess. But I'll tell you what, Denver.
49:41
But yeah. But I'll tell you what, on a, on
49:43
a California fall, you're not going to drive up to Estes Park
49:46
and see elk in the, you know. And so there's some really
49:50
awesome things that we get in Colorado driving up the Estes
49:54
and you know, that the road that just kind of winds all around
49:58
the Rocky Mountain National Forest.
49:59
It's just so beautiful up there. And so that's something that's
50:01
really unique, is that the picturesque in the atmosphere
50:05
that comes along with it. Yeah, yeah, we're pretty, pretty
50:07
fortunate here. And Lindsay's, you know,
50:11
fortunate because you get to drive, you know, half the time
50:14
in Socal, half the time. Cool.
50:16
So yeah, a bit of both. But Lindsey just posted, if you
50:21
haven't seen it on Instagram, just posted her Mudfest.
50:24
Oh, I haven't seen it. I've.
50:25
Haven't seen it. But it was very dusty.
50:27
There was no mud. It was.
50:28
Dust Fest this year. In fact, you played what is it
50:31
dust in the? Wind, you know.
50:32
Is you. Putting it together and I'm
50:34
like, all right, what song? Let me put in dust and see what
50:37
comes up. And that came up and I went,
50:38
yeah, that's no question. I got to use that song.
50:41
It was too perfect. What did you guys think about?
50:44
If you have, what did you guys think about the like some of the
50:47
musical references in the book? Did you enjoy that?
50:50
Did you think it was a draw away?
50:52
It's a good question. I'm not a big listener of any of
50:55
those bands, but I I still appreciated it, right, because
51:00
it was just sort of one more level of authenticity.
51:03
You know, had you had the bands that I listened to in the book,
51:06
I would have had some major questions for you.
51:09
So I think it was probably good that you went with what you what
51:12
you did. But Lindsay, did that connect
51:13
with you? I mean, are those bands?
51:15
That I'm we're a little. You too, Steve.
51:18
I know. I think that's part of it is I
51:19
don't know the bands, but I appreciated the sort of scenes
51:23
setting. Like it's, it rounds it out.
51:25
It's like including the colors of the car and the details and
51:28
all that. It's sort of like, and you've
51:31
done this a couple times while we've been chatting, like you're
51:33
very good at painting a picture. And so it definitely drew me in
51:38
because you can sort of feel like you're in the car and you
51:41
know what the car looks like and you know what they're wearing
51:42
and you know what they're listening to and you just sort
51:44
of like it's immersive. So I liked it, yeah.
51:47
Good. Because that's like the next
51:48
factor when you're driving, right?
51:49
If you're not listening to that car show you might be listening
51:52
to, you know, you might. Be.
51:53
What are you even doing? I know, right?
51:55
But you know, you might have your favorite CD in, Oh, sorry,
51:58
you might have your favorite Spotify, you know?
52:01
Song We're old enough for CDs. And.
52:05
The CDs, the CD changer, though, I did appreciate that being 50.
52:08
Yes, yes. My truck still has ACDI, think
52:12
it has a single CD. I remember my mom's Mercedes in
52:16
the 90s. You had to like pull a body
52:18
panel off and then there would be like the six CD changer and
52:21
you would pull the tray out, you know, and you would load the
52:23
tray and then you put it in and you'd make sure it registers if
52:26
the tray is in. And then those, see, those six
52:30
CDs are what's in the car for the life of the car.
52:33
Someone just posted, someone in our circles just posted and
52:35
Instagram the day about someone who goes through a lot of cars,
52:37
you know, auction cars, you know, and how you know.
52:40
He always looks forward to seeing what's in the CD player
52:43
because a lot of people stopped listening to CDs 10 years ago.
52:46
So there was one, it was the the the I think it was a mixtape
52:50
called sexy singles. You know what's going to be on
52:53
ACD like that. And fun fact, this Porsche
52:55
behind me is a 20, but they made this up through I guess 26.
53:00
I think also has ACD player and had ACD player.
53:04
I think it was one of the last cars to have ACD player.
53:06
But it's it's the way it's situated.
53:08
It's just sort of above the panel.
53:09
You'd never know it was their thank God.
53:11
You know, it's not something you want to advertise, you know,
53:14
but. Not it's retro.
53:17
Yeah, I was shocked to discover that it had ACD player.
53:19
Well, what's so funny about the truck is that it has, it had
53:22
memory and so you could put the CD in and basically RIP the CD
53:26
really onto the internal memory of the truck and then take the
53:30
CD out. So that solves the problem.
53:32
You're not going to accidentally give your CDs away when you sell
53:34
sell the car, which I feel like is wow.
