AMC Gremlin & Mercedes AMG History: Matt DeLorenzo on the Dodge Viper 🏎️✍️

AMC Gremlin restoration and Mercedes AMG history with Matt DeLorenzo. Inside the birth of the Dodge Viper and the Honda CRX...

In this episode, we sit down with automotive journalism royalty, Matt DeLorenzo. With over 45 years in the industry—including serving as the Editor of AutoWeek and a founding juror of the North American Car of the Year (NACTOY) awards—Matt has truly seen and driven it all. From buying a $2,000 AMC Gremlin as his first car to rubbing elbows with Carroll Shelby, Matt shares the unbelievable history and stories behind the metal.

In this episode, we cover: 

🚙 First Cars & Clutches: Matt’s $2,000 blue AMC Gremlin, and learning how to drop a transmission in a college parking lot. 

🕹️ Saving the Manuals: Why out of all the hypercars he has driven, a simple 1984 Honda Civic CRX remains one of his favorite cars of all time. 

📉 Design Disasters: A hilarious debate on "Badass Cars with Terrible Rear Ends," from the infamous BMW "Bangle Butt" to the Hyundai Ioniq 6. 

📖 Automotive History: The true story of Mercedes-Benz's AMG division, Chrysler's 90s concepts, and how the Dodge Viper changed the industry. 

⚡ The Future of EVs: Why the future of the auto industry isn't just electric, but an "All of the Above" approach for consumers.

Don't miss Matt's favorite episode with friend and colleague, John Davis from MotorWeek: https://buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/18157530

Whether you love modern hypercars, weird 90s concepts, or just the feeling of banging through the gears of a manual transmission, this episode is packed with automotive history.

          *** Your Favorite Podcast Automotive Nostalgia Podcast ***

Connect with us: 

📧 Email: stories@carsloved.com 

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Transcript

Episode Kickoff And Community Updates

Dave 0:00

Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before, your authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. You know what time it is. It's time to flip on your favorite car themed t-shirt, get a little grease under our nails, and step back in time and make new friends. You know, it's what we do. We're here with a lovely guest that we're gonna meet here in a minute. But before we go on, we at least have to say hi to my co-host Doug and see what he's got going on in his life. Tell me about it, Doug. How you doing?

Doug 0:30

I'm doing great. Didn't tell you about my t-shirt. It's just uh air-cooled uh Porsche G50 platform, mid to late 80s before they went to the uh N64.

Dave 0:42

Air cooled guy myself. Never owned a Porsche, but it's in the it's in the the the hopes and dreams pile at the moment.

Doug 0:49

Without that Volkswagen, Porsche wouldn't be here. The legacy.

Dave 0:53

Speaking of our podcast, do you have any updates?

Doug 0:56

The only update is we had Christina Lardy's episode drop today, depending on when people hear it. Uh it's already out, and it's wonderful because we got to hear about somebody who was a self-proclaimed noob to the industry, getting invited to SEMA, walking around asking people questions like, hey, uh, I have a 383 stroker gal op. How do I do this? Hey, I have this garage full of parts for uh her her dad's 1969 Camaro that she was restoring and was bought as a father-daughter project, and he passed away. So she's continuing that project on and she's just a great guest. Of course, we know her from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Yeah. Where she does just amazing work and she's documenting her build right now. So it's really exciting. Yeah. Yeah. And she calls it Christina's garage gearhead in training because she is learning while doing it.

Meet Matt DeLorenzo AutoWeek Veteran

Dave 1:50

I love that about our call car culture because we love sharing knowledge and it keeps it alive. If you haven't listened to Christina's, go back and listen to it. Real quick on my end on updates, we have reviews that popped up. So one review, we got car stories done right. Everybody's got a car story. The hand me down that got you through college, the one you shouldn't have sold. This show lets people tell theirs. The Cat DeLorean episode alone was worth it. You'll end up thinking about cars you forgot uh missed. Wonderful review from Ryan. Thank you, Ryan. But that brings us to today's guests. And I'd love for Doug to tell us how did uh how did our today's guest come into our virtual garage?

Doug 2:29

We have been meeting a lot of great authors. We had uh Father Son on recently who documented their COVID car build. And uh so that's how we met Matt DeLorenzo. He's written several books, he's worked at several of the most popular trade trade magazines back in the day, including Auto Week and many others. We're gonna talk about one of his recent books as well as his passion project for uh Tightwalk Garage. So uh, Matt, how are you? Great to be, great to have you with us. Great. I'm I'm glad to be here.

Dave 2:58

Your resume is quite uh quite impressive, Mr. Matt, I have to say.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Appreciate that. Well, it's it's my job, you know, this is what my career is, and I think I've been blessed really to be able to do something I love for such a long time. So I love cars and I love writing about them.

