Revology is an aftermarket/restoration-focused company known for reimagining classic American cars—especially Mustangs—using modern engineering approaches while aiming to capture the look and spirit of the originals. The episode highlights Rick touring their shop and evaluating their approach.
Artemis II is NASA’s next big mission that will take astronauts on a trip around the Moon. The story here is about a problem that happened on that mission and how the team fixed it.
A blinking fault light is an alert on the dashboard that something isn’t working right. It’s how the spacecraft tells the crew there’s a problem to investigate.
This is a car event where companies and shops show off performance-related products. It’s also a place to meet people and talk business in the racing and aftermarket world.
A dyno test is like a “power measuring machine” for an engine. Instead of guessing how strong it is on the street, they run it on a stand and measure how much power it makes.
That’s a long stress test for an engine. They run it hard for a full day, switching between different “best power” and “best pulling power” conditions, to see if anything breaks.
Sometimes creators get parts for free to make videos about them. The host is saying that can make it harder to be completely honest if you’re benefiting from the deal.
Instead of advertising through TV or magazines, companies send products to popular car creators online. They hope the creators’ videos and posts will make people want to buy the same stuff.
“On the edge” means the driver is going as fast as the tires and traction allow. It’s exciting, but if you push a little too far, the car can get out of control.
NPD is short for National Parts Depot, a parts store for classic car projects. In this show, it usually means restoration-focused advice and parts recommendations.
Hagerty is an insurance company that specializes in classic and collector cars. They often get involved in car events because their customers are car enthusiasts.
RM Auctions is a company that sells collector cars at auction. In this story, they were running the auction part of the event before Hagerty changed who handled it.
The 1987 Buick GNX is a rare, high-performance Buick from 1987. Collectors love it because it’s uncommon and has a reputation for being a special factory performance car.
Amelia Island Concours is a well-known, high-profile car show where collectors bring their best cars. The rules for getting in and showing your car can be pretty strict.
Bloomington Gold is a Corvette judging/certification program. If your Corvette passes, buyers often see it as evidence the car is correct and well restored.
A triangle vent window (often called a vent window or quarter vent) is the small triangular window near the front side window. In this discussion, the speaker notes a build where the vent windows are permanently mounted and don’t open, used for appearance and to reduce wind noise.
A vinyl roof is a fabric-like cover on top of the car that gives it a classic two-tone style. For car shows, people care whether it matches how the car came from the factory.
“People’s choice” awards are decided by show attendees rather than judges, so cars with strong visual impact often do well. The speaker argues the 1962 Chrysler 300 will attract more attention and win in a people-driven vote.
Brake bias means how much braking happens at the front versus the rear. Adjusting it can help the car feel more stable and predictable when you slow down hard.
“Five speed” means the car has a manual gearbox with five gears. Some collectors prefer manuals because they’re more fun to drive and can be harder to find.
LIVE
The Muscle Car Place, online podcast, episode number 643.
This week, Rick is here for the April edition of Ask Rick, and we're going to talk about
Conqueror Car Shows.
He just took a car to Moda Miami in one, actually, he took two cars, and he took another car
to Amila Island, and he won.
Now we'll talk about awards due, and don't really mean when it comes to a car of pedigree.
Now we're going to look at six cars you could go buy to win some awards for yourself.
And then we're going to talk about another car that was in Amila Island, the new Revology
69 Boss Mustang.
Rick saw it, he toured the Revology shop.
You know where Rick stands on originality and modification, but this was one of his first
look at a modern company making old cars, here's what he thought.
I really got impressed down there, I really got blown away.
It's not what you think, it's not just building up a dyna porno show, it is rethinking and
reinvention of these old Mustangs.
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, happy Easter everybody, special show for you today.
Today it's, it is releasing on Good Friday, April 3rd, 2026.
That's the day this episode has dropped.
Rick is here for the Ashric segment, we'll talk, conquer car shows, we're going to talk
about awards, what they do and they don't mean, and then Revology.
I'm a fan of what Revology is doing, that's probably no shock to you.
I follow this industry of these type of companies that are making modern versions,
modern engineered versions of old cars.
There are a few out there doing it at a very high level.
I would say Revology is doing it at a very high level, if not the highest level out there
of what I'm aware of, but to cut to the chase, Rick toured their shop.
He was invited there.
You may be surprised to hear this, but it's true, he's a fan.
He was impressed, truly, truly impressed.
So listen in when we get there to the future interview.
Now, I want to do something here.
The interview with Rick is a little longer, but this isn't car related, but we've got to mention it.
The NASA Artemis II rocket launched yesterday, as I record, it's April 1st.
Mankind is headed back to the moon, and that's a moment in history that we need to mark.
This crew will do a mission kind of similar to what they did on Apollo 8 and 10, I think,
if you combine those two missions.
It's a full run to the moon and back to test everything out and return back safely.
They will not land on the moon, but they'll test every system, do everything,
make sure that everything can work, come back and fix the stuff that doesn't.
And then when Artemis III goes up a year or two, that one will land on the moon.
Let's hear the countdown and lift off Artemis II.
Four, three, two, one, booster ignition.
And lift off the crew of Artemis II, now bound for the moon.
Humanity's next great voyage begins.
There you go. That's the Artemis II launch, live from NASA's feed.
That wasn't for the news or anything. That was live from NASA.
The mission has begun, and so has the shakedown.
From sky at night magazine to boldly go.
There was a bit of toilet trouble on the Artemis II, but NASA says it's been resolved.
Houston, we have a problem and we fixed it.
Here's for the article here by the author here is Ian Todd.
And again, this is Sky at Night Magazine from the BBC.
It wasn't the most glorious milestone in spaceflight history,
but it was one of the most pressing.
Shortly after Artemis II's launch on April 1st, NASA confirmed the crew had reported a
blinking fault light with the onboard Orion capsule toilet.
The toilet fan has reported to be jammed,
NASA spokesperson said during a live mission commentary.
Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan
and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.
Working closely with Mission Control in Houston,
the crew was able to restore the spacecraft's toilet to normal operations.
The fault light appeared ahead of the Apogee raise burn on April 1st,
which is when the spacecraft fires its booster to enter into high orbit around Earth
in preparation for the journey to the moon.
NASA says Mission Controller successfully accessed the data
and helped the crew troubleshoot and resolve the issue.
