Racing Legacy: David Donahue's Journey, Porsche Innovations, and Auto History Highlights

Welcome to another in wheel time podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the in wheel time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am Central.

It is the in wheel time car talk show coming up.

We're going to talk to a pretty famous guy about the upcoming Pike's Peak Hill Climb And I'm not gonna I'm not going to do anything other than just tease it with that.

Okay.

I think that that's good.

We also have coming up Conrad's this week in auto history, along with some of the stories making automotive news headlines Howdy, along with Mike out of this world.

Mars King, conrad along.

We need more Jeff Zekin.

I don't know what that was.

I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us today.

So let's just get right to our guest.

His name is David Donahue and you may recognize his last name, david.

It's great to have you with us this morning and thank you very much for joining us.

Well, thanks for having me on.

Yeah, so, um, you're into the hill climb When, when?

well, let's get a little background.

Yeah, i think that you're related to somebody that most of us older guys know about.

Yeah, my dad was marked on a huge Roger Penske's first driver winner, the Indy 500 and Many other championships, trans and can am, so on and so forth.

So you, you, you have had racing in your blood since birth.

Yes and no.

My back died popped away when I was eight and of course my mom swore up and down to Never go racing.

So how that ended.

Yeah, we see that and you have been a Pretty proactive in races Well for the last many years.

Give us a little background.

I understand that you were in the Bridgestone supercar series for a while.

Yeah, that was really one of the first places I Started racing professionally.

I did some show them stock races in the firehawk series before that and Then that this was all in the early 90s, so I'm dating myself as an old guy.

Yeah, welcome to our world.

Yeah, the and that kind of rolled into.

I had some support from BMW and that rolled into BMW North America semi-factory effort with the M3 in MCGT competition and Then I Ended up because I was, i won the supercar championship with Bridgestone firestone.

I wanted to kind of keep me under their wing and out Al Spire like me I guess and introduced me to Bruce McCall and And Roger and and I'm a new Roger.

But they wanted me to do some indie lights races and start pursuing that.

Unfortunately, is around the same time the big split happened between Carton, irl, yep, so things kind of went haywire there.

But it opened the door for me to do some stuff with PacWest, the IndyCar team.

They were starting a super touring team, so that opened the door for me to establish a relationship with Chrysler Dodge, with the Stratus super touring and won a championship.

And that that got kind of shelved, when you know, as as as it always happens to racers especially.

It seems to happen to me.

The whole program got canned because Chrysler and Mercedes merged, or Mercedes bought Chrysler, however you want to look at it, and the.

The mental state of Mercedes was race cars are rear wheel drive.

Of course the Stratus wasn't, so the, the it was retroactively canned, the whole program.

This all sounds very familiar.

It's just like the broadcasting industry that I've been a part of radio is being canned.

Yeah, all of that sort of stuff.

So you're not by yourself, just in a different genre.

That's all you also.

You also raced in the Craftsman truck series for a while.

There are always like one off races, just a handful of races.

After the Viper in 98, 99, 2000,.

I was working with a NASCAR team and did some truck races and some that.

What then was Bush races Right, the truck races went better than the Bush races And it was short lived.

So and that's when I started racing for Brumos and Porsche was 2002 and 2003.

Actually, 2003,.

I was testing in 2002 for the, the new DP category, and then, you know, after winning Le Mans in 98 and then winning the Rolex 24 in 2009, which was a sort of a crowning achievement, i guess, with Brumos being their last overall victory at the Rolex 24.

And so obviously very impressive past.

Where are you?

Where have you come from up to today?

What do you mean?

I just said well, no, no no, no, but I think today you're, you're, i'm 2006 until today.

Where are you?

How did you get to 2006, to today, as a ways?

Yeah.

I 2009.

I mean, I stopped racing full time in 2012.

I won the Rolex again in 13.

And it's a couple one off races.

And then I was working for Porsche cars North America for four years with I was the 918 spider climate relationship manager.

Then that position went away as all the cars were sold and the customers were pretty happy at that point And I did some work locally.

And then I worked for a company in in Rhode Island, But all along since 2017, I was still working for a Porsche cars North America I met the folks at Porsche Colorado Springs And Joe Brenner and some of his patriots asked me if I wanted to do the Pecs Peak hill climb with them.

Of course, I always heard about Pecs Peak.

I never really watched it or anything.

I just said yes And then I saw some video And then you said no, I was wondering what the hell did I just do Exactly?

You've had some pretty good success at Pecs Peak with first in class, a couple of second in class.

