Roadrunner To Pike’s Peak

What happens when a family heirloom gets a NASCAR heart and a date with a mountain? We brought Richard Tomlin of Apex Auto Works on to share the full story of transforming a 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner into a Pike’s Peak contender by setting the classic body over a stretched NASCAR truck chassis and dropping in a Mopar R5 P7 that sings to 9,500 RPM. The road to SEMA almost ended on the shoulder after a tow rig failure, but with help from racers and friends the car made a prime debut and drew a crowd that wanted every detail—how it was built, why it matters, and where it’s headed next.

We dig into the engineering: cutting and adding four inches to match the B-body wheelbase, aligning the shell, using NASCAR-style ride height adjusters, and balancing street presence with a proper cage, race seats, and belts. Then we climb into the thin-air problem. Pike’s Peak starts near 8,000 feet and finishes above 14,000, so we talk mid-altitude tuning targets, power loss on NA engines, and a throwback solution—variable jetting on a carb, with insight from Brad Pink, son of legendary engine builder Ed Pink. The motor has already proved itself on the mountain in a C10, and we break down the expectations for power at altitude versus near sea level.

Richard also opens the shop doors: a turbo LS7 Volvo, a refreshed ’69 Roadrunner, a twin-turbo LS G-body in paint, and a batch of Miatas, including a Lemons car that a 17-year-old is repairing while learning to wrench. We talk craft, patience, and why “toys” deserve thoughtful timelines. Along the way, we swap stories about Charlotte’s NASCAR spectacle—how great facilities make new fans—and preview a spring motorsports festival in Victoria’s Riverside Park: a tight, time-attack course through the trees designed for stunning visuals and driver challenge.

If you love bold builds, real-world engineering, and the culture that keeps car life vibrant, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend who loves hill climbs or sleepers, and leave a review to tell us what you’d climb the mountain with.

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Transcript

Live From “Alvin,” Show Kickoff

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast. Welcome to the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show coming up from the birthplace of the famous chipmunk Alvin. It's Richard Tomlin at Apex Auto Works and his Las Vegas showing of the infamous 68 Roadrunner. Later in Jeff's Car Culture, Ugly Muggs. You use your imagination. Mars has a review of the new Chrysler Pacific. Howdy, along with Mike Out of this World Mars, we always need more Jeff Zeken. Chief Engineer David Ainsley, I'm Don Armstrong. So glad that you could join us on this Saturday morning. Well, Mr. Mars, uh, we have our next guest.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

He's been patiently waiting around. I'll bet he has. I hope he enjoyed my uh introduction.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

Wonderful introduction, as always.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Do what?

SPEAKER_04 0:50

A wonderful introduction, as always.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Well, thank you. I didn't know whether you caught the uh Alvin and the chipmunk reference, but uh I just wanted to throw that out there. Thought it was fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Okay. What about Dave? Dave! Dave! Hey! Um Richard, uh, we we were thinking, oh my god, so the rain just finished here. It's headed down toward Alvin.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Are you still clear skies here now? Sun's coming out. It's awesome.

Richard Tomlin Joins The Show

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Okay, all right. Well good. So was it uh was it a fun trip to Las Vegas, sir?

Vegas Trip Chaos And Last-Minute Save

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Oh, Las Vegas is always fun, right? It's the uh getting there is half the fun. Uh we lost a tow vehicle on the way there, so call in. Yeah, the Ram decided it didn't want to go anymore. Had some injector issues. Um, so we called on friends and family, uh fellow racers, off-road racer came in, picked the car up, ran us into Vegas. We made it there in time for the show at the last check-in. Um and they put us in our prime spot right up at front. I guess it was the only spot left, and uh put it in the Hoosier Tire booth, and everybody was happy, and the car was a huge success and answered a lot of questions about what we had done and why. Um why we're running a big B body up Pike's Peak. Um, there was a lot of learning that happened.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Well, that's good. Uh did it make you angry?

