To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Your First Car Tells The Story
Remember your first car? That freedom with the windows down, your favorite song playing, and your best friends laughing in the backseat? Every car tells a story—and those automotive stories reveal who we really are.
Welcome to our podcast, To All The Cars I've Loved Before, where we celebrate automotive nostalgia through personal car stories from everyday car enthusiasts, father-son restoration teams, father-daughter automotive adventurers, and families passing down car culture across generations. From first car stories and forgotten beaters to vintage car dreams and car restoration projects, we explore automotive memories through the vehicles that shaped our lives.
What Makes Us Different: We hold nothing back except politics, new car reviews, and focusing only on celebrities. This isn't another industry podcast—it's about automotive history told through YOUR experiences. Whether it's your first ride, learning to drive, or the car that changed everything, we share your automotive stories with classic car collectors, restoration junkies, and everyday drivers. Because automotive stories are life stories.
What You’ll Hear: Real people sharing real automotive memories—from father-daughter DeLorean projects to first-generation immigrants learning American car culture through a beat-up sedan. We feature car enthusiasts who’ve restored classic cars, students training in car restoration, and anyone with a first car story worth telling. Every episode proves your automotive history is your personal history.
Your Hosts: Doug and Christian—two friends who believe the best automotive stories come from everyday people, not just collectors and experts. We’ve loved everything from project cars to dream machines, and we know that vintage car memories and personal car stories connect us all.
Perfect for: Road trips, commutes, or anyone who still remembers that feeling of freedom—windows down, music up, going nowhere in particular but loving every minute.
Every Tuesday is #TorqueTuesday with new brand episodes..
Check out our website https://carsloved.com and listen to us on your favorite podcast platform or https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Your First Car Tells The Story
DeLorean DMC-12 & Chrysler Laser: Curt's 1980s Icon Collection
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Every car enthusiast has THE car. For Curt Bellotti, it was always the DeLorean.
But before he could afford his dream, there was a 1984 Chrysler Laser XE Turbo with a digital dashboard straight out of Knight Rider. That car taught Curt something crucial about the relationship between desire, patience, and finally getting what you've always wanted.
Fast forward to 2024: Curt finally owns a 1981 DeLorean. But is the reality as good as the dream he'd been chasing for decades?
In this episode, Curt shares:
- Why the Chrysler Laser XE was the poor man's KITT car in the 1980s—and why that mattered so much
- The exact moment he decided "I WILL own a DeLorean someday"
- What 40 years of wanting something does to your expectations
- The first drive in his actual DeLorean—did it live up to decades of hype?
- How digital dashboards in the '80s made you feel like you were driving the future
- The unexpected maintenance realities of owning a DeLorean today
- Why some dreams are better chased than caught (or are they?)
Warning: This episode might make you finally pull the trigger on your dream car. Or it might make you appreciate the chase more than the catch. Either way, Curt's honesty about the gap between fantasy and reality is refreshingly real.
🔗 More Dream Car content: https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/16723792-stainless-steel-dreams-mike-s-time-traveling-journey-with-a-delorean-and-beyond
https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15009054-delorean-family-story-kat-delorean-growing-up-with-automotive-icon-father
🔗 Connect: https://linktr.ee/carsloved
⭐ Help us grow: Leave a review!
And don't miss Curt's favorite episode with Timothy Kearns and the origin of the intermittent windshield wiper - https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/17461644-why-we-have-intermittent-windshield-wipers-timothy-kearns-on-his-father-s-innovation-ford-legal-battle
*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***
Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
Welcome back to All the Cars. I've Looked For your authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia, where our guests are unique. Each auto has an era, every car tells a story, so you know it's time to plug in, get a little grease under the nails and slip on that favorite car theme t-shirt. Now, before I cue in my partner in crime here, let's welcome back to Cars Love Nation, our most recent listeners in cities and countries around the world. All right, so, doug, you're going to like this. I'm going to throw out. I pulled this out of the analytics, okay, and you're going to dig it. So what do these cities have in common? Right, this is a little bit of a test here. Brooklyn, new York welcome back, we know you're listening. Brimmington, washington welcome back, we know you're out there. Birmingham, alabama, not too far from me welcome. Bridgeport. Connecticut, bradford, maine, all the way in the northeast. What do all of those cities have in common? Any clue?
