Hot Wheels is a popular toy brand that makes small model cars you can race on tracks. The host is using it to describe how they got into cars as a kid.
Term
TCR racing
They’re talking about a toy racing game called TCR racing. You use a controller to make the little electric cars go faster on a track.
Term
hot rod engine
A “hot rod” is a car that’s been modified to be faster and more exciting to drive. The host is referencing the classic idea of building a powerful engine for a fun car.
Street Rod is a car-magazine title associated with hot-rodding. The host is listing the kinds of magazines that inspired his interest in modified classic cars.
Hot rodding is when people modify cars to make them faster, cooler, or both. The host is describing how hot-rod magazines shaped his life and how people still recognize him from that car scene.
Mopar is a name fans use for Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth cars and parts, especially the performance side. The host is saying he grew up on Mopar-focused car magazines.
Camillo Pardo is a person the speaker talked to who shared design stories. In this clip, he’s connected to a car-design program and how certain shapes were discovered.
Topic
4GT program
They mention a “4GT program,” which sounds like a specific project or program related to car design. The clip doesn’t explain what it is, but it’s part of the story behind how the speaker learned about shapes and lighting.
Hot Rod Magazine is a long-running automotive publication focused on hot rodding, custom cars, and performance culture. In the transcript, it’s used as a gatekeeper credential—“shoot it for Hot Rod”—before the owner would sell.
“Beauty shots” are the carefully posed photos meant to make the car look its best. It’s about getting the right angle and lighting, not just taking a quick picture.
A wet skid pad is a flat test area where they intentionally make the surface slippery with water. It helps you see how a car behaves when the tires don’t have much grip.
The Dodge Custom 880 is an older Dodge car from the 1950s era. It’s the kind of vehicle people collect because of its classic look and specific trim details. The podcast is referencing a particular year and version that stands out to enthusiasts.
A drift tournament is a driving competition where cars slide around corners on purpose. The host is saying people noticed the car a lot because of how it looked and acted.
That phrase means an engine that’s about 4.2 liters total, and it has six cylinders. They’re pointing out the exact number is 4.27 liters, not the rounded 4.2.
A “V10” is an engine with 10 cylinders arranged in a V shape. They’re saying there are V10 options they could use instead of the engine they were discussing.
“Petunia” is a nickname/codename for a car project. The point is that companies sometimes use silly fake names internally so the real plan stays secret.
The Ford GT40 is a sports car that was designed for racing. The name is famous because it has a strong history in endurance competitions. The podcast is talking about a project that aims to build a new GT40.
SVT was Ford’s performance team that helped make faster, sportier versions of some Ford cars. In this story, they’re saying the engineer worked in that group.
The Shelby Cobra is a famous sports car that mixes a lightweight roadster body with a big Ford V8 engine. People love it because it’s fast, dramatic, and has a huge racing reputation.
A press kit is what car companies give to journalists—usually photos and details—so they can review the car and write their articles. It helps everyone work from the same information.
They’re talking about the deadline before a big car show opens, when the media needs the car ready for coverage. It’s basically a rush to get everything done on time.
“Panic mode” just means they’re rushing and stressed because a deadline is coming up. In this case, it’s about getting the car ready for the press and the show.
A peel coat is a removable protective coating used to cover a surface temporarily. In automotive media workflows, it can let teams change paint colors without permanently altering the underlying finish.
They’re changing the car’s paint color so they can photograph it in different looks. That way the press and marketing can show multiple color options.
Term
golf racing colors
They’re talking about a classic racing paint scheme tied to Gulf Oil—bright blue with orange. It’s the kind of look people instantly recognize from racing cars.
A concept car is like a design prototype that shows what a brand might build someday. It’s often made to test ideas and styling, not to be bought by customers immediately.
Person
camello parto
They mention a designer by name and explain that he kept trying to get his ideas approved. It’s part of the story of how the car’s look was decided.
Dean Weber is the person running the studio for the photos. He explains that the designers were using old reference photos from archives to choose the colors.
It’s describing how designers often use old photos as references. Here, the team didn’t have color photos, so they had to work from black-and-white or other archive material.
They bring up the “Ford v Ferrari” movie to explain when a certain story or reference became popular. It’s more about context than technical car details.
Term
outy tt
He’s basically saying the design looks like a familiar small sports car shape (like an Audi TT) but stretched out too far. It’s a comment about proportions and styling.
Concept
corvette viper type of thing
He’s saying he wanted Ford to make something in the same spirit as famous American performance cars—bold and fast-looking. It’s a comparison to what people already associate with those models.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. It’s designed to be fast and fun to drive, and it’s one of the brand’s most well-known models. The podcast mentions it as a starting point for other performance-car ideas.
The 1970 Dodge Charger is a famous old-school muscle car. People love it for its bold look and because it’s a big part of classic American V8 car history.
