Jon Summers is the Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. On his show he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, motoring travel.
Notes
Uncle Mark’s Life South of the Border
Buzzed By a Trophy Truck
Yamaha WR 450 and riding in Baja
“Mustangs to Todos”
Argentina bike road trip; heavy vs. light off-road bikes
A Eulogy to Heated Seats and Grips
“Personalities” in modern Nascar
Indy vs. Grosjean
Modern Motorsport and Money
The Gasser Vision
“The Thing I Most Want Is My Own Stuff To Work”
J’s Pontiac Grand Prix
Mark and J can’t “thin the herd” of their non-functional cars
J’s hypoglycemia
“Quad into an electric fence”
ZF and Fly By Wire Steering – “you can’t get the staff”
Sim Racing Games, pedals and steering setups, VR motion sickness
“A Historian, Not A Mechanic”
The Death of the Sportsbike
Freightliners
Taycan Turbo S vs. Bullitt Mustang
Eulogy to Steve B, the consummate Ford Guy
Pebble Beach class-winning Bob McGee ’32 Model A Roadster
Tundras I Have Known
New Cars I Have Bought
Mercedes E63 wagons
M6 Gran Coupe
Daimler-Benz M156 engine Eulogy
Mark’s Dad’s ‘40 Ford Coupe – “a blown Cad with a La Salle rear end”
The “Business Coupe” explained
Mark’s ex-Police Harley
’80’s Thunderbirds as an Investment
A moment’s silence for J’s Mondeo ST24
Transcript
[00:00:00] John Summers is the motoring historian. He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and fast, and not much reliable. On his show, he gets together with various co hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.
Good day. Good morning. Good afternoon. It is John Summers, the motoring historian and a miracle of functional technology. We have Mark Newton and Mark Gammy all on the line with us. I’ve an agenda, but of course I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna stick to it here. Let, let’s, um, let’s begin. By, uh, uh, saying hello to Mark Gami, who [00:01:00] unexpectedly joined us.
Thank you, Mark, for making the effort. No worries. Gami, great to see you. And, and hello to Mexican Mark, Mark Newton, who is joining us from, where are you joining us from Mark? Uh, Todos Santos, BCS, Southern Baja, Mexico. Bueno, buenos dias amigos.
I’m sure Mark knew, Mark Gami, you’re not aware. Mark, what are you driving now? What vehicles do you own in Mexico? What’s sitting on the driveway at the moment? Well, here you have a tendency to, uh, gear yourself towards things that actually work, that won’t leave you stranded, um, that you can get parts for.
Um, you know, we’re not in the, uh, spoiled, uh, hub of California where we have access to everything within hours at our fingertips, regardless of what it is, what it’s for. How much it costs. So, [00:02:00] um, 97 Ford F two 50 heavy duty power strokes, diesel four wheel drive, manual transmission, pre runner off road truck with a big utility bed.
That, that, that, that’s the, uh, that’s the number one girl on the list. And then, uh, I recently bought a short bus. Nothing more appropriate for the dog rescue than a, uh, Let’s see, this one’s an 01 E450 V10, um, Ex Napa Valley Wine Country Tour Bus. And it’s one of my favorite new vehicles I’ve ever had. Why?
Why? I love the, I love the V10. I love it. I’ve never had one before, and I love it. Compared to my turbo diesel that I also love. It just does what it’s supposed to do, you know, it’s making it makes a ton of horsepower. It makes a ton of torque The mileage isn’t horrific It’s an [00:03:00] e450. So I’ve I’ve spent my whole life towing with my f 250 and Working that thing to death for like I’ve put over 200, 000 miles on that truck It’s sitting at I think we’re 375, 000 miles on that thing currently And it’s probably got another half million left in it.
But when I bought the four 50 nice being that it’s a dually and that it’s a heavy duty, you know, one and a half ish, let’s say two ton. I put a trailer behind it. It doesn’t even know it’s there. It, it just. It does everything better than my F two 50. And I hate to say that , you, you sent me a short where you were like, this thing is absolutely the future because you were like, stood up in the back of it.
And for context, we’ll put a, we’ll put a link for, for, for the viewers. But the idea is gamy. This is like your airport bust. This is like your airport, like hertz [00:04:00] rental bust where you can stand up in it, right. But it’s like, so it’s a short chassis, but it’s like dual wheel, heavy duty. So you’re a fan of the V 10.
I thought that V 10 didn’t have a great reputation. I dude, you know what the guys that have them that, that run them that I have come across now, and you know, I did my diligence before I bought this thing. I was trying to find a. 5. 4 truck, you know, or something like that. You know, my last van was a 96. So it was the last year of a pushrod 351, our good, but that venerable 5.
8 liter that we love so much. And I loved it, but I popped a head gasket on it and I didn’t feel like fixing it last trip to California. So I hunted around on Craigslist and found this van for 4, 100 bucks, paid 3, 800 for it out the door. And the lovely part of them, because of what you said, Summers, they’re like, Airport shuttle vans, handicap vans, you know, they use them for a multitude of things.
They’re all fleet maintained. So, kind of [00:05:00] regardless of price, they’ve got new tires, good brakes, well serviced, regardless of miles. They’re great vehicles, so, you know. I mean, I jumped in it, welded a rack on the back, welded a trailer hitch on it, swung my car trailer off the back of it, and drove it 2, 000 miles, you know, to Mexico.
So I, I, I love it. I’m convinced it’s the greatest thing ever right now, or the, like I said to you, the greatest tool for me here, you know, um, I’ve usually got dogs in it. I had 12 dogs last trip, go to new homes in California. So I’m down to only 15 now, which is nice. So just like, let’s just pause for the audience here who might not have grasped that.
Just, just repeat what you just said. How many dogs and why do you have all these dogs? I run a small dog rescue in Mexico called Baja Street Dogs. So, BajaStreetDogs. org if [00:06:00] you’re online or BajaStreetDogs on Instagram. Um, it’s just kind of something I do in Mexico to try to help out here. You know, instead of just being a gringo that takes advantage of a cheap, wonderful country and, you know, lives like a king.
You know, I work with the local kids, with the dog rescue, try to educate these guys, run clinics. Um, you know, I’m also, I never had kids or got married, so I’m Uncle Mark, you know, and I’m a mechanic, so you need new tires in your bicycle or a chain for your bike, you know, you go see Uncle Mark, you know, maybe, maybe the dogs chase you, maybe they don’t, maybe you get a tire, maybe you don’t, but we’re in Mexico, nobody gets too wound up about anything here, you know, it’s like, yeah, whatever.
And just for and just for some for some context, this is the bit of california This is the bit of mexico that they call baja california. This is a long peninsula so john You basically have you know, you have the northern state of baja in the southern so [00:07:00] bah Just baja california or baja california, sir south or lower.
So we’re we’re bcs california, sir i’m about uh I’m a little over 900 miles from the California border right now. Um, and how wide’s the peninsula? At its widest point we’re barely over a hundred miles. So that’s, that’s a thousand miles long and a hundred miles wide. Yes. Um, you sent me a short or a video or something of, of, um, uh, an off road race that just came right past you.
Yep. Just reprise that for, for Mark Gami here. Gabby, I’m coming home. So I’ve got a ranch about 10 miles North of town, a little dog rescue ranch. So I go out there and walk the dogs and take my composting dog poop out there and do the right thing with it. And, you know, smoke a joint and have some fun and just get out of town for a minute.
Well, the [00:08:00] Nora race got redirected and came through Toro Santos. So about 11 o’clock at night, I’m coming home in my van at 20 miles an hour, quiet dirt. Mexican Road. Nobody on it. Nobody. No streetlights, no nothing. But I heard some cars earlier in the evening, and I thought, ah, they’re all done. So I’m coming back on the highway, and there’s people on the sides of the highway.
Bonfires going, still partying, you know, I’m like, huh, must be some trucks left out. So I look at my rearview mirror, and I see some awfully bright off road lights coming, coming up on me, but you can’t tell how fast these lights are coming up on you. You have no idea. Well, he was doing north of 120 when he went by me.
Miles an hour by you. And, uh, maybe a foot off me, two feet max. Cause we’re on a narrow dirt Mexican highway. Needless to say, he blew my head off as he went by me and I just chuckled and [00:09:00] giggled as he went by me peppering me with rocks and dust and dirt. That’s why I live here, because that exists. It makes me giggle, not piss me off, you know.
Mark, I, uh, I called you on your birthday a couple of years ago, and, uh, I said, What are you doing? And you said, Oh, I’m, I’m up in LA at the moment. I’m buying WR450s. And I said, What? And you went, Well, about the biggest, meanest, most fuck off off road motorcycle. I’m buying them. And I said, How many have you got?
And you said nine. Now, why, why the nine bikes? What are you doing with the nine bikes? Can you still have them? Kind of the, kind of the point I made, Summers, of you use what works here, you use what lasts here, you use what functions here the best and you can get parts for, Yamaha. Hondas are [00:10:00] good as well, but down here, for instance, our, our, our, uh, our marine.