Speaker 2:uh, two things, they both.
Speaker 1:They all start with b and they all start with br I think, oh, I didn't even get close birmingham yeah, yes, I got B makes the buh buh sound.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, that's right Now. Countries all over the world. We see a theme here. Welcome back to our listeners you know what and maybe even viewers, as we ramp up the YouTube presence. We're having fun with that. Maybe Doug can speak a little bit about that in a minute. But hey, welcome back Sweden. You know they used to make sobs there. I was going through a magazine and saw an old sob ad. It was fantastic Sob anyway. Okay, sweden, germany, norway, canada are neighbors in Italy, so welcome back. Hey, it's great to have all of you back. And let's bring in my co-host with the almost. He's got all the options. He fires on most cylinders some of the time. Our man with the plan, doug, what's happening, buddy?
Speaker 2:I think I'm firing on five of six today, so that's pretty good as long as one of them is firing.
Speaker 1:You know, the older I get, I'll take what I can. All right, so do you always have? Do you have an exclusively automotive wardrobe? Is everything Carbase?
Speaker 2:It's becoming that, stocks. It's becoming that.
Speaker 1:No, no, I know hats, I know shirts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just shirts, just shirts, right now All right, but you've given me ideas. I'll talk to my wardrobe person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk to your fashion consultant, yes, yeah. So what's the shirt today?
Speaker 2:The shirt today is, no surprise, a DeLorean shirt, one of many.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we introduce today's extremely fun guest, you'll see why and I'm excited for this one.
Speaker 2:And what do you notice?
Speaker 1:about this DeLorean shirt. Hang on, I've got to. Let's get rid of this thing. See, I always like these shirts. It's got kind of a blueprint. It looks like the car is hollow blueprint. I'm going to guess that's maybe either the patent or some sort of legal documentation.
Speaker 2:I believe it was from the patent Yep. That's pretty slick. I found it on Amazon. Yep, it's an awesome shirt.
Speaker 1:That's a great one. That's a great one. So it's always three questions I got for you. We're down with one, so let's catch up, deandre. So what's the newest thing happening in your garage, if anything have?
Speaker 2:you had any time this week? No, I think the last thing I told you was I replaced the starter in my 1990 Nissan 300ZX. I was kicking myself because why wouldn't it start with the new starter? Did a little troubleshooting, found out coincidence or not, the starter relay died for whatever reason. Yep, it had worked before their starter, just had a lot of trouble engaging. So yeah, so I got to a another starter relay. Fortunately I got a buddy on the eastern shore of maryland who has a literally semi phone a friend z parts for my love it, my model.
Speaker 1:So yeah, make sure you. You can always type it into chilton gpt also, okay. Last question what is now? I'm gonna ask, but I don't think we're ready for it. So what is new with the show? We've been recording a lot recently. We've got a lot of episodes in the can. We're going to release them here. So what? I know there's some behind the scenes technical things that I'm way too unintelligent to understand. We don't have to get into them now. But hey, we have some stuff up on YouTube. Check out our YouTube. Doug continues to throw things out on all of our social media vectors, so maybe we should just keep some of the show stuff under our hat for now. Is that fair?
Speaker 2:I think that's fair.
Speaker 1:Moving. Yeah, we can't tell any secrets Are we going to declassify any of it soon.
