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What Should I Buy: The First Car Conundrum

When it comes to buying a first car for a teenager, the stakes feel higher than ever. Safety, style, reliability, and budget all collide in a chaotic swirl of parental anxiety and youthful enthusiasm. In this episode of What Should I Buy?, our panel of seasoned petrol heads tackles one of the most relatable dilemmas: what car should Don buy for his daughter?

We’ve provided some not-so subtle hints throughout this article, as to our *shocking* #1 choice.

It all started with a message that could’ve come from any parent: “Dear Abby, my daughter Stacy wants a Volkswagen Bug. Any suggestions?” That simple prompt launched a full-blown debate among our panelists, each bringing their own parenting experience and automotive wisdom to the table.

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Don, the father in question, lays out the challenge. His daughter Caitlin is ready for her first car, but the family driveway is already packed with options: a Honda Accord, a Ford Flex, a Caprice Classic, and even a DeLorean. Each has its quirks, and none feel quite right. The Accord is too fast, the Flex is too useful to give up, the Caprice is too pristine, and the DeLorean… well, that’s just not going to high school.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Conlin @jconli1

Don’s wife has declared the budget to be zero. But if Don gets his way, they’re looking at a $10,000 ceiling. He reminisces about his own first car – a bright yellow 1974 F-150 contractor truck with a 460 V8 and white US Mags wheels. It was terrifying, powerful, and unforgettable. That truck taught him respect, caution, and the thrill of driving something unique.

Shopping Criteria

Our panel of car enthusiasts debates the best first car for a young driver, considering various factors like budget, safety, reliability, and unique criteria. The discussion revolves around a letter from a father (Don) and his daughter Caitlyn to find the perfect car within a $10,000 budget. The panelists explore a wide range of vehicles, from modern SUVs to quirky and durable options like the Honda Element. Key considerations include potential repairs, driving conditions, and vehicle safety. The conversation spans personal anecdotes, practical advice, and humorous insights, making it an all-encompassing guide for choosing a teenager’s first car.

  • A special thanks to friend of the show Jeff Conlin @jconli1 for sharing his photos and memories of his Honda Element with us for this article.
  • Don – you set this all in motion, you’re actually shopping right now for your daughter Kaitlyn, so why don’t you refine your shopping criteria a bit for us?
  • Suggested Shopping Budget: the 16 year old buying it themself, parent assist in purchase, and silver spoon option; should we set a $10k limit? 
  • Should we quickly talk about our first cars?
  • Consider the weather wherever your kid is going to end up in college, not where you live now. Not only the weather but the available dealerships. Not as much a problem any more, but domestics can be worked on anywhere in the country. Aren’t there still colleges/universities that don’t allow 1st year students (on campus) to have cars? Not all schools are commuter schools either.
  • Do you want your kid to be popular or the DD? (3p Hot Hatch, versus the Minivan) both have their social advantages and disadvantages.
  • Growing up the rule was “drive something that is 10 years old the day you got your license. So if 2024 is the year, we should be looking at 2014s. What is suitable for a 16-yr-old from 2014? Given a +/- 1 yr delta (2013-2015)
  • LIGHTNING ROUND – YOU’VE GOT $10K TO SPEND ON YOUR KID – WSIB?

Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

  • 00:00 Introduction to the Debate
  • 00:55 Meet the Panelists
  • 02:34 Don’s Dilemma: Choosing a Car for His Daughter
  • 09:02 First Car Stories: Panelists Share Their Experiences
  • 23:09 Manual vs. Automatic: The Great Debate
  • 30:12 The Social Impact of Your First Car
  • 31:14 Generational Differences in Car Enthusiasm
  • 33:42 Safety Features for Teen Drivers
  • 37:26 Choosing the Right Car for College
  • 39:26 Affordable Car Options Under $10K
  • 44:05 The Debate on Older vs. Newer Cars
  • 46:22 Practical Considerations for Teen Cars
  • 01:03:27 The Cost of German Car Enthusiasm
  • 01:05:20 Affordable Hybrids for Eco-Conscious Drivers
  • 01:07:04 The Indestructible Nissan Altima
  • 01:11:04 The Versatile Honda Element
  • 01:24:22 Selfish Dad Lightning Round: Dream Cars for $10K
  • 01:32:34 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Our panel of break fix petrolheads are back for another rousing what should I buy debate. Using unique shopping criteria, they are challenged to find our first time collector the best vehicle that will make their friends go, where’d you get that, or what the hell is wrong with you, at the next Cars and Coffee.

Crew Chief Eric: Dear Abby, my daughter Stacy is looking for her first car, and has her heart set on a Volkswagen Bug. Do you have any suggestions?

Crew Chief Brad: You know, it’s not uncommon for us to receive an email or text like this, one from friends or co workers. As fathers of future petrolheads, we couldn’t resist getting the band back together for yet another What Should I Buy debate.

Crew Chief Eric: Mind you, these messages are sometimes never more detailed than what you just heard. But it’s enough to start the conversation, and like all What Should I Buy episodes, we have some great content. some shopping criteria. So obviously the next logical questions are how old, how many miles, and what’s your budget?

Crew Chief Brad: Tonight we’re bringing together some of the OG What Should I Buy crew. Not [00:01:00] Man Dan, Rob Lohrs, and Mike Storytime Crutchfield, but it wouldn’t be a What Should I Buy without our panelists, William Big Money Ross. Mark, the data cruncher shank and Don Weeberg from garage style magazine.

Crew Chief Eric: And in this episode, our panel of extraordinary petrol heads are challenged to find our first time driver, something that will make their friends go, wait, you drove that at 16.

And with that, welcome back to another. What should I buy guys?

Crew Chief Brad: Welcome. Welcome.

William Ross: Hello, Stacy’s mom. Got it going on.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah.

William Ross: And Scotty doesn’t

Crew Chief Eric: know

Crew Chief Brad: Eric alluded to off air. This is the first time I think everybody on the show is a parent.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s right.

Crew Chief Brad: We’re all parents. So we all are going to go through this or have gone through this at some point in our lives.

Crew Chief Eric: This topic resurfaces every couple of seasons and it’s like, Oh man, we’re going to do this again. How are we going to solve this puzzle? I found it extremely challenging in doing the research because, you know, when we [00:02:00] do other What Should I Buy’s, we’re buying for fictitious collectors. We have these outrageous budgets.

We’re trying to add cars to our garages and it’s all glitz and glam. And then when you bring it down to earth and you’re like, what would I buy my 16 year old? I was like completely dumbfounded. You know, it’s almost like writer’s block. I’m like, I don’t know where to go from here. What’s funny is Don gave me a call out of the blue and he’s like, Hey, I’m shopping for my daughter and I’m struggling with this.

Would you guys mind helping me through the thought process? And I said, Oh my God, this is like the old. What should I buy? Yeah, let’s do this. Let’s rock and roll. So tonight Don’s in the hot seat. He’s the one with the shopping criteria and we’re trying to buy a car for his daughter. So why don’t you refine your shopping criteria a little bit for us now?

What’s the budget? How old, how many miles? What are you thinking?

Don Weberg: Okay, well, according to my wife, the budget is zero. We’re not going to spend any money, we’re not going to buy a car, we’re going to stick to what we’ve got in the driveway, which is a Honda Accord, a Ford Flex, and a Caprice Classic of all things.

And a DeLorean. [00:03:00] Well, yeah, but I’m not going to send that to high school with her, you know. So those are the three that would be as Eric says in the hot seat. I don’t want the caprice going all original paint everything, so I don’t want that thing sitting out. The flex is kind of a waste for that thing to go sit in a parking lot for nine hours of the day when my wife and I are zipping all over town and we usually have the dog with us.

And the dog wears the Accord because he’s just too big for it. The Accord, on the other hand, my daughter’s terrified of. It’s simply too quick. So she doesn’t like how fast that car does everything. So she doesn’t want that thing. So if my wife has her say. That’ll be it. One of those three cars she picks, or she keeps getting rides from us.

That said, what is the budget? I would say, you know, no more than 10 grand. We’d love to come in under that. I grew up the son of a contractor, so my first vehicle was a 74 150. It was fly yellow. You’ll be proud of that, William. I’m from, uh, Being literally a contractor’s truck to a contractor’s truck, [00:04:00] to our runaround truck, to my dad’s hot rod that I got to drive to high school.

Beautiful truck once my dad was done with it. You know, I was just happy to have a car. We’re of that generation. We were just thrilled. 16 years old. We got a car waiting for us and there it is. Would I have preferred other cars? Oh, hell yeah. Absolutely. But when I got to school and all the guys. Saw that yellow truck and they wondered what is Don driving?

Like, I mean, his dad’s a contractor, so he’s always had trucks around, but what is he driving? Why is it bright yellow? Who has a bright yellow contractor truck? Oh, because this truck was retired. It’s no longer in service. My sister had it before me. My dad was afraid of my sister’s driving. He painted it bright yellow so that everybody would see her coming.

Oh man, it’s like that

Crew Chief Eric: episode of Who’s the Boss. Did he strap tires to the side of it too? No, it wasn’t that bad.

Don Weberg: Wasn’t that bad. My dad did tell people he was worried that Holly, my sister, was a bit of an aggressive driver, a bit of an absent minded driver, a bit of a fast driver. Bright yellow [00:05:00] to let everybody know she’s coming.

Now it becomes my vehicle. I like it. It’s cool. It’s quirky. It’s a car. I don’t care. I’m 16. I got a car. I’m happy. But all the guys were smitten with it. They thought it was the coolest thing in the parking lot. Look at those white wheels. Who the hell puts white wheels on a car? Well, yeah, US Mags. They still had the white wheel with the red and blue stripe around the edge.

Under the hood is a four 60 with a four barrel with a crank. I mean, dad built the thing out at forget what it is now, but at the wheels, that thing was putting out somewhere around five 50 horse now, Dan, it was a single cab, eight foot bed. With 550 horse at the wheels. This was not a friendly vehicle to a 16 year old kid.

I was scared to death of that truck because I knew what it could do. And so me alone with this beast, believe me, I was not going over 30 miles an hour or going to school. I was just easing through stuff. Well, First day there, my best friend jumps in the truck, wants to ride home. Okay, this is [00:06:00] going to be fun.

Well, he sees I’m driving like a grandma. He’s like, dude, aren’t you? Okay. Well, my mom and dad told me, be careful because the brake booster is failing. So you don’t want to get in a situation where you have to slam on the brakes. Okay. What do you do at 16 years old when your best friend is encouraging you?

Holy Jesus wept that thing. I could not believe. The bolt, we were forced back into the seat. The rear end started barking, the rear end started fish tailing a bit. And me being the animal rights activist, a cat runs right out in front of us. I hit those brakes as hard as I can, straight down to the floor.

No master cylinder, no nothing. We’re just hosting along. So now I’m freaking out. I have no brakes. I’ve just killed a cat. I mean, I am blowing up inside. Well, my buddy, he says, that is fine. He laid down, the truck went right over him. We’re fine. How are the brakes? Well, pump them up, pump them up and you’re okay.

You’re fine. But I’ll tell you something. It scared me so bad. I took a long time to learn how to drive that [00:07:00] truck. It was out of respect that truck taught me a mess with me, kid. I’ll put you around a pole. And that was important.

Mountain Man Dan: It taught him to respect it and it made him gun shy. Every novice driver has some point that that’s going to happen.

Like, and for me with my daughter, it actually happened before she even got her license when we were up at pit race and did a carting event. Someone nailed her hard and yelled at her and it freaked her out. And for her actually getting in the car, driving a road or even getting on a track. Bricked her out for at least a year.

Like she was adamantly against it. I’m like, that was carding in a car. It’s completely different.

Crew Chief Eric: What it demonstrates Don is that these first cars, sometimes not necessarily by your choice are part of your story as a petrol head. That’s what we say. Everybody has a story. Every car has a story. And so, okay.

If cars just. Basic transportation, like a bicycle or any other appliances, then it’s just, Oh, I had a Toyota Corolla big deal. You know what I mean? But the adventures you had in the Corolla, like the things that allowed you to do, [00:08:00] that’s the thing that Dan and I talk about a lot is how do we bring that to the youths and say, This is why cars are cool.

It’s the freedom of driving and this and go, and you can do these things. And that car took you to that place where you met those people or you did that thing. And now it’s a memory and that car is part of that memory. And so I don’t want to say you want to start them off with the right car, because that’s the wrong thing, but you want to get them excited about what they’re going to drive.

It’s like, Oh yeah. It’s grandma’s Buick 88, like, oh, big deal. You know what I mean? There’s a lot to that. And then again, that goes into that social dynamic of the car and who your friend circle was. And maybe like you said about the truck, it drew people in because it was a point of attraction in the parking lot.

Don Weberg: I have fond memories of pickups as being first vehicles because you can beat the hell out of them. Honestly, there’s no repercussions or it’s a truck. It’s meant to take some abuse. You’re going to do fine.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I’m glad you opened that door, Don. So let’s talk about first cars before we dive a little deeper into some of our suggestions and pick [00:09:00] your brain on more of your shopping criteria.

So Rob, what about you? First car.

Rob Luhrs: Learned on an 87 Volkswagen Vanikin GL Synchro.

Crew Chief Eric: My man.

Rob Luhrs: With a manual transmission, but the first car I bought myself was an 8 valve Scirocco from 85.

Crew Chief Eric: See, this is why we bring Rob to the party.

Don Weberg: Yeah, I’m noticing a little bias here with the Germans, with Rob and Eric, and then there’s Mark in the background scouring at me.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, so Mark, what about you? What was your first car?

Mark Shank: 89 Chevy Cavalier. It’s a good car. It’s kind of an American. Turn, but it was a good car. I have genuine affection for it. The first one I really loved was a 94 Z28. Very different kind of car at that point.

Crew Chief Eric: William, what about you? First car?

William Ross: 1983 Mazda GLC hatchback.

Oh

Crew Chief Eric: my man. My man. Yeah, high speed. Brad, I remember your first car.

Crew Chief Brad: It was a 1991 red Honda Civic hatchback with four on the floor.

Crew Chief Eric: Since nothing ever leaves the mountain, I’m sure your first car is [00:10:00] still up there. Dan, what was it? Actually, it’s not here. What?

Mountain Man Dan: Are we talking first owned car or first car that actually was put on the road and driven?

Oh my god.

Crew Chief Brad: Dan still owns all of his first cars. My

Mark Shank: point. You thought my story was gonna be long? The first one that was yours, Dan. If you considered it yours, then it counts.

Mountain Man Dan: They were mine. So the first car I had was a 64 Chevy two Nova that I was in the process of fixing up and then unfortunately family got on part times and had to sell it.

First car actually put on the road was actually a 82 Toyota

Crew Chief Eric: Corolla. They could not be any more different. Those two. Yeah, and I’ll round it out. I had an 87 Audi coupe with five speed. I had the weirdest car in the parking lot at high school. That’s for sure.

Rob Luhrs: I don’t know that’s that much weirder than the Scirocco just to be clear.

Crew Chief Eric: Everybody knew what a Scirocco was though.

Rob Luhrs: Everybody knew what a Scirocco was, knew what an Audi coupe was. At least I did. All my friends did.

Mark Shank: Back then, Audis were in the doghouse. Nobody had Audis.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. And our resale value was printed right across the grill. You know, all zeros, worth nothing. Being the weirdest car in the world.

[00:11:00] Driven by the weird kid at school worked out. Dan, when you and I were preparing for this and talking about this, you made a very good point about the shopping criteria and kind of bracketed it using the way we do our new, what should I buy episodes, which is. Three tier, the parents assisting in the purchase, the 16 year old buying it themselves and funding it through, you know, side hustles and part time jobs and things like that, or the silver spoon option.

So I kind of wondered with your first cars, how many of you guys bought it yourselves? Well, myself. Okay. So that’s two. How many were a hand me down? Okay. So that’s two more. And then our parents bought it for us. Okay. And that’s the rest of us. And then there’s William. Okay. So that rounds us out. So we’re kind of evenly split amongst those three options that you mentioned, Dan.

So Don, this kind of leads back to you. How do you want this to work out? Do you want her to work for the car? Do you want to gift her a car to your wife? Once it’s been 0.

Don Weberg: Yeah, [00:12:00] honestly, I think how it’ll work is, I mean, if I get my way. And she doesn’t end up in the Caprice of the Flex. Michelle and I will buy a car for her.

And it’ll just be one of those ex rental Buicks or something that we can afford, that she can beat up, you know, learning how to not hit curbs, things like that. I think it would just be something like that. Now that said, she herself, Caitlin, is a bit of a car girl. She has a penchant for the modern VW Beetles.

She loved Beetles period. She doesn’t care how old they are, but she definitely has more of an interest in the newer Beetles. Outside of that, it basically goes a little wonky. She starts loving 50, 51 Hudson, like Doc Hudson. She really starts getting into the, uh, the Corvettes, which I think that’s She loves everything we have, the Fiat, the Mustang, the DeLorean, the Caprice has long been one of her favorites.

Literally, ever since she was a little girl, she’s just been a little gaga for the Caprice. She would love to take that to school, and we’ve actually talked about finding another brick to join [00:13:00] this brick, and She has my flavor a little bit with the Baguan paint. Definitely interested in having a little fun with hippie schemes or things like that.

Part of me says, yeah, an old brick could be perfect for that. And then there’s another part of me that’s like, you know, those bricks are starting to dry up and they’re starting to gain in some value a little bit. Getting a little harder for me to say, yeah, go ahead, honey. Go take that brick and screw it up.

Crew Chief Eric: Leads into another question, which is the next logical conclusion. And I’m sure I’m going to get a church nod for this one is. The maintenance part of this aspect, which is a lot of things a first time driver forgets about it was sort of the bill I was handed when I got my first car. It’s like, we’re going to buy you the car and here’s a bag of wrenches and you’re on your own after that point.

So I was there to figure out how to pay for my insurance. Anything that broke, if I wanted to do mods, it was on me. And it always seemed like on the Audi, the magic number was like 1100 bucks. Every time I turned around, I had to come up with a thousand dollars to replace suspension or do exhaust or whatever, because it was a 10 year old car by the time I got it.

Right. So it needed everything. What’s your thought [00:14:00] there? Is she going to go to work to pay for that stuff? If something breaks as a, Hey dad, I’m on the side of the road. How is that going to play out for you guys?

Don Weberg: It’s funny. That kind of brings us right into a secondary point that I always concerned about in my family, we were car people.

We grew up cars. We had my God at any given time, there were 10 cars hanging around the house. We just had the ones that were specific to us that we drove every day, but they were all, except for my mom and my dad’s dailies, All of them were old. They were all in some form of disrepair. It’s interesting, as I went through life, I had fun with that.

I bought the Fiat, I bought tons of Lincolns, tons of old Dodges, tons of whatever I could get my hands on. And this is where I start to sound a little un far guy. Earned up a ton of cash. I mean, just burned through it like a wildfire. And looking back, one of the last old cars was supposed to be a Mercedes.

It belonged to my grandmother. Things didn’t go right with me and my grandfather, so I ended up not buying the car. But I ended up with a very slightly used Toyota 4×4 pickup. Absolutely [00:15:00] gorgeous. Bright red. The whole in yard. That car. Got me through 15 years, something like that. I don’t even know, but it got me through everything.

Got me through three colleges. Got me through God knows, you know, how many friends, relationships, Hey, Don, what are you doing this weekend? I’m doing something else. The keys are on the shelf. I don’t want to help you move. That was the only problem with having a pickup. I’m sure Mountain Man Dan can attest to that as well.

But what resonated with me was the Mercedes was a 73. There’s no way in hell. Okay. That Mercedes would have gone through everything that Toyota went through day in, day out, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it hit me how little money I spent on that truck. Yes, there was the cost of it. That was one of the ones, you know, my parents were going to buy it.

I had to come up with the money. I had to make the payments. I was working at Paramount. Everything was good. So I was fine. But I think when all was done, interest everything, I think I was out the door 17, 000 and change. So 18, 000 for that truck. And yet, look at everything it got me through, trouble [00:16:00] free. I put one set of tires on that truck, one, that’s it.

I put no brakes on that truck, none. I always took it to the dealer because I was my father’s worst nightmare. Never put brakes on the truck, always downshifted. It needed one clutch, so that kind of makes sense. No brakes, but I replaced the clutch. Still, total everything up in that truck, I didn’t spend all that much money to get me through to the next vehicle, which was the Australian GTO, which was another absolutely fantastic car.

But we’ll go into that another time. So the thought is much as I’d love to get her an old beetle or. An old caprice to screw around with. I remember the thought of how well the Toyota served me. And I look at her and I think, okay, you’re just starting high school. You know, let’s go screw something up.

Let’s get the wrecks out of our system. Let’s get that and do that with some old jalopy. That’s not going to bother anybody if you wreck it. But I live in, and this is another part of the equation we need to take in very seriously. I have never seen worse drivers in my life. Then where I live right now, [00:17:00] where are you?

The Dallas area, Dallas, Fort Worth.

Rob Luhrs: But every road is seven lanes wide and dead straight.

Don Weberg: Pretty much. They are extremely emotionally driven, no pun intended, but what they love to do is get right on your back bumper. We all love the littler cars. They’re fine. They’re fun. They’re enjoyable all the way, but yeah, it does have to do with.

You drive those things around here, you’re gonna get bullied.

Rob Luhrs: I towed the tractor, I loaded the Miata everywhere I went. It would be hilarious to be next to someone’s, like, perfectly normal SUV and think, like, they can’t see me at all. I am below the window line of the visibility of that 18 year old who doesn’t know what they’re doing in their mom’s caravan, right?

So there’s a fear factor to saying, like, Get a BRZ or get a TC or Miata, like there’s a fear factor.

Don Weberg: Yeah, well, it’s funny though, you bring that up the rear view mirror. I can’t see the Miata. If it pulls up close enough to the flexes rear end, you can’t see it. You cannot see that car. So yeah, there’s a definite fear factor.

There’s little cars.

Rob Luhrs: So you need to roll coal so you can throw giant black. Yeah, so you can start rolling [00:18:00] coal and they’ll back off

Don Weberg: pretty

Rob Luhrs: fast,

Don Weberg: right? Now being from LA, it is a different driving style in California period compared to Texas. all the way around. So I had to relearn, okay, how are these guys expecting me to drive?

It kind of helped adapting to how they do things, but this is God’s honest truth. We had a friend visiting us, Sarah, two years ago, something like that. She came out for a weekend visit. In that three days that she was with us, nine car wrecks, nine that we counted just in Mansfield, which is the exact town where I live.

They are scary out here. They’re very emotional. Most of them drive massive pickup trucks with bumpers that weigh as much as the DeLorean itself. Pure steel sitting out there, just waiting to topple something. This is where the Flex is really, really fantastic because it’s not huge. It’s not a suburban, but it’s got that old dog sense to it.

You know, it’s there, you know, it’s big. You know it’s heavy, it’s gonna fight back if you nudge it. People know that. You put the Accord on the road, my god, you’re [00:19:00] getting bleed left, right, and center. They just cannot wait to shove you out of the way. Even if you’re in the slow lane doing 80, and I’m not kidding you, 80 out here is sort of the beginning of, this is our freeway speed.

They just lie out here. So it’s very unsafe. Bottom line, so when I look at the Beetle, when I look at even the Caprice, even though the Caprice is a solid piece of work, no airbags, it’s very unforgiving, in a wreck, it’s really not going to be your best friend. So I keep looking at vehicles that are a bit safer, a bit more solid, a bit more robust.

But my thought is, I’d love for her to have a car that’s gonna see her, assuming we go to college, at least get her halfway through her college education. And fortunately, we’re in this era right now, you go back to the 90s, some of these cars are tanks, the way they were engineered, because safety was a huge concern for everybody.

Mark Shank: I do think that you have to think seriously about crash safety standards and how they matured. Which challenges a lot of the [00:20:00] cars from the 90s, post 98, there was a big change in the crash safety standards and that’s why a lot of those cars got heavier after that.

Don Weberg: Hope that gives you a few of the parameters we’re thinking about.

Crew Chief Eric: All of us are in different parts of this journey, right? Even as fathers of petrolheads. So, you’re right in the middle of this. Rob’s right behind you. Dan just went through this and so did William. And then obviously Brad, Mark, and I are on the, still on the front end of this, catching up with you guys. So what I want to do is turn it to Dan and to William to say with your girls, what did you go through?

What was some of your thought process? What were the considerations that you made for your daughters picking their first car?

William Ross: Being in Ohio, one four wheel drive, two safety, It’s not like we get blizzards every other week or something like that, but it gets pretty shitty.

Don Weberg: When it snows, it doesn’t snow here, it just gets ice.

That’s all we get. We just get ice.

William Ross: Ice doesn’t matter if you got six wheel drive. Doesn’t matter. You’re gonna slide.

Don Weberg: Now, frankly, I had a ball learning how to fishtail and learning how to correct in my old truck. I thought that was more [00:21:00] fun than anything. You get that light rear end out there, it’s gonna be a little weird, but times have changed.

You know, the police are not so Open minded about a young person learning how to correct the skid and things like that.

William Ross: But the big thing was for me was just the four wheel drive. Kind of like how Don’s saying, you know, where he’s at. Your child’s a new driver. They’re not really adjusting themselves to environment and how they should be driving or whatnot.

It’s more like they’re just freaking out going, Oh, okay. What’s going to give them the most sense of calmness? So they feel safe. We had a 2014 Acadia just sitting there. So she wasn’t fond of it because of the size, but she got accustomed to it. She got used to it as what you do with anything. Yeah. And then she’d get towed her friends all around and everything like that.

But for her, that worked the best. We lucked out. So that’s what I had sitting there.

Mountain Man Dan: The initial plan was to get an older vehicle to restore with her. So she’d know every nut and bolt, but unfortunately budget didn’t allow that to happen for what she wanted. So she wound up commandeering one of my trucks and that’s what she drives the majority of the time.

And I have a car here that she’ll [00:22:00] eventually start driving once she gets a little bit better driving manual. Surprisingly, she’s really taken to my dually and every chance she gets, she steals that from me. It’s good having her in a bigger vehicle, but at the same time, it’s scary because I tell her all the time, like, the dually’s a lot wider than the other vehicles.

You hit something, you’re paying for it.

Mark Shank: I say the same kind of crap. Are you really gonna bankrupt your child if they hit something with your dually? That’s not worth that.

Mountain Man Dan: Luckily not, but I’ll definitely get some sweat and labor out of her if she weren’t a record.

Mark Shank: Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Alright, honest answer.

I appreciate that.

Crew Chief Eric: That’d be a lot of cursing, that’s for sure. But

Mark Shank: the thing is, they don’t realize that, so it’s a valid threat. It’s a valid threat. They don’t appreciate the reality of the situation. You’re just trying to make a threat that registers. I get it.

Rob Luhrs: Is the truck that she does use, is that a manual or automatic?

Mountain Man Dan: It’s an automatic. It’s actually a 86 Chevy K ten four wheel drive. Square bucket.

Crew Chief Eric: Nice. Don, is manual an option or that’s off the table right now? Automatics only, right?

Don Weberg: It’ll go either way. Okay. Caitlyn and Michelle both wanna learn how to drive stick shift. [00:23:00] So now that the Fiat’s back and now that the weather’s getting a little better, we do have plans to go out in the neighborhood and run the fiat around and Okay.

Learn how to do that. So we’ll go. We’ll go either way.

Rob Luhrs: I want to ask, for the two of you who’ve already gone through this, were your choices and criterias based on your experience with your first cars, or what you wanted to correct from what you felt happened in your first one? Because my current thought with my kids are very different for very different reasons, so I really want to hear what’s going through there on that side.

William Ross: I wanted to get her a small car, it was a 5 speed or something, you know, she’d learn how to drive a stick in that, but It was weird because she wanted to get her driver’s license, but she was really nervous and scared about driving. I think it was probably five or six months that she had her license before she even got on the highway.

Rob Luhrs: Did she learn from you or from your wife or from elsewhere? My wife, I

William Ross: got zero patience. I helped her a little bit with the maneuverability stuff, kind of learning that. But other than that, no, she always went out with my wife. I was putting my foot through the imaginary brake in the floor in the passenger seat all the time.

And it would drive her nuts. She’s like, stop that. Like I said, I [00:24:00] wanted to get her a manual. Thought was, okay, Hand on the steering wheel, hand on the gears lever, she’s moving, she can’t be on her phone, da da da, you know, that kind of stuff. As a kid though, you’ll figure it out. I did. We all did, I had a manual.

You figured it out how to drive with big golf, whatever, and everything like that. Texted with manuals with a 9E

Rob Luhrs: phone.

Crew Chief Eric: With T9, you’re

Rob Luhrs: younger than I am. I had already long since learned to drive before like the first car phones were installed.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a rite of passage to learn how to drive with your one knee.

Rob Luhrs: Yes. The one thing I still do, my kids in the backseat, they’ll be like, dad, where are your hands doing? I’m like, I’m busy eating this.

Don Weberg: My knees got control of the car. You’re fine. Somebody just said it, and I think it was William. You do sort of get comfortable with the car. You do sort of figure out. The idiosyncrasy of the car.

So

Rob Luhrs: Dan, if you want to answer the same question that William answered.

Mountain Man Dan: No, the automatic just mainly having as to what was here, but having her drive a manual is definitely a requirement I had for her. Surprisingly, the first manual she drove was my race car up at pit race a couple of years ago. And I was amazed that she didn’t stall it out with the clutch that’s in it.

She’s [00:25:00] gotten better with manuals where she has a dirt bike and stuff like that. She rides, but initially she wanted an old Volkswagen bug. And then probably when she was about 12 years old, that changed and she decided she wanted an old fifties model truck. Yeah. But unfortunately, I couldn’t find one in decent enough condition for the prices they were asking.

Because initially I was going to get her the vehicle for her 13th birthday and I was going to give us three years to rebuild it. And my biggest concern was her knowing how to work on the vehicle. If something happened, she broke down alongside the road. It was more along the fact of her being a female and not having someone come take advantage of her not knowing the vehicle than whether it was manual or automatic car or truck.

With the truck, I’ve taught her damn near everything on it, and she’s been around square bodies since she was little because I’ve owned them since before she was born. It’s one of those things, luckily, that generation of GMs in general, whether it be car or truck, engine wise, are very similar if it’s a small block.

Crew Chief Eric: So Rob, all that being said, where’s your head at?

Rob Luhrs: So going back to sort of what William said, it’s definitely manual. I mean, my first driving experience was taking the whole family to upstate [00:26:00] New York in that Vanagon manual, and that was the first time I had driven the car, in any car. And I just remember, like, getting on the highway was fine, and then I get to these stoplights, and at one point, I was in the middle of New York somewhere.

I couldn’t get it started again in first. Turns out I was in third, finally figured it out. But I had cars behind me, you know, swearing, swinging around you and doing everything. Looking back, like, I loved that fear factor, because that fear factor, like, gave you a sense of what a privilege more than a right it is to drive, and to have to understand how the car works and how everything works.

In order to drive it. And it wasn’t an appliance, right? It wasn’t like I hit the power button on my electric vehicle and to step on the gas and it’s just going to go. It was no, no, I need to know how to do a few things and sort of earn the respect of this is how a car works and how I interact with other people on a road.

And I loved that experience. You know, I have the GTI now and I’ve considered getting something different. And I’m like, Nope, either that or a golf or something in that realm is what I want my kids to learn on. Whether I want that to be the first car is different. I think it’s a little too quick, but my head is 100 percent on it has to be a manual.

I don’t want an automatic. Even now, [00:27:00] right? I have friends who are like, Oh, can I borrow your car? I’m like, you don’t know how to drive stick. You know, you can’t help. Like I got a buddy who drives stick, but his wife doesn’t. And so whenever we try to trade off cars, it’s like this mental gymnastics. I’m like, no, my kids need to learn how to drive stick.

Crew Chief Eric: I agree with you there because I’ve always. idea that if you learn how to drive a manual, then you can pretty much drive anything, whether it’s a tractor or a truck or a motorcycle. If you understand the mechanics of how a manual transmission works, it’s not just about the car you have, but also older cars too, because if you end up in the collector world or if you, somebody goes, Hey, Let’s go for a spin.

And you know, my old nine 11 SC, well, you look down and you go, well, that’s an interesting anti theft device. You got to learn what the three pedals do and it makes you a better driver. And I agree with William with the distracted driving thing too. I mean, yes, you can defeat that, but realistically you’re more situationally aware when you drive a manual.

Because there’s more things you have to physically do when you’re driving. So I’m with you on all that stuff.

Rob Luhrs: When I got to college, I ended up driving buses. I drove transit buses and I ended up being an instructor of new [00:28:00] students who came in and even driving buses. And again, we’re driving those big transit buses around Western Massachusetts.

All the training was done on manual transmission, double clutching school buses. And so we got kids who had never driven a stick before that are coming in. They’re like, Oh, it’s, I want to learn how to drive buses. You know, they watch bus drivers with automatics. And they’re like, wait, I got to learn this.

Every one of them by going through that learning process, I would put up the drivers that we had, even in college as college kids, right. Who are just all a bunch of punks. We would go to these bus rodeos and we would always finish in the top part because we were one of the few groups in new England that would mandate only manuals for instruction purposes.

Mark Shank: Manuals with no synchros. That’s a big difference relative to what. People deal with 100 percent

Rob Luhrs: and I feel like even seeing it at the college level just made a huge difference in the abilities of all the drivers, but coming out of driving manual Volkswagen buses and stuff like I didn’t find it to be that big a deal because I understood the mechanics of it.

It was pretty easy.

William Ross: Really want to mess, get a three on the tree. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh boy. Or does Chaveau with that umbrella handle in the dashboard. [00:29:00]

Rob Luhrs: And that first VW. Plus even like this van against synchros have so much low end torque that like, you know, once we figured out the gear thing, like you don’t even need the gas.

You just slowly release the clutch and it’ll go 10 miles an hour. Fine. And so like, it’s a easy car to learn on. That was kind of a fun aspect of it too. But yeah, that’s where my head’s at was purely gotta be manual. I want it small. I also, I worry about this might be a cultural thing. I worry about a vehicle that has too much.

People storing ability because I know that my kids will easily get, you know, six kids in the back going crazy and boom, that’s, you’re going to have it. Like the one accident I ever had in my entire life as a kid was driving the bus back from an ultimate frenzy return with five people in the car and everyone’s talking and chattering and I’m like, okay, yep, okay, yep, I’m fine.

I’m fine. And, uh, Sideswiping a guardrail is you just get distracted from all the people. And it wasn’t phones or stereos, it’s the people. And so I’m a big fan of like, two doors, tight cars, smaller cars. Like I had the Scirocco, and it was one of those like, you gotta work to cram four people, and none of them are happy.

But I want less space. And so like, the idea of a pickup is great, because yes, as they get used to it, they put seven kids in the back to [00:30:00] go drive into the mountains to go do stuff, fine. But the drive into school and back, you’re not picking up seven people. You don’t have people throwing stuff in the back and distracting you.

So you’re actually a less distracted driver with having less people capacity in the car.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a very valid point. You sort of tripped over here because Don and I talked about this off air. There’s a sociological aspect to your first car. And do you want to be the cool kid from 90210 with the ZR1 Corvette and everybody goes, Ooh, look at him.

He’s the next James Dean. Or are you suddenly the designated driver because you have mom’s old minivan. And to your point, you can tote around nine or 10 of your drunk friends and you’re never having any fun at the party. Not saying that you should be doing that.

Mark Shank: Don’t drink anymore.

Crew Chief Eric: But there’s sort of this.

now social dynamic that builds around your first car because Rob’s the guy with the van. We’re going to go ask Rob and to Don’s point, well, you got the pickup. Can you help me move? And you’re like, I don’t want to do that. So to your point, choosing that first car actually puts your kid into a weird [00:31:00] social swim lane.

And I think you need to be careful about what you choose based on their personality, based on who their friends are. Again, this is why I said at the beginning, this is a very challenging subject because I never realized how many layers there were to buying a car, especially a first car.

Mountain Man Dan: So I have to disagree a little bit with the social impact there, compared to when we were getting our license, we were like dead set wanting it the day we were allowed to.

Today’s generation is not as. Press to get their license and my daughter wanted to get hers, but it was like it wasn’t near as much as me. I was like out the gates running as fast as I could. My daughter’s nonchalantly walking to get hers basically. And I’ve noticed more and more, especially dealing with all her friends.

They don’t care as much what the car is as we did. Which is surprising because it’s like a completely different dynamic to the way we looked at cars compared to how they look at it now. And I’m not sure how your guys kids are with how it might change by the time yours are getting their license, Eric, because that’s a couple years from now.

Mark Shank: I agree. It feels almost European in the sense that you used to say [00:32:00] Americans were house. Car clothes and Europeans were clothes house car in priority of spending, just kind of like a stereotype when not a lot of kids get their license. The fact that you have your license in a car in and of itself makes you unique.

It doesn’t matter what the hell drive period. End of story. And so the fact that you have a car stands out when you’re 16 or 17 years old in a modern context where we went from a, you know, 70 to 80 percent of 16 year olds getting licenses down to, it’s like something like under 40 percent or whatever today.

I think if you’re on this podcast, you obviously enjoy automobiles and you’d rather your kid’s first car be an N A or N B Miata. Look, it’s just two of you and it’s a manual and it’s a little car, but SUVs and pickup trucks are a thing. And I don’t want my kid to die. So that’s probably not going to be their first car.

Crew Chief Eric: But there’s the other side of this too, Mark, where I look at some of the kids that are driving around the [00:33:00] schools that our kids go to, and I’m like, I would kill for the hand me downs that they’re getting. I’m like, you’re driving your dad’s old five series. Like, seriously, I had a 2, 000 piece of crap and that was expensive back then.

You know what I mean? So I look at some of these other cars and I’m like, you have got to be kidding me, but there’s a social dynamic to that too. Even if you’re receiving a 10 year old BMW, it’s a 10 year old BMW. It’s like, Holy cow. That’s a good car by the standards of cars that we drove. So it’s really awkward.

It’s really strange. And I’m not jealous, but on the same token, to your point, I want my kids to have like a cool car. But to Rob’s point, I don’t want it to be so good that then everybody wants to be on the party bus. You know what I mean?

Mark Shank: It’s tricky. It’s I do think for me, the killer feature for a 16 year old, I’m going to say dumb ass kid lovingly for my own children would be auto braking.

And if you look at who’s out there and who has good systems that can hit the brake on a car before your kid actually hits the brake on the [00:34:00] car. Toyota does really well. Obviously Tesla does really well as much as we love to hate. You know, I’m one of those haters too. Fine, fair enough, put me out there.

But they do well in that

Rob Luhrs: camp. The Subarus do pretty well in that too. The newer EyeSight one, you can get a Forester, which is a similar vehicle to a lot of this.

Mark Shank: But the newer ones, they got good at that in the last five years or so, at least according to my reading.

Rob Luhrs: I would agree, but you can get a five year old Forester for starting to get into this range, because people bought them as appliances.

Mark Shank: And so you have to start thinking about the killer app of what’s really going to be a big safety mechanism for that distracted kid who’s maybe listening to their friends as we’ve talked about the back or they’re getting a text message or Spotify notification on their phone.

Rob Luhrs: The other aspect besides that, which I hate to even mention, because I’m not a fan of this and kids are sort of forbidden from, Phones for a reason, right?

Is, and it’s only in the newer cars, making sure it has a head unit with CarPlay, being able to abstract the need to look at a phone, any of the newer ones, right, you hit a button and it just [00:35:00] reads you what the text message is. And you can, you know, do you want to reply? You just say, yes, tell Jill, LOL or something, and it just does it for you.

And they never need to actually. reach down and pick up a phone and take their eyes off of the road. To that point, that’s also a feature that we haven’t even discussed at all, right? Which is more whiz bang. So there’s the distraction, but it removes the, I’m going to physically pick this thing up and do this to answer my question, as opposed to just hit a button on a big giant screen in the center of the console.

Mark Shank: It’s not whiz bang to say, Hey Siri, give me directions to school or give me directions to home. Right. In Apple CarPlay or Google Android is infinitely better at that than the OEM systems. And you look at where generative AI is coming in relative to Apple coming out with, you know, there’s going to be huge advancements there.

Siri replying to me right now, mid podcast, because I made the mistake of saying her name. And that’s something we haven’t talked about either, which is Do you really want to eliminate distracted driving? Is AI a component of that and the [00:36:00] ability to have legitimate natural language interpretation and just say what you want your car to be able to do and it gives you those directions or it responds to you in that kind of way?

And is that inherently more safe? I think there has to be some legitimacy to that. I do think that CarPlay as a platform will help older cars be better at that very quickly, because you put a more modern iPhone plugged into an older Apple CarPlay implementation, it will inherit those capabilities. And so that will be a big boon to these kids in this type of situation.

Rob Luhrs: A lot of it depends on where you are too. That was going to be my next question for Don as we try to get closer to the actual answer, right, is like, I live in the city, I live in Capitol Hill, my kid is walking to middle school or biking to middle school every day, and the high school is closer than the middle school, like if he goes to the local one, right, so no one needs a car around here.

Now that said, my kids know that I’m a gear head that I work on. Like the GT I have is because I taught a friend how to do everything. And my kids ardently watched and my kid’s biggest joy is like getting onto an on ramp and seeing if I can get the car [00:37:00] sideways on an off ramp. And my kids love that stuff, right?

So they’re going to learn to drive the moment they can. They’re going to want me to. Thank God, get back to doing track days. And so I can bring them out and have them start learning. So I’m excited for that to happen, but their commuting side, isn’t going to be there. Right. So like in my case, I could totally make their first car an NB Miata.

The only purpose of this is to drive to an autocross spot or a drive to a track day, and then work on car control skills and drive home because their day to day life through high school, at least doesn’t going to involve a car.

Crew Chief Eric: You hit the nail on the head through high school. And Don sort of alluded to this earlier about the weather.

One of the things that I was thinking about is don’t buy a car. For your current situation, especially with a 18 year old. Maybe they’re starting to drive a little bit later. If they’re going off to college, think about the climate in that area. If you’re going to the middle of the country, go into Ohio or William is, or you’re going to new England where it’s going to snow, not inches, but feet.

You don’t want to show up with a Miata in the winter time when you’re in school, because you’re going to be bumming rides. From your [00:38:00] friend with the Toyota four by four. If you’re going to Florida, then a convertible is perfect. Think about where they’re going to be going and make the car buying part of maybe the college selection process.

These are other parts that suddenly made the equation way more complicated than, man, I’m really interested in an 82 Trans Am. It’s way more dynamic than buying a collector car. I

Don Weberg: mean, we can end it right now because there’s one car that fills every bill. Every bill is filled by one car, and that is the 89 Chrysler TC by Maserati.

Crew Chief Eric: I thought you were going to say the Cadillac Elante. Why is that not on your list? You should buy her an Elante.

Don Weberg: The Elante is a wonderful car, but it’s a little ostentatious. The Chrysler’s a little more sedate, you know?

Crew Chief Eric: A little unmodified. That Chrysler’s on my list. And what’s funny is we were hinting at the younger kids, like me and Mark and Brad, right?

What are they going to be driving six years from now? Let’s say that because they’re all in that, you know, 10 year old range. So for Brad’s kids, you’re catching up a little bit more. Yeah, I

Crew Chief Brad: think the car that my kids are going to drive hasn’t been built yet. It’s not around yet.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, [00:39:00] you’re hitting it right on the head.

So my math is always what was available new 10 years from the date that they’re going to start driving. So if we’re looking at 2024, We need to start talking about what was available in 2014, plus or minus a year 2013 to 2015 in that range.

Rob Luhrs: I consider those new cars, by the way, just to be clear. I’m old enough that, like, if somebody handed me a 2014, I’d be like, that’s the newest car I’ve ever seen, like, ever owned.

Crew Chief Eric: But, Don gave us a number. Ten grand. So we have some wiggle room to play with.

Mark Shank: Even when looking at under 10 K. There are so many really cool cars out there, and I actually love that. They think, you know, your modern cord is too fast, so it’s like, great, let’s go back to the nineties when everything didn’t have 280 horsepower.

There’s just so many cool things out there. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Don Weberg: I need you to put on your thinking caps here, boys. I need you to think of something that ain’t going to get bullied around in the bathroom.

Crew Chief Eric: So who wants to take a stab? At some suggestions for Don in the 10, [00:40:00] 000 and under category within, let’s say, maybe the last 10 years.

And if you got something outside of the 10 year window, I am curious, my

Mark Shank: default was we go so much older than 10. So I’m really saying, you know, if I’m going back to 2014. I’m saying 2014 and 10 grand. Is that what I’m

Crew Chief Eric: looking at? Yeah. Right. And there are cars that ended their lives in 2014. So it’s very fair to say I’m going to get the 2002 version of that because it spanned the whole gamut up to 2014.

So you can still kind of get the last version of that old car, which is actually a very smart thing to do if you’re a conscientious buyer. So I’m leaving a little bit of wiggle room, but I think the further you go back, the more problems you may run into with a new driver in a super old car.

Mark Shank: I think that’s totally fair,

Crew Chief Eric: man.

It’s tough.

William Ross: I mean, the nice thing though for him is that Being in Texas, you obviously have a very broad range of where you can go around and find the car, but two, you don’t have to worry so much rust [00:41:00] and that stuff, cars, not going to get beat up all that much in regards to stop and go and that, because you’re out there in the wide open spaces, higher mileages are really something to be too afraid.

Crew Chief Eric: And I spent way too much time on cars. com in this category. I’m going to throw one out. I’m going to chum the water for you guys. And then I’ll let you guys rip from there. And I know that Don is a huge fan of the Ford Flex. And he talked about maybe getting a second one because Caitlyn loves his Ford Flex, but he doesn’t want to give up his.

So he’d have to get another one, sort of like the Caprice thing, right? But Don, for your consideration, might I offer you for the low, low price of 8, 500, a Lincoln Mark T with the EcoBoost. Which is just a Ford flex with leather.

Don Weberg: Yeah, that would work. The only thing, and this happened to mine just recently, I just found out about the water pump on the 3.

5 liter Ford and perhaps even the 3. 7 liter, I’m not sure yet, the water pump on these 3. 5 liter Fords is internal inside the engine. So when it pops, I have the receipt somewhere. [00:42:00] It was 4, 100 to repair mine. It’s not so much the part and getting into the motor and changing it out. That’s not the problem.

The whole front end has to come off. The whole car basically comes apart when you do the water pump.

Rob Luhrs: That’s not true for every car. Yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: right.

Rob Luhrs: As somebody who belongs to the Audi club and owns Volkswagen, I thought the front end had to come off for all that stuff anyways in every car.

Crew Chief Eric: Service position is engine out.

Rob Luhrs: I was gonna say, isn’t that normal? I thought that was normal. I’ve seen people do that during a track day. They pull off the whole front end of the Audi to check the water pump.

Crew Chief Eric: We won’t talk about that, but it is true.

Don Weberg: What else I found what was interesting is 3. 5 liter in the F 150 because The engine is mounted longitudinally.

It’s a different water pump. Okay. So they only put it internal for the front wheel drive packaging, but it’s going to be narrower fit in between fenders rather than firewall and grill. So that’s apparently where the thinking was. So if you didn’t have one 50, you’re going to be okay with that V6, but yes, to your point, the MKT, the flex, both of them are great vehicles.

You just gotta be prepared [00:43:00] for when that water pump. Needs to be replaced.

Crew Chief Eric: That was what I call my cheap, chic choice. If you wanted to have something a little classy and go back to Lincoln, but I also will throw in there. And I didn’t realize that the bottom had fallen out of these cars. And my wife owned one is the Cadillac SRX.

You can get one of those. For around 6, 500 to 8, 500 bucks. Like the Lincoln. I saw Lincoln’s in that range as well. And the Cadillac was great. The only thing we experienced with it that was bad was their Q system, which is the infotainment thing. It would go numb, but other than that, the Camaro motor that’s in it.

Was rock solid. The all wheel drive was fantastic. It’s a haulback system from the UK. We had zero issues with the bunch of years that we had the Cadillac. But finally, when we got rid of it, the infotainment system, which controlled the HVAC, which was the bigger issue started to get wonky. And that’s a very expensive replacement.

It’s almost 8, 000 to include labor. Cause they have to rip basically the whole front of the interior part. If you get one that was blessed that doesn’t have the [00:44:00] defect, then those cars are amazing and they’re a lot of fun and they’re funky. They’re like the tall CTS too fast. Yeah, it’s true. 330 horse in that stole my 2 cents in manual diesel Jetta

William Ross: Hundred horsepower baby.

Rob Luhrs: Those are the newer, the TDI ones are quick as hell though. Off the line.

William Ross: New ones, but we’re talking. Oh, we’re talking, you know, 20 12, 20 14 ish. 110 horsepower. I think. Something like that. A

Rob Luhrs: lot of torque at the low end, though.

William Ross: But that thing will run forever. If you want something that’s gonna get her all the way through college, everything, there you go.

Those things are bulletproof.

Crew Chief Eric: But timeout, the only thing I wouldn’t do to a kid going through this experience myself, I would never recommend a German car, especially a VAG product, to a 16 year old. In Texas.

Rob Luhrs: The funnier part of this is that it’s diesel, which means they’re always going to go to the wrong pump and they’re going to screw that part up first, just to be clear.

Mountain Man Dan: First time my daughter took the dually, which is a diesel, and she’s used to driving the halftime, which is gas, I’d caught her for something right as she pulled up to the gas station. And she’s like, yeah, I’m about to throw gas in [00:45:00] the truck. I’m like, you’re about to put what in the truck? She’s like, gas.

I’m like, you better put diesel in it. She’s like, oh yeah. Had I not caught her at that point, there would have been full tank of gas in my diesel truck and I would have hated life. I love my diesels, but for a kid that age, sometimes they’re a little bit absent minded.

Rob Luhrs: I agree. My older one has ADHD.

Mountain Man Dan: Keep it simple.

Rob Luhrs: Keep it simple. It’s gotta be gas or for Brad’s kids, electric at that point.

Crew Chief Eric: And that’s why the Mark T the reason I brought that up first is it breaks my sort of rule, no turbos for first drivers, because that adds a layer of complexity. That doesn’t need to be there. And I don’t want to have to explain forced induction or repair it, or why does it run like crap and all that kind of stuff.

So for me, it’s got to be normally aspirated. And I think Rob, you made kind of the side comment about Volkswagen’s in Texas and this and that dealership network or repair shops. It’s gotta be something domestic or domestically built. So we’re talking Honda, Toyota. The big three and maybe a couple other cars where there’s a decent dealer network.

Again, going [00:46:00] back to my thought about where are they going to college? Because suddenly you find yourself in Utah and it’s like, you’re the only gal in town with a beetle. And they’re like, well, that’s a pretty car. Where are you going to get that worked on? So you don’t want to be in that situation. I’m making a gross generalization, but it’s another piece of this.

Puzzle that you have to factor in is where can you get the car serviced when you’re not home with mom and dad?

Don Weberg: All of my trips back to california with the family. I’ve never counted them. I don’t think but it was always really nice You know, you’re busting down the freeway the ford blue oval the ford blue oval the ford blue oval There’s dealerships all along the way and right across the freeway, well, there’s the Chevy Bowtie.

Either way, you know, Chevy Ford seemed to be kind of the best way to go in terms of servicing. You got to think we are a traveling family. We go back to LA, we go to El Paso, we go up north to Kansas. So it is sort of something we need to take into consideration too, is yeah, if that puppy breaks down somewhere in the middle of the country, We’re hoping that, yeah, there’s a dealer network to take care of [00:47:00] it.

Now, Volkswagen, I’d have some confidence in, they’ve got a pretty good dealer network.

Rob Luhrs: They’re pretty big these days. Yeah. Them and Subaru are actually more places than you think now. Like you can be in the middle of podunk nowhere. There’s a Subaru dealership and a VW dealership. Like those are becoming ubiquitous.

Similar to Ford Chevy.

Mark Shank: So many parts share in the Volkswagen group. Yeah. I don’t mean to disagree with Eric, but it feels like a little bit of a 90s kind of Maybe in all these point of view, old fashioned, if we’re saying we’re looking within the last decade, there’s so much part sharing and Volkswagen group has alternated around the largest by volume factor in the world.

Rob Luhrs: Right. You have a golf or a Jetta or a Passat or this or that, or all those things use the exact same parts. That 10 year old beetle is basically a golf, which is the same as a Jetta, which is the same. Yeah. All those things are small.

Crew Chief Eric: That is true. But here’s the problem with the German cars. I know this firsthand.

When they break, even though they’re all the same, the same part breaks on all of them. It’s a stupid reason that it broke and then it’s idiotically expensive to replace. [00:48:00]

Rob Luhrs: I disagree. You end up learning yourself how to do it. Like, I remember driving home and that Scirocco in a rainstorm, replacing an alternator on the side of the highway.

It was like one of those rites of passage. It was kind of fun. Because

Crew Chief Eric: you could, Rob, but do that on a 2014 GTI. You don’t have the Schwaben XYZ tool necessary to take the alternator out now.

Mountain Man Dan: Other than that, the Scirocco had parts that were actually made of like, Cast aluminum or metal and stuff like that.

A lot of these new it’s all plastic.

Rob Luhrs: It’s all plastic and plastic. Yeah.

Mountain Man Dan: Eric and I know firsthand for the fact when the Mark fours, the coolant lines that are made of plastic, like the Y pieces and stuff, and it’s like, it’s going to break, there’s no question about it. It’s just when so much of the stuff is made of plastic.

And then of course the electronics, like you guys were mentioned with some of those stuff. That’s another nightmare in itself for a 10 year old vehicle.

Mark Shank: So as much as you complain about plastic and crap falling apart, Cars are so much more durable and longer lasting than they have ever been. And you can see the average age of the fleet in the [00:49:00] cars registered in the United States getting older every year as evidence of that, and it does have to change your calculus.

Rob Luhrs: So you’re saying we should look at 20 year old vehicles is what I’m hearing. I agree with where you’re headed here, man. I like this idea. Let’s go older. Older is better.

Don Weberg: It’s kind of funny that I really don’t have much objection to finding another brick. Another Caprice. I really don’t.

Crew Chief Eric: Here’s the other problem.

The older the car is, the more difficult it’s going to be to insure, especially if you want full coverage. And then there’s a lot of companies that maybe don’t want to cover that. Now, do you need to get classic? It becomes a nightmare. So if you stay in a 10 year window, you’re still on GEICO or Allstate or Nationwide’s amortization tables so you can insure the car.

Rob Luhrs: Almost, I assume everybody on this call This is going to be the third to seventh to twelfth car on a plan. It’s not going to make a big impact to anybody. I only have two currently on mine. I had three for a while. Adding a third is not going to, like, it could be a 1950s car. It’s not going to make a huge difference.

