The ignition system is how the car makes the spark that lights the fuel in the engine. It has parts like coils and spark plugs, and it helps the spark happen at the right time.
Brakes are what slow the car down and stop it. They work by pressing pads against rotors, creating friction to slow the wheels.
Concept
never ending learning curve
A learning curve means getting better with practice. With cars, it can feel like you keep learning new things because there’s always something new to figure out or improve.
Valve covers are the top covers on the engine that help keep oil in and protect the moving parts under them. If the gasket leaks, you can see oil around the top of the engine.
The Mini Cooper is a small car designed to be easy to drive and maneuver. Because it’s compact, some repairs can be a bit more challenging than on bigger cars. The podcast mentions it because they’ve been working on several of them.
A turbo is a device that uses exhaust gases to push more air into the engine. More air usually means more power, but it can also make repairs more complicated because it’s tucked into tight spaces.
The K-member is a strong metal frame piece near the front of the car that supports the engine and suspension. It can make certain repairs harder because it blocks access to parts underneath.
Concept
knowledge the hard way
It means learning by experience—doing the work, running into problems, and figuring them out. Over time, that makes you better at fixing cars.
A “cherry picker” is a heavy-duty lifting machine. People use it to hoist big parts like an engine so you can move them safely in a garage.
Term
motor and transmission
“Motor and transmission” refers to the engine (motor) and the gearbox assembly (transmission) that work together to move the car. When people say they’re “manhandling” both, they mean lifting/positioning the whole drivetrain as a unit or in close coordination.
He’s saying the engine started making a tapping sound near the camshaft. That usually means something in the valve timing/clearance needs adjusting, so he tweaks the cam setup.
He’s adjusting the camshafts, which control when the engine’s valves open and close. If the timing or settings are off, the engine can run poorly or make strange noises.
A “big cam” means a more aggressive camshaft than the factory one. It usually makes the engine sound rougher/louder and can make more power at higher engine speeds.
The Dodge Ram is a pickup truck, meaning it’s designed to carry cargo and tow things. In the episode, the speaker mentions “Ram two fours,” which sounds like they’re talking about a particular engine setup they had. It’s brought up as part of the story about their Charger.
In drag racing, a “10-second car” means it can go down the quarter-mile in about 10 seconds. It’s a quick way to say the car is very fast.
Concept
tune ability wise
“Tune ability” is about how easy it is to adjust the car so it runs smoothly and responds well. If it’s hard to tune, the car may run rough or be difficult to get right.
A transmission rebuild is when a mechanic (or the owner, in this case) takes the transmission apart and fixes worn or broken internal parts. It’s usually done when the transmission isn’t working right anymore.
This is a 1971 Dodge Charger. The speaker is working on the car’s drivetrain—taking the transmission out and putting it back in—so it’s a real example of how you service an older muscle car.
On an automatic car, the converter is a fluid part that helps the engine smoothly turn the transmission. When you put the transmission back in, the converter has to be lined up and seated correctly, or the parts won’t fit together easily.
The Buick Regal is a mid-size car made by Buick. In this episode, it’s mentioned because someone had a very unusual, very powerful engine setup in it. The speaker describes it as “nasty,” meaning it sounded and behaved aggressively due to the modification.
A flex plate is a metal plate that connects the engine to the automatic transmission’s torque converter. When you’re putting the transmission back in, you have to get everything aligned so it bolts up correctly.
When paint is “baked” too quickly—like from direct sun—it can cure before it lays down smoothly. That can leave the finish looking wrong or not sticking as well.
A ball joint is a small joint in your suspension that helps the wheels move up and down and turn. If it gets worn out, the car can feel loose or handle worse, and the repair usually takes some work to get to it.
The water pump moves coolant through the engine so it doesn’t overheat. If it breaks, the engine temperature can spike fast, so it’s not something to ignore.
“Throttling into the apex” means increasing throttle as the car approaches the apex—the point of the corner where you aim to be closest to the inside. This is a key moment because throttle position strongly affects traction and how the car rotates through the turn.
Drifting is when a driver makes the car slide sideways on purpose while still steering and staying in control. It’s usually done in corners to keep momentum and go faster.
Tracks are divided into numbered corners. “Turn four” just means a specific corner on that track, so drivers can talk about exactly where they’re gaining or passing.
Downforce is the “squish” force that makes a race car press harder onto the road as it goes faster. If you lose it, the tires don’t grip as well, and the car can start to slide or spin. The host is saying that when he lifted, the car suddenly got less stable.
Oversteer is when the back of the car starts to slide more than the front while you’re turning. Instead of following your steering, the car rotates and can spin. The host is describing that warning feeling before the car goes sideways.
In a racing car with a manual shifter, the “gate” is the guide that tells the shifter where each gear position is. If two cars have different gate shapes, it’s easier to grab the wrong gear by mistake.
