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Ep 136 Past, Present, and Future of Grassroots Motorsports - We Are Driven Podcast
16 Plays4 months ago
Arun and Dan discuss the past, present, and future of grassroots motorsports.
Arun "The Driver" Coumar is an automotive entrepreneur, car enthusiast, and motivator, CEO of Driven Automotive Companies. Shop apparel, Join the Driven Network: wearedriven.co
Want to watch the video of this podcast as well as episodes of the Driven Diary? Check out our Youtube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/@drivendiary/videos
Follow us on social media:
@arundcoumar
@dan_larou
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Transcript
00:00:14
Speaker
Good morning. Welcome to the We Are Driven podcast where cars meet motivation. This is episode 136. My name is Arun Kumar and I am the driver and I'm here with my co-host Dan LaRue. How are you Dan? Good morning. I'm doing okay. I'm a little, a little tired today. But we're surviving. We're pushing through the afternoon, even though it's morning. I can relate. And I've been awake for seven hours plus, and it's 10 40 a.m. here. So yeah, that's one of those days where you just have stuff to do and you went to bed at 11 because you're in a lawsuit battle with a ah guy and
00:01:00
Speaker
You need to do a lot of work around that. Is this the suburban guy? No, that's that's not a lawsuit. That's just AAA trying to rob shops. And I'm ah declining to give them the money that they think I owe them. Yeah, I wouldn't pay that either. Yeah.
00:01:21
Speaker
I don't think we've talked about that on the podcast, and we probably should. I think i think you like brought it up, but you didn't like go into detail with it. Basically, customer car leaves my shop, drives 350 miles, and then the it runs out of oil, and the engine gets cracked, apparently. Amazing. And somehow that's my fault. yeah oh yeah no Even though we did not touch the engine on this car, we did brakes and suspension and we notified the customer about oil leaks and there was an adequate oil level documented in the car when it left our shop.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yet somehow AAA thinks it's our fault. It wants 10 grand for a 1999 Suburban with 300,000 miles on it. It sounds like you should win that. They have no proof, so. Yeah.
00:02:26
Speaker
Anyways, we are here to build a community of driven people. That is what the We Are Driven podcast does. We mix automotive banter, automotive discussion with topics about motivation, making money, succeeding in business, getting in shape, and achieving our automotive dreams. This podcast is one of the ways in which we are building a community of these driven people who share this mindset of mixing cars and motivation. So if you would like to get more people into our community, if you believe in the message, if you believe in finding more like-minded people,
00:03:07
Speaker
Join us, share the podcast. You can find us in our Discord server. That is where a lot of great stuff is happening. And it's ah an app where you can join our We Are Driven community and talk about the pursuit of excellence in business, fitness, and cars. And you can be held accountable to your own goals. And you can work through our iterative goal setting framework if you want to join the Discord. So how do you get in? your DM me at Arun D Kumar on Instagram or your DM Dan at Dan underscore LaRue and we'll let you in.
00:03:47
Speaker
And one more plug before we get going here. We also have a YouTube channel. It's called Driven Diary. That's where on a weekly basis I upload a sort of day in the lifestyle vlog where I'm building my billion dollar automotive services empire. And that's just a window into the early stage, big scale entrepreneurship. the trials and tribulations and every lesson learned along the way. And it's picking up steam, getting a lot of good feedback on the YouTube channel. Yeah. It seems to be doing pretty well lately. Yeah. A couple thousand people tuning in every once in a while, sometimes only a couple hundred, but still a couple of hundreds better than two. So I'll take it. And why are we doing all this? Why are we focused on driven people? Well, we're both driven.
00:04:37
Speaker
And we believe that driven people are the up and coming leaders of our society. So we want to sort of accumulate all those people together, make sure we're all on the same page and you can, we can unite to make the world a better place. With that, Dan, I think you have an icebreaker for us to check out this episode. Since there's really nothing in the news other than EV and DEI bullshit, I had a ah an interesting experience a couple weeks ago from the moment that we're recording this, when this has come out. This has been a couple weeks ago, but this was last weekend for me, where I was able to set a top speed record for myself on the ground. So in a car, fastest speed ever, terrifying as shit.
00:05:28
Speaker
So my question to ruin is, what's the fastest you've ever been in a car or motorcycle? Three miles an hour less than you. Really? One hundred and ninety seven. No. OK, so I thought it was your. Oh, well, I thought it was three or one. Yeah. One ninety nine. Yeah. You. OK, so you went to two. I went one ninety eight. OK. I went 198 in an F 90 M five on a military airstrip. Holy shit. Yeah. How long did it take you to get there? Well, I have a video. I can time it. I think it was 20 something seconds. OK, so it definitely over a half mile. Then it was a mile. Yes, it would have to. It was it was a mile from a big.
