Matt Graves from American Powertrain

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Hey, Stacy David here with the Tales of a Gearhead podcast.

Now, what is this?

Well, it's a podcast that covers everything automotive,

everything mechanical, everything that's just cool

about the automotive lifestyle.

And since that's just about everything,

you're gonna love it.

Today's podcast is made possible

by the guys from American Power Train.

Let's get rolling.

Well, you've been asking for it.

You're gonna get it.

I've had Matt on the podcast several times before.

He's always a great guest.

I've got Matt Graves here with me today.

And, you know, when you hear your name, Matt,

it's kind of like you should have been

a professional athlete or a musician.

You just have that magic name, Matt.

Yeah, Matt Graves.

He's like a graveyard.

Yeah.

Oh, man, you've been a great as a middle linebacker.

You've been hit by Matt Graves.

I love it, man.

Did you play any sports in school at all or?

Not really.

You're just a car guy, huh?

I played a little tennis here and there.

I like football and stuff like that.

My dad played football and baseball and all that stuff.

And I kind of went the opposite direction in the cars.

Oh, yeah.

Other than my stepfather,

I'm pretty much the only one in my family that's in the cars.

Really?

Yeah, I'm kind of like that, too.

You know, they're into guns and all that stuff.

And I like those, too.

But cars was it for me, man.

Yeah, I don't know if it was more about, you know,

kind of a distraction for me growing up for some things.

And, you know, it was just something I was just drawn to.

I love, when I was a kid, I love Star Wars.

All right, and I liked the whole, the ships.

Oh, yeah.

I like the Han Solo, who was kind of like,

he working on the Millennium Falcon.

He had to kick it around.

Yeah, it was like, just what a great, you know,

you knew George Lucas, you know, obviously he did,

you know, American graffiti and hot rods

and things like that.

And I always gravitated towards kind of that Han Solo

thing.

Fixing the Millennium Falcon.

It was always tearing up.

His girlfriend was mad at him.

I've been there a hundred times in my car.

I'm sure you have to.

We weren't trying to save the galaxy or anything, but.

No, no, it's like, and I tell you what,

I love people.

You're running in the cops, the empire, you know, so.

They've never seen the correlation

between American graffiti and Star Wars.

I mean, the fastest car in the Valley,

the fastest, you know, thing in the Millennium Falcon,

it's all there.

Yeah, how far, he ran the Kessel Run

and whatever, you know, it was a big thing.

So yeah, it's always like that,

kind of that automotive culture.

Yeah. Now were you into motorcycles much

or was it mostly cars?

Mostly cars.

I got, I got into motorcycles a while back

several years ago.

I live near the base of the Deals Gap, the dragon.

I'm 29, I'm about 15 minutes from there.

So it was kind of one of those things

being in that, living, growing up in the mountains.

I kind of wanted to get on the bike and ride.

But I just, as I got older

and I had a lot of friends that run the motorcycles

and I just, my wife is like,

you got two young girls here

that's waiting for daddy to come home every day.

And I'm like, yeah, I'll stick to cars.

That's good advice.

You know, I was into motorcycles a little bit,

but not that much.

And the biggest thing for me is that

I don't trust myself on them.

I mean, it's so easy to crack that throttle open.

Oh, I don't trust other people.

Yeah. And I was always over driving my ability.

Yeah.

You know, you're going,

down you're doing 160 or 150.

So fast.

Yeah.

It's so fast.

And it's like, I can't ride that well

to be riding this fast.

Somebody in a Chevette is going to pull out in front of me.

Yeah. And I stayed away from the crawtrockets

and stuff like that.

I rode like a cruiser or a lot of dirt bikes

and ATVs and those kind of things.

But I just kind of stayed away

from the speed machines.

I mean, I love them.

I would love to have a Ducati or something like that.

But yeah, I'm like you,

I would just be,

I would hit a wall 200 miles an hour

probably that's what happened to me.

You know, you're out at a lot of shows

and stuff with American Power Train.

You go to shows all the time.

Yeah.

So what do you see happening in the industry now?

You know, one of the things that I see

is that there seems to be less of a passion

for what we do,

like we're talking about just that crazy passion

and more of just like knowledge.