A wheelie is when the car’s front end lifts up during hard acceleration. It can happen when the engine’s pulling hard enough that the rear tires get traction and the front loses it.
The rev limiter is a safety feature that stops the engine from revving too high. If you push the RPM past the limit, the car will cut power to protect the engine.
Shift points are when you choose to change gears while driving/racing. Picking the right moment helps the engine stay in its power band and keeps the car accelerating well.
Muscle memory means your body learns a task through repetition so it happens automatically. In racing, that helps you shift correctly without pausing to think.
“Big block” is a term for a bigger, high-power V8 engine. The speaker is saying the car’s behavior at high RPM isn’t coming from a big-block engine specifically.
Mopar is a nickname people use for Chrysler’s cars and performance parts (like Dodge and Plymouth). Here it’s referring to a Mopar-powered drag car that struggles at very high engine speed.
A shifter cart is a go-kart that you drive like a small race car: you change gears instead of it being automatic. That usually makes it quicker and more fun, but also easier to get into trouble if you hit bumps or lose traction.
The throttle is basically how much power you’re asking the engine for. When you lift off it, the car’s balance changes, which can help you regain control—or make things worse if you’re already in a bad spot.
A speed bump is a raised part of the road meant to slow you down. If you hit it too fast—especially in a race-style kart—it can bounce the wheels and make the kart slide or go out of control.
It means the driver is shifting gears quickly and aggressively. On a race-style kart, that can help keep the engine in the right rev range, but if the kart is bouncing or sliding, it can make control harder.
A kerb is the raised edge along the side of the road. If you hit it sideways or after bouncing, it can grab the tires and throw the vehicle off balance.
An axle is the part that connects the wheel to the rest of the drivetrain so the wheel can spin. If it gets bent or broken in a hit, the wheel can stop working or the vehicle can become uncontrollable.
LIVE
It is two guys drug podcast, here's Kevin Byrd, I am Willie B and today, well today
we're talking about lessons learned part two.
Part two, it's so much fun on part one, laughing at ourselves and thinking back on, you know,
time where we weren't as smart as we are today, not saying we're very smart today, but we
definitely learned a lot along the road.
At least one of us is.
Arm wrestling yet for that one, you know, but it's funny because I often times say just
in life, right?
There's there's strength and struggle, you know, what's great is being in the car culture,
car community.
One thing is awesome.
What I've seen witness noticed over the years and all the racing I've done and it doesn't
really matter.
It could be car racing, motorcycle racing, I feel the same way.
But man, you get some of the coolest, most unique individuals and the people that really
challenge themselves and in their team.
It's usually a group effort if you're going really fast and you're doing things, you know,
for the first time or that are benchmarking, you know, I've got a record on a world speed
record out in Glamis, you know, been been a part of that, been a part of some really
cool teams and builds.
But man, what a what an inspiration and drive it is for every single person that's enthusiastic
about cars.
There's something about going for a record, a personal best, just being able to, you know,
complete a challenge.
So oftentimes, you know, the mark of the challenge and how well you did is whether or not you
complete it and think about that as a as a benchmark, you know, can you make it?
No doubt.
It's kind of a wild thought.
There's so much space to because, you know, racing definitely pushes you to the limits,
right? Because everybody else is pushing to the same limits.
And so you're just constantly in competition with them, with yourself.
But the space for, for, you know, car people is so huge because, man, the amount of things
that you can challenge yourself with stumble on, you know, it's endless.
And you can just push yourself to whatever, to learn to paint better, to have less trash
in your paint, no runs this time and, you know, no feathered out in dry spots and, you
know, or just understanding better, like whatever, how your ignition system works or, or your
brakes and this and that.
And so you're always just always learning something.
And, you know, it's amazing.
I never would have thought, you know, 30 plus 40 years ago that, man, there'd still be
something left to learn, but I just feel the more I learned, don't know
stuff, you know, it's crazy.
So it is.
It's, it's a never ending learning curve or you learn stuff again.
Yeah, well, true.
Like, oh, yeah, I remember that one.
Once darn it, here I am again.
You know, it's, it does happen.
Often times, you know, there's over the years, especially the last several, because
of my cars for Christmas program, there's repeat offenders.
There's cars that I knew if it's, you know, if it's that 2002, 2004, 2007, you know,
Pontiac or GM, 3.4, 3.8 liter, they put in everything.
I know exactly.
It's going to, it's going to need motor mounts, going to need valve covers.
You're going to have to do a couple of things to get the old pan out of it.
They're unique to that type build and that particular chassis.
Like, you know, we've been working on a lot of mini coopers for people that don't know
mini Cooper, you know, they, they did so many turbos when they went from supercharger
and turbo, they actually engineered a little slot, like a, like an inch and three
quarter slot in the back of the K-member that you can loosen up bolts and slide a
part of the K-member forward so you can actually have access to remove that turbo.
