The Fastest Guest in our History! | HOT ROD Pod episode 13 Danny Thompson - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00:00Hey everybody, Brian Lones here with John McGinn, the editor of Hot Rod Magazine for

00:00:10another episode of the Hot Rod Pod, Where It All Began.

00:00:13This episode presented by Open Road Auto Insurance, and John, the fastest guest in the history

00:00:18of this show.

00:00:19Ever, and probably ever will have on this show.

00:00:22Yes.

00:00:23Danny Thompson, of course, the son of Mickey Thompson.

00:00:25We're going to have Danny in, and we're going to talk about the incredible story of the

00:00:28Challenger 2, a car that he drove to speeds of over 450 miles an hour at Bonneville.

00:00:33And it's a story more about life in a car and how this all kind of binds us together.

00:00:39Tenacity is how he describes his experience sort of carrying on his father's legacy.

00:00:45And I like the question where you asked him, like, what was the one thing that you got

00:00:49from your dad that you think he imparted upon you?

00:00:51And he's like, tenacity, stubbornness, stupidity.

00:00:54Yeah, exactly.

00:00:55It's so great.

00:00:56He's a guy that has great history in racing, and of course, his Bonneville exploits have

00:00:59been the stuff of legends.

00:01:01So we hope you enjoy this conversation with Danny Thompson, the one and only.

00:01:05And this is, again, the Hot Rod Pod, Where It All Began, presented by Open Road Auto

00:01:08Insurance.

00:01:09And if we're going to talk about where it all began in Hot Rod Magazine, we have to

00:01:13talk about land speed racing, the Dry Lakes, Bonneville.

00:01:16That is why we brought in a recognized badass expert, a man who holds a record at 448.757

00:01:23miles an hour, Danny Thompson.

00:01:24What's up, man?

00:01:25It's a pleasure to be here.

00:01:27It's so cool that people still cover Bonneville.

00:01:29Hot Rod Magazine certainly is, you know, what brought it kind of into its fruition way back

00:01:33in the day, and got people to understand what it was, because people, I mean, you go out

00:01:38to the middle of a desert and you go straight, I mean, people are kind of like, what is that?

00:01:41But Hot Rod, you know, Hot Rod brought that in, and that was, and they continue to do

00:01:46it.

00:01:47So thank you.

00:01:48You know, Danny, and you and I talked last week about this, and, you know, your life,

00:01:51we could sit here and write a ten-chapter or a ten-volume series on it, but I really

00:01:55want to concentrate our conversation today on Challenger 2, and your, you know, this

00:02:00has been an incredible journey in your life to bring this car that your dad first conceived

00:02:06and had built by one of the greatest assemblages of Hot Rodders of all time in the late 60s,

00:02:10and then to achieve in 2018 to become the world's fastest wheel-driven, piston-powered

00:02:15car.

00:02:16So I don't even know where to start, but I guess the first place to start is, how did

00:02:21these guys have a concept in 68 that you were able to take to fruition in 2018 and

00:02:26make kind of their ultimate kind of goal be realized?

00:02:30Well, it kind of all started in 1960 when my dad went 406.6 miles an hour with Challenger

00:02:361, but he didn't do it two ways.

00:02:39And if people don't know, at Bonneville, you have to do it two ways and combine those two

00:02:42times and that's your thing.

00:02:44So my dad, he did that, it put him on the map.

00:02:47I mean, it made Mickey Thompson be, you know, kind of a household name.

00:02:50And before that, the Brits had all the records, you know, and we couldn't beat the Brits.

00:02:55I mean, those guys were going 333 miles an hour in like 1934.

00:02:58Yeah, and they had these big estates and they had, you know, I mean, these guys were, they

00:03:02were basically, if not royalty, they were kind of royalty to have the budget that they

00:03:06did to come over and do what they were doing, John Cobb and these guys.

00:03:09And they had government, you know, backing them too, so, and definitely we don't have

00:03:13that.

00:03:14But anyway, so my dad did that, and then Summers Brothers went 409 in 1965, and then in 68

00:03:20my dad is going 409, yeah.

00:03:24My dad's going, I want that record.

00:03:26He never got that record.

00:03:27So that was something that was, that was always in it.

00:03:29So then he went to Ford and he got Ford involved.

00:03:32And then that's when, well, we built the Mustangs, three Mustangs for Bonneville, two funny cars

00:03:40and the Land Speed car.

00:03:41All within like six months, it was crazy.

00:03:43And then you had guys like Tom Jobe and Knife Rank, who was my mentor.

00:03:49Quinn Eperle, I mean, it just, you look at the people that worked on that, that the car,

00:03:54I mean, the car you end up driving, but it's, it is, it is an all-star team of the greatest

00:03:59fabricators of their day.

00:04:01And they were all young at the time.

00:04:06So the conception, Streamliners were basically a thing started by the British.

00:04:13And is that, is that true?

00:04:15Is that like with the concept of like the Streamliner?

00:04:18Yeah.

00:04:19I think, I think that's absolutely true.

00:04:20It evolved from a funny car.

00:04:21And then like, how did it evolve from there to what we see with Challenger 1 and then

00:04:26into Challenger 2?

00:04:27Well, in the, in the Brits, everything was big.

00:04:29I mean, the tires were taller than you were.

00:04:31They, I mean, John Cobb sat out in front of the car, right in the front of the car.

00:04:35There was nothing around him, but two big giant tires that could explode and take your

00:04:38head off.

00:04:39You know, maybe he had seat belts.

00:04:41I don't remember.

00:04:42It looked like a giant pumpkin seed.

00:04:43It did.

00:04:44It looked like a giant pumpkin seed with, with four.

00:04:45I mean, it, it looks, they all, the, the Streamliners or the cars of that era, like, let's call

00:04:50it the thirties and forties, they look like things you'd see in a, in a CGI made up world

00:04:55that we live in now.

00:04:56I mean, they don't look like things people created with their hands, but certainly they

00:04:59did.

00:05:00Yeah, they did.

00:05:01Well, and then that's what, you know, my dad went to Ford in 68 and said, you know, I want

00:05:05to do this.

00:05:06And then Ford, that was a launch of the Mach 1 Mustang.

00:05:09And you know, so that was into the funny car part of it.

00:05:12And then this was into the, into the land speed thing.

00:05:15And my dad always wanted to bring that record back, but we'll bring it back.

00:05:19He never had it.

00:05:20Yeah.

00:05:21Right.

00:05:22But he was smart enough.

00:05:23He didn't, he didn't tell anybody he didn't have it.

00:05:24He just told everybody he went 406 miles an hour, which he did.

00:05:26Yes.

00:05:27You know, instant hero.

00:05:28You know, there's great, I mean, you can go search online and you can see all the TV interviews

00:05:31he was doing at the time.

00:05:33He was everywhere, every possible place.

00:05:36You know, one of the things I think that's incredible too, about this era that you talk

00:05:39about the funny cars, the Mustangs, and then the Streamliner getting built.

00:05:42There's a story from the Sports Illustrated Archive, this guy named Bob Autumn wrote this

00:05:46story and it's called like the trials of old marshmallow foot.

00:05:49And Autumn is one of the great, he's a great writer, but he's a great automotive writer.

00:05:54And so Ray Brock, Danny Angais, your father, and this guy, Bob Autumn, they invite him

00:05:59out to the salt.

00:06:00They misspelled Autumn's name on the side of the car.

00:06:02They did.

00:06:03Oh.

00:06:04And so they were going to go out and set endurance speed records out there.

00:06:06So Autumn gets in the car with your father and your dad says, okay, well, you're just

00:06:10going to get it out here and keep it up at 65.

00:06:11And he says, oh, he's thinking, well, 6,500 RPM, not 65 miles an hour.

00:06:18And he spins the car around and he's got all these great stories, but you know, it is almost

00:06:23impossible to overstate the size that Mickey Thompson had in the automotive realm in the

00:06:30late 1960s.

00:06:31Well, and he didn't have an experience.

00:06:33I mean, he was a young kid when he opened Lion's Drag Strip.

00:06:37I mean, that was 1954 and he was 28 years old or something.

00:06:40And how he could do all this stuff and come up with it and make it happen.

00:06:44I mean, he was definitely smart enough to get good people.

00:06:47You know, I mean, the challenger one, that was only Fritz Voigt and him basically, you

00:06:50know?

00:06:51And I mean, Fritz, neither one of them, well, my dad kind of finished high school.

00:06:54My mom, you know, helped him finish it, a few valve jobs for the teachers and different

00:07:00things like that.

00:07:01And he got, he busted out.

00:07:03But you know, there's a funny story because Sir Malcolm Campbell, I guess it was Campbell,

00:07:11the second Campbell.

00:07:12Yes.

00:07:13Is that Malcolm?

00:07:14Donald.

00:07:15Donald.

00:07:16Yeah.

00:07:17So he, they're at Bonneville and he wants to see my dad's drawings for the car.

00:07:18He says, Mick, can we, I can't do a Brit accent, but can, you know, I'd like to see these drawings

00:07:22and everything.

00:07:23My dad says, no.

00:07:24And the guy says, well, why?

00:07:26He says, because they're all on the garage floor in El Monte with chalk, you know?

00:07:29And that's how that car all came about, you know?

00:07:32They took four Pontiac engines, him and Fritz, and put them in the middle of the floor, took

00:07:36chalk and they said, it's going to be about this big.

00:07:39And then they started, you know, buying tubing and, you know, Sears arc welder and, you know,

00:07:43it's scary.

00:07:44Off to the races they went.

00:07:45And they went and they did it, but, but, you know, back to the Challenger 2 or the Autolite

00:07:50Special at the time.

00:07:51I mean, Ford did that car basically, was it a Detroit?

00:07:56A CarCraft.

00:07:57CarCraft.

00:07:58Yeah.

00:07:59And they drew it all up.

00:08:00And I have the drawings.

00:08:01I have the drawings.

00:08:02I have one and everything's in full scale and everything by hand, you know, no CAD stuff

00:08:06or anything like that.

00:08:07Yeah.

00:08:08If I ever get another shop again, I'm going to put the one full-size drawing on one wall.

00:08:13That has to be incredible.

00:08:14Oh my gosh.

00:08:15Is that drawing 27 feet long or 30 feet long?

00:08:18Yeah, 30 feet long.

00:08:19Wow.

00:08:20I folded it out and looked at it and I'm just going, oh, this is so cool.

00:08:23I can't draw a triangle.

00:08:24And these guys are drawing stuff that's 30 feet long, one to one scale.

00:08:28And then Quincy did the back of the car off of the drawings.

00:08:31And then Tom and I and Louis Tekenoff did the body.

00:08:34And then Pat Foster was kind of like the chassis guy.