00:06:13
Speaker
Yep. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Cause we did, we did a half mile from a dig at 202 in like 14 and a half seconds or something like that. That's ridiculous. Yeah, dude, when I tell you like my head was sucked back into the seat. Oh, yeah Yeah, like I'm just like looking with my eyeballs. What's around me like there's no left and right That's all you can do and like I don't know how to describe it what it does your eyeballs and your vision yeah It's like it's like you're like your depth perception just poof goes out the window It's just weird so I I was tasked with filming because
00:06:58
Speaker
we were drag racing another f90 m5 that was built by a rival shop and we won and being i was in the uk i was on the left hand side of the car and so my job was to use my right hand to hold my phone out the left hand window what out not out the window but up to the window yeah and We just watched as the other car slowly moves backwards in the frame until it leaves the frame because I couldn't move my hand or I didn't want to move my hand because I couldn't see the screen and I didn't want to miss the car. right So it was it was great though. It was so cool.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, it was a it was a cool experience to see it, you know, big power cars. We weren't even in the top 10 for top speeds for the whole weekend, which is unreal at 202 for the half mile for a half mile. Yeah, it's crazy. ah We turned a ah Lamborghini perf into a Lamborghini storado for a night. That was pretty fun. All right. Yeah. So so they do. So you come in Friday, you drop your trailer at the airstrip and then you.
00:08:15
Speaker
go Saturday, you race all day, and then you take your cars into town for a little car show, a dinner for the racers. And we didn't want to take the Lamborghini back to the airstrip. So we drove it home to our Airbnb, which was on a dirt road. So we, oh so we lifted up the suspension and we went full storado mode for about that's quarter of a mile. What kind of tires are on there? other uh like mickey thompson t street sss or something shit like that they're they're they're drag tires they are not made for dirt right no no no and this is a um compound right it's a hercom performante
00:08:57
Speaker
spider so there's no business being a dirt road that's the best part of that story right zero zero business but yeah yeah it it survived it we we burnt out a little fuse connector on the first pass uh for the ice box up front had to make a new one and then the second pass it ripped the under shield out of it so we had to zip tie it back up and find some new clips and stuff and it didn't hold
00:09:29
Speaker
it just ble ties at two hundred miles an hour Every zip tie that we had on there, gone. Not rated for 200.
00:09:39
Speaker
I don't know any zip ties that are, to be honest. I don't rate them like that. All right. Well, so I have a follow up question. Sure. So both of us, obviously we're in the passenger seat for these events. Oh yeah. Yeah. So what's the fastest you've been in the driver's seat? So. The last time I drove that car, I could tell you it's the fastest I've ever been in a car, but I don't know what the number was. I didn't even look down. I was more more concerned. The number that I've physically seen on the dashboard is 162 because that's as fast as I could possibly go.
00:10:21
Speaker
it was it It was in my 16 Mustang. I had it wrapped out. It is in six gear and had no and no more juice to overcome wind speed. But that that's the fastest I've physically seen. I've done 170 both in my M3 and my M4. My M3 got there way faster than my M4, which is weird. But the M3, they happened quite a long time away from each other. So I don't have the best memory of comparing the two events. But one of them was on the freeway coming in down from Seattle to California on I5, which is most yeah it's not the straightest freeway in the world. But it was, I think, just in Northern California somewhere is where I did that.
00:11:11
Speaker
The M3 was going to Vegas ah yeah in Southern California in the middle of nowhere on a road where I could see 15 miles ahead of me. right And that there was getting nobody there. Yeah, nobody there. And I just said to myself, well, you know, if there was ever a time to do this, it's now. it's now So I better fucking plant it. And I got I got up to 170 that car, you know, 400 horsepower. It was it was working. Right. Oh, yeah. And that's how it was in my Mustang. It was screaming 162.
00:11:54
Speaker
All right. We're going to move it on the appraisal segment. This is where Dan and I give each other an auction from ring a trailer. And we guess what the hammer price is going to be. Don't have my shit together with this. And I and i don't know what's wrong. The winner, be more aggressive. Who is me? Yeah, it's just. The winner, who is me gets bragging rights. So he did well. I'm killing it. He did. I was off by a tiny margin on the Maserati two, two, 2.4 B that you gave me. And I was off by $250, 17,250 is what it went for off my $17,000 guess.
