Driven Radio Show #325: Deb Pollack
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Car
Suzuki GS 650 G
The Suzuki GS 650 G is a motorcycle made in 1982. It's known for being a solid bike, but finding parts for it might be challenging since it's an older model.
Term
454
The 454 is a big engine made by Chevrolet that is known for being very powerful. It's often found in fast cars and trucks.
Term
raised white letter tires
These are tires that have white letters on the side. They are often used to make cars look sporty or classic.
Car
Jaguar Xjs
The Jaguar XJ-S is a fancy sports car made by Jaguar that was built for a long time, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. It has a really powerful engine and is known for looking great while also being comfortable to drive. People talk about it because it's a classic car that many fans love.
Term
engine rebuild
Rebuilding an engine means taking it apart and fixing it so it works like new again. It can be expensive but is sometimes needed for older cars.
Term
Lucas Electric
Lucas Electric makes parts that help cars run, like lights and batteries. Some people say their parts can be unreliable, especially in older cars.
Term
small block
A 'small block' is a type of engine made by General Motors. It's popular because it's smaller than other engines, making it easier to fit in different cars, and there are many parts available for it.
Term
drive train
The drive train is the part of a car that helps it move. It includes the engine's power parts that send energy to the wheels so the car can drive.
Car
Geo Metro
The Geo Metro is a small car that was made in the late 1980s and 1990s. It's known for being very fuel-efficient and is often considered a budget-friendly option.
Car
Chevrolet Malibu
The Chevrolet Malibu is a mid-size car that has been around since the 1960s. It's popular for being comfortable and practical for everyday use.
Car
Ford Thunderbird
The Ford Thunderbird is a classic car that was made in the U.S. from the 1950s to the early 2000s. The models from 1958 to 1966 are especially popular for their unique design and comfort.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a famous sports car known for its speed and sleek design. The 1965 version is a classic that many car enthusiasts admire.
Car
Mercury Mountaineer
The Mercury Mountaineer is a type of SUV made by the Mercury brand, which was part of Ford. It's designed for families and can handle rough roads well.
Car
Nissan XTerra
The Nissan Xterra is a type of SUV that was made for off-road driving. It's known for being tough and good for adventures.
Car
Dodge Custom
The Dodge Custom 880 is a big car made by Dodge in 1964. It's known for being comfortable and having a lot of space inside.
Company
ASC
ASC is a certification that shows a mechanic has special training and skills in fixing cars. It helps people know they are getting good service.
Company
Singer Vehicle Design
Singer Vehicle Design is a company that takes old Porsche 911 cars and makes them look and perform better. They are famous for their unique designs and high-quality work.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that many people love. The 964 is a specific version of this car made in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which has some new features that made it better than earlier models.
Brand
Mitsubishi Motors
Mitsubishi Motors is a car company from Japan that makes different types of vehicles, like cars and SUVs.
Brand
GM
GM stands for General Motors, a big car company that makes popular brands like Chevrolet and Cadillac.
Brand
Ferrari
Ferrari is a famous Italian car company that makes very fast and expensive sports cars.
Concept
concourse events
Concourse events are fancy car shows where people display and judge beautiful and rare cars.
Company
RPM Foundation
The RPM Foundation is a group that helps teach people about fixing and restoring cars, so those skills don't get lost.
Company
McPherson College Auto Restoration Program
This program at McPherson College teaches students how to restore old cars and learn about their history.
Car
Volkswagen Karmann Ghia
The Volkswagen Karmann Ghia is a vintage car that looks really nice and is fun to drive. It was made a long time ago and is popular with people who like old cars.
Term
manual transmission
A manual transmission is a system in a car that lets you change gears yourself instead of the car doing it automatically. You use a clutch pedal and a stick to shift gears, which can make driving more engaging.
Term
drive stick
Driving stick means using a car that has a manual transmission, where you have to change gears yourself instead of the car doing it automatically. It's a different way to drive that some people enjoy.
Car
Mitsubishi Cordia
The Mitsubishi Cordia is a small car that was made a long time ago. It had a sporty look and came with different types of gear shifts, including one you can change yourself, called a manual transmission.
Car
Mitsubishi Starion
The Mitsubishi Starion is a sporty car from the 1980s that is known for being fast and fun to drive. It has a unique look and was popular among people who liked performance cars. It's talked about because it was part of a time when Japanese cars were becoming really exciting and powerful.
Car
Mitsubishi 3000 GT
The Mitsubishi 3000 GT was a sporty car made by Mitsubishi in the 1990s. It was known for being fast and had features that made it feel luxurious.
Car
Mitsubishi Mirage G4
The Mitsubishi Mirage G4 is a small, affordable car that is great for getting around town without spending a lot on gas. It's designed to be easy to drive and park, making it a good choice for people who need a simple car for daily use. People mention it because it's a practical option for those who want to save money on their car.
Car
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, or Evo, is a fast car known for its racing capabilities. It's popular among car enthusiasts for its powerful engine and sporty design.
Car
Subaru Impreza
The Subaru Impreza is a small car that is famous for its ability to handle well in all kinds of weather. It has a sporty version called the WRX that many people love.
Car
Maserati Mc
The Maserati MC12 is a super-fast sports car that was made in very small numbers, starting in 2004. It's built for racing and has a really powerful engine, which makes it exciting to drive. People often discuss it because it's rare and has a cool design, plus it represents Maserati's history in racing.
Car
Mclaren Artura
The McLaren Artura is a high-tech sports car that uses both a regular engine and an electric motor to go fast while being more environmentally friendly. It was introduced in 2021 and is known for its amazing speed and handling. People are excited about it because it shows how car companies are starting to mix traditional engines with electric power.
LIVE
Welcome to Driven Radio Show, your home for car talk covering the latest news to the greatest
views on the biggest names in performance, sports, and just plain cool driving machines.
Let's rev up the conversation.
Time for Driven Radio Show.
Hey all you gear heads and car fiends, welcome to Driven Radio Show, your weekly automotive
happy hour.
I am Brett Hatfield here with my co-host and engineer extraordinaire, Mr. Mark Groves.
That's me.
We are coming to you from Driven Radio Studios, where we just barely got the leaves swept
out of the studio before we came in.
It's been blustery.
It's a blustery day.
Well, it's supposed to be, we're almost, Halloween is upon us.
Yeah.
Oh, Halloween, favorite time of the year for food.
For horror writers, I understand.
Horror writers, let's just take a look around your home and take a little walk.
This is Rhonda's Christmas.
Yeah, it really is.
She does an amazing job of putting up a plethora of decorations, including a Godzilla that's
wearing what?
Did you?
Yeah, I was going to ask you if you caught Godzilla.
Yes, I did.
He's wearing a tutu and has a tiara with a hair bun, and he's got some slippers.
And Rhonda made him a little bag to carry, and Godzilla's been thoroughly emasculated
for Halloween.
That dragon is breathing fire.
It probably comes from Fire Island.
It cracks me up because you can turn him on.
There's a little switch underneath, and you can turn him on.
And he still roars, and all the spines down his back light up in different colors, and
it's really cool.
But it's funnier to see in a tutu, for some reason, that just cracks me up.
Oh, you think?
Kai's you?
Well, Kai's you too.
And it looks fantastic, and what a great touch he has, and she makes up, you know, makes
so much of it, and does it on her own, and there's the little tableaus in the Grayskull
castle that's just amazing now.
Well, it doesn't even look like Grayskull anymore.
Oh, no, it doesn't.
It's black and haunted and everything else.
And there's light up parts to it now.
Yeah, all the stuff.
Well, and here's the funny thing, she's still putting stuff up.
Oh, yeah.
There's a lot.
There's a lot of those tubs in the other room.
She's still putting stuff up.
I've not yet begun to decorate, Mr. Man.
And she probably will ride up until the Halloween party, which should be very fine.
You know, I've told you we have hundreds of kids that trick or treat here.
