The OctoberBeast Toyota Car Show and Nick Miller Chat

hey podcasters we were down in texas

we went down to uh... visit

russ's old haunts and attend the toyota

employee car show

and you're gonna hear some clips from that this edition

of the under the hood show

i'm trying to beat mix with the music in the background

how's it going

welcome to the under the hood show we are glad to have you with us we are on

the road russ evans shannon nordstrom i'm chris carter

shannon where are we

we are at october beast we are in the heat at october beast

in plano texas at toyota

headquarters

this is just

temperate for me i enjoy it

well it feels good but it's the heat and we are here with our partner berkeley

classics

berkeley won classics we're under a tent which is a good thing

and we are seeing some amazingly fun vehicles out here at their

employee appreciation day basically yeah employee car show they got

tunes playing there's food being served and everybody's out browsing at a lot of

really cool cars very cool and it's the employee car show and

there's it's funny how they broke the sections down

the sections are broken down by

toyotas

and then the others

you get imports and

and what was the other one well the hyper car section down here

and uh... we got the competitor

competitor that was it racing competitor cars

i thought it was competitor to toyota

i thought it was

competitor

it's not automakers ok

are you sure

i don't think so

i don't think they have any competition

when you bring your car to the toyota headquarters in dallas

yeah

they've got it all

they've been doing this employee event

for their employees for decades now and this is amazing you can bring anything

you drive

doesn't matter if it's toyota

it can be a

motorcycle there's a harley livewire electric down there

i didn't see that rush yeah that was the one i was standing next to i totally

missed it the first time until i read it and realized

there is even a boat

it's behind the truck

yeah i saw the boat i saw the boat i was looking at it

it was uh...

it was my attention was pulled away though by the complete

overlanding set up toyota tundra

we might get a chance to talk to

that person we were just

talking about that so we might get a chance to get him on the show

and find out what's going on there

and i really uh...

i'm enjoying looking at the different stuff here

and since we're here for berkeley one classics

we don't have to guess the color because they're right in front of us but there is

there is a variety of colors here

and i've always been a fan of yellow so there's a number of

fun yellow cars here

that have caught my attention

uh... the right hand drive

japanese mr2

uh... in that bright sunburst yellow

the lexuses

the rfc

right across from us that's a crazy car

that looks like it's got manufacturer plates on it so that must be one of

one of toyota's vehicles it sounds like

and we're outside right now but inside they've got a few cars

and they

did you see the rat rod truck in there i did

there's a rat rod truck it looks like your typical what you think of as a rat

rod but when you

peek through the side under the hood

it's got a modern fuel injected toyota v8 in it

it looks like it'd be comfortable to take anywhere you wanted to go it's

probably one i didn't look at that close to us but i'm guessing it's one of their

race engines that they probably use

right for nascar or for uh... they've they've they've got uh...

the world of outlaws they've got a toyota's buddy kofoid that won

our big race at home he he was running the toyota

and he kind of took all the money out of sioux falls south dakota when he came up for

for the high bank nationals

but uh... and he'd won before there too so that was a toyota

and so you kind of forget about toyota's

impact in motorsports when they jumped in

and inside a lot of those cars were like cars that were like used in a

celebrity

grand prix or celebrity race

i noticed with some of the names that were on there

just some really neat stuff here that we're getting a chance to look at we're so

honored to have this opportunity to be here at this place

the uh...

it's it is really

cool to see that it's all employees

cars are all employees but also at the show

any car show that had this crowd would be thrilled

and it's all employees and family of employees it's not a

it's not a public car show it's a pretty neat

idea and a pretty cool thing to see just everybody

enthusiastic about it

yeah for sure

also a little bit later we are going to have a chance to go in and do the

check out the museum here the toyota experience and do you know

i'm excited for that yeah that is not open to the public and we're going to have an opportunity to

do some video and take some photos inside there so that's really

something we're looking forward to

you're listening to the under the hood show we are in

plano texas at toyota headquarters

and uh... we are at the toyota october beast employee car show

what uh...

we all have

uh... an award to give away

we do

i've been thinking about that walking around and i don't

know that this is as easy as i thought it was going to be

i picked one i have to say

i am against the way it went i don't like this format

i thought we would pick one winner and i wouldn't be responsible

but we each have an award to give

and i don't

know if i can

take that uh...

that pressure you don't want that responsibility

i don't think i'm qualified

i'm okay with it

i have a winner though

i did have a

i do have i think mine picked out what

is in your top three

i don't know that i've rounded down that far yet

give me some

we got time

top three for me

probably a weird one

the little red sky on xb pickup we saw right when we came in

it's just so unique that somebody made that

it is

it's right in front of us right now and it's amazing

yeah i mean we saw that right when we came in and i kind of keep coming back and looking at that

because it's just so unique

what's it based on a scion xb

yeah the box

and it's

yeah it's modified

they cut the back end off

and they moved the hatch

to the back of the cab

and then they made a bad out of what was left

and rebadged it

so at first we couldn't even tell what it was

the front badge is not

an american scion badge

that's something you noticed or russ may have noticed i didn't notice it right away

but that was really really uh... that's on my list for some reason

it's

super noticeable

and if it's the

those weren't if it's the

i remember being everyone was surprised when their top level came out of that scion

and they're like that's not a

that's a like a hot hatch level

box

uh... so that's that's a cool one

i was surprised

at how much

my high school self

reacted to that supra the old supra over there

i didn't uh...

i don't think i

have any

nostalgia love for

old supras but when i saw it i was like

that's a great looking car

i must have walked by it, what year is it?

uh... eighty...

higher? eighty-odd year, i don't know

eighty-six. i think it's eighty-six. ok

so it'll be a smaller, a little bit smaller one

yeah i gotta take a look at that one

check it out

and there's also, yeah, there's some supercars over there

is there

is there any

okay here's a question

when you're picking are you just going overall or do you have, are you thinking

if it's a

stock supercar

are you, do you automatically go old

handled

old and and and work done

no. ok, you don't automatically. no it's gonna be something i just like

but do you

if you had to pick ten best stocks

if everyone you picked

got eliminated

it would all, it would all be older wouldn't it

a lot older ones

a lot older ones. we had a chance to talk to joe clark

who has

a gto in the show kind of

tell us about that car because that was cool

well russ was down there

chatting with him too and

we're both fans of pontiacs and russ has done probably more hands-on

work on some of those old pontiacs back in the day

but uh... that sixty-eight gto that he had

was a ram air two

from sixty-eight and he just recently found out from a friend as they were

looking at some, he was at a museum in las vegas he said

that his car is one of twenty-two built

and he said if it would have been, the line that he said

was that if it would have been

a sixty-nine

it would have been a judge

it was before the change

and

uh... he also, they were talking about uh...

when he learned about the rarity of the car

looking into the options on it

it might be

one of one, because there were so many options

the side marker lights

and power windows

uh... just the way it's optioned, it's got disc brakes

uh... but we're going to have that interview, we'll put that up

as an individual interview and that was

pretty cool

and the story behind it too

yup, that the car came from

his family

his dad bought it when he was

about four

and held on to it

did he tell the story about the

sideways drift and smile on our recording or was that afterwards?

