45 Years of MotorWeek: John Davis on Creating Automotive Television & Changing How America Sees Cars
November 11, 2025 • 49 mins
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Join hosts Christian and Doug as they welcome automotive television royalty—John Davis, creator, host, and executive producer of MotorWeek, the longest-running automotive magazine show in television history. For 45 years and over 1,900 episodes, John Davis has shaped how generations experience automotive journalism.
Discover how a young producer at Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser had a vision in 1978 to bring automotive print magazines to television—something no one in North America had successfully done. After a 3-year wait and a 6-week sprint to launch, MotorWeek premiered in October 1981 on Maryland Public Television and forever changed automotive media on PBS and then the Internet.
John reveals the philosophy that made MotorWeek succeed across five decades: "The cars are the stars." Learn why consistency matters, how instrumented testing keeps the show scientifically credible (one of only 3 publications still doing it), and why team opinions matter more than individual perspectives. From PBS stations nationwide to YouTube's digital age, MotorWeek adapted while maintaining its core mission.
Personal stories include John's Ford family and influence on his first car, restoring a 1975 De Tomaso Pantera, other dream cars, and more.
Don't miss MotorWeek's 45th Anniversary Special on PBS and YouTube - https://youtu.be/Vq1H8gVQKP4?si=yoph4G81bpNkudHn
Perfect for MotorWeek fans, automotive journalists, PBS television enthusiasts, muscle car collectors, and anyone who appreciates how one show influenced 45 years of automotive culture. Whether you discovered MotorWeek in the 1980s or found it on YouTube, this episode celebrates television's most enduring automotive voice.
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Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:06):
Welcome back to All The Cars I've Loved Before, your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia where our
guests are unique.
Each auto has an era, and everycar tells a story.
So you know what time it is.
It's time to plug in, get alittle grease under the nails,
(00:27):
and slip on that favoritecar-themed t-shirt, hat, or
jacket.
And and Doug, as usual, doesn'tdisappoint you.
We'll get to him in one minute.
But we're so excited today.
We typically just banter away,and you know me, I can babble
for quite a while, but typicallytalk a bit about what's
happening in our lives in theworld in automotive industry.
But uh, we're gonna be quicktoday because waiting in the
(00:48):
green room today is automotiveroyalty.
Maybe we should call it thepurple room today.
Just uh just just really exciteduh by today's guest.
But real quick, let's welcomeback listeners from around the
world.
Dallas, Texas, New York, NewYork, Sunnyvale, California.
What's in Sunnyvale?
That's not Apple.
(01:08):
Is Apple Cupertino?
Apple's Cupertino?
Well, I know Juniper Networks isin Sunnyvale.
Yeah, I knew somebody was inSunnyvale.
Atlanta, Georgia, welcome back.
Sydney, New South Wales, landdown under Montreal, Quebec,
Bienvenue.
Welcome back.
Wake Forest, Philly.
There's only one Philly.
Where's Philly?
(01:29):
Philly.
Pennsylvania, Tokyo.
Welcome back.
Brisbane, Australia, London,England.
We could go on, we could goaround the world and back again.
But uh here we are.
And uh oh, so uh back to the thethemed t-shirt for today.
It's not really a car t-shirt,but let's let's talk to the
(01:50):
audience a bit about what yougot there as usual, stylish.
Well, why don't you describe it?
Ah, it is definitely a vintage,a 70s vintage.
It's got the profile of whatlooks like a Picasso painting
and triplicate, but it's notPicasso.
It is the PBS logo from way backthen.
(02:14):
And you'll you'll hear whythat's important in a minute,
but where did you dig out thatshirt?
Was that was that in in the backof your closet or or was it$80
from some upscale uh uh internetvintage retail?
Uh uh question.
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
No to both questions.
Uh I did buy it online.
I had to search for it.
Yeah.
Uh yeah, I'm pretty happy withit.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
And so I have to ask you, how does today's guest tie
into your shirt?
And will you please introducetoday's guest?
SPEAKER_02 (02:46):
So my PBS logo shirt.
One of my earliest memoriesaround cars was watching this
wonderful show on MarylandPublic Television.
I'm from Maryland.
Same about about cars.
And fast forward 45 years, 1900plus episodes, we have the
(03:10):
creator, the host, and executiveproducer of television's
original automotive magazine,known as Motor Week.
Motor Week.
That's right.
And John Davis is our specialguest today.
Hello, John.
SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
Hello, hello, hello, Doug, and hello, Christian from
Maryland.
We're delighted to be with you.
Glad to have you with us.
And welcome to be with you.
SPEAKER_01 (03:34):
Hey, so Doug said that he he grew up watching the
show, and I said, yes, yes.
He said, Maryland.
I wasn't saying uh that I grewup in Maryland.
So Doug grew up in Maryland andwatched the show.
I grew up in Louisiana, watchedthe show.
And and I just feel like this, Ican't ever remember this show
not being in my life.
And it was just so wonderful.
I'm quite starstruck talking toyou here today.
(03:57):
So can you talk a bit about theinception of the show, how it
started, and and um how it allgot underway in your world?
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
Sure.
Uh as I was producing WallStreet Week with Lewis
Hurkeiser, which was the showthat really began financial
television as we know it today.
And when I became executiveproducer in 1978, my boss asked
me to come up with an idea of myown, and I had a couple.
(04:27):
Uh I did a personal finance showpilot, but I really wanted to
bring the automotive printmagazine to television.
No one had done that before, uh,at least not successfully.
There have been some attemptsaround the world.
There was a show called Torquein Australia, and uh there were
various uh efforts going on inEurope to try and launch
(04:48):
something, but nobody in NorthAmerica had really done it, and
let alone on some kind of aweekly basis.
Uh so 1978, we did the pilot forMotor Week.
We had the uh name researched,we knew it was clean, and uh we
did the show, and then it sat onthe shelf for three years as we
(05:09):
went about trying to sell it,get stations interested, because
we knew we wanted to be morethan a local show from the
beginning.
It was kind of the mantra of ouroperation to produce for your
local audience, but do it onsubjects that everybody would
love to know about.
So we always had this idea, itwould at least be re regional up
(05:31):
and down the East Coast, but benational if possible.
And lo and behold, three yearslater, after various attempts to
get it launched and talking tostations to see if they would be
interested, we found out that acompeting station was gonna do
an automotive series.
And my boss on July the 5th,1981, called me into his office.
His name was Warren Park, alovely man.
(05:54):
And he said, you know, we'regonna have an auto show on offer
to PBS uh in January.
Can you be on the air by then?
Uh and he I said, I'll be on theair instead of six months, I'll
be on the air in six weeks.
We didn't quite do that.
Uh it was mid-October, uh, soyou know, 12 weeks or so.
(06:14):
And we came on with the firstepisode, and we've been on ever
since.
And there was a rationale tothat because I'd learned from
doing Wall Street Week that ifyou're on every week, stations
leave you alone in the scheduleand they allow you to build an
audience.
But to do that, you've got tooffer essentially a new show
(06:36):
every week.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
And even though we do 26 all-new shows and 26 shows
where the majority is new, andthat's how you keep a time spot
and allow your audience to grow.
Otherwise, the stations willsay, it's a rerun, we'll take it
off and bring it back later.
And sometimes they do, andsometimes they don't.
And so here we are.
We've been on weekly ever since.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
So it was the idea was never let your backup see
the field.
It was always have something inqueue, always have something.
How quickly did you stumbleupon, or maybe it was by design?
You seem like a by design guy.
How quickly did you get thewinning formula for what we see
as the show today?
Was that pretty much out of thebox?
Did you have to tinker with itmuch?
SPEAKER_00 (07:20):
Uh, the format you see today was very much what we
started with.
We didn't have a lot of featuresegments, so they were added,
but the concept was a magazinestyle for television.
And at that time, there werereally only two uh programs uh
that were using that formula.
One was a um a local series thatwas done by all the
(07:44):
Westinghouse-owned TV stationsaround the country at the time.
They later became CBS stations.
And it was called EveningMagazine, and they would do five
and six-minute segments, andthey would borrow from other
stations to fill out a week.
They did it every night, fivenights a week, uh during the you
know, Monday through Friday.
And then at about the same timewe were doing our first episode,
(08:09):
not our pilot, um, eveningmagazine was debuting with a
magazine style format.
And the advantage of a magazinestyle format is number one, you
don't bore people to death withvery long segments.
Everything's about five or sixminutes.
Yeah.
You're allowing the person whowants to see a new car to see
(08:29):
that, but then someone who maybewants some other information
like our Goss's Garage to havethat.
But the big deal is I knew oneday we probably would do a
commercial version of the show,and it allowed you to easily
edit and insert commercials.
SPEAKER_01 (08:45):
Oh, how interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (08:46):
So the magazine format started, we still use it
today.
A lot of other things havechanged, but that basic format
has been unchanged for 45 years.
SPEAKER_01 (08:57):
Wow.
And and how big a staff did youhave at the very beginning?
And once you got to somethingthat started to move past local,
regional, and and uh national,did you have to staff up a lot
or were you able to sort of justkind of punch above your weight
with everybody that you hadthere?
SPEAKER_00 (09:16):
No, we had to go down.
Uh in the early years, uh, webasically had probably about 13
or 14 full-time people, not atthe very onset, but very quickly
after.
But to be honest, what'shappened is as technology came
along, uh, we like most othertelevision operations around the
(09:37):
country, uh, reduced manpower.
And I'll give you an example.
We used to have our featurereporters go out with a
producer.
Well, it got to the point wherethe feature reporter became so
talented, they could essentiallyproduce themselves.
So as producers retired or leftus, they weren't replaced.
(09:57):
On the technical side, when thecamera situation, when we began
a remote crew to go out and do aroad test, was three people on
the camera side.
You had a camera person, you hadan engineer, and you had an
audio engineer as well.
Uh, now it's one person with awith a very good camera or a
selection of cameras, actually,and they do all of that.
(10:20):
So uh I wouldn't call itautomation, but I would say
progress and electronics andjust the style of how we do
things allowed us to reduce thatcount to about 10 where we are
today.
And we've just lost uh oneperson uh who was taking a
different job, and because ofthe PBS cutbacks, you've
probably all read about, welikely won't be replacing that
(10:42):
position anytime soon.
