Garage Heroes In Training Jan 28, 2026

GHiT 0749: Scott Mattis and MJ Trierweller

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Car

Ford Mustang GTD

The Ford Mustang GT is a fast sports car that was popular in the late 80s. The 1987 version is known for its strong engine and stylish look, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.

Concept

Drag racing is a competition where two cars race each other in a straight line to see which one is faster. It's usually done on a short track and focuses on how quickly a car can go from a stop to top speed.

Concept

auto crossing

Auto crossing is a type of racing where drivers go through a course set up with cones. It's more about how well you can handle your car than how fast you can go.

Concept

SCCA

The SCCA is a club in the U.S. that organizes car racing events. They help people participate in racing, whether they're just starting out or are experienced drivers.

Concept

track days

Track days are events where you can drive your car on a racetrack. It's a safe place to go fast and learn more about how your car handles.

Car

Ferrari 488 GTB

The Ferrari 488 GTB is a fast sports car made by Ferrari. It has a powerful engine and is designed for high performance on the road.

Car

Lamborghini Huracan

The Lamborghini Huracan is a high-end sports car made by Lamborghini. It has a powerful engine and is famous for its stylish looks and speed.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette C8 is a new version of the Corvette sports car, known for its powerful engine and sleek design. It's made to perform well on the road.

Car

Nissan Gtr

The Nissan GT-R is a fast sports car made by Nissan. It's known for its great performance, especially when driven in the right way.

Car

Bugatti Chiron

The Bugatti Chiron is a very expensive and powerful car that many people dream of driving because of its speed and luxury.

Car

Ford Gt

The Ford GT is a fast sports car made by Ford that is known for its racing heritage and modern design.

Car

Ferrari 458

The Ferrari 458 is a high-performance sports car made by Ferrari. It has a powerful engine and is designed for speed and agility on the road or track.

Term

brake pedal

The brake pedal is what you press with your foot to make the car slow down or stop. It's important to use it correctly, especially when driving fast.

Concept

VIR

VIR stands for Virginia International Raceway, a famous racetrack where people can drive fast cars on a track designed for racing.

Concept

Road Atlanta

Road Atlanta is a famous racetrack in Georgia where cars race on a specially designed track with lots of twists and turns.

Concept

Barber

Barber is a racetrack in Alabama where cars can race on a track that has many curves and is surrounded by beautiful scenery.

Concept

Brainerd

Brainerd is a racetrack in Minnesota where different types of racing events take place, including car races on a track.

Concept

Road America

Road America is a long racetrack in Wisconsin where cars can race at high speeds on a track with many turns.

Car

Saleen S7

The Saleen S7 is a really fast sports car made by Saleen. It's famous for being powerful and fun to drive.

Term

NASCAR engine

A NASCAR engine is a powerful engine used in NASCAR races. It's built to go really fast and is made to last through tough races.

Concept

tube frame car

A tube frame car is built with a frame made of tubes instead of solid materials. This makes the car lighter and stronger, which is great for racing.

Term

Speed Vision

Speed Vision was a TV channel that focused on car racing and shows about cars. It was popular among car enthusiasts before it changed its name.

Concept

IMSA GS

IMSA GS is a racing category where cars that are based on regular production models compete against each other. It's part of a larger racing organization that hosts events for different types of cars.

Car

GT3

The GT3 is a special version of the Porsche 911 that is built for racing and high performance. It's known for being very fast and handling well on the track.

Concept

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons is a race where people drive cheap cars for a long time, usually 24 hours. It's more about having fun and being creative with your car than winning.

Car

BMW Series Bmw

The BMW 7 Series is a fancy car that is very comfortable and has a lot of cool technology. It's one of the best cars that BMW makes for people who want luxury.

Concept

Nürburgring Nordschleife

The Nürburgring Nordschleife is a long and difficult racetrack in Germany where many car companies test their vehicles. It's famous for being very challenging and is loved by racing fans.

Concept

Mount Panorama

Mount Panorama is a well-known race track in Australia where many car races happen. It's famous for being difficult and exciting for drivers.

Car

BMW M4

The BMW M4 is a fast sports car made by BMW. It's built for performance and is great for driving on tracks or for fun on the road.

Car

Oldsmobile Cutlass

The Oldsmobile Cutlass is an older car that many people liked to drive in the past. It had a classic look and was very popular when it was being made.

Car

Cutlass Sierra

The Cutlass Sierra is a car made by Oldsmobile that was popular in the 80s and 90s. It was known for being comfortable and easy to drive.

Car

Porsche 911

The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that looks really cool and goes super fast. It's been around for a long time and is loved by many people who enjoy driving.

Term

totaled

When a car is 'totaled', it means it's damaged so badly that fixing it would cost more than the car is worth. Insurance companies often decide this when they look at the damage and repair costs.

Part

Michelin Arctic Alpine snow tires

Michelin Arctic Alpine snow tires are special tires made for driving in winter conditions. They help cars grip the road better when it's snowy or icy, making driving safer.

Car

Ford Pinto

The Ford Pinto is a small car made by Ford in the 1970s. It is known for being affordable but also has a controversial history due to safety problems.

Car

Porsche 917

The Porsche 917 is a famous race car known for being really fast and winning many races in the 1970s. It's considered one of the best racing cars ever made.

Car

Mazda Miata

Mazda is a car company that makes different types of cars, including a small, fun sports car called the Miata. People like Mazdas because they are enjoyable to drive.

Car

Dodge Ram

The Dodge Ram is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and is great for work or off-roading. The new version called the TRX is super powerful and made for tough terrain.

Car

Chevrolet Camaro

The Chevrolet Camaro is a powerful car that looks sporty and is built for speed. It's been around for a long time and is often compared to other fast cars like the Ford Mustang.

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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

Scriptjunk.

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 podcast.

I'm going to be one of the hosts for this episode.

It's been a long time since I said this.

Anyway, who else is hosting?

I'm Vicky.

And I'm Jeremy.

Jeremy's back.

You weren't happy a half an hour ago when I said Jeremy.

I was going to be on, but whatever.

I love what Jeremy's on.

It's OK.

You can fake it when Santa's in front of you.

That's fine.

That way the Christmas presents always come.

Exactly.

So Jeremy said, hey, you should have these guys on.

And I said, sure.

And then we come to the day where

we're going to have our episode.

And Jeremy's like, hey, Bill, did you make an episode?

I'm like, an episode outline?

I'm like, I don't know anything about them.

Sure, let's do it, Jeremy.

Hey, we're going to wing it.

We are.

We're good at that.

So Jeremy, these people claim to know you

in public places.

They've played with cars in various places.

And they've done generally bad decisions, which

sounds like the perfect podcast guest for us, Jeremy.

I think you've done well on this one.

And that's the reason why I feel very honored

to be able to call both of them friends.

So I've got a couple of guys that I met

doing extreme experience, instructors.

And we've been working together for years.

Had a ton of fun.

I've got my buddy, Scott Mattis, and my buddy, Mark John

Trailer.

Welcome to the pod.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

So Jeremy claims you as friends.

Would you guys do that, at least in a public place?

Or you know, trying to get a level of, you know.

Sure, let's go with that.

All right, all right.

That's fine.

I'll tell you, at least we couldn't believe it.

We both went to the same high school and never do each other.

Didn't know him from Adam.

And honestly, I couldn't even tell you his name.

We went to a very large high school.

And we each had our group of friends.

And didn't know.

And then one time we're visiting many years ago.

And it's like, where'd you go to high school?

Oh, I want to hear.

Well, when did you graduate?

Same year, same school.

What a small world.

Just crazy.

Well, to be fair, looking back on things,

it's probably best you didn't know them.

Because most of the time, if you look back at yourself

in high school, you wouldn't have

been friends with yourself.

So it's fine.

It worked out.

Yeah.

So let's see.

We're going to go with MJ.

Number 23 for the podcast for those bleep and score at home.

No references on that.

All right, fine.

Just a tough crowd tonight.

Anyway.

Oh, number 23.

The only one that wears that number is Michael Jordan.

There you go.

We made it.

I knew Vicki wasn't going to help me out,

but I figured Jeremy might come in.

So it's the only 23.

Yeah.

I just want you to know that I was playing number 23

before he was playing in Wilmington.

But that's a different story, different podcast.

Anyway, so MJ, what got you started with racing and cars

and generally bad decisions that are especially

bad for your pocketbook?

Oh, jeez.

Well, so after college, I immediately

went into selling higher end cars.

We were.

That's the reason we always knew you were full of it.

Right.

Key is they're not high end, by the way.

Right.

Those companies would send us send the top salespeople

to driving schools and things like that and launches

and launch events.

And while I was there, I was like, OK, I love this.

And by the way, I had always loved cars,

but I hadn't done anything competitive before.

And come to find out, I can read corners really well

and feel a car, what it's doing very well.

And the instructors came up to me at lunch

and would say, where do you coach at?

Where do you drive at?

And I said, I'm just here for the event.

And they go, well, your time is close to our top guy

as you can get.

So keep doing it.