Dave 3:16

And now that we're looking uh at your your camera here, I see some beautiful artwork behind you and looks like magazines. Tell us what you got there.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Well, one of them is a cover from uh Auto Week. I was editor of Auto Week from uh 19 uh 89 till 98. And uh that particular cover is uh Viper and uh signed by Carol Shelby. I had an opportunity to ride with him at Indy when the Viper was the pace car. And I got other little, you know, I have you can't see them that well, but I got a couple of things signed by Dale Jr. and Dale Sr. A great photo of a Cunningham by Michael Furman, and then a ghosted image of a GT by a really good friend and colleague, John Lamb. So um a lot of this stuff is come from my ability to work with some of the greatest uh people in the world. I I have a bunch of pictures from Denise McCluggage. When I was uh editor at Auto Week, she wrote for us and uh she was a dear friend. So uh it's great. Yeah, it's uh I've met really amazing people, worked with amazing uh talents. Just incredibly fortunate to do the things that I've I've been able to do.

Dave 4:20

And that's a that's just goes back to your your resume that the places you've got to work got you, you know, to to be rubbing shoulders with these people that we in the car culture were like, wow, like having an autographed magazine cover from Carol Shelby, that's priceless. You know what I mean? Like that's just amazing. So thank you for uh thank you for letting us see it, and thank you for sharing the story.

Doug 4:42

I'm just so impressed with everything Matt's done. And on the pre-show, we were just talking about the car industry and how the car shows have changed over time. Whereas before, people like Matt in the press were able to have lots of conversations with the execs from different car companies, and now that's changed a little bit. They're still in the COVID age, I think, to some degree. But uh hopefully that's gonna come back. Talking to Matt, we we talked about another past guest, John Davis, and they know each other pretty well, it sounds like, and uh ran in a lot of the same circles, including I remember in the 80s seeing John at a car show.

Dave 5:17

Yeah, yeah. That was a that was a big guy. Motor week. Yeah.

Doug 5:22

And uh, of course, Dave and I growing up in Maryland, Motor Week was the show to watch, and it still is.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

It definitely is, yeah. John has done a terrific job and uh just a great gentleman, you know, and and he really does uh excellent, excellent work. And again, he and I were um founders, original jurors on the North American Car, Truck, and Utility of the Year. That's right. So whenever we get we get together and do a drive every year of the semifinalists back in Michigan, so I always look forward to seeing John there. Yeah, if I don't run into him somewhere out at a car show or or uh somewhere out on the road on a preview. Yeah.

Judging North American Car Of Year

Dave 6:00

Can you tell us a little bit about the juror thing?

Muscle Cars Go Electric Too

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Sure. So there's 50 jurors, and we just recently announced the car uh North American Car Truck and Utility of the Year award. The car this year was the and you know, I I really think that the awards this year are a microcosm of what's going on in the auto industry right now. So the car winner was the Dodge Charger, and the charger comes in two doors, four doors. It's a big American, you know, rear drive sedan and coupe. It comes in all electric. So the most powerful version of it, 620 horsepower, all battery electric. Or you can get a gas version of it with the three-liter straight six that makes 550 horsepower. It comes in all-wheel drive, but it has a lockable rear-wheel drive mode, so you can do burnouts. To me, it tells you that the American muscle car is not dead. Battery electrics will be a factor in the future, but don't count out gas engines either. So, and I I fully suspect that they're gonna put the V8 Hemi in that car somewhere down the road. But it's really a great car, won the won the car award over the the uh Nissan Centra and the Reborn Honda Prelude. So I think the factors that that um worked into uh the Dodge Chargers uh favor was the variety of drivetrains, the flexibility, the all-wheel drive, two doors, four doors, that kind of thing. Very roomy. It's a lift back. It's not it's not, it doesn't have a trunk, it's actually has a lift back, so it is quite usable. Um and it and it won by a fairly substantial margin. So uh it's a good good car of the year choice. That's that's wonderful to hear. Yeah, in the truck truck category, the the Maverick Lobo one, and that again kind of points to the compact pickup truck segment, which is growing, and I think we'll see a few more new entries in there. Right now you have the Hyundai Santa Cruz and the Maverick, but uh, there's some talk. Toyota might come in with one, talk, maybe Ram might do one. So that's another kind of snapshot moment. And then in the utilities segment, the Palisade one, which kind of shows the strength of the Korean automakers in the U.S. market. It's a three-row uh full-size SUV, which Americans love, and it offers a hybrid option. It'll get you over 30 miles per gallon. So that was another good solid choice.

Compact Pickups And A Dakota Return

Dave 8:20

I will have to say, when uh my wife and I were looking at SUVs, um, the the Palisade and the Tell You Ride were really strong competitors for being uh you know a non-American market. They do have a lot of luxury features and they're they have a good ride. Yeah. So that's um that's awesome to hear. And speaking of the the kind of rumors, you might know, you might not know. Is it true that Dodge is thinking about bringing back the Dakota platform?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah, there's been some talk about them either getting into the mid-size or compact pickup market. So, you know, the question is whether or not it'll be branded a RAM or a Dodge. And I and Tim Caniskis just recently just uh came back to take over North American sales for Chrysler Dodge and and Jeep. Uh he's not a he says he's not averse of recombining RAM with Dodge, which I I kind of think, you know, uh Dodge Ram is always it's always been a Dodge Ram, right? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I I I don't think it was a great idea to try to break it out as a separate brand. I think so I you know, it could happen. And I I would like to see a Dakota. I think these smaller, you know, we've had sort of mission creep with full-size pickups, they are so big now. And you know, the Ranger used to be a compact pickup, and now it's a mid-size pickup that's almost as big as some F-150s of a couple generations ago. So I think there's been as these vehicles grow in size, there's room underneath for smaller, more affordable and fun to drive options.