Well,

Crew Chief Eric: you got boys and I hate to say it’s going to cost [00:50:00] Double.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, I know. And which is why they’re getting a manual transmission element or a old beat up Golf. But the insurance for those is not going to be a major consideration.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s going to be a lot.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, but we all have multiple cars. You’re going to go from two grand to 2, 800 a year.

It’s not going to be a big thing. What? Have

Crew Chief Eric: you looked lately? Dude! 30 years ago now, I was paying 2, 500 a year in insurance for a 10 year old car.

Rob Luhrs: What do you pay right now in insurance? For your fleet.

Crew Chief Eric: Three cars, it’s about that, with two drivers.

Rob Luhrs: Is it only three that are insured right now? Yeah, it’s only three.

Crew Chief Eric: Why would you insure a race car? This is a track insurance. I know. It’s separate. I didn’t know if

Rob Luhrs: you had other crap lying around somewhere else.

Crew Chief Eric: No,

Rob Luhrs: no. This doesn’t count the 914? No, no, no, no. This doesn’t count the TT? No, no, no, no. This doesn’t count the No, no, no. Okay. It’s just the Pacifica and the

Crew Chief Eric: stuff that actually has tags.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, okay. But

Crew Chief Eric: anyway. The

Rob Luhrs: point is, but you had a fourth of that, right? Let’s say the nine 14 was stock and you added it to that, right? That’s an older car. If you were to add that on there, it’s not going to make a, it’s like, I’m not going to double that or anything like that,

Crew Chief Eric: but you also have to factor in every state’s different.

Don in Texas has to go through all his inspections and [00:51:00] registrations. California is extremely, it’s Texas. So he’s going

Rob Luhrs: to make sure he’s got his gun rack installed and has his concealed carry permit attached to his window. That’s

Don Weberg: another reason I like the caprice. There’s plenty of room for guns.

Seriously. All

Crew Chief Eric: right.

Don Weberg: Sorry, had to go there.

Crew Chief Eric: But for everybody else that’s listening to this, 10 year old card. Anybody else have suggestions? Because I’ve got a list that we can kind of go through here if nobody wants to throw something up on the table.

Mark Shank: I’m really torn between the enthusiast aspect of it and the practical aspect of it.

In trying to thread the needle between those two things so that, like, I can hopefully engender, I’ll say engender instead of encourage, I can engender in my kid some degree of automobile enthusiast, while at the same time, not feeling guilty that, like, I’m in some way endangering my child because I put him in a.

Fox body convertible Mustang.

Mountain Man Dan: Are you endangering your child in the fox body or are you endangering all the civilians and speculators? Well, that’s true. It is a Mustang after [00:52:00] all.

Mark Shank: That convertible fox body is a bit of a death trap. Let’s just call a spade a spade.

Rob Luhrs: As a side note, I recommend everybody do what Eric did, and I didn’t do this.

Go to cars. com and try to look in that age range, like under 10 grand. It is everything from like Mercedes Benz GLKs to like

Crew Chief Eric: Yes, there’s a lot of cars.

Don Weberg: Yeah, that’s what I mean by we are in a wonderful generation right now, because the cars that are going back 10 years, even 20 years Are so nice compared to what all of us had is our first cars.

These cars are really incredible.

Rob Luhrs: If this was 500 podcasts ago, by the way, I’d have to pull out the fact that you can get an HHR from 2011 and call it a day.

Crew Chief Eric: We’re going to get there, but I’ll throw this on the table. Don, did you know? Because you’re a blue oval man, you could get a Ford Taurus Police Interceptor for 8, 500.

Don Weberg: Depending on the year, yeah, I know. Yeah, believe me, I looked at the Tauruses, but again, the fear factor of the modern Taurus is front wheel drive, 3. 5 liter.

Crew Chief Eric: But there’s no fear factor, you’ve got rhino [00:53:00] bars on the front of that thing.

Don Weberg: You do. If you’ve ever actually looked at the police package Fords, they’re incredible.

Crew Chief Eric: Big brakes, sway bars, suspension. Yeah.

Don Weberg: Oh yeah. And there’s literally a division at Ford. That’s all these guys do. They develop, think about and build police cars. That’s it. But when it comes to the Taurus, if you’re going for the modern one, you’re looking at that 3. 5 liter again, and it’s going to be that funky little water pump, which all I’m getting at though, is I’m looking at the 3.

5. It’s in the Explorer, it’s in the Taurus, it’s in the Flex, it’s in all these front wheel drive application vehicles. I have a feeling in just a few years, we’re going to start seeing these things winding up at the junkyard because people just don’t want to afford to fix them. My mom and I talked about this the other day.

She has the Explorer with a front wheel drive and a 3. 5 liter. And I told her, you know, the comical thing about all of this, four grand we paid for that water pump. I’ve always wanted a Range Rover. I have always had a thing for Range Rover. I’ve always been. Terrified of them. Could I hear these horror stories all the time?

Guess what? I’m living the horror story. My wife’s [00:54:00] power window switch on the Honda went out because of my dog who kept stepping on the button and somehow broke something in power window world. Yeah, whatever it was, it was 900 just for the part. So when I hear this, I think to myself, okay, why do we not have an older Maserati and an older Range Rover in the driveway?

Why be scared now? Which goes back to the 2005 Buick LeSabre, the 85 Caprice, et cetera, et cetera. Those cars were tanks. Yes. They’re built better today than they ever have been, but the parts are so much more expensive.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s the availability. And here’s my litmus test for that. And I know where Mark was going to with buy an older car, but if you go to rock auto and the parts list is this long, that’s not the car you buy.

Because it means you cannot service it. It makes it really, really difficult to maintain. So that’s why 10 years is that sweet spot. They’re still making replacement parts. People are keeping those cars on the road. And to your point, Don, the junkyard, when I grew up, that was like every other [00:55:00] weekend. We’re going, going to find this, looking for that shit.

Dan and I still do that. Now looking for parts for the race car.

Mountain Man Dan: Good thing when it comes to salvage yard down in Texas and the Southwest, the salvage yards there are many times better than I hear on the East coast, because The weather’s better so the cars can sit there for longer and a lot of the guys have a lot more land

Crew Chief Eric: But the point is junkyard is a gold mine if you know what you’re doing But after a while even the junkyard starts to dry up and they stop buying those cars because they’re like they’re too old Because they’re working in a 10 year window So I think that 10 year window is super important to a first time car buyers decision making process

Don Weberg: Well, and you and I talked about this off camera.

We talked about the volvos And I’m a big Volvo fan. I’ve always loved Volvo. My daughter likes the Volvos. So it seems like it’d be a shoe and they’re very safe. They have a sort of bulldog ish nature to them, but you start pushing that 10 year mark, that 15 year mark, you talk about a small section of the parts catalog.

I mean, there’s nothing there. And if there is. [00:56:00] You better bring your wallet that they are not going to be cheap to find parts for those Volvo.

Crew Chief Eric: So the Taurus was my last three and a half liter special, the Cadillacs, a 3. 6 liter Camaro engine. So do you want to go into the Mopar camp or would you want to go to a car that would fit inside the flex?

Don Weberg: When it comes to Mopar, there’s really only one car to discuss.

Crew Chief Eric: All right. So let’s go B spec for a moment. Rob, a car you might appreciate. The Honda Fit.

Rob Luhrs: I just looked, I saw Fits are available, and I’m, at first I was scrolling through it, I’m like, oh, Mini Coopers you could get for that much, and I was like, oh, the Fit.

That’s basically that, but slower and better parts availability.

Crew Chief Eric: 100%. The Mini is one of those you’re going to pay the BMW tax on, and you have to be ready for it.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, and the Fit’s the same car when it’s that old, for the purposes of a new driver. You can still get a manual or automatic, and they will run forever, and are bigger in the inside than they seem on the outside.

And so easier to parallel park and when you’re done, you can sell it for what you paid for it.

Crew Chief Eric: When you’re done, you strip it down and you go Sunday Cup racing with Gridlife. What are you talking about? You have a built in race car.

Don Weberg: Yeah, the other one would be the RAV4, [00:57:00] kind of the competitor to that.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, if you want to go SUV.

Rob Luhrs: If I go to Toyota, I go like, I’m almost thinking like the Scion TC or something also sort of fixes this problem. So you get like, so the boxy two door action and you can go with the Matrix. It’s a little, that’s the bigger version of that.

Crew Chief Eric: Pontiac Vibe, right? Well,

Rob Luhrs: Vibe and Matrix, same car.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Rob Luhrs: Again, it’s basically a Toyota.

So parts availability is easy and reliability is good.

Don Weberg: Again, though, we’re getting into that bully factor. Those cars, they’re gonna get bullied.

Crew Chief Eric: So if you don’t want to get bullied around, that takes a couple other cars off my list though, because I had the Dodge Dart on the list because you can get those for under 10k.

You can also get the Chrysler 200 on that list under 10k.

Rob Luhrs: I would not want that car.

Crew Chief Eric: I don’t think anybody wanted that car. You can still get them new on dealerships. If you’re going to stay in a car, sedan, now you can start talking about Impalas. But if you want to go cheap chic, Chrysler 300 is an option with the 3.

5 liter Pentastar.

Don Weberg: That’s actually not a bad idea, the 300 or the Charger, either one of them. Yep.

Rob Luhrs: I haven’t seen a Charger yet scrolling [00:58:00] through here. I’ve seen the other one. 300’s

Crew Chief Eric: all day with the six cylinder.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, 300’s yeah, but I haven’t seen a Charger in here yet. And they’re

Crew Chief Eric: making 300 horse, but it’s heavy.

I really enjoyed those as rental cars. They were smooth. They’re like Paleozoic era, Mercedes chassis. They’re just nice and comfortable. You can put four people in it. You can put luggage in it. It’s not a hatchback. It’s not a truck. It’s kind of like, give me a little bit of everything and you’re good to go.

And again, I was surprised how cheap they were.

William Ross: I like that Chrysler 300. That’s a great car. My dad had one of those way back. You know, I love that car. I think it was great. Great on the highway. Great cruise. I think it was a great car. And knowing that she’s kind of afraid saying the cord’s too fast, and kind of how Don was saying when he’s driving down there 80s in the slow lane and whatnot, you’re going to want to have something.

I mean, I don’t know if she’s going to be driving on the highways, but you know, she’s going to want to have something. It’s going to have some oomph to it. Because she’s gonna have to get out of the way. She’s gonna have to move or do whatever, you know, so it’s you don’t want to have something that’s got 110 horsepower that she puts her foot to the floor and, you [00:59:00] know, she’s got a F 350 Dually behind her, rolling coal, he’s got his stacks going, he’s laying on his air horn, freaking her out.

It’s kind of like you got to have something that’s going to have some get up and go also now. You start getting Jeep Renegade, Ford Escape.

Rob Luhrs: All that RAV4, CR V, every car in that class is available. Nissan, Rogue, I mean, they’re all the same. Yeah, you can have any of those.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly. Well, and I’m glad you went there, because I also considered The Jeep Patriot.

Rob Luhrs: As a car guy, I hate the existence of that along with the compass. I can’t in good conscience recommend any of that crap.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, the Patriot looks awesome if you slam it down and put it on big wheels.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, if you do a bunch of stuff to it that turns it not into a Patriot, then it’s great. Yeah, that’s true for a lot of things.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, because it’s a Neon, right?

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, but no, no. It’s like a Jeep Liberty. Like, don’t, don’t. Yeah. Get a Grand Cherokee or a Wrangler or stay out of that.

Crew Chief Eric: Exactly, exactly. Now, that’s another option, Don, if you want to go a little bit bigger. The Grand Cherokee. Is a very similarly appointed interior to the 300, especially in that age [01:00:00] rage, when it became the later WK twos shares, a lot of the same parts.

It’s the same Pena star. You’re going to get the same gas mileage. It weighs about the same as the 300. So you kind of have your choice. Do you want the sedan or do you want the SUV? Do you want the all wheel drive or do you just want two wheel drive? So the grand Cherokee is definitely something to consider.

And I think they’re quite a handsome looking SUV. Now you can go a little ways back. Brad had an early WK2, which was a little bit more stodgy and Mercedes with the more utilitarian interior. If you like it a little bit more boxy. But shares the same chassis. Now, Brad, the only thing you worried about was the Hemi tip.

Crew Chief Brad: I didn’t have any issues with that, but I had premature water pump failure, which is known problem with those Hemis, but it was only a 700 fix

Crew Chief Eric: and that’s on the V8. That was the V8, but the V6, those things are bulletproof. There are early

Crew Chief Brad: pen and stars. They had problems, but they worked out the kinks. So now the pen and stars are really good.

Motor

Mountain Man Dan: cost is an issue. Instead of going with the grand Cherokee, just a regular Cherokee would be a little bit cheaper.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, that’s true. But I will say the Grand [01:01:00] Cherokee is super easy to work on. It’s built like a truck, just wrenches and screwdrivers and hammers and you’re good to go. I mean, it’s not hard to work on at all.

Don Weberg: The nice thing about those jeeps specifically, it’s like we were saying early, early, early in the conversation, the beauty of having a truck. You don’t have to worry about it too much. It’ll take a beating and keep on going. The Jeep is in that same boat. They are built fairly solidly.

Crew Chief Eric: The Jeep to me is like a Swiss army knife.

It’s the reason I chose one and I love it. And I have zero complaints. Knock on wood. It’s been really trouble free. It’s something definitely to put on the list. Now you’re probably going to pay a little bit more for a grand. You’re probably gonna be 10, 12, 14, but you’re going to get something lower mileage, probably adult maintained.

It’s not a bad buy for what it is. If you stretch your wallet just a little bit, but the 300 comes in under 10 grand pretty easily.

Don Weberg: Yeah, the sister to that, of course, would be the Durango, the Dodge side of the family.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah,

Don Weberg: basically the same exact car, it’s just a different body.

Crew Chief Eric: Correct.

Don Weberg: All three of those are good ideas.

Crew Chief Eric: Now, if you notice, I stuck to a no turbo [01:02:00] rule except for the Lincoln, which had the EcoBoost.

Don Weberg: Yeah, and I agree with that.

Crew Chief Eric: But I’m also staying away from V8s because I want to think a little bit economically to Mark’s point from earlier. I don’t want to bankrupt my kid every third day at the gas pump at 4 a gallon because you got to run premium in your Hemi or whatever it is.

So a V6 is this nice compromise between torque. And horsepower and being able to rev up and go and not be a slug in traffic because a Honda fit as fun as that is for us enthusiasts, you know, rowing the gears and burning it up at 8, 200 RPM with the VTEC on and all that stuff. That’s fantastic, but it can’t get out of its own way.

So a nice three and a half liter, let’s just say V6. Is a great all around engine. It’s not going to set the world on fire from an economy standpoint, but it’s also not going to bankrupt you every time you go to the pump.

Rob Luhrs: When we were kids, one of the good starting cars was like a Saturn cause it was all plastic.

Cause I’m thinking any kid is going to be door ding central. And so like you just sort of pop it out and therefore things weren’t a thing. You didn’t really have to worry about a lot of that kind of stuff. Thinking about which of these cars [01:03:00] have. easier repellability which ones have like the trim stripe along the door that sort of helps prevent some of those door dings those kind of Things for some of the minor crud that’s going to happen in a high school Parking lot right in the college parking lot as they drive into it Because at some point that car is going to be in your driveway and as a car guy Having the beat to hell scratched up car that your kid comes home and it’s like what did you teach that kid?

My wife’s dad is a huge car guy And every time we come in if my wife’s gotten a scratch on her car He literally is like i’m almost ashamed to have you park in my driveway like that What did I teach you? This should have been taken care of.

Crew Chief Eric: And that goes back to the point earlier about the German cars and why I’m not recommending a single one of them.

Because as enthusiasts, we buy a GTI and I got to have the blue iridescent pearl magic paint, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you buy that as a hand me down from somebody. If you want to do paint correction, open your wallet because it’s not just red or blue or white like a Honda or Toyota or whatever it is.

And I’m not saying they don’t have their special colors, but the German stuff is always sort of over the top and to replace a fender [01:04:00] on a GTI, if you get into a scrap, let’s just say something even happens in the parking lot or you get hit by a shopping cart or whatever. How many Jeeps were produced in a single year versus GTIs?

You can go get a fender for 20 bucks versus 250 or 2, 000 for something that is quote unquote, exotic, like a GTI would be in comparison,

Don Weberg: bringing back the 300, the charger, the flex. You have a slab side. If a very flat sided are, they show everything, every little thing that can happen on the one of those cards.

You’re going to see it because it’s so flat. That’s where we kind of go back to. There were Jeep Cherokees. I don’t know. Grand Cherokees. They had plastic cladding on the side. The Chevy Avalanche invented the whole concept of that.

Rob Luhrs: Some of the Grand Cherokees did, too. That’s what I was trying to remember, if that The earlier ones.

Yeah, the earlier versions all had that plastic, which made it easier, because it was ridged in a certain way, and The Aztec perfected the plastic clasp.

Crew Chief Eric: It was ahead of its time.

Rob Luhrs: My Scirocco, my [01:05:00] mom’s, you know, GTI and GLI and such. I mean, they all had that nice black sticker rubber on the side, which worked so well for preventing the bullshit dings.

And actually, my current 2012 GTI Every time I look at it, I’m like, I wish this had that little raised door ding bar on it. Cause otherwise every little scratch that somebody should like, you see it. Whereas if you had that little bit of rubber, it just preserves it that much better from that sort of stupid crap.

Crew Chief Eric: You know, we were talking about kids driving later, but there’s also a lot of kids that are a little bit more earth conscious or eco friendly. I started thinking about, you know, are there any hybrids available for under 10 K? The only thing that comes up on the list is probably going to be very, very obvious.

But you can get Priuses for that kind of money if that’s what you’re into. From what I understand, you know, some of those second and third gen Priuses, a lot of them are just unbreakable. I mean, they just run forever and they don’t seem to have a ton of problems.

Rob Luhrs: Much to the sadness of everybody who’s stuck owning one of them.

That’s a different definition of slow.

Crew Chief Eric: True, but then there’s the other side of that that makes me worried in that the people that have their Priuses and love them aren’t [01:06:00] getting rid of them. So if you’re selling a Prius, why are you selling it? What’s wrong with it? So that was my only word of caution when I saw those come up on the list.

And there’s other cars like that, where you’re like, that car is so good. What’s the story here? Why are you getting rid of it? There’s reasons and seasons for everything. Usually Prius folks are very, very

Mountain Man Dan: faithful. You know, if we’re going to go with the 10 year mark, the Camry had the hybrid during that time.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, anything in the Toyota family that’s a hybrid. If you’re eco conscious and not interested in a diesel or anything like that, and you want to save money on gas, I would definitely look in that camp. As much as, as an enthusiast, those cars, they irk me a little bit, but there’s, I don’t find anything wrong with them.

They’re just stylistically, uh, you know, whatever. But, uh, For their purpose, for their reason, they make a thousand percent sense. Camrys

Mountain Man Dan: are known to be just a plain Jane vehicle. In the dictionary, it’s just a car. It’s a

Rob Luhrs: picture of a Camry.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, right. A hundred percent.

Mountain Man Dan: I recently saw one of the new TRD Camrys.

Yeah. And had to do a double take because it caught my eye. And I was like, that looked sharp. And I didn’t think I would ever say that about a Camry.

Crew Chief Eric: It needs to [01:07:00] be a GR Camry. When they come out with that, then you got my attention. There is another car that I think we’ve avoided, and it’s sort of the last one on my list of cars under 10 grand I would give a kid, that I think are sort of, not Tonka toys, but you know, they’re sort of, you’re looking for a car that’s bulletproof, right, you’re looking for an engine that’s bulletproof, like we said, a car that can take maybe a slight fender bender, that can take a couple door dings, that can live through high school, shenanigans, can go through college, and there’s one car, we joke about this on the drive thru pretty often, they’re absolutely indestructible, you see them everywhere you turn around, And that’s the Nissan Altima.

Mountain Man Dan: I have to disagree slightly there because if it has the 3. 5 liter V6 in them, they were known because the Kelly converter was part of the downpipe. Yeah.

Don Weberg: Right.

Mountain Man Dan: If it had enough miles on it would start to suck debris back in and it would wipe the rings on it and then you had issues with the engine.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, but those people still kept

William Ross: driving them.

Don Weberg: Yeah, that’s why they were smoking.

William Ross: Stouted taxes, they’re gonna think you’re running drugs from, uh, Mexico.

Rob Luhrs: I was about to say, you also have to not live in [01:08:00] Maryland. So if you live in Maryland, you have one of those, it’s probably a temporary tag, and you’ve probably slammed it into a telephone pole, or multiple other cars, and then ran away.

Crew Chief Eric: But it’s still

Rob Luhrs: Every accident in D. C., every accident in D. C. is like a Nissan Altima with temporary Maryland tanks.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Rob Luhrs: Like, every one of them. They’re probably all the same car.

Crew Chief Eric: They’re all like the original Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds. You just cannot kill those things. I know. At the end of Nuclear Holocaust, There’s going to be cockroaches and Nissan Altimas.

So that’s a solid buy. They are indestructible.

Don Weberg: And remember too, the 3. 5 liter was a fantastic engine. When that thing came out, it blew everybody away. How quick it was, how rev happy it was.

Rob Luhrs: They put that in the Maxima first. Those Maximas were super fast with that. It bloody was one of those. Those were crazy quick.

Don Weberg: But when the Altima came out, they also had the 2. 5 liter, the four cylinder. And if you drove one of those, believe me, you were not disappointed. Good. That little guy would really get up and put, and you [01:09:00] didn’t quite have all the problems that the 3. 5 that was the

Rob Luhrs: same 2. 5 ended up putting in the little, uh, the center of SCR.

Yes. It’s the same motor yet, which was pretty peppy in that

Don Weberg: kind of agree with what you’re saying though. There’s a certain or, uh, It goes with the Altima ownership. And believe me, when I worked at Stillen, I was introduced to these cars at Motor Trend when they first came out with the big Altima 3. 5 liter, blah, blah, blah.

I was hooked. Oh my God. I thought these were the greatest cars in the world. And when I worked at Stillen, we had the orange car, which you can look that up on Google if you want to. It’s the Stillen Orange Altima. It’s an incredible car. Amazing cars. They really are. But today, as life goes on. And sadly, I think it’s most of the Nissan family.

And it’s really weird, but they’re very accident prone.

Crew Chief Eric: Nissan only sells Altimas and then the Z, that’s it. Because the Murano’s a Taltima, right? And the Rogue is, it’s all the same. I

Rob Luhrs: mean, to be clear, I had a Pathfinder for a while that was spectacular. But that’s different.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, so that kind of rounded out my punch [01:10:00] list.

I think the only honorable mention, and I said I was going to talk about German cars, but the only one I brought up was the American made Passat with the five cylinder, because you can get that with DSG, with the automatic, or with the five or six speed manual on that. Those five cylinders, they’ve been perfected, they’ve got 30 years of evolution in them, they will literally run forever.

Rob Luhrs: They were rust prone though, those Passats were, I don’t know why, but like, not the Jettas, not the Gulls, but those Passats were rust prone.

Crew Chief Eric: That is the Achilles heel to the American made Passat, but as far as the sheet metal around the engine, the engine is amazing. Yeah,

Rob Luhrs: the engine’s fine, yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s the only reason I was like, this is an honorable mention, if you had to have something German, that would be your option.

And those ranged wildly from like, 5 grand to 9 grand, they were all over the map, and it was just like, okay, it couldn’t really pinpoint an average there.

Mountain Man Dan: As Don will mention, it’s not bad because, once again, Don’s in Texas, the rust issue won’t be near as bad. Yeah, that’s true.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s very true. That sort of rounds out my punches.

Anybody else have something that they came across that would fit the [01:11:00] bill here? I

Crew Chief Brad: have a joke list.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, I do too, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Rob Luhrs: My generic answer to what car I wish I could get my kids, because my brother had one, but stupidly sold it because I wanted to give it, was a manual transmission Honda Element.

Crew Chief Eric: Ooh.

Rob Luhrs: Enough room to haul crap. It’s a Honda. He doesn’t know shit about cars. Ran it into the ground. The car still worked perfectly fine when he sold it because that’s the way they work. Great on road trips, fine on gas, they have that funky two doors, you have to have like, the side doors, you have to have friends who are comfortable climbing the back, you can sort of help people move, but you don’t have to, you can sort of have four passengers, but you can also fold the seats up into the wall and say, no, I’m taking my mountain bike, or I’m taking this, or I’m off to hockey practice and I have all my crap in it.

And it’s high enough off the ground, has enough safety features, has all wheel drive, has the manual transmission, and it’s still kind of cool and funky and different and isn’t going to get boxed around by trucks. Like to me, if I could find one, like that’s the perfect starting vehicle right there is a manual transmission element.

Crew Chief Eric: And it’s an ultimate Halloween car. If you get it in silver, you put brown foam. It looks like a toaster. If [01:12:00] you get an orange, it’s. The Great Pumpkin, you know, the whole nine yards.

Rob Luhrs: I got a friend in Boulder who just bought one. She found one because she’s married, but she frequently goes by herself on climbing trips and she’s like, I needed something I could sleep in and put all my crap in that would never break down and could drive over the passes in Colorado and be perfectly fine.

Cause she lives in Boulder and she’s like, it’s wonderful. She’s taken it all last winter, all the way to Crested Butte, all over the place and says like, can’t find a better car and they’re cheap. They’re well in the price range.

Mountain Man Dan: How hard is it to find the elements of a manual? It’s not

Rob Luhrs: as hard because there’s sort of bulletproof engines on those things because they’re used in everything.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a Civic motor.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, so it’s not hard to find those things. My friend in Boulder said she could choose between like 10 of them when she bought hers and that’s out in the mountains out there and I’ve seen them around here. If you want to go newer, you could also go with the Toyota Matrix. Nope, like an element.

Crew Chief Brad: Venza?

Rob Luhrs: No, no, Venza’s too new.

Crew Chief Brad: The XB? The FJ. Oh, the FJ, yeah. So you can

Rob Luhrs: find like a FJ. In manuals, they’re actually cheaper than they are in automatics. I have a buddy who owns one who’s going to sell it and I was going to buy it off him and then he’s like, I [01:13:00] decided to keep it. And so, but I mean, it was going to be sub 10K.

And both elements and FJs can go either way, but in terms of like the all wheel drive safety aspect, a little higher up and also less people space, but enough space, I still like that class of vehicle. They’re taller. I don’t know that that class seems good for first cars.

Don Weberg: And they’re both not so high.

That they’re going to be prone to tip over?

Rob Luhrs: No, it’s not a Wrangler, but it’s also, yeah, it’s not quite a Subaru Outback or Forester or Impreza. It’s a little bit higher than that. But as we said, with all the trucks and big SUVs in the road, it’s nice to have that little bit more height for the younger drivers.

Crew Chief Eric: I will say, Rob, you hit something on the head there. I’ve teased my wife for years now that my girls will get two choices. And they will both be manual. They get to pick from either a Wrangler or a Veloster, one or the other. That’s it. Because both are extremely uncomfortable to your point, but they can kind of go anywhere.

So if you’re going South, the Veloster is awesome. If you’re going North, the Jeep will take you anywhere you need to go.

Rob Luhrs: My kids love Jeeps. We have a buddy with a farm down in Charlottesville that has. A Wrangler he keeps there and we get down there immediately. They bugged my buddy. They’re like, Mr. Paul, take us to the Jeep, [01:14:00] take us to the Jeep.

Cause he’ll just, you know, go up the sides of things and they love it.

Don Weberg: Yeah. I got it. I gotta be real blunt here with that. When you brought up the element, I don’t think I’ve ever even thought about the element. And I got to tell you that really struck me. I thought that’s a damn good car. It’s a Honda.

It’ll run forever. It’s utilitarian. The interior is completely plastic. The side body cladding, like we’re talking about door dings in a high school parking lot, backpacks, whatever, it’s not gonna, it’s not gonna get too damaged up. That’s actually a really sharp idea. It really is. The element really turned me on.

I thought that was a good idea.

Rob Luhrs: That was, yeah, literally my first thought. I mean, looking through this list, I mean, strangely, you can get a ton of Odysseys in this price range, but if you want the giant minivan, but for anybody who’s seen, uh, Deadpool and Wolverine, you can’t really suggest an Odyssey without laughing.

And if you haven’t seen it, you’ll get that joke when you watch it.

Mark Shank: So the Odyssey is a horrible driving car. Yes.

Rob Luhrs: It’s a miserably, which again, if you’ve seen the movie, it gets a lot of Funnier and funnier. But yes, the element I think is sort of the key. You can get a pilot in that same price [01:15:00] range. What

Crew Chief Eric: was that?

The passport, which was the Isuzu rodeo.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah. But I think the element just makes more sense for that sort of phenomenal college car,

Crew Chief Eric: right? Like

Rob Luhrs: you’re moving from a dorm room to off campus housing. Like you don’t need the pickup. You just fold those seats up and throw all the crap in it. Do a couple of runs if you want.

Don Weberg: Well, and the nice thing too, you’re not going to have friends banging on your door saying, Hey, help me move.

Rob Luhrs: No, because it looks like a really small box. It does. My brother’s wife had one teacher in Massachusetts and she’s like, I needed a car I could put a full timpani in. And it doesn’t look that big, but I have no problem fitting full size timpanis in that you can’t fit in most wagons.

Like you need a pickup, even minivans have trouble with it.

Don Weberg: And then judging by its boxy nature, it’s gotta be the easiest thing in the world to park.

Rob Luhrs: Yeah, they are. Cause they’re shorter than you think they’re not the wheelbase.

Mountain Man Dan: Yeah,

Rob Luhrs: but nice and slow and boxy. And I don’t know,

Mountain Man Dan: my neighbor’s daughter was given an element by her grandparents.

When she was like 17 and she drove that thing till it had like 380, 000 miles on it before they finally decided to just sell it and it was still running, but they [01:16:00] decided she didn’t want it anymore. And I think she used it at least 2 to 3 years into college before she switched vehicles. Mileage wise, they’ll go forever as long as the maintenance is done.

Had a couple of little things here and there that helped them fix on it, but it was nothing extreme and major that broke the bank

Rob Luhrs: easy to work on to real simple cars to work on.

Don Weberg: And I think we can safely assume just by virtue of being a Honda, being a civic, blah, blah, blah. You’re not going to have any trouble finding parts for that thing, because even though the element is a little bit weird unto itself, so the body parts might be a little hard to find, but everything else mechanically chastity, et cetera, has got to be pretty simple.

Could it solve just in the Honda family? Yeah. Okay. Maybe that let’s just say for a number, they built a hundred thousand elements. They built. A million civics.

Crew Chief Eric: Yep.

Don Weberg: So you’ve got that million that you still have to serve with those parts. The element just takes advantage of it from the bottom and it just happened to be able to still get parts for.

And

Crew Chief Eric: there’s actually some hot rod elements if you look and you want to spend a little extra. What is it? The element SE, which is like, Their version of like a type R or whatever it is. And it [01:17:00] came with different wheels and there were some options in there in the last couple of years of that thing. If that’s what you’re into and you’re geeking out, take a look at the packages.

Now, I had a friend that owned one of those, like the hot rod one. The only thing I thought was weird was the stadium seating that they had inside where the passengers in the back are up higher than, than the front. So that way the idea was that if you’re talking, then you don’t get drowned out or something like that.

I was like, okay, cool. To me, it was a little awkward, but to Rob’s point, it If you’re a hobbyist of any hobby, you just take them out, move stuff around. What was the joke? That you could just power wash the inside of it because it’s all rubber? You can’t. Yeah, you can hose

Rob Luhrs: out the interior. We have to take it to beach frisbee tournaments and literally afterwards you’d hose out the whole interior and just call it a day.

Mountain Man Dan: With the fact of trucks being in Texas, it’s not uncommon for people to be driving them, but If you don’t want her to get into a full size thing, I guess, compared to older trucks, it would be considerable. So something like a Colorado, since they don’t like to make S10s or anything anymore. And you’re worried about the rear end on it being light, but majority of the Colorados nowadays are crew cab.

So a lot of that weight is very similar [01:18:00] to that of like a crossover or an SUV for the weight displacement on the chassis. Like Honda did, like the Ridgeline. There’s those options as well, if you’re looking for something. We’ve mentioned most of the others that I thought of. Oh, we forgot one. It’s

Crew Chief Eric: super

Mountain Man Dan: special.

Rob Luhrs: The biggest I would go is sort of like that element size is similar, but like the RAV4, the CRV style sort of world that I find if I go up my front door right now, there are 30 of those, right? There are 30 Mazda CX 5s, CRVs, RAV4s, they’re everywhere. I don’t like having what everybody else has so my brain immediately is like back to those, you know, the FJ and the Element and some of the stuff that’s a little more fun.

And if you, you know, sounds like you don’t want the smaller cars. I think a lot of the smaller cars are awesome in this price range for those kids, right? I mean, as we said, the Scion TC or the smaller Golfs, the Honda Fit is an amazing car for that, right? You can get some of those. That size car I think is great, but to your point, if they’re all driving around with people with F250s, it’s not going to work.

You need something a little bigger. And again, it brings me back to that Element FJ pseudo truck ish sort of but still [01:19:00] cool and still small enough to park and not worry about but can hold its own and not get pushed around.

Crew Chief Eric: Well I found a car that we’ve all forgotten about and it fits in our window because it ended at the beginning of our window.

You’re not going to get bullied because people are going to be too busy laughing at you. You’re not going to have to worry about being like everybody else on the road because you haven’t seen one of these in a while. It’s roomy, you can haul people, you can haul things, it’s versatile. Some would argue that it’s stylish.

And if you got the right package, peppy enough. So for your consideration, I will throw out The PT cruiser. I hate

Don Weberg: to admit it, but I thought about that.

Crew Chief Eric: Mark’s like falling out of his seat.

Don Weberg: I thought it was HHR. I had mentioned that one earlier. Yeah, I did. I thought about the PT and I thought about the HHR.

I think both of them are cool. I got to use both of them at Motor Trend. Michelle and I actually had one for multi thousand mile journey around California and HHR. We loved it. We really did. It was a fantastic little car.

Mountain Man Dan: The PT surprisingly had more space than it looked like from the outside.

Don Weberg: And yeah, I don’t think people will believe [01:20:00] it.

I think they’re scared of it. Exactly. I don’t know how you’re going to respond. So I’m going to give you some space because you’re a weirdo. But you know, it’s funny going to the, either one, the HHR has, if you’re worried about performance, you’ve got the SS. And that is one serious little machine, especially if you have the, uh, six speed manual transmission, that is a really, really fast car on the Chrysler side of life.

You got the GT 2. 4 liter turbo, but we’re breaking that rule of turbocharging.

Mountain Man Dan: They were known for the turbo seal inside getting bad to where oil and corn would mix.

Crew Chief Eric: The same as the

Don Weberg: neon. Yeah. Yeah. It’d be fun, but it is an element that is going to break at some point.

Crew Chief Eric: Versus like the 300 and the Jeep and some of the bigger stuff that we talked about.

If you’re looking at an element, I would really consider, especially in the right paint scheme, a PT cruiser. She might enjoy that. It’s different. It’s quirky, but on the same token, it doesn’t have enough power to get you into trouble. It’s pretty insurable.

Rob Luhrs: You can’t hose it out.

Crew Chief Eric: No, you can’t. That’s for sure.

Rob Luhrs: You’ll get a convertible though. That’s

Crew Chief Eric: true. [01:21:00] You can’t get a PT convertible. I forgot about that.

Don Weberg: Yeah, those were kind of cool. I kind of like those.

Crew Chief Eric: Mark’s making this face like he just wants to hang up the call. Like, all right, lay it on me.

Mark Shank: We’re in an interesting spot. I’m definitely not a PT cruiser fan, in spite of it being the TARDIS of vehicles, apparently, according to Mountain Man Dan.

And honestly, I think that this whole conversation has gone in an interesting direction that I wouldn’t have anticipated prior to coming into it, where I’m now legitimately thinking about buying my kid a Honda element. Um, Rob is definitely hitting it out of the park tonight. Right. And FJ Cruze is totally cooler, but it is a challenging space to try to operate in.

And so I am thinking that at least for my kids. I struggle going back more than 20 years, you know, that kind of 2000 to 2020 time range in that space. I want something with a little higher belt line. That’s going to take a [01:22:00] hit from another vehicle with a higher belt line. And so, you know, you just kind of add these requirements up and it starts to winnow the list down and it takes out a lot of the cool stuff that I love as an enthusiast, but I struggle to put my 16 year old inside of and so is the magic spot one of these midsize SUVs that we’ve kind of keep coming back to and talking about.

Yeah, sure. Maybe I just don’t get rid of my X five and my kids, that kid that drives their dads old X five. I don’t want that to be the situation, but I don’t know, maybe that, maybe that’s the most pragmatic situation. And I was, Oh,

Crew Chief Eric: Zs are going to come off that thing real quick though.

Mark Shank: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, fine.

Maybe they don’t need Italian wheels, but I’ve gotten more out of this conversation that I’ve contributed to it. It has made me think a lot more about it than maybe originally I was.

William Ross: You know, here’s a question, Don, is it going to be your decision or is she going to be have input in this?

Don Weberg: Oh, I think [01:23:00] there’ll be input from both Michelle and Kaitlin.

William Ross: Yeah. I mean, all three of you sitting down going through auto tempest or whatever and kind of, Hey, what about this? You know, and try and feel it out. You’ll, you know, try and gauge, you know, to make her happy.

Don Weberg: Yeah.

William Ross: I was, you know, you put in your two cents, I mean like that, but Kind of boils down to is you kind of want your kid to like the car.

Don Weberg: She’s interesting because she has quirky taste. I mean, she really does. She is a bit of a car gal. Caitlin is similar to Rob in that she sees too many of a certain car. She suddenly gets turned off by them. She doesn’t really want to have anything. And yet, you know, flip side of the coin, she likes Mustangs.

Mustangs are belly button cars. Everybody has one, but she likes them. So it’s kind of interesting, but yeah, that’s where, again, I think the element would really be interesting. I, that one, Rob really, really struck a chord with that car because it, it is durable. It is tough. It does have that bulldog sort of nature where you’re not quite sure, can you bully this thing around psychologically?

It’s going to last forever. It’s [01:24:00] all wheel drive. You can get a manual transmission if you want. You hose out the interior. It swallows up grand piano. There’s no problem. It’s really, really an interesting choice. And it’s quirky enough that somebody like Caitlin would probably enjoy this car. It’s different enough.

You’re not going to see another one in the high school parking lot. Her other friends are going to really enjoy it.

Crew Chief Eric: As is tradition with all of our, what should I buy episodes? We’re going to do a little lightning round here to close out all the things we spoke about, but this one’s a little bit different as enthusiasts, as dads, we’re going to play the selfish dad lightning round.

And that means if you were 16 today and handed 10, 000 bucks to buy your first car, what would it be? And it could be from any era, any age, any decade, you got 10 grand to spend on your first car. Are you going to buy?

Mountain Man Dan: Facing up to today’s prices. Okay, I’ll have to think about this.

Don Weberg: Can you do something like you buy something, you’re going to build it up?

Crew Chief Eric: You know that’s how this game works, so you just go ahead. If you want a Corvette [01:25:00] engine

Don Weberg: Miata

Rob Luhrs: and you can do it for 10 grand, have at it. I like him.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, who wants to go first?

Crew Chief Brad: I’ve got a list of six cars.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, Brad, Brad coming in swinging. Go ahead.

Crew Chief Brad: I’m going to go back through the years. All of these I found for less than 10 grand.

I’m going to start with the newest car and work my way back to the oldest car.

Crew Chief Eric: All right.

Crew Chief Brad: So the newest car is a 2015 Lexus RX 350. Probably get the Lexus RX 300 for even cheaper. 2013 Land Rover LR4. I’m ignoring mileage

Crew Chief Eric: and maintenance. Cause you’re gonna need 10 grand of maintenance on that land rover right away.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, here’s where the, here’s where it starts to get fun. A 2008 Porsche Cayenne.

Rob Luhrs: Those are surprisingly cheap, by the way.

Crew Chief Brad: 2003 Mercedes CL 500. One of my all time favorite cars. I love those cars so much.

Mark Shank: The suppository model. Yes, yes,

Crew Chief Brad: yes. Is the big giant tic tac. I love it. Here’s the one I think Don’s going to resonate with the most 1995 Jaguar XJ VandenPlasse.

Don Weberg: And

Crew Chief Brad: then an [01:26:00] 86, nine, four, four, all of these are under 10

Mark Shank: grand. I love Brad’s recommendations. You can’t get a nine four, four turbo anymore for 10 grand. Is it just that guy? I’m sure that’s not a thing. Yeah, it’s not possible. You

Rob Luhrs: can, but you have to fix it up. My brother in law has one and just went to nine 44 fest out.

It was the track in Ohio,

Crew Chief Eric: Mid-O,

Rob Luhrs: not Mid-Ohio, the smaller Nelson ledges Nelson ledger, the dead flat one. So he has a nine 44 turbo. He got it for less than 10, but has it put another like five in to get it. Remo, it’s now beautiful, like it’s a gorgeous fun car, but you can’t get a well sorted one for under 10 right now.

Fair enough 15. You could pull it off 10 more.

Crew Chief Eric: William’s buying a mondial t for 10 grand, right? Yeah, put 50 into it to keep it running

Mark Shank: All right. I mean, I think buying an english car as a 16 year old pretty low income is pretty horrible idea

Crew Chief Brad: But you’re 16. You are the epitome of horrible ideas at that age.

Mark Shank: Yeah. You’re not making good decisions. This is an optimum [01:27:00] scenario where I’m taking my 43 year old self to being 16 in 2024 and I get 10 grand to buy a car. I think it’s American muscle. It has to be something that’s. Fun, fast, easy to maintain and sustainable.

Probably tough on gasoline. I’ll give

Crew Chief Eric: you that.

Mark Shank: You can get a Cobra from 99. Yeah. I mean, I’d love an old predator Cobra prior to COVID. Those were totally doable for 10 grand, but that’s not true anymore. So I think I would probably look for an SS Camaro just because, you know, the V8 there is just in a different class in that price category than the Mustangs.

Sorry for the four people. I’m not really affiliated one way. I love them both equally. I’m going to say in this generation, if I’ve got 10 grand, it’s probably an SS Camaro and I might not make it to graduation. It’s a horrible idea. I’d never buy that for my 16 year old kid, but if I was 16 and I had 10 grand, that’s totally what I buy.

Don Weberg: Kind of agree with Mark. The Z28, when did that body style [01:28:00] come out? Like 90,

Crew Chief Brad: the LT1. You can do better than an LT1. Do an LS1 was 98 to 2002.

Don Weberg: Yeah. I mean, that, that was, that still is one hell of a package for the money. I mean, what you’re getting in that car, it’s a lot of car. It really is. And yeah, you’re right.

You might not make it to graduation. I had a friend in high school who had, uh, two, he had the RS was the car to have back then that

Crew Chief Eric: really slow. That’s what that stood for

Don Weberg: really slow. Car was actually very, very scary, quick, fast. He wrecked two of them. Challenge over what the car can do. But yeah, I think you’re going to be hard pressed to go bad with one of those Z28s.

The Mustang, always a good option. 16, 10 grand. I do, I think I’d find a Mustang GT or a Camaro Z28.

William Ross: V8 manual. So either a Mustang, C4 Vette or a Camaro. Oh yeah, I’m killing myself before I get to graduation.

Don Weberg: You’re gonna look good doing it.

Crew Chief Eric: Rob, are you in the same camp? 10 grand, you’re 16 again?

Rob Luhrs: I’ve always [01:29:00] wanted a V8 Mustang because I love the sound of it, but I don’t think I would choose it.

It’s just not in my nature. I’d want to have one to drive, but I wouldn’t want to own one, if that makes sense, because I wouldn’t take it. So, just scrolling through, the first one that jumped out at me is you can get a Fiesta ST for under 10 grand, which is a pretty ridiculously fun choice. If I lived where I lived when I was 16, my answer would have been either a WRX or a Wrangler.

I want the WRX because I grew up in Massachusetts and I wanted to go just sliding around mountain roads and rally style driving. Even now I have friends who own a house in Davis, West Virginia, and they’re like, The guy with the mini countryman would be like, Rob, you know what you’re doing here? Take the key.

Then I just slide up the mountain roads and have a complete blast. I love that feeling of just sliding the cars up those roads. And the WRX fits that bill really well. The other one growing up again in Massachusetts is I, I always as a kid wanted a Wrangler, I love the idea of, I could go skiing in the mountains with it.

And then I could go to the beach and take off the top and the doors and fold the windshield down and cruise around in it. It’s a pretty big range, but one of probably a Wrangler or a WRX [01:30:00] are my two Top choices for those reasons, but I cannot possibly disagree or have any shade whatsoever on the people choosing the V8 because even now as a, you know, I drive sort of sportier cars and love them.

And my dad’s got a, you know, 911 SC, the air cooled that I drive around, but I get a chance to, I still roll down the windows to listen to somebody in a V8 Mustang just rev, just the sound of that just makes me happy. And I’d love to have one of those under my right foot for a little while. Don’t know if I’d want that as much as I’d want to be sliding around roads in a WRX.

Or off roading it up in a Wrangler.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, Dan, did we buy you enough time? Are you just going to say some year plus square body?

Mountain Man Dan: Of course I would always add to the square body collection, but so here’s the thing I have to say, I’m glad we weren’t doing this three years ago when the used car market was insane.

Rob Luhrs: But you could buy an old Nissan and that’s about it.

Mountain Man Dan: So I’m glad that the market has corrected some. But the 16 year old me, back when I was 16, it would have been that 68 Camaro, with that as that not being the option. Modern day me, if I was [01:31:00] 16 today, I definitely like the idea of WS6 9802 Trans Ams. I like the Trans Ams better than the Camaros.

Also, I love the CTS V with the 6 speed.

Rob Luhrs: You get those for 10k? No. I haven’t seen one yet. If I saw one I

Mountain Man Dan: had to window shop for them every so often. They normally need a little bit of work, but you can get them at that price. A little bit of work.

Crew Chief Brad: I will say, to Rob’s point there, I feel like we’ve all been doing this We were all going to cars.

com, where we really need to hang out, is Dan’s favorite site, Facebook Marketplace. You can find a treasure trove of shit on Facebook Marketplace. You

Crew Chief Eric: mean Craigslist?

Crew Chief Brad: I swear, that’s where we need to be for all the fun stuff.

Rob Luhrs: I agree. I did find a Quattroporte. On, uh, Autotrader, by the way, for under 10k. A Maserati.

But you’re right. My brain was like, I should be going to Craigslist, and I should be going to Facebook Marketplace. And then all of us are like, Oh, I’ll take a, you know, a 986 911, or I’ll take a RS5 that for some reason somebody misposted at a [01:32:00] different number. I mean,

Crew Chief Brad: they’re all 6. Exactly.

Rob Luhrs: Me, when I was 16, though, I did try to buy a 914 and still kick myself that I didn’t buy it.

Because that would have been a dream car back then that you can’t get for 10k now. Otherwise, that would be on my list.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, I’ll wow you guys with my selfish dad. If I could be 16 again with what I know now for 10 grand, it would have to be black. Is the 3. 8 liter Hyundai Genesis Coupe.

Rob Luhrs: That’s a fast, fun car.

Genesis are pretty cool. Those are fun cars.

Crew Chief Eric: At 16 and I got 10 grand to blow on a car. Something different in the high school parking lot for sure. And on that bombshell, Brad, it’s time to take us home.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a tough call to make on behalf of a young driver. Not only are the economics of the situation, a challenge or an additional burden, so this particular type of car buying, we hope that this episode gives you some food for thought.

And if you’d like to continue the conversation or expand on some of the topics here, don’t be shy. podcast, Facebook group, or discord, where you can get in contact with the panelists you heard here tonight. And I want to thank our panel for another great, what should I [01:33:00] buy debate? Oh, you know, we haven’t heard from my Crutchfield and it’s a shame we’ve run out of time and we’ll have to get to them next time on the next, what should I buy?

Crew Chief Eric: Well guys, for most of the general public, it’s safe to assume that in their lifetime, they will probably own a total of five cars, max per person. And that’s based on our very scientific method of talking to non car friends and asking about their car buying history. But as we talked about earlier. It’s those first impressions that are lasting impressions.

So helping to pick that right first car is really important to the future of your petrol heads and their story. As they look back on what they imprinted on. So remember everyone has a story and it’s this point, this very moment, when you decide on that first car, that’s going to Second trajectory of where their story’s gonna go.

Consider that when you’re purchasing a car for your first time driving.

Don Weberg: Well, thank you guys. This has been helpful.

Crew Chief Eric: Was it, Don? Did you get something out of this?

Don Weberg: It was, I think Rob hit it out of the park actually really feeling a gravitational pull [01:34:00] toward that Honda. The question is, can we find one, can we afford it?

And. Is the wife and daughter on board with it.

Crew Chief Eric: I very much appreciate this. And I look forward to getting back together with y’all very, very soon. Obviously we do these all the time. This is

Rob Luhrs: a blast. I feel like it’s both been only like a day and yet it’s been a decade since I was last on. And like last time it was a lot of more HRR talk, just to be clear.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. Yes. But we’ve matured since those days.

Don Weberg: All right.

Rob Luhrs: Well,

Don Weberg: thanks you guys. Take care. Thanks.

Rob Luhrs: And make sure you got to make sure you report back with what she ends up getting.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, for sure.

Don Weberg: Okay. We’ll do.

Crew Chief Eric: We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article [01:35:00] at GTMotorsports.

org. We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team of creators Fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gummy bears, and monster.

So consider signing up for Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none of this would be possible.

Bonus Content

There's more to this story!

Be sure to check out the behind the scenes for this episode, filled with extras, bloopers, and other great moments not found in the final version. Become a Break/Fix VIP today by joining our Patreon.

All of our BEHIND THE SCENES (BTS) Break/Fix episodes are raw and unedited, and expressly shared with the permission and consent of our guests.

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Learn More

What else should you buy? Check out other What Should I Buy? Podcast episodes for more car buying “advice” 😉 And remember: the debate never ends – it just shifts gears.

Our panelists: William “Big Money” Ross, Mark “The Data Cruncher” Shank, Rob Luhrs, Mike “Storytime” Crutchfield, and Don himself, share their own first-car stories. From Sciroccos and Cavaliers to Mazda hatchbacks and Audi coupes, each vehicle came with its own lessons and memories.

They break down the shopping criteria into three tiers:

  1. Parent-funded: The car is a gift.
  2. Teen-funded: The teen works to pay for it.
  3. Silver spoon: Unlimited budget, dream car territory.

Don leans toward the first option, hoping to find something affordable, safe, and quirky enough to make Caitlin smile.

Caitlin’s tastes are eclectic. She loves VW Beetles (especially the modern ones), Doc Hudson-style Hudsons, Corvettes, and the family’s own Caprice. She’s drawn to bold paint schemes and hippie aesthetics. But Don is cautious – he knows the Caprice is gaining value and doesn’t want it wrecked in a high school parking lot.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Conlin @jconli1

Living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Don emphasizes the importance of crash safety. The roads are wide, fast, and filled with emotionally driven drivers in massive trucks. Visibility and robustness matter. He’s wary of small cars like Miatas and BRZs, which can disappear in a rearview mirror.


Lessons from Experience

William and Dan share their own parenting journeys. Both prioritized safety and reliability, often leaning toward larger vehicles like GMC Acadias and Chevy K10s. Manual transmissions were considered for their distraction-reducing benefits, but practicality often won out. Teaching their daughters to drive – and to respect the vehicle – was a central theme.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Conlin @jconli1

This episode isn’t just about picking a car. It’s about passing down values, sharing stories, and helping the next generation of drivers find their footing. Whether it’s a quirky hand-me-down, a modest used car, or a dream ride with a little elbow grease, the first car is a rite of passage.

And as Don’s story reminds us, sometimes the best car isn’t the fastest or the flashiest – it’s the one that teaches you something, sticks in your memory, and makes your friends say, “Wait… you drove that?”

Photo courtesy of Jeff Conlin @jconli1

Thanks to our panel of Petrol-heads!

It’s a tough call to make on behalf of a young driver, not only are the economics of the situation a challenge (or an additional burden), but also the social aspects of this particular type of car buying. We hope that this episode gives you some food for thought. And If you’d like to continue the conversation or expand on some of the topics here, don’t be shy. Check out our Break/Fix podcast Facebook Group or Discord where you can get in contact with the panelists you heard here tonight. And I want to thank our panel for another great What Should I Buy? To learn more about each of our guests, you can revisit their episodes on Break/Fix below. 

Guest Co-Host: Don Weberg

In case you missed it... be sure to check out the Break/Fix episode with our co-host.
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Guest Co-Host: William Ross

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Guest Co-Host: Mark Shank

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Guest Co-Host: Daniel Stauffer

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Guest Co-Host: Rob Luhrs

In case you missed it... be sure to check out the Break/Fix episode with our co-host.
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Guest Co-Host: Mike Crutchfield

In case you missed it... be sure to check out the Break/Fix episode with our co-host.
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Don’t agree, let’s agree to disagree? Come share your opinions and continue the conversation on the Break/Fix Discord!

 


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Screen to Speed: Victoria Thomson

0

In Episode 29 of INIT Talks, host Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya (@LoveFortySix) welcomes the incredible Victoria Thomson (@vicky_thomson_394), a sim racer who has taken the competitive racing world by storm. Victoria shares her remarkable journey to victory, winning both the German qualifiers for the Global eSport Games and the prestigious Screen to Speed competition at the ADAC SimRacing Expo.

This episode dives into Victoria’s experiences leading up to these major wins, the challenges she faced, and the preparation required to excel in such high-stakes events. Victoria reflects on what these accomplishments mean to her and how they inspire her to continue pushing boundaries in the sim racing community.

Whether you’re a sim racing fan, an eSports enthusiast, or simply inspired by stories of determination and success, this episode offers a firsthand look at what it takes to be a champion. Don’t miss this exciting conversation with Victoria Thomson as she shares her passion for racing and her vision for the future!

Watch the livestream

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Highlights

  • 00:00 Introduction to Screen to Speed
  • 00:54 Meet Victoria Thomson
  • 01:15 Victoria’s Sim Racing Journey
  • 02:38 First Professional Sim Racing Gear
  • 03:39 Transition to High-End Equipment
  • 05:51 Practice Routines and Preparation
  • 09:25 Endurance Racing Insights
  • 12:03 Memorable Endurance Race
  • 14:50 Winning Screen to Speed at Sim Racing Expo
  • 19:49 Real-Life Racing Experience
  • 30:11 Sim Racing vs Real Racing: Skills Transfer
  • 31:22 Affordability and Accessibility of Sim Racing
  • 32:29 Competitiveness in Sim Racing
  • 33:13 Sim Racing vs Real Racing: Viewer Experience
  • 36:22 The Fear Factor in Racing
  • 39:22 VR vs Triple Screens in Sim Racing
  • 43:27 Female Representation in Sim Racing
  • 48:18 Encouraging More Women in Sim Racing
  • 51:52 Future Plans and Content Creation
  • 57:31 Advice for Aspiring Sim Racers
  • 58:36 Conclusion and Farewell

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed powered by INIT eSports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, dedication and innovation that drives the world of motorsports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports. So buckle up, Screen to Speed starts now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Welcome in everybody. Happy to see you on any talks today. Hope you’re doing well. Uh, we have in today, Victoria Thompson with us. Uh, she’s a sim racer. Uh, she [00:01:00] won screen to speed at the Dark Sim Racing Expo. So welcome Victoria.

