October 6, 2025 • 26 mins
Discover how automobiles have been more than just a mode of transportation but at gateway to freedom and personal exploration. This episode transports you through time, from the age of horse-drawn carriages to the dawn of motorized vehicles, as we explore how cars have always been a symbol of freedom. We journey through the evolution of the automobile as a means of escape, a refuge from the mundane, and a catalyst for spontaneous adventures. With stories from my past and reflections on how cars continue to offer mental relaxation, even as autonomous technology becomes increasingly prevalent, this episode is a loving tribute to the timeless allure of the open road.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Going out for a nice cruise is always a
great escape from reality, and it's
essentially one of the reasons why the
automobile industry is here.
The automobile industry allowed us to
escape from all the day-to-day grind.
It made things easier.
Today we just look at it as just another
part of life.
It's a necessity.
We use it to get from place to place, but
(00:20):
in all reality it's still just an escape
for the rest of us.
We can use it to help shape our minds, to
blow off some steam and just let your mind
go blank.
I used to do it when I was in college.
I had trouble going to bed.
Sometimes I'd just hop in my car and go for
a drive.
I could be gone for 20 minutes, I could be
gone for two hours, but I would just do it
(00:41):
to escape everything else.
To this day, the automobile provides us
with that escape.
But the onslaught of autonomous technology
and AI coming in, how much longer can we
use the automobile to escape reality?
Well, today, AutoLooks is going to take a
look at how we escaped reality.
The automotive industry in the past.
(01:03):
Industry in the past.
Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast.
I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the
automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming
to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net.
If you haven't been there, stop by check it
out.
Read some of the reviews, check out some of
the ratings.
Go to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all car
(01:24):
companies from around around the globe all
available in one centralized location, that
is the autolooks.net website.
The Autolooks Podcast is brought to you by
Ecomm Entertainment Group or distributed by
Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
So, like I said in the intro, the
automobile has essentially provided us with
(01:45):
escape.
How many people back in the days of horse
and buggy would just in the middle of the
night, getting getting a fight with their
spouse, or just needed some time to go and
think hop in our horse and buggy and just
just go?
No, we didn't do that a whole lot.
We would hop on our horse and go for a ride,
but because we had so much to do we didn't
have a lot of free time.
(02:05):
But when the automobile came around, it was
essentially created for leisure.
The automobile was a brand new luxury and
it provided for the select few that had the
money to be able to afford one the ability
to be free.
We can go out and see the world.
At a time when there wasn't roads
everywhere and you can access nearly every
(02:25):
place, the automobile provided us with an
alternate means to get there Before we
hopped on the back of an actual Mustang,
the horse and rode out into the distance,
climbed mountains and traversed our great
countries.
The automobile, through its first 30 years,
essentially provided that to us.
From the 1800s to the early 1900s, the
(02:46):
carriage essentially just the motorized
carriage of the automobile provided us just
with a little leisurely way to get from
point A to point B.
Some of the rich people were able to use it
and didn't have to have a stable at home.
They didn't have to have horses, they had
something with horse power where, at the
end of the day, they could park it in a
covered shed and just leave it there.
(03:07):
They didn't have to feed it, they didn't
have to take care of it.
Nothing provided an easy escape from
reality.
Hop in your automobile and just go for a
drive into town, enjoy the wind in your
hair, and that's what we did all the way up
until roughly the mid-20s.
Yes, the days of the roaring 20s started to
take shape and started to give more people
(03:27):
the ability to explore the world and with
that, using our Model T's or any other
vehicles we were provided at that point in
time the old Renaults, Peugeots, Opels,
Vauxhalls, anything we were able to go out
and see the countryside, drive from here to
there.
Roads were becoming more prevalent.
With that, we needed to find a new use for
this great technology.
(03:48):
The automobile was providing extra time for
us.
It didn't take hours to go places, it took
mere minutes.
When I was in college, walking from my
girlfriend's house to my house, I did it
once it was over an hour and yet I could
drive that in an automobile in about 10
minutes.
Hour walking 10 minutes in a car, that's 50
(04:08):
extra minutes.
What would I do with that?
Well, for me, I would just go for a drive.
See, like I said in my younger days, when I
hadn't had to drive back and forth to work
and bring the kids here and there, and go
pick up this, go do that.
I enjoyed my automobile.
I would hop in the car and just go for a
random drive around, and that's what people
were starting to do in the 20s.
They started having that time.
(04:29):
They can go for a drive and with that,
two-door automobiles started to enter the
marketplace.
Yes, the original sports cars, coupes and
cabriolets were essentially our first
escape from the world around us, where
sedans or the automobile at that point in
time, as it was called, an automobile or
pick up escape from the world around us
where sedans or the automobile, at that
point in time, as it was called, an
automobile or pickup trucks from the daily
(04:50):
grind were just what you used to get back
for the work.
But if you had the ability to get yourself
something more fun, you have a third
vehicle or, in some cases, second vehicle.
You would get something like a little
two-door sports cupel.
Got to remember this is back in the times of
the rumble seats yeah, pop-out rear seat on
the back of your automobile.
You and your girlfriend or boyfriend or
(05:11):
significant other can hop in that vehicle
and just go for a drive.
You don't have to worry about any of the
cares of the world.
As long as your automobile was up to code
and didn't break down on you, you can
explore the backwoods.
You can explore the backwoods, you can
crisscross the country.
(05:31):
And from that by the 1950s, people started
using the automobile to escape their lives.
Between the 30s and 40s the automobile
essentially the escape from reality kind of
dwindled.
In North America we had the Great
Depression and in Europe the onslaught of
war.
In other markets Asia, Australia times
weren't good.
The economies were slightly crumbling.
