Stephen Cox - Racing Driver, Television Host, Motorsport Journalist

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

That's right.

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.

You got some companies

supporting this build too,

right?

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

Stephen Cox - Racing Driver, Television Host, Motorsport Journalist

Chevrolet Corvette

Chevrolet Camaro

Ford Falcon

Ford Mustang

Mustang Fox Body

Ford Pinto

Lamborghini Gt 350S

Volkswagen Rabbit

Shelby GT350

Ford Fairlane

Toyota MR2

BMW Z4

BMW Z3

Mazda MX-5 / Miata

Porsche Boxer

About this episode

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