Victoria Thomson: Hello. Thank you. Thanks for the invitation.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. Thank you so much for taking your time and, uh, I have this, uh, wonderful stream with us.

Um, so let’s start with, uh, how do you get into sim racing? How you start?

Victoria Thomson: Well, um, for me, I would say I started with a set a course of one kind of, I mean, what, what actually is sim racing? When I would say I started more. playing video games on computer than maybe it was Gran Turismo 4, I think, on the PlayStation, a few years ago, actually.

But I would say really into simracing, um, AC1, when I at least got a more professional simracing wheel. And I really started simracing basically with ACC like in 2019, 2020, something around that. Joined a community and Well, [00:02:00] from that time on, SCC, at least for me, I know there’s differences between SCC iRacing and other simulators, but, um, on SCC I felt like home on the very first day, and for, like, four years ago, my simracing career kind of started.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s great. I remember that I, uh, also kind of started from Assetto Corsa, uh, the first one. Uh, but before that, I also did some, you know, racing games, uh, also racing race 07. That’s the old Air Factor 1. So I’ll prepare for some racing game, uh, racing, um, events, uh, on this one. Um, you mentioned that you get your first wheel.

Can you tell more about it? What was it?

Victoria Thomson: Yeah. Um, I think my first more professional wheel basically was a complete Fanatec set. Um, it was the Club Sport wheelbase V2. 5 with the bigger BMW rim and I think the V2 or V3 [00:03:00] pedals. And basically it’s never really changed in that last 10 years. I think I got it like 20, 12 to 15, somewhere around there.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-Hmm. .

Victoria Thomson: And before that, I mean everyone had like that Logitech one. So, um, on AC one I raised with, I think I ruined two G 25 wheels and the G 27. And after the, the G 27, I moved to the Fantech rims and I think 20 20, 21, something around there. I moved to the podium set from Fantech and that’s basically my set right now.

So I’m still with Fanatec.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s great. Uh, how do you feel to switch from, uh, like entry level equipment to the, uh, high end equipment? How was it for you?

Victoria Thomson: Um, Um, a lot think with high equipment, more pace or something is coming, I would say even on a G25 or 27 or something, you can be [00:04:00] very quick with entry level sim racing gear.

Personally, I would say with, um, for example, now a DD2 or the bigger, um, direct drive wheels, I just got more consistency into the races. So I was able to just pull out every lap the same lap times or nearly the same lap times. And with that consistency, I think even more speed was coming. But I wouldn’t say that I’m much faster or that I was faster with, um, entry level wheel or that I’m faster right now with, um, higher equipped wheel.

Um, So I would say I love my wheel it really gives I love the strength. So right now I’m at 15 12 to 15 newton meters something around there and the races which is physically Kind of hard to to race more than like four hours a few weeks ago. I did Uh four hours race on the nordschleife Um in a row so without the brakes and I would say after four [00:05:00] hours with 12 to 15 newton meters It’s kind of heavy, but it’s also that Typical thing like, um, it’s not a real workout, but you you just love to have more than the typical two and a half To five newt meters, but um still it’s it’s not making me fast.

It’s just more immersive stuff That’s what’s the kind of worth for me the price

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s a really cool thing that you, um, noticed that you didn’t, uh, feel that you’re, like, a lot faster, you’re more consistent with the higher end, uh, equipment, but, uh, definitely, it’s really good to start from something, uh, we’re talking on Unitalks a lot about this, uh, that everybody should have an opportunity to jump into our, uh, like, to sim racing, yeah?

And, uh, with whatever equipment they got, and I think it’s a really important thing. Um, what are you doing, uh, with, uh, so what’s your routine for the practice when you, um, Uh, [00:06:00] preparing for events, for big events in sim racing.

Victoria Thomson: Depends on what kind of races. Um, usually depends on the, the race that I’m racing and the duration I’m double to three times the time the race time is, um, I put into practice.

So if we’re racing a 24 hour race, I’ll have, um, somewhere around 48 hours plus on practice before the actual race. And I’m trying to, well, I’m trying to have a setup that’s feeling comfortable. I know that sometimes you just can min max the settings or something that you have like some tweaks that makes you extremely fast.

But for me personally, it’s a lot more important to have a car that just feels comfortable that every lap I know, even if I’m not on the like, mental top state right now in the lap, if you’re racing for an hour or two, maybe double stinting, and you’re doing a small [00:07:00] mistake. Um, I need to set up that, uh, knows that I can excuse that for example, um, that’s not completely on the edge.

And from that point on, I’m trying to get up my consistency. So I’m trying to have, um, practice evenings. I’m trying to, um, redo all the practice conditions if we know them before, otherwise I’m trying to, um, do some races. And even there, if I know it’s an endurance race, I’m more practicing on my own because I’m trying to get just in my routine.

Teen in my flow and if I know it’s sprint races then i’m trying to do a lot like public lobbies to avoid the the Yeah, the mock ups in the, in the beginning, the, the chaos, um, because in sprint races, if you spin out in T1, then you don’t have the time to gain the time again in the, during the race. So, um, it depends on what I’m racing, if I’m doing more like casual lobbies or if I’m practicing for My own, or for example, with teammates, um, to have a little bit, um, [00:08:00] dirty air, also multi class racing, also different, um, because then the pace difference in the cars is what we are trying to simulate.

So a friend is joining the slower car, depending on the corner. We’re trying to practice that, but how it’s a, basically it’s. Just like having fun. That’s the most important thing. And even in the practice times, I’m pretty sure if some of my teammates will see that, um, maybe afterwards, um, they know that I can get emotional while training, but it’s like letting all emotions out before the actual race and in the race.

I know it’s also, I mean, sometimes we have emotions, that’s completely normal for racers, but, um, I’m trying to just push me to Every race before the actual race is starting to more than a hundred percent to have like my a hundred percent performance in the race. That’s basically kind of the practice I’m doing before and also to get a mental state on.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s a good thing. Uh, I also try and to [00:09:00] still stay cold blooded when I’m doing races, uh, like official races or big events. Um, of course everybody can be emotional, as you said, I think it’s absolutely okay. Um, What do you like the most in endurance races because you mentioned that you’re doing endurance races and sprint races as well So would like to know what you prefer in endurance races.

What’s the best about them?

Victoria Thomson: Yeah,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: well

Victoria Thomson: as as you said, I’m personally I prefer endurance races Because, uh, it’s not about always being the quickest person. It’s about the being the consistent person over a very long time, being one with the car for more than just 30 minutes. And I mean, I also do strength races.

They are also a great competition, even a higher competition than endurance races. But, um, I mean, even if it’s sim racing and the car is not really breaking down, sometimes you have like technical issues, everything that’s bringing sim racing with you. But for me, [00:10:00] it’s driving hours for hours, the same pace or nearly on being focused for over a long time.

That’s, um, Something I personally love also with um having the time with friends for example doing the spotting for guys doing the setup work Doing the strategy even the complete thing about strategy in endurance races is something that I completely could Go into detail because I really love doing the strategy and for the rest, it’s Just keeping your focus for such a long time on a state where you say it after that, you, you seem like, or you, you feel how you’re getting exhausted without getting to know that you’re exhausted after a few hours.

And for example, I personally loved, uh, the night stints and in real time between two and 5 AM, when the happy time is going to start, like everyone’s tired now. Um, usually you’re, Sometimes alone on the rig, or we [00:11:00] at least try to be two with one backup in the rig or in the race. But, um, you’re basically alone driving through the night, everyone’s starting to do mistakes because you’re getting, you’re zooming out because you’re doing the same thing like for 14 to 16 hours.

But still, I don’t know that to keep there the maximum performance, um, to like every time you’re tired as fuck, whatever, it’s still And that’s what is endurance racing for me.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Endurance is really special. Uh, and I think the endurance racing, uh, also bring a lot of people into some racing because, uh, many people like they not doing any official races or leagues.

They just jumping into special events, like in a set of course, competition in, in iRacing, for example, as well. Um, so what was your highlights? Uh, Endurance event for you. What was the best result, the best race, which you [00:12:00] remember?

Victoria Thomson: Well, the best race, it wasn’t the best race that I remember, but I really remember one race that kept in my mind for still for today. Um, it was, I think two to three years ago, um, when sim racing was just coming up in Corona and all that stuff. Um, I did a race with a few friends with Chris Samir and Jadia and, um, it was my first time with Jadia in a car and we had, um, I think two and a half thousand live viewers.

Right now and I was a little bit nervous And the first thing I did was I got out of the box tires were cold and I just smashed the car into um after radio and Into the world in front of two and a half thousand people that for me It was a moment that um, I mean you need to get back in the car And I even had two hours of stints in front of me, but I know I [00:13:00] crashed the car.

I messed up p1 But A few people were watching, few, and to get up there, the, the, the, like emotional stability. Um, that was something that I remember until today because you still need to get back into the car. You need to be, um, you, we can’t just stop. We repaired the car. And after that, I just needed to drive again because it was the only person who was driving right now.

And. Knowing that you have a lot of people watching you knowing that you messed up the p1 for the team I think in the end we made p2. Um in a I think it was a 24 hour race in Maybe sim grid. I’m not sure which race it was But the 24 hour race in spa and I mean like two years ago three years ago still a great experience and I would say that race to keep up there the the mentality and still get back in the car to [00:14:00] trust the car in every Eau Rouge and Radeon when you’re entering that and you know you just smashed it once.

Make it simple and as we all know if you lift the car there, shouldn’t, shouldn’t be the best way and um, if you get scared for something, even if it’s sim racing, then um, you’re getting slow. and well as I said again the the endurance races that Type of racing the type of mentality that you need there.

That’s what really brought me forward and which still is in my mind

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: so endurance is like Push you to go because you got a team next to you And you also like even if you crash you really want to finish the race because you learn everything other people plan This race to do it with you. So yeah, I fully understand you in this So speaking about sprint events, and I know that you recently Won the screen [00:15:00] to speed at the Dark Sim Racing Expo.

Can you tell me more about this event? How was it for you? How did it feel? That was, uh, uh, to be a part of the big sim racing expo and of this event as well. And how was it for you to take a part in sprint event?

Victoria Thomson: Absolutely. Um, I mean, um, we were talking about endurance races and now we’re switching to the sprint races.

I’m completely not common to sprint races, but it was more than just an honor to race into that race. And even to, to win that, I, I never thought about it and still until now, I, if I would tell myself, um, you’re going to race it again, I would say I’m pretty sure I won’t, uh, win that again, because iRacing is not my, my main simulation.

Um, I have like two race, two rank races in iRacing, I have an account, but it never felt like the simulation that I want to race because I have no content. Um, I had. No licenses and stuff. And, um, when I [00:16:00] got asked if I want to race there, I was like, okay, I need to practice. I need to download the iRacing. I need to download everything around it.

And then I started to practice, as I said, um, for, for the sprint stuff. So I tried to do some, um, open lobby races. I tried some practice runs and getting there is, I don’t know. Everything was kind of overwhelming. I, so far, I haven’t done any races, um, live on a stage or at least on. somewhere and the complete situation was new.

It was, as I said, overwhelming, but, um, it was more than just a great experience because I know that from all the experience that I’ve made in the last years over the time and in sim racing, um, I could use it because. In the SimRig itself, I, like, I was in my own zone. I could cancel out everything that was around and just focus on, on the car, on, on the girls next to me, even knowing they were [00:17:00] actually really sitting next to me and you could look over to them, like, um, what are their feelings right now?

How are they feeling? How are they driving? Um, How will the race end, for example, in the next minutes? But, um, still right now going through that race, it’s

Because I never thought with the, like, circumstances that I had On site race, iRacing completely new to me Formulkas, I’ve never done a Formulka race I think, even in the first race, it’s Maybe some some noticed it when it got into the the grid I realized that i’ve never practiced a standing start with the formal four with a clutch And we didn’t have the clutch pedals on on the steering wheel.

So with like the real clutch on the foot and I was just standing there like, uh, okay, how, how to do that? I know what I should do with my double clutches at home. But when, when I came there, it’s like, [00:18:00] okay, shall we just smash it? Then I had to wheel spin as hell. And I saw that the other girls just coming up because they, I’m pretty sure they then they’ve done in their practice sessions, at least some race starts.

And I took the second race. Or the practice for the second race, also to practice some race starts, but that was like, I’ve never thought about practicing, um, the start actually from the starting grid or the standing start in a Formula Four, because it’s not my, my sim or not my, my cars. And I know there’s, um, I think a safety car in, in Irising where you have the rolling starts.

If they would have done that, I had no idea what to do. That would be some very, uh, Let’s say some interesting stats, but good thing everything worked out. Um, in the end I worked I won by points at the first race. I won the second race. I think I made third Still awesome races. I’ve never thought that it got so close on on the [00:19:00] first three to four people Um because I never saw myself somewhere in the front And I really got It.

I’m, I mean, those were really great races. We had very close fights. Um, we had a little context maybe due to, I was not used to the mirrors and the, the completely I racing views. Um, I had my spotter turned off because I, I’m new to I racing, I’m sorry, , but still, it, it worked out. I had fun and right now let’s see what, what the future brings and maybe it opens some doors for some other races.

Uh, yeah, let’s see.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, once again, congrats with P1 in this event, uh, as there was really huge, the biggest event in sim racing, uh, which we got. Um, uh, I know that you’re going to get the testing at Nordschleife as your prize and can you tell me, are you excited about this? Maybe you’re thinking how [00:20:00] it’s going to happen and did you have any in real life experience in racing?

Victoria Thomson: To be honest, um, I can’t wait to race. Race car. I’m not, uh, having any information or most of the information is still pending. Um, so we are in the discussions when it will happen because right now going to the Nordschleife is like, I’m pretty sure it could be a little bit dangerous. Um, even in a normal street car, maybe, I don’t know what’s, what’s going to be there, but, um, I I’m happy about it.

I can’t wait for it. And, um, for the real racing experience so far, I’ve raced in an AMG. Um, the Shiroko Cup R and a few Audi R8 V10s with, um, street tires and slicks, but not, um, build up there. It’s the, the highest thing I’ve driven was the NG GT4. Um, so I have some experiences, but [00:21:00] as everything was on a private racetrack or airfield, um, I wouldn’t say that I’m really experienced in high competition cars or in real car racing, but, um, I’m doing cart racing, um, also did there a real life 24 hour race with the team and experience at least some kind of 24 hour endurance races, also did the sprint races, um, and the last company I’ve worked at, we had a, um, karting competition over the completely year where I, basically also won against 51 other guys and um still was able to to get the crown but we had also like that all kind of um racing rules with 85 kilos as ballast of performance so if you’re lighter and a few of us were lighter you’re getting ballast into the cart that we are leveled out with that so we really try to have a very high competition and as in sim racing it’s outstanding to to be part of Real racing sim [00:22:00] racing, it’s kind of the same thing, having the racecraft from so many thousands of hours in a CC, it’s, I love racing and I can’t wait to have the, the opportunity thanks to screen, to speed and, and in it and all the people working here, um, to, to get me into the car and let’s see what’s, I mean, it’s a notch life Who don’t want to race on the notch life and a race car?

Not sure.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: So, uh, you, you race Nordschleife, I’m pretty sure in the SED Corsa, yeah, um, is it your favorite track or not really? Because, uh, you know, for me, Nordschleife, uh, that’s the track where I can, uh, spend some time because I was working in, um, a sim racing center as a coach and as a manager of the location.

And I remember that I was spending, uh, you know, just, uh, To spend some time on Nordschleife because it’s really long and you just like can be here for 15 minutes 20 or something like this So do you do free laps and then go home? So how is it for you? [00:23:00] Do you like this track or do you? Like not really your favorite.

So we got other track as your favorite one. Mm hmm.

Victoria Thomson: Um,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I would

Victoria Thomson: say It is one of the favorites, but not the favorite racetrack. Um, as favorite racetrack, don’t ask me why I’m personally having Brands Hatch because I love the techniques there. It’s like a small Nordschleife, but, uh, as a German, as the most extreme racetrack that you can have somewhere, I would say Nordschleife is the racetrack to, to practice the most.

You’re learning so much At the Nordschleife and it’s also so dangerous that to be honest I’m a little bit frightened to to be there knowing you’re racing a race car Um, you know the track from the simulator, you know, if there’s something going to happen you basically as everyone says Um, you just hit escape and [00:24:00] go back to pits and start again in real life.

It’s something different but I would say the um You The, the elevation that you can have on the Nordschleife, everything that you have there is like, it’s, I would say that the best race track, but personally, I haven’t driven there on the real race or on the real Nordschleife in real life. So, well, also not in Brands Hatch, but I don’t want to judge which one is the very best.

Personally, I love the Nordschleife, but I think, um, for example, Silverstone or Brands Hatch are tracks that I could also race the whole day. Don’t ask me why. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I think that Brands Hatch is one of the best tracks, to be honest. I’m a big fan of, you know, narrow tracks with elevation changes. Like, Road Atlanta, I really like this track.

Many people on stream are joking about this, because I just, I really like to race this track. And they’re like, oh, you again at Road Atlanta, oh no. Something like this. [00:25:00] So yeah, I fully understand you with Brands Hatch, I think it’s a, it’s a great track to race, especially with GT3s and in a set of course competition, it’s really fun track.

So that’s cool.

Victoria Thomson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So would you say, um, is, is, um, if you could decide on one racetrack, I’m not sure which um, uh, real life experiences on your side are, but. If the experiences that you’ve maybe made from, um, real car racing, sim racing, um, the instructor you did on the Nordschleife, um, which car track combination would you say is something that you would live for?

If you could wish yourself something, what track and car combination would you like to race and what type of race?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Oh, that, that will be, uh, Porsche Cup, uh, and Road Atlanta 100 percent because I real life Porsche Cup in a racing, I would love that. Love to try it in real life if I ever going to have a opportunity for that.

[00:26:00] And road Atlanta for me is like one of the best track on this planet. And I really like it. Uh, speaking about in real life experience, I race, uh, four more cars. Uh, so I’m not really into. GT cars. Um, so yeah, I think that would be a great experience to, to have an opportunity to race maybe Porsche Cup one day, something like this.

Um, can you tell me, you, um, mentioned that you race, uh, in real life, uh, some cars. Can you tell me the feelings? How can you compare them to what you, um, feeling in sim racing? Is it really close or not? Because, you know, just many people, uh, that’s like. Top question for everybody. I think they asking all the time about this.

Victoria Thomson: Yeah, I would say it depends, um, what you’re trying to compare. I mean, as we all know, you don’t have the G forces in the simulator. You can have like that, uh, actuaries are ultimate. Stuff where you have a five axle thing where [00:27:00] you really can feel drops and something like that, but pressing use In into the seat belts when braking a car like the ng gt4 or also the audis Um, it’s something that you don’t feel in Uh in the simulator But on my first days, when, when I got an instructor next to me, I’m racing in that, um, R8 V10 that was a street car, basically with, um, the crashing frame and slicks, uh, for example, on, on the second one where we had to, uh, rear wheel drive, um, the person next to me, uh, which was a former DTM.

Driver asked me after like three laps. I mean, we, we went out to the track and I didn’t know the car. I’ve never driven a car with over 600 horsepower and I got overwhelmed by the speed that you gain in a very short time because it’s not the monitor. It’s you really getting pressed into the seat. But, um, after getting the, the.

to know the car like a few corners, [00:28:00] um, everything’s pulled in the head, like, like in the simulator kind of. And the instructor sitting next to me was after three laps, like, he just sat there, watched me and was asking, and you’re really just doing sim racing, do you? And I was like, yeah, why, uh, what am I doing wrong?

And he was like, n nothing. The, the thing is you’re breaking the car, you’re steering into the corner and then you are holding the steering angle and you’re just turning the car by throttle and brake inputs. And that’s driving styles that guys are, that people have with cutting experience for 15 years or more.

And I’m just doing sim racing, but I have also like. Hours and years of practice, um, recalculated kind of for, for real racing. It’s just that you feel everything by the steering wheel. I mean, we are used to steering wheels and I even told the person that i’m not really Interested in what the car is giving [00:29:00] me through the seat or what the car really is doing Um behind me or in front of me I feel like everything in the wheel because we are trained to feel everything in the steering wheel And I would say it’s for sure you can’t compare real racing and sim racing and I would also say it’s It’s not good to compare those as the same thing or something that you want to compare.

I would say it’s completely two But it’s two different. Um Botch categories, maybe two different things But everything that you learn in sim racing you can somehow compare in real racing or you can use The the race intelligence, you know, the the Um, if you, if the car, for example, is slipping, if you have a slip angle, or if you’re close to a spin, you know instinctively what to do with the wheel.

So you have something that you’ve practiced as a routine over years and hours in sim racing, and you can use that in real racing. At least I would say. I [00:30:00] mean, if we look in Formula 1, Max Verstappen is also a very good sim racer, and I’m pretty sure that everything that he’s practicing in sim racing, he can bring into real racing and the other way around.

So, um, the conclusion I would say is, you can’t compare both, but everything that you’re learning is usable in both situations, if that’s kind of answering it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I absolutely agree with you. So you got really good, uh, base skills, which you learn in some racing and, uh, you can transfer them to real life racing, uh, without any issues.

I think you just need some time to get used to, uh, G forces. Yeah. That you like moving in the real car. Uh, but, uh, yeah, you know, articles, which I read about some racers who first time get into, uh, the racing track, uh, absolutely the same as you said. So just, uh, You know what to do, actually. You get into the car and you already know how [00:31:00] it’s working, and that’s the main thing.

So you don’t need, like, a lot of time to get used to everything. And it’s really cool about sim racing, and really nice that for some people that sim racing can be the starting point, like karting was for me, for example. Um, so it’s cool, because it’s more open for everybody as well. simracing. com

Victoria Thomson: I mean, sim racing is affordable.

It’s, I would say that the better, or it’s the other wave of motorsport. Motorsport is expensive and dangerous. I would say just, but if we put all that on renewable, sustainable topics, On the side, I would say that the main thing in sim racing is, it’s not dangerous and it’s more affordable for nearly everyone.

Even knowing that sim racing is a very expensive sport compared to, I would say, usual sports or usual eSports, where you need the keyboard, a [00:32:00] monitor, gaming PC you already have. But in sim racing, I would say you can put in so much money, But still, it’s way more affordable than a real car. Because if you crash your real car once, you have a crashed car.

Sim racing, it’s a little bit cheaper, I would say.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, crashes are free. That’s the main thing. Uh, and definitely you can get into sim racing. So entry level is a really low with a budget, of course. And I would like to say that I noticed that races in sim racing, which I’m doing in a racing, I’m usually racing top split and they more competitive than races, which I had in real life.

Uh, just because in real life you’re really limited, not a lot of people getting into the series and it’s not that competitive compared to sim racing and because we’re getting a lot of people here is just, you know, can be, uh, for example, Porsche championship, which got in a racing and, uh, [00:33:00] everybody like 20, 30 people, they want in one second to everybody that that’s crazy.

Victoria Thomson: Funny thing, um, that’s something I also recognized. Um, two weeks ago. I was at the FIA motorsport games in Valencia and I also saw there, um, the sim races and the real races and personally or my personal opinion on the real races was I mean that’s very easily said and I know, um, I don’t want to be too provocative, um around them But I would say the sim racers had The more interesting races to watch even if they were looking more Like more perfection.

They were racing just car by car and no mistakes in the real races Um for sure you had a few guys that were leaning on each other even in the gt cars It’s a different type of racing, but it felt more like a a Kind of a childish racing as the race intelligence was [00:34:00] different compared to the sim racing I have no idea how it is in the car And I’m pretty sure I would also drive a lot worse in a real race car than I would do in a simulator but um the the races itself to watch how The guys are racing how they’re leaning on others Um, I will personally say some stewards in simracing would even kick you out of track if you are behaving like that, what I’ve seen on the real races.

And I really appreciate every real racer that is doing that. But I also want to say to, to all people watching, kind of give simracing a chance and try to step into that perfection of racing that you’re seeing there and appreciate what they are actually doing. It’s that that was a very big point for me to see that in valencia.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, it’s a really high level right now It’s racing as you mentioned. I absolutely agree with you and Just because uh, it’s competitive. We got a lot of people. Uh, it’s also really high level [00:35:00] So no wonder if we would have um Like, the same amount of people racing in real life, we would have the same kind of level and the same competitive races as well.

But unfortunately, not everybody got the opportunity to get into real life racing because it’s just crazy expensive and it’s really hard to get into it. Get sponsors to get it. Uh, like even if you’re getting good results, that’s not, uh, Not mean that you’re going to get sponsors to sponsor you for your career and you’ll get forwards into the racing Um, so yeah, it’s a kind of sad thing About racing.

Uh, but uh, on the other side we got some racing where we can, um, race and, uh, have fun. And also I really enjoyed to watch, uh, broadcast, uh, some racing races. Uh, they’re really fun to watch, like everybody, uh, really close with the gaps and doing the same lines, the same breaking points. It’s, uh, it’s wonderful.

I [00:36:00] agree with you in this.

Victoria Thomson: Yeah, absolutely. And still, I also love the real racing topic. And, um, if I could choose between both, or at least I never hope to choose between both because I would love both categories in sports. But, um, as you said, I mean, real motorsport is in the first point for me, it’s dangerous.

And it can hurt you a lot if something’s going wrong, and I really feel that that kind of fear is for sure in simracing not, not the main topic, but even then, it’s more interesting to see that the simracers are so much on the edge and still racing like hell. I mean, they also crashing sometimes, but, um, to see that.

That kind of difference in in the skills in in real racing with fear and I really have deeply respect for those who can Kind of get off that kind of fear in the car and really race like a sim racer would do. Um [00:37:00] And right now we’re again compare, um comparing real racing and sim racing But it’s just it’s two so so outstanding types of sports that I still love both and I couldn’t could talk about ours

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, true.

I agree with you. So I still remember how I get into the car thing. I was like 10 or 11 years old and I was like, Oh my God, I’m just, I’m so afraid of the speed or something. Uh, it was, uh, yeah. Uh, so you just, uh, trying to, um, make the step forward, you just trying to get through this fear and, uh, then you getting fast lap times.

But on the same side, I can tell you that sometimes I got situations in some racing where I’m feeling like, my God, like, you know, I’m just feeling like I’m like, it’s happening in real life. It’s, it’s crazy. So your brain thinks like, We go into crash or someone go into crashes, something like this. So, and you feel, [00:38:00] uh, the same fear as in real life.

So it’s, uh, kind of interesting.

Victoria Thomson: Yeah, absolutely. As I said in the beginning, in the first story, like, um, when I crashed the car, um, and the judges dream after that, I really was frightened about that. Corner combination. I really was scared to go flat out through a rouge. And I mean, it’s sim racing. If I crash again, who cares?

It’s not hurting me, but the mental issues or the pressure to know that you have a team behind you that have practiced for it, that you don’t want to, um, I don’t know, you, you don’t want to let them down. You don’t want to get the car into repairs for hours. That’s something. I would say a completely different level of fear, because there are a lot of people hoping for you, knowing that also in a real race car, there is a complete team setting up the cars, they are flying there, they have spent a lot of money just to get the car there, and you know, crashing into the [00:39:00] wall, it’s like wasting so much money.

But still, the pressure and the fear and I’m sometimes I’m really scared even in sim racing, if you’re really getting into it, have a triple screen or even VR players in VR, if you’re racing, or if you’re crashing into the wall, pretty sure that makes something with you.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. You know, I got triple screen and even it was triple screen sometimes like, I really, you know, just into the race.

So I just, uh, Yeah. Kind of, uh, don’t, don’t feel like I’m sitting in a room or something like this. So I’m really into this racing car and yeah, it can be, uh, really, really scary sometimes, and, uh, I can imagine that people in VR got really, um, you know, good impression, uh, with the crashes, with everything which happening in some racing.

Victoria Thomson: Absolutely. I mean, I also got triples and I tried VR a [00:40:00] few years ago. I think I had the Oculus, uh, the CB1. Back in the day in the days. That’s like really know a few years, but I stayed with triples. Um Because I always have the feeling it it still gives me enough for sure You don’t have that distance checking that you have in VR and that you really can feel like being into the car But then you also have like expensive wheels They are flashing and you have all that information that I wouldn’t see if I’m racing in VR So I think it’s Type of something that you personally like the preferences, but I also would like to stay with with triples and so far I’m not planning to go to VR Maybe also being scared of driving into the wall and getting even more scared.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, also as you mentioned you doing A lot of endurance races, yeah, in my opinion, uh, VR is more for the sprint races, uh, because, um, you know, you’re going to sweat and it’s not going to be comfortable to race, uh, [00:41:00] for, for hours. Um, so personally, I absolutely agree with you, the triple, uh, in that, Circumstances a lot better, um, as you can do long scenes without any issues and, uh, you don’t have to worry that your eyes are going to be tired and you will sweat in the VR headset.

Um, but the VR give, uh, really good, um, you know, just feelings, emotions. It’s really cool. I tried once there was the Oculus Rift, uh, the first version of it. Um, it was really nice. So my dream is one day to try a better VR. headset and iRacing, maybe, because I didn’t try VR and iRacing. I’m just really curious about this.

Victoria Thomson: Yeah, me too. Can’t wait. I tested Apple Vision Pro a few weeks ago and I mean, technology is awesome. I know it’s not a VR headset for racing and all topics, but But, um, I would love to see a [00:42:00] headset, uh, VR racing that’s still just letting out exactly our wheels, our hands, so that we really sit into the car.

So it’s kind of a mix of an AR. Um, headset that’s allowing to see what you need to see, getting everything, um, else that you don’t need rid of, but, um, not that complete throughput that you have on, I think the, what is that Rift 3 or something, um, Quest 3, um, I think they, a few of them, of the modern ones have the, the, um, the throughput, but, um, then you see everything around.

And I would love to see something that’s, like, if you’re wearing some special suit or something, that just that is in the simulator. If that’s already possible, I’m sorry, I don’t know everything, um, but that would be something I really want to test. That would be cool, I think.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, kind of mixed reality I think will be awesome, uh, because as you said the VR, uh, unfortunately cutting the [00:43:00] opportunity to see your real, uh, wheel which you got and sometimes you got really expensive like a Fanatec wheel or, um, I don’t know, GSI, something like this and you really want to see this buttons and everything, uh, so yeah, and unfortunately VR cut this opportunity from you.

Yeah. I

Victoria Thomson: mean, you’re paying so much for a wheel with the display and then you can’t see the display. It’s like, I don’t know, maybe stay with triples.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Oh, yeah. So moving forward, can you tell me, how do you feel to be a female sim racer in male sim racing? So how do you feel about this? Is community friendly to you?

Or you had some toxic moments or something like this?

Victoria Thomson: Um, basically. I would say I had no toxic moments being a female or being male um in in one big family I would say. It’s like being toxic between [00:44:00] racers because under the Heimat I would say we all are just racers in Every kind of way. Um, I see that we are quite less women in In sim racing, but um, I think it’s also cars and uh car enthusiasts Is not that a female dominated thing but um I love to see if women are around how supportive they are to Each other because there are not much and we are supporting each other.

We Show that we are in sim racing and for sure it’s a male dominated world But in the end everything everyone before the computer I would say I don’t see If we wouldn’t have our cameras on, um, I wouldn’t see if I’m racing against a male racing against a female, I’m just racing against a person and that’s what I also love in sim racing because there is not that, um, I would say physical differences like in real racing that, um, maybe some are stronger, some are [00:45:00] weaker, but But, um, I would say I, I love the, the female empowerment kind of, if you see another girl on the street, even for example, I’m racing or I’m driving a motorbike in real life.

If you see another girl, um, biker, you’re just waving, you’re happy, you just enjoy the moment that you’ve seen someone like you on a motorbike or in sim racing on the karting track. But what I also see is. If you are an, um, in the minority on the race track, um, you also see that, uh, the competition between the persons that are racing there, or that are in that competition is also a little bit higher or more tense because there are not much.

So you’re competing also in a, um, smaller group of people. And then you have a kind of different competition. I would say, even if we have like the big competition, the big race. Um, but so far I would say, um, um, Pressures everywhere, um, you [00:46:00] have moments of panic. toxic relations in every kind of sport, in every kind of gender, in every kind of car and team.

So I would say that’s, that’s motorsport. Everything is kind of emotional.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s true. I agree with you. Also had some, uh, Toxic stuff in, uh, in the racing races sometimes and, uh, but most of the stuff which happened with me in SimRacing, uh, especially I’m talking about the racing because most of the time in this, uh, in this simulator, um, People really supportive.

They really try to help you with some advices. Uh, they’re really really nice and it’s it’s really cool because um, We can have the same thing like in other esports. Yeah Uh, so other esports can be a bit more toxic compared to some racing So we’ve been talking about other communities in the set of course competition [00:47:00] and other simulators also And Everybody like trying to uh, guide you through your journey and to show you How to do some racing and help you and you can find team really fast if you want to do endurances You can find like a supporter for almost if you’re doing them.

It’s it’s nice. Yeah,

Victoria Thomson: absolutely I would say sim racing or at least gaming um is And very open world, you can find a home. Um, the thing that is important for me, I would say is being an open person.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: It

Victoria Thomson: doesn’t really depend on what kind of gender you have for sure. It’s important to show which kind of.

People and characters we have in racing. And I’m very glad that we have so many different types and persons and personalities in racing and, or in gaming and racing. And, um, I think it’s also important to stand out. Who we [00:48:00] have, but for me, most of the thing is about the character that a person is bringing into the team, into the sport.

And I would say support that kind of character.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: And

Victoria Thomson: I would say that’s, that’s the most important thing to appreciate the characters and support them.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Um, what do you think, how can we bring more girls into some racing into racing as well? Um, so what’s your, your opinion about this?

Victoria Thomson: I would say the girls that want to race in racing, um, we need to see where we can approach them and get them trained up kind of, I mean, as I said in the beginning, under the helmet or in front of the monitors, we all are racers.

And I would love to see if we found a lot of more of these girls, if we can support them, if we are not just pushing them into the market, if we push them into the market, Um, with, with the support that they really can [00:49:00] compete with others. And I would say bringing everyone on, on a very good level. That’s something that we really can do.

And what we are all trying here to, to support the females or to support the women in, in, in racing. And, um, I think even if it’s a male dominated world, um, we have interested girls and we just need to be there to show them that simracing is one of the things that you can do if you want. And if you want, what do you need?

I mean, is it the mentality that you need? Is it the pace? Is it consistency? Is it bringing you in, in racing games, um, overall? Is it, um, about the setup? I mean, in the end, a race is a race, and we just need to get them, like, on pace, and see to, uh, if we can get them competitive with others.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I think, uh, what do you need doing, uh, for Female, uh, for girls in simracing, it’s, it’s [00:50:00] really cool, uh, because more girls you’re going to see, like, uh, you just I would love to race in SimRacing then, uh, by the end of the day, because you can see all these girls, they’re racing, you’re like, Oh, I want to be like her, yeah, jump into SimRace and, and race, uh, with, uh, whatever person, like, if it’s, uh, guys or girls, it doesn’t matter.

Uh, so I, I would, I I was in the same way as you with my opinion about in real life racing. So when someone asked me about like, how do you feel to be a girl? I’m like, I’m just a person behind the helmet. I’m just a driver and everybody doing the same stuff here. So when we equal because In my opinion, I think that, uh, yeah, physical, uh, thing is not really, uh, important, especially if we’re talking about sim racing, because you can set up the force feedback in the way you like.

And, um, it’s, it’s great. So I think we got a lot of opportunities [00:51:00] now, and I hope we’re going to see more girls and more, uh, boys also in sim racing.

Victoria Thomson: Absolutely. I mean, sim racing for me is. Really personal talking a sim racing is like everything I really love sim racing It’s it’s my passion and I’m trying to get my business related topics to sim racing my private topics to sim racing or at least racing and overall The automotive industry and stuff, but I’m getting Overall speaking, more people into racing, I would love to see if whoever is watching this and sees I want to simrace too now, or maybe I am already simracing, and maybe I can learn something from the mentalities from the stories or anything else, I would love to just bring that to more people.

That’s, that’s my goal. What really is driving me.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Um, so speaking about the future and plans, uh, what plans do you have in the future in the sim [00:52:00] racing? Maybe you’re thinking to make some kind of content, uh, which can bring more people, uh, into some racing as well. And, uh, share your opinion with other, uh, people.

Um, so what’s your plan? And I know that you’re going to take a part in global e sport games. Uh, can you tell me more about this?

Victoria Thomson: Yeah, um about the content thing Uh, I thought a lot of well, I have thought about it. Um several times but uh so far i’ve never got the point or i’ve never got so far to say I really want to be content creator or Bring that points in.

Um but You’re right. I mean in the end to bring People more into simracing and tell those kind of stories. I should do some kind of content But so far, I don’t know why it’s maybe the online world or getting the the criticism of everyone [00:53:00] Maybe the the opening to the world to be a content creator. Maybe that’s something that i’ve never accomplished so far Um, or got into it.

Maybe. Um, I need a support here, but, um, maybe it’s going to start with the global esports games. Um, because in there, um, I will be representing Germany for the female team together with a friend of mine, um, for the male category. So there are two. From Germany going to the global esports games, um, which actually should have been hold now in December 24, which has shifted to early 25, as far as I know.

But, um, I will be representing sim racing there. And it’s, I don’t know what to say. I mean, it’s more than just an honor to race there. I even love to see, um, that they made categories for the drivers or at least, uh, the teams. So far, unfortunately, no information how the race there will be held. If it’s a [00:54:00] combined race, if we have two classes, for example, or if they are separate, um, I just know that we are sending two representatives and as far as I know, e sports, and I think one of the parts is also motorsport also from the IOC got a Olympic, so there will be most likely also Olympic e sport games.

And if I. Can have a chance If I might have the chance, I hope I can also be there and see what’s going to be there So that will be my goals, um to see what we all together can reach in sim racing Maybe just as persona maybe with with different categories, maybe in different cars, maybe in different simulators We’ll see what’s going to happen And I think that the future right now is Well, working.

And next work, a little bit of simracing, practicing for a 24 hour race on the Nordschleife in a full motion simulator, um, the global esports games, and for sure in [00:55:00] my real life experience, the race on the Nordschleife, or the test day, somehow.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: So you’ve got great plans. About content creation, I can tell you that Simracing community is so friendly.

So they go on to support you. Of course you can get some toxic people from time to time if you’re streaming. Um, but you know, we can’t live without these people, unfortunately. But most of the time I notice that community is just amazing. So if you will have opportunity, if you will have like, uh, the wish to make some content and I know maybe stream us at a course competition and one day, I think you just have to jump into it.

Victoria Thomson: Well, I will have a thought about it again. Um, well, let’s see if I see myself on camera, I’m pretty sure I will cringe out. So I’m not sure if I’m going to do that.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Uh, no worries. You know, um, To be honest, I was really shy when I first time started streaming, I was like, you know, really confused, uh, [00:56:00] really close, and also my English wasn’t that fluent as, uh, right now, so yeah, I think it’s okay when you’re starting something new, it’s absolutely okay to feel shy, to feel unconfident a little bit, uh, but then, Just like in simracing, you, um, like gaining time, yeah, and getting better in some corners, uh, you doing the same thing, uh, with the rest of, in your life.

Victoria Thomson: Isn’t it great to see that like, every, um, tip or any hint that we, we are talking about is related to simracing, completely transferred to other real life problem. So kind of do simracing, learn something for life, and. Even if it’s your passion, you will find something that brings you forward. Even if it’s coming from simracing or from real life, somehow both can go hand in hand.

And I love the experience, uh, the examples that you made up, um, with being shy or being on the [00:57:00] racetrack, the mentality that you need to set up for streaming. Maybe I should think about it again.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, it’s, uh, you know, really close to, I think I learned a lot of Uh, things in simracing, in streaming also. Uh, met a lot of cool people, uh, nice people who really dedicate about simracing, about racing and It’s really cool to be a part of this and, um, it’s really nice.

Uh, so before we end up, uh, the stream, I would like to Give you the last question. Um, what will be your advice for people who starting in sim racing? So what, what can you give from your experience?

Victoria Thomson: Pretty simple. The thing is, if you, if you want to start in sim racing, um, I think the worst thing that you can do is think about what do I need for sim racing? As we talked about the [00:58:00] start in sim racing or the entry level in sim racing is, Kind of pretty low. You can start with a keyboard, with a mouse, um, you can then join to, um, switch to, to a gamepad, you can buy a sim rig, you can buy a racing wheel, you can get a direct drive wheel, there is no limit to above, kind of, but if you want to start in sim racing, the first thing that you have to do is like on a real car, you need to start up the car before you can drive a car.

So just get started. That’s, I would say that the main advice that I can give for those who want to be part of the simracing community.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s great. So thank you so much for taking your time. Was awesome. Uh, I had a lot of fun to speaking with you. Uh, everybody, thank you so much for watching. Uh, next CineTalks will be, um, next Thursday.

So we’ll see you. Thank you so much for watching and bye.

Victoria Thomson: Bye.[00:59:00]

Crew Chief Brad: Innate Esports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring Esports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries and platforms. Innate Esports is a woman led company where diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is in their DNA and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the Esports world as safe and fair as possible.

To learn more, Be sure to log on to www. innitesports. gg or follow them on social media at Innit Esports. Join their Discord, check out their YouTube channel, or follow their live content

Crew Chief Eric: via Twitch. This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network.

For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brakefix, and many [01:00:00] others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.

patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator. And this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media, as mentioned in the episode.

Copyright INIT eSports. This podcast is now produced as part of the Motoring Podcast Network and can be found everywhere you stream, download or listen! 


More Screen to Speed…

Dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real-life racetracks, they explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motorsports. They hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports.

INIT eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands, while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. INIT eSports is a woman-led company where Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility is in their DNA, and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible. To learn more, be sure to logon to www.initesports.gg today or follow them on social media @initesports, join their discord, check out their YouTube Channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

At INIT eSports, founder and CEO Stefy Bau doesn’t just settle for the ordinary. She creates extraordinary experiences by producing thrilling online competitions and real-life events that transcend the boundaries of the eSports universe. And she’s here with us on Break/Fix to share her story, and help you understand why you need to get more involved in the world of eSports. 

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Car Masters Season 6 – Rust Free Creativity

For the first time in quite a while a new season of Netflix’s Car Masters: Rust to Riches debuts within the same calendar year as the previous season. As my wife and I often review this show together in great detail, we’ve commented before that the last few seasons felt “cut off” or “half baked” and Season 6 (or as we like to refer to it: Season 5, Part II) dropped less than 10 months after Season 5, fulfilling our need for closure.

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VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE CAR MASTERS BUILDS!

But before we jump into all the gawdy details of Season 6 of our favorite RUSToration show, we have to recall the cliffhanger ending from January.

Where we left off: Mark and Shawn find themselves at West Coast Exotics – a high-end dealership – with Nick Smith presenting a “next level opportunity:” what amounts to a package deal for a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti *AND* a 458 Italia to be “customized” (with no confirmed clients) at the bargain combo price of $290k.   

With an emphatic vinyl record scratch and the ghostly voice of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka saying “Scratch that, Reverse it!” we do find ourselves starting from West Coast Exotics, but instead of at the exact moment we saw the dark blue 612 and black 458, we’re now talking about a “new deal” – $300k for both a satin white F8 Tributo and giallo (yellow) 488 GTB. 


The Ferrari Saga

Having spent enough time working with William Ross from Exotic Car Marketplace (ECM), we recognized that there’s – “not no way, not no how” – you could purchase two newer (within the last 5 years) Ferrari’s for that kind of price package, unless there was something seriously wrong with both of them. Double checking the Ferrari Market Index at ECM we confirmed that the F8 clocks in at $347k and the 488 at $258k, respectively.

The Rust Free No. 1 & No.2 – Ferrari F8 Tributo (white) and 488 GTB (yellow).

The decision to bring these cars into the shop is well above our pay grades, but they signed the deal and drove the cars to the shop where we realize that while Brian (part of Nick’s original team from last season) has left the show, Jake has stayed behind as the second fabricator.

With the same “creative” disregard for a client’s wishes as past seasons, Mark dives head first into the white F8 Tributo as the next project for the team. We appreciated the idea of turning the F8 into an F40 tribute car (above) and it would have been interesting to see how they could have executed it, had it not been for Nick in the background constantly reminding them …the client has to approve the changes…” – and rightfully so.

Modifying Ferraris is a complex process, and as we’ve learned from William, you can also upset the factory resulting in cease & desist letters, not to mention the immediate value loss for a high-end collector car like the F8 Tributo. To save you some reading time, we got together with William to talk in deeper depth about the Ferraris that were used in this season of Car Masters. You can check it out by listening to the Ferrari Marketplace Podcast episode (below), as well as checking out the follow-along article.

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In the end, the client rejects all of Mark’s plans and forces the team to settle on aftermarket wheels, a bolt-on competition exhaust, Italian flag vinyl striping and the compulsory Gotham Garage emblems.


Doing what they do best! 

Meanwhile, the team was given a ’32 Ford Roadster rolling chassis that was ready for modification and final paint. This second build carries a $75k budget and will be a promotional/giveaway car for Pechanga Resort Casino

This is Rust Free Car No.3 if you’re keeping track!

As always, Tony doesn’t disappoint, creating a working slot machine from spare gaming parts after scavenging the back rooms at Pechanga. The electronically controlled spinners would come back later in the season to inspire another cool “gadget” but we were really hoping that they would have found a way to connect the slot machine to the manual transmission and every time you shifted it would spin the dials. 

The Ford’s grille is a great representation of blending styles, it builds a great combination of Gotham’s aesthetic and the casino’s theme; as my wife said “It really works, it’s another gimmicky, fun build” and I couldn’t agree more. 


For the ‘Gram! 

The Ferrari Saga drags on for almost the first half of the season and for some reason they aren’t able to move on the 488 GTB project, we were glad that this car didn’t become the token albatross like Mark’s Concept Car from Season 3.

After saying Ciao! to the 488, Nick turns up with a McLaren that is being daily driven by a young social media influencer. We knew something was up when Mark was mocking up “his vision” using painters tape and cardboard and not pushing the team to start cutting the car immediately. What came next, we don’t think anyone expected aside from Nick.

No rust here… Rust Free Car No.4

The young influencer arrives excited about his soon to be Need For Speed: Underground inspired McLaren mods (ie: flames, LED under glow, extreme widebody, wheels, etc.) but then his father abruptly steps in and quickly puts the kibosh on the whole effort with an honest bit of fatherly advice starting with “that front splitter… how are you getting up the driveway?!? … You can’t change this car!, this car was perfection before it came in here.”

Sensing the “I told ya so!” vibe in the room, Mark was taken aback, and closely analyzing the backshots of Nick you could see a “cat eating the canary” grin on his face while the Dad (the real owner of the McLaren) shot down the project. Was it a petty trick? Or was it just the right dose of reality that Mark needed to understand what Nick has been trying to get the team to understand about high-end car clientele?

“It’s not about the profit, it’s about the creativity” – Mark

All of this continues to mount into an undramatized tension between Shawn and Nick; and things just seem to be falling apart between Gotham Garage and Nick Smith.

After what must have been some serious off camera discussions, the team returns during the next episode to amicably part ways, leaving the door open for “future projects.” So that means Nick is on the outs … but what about Jake? Does he stay or does he go? (#spoiler, he stays.)


Foreshadowing the Nostalgia Builds

Having just celebrated “Back to the Future Day” doubtful the season’s release somehow hinged on that fact, we soldiered on, a bit shocked that the team would suddenly take on a DeLorean DMC-12 restomod project. “Great Scott!” – Dr. E. Brown. 

Mark recognizes that the DeLorean collector community is really specific about the ways in which they continue to preserve their cars, and often times “modded” DeLoreans (though there are some cool widebody and LS-engine swapped ones out there) are often shunned.

The DeLorean community is probably one of the most established neo-classical-preservist car groups out there, and this original owner is no exception. He doesn’t want to mess with the stainless or the body work in any way.


Fair enough… wheels, exhaust (hoping to get more power out of the anemic 130hp PRV engine), front air dam and rear diffuser for that “proper sports car look” and the client’s wishes all go out the window when Mark decides to wrap the car in a candy apple carbon-fiber look.

Oh, and if you’re still keeping track… this stainless bodied car is Rust Free No. 5.

It’s all sorts of … meh. But thankfully, the DeLorean can easily be converted back to stock with no noticeable indications that it has been modified. But the irony here is two-fold: 1) This is the same type of build that Mark was complaining about with respect to the Ferrari F8 as more of a “tuner build” rather than a “creative vision” and 2) The car seems completely out of sync with the rest of the season, but we come discover this is more intentional than coincidental. #thefinalbuild


Let’s Juice it Up! 

“Just keep making goofy Hot Wheels and enjoy your lives” – That’s a direct quote from my wife, reinforcing the idea of “stick to what you’re good at” and like every season of Car Masters there are some fun builds that fall right in line with that sentiment.

No rust here! Brand new Fiberglass C2 Corvette body. Rust Free Car No.6

Shawn goes after a 1981 Ford Bronco 4×4 and with it returns the classic “wheeler-dealer negotiating” style we all know well. The “$5k no $15k; NO? how’s about … here’s something entirely different…” that we’ve come accustomed to cringing at sets in motion probably one of the longest “upgrade and trade” scenarios we’ve seen yet. And it starts with taking a hot air balloon basket and combining it with a car to trade for the Bronco. Anything’s possible.

It had a little bit of rust… but nothing compared to previous builds.

With the Grape Escape guy happy; the team ends up with the ’81 Bronco which gets extended and converted to a 6×6 mobile tasting room for Whistlepig Whiskey

It wasn’t for lack of noticing all the Speedway Motors stickers and other items all over the shop, but this cemented Season 6 with the most product placement to date; but it feels more believable than “the regular clients” and is completely in line with the business they *should* be chasing. 

The IROC Camaro they build for “Dangerous Dan” to use in Demolition-Cross; Rust Free Car No.7

Dangerous Dan’s racing Camaro build (above) is what springboards the “6-Figure Pay Day” we were waiting for from this season. With Dave’s help, they were able to complete the Bronco, and pick up a 1970 Camaro SS-350 as payment (from Dan) in early stage restoration that would be used to trade for another vehicle.

Unfortunately, the Camaro SS build started off on the wrong foot, for the team and for us as the viewers. The potential new owner started leveraging his vehicle for changes in the requirements for the Camaro build, including a 454 big-block swap and other mods he values “in-kind” as a trade for a dismantled Hummer (and some spares).

Going back and forth on the 350 vs 454 engine chewed up some time, finally settling on a chat between Shawn and Constance about sourcing a big-block (for free) from Ernie, Constance’s dad. It felt completely forced and had one of those “you know you want to…” vibes.

The look on Constance’s face says it all… yuck.

All that aside, this was probably one of the worst deals to date, awkward in its …not what I had in mind. It’s different.” ending with a PSYCHE! “…this is my poker face, I love the car!whomp-whomp! 

We personally took issue with taking a “numbers matching” SS and dismissing the inherent value loss by throwing in the big-block. But!, it’s easy enough to convert it back, and the exterior mods were kept pretty subtle.

This car started as an early stage restoration – Rust Free No. 8

We have to say that we admire Mark’s tenacity to walk away from any deal he feels is going south. “Yes we get a lot of money, yes we get a lot of creativity, no we don’t get a lot of time” – Mark. 

It came with some rusty parts, but the chassis and body weren’t… and That’s No. 9

After trading off the Camaro for a Gen-1 Military Surplus HumVee (above), we start the real climb to big payday. If you’re trying to keep up, like we were, the process goes like this: Balloon > Bronco > Dangerous Dan > Camaro SS Big-Block > HumVee (ecoDiesel) > ’63 Jag XKE > $200k. Let’s gooooooo! 

In the second shadiest deal of the Season, the vision for the “rust free” collector Jag (this would have been No.10, btw) is never realized as the owner impatiently sold it (if it existed in the first place) before making the trade for the eco-friendly bio-diesel powered HumVee, thus leaving the team in a lurch. Alas, what is a poor restorer to do? #drama


Father’s Day

While all the moving and shaking is happening with the big upgrade and trade deal, Mark gets a phone call from none other than…. Nick Smith!

“Don’t go away mad, just go away” was the tone of their last encounter, leaving the door open for future projects *IF* they could play mixologist and bring all their creative juices together in a cocktail of profit. Nick doesn’t surprise nor disappoint, and comes to the table with a 1979 Ferrari 308.

Not a spec of rust on it! Car No. 10

This car is apparently the catalyst that Mark needed to realize a lingering thought that’s been nagging him for apparently “quite some time.” I know… what about “Nostalgia Builds!” Mark’s epiphany allows him to capitalize on people’s need to relive their youth, living out the fantasies they’ve seen in TV and movies.

Lots of cars come to mind when you open this Pandora’s box: Ecto-1, Robin 1, K.I.T.T., The BTTF Time Machine, The Munster Mobile, The Fall Guy Truck, Black Beauty, The Nautilus and so many others. But how is Mark going to pull off *buying* another Ferrari? 

It started out rusty in another season, so it doesn’t count!

Turns out that the ’57 Kenworth that we haven’t seen since Season 4 has been locked up in storage in yet another Gotham Garage facility and Mark has been “secretly” working on it in his spare time. The plan for this semi-truck has been uncertain since the day he acquired it, outside of the notion that he wants to pay tribute to his father (seen above) and his trucking days. We always enjoy the moments when family has been brought onto the set (ie: Caveman’s Mom), it humanizes an otherwise standard RUSToration formula.

“If you love something let it go” is an old proverb, and has many ways of being interpreted, but in dollars and cents, Mark had to make the tough choice to unload his Kenworth to be able to afford the $60-70k for the 308 and begin his “Nostalgia Builds” effort.

This leads to an inevitable phone call to Nick and even more drama around the shop when  when Nick shows up to deliver the Ferrari. We thought Shawn was going to quit on the spot, expecting a confessional with complaints about disloyalty and disrespect. That didn’t happen, but there was no scripting his anger or disappointment, it was splayed right across his face.


Magnum’s, I mean, Bond’s, I mean… Inspector Gadget’s 308. 

