Speed, Dirt, and Luxury: Inside Texas Dirt Track Racing and the 2023 Land Rover Defender Review
In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show
Speed, Dirt, and Luxury: Inside Texas Dirt Track Racing and the 2023 Land Rover Defender Review
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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 11am.
Central Car Talk Podcasting and streaming from Studio A inside the Sugar Shack Studios.
It's the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show Just ahead.
Award winning racetrack announcer with a rap on the 23 racing season and changes for 24.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's Rodney Rodriguez.
You'll hear my thoughts on a week with the new Land Rover Defender, a three row off-roader that also doubles as a luxury grocery getter.
And then Conrad has the cruising calendar.
It's all just ahead.
In this episode of the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show, howdy, along with Mike out of this world, mars King, conrad DeLong.
We always need more.
Jeff Zekin, I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us on this Christmas weekend for our live broadcast every Saturday from 8 to 11 o'clock.
Next weekend will be our New Year show, yeah, and I'm sure that there'll be booze in the studio and we'll be celebrating like no, tomorrow, not, we got something special next weekend, yeah, what's that?
The next weekend?
Yeah, okay, well, there's that.
Speaking of something special, ladies and gentlemen, live from the Hill Country.
I guess we could call it that, can't we, rodney, close enough.
Yeah, close enough, he's close enough to the Hill.
Huh, it's hilly.
It's hilly, yeah, but you're at the southern end of the Hills, yeah.
I'm not far from Austin.
Luckily I'm not in Austin.
Well, it's better than being at the Walls unit.
The Walls unit up in Huntsville Well, I think we got him from there.
Rodney Rodriguez, award-winning racetrack announcer, and your in the know?
Texas connection to local racing action.
How is the?
How is local racing?
Do we still have a group of racers out there that love to do their thing on a Saturday or Friday night?
We really do Very, very dirt heavy, you know, as I've mentioned in the past, and only getting bigger, it seems like.
Why is?
dirt so popular now.
You know it originally started as dirt and then it moved to asphalt and now it's back to dirt again.
You know, it depends who you ask, guys.
I mean a lot of folks when they say dirt is more economical.
But yes, I mean you guys know racers.
I mean you can.
You can give them the most economical thing and they're going to find a way to screw that up and make it expensive.
Now, that's where the phrase dirt cheap comes from, isn't it?
I guess so, I guess, so but you know the deal with the dirt is.
Is that, man, it'll really take a toll on suspension, especially later on in the racetrack venue when they when they get it all Righted up, righted up and stuff yeah.
Yeah, don you know when, when, when asphalt was kind of dying off.
Here it's not dead, I mean, there's Houston still, but but when that was starting to fall off, you know a lot of guys would tell me that as well.
Towards, like you know, it's not as bad on the equipment.
Well, the first time that I took my dwarf car out, after you know, asphalt racing had kind of fallen off a little bit.
I've been two spindles, uh, been a rear end housing, blew a shock out, all of that, and I'm like this is cheaper, yeah, and I'm like this is, this is less torrential on my car.
It's all beat the hell, you know, yeah.
So is dwarf car politically correct anymore.
It is, it is, yeah, yeah.
It is.
Do they sell them as that dwarf cars?
Yeah yeah, that's how they're sold.
Yeah yeah, like they have a, they have a huge event every uh, I don't know September, october, and it's like the whatever dwarf car nationals, and I'm just waiting for that one to have to change its name Small car vintage nationals or something.
Well, I mean prior to that.
Prior to that it was midgets, yeah, so that's talk about politically incorrect.
That's still okay, because that's one of the first.
That's one of the first big races that you have middle of January.
You've got the uh the chili bowl up in Tulsa, yeah, tulsa.
Yeah yeah.
Do you ever go to that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've never been there.
I've never been there.
Wednesday night.
I meet some friends for dinner on Wednesday night.
Cheap Margaritas, cheap Mexican food.
He's got two cars that he's trying to get ready to take to the chili bowl from down here.
Let's explain to everybody the difference between a midget and a dwarf.