Well, then I decided, OK, I'm going to try to do this.

So then I bought a track car and started doing events

and then signed up for more and more instruction

and more schools.

And then all of a sudden, I'm instructing and doing things.

And then I started doing the one lap of America.

And now anytime somebody says, do you

want to do a track day, I'm there.

Like, let's go.

One lap, the elusive mistress of mine that has never happened.

But that's fine.

And that would be the problem.

So it's working on it.

Let's work on it.

We're going to talk about one lap later.

We will, I'm sure.

I have questions.

We don't have answers, but we have questions.

So Scott, what brought you to this fine fairing sport

that we call and love cars?

Yeah, I took a kind of a long path.

I guess started in high school really.

My brother bought a brand spanking new 87 Mustang GT.

We used to work together.

And we would have impromptu contests of speed

on the way to and from work sometimes,

where he would show the speed of the car, I guess.

And then I got my own Mustang in high school

and started doing drag racing with it on the street,

drag racing with it.

And then started getting an organized drag racing.

Some of the guys I hang out with did some auto crossing

with the local SCCA.

So I got into auto crossing that same car

and kept building it up.

More power, more suspension, didn't do anything about brakes

because it wasn't smart enough back then.

And started doing all that kind of stuff with it.

Then I took a left turn and kept doing drag racing,

made it pretty fast drag racing.

And then I took time off to raise a family.

And then my brother's Mustang that he bought brand new

became available back in like 2000, I think it's 17 or so.

And I bought that off of him

and kind of picked up where he left off

and started doing auto crossing

and did a couple of schools and some track days.

And then the opportunity came up to do one lap

and I'd never done that, something I read about.

And so that kind of really got me in with both feet

into getting back on the road courses.

And so I did a bunch of track days from that point on,

started instructing that same year.

This is in 21, started instructing

and then have kind of ramped it up since then.

I've got a couple cars now and get on the track

as much as I can, still out across a little bit.

Haven't drag raced for a long time, but.

Yeah, once you make a turn,

once you turn left or right,

usually drag racing becomes kind of.

Yeah, I don't wanna do that anymore.

Bad, bad things happen.

So one of my cars has a ridiculous amount of power.

So it's basically a drag racer

that's set up to go on road courses, but yeah.

Much more fun.

Yes, well, we agree with it.

Turning left is fun, turning left and right is more fun.

Anyway.

Yeah.

It's much simpler that way.

So do you guys, you guys have been doing this

a little bit and with the instruction

of extreme and everything,

are there any tracks or series or cars left

on the bucket list that you guys need to cross off?

Always.

That's what we love to hear.

That's why you're on the podcast.

Yeah, 100%.

You know what's funny about extreme experience is,

you know, and if somebody says this

for anything else, they're a liar.

But I think that, you know,

originally you do it because you think or know

or you are a good instructor and you want to do that,

but you also join because of the cars that they have.

And the first time that you're there

and, you know, you get to drive,

you know, for me, I've been with them.

I think this is my fourth year.

So for me, it's been Ferrari 488 GTB,

which is a great car, but now it is an old car.

And Lamborghini Huracan, which is a great car,

but is an old car now.

The new Corvette CH06, which I am absolutely in love with.

Like it's just epic.

Nissan GTR, which is a good car only in the right mode,

correct Jeremy and Scott?

When you know how to drive it,

it's a good car in all modes.

Well, I get really bored unless it's in the right modes,

but I respect that.

Anyway, you join originally for the cars.

And, you know, what I love extreme experience

to have 10 other cars, you know,

that are all a million dollars, sure,

but it's their business.

They, you know, pick the cars that sell

and, you know, every couple of year or two,

we're adding a new car or two to the fleet, different models.

But yeah, I mean, I would love to drive a Bugatti Chiron,

you know, but that's not going to be at that.

And I certainly don't know anybody that has one.

I would love to drive a Ford GT.

That'd be a blessed car of mine, but...

The original ones or the...

No, the one that just ended production.

Oh, the brand new ones.

The newer ones, yeah.

Okay, so third, third gen.

Gen three, right?

Okay, yeah.

But anyway, but yeah, I mean, there always are,

but anyway, you join, you know,

you join extreme for the cars.

And then it just takes no time to,

and I've not been in the military or a fireman,

but I'm assuming it's similar to that

where you're sharing this experience that is fun,

but it is dangerous.

And there isn't anything that I wouldn't do

for any of the instructors at any time

at extreme experience,

because what we do is it's fricking crazy, honestly.

I mean, here, jump in.

I know you took a 25 minute class.

Here's a $300,000 car.

We're going to let you go as fast as you want.

And I'm in the right seat, and I don't have a brake pedal.

I don't have a steering wheel.

I can reach over and grab the wheel a little bit.

But what we do is, can I swear on the podcast?

If you want me to edit it, I can, yeah.

It's fricking crazy.

So, you know, so that's, I don't know.

Yes, there's tons of other cars I'd love to drive,

but you know, it is what it is.

All right, so Scott, we're going to ask you,

I just have a follow-up question.

One, so get your cars ready.

458 versus 488.

What do you think?

I have never driven, yeah, I've never driven the 458.

It sounds better.

I know that.

It does sound better.

Yeah, beyond that, I honestly,

I can't give an opinion

because I have not driven the 458.

What about you, MJ?

You said 488 was on there.

Did you do 458?

When I started with Extreme Experience,

the 488 had taken, was replaced, yeah.

The 488 replaced the 458.

So, I believe that Jeremy has probably driven the 458.

Jeremy, what do we need?

Which one do we need?

So, I have not, when I came into Extreme Experience,

they literally just got rid of that

and we were eliminating all of the McLarens

at the same time as well.

So, the 488 GTBs were new that year.

So, I haven't driven a 458, but they do sound,

a lot of people love the sound of that,

that naturally aspirated motor.

It is a lot louder than the twin turbo.

But, not as fast, but.

I'm told that they drive very similar

in terms of how they are on the racetrack,

but obviously it's that sound.

Ms. Vicki, you had a question?

I just wanna say, just for the bravery of you guys,

you guys have to be a special kind of crazy

to do what you're doing.

I don't know that I used to work crazy.

I would use something different, but.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys are,

that is quite something.

Just people that don't, like you said,

I'm gonna give you a half hour class,

we're gonna put you behind this car.

That's a lot of power, that's a lot of power.

It is, you know, extreme experience, honestly,

is, it's not an ad for them,

but they are, they try to do,

and I feel get as close as they can

to doing a 10 out of 10 job.

Oh, I hear wonderful things out of them.

With each and every client and the safety protocols

the way that they treat us, the instructors,

and really all the employees, it's just, it's special.

But yeah, I mean, it really is crazy

that they're able to do that.

Yeah, you guys are extremely brave.

That's all I could say.

We have to, one thing, if we get somebody in the car,

and that guy gets in the car,

I mean, he immediately says,

we're gonna rip the shit out of this thing,

we are really gonna go, that is my job,

right then and there, to, in a professional, nice way,

go, hey, calm down and then have a conversation.

Yes. My buddy's behind me.

Okay, well, that's not good,

because we're not going out racing.

Set some expectations.

Yeah, we're gonna have fun,

but I need you to listen to me

and watch my hand signals and my voice

and remember what you learned in class,

and we're gonna keep this on the road.

I mean, we literally had Scott has had, Jeremy has had,

people get in the car and say, I bought the insurance,

I'm gonna do whatever the FI want.

And that's not gonna happen with me and the instructor.

No, no.

I'm gonna try to act right, protect them,

myself and the asset of my company.

And so if I need to call that drive off

and have somebody else get in or get a talk,

we need to do that.

So, okay, can I just take a little deep dive

on this aspect before we move on?

The type of personalities that you are working with.

All right, do you take personal training

in diffusing certain personalities

and encouraging others?

Do you take a little course in that

or do you just have a certain way of speaking with people

in general?

You wanna answer that, Scott?

Yeah, I mean, I think one that MJ and I both are,

I think people, people, you kind of have to be.

We've both been in sales our entire life.

So you have to kind of be able to read people.

And just like if you're trying to pitch a sale to somebody,

it's kind of the same thing.

You're pitching why we need to do this together,

what we need to do to come out of this thing alive.

And yeah, so you kind of have to tailor it to like,

hey, if someone's really, really motivated,

you have to kind of tailor it to,

yeah, we can go out, we can go as fast as you want

as long as you do this, this, this, and this.

And then at the first sign of trouble,

you can kind of play off that and say,

hey, remember what I told you, we cannot do that.

We cannot, you know, trying to get it,

they'll try and get the car sideways.

And it makes it sound like everybody's doing this.

It's not, it's pretty rare you get some.

90% of the time, it's like,

hey, we can go faster if you want to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're in a car that they're on the hook for

if they ball this thing up.

So they're very respectful most of the time.

And pretty, and it goes the same way.

Part of our training is, you know,

everybody's doing the MSF level two now.

I think the entire instructor core is,

for the most part, MSF level two certified.

And part of what we do with that,

it's not just controlling the maniac.