00:08:39And Ray Higley, who was a-

00:08:40Ray Higley.

00:08:41Yeah, from Carlsbad.

00:08:43And those guys all welded.

00:08:44They did that car in six months.

00:08:46Incredible.

00:08:47It took me four years to get it running again.

00:08:48And basically the thing was there, you know.

00:08:50So it tells a little bit about who's smart and who's not, you know.

00:08:55So they take the car to Bonneville in 68, and I think we really need to pick the story

00:08:59up here.

00:09:00So they take the car to Bonneville in 68, shake it down, shows good promise.

00:09:04The rain comes in and that's basically it for that original version of the car.

00:09:08That was it.

00:09:09So they got it running and everything was pretty good.

00:09:13Steering wasn't good and it wouldn't steer right.

00:09:15And so they took it back and worked on that, got the steering where it was pretty good

00:09:18and then came back and then that's when it rained.

00:09:20So I mean, the car is lined up.

00:09:23My dad made some runs.

00:09:24I mean, about, there's different stories on how fast it really is.

00:09:29No way.

00:09:30If it was my dad, it was 800, but the real truth was about, you know, 360.

00:09:35And so it had promise.

00:09:36And then, like you said, it got rained, it went back to the shop in Long Beach and got

00:09:40cleaned up.

00:09:41And then in 1969, that's when basically Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all said, you

00:09:47know, race on Sunday, sell on Monday.

00:09:49We're not going for that.

00:09:51They put all those programs in the trash can.

00:09:55And so that car set and it set and it set for 20 something years.

00:10:00And then, you know, I didn't, any racing that I did, I did on my own.

00:10:05My dad wouldn't help me.

00:10:06Right.

00:10:07He wouldn't absolutely refuse to help me.

00:10:08He did not want me to race.

00:10:11Part of that was Dave McDonald driving my dad's car in 64, you know, at the Indianapolis 500

00:10:16and he crashed and died.

00:10:18And so I'm still pissed off at my dad for not helping me.

00:10:23But now that once I had a child, then that's OK, I understand it was it wasn't about restricting

00:10:29you.

00:10:30It was about saving you.

00:10:31And but anyway, you know that.

00:10:33So it set for all those years.

00:10:35And then my dad came to me.

00:10:36I was racing on my own and I was fortunate enough to do pretty good in different series,

00:10:41road race series and everything.

00:10:42My drag racing.

00:10:43Atlantic guy.

00:10:44So you went over and ran Le Mans with Danny on Gaius and worked on that team and everything.

00:10:48So, yeah, you've been around.

00:10:49Yeah, I've been around.

00:10:50Yeah, I did.

00:10:51I mean, I think one year I did 56 events in 52 weeks, kind of like what you guys do, you

00:10:55know.

00:10:56But I mean, I did all the dirt bike stuff and the dirt bike stuff, you know.

00:10:58So I mean, I was that's all I wanted to do in life.

00:11:02I did not want to be a lawyer like my dad wanted me to be, that did not compute at all.

00:11:08So my dad and I had, you know, and because he taught me, he brought me up to be like

00:11:14him.

00:11:15Yeah.

00:11:16And that man.

00:11:17Yeah.

00:11:18But then he came to me in, I think, 88 and he said, I want to run that car again.

00:11:23He says, that's cool.

00:11:24I said, you know, I'll come help you if you want.

00:11:27And I forget who I was working for, maybe on Gaius or something at the time.

00:11:30And then he says, no, I'd like to have you drive it.

00:11:33And I went.

00:11:35And I'm looking, I'm going, you drinking, you know, what's happening here, you know.

00:11:42And anyway, so we made a plan.

00:11:43And then it was just shortly after we made that plan that my dad, you know, got murdered.

00:11:49And so then I didn't want to do it because it was going to be a father son deal.

00:11:52Yeah.

00:11:53You know, I'm Mickey and Danny.

00:11:54In fact, even on the on the pictures of the roll cage on the rowbar padding and stuff,

00:11:58it says drivers, Mickey and Danny.

00:12:00You know, I mean, it was.

00:12:01Yeah.

00:12:02Yeah.

00:12:03And look, to me, you know, there's like there's a double kind of sadness in that part of the

00:12:09story in that you lose your father in this horrendous, horrendously tragic way.

00:12:15But also it was at this moment of reconciliation, like it's like it just to me, that's the real

00:12:20heartbreak in that where it's like, damn, like the whole thing had actually kind of

00:12:24come full circle.

00:12:25And here it is again.

00:12:26And it's like and that was going to be one of my questions to you was like, is that why

00:12:29you kind of went dead stop on the project at that point outside of the financial side

00:12:34of it?

00:12:35Was it just the idea of even looking at that car at that point was just not something you

00:12:39could do?

00:12:42I was probably I knew I mean, I wouldn't I'm a fabricator.

00:12:45I do all those things.

00:12:46I've been all around different kind of race cars, but I didn't have the confidence to

00:12:50go to something new and try to tackle that because it was a big deal if you're going

00:12:53to fail and like trying to get help.

00:12:56You were you were destined to fail with a 50 year old car, 42 years old when we first

00:13:02started it.

00:13:03Sure.

00:13:04But I mean, it was everything was against you.

00:13:05And I thought, OK, well, if I can find enough good people, you know, to help me.

00:13:09And then I moved from Colorado back down to Huntington Beach and then I had some people

00:13:13that were going to help me.

00:13:14And that didn't work out.

00:13:15And it was kind of like I'm sitting there looking at that car and I'm looking at that

00:13:18car.

00:13:19I'm going, can I do this?

00:13:20Can I do this?

00:13:21And then I forget what I did.

00:13:22I cut the roll cage off because it wasn't up to spec anymore.

00:13:25And that thing had to fit in 17 different places.

00:13:27It had to be within a 30 second of an inch.

00:13:31And I did that and I did it twice.

00:13:35I put a tack on it and then the hood wouldn't close.

00:13:37And then finally, 500 tacks later, you know, OK, maybe I can do this, you know.

00:13:43And then we had this kind of this nucleus of people, Jerry Darien and R.C.

00:13:49Catton and different people, Jeff Heywood, that were around looking at this thing.

00:13:54And everybody was kind of out here because they're all knowing that you can't do that

00:13:58with an old car.

00:13:59And then as things just slowly started coming, that circle came closer and closer and it

00:14:04became the best group of people I've ever worked with, any of the series I did, because

00:14:09everybody really wanted it.

00:14:10There wasn't any money, you know, and two guys got paid.

00:14:14I was the third guy.

00:14:15That guy didn't get paid.

00:14:16I was the one that wrote the check.

00:14:17I ran out of ink at that point, you know.

00:14:20But it was this group of people and it just kept getting closer and closer.

00:14:23It means, you know, Darien with the motors.

00:14:25And I didn't know anything about fuel motors.

00:14:26We talked about that, you know.

00:14:28And so I'm having to learn that.

00:14:29I mean, I've been around fuelers all my life, basically.

00:14:31But I mean, that's trick.

00:14:34Those guys, I mean, like the big show guys, I mean, the things they do and the time frame

00:14:39that they do it and that stuff, it's just I became infatuated with drag racing again

00:14:43by that because I was out of that, I was into road racing and all that stuff.

00:14:47But anyway, that group kept coming closer and closer.

00:14:49So what we had from 68 is we had the shell with the body and no engines, no transmissions.

00:14:57We had rear ends.

00:14:59And that was it.

00:15:00In a front end that wasn't legal.

00:15:02In a front end that was not legal and was scary.

00:15:04I mean, it was a wagon wheel steering, just like a little red wagon.

00:15:07Yeah, that's maybe an important point to make just so people understand how that works.

00:15:10Because you read stories that say, well, that's wagon steering.

00:15:13Just explain that to people because it's hairy.

00:15:15Yeah.

00:15:16Well, it's a little red wagon.

00:15:17And I mean, you turn the handle to go somewhere where the wheelbase shortens, right, on one

00:15:21side and lengthens on the other.

00:15:23Now, you don't have much steering on a Bonneville car.

00:15:25You know, like that car only had two and a half degrees, but it still pivots from the

00:15:28center.

00:15:29And some people got killed at Bonneville with that steering and they made it be illegal.

00:15:33So you couldn't do that anymore.

00:15:34Well, we got Tim Gibson on our side.

00:15:37Great aerodynamicist.

00:15:38Oh, man.

00:15:39And just mechanical, really good too.

00:15:42I mean, you know, Bernstein and Force and Gurney.

00:15:46I mean, those are pretty, pretty heavy hitter names to work for.

00:15:49And so he started working on that.

00:15:50It took him a few months to get it.

00:15:51I mean, the front end had five axles, you know, five axles in it.

00:15:55We made our own U-joints and everything out of MAR-AG, all the right stuff.

00:16:00But we still use the original rear ends.

00:16:02And my dad and Ernie Hermoso had cast five of them.

00:16:06And Ernie had two.

00:16:08My dad had two.

00:16:09My dad had a spare.

00:16:10And that was for Ernie's Lycoming jet car.

00:16:15Anyway, so that came together.

00:16:17And then we were putting no more SOHC motors, single overhead cam forward motors.

00:16:23So we got Brad Anderson go down to Brad to see.

00:16:29And Brad's your friend until it's time to pay.

00:16:34There's no discounts, you know.

00:16:35It doesn't matter.

00:16:37But anyway, we use that combination with Jerry Derry and figuring the A combination out.

00:16:43And Jerry did the heads and all that and the injectors.

00:16:46And so then now you've got motors and that comes together.

00:16:49Then you've got to do rear ends, or the rear ends were used, and then transmissions and

00:16:54figuring all that stuff out.

00:16:55And it just, it took four years.

00:16:57Yeah.

00:16:58And you're, unlike most other people, you're having to figure it out and fit it in an envelope

00:17:02that already exists.

00:17:03A lot of people, you've got to build a mechanical side of it and figure out.

00:17:06This was, you had the box that you had to fit everything into.

00:17:10That's so observant because that was the hardest part.

00:17:13I mean, like the frame rails were three by three square tubing on the top.

00:17:17Well, this SOHC motor is way narrower than the HEMI.

00:17:22And so those three inch ones came into three quarters inch where I had to cut that much

00:17:27out of them.

00:17:28And then, you know, like I said, the cage wasn't legal and that had to get done.

00:17:31And then the bottom rails, they weren't legal.

00:17:34So I had to get down there and bore those out and then stuff more tubing in it and weld

00:17:38it.

00:17:39And just slowly and slowly it came together.

00:17:42And then finally we got to in 2014, so I moved down here in 2010, 2014, we took it

00:17:47out to El Mirage and ran it the first time.

