The Car You Really Want: Balancing Power, Comfort, And Performance on the V8 Radio Podcast
V8 Radio Podcast
The Car You Really Want: Balancing Power, Comfort, And Performance on the V8 Radio Podcast
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Term
hardtop
A hardtop is a type of car where the roof is solid like a regular car, but it doesn't have a middle post between the front and back windows. This makes the side windows look open and smooth when rolled down.
Term
pillarless car
A pillarless car is one where the windows on the side can all go down and there's no vertical bar between the front and back windows, so it feels very open when the windows are rolled down.
Car
Cadillac DeVille
The Cadillac DeVille is a big, fancy car that many people liked because it was very comfortable and looked nice. The 1973 model often had two colors and a special roof that made it stand out.
Car
Ford Model A
The Ford Model A is an old car made by Ford that you could start by turning a handle on the front, called a hand crank. It was one of the last cars made that way before electric starters became standard.
Concept
restomod
Restomod means fixing up old cars but adding new parts and technology so they work better and feel more modern, while still looking like old cars.
Term
muscle cars
Muscle cars are strong and fast cars made in America a long time ago, with big engines that make them go really fast.
Concept
powertrain
Powertrain means the parts of a car that make it move, like the engine and the parts that send power to the wheels.
Concept
full restoration
Full restoration means fixing up a car completely so it looks and works like new again.
Concept
project car
A project car is a car someone is fixing up or changing to make it better. It might not be finished yet and needs work to be ready to drive or look how the owner wants.
Concept
automotive aftermarket
The automotive aftermarket is where you buy parts and accessories for your car after you have already bought it. This includes things like better brakes, new wheels, or cool upgrades.
Term
high performance suspension system
A high performance suspension system is a special setup on a car that helps it drive better, especially when going fast or around corners.
Part
bushings
Bushings are soft parts that help parts of the car's suspension move smoothly without making noise or shaking too much.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Mustang is a well-known sporty car from Ford that many people like to upgrade and make faster or stronger.
Term
performance camshaft
This is a special engine part that helps the engine breathe better and make more power by changing how the valves open and close.
Term
gear noise
Gear noise is the sound you hear when the gears inside the car's axle or transmission rub together. Some gears make more noise than others, which can be annoying inside the car.
Term
pinion gear
The pinion gear is a small gear inside the car that helps turn the wheels by connecting to a bigger gear. How it fits with the bigger gear can change how noisy the car is.
Term
gear ratio
Gear ratio is a number that shows how many times the car's engine turns compared to the wheels turning. Changing this number can make the car faster or quieter.
Part
tubular control arms
Tubular control arms are parts that connect your car's frame to the wheels and help the wheels move smoothly. They are made of strong tubes and help your car handle better, especially when driving fast.
Part
hydraulic body engine mounts
These mounts hold the engine in place but use fluid inside to soak up bumps and shakes so the ride feels smoother.
Term
disc brakes
Disc brakes are parts of the car that help it stop by squeezing a flat metal disc attached to the wheel. Sometimes they can make noises or vibrations when braking.
Term
peak horsepower
Peak horsepower is the highest amount of power an engine can make, but you usually only reach it for a very short time, like when you push the car really hard.
Part
torque converter
A torque converter is a part in automatic cars that helps the engine's power get to the wheels smoothly, especially when starting or stopping.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a famous sporty car from America that people love because it looks cool and goes fast. The 1969 model is especially popular for car races where drivers test how well their cars handle tight turns.
Car
Pontiac Firebird
The Pontiac Firebird is a sporty car from America that looks cool and goes fast. The second version of this car is popular with people who like to change parts to make it look even better.
Term
460
The 460 is a big engine made by Ford that gives a lot of power, often used in big trucks and vans.
Term
Ford nine inch
The Ford nine inch is a strong part at the back of some cars that helps the wheels turn. Racers like it because they can change how fast the wheels spin by swapping parts inside it.
Term
351
The 351 is a type of engine made by Ford that is quite powerful and was used in many cars and trucks.
Part
pinion depth
Pinion depth is how deep one gear sits inside the other in the car's rear axle. Getting it right helps the gears work quietly and last longer.
Term
ring gear
The ring gear is a big gear inside the back part of the car that helps turn the wheels by working with a smaller gear.
Car
Ford Crown
The Ford Crown Victoria is a big car that was often used as a taxi or police car. It is known for being strong and roomy, making it good for carrying people around in cities.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a strong and fast car from America that many people like because it looks tough. Sometimes, people look for parts from older Chargers to fix or make their cars look better.
Car
Shelby GT500
Ford is a big company that makes many different cars and trucks. Some special Ford cars, like the Shelby GT500, can be made to look nicer by adding shiny parts like special mirrors.
Car
Shelby GT500
The Shelby GT500 is a very fast and strong version of the Ford Mustang car. People like to add shiny parts to make it look even cooler and more special.
Car
Renault Wind
The Renault Wind is a small car with a roof that can open up so you can feel the air while driving. Some people say it can be a bit noisy when the wind blows while you drive fast.
Car
Ford Model
The Ford Model T is a very old car that helped many people buy their first car because it was cheaper than others at the time. You had to start it by turning a handle on the front, which is different from how cars start today.
Car
Buick Regal
The Buick Regal is a comfortable and nice-looking car that people liked in the 1970s. It was a bit fancier than regular cars and was easy to spot driving down the street.
Car
Plymouth Fury
The Plymouth Fury is a big car from America that was popular many years ago. The 1978 version was a four-door car that many people used for everyday driving.