It's also tailoring it to that person

that's deathly afraid.

It's like, okay, you're a little offline.

You're going so slow.

It's not going to hurt anything.

Roll with it, you know, it's about them having fun.

As long as they're safe, you know, just, you know,

you roll with it.

And so yeah, you kind of tailor to each driver

and you got to figure out pretty quick

what kind of driver they are and that changes.

Hey, we got one lap in.

Wow, this is way easier.

I thought it was going to be now all bets are off

and it's, you know, I've had people

that were the most respectful and in control

and, you know, nothing that was even remotely scary.

And then on lap three, they got a little too comfortable

and now they're going to go out and hit as hard as they can.

It's not something that they had a plan to do

by any stretch, at least most of them,

but it's just like they've gotten that level of comfort

and they feel they can do that

and they don't understand what these cars can do

if you drive them like that.

Right, now I have another one.

So when you guys are driving within the course itself,

do you teach them quickly, briefly,

what it's like to drive on a track?

Like there is certain point of a line

and how to engage the car on the track itself

or do you just kind of just give them kind of the gist

and say, go ahead and just kind of drive it

and have a good time?

You know, we have, beyond what most tracks would have

for like an HPD day or whatever with coning,

we have our own cones that we use,

you know, and every cone is for something different.

We explain that to them, they learn that in the class.

And so it's very much the way we cone tracks

for the most part is how you're going to drive it

if you were out there, you know,

not necessarily racing, but doing a track day

or a time trial or something.

It's pretty close to what you'd have.

Our braking zones out of necessity are backed up,

you know, quite a bit because not everybody knows

how hard you need to break when you're at that point

where we got to break now, you know,

and if they miss it by a little bit.

So there's some safety built into it,

but for the most part, if they're driving

the way we have a cone and we're telling them to,

it's the way you would drive it, you know,

for a track day, a time trial day.

We have all the cones.

We have lift cones, brake cones, turn in cones,

Apex cones, all of it, track out cones, literally everything.

It's not a, hey, we're going to go out there

and just hear you try to, you know,

we're just going to tell you

and you're going to figure it out just by looking.

Now we follow the cones, right?

Everything has a purpose on the racetrack

and that is for safety.

You know, like Scott just said,

we do back our brake cones up a little bit

just because most people at 140 miles an hour,

they push on the brake pedal

like they do at 35 miles an hour on the road, right?

So, you know, you have to have a little bit of safety built in

because, you know, 99.9% of these people

that are doing this have one,

never driven a car with that kind of power,

two, never, ever, ever been on a racetrack

or anywhere near a racetrack.

So like you have to, it has to be a safe program.

So do you guys have to drive around the purposes

that are on the race course

or are they part of the cones?

Sorry.

Anyway.

All right, so we didn't, we didn't stop.

No, it's M.J. got to say what his dream car to drive was.

I know that's where we're going.

I'm looking for Vicki before Vicki starts.

I'm sorry, I'm genuinely interested in that.

So go ahead.

Look at the dock.

It's the next thing we're talking about.

I didn't know we had one.

So we're going, dream cars, dream tracks, what?

Yes, M.J. got the dream car

and then he didn't get any further.

So as far as tracks, I mean, I've gotten to drive VIR

which is currently my favorite track, not with Xtreme,

but in general, I've gotten to drive Road Atlanta,

Barber, all phenomenal tracks,

get to do Brainerd with Xtreme this year, hopefully.

And then get to do Road America this year,

which I have not done before.

That's going to be a beast in the cars you guys have.

What's that?

That's going to be a beast in the cars you guys have.

Road America.

Yeah, yeah, hopefully.

As far as cars, I mean, yeah, Ford GT would be great.

The GTD would be great.

The ZR1 would be great.

Honestly, I've got a friend who growing up,

I used to buy parts from him

and he raced World Challenge,

SCCA World Challenge starting back in the early 90s,

and he's got a 2000 Selene that was,

it's basically a tube frame car with a NASCAR engine

that he raced in Speed Vision

back when the World Challenge changed the Speed Vision.

Yeah, in the late 90s, early 2000s,

and he actually gave or sold the car

to a mutual friend of ours, a guy that he knew really well

that was on his race team and stuff.

And long story short, the car has license plates on it now

and it is a monster.

It just sounds wicked, it looks cool,

and I just, that's the car I would love to get in

and drive around the track or really anywhere

because it's just a cool ride.

That sounds like a fun time, so.

Oh yeah.

So, Miss Vicki, your favorite question.

Race philosophies?

There you go.

All right, so do you guys basically,

when you get on a racetrack, when you do race?

We're instructing, you know.

We're instructing.

Do you have like a little mantra

that you kind of go by that you share,

your best advice that you share

and pass on to your clients

or people that you instruct in general?

Oh yes, so when somebody gets in the car,

we've all got, it's kind of similar information,

but we've all got our little blurb

when somebody gets into the car.

The things that we need to talk about before we go out.

And in these cars, we've got in car audio

and video and exterior audio and video.

And when those videos get pulled occasionally

by our managers, they wanna make sure

that you've covered these things.

So when somebody gets in the car,

you do a quick greet, hey, I'm MJ, welcome.

What brought you out today?

Great, that sounds awesome.

Let me just go over a couple of quick things for you.

Let me look on your wrist.

You've got your wristband and I can see it stamped

so you did attend the class.

And then start talking about the cones

and what we're gonna do, show them your hand signals again,

talk about being very smooth on the gas,

very smooth and firm on the brakes.

Again, everybody's got their own little blurb

and it might change just a little bit based on the track.

Some of our tracks have very fast straightaways.

So I always point over to the straightaway

and say, look, when I call for a break over there,

I want an eight or a nine out of 10

and I want you to hold that pressure down

at an eight or a nine until I tell you to start releasing

that you'll be able to feel,

but I need you to really push it

because we're gonna be, you know,

like we coach at a track down in North Carolina.

It's North Carolina Center for Automotive Research Track.

And that track is when we're doing our morning warm ups,

we're 160, you know, in the quick cars.

And when you've got somebody that's never been in a car

with 600 plus horsepower and then some, you know,

they need to be pushing the brake.

NC car.

So Scott, I would personally add to that list.

Please don't try to,

and please don't try to impress your instructor.

Scott, do you have anything else that you'd add to this?

Yeah, I mean, as far as me personally,

when I go out on the track, you know,

I'm not anyway that takes it serious.

I've never actually done a door-to-door racing.

I'm still 2026.

I was gonna say, that's gonna happen this year.

Really?

Oh boy.

But when I do go out on the track, you know,

my thing, I have never, I've gone pretty fast.

I've never gone off track

barring one mechanical kind of a failure.

I've never spun out a car on track.

I've come close.

I, you know, I'm out driving a car that I can't afford to,

you know, I'm not gonna ball it up.

You know, I'm not gonna push it.

I'm not gonna put myself or somebody else in jeopardy.

So, you know, I like to go out and go really,

really fast, but at the end of the day,

I want that car to go home in one piece

and, you know, I'm gonna drive within my limits, you know?

And I do that, whether I'm autocrossing

or on a track or whatever, it's like, you know,

I'm gonna go out and drive fast,

but I'm not gonna go beyond my limits.

You know, I keep it pretty in control,

which is not the norm with a lot of people

unfortunately.

Yeah, true.

And Vicki, I don't know if you know this,

but, you know, part of our program too

isn't just instructing.

People can buy, you know, having us drive.

Oh, right, Longs.

I was a one out of five times we go on track, we're driving.

And so, you know, do I have a 12 year old

for their birthday, you know, in their dream car?

And I can go as fast as I want and they don't care

or did somebody buy this for their wife

or their mom who's 75 years old

and she doesn't wanna go so quick or whatever

and we tailor those drives to them.

Okay.

And that's always, I mean, that's always a real pleasure.

My most fun event or most fun drive last year,

I had a lady for her 85th birthday

that always wanted to be in a 488 and she drove

and that was in Chicago this year

and that was an absolute blast.

We just giggled the whole time around.

We probably never went over 70, you know.

And yes, he hit on her.

Yeah.

I watched that video.

I can for sure tell you that is the truth.

We're not comfortable.

It was uncomfortable.

But I couldn't help myself.

Always good for happy birthday gift.

Anyway, so do you guys wanna, we're kind of in extreme.

Do you guys wanna do extreme right now?

Or we could go in the one lap.

What are you guys thinking?

I got some other questions.

Oh, Jeremy's gonna contribute.

Go Jeremy, go.

Yeah.

So in terms of your driving,

what you've done up to today, right?

What are your goals for the future?

Right, I know Scott, you said you haven't done

any door to door, you know, wheel to wheel.

You know, MJ, I believe the same thing.

But like, do you guys have any goals

that you have in your driving slash instructing

that you would like to meet this year, next year,

whatever it may be?

Go ahead, Scott.

You know, I honestly haven't thought about it.

You know, I would like to do some door to door stuff,

not seriously.

I mean, yeah, in a dream world,

I would love to go out and race IMSA GS

in a Mustang, you know, or race a GT3 car.