00:12:37
Speaker
You guessed 550 on no the SLS black. I guessed wrong. And it went for 700. Yeah. So you were off by 21%. I was off by 1%. So my average is 21.87 and your average is 24.72. We're just going the opposite direction for a while. Most certainly pulling away on this one. Anyways, I'm giving you what I hope you will consider a layup for this week. It's a Coyote car.
00:13:17
Speaker
What else? I don't know. I'm just guessing it is a coyote car.
00:13:23
Speaker
oh It's the 50 year limited edition. Yeah. So it is a 76. That's so bad. 76 mile, 76 miles on the odometer, 2015 Mustang GT 50 year limited edition, six speed white over black and cashmere. five later So ugly like yeah that grill is bad but So there are things about this car. I liked when it came out and Well, I'm sorry. There's one thing I liked about this car when it came out
00:14:03
Speaker
the color because you couldn't get it any other S550 in that color. Whippled in white. Yeah, and it's just like it's that white with a little bit of yellowish tinge to it. Almost an egg shell. color Yeah, it's really cool. The other thing that's really interesting about them are the but little quarter panel windows that are exclusive to that car. Very expensive pieces. like super expensive but the rest of it no like I don't know why they went with the seek colors I don't know why they did chrome trim on the tail lights or around the windows it's just no you know what you want to see there's a very interesting comment on this car somebody has asked
00:14:55
Speaker
At the cellar, the gas gauge shows nearly full and 256 miles to empty. Is the gas in the car original? A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Well, it could be like half and half. It kind of depends on what do they did with it. So MSRP on this is forty seven. Yeah, that's what that says. Yeah. Yeah. Forty six nine ninety five. And if I remember right, there weren't like crazy markups on these either. They were just kind of like the thing that got released and then like ignored. Which is sad because it is kind of a big milestone for the Mustang. fifty you It really was. And it's like the next one that's coming out, which I think is the 60th.
00:15:45
Speaker
it They didn't do it any more justice than they did with this one It's just it's like I don't know why they make these crazy anniversary editions. It looks like shit but Like no one's gonna buy them or want them later Except for the new edge the new edge did a good one Well, so current bids thirty four thousand two days left in the auction 76 miles on the odometer
00:16:14
Speaker
Well, what do we let's see here? I don't think. I'm going to find anything. In the comps, because it's all going to be GT 350s or GT 500s, which is a problem. As I'm looking, that is. Definitely the answer.
00:16:38
Speaker
Well, around 34 right now.
00:16:46
Speaker
I'm going to guess 45. five I think it gets close to what it went for originally. I bet. If I were to guess, I think I might have said 44. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, it's it's just a weird one.
00:17:10
Speaker
is what it is, I guess. I think there's a bet. I think there's a better car out there for sale. I think there are hundreds of thousands of better cars out there for one once over thirty five at the end of March. But it had more miles on it. It did have more miles on it. No, there was like a. What was it? It was ah it was another Mustang. It was like a 76. No, not 76. It was low, low mileage. 2012. I already gave you a super low mile 2012 Mustang though, so I can't do that again. Yeah, I just had a funny feeling I was getting a Coyote car.
00:17:54
Speaker
I'm just trying to help. Oh, yeah, it was a 2100 mile 2012 GT premium six speed one day to go and it's a 22 K, which is a good price. Yeah, but one day to go. You should buy it. No, no more. No more of those four things. ah Speaking of Fords, I also picked a Ford for you. OK, one of the coolest s SUVs ever made. the excursion, the excursion, at least we're on the same page about that. The 2001 Ford excursion limited 7.3 liter power stroke four wheel drive. Is it the red one or the black one? Because there's everything you just read. There's two of the maroon one, the one that's okay. Okay.
00:18:46
Speaker
but Yeah, 111,000 miles on what is undoubtedly one of the best motors Ford has ever made. Hell, yes. Hell, itll I go agree with me. um It'll go for 10 times. What is on the miles shown? ah I know. Yeah. ah This has a four inch lift kit with Bilstein dampeners and rear air shocks. It does have an exhaust system on it. This thing is just ready to pavement crawl. I would not take this off roading anywhere. It's marooned with the tan rockers and fender trims, tan interior. It is gorgeous. Hey, it's in Morgan Hill. This is close to me.
