July 16, 2025 • 31 mins
Do you love welding, road rally racing, engineering design and general Maker Shop Talk?
If so, join Tamara Robertson (Mythbusters, Seekers of Science) as she revs up the fun in this all new mini-season dedicated to the Hemming's Great Race and the amazing team of Trailblazing Creators assembled by Riley's Rebuilds!
As a shout-out to Race Sponsor RPM Foundation, this episode kicks off with a Tech Talk about Speedometers before Tamara sits down with future Engineer, Trailblazer and Maker Extraordinaire Emma ( @EmmasForgottenFalcon )!
Topics they cover include (but are surely not limited to):
- Speedometers
- Fast and the Furios
- Engineering
- Welding
- Navigation
- The Hemming's Great Race
- Riley of Riley's Rebuilds
- The Jessi Combs Foundation
- Representation in Motorsports
- Vintage Cars
- Shoutout to Edelbrock
- Being a Creator
- Older Generation Friends
.. and so much more
As we dig into Season 3's 34th episode of Tinkering Belles you're surely not going to want to miss it!
So join in on Tamara's adventure as a Maker as she works to amplify the BAMF Females Behind the Builds one interview at a time!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you enjoyed the show join in on the Maker adventure with Tamara and her guests on the Tinkering Belles Instagram page.
You can follow Emma's adventures here, here, and here:
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/emmasforgottenfalcon/
Music for this Episode was provided by Bill Trowell Music. Visit BillTrowellMusic.com to hear more and to subscribe to Bill's Patreon, where he covers favorite showtunes, movie themes, classic rock and jazz, as well as requests from Patron's.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tamara Robertson (00:00):
Greetings, shopmates, and welcome to
Tinkering Belles, a show aboutDIY, design, and all things
hands-on.
The sky's the limit as we talkprops, metalwork, cosplay,
woodwork, leather, electronics,and so much more.
I'm Tamara Robertson, yourhost, so strap on your tool
belts because we're about to getinto some skill sharing, y'all.
(00:24):
Today, I'm going to be joined bya maker who's sharpening her
skills in mechanicalengineering.
I don't want to give away toomuch, but this maker's specialty
in fabrication and welding hasenabled her to get way further
with her new stem powers.
So if that doesn't make youwant to stick around and hear
more, then you might be at thewrong podcast.
(00:47):
But first, let's go ahead andhave our TECH Talk of the day.
So we're going to be talkingall about the Hemming's Great
Race, a vintage rally whereprecision and timing are
everything.
We're so incredibly grateful toour sponsors and partners like
the RPM Foundation, who coveredthe entry fees for our 1966
Fairlane, supporting theinclusion of our high school
(01:08):
navigators and helping fosterthe next generation of
automotive talent.
So let's back it up.
Where did speedometers gettheir start?
The first mechanicalspeedometers were developed in
the late 1800s, with the firstU.S.
patent being filed by OttoSchultz in 1902.
By 1910, speedometers becamestandard equipment in most
(01:33):
vehicles.
Now, traditional speedometerswork using a flexible spinning
cable connected to thetransmission, which drives a
magnetic coupling that moves theneedle, an elegant analog
solution that dominated untildigital systems emerged.
And vintage vehicles like our66 Fairlane, calibration can
drift over time due to gearwear, tire size changes, or
(01:56):
differential swaps, which makesaccurate readings more of an art
than a science.
That's especially important intime-speed distance rallies like
the Great Race, where the goalisn't to go fast, it's to arrive
exactly on time.
Even a fifth of a secondvariation can knock you out of
(02:16):
top standings.
Stopping and starting also playa huge role in how speed is
managed.
Vintage braking systems, manualtransmissions, and throttle lag
all affect your ability to holda constant average speed, which
is why navigators and workinggauges are so critical.
Well, that's it for our TechTalk.
(02:37):
As always, you can join in onthe conversation with my maker
friends and me on the TinkeringBells Instagram and X pages.
Just search for BellesTinkering, hit follow, and share
your DIY adventures togetherwith us.
Have a tool you want to learnabout?
Let me know, and it may befeatured in a future episode.
Tell us what you liked, whatyou hated, or possibly even what
we missed.
(03:00):
So now we're going to be gettinginto the main event, and I'm so
excited to introduce you to ournext maker.
So drum roll, please.
Presenting Emma.
Emma, thanks for joining me.
How are you?
Emma (03:10):
I'm doing great.
How are you, Tamara?
Tamara Robertson (03:12):
I'm doing good.
So I like to start by lettingeveryone know where they can
find you, follow you, and givethem a little bit of a hint of
what they'll see when they
Emma (03:21):
Yeah, so I really only do Instagram.
You can find me at Emma'sForgotten Falcon, no spaces,
periods, dashes.
And I mostly just postday-to-day repairs, sometimes
the occasional fun video,donuts, burnouts, whatever, and
more in-depth pairs.
So I think it was last year Icompletely rebuilt my engine.
(03:44):
So it kind of really ranges onjust what I'm doing.
Tamara Robertson (03:47):
Donuts, definitely going there for that.
I think you should have donesome in the fair lane for sure.
Yeah.
So...
We got to meet on the race,which we'll get into a little
bit later.
But as a superhero scientist, Ilove origin stories.
So I was wondering, can youshare with the audience your
(04:08):
gearhead origin story?
.
Emma (04:10):
So whenever I was maybe 14, I think me and my dad were
driving, you know, like super inthe countryside.
And where I live, if peoplehave a car for sale, they'll
park it up near the road and puta for sale sign.
So we saw, I think it was maybea 60s, 70s Jeep, a Willie's
(04:31):
Jeep on the side of the road.
And I told him, I was like,man, I think that I would really
like to have something likethat.
So that kind of sparked thewhole old car thing, even though
I didn't get a Jeep.
That just kind of led into alldifferent kinds of things.
I think at one point I wanted aTarino, but he wouldn't let me
have it because it's a big boat.
And he thought, you know,you're going to be 16 years old.
(04:54):
You're going to be drivingaround this massive boat.
You're not going to know how topark it.
So we finally decided on aFalcon and And, you know, my dad
said, you get a classic car andI'll help you rebuild it.
So that's exactly what I did.
Tamara Robertson (05:07):
The Grand Tarino - you wanting that
vehicle and then our nicknameand then your last statement for
the day.
Like, can you share with theaudience the nickname that we
received in the 66 Fairlanewhile we were at the Great Race?
Emma (05:25):
Yeah, we were called Vin Diesel because we took like a
quarter mile at a time.
That's okay, because by theend, we turned into Dom Toretto,
you know?
Tamara Robertson (05:36):
And that was, like, literally the line that I
put in our daily blog so thateveryone would see it, because I
thought that you just ended theday so perfectly with that.
Emma (05:45):
You just, you gotta stay positive, you know?
It was hot outside, we were allhungry, but, you know, there's
not a whole lot you can do aboutit.
What's happened has happened.
