Cocktails and Crankshafts: The Podcast

Before I built my track car, I tried (more than once) to built a rally car. It went bad, every time...

Sort of a composite of my summer 2006 and 2007 visits to "St. Louis, MO" (Madison, IL) for NOPI Drag/Drift events. This episode has drift event audio, tire squeal and PA announcers in the background.

A brief discussion of my memories from the 2005 Sandhills Sandblast Rally hosted in "upstate" South Carolina's Sand Hills State Forest near the town of Cheraw.

I talk with Mae about frozen lake ice racing in the Midwest. Recreational motorcycle ice racers in Iowa and International Ice Racing Association (Car) events on Madison Lake near Mankato Minnesota.

Mae and I discuss what happened between 2002 and 2007...the "Dark" years for my 1996 Nissan 240SX nicknamed the "Stinger".

In the late summer of 2015 I purchased a "Silverstone" 2003 350Z Enthusiast. The rest is history...

In 2000 I participated in autocrosses with 3 different clubs in the state of NC. I was participating in a new (to me) class called "Street Modified". In my home club (Triad Sports Car Club) I had a good season. My standing in the North Carolina Autocross Championship series was somewhat less so.

What happens when you take a bone-stock, 13 year-old, 135K mile Nissan 240SX to a Time Attack / Time Trial event at a fast road course? Nothing good.

Mae and I discuss my laps in a Nissan GTR at Exotics Racing Las Vegas. This version includes only the voiceover track and not the ambient audio from inside the car.

I went to go fly. The plan...2 model rockets, one small park-scale warbird (P-51 Mustang). What actually happened? An hour baking in the sun, a lost plane and a failed rocket ignition system. Oh...and since I forgot to put an SD Card in my GoPro...no footage.

"Miss Bessie" was the car I drove from the time I started learning, until I graduated from college. Miss Bessie was a 1989 Hyundai Excel, at the time of purchase, the cheapest new car available in the United States. It was, sh*t. But it is also the car all my positive high school and college memories are associated with.

Dolphins Stadium! Drift Cars! Show Cars! Hulk Hogan? I go to Miami for some NOPI Drift action and accidently walk into a taping of "Hogan Knows Best"...

Who doesn't want to lap a "Rennsport" Porsche in the most gorgeous shade of purple? I talk Mae through my Sept 2019 run with one at Exotics Racing Las Vegas.

The story of my trip to "The Rock" Rockingham Dragway to indulge in the 2006 edition of NDRA "North Carolina". "A fun time was had by all"...

This is the story of a 1989 Nissan 300Zx (Z31) that I owned from April 2013 until October 2015. This car was a slice of nostalgia for me and a dream come true. I only got rid of it because I'd bought a 2003 350Z in September of 2015 and I just didn't have room for a 4th car.

This is the extracted audio from my video detailing my 2004 and 2005 trips to the NOPI Drag Racing Association events at Dinwiddie, VA (Virginia Motorsports Park).

Just a quick update on what's going on with me in terms of some diecast and slot car news.

It's Sept. 2019, I've had my 45th birthday so I'm off to Vegas to drive fast cars. Mae and I provide some voiceover to the sounds of me hot-lapping an Audi R8 V10 Plus.

A story from my college years that describes the circumstances of my very first autocross.

A short retrospective on Hot Import Nights Indianapolis 2006. This was maybe my 2nd or 3rd trip to Indianapolis, ever. It has since become one of my favorite convention cities. Indy isn't a huge city, but because of it's place in motorsports it has a pretty good car culture.

Mae and I talk over my March 2015 lapping session driving a 993 GT3 RS...please excuse the cheesy background music.

A short rant about my overly abundant Hot Wheels collection and a quick update about what's going on in my life.

This one has a little bit of "Dead Malls" vibe to it, as we talk through a Drift Practice Day held in the spring of 2005 at the long since- demolished Cloverleaf Mall in Richmond, Virginia (If I'm fair, this mall was in bad, bad shape even in 2005). This is one of those episodes where Mae was physically there as I was filming the drift cars. I had travelled to this event to actually participated, but elected not to due to concerns about my car's clutch.

I return to Goodwood Manor for the 2014 Festival of Speed.

Mae and I talk through in-car footage of my High Performance Driving Event at Autobahn Country Club near Joliet Illinois. Autobahn is a member-only racetrack country club across several large cornfields from Chicagoland Speedway. Because members have the right to 1/2 the course every weekend, NASA decided to rent the track on a Federal Holiday Monday giving us a rare chance to run the full layout. I ran this event in the "Stinger" my 1996 Nissan 240SX with bolt-on mods, but full roll cage, racing seat and 5 point harness.

