Latest / That Car Show / We reimagine Willow Springs

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We reimagine Willow Springs · That Car Show

0:00
Ford versus Ferrari, Kirby the Love Bug.
0:01
Top Gear film there. Jay Leno's Garage has filmed
0:04
there. This week on That Car Show, it's
0:06
a That Car Show Willow Springs bonus episode.
0:10
Dan and Lindsay were both fortunate to be a part of the
0:12
recent Willow Springs Reimagined launch event and wanted to get
0:15
their experiences to you before too much time had passed.
0:18
If you haven't already, make sure you check out this week's
0:20
regularly scheduled That Car Show episode with the LA Auto
0:23
Show's Andy Steinhauser. And be sure to stick around till
0:27
the end of this episode where we announced the winner of our most
0:30
recent Sheffield Watch giveaway. Dan, Lindsay and I will be back
0:34
again on Friday with another Crew show.
0:36
Make sure you follow, subscribe and tell your friends it's That
0:40
Car Show. That car show is brought to you
0:42
by Sheffield Watches. The Sheffield Watch brand has a
0:45
long and storied history, but it was revived a couple years back
0:49
by our good friend and TrueCar guy, Jay Turkish.
0:52
Jay was gifted a Sheffield watch by his parents when he was a kid
0:55
and he still has it to this day. Jay wanted to make the same
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From diapers watches to watches designed for travel to
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Find your own Sheffield Watch and sheffieldwatches.com and at
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and let Jay know you heard about Sheffield watches from that car
1:30
show. Hey, it's that car show and
1:33
we're back. Lindsay, good seeing you at the
1:35
Western Wear Outlet earlier today is.
1:39
It Jay. Tip of the cowboy cap to you,
1:44
Yeah. The Gray beer just goes so well
1:46
with denim. But.
1:48
And welcome back to you, Sir. Hey, I haven't seen you in a
1:51
couple weeks. You've been busy.
1:53
I have. How have you guys been good?
1:54
It's really good to see. You.
1:57
Wonderful to have you back. It's good to see you virtually,
1:59
Lindsay. I know.
2:03
I know, I think there there's got to be some award for somehow
2:06
missing each other in person at the Willow Springs event when we
2:10
managed to see everyone else we wanted to see.
2:13
All right, so for us losers who were not at this magical thing
2:16
that happened at Willow Springs, can you just I don't bring us up
2:20
to. Speed dive right in.
2:21
Well, I mean, I would say, you know, you were there were only
2:25
like give or take officially 4500 people at the event and
2:30
then whoever had media passes, you know, so the numbers are it
2:35
was a relatively small crowd, give or take, considering the
2:39
general population. But yeah, it was a sunny, very
2:43
windy day. And yeah, Dan, I would love to
2:47
hear. Your experience though, Like
2:48
what actually? Like what is this thing?
2:50
What was? This it was, it was billed as
2:52
the reintroduction of Willow Springs following its purchase
2:56
by Cross Harbor Capital, which is a private equity firm and
3:00
they've partnered with Singer and they've partnered with
3:04
Sonoma. I am hoping Dan maybe knows a
3:07
little bit more about that. Sonoma Raceway.
3:09
I just learned about that. So this was billed as their sort
3:12
of reintroduction of the track following the change of
3:15
ownership. It was a big, big, big day for
3:18
that race track, which if you've been there, it is A2 Lane Rd. in
3:23
and out. I went with my dad who he and
3:25
I've driven there for a long time and he looked at me at one
3:28
point. He said this is more people than
3:30
have been at this track in the last 10 years combined, and
3:33
they're all here at the same time.
3:35
All right, just establish Willow Springs is this legacy track.
3:39
They filmed Ford V Ferrari there, right?
3:41
I mean, it's it was kind of like this like in amber, right?
3:44
Like this kind of moment in time, this great.
3:46
Track it is. Falling on hard times.
3:49
Well, I and I, I don't know that it had, but I may be in the
3:53
minority, having driven there for a long time.
3:56
I don't know if it's one of those things where you stop sort
3:58
of like seeing it for what it was.
4:00
It's always been this bare bones track in the middle of the
4:04
desert inland from LA in a little tiny town called
4:07
Rosamond. The bigger towns which are near
4:10
it are Lancaster and Palmdale. Those may be more familiar to
4:13
people, but it's technically in Rosamond, which is a tiny town
4:16
outside of those two towns. And like you said, it was used
4:23
for filming Ford versus Ferrari. Some of the scenes from Herbie
4:26
the Love Bug were filmed there. Top Gear filmed there at one
4:29
point. Jay Leno's Garage has filmed
4:31
there. It is the oldest permanent Rd.