00:19:28
Speaker
Yeah, I, I can't imagine it's going to be legal in California for very much longer. There's nothing they can do about it at this particular moment in time, which is great. Yeah. It's currently at $26,666 two days to go. oof Okay. So one with 67,000 miles went for 40. Oh, this is going to be a six liter. I don't care about the six liters just oh yeah seven threes. OK, this seven three with one hundred and seventy went for twenty six. So we're already past that. This one was modified to this one is like an exceptional.
00:20:12
Speaker
Like. Presentation of an excursion. It's done right.
00:20:21
Speaker
Wow. This one, 2001 excursion, seven three four by four lifted with 211,000 miles went for $41,000. Why? Why did that one go for so much more? The white one. Yeah. Well, that thing is gorgeous.
00:20:45
Speaker
This is basically what I had. I mean, I had a 99 F 250, which this is just with a SUV body. I think it's your vboy think the red one's better.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yikes. Do I really go that high with this? Oh, man. In this day and age, that's tough. Oh, this just sold to. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This day and age, that was this day and age. I didn't realize it was that soon. They're black. There's a 2000 that went for 41 as well. Black one is honestly ruined. These kind of seem like a few of them have creeped up in price here.
00:21:30
Speaker
Cause one that sold May 10th for 38 wild.
00:21:41
Speaker
All right. Uh, 40.
00:21:47
Speaker
1,000. All right. Battle of the $40,000 Fords. I really like what you gave me. It's a cool one, isn't it? I mean, I see these things on the road and I just go, ooh, every time. Right? Every time I've seen one ever in my life, like that thing is fucking hot like I want it. And instead I bought a 99 Suburban. Something that will not make a million miles. I hated my life for about a year and then I sold it and lost six grand on it. and ah So is the excursion considered a truck or is it an SUV?
00:22:35
Speaker
It depends on how you, so you know how people say, truck when they are referring to SUVs. yeah So that's your answer.
00:22:52
Speaker
okay that me Does that make sense? it's a it's It doesn't make any more sense than a X3M and an SQ5 being in the sedan class at the airstrip attack. So we'll go with it. the advent of these weird mini SUVs and crossovers and things like that, and then calling those trucks is wrong. They're all 100%, dude. But I don't know what else to call them. And we get a ton of those kind of things in the shop here. I would not be calling my SQ5 a truck. It's more interested in. Even, you know, we'll have vans and things in the shop. And I always struggle with, you know, what pronoun do these vehicles identify as?
00:23:36
Speaker
is it Is it car? Is it automobile? Is it vehicle? is it Or is it something more specific? Is it van, SUV, truck? And only with, we get a lot of sequoias and we get a lot of forerunners. yeah So do I call those? i I call those trucks. Technically, a forerunner being on a Tacoma frame makes it a truck. OK, so then what about Volkswagen Tiguan's? What do they share chassis with? Nothing. Oh, well, no no truck. It's the MQB. You know what they share chassis with is your car. Yeah, say it's it would be sedan.
00:24:24
Speaker
It's just a sedan. that's yeah just so They need to make a T1R. Actually, they do make a T1R. Yeah, it just because if having an SQ5 and an S4 in my garage now, that there is no difference. There are no wider than one another. the The only thing is, is the SQ5 has a hatch and it's a little bit higher in the roof line. That's yeah it taller. Yeah. Otherwise, it's all the fucking same shit. Is it the same powertrain? Yeah, same powertrain, same everything. are you guys Down to the interior, the only only differences in interior are the seats. You guys are just bored and you're just like, let's just get the same car. It's whatever at this point. One can have the dog, one doesn't have to have the dog. and Even though I've been taking the dog in the S4, she likes it.
00:25:15
Speaker
Oh, I thought you weren't doing that. and I am now. I'm taking the dog home today in the Passat. There you go. And I hate doing that because he just gets fur everywhere. Yup. Yup. There was one time I was going home with the windows down. I had the right music playing and I decided he needed to experience a hundred miles an hour. Oh yeah. So we did a hundred miles an hour in the Passat and i I got home and you know how sometimes you'll give your dog a voice for ye for when you're talking to other people in your household and you're like, oh, this is what the dog is saying right now. So we got home and my wife runs up to the dog and is like, oh, do you have a good time at at the shop with your dad today?
00:26:02
Speaker
And he goes, he he goes through me. I went a hundred miles an hour just now, mom. And she looked at me like, what the fuck did you just say? Yeah. Sorry. My dog goes a hundred miles an hour. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. yeah i've been I've been taking Lucy in the S4 because she seems to like it more than an SUV because I think she lays down on the back seat with her face in front of the air vent. and Sure. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. All right. All right.
