May 26, 2023 • 30 mins
Ever thought about turning your Jeep into a monster or injecting it with testosterone? Join us as we chat with John Ghattas, owner of Apocalypse Manufacturing, about the wild world of custom car creations and the future of vehicles. From six-wheeled trucks and Jeeps to electric Hummers, you have to check out the projects John and his team bring to life.
In our feature segment, Konrad DeLong has the popular feature - 'This Week In Auto History', where we uncover the history of the odometer, discuss the sale of Chrysler to Seribus Capital Management, and explore the high rate of uninsured drivers in Texas.
Plus, find out about the new tax imposed on electric vehicles and the surprising increase in Mary Barra's pay package despite the decline in GM's sales and profits.
Buckle up for this action-packed episode filled with automotive history, industry news, and custom cars!
All this and more on this episode of In Wheel Time Car Talk.
apocalypse6x6.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another in wheel time podcast, a 30 minute
mini version of the in wheeltime car show that airs live
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am Central.
It's the in wheel time car talkshow coming up.
We hope to talk to John Gattis,owner of the apocalypse
(00:20):
manufacturing company Conrad hasthis week in auto history.
We'll get you caught up on thestories making car news this
week.
Howdy along with Mike out Ofthis world, mars who is out of
this world actually?
right?
now, hey, it's been a good dayHis mind is in another place,
which it normally is, but todayespecially.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
He's.
He's a topless Jeep weekend.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Oh yeah, thinking about all these people invading
his house exactly.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
He's headed there to defend.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We also have King Conrad along, and we have.
We need more.
Jeff Zekin, i'm nobody.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Oh, broadcast Hall of Famer the Don Armstrong, the
Channel 13 I in the sky, okayall righty Conrad, there's
enough of that his meds arekicking in.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Oh, there you go.
I knew you had it.
Well, it's all.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, it's on the rundown page?
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Make Mars.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Just give you a picture was a picture on the
bottom of your, your sheet.
That's what I saw.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yes that's the picture of Don reacts to
pictures Um let's talk aboutdeep weekend down at the beach.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Stay away, yeah, stay away Who started.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
That It's a.
It really started, it's anational day of jeeps.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know the Jeep clubs all together.
Yeah, and it's a big deal likeit happens all across the
country.
It's just our location downhere on Crystal Beach on the
Bolliver Peninsula where youhave a house.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yes, to the east of Galveston.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It used to be a lot of Jeep stuff.
Well, the beauty of it, though,is your beach is allowed, you
know vehicles on it.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, you're allowed to drive on it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So there's thousands of them there this weekend, yeah
, and, and we, conrad and I'vebeen down there a couple of
times when we were going downthere in the show We real
broadcast down there severalyears ago and we've seen a lot
of sites down there that wecan't forget And and so please,
we don't go down there anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And then we had the moron that tried to organize it.
Yeah, that was a big mistake.
That was a huge mistake,remember that.
And then they've had lots ofpolice issues here.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, Well, not, not police issues, criminal police.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, we have criminals down there a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
They had a couple of high tides and it pushed
everybody off the beach andeverybody got jammed up on the
road.
It's a lot of stuff here.
Let me let me see if I canconnect here with Joe.
I think that I think that Iwould avoid that.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, at all costs, Yeah if I think about how busy
the ferry is Gonna be well it is.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
It's called topless Jeep weekend, but there's not.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Not everybody has a Jeep.
They've got these little Andnot everybody's topless.
Well, that's not the point.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
I'll take the top off the car.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Conrad.
But there's other vehicles, notnecessarily cheap, yeah, and
that's kind of ruins the four byfours, the side besides, and
all that stuff Lots of alcoholand very little common.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's what the problem is.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, and that's the main problem.
Yeah, that was it last time wewere there.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I told Mars, i said we will not be back to this.
It was just absolute mayhem Andwe got nothing out of it,
nothing.
It was just a total pain.
Is that guy that still havethat bar down there?
What?
Huh?
Yeah, he still got the bar.
I'm surprised that's inbusiness.
(03:49):
Yeah, the tiki bar, they really.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They really got some good food there.
You're such a lie How they doMars go to go lunch.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
They've got some great food.
Well, yeah, well, i'm gonna getdown there and go for lunch
down at the Crystal Beach.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah, but fly in, don .
You got that helicopter.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah they got a grass air strip.
No, that's not happen.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, okay.
So Joe's here apocalypseManufacturing and his name is.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Joe.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Joe gattis, it's good to see you.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Thanks for having me.
Am I pronouncing your last name, right?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay, good, just wanted to make sure.
So, joe, tell us aboutapocalypse manufacturing.
What does it do?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So it's the it's one side of our, our custom Jeep
shop that we specialized in Justridiculous oversized trucks.
We started out, you know,taking jeeps and turning them
into six wheelers and they kindof evolved from there.
Now we're, you know, on thedoing defenders and converting
cars to electric and gem anddemon engines and hellcat
(05:01):
engines, things that they don'tbelong in.
We've gotten into chopping upthe Broncos, just you name it.
All the bad ideas happen inthat shop.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
At least he's honest about it.
The bad ideas come to fruition.
Yeah, exactly, i love it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
There you go.
You sent us a picture of Idon't know what kind of a truck
it is, but it's nothing thatI've ever seen before.
What is it?
It's the super truck, mom.
Is that what it is?
It's the super truck.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, that's actually one of the few that I don't
turn into a six-wheeler Justbecause the original platform is
pretty awesome.
Um, you familiar with the RamKX?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Oh yeah, Yeah, is that what this is?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I would have never Yeah it starts like your exit.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Just gets injected about 200 cc of testosterone and
they have it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, i can see that.
I mean it's got the mostbizarre body panels on it and
grill and it doesn't look likeanything.
Maybe the hood?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, the hood's recognizable now.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, that's about it .
There you go.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's the one piece I didn't change.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Well, you don't need to, because the hood works for
this.
Uh, what all done?
So I would assume that you domore than just body panels and
wheels and tires.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Absolutely so.
This thing is born with ahellcat.
I take the pulley off of it,put a smaller pulley on there,
get some more boost out of thesupercharger.