SPEAKER_04 2:11

No, it's fun to explain things to people because not everybody agrees with you, right? And they don't have to. Uh when you tell them that it's a 10,800-mile car that you cut the belly out of um that's been in a family since 69, people get a little hurt. But I wasn't driving, I wasn't enjoying it doing what I was doing with it. So now um it'll be going to Sonic almost daily and grab us a Dr. Pepper and Chili Cheese Dog and come on back home.

SPEAKER_05 2:36

I could go for one right now. Yeah, that's it in the background, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:40

You know, that that's quite a tease because I'm thinking we all need to sit around the campfire with our chili cheese dog from uh Portillo's and uh and and and hear the whole story. So I I guess I must have missed the part where you cut the belly out of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

Yeah, so it's setting on a 2015 NASCAR truck chassis, um, which was still a Dodge vehicle at that time.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Wait a minute, a NASCAR race truck chassis complete.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

Back to back. All right, and uh just want to make sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Okay, yep.

Debuting The ’68 Roadrunner At SEMA

SPEAKER_04 3:12

So double A arm front, um, it is truck arm rear, it runs the Mopar R5 P7 engine, so revs to 9,500 RPMs. It makes 808 horsepower at the wheels in Colorado. Um, it's slow. Don is slow. It's it's it's not the quickest thing around, I promise.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

We're gonna call him Dr. Frankenstein. Or Wheezer, I'm not exactly sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

So, all right. Did you get it all painted up and looking pretty?

SPEAKER_04 3:43

Well, we got painted up, so as you can tell by the colors and the hand painted on it, is it was a throwback to what my father had done when he was drag racing it in the early 80s. Um that's it behind you right there.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

That's the orange and white car.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Correct. That's it. We built that in 93 days. Um it was a mad thrash at the shop. A lot of customers got pushed off for us to accomplish what we did. But yeah, in 93 days, we took it from uh a rolling B-body um to swapped onto a rolling NASCAR chassis um with NASCAR engine, and that was two trips to North Carolina to buy parts and chassis and get back here as well. So it was uh a mad thrash of 90 days and bad communications with you guys and us.

Why Build A Big B-Body For Pike’s Peak

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Um, and yeah, and we apologize for that. But uh I want to I want to delve into this a little bit more. Did you have to do anything to the chassis to get it to fit other than maybe uh a couple of tabs or something? Yeah, welding on some ears and tabs?

SPEAKER_04 4:44

No, so what we did is the roadrunner is actually a 116-inch wheelbase. The NASCAR truck is a 112, so we had to add four inches to the NASCAR chassis. So once we got it here, we cut all the cage structure off because that's what we do is we build cages. We're gonna put our own cage in it, and then we literally cut the NASCAR chassis in half, added four inches to it, squared it back up, welded it together, and then we lowered the roadrunner body over the top of it, started welding up, attaching components, and it fit. You make it fit. We've got grinders, okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah, yeah, we all have grinders, sir. We we're familiar with that.

SPEAKER_04 5:18

This is what you do.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

I know it is, I know it is. So how did the actual width of the wheel wells fit?

SPEAKER_04 5:27

I actually this we actually had to put spacers on it, so it's running uh about an inch and a quarter in the front and one inch spacer in the rear to fill out the wheel wells, and those are 18 by 10 um steel wheels. Um, we have our poverty caps or dog dishes as people call them that we can put on it for static display, which makes me feel better. Um, and it's setting right now what we call four by four height. That's the maximum height the car goes right now to load and unload from the trailer, but it drops about five and a half inches from there into uh race mode.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

And how do you do that? Is is it air suspension?

SPEAKER_04 6:00

All the NASCAR stuff, they use uh half inch, um, basically it's one inch all thread with a half inch impact, and you basically just run it up and down with the impact. It is just screw it in and screw it out. Yep, very awesome.

