TMCP #619: Ask Rick — OEMs, Politics, and Profits; Plus Cars You Can Flip for Fun (and $$) at Football Tailgates

The Muscle Car Place, online podcast, episode number 619.

This week, September is here, football is back, and Rick is on for the first show of the month.

Now we're going to cover a lot here, starting with the dreams you would have taken if you

didn't end up doing what you're doing now.

For Rick, he wanted to be an orthodontist.

What did you want to be?

At the end of the show, we will review some cars that you could get for a deal to

buy to take to football tailgates this year to impress your friends, have some fun

and then sell to make a little coin.

But in between that, we're going to discuss the debacle of the OEMs.

On one side, they've got halo cars like GTD Mustangs and all-wheel-drive Corvettes that

run at Nürburgring on the weekends.

And then on the other side, they have to figure out how to also make electric cars

hybrids and navigate politics.

Some of the cars OEMs makes will be future classics.

Some won't.

Rick will tell you, he for one is relieved that he's not the person in charge of

an OEM.

Trying to navigate all that stuff is just more than he wants to do.

But if he were in charge, here's what he would do.

I would literally just be lifting a middle finger to the government and going

the whole hog with what my people, my employees, my geniuses, my scientists.

This is the Muscle Car Place online podcast brought to you by National Parts Depot.

This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American muscle cars.

If you're buying, selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you.

Now here's your host, Rob Kibbey.

Yes, indeed I am Rob Kibbey and welcome to the Muscle Car Place podcast.

Well, here we are, everybody, first show of September.

The world is back to full swing of the school year.

Football's are flying.

Rick is here to guide us through it all.

Isn't that comforting?

It's going to be a fun discussion.

With school starting back up, it does make me kind of take that philosophical path.

I want to discuss the paths that we take in life if we could go back in time that maybe

we might change.

Not because we're unhappy, but just because you like to know, what if I went this other

route?

What would that look like?

And Rick's answer surprised me significantly.

It wasn't automotive in any way.

What's yours?

What would you have done?

I think we all, every now and then think, you know, what if I had gone this way

instead of that way?

What would have happened?

Would I have liked it?

What was it?

So we'll talk about that.

And then we're going to dig into the debacle of the OEMs.

Good luck running one, because it's a hot political football mess.

One day you've got to make battery cars and hybrid cars.

One day you don't.

One day you're allowed to pursue hydrogen.

One you're supposed to focus only on urban cars and ignore everything else.

It's exhausting.

And we'll dig into it, because some of those halo cars, that are the fun

ones that really get our attention, they will be collectibles in the future.

And that's why they're on this show.

GTD Mustangs belong on this show.

All wheel drive Corvettes belong on this show.

Bagging on the new six cylinder charger belongs on this show, even though it's a great car.

That's what we're going to discuss in depth, because it is important.

And it's where we are today.

But then we're going to dig into the collectibles that you like.

I know everybody here loves the cars review and buying segment.

So this one is a football edition where you buy something to take to a tailgate

and make some money at the end.

It's always fun.

Everybody likes bent shopping for cars.

Yes.

Well, the big news of September for me here is that we really are in the basically

for me the final swing of the automotive year and business year.

But I'd rather start with something personal.

My daughter Noelle's 15th birthday is September 9th.

Byrne, a little happy birthday music here.

You know the minion one.

I love that one.

Happy birthday to you.

That's the one Byrne.

She will be 15 years old this year.

It's the last one before her sweet 16 of my three kids at this point in her life.

She's driven the least.

She's not bad at it.

She just doesn't love it that much.

What she does love is dance.

And I mean ballet dance.

Dance to her is what racing is to my son.

It's what playing the French horn is to my oldest daughter.

I mean, it's just she loves it so much.

Noelle has a lot of wonderful qualities.

She's the most like me when it comes to movies.

You shut up and you enjoy.

You don't talk through them.

You don't talk over them.

She's the only kid I have that likes watching the Simpsons with me.

And Noelle has some dietary restrictions that have been really hard for her.

She's gluten free.

She has celiac disease.

For the last year, she's been on an unbelievably restrictive diet trying to heal her guts

from the inside out and almost everything is off the table.

Dairy, sugar, beef, pepper, coconut, I mean just an enormous list of things she can't

have.

The good news is she is healing and you slowly introduce some foods here and there.

Some have worked.

Some have not.

There's a treat.

There's this place called Do Right Donuts in Chicago that makes a gluten free donut that

tastes like the real thing.

We found it once on a trip home.

Totally by accident.

It's a Chicago only thing.

You got to go there to get it.

They will ship you donuts, but not gluten free ones.

So yesterday I was coming home from a different business trip and I just decided to land

in Chicago and get a car and go buy her some donuts and drive home.

So I did yesterday.

I landed in Chicago at eight in the morning, found myself in Avus.

I had ordered the donuts the night before and the only place I could find them that had

what I wanted was across the street from Wrigley Field.

So I went to Wrigley Field yesterday.

That was fun.

And then drove home.

Seeing her get to open something so special to her was neat.

Now, I jokingly said to her a month before, I'll fly some in for you, like a big shot.

I didn't know that I meant that.

I did want to deliver on it, but sometimes I say things out loud that I don't know

how I'll deliver on and that was one of them.

I did deliver on this and God knows she's worth it.

So no, well, happy birthday to you.

We love you dearly.

So second thing in September here, personally, is the big Iowa Iowa State football game.

