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Ted Talks with Tory Alonzo · That Car Show

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Everyone from Ted Bundy to, you know, billionaires drove that
0:02
car. Right, I tried to buy that car.
0:04
Oh, stop. As of course you did.
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I tried to buy that car, I got out bid on it and it went to a
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crime museum. I think it's in Gatlinburg, TN
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or. Pigeon OK, tonight on that car
0:16
show we've got friend of the show Tori Alonzo, and we talk
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about a little bit of everything really.
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Movie cars, Yugos, Breaking Bad, Volkswagens, manual SUV, Dodge
0:29
Neons and even Ted Bundy. Stay tuned.
0:33
It's that car show. That car show is brought to you
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by Sheffield Watches. Sheffield is the storied
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Sheffield offers a wide selection of watches, many
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inspired by the iconic designs of its 1960s dive models, most
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Order your Sheffield watch at sheffieldwatches.com, give them
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1:20
Hey, it's that car show. And if you are watching on
1:24
video, you are realizing you never know quite what you're
1:27
going to get when you tune into that car show.
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But Lindsay's here, I'm here, Dan is out doing amazing things.
1:35
Michael is as well. But we do have a really neat guy
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and a guy that I'm excited to talk with, and that's Tori
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Alonzo Tori. Tori happens to be Lindsay's
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fancy, but has an incredible car history of his own.
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And I think it's why you know, or how you two met.
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And just really glad to have you, Tori.
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It's good to see you. Well, thanks guys.
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I appreciate you guys having me on.
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Yeah, it's going to be fun. We're kind of doing this one in
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a pinch because I'm off to the Colorado Grand this week and so
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I'll be out of sell range and all that other wonderful stuff
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that comes along with being on the on the grand and what we'll
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talk about the grand a little bit.
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The car list guys, this year is just fantastic.
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Each year's just better than the last.
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It's, you know, and, and the people too, you know, it is like
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all the car people that you'd ever want to see.
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Yeah. I, I told someone it was like
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the Bohemian Grove of, uh, of car gatherings.
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And then I realized there probably some negative
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connotations. Nobody.
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'S getting naked without. I think we're good, right?
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You're already ahead. Of the game but it's no it's
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it's going to be great but just some wonderful people some
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wonderful cars and it looks like the weather is going to be
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fantastic as as well but before we get any further to I just
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want to say thank you I just want to say Sasha to thank you I
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just want to say thank you to Sasha Solepinov who was on I
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realized I pronounced his last name three different ways on the
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episode that. Keeps it exciting, right?
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Keeps it exciting. He, what a hell of a guy.
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That guy is so talented. You know I think he's just
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getting started with what he's doing he's so modest the cars
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that he's designed, including the Bugatti Chiron and you know
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all this other stuff and you know he's got this amazing Neelu
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27 car that is just guys hot VV twelve 1070 horsepower goes to
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11. If you didn't get the get the
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the connection there in the final tap, Yeah, he's also a big
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heavy metal guy too, so he appreciated that.
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But it's a hell of a thing. And like I said in the.
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It was a really good episode. We watched it and I learned so
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much and I thought you just did a phenomenal job.
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Thank you. You know, so the team thanks
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you, obviously. Thank you.
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He made it. He made it easy.
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He made it easy. He's just, I mean, I, I could
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have talked with him for another couple of hours truly and he was
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very accommodating and hopefully, yeah, him on again.
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And, and so Tori, I, you are a Volkswagen guy that's kind of
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just scratching the surface. Yeah, first and foremost, I've
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always been to old VW's. That's kind of what sparked my
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whole car journey, I guess he would call it.
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But a lot of Porsche guys got their start with Volkswagens as
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well. So my journey is not unlike a
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lot of other people that I encounter any given day.
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But yeah, that's that's kind of what got me into Volkswagens
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originally was the first movie I ever saw as a kid was Herbie
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Goes Bananas in the. Theater.
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And it was kind of over for me after that.
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So I've I've always been into Volkswagens.
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I always loved Beetles and, you know, every now and then I'll
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like, branch off into something weird.
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Like I had a Yugo phase for a while.
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I had a phase where I was buying Mitsubishi Starians for a while.
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Like I've, I've gotten into weird things, but I always come
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back to Volkswagen and Porsche. Yeah.
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Would you go? Up the tree every so long but
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you also come back. Is a conquest TSI too far from
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the tree or? No, I, you know, I, I was open
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to a conquest TSI too, but I never could.
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I, it was for whatever reason, when I was living in Orlando, it
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was way easier to find Mitsubishi star in.
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Yeah. Interesting quests.
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Interesting, interesting. Well, a little context here.
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So you know, we've been doing the show with Lindsay now for
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this is the 25th episode. So that's got to be some sort of
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hey, we could each other stainless steel or something.
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I I don't know, but but yeah, that's, that's half a year,
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right, Which is, which is something or close to it.
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And, and somewhere along the line in obviously Lindsay, I've
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known you for, for, you know. Several years at.
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This point beyond, you know, the show, but yeah, we heard about
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this fiance and and we finally got to meet the fiance and then
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we discovered it was Tori and hell of a guy.
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We all got along famously but I didn't appreciate this like
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amazing car history that Tori has not just as a a car guy and
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A and a wrench and a collector, but just the people he knows.
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And I mean, you know, Tori's very well known not just in the
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Volkswagen community, but really just in the car community in
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general. And it's how you 2 first met.
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And I won't ask you to tell that whole story, but it's kind of
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amazing that we're just getting Tori on the show now because
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Tori, you, I guess one of the things I was impressed with, not
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just your Volkswagen history, but you've had some amazing
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movie cars, right? I think you bring this back to
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Herbie. I'll let you take it from right.
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It does, yeah. So, so obviously it's, it's
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funny. What sort of what you're into as
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a kid I think comes out later in life, you know, when you're able
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to actually afford it. And the thing that obviously got
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me into cars originally was Herbie.
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And so I always wanted to find out what happened to these
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original Herbie movie cars, because they made quite a few of
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them over the years. And So what I would do, my move
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was always to track down the people that had worked on the
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films. Special effects guys are a
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wealth of information and they usually know what happened to
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the cars. So I started tracking down the
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special effects guys and I found out that there was.
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The first cars that I found were in a junkyard in California
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north of LA. And it was a guy that did a lot
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of stuff with productions, commercials, movies, you name
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it. You know, he was the guy was
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known as the, it was the Jackknife King is what this guy
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was known as. It was.
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His name's George Sack. What does that mean?
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Any so anytime you see an 18 Wheeler jackknife thing in a
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movie, he was the guy that they brought in.
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And it was going to cut you or he was the one.
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Actually driving the 18 Wheeler and he would jackknife and, you
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know, slide over a car or whatever it was if it was an 18
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Wheeler and then he had stunt, stunt.
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George Sack was your guy. No kidding.
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So he was the guy that had initially bought, I think like
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four or five of the original Herbies after Herbie goes
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Bananas wrapped, and they just sat in his junkyard and nobody
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had ever really done anything with him.
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Another friend of mine who's in the movie car world named Scott
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Velvet, he, he owns a museum in Branson, MO.
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He's got literally everything like.
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You got seen this guy. Earlier, yeah.
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Yeah, he's amazing, This guy on television.
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Yeah, he's amazing. And and he, that's where I got
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the car from Better Call Saul. Like he had the Suzuki Esteem
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from Better Call Saul. I went and, you know, made a
8:01
deal for that car. But back to the Herbies.
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So Scott ended up buying all of these cars and nobody had wanted
8:08
to mess with them. And I was like, you know, I'd
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rather have a really rough original than a really nice
8:15
replica, which is what I had at the time.
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So I proposed let me trade my replica for this car that needs
8:20
I have to start completely over again, but it'll be the real
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thing when I'm done with. It and the replica is good
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enough for Branson right in those crowds.
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Right. Not for me, though.
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Yeah, but it's weird, you know, I've never been a casual sort of
8:33
observer. Like I can't watch a movie and
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then just be fine with owning the DVD.
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Like I have to know what happened to the.
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Cars like, you know, same. Thing happened with Better Call
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Saul. You know, I was like, oh, I
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wonder what happened to the Suzuki's theme from that show.
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And then of course I tracked it down and all roads lead to Scott
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Velvet because he owns so many of these movie and television
8:51
cars that he happened to have that car.
