S3, E41 - Speedy Scott Birdsall

Welcome back to the Truck Show Podcast. I'm your host, Holman, and I am super excited for this episode's interview because we bring back our good friend and friend of the show, Scott Birdsall from Chuckles Garage, to discuss his recent record-smashing run at Bonneville in the Toyota Landscaper Truck.

As usual, he's got some great stories to share, and we'll walk through the build that broke the record.

So, over this past week, I've been driving a Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 with a 2.7-liter EcoBoost TurboCharge V6.

And I also completed my longest drive since the accident, so a couple of hours each way, out to our family property.

And I also got to do a little bit of off-roading out there, albeit very light-wheeling to test the Ranger and then get up to the ranch on some rougher roads and not push myself too hard.

But I felt good enough to help my uncle with a few projects, even took the ATV out to the property markers to check out the property lines.

And overall, it felt great, even the day after. So, it's probably the most physical I've been since, well, since I've been home.

So, as for the Ranger, I'll have my thoughts on that truck in an upcoming episode.

And then over this past week, we're super busy. I got together with Mike Rice on a story for OVR.

We wanted to take his new Tacoma SR5 4x4 and then do some affordable mods that'll elevate the truck both in looks and capability.

The idea with this story is, it seems like all the magazines, everybody always does these wazoo builds.

So, we took this truck, which was, I think, 43,000 MSRP.

And we said, what would it take to get close to like a TRD off-road package without spending all that money?

So, we were very selective with some products and we went out and did it.

And it's kind of a TRD for the poor, as if you will.

So, we'll talk about that in an upcoming episode as well.

And lots of great truck content.

And lastly, Rumor has it, I might be getting a Gladiator for a little while.

Might be joining the driveway fleet in the near future.

So, that could be pretty cool too.

So, anyway, lots going on, crazy week, tons of progress, real busy.

And I also got a pick-up date for when I'll be heading out to Michigan to grab the 392 from AEV.

It'll be, I believe, the third week of September.

Anyway, what a week.

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The Truck Show, we're gonna show you what we know.

We're gonna answer what the truck, cause truck rides with the ****.

The Truck Show, we have the lifted, we have the lowered and everything in between.

We'll talk about trucks that run on diesel, electricity in our gasoline.

The Truck Show, the Truck Show, the Truck Show.

It's The Truck Show with your host, Holman.

You know, it's been, what, seven years?

I still love hearing this jingle every time. The bed's cool.

Do-do-do-do-do.

It's one of those things that I remember when Omar created that and Lightning played it for me for the first time at the K-Rock Studios.

I was like, hmm, I don't know. And it was totally the right move. It's still cool to this day.

So anyway, without further ado, let's check in with Speedy Scott Birdsall.

Alright everybody, I've got my friend and friend of the show, Scott Birdsall, finally back.

He was out throwing some salt the past couple weeks and we've been doing this buildup on this truck.

Obviously, he ran it in the salt last year. 91, right?

Oh yeah, it's a 91 Toyota Hilux, otherwise known as the extra cab pickup here.

Yeah, it's the landscaper truck. And you bought this thing and turned it into a race truck.

And last year, you hit 200 and you were like bummed that you didn't get the speed you wanted.

You're like, I've got all these plans. It needs weight.

And I was still spinning the tires like 150 miles. So we went through all that.

So now we are a year later and you just like, we'll get into it. We'll get into it.

But first, I got to play your jingle. So hang on one sec.

Alright.

Here we go.

That's what you are. You're truck famous now because you took a landscaping truck over 250 miles an hour.

So that's that right there is insane. But the trials and tribulations, I won't get into all of it.

I'll let you get into it.

You had some issues with equipment failing that you never imagined would fail.

It's made you scramble. You had to get your license. You had to get your qualifying.

You almost weren't sure if the truck would be to get. I mean, there's a lot.

But first, I want to say it's good to see you.

And I want to say thank you for checking in on me when I was laid up there for a while.

And you guys haven't said anything, but, you know, Scott was texting me back and forth.

He's like, dude, you didn't have to outdo me with the rollovers.

And I think I counted Pikes Peak. You did like 13 or something.