4:35
course in continuous use in the US.
4:37
It was started construction in 1952 and I just learned they had
4:41
input from Ken Miles on the layout of Big Willow.
4:45
And then the first race was in 1953 and they've it has been
4:49
used continuously since then. So it is, you know, iconic in
4:54
Southern California, but there's not much there.
4:58
It's, it's really in the middle of the desert.
5:01
It's probably 2 1/2 hours from March county traffic wise.
5:06
I know people like to say it's an hour from LA but I would love
5:09
to know what time they're driving from LA to get there to
5:11
now. Maybe Dan has better in.
5:14
Dan's done in 45 minutes. What are you talking about?
5:16
7:30 that morning. So I, I had to go there for
5:22
work, right? And so was there super early.
5:26
I was also lucky enough to do some testing there on the
5:29
Wednesday beforehand. So.
5:31
You know, without going into too much detail, we had some classic
5:35
cars on the track and we did some testing to to actually make
5:40
sure that the cars all passed and, and, and made their way.
5:42
But I heard stories of traffic lines, you know, around the
5:47
corner type thing. Did you experience?
5:50
What time did you arrive, Lindsay?
5:52
So I was in the thick of it and in in the heat of the moment I
5:57
had this, I went, are we doing the Fire festival Willow Springs
6:01
edition? Because we left, right.
6:06
I know I was in my head. I went, we're going to sit in
6:09
this traffic and we're going to get inside and it's going to be
6:11
the fire festival cheese sandwiches because we'll be so
6:15
delayed. Glad to have that.
6:16
This is all the food will be picked over.
6:19
So we left Orange County a few minutes after 8:00 AM.
6:23
We arrived within a mile and a half of the entrance to Willow
6:26
Springs, which we know very well, at 10:00 and we turned the
6:31
corner onto the entrance Rd. at noon.
6:34
So it was 2 hours to go a mile and 1/2, which is really
6:38
something even in LA. You could have walked a quick
6:41
air. Right.
6:42
And there, I mean, it was, it was pretty bad.
6:47
And then it was compounded by there were a couple people in
6:51
four by fours that decided to go in the dirt and like very
6:55
visibly cut the line. And then, you know, so it's a
6:58
one lane each way. It's a 2 lane Rd. which was part
7:01
of the issue. And you know, those of us
7:04
familiar with the track sort of went well, but I'm sure they'll
7:07
have traffic control or some sort of management.
7:10
And at one point after we've been sitting for probably an
7:14
hour and a half, there was a McLaren that was in the lane I
7:18
was in, which was the right lane, went into the oncoming
7:22
lane and just drove the rest of the way.
7:25
Luckily nothing happened, but you know, moments after that we
7:28
had traffic coming the other way, so he got very lucky.
7:31
But yeah, it didn't make any. Sense we need to call, we need
7:35
to shame these people, this McLaren driver, these off road
7:38
guys. That's not cool.
7:40
Come on. It was tough.
7:41
I mean, it was like, we're all in it together.
7:43
We're all stuck in it. It stinks, but you know, like.
7:46
It's always got to be that great.
7:48
In theory, we're all here because we're excited about the
7:50
track and we love driving. So like, let's all you know suck
7:53
it. Up I think the.
7:55
Interesting. The interesting thing was that
7:57
there were lots of events going on that weekend in LA.
7:59
There was a Japanese big Japanese car event and up until
8:04
about two weeks before it hadn't sold out.
8:07
But as soon as it sold out, it became like Carl Car Week levels
8:13
of black market tickets. My phone on the Friday blew up
8:18
with lots of people texting me. Do I know anyone who's got spare
8:21
tickets? Anyone.
8:22
Can you get me in? So, you know, I guess kudos to
8:26
them in terms of they staged their marketing correctly and,
8:29
you know, hit start out just before the event opened.
8:32
So, you know, it was a hot ticket.
8:35
And it really was. Yeah.
8:37
And I think part of the reason it was a hot ticket is who's who
8:41
was there. You know, you, you turn a corner
8:45
apart from Lindsay, who I'm not even sure was definitely there
8:47
because I didn't see her and I was there, but.
8:51
You know you were there. I know I was.
8:53
Right, the smart people came. In.
8:56
Came in by helicopter though, like every 10 five to 10 minutes
9:00
there was a helicopter landing. I know I was texting the Spike
9:02
screw because we had plenty of time to just watch the
9:05
helicopters and I'm like, did you guys just land?