LIVE
All righty friends it's super exciting we're super excited because you did it
once again you hit the magic play button on yet another Kevin another Gentile
episode of v8 radio Gentile mm-hmm needs polite refined or believe it or not
respectable so why did you choose that word I don't know well this is Gentile
Kevin and Mike you ball Clark here at the helm of the V radio podcast and like
to welcome you to the show we got a lot going on on this episode to cover I have
kind of this is gonna be an important episode this is gonna be like you know
when we were growing up and on Tuesday night the ABC network promos would come
on where you know Al Parker the voiceover guy Saturday on a very special
loveboat that's what this is but before we get into all the super
specialness we'll get into the regular specialness which is the automotive
trivia question right you can't wait so do this everybody who tunes into the
show for this reason knows that we threw out a couple of trivia questions in the
beginning and we let everybody ponder the universe for a while until the end of
the show and reveal the riveting answers and oh my gosh it's it's just a big
festival it is it's the greatest podcast hook of all time wish it was our
idea well it can be as far as we're concerned all right so here's our
question all right what so Kevin and listener what term did Oldsmobile use
to describe their two-door hardtop cars with no B pillar post aha the two-door
hardtop cars no B pillar so in the overall automotive definition a hardtop is
a pillarless car mm-hmm and that's that's a trivia question itself because
there are people who think a hardtop meant to like some type of finish or
treatment to the roof mm-hmm like it either not a convertible or I see people
that call vinyl top cars hardtop cars mm-hmm and that is also incorrect and true
definition is the pillarless so the windows all go down and it's a big open
thing and I by the way I love four-door hardtop cars oh for sure a hundred
percent those are beautiful yeah it's huge that opening it just massive when
all the windows are down yeah when I was a kid my dad used to buy these cast off
you know 10 12 year old used Cadillacs from the local dealer in town and I
remember he came home with a 73 sedan deville it was midnight blue with a
white vinyl that blue paisley interior yes Cadillac head and it was a four-door
hardtop and you put all the windows down and it was like being on a cruise ship
you know just right you had breezes coming by and you know wide open and but
what it holds call theirs well I'm gonna say they call it the holiday the holiday
coop I'm gonna say that term applied holiday coop that sounds delightful
cuz just you know like being on the cruise ship in the Cadillac you know
you're in a two-door holds hardtop no pillars windows all down you're kind of
on holiday you I mean anytime you're in the Cadillac you're on a holiday so final
answer yes holiday duly noted sir I'm gonna pause our trivia question to throw
out a special shout out to our good friend mr. Mike Pastello who was a
recent guest hey and a couple episodes ago Mike shared a lot of stories about
building engines that were built 120 years ago Mike had sent in a letter to
UNI I got in the mail including a couple of matchbox car versions of the the GM
bus that was the basis of the trivia question here from that episode and he
sent a letter that was fantastic it's a paper three fold printed letter that was
typed on a typewriter well and he he he typed this yeah oh yeah exactly and I
gotta see if I have it with me because it was hilarious reading this thing because
you can clearly tell he's kind of struggling with his typing I mean that's
that's how it should be with Mike Pastello he's awesome yeah oh yeah totally
and and I would expect nothing less than analog communication technology from
him but he went on to say how much he enjoyed being a part of the episode
which we appreciate and that he hopes there's a part two someday which I would
also like yes and he said please accept these the the the buses put them on your
shelf so when people come in they can be befuddled by how a bus turned into a
station wagon and if you don't know that story you got to listen to the the
podcast and then he goes on to say I'm typing this on an analog typewriter just
in case the apocalypse occurs and I still need to send letters out but I have no
idea what I'm doing so nice nice so that was very fun so thank you for that
Mike yeah thanks we'll have him back in yeah where's my bus I got it it's the
next time you come to the shop I got all right fair enough fair enough all right
good deal all right here's one for you what this could be two parts it could be
one part or two part how do you want it you want it a one part or two part give
me a two part at least I can maybe can get partial credit all right so what was
the last mass produced vehicle that could be started with a hand crank oh and
when did it cease production so to rephrase that you could buy a certain
vehicle up until a certain year and started with a hand crank what was it
and when did it stop oh my god yeah here we go yep last mass produced vehicle
with a hand crank and when did it cease production I'm gonna say the 1925 Ford
model a can you turn the band down a little bit God take five fellas take five
yeah and a one nanotube all right so 1925 model a for you a model a so yeah
and that that's the last time you could get it was 25 okay what a question I mean
that sounds that sounds pretty good yeah you know when it comes to to what
that could have been we'll find out if that's your final answer final answer
duly note that please all right it is duly noted right on okay well so we'll
find out the answers to these riveting questions at the end of the show and
it's just gonna be so satisfying hmm but let's get on to our very special
episode let's do this might have been a little overselling but we'll find out
but here's here's the topic right so at the v8 speed and rest of shop we're very
fortunate to be able to do a variety of different work on all kinds of different
hot rods classics muscle cars cool trucks and whatnot and the nature of this industry is
that some of the some of the vehicles we are building we're truly building we're doing a full
car from an idea to drive it home or ship it somewhere in which we've touched everything
we made every decision with the customer we planned everything you know like from the
stance and the powertrain and colors and all the stuff custom modifications body
mods all the stuff what kind of interior but there are other projects that come in
that are either not full restorations they might be an upgrade might be some
maintenance and and our philosophy on this is the mission statement of our shop
is to connect people to the best times that are lives through things with wheels
which means there's a lot of room in the car culture to do a lot of different stuff right
for sure and there are some shops out there that only do you know full builds there are also
repair shops that only do repairs and everything between but we're fortunate to have the the talent
and the resources and the capabilities to kind of do all of it which means there are many times
when a car will come in that has been you know modified once before or
you know everything has been worked on because these are in some cases you know 30 40 50 or
100 year old cars so it's very very unusual to get something that's never been touched
but sometimes people come to us they go hey man I I either just bought this car and it's
got a bunch of stuff on it and it's not what I want or it's not doing what I want or in some cases
it's uh this was a project that kind of stalled out and I want to get it going again and I think
you guys can help us with it and whatever so the point being sometimes cars come in that have
parts choices made on them or systems choices that personally I might not agree with right and
it becomes a little bit of a challenge sometimes because especially if somebody's invested time
and money to make those choices and then they're finding out that either they don't work the way
they expected or what I'm finding out even more so is that they don't know what to expect
and they don't know like what the consequences are of the choices they've made right right
so and this sounds kind of vague but a great example would be the automotive aftermarket
does a wonderful job of marketing parts and products boy howdy so yeah and and good I mean
that's what we want for sure but as Billy Joel said you can't get the sound from the story in a
magazine when you see like a company that's advertising a high performance suspension system
for a particular car that's designed to provide you know great handling and modern car performance
and you know maybe some autocross use and it's got all the buzzwords and it's tubular and geometry and
you know specific bushings and camber gain and all the stuff unless you experience that with your
own two butt cheeks behind the wheel you don't really know what that car is going to be like
so we see a lot of people who say yeah well this car is cutting you know carving corners
at an autocross and look at the stance and how it sits I want that so they they buy the system
with the coil overs and the you know multi adjustable shock absorbers and the big sway bars
and all the stuff quick ratio steering box and then it gets put on the car
and then in some cases we've received vehicles that the owner hasn't even driven yet because they
they weren't finished to that point so the owner still has no experience with it or you drive the car
and it will do everything that was promised in the in the ad but at the cost or the expense of
other factors that might still have been important that now no longer are there
so for example if you if you build up I don't care a chivalre or a Mustang or a Camara any
frame or control arm upgrades and you put spherical rod ends and hind joints or solid
bushings in it and body mounts or urethane engine mounts and urethane transmission mounts to make
everything stiff with the goal of I want this stiff I want a rigid platform so I can go beat
this car up and really enjoy it well your drive to that event could be miserable because you've
taken all the compliance out of not the suspension you probably added compliance to the suspension
made the suspension better but the road noise that used to get absorbed through rubber bushings and
rubber body mounts and and soft rubber transmission cross member mounts and engine mounts that have
some you know you know medium durometer rubber instead of high you know urethane all that's gone