So it's not like you just went and enjoyed the day.

You went and won.

You know I went.

I've won twice, although last year the visibility was so poor the time was bad.

It's weird that a wind feels like a DNF, but with so much effort, i mean we're there all month.

I leave on Tuesday for a race towards the end of the month of June.

So, yeah, i did a lot of preparation that first year on the simulator So that I knew where the corners went.

If you ever watch a run, it's sort of dizzying knowing, not knowing what corner you're in, because so many of them look the same.

You do a 25 mile an hour hairpin to the right, and the road just goes up to the left around the corner And no trees, no, nothing.

So all you see is sky.

And the same thing happens for the last year Left turns, the left hand hairpins.

So it was really important to understand the sequence of the corners.

There's 156 corners.

It's 12 and a half miles long, the start line's at 9,500 feet or 9,300 feet, with the finish line at 14,000 feet.

So hair is really thin.

In fact, in 2018, the car wouldn't even start.

It was a GT3R race car, normally aspirated.

It wouldn't even start without having the engine management system adjusted And even after we got it started, we couldn't get to get off of idle without a couple more sending the ECU back to Porsche car Porsche.

Motors.

And what?

what class are you in now?

What car are you driving up there for the competition this year?

I'm doing time attack one.

I've done that every year, but one did run a car in open once.

Just, we thought we thought there was an opportunity in open at one point with a car.

It was a 1300 horsepower GT3R.

Um, it didn't work out the way we wanted to.

after four engines, we just ran it, which we ended up taking an engine out of the pre-owned lot at the dealership.

Now there's a story.

You don't hear every day.

We hear you run out of engines.

It was an expensive year, uh, but TA, uh, ta one is basically modified street cars.

Um, we're starting with a really good base car, the GT2 RS club sport Porsche.

So it's basically the street Porsche turned into a race car by the factory.

Uh, and then we do significant other modifications for aerodynamics and power.

So we, it's not um, I mean, it's big power for some people, not huge power for you folks in Texas We're making um 800 wheel horsepower.

Um, i know I'm doing work with Hennessy, so the whole definition of power has changed for me.

Yeah, when I'm running the F5 with 1800 horsepower, um, but uh, yeah, the car is, um, the car's a proven, solid competitor.

Um, you never know what you're going to get.

This year We have a uh Alpine from Europe coming over.

It's a thousand pounds lighter than my car And, uh, you know it makes really good power.

Um, it seems to have pretty good arrow uh and a really good driver.

So we've got our, uh, we've got a work cut out for us.

How do you get 1800 horsepower to the ground?

Well, they do it.

I mean I, that's what I thought.

Big, big tires and wings that push you into the ground, yeah, but still 1800 horsepower and cars that virtually weigh nothing.

It seems to me like nothing but tire spin all the way, yeah you'd think.

But uh, i ran the car and it was, uh, I did.

I gave laps in, uh, arizona, at a place called the podium club at a Tessa, and uh, it was, it was fucking really good.

Um, i could, really you could get full throttle and just go through the gears.

Um, i mean, i don't first gear your private traction limit.

Actually, they put a shorter ring opinion in it because it was the road course version of the car.

Yeah, and I don't think you needed the shorter ring opinion.

It just it has so much torque because it's six 6.6

liter twin turbo V8, but that that that normally aspirated part of the 6.6

liter makes so much torque.

Um, and it, uh, yeah, it uh, it would actually kind of pick up the front of the car and and and drive the front off.

Yeah, yeah, i mean.

I'm it's, it's, i'm a jet.

I mean I'm exaggerating, but you know you did have to like pedal the throttle, not so much just for the rear but for the front too.

So only weighs 3,000 pounds.

So it's still quite a light car for something like that.

So you're running again the 2019.

GT2 RS at a pike's peak this year.

Is it the same car, Cause I see you've been driving that.

You're making models since 2020.

Is it the same car each year or is the car changed?

It was How.

How do I describe this?

It's a different Vin.

It's the same car.

Um 2020 and 2021 was a different Vin.

Okay, so it's the same kind of car but a different actual physical car.

Uh, since last year and this year, uh, bruno most bought the car.

Last year It arrived really late, um, it got to the BBI auto sports shop in California, um, i think in the beginning of May last year, uh, and they went hard at work to um do the changeover of the aerodynamics, which is no small feat.

I mean it's really uh, we change it to a center radiator.

Instead of three radiators on the front, there's only one big one in the middle and a giant splitter, um, that sticks about a foot out of the front of the car and a dual element rear wing.

