My Classic Car with Dennis Gage!

• Let’s talk about the origins of Dennis Gage the petrol-head. Were any of your family members into cars? What attracted you to them? Was there a certain/specific make/model that got you excited about the automotive world?
• You went to school at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois where you majored in both chemistry and physics. Then on to to the University of Idaho where you got your PHD in chemistry – What was your plan there?  How did you end up in the automotive world? And more importantly transition to Broadcasting?
• Many people are familiar with the show, for some of us, it’s always “existed” there’s never been a time without My Classic Car – How/Why was the show born? How do you construct an episode? How do you know what or where to review?
• For those that might be learning about My Classic Car for the first time, what is the show’s format, segments, etc
• What are some of the “best of” memories from My Classic Car
• You were inducted into the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Hall of Fame in 2015. And you serve on the SEMA Board of Directors, as well as a number of academic and industry advisory boards. What are some of the programs and initiatives you’re working on? Preservation of Right-to-Repair? Preservation of Classics / Hot Rods
• You’ve owned a variety of cars. What’s in your garage these days? What does Dennis Gage daily drive? Is there a bucket list vehicle (new or old) you’d still like to own or review?

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motorsports podcast, break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motorsports related.

Growing up on a small family farm in northwestern Illinois, our guests started tinkering with machines at an early age and purchased his first motorcycle, a 50 cc Honda Cub by 12 years old, and his first car, a 59 Thunderbird at age 15, he’s played guitar and trumpet in a variety of rock folk in school bands.

He continued his automotive interest and through the course of his college years, owned a number of muscle and sports cars. He also kept up his music playing in local coffee houses and has opened for acts such as Charlie Daniels, Wayland Jennings, and Dr. Hook. Now, you might be saying to yourself, my goodness, we have a rockstar in our presence, and in fact, you’d be right.

We have the rockstar of the classic car world with us tonight on Break Fix. That’s right, Don. My [00:01:00] classic car hosted by the handled Bard Mustachioed Dennis Gage, premiered as a one of a kind weekly series on t n n January of 1997 and hasn’t been off the air since the show captures America’s love affair with the automobile.

And we’re here to capture Dennis’s story on this episode. So welcome to Break Fix, Dennis. Hey, man, it’s great to be here and co-hosting with me tonight is Don Weiberg from Garage Style Magazine. So welcome back to the show as well. Thank you Eric. Thanks for having me on board. Dennis, glad to see you again.

Glad you, uh, made it out here. Yeah, good to be here, Don. So like, all good break fix stories. They all start with an origin, a Whoah what, where, why, and when. So tell us about Dennis Gage, the Petrolhead. Uh, well, I started out as a child, kind of went from there. I’m a product of the sixties, you know, grew up in a muscle car era.

I think if you were around back then, you, you couldn’t help it. I mean, if you weren’t paying attention to cars, [00:02:00] I, I don’t know what you were paying attention to. I mean, it was the first time that the big three had ever marketed to youth. They were looking to grow the category and they were looking for a new market segment.

You know, in the market segment they identified was youth. And then you always have to have a consumer need in that segment. And the, the need was the need for speed. And so basically they slapped big engines into grocery getter sedans and poof, he had muscle cars and then they just marketed the living crap out of it.

It was the thing, you know, we didn’t have the internet. We didn’t have, uh, cell phones, we didn’t have social media. Thank God . You know, what we did have was we had muscle cars. That was the cool thing. I mean, that was, that was the iPhone 14. If you weren’t paying attention to that, I just don’t know what you were.

And you know, I’m just a small town, country boy. We got three stations down in the valley, three television stations, and there were magazines and, and really, you know, hot Rod Magazine and Car and Driver and even the cool like [00:03:00] cartoons and kind of the outlandish stuff. And Big Daddy Ed Roth was, you know, coming onto the scene.

And so, I mean, it was just, it was the thing, like I couldn’t. . So were you, like a lot of our other guests were, you’re the black sheep of the family, you were the car kid, your dad, mom could have cared less about cars and things like that, or did you grow up in a car? Family? Both my mom and dad liked cars and liked fast cars.

You know, my dad was a Buick guy and, uh, first car I remember it was a, a 50, uh, I guess it was a 54. It had to be, I. Torn, was it a 53 or was it a 54 but it was a 54 Buick special and it had to be, well, I guess that’s not true actually, cuz it had a straight eight. So it still could have been a 53. It had the straight eight engine, which was a lot of engine for that car.

And Buicks were always, you know, torque monsters. So the thing was, thing was pretty fast. And my mom too was, she always liked fast cars. There wasn’t a car hobby back then, per se. Muscle cars kind of started the generation that beget the car hobby back then. There were people that drove point A to point B [00:04:00] cars and some people drove luxury cars and then some people liked fast cars and that was kind of my parents, but it wasn’t like they were big car nuts.

They just dug, uh, cars that went fast. So Dennis, you mentioned that 53 or 54 Buick special there and you said you know that it was a torque monster. Kind of reminds me of the new Benz’s, right? Everybody says they’re torque monsters as well. So was that the car that got you excited about the car world? Is that what lit you up, got you passionate or was there something else that was more attractive?

That was just my dad’s car. It was just pretty fast what it was. It was, uh, you know, it was Madison Avenue, it was marketing, it was, uh, crazy colored cars from these cartoon colored cars from Mopar. It was the Ford Mustang and the Mach one s and the Camaros and stuff. It was really that stuff. The Buick special with the, you know, the straight eight was a fast car and all that, but it was, you know, it was my dad’s car, you know, and then they, they came out with all these cars that were way more hip than that.

So it was really that kind of, You know, almost to be cool you [00:05:00] had to kind of be into that scene, especially if you’re living in rural northern Illinois because there weren’t in a lot of ways to be cool. Uh, you know, . So in the intro we talked about your 50 CC Honda. Right. A lot of us started out with bikes cuz they were accessible, they were cheap.

It was, you know, it was a step up from working on your bicycle basically. But the Thunderbird at 15 years old, why that? And there’s gotta be a story there, right? You know, there is, but it’s, it’s not a Well it’s, it’s an interesting one. Yeah. Actually, that it just was a car I could afford. I wanted a car.

I’m only 15 years old. Didn’t have a license even, but I’d lived in the country. So, you know, I’d been driving since I was eight when I had actually driving on the roads since I was 12, I had a hundred bucks. I learned this 59 T-bird. So I, you know, and I remember, I remember buying it, it was like a, it’s a summer evening, you know, we, we worked our brains off on the farm and everything.

And so we’re finally done working and it’s still light out. Dusk though. So I go look at this thing and it’s like, [00:06:00] Hey, I had a hundred bucks and it was a car. You know, it looked good to me. Then I bought the thing, brought it home. The next morning I, I looked out the window and I was like, I wonder whose pink car that is out there.

Well, it turns out it was mine because Thunderbird in 1959 came in a color called Flamingo, which was a really, really light pink, but it was pink. However, at dusk it looked white. It looked kinda like an off-white, but it wasn’t an off-white. It was actually pink. I learned so much from that car in so many ways.

Probably the most important thing was never buy a car at dusk. It’s really hard to judge, but color it really is. So it wasn’t pink for long. , I did paint it, I dunno, a Thunderbird guy. I’ve had like, I don’t know, seven Thunderbirds. And that was the ugliest body style of all Thunderbirds, the square bird, 58, 9, and 60.

But it was a car. And even though it was this kind of big square hulking thing from the outside, it had its own twisted appeal. But the interior was just incredibly cool. Leather buckets. Buckets in front and, and kind of these formed buckets in back and has all [00:07:00] thunderbirds, this ridiculously aviation inspired dash and a 3 52 engine that has turned out, had not seen oil in the top end for who knows how long.

You know, when I pulled the valve covers, it was just, there was just this black sludge in there and it wasn’t even like, it wasn’t even like oily sludge. You could scrape it off with a putty knife and kind of roll into a ball up, didn’t even get your hands at Drew. And boy, when I pulled the taps off the rocker shaft, that rocker shaft looked like polished chrome cuz it had just been, you know, sanded for a long time.

I drove that thing like a mad man. It was rusted like crazy. I had no idea what I was doing in body work. And I, I mean, Bondo is what you did, right? I mean, that’s what you did. I literally was buying Bondo in five gallon buckets. Did you know they sold it in that? They do, because after a couple quarts was like, I’m gonna need more Bondo than this.

So it was largely a polymer car by the time I was done with it, and I eventually threw a rod on it. I bought it for a hundred, I sold it for 25. I did hit a house with it though. This thing jumped right out in front of, [00:08:00] and I hit it and it was, this was like 4th of July in like 1967 or something like that, you know, and I, I didn’t have a driver’s license.

I’m 15 years old, picked up my girlfriend, drove into town and you know, all the back roads and stuff and I, I don’t have a license, but the cops all thought I did cuz I’d been driving so long. So they left me alone. I’d had to change the starter that day. And that is a nightmare in that freaking car cuz it’s got this big long bendix and you have to kinda like, raise the engine to get, it’s just a nightmare.

