424: The Cars, Stories and Characters of Velocity Invitational
The Collector Car Podcast
424: The Cars, Stories and Characters of Velocity InvitationalThe Collector Car Podcast · Jun 18, 2026
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Concept
restomide
A restomod is when someone takes an older car and restores it, but also adds modern improvements. The goal is usually to keep the classic look while making it easier and nicer to drive.
Term
checker taxi
A "checker taxi" is a taxi with a checkered pattern on it. It’s more about the look/branding than how the car works.
The Nürburgring is a legendary race track in Germany. People use it to see how well a car really handles because it’s long and twisty and tests everything at once.
Pixar is a well-known animation studio. The host is pointing out that Pixar also released a movie about cars, which helped bring car culture to a wider audience.
This is a Ford Mustang, and the "K code" part is a collector detail. It usually means the car left the factory with a specific higher-performance engine configuration.
The 1966 Pontiac GTO is a classic American muscle car known for its role in popularizing the GTO nameplate during the height of the muscle-car era. The host also calls it "unrestorable," which signals it was likely too far gone for a full restoration—something collectors still sometimes buy for parts or preservation projects.
The BMW M3 is a sporty BMW sedan made for performance. The “M” version is tuned to feel quicker and handle better than a regular 3 Series. People often talk about older M3 generations because they’re considered classic enthusiast cars.
E36 is the code name for one generation of the BMW 3 Series. People love it because it’s an older, enthusiast-focused BMW era—often with the M3 version being the most sought-after.
A C2 Corvette is an older Corvette generation from the 1960s. It’s a classic that many collectors want because it’s part of the Corvette’s most iconic early history.
A 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S is a high-end version of the 911. It’s a real driver’s sports car—Porsche’s rear-engine design is a big part of why it feels special.
In collector-car culture, “stewardship” means taking responsible care of a car so it stays preserved and usable for the next owner. It’s about planning ahead—maintaining the right condition, documenting history, and passing the car on properly.
This is a Porsche 356, and the “Speedster” version is a lighter, open-top style meant for fun driving. A 1958 example is an early classic Porsche that people often bring to historic races because it feels very “of its time.”
In historic racing, cars are often divided into groups so they race with similar cars. “Group one” is just the event’s way of organizing which cars go out together.
This is a Porsche 908, a famous race car from the late 1960s. People bring cars like this to historic racing events because it’s a real piece of racing history.
“Exhaust note” just means the sound your car makes from the exhaust. People who love cars often pay attention to it because it tells you a lot about how the engine is running.
“Pre-war cars” are cars made before World War II. They’re considered special because they’re older and have a different style and engineering than modern cars.
Kindred is the shop/company the hosts are talking about. They restore older cars but also add modern updates so the cars are safer and easier to drive.
The Volkswagen Bus is a classic van made by Volkswagen. It’s known for having a lot of space inside and a recognizable, old-school design. People like them because they’re practical, but also because they look and feel unique.
Drum brakes are an older type of brake where pads press against the inside of a drum to slow the car down. They can be less effective than newer disc brakes, especially when you need to stop repeatedly.
Seatbelts are the safety belts that keep you from being thrown forward in a crash. The speaker is pointing out that the modernized bus adds seatbelts that the original didn’t have.
A headrest is the padded support behind your head. It helps reduce neck injury in some types of crashes, and the speaker says the original bus didn’t have it.
“Electric” here means the van was converted to run on an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine. That usually makes it easier to drive and can provide strong acceleration without the old engine limitations.
Horsepower is a way to describe how much power the vehicle can produce. Here it’s used to show how much stronger the modernized electric bus is than the original.
Disc brakes are a newer brake design where pads squeeze a spinning disc to slow the car down. If all four wheels have disc brakes, the braking tends to feel stronger and more predictable.
This is a seat that can swivel so you can face inward instead of just forward. The host is saying it makes the van feel more like a hangout space than a normal vehicle.
Internal combustion is the traditional gasoline/diesel engine idea—fuel is burned to make power. Electric cars make power differently, using a battery and motor.
The Ford Bronco is a rugged off-road SUV known for its four-wheel-drive capability and go-anywhere attitude. Here, the episode focuses on a Bronco build that uses a Ford “Coyote” V8 and emphasizes off-road drivability plus daily usability.
Driving dynamics are how the car behaves while you drive—how it reacts when you steer, accelerate, and brake. It’s basically the car’s “feel” and control.
A solid axle connects both wheels together. When one wheel hits a bump, it can affect the other side too, which can make the ride feel more “truck-like.”
All-wheel drive means power goes to all four wheels. That can help the car grip better and feel more stable, especially on slippery or uneven surfaces.