Put a bigger set of injectorsin there, you know, bump the
timing up, improve the tunedramatically because we're
running a lot more air pressurethrough it, put a bigger fuel
pump system in there and then wedo what I call the piece.
They resist on the killerchiller.
(06:42):
So we actually involve the airconditioning system in cooling
down the supercharger so that wedon't lose the extra power we
made.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Oh, My gosh.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
You use the air killer chiller, the killer,
chiller, killer.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
That is so much fun.
Where are you located for forWaterdale, oh my god, and he's
laying out on the beach.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
I'm one of you.
Tails with umbrellas in them,mike, we need remote.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, this sounds like a road trip for us here in
Houston, Texas.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Oh, we'd love to have you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
I bet.
Well, i don't know if we reallywant to subject ourselves to
all of this, this mayhem downthere.
So how big is your shop?
How many, how many vehicles yougot going at one time in there?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
We can get 80 trucks out every month.
That's been our truck record.
Wow, we're about a 40,000square foot operation with 79
guys.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Wow, man, that's huge and, yeah, i are you.
So do people bring their trucksto you or do you go and buy a
truck and do all this to it andsell it on your own?
source it out.
I.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Buy the trucks and do what I think is gonna be cool
and And hope it's out.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Well, i'll tell you what I mean.
This, this apocalypse supertruck really is cool.
And Do you manufacture thosecool looking doors?
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So all that's made in house.
We've got our chop, our shopchopped up in the sections.
We've got the metal fabricationmachine shop side that.
We've got the fiberglass side,so that front end there is all
handmade out of metal.
We'll cut that on the plasmaand on the CNC and then we'll
put it on our jig and weld itall together to make that big
front end.
The defenders, i'll pull thoseoff of my fiberglass mold that
(08:36):
we created.
The doors, their big fiberglassmold as well.
The back is aluminum, that thatflans back top with a rolling
lock built into it.
The rear bumper is, again, youknow, plasma, cut and welded
together.
And then then she'll go over tothe engine side where we'll,
you know, take the intakemanifold off and put our cooling
system in there, put a smallerpulley on there, boost up the
(08:59):
injectors.
You know, go, hook that, hookthe computer up to the file, to
the PCM, and tune it.
But the super truck is actuallyone of the quickest trucks to
make it through my shop BecauseI don't have to cut the frame or
do anything else.
We make another version of it,called the juggernaut, which is
almost identical but it's gotsix wheels.
Now We've got my handfabricated axle in it, whatnot?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, that's kind of it in a nutshell, so you're the
off-road version of bitchingrides.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I'm surprised that you don't have your own
television.
Exactly have you been?
have you been approached yet?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, you have Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh, we got some secrets going on, here is is is
this a secret?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I shouldn't talk about it, or what?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I Not.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
We're on the cutting edge of a lot of this.
We either on the cutting edgeor we make it up.
So Conrad's got your websitepulled up on his computer and
those are some awesome lookingrigs.
They really are.
I'll take a six wheeler.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I like the warlord.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I like the warlord, i just want the apocalypse super
truck.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Well, the one that I want.
And now Mike's a juggernautkind of guy over there for Mike.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I'll get these things sent out.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Were trying.
We're trying to be we're tryingto.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We're trying to pull up the car so we can put it on
our on our show Here as we talk.
But so Did.
How did you get started in this?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So 20 years ago, i All my life have been working on
jeeps and trucks and whatnot,but as a business I worked as a
manager of a car dealership andAnd one day I decided to open up
my own car dealership and I wasselling a small batch of
Highline cars right that youknow, maybe seven or eight
highline cars a Lamborghini, alittle Ferrari, bentley And then
(11:03):
I always had my Jeep projectsgoing in the back of the shop
because I finally had a space towork on them again and People
would stop by to come take alook.
Maybe they're interested in theBentley or a drop-top Ferrari,
and then they'd see the jeeps inthe background and the
conversation kind of started.
As you know, every, every perkon my screen got one of these
Ferrari's, but nobody's got oneof those and You know they're
(11:24):
like is it for sale?
and never was, until it was forsale And I sold my first one,
second, one, third one.
Then I stopped buying the highlines all together and my car
wash guy turned into mechanicwith me and my sales guy turned
into Mechanic with me and wejust started building trucks
faster, faster, faster.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Joe, that, what a great story that is.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
You know, that's, that's the Fort Lauderdale is a
great car market too.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz yeah, there's some big bucks
down there in Fort Lauderdale.
I, where do you come up withthese ideas?
Because this is so unique.
I mean, you see Customizedtrucks, but I've never seen one
like this.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You know it's interesting, i'll take any idea
here and if it's quasi feasibleI'll build it once and then, if
people like it, i'll put it inproduction.
Like I just did a LamborghiniUrus, i chopped the thing in
half, made of a six-wheeler, putportals on and jacked it all up
.
And you know it was one ofthose.
Can we do it?
All right, we'll do it.
(12:27):
If somebody else calls about itnow, we could do it, you know
that's one of those.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's a $200,000 vehicle from the jet go.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Next is a Bentley Bentayga.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah whoo.
Yep.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
You know I've got my.
My three favorite projectsright now is the, the new
electric Hummer.
I'm messing around with thatone.
The Rivian to me is amindblower because if you ever
sat in a Rivian, this thing's athousand of horsepower, it is
quick as can be, it's got 350miles of range, kind of loaded
with technology.
(13:02):
But you'd walk right past thecar.
You think it was a, it was akey or Hyundai and we just
didn't really catch your eye.
So that one I've got all tornapart right now, jacked up with,
you know, 38 inch tires, 15 anda half inch wide, crazy fenders
, aggressive hood, roll cage.
You know, like a real MartyMcFly look at roll cage on there
and I'm so excited to see thattruck done.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Joe, have you ever heard of a thing called Lone
Star, a throwdown Negative?
It is a huge, huge custom truckshow here and it's actually a
city just just north of Houston,conroe, texas, within driving
distance of all of us here,friends of ours, friends of ours
, manager, it's, it's one of thebigger truck shows in the
(13:46):
nation.
You'll have to look it up LoneStar throwdown.