But the chance of that happening are not very likely.

So more in the reality-based things.

I mean, I want to keep doing what I'm doing.

I want to have the health and the ability to, you know,

go out and get on a track, you know,

every month that I can, every time that I can,

you know, like for one lap stuff,

I want to do better, improve myself every year with that.

Yeah, that's really about it,

is really just to get on as many cars

and as many tracks as I can.

I've already talked to the wife that I want to keep instructing

until I can't do it anymore, you know,

that's going to be hopefully a semi-retirement plan.

So, okay.

Fun, what a great retirement plan.

Yeah, I would say, you know, I hope that my health can,

you know, I'm relatively healthy right now

and hope that my health will allow me to keep doing as,

you know, people say, hey, you want it like,

like you and I this year,

I'm really looking forward to doing an event with you

this year, you and Scott and some other guys

and doing a little bit of door-to-door,

which I haven't done before.

And then, you know, my best fit,

well, we'll talk more about one lap later,

but I'd always like to try to improve with one lap.

I know that I'm never going to win

against people that, yes, I'm a pro driver,

but not a pro driver, right?

There's a zillion real race car drivers

that that's what they do for a living

and they compete in one lap.

I'm not going to beat them when they show up

with a factory prepared race car, you know, for the street.

That's, I'm not going to beat them,

but I'd always, you know,

I'm always trying to beat my best finish there.

Okay.

That's pretty awesome.

So you guys really do make bad decisions

if you're going to be racing with Jeremy this year.

I mean, really, come on guys, do better.

It'll be fun, I know that.

It's going to be so much fun.

It's going to be a great time.

So just so you both know, 99% of the time, it's all of us.

So, Bill and Vicki.

We'll be there.

You know, this is what we do.

This is us.

This is...

Yeah, it's like, it's like a bunch,

I think we have, what, three cars

that we all kind of hang out together with.

Yep.

Like three teams.

Yep.

So we're all together,

just kind of helping each other out.

Love it.

So basically, our race weekends with 24 hours of lemons

are basically like the days that we get off of work

with extreme and then we go hang out.

That's what the race weekend is,

the whole entire weekend.

The whole freaking weekend.

It's just so much fun.

I always like to, like I always say,

I like to attribute it to like lemons

as like playing football on Sunday

with your friends before the game starts.

You're just out there having a good time.

I'm looking forward to it.

Lots of laughing, lots of laughing.

Yeah.

Now it should be awesome.

I can't wait to experience it.

So where are you going to go?

Do we have a, do we have it set yet?

Where do you guys,

where are you guys originally on roughly?

We're both in Des Moines, Iowa basically.

Okay.

Sounds like Jim.

So Jeremy sent us a list of potentials

and VIR was on there.

And I was like, oh, I'd really love to do VIR.

And he's like, just to be clear,

that's, we're using the black car on that.

And that's, we're going to be really competitive in

kind of like, you're not good enough

to be in the black car or watch out in the white car.

No, I did not say that.

I mean, it's a real three series BMW.

I mean, you know, compared to what you guys drive,

you know, at the extreme, I mean, you know,

I mean, let's be real.

Well, I do have to say that probably the craziest race

in our circuit is probably New Jersey.

Oh, yeah.

I would say.

Jersey is a great time.

Great facility, great track, great everything.

But yeah, we haven't, we haven't hammered down

what track we're going to go to.

Itzberg would have been really easy, you know,

minus the fact that it's not there.

I still, I'm still crying inside.

I've got my, all my schedule of all those

that I need to compare to all my other.

Did you see that?

That's the list I sent in, Bill.

I know the list.

You sent it to me two or three times saying,

hey, did you get this?

I'm like, yes, I got this Jeremy.

So yeah, I need to pin down that

versus my extreme schedule

versus my other track stuff schedule work.

I don't really take into account,

I take off work whenever I want.

Yeah, but wheel the wheel with this crew right here.

You're going to love it.

I don't know, I'm looking forward to it.

It'll be a mess.

You'll be full that weekend.

Unless it feels like it'll be a mess.

No, it'll be great.

Yeah.

I didn't say it was a bad mess.

I just said it's going to be a mess no matter what you do.

If you're racing the number of cars that we race,

that the races that we do, something's going to happen.

It'll be great.

Eventually, yep.

No, it is pretty great, I do have to say.

I just want to, I feel like it's a public service

that we do, we do the podcast.

I just want to make sure that you guys know,

Jeremy at these races tends to not wear a lot of clothes

and snuggle a lot.

I just want you to know what you're into.

So, hold on, Bill, just so you know,

Matt has a no pants policy in his truck,

so he's totally aware.

Oh, you'll totally fit in.

We're always having a hard time keeping pants on you.

100%.

Jeremy's always dropping trowel all the time.

He's always run around in his jockey somewhere or another.

We're wearing Vicki's sister,

Jennifer's clothes the entire weekend.

Oh, boy, yeah.

Like four times too small.

Jeremy squeeze himself into the mirror.

It's kind of like the Grenches heart, but only scarier.

This Jeremy is just like,

just because it's a bad idea

doesn't mean it's not going to be fun.

Right, exactly.

For the record, I do not want photos, so.

Oh, that's so much fun.

We don't do photos.

We do videos.

So much fun.

Yeah, that's one of those things.

It's okay, don't worry.

You'll make the lemons video

and your political career will be over.

Although right now,

maybe your political career will be heightened by this thing.

But who knows?

Yeah, at least respectfully, when Jeremy does it,

they do look like biker shorts.

So we're good.

All right, fair enough.

As long as they're Jeremy's size,

I won't be so upset.

It's when they're not.

That's the problem.

And so far, they've never been.

And all too often, they're not the right size.

Yeah, that's when we did the what was it?

The dodgeball theme.

We kept having the entire paddock break out

in a dodgeball fight everywhere periodically

through the weekend.

Like the entire like race paddock was breaking out

in a massive dodgeball fight.

It was amazing.

It was.

Yep, it's a...

We'll go with it.

It'll be memorable.

For sure.

All right.

Could be trauma.

I do have a question.

Trauma could be happy joy, mostly trauma.

It could be a lot of trauma.

I do have a question though,

because this is one of my favorite questions.

Because to date, nobody has picked

or they have forgotten about my choice.

So if you had the opportunity,

both of you, to go to any track in the world

and drive with any car that you wanted to go with,

what track would it be?

I'm going to...

Spa in an F1 car.

Wow.

That's gonna be a bumpy ride.

That was quick.

That's gonna be a bumpy ride.

I was gonna give you one of my hosting duties,

which is to...

Oh, sorry.

To give you time to allow you to contemplate,

but apparently you didn't need to.

I was gonna say something along the lines

of it's a good thing we have a dock

because we're not going in any order of the dock,

but that's...

We are not.

Yeah.

MJ, what are you thinking?

Is now...

No, is it official, an official track?

What's...

I mean, I'm thinking...

It's your ball.

In Germany, the Nord...

Nord...

Nord Schleifer.

Nord Schleif.

Yep.

Yeah.

I just, I would love to drive on that.

And right now, I'm just...

And I get it, there's faster, there's this,

there's that.

I think the current Z06 is just epic.

The sounds of that car and I love it.

And I get it that there's ZR1 I could pick from,

or ZR1X, I like the two-wheel drive, no turbos.

Normally, I've rated the sound of that car.

That's what I'd like.

The Chevy 458, yes, yes.

It's pretty spectacular.

I do like that the GM engineer

that I talked to who worked on that program,

he says, Ferrari was making this engine

and stopped, why?

Why would you stop?

Yeah.

Because they moved on.

So because you guys haven't listened to the podcast

and I said my favorite track...

They don't have to listen, they just have to download.

They don't have to listen, just download.

So my favorite dream track is...

I know.

Mount Panorama.

In what, Jeremy?

So I had to finish your story.

I mean, in anything, to be honest with you,

but I would love to run it in a GT3 car.

A Porsche AMG or a BMW M4.

So if any of our Australian listeners have a GT3 car

that they want to have Santa Claus

drive around Mount Panorama, you know?

I mean, I would do it in a seat, I don't care.

We know Santa Claus, we can have him there.

He won't mind going and, you know,

he's working on a divorce anyway,

so what's the big deal?

You need to...

I think down there, he's Father Christmas,

not Santa Claus, he's Father Christmas.

That's what they call me Father Christmas.

Yes, yes, yes.

Just don't call you late for dinner.

I got it, all right.

All right, so you both have done one lap of America.

I've signed up for it, I think, five times?

Four times at least.

And the Pennsylvania inspection of the car,

the car wasn't ready, a plague,

all kinds of excuses I have, and you have to pull it out,

but I will eventually do this.

I'm waiting for my beautiful bride.

I've given up on trying to do it without her,

so I'm figuring, you know, it's just written on the wall

that I have to do it with her, so it's coming.

So what's your guys' experience with one lap?

We'll go with Scott first,

because MJ seems to go first all the time.

Yeah, he does.