The Ford Mustang is a popular American sports car. It has gone through different redesigns over the years, and the podcast is pointing to the 2004–2005 “new” version. People talk about those changes because they affect how the car looks and drives.
Term
shooting
Here, “shooting” doesn’t mean filming a gun—it means taking photos or making a photo/video shoot for a car. They’re saying the early concept photos were done quietly so people wouldn’t see them too early.
The segment describes the real-world logistics of staging an automotive photo shoot in a public place. It highlights how coordinating with authorities (police and fire services) can be necessary when filming on beaches with large crowds or safety considerations.
Hot rods are older cars that people modify to make them look cooler and drive better. It’s usually a personal project, and a lot of the work is done by enthusiasts.
Home built cars are cars that enthusiasts build or modify themselves, not something you just buy off a dealer lot. The idea is that the owner’s creativity and work are a big part of the result.
The Jeep Wrangler is a type of SUV made for off-road driving. It has been around for many years, and different model years have different versions. The podcast is talking about how the Wrangler lineup changes over time.
Concept
new cars suck
The host is basically saying they don’t like how modern cars are made. Their point is that they think newer cars feel less “hand-built” or less special than older enthusiast projects.
Discovery Turbo is a TV channel/brand where the podcast show is promoted for viewers. It’s not a car part—just where to watch.
LIVE
It is the two guys where I podcast he's Kevin Byrd. I'm
with a B and look before we tell you the subject matter, I
just I want to take one second and just take everything that
we normally talk about technology. What's new and
wild in the industry? What's AI doing? Tuning, you know, take
all the stuff that we normally have on a podcast and just just
set it aside and put it on the shelf and now I want to take
you back to that first maybe little bug that you got bit by
as a kid. Was it was it the magazines? Was it matchbox cars?
Was it was it Hot Wheels? Was it you guys remember TCR
racing total control racing that had the little the little
hand levers like you pull like a trigger and it would go
faster and after hours and hours your sister walk in the
room are you and your brother playing or you and your best
friends and what is that smell and it was like TCR racing
electric little cars right around on track and smell like
burning hair and awesomeness and freedom in America or was it
pages in a hot ride magazine, right? The total story of a car
you couldn't afford or a car you would never be able to build
because you didn't have to know how the knowledge or the
connection maybe the network but you watch these guys do it.
You watch these dreams come true and in pages of of your own
vision and maybe your own personality the way you could
have done it better different more unique but still tethered
to that that maybe a motion of a hot rod engine Revan or
something your dad showed you or maybe you know the last
magazine you picked up those pictures tell stories and the
guy that's responsible for so many of the pictures we've seen
so many of the you know the elapsed time if you were to
take a camera and snapshot everything of this guy's
witness and put it fast forward it would still be you know an
hour long movie you know this guy can tell the story and the
photographs and the pictures we've all seen as witness to it
tells an incredible story too. I'm excited Kev this is this cool stuff man.
Yeah no doubt I'm at this cat 20 plus years ago
on a on a concept car with Ford right doing a shoot
and he was capturing it you know with Carol Shelby putting on
right all the magazine covers like his photography right grabbed all of it and
and I and I fortunately get to catch them every couple years
somewhere but it's always a bump and run sort of hey what's up what's up
so super cool to get them on the podcast because
this is Larry Lawrence and if you've ever opened any kind of big mag hot rod
car craft motor trend dude he's probably on the cover his stuff is probably on
the cover or the big articles that you're reading in there the
the eye candy that's sucking you in hey Randy how many covers you've been on man
oh dude I give us a flex I hate that question
you know it's only appropriate that I ask you then
hundreds of magazine hundreds wow wow that just shows you man
that just shows you right there I started trying to cover
or count just how many for hot rod at one point then
you know motor trend car and driver street rod or
whatever you know I you just kind of out of hell with it
plus the European and Japanese magazines you know my papo ran his little
country store in Kentucky and we used to shag groceries in that little
country store we'd stay with him in the summer you know my mom was a teacher
she didn't want us around her anymore in the summer so she'd send us off and
and we work in the garden and work around the store and do things that
you did for your papo your grandfather but one of the coolest things is we used
to sit in a store and right beside the the checkout aisle right was his
magazine rack yeah and that magazine rack man was
hot rodding and popular you know all my mopar magazines you know
mopar action whatnot uh and man I grew up on those stories and those pictures and
those photos and man out of all the things that I took to college
right uh you know you pack things up you pick you know two sweat pants
you know maybe four or five pairs of jeans and six t-shirts but you take your
hot rod magazines with you too man you box as a magazine yeah man yeah dude yeah
you know what I love hearing that kind of stuff because
you know when you're doing it the only uh moment of it is the the moment that
that guy that owns the car sort of speak at least with the magazines
because and it still happens to me all the time albeit some event and
in a you know big car show and a guy walk up hey Randy how the hell are you
yeah and I can't remember who you know these guys are and and sometimes they're
a little familiar sometimes most times not but they'll say remember you shot my
