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When Car Culture Meets Chaos: Danny P on Cars x Break/Fix Podcast · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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This episode is sponsored by 077 Media.
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A boutique agency set up to help automotive motorsport companies
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with everything from strategic planning, marketing support
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to partnership management, for more information, visit www.
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o77.
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media.
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So you want to interview Mario Andretti?
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And I'm like, doesn't.
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Bear poop in the woods?
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I mean, yeah, of course!
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Like, let's do this, right?
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What is it about cars?
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Why do we love these inanimate objects?
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Why do we scour auction sites looking for dream rides?
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Why do we spend our weekends meeting up with others to look
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and talk about each other's cars?
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Why do we spend hours creating builds on manufacturers websites?
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Cars should be about more than just getting from A to B.
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My mission with this podcast is to share more about our tribe.
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This is Danny P on Cars.
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Welcome to Danny P on cars and my next installment.
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Today's a crossover episode featuring two podcast hosts who are
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really at the top of their game.
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Eric and Brad host the wildly popular break fix podcast, serving up content,
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which includes consumer advice.
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Regular news and a few halo guests their podcast is at the tip of the
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iceberg when we talk about their passion for cars So i'm really excited
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for this episode brad and eric.
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Welcome to danny p on cars.
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Well, danny.
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Thanks for having us back It's awesome to do a double crossover with you.
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Good to see you.
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Thanks.
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Thanks a lot Yeah, looking forward to this one.
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I know you guys do so much in the car world The two of you do a great
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job of keeping car culture alive.
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Where did your passion for cars come from?
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Was it inherited or was it something else?
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For me, it started as a little kid.
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I come by it honestly.
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I've mentioned before my grandfather came to the United States post World
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War II and he actually got a job as a chauffeur for the Belgian embassy.
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And my dad grew up around Big cars, limousines, things like that.
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Back then, chauffeurs had to turn wrenches, detail, and
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drive the ambassadors around.
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So there was a lot to that, you know, spending time in the garage.
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So my dad picked that up.
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And then because of where they lived in Italy, they lived just up from
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Fiordiano, which is the test track there at Maranello at the Ferrari factory.
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And he used to tell me stories as a kid, he would go down and hang
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out by the fences, and he would watch Lauda on the test track.
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And he said, I always.
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Wanted to be a race car driver.
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And so growing up in my household, it was nothing but turning
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wrenches, going to autocrosses, track days, all that kind of stuff.
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And then it evolved into engine swaps and other crazy projects, and then getting
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deeper involved with organizations like SCCA and the Porsche Club of America.
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So for me, I'm a third generation petrol head in this family.
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Mine also started as, you know, as a kid, but it didn't come from my father
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came from my mother when I was born.
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She had a 70s Camaro and she was kind of big in the cars and things like that.
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But my dad was more when he was a teenager, but he kind of grew out of it.
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You know, obviously we're immature, you know, so it hasn't
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we haven't grown out of it yet.
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My love for cars and my.
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My love for music, I think, both came from my mom.
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So I'm curious, Eric, have you been back to Italy to pay homage and go visit?
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I have, several times over the years, and I've had my own stunts and adventures
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and, you know, now I'm not going to say near wrecking cars, but I've gotten close
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to destroying a few because I wanted to be a rally driver when I was a kid, and
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that was impossible in the United States.
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States, but I had a lot of fun with my grandfather's Alto Bianchi or
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my other grandfather's Alfa Romeo, especially up in the mountains.
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And, you know, I would, I would say I would test their limits, but yeah,
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I've been to, I've been to Monternello.
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We've been to the museum, to the factory, stuff like that.
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And for me, I feel right at home when I'm back and I'm also super jealous of
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the cars that are running around in Italy that we'll never have here in the States.
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Brad Camaro's in the seventies.
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So would you say you're a muscle car guy, or have you kind of evolved
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your, uh, your love from there?
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My love has kind of evolved to more German, but Volkswagen, Porsche
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specifically, and then I love Ferraris, uh, and, you know, anything
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Italian, because who doesn't?
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I go back and forth.
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It depends on you.
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I change my what I want in a car when I change my underwear.
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Basically, it's that quick.
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One day I'll wake up and I'll want a Chevy Nomad with a big block in it.
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Then the next day I'll want a Porsche 911 convertible.
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And then I want a G Wagon or I want a Jeep lifted or something.
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I just love all cars.
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So there's no, basically I will never be able to scratch the itch
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enough because I want everything.
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And unless I win the lottery, I'll go broken like a week.
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And Brad's the reason why we have these never ending.
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What should I buy debates?
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It started on chat and then evolved into articles and now they've become a sub
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series on our show called what should I buy where we sit down and pontificate
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and spend other people's money for hours at a time, because we can't just have.
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One car, even two cars, and sometimes maybe even six cars.
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It's like a bag of Lay's potato chips.
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You can't have just one.
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Started when, uh, back in 2013, I was looking for a track car and there were
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thousands, I, and I'm not exaggerating thousands of emails going back and forth
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between me, Eric, and this other guy that we used to talk to, and it was all
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about what track car should Brad get.
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And we would go back and forth through thousands of emails.
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And I eventually ended up on a Mark four.
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Volkswagen, mainly because they were cheap and I had them in the past, so it was a
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known, you know, quantity or known entity.
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To Eric's point, you know, you can't have just one car, really.
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The answer is just RS6.
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Audi RS6 does it all.
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How do you get the hair flowing in the wind in an RS6 though?
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They've got the panoramic sunroof, don't they?
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Yeah, I believe there's something called AC255.
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There we go.
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In this case, it might be 2155.
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Put down all 10 windows or whatever they are.
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And then open the roof as well.
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When you're going 200 miles an hour, anything will blow your hair.
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True.
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So I'm curious then, so that's one element of the podcast that you folks run.
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When you do the What Should I Buy episodes, is it a fictional
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person buying this car?
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Or is it you guys living out your dreams in terms of, in theory, lottery wins?
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How does it work?
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So if we do the Willy Wonka and we scratch that and reverse it, everything
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you said is a hundred percent true.
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When it started out to Brad's point, we were shopping for Brad or we were
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shopping for somebody else in the Grand Tournament of Sports club because there's
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a club aspect to all this as well.
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But then it evolved into, hey, I want to buy my wife a new station wagon.
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And then we would have, Hey, let's, let's debate that.
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Let's, you know, chat it out on Slack or let's do it as an episode, things like
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that, and then it sort of took a turn midway through the show, where as we
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started to interview these juggernauts in the auto sphere that had backgrounds
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at motor trend and other places where we started to invite them to the table.
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And then what should I buy?
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Began to mature.
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And there's a particular episode where you see it change over and it's our, what
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should I buy collector cars episode where we sort of rebooted the whole process.
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And now.
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We were buying for a fictitious first time collector.
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So that allowed us to be a little bit unbiased, but bring the, the mantra
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was always to bring the craziest car to the table, not the commodity, you know,
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Camaro, Cuda, Mustang, those types of things, try to find something different,
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try to find something that makes.
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The next cars and coffee entry go, well, why did you buy that?
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Or what, why, you know, those kinds of things really kind of incite that
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intrigue about what a person bought.
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So we discount a lot of cars right away.
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We have some shopping buckets and criteria that we've created, but
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they've been really successful.
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And actually probably one of our more popular episodes on the show and people
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have thrown ideas, even in our Facebook group, can you do a, what should I buy on?
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X, which turned into muscle and delays or turned into 80s cars
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or turned into, you know, Italian only cars, those kinds of things.
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And we just, there's a never ending supply of genres and angles.
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We can take for what should I buy in Eric to Eric's point?
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It does start out with criteria, fictional criteria that we
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put together for this person.
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You know, that's supposed to be buying one of these cars and it's not just 1 person.
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It's multiple people because we build a price.
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Yes.
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Uh, tier in there as well.
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So what should you buy 50, 000 and below or 50, 001 to 100, 000?
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And he goes off on the, from there, if you listen to it, what should I buy?
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You'll hear that it turns into complete chaos.
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All the rules go out the window.
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They all just want to talk about, or they, cause I'm included.
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We all just want to talk about our favorite cars that fall into.
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Whatever the main title of the episode is everyone comes
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with their own hidden agenda.
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Do they, of course, of course they do.
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But we try to challenge our panelists as well, because they are in the business.
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Some are brokers, some are journalists, et cetera.
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And we have one that.
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We'll have aired probably by the time this comes out or close to it, where
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we're doing kit cars, replicas, clones, posers, we call them things like that.
