Latest / In Wheel Time Podcast / America’s Woodie Era in the Savoy!
Transcript
- 0:04Don Armstrong: Welcome to the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
- 0:07Don Armstrong: Just ahead, part two of our talk with Mary Ar Grusta at the Savoy Auto Museum just outside Atlanta.
- 0:13Don Armstrong: Jeff will have his car culture feature.
- 0:15Don Armstrong: And Mr.
- 0:16Don Armstrong: Mars have five scenic drives around the Houston Metroplex.
- 0:22Mike Marrs: Oh.
- 0:23Mike Marrs: I didn't use digging, but I got.
- 0:26Don Armstrong: It's gonna say, well, digging.
- 0:29Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 0:29Don Armstrong: Well, we don't want to dig too deep because we hit water here.
- 0:32Don Armstrong: Howdy, along with Mike out of this world, Mars.
- 0:35Don Armstrong: We always need more Jeff Zeken, Chief Engineer David Ainsley.
- 0:38Don Armstrong: Thank him for uh helping us as always.
- 0:41Don Armstrong: I'm Don Armstrong.
- 0:42Don Armstrong: Glad that you could join us on this uh Saturday morning for our live show, always 10 to noon.
- 0:48Don Armstrong: By the way, before we get back to Mary O, I did want to mention to everybody that we've got the Lone Star Streetrod Association State Run coming up.
- 0:57Don Armstrong: That's up in Granbury, Texas.
- 0:58Don Armstrong: That's on June the 13th for us.
- 1:01Don Armstrong: So that's a Saturday.
- 1:02Don Armstrong: We'll be live there from 9 to noon that Saturday.
- 1:05Don Armstrong: So it's a bonus hour that we're gonna tack on to the front of the show.
- 1:09Don Armstrong: And we hope that you will join us then.
- 1:11Don Armstrong: And hey, if you want a great trip, go up to Granbury for this show.
- 1:16Don Armstrong: It's a great road trip.
- 1:18Don Armstrong: It's not on the freeway, it's off the freeway, it's in Granbury.
- 1:22Don Armstrong: And so uh it's and it's a great city.
- 1:24Don Armstrong: And uh matter of fact, I think we're gonna have Fireman Jack on at some point to talk more about it.
- 1:29Jeff Dziekan: Next week it's a bit of a drive, it's a good little uh cross country hall, and there's so much stuff to do in Granbury, it's so historic, so I encourage you to go if you're not doing anything that weekend.
- 1:39Jeff Dziekan: We're there the 13th and say, it goes from 12, 13th and 14th, so it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
- 1:44Jeff Dziekan: Yeah.
- 1:44Don Armstrong: So anyway, uh we will be broadcasting live there.
- 1:48Don Armstrong: Okay.
- 1:48Don Armstrong: Uh let's go back to the Savoy Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, which is just outside Atlanta.
- 1:55Don Armstrong: And uh we're speaking with Mary Argruza.
- 1:57Don Armstrong: Mary, it's always good to have you and have you back.
- 2:00Don Armstrong: This is uh her second appearance uh today on the show because we kind of talked about all sorts of stuff, but today we want to talk this hour about the woodies.
- 2:10Don Armstrong: And Mary, I know that you've got some there picked out for us, so I'll let you kind of give us the tour.
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, though everything that is in this room belongs to the museum.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: But I want to highlight first this little Woody, and this is probably the smallest one we own.
- 2:24SPEAKER_00: It might even be the smallest work in the Woody that was ever made.
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: This was done by the American Bantam Company.
- 2:30SPEAKER_00: And the reason that I'm bringing this up is that American Bantam played a very, very important role during the Second World War.
- 2:39SPEAKER_00: Uh, the government needed a small, lightweight, four-wheel drive reconnaissance vehicle.
- 2:44SPEAKER_00: They put the word out to all the different car manufacturers.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: American Bantam was one, I think, of two that was able to get the prototype and all the plans done in time.
- 2:56SPEAKER_00: Uh, the government loved what Bantam did.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: However, they were a very small car company.
- 3:03SPEAKER_00: They were pretty much in the process of getting ready to go into bankruptcy, they weren't doing all that well.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: And so the government just sort of borrowed, so you say the plans, gave them to Ford and Willis, and that's where we got the Jeep, the general purpose vehicle.