A battery pack is the EV’s “power storage.” It’s where the electricity is stored, and in this build the batteries are placed in multiple areas of the vehicle.
Electric cars often use motors to turn the wheels. “Two motors” here means there’s one motor for the front and one for the back, helping the car drive all four wheels.
A charging pad refers to a charging surface used to replenish an EV’s battery, often implying a convenient or integrated charging setup. In this segment, it’s mentioned as part of the EV Bronco experience.
“VW bus” refers to Volkswagen’s iconic Transporter/Type 2 van, commonly called the “bus.” It’s a cultural and enthusiast favorite because of its distinctive shape, huge aftermarket support, and frequent use as a base for camper builds and modern restomods.
LIVE
All right, welcome to the collector car podcast. We have a lot to talk about today at least from an update perspective
I apologize. This is a little shorter episode
I did a bunch of interviews from velocity invitational and I had some it issues
I don't know my memory card went bad or something. I'm not quite sure
So I do have a really nice interview with sam from revs
Be sure to stay tuned for that because she they do start up the engine on this really cool historic car
There'll be about 30 seconds of really cool engine noises if your audio only but stick through that
And then we meet the guys guys from kindred who does some restomide stuff, which is really cool
But I didn't want to talk about a couple things first
Let's see this day in automotive history june 18th
The Nurburgring opened the first checker taxi was built
Pontiac celebrated his 15th millionth vehicle and Pixar premiered cars too
That's not bad for a single day in the automotive world. I'd say now. What happened yesterday
Well, something significant happened yesterday
I finally sold one of my two cars if you're on my newsletter
I did a newsletter that said one of these two must go so I put my
65 k code Mustang convertible
Up for sale as well as my 1966
Pontiac gto that's unrestorable was on jail in his garage all sorts of cool stuff
Up for sale as well and which one sold it was the Pontiac gto now
Well, I can't tell you where it went what I can tell you is that it went to a friend who is a collector
Who it's a family that likes to collect cars and they're all about preservation. So it's not going for a quick flip
It's going for a long-term cherished home. So I'm very excited about that
What is also cool a local artist tom triplet?
He did a painting of the car the front grille area
I'll put a picture up here in a second and I've always loved it
And so I wanted to include that as a thank you for buying the car
For the new owner. So that is wrapped up and in the trunk of the car
It just got loaded up yesterday. So it's on its way to its new home. So I'm very sad to see the car go
normally I would
It's all about the experiences and I am not a
How do you say it a preservation guy like I love preservation cars
But I'm not sure I'm the guy that should have one in his collection for a long time because I like to drive my cars
I was always really nervous whenever I drove the gto. So it's going to a great home
And now I'm on the hunt for something new. I have a couple things
I hope to make offers on some friends cars, but nothing's landed yet
So if you have something special that you would like to send my way
For a private sale and it's something I could cover on the podcast if you like
Just shoot me a note. Greg at the collector car podcast dot com. What am I looking for?
While I would love to have an air cooled Porsche
I'd love to have an m3, you know, maybe at e 36 e 46 generation love to have an accurate nsx
I'm kind of all over the place
So I love to have a c2 corvette. There's all sorts of stuff
But uh anyways any Porsche really I really want a 2012 Carrera s
So if you have something fun, let me know and uh, let's take a listen to my sponsors
Please support them and then we'll get on to velocity invitation
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All right, sam we are at velocity invitational and you are with revs. So why don't you tell us who you are and why you're here
Yeah, hi everyone. Um, my name is Samantha Slater. I'm with revs institute. We are here displaying our 1919 valo
This was one of four cars that were built for the indy 51919
This specific vehicle placed first
On pole position
At indy and then it finished 10th. It was the first car to reach 100 over 100 miles per hour on
The tracks so we're really excited to show it and velocity
Invitational is a great event for us to be able to share these stories with
Other people who value historic racing just as much as we do and that's what revs is all about, right?
We are we are all about sharing our stories and keeping the cars active alive in motion and
available for future generations to enjoy and and
See in person and here and all the all the fun good stuff. So well, you also have a couple cars on the track this weekend, right?
We do we have a 1958
356 speedster. Uh, that's running in group one and then we also have a 1968
908 to flunder and that's in group three. So those cars will be on track later today
All right, sam. It's my understanding from logistics. You weren't able to get this on the track this weekend
But you're going to start it up. Yep, we're going to try to start it at least twice a day for the rest of the weekend
So stop by and someone can give you time and
Come on and check it out. Now, where will you be next where they might be able to check this out?