and then you add in additional factors like performance camshaft higher compression headers
louder you know more free-flowing exhaust and the one that really gets me is kind of the current
mandate that many people have about putting a nine inch afford nine inch design rear axle in the car
because the design of a nine inch is such that it it naturally makes gear noise
it's the the ratio of where the pinion goes into the ring gear how it meshes in the housing is
different from say a GM 10 or 12 volt or a Dana or whatever so its inherent design makes gear
noise and when you start to couple that with higher gear ratios and and different types of
gear cutting they can scream who and now you've sometimes you've taken the sound deadening out
of the car under the carpet because you want to make it lighter and everything else and pretty
soon you're sitting in a tin can that makes noise every way possible yeah not an enjoyable experience
well and it's counterintuitive because some some people are like oh yeah that's what i want you
know make it light make it handle great and whatever yeah that might be great for a young
person who is into that kind of thing um but i think you'll find as you as you age uh certain
things shift that are important to you with your vehicle then then then they used to be
um yeah and i think i know the car you're talking about when when you're um when you're
mentioning this and yeah you can end up taking you know all the things that made a car comfortable
and throw it out the window and yeah you have a car that can really carve a corner and it's great
on the racetrack but like you said earlier getting to the event might can you know rattle your the
fillings out of your teeth from from all the noise and vibration that are being introduced now
and yeah if if you're into that that's awesome um personally that would make me crazy but um
well and it's not just one car i mean every car has some aspect of this and and i definitely want
to clarify and say that i am not suggesting that if you put a set of tubular control arms with
delrin bushings on your car that it's going to be unbearable and loud but what i am saying is
is if you eliminate some of the other stuff um rubber is a bad word in high performance cars
we've been sold this idea that rubber sway bar bushings uh are too soft and they they don't
allow the sway bar to keep the body roll under control and they're the source of evil and you
know what if you look at if you compare a rubber bushing to a urethane bushing they are different
they're not that much different um and especially when it comes to aluminum body mounts and uh
you know one one car i drove recently had a modern transmission that you'd find in a in a gm truck
right yes and in the car i love the gear split it was an eight speed it was fantastic you know um
it was very cool to to enjoy all the benefits of multiple overdrives and acceleration but in the
truck it's mounted with like these giant energy absorbing sound deadening rubber mounts um some
cars even have hydraulic body uh engine mounts now where they're actually oil dampened inside
there's there's a goo inside them to keep it smooth and so the driving experience from the
modern truck with the eight speed or the ten speed was very different from this car that had a rigid
mounted eight speed because now all of a sudden that transmission felt like it was coming apart
i mean not i'm exaggerating but you could clearly feel like shift to shift and especially because
it had a little bit of a performance tune in it to increase the shift pressure which through those
shifts faster which you know you like generally you want to feel that boom boom boom but on the
downshift uh because those things kind of sequentially downshift too it was like what's
happening here and and not only the transmission so the transmission might have been i don't know
five percent more uh tactile than normal right you could perceive this five percent more but when
you pump that through the cross member and then into the body of the car and then couple that with
how that increased shift pressure preloads and unloads the drive shaft which then preloads
and unloads the rear gear set which is a four nine inch design which has its characteristics
and you've got a cacophony of sounds under the car that are now being amplified and they combine
to make something that like you're saying isn't something that i would want to drive all day
that can be a little annoying um if if that's something that you're not used to especially
like like you said earlier if you bought this car sight unseen and it was you know maybe there
there was pictures in there uh in the ad of the underpinnings or the suspension and all you think
is like holy cow that's cool look at it's got a it's got a cool four link uh rear suspension
it's got tubular control arms it's got you know cool race buckets this is going to be a
a cool car to drive around and you get it and you don't realize all the sacrifices that have
been made in the building of that car and all the things that you know all the sound deadening
that's been removed or you know in effort to lighten the car up or or the subframe connectors if
it's an f-body to stiffen things up and how it's transmitting all that road noise and all that sound
and all that vibration in there and you didn't even think about that before you got that car and
and that can be you know kind of disappointing and really sour that purchase or a buyer yeah and
so so what's the remedy the remedy is that we've built tons of cars that have all the parts that
we just mentioned and they're fantastic sure um you just got to you got to be considered and you
got to do it right and you get you have to really weigh the the benefits of how much does a particular
part gain versus how much does it take away from something else that you might find important
and I say this a lot but our modern cars and especially our modern trucks are so quiet and
they're so smooth and they're so nice to drive yeah that you know say you know in your case
you've got your suburban you drive that to work and back and you come home and then you get behind
the wheel of something that's got you know kind of an overly amped up suspension and you're like
all the in the rear end is howling when you accelerate or decelerate and you step on the
brakes and they howl because you know that's another one is disc brakes can create harmonics
especially rears that echo through that through the whole rear end housing and then through the
four link and you know and all of a sudden you were looking to escape your week and take this
thing on a cruise night with your your wife or your kids and nobody can talk in the car and
everyone's asking questions what was that you know and it's like is this gonna fall apart you know
and it's like well yeah but but hold on i'm gonna go around one high speed corner on this trip and
it's gonna be pretty flat isn't this great yeah that awesome and it's the same thing with people
that are like i want a thousand horsepower you know peak horsepower engine and okay well you're
you're gonna hit that rpm like twice a year for five seconds right but all the rest of the time
you're dealing with a giant camshaft and you know high-speed stall speed torque converter and all
things that go along with it right so i think we have to be honest in our shop and as car builders
we got to be honest with the customer and the customer has to be open to some experience to say
okay let's let's throw the numbers out the window and let's throw the specifications out the window
let's throw the parts out the window and let's talk about your experience driving this car right
let's envision and i say this before but what's the best day right is it cruising down and people
say the same thing oh man cruising down the highway with you know me and my gal and we're listening
to the music and it's great never do they say and the rear end is screaming so loud i can't hear
and the shifting is buck you know knocking the fillings out of my teeth and i hear everything
in the suspension you know they don't ever ask for that yeah it's crazy right yeah but we get
resistance when we say okay let's build in some things so that you know we control that noise
and control well no man when i don't want to add weight to the car and i you know i don't want
rubber stock bushings because look i brought you the car and the bushings are all junk
yeah they're also 50 years old you know
or if you want something a little better let's do a few other things in the car let's add
hush mat sound deadening from top to bottom to make your air conditioning perform better
to to isolate some of that sound you know let's let's make sure that our transmission is mounted
in such a way our engine is mounted in such a way even you know for me it's down to like the
cooling fans you know we've talked about how i like a clutch fan if if if it's going to work
and do everything it needs to do over a lot of electric fans because i don't want to sound like
a helicopter coming in when i pull in somewhere right it's just it's just me and and what you
find is that if you if you can hit those things which none of those are really bad things by
themselves but they add up to a fatiguing experience in the car and what they add up to is
a heightened sense of feeling like you got to pay attention to something so in my recent example
i was driving a particular car and i was making all kinds of noises and i'm like oh my god so i'm
like driving this thing doing little driving tests like i'm moving the wheel back and forth to hear
do i have a loose suspension component in the back is this noise in the front or the back
is a transmission is a rear end is a suspension is an array and i'm doing all these things
instead of enjoying my drive staring at gauges freaking out not freaking out but i you know
and when you couple that with the reality of most of us don't get a chance to drive these cars every
day so when you do drive the car you finally get the time you want to know that that thing is sorted
out you don't have to pay attention all that stuff you just get in and drive it enjoy it right yeah
yeah you want the drive to be a pleasure and it can't be if you're worried about every little
thing about it yeah and and every little thing could be fine you know it could be just the sum
of what these particular parts are going to do but if you're not used to it you're not expecting it
and especially if you have somebody in the car with you who's not used to it or expecting it
the last thing you want to do is have to justify all your decisions you made on your cool car