So we've had as few as uh six orseven and as many as 13, but
10's a nice number and it seemsto work well.
SPEAKER_01 (10:52):
Oh wow, wonderful, wonderful.
Oh, and Doug, I apologize forcompletely dominating the
discussion.
Let's bring my co-host in on theon the interview here.
Yeah, yeah.
So um why are you here, Doug?
He's all the skill.
I'm just the I'm the car nut,Christian's the cultured person.
SPEAKER_00 (11:15):
I can tell that.
Yeah, so thank you by the wayfor wearing the PBS shirt.
SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
That's uh that is a terrific shirt.
It's a it's an honor to wear itwith.
SPEAKER_00 (11:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:25):
So um you mentioned your your team, right?
Uh as many as 13, but there's aninteresting story about how you
picked them, right?
Related to the Maryland PublicTelevision parking lot.
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
Yes, when I was given the go, I had to basically
put together a group of people.
And it had been three yearssince we did the pilot.
So I literally walked down intothe parking lot and started
looking at the cars out there,and then copied down the license
plates and went into securityand said, okay, whose vehicle is
this?
(11:59):
Well, Craig Singhas had alreadybeen on the pilot.
He owned a Shelby Mustang, so hewas easy.
Uh, Joyce Braga, our firstfemale reporter, and who did the
news on the earliest episodes,she was driving a Porsche 924.
So I knew she was perfect forthe job.
And it it went on like that andstill continues today.
(12:20):
I will tell you, when someoneapplies for the job, one of the
questions they get asked is, andby the way, what do you drive?
It tells you a lot.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
Yep, for sure.
For sure.
And do you get a lot?
I'm sure for our listeners andmyself, do you get a lot of
people applying for jobs, justsending resumes over?
SPEAKER_00 (12:39):
Uh, yes, we do.
Although these days with theinternet, you really don't need
an operation as big as ours toget on the, you know, to get in
front of the public with yourautomotive insights.
And actually, we've had severalinstances in the last couple of
years where we've hired peoplefor one uh position or another
(13:00):
because of their internetpresence.
Uh, case in point, when Pat Gossuh left us very unexpectedly, we
turned to the internet to lookfor a variety of replacements.
We actually took four people touh replace Pat.
He was so incredible.
Yes, he was and and all of thosehad a significant internet uh
(13:21):
internet presence, including ouryoungest uh Giuseppe Ayatarola,
who has Giuseppe's garage.
He's a child prodigy.
Of course, he's almost 14 now.
But uh, you know, when he was uh10 and started with us, uh there
was no one else like him, andactually there still isn't.
So we'll draw information fromeverywhere, but we still get
(13:43):
quite a few.
Hey, I'd like to be inautomotive journalism.
What have you got open?
And how do you start?
And my first response is well,just be prepared to starve to
death.
But if you can handle that, uhyou're you're cut out for
automotive journalism.
Yes, if you can subsist on waterindefinitely, this might be the
job for you.
That's right.
You know exactly what I'mtalking about.
SPEAKER_01 (14:04):
Amen.
Amen.
Good stuff.
What what do you think, Doug?
Should we kind of uh venture uhback into the past?
Did you want to talk with him uhright now about any any current
projects he's working on?
SPEAKER_02 (14:21):
Well, um, no, I think uh I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00 (14:25):
Oh would you mind if I plug something?
Please, please.
Okay, on uh on the 8th ofNovember, starting on the 8th of
November at PBS stations aroundthe country will be the special
45th anniversary edition ofMotor Week.
And uh it'll be that weekend,the 8th and 9th, on most public
television stations around thecountry.
(14:47):
It's a really good, jam-packedhalf-hour look back at
everything we've done over 45years.
And if you're not wondering howwe go about doing things, it's
got a lot of that in it,including how we produce our
road test.
And on Sunday, the 9th, it'llactually go up on our YouTube
channel at noon Eastern time.
So if you can't catch it on thePBS station, it'll be there.
SPEAKER_02 (15:10):
That's my point.
Love that.
Thank you.
I love that.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Perfect, perfect.
Yeah, no, Christian, I I thinkit's uh time to talk about
John's early cars.
SPEAKER_01 (15:20):
Oh, you have something?
I just wanted to say before wehop in the way back, before we
hop in the DeLorean and go 88miles an hour.
I was curious as to 45 years in,John, what what surprises you
sitting in that office this timeforward, doing uh, you know, see
all the world has changed, uh inthe automotive industry has
(15:41):
changed.
What kind of strikes you fromwhere you sat in the beginning
to to what you see now aroundyou?
SPEAKER_00 (15:48):
It's the level of driver assistance systems that
help everyone become a saferdriver, which of course, for an
outgrowth of this, um it'sturning out so far to be kind of
a fantasy of looking for theautonomous vehicle.
Yes.
And on the way for that todevelop that, uh, all of these
things like lane keep assist andeven rear traffic alert and all
(16:12):
the rest of them had to be umbecome perfected for autonomous
driving to arrive.
And that semi-autonomous aspectthat provides an extra little
safety margin for drivers, uh, Idid not expect that.
I mean, we knew any lock brakeswere coming, we knew skid
(16:32):
control, but to extrapolate thatinto this almost cocoon-like
that modern cars have, uh, I didnot expect that.
And but I'm a big technologyguy, so as soon as I saw it, uh,
we started embracing it.
But no, I would say that thatsurprised me.
SPEAKER_01 (16:51):
And it's such an interesting point because I
remember, and I don't know, justthis weekend, I was kind of
thinking about a couple ofdecades ago when my family was
young, we would go on vacationand meet this other family, and
I would pull out an atlas, apaper map, and have it spread on
the dashboard and looking forcountry back roads.
And now you have on any phonethis GPS, which is in essence a
(17:14):
map that talks to you.
I mean, how safe is that?
That small little thing in yourpocket, a map that talks to you.
Keep your eyes on the road, andyour phone says, okay, uh, uh,
uh, 500 yards, you're gonna takea right.
That small thing on top of whatyou're saying is it's just
remarkable.
SPEAKER_00 (17:31):
It is remarkable.
I mean, to the point that Ireally don't go anywhere without
GPS now.
And I plug it in and put in adestination just to make sure
there's no traffic, you know,situations I'm not aware of.
But I gotta say, there is nosubstitute for being able to
spread out a big map, pinpointwhere you are, and look at
(17:51):
everything around it, which issomething effectively you cannot
do on GPS because once you zoomout, the roads get too small.
You can't even stay on show up.
So I miss big maps and the bigmap books, but you know, I use
uh the phone like everybodyelse, plug it in, put the
destination in, and go.
SPEAKER_01 (18:13):
Such a good point.
And I have no use for papermaps, yet, as you say, they're
beautiful, and I can't throwthem with so in the back of each
of my cars, there's a map ofLouisiana, Florida, Mississippi,
Alabama, North Carolina, uh,Pennsylvania, all these places.
And there's just there's more toa map, you know, there are ads,
(18:33):
places to stop, relativedifferences in that clever
little grid.
But okay, great.
I think it's time, Doug.
Let's uh let's go back in time.
Thank you for that answer, John.
And and John, how did it allstart for you?
What was the first car youeither bought, learned to drive
on?
SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
Well, I don't know how far back you want to go, but
let's uh let's at least startwith uh the first car I owned,
and it was a reflection of myfamily.
My family was a Ford family.
And I grew up during uh my teenyears, during the um when NASCAR
was first coming on, the uh thefirst getting its popularity in
(19:15):
the masses, and we would go toraces at the North Wilkes Barrow
Speedway in North Carolina withmy dad, and we were a Ford fan,
so we were uh fans of FredLorenza, who was a the uh
prominent Ford driver at thetime.
But you know, we saw people likeuh uh the Petties, the you know,
Fireball Roberts, you name it,they were all out there
(19:36):
competing.
But in those days, it wasn't somuch about the driver as it was
the car brand.
So, you know, Ford, Chevy,Dodge, whatever, Pontiac, even
at times, uh, that's what wefollowed.
So my first car was a 1967 FordMustang.
I bought it in '69.
I was still in college.
(19:57):
Um, it was a bare bones uhcoupe, uh maroon in color,
automatic, nothing special,six-holder, didn't even have an
eight.
It was a couple years old atthat time when I bought it.
It had a bad valve, so that wasuh really one of the few times
I've ever torn into an engine torepair something deep inside.
And uh I had that car through uhundergraduate school and through
(20:22):
uh graduate school for my MBAuntil I left to go to New York
in 19 uh seventy two.
And then when I come back, youwant me to keep going?
Oh, Doug, I did no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02 (20:38):
I mean, it obviously going to New York, no need to do
it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:41):
No cars didn't want.
However, I'll tell you what Idid.
I missed driving so much.
Yeah, I was crazy.
So uh a fellow I worked with,his family lived out on Long
Island.
I lived in Manhattan.
So on the weekends, I would geton the train, drive out, uh,
take the train out to his town,get off, walk about a mile and a
(21:03):
half to his street, and he wouldleave a car with the keys under
the mat so I could get in it ona Sunday, drive out to the end
of Long Island and come back andthen go back, leave the keys, go
back into the city.
So I could get back to driving.
When I would come home, it wasfine.
But I at that point I didn'tactually have my own car.
(21:24):
I had sold it.
Uh, so I was crazy without beingable to drive routine.
I missed it so much.
SPEAKER_02 (21:31):
Yeah.
And when when um obviously youmust hang your first car, but
when did the love affair and andsecond, that's right.
When did the love affair of carsstart for you?
SPEAKER_00 (21:43):
Uh the love affair for cars started with me and
actually with all things mobile.
Uh I was uh from an earliestage, and I still have the
doodles in my basement.
I drew car designs, I drewairplanes, I drew it, love it.
I did, I did model rockets, Idid model airplanes, and you
(22:03):
know, all that stuff.
So I knew I wanted something tomove.
I, of course, went intoengineering school because of
that, but I couldn't really uhafford to take flight lessons.
So the car was not only was thecar my source of freedom from
the time I was 16 on, but itbecame uh bigger than that
because it was almost like asubstitute for not being able to
(22:26):
do to go flying.
So uh it it took off from a veryearly age and just progressed
from there.
