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Adventures in Travel and Partnership: The Lilienthal Rally Team · In Wheel Time Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30-minute mini version of the In Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am Central.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: This is the only place to go for all things automotive, the award-winning In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We check in with our globetrotters, the Lillian Falls, to see what they're up to Later.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Jeff has the racing calendar, mars has this Week in Auto History and I'll get you caught up on the stories making automotive news headlines this week.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Howdy, along with Mike, out of this world bars down there.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: We always need more.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Jeff Zekin here, our chief engineer, david Ainsley over there, and I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, direct to the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Andy and Mercedes, the Lilienthals.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, yay, where in the heck have you been?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: We missed you guys.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Are you muted?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, they're muted.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: You're muted, you're muted, you're muted.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: We can't hear you.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: No, they're not muted.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: They're not muted.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: We can't hear you.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Why can't we hear you, mars?
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Is this your problem, mars?
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Uh-oh, I got the Zoom potted all the way up here.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: There's no reason why we can't hear them.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to have a reason?
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: There is a reason, but it's not sure what it is Okay.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Well, that's good, all right, so we're going to pause them while Mr Morris works on this and in the meantime and in between time we will.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, wait a minute, now I can hear you, okay.
• 1:38
  Speaker 6: Was it on your end?
• 1:39
  Speaker 6: No, it's the ONOFF switch.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Oh, it was not.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Well, at any rate, you're there, we hear you.
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: Oh good, hey Hi Hi.
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: Thanks for having us on the show.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: God, I love the electronic stuff.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: Especially when it's live.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's nothing you can do.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: What I was going to do is I was going to read the whole one-pager that I got on you and one-pager that I got on you, and I figured after we run out of that, then well, I've run out of stuff.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: How have you guys?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: been Good.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: We've been good Doing all kinds of cool stuff, traveling a lot, traveling a lot.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so trying to stay out of all your southern winter weather.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: Oh my God, yes, it's sunny and beautiful here in Portland, which is really weird this time of year yeah, it's like two days.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Well, are you so, are you guys?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Your guys are back home, then, obviously yeah, we, we are.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: We were in, uh, new orleans uh, four days before that big snowstorm thing and just on kind of a vacation.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: And it's funny because I'm trying to sell a set of snow tires up here and nobody wants them.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: But I was like I should sell these in Florida or Louisiana.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or here in Houston, texas, where we had a rash of wrecks the day after the snowstorm, when you know, people were getting out and all the streets are okay.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's cold black ice.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And then I had a truck passing me 70 miles an hour on the beltway and I'm going this is not good Bigger than daylight.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Two miles down the road he crashed his brand-new pickup truck at least $10,000 with the front-end damage when he hit the wall by himself, nobody else.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, is that Well that was good, just him.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: So, besides those places that you've been, what have you been doing for fun with a car underneath you?
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, gosh, lots of stuff.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we took our annual winter road trip over to Wisconsin visit family over the holidays, which is always a good time for us, gives us a little mini vacation before and after and get to get some miles on the car.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Now is it you or Mercedes that have family there?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: We both do yeah.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Are you both from Wisconsin?
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I'm from Minnesota originally but both my mother and my uncle both live in Wisconsin now went to college in Wisconsin, but he's still a Packers fan so all good.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So I want to know where in Wisconsin.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: So my mother lives in Hudson, wisconsin, right on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Mercedes and I both went to college at University of Wisconsin Stout, which is about 60 miles east of the Twin Cities, and my uncle lives in La Crosse, wisconsin.
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: And my mom lives in a tiny town in central Wisconsin.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm from Waukesha Wisconsin.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Did you know that?
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: I don't think so.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Well, we lived in Milwaukee for five years.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Well, there you go See.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Well remember on Happy Days.
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: I think Waukesha was some sort of like remote, ooh like a vacation place, not as you well know, it's like Miami, a vacation place, not, as you will know, miami, yeah, wow, yeah, we moved to oregon in 2006 and before then we lived, we lived several years in milwaukee.