And when I put it back together, I forgot to hook up the coil wire. So I ground it and ground it and ground until the battery’s absolutely dead. We drug it around with a truck, you know, to get it started was an automatic transmission. You had to 35 miles an hour to get it to turn over. Wasn’t like a, a standard transmission.

So we drug it around for a while with the coil wire unhooked, and then we foot it on and she did. battery was so dead that I got into town, parked it on a hill, but when it was time to leave after the 4th of July, it was dead still. So we pushed this thing down the hill and it didn’t get it to 35, so it didn’t start.

So this buddy of [00:09:00] mine who gave me the push was driving a 63 Galaxy, three 90 Galaxy, pushed to the end of the street that then became a gravel road out into the country. And, and so he just, as you did back then was, Hey, I’ll give you a push with my car. So he just comes up against it and, and off we go down this gravel road till we hit 35 miles an hour and boom, she starts up, And I’m like, ah, I’m just rumbling away and stop.

And he pulls up alongside me and, Hey, thanks man. You know, let’s really appreciate it. You wanna race and ? Of course. Yeah. He says, yeah, so we’re on a gravel road for god’s sake. Hit the accelerators. Were flying down this gravel road, and of course I had no battery and probably a bad generator, and my headlights were like two matches in front.

After a little bit I see him like falling back. I thought, man, this thing’s faster than I thought it was. I’m really kicking this guy’s. Little did I know that he realized that we were coming to a T intersection and I didn’t, is that T intersection wasn’t a complete T because what went straight was somebody’s driveway.

So, you know, I was like, oh crap, it’s a T intersection. And so I hit the brakes, which [00:10:00] then of course kills the engine and I have no lights, no power steering, I’m correcting to miss a tree and I missed it. And I’m correcting to miss this massive corner fence post and I missed that and I’m correcting to miss the house.

And I, I didn’t miss that. So boom, you know, kinda hit the foundation of the house and this little old lady comes out. Well, you know, it was hard to explain, let me tell you, it was hard to explain, especially when this podium, mine then gives us a ride home cuz it had caved the bumper into the front tire and I couldn’t go anywhere.

Even if I wanted to, we’d drop off my girlfriend, we go down to the farm and he drops me off and everybody, 4th of July, the whole FAMs out on the, it’s like, you know, it’s probably 10 o’clock by now and everybody’s out on front porch, you know, on a summer’s night. And I get dropped off and, and then had to explain where the car was.

And I had quite a few experiences in that. Once pink. 59th Thunderbird after all of that reason. That that car gave you never to buy a car again. I mean, really . Not only did you continue buying cars, you proved you fell in love with cars and you [00:11:00] continued to buy thunderbirds. I did. You know, I, I really did.

Like I said, I’ve had a, had a 59, 63, 64, actually a suicide door, 67 4 door SU 67. That’s, that’s one I most recently got rid of, had a, a 94 and I’ve got an oh two, still have an oh two now. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t know. I mean, I, that didn’t sour me on cars. It kind of soured me on drag racing on gravel roads, and I don’t think I’ve ever done that again.

But I did keep doing the car thing. . Well, it’s kind of funny you told that story cuz normally we ask the race car drivers, you know, what’s your biggest oops moment or code brown moment? So you, you answered that question. Oh yeah. It does lead us into another pit stop question, which will foreshadow a later part of the conversation.

You’ve had the fortune of seeing so many cars in your automotive journey and being behind the wheel of so many cars, and I don’t think people realize that about my classic car. Not only are you going to see cars, but you’re also driving other people’s cars on the show, which is fantastic, and some of the rides are epic.

[00:12:00] Which brings us to one of our classic pit stop questions. Dennis, in your opinion, what’s the most beautiful car of all time? You know, it’s the one with the four wheels in the internal combustion engine. I am just absolutely nuts for that. You know, I really am. Any particular color ? Well, you know, I kind of into green cars.

It’s sort of, sort of a theme on the show. Not pink. Not pink. No, not pink at all. It’s weird. I am sort of a green car guy and if you watch the show, I didn’t even realize what a green car guy I was until I realized that almost every up there’s some green car. And not every green by the way, but I do, I do kind of gravitate toward green cars.

I don’t, I don’t know why and I had a, I had a green uh, E type, E type coop in that weird, it wasn’t British racing green, you know, everybody’s like, I love Jag. Well, scars the British racing green. Well, no it wasn’t. They did one other green, which was called uh, Willow. Willow Willow green, which is a real pale, it’s pastel.

Yeah. Ki kind of, you know what it is? You know what Wedgewood blue is? You know, in fact they do a wedgewood blue, but Wedgewood is the China that’s got all this orna stuff on it, [00:13:00] but it’s this kind of baby. And, uh, it was like if Wedgewood did a green, it would be that. And in fact, as it turns out, I learned later, Wedgewood does do a green, and it’s almost exactly that color.

It’s, it’s, it’s a very light green, uh, and it is truly a love it or hate it color, but I really dig it and it, and I think on the E type, it just looked great. So is the E type, the sexiest car of all time? Oh, E type’s a great car. Well, to this day it is rated as like one of the top 10 most beautiful cars by automotive designers, you know, of all time.

Another one that’s in there that I find interesting, that I think is absolutely stunningly beautiful. Cause I’m also a St. Baker guy, but the 53 Studebaker Starlight Coop is another one of the most beautiful designs ever. It’s a, it’s called the LOI Coop. Raymond Lowy. Mm-hmm. . But he didn’t really design it.

That was his studio. The guy that designed it was Bob Burke. Mm-hmm . It’s just a gorgeous car. So Europeans so ahead of its time. So I think that’s beautiful. E types are great. I think. I don’t know that Jag ever made a bad looking car. I’m not that nuts about the Xjs. I’m coming around. [00:14:00] But overall, I think Jags make beautiful cars.

I’ve got an XK eight coop now. You know, it’s got e type d n A in it and it looks beautiful. A car that I lust after. Oddly enough these days, for some odd reason, I want an Aston Martin repeat, which is the four door Aston Martin, what are you thinking? But I think that’s just a great car. I can see your Aston Martin repeat and I can raise you

That 1980s Aston Martin lag. Yes, that thing Nas at me. I want that car so bad. But I also love the eighties. Yeah, I think that’s nice. I think that’s nice too. I, I love cars that say, I’m gonna give you trouble, boy. I’m gonna get in trouble. You know, I love cars like that. I do, I really do. You know what I like about the repeat though?

You see that car and if you don’t know it, you’re not quite sure. Is this a coop? Is it a sedan? What is this? Oh, ex e. Exactly. And, and that’s, uh, it hides it, the other car. And I have one, the other car that is like, that is the, uh, uh, 2006, uh, Mercedes c l s, the Oh yeah, the teardrop. And, [00:15:00] and that was the early, the first generation of that car.

And that’s another one Mercedes actually called. A four door coop. Right. Which is like a contradiction in terms, but yeah, it’s just freaking gorgeous. Yeah. BMW had one too, didn’t they? Yeah, they did it. The six series, was it six or was it one? They have one now. That kind of looks like this in the eight series, but is it the eight?

Yeah, V dub made one in that tear drop shape. Audi did, but nobody did it. Like the first gen c l s that, and that’s a killer car. The thing is, you know, great Gran Touring. I’ve driven that a couple times out to Colorado. It’s just a wonderful Gran Touring car. But the bottom line is we’ve tried to get you to tell us what you think the most beautiful car of all times is.

What are your thoughts on what is the ugliest car or the worst car of all times? Oh, that’s, uh, that’s the Yugo. Ooh, a new answer. How could that have not been the answer for everybody? I mean, I think, cuz my show’s known, I’ve done this now, this is a production for the 28th year. I, I’ve been absolutely kuda [00:16:00] Camaro Mustang to death.

And not that I don’t love all those cars and I’ve owned all those cars, but you know, you just can’t, for 28 years you can’t do that. My show’s become known for kind of off the beaten path, oddball boy, I forgot they made that, or I never knew they made that, or, oh yeah. Isn’t that interesting? I always say that, you know, there’s something in virtually every car that I find interesting except for the Yugo and I’m sure it’s there.

I just have not found it yet. It’s gotta be there, but I certainly haven’t found it. . Well, Dennis, let’s get back to your origin story a little bit here. So you went to school in North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, where you majored in both chemistry and physics, and then you went on to the University of Idaho where you got a PhD in chemistry, but, but here we are talking about cars.

So how did this all play out? Take us on this journey from chemistry and physics to the automotive world. I’m basically the most needlessly overeducated person in Televis. . Well, you know, I was always a car guy. I was good at [00:17:00] chemistry and physics in high school and definitely knew I didn’t wanna stay on the farm.

So I went to college, which was, you know, kinda the first generation to do that in my family. And in fact, I did major in chemistry and physics. I started with a triple major. I was actually chemistry, physics, and mathematics initially. Wow. But this was also, this was like the early seventies. And I always say I had a great time back then.

Near as I can remember, you know, cuz it was, lemme gonna tell you, you know, it was, uh, it was, it was pretty, uh, mind melting at that time. I was driving a 67 G T O convertible and I was also, I mean, I was playing in bands and I was playing in coffeehouse circuit and stuff like that. Cause I was still doing all that.