Tamara Robertson (05:53):
Yeah, and so we got to meet on the Great
Race, actually.
We were, like, what, day...
Five?
When did we come in?
I guess day four, day five?
Emma (06:04):
I think it was day five, yeah.
Tamara Robertson (06:05):
So had you heard about the great race prior
to kind of the bat signal goingup on the internet for us all
to
Emma (06:14):
No, I had never heard of it.
And anybody like friends andfamily that I had told, you
know, I'm going on this greatrace.
It's going to be awesome.
Make sure to follow myInstagram to see what I'm doing.
They never heard of it either.
Tamara Robertson (06:25):
You got...
thrown very quickly into thehot seat of the great race
because as the audience has beenlearning as the season has gone
along, it's not a speed race,it's a precision race.
So can you share with theaudience a little bit about what
that meant and what your roleactually was with the team.
Emma (06:48):
Yeah.
So I was the navigator for thelast four days.
And basically what that entailsis every morning your car will
have a position in the race.
So say we're positioned 73 andour start time is eight o'clock.
So position car number one,we'll leave at eight o'clock.
We will leave at nine 13 and Soonce we leave the road, we'll
(07:10):
do a calibration run and we cantalk more about that later, but
they will give you a directionsheet and it's got four columns.
So it'll basically, it'll tellyou like at this stop sign, turn
right, you know, at thisincoming corner sign, slow down
to 30 miles an hour.
(07:31):
So whenever we hit one ofthose, I'll tell the driver,
split 35 with 30 so before thatsign we're going 40 miles an
hour at the sign we're going 35after the sign we're going 30.
Tamara Robertson (07:45):
so the joke that we took the race a quarter
mile at a time like vin dieselbut a lot of what was going on
for us that day was engineinvolved but after that we were
actually able to go full speedso can you explain to the
audience what our speedo was orspeedometer was and why it
became critical in our race.
Emma (08:05):
Yeah.
So I'll just start from thevery beginning install.
So it's called a time wise andit is a, it's a speedometer
specific towards the great race.
So all it is is it's twomagnets on the outer lip of your
wheel on preferably the frontdriver's side.
because there's potholes mostof the time on the right.
(08:27):
So you want to put it on theleft.
And then you have a sensor inthe middle that is about three
eighths of an inch apart fromthose magnets.
So every time the wheelrotates, the magnets will trip
that sensor.
And that is how the Speedo canpick up that you're going 10
miles an hour or 50.
And so once you get thosemagnets glued on and that Speedo
(08:51):
in your car, you will take achalk like a chalk marker or
something, mark the bottom ofthe tire and the pavement.
Yeah.
And the concrete, you will rollyour car so that the wheel
turns five revolutions and thenmark the bottom of the tire
again with the concrete.
So then you'll measure thedistance in between that and
(09:14):
whatever that distance is, sayit's 513.7 inches.
And it's really important thatyou measure it in inches.
So that would be, five onethree seven on the back of your
speedo since there's four littlecutouts on the back of the
speedo you might have to inserta picture somewhere it's really
it's really complicated to thinkabout but there's four little
(09:35):
circles that are cut out andthey just go up to i think it's
from zero to nine so you wouldturn the little arrow to five
one three seven since it'smeasured in tenths of an inch
and there's no decimal so onceyou have that kind of dialed in
at the very beginning, right?
Whenever you install thistime-wise, not technically a
(09:55):
speedometer.
Every day before the race, youwill go on a calibration run.
So that calibration run isstarted normally at an exit sign
or just something that you caneasily locate.
So whenever you get at thatsign, you want to be going, say,
50 miles an hour, whatever theyspecify, and start your
stopwatch whenever the wheelspass by the sign.
(10:18):
So then there will belandmarks, say, like, this city
exit in 10 miles.
So then you'll click yourstopwatch again, and the sheet
will tell you exactly what timeshould have been elapsed
whenever you go past that stopsign.
So as you're hitting thesesigns, you're writing down these
times.
And at the very end of thecalibration run, you can go,
(10:39):
okay, that run took me 23minutes, 14 seconds.
It was supposed to take me 25minutes, 16 seconds.
So what you'll do is you'lltake your actual time divided by
your desired time.
So that'll give you like, a0.32 or something.
And then you will multiply itby the factor on your time wise.
(11:03):
So like we said earlier, 5137would be already dialed in.
So then you'd multiply it bythat and change it to whatever
that new number is.
Tamara Robertson (11:14):
And luckily you were able to like, Do that,
those calculations, that math onthe fly.
And part of that is because youhave another specialty.
So I do a lot with shop sciencewhere I reconnect STEM and
artisanal skills, but younaturally are actually bringing
both of those to the race, tolife in general, and to
(11:35):
everything you're posting.
So can you talk to the audiencea little bit about your STEM
Connect that you're pursuing
Emma (11:42):
Yes.
So I'm a young lady inengineering.
I'm a mechanical engineer.
that will be graduating thiscoming May.
So I have one year left.
And I am also a certifiedwelder.
So that kind of ties in reallynicely to the engineering part.
You know, I know what the guysout in the field, what they're
doing, everything they'rethinking before I even tell them
(12:04):
to do it.
which I think is reallyimportant.
Tamara Robertson (12:06):
Yeah, it's very cool too, because you're
able to bring both that hands-onfabrication side to it and then
bring in that theoretical sideof the engineering processing
and what the materials andstrengths are.
Do you have kind of a line ofsight of what you want to do
once you graduate?
Emma (12:22):
So right now I am doing an internship with a general
contracting firm.
So that's, you know,construction, building,
hospitals, big apartmentbuildings.
sometimes municipal.
But after college, if I likethis general contracting thing,
I'll stick with that.
But if I don't, I'll gosomewhere else.
(12:43):
I'm just, whatever the worldtakes me.
Tamara Robertson (12:45):
I love that.
My first engineering job wasactually on a greenfield startup
for a vaccines company.
So designing the manufacturingfacility and then the actual
processing lines.
And I tell young engineers allthe time that if they have a
chance to be on the ground witha facility build and the
(13:07):
construction phase it's really abeautiful thing because you get
to not only design that processand the actual building itself
but then you have to actuallylive into it so you have to deal
with did you put enoughcabinets and did you put enough
headspace and were you actuallyable to make the movements as
(13:29):
well as you wanted so it's anincredible experience as you're
going so i really i hope thatyou get some some fun hats as
you're getting to do that
Emma (13:39):
so many hats so far
Tamara Robertson (13:41):
it's it's like a rotational program without
being in a rotational programright
Emma (13:46):
exactly you know i've done so many different things in
just the general contractingrealm you know the paperwork the
on-site i've done just abouteverything
Tamara Robertson (13:56):
That's that's incredible.
There's that hands onexperience.
You really just no one can takethat away from you.
And again, just having thatfabrication background that you
have.
and just kind of strengthenthat.
So that's really cool.