Then I got away from it a littlewhile, of course, while I was in
um uh in New York, even though Iwas covering transportation uh
uh uh companies.
Uh and then when I came back touh well came to Maryland in
(22:46):
1972, that's when the secondMustang uh came into my life.
And it was almost a clone of thefirst, except it was a little
bit newer.
It was a 60, it was uh um, geez,I've forgotten now.
It was a 69.
SPEAKER_01 (22:58):
So and Doug, let me break in here real quick.
As we were talking through hisearly life, when when when Doug
Doug and I were talking aboutyou over the weekend, John, and
we saw where you went off to toto New York City.
And we thought, well, oh, gotkind of a departure from uh from
(23:19):
uh uh studying cars, beinginvolved with cars.
But then we learned you were atransportation analyst when you
were in the financial industry.
So it's it's these things thathave engines is really the
through line of your entirelife.
You know, your passion isyounger to your job all these
years later.
I that's that's just sowonderful to me.
(23:41):
It seems so fitting.
SPEAKER_00 (23:43):
I mean, that's very true.
And of course, I I missed, youknow, one thing that we haven't
talked about was when I was incollege in my undergraduate
year, that's when I got involvedwith electronic media,
specifically radio.
And so from about 67, 68 on, Iwas either on the radio at the
(24:03):
uh North Carolina StateUniversity on the weekends.
I would work for a couple ofdifferent commercial stations,
one in Chapel Hill where UNC is,the other in Durham, where I'm
my hometown is, and theneventually gravitated to a local
um television station in Durham,WRDU.
But that was the mediabackground.
So I had the engineering, themedia, and then the business
(24:27):
background.
Oh, I went on to New York,abandoning the uh the uh
journalistic aspect, thought itwas a great way just to work my
way through college, but notreally what I wanted to do as a
career.
Lo and behold, I got out of NewYork, got very bored, didn't
like what I was doing, had anopportunity to come to Maryland
Public Television to work onWall Street Week because they
(24:49):
were looking for someone with abusiness and broadcasting
background.
I had to write uh stuff forthem, and my resume almost stops
there.
SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
No, your resume just came back home at that point.
It was time to sit in thedriver's seat for good.
Go ahead, Doug.
Back to you.
Yeah.
No, no.
SPEAKER_02 (25:08):
That's uh very uh, yeah, it's a it's a a great
story, right?
And we all wonder.
And I think pulling into MotorWeek, right?
We've talked about your secondcar being uh another Mustang.
Pulling into Motor Week, whatcar were you driving?
Sorry, Maryland PublicTelevision, what car were you
(25:28):
driving then?
That was the 69 Mustang.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
I bought that within a week or so of actually coming
to MPT and being hired.
And I drove that car for let'ssee, one, two, three, three
years, I think.
Two to three years.
Uh it got rear-ended very badlyuh in Richmond and kind of never
(25:51):
was the same again.
Uh, but then during that period,you know, I was a young single
guy.
Uh I was I was interested insomething a little bit more than
that.
I had some spare cash.
But what I really wanted wassomething, quote unquote, like
an exotic car, but that had anAmerican engine that I could
(26:13):
work on.
I wasn't really interested indoing anything European.
It would be way beyond myskills.
And there were two particularcars that were making the rounds
that were reasonably affordableon the used market at that
point.
One was the Jensen Interceptor,which had a Chrysler uh V8 in
it, and the other was the DiTommaso Pantera, and before that
(26:35):
the Magusta, but the Magusta wasnothing but trouble.
Of course, so was the Pantera,but less so.
Um, I don't remember how Inarrowed it down, but I came
across a uh two-year-old, andthis is 1975 now, a two-year-old
Pantera down in Norfolk,Virginia.
So a 73 model, which was whatwas the first, what they call
(26:59):
the L model, which meant it hadrubber front bumpers to meet the
U.S.
safety standards.
I went down to Richmond.
A family had bought it for theirson, you know, as a high school
graduation project.
And I think he he promptlywrecked it, they got it
repaired, they sent him off tothe Navy.
(27:19):
I drove the car home, completelytook it apart, filled up my uh
little one-bedroom apartmentwith car parts everywhere, and
pretty much rebuilt uheverything that uh didn't move
and uh drove that until uh 1979.
So, and I still miss that cartoday.
SPEAKER_02 (27:39):
Yeah, yeah, no.
And and it's a Ford, right?
Ford drive train.
SPEAKER_00 (27:44):
Oh, I I tell you, you know, it had a Mustang
engine, of course.
SPEAKER_03 (27:48):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
Uh had dual point distributor, which was nothing
but trouble.
One point sets points wouldclose up on you because of
vibration, and you'd have topull off the side of the road
because it would die, it wouldshort out.
And I could get out of the car,take off the cowling, open up
the distributor, disconnect oneset of the points because it
would run fine on one, put itback together and be back in the
(28:12):
driver's seat well under fiveminutes, which I had to do in
the rain, in the snow, almost uhyou never knew when it was gonna
basically creep up on you.
You physically couldn't tightenthe uh tightening screws humanly
enough to keep that fromhappening.
I mean, there were I was underit every weekend keeping it
running, but I still missed thatcar today.
SPEAKER_02 (28:34):
And that and that was your daily driver, it sounds
like for many years.
It was wow.
SPEAKER_00 (28:38):
And I I had to the only real modification I did to
it was I put on what was thencalled the Saudi Arabian
package, which was it had aradiator in the front with two
fans on it, a long run to themid-engine.
But they had a second set offans you could put to draw air
through the radiator.
And um that was I put that onthere so it wouldn't overheat on
(29:02):
our hot summer days.
Uh but that and uh differentradio, that was it.
When I finally did sell it, uhthat was the only two uh things
I had added to it, except I didhave to rebuild the transmission
and a couple and a lot of otherstuff.
SPEAKER_02 (29:16):
Sounds uh sounds a lot like my DeLorean in many
ways.
SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
I wanted one.
I wanted one of your DeLoreansvery badly, and I came very,
very close to actually buyingone.
Uh, but what happened was isDeLorean would not send out test
cars.
They had them, but they keptputting everybody off.
And uh a former automotive riderwas doing their PR.
(29:43):
Finally, because theirheadquarters was less than two
hours up the road.
Finally, we controlled a car outof them.
And one of the test roads thatwe use near work has a 90-degree
turn that is a 30 mile an houror less turn.
Turn.
Well, because of the rear weightbias and the DeLorean, that turn
(30:05):
at 30 miles an hour would causeyou to the rear end to break
away and you would spin.
You wouldn't go in a completecircle, but you lost all
traction, despite the fact Ithink it had the widest rear
tires on it in any car we hadever tested.
So that kind of chilled myenthusiasm for it.
And it wasn't too long afterthat that uh John DeLorean, who
(30:27):
was a personal idol up to thatpoint, yeah, uh, got into
trouble and uh his downfallbegan.
SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, the um yeah, there's aspecial place, Christian knows
this story, but special place inmy heart for that car.
Of course.
Even going back before Back tothe Future, I remember living in
Saverna Park, Maryland, andsomebody said, Wow, the new
DeLorean's out, it cost$20,000.
It was really$25,000 in 1981.
(30:55):
And I saw one in the parkinglot, and I just it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (31:00):
That's exactly the way I felt about it.
I I really wanted one.
I believe you know, I hadfollowed John DeLorean's career,
I knew everything he had done atGeneral Motors, and even though
there was some controversy, hereally was the father of the
GTO.
Yep, he was and um, you know, Ihad a uh he was doing
advertisements after he leftFord, I mean General Motors, and
(31:21):
I had a Cuddy Sark uh poster ofhim and uh in my uh office, you
know, and so I was I wasabsolutely crushed when the the
the whole uh drug situationerupted.
Uh but you know, there's a casethat the man basically had a
passion and he was trying tokeep it going.
And uh even though he certainlytook a wrong move, I understand
(31:44):
the motivation.
SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
Yeah, yeah.
And it was uh, you know, areally great social experiment
that came out of it, trying tohelp Northern Ireland with their
low unemployment.
And like that, that's somethingto be proud of.
And you know, I I can't help butthank uh Christian how blown
away we were.
We had uh John DeLorean'sdaughter on that our 10th
(32:06):
episode.
Yeah, and that was just for me,that was like I feel today,
right?
That's as close as I was gonnaget.
In this case, I'm I'm rightthere.
SPEAKER_00 (32:16):
But even in the same state, but I think I actually'm
sorry, I'm talking all over sorude of me.
No, I'm pretty sure I met uhDeLorean once.
Um I think it was at the DetroitAuto Show.
It was totally brief.
Uh but uh yeah, I I um I thoughthe was the quintessential car
(32:40):
guy.
And he really understood carsand what and what to do with
them, how to make them how tomake them live.
SPEAKER_02 (32:46):
Yep, uh and how to sell them, right?
SPEAKER_00 (32:48):
That's unfortunately I was also a fan of Colin
Chapman, and I don't think uh Idon't think uh Colin really did
uh John much uh uh a favor withthe chassis he sold him.
SPEAKER_02 (33:01):
So Yep, uh I think many would agree with you, yeah,
probably myself included.
SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (33:06):
So yeah, no, that's uh I'm trying to look at your
other list of many cars.
And uh actually you youmentioned uh replacing the radio
on your Pantera.
So I do have to ask, uh itdoesn't have to be from the
Pantera years, but what's afavorite song from your early
(33:27):
cars, first car you heard on theradio?
SPEAKER_00 (33:31):
Well, you're gonna laugh, but the first car theme
that I ever remember was theNelson Riddles theme to Route
66.
And of course, that was thenlater followed by the the Route
66 um song, right?
(33:52):
Whose whose uh whose um whosecomposer I has left my brain.
Uh but those two songs wereprobably the first two
car-themed music that I everremember.
But I was glued to the uh TV uhevery week when um Martin Milner
(34:15):
and um George uh Harris uh wouldcome on with Route 66.
And you know, my brotheractually owned uh that uh a car
very much like the uh Corvettethey were driving across the
country in.
And so it had a lot of meaningto me.
SPEAKER_02 (34:31):
Yeah, and speaking of Corvettes, you are a Corvette
guy, am I right?
SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
Yes, and uh after I had the Pantera what caused me
to sell it, by that time I wasgetting ready to get married.