I only did like three or four.

I think officially after watching it a thousand times, I think it did 11.

11? Okay.

I am so glad you did not unalive yourself.

You and me both.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm glad your kid's doing good too after all that. That was wild.

She's doing crazy good. She starts college in a couple of weeks.

And her skin graft is almost done on her foot.

Healing. So I mean, she gets the boot off and she can start doing PT without the boot

and walking and all that.

So I mean, she's just, she's been so inspirational and just her attitude and everything is just,

it's blown me away as a dad.

Like when I see her and she's in these good spirits and she has no right to be as happy

and positive as she is.

And I'm like, man, that's my kid.

You know, it's just so cool.

That's a proud dad moment right there.

Yeah, definitely.

And, you know, we bonded more.

We had to go through it together and all that stuff.

I'm happy to be back, but I appreciate that.

And I just also wanted to say in both of our lives,

Amsoil is kind of a big part.

I don't want to necessarily make this to Amsoil commercial,

even though it sort of is because they sponsor the show and all that.

But the one thing I wanted to say is when you went through your crash,

Amsoil stood by you.

When I went through my crash, the thing that blows me away is the humanity

that that company has, the family that they are and how they care for you.

And, you know, we had just signed a renewal for the podcast.

And I don't even know if I did two shows yet.

And here I am.

Boom, I'm out for a couple of months.

They sent me care packages.

You know, Holly and Sarah were checking up on me.

They're just amazing people over there.

You know what it takes to go for 250 miles an hour.

They make a great product.

There's no doubt about that.

I use it on my personal stuff.

You use it in your personal stuff, your race stuff, everything.

But I just wanted to shout out to people behind the brand

because you and I are both similar in the sense that we had

an experience where they could have walked away and they didn't.

They stood by us and were awesome.

Yeah.

So that's my favorite thing about their company,

other than they make a really good product and my stuff seems

to be lasting a lot longer than it used to is they are family.

Like when I go there, like it's not, it's not like a corporate meeting.

It's not a, it's not, it's, it's less of a, it's not a business thing.

It's like they're, they're part, they're just part of the team,

part of the family.

I really am stoked on those guys.

Yeah.

They're in it.

It's funny because I'll have people ask me to go, oh, come on.

Is Anzo really that good?

I'm like, I've been to the factory.

We're in the lab.

We saw it.

You know, I use it.

We've got guys going 250 miles an hour.

You've got diesel truck guys.

I mean, all over and obviously the product's proven,

but I just want to take a minute before we start just to say thank you

to them.

They support the show.

They're one of your big sponsors for your, your team.

And just having gone through kind of bad stuff where, you know,

sometimes the sponsor goes, I don't really have the,

the stomach for this or I'll go to somebody else.

That wasn't the case.

Amso a hundred percent is like family and they've been amazing.

They didn't even blink.

So hats, hats off to those guys.

Yeah.

Hats off.

Definitely.

All right.

So walk us through the beginning of this year or maybe since the last

time we had you on the show, you had talked about sort of what your

learnings were from last year at Bonneville.

And then you had some very specific changes in mind for the truck

over last year.

You had a speed goal in mind.

I don't remember what it was, but you, you said, no, it's going to get

like 50 miles per hour faster.

And we're like, okay, that's cool.

And you're like, no, seriously, like it's aerodynamics of a brick,

but I've got the power because you said that the 2JZ was still

pulling hard.

And so like, where were you from where we last spoke?

And to the day you arrived on the salt after scrambling to

get that thing built.

So you mean this year?

Yeah, this year.

Okay.

So this year, you know, I'm a master procrastinator at the shop

and we waited until it was a zero hour to put this thing back

together.

Why do you today what you can do tomorrow?

That's my mantra.

Exactly.

I have so many irons in the fire that by the time it gets

here, I'm like, oh, we have to put this together now.

Clock is taking my friend.

So the plan for this year was to go with more power,

more weight.

It's the opposite of drag racing where you want like the

lightest weight thing with the most possible traction and the

most possible power.

Here you want as much power as you could put down on these

little four and a half inch skinny tires, but you also need

tons of weight because weight equals stability.

