To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Cars, Car Stories, and More

Porsche 928 vs. C3 Corvette, Lancia Zagato Fires & The Reality of Owning 29 Cars 🔥🇩🇪

• Doug & Christian - Your Guides to Classic Cars & First Car Stories • Season 7 • Episode 1

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What happens when you live by the philosophy that "you make money on the buy"? You end up with a $900 1970 Chevelle Malibu Convertible that funds your future Ferrari... and a fleet of 28 other cars that might just be owning you. 🤯🚗

In this episode, we sit down with Ivan Katz (aka Drivin' Ivan), a car reviewer, musician, and collector with over 1,400 car reviews on YouTube. Ivan takes us through his wild automotive history, growing up in his grandfather's car radio shop in Alexandria, VA, and building a collection that ranges from air-cooled Porsches to obscure Italian oddities.

We dive deep into the reality of maintaining 29 vehicles, his controversial take on why the C3 Corvette "should be ashamed" compared to the Porsche 928, and the time his Lancia caused a fire so bad the local fire department still remembers it.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

  • 💸 The $900 Chevelle: How buying a 1970 Chevelle Malibu Convertible for dirt cheap became the foundation of his "Ferrari fund."
  • 🔥 The Lancia Inferno: The harrowing story of his first Lancia Zagato resulting in the worst car fire his local fire department had ever seen (and why he bought another one!).
  • 🇩🇪 The German Corvette: Why Ivan believes the 1978 Porsche 928 is superior to the American C3 Corvette in every way.
  • âš¾ The Audi TT: The details on his rare Audi TT Roadster with the "baseball glove" leather interior and its surprising mechanical link to the Bugatti Veyron.
  • 📻 Radio Roots: Growing up at Morris Katz and Sons, where they installed radios in everything from Porsches to daily drivers before stereo systems were standard.

Ivan loved our episode with John Davis, the voice of MotorWeek for 45 years! Johntook us through the origins of MotorWeek and his early cars including a fantastic DeTomaso Pantera: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/18157530

Whether you are a hoarder of project cars, a lover of obscure European imports, or just want to know what it really costs to maintain a 29-car fleet, this episode is a reality check you won't want to miss.

🔗 Links & Resources:

📢 Join the Conversation: What is the most cars you have ever owned at one time? Let us know on Instagram @toallthecarsivelovedbefore

From air-cooled Porsches to obscure Italian sports cars to imports nobody in America recognizes, Ivan holds nothing back on what it really costs — in time, money, and sanity — to maintain a fleet this size.

*** BONUS - We've partnered with Drivin' Ivan for car reviews - watch his full YouTube Car Review of Doug's 1981 DeLorean DMC-12: https://youtu.be/Vyy-gqAXC20?si=7PL5iO-kPNpsw4Ei

*** 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.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to Listener Land. You have found again two all the cars I've loved before, your authoritative podcast on Automotive Nostalgia, where every car tells a story, every car has a culture, and that means it's time to plug in dust off and get a little grease under your nails and slip on that favorite oil-stained car themed t-shirt. And I'm I have kind of uh uh I'm here in the panhandle of Florida wearing a collar that makes me formal in these environments, but my broadcasting partner here seems to have a quite a springy t-shirt here. What you got there? Right, Greg? You're summoning the flowers and bees.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so this is for uh from I purchased it online from Fresha Brothers Antique Volkswagen Repair in I don't know, since the 1950s. Greenwich. Greenwich, Connecticut. Greenwich, Connecticut. Or is it Stanford?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, it's Greenwich, Connecticut. It's all my what a fantastic shirt. Yeah. Fresha Brothers, F-R-E-C-C-I-A. Look them up. So if you're in the in Connecticut, in that area, they they they do it all from upholstery to tops. They'll rip it apart, put it back together.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

All things air-cooled, and just a little quick trivia, maybe not trivia, but yeah, they they got started repairing Volkswagens when they were one of the original repair repair places, right near the Volkswagen dealer in Greenwich. It's her dad, right? Didn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