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And it's totally just out of left field because it's an undiscovered and untapped
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market of the collector world where it's like, why not own a Beck five 50 spider?
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What's wrong with that?
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And you will hear on more than one occasion, the Cadillac Elante.
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Recommended more than probably 10 times.
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I need to look that car up or the or the Chrysler TC or whatever.
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There's a whole education for me there, but it sounds like great car notary.
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100%.
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I do want to talk more about your podcast, but I want to get there
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eventually, if that makes sense.
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How did the two of you meet?
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Well, it goes back 25 years now or so.
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Basically we went to the same all boys high school.
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They would put us.
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In alphabetical order for assigned seating and Brad happened to be
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behind me in alphabetical order.
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So I sat right in front of him, but there's more to that story, right?
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Brad, my favorite part about that is I would see this goofy looking kid, you
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know, come into school with this raucous nine 11 being dropped off every morning.
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And I, I noticed it was the same kid that was in, you know, one of my classes
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to had to ask him was like, what in the world is going on with that car?
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It sounds.
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Amazing and terrible at the same time, but it was his dad dropping him off
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or bringing him his homework because he left his book bag at school at home
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or whatever, like things like that.
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I mean, there's nothing quite like a nine 11 with megaphones running around between
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tight city streets just outside of DC.
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So it is to Brad's point, raucous is the right word.
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Yeah.
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And before.
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Before that point, the most exciting car I'd ever really seen was my mom's
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Camaro or the box Chevy Caprice that I rode to school in elementary school.
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I mean, those were, those were the tip of the iceberg for the exciting cars
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that I had actually seen in person, uh, until freshman year of high school.
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And that nine 11 blew me away.
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That's true.
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And we were also in the brotherhood of manual transmission owners because
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Brad had a four speed Civic when he started driving and I had probably
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the oddest duck in the parking lot, which was an 87 and a half Audi Coupe
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GT, also in manual transmission.
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So you kind of bonded over that.
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There were a few of us that didn't drive automatic and we
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were in our own little club.
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So what was the 911?
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Was it some sort of outlaw?
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My dad picked it up for my mom.
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I'm going to put air quotes around that.
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In California, it was a 7911 T that started as a 2.
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2 and it ended up with a 2.
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7 RS, legitimate 2.
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7 RS in it.
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And it was a wide body car.
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It had been done all steel.
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It had been done professionally.
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It looked like a 911 turbo.
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So he liked that turbo look.
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It was guards red.
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It had a Fuchs originally.
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Then I forget what wheels he put on it later.
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ROHs from Australia or something like that.
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But to Brad's point, got to get rid of the, the Bursch exhaust and
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all those other kinds of things that quiet down an air cooled 911.
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We just put straight megaphones on there.
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No mufflers whatsoever.
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It's funny when, when I was at school, everyone's parents were so
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embarrassing that you would want to be dropped off like, you know, half a
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mile down the road to walk into school.
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But with something like that, you kind of want to show up at the gates, don't you?
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You know, in the nineties, as we look back, owning a Porsche
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wasn't as cool as it is today.
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It was still one of these things like, Oh, You own a Porsche, what's, what, what's
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your deal, you know, and it hadn't been so widely accepted as it has become today.
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And you notice there is a culture change in the Porsche community.
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If you've got a car before the year 2000, which is also true in the
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Audi community, people are like.
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Wait, they built cars then?
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You know, that kind of thing?
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But, yeah, now they're seen as a symbol of status, versus back then
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it was like, What the heck is this?
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In the UK in the 90s, they were a symbol of status.
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So we would have this thing in the 80s and 90s called yuppies.
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I don't know whether...
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Probably didn't translate.
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They drove BMWs here in the United States.
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Ah, yeah.
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In the UK, the yuppies would, would drive, they would drive some BMWs, but
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also Porsches and uh, you know, they'd have their car phones in the middle of
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the Porsche and, and things like that.
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Porsche really got its foothold in California in the early
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days in the United States.
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So car culture out there is different, it's more accepting.
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the East Coast, if you owned a Porsche, it was almost offensive, right?
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And I remember my dad saying, he's like, you know, people are just, they just, you
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could tell like jealousy on their face.
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you off in traffic or they'll, they'll, you know, do weird stuff
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to you while you're driving around.
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And so it became to a point where he actually just parked it for a
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while because he was like, this is just annoying to go down the
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beltway and either people are angry.
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Nowadays, you go down the road in a classic nine 11 and people are
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giving you the thumbs up because they haven't seen one in 10, 20 years.
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It's amazing how times change and perceptions change, isn't it?
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I know you're both big into motorsport.
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Do you guys race?
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Well, yes, and then some.
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So Brad and I both came up through a system here in the States called HPD
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or high performance drivers education.
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But even before that, we competed in something known as autocross,
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which is where they set up the slalom courses and whatnot with cones on big
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parking lots and things like that.
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So we've graduated through we went to age through HBD.
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We became instructors.
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So we teach what as we jokingly refer to as want to be race car drivers to
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spend a lot of time in the right seat with fantastic cars and fantastic
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people teaching them how to drive their cars the way they were intended to be.
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And then both of us.
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Ended up graduating into time trials and not club racing, which was the
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combination or hybrid of autocross and track driving where you're competing
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against the clock against other cars in your class, but you're on a, you
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know, on a circuit or on a road course.
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So.
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I've been doing that for a bunch of years.
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Brad sort of retired when he sold his car, but we still coach.
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We're still involved.
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We're still in the community.
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As Eric said, yeah, we started in honor cross and then the HPD.
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He obviously was in honor cross a lot more than, than I was.
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I kind of got into it.
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After high school, when I bought my first Volkswagen, I ran into him and,
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you know, kind of went down that path.
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But his father was like a champion autocrosser in the area.
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So that's where he, he got his start.
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And then, yeah, I sold my car a few years ago when my first son was born.
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I wanted something.
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I knew I wasn't going to have time to do it, uh, or the resources.
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So I bought something else that was more dual purpose street track.
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And so no more competition for me, unless it's virtual.
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What did you sell, Brett?
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My Mark IV, Mark IV Volkswagen GTI.
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And who do you guys instruct for?
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Is it the PCA or is it somewhere else?
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We're both Motorsport Safety Foundation certified.
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So we can pretty much walk into any organization that needs our help.
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We do have some favorites, but I mean, I've instructed for Chin,
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for Hooked on Driving, for PCA, for SCCA, for EMRA, BMW Club, Audi Club.
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I mean, the list goes on and on and on.
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Some of the little, you know, mom and pop shops all the way up to the big ones.
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So the nice thing is, once you've gone through a certification, MSF, or we
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both went through and got certified with SCCA, which is the sports car
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club of America through their bootcamp.
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We can go pretty much anywhere we want.
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Brad, any stories of when you were instructing any stories
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of, uh, wild experiences?
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We call those code brown moments.
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Code brown moments.
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I love it.
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I mean, I was always pretty cool under pressure, at least in the moment.
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Funny enough, you know, I was single for most of my HPDE instructing
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time, and Eric always ended up being the chief instructor.
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And for some reason, I always found myself in the right seat of a woman's car.
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And I, I couldn't really figure out what was going on there.
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I don't know if Eric was trying to play matchmaker or what.
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Accidentally on purpose, Brad.
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It just, it just, it just kind of conveniently happened that way.
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One moment that really sticks out is we were at Dominion Raceway in Virginia.
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It's not a very safe track.
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The walls are pretty much right up against the track in certain sections.
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And I was instructing this, this young lady in a 370Z.
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It was set up for drag strip, so it wasn't set up for for road course.
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Funny enough.
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She didn't bring her mark 5 or 32, which was more capable for
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for road racing at that time.
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But she brought her drag car out with, like, 500 horsepower in this 370 Z.
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and we were literally going down the straight down 1 of the back straights.
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And for whatever reason, it lost traction, spawned and hit the wall.
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I say hit the wall, it grazed the wall and scuffed up the rear bumper.
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That was the instructing wise.
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That was the biggest Code Brown moment I've ever had.
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Wow.
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Well, he has left a part of not just the story out, but he has also earned his
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landscaping merit badge several times.
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He asked specifically about instructing, we, we will get to the other stories.
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It sounds like there's a whole Pandora's box of stories right here.
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So presumably both people walked away from that crash.
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Oh yeah, we, we pulled into the pit, which is, you know, procedural.
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Uh, after, you know, anytime you go for off the track, the car was fine other than
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the cosmetic damage on the rear bumper.
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Um, so we finished the session.
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We went right back out and finished the session.