People were just keeping their automobiles
together just so they can make life a
little bit easier.
(05:51):
So at that point in time, for nearly two
decades our escape from reality wasn't
there.
But just before that, big products like a
Corda 12 or a Duesenberg movie stars
rolling up in these amazing vehicles just
made us think what would life would be like
if we could drive around in one of those?
It would be amazing.
That's such a great looking vehicle, wow, I
(06:13):
would love that.
But unfortunately, with what happened in
the world and what was going on in the
economies around the globe, the 30s and 40s
started disappearing from us.
And it really wasn't until the 50s that we
had another amazing time.
And in the 1950s a vehicle came back from
the war and since a lot of countries
started manufacturing this for their own
(06:34):
military, civilian use, started getting
into it.
And with the introduction of radial tires
by the mid-30s the standard automobile
wasn't able to go anywhere you wanted to.
It basically had to stick to a road.
You had a set area.
It was like a train.
You could only go where the road went, you
couldn't just go off-road into the
backwoods.
(06:54):
Well, after the Great War, something new
was here.
A little company, bantam, with partners
from Ford and Willys, created the Jeep.
Willys eventually bought out Bantam and
created the Willys Jeep and with that gave
birth to the sport utility vehicle, or back
in those days, the Jeep days, because it
really wasn't until the 1990s that we
(07:17):
started calling them SUVs.
To this day I don't.
I don't like using the anagram Sport
utility vehicle, I just call them utility
vehicles.
I have CUVs, alvs, but the other ones are
just utility vehicles.
What's so sporty about them?
But the original Jeep gave us the ability
to explore the world once again, with all
these veterans coming home and the economy
(07:38):
starting to turn around and starting to
boom yet again.
Families had two vehicles.
You might have a station wagon as your
family vehicle and a convertible or a coupe,
or, in these cases, some people had Jeep.
You had a vehicle to go out and escape your
everyday life.
After a hard, long week of work, you needed
to escape it.
(07:58):
You needed to unwind.
You needed to go out and have fun, with
television just starting to come around and
not a lot of stuff on TV.
Besides sitting at home and reading, going
outside and playing, there were tons of
things to do and see in the world without
being connected, literally being plugged in
like we are today with our phones.
We had to leave the confines of our own
(08:20):
house to go out and see the world around us.
To escape our realities, we had to use our
automobile to provide an escape for us and
really, until handheld devices came out,
the automobile was the ultimate escape from
reality.
But at the original point in time, like we
said, in the 50s, we only had sports cars,
we had convertibles, we had coup.
(08:41):
The creation of the supercar, essentially
the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, helped
breathe new life into a new tier of the
automobile world.
It started giving us the ability to take
street cars to the racetrack.
Now, up until now we've been able to do
that because essentially every racing
series around the world is created and
operated by standard vehicles, hence the
(09:05):
term stock car.
It's a stock car race.
There's nothing stock about their vehicles.
Now, hell, it's being changed even from
stock car to stock utility vehicle now,
with Chevrolet wanting to get the blazer
into it.
Yeah, that just kind of pisses me off, but
really by the end of the 70s and into the
early 80s stock cars weren't stock cars
(09:26):
anymore, were purpose-built race cars.
So essentially they should have changed
their name.
But these were vehicles that were able
people were able to get.
Bring home the 300 SL provided a racing car
for your garage, it created more fun at
night, and that moved into the 60s.
The 60s were a day where the automotive
escape really flourished, with the creation
(09:48):
of vehicles like the 911, the Mustang, the
GTO and even the original Lamborghini
Countach.
Yep, it was originally developed in the 60s,
but at that point in time they had the
Miura, supercars, performance cars, muscle
cars, sports cars, grand tours.
The industry was exploding with all of
(10:09):
these great vehicles that would help us
escape reality.
By the 1960s everyone was able to escape it
and the automotive world literally blew up.
By the 50s we created our interstate
systems in the United States and the M
motorways in Europe.
We were building a network for all of us to
use and by the 60s we started utilizing
(10:30):
that.
We used the big highways as an escape from
reality.
We can go out and travel faster than we
ever could before.
We can go to racetracks because there were
more of them, with big block V8s and these
muscle cars.
The muscle car era was upon us and the baby
boomers were starting to hit the market.
John Zachary DeLorean, John Z. DeLorean the
man behind DeLorean had an amazing idea to
(10:52):
put a big engine in a small vehicle,
essentially cram a V8 underneath the hood
of a Pontiac Tempest.
Lots of power in a small package.
This would provide the ultimate automotive
escape for the baby boom generation, as
they would use the muscle car era to escape
their daily life.
And this escape would be so prevalent by
(11:13):
the early 70s In Detroit, Michigan.
A police officer by day and one of the
number one mysterious street racers at
night, the Black Ghost Challenger,
essentially showed the ultimate escape from
reality.
If you haven't heard of the Black Ghost
Challenger, it's a 70 Challenger 340 pack,
(11:33):
pure black.
It was owned by a police officer, drove
around by day and handed tickets out for
people for speeding At night.
He escaped the realities of upholding the
law to do what he loved most To get behind
the wheel of his Challenger and race the
public Never show himself Essentially would
become an underground street racer and fade
(11:54):
into the night.
Now, it really wasn't until the 90s when
this was found out and his son actually
found out about the car and the history
behind it and he had to ask why did you do
it?
I had to escape.
I had to show my true colors and do what I
truly loved.
Muscle Cars really provided that for us the
original escape.
You've got to remember when you first enter
(12:15):
the automotive market at a young age.
