Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / Closed EV Plants Can Hollow Out A Town Faster Than You Think

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Closed EV Plants Can Hollow Out A Town Faster Than You Think · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:05
  Don Armstrong: It's the award-winning in real time car talk show.
• 0:08
  Don Armstrong: Just ahead.
• 0:10
  Don Armstrong: Are closed EV manufacturing plants ruining the cities where they're located?
• 0:17
  Don Armstrong: Huh, think about that.
• 0:19
  Don Armstrong: Later, Jeff has the racing calendar, Mars has this week in auto history, and I'll have the stories making automotive news headlines.
• 0:26
  Don Armstrong: That's all coming up.
• 0:27
  Don Armstrong: Howdy and good morning to you, along with Mike, out of this world, Mars.
• 0:32
  Don Armstrong: We always need more Jeff Zeken.
• 0:33
  Don Armstrong: Chief Engineer David Ainsley, he's listening.
• 0:36
  Don Armstrong: I'm Don Armstrong.
• 0:37
  Don Armstrong: So glad that you could join us today.
• 0:39
  Don Armstrong: Thank you very much.
• 0:40
  Don Armstrong: We appreciate you.
• 0:42
  Don Armstrong: Uh, do we have our guest, Mr.
• 0:44
  Don Armstrong: Mars?
• 0:44
  Don Armstrong: Yes, sir, we do.
• 0:46
  Don Armstrong: And his name, uh, yes, his name is Sundaresh Haragoo.
• 0:50
  Don Armstrong: And Sundaresh has been with us before.
• 0:52
  Don Armstrong: He is uh professor at Oklahoma State University, and um he is also the president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.
• 1:02
  Don Armstrong: Awesome.
• 1:03
  Don Armstrong: And the list goes on and on.
• 1:05
  Don Armstrong: He's got all these wonderful titles and uh well deserved, I might add, but I can tell you that this guy is way smarter than you and me.
• 1:14
  Don Armstrong: And all of us combined.
• 1:16
  Don Armstrong: Combined, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:17
  Don Armstrong: Good morning, sir.
• 1:18
  Don Armstrong: How are you?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about the being smarter than you guys.
• 1:23
  Don Armstrong: Uh so well, listen, you're you're not in the broadcasting business, so that right there makes you smarter than a qualified.
• 1:31
  Don Armstrong: How about that?
• 1:32
  Don Armstrong: Well, we'll just leave it at that.
• 1:34
  Don Armstrong: Well, it's great to have you with us again.
• 1:36
  Don Armstrong: We love talking to you.
• 1:38
  Don Armstrong: So uh our subject today is EV factory locations turning portions of cities into desert wastelands.
• 1:48
  Don Armstrong: And you know, I have to tell you that when I first started thinking about that, I thought I haven't thought about that.
• 1:55
  Don Armstrong: Because here in Houston, when a business closes, there's something generally speaking that moves right in and fills the space.
• 2:02
  Don Armstrong: But these businesses for EV manufacturing, batteries, assembly plants, all of the storage that has to go in to thinking about building an EV, it's really a lot different than building uh an ICE uh an engine, uh internal combustion engine.
• 2:21
  Don Armstrong: Uh it doesn't take as many parts.
• 2:24
  Don Armstrong: It's a different setup because now you're dealing with electric motors and all of the things that go along with electric motors.
• 2:31
  Don Armstrong: Yes, the car part of it, that's the simple part, but to me, all of the computers and all of the electric motors, the electronics of an EV, completely different, really, than uh an ice engine, correct?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think um, you know, the longer uh oil and gas prices stay at this level, um, yes, you know, for a while I think we're going to see all these uh abandoned uh factories or investments not fully completed.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but uh you know the uh manufacturing lines of an EV are different than what you would see for an internal combustion engine.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but going back, uh Don to your comment about you know these factories that could be an ISO, I think it's a matter of time.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if gas prices stay at this level for uh an extended period, uh you can see other companies from other countries perhaps wanting to utilize that uh infrastructure, that space, and begin producing EVs, and maybe uh the big three will jump in as well.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I know most recently I think they've uh disinvested, I think about$50 billion, the big three combined, uh, in EVs.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I I'm thinking it's a short-term thing.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think EVs are the future, autonomous vehicles are the future.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so when I see big companies kind of shelving their projects, I wonder if it is uh short-sighted.
