The Mazda RX-7 is a sporty car famous for using a special type of engine called a rotary engine. The 1986 version is an older model that many car fans like because it drives well and looks cool.
The DeLorean is a special car known for its unique doors that open upwards and its shiny metal body. It became very popular because it was used as a time machine in a famous movie.
The Chevrolet Traverse Z71 is a big SUV from Chevrolet that can seat many people and has special tires and parts to help it drive better off-road. It's a newer car from 2025.
A YouTube rabbit hole is when you start watching one video and then keep watching more and more videos about the same topic, learning a lot without planning to at first.
A rotary engine is a type of car engine that uses a spinning part instead of the usual up-and-down moving parts. It makes the engine smaller and lighter, but it needs special care to keep it running well.
The 13B engine is a special kind of engine used in some Mazda RX-7 cars. Instead of pistons, it uses spinning parts called rotors, which makes it different and fun to drive.
Power steering is a feature in cars that makes it easier to turn the steering wheel. Without it, you have to use more strength to steer the car, especially when moving slowly.
A steering box is a part in older cars that helps turn the wheels when you turn the steering wheel. It works but is not as smooth or easy as newer parts.
A rotary-powered truck is a truck that uses a special kind of engine called a rotary engine, which spins instead of using pistons like most engines. Mazda made some trucks with this kind of engine in the US.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, the government made a rule that cars shouldn't go faster than 55 miles per hour to save gas and be safer. So, many cars showed 55 mph clearly on their speedometers to remind drivers.
Saturn was a car brand made by General Motors that started in the 1980s. It was special because it treated customers differently and made smaller cars.
LIVE
Welcome back to the podcast.
It runs on most of its cylinders roughly half the time.
All the cars I've loved before.
Your third kind of podcast on automotive nostalgia where every car tells a story, every car has a culture.
So you know it's time to plug in dust off and get a little grease under the nails.
Flip on the favorite car theme t-shirt that I know we all have.
Speaking of which, how are you doing this afternoon, partner?
Doing great.
That's a new shirt I've got seen now.
Another RX7 shirt in honor of our guest.
Um, I've only owned one.
He's owned a couple, and uh, I have one other RX7 shirt, man, it just brings me back to my 1986 Maroon Red RX 7 with a red interior.
Lovely.
Uh, you may be able to see this if we get the video part of this uploaded to YouTube.
A Bucky's t-shirt, which has a tie-in to our very special guest today.
Can't wait to get to him.
And I'm just so happy to have today's guest.
And I'm gonna toss it over to you, partner.
Tell us a little bit about how Zach came into your world and how we have him here today.
Yeah, so uh I have seen Zach Pradle of shooting cars on YouTube, seen many of his videos.
I think we're up, he's up to what, 2700 videos?
Great content.
Yeah.
And at the end of one of his videos, it's uh it's it's actually very creative because he has a Windows 95 graphics popping up.
So it got my attention.
Let's have Zach view my DeLorean.
And Zach wrote back right away.
He's like, I'd love to do it.
I got my nerve up a few weeks later and asked Zach if he'd be on the podcast.
And he I knew I was gonna like Zach because I was looking at one of his videos online, and I this I said, Who is this guy?
Documentarian, historian, car reviewer, enthusiasm for days.
And he steps out of this Jeep on his Jeep video.
You want to put a big smile on your face?
Go check it out right now.
And he steps out of the Jeep wearing a Bucky's t-shirt, and I said, I know I'm gonna love this guy.
So, Zach, welcome to our show.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Thank you so much for having me.
That was quite an intro.
I appreciate it.
And thank you for being a Johnny on the spot writing back to him.
So, how soon is this DeLorean drive gonna happen?
I can't, well, I I'm at I might have to come up, make an appearance in town if you got if you're gonna show up.
That is definitely high on the bucket list.
Yeah.
Well, I'm glad I can glad it wasn't a grand am or anything.
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a great car.
I'm having the transmission rebuilt just for you.
That I think that'd be fantastic.