Uh, the marine world around here. Obviously we have the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. We essentially sit on an island down here surrounded by water. So, a lot of water activities. Everyone runs Yamahas, and I mean everyone. So I like the WR450s, they hold more oil than the CRFs, they’re more reliable, we can get parts for them, so I just kind of tackled mid 2000s, aluminum frame, carbureted, you know, good suspension WR450s, electric start, headlight, you know, and keep everything the same so I can buy one set of parts and keep these things running, because, you know, we’re running them in the Mexican desert, and this place isn’t nice to anything, so, and yeah, we had basically a small rental business down here, Um, I brought them down in January, right before COVID, set them all up, COVID hit, and that was that.
Here I sit on a bunch of [00:11:00] WR450s. Uh, I’m down to two. I, I’ve got, I’ve, I’ve offed them all, and I’m down to, uh, two WR450s, and they, uh, I still have my XR650R Honda Supermoto, which is Really fun That’s my favorite bike of late. Oh, and I brought the Harley the shovelhead down the old suicide ship bike down, too So, um mark GAMI has been hope has been harboring some You know, I wouldn’t say off road fantasies more sort of soft road Desert riding fantasy.
Um, so talk to me about the riding conditions. What would it look like? What would, uh, if, if we’re, if we’re with you now in Togo and we’re like, we’re eager to be able to ride, you know, we’re hydrated. You know, we’ve, we, uh, you know, firstly, how good, I mean, I’m a shitty rider, as you know, like, am I, am I just going to fall off?
Am I actually going to, is this an experience I’m going to be able to enjoy? [00:12:00] Well, Summers, if I could judge the future from the past and you want a dirt bike with gravel, I can almost guarantee you, you’re going to grab a handful of front brake at least once and dump it. And I’ll tell you, I teach a lot of guys how to ride down here.
And coming from where you and I came from, whether you rode dirt or not, Northern California, California in general, we’re generally used to riding single track, mountainous, tight, hilly, up, down. It’s a very different environment to be on this very loose, decomposed granite, riverbed, sand, beach, gravel road down here.
You don’t touch the front brake, you don’t steer with the front end, you do everything off the back wheel, and I mean everything. So, You learn real fast if you don’t, you know? So when I had my, when I had, when I had my rental bikes, I would get these kids from LA down here that had, you know, two years on a motorcycle on the street.
And, uh, I would, [00:13:00] I would tell them, don’t touch the front fucking brake, dude. Don’t touch it. Forget it’s there. I’ll take the lever off if I have to don’t touch it. And inevitably I’d say at least 60 percent of them within five miles would You know, come into a gravel turn, touch the brake and down they went, you know, and luckily they’re low sides.
It wouldn’t hurt anybody real bad. Nobody was, you know, it scared the shit out of them. Maybe they went into a cactus or into a barbed wire fence, but didn’t kill anybody, you know, so, but yeah, that, that, once you get used to that, once you get used to that summers, that it’s just a different style of writing.
The other thing to remember is, At our respective ages, at 54, I’m not trying to do breakneck speeds through the desert. I’m trying to have some fun, end up at the beach at the taco shack, have a beer, you know, kick back for a minute, and just [00:14:00] enjoy the day, you know. I mean, we have 8, 000 foot peaks right here within 50, well, within 30 miles.
So I can ride from the beach to an 8, 000 foot Southern Sierra Nevada peak and back. So I can get every kind of terrain you can imagine. For whoever wants to come ride and play. You know, we we’re really blessed with the terrain down here. Uh, my thought was gonna be, I, I really would need to unlearn the whole, I only use the front brake.
I mean, not, not for nothing. I mostly my bikes, it’s hard for me to get my foot over the rear brake to cover it properly any, anyway. So I, I, I, they would be . Um, yeah, I would really need to discipline myself. Um, with, with that, that’s interesting. Yeah, you’re, you’re, it’s just, it just takes it. Luckily here, everything’s pretty soft here.
You know, if you, if you dump it in a river bed, it’s, it’s eight inches deep of decomposed. Granted, it doesn’t, if you dump it [00:15:00] on the beach, it doesn’t hurt you real bad. You know, you’re not going to break anything real bad. It’s going to, it’s going to scare you a little bit and teach you a very valuable lesson.
I’ll tell you, Gammy, I’m more into having you guys come down. I’ll pick you up at the border in these two, uh, road, road race Mustangs we both own. And, uh, let’s run this thousand miles. It’s. unbelievably beautiful, perfect coast to coast, two lane twisty, not a cop on it, no rules, no laws, no speed limits, no one cares.
Have fun. Yeah, no, I mean, I’m bang up for that man. I mean, my, in terms of training for the bikes, um, I did the BMW off road skills course a few years ago and only badly injured myself at the end of day one. Um, so that that’s a good omen. And, uh, I’m CRF two 50 rally probably just to Get um, do some green laning around here just to get used to it and um, Get my eye in with it again because yeah, you forget all the stuff Um, so but if I do a bit of winter riding and late summer riding and then [00:16:00] i’ll be up for it Probably by next year.
Yeah me that that’s a great bike to actually it’s good You trained at bmw on those big heavy bikes because you go jump on a nice properly prepped 250 Dude, it’s it’s it’s like riding a really well prepped mountain bike. They’re light. They’re quick. They handle well They do everything. Well, the brakes work, you know those big bikes You don’t ride those big bikes down here on the slippery gravelly shit, dude You end up you end up trying to pick them up half the time.
I’m a heavy buggers. Oh God, they’re they’re they’re terrible. You know, they’re they’re just they they serve a purpose You know, like when we did the ride through Chile and Argentina with those guys we had 12 different bikes You know, I was riding an XR650R Supermoto. No, no regular wheels on that one.
Frank had a KTM 625 SMC Supermoto. Everyone else was on a KTM 950 Adventurer or a BMW 1100, 1200 GS’s, you know, all big bikes. And [00:17:00] you guys understand, one, there’s not one tool for every job. So the tight twisty stuff, the mountain stuff, the single tracks, we were having a ball. You know, the big open gravel, fast Argentine roads that run along the backside of the Andes for, you know, thousands of miles.
Those guys on those 1200s had a cocktail, a cigar, and cruise control with heated grips just giggling at us, freezing our asses off. Miserable. You know? That’s one thing old Garcia always says about BMWs is when you’ve ridden a bike with heated grips, you never want to go back to a bike without heated grips.
I’ve never had a car with heated seats, so I wouldn’t know. Yeah, I’ve never wanted a car with heated seats until I bought an Outback with heated seats. And I’m like, how did I live with these, without these? What’s wrong with me? Yeah. Yeah, no, I, I love the, the, the heated seats. Ollie is campaigning for us to get a car that has hot stone massage.[00:18:00]
And I’m like, dude, like, because I made a mistake of saying to him of differentiating an E63. And in S65 by saying that the S65 had hot stone massage as well as like the Viterbo V12. He didn’t care about the Viterbo V12. He was just interested in the uh, in the hot stone massage. I’m going to change direction completely at the moment, Mark, and pick up on something you said um, ages ago.
I said Mark then, neither of you know who I’m talking to really, do you? NASCAR. You said you’ve been enjoying NASCAR. I nearly fell off my seat and then I thought, I’ll save it for the pod. You said, and we have been discussing contemporary NASCAR, or at least in terms of this fellow Ross Chastain and the wall running.
And in the recent Uh, you know, like in a computer game where you just put the car against the barricade against the wall, took your hand off the steering wheel, Jesus take the wheel, [00:19:00] held the throttle flat, and he like crashed his way into like the chase or the playoff or whatever it is they call it now.
So, so Old Dale Jr. Then there was this race a couple of weekends ago where he punched Noah Gragson. Afterwards, which is a good name. Noah Gragson. It’s like a character, a name in a, in a fantasy novel, isn’t it? But either way, Gragson was the victim of this punch and, and I don’t know the ins and outs of it.
I’ve not watched the film of it, but I did know that Dale Jr. On his podcast said that he felt that there was a marketing opportunity here, but just like his father had grown into the intimidator. As a personality, Ross Chastain had the chance to grow into a personality. So here and now, Mark and Mark, what should Ross Chastain’s nickname persona be?
Punchy.[00:20:00]
Do you like him or is he, do you think he’s too much? You know what’s funny, John? You talk about personalities in racing now. It used to be, especially in NASCAR, The personalities were just there. These men were giant personalities. That’s why they did what they did. They were moonshine runners. They were mechanics.
They were poor, lower class, just forgotten about people that had nothing better to do than run cheap shit cars fast on back country roads. So those were the personalities. And now it’s funny. We speak of essentially manufacturing a personality from these generally wealthy. You know, entitled, not entitled, wealthy privileged kids that get to go race now.