shot my car for hot rod uh when or you shot my car you know what was your car
you know a 55 Chevy well which one you know and there's I have to have that
conversation with and then it becomes uh where where did we go and as soon as he
tells me what car was and what the location was then it's like I'm talking
to a family member yeah but you understand ready that need for clarity
clings to quality of it it's it's a part of the you know the reason you've done
so many and and why so many people are enthusiastic to meet you uh and we're
enthusiastic to get your story so let's take the first break when we come back
this guy is going to unfold some stories photos pictures and things you wouldn't
believe man it's two guys guys podcast Kevin bird will be we're back after the break
it is two guys guys podcast he's Kevin bird I'm Willie B and we have Randy
Lawrence and on a man who is he's been behind so many magazine covers stories
photos so many dude can you imagine if you added up all the dimes dollars all the effort
of things that he's photographed he's probably responsible for so many people's like
wives and and stress just unloading when they see that picture of their car on a cover
like it it's all it makes everything okay when they see their car in a magazine
everything you went through endured and everything you had to suffer through
it's all okay yeah yeah and it it you know it's a unfortunately that's so much gone now you know
it's not the same scene your car on the internet you know as it was on the cover of a magazine
but you know like you were mentioning earlier too you know I grew up the same way you did
Willie with the with the magazines my dad and his buddies all had hot rod rod and custom and
and those only scenes around or slot car magazines I lived on slot car and you know
auto world I remember that model car magazines I never threw out that time even through high
school taking photo classes never in a million years I'd imagine that I'd get to to do what I do
you know and my dad as a kid and his buddies that had hot rods we would go to all the car shows
in Southern California here you know and that was when Ed Roth and and so many of the the original
big-time customizers and the crazy stuff of the early to mid 60s was out and as a kid you know
you just have to love that one of the things that I that really still gets me jazzed to this day
is when I get to go back and shoot one of those cars because it's like you know that 10-year-old
me is now getting to go sit in that car and play with that car and grab a hold of that car and
and you know go hang on beat Nick Bandit or whatever it's a it's a real turn on you know
well how was the transition because I think you started more like celebrities and hot girls and
bikinis and right I mean everybody from Linda Carter and Rockow Welch you know to share to I
mean even Ronald Reagan I think you took photos of right like and you kind of got into the you know
the hot rod scene did you leave most step behind and just go pure automotive and did you miss any
of that you know when I was uh apprenticing being a photo assistant I just worked my way
up because all I wanted to do once I realized photography is kind of the last choice I have
I didn't know what I was going to do with myself I was working for skateboard companies and just
surfing and getting expelled from school and all that kind of stuff that almost sounds pretty good
to me it was pretty damn good you know living at the beach and just you know but at some point
you think you know my mom was like go get a job be a mailman you know do something but I started
looking paying attention to photographers whose work I admired especially with pretty girls
you know I realized how much even in school pretty girls would kind of hang around with you if you
were a photographer bringing a man you know one was Bo Derek who I knew in high school Mary Collins
at the time and but that so I went to work for those kind of people eventually worked my way up
to the to the best guy there was in the western united states Harry Langdon and hold on man I can't
I just can't let that slide y'all he dropped Bo Derek he knew Bo Derek I just want to point that
out she was the first 10 hello she was the 10 anybody see that my mom wouldn't let me see that
man I didn't see that till high school bro and when I did I knew what she wouldn't let me see that
he was friends with Bo Derek I mean at some point he sniffed her sweatshirt I'm just saying
I mean at some point there they did something man you know but one thing that I learned throughout
and I worked with with people who shop for men's magazines with Playboy and that sort of we'll
care about that oh okay and so but like one thing that I mean obviously it's wonderful she's beautiful
women but the it taught me so much about lighting shapes you know and curves and that was one thing
it's a good conversation I had actually once with Camillo Pardo with the 4GT program because
once I started working with the original concept car you know they I I would see angles especially
on the rear of the car and I talked to Camillo and I said so what beach were you at when you were
looking and finding this shape you know because I know I know what yours what you see you know
and hello being Camillo would tell me these old stories but I knew I knew what that shape was
and how to like that shape I've seen those girls in their bikinis laying on their tummies at the
beach and where those little pumps are in the back and but it all related I was working the
downside to that style of photography is everybody wants to do it you know so it's a difficult thing
to really start to make a name for yourself what made you take that leap in the cars because
it's one thing man you know beautiful women I hey I'm taking pictures too bro yeah I'd be broke but
I'd be happy yeah you know I mean I wasn't unhappy with it don't get me wrong but like I say I grew
up with the hot rods in my dad race got a couple buddies that race we were at Ascot Raceway on
the weekends and again never occurred to me to shoot any of it never even crossed my mind and
but eventually a friend of mine that was really into hot rods we were at an event and the Father's
Day event which is actually coming up here again with LA Roadsters and he was trying to buy this one