Speaker 2:Are we going to declassify it? Well, depending on when people are listening to this, I just put out a little clip from one of our many podcast recordings where we talked about the Genesis of the show, not to be confused with the Genesisesis car, which is a very nice vehicle fantastic automobile.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the update. Moving on, yes, so cars love nation. If you like what you hear, tell a family member, a co-worker, a friend, heck, even tell an enemy, because you know what we do. This show brings people together. It's all about fun all over the world, yep. So we're going to get into it right now. Okay, carslovecom we continue to beef up and by we I mean the smarter half of us, doug continues to beef up the online presence. Do you want to give the link tree? Because I just can't spell it.
Speaker 2:Sure, it's a L-I-N-K-T-R dot. E-e slash Cars Loved.
Speaker 1:You know I'm going to brush up on my ABCs one day and I'll get there. Just got to be patient. But the big one here is these days, reviews. Leave a review anywhere you can on our site. You can mail it through the United States Postal Service. You can send a carrier pigeon. However it gets here is fine. But do you have one handy you can read for the?
Speaker 2:audience, absolutely so. This one just came in on Tuesday. Takes a couple days for Apple Podcasts to validate. Make sure it wasn't made by a bot so the Term yeah, he can't leave a review no. So this is from bob bob unbound and it says, for everybody who has ever owned a car, reflecting on cars we have owned the good, the bad, the bad, the transmissions. You wouldn't think that this is entertaining, but it really is, and I didn't think I was a car guy.
Speaker 1:That might be the best review ever. I think that's a haiku or a sonnet. I think you wrote that. Niambic Pentameter. That's beautiful. Do we know who that is? I think I know who that is. Do you have any idea? I might. Do we know who that is? I think I know who that is. Do you have any idea? I might?
Speaker 3:okay, okay well, that's beautiful. Thank you for that review, bob much appreciated.
Speaker 1:so yeah, and if you find yourself, uh, near any water cooler, whatever you go to the, uh, the tire place, you're having all you know, cars and cop. Hey, just just, please, mention us, spread the word. All right, today's theme by way of a prologue. You had a good one, do you have that one? Let's, let's throw that one out here, and then we're going to introduce today's guest. What's the theme?
Speaker 2:So the theme is what do you do when your friends or family, or just outsiders start noticing your love for cars and love for nostalgia? And what would they notice? Would it be a bunch of oil stains in the driveway? Would it be you're building a bigger garage? Would it be you're buying cars from a certain era?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So kind of what do you project? How might other people see you? How would your?
Speaker 2:neighbors. Your neighbors are like whoa.
Speaker 1:All of a sudden he came into a zillion dollars. Well, I think it's about that time. So excited for today's guest. So, doug, how did today's guest make it into our virtual garage?
Speaker 2:Kurt, who was wonderful to be on the podcast. I found Kurt, like I find lots of people Facebook, so Kurt posted a picture of not only one awesome car, but two awesome cars from the 80s. I'm gonna let him talk about them, because those are his. One is his dream car and one is his. Take me back to the 1984, 85 and we'll. We'll let kurt talk about them. But yeah, just seeing those two cars with so many similarities next to each other just got my attention, not to mention the fact that we owned when I was growing up, we owned one of those cars.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, welcome Kurt. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well, thank you.