- 3:20SPEAKER_00: Now, Willis for the longest time talked about that they were the creator of the Jeep.
- 3:25SPEAKER_00: But in 1955, the Federal Communications Commission came back and said, no, the that goes to American Bantam.
- 3:33SPEAKER_00: So if you go up to Butler, Pennsylvania, where the Bantam factory was, there is a five on the side of the road where the old factory was located, and it says that you know it was American Bantam that was the creator of the game.
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: So one one of the two bantoms that we own.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: We also have like a little poop, but it's a tiny, tiny, tiny little woody, but really a cool little car.
- 3:59SPEAKER_00: Comeary-sized car, we like to say.
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would fit in this thing very, very well.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: And then go ahead.
- 4:09Jeff Dziekan: You're okay.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: Okay, and right across me is a name that a lot of times when we think of cars, we think of Chrysler and Chevrolet, uh, Ford.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: But you ever think of a Nashwoody?
- 4:21SPEAKER_00: Well, this is this is a Nash Woody.
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is one of ours.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: This also recently just came back from full restoration.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: Uh, mostly just to the outside, it was retained, all the wood was re was refinished.
- 4:36SPEAKER_00: Wayne Carini was here about two weeks ago, and one of the comments he made is that the patina of the wood is period correct.
- 4:44SPEAKER_00: It's not super shiny, it's all almost like a satin finish.
- 4:48SPEAKER_00: But the gentleman who did this, it took him about two years.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: They took all the wood off the body, they completely repainted it.
- 4:56SPEAKER_00: You'll notice that there are screen windows here.
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's because you could go camping in this car.
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: And I'll see if I can get it, because in the back window, there was a mattress that came with this.
- 5:09Don Armstrong: And so my god.
- 5:11SPEAKER_00: You could put the back seat down, roll the mattress, and then your feet actually went into the trunk.
- 5:17Don Armstrong: You could and you know, Mary, it worked wonders at the drive-in movie.
- 5:21Don Armstrong: I can remember that.
- 5:22SPEAKER_00: Well, I when I do the tour, I tell people, you know, there was a song about, you know, uh, mothers don't let your sons grow up to be cowboys.
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: Maybe it could have been mothers don't let your daughters date guys that drive Nashes.
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: I think I could be wrong.
- 5:40SPEAKER_00: But this is very unusual.
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: Uh, you don't you don't hear a lot about Nash, but this is just a beautiful, beautiful car.
- 5:47Don Armstrong: Well, I heard about Nash Calvinator because remember they bought the refrigerator company.
- 5:52Don Armstrong: You might remember.
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: Yes, they did.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: And so it's a really, really beautiful car.
- 5:57SPEAKER_00: The guy did a gorgeous restoration, but yet it was two years worth of work to get it done, but well worth all the time that it took.
- 6:05SPEAKER_00: Give you an idea, a little bit about what the inside of the car looks like.
- 6:09Don Armstrong: It's just now have you ever driven any of these cars that are in the museum?
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: I'll show you one right here that I have, and it's this nice Model A.
- 6:19Don Armstrong: A Model A.
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: This is it.
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: This is Model A Woody.
- 6:22SPEAKER_00: And I drove this.
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: We had a we had a I have sort of a reputation around here in terms of like when we have a donor night and you let Mary drive the donors.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: Mary has a lead foot.
- 6:34SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, I have driven this car, and this is the oldest car that I've ever driven, and it was the first time that I ever drove a Woody.
- 6:42SPEAKER_00: Uh, we get I would get it up to third year, and they said get in in the third year and stay in there.
- 6:47SPEAKER_00: Only because just they really just didn't want it a lot of.
- 6:50Don Armstrong: Mary, Mary, did somebody did somebody teach you how to advance the spark up on the uh on the steering column?
- 6:57SPEAKER_00: Uh no, the guys would start the car for me, and I wasn't going more than 30 miles an hour.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
- 7:03SPEAKER_00: And so we just because of where we were, it was like a it's on the driveway here, so you couldn't really speed, and in this car, it would just rattle and sh it always fell always seemed to me like it was gonna fall apart.
- 7:15Don Armstrong: I never knew that Model A offered a Woody.