Yeah, so we will be our next event. Um, we'll be at monoray historic
So for car week the ballo we will have there again
It will try to run it
But we won't have it on track and then we'll we'll be uh racing a few other vehicles there
Now you're out in Naples and what's the website? Uh, we are down in Naples, Florida. Our website is revsinstitute.org
Thank you so much. Thank you
Welcome
Well
All right, that was the 30 seconds of engine noise if you're like me you love hearing that exhaust note
Especially on pre-war cars such as that
Absolutely wonderful. So let's listen to rob from kindred. Hey rob. I appreciate you being on the podcast
You are the founder of kindred and we have some really cool vehicles here
Including a vw bus full of kids having a great time. So tell us about kindred a little bit. Oh kindred. Yeah
We restore vintage cars and along the way you modernize them
So you really they come a lot of these cars are in the in the driveway or in the garage
For kindred, we really want to modernize them. So you get them out of the garage out on the road
So everything we do is really set up to get these things set up. So you don't hesitate to drive them, right?
reliability reliability
And then we also have dealers across the country who offer service
So you have a good chance to actually
You know service the cars too instead of just right working on them yourself
Right, so give me an example because obviously this is a really cool vw bus here
Uh, I see like nice interior. Does it also you do like power plant upgrades at times?
So for the for the vw bus the original bus had 46 horsepower
Yeah, and it had drum brakes. You really had to plan ahead to stop. Yeah, right?
And it was underpowered. It didn't have seatbelts instead of headrests. So
Even though they made 2000000 of them, you just don't see them on the road anymore, right?
Right, so we we we brought this model in we spend about a year and a half
redesigning the vehicle itself
So this one in particular is electric. So it has 300 horsepower. Oh my gosh
It has disc brakes all four wheels much wider tires taller. Wow got seatbelts has headrest
There's a great, you know youtube or uh sound system in it. It's got a review camera
So you can feel comfortable taking your family in this getting on the highway 300 horsepower. Yeah, wow
And then for the interior we're really focused on making it more usable
So it kind of feels like like a hangout, you know, absolutely
And uh, in fact that passenger seat actually turns around and turns into a living room
Wow
And so is it a rear wheel drive rear wheel drive? Yeah, okay
So the everything all the ev and everything's back here. Yep
You know, I thought we're going to end on a bronco ev but we're starting with a vw ev
So that's pretty cool. Yeah, we felt like when we thought about do we do ice on this, you know internal combustion or electric
This this probably would have been electric from day one when they built it if that technology existed sure, you know
So it just feels very natural to have a very simple drivetrain very low maintenance. You don't have to worry about it
You do lose that sound in the original bus, but what you gain is off the charts
Oh, yeah, yeah
Well, tell us about the bronco behind you. That is a nice engine. Yeah, so this is a coyote engine for this bronco
Yeah, it's a it's straight off the ford performance assembly line. They use it for the high end mustangs
Uh, but it provides the right amount of power for this car
Uh, we spent a lot of time thinking about the driving dynamics of this
We have a couple dozen engineers on staff really thinking about
When you hit the gas does it behave the way you want it to
When you hit the brakes is it feel comfortable, you know
So this car, you know, it's also it's four-wheel drive. Of course, it's extremely capable off-road car
Um, and then we've redone the interior just little things like a drink holder
Right and a volume knob instead of that buttons, you know
So just to make it more approachable as a as a car you can drive it every day
Now I see this this one has the options to break out. So all in this one's 224. It looks right. Yeah
It's um, it's 199 as the base and then the roof essentially
Adds some cost to it
So personally I live in california. So I drive all without a roof. Sure
And it's a it's a great experience to be out there driving this car around, you know
As a convertible essentially is what it is. Yep. Now yours uh ice or electric
I have uh, I mean, I'm lucky I get to drive them both
I have the first car we ever built which is an ice Bronco. Okay. Yeah. Well, let's go look at the ev one here. Yeah
So what what percent of demand have you seen for electric versus ice?
Right now it's about one third electric. Oh that much. Okay, what happens is when people drive them back to back
The realization is that the electric actually drives much more like a modern car
Right, so it has independent suspension on all four wheels instead of that solid axle in the front
So you really don't have a truck feel to this. It's much more modern right and the steering is more
Contained and centered which is helpful. Yeah, it's an all-wheel drive car also. Yep. So it's it's a little more
If you're looking for the modern driving experience, it's electric
If you're looking for a little more rowdy
Then you're you're thinking gas, right?
