Classic Auto Mall - #250 Stewart Howden welcomes Matt Stone, Author, Writer, Broadcaster plus Keith Martin of Sports Car Market
Classic Auto Mall SHOW
Classic Auto Mall - #250 Stewart Howden welcomes Matt Stone, Author, Writer, Broadcaster plus Keith Martin of Sports Car Market
Classic Auto Mall SHOW · Jul 2, 2026
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
61:30
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Camaro is a famous two-door sports car made by Chevrolet. It is known for having a loud, powerful engine and a sporty look.
Person
Matt Stone
A well-known car writer and expert who has written many books about famous cars and movie stars like Steve McQueen. He frequently appears as a commentator and judge at major car events.
Company
Bring a Trailer
A highly popular website where people buy and sell classic and enthusiast cars through online auctions, famous for its passionate community of commenters who dissect every detail of the cars for sale.
Car
Lamborghini Countach
An iconic, wedge-shaped Italian supercar from the 70s and 80s with doors that open straight up. It is famous for its wild looks and loud V12 engine.
Car
Toyota Gt Toyota
The Toyota GT 86 is a small, lightweight two-door sports car. It is designed to be fun and easy to drive around corners rather than just being fast in a straight line.
Car
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a small, highly popular passenger car made by the Japanese company Honda. It is widely known for being affordable, reliable, and very fuel-efficient.
Car
Toyota Camry
The Toyota Camry is a mid-sized four-door family car made by Toyota. It is famous for being incredibly reliable, safe, and practical for everyday driving.
Car
Ford Taurus
The Ford Taurus is a large family sedan made by Ford. It was incredibly popular in the 1980s and 1990s for its futuristic design and comfortable ride.
Car
Ford Fusion
The Ford Fusion is a mid-sized four-door family sedan made by Ford. It was a popular choice for daily commuting before Ford stopped making passenger cars.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous German sports car known for its distinctive rounded shape and for having its engine located in the very back of the car. It is highly prized by driving enthusiasts.
Car
BMW E30
The BMW 3 Series is a small luxury car made by the German brand BMW. It is designed to combine a comfortable, premium interior with a sporty and fun driving experience.
Car
De Tomaso Pantera
An Italian sports car with a loud American Ford V8 engine stuffed in the middle. It offered supercar looks and performance without the extreme maintenance costs of a Ferrari engine.
Car
Jaguar E Type
The Jaguar E-Type is a classic British sports car from the 1960s and 1970s. It is famous worldwide for its incredibly long hood and beautiful, curvy design.
Person
Bob Bondurant
A legendary American race car driver who won major international races and then started a famous driving school to teach people how to drive fast and safely on race tracks.
Car
Toyota A90
The Toyota Supra is a high-performance sports car made by Toyota. It is famous for its fast acceleration, sleek design, and popularity in car culture and movies.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a famous American sports car with a long history. It is known for its sporty two-door design, loud engine options, and iconic running horse logo.
Car
Jaguar XJ6
The Jaguar XJ6 is a classic four-door luxury car made by the British company Jaguar. It is known for its sleek, low profile and comfortable, leather-and-wood interior.
Car
Hyundai Ioniq
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a fully electric SUV with a unique, pixel-themed design that looks like a futuristic hatchback. It runs entirely on battery power and charges very quickly.
Car
Ford Maverick
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck made by Ford. It is designed to be easy to drive in cities, fuel-efficient, and more affordable than traditional large trucks.
Car
Ford F150
The Ford F-150 is a large, highly popular pickup truck made by Ford. It is used by millions of people for towing, hauling, work, and daily driving.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a rugged, boxy SUV designed for driving off-road. It features a retro look, and you can take the doors and roof off to drive in the open air.
Car
Ford Broncos Sport
The Ford Bronco Sport is a smaller, more comfortable version of the rugged Ford Bronco. It looks like an off-road vehicle but is designed to drive smoothly on normal roads.
Person
Jim Farley
The top boss of Ford Motor Company, who is unique because he is a genuine car enthusiast who actually races classic sports cars in his free time.
Car
Ford Gt
The Ford GT is an extremely fast, rare, and expensive supercar made by Ford. It was designed to look and perform like a race car.
Car
Cadillac El Dorado
The Cadillac Eldorado is a classic, high-end luxury car from Cadillac. In the 1950s, it was one of the most expensive and fancy cars you could buy, featuring massive chrome bumpers and large tailfins.
Car
Cadillac El
The Cadillac ELR is a luxury two-door hybrid car that can run on electricity and has a gas engine to keep it going when the battery runs out. It was very expensive when new and did not sell well.
Car
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car that runs on both gasoline and electricity. The newest versions are designed to look much sleeker and sportier than older models.
Car
Pontiac Firebird Trans Am (1979)
A classic American muscle car made famous by movies like 'Smokey and the Bandit.' It features a loud V8 engine, a sporty design, and a giant bird decal on the hood.
Car
Jeep Commander
The Jeep Commander is a boxy, square-shaped SUV with three rows of seats made by Jeep in the late 2000s. It was designed to carry more passengers while still being able to drive off-road.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 560 Sl
The Mercedes-Benz SL-Class is a high-end, two-seat luxury convertible. It is designed for comfortable, fast highway driving with the top down.
Car
Mercedes-Benz 560 SL
A classic, heavy-duty convertible from Mercedes-Benz that was highly popular with wealthy buyers in the 1980s. It is famous for being incredibly well-built and comfortable to drive daily.
Term
sedanette
A classic car design from the 1940s and 50s where the roof slopes gently all the way down to the back bumper in one smooth, unbroken line, giving it a sporty 'fastback' look.
Car
Ford Fair Lane
The Ford Fairlane is a classic American car from the 1950s and 1960s. The 1955 version is famous for its retro styling, chrome trim, and colorful paint options.
Car
Pontiac Firebird
The Pontiac Firebird is a classic American sports car from the 1960s through the early 2000s. It is famous for its sporty look and powerful engines.
Term
Powerglide
An old-school automatic transmission with only two forward gears. While simple and slow by modern standards, it is incredibly tough and still used by drag racers today.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette (1962)
The last version of the very first generation of America's famous sports car, the Corvette. It has a classic look with a powerful V8 engine and was the last Corvette to feature a solid rear axle.
Concept
numbers matching
A term meaning a classic car still has the exact engine and transmission it was built with at the factory, proving it hasn't been modified or rebuilt with parts from other cars.
Term
Positraction
A system in the rear axle that makes sure both rear wheels get power at the same time, instead of just letting one wheel spin uselessly on ice or wet pavement.
Car
Mercury Cougar
The Mercury Cougar is a classic American car that started as a sporty coupe and later became a large, comfortable luxury car. The 1975 version is known for its big size and comfortable, couch-like seats.
Person
Keith Martin
A leading expert on classic cars who runs a famous magazine that tracks how much vintage cars sell for at auctions around the world.
Car
Austin-Healey 3000
A beautiful, low-slung British convertible from the 1960s with a smooth six-cylinder engine. It is highly prized by collectors for its classic vintage look and sporty exhaust note.
Car
TR6
The TR6 is a classic two-door convertible sports car made by a British company called Triumph in the 1970s. It is loved by collectors for its classic look and fun, open-air driving experience.
Car
Fiat Spider
The Fiat Spider is a classic Italian two-seat convertible sports car. It is known for its beautiful Italian styling and fun, lightweight driving feel.
Term
overdrive
An extra high gear that lets the engine relax and spin slower when you are driving fast on the highway, saving gas and making the ride quieter.
LIVE
This is the Classic Automall Show.
Broadcast from the studios inside the Classic Automall in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.
Just one hour west of Philadelphia at Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit 298.
Featuring nearly 1,000 classic vintage and barred-fine vehicles for sale under one climate-controlled roof.
Now, here's your host, Classic Automall President and the man with all the toys, Stuart Howden.
And here we are, it's finally here, show number 250.
Happy Vicentennial.
Vicentennial.
It's hard to believe this is going to air on July 4th, 2026.
Yeah.
Which is the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, Marca.
And this is our 250th show.
Incredible.
Did we plan that?
We did not plan.