Most of us not all of us, because, trust me,
I can attest to the people that are on the
other side you know, don't do this, but
most of us feel the freedom when we grab
the keys for the first time and we're old
enough that we can go out on our own and
naturally, with that it's just like being
in high school and we've got to show off to
(12:37):
everyone how much better we are than them.
So street racing essentially is part of
that culture.
Originally developed in California in the
50s.
Hot rodding gave birth to what later would
become the muscle car drag races.
Now I got tons of stories I could tell you
about people in my family or even myself
involved in this, the muscle car era, or
(12:59):
even just plain out, street racing.
We all did it and it was one of those
things that you just have to sit back and
go.
Yeah, that was fun, that was great while it
lasted.
Well, the good times are over now.
By the time I hit college my home province
in my home country she kind of did away
with all of that.
Now, with going 50 over, you lose
everything.
A lot of us hung up our keys and found a
(13:20):
new way to have fun.
But back in the 70s we didn't have to worry
about that.
We had the muscle cars big, burly power
that would take us from point A to point B
as fast as possible.
We'd look great doing it.
Go to a high school parking lot in the 70s.
It looked completely different than today,
(13:45):
where today there's not a ton of vehicles,
there's more, you know, e-bikes and
electric vehicles or hybrids or even just
the people who walk, because it's healthier.
Now, back in those days, even if you got to
drive your parents' car, you were glad if
your parents had a Chevelle wagon.
If they didn't, then you worked your ass
off and you got that GTO, you got that
mustang and you came to high school in one
of the coolest cars ever because, after
spending all day in the mind-numbing school,
(14:07):
you had to release, you had to get out.
I don't care who you are, everyone has
something they do after work or school to
unwind.
At one point in my life, before I had kids,
I used to come home and unwind in the
weirdest way.
I would sit down with my dog and watch
Spongebob.
Doesn't seem so weird, does it?
No, we just.
(14:27):
I come home, give me the 30 minutes to sit
down, watch Spongebob intelligent like 30
minutes, because it was standard cable tv
back then with commercials.
After that, you know I'll switch the work
mindset off and regular Everett will be
back.
But I needed that to unwind.
The amazing part about that is that dog
that I watched Spongebob with.
(14:47):
We did it every day after I was done work
and that's how I escaped.
Driving home through a residential suburb
to my house wasn't relaxing enough.
I wasn't out on the big highway like I am
now After work.
Now I get out on the highway and I can do
100k, no problem in and out of people.
No, I get to one little area right at the
end where the four lane ends and it turns
(15:08):
into a two lane after the traffic light and
it's like a drag strip and I can get out
all my aggressions in one spot.
Granted, I'm the first guy out front, so I
have that.
I use my automobile to escape from my bad
day.
By the time I come home in the 20 minute
drive back then watching Spongebob, and the
day we actually had booked to bring my dog
in and have actually not my dog, it was
actually my wife's dog, but naturally all
(15:30):
dogs become my best friend.
I spent the whole day with him on his last
day, just hung out watch movies.
I watched Marley and Me and right before we
had to take him to be put down, Spongebob
came on him and I were gonna watch it one
last time before I brought him in to have
him put down.
That dog must have truly loved me because
he passed away right before the end of the
episode, like literally just we watched the
(15:51):
episode and it's like he was at peace this
is happiest place and he just let go.
I know what does that have to do with the
automotive escape, but that's how I escaped
reality.
I drove a stick shift to work in back back
in those days, so it's fun driving through,
but in a residential neighborhood where I
can do between 50 and 60 kilometers an hour
and that's it not so much fun, so I had to
(16:12):
find a different way to avoid.
Now, after the 70s, we hit the gas crisis
at the middle of the decade and big power
starts to retract.
We start losing it because of the high cost
of operating and refueling those vehicles.
Four and six cylinders start making their
way in and people start seeing that
Japanese know how to deal with this.
(16:34):
Well, with that, Japanese sports cars that
have been around forever start coming out
of the woodwork.
By the 80s and into the 90s, coupes and
sports cars reigned supreme.
The muscle car had its second coming by the
mid-80s and up until the mid-90s, where it
came back, people loved the big V8.
We still love the growl and the grunt of it,
(16:56):
but the import scene was just taking the
world by storm.
We used those sports cars, like I said, by
the 80s and into the 90s, going to a high
school.
Yet again, the parking lots were filled
with all these amazing little two-door
vehicles.
It was our escape.
We had to break free.
We had to get out there.
Sure, we still had SUVs and four-wheel
drive trucks that go way out in the bush.
(17:17):
But why do we need to do that?
Most of us grew up having to go camping.
Why would we get an SUV to go off in the
middle of the bush to go camping?
We had to do that every summer with our
family.
No, we just wanted to go out and have an
amazing drive on the fun back roads.
But by the end of the 90s those markets
started disappearing.
The import scene started showing us that we
(17:37):
can make any vehicle look great.
Our sedans and wagons can move into this.
We didn't care about getting moms everyday
Nissan Altima sedan because we knew we can
customize that thing to be a show car.
Stick shifts were slowly dying out because
automatics were more prevalent everywhere.
The sports car industry started to retract
(17:58):
and people started becoming more homebodies.
Flat airports go from place to place and
that's about it.
Road trips were out.
The escape of reality was still there, but
utilizing your vehicle wasn't.
By this point in time there were so many
cars clogging most main arteries and
freeways.
It wasn't fun.
We spent over an hour every day sitting in
(18:21):
traffic just to get home.
It was a nuisance.
The automobile was losing its luster by the
end of the 90s sports cars, muscle cars,
performance vehicles there were really only
four high-end clientele that could afford
to truck them to a racetrack to have fun at.
For the rest of us, cars weren't fun
anymore.
There was no escape, because the automotive
(18:42):
escape all but dried up.