Uh my wife and my soon wife tobe and I decided we wanted to
try and buy a house.
So the Pantera I sold at aprofit and used some of the
money as a down payment of thehouse and had some left to put
(34:57):
down on a 79 uh anniversaryedition uh Corvette.
So it's the only Corvette I'veever owned, but I did really
love that car, and it was a it'sstill circulating around this
area uh somewhere.
I see it from time to time.
SPEAKER_02 (35:11):
Oh wow.
Also maroon.
So also maroon, that's yourfavorite color.
So but that was purely the luckof the draw.
SPEAKER_00 (35:18):
It was the only one I could find.
I mean, that was a hot propertyin those days.
SPEAKER_02 (35:22):
Yeah.
And your current one of yourcurrent cars, and I know
Christian wants to ask you aboutthe uh the EV portion, is a 2024
Fiat 500 E.
Is that also maroon, John?
No, it's red.
Okay.
Close.
SPEAKER_00 (35:38):
Um, I got tired.
I mean, we test everything 150cars a year, plus or minus.
We've driven everythingelectric, and I almost bought a
couple of different electrics inthe last seven years.
But I got to the point where Isaid, look, we get them in to
work, we drive them for a coupleof weeks, occasionally we have
(35:58):
one for longer.
I wanted to actually, because itlooked like we were heading down
that road, I wanted to live withone on a daily basis.
And one of my cars is a 2002Mini Cooper.
I wanted something to replacethe Mini.
Uh, it was, yeah, I still haveit, it didn't get replaced.
So I was looking around.
(36:20):
I had seen the first generationFiat 500E, not enough range.
When the second one came outwith a 150-mile range, I thought
very interesting.
I'd owned, you know, various andsundries, or I'd driven various
and sundry fiats when I was ateenager, but they wanted too
much money.
And literally, I was at a NorthAmerican car of the year drive,
(36:44):
and I was talking to theStellantis rep, and he said, Oh,
by the way, we just dropped theuh lease fee on the uh 500E to I
think$200 a month with virtuallynothing down.
I went home that night, lookedup the uh two nearest fiat
dealers, started communicatingwith them, and within about four
(37:06):
days, I took possession of one.
And uh because it was, they werepractically, they weren't giving
them away, but it was soinexpensive, I felt our family
could afford it.
And so it is one of my dailydrivers.
And uh, but I've actually boughtit for my spouse who likes
something the size of many ofthe mini to run into town and
(37:28):
come back.
So she drives it as much as Ido.
SPEAKER_02 (37:31):
Gotcha, gotcha.
What other cars are in thegarage?
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
Oh, let's see.
Well, I mentioned the 2002 MiniCooper, one of the very first
ones that came into the US.
There was a story of I hated itwhen I until I drove it and then
I fell in love and bought itimmediately.
Uh, I have a 2003 Ford Ranger.
I wish somebody made a nicelittle tidy pickup that size
again.
Uh, the only other uhinteresting car I have is a 2014
(38:00):
um Mercedes uh SLK 250, uh,which I used to have a Miata,
but my we sold it.
My wife said it'd be nice tohave a convertible again.
And then I've got a uh a HyundaiPalisade that's uh our
dogmobile, which uh I'm veryfond of.
SPEAKER_01 (38:16):
So yeah, no, that's and and and it's it's really
high praise that you would buysomething, John, because as you
said before, just abouteverything made in this country
kind of crosses your kind ofcrosses your your your garage,
so to speak, at work.
So um yeah, high praise foranything that gets the permanent
(38:38):
stamp of approval there.
SPEAKER_02 (38:40):
Yeah, and Christian, as we were talking before this,
I and I think I shared this withJohn.
I think John slash motorweek hasdriven every car I've ever
owned.
SPEAKER_00 (38:51):
Oh you're a young man, so you know, give me
positive.
SPEAKER_02 (38:55):
Yeah, not quite.
Good point.
Good point.
SPEAKER_00 (38:58):
By my standards, you are both of you.
SPEAKER_02 (39:01):
1989, I think, was my first car.
So yeah.
And it was a Dodge Daytona.
SPEAKER_00 (39:07):
Good choice.
SPEAKER_02 (39:08):
Which yes, I saw plenty of those on your uh on
the show, and I still go back toit.
But uh what is uh obviously uhthe Pantera, I know you said
you'd love to have it back.
What's a dream card that youwould share with uh share with
our listeners?
SPEAKER_00 (39:25):
If I had the money today and I had no really other
responsibilities and I justwanted to go out and play, I'd
buy a first generation uh DodgeViper.
Uh it uh you know it's crude uhin every aspect.
It was designed by probably themost brilliant management team
that Chrysler has had in modernhistory.
(39:48):
Uh, I knew Francois Gastang, Iknew um all the folks involved
with that project.
Yeah, the car made absolutely nosense.
Um it's loud, it vibrates, butthere is no, it was, it was the
first modern car that, if youcan call it that, that seemed to
embrace the driver as a vitalpiece of the experience, not
(40:13):
just someone along for the ride.
I mean, it had a terrible top,it was hard to get in and out
of.
You could you could nearly burnyour legs every time you got
near the if it had the sideexhaust, all that.
But, you know, it was long hood,short rear deck, a top that was
a joke, but just up last todrive, and it required enormous
(40:35):
amounts of skill to do much ofanything with it.
It was a and still is a realdriver's car.
And then when they keptmodernizing it, it lost a little
bit along the way.
But that first gen Viper, uh,that's probably the closest
thing I have to a dream cartoday.
Okay.
The uh the other would be uh theold Lotus Esprit, uh, which I
(41:00):
also thought was just a fabulouscar.
SPEAKER_02 (41:02):
Yeah, yeah, beautiful, beautiful car.
SPEAKER_00 (41:04):
Or if I could get my uh my D Tommaso uh Pantera back.
SPEAKER_02 (41:07):
Yep, yep, exactly.
So on uh you mentioned Lotus andthat, and we're jumping around a
little bit, but uh one of theone of the questions we had in
our uh in preparation was what'sthe most dangerous car you've
been in, driven or been in?
And it was a lotus.
Yeah, and I'd love to hear why.
SPEAKER_00 (41:29):
Um, I was in the market for that 69 Mustang or
something like it.
I didn't know what I was gonnabuy.
And uh I popped saw one ad foruh a lotus y lawn.
And uh the uh I madearrangements to uh go see it,
and the guy really wasn't surehe wanted me to drive it yet.
(41:49):
So the first thing he had to dowas take me for a ride.
And if you remember, they werevery small, low to the ground,
and and largely plywoodunderneath the body.
So I got in it, and your uhbutt's about uh four inches off
the pavement.
And uh so any, you know, 30miles an hour felt like 6070.
So driving around in this, youknow, rudimentary seat belts,
(42:13):
totally exposed in theenvironment, and with somebody
you really didn't know, I thinkuh that was the closest.
It had the feeling it I said, ifthere is a unique feeling, and I
know there is, of flying in anopen cockpit airplane, this was
the closest I'd probably everget to that.
SPEAKER_02 (42:29):
Yep, for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (42:30):
So now the guy was a good driver, he didn't, there
was no problem.
But at that point, I said, youknow, this may be just a little
too way out for me to drive backand forth to work every way.
SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
Yep.
So um as we uh keeping a keepingtrack of time, and there's so
many things.
I I did want to ask.
We gotta let him eat dinner atsome point.
You cannot keep him here allnight.
SPEAKER_01 (42:52):
Oh, all right, all right.
SPEAKER_00 (42:54):
We uh Do I look like I need food?
Probably not.
SPEAKER_02 (43:00):
We um we did want to ask you.
So after 45 years, like what doyou think has made Motor Week um
um last the uh test of time?
SPEAKER_01 (43:13):
Great question.
Great question.
SPEAKER_02 (43:15):
Keep going, and you know, you guys have mu weathered
all the changes, including theinternet along the way and
YouTubers to your point.
SPEAKER_00 (43:25):
I would say it's consistency.
Um you know the format hasn'tchanged, but the most single
most important thing is on ourshow, most TV shows are built
around a personality.
I chose to be the host of itonly because we couldn't afford
to hire anyone else.
I had been on the air, but onlyas news.
(43:46):
I did not want to be the uh thehost, but I had no choice, and I
was so dreadful and so deadpanthat from the beginning we said
this is a show about cars, notthe people driving the cars.
So the cars are the stars, yeah.
And that has been our mantra tothis day.
(44:07):
I mean, when you think about it,you hear me a lot, but on the
average show, you probably onlysee me about two and a half
minutes out of 26, 46.
So uh it's uh it's the cars, andwe always put them first.
And I think also one more thingis that when you hear our
opinion, it is not one person ortwo persons' opinion, it is a
(44:30):
group opinion of all the folksthat work on the show.
They all get plenty of time withthe vehicles, they all
contribute to the road test.
Yeah, so you're getting a wideview and not a narrow lens when
it comes to what we think aboutit.
SPEAKER_01 (44:45):
I love that.
That's good.
And in that hall marketconsistency, I know from
watching it's been that way fordecades and decades.
So, Ed, we guide the podcastgently to the off-rent, John.
I have to ask, now is the 45thanniversary, but what do you
have planned for the 50th?
We love scoops on this show.
50 is a big, nice, big roundnumber.
(45:07):
What's what's going on?
Do we know yet?
No.
Great answer.
SPEAKER_00 (45:12):
Uh, you know, God willing in the creek don't rise.
There will be a 50th anniversaryshow.
I would not predict whether Iwill be the host anymore.
I might just be a throwback.
But uh, I think the show's goingto continue what it's doing, it
has to continue to adapt.
We talked about all the changescoming for the automobile.
But one thing I don't think wewill ever lose that will keep us
(45:36):
being somewhat unique is westill do instrumented testing of
all the vehicles we get in for aroad test.
And there's only about threepublications that still do that
anymore.
And that's something we neverwant to lose.
That scientific or at theminimum semi-scientific approach
to try and have a level playingfield.
(45:56):
So you can read our road testand really compare one vehicle
against another.
But with the young staff, uh, wekeep having being fortunate to
hire.
Uh, I think the uh young bloodwill keep us very pertinent uh
as we go forward.