53:36
That's kind of not a problem that many people are dealing
53:38
with these days anymore. Yeah, that's kind of
53:41
interesting. I'm the oldest one here by
53:43
several years, I'm sure. And I do remember when CD
53:46
players were new and you know, such a big deal and I went out
53:49
and I got a Kenwood like a Diskman, right?
53:52
But it was luckily for the car and I was so proud.
53:55
My dad had an E 3325 at the time.
53:57
Of course didn't come with the CD player, but you could use the
54:00
tape deck to play and. I was going to say that tape
54:03
with the wire on I. Was.
54:04
Literally going to say done that and you know.
54:07
And, you know, I don't think we made it out of the driveway
54:09
before that damn thing started skipping, you know, and I was so
54:12
disappointed. So if you wanted to listen to
54:14
the CD's, you had to basically have it in your lap or hold it
54:16
and sort of compensate as you. It's just such a a mess and.
54:19
Or you're like driving one handed so you can hold the disc.
54:22
Totally, totally the price of of being cool.
54:24
You know cassette singles, you know the things, kids, you know.
54:27
At least those didn't skip, right?
54:29
Well, the M3 had a 5 disc changer, but it was in the
54:32
trunk. I mean, so many of them were in
54:34
the trunk and you're like, yeah, I'm not going.
54:36
Into the trunk. Change my music all the time and
54:38
that's why you'd load it up and that would be your soundtrack
54:41
for the rest of time. You know how how far we've we've
54:45
come, right? So good old days, right?
54:47
Yeah. Yeah, you're probably noticing
54:51
the book there's like a little bit of a love letter to the to
54:53
the G80M3 in there, you know, kind of like, and that comes
54:57
from my wife's car. She has she has an M3 comp and.
55:01
Excellent. You know she has good taste.
55:03
Fur. Nicely done, Kate.
55:06
And she did the individual color of liquid copper, which is
55:10
astronomical. I can send you a picture of it
55:13
sometime and I will when, when you're in that car and there's,
55:18
there's just something that BMW really captures that's sucks
55:22
perfectly like a trap capable car.
55:25
And then just, you know, a button press or whatever.
55:28
And it's like this luxury cruiser, It's quiet, it's so
55:32
comfortable that everything looks modern and neat, right?
55:35
There's not, there's just enough tactile things, buttons and
55:39
switches, but, you know, to where it's not just like button,
55:41
you know, touchscreen, touchscreen, touchscreen, but
55:43
you have a little bit of that too.
55:45
And then next thing you know, you're going to 125.
55:47
Yeah, yeah, yeah. By accident, you know.
55:48
What I mean, because it's so good, well, it's sort of the
55:51
luxury, the restraint of like you have what you need and it's
55:54
lovely, but you don't have more than you need.
55:57
Yes, yeah, yeah. Hey, Speaking of romance, what
56:00
did Kate think about that scene early in the book?
56:04
OK, when I first wrote that, I had told her that I wrote kind
56:09
of a spicy scene in the book, and she's like, I need you to
56:11
read it to me. And I was like, out loud.
56:14
And okay. Out loud and I think I got, I
56:19
got like 5 words in and I was like, I can't do this, I can't
56:23
do this. And it's sometimes I think about
56:25
like should I have put that in there?
56:27
Should I have not put that in there?
56:28
But I just, I'm happy I did. It's yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:32
Yeah, you know, yeah. You know, I just didn't know it
56:34
was going to go there, but it I kind of said the relationship
56:37
and before you got on, you know, I was talking with Lindsey just
56:40
sort of the the state of mind of the people and they're not, you
56:42
know, well, I don't want to give too much away, but it sets the
56:45
scene for for later the the relationship that that that is
56:48
so. And yeah, and that's what I
56:49
wanted to portray is like, you know, just like people in love
56:54
and they're adults, right? And this is this is life.
56:58
Adults you know. Right.
56:59
It's well-rounded. Yeah.
57:01
Yeah, it was interesting. Like, were you, you know,
57:04
because the relationships and again, not to give anything
57:07
away, but like some of the relationship frameworks are not
57:12
traditional or, you know, they're based on, like you said,
57:15
like some of the characters histories have colored how
57:17
they've lived their lives or like how they've set their lives
57:20
up when the book starts. And were you drawing from like,
57:24
personal experience or people that you know, or was that just
57:27
something that you came up with? I think I think I'm a little bit
57:33
of a romantic at heart. And so I think I kind of had,
57:37
you know, where it goes with, with with that couple.