This is no longer a poor man’s sport, you know, so It’s, it’s odd to me that we’re talking about building a personality around someone that really doesn’t have one other than the fact that he likes to fucking punch people off the track or into the wall. [00:21:00] You know? Um, you know, like I think back to, you know, my dad when he was young, like I’ve been watching IndyCar as well, you know, Indy 500’s 28th, um, practice days in the last couple of days, you know, these guys are out here running 229 miles an hour, you know, around that oval and, you know, I remember my dad worked for, worked for, um, AJ Foyt when he was young, they used to go out to Indy every year in the 50s and early 60s and, uh, It’s fun to watch those guys as well now because I haven’t watched indie for years because they they fucking ruined it You know, and it’s, I just want to say for an European perspective on Indy, David Hobbs says about the Indy circuit.
It’s not an oval. It’s basically, the way you want to think about it as a European is, it’s like four corners at Spa. joined up. Yeah, they’re all left handed, but each of them [00:22:00] has its own personality. It’s not that banked and it’s goddamn fast, but you’re gonna have to slow down. That is the well, you get guys like you get guys like Grosjean coming out of F one that think I’m gonna go kick everybody’s ass.
I think he or I think he’s practice time yesterday was somewhere 27th or 28th out of 34. It’s like, yeah dude, shit changes real fast at 230 miles an hour non stop in traffic. We’re just not for nothing. And that wall comes at you real quick. It’s not for nothing. Let the record show that I particularly do not rate Grosjean.
I don’t know what you think, Cammy. I don’t want to slay anybody who can get to Formula One, but I personally thought Grosjean, like, the records show that Grosjean, for me, sits with Jarno Tulli and Andrea De Cesaris right in the bottom echelon of Formula One drivers. That’s probably fair. [00:23:00] He’s quick, but like, and he would qualify quite quickly on occasion.
But there would always be a fuck up. There would always be something that fucked up. Agree, Gammy. Exactly. You know, he couldn’t, you have, the problem is now I think in racing and I have kind of a problem with this across the board. It’s become so tight and so close and there’s so much money involved that there’s just no room for anybody that’s not absolutely fucking world class with all the support they have and all the money in the world.
It’s very difficult. For a grassroots person to come up in any racing series, I don’t give a shit what it is, you know, and that, that, that, that bugs me, you know, and it’s, and guys like him can go from F1 to anything they want. Well, Magnuson, for example, the Haas, Danish Haas guy, you know, he went running, running LMP cars and kicked ass, you know, and I think a guy like him, because he’s with Haas, he’s on a handicapped team, essentially, what [00:24:00] are you going to do unless you really get lucky?
You know, you’re gonna, you’re gonna bring up people like Schumacher, you’re gonna have, you know, um, you know, Niko Hulkenberg come back, which I love him, I’d love to see that, but if you can’t field a decent car or something close, I mean, oh, sorry, I’m, I’m a hundredth of a second off, loser. Yeah, F1 drivers does, F1 circuit does have a habit of making really quite quick guys look shit by, by dint of the fact that they’ve got a crap car and therefore they’re running into teams and, you know, It always did.
I mean, we mentioned David Hobbs. He was somebody who looked at Formula One and was like, this is just not the environment. But for me, I want to make a living as a racing driver. Not, you know, die or fail in short order.
When you’re next over, like, let me know and we’ll go to the, um, the Goodwood members meeting, mate, because you’d love it. Oh, I, I, [00:25:00] dude, good, going to Goodwood would be my, it’s like my life’s dream. If I can get tickets, like, come on over, yeah? But the difference is though, Gammy, I want to ship my Mustang over and do it in that.
That would be cool. Is it all back and sorted again now? Is the car all back and fixed because half of that chat slid into it? Yeah, no, no, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s perfect again and it’s shoved in a shipping container along with my 51 Ford F1 pickup, Scott’s truck. They’re just sitting in a shipping container and in the LA desert, just.
Waiting to get here. So, you know. But yeah, I’m trying. That’s my logistics right now, Gamby. I’m trying to get my Cobra track car, the old Mustang, my F1 pickup, and I’ve got a couple early 60s, uh, I’ve got a 63. 5 Mercury Meteor, or um, excuse me, 63. 5 Mercury Comet Wagon, and then I’ve got a 72 Comet. [00:26:00] Um, and then John and I have been working on, uh, the background of putting his, uh, 63 and a half Meteor, um, building it into our drag car.
I’ve got the 428 Cobra Jet out of the 66 T Bird. Him and I have been communicating about a Big Block, Big Block Toploader 4 speed. We’ve got the narrow 9 inch for it. I’ve got the Thunderbird seats, uh, or the Mustang seats for it. So, we’re kind of roughed in, you know, of, of building that thing, and I want to do that car.
That’s kind of my priority, honestly. That and my truck. He’s doing like, cool, because he keeps pussying out about when I, when I try and close him into when it’s gonna be ready. He’s like, meh, meh, meh, meh, I don’t know, like, don’t hold me to a date. He’s got a wife and kid, dude, I understand. Yeah, but it’s still, it’s still pussy ass.
I’ve got fifteen dogs looking at me that I can just tell to shut the fuck up.
I, I’m really I’m really in a place where at the beginning of the year, I was like, what do I want? If the slate was blank, if [00:27:00] I had like as much money as I, what would I want? And the thing I most want is my own cars. And by working, I’m, I’m, that’s, that’s why I am possessed and I’ve stopped trying to prioritize and do this one and that one.
I’m now, I’ve looked at, I just have a list and I just go down the list and knock things off and I try and do it every day. And I’m at the point where, you know, if, if I, I’m, I’m going to. I’m not going to turn the screen because I’ll f k it up, but right next to me here is this goddamn gixxer that I’ve had for a year now, and I’ve not ridden it because it was a drag bike, so it only has brake rotors on the front, and the rotors are loose.
And I said to my tutor at City College, like, should I replace them? And he went, yeah, I would. Like, the last thing you want is them failing, especially if it doesn’t happen. So I’m like, you know what? I’ve not, I’ve just like, I said to myself, I do that. The last time Garcia was over, he was like, you could just write it like that.
I mean, you don’t write it very hard. [00:28:00] You know, if you just, you know, if you’re just like first or second gear around here, you could do that for it. And I’m like, why don’t I just do that? I need to, there’s a level of urgency that I’m looking to, to build into, uh, what I’m doing. Those, those floating rotors are supposed to do that, Summers.
It’s fine. You never nose wheelie that thing anyway. I, well, exactly. Right. Exactly. Um, well, to drive your point though, home summers, you and I have talked a lot about this in the last couple of years, we’ve both sort of motivated each other to narrow our focus a bit, you know, cause I’m similar to you. If I come across a 600, you know, that comet wagon, it’s all there.
It’s a beautiful 63 and a half comet wagon, white, red and white interior. It was 600 bucks. How do I not buy it? And that’s the thing. Through the pandemic, those things have all risen in value, and I don’t think they’re going to repeat afterwards. They’ve all risen significantly in value. Well, you’re, let’s use your [00:29:00] Bonneville for example, or excuse me, your Grand Prix, for example.
I mean, you know, you, you couldn’t really even barely justify paying, what, 3, 300 for that car back in the day. And I’m like, you’re fucking stupid. Buy that thing. Buy it now. Just hang out for a minute. It’ll be fine. You know? What, what’s that thing worth today and you haven’t done shit to it other than drive it But here’s, here’s the thing with, with, with that car particularly, uh, 1963 Grand Prix that I have.
That car particularly, right, it, it’s the, you don’t see, at least not at shows or in the, on the places that I look. You just don’t see cars like that one. Because that one had sat for 20 years before we got it and it had just been taken off the road. So it’s a original car that hasn’t had pain and hasn’t been restored.
and hasn’t been customized, that’s unusual now. So use the other 63 Grand Prix’s, but they’re basket cases, or they’re cars that have been [00:30:00] done. There’s not that many that are in this middle of the road kind of, of state. And, and that, I don’t know, that, that to me makes it, it, it, you know, because Ollie’s not into it, not least because it’s sat in the corner of the garage here.
For like decades not taking up, you know, so he’s like he’s like do the Camaro. You should do the Camaro I’ve just got too many cars. That’s literally the the thing is that I need I like kind of where we’re at though and you know being in mexico has somewhat made me thin my herd and I I’ve got those toyota chinooks.
I sold one of those I got off the other one, you know I made good money on ’em. I’m fine with it. You know, hold on here. I was looking at a video where people, British people were getting all excitable about Chinooks. I, I dunno, I think there may be a market for them, um, certain in Europe for like campus because people, you know, you might have [00:31:00] been ahead of the curve with that when you were buying those.