00:17:50And I keep thinking, well, you know what to do because you've been around racing all your

00:17:55life, sports cars, Indy cars, you know, this stuff, right?

00:17:58We got out there to El Mirage, I'm going, you don't know, you don't know nothing, you

00:18:07know, and we're out there with no tents and, you know, how do you take it off the trailer?

00:18:11That's another thing.

00:18:12How do you load a car that's 32 feet long on a trailer?

00:18:15Yeah.

00:18:16Well, Seth Hammond, we stole his ideas and made an airbag suspension where the thing

00:18:20just came all the way.

00:18:21No axles underneath the trailer, all airbags with arms, trailing arms, and everything goes

00:18:25right down to the ground and all of those things you had to start figuring out.

00:18:29And then we got to Bonneville and we're going, okay, we got this.

00:18:32And we get up there and they say, well, the car's not legal because it's got a fuel bags

00:18:36in it.

00:18:38Everybody runs fuel bags, all FIA, a few, you know, Indy cars, F1 cars, everything but

00:18:44drag cars.

00:18:45Yeah.

00:18:46And they said, well, you can't, we can't let you run.

00:18:49And I'm going, I don't know if I want to kill somebody, I know I want to kill somebody.

00:18:54So the guy says, okay, we'll let you run, but you can't go over like 200 miles an hour.

00:18:58He says, okay.

00:18:59So we made the first run at 319.

00:19:03Everything seemed to work.

00:19:04Whoopsie doodle.

00:19:05Yeah.

00:19:06Now that's faster.

00:19:08That was on a three mile track.

00:19:09And our first run was faster than I'd ever been by.

00:19:12I'd been 260, I think, in the Mustangs.

00:19:16And I keep like all of these things remind me of something else because we took in 2011,

00:19:25we replicated what my dad did with a 68 Mustang.

00:19:28You and Brent Hayek, right?

00:19:30Brent Hayek.

00:19:31Yeah.

00:19:32So anyway, but we get to Bonneville.

00:19:33And so we make this run and then we're going, okay, I think we got to handle this.

00:19:38So that was a three mile track, not a five mile track.

00:19:39So we come back three weeks later for speed week, rain.

00:19:43Yeah.

00:19:44Two years in a row, 14 and 15.

00:19:46Yeah, 14 and 15.

00:19:47One thing I just want to double back on before we go too far ahead.

00:19:49So this is basically an eight year process of getting the car up to what we now know

00:19:54is on the Bonneville salt flats as we're talking about.

00:19:57And one of the things I kept thinking about as I was going through the story and kind

00:20:00of putting my thoughts together was you're working with incredibly talented people.

00:20:06You're working with people who are like peak fabricators, peak tuners, peak everything

00:20:10that are basically volunteering their time.

00:20:13How do you oversee these people and manage them without sending them all out the door?

00:20:18Because a lot of these guys have worked for pretty big paychecks in their lives and gone

00:20:21romp and stomp into the next garage down the block.

00:20:24So what is the leadership that kept that group together?

00:20:27I think what it is when we brought the engine guys in, I let the engine guys take care of

00:20:31the engine.

00:20:32I didn't go in there and say, you need to do this and you need to do that.

00:20:35I let them have their head on that.

00:20:36And we always talked about everything.

00:20:38Same thing with Gibson.

00:20:40If you let Gibson go, I mean, it can get pretty crazy.

00:20:44But kept all that just in those groups.

00:20:47But all of these guys, these guys, I mean, they all had their job.

00:20:52Everybody knew their job.

00:20:53I didn't have to go tell anybody anything.

00:20:56Whenever there was a question, then we would all come together.

00:20:58Or if it was a motor, it would be me and RC.

00:21:02We had Richard Catton, Craig Johnson, who worked for Shaver for 30 years.

00:21:08And then another guy, Rich Kurtz, he worked with RC and those guys when they ran Funny

00:21:14Cars stuff.

00:21:16And so that was a group.

00:21:18You left them alone.

00:21:19Nobody bothered them.

00:21:20And nobody was allowed to bother them.

00:21:22Nobody was allowed to come in and mess with them or anything like that.

00:21:25I had a sergeant at arms with a kid I grew up with that was a little badass, little four,

00:21:31five foot guy.

00:21:32And you just looked at him and he would stand around like that and make sure nobody messed

00:21:37with anybody.

00:21:39And same with, brain fade, Frank Hannerhan.

00:21:45He was like our crew chief.

00:21:47But we didn't really have a crew chief.

00:21:49But they had to go to him before they came to me.

00:21:55And Frankie worked for, well, he just quit working for Gurney right now.

00:22:00He's the one doing that 67 Time Mag Indy Formula One car, putting it back together for Gurney

00:22:06and for Justin.

00:22:08But those guys, you know, and all of those people.

00:22:10And then my wife came in, right?

00:22:12My wife wasn't with us at first because her mom was dying and she was taking care of her

00:22:16full time.

00:22:17And she came in and I'm thinking, how do I bring her in?

00:22:21We had 37 people there the last event.

00:22:24We had people there that gave us a quart of oil, like, you know, 10 years before.

00:22:28And, you know, they were on the team because we needed that quart of oil.

00:22:32You know, and my wife came in, I'm thinking, she's a little, you know, five foot lady,

00:22:36100 pounds.

00:22:37And I'm thinking, these guys, like you were saying, they've been around, they worked for

00:22:40some big, big hitters and all that stuff.

00:22:42And how are we going to, how is she going to deal with them?

00:22:45But I let her do that.

00:22:47And just like she would say something, those guys were like, I'm going, how the hell did

00:22:53she do that?

00:22:54You know, but it was just that with the whole group.

00:22:56I mean, everybody came in and everybody, it just, you know, if somebody was stumbling

00:23:01with something, somebody else would come in and just help them.

00:23:04Didn't have to ask.

00:23:05Everybody just came in and it's, it raises the hair on my arm.

00:23:08It's just, it was so bitching.

00:23:09It's like a hybrid, because this is not your father's leadership style.

00:23:13No.

00:23:14So you got his tenacity.

00:23:16You got the will to see this thing through to the end, no matter what it was going to

00:23:19take to do it.

00:23:20But he would not have led that group of guys like that.

00:23:23But you can't lead people like that anymore, maybe.

00:23:24I don't know.

00:23:25It worked.

00:23:26It worked, you know, and I worked with enough people and I worked with them.

00:23:30My dad, my dad was tough, you know, and he worked people to death.

00:23:34You know, I mean, well, you work for my dad, a hundred hour work weeks are not uncommon,

00:23:38you know.

00:23:39And in fact, we worked six months, basically a hundred hour weeks.

00:23:43And I had a chance to drive a Formula 5000 car.

00:23:46And I told my dad, I got a chance to drive a Formula 5000 car on a Sunday at Willow.

00:23:51And I said, I'd like to take that day off.

00:23:53And he said, nope, can't do it.

00:23:54Wow.

00:23:55He says, you cannot do it.

00:23:56He says, if I give you the day off, I get everybody the day off.

00:23:59I said, that's all right.

00:24:00Give him the day off.

00:24:01You know, he wouldn't do it.

00:24:02And so I went anyway.

00:24:04And I came back and he goes, what do you have to say for yourself?

00:24:08I mean, he was pissed, right.

00:24:10And I said, well, I said, I don't think I need any help packing my toolbox.

00:24:14I said, I'll just go ahead and pack it up and head on down the road.

00:24:17I mean, that's, that's how serious that stuff got, you know.

00:24:21But that was all part of the deal, you know.

00:24:24So.

00:24:25Hmm.

00:24:26Did you guys reconcile after that?

00:24:27Like, what was the period of time where you had to cool off?

00:24:30It was a while because we were both hardheaded.

00:24:32Like I said, he raised me like he, him, you know.

00:24:35And so, yeah, it was a, yeah, it was for a while.

00:24:38It was definitely, but I was going racing.

00:24:41I wasn't being a lawyer.

00:24:42I was going racing and whatever it took, you know, that's what, when I started Formula

00:24:47Atlantic, you know, I got a crash car and guys actually found it for me and it was crashed

00:24:52And by that time I'd been working for guys doing, doing tubs and stuff.

00:24:55That was before carbon fiber, doing tubs and stuff.

00:24:57So I knew how to do that stuff.

00:24:59And like I crashed a car when I was working for Gurney and Rem let me come in after work.

00:25:04Rem being Phil Remington, the Phil Remington.

00:25:06The Phil Remington.

00:25:07I worked for Phil, you know, so, so besides Nye Frank and Tom Jobe and Pastor and Batura

00:25:13and all those guys, then I went to work for, I went to Gurney's, right, trying to get a

00:25:17job with their new GTU program as a driver.

00:25:21And I went over there and they hired Willie T. Ribbs instead.

00:25:25And so there I am standing there going, what am I going to do?

00:25:28I don't, I don't have a job or anything.

00:25:30And I was buying and selling Volkswagen parts, you know, going to the junkyard and buying

00:25:34dual port heads and then know who needed them.

00:25:36Your marketplace before it was cool.

00:25:38Yeah, exactly.

00:25:39Exactly.

00:25:40And then anyway, Rem was there and they introduced me to him and, you know, anyway, I went to

00:25:44work, you know, as a fabricator.

00:25:46My bench was next to Rem's and that was frightening.

00:25:50I mean, that's like being at the right hand of the almighty, right?

00:25:52I mean, it is for sure.

00:25:54The very first morning, right?

00:25:55We come in and we started at seven or whatever, and then came 10 o'clock, he says, coffee

00:25:59break.

00:26:00And I went, well, I don't think I've ever worked anywhere where you had a coffee break,

00:26:03you know?

00:26:04And so Rem's got this piece of a one inch aluminum bar stock and he's heating it because

00:26:08he's bending it and he's heating it with a torch and he says, coffee break, and he takes

00:26:12in his coffee sitting there from like seven in the morning, cold, and he takes this one

00:26:16inch bar, you go, and the coffee's spilling out the top of it and everything, he says,

00:26:21in my office.

00:26:23And we went in there and he just, it was just like nothing.

00:26:25It was just like, you know, what does Phil Remington do on his day off?

00:26:28Builds a freeway off ramp to a house, you know?

00:26:31So those, all of those things that, that all helped kind of to answer your question about

00:26:36how do you deal with all those people?

00:26:38Because you see how Rem worked with people and how Angaius worked with people and Dan

00:26:43worked with people and all that stuff.

00:26:46And I always felt like the fabricators and the mechanics never got treated well enough.

00:26:52And so that was my goal was to, like my dad didn't give anybody else credit, but my dad,

00:26:58right?

00:26:59So that was his style and it worked and it was good.

