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Stephen Cox - Racing Driver, Television Host, Motorsport Journalist
Stephen Cox - Racing Driver, Television Host, Motorsport Journalist
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About this episode
Stephen Cox shares his extensive journey through the automotive world as a racing driver, television host, and motorsports journalist. He recounts his early love for cars, sparked by slot car racing with his father, and discusses his experiences with major networks like NBC and Motor Trend. The conversation dives into his personal projects, including his beloved 1980 Ford Mustang, Blue Thunder, and the challenges of racing across different disciplines. With engaging anecdotes and insights into the industry, Cox provides a unique perspective on the evolution of motorsport and car culture.
Topics:
racing career
motorsports journalism
classic cars
Ford Mustang
Blue Thunder project
television experiences
behind the scenes
car culture
driver experiences
automotive passion
Cars:
BMW Z3
BMW Z4
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette
Ford Fairlane
Ford Falcon
Ford Mustang
Ford Pinto
Lamborghini 350 GT
Mazda MX-5 / Miata
Porsche Boxster
Shelby GT350
Toyota MR2
Volkswagen Rabbit
We are excited to welcome Stephen Cox! A professional racing driver competing in the World Racing League sports car series, the Champcar Endurance Series, and the Super Cup Stock Car Series.
Beyond the track, Stephen serves as a television host and CEO of Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions. You will recognize his voice for years on many automotive car programs, and motor spots journalism. He also built a really awesome car, listen and find out!
Recognized as one of the sport’s most versatile drivers, Stephen has competed across an extraordinary range of disciplines—racing on both asphalt and dirt, navigating road courses and ovals, and driving everything from open-wheel cars to stock cars. He has even taken on the top tier of off-road desert racing. More impressively, Cox has achieved championships, victories, poles, or top-ten finishes in every category he has entered.
Stephen is proudly supported by Stabil Brand Fuel Stabilizer, 303 Products, JR Fastener Corporation, carsnconvos.com, and Geezzup Collector Cars.
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Chevrolet Corvette
"Oh, that's awesome. He had a 63-split window corvette. He had the Ford Falcon. He had the Camaro. He ha..."
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
"...ndow corvette. He had the Ford Falcon. He had the Camaro. He had all of them. He had the 1965 Mustang. He ..."
Car
Ford Falcon
"...e had a 63-split window corvette. He had the Ford Falcon. He had the Camaro. He had all of them. He had th..."
Car
Ford Mustang
"...d the Camaro. He had all of them. He had the 1965 Mustang. He had all of the Aurora cars. Oh, that's awesom..."
Car
Mustang Fox Body
"...commercial and you guys can picture a Mustang SBO Fox body from 1980s. And so the first thing I did was I sa..."
Car
Shelby GT350
"...e just talking about every body one of the Shelby GT350 to take it on go SCC in road racing"
Car
Mazda MX-5 / Miata
"it's a lot of fun it's what Miata should have stayed with and BMW ran with it"
Car
Porsche Boxer
"...nd the contortion show that was me getting into a Porsche Boxer I thought Jason was going to record it"
Select text to request an explanation
Old classic car on the corner, still calling my name so it seems, but I can't fool you, so I'll just ignore you, and drive you in my dreams.
I'll drive you in my dreams, drive you in my dreams.
Welcome to another episode of the Classic Car Corner Podcast. I'm your co-host, Jason Painter, along with Eric Benzel.
Tonight we welcome Mr. Steven Cox, whose automotive career spans decades as a professional driver, television host, and motorsports journalist.
From competing in road racing and oval track series to providing in-depth commentary on classic and performance cars,
Steven has carved out a unique presence in both the driver's seat and behind the microphone.
His passion for cars, combined with his extensive industry knowledge, has made him a well-respected voice in the automotive community, and we welcome him this evening.
Steven, thanks so much for joining us.
Oh, thanks for having me here, guys. This is fun.
It's more than fun for guys like Eric and I, so we certainly appreciate your time tonight.
You know, you have such an...
Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Yeah, this is a shared passion here, man. I mean, this is fun for me too.
There you go.
Well, you have such an awesome background that we need to create a series of podcasts for you, Steven, so count on that.
But we have a lot of questions for you tonight, but always, we always like to begin to...
How did your love for cars all begin?
Oh, man. This will crack you up.
The great question when I was four years old, this would go to, man, 1970, four, five, six years old.
I was with my dad on the east side of Indianapolis at a little bitty street called Whalen Street, and there was a single-car garage outside.
And this was the peak of HO-scale slot car racing from Aurora.
Oh, wow.
And my dad had a setup that would knock your socks off.
Oh, that's awesome.
He had a 63-split window corvette. He had the Ford Falcon. He had the Camaro.
He had all of them. He had the 1965 Mustang. He had all of the Aurora cars.
Oh, that's awesome.
And here's what he did. Now, because I was four or five years old, I couldn't drive a slot car. I'd wreck every lap.
And so he gave me... He put up an oval, and he put me on the outside lane with a car that would just lean up against the guardrails.
And I could just sit there and lay on the throttle and go all the way around.
And so that is my earliest memory of loving cars.
And as an aside, I have the entire Aurora slot car set out in my garage set up right now.
Oh, that's so cool.
It's the same set. It's the same ones that my dad had. So that started my love affair with the automobile.
Gotcha. Wow. That is such a great story.
Awesome.
Well, now, so moving from that, you entered into an automotive career.
And you have over 20 years of hosting motorsports on major networks.
And what made you decide to change careers out of what you had been doing and developed quite a niche for all those years?
Well, are you talking about getting into television or into auto racing?
Well, moving out of it. Well, we're going to get into what got you into it.
But yeah, you know, I had been working on several other business projects for a long time.
First of all, my motor sports career, you know, I would think that it would be tapering off by now.
It actually keeps getting better.
You know, we just won thanks to Wittenauer Racing.
Thanks. And a big emphasis there. Thanks to Wittenauer Racing.
We just won the F class national championship and the champion in the champ car endurance sports car series.
You know, we've won seven races in two years and things keep getting better and better as making more and more money at it.
And I thought, well, this is this is pretty good.
And then I've been working since 2018 on starting a new luxury watch company for men.
Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
And that's coming to fruition.
And I was at the end of my contract with NBC anyway.
So my contract was already up.
And I thought this this is the time this is the time, you know, I need to launch the watch company now and I need to focus on my racing career now.
And so that's that's really what kind of led me away from, you know, and again, my contract was up, but I'm not even out there looking for for any network work right now for those reasons.
Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.
Well, I mean, so while you were at NBC and Motor Trend, can you kind of tell us a little bit about those experiences?
Yeah, the vast majority of them were overwhelmingly good, especially in the early days of and if you're if you're talking about NBC and Motor Trend, in particular, then you're talking about the Meekum auctions.
And I had just such a fun time on that show.
And I know that after doing the show for 16 years, you've done it for so long and all the little niggles of other people start bugging you and you see the inside of a company and it never looks as good as the outside.
But the fact of the matter is it was good to me.
And when Terry Lingner started that show for Dana Meekum back in 2008, Terry got me and Scott and Scott Hoke and Bill Stevens and Katie Osborn wasn't there yet.
But John Cramer was and got the original cast together.
And he told us over a production meeting, we're sitting at this big round table.
We're all having breakfast together and he goes, guys, here's what I want.
He goes, I want you to close your eyes and imagine that you are sitting in your best friend's garage.
