In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show Dec 19, 2023

Chatting with Tim Spell and Michael Marrs: TAWA Memories, EICC, and a 2023 Ford RaptorR Review

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Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am Central.

It's the In Wheel Time car talk show.

Just ahead we're going to speak with Tim Spell, former Houston Chronicle auto journalist and co-founder of the Texas Auto Writers Association.

Plus, we'll have the upcoming events calendar and Mr Mars reviews the new Ford Raptor R.

Later we'll talk to the author of Car Confidential Howdy, along with Mike out of this World, mars King, conrad DeLong.

We always need more, jeff Seekin.

I'm Don Armstrong.

Glad you could join us today.

We're not going to linger here with the introductions, except for Mr Tim Spell, who's with us now.

Tim, good morning Tim.

I think that you, sir, are muted Because we can't hear a word that you're saying.

You saying anything?

Yeah, tim, are you talking?

You got to unmute yourself, tim.

Yes.

Tim, push the button.

You want audio or?

don't.

Yeah, Now you know Tim has been in the print business so he doesn't know anything about audio or video or phones or any of that sort of stuff.

So I'm sorry, Are you saying something, Mr Mars, Because your microphone's not on?

Pick a letter, Vanna.

Yeah, Mars has got the same problem that Tim does.

I'd like to buy an E Turn the mute off, all right.

Well, he's not.

We can't hear you, tim.

He's just had a knee replacement so he may be still getting adjusted to his minute.

It affects your ears, evidently.

Yeah, apparently.

All right.

Well, we're going to take that off of there and when he comes back Are you there, Tim?

He can hear us now.

We can see your lips moving, but we can't hear you.

Yeah, we're muted somewhere.

Yeah, you are muted on your end, Tim.

It shows here God.

This is just this Talk to you next week.

See it, woody's.

Yeah, no, we can't hear you.

We can still see your lips moving.

We'll take him off.

Yeah, he's been on.

You guys work on this.

Okay, okay, mr Mars, would you do that?

Yeah, thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

All right, in the meantime and in between time, we'll do this without Mars.

We're going to do Hemmingscom sold cars roundup.

Oh, you don't want to wait for the Hemmings?

No, I don't, no no.

Got your list Because we don't want to overdo it.

I don't know what's so special about this a 2002 Chevrolet Corvette I guess it's a Z06 or something, because it sold for $32,550.

Oh, wow, that's a lot of money for it, for a C5 Corvette, so must have.

Yeah, that is a lot of money.

That's a lot of money.

It's got new wheels, whatever.

How about a 2008 Mercedes Benz CL 600?

Oh, that would be the little sport coupe thing.

But it's a fixed roof coupe, it's not the correct.

It's a fixed roof coupe.

It's not that convertible.

No, it's not, it's a CL 600.

Put me down 2008.

What do you think it was Put me down for?

17.

Mars, you have an idea.

He's busy doing it.

He's not involved.

I'm going to say 30 because you got to remember a 600 is a V12.

I didn't know that 600 is a V12.

Well, it sold for $21,525.

It's a pretty little car.

This would be right up your alley, sir, in 1989.

Ford Mustang Five, five liter, apparently.

That's what it's got on the fender.

So what do you think an 89 Ford Mustang would go for?

Eight grand.

Yeah, it depends on how much modifications are done to it.

I'll say 12.

12.

$9,400.

Jeffrey, can we get you a throat loss?

or something.

Maybe Mike's got one.

This is good, mike has always got one.

Ricola, ricola 1978.

Lincoln Continental.

Hey, tim, can you hear me?

Now I can hear you.

Yes, we're going to pause this.

We're going to pause the Hemmings thing while you know we're right on top of it now that we have some crack engineering department here.

They're on crack.

So it's Tim Spell, ladies and gentlemen.

Photojournalist, printjournalist Tim does it all.

He's also the co-founder of the Texas Auto Riders Association.

What year was that, tim?

It was 1987.

87.

Well, your memory is still good.

What, what'd you say?

I said, your memory is still good.

I lost my hearing, though.

Yeah, apparently so, and yeah, and your microphone, but yeah, so how many?

How many original members of the Texas Auto Riders Association did you have in 1987?

You and one other.

No, we had about 30.

I think about 39 members, in fact, really.

Did you go?

Yeah, I was just to get them all to come into the Texas Auto Riders Association.

How did that come about?

And they all paid to join.

What happened back in 1987, if you were a Texas journalist or a radio show host and you rode or talked about cars, you weren't part of the national scene.

Okay, they had journalists and groups on the East Coast and on the West Coast and in Detroit, but not in Texas.