00:27:01I'm not, I'm not putting the mouth on it, but so all of the guys that worked on the

00:27:04car in 68, I put all their names on the car.

00:27:09And then I put all of my guy's names on the car.

00:27:11The 68 crew and 2016 crew, because I want all those guys to get credit because it's,

00:27:17it's them.

00:27:18It's them.

00:27:19It's them.

00:27:20Yeah.

00:27:21Their, their blood and sweat is still there.

00:27:22Yeah.

00:27:23You know, from the original guys to the present.

00:27:24Absolutely.

00:27:25And when those guys shut the canopy and say, go, you can't have a second thought.

00:27:30Yeah.

00:27:31This is a thing about Bonneville that people don't understand.

00:27:33So we didn't, so we ran a 14, right?

00:27:37And we, we got rained out.

00:27:39We went back two weeks later and we went the very first run, three 92, very first five

00:27:44mile run, get to the other end, pull the parachutes.

00:27:50And I'm going, Oh, okay.

00:27:51I'd never been that fast, right?

00:27:52Pull a shirt.

00:27:53Ain't that big hit.

00:27:54And I'm going, okay, we gotta, we gotta slow that deal down.

00:27:57And then now I can't see anything, right?

00:27:59I'm going it.

00:28:00There's liquid everywhere.

00:28:01Well, these are dry blocks.

00:28:03There's no water in the blocks or anything.

00:28:05Well, I had everything so tight because everything was so tight in there that you'd barely had

00:28:08to move anything.

00:28:11And what happened is a parachute hit so hard.

00:28:13It took the fire bottle off.

00:28:14Oh, now the fire bottles are.

00:28:17So basically we're going 400 miles an hour and fire bottles will go right in my eyes.

00:28:21And I'm going, what is that?

00:28:23Oh, what is that?

00:28:24You know, now you're using real estate up pretty quick.

00:28:26Oh yeah.

00:28:27Two and a half football fields a second.

00:28:28And I'm going, can't see it, but pull my visor up, you know, pull my visor up, fire bottles,

00:28:34straight in my eyes.

00:28:35I'm going, okay, okay.

00:28:37What do you do now?

00:28:38Well, when are you going to run out of salt?

00:28:39You pulled the shoe to the five and you only got seven and a half.

00:28:43And you've sucked up a lot of it just thinking about that.

00:28:45Just thinking about it, right?

00:28:47And so finally there's a, there's a, we got to the eight mile sign and then three feet

00:28:52out in front of it are three cones, right?

00:28:54I went right in between them and didn't hit them.

00:28:56Wow.

00:28:57I'd like to say that I'm a good driver.

00:28:59I couldn't, I couldn't see them.

00:29:01I just started turning off.

00:29:04And then anyway, the next morning we went back and ran 419 and then we'd lost a clutch.

00:29:09And I forgot where I was going with my original story.

00:29:11But that was, the average was 406 and change, right?

00:29:14Wasn't that the magic of that?

00:29:15Or was that the following year?

00:29:16That was two years later.

00:29:17So 15 we got completely rained out.

00:29:19And then in 16 we went up and, and we didn't have it tuned right.

00:29:24And it, but we, we, we got a record, you know, and I mean, that was like, yeah.

00:29:31My dad went 406.6 in 1960.

00:29:34Our two way average was 406.7.

00:29:37So we kicked the old man's ass by one tenth of one mile an hour, 50 something years later.

00:29:42But it's poetic.

00:29:43I mean, it's crazy poetic to come out like that at the same speed.

00:29:46Yeah.

00:29:47You know, you're not talking about very many people have gone over 400 miles an hour.

00:29:50I think one of the things, and, and, and land speed racing is, is people know what it is,

00:29:55but it's very foreign to most people.

00:29:57Like they know what Bonneville is.

00:29:58They know what a streamliner is, but they don't really understand a lot of the machinations

00:30:02of everything.

00:30:04And one of the things that's so incredible is like, it is the only motorsport where you

00:30:07can not only start with a car that's as old as this thing was, but then take eight years

00:30:11to finish it and still have a competitive piece because you're basically trying to do

00:30:15something that so few people on the planet are even trying to do in the first place.

00:30:19If you, if you try to go, you legally couldn't do it, but if you try to go run stock car

00:30:23racing and rolled your, you know, 1986 cup car out of the trailer, they're not going

00:30:27to let it on the racetrack.

00:30:28Right?

00:30:29So that's, that's a part of it.

00:30:30But the other part of it is the idea of the patience it takes to be a successful land

00:30:34speed racer is beyond anybody's conception because when it rains, that's it for the year

00:30:39we're done.

00:30:40You're done.

00:30:41And that's the point I started to make a while ago.

00:30:42But so now you haven't run for a year, oh, and maybe two years.

00:30:47And now you get back in the car, you don't go out and make five laps and come in and

00:30:51change stagger or change this or change the tune.

00:30:54You get in the car after all that time and you go 400.

00:30:56Yeah.

00:30:57I mean, that's a pretty serious deal.

00:30:59I mean, there's less people, there's more people that have walked on the moon than have

00:31:03gone over 400 miles an hour in a piston car.

00:31:06That's an interesting statistic, but yeah, no, no, there's no place to test and the window

00:31:13of opportunity at Bonneville is so narrow.

00:31:16You got to get it all done.

00:31:18Are there things you can do, like I've seen the warmup procedure where they're running

00:31:23the engines and engaging the transmissions and the wheels are spinning up to like, you

00:31:28know, inflate the wheels up, but that's basically all you've got.

00:31:31Right.

00:31:32And you can't, you can't simulate a run.

00:31:36We put oil heaters in there to, you know, bring the temperature up quick so it doesn't

00:31:38have to sit too much, you know, because we started off running 50% nitro, which it didn't

00:31:44really care.

00:31:45And then we went to 60.

00:31:46I'm going, yeah, we're getting pretty brave.

00:31:47And then we went to 70 and then above 70, it started to make a difference.

00:31:51I'm going, oh, wow, this has got some beans now.

00:31:55And then we got into the 80s and I'm going, holy smokes.

00:31:58Our down run on our record run was 446 miles an hour on 70, on 83%, 83%.

00:32:06And I kept asking Kat and I said, give me some more nitro.

00:32:08Give me some.

00:32:09Now you can't handle more nitro.

00:32:10You can't.

00:32:11And I'm going, yeah.

00:32:13So finally he says, after our 446, he goes, okay, I'm going to give you three more percent.

00:32:17I'm going, 3%, big deal, big deal, right?

00:32:21It is a big deal, man.

00:32:23We fired that thing up the next morning and I'm going, what's different?

00:32:28What's, you know, something was different, but I couldn't really tell.

00:32:31And I left the truck when they pushed me off and I left the truck.

00:32:34I go, oh my God, I got a tiger by the tail here.

00:32:37And that it was a completely different car.

00:32:40And those guys figured between the two motors, you're maybe 600 horsepower, I guess.

00:32:44With that 3%.

00:32:45With that 3%.

00:32:46Yeah.

00:32:47So you're talking, and we should explain to people in total, this is a 5,000 horsepower

00:32:50car.

00:32:51Yeah.

00:32:52Yeah.

00:32:532,500 a piece with the two injected nitro burning Hemi's.

00:32:56And that's another thing to think about.

00:32:57You know, if you're a drag racing fan and you're watching this and you watch an injected

00:33:00fuel dragster go 280 miles an hour for a split second, it's cool.

00:33:04This is a car that is going to run and use 50 gallons of fuel probably over the course

00:33:09of a run.

00:33:10So it's going to be at this sustained speed for minutes and it's going to survive with

00:33:15your fingers crossed.

00:33:16Yeah.

00:33:17With no water.

00:33:18With no water.

00:33:19Dry blocks.

00:33:20Yeah.

00:33:21Dry blocks.

00:33:22And we run there at the end.

00:33:23You can put your hands on the cylinder heads like that.

00:33:24And the fuel volume is what keeps you.

00:33:25The fuel volume.

00:33:26Yeah.

00:33:27You know, we stole that from the big show guys.

00:33:28You know, I mean, we don't run, you know, how they do.

00:33:32You know, we can't run it that long because we run 68 seconds is what it takes to make

00:33:35a run.

00:33:36Minute and eight seconds.

00:33:37Okay.

00:33:38At full bore.

00:33:40Yeah.

00:33:41So that's the other thing.

00:33:42I want to build a new car.

00:33:43Really bad.

00:33:44I mean, that's my goal.

00:33:45I want to go 500 miles an hour.

00:33:46I'd like to be the first to do it if George doesn't beat us to it, which he might, you

00:33:50know, this year.

00:33:51But I want to go 500.

00:33:52Mm-hmm.

00:33:53500 is synonymous.

00:33:54Oh.

00:33:55The Indy 500.

00:33:56Sure.

00:33:57The Daytona 500.

00:33:58The Bonneville 500.

00:33:59Yeah.

00:34:00You know, whatever it is.

00:34:01But then we'll run probably two blown motors.

00:34:03Yeah.

00:34:04You know.

00:34:05That makes sense.

00:34:06Two blown motors.

00:34:07Yeah.

00:34:08With traction control.

00:34:09Yeah.

00:34:10And then the 450, 450 run, 459 out the door, I never got above 35% throttle in low gear.

00:34:17Because it wouldn't take it.

00:34:18You know.

00:34:19And we don't have traction control.

00:34:20Yeah.

00:34:21Mm-hmm.

00:34:22We had, you know, Danny control.

00:34:23Mm-hmm.

00:34:24And if the front tires were spinning, you could feel it in the steering, the rear tires,

00:34:27you felt it in your butt.

00:34:28You know.

00:34:29So.

00:34:30And then in second gear, 76% throttle.

00:34:33And then in high gear, 100% throttle.

00:34:35And so let's talk on that for a second, because people can go to your YouTube page and watch

00:34:39the in-car for these runs.

00:34:40Yep.

00:34:41And as a guy sitting at my desk watching this stuff, especially that 450 run, you're at,

00:34:48I mean, it was terrifying for me to watch.

00:34:51Because you have to put, you basically have to put full lock into it once or twice.

00:34:54And you well know the implications of that in a streamliner.

00:34:57If that thing gets even a couple more degrees out of shape, you're basically a pencil rolling

00:35:01across a desk that's 12 miles long.

00:35:04Yeah.

00:35:05Mm-hmm.

00:35:06Yeah.

00:35:07And that's exactly right.

00:35:08Because Bonneville is so slippery, if people don't know, it's almost like driving on snow.

00:35:11Mm-hmm.

00:35:12Kind of give you a quick evaluation of it.

00:35:14And there's a big dip in the mountains on the left side out about two miles, three miles.

00:35:19Well, the wind will come through there.

00:35:21Yeah.