You need to bring a couple ofyour trucks here Absolutely, and
that, that is, it is a Januaryor February, february and
February.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
No, throwdown, throwdown, throwdown, throwdown.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, long start, throwdown, they, they they limit
the entries for the showvehicles to 2,500 and it sells
out within days, yeah, time theyopen the registration.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You need to be there, vendor space, and they, they
have thought I mean one yearthey shut down the cell system
and the cops had to come outbecause the local airport lost
its stuff because there Were somany people out there with their
phones.
It is a real.
They have a lot of people thatcome out and go through there
And you know that that's one ofthose that we'd love to connect
you with.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Todd, todd and Lonnie .
They are the ones that startedit and it's turned into.
I mean trucks from all overNorth America and and across
from Europe as well.
Oh, i don't know about that,but I do know that all across.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
North America.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Canada, these guys with the craziest designs and
Money, like you would notbelieve, thrown in you'd fit
right in.
Yeah, you would fit right in.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm looking at it now It looks like my crowd, so I'm,
i'm, i'm gonna ask Mike's gonnabuy one for the in-wheel time
company vehicle.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
We're gonna put a wrap on it.
What's Mike gonna spend on oneof these?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You know, I'm not sure if you've ever seen a
real-time company vehicle.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
You How?
much has he got Six wheelerloaded, let's say a turbo diesel
setup, i mean packed to thegills of power steps, goodies,
infrared cameras, you nameitself.
you will and won't use 150grand oh.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Spend that much on a catwalk escalate exactly does
anybody here?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
The first one is gonna cost me an arm and a leg
because it's gonna take me along time to R&B and figured out
, sorted out.
But the next 10 should cost mea fraction, because anything I
build, i try to put it inproduction style, try to write
the CAD files so that you knowthe CNC and the plasma will sit
out, the parts ready to go, andget rid of a Lot of the hand
fabricating.
Make the molds up so that wecan get the price down, because
(16:03):
I see a lot of cool trucks outthere.
But when I see the price tagI'm like, oh, that puts it out
of my range.
It becomes a dream car asopposed to something I might be
able to convince my wife to letme have a driveway.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
You know Exactly or take an escalate and turn it
into a six wheeler.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Anybody ever told you you look like Bruce Springsteen
, i'm waiting for you to breakinto pink Cadillac or something
you know.
With a guitar over yourshoulder, you're one of those
kind of cool guys that everybodywants to know.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, i'll tell you, man, i amthoroughly impressed.
(16:38):
So what is the website?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
So you got a pocket with six by six and So flow
jeeps.
Calm, that's our, that's ourtwo.
So flow jeeps is the regularstuff.
Well, i'll say regular meaningit has four wheels, and a pocket
with six by six has everythingwith the Know, the extensions of
the six wheels and the biggerengines.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So pretty wild collection.
So back to what we were askingearlier.
So you build them.
But if I, if I come to you andsay, hey, i want this, well, you
could custom build it out ofwhat you got.
I mean, i want this littlevariation or something.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Absolutely so.
I've always got a series ofchassis Let's say we're talking
about the hellfire.
I've got six chassis that haveextended and I've dropped the
392 into them But haven't doneanything else.
And then somebody will comealong and say, alright, shoot
this thing in the line X, green,and give me a brown interior
and give me bronze wheels, andthat's you know, we'll run from
(17:38):
there.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So you still customize the custom and he does
it.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Any does it fast enough where you could take it
this afternoon down to the beachinvasion?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, the beach invasion over at Crystal Beach.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I could do that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .
I like to think that these typeof trucks are very impulsive
purchase and if it, you know,from idea to thought It's three,
four months apart, you're gonnalose interest.
you know, you got to be able toput these things together in
three, four weeks tops.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's one of these two-year projects And
I'm out.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Well, you know, i've been there where you know They
put me on the tomorrow programand you just lose interest.
You're on to the next thing,you know right, Exactly right.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Well, i'm looking forward to you Sending us the
announcement that you're goingto be on motor trend with your
own show, 30 minutes weekly,with a you know, at least a
six-episode season.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah something Yeah we gotta get one day when I grow
up?
You never know.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Four of us could guest star or get a hold of us
if you're gonna come to a longstar throwdown Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Join you out there.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah, it looks like it's end of February.
I'll definitely be there andI'll definitely reach out to you
guys.
I can't wait.
They'd be great.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Please do it would be wonderful.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
It's a pleasure talking to you, joe, and we
really appreciate you spendingthe time with us on this
Saturday.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Same fellas thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
All right, man, we'll talk to you soon.
How fun.
How do you find these things?
these are good.
I like these.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I don't know, i don't know how magic.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You find people like that.
It's kind of like I want to bethat guy.
I mean, that's kind of whenyou're a kid you think about.
I want to get up and I want tomake this and I want to build
this.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Wanted to be Jimmy Buffett, not Bruce Sprint.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
No that's that's after, when I get old.
I want to do that.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I already have a facility That's not shabby 79
technicians or people that workfor everybody, has a hundred
square feet, yeah, and you know,kick an 80 a month out.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's a lot.
Wow, let's do this week in autohistory.
Shall we.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Okay, in 1847 my birthday William Clayton
invented the odometer During histrip across the plains from
Missouri to Utah.
He was assigned to record thenumber of miles His group
traveled each day.
Clayton, with the help of amathematician, tried counting
(20:09):
the revolutions of a wagon wheeland computing the day's
distance by multiplying thatcount, times the wheels,
circumference and had, andthat's the odometer we all know
today.
But the first thing in wood wasthe original odometer.
In 1916, charles Kettering andEdward deeds agreed to sell
(20:29):
Dayton elect engineeringlaboratories company, famously
known as Delco Oh, to the United, to General Motors, and William
Durant purchased Delco for $9million.
Delco was responsible forseveral innovations in the
automobile electrical system,including battery ignition
systems, and the firstself-starter In 1947, bf
(20:56):
Goodrich of Akron, ohio I don'tremember Jeff, sir tire guy
announces that it developed atubeless tire and quite a
technological innovation thatwould make automobiles safer and
more efficient.
And then, in 1958, during agoodwill trip through Latin
America, vice president RichardMulhouse Nixon driving his
(21:19):
Cadillac is attacked by an angrycrowd of Venezuelans as he was
driving through Caracas.
The incident was a dramatichighlight of the trip,
characterized by the LatinAmerican anger over some of
America's Cold War policies.
