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GHiT 0746: Mark Petronis is Back
GHiT 0746: Mark Petronis is Back
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About this episode
Mark Petronis returns to share his inspiring journey of recovery and fitness transformation following a serious accident. After years of surgeries and therapy, Mark discusses his progress in regaining strength and mobility, particularly in his right hand. He details how he combined medical support with lifestyle changes, including a GLP-1 medication, to lose weight and improve his overall health. The conversation touches on the importance of consistency, discipline, and the mental aspects of fitness, making it relatable for anyone looking to make a change.
Topics:
3700 pounds
camber kit
carbon fiber
differential cooler
dyno graph
eccentrics
factory cooling
grip
horsepower
limp mode
GHiT 0746: Mark Petronis is Back
Mark Petronis comes back on the podcast to talk about his recent fitness improvements and how it may be able to help you on our off season fitness special episode of 2026. And we talk racing Corvettes to try to stay on brand, lol.
Did we miss something? Please let us know at [email protected]
A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/MarkPetronis746
We hope you enjoy this episode!
If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing:
You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, YouTube, etc.
Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that we would appreciate very much. Even better, a podcast review would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.
Best regards,
Vicki, Jennifer, Ben, Alan, Jeremy, and Bill
Hosts of the Garage Heroes in Training Podcast and Garage Heroes in Training racing team drivers
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Term
carbon fiber
"...you know saving 25 pounds in the race car through carbon carbons very expensive and..."
Carbon fiber is a special material that is very light and strong. It's used in race cars to make them lighter, which helps them go faster and handle better.
Carbon fiber is a lightweight and strong material often used in automotive applications to reduce weight and improve performance. In racing, every pound saved can enhance speed and handling.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"so speaking of knowledge that you have Miss Vicki's got this small version of the Corvette right behind her"
The Corvette is a famous sports car made by Chevrolet. It's known for being fast and having a unique design, making it very popular among car enthusiasts.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a high-performance sports car known for its powerful engines and distinctive styling. It's often regarded as an American icon in the sports car segment.
Car
Mazda Miata
"it's fine so but since she's got a small Miata I thought we'd talk a little bit about the larger..."
Car
Mazda MX-5 Miata
"right so Miata is not always the answer because sometimes Corvette's the answer"
The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a small sports car that is fun to drive and easy to handle. It's known for being affordable and is loved by many car fans.
The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a lightweight two-seat roadster known for its agile handling and fun driving experience. It's often celebrated for its affordability and is a popular choice among driving enthusiasts.
Car
Chevrolet C8
"...how fast C8 has caught on like when the C7 came out..."
The Chevrolet C8 is the latest version of the Corvette sports car, known for its new engine placement in the middle of the car, which improves handling and speed.
The Chevrolet C8 refers to the eighth generation of the Corvette, which features a mid-engine layout and significant advancements in performance and technology compared to its predecessor, the C7.
Part
radiator
"...it used to be you had to do radiators and you had to do oil coolers and diff coolers..."
A radiator is a part of the car that keeps the engine cool. It helps prevent the engine from getting too hot while you drive.
A radiator is a crucial component of a car's cooling system, responsible for dissipating heat from the engine coolant. It helps maintain the engine's optimal operating temperature and prevents overheating.
Part
oil cooler
"...you had to do radiators and you had to do oil coolers and diff coolers..."
An oil cooler is a part that keeps the oil in the engine from getting too hot. This helps the engine run better and last longer.
An oil cooler is a component that helps regulate the temperature of the engine oil. By keeping the oil cool, it ensures better lubrication and reduces the risk of engine wear.
Part
differential cooler
"...you had to do radiators and you had to do oil coolers and diff coolers..."
A differential cooler helps keep a part of the car that helps the wheels turn from getting too hot. It's important for cars that do a lot of heavy work or fast driving.
A differential cooler is designed to keep the differential, which transfers power from the engine to the wheels, at a safe operating temperature. This is especially important in high-performance or towing applications.
Term
factory cooling
"...what the car can do factory cooling wise I did so I added a radiator but you really don't need to add much..."
Factory cooling is the cooling system that is built into a car when it's made. It's meant to keep the engine from getting too hot while driving normally.
Factory cooling refers to the cooling systems that come standard with a vehicle from the manufacturer. These systems are designed to maintain optimal engine temperatures under normal driving conditions.
Term
dyno graph
"...because he sent me his dyno graph but he's also a monster driver..."
A dyno graph shows how powerful an engine is at different speeds. It helps car enthusiasts see how well an engine performs.
A dyno graph is a visual representation of an engine's performance, showing metrics like horsepower and torque at various RPMs. It's produced using a dynamometer, which measures the engine's output under controlled conditions.
Term
horsepower
"...makes like 40 more horsepower than mine does because he sent me his dyno graph..."
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The more horsepower a car has, the faster it can go and the better it can accelerate.
Horsepower is a unit of measurement for power, commonly used to quantify the power output of engines. It indicates how much work an engine can perform over time, which directly affects a car's performance.
Term
VIR
"...did like a 155 at VIR on Supercar..."
VIR is a racetrack in Virginia where cars can be driven fast in a controlled environment. It's a popular spot for racing and testing car performance.
VIR, or Virginia International Raceway, is a popular road course in the United States known for its challenging layout and diverse elevation changes. It hosts various racing events and is a favorite among car enthusiasts for track days.
Term
Watkins Glen
"...under two minutes and either Watkins Glen or VR that's a crazy number to do it..."
Watkins Glen is another famous racetrack in New York where cars race. It's known for being challenging and exciting for drivers.
Watkins Glen is a renowned road course located in New York, famous for hosting the Watkins Glen International races. It's known for its combination of fast straights and technical turns, making it a challenging track for drivers.
Part
eccentrics
"the one thing I told the guy like what you will need to do is change out the the eccentrics for the suspension they have the same thing that that Vicky has"
Eccentrics are parts of the car's suspension that help adjust how the wheels are positioned. This adjustment can improve how the car drives and how long the tires last.
Eccentrics in suspension systems are components that allow for adjustments in the alignment of the wheels. They can change the camber or toe angles, which affect handling and tire wear.
Part
suspension
"the one thing I told the guy like what you will need to do is change out the the eccentrics for the suspension they have the same thing that that Vicky has"
The suspension is the part of the car that helps keep the ride smooth by absorbing bumps in the road. It connects the car's body to the wheels.
The suspension system of a vehicle connects the body to the wheels, allowing for a smooth ride and better handling by absorbing shocks from the road.
Part
camber kit
"...I didn't plan on making the camber kit for this car as fast as we ended up doing because I thought it was going to be robust enough that they weren't going to move on track but they absolutely do now..."
A camber kit helps change the angle of the wheels so they can grip the road better when turning. This can make the car handle better during races or on tracks.
A camber kit is an aftermarket suspension component that allows for the adjustment of the camber angle of the wheels. This adjustment can improve tire contact with the road during cornering, enhancing grip and handling performance.
Term
grip
"...they make so much grip now and they're heavy enough by the way the cars are..."
Grip is how well the tires stick to the road. More grip means the car can go faster around corners without sliding.
Grip refers to the friction between the tires and the road surface, which affects a car's ability to accelerate, brake, and corner. Higher grip allows for better performance and stability during driving.
Term
3700 pounds
"...by the time you hit the track so this is a lot of force so..."
3700 pounds is how much the car weighs. The weight of a car affects how it drives and handles on the road or track.
This refers to the weight of the car, which can significantly impact its performance, handling, and fuel efficiency. Heavier cars may have more stability but can also be less agile.
Term
torque wrench
"...just didn't work the thing like a hit with an impact wrench but didn't actually use a torque wrench so generally..."
A torque wrench is a special tool that helps you tighten bolts to the right tightness. It's important because if bolts are too loose or too tight, it can cause problems.
A torque wrench is a tool used to apply a specific amount of torque to a fastener, such as a nut or bolt. This ensures that the fastener is tightened to the manufacturer's specifications, which is critical for safety and performance.
