Exploring the Ford GTD Mustang, Super Drag Racing Legends, and the Evolving Auto Industry

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

It's the In Wheel Time car talk show.

We have scheduled to come up, Omar O'Day going to talk about the Ford GTD 800 horsepower, $300,000 Mustang.

Which is just purely a race car sold by Ford, built by Multimatic, and Multimatic and Ford have had a long relationship in sports car racing what I was going to say.

it's a race car with a license plate on it.

So in other words, they've got the they don't even have them anymore five mile an hour, crash bumpers and all the safety stuff that they just left in the car and basically re-suspended it and they put a, put blinkers on it and great big horsepower motor in it 800 horsepower.

Supercharged 5.2

liter V8.

But we knew that they could do it.

Why have they waited so long to put it in a Mustang I mean no offense, but Stellantis Dodge Jeep.

They've been doing the 800 horsepower for what?

five years now, what's the mileage on that yeah.

What does it matter?

Three gas stations to the mile.

Does it burn Pump gas?

Yeah, I don't know it does.

Well, you would think it would, but I guess that you would get some extra boost if you get the most power out of it, if you ran some C16.

C16.

Some F?

Gas Race, gas, race gas.

But wouldn't that mess up your catalytic converter, you imagine?

Oh, you want a catalytic converter too.

Oh, okay, that's extra.

Extra, that's a catalytic converter.

Delete, I got one of those.

Yeah, don't brag about it on the air.

No, I know, we know that you cut the mufflers off of them.

Yeah, everything else is the same.

Oh, so it's still it's legal.

It's legal, it's got glass packs on his van Glass packs.

I guess they do.

They still make glass packs.

Oh yeah, we did.

Cherrybombs last week.

Yeah, it's still for sale, it's still for sale.

Really, we are buying them online.

I guess Rockotto or somebody, or Summit, probably Jaycee Whitney, jaycee Whitney, you know what?

I heard that they're still in business.

A mail order yeah, but I think they're totally online anymore.

I don't think they ship out the catalogs the way they use it, darn it.

And I've got one of those classic catalogs.

Oh, those days be great, make the thick ones.

Yeah, it's kind of like.

But Summit and Jaycee still mail out a catalog, so kind of in my opinion, kind of taking over for Jaycee Whitney without the curb feelers.

Well, that's no fun.

We got to have curb feelers.

When I worked for a motto, they had a catalog for all the product and it was zero, zero to 300 and 1300 pages.

That was cool.

That is cool, yeah, joe motto, is he retired now?

We sold the keystone.

Yeah yeah, it was a family business really.

And he did very well with valvally.

Very well, I've got some of his memorable cars.

You know the models and things autographed.

Jason has them.

He's got them all put away and things, but his corporate office was an old school.

We're talking about super drag, drag racer, top fuel driver, top fuel Joe Amato, who is my favorite guy.

Yep and I had the chance, when I was doing the drag racing tour several years ago, to sit down and have lunch with him.

What the nicest guy you would ever want to meet Next door neighbor kind of guy.

No heirs about him whatsoever, just a super nice guy, yep.

Wonderful guy.

And who would know that he was a multi-millionaire?

When I worked for him and they would come to Houston, I would wear my logoed shirt, Not have a ticket when they load in on Thursdays.

I would just go and I need to see Joey Sure Right back there.

I spent the whole weekend without a ticket.

Hr at the drag strip was fun Good times, and there are several drivers that are that way.

I don't know about to.

I'll tell you somebody that would welcome you in.

You know who it is?

Antron, yeah, oh yeah, antrons like that, yeah man come on, come on in.

You can't get away from Erica winning last weekend.

Absolutely Yep, good job.

And she's qualified.

Third in Brainerd this weekend.

This weekend.

This is the first weekend the postdocs have been in Brainerd since 2019.

So are they running bikes this weekend too?

I don't think so.

And then Bob Taska.

I had a chance to meet Bob Taska two years ago in Phoenix at a BG event.

Bob Taska- we would be in the HRA suites in Houston and Bob Taska's mom was in the suite with us at the time and I was getting autographs on a hat and it was raining a little bit and that Bob was the only one he didn't have.