We didn't get to talk a lotabout engineering on the race.
So it's neat to finally get tokind of visit that.
So I kind of joked that the batsignal went up that called us
(14:18):
all to the great race.
And so Riley from Riley'sRebuilds was the one that kind
of collected us all together onthe internet.
So I love to like talk to eachof the racers about their Riley
story.
So how did you and Riley
Emma (14:32):
We had never met in person, but we had a mutual
response So prior to her evenreaching out to me for the race,
Edelbrock kind of got the twoof us together for my engine
rebuild since I was, they didsend me a carburetor and they
kind of got us together.
They were hoping to maybe getus to collab on like a
(14:55):
carburetor, how to tune it.
But she lived all the way inFlorida.
I live all the way in Missouri.
You know how that works out.
So mostly through Edelbrock.
And then I think maybe a yearor so after that, leading up to
today, she just added mestraight into the Rad Women
Creator group chat.
And, you know, that's how wekicked it off.
Tamara Robertson (15:17):
Yeah, I just ended up in that room, too.
And I was like, I only knowlike one or two people here.
This is great.
Let's see what we're going todo next.
Emma (15:24):
It was definitely nerve wracking.
Tamara Robertson (15:27):
There was such a high flow of information at
all times.
So what did it mean to you tolike, join this creators race,
you know, to come out the middleof nowhere and just jump in a
vehicle you've never seen, nevertouched and have to navigate?
basically a herd of kittensthat were running in all
(15:49):
directions.
Emma (15:51):
Yeah.
So, I mean, to me, it was a funthing that I can go do, you
know, that was my vacation thisyear, but I was mostly thinking
about, you know, just the viewon women and mechanics or
engineering and STEM, you know,the more young women or just
women in general, see otherwomen out doing all of this
(16:13):
stuff that Normally it'sstereotypical for men.
I think that it's justextremely uplifting to
everybody.
And, you know, nothing shouldbe a man or a woman's job.
So that's mostly what I wasthinking about, just inclusion
and showing the world that wecan do everything you can do.
Tamara Robertson (16:34):
that mindset was perfect because we were
following in the tread marks ofJessi Combs, right?
So the Jessi Combs Foundationwas our charity partner.
And so they tend to utilizethat phrase trailblazer, right?
And so they talked a lot to usin the planning periods of this
race about how each of the youngwomen involved were blazing
(16:58):
trails in their own right.
So when you go out into theworld, do you think of yourself
as a trailblazer and what doesthat mean to you?
Emma (17:07):
I think I do.
I think that trailblazing isjust a word, but What it really
means is doing something that'snormally not being done or
something that's difficult andhard that, you know, a lot of
people look at and go, wow,that's going to take a lot of
time or a lot of thought.
But you do it anyways becausethat's either your drive or
(17:31):
passion or it's just what youneed to do.
Sometimes I feel like I've beencalled to do this just for all
the young women in my community.
You know, I'm always...
volunteering my time.
We have a welding lab near uswhere I got my certification.
So I'm always over there everysummer for a week long program,
just, you know, teaching kids,young adults all the time.
Tamara Robertson (17:54):
Amazing.
Well, you should let me knowwhen that program is.
Send me the dates because I'llsend you some bandanas.
I'm sure the foundation wouldlove for you to be able to
continue rocking the dots wellbeyond the race.
When you jumped into thisjourney with us, obviously every
day we were learning.
We were learning about the fairlane.
We were learning about therace.
(18:15):
We were learning about eachother.
Hindsight is always 20-20.
So if you could go back to theyoung woman that you were before
coming to the race, what's someadvice that you would give
yourself and in turn give tosomeone that's looking at doing
something like the great race inthe future
Emma (18:34):
Yeah, I would say just the easy ones is always pack a
snack, always make sure you haveplenty of water because, you
know, you break down and ithappened, it happened, only
happened to me once, buthappened to the other girls the
day before me.
you know, quite a bit.
So make sure you have plenty ofeverything and just, you know,
it gets really tense in thatcar.
(18:55):
It really does.
Just, you know, almost missinga turn or not knowing if you're
still on the right track.
Just everyone, you know, weneed to relax and tense
environments don't come from anygood.
Tamara Robertson (19:10):
breathing through it right yes maybe not
breathing breathing too deeplyif you have an exhaust leak but
you know breathing through it
Emma (19:19):
yeah that made it difficult for you guys in the
back i felt really bad
Tamara Robertson (19:24):
yeah that was a fun adventure um we'll talk
about that another day but okayso as you're you know looking
towards kind of the welding sidewhich obviously jesse was a
welder i i'm a welder you're awelder like When little girls
are out there thinking aboutpotentially pursuing welding,
(19:45):
what's some pointers you wouldgive them?
Where should they start?
Emma (19:50):
Just pick it up.
Pick up a welder, MIG, stick.
I wouldn't suggest working withTIG first, but pick it up,
start playing around.
You know, nothing that badcould happen.
Obviously, wear all your PPE,be safe, but people make
mistakes all the time.
And it's not embarrassing atall.
So just pick it up, start doingit, find friends.
(20:11):
I've had so many friends thatare retirement age, like 60
years old, and they are my bestfriends.
And I don't know where I wouldbe without them.
Tamara Robertson (20:22):
Is that because of the vintage car
journey that you've been on,having these older friends?
Is that where you've collectedmost of them?
Emma (20:34):
Yeah, just at car shows or people who live in my town that
see me out often.
Sometimes they'll, you know,I'll be getting groceries from
Walmart and I'll be loading mygroceries in the trunk of my
Falcon and they'll walk up to melike, man, that's a really cool
car, you know, and yeah.
Friendships just happen.
They happen naturally,especially at car shows.
(20:55):
There's so many people who seejust any sort of young person
because there's not enough youngpeople in this passion and
they're just instantly amazedand they want to know you more.
Tamara Robertson (21:07):
Do you have any advice for young people that
are thinking about getting intothe vintage
Emma (21:13):
Take advice from anyone and everyone.
Definitely the friends part andjust don't give up.
I think that it is so easybecause it is expensive and it
is hard.
It's a lot of late nights, alot of really frustrating
moments, but just don't give up.
Tamara Robertson (21:29):
I like that.
And the audience, for those ofyou that know the show, you know
that I include in the shownotes the pictures and links.
And I have to tell you, youguys have got to check out the
video of this one because Emmais sitting in front of her
absolutely beautiful Falcon.
And it's like, I want to go ona tour of it, but I'm trying to
like stay focused, stay focusedright now.
(21:49):
So with regards to, you know,road rally racing, having
experience being a navigator,Would you go back to being a
navigator again?
Emma (22:02):
I definitely would.
I think it was difficult forour group that there was most of
the time a new driver everyday.
So you have to build that bondof trust extremely quickly
because that is the mostimportant thing on this race is
just the trust between thedriver and the navigator.
Nothing else matters.