• 4:03
  Don Armstrong: Well, I and I that's a that's a certainly a very good point to make.
• 4:07
  Don Armstrong: And the fact that uh you had mentioned that other foreign companies are going to come in and fill the roles, and you and I both know that China is about to jump on all of this.
• 4:18
  Don Armstrong: They've already announced that uh they are going to be taking over uh factories uh that are idle right now over in Canada, and it's only a matter of time before uh they start invading us.
• 4:31
  Don Armstrong: And there are multiple facets involved in that, but this is huge competition for established automobile makers here in the United States, whether they are brought in from uh BMW Germany, uh a Subaru from Japan, or um the American car makers, uh, because uh I have seen a Chinese-made vehicle, and let me tell you something, the quality is extremely high, and I think that it is going to be a real market change to everybody once you see these, for instance, BYD is it's kind of like the General Motors, if you will, in China.
• 5:11
  Don Armstrong: When you see these vehicles, you're gonna go, uh, oh my gosh.
• 5:16
  Don Armstrong: This this was not even thought of here in the United States.
• 5:20
  Don Armstrong: This goes back to Maybach and all the high-end uh builders from back in the day.
• 5:26
  Jeff Dziekan: It's here today.
• 5:27
  Jeff Dziekan: Well, you talked about Canada uh with relations to China.
• 5:29
  Jeff Dziekan: That was actually announced that they have trade deals.
• 5:32
  Jeff Dziekan: That was a few months ago, maybe even late last year, that they're announcing trade deals.
• 5:37
  Jeff Dziekan: And the United States our opinion of that was you know, make trade deals whoever you want, just make sure they're good trade deals.
• 5:43
  Jeff Dziekan: So that was all part of that taking over all of the abandoned or idle factories.
• 5:49
  Don Armstrong: Yeah.
• 5:50
  Don Armstrong: And uh I I I will tell you that it it seems to me, now I I don't really know, I'm just guessing that some of these battery manufacturing companies, LG, for instance, that they may have backed out of uh actual factory that they were building for the time being.
• 6:09
  Don Armstrong: But that is a major manufacturer of electronics, as we all know.
• 6:13
  Don Armstrong: I can't imagine that that thing is going to sit idle.
• 6:17
  Don Armstrong: And we're talking about hundreds of thousands of square feet that these buildings take.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh let's just talk a little bit about BYD.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh BYD's got sales, you know, uh exploding, I think, all over the world.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, uh, of course, in India, you know, companies like Mahindra and uh Tata are introducing a number of EVs.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, mind you, the um uh charging infrastructure is uh not as good as it needs to be there, but still the EV sales are exploding.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, go to places like Manila, um uh Europe, uh Norway, for example, right?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: They produce so much oil and gas, but still the government offers incentives for uh EV sales.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You have better deals on the tollways and all that.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh I think you know uh 60-70% of their new car sales are EVs.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: A country like Nepal, right, uh 70% of their new car sales in 2024.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't have the data for 2025, but in 2024 uh there were uh EVs, right?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what is happening uh all over the world.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, LG may be causing its investment here in the US, but they're not doing that in other places.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the other thing too that you touched upon, uh Don is you know the trade deals that uh Canada and China have.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of the trade relationships have uh been unbound uh since uh Liberation Day, about a year ago.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of supply chains are you know being re uh imagined, being redesigned, being redeployed.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's still in a state of flux, but I think many countries are beginning to realize you can't just kind of be dependent on one lucrative large market that is the US, especially when uh you know the tariffs uh situation keeps changing, and now we have the um you know oil price and the close, I guess essentially a closure uh of uh the Strait of Armoods.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yes, countries like India that depend on LPG, uh LNG for cooking gas, but also for their you know, three-wheel taxis, the auto rickshas, uh that supply uh is hit, so they're all figuring out uh you know, EVs are the way to go.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of scooters, uh, three-wheelers are also being produced uh in the EV mode rather than ICVs it's interesting that you should say scooters because I we see these here in the United States.