Burn, you will find in your folder the Iowa State fight song.

A little bit here would be nice underneath a little bit of music.

That's the good stuff.

OK, I played in the marching band at Iowa State.

I played in the drum line.

I met my wife there, met most of my college best friends there, playing drums.

We still tailgate together.

We're like a little family.

I live in Ames Iowa, where Iowa State University is now.

I didn't always, but I do now.

It's just kind of part of our daily lives.

This game is a big deal.

This is the game of the year because the state of Iowa doesn't have pro sports.

We have college sports.

And Iowa is the big 10 school and they're the big brother and we're the big 12

school, the up and comer with the heart of gold.

You will say, this is a fun game.

The odd years are here.

The even years are at their stadium.

We have not won this game at home since 2011.

You heard me, 2011.

At that game, Laura and I had to leave in the fourth quarter to go

pick up our oldest daughter to take her to a soccer game

because some moron scheduled a six year old soccer game at three

in the afternoon in the Iowa State game.

Yeah, they should just not do that stuff.

That's a holiday.

Anyway, this year, Laura will have to leave early to go take Noelle to a

nutcracker audition in Des Moines during the Iowa State game.

Don't people know this is a holiday?

I don't get it.

But anyway, that's what's going on here.

This is an 11 a.m.

kickoff game.

All of our friends are coming in the either the night before or the

morning of we're leaving our house at 5 45 a.m.

to tailgate.

You kind of break down your tailgate no later than 10 a.m.

So you can get in the stadium if you want to see it Fox Sports.

Their big noon kickoff show will be here broadcasting from here.

When I say noon, that's noon Eastern.

But for us, it's 11 a.m. central.

So it should be fun.

Look forward on TV.

Maybe you'll see us there.

The interesting thing is the last time we won this game at home,

it was another 11 a.m.

kickoff.

How about that?

I think we've had some other 11 a.m.

I can't remember, but no, that's not true.

The last 11 a.m.

kickoff was 2011.

Iowa State looks really good right now.

They look like a great team.

The Hawkeyes look kind of bad in their first game of the season,

but they always do.

And then they always dupe you and then much of the time they beat you.

So we'll see how this year shakes out.

Look for us on TV.

Doesn't matter what army you're in, you're either at the stadium or you're

at a party.

Okay.

Also in September, Moe party.

All of the Holly events are this month, actually.

LS Fest, Ford Intergalactic Fest and Moe party all in bowling green.

And then, you know, wouldn't you know it here for the fall?

It'll be November soon.

That'll be the SEMA show.

And once you get to SEMA, that's kind of the end of the year,

but really the kickoff for the next year.

We do event coverage there, but it's also the place where you're networking

and you're lining up your sales deals for the first quarter of the spring.

I'm it's a big endeavor.

For me, there will be no more personal car stuff this year.

And there really hasn't been much this year, if any.

This year, for me, car wise has just taken a backseat to Dallas's racing

and I'm OK with that.

He'll be racing all of this month and all of next.

And while racing itself kind of never ends, it does have a finale event.

That's the legends car asphalt national.

So burn you, the Dallas, give you legends car racing update intro.

For the very end, lose cars fast, loses fast and on the edge of out of control.

Excellent intro burn, still love that intro.

The asphalt nationals, like I just mentioned, is kind of the culmination

event, even though you can racing doesn't really have a season that ends.

It just just kind of all agree it's over for national points, though.

There is a national points thing.

And I think that's either the last event or the second to last.

But the reason it's a big deal is because it's a national event.

People come from all over to race in it.

And it's how you figure out where you stack up.

So for Dallas, he raced in Charlotte in June.

That was a national event.

And that was a good way for him to gauge like, where do I stand right now?

Because everybody that comes to these national events, they're the best at

their local track.

And I would say at this point, Dallas is getting very good at his local tracks.

This last weekend, he fought his heart out to a fourth place finish at a track

outside of Madison called Jefferson.

And that was his best finish there.

And to me, better than a win, he had to fight so hard to get what he got.

And that's a race craft.

We're learning a race craft.

And when we go to races now, it's legit.

We're changing shocks, spring rates, Rito in the car.

Sometimes you got to rescale the car at the track because every track scales

are a little different and sometimes they're different week to week.

Just because you're three pounds over on the right side and your skills at home

doesn't mean you will be at the track.

I mean, you got to take all that in.

So I mention all that because while we're really just been racing all year

preparing for the asphalt nationals, the next track we're going to

is in Elko, Minnesota.

It's the closest track here in the Midwest that we have

that is like the Las Vegas track.

So Vegas, Kyle Bush's kid will be there.

Kevin Harvick's kid will be there.

When we made this plan for Dallas for the season, this was going to be the bookend

event. It's going to tell him since Charlotte in June, how he's improved,

how he has prepared.

Unlike Charlotte, he'll be in his own race car.

And Charlotte, he was in one of the team cars, you know, a rental car.

I mean, a really good car, but it wasn't his car.

He'll be in his own car for this weekend.

We'll actually do two weekends in Vegas, the 17th and the 18th.

And then the national event the weekend after that, 23 through the 25th.

That first one isn't a national event, it's just the finale event of that track

itself. We're using that as a practice with our whole team.

So that's the plan.

So no car stuff for me this fall.

Just lots and lots and lots of racing.

And I have some more news as the result of the racing.

We do have a little bit more merch left here.