Uh, there's two different radiators.

Dual element rear wing uh, there's there's just a lot different fenders and front wheel and tires and brakes, and I mean it just goes on and on the list that the basic car remains the same.

Last year we didn't do anything with the engine.

This year we we rubbed on the engine a little bit and you know, hopefully we have a a bit more of a powerful tool at our disposal.

So as wide ranging as your dad was in motor sports, did he ever run Pike's Peak?

He never ran Pike's Peak but ironically he started his career with Hill Clines, where I'm ending my career with Hill Clines, that's the point I was trying to make earlier is that you've got all these wonderful awards and championships.

Do you have an engineering background?

No, i don't.

I went to school at Lehigh University, but I had entirely too much fun and basically declared my major based on what will let me qualify or graduate in four years.

We can relate to that.

Some of us didn't quite go to what would graduate for years.

Sycollege is all a blur.

Some of us don't have backgrounds.

I don't know that I would actually graduate if I didn't meet my now wife.

When we would study together, she would actually study.

Go figure, yeah exactly.

I studied it.

It would really make her mad when I got a better grade in a class than she did.

when I studied all her notes, she told me how to do all the work.

She's a good teacher.

That's it.

Yeah, we've got a friend of ours is going up to Pike's Peak and actually he's one of the officials up there, richard Tomlin, and he's bringing Monty Excel, exocet or something like that Kind of his own little home built Mazda Miata with a LS7 in it and twin hair dryers on it.

It's a beast, it truly is.

You really need to have forced induction.

There's just so much power loss with a normally aspirated car up there.

What is your everyday driver?

I have a Taycan.

Yes, a Taycan.

Of course he does.

Yeah, yeah, it would have to be a Porsche.

Yeah, is Porsche everything that they say that it is?

I've never had one, i've actually never driven one, but I hear all these wonderful things and I'll tell you that, all of the surveys, they are the top car builder.

When the car leaves the factory at Porsche, it is as good as any car can be in a mass produced car.

Yeah, they're really hard to modify because you're spending the money on all that modification to begin with.

So if you want to get more power out of it, it's going to cost you a lot of money because they're so well refined.

It's already there With the 918.

The 918 was a million dollar car and I hit around that the engineers had an endless budget and a whole lot of fun because the PDK transmission, which shifts automatically, was so intuitive, things like that.

You know the engineers, if you're half throttle you don't want to rev it out to redline, right, you kind of want to shift it at some RPM.

That's a little bit high, but not not really high.

They just had it mastered.

It would just shift naturally wherever you wanted and the feedback through the chassis and the steering and the brakes, everything was.

It's so communicative compared to other cars and I didn't appreciate that until I drove a bunch of other cars at a race track at a club day and I was doing some instruction and I was just shocked that going down Pit lane you know what you got in the Porsche and many of the other cars.

You needed a couple laps of mistakes to know what not to do.

So the engineers had did a lot of research.

Yeah, the car guys, yeah, a lot of fun research.

Yeah, they know what they want out of it and they make it happen.

Especially when you don't have a budget.

Exactly Well, I'm sure they had a budget.

Well, david, it's great talking to you and reminiscing about the past and your history, great to get to know you and also looking forward to seeing how things play out for you on the Pike's Peak Hill Climb coming up.

Thank you.

Thank you me too, yeah, and we look forward to talking with you after the, after the hill climb, and see how things went for you mentally.

Okay, great, thank you.

Thank you, appreciate it.

You have a good day.

Man a month long.

He's going up there for a month.

And be involved in all of that for an entire month.

I'll be beside myself and out of wind.

He's representing Porsche, so you have to do that.

Well, you know, when you talk Brumos, you know you're talking top tier Porsche operation in the world.

You're not secondhand in it.

You got a Shade Tree in it, mars What?

are you?

trying to say What are you talking about?

Hey, we'd love to hear from you anytime.

All you have to do is shoot us an email.

Our email address is info at inwheeltimecom.

Time now for This Week in Auto History, and Conrad has that.

So in 1903, George Wyman became the first motorcyclist to make a transcontinental trip across America.

You know, think about that.

He's on a motorcycle driving across America before there were really any roads.

A 1.25

horsepower, 90cc California motorcycle designed by Rohrmarchs Be like crossing the country on a Honda, on your Briggs and Stratton.

On a Honda 90.

Yeah, wyman's Ardruis journey started in San Francisco on May 16th and it took him 50 days and ended in New York City on July 6th.

