Speeding Into 2026 With 2025 In The Rearview Mirror
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Term
LS engine swap
An LS engine swap is when you take out the original engine of a car and replace it with a more powerful engine from General Motors. It's a common way to make cars faster and more fun to drive.
Company
Auto Metal Direct
Auto Metal Direct makes replacement parts for cars, especially older models, helping people restore them to their original condition.
Part
grill
The grill is the front part of a car that helps cool the engine and also makes the car look good.
Concept
restoration
Restoration is when you fix up an old car to make it look and work like it did when it was new. It can involve a lot of different repairs and updates.
Term
emblems
Emblems are the logos or symbols you see on cars that show what brand or model it is. They can make a car look nicer and help people recognize it.
Car
Chevrolet C10S
The Chevrolet C10 is an old pickup truck that many people love because it's sturdy and can be easily changed to look different. It's often talked about at car shows where people show off their restored versions.
Concept
square body truck
A 'square body truck' is a type of pickup truck made by GM that has a boxy, angular shape. These trucks were popular from the 1970s to the 1980s and are known for their sturdy design.
Car
F-100
The F-100 is a classic Ford pickup truck that many people love for its toughness and style. It was made for several decades and is popular among collectors.
Concept
muscle cars
Muscle cars are powerful American cars that are built for speed. They became really popular in the 1960s and 1970s and are loved by many car enthusiasts.
Concept
Mopar
Mopar is a brand that deals with parts and services for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram cars. It's also known for performance upgrades and accessories for these vehicles.
Concept
clone car
A clone car is a car that looks like another famous car but isn't the real thing. It's like a replica that tries to capture the style of the original without being the actual model.
Car
Dodge Superbird
The Dodge Superbird is a special car made for racing, with a unique look that includes a big wing on the back. It's very fast and a favorite among car collectors.
Car
Dodge Charger Daytona
The Dodge Charger Daytona is a special version of the Charger that was made for racing and is famous for its unique look with a big wing on the back. People talk about it because it was one of the fastest cars back in the day and is now very collectible.
Car
Ford Mustang
Eleanor is a famous car from the movie 'Gone in 60 Seconds'. It's a special version of the Ford Mustang that looks really cool and is fast, which is why it's so popular with car fans.
Car
Dodge Coronet
The Dodge Coronet is a big car made by Dodge that was popular for many years. It was especially known for being fast and powerful during the muscle car period.
Car
Pontiac Coronet
The Pontiac Coronet is a classic car that was made a long time ago and is known for being fast and stylish. People like to talk about it because it represents a fun time in car history when powerful cars were really popular.
Car
Chevrolet Chevelle
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a car made by Chevrolet that was popular in the 60s and 70s. The 1971 version is known for being fast and stylish.
Concept
barn find
A 'barn find' is when someone finds an old car that has been stored away for many years, usually in a barn. These cars can be special because they are often rare and can be fixed up to look new again.
Term
VIN
VIN is like a car's fingerprint; it's a special number that helps identify each car uniquely.
Car
Pontiac GTO
The GTO is a famous car from Pontiac that is known for being fast and powerful. It was one of the first muscle cars and is very popular among car enthusiasts.
Company
Barris Kustom Industries
Barris Kustom Industries is a well-known company that customizes cars. They are famous for making unique and special cars that often appear in movies and TV shows.
Car
Wagon Queen Family Truckster
The Wagon Queen Family Truckster is a car from a comedy movie. It's a funny version of a family station wagon that looks quite different from regular cars.
Car
Volkswagen Bus
The Volkswagen Bus is a famous van that many people love for its cool design and spacious interior. It was often used for road trips and camping, making it a symbol of fun and adventure.
Car
Chevrolet Malibus
The Chevrolet Malibu is a car made by Chevrolet. It's a popular choice for families because it's spacious and comfortable to drive.
Term
G-body
The G-body refers to a type of car design used by General Motors for several models in the late 20th century. These cars were often sporty and had a rear-wheel-drive setup, making them popular for performance enthusiasts.
Term
manual transmission
A manual transmission is a type of car gearbox that you have to shift yourself. It gives you more control over how the car drives, but it requires using a clutch pedal and gear stick instead of just pressing a button or moving a lever.
Car
Tesla Semi
The Tesla Semi is an electric truck made by Tesla that is meant for transporting goods. It's important because it shows how trucks can be more environmentally friendly and is part of a movement to use electric vehicles more in the future.
LIVE
You're listening to the get out and drive podcast fueled by AMD with your host, John
custom car nerd Meyer and Jason old car guy car will be bringing you gear heads, everything
you've never wanted to know about cars and why they should be on the road and not in
your garage.
Are you ready to get out and drive?
John, it's great to be back for this final episode of 2025.
Man, we had, we had quite the year and it went whipping by didn't it ever.