We have white t-shirts and black t-shirts.

We have no mediums of anything and no double X blacks left,

but we got a little bit left of everything else and some sweatshirts.

So if you like some of that, look for the show notes.

You will end up then on me and we'll mail them out to you.

And that concludes the Dallas Ghibli racing update to the outro burn.

All right, Moe party news.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I mentioned on Ghibli and French show,

I have to skip Moe party this year.

And this is an important business move, but it's also a really fun event.

I mean, I love going to this.

It's important that we do this event.

It's part of our overall presence and package with Holly.

They are our title sponsor, the Ghibli and French show.

But the reality is that race in Elko, Minnesota.

I mentioned that conflicts with Moe party.

I've got to go with Dallas.

I have to. It's an easy pick for me.

And it's an easy pick because of A, I love him and B.

I've got a great team and they are up for the task.

They're helping me out here.

So Bernie McPartlin, Corn Dog, Scott Stapp, Nathan Warren

are all going to cover the show for Ghibli and friends.

I've heard to the great bind that our president, Jimmy Morrison,

KFS fan club president will be there.

He may be helping, probably will be, always seems to.

The Vice Grip Garage Vandemonium event will be there.

That seems amazing.

Next week, we'll probably release Muscle Car Place early.

It's either David Krug or David Krug.

But he will be there racing his 70 Dodge Super B.

That is a full speed tech chassis on 335s on all four corners.

It's bananas. I mean, literally it's a yellow.

It's a giant yellow Mopar that's going to fly like the wind.

I'll see if he can get the guys some rides.

We have a feature interview with him next week.

I think we'll try to release that early and prep for Moparty.

Moparty is next weekend as I record this.

What is that? September 12th, 13th and 14th.

OK, there you go.

That's the Moparty news.

Well, with that, let's go ahead and get to our feature interview with Mr.

Rick Schmidt. Now, I told you, we're going to cover a lot of ground on this one.

And we will. It starts with the career you didn't choose.

It ends with cars to flip for a football game.

And in between the debacle of being an OEM CEO.

Yuck. Enjoy.

The Muscle Car Place weekly podcast interview is brought to you by our good

friends at National Parts Depot.

See them through the link at themusclecarplace.com.

Up next on the National Parts Depot hotline is Mr.

Rick Schmidt. Rick football season is here.

Welcome back, my friend.

The Lord so stoked for the season.

It's going to be a good one.

As people hear this, it will be September.

The first week of September will be in full swing.

We record these quite early.

We're still three quarters of the way through August as we record it.

But today I'm taking my daughter to college.

Today is a Friday and she's going to start school on Monday.

And it makes me reflect.

I'm curious on your answer here.

If you could go back in time, maybe not knowing what you know now,

but if you go back in time, is there a non-automotive career path

that you would have told yourself coming out of high school, headed to college?

Because I mean, we all have these moments in our lives.

It kind of set a course and a path.

But did you ever want to be a chef or an astronaut or a musician

or something or was automotive blood just in you and it had to work this way?

You know, I hate to kind of give my dad grief, but he was not.

I think he was trying to just be honest and to be factual as far as odds

and statistics are, but there was very little follow your dreams

and you can accomplish anything.

It was when I was a kid, of course, I was cart nut.

So I was like, I want to become a car designer.

And he would just kind of fire, you know, well, you can't design cars

unless you have an engineering degree to and then you have to do this.

And, you know, only 2% of the plot, you know, it's kind of like saying,

I'm going to play for the NSL.

And he's had whipping around and saying, you know, son, I've seen you run.

You know, maybe you'd be the kicker.

So my dreams of working in the car industry, doing something

that creates fancy, hot, fast, new cars was just never supported.

It was always just kind of shot down as a pipe dream or you set

yourself up for eight or 10 years of school and all this stuff or you'll

never have a chance.

And so then I kind of moved because I had like a lot of kids.

I had braces in my freshman and sophomore years of high school to straighten

all my crooked teeth that all turned crooked again in old age.

And I thought the whole entire experience and process, it was kind

of like a mix of being in health care and a doctor's office type of

surrounding, very mechanical.

The whole orthodontics thing was a very interesting prospect to me.

Really?

And, yeah.

So non-automotive, that was something and there was a family down

the hill from us that were kind of like, they were the only other

fun kids in the neighborhood, it was the Giles family.

And their dad was an orthodontist.

And it was five brawn-hair boys at the time, kind of hellions, but a

lot of fun to hang out with.

And they were all within one or two years of each other.

And when the Giles had their family, bang, bang, bang, bang,

they had all these boys pretty tightly grouped together in age to

where you plug me in and we had six people and there's just all

sorts of sporting events that we had in their huge front yards that

we could figure out how to play baseball, football, all sorts of

stuff with six.

And then we would talk a couple of the other, not so much fun kids

in the neighborhood to try to play with us as well.

But they just didn't seem to have the same sense of humor that

we did when we played all sorts of things.

We used to beat up on each other pretty bad.

So, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Giles, orthodontist, he had a brand new Cadillac

El Dorado convertible.

They had a beautiful two-story house.

The whole prospect of he was my orthodontist.

So I knew what his office looked like every day and saw him at work.

And that whole entire, I was like, man, it looks like he can look

at, make a pretty fair living doing this.

And it looked like fun working around and building stuff in

people's mouths and making their teeth straight.

That sounds gratifying and satisfying.