57:40
I can't I kind of had because they're on a journey of their
57:43
own right and and I kind of had that in mind where I was like,
57:48
man, that would be so fantastic. I built the live character
57:52
obviously a little bit off my wife, but the the story of her
57:56
profession and things like that. My friend Zach mom, she has a
57:59
very, you know, they work on a very, very successful escrow
58:02
business. And when I was thinking about
58:05
that type of person, I was like, you know, that would be a really
58:09
great role for for for Liv, the character, right?
58:13
And, and then watching their relationship grow over the
58:17
course of the book and and where that named it.
58:19
And I just thought it was, I thought that was really great.
58:23
And then I really. I was very happy.
58:25
I mean, I love a happy ending. That's it.
58:28
There's not not not like. Pun intended, Absolutely.
58:33
Steve, this is the first book you've ever written, right?
58:36
Yeah, well, I'm in. 4th grade, OK, like a, you know, one of
58:39
those kids books. Sure.
58:41
So yeah, yeah, this was not that you've you've grown.
58:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was fantastic.
58:46
And I hope you'll you know, I hope this turns into a second
58:48
and the third book. I hope that the podcast in the
58:50
next book is us. But you know, it's really a
58:53
great a great book. And here's the cover.
58:55
So when you see it in the in the.
58:56
Book. You know what you're looking for
58:58
Time attacks, Steve Flosser, you know it it does what a good book
59:01
should in that you you find yourself a little bit in each of
59:03
these characters, right, and it and it, you know, covers the the
59:06
spectrum of emotions too, and just really reads authentically
59:10
like we've we've talked about. So really well done, man.
59:11
I mean, you know, hit. It up the ball.
59:13
Thank you. First time up, good job.
59:15
Bravo. Thank you.
59:15
Thank you. And I just, I hope the readers
59:18
really enjoy it. I hope that when you read a
59:20
fiction novel, you know, you kind of take a little bit of
59:23
that character with you. And I hope that this entices
59:26
anybody. Like, let's go to the track, you
59:29
know, if you're in Colorado, reach out to me.
59:31
I do passengers all the time. I have someone coming out with
59:34
me this Friday. She has a Mini Cooper S and she
59:37
said I kind of want to, I'm interested in what it's like.
59:39
I'm kind of scared to take my car.
59:40
I said, come out and ride with me for a few laps, ride with my
59:43
friend for a few laps, and the next time you can drive your
59:46
car. And so that's what I'm
59:47
passionate about, right, is getting people to the track.
59:49
And I hope that message comes through the book, and I hope
59:52
that it inspires, but it also entertains.
59:56
Absolutely. You know, our our friend of the
59:58
show, Bruce Meyer was just with him recently and I got a thank
1:00:01
you note from him and he very famously signs all his
1:00:04
correspondence with never Lyft. You were kind enough to sign our
1:00:08
books for us and you've got it. And almost as good of a, you
1:00:11
know, never Lyft is pretty amazing, right?
1:00:13
I mean, that's that's epic. But take it to the track and and
1:00:15
really that's what this book is about that you're about.
1:00:18
And and, you know, a bit of advice in there for for all of
1:00:21
us. So Steve Schlosser, thank you so
1:00:23
much for joining us tonight on. That car show, we should
1:00:27
probably tell people what your website is, how to find you,
1:00:30
where to? Amazon.
1:00:31
I'm sure this book is available. OK.
1:00:32
Other places, Wine country. Yeah.
1:00:34
Yeah, so. Wine County Wine County 1
1:00:36
Country. It's wine country, Wine Country
1:00:38
Motorsports. If you're local, you could buy a
1:00:40
copy from them. Otherwise it's available on
1:00:42
Amazon. Search for Time Attack, Steve
1:00:44
Schlosser, you'll find it. You can go to my website,
1:00:47
timeattackbook.com and that will take you to Amazon.
1:00:50
If you want to reach out, If you want a signed copy that says
1:00:52
take it to the track, there's a contact me.
1:00:54
I'll gladly send you one, you know, or if you want to come to
1:00:58
the track, that's a great way to get too.
1:01:00
You can follow me on social media, my personal account,
1:01:03
Super Steve 921. But there's also a time attack
1:01:05
book, you know, on on Instagram. You can you can find myself, you
1:01:09
know, thank you again. And for all the readers who you
1:01:12
know, read this book inspired by this book.
1:01:15
Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us, Steve.
1:01:18
So it's that car show, and until next time.
1:01:22
Remember, always be driving. Thank you so much for telling
1:01:25
your enthusiasts friends about us liking and subscribing.
1:01:28
And Steve, of course, thanks for joining us, and we will see you
1:01:31
all next week.