Yeah, he's quick.

Yeah, yeah, just, well, never mind.

That's a different part, guys.

That's the garage.

Yes, there is.

Only fans, but guys, we'll talk about that later,

the credits and who knows what he's gonna say on there,

but...

100%.

So I actually got into it kind of through MJ

in a roundabout way.

We've got a mutual friend who, out of the blue,

well, let's back up a little bit.

I knew what one lap was,

from the old car and driver days, forever,

on the cannonball before that.

I was familiar with it.

One of those things I never even remotely thought

it's something that I could, would, or should go do.

But out of the blue in 21,

I got a call from our mutual friend, Mark,

and he's like,

hey, got a friend that is signed up for one lap,

has a really killer car, needs a co-driver.

I know you do this stuff.

Would you be interested in doing it?

And I'm obviously completely taken aback out of left field.

My initial answer is, well, heck yeah, I wanna do that.

Gotta talk it over with the wife and kind of explain it.

She's not at all a car person,

but I explained it to her what it was.

And she's like, well, it's kind of a

once in a lifetime thing.

We'll circle back on that later.

Once in a lifetime same thing.

Yeah, you should go do it.

So ended up going and doing it with him,

jumped in a car with somebody

that I had met like two weeks before

we kind of all got together for a dinner

just to kind of introduce,

but went and traveled 5,000 miles with him

and did all the tracks and such.

And it's one of those things

that was a one and done deal until it wasn't.

It's at the end of it, it was, I'm doing that again.

And so I've done it last year

as my fifth year in a row doing it,

sometimes in my own car, sometimes in other people's cars.

But it's an addictive thing, that's for sure.

What about you, MJ?

Did you want one and done

or are you graduated from being a one lap puppy many times?

Yep, I'm a lap dog now we call it.

Dog.

Yep, like we call the newbies lap puppies in a nice way.

But I used to read car and driver magazine

from cover to cover.

I had sold cars for a long time

and I always prided myself on knowing

kind of everything on every car.

That was back when they had photos, he can't read.

Right, right.

And I kept seeing the one lap of American

and finally, and I think it was, oh,

I need to look, I've got all my books behind me.

From the one lap, but it was 080907, something like that.

I did it.

I was like, I'm going to do this.

And boy, you, it's the first time you do it.

It's maybe a little bit of what you expect

and a whole bunch of what you don't.

And you do it one time

and if you don't want to do it again,

there's something wrong with you.

You know, it's like, I give my credit to my first co-driver.

He said it's a once in a lifetime event

that you get to do every year.

And it's again, you're sharing this crazy experience with,

it's usually about 85 to 90 teams from around the world.

And it's just like I said, a bunch of pro drivers

and factory backed drivers and test engineers

for tire companies that are pro drivers

and your racing against all these people.

And then there's just people like me

who've done lots of track stuff

and people that have done just a little bit

and here they are on the other.

And you want everybody to do well.

I told Scott every year, I want you to do great.

I just want you to be one spot behind me,

you know, whatever that is.

He's got a Ford.

He usually is.

Yep.

No, we should go check those stats from last year,

shouldn't we?

But yeah, it's, so this will be, I believe,

my 13th one lap in 26.

And boy, when I think back about how much money each one lap costs

and everything, I'm like, wow, I could have bought another house.

That's all that.

You could have had that AMG GT3 car for me to drive.

Yeah, but it definitely is worth it every year.

And I get it.

There's some people that are like, well, it's not a lot of track stuff.

Well, it's more than track stuff.

Yes, it's three hot laps in the morning,

three hot laps in the afternoon,

and see you tomorrow in South Carolina.

And three hot laps in the morning and three hot laps,

see you tomorrow in New Jersey.

And it's just every year a different route.

And heck, in my opinion,

the transit is more dangerous than the track stuff.

Just getting there, because drivers are so goddamn

terrible on the city, on the nation's roads.

Or there's a tornado or there's a storm or a deer or.

Yep, we've had all that and snow.

Oh, yep, you name it.

People jump alligators every year, it seems like.

And it luck out and jump them.

And Scott will share that story.

And sometimes it rips the whole underside of the car out

and you're done.

And some years we have many cars totaled in the event.

Some cars, sometimes one.

But it is definitely a special event and something

I hope continues for a very long time.

I hope I'm able to do it for a very long time.

We had a friend that did it almost until, I think he was 80.

And then he decided I'm done.

It's been a good ride.

Yeah, everybody goes there, always has some great time.

And it's spectacular.

Doesn't seem to be a one and done kind of thing for anybody.

So, indeed.

So if you guys were to look upon your one-lap history,

do you have a couple stories or something that sticks out from the events?

Your best one-lap story.

Oh boy.

The pressure.

Check one, your best one.

We'll talk about the rest later on, but your best one.

It can be that time that you made your co-driver wear no pants.

I mean, that's totally fine.

That's every night.

Gosh, that's not the sticks you have, Scott.

Anyway, that's when MJ and Scott are doing it together.

Everything is with the right mentality.

Gosh.

Scott, well, you think about it and I'll share one.

You can.

Yeah, please.

So over the 13 years, there are eight trillion stories.

So finding a best one is hard,

but here's one that people have a hard time believing.

We were in somewhere in Florida.

We had done, it was a day that we did two track events.

And then we had a third event at,

wherever they drag race at the Gator Nationals,

it's that drag strip.

We were headed to that drag strip.

And it was a pretty good transit.

So I mean, we were done at 2.30 in the afternoon.

And we probably had an hour and a half drive to this drag strip.

And while we're going, I'm a passenger, my co-driver is driving.

And just out of the blue, I see coming at us in the other lane.

And this is a normal two lane and two lane highway,

you know, meaning two lanes going one way and two the other way.

I look over in this, just like every Cutlass Sierra in the world was Maroon.

A Maroon Cutlass Sierra go off the road to the right.

So they're coming at us and to the right goes down to the ditch.

As he comes up, there's trees after the ditch.

The car rides up the tree straight up,

literally almost stops,

where it's going to just be balancing on its rear bumper.

And as it starts rolling towards the driver's door,

the car literally tucks and rolls so that it's hitting the down slope now,

and it lands back on its tires, and the goddamn thing drives out.

Cut it out.

This young gentleman gets out of the car.

There's a huge branch stuck in the one of the tires.

Like between the fender and the tire.

He's working on trying to break that out.

He can't get it out.

He gets back in the car, throws it and drives, and the thing shatters, and he drives away.

During this time, my buddy had already called 911.

They're on speaker through the Bluetooth.

And she goes, yep, yep, it's another drug runner.

They're like, because we're like, they're going, they're moving again.

And she goes, yeah, it's for sure a drug runner.

Wow.

And yeah, it was welcome to Florida.

Yeah, it was that was an interesting one, but lots of good stories.

But that's that was a weird one.

Jeremy don't insult our listeners.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry.

No, he nailed it.

That was me in the other car.

My neck still hurts from that.

So yeah, is Kenya still our top listening country?

International.

It's not that they're the top listening country.

It's that they rank us very highly in the automotive podcast that they listen to.

We are rock stars in Kenya for some reason.

We didn't know it.

Okay.

So I still have to be careful about Florida.

All right.

Okay, got it.

Yeah, got it.

Yeah.

All right, Scott, have we babbled long enough for you to come up with your story?

So a couple, and it's kind of that it really shows the spirit of things.

If, as MJ mentioned, people have offs, they hit tires.

Anything can happen from a little fender bender to a total at our very first track this year,

which was Gateway, worldwide tech for the newer folks, but down in St. Louis and

some good friends of ours that they actually started the same year I did in 21.

And we've toured, you know, transited with them, spent time with them,

eat dinner with them every chance we get.

A couple of older retired pharmacists, and they split dry.

We had a drug story, Scott, I'm sorry.

These guys are a little more legit.

Whatever.

Potato, potato.

These guys, it's a great, honestly, it's a great story because they,

friends since college, you know, both became pharmacists and they've shared driving duties.

You know, sometimes I think there's a couple where they might have not split the car,

but basically they split the car at every event.

And at the first event this year, the first session,

one of them, John, on his session actually put their Tamaro into the tire wall.

Coming down off the banking from the straightaway.

And that's kind of where the spirit of one lap kicks in, because it's on a flatbed,

they're waiting for the track to go cold so they can bring it in, they bring it in,

and they don't even have it off the flatbed yet.

And everybody's coming in to knock Gawk and oh, what happened?

It's what do we need to do to get him back on the track?

And 100%, it was just so cool to see that.

And so they got it all together, they ended up, they needed to,

I think they had to Uber some parts or whatever for the, it was a front-end hit to get some

suspension back in line and kind of get the door and everything pulled out.

And, you know, here it is, the very first session of this was a 10-day event,

and they were out, they were done until everybody jumped in, got him going again,

and they actually made it to where Wendell, their second co-driver,

was able to make his session.

And tragically, that ended up being his last one lap, he passed away shortly after that.

So it just made that become that much bigger of a deal.