you know i've seen it where people have picked them up from the shop and whoever's with them
you know it could be a little kid dad why is it rattling you know you're like
or or or you know the significant other is like boy you spent a lot of money on this and it shakes
you know and it's like well see honey it's got a long duration camshaft okay well it's just it's
loud you know whatever right right so i am in no way suggesting that everybody needs to drive around
a 60s Cadillac that you can't feel the road but i think a worthwhile conversation about
that those things really can matter and they just need to be brought to the surface to be discussed
so that what i was saying before of i don't want to let's not talk about the horsepower numbers
let's talk about what experience you want to have when you put your foot to the floor
let's talk about how instead of the materials and the suspension design let's talk about how you
drive you know if you see an s-curve sign coming up are you the kind of guy that floors it or hits
the brakes right and then we'll work together to come up with that list of parts and the design
and the modifications to the car that will allow you to have the experience you're expecting and
that you really dream of without all the negative nonsense that can go with it
for sure i mean people can fall into that trap it's important that you said you have to be honest
with yourself about how you're going to drive this car and what's important to you because
it's easy to fall into that trap where you see a video like like say you're watching a good guys
of autocross and you see a full pro touring 69 Camaro you know rolling through the the autocross
course and it's flat as can be going through these turns and you're like that'd be cool i want that
but you know maybe that's not how you're going to drive the car and well it's attractive to see
that and you think wow that's cool i want that that's probably not maybe not the car for you
that maybe not how you're going to drive it and that's and therefore it's not going to
be an enjoyable car for you maybe the interior with the you know the the racing buckets aren't
aren't going to fit you very well and it's going to be uncomfortable to get in and out
and you're going to save yourself why did i get this car where if you're honest with yourself
it's like yeah i just want to drive this car you know if there's a cool curve in my town
somewhere i can take it at a little bit of speed and it's going to be cool and i'm going to be
comfortable and you know i'm not going to slide all over the place maybe that's what i want
and and that can be taken care of for you um but yeah but being honest with yourself is paramount
to having a car that you're going to truly love and truly enjoy and keep forever yeah yeah and so
there's you you raised some really great points uh kelly pointed out that uh there are there are
many situations where this happens and and so the end result is the owner now has a car
that they spend a lot of money on they spend a lot of mental time dreaming about and planning and
they go through the build process and and then they get what they ordered and if it's maybe not
what they wanted or they find out like yeah boy i really like the look of those seats but they hurt
my back or i went to the local donut cruise and i look like an idiot getting out of it because
it's too low i mean i mean these are things that people don't think about but at the moment
you know maybe they matter and it's like my thing with uh uh you know just just trying to pay attention
to all the little things when i drive a car i mean i want to know like my notes from this
recent drive the way the seat and the console are oriented my right leg it hits a solid bone in my
in my what's the one below your knee what's that your that your tibia your tibia my tibia shin bone
has a knob on the end of it that lands right on this console and it would hurt me after 20 minutes
i would and and so in my mind i'm like this would be a great car drive across country yeah 20 minutes
in i'm fidgeting in the seat and it's because nobody thought about this stuff uh or here's another
gray one and it's an idea that uh you know customers have come to us within the past second gen
firebird camaro bullet side mirrors we love the look of them we put them on first gen cars we
modified them you ever try to see out of one of those things they're horrible they're tiny it's the
the glass you know and and then the the adjusting mechanism flops around and they're not the concave
you know and you know somebody could say well you know sure old man you can't see well no my vision
is perfect for distance and when you you're trying to look basically through a a keyhole at the stuff
behind you and it's only because you're not used to it you're used to a modern car with big mirrors
and yep and maybe screens and all this stuff so pay attention all those things so that when you
finish the car it's nice and and my example of somebody who's got money and time invest in a
car and all of a sudden they don't like it they tend to shy away from it and pretty soon
it's sitting in the garage and they don't take it out and or or only under very certain circumstances
like it's got to be a perfect day outside because they don't like the way the wipers work and they
can't see out the back window and the defroster isn't there or it doesn't have air conditioning
or it it gets hot so it can't be a nice sunny day because it's on the ragged edge of overheating
or it's super loud you know because the exhaust so you can't leave you know at five in the morning
to go to a coffee cruise or come home late at night because you want to piss off the world
and all these excuses pile up and then you get the friction internally of
why'd you put all the money in that car you never use it you know
no i don't want to take that rod let's let's try the family car yeah and they're looking
enviously at their buddy who bought something and just basically threw a tune up on it and
is out having the time in their lives yeah you know yeah so all of this is a hundred percent avoidable
again with parts choices the the ford nine inch and when i say ford all right ford developed and
designed and manufactured that and there are aftermarket versions of the nine inch that are made
by various different companies and the nine inch the attraction for it is the design has a center
section that drops out that you can change gears real easy you know racers love it because they can
have three or four of these centers all set up you go to a track pick what gear set they want
bolted in go race they're like impossible to break very very strong excellent excellent rear end
but it comes with a price and there's been all kinds of strategies to make them
more street friendly and you know so the first point is like well hey i i have a ford van you
know an econoline or whatever from the the 90s with a ford nine inch in it and a 351
or an earlier one with a 460 or something and i drove that for 200 000 miles and never noticed
the rear end at all yeah yeah because it had it was 15 feet behind you and you had all kinds of
stuff in that van yep you had rubber bushings from the factory you had shock absorbers with
rubber bushings on them you you had noise control devices in place that ford did plus ford set the
thing up in in when i say set up they're the ones that installed the gears and they installed a
certain type of gear that was made in detroit and not in a country somewhere else laying far away
well yeah lago in a way the galaxy far far away pretty much and you can call any of the
manufacturers or shops that build and sell gear sets and center sections and they will tell you
that yeah you got to stay away from certain ones because they make a lot of noise just they do
so there are also processes that certain you know companies have come up with there's a rem polish
process which is a micro fine um it's like a tumbler almost they you put the gear set in this
media and it and it micro polishes the finish in the face of the gears and it it takes off any
little tiny edge of the the teeth and that quiets them significantly right sure it also i don't
know quadruples the price of the gear set easily well these things and well but so then this is one
of those things it's like okay well you can have a quiet nine inch we got to mount it properly
the gears have to be of the right brand and construction they have to be treated maybe
cryogenically treated and rem polished you know and then on top of that they have to be set up to
where the pinion depth as it meshes with the ring gear has to be spot on right well and spot on
means different things because they will that design is going to generate some sound and it
becomes a personal preference we like to set them up so that the sound creation occurs under
acceleration load and ideally you know if it's going to make noise it'll be maybe maybe as you
coast and not as you cruise or accelerate i got you and when you go down the road and you've
heard this before you know it's like drive drive drive you reach your cruising speed and then you
start to get off the gas a little bit and also in here and you give it a little more gas and
it comes back you know just as you feather that throttle you know it becomes a game in your head
you're like where where's this where's the ideal speed that this won't howl well it's not a speed
it's a load it's the amount of accelerating you're doing or coasting you're doing right
and if you if i should actually rephrase that i mean most cars are at at cruising or
decel a little bit you know and there's a transition there and you know you want it to
be quiet there when you're accelerating the engine usually covers the sound i don't know sure but
all right so bigger picture why did we have to have the nine inch in the first place
well i saw that they're strong well so can be a 10 bolt so can be an 8.8 so can be a 12 bolt
so can be uh you know even an independent out of a more modern car you know Dana 44 so well
don't do those those break but anyway things that you can put in the car and it's funny like on on
again to use to pick on Camaro firebird f-body cars they were designed to have a particular
10 bolt or 12 bolt from GM and those those are pretty quiet it's a different style
and you can get different gears now you don't have that luxury of being able to unbolt the middle
pull the center out put a different center in right but this also gets back to the honesty
of how many times you really do that mm-hmm yeah i mean for a guy like me i'm going to treat it
like a ronco rotisserie oven i'm going to set it and forget it and that's going to be it