And also with the neighbor doing the full blown three car garage haunted house, and he
does a pretty fair job at it.
The little kids line up for that and they line up into our driveway, too.
So we get pretty good traffic.
I've seen that since since you moved out here.
There's a couple of Halloween's have been out here and just watching the line of kids
waiting to go into this guy's haunted house in his garage, and you can hear him scream
every once in a while.
Clearly, it's got some quality job.
He really does a great job.
Last year, there were so many kids that rather than have them ring the bell endlessly, Rhonda
and her sister just opened the front door and sat there with a couple of bowls of candy.
We get so many kids that Rhonda has one bowl that's candy with peanuts in it, and the other
one has peanut free.
Oh, dude, that's nice.
Yeah.
Well, like I said, we get a lot of traffic and so there are quite a few kids that can't
have that.
So anyway, hey, you've been sending me stuff that you're looking out on Facebook Market
Place.
Well, of course, you know, it's it's my wife.
My poor wife.
She's just like, are you looking at porn again?
Yes, dear, I am.
Yeah, car porn.
I'll be done in 10 minutes and she's like, I'll see you in an hour.
And she's never wrong.
Aaron, I have some more like it.
It's a while.
Is this like when your parents told you to come home and the street lights come on?
Yeah, I just want to just a minute more.
I didn't notice it was dark.
It's nine o'clock, stupid.
Oh, God, yeah.
I've had that gently put more than once.
It's like, Mark, it's 12 o'clock.
Yeah.
OK, yeah, there's a couple of three things I was looking at.
I just sent you that 82 Suzuki.
I like that.
If anybody knows whether or not an 82 Suzuki is a beast to work on or find parts for, let
us know.
I think parts are going to be the bigger thing.
Other than that, it's going to be standard bike.
It's going to be carved.
It's not fuel injected.
It's a GS 650 G, which I'm not.
You know, the GS's are what eventually led to the GSX and the GSXR.
Yeah, this is just not.
This is the nerdy older sibling of it.
It just looks like a naked bike, man.
Yeah, I love it.
So there's that.
I say you that 76 Jaguar that's got a 454 under the hood.
No, no, no.
I'm kind of intrigued.
It's got raised white letter tires on it.
I didn't think just the wheels and tires look good and everything else looks like.
No.
Dude, that's it's like the third payday in a month when you get that extra payday
and you're like, what am I going to do with this money?
Let me go buy a Jag.
Mark, I'm kind of I'm I'm rather, I don't know.
I've worn this joke out before, but I'm going to do it again.
There's more ugly on that thing than a Rolling Stones group photo.
I can't say no strongly enough.
Yeah, I can almost guarantee I won't because I'm gutless.
And I but I kind of like it.
I get the idea.
I really do.
A Jag relay would be hilarious, you know, a 454 swapped.
Plus, there's even a company that used to do it called Johns Broken Kitty.
They made GM conversion kits for Jaguars.
And it was my brother's big mistake.
He bought a Jag and it was one of the what is it?
The HG, the high energy, the 12th cylinder.
XJS HE is the V12.
And he did you vomit down the side of that one, too?
No, I wasn't lucky enough.
Probably should have.
But he he went on the head and had the engine completely rebuilt,
not realizing the two of the cylinders were burnt, dropped about 12,000 into it.
And that's when that fine British electric.
Yeah, it was Lucas Electric.
And he's like, what the hell?
I come in and the lights are on and they won't shut up.
And this that I'm like, dude, I told you to put a 350 in it.
You could have been four K in and set a 12 and you could have chased this down.
But that's the whole
motivation to swap over to a GM, to a small block.
Because, you know, like Jay Leno says, it's a small block Chevy.
You fix it with a hammer.
They're easy. They made a zillion of them.
There's parts everywhere.
Done. All the Jaguar stuff, you know, as cool as it is.
And my mom had had a 94 XJS rag top.
They are fun cars.
Yeah. Until.
Except caveat.
Yeah. Until anything goes wrong.
And that's why I keep begging you.
No, no, no, because that one, again, and my friend,
John Fakara says this and he's not wrong.
When you buy a car that's had something major switched on it, like the drive train,
you're no longer buying that car.
You're buying the guy's workmanship who did the swap.
And looking at the interior, I can tell you his workmanship
is not a five out of five stars.
No, yeah, that interior's got kind of a look.
It's somewhere between a Geo Metro and a Malibu in a and not a new one.
No, no, no.
You can all you can kind of smell the cigarette coming off of it.
But still, it's it's kind of fun.
Now, the only ones, the ones I'm kind of halfway real about are the 58 to 66
teabirds. I've got a bunch of them.
I don't understand why you didn't buy that 59 teabird.
That thing was so slick and the price was right and it looked like it had everything done.
It's still available.
I'm waiting for Larry, the owner to drop it another three K.
Just make him an offer.
If you watch the prices, this is not the shop on Harley parts online.
Men just make him an offer.
I could do that.
That's true.
And this is the guy that's down in my old neck of the woods, Branson.
So are you are you watching our guest?
She's laughing at us.
She's just like these are garbage.
Oh, my God.
Deb's like, you're both morons.
Yeah, both morons.
Oh, look, I'm going to be interviewed by dumb and dumb.
Let's take a break for some commercials about cool car people stuff.
Driven radio show will be right back.
Car guys have dreams, don't we?
The dream might be sitting in the garage waiting to be perfected.
It might be sitting on an auction site with a guy working the highest bid.
Oh, Lord, I got one of those right now.
What makes it a dream?
The potential, the goal, a perfected ride that makes you look back at it every time
before you close your garage door.
Just one more shot.
I tell you, you found the right car.
You can't park it in a parking lot without shooting a look back over your shoulder as
you walk away, amen.
And at Hot Rod Express dreams come true.
Call Hot Rod Express in Blue Springs, Missouri at 816-224-9597.
Ask for Rick Hunter, the nicest guy this side of a kick-ass burnout.
He did wonders for my 65 Corvette and he can do it for your car, too.
Whether you want your dream ride to look more original than when it rolled off
the showroom floor or you want to turn it into a high performance meat eating
flame throwing street monster, Rick and his expert crew could make that happen.
Yes, they can.
Stop dreaming, start driving.
Call Rick Hunter at Hot Rod Express, 816-224-9597 or just stop by at 5105 US 40
in Blue Springs, Missouri, 816-224-9597.
At Hot Rod Express, they make friends fast.
You know, Darrell Ossopick might just be the most interesting man on earth.
Might be.
If you look at his collection of vehicles, you'll
realize this is a Renaissance man from weird old beaters to serious performance
hot rods all in one place.
Owner of Ossopick Automotive, Darrell is the car whisperer practicing voodoo
that brings vehicles back from the dead.
Just for for us here on this show,
Darrell's work on Mercury Mountaineer,
yeah, classic Corvettes, Nissan XTERRA,
unusual Mercedes Yars and a 64 Dodge Custom 880.
Neither of ours anymore.
Not no Moe, but you know why it ran Darrell Ossopick.
That's right. In other words,
we come to him with our whining issues and he comes back to us with shiny,
fixed automobiles. It is like magic.
Darrell has ASC certified mechanics and happily gives binding estimates.
You might not know he's happy,
but that might be because he sees us coming in and it erases all of his joy.
You'll watch that face drop.
Darrell will explain what he finds, what he plans on doing and lets you make your
decisions. Nothing hidden, no mechanic bait and switch.
He's straight up and even guarantees all work for at least one month or 1000 miles.
Yeah. Ossopick Automotive.
That's OSI PIK Automotive 5920 Mariam Drive in Mariam,
Kansas called Darrell at 913-831-3613.
What was that number?
913-831-3613.
Don't even have to read it.
It's been in my head for a while now.
Dude on the back of my skull.
Ask for the big D and tell him Brett sent you.
After he sighs heavily, he'll get you taken care of 913-831-3613 Ossopick Automotive.