That was another one that my dad said, what do you know,

how many school who's going to pay for that school?

I never had a whole lot of support to go to college in

any way she performed.

I went anyhow, but I've called that story on here before it wound

up just reverting to just going for a business degree.

And by the time I was in the middle of gaining my business

degree, I was starting to take classes about stuff that I was

already learning here at MPD.

And I made the, it's a decision that I never regretted.

I was like, why am I paying tuition for some of these

half-witted classes that sound good in theory, but doesn't

match with the reality of what I'm seeing on the job.

So I wound up making a career out of MPD and that worked out

very well.

But yeah, orthodontist is the only career I thought of that had

nothing to do with cars.

When you think about it, it's kind of building stuff and

fixing people's mouths up instead of cars up.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that one

for you, but that's, you know, that's why, yeah, I

mean, everybody has a want or a dream or a path and what

you keyed in then there was like the follow your dreams part.

Some people are encouraged by that.

Some people are practical around that and pragmatic.

I will tell you, I have a weakness for chasing dreams.

At the same time, I got a degree in engineering, so I'm

quite pragmatic.

It's a hard balance.

I'm a dreamer in my heart, but my head says, it's

probably won't work.

But you can dream and keep your eyes wide open at the same

time and you got to be able to walk and chew gum, I

suppose.

Yeah.

Today on the car side, you mentioned design and

swoopy cars and sexy cars.

I can tell you when I went to college for engineering, the

guys and ladies that you kind of wanted to emulate were

the ones that get in straight A's because they were

the only ones that could get interviews with any of the

OEMs, automotive OEMs.

And yeah, quite honestly, if I was going to work in

the car industry, I mean, that was a dream.

I either wanted to do that or go like fly jets in

the military or something.

I didn't have those grades, so I couldn't get those in.

I couldn't even get in the door.

You know, that is something if I went back in time, I don't

know if I'd choose engineering, but I would say take

your education a little more seriously.

That's really your goal, because the barrier to

entry in those places was freaking huge.

That was the harder part to me.

Yeah, is that or it used to be or if you knew

somebody, if your dad knew somebody who had a

fairly higher up position in design or engineering

somewhere at Ford or Chrysler, that could also at

least get you in the door for an interview.

But I've heard from retired people that I know that

even just getting a job in one of the assembly

plants, nepotism used to work, doesn't work anymore.

You're the higher done in your own merits.

It's not who your dad was.

It's not who your dad's friend was.

It's not if your mother worked there for three

decades and now you should too.

They're only hiring on merit anymore.

Well, I can tell you that for a lot of people

listening, maybe an OEM desire was one of them, but

maybe there were some orthodontists out there too.

We all have different paths and dreams.

And this time of year, at least for me, I do

think seasonally, the start of a school year

kind of takes me back.

And I think about that kind of stuff.

But when we get to the car reviews, I twisted

some cars into a collegiate example for you.

We'll see what you think.

Let's do a little Detroit news right now.

That's some fun headlines here for you, all from

Detroit news, Detroit news proper from dad bod to

abs, General Motors sharpens its small midsize SUVs.

I'm going to assume you don't want to talk about that

one. I'm skipping it.

Boring, I think you might like this one.

Electric Ford Supervan laps Nürburgring faster

than the Mustang GTD or Corvette ZR1X.

Did you see this?

Speaking of OEMs doing crazy things.

So Ford took an all EV track demonstrator based

loosely on the Transit Van and they ran it faster

than a Mustang GTD.

The driver was Romain Dumas.

I don't know why he did this, Rick, but it is

an example of what Ford Performance is doing.

And frankly, all the OEMs are doing.

What is going on right now at Ford and GM

specifically, because I don't know if you're

a fan of Jay Leno's garage, but I enjoy it

when OEMs come on there.

And there is an enormous performance bent

at GM and Ford and Nürburgring seems to be

where they both go to set records.

Yeah. Why do you think Ford did this?

What's the point?

I wish I could tell you, I really do.

No, this van is a consumer vehicle.

This is a straight up race car with van

guts, but it's based on an EV Ford Transit.

So when you look at it, it's wearing

Red Bull livery and it's got a wing on the back.

And I mean, it's all wheel drive and it's

1400 horsepower. I mean, it's amazing.

But nonetheless.

Yeah, I got to imagine that a lot of the

success in those times is that that much

horsepower and all wheel drive electric

power, which is instant on that, whatever

you might not be quite holding pace in

the corners here, really making it up and

then some of the places where you carry

speed around that track.

But maybe it's an exercise in figuring

out how they can achieve GTD and

the ZR1 type of mind bending

performance with a platform that is

far more affordable to manufacture

and sell. In other words, we know we

can do with all these fancy race

parts and all these trick bits and

high saluting chassis designs.

Can we do close to the same thing

with a platform that we can mass

produce? I don't know.

I'm guessing I'm just totally just

throwing spaghetti against the wall.

I have no idea. I don't know how any

of the manufacturers are making money

right now. I don't know how they

see the future. I don't know what

we're going to be driving in 20

years. I think right now I'm so

confused that I'm just glad it's not

me. I've said that before because

people are always commonly

complaining about how many millions

that auto manufacturing executives

make, which is true. It's hard to

fathom. Then again, it's hard to fathom

football players, wide receivers,

signing three-year contracts for

90 or 100 million dollars too.

That's also hard to fathom.