I was like, why the fuck are you buying these? No, I, well, there are early Toyota trucks, just the doors and cabs are worth a small fortune, you know, um, and again, I’ll kind of go back to my point of like, like the comments, the meteor, dude, they were 500 bucks. I got a storage yard. . Yeah. Like I off the last one for 2,500.
So I, so I spent 200 bucks storing it and made two grand on it. Big. That, that I, that’s fine. I can do that. You know. Um, but I think you and I are on the right path. Summers where we’re prioritizing a bit better, what works and gave me to kind of bring you into the conversation as well. I’ve been telling Summers the Arrive and Drive program that we all talked about, and you being a team principal Summers, I like all that, but the reality of that isn’t really reality.
It’s a better reality to me and a more grassroots enjoyable thing is You’ve got a Mustang track car caged [00:32:00] safe. I’ve got one caged and safe. We’ve got the drag car, the, the gasser that we’re going to build. I’ve got a couple other things to create somewhat of a little kind of arrive and drive thing, but in a different sense, like.
Hey, Gammy, Denz, jump on a plane. I’ll meet you in San Diego. We’ll have both the cars ready. We’re going to go to Tijuana for dinner, have a, have a cocktail and, um, we’re going to jump on the road and make it to a San Felipe tonight, you know, which, which route you want to take, who who’s driving first, like just you’re basically on a thousand mile track through some of those beautiful terrain in the world.
You know? Oh, and at the end of it, there’s a bunch of WR450s sitting that we can go play on. So, to kind of do a, to kind of do a, you know, a grassroots, something different, arrive and drive gearhead trip through Mexico, you know, LA and Mexico, because I know Europeans, everybody wants to play in LA and see the sights and do their thing and go to San Diego.
I get all that, you [00:33:00] know, but for me You know, the happy places. The second I get over that border, it’s like, woohoo, here we go. You know, I can see the appeal, man. Definitely. Well, and it’s just, it’s obtained. It’s attainable gammy. It’s not. You know, it’s normal gas prices. I’m not buying race fuel. There’s no trailers involved.
I mean we could run a chase I can bring the the the short bus with a car trailer behind it We have a place to stay extra parts fuel water somewhere to lay down when john doesn’t eat And he’s fucking he’s gonna pass out, you know
It’s like you’ve met him before bro I told Dana years ago, he’s a fucking, she was bitching at me because he fucking almost passed out one day and I said, Hey Dana, he’s an adult. If he doesn’t eat that shit’s not on me. And I’m not his wife. Fucker needs to eat. It’s a fat boy. He also needs to learn how to roll a joint that’ll stay lit.
I gave up on that one, but I loved [00:34:00] that one. Me too. And dumping my XRs. He’s dumped all of them. I, I, I That’s why we love you, Summers. That’s why we love you. I, uh, I, as I was preparing my little talk track here, I, uh, I thought of, of standout memory, um, of this. And, and my actual quad into the electric fence is one of my favorites.
Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the, the quad that didn’t launch straight and, and got me tangled in the, uh, the electric fence. Yeah. Yeah. And then the whole bike became electrified and you were grabbing the. Pull bar to pull it out and get shocked every time.
Yeah, that was a long time ago now, but that was a funny, uh, a funny thing. I never realized that electric fence was pulsed like that before. I’d never actually been, I, [00:35:00] I, I mean, I was shocked enough that day to, for the rest of my life, but I’d never been shocked by an electric fence prior to that day. So I’m going to change the subject.
I visited. I was invited as a, as a journalist. So perhaps it’s my duty as, you know, since I was invited on this PR day as a journalist, I felt in this public forum, it was my duty to talk about the fact that I was invited to the opening of ZF. As in ZF transmissions as in the people who built the transaxle for the four G4 and built transmission.
The transmission in my Ford F two 50. My favorite shifting transmission on earth, aside from my top loader, four speed in the Mustang, John, I’ve got 375,000 miles in that transmission. It’s never been apart. It’s never had a clutch in it. And you know, I’m not nice to, yeah. I don’t know how. Yeah, well [00:36:00] let that underscore what I said to the, to the ZF people was that was exactly, was exactly that.
But what emerged. was, was a different picture. You see, I was billed, what was billed? It was billed as the launch of their fly by wire steering. Interesting. Now, now, that means more than when I turn the steering wheel, there’s no direct. The whole, like, disappearance of the steering column means we can engineer the car in a completely different way.
And, and the videos that they had, because, because the thing of it, we don’t need, there’s no physical connection now needed between the wheels. So not only can the wheels swivel far more than a mechanical steering rack would allow them, allowing crazy parallel parking and things like that, but, but also inside the cabin.[00:37:00]
The video they had showed the steering wheel folding itself up and sinking into the dashboard as the car takes, you know, as you’re on the freeway and the car’s driving itself. So that was, was how they positioned it up. There was a simulation, which I didn’t do because I, the Wall Street journalist girl did it and I was good next to her and she was like, Oh, I feel sick.
And I was like, That is everything I need to know about that simulation. Like, thank you. I’ve always felt that the Wall Street Journal was accurate and direct and you’ve just, uh, just helped me with that. But then there was a panel, right? And the panel was really interesting. It was the first question the moderator asked was about getting staff and hiring staff and how the fact that, so it was clearly no coincidence that this electronic product was at the same time as this office was being opened in Silicon Valley.
And the long and [00:38:00] short is that the way in which ZF are going to scale within the space is based upon how, whether or not they can get the right staff, because literally they used to make gears. Like cogs, and now they’re simply not anymore. Now it and what was interesting to me was I talked the guy I talked most extensively with was a German business guy and he said he’d come from it was some three letter acronym.
I can’t remember the name of it, but they were a software house, basically, and ZF bought that software house. Outright. So they bought the software house outright. And then the guy that I was talking to, it was like the sales director, VP kind of guy. He was, uh, the, the guy who they had, uh, put, um, you know, so, so in [00:39:00] other words, what that said to me was that this company has completely pivoted from what they were to, to what they are now.
Your thoughts, Mark Gammy. Um, well, I mean, look, I’ve been driving computer game wheel sims for a while and the feel on that has improved immeasurably with force feedback and rumble and all that sort of stuff, and they’re able to simulate surface changes really well. I’m not even playing on one of the two or three grand sort of, um, uh, fantech wheels with the full sort of, um, geared motors and stuff, but, um, belt drives and stuff, but they are amazing in doing it, so it doesn’t hugely surprise me.
That would be the next thing coming from an engineering standpoint It makes a huge amount of sense and you didn’t mention security Like it’s difficult to make a car if there’s no steering wheel gone into the gone into the uh, the dashboard So there’s there’s you know, that’s that sort of thing is another huge advantage.
Um, One wonders whether or not it is ultimately going to be [00:40:00] a solution for most people of the driving experience not least but also, uh feel will inevitably go but then on the other end we said that with um non manual racks with electronic steering and it’s come back and come back and he’s better and better and better and better.
So I don’t know, it’s inevitable. Gammy, what, what do you use for a, for a wheel and a setup? Cause I just got into the Gran Turismo this last year and I’ve got just a, um, one of their PlayStation, you know, um, Logitech wheel, I think. And I’m quite impressed with how, like you said, the feedback, the, the terrain, the way It, it, it’s pretty shocking how good it is from, from somebody like your and my perspective, I’m surprised.
And like you said, it’s not a 2000 wheel, it’s a 300 wheel. Yeah. So I mean, uh, but my buddy’s um, my boss’s, um, son like is, um, is a, um, journalist for Canadian Hockey Magazine. Um, and he also does sim racing. Uh, um, it might be his other son. I [00:41:00] miss misspeak. But, um, anyway, he, he bought. Uh, a Phantek set of pedals, and a Phantek wheel, and a whole bunch of iRacing, um, so he subscribes to it and then goes on there and does all the coursing.
I think he’s like, being like, he’s not, I don’t think he’s in the Premier Division, whatever the ranking system is, but he’s pretty high up, he’s rac he’s racing races against, like, NASCAR drivers and stuff, so, so, and he reckons you can, you’re like, you know, for a middling, PC Gamer recommended their wheels of 2023 recently, and for about 350 to 500 bucks, you can get a really sexy, And then, you know, don’t get me wrong.
That’s just the, the, um, the steering wheel. And then you’ll buy the pedals and you buy the other bit separately, but you know, cause the pedals I’ve got, I’ve got no resistance in the, in the, um, in any of them, so they, there’s not, they’re not probably sprung, whereas the later ones have proper sort of progressive spring resistance in the brake pedal and it changes based upon surface and all that sort of stuff.
So you can really go to the nth degree with it. Um, but if you pair that up, especially on a PlayStation [00:42:00] five with. Their new VR headset, the VR two one for stationary gaming. Fucking amazing. Um, yeah, I mean, you know, it’s funny you say it about the pedals. The pedals are my biggest disappointment. And I bought the stick shift as well.