At least that's wide open.
I think that's it's what's it'swhat's kept us relevant so far.
SPEAKER_01 (46:16):
It's a great plan.
It's a great plan for sure.
Well, what do you think, Doug?
Any more questions on the wayout?
We're we're kind of up against ahard break here.
SPEAKER_02 (46:24):
Oh, so many.
Um, I did want to ask John,let's see if he remembers.
If not, I'll I'll remind him.
Um, so you won an Emmy, right,for Motor Week?
Do I have that right?
SPEAKER_00 (46:36):
Well, we've won several Emmys, but not a
national Emily.
We've uh uh we've won Emmys forworking uh with uh WGN in
Chicago, producing shows aboutthe Chicago Auto Show.
I've gotten a couple of um,shall we say, long-serving
survivor uh honors from the uhChesapeake area Emmy uh folks,
(47:01):
including what they call theiruh golden circle, which, you
know, it's basically if you livelong enough and you keep in the
in the business in this area,you get it.
Uh we've never really been uhthe type of show that wins
national Emmys.
It's very difficult for a smallshow uh that's as specialized as
we do, but we are Emmy Awardwinning, and uh we're very proud
(47:22):
of it.
Absolutely.
And we've won a lot of otherawards along the ways, many of
them from very generous uhjournalists uh around the
country and their organization.
So we're very proud of uh of allof our accolades, and again, it
was a team effort.
SPEAKER_02 (47:37):
Right.
And and uh the quote that wefound in uh preparation was that
Motor Week has been the love ofmy life easily.
That was your quote.
SPEAKER_00 (47:48):
My wife would agree with that.
Okay, although she comes first,yeah, but you know, Motor Week
is probably second.
Yeah, maybe maybe my dogs are inthere somewhere between the two.
Uh but no, we've uh we decidednot to have children early on,
and so Motor Week's our baby,and I know she feels the same
way.
SPEAKER_02 (48:07):
That that is that's a partner you want for life,
yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:12):
Uh that in that aspect, I am the luckiest human
being on earth.
SPEAKER_01 (48:17):
There you go.
There you go.
You are indeed blessed, and itit's been really a pleasure to
spend some time here with you,John.
Um, I I was really excited whenDoug got a hold of you, and it's
great to see you and spend timewith you, but the something
about your voice is just magic.
Um, so it's just been been areal real treat to spend some
time with you.
(48:37):
Thank you for making time for ustoday.
SPEAKER_00 (48:39):
Christian and Doug, it's absolutely been my
pleasure.
And uh for the rest of thestory, come back sometime.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (48:46):
You got it.
You have just heard the highrevving, low mileage late model
heard round the worldauthoritative podcast on
automotive nostalgia.
Check us out at carslove.com.
You know where to catch JohnDavis.
You have for the past 45 years,uh 45th anniversary, check out
his YouTube, uh, motorweek.com,uh, public television, uh, all
(49:08):
over the place.
You'll know where to find him.
If you like what you hear fromus, let us know.
He's at Doug at CarsLove.com.
Check us out at carslove.com.
Or can you give the link tree,Doug?
Sure.
L-I-N-K-T-R dot e slashcarsloved.
There you have it.
So on the way out, I am surewe'll see you at the next local
car show, showroom race trip, orconcor.
(49:30):
We appreciate just taking alaugh with us, and we'll see you
next time.
Welcome back to All The Cars I've Loved Before, your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia where our
guests are unique.
Each auto has an era, and everycar tells a story.
So you know what time it is.
It's time to plug in, get alittle grease under the nails,
(00:27):
and slip on that favoritecar-themed t-shirt, hat, or
jacket.
And and Doug, as usual, doesn'tdisappoint you.
We'll get to him in one minute.
But we're so excited today.
We typically just banter away,and you know me, I can babble
for quite a while, but typicallytalk a bit about what's
happening in our lives in theworld in automotive industry.
But uh, we're gonna be quicktoday because waiting in the
(00:48):
green room today is automotiveroyalty.
Maybe we should call it thepurple room today.
Just uh just just really exciteduh by today's guest.
But real quick, let's welcomeback listeners from around the
world.
Dallas, Texas, New York, NewYork, Sunnyvale, California.
What's in Sunnyvale?
That's not Apple.
(01:08):
Is Apple Cupertino?
Apple's Cupertino?
Well, I know Juniper Networks isin Sunnyvale.
Yeah, I knew somebody was inSunnyvale.
Atlanta, Georgia, welcome back.
Sydney, New South Wales, landdown under Montreal, Quebec,
Bienvenue.
Welcome back.
Wake Forest, Philly.
There's only one Philly.
Where's Philly?
(01:29):
Philly.
Pennsylvania, Tokyo.
Welcome back.
Brisbane, Australia, London,England.
We could go on, we could goaround the world and back again.
But uh here we are.
And uh oh, so uh back to the thethemed t-shirt for today.
It's not really a car t-shirt,but let's let's talk to the
(01:50):
audience a bit about what yougot there as usual, stylish.
Well, why don't you describe it?
Ah, it is definitely a vintage,a 70s vintage.
It's got the profile of whatlooks like a Picasso painting
and triplicate, but it's notPicasso.
It is the PBS logo from way backthen.
(02:14):
And you'll you'll hear whythat's important in a minute,
but where did you dig out thatshirt?
Was that was that in in the backof your closet or or was it$80
from some upscale uh uh internetvintage retail?
Uh uh question.
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
No to both questions.
Uh I did buy it online.
I had to search for it.
Yeah.
Uh yeah, I'm pretty happy withit.
SPEAKER_01 (02:38):
And so I have to ask you, how does today's guest tie
into your shirt?
And will you please introducetoday's guest?
SPEAKER_02 (02:46):
So my PBS logo shirt.
One of my earliest memoriesaround cars was watching this
wonderful show on MarylandPublic Television.
I'm from Maryland.
Same about about cars.
And fast forward 45 years, 1900plus episodes, we have the
(03:10):
creator, the host, and executiveproducer of television's
original automotive magazine,known as Motor Week.
Motor Week.
That's right.
And John Davis is our specialguest today.
Hello, John.
SPEAKER_00 (03:25):
Hello, hello, hello, Doug, and hello, Christian from
Maryland.
We're delighted to be with you.
Glad to have you with us.
And welcome to be with you.
SPEAKER_01 (03:34):
Hey, so Doug said that he he grew up watching the
show, and I said, yes, yes.
He said, Maryland.
I wasn't saying uh that I grewup in Maryland.
So Doug grew up in Maryland andwatched the show.
I grew up in Louisiana, watchedthe show.
And and I just feel like this, Ican't ever remember this show
not being in my life.
And it was just so wonderful.
I'm quite starstruck talking toyou here today.
(03:57):
So can you talk a bit about theinception of the show, how it
started, and and um how it allgot underway in your world?
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
Sure.
Uh as I was producing WallStreet Week with Lewis
Hurkeiser, which was the showthat really began financial
television as we know it today.
And when I became executiveproducer in 1978, my boss asked
me to come up with an idea of myown, and I had a couple.
(04:27):
Uh I did a personal finance showpilot, but I really wanted to
bring the automotive printmagazine to television.
No one had done that before, uh,at least not successfully.
There have been some attemptsaround the world.
There was a show called Torquein Australia, and uh there were
various uh efforts going on inEurope to try and launch
(04:48):
something, but nobody in NorthAmerica had really done it, and
let alone on some kind of aweekly basis.
Uh so 1978, we did the pilot forMotor Week.
We had the uh name researched,we knew it was clean, and uh we
did the show, and then it sat onthe shelf for three years as we
(05:09):
went about trying to sell it,get stations interested, because
we knew we wanted to be morethan a local show from the
beginning.
It was kind of the mantra of ouroperation to produce for your
local audience, but do it onsubjects that everybody would
love to know about.
So we always had this idea, itwould at least be re regional up
(05:31):
and down the East Coast, but benational if possible.
And lo and behold, three yearslater, after various attempts to
get it launched and talking tostations to see if they would be
interested, we found out that acompeting station was gonna do
an automotive series.
And my boss on July the 5th,1981, called me into his office.
His name was Warren Park, alovely man.
(05:54):
And he said, you know, we'regonna have an auto show on offer
to PBS uh in January.
Can you be on the air by then?
Uh and he I said, I'll be on theair instead of six months, I'll
be on the air in six weeks.
We didn't quite do that.
Uh it was mid-October, uh, soyou know, 12 weeks or so.
(06:14):
And we came on with the firstepisode, and we've been on ever
since.
And there was a rationale tothat because I'd learned from
doing Wall Street Week that ifyou're on every week, stations
leave you alone in the scheduleand they allow you to build an
audience.
But to do that, you've got tooffer essentially a new show
(06:36):
every week.
SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
And even though we do 26 all-new shows and 26 shows
where the majority is new, andthat's how you keep a time spot
and allow your audience to grow.
Otherwise, the stations willsay, it's a rerun, we'll take it
off and bring it back later.
And sometimes they do, andsometimes they don't.
And so here we are.
We've been on weekly ever since.
SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
So it was the idea was never let your backup see
the field.
It was always have something inqueue, always have something.
How quickly did you stumbleupon, or maybe it was by design?
You seem like a by design guy.
How quickly did you get thewinning formula for what we see
as the show today?
Was that pretty much out of thebox?
Did you have to tinker with itmuch?
SPEAKER_00 (07:20):
Uh, the format you see today was very much what we
started with.
We didn't have a lot of featuresegments, so they were added,
but the concept was a magazinestyle for television.
And at that time, there werereally only two uh programs uh
that were using that formula.
One was a um a local series thatwas done by all the
(07:44):
Westinghouse-owned TV stationsaround the country at the time.
They later became CBS stations.
And it was called EveningMagazine, and they would do five
and six-minute segments, andthey would borrow from other
stations to fill out a week.
They did it every night, fivenights a week, uh during the you
know, Monday through Friday.
And then at about the same timewe were doing our first episode,
(08:09):
not our pilot, um, eveningmagazine was debuting with a
magazine style format.
And the advantage of a magazinestyle format is number one, you
don't bore people to death withvery long segments.
Everything's about five or sixminutes.
Yeah.