Make it happen.
So you're unique positioned, my friend, to make it work.
So, what do you think?
We should we have him kind of go back in time or or tell us a little bit about the projects that are that are in your world right now, Zach.
Yeah, so for those that don't know, uh, my name is Zach.
I run the shooting cards YouTube channel.
I started 10 years ago, actually in February was my 10-year anniversary.
Happy anniversary.
Thank you.
Um, I started off doing RX7 content, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a second.
Um, around 2015, I bought my first RX7.
It was a 1985 Mazda RX7.
Uh immediately blew up the engine, immediately blew up this 12A.
I was a high schooler, I did not understand the concept of warming up a car before driving it.
And when you have a 7,000 RPM red line, you touch it every time you can.
So I blew up the motor and I bought a 1987 Mazda RX 7 NA for 800 bucks back when you could actually get an RX7 running and driving for 800 bucks.
Pulled the motor out of that, put it into my first gen.
So it was fuel injected, made you know, 50% more horsepower, all this stuff.
But as much as I love that, and the car was great and all that stuff, filming that and making that's those sort of videos is so expensive.
I mean, just to do it was the radiator oil cooler, and that was it, it was like 800 bucks.
And as a high schooler, like that was all the money I had.
But I really loved the process of filming car stuff.
I love the creative process of making things.
You know, videos are just my creative outlet.
Some people paint, some people doodle, some people journal.
I do car videos, and so I tried to think, I was like, how can I keep making car videos without putting so much time, effort, and money into one single video?
How can I make more of it?
So I started doing car reviews.
I reviewed my parents' cars, my grandma's cars, my own cars, and then I started talking to buddies, you know, friends, friends of friends.
Parent, parents, yep.
Exactly.
And so it has snowballed to I've done 1700 car reviews.
I work with most major manufacturers, and I love it.
It's it's absolutely amazing.
Now, how do you balance?
Now, I admittedly, I've not watched all 1700, but I've watched a bunch.
They are eminently watchable.
But let me tell you something.
That Hudson Hornet deal.
Yes.
Oh, you dig into the history, you walk around, you know, you get get inside, and we get a true sense for the machine, its time, where it came from, why it succeeded, ultimately why the company failed or had to merge.
Sure.
How do you balance the old classics, reviewing old classics?
I I in what was there was some group in New Jersey that that you got it from the name of the room.
Restored Rusty Relics.
Restored Rusty Relics.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So how do you balance kind of the classics with things that are more recent and kind of newer cars?
Is it a is it a balance to battle how you're gonna review all those or but but you knew about all the history, you knew about the chassis, you knew about how the body fit into it.
There was a whole lot of research you did.
So of you know, uh but I I keep the format the same where I talk about engine, talk about interior, back if they have it, got it, exterior if they have it, then I do final thoughts.
So it's it's really the same recipe for each video, but I I have to think, for instance, I filmed a video today.
I have a 2025 Chevy Traverse Z71 at the house.
Brand new three-row SUV with like the off-road tires and whatnot.
Chevy sent it to me for the last week to drive around and get my thoughts in that on this SUV, right?
Yeah.
So there's a little bit next week.
Oh, right.
I think that uh actually on Friday of this week.
You know, then it's sort of playing into, you know, I'm not trying to sell anyone on that car.
You know, it's been out for 50 years.
So it's more of like, well, what was it like to live with this 50 years ago?
That um and older reviews is nice to any views.
Oh, like right off.
Now I've been very fortunate that video has done really well since.
Yeah.
Um, but you know, that's what I think of is down the road, someone is gonna have that question when they blow the dust off this hundred-year-old, you know, what was Hudson?
What was that all about?
You know, maybe this video would give them some light.
And that car, I do have to say, that 53 Hudson Hornet drove incredible.
Because I don't yeah, I love 50s cars, they're really, really appealing.
They they're beautiful, but they all drive like garbage.
I'm sorry, they all drive like garbage because we didn't really know how to make cars.