9:08
Because at this point I'm playing guess the helicopter,
9:10
yeah. That's the way to do.
9:11
It you made it, we did. It was spectacular.
9:15
It added to the story and Dan's right.
9:18
I think what's so unique about that venue is there were
9:20
probably over the course of the day, there were 6000 people
9:23
there, I would guess. But the way the track is set up,
9:26
because, you know, most of the attendees were in the spectator
9:30
area, it's kind of a narrow corridor and so it's sort of
9:34
like it. I don't know about you, Dan.
9:35
It never felt crowded. I never had trouble you.
9:38
There was no trouble moving around the venue being where you
9:41
want to be or moving through the crowd.
9:43
But it was kind of nice because everybody was contained in the
9:47
same area. And so you kept running across
9:48
your friends or people that you'd hoped to meet.
9:50
And so it was like a big, you know, it was like the world's
9:53
biggest BBQ. Yeah.
9:56
No, I would totally agree. There was some interesting
9:59
different setups. So the Fat Ice racing folks had
10:05
like a little corral area and they were getting off different
10:08
vehicles, including the Myers Manx LFG I think.
10:15
It's pretty badass. Yeah, it's a Porsche.
10:18
Engines like what a Myers Manx would be today, created by
10:22
Richard Tuttle in the UK. And near the end of the day, I
10:26
don't know if you were around near the end of the day,
10:28
Lindsay, but a buddy of mine and Richard got in the car.
10:32
They then proceeded to go up the mountain behind Willow Springs.
10:37
So they. In that car, you.
10:38
Can see this orange car making its way up the mountain to the
10:41
top. Apparently they got to one point
10:44
where it was so dusty they couldn't see where they were
10:46
going and literally had to just stop.
10:48
But yeah, that was one of the corrals, the fat ice racing.
10:51
There was obviously AVIP area and then beyond that there was a
10:56
car show and it was great to see the Chem Block cars.
11:00
We're all there, right? It was great to see.
11:04
McLaren had quite a few cars. They did good.
11:08
Folks at Dirt Fish brought some rally cars. 000 were there with
11:13
some cars. Who else was there?
11:16
Galpin. Galpin was there.
11:17
They had the Bo Berry GT and GTD, which are unsurprisingly
11:22
personal favorites of mine because I just cannot get over
11:24
that color. It's the best and to see the two
11:27
of them together, that was the first time I'd seen them in
11:30
person together. If you don't know, they are,
11:33
they actually match my lipstick, which is unplanned.
11:35
But they're just this brilliant magenta custom color that Ford
11:40
created with Beau Bachman, and he's got a GT and a GTD in the
11:45
same color. The Huna Pegasus was there,
11:48
which is always fun to see. It's the pink Porsche that BBI
11:52
built for Ken that he actually didn't have the chance to drive
11:54
up Pike's Peak, but Leah, his daughter, drove it in an
11:57
exhibition lap the next year. And actually Dan, I don't know
12:01
if you got to see, she took the Huna truck out on the front
12:04
straight at Willow and did some Donuts and that was really fun
12:06
to see. Zinger was there.
12:08
They had a display in the on the West paddock area and Shelby
12:15
American had a display and they had the GT3R rent Sport.
12:18
One of those was there, which is really cool to see.
12:21
It was the same one. It's a white with different
12:24
Blues livery. And I actually saw it at Air
12:26
Water. But it's, you know, it's such a
12:28
cool story with those. And so it was fun to see that
12:32
again, too. Yeah, I mean, it was.
12:34
And then the Peterson had quite a display.
12:36
Can you tell us which cars you brought?
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that car show. 12 cars from the museum, including the Steve
13:28
McQueen Jaguar. So that went on the track.
13:30
That's such a thing. So that's that.
13:32
That car's probably worth $30 million, just to put into
13:35
perspective. And it was outside the the
13:38
Hartman garage for people to look at and stuff.
13:42
Yeah, those are some great pictures.
13:44
Yeah, there are some vignette pictures.
13:47
Yeah, Herbie. Herbie was there.
13:51
Sookie from Fast and Furious was there.
13:53
I'm just trying to think what else?
13:54
Well, there was. AGT 350 Shelby GT3. 50 yeah
13:58
GT350 and AGT 40A mark three GT40A modern GT So 2005 GT a car
14:07
called Old Yeller. Yes.