And now back to more Driven Radio Show.
Our special guest this week is Deb Pollack, who is laughing at us out loud.
Deb has served the car community professionally and personally for several
decades, a philanthropist at heart.
She's teamed with Cars and Camaraderie.
Make sure you pronounce that right to support the challenges of Parkinson's
disease as founder of DriveTour to cure a nationally recognized 501C3 charitable
foundation, which has raised more than 1.3 million.
Nice. That's a lot of dang money.
Throughout the automotive community since its beginnings in 2016,
since 2009, Deb has remained the publicist for global luxury brand Singer Vehicle Design.
You know, the ones who make the super badass 9-Eleven's.
Yeah, I went on the website and was kind of looking through.
Oh, God.
Yeah. If you and I put all our crap together, we could afford about half of it.
I'll take that up, Cap.
Singer Vehicle Design is globally recognized for reimagining the 964 generation.
9-Eleven Deb has spent the better part of her professional career representing
companies like Mitsubishi Motors, GM, Ferrari and Maserati.
She also judges at various concourse events throughout the country, including
the Hilton Head Concourse, the San Marino Motor Classic and the Greenbrier
Atlantic Concourse.
Additionally, Deb is an ambassador for the RPM Foundation and an advisory board
member for the McPherson College Auto Restoration Program, which means she is
an ace in my book. Deb, welcome to Driven Radio.
Hey, thanks. Thanks for having me.
So when did you first know you were a car person?
Did you have influences in your family or friends?
You know, yes and no.
I mean, I've got an older brother.
So, you know, driving to my grandmother's, he would quiz me on every car on the road
because that was a long drive.
And if I didn't know him, you know, I got a little tug there.
Oh, so I learned every car really, really quick.
But but when I was little, my mom was she really was not someone who drove at all.
I don't even know if she had her license.
Wow. And we had a neighbor who had a wonderful little
Karmangia, cute, cute Karmangia.
Cool car. And I mean, this was a very long time ago.
And it was the kind that had just the, you know,
the flat, the flat carpeting in the back for you to sit on.
It wasn't even a seat.
And I used to love when she would take us to the market because I could sit back
in there with, you know, Indian style, looking out the little slanted window.
And if it rained, that water would come right up in my face.
And I would just giggle and I loved it and I loved watching her shift the car.
And I thought, you know, someday I'm going to learn how to drive.
I'm going to learn how to do that.
And those cars kind of stuck with me.
So vintage is is also what I love.
Just really love.
So what was your first car related job?
How old were you?
Gosh, you know what?
Well, I learned I learned to drive a stick when I was 15.
My cousin had a had a Porsche actually.
And she took me out during it was my mom's 50th birthday party.
And there's not one picture of me because she said,
do you want to learn how to drive a manual transmission?
And I said, sure.
And we ran out to her car and she was down on the floor with her hands on my
feet saying, smooth, smooth.
And and that was how I learned to drive in that old Nazi target.
And and then once I got into into college, I got a job at a summer camp.
And and they said, does anybody know how to drive stick?
And of course, I raised my hand and they said, great, you can drive the school bus.
Oh, and I said, well, and before I can answer, they said, well, you'll make more
money. So I said, I'm in, I'm in and I drove a school bus most of the summer
until I was in one of the canyons and had a little faux pas.
And after that, my dad said, I think you should stop driving that bus.
And then later on, I worked after I got out of college, I worked for a PR agency
and they put me on the Mitsubishi Motors business when I was 22, 23 years old.
And again, they said, does anybody here know how to drive stick?
And I said, I do.
And they said, well, we've got a photo shoot with this little car and we need
somebody to go out and drive it.
And so that was my first taste of going out and meeting the press.
And some of the people that I met even back then, when I was 22, 23, are still
my friends today, what was the car really was the start of it.
Was it a car?
I drove a manual and I still do.
What was the car?
It was a Cordia.
OK, I mean, that was very, very long time ago.
I don't want to talk about what year that was.
No, I was really hoping it was a starry and I had a thing for those in the.
I drove a star in.
I went up to to, oh, God, what's what's the race track that's in Minnesota with a B?
I am I'm mistaking it at the moment.
But I remember driving up there and they gave me a turbo star in to drive up there.
And it's a Friday afternoon and I got stopped.
There was a guy with a smoky bear hat in the middle of the freeway.
And and he was just hauling people over, you know, you, you, you.
And I guess there must have been an aircraft above that was telling him which
cars to pull over.
And so when he pulled me over, he said, he said, well, you know, I'm just going
to have to give you a ticket.
You were going too fast in this car.
And I said, well, now what happens?
And he said, well, if you don't want the ticket, you can pay me fifty five dollars.
And I'll let you go.
And I said, no, no, no.
I said, I'm not about to give you fifty five dollars.
And I said, but if you give me a ticket, I'll give you my triple A card because I
think we've got a reciprocal agreement.
And he couldn't believe that I knew that this little smart ass kid.
And he took my card and sure enough, they will pay your ticket.
And then they hang on to your card.
And once you've paid triple A, you get your card back.
No kidding.
He said to me, you have to go down and pay this before you leave the state.
And it was a Friday afternoon and my flight home was on Sunday after the races.
And so I was like, nope, can't can't do that.
And that was my experience in a starion.
They went fast.
Yeah, they did.
I always thought the starion was Mitzi, but he's an answer to the nine four four.
Ashley, I think their answer was probably a 3000 GT.
Oh, that's a core veteran kind of car that was their luxury sports car in like the
early 90s. Yes.
And I remember that car.
It was probably maybe thirty thousand dollars at the time.
And they thought that was luxury.
Yeah, the 3000 GT.
Amazing how we've changed the VR four was a fantastic car.
Those things, like I said, those were Corvette hunters.
Those things were legitimately quick, all wheel drive.
They handled fantastically and they would they'd hang with Corvettes.
OK, and that was pretty impressive at that time.
Those were great cars, you know, and that was that was in the time.
You know, I mean, there's still a lot of press trips out there that people are
really enjoying, but in those days long before the internet, you know, we we would
you know, bring people out for short leads and bring people out for long leads
and really got to know the press and really enjoy them doing doing really
fine trips in great places where I not only got to drive, but I got to play golf.
Well, remember the auto journalist credo, eat free or die.
Yeah, it may still be that way.
I don't know. It is.
If you can find it, we certainly try.
So how did you get into the PR business?
Have you always focused on car related companies or was it just happens?
Well, in PR, yes.
But, you know, it's funny because, you know, when you go to school,
you don't really know what you want to do.
I mean, I was I was an art history major or an art graphics minor.
And I don't even know what I thought I would do with it.
But when I got out of school, I really wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do.
And I kind of stumbled through some people that I knew into an agency.
There was a woman who was an interior
designer of all things, and she was updating this particular agency.
And she she brought me back to brochure and she said,
I don't know what they do, but there's a lot of young people working there.
And they look like they're always having fun.
So you should apply.
And I did and I got a job there and I stayed there for a really, really long time.
And the day that I started was the day that they had brought back from Japan,
the Mitsubishi Motors business.
And at that time, the Mitsubishi Motors was the fifth largest Japanese manufacturer
in the US.
And and it was really an exciting place for me because I learned so much when
when I started working with them, I think they were selling about 80,000 units.
And by the time I left, they were selling a couple hundred thousand units.
And they had had the new the new plant that was in Normal, Illinois,
that is now the Rivian plant in OK, you know, and and at the time,
that plant was probably the most high tech plant in the world.
I remember touring it and and seeing how everything was sensory, you know,
for the Japanese, you know, the way that they designed handles on the car
so that women wouldn't break their nails to all the different touch points.
And when you walked through that particular factory, you would hear
they had these carts going and and if the cart was getting close to you,
the sensor on it would start to play music like very softly,
like Mary had a little lamb and saw things so that you wouldn't be afraid
and jump out of the way, but you'd know that something was coming near you.