And it's, I mean, without having to say it, you know,

a 91 Hilux, even though it has a really low coefficient of

drag for what it is, is still not designed to go 200 plus

miles an hour.

Like I think with a 22 RE, the thing would, you know, 90

max, maybe downhill with a tail end.

Yep.

So the plan was more weight, more power, put more wedge

into it and just go out and drive it.

And I was joking all the way there.

You know, I want to do, I want to do 250 off the trailer

and just, you know, blow this thing out of the water.

And we were almost there, but yeah, the things we changed,

sorry to go back to that, I finished.

The things we changed is we put a new Dart Iron Eagle 2JZ

in it, which is capable of 2,000 horsepower.

We ran it on our dyno up to 1410 to the rear wheels.

We couldn't get more traction after that and that's

plenty of power, so that's where we stopped.

What rear end are you using with that thing?

It's got a winner's quick change in it that was

all set up by RTS.

Nice.

And the transmission is a six speed sequential from 6XD.

So anyways, we get out there, get to the salt,

pull it off the trailer and I'm feeling good.

So I go out and, you know, I'm not even testing

the thing out.

I just go straight, go for it.

And at 231 miles an hour, which is two miles

an hour faster than the record I set last year,

the hood decided to unalive itself in about

a thousand pieces and take out the windshield with it.

Well, you posted that on social and you basically

had an urgent plea that people saying,

hey, my hood pins failed or they loosened up.

By the way, a custom hood that had a,

I don't know, a hood bulge, power dome on it

that was kind of aerodynamic in order to cover

the top of the engine.

And you put a desperate plea up because you

could not race and then you ended up finding

a spare.

Somebody, I'm assuming through the network

or on social came through, but it wasn't,

like it was a hood, but it wasn't like aerodynamic

and I was thinking that would suck if the hood

came but because it's not aerodynamic with

the mechanical bits shooting out the top of it,

if that kept you from getting to where you

wanted to go.

Like I was really worried about that.

I was like, oh, awesome.

Scott got a hood.

And then I was like, oh man, okay.

Let's see how this goes.

Hey, you, you, you work with what you have.

Yeah.

So I found out, so we went into actually set

the record on that run and they put you

in what's called impound.

So you can't touch your car because you have

to make a backup run.

Bonneville, it's not just a one-way pass.

You have to do it twice to prove that

it, you know, you can do it twice and

it's not a fluke.

And also wind and it balances out the

course, right?

Like you basically go, is it in two different

directions.

So it kind of accounts for other variables

that could have helped you get that number

in the first place.

So it used to, years back it was two

directions, but now it's one direction

and you do it the next, the next morning.

So you do the same exact pass.

Same track, everything.

So we go into impound and it's Sunday

and we're in Utah.

And I find that you can't do any type

of business on Sunday.

So I couldn't get a windshield and

there's no, no, nowhere was open.

I could find a hood.

So I pulled it out of impound and

basically canceled out the record

and went back to the pits, you know,

kind of with my head shrugged a little

bit and we started to work on it.

And this guy Casey comes by.

He's one of my followers and he's been

following the truck and the build and

the racing and all that good stuff.

And he says, hey, you know, I live

two and a half hours away.

I have a hood.

I'm going to go get it for you.

Dude.

I'm like, no way.

This guy's like super stoked to help me.

And like, this is why I love the racing community

because everybody just wants to see you

succeed for the most part.

And this guy drives two and a half

hours, picks up the hood, brings it back.

And I tell him, hey, what do you want

for this? Let me pay for your gas money.

Let me give you some money for this.

He's like, if you set the record,

sign the hood and give it back to me.

That's all I want.

That's a good deal.

That's definitely a good deal.

So he goes, gets the hood.

We cut a big ugly hole in the hood.

My friend, Jason and I fix the hood,

get it set up.

Me, EJ and Jason, the next day,

go to drive all the way to Salt Lake City,

pick up like hood pins and, you know,

other stuff that we need for the truck,

some hardware.

And we have this, the only glass person

that had glass was, I can't even

explain this guy, but he was all over the place.