There's a lot of things that we'll get to talk about in this episode.
And if you guys stick around to the very end, we've got a big announcement to share with
you guys for 2026, but first we just kind of want to jump back in time.
We want to go back and talk about some of our favorite episodes, some interesting events
that we maybe should have covered and should have talked about that we simply just, you
know, life gets in the way and sometimes you just can't jump on that stuff.
But John, how was, how was your Christmas holiday season so far?
So far it was, it was awesome.
It involved hot wheels, so super great.
Still kind of going through everything and, and, and making sure that everything is what
I wanted because it's all for resale and it's going to be on our store on, on eBay, get
out and drive podcast store because I put up a lot of stuff that helps promote all the
content that you see on our, on our channel.
You said all are for resale.
Oh, yeah, I call BS.
Well, the ones that, the new ones that I got.
All I see.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
So correct me.
So not all the new ones that I got.
Yeah, it sounds silly, but so I'm, I'm always talking to everybody about hot wheels and
everything and everybody knows that, that I collect and rolling down the road.
Fred Ashmore calls me and he sends me a picture of a box and he goes, are these cars good?
I'm like, I don't know what to answer because it frees the hell up and you don't
know if to offer somebody $8,000 or $800.
And I asked a whole lot of tiptoe questions and he told me what he was doing.
He was hauling stuff across the country and he was supposed to bring these cars to
someone and they fell through.
So Fred called this guy and hooked me up.
Nice.
Thank you, Fred.
When you hear this, thank you.
So Fred delivered Hot Wheels, a huge box of Hot Wheels from a seller on East
Coast directly to my office.
Nice.
Thank you, Fred.
You never know where you're going to trip over stuff.
That's why I keep sending you cars, Jason, that I think are cheap and I'm not interested
in them.
I'm like, maybe Jason will like this.
He goes dumbass.
You sent that to me three times already.
Well, we're always looking for a road trip, you know, for the get out and drive
podcast for the last couple of years.
We've done one every year and I think it's great.
Looking forward to 2026.
We haven't nailed anything down yet.
But the U.S., you guys are celebrating like a huge milestone.
It was a 250.
This country's been around for 250 years.
Yeah.
So we're trying to think of something that we can do to celebrate that 250 as a kind
of a momentous occasion for the, not just for the get out and drive podcast, but for
the U.S.
So maybe it's something that happens around the July 4th weekend or whatever that
looks like.
Either way, I'm trying to plan something to get to somewhere that you guys can be as
well in some form of a road trip.
And Santa Claus found this guy.
No, I am not Santa Claus.
I'm his evil twin.
We are working on the LS engine swap for Dale Jr.
So that engine is back together for the second time.
And if you want to know the story behind that, go check out my YouTube channel.
The engine is back together and we're just kind of waiting on a few extra dress up parts
for like the valve covers.
And I painted the water pump and a couple of the idler pulleys and this and that.
Just get a little bit crazy with the duplicolor.
Got to spend some time with some family that I haven't done in a long time because my mom
and stepdad have moved home and we spent Christmas with them.
So it was a great, great Christmas time.
And for we're getting together again on New Year's just for some card games and some fun
there too.
So it's a fun time.
And so if you guys are listening to this, probably in the New Year, I hope you had a
great Merry Christmas with your friends and family.
And I hope that the New Year serves you well.
Oh, yeah.
Happy 2026.
I am not going to touch the door handle of 2026, I'm afraid.
Well, John, let's look back and see what what 2025 offered the get out and drive podcast
fueled by AMD.
I don't know if we mentioned that on this episode yet or not, but that was the biggest
accomplishment for us moving forward to help reach more people to get more topics of
conversation was partnering with Auto Metal Direct out of Gainesville, Georgia, and Jason
Chandler and Eddie Sobreco and the boys down there have really looked after us.
So happy to have them a part of our podcast.
It was a great feeling to hear that they were on board with with us.
And it's it's nice because they're a well, very well known brand.
And they're always coming out with all sorts of new stuff for CKs.
They're coming out with all new all new parts.
They had a great grill.
Comparo the other day on a video for CK stuff showing you, you know, what the offshore
one looks like and what their newest reproduction one looks like, you know, a full full fully
enclosed bow tie and all that stuff.
So they're really they really have leaps and bounds with their new parts and they're always updating.
So anytime you need parts for your restoration for CK or for square body trucks and they've
even got stuff for muscle cars, man, give them a shot.
Yeah.
And one of the the new slogans that they're kind of coining for 2025 and moving forward
is they are more than just metal or more than metal, right?
So that's that grill you had mentioned is something emblems, decals, different stuff
like that, weather stripping, control panels for your dash or for your heater controls,
stuff like that is they're into just about everything that you can get your hands on.
Their inventory is growing leaps and bounds every day.