NASCAR Truck Chassis Under A Roadrunner

SPEAKER_02 6:12

I'll I'll say that that makes it pretty easy. Okay, so does it have what interior-wise, does it is is it street driven? Can it be street driven?

SPEAKER_04 6:22

It will be street driven, it has not been yet, but no door panels are all stock, dash is stock, no headliner, of course, because of the cage. The floor on the inside is 100% NASCAR, and then we've got our ultra-shield racing seats made here in Texas, ultra shield belts to hold driver and passenger in place, and let's go play.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So, how how do you how do you plate it? Does it already have plates and registers? Registrations?

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Nothing about it that they are that they would care about is that's been changed.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

So when you pull into Dubby's drive-in on a Friday night, Halloween night, 1965, everybody's gonna go, uh, it's just another stock car.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Yeah, yeah. This one will not sound so stock, I promise.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

9,000 RPM?

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Yeah, 9,500 RPM is what they ran that motor to, and they were supposed to be able to do that for 500 miles. Like it was built to go race 500 mile NASCAR races.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

So then when you go up Pike's Peak, or or it goes up Pike's Peak, because I'm assuming you're not driving. No, Ben Ryan will be driving it for Pike Speak. Okay, the air gets kind of thin up there.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

It does. So you start at uh what is it, 80, 200 feet, and then we raced to 14,000. So basically you tune it for the 10 to 12, so we call it the middle section. So little little lean bottom, little fat top, and uh you make the best of it. But this motor's been up pike speak twice in the C10 truck that it was in that we worked on in the past. Um we know the motor's capable, we know what it makes in Colorado, that's where the number is. When you think about 808 in Colorado, a mile high, we don't know what we're gonna make here. We would say 850, probably 860 wheel is is the best guess.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

So on the on the you said that from 8,000 to 16,000 feet.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Yep.

Stretching Wheelbase And Body Fitment

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Uh uh and the the the the part that you said you tuned for is thin on the top or thin on the bottom and fat on the top. Is that the sweet spot when you're going up after so many thousands of feet? Is there a sweet spot that you feel all the car's kicking in and we're going for it?

SPEAKER_04 8:19

You will feel the change in the car. Um, people used to say, and people still do say, is you'll be down 30 to 40 percent on an NA motor. Our other car is still light, we never notice it, but it is also a fuel injection. This one is carbureted. Rick did notice some drop. Um, but we're looking right now back into some of the old school stuff. The UNTERs used to actually run what I call a uh a throttle adjuster on an old lawnmower, but they would actually adjust the jetting, the variable jetting as they were going up the mountain. So we're looking into that and working with a guy, um, Brad Pink, um out of North Carolina to see if he can help us set something like that up.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

No relationship to Ed Pink, is it?

SPEAKER_04 8:59

He is his son, so yep. Son?

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Oh wow, wow, awesome. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 9:02

It was very nice to meet him and greet him, and he's the one who actually built the carburetor that's on the car. And you know, conversations continue because innovations is what makes this stuff fun.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Oh my god, dude. I had no clue that your shop was capable of doing this kind of stuff. It is so unique and so cool for any car guy. I don't care who you are. Uh, how about uh are you feeling the hug coming through right now?

SPEAKER_04 9:30

I greatly appreciate it, man. I really do. Like it's uh it's shocking. We actually ran through a couple employees in the process too, and um they've come back now and and things have calmed down. So we're we're getting back to back to our roots.

Stance, Spacers, And NASCAR Ride-Height Tricks

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Uh well that congratulations. I I I think it's truly amazing and very cool to say the least. All right. So, what do you have? Are you still going to continue to work on this for Pikes Peak in the spring?

