August 1, 2019 • 36 mins
In the inaugural episode of The Fast Track podcast, Scott presents Vanderhall Motor Works out of Provo, Utah. Vanderhall produces hand-built, three-wheeled autocycles in an assortment of styles ranging from a single-seat speedster, to an all-electric version and even a luxury model. Listen in to see if one might be a good fit for you!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to the Fast Track. I'm your host,
Scott Benjamin, and this is an all new show and
I'm gonna have to do something right off the bat
that I haven't had to do for a very long
time since I've worked here. I've I've been at at
this company for a long time, producing podcast since about
two thousand eight. And I've run another show called Car
Stuff with with my co host Ben Bowling and recently
(00:28):
been doing that one on my own as well. And uh,
this is another brand new one. So I have a
feeling that we're gonna have a lot of new listeners
to this show and even some return listeners from Car Stuff,
And I kind of wanted to describe exactly what's going
on and talk a little bit, just a little bit
about myself and who I am, and you know why
I'm doing this, and give you a better understanding of
why we're creating this show, this this new fast Track podcast.
(00:52):
I guess I've been here at I Heeart Media for
a long time. I think you'll find that, you know,
you know, um, I've been fascinated with speed for a
long long time. As as Car Stuff listeners will remember, Um,
we've talked about you know, racing in the past and
people that race, and and components and engines and technology
and all of that. And it's it's always been fun
topics and we've always really seemed to enjoy talking about them.
(01:13):
And I've always been intrigued by you know, fast cars,
fast trucks, bikes, boats, anything that really you know, it
is just quick. I guess I've I've enjoyed that top speed,
just you know, short speed. You know we're talking about
like drag racing or something like that, Um, anything like that.
I've I've just loved racing forever and uh um, you know,
making machines kind of reach their their limits. That's what
I've really enjoyed and I want to talk about that
(01:35):
specifically in this podcast. And we're gonna kind of have
a more narrow focus on this show. The fast Track
is going to kind of highlight anything and everything that
allows us to go fast. So we're talking about you know,
the past, the present, the future, racing um, including the
machines and you know, the racers themselves, you know, the
people that that make them go fast, that drive them
all of that. The technology, you know, like the cutting
(01:56):
edge engines and the engineering that's used both on and
off the tracks. So we're not only going to talk about,
you know, race racing cars that you know are on
the track. We're going to talk about cars that you
know you'll see on the road as well. In fact,
we're gonna start with one of those today when we
get to it. But, um, we just want to find
out exactly, you know, what is this thing with speed?
Why are we all enticed by speed? And you know
what makes cars go faster? Who drives them? Why did
(02:19):
they do it? Why do they create these vehicles? Um?
And why do we like watching them? Really? I mean,
I think there's some pretty simple answers to a lot
of that, you know, the adrenaline or whatever. But we
are going to dig into that type of stuff and
that's going to be kind of the more narrow focus
of this show versus car stuff. So if that's your question, uh,
that is that's what we're gonna do. And uh, you know, today,
as I promise, we're gonna talk about something that that
(02:40):
is fast and uh, it is a vehicle, it's it's
actually it's an auto cycle. Um, it's called it's called
a vander Hall. And the vander Hall is actually a
whole line of vehicles that we will discuss. There's there's
several models. Um essentially what they are, they're there three
wheeled auto cycles, and um, you know the competition in
the field right now, there's a there's a couple of
(03:01):
these already on the road. There's you know, the Polaris
sling Shot, there's the Morgan three wheeler. Probably a couple
others I'm forgetting, I think, uh, just there's a there's
a bunch of three wheelers out there already. Of course
classic cars that were three wheelers, and not so many
new ones, but but a few out there. These vander
hallt vehicles that we're gonna talk about are technically federally
classified as a motorcycle. So I guess in some states
(03:22):
you're gonna have to wear a helmet, but if you know,
you have to look into that on your own to
see if see if you're one of the states to
do that. This is a vehicle to go zero to
sixty in less than five seconds. And what makes it
kind of unique is that it's a it's a front engine,
front wheel drive three wheeler, which is kind of rare.
Usually it's the rear wheel that's being powered, not in
every case, but um, typically you'll find that it's the
(03:43):
rear wheel that's being powered in these vehicles. And you know,
we're gonna get to the description of it in just
a moment and everything all about it, and you know,
I'll let you in on the on the inside scoop
on all this. But there has been a lot of
press about these vehicles since about two thousand fifteen or so,
and that's when they came out. There's of course some
new models that we want to talk about, and that's
why we're bringing it up today. Uh. There've been articles
in the rob Report or in uh Petrolicious, if you're
(04:06):
you know reading if you read online Road and Track,
Motor Trend, Autoblog, Forbes, you know, all over the place
there there are more places than that even and uh,
if you really want to check it out and get
kind of a decent review of these things and and
kind of have some fun along the way. There was
an appearance on j Lenos garage of the vander Hall Venice,
which is a model that we're going to talk about,
(04:28):
which happens sometime around uh I think it was in
August of two thousand and seventeen is when that that
edition came out, and it's it's definitely worth watching. It's
it's it's fun. It's got the founder of the company
that we're gonna discuss in just a minute. UM. But
these things they have, they have a really fun look.
They look fast, they are fast. There quick vehicle. UM.
I'm sure they're thrilled to drive. It seems like it's
(04:49):
kind of like one of those vehicles that when you
get in or you even see it in your garage,
it would make you smile every time you see it.
It's it's that type of vehicle. UM. Sounds like a
small sports card and not like a motorcycle. And I'll
tell you why. UM as we get to that UM shifting.
We'll talk about shifting. I guess two as we go
along here. But UM, it does have kind of a
sequential shifter a lot like a motorcycle would. UM. But gosh,
(05:13):
I think we're already getting a little bit ahead of
ourselves because I want to UM give you a little
bit of the company info, some of the background on
this thing, and uh and let you know what it's
all about. UM, if you haven't already looked it up,
if you haven't already checked out, UM, you know vander
hallt Motor Works, maybe you should do. So. You can
go to vander hallt USA dot com and you can
(05:35):
find just about anything and everything that you want there
as far as information goes on these auto cycle vehicles. UM,
auto cycles, I should say, you'll find a course of gallery.
You know, it has lots of lots of photos and videos.
You'll find UM an inventory of vehicles if you want
to buy one. You'll find owners manuals, their model specs.
You'll find dealer contacts. You know, just about everything that
you could expect to find on a website you'll find there. UM.
(05:58):
The company itself, vander Hall All Motor Works. It was
founded in two thousand and ten, but they didn't really
produce a vehicle until that two thousand and fifteen. And
I'll tell you why in just a moment. But it
is an American vehicle manufacturer that's based in of all places, Provo, Utah.
Now I say of all places because I believe and
this is according to uh, you know Jay Leno and
(06:19):
the and the founder talking on on Jay Leno's garage. UH,
this is apparently the only car that has ever been
manufactured in Utah. Now I find that hard to believe
because there were so many US auto manufacturers at the
turn of the century. Um, I just can't believe that
that none of them were out of Utah. But I
guess this is the first and only car ever manufactured
(06:39):
in Utah. The founder's name is Steve Hall. He's the CEO.
And Steve was he happened to be a CAD designer
at a company called Novotech now, um Novotech. He just
so you know what Novotech is. It was Russia's or
it is Russia's second largest natural gas producer, and it's
based in Western Side area with it does have a
(07:01):
sales office in Moscow. But I guess, Uh, Steve was
designing or working on, um, you know, some designs for
his vehicle at that time. And uh it again. It
took him about five years from the founding of the company,
uh the idea in two thousand ten up until about
two thousand fifteen when he developed a vehicle called the
vander Hall Laguna. And the Laguna is an interesting vehicle
(07:24):
and it is one that essentially the rest of the
line kind of follows the lagunas looks. It's it seems
like they're a little bit more refined as we as
we get, you know, a little bit later into production.
And I think that the Laguna is actually a two
thousand sixteen model year vehicle. But it was produced in
two thousand and fifteen, or at least that was when
it was it was developed. Um. You know again this
(07:45):
this initial model of course as a three wheel roadster,
and it again classified as a motorcycle. Um. But that
is when it finally passed the testing for um, you know,
the n h T s A and e p A
certifications in around and they actually came up with three
different models of the Laguna, And there was just the
standard Laguna, and then there was also the Laguna Sport Premium,
(08:08):
and then there was something called the Laguna Bespoke Motoring Experience.
Now I can imagine that that one had just about
all the bells and whistles they could possibly want on it. Um.