You're allowing the person whowants to see a new car to see
(08:29):
that, but then someone who maybewants some other information
like our Goss's Garage to havethat.
But the big deal is I knew oneday we probably would do a
commercial version of the show,and it allowed you to easily
edit and insert commercials.
SPEAKER_01 (08:45):
Oh, how interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (08:46):
So the magazine format started, we still use it
today.
A lot of other things havechanged, but that basic format
has been unchanged for 45 years.
SPEAKER_01 (08:57):
Wow.
And and how big a staff did youhave at the very beginning?
And once you got to somethingthat started to move past local,
regional, and and uh national,did you have to staff up a lot
or were you able to sort of justkind of punch above your weight
with everybody that you hadthere?
SPEAKER_00 (09:16):
No, we had to go down.
Uh in the early years, uh, webasically had probably about 13
or 14 full-time people, not atthe very onset, but very quickly
after.
But to be honest, what'shappened is as technology came
along, uh, we like most othertelevision operations around the
(09:37):
country, uh, reduced manpower.
And I'll give you an example.
We used to have our featurereporters go out with a
producer.
Well, it got to the point wherethe feature reporter became so
talented, they could essentiallyproduce themselves.
So as producers retired or leftus, they weren't replaced.
(09:57):
On the technical side, when thecamera situation, when we began
a remote crew to go out and do aroad test, was three people on
the camera side.
You had a camera person, you hadan engineer, and you had an
audio engineer as well.
Uh, now it's one person with awith a very good camera or a
selection of cameras, actually,and they do all of that.
(10:20):
So uh I wouldn't call itautomation, but I would say
progress and electronics andjust the style of how we do
things allowed us to reduce thatcount to about 10 where we are
today.
And we've just lost uh oneperson uh who was taking a
different job, and because ofthe PBS cutbacks, you've
probably all read about, welikely won't be replacing that
(10:42):
position anytime soon.
So we've had as few as uh six orseven and as many as 13, but
10's a nice number and it seemsto work well.
SPEAKER_01 (10:52):
Oh wow, wonderful, wonderful.
Oh, and Doug, I apologize forcompletely dominating the
discussion.
Let's bring my co-host in on theon the interview here.
Yeah, yeah.
So um why are you here, Doug?
He's all the skill.
I'm just the I'm the car nut,Christian's the cultured person.
SPEAKER_00 (11:15):
I can tell that.
Yeah, so thank you by the wayfor wearing the PBS shirt.
SPEAKER_02 (11:20):
That's uh that is a terrific shirt.
It's a it's an honor to wear itwith.
SPEAKER_00 (11:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (11:25):
So um you mentioned your your team, right?
Uh as many as 13, but there's aninteresting story about how you
picked them, right?
Related to the Maryland PublicTelevision parking lot.
SPEAKER_00 (11:39):
Yes, when I was given the go, I had to basically
put together a group of people.
And it had been three yearssince we did the pilot.
So I literally walked down intothe parking lot and started
looking at the cars out there,and then copied down the license
plates and went into securityand said, okay, whose vehicle is
this?
(11:59):
Well, Craig Singhas had alreadybeen on the pilot.
He owned a Shelby Mustang, so hewas easy.
Uh, Joyce Braga, our firstfemale reporter, and who did the
news on the earliest episodes,she was driving a Porsche 924.
So I knew she was perfect forthe job.
And it it went on like that andstill continues today.
(12:20):
I will tell you, when someoneapplies for the job, one of the
questions they get asked is, andby the way, what do you drive?
It tells you a lot.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02 (12:29):
Yep, for sure.
For sure.
And do you get a lot?
I'm sure for our listeners andmyself, do you get a lot of
people applying for jobs, justsending resumes over?
SPEAKER_00 (12:39):
Uh, yes, we do.
Although these days with theinternet, you really don't need
an operation as big as ours toget on the, you know, to get in
front of the public with yourautomotive insights.
And actually, we've had severalinstances in the last couple of
years where we've hired peoplefor one uh position or another
(13:00):
because of their internetpresence.
Uh, case in point, when Pat Gossuh left us very unexpectedly, we
turned to the internet to lookfor a variety of replacements.
We actually took four people touh replace Pat.
He was so incredible.
Yes, he was and and all of thosehad a significant internet uh
(13:21):
internet presence, including ouryoungest uh Giuseppe Ayatarola,
who has Giuseppe's garage.
He's a child prodigy.
Of course, he's almost 14 now.
But uh, you know, when he was uh10 and started with us, uh there
was no one else like him, andactually there still isn't.
So we'll draw information fromeverywhere, but we still get
(13:43):
quite a few.
Hey, I'd like to be inautomotive journalism.
What have you got open?
And how do you start?
And my first response is well,just be prepared to starve to
death.
But if you can handle that, uhyou're you're cut out for
automotive journalism.
Yes, if you can subsist on waterindefinitely, this might be the
job for you.
That's right.
You know exactly what I'mtalking about.
SPEAKER_01 (14:04):
Amen.
Amen.
Good stuff.
What what do you think, Doug?
Should we kind of uh venture uhback into the past?
Did you want to talk with him uhright now about any any current
projects he's working on?
SPEAKER_02 (14:21):
Well, um, no, I think uh I can't wait.
SPEAKER_00 (14:25):
Oh would you mind if I plug something?
Please, please.
Okay, on uh on the 8th ofNovember, starting on the 8th of
November at PBS stations aroundthe country will be the special
45th anniversary edition ofMotor Week.
And uh it'll be that weekend,the 8th and 9th, on most public
television stations around thecountry.
(14:47):
It's a really good, jam-packedhalf-hour look back at
everything we've done over 45years.
And if you're not wondering howwe go about doing things, it's
got a lot of that in it,including how we produce our
road test.
And on Sunday, the 9th, it'llactually go up on our YouTube
channel at noon Eastern time.
So if you can't catch it on thePBS station, it'll be there.
SPEAKER_02 (15:10):
That's my point.
Love that.
Thank you.
I love that.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Perfect, perfect.
Yeah, no, Christian, I I thinkit's uh time to talk about
John's early cars.
SPEAKER_01 (15:20):
Oh, you have something?
I just wanted to say before wehop in the way back, before we
hop in the DeLorean and go 88miles an hour.
I was curious as to 45 years in,John, what what surprises you
sitting in that office this timeforward, doing uh, you know, see
all the world has changed, uh inthe automotive industry has
(15:41):
changed.
What kind of strikes you fromwhere you sat in the beginning
to to what you see now aroundyou?
SPEAKER_00 (15:48):
It's the level of driver assistance systems that
help everyone become a saferdriver, which of course, for an
outgrowth of this, um it'sturning out so far to be kind of
a fantasy of looking for theautonomous vehicle.
Yes.
And on the way for that todevelop that, uh, all of these
things like lane keep assist andeven rear traffic alert and all
(16:12):
the rest of them had to be umbecome perfected for autonomous
driving to arrive.
And that semi-autonomous aspectthat provides an extra little
safety margin for drivers, uh, Idid not expect that.
I mean, we knew any lock brakeswere coming, we knew skid
(16:32):
control, but to extrapolate thatinto this almost cocoon-like
that modern cars have, uh, I didnot expect that.
And but I'm a big technologyguy, so as soon as I saw it, uh,
we started embracing it.
But no, I would say that thatsurprised me.
SPEAKER_01 (16:51):
And it's such an interesting point because I
remember, and I don't know, justthis weekend, I was kind of
thinking about a couple ofdecades ago when my family was
young, we would go on vacationand meet this other family, and
I would pull out an atlas, apaper map, and have it spread on
the dashboard and looking forcountry back roads.
And now you have on any phonethis GPS, which is in essence a
(17:14):
map that talks to you.
I mean, how safe is that?
That small little thing in yourpocket, a map that talks to you.
Keep your eyes on the road, andyour phone says, okay, uh, uh,
uh, 500 yards, you're gonna takea right.
That small thing on top of whatyou're saying is it's just
remarkable.
SPEAKER_00 (17:31):
It is remarkable.
I mean, to the point that Ireally don't go anywhere without
GPS now.
And I plug it in and put in adestination just to make sure
there's no traffic, you know,situations I'm not aware of.
But I gotta say, there is nosubstitute for being able to
spread out a big map, pinpointwhere you are, and look at
(17:51):
everything around it, which issomething effectively you cannot
do on GPS because once you zoomout, the roads get too small.
You can't even stay on show up.
So I miss big maps and the bigmap books, but you know, I use
uh the phone like everybodyelse, plug it in, put the
destination in, and go.
SPEAKER_01 (18:13):
Such a good point.
And I have no use for papermaps, yet, as you say, they're
beautiful, and I can't throwthem with so in the back of each
of my cars, there's a map ofLouisiana, Florida, Mississippi,
Alabama, North Carolina, uh,Pennsylvania, all these places.
And there's just there's more toa map, you know, there are ads,
(18:33):
places to stop, relativedifferences in that clever
little grid.
But okay, great.
I think it's time, Doug.
Let's uh let's go back in time.
Thank you for that answer, John.
And and John, how did it allstart for you?
What was the first car youeither bought, learned to drive
on?
SPEAKER_00 (18:52):
Well, I don't know how far back you want to go, but
let's uh let's at least startwith uh the first car I owned,
and it was a reflection of myfamily.
My family was a Ford family.
And I grew up during uh my teenyears, during the um when NASCAR
was first coming on, the uh thefirst getting its popularity in
(19:15):
the masses, and we would go toraces at the North Wilkes Barrow
Speedway in North Carolina withmy dad, and we were a Ford fan,
so we were uh fans of FredLorenza, who was a the uh
prominent Ford driver at thetime.
But you know, we saw people likeuh uh the Petties, the you know,
Fireball Roberts, you name it,they were all out there
(19:36):
competing.
But in those days, it wasn't somuch about the driver as it was
the car brand.
So, you know, Ford, Chevy,Dodge, whatever, Pontiac, even
at times, uh, that's what wefollowed.
So my first car was a 1967 FordMustang.
I bought it in '69.
I was still in college.
(19:57):
Um, it was a bare bones uhcoupe, uh maroon in color,
automatic, nothing special,six-holder, didn't even have an
eight.
It was a couple years old atthat time when I bought it.