he told it

okay

so what happened was

when uh...

they had the car and by the way he was just driving it

daily until he found out it was

one of twenty two

so before that he was just

he was just driving it every day

uh... and then

he

was able to

get it from his, when he bought it from his dad

he uh...

they got the car, he took it out on the street and his

son, four-year-old, was in the back seat in the car seat

and he went and got his dad

and they took it out on the road

and not on a private, I mean not on the road

yeah, I mean it was on a private

it was on a private area parking lot, he didn't go out on the road

and he lit it up, statute of limitations is passed, it's alright

and his dad smiled

and

said oh I remember when

when I bought this car

I brought it home and I went and talked to your grandma

I went and got your grandma, you were in the back seat and I drove this thing

sideways down the street

and my mom was like this is terrible what are you doing

with a kid in the back seat

and you had the same grin that your son has right now so that was

that's the cool, that's the greatest part right there

yeah it was, that was fun to see

and I've enjoyed seeing the number of

drift cars that are here

and there must be a

drift track or drift that people are able to get involved with around here

because that was neat to see, the Infiniti G35 down there that's like just

rugged

it's just rugged but that baby's a drifter

and it's set up, you can see the suspension and the tubing frame they've got

underneath on the front end

and that thing is set up to drift

it's a sleeper for sure when I walk by I'm like why is that here

and then I sort of look a little closer and I'm like ah, I see why that's here

I see why that's here

I love the

difference in cars here from

you know new Toyotas, new Lexus and then

there's just

that high level of

that front row over there is all just

high-level current cars

and they're just beautiful

and then you see the ones with the stories and it's so cool to just see

the difference here

in this show and to think that it's all in place is just kind of a cool mix

Russ, without giving your winner away, what's in your top

five

or three or whatever?

again that Scion pickup just jumped right out at us when we walked in

and that was right there

another one that

jumped out at me is there's a

an 84

old Cutlass T-Top car

that goes back to the high school days down on the end

a G-Body, 442 isn't it?

I think it didn't have 442 stripes on it? I don't think so. I walked by that pretty quick

I gotta go back and look at that again. No lightning rods in it, no Hurst doors on that one

there were a few of those around in the day

there's a 70 Chevy pickup down there

pretty cool custom on it

it's got badging from Iowa on it from the speed shop

old gas station

so it's out there

I noticed there were a couple of cars here that had California plates on them

the GTO had a California plate

a lot of transplants, people coming in and things like that

those are the big ones that jumped out

that black Trans Am jumps out too

there's just so much

cool stuff

there's a lot of cool stuff here

I'm gonna say something here and if this is just

me singing to the choir here

preaching to the choir, whatever you do to the choir

a lot of our listeners call in and many times on the show we've

talked about

Toyota being a brand of

hey, buy an older Camry or whatever, if you want to buy a car that's

less money, it's going to be dependable

the go-to for a lot of people is a Toyota

and you think of Toyota quality, Toyota's

way they do things

and that shows

I'm guessing it's one of their race engines that they probably use

for NASCAR or

the World of Outlaws, they've got a Toyota's buddy Kofoid that won

our big race at home, he was running a Toyota

and he kind of took all the money out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota when he came up

for the High Bank Nationals

and he'd won before there too, so that was a Toyota

and so you kind of forget about Toyota's

impact in motorsports when they jumped in

and inside a lot of those cars were like cars that were used in a celebrity

grand prix or celebrity race

I noticed with some of the names that were on there

just some really

neat stuff here that we're getting a chance to look at

we're so honored to have this opportunity to be here at this place

the uh...

it is really

cool to see

that it's all employees

cars are all employees but also at the show

any car show that had this crowd would be thrilled

and it's all employees and family of employees

it's not a public car show, it's a pretty neat

idea and a pretty cool thing to see, just everybody

enthusiastic about it

also a little bit later we are going to have a chance to go in and do the

check out the museum here, the Toyota experience

and do you know... I'm excited for that, it's not open to the public

it's a great opportunity to do some video and take some photos inside there

so that's really something we're looking forward to

you're listening to the under the hood show, we are in Plano, Texas at Toyota

headquarters

and uh... we are at the Toyota October Beast employee car show

what uh...

we all have

uh... an award to give away

we do

I've been thinking about that walking around and I don't

know that this is as easy as I thought it was going to be

I have to say

I am against the way it went

I don't like this format

I thought we would pick one winner

and I wouldn't be responsible

but we each have an award to give

and I don't

know if I can

take that uh...

that pressure. You don't want that responsibility?

I don't think I'm qualified

I'm okay with it. I have a winner though. I did have a

I do have I think mine picked out

is in your top three

I don't know that I've rounded down that far yet

give me some

well, top three for me

probably a weird one

the little red Skyon XB pickup we saw right when we came in

it's just so unique that somebody made that

it is

it's right in front of us right now and it's amazing

yeah I mean we saw that right when we came in and I kind of keep coming back and looking at that

because it's just so unique

what's it based on? A Skyon XB?

XB, yeah the box

and it's

yeah it's modified

they cut the back end off

and they moved the hatch

up to the back of the cab

and then they made a bed out of what was left

and rebadged it

so at first we couldn't even tell what it was

the front badge is not

an American Skyon badge

that's something you noticed, or Russ may have noticed, I didn't notice it right away

but that was really really uh...

that's on my list for some reason

it's

super noticeable

and if it's the

those weren't

if it's the

I remember everyone was surprised when their top level came out of that Skyon

and they were like

that's like a hot hatch level

box

uh... so that's a cool one

I was surprised

at how much

my high school self

reacted to that Supra, the old Supra over there

I didn't uh...

I don't think I

have any

nostalgia love for

old Supras but when I saw it I was like

that's a great looking car

I must have walked by it, what year is it?

uh... eighty...

higher?

eighty-oh-three, I don't know

eighty-six, I think it's eighty-six

so it'll be a smaller, a little bit smaller one

yeah I gotta take a look at that one

check it out

and there's also, yeah there's some Supercars over there

is there

is there any

okay here's a question

when you're picking, are you just going overall or do you have, are you thinking

if it's a

stock Supercar, are you

do you automatically go old

handled

old and work done?

you don't automatically? No, it's going to be something I just like

but do you

if you had to pick ten

best-ups

if everyone you picked

got eliminated

it would all be older, wouldn't it?

a lot of older ones

we had a chance to talk to Joe Clark

who has

a GTO in the show, kind of

tell us about that car because that was cool

well Russ was down there

chatting with him too and

we're both fans of Pontiacs and

Russ has done probably more hands-on

work on some of those old Pontiacs back in the day

but uh... that sixty-eight GTO that he had

was a Ram Air 2

from sixty-eight

and he just recently found out

from a friend as they were

looking at some, he was at a museum in Las Vegas, he said

that his car is one of twenty-two built

and he said if it would have been, the line that he said

was that if it would have been

a sixty-nine

it would have been a Judge

yeah, it was before the change

and

uh... they were talking about

when he learned about the rarity of the car

looking into the options on it

it might be

one of one, because there were so many options

the side marker lights

and power windows

uh... just the way it's optioned, it's got disc brakes

uh... but we're going to have that interview, we'll put that up

as an individual interview and that was

that was pretty cool and the story behind it too

yup, that the car came from

his family

his dad bought it when he was

about four

and held onto it

did he tell the story about the

sideways drift and smile on our recording or was that afterwards?