Each one of these things featured a one point four
leader two horsepower GM based four cylinder turbocharged engine and
had a GM six ft automatic transmission. Now, remember when
(08:30):
I said just a moment ago that um, you know,
this is a this is a an auto cycle that
does not sound like a motorcycle. It sounds more like
a small sports car. The reason is, of course, because
it does have this GM four cylinder engine which sits
up front. And uh and these are these are front
wheel drive cars, which is again kind of strange in
the world of three wheel vehicles, but um, not completely
(08:52):
unheard of. So just kind of an interesting turn there,
I guess with that. Um, Now, the specs on this
and and I'll i'll kind of described this vehicle to
you as we get to because it is it is
the first one, um you know, from Vanderhal motor Works,
and they've developed these quite a bit as we as
we start to look at the newer models. But um,
(09:12):
the base price on these now and I'll tell you
why it gets kind of expensive in just a moment.
But the base price on this for the Laguna again,
two thousand sixteen was the model year. The base price
was forty nine thousand, nine d and fifty dollars, So
we're talking about a fifty thousand dollar if you want
to call it that. It's an essential. It's essentially a toy. Um,
it's kind of a weekend car. It's definitely not not
(09:34):
a a daily driver or a grocery getter or whatever
you wanna call it. UM. The price as tested, according
to Automobile magazine, This is back in July of the
price as tested was seventies seven thousand dollars. So they
must have had one of the higher end models, one
of those Ringer cars that you often hear of the
you know they hand out to the press to drive,
(09:57):
you know, make sure that they're they're absolutely running perfect,
they have every option available. UM. The engine, as we said,
it was one point four leader turbo charged dual over
a Camp sixteen valve in line four. It had two
hundred horse power, and of course that two hundred horse
powers coming from only PM. Now, I know that's sort
of high, but it's not anywhere near what it would
(10:17):
be if it was a motorcycle engine, you know, when
we were talking about revs. Uh, you know, ten thousand
or more, twelve thousand, fourteen thousands, something like that. UM
two hundred two hundre pound feet of torque, which is
decent for a small little vehicle like that. So I'm
sure it was a quick car. UM. You know a
lot of places, as we said, you know, we'll say
it goes zero to sixty and less than five seconds,
So um, you know, again pretty pretty snappy, pretty pretty
(10:40):
quick car. This one in particular, it was it had
two doors, which is not the case across the model
line up now as we'll tell you in just a
little while or towards the end of the podcast. UM
two passengers also not the case with every one of
these UH front engine, front wheel drive roadster. Of course
we we talked about that mileage was decent, not not fantastic,
but decent um at twenty four city and thirty two
(11:02):
miles per gallon on the highway. Although I don't think
you really care what the mileage is that you're getting
out of one of these. It's just a fun vehicle
to drive around. Very lightweight. Now this is where the
base price UM is probably coming from. It why it's
so expensive. And I know that these are you know,
kind of custom built vehicles and uh um not all
custom but more like more like boutique vehicles as as
(11:25):
we'll discuss in just a second, but um a very
lightweight and the reason is because UH Laguna had a
hand laid carbon fiber body. Now that's something that they
have stopped doing for the current model. Lineup. But again,
a hand laid carbon fiber body is something that that
makes vehicles pretty expensive because it is very time consuming
(11:47):
to do something like this. It's it's an expensive process. Um,
it's a labor intensive process. And manufacturers are starting to
try to um to simplify this whole process so that
you know, it becomes cheaper to create fiber body panels
for whatever vehicle they're producing. You know, lightweight equals um
you know, better, better performance, better miles per gallon all that.
(12:09):
So a lot of manufacturers right now are searching for
kind of the silver bullet on that and figuring out
the best way to do it. Some have gotten very
close to getting the cost down to exactly where they
want it so that they can um, you know, produce
and manufacturer these cars are much cheaper with you know,
the performance and the and the mileage and all that
(12:29):
that they need. Especially when you're talking about cafe restrictions
coming in place and stuff, you're gonna need lighter weight vehicles,
and aluminum doesn't always do the trick. Now, I just
mentioned for a sect just over a second, I said
something about boutique vehicles, and uh, I would guess that
Vander holl does count as a boutique manufacturer. And if
you want to think about other boutique manufacturers or you
(12:50):
want something similar just to kind of compare it, you're
talking about manufacturers like Hennessey or Icon or Shelby American
or something like that, very low production numbers. But the
vehicles are something special. There's something that are typically handbuilt. Um,
you know, there's no assembly line production usually um, and
they are you know, very well, very well appointed. I
(13:11):
guess maybe that's the best way to put it. They
have a lot of features and functions and personal touches
that a lot of you know, your standard cars that
are manufactured in mass on assembly lines just simply don't
have because um, you know, of time, or or because
of money concerns or gearing, what have you. There's a
lot of reasons that that's something like that might might happen.
And you know what we're gonna let I want to
(13:32):
talk a little bit more about, um, these vehicles because
we're getting to the point now where there are uh
four or five Um schuffle a lot of paper here,
so I hope you can't hear that, but uh, there
are four or five models that that Vander Hall Motor
Works is actually producing and or will be producing in
the very very near future. Um. So they've got the
they've got the vander Holl Laguna, which was in the
(13:54):
Venice and teen. Then they had the Edison Squared which
came out in teen. I bet you'll hear people refer
to that as a Edison too. Um. There's a reason
we'll talk about that and a bit. Uh. Then there's
the Venice Speedster which came out ineen. And then there's
something called the vander Hall Carmel uh that's coming out
(14:15):
in twenty nine or has come out in twenty nineteen.
It I think it still says coming soon on the website,
so maybe not quite yet. But you know, I do
want to talk about the family of engines that are
being used in these because there's some interesting stuff here
as well. And I think we'll do that. But let's
let's take a word from our sponsor first. And we're
(14:37):
back and you're listening to the fast Track, and I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin, and we were just talking about
maybe discussing, uh, you know, the family of engines that
that are that are fitted underneath the uh the bonnet.
I guess if you want to call it that. Of
the of these vehicles, these these specialty vehicles, and you know,
it's funny, I haven't even really described them yet. UM,
maybe I should do that. And they look they have
(14:58):
like sort of like a mo we're gonna three wheeler
look without the the engine up front, you know, the
exposed engine up front. UM. I said that their front
wheel drive. And they do have some fenders up front,
which is sometimes unique in these vehicles. UM, They're not
always covered like that, and it's kind of nice that
they are just for you know, road debris, rocks, that
type of stuff to get flipped back up on you. UM.
A couple of them have doors, a couple of them
(15:20):
don't have doors, and we'll discuss those when we get
to the models. UM, I believe it or not, that's
a luxury feature in these vehicles, and the door is
a luxury feature. In fact, a second seat is kind
of a luxury feature in some of these. It depending
on how you look at it. And I'd kind of
like to leave that as a question for the end
of this whole podcast them, so we'll definitely get to
it and discuss that. But UM, let's first, let's let's
(15:41):
talk about these engines. The engine that is being used,
it's actually a whole family, the one that UM is
being used in this one. I believe it has a
designation LUV, and I've seen that described as as Love
in the past, but I don't know if people actually
say love. It's probably just LUV. And then there's another
questionable thing here, and I'll tell you why I question
what this is. It says the GM Family zero engine,
(16:03):
which I don't know if it's zero or if it's
actually OH, because the family if I say Family Oh,
the Family OH is a family of inline piston engines
that was developed by the company Opal when they at
the time when they were a subsidiary General Motors, which
is up until just very recently. I want to say,
it was like, um, just off the top of my head,
like somewhere in there when Opal was still owned by
(16:26):
General Motors. And it's all it is, really is. It's
a low displacement engine that's used on entry level subcon
subcompact cars from Opal and Vauxhall and they've developed that
engine for use on these on these vander Hall speedsters
or vander Hall vehicles. I should say, and um, you
know all the auto cycles. Um. Can we pause here
(16:48):
just for a second so I can tell you about
a UM just kind of a side note, I guess
my dad had an Opal Manta when I was growing up,
and it was actually Amanta A if you want to
be specific about it. And I'm not sure exactly wight year.
It was in nineteen seventy nineteen seventy five. That's all
I know, because it was definitely the Manta A. And
if you want to look them up online, they're they're
kind of a cool looking old vehicle. Now, it was
(17:09):
a German car. UM it was. It was orange, had
a black top on it, kind of a it was
a hard top, but it had a black um. I
I don't know he's called leather or whatever that is
on top, the swede or whatever they put on there.
But that's the car that I learned to shift in.
So there's kind of a special place, uh special place
you know, in in my mind for that vehicle and
(17:31):
some good memories in that car. Was very small, had
a back seat, but it was very very small, two door,
and it was just kind of a cool looking vehicle.
And uh again, learning to shift from the passenger seat
was kind of fun. You know, I found out, you know,
found kind of the rhythm of shifting and and we
had some good times in that car. It was it
was not a very expensive car, obviously, it was kind
of a cheaply made car. Really. Uh you know the
(17:52):
cold cold winters, those vinyl seats would good crack and
splinter and you know you had to put seat covers
on in the summertime, just seat and cut yourself on that.