I mean, you know, even my 1931 Ford Model A, it's a covered wagon.
I mean, it's really a covered wagon with a motor up at the front.
Horseless carriage.
Exactly.
Yes, and some cars were registered as horseless carriages for a long time.
But, you know, the Hudson Hornet drove, you would think it was from like the 80s, which I know is still dated, but like the differences and whatnot.
Far ahead of its time, yeah.
100% in the video.
And in in I also like in the Jeep video how the historian in you comes out because you'll you'll you'll edit into it, edit into your piece footage from World War II or when the car came in crates, and then you'll walk through the history.
And I think that really sets you apart from a lot of these other reviewers out there to kind of take us through, take us through the history.
So you're really a student of the automotive industry too, which I really appreciate.
Yeah, that's a big thing too, is that I fully understand that I don't know everything.
When I do review a car, you know, depending.
Like when I drive a new car, it's whatever, it's consumer advice, and you know, it's important in its own regard.
But when I like when I'm able to drive the DeLorean, I'm gonna get so excited because the few days leading up to it, I get to research and really sink my teeth into, okay, who was John DeLorean?
Okay, so he he did the GTO as well.
So that's kind of interesting that people don't really know.
And I get to really, I get to do the legwork that, you know, I think a lot of people go down these like YouTube rabbit holes, you know, and like um do a bunch of research on a topic.
I do that too.
I fall into these YouTube rabbit holes.
I'm trying to think of a uh recent one that I had, but then I am fortunate enough to to make an end product with said five books.
Yeah.
That's brilliant.
Yeah, yeah.
I love that.
I love that.
All right.
So what what do you think, Doug?
Should we go back in time?
Should we should we step into the the rotary engine time machine and and see where it takes us?
And maybe it'll take us back to his first car.
What do you say?
What do you think?
Yeah, let's um let's take the rotary, let's take the uh second exit off the rotary, the rotary died back to the rotor.
So, where did it all start for you?
Let's talk about your first car, Zach.
So my first car was a red, sunrise red, uh 1985 Mazda RX 7.
I bought it September 20th, 2015.
It was a few days after I had turned 18.
And I'd always I would always loved cars from a young age, fast and furious, hot wheels, you know, lined my walls.
And I really wanted my own car.
Like when I turned 18, like that was very important to me as every car person has that, you know, they want to own their own car.
So I looked for a long time.
I was looking at Subaru Legacies, I was looking at I really liked Subarus at the time, but my dad, before I was born, had a 1985 Mazda RX 7 in Sunrise Red, funny enough.
Yeah, and so he had always said he was like, Oh, the best car I ever owned.
Yes, purchase
this car.
And he was like, Sure.
You know, and he was excited because he hadn't driven an RX 7 since, you know, uh well before I was born.
So I send him with the money, he goes, picks it up, brings it back.
My first car, I got it was my senior year of high school.
I drove it to homecoming, which was great.
I which I remember if you're familiar with the Wenkel Rotary, it's sound, it's really high-pitched.
And I drove my date to homecoming, and I was a teenager, so I revved up the engine.
And as I pull up in my brand new sports car, someone yelled, Hey, shut that weed whacker off.
And I almost drove home from homecoming that night just immediately.
I was like, oh man, that really threw it all into perspective.
But then, as I as I mentioned to you guys in the pre-show, I would never let the car warm up.
I lived two minutes from my high school, so I would get in in the morning, bang gears on the way to school, and shut it off before the needle had even moved.
Um, and so one day we had off-campus lunch and I got in my car, drove to Wendy's, and as I'm, you know, sitting at the light before Wendy's, it's like but and I was like, that's a new sound.
And I go to pull away from the light, absolutely no power.
I still filled it up with gas for some reason.
I don't know why.
I thought that would fix it.
I had no mechanical.
The biggest thing I'd ever done was spark plugs on I say my truck, but it was my dad's truck that he let me drive from 16 to 18.
So I just said I said, you know what?
I'm gonna I'm gonna engine swap this thing.