His mother took my hat, went down to the pits, got it signed and brought it back to me.

He is truly the nicest guy.

That's how cool he is.

His family owns just a fleet of Ford dealerships up in the northeast area and we had him at BG talking about his car business and, as intense as he has to be to be a nitro funny car driver, he knew his service department operations inside and out Everybody is firing off questions to him and he basically knew the answer, or knew how to get the answer

, to everything he was asked.

I was very, very impressed.

Doesn't he have the largest performance?

Ford, wholesale Parts operation, sort of like classic in the GM side.

Well, I would say more like Skoggins and Dickey out of Lubbock on the GM side, like Ford parts is worldwide and that's why Ford sponsors them, because that's a company that's got their act together at TASCAP.

Oh, very much so, but Bob is just the nicest person to sit and chit chat with.

It's like you said.

Amato was kind of like your next door neighbor.

Tascap is the same.

Yep, All right.

So we got off on that because we started talking about the Ford GTD 800 horsepower Mustang for $300,000.

I like it and so does Omar O'Day Omar, good morning to you, sir, oh no you know, what that's, david Tillman.

Sorry, david, you stay with us, my friend, we'll be with you in a minute and you have to unmute your computer.

Yeah, he's on early, I think, isn't he?

He went away.

Oh, he's just OK, he'll be back.

He's testing Omar O'Day.

At any rate.

So we'll just.

This is what, this is what live does?

Multimatic has run Ford sports car racing for a number of years and my is Multimatic.

I've never heard of this, are they?

in Detroit.

Yeah, but I'm going to say it's, it's kind of like Not necessarily a Carol Shelby operation, but I would say a bit of a Carol Shelby operation or a Celine operation.

Except Multimatic does more production work and they they run the race cars for Ford.

You know they, they handle all of that, they build them and stuff.

Now, multimatic also does a lot of carbon fiber work, which this new Ford Mustang GTD has got a lot of carbon fiber in it which gives Ford the opportunity to change the shape of the vehicle and not increase the weight.

So when you look at the new Ford Mustang GTD, the, it's got some beautiful lines, it's a gorgeous looking car.

But you know they they're using Multimatic's abilities of building with carbon fiber to very much change the shape of the car and lower its weight and then throw an 800 horsepower supercharged 5.2

liter V8 in it.

It's like oh my God, hold your, hold my beer here.

I go how you know I would find fascinating is to sit in on the meeting saying, OK, this is what we want to accomplish either way, either from Ford to them or Multimatic to Ford, this is what we want to do.

So how do we get to the point where we can get that?

and going through all the steps with two major corporations Multimatic clearly is a major corporation and Ford is a global corporation, so you got to have guys that sit down, gals to sit down with each other and go.

Hmm, well, that sounds like an interesting project.

So let's bring in, you know, person A, b, c and D, because they are in that area, and then somebody else is in a big conference room and you just kind of hash this whole stuff out.

Wouldn't you like to be the fly on the wall and that meeting, oh golly.

Anyway, I was looking at the Multimatic website here and pretty sophisticated stuff, very high tech, kind of like what you do, david.

Yeah, so what's the D in GTD?

What's that mean?

Duh, it's the category of car.

So I don't know exactly what D stands for, but it's the category of car, you know the GT.

The GTP stands for prototype.

Prototype.

Then they have.

They used to have GTS and that's long gone, but GTD.

That's many years ago, and in.

GTD, there's a pro category and an amateur category and they basically race the same car.

It's just the level of driver.

Is that SCCA?

stuff.

No, that's IMSA, imsa, imsa, which is where Jeffrey's uh um Cadillac prototype race.

It's also the category that the Corvette C uh, c6 or C8 races in is GTD pro.

And I know.

Corvette has talked about producing a GT4 car.

It's also the level that Alec Udell races.

And then there's S to Martin in that group, yep.

And I think Alec Alec's been running a Porsche there's a.

Porsche, yeah, but you know GT4 is the build of the car that runs in GTD.

Um, so, um, you know, I'm assuming this GTD Ford Mustang is basically going to be race ready to go um sports car racing somewhere, but at 800 horsepower they're going to have to detune it to run at IMSA.