It's not 250 years.
There you go.
Okay, we've had enough of that.
It cuts out because we still have colonial internet here.
Dialo here in Morgantown.
We're still one of the original colonies.
We literally have our internet provider, somebody that if you did a contest to guess a name of it, you would never guess anything.
And he right here rides in a horse and buggy.
It's that slow.
Anyway, before we get to our guests, let's see, let's break it up a little bit.
All right.
How many?
How many Camaro's?
And Steve was very upset.
He said, you got him right last time for the first time.
I wasn't quick enough on the button, so for me.
How many videos on our YouTube site?
Oh.
I'm going to throw you today.
1560.
We're going way off.
Jared, go ahead.
5,280.
1991.
You always over guessed.
1991.
We're nine away from 2000.
I was a winner because I didn't go over.
That's not how it works.
I'm certain of that.
Anyway, this is so fascinating that we should probably get to our show.
Absolutely.
Joining us via Zoom, Mr. Matt Stone, writer, photographer, broadcaster, event emcee, international
concord judge and friend of Judy Stropis.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Nice to have you here.
And we've been, I've been talking about having you on and Judy said, oh yeah, we can call
Matt and he'll love to do the show.
So we appreciate you being on and I know you had to get up a little early for us this morning
but it's my normal waking up time anyway.
So nothing special and I am actually awake.
That's always a good start with the show that the person is awake because we put some people
to sleep before I think it was all Steve's fault.
But nonetheless, I've been, I've seen you, watched you, heard you, read you for gosh,
30 years now, probably longer.
Yeah, probably so.
And from Barrett Jackson to your writing to Motor Trend to your photography to events.
You even, you were a judge at the Concord, the elegance at Radner here, which I'm on
the board now down here in the main line in Pennsylvania.
I was and I did that and it was a great visit and a great show.
We enjoyed it a bunch.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
It's a really unique setting that they have here that they've been doing for Mike Tilson
and Toby Ross have been doing for 30, I don't know, close to 30 years for there too, I believe.
So it was just, they wanted to start a little tea party and it turned into a pretty, pretty
cool thing.
And of course, my goodness, Stuart, I was young when I started doing this.
And the way you're talking, I'm feeling a lot older.
Well, I realized how old I was.
I was looking at my insurance cards for my car and I had my wife's and my age on it.
I'm like, who are those people?
That's not that old.
Yeah, gosh.
So, you know, hey.
But, you know, motor trend, car and driver, road and track, automobile, auto week.
I mean, they were my Bibles growing up.
And that was what I read so religiously from front to back.
And I read the same ads, even though I'd seen that same ad for the fuzzbuster a hundred times.
I still read every word of that fuzzbuster ad and I read every word of the J.C.
Whitney catalog, little small ad in the back, you know, and now there's still magazines around,
but it's different.
And I don't know if it's different, good, different, bad.
Well, true enough, the paradigms of the car magazine business have changed,
have been changed by social media and the internet for all obvious reasons.
We don't have to go over.
Right.
And yeah, it's changed a lot.
The ones that seem to be able to still make the car magazine model work are the Brits.
Right.
Yeah.
They put out those full trim beautifully illustrated on paper.
You can't even see through it.
Right.
You know, I mean, for Motor Trend for a while, I mean, you could read car and driver sitting underneath it.
And it's just changed so much.
Right.
And I'm glad after all these years, we're still here talking about it.
Well, I know that I personally, I read all day on the internet, like you said.
So I'm on my computer all day long.
I got spreadsheets up.
I got internet up.
I got this.
I got that.
I got to bring a trailer or whatever.
When I get home at night, I don't think I want to do any more reading.
I don't think I can comprehend any more in my brain reading.
Of course, I do watch television, which is, you know, just mindless reading.
So it's funny.
But I have magazines and I still get magazines, but there's a stack of them that's just growing,
growing, growing, growing, growing behind my desk because I don't have time to read them.
Well, you know, that's a, that's a lazy, lousy excuse.
But thank you.
I'll let you go with it.
You're the boss.
Here.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
Nobody ever gives me a pass like that hardly.
Well, and you know, it was funny because there are the different magazines back in the day.
The three main ones to me were Road and Track, Car and Driver and Motor Trend.
And Road and Track was always very serious.
Car and Driver was a reverent and fun kind of David Letterman.
And Motor Trend was kind of all things to everyone.
I love the fact that you could look at one, you know, one road test would be a minivan,
the next one might be a Lamborghini Countach, the next one might be something different.
So it seemed like they filled three niches in the automotive spectrum.
I would say at least three.
Right.
There's probably more if we think about it.
But, but in my 15 years on staff with Motor Trend, we covered a whole lot of ground.
Yeah.
And it was a blast.
Yeah.
And did you were you?
I mean, I imagine this is probably a silly question, but you were in the pool.
You got a new car every week to drive or how did that work?
Yeah, pretty much.
Still on that pool?
Occasionally.
Right.
I don't get not every week, but if there's something that I get a lot of requests for
or questions about, I'll get one and evaluate it and put it up on my blog.
And, and, but I, it's not a constant rotation.
I actually own cars that I bought and paid for.
That's hard to believe.
And I take care of and I polish and wax and pay for the gas and everything else.
So no, I'm not on the weekly dole.
Right.
Well, and it's, I mean, it's, it's work to be, it sounds fun.
You get a new car every week, but I mean, you have to evaluate it.
You have to make sure that you, you know, tell the good and the bad, right?
And it was, you know, I always imagine that between advertisers and road tests, there
had to be a fine line somewhere in there.
Not for me.
Right.
Honestly.
I mean, you have to do the good, the bad, the ugly, the Clint Eastwood road test, as
I call it.
Sure.
And otherwise it's just fluff or PR advertising.
So stone don't roll that way.
Well, like you said, yeah, might as well just put a press release out and don't, don't
bother writing anything.
I think part of it when it comes to the bad and the ugly is how you say it.
Sure.
Sure.
And, and are you right?
Are you correct?
Right.
You know, if, if that glove box feels a little funny under your arm, you know, it's not because
the guy or gal that designed it is an idiot.
Right.
And you shouldn't say that, right?
No, it's not necessary.
Right.
You know, but it's fair to say the design of this glove box is not ergonomically.
Sure.
Actually correctly, wonderfulness.
It's, it's okay.
As a matter of fact, that's my job.
Right.
You've got to point out.
It's to say that.
But it's, it's the messaging and the delivery and how you deliver.
We talk to people often who are still kind of getting cars pretty regular basis.
And they say the interesting thing about cars today is there's not really any bad ones.
I mean, they, they, you know, there's, there's better versions of certain things, but it's
not like a 77, pardon me, Velary or a, you know, or a K car or something that was, you
know, inherently problematic and all kinds of problems.
There's not many bad cars out there.
I would say that's very true until the Hugo comes back.
Is it coming back?
I think I did.
I heard not.
Well, you know, it's funny.
Look at Hyundai.
I mean, what Hyundai went, I remember when the Hyundai first came out, you thought, my
God, this is the most awful car I've ever been in.
And it had this smell of plastic that was a smell like you've never smelled before.
And you think they're never going to make it.
Well, here we are, you know, 30, 40 years later and they're doing okay.
They're making it, I think, you know, they, they've got a good gig going on.
So with the Koreans to your point, Stuart, I think the, the, what I have narrowed that
down to is the adhesives that some of the Korean companies were using early on.
Right.
I mean, that stuff just outgassed until it fogged the windshield and you couldn't breathe
or see.
Yeah.
I remember there'd be a oil or something on the inside of the windshield and it was
they got, they got better glue now.
But they figured it out.
I believe truly was the problem in the beginning, whatever adhesives they were using, just either
never fully cured or the outgassed or something.
And you're right.
And you need a sandpaper to clean the inside of that windshield, which is not good for
the windshield.
Well, you know, I mean, we look at the same paper.
We look at the same papers when they started becoming a real presence in the United States,
but I mean, they were, had a presence here prior to that.
There's some really cool 1960s Hondas and a 2000 GT Toyota that was in the 60s.
I mean, they were making pretty cool cars before they came to our shore.