I don’t even use it. I just use the paddle shifter because the pedals, the clutch and the stick shift feel so unnatural that I don’t like using them exactly. So, and that’s, that’s, I haven’t really been doing much in racing for a while, but when I get back into it and I’m trying to get my buddy’s got grand Turismo seven, and.
Um, the PS5 and, uh, it’s, it’s one of those ones I’ve been hung, holding off on VR for a while. And if the VR, when the VR 2 headset arrives and I’d see some full reviews in it, it looks pretty awesome. And for that sort of game, um, you know, me and my mate Steve did a few years ago on, I think it was on the, on the previous PlayStation, um, and GT 5, uh, or 6.
Did the full 24 when you were able to do it. Did like three or four hours saved it and then you could come out. But then as long as you didn’t play any other game in the game, you could then [00:43:00] go back in and resume it. And it was fucking brilliant. You know, you were doing like eight laps before the tires are off and you’ve gotta be so fucking careful.
’cause if you’re not, you’ve gotta go on like ultra hards anyway. ’cause otherwise you only do about two laps. So all that tire management was, was great. And he had, he, he had, um, the first like eight hours was in the rain. So, um, yeah, so it’s so that being able to do that sort of simulation is just great fun.
And I love the idea that potentially. On a digital platform, you know, we, for example, if we all have the same PlayStation, we could like log in at two or three hours stints and take over from each other and race that. So, I mean, I, I’d love to do that. I’d love, I’d love to race you guys. That’d be really fun.
Or if we can just do races together as well, cause I, we finally have Starlink down here. So, um, I’ll, I’ll be back up and running next week. And, uh, I actually have, yeah, we, I finally have real wifi down here. It’s hysterical. It’s funny to have it here when I can’t get it in L. A. Yeah, but that’d be, that’d be [00:44:00] cool.
And I mean, I know the iRacing stuff has, um, has the ability to do that sort of team based event because they, they screen them, but you can watch them streaming on YouTube and Twitch. You know, I, I’m so enamored by the online thing now because that first, I’ve got a PS4 and that. Was so impressive to me when I initially got it, the tracks, like to go run, you know, Sears Point or to go run Laguna Seca or go run tracks I’ve actually run before.
I can see how it’s a legitimate way to train without jumping in a car to go do it. It’s, it’s pretty incredible to know where to set up and where your braking zones are and where the apex is and to learn all that. I really wanted to go jump in my Cobra after that and go, okay, does it feel the same? Does it help?
But I know it helps, you know. Yeah, for lines and breaking points and all that sort of stuff, it’s, it’s, it’s awesome. Um, and yeah, [00:45:00] it’s getting better. I mean, I haven’t done the latest gen stuff, so I’m a little bit out of date on what the simulation stuff, but I did the last one of the, um, the VR rally ones on my chums, um, uh, Oculus setup a while back.
And, you know, apart from a little bit of motion sickness, because you still get, which is why I’ve been waiting, because I want a higher red screen so that you lose that, um, but Yeah, exactly. And the peripheral vision stuff, I sort of felt a bit like I was moving after I’d finished the race. But on the other hand, what I will say about it, if you accept that, you know, by the time I buy in that technology issue, won’t be an issue.
The actual simulation of the racing was absolutely brilliant. The sensation of speed through the trees when you’re doing a proper sort of full on um, Welsh rally stage kind of thing in VR. And they’re like five minutes long, it’s not a long thing. But god damn it, it’s fucking intense. Because, you know, you’re playing it on like no aids, everything off.
And the guy’s barking the goddamn instructions at you. It’s, it’s, it’s cool. The rally part of it, I’ve tried. It’s hard, dude. It’s no joke, you know, and I know how to drive sideways [00:46:00] on dirt. I’m real comfortable with shit loose under me. You know, John always laughed about that. You know, he’s like, I’ve never been comfortable with something loose under me.
And Mark, you seem like you’re not comfortable unless your shit’s loose under you. You know, Summers, what, what, what’s the status of your SN95 right now? Is that thing kind of ready to go? Yeah, with the proviso, the, so, so what I’ve been trying to do with that car is, is it’s a, you remember Jason, it’s at his place at the moment.
And we had been shaping to do Wednesday night drags with it. Yeah. And, and so that’s a two stage process, right? One is a Wednesday night that he and I are free and, and then the week before I have to go and test the car in a meaningful way, right? And I know enough now to know that i’m not gonna He and I aren’t going [00:47:00] to take wednesday to drive all the way up to the circuit to find that it you know It has some problems straight away So and it’s not enough for me to go out in the car and just drive it around a little bit You know, you need to go out and do some wide open throttle running in it before I’m going to take it to a track.
So it’s like a two day process and one way and another between, you know, I’ve been over there and done the testing and then we’ve not, we plan to go and then didn’t and then there’s been some. You know, I, I guess, uh, what might happen to, to Jason’s wife and, and that meant the, the, you know, we just, there’s, we just failed to do anything constructive, but the real shtick with that car is the, the, I dare say I could fiddle around with it and make it run better.
And make more power, but it fundamentally isn’t that fast in a straight line now and that I need to [00:48:00] to sort of fix that and that becomes about about, you know, how much power should it have? And how much power do I want it to have? And that’s about, you know, there was a time where I was like, I want to spend 10, 000 and put a 500 horse Ford Motorsports.
Small block in it. Um, but now I’m like why I’m never going to go. I don’t want to go out to Bonneville and do 200 miles an hour in it. And that was my original thought, but I’m just too old in this brain with those high speeds now. So, you know, I, I, uh, yeah, so it’s, so it’s over in, so it’s over at, uh, um, Jason’s place and, you know, and I’m frustrated by my own lack of mechanical skill with it if I’m candid, you know, the dipstick keeps falling out, we’ve, between us, we’ve had three tries to keep the dipstick holder in the side of the block and we’ve, we’ve failed, you know, and it’s just like, you know, it’s just really, yeah.
You know, as my wife said the other day, you’re a historian, not a mechanic.[00:49:00]
We all have our strong points. So I, Hey, you sent me the link to the fast Johnny. Um, Harley, tell me what was appealing about that. I don’t know, dude. I, you know, what’s funny, man. I’ve been. I’ve been looking at a couple of the bikes Harley, Harley has done lately and I’m impressed by them. I like where they’re going, you know, I, I, I never liked the V Rod, you know, that was a Porsche, you know.
Uh, partnership that I get why they did it, but it just never did a thing for me, you know, and let’s face it, you go ride one of those things, they’re, they’re not that fun to ride, you know, you know, I mean, I want to, I want to, I want, I want to get on my, you know, 20 year old supermoto and go slide through shit, you know, it’s more fun.
Um, that being said, though, I’ve seen some guys down here cause we get a lot of adventure guys down here and I’ve seen a couple of those Harley’s set up and I was really impressed by them. Just the looks alone on that thing, there’s [00:50:00] something about it that just made me go, Ooh, okay, I’ll give you a shot, you know?
And I know they’re getting a little better as far as technology goes, and I know they’re better to ride, you know? They’re probably not, still not as good as a, you know, Africa Twin or, you know, something along those lines. It’s a little too street y for me down here, to be honest. But, I just, there’s something intriguing about it, man.
It’s nice to see Harley go down a different path, you know? Because if they don’t, they’re fucked. They’re done. Again, you know, they’ve been saved by World War One and World War Two. And, you know, every doctor in the nineties and attorney that was buying them, they saved them, you know, when I worked for them there at Golden Gate Harley, and, you know, they need to do something to be relevant and to keep up with this thing.
And I think they are. I couldn’t believe when I, I was in France over the summer with my family and I couldn’t believe the way sports bikes are just extinct. They’re just gone. The leader of sport [00:51:00] bike just, Oh, on the streets of Paris, no sports bikes at all in the Loire Valley. No sports bike. When we went to the mall for the 24 hour bike race, Oh, the fields were full, right?
Sure. Uh, but. And, and it’s so, so it’s not like they’ve disappeared completely, but the people at that event are all, you know, our age, you know, well, I think summers, I, I think it’s the crowd. It’s you who has a garage full of old jigsaws weird shit that he doesn’t ride. But with a couple of bucks, you’re going to go buy that Harley or an adventure bike or something.
That’s a little more easy to ride and upright and comfortable and has saddlebags and that’s what you’re going to ride to the event. That’s why that’s what you’re going to ride through through downtown or whether it’s london or paris or san francisco You know, that’s going to be your daily real quick If you got a bunch of 20 plus year old leader bikes sitting in your garage [00:52:00] Yeah, you know, that’s it’s called getting older Yeah, no, well i’ve i’ve i’ve even found that i’ve have that.
Um, I i’ve uh, i’ve three that zoomer when it’ll run the k5 Cause it’s just so comfy in comparison and the fueling just works properly. And, you know, and the other one I’ve been riding is the Ducati because it really around town, like second and third gear, that’s all you need. It’s just like absolutely lovely around town.