You know even the?

Uh, the Corvette, uh, they have to detune the Corvette.

And I assume the same thing with the Cadillac.

Right yeah, they detune it.

How do you detune a car that easily turns out 800 horsepower Compression?

and fuel.

Maybe put a throttle body joker on it you know a little bit of timing, yeah, yeah.

Putting um air restrictors on it.

So this is in IMSA.

They have something called BOP balance of power.

So they'll add weight to a vehicle, they'll change its fuel uh capacity, so it has to stop more often for uh pit stops to kind of try and find that balance of performance.

What a tech nightmare.

Oh yeah, well, and it's open the hood and you go.

okay, it's a political tech nightmare too, because you know, one week, you know the BMWs dominate, so they get some penalties at the BOP.

And the next week the Corvette wins everything and they get penalties on the BOP.

And all the while, you know, porsche and everybody else are yapping about oh, they have this unfair advantage.

They have this unfair advantage, so they're all busy lobbying the governing body to add more penalties to their competitors.

Why can't we go back to the old NASCAR style rules Right, switch of wrong, yep.

So throw a great big V eight in it and keep the bumpers on it, take the windows out, put some half baked roll bar in leather helmets.

Yeah Well, maybe not that far back Leather helmets, but you're talking about the leather helmet?

I know you're talking about.

You know the crybaby aspect of it.

Oh, they did this, they did that.

That started in F one.

Oh, very much so, very much so.

Well, it started, I'm going to say, back in S C, c A, trans Am back in the seventies, because there was these.

You know, certain years you can look back at Trans Am and certain years some cars just physically dominated the Trans Am series.

You know, we've got to remember Mark Donahue and Penske and that blue Camaro in 69 totally dominated.

Well, they got some BOP penalties and the next year was George Fulmer and the Ford Mustang absolutely dominated for a couple of years and then Penske came back with the AMC.

I was going to say the AMC javelin, that they switched over to that yeah.

So you know, and through the years you could see who had the advantage on balance of power or balance of performance.

Yeah, Well, that's one of the things that's attractive about sportsman racing in NHRA.

We're going to talk to Jerry Emmons about that World champion World champion but in his division and they actually race in several because of the different cars that they have, because they bring a fleet to the drag.

Oh yeah, they're bringing an 18 wheeler full of Well, it's not quite an 18 wheeler, but might as well be.

And you know, stan is in that Stan Holt with Lupi Tortilla, dale he and Dale Hulquist, and they run in a stock category.

But there's so many different levels of the stock category I can't keep up with it all that Dale doesn't want to talk about.

No, you can't make him talk about it because it is stock.

Yeah, it's stock baby.

Uh-huh, that's what it is.

It's a.

It's a and again some of that is manufacturers want to build cars to go racing.

You know, the race on win on Sunday, sell on Monday.

Philosophy is still there, which is where the Ford GTD, mustang GTD comes from is, you know, win on Sunday, sell on Monday, and that car is available.

That still holds true in NASCAR?

No, because NASCAR they're all templated cars, If I know, but they took all the paint off of them, the body is the same I know, but it's.

But no, it's only the rear window, the deck lid and the bumper in the roof.

Mm-hmm.

They make the bumper look like it's yeah, but at any rate it's Camry, it's Mustang, it's Camaro and, of course, there used to be a lot more than that.

If you go to Xfinity, it's Supra.

You know.

But what I'm saying is is that you know you got.

You can't tell me that they don't sell cars of that brand because Nascar.

They do because of Nascar, I think well.

I think there's a brand loyalty.

I was behind a Camry yesterday.

It was a white Camry and it had black accents on it and it had really nice looking factory we have.

The whole thing was factory.

It looked really good For, especially for a street car.

That's the XL.

Whatever they, whatever it is, it's a Camry and I'm going there, henry.

It's a Camry.

I have a neighbor with a Hyundai and it looks like a little sports car.

Yeah, he does.

Well, you're what you're driving right now.

Your rap four has got all that black trim on it and stuff.

It actually looks very good it does.