• 9:07
  Don Armstrong: That was a huge Christmas gift this past year here in the U.S.
• 9:12
  Don Armstrong: And uh these kids are doing 50 miles an hour on a scooter.
• 9:16
  Don Armstrong: I'm going, do you have any idea what that's gonna do to your knees when you fall?
• 9:21
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, because I know for a fact that it hurts really bad as the kid.
• 9:25
  Don Armstrong: But uh live and learn.
• 9:27
  Don Armstrong: Um I want to go back to desert wastelands, and um that's what we're kind of focusing in on these big plants that uh either EV-related, supporting, or uh manufacturing EVs that they've all kind of pulled back for the time being, as you mentioned.
• 9:44
  Don Armstrong: But you know, desert wastelands for cars of any kind are not something new because uh and I I'm gonna use uh Stellantis as a as a as a somebody that manages to close plants and not reopen them, say they're gonna reopen them, they get close to reopening them and they don't.
• 10:04
  Don Armstrong: There's one in the southern uh end of Wisconsin right there, the northern Illinois, um and uh that has been they've manufactured all sorts of stuff since the 1960s, and the plant is massive.
• 10:16
  Don Armstrong: Car manufacturing plants are just big anyway.
• 10:20
  Don Armstrong: And this particular plant, I can't buy the name of it.
• 10:22
  Don Armstrong: Anyway, this particular plant, I'll think of it in a minute, this particular plant is still closed, it's been closed now for almost 10 years.
• 10:30
  Don Armstrong: What it does to the population and all of those people that it employs, that's really to me where the desert wasteland comes in, because what are those people going to do?
• 10:42
  Don Armstrong: They know how to build a car, but they don't have another manufacturing plant nearby.
• 10:47
  Don Armstrong: They can pick up and move or find other work.
• 10:50
  Don Armstrong: But these industrial cities are based on large employment figures.
• 10:56
  Don Armstrong: And what do you do when the plant closes?
• 10:59
  Don Armstrong: That's the only thing in town.
• 11:01
  Don Armstrong: It's it's tough.
• 11:02
  Jeff Dziekan: Yep, and to to that point, to Don's point, what about the Packard plant in Detroit?
• 11:06
  Jeff Dziekan: 3.5 million square feet.
• 11:08
  Jeff Dziekan: It's still it's it's an it's a abandoned.
• 11:11
  Jeff Dziekan: They've actually made movies in that facility.
• 11:14
  Jeff Dziekan: They did a couple of Batman movies and a a Pop apocalyptic that one.
• 11:21
  Jeff Dziekan: Very excited.
• 11:22
  Jeff Dziekan: Uh those types of movies and things there as well.
• 11:25
  Jeff Dziekan: But the Packard plant comes to mind as as the one the front runner and abandoned building.
• 11:29
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, the Packard plant.
• 11:30
  Don Armstrong: Um and uh it it it's one of those things that what are you gonna do?
• 11:35
  Don Armstrong: You're gonna tear it down?
• 11:36
  Don Armstrong: My brother worked at the Janesville Assembly Plant in Wisconsin uh for many, many years, and it was a very old plant.
• 11:43
  Don Armstrong: And General Motors decided, psh, we're done with it, we're not going to rebuild there.
• 11:48
  Don Armstrong: They actually physically tore down this ginormous factory where they made everything from suburbans down to Vegas throughout the decades.
• 11:58
  Don Armstrong: And um all of those people lost their jobs.
• 12:02
  Don Armstrong: They don't have a job anymore, so they've had to find other work.
• 12:05
  Don Armstrong: Um there are other manufacturers up there, but not auto manufacturers, and so they've had to move.