(22:22):
You know, you could be theworst navigator, but if you
don't have any trust with yourdriver anymore, you're not going
to get anywhere.
So that's definitely thebiggest part for sure.
Tamara Robertson (22:33):
Absolutely.
I think that, you know, that.
for those of you that followedthe journey online, you know,
the Corvette with Joe and Riley,they had the same navigator,
same racer every single day.
And so they were able to reallyget to a place where they were
finishing each other'ssentences.
They were very in tunecommunication wise versus we
(22:53):
were switching drivers everylunch stop.
So every half day was a newdriver.
And so for you all, you andAudrey as navigators, it was
like learning how tore-communicate every, every, not
even 12 hours, every fourhours.
Right.
And each day.
And so I can't even imagine,you know, communication is one
of the easiest and hardestthings for humans.
(23:15):
Right.
Being able to do that in a waywhere you are, you're in this
race environment where, I mean,we had brakes overheating around
hairpin turns and, you know,the car stopping every time it
would go under fuel full load.
So it, It's definitely one ofthose things that is not an easy
task in the best conditions,let alone in the very fun fair
(23:39):
lane conditions.
Emma (23:40):
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
And I think what I'm at a levelof difficulty is because I kind
of watched how you guys droveas drivers.
So I would either wait longeror tell you very quickly when
we're going to do a speedchange, you know.
Because as a navigator, youdon't want to tell your driver
(24:02):
everything.
They only need to know whatthey're doing right now or
coming up very quick.
Otherwise, they're in theirhead thinking about, you know,
oh, well, in a mile or aboutwe're going to be coming up on a
stop sign.
Unless it's really importantthat the driver needs to know
that, you know, you want themlooking out for a certain road
(24:24):
sign because it comes up quicklyor around a sharp corner.
I didn't tell you guys anythingbecause, you know, if I told
you that, that's all you wouldbe thinking about.
You wouldn't be going the speedthat we should be going.
Tamara Robertson (24:35):
No, and that's so true.
I mean, and each of us did havesuch a different driving style.
Some of us would break veryquickly, some longer.
The Fairlane obviously has itsown little realm of what it
wants to do during Reiki.
But that's like the cool partabout being in a new old
vehicle, right?
(24:55):
Is getting to learn thevehicle.
But none of us had the pretenseto do that beforehand.
We were all learning on the go.
And I think it was part of theadventure and a very fun, fun
little challenge that we all gotto have.
So as far as the creator race,each of us brought in kind of
our own vibe and spin on how wewanted to share our journey.
(25:21):
So what is your audience beenexperiencing and kind of their
perspective of the race?
What was the style you chose?
Emma (25:29):
Yeah, so I like just the daily vlog style, just kind of
showing, you know, We startedhere, you know, we're at our gas
stop right now, or we startedhere, we broke down 20 minutes
later, which is what happened onthe first day.
Just really like what we dothroughout the day to kind of
(25:50):
give them a sense of what thegreat race really is.
Because honestly, I don't thinka whole lot of people know what
it is.
So I think a lot of peoplethroughout all of our accounts
got kind of educated on, okay,you know, I see what you guys
do.
Tamara Robertson (26:06):
I definitely think that we each brought a
different audience to the race.
And to your point, you know,our differing perspectives and
how we shared it helped themexperience it in different ways.
So I, I totally love that.
The first day with the Fairlanethat we experienced, we
(26:26):
definitely, it was like baptismby fire, you know, getting to
experience the, the breakdownmodel of the Fairlane, you know,
like you said, a quarter mileat a time.
and then getting the experienceof putting her on the trailer
and bringing her home that wayand working on her all night.
So it was definitely a reallyinteresting first day.
(26:46):
But after that, we had smoothsailing.
The next day with the bridgesand going through the West
Virginia Hills was justabsolutely stunning.
If you had the opportunity todo it again next year, would you
do it?
Would you do it with Fairlane?
That's the big question.
Emma (27:05):
I don't know.
Well, I would do it with theFairlane.
But I think that we shouldswitch it up a little bit.
Or switch out the engine.
That's a very big possibility.
Tamara Robertson (27:17):
Yeah.
Make the Fairlane a little bitheavier.
I do feel like we need to givethe Fairlane maybe like summers
on power tour or something.
I feel like keeping theFairlane as slow as we were.
I was like, oh, this poor girl.
She just wants to She wants toopen up and go, you know?
So maybe, maybe we balance out.
(27:38):
We do the great race again withher, but we also do a power
tour with her and let her likego full sprint for a little
while.
Emma (27:46):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
That sounds like alot of fun.
Tamara Robertson (27:48):
Yeah.
I like that.
So there's one question I askevery person that comes on the
podcast and that is if you had asuperpower, what would it be
and why?
Emma (27:58):
I think that, I think I would like to read minds.
That would be reallyinteresting because, Um, I, I
feel like it might hurt myfeelings just because we are
women in engineering and therewill be some Debbie Downers, but
I think that would be prettycool.
Reading minds.
Tamara Robertson (28:17):
That would be a cool one.
I like that.
Get the analytical side too,you know, but it's like, it's,
you know, being contentcreators, we know there's some
opinions we don't need to hearthat come out anyways.
And some, some that we do.
Emma (28:29):
It's just part of the job.
You know, you kind of grow somethick skin and you know who you
are.
That's what I tell everybody.
Everyone's always asking me,well, you know, on those bad
days, do you get people whosometimes kind of mean it's
like, yeah, you know, it's justpart of it.
It's okay, because I know who Iam.
So it don't bother me too muchanymore.
Tamara Robertson (28:51):
Yeah, I love that.
That is a superpower in itself,being able to stay true to
yourself no matter what and kindof know your true
Emma (29:00):
Yeah, I think that's a skill that's widely been
forgotten.
I think everyone's kind oflooking for validation, but
nobody needs validation.
Tamara Robertson (29:11):
They just got to run their own race, right?
Which is what we
Emma (29:14):
Yes, that was a big lesson in the Great race.
Run your own race.
Tamara Robertson (29:19):
It really was.
And it's something, especially,you know, we learning to be
able to follow our direction sowell, which we were doing so
great.
You know, we came down to, Idon't know if you want to share
it with a little bit, but wehad, we had a racer that was
telling us that we were, we weredoing it wrong and we knew we
(29:40):
were following it.
Right.
And ended up just beingsomething as easy as, you know,
one day, So one of the teammembers had a speedo that was
off another day, speedometerthat was off another day.
We had to clock those up.
Like all of those little thingscome into play, but every day
we ran our own race and westayed true to it.
And I think that that just madeit so that whether we got
(30:00):
across the finish line with thecar or not, we knew we had done
what we needed to do.
You know,
Emma (30:06):
I think after those days of breaking down, it just made
crossing that finish line justso much sweeter.
Yeah.
Cause then it was almost like,you know, cause we spent up so
late on so many nights.
So it all just came togetherand it was like, wow, we did it.
Tamara Robertson (30:23):
It's so true.