So how important do you think that is

if a person wants to get into cars,

how important do you think it is

that they understand the mechanics of it,

but they also have to be passionate about it?

That blend right there,

do you think one is more important than the other

or we have to be kind of part of both?

Obviously you have to be completely into it, right?

You gotta be like 100% into it

if you're gonna like do an LS swap or something.

You know, you gotta be really...

Committed, absolutely.

Yeah, committed.

You know, how many times you get into a project

and you wish you could get out of it?

Let's just start over.

Okay, that feeling,

the power past that feeling,

that's the commitment, right?

That's the passion.

So that's kind of where you gotta like,

okay, do I really want to get into this hobby

or am I just trying to spout off facts and figures

to people?

Obviously with today with YouTube

and everything where there's so many...

Nothing's different anymore, right?

I mean, I came in here and you go,

you got this, you get your snowmobile

or the snow cat, all these things.

And I'm like, it's getting hard to separate yourself out there.

You gotta like, you know,

now it's more like, what do you know

or what do you don't know about these cars?

And it's kind of like when you go to car shows,

it's like, everybody's trying to be different

or step out from something, but...

Everybody's swapping information.

I'm glad you said that

because they all sit there and they swap facts.

And I'm missing the person that's just like,

I'm gonna do this, you know,

they got the scars all over them.

They're like, I love this.

Well, and so going back to my whole point is like,

there's so much, it's so much happening.

How do you stay passionate about it anymore, right?

That's kind of where I'm at.

So it's like, I think it never stops.

It's like any hobby, any of these hobbies.

I'm looking at this model car right here.

People that build model cars or road show airplanes.

I mean, you get into that,

it's just like cars, it goes forever.

Deep layers you can get into.

So it's like, you know, you start out entry-level

and you work your way up.

Some people stay entry-level

and that's what they wanna do.

Are they staying in certain kinds of cars?

They stay in the restoration only.

It just, I guess it's where your passion

takes you throughout the course of being in the cars.

I think it's important for us to,

because I totally agree with you on that.

I think it's important for us

that have been in the industry to encourage that passion.

Instead of going, you know,

you may wanna be a little more conservative.

You may want, it doesn't get good gas mileage.

These are all detriments that will eventually send,

they'll kill somebody's passion.

You know, oh, I can't believe you did that.

I wish you hadn't done that.

Well, that's looks stupid.

You know, well, then that person's gonna go

right at that young age where they're susceptible.

They'll go, well, maybe not.

Maybe I'll just go and, you know, do something else.

I think it's real important for us to keep doing that.

Some of us, like you and I,

I mean, nobody would have deterred me.

You're probably you,

because we're just crazy about it.

So we have to share that.

I get up every day and still go, I get paid to do this.

Oh, I know.

So it's like, you know, I'm still happy to be here

and I'm 52 now.

I started in 1994 in the industry and I'm still here.

I'm still talking to you and, you know,

I'm just really happy to keep the passion going

and that's just what I wanna do every day, you know.

And is it pay a lot?

Nope.

Is it rewarding?

Yes, you know, so it's like,

it's just, you know, again, you gotta follow

what makes you happy every day to go to work, right?

And we've all had those jobs where we're not happy.

And you may take a pay cut to do your passion,

but it's a lot easier to get out of bed.

Absolutely.

And a lot of people don't realize

it's not about making the most money in life.

I know a lot of very, very rich people

that are miserable.

Me too.

And they're looking at me going,

I wish I could do what you do.

It's like, dude, you're a world-renowned surgeon,

or seriously, and they hate what they do.

It's just, you know, they made a lot of money at it.

They got started into something,

but they lost that passion somewhere along the way.

Yeah, and it's like, that's the thing.

You gotta keep the iron,

gotta keep striking that iron

and keep what keeps you going

and how you separate yourself with the trends,

especially if you're running a company

and trying to do new products.

It's the same thing with you and build a car, all right?

You're trying to, like, separate yourself for a little bit.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, does it cost a lot of money

to do this hobby for sure?

No, it can.

But there's varying levels of projects you can do.

And it's very, you know,

I've stayed in it since I was a teenager, right?

And I didn't have the money then I do now

to do this stuff and I kept doing it.

