Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / The Rise and Fall of John DeLorean: A Journey Through Automotive History

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The Rise and Fall of John DeLorean: A Journey Through Automotive History · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, the world's favorite place to go for fun and informative car talk.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Just ahead, matt Stone joins us to talk about his book DeLorean, the Rise Fall and Second Acts of the DeLorean Motor Company.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I'm interested in second acts Later.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Jeff has the racing calendar.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Mars has this week in auto history and I'll get you caught up on the stories making automotive news headlines.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Howdy, along with Mike out of this world.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Mars.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We always need more.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Jeff Zekin.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us on this Saturday.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: David Ainsley is going to be busy at our remote broadcast for October because I think every weekend but one we are out and about.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Well yes, that's correct.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Well, he emailed.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: He says, hey, he's looking forward to it.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, did you get the email?
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I did.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Believe it or not.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: The Internet works it does In the house.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, works out here too.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: We can get connected to it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, internet works in the house, it does.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, works out here too, if we can get connected to it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry, my Tourette's is acting up.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let us talk right now with our guest this hour.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: His name is Matt Stone.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Matt, good morning to you.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Hi guys, how are you?
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Very well, thank you.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Matt has written a book called DeLorean the Rise, fall and Second Acts of the DeLorean Motor Company.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Now, you're not the only one that has written a book about it, because I'll tell you this.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: The story behind John DeLorean is truly amazing.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Very successful man with General Motors for decades Went on to build his own car that we all know from Back to the Future and other things.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It really is an iconic car.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Now, matter of fact, they fixed it up the old ones and they've come out with a new one.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the book, matt, and what motivated you to write the book.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: To me, guys, this is the story that you think you knew, but you probably don't.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: You.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: You know, not you, everybody knows little bits and pieces of it, but it had been, it has been, it has been some number of years before anybody has written a comprehensive book about the, the, the guy, the car, the company, the life, the movies, the bust, all of that, and and, as you, as you know and you mentioned, there have been a number of books over time.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Honestly, a couple of them are pretty good, some of them not so much, but a lot has happened somewhat recently and, um, it just kind of felt and there were some anniversaries involved here too but, um, I just felt it was time to take a new, fresh, journalistic, holistic, overall look at the DeLorean-osphere, because it's been a long time since anybody's done it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And tell me, give me a brief overview, if you will, in 60 seconds, so everybody knows who we're talking about here in John DeLorean, of course famous for the DeLorean Motor Car Company, but he has a long history with General Motors, and a very successful one indeed, he, um, he is a Detroit born guy.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Uh, born of a kind of a hard scrabble, lower middle class life in Detroit and um, and grew up and went to school, an engineering school, and became an engineer and right out of school he went to work and he spent time with Packard, remember them?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: I do yes.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: And before joining General Motors and joined the General Motors Pontiac division Motors and joined the General Motors Pontiac division and had a long career with General Motors from the 50s until almost the 70s until the 70s and it was an interesting ride for him all the way.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: He was somewhat the rebel, somewhat the outcast and didn't always like the way things worked at General Motors but was able to work within and sometimes without the system and brought a lot of innovation and development and good things to Pontiac, most widely recognized as one of the absolute fathers of the Pontiac GTO in 1964, which we all remember, and a fascinating guy.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: I've learned a lot about him in the year that I spent putting this together and I knew a fair amount about him before.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: But it was an interesting ride, just really learning more and learning deeper about what this guy accomplished.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: And then, where things didn't go as well as one might have hoped interesting personality and he said he was going to build a very special, unique sports car in all the world and he did put his name on the building, put his name on the door, and then it kind of all went pear-shaped a little bit and unfortunately wound to an end in 1980, in the early 1980s, 1983, um was about the end of it, for for what we knew was the lorian motor company and uh and he passed away in about 2000, I guess at the age of 80, and um, it's just, it's just a fascinating ride if you love automotive history stories.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: What really stands out in your mind, that you found out that most people hadn't heard of before.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Wow, there's a whole lot of stuff.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: I think, boy, that's tough.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: That is a tough I I think a lot of people aren't aware and I'm coming near the end of the story and answering your questions that when that entire fbi dea sting brought him down and and ultimately helped close down the company and everything else, and there was the big trial here in Los Angeles which was front page news when I was watching it is that of all of the charges leveled against him he was acquitted, one hundred percent acquitted of every charge in the whole, in the whole drug bust thing and and and I just just as proof of life here it is.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: I think, if you want to A lot of people say, oh yeah, he was guilty of drug trafficking.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: He was not or not found guilty anyway and, like I said, living here in Southern California as a car guy, we watched that whole thing every day and it was fascinating.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: A lot of people are not even aware of the fact that he was acquitted, even though it ultimately equaled his personal and business failure.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean the bottom line is is that the fact is, from what he said and from what I have heard, that all he was trying to do was to save his company?