In fact, that grill you were talking about, they compared their old grill right to their
new redesigned grill.
It is not even nowhere near the same.
Exactly.
But we accepted the old one for as good as it was because the GM stuff, the 90s wasn't great
anyway, but they've improved upon it.
They've made some corrections, some updates in the color, updates in the form and the fit.
So Kudos on them on that particular item, but still so happy to have them a part of our podcast.
I know we did have fun heading down to go see them at C10s in the city.
Welcome with open arms, just being just having a sponsor for a podcast is fine and it's great,
you know, for what they do and the promotions and everything, but to go to a show and just be
welcomed by everybody with open arms.
C10s in the city in itself is a great show to go to, but being down there and getting to hang out
with everybody from AMD and everybody in the show from C10s in the city, wonderful, wonderful
thing. And I got to hang out right around with Jason.
It was, we had a great time.
We showed up a day early, which allowed us to kind of get in and get the tour of AMD and their humongous
where it's so giant.
Yeah, what would they say?
It was like 300,000 square foot and they're expanding or some stupid thing.
Oh, it's giant.
I mean, you, I got tired, this fat guy, I got tired walking across the thing.
And then they said they're getting the whole warehouse next door.
Yeah.
And it was a personal guided tour.
Jason himself showed us kind of all the nooks and crannies, the the marketing department where all
the pitchers get taken for their website, which was a neat, neat display.
It was a complete 360, put the parts on a turntable and snap that pitchers
out to the R&D center where they have actual vehicles there that they tear down
and tear apart to recreate those those body panels and those dash pads and those
window trim and all that stuff.
Yeah, the original parts don't just, they don't just make them up.
They cut them out of perfectly good vehicle.
And you go, well, why would they cut up a perfectly good truck?
Because GM made it and it fit and that's what they want to offer you.
Yeah, GM made it and it fit and it fit.
But that and that's a that's the point.
You take a look at the square body truck, the last square body that rolled off
the assembly line in any version was in 1991.
So, you know, we're going back almost 30 years ago, 30 plus years ago
to something that has been stock production.
GM no longer supports it.
So, where are you going to get these parts?
You'd be lucky enough to find something in the south out of a southern,
you know, out of Texas or Oklahoma, maybe, but nevertheless, if you're
looking for that complete, you know, maybe not concourse, maybe it is
concourse restoration of a square body pickup, you know, like what Brian
Harrison does, you know, that type of stuff is what they do.
And, you know, all kinds, I keep saying square body.
I'm a square body guy, as you can see behind me, but that's a law.
That's where a lot of their focus is, but they also do F-100s.
They also do bump side, dent side trucks.
They also do muscle cars like we talked about before.
So, they're into a lot of the Mopar and the Ford muscle cars.
I don't know how close or how in depth they are to the GM stuff yet,
but they're working on it every day.
So, it was great to be able to get down and get that personal tour
around that facility.
It was freaking huge, men's and state of the art.
State of the art is giant, absolutely giant.
Like, I couldn't even believe my eyes.
I get, I go in there and they're like, oh, yeah, come in the back.
And it just kept going and going and going and going.
I liked how that they're the parts return bin was super tiny.
Yeah, it took up what, maybe 20 square feet?
Maybe. That means something.
That's like going to a new car dealer and walking over the service center
and seeing what's in the service department, you know, go out back,
see what's trash, see what's broken.
And one of the neat things that he mentioned, too, as part of that,
I'm not sure if we mentioned in any of the videos that we did,
but those returns aren't just garbage.
They will donate those to local schools and colleges
for their automotive programs so that they can work them
and get them back into shape or use them as, you know,
whatever types of pieces that they they need.
So they don't just get thrown out.
Somebody has bought it, it got returned, maybe it was damaged and shipping, whatever.
It gets donated back out.
And I think that that's that's awesome of them to do that.
And they support that next generation of builders very heavily as well.
Jason Chandler was telling me that if somebody's screaming,
that a part doesn't fit and they ship it back, they ask the person why
and they don't just say, huh, that's too bad.
We'll send you another one because it's going to be the same stamp.
They ask you why and they and they say, well, this is how we can correct it.
And they work with customers and Jason showed us.
Jason Chandler showed us a progression of different parts that went through.
They said, this is a part we did four years ago.
This is part we did six years ago.
This is the part we had when we started and bolt holes have changed.
Everything's changed.
It's the evolution of their parts is constantly changing.
Yeah, and to have that knowledge and that marketing ability on our side
paid huge dividends to this year's National Get Out and Drive Day
because they pushed that super, super hard.
Like, of course, you're not going to be able to see this, but
National Get Out and Drive Day, this thing is over two feet wide.
This is 2025 sticker and they had a bunch of those printed up.
They were sticking them.