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But yeah, it's weird. Over the years, I've just, I've
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been, I've had a knack for tracking down original movie
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cars. And you know, I got involved
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with the cars from Ford V Ferrari after that movie had
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wrapped. Just by a chance meeting, I was
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connected to a guy named Billy Stabile, who was the picture car
9:10
coordinator for Ford V Ferrari. Long story short, he had signed
9:14
all of this paperwork saying that he could not advertise the
9:17
cars as having been used in Ford V Ferrari.
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Oh wow. Like he was charged with selling
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them but couldn't mention that they had been connector to the
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movie. Right.
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And, and a lot of that, you know, things have changed a lot
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like back in even as early as 20 years ago, you know, you could
9:32
get a movie car fairly easily. Now the studios, because of
9:36
lawsuits and everything else, they, they've become really hard
9:39
to get unless, you know, somebody on the inside just for,
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you know, if someone goes out and wraps one of these cars
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around a tree and kills somebody, they're afraid that
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people are going to come back and sue the studios saying, Hey,
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this car should have never been put on the street.
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And a lot of these cars don't have Vins and you know, they,
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they do it that way. But I mean, as we all know, Vins
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can be procured. And the next thing you know,
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this car that you have a VIN is now on the street that you know,
10:04
cars in in Malibu. Sure.
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Interesting, Interesting. Car doesn't exist.
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Which is really strange, but so yeah, I got to sell a lot of the
10:11
cars from Ford V Ferrari. And then I ended up making a
10:14
deal with him for one of the Porsche 906 is.
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And so I had the 906 for a while and it was cool because it still
10:21
allowed me to tinker with it. Like I'm such a perfectionist in
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OCD with details that like the fact that on in the movie they
10:27
had like a Chevy lug pattern on the wheels just drove me crazy.
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Like God. Yes.
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So you know, I don't. Unsee it.
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Yeah, yeah. Oh, and once you see this stuff,
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you can't you can't didn't see it.
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So of course I had to have like a legit set of like Carrera 6
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wheels made in the right, you know, widths and and I love that
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part of it. You know, I, yeah, I, I wish I
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could have been involved with the film when they were doing
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it. They, I know they went over
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budget on their film Cars and and that happens a lot of times.
10:56
So there's always this tightrope to walk of authenticity and
11:01
cost. Getting it done and.
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You know, in their eyes, it's like, well, this car is always
11:05
going to be driving. We're not going to really see it
11:07
parked. So no one's going to really
11:09
notice that unless you're like, you know, got a magnifying glass
11:13
on, Yeah. Sure.
11:14
Screen you know grab of the of the film but.
11:17
But I notice it and it nothing drives me nuts more than
11:20
watching some something, I don't know, like a period piece, if
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you want to call it like Boogie Nights or something set in an
11:25
era that's very much of that era.
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And then you see a car that's like 10 years too new, even just
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parked in the street. Or it's got modern tires on it
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that drives me. Crazy.
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Totally. Yeah, they're.
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Brand new. Because you can't not see it,
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yeah. Yeah, no, that's it.
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And movies are weird too, right? Because we get so emotionally
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attached. But the movie business is a
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business. And at the end of the day, I'm
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sure for all these reasons you describe, these cars just get
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chucked. And but we have a connection in
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some movies, you know, the car casting is so good too, right?
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Like some movies just get it right.
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I think like Wes Anderson does a great job of putting the right
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movies in the right, you know, or the right cars in the right
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movies and that kind of thing. But but there's obviously this
12:07
whole subculture that exists, which I've never considered,
12:10
right? And, and to your point, you
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can't just, you don't just find these cars for sale.
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You've got to know the right person.
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You know, there's this, you know, there's this, the scene.
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And and so absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So what excels? Go ahead.
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Yeah, tracking. He excels at tracking these cars
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down. I was going to say he should
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tell us what his daily driver was in Albuquerque up until very
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recently. So in Albuquerque.
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In Albuquerque I was like what? What is a cooler car to have
12:34
than a Pontiac Aztec? And I found one on marketplace
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like it was just the most chance thing.
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I just happened to log on and it used to do the Breaking Bad RV
12:45
tour in Albuquerque and the guy for whatever reason something
12:49
happened to it. The owner of the Breaking Bad RV
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Tour, he had to do like a, an insurance claim on it because
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someone had shattered the windshield and he just didn't
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have the money to fix it. And so the car got auctioned
13:01
off. Someone bought it to flip it and
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then I ended up buying it off of Marketplace and that was my
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like, that was the most dependable car I think I've ever
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owned. Ironically, I drove that car for
13:11
like over a year in Albuquerque. Really, it was a fantastic car.
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I hauled all kinds of stuff in it, motors, you name it, it was.
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It was the most handy car. It's ugly as sin, but it was a
13:21
great car. Like I never had any trouble out
13:24
of it and, and when I, when I left, I didn't really need it up
13:27
here because I'd bought the GT4 and I was like, what am I going
13:30
to do with an Aztec in Seattle? And.
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You're the only guy in the world that owns AGT 4 and an Aztec.
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And and I still miss our solution.
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Like. That's the sad thing.
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I was like, I still find myself up here in Seattle now that I
13:41
live here going, wow, I kind of wish I hadn't sold that Aztec
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because it's. Such a like chill.
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Car to drive, you don't have to worry about someone putting a
13:49
dorting in it. Like who cares?
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But way ahead of its time, wasn't it?
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I mean, it had a tent that plug onto the rear end, right?
13:56
And I saw that 10 years later with other brands, right?
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I mean, that would be if that thing came out today, it would
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be like the Overlanders, you know, favorite car.
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I think it's just. It totally would be.
14:07
But it did suffer a little bit from that era of, like, Pontiac
14:10
plastic, like those funky angular dashes and, you know, I
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mean, yeah. Did it have a graphic equalizer?
14:17
I can't remember. No that mine did not.
14:19
Some of the trim ones did. I mean they had an all-wheel
14:22
drive version that was like called the rally that was
14:24
all-wheel drive. Mine was just kind of like the
14:26
base model. It was OK.
14:27
See I just assumed they were all all-wheel drive.
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I didn't know that. No, not all of them.
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Mine was mine was just two wheel drive.
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It was just the basic one, but it was it was such a great car.
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I honestly miss it. I I love crappy cars.
14:40
I mean, I went through, I think I told you earlier that I went
14:42
through this phase where I was like doing Yugos.
14:45
I was in a documentary about Yugos.
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Like we were trying to make it about the last Yugos to be
14:49
imported into the US and they were doing this extravagant road
14:53
trip all over Europe. And then they were going to
14:55
bring the car over to the US where I would take delivery
14:59
because I bought the car. Amazing.
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And after it's been beat to shit, you're going to take
15:03
delivery, right? Is that how this works?
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What's funny is it was, it was like the nicest Yugo I've ever
15:09
seen. And it was a, it was a Zostava
15:11
like we were called. They were called the Yugos over
15:13
here. But over there the the model
15:15
name was the Zostava. You go Zostava here.
15:18
I mean, that's that's a much more exciting name.
15:20
What's funny is they make guns now like, it's like a gun
15:23
factory like. You can get guns then too, and
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that's why they didn't name them that right?
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To be honest, I did not see that coming.
15:29
Jack of all trades here, but, and it was a great car.
15:32
I drove it for a long time. It ended up with a you go
15:35
collector in Ohio. There's always another guy
15:38
that's into him. Yeah.
15:40
First inspired you because, I mean, you're a little younger
15:43
than me, but I think you're old enough to remember.
15:44
Like when those were advertised on TV, they were 3995, I believe
15:48
the number was right. It's something really, really
15:50
cheap like that. But I mean, did you, what made
15:53
you lust for one? I mean, was it those sensuous,
15:56
you know, curves? What was it the I mean, for me
15:59
it was the speed, like just, you know.
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Just the 0 and 16 being. Able to like.
16:04
Pull Lamborghini. And just pull them by so many
16:07
car links, you know, right out of the gate.
16:09
I think that's more what did it. No, I've always loved the
16:11
underdog. I've always been into the
16:13
underdog and I. Think it goes back.
16:15
To Herbie, you know, you've got this little unassuming car that
16:17
everybody talks trash about. And it's like, is that really
16:21
true though? Like is it, is it really that
16:23
bad of a car? And I'm really good friends with
16:25
Jason Torchinski. He used to write for Jalopnik.
16:27
Now he's with the Australian and he had a Yugo as well.
16:30
So we used to help each other out with Yugo stuff.