Term
toe
"...so is your toe right so it's on your steering wheels all off too..."
Toe is how the wheels point compared to the center of the car. If the front of the wheels is closer together than the back, that's toe-in; if the back is closer, that's toe-out. This can change how the car drives and how quickly the tires wear out.
Toe refers to the angle at which the wheels are aligned in relation to the centerline of the vehicle. If the front of the wheels is closer together than the back, it's called toe-in; if the back is closer, it's called toe-out, affecting steering response and tire wear.
Car
Honda Civic
"so it was fun though we had a good time uh Civic's one of those things you gotta cross off the list even though once you go there you're like"
The Honda Civic is a small car that many people use for everyday driving. It's known for being dependable and getting good gas mileage, which makes it a smart choice for a lot of drivers.
The Honda Civic is a compact car that has been a staple in the automotive market since the 1970s. It is well-regarded for its reliability, fuel efficiency, and practicality, making it a popular choice for both new and experienced drivers.
Term
spring rate
"...it became very clear very fast and it didn't have enough spring rate so but but nobody makes a stiffer..."
Spring rate is how stiff a spring is. If a spring is stiffer, it won't compress as much when weight is put on it, which can help the car handle better but might make the ride bumpier.
Spring rate refers to the stiffness of a spring, which determines how much it compresses under a given load. A higher spring rate means a stiffer spring, which can improve handling but may reduce ride comfort.
Term
shocks
"...I want to have a spring that's going to work with the stock shocks like that would be a terrible idea..."
Shocks are parts that help control how much the car bounces when you go over bumps. They work with the springs to make the ride smoother and more stable.
Shocks, or shock absorbers, are components of a vehicle's suspension system that dampen the movement of the springs. They help control the car's ride and handling by minimizing excessive bouncing and swaying.
Car
Buick Grand Sport
"...o a race car again it's probably going to be a C6 Grand Sport because that I can deal with you know where you s..."
The Buick Gran Sport is a classic car that was built for speed and performance. It's a larger car that many people admire for its powerful engine and sporty design.
The Buick Gran Sport is a performance-oriented variant of the Buick lineup, particularly popular during the muscle car era of the 1960s and 1970s. It is known for its powerful engines and sporty features, making it a sought-after classic among collectors.
Term
Limp Mode
"oh Limp Mode Limp Mode should be outlawed but that's"
Limp Mode is when your car's computer detects a problem and makes the car run slower to avoid damage. It helps you get to a mechanic without causing more issues.
Limp Mode is a safety feature in vehicles that limits engine performance to prevent further damage when a serious issue is detected. It usually restricts speed and power, allowing the driver to reach a service center safely.
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From the great halls of their house, there are assembled three
who hope to one day be the world's greatest driving heroes.
Created from the cosmic legends of the universe, comes our team captain,
The Vision, Bill Fisher.
And their soon-to-be wonder woman, Vicky Fisher.
And our captain marvel and head flight trainee,
Jennifer Scriptchuck.
Their mission to fight injustice, share what is right and wrong
to get you out of your house and come out racing with them
and serve all mankind.
They are the Garage Heroes in Training Team.
Welcome to the Garage Heroes in Training Packest.
I'm going to be one of the hosts for this episode.
My name is Bill.
Who else is hosting?
I'm Vicky.
Miss Vicky, one of our friends.
Miss Vicky, one of our favorites is back.
I know.
It seems like an annual occurrence.
Hopefully we can get him on a little more than that
and come up with more fun things.
But we've got a tradition.
We usually have an off-season episode where we start talking
about fitness and taking care of yourselves.
And, you know, the big joke we always make is it's a lot
easier to drop 25 pounds than it is to lose 25 pounds
with carbon fiber replacement parts.
I know it's easier, but it is cheaper about that.
Way cheaper, yeah.
Yes, for sure.
So we were watching some stuff coming through on the book
of Faces, and we saw that Mark was in a serious endeavor
to increase his fitness and get back to where he wanted
to be and frustrated with where he was.
And he seems to have some successes.
So we said, hey, we like Mark.
He's done this.
It's a sample size of one.
Why don't we kill two birds with one stone and back
to the podcast?
Mark Petronis, how you doing?
Glad to be here, folks.
Thanks for having me back.
Longest intro ever.
Anyway, so it's just how we roll sometimes.
You know, too much sugar makes for long intros.
So, Mark, you had just bring everybody back to speed.
You had a rather serious accident a couple years back.
A lot of recovery, a lot of surgeries.
How are you doing as far as that goes?
As far as that goes, I'm basically, I want to say 100%,
because I got some partial finger amputations,
but I'm 98.5%.
My last surgery was May of 24.
Is that correct?
Yeah, it is.
And then I was discharged from therapy.
I'm sorry, I was March of 24.
I was discharged from therapy on June of 24.
Actually, my birthday, June 6th,
we were basically the things that we were measuring
in therapy, like what was my grip strength.
My left hand, which was the far less burn one,
that was always pretty strong.
But for years, we were trying to get my right hand
to be somewhere in the vicinity of my left hand.
And after this last surgery, where they kind of broke my pinky
so I could make an actual fist again,
that's just started piling on the strength.
And so, you know, my grip strength on my left
was always like 110.
On the right was like 30.
Then I got to 50.
Then it was 70.
And then finally on my birthday, it was like 100 pounds.
And my therapist is like, you're done.
You've got all the mobility you need.
You've got all the strength you're going to need
in your right hand.
So, go with God and go live your life.
So, that was June of 24.
So, I've been out a little bit more of a year now
without therapy, without surgery,
just sort of living my life.
And it's been pretty awesome, frankly.
I'm sure you, your wife and the family are ecstatic
with the progress.
It looks like everything's, you know,
I mean, there's still some stuff,
but you know, it looks like you're back.
Frankly, there really isn't any stuff.
I mean, other than I look, you know,
I don't notice the scars.
My family doesn't care or notice.
I mean, I'm just living life now.
So, it's just, it's almost like I look at it
and I feel like I'm almost on television.
Like, this is a thing that happened to me
almost five years ago now,
but it doesn't really feel like, you know,
a critical, nothing that has impeded my life in any way.
This one obviously was a miserable two or three years,
but at this point it's just kind of a memory, you know?
Well, I mean, considering the severity of that accident
and, you know, the flames that were involved
and the impacts that were involved,
you know, it looked terrible.
It was terrible.
It looked terrible.
It looked terrible.
It looked like you were really having some struggles there,
but it looks like, you know, it took a lot of work
and a lot of superior talent from your team
to put you back to the position you're in.
But, you know, I know everybody that we know
is always very happy to see that you've recovered
as much as you have.
And, you know, if you're happy,
then, you know, nobody else can be happier for you.
So, that's fantastic.
I feel only blessed and lucky
to have been through what I've been through
and to be out in this position that I'm in right now.
I don't look back on it with any real sadness
or regret even necessarily, but, you know,
I'm just blessed and happy to be here.
You could have taken one of those, you know,
hall passes and not had to go through it,
but considering that's not an option,
you're looking pretty good for it.
Making the most of it.
Exactly.
So, since you're damn near a miracle,
hey, I'm not happy with everything about me.
You know, I've got these parts
that are working back to normal
and then last year it looked like you made a concerted effort
to say, you know,
let's do a little better with what this body has
and let's try and raise my level of performance and fitness
and feeling better about myself.
And how did that, I guess, how did that start for you
and then get into how your progress went
and how what you've done to get there?
I don't know if it was necessarily like a, you know,
I've always, you know, I mean,
since high school, you know, like anybody else,
we were all in great shape in high school and life happens
and we get in the way, we pack on a couple pounds
and we ebb and we flow throughout the years.
Obviously, my accident put me on the back foot
for quite some time and,
but before the accident, I wasn't where I wanted to be either,
you know, so after finally recovering,
finally being done with surgeries,
I mean, I probably could have started this fitness transformation
a little bit earlier than I did,
but frankly, I was so happy to be done with surgeries
and done with therapy.