I'm gonna watch YouTube videos.
And what ended up happening, funny enough, I can show you what happened.
Oh, the apex seal went.
I don't know if you can see that dip.
There's a big chunk missing from the rotor.
So this is actually the rotor and housing that went.
I don't think you'll be able to see, but there's really bad scarring on the inside.
Uh actually embedded itself and then obviously blew up.
Um, so I bought a 1987 Mazda RX 7 from a guy off Craigslist for $850.
I think I talked him down from like $900, which the $50 in hindsight is so funny to me.
Um, pulled that motor out.
That was a 1987, fuel injected 13B, so 1.3
liter as opposed to this was a 1.1.
The swap was actually relatively simple.
It would just, it took me a year because I didn't know anything about cars or like mechanical.
And and uh I I love that.
You know, if I could go back to any car that I had, it would be that 93 Miata.
As much as I love the RX 73 Miata, had no issues, it ran so good, it was so fun.
The convertible top, it's a different experience with a convertible, yes, it is, and that was just such a joyous car as well.
I I was mowing the lawn and during COVID, and this was uh what was this?
It was May.
So like people were like just kind of starting to come out of lockdown, but like we were still in this like weird limbo.
And so I hadn't been social in two months.
My buddy sends me this Facebook marketplace ad for a 93 Miata, rust-free $2,000.
And I was like, that's a crazy deal.
Like, that's if it was 130,000 miles rust-free.
It had been a little banged up, but not, you know, just cosmetically.
So halfway through mowing the lawn, I stopped in inside, called the guy, and said, Hey, can I send you $200 right now to hold the car?
Because I can't, it was in St.
Louis, which is four hours from Chicago.
Can you hold the car until tomorrow morning so I can like get a ride down there?
And he was like, Yeah.
So I sent him 200 bucks.
I paid him the other $1,800 when I got there and drove that car for three months.
Absolutely loved it.
Um, but I I needed something adult.
Um, and so I ended up buying my 2019 Mazda 3.
Had the um going back to your RX 7 with the engine swap, had something happened to the RX 7 that prompted you to get the Miata, or it was just fortuitous timing?
So so the trying to think of how to phrase this because it's really muddy because I've had three RX 7s.
So the first RX 7 that I put the new motor into, the red the red one.
Yeah, the red 1985.
Um, this was in 2019.
Uh, I was driving, I I got some burritos with a friend, burrito singular, not plural.
Got burritos with a friend, and driving back home, shifting first to second, second to third, there's this clicking noise.
It was like a, you know, like uh like when you like squeeze a pop can, you hear that, or like kink a hose or something like that.
And I was like, oh, that's weird.
I'm taking it downtown Chicago the next day, which was like a you know, probably 70-mile round trip.
I was like, let me let me see what's going on here.
Because this is really weird.
I haven't heard that noise before.
So I get home, put it in the garage, you know, get the the uh the jack underneath the pumpkin, they would call it, because those were solid rear axle cars.
Yes, they were where the the second gen moved to independent.
Yep.
Um lifted it up, and the the two, I I think they're called trailing arms, but like the stabilizer, yeah, yeah.
The trailing arms had completely disconnected from the car due to rust.
And so every shift, at least the higher torque shifts, the fourth to fifth shift, it wouldn't click.
It's just not torquey enough, I guess.
The trailing arms were actually slapping the chassis of the car.
And then I looked more, and there was a huge crack running side to side from where each and what was wild is I pulled up the carpet, you could see completely through the car.
Do you guys know the the scene towards the end of the first love bug movie where they're welding the car back together mid-race?
That is literally exactly what my car looked like because there was a crack running side to side, and you could see through to the ground the entire width of the car.
So yeah, so that wasn't great.
And it someone had bondoed over that crack well before I bought it.
It's amazing that you're here to tell this tale, the more you the more you think about it.
Well, you know, I I had taken my girlfriend out on so many dates in that car.
Yeah.
Um, I had driven that car.
I drove that car on Road America, the racetrack.