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, and I believe that, and unfortunately he was.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: He was so desperate for that.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: He kind of fell in with some bad actors, one in particular who was his neighbor at a property he owned here in San Diego County, james Hoffman, who was a really bad dude and also a FBI on drug trafficking who worked really hard to try to curry favor with the FBI and the DEA for lighter sentences and such.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: And you know, john was just kind of telling them his woes and one day this guy a light bulb went off and said, ooh, I can use this to my advantage.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: So he went to the folks at the FBI and said, hey, I think we can land a fish.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: And that's what they tried to do.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: So that's all in the book yes okay, let me.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Let me focus a minute on on the actual delorean motor company and the fact that at first there was a lot of flash about the car because it was, you know, gullwing doors, it was affordable and all of the things that attracted people to it, but it didn't resonate with a lot of people.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: What was it in particular, that prevented the sales, the big sales of the cars that he really was depending on to keep the company afloat?
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Was it the engine?
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Was it the poor performance?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Did he have to make sacrifices within the car?
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: That didn't resonate with people.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: What was the problem?
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: A lot of answers to that question.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: I am convinced, summarily, that the company just didn't have enough of everything needed to really do the job, whether that was time, R&D, money, luck, political environment, circumstances.
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: At the time, the early 80s, there was a lot of financial—it wasn't quite depression but there was a lot of recession in various aspects of the market, in the car market, and then certainly some of it was due to the car I think everybody just expected, wanted because of those exotic features and looks that everybody expected a Ferrari.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: It was going to run as fast as a Ferrari or whatever.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: Right and I think that the car just being of moderate performance although they're actually quite lovely to drive and I've driven several of them it never kind of met everybody's expectation, being that expectation real or not, it just kind of never met everybody's hopes and expectations for the car and just didn't have enough of everything to get where it needed to be.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I guess one of the things that is interesting to me is that, about that same time or shortly thereafter the debut of the DMC, that General Motors came out with the Fiero, a little two-seat sports car, that it too was underpowered.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: It looked really good, but I would like to place it in competition as far as performance is concerned, in the same basket.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I think that a lot of people, and myself included, when they first saw it I thought, oh, this is a Corvette killer, and as it turned out, it wasn't.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: So there were a lot of, I guess, preconceived notions about the car being a performer that it never lived up to, and it was kind of disappointing.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I will say that, uh, even to this day, the stainless steel thing was truly amazing, and, matter of fact, so much so that, uh, we know of a car manufacturer that has come out with a stainless steel pickup truck, and so that wasn't that far-fetched if you look at it in retrospect, but it really was a wow factor for the vehicle.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: So there were a lot of things that were positive about it, but a lot of things that were negative about it and the fact that he built the thing over in Ireland because they gave him money to build the factory there, thinking that it was going to be a real success and, as it turned out, it was a huge failure.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Well, during a tumultuous time there in Ireland too, with the wars and all that stuff.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: So that's.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: So I guess all of that is in your book.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I outline and go through all of this stuff.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Tumultuous times in Belfast that word doesn't even cover it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Well, it was we tried.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Just crazy, crazy political environment there and wars and bombings, and I mean I've got pictures in the book of of streets and buildings on fire.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: I mean this.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: This was a very volatile place to do it because of course they had before at that time was about 30% think of that number, 30% unemployment in Northern Ireland, in Belfast, and everybody was on the government dole and about all they had time to do was fight.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: So naturally the British government really wanted to solve this problem and had lots and lots of money to throw at it.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: And they did.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: As you said, they financed DeLorean to a great extent with the intent of putting local people back to work.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: And it fascinates me that for many of the guys and gals that went to work at DeLorean other than you know kind of freelancing as a painter or a plumber, whatever little side work they could put together this was their first real job.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Think about that Guys in their 20s, 30s, 40s had never held a job up until the time they went to work and training at DeLorean.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: That to me is fascinating.
