The Pontiac Firebird is a classic American car that was made for many years. It's known for being fast and stylish, and it was a rival to another car called the Chevrolet Camaro.
The Pontiac Trans Am is a sportier version of the Firebird that was introduced in 1969. It has a more powerful engine and a unique look, making it popular with car fans.
The Chevrolet Camaro is a cool sports car that started being sold in 1967. It's known for being fast and stylish, and many people love it for its powerful engines and fun driving experience.
Muscle cars are fast cars from America that usually have big engines and a sporty look. They became really popular in the 1960s and 1970s for their speed and style.
The Chevrolet Corvair is a car that was made in the 1960s. It had a different design compared to most cars at the time, with the engine located in the back instead of the front.
The Buick Regal is a comfortable car that has been around since 1973. It's known for being nice to drive and has some sporty versions that people really like.
The 1975 Porsche 911 Turbo is a famous sports car known for its speed and sleek design. It's part of the 911 series and has a turbocharged engine that makes it very powerful.
The 1965 International Harvester Scout is one of the first SUVs, built for both driving on roads and off-road adventures. It's known for being tough and reliable.
The Oldsmobile Cutlass is a type of car that has been around since 1961. It's known for being a good mix of comfort and performance, and it played an important role in American car history.
The Chevrolet Corvair Spider is another car that had a turbocharger, but it came out a little later than the Oldsmobile Jetfire. It's known for being one of the first cars with this technology.
MW 50 is a special mix of fuel made from half methanol and half water. It's used in some turbo engines to help them run better and avoid problems like knocking.
Hydro lock is when an engine takes in water instead of air, which can break the engine because water can't be squished like air can. This can happen if you drive through deep water.
Hydraulic systems are used in cars to help things like brakes and steering work. They use liquids to move parts around because liquids can't be squished, making them very effective.
The Ford Pinto is a small, budget-friendly car that was made from 1971 to 1980. It became famous not just for being affordable, but also for some safety problems that made people worry about it catching fire in accidents.
A roots style blower is a specific kind of supercharger that pushes air into the engine using two spinning parts. It helps the engine get more air, which can make it more powerful.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 1923 Compressor
The 1923 Mercedes-Benz Compressor was an early car that used a special kind of supercharger to make its engine more powerful. It was one of the first cars to do this.
A centrifugal blower is a device that helps push air into an engine to make it more powerful. It spins around quickly to do this, which can be better at high speeds.
Car
Ford 300
The Ford 300 is a type of engine used in some Ford trucks and vans. It's known for being tough and reliable, which is why many people still like it today.
The Ford F-series truck is a popular type of pickup truck made by Ford. It's known for being strong and useful for many different jobs, like hauling things or towing.
LIVE
Welcome back to the Brain Buster.
It's Friday. It's Friday. It is Friday. If you have the weekend off, have a good time.
It is. It's going to be a nice day. It's a good morning. If it's early in the morning for you.
If it's, you're easing in it. Maybe it's your, maybe it's your Friday ride home. Like I just got a
quick ride home. I'll get the Brain Buster in. I'll think about it all week long. I'll ask everybody
I work with. Yeah. Everybody you work with. The local arch diocese. We do have to mention that
we record these on Wednesday. So you have to get your answering by Wednesday. It's true. Yeah.
And you can give it in later. We'll just have to read it the next week. Yeah. Yeah. And you won't
win our prize made of air. If you don't get it. You will not, you will not win. You will not win
our free sponsorship of air where you're allowed to breathe as much as you like.
All of it air till your heart's desired. What? All the air you can breathe. Yep. All the air.
Every single last one. That's right. What was your question last week? My question was what was
the first production turbo car? Yeah, that was a hard one. I thought. Well, yeah, I'll tell you
that our guest Tanner lover of Jeep, Tanner inspired and left this question for us to ask. Yep.
But he himself was wrong. Wrong. You hear that, Tanner? Incorrect, sir.