AMC Gremlin Lessons In The Parking Lot

Dave 9:55

Yeah, I mean, like the Ranger, if you think back late 70s, early 80s, where the Ford Courier even, like that was a tiny pickup. And you can't find anything on the market in America like that now. You'd have to go to the the the K market in Japan to find anything comparable, which both Doug and I are K car lovers. I actually own a K vehicle, but you know, it's it's just funny that America just keeps getting bigger. And it's almost like when um kind of when that 80s the fuel crisis happened and we all had huge cars and then they had to downsize because of the fuel crisis. Um we're almost to that point with without the fuel crisis, but we're all getting to that point where the cars are just so over oversized that something's gonna have to give and we're gonna have to go back to small cars again. But uh speaking of small cars, let's talk about your first car. Let's uh go in the way back machine and let's uh uh let's let's talk about your first car, Mr.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Dodge Greml or Dodge AMC Gremlin. AMC Gremlin Gremlin. And I got it because it was cheap. I think I paid$2,000 for it. It it it had a back seat, which was an option at the time, but the car cost about$2,000. Had a three-speed manual, vinyl floor coverings, vinyl seats that had the straight six to 232 cubic inch that, you know, derived from Chevy. I think it was pretty bulletproof, but it wasn't thrust proof, unfortunately. You know, um kid, because I think AMC was way ahead of its time in building biodegradable cars. Yeah, it's very true. Uh so you don't see too many of them around anymore. But I I liked it. I you know, the styling was was kind of quirky, but I liked it. And it actually was a fun car to drive because you get, you know, I I really wanted to learn how to drive a stick and did a lot of burnouts and I went through a lot of clutches and I learned how to change clutches myself and you know, uh dropping a transmission in the parking lot of college and swapping out a because I forgot to put the throw-up bearing in a new throw-up bearing in and to replace that after I'd done the clutch. So, you know, it was a great learning car. I really enjoyed that. And then you could fix it yourself. You you'd have a problem, you'd figure figure it out.

Dave 12:04

That's that's another thing that we've gotten away from in the the car market now is nothing is doable in the in the driveway or the garage anymore. Your own garage. I mean, you have to take it either to the dealership or an actual mechanic, even for something simple. And with everything being computers and sensors, you know, like one one bad puddle, and the next thing all your dash lights are going on and the car doesn't work. So it's one of those knowing that you could you could change out your transmission in the the college parking lot, um, just says a lot to how far we've come. Um, and not necessarily in a bad way, but at the same time, how far it's changed.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

It's a it's a lot different because there are people that know what a Haynes manual is. Yes, and then there are other people who are saying, Oh, my car threw out this code. That's how far we've come.

From Cutlass To CRX Favorites

Dave 12:50

Yeah, it's the same thing. You can't even find um ABC maps anymore. They don't even print half of them. Yeah, yeah. And like I learned how to read a map, and now it's everything's GPS. My I don't have a signal, I don't know where I'm going. It's like, well, just look at the map, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that thank you for sharing about your first car. Let's just go see, since we're on your the Wayback Machine, we talked about the the Gremlin. What was your next car and what happened to the Gremlin?

SPEAKER_00 13:15

So I tr I traded it in and I got a used 73 Olds Cutlass um coupe, and I drove the hell out of that thing. I mean, I I I put a lot of miles on it. And you know, that was an interesting thing about big V8 powered cars back in the day is that they the engines were not stressed. Uh you could drive them, you know, uh without oil in them. The oil light would come on and go, oh, I better put some oil in it. Uh yeah. So the the the cutlass was interesting because we had it for a long time. Um and then I got it, I moved to California and I got a 70 Corolla, and I was driving that to work. My wife was driving the big, the big olds, and the transmission went on it. So we we went to get the transmission fixed, and we were watching TV one night, and the transmission shop that our car was in burned down. We went, oh maybe maybe our car burned down. We'll get some insurance money. And no, they were done with it, and it was outside. So I got the car back. I drove that car so long, I ended up giving it to the local high school. I donated its body to science. I donated it to local high school shop class. That's awesome. And that that's where it ended up.

Dave 14:27

So one thing that we I forgot to ask while we were talking about the gremlin, what color was it? Blue. Okay. Yeah. Um yeah. So that's what I I was we were talking about cars, and I'm a big visual person. So like I want to picture the gremlin and I I needed to see in my mind's eye what they had some wild colors back then too.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

There was like a lime green and an orange and purple. But yeah, I I had a blue. I've had a lot of blue cars, so yeah, that was one of them.

Dave 14:51

Do you tend to stray towards the blue when you're when you're on the car lot?