- 7:19Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 7:19SPEAKER_00: This is this would be like this now.
- 7:21SPEAKER_00: This would have been what you would have called a depot hack.
- 7:24SPEAKER_00: And so this the idea was the train station was out of town, and so you would have uh the stations like hotels and things like that, they would send this out to pick you up.
- 7:36Jeff Dziekan: Yeah, courtesy shuttle.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, and so it's like a courtesy shuttle, but yeah, this is the 1930 Model A.
- 7:44SPEAKER_00: Beautifully, beautifully restored, and I mean it was fun to drive.
- 7:48SPEAKER_00: It's just that boy, there's a wood creek, and I I wasn't used to that, and at times I'd be driving and going like, is this thing gonna fall apart on me?
- 7:57SPEAKER_00: Of course, it didn't, but I just had never done it before.
- 8:00SPEAKER_00: So, yes, I have driven this one, it was a lot of fun.
- 8:04SPEAKER_00: I had a great time, it was it was a blast.
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: But I do want to show you something.
- 8:08SPEAKER_00: Um early air conditioning.
- 8:11SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a Ford Country Squire.
- 8:15SPEAKER_05: All right.
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: I tell people on the tour if you happened to be standing on the curb and the driver came up and did not see you, you could get a pretty uh pretty sizable headache when you got hit with this.
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: So this is an air conditioner, and the the air would you would fill this with water, air would come in, and while you were driving, because of the the air coming in here, it would blow cool air into your car, and it actually would drop the temperature, maybe about 20 degrees.
- 8:47SPEAKER_00: Of course, the moment you stopped moving, all of a sudden now you're getting all this condensation in the car.
- 8:54SPEAKER_00: So there was a downside, then you'd have to open up your windows.
- 8:57SPEAKER_00: But this was also the air land.
- 9:00SPEAKER_00: First, the station wagon was now becoming a very popular car for people after the Second World War with large families.
- 9:07SPEAKER_00: You know, you can throw the kids in the backseat, you can throw them even behind the backseat.
- 9:11SPEAKER_00: This actually has two back seats.
- 9:14SPEAKER_00: So, uh, and also the wood on here, it's not like the the original woodies where it was, you know, all wood and you had to maintain it every two years.
- 9:25SPEAKER_00: This is now when they're transitioning to be also starting to bring in synthetics, and so now it's becoming very affordable.
- 9:32SPEAKER_00: So the station wagon that really started out as a commercial vehicle is now the vehicle for moving your family around and becomes very, very practical after the 50s.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: So this is our country squire, and uh for our little isquitty here, we have the golf cart, and we thought, oh, why not bring it in?
- 9:52SPEAKER_00: You know, because it's a cool, it's a cool little thing.
- 9:55SPEAKER_00: It is a woody, of course it is synthetic, and we just it we thought, nice little joke.
- 10:00Don Armstrong: Uh well, all I can all I can think of, Mary, is that they surely would let you drive that.
- 10:06SPEAKER_00: Uh well, they probably would.
- 10:07SPEAKER_00: I've just never had the opportunity to.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: I see.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: But we tell people, you know, when you had a woody, Packard ex Packard advised that you would sand and varnish that every two years.
- 10:19SPEAKER_00: Now, you do it, your hired helped it.
- 10:22SPEAKER_00: If you could afford a packard, you weren't going to do it.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a packard, this is a barn find.
- 10:27SPEAKER_00: Now, just let you see, this is what happens when you don't sand and varnish it.
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: Look at the quality of the wood.
- 10:33SPEAKER_00: Now, fortunately, this was in a barn, it wasn't out in the element, but you can see unless you're keeping on top of the wood, now you're gonna wind up with problems in it.
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: But this is all the original paint, all the original wood.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: We even have, if I can show you, the original uh golf clubs and the suitcase that came with the car.
- 10:55Jeff Dziekan: Nice gimlet.
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then, you know, just something a little bit on the cute side, we have our little cross lead.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: Now, this would be a tin-woody.
- 11:05SPEAKER_00: Uh, this has about the engine's about the size of your riding lawnmower, and we like to tell people that the propeller on the front that, well, that's passing gear.
- 11:15SPEAKER_05: Passing gear.
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: And these were very popular immediately after the war because they got great gas mileage.