Now you've got a beer in one hand and you're just sitting in a lawn chair, OK, just a lawn chair.
And his favorite car is sitting in front of you and he just washed it.
OK.
Have that conversation.
There you go.
That's the conversation I want.
Just don't come out and try to be a TV announcer.
I want that conversation.
And honestly, those were the best years of the show.
Gotcha.
That is fantastic because I have those conversations with Jason every once in a while.
And I'll look over and say, really, a diaper?
You know, there is anyway.
We tease each other.
But so so tell us more about the behind the scenes that you have that most viewers wouldn't
understand because I know from seeing shows and then going to shows and interviewing folks
and saying it's just, you know, get everybody's got a car story, which is what we're about
in finding that out.
You kind of get a little of how the sausage is made.
And I think, well, good, bad or different.
I think it's fascinating.
What kind of things go into those shows behind the scenes?
Behind the scenes, because when you come, when they, when they come off, I mean, I don't know,
watch those for, for years.
And it just seems like one, two, three, we're good.
30 seconds is just the most perfect piece of nugget of information about that car.
And, and you had it right at the top of your fingers, right off the top of your head.
And I'm like, how did that happen?
Well, I'll tell you a couple of stories about that.
First of all, the general rule in television is that everybody hates everyone else.
So there's, there's way too many egos involved in this.
And that is really par for the course.
Everybody hates everybody.
And when we first got to NBC, working with Terry Langer and me and John and Scott all got together.
The funny thing is we loved each other.
I mean, I still talk to those guys on a regular basis.
I had dinner with Scott and Bill just, you know, some weeks back.
And, you know, we just, we loved each other.
And the original cast on that show really was a tight knit group of people.
And we enjoyed each other's company.
And so, you know, that's, that's one thing about it is that generally speaking, everybody hates each other.
In the early days of that show, we actually got along fantastic.
And then when I'll tell you guys a story, I never read anything.
I say never and I'm about to tell you whatever I'm like.
I almost never read anything online about my own work because nobody's ever happy.
And so one time we had a string of Mustangs that were coming on.
This has been three or four or five years ago.
And it was like a bunch of Fox bodies.
And the producer is in a panic.
And he's on a commercial break.
He comes over the headset in my ear and he goes, Stephen, I didn't know it.
This whole group of Mustangs is coming up next.
We've got an 86 SBO coming up quick.
I need something.
I need something.
And he said, we've got 37 seconds before we go and that's SBO Mustang is coming up next.
He goes, I need something visual.
Show me something visual.
So we came out of commercial and you guys can picture a Mustang SBO Fox body from 1980s.
And so the first thing I did was I said, Hey, you know, welcome back.
Good to have you here on NBC Sports.
Got a group of Mustangs coming up.
These are just fantastic.
And I want you to take a quick look at the rear wing on this car.
You'll notice that it is a by level wing.
Not only do you have the rear spoiler, but you've also got the wing that comes halfway down the hatchback on the SBO Mustangs.
I just took a minute and I talked about it.
So the producer says, Oh, that's fantastic.
Good job.
You know, we got a bunch of Mustangs coming up and I read online and some guy comes up and he says, Oh, yeah.
Thank you very much for telling us what's completely obvious.
Don't bother mentioning the fact that it's turbocharged in a four cylinder.
And the first thing I thought was you don't see how the sausage is made.
The producer looks down the line and he sees 12 straight Mustangs coming and you're coming back from break.
They have not been introduced.
The audience doesn't know what's coming, but they know what they see.
Yeah, exactly.
Take the first few seconds when we come back and give the audience something that even people who don't know SBOs.
Give them something visual.
We are a visual medium.
This is not radio.
We want you to see.
Right.
And the very first thing you do is get criticized for it.
So rule number one in TV is that on most shows, everybody hates each other.
And number two, no matter what you do, somebody's going to find something they don't like.
So if you don't have a thick skin, become a plumber.
There you go.
That is so good.
And whoever was doing that criticism about, well, the agent has this and this.
It's not a rabbit.
People that are tuning into the show, they're going to want to see, if it says unsee, something that's different about it.
Because some of the folks may have had the early generation of Mustangs, the later generation of Mustangs,
but they're seeing a Fox body Mustang.
They're seeing that as exact things like, oh, that is different.
You can't see horsepower.
No, you can't.
And you can open up the hood and look at it.
That's one of the parts like, oh, you describe what you're looking at.
Okay.
Well, that's what that engine is.
But you're not at that point.
You're at the, look at this.
And the audience isn't that point, is not at that point yet.
The audience is just coming back.
They just got out of the refrigerator, got a drink, pet their dog, went to the restroom,
picked up a pack of cornies and just sat back down.
They don't know what's coming unless you tell them and give them a visual reason to go.
I think I remember it did have that rear wing.
That was so weird.
Okay.
Now they're going to watch.
And so that's why he asked for something visual.
There you go.
Giving him that.
Wait, what?
What did he say?
I got to see.
Hang on.
Let's go back and look at this.
Wow.
Well, you know what, Steven, so I own a 65 Mustang myself.
So I share your passion with these cars.
Tell me about it.
Tell me about it.
Well, no, it's a 1965 Mustang came from Huntington Beach, California.
It was signed by Henry Winkler.
The funds from happy days when he did a signing for us back in 2011 when he was
in town here in Louisville, Kentucky.
And, but, you know, I've got three boys.
They've all grown up with this car.
It's, you know, originally off the, the, the showroom floor.
It was gold.
And when I acquired it, it had been repainted red.
It's got a black battle top two 89 C four trans.
And it's just a fun car.
I mean, it's, you know, this was a Lea Coca and a couple of the guys designing
this vehicle back in the day before he moved over to Chrysler.
So it was just a, you know, I've always admired these cars, always
love these cars.
And, and, you know, it's a coupe and it's an automatic.
You got the 289 and do you have the A code or the C code?
It's a C code.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, you got the four barrel.
You got the good one.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So anyhow, we've really enjoyed having it.
Again, I've owned it since 2007.
My oldest son would have been five years old when I acquired it.
And then it came before my, my last son was born in 08.
So he was actually driven home in the, in the neighborhood in that car.
I'm not going to say from the hospital because it's only has lap seats,
seatbelts, but, but nonetheless, yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
But, you know, obviously doing research on you, you know, tell us
about the Blue Thunder and how you got its name.
Blue Thunder is my 1980 Ford Mustang.
And the funny thing is there was, man, I was in school.
I was in school when this movie came out.
And it was, there was a film called Blue Thunder and a starred Roy
Scheider.
And it was about like this black helicopter that was like the most
awesome helicopter you've ever seen.
And, you know, the bad guys get a hold of it.
The good guys take it away.
And it was just a fun film.
And there, there's this one super cool scene in the film where
you're looking across this bridge and you're looking at it from
like a 2D side standpoint.
There's a few people on the bridge and you see their, their,
their silhouette.
In the background behind the bridge, the, this awesome high
power helicopter rises up with the sun behind it.
It's like this really amazing thing.
And so I get out of the movie theater and I'm walking back
to my car.
I think Blue Thunder.
There you go.
My car.
There you go.
Why did I not think of this?
It's so obvious to me.
Yeah.
I got you.
Now, now the funny thing was Blue Thunder had no thunder
back then because my car was born as a force of
power, a four cylinder, 88 raging horsepower, a four speed
transmission, a car.