• 12:12
  Don Armstrong: It it and it becomes a huge eyesore.
• 12:14
  Don Armstrong: The city wound up taking the property, but it's still sitting there with a big pile of rubble.
• 12:21
  Don Armstrong: What is the city going to do with it?
• 12:23
  Don Armstrong: They've got it, but there's nothing to put on it.
• 12:26
  Don Armstrong: It's it it's a it's a very complicated thing.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think it changes the character of the community, right?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's not just the factory shutting down, uh, but the mom and pop stores that support uh the employees and you know their purchases and things like whether it's a grocery store or a small clothing store or uh you know appliance uh or a hardware store, right?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: It just kind of decimates everything there.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I I think the companies, you know, if they focus for the more of a focus on the long term, uh, I think you can find a good uh case for uh bringing back these uh uh plants, uh, whether it's for EV production or maybe gasoline production or even hybrid.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um but again, you need to have that long-term view, right?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think the focus on uh I think a lot of the uh CEOs are probably looking at the stock prices which uh fluctuate, especially these days.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so they look at it and say, you know, there's so much uncertainty out there.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm just gonna make short-term decisions.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and a lot of this is by the way, driven by uh uncertainty that exists in the market in the US, especially.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so everybody's on a holding pattern when it comes to investments, and so they're not willing to look at abandon either the company that owns that abandoned property or somebody else like Magna or part suppliers who could come in there and utilize that space because it's probably being offered at a premium if they want to purchase it.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, not a premium, but a huge discount if uh the owner wants to offer it.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know again, uh not having certainty in uh uh in the market, in oil prices, in um just the economy itself, right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh inflation is still up.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yesterday it went up a little bit, it's 3.3%.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually going down, uh, but now it's sticking back up.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know companies are looking at how much disposable income do people have.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're paying more for gases, they're paying more for energy.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, are they going to keep their car longer?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going to invest in a new car, whether it's electric or IC?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So all these things I think are uh uncertainty is just causing uh companies to put a hold on investment, and that's not helping the situation either.
• 14:54
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, you bring up the uh inflation rate, 3.5, kind of uptick every now and then, a little downtick and so on, but that's uh they're now figuring out that their other plans, the automakers, because of that uh it it still is low, but it's still not low.
• 15:08
  Jeff Dziekan: It it's kind of a mind game.
• 15:10
  Jeff Dziekan: It was at one time, not very long ago, at 9 percent for the inflation rate.
• 15:15
  Jeff Dziekan: And there was no plan after that, or before that.
• 15:18
  Jeff Dziekan: Now that it's down, people are considering, well, yeah, I can work with that.
• 15:22
  Jeff Dziekan: Where are we going to be so it doesn't happen again?
• 15:24
  Jeff Dziekan: Well, I think that's what they are working on.
• 15:25
  Don Armstrong: And let me also add to the the fact about these great big, you know, million square feet buildings.
• 15:31
  Don Armstrong: You know, so many times the actual cities that they are located in will give tax abatements, um, they will do everything that they can, they'll gather up investments because they want the employees in their city to help with the tax base itself.
• 15:50
  Don Armstrong: And uh so there's that aspect of it.
• 15:52
  Don Armstrong: We haven't even touched on that.
• 15:54
  Don Armstrong: So there's a huge investment.
• 15:56
  Don Armstrong: And let me just add to this, as we're running out of time here.
• 15:59
  Don Armstrong: Um here in Houston, we have very, very many large, large warehouses.
• 16:06
  Don Armstrong: I think that there is a an Amazon facility almost on every dang corner these days.
• 16:13
  Don Armstrong: And that's not to say that, you know, Amazon could go into one of these million square foot buildings, take a chunk of it for their use, and they divide the building up.
• 16:23
  Don Armstrong: I think that those kind of things have already been talked about, and I think that that's also a possibility if they sit idle too long.