They were they were showing them off on their Instagram
and on their on their Facebook pages and just blasting National Get Out
and Drive Day super, super hard.
We had supplied them with all the information.
They were throwing that stuff in with all their orders.
People who didn't know who we were now know and that has helped us
grow with record numbers of downloads and listens to us on podcasts.
So 2025 has been huge for us.
You know, I don't want to even say in part of AMD.
It totally a lot of that effort goes towards them because they pushed us so hard.
So thank you guys for that.
Oh, hey, kids, this is Jason with AMD.
You're watching the Get Out and Drive podcast. Check this out.
Here's your reminder to support the companies that support your right
to get out and drive.
Auto Metal Direct is a premier manufacturer of high quality restoration parts
for classic American cars and trucks.
AMD offers a wide range of components, including body panels, trim, glass,
weather stripping and much more crafted to meet or exceed original equipment
specifications. Be sure to visit autometaldirect.com
as you get your ride ready to get out and drive.
What drives you?
John, we we want to kind of back up a little bit.
We talked about our road trip this year.
You guys had done a few extra road trips over what I did this year.
Talk about some of those that you did.
You went to Macacken.
Oh, yeah, they yeah, we got to sit down with.
Mopar's 5150.
And the other thing that we're going to talk about is
those guys are crazy about chasing cars.
You know, they'll they'll buy cars sight unseen over the phone
from from a dirty picture with a flashlight.
I won't do that.
It's crazy, but they've stumbled on a lot of
hammy cars and a lot of cars and people that don't computer.
And that seems to be, you know, the original owner age of those style cars.
And we got to sit down with those guys and
sit down with the owner of the original car from Joe Dirt.
It is.
Not a Daytona.
But it's made to look like a Daytona in in the movie.
That was why they got it and what they thought.
And I thought, gee, because it said it was a clone and a recreation.
So everybody thought it was a recreation of the Joe Dirt car in the movie.
No, the people that were selling it said it was a recreation
because they didn't want to say it was the true Superbird, you know, or excuse me,
a true Daytona. And but before that, he he bought a Superbird
and he had it made to look like fake Petina, identical to the car from Joe Dirt.
And he had both of those cars sitting there at McCacken and got a lot of flak for us
because he took a what I thought was a perfectly good
Charger Daytona and and changed it.
And no one liked that at all.
Yeah, but the the story behind that
I mean, we're like, I don't know what year that that that movie came out back
in the 90s, sometime, Joe Dirt, 93, 94 or something like that.
Yeah. Was it David Spade, you know?
So like we're coming off of the hottest
Saturday Night Live crew of movies ever kind of probably put together for the mainstream.
And this redneck mullet yokel Joe Dirt
comes out in this movie and he was not the star of the show.
Right. So we of course, as car guys, we we look at cars in movies
and we realize that the car is the star, not the actor.
Oh, yeah. Right.
Like smoking the band at the band, the car was the star of that gone in 60 seconds.
The original Eleanor.
And even after that, the 2000 gone in 60 seconds,
that Eleanor became a huge hit and
the brunt of a large lawsuit and controversy.
That's a whole another subject, which we've talked about before on this podcast.
We have. We have.
Um, yeah.
And to have all those, that whole they brought a lot of cars that that
they had. Yeah.
In in the bar fine section,
they probably had nine cars, I think I counted.
Amazing. Amazing.
Their only car that wasn't there was two cars that weren't there.
So it was a Mulan Rouge,
uh,
Roadrunner or Coronet Mulan Rouge, Coronet.
And then there was another charge of Daytona
that was at the end that was white with a molded nose.
But that whole side was theirs.
Yeah.
I think one of my top producers of video was the absolutely smashed
seventy one heavy Chevy Chevelle
with, I don't know, 12,000 miles or something on it.
And they stopped the left headlight up into the dashboard.
And I did a full walk around on that thing.
And that car is just demolished.
But it's slated for full restoration.
And that's what happens to a lot of those cars at Macacken
that are in the barn find hidden gem section.
They.
People will find them and then they they drag them to that.
And it looks terrible.
A lot of what happens at Macacken is people drag cars out of the woods
or drag cars out of a junkyard and they bring it to that
barn find hidden gem section and they put it out there.
It looks like a total wreck and somebody gets super interested in it
and buys the car.
And then it gets a full restoration.
You see cars that are reoccurring year after year.
They show up as a field car.
And the next year or two, they're an absolute hundred point show car.
Yeah. And part of that, we're kind of getting a little bit off topic here,
but part of that is, you know, if you're going to go and take something
that's a complete rust bucket and you're going to replace every panel, as you say,
lift the VIN and replace the car.
What's an extra five or ten thousand dollars purchasing the car when in the grand
scheme of things, when that car is done, you've got a million dollar show car.
That a couple thousand bucks makes no difference.