And then, in 2007, seribusCapital Management, a private
(21:41):
equity firm, acquired an 80%interest in Chrysler from
Daimler AG for only $7.4 billion.
Chrysler had bought excuse me,daimler had bought Chrysler in
1998 for $36 billion.
So Seribus got a heck of a dealon their money on about 30
(22:03):
cents on the dollar.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
What a nightmare that turned out to be, though.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Oh Yeah well and you think the combination of cars
that they built the Chrysler 300and the Charger were actually
the brainchild of Daimlerengineers.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Well, those cars okay , and they've weathered the
storm.
Man Sure have.
Yeah, and so, and theunderpinnings also of that car
is the Challenger, challengerMm-hmm, the two door purge.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
They're quite successful.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yep very successful.
yeah, What else do we have?
News headlines?
I don't have any.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
I didn't have all.
Hey, do you know, do you know?
Well, let's talk about myfavorite subject Uninsured
drivers.
That's why We didn't talk aboutthis the other day was you do,
can we talk on?
that Go to.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Jeff, all right out of the 50 states, and this is by
population of uninsuredmotorists.
Now this comes to us from acouple of years ago, so it's
changed.
A lot of different people inthe United States right now, but
Texas is the number one foruninsured motorists of 17.18% of
the population.
(23:19):
Wow, and that is over fourmillion people in the state of
Texas do not have insurance.
Oklahoma second, alaska's thirdAnd it was on and off.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
How can that be, though?
because you can't get your carregistered without it being
insured.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Well, you can't buy a car without having insurance,
so it's a lot of nefariousthings, but anyways, we made the
top list.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well, there's something to be proud of There
you go, it's all right here, Now, if you can keep it short you
got it.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Well, you gave me the article last week about Mary
Barra being ranked second in paypackage, worth nearly or she's
paid $29 million in 2022,.
According to an SEC filing onFriday, barra earned half a
percent less in 2021, but wasthe highest pay to the Detroit
three CEOs in the eighthconsecutive year.
(24:09):
As GM sales and profits decline, her pay goes up.
What's wrong with this picture?
Okay, you're not a Mary Barrafan?
No well, she was an appointeefrom the Obama administration in
2009.
Everybody knew it As GMcollapsed she was an Obama
appointee.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Why did GM collapse?
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Bad management.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Because people in her position were not car people
and she's not a car person Asmuch as she says she is.
she's not a car person.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
There's actually a TV show similar to what Mary
Barrett does And it's.
I don't think it's off the airnow, but it was about an
automotive company and their CEOand how they went about
designing car.
Yeah, nonsense, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Speaking of EVs.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
EVs.
People in the state of Texas,along with 30 other states, are
now going to have to pay more tohave an EV.
As of September 1st.
If you buy a new EV, you'regoing to have to pay an extra
extra $400 registered vehicle.
If you have already have an EVand you go to renew your license
plate, you're going to have topay an extra $200 to drive it in
(25:17):
the state of Texas.
Because they don't buy it, payfor gas, gas taxes to help fix
the road.
Now they're going to employ atax on ownership.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Time now for a quick break.
We'll be right back here on theIn-Wheel Time Car Talk Show on
iHeart Radio.
Everyone at the Tail Pipes andTacos cruise in at the Loopy
Tortilla Tex-Mex in Katie.
Thank you for participating inthe best cruise in around and
look forward to seeing you again.
You'll hear about the nextcruise in date right here on
In-Wheel Time.
Next time you're in the WestHouston Energy Corridor area, be
(25:47):
sure and stop in at theoriginal Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex
at I-10 and Highway 6 or theKatie location on the Grand
Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard.
When passing through Beaumontor College Station, stop in and
have Loopy's award-winning beeffajitas and frozen margaritas.
There's always a celebration atLoopy Tortilla.
Loopy Tortilla founders StanHold and his wife Sheila are
winning racers on the NHRA DragRacing Circuit and have a
(26:09):
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appreciates.
Look for them at the next TailPipes and Tacos cruise in.
The date will be announced soonand will once again be held at
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south of I-10 and Katie.
We'll give you all the detailsright here on the In-Wheel Time
Car Talk Show and onlineDonations benefit God's Garage.
We'll see you then.
(26:31):
You own a car you love, why notlet Gulf Coast Auto Shield
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The award-winning In-Wheel TimeCar Talk Show is available on
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We realize our three-hour liveshow can be difficult to catch
(27:38):
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(27:59):
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Don't forget those 30-minutepodcast episodes on your
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(28:41):
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(29:03):
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Jeff Zika For Booking Agent andpodcast flandre Mike Mars,
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(29:48):
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That's it for this podcastepisode of the In-Wheel Time Car
(30:09):
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Keep listening and we'll seeyou soon.
Welcome to another in wheel time podcast, a 30 minute
mini version of the in wheeltime car show that airs live
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am Central.
It's the in wheel time car talkshow coming up.
We hope to talk to John Gattis,owner of the apocalypse
(00:20):
manufacturing company Conrad hasthis week in auto history.
We'll get you caught up on thestories making car news this
week.
Howdy along with Mike out Ofthis world, mars who is out of
this world actually?
right?
now, hey, it's been a good dayHis mind is in another place,
which it normally is, but todayespecially.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
He's.
He's a topless Jeep weekend.
Speaker 5 (00:46):
Oh yeah, thinking about all these people invading
his house exactly.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
He's headed there to defend.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We also have King Conrad along, and we have.
We need more.
Jeff Zekin, i'm nobody.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Oh, broadcast Hall of Famer the Don Armstrong, the
Channel 13 I in the sky, okayall righty Conrad, there's
enough of that his meds arekicking in.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Oh, there you go.
I knew you had it.
Well, it's all.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, it's on the rundown page?
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Make Mars.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Just give you a picture was a picture on the
bottom of your, your sheet.
That's what I saw.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yes that's the picture of Don reacts to
pictures Um let's talk aboutdeep weekend down at the beach.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Stay away, yeah, stay away Who started.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
That It's a.
It really started, it's anational day of jeeps.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
You know the Jeep clubs all together.
Yeah, and it's a big deal likeit happens all across the
country.