• 16:30
  Don Armstrong: But there's so many components to all of this rust belt property that is sitting idle right now, and uh I think that there's going to be a an actual decision to be made here in the not too distant future.
• 16:44
  Don Armstrong: But let me also say that I think that the way that things are going right now, if you need a car, as opposed to buying an EV today, where here in Houston we don't have the interest infrastructure to be able to justify the price of that.
• 17:01
  Don Armstrong: But I will say that there are some uh hybrid vehicles out there that are affordable and that raise the uh mileage uh of a car almost by double.
• 17:12
  Don Armstrong: And I think that you could find something in that regard and actually help uh the environment and your pocketbook when it comes to gasoline prices.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just one quick comment in addition to warehouses.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like you mentioned in the Houston area, you've got Wayfair and Amazon and many other companies having large warehouses.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's certainly one use for this uh abandoned space, but also data centers, right?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of companies for establishing data centers.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So to the extent that the energy prices around are affordable, I guess uh that could be another use.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Although I would say that data centers don't employ a lot of people.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so the employment situation still remains.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I think if there's probably uh, you know, maybe local governments and state governments can uh take up the um uh mantle and say, okay, how do we bring uh you know foreign investors in, uh, whether it's LG, you know, battery production or uh EV production or something else, and try to bring them in so that that space, you know, basically they can offer it for free, right?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because it's such a uh beaten-down property, and then the taxes and all that make it lucrative for companies to uh rebuild in uh you know some of the infrastructure already existing.
• 18:30
  Don Armstrong: Is it okay if I call you Sunny?
• 18:32
  Don Armstrong: Absolutely.
• 18:34
  Don Armstrong: Okay, well, I mean Sun Dresh is just a little bit harder for me to say than Sunny.
• 18:38
  Don Armstrong: And so uh, you know, I I I no disrespect, no disrespect whatsoever, but I when I when we leave you here, I want to go through some of the titles that this man has because he's absolutely brilliant.
• 18:50
  Don Armstrong: And I have to tell you, I love talking to you.
• 18:53
  Don Armstrong: You always bring out the worst in me and the because I I'm going, wait, this is way over my head.
• 19:00
  Don Armstrong: What am I talking about?
• 19:01
  Don Armstrong: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:02
  Don Armstrong: It really is uh a true uh pleasure and honor to talk to you, and thank you so much for joining us today.
• 19:08
  Don Armstrong: Please let's stay in touch.
• 19:10
  Don Armstrong: Let's talk here in another three or four months, okay?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you are really kind.
• 19:16
  Don Armstrong: I'm just being honest.
• 19:17
  Don Armstrong: Sonny, thanks again.
• 19:18
  Don Armstrong: We'll talk to you again soon.
• 19:19
  Don Armstrong: Appreciate it, sir.
• 19:20
  Don Armstrong: Thank you.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye.
• 19:22
  Don Armstrong: Bye.
• 19:23
  Don Armstrong: So, president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, Regents Professor, holds uh John Hendricks Chair at Oklahoma State University, served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, head of the School of Industrial Engineering and Management at OSU, Humphrey's chair prior to that.
• 19:43
  Don Armstrong: He was the Mary Lee and George F.
• 19:45
  Don Armstrong: Doothe Chair in Engineering Logistics in the Industrial Engineering Department of the University of Louisville.
• 19:51
  Don Armstrong: And the list goes on.
• 19:52
  Don Armstrong: I just read you half.
• 19:53
  Don Armstrong: Oh, yeah.
• 19:54
  Mike Marrs: I got to is Oklahoma State University.
• 19:58
  unknown: Yeah.
• 19:58
  Don Armstrong: As opposed to what?
• 20:00
  Mike Marrs: Ohio State University.
• 20:02
  Mike Marrs: No, this is Oklahoma.
• 20:03
  Mike Marrs: I had a friend of mine.
• 20:06
  Jeff Dziekan: I had a friend of mine that was inmate of the month at County.
• 20:09
  Mike Marrs: So what's that?
• 20:13
  Mike Marrs: Had his picture up on the wall and everything.