That's what the 1980 Mustang was.
And over time, I kind of, I just, I wanted to build the
car that I thought Ford should have made to begin with.
Sure.
Right.
And I realized, you know, after having the car, you
know, for 20 some years and early 2000s by now, I realized,
you know, this car's not worth anything.
I mean, the 1980, nobody knew it at the time, but the 1980
Mustang turned out to be one of the least valuable Fox body
years out there.
And in the early 2000s, nobody wanted a Fox body.
They certainly didn't want one with an 18 horse, 88
horsepower four cylinder.
Right.
Right.
I need to give Blue Thunder some serious thunder.
So I went to some friends of mine at McGonigal engines in
Muncie, Indiana.
And I sat down with Dwayne McGonigal who had supplied my
stock car engines for years.
And I said, look, I need this, Blue Thunder needs some
serious thunder.
I mean, we need to make this thing go.
And he goes, I remember, he said, let's design an engine
for you, Stephen.
And he pulled out an envelope and he turns over the back
of the envelope and he gets a pin and he said, okay,
let's start, let's start to work here.
He goes, what would, what do you think?
You need 700, maybe 600 horsepower.
And I started laughing.
I said, Dwayne, once I hit Mach 3, what am I going to do with
the extra 200 horses?
This car weighs 2,900 pounds.
700 horses will send me to the moon in back.
Oh yeah.
So I said, okay, here's what I want.
I want a good idle.
I want to be able to buy gasoline at any gas station
in America.
Right.
The first horsepower number to be a four.
And he goes, okay.
He goes, I got you covered brother.
And so Stiffler's engineering out of Morseville, Indiana
came on board.
They put an entire, they call it their fit system.
And it changed this car night and day.
It drives like a new car.
I had no idea how much flex was in the Fox platform
until Stiffler's put their fit system up underneath the
car to essentially tie the, it's more than tying the
frame.
It created a new frame for the Mustang.
Gotcha.
And then mechanical engines gave me the most reliable engine
you could imagine.
I've got about, it dinos a 407 horsepower.
And I know there are more powerful cars out there.
But when your car weighs 2,892 pounds, you don't need
1,000 horsepower.
There's no weight.
Right.
Cold base radiators put in an aluminum radiator system
that immediately stopped my worrying about stop signs.
Now the parts depot has been very helpful.
And so I called up the people last summer at Nelson
Ledges sports car course.
And I said, do you guys, do you guys have any records?
And they said, we've got some, but they're not really
complete.
And I said, well, will you send them to me?
So they sent me out all the records.
And I said, you know, you don't have a licensed
Fox body in here.
And they said, you're right.
We don't.
Would you like to put one?
And they said, you come out and you put your car on a track
day and whatever you do will be the baseline.
And so we went out last summer and we ran a 122, I think
.3 on lap at Nelson Ledges for this car.
That was incredible.
I think this would have qualified just like 23rd or
something on the grid for the last champ car endurance
race there.
That's a street car.
That's a license street car.
Right.
And so we ended up setting the record there.
And in fairness, when I say set in the record, we
originated the right.
We set the original record.
And I'm sure somebody else is going to beat it soon.
But I didn't have bad lap.
That's right.
So we were super, super happy.
And then the car has just been a joy.
I dated my wife in that car.
I drove to my high school basketball games in that
car.
So it's a, it's a member of the family.
Oh, absolutely.
Most definitely.
So did you end up having to change the rear diff and
all that other fun stuff to support?
Yeah, everything is brand new.
And the cars, the car is not done yet, but we have a
347 McGonagall stroker engine under the hood with
a cold case, aluminum radiator system to keep it cool,
which has done a magnificent job.
Then it goes into a Tremac five speed transmission.
That's been, I didn't get it new.
I actually got had one thing completely rebuilt fresh
to us.
Then we put the stifflers drive shaft loop in.
We had the drive shaft sized and balanced.
And actually I had a new one created then sized and
balanced.
It's got a four nine inch rear end with a 373 rear
gear.
So that's from end to end.
Okay.
Yep.
Wow.
You know, I can, I can tell you right now,
Stephen after hearing about blue thunder and that's
one of my favorite childhood movies growing up
because
Oh, you, you saw it too.
I'm not the only one that is one of my favorite movies.
I was going to say, once you got out of the parking lot
and you said that's going to be blue thunder, did you take
out of the takeoff out of the parking lot with your
stopwatch saying I'm going to get out of here in 30
seconds.
The countdown.
Watch.
Watch.
I can't remember if that was, it was a
Seiko, but that was like the big days of digital
watches and it had this countdown and it was
like a 360 degree countdown and the little dots
around the edges would get smaller and smaller
while it came down.
I remember that to this day.
Yeah.
Well, we're, we're just a couple of Jaffos over here.
That's the first time we got that one.
And yeah, that the visual of coming of that coming
over the bridge is just because people didn't
know what an Apache was yet.
So that's when they were like, Oh, that's amazing.
It's like, wait, let me see what we really, really
Yeah.
And that shot was so the cinematography on that
shot just just sent chills up your spine at
that moment in the film.
It was like a highlight.
Well, I can tell you, I'm not a cool guy, but Jason
let me, we did a, we went to a car show when he
took some of his fleet out to a show and he said,
you want to drive the Mustang?
I'm like, I've never driven a Mustang.
And so I got in a thing.
I'm not a cool guy, but driving that, Stephen,
I felt like a cool guy.
I felt like a cool guy.
I was like, man, this is pretty cool.
Yeah.
And what were your first impressions?
I mean, cause it's Jason's car and Eric drove
it, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So Eric, what were your first impressions not having
driven one before?
I thought what happened to Ford and why do they
lose all the detail?
Amen to that, brother.
I said, cause I'm looking at, and after, and
since then through Jason and his automotive,
I don't know what, your, your exploits.
Okay.
There you go.
With what he does professionally, I managed
to drive a couple other Mustangs newer ones.
And I'm looking at, I'm like, these are the same
gauges that appears to be in my mom's 79 pinto.
That I'm like, what?
Now I've seen my friend's truck, a Ford truck.
I'm like, they, okay, they changed it from
amber, orange, yellow, amber, orange to blue.
But it seems to be the same kind of a thing.
And I'm looking at all the trim pieces and all
the architecture and the detail and all the
detail work in the interior.
I'm like, this is a jewel box.
This is gorgeous.
Why haven't they brought that back?
Why is it so skimmed down to just, there's
some gauges, here's some plastic.
That was my biggest shock was this is a
really cool car.
And the time and the attention to detail
that's inside it and outside it, it all
balances.
There's not too much of one or too much of
the other.
And it drove really nice.
Jason has a modern radio hidden into the
dashboard, which into the glove compartment,
which, and of course he has a Beach Boys CD
playing on repeat.
So if you turn the car on, it just plays
that.
So if you go to a car show, Beach Boys
are playing in this 65.
And I'm looking at it going fidgeting
around with the original radio that's
in it.
How is he, how's music coming out of this
thing?
And he said, oh, I got a radio in the glove
compartment.
All right.
So I'm not just losing my mind here on
this, but I thought it was just a
spectacularly.
I mean, I thought it was an attractive
car.
I gained a lot of respect for it.
It was, it was a, it was a gorgeous
ride.
And that was really nice.
But we've made a new fan.
Mission accomplished.
There you go.
That's exactly right.
Absolutely.