14:11
David Brabham's first Brabham. So it was literally a great
14:17
historical selection that it was either related to the movies,
14:20
related to cars that were actually the tested or developed
14:23
there, or cars that would have run there in period.
14:25
So yeah, lots of lots of great cars.
14:29
I had a magenta car actually. I saw it again.
14:33
I saw your car, not you. So we were plus Yeah, that's
14:38
right. I should have just stayed by my
14:39
car the whole day. Right, Right.
14:42
Yes. And the Ford were gracious
14:44
enough to lend me a magenta Mustang GT with.
14:49
Not just Magenta, but Matt. Right.
14:50
Yeah, like. A Matt.
14:51
Yeah, really pretty. It was interesting as well
14:53
because it had an aftermarket exhaust.
14:55
Well, not an aftermarket, it had a a factory exhaust, but it's an
14:57
option and it adds something like 20 horsepower to the car.
15:01
But The thing is, every traffic light, you sound like a complete
15:04
Dick because it's making so much noise.
15:06
It's just an embarrassment when you're not like out in the open
15:09
roads, you know, people are turning like who is that
15:12
dickhead? And that was me for the weekend.
15:15
Just got to lean into it. You just got.
15:17
To embrace the American car culture.
15:19
But it was a lovely car to drive.
15:21
I actually think I prefer it to the dark horse, which is
15:24
probably the most controversial thing I've said this year.
15:27
Yeah, but it's just it's just more simple and basic and you
15:31
know, the gearbox is great and you know the I'm sure the dark,
15:34
the dark horse is great car, but I think the right sweet spot's
15:37
the V8 just. So was this one a manual?
15:40
This was, Yeah. And the dark horse was as well.
15:43
Yeah, but a different gearbox was a different.
15:45
Comparison. I think the the dark horse has a
15:48
different gearbox to the the standard V8.
15:51
I would imagine. But yeah, I mean it.
15:53
It's a real comparison in the sense you had manuals in both,
15:56
so yeah. Do you drive that thing
15:58
differently than you do you say your own Porsche?
16:00
Like, does that bring something different out of you?
16:02
It does. It was easier to drive than my
16:05
Porsche. Believe it.
16:06
Yeah, yeah, the clutch was easier.
16:10
Just it was an easier, simpler car I think.
16:12
Yeah, yeah, much bigger vehicle. Yes.
16:17
Yeah, you don't appreciate until you get.
16:19
Yeah, but I really, I enjoyed it.
16:20
It was, it was a fun time. Excellent.
16:23
But yes, there were lots of different races going on and
16:26
exhibition laps and stuff. But I think for me the top 1 was
16:31
the track has bought some cars to run as like you know, school
16:35
cars. So they bought GT4R s s.
16:38
I don't know whether you'd spoken to them and consulted
16:40
Ryan or or what, but they bought these GT4R s s and what they
16:44
decided to do is do a celebrity race.
16:47
So they had Jimmy Johnson, Dario Front GT, they had the other
16:53
Franchitti that I forget his first name.
16:54
Marina. Thank you Jensen Button and then
16:59
mass from Singer and then I lined up on the grid and put on
17:02
great entertainment. It was a really fun race it.
17:06
Really, it was legitimate. And they had the doc, they had a
17:09
doc Hudson, Hudson Hornet there who was the pace car for that
17:13
lit race. Yeah, initially.
17:15
So that was like the contrast of that was just so cool to see.
17:19
Yeah, and the the pace car belongs to the new owner, so the
17:24
pace car belongs to Sam. So he.
17:27
Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, so he was the the pace
17:29
car. Well, he has amazing taste.
17:32
Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it? So.
17:35
So who did you bump into, Lindsay?
17:36
I'm keen to understand whether we both had our dance car parked
17:39
by the same people. I mean, probably like the way
17:43
this is working out well, I mean, we both got to see Jay
17:45
Ryan. I got to see him at the end of
17:46
the day. And he and I both were like, Dan
17:48
was just here. He's now on his road trip so we
17:52
wish him a a safe right on road trip right now.
17:55
I know. Yeah, it commenced what, Monday?
17:58
Yes. Grand Tour #3.
18:00
Where's he headed this time? He said he was heading South to
18:04
go east, OK. And then wherever the wind may
18:07
take him. And we, you know, we're all
18:10
tuning in to see. But yeah, it was fun to see him
18:13
in person before he took off. I got to see friend of the show
18:16
Dan McGinnis, which was wonderful.
18:19
I see Dan McGinnis. Of course he did.
18:22
He said he had seen you. That's, that was the best part.