Sure, by this time I still had an escape
because in my home city there wasn't tons
of traffic and I could still go for a
back-roads drive Tons of back roads, nice
and quiet, 2, 3 in the morning.
Hence the reason why the import racing
stream brought upon by the Fast and Furious
movie franchise in the early 2000s gave way
to all these night races.
(19:02):
Now they still go on to this day, but with
more heavily policed areas.
Street racing is not like it once was, and
doing it the risks are way too high now.
So that escape is completely gone.
So how do the rest of us escape reality If
our roads are clogged and the fun cars are
gone?
Well, jeeps, remember that amazing vehicle
(19:23):
that came back from World War II that we
all started loving near the end of the 40s
and into the 50s the Jeep, the four-wheel
drive utility vehicle to go anywhere by the
teen years, ladder frame, dedicated SUV,
like a Chevy Tahoe we're talking
(19:48):
all-terrain back roads climb over rock
style land cruisers, wranglers and Broncos
Vehicles to go anywhere.
And living in countries like China with
over a billion people and an economy that's
growing and original places having to take
lotteries to get vehicles, people started
realizing maybe the best bet is to get a
(20:09):
vehicle that we can escape everything in by
having a Beijing BJ40 being able to go to
back roads.
Is it a Mahindra Thar?
Yeah, and the utility world has blown up.
It's always been here and we've all thought
it was great and we needed it, both
becoming more domesticated.
During the 90s, as the crossover utility
craze really boomed, the utility vehicles
(20:32):
for back roads, buggies, Bajas really
wasn't at the forefront.
Companies like Jeep and Land Rover weren't
there.
They were there, but people didn't think
them as top tier.
Today that's changed and 4x4s have
essentially become our last refuge from the
escape of reality from the automotive world.
Yeah, my four-wheel drive Tacoma and my
(20:53):
previous four-wheel drive Kia Borrego were
what drives our quest to journey off the
beaten path.
Today, with roads and cities being so
clogged, the only place you can escape
reality is far away from people.
I'm lucky enough to live right at the edge
of a major city in a northern section
that's just backwoods for hours.
(21:16):
I can literally leave my house, go for a
two-hour drive where I hardly see any
houses or people.
I can do it, but this is because of where I
live.
Somebody living in the city of Toronto,
Montreal.
They've got to travel for hours to be able
to enjoy that.
Back roads around them are clogged, little
towns are just super expensive and crazy.
(21:37):
There's no escape from urban life.
But a lot of people, when this has become a
new thing, are chasing the northern lights
and realizing that I'm from a major city
180 000 people, major city by Canada
standards.
Okay, when you get to the edge of my city
you can see the northern lights.
If you have a four-wheel drive, you can
venture further into the bush to see them
even better.
(21:57):
You could escape the harsh realities of
life and escape the world automotive style,
and that's essentially what we all need.
We need to escape and the automobile is
that refuge.
It always has been.
Before the automobile, our own horse was
the only way to go out and explore.
Well, not in every place.
(22:20):
Sometimes you need a little bit more rugged,
different animals for select places, but
the horse was mainly our way to get around.
Up until the advent of the automobile, the
horse, the original Mustang, was the only
way to go about it.
Today, if you can afford to get yourself a
Ford Mustang, you can have that fun too,
but only in select areas Because, trust me,
there's not a lot of places you can really
open up your car anymore.
It's getting kind of sad Even for me back
(22:41):
and forth to work.
I may be on a long you know a parkway and I
can back and forth to work.
I may be on along you know a parkway and I
can still go faster.
But few traffic lights and dim-witted
people that do bang on the speed limit or
less, and that's just ruined for me.
With the introduction of autonomous
technology and AI coming into the
automotive world, our last chance to escape
all of this is here, and utility vehicles
(23:02):
are our one last refuge.
With lots of cities getting rid of
racetracks, police being abundant
everywhere and street racing being a
Jailable offense, backwoods is the only
place we can go, which essentially was the
first place we were able to go when we
escaped the world in our automobile.
In all reality, escaping our automobile
(23:23):
sometimes is good too, but an automotive
escape is so much better.
So, in all reality, do we need specific
markets so that we can escape the realities
of our world with the automobile?
An automotive escape is essential to life,
whether it be a vacation, a day trip, hell.
Even just an hour to clear your mind after
a work day, even just an hour to clear your
mind after a work day, utilizing that free
(23:46):
space without anyone in it fully for you,
it's like having your own bedroom,
completely cut off from your entire family.
It could be the one step that you need for
true enlightenment Because, trust me, some
of the greatest ideas I've ever had in my
life, some of my original automotive
designs, came to me when I was out for a
(24:06):
drive.
Even to this day, I come up with amazing
ideas.
I come up with podcast ideas while driving
in my vehicle by myself.
I could think, and I could escape
everything to a refuge that's all mine.
So, yes, we still need that ability to
escape the reality in an automotive world.
The automotive escape is here for all of us,
even if we can't afford it the ability to
(24:28):
be able to rent vehicles or even go for a
cab or Uber ride.
You can literally use the automobile to
escape whatever is troubling.
It's an all reality for life.
An automotive escape is what we really need.
So if you like this podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of your
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(24:48):
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(25:08):
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(25:29):
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So, like I said in the beginning, we all
need to escape reality with the use of an
automobile, whether it be a cab ride, an
Uber ride, hell, sometimes just sitting on
the bus with headphones on to ignore the
world around you.
It just allows you to use the automotive
world to escape the outside, and automotive
escape is what we all need at the end of
(25:50):
the day.
So from myself, Everett Jay, the Ecomm
Entertainment Group, PodBean.com and the
AutoLooks.net website, strap yourself in for
this one fun wild ride we're going to have
as we escape reality in the automotive
world.