But it was an absolute train wreck,

watching this guy put a windshield in.

But by the grace of God, it went in.

It went in fine.

And yeah, we came out the next day

and made the first pass and that was

two, two, 30 something, I think.

So was that better than your day before

where the hood fell off or you right

in that neighborhood?

It was about the same.

The track was really rough and really scary.

Like that was a terrifying 230 something

miles an hour.

So walk us through that.

You're in the car.

You have a new hood.

You can see your mechanical bits sticking out.

You're staring at them right in the face.

You got a new windshield.

And I remember last year when we talked to you

on the podcast after Bonneville,

you were saying that you were going through,

but you were lifting or short shifting

because you were like feeling yourself

break traction at triple digits

and you knew that you didn't have enough weight.

So learning from what you learned

or what you knew last year,

like how was it different this year

and what was your confidence level

with that rough track?

Like you're going through,

you're like looking at the speedo

or you're like, all right, I hit 100.

Okay, I'm at 150.

I still got way more approaching 200.

What's happening in your mind?

What's happening with the car?

Usually, usually all short shift

first through fourth anyways,

because this truck has so much power.

It doesn't really need five miles

to get up to speed.

So that does a few things.

It helps me ease into it,

make sure everything's okay.

And it gets the oil temps up

to operating temp before,

like I really pour the beans to it.

Because you're putting some load on it

at that point, right?

Yeah.

So fifth gear,

usually shift from fifth to sixth

at about 180.

And then sixth gear,

then I start,

and fifth and sixth gear,

I'm really trying to give it as much gas

as I can without it spinning the tires.

And this year,

with the extra 1,000 pounds we put,

or more than that,

probably 1,500 pounds,

that we put in it and led,

it really had all the traction I wanted.

And so then I really started stomping down,

but then, you know,

got into the fifth mile on the track.

And it was so loose and so sketchy

that I just kind of pedaled it

up to as fast as I could,

which was still enough to put me an impound.

So then I pulled the chute

and I realized that the chute

was kind of, kind of iffy at 230 plus.

It pulls the truck sideways

because the anti-distribution worked for it.

So that was the first pass.

And then it put me in an impound.

And then you have four hours

to work on the car,

but you can't change anything.

You can do things like add weight,

change the oil,

and then just basically check it over

and make sure it's good

for your run in the morning.

So then we go home

and, you know, rest up,

come back in the morning.

You get your truck out of impound.

You fuel it up,

make sure everything's good.

Then you line up

and you do your second pass.

And the second pass was amazing.

Same stuff, short shifted through fourth.

I started to give it to gas in five,

but for some reason on my second pass

I had a massive brain fart

and I shifted into sixth,

immediately after I shifted into fifth.

And, you know, you're already going

170-something miles an hour,

so you can't downshift.

So I wasted an entire mile of acceleration

trying to get the turbo back to life.

Yeah, back on the boil

because you're just too off the revs a little bit, huh?

Oh, it totally fell off the pipe.

Where does the turbo come in on that

and then like what's that fifth to sixth drop?

Like where does it,

is it set up where you're at the bottom

and are you out of boost

depending on where you shifted?

Is it enough gearing

where it drops you completely out?

I was in boost in sixth, or in fifth,

and then I shifted to sixth way too early,

like almost immediately.

I don't know why I did it.

And it took, it was way under the pipe.

Like this thing doesn't spool to a five grand

and it turns down to 3,500.

Yeah, that is way under it.

What's the red line on the engine?

9,500.

Okay.

Yeah, but we only spin it to 7,500

because, you know, 9,500 is

drag race RPM when you're only out for like a second.

Yeah.

But at Bonneville,

you're sitting at 7,500 RPM

for, you know, between 6,500

and 7,500 RPM for three miles.

So it's a ton more load

and abuse on the engine

than it is like drag racing would be.

Well, just real quick,

as I'm envisioning you going through,

you know, you're juggling

obviously your RPMs, right?

You're trying to keep it on the boil,

keep the turbo spooled.

You're shifting.

Yeah.

At this point, obviously you're not using brakes.

I'm actually curious like at what point

can you use your brakes to slow down?