They were just making different kinds of cars when they got here because they were filling
a certain, not a niche, but I mean, they were having the fuel economy thing was in full
force.
Yeah.
I remember the first Honda Civic 7345, whatever that was that I drove and I got out of that
car saying, this will change the world.
Right.
And it did.
Yeah.
Did it ever.
That in the Accord.
I mean, look at the Accord still to this day, you know, as popular, you know, still wins
awards, still, you know, I don't know if the car and driver still does their 10 best,
but it was on it forever.
I remember.
It still is.
Is it really?
I mean, I think it's a perennial favorite.
Yeah.
I always wait for that list to come out.
And that's the first thing I look for is like, is the Accord still there?
Right.
It's funny.
Yep.
There it still is right there where it belongs.
Have you driven a new Accord?
I'm curious.
I haven't driven one and I can't remember the last one I ever drove and it'd be interesting
to drive one.
How did it drive?
Just vanilla or?
It's better than vanilla.
It's really tasty vanilla.
It's like that.
And depending on, you know, which one you get, you get the sporty package one with the V6,
it's one kind of car, the hybrid is another kind of car, the basic four cylinder, you'll
find it a rental car a lot, but the Accord is frighteningly good in just about every
way you can imagine and it's, they're fun to drive.
I mean, if you get, like I said, the V6 and the sporty suspension and the alloy wheels
and blah, blah, blah, the car's fast and it's, it's terrific to drive and quiet and
comfortable and built like a Rolex and they're pretty wonderful.
Isn't that amazing?
I mean, a sensible person would buy one of those, you know, every time they bought a new
car, they would just go immediately and get an Accord and just be done because, you know,
they are great cars and, and, you know, they have been, like you said, for years and probably
will continue to be.
I mean, I don't know how many they sell in a year, but it's got to be a significant
amount.
Although it's interesting that American manufacturers don't make cars anymore, yet BMW
and Mercedes and Toyota and they all still make passenger cars, but we don't make anything.
All we make is trucks and, and crossovers and sport utilities.
It's weird that that's, that dynamic has gone away.
Why do you think the American manufacturers aren't building cars?
I have asked myself and I have asked various automotive executives that same question
and I never have come to a clear answer.
Now, is that absolutely all people want?
No, I don't know for sure.
I haven't asked enough people.
Right.
But the Accord and the Camry are the cars that kill the Taurus.
Right.
It's just, it's just fact.
Right.
And Ford did not kill the Taurus.
It was, it was done by incredibly good competitors that basically drummed that out
of business, even though the car got pretty good at the end.
I do know four dealer people that are still fuming that the fusion and the focus
and the Taurus are not in production.
I asked of the late great Bert Bachman, the doyen of Galpin Ford and Galpin Motors.
Yeah.
And the day that they killed those three cars, he called up Ford and just blew a fit.
He says, look, I do a thousand cars a year as fleet business.
Right.
And they just killed it.
Right.
In one shot.
Right.
And the Taurus could have been a great, I mean, we saw great versions of the Taurus.
The SHO with the Yamaha engine.
I mean, that was a great car.
Handled well, looked good, performed well, relatively speaking, to the time.
And then the Ford 500, which was kind of a cool car as well, too.
But they just, I guess they threw in the towel, so to speak, I guess.
Well, even the last Taurus SHO, which had the twin turbo V6 in it, that thing was a monster.
It handled, it was fast.
I, you know, I don't know why people didn't like that car, because it would outrun a whole
lot of BMWs for a lot less dough.
Well, I think a lot of people bought BMWs and Mercedes as a status thing, obviously,
because cars have always been a status symbol.
But it's interesting growing up where I grew up in East Tennessee in the 70s.
And I say this often, the people with money drove Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles and Buicks.
The middle class guys drove Cadillacs and Lincoln's.
The guys who wanted to be the wealthy guys drove the flashier car.
The people with money didn't.
And they didn't show up.
Now, they probably had a house in Florida and they had a Mercedes 450 SL or something
of the era at that house in Florida.
But they didn't drive it in Knoxville, Tennessee, because that would be too ostentatious.
Then that changed all of a sudden when it was OK to show off your wealth, so to speak.
And I think that then people gravitated towards the Mercedes and BMWs and Porsches.
That's probably about how it happened.
Yeah, it's it's it's fun to watch the evolution of the automobile, because in so many ways,
they're exactly what they were 100 years ago.
And then they're completely different.
I mean, if you look at the 9 11 from the first iteration to now,
especially for them side by side, if you just thought about them, you'd say,
oh, I don't know if there's much difference between one and the sixties and one now.
But put them side by side, you'll certainly see the difference.
Yeah, I have an 89 air cooled 911 coupe.
And I have many Porsche Club friends.
And one of them has a I'll probably get this wrong.
991 dot two.
We used to call it a Carrera or a 911
But now it's a 991 dot two.
Because you don't want to.
I parked my car next to my friends at 991 dot two.
And that thing is huge.
My comparison.
It really is beautiful.
Yeah, it's fast.
And you could tell what it is.
Engineering.
It's wonderful in most every way,
except that it's not air cooled anymore.
But that car makes my car look like a hot wheel.
Yeah, and that amazing.
Do you think they got the 99 point two from Barrett Jackson,
when they used to add the numbers when they got from, you know,
they wanted to throw you in it in the middle of the day.
So they went from lot number 57 to 57 point one,
57 point two.
I think it's a German engineering thing where they were talking
about generations of development.
Right.
And certain levels and that kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We had a 991
And then now we're going to evolve it as as German
engineers only can do.
Right.
And then that became version two.
Right.
And because there's a version two, now the other one is a version one.
Dot one, dot two, dot, whatever.
Yeah.
And I think that's an engineering language thing for Porsche
and other car makers, too.
Right. Well, I mean, you get especially the German cars.
I mean, BMW people say, oh, it's got the E 57 engine.
I don't even know what that means.
I know what BMWs are, but that that doesn't.
That's like you're speaking foreign to me when you start talking
some of these combinations that they do and 99 sevens
and 99 sixes in the Porsches and all that.
I think it's maybe we maybe somebody should write a book about that.
You've written a few books, right?
I have.
What, 20 plus?
21 and counting.
I do as the time.
How do you?
How does that?
It's my job.
No, but God, how can you do a book in a year?
Does it take a year to do that?
That's about my process.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I, I start gathering once, once I know that a book is any of the green
light, I have bankers boxes and I start throwing everything in.
Right.
That may have anything to do with this book.
Right.
And I end up with a bankers box full of stuff.
And then I research for many months and interviews and photos and all that jazz.
And then, you know, about a year later, I'll send it to the publisher
and they start editing and layouting and doing all the stuff that publishers do.
And it's about a year long process for me.
Anyway, is it, do you, is it even possible to proof your own book?
I mean, that's got to be almost the most difficult job and being an author.
Yeah, it is.
It's not, it's not really doing the process.
Just I have a really wonderful wife named Linda who reads all my copy to me.
Now, this woman deserves a purple heart.
She will sit and read copy to me.
She may or may not know or care what she's talking about, but she usually does.
And, and just hearing it back helps.
Right.
And I do that before I even send the copy.
And then, of course, they, the publishers have proof readers
and sometimes on staff and sometimes independence.
And there's a whole proof and editing content, editing and copy editing
that goes into getting toward a final project.
And backing up just a quarter of a step.
I used to know what all that BMW techno babble stuff is.
I knew an E30 from an E46 from a B17 from a B52.
I knew all that.
I knew when you say, oh, yeah, that's, that's the E46.
I used to know that.
I don't know that anymore.
I know.
It's amazing what escapes your brain, right?
My wife was good at proofing as well, too.
She'll say, just write it and, you know, just don't think about it.
Just write it and then give it to me.
And then I'll tell you what's wrong about it.
And like you said, she doesn't have to know the subject.
She just knows what's right and what's wrong when she's reading it.
And she can tell.
Yeah, she, she, Linda comes up with a lot of very good suggestions
or blows the whistle when something doesn't make any sense.
And, and like I said, honestly, just hearing it back to me.
Right.
Can you extremely help?
Yeah.