But um or stick to them. Really that was another problem.
Um when you're wearing shorts as a terrible problem with
final seats. Um and leather too, I guess. But it
was just a fun vehicle. And uh, I know it's
a side note that's not meant for everybody, but if
(18:13):
you ever get a chance to look up in the
opal man to do it, because um, I just think
it's a it's an interesting vehicle with a lot of
people don't have a whole lot of knowledge about now
and uh um it's kind of a fun thing to
just check out, you know, looking back. But these engines,
getting back to them, they're they're a gasoline engine. They're
not a diesel engine. And the cool thing about this
is they're they're cast iron block, which you might think, okay,
(18:34):
cast iron, it's gonna be heavy, but they say it's
a lightweight cast iron block. UM. I don't know exactly
how you can call a lightweight a cast iron block lightweight,
but I suppose because it's only a four cylinder, it's
relatively small. It does, however, have an aluminum cylinder head,
and and that's really good. It has a dual leverhead camshafts,
of course, as you would expect by now and UH
(18:55):
and four valves per cylinder. Not a whole lot more
to to say in general all about this car, other than,
you know, when we get into some of the generations,
with some going to UM, there's some specifics that we
need to talk about, you know, later versions of this engine,
which we'll talk about in in a moment when we
get to generation three, because there were three total or
there have been three total. UH. Later generations have a
(19:18):
variable length intake manifold and also variable valve timing. So
that's some some modern features that they put in these
UH these older engines, I suppose, because they did come
out around n and I think the first vehicle, the
first one, first generation of the family O Engine. I'm
gonna keep calling it, oh because I think that's the
right way. Um came out in a nine Opal Coursa
(19:40):
and it was available Eiser either as a three cylinder engine,
which was a one Leader straight three engine, or as
a four cylinder engine, which was a one point two
leaders straight four. UM. Now, this was Opal's first three
cylinder engine two, which makes it kind of unique. So
that was kind of interesting, I guess in the Family
O engine history. From there it was it was I
don't know, several years up until about two thousand two
(20:02):
when they launched the generation to family Oh uh, Family
O engine and this one this wasn't of course, it
was an updated engine that featured something called twin ports technology.
Now that twin it was actually twin intake ports with
a choke closing one of the ports at low rpm,
which gave it a kind of like a strong air
swirl pattern for higher torque levels and better fuel economy.
(20:24):
So it had a couple of decent benefits and uh um,
of course you know it's also later, I guess the
crankshaft and oil galleries were redesigned to um um kind
of lower the power loss that was resulting from that,
and of course again increased fuel economy. It was all
about increasing fuel economy and still is really uh, they're
still trying to do that, but you know, these are
these are just like small little additions to these engines
(20:45):
as we as we grow or as they grow. Here. Um,
the next one is called the Eco Flex engine and
that's Generation three and this was introduced in two thousand eight,
and I believe that that is the one that is
in the current vander Hall vander Hall Speedster. It's version
of the twin Port which has been tuned for better
fuel economy and even lower emissions. And it was introduced
again in two thousand and eight as a and there
(21:08):
was a one leader engine in two thousand ten, but
for model year two thousand twelve, the Equo Flex engines
were updated with double cam phasing in this Gen three
block and of course, you know, again better fuel economy,
lower emissions, that was the goal there. These were used
and I guess you can probably you can probably picture
some of the cars that these engines were used in
or the types of engines. Uh. They were used in
(21:30):
what GM called its Delta two platform, and this was
like the Cavalier the Vault, the Cruise UM in the
opal line I believe is the opal Astra, and there
were others as along the way as well. But these
were a turbo charged version of the one point four
Leader engine. And these are the ones I believe that
are used again in the vent of Speedster and probably
models going forward for a while. UM. But they were
(21:52):
UM or they do they are I should say, uh,
double variable cam phasing engines. And again I believe the
speeds are uses one of these turbo charged engines. So
that is one of the benefits of this. Now, if
you want to look up information about the Family Zero
as they call it, or Family oh Uh, you can
do a simple keyword search and find out all the uh,
all the information about these the cast iron block, you know,
(22:15):
the the aluminum head material. You can find out all
the displacements that they had along the way, you know,
the the changes throughout there. That's just kind of a
brief history, and you know, I think that might be
all I really have to say about the engines other
than you know, maybe we'll mention them here when we
get to some of the Vanderholt models. And and I
want to describe to you several of these models, you know,
the pricing and uh, just you know some of what
(22:36):
makes them unique and interesting and and we'll do that
after we take another word from our sponsor, and we're
back and you're listening to the fast Track, and I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin, and I think that just before
the break, we were saying that we wanted to talk
about the models and uh, and that's what I'd love
to do. Now we've kind of discussed the Laguna a
little more at length, uh than I thought we would
(22:58):
buy this by this point in episode. But I do
wanted to. I do want to bring back the idea
that the Laguna was kind of this this flagship model.
It was released in two thousands sixteen again and I
did have this hand laid carbon fiber body and it
had other patented components to which included a non welded
cross hatch front grill and something called a tabin slot
aluminum monocoque chassis. Now that's pretty interesting. I think they
(23:21):
I want to say that they stuck with that monocoque
chassis uh throughout the lineup, but it doesn't specifically call
that out yet, so UM, I'll have to take a
look through the vehicle specs on the website and and
check that out for you. But um again, they started
to release new vehicles as as time progress. Of course,
as most manufacturers would, in these boutique manufacturers, they have
to kind of keep up with what people want, and
(23:44):
in they came up with something called the vander Hall Venice.
Now that the Venice is a little bit different. There
are no doors on the Venice. It's a like a
step over belt line vehicle. So you can understand how
low these cars are to the ground. They're they're extremely low. Um,
even if you're not a very all person, they still
seem pretty low. You're able to get in and out
of them pretty easy from what I understand. Um. Again,
(24:05):
it has this uh, this GM UH four cylinder engine.
This is where they discussed the the Love engine and
the LUV version of the engine and uh, you know
that's GM's family of one point four leader turbo charged engines. Uh.
It's a hundred and eighty horsepower version of that of that,
and again made it to a GM six ft automatic transmission.
And it does have um something that I don't know
(24:26):
if we've even discussed this other than just mentioning briefly
at the beginning. UM, it does have this optional sequential
manual shifting option that you can you can add on
and I believe that is uh that's a left handed
operated thing. And it's up kind of on the sill
of the vehicle, like where you would step over to
get into the car. And it's just kind of a
bump shifter. It's an up down almost like uh gosh,
(24:47):
I'm trying to think of the uh, the brand names
of these things, but you know, like the the the
bump shift, the UM auto stick or whatever you want
to call it, where you just you push you know,
forward for you know, up shift and backward for down shift. UM.
It's kind of a sequential thing. But it's not exactly
that way. Uh, not not like you'd find on a
like a on on a motorcycle, but but very close
(25:08):
something similar. Uh. The next line, Our next vehicle that
they came out with was something called the Edison Squared
or Edison two vehicle. And uh, the Edison two or
Edison Squared came out in two thousands seventeen, and they
previewed this one at the Long Beach International Motorcycle Show,
which makes sense because it is an autocycle, and there
were a lot of fans of motorcycles that are interested
(25:29):
in autocycles as well. But they also brought it to
the Consumer Electronics Show where CS that was happening out
in Las Vegas. So if you happen to go to
that show, you might be familiar with the Edison too.
And what makes this model different, this model year Edison
two different is that it has the equivalent of a
hundred night total horsepower, but it doesn't. It doesn't essentially
(25:51):
have a hundred eighty horsepow. I'll tell you why. You
might have already guessed this. It has twin electric motors,
so this is an all electric version. It was matched
with a thirty killer wat our battery, which gave it
a two hundred mile range, which is actually not bad. Uh,
that's a pretty decent range for any electric vehicle. I mean,
some of the the upper end Tesla models are getting
(26:11):
like three and fifty miles or three miles depending on
you know which version you get um and I know
that they're always extending that, so maybe even farther at
this point, but two hundred mile range out of something
like this, I think is is pretty decent. Pretty good.
And then in two thousand and seventeen this is this
is where I kind of kind of came in contact
with us for the first time. I hadn't really heard
of it in all the way through about eighteen when
(26:34):
they developed something called the Venice Speedster, and that is
ah um, I believe that's where I saw it um
on the j Lenos, the jay Lenos garage, and I
think that's the that's the one this actually came out in.
Uh says, I don't know if it's a ten or
twenty nineteen model. I think it's a twenty nineteen model year.
But they announced this back in August at the Surgis Rally,
(26:57):
which was happening in South Dakota. Of course we all
know when Sturgis happens at the motorcycle Rally. But the
Venice Speedster is kind of like a a minimalist version
of the Venice from seventeen. So think about think about
taking even what you know about the Venice with you know,
the car with no doors and uh, you know, very
very pared down vehicle already they've even made it less
(27:21):
than that. And and by less in some cases I
mean more, because to me, this is one of the
cooler things. Um. Okay, first of all, it shares that
at one point four leader D eight horsepower engine and
the six speed automatic. However, it's a single seat sports car.