If you don't know about it, that's a nightmare.
You're, you're dropping the entire thing and then finding out on the back half of it
when you're reassembling it, that all you had to do was make this one little
changer to loosen up these two bolts and you had access to where you didn't have
access before.
It's, it's little things like that, but it's things that make you better at
whatever it is you're doing, right?
The challenge as you get through it, it does make you better, right?
Either earning that knowledge the hard way or the easy way, you're a better person,
a better mechanic, a better wrench, you're a better driver, you're better at everything.
If you go through a little struggle to earn it, well, you know, kind of back to the
point that no matter how much of that you learn, every time you get on a car, it
almost seems like there's another opportunity, whether you, whether you goof it
up and learn from it or just kind of think through and figure it out, right?
You're just constantly adding to your little, you know, your toolbox essentially.
I love that you said opportunity because it's like that moment in Apollo 13 when
he throws all the crap on the conference room table and they got to build a filter
and he says, I believe this is going to be our finest hour, fellas.
Here's what you need to do, you know, you know, that that's to put that statement
first and be like, we're going to achieve it.
It's just, you know, the path that we use to get there.
What are you going to learn as you, as you, you know, proceed down that path?
And that's what, you know, the podcast is all about today, man.
Lessons learned, we got some we're going to share.
And I'm sure as you listen, you can relive some that you've gone through as well
and you're in. Yeah, yeah.
So we're here today to make you feel a little bit better about maybe some of
your mistakes.
So yeah, have some fun with us.
We're going to take a quick break.
We'll take us out and we'll see you on the other side.
Two guys ride podcast.
Kevin Bird, Willie B.
We're back after the break.
It is two guys ride podcast.
He is Kevin Bird.
I will be in today.
We're talking lessons learned.
Oh, yeah.
It's a hard thing that learning curve, but sometimes it comes really fast.
Sometimes it takes a while to mature, if you will.
But man, it's, it's wild because, you know what, if it weren't for that
emergency, think about all the great things that have been accomplished in
that crazy last minute effort, in that crazy, you know, chaos that is, you know,
the, the, the group of guys that you call your racing buddies or team or maybe
it's just yourself throwing together an engine or a combination or, you know,
something in your shop or your garage or your, your, your little, you know, back
alley single wide the night before you go out and race and beat on it.
And it actually works.
It performs.
It does what it's supposed to do.
You know, I got that, that adventure ride coming up and the main goal of this
adventure ride is just to make it, is just to make it through.
So I'm sure I'm going to learn a lesson or two on that adventure as well,
but that's what makes it great.
What makes life so fun, knowing ahead of time, you're going to learn something
either the hard way or the easy way, but you're never going to learn something.
Yeah, man.
You know, I'll volunteer.
I'll kick us off.
So one thing I've learned and I've learned it over and again
is the whole thing about don't rush.
And when you're at the race, when you got to meet the deadline, I mean,
it's pushing, but, you know, sometimes you're just in a rush and you miss stuff.
Man, how many times you forgot to put in a bolt or, or part or something.
And, um, God, I remember, and I think I've told this one before, but it's been a while.
I remember building a car in my dad's garage, you know, by myself, my dad wasn't
in the cars built, built a motor, man.
And I was all about getting it finished and in the car before it got dark.
I got the car in the driveway, the cherry picker.
I'm a one man crew on a slanted driveway.
Manhandling this motor and transmission in a car.
I am just hustling cause dammit it's going in.
I'm firing up today, right?
And so, man, I got everything bolted out just that.
And you know, then I got the picker out of the way and I got the ignition hop and
the battery and the thing and the whatever.
And it's dark, you know, and I'm like, there it is, man, it's ready.
It's ready to fire.
And, uh, I had solid tap at cam.
So I had to adjust my cams.
I'm like, I'm doing all that right now with a flashlight, you know?
So, man, I fired that sucker up and, oh, it was glorious, man.
The angels were singing.
The sucker had a big cam and it was rumbling just the headers.
I'm like, yeah, you know, I was probably 16, 17 years old, you know,
built a motor with a book, you know, I'm so excited.
And I go, I pull the cover off, man.
I'm, I'm lashing the vows, things getting hot and warm.
And all of a sudden there's a little, a little, some fire going on, you know,
somewhere down there, you know, down kind of somewhere on the, you know,
where the starter would be, but on the driver's side and look over and you know,
there's, there's, oh man, spark plug wire must have been or something.
Oh, my starter wire was on the starter side.
My starter wire was touching the header, you know, melted through and I was
arcing, you know, like, yeah.
Okay.
Well, you know, I better do something.
So I'm shutting the thing off and it's still sparking.