The toilet in question is the Universal Waste Management System or UWMS,
which is a critical piece of hardware that,
as we explained in our guide to life aboard the mission,
uses airflow to draw waste away from the body in the weightless environment of space.
The Artemis II toilet is so loud,
the crew must wear ear protection when availing of the lavatory facilities.
Had the fix not worked, NASA said it had a contingency plan in place.
A bag-based backup system to collect urine for venting into space
was solid waste still collected in the capsule gross.
I won't finish the rest of the article,
but it's basically a machine that sucks the,
you know what, out the back door of the ship.
I think that's what it's sounding like.
Anyway, it is a system and it is definitely critical and they have not done that.
You can track that mission at nasa.gov.
They have a really neat little interactive website.
It's kind of augmented.
I was really hoping for live camera feeds right from the ship.
If that's there, I don't see that, but you can follow the path and I'm interested in that.
And the path is super interesting because the path that they're doing
is they are shooting away from Earth to a spot in space where the moon should be
in six days because they can't shoot from Earth at the moon right now
because by the time they got there, the moon would be gone.
Remember, the moon is on a different trajectory and speed around the Earth
than anything else is as well.
So basically they got to lead their shot and they got to lead it
so that when they get there six days from now,
the moon will be there basically.
So it's really, really cool.
You can see that at nasa.gov.
Hey, a preview for next week's show.
Dr. Jamie Meyer will be back to talk about the High Performance Expo.
That's the trade show that will be in Charlotte this summer, the second annual.
The first annual, I had a mission of merging the aftermarket in the racing industry.
I would say that it did that to a degree,
but it was definitely heavier on the racing side than the aftermarket.
What it had far more of than I was expecting was business acumen and discussions.
If you're a shop owner, if you're in the industry, if you want a job,
if you're trying to grow your business, whatever your business is,
you got a lot more value out of that show than you probably thought you could,
and more of that will be returning this year.
And they will have more aftermarket presence this year.
But that's not what I'm talking to you about right now.
Jamie Meyer is a famous name in our industry.
He's most famous probably for being the man that put GM performance parts,
which is not Chevy performance, but GM performance parts,
crate engines back on top.
And that invented the eCrate maybe.
It was the first emission compliant crate motor that you could buy right from GM.
Jamie isn't with GM anymore, but he does a lot of consulting now.
He has a YouTube show called The Automotive Advantage.
It is a business and marketing show for the automotive aftermarket primarily.
He had David Freiberger on last year.
This interview is not new, but I'm going to play you a little clip from this because,
especially a lot of having Mike Finnegan on a couple of weeks ago,
David Freiberger was a mainstay in the mainstream automotive media.
And frankly, he was the top of the top.
Here's a little clip for you.
You know, when I was at the magazines,
we walked around even though I told you it wasn't about me.
We still thought we were kings because we had access to everything.
I would call you and go, Doc, send me a crate motor.
And you'll say, what's the address, baby?
It's on its way, right?
But when I got that motor, I was able to talk to your engineers.
I remember when we talked about doing the dyno test of the actual,
what do you call it, the reliability test where they would cycle the thing
between peak horsepower and peak torque for 24 hours.
And I wanted to build an engine all with Chinese parts and do that.
And this was right after I left Hot Rod.
But yeah, you and I literally talked about that.
And that's the type of thing that only a media powerhouse can pull off.
We did another one with Mike Copeland where we put every single GM crate motor
into one car and drag tested every single one of them.
I want media like that to come back.
And your average guy or girl in their driveway going,
I just unboxed my carburetor, isn't delivering that.
Okay, that was, again, from the automotive advantage.
That whole interview covers a wide range of topics.
You should listen to it.
It covers everything.
But that one interview to me, at least from what I've heard,
is possibly the best true behind the scenes look at David Freiburger's real life
and real situation.
From an automotive media position, what David says is true,
that the landscape has changed.
And I think it's changed for the permanency.
And real objective media coverage from a powerhouse is probably gone.
Now, Dave was in a very prominent position for a long time.
And the days of what he could do at Hot Rod Magazine and Roadkill,
I hope David's right and that they can come back in a certain way
with trusted media sources like he, and I'm not gonna say me too, but I don't know.
He goes on in that video to describe that some companies,
they're really just trying to do their own media now.
They're trying to do what Hot Rod used to do, but just doing themself.
While they can unbox parts and explain them, that's probably a good thing.
In his position, companies trying to be objective about their own parts
really can't be done.
That's what they need media to do.
And the silly influencer videos are out there with parts and stuff.
David will say they can't really be objective
because they're just working for free parts and he's not wrong.
That's how a lot of the industry works now.
They don't go by traditional media.
They just give parts to influencers and see what happens.
But I have been in this business for 17 years this month.
I can tell you that the landscape has changed and I believe it has changed permanently.
If I were starting this business today, the one that I'm in,
a muscle cart place podcast network, I don't think it would work.
It would be very, very different.
This format only works because of the legacy that it has.
But check it out.
The automotive advantage.
That's the YouTube podcast that Jamie Meyer has now.
Pretty fascinating.
Very fascinating.
While we're at it, here's another show that I'm addicted to.
The Dale Jr. Download.
If you want another one to listen to, he's become a very good broadcast.
You got to be into racing and NASCAR to like it.
There's really no other reason to listen to it other than that.
And then Jim Farley's podcast.
He's the CEO of Ford.
I don't know how frequently that comes out, but it's very interesting content.
He's okay at what he's doing.
The content is pretty amazing.
I love how that man conducts himself and how he's running Ford.
He really eats and breathes cars and performance.
You just got to get over the fact that he looks like his cousin.
Man, does he look like Chris Farley?
It's impossible not to see.
Okay.
When we return for next week's show, I'll give you the update for the Dallas
Kidby Racing update, but burn, go ahead and cue the update.
Those will keep this very short.
The rear end, the car is fast.
Loose is fast and on the edge, you're out of control.
Here's the Dallas Kidby Racing update that you missed.
Last weekend, we went to Nashville for a prep race.
The reason for that is Dallas is preparing for the second
of three national events that will happen this year.
The first was in February in Florida.
The second is in Tennessee.
And that is a six day event, six races.
You'll do a three at one track north of Nashville and you'll do a three
at the Nashville fairgrounds.
There's a lot of practice in between.