It had a bad valve, so that wasuh really one of the few times
I've ever torn into an engine torepair something deep inside.
And uh I had that car through uhundergraduate school and through
(20:22):
uh graduate school for my MBAuntil I left to go to New York
in 19 uh seventy two.
And then when I come back, youwant me to keep going?
Oh, Doug, I did no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02 (20:38):
I mean, it obviously going to New York, no need to do
it.
SPEAKER_00 (20:41):
No cars didn't want.
However, I'll tell you what Idid.
I missed driving so much.
Yeah, I was crazy.
So uh a fellow I worked with,his family lived out on Long
Island.
I lived in Manhattan.
So on the weekends, I would geton the train, drive out, uh,
take the train out to his town,get off, walk about a mile and a
(21:03):
half to his street, and he wouldleave a car with the keys under
the mat so I could get in it ona Sunday, drive out to the end
of Long Island and come back andthen go back, leave the keys, go
back into the city.
So I could get back to driving.
When I would come home, it wasfine.
But I at that point I didn'tactually have my own car.
(21:24):
I had sold it.
Uh, so I was crazy without beingable to drive routine.
I missed it so much.
SPEAKER_02 (21:31):
Yeah.
And when when um obviously youmust hang your first car, but
when did the love affair and andsecond, that's right.
When did the love affair of carsstart for you?
SPEAKER_00 (21:43):
Uh the love affair for cars started with me and
actually with all things mobile.
Uh I was uh from an earliestage, and I still have the
doodles in my basement.
I drew car designs, I drewairplanes, I drew it, love it.
I did, I did model rockets, Idid model airplanes, and you
(22:03):
know, all that stuff.
So I knew I wanted something tomove.
I, of course, went intoengineering school because of
that, but I couldn't really uhafford to take flight lessons.
So the car was not only was thecar my source of freedom from
the time I was 16 on, but itbecame uh bigger than that
because it was almost like asubstitute for not being able to
(22:26):
do to go flying.
So uh it it took off from a veryearly age and just progressed
from there.
Then I got away from it a littlewhile, of course, while I was in
um uh in New York, even though Iwas covering transportation uh
uh uh companies.
Uh and then when I came back touh well came to Maryland in
(22:46):
1972, that's when the secondMustang uh came into my life.
And it was almost a clone of thefirst, except it was a little
bit newer.
It was a 60, it was uh um, geez,I've forgotten now.
It was a 69.
SPEAKER_01 (22:58):
So and Doug, let me break in here real quick.
As we were talking through hisearly life, when when when Doug
Doug and I were talking aboutyou over the weekend, John, and
we saw where you went off to toto New York City.
And we thought, well, oh, gotkind of a departure from uh from
(23:19):
uh uh studying cars, beinginvolved with cars.
But then we learned you were atransportation analyst when you
were in the financial industry.
So it's it's these things thathave engines is really the
through line of your entirelife.
You know, your passion isyounger to your job all these
years later.
I that's that's just sowonderful to me.
(23:41):
It seems so fitting.
SPEAKER_00 (23:43):
I mean, that's very true.
And of course, I I missed, youknow, one thing that we haven't
talked about was when I was incollege in my undergraduate
year, that's when I got involvedwith electronic media,
specifically radio.
And so from about 67, 68 on, Iwas either on the radio at the
(24:03):
uh North Carolina StateUniversity on the weekends.
I would work for a couple ofdifferent commercial stations,
one in Chapel Hill where UNC is,the other in Durham, where I'm
my hometown is, and theneventually gravitated to a local
um television station in Durham,WRDU.
But that was the mediabackground.
So I had the engineering, themedia, and then the business
(24:27):
background.
Oh, I went on to New York,abandoning the uh the uh
journalistic aspect, thought itwas a great way just to work my
way through college, but notreally what I wanted to do as a
career.
Lo and behold, I got out of NewYork, got very bored, didn't
like what I was doing, had anopportunity to come to Maryland
Public Television to work onWall Street Week because they
(24:49):
were looking for someone with abusiness and broadcasting
background.
I had to write uh stuff forthem, and my resume almost stops
there.
SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
No, your resume just came back home at that point.
It was time to sit in thedriver's seat for good.
Go ahead, Doug.
Back to you.
Yeah.
No, no.
SPEAKER_02 (25:08):
That's uh very uh, yeah, it's a it's a a great
story, right?
And we all wonder.
And I think pulling into MotorWeek, right?
We've talked about your secondcar being uh another Mustang.
Pulling into Motor Week, whatcar were you driving?
Sorry, Maryland PublicTelevision, what car were you
(25:28):
driving then?
That was the 69 Mustang.
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
I bought that within a week or so of actually coming
to MPT and being hired.
And I drove that car for let'ssee, one, two, three, three
years, I think.
Two to three years.
Uh it got rear-ended very badlyuh in Richmond and kind of never
(25:51):
was the same again.
Uh, but then during that period,you know, I was a young single
guy.
Uh I was I was interested insomething a little bit more than
that.
I had some spare cash.
But what I really wanted wassomething, quote unquote, like
an exotic car, but that had anAmerican engine that I could
(26:13):
work on.
I wasn't really interested indoing anything European.
It would be way beyond myskills.
And there were two particularcars that were making the rounds
that were reasonably affordableon the used market at that
point.
One was the Jensen Interceptor,which had a Chrysler uh V8 in
it, and the other was the DiTommaso Pantera, and before that
(26:35):
the Magusta, but the Magusta wasnothing but trouble.
Of course, so was the Pantera,but less so.
Um, I don't remember how Inarrowed it down, but I came
across a uh two-year-old, andthis is 1975 now, a two-year-old
Pantera down in Norfolk,Virginia.
So a 73 model, which was whatwas the first, what they call
(26:59):
the L model, which meant it hadrubber front bumpers to meet the
U.S.
safety standards.
I went down to Richmond.
A family had bought it for theirson, you know, as a high school
graduation project.
And I think he he promptlywrecked it, they got it
repaired, they sent him off tothe Navy.
(27:19):
I drove the car home, completelytook it apart, filled up my uh
little one-bedroom apartmentwith car parts everywhere, and
pretty much rebuilt uheverything that uh didn't move
and uh drove that until uh 1979.
So, and I still miss that cartoday.
SPEAKER_02 (27:39):
Yeah, yeah, no.
And and it's a Ford, right?
Ford drive train.
SPEAKER_00 (27:44):
Oh, I I tell you, you know, it had a Mustang
engine, of course.
SPEAKER_03 (27:48):
Yep.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
Uh had dual point distributor, which was nothing
but trouble.
One point sets points wouldclose up on you because of
vibration, and you'd have topull off the side of the road
because it would die, it wouldshort out.
And I could get out of the car,take off the cowling, open up
the distributor, disconnect oneset of the points because it
would run fine on one, put itback together and be back in the
(28:12):
driver's seat well under fiveminutes, which I had to do in
the rain, in the snow, almost uhyou never knew when it was gonna
basically creep up on you.
You physically couldn't tightenthe uh tightening screws humanly
enough to keep that fromhappening.
I mean, there were I was underit every weekend keeping it
running, but I still missed thatcar today.
SPEAKER_02 (28:34):
And that and that was your daily driver, it sounds
like for many years.
It was wow.
SPEAKER_00 (28:38):
And I I had to the only real modification I did to
it was I put on what was thencalled the Saudi Arabian
package, which was it had aradiator in the front with two
fans on it, a long run to themid-engine.
But they had a second set offans you could put to draw air
through the radiator.
And um that was I put that onthere so it wouldn't overheat on
(29:02):
our hot summer days.
Uh but that and uh differentradio, that was it.
When I finally did sell it, uhthat was the only two uh things
I had added to it, except I didhave to rebuild the transmission
and a couple and a lot of otherstuff.
SPEAKER_02 (29:16):
Sounds uh sounds a lot like my DeLorean in many
ways.
SPEAKER_00 (29:21):
I wanted one.
I wanted one of your DeLoreansvery badly, and I came very,
very close to actually buyingone.
Uh, but what happened was isDeLorean would not send out test
cars.
They had them, but they keptputting everybody off.
And uh a former automotive riderwas doing their PR.
(29:43):
Finally, because theirheadquarters was less than two
hours up the road.
Finally, we controlled a car outof them.
And one of the test roads thatwe use near work has a 90-degree
turn that is a 30 mile an houror less turn.
Turn.
Well, because of the rear weightbias and the DeLorean, that turn
(30:05):
at 30 miles an hour would causeyou to the rear end to break
away and you would spin.
You wouldn't go in a completecircle, but you lost all
traction, despite the fact Ithink it had the widest rear
tires on it in any car we hadever tested.
So that kind of chilled myenthusiasm for it.
And it wasn't too long afterthat that uh John DeLorean, who
(30:27):
was a personal idol up to thatpoint, yeah, uh, got into
trouble and uh his downfallbegan.
SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, the um yeah, there's aspecial place, Christian knows
this story, but special place inmy heart for that car.
Of course.
Even going back before Back tothe Future, I remember living in
Saverna Park, Maryland, andsomebody said, Wow, the new
DeLorean's out, it cost$20,000.
It was really$25,000 in 1981.
(30:55):
And I saw one in the parkinglot, and I just it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (31:00):
That's exactly the way I felt about it.
I I really wanted one.
I believe you know, I hadfollowed John DeLorean's career,
I knew everything he had done atGeneral Motors, and even though
there was some controversy, hereally was the father of the
GTO.
Yep, he was and um, you know, Ihad a uh he was doing
advertisements after he leftFord, I mean General Motors, and
(31:21):
I had a Cuddy Sark uh poster ofhim and uh in my uh office, you
know, and so I was I wasabsolutely crushed when the the
the whole uh drug situationerupted.
Uh but you know, there's a casethat the man basically had a
passion and he was trying tokeep it going.
And uh even though he certainlytook a wrong move, I understand
(31:44):
the motivation.
SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
Yeah, yeah.
And it was uh, you know, areally great social experiment
that came out of it, trying tohelp Northern Ireland with their
low unemployment.
And like that, that's somethingto be proud of.
And you know, I I can't help butthank uh Christian how blown
away we were.
We had uh John DeLorean'sdaughter on that our 10th
(32:06):
episode.
Yeah, and that was just for me,that was like I feel today,
right?