So I go to, you know, disconnect the cable off the battery and here comes my dad,
you know, running out of the house with a fire extinguisher.
I got my valve cover fully open.
The engine is running, you know, just unleashes that full tank of fire extinguisher
underneath the hood, engine exposed.
That's dusty stuff everywhere and gested in the motor.
Oh, painful.
It still hurts.
It still hurts right here.
It hurt me here.
Oh, man.
I mean, it would have been half that bad if my dad had been so over excited
with that fire extinguisher, man, because I was, I was kind of under control,
but it still is a lesson in, you know, if you think,
God, if you don't have to meet the race, just get up early
the next morning and finish it off.
You know, like put the tools down or whatever it takes, whatever it takes.
Hey, I similar story, bro.
I've got an apartment.
I'm in Charlotte.
I just moved there.
I'm 19 years old.
I got a job in radio.
So I took my $71 charger.
The car I mentioned I had a ton of Ram two fours in it.
Yeah.
Right.
Big, bad ass 10 second car, man.
That's like, man, back in the day, that's fast.
But man, it was hard to get it to run there because, you know, it was just hard.
You know, a 10 second car back in the day.
That's a monster cam ton of Ram two fours.
Hard to just, you know, tune ability wise is hard.
So here I am in Gastonia, North Carolina, how to get to the radio station in Charlotte.
It's about 30 miles or so.
And I need to get the converter in this transmission.
I had my transmission rebuild because I just tearing up the transmission in it.
So I didn't have the money to go take it to a shop, you know,
and I was like, I could do this in the apartment complex parking lot.
So I leaned back on a hill, got the front of the car jacked up,
so it gave me a little bit of room so I could work on my 71 Dodge Charter,
got the transmission out, had it rebuilt.
When I put it in, you know how you got to sync a converter on a Dodge three times.
That third time is really difficult, right?
So instead of just waiting, I really wanted to get it in that night.
I really wanted to have it out.
They say, because to truth be told, there's a there's a guy that had a really nasty.
It sounds weird to say, but Buick Regal, he had a Marine 454 in it and it was nasty.
And he lived right down in the same apartment complex.
And I knew he had a, you know, a bunch of fast cars that he's hanging out with.
And I wanted to be in the group.
So I want to get this car running before all these guys are going to show up
that I didn't know.
So I'm underneath there.
I got a tarp, right?
It's dead a winner, although it's not that cold.
It was cold as hell that night tarp under the car.
I got a sterno.
No little things water with.
I got a sterno as a heater under my little tarp.
And I'm trying to put this transmission in on my back, all right,
in an apartment when I'm 19 years old and the 71 Dodge Charger and that converter.
I sunk it three times.
I know I did.
But as I'm pushing to get things bolted up and flex plate bolted in,
I pulled it out just a little bit and I didn't double check it.
And in a rush to get it done, right?
I get up.
I had everything set.
I fired up the car.
Now the car will drive for a moment.
It will roll under its power for about for about 60 miles.
If you're looking, that's about what it went about 60, 80 miles.
I wasn't sure the exact mileage.
So I'm glad we had this conversation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The pump's not turning.
So it didn't go a little while, but it won't go a little while.
It's very long or very fast.
And man, I was like, ah, maybe it's just got to warm up.
Maybe I'm low on fluid.
Maybe a bunch of maybes ended up with me stranded on the side of the road.
So less learned there the hard way with a with a smoke transmission.
Yeah, you really need to have that torque converter that third time.
Make sure it's set and don't pull it out when you're bolting it in.
But look, you know, it was it was one of those things that, again,
when I say you become better and stronger, I learned that I've not made
that mistake since. Yes.
Yes. Great lesson. Great lesson.
It's an out.
I've not done it since.
So I learned it.
I learned you just had learned it the hard way.
Yeah. Oh, man, I have been so close to learning that lesson the official way.
I don't know how I've escaped.
You know, I don't know how many times like bolt in the transmission on.
And, you know, you're so close and you just want to refund those bolts,
you know, and you're just like, no, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait.
I had this on before.
It went on easier, you know, and my missile line like this.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, I know what it is.
And you're like, oh, I got to undo those bolts because,
you know, just like you back in the day, man, I didn't have all these tools.
My dad had this tiny little three drawer craftsman box, you know,
you pick it up and you carry it, you know, like that was kind of the extent of tools.
And then you're just making up stuff from there.
Like other tools that you need, you know, like I would rent the cherry picker,
putting the thing in, but God forbid if I had enough money to rent something
to put a transmission in.
So it's laying on the ground, right?
On your back with the thing on your belly.
That's what it's doing.
Shoving it with your knees and arms and stuff, trying to get a bull thread in it.
Totally. Oh, so that's when you're like, no,
I'm not unthreading because I got it started.