00:26:34
Speaker
Okay, well, we're gonna move on from all this ridiculous topics we've covered. we gotten ban We didn't banter before, so we're bantering now. Yes, there's a bit of a tangent here that is is deviating or drawing from the topics we just covered. it First of all, I bet the excursion would be an excellent tow rig for your race car to go to the track. Oh, 100%. Yeah, speaking as somebody that used to have a 7.3 tow rig, It works. It's not the most powerful thing ever. They're kind of slow, torque converter sucks, but they get the job done. You can change that. They pull things. Well, you need them for it. They're famously slow, but that's okay.
00:27:17
Speaker
Another thing is you could probably tow a nice Mustang to either a drag strip or a road course. Yep. I would, I would say that's the case. So probably way better than my two seven F one 50 did. Oh, yikes. Nope. Thanks. All right, so what we're talking about today is going to to follow on what Dan was talking about with the high speed half mile runs that he was doing. And it is this question, how are motorsports evolving?
00:27:55
Speaker
So we are going to to sort of hypothesize about what it looked like 20 years ago from what we've heard. We're going to talk about what it looks like today, and we're going to talk about what we think it will look like 20 years from now, some predictions. So Dan, you like straight line racing, I will call it. And I don't, I mean, I do, but I don't do it. I do road racing. And so we have a couple of different disciplines. We have these three time periods. Let's just talk about what they look like. So road racing 20 years ago, 20 years ago, what kind of cars would have been out there? You would have had 9 9 6 9 11s.
00:28:42
Speaker
GT2s, GT3s, you would have had Miatas, but they were like new cars at the time, or maybe 10 year old cars at the most, not 30 year old buckets. Those Miatas now are sought after. Yeah, you would have had E36s, you would have had Early E46s out there, M3s maybe brand new M3s out there. You would have had E30s out there probably.
00:29:14
Speaker
But if you think about that realm of cars that I just described, that was all the cars that were fairly new of the time. And I say that because I don't believe that young people were as interested in road racing as they are today.
00:29:37
Speaker
Oh, that's tough. and i think I think I would agree with you because NASCAR was still fairly popular at that time. Correct. So I think I think I'm following your logic here on that. Yeah, so it was the the good old boys, but not the good old boys of NASCAR because yeah, it was all the oval track kids because it was affordable road racing was this weekend out bring your ah RV tow your Porsche behind your RV and camp at the track for a couple days.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah, and there there weren't people that were buying like their 300 Z's and going to go road course them on the weekends. It just wasn't, I'm sure not a thing. Sure, maybe it was to an extent, but not not in bros. And it's also that if you think about what the cheaper cars would have been in the early 2000s, if you think about what they are today, it's cars from the early 2000s. that were from the factory focused on handling. That's why they're so popular. I honestly can't freaking think of any other than the Miata. But now think to cars from the 80s, early 80s, 70s. Yeah, there's no handling. No, it was all fabricated to make it handle. Right. So there was no way to just do a quick plug and play, take this, you know, stock Miata to the track kind of thing.
00:31:07
Speaker
And that I think is why young people were not as involved in road racing 20 years ago. And so it was mostly older people with money doing kind of stuffy weekend out caviar and cheese board kind of. Or shop owners who had the time to fabricate things and join actually join point series and. Yeah. Well, and so yeah, to that point, the, the most popular road course associations of the time nationally were still sports car club of America and oh boy, national automotive sport association. So NASA and SCCA and the two of those
00:31:50
Speaker
are still around and it's still, they they are by far the highest. Yeah, SCCA gets quoted so much here. For what? ah They just put on events like autocross events and stuff. Like yeah it's a thing. yeah Your SCCA more than NASA. if you go to those things what you find is it's a lot of guys with gray hair enforcing rules ah huh which you can imagine is the same thing they were doing twenty years ago but what i would say is safety has probably come a very long way so maybe before those rules made more sense to have in place
00:32:32
Speaker
because it was way more likely that you'd get hurt. So you really had to take it seriously to survive even the track. Right. So like one of my points from, you know, way back in the day for straight straight line racing, the NHRA actually had to put a fuel blend mandate into nitromethane. Because the cars were becoming so fast, they didn't have the safety requirements to keep people alive if they crashed. Oh, boy. OK. So what what else was happening 20 years ago? So we really had the emergence of front-wheel drive cars around around that era. It's like, yeah, you have your Cavaliers that I believe it was John Lincoln filter that broke the like the nine-second barrier in a Cavalier. so
00:33:25
Speaker
some Crazy. thing like that. Yeah, in 2002, it was a Chevy Cavalier where and it wasn't nines. It was sixes. I'm crazy. Six point nine nine nine three it one ninety seven and a front wheel drive. Yeah. first Oh, wait. Is that is it a yellow car? I think it's yellow if I remember. I remember this. I remember this car. I feel like I've seen it in some video sometimes. Yeah, it was a pretty historic moment, but like import drag series were a thing in 2005. They had
00:33:56
Speaker
the diesel branch of the NHRA that came into play. So that's where diesel racing really got its start. Sorry. Pause. It was blue, not yellow. Thinking of a different car. I thought thought thought it was yellow, but okay. Blue, blue. So yeah, there, there were some things that, you know, there were obviously safety concerns. I think drag racing back then was in an interesting place for spectators that couldn't really get into the sport because the cars weren't of the caliber they are today.