Going out for a nice cruise is always a
great escape from reality, and it's
essentially one of the reasons why the
automobile industry is here.
The automobile industry allowed us to
escape from all the day-to-day grind.
It made things easier.
Today we just look at it as just another
part of life.
It's a necessity.
We use it to get from place to place, but
(00:20):
in all reality it's still just an escape
for the rest of us.
We can use it to help shape our minds, to
blow off some steam and just let your mind
go blank.
I used to do it when I was in college.
I had trouble going to bed.
Sometimes I'd just hop in my car and go for
a drive.
I could be gone for 20 minutes, I could be
gone for two hours, but I would just do it
(00:41):
to escape everything else.
To this day, the automobile provides us
with that escape.
But the onslaught of autonomous technology
and AI coming in, how much longer can we
use the automobile to escape reality?
Well, today, AutoLooks is going to take a
look at how we escaped reality.
The automotive industry in the past.
(01:03):
Industry in the past.
Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast.
I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the
automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming
to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net.
If you haven't been there, stop by check it
out.
Read some of the reviews, check out some of
the ratings.
Go to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all car
(01:24):
companies from around around the globe all
available in one centralized location, that
is the autolooks.net website.
The Autolooks Podcast is brought to you by
Ecomm Entertainment Group or distributed by
Podbean.com.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
So, like I said in the intro, the
automobile has essentially provided us with
(01:45):
escape.
How many people back in the days of horse
and buggy would just in the middle of the
night, getting getting a fight with their
spouse, or just needed some time to go and
think hop in our horse and buggy and just
just go?
No, we didn't do that a whole lot.
We would hop on our horse and go for a ride,
but because we had so much to do we didn't
have a lot of free time.
(02:05):
But when the automobile came around, it was
essentially created for leisure.
The automobile was a brand new luxury and
it provided for the select few that had the
money to be able to afford one the ability
to be free.
We can go out and see the world.
At a time when there wasn't roads
everywhere and you can access nearly every
(02:25):
place, the automobile provided us with an
alternate means to get there Before we
hopped on the back of an actual Mustang,
the horse and rode out into the distance,
climbed mountains and traversed our great
countries.
The automobile, through its first 30 years,
essentially provided that to us.
From the 1800s to the early 1900s, the
(02:46):
carriage essentially just the motorized
carriage of the automobile provided us just
with a little leisurely way to get from
point A to point B.
Some of the rich people were able to use it
and didn't have to have a stable at home.
They didn't have to have horses, they had
something with horse power where, at the
end of the day, they could park it in a
covered shed and just leave it there.
(03:07):
They didn't have to feed it, they didn't
have to take care of it.
Nothing provided an easy escape from
reality.
Hop in your automobile and just go for a
drive into town, enjoy the wind in your
hair, and that's what we did all the way up
until roughly the mid-20s.
Yes, the days of the roaring 20s started to
take shape and started to give more people
(03:27):
the ability to explore the world and with
that, using our Model T's or any other
vehicles we were provided at that point in
time the old Renaults, Peugeots, Opels,
Vauxhalls, anything we were able to go out
and see the countryside, drive from here to
there.
Roads were becoming more prevalent.
With that, we needed to find a new use for
this great technology.
(03:48):
The automobile was providing extra time for
us.
It didn't take hours to go places, it took
mere minutes.
When I was in college, walking from my
girlfriend's house to my house, I did it
once it was over an hour and yet I could
drive that in an automobile in about 10
minutes.
Hour walking 10 minutes in a car, that's 50
(04:08):
extra minutes.
What would I do with that?
Well, for me, I would just go for a drive.
See, like I said in my younger days, when I
hadn't had to drive back and forth to work
and bring the kids here and there, and go
pick up this, go do that.
I enjoyed my automobile.
I would hop in the car and just go for a
random drive around, and that's what people
were starting to do in the 20s.
They started having that time.
(04:29):
They can go for a drive and with that,
two-door automobiles started to enter the
marketplace.
Yes, the original sports cars, coupes and
cabriolets were essentially our first
escape from the world around us, where
sedans or the automobile at that point in
time, as it was called, an automobile or
pick up escape from the world around us
where sedans or the automobile, at that
point in time, as it was called, an
automobile or pickup trucks from the daily
(04:50):
grind were just what you used to get back
for the work.
But if you had the ability to get yourself
something more fun, you have a third
vehicle or, in some cases, second vehicle.
You would get something like a little
two-door sports cupel.
Got to remember this is back in the times of
the rumble seats yeah, pop-out rear seat on
the back of your automobile.
You and your girlfriend or boyfriend or
(05:11):
significant other can hop in that vehicle
and just go for a drive.
You don't have to worry about any of the
cares of the world.
As long as your automobile was up to code
and didn't break down on you, you can
explore the backwoods.
You can explore the backwoods, you can
crisscross the country.
(05:31):
And from that by the 1950s, people started
using the automobile to escape their lives.
Between the 30s and 40s the automobile
essentially the escape from reality kind of
dwindled.
In North America we had the Great
Depression and in Europe the onslaught of
war.
In other markets Asia, Australia times
weren't good.
The economies were slightly crumbling.
People were just keeping their automobiles
together just so they can make life a
little bit easier.
(05:51):
So at that point in time, for nearly two
decades our escape from reality wasn't
there.
But just before that, big products like a
Corda 12 or a Duesenberg movie stars
rolling up in these amazing vehicles just
made us think what would life would be like
if we could drive around in one of those?
It would be amazing.
That's such a great looking vehicle, wow, I
(06:13):
would love that.