Yeah. You know, like, but,
but it pays to have some patience.
It truly does, man.
In anything, you know, one of the biggest lessons I learned
in motocross as I was riding and becoming a much faster motocross racer
in the state, you know, many years ago, this pro rider I used to ride with all time.
He said, believe it or not, really, if you slow down, you're going to go faster.
And I was like, that makes no sense at all.
And he was like, well, it does because you're trying to win a race
in the first lap turn.
He's like, let things settle out.
Let all the antsy people, you know, get their positions and then start fighting
the fight, but make it to the to the battle, to the battlefield.
You know, don't go down the first turn.
Don't go down the first lap.
Make it to the battle.
The battle is the second lap to the last lap.
You know, you just got to make it through the first lap.
And what you do, then you didn't get ready for the fight.
He's like, if you slow down, you'll go faster.
You won't end up in the dirt on the first lap.
You'll actually be able to race.
And I heeded that advice and it worked out great for me.
It is something you got to apply to your whatever that application may be in life.
But I try to teach my kids that, you know, patience, sometimes patience
is the key ingredient to a winning recipe, combination, winning the track,
winning in a personal challenge of growth.
It's amazing the knowledge that a little bit of patience can provide for you
and in every aspect and level.
And it's so tough.
It's so tough, I still have to learn that lesson, you know, like,
because patience can be just prep, right, prep into a weld, right,
getting everything already and cleaned and all that.
So you got a good hand position, just everything to lay on a nice weld paint,
right, how much prep is in paint and just want to skip a step and, oh, man,
the temperature and whatever.
And, you know, like, I got it and and it just doesn't come out.
Yeah, right. Just totally backsfire.
Just so many things are about about patience.
Yeah. How many times have we seen that just in the paint booth?
I mean, cleanliness is is so such a key.
If you just take enough time to make sure your surface area is clean,
your paint booth is clean, your guns, the chemical chemical room is clean.
Like every aspect of that, you know, needs to be clean.
And when it is, there's so much better of a chance of you.
You turn it out a job that you're proud of, as opposed to one that has fish eyes
or chemical reactions or, you know, you let sit out of the sun too soon.
You know, we've seen that, you know, we're remember that thing we painted
and we put it out in the sun too soon.
And the paint guy was like, oh, yeah, it happens sometimes when you put it out
in the sun, it bakes too quick. Yeah.
And, you know, just weird things.
There's a step and a process and sometimes instrumental in following those steps
and processes because when you don't, you don't have that patience to do that.
Man, wow, the weird things happen or you just end up, you know,
being your own worst enemy.
Yeah. Yeah, no doubt.
You know, there's another one that kind of goes along with with with patience.
And that's just the right word.
But but sometimes you're looking at a job and you're like, man,
I got to get in there and whatever, replace that ball joint or that that water pump.
And it's buried down in, you know, X number of steps.
And you're like, what's the least amount of parts I could take off?
You know, in the first time, you're going to you're not going to guess right.
You know, like there's always, as you mentioned earlier,
like a secret recipe, like boom, boom, boom, there it is.
You know, like, but I've done you just, you just, man,
I could, I could wrestle it out of there.
You know, like, I don't want to take off that and that and that.
I could get it out and you end up just fighting your damn self, right?
Like take longer than if you'd have just done it, you know?
Yeah, man. Yeah, absolutely.
Not not only in, in repairing and fixing things
and, you know, trying to get your car to perform
more so where it bites you on the butt, especially me,
is on the racetrack.
When we come back after a break, I'll tell you one time
where I didn't have the patience because somebody
that somebody being Kevin Bird was in front of me and I had to get around him.
And I knew I could get around him, but he was a little slower
through the turn than I was.
And well, I just didn't have the patience.
And, and that cost, that cost like an unbelievable amount of money to repair.
Like a brand new, incredible race car to repair.
Matter of fact, it was so, it was so far gone, they couldn't repair it.
It was, it was a coffee table after that.
It became a cube.
I'll tell you about that unfortunate incident
here in just a second on the two guys around podcast.
Kevin Bird, it wouldn't be we're back after the break.
It is a two guys around podcast.
He's Kevin Bird. I'm Willie B.
This is going to be funny.
All right. Now look, I'm going to come clean here.
I'm going to be open and honest about this.
And I've never had been before.
Oh, man.
All right. So when I know I'm sorry, man, I'm messing up your stuff.
All right. So look, here's what happened.
Kevin is slower than me on a road course.
I came into a corner too hot.
And I thought for sure by the time I was throttling into the apex
that he was, he was going to be on the throttle and he was.
All right. So so all right.
Years ago, years ago, we went to a federated.
It was a drive along thing.
We had our boy, Kenny Strader, and you guys know Kenny Strader can.
That man can wheel like none other.
And at the time, I thought I could too.