And it was just amazing to me how how state of the art it was
and how high tech that that was the eclipse that they had in there.
And then later, they shared that with Chrysler for the talent.
And and I don't remember what the other was called.
But yeah, it was it was quite a thing.
Well, now you've got me looking at the Mitsubishi website
because I was we don't I don't do we even have a Mitsubishi dealer here in town?
No clue. I don't think so.
And when you open up their page, it's just all SUVs at the top.
And I was wondering if they've gone like Buick and made nothing but SUVs.
But they've still got a couple of smaller cars.
They got a Mirage and a Mirage G4 that look like they probably get
nine hundred miles of the gallon.
You know, I'll tell you when I was with them,
the part that was really fun was they were always involved in the Paris to car rallies.
Yeah, their rally art was like King of the Hill.
They were the best at what they did.
And I don't really follow it now, so I'm not sure how it's continued so many years later.
But I can tell you probably one of the best parts of my career
were all the years I worked with Mitsubishi.
I I not only learned so much.
There were just such nice people that were working there.
And and there was a team of us that all traveled together for about a decade
and introducing cars, but but having fun.
And we're all still friends still.
And those are people that have really risen to the occasion.
I mean, I don't know if you know, Kyle Baysmore over at Nissan Infinity.
I mean, he's the top, you know, communications people there.
Joe Jacuzzi rose all the way up into GM.
He was one of the top guys at Chevrolet.
World Communications, you know, it was it was a special time of people
just really young enough to have a good time, but really strut their stuff
and get to know what was out there.
And and from the media side, the relationships that we built, as I said,
they're they're all people I'm still friends with and it's a wonderful blessing.
Well, you know, I really enjoyed it a lot.
I miss seeing the war between Mitsubishi with the Evo against the Subaru and Preza
and what they would come out with new every year.
And I I I'm kind of sad that there's that's not ongoing.
There was they came up with such cool stuff and such wild cars.
And I miss seeing that that's too bad.
So who are some of your longtime customers and partners?
You mentioned the friendships that you've built doing this.
Who do you who have you had as customers for the longest?
Well, I mean, I worked with Mitsubishi Motors for 14 years.
And when I when I left the agency, I went to work for Ferrari and Maserati.
And I worked with them for almost seven years.
And then when I left there, I came in 2009 to work with Singer
and I've been with Singer since.
So I've kind of had the Italians and the Germans and the Japanese
and and learning a lot about global.
You've been around the world.
Do you speak more languages now?
Not so much.
I mean, I remember when I worked with Mitsubishi,
I took a class in Japanese at UCLA and I got a certificate for that.
And when I was with Ferrari, I learned a lot of the Italian
just just by just by picking up some of the things that they said.
And I remember whenever I'd be on even emails, group group emails with them,
I always would know when when things got a little bit heated,
because suddenly they'd be writing in Italian.
But now I don't I don't really know too many languages.
You know, my my family does, you know, my my my mother-in-law.
Oh, my God, she she's she's got five languages under her belt.
Wow, German, Spanish, French and English.
And she just goes in and out of everything and knows it all.
And I kind of miss that gene.
That's impressive. I speak English and Spanish.
Yeah, a little bit of that. That's about it for me.
That's that's about it.
As anyone who's ever listened to our show knows,
I'm a McPherson College Auto Restoration Program alum.
And so that's very near and dear to my heart.
How did you come to be on the advisory board?
You know, Amanda, Amanda Gutierrez, who I think everybody knows.
You know, I got to know Amanda and and she,
you know, wanted to know a little bit more about PR.
This was probably, you know, nine, ten years ago.
And we had lunch and we started chatting and she brought me out to Kansas.
And I got to, you know, see what was going on.
And I was excited by it, you know, and and also, you know, working with singer.
Everything was about restoration, not preservation, but restoration.
And when I saw what these kids were doing and knowing what they could become,
I mean, to me, it's fascinating, you know, a school like that,
the kids that graduate from there really, really learn not just about cars.
I mean, in order to get your bachelor's degree, you've got to take communications.
You've got to take business classes.
You've got to know more than just how to wrench things.
And and a lot of the people that I've met that have gone on from there,
have gone to curate at museums and very large car collections
and to be involved in design processes.
And, you know, I think that, you know, you've got an open door.
If you, if you come out of a school like that and more people need to know about it,
to me, it's fascinating.
You might even wind up writing for magazines and websites.
You know, you know, and and and the fabulous, fabulous program
they did with that Mercedes to get, you know, number one, just restored
and the amount of classes and individuals that were a part of that project.
And then to be invited to show it at Pebble Beach and then to award.
I mean, I was in one of the hospitality,
a little one of the hospitality places when when that car came down
to get its award and those kids were on top and they were so excited.
And I felt like I was watching my kid walk for the first time.
The tears were coming down my cheeks, you know, because I was so proud of what they had done.
And, you know, and since then, more and more hearing about it, it got national news.
Oh, yeah. It was some of that.
I think it was CBS this morning and a couple of other shows.
And it's it's amazing what the road to Pebble Beach was for them.
And and I hope it just only grows and grows because it's it's a great school.
And they've got they've got a great curriculum and they've got really,
really good donors behind them and really, really good people that are a part of it.
So hats off to Amanda and everyone else in that program, especially
our good friend, Luke Channel, Luke, who we continue to harass about Bradley GTs
and also Brian Martin and everybody in that program is is just sensational.
It's amazing. They really are.
How did you become involved with the RPM Foundation?
You know, when you when you travel a lot in these circles,
you get to meet a lot of people.
And one of the favorite people that I met quite some time back when I think I had
gone out to Barrett Jackson to auction week and I was at a dinner
and I happened to sit next to Nick Ellis, who is their executive director.
Yeah. And Nick and I became friends and he knew that I was part of of MacPherson.
And we started talking about the the opportunities for the kids
and the programs that they were doing with RPM.
And I thought, well, that's a good place to help.
I'd love to get involved with that.
And it was great because after I came on board,
well, of course, the pandemic hit and there wasn't a lot that we could,
you know, physically do.
And so I enlisted my friends at Singer to say, you know,
can we put together some some virtual classes, in a sense, for some of these kids?
And we did several programs for them, virtually, to showcase technology.
And I had our lead test test driver, Marino Frankini on board
to tell them how he had worked on the DLS program.
We had the guy who was the head of our engineering at the time
to talk about how you design parts for cars,
whether you're using 3D printers or what the needs are.
And to talk about the different aspects of that with engineering.
We had our head of interiors come on to showcase what we do for interiors.
So we did some really wonderful things to get those kids excited.
And I've been a part of it ever since.
So it's nice. All right. Now.
We're up to Drive Tour to Cure.
And I know you've been really involved with this for a while now.
Please explain what it is, what prompted you to become involved
and how much money you have raised to date.
OK. Drive Tour to Cure is a 501c3 national nonprofit
that I was fortunate enough to start in 2016.
But I'm going to backtrack for a second
because what we do is we support those that are living with Parkinson's disease.
And in 2006, I had lost my mom to the challenges of Parkinson's.
And I was working for Ferrari and Maserati at the time.
And I had gotten to know Phil Hill, America's first Formula One champion,
him and his family quite well.
And Phil had had Parkinson's.
And so I had a little bit of inspiration there
because both he and my mom were treated at the same facility.
And there was a lot that we had in common
and he didn't live very far from me in Santa Monica.
And when he turned 80, I was still with Maserati.
And we decided that we would bring Phil and his son out to Laguna Sega
to to drive in a Maserati MC 12 on the track,
which turned out to be his last time on the track.
And it was a Western automotive journalist's day.
And we only let the president of the organization
know that we were bringing Phil out.
So once he got there, of course, it wasn't a dry eye in the house.
That was they were so excited to see him.
And we brought out this car and we believed that we were kind of
the bookends of his career at the time
because his first grand prix was done in a Maserati 250 F and in Rem's in 1958.