So it's obviously, it's just where you drive.

I guess it's your drive, all right?

My first car that I fixed up was a Volkswagen.

We all started with Volkswagen's.

Who didn't?

Try to do that now.

No.

Everybody had a Volkswagen Beetle in the family.

You had some family member that had a Beetle, right?

Absolutely.

My aunt, my mom.

It was usually passed down.

Yeah.

You know, here, you get the Beetle.

It's like, oh, I'm gonna turn that into a Baa bug so fast.

I remember me and my stepdad, Doug,

we went and bought two Beetles for like 500 bucks.

One running, one was a parts car.

Yeah.

It was great.

You know, you could just mix and match parts.

Learn everything on them.

Yeah.

And I realized how easy it was to work on them.

When I was just, my mom used to tell me

that when she would have her car in a driveway,

I would open up the motor cover on the back of the Beetle

and just stare at it when I was like three or four years old.

Oh yeah.

It's like you just look at the motor.

Engine in the back, yeah.

You would do it.

You would even tell you to sit there

and look at it and walk her in the car.

And I'm like, really?

I don't remember.

I didn't remember doing that.

But she said I would just do that all the time.

Gosh.

I used to be able to buy a Z-car.

So early Z-cars for nothing.

Yeah.

Same sort of deal.

They were everywhere.

Boy, now try to find them.

Well, we got rid of a lot of cars.

Back in, you know.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

It's just, yeah, I think now, Volkswagen now,

Minimals five grand.

Yeah.

It's running.

Yeah, just for a decent one.

Yeah.

And they were just cheap transportation, right?

That's what they were for.

Yeah, that's all they were.

Well, what's going on in American powertrain?

As far as moving forward and stuff,

you got any new products?

What's?

We're working on several things in the back.

The big thing with us right now is keeping up

with all the engine swaps.

Yeah.

Yeah, LS swaps, Coty swaps, but they're,

people are mixing the matching models.

So it's not like, I mean, we all know LS swaps

are across platforms.

Sure.

But now you're having Hellcat swaps

across platforms.

You're having Coty swaps across platforms.

And you guys specialize in doing all the kits

to make those things work.

Yeah.

And our secret sauce is that you call us

and we figure out all the componentry you need.

Okay, you're putting a Coty and a road runner.

That's not happening yet that I know of

and I'm just making it up.

Oh, it's coming so many out there with a road runner.

We could figure that out.

We could make it work.

When I first started there back in 2011,

the big thing was I don't want to cut my car.

Yeah.

Corvette guys and especially motor people.

Don't want to modify it.

I don't want to trim anything.

We specialize in some of those very specific models

where we machine the transmission to fit the car.

Like we cut the transmission,

so you don't have to cut the car.

And we have to figure out all the, you know,

clearances and things like that,

shift reposition to try to keep it look.

A lot of people want that factory look

where you just look in there

and you basically see the five-speed pattern

on the ball or the steel plate.

So we kind of got it, you know,

that was our thing.

Mopar guys, you know,

Barry Jackson comes along in 2005.

I'll never, 2005 or six,

I'll never forget that challenger

that sold like a million bucks or something like that.

It had a metric gauge cluster in it.

Yeah, I remember it.

It made it super rare.

I remember it.

So everybody that had a Plymouth Duster

thought they had a million dollar model.

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

For like a good three year run right there.

And so we were just dealing with that, you know,

like, I don't want to cut my E-body, my B-body.

So all of our kits just really be very specific

to fit these cars, Chevelles, things like that.

But now it's a little more, I don't care.

Yeah.

But there's still a lot like.

And that's nice because that's the hot rod approach.

Yeah.

So especially with the Mopar, you know,

with the torsion bar system on those,

makes it very difficult to put a six-speed

and you basically have to cut the support for that out

and then well, you know, brace it all in.

Well, you're doing a Hemi swap

or a G3, a Hellcat swap.

You've got to have at least a six-speed in there.

For a manual, it's minimum

because of the power holding capability.

So you're cutting that whole car up.

You're cutting the tunnel out,

you're cutting everything.

So some of that stuff's kind of like,

hey, it's not as big a deal anymore.

You know, I'm dropping 23 grand on a, you know,

a Hellcat motor and six-speed and this car.