Now, how can we follow it now?
Yeah, you can find a blue thunder on
Instagram.
It's the blue thunder or just look up
the blue thunder Mustang and it'll
crop up.
I think it's the blue underscore
thunder.
But it's on Instagram.
It's easy to find.
Then look up blue thunder on Facebook.
Blue Thunder Mustang or Stephen Cox
blue thunder and it'll come right up
and every time we're getting ready
to do the interior of this winter,
I'm going to strip it all the way
down.
I mean the headliner and the
carpet, everything in between is
all coming out.
So it'll, it'll be fun to kind of
track that.
And we're going to start working
on that in September and really
pick it up and try to get it
done, you know, before, before
Christmas.
So there's, there's a good chance
to follow it.
It's on several other platforms,
but I know it's easy to find
on Instagram and Facebook.
Just look up Stephen Cox blue
thunder or blue thunder Mustang.
Very cool.
And I, and when I was looking at
the pictures of, of what we had
of it so far, I just flashed
back.
I was like, I've been in one of
these.
One of my friends in high
school had one and it's where
he introduced me to the
destroyer album from kiss.
Oh yeah.
Driving to high school.
I was like, what are you
listening to?
He's like, there's your
memories, right?
Detroit Rock City.
I'm like, all right.
I'm a fan because it's
totally friends.
When I was, when I was
putting blue thunder together,
what I wanted to, I mean, you'll
notice when you look at the
pictures that it has pony
wheels, which were not
available in the four-eyed
early Fox bodies.
That's an Lager Fox body
thing.
And I kind of made up my mind
that I wanted to be liberal
enough to put other parts
and not, I wanted to make a
definite rest on my to make
blue thunder better than it was
out of the gate.
But at the same time, I
wanted it to remain a true
Mustang.
So even though the only
1980 V8 that was available
was a 255, that was
still the Windsor Block,
the same old 302 and 351
that had been in Mustang for
generations.
And so when I went up and
talked to Dwayne McGunnigal,
I said, rule number one, it's
got to be a Windsor Block.
I don't care what the final
displacement is, but the
Windsor Block belongs in a
Mustang.
So that's what we're
doing.
Number two, the wheels, I
want them off another
Mustang and preferably a
Fox body.
It may not be the one available
for this year, but I want it to
stay true blue Mustang.
And it's the same thing with
everything all the way through
the car.
If it's not available in that
Mustang, that's fine.
But I don't want to go putting
C5 Corvette parts.
No, there's anything wrong
with the Corvette?
No, I got you.
Yeah, I love Corvettes.
But you get the point.
I want it to be a true Mustang
when I'm done, even though
it's not what Ford built.
Gotcha.
You're making what you
wanted them to have made.
Yeah.
I thought they should have
built to begin with.
Yeah, there you go.
Right.
Oh, that's so cool.
Oil and Bargles will do that to
you, but yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You got some companies
supporting this build too,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, Stiflers has been
on board since day one.
McGonigal engines, cold case
aluminum, radiators,
radiators, national parts
depot.
I mean, I'm just so
thankful for the people that
that have come on board.
They've just done a
wonderful job.
Well, very good.
Well, we're excited to see
the final product.
Make no mistake about it.
So give us your opinion
on the Mustang too.
You know, the Mustang
too, I think it gets
a bad rap because
if there's no Mustang too,
then there's no Mustang at
all in the
71 to 73 Mustangs.
Lee Iacocca did not like
them.
They weren't what he wanted
at all.
They were too big.
They grew both in size
and in weight.
And they were losing
power every year.
And by 1973,
it had run its course.
The Gen 1 Mustang had
run its course,
not because the public
didn't want it.
And it was a great car,
but because government did
what government always
does to everything,
it destroyed it
and ruined it.
Right.
Between the insurance
companies, which I do
not like and the
government, which I like
even less, they
essentially destroyed
the performance industry.
And Ford had to start over
and say, well, they're not
going to allow us to build
the cars that Americans
want.
So how close can we come
and what can we do?
And so they put together
a car that, number one,
came out and actually
increased sales in 1974.
They sold more 74s
than they did 73s.
It was in a free fall.
Now, the Mustang 2 in fairness
also began losing sales
after the first couple of years.
But the fact is it saved the mark.
There was still a Mustang.
You can criticize it all day long,
but without the Mustang 2,
there's no Mustang at all.
Right.
And the one thing they really did,
the big failure and the big success
on the Mustang 2 is this.
The big failure was the fact
that the car was not
mechanically reliable.
People can look at the lack of performance
and say, thank you, government.
You just destroyed performance cars.
But you can still make it reliable.
You can still make a good car mechanically.
And Ford did not do that.
The Cologne engine, the 6-cylinder engine,
the V6 was a disaster.
The 255 V8 was a disaster.
The 4-cylinder soldiered on
all the way into the Fox body years.
It was reliable, but it didn't give you
that good a mileage.
In real life, you got 21 to 25 miles
to account.
So mechanically, the Mustang 2
left a lot to be desired.
But where it succeeded was
number one, it kept the mark alive.
And number two, the car
was, what's the word?
The car was handy.
When you sat in the car
and you closed your eyes
and you just put your hands in front of you,
they naturally perfectly fell
on the steering wheel.
Keep your eyes closed.
Drop your right hand down by the side.
It naturally falls right
on the gear shift.
How about that?
Everything in that car
was handy.
It sat well.
It sat comfortable.
It was a very personal car
that you enjoyed being inside
until it quit running
and then you hated it.
Okay.
And there's some Mustang fans.
I know Jason knows that
when you say, when you mentioned
keep your eyes closed and put your hands there,
they would just prefer to keep their eyes closed.
But yeah, but
one of my aunt's friends had the Cobra
with the blue Cobra stripe on the
panel and I thought,
now that's cool
for Ford to do that.
The Cobra's were the fastbacks.
They were the best looking cars.
And it seems like that's,
after doing the show and doing more research,
it seems like that's,
you can answer this for me.
Is that something that Ford brought
from their British and European
design team?
It goes back to road racing.
The color scheme goes back
to the American colors of road racing
in the 1960s.
Yeah.
That Mustang 2 Cobra
seems like something that you would
usually find in Britain.
Something that they wouldn't give us,
but they keep really fun stuff
over in England and Europe
and they give us like,
well here, don't you want the basic model of this?
No, I want that.
I want the good one.
You didn't bring hot hatches over.
You had to wait until 1976
before the Mustang 2
was somewhat desirable,
but 76, 77 and 78 up the pink Cobra.
They still weren't killers on performance,
but they had a look.
I actually liked them.
I owned two. Don't tell anybody.
We actually had
a school teacher who had one.
Oh, who was it?
I forget. Oh, Miss Kramer?
Yeah. Did?
It was red. That's exactly right.
Yep, that's exactly right.
So the first thing that comes up,
I like Mustang 2s. You ready for this, Steven?
Yeah, I had a crush on
Fairfaucet. There you go.
So Charlie's Angels,
they had these cars
and all their shows
and they were, you know,
but Fairfaucet, that's exactly right.
Does that mean that I had a crush on
Bert Reynolds for the Trans Am?
Goodness. Hey, that's up to you, buddy.
Mine went to
Chrissy Brinkley in the 308.
Oh, of course. Yeah, there you go.
Yeah. Well, I was going to say when
you know, when Pontiac fans,
when you come up with Kate Jackson,
Fairfaucet and Jacqueline Smith,
you know, write me a letter until then,
we got it hands down. That's exactly right.