No, her oh her the grandparents made mistakes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, grandparents. I think the Fresh Brothers business has been around for over a hundred years. I think they got started painting wagons. Wow. Strong wagons, something like that. Way back. So the the the old cars.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, I'd like to have a full buggy restoration. Uh new horse and yeah, one horsepower, please.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, now it's all air-cooled. So Volkswagen horses themselves were air cooled, from what I know.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I've heard I've heard tomorrow. Yeah. Sorry. Tomorrow, if you're listening to this, depending on when you're listening to this, but on April 1st, we are gonna have that great interview with Guinevere Fresh, third or fourth generation of that family. And she runs all the social media for that family and that business.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're not you're not playing an April Fool's joke on us here with that, with that. Uh nope, it's you better not be. We can't joke about that. Now Guinevere is not an April Fool. No, she's the best, she's the April Queen. Now, have you been in contact with her? Because we interviewed her some time ago, and I know y'all kind of kept in touch. She's really been a great friend of the show.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. Just just more on social media posts. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00:

So, like you said.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I did drop her a note yesterday just letting her know that we're gonna air her episode tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and she handles all the media for that company and does a fantastic job. Check them out, Frisia Brothers, Google them. And I did want to pivot quickly, welcome new listeners, as we like to say we're heard around the world. Paris, welcome to our listeners in Paris. I think that's a relatively new market. Welcome to our listeners in Jakarta, British Columbia, Quebec, bienvenue. Oslo, Islamabad, and Naples. So all over the world, and as you might imagine, uh, environs around me in Florida, near Doug, in the Mid-Atlantic. Uh also some places in California, the Midwest. So welcome back. It's great to have all of you. And we're trying to read some reviews. Let's see. Let me pull some of these reviews from the new website. Oh, yeah. And I know you want to squeeze in some of the projects that you've been working on. You've test driven a few cars recently, but you know, I had a review up here that I wanted to read. Oh, George P says, let me find it. If you go to our website, carslove.com, carsloved.com. We have reviews and in Doug worked to get the is it we totally redid the website. And Doug redid it so all these reviews just kind of scroll by when you're on, which is really neat. So here we had one. The review carousel. The review carousel. It's got horses and unicorns. You'll love it. From George P says, Adam's episode was my favorite, mostly because I know him, and of course he is Adam. Joanne S says, I checked out your site and podcast. Excellent job. My boss supporting your info to a well-connected man in LA who happens to love cars. Smiley emoji. We take it where we can get it. And then I see previous guests and in some that I that I don't know leaving reviews. But I love what you've done with the website. If you haven't checked it out, welcome back. And uh please do to give it a look. So I want to uh toss it to you before we bring in today's guest. Are there any new updates on any of the social media stuff, the tech stuff you've been working on with the website, and or car projects that you've been working on? You can take them in reverse order, just pick one.

SPEAKER_02:

So car stuff, given that it now it's getting warm in Maryland. That's right. Sherry Lawson. My DeLorean has been up in New Jersey for a couple weeks. Transmission work, and the guys fixed a bunch of different things, and it's it's kind of funny, these guys they're like, Yeah, basically, our job is to undo what previous owners have done. So they're like, Why is it set like this? I'm like, so-and-so told me to do it. Why is it set like this? So and so a different person told me to do it, and they're like, Yeah, we're gonna set all those back to factory, and then you're good. So hope to get it back soon in the next couple weeks. My 1990 300 ZX, which was my dream car in high school that I didn't own. I bought it 30 years later, which has been sitting in my garage for a couple years, five different colors. I got motivated. I'm putting a new starter in it. And the plan is to have one of our previous guests, Matt Pratt, who has Top Coat Garage, is gonna paint it for me. And I'm super excited. We're gonna go from it was originally black, now it's about five different colors, and we're gonna go to silver.

SPEAKER_00:

The Z of many colors. Yeah, I think they made a Broadway music musical out of it. I want to buy a car that's just beat up with a destroyed finish, just to bring to that guy. Interviewing him was so interesting. I think at one point I just I just lost all sense of time and script when he started speaking about the paint process and all the wonderful.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you you asked some great questions. Um I can't wait for that episode to come out. Go live.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that and that's a good point, too, is that if those of us out there that have podcasts, you know, uh so we Doug and I took last month off, it was very busy, but we have a whole bunch of things queued up, right? And so they're waiting to go. So even though we interviewed Winavere a while ago, her episode is dropping tomorrow. Of course, you'll hear this at some time in the future. So yeah, it's good to be back. Good to be back. Speaking of, I think it's time to bring in today's very special guest, Doug. So could you get give us a little bit of a primer on how he came into your life?

