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 From the Sugar Shack Woohoo and the Sugar Shack World headquarters.
It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show Just ahead.
Zach Triggs teaches us how to drift.
They know there's a trick to it.
I don't know what it is and I don't want to attempt it in my car, but if somebody else's car I wonder if he's got a passenger seat in it.
We're going to find out.
Jeff has a segment on the evolution of auto transports, the car haulers, conrad has the racing calendar and the car clinic, and later we discuss the stories making automotive news headlines this week.
Stay with us for hour number three of the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
Howdy, along with Mike out of this world, mars King, conrad DeLong.
We always need more, jeff Zekin, I'm Don Armstrong.
Thanks so much for joining us for the return of our live show.
We've been off for a couple of weeks.
Mr Mars put together a great best of well, best of, in our opinion Two weeks in a row.
Well, no, because the second week we had the Grandberry.
Replay.
So it was just an actual best of show.
What did?
you think of your work.
Good job, mars.
Well, I mean I kind of get it.
Are you tearing up?
Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm so happy.
No, yeah, I have fat figures, so I learned things every time we do something.
Is that what?
You're?
Blaming it on Fat figures?
Absolutely Put them on a diet.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, at any rate, thanks for all your hard work.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That's a lot of editing.
Okay, we're going to talk to Zach Triggs.
He is the Fat Cats Racing Spokesperson.
Now, zach, if you didn't know that, we've just given you a new title and we hope that you appreciate it.
I do, okay.
Well, thank you for appreciating the appreciation.
The appreciation Tell us what Fat Cats Racing is.
So Fat Cats is just a group of friends.
We're all based out of Houston, Texas.
We all met.
The majority of us met just through cars in general back in 2010 or so.
We just stayed.
We kind of came a family.
Now that's all kind of centered around racing.
We're all still doing this dumb hobby that we call drifting.
Well, it's not a dumb hobby For us old guys.
We're going.
Why are they doing that?
Because it's loss attraction, a controlled loss attraction, basically.
I mean, that's what it is it's dancing with smoke.
It's dancing and it's smoky.
Yeah, it is, but there's a true art to it.
The one part and I guess you guys have a name for it is where two of you get on the track together and then it's kind of like a dance without hitting the other car.
Let's see how close we could get to each other's car and drift and match.
Yeah, drift around.
Is it a race?
It's not a race.
Whoever gets to the finish line first does not matter.
Ideally you don't want to pass each other, because that is what you mentioned tandeming two cars next to each other.
You're correct.
The goal is to say as close to each other as possible without hitting.
Do you get points.
So it's kind of judged, though correct.
The easiest way to compare drifting to maybe drag racing or racing is this is the figure skating of the automotive world.
Yep, I can see that.
Anybody can go watch a figure skating competition and be like, wow, that person that jumped up in the air do those spins.
That was really cool.
Or the people that figure skate.
They know exactly what spin they just did and why that was so hard.
It's the same thing, here, Anybody can watch two cars next to each other and realize that that's probably difficult Once you're a driver and you understand.
It's just on a completely different level.
Okay, so let's talk about the car.
So, because I don't understand, I may ask you some stupid questions because of my ignorance about it but it wouldn't be the first time, and I'm going up to all of that.
But there is a tremendous amount of suspension work and also in the steering aspect of it.
We'll get to the engine in a minute, but let's talk about how the thing goes around the track, basically in a controlled spin, if you will, because it doesn't spin, but the wheels certainly do.
Yeah, I mean sometimes with me behind the wheel.
Okay.
But I mean I've got adjustable front upper front, upper front lower rear, lower control arms.
Everything's adjustable just about, of course, after market coilover suspension.
I've had this car for 15, 16 years now, so plenty of time to make all types of adjustments.
But you guys might find this odd.
But my car's set up for the most traction in the rear I can get, because then I can go the fastest and drift Gotcha.
So I've got near zero negative camber, a little bit of tow in.
I want the car to be fast, but I've still spinned the wheels to go even faster.
You want it fast but yet controllable with your accelerator and brake.
Exactly.
So, alignment is a huge, huge, huge deal.
I've got a friend that aligns my car.
That's the genius when it comes to suspension stuff here in Houston.
And you know the alignment can make the world of a difference on the track.
I can understand it.
Let me ask you let me ask you this Now I saw a video where somebody a drifter, but they had a lot more work in the in the front end of the car, so they could turn the steering much sharper than a regular stock car.
Yes, so my specific car.
I like to keep that.
That the angle.
That's what we refer to it, just your steering angle.
Mine's pretty simple.