16:32
And I think he kind of likes the crappy cars as well.
16:35
So we've always kind of bonded over that.
16:38
Yeah. But it was a great car.
16:39
I mean, again, one of the more dependable cars I've ever owned,
16:42
yeah. Interesting.
16:43
I had a Porsche 928 that was my airport car for a long time, and
16:46
that was one of the least dependable cars I've ever owned.
16:49
And it was a really nice car, and it'd be worth a lot more now
16:52
than when I sold it back in the mid 2000s.
16:54
But, you know, that was a car that I'd lusted over since I was
16:57
a kid from Risky Business days. Oh.
17:00
Yeah, and now? It's totally never meet your
17:02
heroes kind of a car because I I would never own one of those
17:05
cars again. I'm sure they're great if you
17:06
have the money to maintain it properly and if it's, you know,
17:09
you rarely drive it, but what a let down.
17:12
I mean, you have it built up in your mind that this car is going
17:14
to be so fast and so amazing, and it was none of those things.
17:18
It was correct. No, it's it's the one Porsche of
17:20
people say no, the automatic is the one you want, right?
17:23
Yeah, no, I had the manual. I even had the manual.
17:26
I was a 928 S guards red with the camel leather interior,
17:31
manual 5 speed. I was so excited.
17:33
It was like the car I wanted and.
17:36
You even had the right color and even that wasn't enough.
17:38
Yeah. Well, So what?
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OK, talk a little bit about what it was like driving the Aztec in
17:44
Albuquerque. Like.
17:45
Because share what you did with the wheels.
17:49
Yeah. So here's what's funny is.
17:51
They didn't get stolen, I'm sorry.
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I know, right? Amazing, hard to believe.
17:56
Well, the car blended in so well.
17:57
That's what was great about the Aztec is I never had to worry
18:00
about anything with it because it was just it kind of blended
18:03
in with the whole idea of Albuquerque.
18:06
And I'm sorry for anyone that listens.
18:08
It's from the Albuquerque. But they will probably.
18:10
They're probably shaking their head yes right now.
18:12
It's its own vibe. Hey, we've already dumped on San
18:14
Bernardino, Albuquerque, you know, Exactly.
18:16
You're next. So Albuquerque tourism industry,
18:19
Yeah, sorry, but. Go for the balloon festival and
18:22
then. Yeah, but what's funny about the
18:24
pastor is when I'd gotten it, the guy had switched the wheels
18:27
around and I was like, well that's kind of weird.
18:29
Like there was like 1 corner had a 17 inch wheel, the other three
18:32
were sixteens. And I was like that's strange.
18:34
So what I figured out had happened was he didn't realize
18:37
that one of the black Steely's was on that car for reason
18:41
because in Breaking Bad he had a spare on in one of the it's the
18:46
I think it was the back driver side.
18:48
And so he had found he'd gone to a junkyard and bought just a 17
18:51
inch Pontiac wheel and put it on and called it goods.
18:53
So I went on eBay and bought like another Steely and OK, new
18:57
tires managed. So everything matched and and
18:59
whatever else. But yeah, it's it's funny and
19:01
ironically, like when I left Albuquerque to move here with
19:04
this one, I ended up selling it back to the guy that does the RV
19:08
tour. And so now, like he will shuttle
19:11
celebrities from Breaking Bad that come back to Albuquerque to
19:14
do the tour in the. That's amazing I got to do that.
19:18
I mean 7 hours from Albuquerque here in Denver.
19:22
Right, you got to go do it. It's cool.
19:24
I mean, I wouldn't go at night. A little too realistic.
19:28
Tour or in general? I think in general I just
19:31
wouldn't go at night, yeah. Well, in the so the Aztec that
19:34
you had Walter White's care like Bryan Cranston didn't drive that
19:38
one, but it was used in the show.
19:40
No my the Esteem was used in the show, the Aztec was used in the
19:45
RV tour and like for promotional stuff.
19:49
Got it. And the esteem is.
19:51
Carrying the Esteem is real. The Esteem was a car that they
19:54
actually pushed off a Cliff and that was, that was like a
19:58
challenge for me because I love the tinkering aspect.
20:01
Like once everything's good and sorted then I kind of lose
20:04
interest in it, right? But it had been pushed off a
20:07
Cliff, this guy. Literally got.
20:08
Pushed. That's the one that he owns.
20:10
Yeah. And so this part was in the
20:12
show. It was most prominently featured
20:14
in an episode called The Bagman, which was one of the highest
20:18
rated episodes. Yeah, that's.
20:20
Amazing. But they literally took it out
20:22
to like the middle of the desert and pushed it off a Cliff in
20:25
this show. And I was like, wonder if this
20:27
would run And I it's a shame I don't have more time on my hands
20:31
because that would have made a killer YouTube, you know, will
20:34
it run like, I mean who he built his channel on stuff like that.
20:38
True. That's Mariel Baron and see if
20:40
it'll start in a year. You know I had.
20:42
Who He's got a goal now, so. There's exactly it.
20:44
Kind of. That's why I don't have a call
20:45
with Brian, you know, because I'm not smart enough to do stuff
20:48
like this. But I mean, but yeah, it was a,
20:51
it was a challenge. Like it was, you know, the car
20:53
was full of like sand and rocks. And I mean, it was literally
20:56
like excavating a car. You could have like, I don't
21:00
know, packaged that sand. Don't.
21:02
Don't think I had. I did not do that.
21:04
Like I have not sold any yet, but I I took them and put them
21:07
in Tupperware because I know that there's enough people out
21:09
there that would probably want. Absolutely so.
21:11
Yeah, I do have, I do have genuine sand from the esteem
21:15
from Tahajali. Yeah, say.
21:18
What? That show?
21:20
Yeah. The roof has caved in and he
21:22
drove it that way. Yeah, yeah.
21:24
So, so, so you can't spoiler alert, I did end up getting the
21:27
car running. It took a while.
21:28
I had to put like a new, I put a new timing belt on it.
21:31
I went to the fuel system I had. I had to put all new fluids in
21:34
because they drained everything because of the EPA.
21:37
It was on Indian Reservation land.
21:39
I later found out and they're like, yeah, you can dump this
21:42
car here, but you have to take all the fluids out.
21:44
So the radiator was drained and it was all corroded.
21:47
So I'd replace that. So Long story short, I spent way
21:50
more money on an Esteem than I should have, but it was worth it
21:54
driving it from where I'd worked on it to the museum, which is
21:58
called the Wheels Museum in Albuquerque, which that's where
22:01
I left it on loan so people can actually go see it.
22:04
And now all these people that do the RV tour, that's one of the
22:07
stops now. To go check out, it's amazing.
22:09
We should probably qualify what a Suzuki Esteem is because I bet
22:12
there are more than a few people listening have no idea what this
22:15
car is. It was kind of a, what you call
22:17
it, a Honda Civic, sort of fighter of its day.
22:20
Tiny little thing. Probably so really small, yeah,
22:23
I would say probably competed more with like a Geo if Geo was.
22:27
That's right it. Was a 98 that it was a way more
22:30
part than what people realized it was a 1998 Suzuki esteem.
22:33
They didn't make them for very long, no possible to find parts
22:36
for. But I love a challenge so yeah,
22:38
why not the? Swift was the hatchback, the
22:40
Esteem was the sedan or the coupe, Right, Correct.
22:43
Yeah, and it's the same motor I found out that they used to put
22:46
in like Geo trackers. There you go, Suzuki sidekicks.
22:50
So you can get engine parts but body parts?
22:53
Forget about it. I bought a whole other Esteem
22:55
just to use like plastic parts off of.
22:58
Oh that's right. And it got crushed when I left
23:00
Albuquerque, I felt so bad. This was the genre or the this
23:03
computer, Yeah, like you said with some of these other cars
23:05
and like the the Ford Aspire ironically had like, you know,
23:09
or had the most ironic names of, you know, all the the car
23:11
classes. My sister had one in college
23:13
that was her college car. No kidding.
23:15
Yeah. That really looked like an
23:16
Easter egg. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:18
Shoot. Well, yeah, the.
23:20
Parts car was uh, he forgot he even had the parts.
23:23
I've forgotten. About it.
23:24
Where are you hiding all this stuff?
23:26
You have a barn. That's what's in Albuquerque.
23:29
And still my brother-in-law has a laboratory there, and he had
23:32
this kind of bullpen on the side, and I didn't even realize
23:35
until I was about to move. Like, Oh my gosh, I still have
23:37
to get rid of this esteem. I'm sorry, have a.