The final build of Season 6 culminates in Mark’s first “Nostalgia Build” (ahem… did we mention the DeLorean earlier?). Mark wants to pay tribute to Tom Selleck’s iconic Ferrari 308 from the hit ’80s TV series MAGNUM P.I.

But wait… there’s more.

Magnum’s Ferrari isn’t a tall order: paint and/or wrap the car Ferrari Rosso, add a ROBIN 1 vanity plate and voila, you’re done! But since this car is for a surprise birthday gift for “the man who has all his toys” (except a 308) his wife commissions them to add gizmos and gadgets akin to James Bond to the car, oh and… some Italian racing heritage stuff too! (whatever that means).

We talk in detail about this 308 conversion in the Break/Fix & Ferrari Marketplace Podcast crossover episode mentioned earlier in this review, so tune back in for the rest of the details of this build. But from draft to execution, here’s how the 308 turned out (below).

Could it have been better? Sure. I can hear my wife’s words even now “I want to hate it; but it’s hard to.” Maybe I’m not as kind, or slightly more jaded, as more of a car enthusiast than her. That said, I don’t love it, nor do I hate it. There’s good with the bad, and a striking resemblance to a second generation Toyota MR2 when you catch it at the right angle. 

Once you realize the Ferrari is a similar restomod, you can’t un-see this Corvette.

As much as Mark was given carte blanche to do what he wanted with the car, I feel as though we’d seen this mod before, and I was again taken back to Season 4 and the Mako Shark C3 Corvette (above). That back fender though… Oof. Feels unfinished. More on that in the podcast episode


Final Thoughts

In the end, the Ferrari netted them a $123k pay day (including an $18K bonus for all the spy gadgets), so not exactly the $200k that the Jag would have pulled in, not even close.

But now more determined that ever, Mark is going to double down on “Nostalgia Builds” and has already put into motion two builds: The Nautilus from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a 1966 Imperial Crown that will be turned into his version of Black Beauty from The Green Hornet. And if Mark’s goal is to become the new George Barris – famous for creating Hollywood icons like the original Batmobile and countless others – then we support him. He’s got the talent, the team, and past precedent in his portfolio (ie: Speed Racer Mach V, Splittin’ Image and others) that proves he’s got what it takes to excel in this specific genre of restomodded cars. 

Ok… this one, *HAS* to have some rust … Tune in next season to find out!

Thinking about some of the reactions my wife had to the season like I think they’ve tamped down their tackier instincts this season” and there was “One Chinese food joke too many…” the charm and appeal of the show is lasting, nothing for us there has changed. We wish the team the best of luck, and look forward to a speedy Season 7 (coming 2025?).

And if you happen upon this series of articles (Mark, Tony, Caveman, Constance… heck, even Shawn) we’d love to have you featured on an episode of Break/Fix Podcast sometime soon. Until then, Merry Motoring. 


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Racing Superstitions: Peanuts, Green Cars, and the Ghosts of Speed

From cracked sidewalks to cursed helmets, the world of motorsports is steeped in superstition. In this riveting episode of the The Logbook, Al Isselhard takes us on a whirlwind tour through the bizarre, the tragic, and the oddly charming beliefs that have haunted racers for over a century.

This unfortunate car features both #13 and a Black Cat; photo courtesy Al Isselhard

It all began in 1911 at the Syracuse Fairgrounds, where a green race car driven by Lee Oldfield crashed into a crowd, killing 11 spectators. That moment may have birthed the superstition that green cars are bad luck – a belief reinforced by Gaston Chevrolet’s fatal crash in a green Frontenac just months after winning the Indy 500 in the same car.

Even NASCAR legend Joe Weatherly refused to race if he qualified 13th – unless it was relabeled “12A.” He once demanded green paint be ground off his car, not just covered. And Roberto Guerrero’s green Indy car spun out before the 1992 race even began, cementing the color’s cursed reputation.

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Fear of the number 13 – triskaidekaphobia – runs deep in racing. Some drivers avoid multiples of 13, while others steer clear of numbers that look the same upside down. Michael Schumacher preferred odd numbers and even requested a switch from #4 to #3 when racing for Mercedes. Danica Patrick, however, defied the odds, racing with #13 and a green car thanks to her sponsor GoDaddy.

Spotlight

Al Isselhard is a retired mechanical designer of test equipment for Eastman Kodak Co. and has enjoyed the automobile world in several capacities. He is a big supermodified race fan, collector of tired British sports cars, serious but non-professional race photographer, past crew member on a SCCA race team, race memorabilia and petrolania collector, retired road rallyist and a supporter of the IMRRC.

Synopsis

 

Follow along using the video version of the Slide Deck from this Presentation

Transcript

[00:00:00] Breakfix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.

Auto Racing Superstitions and Bizarre Events by Alan Eiselhardt. Superstitions, both good and evil, common and rare, affect all classes of people and their place in life and have been passed along generation after generation. Auto racing, from its very beginning, is not immune from superstitions, many of which can be described as bizarre and are present in today’s auto racing world.

Alan Eiselhard is a retired mechanical designer of test equipment for Eastman Kodak Company and has enjoyed the automobile world in several capacities. He is a big super modified race fan, collector of British sports cars, Serious but non professional race photographer, past crew member on an SCCA race team, race memorabilia and petroliana collector, retired road rallyist, and a supporter of the [00:01:00] IMRRC.

Kind of an interesting one. Auto racing superstitions and bizarre events. Alan Isselhard, your program. Just take it away. Good morning, everyone. I’m going to be talking about superstitions, bizarre events, good and bad luck, and some rituals. And I’d like to begin by sharing a brief dictionary definition of the word superstition.

Superstition, per Webster Dictionary. Beliefs or practices resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic, or chance. Now if I were to go around the room and ask everyone in the room to tell me what racing superstition they hear most often, and I guess it’s Green race cars, or possibly it could be the number 13.

You don’t want number 13 on your race car. And the third choice is peanuts. And I, I wondered where did these superstitions develop? How did they happen? So I started to do a little bit of research on those three items. Racing’s [00:02:00] green superstition, I believe, may have started right here. In Central New York at the Syracuse Fairgrounds on the One Mile Dirt Oval Racetrack.

On September 16, 1911, a huge crowd of spectators witnessed one of the worst auto racing accidents in American history. It occurred at the Syracuse Fairgrounds when 11 race fans were killed. And ten others were injured when driver Lee Oldfield, his green NAX race car, number 11, blew a tire during the race and careened into the Turn 2 infield and plowed through a light fence into a group of spectators.

Oldfield was thrown from the car, but only received minor injuries. Oldfield later said he believed That he was the source of green superstitions and racing. If the Syracuse wreck was considered the beginning of green car superstitions, it got stronger in [00:03:00] later years. Gaston Chevrolet, a race driver and younger brother of Chevrolet motor car company, co founder Lewis Chevrolet, competed in a race on November 25th, 1920 at the Beverly Hills Speedway, a board track in California.

Gaston Chevrolet lost his life when his green Frontenac race car crashed into the Duesenberg driven by Eddie O’Donnell and his riding mechanic, Lyle Jowles. All three people lost their lives in that accident. Scant months earlier, Chevrolet had won the Indianapolis 500 in that very same car. By the way, it’s interesting to note that the color green was very much an evidence.

Early at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for many years, most of the seats were painted green. The original shop garage doors were painted green and white. And the races, of course, were started with a, uh, green flag, green and racing peaked between the 1920s and the, uh, [00:04:00] 1950s where the superstition really became prominent NASCAR’s, Joe Werley was superstitious of everything, particularly the color green and the number 13.

Joe Weatherly once refused to start a NASCAR race because he qualified 13th. Until he encouraged the promoter he qualified in 12A position. They used to carry his race car in the back of a open flatbed trailer. Joe and his team owner, Bud Moore, were eating inside a little green mom and pop roadside restaurant when a green vehicle backed into the race car, leaving a little green paint on it.

Bud said, we’ll paint over it. Joe said, no, you’re not going to do that, you’re going to grind that out. So he said, if you paint over it, it’s still there. Weatherly was killed in 1964 at Riverside, California, with two 50 bills in a shirt pocket. The superstition now exists that 50 bills should be avoided at racetracks on race days.[00:05:00]

Many people remember Indy driver Roberto Guerrero winning the pole position for the 1992 Indy 500 and then spinning his green Lola Buick on the second parade lap just before the start, taking himself out of the race and somewhat embarrassed. In 1993, Jeff Andretti drove the same car, again in green livery, and crashed.

Guerrero drove the exact same car in 1994, again sporting a green livery, crashed, and finished last. The green superstition hung around until the 1980s when racing sponsors products were green oriented and green non superstitious money was welcomed by the race teams and tracks. This is a car that raced at Oswego Speedway this summer.

It’s a NASCAR Whelan asphalt modified car number 59 driven by Andy Jankowiak. I don’t think I’ve seen a greener car anywhere. On a racetrack, and I stopped and introduced myself and he got a kick out of what I was trying to do [00:06:00] with accumulating information for this talk, but when you see a pack of cars go around at the beginning of a race, and you see a green car like this, it stands out very easily.

Triskaidekaphobia. That is fear of the number 13. Some drivers are so nervous about the number 13 that they are reluctant to use multiples of 13, like number 26, 39, and so forth. They’re considered unlucky by some teams. Widespread circle track superstition was never having a car number that could be read upside down.

According to superstition, the five luckiest numbers are 3, 77. However, these numbers may not be considered lucky by all cultures. In Italy, the number 17 is considered unlucky. In China and Japan, number 4 is supposedly unlucky. And they say number four in Chinese sounds very similar to the word death. The use of the number 13 on a race [00:07:00] car from 1926 Indy to 2002 was officially disallowed by the rules.

Danica Patrick, she raced with the car number 13 and she didn’t mind green either. Because her sponsor, the GoDaddy computer people, that’s their color. And if they’re paying the bill, they’re gonna see that color on the car and her driver’s suit. As a seven time world champion, most people assume that Michael Schumacher was a driver certain of his skills, but he too believed in a few superstitions.

The first and most well known of these was his penchant for odd race car numbers. This came to the fore in 2010 when he returned to Formula One racing with Mercedes. Initially, he was allotted the number four with teammate Nico Rosberg getting the number three. Schumacher immediately asked for the numbers to be switched.

It was initially thought that this was part of the mind games he was known to play to gain advantage over Rosberg, but it turned out to be just a superstition. [00:08:00] Schumacher had won all seven of his world championships while driving a car with an odd number. Another quirk he had was to carry an amulet, a good luck charm, with him during the races that had the initials of his family members.

Peanuts! Peanuts are known to be superstitious at auto races. Actually, it’s not the peanut itself that’s the problem. It’s really peanut shells that are problematic. The superstitious issue started when the pit area at some track was behind the grandstands, maybe to be in the shade. And then when spectators broke their peanuts, they tossed the shells underneath the stands.

Some of them went in the carburetors. That caused major engine failures. Drivers and crew repulsed peanuts for their unlucky reputation, and at some tracks, deliberately refused selling peanuts at concession stands. In years past, peanuts were not sold at the Indy 500 concession stands due to their superstitious notoriety.

Drivers just hated to see peanut shells around their cars, and [00:09:00] they caused major problems. Hard to believe, but there were competitors that deliberately scattered peanuts around their competitors just to shake them up before the race. On September 27th, 1937, AAA sanctioned a 100 mile championship race held in Nashville, Tennessee.

A young mechanic, Mack, was walking through the pit area eating peanuts. and ridiculing his friend about how anyone could fall prey to the foolish superstition surrounding peanuts in racing. Mack sought to prove how outrageous this peanut fallacy was and deliberately broke peanut shells over the first five race cars in line for the feature race.

Ted Horn was among them, as well as Duke Nalon, Howdy Cox, Vern Orendoff, and Chet Gardner. Howdy Cox was leading the race, as Nalon attempted to overtake him, but having extreme difficulty seeing through the heavy dust on the back straight. Suddenly, a tremendous crash occurred and spectators witnessed racers flipping end over end.

This horrible [00:10:00] debacle left Ted Horn in critical condition. His race car was destroyed. Nalon and Orendeff were seriously injured, Gardner slightly hurt, and Howdy Cox, the leader, was dead. The five cars sprinkled with peanut shells were the five cars in this dreadful crash. Peanut superstition was magnified exponentially after this ghastly incident.

NASCAR’s Robert Yates found out that peanuts were sold from a vending machine in his shop, and upon discovering this, had the peanuts removed. Beginning with the first Indy 500 in 1911 and until 1957, a panoramic photo was taken of all drivers and officials on the main straightaway just before the 500.

The camera and photographer were located on the back of a flatbed farm truck. Superstitious drivers not wanting to be photographed just before the start of the race simply didn’t line up and pose for the photo and weren’t included by their own choice. Some drivers were superstitious about having their photo taken [00:11:00] just prior to a race because many thought so often those photos were included in the newspaper the next day with the caption, last photo taken of.

Not shaving before a race is still a big superstition today, a common ritual. This superstition started about 1936 when sprint car driver George Doc McKenzie was killed in a crash just after shaving his beard before a race on August 23, 1936 at the Wisconsin State Fair. Bobby Isaac, 1972 NASCAR champ, dropped out of the 1973 Talladega 500 mid race in an impulsive decision which surprised his pit crew and team owner.

He suddenly pulled into the pits, got out of the race car, and that was it for him for the day. When questioned why he dropped out, Isaac said, he heard a voice that told him to quit racing or he would die. He did not participate in any further 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup races after Talladega. The late Davy Ellison claimed he would be awakened by strange [00:12:00] noises when staying overnight at the Talladega track.

Also on the weekend of a race, Ellison would watch a movie. If he ran well that weekend, the same movie would be watched the next weekend. And of course, Ellison was killed at Talladega in the crash of a helicopter that he was piloting. Giuseppe Farina was the winner of the first Formula One World Championship race in 1950 for Alfa Romeo at Silverstone.

Farina had a medallion of the Madonna della Conciliata, which he always wore, to the extent that when he forgot it at the Dutch Grand Prix in 1953, he dashed off to the hotel so he could get it and nearly missed the start of the race. John Force. Would not climb into his Castrol racer without at least one St.

Christopher medal, and sometimes two. And he isn’t the only driver to carry a St. Christopher medal during a race. Formula One world champ driver, Alan Jones, won the Formula One title in Canada, but only after the last minute delivery of his special luck charm, a pair [00:13:00] of red underpants. Jones admitted being superstitious and felt uneasy because he thought he had lost them.

He contacted his wife in England, she found them, and sent them to Canada by Special Express. Retired driver, David Cuthard, always steps into his race car with his right foot first. From the left side of the car. Cotard also felt he owned a pair of lucky underpants, which he wore in every race. After crashing heavily once, his driver’s suit and underpants needed to be removed by cutting them off.

When his mother found out, he wore five year old, well used underwear with holes. She forbade him to continue doing this. He complied, but he still took the old underwear with him to the races for good luck. Retired driver from Italy, Stefano Modena, had a strange superstition. If he was in the race car and anyone touched him before leaving the pits to start a race, he would get out of the car and then get back in.

Alberto Ascari, a two time 1950 world champion, had a [00:14:00] favorite blue helmet, which he would not allow anyone to touch. He made an exception after his crash at Monte Carlo in 1955, tossing him into the harbor. His helmet needed repair and was in the shop when, at Monza, Ascari was killed when testing a car wearing his friend Ferrari teammate Eugenio Castelletti’s white helmet.

After Jim Clark had two spins, uh, at Indy in 1996, he said the helmet he was wearing was bad luck and he disposed of it. Retired superstitious Formula One driver Alexander Wurst said he wouldn’t sleep in a hotel room with his feet facing the door. He also wore different colored racing shoes on each foot.

Red on the left, blue on the right, for good luck. Karl Kieckhafer, a 1950s two time NASCAR championship car owner and Mercury’s boat motor manufacturer, wouldn’t let his drivers or crew sleep with their spouses the night before a race. Shaking hands just before a race is another superstition. This is among the most [00:15:00] common of superstitions, by shaking hands or not shaking hands, I’m not sure which is more superstitious.

I’ve read that A. J. Foyt always wrapped a rubber band around his gear shift lever. He once said, it’s a habit I’ve had for nearly 50 years, in both race and street cars. While I don’t consider myself superstition, I figure it doesn’t hurt. Most drivers visit Troth, just prior to the race. One southern driver admits always using the urinal farthest to the left.

as it represents the pole position. If that urinal isn’t available, he waits till it’s free. Jacques Villeneuve, a retired Formula One driver, wouldn’t remove his helmet when relieving himself just before a race. Many drivers have superstitions about who buckles them into a race car. In his book, My Speed Was Life, the famous German race manager for the Mercedes Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955, Alfred Neubauer recalled, I’ve known very few race [00:16:00] drivers who did not suffer from superstition in one form or another.

Sterling Moss once explained, Most of the drivers I know are pretty superstitious. Maybe their reasons are the same as mine, that it costs nothing, and therefore you might just as well be superstitious as not. I always carried a gold horseshoe on a chain around my neck, given to me by my sister, and I always tried to wear it the right way up to keep the good luck in it.

Tazio Nuvolari wore a golden tortoise charm with the letter N on its back, a present from the famous Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. Following an Irish superstition, Dale Earnhardt Sr. will leave a building walking out the same door he walked in. Wessa Miller was a handicapped child who loved watching NASCAR on TV.

She wanted to meet Dale Earnhardt Sr. and through a Make A Wish Foundation, she attended the 1998 Daytona 500. And met Earnhardt. Miller had a special gift for Earnhardt and she believed that it would help give him a little [00:17:00] luck. The gift was a penny that she had rubbed for good luck. Following their meeting, Earnhardt found some glue and glued the penny to the dashboard of his race car.

He won the Daytona 500 that day. Earnhardt tried to keep the penny, but the penny ultimately stayed with the race car where it remains to this day in the Richard Childress Racing Museum. Ted Horn was one of the most obsessively superstitious drivers. Horn would not allow race fans to pose with him for a photo before the race.

Horne felt announcing your retirement as a driver before actually doing it was also one of the taboos. Horne admitted that if he found money at a track, it accompanied him in the race car. He found a dime at Arlington, Texas and put it in a shoe before the race started. He won the race and the championship that day.

When he was killed at Duquesne, Illinois in 1948, a dime was found in his left boot. Ted Horne’s Indianapolis 500 record is unequaled for consistency. He finished fourth, or better, [00:18:00] in nine straight Indy 500 races beginning in 1936, but never won the 500. Ted Horn and fellow driver Bill Holland were good friends.

Holland proceeded to win the 1949 Indianapolis 500, and following victory, Holland disclosed that he carried with him during the race the exact same 10 cent piece Ted Horn carried with him when he was killed at Duquesne. Ted Horn’s car, by the way, it broke a right front spindle. The car flipped and he was, he died from injuries.

Ted Horn ignored numerous superstitions the day he was killed. That morning, his wife noted the dress she expected to wear was soiled, and her other dress was green. Horn accepted her wearing the green dress. Also unusual was the fact that she and their child parked in the pit area next to his race car.

Another custom considered unlucky. He reportedly shaved that morning. Again, challenging superstition. One of the most bizarre racing stories relates to the late Formula One driver, Albert François Sivert, who won [00:19:00] his first ever Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1971. Sivert, a French racing driver who was killed at Watkins Glen on October 6th.

1973, driving a Torell Cosworth Ford, was trying to qualify for the Grand Prix that year, and he was a teammate of world championship driver Jackie Stewart. Sivert had a long time relationship with an attractive woman by the name of Nanou Van Melderen. Five years to her meeting, Sivert, the young woman went with her mother to see a clairvoyant, the mother being the one seeking advice.

But during this meeting, the foreteller told Nanoo that she would meet a young man with blue eyes near the sea. In 1964, she met blue eyed Sivert at Saint Tropez in the Caribbean. Two years later, Nanoo decided to pay the clairvoyant another visit, seeking advice about her future. She brought with her a photo of Sivert, but didn’t tell the clairvoyant anything about him.

The seer studied this photo for a [00:20:00] long time and said he was a person that had an association with a strange machine. Nanoo told the clairvoyant that Sivert wanted to be a race driver. The clairvoyant told the young woman that Sivert would have a brilliant career in racing, but his success would come between them.

She commenced to tell Nanoo that the handsome race driver would not live to see his 30th birthday. Later that evening, Nanoo told Sivert about this exchange. Sivert later insisted on seeing the old clairvoyant woman. Which he did. The clairvoyant told Severt, mostly what she’d already spelled out, and predicted the same thing about his future.

That Francois would not see the beginning of his 30th year. Of course, you know what happened, right over here on the S’s. After Severt was killed, Danu again visited the clairvoyant, and again took a photo of Severt for her to see, except that this photo was Severt as a young child. After studying the photo for a long time, she made this shocking statement.

He is dead. Just as the clairvoyant predicted, Severit left this world before his 30th [00:21:00] birthday. Well that’s the end of my comments. If anybody has a question or a comment, now is the time. I thought it was great, Alan. A lot of things I had not aware of. Okay, hang on. You’re drawing from so many different places.

How did you go about researching this topic and locating information on this theme? I was lucky to have several people give me stuff because I had appealed for that. I had one bitter disappointment though. I copied flyers asking race drivers to help me with this. And I passed out dozens of these at Oswego Speedway and I didn’t get one call from a race driver.

What they’re paying attention to in their life. But that’s, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, as far as researching the material, I called old magazines. In some cases, auto racing books in the index said superstition and it would direct you right to the page. The internet was a big help, of course. And there were a number of articles written about superstitions.

You bring up the superstition about announcing retirement. [00:22:00] Before actually retiring and didn’t Stewart before that race, cause it was supposed to be his hundredth race, announce his retirement from the sport before Sever died. Oh, he didn’t. That’s right. I couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but it’s, it’s an interesting thought that Stewart was going to retire and then Severe died.

Right. Stewart, Stewart was supposed to retire on the weekend that Severe got killed here. It was going to be his 100th Formula One race. Of course, he never got to drive that 100th race because the Torell team pulled out of the weekend after the death of Severe. This is terrific stuff. I’ll have to turn my back to you.

Maybe it’s a superstition, I don’t know. I’m not going there. So it’s good to see you. Do you think drivers are more superstitious than other athletes, and how come? I understand that baseball players are also very superstitious, and I can’t say any other sport, because I really don’t pay too much attention to other than auto racing.

Women were not [00:23:00] allowed in the pits in oval racing up till… Not all that long ago, was there a superstition about women? Yeah, there was. That’s why they weren’t allowed into the pits. One year, many years ago, I went to Oswego with my wife. I said, well, I’ll treat you to a pit pass and we’ll get there a little early and we can walk in the pits and see the cars and drivers close up.

She went to where the pit passes are sold, which I’m sure you know about. And they kind of laughed and said, we’re not selling you a pit pass because you’re a woman. Well, she didn’t like that one bit. There was a police officer at the track that day, and she went right over to him, and she said, They won’t sell me a pit pass, and I think that’s discriminatory.

And this police officer didn’t want to hear that at all, but it didn’t do any good. But I think he did go ask somebody, and the excuse that was given was, There’s no ladies room in the pits.

The, uh, thing with the photograph before the race, I read somewhere that it goes to the Red Baron or something like that. He had his photograph taken before his last mission where he [00:24:00] was shot down. And that might have had something to do with not having your photograph taken before a race and stuff like that.

And the one with the green with the car. I read somewhere one time that someone would say it was started because some of the tracks like, say, Terre Haute or Williams Grove or something like that, they’re all like, they had green infield and drivers would be going and they’d see green out of the side of their eye, figuring it was the grass, but it was a green car and collided with that car or something like that.

So I don’t know how true that all is, but could happen. I guess anybody else? Last chance. Well, by the way, let me warn you something. When you go out of this building tonight, There’s a cracked sidewalk. Don’t step on that crack.

Thank you, Alan. That was great. Really interesting. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series. The center’s [00:25:00] collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.

The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events. To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives.

org. This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers. Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard as well as to broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the future.

For more information about the SAH, visit www. autohistory. org.

We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought to [00:26:00] you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.

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Peanut shells are another taboo. Legend has it that shells tossed under grandstands ended up in carburetors, causing engine failures. In 1937, a mechanic named Mack mocked the superstition by sprinkling peanut shells on five race cars. All five were involved in a horrific crash that killed Howdy Cox and critically injured others. Since then, peanuts have been banned from many tracks, including the Indy 500.


Rituals, Charms, and Quirks

Drivers have long clung to personal rituals:

  • John Force and Alan Jones carried religious medals and lucky underwear.
  • David Coulthard wore hole-ridden underpants until his mother intervened—he still brought them to races.
  • Stefano Modena would exit and re-enter his car if touched before a race.
  • Alberto Ascari refused to race without his blue helmet—until the day he died wearing someone else’s.
  • Alexander Wurz slept only with his feet away from the door and wore mismatched shoes for luck.

Even urinal choice matters. One southern driver always used the far-left stall, symbolizing pole position.

Perhaps the most chilling tale is that of François Cevert. A clairvoyant told his partner, Nanoo Van Melderen, that Cevert would die before his 30th birthday. He did – at Watkins Glen in 1973. The same clairvoyant later confirmed his death by studying a childhood photo.

Ted Horn was deeply superstitious. He carried found coins into races, including a dime that was discovered in his boot after his fatal crash. That same dime was carried by Bill Holland when he won the 1949 Indy 500.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. glued a lucky penny from a young fan to his dashboard before winning the 1998 Daytona 500. That penny remains in the Richard Childress Racing Museum.


Superstition or Strategy?

As Stirling Moss once said, “It costs nothing, and therefore you might just as well be superstitious as not.” Whether it’s avoiding green paint or wearing red underwear, these rituals offer comfort in a sport where control is fleeting and danger is constant.

This episode is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family – and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.


Other episodes you might enjoy

Michael R. Argetsinger Symposium on International Motor Racing History

The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), partnering with the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), presents the annual Michael R. Argetsinger Symposium on International Motor Racing History. The Symposium established itself as a unique and respected scholarly forum and has gained a growing audience of students and enthusiasts. It provides an opportunity for scholars, researchers and writers to present their work related to the history of automotive competition and the cultural impact of motor racing. Papers are presented by faculty members, graduate students and independent researchers.The history of international automotive competition falls within several realms, all of which are welcomed as topics for presentations, including, but not limited to: sports history, cultural studies, public history, political history, the history of technology, sports geography and gender studies, as well as archival studies.

The symposium is named in honor of Michael R. Argetsinger (1944-2015), an award-winning motorsports author and longtime member of the Center's Governing Council. Michael's work on motorsports includes:
  • Walt Hansgen: His Life and the History of Post-war American Road Racing (2006)
  • Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed (2009)
  • Formula One at Watkins Glen: 20 Years of the United States Grand Prix, 1961-1980 (2011)
  • An American Racer: Bobby Marshman and the Indianapolis 500 (2019)

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B/F: The Drive Thru #50

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The episode ‘The Drive Thru’ celebrates its 50th installment, featuring a Halloween-themed approach. Sponsored by various automotive-related organizations, the episode presents a mix of automotive, motorsport, and car-adjacent news. Topics discussed include a humorous and detailed comparison between a Ford F-150 and a Tesla Cybertruck, updates on the latest automotive releases, reviews, and news of rich people’s extravagant exploits and industry shake-ups. Furthermore, the episode explores advanced automotive technologies, Formula One updates, insolvency news from Hoonigan, and the introduction of nostalgic vehicle designs. Concluding with announcements on motorsport event schedules, special symposiums, and charity sweeps, the episode encapsulates a blend of humor, in-depth automotive commentary, and timely updates.

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

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Its seems like just yesterday - well, it was mid-2020 - when Break/Fix Podcast was launched and Crew Chief Brad was roaming the halls of the office saying "does anyone actually care what we have to say?" Well... we're still here, sharing cool careers, awesome people's stories, along with unusual and inspiring histories from all over the Autosphere. From wrench turners to artists, authors, racers, designers and everyone in between. The road to success is paved by all of us. If you haven't listened to one of the 400 episodes available on the network, tune in today everwhere podcasts are streamed, downloaded or listened to. Search "Break/Fix" or "Gran Touring" - Here's to 400 more! ... because Without YOU, none of this would be possible. #everyonehasastory. ... [READ MORE]

**All photos and articles are dynamically aggregated from the source; click on the image or link to be taken to the original article. GTM makes no claims to this material and is not responsible for any claims made by the original authors, publishers or their sponsoring organizations. All rights to original content remain with authors/publishers.


Automotive, EV & Car-Adjacent News

For a list of all the articles and events referenced on this episode check out the show notes below.

EVs & Concepts

Understanding Porsche's New Six Stroke Engine Patent

Formula One

Japanese & JDM

These Hyundai Sante Fe wheels are absolutely inspired

Lowered Expectations

Motorsports

Rich People Thangs!

Stellantis

Tesla

The French Connection

Virtual Racing

TRANSCRIPT

Executive Producer Tania: [00:00:00] The Drive Thru is our monthly news episode and is sponsored in part by organizations like HPTEJunkie. com, CollectorCarGuide. net, Project Motoring, Garage Style Magazine, The Exotic Car Marketplace, and many others. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of The Drive Thru, look no further than www.

MotoringPodcast. net. Click about, and then advertising. Thank you again to everyone that supports the Motoring Podcast Network, Grand Touring Motorsports, our podcast, Brake Fix, and all the other services we provide.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s time to begin, you weird Halloween music.

Executive Producer Tania: This is Halloween. This is Halloween.

Crew Chief Brad: Halloween. Halloween. This is Halloween. What’s this? What’s

Executive Producer Tania: this?

Crew Chief Brad: There’s white stuff in the air. What’s this? Kidnapping Sandy Claus. Put him in a bag. Laughing everywhere.

Welcome to drive thru episode number 50. [00:01:00] This is our monthly recap where we put together a menu of automotive, motorsport, and random car adjacent news. Pull up to window number one for some automotive news. Hello?

Executive Producer Tania: Can you hear us?

Crew Chief Brad: I can hear you. I can’t see you. I’m assuming you guys are holding off until the big costume reveal.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, we thought we would do the whole episode in darkness, right? And then we could sing,

Crew Chief Brad: Hello darkness, my old friend.

Crew Chief Eric: But I don’t think our fans would enjoy the dark screen.

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t know. I’ve got a face for dark screens.

Crew Chief Eric: All right, let’s

Crew Chief Brad: see it. This is awesome.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, my man!

Crew Chief Brad: NEEE! By the way, I don’t know where you got narwhal.

Isn’t

Crew Chief Eric: it a narwhal? It’s like a unicorn. I don’t know what that is. No, it’s

Crew Chief Brad: just a unicorn. It’s just a unicorn.

Crew Chief Eric: For some reason, I had it in my head that you were a narwhal.

Crew Chief Brad: Maybe you wished I was a narwhal.

Crew Chief Eric: Woah, look at Tanya! You ready for this? This is gonna be like[00:02:00]

Eric, you’re just you. It’s like burning my I have to wear the sunglasses because I can’t stand to look at this shirt. It’s so freaking bright.

Crew Chief Brad: I wear my sunglasses at night so I can, so I can

Executive Producer Tania: watch you weave and breathe your storylines.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh my god,

Executive Producer Tania: ew.

Crew Chief Brad: I thought it was keep track of visions in my head.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, that’s like

Crew Chief Brad: another

Executive Producer Tania: verse.

Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: This is the musical episode. You are Eric circuit 2022.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m bringing back the days of SRO, man. I am a yellow flag.

Crew Chief Brad: Tanya is a snowboarder who’s trapped in Bloodborne. And I have a horn.

Crew Chief Eric: You’re a narwhal. Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Last time we talked [00:03:00] about the 5. 0, but this is the big 5. 0 for us! 50!

50 drive thru episodes. You know there are podcasts out there that don’t have 50 episodes? And we have 50 of just the drive thru. That is astounding. It’s inception. What layer are we on? Because we are a podcast inside of the podcast? Inside of the podcast, inside of the network. Goodnight.

Crew Chief Brad: What’s more impressive that we have 50 episodes of just the drive-through, or that our listenership has not changed.

Crew Chief Eric: It hasn’t gone down. It’s gone up. So that’s a good thing.

Crew Chief Brad: Adding one or two kids to the mix doesn’t count for going up. They keep listening to that d

Crew Chief Eric: and d episode of rpe. You know, I don’t know what to say. Yeah,

Crew Chief Brad: yeah. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Speaking of on repeat, we have done some Halloween episodes in the past, trying to be all spooky and drive through haunted houses in Florida and stuff like that.

You know, we gave it some thought and said, why don’t we talk about topics that I don’t know if it’s because of chat GPT or because of our computers or big brothers always listening, but topics and [00:04:00] stories that have come back to haunt us in the month of October, right off the top from last month, we were literally talking about Chrysler.

Where they were in the world no sooner did the episode publish and they’re already saying off with his head So the CEO his contract is up Carlos. He’s got open to work on his LinkedIn right now You know, it’s all good. I get it. But who wants this job? Who wants to be at the head of Stellantis right now?

Not that guy. As I dug into this a little bit more, yeah, he’s 66, he can make all the excuses about, I’m leaving for family reasons and this and that and the other.

Executive Producer Tania: Just go do something with your life.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, right. I noticed there’s been a little bit of restructuring at Stellantis over the last couple of years.

So if you kind of go back to when all this got started, and we did an episode Way back in the drive through, we talked about the Stellantis family tree and who is connected to who and second cousins and all this kind of stuff going on. And now they got this new [00:05:00] seal slide that they have on their website and I actually dug into this, make sure it wasn’t somebody just, you know, rendering it themselves.

And so they’ve actually kind of minimize the brands inside of Stellantis. What I discovered was. Ferrari was spun off. It’s now its own company. It’s got a Dutch backing and it’s kind of back in the hands of the Ferrari family and stuff like that. So they got out from underneath the talons of Fiat. So I thought that was pretty cool.

And that kind of explains why things have changed so much at Ferrari, even recently with the introduction of the F80 and some of the other cars that William’s been talking about on his show. But I had to laugh when I saw the Lancia logo. Yeah. Okay. What cars are they making? Forget that noise. But also surprising was seeing the Vauxhall logo under Stellantis.

And I’m like, when did that happen? That

Crew Chief Brad: was a GM thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, exactly. It was like GM of UK. It’s always been Vauxhall. And I’m like, wait, what? I find that kind of interesting because through Vauxhall, you’ve also got. That weird relationship with Holden. [00:06:00] So I’m wondering like, what other interesting muscle cars might Dodge end up with in the future as things progress.

And then finally, I also read an article talking about how they might, and I’m going to put big air quotes around might, Sell off Maserati, which is something we’ve been angling at for a while now. It’s like, well, what’s the point who buys Maserati’s if they sell off Maserati, who would they sell it to Ferrari got sold to a Dutch holding company.

Does Maserati go to the Chinese like a Lotus or something like that? It bothered me a bit. But interesting to see the logos that are on this slide.

Crew Chief Brad: Opal was surprising to me too, because they had ties to GM as well.

Crew Chief Eric: I’ve also heard some rumors about, is the Chrysler brand still going to be around? And so some of this stuff happens quietly in the background, like Ford and GM pulling out of Australia was a big deal and everybody made us think about it, but Opal gets sold and.

It’s sort of like if a tree falls in a forest

Executive Producer Tania: in this country,

Crew Chief Eric: who here’s that tree? No one. Yeah. Nobody cares. [00:07:00] Exactly. Coming back to haunt me. Do you guys want to hear the latest in the Pacifica saga?

Crew Chief Brad: I was wondering if we were going to get back to like things that have come back to haunt us, like personally.

Cause I was expecting to hear about the 924, uh, and then the R32, you know, and things like that.

Crew Chief Eric: As we were having the last drive through, it was talking about how the Pacifica went in for service. We were unsure if it was going to be the fourth transmission, you know, all this kind of thing. And by the grace of whatever omnipotent being you believe in, it wasn’t a transmission for a change.

It was related to the hybrid. And it was like the heating system that keeps the batteries at whatever optimal temperature. Now I will say, we had a moment the other day, I turned the car on, it hadn’t been plugged in, the battery was depleted, and it threw up the big red wrench again, and it said, service charging system.

I’m like, did somebody try to charge the van when we weren’t looking? Like I’m not even parked in a place where there’s electric chargers around. It hasn’t been charged since last night. I did the it [00:08:00] crap thing. I turned it off and I turned it back on again. All the errors went away and I kept driving and no issues there, but so far, so good, all of it was covered under warranty yet again, I can’t throw too much hate at Stellantis product, ask for max care.

Crew Chief Brad: So you’ve had the van for how long?

Crew Chief Eric: We’ve had it since 2019.

Crew Chief Brad: And how much of that time has it spent in the shop?

Crew Chief Eric: If I tally it all up, I’d say six months out of five years. It’s been in the shop

Crew Chief Brad: six months,

Crew Chief Eric: more or less.

Crew Chief Brad: So it doesn’t sound like it was six months out of five years. That’s a month every year.

That’s a lot of time for your vehicle to be down. I’ve had my truck for seven years. It’s been down one day.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, but you drive. A Toyota Tundra that has been made the same way forever. She’s driving a space shuttle.

Crew Chief Brad: I understand. We’ve had our van for one year. It’s been in the shop zero days.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. Toyota reliability.

There’s something to be said about it. But what I’m really interested in with the Pacifica is [00:09:00] I was thinking about it the other day when I was driving it. We are finally over 100, 000 miles. I feel like it’s a TMU car. And for those that don’t know the acronym TMU is true mileage unknown because when you’re in electric mode, it is clocking miles.

But those are body miles. So I don’t know how many miles the engine has on it. You know, when you sell a car, it’s like, well, how many miles on it? You assume the engine and the body match. So if it has 100, 000 miles, everything has 100, 000 miles. But realistically, the way this thing operates, the motor doesn’t run for a large portion of the time.

And so I was like, how many miles does the van actually have? So I’m thinking it might have 60% Of the miles. And that might be too much. I don’t think it’s 50 50, but I think it might be 60%. So let’s just say the van only has 60, 000 miles on the motor,

Crew Chief Brad: which would make that stat of six months in the shop.

Even worse.

Crew Chief Eric: I was waiting for you to go there.

Crew Chief Brad: Just saying. Speaking of Chrysler. Oh boy. Remember

Crew Chief Eric: they sold negative one vehicles last year.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, but then they sold another [00:10:00] dot start. First of all, why does a dealer have a brand new dot start sitting on their lot in the year of our Lord 2024?

Crew Chief Eric: See, this is why lost and found existed.

Just when you thought they were all gone. You found another one, Brad.

Crew Chief Brad: It was hand delivered to me.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s been sitting on the lot for eight years. Who wants an eight year old brand new car that isn’t a collector car?

Crew Chief Brad: I want to know what kind of loan the person got on this because they probably didn’t walk in and pay cash.

What do you think their payment is on this car? Is it like the Ford Escort? Is it like a 600 payment on a 30 year old Ford Escort?

Crew Chief Eric: Well, as much as we joke about this, and we’ve talked about this before, it brings up a really interesting conversation about if a car sits on a dealership lot for, let’s say, a year or two years, and in the case of Dodge Vipers and NSXs for like an eternity, how much does it depreciate just sitting there?

Because the dealership can’t ask Sticker For a 2016 Dodge Dart, which was, let’s say it was 25, 000 to just pick a round number. That was 25, 000 in [00:11:00] 2016. So with inflation, what is that now? Is that a 32, 000 car? It’s not worth 32, 000.

Crew Chief Brad: But at some point they hit a floor. I mean, my guess is they probably sold this car for 15.

For 15, 000. That’s my guess. Brand new eight year old car, but still zero, like very low miles. I’m sure, I’m sure nobody was test driving this thing.

Crew Chief Eric: So then that begs the question, if they were using it to, let’s say they got to run it eventually or take the battery out. I don’t know, but you can’t just let it sit there for eight years and rot in the parking lot.

Is it sold as used at that point? Because it’s got some, let’s say demo miles on it.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s not used, but it’s probably sold as a demo. If it was never titled to anybody else, it wouldn’t be.

Crew Chief Eric: And what kind of warranty do you get on a brand new eight year old car? Like how does that? Well, you just told

Crew Chief Brad: everybody on any Solantis product, you get the max care warranty.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s true.

Crew Chief Brad: They probably got the max care warranty thrown in. Would you want

Crew Chief Eric: a brand new Dodge Dart today?

Crew Chief Brad: I’ve never wanted a Dodge Dart brand new or otherwise. They’re not that bad. I mean, they’re better than the

Crew Chief Eric: Chrysler 200s. Neon [00:12:00] derivatives in some respects. The 200 and the, uh, Dodge Dart work. Alfa Romeo, I forget what chassis they were built on, but I rode in a couple.

They weren’t that bad. They weren’t that good either. But anyway, talking about topics that have come back to haunt us, remember we were chatting a while ago about California and how they want to always keep up with the Joneses. Well, they wanted to keep up with European regulations to limit speed.

They’ve actually passed their first bill in what I would assume is a series of bills yet to come. And I thought this ironic because the headline reads, how California plans to stop you from speeding 10 miles over the speed limit. Isn’t one mile over the limit speeding like by the law? Why do we have this like, well, 55, but it’s okay to do 65, obviously, they’re going to use GPS and electronics and all this stuff to limit you based on whatever the speed limit is just like your garment.

It beeps at you like we’ve talked about. Right? But now it’s law that it’s going to come into effect at [00:13:00] 2030 that vehicles are going to start having this type of nanny. Built into their electronic systems to limit you from speeding.

Executive Producer Tania: And it’s not limiting you. All it is is flashing a warning on your dashboard telling you you’ve exceeded 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, which would have to mean that your dashboard is connected to GPS to know what the speed limit on a road is.

Crew Chief Brad: GPS and a front facing camera is what this says here. But you know what’s funny? My very first 2001 Volkswagen, you could set a speed limit warning for other drivers and when anybody went over that speed limit, it would flash the dash doesn’t match the speed limit, but whenever the car went over a certain number, it would let the driver know.

Hey, don’t do this. So this is not new technology.

Executive Producer Tania: You can also turn it off, I think.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, obviously you can turn it off, but it’s

Crew Chief Eric: really a law to institute a nanny that the manufacturers must comply with, but the rest of us can just ignore it and go about

Executive Producer Tania: it. Well, the real question is. What does this lead to?

It’s almost like a gateway law. It’s like, you [00:14:00] crack the door open on this, and now, what does it become later? Because this isn’t, who cares? It’s like lane assist, where the car, like, shakes because it sensed you hit the paint line. It’s like, okay, whatever, I can turn that off, keep going, drive on the line all I want.

Crew Chief Brad: The first sign is it notifies you. The next sign or the next step in this evolution of notifies your insurance company. It notifies law enforcement Notifies the manufacturers to void your warranty and this that and the other and then all of a sudden nobody’s driving

Crew Chief Eric: That’s the escalation. That’s scary.

You guys took it to that extreme and I see it the other way where Okay, this system is in the car. It’s tested. It’s vetted It’s somewhat accurate and it adjusts with the road that you’re on and this and that. I’ve made the comment before, we go back to like episode 42, I think it was, is that we’re talking about the levitating eggs.

Enjoy going at the speed limit because legally all these self driving vehicles are going to have to go at the posted speed limit because then it doesn’t make sense. [00:15:00] Auto driving Tesla run at 10 mile an hour over the speed limit, they’re speeding regardless. What I think is going to happen is, to your point Tanya, if this is a gateway, Once it’s tied into the MFI system and the MFI talks to the EFI.

Why inform the insurance company? Why notify the police? That’s all extra work and it’s gonna take too long to even enforce it because they gotta dispatch and this and that and

Executive Producer Tania: no, they don’t have to dispatch it. Mail you a ticket, .

Crew Chief Eric: That’s just it. But what’s to stop them from just. Slowing the car down, especially now that we have electric brakes.

We have electric this and electric

Executive Producer Tania: different than adaptive cruise control

Crew Chief Brad: But you’re insinuating that they actually care about safety when really I don’t think they care about safety. They care about revenue

Yeah, they

Crew Chief Brad: care about the speeding ticket revenue insurance company care about their revenue because they have bottom lines They gotta adhere to they’ve got a board of directors that they’ve got to line their pockets with which is why our insurance costs are So high I don’t think they care about safety.

I think they care about money and this is a money generator.

Crew Chief Eric: So the insurance company thing is always interesting because it can be [00:16:00] very divisive when you talk about insurance companies, you know, they’re when you need it canceled after you need it, you know, all those kinds of things. I often wonder it’s in the insurance company’s best interest for you not to get into an accident, not to speed, not to do not to this.

If you think about it. Because basically they’re sitting on their dirty criminal butts, collecting money, playing in the stock market or whatever they do with it, right? It’s the reality of the situation. It behooves them to make sure that you follow the laws and you never get into an accident, the cars drive themselves.

But when you get to that point, who’s liable, right? Well, we talked about that before with self driving cars. Are you really driving? If the car is self driving, it’s implied in that statement that you are not driving. The car is driving itself. So what the hell is the point of insurance? Why am I paying for it?

So it’s an interesting game. The further we look down this tunnel, when we start talking about insurance,

Crew Chief Brad: you know, this reminds me of one of the top gear specials where Jeremy Clarkson was driving the R35 GTR in Japan. And I don’t know if this was real or [00:17:00] not. But again, it’s. television entertainment, but he was saying that he could not go over a certain speed GPS, you know, electronically controlled until he got to the racetrack.

And then the GPS knew when the car was on the racetrack and it released that limiter.

Crew Chief Eric: I

Crew Chief Brad: don’t know if any of that was true, but I mean, it was part of the skit.

Crew Chief Eric: And see, that’s where my head was going. I was thinking exactly. That’s what’s going to happen on the roads where tried this trick in the seventies and eighties.

We’ll only make the gauge go to 85. So the car isn’t faster than the 85, you know, that kind of thing. But yes, with GPS, with electronics, with the MFIs, talking to the efis, what’s to stop them from just limiting the car to 55 miles an hour or whatever the speed limit is?

Executive Producer Tania: Then why are we even bothering building B eights and V sixes and all this crap?

Why don’t we just make lighter weight, lower horsepower, more fuel efficient cars, then that only go to the speed limit? ’cause I don’t need a car that can go do 120. There’s no speed limit. That’s 120

Crew Chief Eric: except for that like one highway in Montana, right where there is no speed limit. I totally agree with your point.

The horsepower [00:18:00] wars are still out there too. You know, you’ve got the new ZO six Corvette is a thousand horsepower to do what in America, it doesn’t make sense. Now, places in Europe where they’ve even started to kind of climb back. I heard about the Autobahn like, Oh, we might be putting speed limits on the Autobahn because things are out of control.

They started doing that in Italy on the Alto Strada and other places where it’s like, you know, it’s not unlimited anymore. I guess unless you’re in the middle of the United Arab Emirates or something where they got those, you know, massive highways that you could just go ballistically fast. What’s the point?

Go to the racetrack. Like Brad’s saying.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s money. It’s an ego thing. I’m going to pound my chest. I’ve got a Camaro this faster than your Mustang kind of thing. Even though the speed limits on the roads that we drive on are exactly the same and we can’t go over them. My car still makes more.

Crew Chief Eric: As the 57, 000 other ones that were made on the same assembly line that year.

Okay.

Crew Chief Brad: It doesn’t matter. My car is my car. My car is special. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me it’s not about ego and it’s not about money.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t disagree. Everything comes down to the money. Well, this next one is right [00:19:00] up Tanya’s alley. We’re still talking about nannies here. Cutting edge technology coming from Nissan.

I love this. Nissan’s latest driving assist feature encourages drivers to quit holding up the left lane.

Executive Producer Tania: I like it. Get the hell out. Move. Over!

Crew Chief Eric: On the East Coast, the slow lane is the left lane. I mean, I pass so many people in the right lane, it’s not even funny. Just kind of trundling along. I just, again, I’ve witnessed so many things, like we talked about last episode.

Driving in and out of the city for the last couple of months. There’s only so much space in the right lane.

Executive Producer Tania: So what does this do? Is this another like, Learning! Learning! You dumbass slowpoke! Get out of the left lane! Like, is that all it does?

Crew Chief Brad: So, what I’m reading here is, if the car in front of you is moving too slow, it’ll suggest that you overtake them, and then you move over, and then the car will retake control from you, because they’re pro pilot, whatever, but if you’re in that lane for too long and don’t move [00:20:00] back over, It will suggest, Hey, maybe you should move back over to the other lane.

So it’ll suggest one move and then it’ll suggest another.

Executive Producer Tania: This is so dumb. And what about that a hole that merges on and shoots four lanes across and then parks in the left lane? Is it still going to give a warning?

Crew Chief Brad: What about the driver of a certain demographic that likes to make right turns from the left lane?

In the middle of the highway, you get to their exit. Just like the speed

Crew Chief Eric: limiter that California imposed, this can be turned off or ignored.

Executive Producer Tania: Of course it can.

Crew Chief Eric: What’s the point? Just say they have it.

Executive Producer Tania: If it helps move someone out of the left lane, then I guess it’s good. It’s useless, but I don’t know. Maybe it could change behavior.

Crew Chief Brad: So I don’t usually read the comments, but this first comment here is pretty good.

Crew Chief Eric: They’re amazing.

Crew Chief Brad: Hoping ProPilot 2. 2 will have a mechanical robot arm that pops out of the headrest and smacks the driver on the side of the head after ignoring the suggestions.

Or the next one, maybe an electric cattle [00:21:00] prod in the base of the seat.

Crew Chief Brad: No, it’s going to be like that scene from Ghostbusters where every time he gets the card wrong, it zaps him. Oh, man. Nissan for the comic release.

Executive Producer Tania: I thought this was going to be an article about an indicator warning you that your bumper is falling off because every Nissan seems to not have appropriate bumper mounting.

Crew Chief Brad: I feel like Tesla needs one of those and we’ll probably talk about that later, right, Eric? Yes, we will.

Crew Chief Eric: All jokes aside, this is what Nissan is devoting its attention to? They are so screwed.

Executive Producer Tania: Why? What do they need to devote their attention to? They make one car with different names. They’ve got it down lock.

They’re good. So they have time to devote to stuff like this.

Crew Chief Brad: If only that were true, maybe they wouldn’t be in such trouble. Financially, if they just went through and did a rebranding and [00:22:00] everything was Ultima based, but instead they’ve got these other vehicles and their profits are down 70 percent year over year.

Crew Chief Eric: Has anybody yet seen a 400 Z on the road? I’ve yet to see one. I’m just saying

Crew Chief Brad: no. But I see a lot of frontiers these days. Uh, I mean, I’m sorry, Altima Sports

Crew Chief Eric: Altima Sports Altima, sports Ultima Sport Track. Yeah. There is a frightening number of Altimas on the road and old Centras,

Crew Chief Brad: but none of ’em are new.

Nobody’s buying

Crew Chief Eric: new Ultima’s

Crew Chief Brad: they’re only

Crew Chief Eric: buying used Ultima’s. Well, I did see a new one on the road the other day and I thought it was a Maxima and then it passed us and it said Ultima Platinum or something. I was like, wow, that is big. It’s gotten huge. They could have just changed the badge on the back of the Maxima too.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, but they don’t make the Maxima anymore.

Crew Chief Brad: The

Crew Chief Eric: Maxima.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, new Nissan Maxima 2025 reveal. So it’s all crap. I thought they discontinued it.

Crew Chief Brad: Somebody go to Nissan’s website and figure it out.

Executive Producer Tania: Car and Driver 2026 Nissan Maxima. [00:23:00] What we know so far. We’re not even 2025.

Crew Chief Eric: We’ve reported on this. We went the hokey pokey on this.

It is, it isn’t, it isn’t. And then there was a report that they got rid of the Maxima. Whatever, who cares. Well,

Executive Producer Tania: apparently they’re already talking about 2026. So things that come back to haunt us. The Maxima. The zombie.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, it is. It is. I’m B.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s the zombie Ultima.

Crew Chief Eric: Alright, since we’re naming Ultimas, I got a new one for you guys.

All of us saw this because we were all driving in together into the city. Traffic was stopped on the other side because we were going so slow and I couldn’t help but not look. I said, I’ll be damned. If that isn’t an Ultima being drenched by firefighters, because it was a blades on the other side of the highway.

Or thing. Immediately I turned to Jess and I said, so what do you call that one?

Crew Chief Brad: It’s a blastema.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, that’s better than what we came up with. Fire Baltimore.

Crew Chief Brad: Ball, ball to our ball. It’s just a Baltimore, Baltimore in Baltimore.

Crew Chief Eric: Couldn’t believe it. I was like, had to be an Ultima. [00:24:00] Of course, it’s an Ultima because what else is there on the road?

They

Executive Producer Tania: only make the Ultima. Everything else is a figment of your imagination. The holographic projection off an Ultima. It’s only one car. That’s why they can focus on whatever the hell that profiler thing was. I already forgot because it was that cool.

Crew Chief Eric: Complete trash. All right. Well, speaking of other enforcement and you know, last time we talked about our run ins with the law, I am the law.

Well, guess what? We had talked a bunch of drive throughs ago about how people were speeding in the District of Columbia and the district has no way. Of enforcing the speeding tickets, the red light cameras, parking tickets, whatever, because all of these folks are out of state because the DC is DC. But most of the people that are infringing upon the laws are from Maryland and Virginia and other places.

But that’s

Executive Producer Tania: such bull, I’m sorry, you get a ticket in another state, you get the ticket and you have [00:25:00] to pay it. So why is DC special?

Crew Chief Eric: No representation. That’s why it’s special.

Executive Producer Tania: Okay, because it’s crap. You get a ticket in another state, you’re paying that fine.

Crew Chief Brad: So that brings up an interesting point because obviously the DMV, Maryland, D.

C., Virginia, they’re all very close to each other and, you know, there’s a lot of interstate travel between the three. If I was a Maryland resident and I racked up a bunch of speeding tickets in Virginia, Would those show up in the Maryland DMV system?

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, there’s reciprocity.

Crew Chief Brad: So that’s the problem. DC doesn’t have an agreement with Maryland or Virginia to have reciprocity for that to happen for whatever reason,

Crew Chief Eric: because they’re not a state.

And so there’s no interstate relationship there. Think about that.

Crew Chief Brad: They’re not a state, but they still have a government. They have a mayor. They operate more like a city, I guess. Let’s not get into a discussion about DC mayors because

Executive Producer Tania: these things are surmountable. Oh, I know. I know.

Crew Chief Brad: If they’re high enough on your to do list, they are.

Crew Chief Eric: If they can make easy pass work from Maine to Florida. I mean, come on, they can make [00:26:00] this work too.

Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Let me put it in perspective. This is how bad It is in D. C. There was basically a group that got together and added up all of the outstanding tickets that were owed to the D. C. Public Works from all of the out of state tickets that were issued.