About four inches, it's a.
TAA.
About four inches, yeah, exactly, wheelbase.
Wheelbase and horsepower essentially they're both very.
When it comes to weight to horsepower ratio, you know vast difference right there.
That's like with the dwarf car, the one that I still have.
I mean it's a very short wheelbase but it's got a Kawasaki, you know, 1000 engine in there, so it is just a rocket ship and midgets have a traditional V8.
Yeah, yeah, and they I mean those, no reverse, just like a dwarf car.
I mean it's a motorcycle engine, so you're running a motorcycle transmission and all of that, and same thing with the midget, but it's just, it's just a lot of horsepower, it's just a whole lot of horsepower.
And you better hang on, man, because if one of those things gets a little wicked on you you're going to take a tumble, but those thrive.
I mean sprint cars.
We're tech.
I've really found with sprint cars in Texas.
They've always been a big deal.
You know dirt sprint cars, but where now, just like with every other division that you find in short track racing, it doesn't matter what surface you're on.
It's like with the sprint cars you've got the 305 sprints, you know engine, then you've got the 360 sprints and then you got the big old bad 410s.
But it's one of those things I joke with my friends at heart of Texas Speedway, out in Waco, you know, right off of 35, right before the split out that way, and it's like all they have to do, all they have to do is put sprint cars Friday on their marquee and it doesn't matter if it's a chuck wagon sprint car.
That place is going to be jam packed and it's a.
I'll tell you what, and especially when it comes from me dirt.
I'm typically not a big dirt kind of guy, but when it comes to winged sprint cars I am there.
I want to have the hot dog and the Coke and the popcorn and throwing dirt claws into the stands.
I want to see that three wide.
you know crazy Cover that beer can cover that beer cup, that's right.
Yeah, it's going to get.
It's going to get some sweet and low in there, if you know what I mean.
So is there going to be any of that here in the next few months?
World of Outlaws are doing two nights at Cotton Bowl Speedway and Page Okay, actually, between you guys and I I don't remember the exact date, but they've got two dates there.
You've got some big stuff happening out, yaltsway, at 105.
I mean 105 Speedway in Cleveland, not Ohio 105 Speedway.
They've got a full schedule.
And what, what I'm excited about on the dirt track side this year around here is that number one, dirt late models.
I mean dirt late models to me are just really cool, I mean with that long nose and that big, tall tail, not to mention you know a lot of those that they try to run the Carrade engine thing that we're working with with Rogers Dabs.
So that's good for business.
But I mean those are just a lot of fun to watch.
And we are starting to see a resurgence right now of the actual, like IMCA modified, the actual, true modified cars.
Cause now you've got economy modified, you've got sport mods, limited mods.
It's like it's part of what I think was the problem with asphalt racing to, where you had a late model on asphalt and then you had a pro late model, a limited late model, a beginner late model, a super late model.
I'm like geez, how many of these do you need, and that's kind of what I'm seeing with dirt.
There's a lot of options and all the while, with those options, the cash register is ding, ding.
And in those options, is that about the level of car, the level of driver, a combination of the two?
How do they, how do they determine what option they want to run in it's, it's the drivers say it's based on the budget.
But I mean, what you see a lot of times is and that's the problem, like now, what I'm talking about with the modified class in Texas, the true dirt modified, the big mod as we call it that at one time was the staple that was.
You had that, then you had an IMCA stock car and you may have some kind of bomber class.
That was your dirt, your core dirt series.
Well then, I think probably late 90's or whatever mid to late 90's, you came at the sport mod, which wasn't quite the full blown modified, but it was something that was a alternate to it if you didn't have the money for the big modified.
Well, before you know it, your modified field has shrunk and a lot of those modified guys have built themselves a sport mod or a limited modified, whatever you want to call it, because it cost.
Now, yeah, now what's happened in the dirt world is you've got these things called factory stocks, which are, you know, a steel body, you know metric or leaf spring car, whatever you choose to run right there.
You can't run headers, you have to run.