- 11:22SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so after when there was gas rationing, this was a very, very affordable car to have.
- 11:28SPEAKER_00: Uh, we called it a tin woody because you could get it either with a wood insert.
- 11:32SPEAKER_00: We do have this bow uh basket weave on here, but it's a cute, cute little car.
- 11:38SPEAKER_00: But now going back to World War II.
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: Uh Crossley made his first fortune.
- 11:43SPEAKER_00: He worked with Ira Cooper and they did car accessories.
- 11:46SPEAKER_00: His biggest seller was the thing that you put on the uh top of your radiator cap that had American flags on it for World War I.
- 11:54SPEAKER_00: Well, then he got into producing radios that he made his second fortune there, and during the Second World War, they were having a really hard time hitting planes out of the sky for accuracy.
- 12:06SPEAKER_00: And so there was a uh scientist who was either in Sweden or Norway, and he came up with the idea, you know, if you can set that up on a radio frequency and use that, you can probably have good success.
- 12:20SPEAKER_00: And so they came to Crosley, they asked him to put it together.
- 12:24SPEAKER_00: It was a whole top secret organization.
- 12:27SPEAKER_00: He you he would go out a lot and uh and travel, and he came into his own tracker and they weren't gonna let him in because he didn't have the security clearance.
- 12:36SPEAKER_00: Well, he developed what was called the proximity fuse, and so what they would do is they would go like to shoot something out of the sky, it would be on a radio frequency, but it didn't have to get all the way up to the target, it would explode as they got within the vicinity, and it was so much shrapnel.
- 12:54SPEAKER_00: Well, they were knocking stuff out of the sky, and then they started using it on land, and that is considered the second greatest um I shouldn't say invention, but the uh element that helped with the second world war behind the atomic bomb.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: And that was all Mr.
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: Crosley.
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a package, this is one of our Packard station wagons, and of course, you were in high cotton if you could afford something like this.
- 13:17SPEAKER_00: This is anyway.
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's it's a beautiful car.
- 13:21SPEAKER_00: Absolutely gorgeous.
- 13:23SPEAKER_00: But again, if you were buying a packard, you had money, and so you had somebody who was gonna sand and varnish this car for you every two years.
- 13:31SPEAKER_00: You weren't gonna do it.
- 13:32SPEAKER_00: But I mean, can you imagine you're driving down the street in this?
- 13:36SPEAKER_00: I mean, this just screamed money, and of course after the woodies fell out of favor, I mean they they were a novelty for a while, and then they became used cars, and of course, as people bought the used cars, they weren't keeping up with them.
- 13:52SPEAKER_00: So by the time that the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean were all singing about, you know, going to Surf City, these were like, you know, ratty used cars that were falling apart, but they were dirt cheap.
- 14:02SPEAKER_00: And so they became very popular, and then that spurned the whole idea of like, let's make Woody's collectibles.
- 14:09SPEAKER_00: They really, you know, let's get them, let's restore them.
- 14:12SPEAKER_00: And so when Winnie Creedy and Kang Rose were here last week, someone asked them, you know, well, if I want to buy one, what would be like a safe price range to stay in?
- 14:22SPEAKER_00: Because these were some of these were done for like three, you know, six figures a couple of years ago.
- 14:27SPEAKER_00: Guys, Winnie Creedy was talking about one that he paid six figures for, and his suggestion was that if you can find one, basically restore, not you know, not a project where you have to start from scratch.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: In fact, he was recommending you don't go there.
- 14:42SPEAKER_00: If you can get one for like 45 to 50,000, that's probably gonna be a safe bet where you're not gonna wind up with problems.
- 14:50SPEAKER_00: You know, it's gonna keep its value.
- 14:53Don Armstrong: Mary, how long is how long is the Woody collection on display there?
- 14:57SPEAKER_00: I think about three more months.
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: We just brought, well, no, two more months, excuse me, because we just brought in the Chrysler weather cars.
- 15:03SPEAKER_05: That's nice right there.
- 15:04SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's a pretty car.
- 15:06SPEAKER_00: Now, this was an aftermarket, this was a dealer add-ons.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: You didn't get this from the factory.
- 15:11SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is applied to the actual steel body.
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: So this was an add-on, but we've got about two and a half, maybe two and a half more months that we will have these on display.