It's out there everywhere. It's all

about making the money. You know,

for these manufacturers for the

Stellantis GM are such enormous

organizations. When you really sit

down and just consider how many

employees they have and how many

manufacturing plants and then other

affiliated studios and divisions,

heavy trucks, farm equipment, you

name it. They're just so

diversified and then these are

global companies. Whoever is at the

helm of that, whoever the real

captain is, I can't imagine how

Farley holds down that job, keeps his

sanity, and has time to go racing

everyone in a while. Although he

probably does that just to have at

least one day of fun and sanity out

of so much stress. But yeah, they

make a fortune that I wouldn't trade

seats with them. Somebody offered me

a job. Hey, you can be the

president of Ford Motor Company.

We'll pay you salary and bonuses

and they'll pay you 30 million a

year. Yeah, no thanks. I wouldn't

know what to do. I wouldn't know

where we're going. I would fail and

totally flunk it for all those

employees that are underneath that

president who are relying on the

president to guide them through.

You hit a point there that I

would like to expand on. You said,

I don't know how the OEMs are

making money right now. But if

people are listening to show their

enthusiasts and they like the fast

stuff and the cool stuff and the

rare stuff, those are not the

money makers. We know that.

They're the image makers. They're

all written off to a marketing

value. But why in general? Do you

think is it because times are so

confusing? Is it because we seem

to be forced down a path of

electrification and now maybe

we're not? Or is it because

there's just no margin in

cart? Why do you think that?

Times are so confusing. And I

think politics has been playing

with science way too much over

the last 20 years, where

politics guide perception and

policy for science that hasn't

really been worked out yet. And

I'm talking about climate

change. I'm talking about the

real bigger picture of electric

cars and how on earth a

country the size of the US is

actually going to have enough

electricity in the grid to

charge them. What do you do

with the batteries? Politicians

compared to the people who

actually are developing all

of these different technologies

from the electric vehicles to

advancements in electrical

resources, those are the smart

people towards people who are

working on hydrogen cars. All

the geniuses are there. We

have very few geniuses in the

Senate or in the House or in

the White House. Politics is

not packed with these

geniuses. We went from two

years of Bush to two years of

Obama, then we had Trump,

then we had one year of

Biden, and we've had this

football of what are we doing

and where are we going with

transportation, being

eco-friendly and being

energy efficient. The

football has been kicked back

and forth politically so

much. My head's spinning. I

think the whole world's head

is spinning. I think too many

people believe the politics

instead of actually

understanding the real science

of it and also being willing

to swallow and absorb the

unintended consequences of

some of their clean energy

because sometimes when you dig

deeper, oh, by the way, it

really doesn't net us anything,

doesn't get us anywhere, it

doesn't do a damn thing about

so-called perceived or real

climate change or warming or

cooling or everybody's heads

are spinning, but it's all due

to politics. That's because

it's all about money. Who's

getting the money? Who's getting

the grants to do this and

that. I don't know what the

automakers, I don't know how

they set their compass and

how they set a direction when

politicians just keep on

kicking the football this

way, then running it that way,

then running it this way, and

who the hell knows what's

going on. I think if I was

running an automobile

company, I would literally

just be lifting a middle

finger to the governments and

going whole hog with what

my people, my employees, my

geniuses, my scientists who

are looking at things on the

hydrogen and the fossil fuel

and the electric and the

hybrid fronts and everything,

whatever they are telling me

is, you know what, this for

the next 20 years is the

strongest path of viability

and what people will want and

buy and enjoy owning. I'd be

listening to them and I would

be tuning out legislators and

the laws that are telling you

that you can't build that in

our state in 10 or 20 years.

The mandates that they've done

out in California are just so

absurd and it's just feel good

stuff. It's just politically

driven with no reality put

behind it. They're just wanting

people to go hurrah, hurrah,

we're it's just virtue

signaling that all early is

it's not being realistic and

pragmatic about how people are

going to get around.

But it started with why is

Ford taking a hot rod transit

van to middle finger to the

government or making what we

want? I don't have a clue

how the OEMs can set a path.

This could be their exercise

in trickling backwards as

far as forward with this hot

rod van, maybe taking a whole

lot of things that they learned

with the GTD as far as, you

know, they get computer data

when they run around that track.

And it's all about rebound

and it gets real detailed as

far as what they learned

about chassis dynamics and

dampening and springs and

aerodynamics. They're probably

taking all the computer data

that they got from running

fast around there with their

GTD and applying it all that

they learned to some pedestrian

platform like the equivalent of

the old box chassis that Ford

made billions on because they

could put it under anything and

it worked. It's a hard time

to be an OEM. I will end

with this, though, the

performance vehicles and for

me, the gasoline ones that

are coming out right now.

And maybe some are that the end

of an era are just amazing.

They are cars that I think will

stand the test of time and be

valuable for a long run.

And they're cool. I did

something last Sunday, Rick.

I haven't done for 30 years.

I stopped at the new Cadillac

dealership and I went and

stared through the window at

a car in the showroom.

And the reason I did there

is because I had looked it up.

There's a Cadillac five

series, CT5 Blackwing.

And I just wanted to see one.

In person and it wasn't sitting

outside. It was sitting inside

in the showroom. And when I

looked through the window, I

could start it already had a

sold sign in the window, but it

was just, damn, that's cool.

And it's brand.

Oh, those are cool.

My national branch manager,

Ted, he's in charge of the

operations for all four of our

locations.