Do not pass go. Do not collect $100. No, don't. You were so wrong. Or is it $200? He was wrong by
months. Oh, months? Months. Jeez, Tanner. It's not like a different car came out the same week.
And they're arguing over. It was months. Months. Wow. What was your question?
My question was what was the last year of the Firebird? Before, you know, before I reveal too
much, I want to know what you look at. You know, yeah, mine was what was the last year of the Firebird.
And we had the lovely JD. She had some answers for us. Oh, really? She brought Brandon into it. Oh,
she had some answers for us, which I'm going to read. JD needed to get the ground rules from what
I understand. JD needed to see what was acceptable. We'll decide what's acceptable here. You don't
tell us right out of the gate. JD had an answer. If it was in the mid 90s. Okay. So that's wrong.
But okay. But first of all, that's not everything that happened. She asked me if she was warm.
And this was really hard for me because of course I want to tell her because she's my friend.
But also the rules of the game are we cannot give you any hints or even tell you if it's warm or
cold or whatever. I don't think Rose, right? We're not going to give people a hint. I don't. I think
you should wait in discomfort until we reveal the answer. Yep. Yeah. But I really think that's
really cute. It was really cute. Yeah. Yeah. And then she didn't say, but then she went to 97s,
but then she decided early 2000s. Oh. And then I said the plot thickens. And she said that she
wasn't going to let herself Google it, which I really appreciated that she's playing along with us.
Yeah. And then can she ask someone that she sleeps with? Okay. And I said, absolutely. I think that's
fair game. Yeah. I think you can ask your significant other whether you share a better
or not. I definitely said, yeah. And she also said that she fangroled on Rose at Dina and Jean's
party. She was really sweet. Yeah. Thank you, JD. We love you so much. JD does love the show and
it was really sweet of her. JD has a vintage shop called Desert Cactus Vintage. It's on Instagram.
You can look it up and she always has really, really beautiful. And it was a really cool
moped par. Oh yeah. It has a really cool moped par. Yes. And a really sick old truck. Yeah.
Yeah. So check it out. Check her out. And then she went with 2001 and Brandon, the person she's
sleeping with, also her BF says 2002. I got a, what were you going to say? Do I give the big
reveal now? No, I got a message from Dan Heatley. Oh, Dan Heatley said 2002. Okay. And I got a
message from classic long roof. Same thing said 2002. Okay. And I said, you'll have to wait to
find out. Yep. But Dan Heatley said the WS six is king. That's, that's, that is a, well, I mean,
sure. I guess fair question. I didn't ask King of all the birds. King of the dogs. I thought the
two can was the King of the birds. Oh, was it really? I thought it was like a macaw or an eagle.
Eagle and Eagle, a giant, a big eagle, bagel, giant eagle. They are huge.
They're pretty big. Condor is bigger though, right? Is it Condor, the King of the birds?
I don't know. Boy. King of the jungle. I don't know what is the biggest bird. If I'm being honest,
I think actually, no, that's not true. A fucking ostrich. Really? I think that's the biggest bird.
I'm out. I don't think an emu is as big as an ostrich. I'm out of my wheelhouse.
Well, if somebody knows that, can you deal with it? It's not made of metal. So I don't know much
about it. Way, I'm way out of my league on this one. I can't believe for a second. I thought
they were talking about living things. Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay. So we got a couple for 2002.
Yeah. Several. Many. Oh, right. I feel like they were googling stuff.
Maybe. Maybe. I mean, hey, maybe they were just around and they remember. Oh, I mean, hey,
what? I mean, if Pontiac is, you know, their friend, then yeah, they're like saying goodbye to a
friend. So maybe they remember it damn well. Yep. Okay. Do you want to give a big reveal?
Are you much longer? How much longer am I going to wait?