yeah, he told it

okay

so what happened was

when uh... he

they had the car and

by the way he was just driving it

daily until he found out it was

one of twenty-two

so before that he was just

he was just driving it every day

uh... and then

he

was able to

get it from his, when he bought it from his dad

he uh...

they got the car, he took it out on the street and his

son, four-year-old, was in the back seat in the car seat

and he went and got his dad

and they took it out on the road

and not on a private, I mean not on the road

yeah, I mean it was on a private

it was on a private area parking lot, he didn't go out on the road

and he lit it up, statute of limitations is passed, it's alright

and his dad smiled and

said, oh I remember when

when I bought this car

I brought it home and I went and talked to your grandma

I went and got your grandma, you were in the back seat and I drove this thing

sideways down the street

my mom was like, this is terrible, what are you doing in the back seat, with a kid in the back seat

and you had the same grin that your son has right now, so that was, that's

that's the cool, that's the greatest part right there, yeah it was, it was, that was fun to see

and I've enjoyed seeing the number of

drift cars that are here

and there must be a

a drift track or drift, you know, that people are able to get involved with around here

because that was neat to see, that neat, the Infiniti G35 down there that's like just

rugged

it's just rugged, but that baby's a drifter

and it's set up, you can see the suspension and the tubing frame they've got

underneath on the front end

and that thing is set up to drift

it's a sleeper for sure, when I walk by I'm like, why is that here

and then I start looking a little closer, I'm like, ah, I see, I see why that's here

I see why that's here

I love the

difference in cars here from

you know, new Toyotas, new Lexus and then like the

there's just

that high level of

that front row over there is all just

high-level

current cars and they're just beautiful

and then you see the ones with the stories and the, it's so cool to just see the

difference here

in this show and to think that it's all in place, it's just kind of a cool, a cool mix

Russ, without giving your winner away, what's in your top

five

four, three or whatever

again that

Scion pickup just jumped right out at us when we walked in and that was

that was right there

another one that

jumped out at me is there's a

an 84

Olds Cutlass T-Top car

goes back to the high school days down on the end

a T-Body, 442 isn't it?

Didn't it have 442 stripes on it? I don't think so. I walked by that pretty quick, I gotta go back and look at that again

no lightning rods in it, no Hurst or anything on that one, there were a few of those around in the day

there's a 70 Chevy pickup down there

pretty cool custom on it, it's got

got badging from Iowa on it from the speed shop

you know, a whole gas station

so it's

it's out there, I noticed there were a couple of cars here too that had California plates on them, the GTO had a California plate

a lot of transplants, people coming in and things like that

those are the big ones that jumped out, that black Trans Am jumps out too

there's just so much

cool stuff

there's a lot of cool stuff here

I'm gonna say something here and if this is just

singing to the choir here

preaching to the choir, whatever you do to the choir

a lot of our listeners call in and many times on the show we've talked about

Toyota being a brand of

hey, buy an older Camry or whatever, if you want to buy a car that's

less money, it's gonna be dependable

the go-to for a lot of people is a Toyota

and you think of Toyota quality, Toyota's

way they do things

and that shows

by the people we see here

and the vehicles that are in the parking lot that these people have brought in, for some

reason it resonates with me

when I'm walking through here

just the little details and it's typical to a good car show but

the little details

and then seeing the connection to some of the Japanese domestic market stuff

that's here

and the blend, there's a different feel to this when I look at it

knowing we're at Toyota

I had the same thought when I went that direction thinking

one of the guys down there, he's a designer

and an engineer with Toyota

and his car is

a classic muscle car and you think

oh, those guys are doing these

those guys that at home

have those old classics are building the other ones over here on this side

on the Toyota side

I've had to get my mind wrapped around that for some reason

and I guess it comes from being in the Midwest where we grew up

so heavily domestic

on our vehicles

we grew up wanting muscle cars

but there was part of me as I got a little bit older that I did definitely

venture into

the Japanese domestic market cars that have now became so popular

I had little

Corolla FX

things that I did as repairables when I was younger to make some money and drive

a little bit

Celica GT

fixed up a prelude for my wife that had been flooded

and so we got that going on and I just start thinking about back

about that now we have a BMW

I have ventured away from those roots so

it's fun to be here

just knowing how much of an impact

you know Toyota

we're not in another country, we're in Texas

right, yeah, yeah

American made we're in the heart of truck country and that's where they moved to

just look at the trucks you look at

you know American made stuff you look at these

full-size Toyotas

they're huge

capable trucks

if we went back thirty years

you don't think well I need a big full-size truck to pull my boat or my

cattle trailer with

and now

no, that's a whole different thing, a big Titan with a V8

it's a whole different game thing

hold on a second Russ

take your headphones off

we were over here, this is funny, we were over here just a minute ago looking at

these trucks and uh...

he said

alright listen, I have to tell you something about this truck right here

he goes, these are the things I don't like about

this truck because I don't like this on any truck, I don't like this

I don't like this or these, I hate when trucks have that

but this one

is really, he's like

I might not hate that, I really like that

was he looking at the blue one?

no, no, no

and when you hear the truck that he was talking about, if we go over there you're

gonna go

I never would have picked

Russ, that's this one, it was kind of neat

alright, you can come back now

he's talking about the truck that you pointed out the things that you normally

don't like but the whole package together really

made you like it

yeah, so I've

been a guy that

since I saw the first

truck running around with tires sticking out past the fender wells

like a street truck type thing

I'm not into that

this truck over here is just the perfect blend of everything including that

and I'm like, that's pretty cool

like, I drive that truck

alright, we're gonna take a break, maybe you'll hear it or maybe you'll

just hear us in a second

I do have a question

that's the 1794 edition, Chris

what is?

the ranch edition

oh, right there? that's the white, that white truck with the wheels sticking out

oh yeah, there it is

I have a question

when we do our Berkeley One Classics

choice

awards, each of us pick

are we going to just do it

live like we do the colors of the car guessing, the Berkeley One Classics

guess the color

and then how

if someone picks the color you were gonna pick you have to immediately come

up with a second choice, are we gonna

discuss what our choices are before we say them out loud or

are we gonna just go in order and there's a chance that you might get

picked off and have to pick a alternative

we'll have to have a pick off

right, we'll have to pick off

if there's a multiple pick

yeah, do we do it

real time or do we discuss it before we do it

there's so many cars

a couple of them stand out, but I think we're safe to just pick what we think

I think we're good

yeah, I don't think we need to discuss it ahead of time

alright, we'll do that in a little bit

it's more fun that way

alright, we got a guest on the Under the Hood Show, Nick Miller is the Senior Manager

Vehicle Marketing and Communities

this would be, is this Fall Under Communities?