18:25
Everybody that knows both of us, they're like, yeah, yeah, I saw
18:27
him this morning. So it was like we had a weird
18:31
Where's Waldo and nobody was winning, right?
18:34
But but it was so funny because I had seen a Shark blue GT4 on
18:39
the way out there and I texted a picture to Derek Powell and he
18:43
wrote me back and said Dan McGinnis is on his way.
18:46
And I thought he was kidding. And then it turns out no.
18:50
And I sent the picture to Dan and he said, oh, it looks like
18:52
I'm on the road just ahead of you.
18:54
So it was like, you know, the car community, small worldness
18:57
in action in the best way. So got to hang out with Dan for
19:00
a bit. I got to see the SCR crew, Spike
19:03
and Zuckerman and Johnny and Matt Farah obviously was there.
19:08
We were apparently on the road outside the track when Matt was
19:11
doing his podcast. So I'm sorry that we missed
19:13
that. But we got to see him.
19:14
You know, I got to say hi to him later.
19:16
And then probably I would say the highlight of my trip out
19:21
there was that Dan McGinnis and I were talking and all of a
19:25
sudden he said, I think that's Neil Clifford over there.
19:28
And for those of you that don't recognize his name, Neil is one
19:30
of the four people that Chris Harris does, his current podcast
19:34
with Chris Harris and friends, Neil, Clifford, Manish Pandy and
19:37
Chris Cooper. And Dan, I knew you had met Neil
19:40
earlier in the week, so I knew he was in town.
19:43
And I looked at Dan and I said, you're right.
19:46
Do you want to go over there? And he said, I do.
19:49
So we went over and introduced ourselves.
19:51
And Dan, I think you've said the same thing too.
19:54
He was just the most lovely, approachable car guy.
19:57
I mean, he was just one of us. And we all kept saying to each
20:00
other. You know, Dan and I went up and
20:03
said, we love your podcast. It's, you know, we really enjoy
20:05
listening. Thank you so much for putting it
20:07
together. And it really is about the
20:08
people. And he kept echoing that back to
20:10
us, too. And just sort of, you know, like
20:14
we've all said to each other a million times over at nauseam,
20:17
the cars are what open the door for these conversations.
20:20
But he could not have been like a more lovely person.
20:25
And as we were chatting about the podcast, he said, you know,
20:29
I love our podcast and and we really enjoy doing it.
20:31
And he kind of talked to me through their process and the
20:35
way they pick the topics they're going to talk about.
20:37
And like one of my favorite things about their show is they
20:39
do the quote emergency podcasts, which always makes me laugh.
20:43
And anytime you see that in the heading, you go, OK, this is you
20:46
know, it's going to be good that they're like alert emergency
20:48
podcast. But he said, I do listen to
20:52
spikes car radio. I really love them.
20:55
And I said, well, you know, they're all here, right?
20:57
And he said no. And I said, have you met them?
21:00
He said no, and I said, what would you like to?
21:03
And he said I'd love to. So I, I said, well, we haven't
21:06
seen the helicopter go over in a minute.
21:08
The chances are they're still here.
21:10
I called Johnny and he said we're we're just about to leave,
21:13
but we're in the VIP area. Bring him over.
21:16
So and Neil could had been heading that way anyway.
21:19
So Dan and Neil and I walked over.
21:21
Johnny came out and got him. He got to meet everybody on the
21:24
Spikes crew. And the funniest part was he
21:27
said, I love the show. I really do identify with
21:31
Zuckerman. And I try to sort of, you know,
21:33
emulate Zuckerman. And I'm like, well, yeah, we can
21:36
all understand that. He's hilarious.
21:38
But it was just the most delightful.
21:40
I kept sort of virtually pinching myself going, like, I
21:43
love this show, Dan. You're the one that, you know,
21:45
turned us on to it here. And it was just like one of
21:49
those car world magic moments of like, are you kidding?
21:53
I'm talking to Neil Clifford. I got to meet Chris Harris at
21:56
Lamar. And it was like, this is just
21:59
wild. You know, you can't make this
22:01
stuff up and you can't you can't manufacture this.
22:04
Yeah. And it was.
22:04
Just copters coming and going, I mean.
22:06
Helicopters, you know, I know I looked at my dad at one point
22:09
because Johnny came out and we were chatting and then he's
22:12
like, OK, we got to go the helicopter, you know, And I
22:14
looked at my dad and said the number of events we've been at
22:17
where our friends go, like, well, my helicopter is about to
22:19
leave. So next year, I guess you know
22:22
you're in the right place, right?