• 20:15
  Mike Marrs: Everything, yeah.
• 20:16
  Don Armstrong: Just ahead, Jeff has the racing calendar.
• 20:17
  Don Armstrong: Mars has this week in auto history, and I'll bring you this week's automotive news headlines.
• 20:21
  Don Armstrong: The in-real time car talk show continues in just a minute.
• 20:26
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  Don Armstrong: Loopy Tortilla.
• 21:24
  Don Armstrong: He's pretty good.
• 21:26
  Don Armstrong: Apple or Android NWL Time Podcast can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads.
• 21:31
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• 21:53
  Don Armstrong: Mm-hmm.
• 21:53
  Don Armstrong: In Wheel Time.com has a list, and we know you love lists.
• 22:00
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• 22:05
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• 22:10
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• 22:16
  Don Armstrong: Time now for the racing calendar sponsored by the Texas Muscle Car Club show.
• 22:20
  Jeff Dziekan: Thank you for that.
• 22:21
  Jeff Dziekan: Hey, we got NASCAR.
• 22:22
  Jeff Dziekan: They are at Bristol this weekend.
• 22:24
  Jeff Dziekan: I watched a little bit of the truck race last night.
• 22:27
  Jeff Dziekan: A lot of wrecks, of course, at Bristol's Bristol, Bristol Baby.
• 22:31
  Don Armstrong: Let me ask you this.
• 22:33
  Don Armstrong: Why do they race on a half mile oval?
• 22:36
  Don Armstrong: Because that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.
• 22:39
  Don Armstrong: I know, but so NASCAR.
• 22:42
  Jeff Dziekan: There you go.
• 22:43
  Jeff Dziekan: I stepped on my toe last week.
• 22:44
  Jeff Dziekan: I'm not going to do it again this week.
• 22:46
  Jeff Dziekan: Yes, you are because it's NASCAR.
• 22:49
  Jeff Dziekan: But there's I think there was more people on the infield with the teams than there was in the stand.
• 22:54
  Jeff Dziekan: Seriously, I was focused on as they do the wide shots and they come around.
• 22:59
  Jeff Dziekan: There's hardly anybody.
• 23:00
  Jeff Dziekan: They did them on the front straight and the back street.
• 23:01
  Don Armstrong: How much is the ticket?
• 23:02
  Jeff Dziekan: I have no idea.
• 23:03
  Don Armstrong: I bet you it's$100 a seat, probably.
• 23:07
  Don Armstrong: Would I go?
• 23:09
  Jeff Dziekan: I used it quite a bit.
• 23:11
  Don Armstrong: I did.
• 23:12
  Don Armstrong: I did too.
• 23:13
  Don Armstrong: If it was in my backyard, probably.
• 23:15
  Don Armstrong: But it was only in my backyard once a year.
• 23:17
  Don Armstrong: Okay, I would go.
• 23:20
  Jeff Dziekan: To tune into something like that?
• 23:22
  Jeff Dziekan: Next week they're going to be in Kansas, and I've been to Kansas many, many times.
• 23:26
  Jeff Dziekan: Hey, you know what else this weekend?
• 23:28
  Jeff Dziekan: NHRA.
• 23:29
  Jeff Dziekan: They are at the Winter Nationals, the In N Out Burger Pomona Drag Show.
• 23:32
  Jeff Dziekan: That's going on the 9th through the 12th, so there'll be finals tomorrow.
• 23:35
  Jeff Dziekan: I love it.
• 23:36
  Jeff Dziekan: If it's live and if there's not a tidally week contest going on that they have to be interrupted by.
• 23:43
  Jeff Dziekan: Underwater basket weaving is more important, too.
• 23:45
  Jeff Dziekan: Underwater basket weaving.
• 23:47
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, hold your breath.
• 23:49
  Jeff Dziekan: IndyCar Racing, they are at Long Beach, and that's next weekend, so we got we got a time to wait for that.
• 23:56
  Jeff Dziekan: I'm going to save this one.