Oh, it’s short shift happy place, dude. That’s that, that’s why I like the XR 650R, the super motors, dude. I just love that. Short shift, grunt, just, you know, front wheel comes up every time. You just roll on it a little bit and it’s fun, you know, it’s, it’s enjoyable. I don’t want to have to wrap something up to 15,000 RPM, you know, to get it, to do what I want it to do.
You know, that’s why I like diesels, , you know, hang a turbo, oted. It makes [00:53:00] 1100 pounds of torque at 2000. Rrp m you know, , um, mark Gammy, you sent me pictures of this, uh, alpine beater. The Lancia 037 Restomod. So Mark, this is a Group B rally car. No, no, no, no, no. It’s the, it’s the, the, the, the Alpine, um, Beta thing is, um, a Renault 5 Turbo electric.
Oh, really? It looks just like it looks just like a modernized version of the Renault 5 Turbo, but they’re making it as a mass market electric hatch as far as I understand it. Um, and, um, the, um, I’ll let me find a picture of it for you. I thought I’d send you a picture of it. You know what? No, I elided it in my mind with the, because these people have done a replica 037, haven’t they?
Like a modernized 037. So in my mind, the one was the [00:54:00] video. rendering like a, uh, uh, of, uh, eighties car. Then, you know, I just, I’m not sure what I think of it. I’m like, I definitely don’t want one. You know, it’s funny. Summer’s I I’m, I’m very, as a mechanical guy, I’m very enamored by the electric thing, just the amount of horsepower it makes, you know, that ridiculous fucking Tesla plaid shit or whatever else you get in problem is they’re just kind of soulless.
I don’t. I do. I can’t watch. Okay. We talked about me getting into it. I’m into NASCAR a little more now. I’m into India a little more now. Mind you, I like NASCAR a lot because they fucking crash a lot and drive like a bunch of fucking animals. I love that. That’s why I like it. That’s why I got back into it.
Everybody likes the car crash summers with the EVs, right? These are are soulless. And you can tell that, you know, we did for my, uh, yeah. For my class just a couple of weeks ago, [00:55:00] the, the, one of the guys in the class has a Taycan Turbo S. So he was bringing his Taycan and the class were going to look at it.
So I said, did the class want to look at one of my Mustangs as a contrast? So my bullet car sat on campus as a comparison talking point with this Taycan Turbo S just, uh, just a couple of weeks ago. I got a photo of every, of nobody looking at the Taycan and everyone looking under the hood of the Mustang.
I love it. Well, the point of this, the point of this LP, the point of it is that it’s super light. It’s 220 horsepower and the whole concept, the whole, the whole thing that they’re going for is uh, steering, feel, excitement and handling perfection. Allegedly. Actual drivability. But moving towards lightweight is a great goal.
Yeah, and I mean, look, and don’t get me wrong, yeah, [00:56:00] and a long distance hauler, it’s gonna have like a couple hundred miles of range, but like, you know, if, you know, or maybe a bit more, who knows, but if they’re super light, then it can have a bit more.
But California has already said no more diesel trucks after 2040, because it prompted me. It prompted me to want to buy an 18 wheeler, and I thought it was a great idea, and sent Gammy this freightliner, and all he could do was talk about drivers jerking off in the sleeper. And what amused me about it was, I showed that image to my class, and that was the first thing they said as well.
How many hoes are you had in the back of your truck? How many notches are on the headboard?
Yeah. [00:57:00] Yeah. Yeah. I was like all excited about the fact that I’d found this freight liner that had done two and a half million miles and Gannett was like, yeah, how many like. Crackles in the, uh, sleeper. Yeah. Thanks, Mark.
That’s really, that’s funny you say that, John, because I’m actually working with my attorney here in town where I’m trying to figure out transportation. I need to get these finished cars down here. I’ve got shipping containers full of aircraft parts and tools and machinery and stuff I need to get down here to my shop.
So him and I have been speaking of, uh, I’ve been looking at a freightliner. A buddy’s got one. It’s 12 grand. It’s got, uh, it’s got a measly 700, 000 miles on it. A spring chicken. Oh, it’s not. He bought it new, took great care of it. So we’re looking at, uh, shipping container chassis, and then I’m working on logistics to, uh, to basically have that thing running back and forth between LA and Cabo.
Now let’s, let’s move from the lowest of the low to [00:58:00] one of the lowest of the low there to pay tribute to, uh, My next little topic on my talk track here is, is to pay tribute to somebody, Mark Gammy, who Mark Newton and I both met independently. Um, and a bloke who wouldn’t. Really grow himself up at all and that is steve.
I’m gonna tell you a story about steve Did you know at pebble beach last year? There was a ford model a clar on that ford model a clar There was a car which i’m no expert on hot rod model a’s In the Hot Rod Model A class, there was one car which, just reading about the thumbnail on them, it was obvious that that was going to be the best car in class.
Um, Steve [00:59:00] Beck prepared that car. For pebble beach and I was like, wow, Steve Beck model. A Ford I, my other Steve Beck story was we were on the lawn, uh, uh, uh, pebble one time do in there, like, let’s decide what we’re going to talk about. Like, does anybody know anything about any of the cars around a kind of thing?
And Beck was, we talked about this Cobra that was the development mule for the big block car. And, uh, Steve had a million little things that it had been done and I’d never seen him so, um, it was, it was, it was as if like a book had opened and all the knowledge just flowed out, you know, he just, uh. His happy place, John.
Yeah. Yeah, very much. 100%. He, it’s funny. I just talked to his front office guy, Tim, the other day about, uh, about, um, Bill Thomas, the transmission guy, the top loader guy. [01:00:00] And, uh, I had to call him and get reminded who it was, but he, he said, Steve’s doing that restorations now. That’s his primary thing. That’s all he’s doing.
He’s got two, two great kids working on the BM BMW side of things and he’s kind of shut the gate and he’s doing, he’s doing a a 66 GT three 50. That’s an early number car right now that is just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous car. This guy’s had for 30 years, so Darren, so yeah, he’s kind of going, the front office business he has is late model BMW repairs in, it’s in Santa Monica, isn’t it?
The shop. Uh, um, Venice technically, but then Venice, well, Culver City, the back of office is all of this restoration stuff. And I, I guess I, I hadn’t realized just what, uh, uh, died in the Wolf Ford guy. He was, ’cause I knew about the BMW stuff, so it’s, it’s really interesting. Oh, well you walked back in that quantum hut with Herbie Hancock’s original Cobra that he [01:01:00] bought when he went platinum on his first album, he went and bought himself that.
64 early number still got AC badges on it. I think it’s car number six. Wow. Sitting in that corner of that shop. His original Model T’s model a’s is 30 twos, all from high school shit. The last time I was there, I think there was three, I think there was one big block. Cobra Car number four, Cobra small block, AC car.
Herbie’s car, I mean. The stuff in that back shop is just world class, you know, and it just sits back there in that forties Quonset hut. Like nothing special, you know, so yeah, he, he, he is a wealth of knowledge and a wonderful human. I love that guy. He’s so helpful and willing to just impart knowledge and educate people.
I just love it. I’m glad you got summers. I’m glad you have a relationship with him outside of me in L. A. You know, that’s really neat. Yeah, no, I, I do the, the Pebble Beach does continue with him and he’s [01:02:00] been on the team for great years. His partner, she’s on the team as well. And, and, you know, I was, I was going to say the other thing on my little talk track was he, uh, We did a little like afternoon thing for the docents like at one of the docents houses and it’s a really cool kind of warm up because like one guy arrived on a vintage Indian and, and you know, another guy’s got a brand new top of the range Genesis and, and the guy whose house we were at.
Um, I mean, he’s really interesting. Actually, his name is Mike Perchetti. And he does these bikes that he calls Procetti Speciales, but they’re basically like custom built little bikes, the kind of thing that people put around their house rather than that you actually ride. Everything is like delicate and, and, and he has a definite aesthetic.
So whether it’s a Yamaha or a Honda or a Ducati that he’s done, it has a certain kind of. Uh, [01:03:00] really subtle cool looked for it. He, he also, um, he was in the 70s and 80s. He was like back to back historic Formula Ford or Formula V champion for like years at a time, like five years at a time or something like that.
Like when I was in his study, I was blown away by what a successful guy he was. So we were at his house and old Steve Beck turns up in a. Lotus Super 7 with the same engine as my dad’s Morgan. My dad’s Morgan had the Cortina 1500 motor like GT on it. So it’s that and it’s that on the carbs and he’s he’s towed it up and he’s using that for Pebble Weekend.
And I thought Steve Beck, you absolute legend. Um, I mean, the bottom line is he’s still just an OG mechanic, you know, he’s, he’s. He’s a mechanic, period. That’s what he does. That’s what he knows. I mean, he’s a pretty damn special one, but he’ll be the first to tell you. I’m just a [01:04:00] mechanic, dude. That’s it. , you know?
