This is the name of the car show where the hosts are broadcasting from. It’s a structural reference to the event context rather than a technical automotive topic.
The Hyundai Venue is a small SUV-style car made by Hyundai. In the podcast, the word “venue” is also used to mean the event location, so it sounds like they’re connecting the car name to that mix-up. The mention is brief and tied to that context.
A “tricolor” is a design that uses three colors together, usually as stripes or a special paint pattern. In this case, it’s a unique Corvette look the speaker says they hadn’t done before.
Alcantara is a soft, suede-like material used on car interiors. It usually feels nicer and more grippy than regular fabric, and it’s often used in higher-end trims.
Carbon fiber is a strong, lightweight material that’s used to make parts look high-tech. In this story, they’re saying the car’s styling and even some under-hood areas use carbon fiber instead of darker finishes.
A cold air intake is a modification that helps the engine breathe cooler air. Cooler air can be denser, which may help the engine make a bit more power and feel more responsive.
The Bristol Bullet is a rare older car. The podcast mentions a specific early model year and says it’s a convertible and mostly original. That’s important because collectors often care a lot about originality.
“Triple deuce” is a hot-rod slang term for a setup using three two-barrel carburetors (often on classic V8s). The speaker also notes it’s not fully functional as intended—only two barrels are being used—so it’s being treated as a preservation choice rather than maximum performance.
“Four barrels” means a carburetor design with four openings that can feed the engine more fuel when you press the gas. The owner is being cautious about using that full capability.
Cork gaskets are seals made from cork material, commonly used in older engines and carburetor-related areas. The speaker says they “dry out pretty quick,” which can lead to vacuum leaks or poor sealing and can affect how well the engine runs.
Car
Harley Davidson road glide
A Harley-Davidson Road Glide is a type of Harley touring motorcycle. It’s built for comfortable rides, and the hosts are mentioning it as one of the bikes they’re selling or moving.
Car
Harley Davidson road King
A Harley-Davidson Road King is a touring-style Harley motorcycle. It’s mentioned alongside other Harleys as part of the bikes they’re showing off and finding new owners for.
“Quad cab” and “crew cab” describe pickup truck cab configurations—how many doors and how much rear-seat space the truck has. A crew cab typically has four full doors and more rear seating than a smaller-cab layout.
The F-150 Lightning is a Ford pickup truck that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. The podcast mentions it as part of a group of cars being talked about. It’s notable because it’s a modern electric take on a popular truck.
The Shelby GT350 is a performance version of the Mustang. The podcast says a car looks like a GT350, but the badge says “GT 302,” meaning the exact model might be different than what it resembles. That’s why it comes up—people are trying to identify what it really is.
The Mazda RX-8 is famous for its rotary engine, which doesn’t sound like a normal car engine. In this case, it’s been converted to use an LS V8, so it won’t sound like a rotary anymore.
“LS power” means the car has been swapped to a GM V8 from the LS engine family. People like them because they’re powerful and there are lots of parts and tuning options.
The Mustang is a sporty car made by Ford. The podcast mentions different Mustang styles, including older “Fox body” versions and a black-and-white car that looks like a police car. It’s brought up because Mustangs come in many recognizable forms.
The Shelby Cobra is a sports car known for being fast and exciting. The podcast is clarifying that it doesn’t use a rotary engine, meaning it uses a more traditional engine type. It’s brought up as a specific example of a performance car in the lineup.
A Cobra replica is a car made to resemble the famous AC Cobra. Instead of being an original, it’s usually built with modern parts so it can be more practical to own.
A cowl induction hood has an intake on the hood that brings in air from outside the engine bay. It can help the engine breathe better and it looks very “muscle car.”
The 1979 Ford Fairmont Futura is usually a pretty normal-looking Ford. This one sounds like a sleeper—looks stock, but it’s been built to be much faster than you’d expect.
The Granada is another Ford from the same era. The host is basically comparing the shapes and how you can modify them for bigger tires and a more aggressive setup.
“Wheel tubbing” is when you reshape the inner fender area so you can fit wider tires. It helps the tires clear the body and lets the car run a more aggressive setup.
“Voodoo” is a nickname for a specific Ford V8 used in the Mustang Shelby GT350. It’s popular because it revs high and feels special compared to many other engines.
It sounds like they installed the engine by positioning the car around it, instead of trying to force the engine into the space. It’s a swap trick that can make the job easier.
The brake pedal is what you press to slow down the car. If the steering wheel or the pedal shakes when braking, it usually means something in the braking system isn’t smooth—like the brake parts aren’t lining up evenly.
Suspension is what helps the tires stay in contact with the road and controls how the car rides over bumps. Upgrading it can make the car feel more stable and more “planted” in corners.
A factory warranty is the official coverage that comes with the car from the manufacturer. They’re saying that, in many cases, their custom work doesn’t automatically cancel that warranty.
“Void the warranty” means the manufacturer might not pay for repairs under the warranty. They’re saying it doesn’t happen all the time—only when certain builds cross a line.
They start with a Ford F-150 XL pickup truck. “XL” is the trim level, and “single cab short bed” tells you the cab and bed size they’re using before adding performance parts.
This is a suspension upgrade. Coilovers help control how the truck rides and sits, and a four-link setup helps keep the rear axle positioned more accurately—especially when you launch or drive hard.
They’re testing the truck on a dyno to measure power. “91 octane” is the fuel type they used—higher octane helps the engine run more safely when it’s tuned for extra boost.
They’re talking about power measured at the back wheels. That number is usually lower than what the engine makes because some power gets used up inside the drivetrain.
Traction control is a safety feature that helps prevent the wheels from spinning. If a truck has a lot of power, traction control may step in to keep it from losing grip.
This is a hard takeoff where the truck uses power to all four wheels to accelerate quickly. It’s tough on the tires and drivetrain, so it’s a good way to see if the build can handle real stress.
The Mustang GT is a more powerful version of the Ford Mustang. It’s the trim people pick when they want quicker acceleration, and in this story they start with a basic one and then add more power.
“At the flywheel” means the horsepower number is measured at the engine before power is sent to the wheels. The wheels usually get a bit less because of losses through the drivetrain.
The Ford Explorer is a popular family SUV. Here, they’re saying they modify it—lowering it and adding big wheels/tires—to make it look better and feel more “sporty.”
Wheel size changes how the car rides and handles. Bigger wheels often mean less “cushion” from the tire, but the right tire and suspension setup can still make it feel good.
Potholes are road hazards that can be more punishing with low-profile tires and larger wheels because there’s less rubber sidewall to absorb impacts. The speaker is addressing that concern directly for their wheel/tire setup.
The Ford Expedition is a large SUV. They’re saying the newer version has more aftermarket support, so they can fit bigger tires for a tougher, more capable look and feel.
A lift kit raises the SUV higher off the ground. That helps fit bigger tires and can make it better for rough roads, but it can also change how it drives.
Bigger tires (like 33-inch) can help a truck/SUV handle rough terrain and look more rugged. They also usually require suspension changes so everything fits correctly.
35-inch tires are very large and usually part of a serious off-road setup. They can help with clearance, but they can also make the vehicle work harder and may require extra suspension work.
To supercharge an engine means adding a supercharger to increase the amount of air entering the cylinders. More air (plus fuel) generally means more power, but it also requires supporting components and careful tuning to stay reliable.
A turbocharger (“turbo”) uses exhaust gases to spin a turbine that forces more air into the engine. That lets smaller engines make more power, but it also changes how the engine responds and how it needs to be tuned under boost.
“3.5 liter” tells you the engine’s size. Bigger displacement generally means the engine can move more air and fuel, but turbocharging can also boost power a lot.
Cadillac has a high-performance Escalade called the Escalade V. The point here is that Cadillac offers a sportier version, while the speaker thinks Ford doesn’t have a similar one.
The Navigator is a large luxury SUV made by Lincoln. It’s built for comfortable driving and lots of space. The podcast mentions it because the speaker had one for a long time and liked it.
Car
1994 Ford Lightning
The 1994 Ford Lightning is a special, faster version of the Ford F-150 pickup. The speaker is saying theirs is a very clean, original truck with low miles and factory upgrades that make it stronger than a normal pickup.
A heavy-duty transmission is a tougher gearbox designed to survive harder use. The speaker is saying this truck’s transmission is built to handle strong twisting force (torque).
“410 gears” means the rear axle is geared for stronger acceleration. It helps the truck pull and move quickly, but it can make highway driving less efficient.
High flow cats are catalytic converters made to let exhaust pass more easily. They’re meant to improve flow while still doing the emissions-cleaning job.
“Modern throwback” describes a build that uses modern components or newer execution while intentionally copying the styling cues of an older era. It’s a common customization approach: keep the vibe, update the execution.
They’re saying the truck has no window tint. That’s mostly about keeping the look similar to the older truck.
Term
retro bolt
“Retro bolt” sounds like the name they gave to this finished retro-style truck build. It’s basically a custom nickname, not a technical part.
Car
lightning trucks
“Lightning trucks” refers to the Lightning model line of Ford performance pickups (commonly known as the Ford F-150 Lightning). The hosts are talking about a related Lightning truck configuration and how fun it is to drive.
Term
rated at 340
They say the truck is “rated at 340,” meaning it has a published performance number. The speaker isn’t fully sure whether that 340 refers to horsepower or torque.
They’re using the Corvette as a reference point for speed. The Corvette is a well-known sports car, so comparing to it helps estimate how fast the truck might feel.
They’re talking about a specific engine version in a Corvette. When they say “LT1,” they mean the particular V8 that showed up in those early-’90s cars and made more power.
A rear brake conversion means changing the back brakes to a better setup than what the car came with. It’s usually done to help the car stop more strongly and consistently.
They’re talking about a custom 1979 Ford Fairmont. It’s been built as a show car, and it uses the same basic underpinnings as Ford’s Fox-body Mustangs.
They mean the car is built on the same basic foundation as Ford’s Fox-body Mustangs. That usually makes it easier to build and maintain because the parts are common.
Car
04 Mach 1
They’re using wheel designs taken from a 2004 Mustang Mach 1. The goal is to get that classic five-spoke look on the custom Fairmont.
Pro Stock is a category of drag racing with strict rules about what kinds of cars and engines can compete. The speaker is saying the Fairmont Futura has a history in that racing class.
A bench seat is the kind of seat that’s one long seat for more than one person. The speaker is saying they kept the original bench and later considered changing it to different seat shapes.
Bucket seats are the separate, contoured seats you usually see in performance cars. The speaker is talking about swapping them out for the original bench seat.
A seat extender is a kit that bolts to the seat mounts to slide the seat farther back. The speaker tried it to get more room, but it made the back seat area unusable.
A “Coyote swap” means putting a newer Ford Coyote V8 engine into an older Mustang. In this case, they’re doing it to a Fox-body Mustang.
Term
illuminator
“Illuminator” here sounds like something Ford gave the show for promotion or filming. It doesn’t clearly refer to a normal car part based on the snippet alone.
Car
2014 coyote
“Coyote” is the name enthusiasts use for Ford’s newer 5.0-liter V8. In this story, they’re talking about a 2014 version of that engine for the swap.
LIVE
Hey, all you gearheads and car fiends, welcome to Driven Radio Show. Coming to you, well,
it's live for us. It's not live for you. Coming to you from the great car show here
in Kansas City, abruptly relocated from the World War I Museum to the, is this the American
truck museum?