There's provenance between car that has a specific build or a specific option
or a specific color.
And if we can recreate that under that VIN plate, Bob's your uncle.
Yes.
So make sure you guys go back and listen to some of those Macacken episodes.
I think there's at least half a dozen there, maybe somewhere.
Yeah. Yeah.
There's a bunch of long winded interviews and walkarounds with people that had their cars there.
Several people have had their cars there since they were in high school.
There was a whole high school section.
Randy Connan had a judge ish clone from Daston confused.
So there was a ton of cars that we walked around and that dumbass black and white GTO that George
Barris built.
What a terrible car.
Go watch that.
Stop this.
Go watch that.
Come back.
Yeah.
It's terrible.
Custom car revival 2025.
Yeah.
Custom car revival.
I did not get to go, but I had someone else that we sent and they they did a great job.
They photo everything.
It rained like hell.
Rockets.
And it was it was a great show.
I wish I could have gone.
My work didn't say I could, but it is always always a wonderful show and tons of brand new vehicles.
There's a lot of vehicles are getting built specifically for that show, which means that it's putting its
foot home in the custom car community.
It took a while, but it's it's happening and it's it's becoming a big statement piece.
Yeah.
And what was the other one that you you attended the one on National Get Out and Drive Day,
which was National Get Out and Drive Day.
They have done their best to coordinate ever since they met us like in 2020.
They've done their best to coordinate with the first Sunday in October every year so that their show falls exactly on National Get Out and Drive Day.
And we were able to go out there.
We did a lot of hands on interviews.
We did roll in roll out interviewed the promoter of that show.
Jeffco Power Tour is a local show to St. Louis, but there must have been 2000 cars there this year.
And it's a traveling deal.
It goes from St. Louis down to Southern Missouri.
And if you get a chance, look it up.
Check it out for 2026.
We're always part of it.
Get on Drive Podcast promotes a lot.
They promote Jeffco Power Tour and check them out.
If you're anywhere near the Midwest at all, that's a show to hit.
And if you're not in the Midwest and you're closer to the East Coast where I am,
there's a couple of shows that I attended this year.
One was new to me, one that I've been going to for several years.
The Atlantic Nationals in Monkton, New Brunswick.
It's a huge show for us here in Atlantic Canada that usually brings
anywhere in upwards of 2000 cars or more different classes, different builds, different, whatever.
And it's a huge event every year.
I'm looking forward to going to a 2026 event, which usually happens mid July.
It's super, super good weather as a rule.
Our summers get hot and humid here.
And that's about peak time for the Atlantic Nationals.
But nevertheless, it's a four day event.
They start on Thursday with some downtown stuff and some concerts on Friday night
and a downtown show, a pre-show and a cruise in.
And then the big part of the show in Centennial Park
is where everything happens on Saturday and Sunday.
If you're there the whole weekend and you register your car, you could win prizes.
And they do give away custom built cars as well as engines and welders
and all kinds of great stuff as part of the prize package for that event.
It was great to be there.
We got to see lots and lots of great vehicles.
And you guys, if you haven't gone and looked at the Wagon Queen family truckster,
there was one of those there.
And look, this sucker was built.
It's the best one I've ever seen.
And we got to interview the owners of that who have invited us to Prince Edward Island
to see some of their other movie cars that they have.
That was a great show.
And then the second one that I went to was Frederickton, New Brunswick,
which is called Fred Rod where I met up with Bad Chad as well as Mike Hall
and got to see some of the stuff they were doing.
And this is a smaller event.
It takes place downtown in the capital city.
Lots of great cars.
Lots of the stores and shops stay open during this event.
So as you're walking through and seeing the cars and you want to pop in and grab an ice cream
or a meal or a beer at the pub or whatever you want to do,
they've got food trucks on hand.
And it's a great event.
Lots of great cars, lots of friendly stuff.
And this year is amped up to be a little bit bigger as well as having some of the Smokey
and the Bandit gang show up to do their thing.
And they're going to be bringing a few cars along with them as well.
So this is what we love to do.
We love to go to these things and see what's going on and mingle and introduce ourselves.
And Fred Rod has agreed to be a part of National Get Out and Drive Day.
So when the time comes, we'll be getting some stickers and decals out to them.
And when people register, they'll be able to kind of see and see what we're doing.
I was there handing out stickers galore as I could until I ran out.
It's a great event on the East Coast if you're in the U.S.
and you're looking to come to Canada, 35 cents on your dollar, folks.
You can't get any better than that.
Hotel rooms are cheaper, your food is cheaper, your fuel is cheaper,
all because of the exchange on the dollar.
So I encourage you.
Got a passport or a Nexus card, come to Canada, check out these shows.
We'll be sure to leave that information in the show notes or in the description box down below.