And then I start catching my own crap.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Carl Ludwig, Ludwigson said it took him, what, two years to prove his book.
It was crazy, you know, the 33 volume tome or whatever.
But, you know, do you have to write an automotive book to a non-automotive
audience? I mean, do you expect to get people that aren't car people to ever
read a book about the Pantera or the Jaguar E type or the Viper or any of these books?
Depends on the topic.
McQueen's machines would have been a more general, general or different
writing style for you than the ultimate guide to illustrated Pantera.
Yeah, but not a lot.
Really different.
I mean, fortunately, that's got that book and all of my Steve
McQueen books have sort of a multi-platform appeal.
They're movie people, Steve McQueen people and car people.
And sometimes they're the same people.
And then that works out really well.
But I would say, yeah, if it's if it's the history of the widget GT.
Right.
There's a little different approach for sure.
Sure. And the Pantera was, is that your first book that you wrote?
Was the Illustrated Pantera Buyer's Guide?
Yes.
And that was that was Genesis.
Yeah. Was it always funny to you that the Pantera took so long to become relevant?
I mean, they could they were given away for years.
You could buy one in the late seventies for, you know, 15, 18 thousand dollars.
And they never got to do that they I thought that they deserved anyway.
Well, I would agree with you.
I mean, I had I had one for a long time and put a lot of miles on it
and knew every nut, bolt and grommet in that car.
And it was really when you kind of got it sorted, right, was a terrific car.
And I miss it.
I I I don't know that I could afford to have it back.
Yeah. But I miss it.
And I'm glad that it is being respected as a legitimate exotic car.
Now, if that's to say, OK, recognition means they're expensive now.
That's another argument.
Yeah. Unfortunately.
People will say, yeah, you know what, that's a that's a bitching car.
Yeah. You know, at the end of the day,
and that may be what we're all just looking for, just somebody to say,
give you the thumbs up and say, look at that, that's a cool car.
That makes your day.
Nothing worse than going to the gas station.
You're used to going to the gas station and something cool every time you go there.
Somebody walks up and says something or a couple of people or more.
And then you go to the gas station in a minivan and nobody talks to you.
And you think, boy, it's it must not be me.
It must be the car.
Oh, Stone, you're dead.
Yeah, we don't know who you are and we don't care.
So other books to be written, Bondurant, maybe.
That'd be a great book, wouldn't it?
Sure would. Yeah.
He was an interesting character.
Yeah. Yeah. I had I'm pleased I had Bob.
I asked Bob and he accepted and agreed to write the forward for my James Garner book.
Nice. And I am I am forever indebted to Bondo for doing that.
Because he knew him very well. Right.
He gave James Garner driving lessons.
And he put a beautiful turn on that and was a great guy.
If you didn't know if he didn't know Bondo, he was a terrific guy.
And I miss him a lot because I used to see him and talk to him all the time.
And the other thing that amazed me is when I was at his school a couple of times,
I would want I'd make him drive.
And then you realize how fast you're not.
Yeah. When a when a 90 year old retired racing driver,
you know, can take you around a racetrack.
You didn't think a Taurus or a Mustang would go. Exactly.
And Bondo could still pedal.
I'll tell you another one who still pedals at 86 years old is Andretti.
Yeah. Isn't that amazing?
Oh, my God. I have a friend of mine.
Any time, any time I can get him to drive me in a taxi.
Right. I'll do it.
Yeah, I got to go to the Bondo on School in 2002 when I worked for eBay crews.
And I got the instructor shirt.
I had the fastest lap time, but we went over to the track.
This was in Phoenix.
And we went to the track and Bob Bondo came strolling up and he said,
I'm going to take a lap.
Well, immediately all the instructors are on the radio. Clear the track.
Clear the track. You know, the old man's coming in and he said,
he turned around and looked at the crowd of us.
There was about a hundred of us standing there from eBay and our clients and all
that. He said, anybody want to go with me?
I was the first one with my hand raised. I jumped in.
I thought, you know, if I'd die in this car right here with him,
the headline is going to be racing legend Bob Bondron, an unidentified passenger.
But it was such an experience to ride with him and to listen to him talking to
you while he's taking a curve and taking curves.
Do you think there's no way the car can physically make this turn?
And yet it absolutely does.
You know, Bob had a philosophy that I still find absolutely relevant.
The thing that I learned earliest about driving with Bondo
is watching him adjust the seat.
Love that. Yeah.
And he says, listen, he said, pardon the freight,
your ass has to be bolted to the floorboard of that car.
Right. And because it's it's your legs have to be positioned right.
And your hands and your arms.
And he says, your the seat has to be right.
And your butt has to be tied to the floorboard of that car.
He says, because what the car is doing comes up through your spine and into your brain.
Right. And that's the difference between driving and real driving.
You know, that's why you don't get the same experience driving a computer
that you do driving a real car in the real world. Absolutely.
Did was it true?
Do you know, was it true back when he was at Willow Springs
that at the end of the graduation of the form of the Ford class
that you took off as a student and he got in his 6.9 Mercedes sedan
turned on the radio, turned the air conditioning on and hunted you down.
And if he could catch you before the end of the the lap, then I don't know,
you got a minus one on your score.
I have heard that, but I can't testify as to whether that's fast.
It sure sounds good, though.
Well, it could have been right with a really good racing driver.
And you'll realize how fast you're not.
Yeah, in that the truth.
But you could have included that in history's greatest
automotive mysteries and rumors revealed that you wrote.
That would have been a perfect thing to talk about the Bondron thing.
I like that. See. Yeah, I will think about it.
I mean, you know, you're the base of your spine is a whole set of receptors.
Right. And it travels right up your back into the brain.
That's Bob's analogy.
And boy, if you listen to those receptors, you start driving better.
Almost maybe a natural feel to it that you can't teach.
Obviously, you can't teach your spine to do anything.
So maybe there is a lot to be said that people that just have natural born talent
because they feel it different. That's possible. It's very.
You got any books in the works?
I have a couple of things in what I call development.
Right. Which are being knocked around for.
But nothing I have started on recently. No.
Do you have a favorite?
I mean, I know that you've written some great books.
You wrote about McQueen, you wrote about McBullet, you wrote.
I mean, the the mystique of Steve McQueen is amazing.
Still to this day, what it does to.
And I know we always talk about values of cars,
but what it does to the value of a Ford pickup truck,
a regular one is worth 10 grand and the Steve McQueen worth.
Is worth 500 grand.
You know, I, I do I have a favorite?
Is that like asking, do I have a favorite child?
That's whoever's in whichever one's in front of you at the moment, right?
I do have a certain affection for my bullet book.
Yeah.
Because we busted so many myths and rumors and found out truth.
You know, that that movie and the mystique around it and those cars
has a really long tail.
And, and Chad, the late great Chad McQueen, Steve's only son.
And I asked him, Chad, I said, I want to do this.
I want to really do it.
And he said, Matty, just follow the story, follow your research, follow the truth.
He said, I've heard 50 years of BS about my dad and this film and those cars.
And I'm tired.
Right.
He said, just follow your research and the story.
And we did.
And, and we busted so many myths and rumors of people in all we had.
There were there were five cars in the movie and one of them had an automatic and stop.
Right.
And I like that aspect of that book a lot is that we told, I believe, a very true story
documented by research and fact, not legend lies in rumor.
Sure.
So that one is a bit of a favorite for that reason.
Plus, I love the cars and I love the movie and I love the guy.
I mean, that bullet Mustang is iconic to me as a muscle car as you'll ever see
any bar none.
It might drop moment.
So you've owned a Pantera as we discussed earlier, but you've also owned some other
deep tamazos as well too.
Yeah, I have.
A couple of the ones that nobody ever heard.
Yeah.
The Doeville or is that pronounced right?
Is that how you pronounce it?
You are correct.
Doeville.
Doeville.
Is Daytona's version of a Jaguar XJ6.
And a Longchamp.
Right.
And a Longchamp Coupe, which is a 450 SLC Italian.
450 SLC.
That's right.
You don't see those very often.
That would be an interesting car nonetheless.
What's your what are you what's in the garage today?
The aforementioned 89, 9, 11, my wife's Hyundai IONIQ 5.