I'll bet his butt was real sore.

From San Francisco.

I didn't say that.

You said that I didn't go there In 1903, david Dunbar Buick, former plumbing inventor and manufacturer, incorporated the Buick Motor Company and formed it in 1902 in Detroit, michigan.

In 1956, general Motors opens its brand new $125 million GM technical center in Warren, michigan.

Today, the technical center is one of the landmarks of the 20th century architecture.

GM spent $1 billion renovating it in 2003.

And do you know, mary Barragame?

$29 million last year.

All right, so it looks like a wind tunnel, the configuration Well there's a wind tunnel there.

Yes, but the way Switch to the next picture.

It's kind of a bigger view of what it looks like after the renovation.

So that's the whole complex there.

I didn't know they had a football field there.

And then up in the upper left corner you can see that red building again.

But I mean just the initial impression of the design.

Looks like a wind tunnel.

And then in 1958, in Monaco, france, team Lotus makes its Formula One debut at the Monaco Grand Prix, the opening event for that year's European racing season.

Over the next four decades, team Lotus will go on to become one of the most successful teams in Formula One racing history.

Jim Clark won his first World Drivers Championship in 1963, driving a Lotus, beginning the golden age of Lotus racing.

Both Clark and Graham Hill both won multiple Formula One titles.

Clark also drove a Lotus to victory in the Indy 500 in 1965.

And then years later, virtuosos like Emerson Fiddepaldi, mario Andretti and Alessandro Zinardi all represented the Lotus Team brand in Formula One, by the way, that Lotus is in the Henry Ford.

That car?

Yeah, okay, in 1981, the 20 millionth Volkswagen Beetle was produced in Puebla, mexico, and that's actually in the museum in Wolfsburg right now.

Is that silver Volkswagen?

And 2005, toyota Motor Company announces its plans to produce a gasoline electric hybrid version of its best selling Toyota Camry sedan, built at the company's Georgetown Kentucky plant.

The Camry became the first hybrid model to be manufactured in the United States, and then in 2007, los Angeles, california, is the first stop on a cross country road show And that's the stop for the smart car, the Smart 4.2

, in the USA, and actually I think that has kind of fallen under the Mercedes umbrella as well.

It needs all the help it can get.

Did you ever get one as a company car?

I?

did No, not as a company car, as a press car.

Yes, press time and as a press car.

There are some Mercedes dealerships that use those as golf carts to take folks out on the on the tour, looking for luck, yep.

Do you ever?

have one.

I never had a smart car.

I was never so scared on the freeway in my entire life, until I got into that one.

You could literally put that in the back of a pickup truck.

Well, that's not, you know what.

We just need to move on, that's not even worth the words It's an automobile seeds what it is.

You plant that and you get a car.

Okay, it's just bad.

That's this week in auto history.

Well, you know glad I brought back such wonderful memories for you now.

You always do.

You know, all that is literally really is a grocery getter.

If you're, if you're traveling under 40 miles an hour, okay, if you got to have something that looks weird, drives weird and all of the things around weird, then that's the car Mars.

You're not saying anything And then some other manufacturers followed it with equally weird cars.

You know, remember Lexus did the IQ.

If you're going to do that, why not just get yourself a motorcycle and a backpack?

Electric car, get an electric car.

I did drive a smart car at one of the events of the Texas Motor Speedway.

Are you bragging or what?

I was fortunate that I didn't have to get out on the highway in it.

I think it was like 57, 58 miles an hour, as fast as that car would go.

They timed you with a calendar.

They probably did.

I never understood that.

Me either.

I was never a fan of it.

And you know they sold quite a few of them early on and you occasionally see one on the highway here now every now and then.

I would feel totally unsafe driving in that because I mean, you know what you would think looking up at an F 150, you would think that that car would be, like you know, $5,000.

It's not.

It's relatively expensive for what you get.

Oh, when they were new they were in the mid to high 20s.

Yeah, you only get the front seat.

But you know, when they first came to Texas they made a big deal in Austin about you know you could rent them.

Well, so far yeah.

But they cars like that just don't work at Texas.

Thank you, let's do sold cars roundup from Hemings this week.

We always have a good time with that.

This is for you, jeff, all right And Conrad.

1993 Cadillac Alante car that was built in Italy and shipped to the United States or via an aircraft.

And said custom built 747.

It sold this past week for auction price of $11,550.

A 93.

93 was probably, if there was forgive me the best year for an Alante.