Mine has just stock knuckles that we cut and shorten a little bit and that increases the steering angle.
Pretty good for stock components.
Why is that?
What so?
Why is that important?
I don't understand.
It gives you more room for error, so you don't spin out and stop and make all your friends crash into you.
But the more steering angle, the more the car can get sideways while still you know moving forward, and also faster, I assume, too.
Somewhat the more angle you have you know the the slow your car is going to go.
General sure.
If you shallow up a little bit, you call it you're gonna go a lot faster but.
I say it looks the coolest if you have the most thing, and that's what we're here for.
So what's more important front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive?
Um, front-wheel drive would just be completely impossible.
All-wheel drive, you need like a million horsepower to spin all four wheels and it's just kind of a whole different ballgame.
Every car that you'll see at a drift event is always gonna be a real good Okay okay, all right now so that narrows the field, unless you actually modify the car from front-wheel to rear-wheel drive.
Which is pretty rare to see, unless you have like an absolute pro level.
You know sure budget type racing.
I got you.
So what is there?
A certain make model or my car that is more affordable for us To get into the sport.
What do we look for when we're trying to find a car that we can convert to a drift car?
The the basic criteria is obviously rural, drive, manual and has a e-brake.
But and you know, emergency brake, one thing you can yank.
I don't want a foot brake, that's not gonna be me to get right those are real, three criteria and the the the spotlight right now, currently with the market is the Nissan 350Z.
They're still lower than $10,000.
They drift great, they have power, they come manual.
They're just good cars right off the bat.
Okay, let's talk then about the power, and clearly, these are not stock engines, that is true.
So my car.
My car is a stock engine from its version in Japan.
In Japan this car is a Toyota.
It comes with the inline six with pretty small twin turbos, that's.
I bought one of those engines for Japan and swapped in their mind and it's been going for probably eight years now and what?
what model car is that?
This is a.
Lexus SC 300 like a early night or mid 2000s or early 90s to Right at 2000 and well, how would the engine swap go?
because what was originally in that?
A v6?
.
So it wasn't in line six, it was a 2jz GE, so no turbo.
And again, the engine that I got came in this car in Japan, so drop in.
I just had to extend the wiring harness to go to the other side of the car.
So I've seen it like 18 inches and then everything plug right here.
So it wasn't.
It wasn't out of sight today.
So what are the modifications to the car?
Have you done other than the steering?
And you've lowered the suspension and there's definitely a lot of lowering.
I will say the majority of us that drifted especially in my circle.
As much as we care about performance.
We love how the car looks.
Yeah, absolutely I'm with you on that.
Yeah, I gotta have it.
Yeah, I'm with you.
Absolutely, it's gotta look good.
The three criteria generally for drift cars is a Bucket seat is probably one of the number one mods.
I'll tell someone to get because in drift you don't want to be doing this.
Of course, focus on your driver Yep.
So you see coilovers to get rid of the body roll and A differential locked up.
So for me, a welded differential.
Oh, so you've actually welded the Side gears to in, so it's it's beside posi track.
It's just a lot all the time.
That's the poor man's version you know the ideal version is you have like the actual limited slip differential.
I just put all my money elsewhere.
Let me ask you, though, with that Well that there's a tag on that car Are you still driving that on the street?
I do, yes.
Yes, I don't drive much anymore.
It doesn't have AC.
So, you know, try not to drive it, but it is perfectly road legal, it drives, just fine.
And how does it go?
How does it go around corners with that locked up rear axle back there?
It's a little hopper, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
So I think it's falling apart when I pull up somewhere generally.
What organizations are there in Houston that allow you to drift?
I'm a part of a group called Knuckleup.
They host events at a track called Speed Sports, which is actually a go-part track out in New Caney, so a little northeast of Houston.
We do events every two months or so.
Locals or anyone can apply to drive and get accepted.
Then I'm a part of a bigger group throughout the country called Final Bout, which is a competition-based thing, but it's team-based competition.
So my team of drivers five of us we go out and try to do the best, run together and get judged.
Zach, does it have a passenger seat in it?
It does, it absolutely does.
My girlfriend is pretty much always with me whenever I'm on track.
Let me ask you this Do you drive it to the event or do you trailer it?
I do.
The track.
Speed Sports is only about 20 minutes for me.
Okay.
I hop on 99 and I'm there in about 20 minutes and then I hopefully drive home.
The other question I have is do you have a tire sponsor?
I wish that is the biggest thing.
I don't know if you can see the big stack of tires over there, but I have a two-day race coming up in September and I've got, I think, eight brand new tires ready to go for that one.
Stop it.
