24 Hours of Le Mans Preview, 2022 Hyundai Tucson and 2021 Jaguar F-Pace

Hello and welcome to a special edition of the auto week podcast you're here with myself

that's Wesley Renn mr. Reynolds on the phone mr. Randall how you doing good how's it going

with you guys oh it's going but and also you're here with my cat Ziggy Ziggy's right in shotgun

in the podcast studio today we're here to discuss a lot of things mostly Le Mans question mark

which is weird to say considering it's almost October we're also gonna discuss some unfortunate

news we're going on a bit of hiatus but most importantly right now we're gonna talk about

the news and there's a lot going on there's a new f-pace or a refreshed f-pace anyway with

some new tech and some new new stuff and a new Hyundai Tucson a little compact crossover

mr. Randall what's going on with Hyundai it's quite a bit edgier now if this is really what

it's gonna look like down the road it looks pretty cool to my eye it's a 2022 that we're

talking about by the way yeah it's got a very greasy body it's gonna have some hybrid power

trains which Hyundai really hasn't disclosed much about yet it's much you know that the Toyota

Toyota redid the the mid-sized three-row crossover of theirs that everyone calls the

minivan without the minivan body and this thing looks quite a bit like that it's very I don't

know how to describe it man it's just it looks very futuristic and quite edgy for a Hyundai Tucson

much more sort of dramatic than than the outgoing car the body from the straight side is very

creasy very exaggerated fender flares and some things of that nature and yet inside it's very

clean like the dash and it's very airy and clean there's there's push button shift which seems to

be the rage now because it gives an impression of more room inside and a more airy sort of front

cockpit so you have an edgy sort of quote-unquote radical exterior with a very pretty clean interior

Mr. Randall my one gripe about the teletouch style shifters everybody's putting them on the center

stack and the sort like our friends at Chrysler did back in the day my opinion put them on the

steering wheel if you're gonna go Edsel go full Edsel I want my teletouch and I want it now or

maybe up on the dash in front of the you know to the left of the center console where you can put

you can put them vertically and push button them like an old Lincoln sure but it's you know

it's kind of interesting that that Hyundai would would go to this

sort of body style because this thing is sort of their best this is their bread and butter

in America it's the best-selling car they have globally as well so it's you know for them to

not play it safe as they say you know I give them props I you know for their sake I hope it

doesn't fall flat on its face yeah it's definitely a more adventurous looking crossover but I mean

obviously Hyundai has the Kona right underneath it which is no sales failure so I mean if you

think the Tucson's a little too dramatic looking there's always the Kona and I hear rumors of the

Kona N all these different acronyms the N yeah that's that's Hyundai's performance brand you know

there's R there's AMG there's M there's SVT Cadillac V Audi R Audi R you know come on yeah there's

so anyway it's Hyundai M and I give them credit it's not a stretch to say that the small to mid-sized

crossover landscape is pretty dang dull so to bring in something kind of different I give them credit

for it credit where credits do but that's on the only crossover news this week Jaguar our friends over

Jaguar refresh the F-Pace and man I it's it's a very light refresh it seems like you can actually

speak to that better than me because you you wrote you literally wrote the book I wrote the book on

it yeah yeah so I mean I always thought I always thought the F-Pace was a good looking crossover

but like you say you can walk us through the changes better than I can I don't really see a whole

lot of difference yeah which I which I think is a good thing although the interior does look a

little bit different the interiors maybe the significant change but there is there's a new

sheet metal there's a new hood there's some new headlights there's some new tail lights you know

the normal stuff the really big deal with the new F-Pace again the extra styling slightly refreshed

you park them next to each other a 2020 and a 2021 which is likely coming after the change of the

calendar year for reasons that you're probably well aware of you can notice the differences but

just looking at pictures you might be like oh that's the F-Pace and that's perfectly fine because

it's a good looking crossover anyway which I think Jaguar has done a great job at not messing up

it's beautifully designed cars and crossovers with its mincycle refreshes some companies do but uh

not Jag but anyway well well and you know this is just let me say really quick that this is a