You know, it made it to where we all got to spend time together and finish the event

because of the team spirit of the event where they got to, you know, keep going.

Well, if you like that.

And remember this hit, this wasn't small, this was passenger door doesn't open,

front passenger fender is basically tore back, the tires folded under the car.

This was a repair that took place over three hours of teams driving to get parts,

other parts being ubered in.

And as we're waiting for those parts, teams coming in going,

okay, we're going to need to remove this, go and take this off, do this,

pound this out, change this, I need a welder, I need this.

And put this car back together and you'd be like, what are you talking about?

It's totaled.

And nope, it's just amazing, everybody's just amazing.

Well, if you like that as a story, you're going to love when you come to Lemons.

That's seriously, that's pretty much Lemons.

You know, every weekend.

Anybody has issues, it's like, hey, what can we do to help?

Kind of the same, kind of the same thing.

It's like football, you know, everybody wants to see you succeed.

Or at least play.

All right, gentlemen, we've come to something we haven't done in a little bit of time.

And you guys being avid listeners and often downloading every single podcast that we have

in our history, almost 800 podcast episodes.

Obviously, you know, that means the Fast and Furious Storytime Questions,

where we badger you with a list of questions.

We will not get through them all tonight because we have close to 70 now.

But I think we should just let's go with five, five for each host.

And you guys get to answer them.

So we'll start with the lady of the podcast, Jeremy.

Santa.

Oh, I'm going to go with an easy one.

Easy one.

All right, Santa.

So front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, or all wheel drive?

Or does it matter?

I'll take that.

If it's dry, always rear wheel drive.

Okay.

What about you, MJ?

What are you thinking?

Are we talking racing?

Are we talking daily driver?

What are we talking?

We've gone over this.

This is your podcast.

Sorry.

Your preference.

I'm a rear wheel drive guy 24-7.

I'm, I, my daily drove until about two months ago as ZL1 in the winter with

Michelin Arctic alpine snow tires on it.

And it was badass.

I would say no less.

Miss Vicki.

Yeah.

What was your first car and what was the worst car you ever had?

Oh boy.

Sounds like Scott should go first on this one.

So my first car, I only had for a few months.

I'm not going to say what it was.

That's not, that's not, that's not, that's not, that's not what it was.

Yeah, that's bullshit.

It was a Ford Pinto.

Listen, put your pants on.

That was my car.

It rhymes with Romero.

You see, he doesn't want to admit it because he's a Ford guy.

Six, eight or worse yet, four cylinders.

It was the little six cylinder, like a 2.8.

2.8, yes.

I know that, I know that car.

Yes.

What year?

I had that and it was an 84.

I had the sibling of that car.

Oh, okay.

I'm well aware.

It was underwhelming to say the least.

So was that your worst car, hopefully?

Um, it was up there.

The biggest POS that I had, when I was drag racing and autocrossing both,

and I was doing an engine swap, I think in my, in my Mustang,

I bought for $300 in Mercury Lynx, which, yeah, which I called the Lynx-Tang GT,

which I autocrossed it on snow tires and with the seat mount broken,

doing this and the turns and, and that was a pile that it got me through a winter and had fun with it.

Yeah.

Hopefully you were in the class by yourself,

not because we didn't want you to play with other people,

but nobody else had to drive something like that.

Yeah, it was, it was bad.

All right.

Well, all right.

It wasn't manual though.

It wasn't manual.

All right.

Well, there's some.

It wasn't manual.

Some redeeming quality.

But back then that was because they were too cheap to put the automatic in.

100%.

All right.

So, let's see.

We're going to go with one of our co-host's favorite question.

It is, what is your favorite car movie or car from a movie of all time?

So MJ, you get to go first on this one.

Could be TV.

Could be TV too.

We're not, we're not picky.

Yeah.

Um, it's probably just the ones that, that just got me just continue to get me so excited

about cars was smoking the Bandit and Cannonball.

Nice.

So, has a history for you then.

Yeah.

So either that trans am from the original smoking the Bandit or that Lamborghini

Kuntas from the original Cannonball run and not just because I just remember just

the intro to Cannonball run is just epic.

Definitely is.

All right.

What about you, Scott?

You've had time to ponder.

You've got that.

So that's, that's an easy one for me.

I blame my parents for my car path and car.

Well, yeah.

So did the courts, by the way.

My car path in life.

So I was born in 72.

In 1976, Gumball rally came out.

And my parents at four years old took me to the theater and I watched Gumball

rally when I was four years old.

Wow.

Yeah.

So I blame, I blame a lot of my, my car issues with that.

And, uh, in that one, uh, probably the Cobra and that one would be my favorite out of that one.

Okay.

All right.

Very well.

Jeremy, did you pick one out?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I got a lot of them.

I know.

That's the problem.

All right, boys.

You ready?

What is, could be growing up or current today?

What is your favorite cereal?

Nice.

Vicky hates when I do these, but that's fun.

I don't sleep in the bed.

Waffle crisp.

Ooh, that's a new waffle crisp.

We have not had that one before.

You know, there's, the sad part is there's probably somebody who listens to our podcast

who actually has these recorded and like an Excel spreadsheet.

If you do, garage heroes and training at gmail.com.

I'm dying to see who's winning some of these, but yeah.

All right.

MJ, you got to beat waffle.

Chris, what's, what's better?

What's the best?

I'm honey bunches of votes right now.

I know, but what's cereal?

We don't want to know your nickname.

You know.

I think we, I think we, I think we lost him on that one.

All right.

Ms. Vicky, where are you going?

Yeah.

All right.

What is the one thing that few people know about you that would surprise them?

Oh, Scott's got a great one for this.

I do.

All right.

So if this doesn't work for you too, we can employ the dual guests option,

which is MJ.

What's the one thing about Scott that no one knows?

And would surprise them.

And then Scott gets to do it to MJ.

And if you don't do it well, Jeremy's going to jump in and say, wait, wait, wait.

There's more.

Oh, I got a good one for that.

All right.

Go for it.

So as MJ said, we went to high school together, but didn't really know each other.

But I do remember seeing him in the hallway.

And he had a satchel.

Oh.

Some would call it a Merce.

A Merce?

A man purse?

It was bigger than a Merce, but yeah.

A wrestling wannabe, you know, was he wearing the rather colorful pants that were popular at the time?

It was like a leather, kind of like a shoulder thing.

So things haven't changed.

Because I was like, yeah, basically.

Sorry, MJ.

I should have let him go first.

Yeah, maybe.

He just upgraded yours, I'll tell you.

Three clicks, I believe, was what I heard in the background.

What do you think, MJ?

What's something about Scott that nobody knows?

What surprised him?

That he is the star of, there's an only fans page called Dadbots.

Nice.

And he does that full-time.

Nice.

Follow up.

MJ's my only subscriber.

It's such a deal.

All right, very nice.

Let's see, Miss Vicki, is this your turn or do I have to go back here?

That was my turn.

Okay, all right.

All right, so I'm going to have to babble for this one a little bit.

So Jeremy, after I asked the question, give some time to think.

Put the beard down.

What is the coolest car ever?

Yes, Jeremy, you can now give them some time to think.

What were you going to say?

I can't get them to shut up.

You guys are going to wear that?

You guys just fuck with me.

Jeremy's got audio evidence to contrary.

All right, very well.

Indiana Jones wears one.

Oh my.

It's a satchel and Indiana Jones wears one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, okay.

All right, very well.

You're owned a satchel.

He's a damn liar.

That is such a lie.

He calls it a merc.

But anyway, coolest car ever.

I think it might have been a business bag

or something that you wear over your shoulder.

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.

You did the business with the bag.

All right, coolest car.

Coolest car ever.

Who wants to go?

Scott?

MJ?

Scott?

Coolest car?

Not best car.

Not best satchel car?

Coolest car.

You get no more.

In your opinion.

You get no more.

That's it.

Coolest car.

Could be a make and a model.

Could be a specific one.

Could be a one off.

Could be once again.

It's your podcast.

Enjoy the ride.

Oh, I love and would love to drive the new Lamborghini Rivolto.

Okay.

I like the high tech of that car.

And I've always loved how Lamborghini just lays that windshield down almost flat.

That's pretty cool car.

I mean, there's a zillion cool cars.

I know.

That's why you got to do the coolest car.

Yeah.

Scott, can you beat it?

You got anything?

I'm going to say the 917 Can-Am Porsche, the one that had like, what, 1200 horsepower,

some ridiculous amount.

I mean, when they turned it down, sure.

I mean.

Yeah, exactly.

Because it was just, I mean, it was, there was nothing to it other than just a

crap little horsepower that, you know, painted lines between the turns with its time.

And then just, it was so completely crazy enough that was, that's probably,

that's probably up there.

Going back to your drag racing roots, so to speak.

Exactly.

All right, Jeremy, what's, which ones tickle in your fancy right now?

Um, do, do, do, do, do.

Oh, Bill, you erased what I wrote.

I always do.

All right.

Because no one else will ask.

There we go.

This is always my favorite question.

Clarkson, Hammond, May, Chris, Matt, or other, and why?