Is it like 90?

Is it 50?

You shoot all the way at the end

and the other question is

what's going on through your mind

with steering and directional stability

at this point?

There's so much,

there's so much shutdown area

that you don't really need.

Like after you pull the shoot

you don't really use the brakes that much

just to kind of stop it

once you go in like 30 miles an hour.

But yeah, I mean, I'll run,

I'll run you through that run.

So I get it,

get into the six,

finally get it back up onto the pipe

a little into the four mile marker

and you go to five miles.

Okay.

And the thing starts pulling

like a skull to date.

Like it is moving.

And I get, you know,

220, 230, 240

and it's still climbing like quickly.

And I'm like,

holy crap, what's this going to do?

This thing is going to do 250

and I completely botched this whole run.

What a beast.

And I just stayed in it

and I pulled the shoot

at around 250 miles an hour.

My exit speed was 250.8

on the timing lights

and I reached 252 miles an hour

before the shoot grabbed and slowed me down.

So the truck,

the truck is capable of 260 plus.

What was your goal going in

to the week?

Was it just 250 or?

I usually set pretty lofty goals for myself.

Okay.

My goal was 270.

Okay.

And I think with,

you know, there were some things

that happened earlier on the week.

You know, Chris passed away

driving the speed demon.

So that's Chris Roski.

So he's been at ARP forever.

I was going to ask you about that.

I've known Chris for 25 years

whenever we needed magazine projects

and whether it was diesel power magazine

and we needed ARP head studs

or whether it was we needed wheel studs

or bolts for beadlock wheels.

Chris was always the guy that

was amazingly supportive.

He's the guy everybody went to

for high quality USA hardware

and just a hell of a nice guy.

Total gentleman.

And I was blown away

because I was scrolling through my feed

just kind of catching up on what's going on

and I thought, oh my gosh, that's not good.

And then I read what happened.

So I was going to ask you, obviously,

being there, being in the industry,

I don't want to ask, hey, what was that like?

I don't want to diminish his dignity

or anything like that.

I didn't want to race after that.

My team convinced me to keep going.

But Chris was always like,

I met him a couple of times last year

and super friendly

just all the stories I hear.

My friend Jay was good friends with him.

He said that he was just like the most positive guy.

Always.

Yeah, and it's just, it sucks.

Yeah.

And so the mood was really down.

A lot of the racers left.

It was kind of a skeleton crew left.

The crew

that was running the event stays.

Everybody's still there.

But a lot of the competitors left.

The mood was pretty somber.

But yeah.

So I just, this year

I did, you know, my minimum two runs

to do it.

And then, you know, I got the

I set the record like

quite a bit higher than it was before.

You know, the official record

is 239.5

or .8.

One of those two.

It was almost 240.

Was that your record from last year?

Or is this a different class?

229 last year in a different class.

This is a bigger class.

This is 3L, right?

3L before.

This was 3.2.

3.2 to 4L you're allowed.

So this, it's now

the fastest mini-truck

you know, of all of them.

No class

aside, like even some of the big

big engine powered

mini mid-sized trucks

are not as fast.

So

my buddy Jack

still has the

overall mini-truck record

and I think he's .2

or .3 miles an hour faster.

Oh, you got him.

Come on, you guys, have you arm wrestled?

What's the bet? You guys have had to have made a bet

if you beat his record.

I was trying to roast Jambo for him

but he didn't want to do it.

But he's got a really rad

S10 with a turbo LS in it.

Yeah, we have a really good friendly rivalry.

We help each other out.

We set up and everything else.

But having a friend

that you're racing against

and you're both going for the same thing

is like big motivation.

So I would say that

he has the 2-way record

and mine is the

overall fastest mini-truck ever.

So you both have a little something-something?

Yeah, so he's still got a little something.

And that's the motivation.

You're going back, right?

Oh yeah, I'm taking it from him for sure.

Are you going to change the graphics

so it's his face crying on the hood

or something like that?

No, that'd be pretty aggressive.

I thought about doing that

for the French guy at Pike's Peak.

Yeah.

But I mean, he deserves it.

He does deserve it.