22:24
But. Yeah.
22:25
But Dan, you got to meet Neil earlier in the week, right?
22:27
Yeah, I met him. So Singer had a private party on
22:31
Friday night and I had to sign an NDA.
22:34
So that's all I can tell you about that private party.
22:36
But I did meet. It happened.
22:38
I did meet him there and very briefly just as I was leaving,
22:43
he told me he was a big fan of the museum and he told me he
22:47
owns a Steve McQueen Mercedes-Benz and that's the My
22:51
Queen. Mercedes-Benz is in our good
22:55
friends Mercedes Classic in Long Beach.
22:59
So it's OK, it's at the classic. Center on display at the.
23:02
Coons and Nate and. Crew.
23:04
But the best part of the story for me was it was probably about
23:09
3:30 on the Saturday. The event closed at 4:00 and I
23:14
ended up in the car park where the car show was leaning up
23:18
against a car talking to three of my friends from Dirtfish.
23:22
And we were just shooting the shit about cars.
23:24
And then he wanders by. So I just said hey Neil come
23:28
meet my friends. So I pulled him over.
23:30
We just we were talking about cars leaning against cars.
23:34
We could have been at any car show.
23:38
He has a Peugeot T16 Group B rally car, Rd. car and he's
23:44
like, you know what? I really don't know where to get
23:47
this serviced in the UK and and we were like, we know someone.
23:51
So I texted him the details of someone that could service his
23:54
car for him. And isn't that just car culture?
23:57
Yeah. Yeah, I mean it.
23:59
And I think that sort of sums it up.
24:00
It's like for all of the like sort of logistical hiccups,
24:04
which really just add to the story, the day sort of kept
24:07
unfolding that way of it was all these people that just love
24:11
cars, love car culture, wanted to be there.
24:15
And I think with the added mix of people that had travelled a
24:18
long way for this event, it was not just Southern California,
24:20
obviously Neil's from the UKI had somebody from Seattle
24:24
message me and say, hey, are you going to be there?
24:26
Like people came a long way. And it was just like, again, it
24:30
was just about the people. And we have this huge common
24:33
interest. Some people call it a sickness,
24:35
but you know. Yeah.
24:38
We just had the chance to connect and, you know, meet
24:40
people that we hadn't necessarily met before but
24:42
realized, like, we all share this this big, big, big thing,
24:46
and we're all just car people at the end of the day.
24:48
Yeah. Yeah.
24:50
So what did you do last weekend, Ryan?
24:53
That sounds awesome, I'm really sorry I missed it.
24:57
Well, we were sorry that you weren't there.
24:58
Well, and one, I will say one other funny thing.
25:01
Yeah, again, which was where you just go like you could never
25:05
have. Like if you had told me this was
25:07
going to happen, I would not have believed you.
25:09
When we were talking to Neil, Dario for and Katie walked up
25:13
after he had changed from the race because he and Neil know
25:16
each other. And I had gotten to see him race
25:20
at Goodwood at the Revival a couple years ago.
25:23
And again, like, Neil was the most generous.
25:25
He introduced all of us to Dario and he said, you know, and
25:29
Lindsay does a podcast. And so I said to Dario, like,
25:32
it's so nice to meet you. I got to see you race a good
25:34
one. And he went, oh, boy.
25:35
Like, oh, Nope. Yeah.
25:38
But in a very good-natured. Yeah.
25:40
Yeah. Again, it was just a bunch of
25:41
car people. Yeah.
25:42
But you're like, but you have names that I know.
25:45
Dan McGinnis sent a picture of that scene and he's kind of in
25:48
the corner. Like, do you guys remember the
25:50
the meme on the Internet? Like, I don't know, in the early
25:52
days of the Internet with like the Firestarter girl where she
25:55
just has like this look in her eyes, like the house burns
25:57
behind her. That's like, fine.
26:00
Like this is happening, you know, but.
26:02
I think that picture is Dario shaking my daddy's hand.
26:05
And I told them I'm like, how did you get a picture?
26:08
Like you just happened to take a picture of that's good.
26:10
My dad getting to meet Dario, which is, you know, and if you
26:13
didn't have that on my bingo card.
26:15
If you don't know Dario, he's the chief test driver for the
26:18
Gordon Murray cars. Right.
26:20
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:21
So he rented to him on Angela's Crest one time, right?
26:24
And. Like when he had the Gordon my
26:26
car, Yeah, when he had it up there ahead of car week last
26:29
year. And that was Dan said.
