They’re describing a place that tests tires and wheels. The goal is to see how well different setups perform before people commit to buying or building around them.
A spark plug socket is the special tool that lets you take spark plugs out and put them back in. It’s shaped to fit down into the plug so you don’t mess anything up.
Iacocca was a famous car executive who helped shape big parts of the American auto industry. People bring him up when they’re talking about car history and leadership.
A Corvette is a Chevrolet sports car. It’s the kind of car people often associate with performance and style, and here they’re just using it as an example of a car they’ve “gendered.”
The Trans Am is a Pontiac muscle car. In this conversation it’s being used as a personality example—like whether a car “feels” like a boy or a girl.
Car
Edsel
An Edsel is a Ford-era car brand that doesn’t exist anymore. The hosts are bringing it up as another example of a car people might describe as having a certain “vibe.”
A “wood interior” usually means trim panels made to look like wood or actual wood veneer, often associated with classic luxury or retro styling. The episode notes it was refinished, implying restoration work to bring the interior back to a nicer look.
A cooler back there means there’s a built-in place to keep drinks cold in the back seat area. It’s a fun feature that makes the car feel like a road-trip machine.
“Smokey and the Bandit” is a classic movie with a lot of car action. They’re recommending it to anyone who hasn’t seen it, as part of the episode’s car-themed vibe.
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And I was like, the only thing that could be better than this would be. And I just kinda like held out. I looked in the cabinet, I saw a mug, and I said, you mean mug?
Emily EP41: Good music. Fucking really cool people. Like very sweet. Always willing to help. And like, everybody's so knowledgeable. I don't know how they remember the whole store, but I've never had anybody be like, I don't know where that's at.
Rose EP41: I didn't get to go in, but I saw it and I was like, well, no wonder people like this place.
Rose EP41: Yeah, we had some coop, gave me some Chrysler orange, so that's what I hit that engine with.
Emily EP41: and then I accidentally, uh, Dred a bunch of the good paint off. Yeah. And
Rose EP41: It was unbelievably Rose EP41: it's called like the Bent door. And uh,
Rose EP41: I think that Illinois was his home, but his boyhood home is in Kentucky. I think that there's a Simpsons where they destroy Abe Lincoln's boyhood home, but I know they definitely dragged the anchor from the monorail through Javaiah Springfield's boyhood home. I don't know if that's supposed to be a joke about the Ave Lincoln Boyhood home, but that's in Kentucky. We would visit that on field trips when I was a kid.
Rose EP41: that time. Yeah. So supposedly he talked more like, eh,
Rose EP41: Like I was there with a shop helper and I like walked up and he was like kinda harassing him and just see, he like dumped this guy on me. And the guy was like, uh, what's the car with the guy's like you into cars?
Emily EP41: Oh yeah. No, I remember we talked about that in the podcast. We did. Yeah, we did.
Rose EP41: Uh, yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. And a wheel and tire testing facility. He sent me a really cool photo of that and was like, this is your hot Rods wheel tire combo. And it was like, they were, they had a motorcycle wheel it looked like, or a spoke wheel on the test and then on the floor preparing like an indie with type tire.
Here's an answer to a question that nobody asks. And he said it was not. And then when I said, well, rose, you know, I was like, well, yeah, I'm totally right and now I'm gonna gloat about it for a little bit on the show. And then he was like, well, maybe it's so deep in my mind. 'cause he's like, I do remember that episode, but I posited that that's not a Simpsons thing.
Rose EP41: Yeah. I got a mystery package showed up today. We didn't recognize the name. Nope. Thought, what could this
And you know, it's kinda like that clip from The Simpsons where they, uh, when Crusty's retiring and they're like crusty, uh, why now? Why not 20 years ago? Have they done it? I guess I haven't like, looked that up if they've done the family car before.
Emily EP41: number two. That's exactly what you're wearing. And so we, this was on Instagram and, uh, never Easy Boogie Vans the, uh, reel was Rose asking me what my dream band was and he said if she doesn't say the Harem, she's wrong. Unless she says Iron butterfly or headstone, or Blue overlord or tores hammer.