I believe so. Yeah, it's cool. I went inside because that's where the restrooms are and
looked at all the truck pictures. I had an uncle, uncle Bill down in Springfield, Missouri, Bill
Farr, who drove trucks for ever. I have a cousin and his wife who are team drivers. Well, he used
to drive like in the late 40s and 50s. Oh, wow. And it would take trucks down to Dallas back when
Plano was just a whole bunch of farm fields. Yeah. And it was those old trucks, too, to where
basically you were riding right on top of the pavement. I see Steve Garrett walking by. Oh my
God, there's Steve Garrett of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, of which I am a member. Look at
that sexy piece of man. Steve Garrett. Looking good. Look like a man on a mission. He's headed
someplace. So what's going on with the Corvette Club here at the Great American Car Show?
We got the Corvette Club here. We've got, I think, five cars here.
Okay, cool. So with the change of venue, I think it threw a lot of people off.
We have 10, 12 cars, but we've got five here. So I would have brought one of the early cars,
except they just don't haul enough stuff. Yep. So we're in the fireball pickup today.
That's all good. But it's really good. The Corvette Club of Kansas City is 66 years old.
Last year, guys, we had 400 members. Isn't that amazing? And now you've got 401.
401, exactly. So we're a little over like 325 right now, which is really in the
so we had over 300 renew from last year to this year. So it works out really good.
Did you bring your car? I did. What you got? 2023, 70th anniversary,
White Pearl Metallic Stingray Coop. And since we got you just for a minute,
I know you got stuff to do. You were well on your way. I'm a judge.
We got to keep you moving. Thoughts on the new ZR1 and ZR1X?
You'll love this. I just passed away a allocation for a ZR1.
No, I did. I did. No, what made you give that up? I could have built the whole thing as well.
My wife, she said, where are you going to put it? We have a three car garage and three cars.
I said, you know what? Actually, there's another guy in the club
that was on the list. And I said, call him. And they did. And he called me 15 minutes later.
I could hear him. He was driving. I said, you're going down to Henry Chevrolet, aren't you?
He said, how'd you know? I said, I told them to call you.
Already out the door. Already out the door. So you know what?
My wife said, you know, if you do this, it's against my better judgment.
And I thought, shoot, but I knew that this other friend of mine in the club had been on the list.
And I said, call him. I know he'll take the car because you can build it. And you know what?
That's okay. Nice. And now he owes you a kidney.
Yes, exactly. Order his first war male child.
There you go. Yeah, exactly. That's a little Jewish.
But you know what? I love my car. That's just because you're in the tribe.
Yes, exactly. But I love my car. Getting out of it would kill me, guys. Literally kill me.
Those things are low, man. Oh my God. I mean, and as we age, it gets tougher.
Yeah. But you know what? I love the car. It's the, you know, the white pearl metallic is the
first time they've ever had a tricolor on Corvette. And the white pearl metallic is
specific to the 70th anniversary cars. They will never use that color again.
So it's kind of a unicorn, which is really, really cool. The interior is all Alcantara.
It's gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Okay. I'll come take a look. Come take a look.
And I'm a carbon fiber freak. Everything that was black or black metallic has been switched
over to carbon fiber. Interior, exterior, engine bay. There's not a, there's not any black or
brushed silver on the car at all. Wow. I've got an eventuary carbon fiber cold air intake for the
car. It's so damn pretty. They made a window for it. You can see the carbon fiber cold air intake
from the rear of the car. Very cool. Guys, it's great. You got to come over and just look at it.
Oh, absolutely. Oh, they're already saying, Hey, come judge us. We're glad we could grab you for
just a second. Steve, thank you so very much. We will come find you in a little bit.
Sounds good guys. Great to see you again. Good to see you too. Thanks for having me back on.
Always. Well, that was great to see him. Yeah. And that's just, you know, part of the fun
walking around here. I've already taken some pictures and had a couple of pretty lengthy
conversations already just with folks talking about their cars and talking about what they're
doing. There's, uh, I talked with the, um, president of the Thunderbird club and he gave me,
that was a good conversation. He gave me my registration. So, okay. Okay. Yeah. I was trying
to, you know, hit him up for info. I'm guessing those folks might know how to work on your car.
Yeah, exactly. Just a little, and he was, uh, he's got a 62 or a 61, uh, bullet bird here,
convertible, cool. Almost all original. It's one of, uh, small butt ton of trophies.
It's got that real cool and original, you know, that cow that goes behind the back seats.
To just make the air flow perfect. Yes. And, uh, the only reason he hasn't gotten a perfect
score on the car, uh, you pop the hood and the person that he bought it from quite a few years
ago, um, did a lot of chrome work. Oh, so it's real pretty. So like Rome takes away points. Yeah.
And he's got a triple deuce on the top of it that, uh, the, okay. So side story, but, um,
he's only got two of the barrels rolling. Okay. He's like, you know, when he bought it, he's like,
yeah, I put my foot into it to kind of test the four barrels, but this is not a new engine.
So I don't want to be putting that kind of stress on it. So it's still got the two, uh,
the triple deuces, but he's only using like doesn't have the linkage to the other. Yeah. And the,
and the other two, uh, also, you know, they were cork, um, uh, gaskets and they dry out pretty quick.
So yeah, he's like, if you don't use them, you don't use them. Uh, that's story of my life,
man. Uh, just everything I got. Uh, if you let anything sit, it'll see. We were down at the
warehouse last night grabbing the truck cause I was, I knew we were going to have to haul stuff.
And Rhonda looked underneath my soft tail and says, Hey, is that a new spot?
Oh, and I looked at it and it's been sitting in there for a couple of weeks. So yeah,
you know, old Harleys is going to Hatfields home for hateful recalcitrant Harleys. Um,
Oh, by the way, kids, uh, here at Hatfields home, you got to look me up on Facebook because
some of these recalcitrant Harleys are now looking for their forever home. Dollar hauler,
baby. Yeah. They've all been dressed up and they're very pretty and there's a road glide and
there's a road King and that heritage is coming. Baby, baby, we're going to move us some Harleys
now that it's a specific keyword in your ads that people could search for to be able to find them
real easy. Uh, I would do a Hatfields Harleys. So I'm going to have to, right now, I just Harley
Davidson road glide Harley Davidson road King. Uh, but, uh, I ought to put hate in there someplace.
Harley hate me, me hate you long time.
Yeah. Go, go peeking for those and we'll have a couple other things up before too long. There's,
there's a reason there's scars on these knuckles for God's sake.
Well, it's, it's another, it's turning out to be a beautiful day. It was a little crispy
this morning, but, um, yeah, it's, it's nice and up. It's sunny, light breeze. Of course,
we're sissy. So we put the walls up on our, it was breezy. It was cold. Well, and it was a delicate
flower. I need to, to be warm and comfy. Well, like looking right in front of us,
what are, what are some of the ideas you're seeing on here? Oh, we've got a bad boy. Looks
like possibly ZL one Camaro and a charger sitting next to it. And I can see a supercharger
sticking up above the fenders on that. There's a couple of Ford lightings, which are the parent,
parent trucks to my, uh, Harley pickup, which is essentially a quad cab or crew cab, uh,
lightning, uh, there'd be a bus VW bug, uh, pretty slick 67 and pala coop. There's,
and I think that's a 67 Nova that was next to it. I think it might be a 68 or a 69. Oh,
okay. 67 was a smaller body style, but yeah, you're right on that. And, uh, Mustangs and just
all kinds of stuff, uh, that they kind of pulled up to give it that stance. Yeah. It, it looks like
a Shelby, uh, GT 350, but it's a Mustang says GT 302 on it, but slick looking car, uh, Mazda
RX eight running LS power. If you heard it pull in, you're like, that's not a rotary engine.
Uh, see a Firebird and a Cobra replica there. Fox buddy, uh, Fox body, notch back Mustang,
cop car black and white with lights on top. There's three Chevelle's right over there. It looks like
a 70, 71, 72 all with cowl induction hoods that are up. There is a bunch of fun stuff to see.
Well, unlike Steve Garrett said, Corvette clubs here, and I spoke to a gentleman while you were
gone. Uh, the Porsche club is here. Uh, so lots of cool stuff here and, uh, we're going to talk to
as many people as we can grab about, uh, what they've brung, uh, right next to us, Crossley Ford.
We're going to be chatting with them. They've got an unveiling. It's this morning, you know,
it'll be past time by the time you hear this, but, uh, they've got that lightning that they've done.
Yeah. It might be a little sneaky fast. Yeah. A little bit, a little bit. And then there's a guy
that I, as God as my witness, I'm going to find him and drag him over here who has a 1979 Ford
Fairmont Futura. Oh, I want to see that. The body is stock. The interior is stock. It's a brown
turd with a 10, 10 vinyl top and it just kicks ass. Now the cool, the other cool thing about,
I love it. I love Granada's, which is embarrassing. Um, but I think they look cool. The two doors
might you. Um, and this is a two door sport, you know, Futura. I think if you take a Granada,
yeah, you wheel tub it. Oh yeah. You put tubs in the trunk so you can put great big fat meats under
it. And then you run either a voodoo or, uh, the new, uh, the new 50, uh, the coyote motor.
That's what he's got in here. Uh, yeah. He's got a car talking and the thing is going to be stupid.
And as a hand, hopefully, uh, if we can get him over to tell the story of it, one of the things
that I was like, really? He didn't drop the motor in it. He dropped the car onto the motor.
That works. Yeah. And just the way that he went about this stuff is, is so cool.
Well, I think that would be a fantastic sleeper. Yes. And it would also make you wonder when
you're sitting at the light, why that thing next year is going. What is that making that noise?
It's shaking the ground and you can feel it through the brake pedal in your car.
So that's what's, you know, that's what's shaking here. This is the type of conversation you get
to have with people. And it's, it's a beautiful day with a beautiful collection of cars.
And I am going to go over and look at that, uh, 62 Chrysler, you know,
the only downside to this is we had to bring the pickup to haul all our stuff and set up.
We never get to bring our fun stuff out. Cool toys. Yeah. That's all right.
There's so many others that are ready to go. Okay. Well, we'll just talk about our stuff.
Yeah.
We're here with Todd Gentry, the general sales manager of Crossley Ford. Also,
do you run Crossley customs? Yeah, I do. Okay. And tell us a little bit about that.
So it's just kind of a passion of ours. You know, all of us at Crossley, I mean, we're car people.
So we've always had the Crossley customs department has been around since probably before.
And we've really just taken off over the past couple of years, taken a little bit more seriously,
really started to invest a lot more money in some bigger, you know, more difficult builds and
and what kind of things are you building? So we do a lot of pro charger, Whipple super chargers,
suspension. I mean, really kind of the sky's the limit. Lots of custom paint work
and trim pieces and different things like that that should just kind of spice up a brand new
truck or car and still offer the factory warranty. Oh, no kidding. That was, that's the difference.
Okay. Cause I was like, well, it's a, it's a custom shop and I'm not really used to hearing
custom shops being connected with a dealership. Yes. But the fact that if you guys do it,
all the warranty stay in effect. Correct. And that's about 95% of the time we do get a little
bit edgy on some of our builds and they do void the factory warranties, but 95% of the time,
you're going to have a factory warranty on what we build. So who are most of your customers,
just new car customers who want something a little bit more? Correct. Correct. And we don't
do a lot of, so we don't have a lot of customers that come in and they're like, Hey Todd, build me
this. What we do is we build what we think is cool and then offer it to the general public for
sake. Right. And it's a little bit easier to manage the customer expectation that way too.