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. Well, let's see. We could probably thank social media, I think between Facebook, probably a Facebook group that I'm a member of called Katie's Cars and Coffee, which you and I attended, but we got there too late a couple weeks ago, and everything was gone. I found this gentleman, Ivan Katz, who lives in the Maryland, DC, Virginia area. And uh turns out he also has an awesome YouTube channel called Drive in Ivan, and he reviews all kinds of awesome cars and different people and goes goes to those big car shows, car shows big and small, and he's just everywhere. He owns, I don't know, 30 cars. He and he comes from a car family. And the thing I love, maybe it's just me thinking about you know, people being separated, six degrees of separation, is his grandfather had a car radio business in Alexandria. His grandfather was Morse Katz, and it was Morse Katz and Sons. And my grandfather's name was Morris Katsif, and he sold radios for cars because cars way back when didn't come with radios. Sure. Ivan is all that true. I don't know when by the way they're coming with it, but they were optional for sure, especially on the early ones. So I feel there's some connection there, and we both love cars. Ivan, welcome aboard.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow, thank you so much for having me, you two. This is awesome. And then thanks for that kind introduction. And yeah, my granddad's motto was ever since there were car stereos. So, you know, moving on to I guess when they opened the business in the 60s, you know, cars came with radio, some didn't, like you said, but you know, we got a lot of cars from everywhere on Porsche's, you know, people could drop their car off, head into DC for their job on the metro, come back, get a new interior, or get a new radio, or get their radio repaired. We repaired radios, crazy stuff. Yeah, and you know, I'll I'll throw in a little celebrity thing. One day I was in there, and this lady happened to travel with a recorder, and it broke on her. And they said, Where do I go to fix this? Mara's Cats and Sons. And Alice from the Brady Bunch was in there. No way. I don't know if you guys knew who that is. Maybe that's after your time. Very fantastic. Alice from the Brady Bunch was kind of famous. So to see her.

SPEAKER_00:

Very good. What kind of car did Alice have?

SPEAKER_03:

You guys don't understand. You know, there were only a certain number of TV shows back then.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not as young as I look, so yeah. I I I do remember Alice. Maybe it was maybe it was in reruns.

SPEAKER_02:

We're closer in age to you than you realize.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, that's good. That's good.

SPEAKER_02:

But but uh, what kind of car did Alice have?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, she didn't, you know, it was she was probably getting driven because she was in town for something or something else. Oh, okay. Right. Had a gotcha, a recorder and it was broken. I mean, they could fix anything, they really could. My dad could fix anything. My dad could put on a convertible top if he wanted to. The only thing I ever did, I know you're gonna ask me about my first car. One day on a Sunday, my dad could fix anything. And my car was not running right. And one day on a Sunday, we went there and we went to track audit. It was closed on a Sunday. And he said, Ivan, you see these hands? And I said, Yeah. He says, they're clean and they're gonna stay clean because you're gonna do this. I put in the water pump in my 1970 Chevelle Malibu convertible with a 307 and a Rochester carburetor that nobody could tune. And so that was my first car. 1970 Chevelle Malibu Convertible.

SPEAKER_00:

And I believe pictures of this car are embedded in at least one, if not more, of your videos. I think.

SPEAKER_03:

Though, what does drive an Ivan drive is a very funny, you know, it's a very that's a funny video because it's the first one I did. But yes, yes, yes. There is also, I didn't tell you this story, maybe it's a good one. In Old Town, Alexandria, there were parades, and we all had convertibles. My dad was like, my my my dad had a yeah, we all had Cadillacs. My granddad was obsessed with Cadillacs, so we had a 70 Coupe de Ville convertible and turquoise with white leather that I took my driver's test in. And my mom had a 66 Dodge Dart convertible, and she, you know, that was a very cool car. We would drive it in the parade. I drove that car in the parade, and our dignitary did not show up that day. We we driven in so many parades. My mom, my brother, went and picked up Art Monk, the Redskins player at his house. Oh wow, he was a big Redskins fan, so he was thrilled to do that. But that day, no dignitary showed up. And I drove that white Dodge Dart. It was my absolute Ferris Bueller moment because I drove it. I was like, I said I had two pretty girls, my friends back then, and I said, You on the back, wait, you sit next to me. And we just drove right through the parade. And I that video is on YouTube. Search the drive and Ivan 1966 Dodge Dart or Old Town Parade. It's so funny because the announcer doesn't have any idea what's going on. And I got to drive through a parade with no dignitary, and the car is hilarious.