Probably my favorite of the whole season was talking about the Palisades Fire
and that one lonely little VW bus that survived mostly the fire,
which has since been completely refurbished by Volkswagen to a T.
It did suffer some minor burn damage,
but Volkswagen said that they would completely do it free of charge to the owner.
And this has been completely refurbished.
But I really love that kind of, I don't know how you even say it,
but that great good luck story that comes out of something so horrible
where a huge part of the city was burning for parts.
And lo and behold, there's this beautiful little blue bus off in the distance
amongst the charred remains that for the most part survived.
Everyone, it was so perfect. Everyone thought it was fake.
Yep. They thought it was a Photoshopped thing or a dinky toy that was in a whatever,
like you couldn't recreate what had happened there.
There was firsthand knowledge of the firefighters that saw it took the pictures.
We weren't the only ones to cover the story.
There was, you know, a lot of major news outlets were out there covering the story
and talking to the actual owner of the VW bus.
And man, like a lot of crap went down over those few.
I very quickly, because people say that the Internet is a terrible place
and it's going to be the downfall of humanity.
Sometimes it's not.
And I was stumbling through Reddit or stumbling through Instagram or something.
And I dug and found the owner of that vehicle.
I dug and found the actual firefighter who took the photos.
And there were people all around the country that couldn't find out anything about that vehicle.
And I looked on social media and I used my bright smile and face.
And I got all the information and we got a beautiful interview with that firefighter.
And we were able to talk to him and he verified that that was a real picture and that was once he took.
And he gave us pictures that weren't even on the on the web pictures through the front of the fire truck.
That sealed the deal for everybody.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And even just some of the, you know, the stories associated with that.
It was a great episode.
There was a lot of neat information that come out of that.
Not just from, you know, salvaging that VW bus, but just kind of an inside story to those wildfires
and what those guys were going through and how they were dealing with it and this and that.
So again, another great episode to make sure you go back and listen to it again.
If you've already listened to it, but if you haven't, it's a great story.
Go back and listen to that one.
Now, every now and then, people trip over internet lore and they're like, that's a bunch of crap.
There's no way that this happened.
There's no way that that happened.
You know, these guys did this and that.
And we briefly, you and I briefly talked off camera about Saddam Hussein ordering a whole bunch of G body four door Malibus.
And I said, you're ass.
And I dug a little bit deeper.
You dug a little bit deeper.
We found the internet lore of the Iraqi taxi.
That was one of my favorite episodes too.
That was wonderful.
The funny thing is, is being Canadian, I knew the story.
Right.
And I knew kind of the details.
In fact, there's, there used to be a few years back.
There used to be a few of them that would roll through town here on a regular basis.
And you knew exactly what it was when you saw it.
There was no question, but for us Canadians who saw them and knew what they were, it was just another car.
Right.
But a lot of people didn't know.
It's, it's, it's not only internet lore.
It's something you grew up with and you thought this is commonplace.
Yeah.
And when you start seeing the questions being asked online and the different videos and then you reach out to me and say, what is this wizardry?
And I say, I say, John, that is an Iraqi taxi.
And you're like a Iraqi.
What?
Oh, what?
No.
Yep.
And it just brought on a great conversation of something that I knew most of the story.
But when we diving in, we learned that Saddam Hussein had ordered 25,500 of these suckers and halfway through the order being supplied to him.
He says, no, I don't want these pieces of junk because the quality was so low on them, the reliability rate was so low.
Got to a point where they were sending GM technicians to Iraq to train Iraqi mechanics, how to fix these problems they were having with them.
They run great in Canada.
You fill them full of sand.
They don't do so good.
And it wasn't that they weren't reliable cars.
They were just simply put into extreme use in the depth, 115 degrees, heavy duty AC, heavy duty radiators, but nothing works properly when you fill it full of sand.
It's no different for us when we take things and we send them up north.
Unfortunately, you turn your car off in minus 50 degree weather.
It's probably not going to start again till spring.
That's exactly right.
Other than Iraqi taxis, the rarest thing I'd seen was a manual transmission G-body.
I'd only seen one or two in my life.
And they were three speeds.
Yeah.
They weren't even a four speed or an overdrive.
They were a V6 air conditioned three speed manual and that was about it.
It came with an ore.
You can kind of get it going.
What a mess.
Yeah.
And just very quickly, I'm going to kind of just run down my list of some of the great episodes that we talked about.
We talked about a George Barris fine.
We talked about Dick Fowler.
One thing we should talk about is the loss of a few people in the automotive world.
Gene Winfield early on, we lost a great one in Gene Winfield.
Most recently also, we lost a NASCAR, had lost a few people.
Greg Biffle was a more notable one.
Everybody in the NASCAR game knew who Greg Biffle was, knew what kind of guy he was.
And over the last year with his relationship with Cletus McFarland,
brought him back to the forefront and brought him to be a part of pop culture once again.