So everyone, the Hemmings GreatRace kicked off on June 21st in
St.
Paul, Minnesota, and we ran allthe way until we hit the finish
line in Irmo, South Carolina onthe 29th.
So follow our Instagrams tolive the full adventure and all
things creator race as we recaptackling this iconic vintage
rally road race one mile at atime.
(30:44):
That's it for the TinkeringBells.
This episode is assembled andready for delivery.
Emma, this has been so awesome.
Thank you so much.
Emma (30:51):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Tamara Robertson (30:54):
I want to thank you for choosing Tinkering
Bells as your user's manual forall things maker on a biweekly
basis.
If you want to continue to hearmore, don't forget to rate and
review the show on your podcastapp of choice, as well as
sharing it with your friends.
I look forward to seeing younext week.
Until then, don't forget tokeep making
Greetings, shopmates, and welcome to
Tinkering Belles, a show aboutDIY, design, and all things
hands-on.
The sky's the limit as we talkprops, metalwork, cosplay,
woodwork, leather, electronics,and so much more.
I'm Tamara Robertson, yourhost, so strap on your tool
belts because we're about to getinto some skill sharing, y'all.
(00:24):
Today, I'm going to be joined bya maker who's sharpening her
skills in mechanicalengineering.
I don't want to give away toomuch, but this maker's specialty
in fabrication and welding hasenabled her to get way further
with her new stem powers.
So if that doesn't make youwant to stick around and hear
more, then you might be at thewrong podcast.
(00:47):
But first, let's go ahead andhave our TECH Talk of the day.
So we're going to be talkingall about the Hemming's Great
Race, a vintage rally whereprecision and timing are
everything.
We're so incredibly grateful toour sponsors and partners like
the RPM Foundation, who coveredthe entry fees for our 1966
Fairlane, supporting theinclusion of our high school
(01:08):
navigators and helping fosterthe next generation of
automotive talent.
So let's back it up.
Where did speedometers gettheir start?
The first mechanicalspeedometers were developed in
the late 1800s, with the firstU.S.
patent being filed by OttoSchultz in 1902.
By 1910, speedometers becamestandard equipment in most
(01:33):
vehicles.
Now, traditional speedometerswork using a flexible spinning
cable connected to thetransmission, which drives a
magnetic coupling that moves theneedle, an elegant analog
solution that dominated untildigital systems emerged.
And vintage vehicles like our66 Fairlane, calibration can
drift over time due to gearwear, tire size changes, or
(01:56):
differential swaps, which makesaccurate readings more of an art
than a science.
That's especially important intime-speed distance rallies like
the Great Race, where the goalisn't to go fast, it's to arrive
exactly on time.
Even a fifth of a secondvariation can knock you out of
(02:16):
top standings.
Stopping and starting also playa huge role in how speed is
managed.
Vintage braking systems, manualtransmissions, and throttle lag
all affect your ability to holda constant average speed, which
is why navigators and workinggauges are so critical.
Well, that's it for our TechTalk.
(02:37):
As always, you can join in onthe conversation with my maker
friends and me on the TinkeringBells Instagram and X pages.
Just search for BellesTinkering, hit follow, and share
your DIY adventures togetherwith us.
Have a tool you want to learnabout?
Let me know, and it may befeatured in a future episode.
Tell us what you liked, whatyou hated, or possibly even what
we missed.
(03:00):
So now we're going to be gettinginto the main event, and I'm so
excited to introduce you to ournext maker.
So drum roll, please.
Presenting Emma.
Emma, thanks for joining me.
How are you?
Emma (03:10):
I'm doing great.
How are you, Tamara?
Tamara Robertson (03:12):
I'm doing good.
So I like to start by lettingeveryone know where they can
find you, follow you, and givethem a little bit of a hint of
what they'll see when they
Emma (03:21):
Yeah, so I really only do Instagram.
You can find me at Emma'sForgotten Falcon, no spaces,
periods, dashes.
And I mostly just postday-to-day repairs, sometimes
the occasional fun video,donuts, burnouts, whatever, and
more in-depth pairs.
So I think it was last year Icompletely rebuilt my engine.
(03:44):
So it kind of really ranges onjust what I'm doing.
Tamara Robertson (03:47):
Donuts, definitely going there for that.
I think you should have donesome in the fair lane for sure.
Yeah.
So...
We got to meet on the race,which we'll get into a little
bit later.
But as a superhero scientist, Ilove origin stories.
So I was wondering, can youshare with the audience your
(04:08):
gearhead origin story?
.
Emma (04:10):
So whenever I was maybe 14, I think me and my dad were
driving, you know, like super inthe countryside.
And where I live, if peoplehave a car for sale, they'll
park it up near the road and puta for sale sign.
So we saw, I think it was maybea 60s, 70s Jeep, a Willie's
(04:31):
Jeep on the side of the road.
And I told him, I was like,man, I think that I would really
like to have something likethat.
So that kind of sparked thewhole old car thing, even though
I didn't get a Jeep.
That just kind of led into alldifferent kinds of things.
I think at one point I wanted aTarino, but he wouldn't let me
have it because it's a big boat.
And he thought, you know,you're going to be 16 years old.
(04:54):
You're going to be drivingaround this massive boat.
You're not going to know how topark it.
So we finally decided on aFalcon and And, you know, my dad
said, you get a classic car andI'll help you rebuild it.
So that's exactly what I did.
Tamara Robertson (05:07):
The Grand Tarino - you wanting that
vehicle and then our nicknameand then your last statement for
the day.
Like, can you share with theaudience the nickname that we
received in the 66 Fairlanewhile we were at the Great Race?
Emma (05:25):
Yeah, we were called Vin Diesel because we took like a
quarter mile at a time.
That's okay, because by theend, we turned into Dom Toretto,
you know?
Tamara Robertson (05:36):
And that was, like, literally the line that I
put in our daily blog so thateveryone would see it, because I
thought that you just ended theday so perfectly with that.
Emma (05:45):
You just, you gotta stay positive, you know?
It was hot outside, we were allhungry, but, you know, there's
not a whole lot you can do aboutit.
What's happened has happened.
Tamara Robertson (05:53):
Yeah, and so we got to meet on the Great
Race, actually.
We were, like, what, day...
Five?
When did we come in?
I guess day four, day five?
Emma (06:04):
I think it was day five, yeah.
Tamara Robertson (06:05):
So had you heard about the great race prior
to kind of the bat signal goingup on the internet for us all
to
Emma (06:14):
No, I had never heard of it.
And anybody like friends andfamily that I had told, you
know, I'm going on this greatrace.
It's going to be awesome.
Make sure to follow myInstagram to see what I'm doing.
They never heard of it either.
Tamara Robertson (06:25):
You got...
thrown very quickly into thehot seat of the great race
because as the audience has beenlearning as the season has gone
along, it's not a speed race,it's a precision race.
So can you share with theaudience a little bit about what
that meant and what your roleactually was with the team.