That's good to see that happening, though.

It was a roaster shop frame, stuff like that.

They got to cut the cars to fit those frames

and stuff nowadays.

So it's just, it's not a big deal anymore,

but we're still having to like,

there are still certain segments

where we do a very specific work

on the transmission to fit.

Not everybody can do sheet metal, right?

Yeah.

You know, a lot of people can grind away at things,

but to really do some non-sheet metal work,

it takes some skills.

Yeah, it takes some skills

and a lot of guys can't do that.

They want bolt-in stuff, a lot of them.

Yeah, that's still kind of a bread and butter base.

Yeah.

It's the guy taking out a 69 Camaro,

four-speed and just putting in a five-speed.

Yeah.

That's it.

Everything else is stock.

You know, if you've been watching the show much,

you've seen us with this 40 Chevy hot rod

that I've been doing.

It's kind of paying tribute to the world of hot rodding.

And it's been really fun

because I've been able to bring in a lot of my friends

from the industry, both young and old.

And the question that I keep asking people,

and I've asked you here on the podcast as well,

is what do you think the main ingredients

of a hot rod are?

If you're doing a traditional hot rod,

what are some of the main ingredients?

And almost without exception,

everybody says it's gotta have a stick in it.

Well, if you've tried to hunt and find a stick lately,

a standard transmission, it's not easy.

There is one company out there though

that makes it possible.

And that's American Powertrain.

They have almost single-handedly kept the stick alive

in the aftermarket.

They started to save the stick program.

They've done all this crazy stuff.

And they are right on top

of all the new Tremac transmissions that are coming out.

So if you are even thinking about

putting a stick into your project,

and it doesn't matter if it's something newer,

like a late-model hellcat that you wanna put a stick in

or an old street rod,

they specialize in making kits

to where you can put these Tremac

standard transmissions into your hot rod.

They also are starting to carry automatic transmissions.

So if you just can't do the stick thing,

they're also your source for automatic transmissions

and automatic transmission swaps.

So when it comes to transmissions,

give American Powertrain a call, man.

They can help you out and help save the stick.

So if a guy has an automatic car,

I wanted to,

because we've covered this on the show a lot,

but I wanted to hear it from you as well.

Say a guy has a car that has an automatic in it.

Say it's an Olympala,

and he wants to put a stick in it.

What are some of the surprises he's gonna run into

that he needs to think about?

Obviously pedals.

Right, pedals, which we have mostly in palace now.

Okay. Pedals.

I was gonna ask you about that.

Yeah, we've been working with under-hydraulics.

Okay.

And they've got a pretty extensive line of pedals,

hydraulic pedals now.

So first we make sure you got a pedal.

Okay.

You can do the swab.

If you don't, we're gonna have to find a pedal.

Yeah.

Next thing is, okay,

do you want to run,

you know, what kind of power do you have?

So we start at the block.

What kind of power you got?

Then we gotta get your clutch right.

We got a flywheel clutch,

get all that figured out.

Yeah.

And you in a form room,

they're gonna have to cut the floor.

For the most part,

it depends on what you're in palace, right?

So it's funny how the bigger the car,

the smaller the tunnel.

Yeah.

So like a Camaro and a Mustang,

I can get a six-speed in any of those cars

of very minimal tunnel work.

Yeah.

Most times just opening up the shifter hole.

Yeah.

You get in the Chevelle's,

you get in the B-bodies and the big cars.

That's crazy.

I think it's more of a leg room thing,

more of a luxury car, you know?

That flat floor.

Flat floor, yeah.

I have an 83 Cadillac.

I've talked about this car a million times,

but it has a tiny tunnel in it.

Yeah.

It has a 200 R4 little pancake automatic.

You know, I had to put a huge tunnel in that car.

Yeah.

So yeah, you can start there

and you gotta figure out the cross member

and you gotta, you know, you'll do a drive shaft.

Yeah.

All those things.

I would say that you pretty much have to tell them

that they are gonna have to do some sort of hump work

and some sort of tunnel work on the hump

to either modify it with sheet metal, open up holes.

You know, some of the four-speed factory cars

have console, so they have the special surround

for the shifter and we need to know

if it's got a console car, if it's a standard floor car.