00:35:22And that's typically about the three-mile mark.

00:35:23Well, we were going 430 miles an hour on the return run, on the return record run.

00:35:29And there was a 12-mile-an-hour crosswind that came across there.

00:35:32So if you can imagine, we have almost 7% wheel slip anyway on the salt.

00:35:38And so it doesn't take much to do it.

00:35:40And that thing just went whoop.

00:35:42And I saw the mountains.

00:35:44I didn't see Floating Mountain.

00:35:45I saw the mountains.

00:35:46Yeah.

00:35:47So now I'm pointing to Reno.

00:35:48Yeah.

00:35:49And a second later, I was pointing to Salt Lake City.

00:35:51And it was kind of like, whenever that happens at Bonneville, you pull the parachute.

00:35:55Because what it does is separate the center of pressure from the center of gravity more.

00:35:58And it gives the car stability when it's in yaw.

00:36:01Yeah.

00:36:02So when it's sideways, it brings it back.

00:36:03Yeah.

00:36:04And it was like...

00:36:05And I don't know.

00:36:07Somebody smarter than me would have to figure this out.

00:36:08But I don't know how you can think fast enough to say, okay, I need to pull that parachute

00:36:12right now.

00:36:13But we've been working on this thing 10 years.

00:36:18There's no more money.

00:36:19We're not coming back.

00:36:20The deal's over.

00:36:21Yeah.

00:36:22This is the last run.

00:36:23Yeah.

00:36:24You're going to go for it and maybe not come back?

00:36:28Or are you going to pull the parachute and do the smart thing?

00:36:31Well, nobody said I was smart.

00:36:33That was hereditary.

00:36:34That's hereditary.

00:36:35That was a hereditary decision.

00:36:36It was pre-programmed, man.

00:36:37Yeah.

00:36:38Did you even have enough time to process like being scared or is it just you just react

00:36:44and then you keep going?

00:36:45That's what I mean.

00:36:46Somebody smarter than me would have to figure that out.

00:36:47Because you're talking about whatever a millisecond would be.

00:36:52That you got to process all that and say, what do you do?

00:36:56I wasn't coming back.

00:36:57We were done.

00:36:58Yeah.

00:36:59And the thing went 459 out the door and it was like, once again, the hair is standing

00:37:04up on my arm.

00:37:05Absolutely.

00:37:06When you watch the video, you got the two switches to shift the car and you shift the

00:37:09thing into high gear and it pulls the RPM down to like, I don't know, 58, 5,900 and

00:37:13it is like the meanest sounding son of a bitch in the world.

00:37:16It is just, it is like when it hits that, when you hit high gear in that thing and it

00:37:19just sets those engines down because these injected engines, that's where they like to

00:37:23live.

00:37:24They're not huge RPM.

00:37:25They're just all torque.

00:37:26And when you get into that happy spot, it's like, it makes the hair in the back of your

00:37:28neck stand up.

00:37:29Yep.

00:37:30You're exactly right about the RPM.

00:37:31It goes 1,200 RPM from second to third and it got down 5,700 and it just pulled.

00:37:36I mean, dude, it sounds, it sounds hellacious.

00:37:40And that's where they like to, where's they make peak power or peak torque?

00:37:43We've never run them on the dyno.

00:37:45Yeah.

00:37:46So.

00:37:47But just like.

00:37:48Yeah.

00:37:49But that's where they're, that's where they're happy.

00:37:50And you look at the data and stuff and that's where they get happy.

00:37:51And it just, I mean, it just grunts.

00:37:55You pissed it off.

00:37:57What's the max RPM you run then before you, when you shift?

00:38:02I shift at a low at 7,200 and shift at a second at 7,200.

00:38:07And that was only because with a three speed, I would have had like, George has got a, I

00:38:11think eight speed in that thing, but we didn't have the length.

00:38:15You know, each time you put another, you got, you know, a transmission that that's long.

00:38:20Well, our box that we had to work in wouldn't accept that.

00:38:23We put 32 inches on the back of the car, made it 32 inches longer than my dad had it.

00:38:28But that was just to give it a, to separate the center pressure to center gravity a little

00:38:31bit.

00:38:32But yeah, boy, I tell you it.

00:38:33Yeah.

00:38:34So two blown motors on a new car and a woo boy, there's just, you know, trying to find,

00:38:39you know, the right combination of sponsorship, basically the hardest thing in motorsports.

00:38:43And really that's part of the other part of the Challenger 2 story that I don't necessarily

00:38:47know that people appreciate in that.

00:38:50I mean, if everything went correct, you burned a couple thousand dollars worth of fuel alone.

00:38:55When you would make a run, it'd be a couple grand of this nitrous, about 40 bucks a gallon.

00:38:58That's kind of been a constant for a long time.

00:39:00So let's call it two grand just to make a run in this thing.

00:39:03And it was, you were not ever swimming in cash ever, ever.

00:39:08So I mean, this is like, we'll lend a family tightrope walking because if you got, if you

00:39:13really, right.

00:39:14So if you had gone out there and yard sale, both engines early on in this process, it's

00:39:19over.

00:39:21Yeah.

00:39:22Yeah.

00:39:23There weren't any spares.

00:39:24You know, we had spare pistons and spare rods, but yeah, we didn't have any spares or anything.

00:39:27My wife was, my wife was an angel to put up with that because when, I mean, that's why

00:39:32we sold the car.

00:39:33We sold the car to pay, I don't know anybody, any money, and I still have the record.

00:39:36So yeah.

00:39:37That's that.

00:39:38Listen, there's not a lot of guys can actually make either of those claims.

00:39:41So that's actually really good.

00:39:43But in that sense, like, you know, we talk about that moment of, of fear when the thing's

00:39:47trying to send you across the salt.

00:39:49But there had to have been sustained sleepless nights when you understand like what the gravity

00:39:53of what's going on around you and you're on a ride that you can't necessarily hit the

00:39:57brakes on right now.

00:39:58You got to see this thing through.

00:39:59Yeah.

00:40:00You're, you're, you're on it, you know, and it's like, if you gave up, well, you don't

00:40:05give up.

00:40:06Yeah.

00:40:07My old man would have come down and beat the hell out of me.

00:40:08I mean, I had a long arm, like a boom, you know, so, but yeah, you, you don't give up

00:40:13and, and it's just like being tenacious, I guess, or whatever you want to call it.

00:40:18But it was that, man, it's just, it was still to me, it's just, it's the coolest thing besides

00:40:23maybe the birth of my son, coolest thing that's, that's ever happened to me.

00:40:28And we worked hard for it.

00:40:29And, and still about once every three weeks, a lot of the crew get together and we drink

00:40:34beer and, and lie to each other and talk about how it was faster and all that.

00:40:38So, you know, so that, so that's, you know, that's, that's cool.

00:40:41It's just trying to get a new project would be a whole lot of money.

00:40:45Yeah.

00:40:46I mean, a ton of money.

00:40:48Yeah.

00:40:49And I don't have, I don't have a shop or anything now.

00:40:50So, I mean, I still have my shop in, they're sitting in trailers in Colorado, you know,

00:40:55lays and mills and all that stuff, but rent and everything's so expensive down here until

00:40:59you have a project, you know, so if I get a project, then we'll call up a truck driver

00:41:04and bring down and start, I mean, Gibson and I talk, well, we talked yesterday, we talked

00:41:09about active suspension yesterday, you know, it's just like, yeah, he sends me notes and

00:41:15I send him notes and we just all the time back and forth, back and forth.

00:41:18So he's anxious.

00:41:19I mean, Don Long's a big fan of our deal.

00:41:23I mean, I went to a meeting the other night for a dry legs meeting and Don Long was there

00:41:27and he had a challenger to sweatshirt on and I went, oh my God, that's Don Long.

00:41:32Yeah.

00:41:33And again, for those of you who don't know who Don Long is, this is one of the foundational

00:41:36chassis builders in the sport of drag racing who was also involved in, in even, we talk

00:41:40about Don Long and his slingshot dragsters, but this guy was able to build anything for

00:41:44anybody.

00:41:46Yeah.

00:41:47If it was something in the garden too, you know, I mean, those creative minds and that's,

00:41:51you know, all, I don't know.

00:41:52I just, I want to do this.

00:41:55I want to go 500 tomorrow morning.

00:41:57And look, you haven't stopped.

00:41:58I mean, in 21, you set the 358 mile an hour record in the Ferguson Streamliner.

00:42:02So it's not like, it's not like you've been sitting around plucking daisies here.

00:42:05And we're going with Ferguson again this year and we're going, so we're going for a C record.

00:42:10So we got the record at 385 in the B record.

00:42:13So we have the double A record, double A fuel in Challenger 2.

00:42:18And then we got the B record in Ferguson car.

00:42:20Now we're going for a C record.

00:42:22So he just took, Bonneville people are so cool because he did, it had to be 72 cubic

00:42:28inches smaller to be a C motor.

00:42:30So he just took number eight rod and piston out of it and bob-weighted the crank and we're

00:42:34running a V7 on 94% because he's a big nitro guy.

00:42:39Oh wow.

00:42:4094%.

00:42:4194%.

00:42:42That's where we'll start.

00:42:43How many streamliners drive differently?

00:42:45Like, like how much different does the, it's like, I don't even know if this is possible,

00:42:49but how much difference does the Ferguson car drive from Challenger 2?

00:42:52That's a great question.

00:42:53And the difference is four-wheel drive, two-wheel drive.

00:42:56And four-wheel drive is difficult, difficult to, you got a lot more stuff going on and

00:43:02everything.

00:43:03And the Ferguson car is a rear-wheel drive and it drove so nice.

00:43:08It was, I don't want to say easier, it was different.

00:43:11But a lot less things going on.

00:43:14And it's a good car.

00:43:16Those guys are good guys.

00:43:17You know, those, they're, they're hot rodders.

00:43:19You know, I mean, Ferguson, when you say, yeah, Ferguson.

00:43:22So we're running, we're not running a BAE block or anything.

00:43:25We're running a Ferguson block.

00:43:26He cast his own blocks.

00:43:27His own blocks.

00:43:28Cast his own blocks.

00:43:29Aluminum blocks.

00:43:30As one does.

00:43:31Sure.

00:43:32The old Maladon thing, you know.

00:43:33And he does the Ardens, right?

00:43:34And he cast his own Arden blocks and his own Arden heads.

00:43:36And so, so these are more hot rod people that are, it's just good to be around those people

00:43:42is like, there's no real negativity or, and that's another thing that's pretty nice about

00:43:45Bonneville is you don't have the politics, you know, like you do in all the other shows

00:43:49and everything.

00:43:50And it's, that, that part's good.

00:43:52Unless you're running a roadster in certain categories.