And after two years it suddenly occurred to me I was doing all this. academically, but I had really no idea what a chemist, a physicist or a mathematician actually did. You know, near, as I could tell, they went to class three days a week and did two labs a week. You know, my dad’s a farmer, you know, it’s not like, you know, he’d come home at end of the day and I’d say, you know, so dad, how are things in the laboratory?

You know? So I [00:18:00] had no frame of reference. And so what I did was I quit college, went out and got a job as a technician in a lab at, uh, Amico Chemicals, because Naperville at the time, and I think maybe still is r and d headquarters for Amoco. And it’s a huge complex and stuff. So it’s like I was able to get a job.

I hated it. I lasted nine months and, you know, realized that was not what I wanted to do. Not the chemistry part, but the technician part. I wanted to be in a position. I was calling the shots and not just executing somebody else’s ideas. So fortunately, I had still done a night course or two. During that nine months time, I quit Amoco and I went back to North Central and then just quite lighted the thing.

It was just insane. And the other thing, I, I had this epiphany at the time. I had suddenly, and I don’t even know why or how, but I had suddenly learned how to learn. It’s an interesting thing and it’s, it, it’s a very special thing. But at that point it was like I had figured out how to learn and I could learn anything.

I dropped the math major slack dog that I am [00:19:00] and just went with chemistry and physics. I still finished in four years, elapsed time, even taken that nine months off, I still did it in four years, elapsed time. I forwarded the last two years to this quantum physics research, got American Chemical Society Awards for it and, and I was supposed to go right on a University of Wisconsin in theoretical physics, which was what my major professor was kind of into.

But man, was I crispy at that point? I was just, Fried. And, and, and again, remember this is still the early seventies, so you know, there was also all the other extracurricular activities that were going on. I just wasn’t sure I could do this grad school thing right away. I was just really, really fried. Some friends, uh, and I went into Chicago for an Eagles concert near the end of my senior year.

And Eagles were great. You know, these guys are still touring. They’ll be coming out in Walkers someday. Welcome to the Hotel, California. But we had like third row seats and this was before everything was like crazy. So you go to the auditorium in Chicago, I mean, I saw a Springsteen there. Tall Eagle, Eagle, you know, in a 5,000 [00:20:00] seat auditorium, my god, you know, so in a third row.

But it was the warmup band, which was band called Fool’s Gold. I don’t know whatever happened to him, but they had a pedal steel guitar player. And I’m like sitting in front of this guy and this guy blew me away. I didn’t know what this thing was. I was just like, oh my God, that thing’s amazing. I gotta get me one of.

I did. I literally the next day went out and bought one, taught myself to play, and built a band around that and, and decided I’m, I’m not gonna go to grad school. I’m gonna do this band thing, unless my parents were so proud. But yeah, so that’s what I did. We put a band together and we were playing in the Chicago area, and these were people that I’d played with in college and at that time, kind of that whole country rock thing was Eagles and, and these others were in.

And so the Pedal Steel, which is a classic sit down slide country, your cheating heart type instrument, but it was, it’s also a great rock instrument. I mean, Jimmy Page plays pedal steel, Jerry Garcia plays pedal steel. I’m doing that, I’m struggling at that. But I was in the right place at the right time, which is largely the story of my life picked up by another band that was opening for these bigger acts.

And all of a sudden I’m, you know, touring with [00:21:00] this pretty cool band. It was pretty clear early on that was gonna shorten my life, expect. Because I mean, we’re touring and that’s great, but when we’re not touring, we’re back in Chicago and we’re the house band on at a strip club on Rush Street back when Rush Street was wide open in Chicago, and the band that I left, interestingly enough, went on to be a pretty big band.

They merged with another band outta Chicago, and it became a band called Jump in the Saddle, which in the eighties had a pretty big kind of novelty, hit the curly shuffle, and they actually became pretty big. I was down probably near the end of my second year with the band. I was down in Selma, Alabama, and I always.

I made the decision to go to graduate school staring down a barrel of a 45 in Selma, Alabama, . And I said, you know this, I don’t think I’m gonna do this anymore. So I kind of went back to Chicago and said I quit. And then, you know, started looking at grad schools. You know, I had gotten into Outdooring and winter camping and cross country skiing and stuff like that.

And really loved the west and loved the mountains. And that’s, so I, I chose my graduate school largely to be in a proximity of that kind of activity. You know, always say that I did was, I went out [00:22:00] and climbed almost every peak in the Pacific Northwest, a lot of in winter, and got a PhD on the side, , you know, so I’m out there, I’m, every time I wasn’t in the lab, I was in the mountains, you know, I was doing some spectroscopic research and it was okay, you know, it was gonna probably get me out of there.

But I happened to be out there when Mount St. Helen’s erupt. Again, right place at the right time, you know, and I had been dorking around with this esoteric, obscure laser technique just cause it was cool. It had this big honk and laser on it. Nobody knew what to do with it or anything about it, but I was fascinated by it.

So I’d been playing with the sink and then it turned out to be the only way to do a particular, a analysis to, to analyze that ash for the crystalline silica content, which was the thing that was dangerous to humans. Cuz you could inhale it and it could cause this respiratory fibrosis called silicosis.

And, but it was only crystalline, not the amorphous stuff. And you know, how do you tell apart? Well you can tell ’em apart with that weirdo laser thing that I developed. And so that gave me national recognition, got me a [00:23:00] PhD and literally my PhD project fell from the sky. It literal. Fell from the sky in the form of volcanic ash.

That whole scene being out there when that happened was one of the weirdest scenes of my life. Just how strange it was to be around a, how often do you have a volcano erupt? Just when you want it. Show of hands. How many people? Show of hands. Just, just you, Dennis. Just me. . Exactly. That’s, I’m always the only hand in the room.

That was the moonshot for me to get me the PhD. And then you found your way back to the Midwest and landed a job at Proctor and Gamble? Kind of. Okay. I guess I need to get a job now. And was interviewing and at different places at conferences and stuff, and took an interview with Proctor and Gamble, just actually for practice.

I’m like, Proctor and Gamble, they make soap. Right. It was the best interview I ever did. I mean, they, they just, they blew me away. It’s an amazing company and one that really is science-based and. Hires a lot of PhDs and particularly analytical PhDs, which is what I was, there’s a hierarchy in every company in Dow with Theor Organic guys and 3m, it’s the inorganic [00:24:00] guys, p and g.

Oddly enough, it was the analytical guys. I took a job there that turned out to be great. You know, I was there for a decade, you know, I got a few patents there and it developed several products there and had a great experience and, and I’m still playing with cars, you know, I mean I had the E type before I left for grad school cause I was driving that E type when I was in the bands, you know, so, I mean, I’m driving an E type, I’m playing in bands and everything.

When you go to grad school, you don’t drive an E type cuz you’re broken everything else. So I drove from Chicago, I drove out to the farm, put the e type in the barn, and my dad gave me his, uh, 1970 Ford. Which he had bought new because of the advertising. And the advertising was the only car in America under $2,000.

And he bought the absolute base maverick. It had this molded vinyl on the floor that looked like carpet. He was just lumpy vinyl, you know, and, and he never, he had it for eight years and never ever washed it in northern Illinois with a salt roads like crazy. So it was pretty rotted out and everything, but loaded all my earthly possessions into it and took off for Moscow, Idaho.

[00:25:00] And it was like, it looked like, well, the first thing you know, well, Jed z Millionaire, , you know, I mean, it’s so full of crap. It was down on the, uh, Tires and everything, but I got out there and so once I got back out of grad school and, and everything, I got, you know, back playing with cars, picked up another T-bird and the like, I was still doing all that and then was, you know, made an offer.

I couldn’t refuse to go to a Bristol Myers company. And I was a director of global product development for a Bristol Myers company for five years and traveled all over the world. I was like in, uh, Latin Asia, south America, Europe, and was doing all that. And then it was just really a weird, weird. Chance meeting with this guy that turned out to be my business partner for about 15 years to do this local commercial.

It was one of those things, there was just a bizarre meeting, but every step that led to it had to happen to the next one to happen. Cause it all had dated back to when I left Cincinnati and p and g and went there. My eldest daughter was like, in first grade, she’s, you know, first [00:26:00] semester of first grade and you wouldn’t think you’d have deep-rooted friendships and have trouble leaving, but she did.

And so she, they, you know, they’re kinda having trouble adapting and all that. And had another daughter just a little younger than her and, you know, and I was looking for something to grow their self-confidence and poise and stuff. And so I thought, you know, I’m gonna put ’em in modeling school. Not that I ever want ’em to model, even though they’re really cute, but, you know, just for the poise and, and uh, self-confidence and stuff.

And so I was interviewing modeling schools in Evansville, Indiana, believe it or not. At time there were three. And I went to one of ’em. They go, Hey, you know, okay, you know, this is what we do and your kids are really cute and whether you use us or not, we’re about to shoot our head book for this. I mean, we’ll shoot your kids and put ’em in there.