Emma (06:48):
Yeah.
So I was the navigator for thelast four days.
And basically what that entailsis every morning your car will
have a position in the race.
So say we're positioned 73 andour start time is eight o'clock.
So position car number one,we'll leave at eight o'clock.
We will leave at nine 13 and Soonce we leave the road, we'll
(07:10):
do a calibration run and we cantalk more about that later, but
they will give you a directionsheet and it's got four columns.
So it'll basically, it'll tellyou like at this stop sign, turn
right, you know, at thisincoming corner sign, slow down
to 30 miles an hour.
(07:31):
So whenever we hit one ofthose, I'll tell the driver,
split 35 with 30 so before thatsign we're going 40 miles an
hour at the sign we're going 35after the sign we're going 30.
Tamara Robertson (07:45):
so the joke that we took the race a quarter
mile at a time like vin dieselbut a lot of what was going on
for us that day was engineinvolved but after that we were
actually able to go full speedso can you explain to the
audience what our speedo was orspeedometer was and why it
became critical in our race.
Emma (08:05):
Yeah.
So I'll just start from thevery beginning install.
So it's called a time wise andit is a, it's a speedometer
specific towards the great race.
So all it is is it's twomagnets on the outer lip of your
wheel on preferably the frontdriver's side.
because there's potholes mostof the time on the right.
(08:27):
So you want to put it on theleft.
And then you have a sensor inthe middle that is about three
eighths of an inch apart fromthose magnets.
So every time the wheelrotates, the magnets will trip
that sensor.
And that is how the Speedo canpick up that you're going 10
miles an hour or 50.
And so once you get thosemagnets glued on and that Speedo
(08:51):
in your car, you will take achalk like a chalk marker or
something, mark the bottom ofthe tire and the pavement.
Yeah.
And the concrete, you will rollyour car so that the wheel
turns five revolutions and thenmark the bottom of the tire
again with the concrete.
So then you'll measure thedistance in between that and
(09:14):
whatever that distance is, sayit's 513.7 inches.
And it's really important thatyou measure it in inches.
So that would be, five onethree seven on the back of your
speedo since there's four littlecutouts on the back of the
speedo you might have to inserta picture somewhere it's really
it's really complicated to thinkabout but there's four little
(09:35):
circles that are cut out andthey just go up to i think it's
from zero to nine so you wouldturn the little arrow to five
one three seven since it'smeasured in tenths of an inch
and there's no decimal so onceyou have that kind of dialed in
at the very beginning, right?
Whenever you install thistime-wise, not technically a
(09:55):
speedometer.
Every day before the race, youwill go on a calibration run.
So that calibration run isstarted normally at an exit sign
or just something that you caneasily locate.
So whenever you get at thatsign, you want to be going, say,
50 miles an hour, whatever theyspecify, and start your
stopwatch whenever the wheelspass by the sign.
(10:18):
So then there will belandmarks, say, like, this city
exit in 10 miles.
So then you'll click yourstopwatch again, and the sheet
will tell you exactly what timeshould have been elapsed
whenever you go past that stopsign.
So as you're hitting thesesigns, you're writing down these
times.
And at the very end of thecalibration run, you can go,
(10:39):
okay, that run took me 23minutes, 14 seconds.
It was supposed to take me 25minutes, 16 seconds.
So what you'll do is you'lltake your actual time divided by
your desired time.
So that'll give you like, a0.32 or something.
And then you will multiply itby the factor on your time wise.
(11:03):
So like we said earlier, 5137would be already dialed in.
So then you'd multiply it bythat and change it to whatever
that new number is.
Tamara Robertson (11:14):
And luckily you were able to like, Do that,
those calculations, that math onthe fly.
And part of that is because youhave another specialty.
So I do a lot with shop sciencewhere I reconnect STEM and
artisanal skills, but younaturally are actually bringing
both of those to the race, tolife in general, and to
(11:35):
everything you're posting.
So can you talk to the audiencea little bit about your STEM
Connect that you're pursuing
Emma (11:42):
Yes.
So I'm a young lady inengineering.
I'm a mechanical engineer.
that will be graduating thiscoming May.
So I have one year left.
And I am also a certifiedwelder.
So that kind of ties in reallynicely to the engineering part.
You know, I know what the guysout in the field, what they're
doing, everything they'rethinking before I even tell them
(12:04):
to do it.
which I think is reallyimportant.
Tamara Robertson (12:06):
Yeah, it's very cool too, because you're
able to bring both that hands-onfabrication side to it and then
bring in that theoretical sideof the engineering processing
and what the materials andstrengths are.
Do you have kind of a line ofsight of what you want to do
once you graduate?
Emma (12:22):
So right now I am doing an internship with a general
contracting firm.
So that's, you know,construction, building,
hospitals, big apartmentbuildings.
sometimes municipal.
But after college, if I likethis general contracting thing,
I'll stick with that.
But if I don't, I'll gosomewhere else.
(12:43):
I'm just, whatever the worldtakes me.
Tamara Robertson (12:45):
I love that.
My first engineering job wasactually on a greenfield startup
for a vaccines company.
So designing the manufacturingfacility and then the actual
processing lines.
And I tell young engineers allthe time that if they have a
chance to be on the ground witha facility build and the
(13:07):
construction phase it's really abeautiful thing because you get
to not only design that processand the actual building itself
but then you have to actuallylive into it so you have to deal
with did you put enoughcabinets and did you put enough
headspace and were you actuallyable to make the movements as
(13:29):
well as you wanted so it's anincredible experience as you're
going so i really i hope thatyou get some some fun hats as
you're getting to do that
Emma (13:39):
so many hats so far
Tamara Robertson (13:41):
it's it's like a rotational program without
being in a rotational programright
Emma (13:46):
exactly you know i've done so many different things in
just the general contractingrealm you know the paperwork the
on-site i've done just abouteverything
Tamara Robertson (13:56):
That's that's incredible.
There's that hands onexperience.
You really just no one can takethat away from you.
And again, just having thatfabrication background that you
have.
and just kind of strengthenthat.
So that's really cool.
We didn't get to talk a lotabout engineering on the race.
So it's neat to finally get tokind of visit that.
So I kind of joked that the batsignal went up that called us
(14:18):
all to the great race.
And so Riley from Riley'sRebuilds was the one that kind
of collected us all together onthe internet.
So I love to like talk to eachof the racers about their Riley
story.
So how did you and Riley
Emma (14:32):
We had never met in person, but we had a mutual
response So prior to her evenreaching out to me for the race,
Edelbrock kind of got the twoof us together for my engine
rebuild since I was, they didsend me a carburetor and they
kind of got us together.
They were hoping to maybe getus to collab on like a
(14:55):
carburetor, how to tune it.
But she lived all the way inFlorida.
I live all the way in Missouri.
You know how that works out.
So mostly through Edelbrock.