Speaker 1:Man. So you and Doug really do have a cosmic connection, don't you? Actually several. And the moment Doug said that maybe, if it's okay with you, maybe we can post the picture of those two cars, but the way Doug said it made me think of that picture, the two cars as bookends, maybe bookends to your life. Think about it. Kind of one takes you way back and one kind of is you know your dream for a long time but you only got it recently. So tell.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the first car is a 1984 Chrysler Laser and that was the car that I had as a teenager. I had, you know, when I was 17 years old I got my first you know Chrysler Laser and I had it for many years, did a lot of work on it. Pretty much everything in that car I worked on and I replaced over the years, went through college, ended up getting a second one, which was the high-end model of the XE model, which is the turbocharged digital dash, all that stuff in college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah and all that stuff in college.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah, and I had that in college and then while you're in college. The thing about those cars is they take a lot to keep them running like many 80s cars, domestic cars and I just didn't have the resource or the time to fix it, and so I ended up getting rid of it, and that's why I was so excited to be able to get another one that was very similar to the one I owned in college, and that's what I have now.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. And before Doug really gets us in depth to the interview here and walks you through your past, can you talk a little bit about and hopefully we can get this video online? There are several model oh, the RC airplanes behind you. They're just very striking looking.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, so that was that's. Ever since I was about the same age teenager, I flew RC aircraft and I you know that was much less sophisticated back in the 80s, but yes, so that's. One of my other hobbies is, if you see there hanging on the ceiling, that's a P-51 Mustang.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 3:You know that's an iconic one and it's very fun to fly. That's just a standard like high-wing Cessna thing and behind me. So this is a cool thing, it's a— Is that a Thunderbird. That's an F-16 Thunderbird. Yes, you know the modern jets are very sophisticated now, and sorry for zooming around One more on the wall is another 80s icon, which is that's an F-14 Tomcat.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see Tom Cruise in the canopy. I see it from here. Oh yeah, definitely. Yes, he's almost inverted, he's inverted.
Speaker 3:I tend to collect the RC aircraft that made an impression on me as I was younger and definitely that was going to air shows. I used to go to them all the time in the 90s and even out here we have a really good air show and the F-14 was always the most impressive thing to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, doug, if you can see it. He's also got this kind of vertical neon-looking sign that says arcade on it. Oh yeah, I got to say you're in the running for probably the top three or four. Oh gosh, he's got a Pac-Man machine in the back of his car.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, see, I have a little arcade there.
Speaker 2:I'm going to show off too. Oh there, you got it. Okay, there you go. Oh, there you got it. We're kindred spirits, sir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys have a cosmic connection all the way around, for sure that was an evidence of me having too much time on my hand at COVID.
Speaker 1:So that's what happened. That's when it came. It's beautiful. It is beautiful. And before we go back in time, well, okay, let's do this. Never done this before we're going to step back into time, we're going to go 88 miles an hour and just burst into flame here and as we go back to when you had your first car, and Doug will walk you through this. All I want to mention is we all have a soundtrack to our lives of when we grew up, these songs that were really important to work, finding ourselves, to find us, to find our friends. Maybe we were cool enough to go see one of these acts in concert. Of course, I was never cool, but one of my favorite bands of all time was my favorite band, cheap Trick, and for you, can you talk about the bands that meant a lot to you? And that song that you mentioned? That kicks it all off.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, so. So when I think back to that time, I mean one of the one of the main, you know, the I guess it would be defining songs would be. It was Van Halen Dreams from the 5150 album and, and that's what I think of being in my car, I that's what cassette I had in there and I'd play it.
Speaker 1:Yes most fantastic. And then and then, during the pre-show, we were rattling off. Kurt was talking about docking oh my gosh, hadn't thought about that in so long. Motley crew, bon jovi, and before we slide back to the automotive side of it, I uh, during the pre-show I was looking at, okay, the the album Van Halen 5115 is an album, is an album, and you look at the tracks on that album. Why can't this? I won't sing it, although I really really want to. Doug will strangle me through the ether. Why can't this be? Love Dreams. Best of both worlds. Love walks in. Okay, four smash, brilliant, mozart-level songs on top of 5150, good Enough, get Up Summer Nights. And Inside summer nights and inside. What an album. What a cassette. I mean, could you? You know you, you drive around town and get up listening to it.
Speaker 3:You just never come down listening to that and that's what when I'm, when I'm in my cars now, you know the, if I'm in, if I'm in either one of those, it's it. I usually will stream the whole album versus individual songs for that reason because that's how you listen to them with a cassette right.