Yeah.

If it's got a four-speed tunnel hump in it,

because we can put the shifters right

exactly in those tunnel humps, too, so.

So how has the response been to the TKX, the five-speed?

Oh, it's been our best-selling product.

That's a great transmission.

Okay, so in your opinion, you've driven them both.

I'm talking about, like, the TKX five-speed

and the Magnum six-speed.

Take apart the fact that one is a five, one is a six.

When they shift side by side,

which one do you prefer and why?

It's hard to say.

Or are they pretty much straight up?

They're pretty much the same.

Okay.

They're pretty much the same.

The old TKO didn't shift as well.

No.

That thing had hang up.

It was a truck, Tranny.

Yeah, it was a truck.

I wanna edge it out just slightly to the six-speed.

Okay.

Because it's a single rail shifter design,

like a T5.

Okay.

So if they ever shifted a new T5, they're smooth.

Yeah.

You know, their T5s have always been one of the best.

They're like glass.

Yeah.

But man, the TKX is like,

not in day difference to a TKO.

Yeah.

Why it shifts.

So yeah, a lot of times that has to do with,

a lot of people get mad about the throw

and then they realize they have a big double bend shifter

and things like this.

So you gotta think about how tall your shifter is

and stuff like that.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

But as far as like, you know,

two RPM, the TKX is nearly as high as the six-speed.

I think it's only different by 200 RPM max on the shifter.

So that's pretty good.

That is really good.

You know, the six-speed will hit almost eight grand

and the five-speed is right behind it.

You know, the old TKO was called a top loader design.

So the transmission was assembled from the top.

It's got a plate on top

and everything can move from the top.

Whereas the TKX is an in-load design,

like the six-speed.

So it's got a barrel case

and everything comes in from the back.

It makes it so much stronger.

And you can have bigger gears.

You can have a lot more torque capacity,

higher RPM, shifting, you know,

improve the shifter rails, stuff like that.

So it also makes it kind of modular

so we can take the tail housing off

and modify it for shift linkages

or moving the shifter around

and we can machine that stuff down.

But go from that cinder block shape TKO

to a round case.

Now your tunnel work is very minimal anymore.

So you don't have those high shoulders like a TKO did.

So moving forward, where do you see this industry going?

You know, there's a, from like 2000 on,

trucks and SUVs kind of became the big thing.

So now we got 25 years of SUVs sitting out there.

None of those have sticks in them.

So any thoughts about that?

I mean, you know, when you look at modifying these,

I would love to see some of these small SUVs

be turned into rally cars.

You know, that's a huge market.

Of course they gotta have a stick, so.

So I sent Jeff a video today

of a Tahoe with a five speed in it.

Yeah.

Like a 2001.

Yeah.

So there is-

You guys driving his kids around with it?

Any future in that?

We just bought a 2002 Chevy pickup truck.

Okay.

Short bed, like the GMT-800.

Okay.

So we're doing a five and six speed kit for those.

Pretty much will be the same.

Yeah.

Taho's and Suburbans stuff like that.

And probably the pedal assembly is interchangeable.

Right now we have a pedal from 95 to 02,

and then we're working on those later model ones.

Actually the later, like we actually can go 08 to 2012,

but we're working on the in-between ones

because they're harder to find parts for.

Good.

I'm glad you're on that.

So at some point, yeah, we're getting in the,

and we gotta expand out, right?

We gotta, what's the next thing?

But yeah.

Well, it's inevitable.

I mean, that's gonna, I mean,

people will hot rod whatever they've got.

And there's only so many 69 Camaros out there

and so many other cars,

as you started to get into the cheaper stuff,

just like we were talking about Volkswagen's

when we were younger,

the young guys are gonna get whatever they can get

to start with.

And that might be mom's SUV.

Put a stick in that thing, be awesome.

Well, it's like, I was looking at too,

like I know my buddy, Brian at Lowcar,

bought a 2023 or 2022 Ford STX.

Short bed, F-150, Coyote motor.

Like 400 horse.

Thing will fly.

We drove it down the floor on a trip together, me and him.

He lowered it a little bit

and I'm like, man, this thing would rip

with a six-speed in it.