Yeah. Alrighty. Makes sense. So, uh, walk me through a typical build if there is such a thing.
I would say the most typical build for us is going to be a single cab short bed F 150 XL.
And that's how what we call the chassis starts, you know, it's got either chrome or steel front
bumpers and rear bumpers. Uh, does have power windows and they started offering the bigger
screens, the 12 and a half inch screen in the new one. So, uh, kind of classes them up a little bit
on the inside with having to spend a ton of money. And then what we'll do from there is we'll usually
do a ride tech suspension, which is a coil over four-link kit. Uh, we do a lot of Ford performance
whipple superchargers and we've also started doing pro charger as well. Um, that ride tech
suspension drops the front end three inches, the rear, uh, five inches. We usually do a 22 with a
Nitto 420 V 305 tire and, you know, it's a very conservative build. Uh, they dino on 91 octane
at 557 horsepower to the rear wheels. Wow. Did you say 597, 557, 557, so probably six and a quarter,
maybe a little bit more at the crank, probably a little bit more than that at the crank. Yeah.
And we can, you know, we, uh, for the customers that don't mind not having a factory warranty
with some very, very minor modifications, we can get that to 700 horsepower pretty quick.
Well, I'm, I'm curious about the fist fight between the horsepower and traction control in
that truck. Yes. Well, and here's another thing too. I mean, these four trucks are built so well,
you know, when we do our testing and tuning, we'll do four wheel drive launches and knock on wood,
things don't break, you know, they just hold together really, really well. So then you don't
have to worry about the stickiness, you know, which is why we run a 305 too. You know, that's
quite a bit of rubber on the ground. What's a four wheel drive launch in one of those? Uh,
it does drain all the blood to the back of your head. Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Do you do things aside from pickups? I'm assuming you probably got some Mustang customers.
Yes, we do. So we've done a few of the dark horse Mustangs in 2024, 2025. We have a 2025 that we
just sold a, just a basic Mustang GT. So how we order them is we order them as a 401. So you just
get the brimbo brakes, but it's still a cloth seat. So it's a pretty cheap chassis. And then for around
15,000 bucks, you can throw a Whipple on it, which is closer to 800 horsepower at the flywheel.
And those cars, honestly, I mean, they're, they're scary. It's, it's insane how fast you can go from
70 to 140 miles an hour. I mean, it's, I've never been in something like it. Absolutely insane.
Are you building anything else like SUVs? I'm not expecting soccer moms to want to throw
down 700 horsepower, but you know what happens? Some guy, he wants to have something that looks
like the regular, you know, regular SUV, a nine to five type car, but sticks his foot in it and
the thing comes alive. Yes. So to answer your question, we do customize the SUVs. We don't
really mess with the performance side of them, but we do do different suspension wheels, tires.
So for example, we do a lot of Ford explorers. Okay. Where we lower them and put a 24 inch
wheel on them. And you think 24, okay, well, you know, you're probably going to be prone to paw
holes and stuff like that. But on a 24 on the Explorer with the way they've built them, I mean,
you can still get quite a bit of rubber between the wheel and the road. So they look amazing,
ride even better, you know, it almost feels like you're in a sports car. So it's for the KHP,
right? Yeah. Kansas Highway Patrol. Got it. Well played. Yes. Yes, sir. We've done some expeditions
too. In the historically, they don't offer a lot of parts for expeditions as far as lift kits and
stuff. But with this new generation of expedition, there's a lot more parts availability. So we've
done some 33 inch tires and 35 inch tires on those as well. Don't. Can you supercharge an
expedition? We can't. And here's why, because they come standard with one engine. They come with a
3.5 liter. Now they do have that. It comes with the turbo. I wasn't thinking of them. Yeah. And
they offer high output, but you can't get an expedition with a V8. You cannot. And that's
something that's been in the back of my mind for probably four years now. It's like, Hey,
what do we have to do as a team to be able to? Oh, a Coyote expedition, man. With a Whipple,
I mean, it would be amazing. So, you know, that's something we're really. Well, that's,
that's for when you want all your kids to shut up. It's from zero to hell. Yeah, three point four.
Well, you know, Cadillacs got the Escalade V. Yeah. And Ford doesn't have that. So it's like,
man, how cool would it be if we could bring that to market at Gary Crossley Ford? But, you know,
we'll see. There's going to be a lot of planning that'll have to go into something like that. I'd
be interested in that. You know, I had a navigator forever that was just the best truck. And I really
did not want to get rid of it. But you know, when you got seven cars, four bikes starting to look
a little like cousin Eddie's car lot, 300,000 miles on the original engine and transmission.
They were fantastic. That was a fantastic truck. I'd love to get hold of one of those that had,
you know, maybe a little bit more meat under the hood. Yes, that would be nice.
Well, I'll keep you posted on that. You never know. Probably wouldn't get 300,000 out of the
transmission, but yeah, probably not. You'd have a lot more fun though. Yeah. You'd have a tough
time wiping the smile off your face. Yeah. Alrighty. Do you have something here today? Tell us about
what you brought. We actually do. So we've, we're going to be unveiling our latest build. So we've
been working on this build collectively as a team. And unfortunately, by the time this airs,
that will be unveiled. Yes. So if you'd like to go ahead and say whatever you want to say,
you can, you can give away the baby because nobody's going to know. Okay. So my pride and joy is my
1994 Ford Lightning. And it's an all original truck. It's got just a touch over 20,000 miles
on it. Hey, cool. I mean, the trucks is in close to perfect condition as you can find. And I'd
argue, I mean, it might be one of the nicest ones out there in red. And it's called Crimson Red in
1994. They came with GT 40 heads. They came with headers from the factory, different suspension,
transmission, more horsepower because typically you had either a straight six or a 302 and a
single cab short bed back in 94. And this got the 351 Windsor. So what was the 351 with the GT
40 heads rated? 240 horsepower. That was pretty healthy at the time. I think it was 340 foot pounds
of torque. So heavy duty transmission, 410 gears, you know, they're not built for high end, but
they're built for torque. Yeah. And so because that truck is such a passion of mine, I said,
why don't we build a new one? Well, they don't offer a single cab short bed in that darker tone
of red. No, but you know somebody who might be able to fix it. I know a guy. Yeah. So we got the
Vermillion Red, which is a newer color in a 2026 single cab short bed. And we made that look
exactly like my 94 as close as you can get in 2026. I did see the wheels when you were backing it out.
Yeah. Very well done, man. Those, no mistaking what they are. Thank you. And that's the first
part we ordered for the truck back in November. Okay. And it took a lot of time to make them
perfectly symmetrical. Obviously in 94, they were a 17 wanted to go something a little bit more
modern because even in 94, 17 was a decent size wheel, right? Yeah. So we scaled them up and went
to a 20. We did a directional wheel, put the valve stems on the inside. So it's got a nice clean
look tried to match that sidewall, you know, with the rubber. Of course, we lowered it. We did a
different intake painted at silver, just like the GT 40 back in 94 put stainless works headers
with high flow cats. That's of course as type exhaust. So the the exhaust tips would come out
on the side of the rear wheel just like they did in 94 put carpet in it, had the seats embroidered
and they're still a closet because in 94 they were a closet. We embroidered the floor mats just
like they did in 1994 no window tint just like they were in 1994 modern throwback. Yes. Yeah. So
we call it the retro bolt, the retro Gary Crossley forge retro bolt lightning. And yeah, I'm hoping
everybody likes it because you know, I think we're all our own worst critics. But yeah, you always
worry about what people are going to say. And I tell you, there's a lot of people and I put a
list of everybody that's had a hand in this on a little board to display in front of the truck
when we reveal it. And so I hope I hope we I hope the vision doesn't let any of them down.
I did get to see just a little bit of it before you covered it back up. Yes. And that thing looks
cool. Of course, I have I have the the illegitimate child of the lightning trucks sitting right behind
us, which I love the those Harley trucks are just crew cab lightnings. And they are damn fun. Yes,
even in 2002. And they were rated at 340. And I'm not sure on the torque and think it was for
something. But that's a lie. That is the biggest stinkin lie I can tell you from the driver's seat
because in traffic, it is point and shoot. Yes. So yeah, the lightnings really,
really came on well, because they were rated at 380. They had 40 more horsepower than that did.
Yeah. And, you know, short bed, regular cab, they're not hauling anything around. Yeah. Yeah.
My first nice truck was an 01 lightning. You know, so my guess is an 01 lightning was under
4,000 pounds, wasn't it? Yeah, because that 94 is 4400 pounds. And it's, you know, it didn't have
the fiberglass bed. Yeah, like they did in that generation. So I would imagine, yeah, it's probably
right under 4,000 pounds. And you got to remember, this is with the Corvette in 1990 putting 250.
Yeah, they didn't get the didn't get the LT one until 92 jumped to 300 horse. So lightning was
probably Corvette quick. Yeah. And I think Phil was saying 40, 4,200 pounds, that's what
she said. Yeah. That's for a pickup. That's damn light, a full size truck.
So tell us how do we get hold of you? And if somebody's like, oh my God, I got to,
I got to talk to these guys. Go ahead. How do they get hold of you? What's the contact information?
Pimp it, Todd. What do you got? Okay. So garycrossleyford.com.
We're located right in Liberty. You can also reach us at 816-7814844.
You know, my phone rings a lot, but if you leave a message, I'll do my best to get back
to you. My cell phone is 816-506-5298. And my email is Gentry, G-E-N-T-R-Y at Gary Crossley Ford.
So we, and you know, we always say this, we don't expect your business. We want to earn it. So,
you know, give the team and I the opportunity to do it. And I promise you, we won't let you down.
Well, and if you want a new Ford, that's got a little something extra for it.
Yes. These are the guys to call. Yes, sir. Todd, we appreciate you being on with us.
Yeah. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Enjoying the day at the Great American Cars show with a lot of great American cars.
This has really turned out to be a nice day. One of them is Richard Oben from NorthRaceCars.com,
by the way, which does Fox body rear brake conversions and then a bunch of other cool stuff.
But that's kind of their, their big deal and it is a big deal. We'll talk about that a little bit.
I was, I was so charmed. I was walking up and down the aisles and this one I had to stop at.
And, and you'll find out why here in a second, I did mention a little bit earlier. Richard,
welcome to Driven Radio show. Glad to be here. We, as, as I was walking around, one of the things
you said when I first, we first chatted was you're like, you know what, you had the reaction
that everyone else does who walks up here, they look, then they smile and laugh a little.
Richard has driven in and has, as part of the show, a 1979 Ford Fairmont future.
Oh, that figures. You always go for the weird crap.
I love them. It's weird. And this one, I'm like, well, because, and I mentioned earlier when we
first started the show, how much I, I still like Granada's two doors, two doors, mind you.
And, and the other kind of square dad cool cars that were of the era. And this one fits right in.
Now, Richard, I'm not going to give away any of the rest of it. Let's talk about first how you
found it and then what you did to it. And I have a question right out of the gate,
just so I understand. 79 Fairmont future. That has Fox body underpinnings, doesn't it?
That is correct. Okay. And I built it as a, quote, product car for our Fox body conversions.