00:43:54That's true.

00:43:55There's a lot of, yeah.

00:43:56But at the Streamliner level, you're right.

00:43:58Everybody's kind of on their own deal.

00:43:59Yeah.

00:44:00Yeah.

00:44:01And, and you look at the, you look at the Streamliner deal, cause you were talking about

00:44:02design before and you know, the four engine car that my dad built in 60, but you look

00:44:07at a Poteet's car.

00:44:09That's only this wide in the front and two wheel drive and it's gone 460 something miles

00:44:13an hour.

00:44:14And then you look at a Vesco's car where the turbines in it, four wheel drive, and it's

00:44:19gone out the door at 501 and then a narrow cars, wide cars, disc cars, that car.

00:44:26Carbonite.

00:44:27For those who have never seen the Carbonite Streamliner, which was a totally wild take

00:44:32on how to, how to do a Streamliner, which had a pro charge, big block Chevy in it for

00:44:36an engine.

00:44:37You know, that's, again, the beauty of Bonneville.

00:44:38You've been out there a bunch of times, I've been out there and it's like, just that everybody

00:44:43has their idea and they're able to execute on it.

00:44:46That's the part of it that's pretty magical.

00:44:48Pretty magic.

00:44:49Absolutely.

00:44:50And, and from everywhere.

00:44:51I mean, if you line the cars side by side, you say, well, they can't be the same.

00:44:54They're not in the same class, but basically the same group, you know, the group is, is

00:44:58what car do you want to build?

00:44:59I want to build the baddest car at Bonneville, you know, baddest, fastest, you know, thing.

00:45:03And it's a, you know, the hat hierarchy of Bonneville, for those of you that don't know,

00:45:06when you qualify and set a record over 200 miles an hour in a class, you earn a red hat.

00:45:10That's your Bonneville 200 mile an hour club, which is the largest of the clubs.

00:45:13It's still very exclusive.

00:45:14I think it took this guy like five years to get into it.

00:45:17So that's how difficult it is.

00:45:18The next club up is the 300 mile an hour club.

00:45:21You get a blue hat in both you and your father in that one, which I think is pretty special.

00:45:26And then of course you have a black hat.

00:45:27There are 16 people on planet earth that have a black Bonneville hat and they include names

00:45:32like Art Arfons, Craig Breedlove, the best of the best.

00:45:37Yep.

00:45:38Yep.

00:45:39Al Teague.

00:45:40Al Teague.

00:45:41Yeah.

00:45:42I mean, and then, and then more than half of those are jet cars.

00:45:43Yes.

00:45:44So then you get down to the piston car and then you get into the real, to me, that's

00:45:48the, the heart and soul, you know, jet cars are, jet cars are bitching and they go fast.

00:45:53And I mean, they were looking for a driver for that new thrust thing or whatever it was,

00:45:57you know, and I'm thinking, I don't want to go that fast.

00:46:01No, that's, no.

00:46:02Oh, the 500 is pretty magic.

00:46:03We'll stay there.

00:46:04But, you know, it's, it's all, it's all, what are you going to do with a new car?

00:46:08What do you, can you make a new car go 500?

00:46:10Now I'm saying, yeah, I want to go 500 and just like, you know, we're talking, but nobody's

00:46:14ever done it.

00:46:16So it's not like it's easy.

00:46:17That's what I was going to ask you is what, if you got this idea, but like, how do you

00:46:22start?

00:46:23Do you have an idea?

00:46:24Is it just a clean sheet of paper?

00:46:25A clean sheet of paper, blank sheet of paper and start on it.

00:46:28And there is, you know, some things we've learned, of course, that we want to do.

00:46:32And the four wheel drive being, you know, big one and tires are a big deal at Bonneville.

00:46:37You know, basically you were talking about a couple thousand dollars in fuel a run and

00:46:41you go through four tires every year on a four wheel drive car, four tires, that's 4,000

00:46:44bucks.

00:46:45It's about $10,000 a run to make a, you know, for my car.

00:46:49To make a clean one.

00:46:50To make a clean one.

00:46:51Yeah.

00:46:52That's if you don't hurt anything.

00:46:53Yeah.

00:46:54Yeah.

00:46:55And you don't have an extra 12 pack of rods and pistons or a 16 pack of rods and pistons

00:46:59in the car and stuff.

00:47:00So it's, it's all there.

00:47:02It's a, I'm only 74.

00:47:04So I got some laps left.

00:47:05Yeah.

00:47:06No, you got plenty.

00:47:07I mean, you're more fit than the two of us combined.

00:47:08I'm not taking a shot.

00:47:09I mean, especially me.

00:47:10It's accurate.

00:47:11I think it's amazing.

00:47:12Yeah.

00:47:13Yeah.

00:47:14I work out.

00:47:15I mean, I work out every day just because the last three years, all I've been doing

00:47:20is surgeries.

00:47:21I mean, there's no OEM parts left on this body.

00:47:23Yeah.

00:47:25They're not.

00:47:26The bionic man.

00:47:27I got more titanium in me than my car did.

00:47:30I get one more, one more hip right after Bonneville.

00:47:33I got one six weeks ago.

00:47:34Wow.

00:47:35Yeah.

00:47:36Six weeks ago?

00:47:37Yeah.

00:47:38Six weeks ago.

00:47:39Yeah.

00:47:40Geez.

00:47:41Yeah.

00:47:42They're pretty, pretty amazing.

00:47:43You know, those guys come in and you don't, you don't know the doctor.

00:47:44He comes in and he cuts your leg off, bores a hole down the center of it, pounds a peg

00:47:45in it, gives you a kiss goodbye, and you're gone in two hours.

00:47:48You know, it's kind of like, and I don't know this guy.

00:47:50And he's got a tea time to make.

00:47:51Yeah.

00:47:52Exactly.

00:47:53Yeah.

00:47:54Yeah.

00:47:55You don't have to know.

00:47:56You don't have to know.

00:47:57What is the root reason that that car wasn't sold after 1969?

00:48:01What is the reason that it stayed around?

00:48:03Because that's also part of the story that's almost kind of mystical that your dad didn't

00:48:07look at at one point and go, I just get this thing out of here.

00:48:10So he did sell it.

00:48:12Right.

00:48:13And he sold it and Melodon bought it.

00:48:16Wow.

00:48:17Okay.

00:48:18And then what's the guy's name that worked for Champion?

00:48:20Oh, I can't think of it right now.

00:48:24But anyway, they took it and they took the cameras out.

00:48:26My dad took the cameras out and sold them.

00:48:28And in fact, one of them is still around.

00:48:30Britt Heick has one of those cameras, the blown one.

00:48:33And anyway, so it got sold and he, this guy rebuilt it.

00:48:38I can't think of his name.

00:48:40It's embarrassing.

00:48:41But anyway, and they fitted it with their motors and everything.

00:48:45But then the story I know is that he didn't pay for it.

00:48:49So he never paid my dad.

00:48:51So after a number of years, my dad went back and got it and it just sat in a trailer.

00:48:56So then maybe after he sold it, maybe what he was thinking as he wanted to run it again,

00:49:02like eventually he came to me with, and he didn't get that record.

00:49:06And most everything that my dad went after, he got.

00:49:09And I think that was one reason that my dad was, my dad was not afraid to fail.

00:49:15Yeah.

00:49:16Oh, he bet big on himself and succeeded and he bet big on himself at times and failed.

00:49:20Yeah, absolutely.

00:49:21But he wasn't afraid to try, you know, and that, I mean, Indianapolis, when my dad goes

00:49:26back there with a rear-engine car and a stock block in 62, and they got some rookie that

00:49:31nobody knows about named Dan Gurney drives it, you know what I mean?

00:49:34Those are big deals, you know, big deals.

00:49:36I mean, he, the next year he went back with those 12-inch wheels and tires.

00:49:39And they, didn't they outlaw those?

00:49:40Oh yeah, they did.

00:49:41The first time they saw them, right?

00:49:42And honestly, I mean, history, history being what it is, you know, at the time they, the

00:49:46officials at USAC officials kind of denied it, but they, they had no use for your father.

00:49:51Oh no.

00:49:52They really didn't.

00:49:53I mean, you can't really deny when you look at what he was showing up with, how it was

00:49:56constructed and engineered and what they put him through, they really, they were stacked

00:50:01the deck against the guy.

00:50:02Absolutely.

00:50:03Absolutely.

00:50:04And I mean, like the wheels and tires that they took away the 12-inch of, that was accepted.

00:50:08I mean, he, I have the letters, all the, and then they just took it.

00:50:12The thing went back there and it worked pretty good.

00:50:14It was a titanium car, had a magnesium block Chevrolet in it.

00:50:19And it went back there.

00:50:20It was under a thousand pounds with a tire this wide and low to the ground.

00:50:25And it looked like it was going to go.

00:50:27And I mean, Foyt and those other guys, I mean, they were just like, this isn't going to happen.

00:50:31They were running roadsters with 33-inch tires, you know, and going fast.

00:50:36But yeah, it was, Mickey Thompson was a California hot rodder.

00:50:39He didn't come up through dirt track and he didn't come up through that stuff.

00:50:42And, and you know, that's it, politics.

00:50:45Okay.

00:50:46And politics is like, you didn't pay your dues, so we're not going to let you.

00:50:49And he was radical.

00:50:50I mean, 1962, he won the Mechanical Achievement Award, the DA Mechanical Achievement Award.

00:50:56And that's sort of the best design and the best thoughtful deal.

00:50:59And that's voted by the crew chiefs.

00:51:02That's a peer-awarded.

00:51:03Okay.

00:51:04Not the drivers.

00:51:05Yeah.

00:51:06I still have that ring.

00:51:07It sits in the safe, but.

00:51:09What year did he show up with the wild, the small block Chevy with like the dual overhead

00:51:12cams or, and the crazy cylinder heads on it?

00:51:16So that would have been 66.

00:51:18Okay.

00:51:19Yeah.

00:51:2066 with a three-valve motor and then a four-valve motor.

00:51:23Yeah.

00:51:24I have, I have one of each of those left.

00:51:27Everything's gone now.

00:51:28Yeah.

00:51:29Except for that car we just talked about, that titanium car.

00:51:31That's the only car.

00:51:32I sold everything during C2 because you'd run out of money and you couldn't pay your

00:51:37guys and what are you going to do?

00:51:39Well, I can get 50 grand for that car and it's like, still breaks my heart to do it,

00:51:45but my dad would have done the exact same thing, you know?

00:51:47Well, and look, and look what the result is, right?

00:51:49I mean, I mean, at the end of the day, it wasn't like you were selling this for some

00:51:52other like other problem you were having.