00:34:33
Speaker
Like you had to you do a lot of modifications were coming out of the, you know, the seventies and eighties going into the two thousands where they started to really relax on horsepower and kind of just make them all the same. So I think, I think, I think drag racing and modifying. I think modifying them was more for appearance than it was for for drag racing as ah as a normal car enthusiast. And then going to the events, I could only speculate that going to NHRA events back then was pretty cheap. I can't imagine it's cheap today. I haven't even looked at a ticket. But you had a lot of great people racing then. You know, you guys like John Forrest that were creating an industry.
00:35:16
Speaker
But I'm getting all us in here. Yeah. There are some cool things that that happened in the 2000s. They eventually got rid of the nitro regulations towards 2010 and started going faster again. So it was like eight thousand horsepower. All right. All right. We're safe enough for eight thousand now. No more, though. No more than eight. Mm-hmm. It was 500 cubic inch motors. I mean Wow, it's crazy It's crazy All right. So how would you got it like three word summary for the past?
00:35:56
Speaker
three word summary for what the past would be like. Yeah. Just, you know, I know you already you gave it. I'm just saying, wrap it up. Oh, like, what do you think? I think the past 20 years ago, import versus domestic begins. I'll do four words. Okay. Cause it really did. It really did. Yeah. That, that, that actually defines, yeah, big power, but also homogenization, front wheel drive, all the rest of the stuff you're talking about. Yep. Nice. You really took that literally. so Okay. Today.
00:36:37
Speaker
Today, what's ah what's straight line like right now? So with the emergence of no prep events, like heads up, no prep events where it's just instant green light track doesn't prep it. You burn out in your own prep. I think that has created a re-emergence in the sport for people wanting to get into it because you can still win a decent amount of cash at these events if you win and you don't have to go try and be an NHRA top field drag racer and it's impossible to get in unless you have like 10 million dollars. And like it's not a figurative number. That that might not even be too low.
00:37:18
Speaker
so i think it's created ah an emergence because now you see things that these nop prep events where you have small tire you have big tire you've got stick shift you've got index classes from seven fifty eight miles to six fifty eight miles and their street cars like people can just go buy a car and enter an event and I think it created a reemergence into car and enthusiasm with events like that because anybody can buy anything. The internet has made modifications super easy. There's a company for everything even if it's a cheap Chinese store on eBay. So I think today it looks it looks good on paper. I don't know how the future is going to look.
00:38:04
Speaker
guys i think We'll get there. I think from 2015 to today, the like the last nine-ish years, been really good for the drag racing sport. I think you've got Cletus playing a decent role. and Oh, yeah. I just watched his new video last night. They did like a Top Gear-esque style three-car challenge video. ahru listeners, you got to watch it. I have never laughed so hard in a video in my oh life. Oh, dude, it just I had to pause it on my phone and put it on the TV so Heather could watch because I was just laughing so hard. It was like I was like, I'm in like these are the new top of your voice. There's OK. So and then the the cheap entry kind of thing, there's Wednesday night drags out here at Sonoma. Yeah. and Ten, ten dollar entry. You know, that's a good example of kind of how these things work.
00:38:59
Speaker
Yeah. And, and the other crazy thing too is they've made it easier to straight line race too, because roll racing has become a thing. Right. So you don't, you don't have to drag your transmission. and Yeah. And it's huge. It's a huge thing here. It's huge thing in Texas. It's huge thing everywhere. It's crazy. Yeah. And it means we have GTRs and hurricanes and that, yeah, they're doing 200 miles an hour. Yeah. 2000 plus horsepower wildness. Right. Yeah. Well, okay. So yeah, I would say I, my perspective on drag racing is yeah, there's this sort of the big money young guy crowd that has those kinds of cars. And that's a big chunk of it. And they, ah they, it expands into.