It's just our location downhere on Crystal Beach on the
Bolliver Peninsula where youhave a house.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yes, to the east of Galveston.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It used to be a lot of Jeep stuff.
Well, the beauty of it, though,is your beach is allowed, you
know vehicles on it.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, you're allowed to drive on it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So there's thousands of them there this weekend, yeah
, and, and we, conrad and I'vebeen down there a couple of
times when we were going downthere in the show We real
broadcast down there severalyears ago and we've seen a lot
of sites down there that wecan't forget And and so please,
we don't go down there anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And then we had the moron that tried to organize it.
Yeah, that was a big mistake.
That was a huge mistake,remember that.
And then they've had lots ofpolice issues here.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, Well, not, not police issues, criminal police.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, we have criminals down there a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
They had a couple of high tides and it pushed
everybody off the beach andeverybody got jammed up on the
road.
It's a lot of stuff here.
Let me let me see if I canconnect here with Joe.
I think that I think that Iwould avoid that.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, at all costs, Yeah if I think about how busy
the ferry is Gonna be well it is.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
It's called topless Jeep weekend, but there's not.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Not everybody has a Jeep.
They've got these little Andnot everybody's topless.
Well, that's not the point.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
I'll take the top off the car.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Conrad.
But there's other vehicles, notnecessarily cheap, yeah, and
that's kind of ruins the four byfours, the side besides, and
all that stuff Lots of alcoholand very little common.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's what the problem is.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, and that's the main problem.
Yeah, that was it last time wewere there.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I told Mars, i said we will not be back to this.
It was just absolute mayhem Andwe got nothing out of it,
nothing.
It was just a total pain.
Is that guy that still havethat bar down there?
What?
Huh?
Yeah, he still got the bar.
I'm surprised that's inbusiness.
(03:49):
Yeah, the tiki bar, they really.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
They really got some good food there.
You're such a lie How they doMars go to go lunch.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
They've got some great food.
Well, yeah, well, i'm gonna getdown there and go for lunch
down at the Crystal Beach.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Yeah, but fly in, don .
You got that helicopter.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah they got a grass air strip.
No, that's not happen.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, okay.
So Joe's here apocalypseManufacturing and his name is.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Joe.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Joe gattis, it's good to see you.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Thanks for having me.
Am I pronouncing your last name, right?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, you nailed it.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay, good, just wanted to make sure.
So, joe, tell us aboutapocalypse manufacturing.
What does it do?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So it's the it's one side of our, our custom Jeep
shop that we specialized in Justridiculous oversized trucks.
We started out, you know,taking jeeps and turning them
into six wheelers and they kindof evolved from there.
Now we're, you know, on thedoing defenders and converting
cars to electric and gem anddemon engines and hellcat
(05:01):
engines, things that they don'tbelong in.
We've gotten into chopping upthe Broncos, just you name it.
All the bad ideas happen inthat shop.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
At least he's honest about it.
The bad ideas come to fruition.
Yeah, exactly, i love it.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
There you go.
You sent us a picture of Idon't know what kind of a truck
it is, but it's nothing thatI've ever seen before.
What is it?
It's the super truck, mom.
Is that what it is?
It's the super truck.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, that's actually one of the few that I don't
turn into a six-wheeler Justbecause the original platform is
pretty awesome.
Um, you familiar with the RamKX?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Oh yeah, Yeah, is that what this is?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I would have never Yeah it starts like your exit.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Just gets injected about 200 cc of testosterone and
they have it.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well, i can see that.
I mean it's got the mostbizarre body panels on it and
grill and it doesn't look likeanything.
Maybe the hood?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, the hood's recognizable now.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, that's about it .
There you go.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That's the one piece I didn't change.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Well, you don't need to, because the hood works for
this.
Uh, what all done?
So I would assume that you domore than just body panels and
wheels and tires.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Absolutely so.
This thing is born with ahellcat.
I take the pulley off of it,put a smaller pulley on there,
get some more boost out of thesupercharger.
Put a bigger set of injectorsin there, you know, bump the
timing up, improve the tunedramatically because we're
running a lot more air pressurethrough it, put a bigger fuel
pump system in there and then wedo what I call the piece.
They resist on the killerchiller.
(06:42):
So we actually involve the airconditioning system in cooling
down the supercharger so that wedon't lose the extra power we
made.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Oh, My gosh.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
You use the air killer chiller, the killer,
chiller, killer.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
That is so much fun.
Where are you located for forWaterdale, oh my god, and he's
laying out on the beach.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
I'm one of you.
Tails with umbrellas in them,mike, we need remote.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah, this sounds like a road trip for us here in
Houston, Texas.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Oh, we'd love to have you guys.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
I bet.
Well, i don't know if we reallywant to subject ourselves to
all of this, this mayhem downthere.
So how big is your shop?
How many, how many vehicles yougot going at one time in there?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
We can get 80 trucks out every month.
That's been our truck record.
Wow, we're about a 40,000square foot operation with 79
guys.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Wow, man, that's huge and, yeah, i are you.
So do people bring their trucksto you or do you go and buy a
truck and do all this to it andsell it on your own?
source it out.
I.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Buy the trucks and do what I think is gonna be cool
and And hope it's out.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Well, i'll tell you what I mean.
This, this apocalypse supertruck really is cool.
And Do you manufacture thosecool looking doors?
How does that work?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So all that's made in house.
We've got our chop, our shopchopped up in the sections.
We've got the metal fabricationmachine shop side that.
We've got the fiberglass side,so that front end there is all
handmade out of metal.
We'll cut that on the plasmaand on the CNC and then we'll
put it on our jig and weld itall together to make that big
front end.
The defenders, i'll pull thoseoff of my fiberglass mold that
(08:36):
we created.
The doors, their big fiberglassmold as well.
The back is aluminum, that thatflans back top with a rolling
lock built into it.
The rear bumper is, again, youknow, plasma, cut and welded
together.
And then then she'll go over tothe engine side where we'll,
you know, take the intakemanifold off and put our cooling
system in there, put a smallerpulley on there, boost up the
(08:59):
injectors.
You know, go, hook that, hookthe computer up to the file, to
the PCM, and tune it.
But the super truck is actuallyone of the quickest trucks to
make it through my shop BecauseI don't have to cut the frame or
do anything else.