SPEAKER_00:

But anyway, so another Alexandria story. Where did that first car come from? Oh, did I jump in front of you, Doug? Did you drop in something? That was the same question I was gonna ask. Reading your mind, same wavelength. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, again, this is an interesting story about the business too, because somebody came in. I think at the time, a new top, a new top on a car was like$700,$900. Yeah. And the guy came in with this Chevelle, and he was like, I could sell it for that. I I I'm not gonna spend seven or nine hundred dollars on the car, I could sell it for that. And it was, I think my dad or my uncle, somebody bought the car, and my dad drove it home. And it was it was a sky blue, it was a light blue at that time. And by the time I had it, I painted it a little dark or whatever. I did a lot of stuff too, totally ruined it. And the selling of it was a good story too. But anyway, it was driven home, and my dad was like, Oh, you're never gonna have this car. I I I was given the car pretty pretty quickly after that. Yeah, I needed it. So uh yeah, it was my first car, and it was bought from a customer probably for somewhere around seven or nine hundred dollars. 1970 Chevelle Malibu convertible 307, you know, but still, how much is it worth today, right? Yeah, how much do they sell it for? That's the question.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, not a not a bad car for a teenager.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it was it was pretty cool, you know. Uh convertibles are cool. I love convertibles, and we had them. Yep, my brother didn't my brother didn't like them, and he had a uh Plymouth satellite, like from the uh B-52s, Planet Claire. Also drove satellite big as a whale. Yeah, that one. Well, that's another song. That's yeah, that's Love Shack. But yeah, so uh and they had both my brothers had Vegas, so to Vegas, and you know, I got to drive Pintos, I got to drive Yugos. I mean, I drove a Pinto very early. I mean, that was one of my first cars driving.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, when did you I don't want to hop in front of Doug here? That's okay. You got the bug for European cars pretty quickly. So, how how did that happen? Was it were you a student of design? Was it uh happenstance?

SPEAKER_03:

I did my homework and I saw you guys, you you guys have an RX7 video out there, don't you? You just recently did a podcast on an RX7 or something like that. Or you covered the RX7, right? Yep, yep. And even the Z car that you were talking about. But when I was really little, I was in the car and I was at it's still there, the seminary road in 395 exit and entrance to the highway. Or so it's a roundabout, and that is when I saw a guy in probably a 70s RX 7, it probably had just come out, and he was about to enter the southbound 395, and he was in an RX7, you know, five-speed manual, obviously. He chucked it sideways and just took off. I mean, it was a beautiful, it wasn't even, I wouldn't even say it was a drift. He just, you know, he just threw it sideways and took off. It was beautiful. And I was like, I think the cars that my dad was driving, and you know, the American cars we were driving were super cool, and I grew up with them. But I wanted to do that. I want to drive sideways. I loved one of my favorite things to do is drive a car on the edge. I I'm very fortunate to live near twisty roads, and I could take one, two, three cars up a day within five, ten minutes. Uh I can experience some magnificent driving. And that was the first car that showed me the way. I mean, uh, RX7 is an incredible handling car. You gotta, it's the 70s. And you know, American cars, if you threw them sideways like that, the body roll, you know, it was only in like chips and like you know, the shows we watched back then that could be driven like that because otherwise we're bouncing back and forth and just you know, you would lose it because the suspension was so loose. And again, there's a place for that. I love uh Cadillac suspension or a Lincoln suspension from back in the day. But I at that point was so intrigued by a car that could handle like that, it was incredible. Like your Z car, your 90 Z car again. I don't know if yours is a turbo or not a turbo, not non-turbo. Okay, but still, that's I drove one of those very early on, and man, you could get that thing loose very easily. It had a lot of torque, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, especially if it's been raining, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's really good in the rain, but they're they're wonderful driving cars, and that's what the Z car did. I mean, a neighbor had an early 70s. I I started, you know, I I remember the first Z car showing up. I remember the first Mazda Miata that a four-star admiral that lived on my street had. I remember that. It was paradigm shifting. I mean, you know, all the all these kids and everybody that loves Miadas and everything now, and they love to trick them out and do this and do that. Just to stock Miata, having something reliable like a Z car, an RX 7, it was generally more reliable than an MG or a triumph or a you know, considering. Yeah, I've always been one for trouble. And you know, these cars. That's why my daily driver is a freeus, honestly. I love the video that's a freeus, the best car in the world.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, you know, speaking of videos, all right, let's hit pause here for a quick second. Take our breath, breakneck pace that we're going here. I I wanna ask about all right, so the YouTube videos, if you're not aware of Drive and Ivan's content, check him out on YouTube. So many wonderful videos. He he he'll review a car, talk about the cars that he owns, talk about the questions everybody wants to ask. What are the costs associated with these old exotic automobiles? He'll go to uh uh all kinds of car shows. I forget one of your videos that was just recently posted where it was, but so watchable. And the fact that you did this professionally for a long time really comes through in the quality of the videos. And I really want our listenership to give it some time. Go on YouTube, check it out. And oh, here was my question. You talk about driving through these winding roads, and from the videos that I've seen, do you still live near there? Because I know that you took some of your cars through these winding, idyllic country roads. I mean, it looks like an Audi ad. It's beautiful. You still have access to that sort of those environments.