Speaker 1:You didn't have the option to move around. You just listen to it so lovely, lovely, yeah, I hadn't thought about that. You know Columbia house, and this is a little before our time I was. I was reading some vintage magazine and Columbia house said yes, we have this new offering or option for people out there Columbia House, you can choose your music on cassette, 8-track reel-to-reel or vinyl LP. I just started laughing out loud. Man, talk about it. We think we have options now, boy, those were options back in the 70s.
Speaker 2:No kidding, digital is boring, absolutely.
Speaker 1:What story does it tell? All right, doug, take it away.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about his cars. So we already talked about the. He did the introduction, but his first car was a 1984 Chrysler Laser Silver 5-speed. My first car was a 1989 Dodge Daytona Silver silver five speed. My first car was in 1989 dodge daytona silver base model automatic. And, uh boy, I thought that was such a cool car flip up headlights. I know the the laser didn't initially have it, but I have. Sometimes I just go back and I watched, uh, those commercials and you see chrysler laser. Yes, they're just so the digital dash. Right, this was during the night rider era, right, it was so well timed, futuristic, yeah, yeah, and really, those cars and and we'll let the owner of the car tell, tell us more but those, those cars were really economy cars.
Speaker 3:They were built, built on the Chrysler K-Car platform, which was like every car Chrysler built, but they built everything on that platform and that was the platform that saved Chrysler when Lee Iacocca came on board yeah, you mentioned about knight rider and you know I was a, I was a young teenager when knight ryder was on and and that just left such an impression on me because I was, I was always, I always, um, you know, migrated towards tech and you know technology, I'm an engineer now and I mean, it's what you know, it's what I like. So, um, you know that. And then to see that car, actually I was, uh, I went with my father and grandfather to the Chrysler dealer I think it was 1985. And he was picking out a Chrysler Fifth Avenue, because that's what you do as an old man. And so my grandfather was buying a Chrysler Fifth Avenue.
Speaker 3:But while they were over there talking to the dealer, I migrated over and they had a brand new black Laser XE with that digital dash and they had it all set up. It was lit up inside. I was blown away. I mean I thought I can't believe this. This is Knight Rider, I want it, and that's what really got me on the path of that. And then, if anyone remembers the movie the wraith in 1987, maybe 86.
Speaker 3:It came out charlie sheen, charlie sheen well, chrysler definitely did product placement there and they put they had, they had a chrysler laser with the digital dash in one of the scenes and they also had some daytona. That was a 80, 87 and up, yeah and uh, and that was right, that was right. Right, as I was looking, starting to look for a car, and that that cemented the deal, it was like, okay, I've got to have it so yeah, yeah, good, not the best movie, but great, no, it was a it was a b movie, but yeah, if you look on the uh, on the dodge forum, the turbo dodge forums, it's, it's, it's their anthem yes, yeah, yeah, no agreed.
Speaker 2:And you know brilliant taking that show car right, the uh interceptor right yeah oh yeah, that was that dodge interceptor. Yes, yep, yep and making it, uh, part of the movie. Yeah, and, and people, actually people recreate that car. I've seen it recreated on a Porsche Boxster, even chassis, and yeah, just the digital. And did your car talk, or?
Speaker 3:does your?
Speaker 2:new car talk.
Speaker 3:It does. Yeah, so the first car I had was it was analog gauge, a base model.
Speaker 3:Mine too, the second one I had, which was in college base model mine. The second one I had, which was in college, was identical to the, to the one I saw in that dealership. It was black with the red stripe. It had the digital dash. It talked to you. Black leather seats um, the one I have now is actually a very 80s brown. It's a saddle brown color which they only made in 1984 and but it has the full digital dash. It talks to you when you open the door.
Speaker 2:Sorry to interrupt you. Did you have to fix any of those things? And I ask because I've seen on the Chrysler Laser Forum, which is probably where I saw you, I've seen people who repair the digital dashes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which is me. Actually've seen people who repair the digital dashes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is me actually.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're the guy. Yeah, so I'm one of the ones.