So, yeah, so
Still based on a Bronco chassis. Yeah, these are all original Broncos
We have a a boneyard back at the factory, which is about five miles this way. Okay with with old Broncos and
Depending what the customer is looking for we build gas or electric
We build them up the exact same way every single time. So they're very standardized
Um, and that improves the quality by a lot, right? And so battery pack
There's three battery packs in this one in the hood here and there's one down the frame rail and there's one replaces the gas tank
So all-wheel drive is a single engine two motors motor. Yeah two motors one up front and one in back. Okay, which
Gives it a very very comfortable stance and great stability
Um
So this car is I love the colors. I mustered
It's one of the original colors, you know, we offer eight colors
Four of them are kind of original and for our more modern colors. This thing smells now. I love it. Oh, yeah
We do all that in house. We buy rolls of leather in house. Oh, it smells good. And I love your charging pad there
Yeah
with the cup holders and we really felt like
We want some of these modern conveniences charging your phone
Oh, yeah
And having having that pad so you can see it for directions and drink holders and right
We put a lot of thought into that so that it's it can be your daily driver
What other
What other cars you work on or SUVs?
We do so the way we work is we do a new model every year
And put it in production. It'll always be in production. So the kindred lineup expands essentially by one model every year
So we just announced our next model
Which is the 9 11. Oh, so we're doing a 9 11 the first one will be electric 9 11
First deliveries will be in january
Okay
So the whole company is obsessed with the design process. Yeah, choosing the fabrics choosing the interior
Usability of it, you know, it's like that
So what are the other models currently vw bus bronco gas bronco electric
So those three are in production and then the fourth would be the ev 9 11 and we haven't announced the fifth one yet
Always a fun day when we announce the next model. I almost want to guess but go ahead and guess
I can't tell you the answer but everybody's got a different opinion
Well, there's a there's this movement for someone to do a 9 28, but you just did the 9 11
So I don't know that that would be it. I didn't shelby's are big right now
67s a lot of people are doing those
I don't know about that international harvester could be an option
I don't know. You might be you might be doing something crazy like a
Volvo wagon. I don't know. You know, so there is, you know, there's a long list. Yeah, we have 80 models in mind
It'll take quite a while for us to get through all of that, but
You know, these old cars, there's 30 million of them in the u.s. Yeah, but they're just and they're immortal
Yeah, but they're not on the road
Yeah, so we think the way to do that is do what kindred has done
Spend the engineering effort up front
Standardize the restoration so that it can be a really dependable car
Build out a service network through the dealer so you can actually get a service and it opens up
Vintage car ownership to a whole another group of people. Yeah, it does for sure. Now two last two questions two remaining questions
Uh, what's the best way for folks to find you? Well kindred motorworks?
Dot com is the best way to do it
We love having people come visit the factory. Yeah, we actually write our customers actually come and work on their cars
Actually for the day
Decharge them. No
And then we're at various events will be aspen food and wine will be out in the hampsons this summer
So
That's the best way really is or you can visit our dealers in texas. We have a dealer called suell and
In boise we have lile pierce and so you'll be seeing more and more of kindred's time goes by
All right, my last question. Where does the name come from?
Well, I I was struggled finding a name for this. Yeah
I love that word kindred. It is a it's positive connotation to it. It's underused
I would say you hear it very often
But it hints towards community, but it also hints towards kindred spirit
That's what I was thinking these cars really are the kindred spirit of the old ones or vice versa
And it just indicates
Who we are
In a positive way. No, that's awesome. I love it. Well, thanks so much for taking a few minutes to share kindred with me
Thank you. Great to meet you
You
About this episode
The host shares the story behind selling his unrestorable 1966 Pontiac GTO to a preservation-minded collector, then talks with Rev’s Institute about a 1919 Valo Indy 51919 that hit over 100 mph and later finished 10th at Indy. Kindred Motorworks follows, with tours of Bronco-based builds—both gas and electric—covering standardized restoration, EV battery-pack layouts, and an electric VW bus restomod with 300 horsepower and disc brakes all four wheels.
Some of the greatest collector cars in the world are not hidden away in garages. They are driven, raced, and passionately enjoyed by the people who own them.
This week on The Collector Car Podcast, I bring you a special series of conversations recorded at Velocity Invitational, where I sat down with collector car owners to hear the stories behind the machines.
From rare race cars and historic sports cars to muscle cars, exotics, and one of one automotive treasures, these owners share what drew them to their cars, what it is like to live with them, and why preserving automotive history matters. Along the way, there are plenty of unexpected stories, personal memories, and insights into the collector car hobby from the enthusiasts who fuel it.
If you love vintage racing, collector car culture, concours level automobiles, and hearing directly from the people who own and drive these incredible machines, this episode is for you.
The Collector Car Podcast features expert interviews, great collections, and market insights. With 25+ years of experience, Greg helps enthusiasts navigate the collector car world with confidence.