So it's got me thinking, now 2023,

you're getting into a later model,

you know, a lot of electronic stuff like that.

We have to kind of figure some of that stuff out.

I know with our O2 truck,

you know, we're gonna have to do some HV tuners work

and reprogram the computer to have a six-speed

and stuff like that.

But I mean, it's, the stuff's all out there.

I guess because I'm 52

and I still am blown away by technology

even though I have to use it all the time.

Sometimes I'm amazed by,

I was having this guy remote tune my Cadillac

in my shop on the laptop.

It's like nine o'clock in the morning on a Saturday

and he's in Texas and he's running my car

over the internet and it's just like, what is going on?

How do we get here?

Isn't that cool?

It's the coolest thing.

So there's so much of that out there

and we were talking to that same person today

about tuning our truck

and we get done doing the R&D

and take the six-speed in.

Didn't change some settings on the computer

and I'm like, man, it's just so easy now.

Before we got to like drill down into wiring harness

and like for all the sensors to deal with.

And now you just call a few people up

and hit a few keys and you're done.

So it's pretty amazing nowadays.

But there's a lot of,

like I said, somebody has struck,

there's so many little opportunities

for manual transmission applications.

It's still out there.

I think there really is.

And it goes back to kind of what we were originally talking

about the tech versus the passion

because they'll put the stick in it because of passion

but they'll tune it because of the tech.

And so they go hand in hand.

But I try to encourage people like get out there

and drive that stuff and reignite that.

Age has a factor, right?

So I have a 17 year old and a 14 year old

who are far more can pick up electronic stuff so much fast.

I mean, just so much faster than me.

And I always thought I was pretty good at it.

I'm not compared to like how they've grown up on it

since day one.

They were born after the iPhone basically

and do all these things like don't edit videos

that will blow your mind.

Like how did you, you know, it's just an app.

There's like people that've been doing this for years

and you just figured out how to do these fades and cutaways.

And you know, I just, yeah, it's brilliant.

So imagine that kind of a teenager

learning how to tune a car already.

They're gonna be leaps and bounds down the road

away from all of us when they get into it.

You know, the good thing is though

you can't get away from that feeling though

when you're driving it, the smells, the sounds.

You know, that's the good thing.

It's like a great restaurant.

You know, you can do all this stuff,

but when you sit down and you take a bite out of that pizza

or whatever, when it's right,

there's no way of getting around.

It doesn't matter if they cooked it in a microwave

or an old brick oven, you know, it's got a taste right.

So I think that that's just a real cool combination.

And it's the thing that always impressed me

about American powertrain is that you always had

a really good balance of that.

We've been in this industry long enough.

I remember there was a time not long ago

where very influential people in the industry

were saying the stick is dead.

It's gonna be all automatics.

No one would be putting sticks in in the next five years.

And obviously they were very wrong

because they overlooked that passion of like,

I gotta shift this thing, I gotta feel it.

Yeah, it's analog, right?

We've had so much digital stuff,

you want a little analog action in your life

every now and then, that's how I look at it.

Maybe not everybody wants it

for their daily driver anymore, which I understand.

Oh, that's true.

And so she would live in Nashville with traffic,

but as far as like,

but when you wanna get out and run around or escape or,

you know, like I'm at home working,

sometimes during the day,

I wanna just go jump in my Cadillac

and just go driving around for 30 minutes.

Absolutely.

And I do that sometimes just kinda like,

you have like a stressful day or meeting

and you're like, I'm gonna go out

and take my car out for a minute

and just listen to the V8 and shift gears and,

it's just kinda like, okay, I'm good again.

Clear as my head up.

No, I love that, I love that.

Everybody needs to do that.

Yeah.

So when you're out driving like that,

do you have any music playing

or you just listen to the car?

Sometimes, sometimes it's just me,

cause sometimes I'm listening to see if they's tearing up.

Oh yeah, you gotta listen to that.

It's like, I heard that sound, what was that?

Then it ruins your day

and you're about to be in stress that again.

Now I gotta work on the car.

Oh man.

So yeah, especially when you're doing that shakedown,

you know, those four or five shakedown weeks

after you put the car together,

you know, this is leaking

or this is making a noise or,

but now once you get it all dialed in,

it's like perfect.