yeah, I would say this falls under Communities, yeah for sure

pretty cool event, Nick Miller is our guest

let's talk, first of all, let's start with that, start with

the car show and this

this event is a pretty

is it a unique event, it sure seems like that it's a pretty unique event as far as

an employee

it's a unique event for Toyota, I would say

I don't know how long this has been going on, I've been with the company for

twenty four years and about as far as I can remember we've done some type of an

event like this, probably a little hiatus between when we moved from California

to here, but if I do recall, I think they were doing these types of events in

California as well, we've had our old headquarters

and this is, I would say this is a

when we talk about Communities, this falls nicely into our enthusiast

community, right, you've got a

whole bunch of cars out here that are either stock or, I'm looking at it

an XB over there, it's been turned into a pickup truck, right, so there's

caught our eye too, yeah, there's a lot of modified

vehicles here too and there's also non-Toyota stuff

that's present as well, which is amazing, right, we don't discriminate

inside the community, so enthusiasts are enthusiasts, they love cars, they love

cars, it doesn't matter what brand it is, typically

you're in the car business, which means there is an origin story, I bet

I mean, what was the thing when you were a kid that

you focused in on? It's funny, I was actually just talking to my

team about this today, we were wondering what kind of food was going to be out

here today and I'll get to that in one second, but

to answer your question specifically, my grandfather

was a general manager of a Nash dealership, Nash Rambler

and he used to bring cars home like every weekend, so my dad fell in

love with cars and then my dad is a collector of cars as well,

so I grew up, as far as I can remember when I could stand,

he used to hand me a little paintbrush and a little jar of gold paint

and he would let me paint the inside, like fill in the letters

on the tires of his Corvette 64 Stingray

and I think he did it to just keep me busy during the car shows because

they were probably, you know, boring when you're three, four or five years old

whatever, and then I remember getting a little bit

older, the story I was telling my team, we were walking around

and I had a styrofoam plate with a funnel cake on it and we were

walking by like a 46 Cadillac or something in the gust of

wind blew and it blew all of the confectionery sugar all over

the back of this guy's Cadillac, so my dad grabbed me real quick and

hustled me out of there, but those are my earlier memories of

cars and I've been a fan ever since. You were talking right before we started

about your grandma's Volkswagen. Yeah, she had a yellow

Beetle and my mom was telling me, as she was

learning to drive the car as a stick shift, she said it had a heavy

clutch pedal on it, but she got pulled over

one time by a motorcycle police officer and he pulled behind her with the lights

on and she got nervous and didn't put it in park or turn the

car, not park, didn't put it in gear and she let her foot off the clutch and

it rolled back and knocked the police car or the police motorcycle over

so she ended up getting a ticket. Was that a higher degree of ticket after

that? That's a good question, I don't know, but

it was in Maryland, no chips, I don't remember what they

called it in Maryland. Let's talk a little bit, you were

saying too that you were in the motorsports

section for a while. Yes, the official title had something to do with

motorsports special projects, but I've been in market, well I've been

with Toyota for 24 years. I came over to really start marketing

the vehicle side of it to launch Supra back in 2019, so I've

been involved with our GR line since 2019 and I think I

was able to build some nice relationships with

our counterparts in Japan and GR company.

So around 2021, I guess it was, I got pulled over to

motorsports to launch our GR Cup. So GR Cup is our single make race series

that utilizes GR86s, it's full-blown race cars,

for customer racing. I did that for three years. Oh, that's cool,

that had to be painful. It was a shock to my system

being gone over the weekends because clearly we race over the weekends,

it's 14 races over seven weekends at well-known tracks all across the

country, so got to meet some amazing people,

got to experience some amazing race courses, got to drive the race car a

couple times, just a blast, a blast.

Looking back on your entire life,

could you have done it? Did you have that in you when you would race,

where you're just like, I could have, I could have done this, I mean if

just one little star had changed, I would have been.

I say that every day, it was my calling, I should have been a race car

driver. I'm sure it means so many people, if you asked everybody out here in the

crowd how many of them could be race car drivers,

they'd probably all raise their hands, right? But when you get behind the wheel

and you're hauling around track, it's a little bit of a different story, and

then you add competitors to it, right? And that's even more challenging.

Right, how come my football team doesn't play like that every week because

they're not playing the Bengals without

Gilborough. Chris and I tried the, we thought we were professional race car

drivers, and we got on an ice racing course

up in Canada, and they were all-wheel drive

Subarus, supercharged, and yeah, you know, it was every

20 feet I was into the snow barrier, and he was too,

so not as easy as it looks. That's a whole other

layer that you're adding on there, the grip, right, or no grip.

And a studded Lamborghini that they brought around the ice track, and it was

like, and that guy was hauling it like, oh,

it makes it look easy, and we thought the Subarus would be easy.

So when you're out just to stay on that motorsports thing just a little bit

longer, what track did you find that was just

like, this is really neat? Was there one that really stood out for

you when you got to do that? Yeah, of the seven, Road America is my

favorite. It's a long track, it's like 4.1 miles

long, there's a lot of elevation change, it's very technical, it's very iconic,

right, other series will race there as well, but I really love the town.

If you go down to downtown, the downtown area there, you've got

Siebkens, it was actually on one of the turns on the old course when it

used to run on the roads out there, and you walk in there, it's just

memorabilia, stickers all over the place. The whole town is built around

racing, it's just, we do a parade there for the race every year, so everyone gets

in their race cars, they get police escorted from the track

downtown, they park, they give stickers and

autographs, it's just a really cool setting and a really cool

sensation to be part of it. Looking at both sides here of the show,

have you been involved with any builds or

restoration projects yourself? Yeah, I mentioned before my dad was a

big car fanatic, he's got a 69 AMX, and we did a restoration on that, so I

remember when I was younger, it was probably the most intense one we did,

we drove up to his cousin's body shop in Indiana

from Maryland with the car on the trailer, and we stopped along the way and

picked up rear quarter panels and chrome and

wheels and all kinds of stuff to go up and

actually get our hands dirty and work on that build for a little while.

Was it, must have been rusty from up in the northeast?

No, it really wasn't, it was just more

banged up than anything, I don't know where he got it from, but

it was actually fairly clean. Oh, that's really neat, as far as, I'm

going to go back and, we're going to your past right now, but

the launch of the Supra again, that had, once

again, that's iconic, and being able to be

involved in bringing that back again, I was at SEMA when they were

showing the early releases, I believe, at that point or something,

I just, when you mentioned that, it just resonated with me.