00:51:55You were solving a very important problem and the money clearly went, you know, some

00:51:59people would deny it, but it went to good use.

00:52:01I mean, the three of us.

00:52:02Oh, absolutely.

00:52:03Yeah.

00:52:04Absolutely.

00:52:05Yeah.

00:52:07Yeah.

00:52:08No, that's it.

00:52:09Yeah.

00:52:10It went to good use.

00:52:11So, so this new project that you'd like to embark on, it cannot have an eight-year timeline.

00:52:14The budget, the budget calls for three years to build, construct and run.

00:52:18So and that's, you know, hopefully Bonneville will be nice to us.

00:52:21You know, she's got way more horsepower than any of us, so she don't want you to run.

00:52:26She just sprinkles a little in the wound.

00:52:29So yeah, three years and yeah, three years, because I don't, I mean, I don't have five

00:52:34or six or eight years.

00:52:35I mean, I'd say I got laps left in me, but I don't have, you know, somewhere, somewhere

00:52:40even Forrest is thinking about it.

00:52:42Right.

00:52:43I mean, yeah, I think even a guy like John Forrest, who, you know, at this point as we

00:52:47make the show in 2024, he's finally actually said the word retirement, right?

00:52:52He's been reticent to even say it.

00:52:53Yeah.

00:52:54He probably didn't mean it, but he said it.

00:52:55Right.

00:52:56He probably took another word out of the guy.

00:53:04I don't know.

00:53:05Just I'm ready.

00:53:06I mean, I'm ready.

00:53:07I'm if I had the money, I'd call the trucks up and get that equipment down and we'd start

00:53:12right now.

00:53:13Gibson's so ready, you know.

00:53:15And that's the allure of the allure of Bonneville, which, you know, I hope a hundred years from

00:53:19now, people are still talking about it in this way.

00:53:22And the blessing and the curse of the place is that nobody has ever won a dollar by doing

00:53:26anything successful at Bonneville and that's the, to me, it's the only reason it stands

00:53:31as this uncorrupted form of motorsports and I used to tell people like when I was going

00:53:35out there, I went seven or eight years in a row, I said it's like if, you know, you're

00:53:39a Hindu or whatever and you're an idiot, you go jump in the Ganges River and you kind of

00:53:42cleanse yourself, well that was a week at Bonneville for me.

00:53:45It was you go out there and it is the most awesome reminder of everything good about

00:53:50hot rodding and everything good about racing.

00:53:53All the way back, you know, from when Peterson went up there first time, you know, and

00:53:5849, the first speed week.

00:54:00And Wally, you know, and Wally was up there for that.

00:54:02It's, yeah, it's hot rodding.

00:54:04I mean, it is because no matter what you bring there, it's good, in my opinion, it's good.

00:54:11If you're, if you've been already up there 10 years and you're going up there to go a

00:54:15mile an hour faster, that's a big deal.

00:54:18Or if you're a, if you're somebody, then you come up with this exotic idea of this

00:54:22kind of D and that kind of thing and all that stuff.

00:54:24And you're looking at it and you're thinking to yourself, that is so bad.

00:54:28That is so ugly.

00:54:29That could never work.

00:54:30I never think that at Bonneville because it was that guy or that group of guys or girls

00:54:36or whatever it is, and it's their idea and they're trying something.

00:54:40How do you know, you got to try it to see if it's going to work, you know.

00:54:45You've been around drag racing long enough to know that when somebody shows up with something

00:54:48new, what is the first thing everybody at the drag shop says?

00:54:50Tear it apart.

00:54:51Exactly.

00:54:52Well, that's part of it.

00:54:53I think, like you were saying, you can't test ahead of time.

00:54:57The proof is at the salt flats.

00:55:00And so, like, why not take some chances and see how it goes.

00:55:04And then you got to wait a year.

00:55:05If it didn't work or if it rains, you got to wait two years.

00:55:08We didn't go, we didn't run Bonneville for almost 500 days because of rain.

00:55:11Right.

00:55:12Now, we haven't run the last two years.

00:55:13We didn't go because they had a three, three mile track last year.

00:55:16It made no sense in taking Ferguson's car.

00:55:18Yeah.

00:55:19Yeah.

00:55:20And, you know, why.

00:55:21But 2017, the track was so rough.

00:55:23I mean, we go through a set of tires in the first mile.

00:55:26And I mean, it was incredible.

00:55:27It was just, I don't know what it was, but it's just how Mother Nature, how much water

00:55:32and how much wind and all of those things, you know.

00:55:34But, and it's a shame that, you know, they won't, the BLM won't recognize, they won't

00:55:40recognize what's going on up there.

00:55:41And I mean, they, you know, sometimes they pump, sometimes they don't.

00:55:44But when my dad ran up there in the 60s, there was 18 to 24 inches of salt.

00:55:48You know, now you're talking two inches, half an inch in some places, mud showing through.

00:55:53I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's one of the natural resources of the world that's

00:55:57going away, but BLM won't do anything about it.

00:56:01And it's rough, you know, so.

00:56:03So I guess the last thing we'll, we'll kind of close up on is this, you know, this idea

00:56:06of the 500 mile an hour, you know, piston driven car.

00:56:10And we have seen, you know, George Protein, Speed Demon, they have their approach, which

00:56:15is, which is incredible.

00:56:16I mean, you have to respect it.

00:56:18And, and I'm, you know, I'm sure you guys have been at loggerheads more than once over

00:56:22the course of time, but, you know, he shows up with an incredible, well-funded budget

00:56:26and they can sling five, six engines through this thing over the course of a week.

00:56:29Kenny Duttweiler provides the power.

00:56:31It's just, it's an amazing operation.

00:56:34But even they haven't cracked the code yet.

00:56:36Nope.

00:56:37Nope.

00:56:38Nope.

00:56:39And even the difference between like 375 and 400, I mean, that 400 miles an hour, things,

00:56:44things change.

00:56:45Now, I would like to find out what's going to change at 500, but, and, and, you know,

00:56:50George is well-funded, but those guys are bad-ass.

00:56:52They are.

00:56:53I mean, they, they're the Kings.

00:56:55There are the Kings.

00:56:56We, I mean, we had them beat for what, a year and a half.

00:56:59And that was half of a year.

00:57:00It was because of rain.

00:57:01Take it anywhere you can get.

00:57:02We'll take it.

00:57:03For sure.

00:57:04For sure.

00:57:05So, and you know how, if we, we were off the throttle two and a half seconds on when that

00:57:09thing jumped sideways on the 450 run, how fast, I know how much faster it would've gone

00:57:13because I looked at all the numbers, but it doesn't matter because it didn't do it, you

00:57:16know?

00:57:17So it's, it's just BS without that.

00:57:18But yeah.

00:57:19So yeah.

00:57:20Let's go, go, go, go, go.

00:57:23Yeah.

00:57:24I just, I'd love to see that happen.

00:57:25I mean, I, I wish I had half a million bucks just to drop on the table right now.

00:57:31To get it started.

00:57:32Yeah.

00:57:33To get it started.

00:57:34Exactly.

00:57:35Exactly.

00:57:36Yeah.

00:57:37Budgets are, budgets are big now.

00:57:38Yeah.

00:57:39Operates.

00:57:40Everything is, you know, but I'm not getting in it and doing it like I did before where

00:57:44I got to lay my, my two guys off for three weeks cause I can't pay them.

00:57:48We'll work for free and then pay us later.

00:57:51What if I don't get something later?

00:57:53I'm not, I'm not going to have, I'm not going to owe you guys money when this thing's over.

00:57:57So, so I got to do it.

00:57:58I got to do it right.

00:57:59And we got the people and got the plan.

00:58:03Last question before we let you go.

00:58:05What is the single most important thing that passed from your dad to you?

00:58:12Wow.

00:58:13Tenacity, I guess.

00:58:17Stubbornness.

00:58:18Stupidity.

00:58:19I mean, you can, you can throw it all in there and mix it up and see what comes out.

00:58:23Being too dumb to quit.

00:58:24Yeah.

00:58:25Yeah.

00:58:26Yeah.

00:58:27I mean, he was, he was not a quitter and he definitely, you know, embedded that in me

00:58:29and otherwise we wouldn't have made the whole, you know, deal with C2.

00:58:33But yeah, yeah, I'd like to say tenacity, but I'm not really sure what all those big

00:58:38words mean.

00:58:39That's a good one.

00:58:40That's a good one.

00:58:41Thank you so much, man.

00:58:43It's, it's, it's an incredible story.

00:58:45Your whole life is an incredible story, but, but what you and your crew managed to do with

00:58:49Challenger 2 is just phenomenal.

00:58:51I think we're going to, I think a lot of people are going to learn something out of this.

00:58:53Oh yeah, absolutely.

00:58:54This is a great, I can't wait to see what, what it takes to go 500 miles an hour.

00:58:59Yeah.

00:59:00I hope to.

00:59:01I hope to.

00:59:02That's all I can say.

00:59:03And I mean, you guys are hitters as far as I'm concerned, so that's a, that's all.

00:59:07That's all.

00:59:08That's a perfect note to close on, John.

00:59:09I like the sound of that.

00:59:10We actually, we literally have to stop right now.

00:59:13He's Danny Thompson.

00:59:14We hope you enjoyed his story and the recounting of the Challenger 2 story and what they were

00:59:17able to achieve on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

00:59:20Still holds a double-A fuel streamliner record and there's nobody coming in sight, so he's

00:59:23going to hang on to it for a while.

00:59:25I'm Brian Lowentz.

00:59:26He's John McGann.

00:59:27This is the Hot Rod Pod, where it all began.

00:59:28We'll be back soon with more legends and a guy that's probably slower than him.

00:59:33Well, John, we brought up the name a few times over the course of this episode, but Open

00:59:38Road Auto Insurance stepped up to support the show, and I think it's time we get people

00:59:41a little more education on what they do.

00:59:43Yeah.

00:59:44Collector car insurance is a big deal, and, you know, if you have something that you care

00:59:48about that you don't want sent to the local collision shop.

00:59:51Yes.

00:59:52Nobody wants that.

00:59:53Like, I don't own anything that I'd ever want just a regular collision shop working on right

00:59:57now.

00:59:59Insurance is important, and it's nice to have a sponsorship here with Open Road Insurance.

01:00:06I'd like to thank them personally for sponsoring this episode.

01:00:09But yeah, we talked a little bit about what it's like to get car insurance for a collector

01:00:14vehicle and what that means to you if you ever need it.

01:00:17Yeah.

01:00:18So let's meet the folks from Open Road Auto Insurance.

01:00:20As the presenting sponsor of this episode of the Hot Rod Pod, where it all began, Open

01:00:24Road Auto Insurance is a new name to the world of collector car, specialty vehicle,

01:00:29and enthusiast vehicle insurance.