• 23:58
  Jeff Dziekan: And Formula One.
• 24:00
  Jeff Dziekan: Formula One, they're on a hiatus because of the conflict, uh, the Brain Chief Grand Prix and the Superman.
• 24:06
  Jeff Dziekan: They're going to be in Miami on May 3rd, so we've got a couple weeks after that.
• 24:09
  Jeff Dziekan: And my favorite, I've got the 2026 calendar of lawnmower racing.
• 24:16
  Jeff Dziekan: You bet.
• 24:18
  Don Armstrong: No, but what kind of grass do they have?
• 24:21
  Jeff Dziekan: You got uh you got the Nasgrass, like NASCAR?
• 24:24
  Jeff Dziekan: This is the Nasgrass uh race day.
• 24:26
  Jeff Dziekan: It is in Fort Mead, Florida, and it's going on today.
• 24:29
  Don Armstrong: How many people can you get at Fort Mead?
• 24:31
  Jeff Dziekan: Um if you got a mower, you get in free.
• 24:34
  Jeff Dziekan: Okay, there you go.
• 24:34
  Jeff Dziekan: So we're gonna see.
• 24:36
  Mike Marrs: Does it have to be a rider?
• 24:37
  Jeff Dziekan: Yes.
• 24:38
  Jeff Dziekan: Yes.
• 24:38
  Jeff Dziekan: We're gonna take a push mower to a race?
• 24:40
  Jeff Dziekan: No, no, no.
• 24:40
  Don Armstrong: But you gotta you know how how about those that that the guy actually stands on a little platform behind it.
• 24:47
  Don Armstrong: He doesn't sit down, he stands on a platform behind it.
• 24:50
  Jeff Dziekan: It's like the the uh the garden piece of the case.
• 24:52
  Jeff Dziekan: It's like it's like a chariot race.
• 24:54
  Jeff Dziekan: Yeah.
• 24:54
  unknown: There you go.
• 24:55
  Jeff Dziekan: And you know about that.
• 24:56
  Don Armstrong: I I I invented it.
• 24:58
  Don Armstrong: All right, we're from time now for uh time now for this week in auto history, Mr.
• 25:03
  Don Armstrong: Morris.
• 25:04
  Mike Marrs: Uh yes, sir.
• 25:05
  Mike Marrs: So we found a few things this week that we thought were really interesting in automotive history, and we're gonna start with April the 6th.
• 25:14
  Mike Marrs: Now, this is whenever Audi was founded.
• 25:17
  Mike Marrs: Now, the um August Horsch actually established Audi.
• 25:24
  Mike Marrs: He was actually with a company called Horsh Automobiles.
• 25:27
  Mike Marrs: He helped create that company, started it out from scratch, and then uh he lost that in a little bit of a conflict with the um with his partners.
• 25:40
  Mike Marrs: Now he ended up going and creating his own company, which he named Audi, which is actually a translation of Horsch into the uh German language.
• 25:50
  Mike Marrs: So that's how that came name came about.
• 25:52
  Mike Marrs: And it went through a lot of iterations, a lot of mergers and things, and finally ended up with the Volkswagen Group where it is now.
• 26:00
  Mike Marrs: Now, on April the 8th of 1911, the electric autolight company was founded.
• 26:07
  Mike Marrs: Now, this was important because they produced electrical components and they produced enough of them for enough of the different companies that were being created that it helped standardize the automotive electronics that came uh during that period of growth.
• 26:21
  Mike Marrs: Now, you may have heard of the Autolite Company, but the Autolite name was actually associated a whole lot with Ford.
• 26:29
  Mike Marrs: Ford bought them, it was part of their smart plugs, a lot of things like that.
• 26:33
  Mike Marrs: And they ended up lawsuits, etc.
• 26:35
  Mike Marrs: Lawyers got involved again.
• 26:36
  Mike Marrs: They ended up selling Autolite name to Bandex.