You know stock rocker arms, I mean all of that stuff stock.
Well, you can race those all around this region right here and you can pick up 10 to $15,000 to win per show.
So the limited modified class has now dwindled and everybody has a factory stock.
And you know, now there are purpose built factory stock chassis to where this used.
That was designed to use a stock concept.
Well, that doesn't sound very factory stock.
A factory stock chassis, custom built chassis.
Well, guys.
I see built aspects.
I've got friends that build them.
I've got friends that build them and it's like oh yeah, got your roller 20k out the door, 20k for a stock car.
I mean, come on, you can buy four dwarf cars for that.
Well, and then that class too.
I mean because the class that I ran in the dwarf car, it was all home built.
You know dwarf cars.
So now you can pick yourself up some really cool dwarf car.
They're still called dwarf cars, but they're like modified lights, is what they look like.
You can pick up one of those rollers, bad boy, for about 16k, right out the door ready for a motor, and let's go.
How much?
is a motor cost in one of those.
Well, that and then there's that.
So you, it used to be.
Ebay used to be the place where you'd go find yourself a good motorcycle engine and maybe you'd pay 3k, 4k to get something a little more 12k.
Yeah, now that the division that I was in like the last year that I was in there in 2016, the rule that we had because it was a member run group, you couldn't.
You couldn't run any.
You could run a Kawasaki, a Suzuki, a Yamaha, whatever it was, but in 2016, it couldn't be any newer than, I think, 2000.
Eight, that was the newest one you could run Shoot.
Now these guys are going out and getting twenty fifteen and speed buddy.
Hey, get seven, seven of them together and call it the Cinderella series.
Yeah, exactly Exactly.
It's definitely that it's a golden slipper somewhere.
Let's talk about the twenty twenty three season that's now in the rearview mirror.
How did it go?
What you saw, how did it go?
It was.
It was good.
I'm not going to say excellent, I'm not going to say great, I think it was good.
I think I think it's imperative, in short, track racing, no matter where, any part of the country, that you see progress, and we did consent to continue to see progress, both on asphalt and on pavement.
It just what.
What concerns me, it's been on the asphalt side for a while and now, like with the stuff I'm talking about now, on dirt, what what you're seeing is you're seeing series that are maybe revitalized.
I know, on the asphalt side with with super late models, with pavement, super late models, you've got two really good series that they're not really going head to head but they're kind of dividing the field.
You know what I mean.
And and when you, when you're, when your pool of drivers has kind of narrowed itself down quite a bit and then you draw a wedge in between them or kind of put some discontent there, you know that's concerning to where you might start losing.
You know drivers.
Or you know I hate it when a series or a racetrack falls off, falls off the map.
We are seeing I did see in 2023.
I saw a lot of racetracks that are no longer going to be operating and that sucks.
I mean one of them right here in in Texas.
I mean Devils Bowl Speedway out in Mesquite.
You know that is one of the biggest racetracks in the country is host.
That was the original racetrack in 1978 that hosted the world of outlaws and they ran a huge event in October and after that event they said Well, that's it, we're done closing, and that's a lot of years down the drain, sell out to a subdivision, or they sell the land, or what happened.
Yep, what actually happened there?
There is a municipal airport right on the other side of it, which for the longest time has been a good thing, because there's, I've always said, when you're a racetrack, there are two neighbors.
You want Number one, a railroad track or an airport, because they ain't going to care anything about the noise.
If anything, their noise is louder than yours.
Well, the airport decided they wanted to expand and they apparently went and made an offer and you know the second generation owners were like Can't pass it up.
Yeah really, and you don't really blame him, I guess how how is how's it looking as far as the public attendance to these events?
That's.
That's a topic, guys, that comes up frequently.
It seems like just on on any you know platform that I end up on it, depending on the show, like you were talking about with with sprint cars, dirt late models, those type of things you usually have.
A couple of weeks ago in Corpus Christi they had a big end of the season show and it packed them.
It packed it up really nice Weekly shows.