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Um, the rest of the day, the car did great.
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And given the circumstances, the driver did great.
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And, uh, yeah, it was, it was fine after that.
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We don't give out awards on this show, but if we did the award to the best
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wingman would go to crew chief eric i try I try So if I was to ask you who
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was the quicker driver out of the two of you would there be a debate or would it?
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Be a a foregone conclusion.
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No debate.
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Eric's always been my kind of benchmark what i've been Scribing
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for he's got more experience.
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He's more aggressive on the racetrack.
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He's got that killer instinct that I just never have.
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So whenever I'm driving, you know, if he and I are in the same car, uh, or similar
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cars, if I can get within a second of Eric, uh, I'm, I'm doing pretty good.
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I'll take you, Brad.
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I appreciate that.
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Are there any experiences you folks have had in terms of
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perfect laps with perfect cars?
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I think I've had many more disappointing laps with perfect cars.
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What I mean by that is, you know, I have this adage, never drive your heroes for
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us, you know, when, even when we debate on what should I buy, we get accused a
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lot of the time of not liking certain cars because we get to see the ugly
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side of vehicles tested at their limits on the racetrack, especially certain
20:10
racetracks on the East coast because of natural elevation or their design.
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They are a testament to the vehicles.
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Capabilities it's suspension set up or otherwise.
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And so what you think is going to be really awesome turns out to be 1
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of the most upsetting rides you've ever been in, whether it's in the
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right seat or behind the wheel.
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I don't know that there's a perfect lap yet other than not to boast, but some of
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the track records that I've set or some of the club records that I've broken.
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Even then I came in going out a car really wasn't where I wanted it to be, or,
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you know, I destroyed a set of Hoosiers to do this or something like that.
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And you walk away from it and you look at it and you're at
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the top of the leaderboard.
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And it's like, well, okay, I guess I have to make a concession
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there after being in even.
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Even Brad, after being in hundreds and hundreds of cars over the years,
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it's hard to say which one is the best or which one's been perfect.
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For me, I've really only driven my car, uh, with, with a handful of occasions.
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I'm very cautious.
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When it comes to driving other people's cars on, on a racetrack.
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Um, so I kind of just set this rule that I'm only really going to drive my car.
21:17
I know I can afford to fix my car if something goes square.
21:20
Um, but I can't afford to fix somebody's nine 11 or a BMW
21:24
M3 or something like that.
21:26
Um, but for me, the most satisfying time on a racetrack.
21:30
Was when I was at V.
21:31
I.
21:32
R.
21:32
and my little mark for Volkswagen was dynoed 193 horsepower, and I was going
21:39
neck and neck with this Porsche Cayman.
21:41
He was hanging with me, um, in the straights, obviously,
21:45
because he's a much faster car.
21:46
Um, but then I kept blowing him away.
21:48
Um, when it came to the turns and everything, I kept trying to give him
21:51
the point by it, cause you know, it's, you know, HPD, it's not a race or
21:54
anything, and he just kept waving it off cause he just wanted to stay behind me.
21:57
And then we pulled into the pit after the fact.
21:59
He said, I just wanted to follow you and see your lines because
22:01
you're so quick in that car.
22:02
That was the most satisfying moment, I think, for me.
22:05
There must be an adage around that, something like, a fast
22:09
driver in a slow car is better than a slow driver in a fast car.
22:13
There is.
22:13
In our world, they say, learn how to drive a slow car fast, and
22:16
then you can drive anything fast.
22:18
There's also something to be said for front wheel drive, being able to drive
22:21
a front wheel drive fast as well.
22:23
Yeah, that is a, that is a dark art unto itself.
22:26
And for a lot of people, that's unfortunately counterintuitive
22:29
and you get two reactions.
22:31
Hey, I don't understand how you drive this thing or be this
22:34
car isn't supposed to do that.
22:36
But if you watch any of the European touring car or any of that kind
22:39
of stuff, there's tons of Renault Clios and Fiat's and other front
22:44
wheel drive cars in the mix with.
22:47
You know, they're bigger brothers coming from BMW and Alfa Romeo and other brands.
22:51
So it's interesting always to see the underdog, the front wheel
22:54
drives, you know, competing with those bigger cars and doing well.
22:58
It seems like the front wheel drive is a bit of a dying breed, you know,
23:02
with more companies going to all wheel drive or, you know, rear wheel drive.
23:06
So it's an interesting dynamic.
23:08
And you know what's funny that puts a smile on my face.
23:11
Anytime, you know, we take out one of the older Volkswagen's against
23:15
maybe it's all wheel drive counterpart or one of the newer generations.
23:19
Everybody talents, you know, the tricky diff and all wheel drive and big turbos.
23:23
And here you are in a 200 horsepower GTI and you're either going around them or
23:29
you're keeping right up on top of them.
23:30
So there's something to be said about that simplicity and that weight.
23:34
Thank you.
23:34
The weight penalty that you're not taking on for all that
23:36
technology and added drivetrain.
23:38
So yeah, it sounds like there should be a Colin Chapman quote in here somewhere.
23:43
I wonder what are your, do you folks have track cars right now?
23:48
I know, um, Brad, you mentioned that you've traded to, to be a bit
23:51
more sensible, but, but what do you guys take to the track right now?
23:54
I still have two.
23:56
And then I have a third that I'm sort of converting from a pro solo car
24:00
to more of a cars and coffee car.
24:03
So in the fleet, I've got a time attack Audi TT front wheel drive that
24:07
makes about 400 wheel horsepower.
24:09
And then I have this lower car, which is a VR six GTI that my sister and I share.
24:15
Both of them have time trials championships under their belts.
24:19
And then my third one is a 74 914 six wide body that again was a nationally
24:25
ranked pro solo car that my dad drove.
24:27
So I inherited that one and it's in the middle of a motor swap and I'm
24:31
trying to make it more of a boulevard cruiser, kind of get your attention
24:35
at the cars and coffee type of car.
24:37
914 is difficult to drive, whether at autocross or at the track.
24:41
So I'm trying to make it a little bit more manageable.
24:44
I do.
24:44
Plan to do some parade laps with it with it with the amount of
24:48
money I'm spending on restoring it.
24:50
I want it to be more of a showpiece and an homage to my dad since he
24:53
passed away almost a decade ago now.
24:56
So it'll be good to see that car back on the road.
24:59
Why is it a difficult car to drive?
25:01
Because if you look at the.
25:02
The breakdown of the car, you've got the engine behind you, you would kind
25:06
of expect it to have a good balance.
25:08
What makes it difficult?
25:09
The weight distribution of the 914 is awesome.
25:13
The Paleozoic era suspension and components and everything that was
25:17
carried over from the Beetle and the 356 is what makes it difficult to drive.
25:21
It's manual everything, manual brakes, manual steering, manual clutch.
25:26
All of it.
25:26
And so as light as it is at 1800 pounds with me in it, it's still very difficult
25:32
to drive because it's very twitchy.
25:34
You have no moment of relaxation when you're behind the wheel.
25:39
It's a little cramped, but also when you magnify its horsepower from what
25:44
it originally came with, which a 1.
25:47
8 liter 914 made.
25:48
Less than a hundred horsepower in 1974, and here we are making 350 at one point
25:54
when we had a 9 64 twin spark in it.
25:56
That's a lot for that car to handle.
25:59
I'm trying to detune it to around 2 25 using the engine
26:03
that I'd chosen at that point.
26:04
It's still gonna be a handful at.
26:06
Two X, the horsepower it was intended for.
26:08
I got to imagine it was very difficult to drive at an autocross with the 9 11 motor
26:12
you had in a two because you had a left hand on the wheel and your right hand was
26:16
on the fire extinguisher, turning around, putting out the fire that always happened
26:21
every single lap at the autocross, you know, I will never live that down and
26:26
yes, it had a backfire issue at one point where you were never sure if it was going
26:31
to flame through the intake or not, but.
26:33
You know, we sorted that out later, that motor ended up in a 77 911.
26:39
So, you know, I don't know if it was better or worse.
26:42
Sounds like Eric does his own stunts as well as doing the race drive.
26:46
Eric, you'll have to tell him about the TT at VIR.
26:50
Which time?
26:51
Not his TT.
26:52
Somebody, a student's TT.
26:55
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:56
That was an interesting money shift operation.
26:59
So for those familiar with VIR, we came out of hog pen, which has turned
27:03
17 onto the front straightaway.
27:05
And my student grabbed second gear instead of fourth gear.
27:09
It, I think it did somewhere around 10, 000 RPM.