- 15:22SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I forget what's coming in after we move this.
- 15:26Don Armstrong: Well, I gotta ask you, uh Mary, uh, because we're running out of time here, but um, you know, would it be really feasible to take a road trip headed toward you, stay in Atlanta, and then come on out 45 minutes away or 45 miles away from Atlanta up to Cartersville, Georgia, to take a tour of of the Savoy.
- 15:49SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 15:50SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 15:51SPEAKER_00: I'd love to do it.
- 15:52Don Armstrong: Okay.
- 15:53SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, yeah.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: And it's just not the Savoy.
- 15:58SPEAKER_00: If you wanted to go to the booth, we could get you to the booth, we could get you to the TALAS.
- 16:02SPEAKER_00: Uh you could see the other two museums that we are, you know, partnered with.
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, but yeah, come on up.
- 16:09SPEAKER_00: This place is this place is great.
- 16:11Don Armstrong: Is it is it Savoy Museum.com?
- 16:14SPEAKER_00: Uh well, oh no, on the on the uh web.org.org.org.
- 16:21Don Armstrong: Museum Savoymuseum.org.org.
- 16:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 16:24Don Armstrong: Okay.
- 16:24Don Armstrong: All right.
- 16:26Don Armstrong: Mary, I can't tell you how what a pleasure it is always to talk to you.
- 16:29Don Armstrong: We we we think the world of you and and the Savoy, but you do such a good job there, and uh you you deserve a raise.
- 16:37SPEAKER_00: Um can I get a copy of this so that I can give it to the powers to be able to do that?
- 16:44SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
- 16:46Don Armstrong: And we'll enhance we'll enhance it with more of the the kudos that we send your way.
- 16:51SPEAKER_00: Okay, please do that because that that will help.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: But thanks, guys.
- 16:55SPEAKER_00: It's always a lot of fun talking to you.
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's and it's always a pleasure to share the museum with people.
- 17:02Don Armstrong: And thank you so much.
- 17:03Don Armstrong: And let's stay in touch.
- 17:04Don Armstrong: And uh, you got something new coming up.
- 17:06Don Armstrong: Be sure and give us a call and we'll get you on.
- 17:08Don Armstrong: We appreciate you, Sharon.
- 17:09SPEAKER_00: Okay, talk to you soon.
- 17:11SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
- 17:11SPEAKER_05: Bye-bye.
- 17:12Don Armstrong: All right.
- 17:12Don Armstrong: Uh hey, just ahead, Jeff's Car Culture.
- 17:14Don Armstrong: And Mr.
- 17:15Don Armstrong: Mars has five scenic drives around Houston in his driving destination.
- 17:22Don Armstrong: I wonder if one of them was to come by the studio.
- 17:24Don Armstrong: Uh no way to go by.
- 17:27Don Armstrong: Yeah.
- 17:27Don Armstrong: Hey, uh, all that and more coming up on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show right after this.
- 17:32Don Armstrong: Stay with us.
- 17:33Don Armstrong: The Tex Max dining experience is defined by Loopy Tortillas, your destination for Texas's best beef tortillas and frozen margaritas.
- 17:42Don Armstrong: Since 1983, Loopy Tortillo has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients.
- 17:48Don Armstrong: That was too much part of the award-winning experience of Lupi Tortillo, all developed in a little house for Highway 6 and I found in Houston.
- 17:55Don Armstrong: What is the funny with the Loopy Tortillas when you will see the same intention of the detail of each and every looking tour?
- 18:01Don Armstrong: Start your loopy experiments with Costo Flaviano and Guacamole, along with the classic frozen margarita.
- 18:06Don Armstrong: Don't have famous loopy beef and chicken polito's or pepper chip for child, or of course your vegetarian entrepreneurs and finish with a scrumptious blonde for dessert.
- 18:15Don Armstrong: Find Loopy Tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort Worth.
- 18:20Don Armstrong: There's a textual location near you.
- 18:22Don Armstrong: The recipes are authentic and time tough.
- 18:25Don Armstrong: The ingredients always fresh.
- 18:27Don Armstrong: Loopy tortilla eats pretty good.
- 18:33Don Armstrong: Apple or Android In Wheel Time Podcast can be found everywhere on the stream and through downloads.