You want to go, Scott?

Boy, uh, that is tough.

It's not May because that guy bores me to death.

He's very similar to you.

He drives about the same.

Yep.

Captain Slow.

Um, I think Clarkson, um, just because he gives zero Fs about anything or what anybody

thinks or anything else, no filter.

I just, I love that guy the way he carries himself.

And, and for younger audiences, that did not change with the mega amounts of money

that they have.

That was all there from the beginning.

That was him when he was in high school.

I know someone who went to high school with him and he was that same way.

Really?

You know, Adrian Newey?

Uh, no, no.

My buddy Ian's father went to school with him.

Okay.

I was hoping he knew Adrian Newey because I was going to say, why is he on the bus?

Anyway, not like he's busy right now or anything.

Anyway, MJ, where are you going?

Yeah, that was an easy one.

That's Clarkson for me for, for really the same reasons.

I love when there's unfiltered and, you know, it would have been awesome if

that show was 100% not filtered.

Yeah.

So I got a second part of that question.

That original or the American version?

There's multiple American versions.

Well, the first American version.

Uh, so that's Rutledge and Rutledge and Blank and Adam.

And then, uh, who's the driver?

Let's just try.

I can see him.

I can't take it.

Yeah, what's his name?

There was an actor, wasn't there?

There wasn't there an actor in it?

There was a comedian, I think it was.

Rutledge Wood was the comedian, you know?

Yeah.

No, the other guy was a comedian.

He just wasn't funny.

Yeah, for me, for me, it's easy.

There's only one, but.

Yeah, I'm the original, the original one from, from Europe.

Okay.

And, and I, I like just, I just want to see them test cars.

You know, the funny stuff is funny for five or maybe between commercial, you know,

like, give me 15 minutes, but when they do a whole show on that, yeah, it's long to me.

Tanner Faust is the name.

I just thought of it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And Tanner's a good guy.

He is, he is.

He's beaten me.

He beats most people though.

So, yeah.

He's pretty tough.

He's alright.

He's not alright.

So, Scott, where are you going?

American or?

Um.

England or Australia or?

I think I've got to keep that one.

I will say the episode when they first got on Amazon was incredible.

I, I, I've rewatched that one a few times just because the way it was,

you know, it was produced the way they did it,

but the kind of getting back together and how they started it out,

just that whole opening sequence of driving out, you know, once they get out to the desert,

you know, I was just incredible.

I love that, but, uh, but yeah.

If anybody wants to see what a car show would be without a budget, that's a good one.

Yep.

How many, how many helicopters can we have in one shot?

Yeah, no problem.

Oh, yeah.

Ms. Ficky, you got one?

I do.

What is your, uh, what is your favorite track?

And what is your favorite turn on a track and the reasons why?

I've got, I, for me, it's going to be VIR and, uh, the, the climbing S is there.

It's more than one turn, but just flying through there at a hundred plus bouncing them

side to side was just incredible.

Just, that's a lie.

He's never got a hundred.

I've got my, I've got my app.

I can show you.

Thank you.

It was nerve wracking, but it was, it was kind of one of those things coming up to

it as like, I know it can be done.

I've watched it done.

Can I do it?

And yeah, it was, it was incredible.

MJ, is it VIR?

Is it somewhere else?

Well, geez, VIR is awesome.

I got to do the, uh, Daytona Rolex set up a couple of times and that's the fastest

that I ever drove.

And so I would, I mean, there's a lot of tracks that are great, but I'd say that

Rolex set up was pretty special.

And then I know this will sound, it's so weird because the track isn't amazing,

but my home track, cause it is what it is.

We live in Iowa is we have a track called, well now it's called I 29.

It used to be mid American motor plex.

And then what was it called after that, Scott?

In between, it was Raceway Park of the Midlands RPM.

Yeah.

It's just south of Omaha.

And, um, as you're coming back onto a reasonably long straightaway, it's not the main straight.

I'm trying to think it's turned one, two, three, probably turned four or five.

I think it's four.

If you hit that just right, and I feel like I've got the lying down on that, you can exit at

an insane amount of speed and the car is, you have to judge it just right.

Like I love driving all cars.

Doesn't matter if it's a Miata or something that I kind of lean towards a big V8 rear

wheel drive, tons of power car.

And you, if you are willing to hold that, hold it down there, that is a fun,

it's just a flat corner.

There's a reasonable amount of grip, but that one I always exit out of there.

I'm like, how in the world did the car stay on as I'm all the way to the ground, you know,

to the floor with the pedal?

It's so right now I kind of like that corner.

Very good.

All right.

For you guys, I'm doing this for you.

This is the question and it always ends up with me sleeping in the bathtub tonight.

So we are going to win the lottery.

We have, as part of the lottery, we're going to win and buy a desert island.

And on that desert island, we're going to create a racetrack.

We're going to have a racetrack that is asphalt and another racetrack that's off road.

So as a thank you for coming on to our guests, we're going to make sure that we have the

five cars that you want at this island resort.

You don't have to bring anything.

Everything's paid for.

It's part of what we do.

It's how we roll.

So what five cars do we need to have on the island for you?

Now, when you say off road, you mean like?

Yeah.

Desert there.

Okay.

It's your podcast.

It's your racetrack.

Off road racetrack.

It can be anything like a road course.

Like it's a motorplex.

It's got everything.

Could be rally.

Could be trophy trucks.

Could be king of the hammers.

Could be whatever.

You name it.

Could be a drag strip.

It's a big lottery.

Huge.

I like the sound of this.

So do I.

I just switched the lottery.

I'm going to go with the trophy truck.

I just always thought those were cool.

You know, you got 16 feet of suspension travel.

You can hold it wide open at,

what do they hit?

Like 140 I think through the whoops.

That'd be just nuts.

Depends what they're driving over, right?

Yeah.

So those things are nuts.

I would love to have a trophy truck.

I would...

I would love to have an original Ford GT.

I just think those things are just cool.

They just sound mean.

I'd want to have my friend's race car that I was talking about.

Street legal race car.

I believe there's some quotes in that sentence there,

but we'll let you know.

There were.

There were 100%.

I would love to have my current Fox body.

Speaking of unlimited budgets,

I would love to have that there

because I've put too much time into it, not to have.

He's got five cars in the world of all time

and he's picking a Fox body.

All right, come on.

I mean, three of them are Fords too.

And of course, what else would I have?

I got to go with what attracts you, Jeremy.

And last one.

We'll apparently have to have a full garage facility

to keep these things running while you're here,

but that's fine.

That's all right.

You set a limited budget.

We've got 30 mechanics on board,

just to keep these things on the track.

The cars may be cheaper than fixing those things,

but go ahead.

Let's go with a 9.62.

9.62.

I like that.

I didn't know Ford made a 9.62.

Which year was that?

That was Franz Ford.

He was the off-sheet driver.

Oh, Franz.

Yeah, the double F in the family.

Yeah, I remember him.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, he wasn't called the deuce.

He was double F.

Okay.

There you go.

MJ.

Now, is this a big island?

So it's huge.

It's a great track, whatever kind of track,

and it can be an off-road track or a paid track.

It can't be one.

Anything.

It could be both.

It could be all.

I mean, we have beaches.

I mean, we have, if you want it,

you know, this lottery, I'm telling you.

When it happens, it's going to be pretty cool.

Dirt bikes side-by-sides.

I mean, you name it.

Skateboard park, whatever you want, sir.

Yep.

So I tend to lean towards factory vehicles

that haven't been molested, which I get it.

There's different people.

But I, so I'd like to see,

and I'm not a pickup truck guy,

and I'm not even a Stellantis guy.

But one vehicle would be the new Ram TRX.

Okay.

You know, with, if I have the name right,

the one with the big Hellcat engine in it.

Yeah.

So we're going to have to have a wide,

wide racetrack now,

because everything's got the size of my house.

Off-road thing, just to try that.

And then I would say,

I definitely would probably like to have that Revuelto there.

Really?

Okay.

Just to try it.

And I would have a new ZR1 there, the new ZR1.

And probably a Porsche GT2.

G, I'm sorry, the Turbo, 9-11 Turbo.

Okay.

The modern one or particular generation?

No, I do a modern one.

Um, whenever I'm in those, it is beyond shocking.

How quick those goddamn cars are.

And last car, man, there's so many good cars.

It's always easy, the first couple,

and then you're like, oh, I've only got a couple left.

I know.

I know, right?

There's just so many awesome cars.

For the record, by FoxBody, you can pick that.

It's all open.

Right.

Just because you could doesn't often mean you should though.

You know what?

This will be weird, but the last gen Camaro ZL1 1LE.

Really?

Yep.

Just something simple, but that just devours up that track.

And I'll use the air conditioned seats.

And the great suspension on a smooth track on the island.

I love that.

Air conditioning, radio.

Sounds like your race car.

Hey, that sounds like my race car.

Yes.

CD player.

Don't forget CD player.

Oh yeah.

CD player.

Yeah.

And it works.

Very correct CDs are always in it.

That's right.