Just a quick update about my living arrangements a few thoughts about "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton.

My thoughts and feelings about NASCAR abandoning the smaller/older tracks...when I was supposed to talking about a NASA HPDE and Pro Racing day at the "roval" in the old NC Motor Speedway (Rockingham). I was a spectator only for this summer 2005 race day.

Mae and I discuss my 1978 Datsun 280Z.

While researching my Willy T. Ribbs I ran across information on a Black woman who drove Sprint cars and Indy Lights. Cheryl Linn Glass was a region/state Champion Quarter Midget and Half Midget driver who raced in the 70's and 80's. She was also an in-demand speaker, a fashion designer and entrepreneur. Unfortunately she died relatively young under questionable circumstances.

Recorded in Spring of 2021, this was meant to be a Black History Month episode that got delayed for a number of reasons. It includes some discussion of the documentary "Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story", but is not a review. It's more of a discussion of Willy's career and my memories of him as "the one Black guy" in sports car racing during my formative years in the late 80's and early 90's.

Another aurally chaotic episode. Mae and I attempt to discuss my time driving a McLaren 570S OVER the interior audio of me and the instructor during my lapping session. Clearly less should have been more with these Las Vegas in-car episodes.

Mae and I discuss my trip to Hot Import Nights March 2007 in Chicago, Illinois.

My in-car experience in a Ferrari F430 F1 in Sept. 2014...the audio is a little muddled as it's a mix of my in-car with the instructor with Mae and I doing voice-over and background music.

Mae and I discuss my dear departed (2nd) 1996 Nissan 240SX, code-named "Buzzer". This car was with me for just a bit over 6 years and met a terrible fate.

Mae and I discuss my April 2009 season opening HPDE at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. Ironically this was my last HPDE (as of July 2021) and was driven in the same (bone stock) 240SX as my 1st HDPE 3 years earlier. It's circular...

Mae and I discuss my very first track driving experience at Black Hawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, IL April 2006. This episode did not have any video footage, so lots of discussion (perfect for a Podcast, right?).

Guest co-host Toni and I discuss my experiences at Exotics Racing Las Vegas, a company that provides exotic car track driving experiences. This is an overview of the general experience. Each car I drove get's it's own episode that focuses strictly on the on-track experience.

April 2007 National Auto Sport Association HPDE and Race at the Newton Iowa NASCAR track. I drove as an HPDE driver that day on the 1.3 mile roval configuration. As I recall this was the first event of the 2007 season. Although this is a "video" episode, I do a pretty good job of narrating.

Recorded in late 2019, Mae and I take a guided tour through my 1/18 scale diecast car collection.

My thoughts and feelings on the Quad Cities region of Illinois/Iowa, and a Labor Day weekend spent watching Go-karts race the streets of Rock Island, Illinois. This one is more narrative, as I do not have video of the event.

Coming off a stellar 2000 Autocross campaign, 2001 goes...good and bad all at the same time. This episode has some unique production value as I end up narrating over some old miniDV footage, that has in-camera narration provided by my camera-woman "Sophia". You'll actually hear cars on the Auto-x course as I'm describing my car's trek amongst the cones.

A quick rundown of my weekend competing in the July 2009 Redline Time Attack event "in" St. Louis. This wasn't my first time on a road course, but it was my first time with unrestricted passing, a transponder, and cars that could close up on my at ungodly speeds.

This episode is based on a day spent at the IHRA 1/4 mile drag strip in Rockingham, NC. I do sort a play-by-play voiceover of my test and tune and competition runs during a spring 2005 event (might have been Battle of the Imports).

This episode describes my 2013 trip to the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado.

Once again I've recorded fresh audio for what was originally a very video-centric episode produced for YouTube. My relationship with HO Scale Tyco and Aurora brand slot cars dates back to 1980. This is a short trip through that history.

The video version of this episode included some poorly read historical content on Hot Wheels and Mattel and me doing voiceover as I dumped out my 400+ car, Hot Wheels collection on the bed and carefully arranged the various blister cards. This was done time-compressed. Obviously that doesn't work on a podcast, so I recorded fresh audio (June 2020). I talk a little about the history of Hot Wheels as a toy, my personal history with them as a child and how and when I became an adult collector.

Originally recorded as video voice-over, I was able to extract portions of the original audio, as well as add a new prologue and epilogue. These are just my general feelings on the how's and why's and an overview of the event, not necessarily a travel diary.