So they had one guy who you know, peter Hubbard oh yeah, for the.

He worked for the Post, he worked for the Post.

Well, he got a group of people together and, with the assistance of Ford PR, they formed a group and they finally got some recognition after that.

So I think they were eventually incorporated officially in 1989.

But you, are you still a member?

I'm an honorary member.

Well, that's what happens to old people.

That means you're just saying yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, at any rate, congratulations for an honorary member, an honorary founder.

Yes.

So it was you and Peter Hubbard that did this.

No, actually, uh is Peter Hubbard and you know Stephen Cole Smith, who eventually became the executive editor of Corin driver, and about five other guys started it and then I came in a couple of months later.

So I cannot claim, uh, I was there when they formed the bylaws, I was there originally, but but that I wasn't that first group.

But so, but you were, but nobody knew that till you, just said that Cause I told them otherwise.

I'm sorry.

Um, but you were the founder or co-founder of the Texas truck rodeo.

That is correct, I knew it was something big, so you're going to bring it back, since it's kind of collapsed and gone away.

Has it.

I did not know that yeah.

I thought it was a good show.

They still have it.

Yeah, but, but, but, uh, I don't believe that.

Uh, there's all the Ford and GM don't participate in it.

No, they do not.

So how do you, how do you have any competition if you don't have the two of the three biggies?

I just simply said they still have it.

I left it there.

Ram and Jeep win every, every year.

Well, what other choices do you have, you?

got Toyota, tacoma and Nissan, whatever that whatever.

Yeah, anyway, so at any rate yeah, back then, uh, uh, all the other man, all the other fruits, they had track days, and so we were under pressure to have a track day and I thought that, maybe, to distinguish ourselves, we could have a truck day because we had, you know, the Lord's truck working around.

So it uh, it worked, it stuck and they loved it.

So, uh, it immediately got traction.

Yeah, well, that's good.

Well, I know that uh one of the members uh opened his big mouth and uh Ford said, well, we're not coming back, and that was the end of that.

And then I didn't know that Chevy and GMC had gone away, as well, Well as well.

Yeah, um, because the last time I went, I believe all three, uh, us automakers were there and it, it, it evolved to the point where, um, you know it was, it was obviously more SUVs than trucks, because they were making more of them and there were no limitations, and it became, you know, a field day of SUVs, so much so that it took two days to go through

it all.

And and, and.

You know you can't.

Well, we can't take this one off road.

Well, wait a minute, it's a SUV, a utility vehicle, supposed to go off road.

No, can't take it off road.

Well, how do you know?

How do you?

competition that you turned into a logistics nightmare.

It really did Across two to three days but it you're right, it got so big when we were north of San Antonio doing it north of that ranch up there, there was a almost 230 people that attended that two day event.

You know, by the time you had journalists and support people for the OEMs and all that stuff it was.

it got to be pretty big for a while, yeah, and that's that's when I said I'm not coming back.

I just couldn't do it anymore.

It was just it was, it was out of control.

So, but at any rate, apparently the coveted trophy for the truck of the year is still handed out, and I think that there is at least one American manufacturer that wins it, I guess, every year, but it just doesn't seem like I'm not.

I'm not sure about that.

I know that the trophy still goes out and it still goes around.

I haven't been able to go for probably four or five years.

Are you still a member?

Yeah.

Are you not a president emeritus?

No, no, no, I'm not old enough.

I'm not as old as Tim.

Well, they just they gave us an award.

Didn't we get an award recently?

Well, that's what we were going to get into.

Tim was also part of.

He had a lot of experience running the excellence in craft competition.

Yes, I did.

Okay, so you can talk about that now.

Well, that one started back in about, I think, about 2007.

Yes, and when it started off initially it was just mainly, I think, we had writing and radio.

You know, that was it.

But things have evolved, times evolved, and now there's, as you know, podcasts, which you guys are brilliant in video, social media, which I don't know too much about Don probably does, and so it.

What I found out in doing this is there is a lot of talent in Texas, and let me say further that this is really kind of a national deal, because a lot of the members of the Texas auto riders weren't from Texas.

We had them from the East Coast.

We have from Michigan, you know, and so they're from all over, so California.

So there was a lot of competition, and so it kind of, I think, every year, hopefully, the mission is to raise the bar, which I think you guys are part of doing.

Well, that's nice.

We appreciate that.

Are you sure that we're raising the bar, or?

just attending the bar.

Or just standing at the bar.

We're at the bar.

You know, I read on your website that you're America's most entertaining far talk show.

Yeah, in our own mind.

Yeah, I knew this, like the world's greatest cup of coffee.

Yeah, no-transcript.

Uh-huh, that's exactly what it is.