27:12
We didn't see any smoke.
27:13
We didn't hear anything.
27:15
And we're like, well.
27:16
Drop it into 4th and let's see if it keeps pulling cars doing fine.
27:20
We come around turn 1, turn 2, turn 3, headed to the lower S's and suddenly there
27:24
is just smoke pouring out of everywhere.
27:27
Get off the side of the track and the corner workers within your shot and goes.
27:32
Y'all are on fire.
27:33
Y'all are on fire.
27:34
Get out of the car.
27:35
We're like, okay, so I run up and you're going to do anything about it.
27:39
And that meanwhile, my student opens the hood, which makes matters worse.
27:43
And he hands me a fire extinguisher.
27:45
She goes, you can put it out yourself.
27:47
Have a good time.
27:48
I'm like, oh, boy.
27:50
So there I am trying to put out an oil fire because it blew a hole in the back
27:55
of the block about three inches around and it was pouring oil down on top of
27:59
the exhaust manifold and the turbo.
28:00
So, needless to say, that car hopefully has a second life and the motor
28:06
has been replaced at this point.
28:07
If not, it's been turned into a barbecue.
28:09
100%.
28:10
Wow.
28:11
That must have been pretty scary.
28:12
So Brad, what do you take to the track at the minute?
28:15
Uh, I actually haven't been to the track since the August of 2020.
28:20
Comes from having a baby and I did pick up a Mark V Volkswagen
28:25
R32 to be my dual purpose.
28:27
Still needs a little bit of work.
28:28
I haven't had a chance to get it to a racetrack, but that
28:31
will be one of my options.
28:33
The other option Eric always You know, as generous as he, as he
28:36
is, gives me the opportunity to take out the VR six that he has.
28:40
If I ever want to, uh, as long as Tanya is not using it, his
28:43
sister or anything like that.
28:45
So between those two, um, those will be what I would take to the racetrack
28:50
unless I rent a Hearst Mustang.
28:52
That's a good idea.
28:54
Like I can't wait till it seems like at the moment, none of these car companies
28:57
are renting the Corvette, but I remember in times gone by, the Hertz used to
29:01
have Corvettes and things like that.
29:04
Hopefully at some point, but it sounds like you've got a couple of options there.
29:07
And, uh, I think the R32 has got to be a really good platform to work from to
29:11
build out a race car from, isn't it?
29:13
Yeah, I would say it is.
29:14
And it's got, it's plenty of power.
29:16
It's torquey.
29:17
It gets out of its own way.
29:18
It's just a bit heavy.
29:20
My car weighs like.
29:21
Probably 3, 400 pounds, what, four or 500 pounds more than my, my previous car, uh,
29:27
with the all wheel drive system and the bigger motor and everything like that.
29:30
So a little, a little.
29:32
PGY ? Yeah.
29:34
Uh, for, for for OPA hatchback, I would say.
29:37
Yeah.
29:38
I've got a, a special spot in my heart for, for VWs.
29:41
And did, did you folks get the creto over here?
29:43
Yeah, my dad purchased, uh, one of the early VR six RAs,
29:47
uh, way back when Flash red.
29:49
I actually learned to drive on that car, although I took
29:51
my driver's test in A T D I.
29:53
Passat.
29:53
Yeah, . 'cause my dad thought it would be more sensible, although the
29:56
Passat was much bigger than the Rado.
29:59
I grew up in Chiracos starting from the mark ones to the mark twos.
30:03
My dad had one of the first 16 valves in the country.
30:05
He actually special ordered it triple black, which meant black leather, black
30:09
paint, and black basket weave BBS wheels, which was a special option back then.
30:14
And, you know, and then when he got rid of that, we ended up with
30:16
Audi coupes, both first and second generation quattros and non, and then,
30:21
yeah, we ended up with a Corrado, which, you know, was VW's Ferrari.
30:24
I always used to lust after growing up.
30:27
I did, uh, The one of the last credos, and I don't know if they did it worldwide
30:31
or just for the UK market or the European market, but they did a VR six storm
30:35
edition and it was like the last, and it had all the, you know, the extra stuff.
30:38
And that, that was a kind of definitely lusted after.
30:41
So we, we talked when I was on your podcast.
30:44
About criminal record cars a little bit and I'm gonna revisit this for this
30:48
one So a criminal record car just for definition and I think we need to get
30:52
it in the English Oxford Dictionary But it's a car that you own and it's a
30:57
car that that can't have been inherited And it's a car essentially you would be
31:02
embarrassed To admit in public definitely drive up to the school gates in or be
31:07
driven up to the school gates in And I just wondered if either of you had
31:11
cars that you might be a little bit ashamed of owning It's a good thing.
31:14
I didn't take ownership of one of them.
31:16
So that doesn't count I think it counts.
31:19
It was parking your driveway possessions nine tenths of a mile.
31:21
I never signed the title.
31:22
I never registered it What was it?
31:25
Oh, it was a corvette yellow 2003 pontiac aztec gt Blimey, it's
31:33
almost an embarrassment to put the word Corvette yellow on any car
31:37
that is not a Corvette, isn't it?
31:39
It is, but that's what makes it sound cool.
31:41
Yeah, 100 percent Because outside of that we never owned
31:45
anything really embarrassing.
31:47
I mean even my mark ii gti Where the water pump fell out of it and
31:51
it left me stranded on the side of the road more times than I can
31:54
count That wasn't an embarrassment because it was a 16 valve mark ii.
31:58
Everybody loves those cars.
32:00
I mean We've strived to buy all sorts of interesting cars over the years.
32:04
Even my wife has some really cool taste and she'll buy like the
32:07
performance model of something.
32:09
And even now she drives a minivan, but when we bought it, it's a hybrid.
32:13
It's the S edition.
32:14
It's got all this other stuff.
32:15
It's D chrome.
32:16
She literally ordered wheels.
32:18
The day we were picking it up, right?
32:20
All this kind of stuff.
32:20
So nothing is stock around here.
32:22
So it's hard to pinpoint anything out of the Aztec, which we ended up
32:25
getting it as a gag because it was donated to us by the Aztec owners club.
32:29
Well, I would say your wife's Beretta.
32:32
Would be her criminal record.
32:34
Oh, yeah, you know what but that wasn't mine.
32:36
That was hers.
32:37
So I'll give you that There seems to be a lot of association with criminal
32:41
record, but no admission of guilt.
32:43
So that's right guilty by association guilty by association and Yeah, i'm
32:49
sure one of the amendments you can plead i'm not sure which one would be
32:52
appropriate That would probably be the fifth amendment the fifth amendment.
32:56
There we go Brad what about yourself?
32:58
You know, I'm not really embarrassed by any of the cars that I've ever purchased.
33:04
Oh, there is one, Brad.
33:05
There's one you constantly like to have amnesia, selective amnesia about.
33:09
No, I, I, the only reason I'm embarrassed by it is the fact that it never ran,
33:14
but I would have loved driving that car.
33:15
It was the whole reason of buying it.
33:17
It was a nine 24 turbo.
33:19
Nice.
33:19
That's definitely not a criminal record car.
33:21
I don't think.
33:21
No, no.
33:22
I, I think the closest thing I have to a criminal record car.
33:25
A 2010 Honda Civic I bought as a little commuter car.
33:29
And then exactly my, my criminal record cars are just boring.
33:34
I never bought like a pink Corvette or anything that I would be embarrassed
33:39
to roll around the streets.
33:40
And that's fair enough.
33:42
I think there's no sentences being issued today.
33:44
So you guys get out of jail and get to continue on with,
33:48
uh, with your love of cars.
33:50
We're about 40 minutes in.
33:52
So let's take a really quick break, but we'll be right back.
34:01
Welcome back to Danny B on Cars and I'm with Brad and Eric.
34:04
We've been talking about their podcast, but I want to dig a little bit more.
34:07
We've also been talking about how the two met, their love of cars.
34:11
We've established they don't have any criminal record cars, but they do have
34:14
a lot of a great experience and some great stories about being on the track.
34:17
So in part two, I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into the podcast.
34:21
How did the We were doing journalism for many, many years, kind of reporting
34:26
on different events, things that we were going to, we were talking about
34:29
things that had transpired within the Grand Touring Motorsports Club.
34:33
As I mentioned, there's a hundred person plus club that's kind of behind the scenes
34:36
here where we would get together and go to different events, whether it was
34:40
field trips or track events, et cetera.
34:41
So we would report on that.
34:42
We would do retro test drives, all sorts of other stuff that just.
34:45
suited or fancy because Brad and I both like to write.