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Uh yeah. I I you know, I've had, I'm trying to think a lot of my car. I had a Honda cord that was blue. Uh Nissan Leaf that I have is blue. Nice. So I had a Honda's um CRX that was blue. Uh that was a fun car. I had that in '84 when it first came out. And uh uh fun little two-seater. It was like a sports car. It was fun. That was probably like one of the most fun cars I owned.

Dave 15:22

Yeah, I and um you actually you you mentioned that one being your your probably your favorite car out of the ones you could remember when you were filling out our um our entry. So I'm glad you brought that up. But uh was the was the CRX was that a manual or manual.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah. The first, my first car was a manual, my second car was an automatic. The next automatic that I bought was my second PT cruiser.

Dave 15:46

Okay.

Saving The Manual Transmission Skill

SPEAKER_00 15:47

So and from then on I've had, you know, we have a we have a um Hyundai Ionic uh plug-in hybrid, that's an automatic, and the and the leaf is an automatic. But every everything else I've owned has been a manual transmission.

Dave 16:00

It's something about getting in a car with a clutch that just makes you feel like you're more connected to it.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Yeah, exactly.

Dave 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Exactly. And my and my give her a lot of credit. I mean, she's she's put up with a lot of my car stuff, but she's the great manual driver as well. And I taught my kids how to drive them, and actually it helped my son when he was a valet parker, because not too many kids know how to drive a stick.

Doug 16:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

And that is even more true today than it was back then. Yeah, for sure. One of the one of the neat things I did with him, uh Eggerty did a thing, I don't know if they still do it, but they would get uh people that had old classic cars with manual transmissions, and they would get together and they would let these they would teach these kids how to drive their cars. So I took, I was living here in Southern California, my son was in high school, we went out to Anaheim Stadium, and he got to drive a Jeep, uh, not a Jeep, a VW thing, all manuals, a TR3, a Corvette, Mustang, and a Packard with a three on the tree. So it was really it was really a great experience for him. And I and I give uh Mikhail Haggerty and the people their uh props for you know exposing young people to to the joys of driving a manual transmission. I think that'll help engender um and make sure that there'll be a lot of enthusiasts around in the future.

Dave 17:26

Yeah, for sure. I I am must save the manual transmission guy, mainly because of my Volkswagen love and passion. But um, but yeah, it's it and hearing that he got to drive a thing around, it makes me a little jealous too, because I I love to drive a thing around. Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Doug, do you have anything you want to throw in? I've been talking away.

Doug 17:44

No, I I mean uh it it's always funny to hear about the interest in manuals because I've talked about many times. My first car was automatic, Dodge Taytona, and then I wanted to learn to drive a manual because my friends had one, and then it just went from there. And now my daily driver is electrics, no, no manual, but I still have the DeLorean and I have the the 300 ZX once I come back on the road forever. Yeah, can't uh I still can't give those up. So just the manual experience is totally, totally different.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

You know, and and and one of the one of the things that I've observed is the fact that, you know, back in the day, racing cars were manuals because they were more efficient, they shifted quicker, you could you had more control over the engine RPMs and and things like that. As sequential shift, clutch, you know, uh dual clutch and all these racing gearboxes got better and better and better, it kind of moved away from, you know, the the race cars now, a lot of them, they do have a clutch, but they're you know, you you're basically sequential shifting through a gearbox. But the manual to me makes grand touring or going on a long drive much more enjoyable when you have winding roads and you're just so much in engaged with the car that actually I find in the grand touring experience a manual actually enhances the experience rather than detracting from it. It still can be a little bit of a challenge to drive a manual and in stop and go traffic, but that's you know, that comes with the turf. I still, if I get another car in here, it's it's definitely, you know, if I get an old uh two-seater, it's gonna be it'll definitely be a manual.

Doug 19:23

Yeah, you can't discount the analog experience, right? And it's it does make a big difference in going for a leisurely drive, like you said, or going for a long drive. It's just you're just more engaged. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Dave 19:38

Yeah, because if you don't, if you're not if you're not in the mindset of driving the car, it won't go. So you have to you can't, you know, you can't just start, you know, zoning out because there's gonna be a moment where you're gonna like, oh no, I need to shift the gear. So it keeps you it keeps you a little bit more focused with what you're doing too.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more.

Dave 19:59

Speaking of when you said, you know, if you're gonna get a little two-seater, do you have something in mind uh that you'd want to to bring into your garage?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Well, yeah, I have you know three ideas for a fun car, and they're all different, and I have different reasons. I I would love to have a Porsche Porsche Boxster. I I think that's just a fab. I'd get an older one. I the newer ones have kind of gotten bigger and not as I like, I would probably get an earlier boxer. The other one, I've always I've always wanted to own an alpha, and I've always wanted to own a car designed by Pin and Farina. So I would like to get like a 90 or 91 Alpha Spider. Beautiful. And if I wanted something newer, I would actually, I I really like the Fiat 124. Sort of uh the Miata, but it's it's actually the suspension's setup different. It's got a different engine. It is a manual, and uh, you know, it's it's pretty bulletproof from what I understand. So those would be, you know, if I if I end up getting a fun car, it'll be one of one of those three.

Dave 20:58

Solid choices. I would not disagree with any of those choices for sure. But yeah, that thank you for for sharing your your dream car and uh your thought process about that. Uh yeah, I'm I keep, like I said, I keep taking over. I'm gonna let Doug talk a little bit.