I was like, I'm not going to do anything that
I don't feel like doing right now for quite some time.
You know, so not that I completely went off the rails,
but, you know, fast forward to, you know,
so that was June of 24, you know, March, March of 25.
I'm like, okay, it's really time.
And I was on vacation with a bunch of my friends
in the Galapagos,
one of the giant boat in the Galapagos at a cabin.
No way.
Yeah, with all my high school friends,
one of whom is a scientist who actually worked.
Did you get the band back together?
Did you forget I was in a band?
No, we did not get the band back.
That would be a great band name.
One of my friends played in the band with me,
but this was, this was, you know, separate from that.
But in any case, we're sitting around,
she's saying, Hey, I just started on GLP one
and it's, and it's having a great effect
and my friend, the scientists who's working on
some crazy, some crazy stuff.
It's going to work on like a GLP one type of thing,
but only on a muscle side.
I'll crowd it to about a bunch of conversations.
Like, you know what?
I'm over 200 pounds.
I've been this way for a long time.
I'm sorry.
I'm, you know, I can, I can sort of get my diet and check.
And I had a lot of knowledge about calories and macros.
And I've done all of those things that like various points
in my life, but never have I put them all together.
We can talk about that later.
But basically this, this trip in February is like,
all right, I'm going to talk to this nurse practitioner,
Mochi.
I'm going to see if you should prescribe me some
triseptide.
And that's really where it started.
Really, really, you know, started to take that,
that GLP one, which helped my appetite, which,
which started to, you know, just kind of lose weight.
And frankly, it was easier than it's ever been.
Turns out when you're not eating all of the time,
you just lose weight.
I mean, it really is kind of that simple.
So once I kind of got that under control,
under control, saw the weight start to come off slowly,
reached a goal weight of my like 185 pounds.
I got there and said, huh, well, I mean, this is,
this is good, but this is not the best I can do.
And that, that point.
So from March to July is really when I was, you know,
taking full advantage of the GLP one,
but then said, okay, now it's time to get in the gym.
Now it's time to work on nutrition and really just try
and put all of it together to get the best result
that I possibly can.
So I think, you know, for, for those,
if we don't get to the details, you had,
you know, multi-part posts that were,
you know, quite long on Facebook,
but let's try and get into it a little bit.
You used a combination of things.
It wasn't, you know, one magic bullet.
It wasn't, you know, a five-day process.
It was a lot of things that compiled.
And I think you had, let's call it various different slopes
for your adaptation, your improvement,
and your general health is not just counting weight,
but it seemed like it took, it wasn't that hard to do.
It was hard to be consistent to do it.
Because it's not like a, it's not like a week.
You know, I do it hard for a week and I'm good.
It wasn't a week.
No, it was like nine months from, you know,
and it took me a while to get confident enough to say,
you know, because I've taken inspiration from my friends
who do post their fitness stuff.
Like, wow, that's awesome.
We were doing an awesome job and I find that inspiring.
So I'm not, I'm never the guy who says,
I'm going to take my shirt off and show people how shredded I am.
Like, no, that's not why, not why I did any of this.
I did this because I've taken a lot of inspiration
from seeing that type of stuff and watching these transformations
from people I actually know and said, wow, how did you do that?
You know, I want to be inspired by that.
I'd hope that I could do the same thing by kind of sharing,
sharing my story.
But to your point, Bill, no, it certainly wasn't fast.
It certainly, I'm not going to say, I mean,
once I got the process down and there was multi parts
of the process, once I got those things sort of locked in,
I was sort of surprised at how fast the weight did come off,
how fast I was able to gain strength,
how fast I was able to feel better about looking at myself
in the mirror and my health in general.
So fast, no, easy, not exactly,
but keeping the consistency and the discipline
and putting it all together, once that all happened,
then it wasn't necessarily difficult to maintain
and move forward.
Yeah, I didn't mean to say easy, but you know,
looking, it's tough to use words sometimes because,
you know, brain connection to mouth,
mouth and words are hard, numbers are hard,
the whole thing.
I guess the thing is,
I meant it in relationship to the people
who are on the other side of starting,
maybe even degrading, and then not,
it's almost viewed as impossible,
as opposed to, no, it's pretty simple,
it's do these couple things,
thermodynamics works,
and one of our friends has a great thing,
you can't outwork the fork, you know,
that's a big deal, and you solved a few of them
and we were going to try to get into exactly
what worked for you, what didn't work for you
and how we did, beginning to end.
So I guess the first thing you did
was the medical exam, if I remember.
Say it again, first thing I did was the medical exam
and an assertion of where you were.
Yeah, I mean if you want to call it that really,
it wasn't about, you know, I didn't go to my doctor,
I signed up with this health service mochi
who gives us a sign, I'm a nurse practitioner
and says, where, who are you, where are your goals,
where are you at right now, and how do we help you get there,
so that from there, you know, and for a while
I was like, I'm not going to tell anybody I'm on
OCEPIC or whatever it was I was on,
it wasn't OCEPIC, but all of these things
have such a negative connotation about them now
and I don't know why, you know,
people are trying to take control of their lives
and improve themselves in some way
and so why does it matter if we do that
by giving ourselves an injection that helps us stop eating
to get that ball rolling, so I don't know,
there's definitely a lot of preconceived notions about it
and I was happy to talk about it and say,
look, I did this too and I had a great result.
So hopefully remove some of the stigma about a lot
of that stuff and help people get more healthy
by getting on these things, but it was just a meeting,
a quick meeting, a virtual meeting with a nurse practitioner
says, here's what you are, here's where you want to be,
here's what I'm going to prescribe, start taking this stuff
and let it do its thing, right?
So from March through July, that's really all it did.
I mean, I was mountain biking a lot, but it became,
you know, it's just funny, like the GLP-1
just makes you not think about food so much,
it makes you not go back to that second plate of pasta
and meatballs, which I love more than anything.
Sweets are my big thing, I love cookies
and ice cream and cakes, and not that I didn't enjoy
eating food, but I didn't need to have double it,
I didn't need to double my portions, you know,
and so suddenly I wasn't tracking any of my calories
during this time, but I just slowly started to lose the weight,
which is what it does, you know, and it works great.
So can we discuss what is GLP-1?
I'm not a medical practitioner, Vicki,
so I'm not going to pretend that I am, all I can tell you
is that, you know, how it worked for me,
what my experience was.
No, I mean just like, what is it?
Is it a medication? Is it a supplement?
Is it a program? I've never heard of it before.
Well, how about Osempic, Wagovi, Manjano,
all that stuff, all inhibitors, right,
that essentially put a signal to your brain,
they still do a lot of things, but, you know,
kind of remove this food noise in your head,
but it's an injection, you take once a week,
or some people do it micro dosing
and several times a week, but I just did a once a week
injection, slows down, so slows down gastric emptying,
so you're a little fuller, a little bit longer,
so you're not saying, well I wish I could eat
more food right now because you kind of can't,
so it slows you down a little bit, um, gastrically,
uh, mentally it's kind of, again,
quite some of that food noise, but, you know,
directly it's an injection you take generally once a week.
Well, I gotta tell you, food noise is a real thing.
Uh, yeah.
For sure.
I'm not on it right now, but that's because
I'm trying to actually gain some weight,
so I'm eating like 3,300 calories,
but it's funny, like, I have been off it,
not have been on it for a month now,
and I definitely think about food a lot more
than I was for the last few months,
you know, so it's a thing, for sure.
Okay.
There's a reason Kellogg's uses
snap crackling pop to advertise someone there,
you know, food noise.
Exactly.
But that wasn't what you meant?
No, that's not what we meant.
Well, whatever.
Yeah, alright, that's fine.
So, so that started, was that the initiation
of the bowl rolling for you towards this goal
that you were working on?