Yeah. So, yeah. Well, that is the truth.
Mark Newton a topic. This is, this is like what they used to say when you were a historian. You’d, you’d, they give you a topic and then they just ask you to discuss it. Here’s the topic heading. Tundras I have known. I can’t believe you have not owned one yet. Seriously. As much as you and I had fun in that truck and how much you loved it going to Bonneville and playing around out there where the where the atomic bomb left and those back roads, man, I It’s I just sold my other one down here.
That’s that’s the white two wheel drive That you just sold now four wheel drive king suspension limited slip diffs Like oh that that one that had the american racing wheels on it [01:05:00] Yeah, you know what’s funny, Summers? That is the identical truck to the green one I bought and knew that you and I were in at Bonneville so many years ago.
It’s an 03 SR5, you know, extended cab, four wheel drive. And, um, I just sold that thing with, I think, 265, 000 very hard miles on it. Wow. And, um, but you know, I mean, you know what’s funny, John? I paid, I think I paid nine grand for that thing, dude. I drove it for over 140, 000 miles over, shit, seven, eight years, and I just got 7, 700 bucks for it.
Wow. I mean, how do you, how do you go wrong? You know, other than they’re underbraked, they don’t really haul anything, but my God, they’re capable, you know, and I, and I love them. And the motors are bulletproof. The transmissions are bulletproof. They’re not a head gasket blower, [01:06:00] like all the V6 Toyotas, you know, and it gets the same mileage as the four cylinder, the V6 plus that V8 dude.
I mean, that’s the Lexus V8. You know, they, they, they, you know, when I worked for Toyota summers, that’s when the Lexus and Toyota ski boats came out, that’s when they came up with that four liter Lexus motor that they put in all the ski boats, the Lexuses, the pickups, you know, they use that motor for all kinds of stuff and, you know, they’re just, they’re just bulletproof.
I can’t believe what I can do to those things. I can’t believe it. You know, I think you are that white two wheel drive one in in L. A. about 10 years ago and in the way. Mark Gami, this would be on these wide LA streets when it rained. Mark would get the tail out, and then we’d just hold the tail out. This is in a column shift pickup truck.
So on [01:07:00] an on ramp, you just get the tail out on the on ramp, and then go all the way down the on ramp with it sideways. Or if you, like, hoofed it, you could get it so it was like a rally car, where it’d fishtail all the way down. There’s no weight. in, in the back of them, they’re, they’re really, um, quite a, really a remarkable thing.
A little moisture and a limited slip or a posi rear end in those things makes them real lively. What was the one you picked us up in from Vegas? I think that, I think that was my green Tundra, that early Tundra, I think that was it, yeah, yeah. And that was, uh, that’s funny, Gammy, that’s the only, that’s the only vehicle I’ve ever purchased new.
I bought that thing brand new in Napa, 03 Tundra four wheel drive and, uh, I kept it for a year and a half and I sold it for damn near what I bought it for because I couldn’t stomach the payments and I never bought anything new again. Now, excuse me, I bought a new Harley in 96. That’s right. [01:08:00] And that was it.
Everything else is You can’t really justify buying those things new go go buy a six seven eight nine thousand dollar four wheel drive tundra nowadays with two hundred thousand on it who gives a shit mileage is a well i think that’s an interesting point i was thinking which vehicles have i ever actually bought new and it’s the cbr 600rr and i bought a seat leon cupra r New as well, um, and that’s yeah, everything else has been like secondhand or px’d or whatever Yeah, well, I think considering what the three of us respectively do to vehicles.
It’s probably a wise thing I mean, I look after them, they get hard worn, but I look after them, they get everything they need I, I, I, I agree with you on that one I’ve, uh, I’ve I have a colleague at the Blackhawk and he always, he says, uh, about my cars. They always look like they’ve really been driven. [01:09:00] Well loved my friend.
Well loved. All right, let’s move on to the little quick fire phase here to, uh, to, to see us out. Um, what’s your favorite car of the moment?
Favorite car at the moment?
Not that I own any car. Yeah, just what you, just like, it’s a, if I ask you your favorite car, you’d have like some like, you know, special Ferrari or something like that, right? If I say favorite car at the moment, I’m saying just what’s on your mind at the moment, just pull it out of the ass. It can be, it can be a banger on Craigslist or something that you’re dreaming about or, or just anything.
I got to say that my Cobra track car, because it’s on, it’s in the forefront of my mind is something that I have the engine, the transmission, the car. It’s, it’s, it’s so close to being running and drivable and I can [01:10:00] get it here on the next trip most likely. That’s, that one, the thing that I can have the most fun with that I own that’s obtainable, you know, that I have every parts for, that’s, that’s the forefront of my mind right now.
Nice. No, no, I, I’m not, yeah, I’m not, there’s nothing fancy that impresses me, you know that, Summers, give me an old fuckin beater. You know, stick shift car with a posi rear end and I’m happy. Mark, do you have a favorite car at the moment? Um, I’ve been looking on the basis that if we’re going to move to the south of France, if this ever happens, but I’m still, the end goal is still in play.
Um, then we’re going to need some sort of cross continent bruiser, um, to like put luggage and potentially dogs and things like that in the back end and then do like, you know, Pyrenees to You know, back home to Plymouth or whatever in a day kind of trips. So for that sort of thing, it’s generally German.
So I’m looking, I’ve been looking at some quite sexy, um, [01:11:00] E63s, but also some quite nice, um, M5s and M6s. You get to the M6s and I’m not all that keen, but then you get to the M6 Grand Sport thing that will, or the Grand Coupe, you know, one that was the four door version of the two door version of the, I don’t know, but actually looks, that they actually look pretty good.
Those are sexy, those are sexy four door, dude. Yeah, they are really nice. And you can get them for like not, but not unreasonable amounts of money. I could basically trade the M2 for one of those. No kid. I’ve been looking at E63s. And I’m here to tell you, I think the crossover year is 2011 because that’s when they went from the normally aspirated 6.
2. M 156 which arguably they reckon some journalists reckon is the greatest Va ever put in a street car from that engine to the turbo v8, right? So the turbo v8 made more of the v8 as well. It had two turbos. It was a 5. made more [01:12:00] power, but it doesn’t have the character they reckon of the the earlier car
Give me a naturally aspirated car any day of the week, dude. Yeah. Yeah. You are already struggling to find a, like a modest mileage one though, because they are like old now. So, um, but, um, yeah, I’m still on the look and if I can expect, I would want a right hooker probably. You are, you are if you’re going to daily it and pack the miles on, I agree.
Yeah, it’s a, on the basis I want to right hook a one, it expands the, the uh, the available market to all of Europe. Um, what was the first car you drove?
First car I can remember driving was a, about a 60, so this was in Marin County at my, Dr. George Mowen’s house up on the [01:13:00] mountain and Doc was a crazy doctor that was a heavy drinker and had a giant 600 acre ranch in Marin County on the hill and He had a mid 60s International was an international it was a power wagon mid 60s early 60s Dodge Power Wagon four door Old fire truck, four wheel drive, long bed, stick shift, with no doors on it, no seat belts, two bench seats, you know, no power steering, no nothing.
So myself and his kids, Rex and Max, and my brother Steve, we’d all jump in that thing, and between the three or four of us, we could muscle it around the mountains of Marin County and not kill ourselves in it. How we didn’t roll it down a hillside? I don’t know, and of course our dads didn’t give two shits.
Seatbelts? Ha ha ha, didn’t have doors. No one cared. Yeah, they were building houses, they were [01:14:00] building a house for Doc out there to replicate a train car. He was a weird one. He also owned Disney’s uh, old uh, railroad on that property. The old original Disney mini railroad is on that property, completely set up.
It’s, Summer’s off to take you out there one day when I get, you know, come up there sometime. It’s a special place. Yeah. That’s the earliest vehicle I can remember other than my dad’s 66 Ford F250 that I still have, you know, the utility truck. I still own that. Um, first car we bought. You mentioned, you mentioned your dad.
Um, I had a separate topic here which we sort of jumped over, but let’s, let’s come back to it. Tell us about your dad’s 44. Why was that such a special car? Dude, he, he built. So they were Marin County guys. My dad was the mechanical side of things, old drag race family. And his brother art was the paint side of things.
And, you know, interior guy, and they didn’t have any money. So they built everything out of the gate. [01:15:00] And my dad was born in 37 when he was about 15, 16. He found this 40 Ford coupe that was, you know, they weren’t, they weren’t worth anything, you know, five years after they came out, no one wanted those things, you know?
So he had a, a 40 Ford, uh, business coupe. Uh, And it was a, it was a deluxe, so it had the chevron taillights and the little windows. And, uh, they were just trying to drag race everything. And it was one of the smallest, lightest cars they could get their hands on. And, uh, he put a, uh, had a blown, a blown early Cad, Cadillac motor in it.