It's a brutal week.
It puts your cars to the test.
It puts your brain to the test.
The person that gets the most points at the end wins.
At the February event, Dallas, he did all right.
He didn't win a single thing.
That was five races, not six.
He didn't finish the first race.
He'd, oh yeah, a break fill in that one.
You've got to be on your game all the time to get a podium finish at one of these.
But that would be great if he could do it.
I hope that he can.
There is a lot of competition there, most of which has far more experience
at these tracks, these two tracks than he does.
That will be coming up in a couple of weeks.
He went to the Nashville fairgrounds.
And that's the one that Dale Jr.
has taken the cars to, if you're familiar with that.
And I would say it started well and it ended well.
In between, there was a whole lot of learning, but that was worth it.
He'll be getting ready, though, for the big Inex Spring Nationals.
And that starts, actually starts April 11th.
I'll have a post for that next week and more detail.
That's the update for the Dallas Kidby Racing Update.
Make sure that you're following his social channels.
Please do me a favor and subscribe to all that.
Support him.
Just follow him and share it, if you would.
Burn, do the outro, please.
Alrighty, with that, let's go ahead and roll to our feature interview.
This is Mr. Rick Schmidt on the Ask Rick segment.
And we're going to talk about it all.
Conquer car shows, awards, what it really means.
Cars to buy to win some awards.
And Ravology, enjoy.
See them through the link at themusclecarplace.com.
Up next on the National Parts Depot hotline is Mr. Rick Schmidt from NPD.
Rick, happy Easter.
Yes.
Yeah.
Happy Easter.
We're doing something we never do.
This is the first.
We are doing an in the same week recording of the show that you will air in.
We don't do this.
Today is the last day of March as we record.
And this will air on Good Friday, April 3rd.
With that said, we can have some timely conversation.
Rick, Reese's peanut butter egg or starburst jelly bean?
Which candy survives Easter for you?
Which survives?
Which do you want and which do you not want?
I would prefer the Reese's peanut butter egg or the starburst.
I don't know that I've ever had a starburst jelly bean.
Oh, really?
Got to be better than regular jelly beans.
If I like starburst candy.
They're pretty damn good.
Would you say that you're a chocolate guy or a fruity guy?
You know, as far as a treat goes.
You have to choose between chocolate or fruit.
One of my all time lifelong favorite candies has always been sweet tarts.
I've always liked intense flavors and tart.
And I've never been one of these sweet tooth people who murders my coffee with sugar
and can't wait for dessert and all that stuff.
I'm just one of those sweet tooth like that.
I like vinegary stuff, tart stuff.
I love spicy food.
So when it comes to candy, I'm just not a big candy eater at all.
And when it comes to chocolates, I don't like milk chocolate.
It's just very boring to me.
I like dark chocolate and I just like it in small little bites.
That's the one thing about the Reese's is I like little smaller ones.
I just want a little bite sized one.
And that's one thing that I don't really like about the eggs
on top of that halfway into one of those huge Reese's eggs.
I'm trying to pass it off on somebody else because I don't want to eat the rest of it.
It's too much.
Oh, man.
I think you would like the Starburst Jelly Bean.
It's not tart, but it's kind of like a little kick to it.
They're like half the size of a normal jelly bean.
I'm going to have to try those.
That sounds good.
You know, I'm not a big jelly bean person.
But then again, sometimes I've had some of the higher end jelly beans that are quite good
because they're not nasty like a cheap bag of jelly beans that you buy at the Dollar General.
Okay.
For the main course, you want ham or do you want egg bake for Easter?
Now, egg bake may not be a Florida thing, but it's kind of like a gigantic omelet
that you would make in a brownie pan.
It's all egg and cheese and it's very little.
If any crust, it's pretty good.
Can you put like some veggies in it?
Like some onion and press it up a little bit?
Yeah, usually.
I like omelets, but yeah, but I don't order a plain omelet.
I order an omelet with everything that they have in the kitchen stuck into it.
So I kind of lean in towards the egg bake thing.
Okay.
Egg bake is good.
I square that and just blanket it in hot sauce and that's right at my alley.
I can see you like in hot sauce.
That makes sense.
Any big Easter tradition for you?
No.
Our Easter traditions was just the egg hunt.
And then back when my father-in-law was still with us and our kids were really young,
we used to do this very elaborate.
They celebrate Easter out at the lake and had this elaborate scavenger hunt on Easter.
And old friends of the family would bring all their kids out.
So you'd have 15, 20 kids participating in this very elaborate scavenger hunt.
And it was just a lot of fun.
But we've all gotten older and there's a few of the family who are missing now.
And sometimes those traditions just aren't the same and they don't carry forward.
And all my kids are grown now.
So Easter doesn't have all of the traditions that we used to have.
There's some that come and go.
Obviously, there's one that stays.
One big one.
We definitely, for no good reason, to satisfy me,
do have the kids chase around the yard for Easter eggs.
And we just take the little eggs and stuff in full.
Well, usually candy.
Starburst jelly beans, you put a quarter in one.
Usually it's just candy.
Well, I doubt you're going to a car show this week and maybe you are.
But you have been to a few and you've won some hardware.
So I want to talk about these.
The first here, I don't know what this is, the Moda Miami.
And you took a couple of G-bodies to it.
You're 83 Hursoles and you're 87 GNX.
And I think the GNX got first in class.
What is the Moda Miami?
Moda Miami, I believe this was its third year, is a production of Concord
that is basically administrated and put on by RM Sotheby's auction company,
which began as RM auctions and RM stands for Rob Meyer.
I'm going to tread carefully and be polite and just tell them a little story as how it came about.
Because the other concord we're going to talk about is the Amelia Island Concord,
which is one of the most famous and finest concords on the planet.
A gentleman named Bill Warner started Amelia Island many years ago.
And my father participated and was a participant in the very first Amelia Island back in the 90s.
From that day forward, we had participated with a car every single year.
We'd bring a different car and actually wound up cementing a very fine relationship with Mr. Warner.
And Amelia Island grew to such prominence.
It was basically in competition with Pebble Beach out in California
as being the marquee concord for the year.
And there were many years there that Amelia held that crown
and nobody really argued it too much.
It was amazing.
And it really was all because of Bill Warner, his stewardship,
and the fact that Bill knew everybody and everybody knows Bill.