And I love this about this vehicle. The Speedster is
a single seat car, and it has kind of a
hard cover over where the passenger would normally sit, and
(27:43):
that becomes a um, a cargo area, like just a
little cabin area that you can store stuff. You know,
you can even I think you can even put They
always say this, but you can put a golf bag
in there if you want to. I don't know. I
don't know if any people are really carrying their golf
bag in there, but maybe so. Anyways, you can use
it for groceries or whatever whatever you want. Uh. You
could even tuck a small person in there, I suppose,
but probably not not legal. I just love there's something
(28:07):
I love about single seat sports cars, single seat race
cars even and um just just on a quick side note,
and I won't make much of this because I think
a lot of returning car stuff listeners already know this,
but I owned a nineteen sixty six MG. It was
an arcly bodied MG. It was kind of like a
midget and it had a tunnel cover a lot like this.
(28:27):
This is a hardcover, though, but mine was a soft
cover and you could uncover or you could cover, i
should say, the convertible part of the whole car if
you wanted to, for protection from the elements or just uh,
you know, prying eyes or whatever. You could also just
unzipped the area around the driver so you could have
kind of just a driver single cockpit area that you know,
you could kind of operate underneath this cover. And it
(28:48):
was really really cool. I just love driving around like that.
It was just there was something about it. There was
so much fun. Uh that you know, everybody knew there
was another seat under there, but it sure looked like
a one seater, you know to me, and it felt
like a one seater and I thought it was. It
was pretty cool. Um. Anyway, let's move on to the
next one. And uh, and I'm not gonna mispronounce this.
This is that this is a model called the Caramel
(29:11):
and it's c A R M E L. It's caramel.
It's not caramel like the like the candy. And I
did look this up because I was curious about this.
So just for those of you that are curious, as
I was caramel. Um, if you know, if you spell
it that way with an A in the middle, that
is for food or colors only. It's if it's caramel
with no A in the middle, it's c A R
(29:31):
M E L. Like this car is. Um, it's only
misspelled if you use it for food and colors. But
it's also correct. It's spelled correctly if you use it
for people or places. And UM, I would guess things
this this vehicle is a thing, and uh, it's it's
definitely a caramel and the caramel has more luxury, more
(29:52):
convenience features added to it. So if you're looking for
a kind of the top end vander Holt model, this
is supposedly coming out in twenty nineteen. I don't know
if it already ha as or not. Again, the website
is saying coming soon, I believe, or actually you know what,
I'm sorry, it's already been updated. Um, it is already
out there. So I had misspoken before, but no worries. UM,
check out the website and you'll see it there. Um.
(30:12):
It has things like you know, wider it what has
front entry doors, It has a wider cabin um it
has provisions to accommodate removable canvas top like you know,
for a sunshade if you want, which is something kind
of unique. I believe the Laguna had something similar to
that as well back in uh when that was launched.
But again this one has just a little bit more
(30:34):
to it, and with that you can also get a
different engine. This one has a two horsepower GM one
point five leader turbo charged engine. Again a four cylinder engine,
six ft automatic transmission and uh, you know all that.
I I think I want to say that this is
the the GM SGE Engines, which stands for of all
things SGE Small gasolene Engine. I don't know why they
(30:56):
couldn't get more creative with their engine naming than that,
but um it's the SGE family of engines, and I
believe it was um developed by several companies including um
OPAL and MG and Shanghai GM, and just there's a
whole grouping of people that are companies rather that got
together to create the s G E and I think
that's the one. Again, it's a two horsepower versions. So
(31:17):
if you're looking for a little bit more power and
more luxury options, if you want to put it that way. UM,
the Caramel is your vehicle when you're looking at the
vander Hall lineup, and UM, I do have a copy
here in front of me, and I promise we're almost done, folks.
But I really think the best way for you to
get an understanding of what these things look like, UM,
(31:38):
if you really want to, UM, you know, check them
out and get some more I don't know, I guess
some more detail on on what you're beginning for your money.
And I'll tell you about the money right now. UM.
Check out the website and go to the models tab
and you can find out exactly what they're all about.
And I'll tell you which ones are the least expensive
options on this list and the and the most expensive
as we get to them. But they have they offer
(31:58):
a full line of UM Venice vehicles. I don't believe
they're still offering the Laguna model. I think that is
sold out. That's kind of done. That's a concluded model.
But they've moved on to the Venice. And in the
Venice you can get the standard Venice, which, uh, here's
the bad news. The prices start from about twenty nine thousand,
nine fifty dollars, so that's about a thirty thousand dollar toy,
(32:19):
do you want to put it that way. The least
expensive vehicle on the lineup is actually the the Venice
Speedster that's single seater that we talked about just a
moment ago, and that one is is based starting at fifties,
so around twenty seven thousand dollars if you want to
get into the Venice Speedster, and personally right now, out
of all the vehicles in that lineup, just my two cents,
(32:42):
the Venice Speedster is probably one of the coolest looking
ones there at this point. Um. Then there's a couple, actually,
there's a couple there that might be more interesting in
the near future though, because there is going to be
the Venice R and the Venice Speedster R which are
coming out soon. Of course, are racing. We're talking about that,
and that's coming in according to the website. The Edison Edison,
(33:03):
i should say, is the one that we told you about,
the Edison too, and that one is already out there,
and that it's a little bit more expensive as as
we'll find in with a lot of electric vehicles, you know,
as we talk about some of these faster vehicles that
are there electric powered um. That one starts the base
price starts at thirty four nine fifties, so we're talking
just under just a thirty five thousand dollars if you
want to get an electric version of the of the
(33:26):
vander Hall. Uh. There's something called the Edison four coming up. Now,
that's why I've been saying Edison too instead of Edison squared. Uh.
The Edison four is coming out and that should be
in as well, and I would guess another little price
bump for that one, if I if I had to
guess now to date, as we just discussed, the Caramel,
as you can imagine, is the the most expensive option
(33:46):
on the on the model's list here, and that one
begins the prices start around thirty So you're talking about
again a forty thou dollar car um for something that
wouldn't necessarily be good for commuting, but it might be
a heck of a lot of fun for you to own.
And Uh, I would really I would really love to
just get some seat time in one of these, just
(34:07):
to see what they're all about. You know, I'll tell you, Um,
I don't know, if I have a whole lot of
more information, I do want to conclude with a couple
of questions here at the end. But first I want
to let you know how you can contact us or
how you can you know, reach us and kind of
keep in touch with what we're doing here or even
give us a little bit of feedback. We are on
(34:27):
Twitter we are the fast Track Pod, and on Facebook
and on Instagram we are the Fast Track Show. Very
soon we'll have a lot of stuff there for you
to check out. And uh, I mentioned, you know, just
in passing that I would like to kind of wrap
this whole thing up with a question for you. And
my question is this. You know, UM, I've seen it
written a lot of places that I've read a lot
(34:49):
of these reports about this vehicle. And and when we
get to talking about the the Venice Speedster, some places
have said that the Venice Speedster has a problem. And
that problem is that you know, there's only one seat.
You know that you can't take anybody with you. You
can't you know, for your money, you're you're getting just
transportation for one instead of transportation for potentially to um
(35:10):
no more than two, because there's just no way you can.
You'll you'll understand when you see the vehicle, UM, but
I want to know, like, what do you think. I mean,
do you think that it's a problem that the venice
speeds there is a single seater or do you do
you like that? Because I don't think it's a problem.
I think it's actually a benefit. If you want that car. Uh,
if you want that that type of vehicle, I should say,
by that type of vehicle, if you want a single seater,
(35:31):
I mean you have to have some some foresight and
you know, understanding. You know, Okay, maybe I don't want
to have somebody with me all the time, or I
want to take this thing to the racetrack and and
use it, you know, in in club events or you
know whatever. Um, I don't see this as a problem, really,
I see it it kind of as a as a
benefit in some way. Some of the other models have
some benefits of as well, and some some downsides I think. So, Um,
(35:52):
I'd love to hear from anybody out there that has
an opinion on that, and uh and also just kind
of you know, right to me and and let me
know what you think of the show so far. I
know that it's a lot like car stuff, but we're
gonna have a much more narrowed focus in that we're
gonna try to stick to fast things and fast cars
and fast people and you know, all the technology and
engineering and all that fun stuff that that makes us
(36:13):
go fast, rather than you know, having the broad scope
of car stuff. So if you like that idea, let
me know. I'd like to hear that as well. And
um gosh, I just want to say thanks to everybody
who is a car stuff listener, that is has transitioning
over to listening to this as well or instead, I
don't know. Um, and anybody's a brand new listener, I
just want to welcome you to and uh and again
(36:34):
I just want to say thanks for listening.