Early Electronics And Truly Bad Cars

Doug 21:12

Well, well, we're we're both so enamored to have somebody with this length of experience, so to speak, and I mean that in a good way. And somebody who's down to earth about cars and has written about them for decades. So I did want to ask, uh so you got to test drive a lot of cars, right? They weren't yours, but they were online for manufacturers, right? If you had to pick a work, let's go with worst cars. What was the worst car that you drove that you were loaned?

Tightwad Garage And Car Buying Advice

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Yeah, it would have to be back in the early 80s, 83 old Sierra. And the reason I say that, I was driving it and the and this is the early days of electronics. The thing went black. It went, it was done. It just died. There was, and you know, we we discussed this before, you know, back in the day when something would Happen with the car, you get out, you might be able to fiddle with it, get it running again. This thing, I had to call and they had to come and flatbed it out. And to me, that was sort of the low point of the auto industry, was probably the early 80s when they were coming to grips with vehicle electronics. And another car of that era that was kind of a great idea that was way ahead of its time and just didn't work out that well was the V86 where they would mechanically disable cylinders. And the drivability on that car was absolutely horrible. Because it would just, it would toggle back and forth from four to six to eight and back. It was a mess. And so, but the electronics get better, you know. It's like any technology, it's all about the math. It's the algorithms. You know, when electric power steering first came out, it was awful. Nowadays, the systems are so advanced, it's very hard-pressed. If you had a hydraulic or an elect uh electrically assisted power steering, the feel is virtually the same. And so I think cars have gotten so good, it's been gets difficult to kind of, especially with everyday cars, and what's a good car. And so when people ask me that, I ask them, what are you interested in? What's a good car? And what do you think? And they have an idea of kind of what they're they they like. And I think what they're looking for is confirmation that what they they're kind of emotionally attached to is actually a good rational buy. And that's that's kind of where we are now with cars. Aaron Powell Yeah.

Dave 23:32

And that um that kind of brings us into your your website and your blog, the Tightwad Garage, where you're taking the idea of looking at, you know, kind of like you want to be able to own something but not break the bank, right?

Affordable Electric Car Ownership Math

SPEAKER_00 23:46

I yeah, I think affordability is, you know, that word has just kind of popped up recently, but I think in uh in the car market, I think a lot of people have been concerned about affordability for quite some time. And, you know, cars have gotten more expensive, they've gotten more complex. So they're certainly a lot more safe, and they they have so many really great driver aids, and but then there's a lot of technology that just doesn't make sense, like a lot of these touch screens. You know, there's no buttons. And to me, that's a distraction is being able, you know, hunting for a way to like in a Volvo, you you actually have to go into a screen to adjust your mirrors. You shouldn't have to do that. So when I kind of retired from Kelly Blue, I worked at Kelly Blue Book for a number of years. When I left there, I had to get a car, and I thought, well, I I I want to get an electric car. So I bought this Nissan Leaf, and um, I wanted to get the cheapest electric car possible. Uh, I got the$7,500 tax uh uh uh credit. I got a$2,500 uh California rebate and I got carpooling stickers on a$30,000 car. So it was kind of a no-brainer. And I wrote a book uh called um uh How to Buy an Affordable Electric Car, you know, an owner's owner's guide to EV guide to EV ownership. So from that Tightwatch Guide to EV ownership, I did Tightwad Garage to promote the book. But my my theme is that you know, I think cars need there needs to be more affordable alternatives out there. There are some people who aren't interested in having navigation-based cruise control. Or, you know, I I think there's room for simple cars that are affordable, that look good, and that people enjoy driving. To me, the driving experience is all that can make all the difference in the world is that if you if you have responsive steering and a and a car that you feel confident in in terms of its acceleration and braking, it's a wonderful it's a and but we're still kind of seeing the EV market on the luxury side of things.

Why Batteries Keep EV Prices High

Dave 25:50

So where is the electrical equivalent of like the civic or a Mustang? What why is the industry struggling to build such like an everyday, every man's EV? Why are why are we not there yet?