particular Model A Fayette and a 29 Fayette from a guy that a brand new fresh car he it was gorgeous
and my buddy wanted it so bad kept offering more and money while we're all
standing around drinking more and more beer trying to get the guy to loosen up and and accept an offer
and finally the guy said you know Grave Ascarville Hot Rod Magazine told me he wants to shoot it for
Hot Rod and I won't sell it even consider it until it's been in Hot Rod and so my buddy
standing there Dan Carter he elbows me real hard and says well why don't you shoot it
and it was like fling you know a light bulb in you you know and I thought you know I could do that
yeah I maybe I could do that and you know so we went out and we shot it and and when I got the
photos done and and took them to Hot Rod it's funny because it was one of the most nervous
moments I've ever had with my photography going to Hot Rod I mean you could go to Playboy to their
building and it didn't make me nervous going to Hot Rod Peterson Publishing that that made me nervous
you know we had something common Randy going to Playboy wouldn't make me nervous either but going
into Hot Rod damn sure would I'd be freaking out yeah yeah I did you know and he bought the photos
right away I realized I could make some pretty good money doing this and and it was it was a lot
easier than dealing with all the the makeup and the hair and the the stylists and all those things
as much as I love doing that shooting bitching cars was easier well I got a question about that
because I could imagine there's some kind of crotchety car owners and bitchy little you know
like diva you know that's like even though it's not them it's their car or their process or
bro have you ever hung out with a woman?
I mean good point it's funny that you mention that because that does happen sometimes it didn't
happen very often most but every once in a while there would be something where the the guy didn't
really want to do it but he had to because he had sponsorship in the car or something and they'd
say so what's this going to take two or three hours and I say we're going to have you if it was in
the studio we're going to have you there at least a day maybe more you know if we're going to go out
on location we'll start you know we'll let sunrise you can go by we'll wait until eight or nine
o'clock but you're going to be there till 10 o'clock that night when we're packing up how in
the hell could it possibly take that long to take pictures of a car you said well how in the
hell could it possibly have taken that long to build this car you know and and they would suddenly
come around and then you know I would give them the how how long is this day going to last well
maybe 12 15 hours how long are those photos going to last they're longer than you buddy
you know and and uh it'll it'll it'll be there when you're long gone for your children and your
grandchildren or whoever and and it really brings them around real quick I was going to ask like
does that ever not work one of the worst that actually was was Ed Big Daddy Roth he was a tough
one to work with man I mean you know he was he could be pretty crotchety yeah man is there
a particular moment with Roth that just sticks out in your mind that oh yeah man I'm not sure
we're going to get through this you know on one piece yeah he we're shooting big bandit two
for one of the magazines and then also for Ravel for a model car box and he was just over it you
know and um and he and he had his sons and his daughter were there too at this location I'd set
up for us and he said um you know what's wrong with hot rotting today just out of the blue and I
said no you know Ed go ahead tell me what's wrong with hot rotting today and he said it's yuppies
like you that ruin I mean do I look like a yummy come on you but he said and I said what in the
hell is that supposed to mean and he said everything has to be perfect he said the chip fooses of the
world the Boyd Coddington's of the world and photographers like you you can't just snap a
picture and let us go well then once the light got right for the beauty shots of the car with him
and his Ed Roth top hatness tucks and all this out on this huge you know wet um skid pad that we
were at and I climbed up on the ladder and I sent him down a Polaroid and said here's why
you're here and as soon as he saw the Polaroid different man you know he said oh I had no idea
I said well this is why it takes a long time and as soon as the film was done he wanted the film
he wanted to do this he wanted to sell that he wanted to make these things and and you know
that would happen once in a while soon as they started to see it they'd go oh this is this is
not just a snapshot in the garden you know out on a golf course somewhere you know yeah well yeah
we've all had that perfect shot for every guy that's done the look back you know in a parking lot
walking in their store their their school their business and take a look back at their car there's
that one photo that they've seen of it where the lighting was perfect uh you know the ground maybe
had a little wetness I got his picture of my 58 and a half dodge custom royal d500 just menacing
eyebrows crazy stance I did a drift tournament in a big fin car and people freaked out on it but the
wetness is just falling off of it you see this nasty you know oil pen hanging out from underneath
it it just makes a really bold statement and that setting the way it looked you know and and in that
that light and imagine that is that makes all the difference in the world once they see that and they
that wow happened and they just like whoa yeah it's worth it brought magic yeah you brought
it's worth it getting up at four in the morning to go out there yeah like you know well I think
everybody somewhere down has whatever that is that ego right um whatever the perfect word is
for when you show them you themselves looking the best they've ever looked you know and or their
their car their project their work you know like once you show them something that actually looks
better to them because you right you're focusing on the angles the lighting the everything the
filtering right all the right colors you're showing it to them in a in a form they've never even seen