It has our conversion on the rear and on the front. Well, that's ideal. It's a show car type
demo car, whatever you want to call that. It was intentionally done that way in that car.
I didn't do a Fox body because I don't fit in a Fox body real well. Well, you are.
You are a tall gentleman. And there's another guy locally who happens to have a Fairmont
future. And I'm like, that could work because the doors are five inches longer. The floorboards,
five inches longer. It has an actual trunk, which is great for car shows and stuff where you go,
okay, I got to bring my chair. Got to bring this stuff. And so anyway, that's how I landed on
the future. I haven't seen the car yet. 79 Fairmont future. What, what wheels are you running on it?
My wife picked the Mach 1 wheels from an 04 Mach 1. Oh really? She likes the five spoke. She's a
Mustang girl way back when, and she loves the five spokes and the Magnum 500. That pretty,
that probably looks cool. I've seen one with a Fox body 10 hole. Yeah, that's a pretty common
setup. So I have the 10 holes. But I think those look cool. Now, while he's, well, while he's
looking that up on the phone, I think what Richard just told us earlier is a complete fabrication.
I think Richard just lied to us because I think he just loves the Futura and the way it looks and
the fact that it has an extra name on the model name. I think that's what drew you plus the color
scheme. Oh, I'm not a hater. I'm I'm 100% behind it on that decision. But you know, to make it a
work hard. No, it's because it, you know, a granades too nerdy and the rest is just not cool
enough to be a Ford Fairmont Futura. Oh, by the way, while we are old enough to remember
Bob Glidden and his Fairmont Futura in pro stock in the late seventies. Alrighty, dude. And that's
the main driver besides it's a Fox body. Now we have to ask the really important question. What's
power six cylinder, which I'm pretty sure some of the horses had escaped. I was gonna say that I'm
guessing that's I drove it with the six cylinder in it. And I'm like, wow, this is just awful.
And it was it was truly awful. And I'm like, Oh, boy, what have I done? I also drove it with
the seat that's in it now, which is the original bench from the car. No, it's it was in such
perfect condition. I'm like, I'm going to take the buckets out and I'm going to put the bench back
in it. Yes. And I said, okay, I'll put the bench back in it. But there's a company that makes a
seat extender. There you go. And the seat extender will extend your Fox body seats to be four inches
further back. Well, Fox body is a Fox body. So I bought a set for one seat, because it's only got
four bolts for the bench. Put it on, move the seat four inches back. I fit fine. Nobody fits in the
back. Oh, no, the back is almost touching the front of the back seat is almost touching the
back to be a quadruple amputee. But the back seat was pretty useless to start with. It's even more
useless now. So I was like, okay, what am I going to do with this thing? 15 years ago, I was drafted
by engine power the show out of Nashville. Okay. And they were doing a Fox body coyote swap. Ford
gave him an illuminator. And they called me and said, Hey, you do brakes, right? And I'm like,
Yeah, can you want to promote this? And I'm like, Absolutely, I'll bring you the brakes. I'm going
to be in Nashville. Let me know what date I have to be there. And I'll make my trip work around
your trip. And I spent four days in Nashville and we put parts on a Fox body illuminator conversion.
And I'm like, Okay, this so that the seed was there for a long time before I actually pulled
the trigger. Okay, I was on Facebook marketplace and the guy said I have a 1000 mile 2014 coyote.
And everybody told him he was full of crap. And if you if you're gray haired like I am, and some
of the guys here, you can tell BS guy from a BS guy when you talk to him on the phone. So I called
the guy and he goes, This is what I did. And this is why I have it. And I'm like, Oh, so you bought
an illuminator. Yeah, send me a picture of your motor on the stand. I recognize the illuminator
stand from being on the other show. Okay, so he's got 1000 miles on his coyote, he took it out,
put an illuminator into and turboed it. So I bought the motor, I bought the transmission, I bought
the seats, I bought the drive shaft, I filled up a three quarter tonney conaline van with everything
he was getting out of the car because he wrecked the car. How does the conversion go on that?
How much fabrications involved? None. Really? I bought the maximum motors. I've been a dealer
for maximum motorsports because we got all of our brake lines from them. And I bought the maximum
motorsports K member control arms. I bought standard Fox body BBK coyote swap headers.
I bought a TKO 600 because I traded the T 56 that came with the 14 was too long for the car
for the Fox body. So I did a little horse trading with some buddies ended up with the TKO 600 brand
new in the box. Like that's a good trade. That's all right. And then I had the car, the Fairmont
drove, I drove it onto my lift, backed it onto the lift, put it on jack stands. And when I started
putting it back together, there was no headliner, no seats, no carpet, no engine, no transmission,
no front suspension, no rear suspension, no fuel system, no cooling system, no nothing. I had about
five wires in the engine compartment. One said AC, one said coil, one said oil temp, or one said
temperature, and it's a dummy light in the Fairmont. So they basically go to one.
If your water, if the water gets too hot, it turns it on. If the oil pressure is zero, it turns it
on. I'm seeing some auxiliary gauges in your future. They're, they're in the shop. I'm waiting
for the extender for the because of course, about a bajillion Fox body coyote swaps have been done,
but apparently not with the did the code of digital and the speed output. Okay, they're
getting the pit, they're getting the input from a GPS or something. I wanted to use the transmission
output bubble by that piece arrived yesterday. And I'll so I'm going to put a six gauge pack in it,
which is basically a 79 Mustang gauge pack. Okay, in it, hopefully next week. So I had it all,
I had it all together, had all the pieces. I had the car on the lift on four jack stands. I put a
plumb bob where the K member supposed to go. And I lowered the car onto the K member, which was on
a dolly. So I didn't put the engine in the car, I put the car on the engine. Yeah. And when it got
almost to the point I could put it in, I saw the engine tilt a little bit up and I'm like, Oh,
I know where to put my hole for my shifter now. So I raised the car back up, cut a hole for the
shifter, put the car back down, put four bolts in the K member, lifted the car back up, got my
pole jacks and put the rest of the bolts in the K member and put it in. So I actually put it on
once. It was not a trial fit. It was, it was one and done. Fantastic. Now, did you put like graphite
on top of the shifter thing like the dentist? No, I just let it dent the floorboard.
Cause it raised the engine up. I'm like, well, that probably left a dent.
I bet I could see where that is. That's awesome. Poke here, hole saw none.
Poke it up. I went under with a hole saw, drilled a two and a half inch or two and eight
inch hole, whatever it is for putting a door knob on and drilled that hole. I'm like, well, that'll
get me close. And then I bought a Mustang shifter boot and bolted it to the floor and then I bought
a low car leather cover for it. And that was one of the pleasant surprises when I walked up to the
car and was looking at all of it. And then I went to look on the inside and you're like, well,
I didn't open the door. I pop open the door and I see that shifter down there. I'm like, wait,
what dog? We needed to put him together with Amy Haugland so that she could knit him a shifter
boot like she did with some of the cars in their collection. I don't know that I need a
crocheted or knitted shifter boot. I'll probably stick with what I have, but she could do it in
love and she does it while they're driving. So yeah, it's a shifter boot. That's that would have
been maybe you could lay it over the top kind of like a doily. Now describe the car to our listeners,
the what it looks at what's original, the color scheme interior exterior. So the interior is called
chamois. So it's a very light tan like you would see on a chamois cloth from back in the day when
chamois were actual cloth or actual leather at whatever you lamb's skin or whatever those were
before they went to all synthetic. But it's a chamois interior. It has a chamois split vinyl
top. So it has the bar that goes halfway to the front half is vinyl, the back half is vinyl,
and then there's about a four inch strip that's body color in between. So it's what they call
the split vinyl top. Okay, it's black for the rest of the car. Of course, it has the typical
four eye chrome around the headlights and chrome around the grill and the chrome around the bumper
or the chrome bumpers. They're actually aluminum bumpers with a steel substructure. The Fox bodies
are known to be light. This car was like 2600 pounds new. Wow. And I don't think I really
gained much weight. I gained a lot of size in the engine, but I took out an iron head and
block six cylinder put on all aluminum V eight. Alrighty. What do you think output is or do you
know it put 367 to the tires? That's pretty healthy, which is just probably four and a quarter.
If you do the math, the 2014 coyote is like 410 from the factory. And basically the math works
depending on if you go 15 or 18% and drivetrain loss. Okay. So I'm guessing that car gets
down the road just fine. It has no problem getting on the on ramp.
First gear is useless. If you nail it, second gear depends on the road.
Now, have you tub the back end? Oh, no, that's part of it. I have not touched.
I have intentionally not done anything to the body. It's got the original paint from 79.
It's got the original top from 79. It's the original seats from 79. Squirrely's name is Fairmont
Futura. It's like taking one of those Thunderbirds that had kind of the big, you know, kind of
Oh, it looks a lot like the late 70s Thunderbirds and mark mark fives. I think they were mark
sixes run through a dryer. Yeah. Yeah, they put it. They put it on the shrink cycle because I
actually parked next to I was at a cruise in Lee Summit and this super cool Lincoln backs in next
to me and all of the angles on the front of the Lincoln, all the angles on the front of the Futura,
the bumperettes, all of that stuff is like, well, that's just mini me.
She was like, this is bizarre. This is a 78 Lincoln mark, whatever. I think there were fives at that
point and all of the lines and cues are the same. Yeah. Yeah. I drink gas and I know things, but
but not the power. I think the five oh coyote probably had more power than the 460 that was in
that Lincoln. Oh my God. Alright, so we've we've covered your your hot rod that is probably the
sleeper of all time. Can you imagine? Tell us a little bit about your company and the products
you make and what is your biggest seller? Well, in the late 90s, I got sort of to be friends
with the guys at factory five racing the Cobra kit car. Okay. The Cobra kit car from factory five
was buy a five oh donor by their kit and you're done. They literally gave you a way to convert
the gauges from the five oh, you put the tank in, you put the pedal box in, you put the steering
shaft in, you put the control arms in, you took the headers off, swapped them from side to side.
So they went out the front. They gave you a J pipe that went to a quad exhaust pipe. It was literally
by the donor by the car from them and you're done. Yeah. All you have to add was paint. You could use
the donor wheels and we did the first car we built. We built in six weeks, but those cars are
terribly light. They have good power. How are you going to get the damn thing stopped? Well,
and the problem was is that at the time they made Ford had the M2300K kit out there and guys were
going to put them on their Cobras because it was a Fox body. Well, the problem is the M2300K is
three quarters of an inch longer each side, the axle. So what we did is we were solving the problem
for the factory five cars and getting back to the Fox track. So everything the six letters that
make us famous are bolt on. Okay. Are everything we sell bolts on. You don't need a welder. You
don't need a grinder. You don't need any of that. It's basically take it apart, put our piece on,
put the brakes on, you're done. And we all we did was use 94 to 04 Cobra brakes, both front
and rear, to take a car that had brakes from the 70s, the Fox body, and turn it into a car from
the 90s and 2000s with the twin piston PBRs and the 13 inch rotors on the front and the 12 inch
rotors on the back. And we did it to keep the Fox track and we did that for the factory five cars
because with the drop center wheel, you move that drop center out and it looks like something from
a Ben Hur Chariot because the spinners out there now beyond beyond the the bead seat. So the cast
center now protrudes and you can see it and it looks terrible. Well, we've had that out on the
market and one of the guys this is back old forum days when the forums were kind of small,
he belonged to another forum and put it out there. This is what I did this weekend.