And it's sad that that happened the way that it did in a plane crash.
Him, his wife, his two children, the two pilots and their coach driver, I believe, is who passed away.
Terrible, terrible, terrible.
And just over the weekend, Denny Hamlin's father passed away as a result of a house fire.
I saw that. That was brutal.
He wasn't well.
I think he had some breathing issues anyway.
During the whole chase for the cup at the end of the season,
Denny Hamlin was trying to win that championship for his dad in hopes that his dad could see him win that championship.
Knowing full well, he likely wasn't going to be around much longer.
It's just sad that it happened the way that it did.
So our hearts go out to the Hamlin family and the Biffle family and everybody involved in those recent tragedies.
We also got to talk about auctions and how auctions screw people over with our buddy Bobby Adams.
And again, John, I'll let you kind of talk a little bit about what I hear about my soul.
What a raw deal that was.
Well, I tripped over Bobby Adams World, which is his screen name on TikTok.
And I saw a whole bunch of people screaming, including him, that he got screwed out of a car,
that he's bitten, bitten, bitten on a car, and they just kept going.
After they threw the hammer, because usually when you throw the hammer, the bid stops.
Somebody didn't listen.
Something happened.
Something was wrong.
They pushed the issue.
That blew the internet up like it was amazing.
And so I reached out to Bobby Adams, talked to him for a while and got him to come on and do an interview.
And he was very upfront with us about his involvement with Mekum auctions.
And I believe he still uses Mekum auctions, but I would certainly go in there with Kid Gloves,
because he said, that wasn't cool what you did.
And they said, I don't care.
And that is the thing with when it comes to big auction.
Even in the used car world, like I'm a used car dealer.
So when you're dealing with the auctions there, you're dealing with big auctions, dealing with some private ones.
The private ones are more apt to help you in a situation versus the big ones who say,
nope, sorry, we got your money.
See you later.
See you next week.
But it was a bad situation for Bobby.
He lost it.
I mean, granted, he didn't have to spend the 30 plus grand on that car that he was bidding on.
So it was money in his pocket.
But when the hammer comes down and the auctioneer says sold in my eyes, that's it.
Auctions over.
No more bids.
Deals done.
Not in this case.
The hammer went down.
Auctioneer said sold and then continued to grab a few more bids or try to after the fact,
knowing that they didn't get the money they wanted for the car.
And that's why they were trying so hard to get more.
I think to belittling, you know, the morning meeting, I think that was important because
his ass was there.
And he's getting reprimanded for not going.
And the auctioneer had no idea that he didn't go, but he did.
Yeah, he was there.
So again, another great episode.
We talked a lot about some foolishness with gas land gas lighting.
Now you're gaslighting me.
We talked about some some time.
Mad Max style.
If if you like girls, you like skimpy clothes, girls, you like rusty cars, you like all of
heat and fire and oil and all sorts of craziness and giant four door in palace on a semi truck
chassis.
That's for you.
You know, Wasteland weekend is I haven't gone yet and we were certainly talking about going.
But if you've seen the movie Mad Max, they are 100% in to win Cosplay full on at Wasteland
weekend.
And I found out about any of that stuff from the Gasland tabletop game because I'm in the
Hot Wheels and all that stuff.
So it kind of my knowledge kind of bleeds over into that.
And people are building a little cars that they can play, you know, play gas land with
and I did some research and stuff.
And lo and behold, there's a whole giant genre of idiots building these giant cars that look
like they just drove off the movie set of Mad Max.
And it is amazing and awesome.
And I was totally not there.
And you'll have to go listen to the episode to see what my reaction was at the end of
that because it was priceless.
We also had a huge controversial topic about Facebook marketplace.
It's always fun to bump it, jump into Facebook marketplace and pick apart people's ability
to market their own vehicle to sell read to see how good them Thunder Welds are.
The also is the the on online rage bullying, which we most recently put our last episode
up where I had to kind of reel in those reins a bit on condemning somebody for the way that
they make things happen on their builds.
Just because I didn't like it.
I made a post about it.
And although, John, you agree with me?
I certainly do.
The whole point of doing that episode was basically to put into in the spotlight of,
look, just because a bill is not for you doesn't mean it's not the right bill for them.
Somebody's building that for themselves as stupid or as ugly or as whatever it might be.
They're not building it for me and you.
They're building it for them.
Most of the cars that were involved with that I looked at and it was a terrible day to have eyes.
What we're supposed to be doing here on the get out and drive podcast is what,
John, we're supposed to be encouraging the next generation and answering their questions and
maybe not necessarily padding them on the back, but basically encouraging them to pick up that welder
or that chop saw or paint gun or whatever it happens to be.
Pick up that jug of Bondo, pick up that five gallon pail of Bondo.
Anyways, it was a great episode.