We make another version of it,called the juggernaut, which is
almost identical but it's gotsix wheels.
Now We've got my handfabricated axle in it, whatnot?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, that's kind of it in a nutshell, so you're the
off-road version of bitchingrides.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I'm surprised that you don't have your own
television.
Exactly have you been?
have you been approached yet?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, you have Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh, we got some secrets going on, here is is is
this a secret?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I shouldn't talk about it, or what?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I Not.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
We're on the cutting edge of a lot of this.
We either on the cutting edgeor we make it up.
So Conrad's got your websitepulled up on his computer and
those are some awesome lookingrigs.
They really are.
I'll take a six wheeler.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I like the warlord.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I like the warlord, i just want the apocalypse super
truck.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Well, the one that I want.
And now Mike's a juggernautkind of guy over there for Mike.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I'll get these things sent out.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Were trying.
We're trying to be we're tryingto.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
We're trying to pull up the car so we can put it on
our on our show Here as we talk.
But so Did.
How did you get started in this?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So 20 years ago, i All my life have been working on
jeeps and trucks and whatnot,but as a business I worked as a
manager of a car dealership andAnd one day I decided to open up
my own car dealership and I wasselling a small batch of
Highline cars right that youknow, maybe seven or eight
highline cars a Lamborghini, alittle Ferrari, bentley And then
(11:03):
I always had my Jeep projectsgoing in the back of the shop
because I finally had a space towork on them again and People
would stop by to come take alook.
Maybe they're interested in theBentley or a drop-top Ferrari,
and then they'd see the jeeps inthe background and the
conversation kind of started.
As you know, every, every perkon my screen got one of these
Ferrari's, but nobody's got oneof those and You know they're
(11:24):
like is it for sale?
and never was, until it was forsale And I sold my first one,
second, one, third one.
Then I stopped buying the highlines all together and my car
wash guy turned into mechanicwith me and my sales guy turned
into Mechanic with me and wejust started building trucks
faster, faster, faster.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Joe, that, what a great story that is.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
You know, that's, that's the Fort Lauderdale is a
great car market too.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz yeah, there's some big bucks
down there in Fort Lauderdale.
I, where do you come up withthese ideas?
Because this is so unique.
I mean, you see Customizedtrucks, but I've never seen one
like this.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You know it's interesting, i'll take any idea
here and if it's quasi feasibleI'll build it once and then, if
people like it, i'll put it inproduction.
Like I just did a LamborghiniUrus, i chopped the thing in
half, made of a six-wheeler, putportals on and jacked it all up
.
And you know it was one ofthose.
Can we do it?
All right, we'll do it.
(12:27):
If somebody else calls about itnow, we could do it, you know
that's one of those.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's a $200,000 vehicle from the jet go.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Next is a Bentley Bentayga.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah whoo.
Yep.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
You know I've got my.
My three favorite projectsright now is the, the new
electric Hummer.
I'm messing around with thatone.
The Rivian to me is amindblower because if you ever
sat in a Rivian, this thing's athousand of horsepower, it is
quick as can be, it's got 350miles of range, kind of loaded
with technology.
(13:02):
But you'd walk right past thecar.
You think it was a, it was akey or Hyundai and we just
didn't really catch your eye.
So that one I've got all tornapart right now, jacked up with,
you know, 38 inch tires, 15 anda half inch wide, crazy fenders
, aggressive hood, roll cage.
You know, like a real MartyMcFly look at roll cage on there
and I'm so excited to see thattruck done.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Joe, have you ever heard of a thing called Lone
Star, a throwdown Negative?
It is a huge, huge custom truckshow here and it's actually a
city just just north of Houston,conroe, texas, within driving
distance of all of us here,friends of ours, friends of ours
, manager, it's, it's one of thebigger truck shows in the
(13:46):
nation.
You'll have to look it up LoneStar throwdown.
You need to bring a couple ofyour trucks here Absolutely, and
that, that is, it is a Januaryor February, february and
February.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
No, throwdown, throwdown, throwdown, throwdown.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, long start, throwdown, they, they they limit
the entries for the showvehicles to 2,500 and it sells
out within days, yeah, time theyopen the registration.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You need to be there, vendor space, and they, they
have thought I mean one yearthey shut down the cell system
and the cops had to come outbecause the local airport lost
its stuff because there Were somany people out there with their
phones.
It is a real.
They have a lot of people thatcome out and go through there
And you know that that's one ofthose that we'd love to connect
you with.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Todd, todd and Lonnie .
They are the ones that startedit and it's turned into.
I mean trucks from all overNorth America and and across
from Europe as well.
Oh, i don't know about that,but I do know that all across.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
North America.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Canada, these guys with the craziest designs and
Money, like you would notbelieve, thrown in you'd fit
right in.
Yeah, you would fit right in.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'm looking at it now It looks like my crowd, so I'm,
i'm, i'm gonna ask Mike's gonnabuy one for the in-wheel time
company vehicle.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
We're gonna put a wrap on it.
What's Mike gonna spend on oneof these?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You know, I'm not sure if you've ever seen a
real-time company vehicle.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
You How?
much has he got Six wheelerloaded, let's say a turbo diesel
setup, i mean packed to thegills of power steps, goodies,
infrared cameras, you nameitself.
you will and won't use 150grand oh.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Spend that much on a catwalk escalate exactly does
anybody here?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
The first one is gonna cost me an arm and a leg
because it's gonna take me along time to R&B and figured out
, sorted out.
But the next 10 should cost mea fraction, because anything I
build, i try to put it inproduction style, try to write
the CAD files so that you knowthe CNC and the plasma will sit
out, the parts ready to go, andget rid of a Lot of the hand
fabricating.
Make the molds up so that wecan get the price down, because
(16:03):
I see a lot of cool trucks outthere.
But when I see the price tagI'm like, oh, that puts it out
of my range.
It becomes a dream car asopposed to something I might be
able to convince my wife to letme have a driveway.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
You know Exactly or take an escalate and turn it
into a six wheeler.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Anybody ever told you you look like Bruce Springsteen
, i'm waiting for you to breakinto pink Cadillac or something
you know.