SPEAKER_03:

I like I said, I'm currently down in Florida where the roads are not so exciting. But uh yes, I live I live in an area where there are very twisty roads and it is absolutely awesome. It's incredible. You know, my drive to Katie's coffee is great. It's just fun. It's a little longer than it used to be when I lived in in the DC area proper. But yeah, I'm very spoiled. It's it's gonna be hard if someday when I want to, you know, sell and and be someplace warmer or something. I love I love it down here, down south, but I am very lucky to live where I live. And yeah, the roads are incredible. I can take a car or two or three up there uh a day, and it's nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Interesting. So so are you are you snowbirding in a way, sometime down here, sometime up there? Or I'm kind of snowbirding. I can't so jealous.

SPEAKER_03:

You guys know what date it is. I've been down in Florida for a while, and I'd already been down here once in January. Gotcha. But yeah, I'm down here for the Amelia, the Amelia Island. It's called the Amelia now, Haggard is Amelia. And they are very, you know, it's it's a great event. It's well run. Next year, I'll probably hit the one that's in Miami and then hit that one. So yeah, I like to get out of the the DC area when it's cold because I'm just I'm like, I'm over this. I hear you. Yeah, totally, totally. Being uh kind of someone who realized a long time ago that I was unemployable, that I had to work for myself. Fortunately, I have the time and the freedom to do it. I've been into Europe, I've driven in Nurbergering, I drove all over Ireland, I've driven all over England, you know, many. I bought three cars back in the summer of 23 from Europe, and I just bought two more cars back from year England, really, in the summer of 24. So I I like driving a car that nobody else drives.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you get roadless travel books, the thumbs up. I'm with you. The thumbs up. I said you get all the looks, the thumbs up, the I I picked up my fiat barquetta from the port, and I literally within like two minutes, someone's like, What what is that?

SPEAKER_03:

What is so cool? What is that? Yeah, you know, no one knows. And it has like the European Fiat emblem, but it's not really it's just it's fiat in America. So the people didn't know what it was a fiat barquetta. And actually, I I don't want to advertise, but I I've got to sell some of these cars, and I do have a fiat barquetta for sale. So I literally bought that car right now, it's for sale right now.

SPEAKER_00:

He I lost two.

SPEAKER_03:

I wanted that car for the hardtop that I could put on my car. I have a blue fiat barquetta, you can see it. And if you see the silver one in my videos, the silver fiat barquetta with the red leather, that's for sale. And so is my Janetta G26, and maybe my Alpina B7 BMW.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, where can we find about uh out about these these automobiles for sale? We just gotta ask you, or is it on YouTube, or do you have a sale where you do a walk around?

SPEAKER_03:

Or sometimes they'll be on on the internet. Gotcha. And yeah, I'll usually put a video up and you could contact me on my Instagram or something like that. Drive in, it's the same as my YouTube drive in Ivan and leave off the G, drive in Ivan Katz, I V-A-N-K-A-T-Z, and drive in without a without a G. And drive in Ivan Katz on Instagram, you know, whatever. So the real drive and Ivan on TikTok.

SPEAKER_00:

So love it. Yeah, we'll get all this in the show notes here. And I know Doug wants to kind of proceed with the the with the cavalcade, the parade of your first cars. So let's talk about selling the first car to get into the Lancia. Yeah. I didn't.