With a LaSalle trans. Um, you know, built, built rear end in it. And, uh, baby moons. And, uh, it was black, black on black, of course. And, uh, he drag raced that car around Marin County for years. It was a pretty, pretty famous little car. And, at the little diner one night, a guy pulls up, [01:16:00] this is 1956, pulls up in a baby blue, brand new, 56 Ford pickup.
And loved the car so much and watched my dad race it that night. And he said, hey, I’ll give you this brand new pickup for that 40 coupe. My dad was like, oh, hell yeah! I can build another one of these. I can’t afford a new pickup. So, that car got traded for that blue 56 pickup. And, uh I’m pretty sure that car’s still floating around Marin County.
I’d love to find it someday. Um, yeah, I’d love to find it. I, that was a, there’s something about, pardon me, big rig, Mexico. Um, there’s something about those 3940 Fords that they’re just special to me. I don’t know. They’re just, they’re one of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen. And I want one. So a word on that business coupe body style, what, what we’re saying here, Mark Damian, I always found this fascinating because I was a sales guy.
You’re, you’re a sales guy. [01:17:00] Um, the business coupe body style was aimed at sales people. So not only was the thing cheap to buy, but it had enough stuff. It’s space in the back of it for you as a traveling salesman to carry your stuff But what that also meant was the your samples But what that also meant was that you could sleep in the car and didn’t need to pay for the motel Yep, and what that meant for the hot rodder was that if you jacked up the back a little not only was the thing light As Mark alluded to, but if you jacked up the back a little, it really looked very good.
Well, in that car, John, that car, the business goods had no rear seat in them. They had two flip down jump seats on each side under the little rear windows that flipped down. So you’re right. That was just a big open area in the back with two little flip down jump seats. That’s all it was. And my dad had no money, so that not only was his drag car, that was their hunting car, their fishing car.
That was, that car was for [01:18:00] everything. They drove that car to the tip of Mexico to go fishing. That’s why I ended up here. Those guys were fishing down here as young guys. Cause as soon as you, it was cheap. Beers were cheap, fish are free, gas is cheap in Mexico. You got a reliable Ford, the Fords are all over Mexico, it’s the place to be in one.
You know, it’s, you didn’t necessarily have a pickup and a drag car. You had one car. What’s your favorite hot rod?
My favorite? Hmm. I think that’s easier for you. What’s the, what’s your favorite hot rod at the moment? I think it’s, I think it’s still be a built 42. You know, I, I still think that’s, you know, I love the 32s. I love model A’s that are built, you know, I love, I love 50s stuff, but there’s something about that.
There’s something about that era, you know, um, those, those, those were [01:19:00] special cars to me. I don’t know. There’s just, there’s something about those 3940 Fords and I don’t care if it’s a sedan, a coupe, I don’t care. They all, they have that front end that is the front end to have, you know, there’s unmistakable when it’s coming at you.
What’s the most recent vehicle that you’ve bought? The short bus, the short, the short bus. That, that, that’s the most recent repair that you did. Uh, yesterday was diagnosing my Um, pharmacists 2008 Mustang transmission issue, an air conditioning issue. It ate it, it, it ate a, uh, it ate at air compressor clutch, and the transmission needs a service.
Which leads me onto my next question. What car or park were you last surfing [01:20:00] for?
Part, um, for my Harley that the 67 FL Berkeley police bike I just brought down. I am looking for the suicide shift clutch lever. And that’s not something you can find here. Talk to me, talk to me about these Thunderbirds that you keep sending me pictures of. These 80s Thunderbirds. Dude, you know, John, you and I talk about kind of what, again, if we’re going to keep this hobby alive, we need to be intelligent about this.
And, you know, to keep, and to keep yourself married, you need to also be intelligent about it. Um. Buying the right vehicles that are not only enjoyable, interesting, rebuildable, parts are available, but they’re going to be worth more down the road. I’m not going to just dump my time and energy into something that isn’t worth anything when I’m done with it.[01:21:00]
I just, the rarity of them, the uniqueness of them, you know, when that car came out, Summers, that was a manual transmission, turbo, four cylinder, rear wheel drive, that was an anomaly. No one wanted those cars. So, to me You know, Ford is working with Yamaha on a lot of those engines. Um, by the way, I don’t know if you guys are familiar with how many engines Yamaha has actually built for many different car makers.
From, you know, Toyota to Ford to Mazda. It’s pretty incredible. All the good motors. Yeah, we’re just, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna pause here and pay tribute. For a black Ford Mondeo ST24 with a head that was worked over by Yamaha or a Duratec V6. That thing, that car would run at 125 miles an hour with 170, 000 miles on it and no oil in it.
It was awesome. Yep, there, [01:22:00] there are other, the way Yamaha does that stuff. Again, that’s why I have WRs here. That’s why everyone uses the outboard motors here. You use what’s good and survives. So yeah, those early, those Thunderbirds I’m sending, I just, from an investment perspective, they’re interesting to me.
They’re unique, you know, so a good complete, you know, SHO, you know, turbo Thunderbird that’s all there for 1500 bucks. You tell me that thing’s not going to be a collector’s item in five, 10 years. How, you know, how, how was it not? You know, the other one, which is lurking in the same place there is the Lincoln Mark 8.
Yeah. Yeah. Like a 19 Lincoln Mark 8, like the right era Lincoln 90s Lincoln Mark 8, because it has the same 0. 32 valve engine as the Mustang Cobra. It’s like a cheap, it’s like a Mustang Cobra, like pennies on the dollar. And no one, have you, do you follow [01:23:00] Tony Angelo from, uh, the motor channel? I know it.
Yeah. Love that guy. Yeah. Oh, have you seen the one he’s been playing around with swinging a turbo? No, no, no, no. You need, you need to go follow him. He’s got one. He’s been playing around with for the last probably three wheel drive or front wheel drive their rear wheel drive, dude. It’s a fucking Mustang.
With a 32 valve Cobra motor that he swung a fucking hairdryer off of it. And now he’s, now he’s managed to push the intake, I think he blew the intake off it the other day on the dyno. He’s, I think he’s pushed the heads off it a couple times, like, but he’s like, bang for your buck. He’s like, this thing is hard to beat, guys.
I think he paid a couple thousand bucks for it. Yeah. And it was an old man, good, well serviced, low mile runner. You know, come on. What’s that fucking, what’s that Cobra worth with that motor in it? You can’t even find one. Oh, and, and they’ve fully entered the [01:24:00] realm of collecting our VSNs. Yeah. Yeah. 100%, you know, and that’s, that’s a great example.
That falls right in, and that’s why somebody like Tony Angelo picks it. Like, again, give me a platform that’s relatively reliable, unique, and works well. That I can work with. That’s all I’m asking for. I don’t, I don’t really care what it is, you know. At this point it’s you know, well, that’s like for me, you know going to work for Acura when I was 18 years old at a dealer and then Toyota and Honda and Subaru and all that.
I have a heavy appreciation for you know, early MR2s, Corolla GTSs, you know, um, early Celicas, you know, the first Toyota Supra Turbo I drove in 1988 or 89. I couldn’t believe what that car was capable of. That’s the first turbo car I’d ever driven. I’m like, what the fuck is this? Jesus, criminy. I remember a guy coming in, coming in with that thing under [01:25:00] warranty going, Hey, it’s got kind of a wicked wind noise at about 110, 120.
So I told him, I said, well, we should probably go test drive it and duplicate that wind noise so I can fix it. You know, and this, we jumped in that thing, I’m 19 years old, down highway 101 headed for Petaluma, you know, at 120, like, oh, yep, there’s the wind noise. You know, I just, you know, and those cars, you can’t, those 2JZ Turbo, you know, Subaru, you can’t touch them, you can’t find one.
You know, and if you do, they’re a hundred grand. It’s like buying a, you know, an R 34 skyline or something. They’re just unobtainable. Well, I, I think the, we’re just at the bottom of the increase in interest and appreciation and the value of stuff like. And, and skylines. I mean, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to, to, to see that the younger people are obsessed by them.
I mean, I found, um, I found an R, [01:26:00] there’s a I on Cars and Bids. There was an R 33 Yeah, an R 33. Um, and it’s a V spec car in, it’s nice enough. And you know, and I think the bid was at 40 and I’m like, wow. If that was at 140, I wouldn’t be surprised. And, you know, it’s not there yet, but it, you know, you can really see the time when, when it, when it will be there.
And I’m sure it will get there because all the young’uns love the skylines. Guys. On that note, I just want to say thank you, um, both for your time and, uh, I’ll see you next time. Summers, it was a pleasure. It’s Gammy. Damn good to see and talk to you, buddy. Let’s plan on a little Mexico road race trip in this next year or two, my friend.
Yeah, no, that’d be wicked, man. I’m all for that. All right, gentlemen, enjoy the day.[01:27:00]
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