And the big joke was you can't say no to Bill Warner.
That's the type of incredible personality and magnetism that guy's got.
So I'll get to the point, Warner wanted to retire,
putting on a show of that magnitude is no small deal.
He sold it to Haggerty Insurance.
And all those years that Warner had been doing Amelia,
he had a very, very close partnership with RM Auctions.
RM did the auction for the event.
That was part of the event.
And when Haggerty took over, within three years,
all of Warner's teams were let go and replaced with Haggerty people.
And Rob Meyer and RM Auctions were also shown the door
and replaced with an auction company owned by Haggerty.
So given all of them...
Rob, probably some of them they had a planned.
I can't speak for them.
But suffice it to say, given the many years,
two decades that Rob had put into being a marquee,
that being an anchor option for his company, he wasn't too happy.
So he decided to do his own concourse a few hours down the coast of Florida
on the same damn weekend.
You see where I'm getting here?
And I decided that I would support him and I'd bring a car to that event.
So I was there the first year and they did an incredible job
at a beautiful venue.
It's the Biltmore Hotel down in Coral Gables.
So that's just kind of been one of my new traditional shows
that I try to participate in.
And I enjoy going to a show where it's such a beautiful destination
and such a beautiful host hotel to stay in.
And it's just a little mini vacation.
It's not just going to a car show, you know,
and it's a whole experience and it's a real mini vacation.
So, yeah, that's a Moto Miami show.
Beautiful event.
First class the whole way.
Beautiful field this year.
They had a class of dues and bursaries.
There must have been a dozen dues and bursaries in that class this year.
A bunch of exotics, a bunch of race cars, a bunch of classics.
And they did this class of 80s American muscle cars.
I can't even remember what they called it.
It was kind of a kitschy name.
It was pretty cool.
And I immediately knew that I had plenty of cool stuff to choose from
for that 80s muscle car class.
When they approached me, because usually with the concours that I frequent,
I'll get approached and I'll say,
okay, what are the classes you have this year?
Because I want to see the classes and then I can see what I might have a good match for.
And then I also kind of ask them, where are your needs at?
What classes do you have that you're having a harder time getting cars for?
So, yeah, we got into this 80s muscle car class and they really wanted my 1987 Buick GNX,
which is car number 517 and only has a little less than the 80 original miles on it.
And it's perfect.
It's a brand new GNX.
I knew I was going to be coming to the,
bringing an army tank to a gunfight with that car.
And of course, it did win the class.
I knew it was going to take something out of the blue to overtake that GNX.
The GNX in my 1983 Hurst Olds,
which was the 15th anniversary edition of the Hurst Olds,
car that's got about 400 original miles on it.
So, we got them all polished up and freshened up and detailed and
trailered them down to the Coral Gables and had a real good weekend,
except for right before we were to receive the trophy for the GNX,
the bottom fell out of the sky.
And we had a torrential downpour and that was pretty much the end of the show.
Bummer. Did you get the trophy anyway?
Yes. We got the cars into the parking garage to the hotel,
and then once the rain stopped, we went out to the tent and they had our trophy for us.
So, I'm curious, and I'll ask that, I think the appropriate way,
why didn't the Olds will be a win?
And the reason why I say that...
Well, you only get one class winner, and then you get a runner-up.
Objectively, remembering everything that was in my class,
and people say, avoid Smith, he's a snob saying this.
The Oldsmobile should have brought the runner-up.
It was the second best car in the class, in my objective point of view.
But think about what the optics would have been if out of an entire class of cars,
they gave the best of class and the runner-up to the same owner, the one guy.
That wouldn't have looked terribly good.
The car that won was a 1LE Z28.
I think it was an 88 or an 89, and it was very nice and very strong and very deserving.
So, who's to complain when I got the win of the class anyhow?
That's the award you really want to get.
Well, the reason I ask that is, I'm sure the GNX is deserving.
When I think of that Olds, though, I've probably seen more very nice GNXes than I have Olds like that.
I don't think I've ever seen...
Oh, yeah, these are kind of harder to find in a super low-mile condition,
and it's got the really killer lightning rod, first shifter on it with the three quote-unquote
lightning rods. It's a factory teatop car, black with a kind of darker, very rich red
velour interior. It's a beautiful dynamite-looking car, but GNXes these days have just gone through
the moon. So, they've become a car that you got to pay Ferrari money for.
Who knew I've had the car for almost 30 years now? So, one of my luckier strikes.
So, at the Amelia Island Concourse, which still exists, like you said, you also had...
I don't know if you were there or not, but you had a car there. You're 16.
I was there. I hadn't gone to Amelia since I started doing Moda because they were on the
same weekend, and you had to choose your team, one or the other, and I chose Moda.
That, and ever since the Bill Warner team of people who put on Amelia weren't there anymore,
I stopped getting invitations. You know, here's a person who's done that show every single year,
large collection, only an hour and a half away from the meet, and I stopped getting emails and
phone calls. So, I don't know if I got put on some sort of blacklist or if somebody mentioned to me
that now you have to kind of go through the registration and ask for your car to show there.
And, anyways, what happened this year is I was sitting at home, I think it was on a Sunday,
watching my news programs, and I get a phone call out of the blue from a
gentleman who's a very, very good friend of mine and my father's and a couple of friends of ours.
I'll just say his name's Charlie, and Charlie's from Jersey, and he has a thick accent, and Charlie
calls me up out of the blue, and somehow, some way, he's gotten involved with helping Amelia
assemble a class of Shelby Mustangs, and he wants me to bring my 68KR, which was my mom's
car back in the 70s, that we restored in the 2010, and back in 2010, when it debuted, the very
first event it went to was the Amelia Island Concourse back in 2010. I won a sports car class
back then against a bunch of Ferraris and Lamborghinis and Porsches, so that was one of the best days
of my life because talk about an underdog win with a big block Mustang going against cars like that.
But Charlie calls me up, and he says, I really think your car's so beautiful,
it really got to be there. I'd love to see it there, and I'm like, Charlie, I don't do Amelia
anymore. I kind of moved on from that event. I told him I'd think about it, and then he called me
in a couple of weeks because I was still thinking about it, and I hadn't called him back, and he
starts pressing me again, and I said, you know what, Charlie, I'll be there, and I could do it this
year because this year, the events were on the same weekend. Motor was the weekend before, but that
was two big shows right in a row, one weekend after one weekend. I'm just thinking to myself,
this is just could be exhausting, but why do I set myself up for this type of, so yada yada.