He makes sure that everything

is running smooth behind the

scenes so that I can keep my

eye in front of the scenes.

He drives a CT5V,

the Blackwing right under

there. It's got the hot chassis.

It's a turbo six cylinder, I

think, performs really well,

but it's this bright metallic

blue, got lots of carbon fiber

trim all around the outside of

it, as well as in the interior.

It's gorgeous.

And he loves it.

He really, really loves it.

He was a BMW man prior to

buying that Caddy, if that

tells you anything.

So he's very, very pleased

with the car. If you're

thinking about one, I would

cheer you on with that.

I think it's a hot looking

car. It's a good looking

design.

Well, the reason I also want to

see it is I'm sucked in.

I mean, Cadillacs going all EV.

This is it. This is their last

big one.

You can get those Blackwings

with a with a manual transmission

to if I'm not mistaken.

Are you a salesman?

And that's also the last of

them all weekends, so to speak.

If that thing had a handbrake

in it, I don't know what I

would do.

They're so cool, man.

To your point, I don't know

what I would do if I run the

OEMs either.

What I can tell you is I'm glad

that somebody out there, while

they make money, make an

Econobox and pickup trucks,

but they're still doing

performance and that does matter

to people like us.

And I think that's cool.

And the products are so, so good.

So maybe that's why they're

doing it. Well, I didn't intend

to go totally down that road,

but I have one more for you

here and it's still OEM related.

I guess we're kind of doing OEM

theme show.

We hit the Roadkill Nights

event in Detroit

last month as people hear this

in August.

Dodge came out with their new

six cylinder charger.

So if you recall, that car

initially came out brand new

as an EV only model with

future gas vehicles coming.

And the next one coming was

their six cylinder that debuted.

It came out.

They had two of them.

They did donuts.

There was tire smoke.

And Rick, it sounded just

miserable to me because they

weren't V8s there.

They're six cylinders.

And now here's the problem.

These new engines are more

efficient. They're more powerful.

They're probably better in

every way than the Hemmys

that they replaced.

But they sound just rotten to me.

I don't like it.

Now, I heard one.

It's the hurricane.

Yeah, that's what it is, right?

Yeah. And is that an inline six

or is a V6?

You know what? I care so I don't

know. I don't know.

It's one of us should know.

Let me look. Hurricane V6.

That's worth checking right now.

It is a twin turbo inline six.

That's what it is. Inline six.

Yeah.

See, that winds my watch

just because I've always been

an inline six fan.

What BMW did with inline sixes.

I think you'd have to drive one,

but you just didn't like the sounds

because I mean, think about what

Bewa Grand Nationals back in the

80s did not sound like

your average.

They had their own spooky, weird,

unique sound that at

first you'd probably be like,

throw a V8 in that thing.

And then once you look up and

look at the lights at the end of

the quarter of a while, you're

like, holy crap, sign me up.

That's the perspective.

Hotrod.com had an amazing

article.

And at the end of the article,

that's what the author made the

comparison to.

He said, effectively, just what

you said. Nobody liked the sound

of that car that I then, as I

recall, that was the fastest car

GM made faster than a Corvette.

And it is an icon today.

So do I just need to get over

it? Because what I really want

for them to do is throw a

Hemibeck in it because it

sounds so good.

It sounds more right to me.

When the GNX has came out with

Turbo sixes, was that

a heresy back then as well?

No. At first, it was the Grand

National. The GNX was the last

was the final curtain call until

they put the engines into the

89 Firebirds for 1500 units

in 1989 anniversary

transams.

But I don't remember anybody

thinking it was heresy.

I just remember everybody saying,

man, that thing's fast.

And then when we found out how

much faster they could be, if

you breathed on them, they

were very modifiable,

just like the four to five

leaders for it's like

no matter how hard you tried, it

was hard to keep up with somebody

modding and wrenching on the

Grand National.

I don't remember anybody back

then saying, yeah, but it's a

V six. I just remember

everybody just being awestruck

by the whole thing.

And quite honestly, Buick

figured out a way that because

I've got a GMX and I've got

to 89 Transam Turbos

when you start those cars up

hold and they're trying

to find and settle down to

idle and it takes them a little

while.

Oh, they sound angry.

They sound really angry.

They don't sound like V eights,

but they're just angry.

They sound like they just wait

for me to warm up first and

then I'm going to tear something

up. So I don't know

what the Hurricanes six

sound like or whether or not

they could do something about it

to give it that more lopie

idle that the Grand

Nationals used to have.

I'll have to send you a video

of the demo, but what I can

tell you is my personal 50

year old bias listen to that

thing go.

And I said that sucks.

Even though it had a hundred

more horse than the the engine

it replaced, but I'll have to

find a video or something

because yeah, if they don't

have it to where it's kind

of a that's a failure

in the folks designing

an engineering they can tune

an exhaust sound like

anything they pretty much want

to.

They may have swung and missed

on that. I don't know.

All right, let's get to some

of our listeners. Very favorite

segments. Rick's take on

making money with cars.

So Rick, we have one real

segment one kind of fun one

segment one here.

Well, actually, they're both

fun. Rick, you need a red

sports car to take to

college football games

that are fun, reliable

and have some mileage on them

and enough so that you have no

fear of putting, you know,

another five, ten thousand

miles on which of these

nineties era having to park

out in the middle of you know

the field that's across

from the stadium.