- 18:39Don Armstrong: Whether you're on the road or at home and searching for a fun car talk show, give In Wheel Time a try.
- 18:44Don Armstrong: Honest new car reviews, fun informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's car culture, Mike's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time.
- 18:54Don Armstrong: Check us out on SiriusXM podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music.
- 18:59Don Armstrong: In Wheeltime.com has a list, so check us out.
- 19:04Don Armstrong: Join us 10 to noon Central Time every Saturday for our live show.
- 19:09Don Armstrong: Uh where we talk about all things automotive.
- 19:12Don Armstrong: We hope you'll get a whiff, and we thank you for being with us today.
- 19:16Don Armstrong: Time now for Jeff's car culture.
- 19:18Don Armstrong: The immortality in silver, the Borg Warner Trophy.
- 19:23Jeff Dziekan: The Borg Warner Trophy, and it's been uh it's been an awesome uh thing to look at.
- 19:28Jeff Dziekan: So here we go.
- 19:30Jeff Dziekan: Uh the trophy, which has been presented in the winner's circle after every race since 1936, is very large.
- 19:35Jeff Dziekan: It's multi-tiered, and which bears the high relief sculpture and likeness of each driver that has won the race since its inception in 1911.
- 19:45Jeff Dziekan: Inscribed are the winner's name, the word of victory, and the average speed.
- 19:49Jeff Dziekan: The information is alternated with the faces in a checkerboard pattern evoking a checkered flag, including on the basis of gold likeness of Tony Holman, which is the uh owner of the NFL speedway from 1945 to 1977.
- 20:03Jeff Dziekan: Made a sterling silver mic, this trophy is just under 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 153 pounds.
- 20:09Jeff Dziekan: The trophy itself is hollow and the dome shape top is removable.
- 20:13Jeff Dziekan: There's bunch of stories about kids in the trophy before that took look online for that.
- 20:19Jeff Dziekan: From 1936 to 1985, somebody's put their weeds in there.
- 20:23Jeff Dziekan: No, they've been drinking out of it.
- 20:24Jeff Dziekan: It's like a style of cup thing, but that's another story for another dog.
- 20:27Jeff Dziekan: But the trophy stuff uh the uh trophy stuff hollow shape for 1936, okay, it's a death.
- 20:33Jeff Dziekan: On the top of the trophy is an unclothed man waving a checkered flag because the man is depicted naked after the traditional depiction of athletes of the Greek Greek art.
- 20:44Jeff Dziekan: Uh the trophy is most often photographed at an angle so that the man's arm blocks the view of the figures in genitalia.
- 20:52Jeff Dziekan: Does it have that?
- 20:53Jeff Dziekan: Genitalia.
- 20:54Jeff Dziekan: It's got that.
- 20:56Jeff Dziekan: Oh my god, okay, I have no clue.
- 20:57Jeff Dziekan: Well, there goes the automobile.
- 21:01Jeff Dziekan: This is not a stick and ball sport.
- 21:03Jeff Dziekan: Uh a base was added in 1986 to accommodate more winners similar to what has been done on the Stanley Cup.
- 21:09Jeff Dziekan: In 1991, the trophy went through a thorough restoration in 2004.
- 21:14Jeff Dziekan: The first base was removed and replaced with a new, larger base to accommodate more winners, because obviously there were out of space.
- 21:21Jeff Dziekan: Enough space is currently available on the trophy to hold winners to 2033.
- 21:26Jeff Dziekan: The actual perpetual trophy of the trophy itself is not given to the winner.
- 21:30Jeff Dziekan: It remains at the Indianapolis More Speedway in the museum.
- 21:34Jeff Dziekan: The winner winning drivers since 1988 have been presented with an 18-inch tall freestanding replica of the trophy, sitting on a beveled square base.
- 21:44Jeff Dziekan: Now the base is actually the image of the driver itself.
- 21:48Jeff Dziekan: Uh officially titled the Indianapolis 500 Cap Inch Trophy, it has been officially nicknamed the Baby Borg.
- 21:56Jeff Dziekan: The Baby Borg is typically presented the following January at the Speedway reception or sometimes at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, near the sponsor Borg Warner's headquarters.
- 22:08Jeff Dziekan: So Borg Warner's headquarters are in business.