100%, yeah, that was, that was like, hey, you know,
because I've done crash diets where I've lost
the same amount of weight in a short amount of time,
but it's like, you're just white knuckle in that thing,
like, oh my God, I mean, you know,
force myself not to eat or whatever is you're doing,
like diets are, diets can be hard and they're life-sucking, right?
Hard to be sustainable.
Exactly, it's hard to be sustainable
and sustainability is consistency,
and part of all of this, you have to be consistent.
So yeah, you can do it for a couple of weeks,
you can do it for a couple of months,
but once you start hitting life and you start eating again,
like you used to, all comes back.
So, yes, it just made that,
the initial, you know, 15 pounds
that really easily didn't change much in my life,
just ate a lot less and drank a little bit less
and it just, that first 15 pounds,
it used to be really difficult,
was not that difficult at all, that makes sense.
Okay, so at the, let's call it the 15 pound mark,
but approximate, you were somewhat satisfied
with your results at that point,
and you wanted to take it a step further?
Exactly, I mean, I looked at, you know,
I'm kind of tracking my progress in the mirror
and it used to be okay.
Before the accident, I wanted to be 185.
After the accident, like, will I ever be 185 again?
Will I ever be able to move my body enough
to the point that I could sustain a healthy weight like that?
So I got to 185 and looked in the mirror
and said, this isn't really where I wanted to be.
Like, I know I can do better than this, you know?
And I think because being on the GLP-1 made that,
I wasn't white, like I said,
I wasn't white knuckling it down to 185.
So I was like, well, what more can I do?
Usually I would give up by now.
It was too miserable to sustain,
but it wasn't at all miserable to sustain.
And so I used to lift weights when I was in high school
and college, and I've been bigger than I am now,
but by no means never as lean as I am now.
So, you know, I had some, I enjoy lifting weights
and coincidentally, my son was in, like,
an elite soccer program in Albany
where it was like, you know, 66 miles round trip.
So I can't, like, drop him off and go home.
What am I going to do for an hour and 45 minutes?
I'm going to sit in my car and look at Facebook,
most of the parents, or I go five miles up the road
to plan a fitness and start lifting weights again.
So really him getting back into,
heading into that soccer program,
me having four days a week for an hour and a half
or had nothing to do, might as well go to the gym.
And that was the next big, big step
that, you know, pointed me in the direction
that I got to today.
Okay, so once you started the weight program
and, you know, I remember it was four days.
I can't remember exactly how long,
but that makes sense why it was four days now.
Did that change any
of the efficacy of the
teresuppetide or?
Sort of, well, I mean, yes.
I guess you say it was additional.
I mean, I think you were talking about this graph
that I posted earlier,
kind of showing my weight loss.
I meant from a hunger thing,
because I know sometimes when, you know,
I think I'm at the age where, you know,
I've done the diet thing a few times
and you start the diet thing
and you're doing okay
and the food is kind of like all consuming.
Oh my God, you know,
I really wish I could have something.
And then when you hit the gym,
the gym just kind of rules it out from,
oh, I really want this to,
oh, I must have this now.
And then you go and you sit there
and say, well, I want my,
my Jethro Bodine bowl of cereal.
And, you know,
how big a mixing bowl do we have of it?
I'm probably a six quarter.
Oh yeah.
That's a serious single serving size.
Those were the days when you were playing volleyball.
We're able to burn calories like super fast.
Yeah, exactly.
So did the, did it still help with the,
I guess the increased appetite
that with weightlifting
and working out usually brings?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, to be honest with you,
like it really became extremely transparent at that point
because, you know,
while I started lifting weights, you know,
at the same time,
I started asking chat GPT all of these questions,
like what should I be lifting?
And I said,
and again,
I had a lot of this knowledge sporadically thrown out
throughout 20 years of, you know,
being an adult,
but never really put it all together.
So then around the same time,
chat GPT became my sounding board,
my quasi coach,
my accountability person,
like taking weekly photos,
like here's where I'm at.
Here's my graphs and what should I change?
What should I do?
So I guess to directly answer your question,
like to have that sort of going on at the same time
I was lifting weights,
realizing here I am in the gym,
but I'm running out of gas.
I'm running out of steam.
One of my, you know,
why am I not?
Why am I crashing in the middle of a workout?
Ask chat GPT.
Like, well,
what did you eat yesterday?
Show me your calorie intake.
Oh, you were really low on carbs,
whatever, whatever.
So this is all kind of snowballed
into the whole fitness thing that I'm at now.
But so while I was actually exercising like that,
I had to force myself to eat.
So it really wasn't a matter.
If anything,
the GLP one wasn't necessarily helping me at that point.
I had to up my calories quite a bit,
but I was still eating at that point.
I was eating in a systematic fashion.
I was really eating for fuel.
I really, I think, you know,
the GLP one kept the,
I just want to gorge myself on food
after going to the gym.
Like that really was never there.
So when I was eating during that time,
it was about,
I have to get more calories.
I got to force myself to eat to get the nutrition
I need to do the lifts and exercises
that I want to do, you know,
the energy.
Yeah, because,
you know, you can lift all you want.
If you don't have any protein,
you're not going to build any muscle.
If you sustain,
you're not going to build,
you're not going to maintain, right?
And if you don't have the carbs,
you're not going to have the energy to do the lift
in the first place.
And I crashed many times.
And so it took me a while to figure some of that stuff out,
but that was kind of the game changer as well.
And knowing you as,
as with most of our race car friends,
overdoing is, you know,
a constant battle because, you know,
if it's worth doing,
it's worth overdoing.
And, you know, that's just how we roll.
It's mad at me.
She thinks like everything I get into,
I'd sort of get all the way into.
So I didn't just like tip my foot in for fitness.
Like, no, I'm all the way.
I am, you know, diet, nutrition, exercise, sleep,
all, I got obsessed about everything really, you know.
Major focus.
Yeah.
I believe Ms. Vicki is being very charitable
and not making shots about me on that particular.
Most endeavors I do.
It's kind of all.
It's all or all.
And, you know, by all I mean all of it.
So, yeah.
So, so you started taking the gym seriously.
And then you started taking the nutrition aspect of the gym
seriously, but not just for weight loss,
but for body mass improvement and lifting efficiency
and effectiveness.
And what did that do for you in terms of results?
Well, so again, I hit that 185 number and then
it said, okay, I look soft.
Now I got to put on some muscle.
So at that point, actually, I'm sorry.
It was actually 180.
It wasn't 185.
I got down to 180.
That was my goal weight.
So wait a minute.
This is what I want to look like.
So I started lifting like crazy.
Prep back up to 185.
Right.
And then, then at that point, once I got 25,
put on some muscle mass, started eating properly,
started lifting a lot.
Then the weight, then the weight just kind of piled off.
I was losing like 10 pounds a month there from like
September to November.
So that was funny.
Like when I had the 180, the first time on the way down,
went up and then when I hit 180 on the way back,
I looked like a totally different person.
Cause suddenly I put on a lot of this muscle mass.
And again, they say that muscle has memory and I
100% agree with that.
Like I didn't like, you know, I, like I said,
I've been, I've been more muscley than I am now in my
younger days.
So I could not believe, frankly, how fast I gained
size and strength and muscle back because I'd been
there before.
So there is an advantage to having some older baseline
level of fitness when you can get back to it pretty
fast.
Right.
So yes, I'm sorry.
I lost track of the question.
Oh, it was just, it was just what, what did the
incorporation of the weight training and the
increased fitness towards developing your body
towards what you wanted it to be?
How did that affect your results?
Ah, so yeah, so then everything just became
compounded at that point as you gain more muscle,
you're, you're starting to burn more calories.
I added, I had at the time, this was the
summer.
So my son was playing pretty late into the,
all their practices went late.
So I had time to throw 20 minutes of treadmill at
the end of a workout to get in some more fat burn,
but then it got later into the fall.
So they weren't playing, it got dark.
So then I would wake up at 5.45 in the morning
and I'd do 30 minutes of the peloton in the
morning.