Ian Callum design Ian's since left Jag and opened his own design consultancy company but you know

he did he did this crossover it was the first crossover he's ever done and I remember talking

to him about it at the time and he did try to inject some you know some interesting lines and

things into the crossover game which a lot of designers have not it's basically a two box setup

and you know buyers are going crazy for them so you don't want to mess around with it too much and

I think they did Jag did the best it could and it's a nice looking car I agree wholeheartedly but

the real big news I guess surrounding the F-Pace is electrification the v6's as from what I understand

dunzo and their places are mild hybrid 48 volt straight sixes which are kind of taking over

the industry a little bit if we look at the greater landscape I mean we see them in Mercedes yeah

that's uh that is sort of the wave of the future it helps give you a little goose off the line and

things and without burning as much fuel I guess is the idea and it is sort of what automakers are

hinting at or actually putting out there like Mercedes yeah and obviously you can still get

the base model with the turbocharged four cylinder be a two three liter mild hybrid straight sixes

pretty ingenious I believe they're supercharged and turbocharged and got a mild hybrid system on them

which is I mean welcome to the future it's not that bad it's not that bad over here in the future

now Volvo Volvo's been putting out those supercharged turbocharged engines as well and

the idea is you have the low end torque and the high end torque with both the super and the turbo

chargers so and I like the Volvo engines and and they do mate that to a hybrid system quite a bit

over there in Sweden so it seems to work pretty good for them yeah and of course it's a mild hybrid

it's a starter generator belt driven system it's normal eight speed transmissions are mated to all

of these powertrains so you get the same eight speed automatic you know like it'll love it manual

transmissions especially in crossovers not going to happen or not going to be common anyway you

also got to remember that a lot of these 48 volt systems are used to power to help power all the

electronics that are on cars nowadays that's a big part of the reason for that 48 volt system

and speaking of electronics you like you mentioned it before the interior pretty significant refresh

I mean we have a bigger 11 11.4 inch curved HD glass touchscreen which packs a new infotainment

system the same infotainment system I believe that's on the Land Rover Defender that made its

debut the pivi pro as they call it don't know what that means seems British you know and you said

that the dimensions 11.4 looking at the photos online which I hope all the listeners do it looks

way bigger than that I would have guessed more but but like I said you wrote the book on it so

you know better than I do but it looks to me bigger than that yeah I think that since the IP

or the center stack or whatever whatever you want to call it with Jag is so wide I think that's a

a low angle cross section 11.4 it does look like a very big screen yeah it looks huge and it looks

good it does look good the interior looks nice on that car and a new center console as well joins

it and I don't know I mean the F pace like we've talked about a little bit not a bad car not by

any stretch in the imagination the interior was you know fine good even the exterior great but I

think the new interior is going to be a huge change and a nice upgrade to this to this SUV cool I like

but I think that that wraps up the news today a little brief brief section on some new cars and

now we can hop over to the motorsport side where we're talking about Le Mans

and we are back back with a section everybody loves the section I love personally and we're

talking about a race that I love and we're joined by a couple of great people the Stephen Cole Smith

joining in from Florida Stephen how's your day going doing well how are you doing Wesley oh I am

live I am we're also joined by Mike Price and Mike how's your day going it's going great I've been

to the dentist already and now I got the podcast it's a two for that is a two for a real fast price

and the cavity report I think I did all right I'm okay that's good news that's good news but I'm

pretty excited about it are you flossing though what about flossing you know I still I've never

really bought into that flossing thing they keep giving me this little silly string and I don't

know what to do with it so I got like I got several of them in a drawer and you can hear all of this

and more in our dental related podcast the teeth and but no we are talking about Le Mans 2020 and

we're talking about it in a way that it is no longer canceled and it's happening what in like a week

all right so tomorrow is a so tomorrow night for the people in France Stephen what the heck is

going on Le Mans well it's this is the 88th running and it is certainly going to be a remarkable

one to remember uh the biggest part of Le Mans is the fans the 100 000 plus that are just milling

through their getting drunk setting new records year after year for alcohol consumption they're

not going to be there this year west they're they they tried they tried some different ways to figure

out how to do it with a pandemic and uh they just couldn't so they gave up so the people that they

did sell take a twos you got their money back so it's just going to be a limited number of uh

journalists they said they're accepting a limited number which I think there actually is a limited

number of journalists in the world right now anyway but there's going to be a full field it's

going to be 59 cars and there's a quite a few people coming over from the US I've talked to a

couple of them and they're not really sure what to expect well it is going to be something now