The big reveal is that it was 2002. JD, you were so close. Okay. And Brandon,
you won. And the other people that said 2002 also won. And then unfortunately, Pontiac went out
after the big crash GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009. You'll all remember they got a bailout,
but they could not keep Pontiac and it went under in 2010. Pontiac, Saturn, you know,
they had to actually convince the government that GMC customers were a sliver of the market itself,
that people specifically wanted to buy GMCs and that they would have to keep GMC and they would
give up Saturn and they would give up Pontiac. Wow. Wait, what? Sorry. I was like trying to
make sure I had my notes in order and I didn't hear what you said. Maybe it was specifically
about Pontiac. Well, it was that they were going for a government bailout. And so they had to talk
about like, oh, well, we need to keep this brand because these buyers represent a certain part of
this market. And they had to go in and very specifically show that GMC customers were coming
to them for a specific high option vehicle. Oh, okay. So they had, there was rules to the bailout
money. This is what it sounds like. Conditions like, you know, can you stop this problem from
happening? Yeah. The hemorrhaging the money part? Yeah. Okay. Because a lot of people are getting
paid by you and that's a part of our economy. Well, it used to be important. Well, that makes
sense. It used to be important. It used to be important. Not anymore. Not anymore. So I'm going
to give you a little bit of background on the Firebird. It was launched in 1967. It's a sibling
of the Camaro. The Transam was launched in 1969 as a high performance package of the Firebird.
And it had unique slit tail lights. I have a cool binder where Gene designed the 67 Firebird
accessories. And he talked about like splitting the prices with litigation over it and everything
about basically with the lawyer, like if they made one and a half million, two million, three
million, whatever, you know, parts that it would be this much. And it was like splitting. It's like,
I was never going to get the contract. He's like, Pontiac was using me to get a studio to get like
a design studio and say, see how much money we had to spend with this Winfield character
to get these parts designed. If you'd give us our own studio, that would stop happening.
He's like, I was never going to get the work to make the pieces. Oh,
dang. He said studio, but he might have meant a different production facility or something. I
don't know. Yeah, that's too bad. It might have been specifically studio. Yeah. Do you want to
hear what the fastest Firebird was? The fastest Firebird? Yeah, the fastest Firebird. 200 miles an
hour. No, but close. Okay. Close. Friend of the pod, the 1989 Transam Pace car. Oh. The Indie Pace car.
Yeah. That, um, or maybe Indianapolis. Yeah, didn't we talk about that last episode? Yeah,
yeah, it got crushed in the episode 24. It got crushed. They made 1500 of them. It had the Buick
V6 in it and it went zero to 60, I think in 5.3 seconds. And then it did 13 second quarter miles.
That was the fastest one. And the reason why they dumped it is because there was no money for
model development and then it wasn't profitable and GM wasn't doing well. Yeah. I mean, look,
my roommate had a WS six with a turbo and it was a pretty badass car. I mean, the Camaros of that
vintage are sort of like, they've grown on me a lot over the years. I didn't used to like them when
they were more contemporary, but like they've definitely grown on me. Yeah. I mean, like I said,
the WS six that Aaron had was pretty sick. Yeah. I mean, they drive. Wait, that was a new one though,
right? It was an O2. Yeah. The last year. Yeah. The last year. And then Steve Hivner in Street
Survivors, he's got one too. All right then. And his is pretty clean where Aaron's had like, you
know, it was like always blowing the oil line from the turbo or something, you know. Oh, wow.
Very oily car. That's too bad. Well, it had a run of 35 years and it was one of the most iconic
American muscle cars. Okay. And that's it. Well, you can, we can have our opinions about that.
Yeah. You can, you can. Okay. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Why would it not be? Yeah, I could. Yeah.
There's a band named after this car.
Don't act like Trans Am is like Black Sabbath or something.
And Audvant Electronica. They should be like Black Sabbath. They're beautiful.
I mean, listen, I love Trans Am. I love the fucking champs and there's the fucking Am and
all that stuff and all the records on thrill jockey. Trans Am's cool and also weird.
Just saying. But it's just not the cool brag that I think you think it is.
Wow. Throwing down the gauntlet, huh? Yeah, I guess don't sick Tim Green on me.