you know well and the same is true for the beauty in the glamour photography sometimes those those
people you know they it's like good good lord we're here and this is going to take all day to
take some pictures of me but um they go in with the makeup artist for two hours and the hairstylist
takes an hour and a half and all this is going on while we're getting lighting set up or and there's
a whole lot of oh god what you know and then as soon as you handed them the poll well polaroids
that shows you how old i am but you showed them the polaroid off the bottom the back of the
hustle blood and then go oh and and suddenly they would come alive you know in front of the
camera but this it's the exact same thing as what will he's talking about seeing that thing of your
car suddenly the the guy would come alive that's a powerful tool man somebody's giving you some
sass and you just whip out a polaroid be like yo chill it out and yeah bring the egg
out the laptop but back then it was a polaroid yeah i wish i could whip that out all the a-holes
in my life you know they're just slowing down my job like man this is killing me here have a polaroid
get out of my way along the way one thing leads to another and with the car magazines and i started
doing advertising supplements with motor trend doing like 24 page high gloss thick paper inserts
in the magazine and i got to know guys at four there in the 90s you know and eventually met
jay mays and and you know later on started doing and jay really took me under his wing to some extent
i really i really owe him a lot you know because he wasn't a car magazine guy you know he's a
magazine's gonna think of this what if we did this i said they're gonna tear you to shreds on that
one jay i mean they will like when we were doing the 427 project he said we don't know what engine
we're gonna put in it but you know do you know that the forward 4.2 liter 6 is actually 4.27
liters i said oh jay i mean you got you got some v10s available to you know your own freaking uh
you know aston martin these days you got a v12 floating around out there in the company somewhere
you got to gotta do something better than 4.27 liters you know but he was appreciative of that
with with that car with the 4GT he asked me he called me one day you know first i was at the
studio shooting something else i think it was the 49 smooth project and he took me aside and he said
has anybody uh told you about petunia and i said you know i heard a few folks saying that word
and uh i don't know you know i know it's top secret and i'm not allowed in on this project yet
but he said it's the 4GT we're gonna build a new GT40 and since our wait this is called this project
petunia yeah yeah we call it petunia that's a stupid name i'm just gonna head that's something
forward would do hey hold on we're up against the brake i gotta stop you there we're gonna tell us
about petunia no problem coming up and ladies and gentlemen my man randy here if you just step back
this is why well the beauty section at walmart isn't paper bags and dimmer switches
this is this man is responsible all things gorgeous when it comes to cars and we'll talk
about it coming up next on the two guys garage podcast kevin bird willy b we're back out of the brake
it is the two guys garage podcast he's kevin bird i'm willy b we have randy laurenson on
you know just talking shop about all things that this man has seen through a wild lens uh we're
talking about what did they name this for GT petunia are you serious why that name kevin why
why that name randy please so the people that they weren't supposed to know about it didn't know
about it yeah you could see other people's calendars at Ford right so you go to schedule
meeting an outlook you can see the people's calendars and i had a buddy um he was in the
sort of early college graduate program or whatever we're all car geeks and he would always track chief
engineer uh who was it at the time um over there at svt but he'd always track his calendar yeah
coletti and you could see petunia meeting you know and and we're
all like figuring out like oh what secret sauce is that you know like and so it was exactly that it
was to keep people guessing even internally that weren't part of the secret society you know and
then after that so petunia was the gt and then as randy knows because he he shot all the uh
shelby cobra concept that was daisy daisy yeah so it was two flowers so the most like you know
unmasculine balls out you know a nasty car icon you could think of that's what they called him
early on yeah you're never gonna hear somebody talking yeah talk about petunias and think
you know the red petunia is in the yellow petunia and they think oh well they're building
four gts you know that just that just don't go together but you know eventually i say jay brought
me in and said we work you know i want you to shoot these and um i told him again since model cars
and slot cars my all-time favorite car you know and and i'm there jay and uh and it was the usual
thing back then where you started just before christmas and you busted your ass to get everything
done for the press kits uh for the detroit ottershow opening the first week of january you know
it's always panic mode and so we're going to shoot the car four or five colors and again
jay would rely on me said i know you know the guys at car and driver and rodentrack and motor
trend and da can we get some covers i said oh help yes we'll get covers
and so i will shoot the car in multiple colors you know that we i think they just have the one
push your buck at the time and um peel coat it repaint it so you want me to come back and stay
for four weeks and so one day i'm sitting here at the beach in the house and he he calls and he says
so i got the full public affairs group here i got some of the advertising folks here we're all
in the big meeting room they're all on the speaker um how do you want to start you know you're asking me
and he said yeah and people are joking and laughing in the background and i said what color
you want to do first and i said you're asking me jay it's going to be baby blue with orange
you know and it was like i you know a fart in church man i mean it just everything just went