Um, and I'm very fortunate in hindsight that nothing happened.
But so I ended up getting rid of that car.
I bought a another 1985 Mazda RX7 without an engine from Killeen, Texas.
It was blue, completely rust-free, beautiful car, but had no engine.
But luckily, I had an engine.
I just didn't have a car to put around it.
So I bought that, I had it trailered up.
I bought it because it was a GSL, which means sunroof, disc brakes, and six speakers instead of four.
It shows up on the truck.
I look at it, it has drum brakes, no sunroof, and four speakers.
So someone had just stuck a GSL badge on the back, which is unfortunately common, but I just Venmoed the guy nine or 18 or 1900 bucks while I was actually in class one day in college.
And I started giggling in class, and my buddy looked over.
He's like, What?
And I was like, I just bought a car in Texas.
What?
I was like, Yeah, I just sent this guy this whole bunch of money.
And we're we were in an uh econ class in college.
Yeah, yeah, you should have flunked the clay.
Yeah, the professor had gotten hold of this, he would have flunked it.
You know what I think so, yeah.
Yeah, I used to uh I I remember one of the first um DeLoreans I saw had to be like uh late 80s, early 90s.
And it's a good friend of mine worked at a uh car repair shop, and the guy had a DeLorean, and I'm like, man, how cool is it the car didn't run, right?
But it was inside a shop, and I got to sit in and I'm like, man, it would be so cool to have this car, even if it didn't run.
Having had one in my garage on and off for the last couple years that didn't run sometimes, it's really not that cool.
It wears out pretty quickly.
It it's funny though, because you know, I I I lived at my parents when I had these two cars, which they are the most tolerant parents on the planet.
So I would back the RX 7 was at the top of the driveway, and the Miado was at the bottom of the driveway.
So I thought, you know, park them all cool.
And uh the neighbors had a younger kid who was just getting his license, and the mom would come over and ask questions about the cars, and then go tell the kid, like, oh, you know, they're this, that, and the other.
And then she would come back and she was like, Joey has more questions, and like, you know, so that that was really cool.
I was like, even though they don't run, like, you know, there's a kid that was interested in cars that was, you know, kind of excited to see them in the driveway, to say the least.
Yeah, so a ma Mazda guy got a space my heart, yep, after uh owning four Mazdas.
So uh in fact, my first stick ship car, the one I learned to drive on, was the 86 RX7.
No power steering, no sunroof manual windows.
The power steering was the tough one.
Yeah, yeah, because the FC was a lot bigger of a car, too.
Yeah, it was because I I didn't have power steering in any of my first gens, which also it has a steering box, not a steering rack for the first gen.
So a lot of people will put the second gen steering racks into it.
I I basically the first gen R7 is essentially a truck underneath, solid rear axle, steering box, you know.
Take the body off, it looks like a Dodge Dakota.
Yep.
And Mazda actually sold a rotary-powered truck in the US too.
Yeah, no, I've seen them.
I think I think they had the the battery was on the side of the car near the back.
Yeah.
Yeah, for easy access, I guess.
Yeah, and they also they shared a lot of parts with the Ford Courier at the time.
So every once in a while I'll see like a Ford Courier at a show, and I'll go, is that no, it's it's not a record.
Yeah, that's funny.
Yeah.
And um before the before the show you mentioned, I do want to ask you about your dream cars, but to me, this is like uh family history.
Your dad, your dad had a Mazda.
Maybe he met maybe he owned it when he met your mom.
Who who knows?
You would know.
Yeah, that takes the cake, but because I had taken the transmission out during the motor swap.
I dropped it because it was just me alone in my garage with no power tools or anything.
And then for whatever reason, never went back into reverse ever again.
I dropped it once, but yeah.
That's funny.
At least it had a starter, right?
Working.
Otherwise, you would have had to push it as well to get it going.
Yes.
Um which which makes me think about the story of your grandfather's Model A, which 1931 model A, which did have a starter, but um, if you don't mind briefly just talking about that car, because you grew up around that car.