And at the time, Mark Hulahan, who used to work for Mustang monthly as the editor of Mustang
monthly was building a factory five car. Well, we got to know each other through the forum.
He calls me and says, Hey, send me a picture. And I said, I'll do one better. I'm going to be in
Florida on this date and we'll go to lunch. So I meet Steve Turner, who is editor of 50 Magazine
at the time. The two of them, I had a friend take a really good digital picture.
We were in the upfront section of 50 Magazine and we just received our patent. My heist,
my college roommate is a patent lawyer. So I got, I got a really good deal on a patent.
That's handy. And he's like, I came up with this idea and he's a car guy. I said, is this
patentable? He goes, give me a couple of days. Two days later, he calls me back and goes, Oh,
yeah, we can do that. So we have patent and Fox body guys found me. One guy did the whole
diatribe on how to convert your Fox body, whether you're using SVO, SN 95, drums, whatever it was.
This is how you five log your Fox body from 79 to 93. And at the bottom of that section, he goes,
take all of this and ignore it and buy this because it's the only conversion that keeps it
Fox track. And people think, well, what's the big deal? If you have a Fox track on your Fox body,
any wheel from 94 to 04 will fit your car. If you have it as a 95 track with that three quarters
of an inch on the side, none of those wheels fit because they pushes the wheel into the fender.
Yep. Yep. And it's it went nuts. Late model restoration buys and buys from the palette.
And if you know who LMR is, they're the Fox body Mustang guys from forever.
They've been business partners for 20 years. Nice. So what's next? I don't know. I'm old.
I'm trying to retire, but it's basically all mail order stuff. Rich, you sound like you're
busy. I try to not be, but as long as they keep paying me, I guess I'll keep sending parts out.
Well, you open that can of worms. I didn't think it would be that big a can.
Because the idea was let's build some Cobra stuff. And then that turned into, well, other people
build them and they sell them for what they think they have in them. And we've got to try to eat
with it. And that didn't work very well. We still built a lot of cars and we built 20 or 30 cars.
I mean, it's not like, you know, some of the other companies that built five a year or a kit five
a year or super performance and back draft who sell maybe a hundred a year, but we've probably
built 30 or 40 over the last 15, 20 years and just different. We do a little arrive and arrive and
wrench. Some guy will say, you know, I got this far on the car and I don't know what to do. Yeah.
You know, they've got the suspension. They've got, I've been there and this lovely lady who's sitting
over here runs the shop that adopts all of my half finished projects.
Oh, yes. Would that be Ossipic Automotive? That would be Ossipic Automotive.
What's their phone number?
913-831-3613. Surprising how easily that comes to mind.
You didn't have to look it up or anything. No, man. No, I'm getting ready to, you know,
airship my Thunderbird over there too, so we can fix everything I've stopped.
Lori and Daryl have been working on my garbage for 30 years and I don't know if they're grateful
for it or if they shudder when I call. Well, I've learned that if you pay the bill,
they're usually pretty happy. I try to pay the bill. What is Daryl's motto?
I will fix it no matter what it costs. Yeah, sounds about right. So you've got a 1979 Ford
for a month that I'm just, I'm so in love with. What else is in your stable or if nothing else
is in the stable, what have you had before that you, or what do you want to have that you haven't?
Right now, I'm pretty happy with what we have. We have 15 years ago. Yeah, we bought a house in
Lee Summit because my wife's family is all from Lee Summit. I lived north of the river almost
all my life, went to high school in Excelsior Springs. So I've been a Northland guy forever.
Anyhow, her parents were getting older, her sister lived close by. We bought a five car garage
with a house attached. There you go. I mentioned earlier, I had a lift. That's how you do that.
So inside we have six when the snow flies. So my not so daily driver is a 2001 Ford excursion
with the 7.3 diesel. There you go. And people say, what are you going to do with that thing? And I
tell them I'm going to get buried in it. And they said, are you already married? I said, no, no,
if you get a pickup truck, you got to reach over the tailgate every time. With this thing,
you just open the Dutch doors and throw everything in the back. Yep. Yep. And it's,
it's like the world's biggest dog playpen because the seats are folded flat 99% of the time. And it's,
you can put stuff in and out and do whatever you want to do. It's four wheel drive. It's diesel.
It pulls the camper. If you ever decide you want to have another 80 to 100 grand to your name,
just put the sucker on bring a trailer. I've seen them go big money on bring a trailer. They go for
obnoxious money on there. This one's got 200 plus thousand miles on it. Okay. So you're probably
only going to get about 70. Well, I made the decision five years ago that I was going to do
something. And I said, ouch, when I went and looked at a new diesel pickup truck, and it's not a,
and okay, and I would go buy an expedition, but they only come in eco boost. You can't get a
coyote in an expedition. You can get one in an F 150, but you can't get one in an expedition. So
I'm like, okay, the expedition's out. So screw it, fix the rocker panel rust.
You might be able to talk to these guys next door.
There's a guy that did a 50. He did a coyote swap in an expedition because I followed some
of those modular boards and he offered it for sale Arizona car. I said, I'll buy it if it's
four wheel drive. And it wasn't four wheel drive. Oh no. He goes, you guys, I said, we have to have
where we are. Anyway, so the expedition's one, my wife has a 2018 Acura MDX that she never,
she doesn't know how to open the hood and that's fine. I just, I just, I just work on it when she
needs it worked on. It's a Honda underneath. You're probably not going to have to go over
it. It's a pretty Honda. We put 197,000 miles on the last one. And I said, what do you want?
And she goes, I want another MDX. So we found another MDX. Okay. So I also, the, my swap habit
is twofold. I have a 1971 240 C that has an LS one and a six speed in it out of a 04 GTO.
Geez. It has air conditioning and a stereo and my wife will drive it. That's the other thing. Oh,
I forgot to mention on the futura, you've got air conditioning and where was it? Was it the power
steering or what pump you said was it's a Volvo power steering pump that's in the driver's fender
because there's no way all the coyote engine stuff is all electric power steering on the Mustang.
So I took the E-pass power and ground and ran it to the Volvo power steering pump,
which runs the power steering and the hydro boost brakes. Cause there's no way to put a vacuum booster
in a Fox body with the coyote because there's no room. Yeah, you're out. So everybody runs
either manual brakes or the hydro boost. Well, I'm old. So I want power steering and power brakes.
There you go. So it runs the Volvo pump and everything else is stock OE hydro boost.
He keeps saying he's old. He's old. That's not old Richard. That's lifestyle creep.
Yes. Yeah. We've gotten used to being comfortable. Air conditioning, fuel injection, power steering,
power brakes. We're not interested in going back to no power steering, no power brakes, no AC, no FM.
And you sure as done, you don't want no air conditioning in a car that doesn't have wing vents.
Right. And those went away in 67. So. Unless you had a Bronco. Oh yeah. Unless you had a Bronco.
So back to the, the little roller skate that you put an LS in, how, how crazy is that to drive?
It's again, I've, I've, I've all my hot rod days and that craziness. These are both five
columns hot rods. I would call them more survivor mods than rest of mods. Cause neither one of them
been repainted. The Z cars actually Z car only from like the top of the struts out. It's running
an eight, eight out of a Lincoln mark eight. So it's a aluminum center section still with
373s. And I drove it. What's the difference in weight? Is it similar? You gain 35 pounds going
from the six cylinder and the four speed to the all aluminum V eight and the six speed and all
the extra weights in the six. Good Lord. That's fabulous. You drive it. I drove it to, they do a
the Z car community has a Branson Z Fest every year. And so, and you could drive, they've,
they've done a Branson Z Fest is, is a fabulous event if you're into Z cars at all.
Anyway, I drove the car down there, 200 miles, got gas, went to the hotel, dropped my stuff off
behind the counter at the hotel because I'm not spending the extra night in the hotel because I
like my own bed at home. And then I drove 140 miles on the cruises on the back roads. Yeah. And
then the next day we went another 160, 180 miles. And the next day we went another 130,
140 miles. And Saturday's the car show and you drive home on Sunday. So Sunday morning at first
bar of art, I drive another 200 miles home. Yeah. And on the way down, I'm like, okay, it's
six o'clock in the morning. Just knows nobody's going to be out here on a Wednesday or Thursday
morning at six o'clock in the morning. I put the, I doesn't have crews. I set the throttle where
the car would go 80 miles an hour. And it gets 21 miles the gallon at 80 miles an hour,
carries 50 pounds of oil pressure and runs 109. And it's 2100 RPM at 80 miles an hour.
Oh, my God. Wow. Well, that's all right. Did you guys, did you end up going down into
Northern Arkansas? Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's the whole game. Okay. Yeah, yeah. We go across the
peel fairy in the whole bit. We have a whole group that, you know, they have a group and
B group and C group and the A group goes counterclockwise. The B group goes clockwise. And
the idea is they meet at the peel fairy. So there's like 12 Z cars getting off and 12 Z cars getting
on. And then the C group is the guys that are not going to drive as spirited. And I'm usually in
the C group and we leave a little bit later and then we'll, we'll see all of the, one of the groups
coming at us at some point on the drive. But yeah, they do a great job down there. But the car is
super easy to drive because it's an absolutely 100% bone stock LS out of the GTO. I did nothing
to it. No cam, no upgrades of any kind, but it's 350 horse 400 foot pounds of torque in a car that
weighs 2,400 pounds. The Z car, the expedition or excursion, my wife's Acura, the Acura. And
then I have a future. Yeah, the future. And then I have an 07 BMW, a 328 I. Okay. And it's not an
XI. It's just the 328 I. Okay. They didn't make them again, but I had an E 36 of the 325 is and
this is the exact same car just an 07. I always thought the IS was a fun car. It was the pre M
with the IS was I had a 92 325 is I bought it for my wife for her 40th birthday and I ruined a bunch
of friendships because they all had to buy their wives BMWs for their 50th birthday. So just does
that fill out your stable or is there one more? There's one more. And it's the ugliest thing. My
niece called it birth control. It's a 2013. Probably not. It's a 2013 Kia soul in what I would call
pathetically beige. Yeah, it's that tan into tan exterior. And of course, my you could have stopped
a Kia soul. That's pretty much yeah, it's a soul suck. It should be soul sucker on on the
soul sucking appliance. It's an appliance and it's 100% an appliance. I'm stealing that from
Concord 11. You know, yeah, it's a yeah, don't drive soul sucking appliances. But I folded the
rear seats down the day after I got it. I found the original Kia thing that fits in the back that
makes the floor level in the back. And then I bought a Amazon weightlifting mat of some
sort that you made out of some cheap foam that you cut to fit. And I haven't seen the backseat
since. But it's also a lift back. So if I've got to go to FedEx or I got to go to the post office
and drop stuff off, again, it's you don't have to go over the tailgate. And it only had 31,000
miles on when I got it three years ago. And it's a 13. So in 2023, it had, wow, I think 31 when I
got it, it's at 41 or 42 now. But the little thing makes gas. It's a 1.6 direct injected, slow,
painfully slow. Yes. But it's got good air conditioning. The dog likes it. It holds stuff in
the back as long as you're not in a hurry. I mean, it's four miles to FedEx. And there's 13 stoplights.