Yeah.

So do you have any new product or projects

that you want to be working on?

I mean, you've got the Cadillac now,

so is there something else you're looking for?

I know you are.

Honestly.

A scrambler, a Jeep scrambler.

Well yeah, I mean, everybody knows

I've been wanting a Jeep for a while.

I like to get another Jeep,

but I'm actually was thinking about building me a Go-Kart.

Really?

Yeah.

I got this old Go-Kart at home,

one of those like cheap,

I don't import it, got the cage on it.

Okay, like the Yerf dog or whatever it is, yeah.

I actually literally was looking at it.

Yesterday, wanting to cut it in half and lengthen it.

Yeah.

So I can fit in it better.

Yeah.

The kids had it when they were little,

but they don't ride, the motor blew up

and it's just kind of,

either you throw this thing away.

Yeah.

Or do something with it.

So what engine would you put in it?

I don't know yet.

That's kind of what I was like.

That's what I like sitting around.

That's the fun part, right?

It's like, I'm trying to plan it all out.

Like, what would I build?

I have a 440 Snowmobile engine in the back room.

Buddy, I'm telling you, two stroke.

It's got that swing axle on the back, too.

With a sequential.

Yeah, I've got all the clutches and everything

to put that on.

I don't know, it'd be kind of neat

to build something like that to just a runner.

I don't want anything over the top,

but like, I always like having to go car for those kids.

Good thing it hit about 70.

Well, you know, my kids will want to drive it, too.

Yeah.

So it's like, but they're bigger now

and we have a cabin up in the mountains

and they want something to go bombing around in,

which I thought about the Jeep would be perfect.

Me and my friends sitting around watching those.

Have you seen those lawnmower guys that?

Oh, yeah.

And they built lawnmowers just to go off road.

Uh-huh.

They take the decks out, put bigger tires on them.

Just like a Murray Rodmore.

Yeah.

And look, I don't know if you've watched it.

It looks so fun to have you and your friends on there

just driving through the woods on those things.

So I've been kind of looking at other powered vehicles.

Did you see my zero turn toolbox over here?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, same sort of deal.

That's a Dixie Chopper.

Yeah.

It's something fun.

I'm looking at something just to mess around in.

I don't know.

I would like to get another pickup truck

I miss my C-10.

Yeah.

When I sold it, it's one of those, you know.

We all miss the cars we sold, most of them.

Yeah, most of them we don't.

There's a few I'm glad I don't have.

Yeah, there's a few.

My C-10 and the Jeeps that I've had, RX-7, I miss that.

So what was the first car that you went over 100 miles

an hour in?

Oh, my Mustang.

Okay.

Foxbody Mustang?

Yeah, I'm from Knoxville.

They built Pellissippi Parkway.

Okay.

And when they built it in the 90s,

it just went from Alcoa to the airport in Knoxville

to West Hills and Knoxville.

That's it.

So nobody was on it.

It was like a big long drag strip or an Audubon.

So I'd gotten a, I went to work for Alamo Rent-A-Car

in 1993 at the airport.

Oh, you're going to tell me.

And I was going to college

and I bought a Foxbody Mustang GT.

I thought-

Oh, I thought you were going to say

you did it in a rental car.

Yeah, later.

I thought I was awesome.

I bought a 92 GT in 93.

All right.

I taught my mom and the coast sign on the loan.

This is the first real V8 powered car I had.

Oh, yeah.

And I was living at home.

And they were respectable then.

Yeah, I was living at home.

And I got out on Pellissippi Parkway

with my girlfriend at the time.

And we opened that thing up to about 130, 120,

and got Mustang Trooper was sitting right there.

As soon as I got to where I saw

I was going at the top end of the speed.

And I was about to slow down.

He was right there.

Oh, yeah.

And I just pulled over.

Oh, yeah.

That ticket was not cheap.

Oh, no, man.

At my age-

I'm surprised he didn't put you in reckless driving.

Oh, I got reckless driving.

OK, so he did.

So my entrance went through the roof.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was a whole thing.

You spent any time in the clink?

No, no, no.

OK.

No, he was cool about that.

But the main reason he took it easy on me

is because there was nobody out.

Yeah.