But unfortunately, with what happened in
the world and what was going on in the
economies around the globe, the 30s and 40s
started disappearing from us.
And it really wasn't until the 50s that we
had another amazing time.
And in the 1950s a vehicle came back from
the war and since a lot of countries
started manufacturing this for their own
(06:34):
military, civilian use, started getting
into it.
And with the introduction of radial tires
by the mid-30s the standard automobile
wasn't able to go anywhere you wanted to.
It basically had to stick to a road.
You had a set area.
It was like a train.
You could only go where the road went, you
couldn't just go off-road into the
backwoods.
(06:54):
Well, after the Great War, something new
was here.
A little company, bantam, with partners
from Ford and Willys, created the Jeep.
Willys eventually bought out Bantam and
created the Willys Jeep and with that gave
birth to the sport utility vehicle, or back
in those days, the Jeep days, because it
really wasn't until the 1990s that we
(07:17):
started calling them SUVs.
To this day I don't.
I don't like using the anagram Sport
utility vehicle, I just call them utility
vehicles.
I have CUVs, alvs, but the other ones are
just utility vehicles.
What's so sporty about them?
But the original Jeep gave us the ability
to explore the world once again, with all
these veterans coming home and the economy
(07:38):
starting to turn around and starting to
boom yet again.
Families had two vehicles.
You might have a station wagon as your
family vehicle and a convertible or a coupe,
or, in these cases, some people had Jeep.
You had a vehicle to go out and escape your
everyday life.
After a hard, long week of work, you needed
to escape it.
(07:58):
You needed to unwind.
You needed to go out and have fun, with
television just starting to come around and
not a lot of stuff on TV.
Besides sitting at home and reading, going
outside and playing, there were tons of
things to do and see in the world without
being connected, literally being plugged in
like we are today with our phones.
We had to leave the confines of our own
(08:20):
house to go out and see the world around us.
To escape our realities, we had to use our
automobile to provide an escape for us and
really, until handheld devices came out,
the automobile was the ultimate escape from
reality.
But at the original point in time, like we
said, in the 50s, we only had sports cars,
we had convertibles, we had coup.
(08:41):
The creation of the supercar, essentially
the Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, helped
breathe new life into a new tier of the
automobile world.
It started giving us the ability to take
street cars to the racetrack.
Now, up until now we've been able to do
that because essentially every racing
series around the world is created and
operated by standard vehicles, hence the
(09:05):
term stock car.
It's a stock car race.
There's nothing stock about their vehicles.
Now, hell, it's being changed even from
stock car to stock utility vehicle now,
with Chevrolet wanting to get the blazer
into it.
Yeah, that just kind of pisses me off, but
really by the end of the 70s and into the
early 80s stock cars weren't stock cars
(09:26):
anymore, were purpose-built race cars.
So essentially they should have changed
their name.
But these were vehicles that were able
people were able to get.
Bring home the 300 SL provided a racing car
for your garage, it created more fun at
night, and that moved into the 60s.
The 60s were a day where the automotive
escape really flourished, with the creation
(09:48):
of vehicles like the 911, the Mustang, the
GTO and even the original Lamborghini
Countach.
Yep, it was originally developed in the 60s,
but at that point in time they had the
Miura, supercars, performance cars, muscle
cars, sports cars, grand tours.
The industry was exploding with all of
(10:09):
these great vehicles that would help us
escape reality.
By the 1960s everyone was able to escape it
and the automotive world literally blew up.
By the 50s we created our interstate
systems in the United States and the M
motorways in Europe.
We were building a network for all of us to
use and by the 60s we started utilizing
(10:30):
that.
We used the big highways as an escape from
reality.
We can go out and travel faster than we
ever could before.
We can go to racetracks because there were
more of them, with big block V8s and these
muscle cars.
The muscle car era was upon us and the baby
boomers were starting to hit the market.
John Zachary DeLorean, John Z. DeLorean the
man behind DeLorean had an amazing idea to
(10:52):
put a big engine in a small vehicle,
essentially cram a V8 underneath the hood
of a Pontiac Tempest.
Lots of power in a small package.
This would provide the ultimate automotive
escape for the baby boom generation, as
they would use the muscle car era to escape
their daily life.
And this escape would be so prevalent by
(11:13):
the early 70s In Detroit, Michigan.
A police officer by day and one of the
number one mysterious street racers at
night, the Black Ghost Challenger,
essentially showed the ultimate escape from
reality.
If you haven't heard of the Black Ghost
Challenger, it's a 70 Challenger 340 pack,
(11:33):
pure black.
It was owned by a police officer, drove
around by day and handed tickets out for
people for speeding At night.
He escaped the realities of upholding the
law to do what he loved most To get behind
the wheel of his Challenger and race the
public Never show himself Essentially would
become an underground street racer and fade
(11:54):
into the night.
Now, it really wasn't until the 90s when
this was found out and his son actually
found out about the car and the history
behind it and he had to ask why did you do
it?
I had to escape.
I had to show my true colors and do what I
truly loved.
Muscle Cars really provided that for us the
original escape.
You've got to remember when you first enter
(12:15):
the automotive market at a young age.
Most of us not all of us, because, trust me,
I can attest to the people that are on the
other side you know, don't do this, but
most of us feel the freedom when we grab
the keys for the first time and we're old
enough that we can go out on our own and
naturally, with that it's just like being
in high school and we've got to show off to
(12:37):
everyone how much better we are than them.
So street racing essentially is part of
that culture.
Originally developed in California in the
50s.
Hot rodding gave birth to what later would
become the muscle car drag races.
Now I got tons of stories I could tell you
about people in my family or even myself
involved in this, the muscle car era, or
(12:59):
even just plain out, street racing.