No doubt. All right.
So let's move on to the Shelby
versus Boss versus Mach 1.
Who wins and why?
Oh boy.
I got to say, you know, Shelby,
Shelby was great,
but he was kind of a con
you know,
in a good kind of way
because he was a genius,
but he was a salesman number one
and when he
realized that the
early GT 350s
were going to be too hardcore,
by the late 60s, early
70s, the Shelby's really became
pretty tame and, you know,
I lean toward
the Boss
and the Mach 1
for two reasons. Number one,
the Boss 429
was only made for two years
and
you're never going to top it because
it was the right car at the right time
with the monster big block
that they want to do a mulligate for use in NASCAR
and it was underrated.
The thing was rated at 370 horsepower
it put out more like 425 or 430
horse. It was just an amazing
machine and there's not
many of them and the 69 and 70s
there's really no difference because they were basically
all built the same year and then
the Mach 1,
what I really love about the Mach 1
is when they came back
in the later years
of the first generation
and everything else was trailing off
they built a 351 Mach 1
that really had a pretty hot
300 plus horsepower engine to it
and that kind of really saved
Ford's performance in the early 1970s
when it was dwindling on all other fronts
so for that reason
the Shelby's are absolutely
amazing but
the Boss 429s
have always done it for me.
Did the Shelby eventually move
this is where
Jason's expertise comes into
when we did this
I'm more of a
Euro 80s
Volkswagen Rabbit, Schrocco
I'm that goober
but I've learned a lot from my
encyclopedia of automotive here Jason
did the Shelby
go from a performance car
to more of like a trim kit
where the Mercedes AMG was a
performance hand built thing
and now it kind of became more of a trim kit
than it was a performance thing
I wouldn't say that it became a trim kit
and
Jason you tell me what you think
but what I would say
the best way to capsilize this
is they realized that they were selling
to a grocery store
and everybody wants a race car
until you actually drive one
then you realize air conditioning
and a nicer ride is really kind of what I wanted after all
and
Shelby realized that
to shoot more broadly
you couldn't just
amologate for SCCA and go out and win races
you needed to have a car
that was gentle enough to be driven on a daily basis
and by the time you got to 1968
the small block Shelby was really kind of anemic
but it was a better driving car on the street
that's how I would put it
I would agree absolutely
absolutely
so
when you take the cars
to race
Blue Thunder for example
are most of the driver
specialists in one
type of Mustang
over another
not one type of Mustang
over another it's usually
it all depends
it would be the type of racing
oh
well yeah I mean the Fox bodies
were fantastic at drag racing
and it's because they had so much
flex in the body work that's the one thing everybody
hated about the car
but because it built like a rubber band
you could take it to a
drag strip and pretty much beat everything
in every body
but you know back in the 1960s
in the Shelby days we were just talking about
every body one of the Shelby GT350
to take it on go SCC in road racing
so it just depends on the era of Mustang
that you're talking about as to what it was best suited to
I guess
so
moving on to the racing side of things
obviously what does it take to be
good at ovals dirt
and or road courses
not many guys
are
and not because they couldn't be
it's because they don't have to be
what it takes is just
a tremendous breadth of experience
on all these different
surfaces and
some sort of natural inclination
for it and my heroes
go back to even guys
that honestly I don't even remember their careers
that well because I was too young but
you know the Mario
Andretti's and the AJ Foyts those guys could jump
in anything in anything
they won NASCAR races
they won IndyCar races Mario
wins a Formula 1 championship
in Europe it didn't matter
they could win in anything AJ Foyts was a
fantastic dirt racer
and so those are the guys that I've always
admired and to be good
at that you have to have done it
all and put down
a whole lot of laps and a whole lot
of different disciplines and the reason
we don't have that anymore is because
driving it's
honestly because of the success of the sport
the sport of auto racing has
succeeded as a result
stock car racing became
its own thing why because financially
it could support itself IndyCar racing
became its own thing USAC
racing became its own thing because
the sport succeeded people loved
it and now you can go
out and run
200 sprint car races
in a single year and make a really good
living at it you can go and
do any of these disciplines
and never cross over and so
you've got brilliant
IndyCar drivers like Paul Tracy who go
into NASCAR and they really struggle
then you've got guys like Jimmy Ellison
who were amazing in stock
cars he goes over to open wheel and
road courses and he really struggles
it's not that they failed they just
didn't immediately go back to
the front where we're used to seeing them because
they grew up as specialists
and you've got to have laps
on different types of racing
services or you're never going to be good
at it.
So the days of the
AJ Foyt
he's NASCAR he's at the Indy race
or who was it who crossed over
I know Tony Stewart was one that
crossed over from one to the other
yeah I used to do a TV
show with Tony and Tony
said and Danica did too
but I asked Tony
I said he and I were
doing a show called the future stars of racing
and I think 1998
or 1999 right about the time he made his
transition away from Indy car
and I said why are you going to NASCAR
you grew up in Indiana like me
and he said
the truth is he goes I want to race every weekend
and NASCAR lets me do that
he goes I love to race I want to be
in a car I don't want to sit here for three weeks
and wait on the next race every weekend
I want to be in a car so that's where I'm going
so that's what he did
And I guess
he's one of the exceptions to
being held at that
I don't know how many
NASCAR guys tried
didn't any NASCAR guys try to go into
Indy car and they're like
well Jimmy Johnson was the most recent
and then
we had some guys that had limited
success I think
Neil Bonnet and a bunch of the guys back in
the 1970s that I was over at Richard
Petty's museum about two or three
months ago and the king was there
and I got to talk a little bit
I hadn't seen him since a
semi show that we had done
done for NBC so
it was good to get a chance to see him again
to renew the acquaintance and to say
it's not like we're best buddies
but I don't have anyone speed dial
but he remembers me and
it was a privilege to be able to shake hands
with him and talk to him
and he told me
that he had
AJ Foyd offered him a ride
and this would have been like the mid 1970s
and I said well why didn't you take it
and he goes cause I couldn't fit in the car
I was too tall
because Richard's like
king is like six foot three or something
you know he was a pretty tall guy
and he may have lost an inch here in the last few years
but he said he goes they got this little tiny
foot box down there I can't get my feet in
it's too small and the head's hanging out the top
he goes I just told him no I don't want to
it's like you know you walked away
for an Indy 500 winning ride
but you know when you're the king
of racing you can do that
there you go
and going along with
his story what's one of the wildest stories