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: College they didn't go to college.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: A lot of them didn't finish high school, so for so many of these employees it was their first job.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: And they could actually go to work at a clean, beautiful factory, be trained and put food on their tables.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Quite an opportunity.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So, Matt, let me ask you what do you think that sales look like for your book?
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: We're trying to help you here, and all I could think of was timing is pretty good.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: We've got Christmas coming up, Great Christmas gift.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: How many pages in the book?
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: Well, let's just see.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Start at the beginning.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: One, two three.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: I know how many I typed.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: And it wound up being 191.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, we can do that as long as the type isn't too small where I can't read it.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: We sell the magnifying glasses.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Cheaters.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Just for gray hairs like that.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly Well, and I assume that it is available everywhere, including Amazon.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, its technical publication date is September 17th but they are in warehouses right now and they're taking orders and we'll be filling them here in another week or so.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: So you can buy publisher direct from Motorbooks, motorbookscom or cortocom, whatever they call it these days.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: But Amazon absolutely and certainly all the automotive bookstores like Auto Books out here in Burbank California will sell it and it should be pretty widely available for the usual automotive book titles.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Wonderful.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Do you live in Burbank?
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: I do not.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: I currently live in Camarillo, california, which is right next to Ventura, okay, but I used to live in Glendale, which was next to beautiful downtown Burbank, burbank.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: There's a highway in Ventura.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, ventura Highway.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: That's it 101.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Matt Stone, it's a pleasure and honor to talk to you and we look forward to reading your book DeLorean the Rise and Fall, and Second Acts of the DeLorean Motor Company.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Thanks again for getting up and joining us today here in Houston, Texas.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: That's okay.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: I was actually up hours ago, were you.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: My nephew got married in Prague, which meant I was watching the live stream at 6 o'clock this morning, pacific time, so it's okay.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: What a way to start the day.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Well, that's perfect.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Well, thank him for us.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Congratulations to him To get you up out of the bed.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: We appreciate it, Matt.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Talk to you again soon.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Thanks again.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: You bet guys Anytime.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: You bet to you again soon.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Thanks again.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: You bet guys, anytime I appreciate it.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: You bet.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you, fun, yeah, interesting.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: The In.
• 17:02
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• 17:14
  Speaker 1: The In Wheel Time Car Talk Show will continue.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Right after this quick break, the original group of Loopy Tortilla restaurants will have you telling your family and friends just what the original recipe means when it comes to the best fajitas in Southeast Texas.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Founder Stan Holt invites you to visit the first Loopy Tortilla near I-10 and Highway 6.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Here is the original house that inspired the design of all the rest and the original charm that helped make Loopy Tortilla the go-to destination for Houston Tex-Mex.
• 17:40
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• 17:43
  Speaker 1: That everyone will agree makes Loopy Tortilla award-winning beef fajitas the best anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: Loopy Tortilla Katy is another location that gives you the same quality and service Houstonians have come to expect at Loopy's.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: It's located on 99 the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard in Katy.
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  Speaker 1: Expected Loopy's.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: It's located on 99 the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard in Katy.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Find yourself in Aggieland Head to the Loopy Tortilla in College Station, located just around the corner from Kyle Field.
• 18:03
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• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Going to Louisiana the Loopy Tortilla in Beaumont is on I-10, so you can't miss it.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: The original group of Loopy Tortilla restaurants has the best Tex-Mex anywhere and you are invited anytime.
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• 19:15
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• 19:18
  Speaker 1: It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us today on our live version.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Every Saturday from 10 am to noon.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: That's what we got lined up for you every week.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, we're going to throw a little caveat into that.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, I like caveats.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Do you, yeah, they taste good, don't they With mustard Must into that?
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, I like caveats.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Do you, yeah, they taste good, don't they With mustard Mustard?
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, I like mine with horseradish mustard, oh there you go.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Horsey sauce yeah.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: I like that Spicy touch.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Uh-huh, yeah, Just like me.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: So here are some of the things that we've got lined up for remote broadcasts.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: We're on the September 28th.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: We're going to be at Woody's Waterfront Custom Car Show in San Leon, Texas.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Oh boy.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: As opposed to San Leon.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: There's no such thing except in France.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: On the 12th of October we're going to be at the Space City.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Here, you want to do it?