Speaker 2:If anybody needs a digital dash, who should they go out?
Speaker 1:to. Is there anything you don't do, my goodness.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm a lifelong engineer, that's my passion, it's my job and it's what I enjoy to do. So I've uh on. You know, one of the things is getting this car Cause I actually remember when I was, uh, you know, when I was in college and the car was only five years old. Well, that stuff stopped working. You know that eighties, electronics just didn't last in and on the car and I, I I remember pulling my dash out trying to figure it out, and I wasn't trained, I didn't know what I was doing, but I got it enough to where I could get a soldering iron and get it back operational.
Speaker 3:No-transcript. There were multiple things that the bulbs were not working, some of the circuits weren't working. There's a trip navigator, which was actually a very forward thinking for 1984. It was basically a trip computer where it would tell you how many miles, what miles per gallon, you're getting all that stuff. After about two years the button stopped working and then the display would stop working. So pretty much every one that you buy those don't work. So I've replaced many, many of those and especially now that you know on those sites people know that I do it. So I've probably replaced I don't know 25, 30 of those things.
Speaker 3:Basically, you unsolder all the switches, you put new ones in. It's relatively simple if you know your way around electronics. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Can I hop in here real quick? Now for the digital dash and just that wow factor. Did you have to get that XE Turbo?
Speaker 3:Yes. It was only in the XE full model.
Speaker 1:yes, Wow, man. So there was nothing like that in the base model.
Speaker 3:Right right, it was all analog gauge in the base model Gotcha Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, well, there we go. More reliable but not as cool. Back to you, Doug. Okay, Well, it's funny you mentioned the. You said soldering iron, my dad was an electrical engineer, so I had a soldering iron at age seven. What could go wrong? It's been fun. I'm not great at it, but given your and we talked about your first two cars already so I do want to talk about what was the car that you hated the most Before we get to your dream car, which is also your favorite car, which you also own.
Speaker 3:Yeah and geez. I'm wondering if I don't know if I answered that for you.
Speaker 2:You did, you did. I can remind you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, remind me because I'm trying to, I have to remember which, oh I know what it was he hates so many.
Speaker 1:I know which one. Now he seems so full of hate.
Speaker 3:It was a PT Cruiser.
Speaker 2:Yes, also another.
Speaker 3:Chrysler product? Yes, it was. I owned a 2001 PT Cruiser and you know those were one of those love-hate things, right? You either thought it was kind of cool because it was that throwback. It was one of the early throwback stuff.
Speaker 3:Yes, where you early throwback stuff where you really, really hated it. It just it's kind of like a cyber junk today, right, it just instills hate. So, um, the only reason I have it is because I had a uh, two year old son that absolutely loved. Anytime he would see him, he loved them. Right, he would point them out, he would. It was one of the first things he would say right, yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know, they call it terrible twos for a reason. You know that.
Speaker 3:Oh dude, that was great. So I blame it on him for owning that. And oh yeah, it was not. It would be my least favorite car, yes, and the most troublesome.
Speaker 1:You mentioned something really interesting, though it was one of the first throwbacks wasn't it.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was. So 2001, think about everything that came after that Ford with a Thunderbird um and not the Mustang that has to kind of harken back and all all those throwbacks were kind of home runs.
Speaker 1:But but yeah, the PT Cruiser I thought was really interesting because it was so different but you really go into and I liked the way you put it. Was unique in a love-hate kind of way. That's perfect, like the way you put it. You said it was overweight, underpowered and mechanically unreliable. Now was 2001, the first year they came out. Were you an?
Speaker 3:early adopter. It was, yeah. I think 2001 was the first year and I don't know how long they ran them, Maybe 2006 or 2007. I don't remember.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 3:But I don't think later models got any better. But there may be people that don't agree with me.