So you're not going to ever be in a hurry. Zero to 60 eventually. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's,
it's really bad with the air conditioning. There are times if I've got to get on the highway,
I'll turn the air conditioner off, get up on the highway, and then turn the air conditioner back
on. It's been fantastic having you on here at NorthRaceCars.com for all your Fox body break needs.
Been doing it a long time. And it's one of those I get calls from people all the time. And they're
like, Oh, you answer the phone. I'm like, yeah. Well, and, and keep an eye on them because Richard
might open another can of worms here and ruin his retirement. Well, I'm going to keep doing as
long as people keep buying it. I'm old enough now, but I've still got some time. And honestly,
why retire? What are you going to do? Go fishing? No, I have a hobby catamaran that I've been sailing
at Lake Perry since 1989. And there's a whole bunch of us that do it and love it. And the good
part is, is like, you know, if I'm out there, all the stuff's always all packaged. Just a question
of, you know, put it in the truck and take it to put in the car and honestly, if you're retired
after about a month or so, you're looking for something to do, you're staring at the wall
thinking, what am I going to do? You know, wonder, wonder if I've got a granada that I could.
I'm out of that conversation, Jack. It's, it's any Fox platform car. So people look at the Futura
and they're like, well, that's a Fairmont. I said, yeah, it's a Fairmont Futura because they made
the Fairmont in box top, which is the two door post. You ought to see if you could convert this for
your T bird. Dude, here's the T bird 58. That doesn't have anything in it that we work with.
You can put an, I don't know what the width of the, come on, Richard. Yeah, I know that feeling.
You're a creative guy. What is the width of the T bird rear end? I don't currently know.
I'm still trying to get it to run right. Yeah. Well, and the fifties cars are,
are, and those T birds are beautiful, but, and they make a lot of stuff for the tri five birds,
but they don't make a lot of stuff for the later birds. Yeah. The 58 to 60s, you know, they,
they're just, they sold the most of them. Yeah. The 57 bird or the 58 bird outsold the 57 and
56 combined. Yeah. So as you could put back, sold the 55 and 55, I think the Fairmont sold
more cars than the 55 Chevy. They'd have those back seats to start a new generation. Oh yeah.
The wrap around back seat. Go ahead and look at our Facebook page. Once you hear this, because
I'll have some, uh, the pictures that I took of the, uh, Futera, uh, up on there and be sure to
go check out north racecars.com. You'd be able to find all the cool Fox body stuff that Richard
does. Great breaks. My favorite question. I'm always looking at them and going, so, uh, what
breaks did you put on? Yeah. So, so I get this periodically a guy a call me and go, well, that's
a lot of money to, for, for, for breaks. And I'm like, okay, our whole front and rear set upgrade
the brakes from the stone age to modern age in a couple of hours and you're like 1300 bucks to
your door, front and rear. That's really nothing. And I asked him, what did you spend on your last
set of heads? And they'll say like 1500 or something like that. I'm like, okay, so you're
going to spend 1500 bucks to go 0.2 seconds faster, but you won't spend 1300 bucks to stay alive.
Yeah. To keep you, to keep you from seeing the back end of a hay truck. Well, and, and we get it
all the time. These guys call and, and we, initially we made a four lug because the mustangs are
four lug and then we made a cobra five lug. And then we got so many calls that people wanted a GT
because they were drag racing and wanted it to fit inside 15 inch wheels. So we made a GT conversion.
Yeah. So it now will take a 10.6 rotor or an 11.65 rotor, which is what I have on the future is
1165. And that's our most popular. But yeah, I'm astounded that people don't want to stop.
Yeah. That can save your life. And I get calls all the time. He goes, I'm doing 130 on the big
end and I need to slow down better. Yeah. What they do, what they do is they get in the burnout box
and they hold the brake and that gets the rear brakes hot. Well, and then they got no brakes.
And then their pedal goes to the floor because the rear drums have now expanded
and the wheel cylinder won't expand any further. And the whole, it's just this,
I got to the big end and my foot's going to the floor and I said, well, with this brakes,
that doesn't happen, but I would get a line line. Well, folks, for your Fox bodies, for your factory
five kits, be sure to check out northracecars.com. They're going to have everything that you need
and they just bolt right in. If you want to stop, you know, we're to start northracecars.com.
Richard, thank you so much for being with us. We're very welcome. Pleasure meeting you guys.
And I wasn't expecting to be on a podcast today, but okay.
We've got one of our favorite people in the chair, somebody we speak of frequently,
Darrell Ossopic of Ossopic Automotive. Captain of the mid show ad.
You can find them at 5920 Merriam Lane, phone number 913-831-3613.
You can't be surprised that I know that off the top of my head. I'm flattered.
Darrell, how long have you been in business? How long have you been working on cars?
Working on cars pretty much all my life. Well, let's start it. You know, when I was 15 years
old working for my dad at his car lot actually worked at his service station when I was about
eight or 10 years old. Is that hold the damn light still?
Or were you out running the pumps? Were you the gas jockey?
I did the gas jockey thing until I tried to squeeze a little extra gas in and found out that
when it splashes, when you're looking right down where the gas is going in, you get a face full of
that. Oh, no. So they took me off that duty. Doesn't taste real good. Now it feels good.
Get it up your nose. Smell nothing but that for a week. Learn it the hard way. There you go.
How long have you had your own shop? Where's my wife? She's right there. 44 years. 45 years.
45 or 54. I'm seeing 45. I missed your thumb so it's 45 again. Well, I'm paying more attention
to her than you are. You should. You damn right. She's the person who figures up my bill.
And have you always been at the location you're at now? No. I started with a partner
a few years before this location and we moved down to this location. Then we split the partnership
up but we were at a different location for about three years. And so you've been in this place
for 42. Yeah. Yeah, you wouldn't know it by walking inside, would you? No, you'd think it was much
longer than that. Except for the accumulation of items around the shop. Is that what you're saying?
I've been going in there for 30 years. Museum quality items. And I've seen things just kind of
grow and I went in there and I've seen things bigger. It's you wouldn't think that car parts
could grow but they have. I don't pay attention. That's probably why they do. Yeah. And the number
of cars in your shop, I'm kind of wondering when it's going to bust at the seams. We call those
projects. Yes. Yes, they do. Speaking of which, you've got one I need to come collect sometime
this week. I just got a fine time to come and pick it up and shine it up. Yeah, you got to make
room for mine the night. You know, airdrop that headache on it. Let me sell a couple
Harleys for the love of God. This is too much crap going on. Anyway, what is the most interesting
project you have in the shop right now? Most interesting. I guess for now the TR3 that I had
to set back of having a locked up engine. Minor things, little stuff. That's the little bug I
read one that sits back down as 60 TR3. Oh, I love that car.
Lori and I went up to the Cleric. I wouldn't pick that up. It was been sitting supposedly for five
or six years. They didn't say anything about it being locked up, but I found that out around one
park. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very moment. So we'll be getting back to that. Plus I got my
Tornado that I bought. I don't think it'll be quite as big a deal, but it's been sitting. Maybe
it's locked up. I just haven't gotten to it. I haven't gotten to see that Tornado yet. It's
cool. I've seen the front end of it. I haven't gotten to get inside of it and see what it does.
It's a nice car. It's a complete car, got air and bodies pretty rust free. So looking forward to
getting that one running. Now, knowing how much interesting stuff you own, did you bring anything
to the show today? Now, just friends from across the street from us. And one of those friends
is sitting with us now, Steve Roberts. Steve, introduce yourself. I am Steve Roberts,
neighbor of Darrell. And for that, we apologize. Yeah, we're so sorry. We do occasionally talk
about cars. And he lets me try to sit in his GT 40. Yeah, I kind of thought you might bring
that out today. No, it's in the museum out in LA. Okay. Well, it's locked up and it's
free. So the museum that puts on the car show wouldn't let you get your own car for the show.
I didn't ask him. Steve, what's your background with cars? What have you done?
Well, I started working on my own car when my grandfather's car was stolen. I got the
buyback on it and got to put it back together. What was it? 63 Chevy Impala. Hey, I had one of
those. Very nice car. My grandfather was a car dealer over in KCK. Mullins Motors. No longer
there. And it was a nice car and he'd kept it really nice. But they've taken off a few extra
pieces. And I got it was told to put it back together. And without pretty much any knowledge
whatsoever about how to do stuff. And my dad would let me put the four row back on. So I ended
up putting a two barrel on that nobody bothered to tell me that you need a different shift lever
on for the transmission. Yeah. So my car would shift at 2000 RPM.
So I ended up driving it with the shifter, you know, holding it in gear and
anyway. And that was the beginning of your automotive career. That was my career. Plus,
they'd stolen the back seat for some reason. God knows. Well, it's they're handy. Well, yeah.
Anyway, I could only find a green backseat in the local junkyards and the car was red. So
it was like Christmas. It was like Christmas for at least two years. Christmas. I finally found
another seat for it. So what have you where did you go from there?
I worked on my own stuff. I worked on friend stuff. I had other jobs that paid better. And
finally, somebody said, you know, I'm going to fire you from this job. But there's probably
this one over here that you might be better suited for. So I started working on other people's cars.
And we went to work for Toyota or Chevrolet locally in Latha. And then finally,
I signed on with Lexus when they first opened in town and was the master technician for 25 years.
25 years. That's a long time. You've seen some changes.
Yes, quite a few. And it was great going to it because my opinion on car repair was fix it
right the first time and, you know, do something on a car that you do for your mother rather than
just rape them. So are you sure? Because I've been told that you should just fix it no matter
what it costs. Yeah, that's our understanding. That's a good line.
Superior Lexus was really good about having the same kind of attitude that they didn't want to
have people complaining. So you fixed your right. And the bad part was since we were brand new,
any, any problem that came up, nobody had ever seen. Oh, so I got to, you know, I'd make the
call to the tech line and explain everything that was going on. They'd say, well, try this.
Try this. Well, call us when you find out what it is. Yeah. Good luck. Miss you already.
I'm guessing you got to help write some manuals. Yes. And some bulletins. Yes. And I did a wiring
harass on LS vehicles, where they wanted the customer wanted to switch to the the
documentary system. Well, there was no change over that. Oh, so I ended up taking one car
or two cars apart and put them back together. So that was a lot of black electricians tape. Got it.
Understood. And making harnesses because the Nakamichi Nampavar went in the back
and the the pioneer went in the front. So the wires all over. Yep. So after Lexus,
did you retire or did you go work elsewhere? Once. And then I went to work for Bob Heinz
in racing. Oh, Porsche. Porsche's and I ended up being kind of the 356 guy because nobody else
wanted to work on. Why? What was it? What was I made them want to avoid it? I would think a
356 would be fairly experience. Are they just held to work on? Yes. Well, they're
they're not profitable. You have to fix stuff and then fix it again and you know, fix it again.
Sooner or later, you find the right combination or fix the rust that was holding everything
thing together. Oh, I have run into that before. If you remember the gentleman, Phil,
who stored that aqua blue 356 Cabrio in the warehouse, you could open the engine compartment
and stare at the floor on either side. Wow. Yeah, but that made the car lighter. So it went faster,
right? Because the whole suspension would wind up. Yeah, a little flexible, little,
little flexible like a rubber band. So what's the most interesting thing you got to work on?