SPEAKER_03:

I didn't sell the first car to get into the Lancia. I just uh I I bought the Lancia. It's funny, I bought a I think I could barely afford this car. I think I paid$875 or$900 from the first gato and it was red. And then I spent the money at a establishment in the in that DC area that I won't mention because they I spent a good amount of money, a lot more than I had spent for the car and fixed everything. And then I was driving it. My my college girlfriend at the time, I ran into the house and was like, My car's on fire. And she comes out with a thimble, uh a thimble of water to put it out. And the the flames were shooting up like oh no, 20 feet. The the fire department said it was the worst car fire they ever put out. It burned. There was a Volkswagen Jetta in front of me. It burned that a little bit too. Oh no, the catalytic converter seized in that first Lancia, and it was just blown away. So I got the insurance, and then there was a friend of mine who was a dentist. Her dad, her dad was a dentist in town. And I said, if you ever want to sell this car, it was white. And I'd I really hadn't seen a white. Mine was red. There, most of them were red and black. There were some that were white, some were blue, some were black. There was a special edition of black, but this one was white. And I just think sports cars look good in white. Ferraris looked good and white. Anyway, it's a white Lancia Zagato. And one day he just called me and said, If you want it, it's yours. And he said$1750, I think,$1,750. And it was far better than the car I had before. Yeah. Because he bought it at American Service Center in Arlington, Virginia, which is also a Mercedes dealership. Yep. And it it was, I have the original receipts and everything, but$12,950, it was like$13,000 in 1981. That was a lot of money. Yeah. That was a heck of a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02:

So I bought it. Was it uh 1981, Ivan?

SPEAKER_03:

1981, yeah. The 80Ts had the different grill similar to my Delta Integrale. So uh yeah, I had that for many, many, many years. And then I sold, I can't remember. I think I sold the Chevelle first. Did you want to hear that story?

SPEAKER_00:

Or you know, I don't know. There is so much to get to, and time is melting away. Yeah, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, it just just real quickly, it was at the shop because it was, I think they were getting ready to close the shop down in like in the 2000s sometime. And it it was horrible by that point. Nobody could ever tune it. It needed everything, it was terrible. Yeah, but Chevelles were coming up in value. And there was a guy, he was sitting out there every day. He started contacting me every day or so and offering me more money. He was offering me a thousand dollars more a day, and finally it got to a point where I was like, all right, you can't say no forever, yeah. Like I said, I I've you know, I'm in real estate, I've renovated houses, been a realtor, and I used the money for the Chevelle to put my down payment on my first investment, which I still own, and I call it my Ferrari fund because some someday I'll sell that and buy a really cool car. I learned that a Chevelle, my first car, into a condo and then turn it into a really cool car.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll get there for sure. Yeah, love that. Couple of can I hop in, Doug? Or did you have something you want to ask? No, no, yeah. Okay, so want to ask about a couple of cars. So do you still have the 928?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, I do. It's my second one that I've owned. This one's a five-speed manual, 1978, first year.

SPEAKER_01:

First year in the U.S., yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's not a you know, I don't believe in buying super clean cars. It's just not my thing. I know that people love that. I like to buy drivers. This one's definitely a driver. I bought it from a guy in rural in the rural area of the DC area, and he maintained it himself. It had like a funky shifter on it. You can see it in the video, just search driving Ivan and Porsche 928. You'll see it. But this car, in fact, I'll tie it back to Morris Katzenson's the car stereo shop. I was fascinated by sports cars. And this the Porsche Heichmann at the time was in Alexandria, and they came by with they had a 928 and a 911. And the the salesman was like, Oh, the 928 is so good, it doesn't even. I was like, it's an automatic, and he's like, It doesn't matter. There's so much torque in this car, it's amazing. And so I owed an 84 automatic, and he's absolutely wrong, unless you're talking about a later car 87, the the S or one of the later cars are fast, even an automatic. However, having owned both now, the five-speed manual, dog leg shifters, yeah. The dog leg is the best, you know. First is dog legged, and that's because nobody wants to be in first gear on a racetrack, you know, whatever. It's incredible. It is the absolute German Corvette. It is so fast. Oh wow, so much torque. Mine's kind of a dog, you know. I don't care. It's not a perfect example, but man, I'd love to drive it. It's a really cool car.

SPEAKER_00:

How often do you drive it?

SPEAKER_03:

It's been, you know, uh pretty regularly, but it's been acting up. You know, I get up running and then I drive them. And this one had a key issue where you stuck the key in and it was really hard to start. So I had that fixed, and then I started driving it all the time. Now I think there it's got two fuel pumps, I think, and one of them's acting up. So, you know, it's always when you have this many cars, and that's the thing, that's why I want to sell some, something's always breaking, and they all break at once. And it's just it's hideous. So, you know, I'm experiencing a bit of that.

SPEAKER_00:

And and what do you do? What is your go-to when you have an issue like that? Do you kind of troubleshoot it yourself? Do you kind of go to an independent garage with some things? Do you take it back to a dealer specialist or the dealer for for other things? How do you handle that on a on a car?