With a guitar over yourshoulder, you're one of those
kind of cool guys that everybodywants to know.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, i'll tell you, man, i amthoroughly impressed.
(16:38):
So what is the website?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
So you got a pocket with six by six and So flow
jeeps.
Calm, that's our, that's ourtwo.
So flow jeeps is the regularstuff.
Well, i'll say regular meaningit has four wheels, and a pocket
with six by six has everythingwith the Know, the extensions of
the six wheels and the biggerengines.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So pretty wild collection.
So back to what we were askingearlier.
So you build them.
But if I, if I come to you andsay, hey, i want this, well, you
could custom build it out ofwhat you got.
I mean, i want this littlevariation or something.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Absolutely so.
I've always got a series ofchassis Let's say we're talking
about the hellfire.
I've got six chassis that haveextended and I've dropped the
392 into them But haven't doneanything else.
And then somebody will comealong and say, alright, shoot
this thing in the line X, green,and give me a brown interior
and give me bronze wheels, andthat's you know, we'll run from
(17:38):
there.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So you still customize the custom and he does
it.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Any does it fast enough where you could take it
this afternoon down to the beachinvasion?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, the beach invasion over at Crystal Beach.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I could do that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .
I like to think that these typeof trucks are very impulsive
purchase and if it, you know,from idea to thought It's three,
four months apart, you're gonnalose interest.
you know, you got to be able toput these things together in
three, four weeks tops.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's one of these two-year projects And
I'm out.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, we yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Well, you know, i've been there where you know They
put me on the tomorrow programand you just lose interest.
You're on to the next thing,you know right, Exactly right.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Well, i'm looking forward to you Sending us the
announcement that you're goingto be on motor trend with your
own show, 30 minutes weekly,with a you know, at least a
six-episode season.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Yeah something Yeah we gotta get one day when I grow
up?
You never know.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
Four of us could guest star or get a hold of us
if you're gonna come to a longstar throwdown Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Join you out there.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah, it looks like it's end of February.
I'll definitely be there andI'll definitely reach out to you
guys.
I can't wait.
They'd be great.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Please do it would be wonderful.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
It's a pleasure talking to you, joe, and we
really appreciate you spendingthe time with us on this
Saturday.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Same fellas thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
All right, man, we'll talk to you soon.
How fun.
How do you find these things?
these are good.
I like these.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I don't know, i don't know how magic.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You find people like that.
It's kind of like I want to bethat guy.
I mean, that's kind of whenyou're a kid you think about.
I want to get up and I want tomake this and I want to build
this.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Wanted to be Jimmy Buffett, not Bruce Sprint.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
No that's that's after, when I get old.
I want to do that.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I already have a facility That's not shabby 79
technicians or people that workfor everybody, has a hundred
square feet, yeah, and you know,kick an 80 a month out.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's a lot.
Wow, let's do this week in autohistory.
Shall we.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Okay, in 1847 my birthday William Clayton
invented the odometer During histrip across the plains from
Missouri to Utah.
He was assigned to record thenumber of miles His group
traveled each day.
Clayton, with the help of amathematician, tried counting
(20:09):
the revolutions of a wagon wheeland computing the day's
distance by multiplying thatcount, times the wheels,
circumference and had, andthat's the odometer we all know
today.
But the first thing in wood wasthe original odometer.
In 1916, charles Kettering andEdward deeds agreed to sell
(20:29):
Dayton elect engineeringlaboratories company, famously
known as Delco Oh, to the United, to General Motors, and William
Durant purchased Delco for $9million.
Delco was responsible forseveral innovations in the
automobile electrical system,including battery ignition
systems, and the firstself-starter In 1947, bf
(20:56):
Goodrich of Akron, ohio I don'tremember Jeff, sir tire guy
announces that it developed atubeless tire and quite a
technological innovation thatwould make automobiles safer and
more efficient.
And then, in 1958, during agoodwill trip through Latin
America, vice president RichardMulhouse Nixon driving his
(21:19):
Cadillac is attacked by an angrycrowd of Venezuelans as he was
driving through Caracas.
The incident was a dramatichighlight of the trip,
characterized by the LatinAmerican anger over some of
America's Cold War policies.
And then, in 2007, seribusCapital Management, a private
(21:41):
equity firm, acquired an 80%interest in Chrysler from
Daimler AG for only $7.4 billion.
Chrysler had bought excuse me,daimler had bought Chrysler in
1998 for $36 billion.
So Seribus got a heck of a dealon their money on about 30
(22:03):
cents on the dollar.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
What a nightmare that turned out to be, though.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Oh Yeah well and you think the combination of cars
that they built the Chrysler 300and the Charger were actually
the brainchild of Daimlerengineers.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Well, those cars okay , and they've weathered the
storm.
Man Sure have.
Yeah, and so, and theunderpinnings also of that car
is the Challenger, challengerMm-hmm, the two door purge.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
They're quite successful.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yep very successful.
yeah, What else do we have?
News headlines?
I don't have any.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
I didn't have all.
Hey, do you know, do you know?
Well, let's talk about myfavorite subject Uninsured
drivers.
That's why We didn't talk aboutthis the other day was you do,
can we talk on?
that Go to.
Speaker 5 (22:58):
Jeff, all right out of the 50 states, and this is by
population of uninsuredmotorists.
Now this comes to us from acouple of years ago, so it's
changed.
A lot of different people inthe United States right now, but
Texas is the number one foruninsured motorists of 17.18% of
the population.
(23:19):
Wow, and that is over fourmillion people in the state of
Texas do not have insurance.
Oklahoma second, alaska's thirdAnd it was on and off.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
How can that be, though?
because you can't get your carregistered without it being
insured.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Well, you can't buy a car without having insurance,
so it's a lot of nefariousthings, but anyways, we made the
top list.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well, there's something to be proud of There
you go, it's all right here, Now, if you can keep it short you
got it.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Well, you gave me the article last week about Mary
Barra being ranked second in paypackage, worth nearly or she's
paid $29 million in 2022,.
According to an SEC filing onFriday, barra earned half a
percent less in 2021, but wasthe highest pay to the Detroit
three CEOs in the eighthconsecutive year.
(24:09):
As GM sales and profits decline, her pay goes up.
What's wrong with this picture?