I told Charlie, I said, for you, I'll do it. I'll be there. I didn't make a huge weekend out of it
like I did down in Coral Gables. I didn't get a hotel room. Me and Gene just had the car loaded
on the trailer, woke up at four in the morning, showered, grabbed our gear. We met here at MPD,
and we were rolling by 5 a.m., and we'd trailer it up through the dark fog,
got to Mealy Island, unloaded the car, caught it onto the show field.
Won our class, which made the effort very, very sweet. Loaded it back up. We were back in Ocala
by 7.30 that night. Good day's work. Yeah, it was a long day. Here's a question from that,
and we've had similar questions in the past, but when it comes to hardware, trophy hardware,
documentation, things like that, it has a certain prestige to it. And then there's other
things like certifications, like an NCRS Bloomington Gold for a Corvette, or something like that,
where it gets a review. Do these give a quantifiable value to a vehicle, like this adds 8%,
this adds 10%, or is it a, it's all in the eye of the beholder, and it's all part of the documentation
package for the day that comes when you finally sell a car. What do you do with that stuff?
Well, first of all, an award that you get at a concor is nothing like an award you get,
say, at McCacken Vintage Certification Program, or Bloomington Gold, or MCRS. When you're at a
concor, you are being judged, they call them French rules. Really, it is the beauty of the car.
It's the colors. It's how much the car exemplifies the theme of the class that you're in.
It's also the craftsmanship. It's all of the above, but it's all very subjective,
rather than objective. That said, very prestigious if you pull down a best of class
at a big concor, and that's a big value added to a car. It's quite a hard thing to do. It takes
a special machine because the competition there is so immensely strong. Definitely,
you win one of those, and that definitely puts a halo over the top of your car and helps the
value. Then there's the other spectrum of these certification programs that add to these top
flight and gold class. These are point system, and you're not competing against other cars.
You're competing against a point system, and it's very detailed and very picky about
originality and details that at a concor, they can't possibly be educated on that since they've
got such a wide array of vehicles on site instead of just this type or that type of car.
But those also, to have a car as entered certified at McCacken, or to win anything at McCacken,
they've got judges there who are so knowledgeable about the originality and correctness of those
cars that if you can pass muster there with their point system, then people who would be
interested in buying your car know that it is a vetted car. It's not just some slap together
442 that looks beautiful, but there's got so many things wrong with it that only an expert
would know. When you have the expert sign off of it and say, hey, this one's really right,
that also helps. The only time it doesn't help, the value is when you've got a buyer who doesn't
care. And if they don't care and they just want to drive the car, then they're going to
assign their value based on that standpoint. But if you've got a collector who's really serious
about putting together a quality collection that's correct, well done and done correctly,
authentic muscle cars or classic cars in general, they'll be comforted by those trophies. It'll be
more confirmation that they're buying a real car. Okay, let's keep that in mind when we get to the
car segment review, when we do some car picks. Let's talk about one of some certifications,
one of some hardware. Final topic, and if you'd prefer not to discuss or if it didn't happen,
that's fine. But Rhabology came to your attention. And it's a local company to you,
and I think you got an invite to go tour the facility. I was there last Thursday.
What an eye opener. Holy cow, what an eye opener. I thought I knew what to expect,
but it was very impressive, very impressive. Is that your first of these small production type
companies to visit? Back in the 90s, I toured Celine's Irvine facility back when he was doing
a lot of things. Back then, that was where they were building the S351s, which was what kind of
stoked my desire to order one for myself back then. But I haven't been to a ton of them,
I've been to Kenny Brown many years ago, back in the 90s. I haven't been to one in a long time,
but what they're doing, these Rhabology cars, they're not cheap. When people discuss on forms
and social media enthusiast pages, when they discuss these cars, I see them doing it in a,
well, I could build the same thing for half the price or a third the price, and I could do the
same thing. And why do these just people who have more money than brains blow it on something that
you could build for so much less and blah, blah, blah, blah? Well, and I didn't necessarily
disagree with those people. I just figured, hey, to do this as a commercial enterprise
and try to make a profit, make your payroll, and all the other, I understand why the cars are so
expensive. What I didn't understand until I visited there on Thursday was what these cars are really
about. They are so re-engineered and so modified from what used to be, from what you would think of,
let's just say, for instance, a 1969 Mustang being, they're not starting with a Dynacorn
body shell and just slapping on performance suspension, throwing in a hot driveline and
doing a fancy interior and handing the keys and saying, thank you, here's $350,000, please.
They are building the cars, the shells there, and they aren't building a stock body shell.
From the moment they get started, they are re-engineering and modifying and rebuilding
from the unibody to the A pillars, B pillars, everything is being reinforced, bonded,
double the welds of factory. These cars are kind of engineering works of art, and when you buy
a 1969, their new Boss 429, or if you buy one of those 66, it looks like a Shelby replica,
you're not buying a built body shell of an old car, you're buying kind of a unique modern creation
that looks like an old car, if that makes sense. It certainly does. You open and shut the doors on
these cars, and they open and shut like my personal Audi that I drove down there.
They did that to me. When you hear it, I mean, it's, oh my gosh, you just get your wallet.
The trunk lid, and it's like you just shut the trunk lid on a new Bentley. From the hinges to
the latches to the wind noise, everything works and operates like a modern car. There's no old
hardness to it at all. I got the drive one, very well sorted out, fun, and somehow just between
the exhaust and the way that they've got the engines and the driveline mounted and everything,
I thought that it was going to be too refined because these are Coyote engines, and I thought
it was just going to be, just not have that raw primitive appeal that you get from an old
muscle car. Even though these cars are faster than the old muscle cars, I just thought it was going
to be missing that gravel links to it, and somehow they get that out of it. The Supercharged Coyote
and the one that I, it had personality. It sounded dangerous. It did not feel like it was
overtly refined. It's a really neat piece to drive. I drove down there thinking I'm going to go
through this tour and it's going to be fun, but I don't have any inkling that, you know, I'd never
want to buy one. I don't have anything against anybody. I understand why somebody would want to
buy one, just not my cup of tea. I drove home going, I still don't think I'm going to crack a
check for that much money, but I'd love to have one of those cars. Oh boy, would I love to have
one of those. So I really got impressed down there. I really got blown away. It's not what you
show. It is rethinking and reinvention of these old Mustangs to a build quality and an engineering
quality that far surpasses anything you're going to do yourself in your own shop. You wouldn't be
able to even get started on it because you'd have to hire a team of engineers to show you what to do
and where to reinforce and where to source all these other modern components that replace the
original stuff. There does seem to be kind of a new lane here. The closest comparison I can think of
is like Singer Porsches. Yes, and that's probably as close as you're going to get as a comparison
is the Singer Porsches and look at what those things sell for. It's a niche that solely exists for
people that love that car in the first place because you're right. I mean, they're not inexpensive.