This number is staggering, folks. Eight hundred and eighty nine million dollars of unpaid tickets in the year 2022 alone,

Executive Producer Tania: almost a

Crew Chief Eric: billion,

Crew Chief Brad: 1 billion. You said a group got together and counted these. I’m picturing a group of like high school kids with little yellow slips, sitting at a table, counting them like they’re counting ballots.

Yep. Here’s one, here’s one, here’s one up. This one was paid up. Here’s one. Here’s one. I hope they had some sort of

Executive Producer Tania: scanning device that was just reading the numbers. And it

Crew Chief Eric: was all Excel spreadsheets. But the point is that it’s. Staggering amount of money, but then it ties back into this california thing We were just talking about because they [00:27:00] call it the steer act strengthening traffic enforcement education and responsibility Amendment act of 2024.

It’s very long So the steer act

Executive Producer Tania: the clever name

Crew Chief Eric: the punch line to all this is is This is kind of at the far end of this. So anyone convicted of criminal and reckless aggravated driving, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, an intelligent speed assistance system will be installed in their vehicles by the DMV, which will automatically limit their speed, that they can be traveled on the roads according to the steer act, yada, yada, yada.

Again, to your point, Tanya, this California thing coming from Europe originally, Is it gateway to stuff like this happening?

Executive Producer Tania: So I don’t mind in the sense of our laws are pathetic sometimes. That someone who drives under the influence of whatever it is, can just go back out and get in their car. So if you wanted to institute some sort of restrictive device, well, first of all, they shouldn’t be allowed to drive, but that’s not how it works, apparently.

I’d be for that kind of thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Weren’t they blowing [00:28:00] into those kazoos on their dashboard?

Executive Producer Tania: Well, there used to be those kind of interlocks where you’d like, you have to do your own breathalyzer.

Crew Chief Brad: You can’t drive unless you blow the appropriate level. For this, you need to be convicted of criminal reckless and aggravated reckless driving.

I don’t think this is going to work because I don’t think the people that are actually doing the reckless and aggravated reckless driving are going to be convicted for various reasons I care not to share on this podcast. But I feel like could be seen as targeting and police abuse of power and yada, yada, yada.

But anyway, I don’t think this is going to be effective.

Crew Chief Eric: No, of course not. So that number of 889 million is going to continue to climb because people are going to wipe their butts with these tickets.

Executive Producer Tania: This goes back to We have all these asshats running around with the historic tags on their daily driver.

Crew Chief Eric: Don’t even get me started with that.

Executive Producer Tania: Which I was observing yesterday, within about 30 [00:29:00] seconds, two cars had expired registration because One was august of 24 and the other one was like september 24 But apparently I guess maybe that’s the new thing is let me just not pay my registration Which is supposed to contact your insurance.

We’re supposed to cancel you.

Crew Chief Eric: They don’t contact your insurance if you don’t have it

Executive Producer Tania: Look at brad’s face If you get a ticket and then you don’t pay it Yeah, we don’t have time to send the lien collector against you or whatever, right? Like the tax collector to come knock on your door and collect your thing But it could tie into your insurance or even your registration and then when you go to renew What although maybe not registration renewal because people don’t do that and maybe not even insurance renewal because people probably don’t renew that either Just keep driving on expired bullshit, but it’s like you could tie it into those systems.

It’s like oh When I go to renew, guess what? My unpaid tickets are showing up. You can’t renew your stuff or your license or whatever else until all this stuff gets paid. Like, there has to be a mechanism for it. That is [00:30:00] possible in the year 2024 with artificial intelligence and computing power and all the crap that we have.

There’s no excuse for a billion dollars in unpaid tickets. I don’t understand how that gets unpaid. It’s crap. It’s all crap. No wonder people are like, look it, I’m going to do 100 through DC because I have no penalty, no consequence. Yeah, of course. It’s just bad behavior. Duh.

Crew Chief Eric: So the moral to the story is where’s the best place to do 120 miles an hour with that V8 Camaro you were talking about?

Apparently through DC.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, I hope you’ve got spare wheels lying around because as soon as you hit one of those potholes, you’re replacing it. And

Executive Producer Tania: see, this billion dollars of revenue, which is where it should go, Into the transportation budget for repaving and structural improvements to the road.

Crew Chief Brad: You know what I think?

I think the lobbyist for the intelligent speed assistance system has gotten the ear of somebody high up in DC and they’re like, we’ve got a great idea. It’s going to solve all your speeding ticket problems. We’ll run the system and [00:31:00] we’ll install them and you can pay us a fee to do it. But yeah, we’ll get your speeding tickets paid for you.

10 cents on the dollar.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s just like the conversation my wife and I have been having the last couple weeks as we watch the guy who does the rounds in the morning changing the car batteries in the speed cameras. So you’re like, how good are these batteries? How long do they last? Jokes about those things not actually working.

Executive Producer Tania: They’re not always on, because if you have radar, they go off. There used to be one. Occasionally it went off. Mostly it didn’t go off. And then they actually removed it. So I don’t know what that was all about.

Crew Chief Eric: Because it didn’t work because the batteries were dead. Well, Brad, we’re talking about billions.

And you were talking about roads in DC and how you would need a new set of wheels. Well, I got a call back. Hoonigan, you guys probably read in the news, they are in chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is restructuring, reorganization, trying to consolidate their debt. They have a projected total of 1. 8 billion dollars in debt, of which they declared [00:32:00] 1.

2 is resolvable, so there’s still like 600 million on the table. That they’re dealing with and I had to scratch my head is pretty long video. The guy that breaks it down does a pretty good job. He actually goes through as much legal paperwork as he can find stuff like that. But what I didn’t know and now begin to appreciate is the hoonigan that Ken Block started and built is not the hoonigan of today.

Although the branding is the same. It’s a umbrella for a larger company called Wheel Pros, which is backed by Clearlake Capital and this and that. So for those of you that those names don’t mean anything to you, the following names might mean something to you. Rotiform, American Racing, Fuel, TSW, Borbay, a bunch of other wheel companies.

I think there’s like 30 of them that are part of this conglomerate. And one more that hits close to home for you, Brad. They own Smittybilt. So the debt that Hoonigan has because wheel pros took on the name and then restructured everything, they have almost 2 billion in debt [00:33:00] that they’re trying to figure out how to resolve.

And more than likely. There’s going to be a thousand or more people that are basically going to be unemployed here pretty soon. So it was kind of funny when we were reading and talking about those articles about that exodus from Hoonigan within the year of Ken’s death, where people were just, we’re leaving Hoonigan, we’re done, you know, blah, blah, blah.

What we didn’t realize was all this other turmoil under the brand name that’s been going on, I guess, for quite a bit now. Obviously inside of this consolidated debt, it’s not just wheel related stuff. It’s also the factories that they bought the properties and the back taxes and the property taxes. And this is the problem with mergers and acquisitions.

You take on that company, you take on all their baggage, you take on all their debt. And now their debt is your debt. Sort of like getting married, I guess. But in that respect, I almost want to divorce the Hoonigan name from the Wheel Pros thing to not tarnish the cool memories of Gymkhana and all that other stuff that we associate with Hoonigan, [00:34:00] and this is really a Wheel Pros problem at the end of the day.

So speaking of wheels, And calling back the triple article that had come out a bunch of months ago about Ricaro and BBS in bankruptcy. Well, Fanatec was also on the brink and they got a parachute from Corsair. Another IT company. They’ve been buying up all sorts of manufacturers. You know, they make memory, they make chips, they make this, they make that.

So they bought Fanatec, they’ve rescued Fanatec and you know, they’re going to bring Fanatec back from shambles. I had a conversation with some guys in industry and I said, so what do you think about this? What do you think about Fanatec being bought by Corsair is not like a bad brand name. I think the consensus right now, at least from what I can tell, and I don’t necessarily disagree, is that the reason they were sort of falling apart is the quality had gotten worse.

If you had any exposure to the newer Fanatec stuff, It wasn’t as nice as it used to be. It wasn’t as robust as it used to be because it got super popular. They had to cut corners. They had to make things [00:35:00] cheaper, typical business stuff. So Corsair sweeps in at this point in their manufacturing lifecycle.

And so does Fanatec stay where it is, or does it slide back and become like a Logitech Thrustmaster where it’s like, it’s okay, it’s not that great. In the sim world, there’s still a ton of manufacturers out there. You start talking about Moza, you start talking about Simicube, you start talking about Asetek, and a bunch of them are still a little bit DIY in terms of fit and finish.

So I’m really curious to see what happens. The ink is still pretty wet on this new deal here, but good to see that Fanatec didn’t just get flushed down the tubes.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, I hope they go back to just making quality wheels in a limited quantity rather than trying to serve the masses and make a wheel for everybody.

I mean, that’s my big gripe with, you know, not related, but with BMW, they used to make decent products. Same with Mercedes. And then all of a sudden they started dumbing everything down to try and get a larger footprint and ended up just watering down the entire brand. So just stick to what you’re good [00:36:00] at.

Make good shit. People will pay for it. Grow that way. Don’t grow too fast, too quickly by cutting corners.

Crew Chief Eric: When I redid my rig, I invested in Moza and a lot of people were like, I don’t know, you know, this and that. And Moza now, even guys like Jimmy Broadbent are using Moza. There’s a lot of people that have Moza.

In their sims and what’s funny about it is when people actually mess with it and stop throwing shade because you know there were fan of tech fanboys or whatever they go this reminds me of the old fan of tech stuff you know rumors what they are that stuff was reverse engineered or whatever have you it is really nice quality it’s it feels like stuff that comes out of a car you know this and that and what i thought was interesting is at the same time i’m reading this article about you know fanatics back in business they got all this money from corsair to bail them out you Moses sign in a deal with Lamborghini, talk about an upward swing to your point, Brad, what happens now you start hitching your horse to these bigger wagons.

And it’s like, does it stay the same? Can they maintain the [00:37:00] quality? Or are we going to see, you know, future Moser products going down? So the auto sphere itself, it’s business, right? These games are played over and over and over again. So be curious to see what happens in the next couple of years. But Sim is not dead by any stretch of the imagination.

Not nearly the same fever. Or fire that there was during COVID where like, you couldn’t keep the stuff in stock. That’s the danger in why Fanatec ended up where it was too. The market got saturated and you’re like, well, your gear’s pretty good. It seems to last because you know, they built something tough.

You’re only going to replace it if it breaks. I wish some of the cars were like that though, but Hey, all right. Let’s switch to formula one. Let’s talk about shenanigans. What is this nonsense Verstappen is cutting his career short because of the whole cursing censorship thing.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, clickbait. He made comments of like, Oh, I don’t need to be here for this stuff, blah, blah, blah, but whatever.

Anybody really believes he’s just going to walk away? No.

Crew Chief Brad: So there has been speculation that he may be out in a year [00:38:00] or two anyway, just to go do something different, you know, with all the regulation changes in the sport over the next couple of years.

Executive Producer Tania: Didn’t he also say that there was, like, nothing else is worth it after F1?

Wasn’t he the one who said that? Where it’s like a

Crew Chief Eric: lesser form of

Executive Producer Tania: racing or something, and like, be beneath him to do anything other than F1?

Crew Chief Brad: Possibly.

Executive Producer Tania: But I mean, if he wants to stop, that’s it. Breaking news, breaking news!

Crew Chief Eric: Ricardo just signed with another team!

Executive Producer Tania: No he didn’t.

Crew Chief Eric: Psyche. FBull is out. You know, maybe Verstappen can join Ricciardo wherever he ends up next.

Executive Producer Tania: Doubtful. I don’t think he’s going anywhere. If anything, he sets himself up. If Red Bull’s going down the toilet, he’s got an excuse. Oh, I was leaving anyway. I don’t know.

Crew Chief Eric: Said it before. I’d like to see Verstappen. I’d like to see Hamilton. I’d like to see some of the other guys. Do an Alonzo, and go to Indy, or go to Lamar, or go [00:39:00] to some of these other disciplines of racing. I don’t think they’re beneath them. I just think that the boys club of Formula One is what it is, and they don’t have the same pull if they go somewhere else.

They might actually have to drive. It’s Adrian Newey’s fault. That’s all we know.

Crew Chief Brad: Which is probably where all the speculation of him retiring early is actually coming from.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Crew Chief Brad: The fact that he’s not winning anymore.

Crew Chief Eric: And there’s a whole bunch of drama around that too with him going to Aston or whatever.

I want to see how that plays out, but that really doesn’t really matter until next year. But there’s a couple other things that matter next year. We know Audi’s coming, right? They’re taking over Sauber, Stake, Alfa Romeo, whatever the hell that team is, I don’t know. The rumor, not so rumor, is that Toyota is coming back?

Well, they’re partnering with Haas. You don’t think this is the perfect exit strategy for Gene Haas? To get out of this bleeding pig.

Executive Producer Tania: If that’s true, then what’s his deal? Cause he could have handed it over to Andretti. So what’s the drama there? The American team to quote another American team, right?

Crew Chief Brad: Maybe his ego wouldn’t let him.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, [00:40:00] did anybody watch the Gunther Steiner expose where he says that him and Jean never got along to begin with and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and all this BS.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t doubt it. If you ever watched, which you haven’t, Netflix’s Drive to Survive.

Crew Chief Eric: Never gonna happen.

Executive Producer Tania: Every time there was a problem in Haas, which was like,

Crew Chief Eric: Every race.

Executive Producer Tania: He was on the phone getting like, scolded by Gene. So I don’t think the relationship was very good when every time Gene’s sitting there watching the race and another of his cars has crashed millions of dollars later. Steiner’s the one that’s gotta sit there and take that phone call. I’m pretty sure that relationship wasn’t a good one.

Crew Chief Eric: Don’t believe everything you watch on YouTube, even if it’s from the person that was there. If you look back, this is not the first time Toyota has Entered into Formula One. This was back in the early 2000s, back in the days when the U. S. Grand Prix was at Indianapolis. You had drivers like Alan McNish, Ralf Schumacher, all stars, right?

I mean, sarcasm [00:41:00] aside, Alan McNish went on to do great things for Audi at Le Mans, things like that. If you look at What Toyota did in the past, and I’m not saying they haven’t advanced in 20 years, we know Toyotas can be reliable and they can be strong and they can be fast, especially in WEC and stuff like that.

But if you chalk it up to what they did over those five years or so that they were in Formula 1, they didn’t amount to anything. It was a complete failure, which I’m actually kind of surprised Toyota is coming back after such a disgrace to use the phrase losing face. In front of the world on the formula one stage, but I’m happy to see them come back.

But on the same token, I keep saying Haas, what could go wrong? Do they really want that on their scorecard?

Executive Producer Tania: So interestingly, it says that the new agreement doesn’t include Toyota returning as an engine supplier. So there’ll be branded Toyota Gazoo racing will appear on the cars. They’re going to provide.

Design, technical, and manufacturing services, [00:42:00] while Haas will provide technical expertise. What? I’m not sure. Money.

Crew Chief Eric: That means money.

Executive Producer Tania: Basically, it’s a Toyota with Haas written on it. Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: Unlike a Honda with a Porsche crest on it. We’ll leave that where it is. So yes, Toyota’s coming back to Formula One.

They’re basically buying Haas is what’s going to be the result of this. And I see it as a tit for tat. Audi’s coming up. Toyota says we’re coming back too. It’s going to be an interesting 2025 Formula One season. Oh, very weird. I just don’t know who’s going to drive for Toyota. Verstappen. Tim

Yellow,

Crew Chief Eric: Ricardo.

Justin,

Executive Producer Tania: he’s back.

Crew Chief Brad: Ricardo and Mazepin.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh my

Executive Producer Tania: God. Don’t they already have the drivers?

Crew Chief Brad: I’m sure they do. I don’t know. I haven’t been keeping up with it.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah. I think one of the new young kids, at least, I think is going to be a driver for Haas. And I’m not sure who the second driver is.

Crew Chief Eric: So memorable.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh, you know what it is?

I think I saw this the other day. I think Ocon is going

Crew Chief Eric: to Oh, come on. That’s a recipe for [00:43:00] disaster.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, he got kicked out of, uh, Alpine.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: So I think it’s Ocon and it’s the new British kid, Beerman. Ali, they’ll be the Haas drivers because, not Magnusson. ’cause I think he’s out, basically lost his seat.

Holberg. Holgenburg. Thank you. He’s going to Audi

Crew Chief Eric: because we must have a German team with German drivers is good.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t think they’ve named the second Audi driver yet. And I think there’s been some rumors like

Crew Chief Eric: Schumacher,

Executive Producer Tania: his name has sort of surfaced again. But whether that actually comes to fruition or not, I don’t know.

I mean, there’s a couple drivers that don’t have seats, so to speak. Like, I don’t know that Botas or Joe Guanyu have anywhere to go now that Sauber’s dissolved. Does that mean they go to Audi?

Crew Chief Eric: Probably not.

Executive Producer Tania: But there’s also a number of other young drivers I guess they could pick up.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, speaking of probably not, We gotta switch gears and talk about a subject within the drive [00:44:00] thru that just continues to haunt us.

Once you think you have it under control, it’s like a bad rash, and it comes back, and it scratches, and it itches, and it smells weird, and it’s pussy, and it’s gross. It’s

Executive Producer Tania: overly dramatic. Is it really coming back to haunt you when it’s par for the course that anytime Tesla says, Something’s going to happen.

It doesn’t according to their timeline. Like, I mean, it’s not haunting at this point. It would be haunting if it actually delivered something they said, according to a schedule.

Crew Chief Eric: So what are they delayed this time? Is it the semi truck? Because we know it’s not the cyber truck that was rushed to production as we’ve already

Crew Chief Brad: touched after major delays.

It was rushed to production.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t even know what’s been happening with the Tesla semi truck, actually.

Crew Chief Brad: It doesn’t matter,

Executive Producer Tania: but no, it’s the, the roadster.

The biggest Ponzi scheme

Crew Chief Eric: in the Tesla Donation Foundation ever.

Executive Producer Tania: They need to generate those pre orders so that they can fix the Cybertruck. They gotta get the pre orders in for the Roadster and they can keep [00:45:00] dragging that out for like 10 years.

Crew Chief Eric: The only thing I can say about the Roadster is I like the way it looks. And I noticed that too on the road the other day with the Teslas. Minus the Cybertruck. The Teslas look better when they’re self driving away from you, than they do coming head on. Like from the front, they’re all like duck billed platypuses.

But the back of the Teslas are not bad looking at all. Like it’s got a nice derriere. Minus the Cybertruck.

Executive Producer Tania: Got a nice butthole.

Crew Chief Eric: Such childish nonsense. Open butthole. Yeah, I mean they look good from behind. I just wish they would fix the front. Now I have seen a couple of the remodeled Model 3s on the road.

But I’m not convinced. It’s way too angular, and then they left the back the way it was. When I saw it for the first time in person, there was a guy sitting at a traffic light, so I was walking, so I was able to really kind of like, absorb the look. At first glance, I was like, is that the new Prius? Because the Prius has that kind of angular with the drawn out lights.

And then I went, oh no, that’s [00:46:00] the new Model 3. And so, I don’t know, they’re doing something funny with the design there. It’s better, but worse, but better. I don’t know how to describe it. But the Roadster’s cool. I gotta bring this up. And I said we were gonna do this. It was gonna happen. We needed to stay tuned.

We’re talking rocket launchers. We’re talking ridiculousness. We’re talking explosions. Fall guy level stupidity. Remember when I brought up our favorite internet idiot, Whistlin Diesel, and how he was gonna battle test a Cybertruck? Yeah,

Crew Chief Brad: yeah, yeah. Did you guys watch the video?

Crew Chief Eric: It’s out! I did.

Crew Chief Brad: I watched that video and the follow up update about the trailer hitch.

Well,

Crew Chief Eric: I didn’t watch that one, so you’ll have to tell me about it. But let’s talk about the big It’s a long video. It’s like a half hour.

Executive Producer Tania: I never watched anything from that guy other than maybe like five seconds. Is he the one that did like wagon wheels on a Charger or something? Yes.

Crew Chief Eric: He’s also the one that took a hacksaw to a Ferrari.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh yeah. So I’ve seen like 20 seconds. [00:47:00] So I watched the whole thing though. It was very enlightening. And that’s his shtick, right? Some of the tests were just ludicrous, meaningless. I’m like, okay, so you backed a vehicle off of a flatbed truck without lowering the flatbed. One of those vehicles has a completely flat underpan that’s reinforced because of the batteries it’s protecting.

The other vehicle has an exposed drivetrain that you dropped the weight of itself on and then ripped itself off the back of a metal plate and then were like shocked that the central drive axle, uh, broke.

Crew Chief Eric: But okay, but let’s take that the other direction and say the cyber truck split in half and then caught on fire and you could look at the F 150 and go, well, the draft shaft was the only thing I was

Executive Producer Tania: impressed that there wasn’t that we know of.

Structural damage to the batteries good on them that they made [00:48:00] a really, really thick skid plate under there, protect them.

Crew Chief Brad: They make aftermarket skid plates that would fix that issue for people that all the roads and stuff for, call it 1, 500

Executive Producer Tania: protect the drive shaft,

Crew Chief Brad: protect the entire drive train, oil pan engine, everything you can front to back skid plates, the diff.

I mean, You can reinforce that stuff to where it would pass that stupid test if you had to.

Executive Producer Tania: So the ludicrous part is, who’s driving the vehicles in this manner? Like, it’s an unrealistic test that really proves nothing kind of thing. Like, that doesn’t tell me that the Cybertruck is more superior than an F 150.

It’s a dumb test. It does point out like, okay, good. I feel good about the skid plate on that Tesla.

Crew Chief Eric: They abused the hell out of both of these trucks. Let’s just talk about some of the other tests. I thought were kind of interesting. I cringed with the frunk thing. I can’t believe he stuck his hand in there.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh my God. I wanted to see the Ford version of that test. He didn’t show it because the Ford most certainly would have cut off his fingers [00:49:00] because it’s mechanical. It’s not, there’s a manual. There’s no electronic control. The hood is just the hood. You slam the thing

Crew Chief Eric: is modern cars have been designed so that even if you were to close the door, like on a kid’s hand, the way it goes in and closes, there’s that cavity.

And the hoods are the same way. Yeah. An old like Pontiac Bonneville from the seventies would cut your fingers off. Right. But new cars are actually kind of design where. It’ll stop, but the Tesla, that frunk just kept closing because it’s electronic. And it was like, and you could see him. I don’t know how he didn’t bust his hand because that looked way painful.

It was bleeding. Yeah, it was awful. I was like, I would have done that with something else.

Executive Producer Tania: I would have done that with like a carrot

Crew Chief Brad: assistant. His assistant. Yeah, exactly. A lot of the video was very jackass to me. Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: I’ve never seen jackass, but yes. I know enough of it, but yes.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, nobody was stapling themselves to other selves and things like that, but.

Executive Producer Tania: So the [00:50:00] aha moments that lead to the end conclusion. I thought so when they did

Crew Chief Eric: the slamming of the doors.

Executive Producer Tania: Okay. So they were We give credit where credit’s due we want to start there. So a the skid plate underneath is pretty strong. So his apocalyptic proclamations Apparently seemed to be accurate because they ignited c4 on the body panels And like, they’ve only dented.

Okay. The stainless steel is pretty strong.

Crew Chief Brad: To that point, Ford made the change a few years ago to aluminum body panels, but GM and Dodge, Poyota, and like other big truck, they still use steel body panels. So I think had it been another manufacturer, it may have been a different result. Ford is the one that went to aluminum.

Executive Producer Tania: It would be interesting to see. What that same test would be on, not that Ford truck.

Crew Chief Brad: Right.

Executive Producer Tania: What was the other one? The beating [00:51:00] of the car on the glass?

Crew Chief Brad: When they brought out all the other YouTube jabronis, I thought that was stupid.

Executive Producer Tania: So even though he said, I do all the exact same tests on both the cars, they didn’t do that one on the Ford truck.

They didn’t do the same beating.

Crew Chief Brad: They couldn’t because the windows were already destroyed.

Executive Producer Tania: Whatever, they could have gotten another door and done it. We’ve seen other videos where, oh, you threw, like, a brick at a glass of, like, a Volkswagen, and it didn’t break, and they threw the brick at a glass of, like, a Cybertruck or something, and it did break.

So, like, what’s the story here? Illusion. So those were, like, the good things of it, I guess. Like, wow, impressed. Now the horrific things, which was insane, was, like, The second thing they did, I don’t even remember what it was, but they drove it off the side of the hill and then it got implanted in the mud. He used a ford to tow it out.

Tow it out? Or no, he got stuck, they pulled him out, and then he went and repeated the same thing and ended up implanting the ford or something. Oh, no, no, no. That’s not when he did it. It was when he was doing that pothole test and they had those [00:52:00] big like six foot diameter.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, they drove over the cylinders.

Executive Producer Tania: And they drove the Ford up, beached itself basically like it hit in between the wheels and then didn’t have traction to go. So they backed the Tesla up to pull it down like off the ramp off these things. And in doing so, they ripped the frame, like, you even can call it a frame, but it just ripped the rear end, and he was beside himself, and rightfully so, because it was like, how can you tow with this thing?

It was held together like caca underneath. There was no reinforcement. It was like, it all goes downhill from there on build quality.

Yeah, and he said himself, he’s like, it’s rated for 10, 000 pounds. He’s like, this is just normal truck stuff. Truck pulling another truck that got stuck like you’re off roading.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t know how it passed any of these towing tests if it couldn’t even pull a truck off a ramp or whatever.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s an aluminum frame and it probably cracked during one of the other tests. And then that test just,

Executive Producer Tania: that’s maybe fair,

Crew Chief Brad: but still that’s what the [00:53:00] second video was about because he received a lot of hate mail from Tesla fan people cultists about, Oh, the Ford’s frame would crack in half.

It would break in half and the truck would destroy itself. Blah, blah, blah, blah. So they did a repeated, like they had an excavator. Lift the rear end of the Ford truck up and they dropped it on concrete bricks, like 50 times. It did eventually bend the frame. They just dropped some real heavy concrete on top of it to straighten the frame back out.

It never broke though. It just bent the frame and you could still drive the truck away. But again, this is another issue between steel, which now in this particular test, the Ford has the steel and the Tesla has the aluminum.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, here’s where I’d call bullcrap on these people. They got up in arms about it.

He did the exact same stunts with both of them and the Ford was able to tow the Tesla. When it got stuck. So they both came off the back of that flat bed without pulling the ramp down. They both shot off the side of a thing. They, they both did the [00:54:00] same thing and the board could still tow. It didn’t rip its rear end out.

Crew Chief Brad: Exactly. And that’s what the second video kind of was about. This is a very important lesson. Both trucks use a mixture of both types of materials in different ways. And I feel like the Ford. Used the appropriate materials in the appropriate places, right? Much rather have a hole in my tailgate than my 10, 000 pound load going down the road next to me because the hitch came.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, it wouldn’t be going down the road next to you because the battery charging system was a complete farce as we saw. Also,

Crew Chief Brad: how much time did he spend at the charger? Oh

Crew Chief Eric: my goodness. And then how many times did it brick itself that he had issues and he’s on the phone with Tesla support?

Executive Producer Tania: Well, I’m sure a lot of that was due to whatever sensors and whatnot going absolutely bonkers by the abuse that it was taking.

It had no idea. I probably thought it was like upside down and you know, God knows where. So the other highlights just go back to the build quality. We’ve already heard about

Crew Chief Brad: the [00:55:00] tonneau cover. Oh my gosh.

Executive Producer Tania: The duct tape.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh my God. Yeah. The washers, the duct tape.

Executive Producer Tania: The fact that he could just pull trim pieces off because they were like hot glued on basically.

Yeah. It was just glue holding all these trim pieces on. It was so hilarious when he’s rips like the fender off. He’s like, let me see if I can rip the fender of this Ford off. Oh, wait, I can’t. It’s one piece.

Crew Chief Brad: And then when he slammed the doors. And the interior came off. That was wild. The interior panels came apart.

Crew Chief Eric: That was wild. That is not a test I would do to any car.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s also like, really aggressive because nobody’s gonna slam their door that hard.

Crew Chief Brad: I don’t know, I’ve been pretty mad. I’ve broken many a window regulator in a Mark IV Volkswagen from my anger.

Crew Chief Eric: So at the end of the day, again, we’re talking about the hate, there’s a second video now, all this kind of stuff.

So we fast forward to the end. We talked about at the beginning with this driveshaft and the, you know, the Ford fails right away, but the fix was what? [00:56:00] 700 bucks or something with labor?

Executive Producer Tania: 900.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. To change the driveshaft. But at the end of all that abuse, a Ford drove away and the Cybertruck was brought in on a trailer, bricked.

And I’d love to see what happened behind closed doors when they brought that Cybertruck into the Tesla facility because

Crew Chief Brad: At some point they did talk about The current repair bill for the cyber truck. And I think it was like 15, 000 or something like that. That seems low.

Executive Producer Tania: No way. But

Crew Chief Brad: if they also weren’t done with it yet.

Executive Producer Tania: Although glue doesn’t cost that much, maybe duct tape and glue. You get a lot of duct tape.

Crew Chief Eric: I just want to bring up one more thing. Gas pedal test. There was no rivets that was going to fix that problem.

Executive Producer Tania: That was also ludicrous and wildly aggressive.

Crew Chief Brad: That’s what they mean, ludicrous mode.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s like

Crew Chief Eric: meaningless test.

It’s not a meaningless test though because the Ford could take the abuse. That’s what the point is.

Executive Producer Tania: But you don’t need, it doesn’t need to take [00:57:00] that abuse. On the one hand, it’s not that Ford did anything special because pedal technology is how old?

Crew Chief Eric: When your pedal assembly is made by Logitech,

Crew Chief Brad: and that’s part of the criticism and the problem with Tesla to begin with, is they’re trying to reinvent the wheel when if it ain’t broke. You don’t need to fix it just for the sake of fixing it. Things have been a certain way for a certain, for a really long time because they just, it just works.

Well, they’ve

Crew Chief Eric: been proven to work in that way. And that’s why I say Tesla is a software company, not a car company, even though they’re making cars. I get that. You don’t have to explain it to me. But the point is that thinking that reinventing of a new way of doing something is very critical. Software minded.

Instead of hitting ctrl p to print you hit ctrl lock screen upside down triangle and then bounce on your nose three times and then it prints. Well what was wrong with ctrl p?

Executive Producer Tania: The pedal design in the ford is very robust. I would be [00:58:00] curious if you did that same test in something say a mini. It has the pedal mounted to the floor.

Would it hold up or would it do the same thing that Tesla did? I guarantee

Crew Chief Brad: it’ll hold up.

Executive Producer Tania: Probably, because it wouldn’t be made out of cheap plastic.

Crew Chief Brad: Your mom has a Mini. You should go test this theory. Yeah, let’s go break mom’s uh, Mini. Make your own YouTube video and go test this.

Executive Producer Tania: Sam’s got a Mini.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, go down the road to Sam’s house.

Crew Chief Eric: Instead of watching the second Cybertruck Whistle and Diesel video, what I watched instead was Tanya’s recommendation of Top Gear’s James May reviewing and driving the Cybertruck for the first time.

Crew Chief Brad: Oh, do you mean his, uh, what was it, whiskey? Or what was he selling? James Gin. Yeah, James Gin. His gin commercial?

Crew Chief Eric: Self promotion, yeah. He had nothing but positive things. To say about the Cybertruck and this and that it was very top gear esque.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, I was surprised how like positive it was.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. Well, he’s a bit of a, a techie kind of person. Well, he

Crew Chief Eric: also owns a Tesla now. So for him, so

Crew Chief Brad: he’s, it was a bit biased.

Crew Chief Eric: It [00:59:00] was, but it wasn’t biased when he started talking about the panel gaps and the panel alignment.

And the finish, it was just like, wow, the straight edge thing, right Tanya?

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, the ruler measuring.

Crew Chief Brad: But then he tried to say that they did that on purpose because of the glare and the angles and all that stuff. So he tried to play it off as that it was done on purpose.

Crew Chief Eric: No, and then the hilarious part when he put the bottle on it the one time and then he put it on the same spot and then it would move and then it was like, what a joke, what a mess.

I didn’t give too much credit to that. No, because he didn’t stress test it in any way. You know, that was a press car. He’s driving around. He’s just giving his opinion. Rah, rah, rah, Tesla. Okay, fine. Sure. So it was, it was interesting to see like the other end of the pendulum swing. I didn’t expect James to be so kind because he can be very direct.

I would have expected a lot more if it was Jeremy Clarkson, he probably would have ripped it to shreds, not literally like whistling diesel did. But, you know, he would have had not so kind things to say about it. Then again, that’s why he stopped doing the Grand Tour, right? He’s not interested [01:00:00] in electrofecals.

He doesn’t want to talk about them. They’re blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The excuses that he gave for leaving. That’s that. I just thought it was good to go back because we said we were going to watch it. I wanted to get your guys opinion. This is the first time I’ve sat through a Whistle and Diesel video in its entirety.

And I was hooked because I think what he did, it was truth. So we’re still talking about Tesla.

Executive Producer Tania: Which would be haunting, I guess. You had one of these pull up behind you with the red and blue flashing,

Crew Chief Eric: right?

Executive Producer Tania: We’re in California again. So there’s police department there that unveiled a cyber truck cruiser.

I don’t think they’re actually going to use it. It’s more, I think maybe just promotional type police vehicle, not one that’s actually going to be used to actually go out and fight crime. So to speak

like the Wraith.

Executive Producer Tania: Nonetheless, California’s taxpayer dollars went to getting this Cybertruck at their local precinct.

Crew Chief Eric: Outfitted as a police interceptor. It’s only being used for community outreach. Yeah, because they’re afraid if they got to do a pit maneuver in this thing, it’s [01:01:00] going to fall apart and crumple like a soda can.

Executive Producer Tania: Right? The risk to the officer would be quite high if they were involved in a high speed chase that ended in a crash.

Crew Chief Eric: We’ve all seen those Florida Man videos and chases. I don’t think you could do that with a Cybertruck. You could do it with an Ultima. Yeah, damn right.

Executive Producer Tania: As we saw in the Whistling Diesel video, it’ll get itself in like, planted in mud. Just don’t go off road with it. What was the other thing he had to like, activate his subscription for the four wheel differential?

Crew Chief Brad: For the Diff Lock, yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh yeah, that was insane. It’s insane. Ugh.

Crew Chief Brad: At least you know when you’re being shot at, after a drug bust goes bad, you’re going to be protected.

Executive Producer Tania: That is true. That is true. They could use it as a riot vehicle is what we learned. So.

Crew Chief Brad: A riot with some very poor attempts to destroy it.

Crew Chief Eric: Well that rounds out probably our episode. Longest showcase, but I don’t think we’re done with haunting topics as we [01:02:00] go along here But we are gonna switch to our regularly scheduled ranting and raving and bring you some new stuff. Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen Redefining literally reinventing the engine.

I rank this six stroke right up there with the Wankel also known as the rotary All the RX 7 people know what I’m talking about. I watched this video. It was In lightning and all I came away from it after half an hour was intake compression combustion compression combustion exhaust That’s how it works.

So it’s got this weirdly spirograph system where it does a double compression combustion stroke, supposedly, you know, the benefits of a two stroke with the benefits of a four stroke, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the punchline is why is Porsche reinventing the wheel? Or the engine in this case, when Europe is pushing to have all EVs by like 2035 or whatever it is.

So I think they’re betting the farm on this new engine, has some really interesting techniques in it that would take advantage of the new [01:03:00] synthetic fuels that they’re creating. But. If you are not into math and science, I don’t recommend watching this video, but I found it fascinating because I’m a nerd.

So that’s that.

Crew Chief Brad: Why is he spending five minutes telling us how to say the word?

Crew Chief Eric: Oh yeah. I was so turned off by that. I was like, who cares? But I do like how he ended it. He goes this way. I put to bed all of your comments about how I pronounce it and we can move on with life, but that was pretty good. All right.

So Asian domestic news, Honda is putting out their GR 86 competitor, also known as Quaalude. I mean the prelude,

Crew Chief Brad: but isn’t it going to be electric?

Crew Chief Eric: Isn’t it going to be front wheel drive?

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, it’s hybrid front wheel drive. Isn’t it going to be the size of an accord? Basically it’s going to be the replacement for the two door Accord they used to make.

That’s what it looks like to me.

Crew Chief Eric: I think you hit the nail right on the head. It’s just an Integra

Executive Producer Tania: with the Honda badge instead. Blasphemer!

Crew Chief Brad: But it’s two door.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s a two door Integra. Integra.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s ugly.

Crew Chief Brad: Which they [01:04:00] used to make. That weird grill. What is that? That’s like the Prius thing.

Executive Producer Tania: No, when you said it’s a CR Z.

That’s the front end of a CR Z. That little weird nub nose.

Crew Chief Brad: No, but then it’s got like a dual lip. It’s got fish lips

Crew Chief Eric: like the new Ferraris, right? They have that kind of thing going on there. That’s what they’re doing. But it looks

Crew Chief Brad: good on a

Crew Chief Eric: Ferrari. It doesn’t look good on this. This is ugly.

Oh, it doesn’t.

Crew Chief Eric: Whatever. I mean, Honda fans are going to go nuts. The Prelude is coming back. I mean, Brian Schott will buy one right away, right? But I don’t get it. If we do see one going down the road, we’re going to be like, Oh, that’s nice. You’re not going to know what it was. No, you’re not. And then the thing is you’re never going to see one because who’s buying two door sports coupes anymore.

Nobody. So, I don’t understand why Honda’s even bothering with this. If you really want it to be something awesome, it shouldn’t be an EV. It should have a manual. It should have the same power plant as the Honda Type R Civic. It should just be that with two doors. It should be a two door Civic, but instead it’s whatever this thing is.

Moving on. Toyota. We haven’t talked enough about Toyota, right Tanya?

Executive Producer Tania: Nope. So they have revealed that [01:05:00] they will be joining TC America Series.

Crew Chief Eric: SRO baby!

Executive Producer Tania: With their 2025 GR Corolla.

Crew Chief Eric: They’re gonna kick butt with this thing. It’s gonna be awesome.

Executive Producer Tania: Should be interesting.

Crew Chief Eric: This car is the hotness. I kind of wonder what the balance of performance is gonna be like for this.

As we know, Brad, BOP is all over SRO. This is gonna be competing with the HPD civics. This is gonna be competing with the Hyundais, the smaller BMWs, all that kind of stuff in GT America series, the GR three cylinder turbo 300 horsepower. I think they’re gonna have to detune that ’cause a lot of those cars are running under 300 horsepower in that class.

Crew Chief Brad: Or they would add weight.

Crew Chief Eric: They’d add weight. Yeah, exactly. It’s exciting for next year to see the hatchbacks out there kicking butt in touring car. So they haven’t

Executive Producer Tania: said what the horsepower will be on the 2025s. They haven’t unveiled that yet. The only thing they’ve said is they’ll make 290 foot pounds of torque.

Crew Chief Eric: Out of a three cylinder. Damn. I’d take one of these left over after a couple years of being beat on the racetrack. I’m good with it. And they’re only 150, [01:06:00] 000 when they’re used.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah, and they haven’t announced the pricing of it either. So we’ll see what the production version comes out to be. We know what the Maritzo version or whatever is like 50 grand.

Crew Chief Eric: Race cars open your wallet. I mean, there is just That’s

Executive Producer Tania: not even this level because this is already, you know, a step above that.

Crew Chief Eric: No, what you do is you find a sponsor. Well, this is not street legal. So 100 percent right. Still kind of in the camp of Asian domestic news. Remember when we used to do that wheel segment for a while there, you know, it kind of popped its head up the other day because I was again in the city walking around, I get to see a bunch of different cars that you just wouldn’t normally see from the headquarters office, right?

I had made a statement on a previous drive thru that all Hyundais and Kias, they have the ugliest wheels on the road, like full stop, right? They’re just heinous looking. But I stumbled across. What I didn’t realize was basically the end of the line of the previous generation Hyundai Santa Fe. And so it’s a Hyundai Santa Fe Sport.

I [01:07:00] looked at these wheels and I said, man, these are absolutely inspired. These are GTI quality wheels. I think they’d look really good on something else because that’s a, you know, a CUV, SUV or whatever have you. But then I realized because that was the end of the Santa Fe line, I had to kind of take back my statement and say, Okay.

They do have a good looking wheel, they don’t have the ugliest wheels, but now they have one of the ugliest SUVs on the road because the new Santa Fe is heinous. Have you guys seen this thing? I think they have like a basketball personality doing like this commercial like, uh, he’s got his brown Hyundai Santa Fe running around.

It’s very square, very digital looking, like very 80s. But the wheels are nice.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. The new Santa Fe reminds me a lot of the old Azuzu Axiom.

Crew Chief Eric: Ooh.

Crew Chief Brad: If you remember what those look

Crew Chief Eric: like. I do. Those were not nice either.

Crew Chief Brad: No, it’s they look identical. You would see that meme of Jenna Fisher from the office sitting in the boardroom saying it’s the same vehicle.

It’s the same picture.

Crew Chief Eric: It did [01:08:00] send me down a little bit of a weird rabbit hole, kind of looking at Hyundais and trying to understand what car this was and the wheel package and all this kind of thing. Although I saw the badging on the back of the car, it didn’t really dawn on me until I was yet again inside the configurator.

As you guys remember, that was a fun experiment too. The Santa Fe had a 1. 6 turbo for a while, then it had a two liter turbo. Now it’s got a two and a half liter turbo and that exists on the new ugly one as well. I was like, wow, when did Hyundai step up their four cylinder? And when is that motor going to get dropped into more stuff?

It’s making 277 pound feet of torquems. And I know it didn’t make our 50, 000 millennial grade challenge, but it doesn’t come with all wheel drive standard. It only comes with fun wheel drive for all those 311 torquems. So that’s not fun. If you do add all wheel drive to a Santa Fe. Going back to that list, it comes in around 40k.

So it’s another contender on our list of under 50k. What would you buy with almost 300 [01:09:00] horsepower? I was like, that’s not bad. So good job Hyundai for stepping up your four cylinder game. Now put that in a Veloster. Now for some random new EVs and concepts.

Executive Producer Tania: So in the spirit of Halloween, apparently Rivian’s feeling a little bit fun and they have a software update that you can do for all the consoles inside that give you an option for three different themes.

One being Kit’s theme from Knight Rider.

So cool.

Executive Producer Tania: Another being the Back to the Future DeLorean interior theme.

Still

Crew Chief Eric: cool.

Executive Producer Tania: And the third is the most Halloween y one, I guess. It’s this kind of bizarre, spooky ish color haze thing that it does. And then this silhouette of like a Yeti going across your screens or whatever.

That one was okay. But the Back to the Future one with the time all in the center console, like when you set the date and all that, like it was really cool. And even like, you know, the old school Knight Rider, very Audi digital dash. Yeah, it

Crew Chief Eric: was. Oh my [01:10:00] god. It was bringing memories back. I love it though. I think this is cool.

This is the kind of stuff if you’re going to have screens in the car, give me these kinds of options and then put Mr. Feeney’s voice in there.

Executive Producer Tania: Right?

Crew Chief Eric: Hello, Michael. That’s pretty cool. Not that garbage we got from Volkswagen where it’s like, make your 2024 GTI feel like a 1963 beetle. Like why? I don’t care.

That’s lame. This is cool. This is what our generation wants. Now I would like the L cars Version dashboard from Star Trek. That’d be cool with the sounds too. When you hit the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, switch it to Cardassian. Really cool. Deep space nine action there.

Crew Chief Brad: I like Rivians.

Executive Producer Tania: Yeah,

Crew Chief Eric: they’re pretty

Crew Chief Brad: neat.

I see a lot of them down here.

Executive Producer Tania: You see a lot of them. If you see Amazon delivery trucks.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, speaking of seeing things, anybody been watching Emily in Paris? I know it’s a stretch,

Crew Chief Brad: not the latest season.

Executive Producer Tania: I haven’t seen the latest season yet.

Crew Chief Eric: Okay. Well, I took a screenshot for you guys and then we’ll have it up on our website.

I’m not giving any spoilers away. It’s just sort of like a thing that they [01:11:00] did on one of the episodes. There’s this photo shoot. Everything Mazar, Who some of you might remember from Entourage. She was also Medusa in Chaos, if you watched that, and a bunch of other stuff. So she has a very 1930s look to her, right?

Especially when she puts her hair up and they dress her up and all those kinds of things. So they did this very cool Inception commercial inside of the show. And because it’s Paris, it was Renault, and it was shot in black and white. You know, you always see those, like, Dior commercials are like this, where they’re in black and white, and then something suddenly pops in color, and there you go.

So she comes out and there’s all this paparazzi and da, da, da, da, boom. The only shot of color is a bright yellow, like my shirt, brand new Renault R5 EV, I stopped, soaked it all in. I took a screenshot of it. As you guys can see, this is not just fire. This is hot fire. This thing is so cool. Please Renault, make this car.

Executive Producer Tania: Make this car and only sell [01:12:00] it in your country. Stop, why

Crew Chief Eric: did, why did you have to do that to me?

Crew Chief Brad: That way Eric can buy one in 25 years.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s the reality that we live in.

Crew Chief Eric: I urge you guys, if you watch Emily in Paris and you get to that episode, it’s towards the end of the season. Again, I don’t want to give any spoilers away.

Just rewind it, watch it again. I did that several times. It’s really cool. This thing is really, really neat. And she gets in it and she drives away. So you get to see it from all the different angles and I mean, obviously it’s whisper quiet, but still just this modern retro R5 with big wide haunches and everything.

It just looks really, really epic. Talking about more retro designs from Renault, last month we talked about their idea of calling back the R17. Which, there’s a couple Datsuns that look like that, and the Saab, Saab Sonnet, and a bunch of other cars that have a similar shape to the R17. Well, as much as there was a big hub a loo about it on the internet, Renault officially came out with a statement saying, for those who remember the [01:13:00] R17, we’ve given you everything that you love, and for those who could care less, it’s just a nice car.

And what they mean by that statement, all kind of wrapped up in that sentiment, is that they’re not going to make the R17. Again, the big question is, if that’s your attitude with your retro cars, are you going to make the R5?

Executive Producer Tania: No.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, probably not.

Executive Producer Tania: Even says that they’re going to move away from retro designs.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s killing me. And by the way, the Alpine version of that R5 is freaking awesome too. And there’s a couple of new Alpines coming out the three 90. Now we talked about the two 80 before that. And obviously the a one 10 GTs and awesome cars, stuff like that. There’s a lot of motion and commotion going on at Renault.

And the funny part is Renault parent company of Nissan. One of these things is not like the other. So Brad, lost and found. We got something on the pile here. This car speaks to me. What do we got?

Crew Chief Brad: First CNC Motorsport Sierra RS500 was delivered. Just look

Crew Chief Eric: at that. That is 80s at its finest right there. So imagine, you know, there’s been a bunch of these, what do you want to [01:14:00] call them?

Tribute cars or halo cars, whatever it is, you know, like the whole singer effect. Take an old car, do everything you could possibly ever imagine you could do with it, with modern technology. We’ve seen this with Porsches. We’ve seen this with launches. We’ve seen this with other brands. And now there’s a company CNC Motorsport getting into the Sierra RS500S Cosworth.

And this thing’s awesome. Right down to the gold basket weave BBS wheels. I mean, what is there not to like?

Crew Chief Brad: I love the fact that it’s got 575 horsepower from a two liter.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes. Yes. Excellent. I didn’t see a price, but I can only guess that it’s six figures.

Crew Chief Brad: I found a price.

Crew Chief Eric: Uh

Crew Chief Brad: oh. Prices for these cars start at 185 British pounds.

Ah!

Crew Chief Eric: I knew it. It was a hundred thousand plus dollars. Yikes. Tanya, would you buy one of these? Would you drive one of these? I mean, would I buy one? You don’t buy anything. So what would you drive one?

Executive Producer Tania: I mean, I would buy something [01:15:00] else over this, but I would drive one if I had the opportunity. So cool. I’m not like in love with the aesthetics of it.

Crew Chief Eric: Seeing that article kind of drove me down a rabbit hole on YouTube. And I was watching a bunch of videos about Delta integrales and I was doing some research for a rally project anyway, then group a and all that stuff. And so many different versions of the Delta HF Chris Harris bought an eight valve and Ben Collins bought a 16 valve turbo, and then he bought a Evo one and all this kind of thing.

And then you learning the differences between all the variants of the HF and stuff like that. I’m like, I would love to import one of those. If we didn’t talk about them enough, we would be remiss. Are we going

Executive Producer Tania: back to Thesla?

Crew Chief Eric: We got one more article.

Executive Producer Tania: Oh my gosh.

Crew Chief Eric: And it’s a bit the hokey pokey.

Executive Producer Tania: I don’t even care or know what’s real.

I don’t have a Cybertruck. I’m not trying to insure it with Geico. I’m never gonna have a Cybertruck. I’m never gonna try [01:16:00] to insure it with Geico. So I honestly don’t care if Geico wants to insure them or not.

Crew Chief Eric: And that’s the problem we’ve been seeing a lot lately. And it’s not just this article. It’s other ones where let’s say Jalopnik says one thing and then motor one says the exact opposite.

It’s like on the same day and you’re like, wait, what? And in this case, how much do you trust things you read on Reddit? That article starts Geico drops coverage for the cyber trucks. And then on the other side, the verge is saying, well, maybe not. Geico is not going to drop your cyber truck. We’re going to continue to cover it.

I guess buyer beware, do your homework first, figure out how much it’s going to cost to insure one of these things. And if they’re going to cover it, I think there’s still a lot of changes yet to come in the insurance world when it comes to EVs, because I think there was a lot of unexpected consequences with these cars, how long it takes to fix them, how expensive they are to fix them.

Crew Chief Brad: This isn’t new. A few years ago, didn’t Tesla come up with their own insurance Policy for their cars because other insurance companies [01:17:00] were having a hard time pricing insurance policies for other Tesla models. So this isn’t something that’s new Geico is probably just the first to outright deny coverage, then just go to Tesla.

I mean, if Tesla has an insurance company, that’s going to insure it, then just do everything in the Tesla ecosystem. You buy the Tesla vehicle, you get the Tesla loan with the Tesla interest rate. You do the Tesla insurance. That’s it. And you do the Tesla electricity. That’s the Apple model. It’s a software company model.

And it keeps

Crew Chief Eric: the money flowing internal to Tesla. Oh, shocking. How that works.

Crew Chief Brad: This reminds me of the old coal towns where they paid you in chips. And then you use those chips at the coal company owned store and you lived in coal company owned housing.

Crew Chief Eric: Robber barons. It’s not what they were called. So anything else on the.

Tesla docket there, Tonya?

Executive Producer Tania: Well, for those who’ve been tracking, and they’re super interested, they recently unveiled, earlier this month, [01:18:00] the RoboTaxi and RoboVan. Autonomous.

Crew Chief Eric: Johnny Cab.

Executive Producer Tania: Speaking of which, they unveiled that, and now are being sued by The Blade Runner movie.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh. Brilliant. Did he call it Johnny Cab on stage?

Is that why?

Executive Producer Tania: No, the production company is suing them, alleging that they created a lot of the stills and photos, basically generative AI taken from Blade Runner, essentially. So if you think it looks like something from Blade Runner, I think that’s pretty intentional.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, that’s unfortunate. Did you guys see this about how Fisker abandoned their headquarters and left it in complete disarray, allegedly with hazardous waste and clay models and a bunch of other stuff just laying strewn about?

Executive Producer Tania: Is that like when people get evicted out of their house and they’re like, fuck you, I’m gonna take a sledgehammer to all my walls and I’m gonna shit in the middle of the [01:19:00] floor. Bye!

Crew Chief Brad: Was all this stuff put on the front lawn?

Crew Chief Eric: I just want to know where all these Fisker Ocean people are going to get their EVs taken care of.

They’re going to take them to the scrapyard. It’s a shame. I mean, we’ve seen it before with Fisker where it’s like, well, this and that and the other thing, and are they going to make it in the solar roof? And didn’t they collapse once and then came back and all this kind of thing? They’ve had a bit of a storied past, but it’s like, Even when they came out with the Ocean, which is not a bad looking vehicle, it’s just like, you kind of look at it and go, they’re not going to be here in five years.

There’s just no way, they just don’t have the infrastructure. I was sort of hoping that they would have gotten swallowed up by somebody else.

Executive Producer Tania: They still have a website.

Crew Chief Eric: What does that cost in them? 20 bucks? You

Executive Producer Tania: can save up to 24, 000 on a My 2023 Fisker Ocean. Go get your ocean right now. It’s a 24, 000 discount.

Crew Chief Eric: All sales final. Well, a little bit of racing. We know where to [01:20:00] put this, right? Is this lowered expectations? Possibly. We all know rich people gonna do what rich people do. And Keanu, he knows Kung Fu, but did you know he knew how to drive?

Crew Chief Brad: I feel like this is not news race car. Drivers spin out in the middle of a race all the time.

He didn’t cause a collision. He didn’t crash. He just spun out and reentered the race surface and finished the race. I don’t understand why this is. He’s also 60 years old. The guy, a fucking break.

Crew Chief Eric: But he’s not the first Hollywood star to turn towards racing. Now we’ve got Frankie Munez making his official announcement that he’s a NASCAR.

Now we have these Hollywood stars that I guess they’re bored. They’ve done everything that they can do with the umpteen trillion dollars that they’ve made. And they’re going to go racing. I mean, not uncommon. You’ve got the Paul Newman’s of the world and the Steve McQueen’s.

Crew Chief Brad: The Tom Cruise’s. McDreamy.

Crew Chief Eric: A bunch of people that were from Hollywood have gone racing in the past.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, Frankie Munez isn’t. [01:21:00] necessarily a good example because he’s been racing for like 20 years actually and he’s only like 38 so he’s got into the racing scene pretty young he’s just he’s finally I guess going pro officially

Crew Chief Eric: now yeah

Executive Producer Tania: He’s been involved in motorsports for a long time, but I guess finally he’s officially there.

Keanu, I don’t know, isn’t he known for doing like motorcycle stuff? Correct.

Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s not a stretch I guess to get into a car. Good for him. Maybe he is bored. I think it’s more news just because it’s Keanu.

Crew Chief Brad: It says professional auto racing debut. What makes this a professional? Auto racing debut.

Crew Chief Eric: He’s an SRO.

He’s in the Toyota GR cup.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. If I had enough money, I could go do SRO too. Would that make me a professional race car driver? No.

Crew Chief Eric: He’s a bronze level driver like anybody else, right? Especially because of his age and his experience. I feel

Crew Chief Brad: like this is just, it’s not news. It’s clickbait. It’s kind of not worth beating.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, he’s done a couple races since this too. So, I mean, obviously he’s following the SRO schedule. [01:22:00] So good for him. He knows Kung Fu and now he knows how to race. So good job, Keanu.