You do seem to have those taper off a little bit, but I think a big part of that is that now you have I mean you've got streaming services that can provide you a, you know, an experience that hell.
A lot of times I'll say it's better than being there.
You know, food's cheaper, the the potty line is cheaper, the beer is cheaper, and you know with the replays they have replays and they have high definition cameras and you know they have all of that.
So they've got somebody like you.
They explain everything that's going on that you might not hear in the stands that that that helps as well.
You know, it's very much a TV experience where, where you've got race on Texas, here in the Lone Star State, that does well racing, america, flow sports, flow sports has, man massive leaps and bounds that they have not only with racing but they can bring you an experience in any sport that that is just tremendous.
So so there's that promoters used to look at that as very much a negative thing when that first started, but now a lot of these streamers have packages to where there's revenue sharing involved, which which there should be.
There should be.
I mean, if you're, if if I'm selling, if I'm taking in wheel time and and I'm going to put that on my platform and I'm not giving you a dime, that's crap and that's what was happening.
But now they figured different things out to where?
But?
But that long story short, that keeps people at home, that keeps people home.
They're still watching, but it's it's from a different perspective.
They're not paying and it doesn't.
Yeah, it doesn't do anything for the track.
Who have you aligned yourself with this upcoming 2024 season?
Um, no, you know me, I've got I'm going to kind of be a lot of different places.
Very excited that there will be 11 dates there at Houston Motor Sports Park.
Are you going to love it?
Are you the voice there?
That's what they tell me.
That's good.
I'm showing, don.
I'm showing up the first day.
If there's some other dude up there, I guess I'll.
We know.
We know how this business works.
You're here for the beer.
Yeah, yeah.
Exactly 11 dates there and then excited to do.
Heading back to the rat, I think I talked to you guys when I was in.
Where was that Alabama for the rattler?
I think I talked to you guys right.
And I was heading back to that, going to do some stuff in Pensacola, may get to do some stuff in Georgia.
Dirt tracks here.
You know Corpus Christi around here, so it'll be it.
We need to have the Rodney Rod Regas fan club with the tour bus, and so you know, all of us Houston fans will get on the bus and we're going to go to wherever you are.
What do you think about that?
Be a short bus.
You got a Volkswagen, you go.
You probably all you need man Jam, pack them in there like sardines and let's head to the dirt track buddy.
So what do you got?
planned for your Christmas holiday.
We'll.
We'll lay low around here, we'll just kind of.
We'll just kind of stay at the house and see if anybody shows up here.
Kids are in.
We had one of the girls graduate from UNT last Friday, so we got both girls here hanging out with us.
Nice, and you know, we'll just kind of take it from there.
How about you guys?
What's on the?
horizon.
We're all doing our own thing here locally and I don't think any of us are going.
Conrad had a nice little open house at his party and Jeff and Kathy and Leslie and I went up there and visited and it was very nice, very nice.
And, yeah, mars retreated back over there to Neaterville and that's his usual hangout.
So yeah, I think it's all good over there.
Well, and with some of the other stuff.
You know some of my other ventures that I'm in.
It's a good time of year right now to be in sports radio because you know the team that I cover in college football is playing in the college football championship, so that will keep me which team is that that's.
That would be the Texas Longhorns.
Oh, you get to call that game.
No, no, I work with a online sports radio outlet here in the Austin area.
Yeah, I do a.
I do a daily show there, so you know these people are crazy about Texas football, so we've got stuff to talk about.
Your NFL team is pretty good right now.
Horses isn't like a man mind.
What a downer man, I had to say.
But your thumb on him.
Truth hurts, it does.
I don't deny it, man.
It's been 30 some odd years.
So, rodney working, we pick up your weekly show and the dirt show.
Um, that one here in Texas, monday evenings a revved up sports show on Facebook and revved up sports showcom, that's the place to go for that.
That's Texas based.
You get a lot of, you get a lot of regional guests on there talking to different dirt track folks and really talking to Texas promoters trying to dig stuff out from them.