And so he gives us this experience with him.
And one night we're out of the dirt track
and Kenny has got us into passenger seats of these cars
and he's just flying, man.
He's just going around track.
He's sighted sideways.
What you think you're a 100% convinced you're going to run the wall.
And right before the wall, man, he kicks it and drifts it.
And it's just awesome.
You're flying around there 130 miles an hour.
Couldn't be happier.
And then the next driving experience was something a little different.
Is it the Richmond 400?
Now, you guys know the Richmond 400 is officially an unbelievable NASCAR race
that federated actually put on.
Matter of fact, they call it the federated Richmond 400.
And here's what happened.
Kenny Strader has a drive experience there.
He's got his NASCAR cars.
He's got his truck for that truck series.
And he's got a couple of driver cars, meaning, you know, fans,
people can sign up for a driving school.
They get in, it's got some governors on it, some restrictions,
but they get to go around the big oval that is the Richmond 400.
Well, Kenny Strader shows up and he would show Kevin and I how to drive.
Well, did I tell you I already knew how to drive?
Um, so, so Kenny says, Willie, Kenny at this time, I wheeled with Kenny
a couple of times at this time.
He's like, you know what, Willie, you are pretty, pretty good.
He's like, uh, why don't you take out this car?
So this car that he puts me in, mind you, this car is untouched, unscathed.
And I think it's his winning this race car at the time.
It's his winning this chassis he's ever had.
Wasn't that it?
His winning this car he ever had.
He might have just said that after the story completed.
I said, Kenny, you're in good hands because nothing's gonna happen.
And this thing, I'm in the driver's seat.
Get Kevin something you don't care about.
So he gives Kevin, he gives Kevin the truck and he takes one of his other cars
and we start doing laps.
So we do it some last follow.
Kenny, everybody's having fun.
Uh, then we go out, you know, we, we do us the lesson.
I don't know how it happened, but Kevin got in front of me and how I remember it.
It's probably different than Henry.
So, so mind you, uh, Kenny's, Kenny's lead and he's usually had, you know,
some customers or Yahoo's behind him and, and, um, he's kind of watching how they
drive and so he's been driving really slow like all day.
So he's bored out of his mind.
He's driven with us.
He knows that we can generally wheel most of the time.
So he's kind of excited.
He's like, boys, let's go have some fun.
So he just high tails it, right?
And I'm just doing everything I can to stay behind Kenny without losing it.
And I'm just looking straight ahead, right?
I see Willie back there once like, okay, I don't have time to look back.
I'm just whatever Kenny's doing.
That's what I'm doing.
That's Kenny's line.
That's my line.
Right.
So I'm just holding on for dear life.
Right.
Just whir, whipping around this track.
Right.
And all of a sudden, uh, I see this hand out Kenny's window and it's like,
slow the hell down right now.
And I'm just like, whoa, okay.
All right.
Break, break, breaks.
And I'm like, okay, is there something on the track?
Maybe.
Well, back to you.
He was saying, slow down, he was saying slow down because what he didn't know that before
that is I was moving for the past.
You ever seen days of thunder?
What he says, he put some special wheels on it.
I just, I just knew I could go for it.
Match set of tires.
Match set of tires.
Yeah.
So Kenny was ahead of us.
And at the time I thought I could go a little faster than Kevin and I thought I had Kevin's
timing down pretty good.
So I knew where he was coming out of turn four at and I knew where I could pass him at.
I was like, this is my lap.
So I go into the apex and I go down low.
I go into turns late.
I tend to, when I'm racing or going to the turns, I tend to go in really late.
So this one I go into pretty late and Kevin had a pretty good stretch.
And I lay on the throttle and as I come out of it, I knew where he was put on the throttle.
I'm like, well, I really did.
I got on the throttle too soon because I had to come off the throttle because I was
too close to him.
And when I came off the throttle, I guess I lost all my downforce because all of a sudden
it says and you know that little feeling you get when you know you're steering one way,
but you feel the back of the car ever so slightly tugged the other direction.
He's like, oh, I'm about to go into a big oversteer.
Right about the thing about that tug is it keeps tugging.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
I'm like, uh, oh, and yeah, man, I went sideways this way sideways that way.
I this is no joke, y'all.
I hit every corner of this car against the wall.
And I ended at the only place on the Richmond 400 that had a federated sign.
I ended on their sign with the front nose of the car.
Yeah, man.
I wadded up this car hard to the point where I apologize.
Those guys really like Coors Light at their shop and for months, I would send them cases
of Coors Light with, I'm sorry, post it notes all over it.
The big boss before you could even get to Willie and say, Hey, dude, are you all right?
He was arms out.
Come on.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm wasted your race car.
No, nobody wants to be that guy.
Trust me, especially one that was his winning this chassis ever.