You know, whether you’re using or not. They’re at least in the head book. I said, okay. And they said, yeah, and you know, you’ve got kind of an interesting look. I was even doing handlebar mustache then. I was actually born with it. You should see the baby pictures. They’re hilarious. We don’t get many adult models and stuff and you know, interesting.

Look and, and I’m thinking way to get another 40 bucks out me. But I was sufficiently vain that I said. Yeah, yeah. Okay. . So, you know, I was shot and then forgot about it. And then two [00:27:00] years later, you know, I get this call and I’m the director of Global Product Development. I got a good day job. Brist Meyers Squibb, good day job.

I get a call from this modeling agency and I, which I completely forgot about cause I never did do that with kids. I did something else that worked out better in yada, yada. And I said, Hey, you know, there’s, uh, the local guy doing commercials here. He’s casting a commercial and he needs a, he needs somebody who looks like a turn of the Century Scholar.

Well, you know, who but me? It looks like a turn of the Century Scholar. He saw your picture and would you, uh, you know, would you be interested in it? It pays $25. I’m like, whoa, somebody stop me, you know, $25. But I said, yeah, sure. What the heck again? I got a good day job. Okay, I’m gonna do it. We’re gonna meet at this old library and stuff, and I was at the theater department, you know, getting fitted for this waistcoat and everything.

They had like one turn of the century outfit. It fit me off the rack, like it was Taylor made and I look fabulous. The guy, the producer of the commercial comes in and we’re chatting, you know, as I’m getting pinned and fitted and all that, you know, we’ll meet Wednesday night at Yeah, he’s chatting me up and stuff and [00:28:00] I’m, and as we’re walking out, suddenly the conversation turns to cars.

Yeah. Are you into cars or something? They’re walking out and, and at the time, My daily driver was an s o Yaha powered. I’ve had four of those, by the way. They’re unbelievable. And I was driving an sho and he said, you the car. Oh yeah. You know, I’m, I’m driving an s h O right now. You ever seen the engine? It even looks scary, you know, so we’re standing on it, popped the hood and it is a beautiful engine.

My God thing looks great. And we’re chatting and chatting and, and he goes, you know, by any chance of you into classic cars, I said, well, yeah, I, I just sold a 64 T-bird. Why do you ask that? I mean, did you see me driving around or something? He goes, no, it’s just, he said, well, here, here’s the thing. He says, you know, I, I, uh, got this idea for his show.

I’m doing these commercials, you know, I quit my job, the local TV station to start this company and I’m just doing the commercials to pay the bills because I quit the job cuz I, there’s this show I want to do and it’s about classic cars and looked all over the country for a host. And, you know, I can find all these TV guys that don’t know anything about cars or all these car guys who can’t string three words [00:29:00] together into a sentence.

You know, he says, you seem to know a lot about cars. You’re kind of a character. , that’s a hell of a mustache. If we get through this commercial, would you wanna do a camera test to see if that worked out? And I was like, yeah, you know, again, sure, what the heck? I gotta do a day job, whatever. The commercial went well and was actually won a few awards and stuff like that.

It was pretty cool. We went and did this camera test. I mean, he said, do you know anybody with a car? And I had a guy I knew, a guy, a dentist that I happened to know he had a 68 Shelby. And he’d had it like from new, I called him up and said, Hey Dan, would you mind if we came over and I interviewed you on camera?

You know, so that’s what we did. This was like 1995 and just went over, had no freaking idea what I was doing. And in his garage we threw it up and, you know, put a mic on each of us and we, we did it. I was like, okay, that looks good. You wanna try and do an episode? We’ll put a pilot together and yeah, sure, fine.

And that’s what we did. We did, you know, we did uh, a couple local cars and we went down to the Corvette Museum, which Bowling Green, not far from us, bowling Green, Kentucky, and put this thing together cuz he had connections in local [00:30:00] TV stations and stuff. He got us an airtime. We had a Saturday, this was July 24th and 25th, Saturday and Sunday on two different stations.

I’d spent 10 years at Proctor and Gamble and their total market research geeks. You know, I thought, you know, we ought to try and get some response. Some reaction. It’d be great if we could pull a focus group together. How would you do that? Well, maybe we could put a, a number on the screen and we borrowed the 800 number of the station and we put that on.

And, you know, the thing aired, we were kind of waiting in case somebody might call. I was hoping to get 10 people that might call. We could put a focus group together. It sounds like social media, Dennis. It. Yeah. Prior to the time the thing airs, the, the phone slide up, we got over 300 calls that, you know, shut down the, the system.

And, and I had put together, because I’m a market research geek, I had put together this whole questionnaire. So we got demographics and we, we had direct questions. We had voluntaries, everything Proctor and Gamble geek would do. People just, they just freaking loved it. And so it’s like, ah, you know, and at a base of 300 you can actually do legitimate statistics and, and by Proctor and Gamble product development [00:31:00] standards, this thing was a killer product.

So it’s like, wow. You know, so we took that data and took that pilot. Went down to Nashville to T n n, the Nashville Network, the network that started it all. To this day, T n N was five days a week. It was country music’s M T V, and two days a week, Saturday and Sunday was hunting, fishing, and cars. And to this day, the reason we all watch hunting and fishing in cars on Saturday and Sunday is because that’s what T n n taught us to do.

And this was in the early days of cable. And they were like, eh, that’s interesting concept. I don’t know who this gauge guy is, but you know, we’ll fund two more episodes. We’ll do a three episode pilot and, uh, see how it goes. So we did that and you know, I’m still flying all over the world, and we whipped together two more of these and then aired in January of 96 and wanted to get response again.

But we didn’t have an 800 number we could put on there. But we heard about this thing called the internet. And if you think back in 95, 96, in [00:32:00] geological terms, this was the equivalent of when the Earth’s crust was still cooling. When you think of the Internet’s development, I mean, it was mm-hmm.

equivalent to when the Earth’s crust was still cooling. We actually had a website, we were actually online in December 95 before we even aired, so that we would have a. U r l and we’d have an email address. We flash that up on the screen. We got like 2000 emails every, you know, it’s like, holy cow, we’re off to the races.

Yay. Yeah. You know, that was, that was great. That was great. T n N says, yeah, you know, let’s do a three year contract. Yo three year contract. I dig that. Yeah, let’s do a three year contract. But I’ve still got this day job. Fine. Now we have to run off and produce a whole season of TV in between my regular work.

And so we launch off and we’re gonna get an SBA loan, small business loan to do this cuz it’s just expensive. Yep. All we need is a signed contract. Okay. Let’s, you know it’s coming so you know, all the paperwork’s ready to go. All we need is to sign contract. We couldn’t get it and couldn’t get, couldn’t get, we still had to produce the shows, so we need money.

And so what I did was [00:33:00] actually second mortgaged my house to come up with that money to keep producing because the contract’s gonna come, you know, it’s gonna. Yeah, no checks. Checks in the mail. They said, yeah, sure. No problem. Bank won’t give us the money till the contract does come. It finally came through late that year and we came to learn that in fact, there had been budgetary problems at T N N.

All these commitments they’d made, they’d had to back out on, and when the budget acts swung, it cleaved off everything below the rung we were standing on. Wow. Yeah, because if it had gone one rung. , I would’ve had the most expensive home movies in the world and no home to watch them in. We got the contract, we were able to get the S B A loan.

I paid my second mortgage back off the show launched as a full weekly series in 97, and it just took off. You know, I was fried again. It was kinda like back in the quantum physics days because man, I was flying all over the world. The only time I slept in 1996 was [00:34:00] on an airplane. You know, either going to Asia or going to California or going to, you know, south America.

And I’d be gone for three weeks in Asia. Come home, change. Suitcase wardrobe character and go shoot television. And then it was just really, really insane and I couldn’t keep going. And there had been a lot of, uh, upper management strife at the company. And I’d, I’d had three different, uh, CEOs in, uh, in five years, fine with the first two, but clash swords with the third one.

And I was just, I was sick of it. Then I was in Bangkok, Thailand and I said, screw this. I can’t do this anymore. I quit and I resigned in Bangkok, Thailand, hauled my wife from Bangkok and said, by the way, honey, I quit my job. And she goes, oh, okay. Well, uh, that’s good. , that’s nice. Um, I didn’t even know I was getting back to the us uh, but I did manage to get back to the US and the guy that I’ve resigned to said, look, look, I understand, you know, uh, but do the rest of this Asian swing.

Cause I had to go Indonesia and Japan and Philippines and someplace else, but I had to do all that. He’s do [00:35:00] that and when you get back and if you still wanna resign, I’ll help you. I got back and I said, still wanna resign. I worked it out and it worked out amicably actually my favor. I figured, you know, if this doesn’t work, I’ll just go back to r and d.

You know, I got a good rep and, but it worked and I never looked back. So I gotta hand it to you. As a storyteller myself, I’m not normally one to be caught off guard by another storyteller. You know? Usually, honestly, usually by now I’m kind of yawning wondering when the hell is this guy gonna shut up? But now with you, it’s something different.