They're a fortune. You could buy something new for the same money and it would be amazing too,
but it wouldn't look like a 69 Mustang. You're right. I drove, I think, a 67. It was a little
rowdier than I thought it would be. It's the right word. The Boss 429, it was rowdier than I
thought it would be. I thought it would look like a classic Mustang, but it would drive like a modern
Mustang. And for me, that's kind of like, well, snooze. I'd rather just have the modern Mustang
and have all the other modern features that go along with it. But no, it definitely had an edge
and a personality to it that made the hair raise up on the back of your neck in a good way,
that made you smile. The door latches that are re-engineered to accept a modern latch,
I like things like that. The fact that the one I was in did have a triangle vent window, but
they're fake. They're permanent mounted. They don't open. They're there because they look right.
They're eliminated from functioning to kill the wind noise. There's just a lot of neat
engineering things in them. I really had no idea what your take on it would be,
whether you thought, this is cool. I want one or I hate it. It sounded like you were just like,
wow, I really appreciate what they're doing. I really appreciate what they're doing. They are
building one by one little works of art that I think will hold their value like a collector car
holds its value just because they're special creations. They truly are special creations.
Do I want to part with $400,000 with one? Probably not. I've got enough cars to play with
I can only drive one car at a time, but I came away with a totally different appreciation
for what's really underneath the skin of these cars. It's just not what people are thinking.
If you think you're going to build a revology Mustang in your garage,
good luck and I'll see you in five years. A good friend who's a very high-end car builder
has told me repeatedly. He said, look, you can pay me $500,000 and I'm going to make
you a pretty great car. It probably still won't be as great as a new Corolla though.
Which has bazillions of dollars of R&D and engineering into double door seals and
win ledges. There's a leg for this world. Cool. Let's get to the Rick
car segment review. You have two versions of the same thing and what we want to do in the first
segment is win a trophy at a car show or shows this summer and the shows themselves are not
defined. They don't have to be a concord. They could be your local show. Maybe they're coming.
I don't know. It doesn't really matter. The goal in the first segment is that you need a car.
Let's say it's the big 4th of July weekend car show downtown square. Cool. Great example.
You're going to win the 4th of July event. You've got to buy this thing for less than
$35,000 and you have to have the only one at the show. There can't be another one there.
It has to be a unique vehicle. That's how I usually like to roll.
And when you sell it because you're going to have this hardware now that makes it
it's worth something to somebody possibly, you've got to at least get your money back on this car.
You can't buy something knowing that like this probably won't work out. So what do we have for
car number one? Car number one is a 12,000 original mile survivor, 1978 Olds Cutlass Supreme.
My French teacher in high school drove this car. This isn't hers, but it was the exact
car of the same color. This generation and body style of Cutlass was beyond a hit with Olds
This was the number one seller back in the day. And because they were great cars, they drove great.
They were comfortable. They were affordable and they were really, really classy and sharp looking.
So they sold like hotcakes. My initial problem here is the car with only 12,000 miles on it.
The condition is probably great. It's a metallic burnt red, kind of a brick red metallic,
white vinyl roof, white interior. Common color for it's day. My mom had a Torinato this color
now that I think about it. It's kind of burnt red. It's got the white vinyl half roof on it,
which sometimes is okay, but in this case, I think these cars, they're sportier and more
attractive to me with just the slick top and not the optional vinyl top. The vinyl top there
starts kind of looking like your grandma's car a little bit. And the problem with this,
then taking it to my downtown square, 200 or 300 car, 4th of July car show.
It doesn't have a whole lot of pizzazz to it. It's going to make it stick out
from all the other hot rods and muscle cars and exotics. And this car just,
it's not going to be a trophy hog. What if it didn't have white ball tires? Would that help?
No, because they're appropriate to the car. I don't think that would help at all.
They're appropriate to the car. If it had black balls on it, then it would be even
doutier. If you put raised white letters on it, those would look at a place with the half
vinyl roof and the color combination, the fact that it's not a performance series of the car.
So the white walls, you're kind of stuck with them. It's a good looking little cut list,
but it's just not going to be that much of a crowd pleaser.
Okay. With three days ago, it's only $5,900 bucks. I'm bringing a trailer,
but what do we have for car number two?
Car number two is a 69 Corvair Monza convertible, white, black top, black interior.
It's the last year.
It's like a really nice car.
I think it is.
Yeah, it looks like a really nice Corvair. This car actually is going to draw more
attention to that cut list. That cut list just for whatever reason, the color combination and
the white half vinyl roof, it just kind of fades into the background of the car show that you're at.
This little Corvair would stick out. It looks great in white. It's got the optional wire caps on it.
It's kind of a nice car. I think it has a better chance of winning a trophy
than the cut list. And that's all I have to say until I see car number three.
Okay. Car number three. Remember, we want to have the only one at the show.
Yeah. Car number three is going to win it. It's a 1962 Chrysler 300 two-door hard top.
It's not a letter car. It's just the standard 300, but that doesn't keep it from looking like a
letter car. It's more that old school big block Chrysler muscle car look to it. Everybody's going
to dig. The 62 300 has a dynamite dashboard, lots of chrome in the interior. They scroll down and
see that incredible dashboard on that car. Yeah. Even if the cut list is in better condition due
to its low mileage, that cut list is just going to be too plain Jane to go up against this
slant headlight. The Chrysler has just got all the personality and all the crowd-pleasing stuff
to it. The white with the red interior, the red interior. I love red interiors.