23:38
Car there? Rewind 5 seconds.
23:40
Your brother's in the ABQ and has a lab.
23:43
Tell us about this. Lab.
23:44
I know, right? It's not.
23:45
It's not what you think. He doesn't cook math.
23:47
He goes by. Heisenberg, it's he used to be a
23:50
science teacher now. He's turned, yeah.
23:55
No, it's super fun. It's like an environmental lab.
23:57
So OK, nothing fun. Not as fun as the.
24:01
Most pure math that comes And then he met a he met a dropout
24:04
student who approached him one day and said, I've got an idea.
24:07
Yeah. Wow, that's amazing.
24:09
This. Story before.
24:11
Probably not. You get royalties, your brother
24:13
get royalties each month. Nice big fat check.
24:16
Speaking of royalties, you're really plugged into like the
24:19
California scene. I mean, I every time I talk with
24:22
you, you surprise me about something like you have a
24:24
podcast or many podcast like what?
24:26
What's I do? Podcast sometimes well, I'm I'm
24:29
like a frequent you probably call me more of a frequent guest
24:32
than like a Co host because we have a lot of guests.
24:34
So it becomes a little tumultuous to you know, have so
24:39
many, you know, like when you guys do a guest show, you know,
24:41
who am I talking to here? So, but it's called Let's Talk
24:45
Dubs and it's about mostly air cooled Volkswagens.
24:48
So I deal with a guy named Bill Sigrinos in Las Vegas, really
24:52
good friend of mine who's tuned into the VW world and he's as
24:57
interested in the history and preserving the history of the
25:00
VWC in his eye. That's always sort of what has
25:04
driven my passion is getting the story behind the story.
25:09
And where did all of these cars come from?
25:10
What happened to these cars? Like right now, our big rabbit
25:13
hole is 80s custom cars, right? Like the Radwood era.
25:17
But like in Socal, the Volkswagen scene in the 80s was
25:21
unlike anything anyone's ever seen.
25:23
I mean, there were 10s of thousands of people that would
25:26
attend these shows in Orange County.
25:28
And all these cars were, you know, painted in pastels and
25:31
pink and purple graphics and just this crazy time.
25:35
And, and we don't have that more in the VW scene now.
25:38
Everything is very structured and very much like the Porsche
25:41
scene. Like if you try to go outside
25:43
of, you know, how the car came from the factory or you use a
25:46
non factory color, you're ousted.
25:48
You have to go park over there, you know.
25:50
And so Bill and I are like really interested in finding out
25:54
what happened to these old cars, bringing back some of that
25:57
creativity to the Volkswagen scene.
25:59
And with the popularity of Radwood, you know, I think
26:02
there's a lot of people that that grew up in that era that
26:06
now have the money to build those cars that were in the
26:08
magazines that maybe, you know, I was 1213 years old back in the
26:12
80s, and I didn't have that kind of money.
26:13
But, you know, now that now that we all have jobs and most of the
26:17
people that have had kids, their kids are kind of going off to
26:19
college, you know, they've got a little time and money to do
26:22
something like that. So that's what a lot of us are
26:24
doing now. Yeah, obviously there's this
26:27
Porsche parallel and you know, hell.
26:29
Thursday I spent my day down at the 356 Registry annual
26:33
gathering down at Porsche of Colorado Springs and that was
26:36
amazing. I'd never seen 203 Fifty Sixes
26:39
together. So it was funny like, like, not
26:41
to not to interrupt, but a friend of mine that I know from
26:43
Ohio, the car that they restored, one best of show
26:46
there. It was a little kiddingster.
26:47
Yeah. His name's Pete Jackson.
26:49
Fantastic. Yeah, he owns Pete's custom
26:51
coach building. No kidding.
26:52
Done work on my cars before. Yeah, he actually his.
26:55
It was that car that he had restored, that one best of show
26:57
for. That that's that's awesome.
26:58
Unfortunately, they did a great day with their for their
27:01
Concorde. But, but I guess my point is
27:03
like those cars are expensive now.
27:05
Used to even 10 years ago, you could get a cheap 356 and you
27:09
know, a good 356 now is, is 80 or 100,000, right?
27:13
It only goes up from there if you want something like
27:14
Speedster or Continental or, you know, all this.
27:16
So yeah, I think that's just, I think those Volkswagens are
27:19
really primed right for, you know, a big blow up.
27:22
I, I, you know, if they're, if they haven't already, you know,
27:25
it's just I wanted nothing more than like a GTI when I was
27:28
younger, right? Like, and, but, but I grew up
27:30
with like the diesel dashers and the Volk in the and Fox Nabbit.
27:34
Yeah. Rocco's, yeah.
27:36
My sister had a fox, you know, made in Brazil.
27:38
It had like 40 lbs of undercoating for like jungle
27:40
conditions or whatever, you know, I mean, it was a hell of a
27:42
thing, was a tank. So I think there are a lot of us
27:45
that have good, good memories about those cars, right?
27:48
Absolutely everybody's got a Volkswagen.
27:50
Story. Whether it's air cooled or water
27:52
cooled or you know, you mentioned Rod Emery like his his
27:56
father built the first Baja Bug that ever was created and
28:00
Volkswagen ended up using that in one of their advertising
28:03
campaigns. They had a print ad with Gary
28:05
Emery's Baja on it that said is nothing sacred, which is
28:08
hilarious and all. Fantastic.
28:11
Yeah, yes, I've seen that ad. I had no idea that that was
28:14
that. Was Gary Emery's car?
28:16
Yep. Just as you mentioned, passed
28:17
away about a week ago and and I actually saw Rod at the show and
28:22
and and his lovely wife and and one of his lead guys from the
28:25
shop named Chris, who I got to spend some time with and just
28:28
genuinely nice people. And Rod, I think was the the
28:33
keynote speaker at the event. I wasn't around for that, but
28:37
Rod will actually be coming with us on the grand.
28:39
He was there in part to deliver a car, an Emery coupe to Tom
28:44
Horan, who's the chair of of the Colorado Grand.
28:46
So we got this beautiful Aston Martin green.
28:49
You know, I don't think it had ever been done before.
28:52
And Tom and Rod are going to drive that car in the in the
28:54
grand. And so I'm very excited to see
28:56
it on the road. And I think it just got painted
28:58
about two weeks ago, something Rod, despite all that was going
29:01
on in his life, you know, was able to get this car together in
29:04
time for the grand, which is pretty amazing.
29:06
It's a gorgeous, gorgeous thing was amazing seeing all those 356
29:10
is together as as well because they made 3356 is for a long
29:14
time. I don't know was it. 1950 to
29:17
1965. South Yeah 15.
29:20
Years don't know. Somebody that knows that I'm.
29:27
Shocked and I still want one I want one more than ever after I
29:29
saw those and when you see all of them together from very early
29:31
cars to very late cars and all these iterations and you see all
29:34
the little like year to year changes you know the little
29:36
things the headlights the bumpers right the you know the
29:39
trim pieces this kind of thing, the tail lights and and I've
29:42
never been a patina car guy ever never wanted a never wanted
29:45
patina. I'm so against like that fake
29:47
patina and all that, but there was some 356's there that just
29:51
looks so good. They look better than the, you
29:54
know, the nicely polished cars. You know, these cars with
29:56
history. There were one owner cars,
29:58
original owners, you know, was not the youngest group I've ever
30:02
hung out with, but it was amazing and the cars were
30:06
amazing and I want one more than ever so.
30:08
Well, and it's authentic patina, I think.
30:10
It's yes. And that's yeah, yes.
30:11
There was a lot of authentic patina that's gathering.
30:15
I'll tell you something too, that like a lot of people don't
30:18
realize as well as when you restore a car, usually the smell
30:21
goes away. And I'm big on car smells.
30:24
Yeah, I'm, and I know I'm not the only one, because when we
30:27
did a documentary about Volkswagens, we had a whole
30:30
section about how a VW smells. And for so many people, that's
30:34
such a connection to your first experience as a VW.
30:38
Everybody always remembers the little cubby in the back behind
30:41
the rear window where they climb when they were a kid.
30:43
And everyone always remembers the smell.
30:45
And 356's have a very distinct smell too, because they're using
30:49
a lot of the same materials. And when you restore a car, you
30:52
never get that smell back. And no, no, yeah.