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Well, uh battery cost. I mean, it's just still not at parity. And and the example I use is look at the difference in pricing on a Hyundai Kona. You can get an all-gas one, you can get a hybrid one, and you can get a pure electric one. The the cost difference between the gas one and electric one is somewhere in the neighborhood of eight to ten thousand dollars. And that's all related to the cost of the battery. So until batteries get cheaper, you're not gonna have, you have some affordable, you know, there is some affordability being driven into the market. The new Nissan Leaf, for instance, is at$30,000 with 300-mile range, is a good, is a good option. There's a lot of um buzz around slate. You know, they're trying to bring in this really cheap pickup truck. Um, you know, and again, the problem here is it's a very basic vehicle, it's gonna be under$30,000 and all that. But when you look at what you get for that$25,000 to$27,000 in a battery electric, you can buy a loaded Ford Maverick hybrid for the same money. So until that, until that gap narrows, you're just not gonna see it. You're gonna be paying to drive electric. So it's it's getting better. I I think one of the things that distorted the market was the fact that we had such high EPA standards coming, is they weren't necessarily bending the cost curve down on EVs, but bending the cost curve up on gas cars to get the parity. And now that that's not that much of an issue, you're gonna see that gap open up again. So people are gonna have to make a conscious effort. Now, there are great reasons to own an EV, and I'm I'm very happy with my leaf. I only have 150-mile range, but it takes care of anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of my everyday driving needs. I plug in at home, I don't have to get oil changes. It's a perfectly fine automobile for driving around town. But if I want to take a road trip, that's why we have the plug-in hybrid, you know. Right. So the the mark, you know, the thing that really rankles me is that a lot of people were looking at EVs as the answer when, in essence, it's gonna be all of the above. There's gonna be hybrids, there's gonna be plug-in hybrids, there's gonna be EVs, there's gonna be gas, there's gonna be diesel heavy-duty pickup trucks. It just depends on what you need a vehicle for. And and thank God we have this variety of technology that can be applied to whatever specific need you have. That's a very solid point.

The Origin Story Of AMG

Doug 28:27

Yeah, so pivoting if we can, and I've been uh following Slate as well. So pretty interesting, 25 grand. You kind of build it out of Legos, so to speak, you can expand it. It's really neat, neat vehicle, but art niche, right? For sure. Right. We did want to talk to you about your books. And uh you've written uh a recent book, which I have right here. Can you tell us about that? And then maybe we touch a little bit about your uh past books. Okay, yeah.

How Mercedes Turned AMG Official

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Uh so you know, AMG is the performance division of Mercedes-Benz, but it didn't start out that way. Uh and it's a fascinating story because these two engineers, Hans Werner Ofrecht and Erhard Melker, met at um Mercedes in in the 1960s, and they didn't like each other at first. Ofreck was a bench test engineer, and Melker was a mechanical engineer designing engines, and they had differing opinions on how to get data and what you know what they should be doing. They would leave little like notes in logbooks, you know, kind of being snippy with each other. But then Melker came up with this um aggressive cam tuning on on a particular engine, and Offric kind of looked at it and went, This guy's a genius. And I should be his friend. So they they uh kind of formed this alliance and they built this race car in 1965, 300 uh uh uh SE Mercedes with a six-cylinder engine. They took it to their boss, uh, who was um Rudy Uhlenhout, who ran the Formula One team in the 50s, uh and but he was now in charge of product development. And Uhlenhout was more concerned about they were getting out of racing entirely, Mercedes was at that period, uh, because they had gotten back into it with rallies and some other some other uh touring car, more stock, show them stock kind of stuff. And since that program was over, these guys shouldn't have been doing what they were doing. So he tells them, he said, you can race the car, but if you don't win, you know, uh you better pack up your bags and go somewhere else. So they went out. They won a touring car championship that year. The unfortunate part about it is a guy, another Mercedes employee who was their driver, Manfred Scheck, got killed in another in a rally. He wasn't even in racing in the series that these guys had built the car for. And the board came down on everybody and said, no more racing, we're done, we're done. So uh these two guys started building race cars for privateers out of Offrec's house in in Gross Ospodge, which is the G in AMG. It was Ofrec, Melker, Gross Ospaj. So uh in 1967, they both left AMG and formed or left Mercedes and formed AMG, and they started building race cars. Well, the factory kind of looked at them as sort of shade tree mechanics, and you know, you guys aren't, you know, Mercedes are perfect. How dare you tune them? And meanwhile, there were tuners all over the place for BMW and Opal and Ford Caprice and all that. And and so these guys kind of were flying under the radar until 1971 when they built a 300 SEL with a V8 engine in it, and it and it came in first in class, second overall at the 24 hours at SPA. And it put them on the map as as a really serious engineering and tuning outfit. So their business started to grow and and Mercedes started taking notice of them. In the 80s, they introduced the hammer, which was an E-class Mercedes with a big V8 that you know everybody in the U.S. went crazy for. And then also in that period, they took over uh Mercedes DTM race effort and won. So they they really earned their stripes. And in 1990, Mercedes agreed to uh to have Mercedes uh AMG prepared cars sold through the dealer network. And then uh nine nine years later, um uh Mercedes acquired 51%. And then in 2005, they bought it entirely and they converted it into Mercedes AMG, the performance division. Now, AMG is viewed internally, everybody would think, oh, you know, BMW. That's true um on one level, but on another level, in-house, they view it their primary rival is Porsche, because Porsche now builds sports cars, they build sedans, they build electric vehicles, and they build SUVs.

Dave 33:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

So so AMG really has come a long way, and and uh they offer a broad range of products, and uh, they compete at the highest levels in motorsport. So it was really uh it's it's a great story, and some great cars that they have built over the years and uh had an opportunity to profile them, things like the Black Series, the Gullwing SLS that they developed, and then most recently the AMG one, which actually took the Formula One engine and put it into a road car, which is a fascinating story in itself. Yeah.