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Yeah, the the goal is to get it into Colorado probably February, and we'll leave it up there so the local driver who's driving it will have it there on site to drive at every event locally he can. We'll have test days in MSR. Um, we've still got some rear brake stuff to fix um and fabricate, and then we will have it on track. Hopefully, before Christmas, we will be doing smoky burnouts in front of my house and around MSR. Nice. Right down to Richmond. Right? Like as a kid, that's how I learned to do clutch dumps. That's how I learned to slide a car. Was in this car, so it's only proper that's what it does again.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Wow. Well, uh, you know, I'm I'm thinking uh it needs an appearance in Dell Webb. Yeah, come on here and sign the driveway with it.

unknown 10:35

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Exactly. So obviously you still have to make a living, and this probably is sucking everything dry at this point. Uh so what do you what else have you got going on in the shop?

SPEAKER_04 10:47

Um in the shop right now, we got a Volvo with big LS7 turbo, which is amazing. We've got a 69 Roadrunner, we're doing some upgrades to um G-body twin turbo LS that doing paint and body on that. And then uh a couple Miatas. Uh, if you see this one over my left shoulder, it was a Lemon's car. Um he crashed it, I guess, two weekends ago at MSR. Um, 17-year-old driving getting into motorsports so we're extremely happy to have someone that young getting into the sport and enjoying it. We hate that they had a cost of uh smashing the front end. So he will be spending his Thanksgiving break here with us. He's gonna be in from Austin, spend a couple nights in the hotel, and he's gonna come up here and do the work, and we're gonna guide him through the process and start educating this young man on how to work on cars, not just drive them.

unknown 11:30

Richard.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Richard, typically when you get a customer into your shop, what's their turnaround time? Or and obviously it depends on what they want done to the car suspension or maybe some body work. Typically, what is the turnaround?

SPEAKER_04 11:41

What I tell everybody is we work on toys, and anything you bring me is nothing that you need back immediately, um, because I don't like rushing on things. Like the roadrunner just kicked my body, you should have just asked me.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Well, because he's the person who's got a big thing.

Streetability, Interior, And Registration

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah, you were there while I I I I've I've dipped my toe into that down there at Apex, and it was fine because I didn't have to have the car back. And I guess you had it for a week or so, maybe two, I don't remember exactly, but it didn't, it wasn't that important.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

And we got cool places to eat at here now.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

So you can now been there for decades.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

Um I Gordon Street, Gordon Street Tavern is where you guys went.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Yes, that's exactly right. And it's like home cooking with you know cornbread and all that good stuff. It is, it was very good. Yeah, it is, and thank you for that, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

No worries.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

All right, well, um, Richard, I uh I am thrilled. And uh look, he he's rubbing elbows now with Ed Pink's son. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And any and anybody that is an engine guy that appreciates all the work that Ed Pink did back in the day. Absolutely, you gotta love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:52

It was amazing to get to shake that man's hand, even just being, you know, son to. But yeah, the trip to North Carolina was so eye-opening on all the NASCAR stuff, but it's uh it's changed my outlook on a lot of the racing that we do. It may not be 100% the best that's out there, but it's 97-98% out of the box, and it's just amazing what they've done.

High-Rev Mopar Power And Sound

SPEAKER_02 13:12

You know, I was telling somebody the other day, we were talking about racetracks, and um a guy that I know uh actually lives in the Charlotte area. Have you ever been to a NASCAR race at Charlotte? I've been to one and I've never experienced anything like that in my life. And you know, Richard, you can't you can't really convey what that is to actually go and see it and be there in person. Um I've never been to Daytona, been to Indianapolis, I've been to Talladega, I've been to some other big tracks, but you know, that NASCAR track in Charlotte uh was the first of its kind back in the day. And uh Humpy Wheeler. And look at all of the tracks that have tried to mirror that that whole thing. Because it brought racing up to a new level, and people that had never been to a car race before felt comfortable going. Well, they turned it into the Barnum and Bailey, you know, of course.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

I mean made it visible for everybody, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Well, that and the and the fact that that is a beautiful facility. I mean, you walk in there, the restrooms are nice, they're clean, great concessions. You feel like that you know you're going to a Bucky's or going to an Alabama football game. Yeah, yeah, that kind of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

All right, Richard. Yeah, yeah, real quick. I mean, like real quick, you just said that there was an event down in Victoria.