Crew Chief Brad: Tom Cruise was the last samurai. Right.

Crew Chief Eric: Since we’re talking about rich people things, sponsored by Garage Style Magazine, because after all, what doesn’t belong in your garage?

How about some limited edition prints that are now up for grabs? Signed by the man himself, Juan Fangio.

Executive Producer Tania: How many? Thousands of dollars of these costs.

Crew Chief Eric: So what it says here, they’re in the hands of the guy that did these original prints and got them signed or whatever. I don’t know how many he has. And this is over on Exotic Car Marketplace.

Executive Producer Tania: It was valued $500 10 years ago. So, and not $500 today.

Crew Chief Eric: So now they’re two grand, three grand each. Okay, let’s say it’s a thousand. That’s still Fangio. Put his Sharpie. On it. That’s history right there. So to get a signed print, now granted it’s going to cost you 500 to ship it from Australia. 500 bucks for a piece of artwork signed by Fangio?

That’s not bad. Add that to your Christmas list. If you’re interested in getting one of these, the contact information to [01:23:00] reach Kevin Waite in Australia is at Exotic Car Marketplace. Just search for limited edition prints signed by Fangio. So other rich people thangs, and this is a spoiler alert for an upcoming episode.

We sat down with David Beattie from Slot Mods Raceways, and he talks about his whole story about building custom slot car tracks and all the other things that he is into over at Slot Mods. And he’s working with William Ross from the Exotic Car Marketplace to auction off a Hot Wheels track. You can get in on that for the low, low price of 25.

1, 000. It’s actually kind of cool. There’s all sorts of pictures of it on the exotic car marketplace website You can check out and I know that William and David are working on a project for next year and there will be a track being built to be auctioned off for Charity and you’ll be able to read more about that and more of its details on exotic car marketplace as well But if you haven’t seen the work that slot mods has done some of these tracks that they’ve built for Audi that they’ve built for private collections for Zach Brown Brown of McLaren, you know, all these [01:24:00] kinds of things that Dave goes into on the episode is pretty cool.

I highly recommend people check out the video painting coconuts on YouTube. And you’ll see David about 10 years ago or so that video actually won a Clio award and it’s produced by Audi. And it has to do with the Quattro experience, and he built this really cool track for the debut of, at the time, the new A7.

So if you haven’t seen that, check out Painting Coconuts on YouTube, and then you get more of an idea of what Slot Mods is all about, the quality of their work. And, on top of that, William just did a behind the scenes. Facility tour of slot mods. And you get to see Dave and he shows you the tracks that he’s building and all this stuff that they’re working on.

There’s some really, really cool stuff there. And so for me, reignited a passion about slot car racing. So if you’re looking to have something commissioned to fill up a big empty space in your house and you’re into racing slot mods is definitely something you should check out. Speaking of big money, Zuckerberg and his Porsche.

Executive Producer Tania: I take exception to this being called a minivan.

Crew Chief Brad: It’s more like a limousine. I

Executive Producer Tania: don’t [01:25:00] know what makes this a minivan other than it’s long because I don’t think it shares the correct architectural qualities of a minivan. Like a minivan doesn’t have a sloping rear pillar. They’re flat.

Crew Chief Eric: Right.

Executive Producer Tania: They’re straight up and down.

I mean to say in the back, they don’t slope down like this. Like you just stretched an SUV.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah. It’s a shooting brake with sliding doors. Sliding doors equal

Executive Producer Tania: minivan.

Crew Chief Brad: Basically that’s what they’re saying.

Executive Producer Tania: So a Yukon XL that has four rows.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes.

Executive Producer Tania: And if I put sliding doors on it. I could call that a minivan and not rolling house.

Crew Chief Eric: Yes, sliding doors equal minivan.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s it. So I could put sliding doors on a Volkswagen Beetle and it would be a minivan.

Crew Chief Eric: But you would have to extend said beetle to accommodate sliding doors because your sliding doors cannot be your feet. front doors. They are rear sliding doors in the place of standard opening rear doors.

Executive Producer Tania: So I can take a mini Cooper.

Crew Chief Eric: How are we even arguing [01:26:00] this?

Executive Producer Tania: Because I think this is the dumbest thing.

Crew Chief Eric: Brad, is that a van?

Executive Producer Tania: No,

Crew Chief Eric: it’s

Executive Producer Tania: a abomination.

Crew Chief Eric: Is a

Crew Chief Brad: Camaro a hatchback?

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a liftback. That’s a whole nother. Yeah. Okay. I get your point. Yes. Who

Crew Chief Brad: gives a shit?

Executive Producer Tania: But hey, she was happy. So I guess that’s all that counts.

Crew Chief Eric: Apparently it fits a seven foot statue. That he commissioned in the likeness of his wife.

Executive Producer Tania: Is that why he needed to transport that statue home? So he had to build a longer. No, no, I

Crew Chief Brad: don’t think that’s it. I think those are two independent stories.

Crew Chief Eric: For his army of zucks.

Crew Chief Brad: Yeah, zuck army.

Crew Chief Eric: Rich people things, baby.

Good for him. Well, it’s time we go down south. About alligators and beer.

Executive Producer Tania: Couldn’t really find any stories, but there is apparently a new [01:27:00] HBO show out. It premiered just a couple days ago, October 18th. It’s called, It’s Florida, Comet Man. Oh, God. And so, it’s different than like the Netflix. Florida man,

Crew Chief Eric: which I enjoyed.

Executive Producer Tania: So I think it’s less episodic. It’s apparently it’s going to have like a slew of cameos of different well known people now.

And it’s apparently it’s part documentary, part dramedy, part whatever. So I don’t know what this is exactly. I haven’t checked it out yet, but apparently there’s episodes available on HBO.

Crew Chief Eric: All right. It’s time to watch. It’s Florida, man.

Executive Producer Tania: It’s Florida, man.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, it’s time we go quickly behind the pit wall. So we’ve talked all about Formula One earlier, but there is a little bit of shakeup in the IndyCar world.

I hear there’s a new racetrack coming. IndyCars are not going to Koda, but they might be going to Arlington, Texas’s street course. Sure. [01:28:00] So if you guys watched the video that we’ve attached in the show notes, basically what I tell from this very poorly Xbox 360 graphic video that they did is that You’re driving around the Dallas Cowboys stadium and at the end it says coming March 2026.

Sure. Yeah, so we’re still like two years away, year and a half away from whatever this racetrack is. It looks like every other street course, kind of tight and Long straightaways and slow down. So the crowd can see the cars and then speed away and slow down and see the cars. Does Indy do a lot of street courses?

They do more than anybody. I think

Crew Chief Brad: really,

Crew Chief Eric: yeah, there’s still all the Memphis and St. Petersburg and Detroit and all that stuff. They’re all street courses.

Crew Chief Brad: AMSA does all of those as well.

Crew Chief Eric: Similar ones. Yeah. But I, I don’t know why anybody would want to do city courses anymore. I mean, it makes life miserable for everybody.

It’s hard to get any good seating because there’s so many crash barriers and gates and you know, all that kind of stuff. It’s just, I don’t know. When we went to Memphis a couple of years ago, I was like, that’s cool. You [01:29:00] couldn’t get to all sections of the track because of the way the roads were blocked off.

And unless you lived in one of the buildings, which you were either trapped in. Or you had the best vantage point of the race. It was kind of weird. So for me, city courses, I’m like, yeah, that’s cool. That’s fun. I’ll watch it on TV. You know, I promised you guys I wouldn’t talk about rally because we got a whole rally special coming spoiler.

And we mentioned Hoonigan earlier, Leah blocks. WRC Subaru debut. Not so good.

Executive Producer Tania: No, I think her day ended when she ended up sideways wedged in between two trees. Oopsies.

Crew Chief Brad: She was just trying to get on the Zach Galifianakis show.

Crew Chief Eric: She’s trying. Poor thing. I mean. I mean, it’s Rally. Shit happens, right? A hundred percent.

I mean, it’s just it. It’s not if, it’s when stuff happens in Rally. Rally is so unpredictable. It’s so risky and dangerous, but to be at the front, you gotta be fast and you gotta be able to push. But yeah, I saw that picture and I was like, Damn girl, like, that sucks. You know, hopefully she dusts herself off and gets back on the horse and keeps at it.

Interesting though, with all the hub [01:30:00] a loop, this is why I bring it up, with Audi, she’s driving a Subaru, she’s not driving an Audi. I don’t get it, I don’t understand, right? That whole thing was really strange, you know, we speculated, talking about ghosts of the past coming back to haunt us, you know, was that a, gotta fulfill the contract, you know, all those legendary Michel Mouton and Lea Block and this and that, Here we go.

She’s driving a Subaru and it’s like, I don’t understand, but maybe it’s not our place to, Oh, and I mentioned virtual stuff earlier, Jimmy Broadbent did a two and a half hour review of test drive silver crown, which I don’t recommend watching the TLDR the too long. Didn’t read is I might still buy it.

Anyways, our motor sports news is brought to us in partnership with the international motor racing research center. The only events left on the schedule for the center are the eighth annual Michael R. Argettsinger Symposium on November the 1st and 2nd at Watkins Glen. Tanya and I will be there. We will be live streaming the event for anybody that wants to really geek out on motor sports history.

Lots of really cool stuff. You can check out the schedule [01:31:00] right now by going to racingarchives. org, click on news and events, Argettsinger Symposium, and you’ll see all the presenters. You’re going to see the project that I helped work on with Professor Summers, the motoring historian. That’s going to be featured in one of the days and then keynote speaker this year, Lynn St.

James come back. So we’re delighted to have her coming on and be able to live stream her keynote. If you want to tune in, you can’t come to the Glenn twitch. tv for slash Crane Touring Motorsports. Follow us now that way you’ll get an alert when we go live and you can just tune in and watch the whole program for two days plus.

And by the way, just so you know, Corvette sweepstakes are back. They are running through next year. You can enter now to win a chance to come home with a 2024 Corvette Z06 with the Z07 package. Details are on racingarchives. org. Click on sweepstakes in the top right corner. If you don’t want the Corvette, that’s fine.

There’s always a cash option, but remember that all the proceeds from the sweepstakes go to benefit the continued operation of the center, which is a 501c3 not for profit organization.

Crew Chief Brad: And as a reminder, you can find tons of upcoming local shows and events at the Ultimate Reference for [01:32:00] Car Enthusiasts, collectorcarguide.

net.

Executive Producer Tania: We all have the power to spark change, and this October, you can too, by simply getting that old or unwanted vehicle off your hands. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Buffalo, New York, is participating in Cartober, a special event during the month of October to turn your old or unused car, truck, motorcycle, or boat into proceeds that go directly to helping neighbors in need in our community.

The best part? There’s no cost to you. Cars will pick up your vehicle for free and provide you with the paperwork for a tax deduction. You can learn more at svdpwny. org.

Crew Chief Eric: Remember, you can check out all the local happenings, motorsports events ranging from autocross, track days, karting, etc. at club.

gtmotorsports. org forward slash events. We also promote national events on gtmotorsports. org’s calendar as part of our magazine, and we are open to advertising and promoting your events too. So feel free to reach out to us if you got something that you need to get out there and get it featured in our magazine and get it featured on our [01:33:00] website.

And just because it’s the end of October doesn’t mean that the racing season is over. If you want to get out there and turn some GPS unlimited no speed restriction laps out on track with your favorite vehicle in a safe and controlled manner, look no further than HPDJunkie. com for an up to date list of high performance driver’s education events from all across North America.

You can filter by location and find the perfect HBD event for you at hbdjunkie. com. Do

Crew Chief Brad: you love garage sales? Do you need to stock up on equipment for next season? Project Motoring has some clearance items like undergarments and 2024 production belts good for five years and you can check it out at projectmotoring.

com forward slash collections forward slash garage hyphen sale. We also want to remind people if you’re looking for that extra special something to make your garage, office, den, or man cave just a little bit extra, be sure to check out GarageStyleMagazine. com for a list of upcoming auctions and events, along with a curated list of items going up for sale all over the [01:34:00] country, so that you can make your space unique or round out a collection, because after all, What doesn’t belong in your garage?

Executive Producer Tania: We just crested 400 episodes of BreakFix while you’ve been listening to this episode.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, let’s pause right there for a second. Fo hundred. Fo hundo. Four large. Can you believe that? Pat yourselves on the back. 400 episodes of BreakFix. That’s pretty damn awesome. Good job. Meanwhile, we’ve expanded our catalog as part of

Executive Producer Tania: the Motoring Podcast Network where you can enjoy programs like What Should I Buy?

The Ferrari Marketplace. The Motoring Historian, Evening with a Legend, The History of Motorsports, Brake Fix, and of course, The Drive Thru. And if you’re not listening to this via your favorite podcast app, search for Brake Slash Fix or Gran No D Touring everywhere you download, stream, or listen. And be sure to check out www.

motoringpodcast. net for more details on all these programs and the services we provide.

Crew Chief Brad: Did you know you can sign up for our Patreon for [01:35:00] free? Lots of great extras and bonuses, even on the free tier. But if you’d like to become a break, fix VIP, jump over to patrion. com slash GT motor sports and learn about our different tiers.

Check out our newsletter, join our discord, or become a member of the GTM clubhouse by signing up at club. gtmotorsports. org drop us a line on social media or visit our Facebook group and leave us a comment. Tell us what you like and send us ideas for future episodes. Click the join for free blue button in the middle of the page when you visit patreon.

com slash GT Motorsports. It’s just that simple.

Crew Chief Eric: That’s right, Brad. And you know, we’re consolidating a lot more things onto our Patreons and we have a goal to exceed triple digits on our Patreon. So if you haven’t gone over there, go over to patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Click on that blue button.

Just like Brad said, help us get our numbers over a hundred. That way it keeps us motivated to continue to consolidate, do these things, and not fill your inbox with a bunch of newsletters you don’t want to read. You can get those notifications through [01:36:00] Patreon. You can check out special things, extra things, bonus articles, all sorts of really cool stuff that we’re able to offer through that platform that Much more difficult to do in other ways

Executive Producer Tania: and remember for everything we talked about on this episode and more Be sure to check out the follow on article and show notes available at gtmotorsports.

org

Crew Chief Brad: And as always we would like to thank our co hosts and executive producer tanya for putting together Yet another amazing episode and 50 of them to boot

Crew Chief Eric: You know tanya’s the only person on the network that doesn’t have her own episode She doesn’t have a road to success episode. She doesn’t have a bio.

We gotta fix this next year We got to fix this now. Yeah, let’s do it. Okay. All right. Buckle down folks. Here it comes.

Executive Producer Tania: Here we go. 30 seconds extra of this episode. We’ll wrap this up.

Crew Chief Eric: I was born, I bought a car and then it died. And

Crew Chief Brad: it’s still been in the shop less times than Eric’s minivan. So thank you, Tonya.[01:37:00]

Great job. And to all the fans, friends, and family who support GTM, including Chrysler and the motoring podcast network without you, none of this would be possible. Oh, true.

Crew Chief Eric: So who wants to reveal first? Oh no, he didn’t. Where’s your unicorn narwhal rainbow outfit.

Crew Chief Brad: I have mine here, but I haven’t put it on yet.

Cause I didn’t have time after bedtime.

Crew Chief Eric: You could just put the top part on, like, just put it over your head.

Crew Chief Brad: I could

Crew Chief Eric: wear it like a cape because nobody can see you from the chin down anyway.

Crew Chief Brad: Well, I’m not wearing pants now anyway.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, you’re doing the Dan Rather thing.

Crew Chief Brad: Yes, the burgundy.

Crew Chief Eric: I mean, my costume’s not

Executive Producer Tania: that impressive, but Hold

Crew Chief Brad: on, let me put mine on.

Crew Chief Eric: Your pants or your costume? He’s going to be so hot.

Executive Producer Tania: Well, not if he does it like you said, like a cape. It’s so hot right now. I’m so Hans, it is so hot right now.

Crew Chief Brad: To your point, it is burning up in this thing. I told you. Already. I’ve had it on for 30 seconds. So hot right now.

[01:38:00] I told you you were gonna sweat in that thing, man.

I

Crew Chief Brad: need to turn, well, let me turn my air on. Wearing it this way, I can’t button it. Your pants are your costume. I told you, no pants.

Crew Chief Eric: Can you tell me

Crew Chief Brad: the

Crew Chief Eric: difference between a unicorn and a narwhal? Yeah, one’s a horse. One swims in

Crew Chief Brad: the sea and one doesn’t exist? One’s a horse. Yeah, one is of the horse variety, the other is of the whale variety.

They are both mammals, though, so you are correct in that sense. I’m a narwhal that looks an awful lot like a unicorn. Well, I’m that bombshell. Dónde están mis pantalones?

There’s a midi

Crew Chief Eric: in me, I wouldn’t scream. Hey, whatcha trying to do,

blind me? Life says maybe we should[01:39:00]

Crew Chief Eric: We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.

org. We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies.

As well as keeping our team of creators fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gummy bears, and monster. So consider signing up for Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none of this would be [01:40:00] possible.

Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

  • 00:00 Introduction and Sponsorships
  • 00:32 Halloween Theme and Episode Start
  • 00:55 Costume Reveal and Banter
  • 03:49 Stellantis Restructuring and Industry Changes
  • 07:01 Pacifica Saga and Car Reliability
  • 12:11 California Speed Limit Law
  • 19:00 Nissan’s New Driving Assist Feature
  • 24:23 DC’s Traffic Enforcement Issues
  • 31:44 Hoonigan’s Bankruptcy and Industry Impact
  • 35:18 The Evolution of Sim Racing Gear
  • 37:34 Formula One Drama: Verstappen and Ricciardo
  • 39:31 Toyota’s Return to Formula One
  • 43:51 Tesla’s Delays and Controversies
  • 46:22 Whistlin Diesel’s Cybertruck Test
  • 01:02:04 Porsche’s New Engine Innovation
  • 01:03:28 Honda’s New Prelude: A Controversial Comeback
  • 01:04:57 Toyota’s GR Corolla in TC America Series
  • 01:07:17 The New Hyundai Santa Fe: A Design Disaster?
  • 01:08:16 Hyundai’s Turbo Evolution
  • 01:09:07 Rivian’s Halloween Software Update
  • 01:10:43 Emily in Paris: Renault’s Retro Revival
  • 01:13:49 CNC Motorsport’s Sierra RS500: A Tribute to the 80s
  • 01:15:53 Tesla’s Insurance Dilemma
  • 01:18:40 Fisker’s Abandoned Headquarters
  • 01:20:11 Hollywood Stars in Racing
  • 01:27:45 IndyCar’s New Street Course
  • 01:30:37 Motorsports News and Events
  • 01:34:06 Celebrating 400 Episodes of BreakFix

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Motoring Podcast Network

Screen to Speed: Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport)

0

In Episode 28 of INIT Talks, host Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya (@LoveFortySix) sits down with Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport), the founder of Transmission Motorsport. Tasha shares her inspiring journey in sim racing, competing on Gran Turismo 7 and Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) while building a community aimed at empowering women to join the world of motorsport.

This episode explores Tasha’s passion for sim racing and her mission to create an inclusive environment for women in the sport. Through Transmission Motorsport, she has worked tirelessly to provide opportunities and support for aspiring racers, breaking down barriers and encouraging diversity in the racing community.

Whether you’re a sim racing enthusiast, an advocate for inclusivity in motorsport, or simply inspired by stories of leadership and determination, this episode is packed with insights, motivation, and Tasha’s infectious enthusiasm for racing. Don’t miss this conversation about building a brighter, more inclusive future for sim racing!

Watch the livestream

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

Listen on Apple
Listen on YouTube
Listen on Spotify

Highlights

  • 00:00 Introduction to Screen to Speed
  • 00:55 Meet Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Sim Racer and Streamer
  • 01:30 Tasha’s Sim Racing Journey
  • 03:39 Upgrading the Sim Racing Setup
  • 09:17 Charity Racing and Community Involvement
  • 19:44 Women in Motorsports
  • 26:49 Streaming and Commentary
  • 32:50 Sim Racing Skills in Real Life
  • 37:32 Near Miss on the Road
  • 38:31 Applying Sim Racing Skills to Real Life
  • 39:15 Preparing for ACC Races
  • 44:50 Endurance Racing vs. Sprint Racing
  • 51:40 The Importance of Relaxation and Practice
  • 57:16 Sim Racing Tips for Beginners
  • 58:47 The Role of Telemetry and Replays
  • 01:01:28 The Perfect Driving Position
  • 01:02:34 Sim Racing Setup and Adjustments
  • 01:08:52 Balancing Hobbies and Sim Racing
  • 01:11:47 Career Transition and Future Plans
  • 01:14:54 Final Thoughts and Outro

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed powered by INIT Esports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, Dedication and innovation that drives the world of motorsports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports. So buckle up screen. The speed starts now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Welcome everyone. Welcome. Welcome. Happy to see you on talks today. Welcome, everybody. Uh, please welcome Tasha. She’s a sim racer, streamer, and YouTuber. [00:01:00] And as I know, she’s racing in Gran Turismo 7, and is at the Corsa Competizione. So that means we’re going to have a really fun interview today, um, with talking a lot about sim racing, racing, and motorsports.

Welcome, Tasha.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Hi, hi. Thanks for having me.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. I

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): love what you guys are doing with the NA eSports and Screen to Speed. It’s so awesome to be a part of it all.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Thank you. So I feel like sim racing is such a game changer for so many people. So can you tell me How did you get into sim racing? How you started your way?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, my very first foray into sim racing was I was probably five years old on a Commodore 64 playing test drive with the keyboard and the little dot on the steering wheel, telling you where the ceiling steering wheel is pointed and graphics that look pretty much like Minecraft these days. So, wow. I [00:02:00] started out many, many years ago.

I’m 44 in a couple of days. So that’s 39 years I’ve been playing on sim games.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really cool. So I also, I played in test drive. There was a second one Unlimited. It was really fun to play. I really love it What was your first simulator

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): in the first actual simulator? so we went out and bought a ps4 for the family and While we were there doing it, it was Christmas.

It was gonna be a present I saw Gran Turismo Sports for like five or ten dollars sitting on the thing. I was like, oh yeah, I’ll just grab this, you know, it’s cheap. And I’ve always played racing games and loved them. Like Project Gotham Racing was super fun with motorcycles and cars mixed together. And um, that’s the first place where I ever saw the Nordschleife.

I think they called it, uh, oh, I can’t remember what they called it, but I always mispronounced the Nordschleife because of it. [00:03:00] Um, but we got home. And Christmas comes around, we get everything set up, and the kids play on it, and the kids go to bed, and the next thing you know, I plug in Gran Turismo, and I’m like, oh my god, this is like, this is really cool, I remember Gran Turismo 1, and I was so excited, but Sport is like, game changer.

So, I played on it with um, I’ve played around with like, Race Asylum and a couple other leagues. And everybody was super, um, supportive and like, this is how you get better. And they’re talking to me about how to drive with a wheel. And I’m like, I’m sitting here on a controller. I’m like, this is not nearly as much fun as it could be.

So I went out and bought myself a T 150 and the pedals broke. So I went to load cell TLCM pedals. And then that broke and I was like, okay, this is it. I’m done messing around with these cheap wheels. Started searching around and I got myself a Fanatec CSL Elite from my nephew [00:04:00] and he sold it to me for 400.

Porsche 918 RSR replica wheel, um, load cell, uh, V2 pedals. And I got the rig set up in my room. And my, my daughter moved out, so I actually finally got room for an actual racing rig. And I got it set up in here and it’s non stop ever since. Every chance I get, I’m sitting in here.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s awesome. I really started in the same way.

So step by step, um, also improving my equipment, uh, back in the days I started with a G27, uh, and, uh, then switched to TLCM pedals, uh, the same way as you did, um, So now with the T818, Direct Drive wheel and the same TLCM pedals and a better rig. Triple, uh, started with a single screen. That was an absolute game changer to change to the triple screen, uh, for myself because you actually see more.

Uh, it’s really cool.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): [00:05:00] Absolutely, I can’t wait to go triples and get a PC that’ll run the higher end games. Um, right now I’m working off of a laptop that’s, uh, Eight years old I think and I mean it was a high end gaming laptop when I got it, but not today So, um as soon as I get a chance I need about 12 1300 for all I need is the box I have everything else and Then I can start working into, uh, PC sim racing and

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: go

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): for triples and stuff like that.

I’m super excited. I was warned about drugs when I was a kid, everyone’s like, Oh, don’t do drugs. You know what? I did the whole, we’re in high school, we’re in college and give it a shot. And it’s not worth your time. Right. But then I started sim racing and this is, this is what they should have warned me about because this is where all my money goes.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s a thing [00:06:00] which you actually can start but you never can stop to like improve your rig, improve your gaming room and everything and you just spend a lot of money on this.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Yeah, there’s always something else to buy. My wife wanted me to give her a list for my birthday this year and I’ve got neon signs on there, I’ve got um, like the Nordschleife wire track, Lamborghini wire model to put on the wall.

Everything that I have on there is like to improve my streaming space and she’s like you don’t want anything else I’m like I have makeup. I have clothes. I have shoes um I’ve got a Dodge Charger, that one’s pretty okay. No, I need stuff for sim racing.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s cool. My whole

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): life.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: You got the whole list with your wishes for the gaming room.

That’s awesome.

Speaking about upgrades, what do you want to [00:07:00] upgrade next in your gaming room and your sim rig?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): So the gaming room is already getting upgrades because my wife is excited about all the presents she bought me So i’m good on that one for right now What I really need is either the profile rig or a pc that’ll run iRacing and ACC with higher settings and triples.

That’s my next. Let’s go.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That sounds good. So you want to get into iRacing and I’m pretty sure you’re going to enjoy it. And with your experience in ACC already and Gran Turismo, you’ll get used to it quite fast.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Absolutely. No, I was so Gran Turismo was like my gig for a long time because I was on PS4 and like I tried doing ACC on PS4 and it’s just.

Like it’s almost there, but I couldn’t get the feel for it. I didn’t like it. And when I [00:08:00] finally was able to upgrade it onto PS5, I loaded up ACC and I played Gran Turismo. When, uh, DTR, some friends of mine, when they do their series, I do it for the Scaly Punk Charity Racing series because it’s fun to hang out with all of my friends, and we’re raising money for charities and good stuff, but for the most part, if I’m simracing now, I’m on ACC until the I get a PC and I can move on.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm hmm. Yeah, I understand this. It’s really good that we got opportunity like people can race on consoles and they can race on PC as well and can choose Uh, like different simulators to jump into some racing. That’s a great opportunity. Definitely Um, this is where I really like because you know So many people coming to my stream also asking me like can I start from console?

Can I like play ACC there or something like this? You So, yeah, and then the next step when you, um, like upgrading to PC, you’re getting [00:09:00] into a racing, into, um, higher quality ACC, it’s awesome.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Yeah, I can’t wait. Like, I’m like dying to put a custom livery on my car on ACC now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Oh, yeah. Can you tell me more?

You just mentioned the SkellyPong charity raising. What kind of charities did you do already? And I know that you’ve raised kind of a lot of money for this and that’s great. That’s a really good thing which you’re doing.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): So that was a friend of mine that actually started it. And when it was, when it first began, it was called, um, pleb charity racing series, and it went on for a while.

He raised quite a bit of money on it. And then he switched the name up to skelly punk around the same time as my team name changed from a blackout racing to transmission motorsport. And that’s been about a year and a half. We’ve [00:10:00] raised about 1, 200 or so. Through a series and a couple of endurance special events.

And then we get together, we’ve got two different lobbies. We’ve got pro am for the fast drivers and we’ve got pro for the very fast drivers. And, um, last season was amazing. We had a lot of fun doing it. Phil did his first stint doing comms. It was really fun watching him get into it. And I do comms for the pro lobby because I wasn’t fast enough to get into that one.

So Um, that’s how I found out that I love doing comms.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: It’s awesome. Um, but

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): um, we’ve raised money for mind charity rain um equality, texas Cerebral palsy alliance and basically Our next one I think is going to be for breast cancer research, but we just look for the most reputable You Charities that we can and find them on Tiltify [00:11:00] and support them all through the through the season

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: This is uh, this is great that we got, you know, I I know a lot of great events for charity in sim racing and Um some of them in gaming also, but it’s really cool that community supportive for these charities and also we’re getting a lot of people to jump into this races.

Um, that’s great.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): And there’s a lot of fun too, because especially when we’ve got a couple of guys that make custom decals for it. So we’ve always got a range of custom decals that people can put on their cars with their requirements. And Every season we’ve got, what, 20 30 cars that have different liveries on them that they put so much work into and it looks so great.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, custom liveries, uh, that’s a good thing in sim racing also.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I can’t make the custom liveries, I always ask [00:12:00] other people to do it for me because

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): hmm. I’m a driver. I can drive and I can talk. Don’t ask me to do

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: art. Awesome. Yeah, my husband’s taking this from me, so he’s also making liveries for me and emotes for my channel.

So I’m doing driving and talking a lot.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Nice! I tried to get my wife to help me with some things in it, but she’s just No, she plays Sims 4. That’s her simulator. She plays Sims 4.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Well, at least she We’ve

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): got our own Sim addiction. It’s just that they’re completely different.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Well, she’s investing in your wish list for your gaming room.

That’s good.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Absolutely! I’ve invested about 1, 500 in her Sims game. Oh,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: that’s nice.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): And I made myself, um, my first rig [00:13:00] was. I took a piece of countertop off of a job and some plywood, a couple of two by fours. And then I threw a, um, eight by eight in there because it was just too light and it was sliding around.

And I built myself something that slides in front of the couch with the pedals locked in and the steering wheel on it and mounted a monitor to it. And that was my rig for nearly a year. And every time I got it out to plan, she’s like, well, where’s mine? I’m like, what do you need a rig for? You’re playing sense.

So her birthday rolls around and I went out we had an old table and I cut it up and Murdered it and put it back together into a really nice looking thing where it’s got her keyboard, her laptop and mounted a monitor on it for her. Now she’s got her own little rig for Sims 4.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Really cool that you’re making stuff by yourself. Um, because when we started sim racing, so there was a during pandemic for me, [00:14:00] uh, and we, like, I had to. Oh, the same for you, that’s really cool. Um, so I had G27 and when we switched to triple screen, uh, unfortunately didn’t have opportunity to just buy the, uh, the stand for triple.

Uh, so we made it out the plywood with my husband and it’s still alive. It’s, uh, on the second rig. It’s really cool when you, you know, making, uh, things by yourself and, um, I think people just shouldn’t be afraid to build something by themselves, uh, because, you know, someone, um, like, plywood is, uh, hard enough to, like, to have a really good triple stand, for example, or the rig as well, so at least you can start from something.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Exactly, I mean, anything that you can do to get into it, and if you can’t afford a wheel and you can’t afford pedals, Play on the controller. There are people that are three, four seconds faster than me on controller. Like I, anybody can [00:15:00] do anything. That’s my favorite thing about sim racing in the world is it’s so accessible.

Yeah. I can’t afford to go and buy a real car to race with. I can’t afford to take my real car on a racetrack and destroy it because somebody hit me. So. I can do it on the game anytime I want to. Oh, it’s midnight and I want to go hit a racetrack. Ah, here it is, right here. Turn everything on and I’m there.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: And the main thing, the crashes are free in SimRacing.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): And the crashes are free.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. I remember when I did, uh, that was Forza Motorsport, a championship, which I did. I did it on my wheel. And, uh, everybody We’re driving with the wheels, uh, but on the one event, they, uh, invite really fast drivers and controllers.

And as you said, they were faster, like by three, four seconds than, uh, the fastest driver on the wheel. It was really, really cool.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I don’t know how they do [00:16:00] it, like, I, and, there’s a couple of things, okay, so on controller I don’t get it because there’s like, it’s so hard to be consistent with every turn, it’s like, oh, I need to turn the wheel this much, but on the controller it’s like, I need to move my thumb this much.

I can’t stop moving! It’s like, how are you hitting your marks like that? Like, I don’t get it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. I’m in the same boat with you, I just, uh, I got no idea how to drive this controller, like, I can’t control the car with a stick in the way I’m, how I’m doing this on the wheel.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Uh, right, and then the other thing that gets me is, like, I get it, the kids that are younger, jumping into a racing rig and being like, Just being able to Basically break the rules of physics because you know in the sim racing you can do things you can’t do in real life, right?

so they find the exploits and they’re able to Correct oversteer or save these wrecks and I just don’t get it because like when i’m sitting here I don’t feel the G [00:17:00] slide me over in my real car. Um, I hope there aren’t any cops watching my real car, of course, too fast. Sometimes I want to start to understeer.

I know exactly what to do and how to handle it. I’ve come around blind corners and had semi trucks in my lane. And I’ve had to go into a shoulder that it’s not wide enough for my car. And I’ve been able to skim past them and not get hit. Right. But on the sim racing, it’s like, I can’t, there’s not the feeling.

I can’t quite get them. Get the speeds that they can, but I’m never gonna give up, give up. I’m working on it and constantly improving. So

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: that’s the main thing, uh, to go step by step or as, uh, the same way as you doing with equipment. You doing the same way with your driving. You just, uh, step by step improving.

Um, so speaking about your car, do you ever think maybe to take your car and do the test day or something like track day on the real track? Um, and, um, [00:18:00] what do you think? Will it be possible for you to ever jump into real life racing?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I will promise you I am relentless and stubborn. One day I will be in a fast car on a real track, like it is going to happen.

So my car, no, it’s, I’ve got a lowly V6 2010 Dodge Charger. I mean, it’s, it can be fun if you’ve got like a 25 mile an hour corner and you’re going around it at like 35 or 40.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Great,

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): but um, other than that it’s just a daily driver. I need to get something like even a little Mazda MX 5 or something. I don’t care, I’ll take anything to a track.

But I’m going to be working on getting a car I can take on track.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really nice. Uh, do you have any racing tracks, uh, where you’re living?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, Portland International.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Awesome.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, you [00:19:00] guys had Ms. KB Anderson on here and I friended her up and got onto her Instagram like instantly and we’ve been chatting and I’ve actually been invited to go and hang out with her on some of the days because she works on the crew in the pits.

It’s my earliest opportunity that she’s going to be there. I’m going to go hang out with her and get into the pits and see how everything is really done and meet some drivers. And, um, hopefully by then I can get a racing license and I kind of goots my way into somebody’s car somehow.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s good.

Um, I’m Do you see that we’re getting more women into motorsports and in sim racing as well? And how do you feel by yourself to be a woman in the, um, you know, of course, the male dominated sim [00:20:00] racing and racing as well?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, my experience has been an interesting one. I expected not only for it to be like the bro scene where everybody is rude to women or you don’t belong here and that kind of thing and I haven’t had that at all and I I’ve met so many amazing people.

It’s a great it’s a great place for getting support like um when I met or not when I met because I heard of Sophie and Yvonne both from race asylum many many years ago three or four But when I actually started getting to know them I don’t like six months to a year ago. I found out about the, in the e sports and screen to speed and the whole community of the, the number of women that want to be involved in it.

It’s just amazing. And I love that they’ve got this welcoming place for us all to go come and join and, um, talk, give each other tips [00:21:00] and find new series to waste against each other with. And I love it. I, I think more little girls would be into it if they had the opportunity.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, definitely. And I

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): just love seeing it grow.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Women

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): in motorsports is

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: nice. Young girls, they’re going to see like more streamers, more sim racers, more girls in racing also. They will have a dream also to get into sim racing one day or into real life racing as well. So that’s great, which in it. eSports doing for us and, um, overall community in sim racing are really friendly.

I noticed that also, you know, I’ve been, um, in, in real life racing and it’s a more toxic community compared to what we got in sim racing. And, uh, to be honest, [00:22:00] I’m so happy that I’m in sim racing right now. And, uh, Twitch community pretty, uh, pretty and, uh, supportive as well. Um, what do you think about Gran Turismo 7 community?

So we just, uh, been talking with, uh, other guests about F1 community. Uh, from my side, I was talking about a racing community. So I would like to know, um, how do you feel in, uh, Gran Turismo 7?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): The Gran Turismo community was Great for it being accessible and teaching me the basics and finding people to surround myself with and Like feel supported and a part of something um, I really wish they would do a little bit more listening to their fan base and you know, maybe some upgrades tracks cars that kind of thing, but it’s It’s not my favorite anymore.

I loved Gran Turismo until I got ACC on PS5.[00:23:00]

Now Gran Turismo is like, I’m gonna relax and play with my friends. ACC is like, I must get faster.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Understand this. We all got that kind of games which we play, uh, like occasionally with friends. Um, and then simulator where you really hard racing with everybody. Um, can you tell me what is your favorite, uh, track in the set?

Of course, competes you on the, and the favorite car as well.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, I don’t really know for sure about a favorite car yet. I’ve only really driven the 992. I think it’s the 23992 Porsche and the Lambo Evo two. So I’m sure there are two totally different cars to drive. Um, and Gran Turismo 7, when I first started, the Lambo just wanted to kill you, the Group 3 Lamborghini.

And the Porsche was super easy to drive. And as the [00:24:00] updates came through, the Lambo got nerfed, and now they almost drive the same, but the Porsche drives nicer than Lamborghini does.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: And

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): then, on ACC, it’s like, the Lamborghini is so much easier to drive than the Porsche. The Porsche just wants to murder you everywhere you go.

But I like both of them, they’re both a different kind of challenge to get your times down on the track. Um, as far as track is concerned, um, I really like Imola now that I’ve had a chance to drive it. Silverstone’s a lot of fun, but I really just love the Nordschleife all, every different way you can do it.

The N24, the Nurburgring GP, that’s, it’s where you go to relax and drive way too fast.

One day I’m hoping to make my way over to Germany and at least visit it, but I’d [00:25:00] love to move there.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I think that many people will be jealous for those people who’s living next to the Nordschleife and got opportunity to like near everyday race here and have a track day.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Oh, I know the jealousy of it.

I know a person who lives there and actually works there.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: And

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): like I saw a video of them repaving part of the track. And so, the first thing I did was message her on Discord and be like, What’s this? And she’s like, Oh yeah, I started yesterday and this is what they’re doing and they’re ruining this corner by adding a curb that’s taller.

I’m like, Thanks. You want to sponsor somebody to move down there? Like, I can help you pay rent. I’ll drive you to work. Anything I can do, just get me to Germany. I

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: think that Germany is a really nice [00:26:00] country to live in. Um, so I hope you’re going to have this opportunity in the future to move into your dream country and be close to Nordschleife.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): You know what’s funny too is like living where I do in the United States. I feel like if I did go to Germany, it would be like the same, but they speak a different language from everybody that I’ve talked to over there. I’ve got so many German friends. It’s it’s almost like the same as the state that I live in.

The trees look the same. The weather looks the same. Everything looks the same. And I’m just like, see, I’m, I’m in the right climate. I’m in the right place. geographical kind of location. I’m just not in the right part of the world.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right, um, talking about your streams, how do you enjoy them? And do you find hard to drive and talk at the same time? [00:27:00]

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Sometimes driving and talking at the same time is just not my thing. Um, I do my best, but there are times that I’m Like in the middle of a race, I’m trying to go as fast as I can and push it to the limits.

And I see a little chat message pop up over here and I’m like, Oh, who’s that crash? So, uh, it’s been a lot of work trying to find that happy medium of where can I look at my chats and how can I pay attention to my viewers and still not destroy my race? Um, I started streaming just for like prosperity sake, you know, like, Oh, there was an incident I can go back on my stream.

I don’t have to search through a replay or. And my friends could come and watch my laps and stuff like that. It was mostly just to keep track of things and my progress as I was getting better. And then I started getting a couple of followers. I still don’t have many, but I started getting a couple of followers that I didn’t know.

And I’m like, [00:28:00] Oh, this is, this is kind of fun. I like talking to people. And then we had a Commentary person drop out for one of the scaly punk charity races. And I was like, I’ll do it. And I found myself running my mouth for two and a half hours, maybe three. And I was like, this is kind of fun. I like judging other people’s driving and talking about it and laughing with the people on chats.

So I was like, okay, I’m going to make this like a side gig. It’s a good thing for racers to do when they are sim racers to do when they don’t feel like sim racing. Or just to engage with the fanbase. So, that’s when I got into commentary, but I really love it. I’m starting to find my, um, oh, my groove so that I can stream, manage talking with chat, and not completely destroy my race.

Um, early on I had anger and temper issues because I just didn’t have the [00:29:00] consistency, you know, going around the track. Besides the fact that I’m streaming, I wasn’t that great anyway. And so I would get upset and the rest of my race would get ruined. So over the last, probably eight months to a year, I’ve been tempering that down.

So that it’s like, okay, this happened. I missed my breaking point and slid into the grass. I didn’t destroy my car. I’m still in the race and I’m going to keep going until it’s over. And I’m just not going to be mad because what happens when you get mad? You start making mistakes you You’re trying to push over drive the car and the next thing, you know, it’s like oh I can get closer to that sausage No, I can’t There is no closer to the sausage than I was driving before now my car is Balancing off into the wall on the other side of the track.

So, um, Staying calm keeping cool. Just keeping everything smooth. That’s the whole goal of it and And just getting better every day Well, I hope it’s every [00:30:00] day.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Well, it’s really hard sometimes to find this focus, uh, on track instead of focus on chat. Uh, so I’m struggling as well with this, uh, but it just get better with some practice, uh, because you just like, if you.

Okay, I’m going to be focused on the track instead of, uh, focusing on chat. Uh, so just let, let know viewers and, uh, everything’s fine. So everybody really. Understandable in this and it’s really cool because sometimes you can just be in a really hard fight on track and not talk for like, I don’t know, 10 minutes or something like this and everybody going to be silent with you watching your race.

It’s really cool.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Right. I always expect it’s like, okay, I’m, I’m struggling right now. I need to focus and catch up or find my markers again and just like get back into the zone. And I’m always like, okay, well, by the time I’m [00:31:00] done being silent, doing my thing, I’m going to look over and it’s going to be empty.

And it’s not like, they’re not here just to talk to you. Like they’re here to watch. How you’re racing, the lines you’re taking, they’re here to learn from your mistakes, too, because even the aliens make mistakes. I know, um, one of the guys that he hasn’t streamed much, but he just started streaming, um, I met him trying to get into my first ACC league, and I was like, I’m not really very good, but I would love to try this driver swap series thing that they’ve got going on.

I And I found out you can do driver swaps, like, really real driver swaps on ACC, and I’m like, yeah, let’s do it! And he’s like, oh no, it’s cool, just please don’t try to go too fast, don’t run into people, and stay smooth. If you can just stay smooth and focus, I don’t care how things end up, [00:32:00] I just want to see you improve.

And that’s been like, everybody’s attitude that I’ve talked to so far. And I’ve gone from 10 seconds behind the pace on ACC to I’m a good mid pack to tail end of, well above that, tail end of the good drivers and mid pack driver now. And it’s only been two months since I’ve been playing ACC. So Gran Turismo did teach me a lot.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I’m pretty sure that

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I’m not gonna know Gran Turismo too much.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm hmm Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Gran Turismo gave you a good base for sim racing and to drive in ACC and in racing in the future as well Um, it’s really cool that you, you got this experience and, uh, right now you making good improvements.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Yeah, and you know, I’ve, people laugh a lot when I say this, but I’m like, I’ve been doing this for a couple of years now. And there’s been instances where I’m [00:33:00] driving on a real road and it’s wet and it’s early morning. And I live near this highway that, it’s like the most dangerous highway in the state where I live.

Yeah. And I’ve seen literally an accident every other day for a year before on this highway. And one day I’m driving down the highway and I look up, I don’t look up, I’m just like come around the corner and the next thing you know all I can see are these headlights that are about the same height as the roof of my car.

And I didn’t freak out, I wasn’t scared, I was just like oh I need to go around him. And when I was done I was I was like, okay, so I didn’t hit the guardrail on the right side. I didn’t break my mirror on the semi truck. That was 100 percent in my lane coming around this corner. I can’t attribute my calmness or my reactions [00:34:00] to anything other than sim racing.

That’s like the reaction times and being so used to being like stressing yourself out over how you’re driving or how you’re going to take this corner or how you’re going to handle your car in real life. You’re doing a quarter of the speed half the time or less. And so when something dangerous does happen, there’s no thinking involved.

You can react and you know that it’s safe to do this because your car’s not even close to the limit. So why can’t you just like whip it over real quick?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, in my opinion, uh, people who driving on the road, they should jump into whatever, sim racing or maybe some, uh, like extreme driving to just, uh, teach this reactions.

Yeah. As you said, and it’s really helped me. It’s like, it saved me, um, you know, a couple of times on the road when I was driving the car. Um, and that’s a good thing, which you notice, uh, that sim racing help you in the driving in real life as well. [00:35:00]

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Yeah, just knowing the feel of the car, it’s like the first time I ever got understeer in a car that I was driving in real life.

I had never like driven with a simulator, like the wheel and everything. And even if I had, it would have been what, 40 years ago before they had such a thing as force feedback or pedals. It like actually had real, you know, Load cell field to them or anything like that. And when my car started understeering, it was like pure panic moment.

And it’s like, okay, what do I do? Oh, hit the brakes. Oh, that’s not helping let off the brakes. Some I’ll try the gas. Um, let’s try steering less. No, that’s not going to help. And you just don’t know what to do when you get into that situation. And so you’ve like really been there. And what, when you practice it every day, something happens and there’s no question.

There’s no thought. There’s, oh, this is how I handle that situation. [00:36:00]

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, my opinion. So yeah, why

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): don’t they, why don’t they make simulators, like, part of courses for driving, getting your driver’s license?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, exactly. I think that should be a part of it, uh, because you’re getting really good skills, uh, which can save your car, your life on the road, and it’s, it’s great.

And yeah. Thank you. In my opinion, a lot of accidents which happening on the roads, uh, that just because, you know, people panic and they don’t know what to do in this situation. And that’s it. As you said, like, uh, you was panic a little bit when you had understeer with your car in real life. Yeah. And, uh, this is exactly what happening with people and no wonder because they, uh, absolutely got no, uh, experience in such a sort of situations.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Right, so you don’t know what to do, the first thing you’re going to do is panic and wreck your car. Yeah. Hahaha. So the only real, real life wreck that I’ve [00:37:00] ever been in that, uh, we’re not going to count the one that was half on purpose. I was, I was on that dangerous highway that I was telling you about, this other one, right?

Same highway, and they were doing road work on there, and I pulled up behind this semi, it’s a flagger. And I’m like, I hate this highway, I’m going to give myself one. A semi length between me and the truck. Someone’s gonna come by and hit me, I just know it. And three days in a row I’m stopping at this flagger.

And finally, the third day, I stop, I hit the flashers, I check the mirror. Okay, there’s somebody stopped behind me, I’m safe now. See what time it is, click the phone. As soon as I started reaching towards my phone, I hear this.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: And

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I was like, okay, number one, he was speeding number two, we’re all going to get hit.

So I was like, all right, I need to be able to control my car. So I don’t want to have the brakes on too tight. [00:38:00] So I put the car in gear. I let off three quarters of my brakes so that they were just barely holding me in place. And he, he dodged the car behind me. This is awesome because he’s in this giant Toyota Tundra, right?

You got this much space and his truck is this big He bounces off the guardrail completely misses the car behind me Smashes in the tail of my car and if I had reacted any differently I probably would have ended up in the oncoming traffic. That was right flying by like nothing’s happening But instead I was able to control my car and it was like, okay Kept it inside my lane and I didn’t hit the truck because I gave myself space So More things that I’m learning, I’m applying things that I’ve learned to simracing to situations you don’t even experience in simracing.

Because if you hold your brakes too much, how much control do you have over your car? And if you’re spending all of your, um, [00:39:00] traction braking, you can’t turn. And so, the second I knew something was wrong, Those are the thoughts that went through my mind and it was just like, okay, this is how I’m not gonna die

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Returning back to some racing a little bit Um, I want to ask you how do you prepare for your races and what races do you do usually in acc? Maybe that’s some kind of leak which you can suggest to people who’s starring in acc or like that. Just a multiplayer races

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): As far as lazy concerned, um Uh, Dream Team Racing has some great GT7 leagues, an awesome guy, he, the people who started it, one of them is German, one of them is, uh, uh, uh, uh, Irish.

Some of my best friends now, they run usually one season a year, and depending on the number of int the amount of interest they get, they’ll [00:40:00] have, uh, three lobbies going sometimes, four. And so we’ve got skill levels from I just got this game and I’m learning how to drive on it to I’m, not even gonna bother trying to race this person because they’re so freaking fast They lapped me in three laps and like this is just I will learn from them I will watch them, but i’m not gonna compete with them.

Um, so dream team racing is really cool. Uh Scaly punk charity racing is also really cool because we do the same thing We, uh, split up the lobbies by skill level. And it’s usually 40 minute races. It’s pretty much the go to on GT seven. Um, since I started ACC. My first series that I started, I, it was supposed to be like a two hour, two or three hour driver swap thing where it’s like, Oh, I’m going to drive for an hour out of this.

And it turns out that that one got canceled because there wasn’t enough [00:41:00] interest. And then I saw they had another one and it costs a little bit of money to join, but once you pay money, they can’t cancel it. So I started a four and a half hour driver swap series. And so I’m doing that with Phil Hooligan.

And I’ve got my friend Neil DeCiel, Neil Wright. Um, he’s part of Infinity Racing League, IRL. Uh, they’ve got a Discord server also. And they are partnered up with ACC Consoles. Um, I, I’m sure if, if you’ve ever played ACC and you look up the online lobby list, ACC Consoles is like all over it. They’ve got tons of lobbies on there.

They do a time trial. Where they set up the track for the month and anybody can go and join on it. There’s no password and you can see how you stack up against however many people enter it. I was, I think I was 43rd out of 115 the last time. Last one I [00:42:00] was able to take time and do so that’s not bad. I’m like I said, I’m mid to Little bit better than that base um, so those are really good leagues and then There’s another one coming up.

It’s going to be an imsa foreign It’s imsa endurance racing and it’s going to be a mixed class that’s run by acc consoles as well And so i’ve got I want to have an all female team for this one So I asked Yvonne to join me on that one And anybody else who is interested, we can take, I think we can have up to three or four drivers.

So any other ladies out there want to get in on this, let me know.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, so you can message Tasha.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Oh right, it is on PS5 though, it’s not, it’s not PC, unfortunately. But yeah, no, I’m basically, I want to get as good as I can, so I drive everything that I can. [00:43:00] I’m not very, I wasn’t very good at ACC when I first started it.

But I’m not going to be like, Oh, I’m not going to join this series because I suck. I’m going to be like, I’m going to go join this series and see how well I do and see how much I can learn from them. I didn’t progress from. A pleb to where I’m at now, a better pleb by Sitting on the sidelines and not participating jump in Everybody is going to help you out.

If you have questions ask in a discord server ask on the racing server And guaranteed you’re going to make friends and someone who is alien pace is going to be like here Let me help you i’ll teach you a couple of things about this and you’ll be faster And then the other part of it is giving up. I’m never going to give up, right?

Every now and then I get into this position where I start feeling content being like, I’m not going to improve any more than this. This is just going to be my pace. [00:44:00] And that’s usually about the time that I gain a second on my laps.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: It’s

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): like, okay, now that I’m content, all of a sudden, poof, I’m faster. I’m like, whoa.

Okay. So maybe we need to relax while we’re doing this too. This isn’t about stressing yourself out and gripping as tight as you can. This is about. You want to be smooth and learn from everybody. That’s what we do.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I’m absolutely agree with you. Uh, so good thing, which you said that you, when you relax, you’re like boom gaining one second and it’s, it’s really working because you just stop to push yourself too hard and stop to, um, Like focus too hard on things which you’re doing with driving and you just relax and let your brain to do all things on track and it’s, it’s really working.

Um, do you like endurance racing more compared to sprint racing? And if yes, what do you like the most about endurance [00:45:00] racing or sprint racing if you prefer this one?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Favorite? Yeah, I really do love the endurance racing, especially the driver swap endurance racing, because you’re working together with someone else.

So you’re not going to set the car up for you. They’re not going to set the car up for them. You have to work together and find a setup for the car because you can’t swap it, swap the setup when you get to the pits. Um, the pit stops themselves and trying to communicate with the other driver, set up tire pressures for the swap and stuff like that makes it more interesting.

Um, just being there, having a teammate in your ear. Um, they’re, they can watch you the whole time on ACC, especially in like, if there’s something you’re doing every lap that you’re not catching, they can give you advice on it. You know, I really love the AI on ACC where it tells you, it’s like, Oh, car on the right, Oh, clear on the right.

Don’t ever trust that thing. [00:46:00] Cause half the time, all I did was move over two inches to the right and it’s still there. So you still gotta be careful, but when you have somebody with you, they can spot those cars or, or you don’t have to watch your mirror because they can tell you someone’s coming up behind you.

You don’t have to watch the time so much in the bottom corner, trying to see what the deltas are because. You’ve got someone to do that for you. You can focus and drive. And then my other favorite thing about the endurance races is they last longer. I don’t want to jump in my rig and compete for 40 minutes.

I want to like push myself. I want to be going, I want to be driving. I want to drive for an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours. If I had my way, I would do it for a job and I would probably drive four or six hours a day, but I’m not there yet.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Do you like the part of endurance racing where you’re counting fuel and do some management with the schedule? Are you doing this by yourself or are you more? Uh, like [00:47:00] dedicate this to your teammates.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I’m just starting in it. Like I’ve only done, I can’t remember if we’ve done one or two. I think we’ve only gotten one done so far.

Like I said, I’ve only been doing this for two months and the endurance races run once a month. So the next one is coming up this Saturday. It’ll be streamed on my YouTube and it’s a spa and I’ve got decent times there. So this should be a good one to watch, but Phil and I are working together on a setup and actually I’ve got Neil Wright coming.

To drive this one with me another awesome guy but we work together to find a setup that we can all drive and then When it comes to fuel calculation, it’s you gotta I I enjoy doing it. I’m a math person like I went up to uh math 350 or something like that when I was in college and the only reason I stopped doing it is because My baby was born too early.

And so I had to drop a class lost [00:48:00] financial aid and No more school for me But, I love math, I love physics, I love thinking, so now I’ll look at, um, liters per lap, and how much time is left, and what my lap times are, and do the math in my head as quickly as I can. Usually, right now, I’m doing it all on the fly.

I’m hoping that, like, not this coming race, but the race after and the one after that, I’ve got a better grasp on how it works in ACC, and I can actually plan driver stints. Thanks. And okay, this is, we’re starting with 70 percent fuel, 70 liters, fuel, whatever. And then we’re, this is how much we’re going to fuel each time we come in.

And I like to strategize. It’s a lot of fun. I don’t like to do it by myself because I’m not racing alone. When you’ve got a team of people racing, everybody needs to have input, right? It’s like anything else. But no, I really, that’s another one of the things that I really love about endurance racing is like all [00:49:00] the strategies and, um, balancing ideas off with somebody else, practicing with them and just fine tuning how you’re driving together.