That would have been the best year for the Alante because that was the only year the Alante was available with the North Star engine.

Well, you missed it.

You missed your opportunity.

No, I didn't.

Jeff missed his opportunity, That's right.

So 1987 Chevrolet El Camino 87.

87.

Pretty good looking car, had the Monte Carlo front end on it 21,242 dollars.

I think that's a lot.

I was thinking less than that It's a lot for that year.

1974 Chevrolet Corvette week in the Bridges 1974.

174 horsepower.

How much money do you think it sold for?

18?

grand 14.

Yeah, I was going to say 14.

8,100 dollars.

Oh, and the owner was happy to get that much for it.

Probably.

Here's one.

Means.

It didn't sell it.

This is mine a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS.

Oh yeah, How much A convertible, by the way.

Oh, so it's not the 24-Heads and 390s.

now We don't know anything about it.

We have to assume it's a 396 because it's a convertible.

And it's an SS.

We assume it's not the 28.

I'll say 50.

I'll say 135,345.

I only missed it by 100,000.

Can you imagine how smart cars you could get with that?

Here's Jeff's car And literally what year is your car?

13.

This is a 2005 Cadillac SRX Silver.

It's a Gen 1.

And it sold for 6 grand 13,388 dollars.

That's too much money Way more than it was worth.

Let me see that A 1969 Chevy Camaro.

Now it says a Z28 on the badging on it.

We don't know whether it's a clone or what.

We don't know anything other than it's green, got white racing stripes on it 69, Z28, 69,300 dollars.

1958 Chevrolet 3200.

Oh, That's the Apache with quad headlights, Would you?

would you?

I don't, i don't know if this is the Apache.

It's kind of shapes the step side.

So that's the three quarter time.

You never know, Well I mean, does it look good?

Well, these all look good.

Yeah, this one here is 8,000 dollars.

No, that's cheap.

That's cause it's a three quarter ton or one ton.

How about a 77 Ford F-150 for 6,300 dollars Too much, and a Nash Metropolitan sold for $4,000.

I wouldn't give you $4 for it.

but whatever, the 1950 Buick 41,.

I think my grandfather had one of these $6,500 at auction.

And I bet you mine did.

Smokey Burnhouse, a 49 Willis.

Jeepster for $30,451.

Well, that's it for this hour of the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show.

Hour number three starts after this break.

Everyone at the Tail Pipes and Tacos cruise in at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max and Katie.

Thank you for participating in the best cruise in around And look forward to seeing you again.

You'll hear about the next cruise in date right here on In-Wheel Time.

Next time you're in the West Houston Energy Corridor area, make sure and stop in at the original Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max at I-10 and Highway 6, or the Katie location on the Grand Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard When passing through Beaumont or College Station.

Stop in and have Loopy's award-winning beef fajitas and frozen margaritas.

There's always a celebration at Loopy Tortilla.

Loopy Tortilla founder Stan Hold and his wife Sheila are winning racers on the NHRA Drag Racing Circuit and have a collection of hot rods and classics that everyone appreciates.

Look for them at the next Tail Pipes and Tacos cruise in.

They'll be announced soon and will once again be held at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Max on 99 in Kingsland Boulevard, just south of I-10 and Katie.

We'll give you all the details right here on the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show and online Donations benefit God's Garage.

We'll see you then.

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

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

We promise you'll be impressed.

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

Curb your wheels Instead of buying new, why not have them repaired?

How about a professionally installed radar detector?

Gulf Coast Auto Shield does that too.

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

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

Get a personal tour.

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

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

The award-winning In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show is available on the most popular podcast channels out there in 30-minute episodes.

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

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

In-wheel Time has the most informative automotive guest interviews and new car reviews, along with popular features including Conrad's car clinic and, this week in auto history, along with automotive news headlines.

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

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

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

You're invited to join fellow car enthusiasts in becoming part of the ever-growing In-WheelTime Car Talk Family.

Don't forget those 30-minute podcast episodes on your favorite podcast channel.

That's it for this podcast episode of the In-WheelTime Car Show.

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

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

Keep listening and we'll see you soon.

Racing Legacy: David Donahue's Journey, Porsche Innovations, and Auto History Highlights

About this episode

BMW M3

Dodge Stratus

Dodge Viper

Porsche 918 Spyder

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Porsche Taycan

Buick Century

Volkswagen Beetle

Toyota Camry

Ford F150

Cadillac Alante

Chevrolet El

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet Chevelle

Cadillac Srx

Chevrolet Camaro

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

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