And my everyday runner is a Ford Maverick truck.
Oh, the Maverick truck.
Yeah, I looked at those not too long ago.
Those are interesting.
It's terrific.
Regular truck.
For a daily runner, it just does everything.
It's got room for five.
It hauls just enough stuff.
Right.
It's easy to drive.
Mine is the hybrid version.
So I get, you know, 41, 42 miles to the gallon,
up a hill, down a hill, off a cliff.
It doesn't matter.
And in turn, I've always throughout my driving life,
I've always had a pickup truck in the fleet somewhere.
You just need one.
You got to have one.
And I used to buy and sell houses and cars and stuff.
And you got to have a truck.
Right.
And I've always had at least one.
And in terms of the everyday urban assault truck,
the Maverick is killer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The regular pickup trucks, you know, a full-size F-150,
is so big nowadays.
They're not a whole lot of fun to drive and park and get in
and out of and try to get into the last spot there.
You've got a soft spot for Fords in general, though.
Your dad was a Ford guy, right?
Yeah.
Although I would say I'm not drunk on the Kool-Aid.
I will.
But at the same token, yeah, I grew up around Fords and
Lincolns and Mercuries and all that.
And it just kind of, I speak that language.
And the five-liter Mustang, especially when they came back
out in the early 80s with the five-speed manual transmission,
that was a great car.
That was really.
I had one of them, too.
Yeah.
That was just a great car and amazingly sounded good,
fun to drive, easy to drive, sexy looking.
It checked most every box.
Yeah.
I had a 91LX five-liter black over gray leather.
I don't know.
Five-speed, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right.
And I love that car a bunch.
Yeah, it's.
I probably couldn't afford a duplicate example today,
but a good one.
But yeah, the five-liter Mustang was everything it was
cracked up to be and did so much more with less than a lot
of other cars did.
And the Ford, I will tell you, talk about the Maverick.
I would love a super duty.
But where would I park it and what would I do with it?
Yeah.
You know, it's a practicality kicks in when that time clock
keeps ticking away at your life.
You know, and you start thinking about more practical
things and getting in and out of stuff.
We sell more Corvettes because the fact that the guy's
like, I just can't get in and out of it anymore.
It's just I can't do it anymore.
It's too low to the ground.
Yeah, I would break my own leg to be able to get back
into my Pantera.
No problem.
Yeah.
Although then I couldn't do the clutch.
So that creates another problem.
There's a whole problem there.
I could imagine if I had a black, duly super duty diesel
in my fleet and I said to my wife, oh, you're going
out to the store to get that half ounce of nutmeg.
Well, take the truck.
The half ounce of the space.
The half ounce of nutmeg.
That's hilarious.
Well, I bought a Ford product recently.
I bought a 2026 Bronco and this thing is a monster.
I love it.
It's a lot of fun.
It's got the EcoBoost 2.7 liter V6 twin turbo.
It's the it's the Wimbledon White with the red stripe,
60th anniversary edition.
I was I wasn't planning on buying it, but I drove it
and I loved it and it was great.
And I thought, you know, good for Ford.
I had known to Ford in if maybe ever in a long, long time.
And it feels like forever.
And this is a great, great vehicle and well done
and distinctive and gets the thumbs up on a new car,
which is kind of rare for something domestic.
Yeah, I like both of the Broncos.
Stensibly driven, both of them.
The serious hardcore, you know, full frame,
full strength Bronco and even the Broncos sport.
Right.
There's room for that in the market too.
Yeah, absolutely.
Plenty.
Yeah.
And Ford done a great job with the Bronco.
Yeah.
Well, they're doing a great job in general.
What Jim Farley is doing, he's a car guy.
And it's nice when a car guy is running a car company.
And I don't mean car guy, I mean car person.
Let me, you know, back up so we don't get letters.
We don't really get letters anyway.
But if we were to get letters, don't write a letter about that
because it's car people.
It's nice to have car people in charge.
I agree with you.
I know Jim and he is a terribly smart and down to earth guy.
Talk about no BS.
But Farley has been there, done that,
and got the t-shirt in the car business.
He's a brilliant guy.
Right.
And he can cut through BS like a turbocharged X-Acto knife.
And I think very highly of Jim.
And assuming and hoping that that company makes it
and thrives for a long, long time,
it's going to be because of him.
And also Chairman Bill Ford, another car guy.
Yeah, another car guy who championed the Ford GT
and continued to and probably made them no money
and was probably a lot more.
These trophy cars are a little bit difficult.
I mean, they're important for the brand,
but it'll make you a whole lot of money.
Of course, the OEM manufacturers from domestic feel
are long learned, many lessons of building cars
that they lost money on.
The 57, 56 Cadillac El Dorado comes to mind.
That was 40 years, 60.
I don't even know how many years ago was that.
Long time.
Yeah, thank you.
Just a long time ago.
And we'll just stick with that.
All right, so anyway, you get out to the Pomona Swap Meet
much and you're a part of the world.
Heck yes.
That's a great place, isn't it?
It's the best seven mile walk you can take.
Good for you and you find stuff that you absolutely
had no idea you needed.
That I don't need, yeah, that I don't need.
Exactly.
Well, thank you.
I always come home with some bit of cool something or other.
Absolutely.
I found under somebody's picnic table.
That's exactly right.
That I just had to have.
All right, I understand completely.
I have the same affliction.
Matt Stone, thank you so much for being on the show.
We really appreciate it and appreciate your time
and getting up early for us today.
Thank you, guys.
Let's do it again.
All right, take care.
We'll be back with the Classic Automall Show
in just a couple of minutes.
We'll see you then.
Peace out.
The Classic Automall is like going to the greatest indoor car
showroom in the country with more than 1,000
classic and collectible vehicles for sale via consignment
in our eight acre climate controlled showroom.
We've got something for everyone.
We're open to the public most days.
Plus, you can easily search our inventory online
at ClassicAutomall.com.
Buying and selling via consignment is safe, easy, and secure.
Plus, we advertise, sell, and ship worldwide.
Find your dream classic vehicle at ClassicAutomall.com.
This is the Classic Automall Show.
If you'd like to get more information on vehicles
or anything else, contact us by email or phone.
All the info can easily be found at ClassicAutomall.com.
And we're back to show number 250.
250 years we've been here.
Is that how long we've been here?
250 weeks.
It feels longer than that.
What is that?
Like a couple of years?
There's 52 weeks in a year.
All right.
Wow.
Yeah, so almost five years.
Good Lord.
And what do we have to show?
100 and 206,000 followers on YouTube.
Almost 280,000.
Wow, how about that?
It's getting close to 280,000.
And 100.
What do we get?
10,000 downloads.
10,000 downloads on Buzzsprout.
Nice.
And we've got, what was the other metric that we were?
Oh, 17.7 million views, about to cross over to 18 million.
We're getting about 200,000 views a week.
We're still piddling with TikTok.
We're almost at 70,000 followers there and 500,000 likes.
Yeah.
And YouTube, we got to 20,000.
I mean, Facebook, we got to 20,000 and it just stopped.
I mean, there's nothing going on there.
It is so bizarre.
What's going on?
I don't know.
Somebody call me.
Mr. Facebook?
Mr. Facebook.
Give me a shout.
So, Matt Stone, great guest, the legendary in the automotive world and journalism and
broadcasting and Barrett Jackson and owned a bunch of cool cars and got a great insight
into things and fun to talk to.
That was nice.
It was so true about Hyundai, how bad they were when they first came out.
They were bargain.
And what I had heard too was how Chrysler got a bailout with Lee Iacocca.
I think the Korean government, because Hyundai owns steel mills and shipping.
The whole thing.
And so they went to the Korean government and they said, well, all right, we'll give you the
money, but you got to get rid of some of these idiots.
And I heard that they had poached designers and that from Honda and Toyota and some of
those people came over and that's when their quality got good and they put that 100,000
warranty on it.
And it's like, okay.
Yeah, five year, 100,000 mile warranty they put on the cars and that really changed everything.
It's still there, but it said, we're going to back this car.
But it's so true, you know, the smell in those cars was odd.
It was so, it was just horrible.