And his last time on the track with his son was in this MC 12.
And then fast forward to 2008 when he passed away,
we decided that afterwards we would bring the car back to Laguna Sega
and we would sell some passenger hot laps with his son, Derek, driving
and raise some money for Parkinson's.
So that was really kind of the beginning of me wanting to give back
and to do something. It was a fabulous day.
And we felt like we were the bookends of his career.
We brought him out there and then afterwards,
after Phil had unfortunately passed away later that year,
we brought the car back and decided to raise some money for Parkinson's.
And we sold some passenger hot laps
and the folks who were on the track that day were kind enough
to give us an hour and a half of time on the track.
And in that time period, I mean, I didn't know what to charge.
I had never done anything like that.
So we charged two hundred and fifty dollars for, you know, for some hot laps.
And and they were with Derek sitting in the same seat that Phil had sat in.
And in that hour and a half, we raised seventy five hundred dollars.
Look at that.
And I get it all in my purse.
And before I flew home, I stopped at the Parkinson's Institute
and I went and found Dr. Langston and opened up my purse and said this money's
in Phil's name. So that was kind of the beginning of the inspiration for it.
And then I didn't really have time to do something more formalized.
And in around that time, I was also part of the Danville Concourse,
which was raising money for Parkinson's.
And and Phil was part of that when he was live.
And so I had gotten Ferrari and Maserati involved in that.
And and after he passed away, they kind of stopped.
And I said, well, you guys should really be doing more.
You should be doing, you know, a drive.
There's a lot of people up in the East Bay area that have a lot of money
and have a lot of really nice cars.
And so I started something for them that at the time we called the tour
and we called it the thrill ride.
And I invited dealerships that were high end to donate a car for the day
that people can pay a lot of money to drive.
And they had to pay for us to use the car.
And we invited people with exotics and luxury cars to come out.
And they still run that program to this day.
I ran it for eight years.
And and that very first year, we raised $50,000.
Just I'm doing a one day drive going up to a winery and having lunch.
This is who we need to have planned drive to Dine for us.
Oh, yeah, no doubt.
Because I I watched that all.
People kept asking me, you know, why can't we do a weekend?
Why can't we do something else?
And and I just didn't have the time.
And then in in 2009, I started working with Singer
and I definitely didn't have the time.
But in 2016, my mom would have been gone 10 years and she would have turned 90.
And I thought, if I don't start something now, I'm never going to start it.
And so I did.
And and since then, we've raised almost one point three million dollars
thanks to the generosity of the automotive community, you know, nationwide.
And we've got car clubs and groups and individuals and donors
and all kinds of people that do one day programs on our behalf.
We go out to NCM Motorsports Park every year and do a day of open touring labs.
You know, we do virtual programs.
We do anything creative to help raise money.
And and we give it out to individuals and we give it out to
different centers of excellence for Parkinson's throughout the country
where we do events and we we hope that we're doing some good.
Well, one of the places we can go find those events and find kind of
your your calendar is at DriveTourToCure.org.
Correct. And like you've got a couple upcoming events,
Neil Forever, Love at the Greek 2026.
And I was fortunate enough to become friends with a gentleman
by the name of David Jacobson, who separately owns a dealership in Oyster Bay, New York.
He owns a place called I think it's called Classic Car Showcase, CCS.
And and that's how I first met him.
But separately, he goes on tour for several years now as Neil Forever.
And it's a tribute band that plays all over the country with Neil Diamond music.
OK, he is sold out.
I was young. Yeah, that's awesome.
And he's sold out everywhere.
And and we've been friends and and David actually,
unfortunately, lost a parent to Parkinson's.
He knew I lost a parent to Parkinson's.
He knew about my charity.
And he decided that to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Neil Diamond's infamous
Love at the Greek tour at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles,
he was going to rent out the Greek Theatre for one night and do a one night
only concert and have proceeds go to us.
And so that's coming up on April 25th of next year.
And we just opened up presale tickets on Ticketmaster.
And if you go on, you just need to use the code love 50 and you can get tickets earlier.
And it's going to be a great night.
It's just going to be so much fun.
And Gibson Guitars has given me a J 180 acoustic guitar that I'm hopeful
I'm keeping my fingers crossed we're going to be able to get Neil Diamond to sign.
And we will be auctioning that off.
And and if we're really lucky, we're we've invited Neil and and hopefully he'll come.
Can't promise we'll see how he's doing.
He unfortunately is challenged by Parkinson's himself.
So this whole thing is kind of full circle.
You know, it's for a great cause.
It's a lot of nostalgia.
It's coming back to the roots of Neil Diamond.
And and it's with a group that is so successful touring the country.
I can't be more excited about it.
And I just think it's going to be a lot of fun.
And the other part to it is because we do multi day programs
and we do something we call getaway weekends.
We're planning a getaway weekend that we're going to call get me to the Greek getaway.
And it will be that Friday through Monday.
And we're going to hold it in Los Angeles at the Sunrose Hotel
right across the street from the comedy store.
And on Saturday morning, we'll be doing some drives.
We'll have a party Friday night.
We're going to do some canyon drives on Saturday morning.
Probably go to the Peterson Museum for lunch and a vault tour.
And then we'll have buses take our guests to the concert in back.
And do breakfast on Sunday and maybe do another drive on Sunday.
Maybe through the beach and some of the other canyons and enjoy Los Angeles
and enjoy what we term cars and camaraderie and raise some more money for Parkinson's.
You know, Neil Diamond, that was probably among the first ten eight tracks I ever owned.
I have the first three memorized to heart.
But Neil Diamond, I'm surprised they lasted long enough for you to learn the songs.
Oh, dude, I it was between that, you know, because I was like I've talked about it.
I was a redneck thespian growing up, which is a really hard combination to be in the Ozarks.
But, you know, there'd be Molly Hatchett, AC DC, Van Halen, you know, Van Halen, not Van Hager.
My tough stuff. And then you got Neil Diamond.
Then I dropped Neil Diamond and just wailing along with the songs
and even the jazz singers soundtrack.
I had that, too.
So there's you've got this Southern Baptist boy going,
call me drink out of coming out of that 55 play with it.
It was frickin ridiculous.
And I loved it.
So that is that is an exciting event.
That sounds like so much when I'm I'm like, oh, my God,
if Neil Diamond can actually show up, it's totally fan boy.
Sounds great.
He wants to get tickets.
Just just go on to our website and the first page on the home screen
will lead you right there or go to drive toward a cure dot org slash Neil.
And you'll find all the information.
All right. Is that the get me to the Greek getaway weekend?
OK, fantastic. That sounds wonderful.
Now, you and I didn't discuss this earlier, but I can't help myself.
Can you tell us about Singer Vehicle Design and your involvement with them?
Yes, let's say a singer.
Singer Vehicle Design is is probably one of my favorite things to talk about.
I've been fortunate enough to be their publicist almost since the beginning.
I met Robin in 2009.
I was still working for Ferrari and had a mutual friend introduce us
and came down to see what he was doing at that time, which he had about,
I don't know, maybe seven employees and the place didn't look anything
like what it looks now.
And they were restoring these nine, six, four portion nine, elevens
and making them look pretty fantastic.
And they had just shown kind of gorilla
being it up at Pebble Beach.
They they brought a car up to Monterey Week and just had it on a hill somewhere.
And a lot of people had come back and said, you know, they were interested.
And Rob at that point said, well, I need some PR.
I don't really know what to do.
And we met and became friends and shook hands and I came home and told my husband,
I don't think I want to work for Ferrari anymore.
I met this really great British guy and I'm excited about his vision.
And I think I'm going to work for this company named Singer.
And and that's kind of the story of it.
And and now we moved into this wonderful new facility in 2022,
which is one hundred and fifteen thousand square feet.
Wow.
It more than encompasses what was our seven small workshops.
And now we've got a paint facility.