Hello, and welcome to the Fast Track. I'm your host,
Scott Benjamin, and this is an all new show and
I'm gonna have to do something right off the bat
that I haven't had to do for a very long
time since I've worked here. I've I've been at at
this company for a long time, producing podcast since about
two thousand eight. And I've run another show called Car
Stuff with with my co host Ben Bowling and recently
(00:28):
been doing that one on my own as well. And uh,
this is another brand new one. So I have a
feeling that we're gonna have a lot of new listeners
to this show and even some return listeners from Car Stuff,
And I kind of wanted to describe exactly what's going
on and talk a little bit, just a little bit
about myself and who I am, and you know why
I'm doing this, and give you a better understanding of
why we're creating this show, this this new fast Track podcast.
(00:52):
I guess I've been here at I Heeart Media for
a long time. I think you'll find that, you know,
you know, um, I've been fascinated with speed for a
long long time. As as Car Stuff listeners will remember, Um,
we've talked about you know, racing in the past and
people that race, and and components and engines and technology
and all of that. And it's it's always been fun
topics and we've always really seemed to enjoy talking about them.
(01:13):
And I've always been intrigued by you know, fast cars,
fast trucks, bikes, boats, anything that really you know, it
is just quick. I guess I've I've enjoyed that top speed,
just you know, short speed. You know we're talking about
like drag racing or something like that, Um, anything like that.
I've I've just loved racing forever and uh um, you know,
making machines kind of reach their their limits. That's what
I've really enjoyed and I want to talk about that
(01:35):
specifically in this podcast. And we're gonna kind of have
a more narrow focus on this show. The fast Track
is going to kind of highlight anything and everything that
allows us to go fast. So we're talking about you know,
the past, the present, the future, racing um, including the
machines and you know, the racers themselves, you know, the
people that that make them go fast, that drive them
all of that. The technology, you know, like the cutting
(01:56):
edge engines and the engineering that's used both on and
off the tracks. So we're not only going to talk about,
you know, race racing cars that you know are on
the track. We're going to talk about cars that you
know you'll see on the road as well. In fact,
we're gonna start with one of those today when we
get to it. But, um, we just want to find
out exactly, you know, what is this thing with speed?
Why are we all enticed by speed? And you know
what makes cars go faster? Who drives them? Why did
(02:19):
they do it? Why do they create these vehicles? Um?
And why do we like watching them? Really? I mean,
I think there's some pretty simple answers to a lot
of that, you know, the adrenaline or whatever. But we
are going to dig into that type of stuff and
that's going to be kind of the more narrow focus
of this show versus car stuff. So if that's your question, uh,
that is that's what we're gonna do. And uh, you know, today,
as I promise, we're gonna talk about something that that
(02:40):
is fast and uh, it is a vehicle, it's it's
actually it's an auto cycle. Um, it's called it's called
a vander Hall. And the vander Hall is actually a
whole line of vehicles that we will discuss. There's there's
several models. Um essentially what they are, they're there three
wheeled auto cycles, and um, you know the competition in
the field right now, there's a there's a couple of
(03:01):
these already on the road. There's you know, the Polaris
sling Shot, there's the Morgan three wheeler. Probably a couple
others I'm forgetting, I think, uh, just there's a there's
a bunch of three wheelers out there already. Of course
classic cars that were three wheelers, and not so many
new ones, but but a few out there. These vander
hallt vehicles that we're gonna talk about are technically federally
classified as a motorcycle. So I guess in some states
(03:22):
you're gonna have to wear a helmet, but if you know,
you have to look into that on your own to
see if see if you're one of the states to
do that. This is a vehicle to go zero to
sixty in less than five seconds. And what makes it
kind of unique is that it's a it's a front engine,
front wheel drive three wheeler, which is kind of rare.
Usually it's the rear wheel that's being powered, not in
every case, but um, typically you'll find that it's the
(03:43):
rear wheel that's being powered in these vehicles. And you know,
we're gonna get to the description of it in just
a moment and everything all about it, and you know,
I'll let you in on the on the inside scoop
on all this. But there has been a lot of
press about these vehicles since about two thousand fifteen or so,
and that's when they came out. There's of course some
new models that we want to talk about, and that's
why we're bringing it up today. Uh. There've been articles
in the rob Report or in uh Petrolicious, if you're
(04:06):
you know reading if you read online Road and Track,
Motor Trend, Autoblog, Forbes, you know, all over the place
there there are more places than that even and uh,
if you really want to check it out and get
kind of a decent review of these things and and
kind of have some fun along the way. There was
an appearance on j Lenos garage of the vander Hall Venice,
which is a model that we're going to talk about,
(04:28):
which happens sometime around uh I think it was in
August of two thousand and seventeen is when that that
edition came out, and it's it's definitely worth watching. It's
it's it's fun. It's got the founder of the company
that we're gonna discuss in just a minute. UM. But
these things they have, they have a really fun look.
They look fast, they are fast. There quick vehicle. UM.
I'm sure they're thrilled to drive. It seems like it's
(04:49):
kind of like one of those vehicles that when you
get in or you even see it in your garage,
it would make you smile every time you see it.
It's it's that type of vehicle. UM. Sounds like a
small sports card and not like a motorcycle. And I'll
tell you why. UM as we get to that UM shifting.
We'll talk about shifting. I guess two as we go
along here. But UM, it does have kind of a
sequential shifter a lot like a motorcycle would. UM. But gosh,
(05:13):
I think we're already getting a little bit ahead of
ourselves because I want to UM give you a little
bit of the company info, some of the background on
this thing, and uh and let you know what it's
all about. UM, if you haven't already looked it up,
if you haven't already checked out, UM, you know vander
hallt Motor Works, maybe you should do. So. You can
go to vander hallt USA dot com and you can
(05:35):
find just about anything and everything that you want there
as far as information goes on these auto cycle vehicles. UM,
auto cycles, I should say, you'll find a course of gallery.
You know, it has lots of lots of photos and videos.
You'll find UM an inventory of vehicles if you want
to buy one. You'll find owners manuals, their model specs.
You'll find dealer contacts. You know, just about everything that
you could expect to find on a website you'll find there. UM.
(05:58):
The company itself, vander Hall All Motor Works. It was
founded in two thousand and ten, but they didn't really
produce a vehicle until that two thousand and fifteen. And
I'll tell you why in just a moment. But it
is an American vehicle manufacturer that's based in of all places, Provo, Utah.
Now I say of all places because I believe and
this is according to uh, you know Jay Leno and
(06:19):
the and the founder talking on on Jay Leno's garage. UH,
this is apparently the only car that has ever been
manufactured in Utah. Now I find that hard to believe
because there were so many US auto manufacturers at the
turn of the century. Um, I just can't believe that
that none of them were out of Utah. But I
guess this is the first and only car ever manufactured
(06:39):
in Utah. The founder's name is Steve Hall. He's the CEO.
And Steve was he happened to be a CAD designer
at a company called Novotech now, um Novotech. He just
so you know what Novotech is. It was Russia's or
it is Russia's second largest natural gas producer, and it's
based in Western Side area with it does have a
(07:01):
sales office in Moscow. But I guess, Uh, Steve was
designing or working on, um, you know, some designs for
his vehicle at that time. And uh it again. It
took him about five years from the founding of the company,
uh the idea in two thousand ten up until about
two thousand fifteen when he developed a vehicle called the
vander Hall Laguna. And the Laguna is an interesting vehicle
(07:24):
and it is one that essentially the rest of the
line kind of follows the lagunas looks. It's it seems
like they're a little bit more refined as we as
we get, you know, a little bit later into production.
And I think that the Laguna is actually a two
thousand sixteen model year vehicle. But it was produced in
two thousand and fifteen, or at least that was when
it was it was developed. Um. You know again this
(07:45):
this initial model of course as a three wheel roadster,
and it again classified as a motorcycle. Um. But that
is when it finally passed the testing for um, you know,
the n h T s A and e p A
certifications in around and they actually came up with three
different models of the Laguna, And there was just the
standard Laguna, and then there was also the Laguna Sport Premium,
(08:08):
and then there was something called the Laguna Bespoke Motoring Experience.
Now I can imagine that that one had just about
all the bells and whistles they could possibly want on it. Um.
Each one of these things featured a one point four
leader two horsepower GM based four cylinder turbocharged engine and
had a GM six ft automatic transmission. Now, remember when
(08:30):
I said just a moment ago that um, you know,
this is a this is a an auto cycle that
does not sound like a motorcycle. It sounds more like
a small sports car. The reason is, of course, because
it does have this GM four cylinder engine which sits
up front. And uh and these are these are front
wheel drive cars, which is again kind of strange in
the world of three wheel vehicles, but um, not completely
(08:52):
unheard of. So just kind of an interesting turn there,
I guess with that. Um, Now, the specs on this
and and I'll i'll kind of described this vehicle to
you as we get to because it is it is
the first one, um you know, from Vanderhal motor Works,
and they've developed these quite a bit as we as
we start to look at the newer models. But um,
(09:12):
the base price on these now and I'll tell you
why it gets kind of expensive in just a moment.