Interesting.
He says it says.
Yeah, he says.
That Ioniq 5 is a cool looking car.
It is a cool looking.
Very futuristic.
I rented one a while back.
Really?
And yeah, it was very weird.
Wild.
In fact, I traded out, I did the same thing that he talked about where I drove around with
a Prius and they've lowered it so much that I couldn't get in and out of it anymore.
The roof line of it is so low.
So I think had an Ioniq 5 and it was like, I like this is nice.
I like his point about that bullet has a long tail and it really does because we just got
another one in another 2008 bullet and they sell like crazy.
That color.
It's the color, the legend of the pilot.
Yeah, the highland green.
Yeah, it's just cool.
Yeah, it's just very cool.
So where did we sell cars this week?
You might have just left today from Green Castle, Pennsylvania, 79 Transant.
Oh, it did.
A young kid.
Good for him.
Four speed manual, 400, not the 403.
Four speed manual.
Four speed manual.
Even the dream.
In cameo white.
Mm-hmm, beautiful.
Pretty cool.
Where else do we sell cars?
How about Merle's Inlet, South Carolina?
You know where that is?
It's the beautiful part of the world.
I do not know.
Portland, Indiana, I won't tell you.
Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Jones Borough, Tennessee, which is the home of my great,
great grandfather, Thomas A.R. Nelson, who was on Andrew Johnson's impeachment.
He was one of the attorneys during his impeachment.
He got captured going up to serve in Congress in Virginia.
And there's a letter that his father wrote to the commander of the army that said,
please let my son out.
I promise he won't say anything disparaging about the Union army anymore,
or the Confederate army anymore.
And so they let him out.
How about that?
No, he couldn't write anything about it.
Little history in Jones.
And I thought our whole family the whole time I was growing up was Confederate,
and we were Union.
Had no idea.
I was like, oh, well, dang it, go on.
South of the Mason Dicks.
Yeah, but you know, Tennessee divided loyalties in Tennessee.
Brother and brothers were somewhere Confederate, somewhere Union.
Neighbors, next door neighbors were on two different sides.
You imagine.
So anyway, sorry, Jones Borough, Tennessee.
How about Northampton, Pennsylvania, Westchester, Pennsylvania, Hutchinson, Kansas,
East Earl, Pennsylvania, Barnesville, Georgia, Richmond, Indiana,
Jamaica, Mon, New York.
So very nice.
Yeah.
So and then we had the auction.
So our inventory is down a little bit because we sold, you know, like 44 cards
and one fell swoop or 46, I think.
So we sold about 60 percent.
Okay.
Not bad.
Not bad.
Fun day.
A little extra money.
Kathy's still grinding through the paperwork.
That's a lot of work.
It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of work.
There's the mumbling around here.
There's Stuart.
That's some of the, there's a bit of a big diamond bracelet around here.
Diamond bracelet.
So.
Another one.
Yeah.
How about the new arrivals this week?
The 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560 SL roaster signal red over Palomino.
Perfect color.
Good color.
Yeah.
That is the color.
Black is not bad on this car either, but the 560 SL is the ultimate version of the SL
Mercedes, in my opinion.
The 450 SL was iconic looking, but the 560 and the five series SLs had the performance,
had the look, had the, you know, the panache, if you will.
They were just great cars.
This one's got 51,000 actual miles, many, many, many newer parts.
5.6 liter single overhead cam VA great, great, great engine.
Four speed automatic and 33 cars in one.
Convertible, hard top and soft top.
So there you have it.
Exactly.
How about the 1951 Chevrolet fleet line deluxe two door sedan?
Full disclosure, this car has been sold, but it's a really neat ruby red metallic over gray.
350 cubic inch four barrel VA, turbo hydrometric 350, three speed automatic, front disc brakes,
vintage AC and heat and power steering.
These are really cool body styles.
Yeah.
51 coupes.
And any, whether it's a Cadillac, whether it's an Oldsmobile, whether it's a Chevrolet,
any of those from that era, the two door sedanettes, they called them, were really,
really cool cars.
And this one's really pretty, pretty.
Similar to the businessman's special, a little bit bigger.
And you can't have it because it's sold.
It's gone.
Sold, sold, sold, sold.
But keep checking the website.
Keep checking the website.
Stop mousing.
Every day.
I mean, the engine didn't cool off and it was gone.
It was really, it went quick.
The other new arrivals, the 1955 Ford fair lane sunliner, Regency purple,
Polly and snowshoe white over purple and white.
That's who you are.
I knew it.
I knew it.
122,457 actual miles.
272 cubic inch two barrel VA with a Ford automatic, like the Vego automatic, automatic,
and the snappy color combo.
Absolutely.
Pretty cool car.
And front disc brakes.
Rest in peace, Prince.
Yeah.
I was just watching.
This is quite a talented.
He was quite a talented guy.
He was good.
He could play what, 30 something instruments.
He played them all.
He played everything.
He could play piano, guitar.
He could dance.
He knows someone.
He could dance in high heels.
Tribute to George Harrison.
Prince doing while my guitar gently slips.
Wow.
He's just, it kills.
Epic guitar solo.
And Steve knows someone besides Elvis.
That's right.
Big Prince fan back in the day.
He's a, you know, Springsteen too.
Well.
Can't forget that.
How about next on the list is the 1967 Pontiac Firebird hardtop.
Regimental red over parchment.
Yeah.
Happy 250.
85,425 actual miles.
326 cubic is two barrel V8 power glide, two speed automatic.
Yeah.
Very original example.
First year Firebird, former Arizona car.
Now people make fun of the old two speed automatic transmission.
It's a workhorse.
It's a, there's nothing wrong with that.
There's not much.
People say, oh, it's a terrible transmission you need.
Yeah.
There's certain cars that require an extra gear,
but not in an automatic nearly as much as in a manual.
You know, a four speed manual always requires a fifth.
You just gotta, I don't care.
Gotta have it.
You gotta have it.
It just, it's much more pleasant to drive.
But a two speed automatic is a pretty bulletproof transmission.
And a lot of the drag rushers used to use them.
That's right.
Even when we were like, ah, throw that out and put a turbo hydromatic 400 or 350 or whatever in it.
Nice original Firebird.
Yeah.
And it's nice that somebody hasn't monkeyed with it.
Dorked with it, as we say.
Dorked.
Dorked.
Never heard of that.
So.
Oh, really?
I got called a dork one.
Yeah.
Dork with it.
I'm up with the dork.
Next on the list is 1962 Chevrolet Corvette convertible.
Roman red over black.
Cool car.
77,000 actual miles.
Number match.
Numbers matching.
300 horsepower.
327 cubic inch.
Four barrel.
V8.
Another power glide automatic.
Unusual.
There it is again.
Two speed.
336 positive, posi axle and a wonderful driving car.
This is, this is, this is the kind that you want.
You want one that's been well sorted.
Yeah.
Don't pay attention to just the looks.
You want to drive it.
You want to make sure that it does what it's supposed to do.
It's not loose.
It's not sloppy.
It's not bouncy.
It's not too stiff.
It's not, doesn't sit too high.
There's nothing worse than bad stance on a car.
I agree.
Where the, where the body's sitting like two inches too high in the front and the back.
It's just awful looking.
It just turns you off completely from a car.
So get all those right when you're going to sell your car and you'll do a much better.
Plus convertibles are easier to get in and out of.
They are much easier.
This year of course.
Especially the Corvette.
That's right.
And last but not least is a unusual beast.
The 1975 Mercury Cougar XR7 hard type.
Charcoal gray metallic over burgundy.
That's a good color on that car.
I don't know why I like this car, but I like it.
I can't pinpoint what I like about it.
I like the body style, I like the color.
I like that it's got a 460 cubic inch, 4 barrel V8, C6 three speed automatic.
It's a project though.
It needs some work.
It does.
But you, it was the last time you saw one.
Yeah, exactly.
You just don't, you don't see them at all.
So anyway, thanks again to everybody on the auction side.
We had a great sale and we'll do another one soon.
And thanks to America for being 250 years old.
And when we return, we'll be joined by our friend Keith Martin
from Sports Car Market Magazine.