We've got a material and velocity center.
We've got aftermarket.
We've got all kinds of stuff.
And we've also got a UK facility and close to seven hundred employees.
So it's really crazy.
And and they've become a global luxury brand because we've got a watch
division that started in in 2017 out of Geneva with Marco Boricino.
And and they're limited luxury watches that are pretty incredible
called Singer Reimagined and very unique and very lovely.
And and so, yeah, so cars and watches and and a lot of excitement.
I'm looking over their website now as a car and watch guy.
You're killing me, Smalls.
This is oh, God, the things are so pretty.
The tack on the DLS, just that that giant tack is gorgeous.
Yeah, it's got some gold on there.
Yes. Yes. Oh, wow.
This is the best part is it's part of it is the creativity that goes into all those cars.
Part of it is Rob's vision of everything being important and the way that the fit
mints on every single aspect of the car are only four millimeters and the way
things are sanded down and the amount of layers of paint and clear coat that go on
these cars. But more importantly are the relationships we have with our clients
because they come in and not one car.
We've we've delivered a little over 500 cars in 15 years.
Wow, there's that many out there.
Yeah, worldwide and and each one not not one has been the same.
They're all different.
And you know, some some people choose some Porsche paint colors,
but a lot of people will bring in a color or bring in a photograph
or bring in a piece of something and say, this is the color that I want.
This is a memory that I had.
This is what I want to name it.
This is the special wish that I want.
And it's incredible how we've grown and what we can do and how we work
together closely with our customers, because it's a process.
I mean, you won't get a car for three years.
And it takes quite a while.
But when you go through that process with choosing things and with really
getting it just right, it becomes family.
You know, it becomes somebody that you know really well.
I've got one friend who who got his car toward the end of the pandemic.
And and so because of the pandemic, it took him 44 months to get his car,
which is longer than most would ever wait for it.
And he had a very beautiful shade of blue on that car.
And I sent him what what color is that?
What and he said, oh, I get to name that color myself.
And I said, and what did you name it?
And he said, well, I named it Isaac blue because Isaac worked with me
so diligently on all of this and got the color just right.
I needed him to be a part of my car.
And those are the types of relationships that that you garner.
It's it's really lovely.
The website has me stymied.
That techometer is gorgeous.
I'm just that's done by a company called Coos Mall in Germany.
And they do brilliant, brilliant work.
I'm looking at some of the specialness, too, because,
you know, even though we've grown, we're a little company, we really are.
I mean, we're a real company now.
We've got a real HR department.
We've got, you know, we've got things in, you know, across the pond with us.
But we're just a small company.
And I remember in 2018 when when our DLS was first coming out
and we were fortunate enough to work with Williams Advanced Engineering
on that, and they did the engine of the car and helped us.
But it wasn't just Williams.
It was all these major companies that wanted to be a part of what we were doing.
Michelin came on board to create a special tire
just for the seventy five limited cars we were putting out there.
I mean, I mean, who gets to do something like that?
You know, we've got Brembo.
We've got Bosch.
We've got all the big players that wanted to help us.
And suddenly we were like, oh, my God, they've noticed us.
They realize who we are.
And we've got to keep proving ourselves to them.
And we are, hopefully.
Would it be too much to ask just to tour the facility?
I don't know.
I think you know somebody who might get you in.
I'll take you.
Oh, I'll. Hey, I'm looking at Southwest right now.
Get a plane ticket.
I'm also looking at what I believe is the shift linkage on the DLS.
It's all wrapped in carbon fiber and it's beautifully machined.
And oh, my word.
You can see that same similar linkage on on the new Carrera Coupe
that we've done portion of reimagined Carrera Coupe.
Oh, man.
Nine elevens and watches.
Did you get a quail?
I don't know. We had it at quail this year.
I couldn't this year because I'm crippled.
Understood.
But well, we did have it out there.
And actually, right now it's doing its world tour.
It just came back.
It was in Australia.
And just yesterday on the couple days ago on the 19th,
we were with our partner, Korn's in Japan and did Korn's Day
and had the car out there.
So it's making the rounds.
When I saw you in Monterey, walking there from the parking lot
is about as far as I can manage.
Oh, no.
Well, I hope you're doing better now.
I want to come see that facility.
I want to see the factory.
You can carry his pants.
This is all of this stuff is so beautifully crafted.
I'm just smitten.
It's gorgeous.
Thank you.
Please tell us about your involvement in the racing world.
Gosh, I wouldn't say I have involvement per se being more than a fan.
But, you know, when I when I first started working with Mitsubishi,
one of the first things they put me on was their SCCA racing.
So I did PR and I learned all the tracks and I got to know people.
I even got to meet Paul Newman.
So that was kind of fun.
That's really cool.
That's a funny story because the team that was working then with Mitsubishi
was Dave Wallen racing and and they had, you know, in those days,
you'd bring out press kits to the press rooms.
You didn't have digital.
You didn't have anything.
You had these heavy press kits that you brought up boxes of and shipped to every track.
And they had this this cart that was,
I don't know what you'd call it, but they used it to put their tires on
when they went out to the pit lane and in between races,
they would use it to drive things and haul it back and forth.
And it had like a lawn mower engine on it.
And I don't know, but they would start it for me.
And I would put these boxes on it and bring it to the press room.
And I was at this track.
I think I was in Miami at the time and the track was the press room was upstairs.
And I brought out this this cart and they started it for me.
And when I came down from the press room, I had to restart it.
And like I said, it had like this motorcycle type of a throttle.
And yet you had to pull the cord like a lawn mower engine.
And I'm right handed.
So I was really not very coordinated at trying to rev it and pull it.
And I felt these eyes looking at me and up above by the press room,
there was Paul Newman and he had his sunglasses on and he's just looking down
and he's looking at me and he's he's having a chuckle.
And he comes downstairs and he walks over to me and he says, you know,
what is this thing?
And so I explain it to him and I show him and he goes, can I help you?
And in one full swoop, one second, he just ripped it and got it started.
Of course. And I, and I, of course, thanked him.
And then he took his glasses and he lifted up to show me his baby blues.
And I said to him, I know who you are.
And we kind of became friendly.
And the next day there was a press conference for him.
And as I walked past the press conference, he saw me and he said,
there's my Mitsubishi friend. Come on in here. Come on.
And I got to sit in.
And in those days, you would do video monitoring clips, right?
And my mom didn't believe that I had met Paul Newman.
And of course, she was in love with him since she was probably a child.
And, and there was a news segment that showed his press conference.
And there I was sitting inside his press conference.
So I had to go and buy the monitoring clip so I can give the video to my mom
and say, see, I was there. I was sitting there with cool hand, Luke.
What did you do? Exactly.
That was how I first started out as CCA and full circle, you know,
with Ferrari going to Formula One events and, and then singers
been involved with WEC racing for a couple of years.
And they, they worked on that Hertz Jota car.
They did the livery on it.
And then for Drive Tour to Cure, we've got quite a few kids that are
ambassadors for us that race.
We've got someone who's in the F 2000 series.
We've got another kid who does karting and he's grown up and he got,
he got picked by Mazda and the Mazda team challenge.
And so he's part of that.
We've got another one who does dirt fish, you know, off road kind of stuff.
Oh, yeah.
And then I did a couple of programs with Towner Fast,
who was willing to, you know, do a raffle prize of a lunch at the Porsche Experience.
You know, we did that with in conjunction with Pikes Peak.
So I'm kind of on the outskirts of things with racing.
But the most important part is that we started something called
Legends of Motorsports Champions of Parkinson's.
And it was to honor the racing legends that have had Parkinson's,
like Phil Hill, Sam Posey, Parnelli Jones.
And we did, we did a really nice lunch for Sam last year at Lime Rock Park
and raised some money for that.
And so we're getting more and more involved.
BRM Watches is going to be donating a watch to us.
And we're going to create a legends of, of, of motorsports champions
of Parkinson's watch.