- 22:10Jeff Dziekan: I believe so.
- 22:11Jeff Dziekan: When the winners beg uh began to be added annually after 1936, uh most of the 1970 drivers were depicted wearing open face helmets.
- 22:20Jeff Dziekan: Floyd Davis, who co-won in the 1941 race with Mari Rose, was depicted without a helmet, while Rose was depicted with one.
- 22:29Jeff Dziekan: By 1946, most were shown without their goggles.
- 22:33Jeff Dziekan: Now the Borg Warner Indianapolis Trophy winner awarded to Ray Keach in 1929, and that's what the first one looked like.
- 22:40Jeff Dziekan: So there you go.
- 22:41Don Armstrong: Wow, that's what the first one looked like.
- 22:42Don Armstrong: Doesn't look like anything that we don't see today.
- 22:46Don Armstrong: But that is the man naked with a female there?
- 22:48Don Armstrong: I don't know.
- 22:49Don Armstrong: He's got his hand back there on a derriere.
- 22:51Jeff Dziekan: It could be a Hyundai trophy, you never know.
- 22:53SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's and there we have it.
- 22:58Jeff Dziekan: That's we're gonna move on.
- 22:59Jeff Dziekan: We're gonna move on before you go.
- 23:01Don Armstrong: All right, time now for driving destinations.
- 23:03Don Armstrong: Mr.
- 23:04Don Armstrong: Mars has five scenic cruises around Houston.
- 23:06Don Armstrong: We didn't know there was one, but I guess we're gonna find out.
- 23:09Mike Marrs: Okay, Jeff.
- 23:11Mike Marrs: So there's five places.
- 23:13Mike Marrs: You know, when we talk about trying to go around Houston and the Houston area, now Houston area is a pretty big place.
- 23:18Mike Marrs: And so five of them were kind of hard to find, but we found them.
- 23:23Mike Marrs: So one of them is the Blue Water Highway Coastal Drive.
- 23:26Mike Marrs: Now, this is a runs uh coast of Houston.
- 23:29Mike Marrs: You go down towards Galveston and it runs between Galveston and Surfside Beach, actually along the coast.
- 23:35Mike Marrs: Now you see the beaches, you see the marshes, you see a lot of fishing communities, and you so you get a lot of wide open views along the coast, like you would expect to see.
- 23:45Mike Marrs: Now you of course you can get up and go early morning and catch the sunrise or stay late and catch the sunset.
- 23:50Mike Marrs: So it's it's a pretty nice, relaxing escape drive.
- 23:54Mike Marrs: Uh even City Hall here, depicted here, is is on pilings and uh stuff the pier in Galveston where you can go and play and have lots of fun with the kids.
- 24:05Mike Marrs: Now the other thing that we wanted to talk about is FM 149 that goes up through Sam Houston National Forest.
- 24:12Mike Marrs: Now, there's it's kind of a drive, it goes in between the trees.
- 24:18Mike Marrs: There's actually three counties that this route goes across.
- 24:21Mike Marrs: And so you get in, you go up through New Waverly and you go up through Montgomery in the spring and fall, you're gonna get all the colorful uh leaves in the spring, and the weather changes, and you're gonna get the wildlife sightings that are year-round, you're gonna see uh small animals, and you're not gonna see a whole lot of city traffic because a lot of people to go out on these back roads, they don't want to see that, and so you're looking for fresh air and getting away from the traffic.
- 24:45Mike Marrs: The other one that a lot of people are a little more familiar with is the Bolivar Peninsula ferry route.
- 24:51Mike Marrs: Now, this is a drive across the Bolivar Peninsula, so you can start either on the Galveston or you can start up towards Beaumont or actually uh High Island, and you get on the ferry, it's a free ferry ride that goes across from Port Bolivar to Galveston or vice versa.
- 25:09Mike Marrs: And if you're starting in Galveston, you get on the ferry, you go across.
- 25:12Mike Marrs: It's about a 30-minute ride.
- 25:14Mike Marrs: You can see dolphins depending on the weather.
- 25:16Mike Marrs: You see the bay.
- 25:17Mike Marrs: Sometimes you get caught out there waiting on a ship to go up the ship channel into the port of Houston.
- 25:23Mike Marrs: But once you get over on the Bolivar Peninsula, you've got uh a lot of scenic area there.