It's truly amazing what they can do with a little trim here and there and paint here and there and wheels and it looks good.

And remember, that's the kind of makeup on a woman is it a Little bit here?

a little bit there.

It doesn't have to be just on a woman.

In your case, it'd be a lot here and a lot there.

You gotta put it on with a roller.

There's a dip factor involved a dip you do dip, you do dip, I do dip.

What is that?

What is that comedians name that does that a year, if I don't know if any of our viewers have ever watched that absolutely hysterical.

And she's doing this, is stand-up Lady and she's up there and now oh.

I don't know, but she's talking about going to the nail salon now.

Well, I haven't been to the nail salon in a number of weeks but I was three weeks ago.

I know you were my pedicure posted pictures of his toes and getting no.

He went to the steel distribution center for chainsaw.

She had the Dremel tool out cleaning up my toenails.

It's the weirdest thing.

She gets this little.

It's the weirdest thing to see you in a chair having your dang toenails done.

We're gonna, we're gonna turn this away from the car to a live remote from my pedicure.

Delete.

You have a lady that does it.

Oh yeah, one particular lady.

Yeah, she's done it.

It's got a team of hazmat people that she charges a hundred people they show up in the COVID outfit.

I'll tell you.

When she gets that Dremel tool out, that is the oddest aroma, the compressors going.

We're off the air here because your sign fell down.

Oh we're not off, we're laying down and laughter there you go See we're still on on the air, oh Lord.

So this is considered fill time, right, this is yeah well, we didn't plan it this way, but it just turned into this.

But anyway, the lady, the stand-up comedian, does this thing about going to the nail.

You want to, you do it, oh dip it, very good for you.

And now there are these little girls that are actually they're very good and they put themselves on camera Mouthing the words that the stand-up comedian has.

It looks like they're talking this whole stand-up routine about going to the nail salon.

It's hysterical, don, you should get a pedicure.

I Think I have enough time on my hands that I don't want your hands.

They do it.

I don't know.

I don't want anybody here.

It's a time on your.

I don't want anybody touching my twinkle toes, don't mess with it.

Don't.

First time they do it, you'll want to go back.

No, I don't want every 30 minutes Well for Conrad, because they grow so fast.

No, I just look like Eagle Talons by the time I get back.

I.

She's got to get the dremel to I have a niece that has this thing for Growsed out feet, oh no, and so there was this the lifestyle section of our show.

This is the lifestyle section, and it was absolutely hysterical.

And these toenails, they look like talents and so whenever I run across something like that, I always forwarded to her.

She goes yuck, that's Disgusting yeah it is.

I said to you.

Some recalls to tell you about as we change direction here.

The Jeep Grand Wagoneer and Wagoneer for 22 and 23 being recalled.

B Pillar Trim may interfere with the airbag.

Hmm.

Boom, psssh.

Uh, unsecured transmission may cause a roll away in the Ford Bronco for 2023.

This is like the fourth recall Ford has had for roll away transmission.

But if they need to fire that engineer that's designing those systems because he has failed multiple times, he's probably no longer with them and hasn't been for several years.

No, he's probably gone to General Motors by now.

I ran a CNC machine for General Motors.

We built a low and reverse clutch housings for the Chevy Citation back in 1974.

So we can blame you.

You bet Steering gear shaft may fracture on the Chevy Silverado 2500, 3500 and the Sierra 2500.

That's a scary thought, it is.

Oh something.

Oh, I can't steer the panel.

Harm, harness, damage, Subaru Crosstrek and Impreza for 2024.

Inaccurate pedestrian warning sounds.

So instead of going, ah it goes thunk.

And that would be on the Mazda CX 90 for 24.

Nice.

We're reviewing one next week, are we?

No, I don't know.

No, we can't?

Grandma got run over by a.

Miata.

They properly secured 12 volt ground connection.

Can you say thermal event there?

Mercedes Maybach, uh-oh, uh-oh, the S580 and the 680 for 22 and 23.

You need to go and get it.

Those are all insurance claims.

Big time my million dollar Maybach burned to the ground, so I don't have to make payments anymore.

Roof frame absorbers.

May detach Roof frame absorbers on the Mercedes Benz AMG EQE.