It was it was a painful realization.
Let me tell you that that I shouldn't be out there.
Given $150,000 race car, I'm probably a little bit unyielding for that.
Don't give me a go fast pedal in a car that could do it because I'll crash something.
For a moment, there's that moment in Talladega nights where he's like,
if you ain't first, you're last.
It was kind of like that.
Well, you know, kind of the most interesting part was as we were standing there looking
at the thing, walking around it as it drug it into the infield.
Well, he's all good.
Everybody's good, right?
Everybody's saying trailer.
Yeah.
The record just drops it, right?
This big lump.
We're walking around all four corners.
Everybody's kind of eyeing up like the damage and crew comes out with some tools.
Namely sawsaws.
And they had decided right then and there that there was nothing to say on this car.
Just cut it up into more manageable pieces so they could haul it off easier.
I'm not sure he didn't do the drive experience many years after that.
Oh, man.
So look, man, lessons, lessons learned.
Yeah, that's that was probably my most expensive lesson learned to date.
Well, there is a little, there's a little silver lining there, Willie, that there was a higher
up at Federated that had done something maybe similar a couple of seasons before.
And so that high up person at Federated was actually kind of glad to hand you his crown.
So the angle level was a little lower than I expected.
Yeah, it's the dumb ass of the day crown.
And I probably weren't from that moment on.
Yeah, it's that was that was a good one.
That was a hard lesson learned.
That would people let me drive cars.
I don't.
But but yeah, it's it's one thing to get out there and throttle your own ride.
And I'm guilty of guilty of that too.
My own car.
I put a car or two in a wall of my own rides as well.
But man, I I sure like to race.
And me, that's a mark to my mentality.
I'm too silly.
It's too wired in me not to go for it.
So I'm that guy.
So yeah, nowadays, I just I just don't.
I only race my cars.
Well, that's it, though.
I mean, that's that's what racing is, is kind of pushing the edge and finding it.
And sometimes you go too far.
But yeah, sometimes having the wherewithal to keep it on this side sometimes is tough.
You know, it's funny because I have to times reference my motocross days.
But in motocrossing, that really was the thing.
Like if if you're out practicing and you don't, you know, you don't crash ever, right?
Then you're probably not pushing yourself as hard.
At least the guy I used to ride with would oftentimes say that, you know,
and it was almost the thing where it's like, no, man, I I crashed hard yesterday.
You know, and you were always trying to push yourself through a harder level.
You just got to be smarter than that when it's, you know, not your car and something
that's six figures.
What about you, Kevin?
Any any racing lessons learned?
Oh, man.
Oh, man, you would have to ask me that.
I've got I've got another one.
Okay.
All right, you go.
You go again.
I blew an engine on this.
I raced two cars at the same time.
And they had different shifters in them with different gates.
And in the heat of a of a race, you know, because I'm a hot lab, both the cars are doing well.
They're both my builds.
I'm getting one getting in the other hot lab in it.
I forgot which car I was in and the gate was different.
One was reverse reverse pattern and the other one was a forward pattern.
And so I went first to second right out of the gate because the car wheelies.
So I short shifted and then when I went to go in the third, I pushed up back in the first
as opposed to down because I thought I was in the other car.
So I tapped the rev limiter and broke of a valve spree.
So if you're ever racing, make sure every car you have has the same shifter gate and pattern on it.
It's just if not, you never know when it's going to bite you just because,
you know, the rules of engagement, especially with big cars make a big power.
They're doing wheelies that you got to ride out a little bit, you know, and you're watching shift points.
Just knowing, knowing muscle memory and having, you know, having not to think about it is key.
And it's something that I, again, I had to go in and do a quick repair because it's something I
I just didn't think of it, you know, when I was building the car, keep the same gate,
the same pattern. If you got a reverse pattern on one car, do the same thing on the others.
Yeah, you know, that's one that probably a lot of folks out there, even if it's a gate that you know,
right, just in the, in the heat of the moment, man, in the, right, the adrenaline rush and
everything coming at you, just catching the wrong gear, right? Luckily you catch one that's too high
and you go, and you lose a few seconds or you lose that good drag race. But yeah, I'm sure there's
plenty that went for third and got first or, you know, fifth and got third. Yeah, you know, real
quick big black Mopar is not happy at 8,800 RPM. No, no, not a big block. No, no. All right.
What about you racing lessons? Yeah, and it was a good one. Luckily, luckily, it was a shifter
cart. So not, not as expensive as it could be. And I've carried this lesson for a long time.