34:48
And so it was just kind of fun.
34:50
And what started with a blog turned into the gtmotorsports.
34:55
org website that you see today.
34:56
Some of it has been split.
34:57
Some of it's very club centric and that it lives somewhere else.
35:00
For a long time, our members kept saying, I don't have time to read because
35:05
I'm either behind the windshield, you know, traveling the beltway is going
35:07
to work or I'm headed to the track and I have a ton of windshield time.
35:11
It'd be really cool.
35:13
If a lot of these articles were in podcast form and like anybody else
35:17
that wanted to start a podcast, we weren't really sure how to get started.
35:20
And this was pre pandemic.
35:22
So we're talking years prior to that, but also Brad in the background
35:25
kept saying to me, does anybody really care what we have to say?
35:28
Like, are they going to listen to this thing?
35:30
Should we really do it?
35:31
And then the pandemic happened.
35:33
And like every two white guys in America, we decided to start a podcast.
35:37
We reached out to friends that were already in the business.
35:40
And oddly enough, going back to our origin story of meeting in high school, it wasn't
35:45
until our reunion, our 20th reunion, that we talked to other guys that were on the
35:51
radio that were in podcasting, et cetera.
35:53
And they were like, man, you should just do it.
35:54
Now's the time to do it.
35:55
And this was again, just before the pandemic hit.
35:58
And so we started doing our research, started talking to them, reaching
36:01
back, finding other mentors and figuring out what we needed to learning
36:05
from them, their lessons learned.
36:07
Like I said, June of 2020.
36:09
We released our first episode, even though we had already been pre recording and
36:13
staging up until that point to, to launch.
36:15
And the rest is sort of downhill from there.
36:17
Isn't it, Brad?
36:18
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's it basically.
36:20
I mean, the podcast has changed over time.
36:23
Obviously we've matured, our goals have changed, you know, as, as we've
36:27
gotten older, um, but yeah, that's, that's the origin story, basically
36:30
we're sitting around, we wanted to find a way to stay connected.
36:34
During the pandemic as well, and that's what really got us over the
36:37
hump to, to just do it, just get it out there and see what happens.
36:41
And there is a little bit more to that to Brad's point.
36:44
It has evolved the 1st season, which all podcasters apologize
36:47
for their 1st season of any show.
36:49
Really is designed to migrate our readership to our listenership.
36:56
So you're going to find a lot more stories about members, profiles, things
37:00
that were going on on the East coast, especially in the racing community.
37:04
And then right about season 2, when you start to encounter things like
37:07
that, motor sports, where we had Pete Klein on and other guests like that,
37:11
you begin to see what we call our road to success series where people are
37:15
coming on and sharing their stories.
37:17
And that really falls in line with.
37:19
Something one of our dealers departed used to always say to us, which was, you
37:22
need to capture the stories of the people around the paddock because motor sports
37:26
is a sport of convenience, not of loyalty.
37:29
And you'll see a trend.
37:30
There's a lot of long timers, but there's also folks that are
37:33
there for two or three seasons.
37:34
They disappear.
37:35
And you're used to hearing the stories around the campfire around the paddock.
37:39
Oh, that I did this and this and that.
37:40
And remember when Paul did that, when Pat did this other thing,
37:43
and then suddenly you realize.
37:45
You're standing in the paddock and they're gone and you're the only
37:47
one with those stories, even though they're colloquial in a sense,
37:51
they're still cool and fun stories.
37:53
They're adventures that we went on.
37:54
And so our friend Matt kept saying, everybody has a story.
37:57
You really need to capture these stories.
37:59
Everybody has a story.
38:00
And that became the battle cry for the show.
38:03
And you'll see a rebrand in the show right in the middle of season
38:07
two or so when he passed away.
38:09
And so that gave us this additional kind of charge.
38:13
To keep his ideology going through the show.
38:16
Would it be fair to say that there's almost three or four different types
38:20
of podcast within your podcast?
38:22
Yeah, that's a, that's a fair statement.
38:23
We have what we call story arcs.
38:25
And so you have our original, what we call just kind of GTM stories,
38:30
the original break fix stories that you'll see in season one, we call
38:32
those kind of the normal stories.
38:34
Then you have the road to success series.
38:36
Which is going to be some of your celebrities, some folks that have these
38:40
bootstrap stories where they've done something in the autosphere, women
38:43
of the autosphere, stuff like that.
38:44
It all gets kind of lumped into that category.
38:46
Then you have the drive through news, which we started really early in the
38:50
show is actually in our second month.
38:52
And that's a.
38:53
It's a monthly news roundup where we fly through what's been happening
38:57
since the month previous, and we try to give our audience the ability to
39:02
digest content that's on the internet in a very compressed form so they
39:06
don't have to read the articles.
39:07
Kind of going back to that season one idea.
39:10
On average, we plow through 40 to 50 articles in a two hour episode.
39:14
It's the only episode that we have.
39:15
We give ourselves the ability to have a much, much longer format
39:19
because we only do it once a month.
39:20
We also have our history of motor sports series, which is sponsored by
39:24
the international motor racing research center and the society of automotive
39:27
historians and places like that.
39:29
And that lets us go deep into the past.
39:32
It lets us work with academics.
39:33
It lets us tell some of the.
39:35
Either untold stories or forgotten stories of motorsports long gone by.
39:39
I mean, some of these stories go back to the 19 teens, uh,
39:43
but they're very interesting.
39:44
They're captivating.
39:45
They're also a lot shorter, about a half an hour, very digestible.
39:48
We have pit stop mini soaps, which is all the fun outtakes bloopers.
39:52
And sometimes like a part two or a part B or what Brad likes to
39:56
call the B side of an episode.
39:57
And so we'll release those sometimes through our Patreon.
40:00
Other times through our server, we have, what should I buy?
40:02
Which we mentioned at the top of the conversation.
40:05
And that's.
40:05
a fan favorite.
40:06
Literally, it's something for everyone.
40:08
If you're a car lover, there's something in there for you.
40:10
Yep.
40:11
And we like to keep our audience on their toes so they never know what's
40:14
going to come out in the release schedule, who's going to be there.
40:17
It could be a celebrity, it could be a regular Joe like us.
40:20
It could be a what should I buy?
40:20
You never know.
40:21
So that's why you got to tune in every week.
40:23
Brad, any episodes that you feel even really most proud of or any episodes
40:28
that have been real highlights for you?
40:30
Uh, some of the, we did one.
40:32
Talking about the connection between music and the automotive, uh, I guess culture.
40:38
That was a really great episode that we put together.
40:40
Um, one that we put together was big guy in a little car.
40:44
It was talking about just a panel of tall guys.
40:48
Uh, and we all just kind of, you know, waxed angrily about.
40:54
Uh, everything wrong with the automotive industry and how they
40:57
don't cater to people that are over six foot tall and things like that.
41:01
Those were some of my favorites.
41:02
And then any of the, uh, interviews that Eric has done on his own, I think
41:06
1 of my favorites is obviously the Andretti, uh, episode, uh, and then
41:11
Eric didn't do this 1 on his own, but we had an artist from, from L.
41:14
A.
41:15
Uh, he's a pinstriper Chris, uh, he lives out in LA now and he's actually from
41:21
the East Coast from our area, um, which was, you know, a pleasant surprise to
41:25
find out when we were talking to him.
41:27
He's a, he was a really interesting guest as well.
41:30
You mentioned the Andretti episode.
41:32
There's quite a few Andrettis, uh, in the, the world of automotive and motorsport.
41:38
So how did.
41:40
the interview come about and which Andretti was it?
41:42
It was the, it's, it's a me Mario Andretti.
41:47
Yeah.
41:47
Super Mario himself.
41:49
So that was a really interesting get as Brad likes to call our guests.
41:54
Sometimes it's a good get.
41:55
I got reached out to by one of our affiliates who works with us closely on
41:59
other episodes and shout out to William Ross from the exotic car marketplace.
42:03
And he calls me, he goes, Hey, so I got a guest that you might want to
42:06
interview and I'm like, okay, well, you know, kind of get to the point and he's
42:09
giving me this whole preamble goes.
42:11
So you want to interview Mario Andretti?
42:12
And I'm like, does a bear poop in the woods?
42:15
I mean, yeah, of course, like, let's do this.
42:17
Right?
42:17
So what's got to be involved?
42:19
It was a process and I won't go into all the details of
42:22
doing it, but I will say that.
42:24
We got to talk to Mario about things that I think a lot of other
42:28
shows haven't been able to touch on before, and we did that on purpose.