Yeah, so when I started the company,

started not the company, when I started with the company back in 2001,

I came in just, I think, after the last Supra that we sold, Mark IV,

and it was disappointing, right, because I think right around then is when

Fast and Furious came out, and the car became just an icon from then,

and I think, had we, I don't know, had things been different, the movie come out

a couple of years prior to that, that car may have stayed alive the entire time, I

don't know, it was, from my understanding, it was, it just

was harder to sell, the longer it got, it got more expensive,

people's mindset changed a little bit in terms of what kind of cars they were

buying, but thankfully we made the decision, or

Accio made the decision to bring the car back

in 2019, we launched the car after about

being gone for 20 years, and it was amazing,

you know, the response from the customers were amazing,

from the community, it was just a fantastic time to be with Toyota and be

a part of that project. I saw there's a launch edition over

here, it's got a great story, I don't know if

you guys read that or not, but there was only 30 of them of

something made, and he was on the design team,

okay, and he didn't win the lottery to be one of the employees to get to buy one,

oh yeah, so he was calling auto trader every day, we could get, he still had the

list of in numbers, and one popped up at a dealership in

somewhere, and he bought it within the hour,

and yeah, kind of, kind of a crazy story, we had an opportunity,

I don't know where, where they popped up from, but there was about 30

vehicles that were at Magna Steyr, at the plant,

and they became available for our associates to enter

into the pool, basically to buy one, so that's probably what it was, there was

something that got held back for, like, quality checks or something,

something like that, I think that might, might be the story, don't quote me on

that one, yeah, but I just read it off the thing, that's all,

yeah, yeah, so people who wanted them got to put their name in the raffle, and

it's the lucky 30 or 35, whatever it was, ended up walking away with a,

with a launch edition, did you, when that was going on, did you have

things that you couldn't, you know, tell your buddies about the

Supra, when there was, was there things that you knew that you

couldn't say, there's always secrets, that's what's going to be my next

question, there's always secrets, I was hoping you'd say yes, like, are there

things right now, there's still secrets, yeah, yeah, that's probably the hardest

part, is not being able to, to get excited and talk to people about

things like that, right, when you, when you know of future products coming, or

future enhancements coming, but what I can say is, it is exciting to

know that there are future enhancements, yeah, and things coming,

and that's about all I can say, what'd you do today, nothing, and I bet,

and I bet, since you worked at Toyota, your buddies are very free with their

ideas and opinions of what you should be doing, and what, you know, you guys

should do this, and you're just like, just gonna be quiet, and wait a year,

maybe, would you like it if we did that, that's usually the response that I,

I give to media and stuff, when they ask like, hey, when is, whatever coming,

you're like, would you like us to do that, and then you just kind of walk

away. Let's talk about that, as, I mean, we're talking about the car show and

kind of unique things, but what's, as we're in this weird transition period

between gas and full electric, where are we, what's, what do you, what do you

get, what do you see, what's gonna happen from here, I mean, it's not always a

direct line, but what, where are we at now? Yeah, so, I think, you probably know

or have heard this, but Toyota's taking more of a position of, we're gonna make

something for everybody, right, a platform for everybody, multi-pathway

approach, so if there's customers out there that want to buy electric vehicles,

we'll have electric vehicles for them, if they want to buy gas vehicles, we'll have

gas vehicles for them, and everything in between, right, I think, kind of put a nice

stake in the ground with hybrids, we've led the industry in hybrid

technology, dating back to the Prius, but, I mean, even if I'm looking around right

now, I can see in a hybrid, there's a hybrid Tundra right there, not really

built for a fuel economy, but best of both worlds, you know, V6 twin turbo with

a hybrid motor on it, there's a, I think there's a place for, for all of those

powertrains for everybody, Toyota's, right now, is testing through Motorsports

hydrogen combustion motors as well, to help with, with reduced greenhouse gas

emissions, to help clean up everything that's going on, so I don't necessarily

think that electric is the way to go for everybody, there's a lot of

infrastructure challenges that we have with it, they're expensive, so I think

having a good mix of everything is always a great option, now, when you talk

to the enthusiasts here, I'm just reminded by probably a couple of videos

that I've seen on, on Instagram, you know, where a father and son are at a car show,

and the son's, you know, four or five years old, and walks past something that,

that whispered by, and he starts crying, because it doesn't have that, that exhaust

note, that I think a lot of enthusiasts are, are really excited about, manual

transmissions, the exhaust note you were just describing to me, yeah, so talk about

exhaust notes, I asked Shannon if he'd ever driven one of those AC Cobra replicas,

oh yeah, and, or an original, and he said, well, no, I haven't, and I said, well,

I've driven one, a replica, but my favorite thing about the car was not the ride of

it, which was rough, not the power, the braking, or the handling, it was the sound

of that side pipe exhaust, and shifting through the gears on that four-speed,

just, just because of the rumble, so exhaust notes over the years, on whatever

car they are, whether it's a inline six, you know, you get an old, like an 84

Supra, yeah, an 84 Supra, and until the head gasket went out, and I put a 350

Chevy in it, it, it just had this sound to it, between the exhaust, and the, the

whine of that fan, as it would rev up so high, it was just, the sounds that the car

makes are so intriguing, and now with electrics, there are certain sounds they

make, and a different generation of people, even some of the older generation

starting to adopt it, but it's just the sound of the car, no matter what it is,

from a quiet sound, on up to a full-out roar, just really gets people's hearts

going, you know? Yeah, it does, and, and to your point, most, most OEs have

manufactured their own sound, right, especially on the, on the BEV side, right,

anything that's, that's battery-powered, I think by regulation, they need to have a

sound for pedestrian detection, but I can always tell when I'm in the

neighborhood, if my, if I'm doing something in the driveway, my back is

turned, and I hear something coming, I know, like, oh, that was my, my neighbor's

Cadillac Lyric, right, that's got a very, very distinct sound, where I can also

tell when our, when our electric cars are coming by, too, because they all have

their own distinct sounds, it's not like a, you know, a Fox Body Mustang with a

crossover, right, they, they have a very, very distinct sound, but, but yeah, most,

most of the cars, from an exhaust standpoint, you can tell what they are

coming, just based on the sound, if you're, if you're a true fan. I got that

sound of the Prius stuck in my head, because I've had so many in our shop, as

it, that, that little computer sound it makes, as it's just moving, uh-huh, just

kind of whirring by. Chris has had a couple of them, so they, they're, they're

in and out our shop a lot, and other ones, but that's an icon car, people, people

still, to this day, say, well, I'm thinking about buying one of those, it's got

200,000 miles on it, I've heard the batteries are a problem, it's like, well,

we've only put a couple batteries in our shop, in those cars, ever, and we've got

dozens, and dozens, and dozens of people with them, Chris put, what, 300,000 on

yours? I just had a conversation with the guy who worked on my Beetle, a while ago,

so, two years ago, and, uh, he said, I said, oh, you know, he, he knew I drove a

Prius, and he's like, yeah, I don't know about those things, I mean, you know, they,

I don't think they've perfected the technology, and I don't, I just don't think

you can go, I mean, imagine going, I don't, I don't know if I'd want to take that out

on the interstate, or every day, or anything, I said, well, I'm, I'm on my second

Prius, I'm about 700,000 miles, of 60 miles a day, at 85 miles an hour, and not

had any problem with it, ever, and he was like, we're, we're, what, you're, aren't

they new? No. No? He's like, oh, I thought they were untested. 22 years. I want to ask

a little bit about your Toyota marketing, where you're at now. Yeah. Because Toyota,

I think, slyly, has had the best marketing, just, they don't, it's not always over the

top, it's just so unique, the way that they approach their marketing. Is that, is that

something that is, is it a trend, is it a path that's been followed way back, or has

there been changes, or we just think it seems the same? But, is that, does that question

make any sense? I'll just say, thank you. Yeah. Right, was that a compliment? It was,

it was a, it was a compliment. From a, from a marketing, well, look, marketing is all

subjective, right, so I appreciate the fact that you're, that you enjoy our marketing

efforts. I think what we, what we try to do on, on our side, from a marketing standpoint,

is, is create assets, whether, whether it's imagery, videos, commercials, that just resonate

with, with the folks we're trying to connect with, in an authentic way, right? It's important

to be authentic, right? I think you can see through it, or smell through it, when you

see something, you're like, that, that doesn't make sense, or that doesn't, it doesn't work

like that in real life. So, I mean, our, our goal is to try to connect with people,

to show them that we, as Toyota, can help, help them, not just by marketing a car,

but by marketing ways that the car can help them in their day-to-day lives,

and then it becomes more, more than a, an appliance to them, it becomes part of their life.