He's a Jackson stand-up guy

so I'm not trying to troll him too hard.

What are your big takeaways from this year?

What did you learn? What would you change?

Because I know you're thinking,

I'm going out there.

You got some numbers that I think you're pretty happy with.

There's still more. You know there's more in there.

As we all know, all of us who've raced before,

every race is a learning opportunity.

There's nobody out there racing

who knows everything.

There's always something different

every single time.

So if Professor Scott was to

hold a class right now,

what would he say

next year?

At the end of that run,

I pulled the parachute

and it sent me

almost 90 degrees sideways

at 250 miles an hour.

So it's pretty violent when the shoot grabs

or can be.

The first setup change we're making

is I'm calling Alex

at

Holly and getting a longer

parachute sent out

because it needs one that's

tenured needs to be three times longer to be safe

at those speeds.

So we'll run two parachutes

but otherwise the truck

is going to go back exactly how it is

because it worked really well.

I'm probably going to throw a little more weight in the nose

but not much.

Not much because it worked really well.

So from

the steering standpoint

from Directionals to Billy,

how wide are your tires?

Because you're using a special wheel and tire package that's rated

at speeds and then what are you doing

suspension wise on it?

I can't imagine you have very much suspension

so you're probably riding

the buck board pretty good on that, yeah?

It's got really heavy springs in it

because the truck,

it's a 5,000 pound truck

5,000 plus

probably 5,500 actually.

So it's like a heavy

full-size truck weight

and

on the ground so it has

probably a half-inch of suspension travel

in front and it's on 1200 pound springs

and

the rear has 950 pound springs

and probably has, and it's got plenty of travel

in the back because of the

the wedge

that's in it.

But yeah, it's pretty stiff

but there's

not a lot of bumps on Bonneville

it's smooth and straight so

you want it to be compliant

but you don't want it to be squishy

if you start to get sideways

you don't want the body

also rolling when that happens so it's still pretty stiff.

Yeah, that's the scary part

is getting sideways and having one side lift

right? I mean as long as four tires

and you're able to just slide sideways

you probably recover or just spin out

but once one side picks up that's a bad thing.

Yeah, once you

dig you're either really hurting your truck

unfortunately Jack

this year

he got sideways in his S10

and one of his wheels dug in

and bent his frame

and tweaked his wheel

so there's a lot of force

happening at 200 plus miles an hour

so what happens with that

if somebody goes off the track or digs in

and makes a rut is there like a salt

Zamboni that goes out there

and smooths the track between runs

or are they marked?

If you crash on the track and you're digging holes in it

they go out and fix it

yeah

I wonder how long is Zamboni with last on the salt

like how many seasons it would take

before it just rusted into the ether

One, just return right to the earth

right away. Oh my gosh

so to answer

your other question the tires we use on it

are a special 300 mile an hour

rated Goodyear

just for Bonneville

they're the only company that makes it so

Is there tread on there?