Yeah, so that was that that's our our family heirloom really we don't really have a whole lot but that that's certainly the ones back in in the 1980s 1985 specifically this year keeps showing up for some reason i've owned two 1985 cars my dad owned a 1985 and then in 1985 um it was my grandma and grandpa's 25th wedding anniversary and so my grandma cashed in no one from that transaction is still
alive so I don't know where the car came from I know that it was repainted sometime in the late 70s or early 80s that's the only thing that we know is that it had a spray everything else has been numbers matching in the 80s um so in 1985 she surprises him with the car he was a politician he was the mayor of my town growing up wow and so he would drive the Model A in parades public thing he wasn't a gearhead
by any means he really didn't care he was a a police officer before he was mayor so like you know he always had big caprices and that sort of thing but you know he he would have it and as a kid he would take me and my cousins out you know there were six of us and no seat belts so as many we could fit in there as possible and he would take us around the block whenever we were all together and his line his his you know his dad joke or grandpa joke was we would drive by Dairy Queen and he would say
guys something something's up with the steering something's up with the steering and he would turn into Dairy Queen and then he'd he'd get us all it always breaks down at Dairy Queen Dairy Queen.
And uh you know we got it running good again we rebuilt the carb we actually recently just put rear axles into it and we drive it all the time.
How often how often do you drive it?
Well unfortunately I I moved out of my parents place last year and so in the last year I I've only driven it once or twice.
But before that we would drive it if it was sunny we were driving it you know and there was this one time where I was you know for my for my job I was filming at dealerships and and I would you know get up every morning at eight go to a dealership and start filming cars and this was like maybe I want to say it was like July or August sweat down the back and he didn't see it
over the modeling the pitfalls of owning a car with with two other gear heads the three of you all you know have equal claim to it but yeah I love that you get it that you get it out of the garage and running but let's pivot here it Doug always likes to to talk to our guests about uh dream car dream car next car what do you think what's uh what's on the bucket list wish list for you Zach so
I right now the top of my list is a 1992 Nissan Skyline GTR uh it's the I believe the RB26 so it's the straight six twin turbo I I drove one in November and it just does everything perfectly it made like mid 300s horsepower right hand drive stick shift straight six turbo all-wheel drive it was just I mean really it's one of those cars that you get in and at point it's just sheer terror being behind the wheel when you do a
rolling burnout at 100 miles an hour things get really scary 350 horsepower it's special I like the R32 better than the 33 and 34 which came in years after it they got a little bit bigger and everyone says the R34 is amazing.
I've driven the R34 it's still a great car but I like the size of the 32.
And then the other one I I I sent to you guys was the air cooled Porsche's whether that's a 930 a 99 uh not 996 993 or 964 you know something of that nature I just I love those I love the look of them they drive really great they don't drive as good as I thought that they would drive I did a 993 and I was it was really special and fun and that car had its own fun story too but it it wasn't I just never
felt so connected to a stranger's car than with that GTR.
Very neat great answer.
So all right one last question for you here on the way out as we sort of guide the podcast gently to the off ramp here.
Not really a question more of an observation on my part just want to mention to everybody there out there listening that you you got to check out his uh Zach's YouTube channel Shooting Cars on on YouTube.
And and and one thing that I really enjoyed and maybe enjoyed the most were the video essays that are kind of sprinkled in to the reviews.
And I really enjoyed these so much.
What Zach does is he'll take this concept or this feature window tint in a car okay pop up headlights in a car or a little bit about making his content he goes to the Malay's area era of kind of underpowered blocky car in the 70s and it's done so well.
The question is is how do you decide when there's something that you want to attack is there a ratio for every 50 reviews we get one of these video essays which are really kind of your thoughts and documentary they're so entertaining and well done how do you decide when and what to do a video essay on versus a review.
Yeah it's literally like I'm thinking of something it might have been 55 mile an hour speedometers.
But anyway I, you know, at the time I had filmed a thousand maybe eleven hundred cars.