yeah no no doubt i mean so my galaxy had a nine inch from 1962 an original forward one and it was
a 30 gear mm-hmm and i wanted a higher performance gear set so i ended up putting a mojure uh full
12 or full nine inch assembly from one end of the other with a 373 gear and i think it's got an
auburn style limited slip so a cone type limited slip and uh it's great uh i drive it everything's
wonderful you know i'm very happy with it because the top's down all the time mm you hear everything
it took me like the the first time i put the top up in the car and i think i actually had the back
seat out because i was i think i was working on the top pump mechanism so the top's going up and
down and you know i needed that access to get to the pump and i drove it with top up and no back
seat and i'm like oh yeah this thing's making some noise i never knew it i just never knew it and it
wasn't wrong or bad it just there's some noise there and then i added a rear sway bar to the car
which which physically bolts to the rear axle housing and then two links come forward to the
frame and it was like turning up the volume on that rear axle noise and it's like a son of a gun
interesting so yeah so again being honest with yourself if you if you're open to if you have to
have the nine inch and the sound matters there's ways you can get there if it doesn't really matter
you just need the right gear ratio and something that's going to be built strong enough to last
you know most street cars a 10 bolt will live just fine a 12 bolt for sure or other styles are out
there or a 4 8.8 those are really becoming popular and it's funny the 8.8 is almost a carbon copy of
a gm 10 bolt no kidding that's awesome if you look at it it yeah because ford ford knew it they knew
that the design of the nine had its limitation um 8.8s can make noise too i mean i remember
but it takes a long time to wear one out and they get louder as they get older because the
the teeth wear but when i'm talking where i'm out i'm talking like you jump in a cab you know like a
ford crown vic cab that's been around since the early 2000s that rear end is going to make noise
sure oh yeah it just it just is yeah well that's what we're talking about miles on of course it is
yeah and it's still going fine with no maintenance probably so uh but you can get all kinds of
different setups in fact uh gear effects right uh a couple years ago really blended credence to
this concept because they make a nine inch carrier that has 8.8 gears in it really yes
so they solved kind of both problems it's it it it interchanges with the nine but it's an 8.8 setup
and i think it's called the fn8 if i remember oh i you know what i i think you've talked about
this once before maybe not necessary on the show but um just in in casual conversation yeah and i
think i yeah i remember you saying something about that yeah that's a yeah that's a pretty trick setup
so again keeping all the rest of stuff and i remember when we built the reloaded camaro
i mean that's got uh detroit speed front suspension uh with their coilover mounts welded in
but we put rubber subframe bushings in it's got a detroit speed quadrilink four link in the back
on a curry nine inch and curry uh at the time i think they still do uh they have a dyno so they
they dyno run all their gear sets to make sure that they're set up right and the reloaded car has
sound deadening it's got carpet it's got comfortable seats it's got all the rubber that's
supposed to have all the weather stripping you know so that car is wonderful um sound inside
i've had the good pleasure of having a ride in that car before and yes you are right it is
quite a nice car to to ride in and there is yeah there is very little handling compromise
despite the rubber in there and it is if that thing goes man it goes around corner nicely
it accelerates very nicely it is a well well built car well it's a you know it's a full roller
490 inch big block Chevy with fuel injection and ported heads and headers and a street level
compression ratio so it runs on you know runs good on regular gas yeah and it uh it's got
magda flows and you know mandrel bent stainless exhaust and so the sounds you hear are the sounds
you want to hear not the sounds that kind of come along for the ride and like you said it it
it outhandles most of the drivers you know it does not get competitively autocrossed
it it rarely gets driven to its full potential based on the geography of where the guy lives
you know he just can't take it out and thrash on it because he lives in a in a you know a populated
area that doesn't have wide open roads to do it and you got to consider that too so that car has
one sound in it that we've been chasing forever that i can't get rid of right we haven't figured
out yet i think i know what it might be but it's when you are backing up and you turn the steering
wheel slowly there's a little bit of a of a howl in the column somewhere hmm you turn the wheel and
it goes hmm you know it's just this little it is and i i think we probably got to pull the column
apart and lubricate something i don't we've changed the steering gearbox it's a detroit speed box it's
a good box we changed the steering pump on it uh very early on thinking you know that was a quick
way to just get there uh so that car's not without without fault but yeah i haven't driven that thing
yeah i drove that car in november of 24 last okay so over a year ago and i still remember that sound
and that's this is why these things are important you know my apologies to the owner because it
shouldn't have that sound right and he knows and he doesn't you know he's not beating me up over it
but it'd be cool if it went away right so the parts are magnificent i mean even the the delrin
bushing stuff even stuff with heim joints and if you want to go that far the parts will do the
performance of the car will be there but let's not just blow off things that you know i think
the mentality was in the 60s like everybody 60s and 70s and 80s if you found a 70 chival
and an air conditioning what's first thing you do rip the air conditioning out throw it out
because you save yourself a couple hundred pounds yeah which i get back then it's like
it didn't it didn't matter right and then rip the sound in there out and rip the bench out put a
bucket in it and and start building the motor well today we have and the reason why is like power
was hard to come by power is hard to make so save ounces it's free power take weight off the car
it's adding free power and they used to say well is it a hundred a hundred pounds is a
is a couple horsepower or something right or like a 10 in the quarter mile or something if you take
100 yeah yeah and i don't know you know how true that is anymore but today if you i would much
rather build a car that that fits the driver that the steering wheel feels right that the seat
isn't fatiguing that the pedal placement is there that the the sight lines the gauges the mirrors
the audio system the ac the doors close right the rubber it doesn't leak goes around turns
stops and then we just amplify the power to match to cover all that stuff right to right
to take any perceived detriment away because power is a lot easier to make today than it was
with modern engines so true very true i wanted to back up a little bit um you're talking about the
side mirrors i thought what thought that was kind of funny because my gto just has
the stock driver side round mirror and i don't know why the engineers placed it
where they did but by golly that is hard to see out of and there's not even a passenger side
side mirror as it wasn't mandated at the time and i always find myself when i'm driving the car
trying to check my mirror to my right and there's no mirror there i'm like god dang it i gotta
you know crank your head around to see it and that's just one of those huge differences of driving
a classic versus driving like like my suburban which has massive mirrors on the sides and you
can see everything for Pete's sake and in it it's really funny the the how different it feels
when you do get into that older car than it is uh from your modern um i just thought that was kind
of funny when you brought up the side mirrors on there i wanted to touch on that well yeah and
that's totally a thing uh my galaxy in 62 it didn't have to have any side mirrors no kidding so
the cats and when we got the car it had none uh and it just had the dash you know the windshield
mirror right so i put uh an original style driver side mirror on it and it sucks it's a little flat
round thing you know like what you got and you know the galaxy has a vent window so it interferes
with the mirror yes um the placement and again i think we are very used to all the visibility
provided by modern cars and believe me i don't want to see some giant side mirrors sticking
on a classic car either you know and and one of our our great customers a great friend of ours
Joey Scaffidi that we did that 77 Trans Am for yes um he drove the car from our shop in the
Midwest to Maryland to take it home when he picked it up and he's like i love it i hate the mirrors
i can't see you know and that car actually had kind of an interesting story with the side mirrors
because they it was a silver car but the mirrors were black and uh we said well when we repaint the
car we'll we'll color match the mirrors the way they're supposed to be and he's like no no no
my dad painted those mirrors black back in the day so i want that look great he gets home he's like
i hate him so he went down kind of a rabbit hole and he's like hey i found some like
oh six charger mirrors you know can we put those on the car
and he sent us some uh and we we mocked him up and it's like this this looks like
you know dumbo you know we put these giant things on this he just ruined the look of the car and
he's like oh he can't do that either so what's the answer right and um part of it is technology so
uh we have a car that i recently drove in the shop that the rear view in the windshield is also a
camera it's got a display so half of it is a rear rear view camera the other half is actual mirror
reflective glass mm-hmm and in fact i have that in my van as well so you get a nice wide view in the
back yeah you need that in that van well that thing yeah that's like driving a building so
right uh so that that's an option um i often thought
i'll let it up a potential product idea out of the bag here a little bit but uh
but maybe we do maybe we maybe we produce a second gen bullet mirror that's just 15
percent bigger you know the house how does it looks the same it's just 15 percent bigger