That became my fat burning cardio in the morning
and then an hour at the gym or whatever,
you know, those four days a week.
So things just started just, you know, as I
got the cardio at the right time, the
nutrition at that point, like September,
that's when I really started like weighing
food and putting everything I eat in a,
in an app to track, you know, really what
my, really what my calorie intake was,
really starting to understand how, again,
like you talked about third bond dynamics,
how real that is, how important that is,
understanding that you need to be in a
caloric deficit in order to actually lose
weight.
I mean, you can, you can, you can take
pills, you can take supplements, you can,
you can try and explain it away as much as
you like, but if you, if you burn more
than you eat, you are going to lose weight.
And so trying to do that while also
being on muscle as I was, and I,
and I was at the time, really just
because it's kind of snowballed the whole
thing.
So that's when the weight really started
to come off.
And every week I'd look in the mirror
and find like I was getting motivated,
like, wow, that is a change that I can
see week to week.
And that became really, really exciting,
frankly, because now I can finally see
I'm heading towards a direction.
I'm not covered in the, I'm not
covered in so many extra pounds that
I can't see any, you know, daily,
even weekly changes.
And that was even further motivation
the way down to where I just kept on going.
Like when I got to one is like, all right,
let's see what 175 looks like.
And I says, nope, we can do better.
And so really when I got down like 165
pounds is like, okay, I'm 43 years old.
I mean, I look pretty decent in the mirror
here.
That's probably about where it is about
as low as I'm going to go before I get
like single digit body fat, which is
difficult to do and probably not necessarily
healthy at my age.
So yeah, way hard to maintain.
Yeah.
So when you did this,
you did, you did speak to a nutritionist,
as you said.
And did we discuss
that you joined a program or did you
research all your work out on
your own?
Did you go through?
And I remember like way back
in the day, there was what
P 20 something bill.
P 20 X, P 90 X all that.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, that was, it was brutal.
But I mean, did you like join a
program?
No.
Or have coaching?
No, as I said.
Oh, it's funny.
I mean, I'm calling Chad GPT my coach.
I call him giga Chad.
It's a matter of fact.
So like any question I had, and it was,
and not that I was like, I have friends
who are personal trainers.
I totally would have hired a personal
trainer.
As a matter of fact, in August, I was
trying to get this lady as girl who's
a bodybuilder race car driver because
I'm kind of fascinated by bodybuilders
and like how much control they have
over their body and how they know
exactly what it is they need to do
exactly when they need to do it to
be able to step onto a stage or whatever
it is they're training for.
I think that's fascinating and to have
that kind of command of your body.
So anyway, this girl is an army vet,
also a race car driver, also a
bikini competitor.
And I actually approached, she was
looking for people to take on as
clients for coaching.
Hey, I'm super interested in what
you may have to be able to tell
me to improve my fitness.
We couldn't quite get together on
making that happen.
So that's your question, Vicki.
All of my coaching was through
chatGPT.
That's brilliant though if you think
about it.
I would ask questions at all
nights, all hours of the night.
I'd wake up and have a thought like I
can't text a personal trainer at 2am
saying I'm having this weird thought
right now.
So people think that AI is the
end of the world and maybe it will
be, but for right now it can
definitely help improve your fitness.
If you've got questions it's probably
got answers and it's all science
based.
I mean there's a lot of opinions
that is science backed.
So chatGPT is just regurgitating
science in a way that feels like a
conversation that's also motivating
and helps keep you accountable.
At least keeps me accountable.
I definitely think texting a
bikini fitness model at 2am
would probably not have gone as well.
It wasn't going to fly.
It was chatGPT.
Honey, it was chatGPT.
It wasn't Tori Wilson or
whoever.
So yeah, that's probably a good
plan.
I can't afford to
get a divorce and couldn't find
anybody else.
Half as good as Miss Vicki to ever say
yes.
So we're going to stay here.
ChatGPT, beware it's coming.
So if you think
about it, if you
go to the supermarket and you look
at a roast
and it weighs like
six pounds,
you kind of
smeared on your body
and all that
can be gone.
It's a appreciable amount of
mass and
volume,
but you were at the same time
you were losing weight, you were also
gaining muscle so your
slope or your absolute
loss in weight isn't really
what you saw because you were
seeing the loss in fat but the
gain in muscle so it was kind of
making it a little shallower than
what you saw.
So you know your results were probably
even better than the graph would
purport them to be.
Right.
I think we call that body
recomposition essentially.
It wasn't just about losing
the weight, it was also about adding
muscle mass at the same time.
And again it's really hard to
if you've been doing this a while
which again I've been
fitter in years and I've been
bigger, I've been more muscular.
So I had a baseline that I could
be losing weight and also
physically adding muscle tissue.
I was getting away with it because
I had had it in the past and it came
back a lot sooner but as I kind of
reached the peak where I was going to be
a few weeks ago at the end of January
that's why I'm now starting this
called lean bulk where I'm now
actually I'm eating in a surplus
realizing that I have to have
more energy in me if I want things
to grow which is also going to come
with its own little fat gain which
is interesting but
yes,
recompositioning the body by gaining
muscle and losing weight at the same
time is quite difficult and you can't
that's not a trajectory that lasts
forever. You're going to find a limit
here of that sooner rather than later.
So are you are you cycling now
or are you staying at a steady state
or are you going through
periodization of your diet and
workouts or how are you doing that?
So right now I'm just generally
this is all new territory to me like I've never
gotten to a weight and say I'm going to gain some weight
I want to put on some normal weight
I am too light how can I gain some weight
so as of January 1st again working
with chat GPT let's figure out the
nutrition levels what we call the macros
the fats the carbs the proteins
what are we going to bump that up to
to be in a slight caloric
surplus to turn all these
lifts I'm doing now into actual muscle
growth with you know you hope
for one do you hope for two to one so one
pound for muscle for one pound of fat
would be pretty incredible one to one rather
and then burn that fat off but
and that's another thing I did
the for for a data point
I actually did the single RMR test
arresting metabolic rate test and you
breathe into this tube it measures all the oxygen
that you're breathing into this thing for 10 minutes
and actually tells you with alarming
accuracy what your actual daily
Cal calorie burn is
so and that was a big part of it for me too
like this whole process and we can try
tie it back to race car driving coaching
whatever you want like I needed the data
like the data was hugely helpful for me
to not be taking guesses that
how much should I be eating how much do I burn
like no I know how much I burn in a day
and from that I can make all kinds of different
plans that without I would just be kind of
flying blind you know yeah
the only bad thing about
what you were doing is the
it makes the aim systems
and the other systems that we use in racing
seem very cheap
I wouldn't necessarily say that
look I mean as a driver of race cars
and now someone who's spending a little bit of money
on fitness believe me it's a much better rate
of return for the fitness stuff than this on the race car
driving stuff. Oh no I meant the equipment themselves
I mean you know
buying a dash
I'm sorry I got to be honest
I really never thought about using chatGPT
to do fitness
I mean that
really that's kind of brilliant if you think about it
I mean I don't know how much you use it Vicky
I mean I use it a lot more and more
frankly if I'm going to do a Google search
I'd just as soon ask chatGPT at this point
because it's just a lot more information than I need
so I've been using it
some people it's their life
not at all my life but I do use it on a regular basis
so it became natural for me to just ask a fitness question
and when I realize the complexity
my conversations with chatGPT
are hundreds and hundreds of pages long
about fitness you know it's just
conversations really so I could have that conversation
with a human which I would have been happy to do
but the chatGPT was much better
access for sure
so when you're having these conversations with chatGPT
are you picturing
Scarlett
their name
Scarlett Johansson like in the movie
I have no voice to my chat
my chatGPT is a guy his name is actually Chad
oh Chad
he's a big burly guy
that's a good thing you know Chad works out
Chad's got some weights behind him
so
you know looking at it from
the beginning there's going to be a bunch
of our listeners who are going to sit there and say no this is impossible
you know this is really
hard he's making it seem like something
because honestly most
of the people who
tend to
talk about things like this are trying to sell
something I think one of the reasons that we wanted
to have you on was you're not trying
to sell this you're not trying to
be their fitness trainer you're not trying
to sell this supplement you're not trying