SPEAKER_03:

I have my local, I have my local guys that that do stuff for me. And, you know, I'll say to your viewers, I mean, sounds like you guys are more crafty than I am. You probably do a little more work on cars. I hate working on cars. I hate it. Like I said, I've done it in the water pump. I did the alternator on my 9-11, my air-cooled 9-11, and my the starter on that one, but it takes me forever. I'm not, it's not what I specialize in. So knowing people in the clubs is good. And if you know someone that likes to work on them and they do it for you when you could give them a little bit of money or something, why not? That's been especially helpful with me with the Lotus. I have a Lotus Esprit, and uh, I have a friend that has a lotus esprit in a Europa, like I do. I have a an espree in a Europa, and he's an incredible mechanic. In fact, my Opal Ascona is at his house. I have a 1972 Opal Escona, and that's for sale too. That's like got a mantic front end, and that's for sale. Somebody buy that for me. It's ready to go. Opal reliable, been working on it in his spare time.

SPEAKER_00:

So, where do you find these? You mentioned that you find them abroad and have them sent over. Is that what happens to most of them, or just do you we do these car clubs? You you're always buying it.

SPEAKER_03:

I've just started doing that. I mean, that's the thing. This is like real estate. It's like real estate. When do you make money? You make money on the buy. When you buy something, you make the money. You don't buy it right. I I've gotten so lucky. The Lotus Esprit, I had a friend call me out of nowhere. Uh, you know, the 1988 Lotus Esprit, the second one. Is that for sale? Is that for sale? I'll buy it from you. I mean, it might be, but you know, it could not be.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll talk about it for show. We're gonna talk after it. I'll be quiet.

SPEAKER_03:

It's not one of the first ones I want to sell. How about the 928, Christian? That's what sorry, sorry, sorry. Yep. But do you want more on that? Because the esprit was a cool story, but anyway, it was friends even telling about cars back then when I was in my buy stage. I'm not, I'm not really buying anything, I gotta sell stuff. I got too many cars. It's ridiculous. I finally sold my I bought the cheapest supercharged Jag. That's one of my most popular videos. I think it's got a quarter million hits or so. And I just sold that car because some guy it doesn't really run right. And I just sold it for next to nothing because it went to a good owner and uh he's gonna enjoy it. Probably flip it, but I don't care. You know, there comes a time, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

How many cars do you own? I know I said 30, but I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_03:

I think it dropped to 29 when I sold that Jag, actually. Okay. Wow. Wow. It's a problem. Don't have this many cars. Kids, don't have this many cars. I would like to get it down to uh a very manageable 10. Do not try this at home.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's they uh sometimes eventually the things own you.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's what I was thinking. When you said that you did, you know, it wasn't your favorite thing to work on cars. The first thing that popped into my mind was you have such a fleet that if you did that, you would never have time to to travel or visit or or or you know, do all the other hobbies that you have.

SPEAKER_03:

Also, again, you know, and this is a thing of I try to buy cars that are in decent shape. And even though I don't care how they look, I care how they run, I care about alignment and things like that. But the thing is, is when you have that many cars, even if I drive it a lot, if I drive it up and down the mountain, and that's how I get my kicks, you know, that's fun for me. So, you know, it's literally like I'm putting like six miles on the car, you know. I put six miles on it at a time. And if I drive it to a car show, what am I putting? You know, I don't put a lot of miles on the cars. I'm not wearing through brakes, I'm not wearing through tires. The problem is the time, you know, the tyre the tires will dry rot by the time I wear them out, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, yeah. Yeah. So what would be you've owned a lot of, I guess, dream cars, and the ball's probably always moving the target. What would be your dream car now?

SPEAKER_03:

It's funny because lately, you know, there are a lot of cars. I mean, you were talking about the JDM cars, they're they're so fun. Yeah, to me lately, it's almost like the one I just bought, you know. I mean, I'll always, you know, there is nothing like an air cooled Porsche 911, they're valuable for a reason. They are incredible. An early RX 7, they're really cool. The the Lancia Delta Integrale, the Citron is so weird. There are special cars to drive, and they bring, you know, they bring something that is special. The 928 is a special car to drive. It's it's the German Corvette. It's front-engined, rear-wheel drive, engineered, way over-engineered. And the reason I bought I the reason I sold my C3 Corvette, I had a 77 Corvette, my first favorite car because of the shape. And I bought one, my blue one. You can see it, it's a popular video. But I did I paid all the money to have it, the alignment done, the steering done, the brakes done. And if you compare that 77 Corvette to that 78 Portion 928, the core the Corvette, you should be ashamed. I mean, go to your room. It's it's it's beautiful. I appreciate the car, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

They drive.