Doug 33:35

So that book, if you want to learn more, you can buy that book on Amazon or any of your favorite places. It would qualify as a great coffee table book, I think.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Yeah, you know, um the the great thing is that Mercedes uh opened up their archives to me. And I I went down I went down a wormhole finding all that stuff. I mean, I spent days and days and days in the archives just and um the people at AMG in Germany uh were just fabulous in in the access that they gave me and and uh the the photo assets that they have are just incredible. It was it was a lot of fun.

Doug 34:14

Yeah. It's funny you mentioned uh Porsche, because I think it was um I want to say it was the eight late 80s, there was the 500E Mercedes, and I think they actually had Porsche doing on it.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

This was right around the time of the hammer.

Doug 34:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Right after the hammer. Yep. And then they they had they had uh Porsche build the 500E. Then after that run, that's kind of when the acquisition for AMG happened, and then AMG started doing the motors for the 500 E.

Doug 34:46

Remember. At the time Porsche needed the money, so they were happy to do it. I would sure yeah, they're great, they were great frenemies for sure. Other books have you done. The one about Chrysler caught my eye, but if you want to talk about one that's your favorite.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Sure. Well, that the Chrysler one was really interesting. Uh, it's actually uh I did that in 2000 and it was about Chrysler concept cars. And in the 90s, I mean, the 90s were sort of our fabulous fees. Everybody was doing concept cars. And one of the most prolific makers of concept cars and some concepts that actually became actual vehicles like the Viper was Chrysler. And I had great interviews with Tom Gale and Bob Lutz and Francois Castang. And and so this book basically covered the 90s and all the concept cars that they had built over the years and the reasons why they did it. Because uh, you know, they were still struggling. And uh when they did the Viper, it was uh two things about that that concept car was one, it it showed that they they had a vision for doing really exciting cars. But the second thing is that's what their uh engineering team, they reorganized the way that they developed cars and started with the Viper. They started doing the team approach where it wasn't siloed where one, you know, like drivetrain would throw it over, the body engineering would throw it over. They put together a cross-functional team to develop vehicles. And so it showed that concept cars were very important to their their vehicle development process at the time. And that was it, it was called Modern Chrysler concept cars. And it's out of print, but you can you can still find it on Amazon.

Doug 36:26

Um, definitely gonna dig that one up. And I I think um, if I may, I think if memory serves, Chrysler had acquired Lamborghini around the time of the Viper development.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

And so there was some Yeah, yeah, with the B10 engine back. They acquired uh Lamborghini in uh 1987. Yeah, and actually there's uh there's a Lamborghini concept car called the Portofino. And that is the first uh glimpse of cab forward design that uh Tom Gale introduced to uh the mainstream Chrysler product. So there was there was you know, there was a tremendous amount of cross fertilization there that was really cool. So um and and also uh keeping it in the Chrysler family. I did a a book on um the 100th anniversary of Dodge, talked about the Dodge brothers, how they started out, they were actually a big supplier to Ford. Yeah, I I heard that story. Yeah, and they they decided that, well, since you know, and Ford was kind of grinding them down on prices and wasn't paying them, you know, and they said, Well, what the heck? Why don't we build our own cars? So they they went into business and very successful. Yeah. Unfortunately, uh they started their company and then um the Dodge brothers passed away. The first one died in 1920, and then the other one passed away, I don't know, six, seven years later. And then they were acquired by Chrysler when when that was formed. Yeah.

Dave 37:52

Understood. Well, thank you for for your wealth of knowledge. I can't wait to get my hands on these books and and take some time to absorb some of the stuff that you took your wonderful time to kind of compact into these these books. But thank you so much. Do you do you happen to have links for your books on your website?

SPEAKER_00 38:09

On my website, right now I only have links to the EV book and the um uh the Mercedes book. But if you go to Amazon and type my name in as an author, you'll see the all the different books that I've done I've done. I've done I did a book on the 2005 Ford Mustang, uh, I did a book on Corvettes, I had a book on American cars. So you can find a lot of that stuff on Amazon. Yeah.

Doug 38:37

Cool. Post links on the show notes to all your all your cars. And can you tell us a little bit about Tegwag Garage? Because I think that's probably your ongoing project. And you do I think you do car it it keeps my hand in.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

I do a blog and I do car reviews, offer a little bit of advice on shopping, car shopping. So, you know, um it's uh it's it's a great way to stay connected. It gives me an opportunity uh to have an outlet, uh, which I need also to to maintain my membership on the Car of the Year juries. Um yeah, you can find at tightwodegarage.com and there's uh interesting little tidbits on there. Yeah, I think one of my favorite stories, you gotta dig it, it's it's been a while ago, and it was called Badass Cars. And it was actually about cars that really had really terrible rear ends, like the Hustleback Cadillac. I had the uh J30, which was uh Infinity back in the day. And I the current Ionic uh six to me is like you look at it and the back end of the car just falls away and you kind of go, where you know, in there I have a line that go, dude, where's the rest of my car?