Yeah, that was an elf.

Yeah, was it really?

Yeah, huh.

Yeah, the world's best cup of coffee.

Yeah, I missed that.

Well at any rate.

Yes, mr Mars, you're leading this.

So what are we doing?

Like Tim said, this goes on every year.

You make submissions to it and we do in wheel time does submit some things into it and this year in the podcast category we took first place for our podcast of the solar car challenge segment that we did and the judge said I chose this in wheel time car talk podcast for a couple of reasons.

First, the topic is timely and much needed for the industry, for the opportunity that the program offers for the future generations.

Also, it's a testament to the effort involved in editing a live radio show down to an interesting podcast.

So that's what we did in the podcast category, which we've only been doing.

What two years maybe?

Yeah?

Apparently he doesn't listen all the time because we make a lot of fun.

Yeah, I don't know, I don't know who the solar is they go find?

the judges and they don't tell anybody who the judges are until after the competition's over, because they don't want people calling the judges and trying to influence them all.

Oh no, we wouldn't do that.

So in the radio category we got second place in wheel time for the show that we submitted.

So what's holding Americans back from widespread EV adoption?

So that was in the radio category.

We also had a submission in the writing review category where Jim Nelson, his review of the Genesis G80, took a first place for in wheel time.

Jim's review of the Genesis G80 balanced key facts with an assessment of features and drivability in a way that made the review engaging and easy to read.

So we continue our award winning ways.

Are we going on tour with this?

Well, I think that we may.

In the spring we're kind of looking at the schedule to see what we can do.

We're going on tour with it.

Yeah, we're going to go back to Grandberry.

Grandberry.

Hot Rod Tour Texas.

Yeah, we're going to.

We may go across Texas in April, you know.

Well, that's true, we have the Hot Rod Tour of Texas, austin, willie.

Yeah, we're all right around on Willie's bus.

Yeah, then we'll have a big smoke fest at the.

Saturday night.

Oh boy.

Yeah, I guess Good to drive it.

You're talking about earlier, about the beginnings of the Texas auto riders and how everyone wanted to become best back in 87.

I'm just reflecting about the cars back in 1987.

Who would want to be an auto rider in 87?

Exactly, you have the K-Cords Dodge Aries.

You know, yeah, and you must.

Any minute ago the big store was a Taurus, yeah, and they had, like Fierro's, all kind of square body stuff.

Hey, I remember the Oldsmobile Bravado won an award from the Texas Auto Riders Association.

I worked for Oldsmobile at the time and they actually advertised it and made a poster about it.

I was surprised Kathy had an Achiva.

Achiva, sorry to hear that she hated it.

It was green.

Yeah, and they actually took that Bravado out into the mud pits.

And that's why they wouldn't let Don do it again a couple of years ago.

Oh, yes, oh, you can't take that off road.

I'll never forget, I think, one of the last truck rodeos that I went on, somebody didn't stay within the boundaries of the river.

They went through the ranch and you could clearly see the drop off in the river.

But no, let's just go and see for sure how deep it is, how deep it is or if it'll float.

Well, it didn't?

It sunk and they had to get the record and pull it out of there.

Yeah, so we heard about it.

We were there working the event.

It was in there.

We'll get it out really quick.

Look, ford's got a 250 with a ranch on it.

We'll get it right out of there.

Jeep did not.

No, you cannot hook that forward onto that Jeep.

You ain't get out of there because people will be taking pictures of it.

No Wait, they let it set in the river until the record record got there to take it out.

Which happened to be a Ford.

It's probably a Ford.

Yeah.

Makes me wonder, Tim, how many Texas auto riders wrecked cars that were on press release.

Oh well, we had some, actually some, some terrible wrecks and unfortunately we even had a Texas auto rider, a former president killed.

Oh boy.

Oh, I didn't know that and I was president then, and it was the introduction of the all new, new generation 1994 Dodge Ram.

And they were we're out in the desert I mean it was just a vast desert and there was one road, kind of a snakey road, and this person was blasting it.

Actually he was driving a competitive vehicle, a Chevrolet truck, and he was going, you know, over 100 miles an hour, you know, kicking up this big rooster tail.

And coming from the other end was a group of people who serviced and cleaned the cars and they just happened to meet at this one crook in the road, and it was, you know, the cars, when the trucks went airborne and one guy, the Texas auto rider, died and some others were seriously injured.

So that was a terrible thing and quite a PR nightmare if you can imagine.

Thanks for asking.

I didn't know.

I didn't know that.

I didn't.

I had no clue, I didn't know that.

That was not the thing, yeah no doubt Well so so do you miss your writing days?