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: So, um, the east side, uh, on prospect avenue, and then, uh, bayview, so yeah, and then andy worked out there at kalmbach publishing yeah, I worked for steel auto magazine and uh in waukesha, kalmbach publishing well, I want you to know that.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Uh, going to grade school in waukesha, wisconsin, I walked by Carroll College, which is now the University of Wisconsin at Waukesha.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, wow, very cool Small world.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: It is a small world, that's great.
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: Well, thanks.
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: That's all the time we've got guys.
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: That's all we've got.
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: Thanks for checking in.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: All right, and we're out, that's it.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: So you know, the last time we talked to you, what was it?
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: The Alcan 5000?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: No, they went to Europe.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It was on the Baltic.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Sea.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Circle Rally yeah yeah, that's it yeah.
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: One of those two.
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: We did both of them this year and they were both very different and successful in their own ways.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Well, so do you want to talk about that, or let's talk about something you got coming up?
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: We're going to do all of them, but we'll make it your order, whatever you'd like.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: Let's talk about what we did.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: So the last thing we did was the Baltic Sea Circle Rally, which was nine countries in 16 days and about 5,000 miles, all in a Volkswagen IDBuzz electric van, just to make things a little bit more difficult.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: So it's not enough to have a variety of different languages, currencies and all that, but let's do it in an electric van.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: But we successfully did it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: We were the first Americans to actually do it in an EV, first non-Europeans to do an EV.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: It was certainly a challenge, but it was incredible.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Where in the Baltic Sea do you find charging stations?
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: That is a very good question and, as the navigator, we have to find them carefully.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: This rally it's called the Baltic Sea Circle Rally.
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: For those of you watching it's about a five-inch or five-inch sorry, half-an-inch thick book.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: And this rally is a backroads rally.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: So no autobahns, no major motorways, that kind of thing.
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: So backroads, no GPS.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: You have to get your own paper maps.
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: Oh my God, Try to live in the US and find Estonia, latvia, lithuania and Poland any kind of paper maps, much less current ones.
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: And in English and in maps much less, uh, current ones, and in english, and in english, and yeah right, because most of everything was spelled in their native language.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: So it was like oh, norway is norway, or however you pronounce it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: For instance, um, but for charging, when we knew we were close and we were in a city, because we had to, kind of, you have to plan your own routes, by the way too, um, we had to use gps to find the actual charging stations there.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: There was no way around that.
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: So that part, you know, that's the only part where we really engaged GPS.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And how was that?
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, did you on your route that you had planned?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: What?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Do you have to drive 60 miles off the route to find the charging station?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: No, the routes we usually planned were around to get to charging stations, so kind of like unlike maybe some of the people in gas or diesel vehicles who could kind of go whichever way they decided we were sort of tied to like, OK, we've got to get to this town because it has two charging stations, and that's one thing that we did was we made sure we went to places usually that had at least two options for fast charging.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: A couple of times, one time, for example and this was one of these things where we should have verified it was we drove to the highest point you can drive, or, excuse me, the farthest north you can drive in Europe, which is the top of Norway called Nordkapp or North Cape, and on one of the third-party charging apps Charge Finder, I believe it was it said that there were two 150-kilowatt-hour chargers.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I thought, well, that's amazing, we're going to drive to the end of the world and there's going to be two chargers.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: So we didn't charge on the way up.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: It's all about the weather as we approached Nordkapp, which was about 33 degrees Fahrenheit with about 45 mile an hour, winds and pea soup fog.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: we approached and I think we had about 30 kilometers left 45.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: 45 kilometers left.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: 45.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: 45 kilometers left.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Downhill.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: How many freedom units that is, but it's something like 20 miles left and I pulled up to pay our entrance.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: There's a little hut and I said where are the chargers?
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: And she looked at me and said I don't know what you mean the EV chargers?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: And she says I don't think we have EV chargers here.