I don't mean to be mean. Sure you don't. Sure you don't. No, I don't because what if I don't.
Okay. Well, we can agree to disagree. I think it's one of the most iconic cars, but you know,
look at Kit. I'm just being, look at smoking the bandit. I was just being, I was just being silly.
Were you though?
Okay. Fine. Let's move on. Tanner's claim. Yeah. Tanner's claim. Thanks. You know,
really trying to make me make a definitive statement on the DA Tanner's statement, Tanner's
statement was he wanted to drop this. Like what is the, you know, since he got the question right,
my question about the winded, basically side markers become a law in Detroit was like,
okay, we'll make some cool side markers like the Bowville side markers and the charger dots and
all that stuff. He nailed that. So then he came through and was like, I got a good question for
you all to ask, what's the first production turbo car? Well, he seemed to think that it was the
Corvair. Yeah, because he has a Corvair and he's obsessed with it. Yeah, I feel like the way that
he's obsessed with Jeep. I feel like nobody really wrote in about this one because people were
responding to our reel. They didn't listen to the episode. I will say that people sometimes
write me and they say, I can't wait till this comes out. And I'm like, it's out right now. You
can go listen to it this minute. Here you go. Here's a link. I'm like, cool. I'll listen to it on my
ride home. So that's cool. Yeah. Thank you for listening. Yeah. Thank you. We are not sharing
the video formats yet. I think we will. I think eventually we'll put them on YouTube and let you
watch the whole thing with video if you want. But it's mostly audio. Emily just made a grimace.
I don't think she wants to do that. I don't. Oh, no. But I know we have to. So it's gonna happen.
Yeah. I mean, that's where I think people like to listen to stuff, which is funny,
where they like to listen to stuff is where you would watch it. But people love to put a podcast
on in the background and walk away from it. And YouTube is easy. You just deal with it. I only
listen to podcasts. I don't watch them. That's me. I'm more about radio. I'm not about video.
I've always been that way. I've always liked, I've loved car talk and I used to like Prairie
Home Companion till Garrison Killer and the Reller sexually charged actions and remarks that he's
made. I know that something that's good about YouTube is that it's free for everyone. So anyway,
Tanner wanted us to do this question and said, I've got this total stumper and it is a stumper
in the fact that he was not correct. Yep. You're wrong, Tanner. Say it again. I don't. Yeah,
I don't agree. So his question was, what is the first production turbo car in America?
He said it was the Corvair. That's not right. I watched the video and had a sort of a countdown
backwards from like more contemporary turbo cars, like some of the earlier turbo cars back.
What is the videos wrong? I didn't think about that. I was just kidding. It's definitely,
it's not the only thing. You vetted it. Okay. All right. Let's hear about it. Sorry I interrupted
you. That was rude. What was the video? I was wrong. Like I just checked one video. I didn't
like back that up. I was just like, I was just, I'm just riding everything on this guy's drifting
so there was a little bit of a list going backwards, which I thought there were a couple
interesting ones on there. Starting with the 77 Buick Regal Fireball Fireball. It's an odd fire
motor. It's a v6. I believe it's 60 degrees. And all I wrote about it was that it was pretty sick.
It's a good, it's a good looking car. Nice. I don't know. I kind of like it. What year is it again?
77 Buick Regal Fireball Fireball 500. I don't know. It kind of feels like that. Sounds fun.
Now going to step backwards, 75 Porsche 911 Turbo. The car just looks fast sitting still.
Naturally. Even further back, more German cars, 73 BMW 2002. There's a turbo. I didn't put any
details. I don't know if I thought I was just going to memorize that. Then this one, you won't
believe 1965. So now we've jumped another eight years. International Harvester scout
on a four cylinder engine turbocharged. That one I was pretty surprised. Wow. Yeah. It's very like
talk about just out of the left field there. Yeah. Having just done the Jeep boondoggle,
which Tanner loves by the way. Tanner loves the Jeep. Yeah. So 65 international scout harvester
on a four cylinder. The video I watched did have little clips of them driving one of the cars.