Porsche? Yeah, sure. I didn't nine 30 upgrade on turbos. They changed the
Have you looked at his yet? No, no, we were talking about that. Sir, what? Uh-huh. He just
said it didn't run. I think he saw it go down the highway one time with square tires. Yeah, it
ran one parked. Yeah, it ran one parked. And when would that be, sir? I'll have to look at my wife
again. All the dates. She associates that with our kids birthday. I think that look is I threw
those calendars away. It took her parking space for a while. Oh, dude, one of the reasons I was
working on 356 is because one of my early project cars of my own was a 356 that I got from a junk
yard that had 17 boxes of engine parts. Oh, and not all the same engine. There's not that much engine
there. Several motors there. Sounds like I got to play and I never really worked on it. So I got to
play puzzle. So Steve, do you have anything interesting in your stable now? I have a 72 Z 28 RS.
Very cool. With a 410 motor. Very, very cool piece of hardware. I get it running completely
in my wife. Not much screaming at me. I'm looking at her now. She looks incredibly patient.
And she's saying that's my car. So I think you're out. Oh, that's one of my favorite. I had to look
it up real fast. So I didn't talk out my blood hole, but that that's got that front end with the
split bumper. Right. Oh, it's a sweet car. Yeah. Okay, so now you got to arm wrestle her. Yeah.
No, man, she looks fierce. I got five bucks on her. I got five bucks on Karen. I think she's
going to mop the floor with you my life. Steve, we appreciate you being with us. We appreciate
you taking the time. Thank you for being so patient and waiting on us to get to you.
Any parting thoughts, anything you do any any wisdom you can give us here? Well,
there's a lot of interesting cars out there. One of the other things I do is autocross.
Really? And also I work with a company called SRO that does is the sanctioning body for GT3,
GT4 racing. Oh, okay. So I do that all over the country. So what do you race? I'm a
tech instructor. Okay, so you look at it to make sure that whoever's been working on it hasn't
screwed it up. Yes. Is it pretty common that things are screwed up? Well, you would not
believe how cautious, unconscious some of the technicians are on these cars.
I had one guy that basically tack welded his roll cage together. Tack welded.
Oh, okay. Well, that'll pass. That'll hang in there. Let him throw it into a corner,
good and hard and see what pops. The good thing is once we're done, they're pretty safe. We don't
have any injuries really to speak of even though I've seen some really bad. Is that the most
heinous thing you've seen? Most heinous thing you've seen is a tackle, the roll bar or is there
something else? No. What's the best? They didn't bother even welding one of the back braces.
Most of our interviews, we asked the final question is what's the dumbest thing you've
ever done in a car? Oh, God. But it sounds like, well, okay. That was a mistake. That reaction
up. I want to hear dumbest thing you've done in a car, dumbest thing you've ever seen during a
tech inspection. Okay, tech inspection. I've had people lie about what they what they put on the
car. They've got it written down as the right serial numbers on the on say, the roll cage or the
the safety equipment, the seats, the harnesses and then you go look and it's like, it's not
even the same car. Oh my God. Oops. And they want to lie to you about their safety equipment. Yeah.
Until such time as they hit a wall and the whole stinking car comes apart. Actually,
my favorite is, it was actually not a bad plan, but it was a bad function.
But Randy popes who people know for racing, I know Randy, he had a fire at most pork one year
in his Volvo. Okay. And it was an engine fire. So it's up front. Somehow it set off the the fuel
line melted the fuel line. And it was pouring into the roll cage. Oh my roll cage and the frame of
the car was stuck. So it had all those for attaching trim. Oh, it came up furnace. Oh no. So there's
flames coming in back in the driver's compartment at him. And so I mean, he's trying to stop. He's
hitting the fire bottle. He's doing all that. He finally gets it stopped and hops out in his
suit singed his helmet singed and he was fine. But car went up a little crispy. Yeah,
a little crispy. Yep. Wow. All right. Now we're going to put you on the spot. Yes.
Steve, what is the dumbest thing you've ever done in a car? I have done a four speed
shift on ice on a hill with my wife sitting next to me. And he had her Camaro. She's shaking her
head. Oh, and it didn't turn out well. I lanced launched over the curb blew off the front spoiler.
Oh, oh, and and she's she's beating the
she's screaming. That is my car. That is like 70 Camaro different car. But
she was beating me. She stopped stopping just shy of calling you horrible names. No, she did. Oh,
no, no, I'm sure she know right now. She knows a lot of them. Good for you, Karen. Good for you.
Steve, it's been great having you on. Thank you. I can't remember if I've ever asked you what's
the dumbest thing you've ever done in a car. You don't have that much time. No.
And and I don't want you made me choose. I don't want you to answer for me because you fixed a lot
of it. That's the dumbest thing I ever did in a car. Tell Darrell about it. Now it now he's got
something on me. Steve, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it. Steve
Roberts, folks. Master technician extraordinaire and neighbor and neighbor of Darrell Ossipic of
it must be something in the water over there. Contagious for car guys, you think it could be.
It could be. Darrell Ossipic famously of Ossipic Automotive 5920 Merriam Lane
in Merriam, Kansas. What's that number? 913-831-3613. Steve, thank you so much.
We're here with Joe Petzel of Driveline KC. Joe, what does your company do?
Besides make lots of stickers and t-shirts and cool stuff like that. Well, we first of all,
we love the t-shirts and stickers because you know what? That means that when we we're driving
around town, we see our community members wrapping our stuff. Now I'm looking at your business card.
You're with Brian Huff. You get it. Okay. Yeah. Now you understand what we were talking about
right here. Okay. Small world. I know Brian Huff through PEDWAT. Love it. PED is a great guy.
Your company, Driveline KC, you plan car events, car shows? Plan car shows, community events.
We do a lot of work with local charities. We've been doing a lot with harvesters lately.
For example, our last car show, if you wanted to be in the car competition where your vehicle is
actually judged by one of our panelists, it was either bring five pounds of food to donate to
harvesters or just pay $20 and you're entered into the show. Got these beautiful glass trophies made
and I think we got over a thousand pounds of food donated to harvesters. That's fantastic.
It was amazing. We seriously, we could not have asked for a better turnout for that show.
So how many shows and events do you think you do a year?
We have on our schedule and on our website, drivelinekc.com. We have five of our, what we call
our big shows, our major events. One of those being coming up here soon. I'd love to discuss
more details, but we're kind of still figuring them out right now with Heartland Park and the
IHRA. We've been working in conjunction directly with them to host a very massive show this year.
Okay. Hopefully around the October timeframe, we'll kind of see how, how production is going
for them out there at the track. This is when we say, are we invited? Yes. Awesome. Way to work that
out. No, we need you out there. Okay. Your guys' personalities are just fantastic. Yeah, we host
a lot of community shows, car events. We are in conjunction with a few other local car shows
and companies such as the KC Car Museum, the Auto Museum, KC Cars and Coffee, and just some of
the other ones. KU Car Club, another big one of ours. So you've got something coming up at
Heartland Park. What else have we got? Our latest upcoming one is going to be up at the KU campus.
That is on May 2nd of this year. May 2nd. We have the whole Jayhawk Boulevard planned out and ready
for us. 15 plus vendors are going to make it out there. We're going to have live music. We're
having the allowance for almost a thousand cars out there. Oh my goodness. Whoa. Have you invited
a thousand? I think we've handed out at least 200 flyers today to try to get some people out there.
Okay. Fantastic. And now we're going to talk about this. Yeah. Make sure, now I assume you can find
all the details at drivelinekc.com. Absolutely. Alrighty. Folks, if you're looking for something
to do, May 2nd is just about a week and a half away by the time this post. So absolutely, please
go check out drivelinekc.com. Get the information on that one. Is that May? Do you have more stuff
in May or are we looking at the rest of the summer? We are looking down kind of a narrow
barrel right now. The rest of the summer is going to be looking really good. We had our last show
March 29th and that was one of our bigger shows at the carriage houses of Johnson County. Those
shows typically are going to be part of our big five and then we have pop-up meets that we do in
collaboration with Cars and Coffee, the KU Car Club. I think we're going to play friend geography
here. I know another guy who works with the carriage houses, Jimmy Jack Clayton. Oh, I don't think I
know Jimmy. Okay. Well, he says he's got a tight relationship there. If you don't, you probably
will sin. I need to then. He's a, I think currently Jimmy's driving a really vicious
T-bucket with a 383 stoker in it. Oh, yeah. I'm sure I've seen it out. So a car that weighs
fewer than 2000 pounds putting out about 450 horse. 450. So tell me about the clientele that you work
with. What is it? You know, is it people who want to put on a car show? Is it just not just, but
I'm sure there are different segments of clientele that you work with. So if somebody wants to put
on a car show and is approaching you and say, can you help me organize? Yeah, we have a lot of that
going on right now. For example, I don't know if you've heard of the paddock that is going to be
running up in Tonganoxi. Yeah. So we're working in great conjunction with them. We're hosting
a show with them that is this first one is going to be a private one, sadly. But I think in the
future we're going to be their event host for any of their future events as well. Kind of testing
out, testing the water, seeing what this first one brings and how well we can perform at it. And
then from there, seeing what else we can do. But we have people who reach out to us saying we want
to host these shows, but we want it to be at the same level as we're seeing the driveline shows or
the car museum shows being hosted at. What do we need to do to accomplish that? And we'll come in,
we'll help you out. It's just an easy process for us. We've got our traffic marshals. We've
got a great staff that works with us. And we just try to make it a nice event. We're done dealing
with the slide shows. We're done with dealing with the people getting into accidents. We're
done with the burnouts in the middle of the properties. The paddages, one person will ruin
it for everybody. And we're kind of tired of seeing that. So you guys kind of act as gatekeepers
along with making the connections. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Now, what's the smallest show
that a person, if a person approaches you, especially somebody who's going to pay you,
because I'm in a second, I want to ask about how charities approach you to not to be involved.
But if somebody wants to put on a show, what are the minimums? So we, we actually don't even have
a minimum. We do some shows with the KU car club that only have 10 or 15 people that come out to
it. We are so much more focused on making sure that the community knows our name, that they know
our brand, they know our people, and that we can keep everybody happy and healthy for time to come.
And then once driveline grows and becomes bigger in time, that that same kind of energy can be
reciprocated to us. Got it. Now charities, how do they get involved with this? Yeah, we actually
reach out to charities. So I, like I was saying, I've done a lot with the Kansas City Exotics
Club. And we've done a lot with Geeks for Kids, which is one of my, honestly, one of my favorite
ones. I love those shows because we, they spend all that time getting those cars built for these
kids, then drive around. We have an event at the Aristocrat Porsche dealership where the kids get
to come and see their cars. Oh, very cool. Some kids who are paraplegics that can't drive or,
you know, walk very easily at all. Yeah. And they have these electric cars that'll drive them around
and just make a fun day. And then the family gets to take them home and have them for the
rest of their lives. So do the people putting on the show, bring you the charities they want to
work with? Or do you have a list of charities that are at the ready to go and would love to be
connected with the car community? Yeah. And we would love to be connected with more on top of
that. We've done so much work with harvesters and Geeks for Kids, but I am always wanting to
expand our boundaries here, see where we can grow and where we can help other people grow.