I do have a minor question so circuitless arth is not a normal racetrack it's what's known as a

city circuit because it's a city how is the French government or the FIA RWEC going to police

this no fan policy when people can just you know go outside that is a great question the track is

what eight and a half miles long and uh there are areas there that are uh accessible so that would

take a lot of gendarmes to ring that thing and make sure that nobody shows up that's a good

question and I've got to think there's going to be a few people hanging in trees that are going to

be watching this race so so what we're going to have about 50 000 gendarmes circling the outside

of this thing making sure that the 100 000 don't get in this is going to be great that can be good

TV oh yeah yeah and according to a pressure lease uh the other day from Genetta uh one of the drivers

is Rob Dyson a US guy they're pulling out at the last minute and they're saying it's because

France has the highest rate of coronavirus that they've had since this thing started so add that

into the mix and uh it should be a pretty interesting weekend wow definitely sounds interesting

let's talk about the racially fast at the top ranks we have in the LMP1 class Toyota and should

we just give them the trophy now well you got to decide which Toyota there's there's two Toyota so

we've got to run 24 hours to figure out which of the two Toyotas is going to win no Fernando Alonso

this year yeah I think he's he's trying to stay safe I think he's uh he's still sheltering somewhere

and so that so I don't even know which one I want to root for now I was a big Alonso guy I know Brendan

Hartley I guess has got that seat uh with the team with the car that won last year in place of uh

Alonso and Hartley the former F1 guy who seems pretty cool so I guess I'll go that I'll root for

that car it's hardly raced here quite a bit and uh I think Petit Le Mans and some of the other races

so he's pretty he's pretty well known in the U.S. yeah so I'm rooting for the number eight car then

uh but there's only five cars in that LMP1 class so there's a good shot that you know your favorite

car is going to make the podium right I mean gosh we could get right we could get a car together

couldn't we and finish third I mean two of the guys are going to we could get a rental Renault

and have a really good shot at a podium finish I think yeah we gotta do this keep running for 24

hours we'd be good I think Porsche has some cars that they're not using anymore that they might loan

us out yeah there's a lot of Porsches in the race but uh they definitely have a couple over here in

the U.S. that are not making the trip and they're not going to use them after uh the season ends at

the 12 hours of seabring so uh there will be some spare Porsches around this time next year and and

Ben uh Ben Keating was telling me that the you know there's there's two GT classes one for pros

one for pro amps and the pro amp guys are racing all the cars that the pros had last year so some

of those cars are virtually identical so if we've got some pretty good amateurs out there we've got

a shot at some of those guys mixing it up with some of the pros I think well that's a new element

to the the the race that that is I'm genuinely looking forward to that but we don't have a lot

of Americans Steven you mentioned in the story in autoweek.com earlier this week that you know

Americans are down this year we don't have the you know the Corvette racing group's not going

over there we don't have any Ford presence this year um so if you're an American if you're just

a fan of American race cars and race teams uh not a lot to root for this year yeah but we've

got quite a few Americans that no one's ever heard of that we mentioned in a story uh that

they're yesterday like uh Maxwell Root you know I don't know if he has a fan club or not but uh I

think he's a young guy he's 21 I'm not really sure uh who he is or what he does but he's going

to be there well we can root for root that's all I can say about that root for root man

but going back a little bit the GT class you mentioned that the GTM cars are basically running

the GT pro cars from last year well a few teams anyway with the 59 yeah the difference the difference