I love the color combo, but I am biased there. But when I see under the hood of these things,
and I specifically see a Chrysler air conditioning compressor that looks like a V-Twin Harley,
it always catches my light. That thing must weigh a thousand pounds, but it has an under-dash air
period under-dash air. I thought you're going to go with the Corvair, frankly, because while this car
is neat, it never occurred to me that it's not a letter car, but it does look like a letter car.
It really does. Yeah. The body styles were the same. It was just the hotter dual quad motor.
Okay, so you're going with the 300. Yeah, I am. It's just a driver quality car,
but if it was an over-the-top restoration, it would bust the budget. So it's just a nice driver car.
But what it is, what it looks like, and as a crowd-pleaser, especially if it's a people's choice,
it's just going to get more attention than the other two cars. They're not on the top of a whole
lot of people's bucket lists. Without holding you to it, this is still up for auction. It's
currently $5,300 with about a day to go. What's the most you can pay for this car and not break
out with a car that you've paid more than you can sell it for? I think right now it's really low.
It's not a no-reserve auction, is it? If it is, then the solar's sweating right now, but
yeah, it is a no-reserve auction. It's going to sell. If somebody gets this car for less than
15 grand, then they're in really good shape, and they'll have a really fun car to drive around in.
I'm going to click the Watch button right now. All right, let's go to segment two. It's just like
segment one. Our goal is to have the only one there, and our goal is to win some hardware,
and our goal is to not pay more for it than we can sell for. We don't have to make money,
but we can't lose money. But that $50,000 price tag, that's gone. You can spend whatever you want
now. So what do we have for car number one of the second segment? Car number one is a
66 Mustang Fastback. It's like a Shelby tribute, an R-model style tribute. The R-models were the
very, very rare limited production. I can't remember how many R-models they produced,
but you can count them on your hands and your feet. And this is basically a looks and probably,
for all practical purposes, is strictly a track car.
It is 100% a track car. It's built for SBRA events. This was a C code Mustang Coupe when it was
born. So they've converted this into a race car, but it's in blue. It looked like a very
extensive and comprehensive build. I would be drawn to this car like a moth to a flame
if I saw it at a car show because I know what it is and what it isn't. What it is is a race car.
Right.
And it is a kick-ass, good-looking. It is definitely all of that.
But it is a purpose-built race car that has a cage. It has a driver's seat. It has a brake
bias. It has a Halon system in it. It's built to race. And that's all it's built to do.
Right.
It doesn't have any other purpose in life other than to be a cool vintage race car.
You're going to take this to your car show. Do you think it's got a shot at a trophy or
is a Mustang too common?
It's got a shot because, I mean, just look at the thing. It's wild. You see, this is the
problem that Cutlass had. You park that in a sea of 150, 200 other cars of all different types
and shapes and purposes. And it's just going to kind of look like somebody snuck in there with
their daily driver. You show up with this thing. It's going to stand out. It's really going to
stand out from what else is there. It's going to have a big crowd around it. So yeah.
Okay.
It doesn't look like it's street legal even.
It's definitely be a huge hit at a show and top qualifier to get an award or some sort.
Okay. We'll come back to it at the end and see what you pick. Right now with three days to go,
it's at $45,000. What do we have for the next car here? Again, I know how you feel.
You know that I'm a DeLorean owner. So here we are. This is a twin to mine. It's got the gray
interior with the five speed. It's an 81. It's identical to the DeLorean I have.
It would attract attention. Would it be the only one at the show?
It would probably be the only one at the show. It's going to attract a bunch of attention.
Despite the shortcomings of driving a DeLorean and owning a DeLorean, people love DeLoreans.
And it's the back to the future car. And it's got the gold wings to go up. And this is a very
clean or some mileage at $26,000 original mile, but original owner. It's like it's very lovingly
cared for, properly maintained. Five speed car, not an automatic.
Yeah. So man, I don't know. It's a hard choice. The you and me, I think we'd be jumping at that
Mustang race car all day long, but there's a different segment of the public. What do you
do with that race car? But this DeLorean, oh, I'd love to have that. As soon as they shut
those gold wing doors, they're going to be claustrophobic in about two minutes.
I can't remember your car in particular, but do you have the front end at US spec or did you
snug the suspension down to bring it to more of a Euro spec? The US spec car is always,
it kind of knows high, whereas in- Whatever mine is, it's 100% stock. It's only got 7,000 miles on
anything that's never been modified in any manner. It's probably just like this then.
Okay. So this is at $30,500 with less than the day to go. Let's keep that in the back of our head
here. You were talking about also after the show's over and you got your hardware, what are you
doing back out of it? Selling a race car like that Mustang is never a sure thing. You got to
find the right buyer or otherwise you're going to have hard, it might take you a long time to sell.
You may not make money on it. Who knows? Because the buying pool for strictly a high-end,
very, very serious race car like that is a very small pool, different for the DeLorean.
Those just continue to seem to inch up in value. So if that's part of our equation here,
the DeLorean is starting to look better than the Mustang.
Okay. It's a crowd-pleaser to the Everyman, where there's the race cars. You've got a family
of people like us. How about car number three? Car number three is a 1960 Cadillac El Dorado Barrett
red with wire wheels, look like factory wires. They're probably reproductions that weren't
worn on the car. White leather interior. I kind of wish the interior was red to match the outside,
just so it didn't look like Santa's sleigh. I've always repeated that over and over again.
I get a little bit too weirded out when the car is all red and white and you look like you need
to be in a Santa Claus outfit to be seen with it. That's it now. This is the type of car at a show
that you can't help but be noticed by the crowd. This is a big crowd-pleaser, big attention-getter.
It's huge. It's bright. It's lavished in chrome and it's a really sleek. I love mid-late 50s and
all the way through the 60s. I just like Cadillacs. It's a stunning car. It will turn every head.
There's nothing like it at the show, quite likely. But our mission here is to buy something for a
price that we think we can sell it for, or better, after we've won the trophy. This has less than
a day to go. It's at $146,000. I don't know what these go for, one way or the other. Where is it?