Rose EP41: It's got dual axle in the back. I think it's
Emily EP41: speaking of surfers, you know what I didn't mention in the, in the, uh, was it the Dream Band episode? I think it was. I didn't have time to mention it. Uh, I was seeing ads for like vans on the beach for like surfers, but there would be like six people and like a boogie board and then five surfboards.
Okay. I'm, I'm trying to explain this from the executive's point of view. Okay. Like that's what they're like. Oh no. Excuse me, sir. Actually, what we were thinking was two of the people came here in a Mustang.
Emily EP41: That's their magic power.
Emily EP41: Mm-hmm. She's so organized people. She made a folder just for the pile up notes.
It was so long-winded and I was like, she's not even gonna care. But when I first got on vanna.com, there was a guy in, I think in Ontario,
He, he like posted pictures and was like, well guys, life's been lifeing and here I am. And it's like, I'm gonna have to clean it up real good. And I don't know, maybe he went on with it. I hope he did. 'cause it was really, the proportions were very cool. Not implying that Hailey should get it, but it, it did make me think of that.
Emily EP41: no, there's absolutely no limit. Uh, also Ryan, this was really nice of him. He was asking if we were gonna be able to go to the Van Nationals this year, and, um, we don't believe, well actually it's not even, we don't believe it's just, it straight out. It is not safe for Rose to travel right now.
Rose EP41: Yeah. So it's, but uh, listen, there's a lot of, uh, infringing of rights going on for a lot of groups, so I don't wanna hog all the, uh, bullhorn here, but it's, um, not a good environment for me to be going anywhere.
if people didn't equal political power, they wouldn't need your vote and they wouldn't need to fuck with your ability to vote, which are things like the save act would be about handing over the government voter rolls and then the government could purge them at any time.
So elect people that are a tool to get the thing you would like to see done in your society. Accomplished. You know, the, that's it. And then if they work for a bit, that's good. And if they don't, then geez, get 'em out next primary. They, they get swapped out for somebody that might do better or, you know, whatever.
Rose EP41: I mean, so stupid.
Rose EP41: There's millions of 'em like it. But I did go for the 13th, 16th Napa Spark Plug Socket. USA made well worn. So that was a good,
Rose EP41: Yeah. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. Um, yeah, and you know, uh, I've been watching that Ed Roth video.
And then I was like, oh, yeah, I went to bed watching him like, cut these plates. And it's like, he really is like so ahead of his time because it is like, it's so like a YouTube video, you know, like the very beginning. I was think that's part of what I was thinking about was like how, how early Ed was in all of that, filming himself with the VHS and like, you know, talking about what he's doing.
Rose EP41: So he had to give up on the whole back half of this car that he'd built with. Uh, it had some kind of overhead valve, uh, overhead cam, four cylinder or three cylinder probably. But yeah, he said, he, he said, well, that's just the deal. Government said they won't do it. So, uh, you know, boohoo and you gotta move on.
Emily EP41: It's like pork. Cork pork,
Rose EP41: You know, we worked on the seat early on to be like, okay, you're gonna wind up being back here. And that's kinda how we set up the door opening and stuff.
Rose EP41: yeah, Vanessa at Five Point Parts was the only person that I think vocalized, uh, any fanfare for Iacocca. But anyway, we thought DeLorean was cool. I like talking about Iaccoca, but then we also had to bring up Irv Raki who was like the pretty dry.
Rose EP41: He did seem to have a pretty clean rap sheet.
Rose EP41: Uh, you know, the thing is, the difference between like a, a rocket engine and a rocket motor is that you can't turn a rocket motor off.
Rose EP41: a good, he was a very reliable guy up there. Um, and super nice. And then gave me a couple of, uh, those, those chain falls he gave me were from Edwards Air Force Base.
Emily EP41: go? Uh, I think I told him and I never talked to him again.