Nice. Nice. Okay. You know, I was very curious about that because we've, Brett and I have talked
about, oh, I wonder if we could do a car show and we've talked to a few, you know, a few people,
some restaurants and stuff like that, but having somebody who's already got the knowledge base
and experience is very valuable. And while you're talking, I'm writing down information about the
show that we are trained to plan, but neither of us know what the hell. Yeah, I did no freaking
there is an ulterior motive here. So you say you do five or six events a year,
five or six big events a year, and then we have about 15 pop up shows. Okay. And what those pop
up shows are consisting are collaborative shows with cars and coffee with the KU car club with
the exotic club, just smaller shows where it's not being broadcasted to six or 700 people,
where it's more of a, you know, 50 cars, 60 car, 100 car minimum kind of kind of show. Okay. Yeah.
And how did you get into this? How did you start doing this? Now, obviously, I'm bringing up
Brian Huff as a connection. Yeah. Brian is a monstrous car nerd. Always fantastic. And has
the facilities to keep all this stuff. Was it through Brian or your own interest or how did
you start doing this? No, it's fantastic question. So my business partner Reese, he's on the other
side of the tent here. Reese and I would attend a few shows and we actually started this company
as something completely different. We just wanted to host a car show and invite just our friends.
And we started it and we were able to see what our outreach could bring. We only sent it out to
maybe 50 people in our in our in the carriage house property. And just how fast it spread and
how interested people were. It just felt very nice. And then being able to host that show,
do it how we wanted to see it done and then have it be done and not have, you know, a crazy,
you know, news story coming up after it, you know, car, car swerves out at show and
hit the group of people, you know, it was, it was just a good, good show and Mustang takes out family
of six. Exactly. Luckily, luckily we're on a curb. So we're in the safe part of the Mustang
territory right now or in the middle of the street. So how long have you been doing this?
Only about a year and a half now. We started when he came around this fast. Yeah, we, we have grown
our Instagram account that we started about eight months ago and we're almost at 1400 followers so
far. That's fantastic. And our community outreach is just phenomenal. We love everybody that we
work with. We love all the people that we partner with and everyone who shares around our flyer.
You know, it just, it gives you that warm feeling that you're, you're doing something
right in the community because people are giving you such great, you know, reciprocation of it.
Well, now as it's taking off, do you have a grand vision for where you're heading or
is it that things have developed so quickly? Maybe your grand vision isn't big enough.
You know, that's a fantastic one too because our grand vision changes so frequently.
Okay. And I love to say it that way because initially we thought, oh, you know, it'd be
great if we partnered, you know, I go on red line rallies all the time. I love doing car rallies
across the country. And, you know, we'd love to partner with red line rallies and do a
collaborative rally together, you know, get some cars out, go drive to, you know, somewhere in
Colorado, somewhere in Texas and do one of those events. Sure. Our grand scheme would try to make
drive line worldwide doing in other states, doing in other continents, doing in other countries.
And I think that would be our grand vision is to see how far we can grow this and how far we
can branch off into different areas and different communities. Well, it sounds like you're doing
a fantastic job so far. For local events. I saw there's a shop button on your website. And also,
you were talking about t-shirts earlier. Yeah. Do you design merch for events?
We do. We actually are kind of working on a new stage of merch with some of our
collaborators. So we have a lot of our gracious sponsors making sure that they're included in
a lot of our merchandise because the way that we are able to put these together and afford to do
this stuff is by kind of crowdfunding with our merchandise. And then we love seeing it on people
in the community. I was out playing golf the other day and I saw somebody wearing one of our
hats out on the golf course. Oh, cool. I was just, I was so happy to see that. Well, dude,
do you also do like event specific? We do. Okay. So we'll be doing some event specific merch
once this Heartland thing rolls through. And once we get that figured out, we're hoping to maybe
partner with Chicago Motor Cars out in Tongan Oxy in their new location, see if we can do any
collaborative merch there. So we are going to have event specific merch that you can get only at
those events. And we've got a great team of designers behind us. One of our biggest things
that we kind of hold true to our core values is we don't use AI for any of our art or any of our
poster designs. Cool. We have local photographers, local artists come and help design our stuff.
And I just think it's so much of a better product, honestly. Nice. One other, do you have a
connection with Fuel House? We have been working on Fuel House. We've messaged them on Instagram
a little bit. We're stalking them. I've been outside their yard holding up a radio in my trench
coat. It seems like a natural step. Yeah, we've been trying to work into the Fuel House thing.
If we have any Fuel House owners or listeners on right now, we would love to do a show at your
property. Even Fuel House customers say something to the owners. We have worked with a few owners
and they've all kind of brought us to the same person to talk to. But no one has this phone
number. Everyone only has his Facebook. That's probably by design. That's probably by design.
Well, I think we've got a few ideas we need to speak to you about.
And like I said, I've been writing down information for you because
we have an event we're trying to put together and don't have a clue what we're doing.
Yeah, we're, you know, blind guys wandering in the desert.
Just because you've been to an event doesn't mean you can plan an event.
Yeah, I could bet you about something, but put it together. No.
Joe, thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with us and speaking to us about your
company. I think we, uh, wow, that sounds good. Is that that truck? Jesus.
I dig it. Oh, that sounds good. Joe, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it
and we certainly have some things to discuss. Love it. Thank you for having me. Be sure to
check out drivelinekc at drivelinekc.com. Man. Good show. Great show. Great turnout.
Great interviews. Oh God. Yeah. The weather really turned around. I'm sorry that they had all that
rain, uh, that forced the, the move to a different location. However, I am not sorry at all that
it's in April because when we did it out there in July, man, was it hot? Holy sh. Oh my goodness.
Yes. That was, holy sh. Oh my goodness. I have never sweat so much in front of strangers while
I was friendly in my life. I sweat like I was being held at gunpoint. It was unbelievable.
And, uh, it doesn't help that I'm already a bit of a sweater to start with.
Yeah. I, I, I have no problem with my sweat glands. So, uh, this has just been really nice.
Nice breeze. It started out a little chilly this morning, but it has turned nice.
Sunny 72, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect. Nice breeze. Keep everybody cool. It's been fantastic.
We need to thank people. Thank people. We've had a chance to talk to, uh, need to thank Todd Gentry
from Gary crossley Ford.com and crossley customs. Uh, crossley spelled C R O S S L E Y
Gary crossley Ford.com. Uh, Todd was fantastic. And then they started that track and oh my lord.
I'm kind of excited too that, uh, Todd was talking about their looking at and figuring out a way to
do a monthly car meet up there. Oh, fantastic. Especially when they invite us and we get to go.
Hell yeah. And then there was Richard oven from northracecars.com. He's the guy with the fox body
rear brake. Oh, he drove that Futura by that thing was cool. Wasn't that just the best? And what's
so funny is I thought it was brown when I first looked at it. I thought it was like a dark chocolate
brown. No, it's black. Like a tan. I think maybe there was a bit of dust that. Yeah, that might
have been maybe just a little bit. That was a funny thing talking to him too about the car. He's
like, I didn't really prep it, man. I actually kind of have a hangover.
Did he really? Yeah. That's awesome. Last, the night or last night, the night before this, uh,
recording, uh, he and the buddies, the, the sailing buddies, they've had one night wine
night at his house. Oh man. That guy in the 65 big block that looks just like my car is getting
ready to leave. Oh, oh, is it? We'll be hearing that in a second. So, uh, you know, they've got
the, the Fox body rear brake conversions, GTM builds. Uh, we didn't talk about it because,
you know, he was really great. Yeah, we didn't get into the Cobras too much. Not the Cobras. They
have other stuff on there too. Uh, roadster air conditioning. Oh, cool. So, you know, go check
out that website, northracecars.com for toys. We also got to speak to Steve Roberts. Steve is
retired, but Steve has done lots of cool stuff, worked on lots of cool stuff. And apparently
whatever is in the water around his house and Darrell Ossop's house and all the neighbors,
there's a big pile of gear heads over there. I would consider moving.
You know, it sounded like so much fun to be able to go out there and you hear somebody start up.
You're like, Oh, okay. And lock over to your neighbors and see what's cooking. Yeah. Maybe I
wouldn't aggravate my neighbors nearly so much when I fired things up that maybe didn't have
the required muffler, you know, that sort of stuff. And finally, uh, the folks from Kansas
City Auto Museum for putting this on. And you know, you and I talked last night,
I thought this was going to be a cluster. Yeah. The last minute of this, of it was
so painful for Kansas City Automotive Museum and little worrisome from a goer pulled this
off beautifully. Dude, it's excellent. It really came around. In fact, they might look at doing
this again next year. This really worked out beautifully. We've got a nice big paved parking
lot, plenty of room for vendors. Uh, everybody seemed to be able to find a spot for their stuff.
And this really turned out great. Be sure you go check out Kansas City Automotive Museum at
KansasCityAutoMuseum.com. Uh, see when they've got their events going on. They got cars and
coffee happening at different places around town. See what their exhibits are. Yeah,
they trade them out monthly. And, uh, be sure to check out Kansas City Automotive Museum.
Become a member. Yeah. That's a great idea because that way you can get in as often as you
want. Take your friends, take the out of town friends. And, you know, they do their cars and
coffee monthly. It's just, it's a great experience. It is really a fantastic place to check out.
And we thank them so much for letting us come and, uh, see some folks see a lot of great cars in,
oh, finally, Joe Petzl. Yeah, Joe Petzl from drivelinekc.com. We're gonna be talking to him.
We're already talking to him about car shows, events, possible rallies. Uh, be sure you check
them out. It is driveline, one word, D-R-I-V-E-L-I-N-E-K-C.com. Uh, gotta thank Joe because he may
be about to save our bacon with that show. You're not wrong. I promised I would help organize it.
I don't know what I'm doing. I don't. I don't. I feel that. I tell you what, the second he said,
we plan shows, I'm like, I'm saved. So, and a very, very big thank you to Joe Petzl and the people
at drivelinekc.com. And if you know whoever drove in that 62, uh, Chrysler 300, uh, you tell him to
get hold of me and we, we're going to talk about some driving. No, no. I'm going with that 62
Boulevard that was down here, the red one. Oh, that, well that's, uh, is that a 61 or 62? Uh,
I believe it was a 62 and I talked with him because he's the president of the local, you know,
Thunderbird, uh, uh, antique Thunderbird club. You gotta get your head out of your Mopar and start
thinking T-Bird. You're a T-Bird owner. That's the guy you need to be talking to. Yeah. Yeah. He
knows a lot and his vehicle was just gorgeous. It was beautiful. And, uh, thank you for listening
to Driven Radio Show. Uh, we love what we do. We wouldn't be able to do it without the support of
our listeners. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and X as Driven Radio Show and on
LinkedIn as Driven Radio Show podcast. If you have a story you would like to tell or somebody
would like us to interview, please contact me at Brett. That's B R E T T at drivenradioshow.com.
I am Brett Hatfield from Mark L Groves. Yo. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time here on Driven Radio.
About this episode
The show moves from the Great Car Show in Kansas City into a tour of standout builds and the people behind them. Along the way, the hosts talk with Corvette and Thunderbird club members, a dealership custom shop, and builders focused on Fox-body conversions, Coyote swaps, and brake upgrades. The episode also highlights how local organizers turn car shows into community events with charity tie-ins, food donations, and carefully planned logistics.
Brett and Mark attend Kansas City Automotive Museum's Great Car Show and interview Corvette Club of KC president Steve Garrett, Todd Gentry of Crossley Customs about his new custom Lightning, Richard Oben of North Racecars, the infamous Daryl Osipik of Osipik Automotive, master mechanic Steve Roberts, and Joe Petzold of DrivelineKC. This and more on Driven Radio Show!