We all did it and it was one of those
things that you just have to sit back and
go.
Yeah, that was fun, that was great while it
lasted.
Well, the good times are over now.
By the time I hit college my home province
in my home country she kind of did away
with all of that.
Now, with going 50 over, you lose
everything.
A lot of us hung up our keys and found a
(13:20):
new way to have fun.
But back in the 70s we didn't have to worry
about that.
We had the muscle cars big, burly power
that would take us from point A to point B
as fast as possible.
We'd look great doing it.
Go to a high school parking lot in the 70s.
It looked completely different than today,
(13:45):
where today there's not a ton of vehicles,
there's more, you know, e-bikes and
electric vehicles or hybrids or even just
the people who walk, because it's healthier.
Now, back in those days, even if you got to
drive your parents' car, you were glad if
your parents had a Chevelle wagon.
If they didn't, then you worked your ass
off and you got that GTO, you got that
mustang and you came to high school in one
of the coolest cars ever because, after
spending all day in the mind-numbing school,
(14:07):
you had to release, you had to get out.
I don't care who you are, everyone has
something they do after work or school to
unwind.
At one point in my life, before I had kids,
I used to come home and unwind in the
weirdest way.
I would sit down with my dog and watch
Spongebob.
Doesn't seem so weird, does it?
No, we just.
(14:27):
I come home, give me the 30 minutes to sit
down, watch Spongebob intelligent like 30
minutes, because it was standard cable tv
back then with commercials.
After that, you know I'll switch the work
mindset off and regular Everett will be
back.
But I needed that to unwind.
The amazing part about that is that dog
that I watched Spongebob with.
(14:47):
We did it every day after I was done work
and that's how I escaped.
Driving home through a residential suburb
to my house wasn't relaxing enough.
I wasn't out on the big highway like I am
now After work.
Now I get out on the highway and I can do
100k, no problem in and out of people.
No, I get to one little area right at the
end where the four lane ends and it turns
(15:08):
into a two lane after the traffic light and
it's like a drag strip and I can get out
all my aggressions in one spot.
Granted, I'm the first guy out front, so I
have that.
I use my automobile to escape from my bad
day.
By the time I come home in the 20 minute
drive back then watching Spongebob, and the
day we actually had booked to bring my dog
in and have actually not my dog, it was
actually my wife's dog, but naturally all
(15:30):
dogs become my best friend.
I spent the whole day with him on his last
day, just hung out watch movies.
I watched Marley and Me and right before we
had to take him to be put down, Spongebob
came on him and I were gonna watch it one
last time before I brought him in to have
him put down.
That dog must have truly loved me because
he passed away right before the end of the
episode, like literally just we watched the
(15:51):
episode and it's like he was at peace this
is happiest place and he just let go.
I know what does that have to do with the
automotive escape, but that's how I escaped
reality.
I drove a stick shift to work in back back
in those days, so it's fun driving through,
but in a residential neighborhood where I
can do between 50 and 60 kilometers an hour
and that's it not so much fun, so I had to
(16:12):
find a different way to avoid.
Now, after the 70s, we hit the gas crisis
at the middle of the decade and big power
starts to retract.
We start losing it because of the high cost
of operating and refueling those vehicles.
Four and six cylinders start making their
way in and people start seeing that
Japanese know how to deal with this.
(16:34):
Well, with that, Japanese sports cars that
have been around forever start coming out
of the woodwork.
By the 80s and into the 90s, coupes and
sports cars reigned supreme.
The muscle car had its second coming by the
mid-80s and up until the mid-90s, where it
came back, people loved the big V8.
We still love the growl and the grunt of it,
(16:56):
but the import scene was just taking the
world by storm.
We used those sports cars, like I said, by
the 80s and into the 90s, going to a high
school.
Yet again, the parking lots were filled
with all these amazing little two-door
vehicles.
It was our escape.
We had to break free.
We had to get out there.
Sure, we still had SUVs and four-wheel
drive trucks that go way out in the bush.
(17:17):
But why do we need to do that?
Most of us grew up having to go camping.
Why would we get an SUV to go off in the
middle of the bush to go camping?
We had to do that every summer with our
family.
No, we just wanted to go out and have an
amazing drive on the fun back roads.
But by the end of the 90s those markets
started disappearing.
The import scene started showing us that we
(17:37):
can make any vehicle look great.
Our sedans and wagons can move into this.
We didn't care about getting moms everyday
Nissan Altima sedan because we knew we can
customize that thing to be a show car.
Stick shifts were slowly dying out because
automatics were more prevalent everywhere.
The sports car industry started to retract
(17:58):
and people started becoming more homebodies.
Flat airports go from place to place and
that's about it.
Road trips were out.
The escape of reality was still there, but
utilizing your vehicle wasn't.
By this point in time there were so many
cars clogging most main arteries and
freeways.
It wasn't fun.
We spent over an hour every day sitting in
(18:21):
traffic just to get home.
It was a nuisance.
The automobile was losing its luster by the
end of the 90s sports cars, muscle cars,
performance vehicles there were really only
four high-end clientele that could afford
to truck them to a racetrack to have fun at.
For the rest of us, cars weren't fun
anymore.
There was no escape, because the automotive
(18:42):
escape all but dried up.
Sure, by this time I still had an escape
because in my home city there wasn't tons
of traffic and I could still go for a
back-roads drive Tons of back roads, nice
and quiet, 2, 3 in the morning.
Hence the reason why the import racing
stream brought upon by the Fast and Furious
movie franchise in the early 2000s gave way
to all these night races.
(19:02):
Now they still go on to this day, but with
more heavily policed areas.
Street racing is not like it once was, and
doing it the risks are way too high now.
So that escape is completely gone.