Tuning For Thin Air On Pike’s Peak

SPEAKER_04 14:33

Yeah, so uh we ran our test event in Victoria last weekend. Um, it was a private invitation style event. I think we had 12, 13 cars. We were testing for our course. We're gonna be doing a spring event in Victoria. Um, it'll be a three-day motorsports festival. Um, think of it as a very small version of the Goodwood. Um, but we will have approximately 100 cars will show up and we'll run them over two days. Time attack style, 1.4 mile run in the trees in a city park in Victoria called Riverside Park. Um as I get dates, I'll get them to you. Should be April is our hope. Um, gonna let everything green back up so that the pictures are amazing because all the pictures are from inside the triangle, outside, so you don't have banners and cars, buildings, and structures. It just makes it for a much better.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

Hey, as soon as so as soon as you get a date, get it get us the information. Have you met uh Bobby and Jeremy down there yet?

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Yeah, Bobby, Bobby was actually out at this event. So uh Bobby and I, funny enough, met each other this year finally face to face in front of the Circus Circus. So you can't make that stuff up.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Well, he was there, yeah, he was there for SEMA as well. How appropriate. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Bobby, hey.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

So very good. Richard, it's always great to talk to you. Good to see you, my friend. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if we don't talk to you, a great holiday season.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Yeah, maybe we'll see you tell Pipes and Tacos on the 13th.

Variable Jetting And The Pink Legacy

SPEAKER_02 15:49

You betcha. Bring it. Come on up and see us. Bring the car. We'll chat. I'll take you. Take care. All right. All right. Uh moving on. Just ahead, Jeff's Car Culture. Ugly mug cars. You're gonna love it. Plus, Mars reviews the Chrysler Pacifica after this break on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Stay with us. The Tailpipes and Tacos Christmas Edition 2025 happens Saturday, December 13th from 8 to 11 a.m., and you'll want to be a part of it. Tailpipes and Tacos is the cruise in everyone wants to attend. And the Christmas edition is extra special. Donate an unwrapped new toy and help yourself to a free Loopy Tortilla Breakfast Taco. Velvey Adult Beverage is available for purchase too. And don't forget your ride. Just cruise in and you're automatically registered to compete for one of three famous chili pepper trophies: Best Hot Rod, Best Classic, and Best Modern Classic. Tail Pipes and Tacos Christmas Edition will be held Saturday, December 13th, 8 to 11 a.m. at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex, located at 703 West Grand Parkway, just south of the Katy Freeway in Katy. Oh, and don't forget to bring the kids. There'll be special trophies and hoodie bags for them, too. It's the Tailpipes and Tacos Christmas Edition 25, Saturday, December 13th, 8 to 11 a.m. at the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex at 703 West Grand Parkway in Katy. Bring a toy, get a free breakfast taco, and enjoy the camaraderie. In Real Time will be there too. Apple or Android InWheel Time podcasts can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads. Whether you're on the road or at home and Jones in for a different kind of car talk show, give In Wheel Time a try. Honest new car reviews, fun, informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's car culture and Mike's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time. Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music. Mm-hmm. InWheel Time.com has a list, and we know you love lists. And you can get your podcast there. Watch your thingy. Time now for Jeff's car culture. Cars with the ugliest mugs of all time.