What, what are, what's next? What are you guys working on now that we're gonna, I mean,

public, public now? Not classified stuff. What are we looking at right now? What are you guys,

what's, what's the next thing on your horizon that's, maybe even here, but is,

is the thing you're working on? Uh, so, I mean, I guess, when you look at,

when you look at marketing, marketing is a very broad term when it comes to what we do here

at Toyota. It could be everything is, low down the funnel is like vehicle advertising,

or what you might see on a website, or it could be a large partnership, like something

we've got going on with the NFL, right? Our partnership with the NFL, and everything in

between. Um, so, you know, we've, we've got new vehicles that are coming to the market,

like the RAV4. We can talk about the RAV4, because that's, that's been publicly announced.

So, you'll see some marketing campaigns coming, coming out, talking about the RAV4 to help build,

build awareness of the vehicle, um, help build, uh, interest and familiarity and consideration

amongst customers who may or may not be considering it right now. Um, so, we, that's

obviously a focal point for us when we've got new cars coming to market, but we're also taking a

different approach to marketing too, and we're looking at, uh, communities, right? So, there's

a, this term called community-based marketing, and it's not necessarily proprietary to us, but

what that, what that means in short form is that we, when you look at consumers from a

psychographic standpoint, most of the, of the general population that are buying cars,

you can drop them into a one of five buckets, uh, or five communities, as we would say, um,

and some of them may be more significantly interested in outdoors events, right? So,

that's a great opportunity for us to showcase all of our body-on-frame vehicles, Tundra, Tacoma,

Sequoia, Land Cruiser, 4Runner, and our marketing efforts will be more driven towards what those,

um, what those customers will do with their vehicles, as opposed to the vehicles

specifically themselves. Does that make sense? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it gives us an

opportunity to showcase five vehicles, as opposed to maybe a Tundra or a Tacoma, right? We, now we

can tell a story about a whole family of vehicles, and it gives us an opportunity to, uh, to build a

fun, emotional piece that connects with people, but it also allows us to, to bring more of our

vehicles into the mix at the same time. In talking about marketing in, in my business, it's kind of

an interesting time to see, we were talking about niche marketing, and how it's all niche

marketing now. Everything's a niche almost. I mean, there's not, there's not a sitcom that gets

40 million views. You're going after each niche, and it just changes so much of that job. Yeah,

um, I guess when you're talking about niches, maybe we're, we're talking about, um, the,

we, we call it like media fragmentation. Yeah. Um, with, with the advent of streaming technology

and all that, I mean, everybody has a streaming platform that's either free or you can pay for.

I mean, it's like, I've got Hulu and YouTube and YouTube TV, and I've got Netflix and Paramount

Plus, and right, so now there's all these different channels that people can, can, um,

can tune into and watch whatever content they want. Um, and what makes it even more challenging

is when, you know, you work with, within, um, certain properties, like let's say when I want

to watch a NASCAR race, or I want to watch football, you know, football's on three different

channels now, last time I counted. NASCAR is covered by, by multiple, uh, channels as well.

So it just makes it, it makes it more challenging to go out and, and build content for one platform

when it's not just one platform anyway. All right, going back to, uh, going from the head

to the heart again. One car, what's the dream? Old or new doesn't even have to be possible.

I've, I've always loved, and I wish I bought one a long time ago because they've gone up in value

significantly, but a 66 Nova SS would be, would be my ride. Yeah, well, let's, oh, let's, Berkeley

let's guess the color of his dream car. So when someone calls in with a question about a classic

car, we do the Berkeley one classics, guess the color. So 66 Nova SS, I'm good. I'm going first

because Ken Hilgert had one up the block, big, big slicks on the back,

or maybe I'm thinking of something. Uh, I'm going to go blue.

Yeah, yellow. I'm going to be, um, I'm going to be red. What's what, what are you picturing?

I'd go with black. Oh, okay. Yeah. He wins the hoodie.

It'll be great for him in January to wear it.

Not good today. Of the Toyota lineup as it's just straight across the board. Yeah.

What's your favorite one? So it's hard. It's hard to say. Um, I drive a Sequoia now.

I've had my aisle one for a long time and I, and I love it. It's a hybrid. Uh, it's got

so much power. I'd call it, you know, it's a rocket ship and considering how heavy they are,

they move. Um, so I've had my own that for a long time. The forerunner is absolutely amazing.

In my earlier part of my career, I was a field traveler out in our New York region and I,

we cycled out of them about every 5,000 miles and I had Buffalo as a territory for a while. So

I got to drive my fair share of forerunners, uh, forerunners, absolutely amazing. And then, um,

I mean, I love getting out on, on track too. Um, I'm a bit of a sucker for a Supra as well. So

it's, it's hard to say, I guess it depends on what day of the week it is. Maybe.

Hey, have you, we talked about, have you found yourself liking a vehicle at your age going,

how? I wouldn't, this was never, I never wanted to like this. Yeah. I'm trying to think about

what I had on the walls when I was a kid in terms of posters and whatnot. And there's,

you know, I remember specifically a Lamborghini Countach poster that I had.

And I think they were, um, you know, it's, it's, it's a, an aspirational car to have

and not so attainable. Right. Um, I don't know. I there's, if I, if I won the lottery or something,

you know, maybe, um, I love the, uh, what was it? The three, uh, the Ferrari, um, three,

three 80 GT, the best Ferris Bueller car that are like $31 million now. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, those

are amazing. The spider, right? Yeah. Yeah. Um, that would be, if I, if I had all the money in

the world, that that's probably what I would have my eye on, but that's again, that's not

realistic right now. But then, then there's some people, you know, I realized when I get to a

point where I could obtain something, I don't really want it as much as anymore. Oh yeah. You

look and look at the guy with the rockets right down the road from us here. And, and, uh, he

really doesn't collect a lot of cars or any, I mean, what's, what's your aspiration when you get

there? But I might haven't changed it. I'm still waiting for that time when I can decide if I don't

want something I can now obtain. I find myself, the two-tone crown has become my, that's my

aspirational car right now as my fit. I just, I don't know. I know. I don't know. What are you

waiting for? Uh, that, well, that's one to be available when you were looking, that was the,

I recently totaled my second Prius and I was like, we got, let's, let's go and we can get

anything. And I wanted the new Prius and couldn't get one. And I was in the crowd was just a little

bit too up there for that replacement. So before, before Supra, uh, I was the manager for Prius

as well from a marketing standpoint. Um, and I inherited, I was brought onto the team right

about when all wheel drive was coming out. So my, my goal was always to try to help reposition

maybe some of the imagery on the car. Um, and now seeing the new one and hearing people refer

to it as sexy. It's like, I have to ask you, do you think it's sexy? Yes. The new car is a good

looking car. We always thought it was maybe purposely made ugly when it first came out.