And so every time yeah okay so they didn't I'm not not to interrupt but so so you had done so many reviews before this even came into your mind.
So interesting okay please continue.
So I I I think it was the 55 mile an hour thing because I was driving a 1981 or 1982 Ford LTD.
It was a fleet vehicle you know that sort of thing and it had 55 miles an hour highlighted on a dash and I was like okay this is like the 15th car that I've driven that says this like why the heck do like just in this era they highlight 55 miles an hour.
Why was that so special?
And so I went home that night and it just there was this itch in the back of my head and I started digging into it and I started looking because every time I review a car, I have a 20 terabyte hard drive on my desk and every car I review gets its own folder on that hard drive.
So I have a folder for every manufacturer and then in those folders is folders of each car that I've driven.
So all the footage when I do a review of one goes into that folder.
So I started going through the folders and I was like oh here's footage of this car.
It was a country squire that had 85 or sorry 55 miles an hour highlighted 85 miles an hour was the topic go.
The Ford Mustang the Foxbody Mustangs could only go up to 80 miles an hour and they had 55 miles an hour highlighted.
My beloved RX7 had a little arrow pointing to 55 miles an hour on the speedometer.
So it was kind of this way of like what's the story yeah what's the story but also I have so much footage of it that just sits on a hard drive I hadn't looked at that footage in probably years.
So it's kind of a way of like repurposing like I have so much footage of that.
I had done so many cars with pop-up headlights I had done so many cars with the power seat belts which I think is my most viewed video ever.
So it was just it was a way to kind of recycle footage that just sits on hard drive anyway.
Also dig into these like really niche things that people didn't talk about.
Now unfortunately I kind of ran out of weird 80s features to talk about I kind of talked about them all and so that's where we are right now.
But the current the current itch isn't gonna be out by the end of the every piece
of merchandise from back in the day they had Kellogg's boxes with a Saturn on the front they had windbreakers they had Hot Wheels they had brochures they had you know blankets that were all Saturn branded and so again that sort of scratched this itch of like why are so many why do so many people love saturns and I've driven I think I've driven 20 saturns I think at this point.
So different yeah and they were so different the way you did business the way you were handled at the dealership the cars themselves everything about my sister owned a Saturn.
She actually interned at GM I think when she was in grad school and I found a pair of uh you know protective eyewear and they say Saturn on them.
I think they had to come from well so it was that an exclusive did Cars Love Nation just get an exclusive teaser to you did I break the news left and right so yeah the only people I've told about it and I'm very fortunate because I work with manufacturers now is you know in the corporate side of GM and all this stuff I I put a note out into a media professionals Facebook group.
It's it's a closed group but just for people in the industry.
And I said hey does anyone know anyone that worked at Saturn I'd love to talk to them.
And so now I have a list of about 15 people of like that but I really want to produce something that's gonna stay you know because there's a lot of people that will do that on YouTube and they're great channels but they'll just you know recycle
the commercial and then that's it.
I I want to go talk to the people um I was even fortunate to connect with someone who worked on the E V1 project for GM so I mean and that's if you want to talk about holy grail cars to me the GM EV1 is I don't know if there's anything higher.
Who killed the electric car?
Yeah.
One of my favorite movies growing up my dad absolutely well we're we're fortunate to have you I have uh sorry you made me think of two or three things I just want to share with Christian we're good on time so whatever you guys need.
Uh before we close so um the speedometer so I remember when I was young I saw if a car had a speedometer including the first car I ever had which didn't have 85 Max oh if it had 120 140 that car must go that fast.
No I learned pop-up headlights I remember the first time I saw one on a Gen 3 Corvette I'm like wow that's a sports car or a race car I think is what it was.
Yeah.
And uh yeah thank you you just made me think about it.
Zach breaks all that down.
The pop-up headlight video is just so interesting.
Oh I want to so so Zach I don't know if it's still around but I saw a video on YouTube about an abandoned Saturn dealership.