Shop Capabilities And Lessons Learned

Testing Plan And Track Milestones

Current Builds: Volvo, G-Body, Miatas

Teaching A Young Driver To Wrench

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah, friends, it went too far, ugly mugs stuck in our memories. So what's the first thing you see when a car rolls into a car meet? No, not the ugly tacky rap. It's the grill. The grill alone can't entirely ruin a car, sometimes it can, but it can certainly shape how people remember it, often for all the wrong reasons. Many had solid features, thoughtful engineering, and even loyal followings somewhere. But when the front end starts the conversation on a strange, awkward, or just plain ugly note, it's like trying to find a perfectly sized wrench in a messy toolbox. First one we got is a Chrysler 300 from 2005 to 2010. Chrysler 300 made an entrance that shook the sedan segment harder than an ugly earthquake. When its wide stance squared off portions, proportions, and strong shoulder lines, it looked like a concept car that actually accidentally went into production. Or a muscle car dressed for a formal occasion. It stood out from other sedans like a sumo wrestler in a ballet class, and that was exactly the point. It quickly became a darling of rappers, customizers, and anyone who wanted to look on a budget. There you go. And then the next one we have is a Jeep Cherokee from 14 to 18. This Jeep Cherokee, the KL generation, brought some genuinely useful uh updates to the Jeep lineup. It offered a smooth ride on pavement, shocking revelation for Jeep, solid fuel economy, and better tech than many rivals. Inside it felt like a real step up toward daily drivers. The front end, however, told a different story. While Jeep's traditional seven slot uh design grille was technically perplexing, the ultra-narrow upper lights, which were actually the daytime running lights, and the main headlights were tucked awkwardly down in the bumper, left for many buyers scratching their heads. Imagine that. The next one is an AMC Matador Coupe from 74, and Kathy and I knew she had a real good friend that owned one of these, and it was a cool little car. For 74 at the time it was. AMC had a habit of doing things its own way, often with mixed results. The 74 Matador coupe was no exception. The grill pushed the limits, shaped like a giant pair of aviator sunglasses on a very surprised face. It gave the car an expression that bordered on comic, like a confused alien. While it certainly helped the Matador stand out in a crowd, bland the mid-70s cars, it didn't win any beauty contests. The car version of a bad toupee. The next one is a Lincoln MKT. Lincoln wanted the MKT to feel luxurious and forward-thinking. It offered a strong engine, including the twin turbo Eco Boost V6, which is a cool motor, quiet, comfortable ride, and available three-row seating, making it a generally practical full-size crossover. The grill, however, went all in on Lincoln's controversial split wing design, sometimes effectively uh affectionately or mockingly referred to as the butterfly or the mustache grill. With wide chrome bars sweeping across the front, it gave the vehicle a wide-eyed, almost bug-like look that felt more awkward than refined. It simply didn't feel aligned with the elegant upscale interior behind it, creating a jarry disc jarring disconnect. It was like putting a cartoon face on a serious business executive. Dodge Nitro, still around. The Dodge Nitro certainly packed a serious personality into a compact SUV. A personality that looked like it spent too much time in the gym. It squared off shape, aggressively flared fenders, and a bold styling made it look like a miniature bruiser or a bulldog on wheels. The grill leaned heavily on that theme, which thick vertical bars, often in chrome, and a massive dodram badge that took up the prime real estate. It bordered on the theatrical. Theoretically. Theoretically is theatrical. Screaming tough guy, louder than a muscle car convention. The grill made a strong impression that left little room for nuance, like a brick wall with a giant grin. It was all attitude all the time and very tacky. Last one, everybody's favorite, the Chevrolet SSR. One of Chevy's most playful, bizarre, and utterly committed designs for the 2000s, it combined a convertible, fun, power retractable hardtop with a retro pickup body, creating something no one else offered at the time. For drivers looking to stand out and uh relive their 50s hot rod fantasies with a modern V8, it absolutely delivered. It was like a cartoon come to life. The grill kept the retro theme going, but the wide, almost goofy smile and oversized curves gave it a slightly cartoon-like quality, like something out of the cars movie, even resembled Lightning McQueen a little bit. The grill certainly fit with the customer's overwall whimsical theme. Uh it even made its uh the styling feel more eccentric than generally cool, bordering on a character. So it was a bad, so much unapologetically silly.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Leave that up there for a minute. So the story with the fenders, General Motors. I already hit it. The the the fenders, GM had to go back to the 1950s to take the technology in the actual molds of the fenders from that generation to create this because the curves were so sharp to make them round that they didn't have that technology anymore, so they had to go back and look at how they did it. Yeah. And it was truly amazing. The other interesting thing about that, and I remember when it came out because I was in the press crew that at the time and driving it, it had no upper structure, so the whole thing flexed all the time, kind of like the PT not the PT, but the PT cruiser, the hot rod looking thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I had a company car.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