It is the original generation. It seemed, it seemed to without offending anybody, it always,

it seemed to maybe fit into that category where people were looking to be different.

But yeah, it's become a little bit more mainstream, although it definitely has a

distinct shape to it. And a lot of that is air aerodynamically driven. Um, but there,

there was a, I think earlier in time it was maybe designed more inside out too. So they designed it

from the, from the inside and then the outside ends up being what it, what it is. But a lot of

it was driven by aerodynamics. Yeah, that, uh, my sister has been a Prius driver since the first

generation came out and she, she's had one ever since. She's got one of the new ones. She actually

just loves them. Oh, they're amazing. It's definitely my favorite car I've ever had.

Both of them. And they just, and we, the, the new Prius, when it came out, everybody,

all of them, everyone at the radio station immediately started to put ads in my cubicle

and they just were like, here you go, buddy. You got you. And so after seeing it, the new reveal,

I was like, I'm all in. And it was, I don't know how many times on the road a year later when I

when they were finally on our, where we, how many times I was like, Oh, what is that? Oh, perfect.

It caught my eye so many times. I was like, Oh, I'm, I'm right about myself. I do like this thing.

Like when I had the, when I drove the car in the, when I drove my Solstice in the first time

and your dad was like, what is that? I was like, Oh, perfect. He's had one. You've had one. And

your dad was like, I don't know what that was. That's how I felt about the Prius. I was like,

I like it in my brain. And then when I saw it on the road, every time I was like, what is,

Oh, perfect. Those are, I think the new ones are for me. Did you opt for a plugin?

No, no, I haven't. I haven't gotten one yet. I wouldn't. What would I do when I do a plugin?

I don't. Yeah. So I know this is your show, but I want to ask you why, why, why not on the plugin?

I would, I have no, no reason not to. And I wouldn't have turned it down.

You know what the range is on the plugin part?

He's a mainly highway. That's why I asked that question. I don't know why I want to say it's

like 40 of pure, pure plugin. And then I guess 50, 40 is usually my first over. Don't quote me on

that. So you could, well, and that is around town. I'll say that as driving the Prius,

it was never a perfect, we never drove it in town. So I'm doing 80 miles an hour for an hour a day

on it. So it was never that the electric part of it, I was rarely in just electric. Yeah. So that

like the plugin, I don't know if I would, I wouldn't get more assist on it because of the

plugin. I mean, it would have no, it would not be an impediment. But also like, even when I was

looking, they're just all spoken for it. They're not available where we are. So yeah, I would have

no qualms about it at all. When we talk about the Prius and Toyota's lineup, you know, we watch

as much as we can, what's going on in the world. And we saw the head of Toyota racing the hydrogen

internal combustion car. Yeah. GR Corolla. Yeah. And he took it out there and I saw the headline

and I thought something different until I read it. I was like, huh, you know, they're just

changing the injectors and there's a lot to it, obviously, but

yeah, instead of having to create a ton of expensive components to it with the, you know,

I mean, when you look at it from an electric standpoint, right, you've got electric motors

and then you've got the big battery as well. And that stuff's not cheap. The nice part about

hydrogen is when you make a couple of tweaks to it and all of our engine plants that are building

motors around the country and around the world, we can make a simple conversion and still continue

to use those engines to burn or combust hydrogen as opposed to petroleum. And hydrogen you can make

anywhere and it's transportable, right? You can make it in Australia, put it in container and

ship it somewhere as opposed to electricity, right? You're a lot more limited in terms of

where you can make it and where you can get it across the country, too.

And that I've, personally, we've talked about on the show, too, but just always respected the way

Toyota has approached things because their hybrids, we've said it all along, there are,

that is where we should be. You know, that makes sense. It makes sense. And you guys have perfected

that and now with the technology improvements learned from Battery Electric, putting those

improvements in the hybrids, they're that much better. And so I've just always respected Toyota.

It just seems like a more thoughtful approach. They weren't swung by the winds of anything

political. They just stayed the course with what they've done. And I think that's commendable for

what Toyota's done in that space. They're in a good position now. I'd like to see that truck

right there in hydrogen electric hybrid. That's me. And I've said this for years. I said, why don't

we have a diesel electric Prius, you know, or something like that, because of the extra

efficiency you get with that. But then there's more maintenance. It's running less like the gas

engine. And I, after we thought about it more, I was like, well, that may not work. I'm sure at

some point there may have been testing on every combination possible of every car out there. And

maybe it just didn't work. But as far as the hydrogen goes clean, readily available,

and we'll probably see that down the road somewhere, somebody hydrogen.

Yeah. If you, if the three of you here want to open up some hydrogen fueling stations around

the country, that would help. Where do you buy hydrogen outside of California in a couple of

spots? Yeah. I have a, I have a device. I got it. We could just clip it on there. It has magnets.

And I think I bought out the internet. It's going to be the next thing. I'm pretty sure. Oh,

awesome. Yeah. Well, I just, one last thing for me on the motor sports stuff. I just love

Toyota being involved in World of Outlaws, NASCAR, you know, being here in truck country.

Yeah. I just, I look at Toyota as a domestic now, you know, I really do from our standpoint.

It is a domestic. I know, but I mean, I look at it. I always, I never, you never thought that

when you were 20 years old. Not when we were in the eighties. No, it's a successful

conversion to my mind and reality of what happens. Yeah. We, we build quite a bit of product here

domestically. I mean, some of our vehicles are wholly produced here. Now, none of our,

nobody, no OE's have 100% American built content in their vehicles, but we do

build and assemble a good bit of our product here too. So I don't, in comparison to all the

other OE's, I'm not sure where we stack up, but I know as far as being American made,

a good bit of what we have is, is built here right in the U S. Nick Miller, our guest from Toyota.

Thanks for spending a little time with us today. Yeah. Thanks for having me. So the,

let me think about this. We were talking about the first Supra or when, when I was on the team,

when we brought Supra to market, the first production Supra that hit the shores here,

I don't know if you remember, it went to Bear Jackson and it was auctioned off. And it was,

it was purchased at a pretty high dollar amount. I think it was 2.2, $2.1 million and it ended up

going forward. And it was awesome because the proceeds went to two charities. That vehicle

had an engine cover on it that was signed by Accio Toyota. Oh, so the vehicle that we used

for the bear Jackson auction was, was a prototype, an exact mock of the actual car

because it hadn't gone into production yet. Right. And then the production car ended up

when it got built, it got sold to the bidder. The engine cover that was on it stayed on,

on that car. And funny enough, we, we got a call from universal studios and they asked us if we

wanted, uh, if they were okay with us, um, using the Supra in F9, fast and furious nine, right?