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: Oh.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: God, oh no, I mean, like the record went off, the needle went off, the record, you know, and so we marched inside, and I mean it was a march due to this weather.
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: We couldn't find anything.
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: We couldn't even see the tour center that was there, much less the globe sculpture that was at the end.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: You were the globe sculpture.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: A moderately helpful person inside who told us we couldn't come inside because we apparently hadn't paid enough money to come inside.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: She said there was a charger on a hut in the parking lot and again, we can see about 10 feet in front of us as far as we can see.
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: So we eventually found this hut and the hut had been completely fenced off and there was an old Tesla wall charger that was unavailable to us and we thought, oh boy maybe we have to stay there for 24 hours if we're even to get any kind of charge at 11 kilowatts an hour.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: So we thought well, you know, maybe this is the time, maybe this is going to be the first time we actually run out of juice on this thing.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Maybe this is the time, Maybe this is going to be the first time we actually run out of juice.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: on this thing which you have to realize, if I may interject for a second, there's no help if we run out of juice.
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: You can't just get a gas can or a petrol or diesel can and fill us up.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: We have to be towed somewhere.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Right, so we played it extremely conservatively.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Luckily, we were at elevation at NordCAP and we were able to do a lot of coasting and used the Volkswagen ID Buzz's regenerative braking to feed back some clicks to the odometer and we made it down to the next town with a fast charger, which I believe was Honesvagn Yep and they had a fast charger and we coasted in and we actually added miles to the odometer because of all that regenerative braking, we added about 14 or 15 kilometers back on, and that saved our butts and by the time we got down there we were in single digits as far as percentage left.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: So does the car have a neutral, that you put it in neutral and just use the brake while the car is actually on?
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: So it has a regenerative braking mode.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: So tell them when you d motor b, so you have d drive, and then you have b, which is, as in boy, which is the regenerative braking mode.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: And so when we would go down these hills, I'd put it in the b mode and it would regeneratively brake as we went down the hill without touching the brake pedal.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: So it helped to feed some of that back and uh, yeah, we, we got lucky and and, uh, you know, played it all right.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So here here's the real question that's on everyone's mind how many fights did you have between you two?
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: during the rally, we had two pretty good ones.
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: That's all the spirit of rally, right, whether it's a time, speed, distance, precision rally or this one where you make your own route.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: It's all back roads, it's complete different languages and currencies, as Andy said, and you have to make your own sleeping accommodations.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: We have a sleeping platform and a cook set up, called a cuckoo because essentially a cuckoo.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: Well, you Q, u, q.
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, I can't remember the exact name.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: I think it's the bus box for specific, specifically made for the ID buzz that the German made company so we were able to sleep within our van, and, for instance, in Scandin they have.
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: What is it called?
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: It's called Right to Rome, where it allows you to camp anywhere you want.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: So I have to ask you now so when you have this fight Mercedes, does he get to sleep outside?
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I?
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: wanted him to.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: I wanted him to.
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what happens.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: It can be a challenge, no matter what type of team you have, right, if you're you know, father, son, if you're friends, if you're partners any of those types of things.
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: Rally can be pretty stressful, but the thing is is you might be mad at the situation.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: You just have to stay surgical and the fact that you're not really mad at each other, or try your best to not be it's.
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: It can be if you're locked into a steel box together with with each other for almost 5 000 miles, 16 days, 16 days in nine countries.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Just imagine that I kill you, you have to kill you.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: You have to make sure there's no guns in the van, don't bring nobody brings a gun and you gotta pee and you got to pee.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: We did have a spare tent in case I did need to.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: In all fun we did really well.