30:55
Because you don't have the same no.
30:57
Yeah, because you don't have the authentic adhesives and fabrics,
30:59
and they've aged to a certain point.
31:02
Yeah. I remember when I first became
31:04
aware of that was in high school because my family had a 60s
31:08
Mustang at home, and there happened to be a 60s Mustang in
31:11
the parking lot. And I was walking through and I
31:13
got a whiff of it and I went, they all smell like that because
31:17
I was like, I know What Car that is, even if I'm not.
31:19
Looking, yes, yes, especially if they've been sitting in the sun
31:22
for a little bit, right? It just kind of brings it brings
31:24
it up. I talked with Mike Coons, who
31:26
runs the the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center a couple years
31:28
ago on this. Yeah.
31:30
And I'll see him here tomorrow on the on the Grand.
31:33
They always bring out some cars and support customer cars.
31:36
But, you know, that's one of the things I talked with him about
31:39
because, you know, I asked him, I said, you know, straight up,
31:41
why does an old Mercedes-Benz smell the way it does?
31:45
And he said it was the horse hair.
31:47
And when they restore a car, they don't have access probably
31:50
for 1000 reasons to horse probably frowned upon right in
31:54
the 21st century. But that that's really one of
31:57
the things, one of the the strong notes, I guess, you know,
32:00
you could say. And an old Mercedes-Benz.
32:02
What? Yeah.
32:03
Yeah. Like if you really want to break
32:05
this down, right, like, because that's, I mean, it is such a big
32:07
part of it. What is the underlying, you
32:09
know, what do you want to call underlying fragrance or the the
32:11
base note, I guess no pun intended, of an old Volkswagen.
32:15
So it's the same exact thing and it's not horsehair like people
32:18
call it horsehair. It's coconut fiber.
32:21
That's what they used. So like, because the first time
32:24
I heard that too, I was like, that's disgusting.
32:26
Like I don't want to be sitting on literal horsehair.
32:29
That's yes. It's not.
32:30
It's a coconut fiber and there are companies that's that sell
32:34
the same, the same stuff, but you don't get the 40 years of
32:38
aging and sun baking. So it doesn't smell the same.
32:40
But that's what it is. It's with VW's, it's the same
32:43
exact smell and you've got burning oil and fuel and
32:47
everything else that kind of mixes together.
32:49
But that's that's definitely like the top note, as you would
32:53
call it, is. There you go, you know the
32:56
terminology. I got to give Volkswagen of that
32:58
era another shout out too. Because as a kid, you know this
33:01
is before you know this, before cell phones, before anything
33:04
else. You know when we would take Rd.
33:05
trips in these cars, we were playing that stupid bingo with
33:07
the sliding little red, yes. I remember that.
33:10
I remember the red. Plastic in Chicago, Yeah, yeah,
33:12
by the way. But, but one of the other things
33:15
that would keep us entertained was I would read the manual,
33:19
right? And one of the things these old
33:21
folks against would have, they would have these great, uh,
33:23
these well designed manuals. And one of the things they did
33:26
would, they would explode the, the car and the parts and all
33:28
this in the lenses. And I, I just was fascinated
33:31
with that. And I, I think it played no
33:32
small part in me becoming a designer later in life.
33:35
I just, you know, there was just there's something it was a cheap
33:38
car, but they they they sweated the details, right.
33:43
And unfortunately, I don't think Volkswagen's quite, you know,
33:45
probably not a lot of not a lot of Tiguan talk on your your
33:48
podcast, right? I own 1A great car, but not at
33:51
all. I mean that Volkswagen is.
33:52
That lost her way man like I'm not even a fan of the ID buzz.
33:56
It's it's kind of sad. I had high hopes for the new
33:58
beetle. The New Beetle came out when I
34:00
was in college and I was so excited because I was like
34:02
finally they're going to do like another bug.
34:05
And it just it was a dressed up golf essentially.
34:08
And well, I love the design because.
34:09
It was Freeman Thomas did a. Great.
34:11
You know, that's great, but it just just didn't, it didn't hit
34:14
you with the same, it didn't evoke the emotions of the older
34:18
car. And I, I still don't think the
34:21
ID buzz comes anywhere near what the old VW buses were because I
34:25
drove one of those in college. And you know, you, you would
34:28
have people come up to you and everyone has a Volkswagen story.
34:31
Like, oh, you know, I lived in one of these for a while and you
34:34
know, we, we drove this from California to Maine when I was a
34:37
kid and I was in the back and I remember all the windows in the
34:39
top and everyone had a story. But like, I, I don't know, I
34:42
don't see people doing that twenty, 30-40 years from now
34:46
about the ID buzz or the New Beetle.
34:48
No. Well, we saw, we experienced a
34:51
little bit of that when Tori was moving from Albuquerque to
34:53
Seattle because we towed his first bug behind the moving
34:57
truck and we'd have people. Do you remember the little old
35:00
man? We were filling up at a gas
35:02
station and I got out and there was this man and he was like
35:06
almost overcome because he was had this funny smile on his face
35:09
and he's like years the bug. And I told him and then he just
35:13
kind of was like lost in memory because I, I was like, Oh, we
35:16
could chat about it. You know, it's got an amazing
35:17
story, like Tory's connection to it and tracking it back down and
35:22
all this. And he just kind of was like
35:23
lost in memory and then just like smiles and he's like, it's
35:26
a beautiful car. And then he got in his car and
35:27
drove. Away, he knew there was a story.
35:29
There, Yeah. I was like wait, tell me
35:30
everything. I love that.
35:31
I love that. You know, it's too bad they
35:34
couldn't have made the New Beetle with a rear engine.
35:37
I think that would have made it really, truly something special
35:39
because it had the look. I mean, that was, you know,
35:42
those were hot shit when they came out.
35:43
Everyone wanted one. I had an uncle that bought 3,
35:45
one for each of his kids or whatever.
35:46
I mean, they were they were cool, right, But it just didn't.
35:50
I don't think, you know, I don't think that's lasted.
35:52
And of course, like the Freeman Thomas's TT, right?
35:54
Like that's a design that got diluted over the years and that
35:57
kind of thing. And it's just that car, that
35:59
type of car. I think what you're getting is
36:01
that kind of car that that people's car, right?
36:04
I mean, just doesn't exist in quite the same, the same way
36:07
where everyone's got a story. You know, everyone from Ted
36:09
Bundy, you know billionaires drove that car, right?
36:12
I tried to buy that car. Oh, stop.
36:14
As of course you did. I tried to buy that car, I got
36:17
outbid on it and it went to a crime museum.
36:20
I think it's in Gatlinburg, TN or.
36:23
Pigeon. But yeah, I was so the lead
36:26
singer of Korn, Jonathan Davis, owned that car for.
36:29
All tracks This all tracks, yes. OK.
36:31
Yeah, I found that car. Did you want that in your home?
36:34
I mean, was that something you would have immediately given,
36:36
you know, loaned out? I don't know, like the way I
36:38
looked at it, like everyone's super split about that car.
36:40
You have people that are like that thing should be crushed.
36:42
And I was always from the camp of like, it's not the car's
36:45
fault, you know, like interesting.
36:46
It's a historic car. I think it's part of history.
36:49
Like you can't just whitewash it like it never happened.
36:51
Well, would it be a little creepy to drive in it because
36:54
there's no, no passenger seat because that's where you put the
36:56
women's bodies? Sure.
36:57
But I don't know. I think you get over.
36:59
It I didn't realize that you get.
37:01
Over it. I don't think Lindsay probably
37:02
would have wanted to ride it. No, there probably would have
37:04
been some discussions and it would probably be in a museum,
37:06
but anyway. Yeah, yeah.
37:08
Wouldn't be the? First time.
37:11
I have a crush on the Saud in house the Lloyd Wright house
37:13
that's in in LA and supposedly, you know, as I dug into the
37:17
history of that, that's got a a checkered past or, you know, at
37:21
least the, you know, perhaps had a checkered past.
37:24
I don't know if anything's been proven, but factored into the
37:26
Black Dahlia case and all that suppose.
37:28
I was going to say I think I know and it was vacant for a
37:32
while or something and then the people moved in but didn't move
37:36
in. I think I know.
37:37
You can have a wedding reception there for, you know, about 30
37:40
grand. I think about hell of a
37:42
building. But yeah, I mean, if I if I'd
37:44
want to live there, I don't. It's a wild story.
37:46
It's kind of like this yellow drive from you.