00:39:45
Speaker
regular cab short bed trucks and things like that. Also, Colitis is big driver of all this stuff. And then you have the basic, I just want to try it out early stage. You know, you get into a little competition or an open track kind of deal and it's cheap. It's very accessible. It's not a ton of wear and tear on the car. Yeah. So like it's like our track here. It's Friday, Saturday night, $25. run what you run. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what it is. It could be your mom's minivan. They don't give a shit. Just bring it out and have some fun. Yeah, that's great. And like that's all the track staff asked for. So. um Chill track people are also cool. Oh, our track staff are yeah phenomenal people. Yeah. Well, would you say, I guess actually I'll put the third crowd in because the third crowd is the NHRA people.
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't have much experience in dealing with it the real NHRA or IHRA drivers. And I just, I think they're kind of in that same boat of what you're talking about. Like these are the fancy events where people have high dollar cars that do 300 and a quarter mile and they're going out to dinner and winning millions of dollars from their sponsors. Like, right like therere they're, they're the part of the industry where you might catch them on ESPN two on a Saturday morning.
00:41:13
Speaker
i like Sad but true. It's the truth. It's the truth. Whereas like you have road racing people will sit and stop and watch a 24-hour IMSA race or They'll watch an f1 race which right now f1 is really fucking good. Well, yeah so Yeah, it's just there's been some changes in straight straight line racing 20 years from now and
00:41:41
Speaker
ah it could be close to death. I'm being honest. yeah It will become an illegal sport for many reasons. In general or just this high end stuff? I think I think from a true enthusiast perspective, I think over the next 20 years, we're going to see a huge decline in race tracks. People aren't going to build them and people aren't going to try and save them because it's going to cost too much to do it. So that's going to turn into a legal street racing, which is going to cause people getting hurt.
00:42:17
Speaker
So I think that's where the enthusiast side is going plus the new cars with them being alternative fuels and electric I think that the general enthusiasm for it is gonna go away. So you think drag racing you think big cars wild noises turbo noises, you know, it's kind of the stereotype of it now the racing side of it they'll go they'll buy into all electric and The NHRA guys will eventually buy into it. they Yeah, they'll be forced to basically. Yeah. But I think drag racing as ah as a whole is, it's going to hurt in 20 years. unless Unless we have politicians that completely rewrite the policies we're into now.
00:43:00
Speaker
Which is kind of the aim, I would say. We're at a point in society right now where there's such a reversal begging to happen. That yeah I hope it's just a matter of time. I'm trying to be my part for that. Right. and And like for road racing, for you, there are tracks that are in danger, like Laguna Seca, where those cars have to have some ridiculous it's shit attached to their cars to race there. Yeah. But it's doable. Yeah, it's doable. But I just I think drag racing is more at risk today than any other style racing. OK. Because I think road racing guys can adapt new technology better than drag racing can.
00:43:44
Speaker
there we are That was a big part of my focus for the future is how technology is going to play into it. But right for for the present, you have now to what I was saying before, you have people with 30 year old handling focused cars that you can build for five grand that are out there. They're driving a car to the track in their you know track bucket, seat, and not sleeping that day at all, just driving to the track, switching out their tires that were in the trunk. I've done that.
00:44:19
Speaker
yeah and and just getting ready to rip and then doing it and and then driving that car home and that's great you know low budget it's possible those the track of organizations that do that kind of stuff are really chill they're not going to give you the best experience i would say the people who are out on those tracks are not the highest quality drivers it's kind of sketchy sometimes but There are very low stakes way to enter oh yeah the the world of road racing, which I like. But the other side of it is still the the really high end crew that is just still there, basically. Now they have 991, 992s instead of 996s, their bushes. And their lap times have gotten significantly lower, and that's that's great for them. That's about it.
00:45:14
Speaker
And I would say the difference right now is strictly down to just money. yeah And it's it's not about popular culture or cars that are available or anything like that. It's just The cars that were available have gotten cheaper. There are still new track cars being built. And if you can buy a new one, you buy a new one, you go to the nice events. If you can't, then you buy an older one and you go to the cheap events and and that's kind of the deal. And I've been able to experience both because I had my M4 and I have my E46. I've done it all.