quiet and there was this in the background of people and i heard somebody go baby blue and
orange that sounds horrible and that's and it got worse and they start to agree with each other
and build jay goes really randy baby blue i said yeah you know golf racing colors
i thought maybe he's pulling my leg you know he he goes really he goes i thought for sure you're
going to want to start with a red car with with white stripes you know the the typical for magazine
cover and i said no this is the one time and and he said seriously i said so they did
dude wait you're responsible for the gulf image gt on the first concept car really wow good for
we see that that's iconic you know later uh camello told me again camello parto the
designer on the car he said i tried a hundred times to get him and nobody would listen to me
and i finally when we the day we arrived and we started up in the studio to shoot um this guy named
dean weber that ran the studio there a great guy and dean came in and jay was there and a couple
of others and and i said well you like serious that you didn't know what golf racing colors and and
dean came to his rescue he said randy those guys in the design studios are working from
photography we have here in the archives and we don't have any color pictures of four gts
and and i said i mean there's only a thousand books you have nothing well apparently he hadn't
seen the movie ford versus ferrari well yeah that was funny that's only like 15 years later yeah
yeah but so jay uh you know like i say he thought was the kind of thing he would ask me about like
with with daisy you know he came in and he's when they were working on he said what do you think when
there's some way of some fashion yet and i said jay i think it looks like a big outy tt is like
you're stretching outy tt about three feet and he goes oh no i was he goes i kind of thought the same
thing so they went off to do whatever they did you know but um he he was great that way he you
know you knew uh southern california you got a different way of seeing things and and uh growing
up at the beach is a whole another thing within california you know and so he would ask for the
magazine to say what's going to happen here what did you think of that petunia once you got to see
it i mean that to me was inside ford because i was trying to you know with my friends like somehow
inspired the company to make some kind of a corvette viper type of thing and all of a sudden
we see in the news like we're going to the auto show with a gt you know yeah that was so cool
that was so cool i mean another one was cool was when they did the gr1 you know the like the uh the
shelby um you know coupe concept car that was gorgeous too and another one of those that you
thought why aren't we building this why aren't they building it out look randy i don't want to talk
about all these boring 4 gt 96 tell me about the greatest 70 dodge charger you've ever shot
i'm sure in your opinion is the most iconic and beautiful lines ever created and you'll never
guess what will his favorite car is oh yeah what kev i don't know what you're talking about probably
the best uh i'd say chargers that i ever shot were built by steve strobe or steve strobe they're uh you
know um what's his company pure vision yeah you know he builds a heliport but um you know
that wasn't uh although i did shoot a cover for hot rod with the general lee you know at one point
two and like original one yeah because they pulled it out to shoot for the cover when the new movie
was coming out so we went on the back lot at the film set and pissed them all off and
screaming and yelling and who said you could be here and that guy over there and you know that
me and my kids just watched that a couple nights ago you know you mentioned you mentioned early in
the podcast you know when you know somebody comes up on a vehicle that you've shot and is like hey
remember me and you're like i'm not exactly but i'm sure you remember out of the hundreds of these
awesome you know events and covers what's one of your favorites a couple of your favorites that you
just man i can't believe i'm here i get to do this yeah besides the 70 charger well besides that
number two you know that probably from a hot ride point of view and then there's the the four gt
was a big moment for me but and i'll give you a hot ride version here in a second but i i had
a moment with the gt when i was before the 100 year anniversary and the big thing that was dropping
100 feet long on the front of covering up the front of world headquarters with the red white
blue cars and i went into a corporate meeting with bill ford and jay and i don't even know who all
these people are and you know from jwt and i mean and in that big what mahogany room you know with
the big mahogany table like a damn movie bill ford sitting at one end and and i had a moment then of
what the hell am i doing here you know i mean seriously sitting there thinking i got kicked out
of high school for surfing all the time i i you know i mean i had got sent to them you know
to another school and they put me back in high school at a different school and gotten trouble
there just ditching and surfing but there was a moment there of how how did i get here you know
it was a you know that moment of uh what is it talking heads this is not my beautiful house this
is not my beautiful wife you know how did i get here but with hot rotting these are probably the
biggest one and there's been some bitchin ones in the last few years too but was cadzilla to that
one to this day people people guys will tell me i'll run into them at somewhere and they go you
know i still got that hanging that poster from hot rod hanging on the wall in my garage or i still
got that and i'll go into guys shops and stuff like damn that's been 40 years ago or well close
to it now yeah and there's they still remember it you know and this when i i first got to no
billy gibbons and and i mean i'd known him a little bit prior to that with the eliminator coop
but um that was such a big deal and and that has its own stories of the craziness making that happen
you know hey hey randy what was what was the the most expensive picture you ever got was the
pictures you get paid the most for was there one photo that you got paid the most for oh that i