We'll see you in a couple of minutes.
Now, another classic automobile show.
Here's Stuart with Jay Ward of Pixar Studios,
as he talks about the movie Cars and the animation of the character's eyes.
Before we made our movie, the Chevron commercials were out
where the headlights are the eyes, right?
You see the Chevron cars.
When you put the eyes down in the headlights,
the whole face is down at the front of the car.
And so it becomes like a, like a snake, right?
Little face down low.
When you move the eyes up to the windshield,
you've got the head of a dog or a horse with a long snout
in the mouth in front and you open up all this acting.
Hear more of Stuart's conversation with Jay Ward of Pixar
from February 2025 in episode 180.
Remember, if you haven't seen it, it's new to you.
Here's a special offer from Sports Car Market Magazine.
Get a six month subscription for just $19.95
by going to sportscarmarket.com slash test drive at the number six.
That's sportscarmarket.com slash test drive six.
If you're a buyer, a seller, or just general classic car enthusiast,
publisher Keith Martin says,
We've been around almost 40 years.
This is the Wall Street Journal of the collector car world.
Activate your six month trial of Sports Car Market Magazine
by going to sportscarmarket.com slash test drive six.
That's sportscarmarket.com slash test drive at the number six.
Offers for a limited time.
Be in the know with Sports Car Market.
Now, more of the Classic Automall Show
with your host Stuart Howden from our showcase studio
just inside the Classic Automall,
Morgantown, Pennsylvania, Just Off Turnpike Exit 298.
And we're back with the Classic Automall Show
from the aforementioned Classic Automall Studio
where it's hotter than hell.
Somebody needs to call the boss and tell him to get some air in here.
Sure.
Oh, that may be me, but God, it's hot in here.
Look at some air conditioning.
We want one of those ones that has the streamers coming out
so you can actually see the air coming towards you.
You can see the cool.
You can see the cool.
Joining us on our weekly segment,
Mr. Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market Magazine.
Good morning, Keith.
Good morning.
Thank you for having me here today.
We are glad to have you here.
And is it warm out there in Oregon?
I grew up in San Francisco where it was 60 degrees all year long.
Would Mark Twain say that the coldest winter we ever spent
was a summer in San Francisco?
Isn't that the truth?
But it's 60 degrees and overcast here and it's perfect, actually.
Well, we're 80 or 90 degrees and going to go to New York City
this weekend to watch the Fourth of July fireworks.
And it won't be hot or muggy or anything there.
I'm certain or smelling.
And then there won't be that many people.
No, no, it should be just nobody.
Don't tell anybody.
So your weekly blog this week is a triumphant event.
You know, I'm always questioned if I say triumph correctly.
Triumph.
Triumph.
I don't get that right.
I don't think.
I don't think you can get it right, Stuart.
It's hard.
It's kind of.
I don't think people from the East Coast can say it.
That's true.
I think it's something to do.
I'm evolving into an East coaster, I guess,
since I've been here for what, nine years now?
Has it been that long?
Golly.
So anyway, a triumphant event is not too far
from your homestead there, right?
A couple hours away up over Mount Hood.
It's a beautiful drive.
They had about 150 cars.
It's the first time that the Triumph Association
has had a meet west of the Rockies.
Oh, wow.
That's interesting.
And that was in the, is that in the Williamette Valley
or you go through the Williamette Valley?
You go out of the valley and up to Mount Hood.
Williamette Valley, Pinot Noir is amazing.
It's the best Pinot Noir.
It's the best red wine I've ever had.
You need to say Willamette.
Oh, so I'm pronouncing something else wrong.
Well, you, you're just in the wrong valley then.
You're like, no, no, no, you got to go down there
and turn where Leighton struck last year
and old man Smith's barn.
The Willamette, you know, the Willamette Valley,
when I first came here in 68, there was like one vineyard.
Right.
Yeah.
Look at it.
How many now?
Hundreds.
No, it's zillions.
And it's all, you know, the reason they have such fertile soil
is a few thousand years ago,
they had a giant ice dam in Montana and it broke
and it sent water like 80 feet high at 60 miles an hour
from central Oregon to the coast.
Are you just,
It's just a wall of water that wiped out everything
but left all this fertile dirt bottom.
It is amazing though.
It really is a noticeably better product
than you get from just about anywhere else at Pinot Noir.
They really, it's amazing how good it is
and so thanks for that history lesson.
So let's talk about the Triumph meat.
So 150 vintage Triumphs, that's a repair man's dream.
Yeah.
Well, you know, what I think about is think of the glory days
of the British cars right after World War II,
up until about 74 when we got smog and safety.
But you had Triumph, MG, Austin Healy,
all hitting it out of the park with either TR3, TR4,
TR5, great, great cars.
So it was just a glory time for them.
It really was and it's amazing that those cars
are still almost as popular today
or if not more popular than they were even then.
I mean, yes, everybody wanted one back in the day
because you didn't see them very often.
You only read about them in Road and Tracker, Car and Driver.
Well, what's different now, Stuart,
is that almost all the ones that are left are good ones.
Right.
Yeah.
You know, because that went through a period.
They were worth nothing for a long time.
Oh, you could buy a Fiat Spider or a TR6 or, you know,
even an Austin Healy.
I mean, you could buy them for nothing.
Yeah, and they would have terrible floors
and engines didn't run right
and the overdrives weren't connected.
I mean, but now the survivors, they're worth some money.
They're worth enough to put money into them.
And to stand there and see 100 restored Triumphs,
all the worst car was, you know, a 90 point car.
Right, right, right.
And those cars were a handful to drive.
And I mean that in a good way.
I mean that they required skill to drive them fast.
They had skinny tires.
They were rudimentary and, you know,
their suspension was better than the domestic stuff,
no question about it.
But they were, you had to know what you were doing
to drive one of those briskly.
Well, and you had to pay attention to your gauges
because they overheated easily.
Sure.
Do you watch your, do you even have gauges in your car?
Do you have gauges in your car now at all?
Is there any gauge that you can watch and go,
oh, there's a, something, I guess the check engine light
is about the only thing they have with the light.
Yeah, you know, and I've thought about that before
because think about it, oil pressure light and a temp light.
So by the time those lights come on your toast.
You're done.
You have, you're too late to the party.
Yeah, the next light says trade in.
Do they actually, that's cool they have that.
But you know, in the old days you'd watch that gauge,
and especially the temp gauge, you'd always be like,
oh, it's getting up and 160, oh, 180, oh, 200, oh, we better.
So you'd pull over and let it sit for a bit
and then you'd continue on your journey.
And you don't get that anymore.
If you get to that gauge, like you said, lights out.
I used to love to watch the temp gauge.
Should the thermostats open on alphas at about 180 degrees.
And watch the temp gauge go up and then hit 180
and then kind of wiggle back and forth right about that thing.
And you would feel safe.
Right.
What I didn't realize when we bought our boat here
a couple of years ago, that the overheating for a boat
is 160 degrees, not 200 and something.
And I'm like, the boat won't start.
And Kathy goes, well, what's wrong?
I go, I don't know.
She goes, well, open the hatch and look at the engine.
I open the hatch.
I go, it looks like the engine's still there.
I go, the temperature is only 160.
It won't start, it won't go.
160 was the stopping point.
So they said at 160 we shut it all off and let it cool off.
No idea, no earthly idea.
So yeah, learn lessons the hard way, right?
So how's your quest for the Austin Healy coming?
Well, here's an interesting deal.
I bid on two or three and at the last minute
a guy called Carbuyer-01 jumps in and with a big slamming bid
turns out he's a French dealer.
He's bought 60 cars in the past two weeks.
Well, that doesn't seem, that seems like plenty.
So he's, you know, we used to in the old days
before the internet, we'd have car finders who'd go out
and look for cars for us and stuff.
Well, but the bat has turned into a car finder.
Yeah, it absolutely has.
Because this guy lets bats sort out all the cars
and then just waits till the last minute
and jumps in with a big bid.
Sure, sure.
Because he knows that if there's anything wrong with the car,
it's either going to be in the description
or in the comment section.
Somebody's going to pick it up and notice it.
If something's wrong.