Exactly. It can't be too rare to

you. You're going to drive it in.

I mean, you're going to take this

to your buddy's tailgate

and they're all going to drool over

it because these are so cool

back then. I gave you three

mostly red American sports

cars for you to choose. Now,

you know, in your heart of

hearts, one of your buddies is

going to buy this car off you.

So you're going to pick one of

these cars that at least

lets you break even or gives you

a little money back.

And you got to factor in what

you bought it for. We got to

put into it.

But what do we have up first?

They're all icons.

They're all red and they're all

cool.

First, we have a

1991 Corvette

CR one. It was a CR one

powered. It's a strange

description right there.

It is. It says it's a CR

one in the description.

I believe it is because it says

it has an LT five.

It's a CR one.

It's a 91 CR one.

I've said it probably multiple

times repeatedly here

on the podcast that these

are good investments,

in my opinion, because they're

very special cars and they've

been grossly undervalued

for way too long.

Someday that's going to correct

itself.

I think it's starting to correct

itself right now,

but it's still not too late to

hitch onto one.

Reds are great color.

This is a clean looking car.

Forty thousand miles on it.

They're asking twenty nine

thousand dollars.

You know, you just refer in

place and this car is being

sold with forty for like

fifteen or twenty cents on the

dollar of what is sold for new.

It's a bargain considering

its contemporaries.

This is less than what you'd

have to pay for a forty thousand

mile clean nineteen ninety

one Mustang LX.

You follow me.

It's a bargain.

There's upside to a CR one.

There's just no denying it.

And it's a great car, great

performance.

They're reliable.

There's really not a whole lot

about it that's expensive to

repair if there's anything

broken.

OK, we can move on to the next

one. It's a solid pick.

Now, number two, we've never

done one of these before.

And I cheated it. It's American

ish. What do we have here?

It's a thirty three thousand

mile. You don't see these in

nice condition anymore.

Most of them got torn up by

street race hungry kids.

Eagle talent TSI five

speed.

So being the TSI, it's got

to be all wheel drive.

It's got a little two liter in

line for turbocharged.

I thought these are great

looking cars.

They were nice looking little

cars.

And this one's a pretty

exceptionally clean example.

It's not what I would want.

I'd rather have the Corvette.

I know there's people out

there that are really into

these and more into the

Japanese imports.

But if I'm flipping this to

a friend, I don't know any

friends who are really into

that.

Almost a eleven thousand with

a year.

It's going to go.

I had friends that had these

cars when you're twenty years

old. This is basically a Porsche

that could afford this car.

And it was new and it was so

neat.

They were kind of tripled.

There was the Eagle, the Plymouth

and the Mitsubishi. They're all

the same car.

Yeah. And I always liked the

looks of the Eagle the most.

I actually don't know if

this is the all wheel drive one

or not. This might just be a

front wheel drive one.

But is this cheap enough

and interesting enough and

rare enough and cool enough

that it would turn some heads?

Could you make a little money

on it? Could you break even on

it?

Yeah. But it's the upside.

I don't think it's anything

near what the ZR1 is.

OK. The performance isn't

going to be anywhere near what

the ZR1 is.

I would see this rolling

the end of the tailgate area

and say, oh, cool.

You don't see many of those

anymore.

Let's just be male pigs and

throw in the whole sexist

angle.

I don't think any gals are

going to be looking at a

Eagle talent.

TSI.

Yeah, fair point.

Wow, that's a sexy car.

Who's that guy?

It is a football game.

That is a factor.

So yeah.

Yeah.

About car number three.

Forty five thousand mile 93.

It must be T Cobra.

People are paying a lot of

money for these. This one

since it's got forty five

thousand miles on it is at

30.

But when it gets to the end

of the auction, it's probably

going to go over 40.

It's going to be more

expensive by a long shot

than that. CR one

for a much slower,

much poorer handling.

It's the only upside you have

is that it's got two back seats

and they are very

collectible and very hot.

I've got the black one that I

special ordered in 1993

still still on the wrapper.

And I've got a an R model.

The values of these things have

skyrocketed to the point

where I don't get it.

I'm just happy that I've

got mine.

They're good looking cars.

Box body mustangs are hot

right now.

But I don't know.

This is hard between the CR

one, I think is grossly

undervalued. You like it.

You do.

You like buying it.

I don't know.

I don't know why those

haven't gone to where

they deserve to be yet.

On the other hand, the 93

Tobras have

been strapped to the rocket

and they are extensive cars

to buy now already.

Will they continue to notch up

yet more and yet more?

Yes, but I don't think there's

as much tension in the rubber

band as there is with the CR

one. The CR ones, it's just

everybody who looks and goes,

how can that be so cheap?

Nobody's saying that about a

93 Cobra.

I am going for the CR

one.

OK, the CR one is your pick.

Yep. What about which one turns

more ladies heads?

That was a good point.

Veta the Mustang.

That's a toss up.

Some ladies are Mustang girls,

some ladies think Corvette's

are the guys going to stumble

out of there in a satin jacket

with gold chains and laugh

about it.

You know, it does happen.

But, you know, the code

might be more of a lady's car

than the Corvette just because

the Corvette brings such an

old stigma with it.

I'll give you that.

But still, Corvette's are really

sharp looking car in their

good cars.

I had a friend tell me, you

know, I'm going to get a Corvette

terrible cars.

But I got to get it before my

hair turns white.