and then put a really slight concave on it and now all of a sudden they're a little more useful
right could be cool yeah and and ideally it mounts using the stock bracket you just unscrew
one put this on and done deal uh if you'd buy one of those let me know you know we'll do a
little mark of research here yeah there we go well that's funny because uh speaking of second
gen mirrors you put i i believe was a set of second gen f body mirrors on the blue 67 gto
that the shop built a number of years ago and even though you know one person doesn't like them
i think those were an improvement over the stock mirrors that that car initially had
because they are a little bit wider you can you can get a better a better field of vision
from those and they actually look good on that car too when they're you know painted body color
that that that bullet shaped mirror it actually looked really nice on that car
and i think it did improve side views as well i don't know i always thought that like up until
the mid 70s like the the team that designed the mirrors was like in a different building
it's like they designed the car and it goes through all the stages and it's like oh last stop get the
mirror guys and then just they take a chrome thing and stick it on and send it right they never
you look at first gen camaro mirrors yeah they're rectangular dainty chrome stocked things and it's
like where where does this fit on this car yeah you know and thank god they came up with the sport
mirror the bullet style in the second gen um and of course today if you if you have an original
camaro and you know we're kind of used to seeing those and i don't think people question them but
it makes such a big difference in the way the car looks by doing that for sure that up you know
bullet mirror uh so our friend murray comont actually uh the designer he uh he came up with an
idea for the for my galaxy because i was i want to put a passenger side mirror on this car and i
am not happy with the original you know so all the original forward mirrors that i found have been
pitted and just kind of you know worn out condition and they didn't make a passenger side
so you can get a reproduction chrome dainty stock flat disc mirror that doesn't really enhance the
lines of the car at all but murray sent me a sketch with uh uh shelby gt 500 chrome bullet mirrors
from like a 67 Mustang okay and oh my gosh they are completely at home on this 62 ford is that
right because they've got you wouldn't think it but when you look at it this car has all kinds of
polished stainless and and rocket ship kind of you know styling to it and coming up the side of
the car right you know there's a i'm gonna call it a double wide piece of stainless that next down
to a single wide at the um on the front fender and and when it next down from the double to the
single it bullet points down it doesn't just cut off square and the mirror echoes that little bullet
transition it just like oh man that makes so much sense now nobody's ever done it before
yeah so this is again this is also why you work with people that have a good sense of design
because you know murray's got a great eye and he's like he didn't even tell me about it he's like
how about this i'm like oh man so nice on the list to do and those were also a lot of times
uh uh racing mirrors so they were uh convexed i guess to you know give you a wider feel
and uh you know it's funny you talk about mirrors one of the things that i also think is interesting
is i didn't know how to set mirrors until i read an article on it really yeah really tell me what
you do because i have my own theories on how to set mirrors yeah well if you're looking in your
mirrors and you see or you see any part of your own car in the reflection you did it wrong yes
agreed i set mine i set mine so i you know i have the center view out of my rear view mirror
and the way i set the passenger the driver's side mirror is when i see a car coming up like in
in the in the lane to my left and the car's front corner is just starting to disappear
from the rear view mirror it's just starting to appear in the side view mirror and what that does
is it virtually it all but eliminates any blind spots you have on your side and i do that on the
for the passenger side as well and it all but eliminates any of that blind spots so you don't
have to crane your head around looking to see if there's a car behind you you can see look right
in your mirror and if you see any part of a car that's in your side view mirror but not in your
rear view mirror you know it's it's right on your side and it's behind you but you can still see it
yes yeah and that's based with the philosophy and it was explained to me where your side view
mirrors need to be showing you the area next to your car and a little bit behind your car
so that if you just jerk the wheel and moved over a lane you're clear correct yes you can see
what's in it and i know that every person is a different height and their eyes are in different
places in their head and you know they sit differently and all the rest but i can't tell you
how many times i get into people's cars and you're looking at the quarter panel
yes i'm talking to both of my children right now your mirrors are set incorrectly
yeah and it's that quarter panel isn't going to come get me i'm not worried about that
now i also know that you know if you're gonna parallel park or back into a spot or something
you know you kind of need to know where the back of the car is but that's when you turn your head
or whatnot sure for sure and then to your point also like when you get behind the wheel the gto
and like most of us when we get behind the wheel of our our hot rod or our cool car
it's not instantly familiar where the corners are because we don't drive it all the time right
so that visibility is important and uh you know today's cars with the with the sensors and the
proximity sensors and the cameras and all the rest i mean and a lot of literally do park themselves
yeah you can almost just close your eyes and back it up and you're fine because all the all
the sounds will tell you what's going on yeah yeah and i remember seeing the commercials
and this probably goes back almost 10 years where the you know a guy takes his hand off the wheel
in itself parallel park yeah you know yeah kids today you know they don't know how good they've
got it yeah try the parallel park is 72 bux and cheery then talk to me yeah right exactly
or 79 dodge maxivan right that too so i guess at the end of the day um for getting back to the
very beginning of this story when we get a car that's already been done a certain way sometimes
it becomes a little challenging because the customer is like well i already paid a bunch of
money for this nine inch rear end right uh which is fine they just need to understand that it's
it's gonna make some noise and if that is okay with them then it's not a problem with me i mean
i want what you want and i we want to help you get what you want um but if there's something
that you don't want there's ways that we can probably help make that better and maybe you
know we just change the bushings or change the mount or something or whatever just do something
a little differently to do that or just make a future plan and say okay i can't do it now but
maybe you know next season i'll be ready to do all this rear end stuff and rear suspension upgrades to
to make it a little more of what i want the car to be and not what it is now so all day so that is
that's a great great strategy um i encourage everybody to keep a notepad in the car
and as you're driving it just note those little things that bother you or that need attention
because i'm the guy who as soon as i get behind the wheel of one of my little cars it all comes
back to me i was supposed to change the bulb behind the speedometer i never did then i get
out of the car and it's gone yeah oh i have that wind noise that i forgot about oh yeah that expressway
speeds oh boy when we're like you're so much yeah that is a great one yeah yeah that wind whistle
or when i turn the wheel that'll have to squeaks my van did that for a long time so there are many
times you know we like to say we like to think that you know gonna build the car and the cars
be finished well now there's generally a refinement period after that so yeah maybe it's not on this
round but take it home and for this whole summer drive the wheels well drive it a lot right get
used to it be enjoying acquainted with it to understand all of its quirks and then make a
list of things um if it leaks if it stinks if it makes noise if it's not fast enough if it
anything and then at the end of the season let's talk and say okay these are some things i experienced
and then we go yeah that one's an easy one we fix that or this one might require a little bit more
or if you need power maybe it's a cam swap maybe it's a supercharger whatever and that becomes
you know later projects and then eventually um i would be remiss if i say eventually you'll get
there and it's going to be exactly what you want because what i've learned is that the next round
of refinement they just get smaller and smaller for sure and i think it's important to make your
list of not just things you do like or don't like but things you do like as well because the last
thing you want to do is if you're correcting one of those things that you don't like it also eliminates
the things that you do like and that would be that would be unfortunate that would and here's
another thing if you if you write down boy that's a great idea there mr. kuball hey if you write down
all the things that you like about the car you're going to like that car even more because it's
remember what it was if you're making big changes uh as i look back again on my galaxy and i remember
how this thing used to steer basically how it steers now compared oh my gosh it's a really
time is better yeah yeah right yeah you're driven it so uh it's nice to remind yourself that yeah
we're making a lot of progress on this thing and it's been time it's been money it's been some
frustration but it's it's the results are there you know yeah love it yeah brilliant what i like
you all build cars see this is an important episode it is did i lie no not at all never never ever
and then as just the other thing too is that the the advertising and the promotion is wonderful
we need it we need more of it i i keep you know there are people who tim strange is a great example
a friend of ours who is a magazine guy through and through and it was up to him you know every car
magazine ever would be still on the newsstands and and i came out of magazines i love magazines