But the base price on this for the Laguna again,
two thousand sixteen was the model year. The base price
was forty nine thousand, nine d and fifty dollars, So
we're talking about a fifty thousand dollar if you want
to call it that. It's an essential. It's essentially a toy. Um,
it's kind of a weekend car. It's definitely not not
(09:34):
a a daily driver or a grocery getter or whatever
you wanna call it. UM. The price as tested, according
to Automobile magazine, This is back in July of the
price as tested was seventies seven thousand dollars. So they
must have had one of the higher end models, one
of those Ringer cars that you often hear of the
you know they hand out to the press to drive,
(09:57):
you know, make sure that they're they're absolutely running perfect,
they have every option available. UM. The engine, as we said,
it was one point four leader turbo charged dual over
a Camp sixteen valve in line four. It had two
hundred horse power, and of course that two hundred horse
powers coming from only PM. Now, I know that's sort
of high, but it's not anywhere near what it would
(10:17):
be if it was a motorcycle engine, you know, when
we were talking about revs. Uh, you know, ten thousand
or more, twelve thousand, fourteen thousands, something like that. UM
two hundred two hundre pound feet of torque, which is
decent for a small little vehicle like that. So I'm
sure it was a quick car. UM. You know a
lot of places, as we said, you know, we'll say
it goes zero to sixty and less than five seconds,
So um, you know, again pretty pretty snappy, pretty pretty
(10:40):
quick car. This one in particular, it was it had
two doors, which is not the case across the model
line up now as we'll tell you in just a
little while or towards the end of the podcast. UM
two passengers also not the case with every one of
these UH front engine, front wheel drive roadster. Of course
we we talked about that mileage was decent, not not fantastic,
but decent um at twenty four city and thirty two
(11:02):
miles per gallon on the highway. Although I don't think
you really care what the mileage is that you're getting
out of one of these. It's just a fun vehicle
to drive around. Very lightweight. Now this is where the
base price UM is probably coming from. It why it's
so expensive. And I know that these are you know,
kind of custom built vehicles and uh um not all
custom but more like more like boutique vehicles as as
(11:25):
we'll discuss in just a second, but um a very
lightweight and the reason is because UH Laguna had a
hand laid carbon fiber body. Now that's something that they
have stopped doing for the current model. Lineup. But again,
a hand laid carbon fiber body is something that that
makes vehicles pretty expensive because it is very time consuming
(11:47):
to do something like this. It's it's an expensive process. Um,
it's a labor intensive process. And manufacturers are starting to
try to um to simplify this whole process so that
you know, it becomes cheaper to create fiber body panels
for whatever vehicle they're producing. You know, lightweight equals um
you know, better, better performance, better miles per gallon all that.
(12:09):
So a lot of manufacturers right now are searching for
kind of the silver bullet on that and figuring out
the best way to do it. Some have gotten very
close to getting the cost down to exactly where they
want it so that they can um, you know, produce
and manufacturer these cars are much cheaper with you know,
the performance and the and the mileage and all that
(12:29):
that they need. Especially when you're talking about cafe restrictions
coming in place and stuff, you're gonna need lighter weight vehicles,
and aluminum doesn't always do the trick. Now, I just
mentioned for a sect just over a second, I said
something about boutique vehicles, and uh, I would guess that
Vander holl does count as a boutique manufacturer. And if
you want to think about other boutique manufacturers or you
(12:50):
want something similar just to kind of compare it, you're
talking about manufacturers like Hennessey or Icon or Shelby American
or something like that, very low production numbers. But the
vehicles are something special. There's something that are typically handbuilt. Um,
you know, there's no assembly line production usually um, and
they are you know, very well, very well appointed. I
(13:11):
guess maybe that's the best way to put it. They
have a lot of features and functions and personal touches
that a lot of you know, your standard cars that
are manufactured in mass on assembly lines just simply don't
have because um, you know, of time, or or because
of money concerns or gearing, what have you. There's a
lot of reasons that that's something like that might might happen.
And you know what we're gonna let I want to
(13:32):
talk a little bit more about, um, these vehicles because
we're getting to the point now where there are uh
four or five Um schuffle a lot of paper here,
so I hope you can't hear that, but uh, there
are four or five models that that Vander Hall Motor
Works is actually producing and or will be producing in
the very very near future. Um. So they've got the
they've got the vander Holl Laguna, which was in the
(13:54):
Venice and teen. Then they had the Edison Squared which
came out in teen. I bet you'll hear people refer
to that as a Edison too. Um. There's a reason
we'll talk about that and a bit. Uh. Then there's
the Venice Speedster which came out ineen. And then there's
something called the vander Hall Carmel uh that's coming out
(14:15):
in twenty nine or has come out in twenty nineteen.
It I think it still says coming soon on the website,
so maybe not quite yet. But you know, I do
want to talk about the family of engines that are
being used in these because there's some interesting stuff here
as well. And I think we'll do that. But let's
let's take a word from our sponsor first. And we're
(14:37):
back and you're listening to the fast Track, and I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin, and we were just talking about
maybe discussing, uh, you know, the family of engines that
that are that are fitted underneath the uh the bonnet.
I guess if you want to call it that. Of
the of these vehicles, these these specialty vehicles, and you know,
it's funny, I haven't even really described them yet. UM,
maybe I should do that. And they look they have
(14:58):
like sort of like a mo we're gonna three wheeler
look without the the engine up front, you know, the
exposed engine up front. UM. I said that their front
wheel drive. And they do have some fenders up front,
which is sometimes unique in these vehicles. UM, They're not
always covered like that, and it's kind of nice that
they are just for you know, road debris, rocks, that
type of stuff to get flipped back up on you. UM.
A couple of them have doors, a couple of them
(15:20):
don't have doors, and we'll discuss those when we get
to the models. UM, I believe it or not, that's
a luxury feature in these vehicles, and the door is
a luxury feature. In fact, a second seat is kind
of a luxury feature in some of these. It depending
on how you look at it. And I'd kind of
like to leave that as a question for the end
of this whole podcast them, so we'll definitely get to
it and discuss that. But UM, let's first, let's let's
(15:41):
talk about these engines. The engine that is being used,
it's actually a whole family, the one that UM is
being used in this one. I believe it has a
designation LUV, and I've seen that described as as Love
in the past, but I don't know if people actually
say love. It's probably just LUV. And then there's another
questionable thing here, and I'll tell you why I question
what this is. It says the GM Family zero engine,
(16:03):
which I don't know if it's zero or if it's
actually OH, because the family if I say Family Oh,
the Family OH is a family of inline piston engines
that was developed by the company Opal when they at
the time when they were a subsidiary General Motors, which
is up until just very recently. I want to say,
it was like, um, just off the top of my head,
like somewhere in there when Opal was still owned by
(16:26):
General Motors. And it's all it is, really is. It's
a low displacement engine that's used on entry level subcon
subcompact cars from Opal and Vauxhall and they've developed that
engine for use on these on these vander Hall speedsters
or vander Hall vehicles. I should say, and um, you
know all the auto cycles. Um. Can we pause here
(16:48):
just for a second so I can tell you about
a UM just kind of a side note, I guess
my dad had an Opal Manta when I was growing up,
and it was actually Amanta A if you want to
be specific about it. And I'm not sure exactly wight year.
It was in nineteen seventy nineteen seventy five. That's all
I know, because it was definitely the Manta A. And
if you want to look them up online, they're they're
kind of a cool looking old vehicle. Now, it was
(17:09):
a German car. UM it was. It was orange, had
a black top on it, kind of a it was
a hard top, but it had a black um. I
I don't know he's called leather or whatever that is
on top, the swede or whatever they put on there.
But that's the car that I learned to shift in.
So there's kind of a special place, uh special place
you know, in in my mind for that vehicle and
(17:31):
some good memories in that car. Was very small, had
a back seat, but it was very very small, two door,
and it was just kind of a cool looking vehicle.
And uh again, learning to shift from the passenger seat
was kind of fun. You know, I found out, you know,
found kind of the rhythm of shifting and and we
had some good times in that car. It was it
was not a very expensive car, obviously, it was kind
of a cheaply made car. Really. Uh you know the
(17:52):
cold cold winters, those vinyl seats would good crack and
splinter and you know you had to put seat covers
on in the summertime, just seat and cut yourself on that.
But um or stick to them. Really that was another problem.