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: I mean, you know, a lot of it was communication, a lot of it was, you know, trying to pre-plan and allow each other forgiveness Because this one didn't have a designated route.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: There was a tracking app through a program called find two penguins, where you, where people, can see all the rest of the teams, and it was nuts because the first day or two were like, you know, we started really early knowing that when we stopped to charge, everybody else would start keeping you know, would start adding their mileage against us and in and come up, you know, next to us and pass us.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: So we would.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: We would wake up really early, like 4 or 5 in the morning and we'd pass everybody else that's already sleeping, and then we'd stop somewhere for coffee and a charge and they'd wave and honk and say, hey, as they were headed past.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: But with this app, after the first day or two trying to figure out how back roads are back roads Like we were on some farm roads where you could barely get a tractor down and there was grass that was growing in the middle of the median livestock laying in the road I think we're supposed to even be on this road.
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: It's not on the map.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: I'm I'm sweating bullets.
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: But we quickly realized that there were people that were like you know, 500 kilometers ahead, way off in this country, or there Some people dived, you know dived, or dove into Sweden, for instance, for a good bit, or you know wherever else.
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: It was like holy cow.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: And then there are people that just said, ok, I'm just going to beeline it all the way up to Nordkapp, and they were a day ahead of everybody else.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: So we quickly realized oh, you really plan your own route and make it work.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: You just have to show up within an hour and a half time, within the 16th day, in Hamburg at the fish market.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: So you guys volunteer for this?
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm thinking?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking that you are going to be the both of you as a couple couples.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Therapy 101 class.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I can tell you everything not to do you know what, when we went on our honeymoon a hundred years ago, um, we rented a tandem bicycle.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, and we.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: It requires communication.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: So the joke was like if you ever need couples therapy, rent a tandem bicycle because for a tandem kayak, but I like your idea of like.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: We're gonna lock you in a car for 16 days and send you on your way and you've got to figure it out.
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: The best part of the whole entire Baltic Sea Circle rally.
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: That was our 20-year wedding anniversary gift to each other Willingly I would
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: never, raise my hand for that.
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: Do you know what?
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: The best part of that 20 years was 21 years ago.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: It definitely requires you to communicate and make sure.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: I guess you could stay mad the whole time, but it would be pretty miserable.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: I mean you learn every time you travel period, especially international travel, we learn what to do do, what not to do, and we take those lessons.
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: If we disagree on something or if we have a spat later on, we reflect on that and we work that back into our marriage and say, okay, this is what I learned from this, because we have to agree to disagree on x or y or whatever it may be.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: So you know.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: So your degree is actually in therapy and not cars.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I got it.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: Listen, guys, we're running out of time and Mr Mars is sitting here.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And Mr Mars, do you think that we could have them as guests in a couple of weeks?
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: That's going to depend on.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: They're hard to nail down.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: I know that they are.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Where are you guys going to be in two weeks from today?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, we'll have to look.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: We're actually doing a rally up in Canada starting the 1st of February called Thunderbird, so it's apparently going to be a very snowy rally, but yeah, well, two weeks we'll get back to you.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: We'll get back to you.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Here's another day-long rally, so yeah, well, two weeks we'll get back to you, We'll get back to you.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: All right, here's another day-long rally, but yeah, we'll find time, because we've gone too long without speaking to you so we've got to play catch-up here.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So we're going to do that as soon as you guys can do that, because we want to talk to you some more.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: We'll have our people call your people.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: We love you both.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Y'all take care, be safe out there and stay in touch.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: You too.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you all.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 18:12
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• 18:29
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• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Better yet, stop by their facility at 11275 south sam houston tollway, just south of the southwest freeway, and get a personal tour.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Gulf coast auto shield is your place to go for all things exterior.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Call them today 832-930-5655 or gcautoshieldcom.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back to the in-wheel time car talk show.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Let's do the racing calendar sponsored by Texas Muscle Car Club Challenge.
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: You bet February 2nd, next Sunday is the Clash Bowman Gray, that's NASCAR stuff going on and of course the 16th is the actual Daytona 500.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Is that?
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: at Bowman Gray Stadium, I believe.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: So, yes, wow.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: And then you got the 16th is the actual 500.