I actually enjoy listening and I’ll tell you something, , you’re too kind. No, seriously, you’re too kind. . No, but, and, and Eric, if you’ll indulge me here for a moment. Okay. Slightly, slightly. I don’t remember where you and I met. I know somebody introed us and I interviewed you and it was probably for garage style, but I really, really don’t remember what it was for.

But I remember hearing you in [00:36:00] that interview and you talking about the second mortgage on the house, meeting the guy and setting things up with T n N and the second rung. You know, you were standing on that rung when the act swung. I remember those sound bites. I really do. But as a guy who came into the scene, With garage style.

Just speaking selfishly here, real quick, you know the end goal for me was always tv. And I think I talked to you about that a little bit because as much as a magazine can do, a motion picture does much better. And I gotta tell you, you out of De Jay Lenos, out of everybody else that I’ve worked with met you were the one who inspired me the most because you were the most down to earth.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a big brain up there. Okay. But aside from that, you took it to a normal level that had nothing to do, more or less with your big brain. It was your big ambition. It wasn’t even a goal this for you, like that volcano going off, right? And oh, and there you are with the, your laser, it just worked and you knew how to take that football and run it into the end zone, if that makes any sense at all.

And that has always been [00:37:00] big with me. That really, really has. I thought, you know, if, if Dennis can do it, you know, there, there’s a way to do this and, and I’ll tell you the one sound bite that really kicks my turbo is when you say you met up with the guy who had the Shelby. , you just micd up and did it.

You just micd up and did it and, and, and you put it out there. And that to me is the one that’s like, see, go do it. It’s brilliant. Well, , lemme tell you a little bit more about that cuz it’s funny, you know, this was never a dream or a goal or anything. I mean, it’s just, I fell into it. It’s what I’ve done most of my life just fall into things.

I do something until I’ve got it all figured out and it’s like, gee, I’m not learning, I’m not growing anywhere. Oh, that looks interesting. And then I’ll take a 90 degree turn and go do something completely different. Fortunately that hasn’t happened here. I mean, usually I, you know, in a decade or so, I get kind of maxed out and I’ll just do something completely different.

I’m still doing this. But the funny thing, taking off what you said was part of it is just what you see is what you get with me. Mm-hmm. , you know, I mean, I, it’s, I’m the same on camera as I am off camera. This is all I [00:38:00] know how to be, take it or leave it. And I’m just lucky that who I. appears to work. Mm-hmm.

But we recently, cuz uh, you know, doing this for over a quarter of a century, uh, and back in the days of videotape you amass a boatload of videotapes. I mean like thousands and thousands of videotapes and you run outta storage and that’s not the technology today and everything. And, and so couples, years ago I spent a bunch of money and invested in technology that would allow us to digitize all that stuff, you know, now it took up two rooms, you know, would fit in a briefcase.

Mm-hmm. and it’s all accessible and all this and that. But in doing that, you know, I mean I watched everything cuz we also did these re-edits and, you know, created this whole new thing. But in doing that, I basically re-watched everything we ever did, including going back to that camera test. And I watched that and I was sitting there going, oh wow.

That was pretty good. Wow. You know, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was pretty good at that. Wow. And then it hit me. I’m exactly the same . I never got any better. That [00:39:00] was it. That was still me. That’s that was it. I was, I was, I was exactly the same then as I am now. That’s all I got. , you know, it wasn’t any grand plan or anything.

It’s just that’s who I am and I’m fairly pretty consistent. You could actually slot that thing in with one of the shows now and other than The Stash isn’t white and I was wearing a floppy hat, it would fit guy. Never got any better. What are you gonna. Speaking kind of selfishly here and just mining from the expert a little bit.

How do you construct an episode watching your shows? You’re right, they are very much the same. And kind of studying up a little bit for tonight, I watched a couple of episodes just to sort of bone up on the show a little bit, see where you’ve been, what you’ve done. And, and you’re right, it was one of those situations where you’re watching it like, okay, this is the same show.

Fast forward to the next one. Okay. This is the same show, fa, but I’ll tell you something. There’s an old publisher that I used to know and he was terrific. He had a great saying, which is, predictability is a wonderful quality. It’s very comforting to an audience. Consistency. They [00:40:00] love it. Predict. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. They really love it. And honestly, Don, I can take, and we do, I mean, I could literally take stuff from over a decade apart and we’ll merge it into the same freaking episode. Mm-hmm. , and you can’t. . I mean cuz it is so consistent. Yeah. You know, to your point. But it’s really the same thing. It is. And in fact it hit me one day, this rather pithy way to put it, and I even have it on my wall, but it’s my classic car.

We do the same thing every time and it’s always different. Weird

That’s it. We do the same thing every time and it’s always different. Weird cuz it is weird, but that is the truth. Mm-hmm. , I mean, it’s the same thing, but everything we do is different and that’s, that’s part of why, you know, again, if I was doing all Mustangs and you know, you can’t be different very long.

Yeah. But I do such weird stuff. I do it the same way. You talked about consistency and predictability. The [00:41:00] comment’s been made, somebody made the comment to me and it’s why this thing is so big. I pull primetime ratings on weekend mornings. I mean, I literally do. And when I was telling a new network, we were dealing with that, you know, look, the show pulls primetime ratings on weekend mornings.

They were like, yeah, well, that They were very polite though. That’s nice. That’s nice. And then I’m on the network and go, damn, you pull primetime ratings on Saturday mornings. I can’t believe it. But somebody made the comment, you know, the show’s just easy to. . Mm-hmm. . It is, it’s just easy to watch. I hate to say it’s a guilty pleasure for me and I often, to your point, I’m part of those primetime ratings on the weekends cuz I have it on in the garage while I’m turning wrenches.

And the beauty part is because the show is so consistent, I don’t necessarily have to watch. You’re very descriptive. And so for me it’s like talk radio a lot of the time so I can be under the car or I could be polished in the car and whatever. And it’s just Dennis in my ear the entire time that I’m out there enjoying my Saturday [00:42:00] morning.

I’ll tell you the other place that works, the converse of that, and I’ve just got this great camera guy. He’s been on the road with me for 20 years. He, he started with the company as an unpaid intern in college. He’s got a great eye. He’s a great editor. He is a great shooter. He is a documentarian. He, he’s so good.

The other place this works, you can be under a car listening to it or you can be in a bar and there’s all this din and you can’t hear a damn thing. You don’t have to. It’s still because of the way the thing’s done. You can watch that thing without the sound. Mm-hmm. and, and it works just about as well.

It’s just really, really weird what it is, guys. I mean, it’s, it’s lightning in a bottle. Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle. I happen to, I know, Don, you’re talking about this. What I’d love to do, and the, and you could be the best in the world. You can work your ass off and still not make it. It’s just the fickle finger of fate, which like decided to point to me and it was just lightning in a bottle.

I’m just the luckiest guy on the planet. For you. It’s not lightning in a bottle though. It’s that volcano that went off the bomb . Yes, it was. Yes, I was, I was thinking the same [00:43:00] thing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, how do you put this together? Because, you know, I’ve been working with Eric, my daughter is doing the cinematography.

She and Eric put together the, the first episode, I guess you could call that we micd up. We went out there and we did it. That was very much the formula of the Shelby episode. That was your first, you know, Hey, let’s try this. That was kind of what happened. That is, we had an opportunity with RM Sotheby’s.

They had an auction coming up and we talked to them and I said, you know, I, I wanna get in that garage before you sell it. That collection looks mind blowing, and it was the Jean Ponder collections, if you wanna look that up online. They connect me with machine ponder. I tell my daughters, piping out there, you’re gonna be running the camera and I’m gonna be talking to.

Oh, okay. It was shocking to me the confidence of no problem. Bam. You know, it’s like talking to Eric about the internet. He can tell you everything about the internet. And I’m too like, so the typewriter has a ribbon, man. . That’s kinda cool. So what would you tell, not just me, but think of other clowns out there like us who wanna put something together?[00:44:00]

Production value is, is high. And that’s the other thing that’s been great about the show. I mean, it’s always been a high production value show. Mm-hmm. , it looks good. . There’s a lot of the weekend morning shows that are pretty schlocky and they’re schlocky. On a technical side, you know, you can have a polished turd too.

Production value isn’t gonna do it alone. The other thing that makes my show work is that it really is just this everyman thing, and that’s the way people look at it. I mean, they have a very personal relationship with me. You know, they’re like, man, I bet Dennis would like my. . And you know what? If I met that individual with that car, I probably would.

I mean, like I say, there’s something in every car I can find. Fascinating. I’m an excitable boy. Mm-hmm. , I’ll give you a prime example of just that, and it was 2019, beginning of that season you interviewed the gentleman, I think he was from the aerospace industry, who spent nine years building the Panera and Oh yeah.

That came through Crystal clear, especially you were driving it towards the end of the episode and, and he just kept wanting to impress you, check out the cool stuff I did, Dennis. And you’re like, wait, you built this too? [00:45:00] Yeah, you did this thing. And he just kept going and going and so that comes through and it, for me, that’s very relatable as a wrench turner, as a racer as well, that it’s like, yeah, I want to impress Dennis.