And we've gotten the permission of, of all of those folks to have
their signatures on the back and we're going to auction that off.
So, yeah, you know, racing is important.
You know, it's a great audience and it's an exciting prospect.
So and it ties to Parkinson's too.
So there you have it.
I honestly, God thought you were going to say the most important part is I got to meet Paul Newman.
Well, you know, that was an exciting part.
It was, but I have, I have other things that, that also helped me now.
So, but I'll tell you, as far as Paul Newman goes, there's a guy
that I know by the name of Ken Street, who is involved with simulators.
He does probably some of the most high-tech simulators in the world.
In fact, right now, I believe that Singer has a few of those with what we're doing
at Willis Springs, but back in the day, when, when Phil Hill had passed away,
he brought a simulator out to a personal memorial that we held for Phil.
And on that simulator, he put the REMS track from 1958 so that people
could could drive what Phil had driven.
And when Paul Newman was ill, he went out to Lime Rock, which was Phil,
which was Paul's favorite track.
It was his home track.
And he went to Paul's home and brought him a simulator and put Lime Rock on it
so that Paul could still race Lime Rock.
Oh, that's so cool.
Nice. You know, people, people are kind.
People are special.
And, you know, Ken Streets is one of those guys.
And yeah, you know, that's, that's the beauty of this industry.
You meet so many people, whether they're people whose names you know,
or people that you want to share so others can get to know their names.
It's it's been wonderful for me.
And it sounds like it.
Go back on it.
So, believe it or not, we were supposed to have Chuck Sunstrom
of Radford Racing School on last week.
But we had some technical difficulties.
One of our computers decided it wasn't going to work.
And it's the one that runs the board and everything else.
So that put a kink in things.
We're going to have him on again soon.
We've had him on before.
But you have an event coming up November 17th at Radford.
Can you tell us about that?
Yeah, we've been we've been fortunate to with our relationship
with Radford for DriveTour to Cure.
They've they've sponsored us for a few things and they've been a really nice partner to us.
And this year, we did a we did an auction on bring a trailer
that Pensoil was the lead sponsor of.
And the winner got not just two days of performance driving school at Radford,
but also hospitality to and from Scottsdale.
And I was able to get McLaren to provide four days and a McLaren Artura
for the winner and also some McLaren to me luggage.
And so there's this nice package going on and with the money that we raised,
we're going to be going out to Radford on the day that the winner is there.
We'll have a photographer shooting him on track and also shooting him with the Artura.
And then we're bringing out some people from the Muhammad Ali Parkinson's Center,
which is part of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix,
where we're donating a good portion of the money that we raised from the auction.
And we're going to do an oversized check presentation
and and have Pensoil out there in Radford and this winter and do something nice.
Very cool. Very cool.
So November 17th at Radford.
Yeah. You sound like you're you're pretty darn busy all the time.
What's coming up next for you?
Well, actually, my husband and son and I are planning to go up to Napa for a few days.
Why? We're going to take a break next week.
It sounds like it's well earned. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
My husband's got some business up there and and we're going to enjoy
and and visit some family in San Francisco.
And I'll probably be working from there, too.
But we're going to take a nice drive up the coast and and spend a few days
during harvest up there. Oh, that sounds lovely.
Nice. All right.
So the last question we ask everybody and, you know,
the more absurd, the better it usually turns out.
Deb, what's the dumbest thing you've ever done in a car?
Dumbest thing I ever did was drive Mark Webber in my BMW
Formula One champion Mark Webber.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Can you feel him critiquing while you're driving through Singer?
And I was I was at an event with him out with Michelin
out at the thermal racetrack a few years back.
And we were heading back to the hotel and he said, can I steal a ride with you?
And of course, I threw him the keys and he threw the keys back to me.
And I didn't want to drive a Formula One champion.
No, but he said, he said, oh, come on, it's fine.
You're fine.
And it was about a 40 minute drive and we were chatting the whole way.
And then and then when we were about to get off the freeway
and turn to go toward the hotel, he said to me, you know, Deb,
you're a pretty good driver.
And I pulled the car off the road.
Wow. I said, what don't give me this
S-H-I-T Mark Webber, you don't have to be nice to me.
Don't you tell me that I'm a good driver?
And I said, I'm still going to get you where you need to go.
And he said, I'm being serious.
He said, if I weren't, do you think that I would be chatting with you so nicely?
Do you think my foot would not have been going through the floor board?
You know, you you are a good driver.
And I said, well, I'm going to quote you.
And from now on, I can tell the world that Mark Webber thinks that I am a good driver.
That's really, really cool.
My drug. There you have it.
There's nothing dumb about that in the least.
That's very cool.
I would I'd be sitting there thinking he's evaluating me.
He's he's going to pick a partner.
I can feel him judging me.
Oh, yeah.
Man, I wouldn't have taken the keys back.
I would have given them right back to none. No, no, no, no, sir.
Wow. That's really cool.
Usually it's something involving cops and you hope the statute of limitations.
Yeah, I've got a child.
I don't tell those stories, not even just to you.
I did get a ticket on the Blue Ridge Highway.
OK. And we had done a drive tour to Kira
meant out in from Asheville to Atlanta.
And I was in a friend's nine nine six turbo or red one.
OK, there was nobody on the road and we were blasting the music.
And anyway, I got stopped at the ungodly number of one of four.
And this very handsome cop, you know, stopped me.
And and it was funny because he looked at my license and he says,
oh, you're from California.
And I said, I am.
And he comes back and he says, well, I'm going to lower the ticket to 88
so that you don't have to come back for a hearing.
Oh, cool. That was nice of him.
That's really kind.
You know, thank you.
And then I looked at the ticket when we got back to the hotel
and it said that you you had to pay with like a certified bank check or something.
And I thought, well, that means I'm going to have to tell my husband that I went too fast.
So we need to go down to, you know, wherever you go,
City Hall or wherever it is in Asheville and pay this.
And so my friend Kevin came with me and we went down and I went to the window
and the woman looks at my paperwork and my license and she says,
oh, you're from California.
And I said, yeah, I am.
She says, well, you're going to have to go up to the sixth floor.
And I said, well, what's on the sixth floor?
And she says, that's where the DA is.
Oh, my God, I'm going to get hauled in.
Kevin, what's going to happen here?
So we go up to the sixth floor with all the paperwork and there's a secretary
at the window and nobody's talking to you, but she takes everything.
And she says, I'll be right back.
And she comes back about 20 minutes later and she says, well, the DA is not here today.
So the assistant DA is going to have to handle it.
And I'm still shaking in my boots going, you know, what's going to happen?
And then she comes back and she says, you're from California, right?
Why does everybody keep saying that to me?
I couldn't understand why everyone kept saying that.
I mean, and so I don't know if they have a reciprocal agreement or what the deal is.
But she came back and she said, OK, here you go.
She said, she said, you're clear.
She goes, she goes, it's been taken care of.
And I said, what does that mean?
And she says, it's like you never had the ticket.
Don't worry about it.
Well, I've got all the paperwork in my scrapbook and I am forever in debt
to the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the Asheville Courthouse.
And I never had to worry about it.
That was the fastest I've been stopped for, especially in a Porsche.
Wow. See, that's not bad.
That's a good story, too.
I you got out of everything.
That makes me so I have so many questions.
Yeah, no kidding.
I'm going to go make dinner.
We'll talk another time.
Did you bet your eyes just right?
I mean, that that's really cool.
You got out. I've never gotten out of a ticket like that.
No, I even cried once and all he did, I think he made it more expensive.
There you go. I was 17, mind you.
But still, I got pulled over by an overland park cop who had no sense of humor.
And he was really peed at me because apparently he didn't get the gun on me in time.
So I got written for reckless.
This may or may not have been in a white Corvette we used to.
I can either confirm or not.
Well, a buddy of mine's girlfriend said, how fast will it really go?