So how do the rest of us escape reality If
our roads are clogged and the fun cars are
gone?
Well, jeeps, remember that amazing vehicle
(19:23):
that came back from World War II that we
all started loving near the end of the 40s
and into the 50s the Jeep, the four-wheel
drive utility vehicle to go anywhere by the
teen years, ladder frame, dedicated SUV,
like a Chevy Tahoe we're talking
(19:48):
all-terrain back roads climb over rock
style land cruisers, wranglers and Broncos
Vehicles to go anywhere.
And living in countries like China with
over a billion people and an economy that's
growing and original places having to take
lotteries to get vehicles, people started
realizing maybe the best bet is to get a
(20:09):
vehicle that we can escape everything in by
having a Beijing BJ40 being able to go to
back roads.
Is it a Mahindra Thar?
Yeah, and the utility world has blown up.
It's always been here and we've all thought
it was great and we needed it, both
becoming more domesticated.
During the 90s, as the crossover utility
craze really boomed, the utility vehicles
(20:32):
for back roads, buggies, Bajas really
wasn't at the forefront.
Companies like Jeep and Land Rover weren't
there.
They were there, but people didn't think
them as top tier.
Today that's changed and 4x4s have
essentially become our last refuge from the
escape of reality from the automotive world.
Yeah, my four-wheel drive Tacoma and my
(20:53):
previous four-wheel drive Kia Borrego were
what drives our quest to journey off the
beaten path.
Today, with roads and cities being so
clogged, the only place you can escape
reality is far away from people.
I'm lucky enough to live right at the edge
of a major city in a northern section
that's just backwoods for hours.
(21:16):
I can literally leave my house, go for a
two-hour drive where I hardly see any
houses or people.
I can do it, but this is because of where I
live.
Somebody living in the city of Toronto,
Montreal.
They've got to travel for hours to be able
to enjoy that.
Back roads around them are clogged, little
towns are just super expensive and crazy.
(21:37):
There's no escape from urban life.
But a lot of people, when this has become a
new thing, are chasing the northern lights
and realizing that I'm from a major city
180 000 people, major city by Canada
standards.
Okay, when you get to the edge of my city
you can see the northern lights.
If you have a four-wheel drive, you can
venture further into the bush to see them
even better.
(21:57):
You could escape the harsh realities of
life and escape the world automotive style,
and that's essentially what we all need.
We need to escape and the automobile is
that refuge.
It always has been.
Before the automobile, our own horse was
the only way to go out and explore.
Well, not in every place.
(22:20):
Sometimes you need a little bit more rugged,
different animals for select places, but
the horse was mainly our way to get around.
Up until the advent of the automobile, the
horse, the original Mustang, was the only
way to go about it.
Today, if you can afford to get yourself a
Ford Mustang, you can have that fun too,
but only in select areas Because, trust me,
there's not a lot of places you can really
open up your car anymore.
It's getting kind of sad Even for me back
(22:41):
and forth to work.
I may be on a long you know a parkway and I
can back and forth to work.
I may be on along you know a parkway and I
can still go faster.
But few traffic lights and dim-witted
people that do bang on the speed limit or
less, and that's just ruined for me.
With the introduction of autonomous
technology and AI coming into the
automotive world, our last chance to escape
all of this is here, and utility vehicles
(23:02):
are our one last refuge.
With lots of cities getting rid of
racetracks, police being abundant
everywhere and street racing being a
Jailable offense, backwoods is the only
place we can go, which essentially was the
first place we were able to go when we
escaped the world in our automobile.
In all reality, escaping our automobile
(23:23):
sometimes is good too, but an automotive
escape is so much better.
So, in all reality, do we need specific
markets so that we can escape the realities
of our world with the automobile?
An automotive escape is essential to life,
whether it be a vacation, a day trip, hell.
Even just an hour to clear your mind after
a work day, even just an hour to clear your
mind after a work day, utilizing that free
(23:46):
space without anyone in it fully for you,
it's like having your own bedroom,
completely cut off from your entire family.
It could be the one step that you need for
true enlightenment Because, trust me, some
of the greatest ideas I've ever had in my
life, some of my original automotive
designs, came to me when I was out for a
(24:06):
drive.
Even to this day, I come up with amazing
ideas.
I come up with podcast ideas while driving
in my vehicle by myself.
I could think, and I could escape
everything to a refuge that's all mine.
So, yes, we still need that ability to
escape the reality in an automotive world.
The automotive escape is here for all of us,
even if we can't afford it the ability to
(24:28):
be able to rent vehicles or even go for a
cab or Uber ride.
You can literally use the automobile to
escape whatever is troubling.
It's an all reality for life.
An automotive escape is what we really need.
So if you like this podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of your
social feeds or streaming sites that you
found the AutoLooks Podcast on.
(24:48):
Like us, share us, follow us.
Click the buttons at the bottom.
Follow us.
Go to the website, read some of the reviews,
check out some of the ratings.
Go to the Corporate Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all carted
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select location, the Autolooks.net website.
And if I went a little too fast for you,
like I said before, click the like button
at the bottom.
(25:08):
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If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
(25:29):
us an email over at email@autolooks.net.
So, like I said in the beginning, we all
need to escape reality with the use of an
automobile, whether it be a cab ride, an
Uber ride, hell, sometimes just sitting on
the bus with headphones on to ignore the
world around you.
It just allows you to use the automotive
world to escape the outside, and automotive
escape is what we all need at the end of
(25:50):
the day.
So from myself, Everett Jay, the Ecomm
Entertainment Group, PodBean.com and the
AutoLooks.net website, strap yourself in for
this one fun wild ride we're going to have
as we escape reality in the automotive
world.
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