Um when you're wearing shorts as a terrible problem with
final seats. Um and leather too, I guess. But it
was just a fun vehicle. And uh, I know it's
a side note that's not meant for everybody, but if
(18:13):
you ever get a chance to look up in the
opal man to do it, because um, I just think
it's a it's an interesting vehicle with a lot of
people don't have a whole lot of knowledge about now
and uh um it's kind of a fun thing to
just check out, you know, looking back. But these engines,
getting back to them, they're they're a gasoline engine. They're
not a diesel engine. And the cool thing about this
is they're they're cast iron block, which you might think, okay,
(18:34):
cast iron, it's gonna be heavy, but they say it's
a lightweight cast iron block. UM. I don't know exactly
how you can call a lightweight a cast iron block lightweight,
but I suppose because it's only a four cylinder, it's
relatively small. It does, however, have an aluminum cylinder head,
and and that's really good. It has a dual leverhead camshafts,
of course, as you would expect by now and UH
(18:55):
and four valves per cylinder. Not a whole lot more
to to say in general all about this car, other than,
you know, when we get into some of the generations,
with some going to UM, there's some specifics that we
need to talk about, you know, later versions of this engine,
which we'll talk about in in a moment when we
get to generation three, because there were three total or
there have been three total. UH. Later generations have a
(19:18):
variable length intake manifold and also variable valve timing. So
that's some some modern features that they put in these
UH these older engines, I suppose, because they did come
out around n and I think the first vehicle, the
first one, first generation of the family O Engine. I'm
gonna keep calling it, oh because I think that's the
right way. Um came out in a nine Opal Coursa
(19:40):
and it was available Eiser either as a three cylinder engine,
which was a one Leader straight three engine, or as
a four cylinder engine, which was a one point two
leaders straight four. UM. Now, this was Opal's first three
cylinder engine two, which makes it kind of unique. So
that was kind of interesting, I guess in the Family
O engine history. From there it was it was I
don't know, several years up until about two thousand two
(20:02):
when they launched the generation to family Oh uh, Family
O engine and this one this wasn't of course, it
was an updated engine that featured something called twin ports technology.
Now that twin it was actually twin intake ports with
a choke closing one of the ports at low rpm,
which gave it a kind of like a strong air
swirl pattern for higher torque levels and better fuel economy.
(20:24):
So it had a couple of decent benefits and uh um,
of course you know it's also later, I guess the
crankshaft and oil galleries were redesigned to um um kind
of lower the power loss that was resulting from that,
and of course again increased fuel economy. It was all
about increasing fuel economy and still is really uh, they're
still trying to do that, but you know, these are
these are just like small little additions to these engines
(20:45):
as we as we grow or as they grow. Here. Um,
the next one is called the Eco Flex engine and
that's Generation three and this was introduced in two thousand eight,
and I believe that that is the one that is
in the current vander Hall vander Hall Speedster. It's version
of the twin Port which has been tuned for better
fuel economy and even lower emissions. And it was introduced
again in two thousand and eight as a and there
(21:08):
was a one leader engine in two thousand ten, but
for model year two thousand twelve, the Equo Flex engines
were updated with double cam phasing in this Gen three
block and of course, you know, again better fuel economy,
lower emissions, that was the goal there. These were used
and I guess you can probably you can probably picture
some of the cars that these engines were used in
or the types of engines. Uh. They were used in
(21:30):
what GM called its Delta two platform, and this was
like the Cavalier the Vault, the Cruise UM in the
opal line I believe is the opal Astra, and there
were others as along the way as well. But these
were a turbo charged version of the one point four
Leader engine. And these are the ones I believe that
are used again in the vent of Speedster and probably
models going forward for a while. UM. But they were
(21:52):
UM or they do they are I should say, uh,
double variable cam phasing engines. And again I believe the
speeds are uses one of these turbo charged engines. So
that is one of the benefits of this. Now, if
you want to look up information about the Family Zero
as they call it, or Family oh Uh, you can
do a simple keyword search and find out all the uh,
all the information about these the cast iron block, you know,
(22:15):
the the aluminum head material. You can find out all
the displacements that they had along the way, you know,
the the changes throughout there. That's just kind of a
brief history, and you know, I think that might be
all I really have to say about the engines other
than you know, maybe we'll mention them here when we
get to some of the Vanderholt models. And and I
want to describe to you several of these models, you know,
the pricing and uh, just you know some of what
(22:36):
makes them unique and interesting and and we'll do that
after we take another word from our sponsor, and we're
back and you're listening to the fast Track, and I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin, and I think that just before
the break, we were saying that we wanted to talk
about the models and uh, and that's what I'd love
to do. Now we've kind of discussed the Laguna a
little more at length, uh than I thought we would
(22:58):
buy this by this point in episode. But I do
wanted to. I do want to bring back the idea
that the Laguna was kind of this this flagship model.
It was released in two thousands sixteen again and I
did have this hand laid carbon fiber body and it
had other patented components to which included a non welded
cross hatch front grill and something called a tabin slot
aluminum monocoque chassis. Now that's pretty interesting. I think they
(23:21):
I want to say that they stuck with that monocoque
chassis uh throughout the lineup, but it doesn't specifically call
that out yet, so UM, I'll have to take a
look through the vehicle specs on the website and and
check that out for you. But um again, they started
to release new vehicles as as time progress. Of course,
as most manufacturers would, in these boutique manufacturers, they have
to kind of keep up with what people want, and
(23:44):
in they came up with something called the vander Hall Venice.
Now that the Venice is a little bit different. There
are no doors on the Venice. It's a like a
step over belt line vehicle. So you can understand how
low these cars are to the ground. They're they're extremely low. Um,
even if you're not a very all person, they still
seem pretty low. You're able to get in and out
of them pretty easy from what I understand. Um. Again,
(24:05):
it has this uh, this GM UH four cylinder engine.
This is where they discussed the the Love engine and
the LUV version of the engine and uh, you know
that's GM's family of one point four leader turbo charged engines. Uh.
It's a hundred and eighty horsepower version of that of that,
and again made it to a GM six ft automatic transmission.
And it does have um something that I don't know
(24:26):
if we've even discussed this other than just mentioning briefly
at the beginning. UM, it does have this optional sequential
manual shifting option that you can you can add on
and I believe that is uh that's a left handed
operated thing. And it's up kind of on the sill
of the vehicle, like where you would step over to
get into the car. And it's just kind of a
bump shifter. It's an up down almost like uh gosh,
(24:47):
I'm trying to think of the uh, the brand names
of these things, but you know, like the the the
bump shift, the UM auto stick or whatever you want
to call it, where you just you push you know,
forward for you know, up shift and backward for down shift. UM.
It's kind of a sequential thing. But it's not exactly
that way. Uh, not not like you'd find on a
like a on on a motorcycle, but but very close
(25:08):
something similar. Uh. The next line, Our next vehicle that
they came out with was something called the Edison Squared
or Edison two vehicle. And uh, the Edison two or
Edison Squared came out in two thousands seventeen, and they
previewed this one at the Long Beach International Motorcycle Show,
which makes sense because it is an autocycle, and there
were a lot of fans of motorcycles that are interested
(25:29):
in autocycles as well. But they also brought it to
the Consumer Electronics Show where CS that was happening out
in Las Vegas. So if you happen to go to
that show, you might be familiar with the Edison too.
And what makes this model different, this model year Edison
two different is that it has the equivalent of a
hundred night total horsepower, but it doesn't. It doesn't essentially
(25:51):
have a hundred eighty horsepow. I'll tell you why. You
might have already guessed this. It has twin electric motors,
so this is an all electric version. It was matched
with a thirty killer wat our battery, which gave it
a two hundred mile range, which is actually not bad. Uh,
that's a pretty decent range for any electric vehicle. I mean,
some of the the upper end Tesla models are getting
(26:11):
like three and fifty miles or three miles depending on
you know which version you get um and I know
that they're always extending that, so maybe even farther at
this point, but two hundred mile range out of something
like this, I think is is pretty decent. Pretty good.
And then in two thousand and seventeen this is this
is where I kind of kind of came in contact
with us for the first time. I hadn't really heard
of it in all the way through about eighteen when
(26:34):
they developed something called the Venice Speedster, and that is
ah um, I believe that's where I saw it um
on the j Lenos, the jay Lenos garage, and I
think that's the that's the one this actually came out in.
Uh says, I don't know if it's a ten or
twenty nineteen model. I think it's a twenty nineteen model year.
But they announced this back in August at the Surgis Rally,
(26:57):
which was happening in South Dakota. Of course we all
know when Sturgis happens at the motorcycle Rally. But the
Venice Speedster is kind of like a a minimalist version
of the Venice from seventeen. So think about think about
taking even what you know about the Venice with you know,
the car with no doors and uh, you know, very
very pared down vehicle already they've even made it less
(27:21):
than that. And and by less in some cases I
mean more, because to me, this is one of the
cooler things. Um. Okay, first of all, it shares that
at one point four leader D eight horsepower engine and
the six speed automatic. However, it's a single seat sports car.