That's the money EQE 350, eqe 500 for the model year 2023.

Hyundai Tuxen Tucson, hyundai Tuxen Incorrect information on the label.

Some label that's on there.

Genesis GV60 front passenger seat belt may fail.

Oh, there he goes Just once.

High voltage battery may overheat in the Land Rover Range Rover PHEV for 2020.

Schmores, yeah, pretty much they're bangers in match.

I guess that's the British one, okay.

The head of the United Auto Workers Union on Tuesday asked members to grant him the ability to call a strike, arguing contract talks with the Detroit three automakers are moving too slow.

Uaw has been negotiating with GM, ford and Chrysler parents to laud us for 30 days in.

The parties have yet to discuss economic terms, according to Sean Fain, the UAW president, in a Facebook live webcast.

Why would you expose yourself to that To move forward, fain argued it was critically important that union locals at the three car makers vote to authorize the strike.

Wonder what?

How much he makes?

You know, because Mary Barra makes $29 million a year to destroy General Motors.

Uh-huh.

Wonder how much he makes.

I'm sure you could find out.

At any rate, that strike is set to take place on September the 14th, so that'll go down as a day in infamy because it's not going to be good for anybody in the automotive business.

They're asking for double the wages, double double.

Think of what that's going to do to the price of your car.

Did you want to say something to me?

Okay, I thought you raised your hand.

I'm just going to be in here to laugh at you down, like the rest of us.

But have you heard this?

Have you heard this about US Steel?

Have you seen this?

Nope, they're selling US Steel.

A bidding war between steel makers for American manufacturing icon, us Steel, could have massive implications for the auto industry, especially if Cleveland Cliffs a company wins out.

Analysts said the Ohio company, the largest supplier of automotive steel in the US, rattled the manufacturing world last week when it went public with a $7.25

billion offer to acquire US Steel.

Its long time rival, us Steel, rejected the deal and instead began a review of its strategic options.

Such a takeover would give Cleveland Cliffs a dominance in huge swaths of the domestic market for many automotive steel products.

Hello, antitrust.

Yeah, the combined entity would have control well over 50% of the exposed auto market, likely drawing the order.

Talk about the price of your car going up.

Oh my gosh, can you imagine?

I wonder if Drew Carey is involved in that because he thinks Cleveland rocks.

It's not the same.

Here's reported on Wednesday the Arcelor Metall, the world's second largest steel maker, is also considering making an offer for US Steel, citing people familiar with that, and they're probably not from the USA.

Oh, you think.

You think I think it's a German company.

Yeah, but US Steel, why?

Why did you not make enough money?

You're ready to cash out now, wasn't?

that originally started.

Was it a Rockefeller back in the day?

Yeah, Now Rockefeller was oil.

Rockefeller was standard oil and oil gun top but Steel was somebody else, yeah.

And it was some big US guy back at the turn of the last century.

Yeah, interesting Carnegie, that's it.

Carnegie did Steel Wow.

That's a huge story that nobody's talking about.

Now I went.

Are you kidding me?

Not, dale Carnegie.

Dale Carnegie.

Well, you know how to get to Carnegie Hall.

You practice, Practice, practice practice.

You know, you have all of these wonderful little things that just come to you.

It comes to me.

Well, Jeff, Jeff has all of those dad jokes.

He stores them in a dad of base.

In a dad file.

Yeah, a data base and our final story this hour.

They say you have to crawl before you walk, but accurate first step toward its all electric future is on full sprint.

The ZDX, due to arrive on the market in early 2024, stretches 197.7

inches, just shy of the 198 MDX three row crossover.

The ZDX will also come as a 500 horsepower type S variant with the brand's first hands free driving technology standard Google, built in connectivity and immersive 22 inch high depth digital screen and bang, and all of a sudden, premium audio.

Zdx type S will be priced competitively around 70,000 dollars.

They're bringing that brand back because they did a ZDX prior to that.

It was an SUV with a slant back.

But how much fun is a hands free 500 horsepower car, a SUV?

Yeah Well, give me 500 horsepower, I want to drive it.

Wow, man, I don't know that's the ZDX.