What kind of tires do you use?
Are they slicks?
They're not slicks, they are kind of a performance tire.
Currently, the tire choice throughout the drifting industry, as far as grassroots, is the Kinda KR20.
It's a sticky tire.
They are just, they're just the best tires hands down.
They'll last me way longer than any other tire.
No, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
I would imagine that your your time with the tire is a lot different than my time with tires, so what is a long time in your world?
On a good day, if I, if I control myself and I let the tires cool down, which I usually don't, I can get about 50 or 60 laps out of one pair of tires.
So your two-day event?
Is that the reason you need all those tires eight just to get through those two days?
But those are just the rears, right.
Ideally.
Yeah, the fronts are good, I can usually last like six months on front tires.
No issues there.
But yeah, I'm kind of overshooting this event because I'm going to be trailing my car to Wisconsin.
Oh, wow.
But not having enough tires.
Yeah, yeah.
So, Zach, do you change your own tires?
Do you have a tire changing machine?
How does that work?
You know, if I would have bought one of those 10 years ago, I would have saved myself a lot of money.
But unfortunately I'm still paying, just mainly because I don't have a place to put a whole tire machine.
But yeah, so.
I have a buddy.
Thankfully that he kind of helps me but not really he has a business to run, I get it.
So, but yeah, you go to Wisconsin.
What do you?
I mean, are all those wheels going to have?
Are tires going to have wheels on them for the event?
So I have one extra pair of wheels.
I think they're not right there, yeah.
So thankfully most races.
if they're big enough, will have a tire changer on site.
Oh, OK, OK, Either I can pay someone or do it myself.
How much do they charge you to change tires at a race track?
We're half the track, probably 15 or so each 20 bucks to mountain balance.
That's all it'll pay.
Exactly just like work.
Yeah, I wish I could limit them, but it's somewhere in there.
Do they offer you road hazard?
It's kind of difficult to get the tires off, just the way they're built so they don't like it.
No road hazard warranty.
No road hazard warranty.
I wish.
So do you also.
Do you also do the events that they'll have out at the Houston Police Department Police Academy?
So there's a couple of different drift organizers here in Houston and the Texas in general.
There's of course my buddies.
Knuckle up.
There's also Lone Star Drift, which is the kind of it's been around for 15 years now.
I haven't been out to Police Academy in probably two or three years, but I have driven in the past and it's really fun.
It's a great track.
What?
Yeah, because I know they've got an event coming up in August and again in September.
What?
propelled you, so to speak, into drifting, as opposed to drag racing or racing on an oval tour, yeah, oval.
It's the chicks man.
That ain't none of that.
I wish I could say it was that, but there's not really much in it for that scenario, but back in high school, when I first got my car it was just the internet.
I don't really know exactly my first site of it but YouTube something of that nature.
I call wind of it and I was like I'm going to do that and it took me probably six years to get this car.
Like I think I was 22 or 23 by the time I could actually show up to a drift event and be like all right, yeah, I'm ready to go.
OK, so this event that you've got coming up, how many other cars are going to be in competition there?
So it is a team-based event.
So you, just my team, we're taking five cars.
I believe there's going to be a total of around 100.
We're not all on track at the same time.
Throughout your eight hour day, you have basically a set time when the competition is and the rest of the day is just have fun.
The rest of the day is changing tires and getting them lying to get on the truck.
And so this event where you have two cars on the track at one time.
What actually?
Is there any at fault if somebody gets dented or you crash or you both hit?
But what goes on there?
I?
think it'd be like any form of racing, I hope at least, where it's kind of jamming rules.
I've only been in one major wreck myself and it was a buddy and it was my fault.
I spun out in front of him and then we ended up kind of kissing like that, and he immediately got out and was almost in tears because he was so sad that we hit and I was like man, it's my fault, so it's just a gentleman's agreement.
Very good, very good.
I still find it fascinating.
Are there a lot of spectators at your event?
Ours are definitely growing over the past couple of years.
We start our events during COVID.
It's definitely getting better.
But like final bout, the one I'm going to in Wisconsin, there are usually at least a thousand of 1500 spectators there.
Oh, wow, wow.
Well, I mean, if I were that age and I were into that sort of stuff, I would be going to the event.
I wouldn't have a car because I couldn't afford it.
Well, my experience drifting was the parking lot at Bear Mountain State Park in my old Chevelle, just on the snow.
No, mine was on an icy snowy street in Detroit in 1975.
I started drifting then.
Yeah, way back then.
I'll put you back then, mars, you know, I'm afraid to even ask you.
My experience was at the track and pushed the wrong button on a viper and lost the traction control.