And I love this about this vehicle. The Speedster is
a single seat car, and it has kind of a
hard cover over where the passenger would normally sit, and
(27:43):
that becomes a um, a cargo area, like just a
little cabin area that you can store stuff. You know,
you can even I think you can even put They
always say this, but you can put a golf bag
in there if you want to. I don't know. I
don't know if any people are really carrying their golf
bag in there, but maybe so. Anyways, you can use
it for groceries or whatever whatever you want. Uh. You
could even tuck a small person in there, I suppose,
but probably not not legal. I just love there's something
(28:07):
I love about single seat sports cars, single seat race
cars even and um just just on a quick side note,
and I won't make much of this because I think
a lot of returning car stuff listeners already know this,
but I owned a nineteen sixty six MG. It was
an arcly bodied MG. It was kind of like a
midget and it had a tunnel cover a lot like this.
(28:27):
This is a hardcover, though, but mine was a soft
cover and you could uncover or you could cover, i
should say, the convertible part of the whole car if
you wanted to, for protection from the elements or just uh,
you know, prying eyes or whatever. You could also just
unzipped the area around the driver so you could have
kind of just a driver single cockpit area that you know,
you could kind of operate underneath this cover. And it
(28:48):
was really really cool. I just love driving around like that.
It was just there was something about it. There was
so much fun. Uh that you know, everybody knew there
was another seat under there, but it sure looked like
a one seater, you know to me, and it felt
like a one seater and I thought it was. It
was pretty cool. Um. Anyway, let's move on to the
next one. And uh, and I'm not gonna mispronounce this.
This is that this is a model called the Caramel
(29:11):
and it's c A R M E L. It's caramel.
It's not caramel like the like the candy. And I
did look this up because I was curious about this.
So just for those of you that are curious, as
I was caramel. Um, if you know, if you spell
it that way with an A in the middle, that
is for food or colors only. It's if it's caramel
with no A in the middle, it's c A R
(29:31):
M E L. Like this car is. Um, it's only
misspelled if you use it for food and colors. But
it's also correct. It's spelled correctly if you use it
for people or places. And UM, I would guess things
this this vehicle is a thing, and uh, it's it's
definitely a caramel and the caramel has more luxury, more
(29:52):
convenience features added to it. So if you're looking for
a kind of the top end vander Holt model, this
is supposedly coming out in twenty nineteen. I don't know
if it already ha as or not. Again, the website
is saying coming soon, I believe, or actually you know what,
I'm sorry, it's already been updated. Um, it is already
out there. So I had misspoken before, but no worries. UM,
check out the website and you'll see it there. Um.
(30:12):
It has things like you know, wider it what has
front entry doors, It has a wider cabin um it
has provisions to accommodate removable canvas top like you know,
for a sunshade if you want, which is something kind
of unique. I believe the Laguna had something similar to
that as well back in uh when that was launched.
But again this one has just a little bit more
(30:34):
to it, and with that you can also get a
different engine. This one has a two horsepower GM one
point five leader turbo charged engine. Again a four cylinder engine,
six ft automatic transmission and uh, you know all that.
I I think I want to say that this is
the the GM SGE Engines, which stands for of all
things SGE Small gasolene Engine. I don't know why they
(30:56):
couldn't get more creative with their engine naming than that,
but um it's the SGE family of engines, and I
believe it was um developed by several companies including um
OPAL and MG and Shanghai GM, and just there's a
whole grouping of people that are companies rather that got
together to create the s G E and I think
that's the one. Again, it's a two horsepower versions. So
(31:17):
if you're looking for a little bit more power and
more luxury options, if you want to put it that way. UM,
the Caramel is your vehicle when you're looking at the
vander Hall lineup, and UM, I do have a copy
here in front of me, and I promise we're almost done, folks.
But I really think the best way for you to
get an understanding of what these things look like, UM,
(31:38):
if you really want to, UM, you know, check them
out and get some more I don't know, I guess
some more detail on on what you're beginning for your money.
And I'll tell you about the money right now. UM.
Check out the website and go to the models tab
and you can find out exactly what they're all about.
And I'll tell you which ones are the least expensive
options on this list and the and the most expensive
as we get to them. But they have they offer
(31:58):
a full line of UM Venice vehicles. I don't believe
they're still offering the Laguna model. I think that is
sold out. That's kind of done. That's a concluded model.
But they've moved on to the Venice. And in the
Venice you can get the standard Venice, which, uh, here's
the bad news. The prices start from about twenty nine thousand,
nine fifty dollars, so that's about a thirty thousand dollar toy,
(32:19):
do you want to put it that way. The least
expensive vehicle on the lineup is actually the the Venice
Speedster that's single seater that we talked about just a
moment ago, and that one is is based starting at fifties,
so around twenty seven thousand dollars if you want to
get into the Venice Speedster, and personally right now, out
of all the vehicles in that lineup, just my two cents,
(32:42):
the Venice Speedster is probably one of the coolest looking
ones there at this point. Um. Then there's a couple, actually,
there's a couple there that might be more interesting in
the near future though, because there is going to be
the Venice R and the Venice Speedster R which are
coming out soon. Of course, are racing. We're talking about that,
and that's coming in according to the website. The Edison Edison,
(33:03):
i should say, is the one that we told you about,
the Edison too, and that one is already out there,
and that it's a little bit more expensive as as
we'll find in with a lot of electric vehicles, you know,
as we talk about some of these faster vehicles that
are there electric powered um. That one starts the base
price starts at thirty four nine fifties, so we're talking
just under just a thirty five thousand dollars if you
want to get an electric version of the of the
(33:26):
vander Hall. Uh. There's something called the Edison four coming up. Now,
that's why I've been saying Edison too instead of Edison squared. Uh.
The Edison four is coming out and that should be
in as well, and I would guess another little price
bump for that one, if I if I had to
guess now to date, as we just discussed, the Caramel,
as you can imagine, is the the most expensive option
(33:46):
on the on the model's list here, and that one
begins the prices start around thirty So you're talking about
again a forty thou dollar car um for something that
wouldn't necessarily be good for commuting, but it might be
a heck of a lot of fun for you to own.
And Uh, I would really I would really love to
just get some seat time in one of these, just
(34:07):
to see what they're all about. You know, I'll tell you, Um,
I don't know, if I have a whole lot of
more information, I do want to conclude with a couple
of questions here at the end. But first I want
to let you know how you can contact us or
how you can you know, reach us and kind of
keep in touch with what we're doing here or even
give us a little bit of feedback. We are on
(34:27):
Twitter we are the fast Track Pod, and on Facebook
and on Instagram we are the Fast Track Show. Very
soon we'll have a lot of stuff there for you
to check out. And uh, I mentioned, you know, just
in passing that I would like to kind of wrap
this whole thing up with a question for you. And
my question is this. You know, UM, I've seen it
written a lot of places that I've read a lot
(34:49):
of these reports about this vehicle. And and when we
get to talking about the the Venice Speedster, some places
have said that the Venice Speedster has a problem. And
that problem is that you know, there's only one seat.
You know that you can't take anybody with you. You
can't you know, for your money, you're you're getting just
transportation for one instead of transportation for potentially to um
(35:10):
no more than two, because there's just no way you can.
You'll you'll understand when you see the vehicle, UM, but
I want to know, like, what do you think. I mean,
do you think that it's a problem that the venice
speeds there is a single seater or do you do
you like that? Because I don't think it's a problem.
I think it's actually a benefit. If you want that car. Uh,
if you want that that type of vehicle, I should say,
by that type of vehicle, if you want a single seater,
(35:31):
I mean you have to have some some foresight and
you know, understanding. You know, Okay, maybe I don't want
to have somebody with me all the time, or I
want to take this thing to the racetrack and and
use it, you know, in in club events or you
know whatever. Um, I don't see this as a problem, really,
I see it it kind of as a as a
benefit in some way. Some of the other models have
some benefits of as well, and some some downsides I think. So, Um,
(35:52):
I'd love to hear from anybody out there that has
an opinion on that, and uh and also just kind
of you know, right to me and and let me
know what you think of the show so far. I
know that it's a lot like car stuff, but we're
gonna have a much more narrowed focus in that we're
gonna try to stick to fast things and fast cars
and fast people and you know, all the technology and
engineering and all that fun stuff that that makes us
(36:13):
go fast, rather than you know, having the broad scope
of car stuff. So if you like that idea, let
me know. I'd like to hear that as well. And
um gosh, I just want to say thanks to everybody
who is a car stuff listener, that is has transitioning
over to listening to this as well or instead, I
don't know. Um, and anybody's a brand new listener, I
just want to welcome you to and uh and again
(36:34):
I just want to say thanks for listening.
The Fast Track News
Host
Scott Benjamin
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