Is it in line right now or is it high or low? I'm looking at the undercarriage and I'm looking at
the interior and the car appears to be very well and very comprehensively done. The undercarriage
is done. It is truly restored, clean, nice, right. The interesting thing that you have here is that
$146,000 seems like a ton of money, but you wouldn't be able to restore one for that. You'd have a
lot more in it if you had a professional shop restore one to this standard. This is a 2,000-hour
car to restore easy labor hours. The big luxury boats, everybody says, that all the people who
cared about these cars are all dying away and the market's going to tank on them. This year I've seen
the opposite. I've seen these cars moving back up again strongly. You could maybe make some money
on this car who knows what it really sells for. It might do better than the DeLorean, so I don't
know. I already have a DeLorean, but I don't have a 1960 El Dorado Barrette. I think I get rid of the
wide white walls and go with a little bit less obnoxious. I've researched what the right tire
was for the car at the time when it was sold new and I probably put those on it. Then I probably
like the car a whole hell of a lot better. Personally, I prefer to have this El Dorado.
I think you just as much chance, if not more chance, just because this car just leaves a bigger
impression than either the DeLorean or the Mustang. I think this is the one that holds home the trophy,
the best to show at a show like we were talking about. You're not going to lose money on it,
I don't think, because it's a freshly done car and it looks to be done right and done well.
All seriousness, between this car and the DeLorean, the DeLorean probably has a better chance of
there being another actual DeLorean there. You're in the grand scheme of things versus this. Would
you agree with that? Yes. If you really wanted to go out and buy yourself a DeLorean, it's not too
hard to find one in clean condition with some low miles. Much harder to find a Cadillac.
An El Dorado convertible in this type of condition that doesn't need a lot of restoration work.
It may have been restored before, but if it's done poorly, you've got to start all over again.
What's the max price to pay for this Caddy? It's already a 146.
I wouldn't want to have more than 200 in it. Okay, I'm going to track this one too.
Let's see where they land and the beauty of doing this in the same week we're doing is
we're going to know the answer right when the show comes out. We'll all know together, listeners,
so check the show notes. You'll see photos and descriptions and links to all six vehicles.
We'll see how Rick's picks came out. Rick, I appreciate it as always. I hope you have a very,
very happy Easter. I guess we'll have to start getting ready for Cinco de Mayo for next month.
Yep, yep. I can handle that. I like a good margarita. Catch you later. Have a good day.
Okay, see you.
Thank you, Rick. Excellent as always. You know what? Since we really don't have Rick on the week
of a show that we typically record in advance, but for scheduling reasons, this got pushed
to this week. Let's go see how the results went. In reverse order here, the 60 Cadillac El Dorado
that auction's over, it sold for 157,000 bucks. The DeLorean sold for $46,000.
And the 66 Mustang road race car, that's still for sale, and it's still at 45,000 bucks. Didn't
move at all. The Chrysler from the first segment of the car is under 35,000 bucks. I think Rick
said if you got it for less than 15, you'd be in good shape. It sold for 18.5, so pretty close.
The Monza, Corvair Monza, that's still for sale, and still at 34.5. That wasn't an auction.
And the 78 Olds Cutlass is still for sale, still with a day to go, and it's at 5,900 bucks.
I'll be interested to see where that one lands, but at 18.5, I think the Chrysler is about where
we thought it could land. So there you go. Well, let's end on this. Today is Good Friday.
Today represents the day, for those of us who are Christians,
that we acknowledge that Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity's sin. And that sin,
you know what sin is. That sin would separate us all from God eternally. God cannot be in the
presence of sin. You know that I'm a Christian, and I really do believe that Jesus lived and died
for us. And the older I get, the more I'm really realizing how short life is this life.
Someday, my life and your life on this earth are going to end, and that's just the truth.
And if you're not sure what happens next, then I'd encourage you to go hear the Good News
at Church this Sunday. And it is Good News, because the Good News is that when Christ died,
he did so to pay the price for your sin and mine, and for all that came before us, and for all who
will come after us, so that we actually could be with God in heaven. And had he not done it,
we'd be headed to a place we don't ever want to go. And if you haven't accepted it yourself,
I would really encourage you to understand what you're missing and make that call for yourself.
And I hope and pray that you do, because when Jesus died for your sins, the burden of that
sin payment went with him. But you've got to accept that he did it. And he also had to return to life
to fulfill the prophecy, be ready to reclaim his people for the final return. And he did raise,
and that's what Easter is. Sunday morning is the day Easter rose from the grave. Now, that is a
very big deal, man. It's not just jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and eggbakes, certainly, but
and I doubt that when Jesus arose, he ate a chocolate bunny right away, but I'm sure he
would have enjoyed it. But that's the news of Easter. If you don't have a church home,
any church will have you this Sunday. Just go. You won't regret it. So let's end with a hymn
called Up From The Grave Heroes. Our church has a little amateur orchestra and I'm playing it this
Sunday. I think we're playing this song as the finale. In fact, my daughter Emily plays French
horn in it. It's really fun. Pulled this off of YouTube. I'd love to give the credit to it,
but it's from a generic channel. Long story short, Up From The Grave Heroes, very traditional. I'll
be back next week between now and then. Hit me up on Facebook or Instagram, any time. Be sure to
subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. And you can always find every show
plus all the merch here at the homepage of themusclecarplace.com website. As always,
don't forget to keep chasing your dreams like you've let me chase mine. Happy Easter, everybody. Bye-bye.
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About this episode
Rick Schmidt shares trophy-show lessons from Moda Miami and Amelia Island, including why “best of class” at concours events can boost value while certifications like Bloomington Gold or NCRS add credibility through objective point systems. He also tours Revology’s shop and is impressed by how the company re-engineers classic Mustangs from the unibody up—more like modern engineering art than a Dynacorn-style build. The episode ends with Rick’s car-buying picks for winning hardware under budget, plus results from the auctions and a Good Friday/Easter message.
Rick Schmidt from National Parts Depot returns for the April edition of Ask Rick, fresh off an incredible run of back-to-back concours events—taking wins at both Moda Miami and Amelia Island. In this episode, Rick and Rob break down what really goes into competing at that level, from how cars are selected and judged to the behind-the-scenes dynamics most enthusiasts never see. Along the way, they talk Easter traditions, the evolution of car shows, and what a trophy actually means when it comes to value and credibility.
The conversation also dives into Rick’s unexpected take after touring Revology, a company re-engineering classic Mustangs with modern performance and refinement. To wrap it up, Rob and Rick throw down a challenge: if you had to buy a car today to win a trophy and break even when you sell it, what would you choose? With contenders ranging from local show sleepers to high-end icons, the answers might surprise you—but you’ll have to listen to find out which ones come out on top.