But I figured out real quick what drifting was all.
Viper had traction control.
Yeah, not the viper that I drove, not the early ones, the later ones, maybe the later ones.
But the early ones.
Certain didn't have it.
I got.
I got asked Carol gun about that.
I got told real quick, don't ever touch that button again.
So, zach, have you had your your car on a dyno to know what the output of that engine is?
I tend to spend all money on visuals.
I haven't spent money on my engine in a long time, but it's stock in lighter terms, so it makes about 300 horsepower.
Do you have a rev limiter on it?
The factory one.
The factory.
I don't know what it is.
I think it's probably 7,500, 8,000.
Well, you would know it if you hit it.
I hit it a lot, I just don't look down.
Too many looking forward.
So, obviously there's some expense in doing this, so I'm guessing there's there are purses for the bigger events to kind of help cover all this.
No, no, no.
I mean even at the top level of drifting.
I've heard that the cash prizes are somewhere like $1,500, which doesn't do anything.
Not going to Wisconsin, also about how you can sell yourself to sponsors.
That's the only way you can make money.
That's where.
That's where it is.
I was sponsored.
I know that is done.
I have to think he was saying his girlfriend rides with him a lot.
You could go for a ride with him and he would never know the difference by the time you started screaming, screaming like a seven year old.
Ray Ray would put on those red pumps and be proud.
And look good in that green car.
Absolutely, zach.
It's great to talk to you, my friend.
Thank you for the education.
Yes, hey, stay in touch with us and let us know how the Wisconsin event goes, will you Thank?
You, I encourage anyone from Houston come out to knuckle up drift events or speed sports.
You can come up with your own helmet.
Ask me for a ride along.
Ask any of the drivers.
We'd love to do it.
Awesome man.
Thank you so much.
Good luck and we'll talk soon, yeah.
Thank you guys.
Thank you, hey.
The in wheel time race card is sponsored by Texas Nostalgia Modified Production.
Conrad.
Well, this weekend NHRA is in Sonoma.
Next week, or, excuse me, august 11th, they're in Kansas.
August 17th through the 19th they're at Brainerd.
Did you?
Did you like Brainerd when you went?
I hear it's an animal house.
The most fun on the drag racing circuit is Brainerd Minnesota with the zoo.
Yeah, I hear that's a pretty crazy.
Oh my God, pretty crazy it is.
It is.
And then the U S Nationals is always a Labor Day weekend, and then the week two weekends after that is Maple Grove, and that'll be the first of the playoffs at Maple Grove.
Nascar is was in Pocono last weekend, formula one is going to be is in the Netherlands tonight, tomorrow, and then there'll be in Italy next week.
Indy car is they've done all their Iowa stuff and Indy car is headed to Laguna Seca, cool.
Which would be a fun, fun event.
Yeah, All right.
Uh, jeff has a feature this week on auto transports and what you know, if you wanted to get into a business back in the 1950s.
Or even earlier.
Yeah, so we'll let you do, do it.
Well, it's uh, and it's not just car Transports, there's their ships and there's airplanes.
That transport, to course?
Yeah, absolutely.
So we'll get started here with this.
I'm gonna let it roll.
Alongside the automotive industry came the automotive transport industry.
Railroads were a primary means of transportation for moving vehicles across long distances.
However, it wasn't the best option because it was slow and costly.
Over the years, that have been some significant developments, from the very first semi truck in 1897 right through the automated auto transport system available today.
Growing number of new cars meant that the automobile manufacturers needed to find a way of efficiently delivering them to customers.
Driving their vehicles long distances wasn't the practical way to do it.
The solution, mic, involved loading cars on the top of a flat cart that was attached to the top of an engine.
The flat cart was attached to the back of a modified truck, and hence the world's first semi truck was born.
One such manufacturer was able to design a trailer that pulled a two ton truck.
It was able to haul four cars at a time, which was groundbreaking for the transport industry at the time.
One of the first folks to develop a transport was ransom old, in 1901, that's for you, brother.
Okay, on the rail side of it, during the 40s and 50s, many railroads were transporting cars across long distances, using automobile loading assemblies that allowed them to fit as many cars as possible into a box car.
However it was too.
It wasn't too successful and it was very, very expensive to do so during the tour.
The end of the 50s, cars were being transported mostly by rail and Were shipped on highway auto carriers and could be transported 10 cars at a time, basically.
So on the air side of it up until the late 40s, air transports being used for transporting people and goods mainly.
However, the demand quickly Increased, transporting cars across the pond, so to speak.
Air transport companies started transporting Transporting vehicles as far back as the 40s and early 50s.