37:49
Know from the. Sharon Tate murder, same thing,
37:51
you know, like it was a really cool house.
37:53
And what what else is weird is the lead singer of Nine Inch
37:57
Nails. He had the door off of that.
38:00
Trent Reznor had the door off of that house for a really long
38:03
time. He, he even repurposed it in his
38:05
house in New Orleans and I think he sold the house and I think
38:09
they took the door off, but the door's still somewhere would.
38:12
It still say like kill pigs or whatever.
38:14
Yeah, yeah, it still had. Yeah, it was the door from the
38:17
house someone had saved. I, I believe Trent Reznor had
38:20
owned the house for a while and then I think he sold it and they
38:23
demoed it, but he kept the door and repurposed it.
38:26
But talk about a good car movie. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
38:29
was a great car movie as well. Yeah.
38:31
I almost bought the Carmen Kia that Brad Pitt is driving in.
38:35
That kidding? But it's got a.
38:36
Subaru motor in it which is weird.
38:38
They they I guess. That's the thing though, right?
38:40
Subaru Motors and Subaru. Swaps and VW's is the thing now
38:44
and especially with like the movie The 9:06 that I have from
38:47
Ford before Subaru engine. Well, which were some of the
38:50
Ford versus Ferrari cars had Chevy and didn't some of the
38:53
Cobras have Chevy engines or something?
38:55
No, the GT 40s, so all of the GT4 and this ticked off so many
38:59
Ford people, but the running joke was, you know, everyone was
39:02
like, oh, this is Ford V Ferrari, why do you have LS in
39:05
these cars? And they were like, because we
39:07
need them to run and finish filming.
39:10
So they all had crate motors and Porsche transaxles.
39:14
And it's every single GC 40 that you saw in that except one,
39:17
which was built by Super Formants, which was like the
39:19
hero car that they had to show the engine.
39:21
Yeah, they all had LS, which is funny.
39:24
I am fascinated too by these boom cars and things that they
39:27
use in movies, which is a rabbit hole I went down recently.
39:30
It's oftentimes it'll be like a Cayenne Turbo or something
39:33
painted matte black so it doesn't reflect.
39:35
Then we'll have this like, that's a whole, that's a whole
39:37
thing too. I yeah, that's didn't.
39:40
You work with that one. Yeah, so I actually got to do.
39:42
Yeah. I worked on a film when I was
39:44
still living in Albuquerque, just as like something fun to do
39:47
on the side, not my airline gig. And I was in a.
39:50
Movie, you are the most interesting man in the world.
39:55
Big fish, very small pond, my friend.
39:57
But but yeah, they actually shipped one of those out in an
40:00
enclosed trailer and I've got pictures of it somewhere.
40:03
I can probably send them to you. But it was a, it was a Porsche
40:06
Cayenne with a crane and the crane is remote operated.
40:10
There's a jump seat. In the back behind the Hatch and
40:12
they've got monitors and everything set up.
40:15
And I was a passenger in an RV. I was photo doubling an actor
40:18
called Bobby Cannavale. He's been in a.
40:21
Sure, he's great. He's in one of my favorite
40:23
movies. Started interrupt of all time.
40:25
Called the station agent. OK.
40:27
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, no.
40:28
Really nice guy, like worked with him throughout the whole
40:30
film. So like when he couldn't make
40:32
the shoot, or if it was something far away where they
40:34
were shooting from behind, it was actually me.
40:36
You were his stunt double, let's say.
40:38
Yeah, Yeah. They call it a photo.
40:40
Double I didn't. Really, they had another guy for
40:42
like stunts, but anytime it was like a photo thing or we were in
40:44
a car. So in this one scene, we're in
40:46
this RV and we spent all morning just running up and down this
40:49
abandoned Hwy. that was closed off.
40:51
But this Porsche would come up and then, you know, pass us and
40:54
then the crane would be all over the place and getting all these
40:57
weird angles. But it was all like remote
40:58
controlled from the back of the Cayenne.
41:00
It was fascinating. It was.
41:01
Yeah, that really is. As much as I hate cutting into a
41:03
Porsche of any type, I I mean, that's pretty cool.
41:06
That's that's a Porsche with the story, right?
41:08
Yeah, that's a good reason. I mean, and it was an automatic,
41:10
so it's not like it would have been worth 150 grand or
41:12
anything. True, true.
41:14
Yeah, how about that? Was it you that posted that
41:16
today? I think everyone knows
41:18
everything about that. Today.
41:19
OK, OK. He's definitely Forza motor cars
41:22
posted. But yeah, Oh my God, that was
41:23
well. And like the comments section on
41:25
that on the cars and bids post after the auction closed, the
41:28
comments are amazing. Yeah.
41:29
So those that don't know, there was a car that closed yesterday
41:32
on Cars and bids. It was like a 2014, Yeah, 29.
41:36
Was it a Cayenne or a? Yeah.
41:37
Cayenne. Yeah, green lift or an.
41:39
Interior I think. $150,000 I. Think it's 120?
41:42
5 Was it a GTS? That's what.
41:44
It was, I think. I don't even think it was a GTM.
41:46
No, I didn't think so either, and it was an.
41:47
Hour long bidding war that went back and forth like it kept
41:50
resetting I guess. Like, yeah, that's crazy.
41:53
Some of the comments were like, does it come with a Cayman in
41:56
the trunk? Or yeah, right.
41:57
Is there 100,000 in the trunk? Like what are we do?
42:01
They're like. Credible.
42:02
You know, manual obviously is amazing, but they're like at the
42:05
end of the day, it's a decade old kayak.
42:07
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think those were known
42:09
in their days as being particularly wonderful or, you
42:12
know, hence they weren't very popular.
42:14
You know that's. I mean, and I know like manual
42:16
SUVs are rare and you know, I am a big fan, but like sure that
42:21
would that gave me pause. Yeah.
42:24
I mean do we sell your manual X3 now right?
42:26
Like saying. Apparently, the market is hot.
42:29
I say yeah, I say go for it. I mean.
42:31
Get on it, because there's how many people?
42:33
150 grand. Well, and like how many people
42:36
bid on it that didn't win that might be very interested in
42:39
Emmanuel X. Three, absolutely.
42:41
That, you know, I mean, plus it's celebrity owned.
42:43
You've got a story and you know. But it's got provenance.
42:46
That's GT3 money, right? It might be a 991, but I mean,
42:50
that's GT3 money. That's right.
42:52
Yeah, Yeah, I'll take the GT3. Thank you very much.
42:55
Yeah, exactly. Wow, that's crazy.
42:57
Well, and but that reminds me of talk about the film, what they
43:03
did to put together the esteem for filming.
43:06
Yeah, the do you remember the film Car that like Franken?
43:10
Oh yeah, so Jason Tortenski actually did an article on this.
43:13
Like I sent him all these pictures because my friend Scott
43:16
actually owns the filming car for the Esteem.
43:19
So rather than use a Cayenne with a crane they they grafted
43:24
the front of a Suzuki Esteem to like a Ford Windstar so they can
43:28
put all the camera equipment in the back and shoot from the back
43:31
to see like the driver's point of view.
43:33
Wow, the craziest thing also. It's a Cal of a thing, yeah, but
43:36
yeah, it's. It's insane with the links that
43:38
they will go through to film with cars.
43:40
And what's I think with the craziest part about that one is
43:43
that they left like 4 inches of the front of the driver's door,
43:46
like the back portion of the driver's door and then the rest
43:49
of the car instead of like cutting it where the door.
43:52
Sure, sure. Like evenly.
43:54
So you have like this strip of door and.
43:56
Then drives me crazy when I see it.
43:57
My OCD just goes. Offers when I see it.
43:59
Like there's so many other ways they could have fabricated it
44:01
better. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
44:04
yeah. Wow.
44:05
That's that's. It was never going to be a thing
44:06
of beauty, but. No, no, no.
44:09
That's wild. That's wild.
44:10
Well, so what's in your garage now?
44:12
Because you've now moved to Seattle.
44:13
You've. I have, yeah.
44:16
So here I still have cars scattered all over the country.
44:20
I have. I still.
44:21
Have better than having kids scattered all over the country,
44:24
I guess I. May have those too, they just
44:26
haven't found it yet. But just kidding ma'am, this is
44:32
an RV's. No, I still.
44:33
Have the same room if you're watching even though it's a
44:36
split screen. That's get real awkward, yeah.