He knew what I was doing.

So how fast did he write you up for 120?

He actually wrote it for 100.

Well, he did you a favor big time.

Yeah, that one took me a while to get all the points

and insurance back down to normal levels.

That'll jerk your chain a little bit

when you get busted doing 100 miles an hour more,

especially when you're like-

Or something.

They're 20 years old.

We all have those moments, yeah.

So we've all had a little run-ins to the police.

Most of mine has always been kind of like,

hey, I like your car.

They pulled me over.

It's too loud or something.

And he usually just like, all right, calm down.

You can go.

Yeah, yeah.

Just wanted to check your car out.

Yeah, I've had that.

Yeah, I've had that a lot.

I've had several times, so yeah, I'm sure you have.

That was probably the scariest I've ever been getting pulled over

because I'm like, man, I just bought my car.

I'm done for it.

And I was out there being an idiot.

Yeah, because he could have impounded it.

They would in Nashville now.

They've really cracked down on that.

Oh, yeah.

If they even think your street racing car's gone.

First time.

I mean, we've seen some really bad things happen with that.

Yeah.

But you know, don't do that, kids.

If you're listening to me, don't do not.

Yeah, after we did it all.

No, I try to tell you.

What was your?

Oh, the first car I went over, 100 miles an hour?

You told me one of these stories before, but I.

Oh, it was a Mazda RX-7.

Oh, OK.

That's what made you think of it when I said RX-7, huh?

Yeah, I was thinking about that

because we're getting ready to do this thing on the Z-car.

I've got this 240 sitting over here.

And it's kind of one of those cars of that era

that if you grew up 80s, 90s,

you either first time you went over 100 miles an hour,

it was a Z-car, RX-7, or Mustang, nothing else to do it.

Really?

I mean, that was one of our speedometers

that shut off at 80 or whatever.

And they had to aerodynamics, too.

Yeah.

It was a little easier.

And the Zs, you know, they came out,

they would do a buck 30 all day long

right off the showroom floor.

And RX-7 wasn't far behind.

So I was just thinking, I figured you,

it was probably an RX-7 because you'd said that.

The RX-7s are fun.

They were fun.

Then I discovered rotary engines are cool,

but they're not as good as V8s in the RX-7.

So I started swapping V8s into them.

I mean, they're neat engines, but man,

they're expensive to rebuild.

They don't make any torque and they're real temperamental.

But yeah, I love that RX-7.

It was a lot of fun.

They were more fun with the V8, though.

Absolutely.

And there's plenty of room in the cars to put a V8 in.

Absolutely.

That was the cool thing about them.

So yeah, a friend of mine, we actually did a 93,

the third gen RX-7, and did one of the first LS swaps

in it back when I was still working at Cherry Bomb.

That was Henson Supercars did that kit back in the day.

Or used an F-body six-speed and had an LS-1 takeout

and shoved all other than that car.

And that car actually, with the aluminum LS motor,

it was still 50-50 front to rear.

Yeah, it's probably, yeah.

You didn't really lose too much weight

because all the emissions stuff with the rotary

that I had to have was so heavy.

I'm actually surprised that the RX-7s haven't become

more popular as far as collector cars.

Have you looked at the process lately?

Yeah, well, I'm just comparing them to the early Zs.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Those hoods have gone stupid.

The third gens are crazy money.

And even a rolling chassis is expensive

because they're really good suspension on these cars.

Those were always high.

They were kind of in a class all their own.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a C5, though.

Like a Beater Corvette C5.

And they're affordable.

That's what I'm looking at now, yeah, like a Z06.

That'd be a fun car to, you know.

I'm not looking to paint it.

No, just take it out.

Do you go to track day with it?

Yeah, track day, you know, fix it up.

But you can put huge tires on them and it'd be fun.

Well, listen, man, it's been great to have you on here.

We're looking forward to having you on the next time.

Yeah.

Keep in touch with me on what you're working on, man.

I will do.

It's always fun to come here and see your shop

and see what you got going on.

And since we overload, every time I come in here,

I can't even process this.

Sounds good, man. Thank you.

Thanks, Stacy.

All right, that's our show for today,

which means you need to get out there

and start working on something.

Spend some time turning wrenches.

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