42:32
We really wanted to focus on Formula 1, his time at Le Mans, his time with Jackie
42:36
Ickx, his time with Villeneuve and Pironi during Formula 1, his time with Enzo, how
42:41
he worked with Colin Chapman to develop ground effects at Lotus, some of these
42:45
things that just don't get addressed.
42:47
And so.
42:48
It was in preparation for the hundredth Lamar and it aired during Indy 500 month.
42:53
So it was a lot.
42:54
It was just at the right time in the right place.
42:56
Obviously we had to displace a lot of guests because he took a
42:59
priority and all that kind of stuff, but it was absolutely amazing.
43:02
And he is so technically astute.
43:04
He's very sharp at 84 years old.
43:07
He's still.
43:08
Passionate about racing.
43:09
He said, he's about to jump back into another formula car to set another record.
43:14
I guess it has to do with his age or something like that.
43:17
And he did talk about his time driving the new McLaren and what that was like.
43:21
And I mean, just absolutely unbelievable wealth of information, but.
43:25
A hero to us all and and even if you're not into cars the name and
43:29
ready alone Just you get excited.
43:32
You're like whoa mario and ready.
43:33
That's pretty cool I think there was a bet wasn't there with zach brown and as
43:36
a result he got to drive one of uh, One of the mclaren f1 cars which uh, you
43:41
know You've got to be pretty special to be trusted at that age in that sort
43:45
of car So and he did great if you brad and I both watched his lines At laguna
43:49
and okota where he's driven the car and you're just like me he is on point He
43:53
has not lost his mojo Maybe he doesn't have the speed that the young kids
43:58
have, but I mean, his lines are perfect.
44:00
If nothing else.
44:01
So would you say that's kind of been the pinnacle so far?
44:04
We were very fortunate that it coincided with our 200th episode.
44:08
So we're really able to celebrate the show and everything we have done and how
44:11
we had grown up until that point and how we continue to grow, but is it the best?
44:17
It's sort of like picking your favorite child, right?
44:19
Every episode brings something different to the table, brings a
44:22
different level of inspiration.
44:24
There's a whole cast of characters that have been on the show.
44:27
Some have been back, you know, some want to be back.
44:29
We're still trying to schedule with folks, you know, getting touch ups and
44:32
where are they now, sorts of situations.
44:34
You take things as crazy as, The Randy Lanier backstory.
44:38
We did that as sort of a VH1, where is he now situation?
44:41
Because a lot of people were like, Oh, his new book is out.
44:43
You know, he just got out of jail.
44:44
I'm like, no, he's been out for seven years.
44:47
What's he been doing for three quarters of a decade?
44:49
So sitting down with Randy was awesome.
44:51
You know, Lynn St.
44:52
James is another example.
44:53
Dennis Gage from My Classic Car.
44:55
Sitting down with one of my childhood heroes, John Davis from Motorweek.
44:58
They're all really cool.
45:00
And they bring something different to the table, each and every one of them.
45:03
And we're hoping that If you're out there listening to this, or you're
45:06
listening to our show that maybe they inspire you to get into the auto sphere
45:10
and and get a job or a career or learn how they work their way through the
45:14
system way back when I believe that all podcasters have a secret list of guests
45:19
they would love to have on their podcast.
45:21
Oh, yeah.
45:21
And I just wondered who, uh.
45:23
Who would be, you know, maybe the top three from both of you?
45:26
Well, we have this concept around the office called Mount Everest, right?
45:30
Now it's a bit of a Kevin Bacon game, kind of also like the price is right.
45:34
Where the hill climber goes up to the top.
45:35
We never want to go straight to the top of Mount Everest.
45:38
We sort of want to work our way up the mountain, you know,
45:40
establishing base camps and things like that, because it allows us.
45:43
to get to other guests and as Brad likes to put it, it's the thing
45:47
that leads to the next thing.
45:49
But for me, at the top of Mount Everest, there's two people.
45:52
Unfortunately, there would be three, but one of them's,
45:54
uh, passed away during COVID.
45:57
So it leaves me with two.
45:58
And one of them is the famed designer from Italdesign, which is Jujaro.
46:02
And the other is the queen of rally herself, Michel Mouton.
46:06
I know that the folks at Dirtfish, which is our local rally school.
46:10
Had Michelle Mouton come and talk last year at the women's
46:14
motorsport event that they run.
46:15
So maybe there's a connection there I can help you with Eric on that one.
46:18
Brad, who would be on your list?
46:19
I want to talk to Patrick Dempsey.
46:21
Mcdreamy.
46:22
Mcdreamy.
46:23
Yeah, and, and, and his, uh, what is proton, uh, proton
46:27
racing, uh, his Le Mans team.
46:29
And then I haven't talked about this with Eric, but I think it'd
46:32
be really cool to get Jackie Chan.
46:34
And his connection to Lamar and how did that happen?
46:39
I like that.
46:39
And you know what?
46:40
I do have a third, Danny.
46:41
I'm going to take it back.
46:42
And I think Brad and I could share in this one as well,
46:44
because he's talking celebrities.
46:45
So I'm going to go Hollywood.
46:47
You reminded me.
46:48
Eric Banner.
46:49
He is an Australian car guy.
46:51
He's like a V8 muscle car, but like Holden, isn't he?
46:54
I think in Ford from Australia.
46:56
He was a Ford Falcon, right?
46:58
XBGT.
46:59
That's right.
46:59
Like Max.
47:00
And I don't know the story about Jackie Chan and Lamont.
47:03
What I do know is that he was in one of the Cannonball films.
47:06
What was the story with Lamont and Jackie Chan?
47:08
Well, he's, he's owned a series of race teams that have run in the LMP2.
47:13
Yeah.
47:13
For the last few years, he didn't, his teams didn't run this year.
47:16
In the previous years, he, he had a series of teams and they actually did.
47:19
Fairly well, I always struggled to find a car to root for.
47:22
I don't watch a lot of WEC.
47:24
Um, so I root for the IMSA cars when they go over seeing his
47:26
name on a car, got me excited.
47:28
That's what made LMP2 exciting for a while, because otherwise it was like
47:32
rebellion, the Bacardi cars, like all those, you're like, ah, yeah, okay.
47:37
Whatever.
47:37
But Jackie Chan, I'm, I'm with you all the way.
47:40
And you know, if there's going to be a punch up in the paddock, you know, we
47:43
decided you want to be on, don't you?
47:45
Yeah.
47:46
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to fight against his, his drivers.
47:48
Yeah.
47:49
I mean, that's more NASCAR.
47:50
I think we're very lucky in living in the U S because we have great motor
47:54
sport and we have great car events.
47:56
I just wondered if either of you had been to, uh, any, any fun car events
48:01
this year that you'd like to talk about.
48:02
Well, we dedicated a couple of drive thru episodes to talking
48:05
about those, didn't we, Brad?
48:06
Uh, we did.
48:07
Eric's definitely been to a lot more events than I have.
48:10
I think we kicked off the year with 24 Hours of Rolex.
48:13
Yeah, that was good to be back at Rolex, to see the cars that were going to be at
48:17
Le Mans if you couldn't make it to France.
48:19
So that was that.
48:20
Daytona and what was that like?
48:22
I went to Daytona for the first time this year and was just so
48:25
impressed with the facilities.
48:27
It's, it's like a, like a Greek amphitheater for me in terms of, uh,
48:31
what it looks like, but what was it like to go do the 24 hours there?
48:34
It was exhausting and it was different this time around.
48:37
Um, because I guess everybody was cooped up during COVID.
48:41
And they couldn't get out, so they had all this, this pent up energy and desire
48:45
to get out and go experience something.
48:47
So the crowd was a lot larger at this year's, uh, 24 hour Daytona
48:52
versus the previous year we went.
48:54
It's just a lot of, uh, walking.
48:57
The facility, as you mentioned, is huge.
48:59
There's basically one way into the infield, one way out.
49:02
You have to walk around the entire grandstands.
49:04
So be prepared to walk when you go.
49:05
The night racing is always really fun.
49:07
We didn't stay this year for the night racing.
49:10
We went back to, uh, an Airbnb.
49:12
Um, but the previous year we stayed and tried to stay up as long as we could.
49:15
And just watching the car at night is when all the, the action happens,
49:19
you know, the temperatures drop, tire pressures, uh, change, grip changes,
49:23
you know, cars start to break.
49:25
It's, it's definitely an experience.
49:26
Would I go again?
49:27
I I'm going to need a few years before I decide I want to go again.