Because I've been around a lot of OE prototypes and stuff that are irreplaceable because that's,
that's a million dollar prototype. It's got to get all this work done before you go into production
or high end, you know, builds or whatever, right? There's, there's always something wicked and awesome,
but irreplaceable that you could get in. And anyway, it was an overhaul. One of my,
probably second or third one, and out in California, my buddy shop, and he had a shifter cart,
and we're an industrial park. And we're building an overhauling car, you know, for days, I'm just
focused on getting my stuff done, getting, getting my order, get my parts list, all this stuff. And
he's just like, dude, take the shifter cart out. And somebody would go to around the industrial
park and come back. And finally, I'm like, you know what, man? All right, I got it. I got a break.
I got, I got a moment. Give me the thing. I look down the road, man. It's just a nice straight
California industrial park, man. It's like a almost like four lane, you know, wide, you could stick
four cars wide or three and a half wide, you know, nice, straight. And I'm like, sweet, dude,
I'll just do a rip. And just as I'm getting in, I got my helmet on, whatever. And I'm like,
ready to rip the thing. He's like, Oh, hey, man, watch out for the bump down there. And I look down
just as I'm hitting the throttle. I'm like, all right, I see a black tar strip, like a fresh one,
that must be a speed bump. So I'm like, cool. So I rip the thing, just banging through gears.
And I see the big strip across coming up. And I'm like, okay, and I let off the throttle.
You know, boom, I hit a dip in the dang road, like it just a sunken out section, right? But it was
way before that black tarmac out there, you know, like, I was looking out there and all of a sudden,
boom, so I go airborne in a shifter cart, you know, not a big deal. But you know, when you come back
down, you kind of bounce a little bit and you know, you're not straight anymore. And the next thing,
you know, I'm just sideways. I'm like, okay, we're sideways. I'm just going to carry out. I'm
carrying and I'm like, Oh, that kerb is coming for me. You know, so, oh man, back in cornered it
right into that kerb. And of course, that shifter car just took the whole thing and went, so axle
and frame and all the good bits, you know, just went right up on over it all good. But man, that
was a, you know, back in the day, that was 20 something years ago, that was a, you know,
probably a $4,500 shifter cart. So yeah, yeah, there's a nice check for a frame and some axles and
but you know, it was a perfect lesson in, you know, you could have all the right conditions,
right? Like I felt like, you know, I didn't do anything wrong, essentially, right? Straight
line, I didn't lift and oversteered or cornered or nothing, it's going straight. But hey, you know,
what stuff happens, a cat jumps out, you know, a tree falls down on you, there's a pot hole you
didn't see and you can wreck somebody else's thing. So better, you know, couple grand, I got
them a new shifter cart or at least a frame versus, you know, somebody's half a million
dollar, a 100000 dollar, something brother, you know? Yeah, look, here's what we
learned today in the podcast, don't drive anything you can't afford to fix. Amen to that, brother.
Amen to that. But, but truly, there are valuable lessons learned in all of it, but in the end,
makes for great stories and, you know, hopefully great podcasts. So hope to join you guys on the
next one. Hey, here's Kevin Bird, I'm Willie B, thanks for tuning in, make sure you check out our
show, Air and Weekends on the Motor Trend Network. It also airs on Discovery Plus and Max, so check
your local listings. Thanks to our producer, Scoop, our senior producer, Justin Carter,
and executive producer, Bob Becker. Yeah, check out our website, twoguysgarage.com.
Our social at twoguysgarage in this podcast is copyright 2025, Brenton Productions Incorporated,
All Rights Reserved. Hey, and you know what, even to this day, it's how good a person Kenny is.
Kenny Strayed and I, still good buddies. He's a great guy. That doesn't mean anybody can just
go wreck Kenny's car. So don't get any ideas, guys. Right? Yeah, yeah. He's got to be somebody he
loves to let you wreck his crap. Oh, no. Well, dude, this is part two, and I just had scribbled some
thoughts and ideas and I, you know, every time we talk, I come up with new ones and I've hardly
even used my list, man. We could do like part 17, right? This is like Freddy Krueger stuff going on
here, you know, like there's another episode and another movie. So it's like Mission Impossible,
they just keep coming. All right, man. We'll see you guys on the next one.
About this episode
Racing and wrenching keep turning into lessons learned: push too hard, rush a job, or skip a step and you pay for it—sometimes with major damage. The guys connect motivation to records and constant learning, then get practical with garage examples like easier turbo access on a Mini Cooper and the importance of getting a torque converter seated correctly. Stories range from transmission installs and a wiring-caused engine-bay fire to track moments where patience, tire confidence, and correct shifting gates decide outcomes.
Every great mechanic and racer has a story about learning the hard way. Kevin and Willie get candid once again about their most humbling moments, sharing tales of bad paint jobs, an engine fire, a smoked transmission, a wrecked shifter cart, and a fateful day that turned a pristine six-figure race car into a pile of scrap metal. They prove that the path to success is often paved with broken parts and expensive mistakes, but that the struggle often leads to increased strength, greater patience, and valuable knowledge.