Well, let me tell you about the car.
I was looking at this one black Healy tri-carb
and it was running a little rough.
And the guy said, well, if the car doesn't sell,
I'll take a look at the tune.
And I commented.
I said, well, why don't you take a look at the tune
before the car sells?
Hello.
He said, are you calling me a liar?
I said, no, I'm fully respectful of you, sir.
I just think that if you're trying to sell a car,
that what I want to do is buy a car that at least
you've presented to me that it needs nothing.
It needs nothing because we know they all need something.
So they'll need it when they get there.
You calling me a liar?
Well, that's the thing about bring a trailer that's so interesting
is I love when the trolls come in like a horde of buzzers.
Oh boy.
And if you get something wrong.
And I find that, you know, even with my own cars,
I call them my Jaguar V12.
I said, well, we had to fabricate a radio blocking plate
because they never made one from the factory.
Five people sent me the page from the factory manual that
had the listing of the part number for the board.
Where you could order a half dozen of them if you needed them.
Exactly.
I mean, I just, I welcome that because it helps make all of us smarter.
Yeah.
I like the fact when a guy points out something wrong
in one of our descriptions or our listings.
If they pointed out in a nice way, they're not just being snarky.
They're not saying that never happened.
You're stupid.
But they say, Hey, you know, I'm an aficionado of 1955 Chevrolets.
And they never had this chrome piece here.
And it's probably from a 56 and really appreciate, you know,
you did a great job of your ride up just, you know, just a fan
wanting to let you know something that that's okay.
It's the guy who goes, you people are idiots.
You don't know what you're talking about.
And they never had this, that or the other.
And it turns out they did.
And when you tell the guy that they did, he goes, Oh, I didn't know that.
Well, yeah, then don't be so snarky.
Mr. Snarky.
No, I agree.
There's a, there's a politeness.
And what you have to do is put on your bat filter and just toss out the
remarks that are, are just ridicule and mean.
I don't, there's no place for meanness.
And it's just a life filter anymore.
It's not just bad.
It's everywhere you go.
Anything, you'd look at somebody wrong.
You looking at something?
No.
Well, something wrong with the way I look?
No, I didn't say.
You looking at my girl?
No, I'm not looking at your girl.
She not pretty enough for you?
Yeah, that's it.
She's not pretty enough for me.
That's why I'm not looking at her.
People, right?
So anyway, love people.
You know, couldn't, couldn't be a world.
We're still, we're still on the hunt for Healy, but there's no hurry.
Well, we'll find you one if we can.
And it was, I bet you have some great pictures from the, from the, the triumph event.
And we will.
You know where the, the, the concor was held on an airfield
where they restore World War II planes.
Wow.
How cool is that?
So I've got the pictures on the blog of the TR-6s under the wing of a B-17.
Nice.
I'm watching the World War II documentary right now with Tom Hanks.
And it's, well, you're learning stuff that you never had any idea about.
It's absolutely amazing.
And it's amazing the resiliency of this country and what all the manufacturers of
automotive parts went to making planes and bombs and tanks.
And they just switched.
Can you imagine today if, if somebody came to General Motors and said,
stop making cars.
We're going to need you to make some drones.
And we need to make a million a day for the next 10 months.
What, what even happened?
I get it.
It was a, it's a time that'll never be repeated.
Never be repeated.
Good and bad.
You know, it's, it's absolutely that.
So anyway, well, I think we've covered all that we can cover this week.
And we're always appreciate having you on.
Always a treat to be here.
Hope you have a wonderful 4th of July with you and your family.
And we'll see you.
Stay safe.
Absolutely.
We'll catch you next time.
See you then.
And thanks for stopping by.
The Classic Automall Show with their host, Stewart Howden, executive producer, Steve
Sefair, produced and engineered by yours truly JR Russ, video editor, Randy Lamby available
on classicautomall.com, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, music, courtesy of the Pat
Traverse band for tour dates, contact and stuff.
Visit Pat Traverse.com produced by car smarts media copyright all rights reserved.
Learn how thousands of smart homeowners are investing about a dollar to avoid expensive
home repair bills.
John, a former non-customer said, my air conditioner broke and I had to spend $1,900 to fix it.
Jeff, a customer wrote, my air conditioner broke and I got a new one at no out of pocket cost.
Mary, a former non-customer wrote, my heating system stopped running.
I had to spend $3,000 to get a new one.
Lisa, a customer wrote, my heater stopped working.
I got it fixed at no out of pocket cost.
800-814-5615.
800-814-5615.
For about $1 a day, you can have all the major appliances and systems in your home,
guaranteed fixed or replaced.
Call now.
If the lines are busy, please call back.
Call the home warranty hotline now at 800-814-5615.
That's 800-814-5615.
About this episode
Celebrate a milestone with host Stewart Howden on the 250th show of the Classic Auto Mall Show. Renowned automotive journalist, author, and Concours judge Matt Stone joins the program to discuss his 15-year tenure at Motor Trend and the evolution of car media from print giants to digital platforms. Stone shares behind-the-scenes stories of evaluating cars, the art of writing honest reviews, and how brands like Hyundai and Honda transformed the global market. It is a fascinating look at the changing landscape of automotive journalism and vehicle design over the last several decades.
Bob Bondurant
Bring a Trailer
Jim Farley
Keith Martin
Matt Stone
numbers matching
overdrive
posi traction
Power Glide
sedanette
Austin Healey 3000
BMW 3 Series
Cadillac Eldorado
Cadillac ELR
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette
De Tomaso Pantera
Fiat Spider
Ford Bronco
Ford Bronco Sport
Ford F-150
Ford Fairlane
Ford Fusion
Ford GT
Ford Maverick
Ford Mustang
Ford Taurus
Honda Civic
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Jaguar E-Type
Jaguar XJ6
Jeep Commander
Lamborghini Countach
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class (R231)
Mercury Cougar
Pontiac Firebird
Porsche 911
Toyota Camry
Toyota GT 86
Toyota Prius
Toyota Supra
Triumph TR6
Original notes
Landmark Episode #250 airdate 07-01-26, Stewart welcomes #MattStone, Author, Writer, Broadcaster, Photographer, Event M. C. and Concours Judge discussing his career writing for @MotorTrend magazine as well as working @Barrett_Jackson auctions and his interesting career including driving a different, new car every week! Covered are thoughts and observations on everything from the Trurus, Taurus SHO, Bronco and Maverick truck to the @Honda Civic and Accord, @Toyota Camry, @Porsche, DeTomaso, @Hyundai , @MercedesBenz #Pantera, @BMW and more.
Also discussed are automotive magazines including @RoadandTrack, @CARandDRIVER @Autoweek as well as The @BobBondurant Driving school plus comments about such notables as James Garner, @MarioAndretti , Ford C.E.O. @jimfarley98 plus the Steve McQueen Bullitt Mustang and discussions with the late actor's son, Chad McQueen https://mattstonecars.com @galpinmotors @RadnorHuntRaces
CONTENT NOTE: Contests, Prizes, Offers, Vehicles & other items may no longer be available or offered after each show's original broadcast or posting date.
Recorded in our Showcase Studio just inside the entrance of the Classic Auto Mall in Morgantown, PA, Host Stewart Howden, Classic Auto Mall President and Classic Car Specialist Steve Saffier talk about this unique and amazing place often with amazing guests.
YES...Classic Auto Mall is a REAL former shopping mall that covers almost EIGHT football fields with an average of nearly ONE THOUSAND classic vehicles under one, climate controlled roof and they're all FOR SALE!
Be sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to be informed of new episodes and SEE them on the Classic Auto Mall YouTube Channel. We also invite you to VISIT US IN PERSON at Classic Auto Mall, one hour west of Philadelphia at PA Turnpike Exit #298, VISIT us online at ClassicAutoMall.com or talk to real, live people about visiting, buying or selling your classic on consignment at 610-901-3804.
GET OUR FREE APP: https://ClassicAutoMall.appimize.app When it opens click on the ORANGE button to install on your phone or computer for DIRECT ACCESS to our VIDEO and AUDIO shows and our website.
Classic Auto Mall SHOW
Stewart Howden
0:00
61:30