26:31
And again, it was like, we're all just car people because Dan
26:33
said, yeah, we actually met and I have the green spider with the
26:36
miles on it. And Dario went Oh my God, yeah,
26:38
it's so good to see you because they ran into each other at Good
26:41
Vibes. Yeah, that's awesome.
26:42
That's awesome. That's awesome.
26:44
And while you were there, you put that car show stickers and
26:46
all the cars in the parking lot as.
26:48
Planned, I was handing them out. People are like, what is this
26:51
currency? I'm like, yes, it is.
26:54
Go get yourself a burger on that on that car show.
26:58
In the VIP well. Sounds like a hell of a good
27:02
time, and I know we're only scratching the surface of
27:04
stories and all that some I think more stories will come out
27:07
over time right as NDA's expire and this kind of thing.
27:10
But. Well, I think so.
27:12
I have a question for Dan. Actually.
27:14
I'm curious about this because I didn't anticipate this until we
27:18
were there and I realized I kind of had one foot in each world in
27:23
the sense of I've been driving there for a long time and so has
27:26
my family. So, but we've known it as this
27:29
sort of remote track in the desert with like I will say,
27:33
amazing restrooms, but you know, just like 1 little cafe.
27:36
Why? Why are they amazing?
27:37
I want to know. They're clean and functional,
27:39
and they're not fortified. Sometimes it's all you need,
27:41
yeah. OK, listen, the bar is low, but
27:43
they've always been like high on the list.
27:46
Acceptable, yeah. Right.
27:48
Like very, very, you know, passable and they have a cafe
27:52
there, obviously, but there's the cafe.
27:54
That's it. There's no services.
27:57
But I just have sort of like I was going to the event to see
28:01
like, hey, what's the future for this area that I have known as a
28:04
racetrack? And I've driven on for a long
28:06
time. And it was interesting to look
28:08
at the crowd. And my sense was not a lot of
28:12
the people in the crowd either have driven at the track or have
28:17
driven at this track. And sort of listening to the
28:19
people that have driven there for a long time and their
28:22
understanding or lack of like what Singer is and that brand
28:26
and the kind of cars that Singer makes, which is something that's
28:30
very familiar to the three of us, too.
28:33
And so, Dan, I was curious what your sense was as far as like
28:38
the attendees and people's perception of the event.
28:41
Did you think it was a lot of track enthusiasts, car
28:44
enthusiasts, people that were just curious, want something to
28:47
do on a Saturday? Yeah, I think I would break it
28:51
down into the two areas because there was AVIP area, Yeah.
28:58
And I think the folks in the VIP area were either celebrities or
29:04
folks interested in investing in the track.
29:07
So there's a couple of membership options that can be
29:11
taken. And then I the impression I got
29:13
is the general other folks were car lovers.
29:17
Maybe they hadn't driven at the track, but they were, you know,
29:20
lovers of both historic cars and modern cars.
29:23
So I think it was a combination of investors and and folks that
29:27
just had a passion for the track and but maybe not driven there.
29:30
Interesting. Yeah.
29:32
How was the food? So they they did have a lovely
29:37
spread in the media area, but I kind of buzzed in and buzzed
29:42
back out. Dan, you got to go into the VIP
29:44
area. The otherwise, the lines, they
29:47
did have several food stations, but the lines were really long
29:50
so I had some first snacks in the car on the way home, but Dan
29:53
got to go in the VIP area so he can report back.
29:56
On that seems lovely. It was like roast pork or rice
29:58
beef. Oh God.
29:59
Alright, stations and you know all the trimmings and everything
30:02
else and I to be honest with you I didn't eat till really late
30:05
because should be working away. Well, you were working, yeah.
30:08
Yeah, I managed to get some food at the last minute, Yeah.
30:14
Sounds like a great event. Like I said, I'm super jealous.
30:16
So glad that you guys were there representing that car show.
30:18
And yeah, it's it was definitely where all the cool kids were.
30:23
And also interesting that there was a limit of 5000 people and
30:27
exactly 4999 showed up so. Isn't that wild?
30:31
It's yeah. I mean, it really speaks to like
30:34
sort of the the diligence of the event planner.
30:37
The other Yeah, well. Things that so the Fat Ice
30:41
Racing have partnered with a go karting group under somebody
30:45
called Rob Smedley. Rob Smedley is if you ever heard
30:50
any of the Formula One radio messages between the engineer
30:54
and the driver, Felipe Massa from Ferrari had Rob Smedley as
30:58
his engineer. So I think when he won races,
31:02
Rob was very famous for saying Philippe, oh baby, you've done
31:05
it. So, but Rob is like a technical
31:08
genius and he's developed a go Kart, an electric go Kart to
31:13
democratize and try and make go karting more accessible.