The other ZDX, had a bit of unusual styling to it.

I liked it, I thought it was a cool car, but they only.

It was only in production for a couple of years.

500 horsepower, three feet off the ground does not seem real safe to me.

Going around a corner, that's a rollover waiting to happen right there.

Go cart.

Hey, this is the end wheel time car talk show.

That ends it for this first hour.

Hour number two is coming your way in just a flash.

The original group of loopy tortilla restaurants will have you telling your family and friends just what the original recipes mean when it comes to the best fajitas in Southeast Texas.

Founder Stan Holt invite you to visit the original loopy tortilla near I 10 and highway six, the original house that inspired the design of all the rest and the original charm that helped make loopy tortilla the go to destination for Houston Tex-Mex.

Speaking of original, nothing can compete with the original lime pepper marinade that everyone will agree makes loopy tortilla award winning beef fajitas the best anywhere.

Loopy tortilla Katie is another location that gives you the same quality and service.

Historians have come to expect it.

It's located just off I 10 of the Grand Park, where Kingsland Boulevard and Katie find.

Yourself in Aggie land, head to the loopy tortilla college station, located just around the corner from Kyle Field.

It's a great place to enjoy those famous frozen margaritas before or, after the game, headed east to Louisiana, stop in at the loopy tortilla in Beaumont it twos on I 10.

You can't miss it.

The original group of loopy tortilla restaurants invite you in for the best Tex-Mex.

Anywhere you own a car you love, why not let Gulf Coast Auto Shield protect it?

Houstonian John Gray invites you to his state of the art facility to introduce you to his specialist team of auto enthusiasts.

We promise you'll be impressed.

Whether you're looking to massage your original paint to a like new appearance, apply a ceramic coating, install a paint protection film, nanoceramic window tent or new windshield protection called Exo Shield, gulf Coast Auto Shield is where Houston's car people go.

Curved your wheels Instead of buying new one, I'd have them repaired.

How about a professionally installed radar detector?

Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too.

Get a peek inside the shop and look at the services offered by getting online and heading to gcautoshieldcom.

Better yet, stop by their facility at 11275 South Sam Houston Tullway, just south of the Southwest Freeway, and get a personal tour.

Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your place to go for all things exterior.

Call them today, 832-930-5655, or gcautoshieldcom.

The award-winning in-wheel time car talk show is available on the most popular podcast channels out there in 30 minute episodes.

We realize our three hour live show can be difficult to catch in its entirety, so now you can listen every day to a convenient, fresh 30 minute episode.

Check us out on Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, amazon Music and Audible, along with a dozen more.

In-wheel time is the most informative automotive guest interviews and new car reviews, along with popular features including Conrad's car clinic and this week in Auto History along with automotive news headlines.

Our live broadcast airs every Saturday 8 to 11 central on InWheelTimecom, the iHeart app and on YouTube.

Be sure to say hello when we're broadcasting from the tailpipes and tacos cruise in Auto Ramah and the Houston Auto Show, among others.

Now it's easier than ever to hear about all things automotive all week long.

You're invited to join fellow car enthusiasts and becoming part of the ever growing in-wheel time car talk family.

Don't forget those 30 minute podcast episodes on your favorite podcast episode of the InWheel Time Car Show.

I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning 8 to 11am central on Facebook, youtube, twitch and our InWheelTimecom website.

Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, spotify, stitcher, iheart Podcast, podcast Attic Tune In Pandora and Amazon Music.

Keep listening and we'll see you soon.

Exploring the Ford GTD Mustang, Super Drag Racing Legends, and the Evolving Auto Industry

About this episode

Ford Mustang

Ford Gtd

Ford Mustang GTD

Golf Gtd

Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet Camaro

American Motors Corporation (Amc) Javelin

Toyota Camry

Toyota Supra

Eagle Talon

Jeep Grand

Jeep Grand Wagoneer

Ford Bronco

Subaru Crosstrek

Subaru Impreza

Mazda Cx90

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Hyundai Tucson Hyundai

Genesis GV60

Hyundai Genesis

Land Rover Range Rover

Buick Century

Acura MDX

Acura ZDX

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

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