got paid the most for yeah what's the one photo you got paid the most that one i'd have to think
about i but i can tell you the one i know the bill was the highest on and part of that was going in
my pocket but uh was the for the uh Mustang when the new Mustang came in 04 and 05 there you know
like because everybody was crying and and people needed tissues it was hard to get anybody happy
right oh they they you know i was certain the concepts and again those were you know early uh
can't nobody can see them nobody you know this and that you got to hide when you're shooting them
and so one of the things j said is we got to shoot the red convertible somewhere on a beach
you got to have a red Mustang convertible high tide stories yeah so we did that
i did it at the beach right at my house you know and um and sure as hell i had cops i had
fire trucks all these people that are required to be there on the beach even firemen you know fire
trucks for a photo shoot but the sky came running down the beach pulled a throwaway camera out of his
trunks click as he goes by and the next day he'd sold them to a publication
that they're all over the internet you know oh and and you want i got phone calls the next morning
starting at five or six o'clock my time from ray day you remember him from public yeah chewing my
ass out and i said so what does j think how pissed off is j and he said um nobody's nobody has the
nerve to tell him what's happened so i called j and i said i just think you ought to know about
something that happened and and this is his randy moment he goes he just goes dead silent on the phone
and then he goes bitch and he used to always tease me about saying that word he goes that's
such a california word bitch and i thought whoa what and he goes just increases the buzz randy
now what do you want to do and i said um you go i'll take care of ray and and i said what do you
want to do and he goes what's what's your favorite place in california play hang out nightclub and i
said oh it's got to be you know iconic to on the sunset strip and he goes oh i love the rainbow
and i said well i love the roxy next door and he goes can we shoot can we shut down sunset strip
and i said yeah i'll bet you it cost 25 grand just to get the permits get the cops get the
shut down of sunset boulevard and the sunset strip in hollywood he goes let's do it and we did
you know and i said j there's no there's gonna be no controlling if they're ticked off in public
affairs already there's gonna be this is gonna be thousands of people there's gonna be a helicopter
or something well sure as heck you know abc news comes out with a van uh nbc news comes out with a
van and we're shooting all night you know on sunset boulevard and pictures everywhere the next day in
jesus i love it just embodies the buzz you know so it that was the most yeah flip the script
embrace it yeah yeah yeah he would say uh even bad publicity is good publicity yeah well and he said
now everybody's wanting really wants to know what that Mustang looks like you know and um so we had
the convertible and the fastback on the strip that night the two concept cars and he he just
loved it you know upside down for when everything else was corporately so all right man what shot
paid you the most before we wrap up what shot got you oh no again um
oh boy well the biggest check i ever got i got from gm but um that was only partially because
they took so long to pay me was there one shot that just like somebody's like i gotta have it
what's your price or you know i can't i i i couldn't give you an answer on that i wish i could but
part of what the reality was of that was especially in film days you you know film i could buy it for
5000 dollars with a film at a time and 5000 dollars with a film i charged
10000 dollars for it you know once we used and you could double the pricing on the on the
processing well soon as digital came that all that money went away you know so i that that side
of the business of making money off of the markup disappeared you know but um gosh i don't know that's
a very difficult one probably i don't know i was buried in that for the Mustang shoot that night
it was such an enormous bill i'm sure i i don't remember but i'm sure i made really good money
and he snuck a lobster dinner in there somewhere yeah one of the final shoots we ever did that had
film and it was film and digital because digital was kind of questionable still at the time you know
i got one because i know will is gonna try to get us closed up but i gotta throw one more at you
man well we got you so you have watched this scene for the last 45 years give or take um what do you
think of the hot rod scene in the last 40 years because it's changed oh yeah and and we know we
know from a photography side right there's a lot of new tech and films gone away and stuff
but just as a hot rod scene right with builders and what they're building because you still have
your fooses and your ring brothers and you know Steve's still out there everybody's still building
but what's your take man what have you seen because it's it's different very good question
because it it has changed so many in a way to me and it maybe it's because age wise to me there was
sort of a golden age there in the 80s and in through the mid 90s when when the boycottings
and the chip fooses were really hitting their stride and little john butara and and the idea of
billet anything was like these guys got a machine that'll carve solid block of aluminum was like
what what you know and color was exploding and the whole you know miami vice look and and all
those things and and the end of chrome and pro street i mean that was insane you know some of
those cars that's that died so heavily through the late 90s and into about 2010 or 2008 2009
and that whole rat rod thing which i never cared for i never but the sort of getting back to
affordable became the thing and and that was completely understandable and i really still
to this day appreciate those guys that build their car in their garage some of it now
there's some bitching stuff out there but some some of the hiring stuff now has gotten to such a
point that i you know i don't think i'm to be honest of hot rods anymore they're they're coach