If you guys want to, you can bring your own driver playlist

and you can pop the CD in during the pit race.

And you know, just don't let lemon see it

because they don't like that.

That's one of the, not one of the three things

that's allowed to do on pit lane.

All right.

Last one, Jeremy.

What do you got?

Where are you going?

Well, I'm going to continue with what we just said.

What is your favorite driving song?

Oh, it's down towards the bottom.

All right.

I got mad.

All right.

Girls just want to have fun, isn't it?

This is too much of a layup.

Yes.

This is too much of a layup.

Ophelia, right?

It's Ophelia.

You know.

You see, he seems like more of a,

he seems like more of a

sparkly vampire twilight kind of guy to me.

Yeah.

No.

One of my favorite groups, and this is a layup for Jeremy,

is the Butthole Surfers.

Well, I mean, Jeremy is a weight of group.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And they've got a song called

Ulcer Breakout that if you want to get your adrenaline going,

and I don't listen to all the music when I'm driving fast,

but it's just a song that just, it's a,

it's a good semi-car related that just gets going.

Okay.

I do not believe we've had Butthole Surfers on the podcast before,

but you know, if they're interested,

garage yours in training at gmail.com.

I'm sure we could ask them a car question.

They're down in Austin.

So next time you go to Kota.

All right.

First time I've gone to Kota, but that's okay.

MJ, where are you going?

So there are songs, you know, that you want to have,

you don't want to let anybody know you're listening to,

that you just love.

Like his satchel.

Yeah.

And then there's a Windows down playlist

where you're letting the 14 speakers roll.

No, your favorite driving song.

God dang.

It's just, that's such, there's just a zillion songs.

It's Little Red Corvette, isn't it?

Right.

Holy cow.

Karma Chameleon.

Just because it has car in the first word,

that doesn't mean that it's a car song.

Dang, that's actually a good question.

And I wanted to hit that track.

You want some more time?

We can come up with another.

You can, you can read,

It's just a podcast.

You listen to podcasts.

I do it.

You can have another one the next time you come on.

Yeah, hate me, hate me if you want,

but grew up in the 80s.

I actually like Duran Duran.

Oh, I like Duran Duran.

And I like the song Come Undone.

Good one.

Now I gotta say good one.

I can listen to, like anytime that's on,

it's like, stop what I'm doing.

It's a, I just love that song.

I would have, I would have put you down.

Honestly too, the, the rock group,

my darkest days as a version of Come Undone

that is really, really good.

And I usually don't like remakes.

All right.

Well, we can recommend that too.

We can, we can add that to our Spotify lists.

All right.

Yeah.

Spiky, your last one.

What do you think?

Oh, let me see.

Do you want some time?

I got, I got mine ready.

Go ahead.

All right.

We're going to stay with music

because it drives me crazy

when I don't do car questions.

So you're going to make a supergroup.

You're going to be this producer

of this supergroup.

On this group, you have two guitarists,

one bass player, one or two vocalists,

if they're co-ed, a drummer.

And if you have other, you know,

keyboards or whatever, I'm not,

I'm not going to persecute you if you do.

Who's in your supergroup all time?

All right.

I'll go with vocalist, Glenn Danzig.

Really?

Okay.

Just because his voice is incredible.

Co-co-singer would be Axl Rose.

Just got your male and female there.

He's got such an incredible range.

Guitarist, I'm going to go with Joe Strummer.

I was a big fan of them.

Clash for the home game players.

Oh, yeah. Sorry for the clash.

You can have two.

Another guitarist will slash, I think,

the one with the guns and roses

and again, grow up in the 80s.

Bassist.

I have a joke I've been waiting for this for so long

and nobody's said it yet, but gone.

Bassist.

Oh, boy.

God, I'm drawing a blank.

Joe Walsh.

Was he a bass player?

No.

No, he was a guitarist.

I'm sure he can play bass, but not known as a bass player.

All right.

I'll go with because it's one that I like him

is Chris Novichelak.

Okay.

Biggest dude in rock and roll that I know of.

Nirvana.

Those playing home games.

8 feet tall.

Yes, 8 feet tall.

And Drummer.

I'll stay in that same vein.

I'm a Foo Fighters fan and the energy puts into it.

So I'm going to say Dave Grohl.

So you want two Nirvana and two guns and roses?

All right.

Very well.

Yeah.

All right.

Very well.

MJ, you're into this question or are you sitting there

saying why am I on a racing podcast?

No, no.

You have gotten, you were lucky enough to have Scott

answer that question and not the right person

to answer that question because I don't know

the name of any of those people, you know, anybody.

That's fine.

Yeah.

I'm pretty, pretty lame on that.

I know the music, the sounds that I like,

but I don't, the players of the instruments.

Well, that's fine.

That's fine.

It's just, you know, we try to be well-rounded,

I think.

Absolutely.

You know, the good thing is that for you,

the podcast is over.

The bad thing is we still have close to 60 questions

that we are going to ask you the next time you come on.

And as you can tell, they range from racing stuff

to what is the Mount Rushmore of Candy.

So you never know where we're going.

You never know what we're doing.

But I think one thing that we can count on is hopefully,

if you guys are willing and still taking the drugs

that you're taking right now, you'll come back on

after you race with us and Jeremy at the first race

because we like to do post-race episodes.

And wanted to thank you for all your time.

And if any of our people want to go to an extreme

experience event where you guys will be instructing,

where would they be going coming up soon?

G2 Motorsports Park in March.

I'll be there.

I think MJ will be there too.

That's down in Texas.

South of Dallas.

Yeah.

South of Dallas.

Okay.

I think it's South of Dallas, isn't it?

I don't know.

I mean, but that was built after we left.

So we lived in Dallas.

Yeah.

It would make sense.

We're doing Circuit Florida.

Oh, okay.

Which I think is a membership track.

Yeah, baby.

You and I will be there.

Cool.

Yeah.

All right.

So if you want to avoid Jeremy, you go to the first one.

If you want to see Jeremy,

medical assistance is required for these types of conditions.

It's fine.

Don't worry.

Santa Jeremy.

And it is north of Dallas.

So I'll stand correct.

It's north.

Okay.

I was going to say there's lots of stuff south of Dallas,

but not a lot.

I mean, they were going to build that super collector there.

And then it stopped.

And then it's just kind of like a wasteland out there,

at least was when we drove through.

Anyway, we're lived there.

All right.

Thank you guys, Jeremy.

This was a good idea.

It hurts to actually say you had a good idea.

You know, deep, deep.

Every once in a while.

Blind squirrel finds a nut.

That's it.

Guys, I really appreciate you guys taking the time and coming on.

This was fun.

Thanks for the invite.

That was great.

No worries.

Thanks, everybody.

Have a great night.

Thank you.

When I was first diagnosed with wet AMD, my world felt smaller.

I worried that losing my vision

would mean losing sight of the little things,

reading to my granddaughter, watching sunsets,

seeing the faces I love.

My retina specialist recommended Vobizmo.

He said it's different.

It's the only treatment thought to block two causes of wet AMD

and deliver a chance for up to four months between treatments.

Thanks to my improved vision,

I'm holding on to the moments that mean the most.

Vobizmo is an eye injection.

Don't take it if you have an infection,

active eye swelling, or are allergic to it.

Vobizmo could cause eye infection, retinal detachment,

temporary increase in eye pressure,

an uncommon risk of heart attack or stroke,

or severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye.

Report changes to vision or eye pain

to your retina specialist right away.

Ask your doctor about Vobizmo

as soon as you notice any vision changes.

Visit Vobizmo.com or call 1-833-Igene

for patient assistance programs,

cost, and full prescribing information.

About this episode

Scott Mattis and MJ Trierweller join the Garage Heroes in Training team to share their unique journeys into the world of racing and automotive passion. From high school drag racing to instructing at extreme driving events, both guests recount their experiences and the thrill of pushing high-performance cars to their limits. The conversation dives into their favorite vehicles, bucket list tracks, and the camaraderie developed through shared adrenaline-fueled adventures. With humor and camaraderie, they reflect on the 'bad decisions' that often accompany their love for cars.

24 Hours of Lemons autocrossing Barber Brainerd brake pedal drag racing IMSA GS Michelin Arctic Alpine snow tires Mount Panorama NASCAR engine

BMW 7 Series BMW M4 Bugatti Chiron Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Corvette Dodge Ram Ferrari 458 Ferrari 488 Ford GT Ford Mustang GTD Ford Pinto Lamborghini Huracan Mazda MX-5 / Miata Nissan GT-R (R35) Oldsmobile Cutlass Porsche 911 Porsche 917 Saleen S7

Original notes

GHiT 0749: Scott Mattis and MJ Trierweller

Jeremey had a great idea and for once it was, lol. We welcomed long time car enthusiast and instructors Scott Mattis and Mark Jon (MJ) Trierweller to the podcast and we talk about everything and still only scratched the surface. Can't wait to have them on again.

Did we miss something? Please let us know at [email protected]

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/ScottandMJ

We hope you enjoy this episode!

If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing:

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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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