It's like I'm telling all these promoters I'm like, look, if you're going to drop your schedule, why don't you drop your schedule on my show where there's you know, a hundred and however many hundred people watching?
I mean, do it here, don't just do a Facebook post on a mid midnight on a Tuesday.
Yeah, she's exactly yeah.
And how about dirty air?
Dirty air Thursdays on racing America 6pm central that one, I know a lot of the racing America shows.
They actually take a break.
I don't take a break, I just keep going.
I just there's always gossip, there's always.
You know, my, my shows are like the young and the restless man.
I go in there and I dig out all the stuff people really want.
Who cares about the race?
Patent, who's had it each other?
That's what they want.
Well, listen, man.
It's always good to talk to you, it's good to see you, and best wishes for the holiday season.
I want to be invited out to Houston Motor Sports.
You know when the first event is going to be out there?
No, March, of course, part of.
March, first part of March I'll actually work with.
I'll work with Owen Pittman and Dean Baker over there and maybe for the season opener we can do something.
I mean you guys are welcome anytime, but maybe for the season opener, maybe do something, have you guys out and let's have a good year.
I've said that Houston market is big.
I mean the stuff you guys do and a great job you guys do.
But man, why not go tap that market a huge metropolitan city like that and make it make it somewhere people want to go?
See short track race.
You got it, Rodney.
It's great to talk to you.
Thank you, my friend.
God bless you.
We'll talk to you again soon, you guys.
Be well.
Merry Christmas guys.
Thank you, merry Christmas.
Hey, if you'd like to get in touch with us, shoot us an email.
The address is info at inwheeltimecom.
Time now for the cruise.
In calendar.
Conrad has that.
Not too much going on as far as cruise ins this weekend, so back to you, john.
Okay, thank you.
I'm glad you did your homework on that and found out that there's nothing going on.
Don't take us long to do nothing.
No, absolutely not.
Time now for this hour's car review.
Had a chance to drive the 2023 Land Rover Defender.
It's available in these trim levels starts with the S and moves up to the SE, then the X, dynamic SE, the X, the V8, and the first edition I had, the 130 SE.
This is the long wheelbase model with three rows of seating.
This is considered a standard SUV body on frame Seats up to eight passengers, all new in 2020.
Exterior features well, keeping the post with post World War II look with its upright design and windshield.
Modern styled lighting front and rear with slab sides kind of a little bit of a throwback there, and it actually that looks pretty good.
As far as I'm concerned, two-door version reminds of the Bronco.
This is a carryover of top of the fender black plastic protectors, and I don't know whether you're familiar with Land Rover and their vehicles, but it's kind of a long-standing thing.
Matter of fact, I saw them restore one here not too long ago and they actually went out and got some new ones for this particular restoration to sit on top of those front fenders Got to think it so you could stand on them I think that's what it was originally meant for and then stack stuff on the roof.
Yeah, exactly, this is definitely a off-road vehicle.
Interior highlights unique linear dash with a built-in shelf very unusual, but it works.
Touch screen is fairly easy to understand.
The shifter is high up on the dash.
Of course, it's an electronic one, so you push it forward to put it in reverse and you pull it back to get it into drive.
Sounds very British, it is very, very British.
Seating is comfortable but rugged.
Cargo trunk room minimal, with all three rows of seating up.
What I liked about it lots of off-road option controls that are all displayed on the center stack and you can control everything if you want to, or you put it in automotive and automatic and it will do its own thing.
What could use improvement?
The steering wheel control points are confusing.
For instance, do you know what a diamond shape is for?
Neither do I.
Do you know what a dot for a ring?
Do you know what a dot on the steering wheel is for Stop?
I have no clue either.
Well, what happened when you pushed it?
Nothing.
So it has to do something, but I didn't find out what it was.
You know, on these vehicles I don't really get too deep into them because I don't have time for that and I will tell you that if I can't find the cruise control which I can on almost all of the vehicles and get it to engage or, you know, move up the speed or move down the speed, then I'm you're not happy, I'm not.
And this one with, all I'd had to do is pull out the the owner's manual and looked it up and learned how to do it if it has one.