I don't remember where it is but how cool they and they got inside and there was all kinds of Saturn stuff still there like just the dealer closed up they couldn't sell the building whatever it's just abandoned.
What well funny enough I did a video of an abandoned Saturn dealer who maybe that was it I I couldn't get inside but I looked through the windows and I it was up north and it was in northern Illinois and I was on my way to a different review.
I think I was driving like a GMC envoy or something.
And uh I did this walk around of this abandoned Saturn dealer.
This was years and years and years ago and I posted it it was terrible video quality it's not stabilized whatever but then Jalopnik the the article website wrote an article about my video and I got like 30 4000 views overnight.
And like what ended up happening sadly enough was that everyone kind of found out that there was this Saturn dealer there and then Oh wow I I still have the footage of it there's another possible Saturn dealer somewhere in Illinois but yeah it was another part of that too was they had this big circle out front with like all these like lights embedded in the ground and I when I went there I was like I don't know what the heck that's for I later learned that like when you bought a Saturn they would park it in the circle and shine
the lights on it and like really make you feel like you're buying something really special.
Yeah and they would you know if it was nighttime especially they would light it up like a Hollywood premiere and you know you'd take your picture for the dealership and all that stuff.
Because they were really a customer focused company and that so that was really cool to learn about that.
But yeah I I love the abandoned stuff.
Well you are Zach, you are a premiere storyteller, my friend I I can't wait for that project to come to fruition.
Your passion just shines through it was a real pleasure having you on today and I we thank you for making the time thank you so you as well thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
And you know what I'm off to an economics class where I think I'm gonna Venmo a guy some money and buy a Saturn and drive it up to see you guys putting a bow on it you've just heard the high revving low mileage late model heard round the world authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia.
He's Doug reach him at Doug at carslove.com
I'm Christian reach me at Christian at carslovove.com
he's Zach of course with shooting cars on YouTube.
Follow him on Instagram he's everywhere do check him out please follow and tell a friend if you like this show it helps keeps keep us running.
Check out carslove.com
in our link tree l i-n-k-tr.ee
slash carsloved I like to think of it as our digital switchboard.
I'm sure we'll see you at the next local car show, showroom, race trip, or concourse.
We appreciate you listening and we'll see you next time.
About this episode
Zach Pradel, creator of the Shooting Cars YouTube channel, shares his journey from owning and rebuilding multiple Mazda RX-7s to reviewing over 1,700 cars. He discusses his passion for automotive history, including deep dives into classics like the Hudson Hornet and unique features like pop-up headlights. Zach also talks about his creative process, balancing reviews with video essays, and his dream cars such as the Nissan Skyline GTR and air-cooled Porsches. The conversation highlights his storytelling skills, love for rotary engines, and connection to family car history.
1985 Mazda RX-7 restoration and Hudson Hornet history with Zack Pradel. In this episode, we sit down with the founder of the Shooting Cars YouTube channel to discuss the logistics of filming over 1,700 car reviews and the "soul" of the machines that made us.
Zack shares his personal automotive journey, from blowing up his first 12A rotary engine as a teenager to his family’s heirloom 1931 Ford Model A. We dive into the driving dynamics of the Hudson Hornet, why the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R is the ultimate dream car, and the fascinating history behind abandoned Saturn dealerships and pop-up headlights.
In this episode, we cover:
🏎️ The Rotary Obsession: Zack’s history with the Mazda RX-7 FB and FC, including engine swaps and rust-bucket rescues.
🎥 The Art of the Review: How he built a catalog of 1,700+ automotive videos by reviewing everything from grandma’s car to the Chevy Traverse.
⏱️ Automotive History: Video essays on 55-mph speedometers, the GM EV1, and the customer-first culture of Saturn.
🇯🇵 JDM Legends: Why the Nissan Skyline GT-R is "sheer terror" and the joy of the 1993 Mazda Miata.
🍦 Family Heirlooms: The heartwarming story of his grandfather’s 1931 Model A and the "Dairy Queen breakdown" dad joke
Love the show? Please follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***
Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