is that here in the U.S. the GT Daytona cars are not the same as the GT Le Mans cars they're quite a

bit dumb down they're quite a bit cheaper and over there it's the same car so it's just the

matter of the driver our friend uh Cooper McNeil whose dad owns WeatherTech he's actually running

in the pro division this year because they couldn't find a bronze driver who could make it over there

in time with the pandemic so they just moved up to the pro division and he's running with a gold

and a platinum driver he's the only silver driver in the entire class and silver driver uh you have

bronze silver gold and at the top platinum ratings and the two amp classes have to have some mix of

that with uh bronze or silver drivers and generally those are the guys with the deep

pockets who are uh financing the the operation well that pro class Steven is pretty it's pretty

lean this year look it's like uh i'm looking at the entry list right now we only have eight cars

in there we got uh looks like four Ferraris a couple of Porsches and a couple Aston Martins

again pretty lean and kind of similar to the LMP1 class I mean the two arguably most competitive

biggest classes are really small this year it's probably not going to be good for the for the

race no it's better there than it is in IMSA though we're looking at four GTLM cars for next year

when uh Porsche leaves so just nothing but Corvus and BMWs unless somebody Aston Martin or somebody

like that steps up Ferrari possibly well that's a story for another day but I guess big picture

what is up with that you know the GT class especially the you know the top GT classes

just three four years ago was was rocking and both IMSA and at Le Mans and now it's just down

to bare bones and is it just a manufacturer thing is it money is it I mean can we put our finger on

that yet yeah it's money Mike I had a long talk with Ben Keating yesterday about money about what

you can run for what kind of dollars and it's it sounds like right now P2 is probably the cheapest

class that you can run in right now even cheaper than GT Daytona because there's a bunch of chassis

out there they've all got the Gibson V8 engine so I expect to see maybe a few more P2 cars next

year and of course they've got P3 cars joining the field next year too here and at IMSA and those

cars don't run at Le Mans so we're going to have quite a bit different feel at the 24th of Daytona

then we have at Le Mans this year and that's unusual normally those two classes sort of reflect

each other but not not going to happen this year even we've got no fans I think again people are

going to tune in people are looking to find this on TV in the US here it's on Motor Trend TV and

they're going to do all 24 hours actually I think they have 25 hours of broadcast scheduled starting

at 7 30 Saturday morning Eastern time that runs again for 25 hours of broadcast time which would

be pretty exciting to watch if you have that access to that cable channel on your on your setup

but it's so weird Steven this is September we're still doing with the pandemic and on some levels

it's still affecting racing this as much as it was in March and you know it's too early to say gosh

is the June next year race already in trouble for Le Mans in some of these big events I mean this is

insane and then and I'm and I don't know where this is going to you one of the things that's weird

Mike is the world endurance championship which is essentially the IMSA of Europe this is their

last race of the season this is you know the ends the season with Le Mans but that's not

happening this year that's not happening until November in Bahrain there's nothing going on

between now and then but the champion won't be decided until November which is unfortunately

kicked some of the guys like been keating out because they put that race right on top of the

12 hours of sea bring oh yeah a lot of those guys aren't going to be able to make it over here

yeah to the credit of the racing world uh they did pretty much step aside this week you know we

don't have f1 this week we don't have IMSA this week so at least uh you know there's a there's a

you know any of these drivers they had interests on both sides or whatever are able to go but

like you say that baron but right about rain race I'm sorry uh if that is going to be opposite

some IMSA scheduling and and and all that that's that's too bad for that series and you know one

thing about that WEC they've gone to that series schedule where it's you know starts in the fall

and goes through the Le Mans at least that's what their their plan was and that's so tough for these

teams that are running IMSA for instance because their season goes January to December and you

got Le Mans or I'm sorry WEC you know they start in the fall and go through June the overlap there

it's got to be tough for some of these teams absolutely Ben Keating said he was absolutely

running all four of the endurance races and this means he won't even have a shot at that

title here in the US he said he just planned to come back for Daytona next year and that's another

thing you know all these sees all these series are scheduling from January which is when the