Speaker 2:My neighbor owns a and he was on the show David. He owns a PT Cruiser convertible which I've been for a ride in. It's nice, but you know it's a convertible. You can't go wrong with a convertible on a nice day, yeah, and uh. He likes to joke that, uh, his wife got it for their 20th anniversary. But also he wonders if she looked at the safety rating before he she gave to him.
Speaker 3:I remember renting one. I was on a vacation, actually, and my wife and I rented one, I think because we had the regular one and we rented it. It was a convertible because we wanted a convertible, but I remember driving it and it felt even heavier than ours because they have to make them heavier to stiffen them up. But I just remember the windshield which doesn't have any structural support. It would shake side to side and I'm like man, this doesn't seem right and it was a brand new. It was a rental.
Speaker 1:Well, that'll teach you.
Speaker 2:That's the way they built it. Thanks for sharing that and yeah, you really pacified your two-year-old with that. Oh, yeah, he loved them.
Speaker 3:He actually. I mean, that's why we, he would point them out. That was one of the first things he would point and he would say Does he? Still like them, kirk, I don't know, Maybe he doesn't even remember that we had them now. Maybe that'll be his dream car. He's graduating from college now, so he's much older now, so maybe that'll be his dream car.
Speaker 2:Speaking of which, um, so you got your chrysler laser turbo in 2022 covet times, I got my dream car. Tell us about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that, uh, that is a, it's a 1981 delorean and, um, well, it's been a blast to have it. Um, so, you know, I was. I didn't even know deloreans existed as a kid until the movie came out back to the future in 1985. Those people, yeah, and, and you just assumed it was a prop right in the movie. But then, but then you learn after the fact and I grew up in in western pennsylvania pittsburgh area you would have never seen a real delorean in pittsburgh. It's just not a place you wouldn't have it, you know, when they were new. But, um, but then I learned that's a real car. And then you learn about it and then it kind of falls out of your mind because life happens, you have kids, all this stuff. And then, um, you know, that's that's once.
Speaker 3:Once I kind of got back into cars with the, you know, with with the laser. Then I started saying, well, you know what I'd really like to have, that dream car. And that's that's where I started looking. You know, I, shortly after getting my car, I started looking and just kind of lucked into one that was very close by me and very good shape, and uh, so, yeah, I've had that for over a year now and uh, it's a lot of fun. It it's. It's fun to drive. It's it's you know it's not a speedster, it's not a, it's not a race car. You know that. It wasn't known for that. But it's very fun to drive, it's comfortable and it just the reaction it gets out of other people. It just it smiles. Yeah, everyone else that sees it. It just lightens up their day, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel the same way.
Speaker 3:It's a very uplifting car that everyone loves to see. It's not because I like to show off or anything, it's just it does bring. It brings people joy to see it.
Speaker 2:It does, it truly does, and that's I don't know about you, but just the DeLorean community of people that I've met, whether local or or just how I met you. Right, I saw both of your cars. Now we can say what the second one was. It was probably on a DeLorean Facebook group, but I'm pretty sure I'm on the Chrysler group, probably too.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And DeLorean. People are just awesome and some of them are super particular, we know.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Some of them love it and I don't know if you knew this we had Cat DeLorean on our podcast on the 10th episode.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, yeah. I've seen her on various interviews.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, she's awesome. That was such a treat because we won't get to meet John because he's been gone for a while. But next best thing, his daughter.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a large community. I'm from Southern California, san Diego area, and there's a large community I'm from Southern California, san Diego area and there's quite a few DeLorean owners here. There's a club and we meet every few months at a restaurant and there's different members that come and it's nice to see the variation. I mean, all DeLoreans were built the same. There's very slight differences over the three years that they built them, but it's interesting to see now how they vary. Some of them have engine swaps, some of them have different options and things like that. The one I have is all stock, so I was lucky to find it off the original owner that bought it in 1981.
Speaker 2:That's a great story too.
Speaker 3:Right, we'll save that for another episode. Yeah, uh, but you see a lot of variation. But yeah, the the you know car group people in general are usually very happy to talk about their cars.