Emily EP41: No. Yeah. I mean, plenty. It works for plenty of people and, and a lot of people a like have successful relationships and like, I think that's awesome, but yeah. I'm just not into it anyway. Okay. Oh yeah, you were. Okay. Sorry, I, I sidetracked us. You're talking about a rocket
Rose EP41: think that solid rocket boosters, giant dynamite sticks Emily EP41: Oh, what does that even say? We're not gonna go on a sidetrack about that. Nope. Don't even think about it.
Emily EP41: the fuel.
In the 1750s, these rockets had a reach of targets up to a mile and a half away. These were extremely effective in the second Anglo miso war that ended in a humiliating defeat for the British East India Company. Uh, word of the success of the miso rockets against the British triggered research in England, France, Ireland, and elsewhere.
Rose EP41: there are more talks of the fuel development, you know, but I think it's one of those things that everybody's ripping each other off as we go along.
Rose EP41: uh, But the thing is, is you would know right away because it wouldn't make the Ferrari sound. So
Rose EP41: guy took Faye and I to see his, his like car collection one time in Texas, and he like lived, like, he was like, there's Lee Greenwood's house and there's Jose KO's house and like he had a, he said he had a court eight 10 and Faye was like, where does he keep the rope?
It just doesn't, you, you're just expecting like a straight eight or something.
Emily EP41: Well, it's a huge engine. You know what the thing is? The thing about that is, is you could live in the engine bay with, you could nap in the engine bay with the 3 0 2.
Rose EP41: What do you think? Like, uh, what F-150. Manly.
Rose EP41: But what if you had a Jeep? What if you had like a cj, the civilian Jeep? Like with the rag top, like the fold down top, uh,
I don't think she's gonna care. Um, oh, I had, I was going to gender my other two cars. Uh, my company car, which is a Corvette, uh, they called the company car. That's a girl. And the TransAm is a girl too. And those just to me are, I don't know, that was very clear to me. Um. But what about an Edsel
Emily EP41: um, it's sort of can go either way. I feel like, I don't feel like it really has anything that's definitive of it being masculine or feminine.
Emily EP41: you wrote sportsman.
Rose EP41: Um, Emily EP41: Um, I don't know. Okay. How would you spell it? I
I struggle to like, give it a personality. Other people love that. They love like naming their car and it has this whole thing and I just, I just usually say little van. Yeah. Thanks a little van. I
For Canada's centennial.
Rose EP41: they're just like somebody still driving into the store.
He goes to get it and they get him in the room and they hit him for all the unpaid parking tickets he has. And then he is like, so where's my boat? After he like pays, he pays for all the tickets. And then he is like, where's my boat? And then the next scene is him in the car with the whole family. And he's just silent.
Emily EP41: but it did have some wood interior and they did refinish it. Um, but this guy, yeah, he was driving around with the guy and now I can't remember the YouTube channel name either. I'm sorry. Uh, but the interior is so fucking rad. It's got a wraparound backseat and then it has a cooler back there and it's got a radio in the back and it's got radio in the front.
Emily EP41: Yeah. It's a construct. And so we get to decide, is it a girl, is it a guy? Is it, is it not any gender?
Emily EP41: But you can just go to Lift Off's web website. Just go to lift off's. Instagram. I think it's, yeah, I think it might be the Liftoff or just Under Liftoff. Um, and then we'll also be doing some cross-promoting on our page, but on the, we know this one for sure on the 26th, they're gonna be playing Smoking The Bandit.
Rose EP41: If you're like Emily and you've never seen Smoking the Bandit, I'll just tell you right now, it's a good movie, Rose EP41: Bye. Bye.
About this episode
The hosts trade shop stories and pop-culture tangents while circling back to their ongoing “pile up” project notes. They gush about knowledgeable local car parts people, swap memories of Simpsons references, and debate dream-band picks and van-life details. A mystery package, talk of wheel/tire testing photos, and plans for Van Nationals (with travel concerns) keep the vibe grounded. The conversation also detours into Ed Roth’s early video-making, rocket/military history, and even gendering car names—ending with a Lift Off event featuring Smoking the Bandit.