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: And I guess the 500 is actually losing interest with some of the fans out there.
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: They're having problems getting traction on it for NASCAR.
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: But that's NASCAR overall.
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: And then you've got coming up another month.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: And then we've got the NHRA Gator Nationals in Gainesville Raceway.
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: That's coming up there.
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: Soapbox Derby you've got February 8th and two weeks Florida Soapbox Derby, february practice that is in North Florida.
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: So if you're out there, go ahead and do that.
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: Fia Formula E racing got February 13th and 15th in Saudi Arabia.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: So you got Formula E open wheel with electric.
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: And then you've got March 14th.
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: Through the 16th You've got demolition derbies at the FI Tech Fuel Injection Spring Nationals presented by Grundy Insurance in Scottsdale, arizona.
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: So that's coming up as well at Demolition Derby time.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, time now for this week's auto history, and Mr Morris has that.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I do so a couple of things I've found rather interesting this week.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: In 1915, the first geared differential in an automotive drivetrain was patented in the United States.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: This is something that you don't think about too much because it's just there and it does its job, but it's a crucial component that allows the drive wheels of the vehicle to rotate at different speeds, which is essential for smoother turning.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Before this innovation early vehicles they had a simpler system, but it struggled with getting the power around, and when we were teenagers and didn't have any money, we would go in and have those spider gears welded Because we were trying to drag race and we didn't care about going around corners until we started going around corners.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they looked really funny.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: When you come back on the return road at the drag strip, Absolutely and hop across that.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah trying to make that turn.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: It's kind of like whatever.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: So also this week, back in 1968, canned Heat released their album Boogie with Canned Heat, which included the song On the Road Again.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, great road tripping car.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: Also this week, in 1975, mercury Bobcat goes public.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: Now this the Ford Motor Company announced that they would begin selling the Mercury Bobcat in the United States because the car had already been on sale in Canada for a year.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: That was to give them a subcompact vehicle.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: Now, this was initially available in two body styles, a three-door hatchback and a station wagon, and it was targeted as kind of like an upscale version of the Ford Pinto.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: It was basically built off of a Ford Pinto Designed during the 70s fuel crisis.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: It emphasized fuel efficiency and affordability with inline four-cylinder engines.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Built 224,026 Bobcats between 1975 and 1980.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: No 26,000 26 bobcats between 1975 and 1980.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: No, also this week, in 1987, the jeep wrangler yj was introduced.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: Now, this was supposed to mark a new era for the jeep brand.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: It replaced the classic cj that had been produced since 1944 square headlights.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Everybody hated it and sales went down the toilet.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, that was.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Its most notable design feature was a controversial rectangular headlights, which most Jeep guys like you say they'll tell you that's not a real Jeep because it's got square headlights.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Now it did solidify the Wrangler as a modern icon, even though the square headlights were used from 87 to 95.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: The Jeep YJ sold as the Wrangler in the United States and when it was originally sold in Canada, even though it was built in Canada, they couldn't use the Wrangler name because Chevrolet already had a truck branded with that.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: They can now use the Wrangler name in Canada, but they've also moved the Chevy Wrangler.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: I didn't know that.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: I tried to find one and I couldn't find a picture of one, but the Jeep's now built in the United States and they can use the name, so it's all good.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Now, also this week in 2013, the Hennessey Venom GT set a Guinness World Record for the fastest road legal car 0-186 mph in 13.63 seconds.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: Good looking too.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: 0-200 13.63 seconds yeah, good looking too.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Zero to 200 17.68 seconds, making it the unofficial fastest accelerating road legal car in the world.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Now, zero to 60 was a mere 2.7 seconds out of this vehicle quarter mile 9.92 at 163 and had 1244 horsepower at 6600 rpm out of an 11 uh.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: 1155 pound feet of torque out of an engine 427 engine.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Wow, it is just a technology monster with carbon fiber framing and body panels on it to get the weight down.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: It's just an amazing vehicle from a technology standpoint.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: That's this week in automotive history.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, I was trying to get these in order because I don't want to bore you in any way at any time.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: But he's going to anyway.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I hope not.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Honda has told its dealers it will shift its production mix to lower trim levels to combat sticky affordability issues that continue to impact the industry in 2025.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: That means dealerships will be able to offer more economically priced versions of Honda vehicles to budget-minded customers.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Budget-minded customers those sales will be a small portion of the pie, but they say that they'll have options to help somebody with affordability of buying a new car.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Well good, we look forward to hearing about that.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Stellantis has canceled the long-range variant of the electric Ram 1500 Rev or REV pickup, according to a company notice distributed to suppliers and obtained by Mopar Insiders.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: According to a company notice distributed to suppliers and obtained by Mopar insiders.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: But now the Rev will be available in one variant, 350 miles of range, when it arrives in 2026.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: That is the Ram Electric source told Automotive News.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: The move was related to the company's decision to delay the Rev's 2025 debut.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Electric vehicle startup Canoo C-A-N-O-O said it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will cease operations effective immediately.
