The Dork-O-Motive Podcast

It's a stunning thing to realize that Ford mass-produced an 1,100ci, dual overhead camshaft, alunimum block, flat plane crank V8 in the 1940s. Sill the largest mass produced V8 engine ever, it was just what Uncle Sam needed to power Sherman tanks.

But how did it come about? In this video we not only look at the awesome specs and mechanical feats that this engine is known for, we also look into its murky and wild history.

A history ...

This is the story of one of the greatest minds in the history of the sport of drag racing. Lew Russell Robinson known more widely as "Sneaky Pete" Robinson was an innovator without equal in the 1960s. He approached the sport as a trained engineer from Georgia Tech and took that education to speeds and performance unknown for his time.

He was the type of guy they write rules to slow down, to save from themselves and to prevent lesse...

The Indy 500 has long been recognized as one of the most amazing hot beds of racing innovation in history. The 1966 race saw a car that may well stand as one of the most unique, inventive, and downright odd of the era. The Stein-Valvoline Special was a twin Porsche engined, four wheel drive, California garage built machine from the mind of a former midget racing champion and his friends.

The story of this car, its driver, and th...

Every winter for 13 years between 1954 and 1966 the greatest sports cars as well as the greatest sports car drivers in the world would gather in the Bahamas for what may well have been the coolest racing event in history. 

10 days of partying, racing, hanging out on the beach, and enjoying life with some of the world's greatest stars is just as awesome as you think it is. Racers like Stirling Moss, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Phil Hil...

During three winters in the 1960s, hot rodders in Chicago had the unique opportunity to do something no one has been able to do before or since. They went drag racing indoors. The didn't just do it once or twice, they did it weekly. How? Where? Why? Who put it together? 

The story actually begins in the 1930s and the indoor drag strip followed go kart racing, midget car racing, even a road course indoors! The promoter, a man named ...

In early March of 1969, the single worst disaster in the history of American motorsports took place at a small, virtually unknown drag strip in rural Georgia. Yellow River Drag Strip was the scene of horror as a funny car flew off the racing surface and into the unprotected crowd. A dozen people died and scores were injured. 

In this episode of the Dork-O-Motive podcast, we tell the story in every way possible. The history of the...

You think you know, but you have no idea. Stock car racing in the United States was born in the south, but not the south you are think of. On this episode of the Dork-O-Motive podcast, host Brian Lohnes tells the story of the first true stock car race as we know it in America, the 1934 Mines Field Gilmore Cup race. 

The greatest stars of racing were gathered to compete against one another in "stock" automobiles. There was cheating,...

What if I told you that the first Ferris wheel, built in 1893 was 265ft tall, powered by a 1,000hp steam engine, and carried 2,160 people at the same time! George Washington Gale Ferris is the man who engineered this marvel and the man who's name is synonymous with this ever-present attraction at fairs and amusement parks.

What if I told you that the machine simultaneously made Ferris a world-wide celebrity while destroying his l...

The US Air Force Heavy Press program, executed between 1950 and 1957 is one of the most incredible industrial achievements in history. After identifying a huge technology gap at the end of WWII, the government worked with private industry to create the world's most extensive network of heavy press capability. The machines are insane, the work they do is even cooler, and the effort it took to create them is off the charts. 

One of t...

In 1992 Hot Rod Magazine gathered a collection of the fastest street cars in America for a showdown in Memphis, Tennessee. The reverberations of this event are still being felt today as it helped to rocket the movement of "fast street cars" into the hot rodding stratosphere. This is the story of that event, as told be the editors, racers, and fans that were there. 

Some of the guests on this show remember the race fondly, some with...

This is a wonderful story from the home front of WWII. The gumption of the American farmer, the strength of industry, and the inventive nature of government to solve a big problem. That issue? The largest wheat crop in the history of the United States was coming in and there wasn't enough men or machines to properly harvest it. 

The answer? The Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade. This armada of 500 brand new combines swept from Texas to...

Imagine a racing event where 30 of the best drivers came from all corners of the world to clash at the nicest race track ever built. Imagine that half of them would be driving F1 cars and the other half would be driving small block V8 powered open wheeled machines with way less tech but more horsepower. Imagine it were 1971. 

This was the premise behind the Questor Grand Prix, a race held at Ontario Motor Speedway with a massive pr...

The automotive headlight is not exactly the most exciting part of a car, right? Wrong. Back in the early 1900s not only were headlights new and exciting, they were explosive and deadly. This incredible look back at the early history of headlights is likely a topic you've never heard about or thought about before. 

Because no suitable electric bulb for cars had been invented yet, brave entrepreneurs looked for a solution and found o...

Imagine a single weapon of war with such vicious tactics that it nearly defeated an entire country. Such was the case with Germany's fleet of U-boats during WWI. As the U-boats sunk hundreds of ships per month, Britain was in danger of running short on food, war materials, and basic necessities of life. The mighty British Navy had no answer for these silent killers of the seas.

And then someone had an idea. 

By creating a shadow ...

In 1979 a promoter from Tennessee put on the first ever big rig super speedway race and it caused a national panic. The government, the trucking industry, the Teamsters, tire companies, and sponsors all tried to stop the event from happening. Only, they failed and it did happen. Predictions of the race being a "public suicide" or a "bloody spectacle" filled the nations newspapers. Truckers protesting the 55mph national speed limit ...

In July of 1944 the Allies had a problem. Having landed successfully in France and established a beachhead, they had been stalled for weeks. Thankfully a fortuitous victory over the Germans opened up the line and Allied troops roared  across France, chasing the Nazis back to where they came from. This presented another problem. 

With ports mangled, railroads destroyed, and all their stuff sitting on the beach war planners had to th...

For a span of about 25 years in America, the fastest racing venues in the country were not made of asphalt, concrete, or brick, but rather wooden boards. These tracks, which ranged from less than a half mile to two miles in length were quick and cheap to construct and drew fans by the tens of thousands. They also birthed the first generation of hero American race drivers that the country had ever seen. 

Unfortunately, it killed the...

On July 23, 1983 a Canada Air 767 with 61 passengers and eight crew aboard ran out of fuel while flying over a remote area of Ontario, Canada at 41,000ft. The pilot and co-pilot were able to take the airplane and glide to to a harrowing but safe landing on a drag strip in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada. The outcome was less a miracle and more an amazing example of expert pilot work from Captain Robert Pearson and co-pilot Maurice Quintal....