00:45:52
Speaker
Right. And now I've been able to experience both to coming from my cheap little track in the river basin that floods every year to go into an airstrip attack where i I was talking to some people that were like, yeah, we have seven figures into a car right now. It's like, it's like, excuse me. What the fuck did you just say? It's like. And that event's like $800 for the weekend. like it's not ah It's not a cheap event. It's not 25. Yeah. my buddy My buddy went three runs for 800 bucks. da Like what? Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully the catering was good. That's 45 seconds. He didn't get a full minute of racing. That's insane. But how was the catering?
00:46:39
Speaker
Oh, it was good. It was just the local like like local food and downtown independence. Yeah. So yeah, it's it's very much. yeah There are two ways to do it. Yeah. Okay. So the future for road racing, I think technology is going to continue to play a bigger part in influencing people into competition. Competition is something right now in road racing that is is shied away from a bit because the best way to do it is wheel to wheel racing. And time attack kind of is what it is and people do it and they like it or they don't and they just would rather it be some sort of wheel to wheel kind of sport. As cars continue to get safer and as the technology surrounding the way in which scorekeeping timekeeping is done, I think we'll be able to get better at wheel to wheel racing.
00:47:29
Speaker
and yeah and making it more accessible to people where their cars aren't just getting destroyed every day. And that's that's definitely what would be hang up for me is like, man, I know in my heart from being an NASCAR fan, Robin is racing, but I sure as shit not doing that in my ass for right now. You have to have deep pockets to make that work. Right. And so I would love to see for it to get more accessible somehow. Yeah. somehow be able to have like a cheap track car that you can just pull panels off and replace them you know yeah yeah that's a good way to put it actually and and like a frame that bends really yeah yeah it's also super safe and right yeah yeah yeah you know it'll never be that cheap
00:48:15
Speaker
So another thing i I think is that the next generation will be able to take advantage of EVs at the track more. They are very, very fast. It's it's hard to deny how good they are, especially at twisty tracks. EVs are unparalleled in speed because of the torque and the low yeah acceleration. that and even though they're heavier my guess would be is that because that battery expands the whole length of a car it's got to distribute weight fairly well versus like a full tank that's just swashing around in one section of the car
00:48:55
Speaker
That's a good point. and but And I would say tire technology is quite good. And yeah grip, grip, it plays a big role when you got a heavy car like that. As long as it's rear wheel drive biased, you can rotate it. And that is what i've I've ridden along with the fastest model three in California. And he gets that thing loose on every corner. It's actually very impressive. right wasn't there a take on that just set a huge that was one of the reviews used you yeah but it was news segments we did
00:49:28
Speaker
Yeah, seven. Oh, yeah. Seven minutes, seven seconds. Yeah, pretty good. That's pretty crazy for an electric car. Yeah. But that was ah that was a while ago. That was way back in March. I would have read that one. But here's the thing is brakes and batteries overheat quite quickly. So right now that is the limitation on these cars is brakes and batteries overheat very, very fast. that's I think it's in i don't even remember that racing series is called it's the e f one series flag yeah formula e yeah they ah i think like when they die, they die. There's no changing the battery. So like they have to conserve battery for the entire race because they can't like just pit and recharge it. So they actually have to do it on one charge. If I remember how that works correctly, which sounds right.
00:50:37
Speaker
just That's how they sound when they race. Watching them race at Monaco is just kind of interesting. I like the sound of an F1 car. That's about right. Yeah. Well, it's like Ford's drift Mach-E. When they unveiled that, I'm like, this thing sounds sick. Yeah. Like like I'd buy that. That sounds cool. Nah, I still prefer Nice. Oh, me too. But I'm saying, like, if you if told me my electric car is going to wind up like that. Cool. ah but That'll work. Yeah. All right. Well, so I think that's that's what we think. I guess drag racing is going to die. Road racing is going to hopefully get a little bit easier to do more competitive stuff and get a bit more electric. But overall, just ideally gets more accessible.
00:51:28
Speaker
and more fun with competition. That's my hope. Do you have anything else you want to cover on this? No, other than the Rimac Navura is the current real production car record holder for the Nurburring. No surprise. 705.
00:51:52
Speaker
two seconds faster than the Taycon, which I think that makes the Taycon way more impressive. Why? Because the Rimac is a hypercar that's $2.2 million dollars versus a a wagon thing. The wagon thing is funny, though, because they remove the rear seats yeah for that version of the car. Yeah, they put a roll cage in it. and Yeah. That makes sense. It's not a production car. Exactly. It's, it's the Y sock package. Right. So, but still comparing that to it, to the RIMAC is two seconds. Yeah. That makes it pretty impressive. Yeah. All right. I think that's all we got time for today. So thanks everyone for listening. This has been a rooted day and until next time, stay driven.