On the ship side of it and this is where it gets kind of interesting too During the early 60s, cargo ships also played a part of the vehicle transport.
They were very successful at the time, but they couldn't carry large number of cars.
At that time, however, something better was needed by the US military.
The US military contact or contracted with the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dot Company in Chester, pennsylvania to design a new type of motorized vehicle, trying to get their ship together.
Yeah, a Carrier that was purely For transporting cars across the ocean was invented in 1973 by K-Line in Japan.
It was named the European Highway and could carry up to 4200 vehicles.
Now, thanks to Technology, we can now do things quicker, more efficiently and cheaper than ever before.
Auto transport industry has been so slow or it hasn't been slow in making most of the technology.
In many ways, the innovation at the core was the auto transport industry that you get today.
I'm waiting for this last one.
There is a famous transporter that actually sank 250 miles off the Portugal coast.
What was the name of it, mike?
Well, the name of that ship was called the Felicity Ace.
That was the vehicle that sank, that was recently yes, most recently had 4,200 vehicles and that's the picture of it right there.
The insurance estimate was $155 million just in the auto cargo side of it.
Lamborghinis and Audis and electric car.
It doesn't matter, it was $155 million.
And that in that vein a crew member and they couldn't put out In that vein.
A crew member aboard a large cargo ship died as a fire engulfed the ship off the coast of the Netherlands.
The Dutch newspaper whatever it can't pronounce that reported that the ship was carrying 2,857 cars, of which 25 were electric vehicles.
This is a story from this week In automotive news.
One of the EVs may have caught fire.
Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing an unnamed Coast Guard official Mercedes-Benz said about 350 of the vehicles onboard the ship were Mercedes, adding that the company was in contact with the transport provider.
The fire began on Tuesday night and the Panama registered Fremantle Highway, which was in route from Germany to Egypt, forcing several crew members to jump overboard.
The Coast Guard said the Fremantle, which had departed from the German port of Bremerhaven, had been towed out of the shipping lanes and could sink.
Hasn't sunk yet.
The 10 year old ship, measuring about 656 feet in length, can carry as many as 4,000 cars.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The incident was the latest of several fires in recent times on car carriers.
Earlier this month, two New Jersey firefighters were killed and five injured, battling a blaze on a cargo ship carrying hundreds of vehicles.
Fire destroyed thousands of luxury cars in the Feliciti Ace which you mentioned, which sank off the coast of Portugal's Azores Island in March of 2022.
Yep, yeah, so it seems as though, up until this point, we haven't had many cargo ship fires with cars on it, but now, all of a sudden, with the onslaught of electric cars, you hear more about it.
Yeah, and runaway battery fires.
Here we go, yep.
Well, I'd asked Jeff, when I knew what he was doing, if he had a picture of the Chevy Vega rail transit system.
And what they did was they drove the Vegas up to the side of the vehicle, headlights in, and then these ramps lifted them up vertically so the headlight they'd tie them down and the headlights were down and the tail lights were up and they loaded them into the side of the rail car because they could carry more of them that way.
They're putting books on the shelf.
Yeah, the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life.
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About this episode
Zach Triggs from Fat Cats Racing shares insights on the art of drifting, discussing techniques, car modifications, and the community surrounding the sport. The episode dives into the dynamics of tandem drifting, the importance of suspension and steering setups, and the types of cars ideal for beginners. Additionally, Jeff Zekin explores the evolution of automotive transport, detailing the history of car haulers and the impact of technology on the industry. The hosts also touch on upcoming racing events and automotive news, making for a well-rounded discussion.
Ever wonder what it’s like to glide across asphalt in a high-performance vehicle? Picture figure skating meets high octane racing - that's the drifting world through the eyes of Zach Triggs, our guest for today, who happens to be the spokesperson for Fat Cats Racing. With him, we'll explore the delicate balance between control and chaos in drifting, the importance of alignments, and his unique perspective on why drifting isn't just a race. Imagine the thrill and precision of manipulating your car to drift, with the added excitement of maintaining proximity without collision. Join us as we talk tire sponsors, the lifespan of a set of tires on the track, and even how Zach changes his own tires.
But it's not just all about drifting. We're also diving back in time to explore the evolution of the automotive transport industry. From the first semi-truck invented in 1897 to the automobile loading assemblies of mid-century America and the European Highway's invention in 1973, we're covering a lot of ground. We'll also discuss recent events that made headlines, such as the fire on a cargo ship carrying hundreds of EVs and the sinking of the Felicity Ace, with a staggering insurance estimate of $155 million.
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