44:39
Where do I look? Yeah, no, I still have quite a
44:41
few Volkswagens I have. So up here in Seattle, we
44:44
brought the car I care the most about, the last one I would ever
44:46
sell. But it was my very first car.
44:48
It was a 66 Bug. You own your very first car.
44:51
I do. I tracked it back down.
44:53
My dad sold it when I went away at college, and it was to save
44:58
the house and make the mortgage payment.
45:00
Dad had fallen on hard times and the car was in the garage for
45:03
safekeeping. And I came home to do laundry
45:05
one weekend and it was gone. And it took me 20 years, Ryan,
45:08
to find that car, track it back down and get it back.
45:11
So that's my number one, like best car story that we could do
45:14
a whole podcast just on that. Yeah, tracking down your first
45:17
car and finding it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:20
Also how? Did that conversation go thrill
45:21
of the hunt and finding it again and you know it?
45:24
Does it live up to how good it was when you remembered it and.
45:27
Sure, sure. Oh, we should absolutely do that
45:30
because. It's great.
45:31
It's great. It's amazing he picked.
45:33
That's what he picked me up in, yeah.
45:34
At the airport in the Kirby when he was.
45:36
Moving and it was like it felt very perfect.
45:40
Yeah, that's amazing. So.
45:41
I've got that car. I've got obviously the GT4 that
45:44
Lindsay and I just picked up that we.
45:46
Straight pipe trip. To see you.
45:48
Yeah, yeah, it's come a long way since you've seen it.
45:51
I've done a lot of stuff too. It's pretty great when I saw it.
45:53
Yeah, no, I've got some Manti Racing wheels that are going to
45:57
be going on it soon, but I have to change so much stuff on it.
46:01
Well, they're eighteens, right? Like, yeah, so going from 20s to
46:04
eighteens, the calipers that are on this car won't fit, so you
46:07
have to put A996GT3 front caliper on it, which is like 3
46:13
grand for the pair of those. I had to buy some Porsche
46:17
Motorsport tow links for the back, so they'll clear the back
46:19
wheels. But those will be going on
46:22
probably this winter. But I've got that car.
46:25
I've got another car. So we were talking about the 80s
46:28
VW scene earlier. I've got a car that I'm putting
46:30
together right now with a friend of mine in Reno that was one of
46:34
the best show car builders, you know, for VW's back in the 80s.
46:37
His name's Steve Connect. And this guy?
46:40
These guys in their names, I mean, they're killing it.
46:42
Oh, man, oh, man, this guy, this guy is just a master fabricator.
46:48
There's nothing this guy can't do.
46:50
And he wanted to do one last show car.
46:53
OK. And I found a car that he had
46:55
started working on in the 80s and never finished really.
46:58
And Lindsay actually had seen pictures of this car before.
47:01
We were kind of like serious couple.
47:04
And when she screams shotted it, which is so weird because it was
47:08
such a cool car and her daughter loved the colors.
47:11
And so I've got, you know, I've got this car now and we've been
47:14
building it for the last wow, 910 months, specifically for a
47:19
car show that we're going to be having in Las Vegas in October.
47:22
I've literally got three weeks to like help Steve finish this
47:24
car. It just got painted.
47:26
Like the graphics are getting painted on it right now.
47:28
It's total like 80s. It's like lavender with pink and
47:32
purple graphics. Amazing.
47:33
It looks like neon tubes. It's going to be so cool.
47:35
I mean, if Radwood was a car, if Radwood or Trapper Keeper was a
47:39
car, it would be. Right, there you go.
47:42
It looks like a Trapper Keeper but so I have that car.
47:46
That car will be finished here probably in the next couple
47:48
weeks with any. Luck.
47:49
Yeah, so it's going to go to Vegas and we'll see it there.
47:54
What else do I have? I have a Porsche that's still in
47:57
Ohio at a friend of mine shop that has like a a factory 935
48:01
nose and wing on it. That was someone's track car
48:04
back in Florida back in the like 80s and 90s.
48:08
Facebook Marketplace, the weird find that it that I've still
48:11
got. Yeah, it looks like.
48:13
Looks like something from Bruce Myers collection, but it is not.
48:15
It is not. But it's a Porsche.
48:18
Timo Bruce Myers Car, Yeah. But didn't the front end go to
48:22
Lamar? So yeah, the front end is
48:24
actually a factory front end. I got that from a guy who had a
48:27
bunch of spares from a real 9. Amazing.
48:30
And that is the real front end off of the Interscope 935 that
48:34
raced at Le Mans. That's incredible.
48:36
That's more a real Porsche than some of these old vintage
48:39
Ferraris I think we see rolling around. 100% have a VIN plate or
48:42
whatever, I mean. That's exactly.
48:44
And it's built on a 911 or what? It's built on a 1968912912, but
48:50
what's crazy is so that originally would have been a
48:52
short wheelbase car. Yeah, whoever had this car in
48:54
the 80s, they must have had a crashed like an SC or an early
49:00
80s nine 11 because all of the suspension was upgraded to that
49:03
stuff. It was lengthened.
49:04
Like it's legit like it was a but the coolest part of that is
49:08
it had a methanol injected Corvair motor in it and the
49:13
Corvair motor is still in it. Like I still haven't decided if
49:16
I'm going to run that. But I mean it's like a Monza
49:17
turbo methanol injected I. Just so if you're gonna have a
49:22
Corvair, you know, motor, that's the one to have.
49:24
I guess that's what you stick it in.
49:25
I don't know. I mean, it's pretty.
49:26
That was the that was the American 911, after all.
49:29
Yeah. Yeah, so, so I don't know.
49:31
So I still have that car that's on the back burner until I get
49:33
this Roadster done. I've got another 80s show car
49:36
called Bad Temper that will be in Vegas.
49:39
I just crailored that thing from Albuquerque out to Vegas.
49:43
Now I got stuff everywhere. It's it's a problem.
49:45
I've got a Baja bug still in Albuquer.
49:47
Really. Yeah, I've got.
49:49
There's just stuff. In the lab, yeah, yeah.
49:51
Yeah, at the lab, yeah. Exactly.
49:53
It's not gonna get crushed. It might get stolen, but it
49:55
won't get. Crushed.
49:57
It's like trying to name the seven dwarves when.
49:58
We start counting the cars. Yeah, I mean, at one point she
50:01
and I had like tallied it up and I think we had like 12 or 13
50:04
cars at one point. But then I sold the Aztec and
50:07
we're down a couple now. I crushed one of the esteems.
50:11
They're dropping like flies. Yeah, they are.
50:12
Yeah, wow, Wow. Yeah, Good thing Pontiac got
50:15
that name and will. They still could though, too,
50:17
right? I don't think you could call
50:17
something the Aztec. Probably not any I don't.
50:20
Know, although they're not really around to complain, no.
50:22
Not. Really.
50:24
Terrible joke, but you know somebody would get upset on
50:27
their behalf probably. Thanks for.
50:29
Coming. It's so weird.
50:30
Like, you know, I watch your show, obviously.
50:32
And what? You guys will.
50:34
Mention a car and then immediately like I'll see it,
50:37
it'll manifest itself. But like the other thing, like
50:39
you're talking about the Saturn skies and there's like a Saturn
50:42
sky like in our building, like down in the in the parking
50:45
garage I'd never seen before. And then like yesterday I was
50:48
driving to go get a pizza and there was a first Gen.
50:50
TT that drove by. I'm like, Oh my.
50:52
Gosh, like we're just don't see. Thomas like, no, you don't see,
50:56
don't. See them you don't see?
50:58
Them anywhere anymore but. We didn't talk about this on the
51:01
show, but what was the Honda we saw yesterday?
51:04
Oh, we saw a CRXSI. I'm not the.
51:07
Tell me it was yellow like. Second, it was red, but it was
51:10
beautiful. It was a little.
51:11
Window in the back and again, they don't make cars like that.
51:15
No, I just. That was such a cool car.
51:18
Although they're bringing the Prelude back.
51:19
Did you see that? I saw.
51:21
That Lynn Woodward just posted about that, Yeah.
51:22
OK, OK, OK. What do we think about the
51:25
looks? Because I mean I have Prelude
51:27
was a prelude. It had the pop up lights until
51:29
the later cars. My prelude was was.
51:31
Doesn't strike me as very prelude Y.
51:33
Yeah, that's kind of what I thought too, yeah.
51:35
I think it's another, it's sort of a New Beetle esque.