And then I think maybe a yearor so after that, leading up to
today, she just added mestraight into the Rad Women
Creator group chat.
And, you know, that's how wekicked it off.
Tamara Robertson (15:17):
Yeah, I just ended up in that room, too.
And I was like, I only knowlike one or two people here.
This is great.
Let's see what we're going todo next.
Emma (15:24):
It was definitely nerve wracking.
Tamara Robertson (15:27):
There was such a high flow of information at
all times.
So what did it mean to you tolike, join this creators race,
you know, to come out the middleof nowhere and just jump in a
vehicle you've never seen, nevertouched and have to navigate?
basically a herd of kittensthat were running in all
(15:49):
directions.
Emma (15:51):
Yeah.
So, I mean, to me, it was a funthing that I can go do, you
know, that was my vacation thisyear, but I was mostly thinking
about, you know, just the viewon women and mechanics or
engineering and STEM, you know,the more young women or just
women in general, see otherwomen out doing all of this
(16:13):
stuff that Normally it'sstereotypical for men.
I think that it's justextremely uplifting to
everybody.
And, you know, nothing shouldbe a man or a woman's job.
So that's mostly what I wasthinking about, just inclusion
and showing the world that wecan do everything you can do.
Tamara Robertson (16:34):
that mindset was perfect because we were
following in the tread marks ofJessi Combs, right?
So the Jessi Combs Foundationwas our charity partner.
And so they tend to utilizethat phrase trailblazer, right?
And so they talked a lot to usin the planning periods of this
race about how each of the youngwomen involved were blazing
(16:58):
trails in their own right.
So when you go out into theworld, do you think of yourself
as a trailblazer and what doesthat mean to you?
Emma (17:07):
I think I do.
I think that trailblazing isjust a word, but What it really
means is doing something that'snormally not being done or
something that's difficult andhard that, you know, a lot of
people look at and go, wow,that's going to take a lot of
time or a lot of thought.
But you do it anyways becausethat's either your drive or
(17:31):
passion or it's just what youneed to do.
Sometimes I feel like I've beencalled to do this just for all
the young women in my community.
You know, I'm always...
volunteering my time.
We have a welding lab near uswhere I got my certification.
So I'm always over there everysummer for a week long program,
just, you know, teaching kids,young adults all the time.
Tamara Robertson (17:54):
Amazing.
Well, you should let me knowwhen that program is.
Send me the dates because I'llsend you some bandanas.
I'm sure the foundation wouldlove for you to be able to
continue rocking the dots wellbeyond the race.
When you jumped into thisjourney with us, obviously every
day we were learning.
We were learning about the fairlane.
We were learning about therace.
(18:15):
We were learning about eachother.
Hindsight is always 20-20.
So if you could go back to theyoung woman that you were before
coming to the race, what's someadvice that you would give
yourself and in turn give tosomeone that's looking at doing
something like the great race inthe future
Emma (18:34):
Yeah, I would say just the easy ones is always pack a
snack, always make sure you haveplenty of water because, you
know, you break down and ithappened, it happened, only
happened to me once, buthappened to the other girls the
day before me.
you know, quite a bit.
So make sure you have plenty ofeverything and just, you know,
it gets really tense in thatcar.
(18:55):
It really does.
Just, you know, almost missinga turn or not knowing if you're
still on the right track.
Just everyone, you know, weneed to relax and tense
environments don't come from anygood.
Tamara Robertson (19:10):
breathing through it right yes maybe not
breathing breathing too deeplyif you have an exhaust leak but
you know breathing through it
Emma (19:19):
yeah that made it difficult for you guys in the
back i felt really bad
Tamara Robertson (19:24):
yeah that was a fun adventure um we'll talk
about that another day but okayso as you're you know looking
towards kind of the welding sidewhich obviously jesse was a
welder i i'm a welder you're awelder like When little girls
are out there thinking aboutpotentially pursuing welding,
(19:45):
what's some pointers you wouldgive them?
Where should they start?
Emma (19:50):
Just pick it up.
Pick up a welder, MIG, stick.
I wouldn't suggest working withTIG first, but pick it up,
start playing around.
You know, nothing that badcould happen.
Obviously, wear all your PPE,be safe, but people make
mistakes all the time.
And it's not embarrassing atall.
So just pick it up, start doingit, find friends.
(20:11):
I've had so many friends thatare retirement age, like 60
years old, and they are my bestfriends.
And I don't know where I wouldbe without them.
Tamara Robertson (20:22):
Is that because of the vintage car
journey that you've been on,having these older friends?
Is that where you've collectedmost of them?
Emma (20:34):
Yeah, just at car shows or people who live in my town that
see me out often.
Sometimes they'll, you know,I'll be getting groceries from
Walmart and I'll be loading mygroceries in the trunk of my
Falcon and they'll walk up to melike, man, that's a really cool
car, you know, and yeah.
Friendships just happen.
They happen naturally,especially at car shows.
(20:55):
There's so many people who seejust any sort of young person
because there's not enough youngpeople in this passion and
they're just instantly amazedand they want to know you more.
Tamara Robertson (21:07):
Do you have any advice for young people that
are thinking about getting intothe vintage
Emma (21:13):
Take advice from anyone and everyone.
Definitely the friends part andjust don't give up.
I think that it is so easybecause it is expensive and it
is hard.
It's a lot of late nights, alot of really frustrating
moments, but just don't give up.
Tamara Robertson (21:29):
I like that.
And the audience, for those ofyou that know the show, you know
that I include in the shownotes the pictures and links.
And I have to tell you, youguys have got to check out the
video of this one because Emmais sitting in front of her
absolutely beautiful Falcon.
And it's like, I want to go ona tour of it, but I'm trying to
like stay focused, stay focusedright now.
(21:49):
So with regards to, you know,road rally racing, having
experience being a navigator,Would you go back to being a
navigator again?
Emma (22:02):
I definitely would.
I think it was difficult forour group that there was most of
the time a new driver everyday.
So you have to build that bondof trust extremely quickly
because that is the mostimportant thing on this race is
just the trust between thedriver and the navigator.
Nothing else matters.
(22:22):
You know, you could be theworst navigator, but if you
don't have any trust with yourdriver anymore, you're not going
to get anywhere.
So that's definitely thebiggest part for sure.
Tamara Robertson (22:33):
Absolutely.
I think that, you know, that.
for those of you that followedthe journey online, you know,
the Corvette with Joe and Riley,they had the same navigator,
same racer every single day.
And so they were able to reallyget to a place where they were
finishing each other'ssentences.
They were very in tunecommunication wise versus we
(22:53):
were switching drivers everylunch stop.
So every half day was a newdriver.
And so for you all, you andAudrey as navigators, it was
like learning how tore-communicate every, every, not
even 12 hours, every fourhours.
Right.
And each day.
And so I can't even imagine,you know, communication is one
of the easiest and hardestthings for humans.
(23:15):
Right.