31:17
It started 8 months ago in the UK, but they're going to have
31:20
their world finals at Willow in December, on the 14th of
31:24
December 30. Porsche is going to be there
31:27
because he's invested in the program as well.
31:30
So yeah, those carts were running.
31:34
If you listen to his Smoking Tire, Ferdie was on that and he
31:38
was talking a little bit more about that program.
31:41
And then the other thing is that there's 2 tracks there.
31:44
In essence, there's more than two tracks, but there's two
31:47
nominal tracks, right? And when the big one closes
31:50
down, which will be now, and it'll get slightly redesigned so
31:55
there'll be further options on the track.
31:56
You won't have one specific set course, so near the final turns
32:02
there'll be options to cut in as well.
32:04
But is it Buttonwillow or Little Willow the other?
32:09
Streets. Of Willow.
32:10
Thank you. That is now.
32:12
Open and. Repay done and it will be fully
32:14
operational as well. So, yeah.
32:17
So it's a great event. Next year we will need to be
32:20
there. Yeah, that's right.
32:22
Yeah, yeah. I was surprised.
32:24
I like, maybe naively didn't realize that this was the first
32:27
of many, you know, reimagined events.
32:29
I was surprised afterwards when people were saying thanks for
32:32
coming to the 1st and I was like, wait a minute.
32:35
But yeah, 1. So they've done a lot of
32:38
improvements to streets with the runoff.
32:41
One thing I did here is that they've added Armco railing,
32:45
which is a concern to motorcyclists.
32:47
Like if you have a wipeout, it can be a serious issue.
32:51
So people are concerned about that.
32:52
But yeah, I'm interested to see what they do with Big Willow.
32:57
Yeah, I think Big Willow in the future could be used for bikes.
33:01
Which is, that'd be great, yeah. Alexander Verts, I think it is,
33:06
has been the chief architect of designing the track and he's ex
33:10
Formula One, he's an ex Formula One driver, so.
33:15
I read something where it was an enthusiast had spoken with Rob
33:19
Dickinson at Car Week I think, and he said they were keeping
33:22
Turn 9, which has been like if you wipe out at Turn 9, it's
33:26
been very unforgiving and there's been a big hole near the
33:30
apex. So apparently there were some
33:33
people that wanted them to do something, eliminate Turn 9.
33:36
I don't know. Turns out they're on the track.
33:39
9. 9 OK. You come out of nine onto the
33:41
front straight. Got you.
33:43
OK. Yeah.
33:44
So that's staying. So I guess turn before turn 8
33:48
there'll be an option to come inside the track instead of
33:50
taking turn. 80, I cut it off. Yeah, I could see that.
33:53
Yeah. There's a back straight before
33:55
you go into 8 and then you go into 9 and then you're on the
33:58
front straight. It's a great little Stargate.
34:00
Great, yeah, Great elevation. It's a fun, fun circuit.
34:06
Yeah. I think it's a good mix because
34:08
it is. You can get going so fast, but
34:11
it's like it's got plenty of opportunity for technical
34:15
driving. So hopefully they preserve that.
34:18
What's a hell of a commercial for Willow Springs?
34:23
Before I forget, we have a Sheffield Watch giveaway.
34:27
A winner to announce. That's right.
34:30
This, this was this was the contest that took a little
34:32
thinking, right? You had to you.
34:34
Had to be clever. You had to work.
34:35
We had a. That's right, as it should be.
34:38
And we had a good number of responses.
34:40
So, you know, we had a very scientific way of I guess,
34:44
weighing the answers and we picked a winner.
34:48
And that winner is. That winner is that car show fan
34:54
seeking Kevin see Kevin go Kevin first all and there were there
35:00
was much text discussion, which is obviously that was our
35:03
scientific method and we really enjoyed Kevin's response.
35:06
So if you didn't get a chance to read it, check out our our watch
35:10
post and you can see his comment.
35:13
But Kevin, congratulations on winning a Sheffield watch.
35:16
Please DM the show with your mailing address and the watch
35:19
that you'd like and we will get that processing.
35:22
But we are so excited for you. Till next time, we're that.
35:25
Car Show. And remember, always be driving
35:27
and we'll see you next week. Thanks so much for joining us.