01:00:30So to learn more, we have Brian Ballatore on.

01:00:32He's the Chief Revenue Officer of Open Road Auto Insurance, and Brian, it's a pleasure

01:00:36to meet you, and it's going to be a good kind of experience here.

01:00:39We've got Danny Thompson on the show.

01:00:40We're talking cars.

01:00:41It's fantastic.

01:00:42Thank you for having me.

01:00:43Thank you very much, Brian.

01:00:45I was wondering, to start this thing off, if you could fill your garage up with anything.

01:00:52You're a car enthusiast?

01:00:53I'm assuming you are.

01:00:54Oh, yes.

01:00:55You're running a specialty car insurance company.

01:00:56What would you buy?

01:00:57I am.

01:00:58Wow.

01:00:59Without taking the entire show of course.

01:01:00I'll give you three.

01:01:01Nice.

01:01:02So I got to start with what I think is sort of the raw of the three, and that's 66 GT350.

01:01:10There you go.

01:01:11Oh, that's cool.

01:01:12All right.

01:01:13Good choice.

01:01:14Good choice.

01:01:15You've got a red and black, striped delete, and you got to have starting sauce.

01:01:18Nice.

01:01:19All right.

01:01:20That's a winner.

01:01:21What's number two?

01:01:22So we're going to go totally different end of the spectrum.

01:01:25So this is my versatility choice, Aston Martin DB4 GT.

01:01:30Okay.

01:01:31Taking a trip to jolly old England.

01:01:33I like it.

01:01:34I like it.

01:01:35That's all right.

01:01:36Good choice.

01:01:37Here's the cool thing about this car.

01:01:38You can wake up in the morning, drive 100 miles to the track, you can race it all day,

01:01:42you can drive it home, take a shower, go to dinner.

01:01:47It has value.

01:01:48That has value.

01:01:49And roll up like James Bond too.

01:01:50You're a driver.

01:01:51Yeah.

01:01:52It's a driver's car.

01:01:53That's nice.

01:01:54All right.

01:01:55And then third and final is like the AC Cobra of France.

01:02:01Type 35.

01:02:02Bugatti Type 35B.

01:02:03Oh, man.

01:02:04Okay.

01:02:05So now we're going all the way into the deep end of the financial world here on this thing

01:02:09too.

01:02:10Oh, we're...

01:02:11You guys sent a rebirage, right?

01:02:12I might have to Google that.

01:02:13I'm not even sure what you're talking about.

01:02:14It's a Grand Prix car for 20s.

01:02:18One of the most beautiful things you've ever seen.

01:02:21And it's a giant pile of money shaped like an automotive sculpture.

01:02:24And it is fantastic.

01:02:25Yes.

01:02:26It's fantastic.

01:02:27And what's so cool though, it's like so raw.

01:02:29It's just dangerous.

01:02:30And it's fast.

01:02:31And it's gorgeous.

01:02:32Perfect.

01:02:33So look, I think these are three great selections because they kind of span the gamut.

01:02:39You have the rawness of the GT350, of course, a great modern technology.

01:02:43And then the beauty and spirit of the Type 35.

01:02:47And so this does kind of raise another question.

01:02:49When we talk about enthusiast auto insurance, we talk about specialty vehicle auto insurance,

01:02:54which is the business you're in, it does span that same gamut.

01:02:57And so how do you provide a service to people that maybe they don't get at a normal insurance

01:03:02company for the car that they love so much?

01:03:04Yeah.

01:03:05You know, it's about understanding the weight of the vehicles, right?

01:03:09So it's the cars themselves and how we cover those cars.

01:03:13And that's where we build a product that makes the most sense for them.

01:03:17These cars are older.

01:03:19They break down more often.

01:03:21They require repairs that are really specific.

01:03:25And as owners, and you guys know this better than anyone, the way the repair is very particular

01:03:31to that owner.

01:03:33And so we build coverages that take the vehicle and their owners into account.

01:03:40For example, we go agree value coverage.

01:03:44We know these cars are worth a certain amount.

01:03:46We agree on the total loss, we cover it.

01:03:48There's no debating over that price.

01:03:51We cover spare parts and tools because we all have those.

01:03:55We'll let you choose from a repair shop.

01:03:58We're not going to say this is a shop you need to go to.

01:04:00We'll say you choose the shop you want to go to.

01:04:02We'll use OEM parts.

01:04:04Not just any windshield, but the windshield you want.

01:04:08My teacher I love is we have towing built into every policy.

01:04:12Because you're going to break down.

01:04:14Yeah, it's a reality.

01:04:16It is a reality.

01:04:17We've all lived that life.

01:04:18This does happen.

01:04:19I've been on a few tow trucks in my life, yes.

01:04:21Yes.

01:04:22That's if you're lucky enough to have a tow truck and not your buddy in a row.

01:04:26That's right, too.

01:04:27I've seen that.

01:04:28You know, and I think one of the other things that people get hung up on when we talk about

01:04:31this style of insurance, what qualifies to be insured by Open Road?

01:04:36I mean, do I have to have a GT350?

01:04:38Do I have to have a GTO or an Aston Martin?

01:04:40What falls into this segment?

01:04:42What is your customer?

01:04:43Yeah, so coincidentally, those two, I won't mention.

01:04:47And here's why.

01:04:48We built our product for that true core enthusiast.

01:04:53So we're talking Chevelles and Camaros and Mustangs and Ford Model As.

01:04:58That's really what we want to focus on.

01:05:00The really tight end of the market will leave to other folks.

01:05:04And so for us, it's purely about how the vehicle is used and if it has any enthusiast quality.

01:05:10So if you take this thing out Saturday mornings and you clean it when you get home and you

01:05:16keep it in the garage and it's your true prized possession, that's good enough for us.

01:05:22We'll span the whole gamut.

01:05:241896 Ford Quadricycle to a brand new Corvette.

01:05:28I like that.

01:05:29We'll do it all.

01:05:30It's just about how our clients use them.

01:05:33And as long as they have a daily driver, we have built a product for them.

01:05:38And the daily driver is really important because one of the things we focus most on is price.

01:05:44And by knowing that you don't drive this vehicle daily, treat it very specially, allows me

01:05:51to pass lower costs on to our client, which is really obviously important.

01:05:58It is important.

01:05:59It is important.

01:06:00I got actually, funny story, denied classic car insurance coverage for my C10 when I first

01:06:06bought it because it was too ugly.

01:06:10There you go.

01:06:12Is there a beauty code?

01:06:15Yes.

01:06:16No.

01:06:17C10 is one of them.

01:06:19It's like right in our sweet spot.

01:06:21We use that vehicle all the time.

01:06:23It's like a test vehicle because it's so cool to so many people.

01:06:27That's funny.

01:06:28This would have been about eight years ago when I first got it.

01:06:31And it did look like it had been previously used to collect recycling cans.

01:06:37You know, that's funny because part of what I tell people is I'm not here to tell anyone

01:06:44what is or isn't a collector or an enthusiast vehicle.

01:06:47We love all cars and we're here to support that passion by providing our clients with

01:06:51that peace of mind.

01:06:52So as long as you treat it like an enthusiast vehicle, you love it, you clean it, you have

01:06:57it as a screen saver on your phone, that's most likely good enough for us.

01:07:02Yeah.

01:07:03In terms of Open Road being a new name into this marketplace, what do you see as the biggest

01:07:08strengths that you bring in?

01:07:11You know, first, I'd say first, new approach.

01:07:14We've learned from past experiences.

01:07:16We've got a great team.

01:07:18We've all worked in insurance and quadrado insurance before.

01:07:21So we've seen a lot.

01:07:24And being a new company allows us to start without making some of those past mistakes.

01:07:28You know, and we are laser focused on delivering great products at the best price we can.

01:07:34You know, we all need a break, particularly right now.

01:07:37I cannot help you with groceries, but at least I can help you with the relief on insurance costs.

01:07:43And then the other part would be technology.

01:07:46So starting today and not having these systems or anything to work from, I get to build nice

01:07:53simple, straightforward technology from scratch, which means that I can provide better, faster

01:07:58services, which is good for you.

01:08:00Less phone calls, less emails, less photos, less printing.

01:08:04It's just a simple, straightforward experience.

01:08:07And I don't think very many people want to talk to their insurance carrier.

01:08:11It's not something I've heard.

01:08:13But, you know, we do have a servicing team if you need one.

01:08:16But our goal is to make it easy enough for you that you don't need to call us.

01:08:20That's cool.

01:08:22Like you said about the Bugatti, my pile of money is shaped like a C10.

01:08:27One thing I was thinking, too, is I've done most of the work to the car.

01:08:31So, like, say someone plows into me in an intersection or something.

01:08:36Do I have to choose a shop?

01:08:38Or can I get, like, the money to get replacement parts, sheet metal, and stuff like that, and then

01:08:43just put it back together myself?

01:08:45Yeah, no, you don't have to choose a shop.

01:08:47If you want to do the work yourself, we'll pay you like you're a shop.

01:08:51You buy your parts, you put it back together again.

01:08:53Wow, that's cool.

01:08:55It's the core of the hobby.

01:08:57This is back to us knowing the behavior of our clients.

01:09:00We want them to experience the hobby how they want to respond.

01:09:04We don't want to be a hindrance to that.

01:09:06Well, Brian, thank you so much.

01:09:08And thank you for supporting the Hot Rod Pod and helping us get the word out

01:09:11and talk to guys like Danny Thompson.

01:09:13And thank you so much for supporting the core of this hobby, which is helping

01:09:17hot rodders, enthusiasts of all makes, models, sizes, and years to have

01:09:21insurance on their vehicles to make sure they stay on the road because that

01:09:24helps us sustain this entire thing.

01:09:26It's been fantastic.

01:09:28I got one last question.

01:09:30Go for it.

01:09:32Do you guys insure Danny Thompson's 5,000 horsepower streamliner for Bonneville?

01:09:36Listen, it's only gone, like, 440 miles an hour.

01:09:39And it only goes five miles at a time.

01:09:42I mean, it's weekend usage.

01:09:44You know what?

01:09:46We do have a hard rule, you know, nothing over 400 miles per hour.

01:09:50So it's just a bit outside.

01:09:52All right, Brian, we'll work on the Thompson clause for open road auto

01:09:56insurance.

01:09:58But again, thank you for coming on board.

01:10:00Thank you for entering this industry and providing what's going to be a

01:10:03valuable service for many thousands of your customers.

01:10:05Thank you very much.

01:10:07We appreciate it.

01:10:11♪♪♪

01:10:41♪♪♪

The Fastest Guest in our History! | HOT ROD Pod episode 13 Danny Thompson

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