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: Bye-bye, we don't care.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: We looked into them a couple years ago, I knew that they would not make it with that.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: It's a California company, isn't it?
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's way overpriced and it's ugly, and it's just bizarre.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Ford has the highest-ranked website amongst mass-market automakers, while Tesla was the highest-ranked for those designed as premium automakers.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: According to JD Power's US Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study released January 9th, jlr and Mercedes-Benz ranked second and third highest amongst premium automakers, while Alfa Romeo ranked lowest.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, good luck to you.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: We'll be back right after this quick break.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Pro-am Auto Accessories has been serving Houston's auto enthusiasts since 1984, providing world-class products for sports cars, european sedans and American muscle.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Pro-am is known as the place to go to find exclusive and hard-to-find parts and accessories.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Pro-am is one of the very first distributors in the USA for brands such as Recaro, redline, momo Corbo and Simpson.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Located in the heart of Houston's premier retail and service corridor, the Galleria area, pro-am's walk-in storefront includes an 8,000 square foot warehouse, showroom and installation bays.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Pro-am not only sells parts and accessories, but also offers installation and service.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Pro-am is now reaching a worldwide audience through Pro-Amcom, taking its local reputation to the rest of the world.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: At Pro-Am Auto, you'll be dealing with a small group of professionals who truly want to help you with your automotive needs.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: If you don't see what you're looking for on the website, call and Pro-Am will lend you a hand.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Pro-am Auto 6125 Richmond at Greenridge in Houston's Galleria area.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Call them at 713-781-7755.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: From the open roads to the open waters.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Your adventure starts at the Houston Auto Boat Show at NRG Center.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: One ticket, two shows.
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: Check out top cars, trucks, sport boats, fishing boats and more.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: New designs, new technology and everything in between Spectacular experiences, amazing fun.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: There's something for everyone.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: Get your friends, get your family and get your tickets now.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: The Houston Automotive Show Making waves and fueling adventures.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Well, that's all for this week's In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Be sure and check us out online at inwheeltimecom.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: If you're looking for award-winning car talk.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: You'll find the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show 24-7 on the In Wheel Time app On the road.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Grab a podcast anytime from your favorite podcast provider, including the new SiriusXM podcast channel, and be sure and catch us on the Odyssey radio app.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: We live stream every Saturday on Facebook, youtube and InRealTimecom.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: The In Real Time video technical director is we Need More Jeff Zekin For booking agent, video editor and people finder, mike out of this world, mars and chief engineer David Ainsley.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Next week we're live at the Houston Auto Show and when you're there, look for us inside NRG Center across from the Camp Jeep event.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: We hope you'll join us then.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Have yourself a great week and we'll see you at the car show.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website, youtube Twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, spotify, stitcher, iheart Podcast Podcast, addict TuneIn, pandora and Amazon Music.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Keep listening and we'll see you soon.