I did something cool. Do you think it’s neat ? Yeah. The other thing. I know a lot about cars now, but that’s really because I have a near photographic memory and I’ve learned from everybody I talk to. Nobody knows the stuff better than those cars. Not only do you have that photographic memory, you’re also very curious.

I’ve seen that in your shows. Yeah. Your turbo’s always spinning. There’s no cutoff. It’s more like a supercharger. You’re constantly spinning. Question, question, question. The guy fires something. Oh, and I did this ba you’ve got another question from him. I’m thinking, holy cow. How’s he come up with these questions?

Well, because I’m a curious guy. I mean, I’m, that’s just it. I mean, that’s why I was a scientist. That was, I’m just inquisitive, you know? I mean, I just love learning. part of it is that people, you know, that’s the question I would like to ask, or I hadn’t thought of that question. Mm-hmm. , what a great question.

You know? Mm-hmm. , I’m not making this stuff up. I, it’s like, that’s interesting, you know? [00:46:00] How’d you do that? Oh really? Well then you did. You know, it’s funny cuz even in my science days I drove people, especially at Procter and Gamble, I drove ’em freaking nuts because Procter and Gamble’s really, you know, it’s A, then B, then C, then, you know, it’s just really buttoned down.

You know? It’s how you do things, you know, what’s your experimental plan? You know, my experimental plan is always like, go in a lab and do something. Just do something, do anything. And then C, what happens? And then based on what happens, you go, huh, huh, well then maybe what if I did this? It’s really always been this question.

And then based on the answer, it just creates more questions. I think a lot of people trying to make a show and by God I could get into this collection, or I could get into, you know, that collection or you know, this museum and you know, museums suck on tv. . They just do. Why? Because it’s static. Mm-hmm. , it’s sterile.

It’s great to go to mm-hmm. . I mean, I love going to ’em like, oh God, look at that. Oh my god, you know, what about this? What about it’s killer? But to walk through a museum on TV is like, [00:47:00] you know. Mm-hmm. , you know, we do 26 episodes a year and nobody does 26 episodes a year anymore. I mean, back in the day you did, back in the day when, you know, TV had, you know, the fall season started and any of the summer reruns, 26 and 26 equals 52.

Boom. Even in 26 episodes, I did at most one Concord to Elegance per season. Why? Because they don’t wanna piss people off. I mean, I love dobos, but I’ll never own one, so don’t rub my nose in it. So it’s back to this every man thing. I can sprinkle that in throwing a doozy every now and then la, but that’s not the hobby.

That’s not attainable to, to the average person. Everybody wants to play. Everybody should get to play. That’s my philosophy and that’s why people ask me how to show, you know, so will you be one of our judges? I’m like, no, , first of all I’ll do is make one person happy and piss a whole lot of people off.

And [00:48:00] then secondly, I’m not an authority. I’ve worked really, really hard to never put myself in the position of an authority. I am the ultimate enthusiast and the authority is the person that owns that car, and I’m gonna learn from that person. I’m not an authority. I’m not worthy to judge anybody else’s car.

I’ll pick a car at your show. I’ll pick a car that I like, but I’ll guarantee it’s gonna be weird. It’ll be a card that probably hasn’t won many awards in the past. There you go. It ain’t that . But it could be a Kaiser m. Speaking of that, and you’re picking those oddball cars, going to all these fantastic Concords and locations, and to your point, constructing these almost random episodes in a way, but that speak to all of us in a common way.

It makes me wonder what are some of your best memories over the last 28 years of doing the show? What are some of the things that really stand out? Some of those episodes we should go back and rewatch. You know, I mean, it’s all been great. This whole thing allowed me to get to know Jay Leno. I mean, Jay’s been a great friend to me and a great friend to the show.

Jay [00:49:00] Leno’s garage is this big deal now, but there wasn’t one. I mean, Jay Leno started his automotive television career with me on my show, and it was great. It was like, this was a few years ago. And it was a Wall Street Journal weekend style section and full page thing. Jay, what are you doing on retirement now?

Well, you know, he’s Jaylen’s Garage and in this Wall Street Journal article he gives me a shout out. So, you know, I was doing, in the early two thousands I was doing this stuff, my classic car with Dennis h. That’s what they printed my classic car with Dennis h You know, it was a lot of fun and everything and when you look back at those still air the shit outta those shows, pardon my French.

But what you, when you look at those shows, what you see, there’s just, just genuine joy. and this innocence. Even then, he was Jay Lennel, but it was like, there’s just this innocence and this joy cuz he so loves this stuff. He’s so real and he’s so into this. But he didn’t have an outlet for it. I remember the episode where you went to visit him and he was telling you about the custom built Chrysler.

That was the turbine developed. Yeah. No, not that one. It was the one, oh, [00:50:00] the tank motor. That was gasoline. And if you had turned that episode into a drinking game, every time he turned you and said, do you know that this is air cooled? I mean, you would’ve just been wasted cause, but he was so excited to just keep relating to you that, do you realize this is air cooled?

He is. You know, and you, and you look at, because these things, Eric, these things were. like 20 years ago. They span a period about 10 years, but starting 20 years ago. And you just see this joy in, and I mean, again, I just, I, I love jaded death. He’s, he’s just a great guy, but you just see this joy to share this stuff.

Mm-hmm. with me and therefore with everybody, and he’s a freaking automotive encyclopedia. He has almost this savant like knowledge. It’s like weird, great memories. I mean, just the times I spent with Js always been fun. Cuz the other thing was he always, from the first time we, it, it was like the Shelby, you know, we just kind of put Mikes on and did it, but it wasn’t like, oh my God, he is Jay Leno or something because oh my God, he was Jay Leno.

We were just like peers. And I was never [00:51:00] intimidated. For some odd reason we had. He let me drive everything. He started it all up there early on in the show’s life and we’re gonna go out to do Jay Leno. That old story is funny too, but he’s got a dusenberg, this is really early in his collecting and stuff.

And he had, he had a dusenberg, he had actually a couple of ’em by then, but, so we’re taking out the first Dusenberg you ever had and we’re driving this thing out on the Golden State Freeway. Jay looks over and he goes, you wanna. And I’m like, this car’s worth more than I am, but what are you gonna say?

Yeah. In my heart and mind I’m like, please God. No. No. You know? Yeah. Well, yeah. We pull over and Lennel gives me his freaking dusenberg, which I’m grinding the gears on cause they’ve got these truck transmissions and you know, I mean, a trans on those things are terrible. Well, I’m on a golden straight freeway with a dusenberg, so it’s like, from that point on, it’s like, well, Leno lets me drive his stuff

So, so everybody, it just became this thing and everybody, it’s not like I have to cajole people into, we kind of kid on camera, oh, can I please drive it? But it’s, you know, it’s a foregone conclusion. I’m gonna drive it. Honestly, I think that’s another thing about [00:52:00] the show. It’d be one thing if I’m interviewing somebody as they’re driving a car, but yeah.

And everybody’s living vicariously through me. Mm-hmm. , I’m not just talking to this cat about how great his car is and, and he’s telling me how great it’s drives. He’s letting me drive it. And so I’m driving this and therefore all my viewers are driving it. , you know, they’re like, oh my God, you’re getting, oh, this is so great.

And Jay started all that actually. So those are great memories. You know, I mean, things like driving the GT 40 that took the checkered flag at Lamont in 66, that was pretty cool. Not Ken Miles, the one that actually took the flag. Not the guy that really won. I mean, this was Bruce McLaren and Chris Amond, the number two car.

That was pretty cool actually, a very first shoot, you know, the early on we did this 4 27 Comp Cobra. I, I’ve never been around one of those things. And you know, it’s like, this is like the first freaking episode of the. and I’m down in Florida and, and you know, we’re roaring around the track and on it’s 4 27 comp, Cobra Thunderously Loud and on retread tires that have been on for 20 years and were, could have had killed.

But at the end of it, it was just like, oh my God. Oh my God. This was an incredible experience. [00:53:00] So that was cool. You know, I’ve been up in stunt planes. I mean, I, people let me do crazy stuff anymore. So I mean, I’ve had like, what are the greatest memories of pretty much all of them, , pretty much all of them.

So let’s bring the conversation a little bit more forward because you’re involved in things outside of my classic car as well. You were inducted into sema, the Specialty Equipment Market Association Hall of Fame in 2015. Congratulations. Yeah. Yeah, I was. And you serve on the board of directors as well, and obviously in a number of academic and industry advisory positions and things like that.

So I wanted to broach a couple of topics with. So am I, am I Dr. Gage now? Am I now Dr. Gage, or you would like to be? Yes. . There’s a couple things that I think are important to the younger collectors. We talk a lot on this show. Don’s been on a few episodes where we talk about the first time collector. You know, some of the market is saturated, like you said, I’m done seeing all these Camaros and Cudas and whatever.

Where’s the oddball car that sets me apart at the next cars and coffee? So, there’s a couple things I wanna [00:54:00] bring up. And those are preservation of right to repair, preservation of classics and hot rods. And your thoughts on what we call the evolution, right? The, the EVs that are coming on board. Uh, you know, I, I’ve been in seeing ’em for over 20 years.