Maybe for 2026.
They can adjust their rose colored glasses and get out and look at their vehicle and pull it out of the garage.
Sometimes you've been standing too close to it over the winter.
Yeah, folks.
And our big announcement for 2026 is we're going to be handing out cards that basically state here you go.
You're not a cell phone.
No, that's not what we're doing.
We're not talking about people's software.
But one thing that we are doing, we're going to kind of pull this wrap up episode all together into one little pile here at the end
and let you know that our big announcement is that AMD has agreed to a second year as our sponsor, our main
sponsor here on the Get Out and Drive podcast.
We're so excited about that.
They did so much for us in 2025.
I'm excited to see what they're going to do for us and what we can do for them in 2026.
John, do you have any final thoughts on 2025 and maybe even what we're looking to expect to see in 2026?
National Get Out and Drive Day was overwhelming this year.
Absolutely.
We ran out of decals and information twice, twice or three times, I think.
We just got inundated.
And every time I'd fill up a bucket, send it out for the mail, 100 more things would come in.
And when we ran out, we tried to get stuff filled as quickly as possible.
People were screaming at me on the net.
Where's my stuff?
Where's my stuff?
And I can tell you, if you're listening to this, go to our website and go to the section for National Get Out and Drive Day and get me your information as soon as possible for National Get Out and Drive Day.
Because the sooner you get in information, the sooner you can get your decals and hopefully we'll order way too many in 2026 and we'll be able to fulfill everything.
On time even.
On time.
On time.
And I know it's a good thing to run out.
Yeah.
And I know Joanne is there and she's within earshot.
Maybe she can tell us the number of stickers we ordered this year.
10,000.
And that's in addition to what AMD was providing on their own.
And they probably had every bit of that or more.
Yeah.
So we like, and we ran out and like for 2026, part of being able to do these stickers is with the help of people like AMD who help support us so that we can do this sort of thing.
Stickers aren't free folks.
It does cost us money.
So there's a lot of things that we do to help cover those costs.
But sometimes it's about merchandise sales.
You can go to our merch store and you can pick up a Get Out and Drive Day t-shirt or a National Get Out and Drive Day t-shirt.
The podcast, we're always looking for different ways to help support.
We're not in this for the money.
If we were, we would have been done five years ago.
We are in this for bringing this to you, having fun, showcasing certain things, sharing.
That's why we do it.
So we appreciate you guys that want to support us, but also bear with us.
This is not our full-time gig.
This is not our full-time job.
We are everyday people and we try our very best to make sure that everybody gets exactly what they're asking for.
Like I mentioned earlier in this episode, everything.
Go to our eBay sales or go to eBay and look for Get Out and Drive podcast.
Every bit of that goes toward maintenance and upkeep and recording and everything for our podcast.
Every bit of that goes there.
And so go to our eBay store, go buy something, support our podcast.
100% of the proceeds of that goes directly to get all of these things out to the listeners.
Yeah, and if you're not listening to us on YouTube right now, please head over to YouTube, look up Get Out and Drive podcast.
Every time that you watch a video over there, whether it's a short video, whether it's long form, that generates a little bit.
It's very, very minor, but it does generate a little bit of revenue for us as well.
And if you're not subscribed over there, please hit that subscribe button because that'll allow us to make sure that every time we post something new, you get notified and you can come listen to it.
Start that process all over again.
John, it's been great.
I've had a lot of fun in 2025.
I hope you'll continue to have me in 2026 because I'm currently looking forward to it.
Oh, I can't wait.
I think it's going to be fantastic.
And thank you again to Paul, who is behind the scenes looking after us back there doing all of our editing, fixing our mistakes and making us sound good.
And for Joanne, who is behind the scenes as well, kind of keeping us organized and keeping things on the ball.
So guys, thank you so much for 2025 with the Get Out and Drive podcast fueled by AMD.
Can't wait to do it again in 2026.
Happy New Year.
Thank you.
Learn more at rpm.foundation.
You
About this episode
Reflecting on the whirlwind year of 2025, hosts John and Jason share highlights from their podcast journey, including memorable episodes, events, and partnerships. They discuss their collaboration with Auto Metal Direct, the excitement of National Get Out and Drive Day, and their road trips to various car shows. The episode also touches on personal stories, including John's Hot Wheels collection and family gatherings. As they look forward to 2026, the duo hints at big plans and a commitment to continue supporting the automotive community.
Original notes
The Get Out N Drive Podcast Is Fueled By AMD
2025 is officially in the rearview mirror! Ride along as Jason OldeCarrGuy Carr and John CustomCarNerd Meyer highlight some of the best parts of 2025 and look forward to 2026.
The Get Out N Drive Podcast is Fuel By AMD ~ AMD: More Than Metal
Visit the AMD Garage ~ Your one stop source for high quality body panels
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