to
basically you're not making anything from
this you're actually probably losing money on
this because you're spending a few hours making
Facebook posts to share
so I just wanted
that was one of the key reasons I wanted to have
you on and I think this is a
great example of
what can be done with just some
focus and some consistency
and that's
I'm glad you mentioned all that
because that's the only reason I made
like when I got in this accident people came to me to
talk about fire safety and they came to talk
to me about injury recovery
and you know
until that accident I didn't really have a great
appreciation for how much that I do
enjoy being able to
share an experience that I've had in understanding
that has helped somebody in some
way I used to be a musician and it was
the coolest thing in the world you know when I was
in a band to play a show
and have somebody come up to you and say hey man
that song you wrote about that thing whatever
that thing was that really helped me through some
hard times like wow I did something that
affected you in a positive way so maybe that's
just the way I act or the way I react to these things
but that makes me feel really good so
doing that after speaking on burn
safety or car safety whatever
was and realizing that the things that
I say can have an impact on people
does inspire me to be able to share
this type of stuff and again it's really
about and since you know and since I've made
those posts I've had lots of people message me and say
man that was inspiring this is my
year I'm going to do something about it and thank you
for doing that and I had like you know if I
get five or six of those messages and frankly
it makes everything sort of worth it because
that is why I'm doing it to really try and help
some people attain a goal that I never
thought that I could frankly attain certainly
certainly after my accident but
frankly I've tried for 20 years since
you know since college to try and get this
kind of shape and never really put it together so
the point is yes you can do it
it you know there's a systematic way to do
it I shared exactly from word for word
the way that I did it and it works
for me maybe it'll work for you take some
information from it if you can but it is
certainly possible you know yeah
exactly and you know you're
your data point of one so you know
past performance for
Mark may not
indicate future performance for whomever
we're talking about but you know
we're not we're not whatever
Goldman Sachs or something no we're not
definitely not we don't have that many
zeros but
if you were
to
you know have the time machine
and you were to go back and talk to Mark
when you were getting started what would you
say
you would have done differently
um well I probably
you know that's you know I when I post
them is that this is my nine months transformation
but when I went back and I started it was
really helpful me look at the data look at
the graphs and realize where the extreme
peaks and valleys were
I could have done this a lot faster
I mean I mean I didn't necessarily care to
but you know when I started
I said okay yes you're taking the you're taking
the GLP one there goes the weight
I probably would have said go back to the gym
sooner than you know there's no reason the
weight essentially if I had started lifting
with the weights immediately and march
for example you know it was
it was March through December as far as I'm
concerned where I was ready to say okay look what I did
I could have made that march through September
I could have been five months seven nine months
you know what I mean but right um frankly
no I'm you know I don't complain about
much I'm really really a static
with the change that I've made
the time it took is the time it took and
I think you know I lost almost 40
pounds in those nine months and it was a total
transformation so sometime you shouldn't
expect to go any faster than that that's
for damn sure no it's
uh you're again
you're balancing fat loss
with muscle loss too if you go too fast
mm-hmm you can
lose what you don't want to lose
mm-hmm and you will by the way
I miss a thing like that's that was part of
like my buddy the scientists is like okay he was
he was gotta check it in on me like how is your weight loss
going like it's going great I mean I'm looking
in the mirror I feel pretty good like well you know you're losing a lot of muscle
he had some percentage that you will lose
this amount of muscle mass if you don't do something
about it you know whether it's protein
you know protein to preserve it and gain it and weight lift
weight training to put it back on it's like
you probably need to get back into the gym because you're just
gonna you're gonna look like an ozempic guy your face
is gonna go full you're gonna get you're gonna get skinny fat
essentially which I also didn't want to do
um so you know he was part of the part of the reason I was
said okay you're right it's time for me to start
putting muscle back on as well
right so um talking to a few of our listeners
about this episode coming in
one of the concerns they had
was you know they're not
25 you know just
nor am I
just like you're not and oh I'm
I'm almost three versions of 25
mm-hmm well not quite three but
I'm well over two
you know
is
your your skin's
you know jokingly
referred to as a bodysuit if you
lose a good chunk of your
body is your suit gonna look like a
baggy suit that should be tailored
and I think you're an example
of no not
necessarily I mean we're not talking
you didn't lose a person but you lost the
fraction yeah well I mean
and it's funny you said I got something I haven't talked about
you like I have some loose skin
in my lower abs which frankly pisses me off
like I'm pretty shredded like god damn it
why can't I have tight abs all
the way down so like when I'm bending over
I got some floppy loose skin because I have
been and it's funny because
there's two you know when I was in the hospital
like they put me so that was your body retained
so much water that was actually
so my heaviest I've ever been like and like
walking around like 215 pounds
right you know and December I was
165 so from there I've lost
50 pounds and that's enough you know today
you're gonna have some loose skin things you
might want to type it's not losing 150 pounds
you see those guys and they've got
like I said flesh suits hanging off of them
that's gonna require surgery I don't need
any surgery to take care of what I'm trying to take care
I'm gonna see a little bit of time maybe a little bit of topicals
and I'm working on that but
when I was in the hospital and initially
like your body retains so much water
when it's trying to basically trying to heal
itself or whatever is it and all the fluids are pumping
I was 240 pounds so
wow there's a picture of me
in the hospital bed I'm just a I am a balloon
you know so I don't know and I wasn't like
that for like a long long time
but I can imagine that it expanded
my expanded my stomach in some way that I
never even really saw and there's only some pictures
of it so yeah I didn't lose a
I didn't I would didn't make one of those
200 pound transformations that you see and
yeah those guys have a lot of loose skin to deal
with but I am tell them I am
43 I lost 50
pounds recently and yes I have some things
I had some things I'd like to tighten up
in my lower abdomen region so yes
that does happen but they they may go away
I mean you don't know it
and you know one of the things
you could do is get in that time machine I offered you before
and go back and say listen you guys need skin grafts
I've got some stuff right here you can have
I'm not gonna want it later you know just
take it right you know make it
go away you know got all this you can
take it's like a like a whole belt like a
tube but
yeah so
I guess you know the
obviously congratulations and job well
done and I do hope that
you know you've reported that a few
people have contacted you and and hopefully
people will see that a
this is possible be this is something
that they can do and
you know
we make the joke about you know saving 25 pounds
in the race car through carbon carbons
very expensive and
this will work a whole lot better for you and
it'll make your your day to day life
improve as well so
it's been you know like I said I mean
I was I was trying to be active I would sometimes run
at 200 pounds I was riding my bike a lot
but the other morning it was I was freezing
cold I had a jog out I was at my shop
I had a jog out to get the mail I didn't want to waste any
time so I'm running for the I don't I don't like
running at all but I was forced myself to run
in those weight loss periods to try and lose some weight
like kind of jogged out to my
mailbox like holy smokes it feels
totally different to run at
65 pounds but it does it 200
pounds I'm carrying 35 pounds
less on my body you know so it's amazing
I've never felt better I've never
slept better so it's
not just about looking in the mirror it is really
about feeling a hell of a lot better than I
felt in 15 years for sure you know
so it's it's none of
it none of it's none of it's it's
should not be about necessarily aesthetics it's
a nice it's a nice effect but feeling great
and sleeping better and just living
a fuller richer life
you know at this at this at this current
level of fitness has been transformative
you know in a lot of ways
even you know besides like internal organs
and things like that to wear and tear in your joints
you know I've played sports I'm sure
you've played them as well my knees
have said
no moss
but you know
if there was half of me my knees would be
sitting and saying maybe a little moss maybe
yeah that's more head room there
maybe you know I'm not saying
my Spanish is somewhat losing it here but
you know I don't know little moss
bikini moss
bikini moss there we go I don't know