49:31
Uh, I think I had more fun at the Salem six hours a couple of years ago.
49:36
It's the same kind of atmosphere.
49:38
Well, it's a different atmosphere than.
49:41
Uh, than Daytona, because it's not as large or as grand, um,
49:44
but it's more condensed too.
49:45
So, uh, it's a six hour race, there's a lot of support races that go along
49:49
with it, uh, and it's just a lot of fun.
49:51
If you haven't been to an EMSA race, period.
49:53
A lot of fun.
49:54
Everything's accessible.
49:56
I met Jordan Taylor, Watkins Glen.
49:58
At the same one's race, um, the drivers are accessible.
50:00
The cars are accessible.
50:02
Uh, it's just an amazing time.
50:03
Best bang for the buck in terms of admission price.
50:06
If you, especially if you're doing racing on a budget, because if
50:09
you look at the price of formula one tickets, they're nearly three
50:11
times what an IMSA ticket costs.
50:13
And I don't need to buy paddock access.
50:15
I don't need to buy this and that, or this.
50:17
Other special thing is very open to Brad's point.
50:20
You can be right in the pit stalls and then the pit boxes, they put up, you know,
50:24
a little, you know, seatbelt style fence between you and, you know, the LMP one
50:29
Cadillac, but you're four inches from it.
50:31
You can reach out and touch it if you want to.
50:33
You're that close, which is really nice.
50:34
And there's a lot of other racing that you can't get that close.
50:37
To either the action or to the engineers or to the teams or anything like that.
50:41
So IMSA is always a favorite SRO is a close second, which is world challenge.
50:45
It's very similar in times of structure and style to Brad's point.
50:49
Rolex was awesome because we got to see it through new eyes.
50:53
We took our executive producer with us, uh, who heads up our drive through series.
50:58
And she's been around racing her whole life, but had never been
51:01
to a 24 hour endurance race.
51:03
So we said, well.
51:04
You gotta do your first one and you've got to do it at Rolex because it'll give
51:07
you the sense of what the rest of them are like and then you can choose to whether or
51:10
not you want to go to any of the others.
51:12
From there, there was a bunch of other events in between and as I
51:15
mentioned, I was at the 100th Le Mans, which was absolutely phenomenal.
51:18
I'm still trying to.
51:19
Put it all back together because it was a lot of sleepless nights.
51:22
And then I followed that up with a trip to Denmark and then to Montreal.
51:27
And then after that, I came home for a short, brief period.
51:30
And then I got inundated with 10 days of car week out in Monterey.
51:33
That was an interesting perspective on, on car culture, right?
51:36
I've, I've been invited so many times to car week, but never.
51:40
On press passes, you're there because it's your job and it's a whole different way
51:44
to look at the week and the atmosphere of it and getting behind the scenes to a
51:48
lot of different people and events that you wouldn't normally get access to.
51:52
So that was a lot of fun.
51:53
And my year isn't over yet, right?
51:55
And we've got track events coming up.
51:57
We've got other things that we're going to, and then I'm kind of
51:59
finishing out the year here on the East coast at petite Lamont.
52:02
So I'm taking my girls.
52:04
I took my eldest daughter last year to her first pro race at Watkins
52:07
Glen and she absolutely loved it and she couldn't wait to go back.
52:10
She's a big fan of the Flying Lizard team, so shout out to
52:13
Andy Lee and the guys over there.
52:15
And what age are we talking about for these daughters?
52:17
So they're nine and six, uh, you know, and they're, they're coming by cars, honestly.
52:21
And, you know, kind of secret agenda of the show too, is hopefully.
52:25
You know, they look back on all these people that we interview and they
52:27
get inspired to become a woman of the auto sphere and find themselves
52:31
a job in the, in the industry.
52:33
So, you know, I'm taking them to petite, so that ought to be a lot of fun.
52:36
It's a little bit longer than the last race I took them to.
52:39
So it's a, it's an 11 hour, you know, 10 and a half hour or whatever
52:42
it's scheduled as, but there is that night racing aspect that Brad talks
52:45
about, which is super exciting.
52:47
And you get the whole mix, the whole fleet LMP1 through GT, GT AM cars.
52:52
In that race, I've only ever done one 24 hour race, which was Le Mans.
52:57
It was quite a few years ago I think it was 2009, but there is something magical
53:00
about watching a race at night Let's move on to a quick fire round These
53:04
questions are in intentionally quick fire, but it doesn't matter if we dig into a
53:09
little bit deeper on some of them It's just to kind of spark the conversation.
53:12
Do you have a favorite movie or tv car?
53:16
The Defender from NBC's Viper.
53:18
We'll elaborate a little bit on this.
53:19
So this was a show about a Dodge Viper that had special properties,
53:24
but it also had a Defender in it.
53:25
So they called it the Defender.
53:27
And so what it was, was a reimagination of Knight Rider, sponsored by the
53:32
Chrysler Corporation at that point.
53:34
It was right on the heels of the Viper being introduced.
53:37
And so they built this cop drama around it.
53:39
And the special property of the Defender is that this Base Viper RT
53:45
10 could morph into a Viper coop, which was interesting foreshadowing
53:52
of whether or not the defender came before the idea of the Viper GTS coop
53:57
and the Viper GTS coop was actually.
54:00
Cameoed on an episode of the show before it was ever released to the
54:04
public and things like that So for me, it's it holds a special place in
54:07
my heart Even though I grew up with Knight Rider and a bunch of other shows,
54:10
but the Defender was was it How is it that Jaguar Land Rover didn't sue?
54:15
That's what I want to know Because you know, they have the rights to the
54:18
name defender NBC has good lawyers.
54:20
Yeah, I would imagine so I'd imagine so Brad How about yourself?
54:23
I don't know that I have one that would be a favorite, but there
54:26
are a couple that have inspired some of my automotive purchases.
54:30
One is definitely the S8 from Ronin, the 928 from Scarface.
54:36
I love, I love both of those, uh, those cars.
54:39
Then like the Batmobiles and stuff like that, all those, those fun things.
54:42
But I really enjoy the, uh, the R8 Spyder, uh, the Iron Man R8 Spyder.
54:48
I don't go as kooky, crazy as Eric does with all the, the guns
54:52
and the lights and all that.
54:53
I mean, my second choice is Keaton's Batmobile from the 89 Batman.
54:57
I mean, there's, what else is there?
54:59
Which I've, I've seen on the streets of DC
55:01
It's awesome with a guy wearing a cape in it, or I would be wearing the cape in it.
55:07
He's wearing a Strait Jackets is.
55:10
Shortly afterwards, he was stopped by the police and put in a straitjacket.
55:14
You're the second person to mention the Ronin car.
55:17
So my very first episode, I had the guys from the steering committee, uh,
55:21
and I think it was Ryan mentioned, uh, mentioned it, but I don't
55:25
think we've had the other cars.
55:27
I think we've had the Batmobile, but maybe the George Barris
55:30
version, which was the original one.
55:32
I've seen that in DC as well.
55:33
See, nobody likes the Citroen Zantia that was in Ronin.
55:36
What's wrong with you guys?
55:37
That's a beautiful French car.
55:39
Or some Volvo from, uh, what was it?
55:42
Uh, shoot, the Val Kilmer movie.
55:44
Oh, the C70 from The Saint.
55:46
Yes, The Saint, that's it.
55:47
But that car was used in the original series of The Saint as well, I think.
55:51
The P1800 was used, yeah.
55:53
We do crossovers with a movie podcast every once in a while.
55:56
What's their podcast called?
55:57
Let's give it a shout out.
55:58
Everything I Learn From Movies.
56:00
And look out for the crossover episodes.
56:02
Uh, I think I've seen most of the Batmobiles in the Peterson Museum.
56:06
So shout out to the folks at the peterson.
56:07
They tend to have uh, Have a large number of the batmobiles there
56:10
regularly and the bat bike And the bat bike comes with a bat trailer.
56:15
Anyway, let's move on Ugliest car ever made in your opinions
56:19
be a multiple second time.
56:21
We've had that On the podcast.
56:23
So this was uh, would you call it a people carrier?
56:26
It had three seats in the front, didn't it?
56:28
It did.
56:28
I don't know what I would classify that thing as other than ugly.
56:32
But it's funny that one of the previous podcast guests I had said that when
56:36
it came out they felt it was ugly, but now they actually quite like it
56:39
and it's a bit of a kind of guilty confession that they really like it.
56:43
Have they updated their prescription on their glasses?
56:44
I think they probably need to go see a psychiatrist, but
56:47
uh, that's a different story.
