Highlighting influential figures in automotive history, this episode celebrates Black History Month by discussing the contributions of notable designers and mechanics. The hosts delve into stories of individuals who broke barriers in the industry, including a female designer who focused on creating user-friendly interiors and the challenges faced by Black customers in purchasing luxury vehicles. The episode also touches on the historical connection between Cadillac and the Black community, showcasing how these narratives shaped the automotive landscape.
This episode we celebrate Black History Month with the stories of Emeline King, Bisi Ezerioha, Steve Stanford, Big Ern and how black people saved Cadillac.
"...there's a guy in town here that bought an ID Buzz and he was at the shop."
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a new electric van that looks like the old Volkswagen buses. It's designed to be fun and environmentally friendly, perfect for families or anyone who wants a cool ride.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is an electric minivan that pays homage to the classic Volkswagen Microbus. It features a retro design combined with modern electric vehicle technology, making it a popular choice for those looking for a stylish and eco-friendly family vehicle.
"...black elites were paying white people to buy them a car because the Cadillac wouldn't sell to them..."
Cadillac is a brand that makes luxury cars, known for being stylish and high-quality. It's part of General Motors, a big car company in the U.S.
Cadillac is a luxury vehicle division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Founded in 1902, it has a long history of producing high-end cars known for their elegance and performance.
"...people were like, you still got that old Chevy. He said that it was painted by a Pete Santini..."
Chevy is a popular name for Chevrolet, a car brand that makes many types of vehicles. People often refer to it as Chevy when talking about their cars.
Chevy is a common nickname for Chevrolet, a well-known American automotive brand that produces a wide range of vehicles, from trucks to sports cars. The brand has a long history and is recognized for its performance and reliability.
"...he always does a full graphics job on him, but he does it like a day paint job."
A graphics job is when artists put designs or pictures on cars to make them look cool. This can be done with paint or stickers.
A graphics job refers to the application of visual designs or artwork on a vehicle, often for aesthetic purposes or branding. This can include paint jobs, decals, and other forms of artistic expression on cars.
"...absolute powerhouse. 900 horsepower Mustang for Ford. he is rad."
The Ford Mustang is a well-known sports car that has been around for many years. It's famous for being powerful and stylish, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
The Ford Mustang is a classic American muscle car known for its performance and iconic design. It has been in production since the 1960s and has undergone several generations of updates and redesigns.
"...absolute powerhouse. 900 horsepower Mustang for Ford. he is rad."
Horsepower is a way to measure how powerful an engine is. The more horsepower an engine has, the faster and stronger it can make a car go.
Horsepower is a unit of measurement for power, commonly used to describe the power output of engines. It indicates how much work an engine can perform over time, with higher numbers typically signifying better performance.
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Speaker 3: Hey ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: Yep. I just barely let you do Night Rider after I got shut down for Mystery Science Theater. You
Speaker 2: I'm so ashamed. Okay, first, no. Okay. Actually, back that up.
Speaker 3: NPO in my, okay. Well it's like Night Rider
And then they're like, uhoh, there's a fjord. And they're like, you know, there's always, they're like, there's always a fjord and then they're like, or a, you know, or a creek or an inlet or whatever, like
Kit Speaker 2: Uhhuh.
Speaker 2: Okay, good. I'm glad it's not. , Automotive Omnivore said Episode 29 on Kit was epic. If you return to the topic, I can't wait to hear the reaction. When Queen of the Vans hears who? Mysterious billionaire, Wilton Knight modeled Michael Knight's lifesaving plastic surgery after.
Speaker 2: His deadbeat estranged son who was in prison in Africa and he thought he'd never see his son again. So now he has a carbon copy of his son who is a good guy. Yeah. Yeah. But uh, Garth Knight does come back.
Speaker 2: really. It does. Yeah. Well, Carr came, I don't know when Carr came. Carr came several maybe it was the second season. I don't know. It wasn't in the first season. Yeah.
Show notes, Speaker 3: Um, alright, so Jess wrote us left Lane Van Club and said, oh, there's a guy in town here that bought an ID buzz and he was at the shop.
like, we've got a car for the people. It's, it's 69,
Speaker 2: Okay. I've only, this might sound like I'm a bad car person, but I've only loaded, I've only been done the one show two years, and then I did, um, the Portland Transmission Show one year Bad Car.
Speaker 3: and you know what that means is Black History Month. And we have some people we'd like to highlight for Black History Month., For the most part we've got three, people.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's a broad, that's a pretty broad umbrella, but yeah. I mean, that is like, he's done all the art stuff for cars. Yeah. So he's put the art on the cars. He is. He's made car art, and his car art has been made into car.
I don't think he could let her in. I don't think they could go in there. And he said, smell the clay and she could smell it. And he was like, they're making cars out of that, you know, they're molding cars out of that. And she said, um, from that moment she wanted to be a car designer.
Speaker 2: And she designed the, the interior for the 94 with the female market in mind. Uh, she talks about how the knobs and switches, she made them soft so they wouldn't break our nails and like how the seats felt getting in and out and stuff like that.