• 26:40
  Mike Marrs: And then whenever it also created, and what was left of it went to create Prestolite, which you may see in here, because that's what helped get cars away from the systems they developed, got away from the hand cranks over to the starters that they happened to be building.
• 26:57
  Mike Marrs: Then in April the 10th, 1925, the Chrysler launched the Model 70.
• 27:02
  Mike Marrs: Now, this was really their first vehicle, and it created a lot of engineering innovations that kind of brought on to the industry the high compression engines, four-wheel hydraulic brakes were introduced on this vehicle.
• 27:14
  Mike Marrs: So it set a lot of standards for the future as the cars came into the market as well as for Chrysler.
• 27:20
  Mike Marrs: Now, on April the 10th, 1912, the RMS Titanic sailed.
• 27:26
  Mike Marrs: Now, I bring up the Titanic because it's not really an automotive event, but it was such a big disaster.
• 27:33
  Mike Marrs: So many people got involved in looking at the safety things that could have been done to prevent that or help minimize the damage that was done to it, and create all this mitigation and rolled over into the automotive segments, and cars became a lot more safer because of the things that people learned from that disaster.
• 27:53
  Mike Marrs: Now, on April the 11th, 1947, Kaiser Fraser Corporation was created.
• 27:59
  Mike Marrs: Now, this is of course Henry J.
• 28:00
  Mike Marrs: Kaiser and Joseph W.
• 28:02
  Mike Marrs: Fraser.
• 28:03
  Mike Marrs: They launched that to challenge Detroit's Big Three.
• 28:06
  Mike Marrs: Now, they had a lot of bowl styling and a lot of things going on in that.
• 28:11
  Mike Marrs: And the company founded with two different models.
• 28:15
  Mike Marrs: The Kaiser was a front-wheel drive model, and the Fraser was a rear-wheel drive model.
• 28:19
  Mike Marrs: Now they were involved and they built from 1942 to 1943.
• 28:23
  Mike Marrs: It involved into buying Willis and then got into the Jeeps and a lot of other things before they actually went out of business.
• 28:31
  Mike Marrs: The April 5th, 1936, the introduction of the Lincoln Zephyr.
• 28:36
  Mike Marrs: Now, this vehicle was made from 1936 to 1942.
• 28:39
  Mike Marrs: It had the V-12 engine in it.
• 28:41
  Mike Marrs: It was a little more affordable than some of the other Lincoln models, so it was really a market hit.
• 28:46
  Mike Marrs: However, when World War II started, a lot of companies stopped production.
• 28:51
  Mike Marrs: And the Lincoln, when it came back out of World War II, started production again.
• 28:56
  Mike Marrs: However, it no longer had that Zephyr name.
• 29:00
  Mike Marrs: So it just really wasn't resurrected.
• 29:02
  Mike Marrs: And that's a few of the things we found this week in automotive history that we thought were pretty interesting.
• 29:10
  Mike Marrs: So, and now we've got a few other problems here, and we are going to Don's doing headlines, but Don's not here right at the moment.
• 29:20
  Mike Marrs: And uh see if we can get him back on here.
• 29:23
  Mike Marrs: There they are.
• 29:24
  Don Armstrong: Well, here we've we've been fiddling with stuff over here, trying to get ourselves back on there.
• 29:29
  Don Armstrong: But let's let's take a break, shall we, Mr.
• 29:32
  Don Armstrong: Mars?
• 29:32
  Don Armstrong: Uh the In World Time Car Talk Show is going to continue right after these brief messages.
• 29:37
  Don Armstrong: We invite you to You own a car you love.
• 29:41
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• 29:44
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• 30:06
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• 30:28
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• 30:31
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• 30:51
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• 31:02
  Don Armstrong: Call Bill today, 832-922-0963.
• 31:06
  Don Armstrong: That's 832-922-0963.
• 31:10
  Don Armstrong: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 31:14
  Don Armstrong: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our InWheelTime.com website.
• 31:24
  Don Armstrong: Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music.
• 31:32
  Don Armstrong: Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.