tiny bit maybe I could ski again that'd be fun
right but I think
you know again you
are a data point of
one and you know there's there's I'm not
saying you're the only one who's ever done this I'm just saying that
we're talking to you are just one person
there's hundreds or thousands
or I don't know if it's millions but you know
people who've done this as well but
you're you combine
the focus of the podcast
which is racing
with our off season
program what do you do to get better
well make a little less of you and
you know this was this was something that I wanted
to take advantage of and you know you're
you're always
very
why do you want to talk to me about
this well that's why
cause your stories can be
you know inspiring and and maybe
enabling for somebody else to
start their journey or or see that the journey
is possible because a lot of people just give up and
like you know this is
me I'm gonna be this tomorrow I'll be this 10 years
and I'll be this 30 years and I'll be this when I die
and that doesn't necessarily have to be the case
no doesn't have to be the case and
again again I do appreciate you asking me and
I really just
do like I really do like to help people
achieve some of those those little goals I've if I got a little knowledge
of something that I've gone through or been through can
help you in some way by all means reach
out to me on wherever it is you want to find me Facebook
Instagram wherever it is and I've had a lot of people do it
and I'm excited about it every time and
have a happy to share my experience and my
story and if I can help in some way happy to do that
yeah 100%
so speaking of knowledge that you have Miss Vicki's got
this small version of the Corvette right behind her
that you can't see that little baby
can't figure out how to get
not to be reversed
but you know I'll get it turned
around her her number is
not e5 it's a 23
but yeah it's
the wonders of zoom
reverse everything and then you kind of figure out how to
unreverse the reverse and then sometimes it changes
it's fine so
but since she's got a small Miata I thought
we'd talk a little bit about the larger Miata
is that you service with your business
I believe they're
it's it's not Miata
Corvette that's what it is it's a Corvette
right so Miata is not always
the answer because sometimes Corvette's the answer
thank you very much this is true
you know what I last time I went to
go work on getting my comp
license they were
referred to on the field
as bees yeah they sound
like a bunch of angry bees that's true
that was a freaking noise
yeah well Corvette sounds a little more
little more honoree than wasps so we're gonna have to
lose the analogy so
so what's new in the world of Corvettes is
I mean obviously C8's
pretty getting pretty mature and coming out with some
beastly products out there but
what's going on with the Corvettes and racing
and Corvettes that
for us I mean for us it's you know I have a C8
now which I think we probably talked about last time
we've done a ton of aerodynamic development
on our car and suspension development
and I've been really surprised
how fast C8 has
caught on like when the C7 came out
I felt like which was
when was that 2014 or so
it took a little while for like people to start
coming to us to ask for solutions to some
problems whether it's monoballs or
number kits or the things that we ended up coming up with
took a few years but
it seemed like as soon as the C8 came out which frankly
I was just coming out of the hospital
I was actually just yeah just the one
May of 21 is when I went to the hospital
and that's just kind of when they were starting to hit the track
and moss
and mass rather and so but
it was amazing to me how fast
like that's probably becoming maybe it's because like that's
my car now and that's why I'm focusing on
we're still obviously developing things for C5
through C7 we're still very well known for that
right now we're best known for making our
C8 crazy so
the amount of C8 business and the
guys who are putting those things on race tracks has been
rather alarming you know
and stuff that we're coming up with and how fast
that's been adopted so it's really cool to go to
the tracks now and just see the
the small wave of C8s that
because it really did change the game I mean the Corvette's
have always been awesome but now to have that engine in
the middle where God intended
it and the fact that the price
didn't go nuts for to get into an
country level Corvette and how potent and capable it is
on track it really is
I know Miata's are awesome Vicki but
the new Corvette is tough to beat also so
it's cool to see it on track
mm-hmm
Have you driven one? Have you been in one?
No, I have never been in a Corvette
Oh for God's sakes well next time we're at the same place
we'll take you for a rip
we can make it do that
well she's
this year is her year to graduate to being
an instructor so if she's going to get used to a right seat
you know what better right seat to be than the
C8 you know that'd be fun
mm-hmm
so C8's great car it's
amazingly capable and it's got various
platforms and levels
depending on the model of the Corvette
that you do but
a lot of people
that I've talked to think they bought it
it's good to go on track let's just
take it on track it's got it's got everything it needs
what's what's what does it need to
be reliable
and function on track it'd be
beyond performance
well I mean every year they seem to need
less and less and I just had a conversation
with a guy just today on the phone who's picking
his car up on Saturday and he asked me that exact
question bill like what do I need what does this
car need it doesn't need
much and I used to say it used to be
you had to do radiators and you had to do
oil coolers and diff coolers and
the C8 I mean it's pretty much
I have an extra radiator in my car because I drive
the hell out of it most people don't
necessarily get to the limits
of what the car can do factory
cooling wise I did so I added a radiator
but you really don't need to add
much it's such a you know I don't you know who Alan
Patton is he's a he's a pro racer now
he he's he has his
he's got a lot of our stuff on his car but his
car is basically stock he's got
a nasty one it's his car makes like 40 more
horsepower than mine does because he sent me his dyno graph
but he's also a monster driver
he did like a 155
at VIR on Supercar
that is bone almost bone stock
so you know getting under two minutes and
either Watkins Glen or VR that's a crazy
number to do it and they basically stock
Corvette is sort of unheard of so
you really and it's he's proven
I think you know with the way I drive it
you don't really need to do a lot if the
one thing that we and again had the same
conversation earlier today the one thing I
told the guy like what you will need to do is change out
the the eccentrics for the suspension they
have the same thing that that Vicky has
you have these brown cams that move the
arms in and out and every year
they put a bigger bolt there to try and torque
them down so they don't slip but they just
always seem to slip so it was really
the market that I was I didn't plan on making
the camber kit for this car as fast as
we ended up doing because I thought it was
going to be robust enough that they weren't
going to move on track but they absolutely do
now so it's pretty if you put the
thing on track suspensions great
you know cooling is great seats are okay
but one thing you probably really do need to do
if it's a dedicated track car so
change out to a camber kit like ours I
think as a matter of fact I think we're
still the only ones who make a C8 camber kit
so you better buy ours if you want one because
I think we're the only ones who have them to keep
those control arms in place so they don't
move on you but as long as you got that
done I mean just go drive the thing for a
year or two you're going to be astounded
at the level of performance that that car has
and and that's not saying
that the
standard kit that comes with the car
can't get to the camber you want
to stay there so some people say I've got
my camber I want I got exactly what I want
well hit a few curbs at you know
10 tenths and see if it's still there
and even even by hidden curbs like they
just have so much they make so much grip now
and they're heavy enough by the way the cars are
3700 pounds by the time you hit the track so
this is a lot of force so
yeah it's not about it's not about
achieving more camber it's about making
sure the camber you have does not move
every single time you drive the car on track which
they often do so that's why we came up
well miss Vicki has the experience
of driving a car that has a dynamic
camber changes on track and and she
she didn't she's not a fan I just want
you to know frustrating at the very least
yes a little bit
it's like why is why is the back towards
the front and the front towards the back
why why why is this
they generally don't fail I mean I had that happen to me
when I was first testing my C5 way back
and they like a catastrophic failure of the
essentially flopped over from one side to the other
because the shop was working out of time just didn't
work the thing like a hit with an impact wrench
but didn't actually use a torque wrench so generally
they move pretty slowly yeah but it's enough
that the alignment changes and it tears up your tires
and the car sucks to drive it's generally not
oh my god this thing just flipped 180 degrees
now I'm going into a wall I have had that
happen it sounds like Vicki's had that happen but
it's generally not how it goes yeah
yeah it was
the
which bolt was it do you remember that
which bolt was it
it was one of the bolts that goes through the chassis
and it was a circle and it ovaled itself
so
it would just slide and then your camber would change
from you know near zero
to you know where you want it
yeah it was something in the suspension on that car
