Excalibur and FrankenFerrari: Tales of Lambos, Prius to Daytona, and Surprising Collectors

Jon Summers is The Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and fast, and not much reliable. On his show, he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel.

Topics Covered on this Episode:

• A Florida Roadtrip; 
• A Prius Digression;
• J impressed by hybrid torque and 50mpg;
• Prius not impressed by J’s driving;
• Daytona Track Tour is worthwhile to see the banking’s steepness from the actual track; J drives where Dale Earnhardt met his end; 
• J’s recent Sprint Car research project - Midget racing in the bay area in the late 1940s/50s
• Hall of Fame Museum at Daytona;
• Campbell’s Bluebird;
• Marshall Teague’s “Fabulous” Hudson Hornet;
• Automotive sites in Daytona Beach - Smokey Yuinick’s shop, Marshall Teague’s shop
• Early Nascar and the rise of the SuperSpeedway;
• The North Turn Restaurant
• VINWiki Curated Lamborghini in Miami
• The Green Diablo Jota in the Kitchen
• 1981 Lamborghini Countach - the Monaco Grand Prix Pace Car
• The Estrella Warbirds Museum
• California History - Hunter-Gatherer societies and aeroplane graveyards - the most awesome sprint car collection
• Pebble Beach 2023 - 
• Structured a different way - first time in a decade didn’t watch the start of the tour;
• Stayed in Soledad - good roads but the distance an issue;
• The People Of Pebble Beach, and the McLaren Millenial crowd;
• If last year was McLarens this year it was lots of Rolls Royces;
• Familiarity makes them “less off-puttingly ostentatious”
• J has made his peace with the Cullinan
• The Yellow Crypto Lambo
• J is cynical about Audighini’s baked in understeer
• Big day at RM; Lancia LC2
• 8 litre Bentley
• Siata
• RMs Barn Find Exhibit and the 1954 Mondial
• JDM at Pebble; but who are Spoon?; The white 90’s tuner Civic as a classic car; 
• Are drift cars attaining collectibility?
• Seeing the Quail show at the end of the day, while the cars are being loaded
• How Daimler and Benz came to merge in 1926 and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, designed by Porsche
• Monterey Historic Races from Laguna Seca; Group C cars enjoyable from the Corkscrew; The build-up of Turns 3,4,5,and 6 - a rhythm and style which British club circuits lack. All like Copse Corner at Silverstone - simple fast, challenging; J loves Historic Formula 1; RIP Phil Reilly, Ford/Cosworth DFV Guru
• The Ragtime Racers,Classic car auctions as Performative Theatre
• J’s new logistics for Pebble ‘23; the show itself remains the Best Car Show. But only until all the people arrive.
• A Beautifully Curated Balance of Cars. J particularly enjoyed Senna’s 1988 McLaren Formula 1 car. A fresh appreciation for Daimler Benz as the featured marque.
• J’s tribute to Don Williams, the man who wanted to “touch every car”, seller of the first $1m car, and the first $10m car; the origins of the Blackhawk Museum; Don said “I don’t like crap”, but J does! 
• Blackhawk Museum, jewelry store display case vs. J’s desire to tell rich stories around artifacts
• J appreciates Don for elevating cars to antiques
• 3 Awesome Black Mercedes - #1 - The Trossi Mercedes SSK owned by Ralph Lauren, J’s Best in Show, image car for this episode
• J’s tour for some Mercedes Benz visitors leading on how the concours works; pleasingly ended the tour on the winning car, #2 a black Mercedes 540k; 800 miles in two weeks in #3 my black ‘02 Mercedes E55 - great old car despite a cracked windshield;
• Cadaverous Collectors and the cars of Pebble as Avatar
• J’s favourite YouTuber of the moment - Car UK

Music sampled on this episode:

• Motorhead - Deadmen Tell No Tales;
• Iron Maiden - Sun and Steel
• Manowar - And The Gods Made Heavy Metal
• Exodus - Metal Command
• Ratt - Dance
• Type o Negative - We Hate Everyone;
• Kreator - Grinder
• Prong - Who’s Fist?
• Dope - You Spin Me

Copyright Jon Summers, The Motoring Historian. This episode is part of our Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission.

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