Like he'd scoured them from other places. Turbochargers make stuff drive good. Okay.
Now here we are to Tanner's claim. 1962 Corvair Spider 2.3 came out in October of 1962,
which included a turbocharger. It gained about 231 pounds in weight, but it nearly doubled the
output power of the engine. Wow. 231 pounds. To 150 horse. Yep. That's what turbocharger
weighs. Adding. Yeah. Definitely. Adding the turbo and the manifold that it needs.
And then the additional exhaust pipe. Is that how much they weigh modern ones weight?
200 pounds. It's a little heavy, but I mean, you've got piping. You've got a manifold and stuff.
Yeah. Like the manifold probably goes to the turbo and holds the turbo. And so it's like probably
cast manifold. Okay. So it's got an extra manifold on it. But it's like you've got two sides on that
motor. So you've got to come together. So it's probably a decent casting. Wow. I had no idea
they were that heavy. And not welded tube. Yeah. But I don't know. But that's not correct. Okay.
1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire. Jetfire? Is the correct answer. And I even put in my notes. Sorry, Tanner.
The F 85 Jetfire is a cutlass. So it's a 62 Oldsmobile cutlass, but it's its own thing. The
first production turbo car ever came out in early 62. That's this, that's this car. And it puts it
months ahead of the Corvair spider, which had the October release date. So, you know, if we're
talking in January, February, something, maybe eight months sooner, six months sooner. So that
makes a difference. Yeah, it is all under the GM hat. And to prevent knocking, you had to run
MW 50, which was a 50 50 mix of methanol and distilled water. In my opinion, this was my note.
It's a pretty unsightly arrangement under the hood, but hey, it's a turbo. So who cares? Yeah.
Vroom, vroom. I mean, that's it. Which also like I had a couple notes here. I went and watched a
donut video about how turbos work. Granted, I've installed a couple turbos on cars on mythbusters,
but I figured I'd watch a video and just share a couple quick notes about it.
Let's hear it. Alfred Buke invented, you know, using exhaust air to run a compressor that then
fed more dense air into the combustion chamber. Denser air, like you can compress air, you can't
compress fluid. That's why if you like drive through a puddle and suck water in your engine,
you quote unquote hydro lock your engine, because you can't compress a fluid. And that's how hydraulic
systems work. But you, and that's how your brakes work and stuff. Power steering, all that shiznet.
But air, you can. So that's what makes a difference. Like we talked about with those Merlin engines,
when we did the episode about the beast, and that's how that changed World War Two was that
adding a supercharger to that motor allowed that plane to keep climbing. I saw a piece of
training footage from an old like black and white animation for training pilots, I think.
And it explained that at sea level, maybe your plane is 400 horsepower, but it was like go up to
14,000 feet and that reduces all the way down to 265 horsepower. So it just gets weaker. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. It because the air is thinner. Yeah. You know, so that's what the supercharger
continues to condense the air and allows you to keep flying with power higher and higher. And that's
why it changes your stall height and that changes dogfights. So, you know, that's what the whole
thing about getting a competitive edge on your enemy in that regard means. So it talks about,
you know, if we can get more dense air in there, then we can add more fuel and that is a bigger
explosion. That's more power, you know, that was big in aviation like we talked about. Now,
what do you think that the first twin turbo production car was? You can guess what make and
what year? Ford Pinto. Ford Pinto. That was really your guess. First twin turbo. No, of course,
that's not my guess. I just honestly have no idea. Let me think about it for a second.
It's a luxury car or a luxury brand.
A Rolls Royce? No, but okay. It's a good guess. Yeah. I have no idea.
It's a very obscure 81 Maserati. First twin turbo production car. I didn't know that was
a luxury brand and it's called the bi turbo. I thought it was like a sports car brand.