Doug 39:46

Yeah, it's uh that would qualify. I uh yeah, there's so many uh was the bangle bangle butt on there, the BMW. Yes, yeah, the bangle butt was 740, yeah, when that came in out, mid to late 90s. Yeah, I remember that. First bangle. Yeah, and uh you do car reviews on there. I think I saw a review of a recent Genesis, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:07

Yeah, you know, I had you know, it's not just all cheap cars. I had I had a uh Genesis G90 Black Prestige, and what a cool car. I mean, this thing is is black, black, black, black. And you get inside, and the interior has got black, ash, open pour wood. They do a nice combination of of uh capacitive touch switches, but also they have redundant regular analog switches, and they even have a rotary dial if you like that to access stuff in the center. So it really offers you many different choices to operate things in the car with whatever makes you comfortable. And to me, that kind of minimizes distractions because you can, you know, you're able to do that. And the car is just it's only four passengers, it's got a back seat that's you know, uh you'd love to be driven around in. It's just really a cool car. I really, I really enjoyed driving it. It was called Black Prestige. And the last car that I drove that kind of reminded me that it was back in the 90s, I drove a uh Bentley Mulson that was like that. It was just all black. It just they look sinister, you know, and you think that who's in that car? You know, it's it's it's really great.

What This Decade Will Be Called

Dave 41:16

That's awesome. Well, I want to just say thank you, thank you for being here. As we wind down, I have one more question I'm just dying to ask. But uh yeah, as we head towards the proverbial off-ramp, you've covered the industry for decades, right? You've written the history of Corvette, Chrysler, all those things. If you were writing the history of this current decade, 20 years from now, what would you think the title of the big book would be?

SPEAKER_00 41:42

All of the above. And I and I think that's, you know, we're gonna look back at this decade in terms of the technology. I think we were gonna try to be led down the EV path by policymakers and and manufacturers who had nothing, they had no choice but to listen to the policymakers. And the people they didn't listen to were the consumers. And the consumers love their personal mobility, they love affordable cars, they love gas, they love electric, they love hybrids, they like trucks, they like SUVs, and there's still, you know, four-door sedans. So, you know, we're at a really rich period in automotive history because for the for most of my career, it was just gas engines and then maybe some diesel stuff going on. But now the possibilities have opened up to where we're seeing fuel cell vehicles, we're seeing battery electric, we're seeing hybrid, we're seeing range extended electric vehicles, which are kind of like diesel locomotives, which have an engine that are driving an electric motor. We have other technologies that are that haven't yet come quite come on stream yet, like an internal combustion of hydrogen. So I think it's really an exciting time. You know, the the last time that we had competing technologies was back at the birth of the industry when it was like steam and electric and gas. And uh we're kind of back there. And I'm I'm uh I'm an all of the above guy. I think it's up to people to decide what technology suits their needs. And the manufacturers are certainly doing a good job in providing a lot of choices. I mean, I a perfect example, the scout, which I think is really cool. They're bringing back. It's kind of a retro thing, all that other stuff. It was gonna be all electric. Over 70% of the early orders are for the range extended electric vehicle, which will have a gas engine in it. So that tells you something about where we're gonna be with all this stuff when it all settles out.

Dave 43:37

Well, that, and if you look at the market as it is as it is right now, there is no one size fits all solution to everything because we have, you know, we have just so many different lifestyles that people are looking at. Exactly. The the the gas engine might not be feasible for some person, or the you know, the EV might not be suitable for somebody else. So I think we still have a lot of learning to do and a lot of development. Development to do, but it's exciting to see that kind of happen. But I I I hated the talk of like, oh, well, gas engines are going to be dead. Look around for you, like if you take a drive, I've taken two in the last week, two work-related road trips, if you will. And the amount of gas-powered vehicles that are on the road is still astronomically disproportionate to the electric vehicles. There are electric vehicles and there's hybrid vehicles, but there's not as, you know, like we we can't let it die right yet because you know the world would come grinding to a halt. Right. That's absolutely right. Doug, any any last words, sir?

Doug 44:34

So so many as a uh full EV owner, I love it. It's been so interesting to watch the industry change from gas to everything's going electric. And then you see the Ford Lightning, right? And what happened with that. And now where we're going to uh EREV, as they say, right? And uh I think that's probably the best combination. Plug-in hybrid is the way to go. I love the the full self-driving that my car has given me if supervised self-driving, and it's taken away a lot of my I don't know, I would say anxiety on long trips where I don't want to go on long trips. So I've driven to Vermont. I didn't do most of the driving, but but the cars have also become boring in that way too. So seeing seeing a mix, especially for car enthusiasts versus somebody who just wants an A to B car, that's fine too. We have everything exactly. So yeah, Matt, it it was a true pleasure talking to you. Thank you for having me on. I I really appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. And hope hopefully we can have you back. And I love the title, the proposed book, all of the above, because uh that's that's where we are. You nailed it. You nailed it for sure.

Dave 45:45

Right.

Doug 45:45

Thank you.

Final Thanks And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_00 45:46

All right, well, thank you.

Dave 45:47

Yeah, you've just heard the high revving, low mileage, late model heard around the world authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He's Doug, you can reach him at Doug at CarsLove.com. I'm Dave, you can reach me at Dave at CarsLove.com. If you like what you heard, please tell a friend, leave us a review. If you want to find us, the easiest way to do so is at our link tree, l i n k dot eeslash carsloved.