24 hours of Daytona is all the way through just as though everything's going to be fine and but if

this thing is still lagging into January into February into March it's really going to screw

up the schedules for next year too. IMSA we just just pointed out last week that IMSA's are now

selling tickets you know for the Rolex last weekend in January as per usual they either think it's

okay or they think we're going to be fine in you know three four months and well it's just so hard

to envision that right now and and other series aren't even bothering with announcing their schedules

yet because no one is raising their hand for those early spring dates right now they would rather

find a way to get into the fall or the late summer and and think they got a chance at this thing

I mean I don't think anybody imagined that 2021 was going to be you know as messed up as it looks

like it's going to be but I maybe we have fans back but I don't know how these schedules are

going to come out and sponsors have got to be sitting on the edge of their seats saying hey uh

how much money you need for next year when is your season how many races are you going to run

and really nobody has any answers for these guys right now. Yeah and I've got to think TV

deals are are up in the air too because uh you know NASCAR has managed to make the entire schedule

but they made it with having races on Tuesday nights and Thursday nights so I don't know how

much longer the broadcast networks are going to put up with some of the yeah I mean we we mentioned

the IndyCar last last week they raced last weekend but we didn't get a notice until September 6

that they were even racing that weekend less than a week's notice so I don't know how you

build a TV audience when you don't even have a week to tell people that you've got a race coming

up. Well no and the and you mentioned the Wednesday night races and things that were pretty popular

with NASCAR earlier in the in the summer uh the thing was that was up against nothing because

baseball hadn't started yet now we've noticed since baseball now we've noticed since baseball

season has started and they got their TV going almost every night uh the only thing NASCAR has

kind of leaked into the midweek stuff now is a is a truck series uh you know we have still

have some of these truck series races showing up on Thursday and Friday and what have you

but they've really not ventured the cup races back into midweek to go up against baseball

because right now that the you know people are not watching sports like it was novelty for the

first couple of weeks watching some of these races with no fans and all that but now that's

kind of worn off and I don't know if that's going to really fly into 2021. I don't know it's kind

of like the iRacing you know we all went nuts over iRacing because at least there was some

something moving on the screen and now I imagine they're uh uh have dropped back to where they were

and pre-covid conditions uh for for electronic racing so everything is changing so fast and

thank goodness I don't have to predict it. But I will make you predict this uh Stephen so going

forward if the WC runs Le Mans in June like they always do these teams only have a few months of

preparation now I mean they don't have a full year to get ready do you think that's going to affect

I mean obviously there can be fewer teams but what what do you think this shortened

wait period for the next Le Mans is going to is going to do to the teams?

Well one thing it's really going to affect us is the the new car you know we were at Le Mans next

year or I'm sorry at WC's first race of the year we were supposed to see the brand new car that was

going to be able to be run both in IMSA and in WC FIA uh that's been put off right now and nobody

has really said it in so many words but there's no way that that car is going to be ready so they're

trying to get some kind of work done on that car so they can at least figure out how it's going to

work and work on the cars that they've got now like he mentioned that they're going to have to turn

around and either run at 24 hours of Daytona or at the WC which I don't know when the schedule

supposed to start it's supposed you know if the schedule isn't over until November it's if they

started it's going to be right up against IMSA schedule probably starting in January I doubt

they'll start in December around Christmas. Well the racing offseason is shrinking more than we

ever imagined. Yeah it is it's uh it's sad but your local uh your local track may still be open

we're doing okay down here in Florida where I can actually hit a dirt track race or uh an oval track

race as long as we all sit six feet apart and wear masks so supports your local racetrack because

they're the guys that are really going to be hurting from this. I believe that uh Steven any

final thoughts about the upcoming Le Mans race I mean obviously it's it's coming on our radar so

quickly that it's it might be hard to to look ahead but what do you think's gonna happen?