So you look, it was about 20 years later from, from when we had sold our last Supra. Now they

want to bring the Supra back and include it in fast and furious. And we're like, yeah, why not?

That'd be an awesome thing. Right? Great way to bring the car back. So they, they borrowed a

couple of our prototypes, painted them orange, and they shipped them off to, uh, to Georgia,

the country. And we got a call, we got a call from the gentleman who bought that first Supra.

And he said, Hey, I thought this was supposed to come with an assigned engine cover.

And we're like, yeah, it didn't, it didn't come with it. He's like, no. And we realized

that it was on that prototype. That was that bear Jackson that universal took.

And it ended up getting shipped over to Georgia. So we had a technician here,

uh, that got called last minute to, to go over and help the universal productions crew, um,

help ensure that the vehicle was able to do some of the tricks and stunts that it was supposed to

do in the movie. Cause I don't know if you've ever driven, uh, you know, a modern car out,

out on a track or tried to do J turns and three sixties and stuff. They don't want to do that.

They want to drive straight, right. It's what they're intended to do. So he, he was able to

get out there and help them with that. And I called him, I said, Hey, uh, your secret mission

is to go find this engine cover. So he and I touch base, you know, whatever, 12 hour time

difference or something. I kept reaching out to him and say, Hey, did you get a chance to

go look for that? He's like, no, they won't let me leave. They won't let me leave the set,

but this weekend they're not going to be filming. So I'm going to go look for it.

Uh, he ended up getting on a train and heading out to some town that the cars originated at.

And they were like buried in a garage somewhere in a crate. He pry bar this crate open and there

was the engine cover sitting right there. So he took it back to the hotel. He told him, Hey,

this thing's worth $2.1 million. I put it in your safe. I was like, no, don't tell them that don't

tell them. Um, and was finally able to get it set up with FedEx. But because of the size of the town

that it was in, it took FedEx like three weeks to get there before they had a truck full of

shipments and they shipped it back to the United States through multiple countries.

And it finally arrived in Houston right as a hurricane was hitting. And I just remember seeing

videos of things floating down the street. And I was like, Oh my gosh, my box is going to be there

floating down the street. And unfortunately all the flooding that happened down there,

but a long story short, we ended up getting it back, uh, probably a month and a half after this

whole process started and we were able to get it down back to the owner again, but it was a

crazy, crazy story. Just step after step trying to try to stop you. Oh yeah. Was there ever a

thought of seeing if you could just have him sign another one? Well, the first thought was,

I don't know if I'm going to have a job in a couple of weeks. I'll find this thing. So

might not be my issue that long. Yeah, but no, thankfully, thankfully we got it.

We, we did toy around with some backup plans. I'll just leave it at that. But, but yeah,

no, he, uh, he got it. Oh, that's awesome. That's a great story. I'm glad you.

It is time to pick the winners for the Toyota employee car show. Pay attention

over here. It is time. Are you picked? Did you have a spot? I got to look at my pictures. Okay.

I got to look at my pictures again. All right. So we each have an award to bestow

on a vehicle in the car show, and we're not going to reveal them to each other.

So if someone picks the car you picked, you have to pick something different. And I am going first.

You're not going to get picked. Well, yeah, I have to, I mean, I'm, I've got the run the

show and stuff, the volume. So I can't do that. I have to do, I have to go first.

I have to go first. Shannon, are you ready?

I am still contemplating Chris. All right. Well, while you contemplate,

I'm trying to look at my pictures and remember what I looked at

while you contemplate. I'll ask Russ, Russ, are you ready? I am. All right. That means Shannon,

your time is up. What you, you should be fine. Listen, pick three, just pick three random.

I got one. And what if one of us picks that? I'm ready. Okay. All right. My choice for

the Chris Carter. I don't, I don't know if it's called this. I'm going to call it

Chris Carter award for catchy, catching my eye. I am choosing the 1996 Toyota land cruiser fire

truck. Oh, that was, I just looked at that picture. It was cool by Eli Nesbitt. Yeah,

it's his vehicle and it is, it's really cool. It looks, I thought, I thought when we got here,

I was looking for a Hilux and there's a couple of cars that are a couple of trucks that I

thought might be. And this was the first one that, and when the more I got to look

at this vehicle, that was the one I picked. I am enamored with it. I'm ready. I'm ready.

Shannon, what is your choice? I have an affinity for yellow. Okay. Yellow catches my eye.

The 19, I believe it's a 91 Honda right-hand drive beat mini rear engine, mid engine.

It's pretty cool. And he has on his license plate. I didn't see the name on it because his

sign wasn't up, but he has on his license plate, mini NSX. And I got a chance to talk to the

gentleman and the car was launched at the same time as the Acura NSX. Okay. And it was at that

time, the only two mid engine cars that Toyota had. And then he went on to tell me when they

relaunched the newest generation of NSX, they introduced a, I think he called it an S600 in

Japan. Okay. Which is another mini car at the same time. Okay. It was only in the Japanese market,

but this is a right-hand drive Japanese car and it just really caught my eye. So that is my winner.

Russ Evans. All right. It's a 68 Chevy C10. It's kind of a, it's not a rat rod, but it's a,

like an old gas station kind of service truck. It's pretty cool. The paint's patina.

It's got a 350 Chevy HO engine with a Holley Sniper EFI on it. It's got MSD digital ignition

on it, rack and pinion. So, I mean, they've done some stuff. It's got air ride on it. It's really

sweet. And it's got a Sinclair dinosaur on the door and it comes with a matching motorcycle in

the bed of the truck. Also with the same lettering as the service station. Nice. The Sinclair dinosaur

on it. My wife likes that one too. So those are your Berkeley one classics. Jason Barney on that

one. Award winners right there. All right. And it says Iowa, the station service station. Oh,

cool. From Iowa. Not too far. Right. Was that the Newton Iowa? Newton Iowa. There we go. That's

neat. That's really cool. Thanks to Toyota for having us down here. Thanks to Berkeley one

classics for hosting us and just a blast. Thanks. You bet. Any parting words? Well, I see

some of these vehicles are pulling out. If we're going to catch our winners and get their gifts,

we got to do it. We got to do that. All right. Parting shots. Parting thoughts. I think we're

good. Let's go catch them. Thanks, everybody. With Russ Evans, this is Shannon Nordstrom

thanking you for tuning into the Nordstrom's Under the Hood Show. Have a great day and remember,

the opinions heard on this program, based on the many years of experience of Russ and Shannon,

are offered for entertainment value only and as a guide to your repair needs.

No claim to repair or cause is given or implied. Always consult with your own certified technician

and follow all safety procedures before attempting any repair. To be a part of the show,

call 866-594-4150. Find out more by visiting UnderTheHoodShow.com. Under the Hood is produced

by Prairie House Productions. All content is the property of Nordstrom's Automotive

Incorporated and may not be used without our permission. Copyright Nordstrom's Automotive Inc.

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