It's best that you use your little hands to become a nurse or a librarian, or choose a domestic career that is more female oriented. But I didn't let their comments obstruct my view. So she just kept going. She went on and on and then she went to cast technical high school. Uh, and then she got a Bachelor of Arts from Wayne State University and then a Bachelor of Science, transportation Design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Speaker 2: Yeah. She made it happen. So she is so incredible.
She has had a lot of accolades, but you know what, I was surprised that I couldn't find any articles about her in Haggerty or Jalopnik or, you know, et cetera, et cetera. Any of the normal,
Speaker 3: So that kind of came together. But same thing, Steve Stanford, I just like, it was pretty spotty. , I think it's partially because there's a guy named Stanford, Steve that's a football, um, you know, make your wager on this kind of guy. Oh, And that really muddled the search results. But I mean, there wasn't it, I was having trouble. I might have just been having trouble. With my cookies on the iPad and just didn't reset 'em. But I wasn't finding a specific Steve Sanford page on Custom Rama. I found an article on custom Car Chronicle. But, you know, I mostly just sort of relied on, like digging through his Instagram a little bit and didn't find a ton.
But there they were all very short and like you had to kind of piece together. It took me a while just to find that one quote from her. So yeah, the book. I bet, I bet Her book is awesome. She is like, just dresses to the nines. Like her presidential award outfit was like this, strapless blue sequined gown, just like, looked like it was like floor length.
Speaker 3: Our next story got sent to me by, oh, Brad McCurdy. It was one I've never really heard before. I wasn't,
black elites were paying white people to buy them a car because the Cadillac wouldn't sell to them. And what we found, we read that this was a difference of like, they were paying an extra $300 to get somebody to go buy them a car. what did, what did that come out to?
Nicholas, Dr. Stat. He was a mechanic and he was, uh, put in charge of all of the service. Departments across the US and all of the dealers. And so he was traveling around and he noticed that there was all these black people coming to get their Cadillac serviced. And he was like, well, we don't sell them to them though.
Speaker 2: Yeah. People like your stuff. And to be able to, I mean, it's just, it's so unimaginable to like, think
They've sold more, they've, they've increased their sales. 70%. And then, and then what?
There was over a hundred banks nationwide along with thousands of financial entities that were specifically designed to serve black communities. And so they gave lines of credit loans economic development, and then jobs and training. Uh, and they sometimes outperformed some white establishment during the financial panics.
And it went, it went up over time. Like I saw some charts and stuff, but they were, so, I was kinda like, I don't need to give all of these stats. But the thing about also with their, them hiring, uh, black designers is it was groundbreaking for the time because I don't know, I don't know if they were the first people dire, I can't imagine in the fifties.
Speaker 2: No, exactly. And so it's still, it's still super ingrained into the black community, like athletes, artists, um, you know, the ubiquitous like handsome, older black gentleman dressed to the nines in like a Cadillac that's just like immaculately taken care of. There's a huge connection, yeah. Between Cadillac and the black community. And it's, you know, the thing about it is, it's a little bit. You know, it's capitalists, like the reason why they opened up. He wasn't like, Hey, there's people that really like these cars and they're people, and maybe we should
Speaker 3: Well, that's the irony, right? Their slogan is asked the man who owns one and he's dead. Yeah.
Did work for Bill Carter while Bill, uh, pro Paint, big time, funny car painter, race car painter. There are some, there's a van on a cover of a seventies Van Mag that Bill Carter painted an A 100. Mm-hmm. And, uh, Steve worked there also. Totally self-taught likes to draw with like graphs, like, which is a really fine line pen.
And it had, it had Steve Sanford graphics on it, and I always like looked at it and it's like, I don't know, I was always kinda like, wonder how those graphics got on there? This is a little higher quality than I'd expect for Gene.
And like people love Steve, but at the same time, I just think he's sort of not as celebrated as he should be, which also his Instagram, you know, he's, he's turning out renderings all the time and he's like, hire me, have me do a drawing for you.
Speaker 3: a two door post, and he said that that was a card that he got asked the most about that people were like, you still got that old Chevy. He said that it was painted by a Pete Santini and that the, it has it's blue with white Krylon scallops on it.
Speaker 3: something. Yeah. I mean that's like Coop's work, Astros, you know, he always does a full graphics job on him, but he does it like a day paint job.
It was just some of the art that we had around and I was like, gene, can we use this? And he was like, yeah, I, you know, I paid Steve for it. I think it's all good. Uh, and um, I think I was probably more concerned about that than Gene, by the way.
Speaker 3: that's my assumption. I'm not totally sure how, all of it went down, how we had so much of
Speaker 3: think. Think no breathing.
Speaker 3: absolute powerhouse. 900 horsepower Mustang for Ford.
Speaker 3: he is rad.
Speaker 3: Jean did complain about Big Earn and he said that he, would always sand the Bondo too soon. Yeah. And gum the paper up. And I do love the idea that like in jean's shop, somebody that is there to like render the cars is also sanding the Bondo.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Gene's just about doing the work and he's to think about all the creative people that he's supported over the years in some way by like, you know, lending him a piece of his name, basically he gets to work on one of the cars or a show sign or Speaker 3: Yeah. It's hard to cover a lot of ground, but I think those, you know, those are some great people to think about and, I don't know, write us, let us know if you've got any other Black History Month stories you
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