and what i miss number one is like buyers guides they used to be like hey you know here's car crafts
roller cam buyers guide i compared all of them that were available now yes oh i remember that
oh yeah or here's a front suspension guide for for mustangs or whatever and and manufacturers
would all send in the the photography and the specs and then they'd grid this stuff out and
and so today nobody does that you know you if you want to know about something it's a one way
source you got to think i want to learn about high performance suspension systems for 68 mustangs
i got to google that and then i just get what i get and chances are it's not a comparison
meaning like and i don't i don't need like oh we installed all these kits and compared them
you know that's great but what i would really like to know is like does this one come with spindles
and does this kid have urethane or rubber you know just a grid of like the differences and you
don't get that in a youtube review or a video that's made by the manufacturer you get the points
there is a loan um so i still rely on ads very much so and and media and and promotional materials
to learn about this stuff but i look at this with the eye of okay my experience is that
this might be a little radical for the street or if we do install this we got to make sure
that these other things like you're saying are are still looked after and accounted for so that
we don't diminish the rest of the experience sure i mean we can get um you can get a good
buyer's guide from like consumer reports but i really don't give a flip what the best dishwasher is
so maybe um right maybe we get a lot of reports for uh for car parts for cool uh aftermarket parts
well and seema does a good job of new product um new product uh releases so like every issue of the
seema magazine has a category that might be four-wheeling off-road new stuff and and that
that's pretty cool because that's a nice benefit for those who have displayed new products at the
show they also go in the magazine and i refer to those all the time um but again it's it's made by
the manufacturer so it's the benefits but it's not necessarily a to b but not necessarily new
products but established products like it'd be cool if you can get a comparison of like uh a
ritech four-link rear suspension versus a detroit speed uh four-link rear suspension for uh for a
first gen camaro and see what the what the ins and outs are for either one of those and what the
compromises are and in how well how well they perform so that would be pretty cool yeah it is
and and the other thing to to recognize is that a lot of manufacturers know that there should be
different levels of intensity on their products so you look at roaster shop they've got different
families of chassis's one is designed to deliver that cross-country comfortable drive quiet experience
where another one is designed to be on the track all the time and you just gotta again be realistic
and honest to say yeah although that the track version is it's pretty cool um maybe i need the uh
i guess the spec chassis is the one that is the um the street version that you can right enjoy enjoy
comfortably uh so you know different companies that make suspension parts sometimes they'll make the
same type of product with a rubber bushing or a delrin or an aluminum or you know a rod end
depending on what your what your goals are right um but here's the other thing uh if you know somebody
who's got a car see if they let you drive it or at least ride in it and experience what we're talking
about experience like oh yeah i drove my buddy's car and he's got brand X front to front the back
and it was perfect i loved it or yeah i remember we couldn't listen to my uh deep purple records
because i couldn't hear the guy over all the noise you know
oh my goodness i couldn't listen to my debbie boom god dang it yeah yeah which
brings me to a quick gear shift and that is uh we had a fun event at the shop the other night
and you participated even though you're an ad home player that's true that's true i wasn't an
ad home player yes and and so we've done this in the past but we just did it again and we call
this the v8 speed and resto playlist challenge in which uh we put it out to everybody on our team
to pick three songs that are significant to them and then we get together after work and buy pizza
and drinks and and i go into game show host mode and uh we bring up uh three or four contestants
at a time that are members of our team and we introduce them and ask them silly questions you
know where you're from and just you know goofy stuff if you were a goldfish what color would you be
and blah blah blah and uh you know just kind of set the mood but then we play three songs and then
the studio audience being the rest of the the crew needs to guess who picked those songs
which member of the team picked those songs and then at the end uh we ask the individuals why
a particular song was significant to them and uh you know because music is very important and we
all have the stuff that we like so it was fun um we had a big turnout uh unfortunately not everybody
could make it including yourself so the people that couldn't make it a lot of them sent in
their songs and we included you in the mix so you were there as as a featured person and people
had to guess your songs in the mix too and uh did anybody guess uh oh yeah a few a couple people
got it and and so the key is like who we put you up against oh okay you know because we would do
like three or four individuals at a time and maybe one was an at-home player and then of these four
people like which person likes this song and then they write them down so i i then took uh at the
request of everybody i took all of the songs and put them in a a giant playlist um so that everybody
could uh could share and listen to them on their own do you have that in shareable form i'd love
to get that um i do actually and so you i shared it on our uh internal facebook group oh you did
oh i missed that all right first i'll go back and yeah so so that's there but uh i think you had a
little uh a little police in your mix and some warren zevon yep yep yep and uh some jane's
addiction that's right that's right just a nice little mix mix a match trying to throw people off
a little bit um so between jane's addiction mountain song yeah lawyers guns and money from
warren zevon and uh every little thing she does is magic by the police of those three uh which one
is the most uh significant and why probably the police um every little thing she does is magic my uh
the first time i i heard that track i was just kind of mesmerized by i remember listening to it in
eighth grade uh mechanical drawing class our teacher had a radio in there and that was when
that song was in you know heavy rotation and it just reminded me of that all the time you know of uh
you know a bygone era i don't even know if they have mechanical drawing class in high school anymore
or junior high or middle school for that matter um but uh when i got in the air force
my uh my roommate my one of my best friends uh i still have today my friend vince had the police
every little thing she does uh the the classics which was a you know greatest hits album for the
police and that song was on there and every time i would go back to our dorm room i would put that
cd in the in the player and play that song it meant that much to me and i loved it that much so
and it still sticks with me today so that's why i love it so much right on um i am going to put a
link to this playlist on our v8 radio facebook page cool so if you want to tune in and hear all the
different tunes um the three that uh that i chose one is a giant john hyatt song called the rest of
the dream that tracks uh it's a great song and not super widely known but uh next was uh steve
winwood with uh why you'll see a chance take it nice and then my third was uh of course freddie
jones band in a daydream which is one of my it's probably my second all-time favorite song it was
a rerun from the first time we did this exercise a couple years ago i mean it's in the chicagoland
bylaws that you have to like that song anyway yeah if you grew up in the chicago area freddie
jones was a band that played huge in chicago they're they play all over the place but uh that song
came out in the 90s and and uh the opening line is tuesday morning never looks so good i'm already
in a daydream and it's uh musically it's great lyrically it's great and i have a ton of great
memories of going out and driving i drove my i bought a 69 riviera in california and was driving
it across an avatad desert in the middle of summer with that tune cranked you know and it was like
perfect and then seen freddie jones and and my cousin knows those guys and nice you know
been in many bars and many fun times it's just a great association of a great time song so i threw
that in there um so then what we did is we everybody who got a correct answer got a point
and then we tallied up the points and uh there was a winner and take a guess who the winner was
meaning if you extrapolate the person that kind of knows the most about the people
it was miss kelly ostie was our big winner it was for the second time the second time holy cats
yeah she won at the first time too she knows us and she knows all of us she does
yeah she she spends time to to know everybody and it was fun because i don't i don't know
what everybody realizes that you know that uh a lot of times you feel detached from a business owner
sure you can't show up at a place and you do your job and the business owner is
in the other room or in their office or wherever and you know you don't know that there's any kind
connection there but kelly has now proved twice over the span of yeah measured over the span of
at least three years and i know for a fact since day one that you know she goes it's a super high
priority to be connected to every person in the business so it was cool she pays attention
that's for sure two two for two mm-hmm right on when you were in game show host mode did you uh
were you wearing your wink martindale-esque cbs sports jacket i i did not have the cbs sport or
the abc sports jacket what i did have yeah yeah the gold jacket uh that i wore at macaquin what i
did have was a primo 1968 vintage polyester shirt that i got from my dad oh the best all right
we need some uh we need some stills from that from that evening uh yeah yeah and and uh so
julie our hr person took some photos and stuff and then she's like i don't know some events need
to be private you know they don't need to be shared with the world right on but well all right so