Very little

probably about as much

as a wheelbarrow tire

like that depth

not much

a slick would have

the same basic effect

as these tires

so they're super lightweight

really strong casing

really strong overall casing

on it

and then we use a steel wheel that's fully

360 degree welded

that are custom made for us by a company called Wheelsmith

now the

aero wheel covers that you see the dog dishes

does

like a streamliner wheel

if you've ever seen a Bonneville

it's kind of the same styles been used forever

it's just like an aluminum dish

are those custom to those wheels

is that something there's a company that sells them to everybody

I've always been curious about that

yeah so a company called MoonEyes

has been selling that same exact part

hand spun

for years and years and years and they're really cool

you can see the craftsmanship when you get them

I love it

they make a 15 inch

16 inch 17 18

all that

and then the wheels from Wheelsmith already have

the Zeus fasteners

welded in them

so there's Zeus on

so what are you running

is it a 15 inch on the truck

16 inch

so the front's 15 by 4.5

by 24

and

the rear is a 15 by

4.5 by 28

post run

has anybody from Toyota reached out to you

no

but I would like to work with them

because I'm using

Toyota engine, Toyota chassis, Toyota body

in fact the car

that's over your right shoulder there

is your Supra

which is the 2JZ car

and those things are crazy dude

looking on some of the auction sites lately

an automatic

Supra Turbo

100,000 miles are like 140,000 now

a manual transmission

low mileage like under 20

you're talking like almost a quarter million dollars

for those JDM

like 90s cars

freaking crazy

yeah they're pretty crazy so this one right here

was built for the Tokyo Auto Salon

by

Pandem Rocket Bunny

which is the fastest name

in wide bodies in Japan

so this was a prototype that they built for the show

and they decided to never make this kit

and so this

Pandem Supra in the world

101

bad ass

back in the day

I started with

my first truck was a Ford Ranger

but I started with a Honda Accord LXI

87 pop up headlights

that my dad gave me

to start getting off-roading

and then crashed my Ranger

so I was working at a Honda dealership at the time

and it was back when Honda was in the car racing

I was the parts driver in fact

I've told the story before but I taught myself

to drive stick because

I was 17 years old

and I realized I could get parts from my Honda

on the weekend if I brought donuts to

the parts department crew because the manager

was gone on weekends

and they'd give me their 20% off

so I would go in and I would just hang out with them

and work here here all the time

so I had my interview

and the parts manager

and service manager

Mike Ricketts he asked me

can you drive stick?

and I'm like oh yeah I can drive stick

and he goes your driving record is pretty clean

is it because you're a good driver?