Being able to do that in a waywhere you are, you're in this
race environment where, I mean,we had brakes overheating around
hairpin turns and, you know,the car stopping every time it
would go under fuel full load.
So it, It's definitely one ofthose things that is not an easy
task in the best conditions,let alone in the very fun fair
(23:39):
lane conditions.
Emma (23:40):
Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
And I think what I'm at a levelof difficulty is because I kind
of watched how you guys droveas drivers.
So I would either wait longeror tell you very quickly when
we're going to do a speedchange, you know.
Because as a navigator, youdon't want to tell your driver
(24:02):
everything.
They only need to know whatthey're doing right now or
coming up very quick.
Otherwise, they're in theirhead thinking about, you know,
oh, well, in a mile or aboutwe're going to be coming up on a
stop sign.
Unless it's really importantthat the driver needs to know
that, you know, you want themlooking out for a certain road
(24:24):
sign because it comes up quicklyor around a sharp corner.
I didn't tell you guys anythingbecause, you know, if I told
you that, that's all you wouldbe thinking about.
You wouldn't be going the speedthat we should be going.
Tamara Robertson (24:35):
No, and that's so true.
I mean, and each of us did havesuch a different driving style.
Some of us would break veryquickly, some longer.
The Fairlane obviously has itsown little realm of what it
wants to do during Reiki.
But that's like the cool partabout being in a new old
vehicle, right?
(24:55):
Is getting to learn thevehicle.
But none of us had the pretenseto do that beforehand.
We were all learning on the go.
And I think it was part of theadventure and a very fun, fun
little challenge that we all gotto have.
So as far as the creator race,each of us brought in kind of
our own vibe and spin on how wewanted to share our journey.
(25:21):
So what is your audience beenexperiencing and kind of their
perspective of the race?
What was the style you chose?
Emma (25:29):
Yeah, so I like just the daily vlog style, just kind of
showing, you know, We startedhere, you know, we're at our gas
stop right now, or we startedhere, we broke down 20 minutes
later, which is what happened onthe first day.
Just really like what we dothroughout the day to kind of
(25:50):
give them a sense of what thegreat race really is.
Because honestly, I don't thinka whole lot of people know what
it is.
So I think a lot of peoplethroughout all of our accounts
got kind of educated on, okay,you know, I see what you guys
do.
Tamara Robertson (26:06):
I definitely think that we each brought a
different audience to the race.
And to your point, you know,our differing perspectives and
how we shared it helped themexperience it in different ways.
So I, I totally love that.
The first day with the Fairlanethat we experienced, we
(26:26):
definitely, it was like baptismby fire, you know, getting to
experience the, the breakdownmodel of the Fairlane, you know,
like you said, a quarter mileat a time.
and then getting the experienceof putting her on the trailer
and bringing her home that wayand working on her all night.
So it was definitely a reallyinteresting first day.
(26:46):
But after that, we had smoothsailing.
The next day with the bridgesand going through the West
Virginia Hills was justabsolutely stunning.
If you had the opportunity todo it again next year, would you
do it?
Would you do it with Fairlane?
That's the big question.
Emma (27:05):
I don't know.
Well, I would do it with theFairlane.
But I think that we shouldswitch it up a little bit.
Or switch out the engine.
That's a very big possibility.
Tamara Robertson (27:17):
Yeah.
Make the Fairlane a little bitheavier.
I do feel like we need to givethe Fairlane maybe like summers
on power tour or something.
I feel like keeping theFairlane as slow as we were.
I was like, oh, this poor girl.
She just wants to She wants toopen up and go, you know?
So maybe, maybe we balance out.
(27:38):
We do the great race again withher, but we also do a power
tour with her and let her likego full sprint for a little
while.
Emma (27:46):
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
That sounds like alot of fun.
Tamara Robertson (27:48):
Yeah.
I like that.
So there's one question I askevery person that comes on the
podcast and that is if you had asuperpower, what would it be
and why?
Emma (27:58):
I think that, I think I would like to read minds.
That would be reallyinteresting because, Um, I, I
feel like it might hurt myfeelings just because we are
women in engineering and therewill be some Debbie Downers, but
I think that would be prettycool.
Reading minds.
Tamara Robertson (28:17):
That would be a cool one.
I like that.
Get the analytical side too,you know, but it's like, it's,
you know, being contentcreators, we know there's some
opinions we don't need to hearthat come out anyways.
And some, some that we do.
Emma (28:29):
It's just part of the job.
You know, you kind of grow somethick skin and you know who you
are.
That's what I tell everybody.
Everyone's always asking me,well, you know, on those bad
days, do you get people whosometimes kind of mean it's
like, yeah, you know, it's justpart of it.
It's okay, because I know who Iam.
So it don't bother me too muchanymore.
Tamara Robertson (28:51):
Yeah, I love that.
That is a superpower in itself,being able to stay true to
yourself no matter what and kindof know your true
Emma (29:00):
Yeah, I think that's a skill that's widely been
forgotten.
I think everyone's kind oflooking for validation, but
nobody needs validation.
Tamara Robertson (29:11):
They just got to run their own race, right?
Which is what we
Emma (29:14):
Yes, that was a big lesson in the Great race.
Run your own race.
Tamara Robertson (29:19):
It really was.
And it's something, especially,you know, we learning to be
able to follow our direction sowell, which we were doing so
great.
You know, we came down to, Idon't know if you want to share
it with a little bit, but wehad, we had a racer that was
telling us that we were, we weredoing it wrong and we knew we
(29:40):
were following it.
Right.
And ended up just beingsomething as easy as, you know,
one day, So one of the teammembers had a speedo that was
off another day, speedometerthat was off another day.
We had to clock those up.
Like all of those little thingscome into play, but every day
we ran our own race and westayed true to it.
And I think that that just madeit so that whether we got
(30:00):
across the finish line with thecar or not, we knew we had done
what we needed to do.
You know,
Emma (30:06):
I think after those days of breaking down, it just made
crossing that finish line justso much sweeter.
Yeah.
Cause then it was almost like,you know, cause we spent up so
late on so many nights.
So it all just came togetherand it was like, wow, we did it.
Tamara Robertson (30:23):
It's so true.
So everyone, the Hemmings GreatRace kicked off on June 21st in
St.
Paul, Minnesota, and we ran allthe way until we hit the finish
line in Irmo, South Carolina onthe 29th.
So follow our Instagrams tolive the full adventure and all
things creator race as we recaptackling this iconic vintage
rally road race one mile at atime.
(30:44):
That's it for the TinkeringBells.
This episode is assembled andready for delivery.
Emma, this has been so awesome.
Thank you so much.
Emma (30:51):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Tamara Robertson (30:54):
I want to thank you for choosing Tinkering
Bells as your user's manual forall things maker on a biweekly
basis.
If you want to continue to hearmore, don't forget to rate and
review the show on your podcastapp of choice, as well as
sharing it with your friends.
I look forward to seeing younext week.
Until then, don't forget tokeep making
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.