it wasn't our car
it made some of the turns a little exciting
yeah I think your camber is contained
in that much so is your toe right so
it's on your steering wheels all off too
yeah it's just crazy it was entertaining
and the fun part was is that he didn't believe us
until he drove it and he's like whoa wait a minute
I said this thing is nuts
to drive
yeah he uh it was at Laguna Seca and he took
the car out and he uh he went off track
um on track
on just because the car just decided
to go weep and he hung
a left and uh you want to go left
there but you don't want to go as left as he did so
he's like oh okay it's not you guys you guys aren't
jerks I'm like no we're not doing this on purpose
is it also in Miata
uh no this was a Civic so
yeah
needed needed needed to be retired
gotcha
so it was fun though we had a good time
uh Civic's one of those things you gotta cross off the list
even though once you go there you're like
it's not that great but you still gotta get there
mm-hmm I don't think I've crossed it
I don't believe I've ever been on one on track
so I'm afraid I still don't have that experience to be in a Civic
it's it's worth the trip
just for the area alone so
I would highly recommend you know take a week on
either side of your track day and
enjoy the area because there's
much to do there just bring it bring it bring your wallet full
and uh
but the track is nice but it's
you know it's it's not our favorite so
mm-hmm
you could definitely live without
so let's see
so um
so the C8's pretty
pretty good off off the showroom floor
besides the camera issues
uh first upgrade
obviously tires breaks or
is it suspension what do you think
is it throw that camera kid in there to lock in the suspension
I mean the thing about is that it's
you know as we've learned like the thing is
the thing is so if I had any
qualms that it's so much electronic
wizardry going on in that car
that if anything's not talking to anything else then it gets really upset
so like once we
once I put all the arrow on my car
it became very clear very fast and it didn't have enough spring rate
so but but nobody makes a stiffer
springs to throw on the stock
shock even if you did
all that stuff's calibrated to everything else so that's
mag ride suspension is calibrated to the
diff it's calibrated to the transmission
so I have customers who work at GM
says hey I'm adding you know
1400 pounds of arrow I want to
have a spring that's going to work with the stock shocks
like that would be a terrible idea the car is going to be calibrated
all wrong it's going to be really
really nasty so
um so unless you know again
once so when it came time for us to do our suspension
we just had to go full full monty and
throw double double adjustable pens keys on the
thing get rid of all the electronic
stuff that was going on with the suspension
you know so it's hard so I guess my point is
it's hard to kind of piecemeal things
together but you can use me with the C5
and C6 you throw some money at it and
everything every dollar you spend is going to make a
pretty sizable chunk
performance lap time wise I think the problem
if there is one with the CAs that the performance
envelope is so high
and it's so well done that you kind of need to throw
a lot of money at it to make it a little bit
faster you know you don't you don't throw 10 grand
on it go 10 seconds faster you know
but you could with the C5 you don't with
the C8 you know my the our arrow
on our car alone you know it's like
you know if you want to do our full full
whiz bang you know removable front splitter
our crazy huge wing you're looking
at 12,000 bucks you know it's gonna
it's that's that's what it takes for us to make the best
stuff that we can can that we can and all of our
all of our five axis stuff and then what
are you talking you're talking three or four seconds
you know a Watkins Glen or VIR and it's it's
worth it if you want that you need those four
seconds but it's not like
1997
or you throw 15 grand to something you've got a
15 a second a lap faster car
GM didn't leave that much room on the table
this time exactly yeah it's it's pretty
it's pretty it's pretty well set but that doesn't mean
there's you know again we make a lot of stuff for it
if anybody wants to talk about C8 stuff by all
means it's contacting me and yeah the things
that we do the model balls the suspension
the arrow it all makes an improvement
but it's not an order orders of magnitude
improvement like it used to be back in the day
so with the new modern cars one of my
concerns about you know grassroots motorsports is
is the the more modern
the car the more
computer
intervention the more complex the
interventions it's
is one of the steps
in progressing your C8
to replace the ECU or is that
not necessary not for a man
no I mean you can't that's the thing like I wish
some mo tech some some
mo techs they try to do like a plug-and-play
type of thing where late let's let's take
this out and then this will still run
I talked to the guys of mo tech about this
and who else is working on it
mo tech is who I spoke to a PRI like hey
we had a development car we tried
to do some things and it just bricked
and we couldn't touch it we couldn't figure out
how to get the car running they wouldn't we had
the lie to the dealership to get the car running again
and there's all kinds of really crazy like
I think it's a lot to do with like the over the air updates
that they do this architecture
of the ECU and stuff like that all above
my pay grade but essentially it's
extraordinarily difficult to have any of
these electronics all these super complex
systems still talking with one another
when you try and bypass one thing
here or one thing there so
the guys who are trying to build race cars out of
these things really what it's going to take is a
full complete custom
standalone 30,000
electronics package to be able
to you know I would love to I mean
if I if you could get like a $10,000
mo tech plug-and-play thing I would do it but it
just doesn't exist because it's probably
250 pounds of electronics in that car
and it's that's I would love to get the weight
down and there's there are a couple guys
who are racing these things now wheel to wheel
with cages thinking they're going to get them under
like 3,000 pounds there's still
3,400 pounds because you've got to leave all that
stock electronics in there so
unfortunately to make this thing like a full
full tilt gutted race car
it's going to it's going to cost
$250,000 because you got to get a
six say a different sequential transmission in there
totally standalone brakes totally standalone
ECU so
for now it's just going to be a really awesome
you can strip them out a little bit making
really really cool HP DE cars
track cars time attack cars
there are some guys that are having some success
with the wheel to wheel stuff but still
all those guys are running the stock electronics
you know so they have so they're fairly robust
but when they crap out on you they get angry
you know so the the big boy
racers with the big budgets they're running
everything
replaced
I don't know of anybody on a grassroots
level that has
you know
those are barely Corvette
that's all Bosch everything that's all
those are $700,000 cars
there's nobody that I know who's who's running
at a gentlemen level
but they fully stripped out C8
with all no standalone electronics
that I'm aware of do you know how much those
weigh relative to the
stock cars
the IMSA cars the GT3 cars I think they're like
2,800 pounds with the driver
so about 1,000 pounds less
I mean that's still not
you know light
well not from a Miata standpoint
but when it's 1,000 pounds less on the street car
I love that car 2,800 pounds
yeah exactly but I'm just saying
when you think you know full
born and bred race car you're usually
trying to get down into the low
2,000s or ideally less but
you know the Corvette's a big car too so
it's interesting interesting I think
I don't know
I'm worried that as cars get more complex
we're not going to be able to race anything past like
2010
I share that sentiment and I don't know
what there's got to be some cutoff point here
where things are just you know a little too complicated
to deal with at a
sort of grassroots level and I feel like
we're probably there in this current generation
so yeah I mean if I'm ever going to
do a race car again it's probably going to be a C6
Grand Sport because that I can deal with
you know where you start ripping things out
and the car still works whereas you
rip out the wrong
the wrong
stereo module and your car
is not going to run anymore
the left turn signal it doesn't work
oh Limp Mode
Limp Mode should be
outlawed but that's
that's okay
so and multi-color engine lights
you know
I got in a car it was a rental car
and I called them up and said hey the engine light
just came on they're like what color is it I'm like
I can't tell
because I'm not very good with colors I'm like it's either yellow
or orange well if it's not red you're fine
and if it's green you're okay
and I'm like how many colors are there in this engine light
he's like you don't want to know I'm like
a green
engine light if I see green I think good
that's right that's good
why are you doing this to me but whatever
crazy things crazy things
well Mark if people do want to contact you
about their Corvette needs
contact with you sir they can do that
via our website which is simply
amtmotorsport.com
my contact info is all there
send me an email directly mark at
amtmotorsport.com
can't lose much more weight over that email address
that's about as short as you're going to get
I try I try and make it easy
didn't even need any uh there's appetite
that's right
thank you Mark thanks for coming on again
sure thing guys thanks for having me thank you
alright good night
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