56:49
Um, Brad.
56:50
Corvette yellow is just GM yellow, Eric.
56:53
It's not Corvette yellow.
56:54
So a yellow Aztec.
56:56
Um, there was another one I was just talking about.
56:58
You know why it's Corvette yellow?
56:59
The Aztec was designed by the same guy that penned the C7 Corvette, so boom.
57:03
Talk about someone else who needs to go back to a Specsavers or equivalent.
57:09
I'm gonna stick with the Aztec.
57:10
The Pontiac Aztec.
57:11
That appears regularly on the podcast, believe it or not.
57:14
It's a, it's a common favorite, including someone that actually
57:17
rented one as a rental.
57:19
I didn't even know you could rent Pontiac Mazda X back in the day.
57:23
Rent or rent.
57:23
They were probably a one way rental.
57:26
Probably, yeah.
57:27
Stick or auto?
57:28
I'm, I'm the save the manual evangelist, so always stick.
57:32
I was a save the manual evangelist until I could only buy the R32 in...
57:38
The DSG, but now I've kind of come around on the stick is a lot of fun,
57:43
but I don't see it as a necessity would probably alleviate a lot of the driving
57:48
issues we see on the road today, if most cars were were manual, but that's
57:53
a topic for another discussion, any motoring heroes, let's talk about people,
57:58
anybody from the group B rally era.
58:01
Whether it's Ari Vatanen, Michel Mouton, Walter Rural, Thig
58:06
Blomqvist, any of those guys.
58:07
I mean, they did some absolutely incredible things.
58:11
When you look at the conditions that they raced in 40 years ago with the cars
58:15
that they had at their disposal, not just talking about the Audi Quattros, but
58:19
the Peugeots, the Lancias, all of them.
58:21
I mean, just...
58:22
Absolutely unbelievable.
58:24
Now, granted, if we're talking goat, which we've talked about
58:27
before, you put Senna and you put Schumacher up there, things like that.
58:31
I've, I've thought about this for quite a while.
58:33
There's one person in particular who I do want to interview, Hans
58:37
Stuck, because he's done it all.
58:39
If you think about factory test driver to Trans Am to IMSA to Lamar, you know,
58:45
beetle cup racing in the UK, you name it.
58:47
He's done everything.
58:48
He's driven everything.
58:49
He's a wealth of information.
58:51
And apparently he's a larger than life personality as well.
58:53
And I would just love to meet him before he's no longer with us.
58:57
That's a good one and shout out to my friend Peter Gleason, who was on
59:01
one of our episodes because he's got one of his cars in his collection.
59:05
So Hans Struck is the man for you.
59:07
Brad.
59:08
I don't have very many heroes, I guess, in the automotive world, but if I had to
59:13
choose one person, I would say Christian von Koenigsegg, his innovative, think
59:18
outside of the box mind is just amazing.
59:21
The engineer of engineers, isn't he?
59:24
Yeah, he's just a fascinating person.
59:26
Who creates a car that has both an automatic and a manual
59:29
gearbox in the same car?
59:31
Pushing boundaries just for the sake of pushing boundaries
59:33
and for the sake of innovation.
59:35
Bless him.
59:35
We need more people like Christian in our, in our world.
59:38
I totally agree.
59:39
Favorite drives, and that could be a road drive or a track drive.
59:45
fictitious or has already happened?
59:47
Where would you most love to drive?
59:50
There is a bucket list track that I want to race on and I think Brad knows where
59:54
I'm going with this and it's not going to be the one that everybody thinks.
59:58
Oh, you want to race at Yas Marina or you want to race Dakota or you want
1:00:01
to go here, you want to go there.
1:00:02
I want to run at Brands Hatch.
1:00:05
Because I feel it's one of the most technical challenging tracks.
1:00:08
It has such a great history.
1:00:10
It just appeals to me in sim racing and real life watching races there,
1:00:14
things like that, and I want to do it in, of all things, a Fiat 131 Abarth.
1:00:18
Why the 131 Abarth?
1:00:23
Because it's such a, it's such a wolf in sheep's clothing.
1:00:27
It's just this little sedan that's unassuming minus, you know, the rally
1:00:32
flares and things like that, but it's a screamer it's built for a track.
1:00:37
Like brands hatch.
1:00:37
It's got really great weight distribution.
1:00:40
It's high strung.
1:00:41
Everybody that I've talked to says they're a lot of fun to drive.
1:00:44
And I just.
1:00:45
You know, I got to go back to my roots, you know, especially being Italian.
1:00:48
I'm like, I got to do it in either a Fiat or an Alfa Romeo, but I think
1:00:52
the one 31 is really the car for me.
1:00:54
Very first time I drove a car was a brand touch.
1:00:57
They used to run a early drive program where you could drive before the legal age
1:01:01
and they had a Ford Escort XR three eyes.
1:01:04
I've done Brian's hatch, but, uh, but not now extremely jealous of you.
1:01:07
Wow.
1:01:08
It's a, it's only a hop across the Atlantic.
1:01:10
So get on it.
1:01:11
And what about yourself?
1:01:12
I'm going to say two things.
1:01:13
One, I see Eric's brands hatch and I I'll do brands hatch, but I want to
1:01:18
do it in a mark seven GTI club sport.
1:01:20
Oh, that's a good one.
1:01:22
Something modern.
1:01:22
Then my next is.
1:01:25
My favorite race car of all time, the Corvette C7R at Laguna Seca.
1:01:30
Do you fit, do you fit in that, Brad?
1:01:32
No.
1:01:33
Well, maybe with all the interior taken out and the seat bolted all the way
1:01:37
back, you know, and all that stuff.
1:01:39
Yeah, I probably do fit.
1:01:40
The custom Brad edition.
1:01:43
It's a it's a punch line to many jokes on our show.
1:01:45
Do you fit in that brad?
1:01:47
It sounds like uh folks need to listen to more of your shows and then re listen to
1:01:52
this show And there's probably about five or six jokes that they will uh find uh
1:01:55
more insightful easter eggs Yeah, there we go some easter eggs So if folks want to
1:02:01
uh You know, either listen to your podcast or get an understanding about some of the
1:02:05
great work that you do in the car world.
1:02:07
What are the best places to go find you?
1:02:09
Well, very simply go to our website, www.gt motorsports.org.
1:02:15
That's G as in grand, T as in Touring Motor Sports with an S dot.
1:02:18
O R G and you can find all the latest articles and follow ons and all the
1:02:22
different segments that we carry on there.
1:02:24
And then our podcast is available pretty much anywhere on the planet.
1:02:28
We're on every service we can plug it into.
1:02:30
So if you're an Amazon subscriber, Pandora, you listen
1:02:33
to Spotify, Apple, Google, Ghana.
1:02:36
Yeah, whatever we're available, wherever you stream music or wherever
1:02:41
you find podcasts on social media, you can find us pretty much everywhere
1:02:45
at grand touring motor sports.
1:02:46
We spend a lot of time on the metaverse of Facebook threads and Instagram, but
1:02:51
you can also hop over to Twitter where it's the only handle that's different than
1:02:54
the rest of them at GT motor sports 14.
1:02:57
Very good.
1:02:58
And I will put these links in the show notes as well.
1:03:00
So, um, folks don't feel like if you're driving, you have to stop, pull over,
1:03:04
write them down, they'll be in the show.
1:03:06
And if you'd like to support us in any way, help keep the
1:03:09
lights on and keep things going.
1:03:11
Don't forget, you can find extra content, bloopers, bonuses, mini sodes, or
1:03:16
pit stop, mini sodes, and other extra goodies for our VIPs over at patrion.
1:03:21
com forward slash GT motor sports.
1:03:24
Excellent.
1:03:24
And I will put all this stuff in the show notes, so we will make
1:03:27
sure that it's all included.
1:03:28
Eric, Brad, thank you for being on the podcast.
1:03:31
I really enjoyed catching up with you guys and turning the tables
1:03:34
on you and having you as my guest instead of me being your guest.
1:03:37
Thank you.
1:03:39
I appreciate it.
1:03:39
It's always a little awkward being on the other end of the microphone, you know?
1:03:42
It's different, isn't it?
1:03:43
It's very different.
1:03:45
Oh, I was going to say, well, Danny, we have, we look forward to seeing
1:03:47
you on another, another break fix episode in the future as well.
1:03:50
So thank you for everything you're doing in the auto sphere.
1:03:52
Yeah, I look forward to it.
1:03:53
Look forward to it.
1:03:55
This has been another episode of Danny P on cars.
1:03:58
Thanks for listening.