Sprint races are fun, um, as far as preparing goes. Um, I used to practice two hours a day every day before the race, trying to get ready for that race. And I went through about a month where I didn’t have time to practice at all. And I did better. I was like, from now on, my practice is going to be doing whatever I want, wherever I want.

And then on the day of the race, For the sprint race, I’m just going to jump in, do five laps and wing it. And it’s worked for me. I’m, I’m doing better on GT seven, doing it that way, but I’m also putting in more time on ACC. I think the better you do on ACC, the less you [00:50:00] need to try on GT seven. Right. And so I’m getting a lot better at that one.

Um, ACC preparation. I work at that. I’ve got this, uh, I started a one hour series with TJC Gaming, also another great guy, super inclusive. Um, you can join his races while he’s streaming. It’s a lot of fun, but I started joining his one hour races and it’s like, I’ll, you know, I’ll practice for like two hours throughout the week, come up with some kind of a setup and then not worry about it until the day of the race.

And then the four and a half hour races, I’m like fine tuning a setup and working with my team probably once a week ish for a month until it comes up and it’s time for the race. And it’s like, okay, Within three days before the race I do about an hour drive just so I can see what the tires are going to do See what the temperatures are going to do try um [00:51:00] different weather settings because It’s not like gt7 where they tell you the weather settings Usually these guys are like what are the real what’s the real world weather and you don’t even know till The day of half of the time.

I mean you can get a guess I looked up the weather last time and it was like, oh sunny Yeah Nah, it was cloudy and nearly raining, so that’s what our lobby looked like. So, um, ACC I put in a little bit more preparation. Gran Turismo 7 now, like I said, it’s, I just don’t worry about it anymore. It’s for fun, so I don’t prepare at all.

I jump in the day of and it’s like, okay, this is how we’re doing it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, sometimes it’s really good to have just jump into the race, have fun and not think about anything about practice or, uh, something like this. I can suggest you a little thing about practice, it’s working for me. Uh, I don’t know, you can try it for yourself as well. Um, so usually I’m practicing, uh, [00:52:00] like I know one hour, two hours, uh, and, uh, I’m going to have like another one day before the race.

So I’m not doing the practice, um, on that day. And I know during the night, my brain, like, uh, collects all the info. And, uh, the next day when I’m doing, uh, like short practice, maybe 40 minutes or something like this, I’m just getting faster. And it’s really cool. Um, trying to not do. Not to do a lot of practice during the race day as I’m, you know, feeling tired, especially when we’re doing endurance races.

Uh, you really need this energy and, um, you need a lot of energy for your scenes because sometimes you do, um, in a racing, we’re doing double scenes. Uh, so you like one hour plus driving in the car, two hours sometimes. Uh, so yeah, you can try, uh, like, do. Uh, practice, then relax, and then take, like, little practice to just, uh, settle down things, uh, in your, in your [00:53:00] mind, and then jump to the race next day.

Something like this.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Absolutely. Actually, that, uh, it’s funny that you say that, because, um, the ACC console server, uh, I think it was, um, Kyalami that they had, the time trial going on? And that was also going to be the first endurance race that I was doing. And I’m still brand new with the game. I hadn’t really practiced anything else.

So one night I was like, I’m going to get better in this time trial. I’m going to get my name into the top 50. Right. And so I spent that night doing laps and laps and laps and laps. And, uh, it’s like, okay, I’ve got a good feel for the flow of it and how I’m gonna go, and this is great. Went to bed, and I, like, my eyes shot open at about 6.

30 in the morning, and I had this dream that I had gotten, whatever time, two seconds faster than what I was doing the night before. And I was like, let’s [00:54:00] go get this a shot. Get out of bed at 6 30 in the morning, come turn the rig on. I jumped on and like within two laps, I had, I nailed that two seconds faster lap.

And it was just a processing of, okay, this corner complex I’m coming into. It’s, um, I need to stop worrying about hitting the apex on the way through. I need to stay wide there so that it’s easier to hit the next left hand corner. And it came to me in a dream. As ridiculous as it is. Yes, I was dreaming and I figured out how to drive faster in my sleep.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s amazing. And you know, it’s a lot better to just, when you’re stuck on the, on your lap time, uh, you just go relaxed and then like everything, everything will come to you in the morning and you’ll do like two seconds faster, one second faster, or something like this. It’s working all the time.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): And the other thing, one of the other things that I [00:55:00] use is, so do 300 laps at Kyalami trying to get your time right.

And all you’re doing is frustrating yourself because it’s not, all you’re doing is overdriving the car. You’re not learning anything. You’re not doing any better. What’s a track that you are good at? Go play somewhere else for a little while. Like, I was like, Oh, I haven’t tried the Nürburgring on, or, uh, the Nordschleife on ACC yet.

Let’s go see what that one’s like. Oh, it is not the same as it is on GT7, but I still really love it. And so I go play on the Nordschleife for a little while and go back to the other track. And it’s Oh, oh, this corner looks completely different now. I’m like, all right, I can break another four meters later here.

Let’s do this.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. Sometimes yeah.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Clear the brain. It’s a, it’s like when you’re out tasting wine or tequila in my case, you taste one, you have a [00:56:00] little cleanser and then you taste the other one, right? Switch it up a little bit. It helps you learn.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, sometimes you just need some fresh air to get in and then you just jump with a, um, better energy to the track and you’re like, Oh, yes, I can do this corner a lot better now.

And yeah, it’s working all the time as well.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Yeah, sometimes the good break is what it takes. Um, the whole not practicing until the day of, like I said, it came about from a month where I just didn’t have time to practice. And both of the races that came up for that series, it was like, Man, I don’t care if I lose.

I got on, I did like three laps for practice and then qualification started. And I was like, yeah, let’s see how it goes. And you know, they didn’t practice at all. So I qualified mid pack and like, uh, yep, it’s all right. And just don’t hit anybody and try and have clean race and do your best. Who cares what happens?

And the next thing, you know, you’re. second place or leading the [00:57:00] race and it’s like, um, wow, I should relax more often.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Some good advices for people who are jumping into sim racing for the first time. That’s nice. Thank you. Um,

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): and the other and along with that is like, if you’re just getting into sim racing, don’t get on and start trying to go as fast as you can. There’s no reason to you’re not, all you’re going to do is.

Overdrive your car and frustrate yourself. What you want to do is go out and drive it like you’re learning a new neighborhood. Go around it a few times at a safe speed where you know you can make the corners and start getting a flow for how you want to drive it. And as you’re doing this, you’re going to slowly speed up and you’re going to start remembering where you’re at.

Nordschleife took me six months to stop botching three of the [00:58:00] corners because I I was like, Oh, I’m at this corner. Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. That corner isn’t flat on the track, but you just want to get the lay of it. And as you’re doing this, and as you’re slowly learning the track, you’re going to start going faster and faster, and you’re not going to be pushing or overdriving your car, it’s just your comfort level is going to grow and you’re going to be smooth.

And you’re going to be faster by starting out going slower. That’s one piece of advice that everybody tells you. You never want to believe it, but slow is faster.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Slow

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): in, fast out, hit your apex, hit your markers, and relax.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Exactly, this is what you have to do. Also a good thing to just look at replay and see how wide you go in if you’re using the whole track and if you got opportunity to watch on the telemetry and analyze with Someone [00:59:00] who’s faster. Maybe you got to mate or someone like this that’s also a really good thing to do because you can compare with someone and you see where you Um, maybe doing differently.

Uh, some corners you might do better than your teammate, for example. Uh, some corners you can, um, learn from your teammate. And it’s, uh, it’s a great thing as well about simracing that we got open telemetry. And we got a lot of opportunities to watch other people replays. Uh, this is not what happened in real life in many series, uh, unfortunately.

But we, we just have to use these, uh, tools which we got in sim racing.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Absolutely. That. One of the things I love about sim racing is just the accessibility to all of the information. Um, you’re struggling on a track and you’re, you’ve got a league race coming up and you just don’t know why you can’t get any faster.

Pull up YouTube. Find somebody who’s [01:00:00] faster. There’s a lot of good youtubers out there that you can watch their lap times. You can Um figure out their breaking points. You can figure out what gear they’re in for each corner Um, that’s a big recommendation. I know automatic is easier to Work when you first start sim racing just figure out a way to get a manual in there.

Um, when I was on controller, I used like X and square for shifting and the triggers were gas and brake and steering was the left stick. Uh, now that I got the wheel, of course I got the paddle shifters on it, so that’s nice. But the automatic, you just don’t have the options for gear changes in corners.

Sometimes it’ll have you on third gear when really you need second to get the rotation for the car. But that’s another thing you can learn is, uh, what gear they’re using through corners. What, What are you doing to get rotation from the car and what are you doing to stop the [01:01:00] rotation and get on the power on the way out?

And sometimes you want a lower gear to get into the corner and you want to shift up when you hit the apex so you can get on the power right away and it doesn’t spin you out. It gives you a little bit of understeer and pushes you out to the curb. See, that’s why I love simracing, there’s so much to talk about.

Yeah. There’s so much nuance in it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s true. Um,

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): speaking of We can pick it apart all day long.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, speaking of We can talk

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): about seating position.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Sorry.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): No, I’m I was half kidding, but it’s like, you want to talk about seating position, I you want to be able to like, set your wrist on fully extended out, and then when you grab your wheel, you want your arms to be about 90 degrees.

Please? You don’t want to be stretched out like this trying to drive, and you don’t want to be all like this where you don’t have any movement. Every little thing about this means something.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, especially driving position is a really good thing. You know, [01:02:00] I was struggling with the trail braking. I was losing a little bit, like, a little bit everywhere to the fastest drivers in the racing.

And the one thing which I did, I just, um, Did my, uh, move my seat backwards by one click and I fixed completely this trail breaking and you know I’m going faster right now and that’s exactly crazy about sim racing like every little things accounting to your better, better lap times on track So I agree with you in this.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): It’s like every stupid little thing affects it like okay, so GT7 I when I was driving I was driving bumper cam because it just makes the most sense really for GT7 Um the way that I have everything set up. I basically have the whole dashboard So my steering wheel is here and then I use the This is where the homemade rig comes in again.

So I [01:03:00] have an actual rig, but I took a different piece of that same countertop and I attached it to my monitor brackets and then I attached it to the wheel mount so that I could adjust my wheel farther back to get my legs farther away from the pedals and be able to adjust my seat more. And so it’s just another aspect of adjustability there.

It’s um, I had this issue though getting into ACC I really wanted to drive cockpit view. I always have it makes more sense. It’s immersion, right? Like you have more reference points in my car I know that if the right hand side of my windshield wiper the little knobby Is touching the white line on the right hand side that my tires are on the white line on the right side I know exactly where my car is on gg7.

It’s like oh it’s about right here on the screen And as long as I have this thing mapped up there that spot is where the edge of it is but when you cockpit view it’s like It’s [01:04:00] always there you have all of your reference marks for the car You can figure out exactly where everything is on it. So With the new seat i’m raised up a little bit more and i’ve got a 55 inch screen that like it goes up to Way too tall so I was I wasn’t able to get into Any other view besides bumper cam on acc even because I would have been looking like this while I was trying to drive And you don’t want that.

You want to be looking straight ahead. Everything matters in sim racing, racing, everything matters. So now that I’ve got a comfortable seat that I feel like is hugging me, I love it, I’m raised up just a little bit higher. I was able to get my settings and now I’m racing in cockpit view. And you know how your lap times always suffer when you first switch views, because you’re not used to the braking markers.

Took me one lap to beat my previous time.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Wow.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I did one [01:05:00] lap and I was like, okay, I see where everything is. I did another lap and I was like, all right, two seconds. I got this.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s always

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): two seconds with me too. I don’t beat it by a half second, I beat it by two seconds.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s what a right driving position is about.

So you just get in a comfortable position, you’re like, Wow, I can be faster, you know, because you, uh, actually just, You got more confidence in your break in, you got more confidence when you’re going on throttle back, and overall you’re just feeling comfortable in Eureka, and it’s, it’s really important.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Yeah, one of the next things I gotta, so, this is a huge mess of an organizational thing right here, right now. But one of the next things I gotta do is figure out what to do with this. I mean, when I’m driving, it’s[01:06:00]

But if I have it over here, then nobody can hear me. If I have it over here, it’s my arms hitting it. So, you know, it’s a work in progress. Now, you gotta see this, though. And it’s okay if you laugh. I laugh all the time.

So that’s the desktop that I use. To extend everything.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Oh, that’s nice. This

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): is about my view of the screen when I’m driving. It’s like craning your head way up to see that. So this is my eye level. And this is my streaming setup over here. It’s a mess of a jumble of wires because I have to use way too many devices tethered together to make everything work.

So my 10 year old laptop, I use the, uh, Tablet down here for voice chat.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm hmm

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): on this side I was donated a couple of pieces of the 80 20 [01:07:00] 80 40 rig whatever With the keyboard mount, but they don’t mount on this. So I had to See all the weirdness I got going on down here. I found a way to attach weirdness To my tube whatever rig because you know, I just you can do anything you want.

All you need is To want it start working on it. There’s always a solution. I have a problem. I will find a solution This stupid thing is in my way Don’t worry about it. Give me a couple of weeks. It’s gonna be mounted probably over on my keyboard stand. .

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. That, that’s, uh,

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): that’d be nice if it could sit somewhere, you know, or it was like in front of me, but yeah, no, that ain’t gonna work either.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: No. While we talking, my, my mouse just stopped to work. , I think I can figure it out. Yeah. Just, uh, [01:08:00] not responding. I know why .

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Oh, I love it when that happens.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. You know, uh, it’s really funny when you. You got everything ready, like, you check everything and you’re starting stream. And here’s something going wrong all the time.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I used to prepare everything for my stream the night before, right when I was getting ready to go to bed. Okay, sound check, mic check, screen check, stream, stream labs check. Everything just set up perfectly. And then the next day I would go to stream and none of it would be working. Okay. So, I’ve given up on getting things set up the day before, now I’m just like, okay, whatever.

Um, I can wing this in ten minutes, I got it. Heh heh heh.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, um, I just, I’m so curious, uh, you got this beautiful black, uh, Jackson guitar on your background, uh, so can [01:09:00] you tell me a little bit about it and, uh, you’re playing some music and what kind of music do you play?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I have been a metalhead since the day I was born. Um, at, at first you, it wasn’t the same kind of metal because it was the 80s and you know, it just wasn’t the same.

Um, But I always wanted to learn how to play guitar. I learned about I don’t know when I was 12 years old I think I started actually learning how to play and Been playing on and off ever since i’m not great But my kid decided he wanted to learn how to play bass guitar And what better to motivate him than sitting and jamming with him?

So I went Borrowed a guitar the air quotes aren’t because I stole it. It’s because my You This person, uh, decided that he was going to loan it to me, but he didn’t care how long I have it. So basically he gave me this guitar. It’s a Jackson [01:10:00] with the Floyd Rose. And when I looked it up and figured out how much this thing costs, it’s between seven and 1, 200.

So 900 bucks worth is just about right, but pick around on it a little bit. And what I’m thinking about doing is. I don’t want copyright strikes. I can’t find a way to get good music for intro videos and stuff like that without paying let’s see, I want it in this moment because number one, she’s a goddess number two, she’s amazing, she has an amazing voice and I love her music and the uh, What’s it called?

Uh, the messages behind what she’s singing. It’s like super strong woman powerful Just amazing. So listen to in this moment if you like metal and i’m struggling to find that So my next going to be an audio input so that I can go from [01:11:00] guitar direct into my computer, record some riffs along with a video.

And now I can make my own intro video with metal sounds that aren’t copyright. And I don’t have to search for years and years and years to find something that is.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s, that’s great. Uh, really, uh, cool to see. I actually noticed that people who’s in sim racing, they, uh, also in some other hobbies, like maybe in flight simulators, in music. Um, yeah. And it’s really cool to know you from different side.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, there’s lots of different things I’m interested in, but mostly I just want to sim race and find my way into the real racing world.

Um, I recently. Recently, a year ago, I got injured. I’ve been in construction my whole life. So you want to know how to build something? You need something built. I can basically [01:12:00] do anything. I work with, um, CAD software. I, I can engineer a house. I can engineer a deck. I’ve built everything from running heavy equipment all the way through finishing touches on a house when the homeowner was moving in, I can do it all, but I want to be the best at everything.

And I want to be. the fastest at everything and I want to just be amazing at everything. So I worked myself to death. I now have a back injury. I walk with a cane and my doctor’s telling me that they want me to start walking with a walker. So that is gone. No more construction for me. And I’m currently in trying to change careers.

I’m trying to change careers. transitional period. So, um, finding a way to get into something to do with sim racing, doing commentary, uh, not really [01:13:00] promotions for somebody because I’m not so great with the artwork kind of thing, but working behind the scenes for something to grow women in sim racing. Um, people with different, uh, uh, differently abled people getting into sim racing, because I just have this passion.

If somebody wants to do something, they should be able to. So I’m looking at all these different things that I can try and start doing as a career change and find a way to make money off of it. But um, I forgot why I started saying that. What was that? What were we talking about right before that?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Oh, we were talking about uh, the um about your guitar music and then you uh, yeah Yeah interest.

Yeah

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): So yeah, i’ve got all these interests and Nowhere to put them now. So I’m spending a [01:14:00] lot of time trying to find my, like scoosh my way into a new career somehow, um, with something that I love and probably going to be spending a lot more time. Luckily, my mother in law lives in Portland and I know most people wouldn’t say, Oh, I’ll go visit.

But I’m like, number one, she’s not that bad. Number two. She lives in the same place as Portland International Raceway, which, if I spend enough time there, you know, I might be able to find my way onto a team, you know? Even if it’s not racing, I could sit behind a TV screen and relay information. I’m really good at talking.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, we can see this. You’re awesome in this.

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): I’m trying to tell, is that an insult or a compliment?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right, and before we wrap up, the last question for you will be, do you have any [01:15:00] big plans for your YouTube channel and for streaming? Are you planning maybe to expand and stream on Twitch as well alongside with YouTube?

Tasha (@transmissionmotorsport): Um, my goal right now is to get monetized to the point where I can afford To not have to put money into things like dual streaming Um, if my streaming was paying for it paying for things like a dual stream Through stream labs, then I would already be going on to twitch So i’m working towards it paying for itself to grow.

It hasn’t happened yet, but it will um besides that most of my streams right now are either comms for other people racing or You know Me racing in a league.

Crew Chief Brad: And it e sports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring e [01:16:00] sports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. And it e sports is a woman led company where diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is in their DNA and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the e sports world as safe and fair as possible to learn more.

Be sure to log on to www. initesports. gg or follow them on social media at Init Esports. Join their Discord, check out their YouTube channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our Motoring Podcast Network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, The Motoring Historian, Brake Fix, and many others.

If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash [01:17:00] GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent.

If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media as mentioned in the episode.

Copyright INIT eSports. This podcast is now produced as part of the Motoring Podcast Network and can be found everywhere you stream, download or listen! 


More Screen to Speed…

Dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real-life racetracks, they explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motorsports. They hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports.

INIT eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands, while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. INIT eSports is a woman-led company where Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility is in their DNA, and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible. To learn more, be sure to logon to www.initesports.gg today or follow them on social media @initesports, join their discord, check out their YouTube Channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

At INIT eSports, founder and CEO Stefy Bau doesn’t just settle for the ordinary. She creates extraordinary experiences by producing thrilling online competitions and real-life events that transcend the boundaries of the eSports universe. And she’s here with us on Break/Fix to share her story, and help you understand why you need to get more involved in the world of eSports. 

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

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Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Dream Team Driver

In Episode 27 of INIT Talks, host Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya (aka LoveFortySix) welcomes Esmeralda Beemsterboer (@esmeraldabeemsterboer), a talented sim racer who has made waves in the competitive racing world. Esmeralda shares her exciting journey, from competing in the Screen to Speed Las Vegas event to achieving a podium finish—third place—at the Screen to Speed competition at the ADAC SimRacing Expo.

Watch the livestream

This episode highlights Esmeralda’s incredible accomplishments and her dream of becoming a Screen to Speed Dream Team driver. A month after expressing her wish, Esmeralda’s hard work and dedication paid off as she officially joined the Dream Team! She reflects on her racing experiences, the challenges she faced, and her aspirations for the future as a member of this prestigious team. Whether you’re a fan of sim racing, inspired by stories of ambition and perseverance, or curious about what it takes to reach the top in virtual motorsport, this episode offers valuable insights and inspiration. Don’t miss this exciting conversation with Esmeralda Beemsterboer as she celebrates her journey from racer to Dream Team driver!

Tune in everywhere you stream, download or listen!

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Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

  • 00:00 Introduction to Screen to Speed
  • 00:48 Guest Introduction: Esmerelda Beemsterboer
  • 01:11 SimRacing Expo Experience
  • 02:09 Racing Highlights and Challenges
  • 03:15 Diving into iRacing
  • 06:16 Community and Equipment
  • 16:10 Future Goals and Aspirations
  • 24:06 Women in Sim Racing and Motorsport
  • 28:17 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
  • 29:39 Sponsor Messages and Closing

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed powered by INIT Esports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, dedication and innovation that drives the world of motorsports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports. So buckle up, Screen to Speed starts now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Welcome everyone, uh, to Unique Talks show. Um, hope you’re doing well this evening. Welcome everybody. And we have an Esmerelda today with us. Uh, [00:01:00] thank you so much for taking your time, uh, to be with us today. Yeah, it’s great to

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: be here. Uh, I’d love to share all my experiences, but yeah, it’s great to be here.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. So let’s start, uh, you’ve been on Simracing Expo. Um, so we would like to know a little bit more about it. Uh, how was it for you? Uh, was it your first, uh, offline event or not?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, so it was awesome. Uh, I met so many people, um, and also to race there in front of, uh, the public, that was really special.

Uh, it wasn’t my first time cause I went to, uh, US, uh, last year, uh, also with Screen of Speed. Um, we all had to qualify and the top 15 went to Vegas. So that was my first offline event, which, you know, it was really awesome to be a part of. And as well as Germany this weekend, uh, it’s just [00:02:00] really great to see that many women in sim racing and then race against the best of them.

That’s just, that’s a great experience.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Awesome. Uh, how was your race and, uh, at sim racing expo?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Oh, it was, I think it went well. I’m really happy with the results. Uh, obviously I wanted to win, but, uh, yeah, I just lost out on it. So P3 in the, in the first race, um, which I was lucky with an incident in front of me.

Yeah, sometimes you just have to be there and, you know, even if you’re behind the pack, at least you, you’ll get there and scrape by. Uh, and then, uh, the second race, I was actually in the lead for a couple of laps. So, uh, yeah. Yeah. Uh, with Saoirse behind me, chasing me, and yeah, I just lost out, but it was, uh, a great race, and I ended up, uh, P2, uh, P3 overall, so yeah, I’m, I’m really happy.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Great, congrats to you. That’s [00:03:00] a good result to get the podium. Was it your type of car which you drove on the event? I know you’ve been driving the Formula 4 at Nürburgring. So can you tell me a little bit about this?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, so I race a lot of cars in iRacing. Um, mostly the MP2. And I had tried the F4 for a couple of practice sessions, but not a lot.

So yeah, it was quite a new car for me, um, to, to drive, but, um, I don’t know. I kind of just, it felt right though. It wasn’t that hard for me to, to get into it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I think as you got a lot of experience, as you said, with LMP2, uh, it’s a quite easy to get used to Formal 4 as that card was, was a down force and it’s fast also.

Um, so yeah, I think that’s why you didn’t have a lot of issues with this. Um, [00:04:00] how long ago did you start iRacing? Did you start SimRacing overall?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Um, I think it was 2020, early 2020 that I started SimRacing and I think I went into iRacing Immediately when I was starting, I’m not completely sure. Uh, but yeah, I did ACC and iRacing at the same time, kind of.

So yeah, four, four years ago, right in the COVID pandemic.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. I think just many people, uh, so we had on any talks to many people started from a pandemic time. Uh, I started also, um, I think just, you know, everybody gets tired at home and Going to do something and it was simracing, other games, and uh, someone went to streaming.

Um, that, that was, uh, [00:05:00] that was great time, uh, to start, uh, the simracing, the new hobby for yourself, definitely. Alright, um, so was it hard for you to start in iRacing, uh, do you have any Like, uh, si racing, racing experience before maybe you play some racing games, uh, before you started in sim racing or not?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Oh yeah. I , I actually played the Ong games like 2015 through, I think it was like 2018 or 2019 that I did. Uh, and, and that was just my experience. It wasn’t really sim racing. It. Um, I just did it for fun with like all the assets on, um, eventually in 2017, I bought, uh, the, uh, Trismaster T300. That was like my first wheel.

And I think it was two months before I got the F1 wheel add on. So it was just so, um, into Formula One at that time, [00:06:00] uh, still, by the way, but yeah, and I just played it for fun until, um, I, I met Iwona. And she got me really into sim racing.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s awesome. Um, can you tell me more, uh, about what equipment equipment you got right now?

So you definitely did some upgrades. I’m pretty sure in this. Yeah.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: So I’ve got a bit of a luxury setup. I’ve got the Hasingfeld sprint pedals. Um, I’m not connected to Heusinkveld, but I can really recommend them. They are awesome and they really help with my consistency. Uh, and then I’ve got the Fanatec CSL PD, uh, with the boost kit.

So it’s eight newton meters of course. And then I’ve got the, I can actually show you because I’m right in front of you. I’ve got the, uh, P2. [00:07:00] 5 steering wheel with the advanced Nice,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: this one is awesome.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, yeah, it’s, I’m really a fan of the wheel. Yeah, it’s great. The only thing that’s missing is the screen on it.

Yeah, I hope they get one someday.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm hmm. Um, how’s the, uh, how’s community for you in the, like, you know, racing and sim racing? Also, because we, uh, been talking. about this with, uh, other guests on the new talks show, uh, and, uh, find out that, uh, community and some racing overall really friendly, really welcome.

Uh, do you feel that too?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, yeah, it’s, um, I don’t know, I don’t know how to actually say this, but they, you’re, they make you feel welcome. Uh, so I had no trouble in Germany, um, to just get into the group on the first night that we met each [00:08:00] other. We, with the whole group, we went out to dinner in Dortmund and we had an amazing time.

Uh, so it’s just so easy to get into and I don’t know. They’re they’re all such nice people and Hopefully there are some bad ones in there as well. But overall my experience is so great

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s good, uh Usually people especially when you’re coming first time into sim racing. They try to help you with advices.

They try to like guide you to You Find your journey in simracing and it’s really cool indeed, um, to have, uh, really welcome people because not all the time you have this in other games and, uh, yeah, sometimes the community not really welcome, uh, and it’s, it’s really good that it’s, uh, an upside for simracing.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: That’s great. Yeah. I mean, if you want someone to help you, [00:09:00] you just have to ask and they’re all prepared to help you and to make time. So yeah, overall, that’s just, it’s a great community.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Okay, so as you said that LMP2 is your, like, main car in our racing. Uh, do you remember any Highlight of events which you did with it.

Maybe you did some endurance races where you finish on the podium or something like this

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Oh, i’ve got a couple of highlights But uh, they didn’t end really well No, I had I definitely had amazing experiences with mp2 Uh, I I started with a team of well, we were just friends And not really professional, so we ended up between entire barriers and stuff. So, yeah, I think As It was so much fun, [00:10:00] but for really, um, ending up high, I think all of our races ended up in the wall somehow.

Yeah, so not really memorable. I think we, we once got a podium, and then one of our drivers I can’t. One of our drivers, uh, didn’t drive enough laps.

So we got disqualified as well. Oh no!

Yeah, so, um, yeah. I mean, didn’t end well, but I had so much fun in all of these races. So it was worth it, totally worth it. Yeah, I think the F4 is the, for me, the best car, as in that I actually accomplished something with that car. Oh, and the Ford Mustang Next Gen, [00:11:00] which we drove in Las Vegas last year, which I, I completely despise.

It’s a horrible car, but I got P5 in the US, so that was a great accomplishment, but that’s not the MP2. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s awesome. Uh, it’s really hard, I can tell you, to drive a Nascar car on the road track. So I had some experience with Xfinity cars, not with next gen. We’ve been running them on VCO Infinity events.

We had a race at Monza with Xfinity. It was really crazy. Uh, you know, a lot of crashes happen. Some people rejoin right after they out of track. It was really fun. Indeed. Yeah. Um, and talking about prototype LMP two, um, I had really bad experience because, uh, I started our racing when we had, uh, Honda HPD here and, uh, been running this car a long time and I was really good [00:12:00] in it.

Um, and then when we switched to this. Delario and B2, I was like, Oh, this car, not the best. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately. Um, are you doing any ovals in a racing? Because you said that you, um, not. Yeah. All right. Uh, can you tell me a bit more about, uh, Formula 4, uh, and what’s your favorite combo with this car?

What’s your favorite track with this?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Okay. So this is hard because I’ve got one favorite track. Everyone that knows me knows it’s my favorite and that’s Spa. So, it doesn’t matter which car I drive. So, although the next gen Ford Mustang could ruin it. But, um, every car is like, it’s really fun to drive on Spa.

Uh, but now that I’ve done the Nürburgring and I’ve actually put in the time to practice there. I think that [00:13:00] might be, I mean, it’s kind of close. I don’t know which one of the two would be my favorite with the F4. But definitely one of those two.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Great, uh, Spy is definitely a good choice, uh, good track for, like, any type of car, even if you, with slow car here, you’ll be in Draft having fun, then in LeCombe and fighting with people, uh, if you with, uh, uh, You’re just going to, um, like go with the flow on the spy.

It’s, it’s awesome. I agree with you about this. Um, what can you suggest to people who starting then, um, like getting into our racing, into, uh, STEM racing? Uh, what will be your advice of like, from what to start? Should they stick with the one car or like what you can suggest from your side?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: I think this is, uh, quite difficult to answer.

[00:14:00] Um, mostly just have fun because without fun, you won’t get the drive to get better and better. Um, and for consistency, definitely stick with one. But I haven’t done that. I’ve done so many cars and I think it also gave me a lot of experience because if you look at Last year, I keep going back there, but, uh, we had the next gen Mustang, and it was horrible to drive.

You had to be so careful on the throttle, because, uh, a little bit more than halfway, exiting a corner, and you’d be turned around. So, you learn so much, uh, from driving such difficult cars, that if you step into any other car, you It feels so easy. Um, you know, so that definitely helped me, I think, with my racecraft [00:15:00] overall consistency.

So I guess just have fun. Don’t necessarily stick to one car as long as you still have fun. And just keep driving and you’ll get those lap times eventually.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, absolutely agree. Um, to start with the one car. So I just suggest this to everybody as well, uh, because this is how you can gain, uh, some confidence, comfortable on track.

Um, so just suggest people to start with the one car and then just, uh, Focus on tracks, focus on like breaking points and all this stuff, instead of just jumping, uh, from car to car. Uh, but also, as you said, uh, it’s really good sometimes to change car, um, as you gaining some new experience from each car and, uh, definitely, Then in the future, if you’re jumping, I know, to a random race, uh, where, like, you got a leak, fun leak, uh, [00:16:00] with, uh, some different cars in it, uh, you need less time to adapt to the cars.

So that’s a good thing. Alright, um, speaking about your sim racing career, um, Are you planning something big for yourself? Like, uh, do you want to be maybe a part of the eSports team? Uh, maybe you want to gain 5K rating, 6K rating, something like this. Uh, so tell us more about your plans in the future. Um,

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: well, I’m already part of a sim racing United sim team.

Oh my god, I had to think about that for a second. Um, so yeah, and I’m really happy to be there with the people around me, so. Um, definitely want to stay there. Uh, I guess for my goals. I got a couple, um, so they have the Screen Esprit Dream Team, which I would love to be a part of. Uh, [00:17:00] so I’m definitely gonna be aiming for a spot on the team.

Uh, and it would probably be a great idea to, uh, really gain some iRating as well, because it’s really low. But yeah, uh, I mean that’s what you get because I, um, actually barely do any official races. So everything I do is hosted or in a league. Um, I never actually gained any iRating. I think I must have been able to get like 3k if I’d actually practice and race official races.

So, that’s definitely a good goal as well.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, you got a really good plan. So, can you tell me about more your, uh, about your sim racing team, uh, where you’re in? Yeah,

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: I’m, I’m in a United sim team and we welcome everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are, you’re always welcome to drive with us. We’ve got a loads of drivers, uh, [00:18:00] also different categories.

So we’ve got iRacing, ACC, rFactor2, uh, I think there’s a couple that are still driving a set of courses as well. Um, And then we’ve got Gran Turismo as well, so it really doesn’t matter what you’re gaming on, uh, there’s always a place for you at United

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Sim

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Team.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s awesome, uh, that your team is really flexible with categories, because some teams they really only focus on, like, one simulator.

That’s awesome. Are you doing any specific preparation before League races? Can you tell me more about your routine of how you prepare for the races?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Oh, my routine is not preparing at all and panicking 10 minutes before race start, I think about everything that I haven’t done, like, Oh, how much fuel do I actually need?

And then for the last 10 minutes I’m always doing loads of stuff that I didn’t account for [00:19:00] earlier. Uh, I’m chaos. Yeah, I got no race preparation at

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: all. Yeah. Alright, uh, the main question, is it working in races? Sorry? Is it working in races, like you, you’re not having any preparation, uh, and you’re having good results, yes?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Uh, I, I think, I, I did prepare for Uber Green, uh, the, the e bike racing race. Um, but then you don’t need to refuel. Otherwise, it’s not working out, no. I, I, I think everyone that followed me knows that I, I did make a couple of mistakes in a couple of races, which actually made me take a break from racing for a really long time.

And I actually only started racing again for the ADAC Sim Racing Expo. [00:20:00] Um, and I think taking a break sometimes works out really well. For me it did. Yeah, I’m definitely going to change my, um, approach to races.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I think, um, if you, if you’re going to have, uh, more practice, that’s definitely going to give you, uh, more confidence on the track.

So I think that you notice that because you prepare for, uh, SimRacing Expo event, uh, already. So you should notice that you felt a lot better. Yeah, but we all, you know, sometimes jumping into races without practice, it’s absolutely okay. I’m doing this as well. Uh, then I’m like, okay, we’re just going to like, practice in the race with the other people on the track.

It’s fine.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, yeah, but it’s really difficult as well because you don’t know the car and then there has to be just a tiny change that makes you spin that you’re not prepared for because you haven’t practiced enough. So I [00:21:00] definitely can’t recommend it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right, uh, do you have any plans in Maybe one day go to real life racing.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Uh, not at this

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: moment.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Um, uh, I think I’m fine with some racing. Full roads to real racing. I mean, I’m trying. Uh, I don’t think, um, that I ever get to have the money to do that. I mean, I’d like to keep dreaming

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: more of a

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: realistic.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, understandable. Because in real life racing, definitely, uh, so expensive and it’s really hard to get into. Even if you got good results and, uh, Like, everything, you got your talent and speed. Um, it’s really hard to get sponsors [00:22:00] and to get into the team then, unfortunately. Um, I hope in the future, maybe it will be, like, more open, uh, opportunity for everybody.

That would be great. Uh, especially, you know, You know, we got championships, uh, like, uh, Tag Heuer, Porsche, sports, uh, Super Cup, where, um, people can get, like, into the real car, can try it. So that’s a good opportunity. So hopefully we’ll get, uh, you know, people from sim racing, maybe taking a part in, uh, big championships in real life as well.

Then after they winning, uh, in sim racing, it will be Awesome.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, we’re really working hard on that. Um, but yeah, it’s, it’s a really big step, and there is so many 1000 women out there. Um, so yeah, it’s definitely possible, just, I think for me it’s a little bit out of my league. But as I said, I’m more of a [00:23:00] realistic person, and I mean, if I get a shot at it, uh, then I absolutely, I would take it.

I think I’ll stick to some racing for now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Let’s dream a little bit and imagine like you get an opportunity to test the racing car. What this car would be for you? Like, what is your dream car to drive on the real track?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: It’s a very difficult question. Uh, I think It’d be the LMP2 Or the F4 because I’ve driven those the most at this time. I think it’d really be one of those two All right. Yeah It’s so difficult to choose

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: between one or

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: the other

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: yeah people in chat guess that uh will be LMP2[00:24:00]

Yeah. Yeah. And, um, speaking about, uh, the women in, uh, sim racing and motorsport also, how do you feel to be a girl in a male dominated sport?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: I mean, it’s hard getting women into the whole group, because the community is really lovely. Um, but that community that I’m in largely consists of only women. And, um, for men, it’s really hard to lose against women in sim racing. And I think You can still see that everywhere. So I just hope that we can learn to work together and do things together and women against men, but, you know, try to get [00:25:00] them both to compete in sim racing, but also in real life racing.

And it’d be so great to see a woman making it into F1 like Susie Wolfe did and everyone that went before her. But yeah, but I think there’s still a lot that needs to change before we can see that happen.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I think, um, from my side of view, that’s all starting, um, you know, that from childhood with splitting things like that’s a girl’s stuff, that’s a boy’s stuff, so that’s all starting from this.

If this thing, uh, will disappear somehow, uh, because, uh, when I was young, uh, my dad led me, like, you can choose whatever toys you want, and I always, uh, been choosing the, the cars, so I play with them. Uh, so that’s why, you know, I’ve ended, uh, in the karting, and then in real life racing, and now in some racing.

Uh, so I think if, uh, this thing will, uh, [00:26:00] disappear, like, uh, people not going to split, like, boy stuff and girl stuff, uh, Children can choose what they want, like toys to play with. Um, then maybe we’ll see more girls into karting and into some racing as well. Uh, and overall, uh, also boys and guys, they’re not going to feel like, Oh my God, I’ve been beaten by the, by the girl and it’s a bad thing or something like this.

So they just, uh, going to treat us as, uh, uh, equal competitors and that’s it. So I think

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: that’s really important.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yes. Uh, I think that’s everything started like from childhood and then going to adult life and, uh, the, yeah, that’s why we got this situation and, um, definitely screen to speed doing the good stuff.

Uh, so taking more girls and, uh, women into, uh, some racing and into racing as well. It’s really cool [00:27:00] to see.

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it’s awesome that, uh, that they, they’re trying to pave a way for us into motorsport. Um, and not just, you know, uh, in front of the camera, but also behind the scenes. There, there’s lots of possibilities, um, which is really commendable.

And I think Steffi Pau deserves a shout out for this because she tries so hard to make this all possible for us. And I’m grateful for all that she does. Um, and it got me two great experiences. One to the US, which was my first time and then to Germany as well, where I met so many people. So, um, yeah, it’s given all of us.

So many great opportunities, uh, yeah. And I really hope that one day we can return the favor by really [00:28:00] getting women into motor sports.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. So I absolutely agree with you, uh, that Stefie doing her best for us and, uh, Really, uh, dedicated of, uh, what she’s doing, uh, for us and for simracing and motorsport and that’s a good thing.

Um, so before we wrap up, uh, can you tell me what will be your motto of the life?

Esmeralda Beemsterboer: A motto? That is I have not thought about that one.

Oh, I don’t think I can answer that. It is I am so bad at those things. Um,

if you [00:29:00] leave it, you can make it, I think that will be my motto. It is the most horrible

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: motto there is. No, it’s not. It’s great. Okay, thank you so much for taking your time and talking with us. That was really fun. Thank you so much. Yeah, it was. Yeah, everyone, thank you so much for joining, and we’ll see you on Indie Talk next time, on Thursday, next week.

See you. Thank you for watching. Bye bye.

Crew Chief Brad: Innate eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. And it e sports is a woman led company where diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is in their DNA.

And [00:30:00] their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the e sports world as safe and fair as possible to learn more. Be sure to log on to www. innitesports. gg or follow them on social media at Innit Esports. Join their Discord, check out their YouTube channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

Crew Chief Eric: This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part of our motoring podcast network. For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational content from organizations like The exotic car marketplace, the motoring historian, brake fix, and many others. If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the motoring podcast network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www.

patreon. com forward slash GT motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent. If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators of this episode via email or social media [00:31:00] as mentioned in the episode.

Copyright INIT eSports. This podcast is now produced as part of the Motoring Podcast Network and can be found everywhere you stream, download or listen! 


More Screen to Speed…

Dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real-life racetracks, they explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motorsports. They hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports.

INIT eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands, while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. INIT eSports is a woman-led company where Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility is in their DNA, and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible. To learn more, be sure to logon to www.initesports.gg today or follow them on social media @initesports, join their discord, check out their YouTube Channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

At INIT eSports, founder and CEO Stefy Bau doesn’t just settle for the ordinary. She creates extraordinary experiences by producing thrilling online competitions and real-life events that transcend the boundaries of the eSports universe. And she’s here with us on Break/Fix to share her story, and help you understand why you need to get more involved in the world of eSports. 

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1908: The Year American Motorsport Changed Forever

In the world of motorsports history, certain years stand out like mile markers on a winding road. For Don Capps – historian, educator, and longtime motorsports researcher – that year is 1908. What began as a casual suggestion from a fellow historian turned into a decades-long journey into the roots of American racing. And what he found was transformative.

Photo courtesy Don Capps, SAH

Don Capps, a member of the Society of Automotive Historians and co-chair of the International Motor Racing Research Center symposium, didn’t start out as an expert in American motorsport. His early interests leaned toward Formula One and European racing, shaped by friendships with figures like Paul Sheldon of the Formula One Register. But a challenge to explore the American side of the sport led Don into a historical vacuum – one that proved irresistible. “Vacuums to historians are like catnip,” Don quipped. And so began a 25-year deep dive into the early years of American racing, particularly the period before 1920.

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One of the most striking revelations was the sudden explosion of road racing in 1908. Prior to that year, events like the Vanderbilt Cup were rare and sporadic. But in 1908, the U.S. hosted 21 separate road races, including the Mount Baldy Race in Los Angeles and the Jacksonville-to-Miami run. Publications like Motor Age and The Automobile began giving racing front-page coverage, signaling a cultural shift.

This surge laid the groundwork for future icons like the Watkins Glen Grand Prix (1948), Riverside Grand Prix, and even the 1961 Watkins Glen race – one Don attended himself.

Spotlight

Don Capps has been a member of the SAH Board of Directors since 2014 and is now the immediate past president of the Society. He is a member of the Historians Council of the IMRRC and is the co-chair of the Symposium. Capps began following motor sports at an early age while attending races with his father at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta. In addition to motor racing, military and civil aviation and military history have also been lifelong interests that formed early on. Capps holds graduate degrees from the University of South Carolina and George Mason University and has taught history at both the high school and college levels, the latter being The Citadel. He was a faculty member of the Defense Model & Simulation University and spent over three years in Southwest Asia with the Program Executive Office for Simulation Training and Instrumentation.

Synopsis

This episode of The Logbook, our History of Motorsports series, captures a presentation by Don Capps, a seasoned historian and past president of the Society of Automotive Historians, explores significant changes in American motorsport in 1908. Capps discusses how road racing became prominent in the United States, the schism between the Automobile Club of America (ACA) and the American Automobile Association (AAA), and the advent of season reviews. He explains how these events marked 1908 as a crucial year in motorsport history. Through anecdotes and extensive research, including access to rare archives, Capps highlights the complexities and conflicts in early American racing, the influence of European cars, and the long-term impact on the organization and recognition of racing champions.

Follow along using the video version of the Slide Deck from this Presentation

Transcript

[00:00:00] Brake Fix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family. Things Change, 1908 and American Motorsport by Don Capps. Don Capps has been a member of the SAH Board of Directors since 2014 and is now the immediate past president of the society.

He is a member of the Historian’s Council of the IMRRC and is co chair of the symposium. Don began following motorsports at an early age while attending races with his father at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta. In addition to motor racing, military and civil aviation, and military history have also been lifelong interests that formed early on.

Don holds graduate degrees from University of South Carolina and George Mason University and has taught at both the high school and college levels, the latter being the Citadel. He was a faculty member of the Defense Model and Simulation University and spent over three years in Southwest [00:01:00] Asia with the Pentagon Executive Office for Simulation Training and Instrumentation.

Don is currently engaged in research surrounding the sport and contests sanctioned by the AAA from its beginning. Including American National Auto Racing Championships until the contest board ceased operations at the end of the 1955 season. I wanted to talk about something I came across as a historian of motorsport.

I knew a lot about Formula One, Grand Prix, sports car sort of thing. Having grown up in Europe, having got that interest, Paul Sheldon, who was one of the co founders of the Formula 1 register, was a dear friend of mine. They created the record of Grand Prix and Voiturette racing, and in one of our exchanges, he says, you know, I love sprint car racing.

I love American racing and I was stunned because here’s the person who is the expert. All that information you see out there on the internet about results from Formula One racing, it was taken from their research. I said, okay, Don, I want you to [00:02:00] think seriously about looking into American racing. And I said, okay, so how do I do this?

I’m really not that familiar with American racing, per se, and what’s available. Vacuums, to historians, are like catnip. When your ignorance and your lack of knowledge about a topic becomes evident, you just find yourself into that void. You start looking. Well, 20 something years later, about 25 years later, here I am.

Trying to give you some idea. When I started looking into this, I started focusing on the early years, up to about 1920. Because that was an area that I found a big void. And I started digging and digging and digging. And the more I started digging, the more I found, the more I found, the more I started looking elsewhere.

And one of the things that became evident to me over time, it’s just like you’ll find many cases in history. [00:03:00] There is this incredible glut, books, articles about year things change. You know, 1948, 1944, 1816. And it kind of occurred to me as I was doing my research, that there was a year that kept kind of popping up as I looked through all this material that I began collecting.

I’ve been researching and looking into, and the year ended up being 1908, which is not the year I would have anticipated. Once I took that step back as a historian and started looking at the context and the objectivity, uh, where are some dividing points? And I kept coming back, and it came always to 1908.

Well, why 1908? Here are just a few of the things that happened in 1908 in American racing. Appearance of road racing, there had been the William K. Vanderbilt Jr. The New York to Paris event took place. The New York [00:04:00] State Automotive Association changes its due success. We’re going to come to that. Which meant that the Automobile Club of America withdrew from the American Automobile Association.

The international organization, which is now the FIA, the AICA, or back in those days, sided with The Honorable Club of America, not the AAA in this dispute. We’ll come to that. Then there was agreement. The Vanderbilt Cup was held out on Long Island, and of course it was the Locomobile that won, number 16, George Robertson and all that.

They had the first race in Savannah. And I can say right now, I’m one of the probably few people in the world that has flown the old route in an OH 58 Kiowa. Boys and their toys, sort of deals, when I was at Fort Stewart. And is also one of the places that comes back to this coming together. First year the season reviews began to appear.

And, there was the Motor Contest Association, which nobody’s ever heard of probably, started to contact the AAA. It comes down [00:05:00] to three things. The road racing arrives in the United States, the schism between the ACA and the AAA, and the appearance of seasoned reviews. These are the things that kind of coalesced in my thinking when I looked at it.

The first one, of course, is obvious, road racing. January 1909,

This is the first review of American road racing that’s been published. Take my word for it. If you can find an early one, good for you. I have looked everywhere. And it was written by a guy, C. G. Chris Sensabaugh. And if you see on the right side, that is a listing of all the road races in the United States that year.

The number the year before? There was no Vanderbilt Cup in 1907. And here you have this incredible list. Kind of amazing. Mount Baldy Race in Los Angeles. There was a race from Jacksonville to Miami. Just a number of things. All the races in Savannah. Suddenly we go from no road [00:06:00] racing In 1908, suddenly we have a glut.

We’ve got 21 separate road races out of nowhere. That’s a big change. Again, suddenly road racing is a big deal. Motor age and the automobile, the horseless age. Now, they’re big deals. They take front page of an issue. So that’s a change. Of course, where does that lead us? In American racing, after 1916, 1920, the last Elgin race.

Not until 1933 did you have another road race of any consequence. That was at Elgin for stock cars. Then you had the Mines Field race. How many of you have flown into LAX? If you have, that’s Mines Field. Right on that location. That was 1934. And of course, in 36 and 37, you have the George Vanderbilt Cup races that happened.

1908 is when road racing really becomes an American thing. And amazingly enough, in [00:07:00] 1948, we have the race here at Watkins Glen, the Watkins Glen Grand Prix. Which leads us to Riverside, Grand Prix for sports cars, little bit of PR sort of thing. And of course, then the race here. I picked the 1961 race mostly because I was here for that one.

The second thing that really got me, because I’m into digging into conflicts. Inside racing. I love that sort of thing because it kills you a lot. The schism between the Audible Club America and the AAA. It was a big story. There’s an article from the New York Times, there’s a war going on, a publication called Motor talks about ACA versus AAA, then Motorworld, another publication.

I was very confused about this whole thing because I didn’t know a lot about the Automobile Club of America. Found it was organized in 1899. First Racing rules were published in 1901. Despite being told by numerous people, they didn’t exist. I found ’em. They [00:08:00] were an original member of the aaa. In fact, they one of the organizing clubs of the seven clubs that organized it in 1902.

One of the problems with the A CA. Not long after the AAA was formed, when there was a transition going on about the racing, on Staten Island, there was speed trials, and there was the Baker Torpedo, ran off the race after establishing almost a speed record for one kilometer, went into the crowd, killed several people, injured others.

The promoter was the Automobile Club of America. They were on a line for liabilities. They looked at this whole thing and said, We’re not going to do road racing. We’re not going to do anything on public roads. Which meant that in 1904, when you had the first Vanderbilt Cup, that’s why AAA, not the Auto Bill Club of America, was the sanctioning body.

Because they had passed resolutions saying, We’re not going to do anything that involves public roads. The only thing we’ll do is like, maybe reliability [00:09:00] trials and so forth. Which is interesting because it was an international event, and in May of 1904, ACA became a member of the International Organization of Recognized Auto Bill Clubs, what is in English, what is now the FIA, established in Germany.

They were the official American member, recognized as the official American auto bill club. In 1908, the ACA resigned from the New York State Auto Bill Association. I could never figure out how ACA got into racing in 1908 until this came up. And it had nothing to do with racing. It was a dues change. It had been a cap of 500 per club.

And then the New York State Automobile Association said, No, we’re going to do it per member. Well, ACA had about 1, 200 members, which meant that their dues more than increased, doubled. So they got angry about that. Had a falling out. They fell out with the AAA. [00:10:00] ACA went its own way. The agreement with the American Automobile Association, later on I’ll talk about that, was who was going to be the international representative of the United States and who was going to be the national club for racing within the United States.

That’s what that’s all about. The ACA finally came back into the AAA in the 1920s, something I was not aware of. My ignorance was only exceeded by my lack of knowledge of this topic, for the most part, until I started digging into this. The American Automobile Association, still around. Organized in 1902, as I said.

The Racing Board was one of the original committees. First racing rules were issued in 1903. I was told they didn’t exist, yet I found them. The Vanderbilt Cup. They were the sanctioning club for that. They actually held the first National Motor Car Championship in 1905. And Barney Oldsville was the winner of that championship.

But, it kind of vanished into thin air. In 1907, there [00:11:00] was no Vanderbilt Cup. The falling out over racing caused the International, AIACR, sided with the Auto Vehicle Club of America. An agreement was made, just like I just told you, Auto Vehicle Club of America would be the international organization for racing, etc.

The AAA would do national racing, things within the United States. So they had that. The Motor Contest Association which was made of the manufacturers came to the AAA in early 1909 as a result of this agreement to have the AAA be the sanctioning body officially and be funded, and that happened in 1909.

The AAA, and you see the dates, 1916, 1920 to 1941, and again from 1926 to 1955, had national championships. The ACA was replaced. At the, uh, A-I-A-C-R by the AAA in 1928, particularly on the SCA, the [00:12:00] International Sporting Committee. And then in the end of 1955, the AAA leaves racing. So that is a canned idea.

It’s something that, a timeframe and some explanation I was, had no idea about. I’d never read it anywhere. And for a recent historian, it was a little bit of embarrassing. One of the reasons I found myself going back to 1908 because it sets up this whole series of Conflicts and you start going back to the roots.

American racing organizations aren’t fighting, they’re not doing anything. You go back to AAA versus IMCA. You go back to AAA versus NASCAR. USAC versus NASCAR. USAC versus SACA. USAC versus CART. CART versus IRL. IRL versus, so you get an idea. And I realized, look back I think, this all seems to roll back to 1908 and that conflict with ACA.

Again, catnip for historians, this kind of started [00:13:00] explaining things. The third thing that got me was season reviews. Prior to the end of the 1908 season, all the publications, whether it’s Motor World, Motor Age, Horseless Age, the Automobile, whatever, did not do season reviews. But, within a week of each other, in the late end of December 1908, and in the first week of January 1909, you find these two season reviews being published, independently.

That is a remarkable change. What happens is, they become an annual affair, and Motorage the next year, as a result of doing the season reviews, says, oh yeah, we’re going to name a champion driver, which just happens to be Bert Dingley. And next year and next year, they named Champion Road Racing Driver.

That’s something that I did not catch at first. Champion Road Racing Driver. What’s kind of interesting is in 1911, it’s a person most of you probably never heard of. I hadn’t. And that’s [00:14:00] Harvey Herrick. Champion Road Racing of the United States. California guy. Of course in 1914 is a very obvious one and that’s Ralph De Palma.

So this is something I go back again to 1908. This continues this idea of racing champions. It gets a little more complicated by 1915, it’s gotten really complicated. On the left side of the screen, it’s the racing champions 1915. That’s in the horseless age. You’ll see in those little box, they looked at road racing and they looked at And they came up with a champion, it was Earl Cooper.

Then, in Motor Age, did road racing, and speedway racing, and track racing. Had three different sets of championships in one year, three different issues. In Motor, they had not only road racing, again that was Earl Cooper and the Stunts, but they also had track racing. So, you now have all these champions being named by periodicals.

In 1916, [00:15:00] however, Triple A now has an official national championship. Bang, there it is. And of course, it’s Dara Resta in his Peugeot. But, 1917 to 1919, there was no national championship. In 1920, they created it again. But, in 1954, Rush Catlin. Starts publishing a history of national championship racing. And this is in December 1954, and he says, Robinson or Dingley?

He looks at one set of facts that have been in the file and says, Yeah, there might be a question. And what happens is, All those champions that were being named by Motor Age, Postless Age, the automobile, well suddenly they become official champions later on. Now that has a lot as a historian, except for some people like Tom and a few others who really had looked into this.

I found myself in the wilderness doing this topic because hardly anybody had looked at it as an academic, if you will. [00:16:00] I had gone into the archives, various places, gone through all these journals. Your eyes fall out after a while, trying to sort fact from fiction, particularly in the 50s, 60s, 70s, when all this kind of gets altered.