you've ever experienced at a race weekend
what me personally
for you
oh yeah man
in
2017
I had
several shows that I
had to do it once
we were shooting
a road rally
out west
and I had to go let me think
if I can do this June 2nd
or 3rd
and my son and I Stephen Dale
we worked together in television and in auto racing
and so we were
out on
the west coast
doing
an auction on NBC
we did a three day auction
jumped on an airplane
with me this whole time my racing gear
then we go out to
some place in Colorado
was outside of Denver
and we shot a road rally
and we left
there on
Friday night
took an overnight
flight out of Denver
flew all the way back
to Indianapolis at 6am
got in the car
drove straight over to Ohio
and went to Midvale Speedway
and the Super Cup
stock car series was racing there
and I was driving for
C7R motorsports
without a wink of sleep
got in the car and there were two races
that night two of the biggest races
of the year nationally
televised on MAV TV
and we go out and I'm running
3rd in the first race and the rear end goes out of my car
oh jeez
I just stayed up all night
10 days straight
I flew across the country with no sleep
we qualified in the top 5
and the rear end goes out
like well at least I can go to sleep
you know
the second feature is coming up and there's no point
me hanging around
and my teammate was not feeling well
and so my car
the 21 car gets parked for the night
and there's no way they'll get the
complete rear end rebuilt in time for the next feature
and so my team
is not feeling well at all
and his name was Larry and so the crew chief
comes to me and he goes Stephen how do you feel
and I said well I feel great
I just don't have a car and he goes no
that's not what I'm talking about he goes physically
can you do another race and I said well yeah
of course I can because he was concerned
that I was just too exhausted from
having slept in 48 hours
and he goes well get your helmet on
and I said my
car and he goes doesn't matter you're getting it in the number 7
and so because
of the driver change instead of starting
on the front row we had to go dead last
in the field but
Larry's car was really good
this was a really
fast car and so I'm thinking
okay I put
my fire suit back on because I'm not getting
any sleep tonight either and
so we jumped in the car started
dead last and thanks
to the crew really
at C7R
we won the race from dead last
we passed the entire
field with no
sleep and won the race
so
and you know a better driver than me
would have probably lapped the field because I mean
this car was amazing
this car was flat amazing
so that was one of the
coolest stories that
nobody ever knows because this stuff didn't make the TV
show you know sure
it was a lot of fun it was a lot of fun
hence is why we want to ask these questions
questions
well
and is there
anybody in racing
driver wise or other that
you haven't met that you're
that's still on your list of I need to meet
that person
yeah
that's still with us
I don't want to be grim about it but that's
yeah yeah yeah no no I
know what you're saying I mean I guess
I'd like to spend more time with
you Jay Floyd I just met him once in passing
which I'll tell you about in a second
but
I always felt
like
Michael Andretti was a guy
who
sometimes he overdrew a car
you know he took a lot of criticism in formula one
but if you put him in an Indie car
if you needed one lap
I just need one lap
and I needed faster than any human being
on planet earth I need one lap
he was the guy
he was the guy that I would call at the peak
of his career
and I'd also like to ask him
how he feels after
Andretti Global got turned down by
formula one
and all the funny thing was formula
one said we're not going to let Andretti come in
because we don't think it'll be competitive
well you just had one guy when 17
or 18 races there's no competition
in formula one
competition in formula one don't even belong
in the same sense you're worried they won't be competitive
there is no competition
it's not WWE
for the road
nobody said that ever
well you got a whole bunch of guys
within one race
and then to tell somebody
they can't be competitive it's like the series is not competitive
so
I love formula one but I mean let's be real
so I'd like to ask him about that
and I remember
first time I covered the Indie 500
maybe six in Indianapolis everybody said
don't go in AJ's garage
I mean he
this is in the early 2000s
he still had some bite back then they said he'll bite your head off
I mean just don't do it
and I needed to go in the garage for whatever reason
and I was looking for somebody
and I'm floating around and so I opened the garage door
and I walk in there's AJ
and his whole team is working on the car and I thought I'm a dead man
oh no
and he looked at me and he goes
hey there young man what can I help you with
I thought
oh you didn't kill me
that's one thing I've lost my job yet
and everybody said that AJ
has got this flaming wild temper
and maybe he did and that's the guy
I never spoke to him again but he was nice to me that day
I'll always be grateful for that
I've actually got AJ Evoit's
autograph I'll show it to you
is that right? yep I sure do
met him at the Kentucky Derby
super nice guy I mean he was
like maybe three rows
went to the Kentucky Derby this was years ago
so
but from what I remember of him
he was a very nice gentleman
yep
no go ahead I'm sorry
I'm sure that maybe he had
a big attitude and would get fire
inside the car but I mean to me and you
he was nothing but kind
absolutely yeah it was a better fact
he took the
pamphlet of the
program thank you
tore off the page and signed his name
on it for me so
I'll show it to you upstairs
but yeah
he was a very nice guy then
how does he now roughly
he's probably
mid to late 80s
he won
the amazing thing
is not that he won
indie four times
the amazing thing is that he didn't win it
seven times
no
he came so close
on so many occasions only to go away
with some kind of problem at the last minute
he was so
dominant at racing throughout the 60s
and early 70s
he had the Ford Fairlane right
they can write
no I'm talking the Indianapolis
oh Indy oh I'm sorry
yeah he's
riding around on the coyote in 1977
which is of course where the Mustang got
the new 302 that was introduced around 2011
mm-hmm okay
very good
so here's a good question for you
so and you may have already answered it to some degree
perhaps
who were some of your
biggest influences in the motorsport
car culture I mean I know
you spoke of AJ Floyd is there anybody else
besides him that
led to some of your
successes
yeah I really
felt like
let's see
there's that I'm trying
to narrow the list down quite a bit
I know there's probably
again I thought Michael
Andretti was a guy
that I would really like to be able to emulate
when he was at the top of his game
on a single lap basis I don't know if there was
anybody faster another guy that I really had
a tremendous amount of respect for was
Rick Mears because
Roger Penske tells a story that
when he was in when Rick Mears
was in desert racing
somebody introduced
them and said hey you know you may be interested
in this kid why don't you bring
Rick Mears out and
so Roger Mears
I'm sorry Roger Penske
was out on the west coast for
business and sure enough
he calls up Rick Mears and says I'm going to be
out at this location out in the middle of the desert
I'd like you to come out here we need to talk a little bit
and he said when you want me to come out
and he gave him some ridiculous time like 6 a.m.