- 25:29Mike Marrs: You've got a fort that was part of goes all the way back to World War I, part of the fortification there when they thought we were going to get invaded.
- 25:36Mike Marrs: And uh you can tour that, but you can also go up a little bit further, you can actually drive on this beach.
- 25:41Mike Marrs: It's it's considered a highway one.
- 25:43Mike Marrs: There are road restrictions, there's a speed limit and everything else, but you can drive on it.
- 25:48Mike Marrs: Just be careful of the soft sand and don't get stuck.
- 25:51Mike Marrs: Then, whenever you go from there, you go on up to the Texas Independence Trail towards Washington on the Brazos.
- 25:58Mike Marrs: Now, this is one of six trails that are actually built that was created, uh, not only declared because of the independence of you know, Texas independence in 1836, but because of the World's Fair in 68, the Heritage Society built these different trails that kind of came into the World's Fair, and now they've kept them up.
- 26:20Mike Marrs: And so this kind of goes up through the farmlands, you got Blue Bonnet Fields in spring, and you got go up through Brenham and Chapel Hill, the historic homes, antique shops.
- 26:28Mike Marrs: There's a lot of things to go up and see up there through the springtime part of uh the seasons.
- 26:34Mike Marrs: Now, from there, you can actually take the San Jacin River and Lake Houston loop.
- 26:40Mike Marrs: Now, a lot of people in Houston are gonna be a little more familiar with this.
- 26:43Mike Marrs: I was aware of Lake Houston, and I've crossed that bridge that goes across it several times, but I wasn't aware of exactly how big it is as we kind of got it depicted here.
- 26:52Mike Marrs: So if you're gonna try and go running through this, you're gonna cross over the San Jacino River that feeds down from Gal uh Conroe, and uh you're gonna pass through Umbull, Hoffman, Crosby.
- 27:03Mike Marrs: You got lots of water views, lots of little towns, and it's uh it's a pretty big drive to go all the way around this lake, and it's pretty scenic, but it's right outside of Houston.
- 27:13Mike Marrs: So that's that's five places that you can go and take you a nice scenic drive without having to go spit half a day to get there.
- 27:20Don Armstrong: So, what what are you gonna do next weekend to top this?
- 27:25Mike Marrs: Um I I I'm work on it.
- 27:29Mike Marrs: You've been thinking of speakeasy lately.
- 27:31Jeff Dziekan: Thinking of it.
- 27:32Jeff Dziekan: He's trying to put you on a spot, Mike.
- 27:34Mike Marrs: Oh, I know he is, but I've got one for the speakeasies.
- 27:36Mike Marrs: I'm saving.
- 27:37Mike Marrs: I was saving for a little bit longer.
- 27:39Don Armstrong: Why would you save that?
- 27:40Don Armstrong: Well, trying to do it.
- 27:41Mike Marrs: Summer's coming, trying to get some of the family things in that the family and stuff can do because you're not going to take the kids to the speakeasy very many times.
- 27:48Jeff Dziekan: Oh, contrary.
- 27:49Mike Marrs: Before you lose custody.
- 27:52Don Armstrong: There's that.
- 27:53Don Armstrong: Yeah, yeah, and you know, breweries are becoming fewer and fewer these days.
- 27:57Don Armstrong: So you want to might want to grab a tour of that before they all go away.
- 28:01Jeff Dziekan: You know, the breweries, the breweries are now kind of kid friendly because they've got all the games for the kids.
- 28:05Jeff Dziekan: They've got pickleball, they've got the cornhole, they've got all kinds of we want to work.
- 28:09Jeff Dziekan: The one thing that they don't have?
- 28:11Jeff Dziekan: Slits.
- 28:11Jeff Dziekan: No, no more slits.
- 28:12Jeff Dziekan: Uh that's a good thing.
- 28:14Don Armstrong: If you slits hit the fan, I'm telling you.
- 28:15Don Armstrong: Hey, time to take a break.
- 28:16Don Armstrong: In-wheel time car talk show continues right after this.
- 28:19Don Armstrong: Stay with us.
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- 29:53Don Armstrong: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
- 29:56Don 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.
- 30:06Don Armstrong: Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music.
- 30:15Don Armstrong: Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.