If it doesn't have one in the glove box, chances are it's in the center stack, that's great.
I can't find so anyway.
So did the first edition one come with a Kenny Rodgers, I bet.
I don't know about that.
I knew you were gonna go there.
No, as far as power is concerned, it is supplied by a 3.0
liter inline six with a mild hybrid.
Okay, so it's got a little bit of help.
Horsepower 395 horsepower in this thing and 406 pound feet of torque.
Eight speed automatic transmission with a tow rating of 8,200 pounds, and, without towing anything, I can tell you this thing, this thing will get up and go 17 miles per gallon.
City is what it's rated 21 highway for, combined to 19.
I got 20.4
, not bad, pretty good, I think.
Yeah, and it's actually not that big.
It's not like a Range Rover.
Well, you say Bronco size, it's sort of kind of.
Yeah, it's bigger than a Wrangler, but it's smaller than the Range Rover.
The Tahoe, yeah, the.
Tahoe and smoother, more current looking versus the mutual of Omaha version I thought of that's right Because that was the original With Marlin.
Perkins Marlin Perkins, remember the hat.
What I liked about it Gobs of power, acts like a V8.
It was pretty smooth.
I'll have to admit what could use improvement?
An easier to use start stop off button you know there's some vehicles that need an off button or how about just the option of having the start stop feature and you can engage it?
I would like to see it reversed for me personally, I don't want it.
I don't want that start stop feature because I am a two foot driver, even with an automatic transmission, and when I want to go I take my left foot off the brake and ease down or stomp down.
Or vice versa.
Right in handling that.
Air ride suspension is the best on any vehicle I have ever driven, period, bar none.
Wow, it is truly amazing.
They've got that thing down to a science.
What could use improvement?
Nothing Easy to get into parking spaces with this thing.
This is a serious luxury off-roader that can hold its own on the road as well.
Face trim price $78,300.
Price is tested $88,025.
The base model price $53,500.
Now what do you compare it to?
How about the Bronco starts at $34.95
.
That's $34,095.
Wrangler 4 by E, because it is a hybrid $54,735.
So that would be really the more one-on-one.
Or you could stay in the Land Rover Discovery, and that starts at $58,400.
And that, my friends, is the review of the 2023 Land Rover Defender.
It's a good looking truck.
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That's it for this podcast episode of the In-Wheel Time 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 In-Wheel Timecom website.
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About this episode
Rodney Rodriguez joins the crew to discuss the booming popularity of Texas dirt track racing and the upcoming 2024 season. He shares insights on the various classes, including dwarf cars and sprint cars, and the economic factors driving racers back to dirt. The episode also features a detailed review of the 2023 Land Rover Defender, highlighting its luxury features, off-road capabilities, and performance metrics. The hosts engage in light-hearted banter while offering a glimpse into the local racing scene and upcoming events.
Original notes
Rev up your engines and join our trackside talk as we slide into the dusty turns of Texas dirt track racing with the voice of the track, Rodney Rodriguez. We'll pull back the curtain on why the roar of engines and spray of dirt keeps crowds coming back for more, and how the sport's rich history is faring against today's challenges. As Don Armstrong shares tales from behind the wheel of the rugged yet refined 2023 Land Rover Defender, you'll get a firsthand account of balancing luxury with the call of the wild. Also, Konrad's got the scoop on upcoming cruises and events to help get through the busy holiday season.
Our chatter shifts to somber reflections on the iconic race tracks fading from the rearview and the struggle to keep stands full in the era of streaming events. But it's not all caution flags and pit stops; we're mapping out a thrilling 2024 season, fueling your anticipation for what's on the horizon both on the circuit and in our studio. Hear about the anticipation for the season opener at Houston Motor Sports Park and the buzz of short track racing in the heart of a bustling city - Houston. Then, cruise through Don's review of the Land Rover Defender's hybrid vigor, and whether its stop-start personality wins the race or stalls at the line.
All this and more on this episode of In Wheel Time Car Talk!
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