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: No, I'm just trying to get you started.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: We're laughing with you Space City Corvette Club at Stevenson Park in Friendswood.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: That's a big car show.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: It's not just Corvettes, it's a great show.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Open yeah, open car show we're going to be sponsored by Emmons Autoplex for the broadcast.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Emmons Autoplex is going to sponsor us and we're really excited about that.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: October, the 19th Spring Branch High School Museum car show.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're going to be surprised at that.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: I'm going to make a point.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I told you she's got to take you to a tour.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: You keep pointing that pin at me.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I know I'm telling you you are going to love that museum as much as you like all your nostalgic stuff.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: It made me wish that my high school would have done that, because I got grandkids go to graduate this year.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: You can't fit anything else in your garage.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: No, the high school and your high school was one room for all the grades, wasn't it?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Now they got two rooms, but they could have made one of them into a music.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: You're going to be impressed at what these people have done with this.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: You're going to like it, so mark it on your calendar.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: That's going to be October the 19th, spring Branch High School Museum Car Show in Spring Branch, texas, right up a road.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Then on November the 9th, we're going to be out at the Hemi Hideout and that is open to the public $10 to get you in.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: John matches the $10 and gives it to the local charities there in Brookshire.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Cash or can you debit card?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: No, it is cash only.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Need to make that clear.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Thanksgiving weekend we'll be back at Autorama at the George R Brown Convention Center.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: So we'll hope to see you at one of those, if not multiple times, our fall tour.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Our fall tour.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: It has shirts made up there you go Fall tour.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: It has shirts made up there you go.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Fall tour, the in-wheel time fall tour yeah, that's right, like the Pink Floyd tour, yes exactly All right.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Time now for the racing calendar sponsored by the Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Texas Muscle.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Car, nascar.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: We are in the cup playoffs and you've got the Xfinity's running today.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: The Cup guys are running tomorrow.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: It is on at 3 pm on USA Network.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Mic tickets are still available.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: Yeehaw, yee-bitch.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Now on the 13th, which is coming up next week, you've got Formula One.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: They're going to be in Qatar.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: The Qatar Airways Aberdeijan Grand Prix, azerbaijan.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: They're going to be there too.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: They're going to be there as well.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: It's kind of next to San Leon.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: It's at the Baku City Circuit.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: That's the track they're going to be at.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Imsa is going to be in Indianapolis at the end of this month and we've got NHRAs actually going to be in their countdown championship.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: The TV schedule is going to be Septemberember 15th, so it's a little bit farther off.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: It's going to be the pep boys nhra nationals in redding, pennsylvania.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Uh, to be determined on the network.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: but I've been to redding pennsylvania, the drag strip there, and that's an interesting part of the country.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah sure not to eat one night and uh, the amish were there eating with us.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Oh boy, it was an interesting place, wow.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: Wow, oh yeah, that's cool, they have a lot of full-service sit-down restaurants up there.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: You know mom-and-pop restaurants.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Very nice.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Food was great.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: It was just very different from what we experienced down here.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: When I was with Keystone Pennsylvania.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: It's in Pennsylvania the headquarters.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Joe Motto still live up there.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Nice place.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Anyways, you would be like, driving down your street here, One of the houses would actually be a restaurant.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very common and you just park, pull up in the driveway and go in there and eat.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Interesting it is, it was pretty crazy.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: All right Time now for this Week in Auto History.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Mr Mars has that.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: This week we found a couple of few things that are pretty interesting.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: A couple of few things that are pretty interesting.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: September, the 1st 1923.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: The first car equipped with a radio.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: God, I remember that, just like yesterday, I'm sure you do.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: It was a.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Chevrolet.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: It was introduced at the Minnesota State Fair, but it was not a nice small box that fit into the dashboard.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: It needed a lot of room.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: The antenna literally covered the roof.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And don't forget about the tubes.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Yes, they had the test tubes that were in there, not test tubes, not test tubes.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: No, they were just actual tubes.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: vacuum tubes, yes, vacuum tubes.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: You're thinking of the 7-Eleven store that you used to go to Go in and plug them in and test them.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Or that meth lab, the speakers were so big they had to be attached to the back of the seats, would barely fit underneath the seat.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: And the upcoming automotive like AAA and all those guys that were developing those associations.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: They were concerned or distracted driving from listening to the music they ought to be living today huh, that's what I thought.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: All right, September the 2nd.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: The National Corvette Museum opens to the public this day in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: That's a very interesting Corvette.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Did I miss something, Mike?