People who were never champions are now national champions. Which brings me to IndyCar, my last little word here. The trophy that they give out for the Astro Cup Challenge Cup, they have a base it sits on. On that base, it has all the national champions. The problem is, and this is where the historian in me just goes berserk, is the fact that It’s wrong.

We get up and jump up and down and go, it’s wrong, we can’t stand it. Again, historians, you ask what time is, we’ll give you a history of how time was formed and how it was created. Talk about handheld calculator, we’ll tell you all about calculation and how we got the calculator. This bothers me to no end.

I have fought with [00:17:00] IndyCar now for several years. You get this corrected and it’s like, Thank you. We hear ya. Have a nice life. Don’t call us. We’re gonna call you again. You can’t see it very well, but it starts off with 1909 and George Robinson. What bothers me is the 1920. There were five races. The champion that was crowned that year was the posthumous champion, Gaston Chevrolet, who died in the, in Los Angeles, Thanksgiving Day.

He had enough points to be the champion. Not by much, but enough. Later, for some reason, some people with time on their hands went back. And looked at some other races, added them in, and suddenly it’s Tommy Milton. And I found out when I started looking at this controversy. There’s a wonderful person who’s no longer with us, unfortunately.

He died almost ten years ago now. John Glenn Prince. Got to know John very, very well. And this bothered him and it bothered me. There was an exchange in IndyCar Racing Magazine with Bob [00:18:00] Maruso, as a matter of fact. As a historian, we love live and die by footnotes in our research. Everything I looked at led me to believe Tommy Milton, I have great admiration for.

Wonderful driver, one of the best. He deserved his championship in 1921. But it was a gas and Chevrolet. Yeah, IndyCar, most often, they say one thing, but when you look at what they have on their website, for instance, it still leads you to believe it’s Tommy Milton. And that was part of how I got back to 1908.

See how historians work? I never dreamed that that one year could be so influential. But the rise of the road racing, that schism between the organizations, and again, this whole idea, something as innocuous as those seasoned reviews. All that kind of comes together. It makes my heart really [00:19:00] sore when we have people out there who say, yeah, I think I can start tracking on this.

Thank you for the patience. And if there’s any questions, forget it. I’m not going to answer, no, but quite seriously, thank you. This is a work of love. Not just this presentation, but what you guys are doing. I think what happened in 08 was there were a lot of European cars that came over here. And they had to have a place to run them.

I think that was one of them. And you’re absolutely right on that Vanderbilt Cup thing. And that’s one of the things that the Speedway Museum has pointed out to those guys. That Tommy Milton was everybody’s fan favorite, but he drove the Duesenbergs and he was a kind of a fair haired boy. But Gaston Chevrolet was the guy that won it.

We’ve told them about that. Also, I want to say that the Speedway Museum has all of the AAA records. All of the AAA records, and they’re available for anybody to come and take a look at. But I think what happened in 08 was the fact that you had a lot of [00:20:00] European cars that were running around and they came over.

Mercedes, especially. What you got was a sanitized version of the 8 hour lecture. Because you’re absolutely correct. The appearance of European cars, particularly from about 03, 04, up until the beginning of the 20s, that had a lot to do with this creation. Again, I had to pack a lot down, but you hit it spot on.

The number of European automobiles on the track, not just on the road courses, but on the tracks themselves, meant that at some point, particularly in 06 07, that there was going to be some transition point where this all came up. I would have mentioned it, but I will now, had not been for those files that I got access to, thank you, IMRCA, that I got access because of the connections we meet here to those files.

I had the microfilm copies that were made by Gordon White, courtesy of the [00:21:00] museum, those things. That was a revelation. You’re absolutely correct. That changed everything for me. That really added. Substance and context, all those little things that weren’t making sense. I think that was why it was all catnip.

None of this was making sense. But as you correctly pointed out, there was this, there was this. All these things came together. And like I said, 1908 just happened to be the year That I saw this sort of synergy begin to shift things. Because if you look from 1907 back, then you look at 08 forward, there really is a definite change in American rates.

It has to take a long view, but that really is a change. Now, give credit where credit’s due. It had not been for the International Motor Racing Research Center, a lot of what I have just talked to you about would not have been possible. Resources here, contacts made through here, open doors, made things happen.

[00:22:00] So that’s one of the reasons this is important to have this type of exchange. This is why we exist. This is what it’s all about. This is my little donation to this ocean of knowledge. My little drops in there. This is why we form this. Mike Arkensinger and I. Talked about this for ages. Then, unfortunately, Mike passed away.

Dr. Pat Young, Professor Emeritus of Literature at the University of Houston, along with, uh, myself and a great crew, put together this initial one. We only had three people. And this is the sort of thing I wanted to get talked about. I get emotional about it when it’s talked about. This is one of the places created by Gene Oregon Singer so that people like me and other people here to come together, do research, share our findings, and make things happen.

So, anyway, thank you very much for your patience.[00:23:00]

I’ll go back to my microphone. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series. The center’s collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world.

The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events. To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives.

org. This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers. Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into [00:24:00] the future.

For more information about the SAH, visit www. autohistory. org.

We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.

org. We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies, as well as keeping our team of creators Fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gumby bears, and monster.

So consider signing up for [00:25:00] Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none of this would be possible.

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Another pivotal moment in 1908 was the conflict between the Automobile Club of America (ACA) and the American Automobile Association (AAA). Initially allies, the two organizations split over a dues dispute with the New York State Automobile Association. The ACA, with its 1,200 members, balked at a per-member fee structure and withdrew, triggering a cascade of consequences.

This schism had international implications. The ACA was recognized by the AIACR (precursor to the FIA) as the official U.S. representative, sidelining the AAA. Eventually, the AAA regained its status in 1928, but the rift set a precedent for decades of organizational turf wars: AAA vs. IMCA, USAC vs. NASCAR, CART vs. IRL, and beyond.


The Birth of Season Reviews

Before 1908, motorsports publications didn’t offer season reviews. But that changed dramatically at the end of that year. Within weeks, multiple outlets published comprehensive recaps, naming champion drivers like Bert Dingley and Harvey Herrick. By 1916, AAA formalized the National Championship, with Dario Resta winning in a Peugeot.

Yet even this history is contested. Don highlighted the case of Gaston Chevrolet, who was posthumously crowned champion in 1920 – only to have his title later reassigned to Tommy Milton due to retroactive point adjustments. “As a historian, this bothers me to no end,” Don admitted, referencing years of correspondence with IndyCar to correct the record.


Why 1908 Matters

So why does 1908 loom so large? According to Don, it’s the convergence of three seismic shifts:

  • The rise of road racing
  • The organizational schism between ACA and AAA
  • The emergence of season reviews and championship recognition

Together, these developments reshaped American motorsport, laying the foundation for the structure, storytelling, and rivalries that define the sport today.

Don’s work wouldn’t have been possible without the International Motor Racing Research Center and the Society of Automotive Historians. Their archives, microfilm records, and collaborative spirit enabled discoveries that might otherwise have remained buried. “This is my little donation to this ocean of knowledge,” Don said, reflecting on the emotional journey of uncovering forgotten truths and sharing them with fellow enthusiasts.

This episode is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family – and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.


Other episodes you might enjoy

Michael R. Argetsinger Symposium on International Motor Racing History

The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), partnering with the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), presents the annual Michael R. Argetsinger Symposium on International Motor Racing History. The Symposium established itself as a unique and respected scholarly forum and has gained a growing audience of students and enthusiasts. It provides an opportunity for scholars, researchers and writers to present their work related to the history of automotive competition and the cultural impact of motor racing. Papers are presented by faculty members, graduate students and independent researchers.The history of international automotive competition falls within several realms, all of which are welcomed as topics for presentations, including, but not limited to: sports history, cultural studies, public history, political history, the history of technology, sports geography and gender studies, as well as archival studies.

The symposium is named in honor of Michael R. Argetsinger (1944-2015), an award-winning motorsports author and longtime member of the Center's Governing Council. Michael's work on motorsports includes:
  • Walt Hansgen: His Life and the History of Post-war American Road Racing (2006)
  • Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed (2009)
  • Formula One at Watkins Glen: 20 Years of the United States Grand Prix, 1961-1980 (2011)
  • An American Racer: Bobby Marshman and the Indianapolis 500 (2019)

This content has been brought to you in-part by support through...

Motoring Podcast Network

The Gordon Bennett Cup: Motorsport’s First International Showdown (1900-1905)

In the early 1900s, before the roar of Formula 1 engines and the glamour of Le Mans, there was the Gordon Bennett Cup – a race that dared to ask: what if nations competed not through war, but through horsepower?

Photo courtesy Dr. Pál Négyesi

Dr. Pál Négyesi, Hungarian-born motoring historian and editor of Rare and Unique Vehicles, takes us on a riveting journey through the origins and legacy of this pioneering motorsport event. His research, supported by the Central Garage Museum in Bad Homburg and private collector Dieter Dressel, reveals a treasure trove of forgotten racers, national pride, and mechanical marvels.

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The Cup was the brainchild of James Gordon Bennett Jr., an American newspaper magnate and sports enthusiast. Inspired by a challenge between American carmaker Alexander Winton and French racer Fernand Charon, Bennett envisioned a race where national automobile clubs would nominate their best machines and drivers. From 1900 to 1905, the Gordon Bennett Cup became the first truly international racing series, with entries from France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the U.S., and Italy.

Each nation was assigned a color – blue for France, white for Germany, red for the U.S., and eventually green for Britain. Cars had to be built entirely in the country they represented, a rule that sparked both innovation and controversy. Daimler, for example, cleverly entered six cars by leveraging its German and Austrian subsidiaries.

Spotlight

Dr. Pál Négyesi is an award-winning automotive historian, publisher, editor and museum professional. He is currently the editor of Rare & Unique Vehicles magazine, which won the 2022 Richard Brigham Award from the Society of Automotive Historians, a consultant to the Institute for Digital Culture at the University of Leicester and a lecturer at the Óbuda University in Hungary. Over the years he authored many different books on the history of the Hungarian motoring industry. He’s also been the publisher of such books as Thomas Ulrich’s 1902 DeDietrich & The Paris-Vienna Race and Alles Mit Motor – Die Standard/Gutbrod Story, which won the 2023 Cugnot Award for books in language other than English from the SAH. He’s also an advisor to private collectors and museums in Hungary, Germany and The Netherlands.

Notes

On this episode of The Logbook, our History of Motorsports series, Dr. Pál Négyesi, an accomplished automotive historian, details the history and significance of the Gordon Bennett Cup, the first international motor racing series held between 1900 and 1905. The presentation covers key aspects of the races, notable racers, and their cars, as well as the transition to the era of the Grand Prix in 1906. Dr. Négyesi provides insights from contemporary race reports and highlights the contributions of various figures and race events to the sport of motorsport. The episode underscores the cultural and historical impact of the Gordon Bennett Cup and features a variety of unreleased photos and materials collected for an upcoming website project.

Follow along using the video version of the Slide Deck from this Presentation

Transcript

[00:00:00] Brake Fix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family. The Gordon Bennett Cup by Dr. Pal Nagyesi. Pal Neghesi is an award winning automotive historian, publisher, editor, and museum professional.

He is currently editor of Rare and Unique Vehicles magazine, which won the 2022 Richard Brigham Award from the Society of Automotive Historians. He’s a consultant to the Institute for Digital Culture at the University of Leicester, and a lecturer at the University of Hungary. Over the years, he authored many different books on the history of the Hungarian motoring industry.

He’s also been the publisher of such books as Thomas Ulrich’s 1902 Diditrik and the Paris Vienna Race and the Alice mit Motor, Die Standard Gutbräude Story, which won the 2023 Kugno Award for Books in Language Other Than English from the [00:01:00] SAH. He’s also an advisor to private collectors and museums in Hungary, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The Gordon Bennett Cup, held for cars between 1900 and 1905, was the first international racing series. Stemming from an idea by American newspaper magnate James Gordon Bennett Jr., the Gordon Bennett Cup was set to champion the international auto industry by allowing national automobile clubs representing France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the United States, and Italy to nominate three entries each.

Naturally, with the growth of the industry, it became more and more difficult to find suitable candidates. By 1905, the industry became so diverse that it was impossible to hold on to the rules of the cup. So from 1906, the era of the Grand Prix started. This presentation will provide a short overview of each race, and a look at the most important racers and their cars.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear viewers, my name is Dr. Pála Négyesi. I’m a Hungarian born motoring historian, publisher, and author. [00:02:00] This presentation will be about the Gordon Bennett Cup, which put motorsport into an international context. It was the first organized motorsport event for a lot of different nations and A few months ago, we were in a fortunate position to learn a lot about this race, and I would like to share some of the things which we learned.

Some of you may know that I’m the editor and publisher of Rare and Unique Vehicles, which is a quarterly automotive history magazine which won the Richard Brigham Award from the Society of Automotive Historians. If you like interesting stories, this is the magazine for you. We cooperate with museums and collectors from time to time.

Last year, we published a book on the history of the Paris Vienna race, which happened in 1902, [00:03:00] which we did together with the Metropolitan Collection in the Netherlands. And that’s when I learned a lot about early motorsport, thanks to Thomas Ulrich. A lot of resources, books, and essays which have been published are not so reliable.

So when Dieter Dressel, owner of the Central Garage Museum, in Germany, Bad Homburg approached us with this idea that in 2024, it will be 120 years since the 1904 Gordon Bennett race started from Bad Homburg, there should be a book, there should be a website. So we put together a website and in the process, We have acquired a lot of photos, a lot of interesting materials, some of which I will show.

A little bit about Mr. Dressel, who’s an extremely nice private collector, and because of the [00:04:00] 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup, he amassed a huge collection of materials related to the event, which he was kind enough to share with us. And the Central Garage Museum, which was opened in 2007, in place of Opel dealership in Bad Homburg, hosts very nice temporary exhibitions.

The last one is about 120 years of Harry Davidson, but the museum featured various very interesting exhibitions. And Mr. Dressel was the president of the German Mercedes Benz Compressor Club this year when he retired. And he has a very nice private collection of very exciting vehicles like the Maykafer prototype from Josef Gans.

And he’s restoring the Schleierwagen, which was a Mercedes based streamlined German car from 1930. So together we built the Gordon Bennett Cup website, gordonbennettcup. racing, which features a lot of photos, some of those which have not been published [00:05:00] before, biography of the racers, short introduction to the cars, and a couple of other bits.

We have a complete index. What’s really interesting is if you look around the published resources you can see that in many cases there are a lot of mistakes and the mistakes are very easy to make in a race like the Gordon Bennett Cup because in part this was part of many cases of other races so for example in 1901 there was a Paris Bordeaux race the Gordon Bennett Cup was part of that in 1902 the Paris Vienna race and It’s part of that.

And from 1903 and 1904, there were elimination trials. So before the race, they selected who will participate. Over the years, some of these elimination trial participants morphed into career racers in the mind of some of the authors. There are several books on the Golden Bell Cup. One of the best known was written many years ago by Lord Montagu, [00:06:00] together with Michael Sedgwick, who was the librarian at the Beauty Museum, and it’s a great book, but we went back to the contemporary race reports featured in various German English and French magazines to try to get a complete picture of what really happened.

What was the importance of the Gordon Bennett Cup? Why is it relevant today? Because it is still relevant today. The origins of the Gordon Bennett Cup go back to 1899. When Alexander Winton, who was the biggest manufacturer of motor cars in America at the time, decided to challenge the French manufacturers, claiming that his cars would beat any French cars over a distance of 1, 000 miles.

His call was heard, and one of the French racers, Fernand Charon, accepted the challenge and deposited 2, 000 francs with the Paris office of the [00:07:00] New York Herald. The New York Herald was a very well known daily, which was owned by James Gordon Bennett Jr., who was a very well known playboy, sportsman, and newspaperman.

He took over from his father in the 1860s. He was the one who sent Henry Stanley to find Dr. David Livingstone in Dark East Africa. In 1887, he set up the European version of the New York Era, and he was also a technological innovator, introducing new techniques to French and European media. And he was also creating news, making news through the promotion of new sports and competitions.

He constantly sought new ways of speeding up news gathering and news distribution on an international scale. This race between Winton and Sharon never took place, but it gave Gordon Bennett an idea that there should be a race, after all, between [00:08:00] the great nations. And you have to remember. that this was the time when national identities were forged, in many cases through wars, so this was a more calm and restrained way to share and highlight national identity.

But, as is often the case, some people took it too far, like The second, the German emperor who went out of his way to make the 1904 extremely spectacular. He spent 95,000 race mark, which is about three 40 euros on the grand stand alone for. Gordon Bennett set up an international cup, commissioned very well known French jeweler André Aoukoc to design this beautiful cup, which is today in the Paris offices of the Automobile Club, and he chose a racing Panhard, steered by the [00:09:00] genius of progress, with the goddess of victory upright upon the seat.

The first one was, uh, hosted in 1900. Every nation were allocated a color which their representatives cars would be painted. These were blue for France, yellow for Belgium, white for Germany, and red for the United States of America. Later on, Great Britain received green, Italy black, Austria black and yellow, and Switzerland red and yellow.

There were several stipulations regarding the race. Its distance would be not less than 550 and not more than 650 kilometers. The cost of race organization was divided amongst the participating clubs. One of the most important aspects of the criteria was that the entrance and drivers representing a national club had to be members of that club, but the cars [00:10:00] themselves had to be made in their entirety.

In the country was Colors Day War, and every nation was able to nominate three vehicles. Naturally, this gave a certain edge to smaller countries where one or two manufacturers vied for attention, while in France this gave way to a lot of headaches and debates on who should participate and eventually led to the elimination trials.

Back then, curbing the rules and circumventing the rules was not alien to racers. So Mercedes found, let’s say, a loophole. They were able to nominate six cars because three cars were made in Germany and three cars were made by the Daimler subsidiary in Austria, which was later known as Austro Daimler.

The 1903 race, which was held in Ireland, by that time, city to city races were cancelled. First, the city to city [00:11:00] races, which started with the 1894 Paris Rouen Tour, this included some of these, as I mentioned previously, the Gordon Bennett Cup, but as cars became much faster, the road conditions were still dire, so lots of dust.

passers by there. Sometimes cars went onto the roads unexpectedly. And at the 1903 Paris Madrid race, there were a lot of deadly accidents. And Marcel, Ronald and others unfortunately died, which led eventually to track racing. And this was the first. time that they tried to close down the roads and designate a closed track for a race.

The 1904 race, 2, 500 spectators were able to sit below the rows of seats. There was a restaurant, a post office, press rooms, file station, souvenir shops, and so on. Just this five years, motorsports changed tremendously. [00:12:00] There were so many car manufacturers who wanted to participate that even the elimination trials were not enough.

So after 1905, they switched to another type of racing. You have to remember that. At the turn of the century, Camille Yenatsi, a Belgian born racer, gust on the Chasselhoek Laubat, and they started from 60 kilometers per hour, and by 1899, the land speed record was raised to 100 kilometers per hour. So these cars, which they look quite very simple and artillery wheels and everything, but for example, the Van Halen, the steering wheel and the chain drive and everything, they were capable of 160 kilometers per hour speed.

And they had these enormous engines. So This was not a very safe sport. For example, the Panhard and Levassor was one of the first which featured steering wheel and [00:13:00] later produced an engine with the cylinders were cast individually. Previously, they were cast in pairs. By the 1902 race engine power was increased to acclaim, 50 horsepower, but in reality, it was closer to 70 horsepower.

And if you look at the Mors, which was the competitor of Panha in uh, France. They did not do very well at the Gordon Manifest. Actually, this is a very interesting one, called the Dolphin, this is from 1903. It also had a 70 horsepower engine and a kind of a streamlined body. Its bonnet was shaped like an inverted ship’s bow leading into a fairing.

It was also recognized that there is air streaming along the underside of the car, so at least the gearbox was covered by a fairing. Beneath the 100 liter petrol tank there was also a water tank. Both Panhard and [00:14:00] Levassor and Morse did not race after 1903. One of the best known British entrants which actually won the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup was Napier, which was part of the Paris Vienna race, and it was driven by Edge.

who was a dealer but also a marketing man. This had a 6. 4 liter engine with 45 horsepower. Each cylinder had four automatic intake valves. The radiator was extra large and made by a company that normally produced steam powered buses. It had a 180 liter petrol tank and it weighed And 33 kilos. It’s claimed that it was the first British racing car to be painted British racing dream.

There are a lot of stories which can be told and lots of great stories, which you can read on the website. This is just, uh, a short overview. [00:15:00] Naturally, Mercedes was at the forefront of, uh, racing and they prepared. and made a lot of effort for the Gordon Bennett Cup. And unfortunately, they managed to only win once, the 1903 race in Ireland, where Camille Iannazzi managed to win.

This was part of the Mercedes Simplex family. Another interesting fact of these early racers is that in many, many cases, the body was interchangeable. So you had a touring body, which was replaced with a much simpler body for the race. But afterwards, in many cases, this was converted back to a touring car and sold off as such.

This car was powered by a 66 kilowatt, 90 horsepower engine. The problem was that the fire destroyed most of the works in June 1903. Eventually, less powerful cars were entered, and Kamilianacsi won the [00:16:00] 1903 race with an average speed of 97. 2 kilometers per hour, which is quite impressive. And this is one of the most interesting cars of the whole race because this was previously not very known, the brand Richard Brazier.

Henry Brazier and Max Brazier built some cars, but these were not very well known. But in 1904, they came, they saw and conquered, and repeated the feat in 1905 with this car. It had a pressed steel chassis and chain drive, while smaller models already adopted shaft drive, but this one had chain drive. And as there was a 1, 000 kilo weight limit, they tried to adhere to that, and this was, this car weighed 972 kilos.

And this was the only car in the 1904 race which had an engine smaller than 10 liters. 9. 9 [00:17:00] liters, actually. It was taken from a motorboat. It had a maximum horsepower of 85. Who raced these cars? These were sometimes factory drivers, sometimes foremen, sometimes wealthy aristocrats. Sometimes the designers and builders of the vehicles themselves.

The Red Devil, Kamil Janáčí himself, born to a wealthy family in Belgium. Most of the early successful racers came from Belgium for some reason. He was fearless and very daring and gave Mercedes the first international win. Mr. Edge, who was born in Australia, but came back to the UK, where his family lived.

Just like many others, he started as a bicycle racer, then switched to cars, and he won the 1905 Gordon Bennett race. The [00:18:00] only small wrinkle in that saying that he won the race is that actually the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup was finished by only one person. And after the 1903 Gordon Bennett race, he went into more long distance record racing.

Who won the 1904 and the 1905 races, who was nicknamed le because no one else could drive as fast so consistently. 1904 was the first year with Richard Braier. He won 19 0 4, 19 0 5. Gordon Bennett’s Cup. Then he tried to beat his own race without success, then returned to Richard Baier that unfortunately died of the E in 1909.

1905, the last Gordon Bennett Cup. So this was a closed track, and actually this was the forerunner of the Grand Prix races, which started in [00:19:00] 1906 with the French Grand Prix. And I’m very proud to say that the first Grand Prix in France was won by a Ferenc Cis, who was of Hungarian origin. Thank you very much for your attention.

You can see my email address, but also there is a link below the presentation. You can send your questions, which I will be very happy to answer. Thank you. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series.

The Center’s collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the world. The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events.

To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives. [00:20:00] org. This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers. organizational records, print ephemera, and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the future.

For more information about the SAH, visit www. autohistory. org

We hope you enjoyed another awesome episode of Brake Fix Podcast brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports. If you’d like to be a guest on the show or get involved, be sure to follow us on all social media platforms at GrandTouringMotorsports. And if you’d like to learn more about the content of this episode, be sure to check out the follow on article at GTMotorsports.

org. We remain a commercial free and no annual fees organization through our sponsors, but also through [00:21:00] the generous support of our fans, families, and friends through Patreon. For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can get access to more behind the scenes action, additional Pit Stop minisodes, and other VIP goodies.

As well as keeping our team of creators fed on their strict diet of fig Newtons, gumby bears, and monster. So consider signing up for Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT motorsports, and remember without you, none of this would be possible.

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As the automotive industry exploded, so did the complexity of organizing the race. By 1905, the Cup’s rigid rules couldn’t contain the sport’s growth. The Grand Prix era began in 1906, but the Gordon Bennett Cup had already laid the groundwork for international motorsport.

Dr. Négyesi’s research highlights how the Cup evolved from city-to-city races to closed-track events, especially after the deadly 1903 Paris-Madrid race. The 1904 edition in Bad Homburg featured grandstands, restaurants, press rooms, and souvenir shops – motorsport was becoming a spectacle.


Machines of Might

The cars were engineering marvels. The Napier, which won the 1902 Cup, boasted a 6.4-liter engine and a 180-liter fuel tank. The Richard-Brasier, victorious in 1904 and 1905, had a 9.9-liter engine taken from a motorboat and weighed just under the 1,000-kilo limit. These machines reached speeds of up to 160 km/h, a terrifying feat on rudimentary roads.

Innovations like steering wheels, streamlined bodies, and individually cast cylinders began to appear. The Panhard & Levassor and Mors cars pushed boundaries, while Mercedes’ Simplex model gave the brand its first international win in 1903.

Dr. Pál Négyesi

The Cup wasn’t just about machines – it was about the people who drove them. Camille Jenatzy, the “Red Devil,” was a fearless Belgian who gave Mercedes its historic win. S.F. Edge, an Australian-born Brit, won in 1902 and later pursued long-distance records. Léon Théry, nicknamed “Le Chronometer,” won in 1904 and 1905 with unmatched consistency.

These racers came from all walks of life – aristocrats, engineers, bicycle racers turned car enthusiasts. Their stories, often lost to time, are now preserved thanks to Dr. Négyesi’s work and the Gordon Bennett Cup website (gordonbennettcup.racing), which features rare photos, biographies, and technical insights.

The Gordon Bennett Cup may have ended in 1905, but its spirit lives on. It was the crucible in which national pride, technological innovation, and motorsport passion were forged. And fittingly, the first Grand Prix in 1906 was won by Ferenc Szisz – a Hungarian, just like Dr. Négyesi.

This episode is sponsored in part by: The International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC), The Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argetsinger Family – and was recorded in front of a live studio audience.


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Jana Schiffer: Sim Racer and Advocate for Women in Motorsport

In Episode 26 of INIT Talks, host Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya (aka LoveFortySix) is joined by the talented Jana Schiffer (@SchifferJana), a sim racer who is not only skilled on the virtual track but also a dedicated advocate for women in motorsport. Jana shares her journey in sim racing and her impactful work with the team at the ADAC SimRacing Expo, where she played a key role in the Screen to Speed Women’s Arena.

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This episode explores Jana’s experiences both as a competitor and as someone actively working to promote inclusivity and diversity in motorsport. She discusses the importance of initiatives like the Women’s Arena, the challenges faced by women in racing, and her vision for creating more opportunities for female racers in both sim and real-life motorsport. Whether you’re a sim racing fan, an advocate for inclusivity in motorsport, or simply inspired by stories of passion and perseverance, this episode is packed with insights and encouragement. Don’t miss this engaging conversation with Jana Schiffer and her inspiring work to elevate women in the racing world!

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Highlights

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

  • 00:00 Introduction to Screen to Speed
  • 00:49 Welcome and Introduction: Jana Schiffer
  • 01:19 SimRacing Expo Experience
  • 04:35 Journey into Sim Racing
  • 08:24 Community and Competition
  • 26:07 Favorite Cars and Racing Insights
  • 37:10 Advice for New Sim Racers
  • 40:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed powered by INIT eSports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, Dedication and innovation that drives the world of motorsports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports. So buckle up, Screen to Speed starts now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Hey, welcome everyone to Init Talks show. Welcome, welcome. Uh, today we got a special show because, uh, we got Janna Schiffer and [00:01:00] she is a DAC sim racing expert right now. So welcome Janna. Uh, happy to have you here.

Jana Schiffer: Thanks for the invite. A little surprise. I didn’t expect that. But yeah, I have some, some alpha news from, yeah, a special place, we’ll talk about that later.

Yeah,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: sure. Um, so how do you feel about SimRacing Expo so far? How do you feel, uh, to be a part of this big SimRacing event?

Jana Schiffer: I missed SimRacingExpo last year and I was surprised after I saw what’s going on in social media and what’s going on at the event. I was like, hey, it’s just one hour drive. Why didn’t you like use the opportunity?

And, um, yeah, I, I, I, I thought maybe, maybe our team here where I’m racing, uh, sometimes in the winter, fall or summer cups, Maybe they’re there too, and they, oh yeah, we have a booth at the women’s area, [00:02:00] and much more, so. Join us and I said, Hey, I’m working flexible. Why not? I can have some So kind of I I think we talked sunday about it I joined on tuesday, um Wednesday I was here in dortmund.

We we built up everything. It was like super nice to see like, um Yeah, everyone real life first time just chatting or racing. Uh, what’s um You Yeah, like like it’s it like how it is when you’re working remote or have remote contacts or was super cool to yeah Sit and be part of it, especially.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that’s great You know, i’m i’m so jealous actually because I miss this sim racing expo, but I think maybe i’m going to join the next one Um, did you get a lot of people already visiting?

your stage

Jana Schiffer: [00:03:00] Yes, yes, I mean, we are right next to the main stage and you can really see by a large banner on top, like, women’s area, I think. And, um, it’s like completely open, so, so people are walking around. And, um, Yeah, I was really surprised. I was, because we, we prefer like to open it for women and not have like the men dominate the space.

Um, it was really interesting to see the males driving. You see like they’re a little bit shy, never had contact because they come kind of as a non racer, just like to be a company with, with a group or something. It was cool to see. This was one part of the, like, first time contact with the SimRig, um, and, like, the other people who are, like, deep into the scene for 10 years or maybe less or more.

Yeah, a lot of people, like, um, [00:04:00] I would say, raise a leaderboard to, like, 20 plus players, racers joined, joined like the competition we are doing. So, yeah,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: that’s nice. Uh, once you remind everybody that, uh, tomorrow you need to sports going to have a broadcast. So right here, uh, with race, which will happen in formal for it near Brooklyn GP in our racing.

And it’s going to be at sim racing expo. Uh, we’re going to stream it. Uh, it will happen at three 30 CST time three 30. Yeah, CST time. So we’ll see you here. Um, so talking about sim racing, um, when did you start sim racing?

Jana Schiffer: More interesting how and why? Yeah, so I think I, I, I, I, I made the full circle. Um, I was in, um, social metaverses around with my VR glasses.

So I tried to find like, what’s [00:05:00] the next big thing? What, what does the future look like? Especially in the pandemic, we all felt a little bit like going to a concert remote, like, it’s not happening anymore. I’m so happy about that. But, um, VR headset and I was thinking about what can we do with it. And I saw someone racing.

I was like, Oh my God. Like, it’s all about immersion being. Like, immersed into something, and then you’re sitting, you have pens, you have a This is, this is crazy good, good idea. And I bought like a super cheap, uh, wheel. No force feedback at all. I realized after I bought a better one. Um, but, um, yeah, it was my entry two years ago.

Two and a half years ago, I think. November twenty Two, I, I, mm-hmm . Created my iRacing account. Um, with my, the eyeglasses. I was immediately like super happy using iRacing. Um, I have all of the, uh, sims, uh, available, but, but yeah, my home is [00:06:00] iRacing. Um, and yeah, two years. And, uh, I, I don’t call myself professional, more like hobbyist.

Um, I don’t have any racing background. Never race, never been on a racetrack or maybe twice karting. The moment I, I tried it, I was immediately completely catched and hooked and I realized all the things why racing is interesting. Getting better, fighting for the thousands and milliseconds, and after you realize, okay now you can make it alone on a road trip, now start driving with other people, and yeah, it’s like for me, it’s all that most people already have, like, yeah, we know it, it’s like for me.

Just new experiences. And yeah, I think everyone enjoys [00:07:00] racing and knows what I’m talking about when, when I say good and interesting experiences. So, yeah, I can’t even say I had any bad experiences with racing. So super nice community. And, um, yeah, and even with, with, um, my first appearance in the. I was not good, but I was consistent, which helps.

So I was completely there all the time it takes and races. And I put a lot effort. I mean, for my hobby is a lot of effort in and. I think I made good for my first ever competition in sim racing I think I was six or seven of all so Not by racing super fast but consistent taking points for everything.

And yeah, no, it’s fun I enjoy it and that’s what what’s all about. I think in this community enjoying having fun Doing races, coming [00:08:00] together, having the benefit of one plus one equals two, uh, three, sorry, it equals two, but yeah, I wanted to say three. Um, and, uh, together we, um, yeah, um, can, can show, uh, there’s a community, um, that is doing something and, and build and grow into, into, um, Yeah, for

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: sure.

We’ve been talking about that sim racing community is really friendly, really, uh, like helpful, uh, to newcomers, which is absolutely amazing. Uh, so when I come to a racing with my big, uh, in real life experience, I also noticed that everybody like trying to help you, trying to, um, guide you through this way in sim racing.

It’s absolutely amazing. Amazing, and so I’m pretty sure that you played some racing games when you, uh, was young, uh, can you tell what was your first racing game?[00:09:00]

Jana Schiffer: It’s crazy, long ago, we are talking from 1987, it was a cartridge for a C64, like the first home personal computer, like they call it the bread box, um, and the cartridge, it was LeMond. A Le Mans game, but it was like C64, 87 around. So it was just lines driving a car. Again, I had no real life ambition into racing, not was it cars, not was it racing, but, but from the gaming perspective, that’s a good.

Kind of a view, uh, how, how I experienced it from the gaming perspective. Yeah. I saw NASCAR racing. I think 98 coming up calling make rate two was the craziest rally game I experienced until today. Um, so I saw one too, and I saw the [00:10:00] other Colin McRae’s and I saw like all this stuff coming in from, from, from my computer, um, kind of, and gave me, I try out stuff and want to see like.

What are they doing now with the tech? Is it better with the graphics? Are the physics getting better? And now, kind of, I’m not really gaming anymore at all, because I said I’m just wasting time learning a planet which was created to play a battle royale. Shooter on it or whatever now I’m learning racetracks and I’m learning kind of for me real life skills and like this dry sit swimming in the rig is for me like the best part into sometimes do it with a real car I think um.

I’m, i’m really like thinking about like it’s cool to uh, uh, Drive on on sim and and everything but it’s really not [00:11:00] Everyone’s goal. I assume we know we save money. We can crash the cars. We can trade and everything like we just have to huge benefit for me. No one would let me, but I crashed millions. So, uh, it’s good for learning.

And, um, yeah, we know, um, there are more senses on the, on the real racing. Um, you have like a much crazier experience. experience, much more pain maybe too, uh, but, um, uh, and, uh, but, but yeah, for me, for me, it’s like, um, in my mind, like in, in a few years when I think, okay, now we can, uh, try some hobby is, uh, racing, um, why not?

Yeah. Uh, so what do you see? Okay. Sorry, let me jump in yet. One good point, uh, one keyboard for me when you said, um, about the newcomers, [00:12:00] newcomers are welcome. When we talk about how good the community is onboarding helpful for newcomers. Yes. And I think when it gets more competitive, it’s always in sports, like you have friends But your competitors too, uh, and it’s not like, Hey, I, I, I, I, I set up your rake so you can race better against me.

This is happening for newcomers. You say like, it’s a newcomer. I haven’t set up. I give him my setup even because he doesn’t even know how to use this setup. So yeah. Yeah. It’s awesome.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. That’s great. And And also a really good thing that, uh, people who’s coming, who’s new in, for example, in a racing, they can meet people with the same racing level, and then they can go step by step, uh, develop and improve on track.

And this is a absolutely amazing. And what I also noticed, um, unfortunately as a race in [00:13:00] Asia, uh, we had quite competitive serious here. Uh, but I can tell you that, uh, You know, racing got more competitive people, like you’re getting into, uh, like top split in a racing and here’s a crazy fast people like every day, like just the daily racing, uh, they crazy fast and, uh, you always, uh, got a room for improvement and you always got a goal to, to go for, and that’s amazing.

Truly.

Jana Schiffer: On all levels. Exactly, exactly. And I, I, I can’t really talk about other sims because I’m not deep experienced in I, and I don’t want to, to only talk about iRacing, but from my perspective, the, the, the way how, how it’s structured with kind of the weeks, you focus on one car and one track, you maybe have like, okay, let’s try another, I have a mood today or whatever, but you’re really [00:14:00] focusing on.

weekly getting like based skills and Then when you go into the next cycle you build on top like oh, we are in okayama again. Awesome I’m now faster than last time and I really Saw like how how it’s growing on my side. I’m i’m not i’m not having high eye rating points Not high. I don’t care like I practice every day almost but But not even in races.

Like maybe one race a week. I’m so stressed in races. It’s unbelievable. I even brought up pulse meter back to look what’s happening. I was like, it’s going up to 140, 60 without doing anything. 60 in a rig. From 70. So it’s crazy. And yeah, what on the other side it’s excitement for me. It’s crazy. Seems to, like, [00:15:00] shake me in my whole body.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Did you find something, uh, to fight with this, uh, with this stress or are you just like, okay, I’m just going to live with it and we’re going to race or something like this?

Jana Schiffer: Yeah. Yeah. Just, just more experience. That’s my experience. Like I just told today, like, when I had my first ever race. Last time in the Winter Cup, my very first competitive race, I was sitting there, I drank maybe two Red Bulls, I think, I had a cramp in my leg, and then I go, no, it’s Red Lights!

And then I had a cramp in my other leg, I was, no, I need to race! This is like, I was completely wasted, kind of. I made it, I made it. And um, this time, I, I, the time I take 10 laps, I said a good lap, I was like on page one, I said. She’s [00:16:00] just chill and in the race It was okay. I was happy. I did one incident point in both races.

I wasn’t slow I was exactly in the midfield like four seconds front of me and four seconds behind me So I was just doing my easy race and was happy. I’m not Killing the race for the better and not getting killed

So, so it was really super chilled. I don’t have any pulse, but I would say it was 100 ish. If we measure it in pulse, in bpm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Right. Uh, Kierkegaard. The

Jana Schiffer: experience, really, the experience is a comfort zone. Everyone knows like going into something you never did. It’s kind of out of your comfort zone. You immediately get a little bit stressed if you’re like that and um, yeah and Second time third and fourth time, you know it and as similar it’s for [00:17:00] races.

I was I don’t know. I think it’s Just going lower down The more you train, yeah, but it’s still there. I can’t say it’s gone.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, that, that’s awesome. Really. Um, like you, you in a race, you, uh, stressful sometimes, sometimes you feel like, okay, I can do my race. Like you, you got the safe bubble around you. Uh, that’s great to have always.

Uh, but yeah, sometimes you’re just getting into races where you go in. Like this to everybody, like really close and you stressful whole race, trying to hold this position, no mistakes. It’s so excited every time.

Jana Schiffer: Okay. Yeah. I’m out of this, you know, I’m, I’m, um, over like the first trouble you have, like, just keeping it on the road, like the very beginner.

And I’m [00:18:00] not at the point that I say, okay, I’m gonna get this on P1. I know. So, so even like, I’m trying to avoid the hardcore races because I know my heart will pay it back. I’m joking. No, really joking, but um, I’m not, I’m not rushing into hardcore getting the best. This is normally something which every school does.

For the enthusiast ones, like, to be the best, I’m, I’m joining, I’m doing, I’m doing a soft launch, I could say. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Sometimes I’m just, uh, you know, trying to stop myself, like, okay, we’re just going to wait, we’re going to let go of someone, they’re going to crash, we’ll gain, like, a couple of positions. But yeah, sometimes it’s really

Jana Schiffer: hard

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: to stop yourself from like rushing or getting someone and you [00:19:00] just go for it sometimes.

Jana Schiffer: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I’m not, um, I’m not here for the competition at the moment. I’m here for the learning, for the learning curve until I can say like, You’re gonna see what you have when I race with you. May take some time, but yeah, enjoying a lot the learning phase, right? And you, everyone can say what they want, they have.

Sure you’re, we lock up, like you’re braking and like going into the corner. Yeah, I’m learning it. I don’t care. I can show you other stuff. Uh, you’d have an experience. Um, the life is full of so many stuff and interesting is like, I call myself generalist because I’m doing so much stuff and I did in my life so much stuff.

I was skateboarding for years, um, [00:20:00] on, on, on, on large ramps, like three meter 50 ramps. I did drop in and skated. I did graffiti, hip hop. I DJ’d a few years. I had a band, but it was all faces kind of. Um, I feel with racing, like it’s much more hardcore to get in. So it takes much longer and I’m super excited.

Still after two and a half years I go see still no path or ending of the tunnel like ah cool in two and a half years I mastered it I can go to the next one no there’s so much more As I said like if you mastered or AI at some point Competition you say like sim racing was just my training. It’s There’s another complete world, right?

Yeah. And I remember like a colleague, a friend called me when we’ve been in, in, uh, in the holidays at [00:21:00] the beach, like every day I wanted to do something like, let’s go jet ski, let’s go this, like, and I’m always want to have action. That’s why my discord is never boring. It’s never boring. It’s never boring.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really cool. Yeah. You, you’re so, um, so positive. So, uh, dedicated about what you’re doing. That that’s great. Uh, definitely. Um, so what do you think? Um, is it, uh, possible for people now to jump from sim racing to real racing? Like, uh, how do you see this? Because, um, we, we definitely can see that. A lot of people, um, like jumping from sim racing to real sport and they compete in real sport as well.

Um, what do you think about this from your side?

Jana Schiffer: Yeah, um, I mean, I’m not at age [00:22:00] five anymore. So I can say like, okay, I push it from now and in 15 years, I can be competitive, competitive, like in the first league. Um, I started when most of the racers stopped their career, I’m 43 now, and um, I think sim racing is not a hobby for a five year old regularly, so people start if they cannot afford like or have like connections, family who are already racing and they are in from from any kind of their network or surrounding.

Um, what happens like Super often, I mean, even most of the sim racers in their, if they are not professionals in their job, they do something with racing cars or like, it’s like one large bubble, I would say many, many tiny bubbles, but, um, and it’s definitely the entry. [00:23:00] And, um, I’m, I think many people proved it already, uh, is away from sim racing, having a career.

Over many years in simracing, going into simracing, or, or, or, like, um, twitching, really, like, okay, I’m at a point where it’s like, I think I can make it, I maybe do a little bit of training, but, but I focus on real racing, it’s a thing, I, I, I, when I look, like, at, at YouTube, or, or stuff, like, I see it popping up.

Um, , um, Amida, I think, yeah. What was his name? Amida. Yeah. Um, he, he did like the, uh, switch to, to the radical. Mm-hmm . Um, as three, I think. Super cool. I saw one or two races of him. It’s good to see I as from a, from a, from a EXIM of perspective going the way, it’s cool that he [00:24:00] documents it. But he does, um, is, uh, awesome and other stuff too.

But um, yeah, seeing someone, uh, sim racing in NASCAR, uh, in IndyCar, it was in NASCAR I think. One, one guy, I, I’m not, was it William Byron? I’m not in the US, sorry for that. I am not into NASCAR, I don’t know all the drivers, but I think that I heard it at some race, that William Byron was a sim racer too and then came into, into NASCAR racing.

So yeah, it’s possible, why not? And especially possible for someone who started at age 14, 16, 20, who normally doesn’t have any career in sports anymore. Do what you love, be a super enthusiast, uh, and, and, um, enjoy it at some point. You, you, you, you have a choice. Um, do you want to go more into the direction or keep your job as, as your main income?

[00:25:00] Um, If there is an opportunity, are you getting an opportunity, are you building an opportunity, whatever. I always say like, If you think about something and, um, you, you, you, you, like, you build the future based on, on kind of your thoughts, um, you, you think about, Oh, what can I do tomorrow? I need to get, uh, my new wheel or I need to set up this stuff.

You’re already planning that you’re going into one direction. So your thoughts kind of, um, and yeah. I definitely agree, uh, that, um, there’s a way to transition from, from sim racing to real racing too.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. That’s a really good thing that, which you said, uh, about your thoughts building your future. Uh, that’s really.

Um, that’s also working on the racing track, uh, because you trying to think [00:26:00] about the next corner when you just coming into it. And yeah, this is how the whole life is working as well. Um, Can you tell me what is your favorite car in iRacing? As we’re talking about iRacing, you’re in the simulator, me too.

Um, my favorite one would be Porsche Cup, so what’s your car to go?

Jana Schiffer: Yeah, I went the classic road, Mazda, Toyota. And then there was a question, what’s next? Um, Toyota, I didn’t, I knew you need to be super fast and everyone is in one or two seconds in the end and it’s a different way to race. Um, I love the, um, BMW V8, uh, Le Mans, like the GTP car.

Um, I love it. Um, if I say like, am I competitive? No, it’s like for sure, even a larger gap than in the [00:27:00] other cars, but I can race. Um, like racing is not about being fast as I said, like be consistent or making mistakes. Like so many times you just like had a carnage and even like in the Morris, I was leading.

90 percent of the laps and then in the last lap in the hairpin I did like a full circle with my car and yeah

Fast cars. I love I love really the Porsche too. Um, I I switched after I did one season of Porsche to GT3 GT4s to experience what’s happening there. Um, And I realized oh Braking is so easy now because I have so many assistant systems in those cars You Going back to the person, knocking out words, and I was like, no!

Oh, that’s what’s about in the Porsche like you need to have a little bit more skill And yeah, I that’s what my [00:28:00] experience was like you have less assistance So more skill and the Porsche is really cool Um, and before I went here, I bought the radical as a 10 and I bought it Was flying through the Nordschleife because I had rear racing the Nürburgring.

It was a Yeah good, but Nordschleife, Nürburgring GP is okay, but Nordschleife I’m not really competitive So let’s get something going that you have fun trading some some Nürburgring and VW and Wow, what a car so much down for us Unbelievable I did like One evening of like one or two hours driving. I don’t know if it’s competitive.

I know it was somewhere between 8 20, 8 40 or something where, where I had the GT card, but this thing, I was 6 38 on the box. Like it was What? What, what be was something about six nine [00:29:00] different what? I don’t know what it did, but it was just flying. The kind was like, okay.

You don’t need to break here anymore? Oh, so yeah, this is how I experience it. It’s like, you see it like, um, when I’m talking about it. Yeah, it’s happening inside me when I

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, you know, formulas, prototypes, they’re super fast, especially when you’re switching from GT cars, they’re like So crazy give you a lot of emotions and uh, yeah, you just can’t get into the corner.

You’re like wow I can break like a little bit and get into this and you downforce going to help me in the corner and I’m going to Get a lot of grapes Yeah, I absolutely agree. You know, uh, prototypes, specials. Yeah, you mentioned

Jana Schiffer: formula cars. I bought the Mercedes when it came out to just see like how is it, how is it to sit in a formula car.

Uh, I mean in a [00:30:00] sim, um, but I really love the the asian the super formula Wow, this is so much fun. I don’t know the differences. I don’t really know much. I know it’s Wow, for sure, etc but um I just, I just love it. I, I, I, it’s like, you, you, you, you, you, you, that cast you need to learn to handle and that cast, which kind of flow with you, your flow, breaking is what’s on point.

This is what I wanted. And how it means this is like, um, the experience I do because I’m not, I’m driving how the car is first because I want to learn the car when I’m at the point where I say, okay, now I know when I change this, I will feel it. I’m not at the point now. So I’m learning the car to drive as it is.

Someone did it like that in the set that [00:31:00] I’m not the best maybe, but. I like, I mean, I try out different setup, qualifying setup, but for sure, which is like hardcore for people who are in for like that, I didn’t dive into doing my own and I didn’t dive into researching what’s the thing. I just tuned a little bit on the, where I was thinking I can feel it, but normally not.

Normally not. I take it, learn it, how it is. And then when I’m on a level to say, I need to change something there faster than me, I’m not competitive. And I don’t know why it needs to be there. I, that’s the problems you get when, when you are at a certain level.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s a good thing. Um, So when people ask me, what advice can you tell me, um, can you give me in some racing, I always tell them like, you can start and stick with the one car, that’s the best thing to do, because you’re going to [00:32:00] be familiar with it, you’re going to feel comfortable, confident in it, uh, and then you can, you know, Switch to other cars and jump around them and try something different.

Uh, but when you’re starting, it’s a really good thing to stick with one car and just learning tracks.

Jana Schiffer: I, I have the experience and I want to share it. Same for sure. You want to drive the formula car once to see what it is when I flat it out or something like that. You can buy it, kind of, to have it in your assets of drivable cars, but it’s not that you can go into a season when you’re not mastered, like, with Formula 4.

Yeah, if you’re not fast in a slow car, then you cannot be fast in a fast car I know the the thing with sim racing is there are some people on the road. They can’t drive the car So you’re faster with just competing with them [00:33:00] Yeah, so there’s a mix it’s working somehow, but but but if you think real The slower car you need to handle perfect to get the best time.

If you think you’re faster than Pascal, it’s just because the car is much faster. It’s not because you are going faster than everyone else. It’s just like, you can take the corner with 250 instead of 120, that doesn’t make you feel higher. Yeah, I agree. So I’m playing around with this a little bit, and I’m enjoying it a lot, and um, yeah, nothing can stop me, kind of.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Absolutely agree. You have to go step by step from slower car to faster car, uh, because you actually building your base, uh, of your racing skills of your, uh, racing crafts and such stuff. Absolutely agree with you. Uh, in that, yeah,

Jana Schiffer: playing the devil, trying the hardcore class. Everyone [00:34:00] can do. I had the, I was explaining someone on the expo today, like, How, how can you get into sim racing?

How expensive is it? And, um, and I was explaining iRacing because I like it. And everyone might be shocked in the first moment doing the calculations. Like, okay, if I have all this stuff, oh, oh, oh, wow, wait. So much money, but no, you start with the Mazda doing, you buy one car because you decide, okay, I, I got the Mazda.

It was interesting. It was maybe not my thing, but I want to try the Toyota or the Formula car, but you go slow in it. And this is so cool. Like week by week. Season by season at some point you say new car Because you want to to to find something new but but you don’t put like 1, 000 on the table on day one or something.

It’s like [00:35:00] your subscription It’s your car and track if you want to try something special, but go just with the base content play play the stuff learn it and then

Unsubscribe your your music streaming or whatever and buy one racetrack per month so easy

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, um right thing, uh about our racing because so many people also coming to my stream They tell him like wow racing is so expensive. And as you said we can start from like Free content, uh, right now we got a lot of free tracks, a lot of free cars.

So when I started iRacing, uh, we had only MX5 for the, for the rookie license, right now we got, uh, also Formal V, so it can start from Formalist or you can start from GT cars and, uh, build your way here. Um, that’s cool. You, that, you know, iRacing like, uh, becoming more flexible for everybody. [00:36:00]

Jana Schiffer: And that’s really, uh, Just realize it interesting mechanic when you then go a little bit higher you buy the toyota or But then you have the chance of like there are like two or three of the 13 weeks Are with free content and other is like You don’t have spa as free content because it’s like a car you need to buy But you have the three weeks or four weeks where you can play the new car with the free content Then you can go back to your mad stuff and free content And the next season you say okay.

I tried the three weeks. I want to make more. I take the whole season I need like four tracks, but I can buy them like in week three Seven nine and thirteen so It’s like, it’s, uh, not at day one, as I said, so yeah, simracing can be [00:37:00] expensive, but doesn’t need to be by a good rig, but a very cheap one, the difference, so.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Okay, so before we wrap up, uh, can you give advice from, uh, to new people in simracing, uh, So how can they start in simracing, like what equipment to get or like, uh, how to get into simracing?

Jana Schiffer: Um, yeah, my own experience, uh, several times in my life is if you Buy very cheap products you you can get in you can get a feeling of if you are interested in it when you when you then deep dive into the rabbit hole you realize oh wow there’s so much more behind the The very cheapest entry level.

And then you realize the benefits of it. I bought the cheapest meal I can get on the [00:38:00] day I wanted to have it from the supermarket around the corner kind of. And then I realized, Oh, it’s kind of plastic. It’s not feeling great. So what’s in it when I pay more and then I realize you get more forced feedback, etc, etc.

So maybe it’s interesting for sure this what I have is not really the end game. So let’s try the next And then I really realize it’s just like boosting you so much more when you have a good equipment But good equipment is entry level for everything I would say like 700 to 1, 500 ish, um, and, but then you can quickly get, go to 5, 6, 7, 000.

And the good thing is when you crash a car in a sim you don’t have to pay it, so your SimRig It’s pretty quick paid [00:39:00] off, so that’s how I explain it. If I decided to buy a car go racing, I wouldn’t have even the money for it compared to the Silvrig. So yeah, start with the money you have and enjoy and then grow from what you can do.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, so basically the same as you said, uh, go step by step with cars and the same thing, go step by step with a sim rig. That’s a great advice.

Jana Schiffer: That’s my path, my, my guide. I can recommend, there are other people who are grinding hardcore, everything what they do. I’m not that kind of person as I said, but yeah, if you’re, if you’re grinding hardcore, I know if you’re, when you are at some point in any, every spot, you have to keep it real for six, seven, 15 hours a day with everything you do.

So yeah. It’s always the same for [00:40:00] everyone.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. So thank you so much for taking your time. Uh, I know that you’re tired because you had a really long day at Sim Racing Expo and you’re going to have a tomorrow as well. Uh, want to remind everybody that we’re going to have a stream tomorrow at 3. 30 PM CST time.

So we’ll see you here on Ineed Esports channel. Uh, Jan, thank you so much for, for taking your time. I wish you good luck for the rest of the Sim Racing Expo. Uh, and we’ll see everybody on next innate talks. Thank you.

Crew Chief Brad: Innate eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. eSports is a woman-led company where diversity, [00:41:00] equity, inclusion, and accessibility is in their DNA and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible To learn more, be sure to log on to www.initesports.gg or follow them on social media at init eSports.

Join their discord, check out their YouTube channel, or follow their live content via switch.

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If you’d like to support Grand Touring Motorsports and the Motoring Podcast Network, sign up for one of our many sponsorship tiers at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. Please note that the content, opinions, and materials presented and expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has been published with their consent.

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Dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real-life racetracks, they explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motorsports. They hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motorsports.

INIT eSports focuses on sim racing events and digital tournaments. They bring eSports content to fans and sponsorship opportunities to brands, while maximizing audience reach across multiple sports, industries, and platforms. INIT eSports is a woman-led company where Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility is in their DNA, and their platform aims to combat bullying and cheating to help make the eSports world as safe and fair as possible. To learn more, be sure to logon to www.initesports.gg today or follow them on social media @initesports, join their discord, check out their YouTube Channel, or follow their live content via Twitch.

At INIT eSports, founder and CEO Stefy Bau doesn’t just settle for the ordinary. She creates extraordinary experiences by producing thrilling online competitions and real-life events that transcend the boundaries of the eSports universe. And she’s here with us on Break/Fix to share her story, and help you understand why you need to get more involved in the world of eSports. 

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