I spent I think six years on the select committee of the. Amo Automotive Restoration Market Organization sub council, and then I was seven years on the board of directors. Kind of been through it all with them. I think, you know, I mean, I think right repair is important. It’s getting to the point where you can have the right to do it, and that isn’t gonna matter because it’s just so freaking complicated that you know, unless you’ve got a hundred thousand dollars analyzer, it’s still gonna be tough.

And I think we’ve won this and I think we’ll continue. hell, right To repair is an issue with iPhones. You know, it’s not just automotive. You can’t work on an iPhone. Well, that’s already been kind of fixed. So I think that’ll always be the case. And CMA an important part of that. I mean, they’re there to kind of keep an eye on, on, on reg.

I, I believe in regulation, actually. I don’t believe in overregulation, but I believe in sensible regulation things. There’s a lot of good in regulation, but [00:55:00] sometimes regulations will be crafted without full understanding of the ramifications that happens all the time. The unintended consequences, regulation can be crafted and it can bar right to repair, and you don’t really realize the unintended consequences.

And if you can point those out to legislative officials, you in a, uh, professional and respectful manner, you can usually, uh, you can usually get things done. And we’ve succeeded in Aden. And Mercedes is actually one of the worst because their stuff is so weird and hell, a lot of mechanics, even if they have the right to do it, won’t touch a Mercedes.

Like every time I work on a Mercedes, it cost me more than I make E. Even my C L S goes to the dealership. I got some great mechanics. I’m not even gonna burden ’em with a Mercedes. Just take it. Dealership does a great job. the option and the ability to repair something should always be available. I do believe that it’s gonna become mood at some point for God’s sake.

My O two T-bird has 27 computers on it. Mm-hmm. count ’em 27. It’s ridiculous. Unless you’ve got almost dealership [00:56:00] level gear, there’s only so much you can do. Yeah. You know, I, you can swap out parts and I think, you know, that’s fine. But at some point, even if you have the right to it, you still have to have the equipment.

That’s gonna be, I think, the problem for the collector car side of it. I mean, first of all, it’s not even an issue. You know, that wasn’t an issue when it came around and nobody’s gonna try and bar you from fixing a 69 Camaro and that’s the type of thing that you can fix. I mean, it’s, uh, all nuts and bolts and avol meter and my God, you can probably fix it.

Well, I think the thing that people are scared of though, is forced obsolescence, right? There’s lots of planned obsolescence in the digital world, but with respect to the ice power plants, people are scared Now what’s gonna happen with fuel? You see the rise in costs, the EV revolution, which we’re gonna talk about here in a second, you know, things like that.

So they’re like, what do I do with my classic car? I’ve heard people say before, classic cars and even motor sports will become very equestrian, a lot of hand ringing about being regulated out of existence and stuff like that. And it’s just not gonna happen. And, uh, you know, God, kids aren’t getting into the hobby, you know, this is a SEMA [00:57:00] thing, you know, what do we do?

We need to, you know, we gotta come with programs to get kids into the hobby and stuff, man, you know, like you don’t educate people into this. This is a passion. It’s the lead, a horse to water. You can’t make ’em drink thing, you know, the best way to get, uh, young people into the hobby. It’s make it look like fun.

That’s what I do. And I’ll tell you, this is gonna get me in trouble. I’ll do it anyway. But I think Street Rodden is in the biggest trouble because that is the most clannish part of the hobby. These people are really set in their ways. You know, if you ain’t one of us, you ain’t one of us. They’re not real welcoming.

And so what fun is that? You know? I mean, you know, a bunch of gray beards, you know, sitting around and talking about their 36 or their 32 or three 50 in it, and they all have, so then somebody comes up and says, Hey, you know what? You know, and it asks a dumb question. People ask dumb questions. That’s okay.

And I’ve seen it happen many times. These people just like what? You know? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. You talk about planned out celent, that’s maybe unplanned obsolescence, but that’s going toward the obsolete. So I think that’s a problem. I [00:58:00] think you gotta make this look like. And when you do, people flock to it. I mean, hell, this, this is not off topic.

It may seem like it, but I mean, the car hobby 28 years ago won what it is now. If you weren’t in it, you probably didn’t even know it existed. But TV and in particular my show, if I do say so myself, brought this to a much wider general population audience. You go to a car show now. Well, pandemic aside, it’s packed.

There’s young couples with kids and strollers. You never saw that 25 years ago. It was, you know, a bunch of gearheads that got together in this real insular, fraternal, almost cabal esque way. I used to joke that it was a gathering of anti-social people pretending to be social. Yeah, it really was. And now car shows are these big parties, you know, and, and you know, families and everybody’s having a good time and I’m not too worried about it going away.

And I’m also not worried about these special interest vehicles going away. Are these gonna be the things that you know are everywhere on the road, Uhuh. [00:59:00] No way. Can you still buy gas? Yeah. Hell, you can still buy Turbo Blue. You can still buy 105 Octane. You still buy lead fuel in special situations for special vehicles and stuff like that.

That’s what it’s gonna become. But who’s daily driving these things anyway? Nobody. How many gallons of gas does somebody go through in their 56 Lincoln in a year? I can tell you I had one, probably about four tanks. Not a whole lot. Not a whole lot. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m not that worried about it. Yeah, it’s like a steam car.

Leno’s got plenty of ’em, neat plays with them, you know? You don’t see them tooling around much. They don’t get used much. They didn’t go anywhere. They’re still there. All of our cars, all these special interest cars that survive are still gonna be there. And all these young kids that are only into their cell phones, you know, they’re only gonna be young for a while.

And part of the reason they’re not into cars right now, or the car hobby is cuz it’s so freaking expensive. It’s now gotten to the point where it’s not even, it’s almost outta the realm of the actual [01:00:00] hobbyist. You know, this happened in the eighties too. The prices got so stupidly high that people that didn’t even care about cars were just buying these things as investments.

It’s like Picassos, you know? But then the market crashed and these guys lost their ass and the cars suddenly came back into the market, into the hands of hobbyists. Were kind of in that same thing. Now, the prices are stupid, they’re unsustainable, they’re stupid, but young people don’t have any money. We never did.

Hot rodders did what they did, started the thing because they didn’t have any money. So they pulled the car outta the junkyard. They found an engine that worked, they slapped it in there. And hey, I got me a car, you know? Well then kind of the muscle cars, they came from the factory, but they really weren’t expensive.

You could scrape your money together and buy one, try and buy a 69 Camaro now as a kid, forget it. But these kids are going to not be kids forever. They get older, they have money, and then suddenly these cars, which will still be there, look pretty damn cool. And so guess what? They’re gonna buy ’em. I’m not that worried about the hobby.

Uh, it is gonna change. It’s gotta change. Internal combustion is on its way [01:01:00] out as a general mode of propulsion. There ain’t nothing wrong with that. Ev electric cars. Yeah. It’s the thing of the near future. Beyond that, I still think it’s really a stepping stone because I think hydrogen is beyond that.

You know, hybrids, if Christ’s sake, McLaren makes a hybrid. Lenos got one. It’s a badass car. Ev cars will kick the ass of any muscle car ever made. They’re faster. They’re got almost limitless torque. Yeah. They don’t make a lot of noise. So if you really wanna, you know, open headers, eh, you’re gonna have a recording.

It’s like probably the steam aficionados do gun, those internal combustion cars, you know, as internal combustion. Actually the, the automatic starter obsoleted steam electric slash hybrid will obsolete. Straight internal combustion, and then I think ultimately hydrogen will obsolete. That it’s a technological evolution.

That’s what happens. You mentioned earlier you kind of stumbled backwards into things, so you stumbled backwards into another question, which I think is underlying here and very important. So going back to the [01:02:00] hot rods in the classics for a moment. I wanna get your opinion on these over stylized, over redone vehicles, right?

I’ve heard people say before, I like ’em a little bit more original, right? I wanna see a little bit of orange peel. I wanna see a little imperfection in the chrome. I don’t want them to look better than they did when they were new when it comes to the, the restorations. But on the flip side, there’s also the folks that are going out over their skis and going, you know what?

I can put a Tesla in an old Aston Martin DB five, or I can do this and I can do this kind of swap and make these compromises between keeping your cool old hot rod and then making it modernized. And some people have used the word abomination around that. I wanted to get your take on that because I think they do go hand in hand in terms of how people are approaching the hobby today.

Hey, everybody gets to play. That’s fair. I mean, that’s, that’s just it. That’s just my philosophy. Everybody gets to play. You know, it’s your car, you wanna do that, do it if you want it original. Do that, I guess, what’s your preference, Dennis? [01:03:00] If you had to like pick a lane or you don’t have one? You know, it all depends.

They’re only original once, so that’s true. They’re only original once you want it restored and you can pay people a boatload of money to take a car, do a factory accurate restoration with all the flaws that came from the factory. I know somebody that did that on a 4 27 Corvette, 67,427, this was 28 years ago.