Are you writing at all?

No, no it's.

I've been pretty much out of the loop for about three years, you know, and actually I'm pretty good at doing nothing.

I know you guys can't do that, but I can just kind of like do nothing.

So you know, just turn my mind off and that's it.

So and shuffle that, shuffle, shuffle down to the restaurant, down by the water and.

Stanley on Texas.

They have nothing for there?

Yeah, it's.

You know I've been, uh, you know I told Mike that I'm trying to recover from a knee surgery this week, so but I debated before coming on with you guys whether I should take some of these painkillers.

Yes.

Yes, so you did.

Hey, I thought dealing with you and you're not gonna share.

Well, come on does he know that we're all on him too Well, tim.

Tim, it's always good to talk to you and we enjoy the laughs and and thanks for the awards that you had nothing to do with.

But, at any rate, it's good to talk to you, my friend, and best healing wishes to you.

Congratulations, guys on the on the wind.

Thanks, tim let's talk soon.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year, my friend Okay.

Nice guy.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely great guy.

How long have you known him?

Probably 2000 is when I met Tim.

That's when I started getting into the press cars and that sort of stuff and he was he was a member back then and yeah, and through that, when did you start Mars?

You were started after that, yes, yeah, yes, it was after that, yep.

So Roger Gray was working for General Motors at the time and I Reached out to him to get press cars because I started doing what's Don driving on channel to.

I remember that, yeah, and it kind of parlayed into an ongoing thing now for 20 Minutes, 24 years driving Miss Daisy.

Yeah, pretty much All right time now for the events calendar.

Conrad has the events calendar, I hope yeah, not a whole lot going on.

Rudy's tomb all presents firem up car and truck show and that is going to be a Saturday, january 20th, at the Rudy's on FM to or on 249 highway just south of tomb all also Saturday, february 24th is Stephanie Nichols 13th annual car and plane show.

I thought that was kind of cool.

Yeah, at the Georgetown Airport.

I remember when we went to.

Georgetown, texas.

In Georgetown Texas.

I remember when we went to Country.

The Mustang show down at Ellington field.

I thought that was just so cool to be in and amongst the planes, yeah, and I'm always wanted to thank the Mustang guys for that.

So thank you.

And then the Houston cars and cocktails, new Year's Eve party.

Oh god, oh boy.

Cars and cocktails, and New Year's Eve, and fast combination Sunday, december 31st, and little wood, rows and tomb.

All you gotta remember December 31st, the dates going to be one, two, three.

Well, we are one, two, three one, two, three one two three.

Okay, the only time that'll ever happen.

Mr Mars.

I don't know if we this is kind of a jealousy thing.

Oh, shut up.

Mr Mars has a review of the 2023 Ford Raptor.

Ara, ara, ara and that's a very important are.

I know, you know, and they highlighted in their graphics in a nice bright red.

So First let me tell you this is the R.

Trim is new for 2023 and it's not really a trim.

It's actually a separate vehicle in their listing.

Well, it's an F 150 which you can get in nine different packages, trim levels, whatever you want to call them.

There's a lot of combinations, but there's only two under the Raptor label.

The Raptor and the Raptor are, which is, again, is new for 2023.

Otherwise, it's the same full-size pickup.

It's five passengers.

It's got the Raptor are badging on it, which has got a different set of graphics on it.

The R really stands out on the running boards and stuff.

It's it's all red.

It got it up on the grill and it does have there the running boards wheel, that modlings.

And the Raptor Body style itself is a little different.

It's kind of bulge.

It doesn't really have fender.

Well, lips per se.

It bulges kind of a little bit more out is the only way I can describe a standard, if one kind of yes, and it's a running and that's exactly what it is.

It's the deficit runner.

Look, and this year They've added a power dome hood.

That as they need the hell was that charge.

It was my cough drop.

I had to spit it out.

I was getting tongue-tied with it.

He's gonna ask for it I was gonna choke on it.

It's so funny because we have we have a radio show that's audio in nature, that coincides with this video thing, and you know you don't chew gum, you don't put things in your mouth, you don't smoke cigarettes.

when I thought I had more time to get rid of it beforehand.

I like the power to a hood, though so.

So you're gonna find it's got the automatic LED headlights up front, got LED fog lights on it and it's got a twin panel moonroof which I thought was kind of unusual Got a power tailgate with a power with a step on.

It.

Got 17 inch wheels and 37 inch tires, so it's got some big rubber on it.

The regular Raptor only comes with 33, so this is 37, so it's considerably big.

You're gonna find skid plates, you're gonna find Fox shocks.

You're gonna find all the things that makes the Raptor what the Raptor is.