No, Maserati's totally a luxury brand. Oh, did they do? I guess I always think of when you say
luxury brand of it like being like four door sedans that have drivers and stuff, but they do
have four door cars. Oh, okay. I've never seen one. Really? No. Oh, all right. I feel like they make
a big ass four door car like Rolls does. Even if I knew that it was a luxury brand, I wouldn't have
guessed it anyway. So it doesn't matter. It's so obscure. It's so obscure. And then also the first
car with a root style blower. So like a turbo charger is spun by the exhaust itself, where a
supercharger is spun mechanically by the crank or something or another pulley. And then there's a
twin screw and that like compresses the air as it goes through the screw, but then there's like a
roots blower and it like blows the air against the sides of the blower and then pushes it down
into the engine. And so that's why it's called a blower because it's like blowing down. So the
first roots style blower car is the 23 Mercedes compressor with a K. And that's what it's talking
about. Okay. Is the compression of air. That's 1923. Sorry, I didn't include the year. That was in
1923. Wow. So because they have the compressor still now. Yeah, superchargers, superchargers go
to the 20s. I don't know if today right now they have them, but I have seen the word compressor
Mercedes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, with a K. Yeah, exactly. Compressor. Yeah. But yeah, so the
yeah, supercharger goes back, goes back to the 20s. Old school shit. We did an episode where
you talked about the first supercharger. Yeah, we talked about it on the Merlin engine. Yeah.
No, you talked about it. Oh, yeah. Even before that. I can't remember what episode.
Yeah, we have we've talked about it. Yeah. And it was an old timey car. Yep. And it didn't look
like it had a supercharger on it because it was different the way they did it back then or something.
It probably looks like a centrifugal blower, which it look kind of looks like a turbo.
Yeah, you can see it. But it's still belt driven. You couldn't see it on the pictures that we had.
Yeah, it's different than what you expect. So what's your question for okay, my question this
week is a fun one because it's van related plays a big role into the early forts. What year? And
tricky one as it should be. Okay. What year did the Ford 300 come out? Again, try not to Google it.
Go ask somebody that you know, go ask me you work with. Yeah, come on. Like ask some old Foggy
ask somebody on the street that looks like they know, ask some old guy with an old truck somewhere,
call up your bomb and see if she knows and then they'll be like, I don't know what the hell you
asked me. Call up your dad and see if you have a grandpa, the Ford 300 have a grandma six. Do you
have a grandpa with a grandpa fishing van? There you go. What other kinds of people ask Santa Claus
that's happening. Let me ask somebody with a Ford. Yeah, I mean, don't ask your average person driving
their F truck to the grocery store. They're gonna be like a 300 wood. If they're not actually,
they're gonna be like, I don't know, I just drive this to get groceries. Wow, you really
stereotyped in there. I know it's so unfair. It's so mean. What's your question? My question is
what, who, what, where and how, what was the first 200 mile per hour car? Whoa. Whoa. First 200 mile per
hour car. And probably so like probably you'll get that information with like also who drove it,
where did they drive it? I'm sure there'll be a lot of information on it. It's an event. I think
that. So it's an event. I don't think so. It was a big deal. I'm assuming it was a big deal,
a car that broke 200 miles an hour. I don't think it was just, I mean, maybe it wasn't,
then that'd be interesting too. Maybe it was just some guy with a Maserati. It's always some guy
with a Maserati. Maybe it was some girl with a Maserati. Maybe it's always some girl with a Maserati
and a Hottie body. Be good to be her. Good to be her. You've been brain busted.
Done got your brain busted. Done got it busted. Bye. Bye. I keep forgetting what our sign off is.
You
you
you
About this episode
The latest Brain Buster episode dives into trivia about iconic cars, featuring a debate on the first production turbo car. Tanner's claim about the Corvair being the first is challenged, revealing the Oldsmobile Jetfire's earlier debut. The hosts share amusing anecdotes, listener interactions, and a mix of automotive history and trivia. They also discuss the Pontiac Firebird's legacy, including its last production year and performance stats. The episode wraps up with new trivia questions for listeners to ponder over the weekend.