or something like that
and Rick Mears shows up a half an hour
early and was waiting
for him when he arrived and he said
that's the kind of kid that I want
and a lot of people don't realize
or don't remember is that
Rick Mears was just as
good on road courses
as he was on ovals
he became known as the oval
Meister four-time Indianapolis 500 winner
nobody was better on an oval but until
he had a terrible crash
that broke his feet and ankle something
awful he was just as good
as anybody out there and was a brilliant
road racer so
the guy could drive absolutely anything
he even raced motorcycles for a little
while and you know he's
another guy that I would point to and say you know
if I could be like Rick Mears
that wouldn't be too bad a comparison
you know Roger sure
wow well
so far as announcing goes I would say
Bob Jenkins
Bob passed away some years ago
but I mean he was the voice of racing
in both IndyCar and NASCAR at various
times and he was the nicest
guy ever and he and I were
out west and I think 1998
we were in Denver
know what is the
track the tracks in Colorado Springs
and they've got
the raceway out there
and Pikes Peak that's what I'm saying
and I actually
ran out there a few times but
I was out there for the opening of that track
and they had a great big USAC race out there
and me and Bob
and the rest of the crew went
out there and I was talking to him in a restaurant
and people come up and are asking him for his autograph
that is a pretty good get you know
I'm sitting here eating steak eating
bison burgers with Bob Jenkins
international raceway you know life
could be pretty good we're getting ready to go on the air
together tomorrow and I asked him
what's the toughest part of this job
about batten and I he said the travel
he said the race amazing
everything is amazing the life
is amazing you get to live like a rock
star and people know who you are and you
go from one place to the next but he said the trap
just burn you out
I always remember that and boy did he turn out to be right
but Bob Jenkins
from the announcing
standpoint Bob Jenkins was
to me one of the best announcers
to ever sit behind the microphone
and a nice guy
a nice guy and a good dear friend
mm-hmm very cool
and I just I was doing a little look up here
because I know when Jason was mentioning the
Fairlane I think you're talking about
when AJ did Daytona
races did it NASCAR
and I was thinking
AJ Foyt and Mario Andrenio are the only
two drivers at one both Daytona
500 and Indy 500
so they were both
NASCAR and Indy
drivers at one point
and trying to find a guy that does that today
you'll find a handful to make the crossover
like John Andretti and
we've even had some more recent efforts as well
like what was it Kurt Busch or somebody
but not many
no and I think it goes what you say
you spend so much time
focused on
the type
of machine that you're driving
and the amount of effort
and energy and just
physicality that it takes
to
to drive one of those cars not just in one race
but for a whole season
is something else
yeah well I mean I found out that the hard way
exactly what you're saying because
you know I went out and
whenever I went into style because I've driven about everything
there is out there I'm racing trucks
I've driven everything there is to drive just about
and I went out and started racing some of the stock cars
and I thought man
these guys are amazing
I mean I can crack the top five
these guys are really good then
they've never done anything else
they didn't run sprint cars
they didn't run go-karts
and they're not going to do anything else
they're short track aces
in the heart of stock car racing
you're not going to beat these guys
at least it's not going to be easy and then I went out west
and I did three years of driving
in jeep speed
and trophy truck
and these guys
they've never done anything else
they've never done any of the time
when you find a new genre of racing
and you get into it and you start working with those guys
you realize
they haven't done all these other forms
of motor sport
they've done one thing their entire life
and you kind of get good at it after a while
and then you're coming in from the outside
and saying well I'm an old over track racer
I think I'll try to mix it up
with the southern stock car guys on asphalt
and then you get handed to you three weeks in a row
and you wonder why
what would you say is
the most challenging car you've ever raced
and why
I'm going to say
probably
the open wheel modified
I
had one of those
I raced them up for about five years
and I remember
it was in the garage
and they're working on it
and if you can imagine an open wheel
modified in your mind just sort of half
stock car and half open wheel
it's technically an open wheel car
the front two wheels are completely open
there's no other dog house on the car at all
the right rear wheel is completely open
because it sticks out real far
but imagine an open wheel modified in your mind
while my sponsor just knew he loved racing
and his name was
Mike and he had never
seen an open wheel modified
and I kept trying to tell him think
sprint car front stock car rear
put the two together that's what you got
and he could mentally picture it
and so he walked in and I'm sitting there
working on the car because I owned a car back then
I haven't owned a car in many many years
but I owned one back then
and he looked at it and he goes this is it
and I said yeah
because you told me it was a car
and I said this is an open wheel modified
he goes no this is an engine
it's got a couple of tubes around it
there's no car he says this is 90% engine
and 10% car
and he was right
on 1900 to 2100
pounds and it's got 5600 horsepower
and it was the only car
to this day that I've ever driven
that I could go out to Winchester Speedway
with 36 degree banking
come off a corner at 120 miles an hour
hit the gas and spin the rear wheels
so there you go
wow yeah
so let's talk about
some of the cars that you've had
I know reading some
I think you had a Toyota MR2 at one point
you had obviously
the Fox Body Ford Mustangs
you just mentioned
you don't have a car right now
am I correct in hearing that is that what you said
I don't own a race car
okay gotcha alright
so what's your daily driver
I guess is a good question to ask you
my daily driver
is a BMW Z4
oh nice alright
it's a successor to the BMW Z3
which was made famous in 1995
with the introduction in the
Pierce Brosnan James Bond film
Goldeneye then a few years later
in 2003 they introduced
its successor the Z4
and I bought a first year model
so it's a 2003
it's an older car
and I also got
instead of the two and a half
instead of the three liter I had to settle
for the two and a half liter engine
but I got what I wanted
they had both the sport package
on the same car
so I found it
and it was a five
speed it was not an automatic
so I snapped it up
that is my daily driver
that's what I meant
that is so fun
now have you replaced your coolant
reservoir tank yet
I'm kidding
I will never do that
somebody else may for me
I kid any BMW owner with
I said have you changed your coolant reservoir tank
if you haven't you might need to
I'm kidding
I drove the Z3
and I almost got one of those and then I ended up having
a family and it wasn't
that practical
but absolutely
such a fun well balanced car
with the right power for the power to weight ratio
it's
it's a lot of fun
it's what Miata should have stayed with
and BMW ran with it
shift oh my gosh
I'm 6'4 Stephen
so I don't have a whole lot of access
to some of these smaller cars
but when I can fit in them they are fun to drive
I don't think you can do the Z3
but I bet you can do the Z4
very likely
I'm 6'3
and the contortion show
that was me getting into a Porsche Boxer
I thought Jason was going to record it
I managed to get
in to get the top down
and then it was easy to get in and out of it
exactly yes that's the
driving it was great
I mean it had so much power in the sound
just made you want to hit the gas more
just more
but as my eyes are
over the windscreen I realized this isn't safe
if you're looking directly at the road
not through the windscreen you're going to have issues
and I don't have the I'm exactly
6 feet so
6 feet tall
in the
BMW Z4 with a couple of inches
of extra headroom
not so much in the Z3 of a Miata
I fit in the first generation
Miata and a mechanic told me
that they shortened the wheelbase just a little bit
when they took the pop-up headlights out
I said yeah I can fix those
this guy is going to be 6'5
he said the new ones I have to have one of the kids
bring it in for me
can't do it
but yeah those are great
when it comes to
what's a car in your past that you wish you
either never sold or parted with
that you'd like to have today
you're like oh that was so great
yeah
because I think we all have a basket case in our background
we're like man that was so great when it ran
and then when it broke it was a death of a thousand cuts
but it was so great
I still love it
I'm going to give you
two cars from my past
that I wish I had back
and no it's not the Mustang too
they're the total opposite
ends of the universe
the first one was a
1971
Ford Turpino
that car was beautiful
and it kind of drove like a truck
with the squeaky springs
but they all did back then
that was 1971 that's just the way cars were
it was surprisingly balanced
and handled
much better than you would think
a 1970's car with
old style transmission would handle
it was actually reasonably well balanced
was I think the 1970
motor trend car of the year
the 302
put out 210 horsepower
so you know it's not going to knock your socks off
but it would get up and go some
you could spend the back tires
and have a little bit of fun with it
I just wanted not only to get
my 302 small
block powered Turino back
I've had two of them sold them both
but I'd like to get one with a big block
that would be fun