Well no matter what happens Les it's gonna be legendary it's gonna be one that we're gonna

be talking about for years in advance and we'll be able to tell our grandchildren or you guys will

I'll be dead by then that yeah I remember that uh that big race in France where uh 50,000 people

that showed up lining the the track against the John Darms all got uh coronavirus and all the

teams got coronavirus and uh that meant there was no uh 89th uh Le Mans so anything could happen

man anything could happen. Well I hope that doesn't happen. Well Steven before you before you sign off

Wesley uh one thing you mentioned there about all the the the fans the thing about Le Mans

the the fans line the streets not only for the parade you know a couple days before the race

but they line the streets for all the drivers coming out for practice and for qualifying

and for the race I mean there's tens and tens of thousands of people just in the streets

in the neighborhood around you know near the track I just think you can't keep them away

and it's there's gonna be a scene something that's gonna happen in that 24 hours or we're

gonna be seeing some breaks in the in the fence or something because this is their life in that

small community in France I mean that you can't you're not gonna be able to shut down the 24 hour

Le Mans and keep the fans out I don't believe. And alcohol is often involved and we don't want that

action. Oh not alcohol they don't have that in France. Well we'll never know we'll never know

but I hear wine is pretty popular over there I've never been personally. Yeah you gotta do it it's

a bucket list. Oh definitely definitely I am looking forward to the day that I can and maybe

next year we'll we'll see we'll see but I think that wraps up Le Mans you can watch that well if

you're listening this has when it drops tomorrow or you've already watched it and we know that

someone has won. It's gonna be playing on Motor Trend TV which is an online service and I think

it's gonna be streamed in its entirety. Mike do we know if it's gonna be on any other networks?

No that is it in the United States and Motor Trend TV is on a cable channel too it's not

just online so so check your local listings as they say Motor Trend TV has now got a lot of

racing stuff on there this is their this is their marquee event and I know they're a little bit

interested to see what their turnout is going to be because of the you know the timing of this thing

I mean it's it's September and no one's really expecting Le Mans on September but it should be

a lot of fun again and it is unlike the Rolex 24 where you have to jump around to different

networks or different channels within Fox and have to watch an hour or two online because nobody's

this is one of those races if you have Motor Trend TV on your cable you can watch all 25 hours

without you know getting up and changing the channel we still get up and I believe yeah I

believe if you don't have it you can buy the streaming service for two dollars yeah they have

they do exactly yep yeah and they've got an app too there's a Motor Trend app which I was just

notified about today that it's got a lot of really cool you know fan experiences for the role for

the you know 24 hour Le Mans so so maybe check that out again if you're hearing this podcast

in enough time to get you know hooked up with that app or whatever there's a lot of cool stuff on

there in car and a lot of features and stuff that if you're a real you know 24 hour Le Mans

fan like we are might be worth checking out and speaking of checking out don't forget to check

out quick spin it will be it's what it's the other out of week podcast and it is full of cars and

unfortunately you won't be able to hear the winner of Le Mans on this fair show because

we're taking a little bit of a hiatus a little bit of a break here on the auto week podcast

might return next year who knows but what I do know is I appreciate everyone that's been on this

journey for the past almost three years going on for it's pretty wild and thank you so much for

making this you know and thank you Stephen and thank you Mike for for joining me so often

it's been it's been an absolute pleasure thank you and again if you if you want to hear my voice

and the other goings on auto week check out quick spin it's a great show and I love it

24 Hours of Le Mans Preview, 2022 Hyundai Tucson and 2021 Jaguar F-Pace

About this episode

Le Mans

Jaguar Fpace

Hyundai Tucson

teletouch style shifters

Chrysler

crossover

Hyundai Kona

Hyundai N

turbocharged

supercharged

mild hybrid

starter generator belt driven system

eight speed automatic transmission

48 volt system

infotainment system

Land Rover Defender

FIA

city circuit

LMP1 class

Toyota

Renault

12 Hours of Sebring

Chevrolet Corvette

Corvette Racing

Ford

GT class

GT Daytona

BMW

Daytona 24 Hours

World Endurance Championship

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