Okay, you're not a Mary Barrafan?
No well, she was an appointeefrom the Obama administration in
2009.
Everybody knew it As GMcollapsed she was an Obama
appointee.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Why did GM collapse?
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Bad management.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Because people in her position were not car people
and she's not a car person Asmuch as she says she is.
she's not a car person.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
There's actually a TV show similar to what Mary
Barrett does And it's.
I don't think it's off the airnow, but it was about an
automotive company and their CEOand how they went about
designing car.
Yeah, nonsense, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Speaking of EVs.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
EVs.
People in the state of Texas,along with 30 other states, are
now going to have to pay more tohave an EV.
As of September 1st.
If you buy a new EV, you'regoing to have to pay an extra
extra $400 registered vehicle.
If you have already have an EVand you go to renew your license
plate, you're going to have topay an extra $200 to drive it in
(25:17):
the state of Texas.
Because they don't buy it, payfor gas, gas taxes to help fix
the road.
Now they're going to employ atax on ownership.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Time now for a quick break.
We'll be right back here on theIn-Wheel Time Car Talk Show on
iHeart Radio.
Everyone at the Tail Pipes andTacos cruise in at the Loopy
Tortilla Tex-Mex in Katie.
Thank you for participating inthe best cruise in around and
look forward to seeing you again.
You'll hear about the nextcruise in date right here on
In-Wheel Time.
Next time you're in the WestHouston Energy Corridor area, be
(25:47):
sure and stop in at theoriginal Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex
at I-10 and Highway 6 or theKatie location on the Grand
Parkway at Kingsland Boulevard.
When passing through Beaumontor College Station, stop in and
have Loopy's award-winning beeffajitas and frozen margaritas.
There's always a celebration atLoopy Tortilla.
Loopy Tortilla founders StanHold and his wife Sheila are
winning racers on the NHRA DragRacing Circuit and have a
(26:09):
collection of hot rods andclassics that everyone
appreciates.
Look for them at the next TailPipes and Tacos cruise in.
The date will be announced soonand will once again be held at
the Loopy Tortilla Tex-Mex on 99in Kingsland Boulevard, just
south of I-10 and Katie.
We'll give you all the detailsright here on the In-Wheel Time
Car Talk Show and onlineDonations benefit God's Garage.
We'll see you then.
(26:31):
You own a car you love, why notlet Gulf Coast Auto Shield
protect it?
Houstonian John Gray invitesyou to his State of the Art
facility to introduce you to hisspecialist team of auto
enthusiasts.
We promise you'll be impressed.
If you're looking to massageyour original paint to a
like-new appearance, apply aceramic coating, install a paint
protection film, nanoceramicwindow tint or new windshield
(26:53):
protection called ExoShield,gulf Coast Auto Shield is where
Houston's car people go.
Curb your wheels Instead ofbuying new.
Why not have them repaired?
How about a professionallyinstalled radar detector?
Gulf Coast Auto Shield doesthat too.
Get a peek inside the shop andlook at the services offered by
getting online and heading toGCAutoShieldcom There.
Yet stop by their facility at11275 South Sam Houston Toulway,
(27:16):
just south of the SouthwestFreeway, and get a personal tour
.
Gulf Coast Auto Shield is yourplace to go for all things
exterior.
Call them today 832-930-5655 orGCAutoShieldcom.
The award-winning In-Wheel TimeCar Talk Show is available on
the most popular podcastchannels out there in 30-minute
episodes.
We realize our three-hour liveshow can be difficult to catch
(27:38):
in its entirety, so now you canlisten every day to a convenient
, fresh 30-minute episode.
Check us out on Apple Podcasts,spotify, google Podcasts,
amazon Music and Audible, alongwith a dozen more.
In-wheel Time has the mostinformative automotive guest
interviews and new car reviews,along with popular features
including Conrad's car clinicand this week in Auto History,
along with automotive newsheadlines.
(27:59):
Our live broadcast airs everySaturday 8 to 11, central on
InWheelTimecom, the iHeart appand on YouTube.
Be sure to say hello when we'rebroadcasting from the tailpipes
and tacos cruise in Auto Ram andthe Houston Auto Show, among
others.
Now it's easier than ever tohear about all things automotive
all week long.
You're invited to join fellowcar enthusiasts in becoming part
(28:20):
of the ever-growing In-WheelTime Car Talk family.
Don't forget those 30-minutepodcast episodes on your
favorite podcast channel, andnext week's show is going to
include Mars' explanation ofwhere he bought his car cover
from and where he didn't buy itfrom, and all because of 1S And
he's going to set somebody upfor an interview.
(28:41):
That's a wrap for this week'sIn-Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
When you're online, check outour Facebook page.
Give us a like if you will.
Please tell your friends aboutus and share our junk.
You'll get Conrad's unicornhunting features along with all
things automotive all week long,including new car reviews,
upcoming events, cruise inracing events and other
informative and entertaining carand truck goodies.
(29:03):
You can find the In-Wheel TimeCar Talk Show 24-7 on the I
Heart Radio app.
Be sure to catch In-Wheel TimeCar Talk on our live video
stream on Facebook, youtube andInWheelTimecom every Saturday, 8
to 11 central.
Daily 30-minute podcasts areavailable from over a dozen of
the most popular podcastproviders.
(29:24):
The In-Wheel Time ChiefEngineer is David Ainsley, our
marketing advertising advisorand video technical director, as
we need more.
Jeff Zika For Booking Agent andpodcast flandre Mike Mars,
along with Mr Know-It-All, hisroyalty King, conrad DeLong.
I'm Don Armstrong.
Next week we're live again fromthe In-Wheel Time Studio,
(29:48):
saturday, may 27th, on all ofour In-Wheel Time Car Talk
outlets, right here on the SmokeMirrors Network, 8 to 11am
central time.
Have a great weekend.
go cut the grass.
So long for now.
That's it for this podcastepisode of the In-Wheel Time Car
(30:09):
Show.
I'm Don Armstrong inviting youto join us for our live show
every Saturday morning 8 to 11am.
central on Facebook, youtube,twitch and our In-Wheel Timecom
website.
Podcasts are available on ApplePodcasts, spotify, stitcher,
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(30:30):
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Keep listening and we'll seeyou soon.
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