now at the complete other end of the universe
the other if you're a sports car guy
not a muscle car guy
the car that I sold that I would like to have
back was a 1987
Toyota MR2
you're talking
first generation
this is the wedge car
remember the wedge car from the 1880's
the FIERRO and stuff
this was a wedge car, it was like the Triumph had one too
and
the MR2
was
super light
it was super fun to drive
it only had 119 horsepower
but I never had so much fun
in my life and
every car has a zone that it likes to operate in
it has not just the engine
power band but the zone
that the car itself wants to be in
and
the MR2
came into its own it came alive at 90 miles
an hour
and it would do over 110 but 90 to 110
is where that car wanted to be
driven day and night
it's
I
was not allowed to get one
and ended up with the
86 CRXSI
it had a hatchback
son be practical
it doesn't even have a hatch
it's got a trunk ish
right exactly
the MR2 had storage
in front and back did you know that
front and back
and it's a mid engine car
it was not a rear engine
this was technically a mid engine car
with a trunk in the back and storage in the front
and I drove that thing
to races all around the country
from here to Halit motor
speedway in Oklahoma
east coast for stock car races
and I had to take it tight
but man that car was fun
and it had the reliability
of being a Toyota
that's kind of a bonus you're right
that's a good point yeah
you could drive that thing you could drive the doors
off of it and it would sit there going
alright just change my oil
never complained
never had mechanical breakdowns
conditioning was ice cold
and the car
the car taught me
that big numbers
don't equate to big fun
not always sometimes they do
but the fun factor
in a car is more important
than anything when I drive blue thunder
that car will do
the theoretical top end is I think
156 this light
it's fast I had
it passed about 130 and there was no reason
faster but
what's fun
is with the 373 rear end
when you're in
second and third gear
you don't even have to spin the tires
you just press down the accelerator
and it's this unthinkable surge
of power that pushes you back in the seat
that's where fun's at
I don't have to do 156 miles an hour
to have fun in that car
and the MR2 was the same way
it was so rewarding to drive
on a mile basis
I would still recommend a Gen 1
MR2 to anybody that
I second that
didn't they have a reflective MR2
in the rear window
the little spoiler over the back window
there was a little clear
little spoiler piece over the engine
compartment that had
MR2
it was so fun
the great thing about those cars
is torque
and you could
you could beat
most cars off the line
up to third gear
and then they blow your doors off
but off the line
I got you for at least
until about 45 miles an hour
then your power spool is up and you got me
but off the line I got you
such fun cars
and I'm jealous that you had air conditioning
because mine I bought from somebody who
ended up racing there as SCCA class
and it was pretty stock at the time
and
they stripped it out
no the interior was still nice
the hood had some interesting embellishments
on it which made me put one of the old
school
younger kids out there
cars used to wear bras
and you could have a LeBron
that thing it would hide all kinds
of damage that a previous owner did
to it
but did you not have AC
because that was 80 pounds less
that they would have an SCCA racing
I'm like it's a CRX
it's not going to change anything
they took the reservoir tank out and put in a
what was the cool reservoir tank
it was a
two liter mountain dew bottle
that was
strapped into the thing
now that's a real racing right there
I looked at that I was like
alright and it was fun
to race it but
it was 80
oh goodness
80
whenever they
it was one of the hottest summers we had
and all the air conditioning that I had
was just like my first car
which was a rabbit was the windows in the
sunroof there's your air conditioning
so
but they never took the fuse out
I wouldn't take the fuse out because I was
an automotive masochist in this way
I pushed a little button every once in a while
that's it there's nothing else going on
but that little blue light still worked
it made you feel better
it's the simple things
it's the little things because
everybody has that automotive masochist in them
that says man that car is a basket case but I loved it
it was so much fun
that's the way I was with motorcycles
I don't care if there's nothing but a bear frame sitting there
I always dreamed of what it could be
there you go
and everybody else is like you're insane I know
I probably am but what this could become
I'm convinced that I could do it too
and I'm a terrible mechanic
keep one thing broken
so that way the car
doesn't get it you fix one thing and something else happens
so you keep one thing that you know that's broken
that's not critical
that's a strategy
it's exactly what that is
no doubt
Steven we have two more questions for you here this evening
and thank you again so much for your time here
we just talked about the cars
you wish you hadn't parted with
the car in the future that you'd like to acquire
yes
a 2012
Ford Mustang
let's see
what is the special edition
the Laguna Seca
boss edition
that's what I want
when you go to the back of the car
it has this faux gas cap
in the center of the back trunk
and it's about six inches across
it's a huge gas cap
and in the Laguna Seca edition
it has
a map
it's an outline overhead map
of the track that is on that cap
oh that's so cool
the trim package on it
is absolutely amazing
you're buying a genuine
boss Mustang
that was the anniversary edition
re-released back in 2012 and 2013
I think 2012-2013
they had several
trim packages on them
and one of them was the Laguna Seca package
it had a special splitter up front
the car was fast
had great power
and really good handling package
and
if I hit the lottery
or the stop with watch company
takes off into the blue and makes me
a millionaire
I won't be getting a brand new car
I'm going to be going somewhere
in a trailer that wants the best
Laguna Seca
boss Mustang from 2012-2013
that you can possibly find
that is really cool
how about that
we talked about it before we started
the show I'm going to ask you a question
that I've asked everybody that's been on our show
and it's always led
to some interesting conversations here
and we've asked this with
Maro Andretti
and all the folks and we're glad to ask
you all those silly characters
and so
when you took your driver's test
what car did you use?
oh
yeah
I'll tell you
I was in a Chevrolet
Chevette
that's our first Chevette I think
it might be our first Chevette
it was the
monstrously hideous four door
version
it was a dark red
and the reason I did that
is because I went to
my driver's education
program at Moorsville High School
south of Indianapolis
and they had this fleet of Chevets
that they mistook for cars
and that's what everybody
went into to learn to drive
and so when it
came to your test after you got out of driver's
ed they took you straight into the test
in the Chevette
and if I did own a Chevette
I would not admit it on a podcast
but that's how I ended up
in a Chevette in Moorsville
Indiana at the BMV
there you go
having driven a Chevette
I could tell you when I did drive it
I said I really could have just walked here
you know
you know what you were really saying
you were really wishing after that Chevette
I won a Mustang too
there you go
I wanted an out
I wanted a bus pass
I thought this thing
that thing went
as I think Ron White said once best
the thing drove at the speed of smell
the amount of
horsepower in that thing
I could probably push
the speed of push starting a car
back in the day when the battery goes dead
you just push started, pop the clutch
you're going
I literally could have walked
where we needed to go
faster than that thing
and I was like dude
do you drive this daily?
this can't be safe
but
wait no
this is bad
this is really bad
oh you could say you owned a Vette
no
there you go
you're not wearing white new
balanced shoes for a Chevette
and jeans shorts for that
no exactly
well Steven I tell you what it has been
more than a pleasure having you this evening
and we certainly wish you much
continued success
where can our listeners find you right now?
probably the easiest
place to follow me and to
get still a lot of the car reviews
that I'm doing on a weekly basis would be
on either Facebook or Instagram
on Facebook just look up
Steven Cox, Steven with a PH
Steven Cox racing driver
and that will separate
I don't think there's another Steven Cox racing driver
there's a million Steven Cox's
so you come up with me easily there
same trick works on Instagram
and I
I respond to everything myself
so if
my social media manager is a guy named
JD he's down in Atlantis
John's super nice guy
but I tell him when people
message they want to talk to you
so if you send me a message there
I will personally receive it
and I really enjoy hearing from people
and I hope you enjoy the car reviews
so you know what's being there
say hi
Facebook only allows you like 5 or 10,000
friends or whatever the limit is
I've already asked that the limit so you'll have to follow me
and then send me a message but
everybody out there I'd love to hear from you
well we would love to have you back
on the show this was
again there's a million more questions
there are 14 minutes here
and I don't want to keep you any longer
but we would love to have you back
so please be on the lookout for that here in the future
well Jason Eric
put me on your list and write the questions down
and we'll do it again man
we appreciate it
and thanks for listening
and happy motoring from your friends here
at the classic car corner podcast
I'll just ignore you
and drive you in my dreams
I'll drive you in my dreams
drive you in my dreams
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