51:37
Like there's so much nostalgia and hope attached to hearing
51:41
that it's coming back and then. It's just a name.
51:44
Yeah. I mean, there's an element of
51:45
like, could anything live up to the sort of hope of like, you're
51:49
not going to recapture what it was in the past?
51:52
Like so it has to be its own thing, but it's going to be
51:54
different. I will say Honda and Acura by
51:57
extension, is really about the only brand that still feels kind
52:01
of like they did back in the 80s or the 90s, right?
52:04
They still feel like a Honda. They're true to themselves for
52:08
sure. They know their place in the
52:09
market. They don't try to be something
52:10
that they're not. Yeah, I, I and and with the, you
52:14
know, the Sis and and the civics like they still have like the
52:18
kind of pocket rocket model that they offer, the type Rs like.
52:23
That's all cool stuff. I Yeah, I.
52:25
Appreciate that well. And I've fallen in love again
52:28
with the NSX, just in time to see them skyrocket to the the
52:31
moon. Of course that's.
52:32
How you know you have good taste?
52:33
Yeah, well, then it was I heard that the Peterson Museum bought
52:36
one of those two type Rs that were, you know, at Car Week.
52:40
I don't know which auction it was from.
52:43
It was the one, maybe from Broad Arrow.
52:44
It's a white 1. So I guess, hey, maybe we're on
52:48
to something if the Peterson puts their stamp of approval.
52:50
On it. Keeping them up, man.
52:51
Yeah, that's. A good barometer.
52:54
And that's just like the Mark 4 supers, you know, when I lived
52:56
in Orlando, one of the top tuners for Toyota Supras was in
53:01
Orlando. It was called Titan Motorsports.
53:03
And so you'd see a lot of the Mark 4 supers there.
53:05
But I mean, you could still pick up a Supra for like 2530 grand
53:09
when I lived there, you know, if it had mods 40-50.
53:13
But I mean, those things are 6 figures all day long for like a
53:15
really good one. And good luck finding one that's
53:17
not been modified. I think that's going to be,
53:20
that's going to be the challenge.
53:21
If you can find a car, like even a WRX or something that's not
53:25
been modified like an STI or something like that.
53:28
I think those are the cars that people should be looking for and
53:30
hanging on to. And you know, I had a friend in
53:32
college that had an ACR Neon. When's the last time you saw one
53:36
of? Those, well, I mean yesterday.
53:39
No way. Did you really?
53:40
Arc not too far from me. I think it's the same guy that
53:42
owns about 5 different Audis and various, you know, I don't know,
53:47
states of drive, I guess, and it's a black 1 and it it looks,
53:54
you know, pretty damn. Those were very, very quick
53:57
because those had was it a 290 horsepower little turbo 4 or
54:01
something? It was also that same motor was
54:02
in some other stuff but again, never see those.
54:06
I see one every day but but but a forgotten car.
54:09
Otherwise, really really cool. Well, like all the SRT fours,
54:12
remember the SRT4 was like made to compete with like the SI
54:16
civics and stuff like that. And those just got modded and
54:19
blown up and yeah, people are throwing manual boost
54:21
controllers on those and. Turning them up to 20. 6 and
54:25
like they're popping them and you don't see them anymore.
54:27
But the AC, is it the ACR? Is that what it was called?
54:30
So the ACR was the I think the the one that my friend in
54:35
college had was like the first gin, but it was like it was like
54:39
an auto cross from the. Factory kind of, yes.
54:41
OK, and I misspoke, this is not that the ACR, I remember that
54:45
with the happy headlights and all that, that.
54:46
Was. No, that was before I think is
54:48
what you're thinking. Of yes, that was the turbo.
54:50
It was like the turbo that they were using for everything, like
54:53
they use that motor for all kinds of stuff.
54:54
But but yeah, absolutely. You just don't see those, I
54:58
think. Yeah, that was that was a weird
55:00
for for Chrysler or whatever they were calling themselves.
55:03
It was it was at the time. Well, I gotta say, people I
55:06
think sometimes call us a Porsche podcast and we have
55:09
really cast the net far today and we've talked about all sorts
55:13
of oddball stuff. I mean.
55:14
All of the Suzuki Esteem enthusiasts are rejoicing right
55:17
now. They're like finally like.
55:19
This is Mark. Romans.
55:21
That car's had since it was new, you know, and I feel like we
55:25
could talk all day. Somehow.
55:26
We're at 55 minutes. That's insane.
55:28
I don't know how we've done a show.
55:30
I would love to keep talking, but I've gotta I gotta head off
55:33
to the grand. But again, Tori, we could talk
55:37
to you all day. We're again just scratch the
55:39
surface and and I'm really, really just so glad to see you
55:43
and Lindsay get together. I feel like it was meant to be
55:46
cars bring people together, so. Yeah, quite literally.
55:50
Be careful who you DM on Instagram.
55:52
You may find yourself getting married.
55:54
Exactly. Well, for me, it's unfortunately
55:57
a lot of old men who probably don't have a lot of interest.
56:00
But in your case, you've. Gone podcast partners.
56:02
So that's right. That's right.
56:05
So. Well, the good thing is we know
56:06
where Tori lives, so we can do this again.
56:08
Yes, absolutely. Don't have to go far.
56:10
Yeah, Yeah. Well, I think as I think we went
56:13
into this thinking, hey, this will be kind of a hold over
56:15
episode. So we're all back and we can
56:17
all, you know, get the team, you know, the the band back
56:19
together. But this was a fantastic
56:20
episode. Thank you Tori.
56:22
Hell of an interesting guy. And we even talk about the the
56:24
airlines and, and all that. That's a whole other podcast
56:27
there's. So much more for next time.
56:30
So plug your podcast plug. Apparently you've been in 10 or
56:33
12 documentaries. Where do we find so Netflix?
56:37
You have an IMDb page. What's?
56:39
I, you know, I never kept up with the IMDb.
56:41
I probably could even with the stuff I did in Albuquerque.
56:43
But no. If anyone wants to watch it, I
56:46
think it's available on like Amazon Prime.
56:48
You might have to pay for it now, but Adam Corolla actually
56:51
distributed our documentary. It was called the bug movie The
56:54
Life and Times of the People's Car.
56:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's probably about 10 years
56:58
old now, but it's so pretty relevant.
57:00
Absolutely. It's a great documentary.
57:02
If anyone ever wants to check it out, should be on Amazon Prime.
57:05
The podcast that I do sometimes, it's called Let's Talk Dubs.
57:09
I'm sure Bill would appreciate people checking that out.
57:11
And then if anyone's interested in hitting up that show in
57:14
Vegas, it's going to be October 2nd to the 4th, so real close.
57:19
And you can go to letstalkdubs.com and we've got
57:23
info on the car show there. It's going to be a good time.
57:25
And it's called 1 crazy. Weekend one crazy weekend is
57:27
going to be the show, and we're doing it at the Orleans Casino,
57:31
OK? So it should be a fun time.
57:33
And yeah, look for the bright lavender Volkswagen, probably
57:38
pretty close by. And where do we find you on
57:40
Instagram? So on Instagram I am V Dubber
57:44
for the number four life. And Tori's the guy behind these
57:48
wonderful vignettes around the podcast.
57:51
He doesn't for us in Spikes car radio, I think in a couple of
57:53
other outlets and they're really, really excellent and and
57:56
well. There's so much fun I enjoy,
57:58
like listening to the show and it's like, that's funny.
58:00
That's a joke. So yeah, it's it's cool.
58:02
It's kind of become my little, you know, obsession.
58:05
That's your thing? Well, and we realized a few
58:07
weeks ago that that is actually how we initially first got
58:10
connected was through the recaps.
58:11
So thank. You for the recaps.
58:13
That's what we should call them. That's amazing.
58:16
So find find Tori on Instagram. But no, no asking for dates or
58:20
anything that's. A very.
58:22
Handsome guy I mean, you know, I was just complimenting him was
58:25
here before we we got on the show and so but Lindsay, I'll
58:30
let you wrap this up. I've done way too much talking
58:33
and he is your fiance and. He is.
58:36
That's true. Now I appreciate him coming on
58:40
and I think this was a super fun conversation.
58:42
Obviously, there's so much more to talk about.
58:45
I mean, as we saw when we all had lunch, we couldn't stop
58:47
talking. Yeah.
58:48
But yeah, thanks for joining us. And remember, always be driving.
58:52
Thanks. Thanks Tori.