In regards to that desert runner, what I found unusual about this truck was the luxury they built into this vehicle.

I was, I was kind of expecting you know bare minimum thing.

But Ford has really stepped up their game in their interiors in the last couple years and it shows particularly that to them.

Yes, force, you got to play the game.

So it has recaro black leather seats in it.

The front and the rear are heated on this thing Got a 12 inch touchscreen in the center stack.

That's where you're gonna find all your convenience controls and your Ford sink for your surround camera.

All the things which is the surround camera comes in really handy.

I suppose if you rock crawling didn't do much for me on the beach saying crawling, but in rock crawling I can see where that would be helpful.

The rear seat folds up you and it's got this big flat floor on it, except there's a storage compartment underneath the seat where you can store things, but it folds down, so you've got this almost a bed size flat floor in there.

Now, don, being your height, you probably couldn't, but I can lay down in there and I could probably sleep in there on a earband, and you probably tried, didn't you?

Well, I I just see a bit of a fit After a few.

After some of your brown water that you drank got the beach.

Well, you gotta make plans for these things.

So I thought that was really cool, with the flat floor and everything.

It's got lots of overhead storage and it's got a panel up there that's got all the auxiliary switches on it so you can add all your extra lighting and stuff.

So it's all wired in and they really made this a nice truck that's got this off-road capability to it.

That again kind of surprised me to see the combination of the two A bit of the hoods where it gets really fun.

5.2

liter, supercharged, 700 horsepower, 540 pound-feet of torque 700 horsepower.

It's a Shelby GT500 engine, detuned of touch.

Detuned to 700 horsepower.

Yes, yes, yes.

And so again, you know this is a 10-speed automatic.

It'll haul 1400 pounds donkeys.

Haul 1400 donkeys.

The way I got it put in here the EPA says you should be looking for about 10 in the city, 15 on the highway, combined 12.

Now I will say I drove this vehicle 230.7

miles and I got 12.4

and I took a picture of it for proof.

So it's a really it's a nice combination truck.

Again, it's got terrain management, seven modes.

One thing I will tell you exhaust settings.

You can change the exhaust from quiet to normal, to sport, to only off-road.

I left it on the only off-road all the time because you could hear it all over everything and there's no sneaking at home with that, the quiet you might could.

Now the base trim price, or the base model price for a Raptor is $78,510.

The base trim price for the Raptor R is $109,145.

$31,000 option to go to the R and the price is tested is $111,935 out the door and they'll sell every one they build.

I can see why.

Now and I will tell you again base model to base model, the Ram TRX, which is really the only competitor that's out there right now.

$84,850 is the base starting price for it.

So if you're into that, you need to go check this vehicle out.

It is pretty impressive.

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About this episode

Tim Spell, co-founder of the Texas Auto Writers Association, shares his experiences and memories from the early days of automotive journalism. The discussion touches on the evolution of the Texas Auto Riders and the challenges faced by the industry. Michael Marrs reviews the 2023 Ford Raptor R, highlighting its impressive specs, luxury features, and off-road capabilities. The episode also includes event announcements and a light-hearted banter among the hosts, making it an engaging listen for automotive enthusiasts.

Chevrolet Corvette Dodge Aries Dodge Ram Ford F-150 Ford Taurus Genesis G80 Shelby GT500 Toyota Tacoma

Original notes

Join us on a hilarious whirlwind ride as we chat with automotive gurus, Tim Spell and our own Michael Marrs. To kick things off, we've got Tim Spell, Houston Chronicle’s renowned former auto journalist and co-founder of the Texas Auto Writers Association, shedding light on the backstory of the association's inception back in '87, its growth, and his current honorary role. Our chitchat takes a wistful turn down memory lane, featuring some retro gems from Hemmings.com’s recent car sales like the aesthetically pleasing 2002 Chevrolet Corvette and the classically luxurious 1978 Lincoln Continental.

The fun doesn't stop there! We've also got our co-host Michael Marrs, sharing his insider scoop as a former president and member of the Texas Auto Writers Association. Get ready for a hearty discussion on the evolution of their annual Excellence in Craft Competition and how it's expanded to include unconventional platforms such as podcasts and social media. We also let you in on our own experience in the competition where we bagged top spots in different categories. And, of course, we'd be amiss not to mention our review of the 2023 Ford Raptor. Dubbed as the epitome of luxury on wheels that haul-donkey, we cover the power under the hood of the R trim to the opulent interior features.

So buckle up for an episode jam-packed with automotive insights and hearty laughter!

Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!

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In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show

In Wheel Time Podcast | Automotive talk with Don Armstrong, Michael Marrs, and Jeff Dziekan

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