built cars you know they're concept cars you know when guys are spending seven figures building a
hot rod you start going wow i mean come on you know some of the stuff that kendig's done and that
that you know chip has done and you you start to go i don't know or or hollywood hot rides is
just a hot rod anymore and and so you know that that makes me question it and i've talked to the
guys at grand national roadster show a number of times about it saying how long can you continue
to have reproduction body 32 forwards getting america's most beautiful roadster award how long
before these guys are gone you know because they are dying off you know unfortunately well it's
interesting because anytime you compete the bar keeps going up right and it's like how do you even
stop that right it's part of the process come on you know stop it oh look project cars never die
they just go to the next dude with a dad return and you know waiting for him to lose his soul
and commit to another project they're never going to die that's what makes them awesome
i'll tell you one little big thing here that that that brings all of this together to some extent
because like when i was director of photography for source interlink when when all those magazines
got by the same company and i oversaw 32 car magazines you know in the studio at that point
but you begin i used to fight with them about bring these some of this great stuff back to hot rod
and to rod and custom and i said well but not all of it's affordable and i said when you looked at
playboy magazine it back when you were whatever age did you think you were going to get that girl
yeah
but but those guys would go and and they made a uh you know they had their stores too well
oh we can sell um these lingerie outfits we can sell leg warmers back in the 80s and my girlfriend
will look great in leg warmers the same exact thing would happen with hot rods i can't build a
john butare or a boy car but i can get this piece for my dash or i can do and it did it started
raising the bar even with the home built cars you know and you know those those cars now they've
got it's kind of settled in but um but you know like like i say father's day in the la roadster show
75 76 year of it this year and you see a lot of scooters it's all about the models some of us were
before and some of us are after well i like to think of it i like to think of it i know willy's
trying to get us out i'm gonna let him but i like to think of it like like the olympics money just
keeps setting records that are just so crazy high right but you still have elementary school
soccer and middle school track and field you know like you still have every tier just the top tier
just keeps getting farther and farther out so we're not missing anything below it you know
right and i love those cars and i have nothing but respect for the the creativity and the and
the craftsmanship that's going into so many cars now you know i know they don't new cars suck there's
no craftsmanship in it but randy we gotta go you're the man though we appreciate it man they
just go fast new cars go fast all right it's the two guys rod podcast make sure to check out our
show air weekends on discovery turbo uh and also available in discovery plus uh make sure you
check your local listings thanks our producer scoop senior producer jesson carter and executive
producer bob ecker he's kevin bird i'm really being this done it done is the two guys garage
podcast hey randy before i jump in where can we find you socially where can we check you out
where can people follow you i'm you know i just i have uh pick up a hot rod man you know i haven't
stopped for hot rod in quite a while they don't have money and i have any money um they uh you know
i'm on facebook and i have you know my regular randy laurence and which is what i do most on
in some randy randy laurence and photography that's randy laurence and photography on uh on
instagram and um i do a website called rotting revolutions that i started years ago and then
then i sort of stopped because i went to work for selene and didn't have the time and and uh
and then now i'm back at trying to get that back up and revitalize but rotting revolution and i'm
guys check out all that and our website two guys garage dot com don't forget our socials at
two guys garage and the two guys garage podcast it's copyright 2026 britain productions incorporated
all rights reserved you know i gotta say that randy man it has been awesome to get to catch up
it's probably the longest we've had to converse in quite a while so really appreciate it man
hey i just met you you know i talk too much it's great to see you guys yeah we'll have to get
you back man so stay cool out there uh you still surfing yeah not as much as i used to because i'm
older and lazier but uh you know it's right out walk walkable distance and it's 75 degrees out
there today so you know fantastic man live in the life well guys this is the dream right here
just model it right after randy you'll be doing cool uh until next time we will see you guys catch
you guys on the next two guys garage podcast take care two guys garage podcast is a production
of britain productions for more episodes visit i heart radio apple podcast potify or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows
About this episode
Childhood toy racing and hot-rod magazine racks set the stage for a conversation with photographer Kevin Bird about how car culture gets captured, recognized, and reshaped. They trade stories from magazine covers and car-show photo moments to high-stakes shoots—permits, police, and repainting cars for press. The discussion also covers why lighting and angles change how people see themselves and their projects, plus behind-the-scenes details from concept-car and GT40-related work.
From getting kicked out of high school for surfing to becoming the eye behind the most famous car magazine covers in history. Randy Lorentzen joins the guys to talk about his fascinating 45-year career capturing automotive magic. Tune in as he shares how lighting Hollywood starlets in bikinis taught him how to frame the perfect curves of a hot rod; what it’s like to face down Bill Ford in a mahogany boardroom; and why a physical magazine cover will always crush the internet