SPEAKER_03:

The C3 Corvette was the dog. I mean, in terms of handling, unless like it's one of those, you know, I Rock ones, or you know, one of those were really cool. But you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it had to have race suspension on it to handle correctly, you know, and they didn't.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's uh that's Porsche over engineering, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you know, and that's the thing. Everybody always asks me what's the best car. And now I toured the Porsche Museum. I show you just like you said, you my videos where I show everything. Gotta watch that Porsche video. The Porsche Museum, the Mercedes Museum, especially Auto World in Brussels, Belgium. I show you every car, the vault, the Peterson Vault, because you know, they're just Porsches. We go back to the Porsche Museum. They engineer them to drive to the track, drive on the track, and drive them home. And have I done that? Yeah. My 996, my 2000 Porsche 996 that I just drove last time to Florida 2,500 miles in a 25-year-old car. What could possibly go wrong? That's what that video saw. Something went wrong. Watch the video. But okay, I drove that to the track, and I picked up a lady friend and took her out to dinner on the way back with the top down, and it was 95 degrees that day. Uh-oh. Show me a car that can do that. Show me a car. I was not driving slow on the track, I was eight, nine tenths. And they're amazing cars.

SPEAKER_00:

They really are amazing. Love that ending segue here. So as we ramp down and guide the podcast gently to the off-ramp here. One last reminder to our audience: you got to go check out these YouTube videos. But I forewarn you, set aside a period of time because they are very compelling and watchable, and you'll be under the hood for quite a while. But I got one last question for you on the way out, Ivan. Let's go back to the Audi TT, your 2001 spider. And okay, so you have it in, let's see if I get this right, Laguna Seka Blue, which is the BMW racing color. But I want to hear about the baseball glove leather. Is that the interior? Is that what you're referring to? Or the terror.

SPEAKER_03:

Baseball glove leather was an option. If you if you want that, it's gonna have to be that kind of that gray color that looks a little wet still. Gotcha. I think they did another ones, but the first edition was it was like gray and it looked wet. I mean, that's the only one where you could get that baseball glove leather. The stitching on the side, it's the color of baseball, the stitching on the side color out. I get it. Yeah, it is so cool. I was just saying, if I had to sell every one of my cars, that thing is all-wheel drive, it's a two-seat convertible. You can spin in place in that car. I watch my video, watch my review of that car, just search drive and dive in LD TT. You can, and I have two other videos of the snow, but the review contains that. So you can literally spin in place in that car. It's not an LD Quattro, little trivia for you. It's a Haldex. And where else will I find a Haldex all-wheel drive system? In the Bugatti Veyron. So that all-wheel drive system. And so it's incredible. That car is incredible, so fun to drive, and it's a Volkswagen to maintain. You will replace every part of them because they're terrible out of warranty. Aldi's, they're terrible. But you will want to because it drives so incredible. And with that custom Laguna Seca blue paint, it's forget about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. Ladies and gentlemen, you are only going to get these insanely quirky nuggets from Drive and Ivan. And hey, I got to tell you, it was a complete pleasure meeting you. And Doug and I have been talking about having you on for months. So this was really a bucket list thing for me. I want to thank you for making time and thank you for being here, my man. We had a blast.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll have to have him back. Can we have you back to talk about more cars?

SPEAKER_00:

And anytime. That's the problem with this guy is that, you know, 35 minutes into the discussion, we're only getting started. And I can feel the energy and juices just starting to explode, but we got to land it. We'll have you back at a future time. Again, driving Ivan was a pleasure. Thank you. Enjoyed it so much. Thank you. Rock and roll. We will have you back. You have just heard the high revving, low mileage, late model herd round the world podcast on authoritative automobile, authoritative podcast on automobile nostalgia. You can tell we haven't done this in a month. He's Doug. Reach him at Doug at CarsLove.com. I am Christian. Reach me at Christian at CarsLove.com. You know how to get a hold of drive and Ivan. He's all over the place. It'll be in the show notes, so please follow and tell a friend if you've liked what you heard. Go to carslove.com for all of our coordinates. 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.

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Christian

Host
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Doug

Co-host