Spent like a hundred thousand dollars when nobody spent that. To have this thing taken back and poorly painted orange peel and all, you know, missed the stuff under the sills because that’s, they did, you know, they didn’t get the misfit the doors cuz they were misfit. And this was a real ace that was doing this.

I mean, this is a guy that’s about as big a name as there is in Corvette’s, also about as obsessive as it gets. And this guy, you know, did all this research and, you know, came to the conclusion that the guy that painted it in a factory was left-handed . And so he painted it left-handed. So, I mean, you can do that, that’s what you [01:04:00] want.

Fine. It’s your money. Got a big YouTube channel and, and everything’s up there, you know, thousand or so videos, 28 years worth of stuff. And people comment on, yeah, geez, you know, you know those are the most hideous wheels on that car. And I’m like, Hey, it’s his car. He gets to pick beauty’s in the eye of the beholder Street riders.

Well they cut up these cars. Well, you know, that’s what I. Everybody gets to play. I’m not gonna pass judgment. I may think that’s a good execution. I may think it’s not a good execution. That’s not me to say it’s your car. What do you wanna do? Speaking about your car, when does Dennis Gage drive every day?

What’s he got in the garage? What’s your garage like? Well, it’s not like it used to be. I used to have a, a kind of a stupid number of cars, and, and I tell you, you know, I mean, I love ’em. I mean, it’s just beautiful. I’ve gotta have one of those out trees, you know? I’d go get it. I travel a lot. I fly about a hundred thousand miles a year.

I’m gone a lot. You can’t just let them sit. They will return to the earth on their own. Cars just go to [01:05:00] hell sitting, especially old cars. If you watch the original version of the show, there was always this, you know, this garage segment, you know, kind of our product segment. We’d have somebody in National Park Depot and they’d talk about this or that, and it was always shot in this garage setting.

But that set was really my, that’s really my shop. It was my barn. You know, we do 26 episodes, but we shot all of those segments in one week’s time in October every year. That’s where all my cars and my motorcycles and stuff were. So every year I had to spend two weeks moving out all these damn cars and cleaning the place back to the walls and turning it into a television studio, 10,000 watts of lights and, but I had to find places for all these cars to live for two or three weeks until I could put ’em back.

When I realized that the last time I had started this particular car was the previous year to get it the hell out of the way. Mm-hmm. , then I knew that I had too many cars and they should be in somebody else’s hands. 56 Lincoln Premier, a 63 Studebaker GT Hawk, A 63 Falcon Convertible two 60 V eight at 63 T-Bird, 67 GT O [01:06:00] that I mentioned.

A 67. Yeah, 67 suicide door. That was the last, I sold that about nine months ago. So really all of my fifties, sixties cars are gone now and they’re in better hands. I loved them and I’ve had a great time with them, but I just couldn’t use them enough. I was hurting them by letting them sit. I was just wrong.

Automotively, I’ve turned my attention really more to, and it is, and it’s not like I don’t collect. I have a. , but I don’t have a collection. It’s to what I consider future classics. Like I said, I got the 99, uh, XK eight coop. Mm-hmm , that is a stunningly beautiful car E type esque. Beautiful. The oh six C l s Mercedes beautiful car will never be matched.

Daily driver. What I just drove this afternoon is a 91 Lincoln Mark seven bankers hot rod. That thing was so far ahead of its time, was ridiculous. You know, air suspension and Peter’s doing all sorts of stupid things and keypad entry and, but I love that car. It’s 60,000 mile car. My Jag’s got 30,000, my Mercedes has got, you know, 60.

These are [01:07:00] all low mileage. The oh two T-bird, I think that’s future classic in its own twisted way. That’s only got about 20,000 on it. Do still have a 76 F-150 four by four beater done completely in bedliner. Everything but the windshield and the headlights, you know, just cuz it, I mean it’s my work truck.

It’s. It’s just this animal. I’ve got my wife a 2017 Lincoln mkz, twin turbo, three liter, all-wheel drive, 425 horsepower monster. Very reminiscent of my SHOs. The thing’s just stupidly fast, powerful, quick, and I’m like, why did I get you this car? What, what? I got another Lincoln, I’ve got a M K T. I like Lincoln’s, but that’s, you know, really, and honestly I probably do more with motorcycles now than I do with cars.

I got eight motorcycles, mostly BMWs. I did a motorcycle series, TV series where he rode through Europe and I rode with my son and I mean, it was an awesome series, tripping on Two Wheels. And I also produced Corbin’s Ride On, which was sort of a, conceptually, it was kind of like motorcycle version of my classic car, kind of, [01:08:00] but it was still its own thing.

And that was a five year run on speed. But you know, the thing about motorcycles is you get more for your money. They take up less space. If they’re beamers, they never brake. They’re easy to work on. And if it’s a nice day, honestly, I’d rather be on a bike than anything else. A a and everybody’s cars were always nicer than.

Why do I need these cars? I just go, I do the show and I get to drive all these other great cars, you know, and they’re waiting nicer than anything I ever owned. My 63 T-bird, perfect example, and this is also my philosophy. My cars were all 20 footers from 20 feet away. They look pretty good, but you don’t wanna get much closer was out in the 63 T-bird and I was at this roadhouse out in the country and I just stopped by for a beer and pull up and get outta the car and was walking in.

And this guy that I know goes, you know, yeah, you could use a paint job on that car. And I said, well, yeah, but if I put a paint job on it, then don’t have to worry about where I parked it. And I walked into the bar. . I love it. And, and that’s, that’s the thing about over restoring him then not fun anymore or, you know, having this, gee boy, if I had a real comp Cobra 4 27 Comp [01:09:00] Hemi Cuda, hell, you’d never drive the.

It’d be nuts to drive it. I don’t want that. So, speaking of things that you want Aston Martin Repeat , that’s on the bucket list. Oh yeah. It’s stupid. I don’t know why I want one of those. I, it was really hot for a, uh, Bentley Continental GT until you realize it’s an Audi Yay. No, nevermind. . I’m just kidding.

Not the the other ones the, I mean, because I’m looking at, because you know, they still gotta be down in the realm of affordability, so they’ve gotta be, you know, like oh five s or even with the repeat, they’re like, which came out in 11? I’m looking at the 2000 elevens, you know, with the Bentley Continental.

It’s like everything I’ve heard is you better have two of them because one’s always going to be in the shop and that ain’t a cheap shop visit either. I’m over the Bentley Continental gt, but I think an Aston Martin repeat, it’d be cool to have. Yeah, he’s a much more.

Much cheaper to repair too. Yeah. Oh probably. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I was telling my, talking to my brother, he’s into cars. He’s got a Mercedes two [01:10:00] Mercedes, I think of Porsche. He had a Jag and we were talking about some of the new Maseratis that come out and I said, you know, those things catch my eye.

I think there’s some pretty good looking Maseratis that are outer. He had mentioned that and I said, yeah, but you know, Maserati’s a car that makes Jags look reliable. That should tell you something . So with that, Dennis, as we close out here, any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you’d like to share that we didn’t cover thus far?

Man, if we didn’t cover it must not exist. Cuz this was like a marathon. No, I mean, uh, you know, the show refuses to die. We’re still doing it. I was just shooting in Jersey. Last weekend. Those are some fun people. How you doing? No, how you doing? Oh, you doing okay? Yeah, I’m doing fine. So, you know, we’re still doing the show MotorTrend Mav tv.

It’s streams on Pluto and, and just about everywhere else and big YouTube channel. And it’s fun. I think everybody should watch it. I’m just gonna keep living the dream. With over 25 years on air, my classic car is one of the longest running shows of its kind in television history. And Dennis Gage has become an icon of the [01:11:00] specialty vehicle and collector car.

Hobbies. In the course of creating over 500 episodes, Dennis has traveled the world and has gotten to meet and hang out with some pretty interesting people. You can learn more about Dennis and my classic horror by visiting www.myclassiccar.com or following him on social at my classic car. Dennis is also available for personal appearances and speaking engagements.

If you’d like to have Dennis at your event, send your inquiry to mad one gmail.com. That’s m a d s T A C H e1@gmail.com. Dennis, I can’t thank you enough for coming on the show. Honestly, this has been an absolute education and you know, many people are familiar with the show. For some of us, myself included, it’s always existed.

There’s never been a time without my classic [01:12:00] car, and I can’t wait to see where it continues to go. And like you said, you’re keeping it fun for all of us week after week, you’re bringing the classic car world and the hobby to each one of us in our homes and in our garages. And again, I can’t thank you enough for doing that for us.

I appreciate that, man. No, the nicest thing that was ever said to me about the show was, was out dinner with my wife once, and you know, a guy comes up to me and he says, yeah, I hate to interrupt your dinner, but I gotta tell you, I just, I love your show. I said, well, thanks, you know. Appreciate that. He goes, no.

I mean, really it’s the only show that my dad and my five year old son and I sit down and watch together and I said, wow, you know, that’s, I, I really do appreciate that, you know, interrupt me anytime with something like that. But that to me was the coolest thing that was ever said to me. It’s, uh, it’s the greatest gig in the world.

It beats working for a living.

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