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's the antenna on top of the car.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, that was interesting, I got you.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's the museum Now.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: This has been home for the production of the Chevrolet Corvette since 1981.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Not at the museum but in the factory next door, well Bowling Green.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Collections of Next door Well Bowling Green Collects all the sports cars, includes a display of the catastrophic sinkhole and it swallowed eight of the museum's prized cars the National Corvette Museum that we talked about last week.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: Their caravan happens every five years as part of the anniversary celebration where thousands of cars show up, corvettes show up to celebrate in the Corvette.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: September, the 3rd 1964.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: The first mustang convertible rolled off the assembly line.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Now, to decrease the development cost of the mustang, they used the chassis and suspension to drive train from the ford falcon and the fair lane.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: They did all this cut down on cost because of the falcon frame and the welded box section side rails.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: Now they, although the hard top mustangs accounted for the highest sales, durability programs with the new frame led to the engineering of convertibles, first to ensure there was adequate stiffness in the car.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: They did not know they built the convertible first.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: September, the 5th 1960, the land.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: The Land Rover Series 1 made the US debut.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: The Land Rover was conceived by the Rover Company in 1947, during the aftermath of World War II.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Before the war, rover produced luxury cars.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Of course, after the war those were not in demand and raw materials were strictly rationed to companies building construction or industrial equipment or products that could be exported to earn foreign exchange.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: So rover's original factory had also been bombed, so it didn't even exist.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: This was launched at the amsterdam motor show, is designed for farm and light industrial use with a steel box section, chassis and aluminum body due to steel shortages.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Now if you look at that car it looks a whole lot like something else, like like a Jeep.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: They did that intentionally, because they came home from the war they needed something that was cheap and easy to build flat panels, no wavy designs or anything, but just nice flat easy.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: They stole the design from the Bantam Motor Company.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, they did, queen of England, and it worked.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Drove one, yeah, she loved hers.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she loved hers but back to the Mustang story.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I watched yesterday a very interesting Jay Leno's Garage and Bill Ford, yes, ford Motor Company.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Bill Ford brought Jay the original, real, honest to God pace car for the indy 500 in 1964, the mustang, and he was talking about the modifications that they had to do to it in a very short period of time because the original v8 mustang could not do 140 miles an hour, which is the minimum requirement to pace the indy 500, which is the minimum requirement to pace the Indy 500.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: So they took that engine out and Holman Moody put a race engine in it.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: They had to detune it because the Ford Mustang was not capable the frame to be able to hold all of that power and get it down to the ground.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: So all of the modifications.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: It's a fascinating 35-minute show on the Mustang and pacing the Indy 500.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: You know who won the Indy 500 that year?
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: That would have been AJ Foyt, but this particular car was not always in Bill Ford's collection of Fords but it was owned by somebody else that had paced the car.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: It was a complicated story that he explained very well and I couldn't stop watching it.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: It sounds like it.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, jay has lost a lot of weight.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: You know he lost his wife not too long ago.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: He had that accident yeah, the fire and all of that, but it was a fascinating interview.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the fire and all of that, but it was a fascinating interview.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: And Jay drove the car, four-speed, manual transmission in it, all white with a white convertible top and it had the blue racing stripe in the middle of it.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: That's a Ford thing.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: And he explains it in that it was truly.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: All of our listeners would love to see that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Go to YouTube and look up Jay Leno's Garage and the Ford Mustang 1964 pace car.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: I found it.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I have to do that.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I found it.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, it's very good.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break shall we.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Just shoot us an email.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: The address here is info at inwheeltimecom.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Quick break, now You're on the in-wheel time car talk show streaming and podcasting around the planet.
• 29:47
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• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Pro-am auto accessories has been serving Houston's auto enthusiasts since 1984, providing world-class products for sports cars, european sedans and American muscle.
• 30:01
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• 30:06
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• 30:12
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• 30:22
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• 30:26
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• 30:32
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• 30:38
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• 30:43
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• 30:47
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• 30:55
  Speaker 1: The award-winning In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show brings you great guest interviews each week, from manufacturers and suppliers to the aftermarket, racers, enthusiasts and other friends just like you and me who love to talk about all things automotive.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: The In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show takes you to the road too, with remotes at Tailpipes and Tacos, woody's Waterfront Car Show and the Hemi Hideout.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: In Real Time's live video and audio stream can be found on the iHeartRadio app, youtube, facebook and InRealTimecom every Saturday 10 am to noon Central Time, or grab a podcast anytime from your favorite podcast provider.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Real Time Car Show.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.
• 31:35
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• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Keep listening and we'll see you soon.