And we were coming on the highway and like an idiot,
I didn't get on the highway and check for cops first.
I just, you know, slammed it going over the entrance ramp, chasing somebody.
And this cop was really and he he he was so mad when he pulled me over.
It was like I said something bad about his mom and
just wrote me a huge ticket and that cost me a lot of money
just to get it knocked down to careless from reckless
because reckless is a lot more points on your license than careless.
Apparently, you know, I hate to admit, but I've used that too,
because at one one time I got a pretty good my last speeding ticket here was pretty decent.
I 35 and this is more than years ago.
More than 15 over.
Oh, yeah.
So the cool thing was you could go to the little courthouse in KCK,
you drop a two or three bills on them and suddenly it's like a parking ticket.
And I'm like, this is the most awful legal form of bribery
that I have ever enjoyed.
Yeah, you so very much.
Absolutely, absolutely.
This is wrong and I'm I'm all in.
I think I've told you that for a long time,
I used to be good for a couple tickets a year.
Oh, and I kept an attorney named Rochelle, first name Rochelle on speed dial.
And when I called her, better call Rochelle.
Yeah, I'd call on and say, hey, Rochelle, this is Brett.
And she'd just say, where were you and how fast?
She didn't say, didn't say hi.
How you doing any of that garbage?
Just where were you and how fast?
And remember me telling you the story about, you know, you're in you're in deep
when the cop walks up to the car laughing, laughing.
Yeah, I was in the in the 60 Corvette and caught one that was really, really good.
I was 26 over in town.
And the cop just he was just laughing to me.
And he wrote it for 24 over because apparently at that time,
if you were 25 over, you had to go up here before magistrate right then.
Oh, wow.
You know, don't pass.
Yeah, don't pass code.
Don't collect $200.
And on a Saturday afternoon, I'm guessing a judge would have been a little hot
under the collar for me, you know, having to call him in and do as
he's probably, you know, cooking burgers with his family or something.
And the cop wrote me for 24 over and then I called Rochelle and she asked
where and how much and I told her and she said, I can't help you.
Oh, and I said, are you sure?
And she said, this is going to cost you so much.
You're better off just doing it on your own.
Wow.
And I said, what's it going to cost me?
And she said, well, my fee is going to be a grant.
That's just the starter.
And so I wound up doing the same thing, calling the DA and having it bump down
and it was extraordinarily expensive.
And the car that I thought was ticket proof is not.
No, not in that case.
I don't think any are.
We have been speaking with Deb Pollack, publicist and philanthropist extraordinaire.
Deb, please tell us where we can find you online and social media.
And please remind us one more time of the driving tour to cure website.
Sure.
My personal Instagram is Corsa PR gal, C-O-R-S-A-P-R-G-A-L.
And which goes back to my, my days from Ferrari with Italian racing.
And you can find me on LinkedIn under my own name Deb Pollack.
And you can also find my charity at drive tour to cure.org or G.
Deb, thank you so much for being with us.
We really appreciate you taking the time and kudos for all of the fantastic
charity work you're doing.
Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you for inviting me.
Good to meet you, Mark.
Oh, it was a pleasure at all.
You bet.
That was a fantastic interview.
You can tell she's, she's in PR.
She really had her backpack ready to go.
I love them when they go smoothly.
And that drive tour to cure thing is very, very cool.
Some of the. Yes, it is.
There was another event that it's to be determined.
But I was kind of popping around of that Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
You said what?
The Bourbon Trail getaway.
It's to be determined.
It got postponed.
There's a new April date to be determined, but it's in Bowling Green,
Louisville and Nashville, Tennessee.
I used to really like bourbon a whole, whole lot.
Oh, dude, this, you know, this is down in the real bourbon towns.
And just, you know, kind of scrolling through here, it's like you raise
the money for a good cause.
It's not cheap, but it's not outrageous.
And it's cool.
They're doing a great, not curating, but they're doing great things,
putting these things together in very cool ways.
So I, I just, I love it.
Drive toward a cure.org and then check out the events.
And if you want to donate, they've got to make a donation right there.
Fundraising events and pages, give without giving, et cetera, et cetera.
It's a fantastic and you can buy cool stuff too.
So very wonderful cause.
So absolutely check that out.
And thank you so much for spending time with Driven Radio.
We love what we do and we wouldn't be able to do it without the support
of our listeners.
You can find us online at drivenradioshow.com, follow us on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram at Driven Radio Show.
And on LinkedIn as Driven Radio Show podcast, if you have a story
you would like to tell, oh boy, there's one coming up pretty soon.
Let me give me just a second here.
I'll find the gentleman's name.
I had somebody contact me about a show we need to do.
We have him on.
Let me find this real quick.
The gentleman's name is Jay Roberts.
Okay.
He contacted me last week and said, he's got a fantastic, stupidest
thing you've ever done in a car story.
He set a world record, spent five hours and three minutes continuously
driving around the same roundabout.
Oh my God.
He did it to break a world record and to raise money for charity.
He contacted me on Facebook.
We're going to have Jay Roberts on in a few weeks.
Jay, your turn's coming.
We're going to give you plenty of time to explain what in the hell
you were doing and I'm really looking forward to that one.
So like I said, if you have a story you would like to tell or someone
you would like us to interview, please contact me at brett.
B-R-E-T-T at drivenradioshow.com.
I am Brett Hatfield for Mark L.
Groves, ever searching for cars and motorcycles.
Always looking.
Believe it or not, he sends me this stuff during the show.
I get distracted.
I only sent you like four this time.
OK, three.
But, you know, and one of them happened to be a 1963 Dodge Custom 880.
Yeah, bad mark.
No. Yeah, that made me laugh.
Bad mark. No.
That would not fit in the garage.
No, but it looked like it might be a decent daily driver.
You couldn't even fit that in their sideways.
Yeah, it would be.
It would be tough.
And Cammy would be forever mad at you, not being able to get her car in a garage.
Poke me in the eye so hard.
Uh-huh. Thank you for listening, folks.
We'll be back to see you next time here on Driven Radio.
Welcome to the House of Hell.
Yes. Hell, yes.
Casa Amigos at 159th and Merlin serves up some of the best Mexican food
this side of Mexico.
It's a driven radio show favorite for after the show.
We've been there before. Yeah.
And something during if we can get away with it.
Not wrong. Jose Villasenor, the owner, makes food the old fashioned way.
You know, delicious.
Oh, yeah. Remember that?
Uh-huh. Plus, he has a little red Corvette, so we already like it.
I saw that in your garage.
And a little brown Corvette. Yeah, I'm helping.
I'm helping. You're you're so kind.
I'm taking it out and trade for chips and salsa.
It's smart, man.
Did I mention the food?
Oh, oh, yeah, that huge menu and margaritas that are pleased to meet you.
Order takeout, dine in, eat on the patio.
It's all good.
Service is awesome.
Seriously, it's the only restaurant I've been to where the owner comes out
and gives me a hug.
Make the drive to Casa Amigos at 159th and Merlin and Olathe, Kansas.
Check them out online at CasaAmigosKC.com.
Living la vida local.
Casa Amigos, where flavor is your friend.
See. See.
About this episode
Deb Pollack joins the Driven Radio Show to share her extensive experience in the automotive industry, from her early days learning to drive stick in a Porsche to her current role as a publicist for Singer Vehicle Design. She discusses her philanthropic work with Drive Tour to Cure, which raises funds for Parkinson's disease research, inspired by her mother's battle with the illness. Deb also highlights her connections with notable figures in racing and the automotive world, sharing stories of her adventures and the importance of community in the car culture.
Original notes
Brett and Mark welcome publicist, philanthropist, and all-around car maven Deb Pollack to discuss Singer Vehicle Design, working with Drive Toward a Cure, her involvement with RPM Foundation, and serving on the McPherson College Auto Restoration Program Advisory Board. All this and much more on this week’s Driven Radio Show!
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