because you haven't been caught yet

so anyway get hired

the first Saturday show up

89 white Toyota

single cab though

functioning

and gray vinyl interior

parts are filling the short bed in the back

I handed a clipboard with all of my stops

and they said do not speed time is of the essence

I didn't know how to drive stick

so I got out of the warehouse

riding the clutch

turned out on beach boulevard

in Huntington beach at Norma's Honda

popped the clutch

did a one wheel burnout in front of the dealership

on my first day in their parts truck

and then taught myself to drive stick that day

it was a great opportunity for those trucks

big time but when I came back and said

what was that burnout from us

I said oh I'm new

I'm not used to the clutch don't let it happen again

and that body style of Toyota pickup truck

that 89-99

to me they were A indestructible

and B I've got a lot of good times in it

and I learned a lot about

my automotive self

kind of that next level right

I got the next level in the game

because I got to drive stick

Toyota truck ever is the 89-94

Toyota pickup

I think that's

it's the most reliable, best looking

body style Toyota truck

it's a good size, looks good

they hit so many right things and it's so funny

like you'll sit in one of those trucks today

I mean you know you have one but

they have a certain smell about them

and the way the plastics feel

the graining you know there's just something about it

that's so like 90's Toyota

but I remember when they came out

80's style to kind of more arrow

rounded one it was a big deal because it was like

the first small truck

that was a little bit softer

in design but still look like a truck

and look good and in fact when Ford

came out with the redesigned Ranger

they kind of tried to emulate that with the kind of bullet rangers

because they wanted to

compete more directly with Toyota with their

styling and I love those bullet rangers

I owned a couple of them

but the Toyota to me is a little bit more pure

of a you know design

plus Ivan Stewart drove one too

yeah you know

I remember

Ivan my favorite Ivan story

so he was doing something with

an Ivan Stewart edition

Tundra and it was like I don't know

with Escondido Toyota or something like that

so his guy calls me

when I was at four wheeler magazine he says hey do you want to come down

and meet Ivan he wants to show off his new truck

to you and I'm like yeah no problem

well he was down in Alpine California at the time

which is way south by the border

you know two hours plus for me

and it's Friday that I'm supposed to meet him

so I've got my I had a Buell

City Cross at the time

so I rode my Buell to work in LA

and at the end of the day I rode my Buell

all the way down to see Ivan

and so I go to Ivan's place

and he's got the old video game machine

there and he's got all this memorabilia

and stuff and stuff at his office

slash shop and he comes out

and Ivan goes

what's that motorcycle

it's a Buell Ivan and he goes

that thing is damn cool

it's a piece of art I want to buy it

and just hang it in my office

so I can look at it like he was just mesmerized

because it was an XB so fuel in the frame

and perimeter brakes and the exhaustion underneath

all the cool things that Eric Buell did

with the XB bikes

and he goes can I sit on it

I'm like five nine five ten

Ivan's like six four

or something like a six two

he's a tall slender

with the skinny waist and the broad shoulders

and I'm like yeah Ivan

this is before we had like cell phone cameras

Ivan Stewart sat on my

like little tiny Buell

and he's like we're sitting on it

and I was like

I have no way to take a picture of Ivan Stewart

sitting on it it looks so it was so out of proportion

it looked like Sasquatch

was riding like a kid's bicycle

it was hilarious

so he's a great dude

I said talk to him on Instagram

I invited him to come

to Bonneville and drive the truck

but he couldn't

he's a good dude

I used to see him when I raced Baja

he'd be walking down the street

and saying hey Ivan hey

he's just a super cool dude

alright I got a question I know

this is a truck show podcast

but over your other shoulder is your 32

and that thing's badass

can you just tell us a little bit about that one

so that's my

two-door sedan

it's got a 330 DeSoto

it's got a four speed

G-Force dog box

which makes it kind of fun

full throttle clutch

the subchips are pretty awesome

it's like

it's like 2,000 pounds

and 400 horsepower

yeah it's super fun

but it's like

traditional hot rod

it's got a bench seat in it

it's got anything on it

it's got Hallibrand aluminum wheels

no hood

yeah no hood

Rebel

wheel makes the wheels for it

it's got a BLC headlamp

six carburetors

so cool

it's just a traditional hot rod

I love that because I feel like

when you go to a car show these days

and you walk by the rows of different cars

you look at some of the stuff

like from let's say it's the 60s

for example because it's not that long ago

we're relatively in the world

of like, you know, collector cars and things like that

before I was born

but you think about how many different owners they've had

and the traditional stuff

is special because it's timeless

but you can tell the era

so many of these vehicles are built

and sometimes that's not a bad thing

like if you go back to the mini-truck era

I want to see an 80s or 90s mini-truck authentic

like that's rad

it's like a 67 F100

that has a

modern wheel and tire offset

and modern interior and modern radio

it's cool for what it is in the moment

but you see that truck five years later

and did it hold up

I don't know

so I appreciate

your old school hot rod

inclinations there because that's one of those cars

that'll be a timeless classic

and it won't feel like it was built

in this modern era

with all this modern stuff

you'd have just enough of that old school vibe

where it feels right

I feel like

up until

the mid 60s

was kind of the timeless hot rods

you can build one of those now

and it's not going to look lame in 20 years

but

when I see

80s hot rods

or early 90s hot rods

even though

when I saw those as a little kid

like I thought they were cool

I'm like gross

and there's no way to update it

and change it because there's like smooth

that gaudy and

tweed on every surface of the interior

mouse for a headliner

and just like

these awkward ugly

independent suspensions

that are chromed

you know

I don't even think

in 20 years from now

or 30 years from now somebody's going to be like

I can't wait to build

a shaved 80s style hot rod

I just don't

it's still like fad cars

it feels like it's fun for

Radwood and stuff

it's kind of like

you have this one outfit, you wear it to this one place

and it's perfect and you fit in

but you can't really wear it anywhere else

I don't know

it's timeless where you pull up and everybody stops

and looks over

yeah

you know I think

Radwood is like

80s 90s stuff

and

most of that stuff is pretty rad

it's like a lot of

80s 90s

Americana

JDM stuff

European stuff it's super cool

but like

hot rod shows up

you're like it's not even cool there

no

I hate to be a hater on that stuff

it's just not my

I don't think we're hating it

I think we're just sharing our opinions

yeah not my

that's just my opinion on the stuff

anybody listening with an 80s hot rod

I'm sorry your car is ugly

send your hate mail to

truckshowpodcast.gmail.com

there you go

let's see here

I want to go through your

S3, E41 - Speedy Scott Birdsall

Ford Ranger

Toyota Tacoma

Jeep Gladiator

Toyota Hilux

Toyota Supra

Honda Accord

Toyota Tundra

Ford F100

Dodge Charger

Ford F350S

About this episode

Original notes