Speaker 2:Yeah and they're happy to help others right all that all that great stuff. Yeah well, next time I'm out your way I might look you up and maybe get a Chrysler. So here's a trick question. I think I know the answer. Maybe it's not a trick question. In a race between your DeLorean and the Chrysler Laser Christian, which one will win? Laser? Okay, I vote Laser also. Yeah, kurt.
Speaker 3:I would say the DeLorean would win, because if you look at the horsepower ratings of the two, they're very, very similar. Yeah, but the difference is you have to be full boost in that laser to be operating. True, the DeLorean has it's a boring 135 horsepower, but the torque's there all the time.
Speaker 3:It's a V6, that kind of thing and the other thing and I've told this to other people that say that it's a dog, it's so low to the ground and it's early 80s suspension. But it's a Lotus suspension and it will stick to the road. It would out-corner the Laser going 20 miles an hour. So you know the laser is a k car. Right, it rolls around the turn, so yeah yeah, body rolls the thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah no I just, I remember my brother's chrysler laser turbo stick shift and it had a lot of torque. Now, granted, I'm going back to I don know 1989 or so in my mind, 1990. So maybe for the time. But yeah, it would spin the front wheels quite easily.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can spin the wheels and yeah, it buzzes along. For the 80s it was actually a fast car. It was.
Speaker 2:Yep, and they're both very similar in kind of style, minus the gull wings. The taillights are similar, it's just.
Speaker 3:it speaks 80s, right, definitely, and I think that's the one that you saw online that you replied to. It was I had them out of my driveway, parked side by side, and I took multiple angles and you can really see the similarities of that 80s style. Right, you know, they're very similar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Good deal Good deal. So so, as we kind of guide the podcast gently to the off ramp here on the way out, kurt, I got got kind of a question. We'll involve Doug in this is how many? So I should mention for the people that can't see the video right now, you're each wearing t-shirts that honor your dream cars that you have right now. You've got DeLorean t-shirts on. How many DeLorean t-shirts Kurt do you have and Doug, how many do you have?
Speaker 1:and I want to decide a winner here, if I can, and I will also say I respect people so much that have the big passion for the brand and they just go all in. You know, doug's got like a DeLorean hat. I don't know if he's got DeLorean jacket. Watch, driving gloves, watch, yes, huh.
Speaker 2:Watch. Yes, yeah, I just love the devotion to the brand.
Speaker 1:You guys have passion. So how many shirts, kurt, let's hear it.
Speaker 3:Let's see. I have to add them up, but I bet I have 10.
Speaker 2:Really yeah, he's got me beat.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. How many do you have?
Speaker 2:I think about four.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, hey, kurt, do you want to do a podcast with me? And we can just drop. Doug, what do you think Joking? We would never do that. Anyway, kurt, it was a fantastic pleasure to meet you. As soon as I saw the picture of those two cars together, I said this is a unique guy with a story to tell. So thank you for taking some time out of your day, bud. We had a blast.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for having me, yeah.
Speaker 1:Love to have you back. Yeah Well, I was just about to say there's a whole lot about Kurt that we didn't even get to, but we have to bring this episode to an end. So what do you say, kurt? We'll have you back sometime in the future. Buddy, sure, I'd enjoy it. Fantastic. So if one of you would sing a Van Halen song while I talk us out, that would be great and go, not going to be me either. You have just heard the high revving, low mileage, late model. Heard around the world. Authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He's Doug. Reach him at Doug at carslovecom. I am Christian. Reach me at Christian at carslovecom. And he's Kurt. Super cool guy. Please follow and tell a friend if you like the podcast. It helps us grow and bring more content to you. Try out carslovecom or our link tree at l-i-n-k-t-r dot e-e slash carsloved, drop the mic.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we'll see you at the next local car show, showroom, race trip or concourse. We appreciate you listening and we will see you next time.