All right. One other segment.

This one is less thinking more

just shoot from the hip.

And I think we're going to keep

this for a while because people

do enjoy this three fund

investment hedges.

Which of these things will pay

off the best in three years?

Purchase prices totally

irrelevant and you can factor

in percentage or cash back.

But I don't care.

These are all just cool.

In this case, they're all Ford

powered.

What do we have for number one here?

In three years.

Yeah, three years.

First one is a 66 Ford Bronco.

It's the half cab pickup.

Those are pretty neat.

Pretty cool looking.

I love this truck.

It's already up to $41,000.

Here's the deal with the Broncos

is the Broncos really

got popular really fast

like about 15 years ago.

And the prices went through the

roof.

If I'm not mistaken, if you

actually rolled out some stats

or maybe the Haggerty site

could give you a graph,

I think the values have actually

started to decline a little bit.

Just a little bit of a correction

because it went really bonkers

where people are paying 40

grand just for rusty project trucks.

And there's also a lot of cobbled

together ones with shiny paint

and all restomotted.

But I think they're built for

auction type of trucks that are

out there muddying up the market

as well and affecting things.

This looks like a really nice one.

Super cool, super clean.

I'd love to have it.

I picked it because it's so unique.

I personally never even seen one

in real life.

This little half cab.

All original undercarriage isn't really done.

I think it's about a $50,000 truck.

OK, I think three years from now

it's going to be a $50,000 truck.

OK, I don't think it's going to go up.

They're already stiff.

They're already strong.

I don't think there's going to be

another big boost.

I could be wrong.

So we got to the number two here now.

Purchase price irrelevant.

Yeah, Shelby Cobra CSX1000,

which is the continuation.

This is already up to a quarter million.

But it's built by Shelby American Cobra.

Is it completed with the aluminum bodywork?

This is a lot of money going in,

but I don't know the history.

I don't know if they're not making these any.

No, I don't know what to do with these.

I personally don't understand the continuations

in the future.

These cars are not going to be.

Oh, well, that was the continuation.

It's just serious, so it's not worth nothing.

It's just nothing.

You know, I don't think people are looking at that.

I think it's an opportunity to buy a real,

genuine, aluminum-bodied,

built pretty much with all the same parts

that the original ones were that doesn't cost

you over a million dollars.

I think there's a lot of upside to this car.

And this one's brand new with the mileage,

the condition, it's a brand new 427 Cobra

that was assembled in the 2000s instead of the 1960s.

Continuation series usually doesn't work for anything,

but in this case on these aluminum-bodied Cobras,

I could see three years from now this car going up considerably

and continuing to go up even after that.

My winner so far.

All right. Yeah. Number three.

Number three. OK.

The Cobra wins because I already see the 2008 Mustang

Shelby GT 500, 3,800 miles, low miles

towards a lot of these.

There's a lot of low-mile ones out there

because there's a lot of people who bought them strictly

to either put away or as an enthusiast vehicle,

not for daily driving, but for going to shows and cruisans

and just bombing around on sunny weekends and stuff like that.

So there's lots of these out there, the 2007 to 2009 version of these.

They're kind of heavy.

They've got the iron block.

They're soft handling.

They're good looking.

But as Ford continued on with the GT 500,

he just kept on making them better and better

and faster and faster, better handling, better looking, in my opinion,

such that it's not like they're going to sink in value

and never be worth anything.

But I don't think they're ever going to be.

It's just a no-brainer.

The Cobra, you got to have a lot of money to buy it.

But then when you sell it, you're going to make some money.

These other two, not really.

OK. Well, that's why we look at them.

That's why you are, ask Rick, the brutal honest truth.

I ask Rick, who in his heart of hearts

would have been wrenching on teeth if he just got the chance.

Yep. Those are all air conditioned offices.

You know, not working out in a sweaty shop.

Not slinging parts out of a semi-trailer.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, Rick.

Happy football season to you.

Appreciate it. We'll catch you in October.

All right. Sounds good.

Thank you, Rick.

Excellent as always.

Again, we covered a lot of ground there, a whole lot of ground.

I know a lot of you enjoy Rick the most.

I get it.

He does have a lot of thoughts and opinions.

I think he's become quite wise in his old age.

I really like talking about the cars to buy and sell

because he just has an eye for that stuff.

All right. Well, let's wrap this one out.

I will be back next week between now and then.

Hit me up on Facebook or Instagram anytime.

Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter.

You can do all that on the homepage of themusclecarplace.com website.

As always, don't forget to keep chasing your dreams

like you've let me chase mine.

Happy birthday to my daughter, Noelle, and go cyclones burn.

Are we exiting on the Iowa State fight song?

Hell, yeah, we are.

Don't forget to watch on Fox, everybody, 11 a.m.

Central Saturday, the 6th. Bye bye.

Thanks for parking at the Muscle Car Place online podcast

TMCP #619: Ask Rick — OEMs, Politics, and Profits; Plus Cars You Can Flip for Fun (and $$) at Football Tailgates

Chevrolet Corvette

Ford Gtd Mustangs

Dodge Charger

Maserati Ghibli

Dodge Super

BMW 335

Golf Gtd

Ford Transit

Cadillac CT5

Buick Grand National

Buick GNX

Pontiac Firebird

Ford Bronco

Shelby Cobra

Cobra 427 Cobra

Shelby GT500

GMC Cyclone

About this episode

Original notes