maybe that'll be the lead image for this episode if you're if you're listening on spotify and you
see the the image of the va radio thing that's the shirt you know right on oh that's great so kind
of yeah it was it was cool good deal so you know what else is cool mm-hmm tell me kevin what else
is cool that would be the answers to our riveting trivia questions oh man i you are so right all
right well let's get into it all right so i asked you what term did olsmobile use to describe their
two-door hardtop cars with no b pull and post and kevin said immediately well that would be the holiday
and uh kevin you are a winner that is truly the holiday i think i just wet myself yeah
congratulations well thank you winner winner chicken dinner yeah recently some of these have
not been like a clear right and wrong answer yeah yeah well it's mostly the ones you ask me are
clearly a wrong answer well speaking of that let's see
the last mass produced vehicle that could be started by a hand crank
and your answer was the 1925 ford model a and uh that's i mean it's a great guess because you
know we we see all the imagery of people out in uh in those old films cranking those cars and
getting started it was just a little bit later than that actually mm-hmm the correct answer
actually belongs to a russian small suv it's the 1998 lada neva dude
that was for that question not for my incorrect answer
oh
i was i was very surprised to learn that little piece of trivia that uh 1998 you could still
hand crank your lada i think the entire world is surprised to learn that answer
yes good heavens 1998 lada neva yeah and it's funny uh uh kelly and i have you to thank for
tipping us off on a television show called the americans mm yes which is a series about a couple
of soviet union era spies in the 1980s that lived in the united states as american citizens yeah
as american citizens and it's a it's a it's a good show it's well done and i was hesitant to
start watching this because i don't like a lot of that stuff right yeah i just don't we grew up
in cold war america man i mean the the the red scare then all the better dead than red sayings and
all that and i think we have forgotten so much about that mm-hmm and about how much that soviet
influence was over the us in the 80s in the early 90s and so kelly uh didn't have the same type of
media exposure that i did growing up she's you know a little younger than me and grew up in
a rural farm area and was too busy working on the farm than watching tv like i was right so uh
well she's like really is that there were spies like spies what are you talking about like spies
and i'm like yeah yeah there were there were spies you know and and i said don't you remember like
everything was russian back in those days and she's like what do you mean i'm like well you know
rocky four you know we fought the russians look at look at the uh the wendy's commercial day
very very nice you know evening there and and and jakov smirnoff you know and in soviet russia
car cranks you you know and all the stuff yes you know the whole imagery of reagan and and
gorbachev you know with rifles pointed at each other you know both with their finger on the button
to mutually assured destruction that's that that was the term remember the red scale like you're
saying i don't know if you got to this part yet and i hate to digress like this but there was a
scene where the female character was um waiting for this person to come out and she had an umbrella
and on the tip of the umbrella there was a poison and she kind of walked next to this guy in fake
trip fake like she tripped and she poked this guy with the umbrella tip in his leg and it injected
a poison in him and that actually happened that that was a real event that actually occurred
that we learned about when i was in the air force when they were talking about the russians
and when i saw that i like i lost my mind i'm like i'm i'm jumping up and down i'm like
that really happened and my wife is looking at me like you are out of your mind man i'll be
this is that was factual that happened and uh it was really neat how they they're very authentic
with that show with some of these things that they're doing it's crazy well it's it's a it's a
look back at a time that thankfully we're not in right now and i i'm certainly not getting political
on this podcast at all but it made me actually look at russian cars uh because the the car culture
is strong in in central europe and in russia and a lot of those countries they love them
but so there's all these interesting cars that we that never got imported to the united states
you know these latas and the simcas and and uh the the chica which was the yeah the gas chica which
was the the presidential limousine equivalent and uh and then there was the the chinese version of
that and there was a great photograph that showed i think it was regans it was newer than that maybe
want to maybe clinton's catalac presidential limousine so that would have been like 92 93
parked next to the russian version of the same year parked next to the chinese version of the
same year really in the chinese car looked like it was built in the 50s oh man and the styling was
like packard stuff and that was you know in the early 90s today of course everything's different
but so you know i'm all about looking at the cool cars and it's like wow these are pretty wild and
the peterson automotive museum has some of those russian limousines and other russian cars and
stuff you just don't see so you know when i saw that little thing in my my little tangent of
russian cars i'm like does that have a hand crank nice nice i have to learn more about this yeah
well and to credit that show the americans they do a phenomenal job of having 80s era cars in the
show yes in the background agreed yeah i'm wondering where they're getting all these
malaise like cars it's crazy someone's got a heck of a collection that whole thing is set in
like 1982 or so yeah i think it starts in 283 something like that and there's like you know
a 77 buick regal four door drives by yeah and then you know like you said malaise cars and cars that
are not you know a lot of times when hollywood does a scene from the past it looks like you went to
a car show there's like a 69 camaro craggers and everything else right and in this episode i only
saw one example of that and it was actually a blue 68 camaro on craggers uh in the background but
dodged darts and k cars yes you know all those forgotten things so it was like wow this is
all very stock looking like zero mods on anything because because that's how it was for you know the
majority of everybody they just drove their factory stock car yeah my neighbor had a 78
Plymouth grand fury salon and there's one of those in that show and i'm like oh my god
so that was the that was the non-police car version of the uh you know rascal p coltrane
duke's a hazard car body style right so anyway thanks for the tip on that show and that's why
we ended up with a russian car and so it's all your fault yeah you did it to yourself pal
i have my only have myself to blame yeah see
for this incorrect answer it's my fault i'll take the hit that's right you didn't recommend that show
i never would have gone down a russian car rabbit hole and ended up with that dig it yeah all right
well this was fun we appreciate uh uh taking the time to uh to hang out with us here at the
v8 radio podcast if you enjoyed this show make sure you smash that subscribe button oh smash it all
the heck i don't know if that worked last time but uh did you we got the text from our friend
ron we did yeah about smashing the uh subscribe button smash it go to the facebook page at v8 radio
to see the uh playlist and uh that's about all i got on this beautiful saturday as we are recording
this one um anything else to throw in there mr cubo no new word on the gto engine it's everything
is stagnant that's my update we'll tune in next time yeah for another update yeah tune it next
in like uh two batons cue ball over there too awesome awesome yeah all right well again for mr
mike kubalk clark i'm kevin ossey thanking you for enjoying spending some enjoyable time with us
and we had fun uh on the v8 radio podcast and uh keep the shiny side up and we will talk to you
next time on v8 radio
About this episode
Kevin and Mike dive into the complexities of building and modifying classic cars, balancing power, comfort, and performance. They discuss the challenges of aftermarket parts, how certain upgrades can impact drivability and noise levels, and the importance of understanding trade-offs in custom builds. The hosts share personal stories and trivia, highlighting the nuances of car culture and the diverse needs of enthusiasts, from full restorations to stalled projects needing a fresh approach. The episode blends technical insight with relatable experiences, emphasizing that the perfect car depends on individual priorities and lifestyle changes.
Original notes
We’re excited to share the newest episode of the V8 Radio Podcast is live! Kevin Oeste and Mike "Q-Ball" Clarke are back delivering another fun, insightful ride through classic car culture, hot rod builds, and shop life at V8 Speed and Resto. From automotive trivia, real-world lessons on making modified classics more enjoyable to drive, to crew shenanigans and plenty of laughs, this one’s packed with the kind of garage talk every gearhead needs.
Key topics covered:
- Deep discussion on balancing high-performance upgrades (suspension, rear axles, bushings, mounts) with everyday drivability – avoiding the “noisy tin can” trap many builds fall into
- Shop philosophy: connecting people to the best times of their lives through cars, and why conversations about what you REALLY want from a build matter more than horsepower numbers
- Crew fun: V8 Speed & Resto Playlist Challenge (team guesses who picked which songs), shoutouts, and a few hilarious tangents including 80s spy shows and unexpected global car trivia
Funny moment: The dramatic band sting when Mike’s wildly off-base guess on an automotive trivia question gets revealed – pure comedy gold. 😂
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts or head to v8radio.com. Smash that subscribe button and keep the shiny side up!
#V8RadioPodcast #ClassicCars #MuscleCars #HotRods #CarBuilding #AutomotiveLife #CarCulture #ProTouring
V8 Speed and Resto Shop Playlist Challenge Songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/73wnZlJW9rAFpPRQY3GuxD?si=fd470a43f31e46c5
V8 Radio Podcast
Kevin Oeste and Michael Clarke
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