And there was no structure in the upper part of it. Plus, that one had a V8 in it, it had no horsepower, just like the V6 and the PT cruiser.

Turnaround Philosophy For Customer Projects

SPEAKER_01 24:13

But they were fun to look at. I'm sure they're fun to drive. I've never driven one, never been in one, but they were quite unique with that uh ugly mug belly.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yep, lot got lots of looks. I think uh uh Harold Gunn has one of those things. Okay, Mr. Morris. Um, yeah, it was yeah, a different day, shall we say? Thank you, Michael. Are you there? Yes, sir. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 24:34

Just I was just thinking about Harold's car. You know, I kept uh always wondered why somebody didn't hop one of those up and really make a hot car out of it.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Because the chassis couldn't handle it. I guess you would have to go under and and and actually spend a lot of money, more money on the chassis than any kind of motor that you could put in it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_05 24:55

You'd have to do something like Richard did and just gut it.

Charlotte NASCAR Magic And Facilities

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it was a cool thing. The interior was cool. It it was a three-seat, but it really was a two-seat with the little fold down thing in the middle. Uh and the retractable roof, what a nightmare. Because that retractable roof came in three pieces, I believe. And it was electrically operated, but it went behind the the seat inside the cab. And that kind of helped make it look weird. It was i i the thing, uh yeah. There was a lot of potential there, but I think they missed the opportunity. If you see one, you'll know. Yeah, most definitely. Oh, yeah. Every once in a while you will see one. I saw one just a couple of weeks ago, as a matter of fact. Well, um, anyway, we've got a lot to get to in the next segment. Our story of the week, I think, is going to interest you, and we invite you to stay tuned for that. That's coming up in the next uh half hour. Okay? We've got the story of the we got a bunch of stuff coming up. And real time car talk show continues right after this quick break. Join us. Who doesn't like a social event? How about one that centers around your love for all things automotive? Another Gulf Coast Auto Shield Car Social is back. Saturday, December 6th, 9 to noon, at 11, 275, South Sam Houston Parkway, just south of the Southwest Freeway. It's a morning packed with incredible cars, some of the finest rides in town, from classics to modern exotics. Here's your chance to talk to fellow car lovers. Grab a coffee, and check out how Gulf Coast Auto Shield keeps these rides looking perfect. Meet the team. Take a look around the shop to see firsthand how Gulf Coast Auto Shield gets the most of the look you're trying to create. In real time, we'll be there with their live car talk show. You might just be one of the guests. Don't miss this free, fun, and fast-paced car gathering of fellow car lovers and their rides. Saturday, December 6th at Gulf Coast Auto Shield, 11275 South Sam Houston Parkway. Bring your car, bring your friends, and bring your love for all things automotive. We'll see you then. The award-winning Inwheel Time Car Talk Show now reaches 5.3 million folks each year. Check us out on InWheel Time.com, YouTube, Facebook, and podcasts available from your favorite go-to source, including our live broadcast every Saturday, 10 to noon central time. The Inwheel Time Car Talk Show has informative automotive guest interviews, new car reviews, along with popular features including driving destinations, Jeff's car culture, latest car news, cruise ins, and racing dates. It's all on Inwheeltime.com. Join us. That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show. I'm Don Armstrong, inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning, 8 to 11 AM Central on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and our InWheeltime.com website. Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.