That's as close as I was gonnaget.
In this case, I'm I'm rightthere.
SPEAKER_00 (32:16):
But even in the same state, but I think I actually'm
sorry, I'm talking all over sorude of me.
No, I'm pretty sure I met uhDeLorean once.
Um I think it was at the DetroitAuto Show.
It was totally brief.
Uh but uh yeah, I I um I thoughthe was the quintessential car
(32:40):
guy.
And he really understood carsand what and what to do with
them, how to make them how tomake them live.
SPEAKER_02 (32:46):
Yep, uh and how to sell them, right?
SPEAKER_00 (32:48):
That's unfortunately I was also a fan of Colin
Chapman, and I don't think uh Idon't think uh Colin really did
uh John much uh uh a favor withthe chassis he sold him.
SPEAKER_02 (33:01):
So Yep, uh I think many would agree with you, yeah,
probably myself included.
SPEAKER_00 (33:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (33:06):
So yeah, no, that's uh I'm trying to look at your
other list of many cars.
And uh actually you youmentioned uh replacing the radio
on your Pantera.
So I do have to ask, uh itdoesn't have to be from the
Pantera years, but what's afavorite song from your early
(33:27):
cars, first car you heard on theradio?
SPEAKER_00 (33:31):
Well, you're gonna laugh, but the first car theme
that I ever remember was theNelson Riddles theme to Route
66.
And of course, that was thenlater followed by the the Route
66 um song, right?
(33:52):
Whose whose uh whose um whosecomposer I has left my brain.
Uh but those two songs wereprobably the first two
car-themed music that I everremember.
But I was glued to the uh TV uhevery week when um Martin Milner
(34:15):
and um George uh Harris uh wouldcome on with Route 66.
And you know, my brotheractually owned uh that uh a car
very much like the uh Corvettethey were driving across the
country in.
And so it had a lot of meaningto me.
SPEAKER_02 (34:31):
Yeah, and speaking of Corvettes, you are a Corvette
guy, am I right?
SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
Yes, and uh after I had the Pantera what caused me
to sell it, by that time I wasgetting ready to get married.
Uh my wife and my soon wife tobe and I decided we wanted to
try and buy a house.
So the Pantera I sold at aprofit and used some of the
money as a down payment of thehouse and had some left to put
(34:57):
down on a 79 uh anniversaryedition uh Corvette.
So it's the only Corvette I'veever owned, but I did really
love that car, and it was a it'sstill circulating around this
area uh somewhere.
I see it from time to time.
SPEAKER_02 (35:11):
Oh wow.
Also maroon.
So also maroon, that's yourfavorite color.
So but that was purely the luckof the draw.
SPEAKER_00 (35:18):
It was the only one I could find.
I mean, that was a hot propertyin those days.
SPEAKER_02 (35:22):
Yeah.
And your current one of yourcurrent cars, and I know
Christian wants to ask you aboutthe uh the EV portion, is a 2024
Fiat 500 E.
Is that also maroon, John?
No, it's red.
Okay.
Close.
SPEAKER_00 (35:38):
Um, I got tired.
I mean, we test everything 150cars a year, plus or minus.
We've driven everythingelectric, and I almost bought a
couple of different electrics inthe last seven years.
But I got to the point where Isaid, look, we get them in to
work, we drive them for a coupleof weeks, occasionally we have
(35:58):
one for longer.
I wanted to actually, because itlooked like we were heading down
that road, I wanted to live withone on a daily basis.
And one of my cars is a 2002Mini Cooper.
I wanted something to replacethe Mini.
Uh, it was, yeah, I still haveit, it didn't get replaced.
So I was looking around.
(36:20):
I had seen the first generationFiat 500E, not enough range.
When the second one came outwith a 150-mile range, I thought
very interesting.
I'd owned, you know, various andsundries, or I'd driven various
and sundry fiats when I was ateenager, but they wanted too
much money.
And literally, I was at a NorthAmerican car of the year drive,
(36:44):
and I was talking to theStellantis rep, and he said, Oh,
by the way, we just dropped theuh lease fee on the uh 500E to I
think$200 a month with virtuallynothing down.
I went home that night, lookedup the uh two nearest fiat
dealers, started communicatingwith them, and within about four
(37:06):
days, I took possession of one.
And uh because it was, they werepractically, they weren't giving
them away, but it was soinexpensive, I felt our family
could afford it.
And so it is one of my dailydrivers.
And uh, but I've actually boughtit for my spouse who likes
something the size of many ofthe mini to run into town and
(37:28):
come back.
So she drives it as much as Ido.
SPEAKER_02 (37:31):
Gotcha, gotcha.
What other cars are in thegarage?
SPEAKER_00 (37:34):
Oh, let's see.
Well, I mentioned the 2002 MiniCooper, one of the very first
ones that came into the US.
There was a story of I hated itwhen I until I drove it and then
I fell in love and bought itimmediately.
Uh, I have a 2003 Ford Ranger.
I wish somebody made a nicelittle tidy pickup that size
again.
Uh, the only other uhinteresting car I have is a 2014
(38:00):
um Mercedes uh SLK 250, uh,which I used to have a Miata,
but my we sold it.
My wife said it'd be nice tohave a convertible again.
And then I've got a uh a HyundaiPalisade that's uh our
dogmobile, which uh I'm veryfond of.
SPEAKER_01 (38:16):
So yeah, no, that's and and and it's it's really
high praise that you would buysomething, John, because as you
said before, just abouteverything made in this country
kind of crosses your kind ofcrosses your your your garage,
so to speak, at work.
So um yeah, high praise foranything that gets the permanent
(38:38):
stamp of approval there.
SPEAKER_02 (38:40):
Yeah, and Christian, as we were talking before this,
I and I think I shared this withJohn.
I think John slash motorweek hasdriven every car I've ever
owned.
SPEAKER_00 (38:51):
Oh you're a young man, so you know, give me
positive.
SPEAKER_02 (38:55):
Yeah, not quite.
Good point.
Good point.
SPEAKER_00 (38:58):
By my standards, you are both of you.
SPEAKER_02 (39:01):
1989, I think, was my first car.
So yeah.
And it was a Dodge Daytona.
SPEAKER_00 (39:07):
Good choice.
SPEAKER_02 (39:08):
Which yes, I saw plenty of those on your uh on
the show, and I still go back toit.
But uh what is uh obviously uhthe Pantera, I know you said
you'd love to have it back.
What's a dream card that youwould share with uh share with
our listeners?
SPEAKER_00 (39:25):
If I had the money today and I had no really other
responsibilities and I justwanted to go out and play, I'd
buy a first generation uh DodgeViper.
Uh it uh you know it's crude uhin every aspect.
It was designed by probably themost brilliant management team
that Chrysler has had in modernhistory.
(39:48):
Uh, I knew Francois Gastang, Iknew um all the folks involved
with that project.
Yeah, the car made absolutely nosense.
Um it's loud, it vibrates, butthere is no, it was, it was the
first modern car that, if youcan call it that, that seemed to
embrace the driver as a vitalpiece of the experience, not
(40:13):
just someone along for the ride.
I mean, it had a terrible top,it was hard to get in and out
of.
You could you could nearly burnyour legs every time you got
near the if it had the sideexhaust, all that.
But, you know, it was long hood,short rear deck, a top that was
a joke, but just up last todrive, and it required enormous
(40:35):
amounts of skill to do much ofanything with it.
It was a and still is a realdriver's car.
And then when they keptmodernizing it, it lost a little
bit along the way.
But that first gen Viper, uh,that's probably the closest
thing I have to a dream cartoday.
Okay.
The uh the other would be uh theold Lotus Esprit, uh, which I
(41:00):
also thought was just a fabulouscar.
SPEAKER_02 (41:02):
Yeah, yeah, beautiful, beautiful car.
SPEAKER_00 (41:04):
Or if I could get my uh my D Tommaso uh Pantera back.
SPEAKER_02 (41:07):
Yep, yep, exactly.
So on uh you mentioned Lotus andthat, and we're jumping around a
little bit, but uh one of theone of the questions we had in
our uh in preparation was what'sthe most dangerous car you've
been in, driven or been in?
And it was a lotus.
Yeah, and I'd love to hear why.
SPEAKER_00 (41:29):
Um, I was in the market for that 69 Mustang or
something like it.
I didn't know what I was gonnabuy.
And uh I popped saw one ad foruh a lotus y lawn.
And uh the uh I madearrangements to uh go see it,
and the guy really wasn't surehe wanted me to drive it yet.
(41:49):
So the first thing he had to dowas take me for a ride.
And if you remember, they werevery small, low to the ground,
and and largely plywoodunderneath the body.
So I got in it, and your uhbutt's about uh four inches off
the pavement.
And uh so any, you know, 30miles an hour felt like 6070.
So driving around in this, youknow, rudimentary seat belts,
(42:13):
totally exposed in theenvironment, and with somebody
you really didn't know, I thinkuh that was the closest.
It had the feeling it I said, ifthere is a unique feeling, and I
know there is, of flying in anopen cockpit airplane, this was
the closest I'd probably everget to that.
SPEAKER_02 (42:29):
Yep, for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (42:30):
So now the guy was a good driver, he didn't, there
was no problem.
But at that point, I said, youknow, this may be just a little
too way out for me to drive backand forth to work every way.
SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
Yep.
So um as we uh keeping a keepingtrack of time, and there's so
many things.
I I did want to ask.
We gotta let him eat dinner atsome point.
You cannot keep him here allnight.
SPEAKER_01 (42:52):
Oh, all right, all right.
SPEAKER_00 (42:54):
We uh Do I look like I need food?
Probably not.
SPEAKER_02 (43:00):
We um we did want to ask you.
So after 45 years, like what doyou think has made Motor Week um
um last the uh test of time?
SPEAKER_01 (43:13):
Great question.
Great question.
SPEAKER_02 (43:15):
Keep going, and you know, you guys have mu weathered
all the changes, including theinternet along the way and
YouTubers to your point.
SPEAKER_00 (43:25):
I would say it's consistency.
Um you know the format hasn'tchanged, but the most single
most important thing is on ourshow, most TV shows are built
around a personality.
I chose to be the host of itonly because we couldn't afford
to hire anyone else.
I had been on the air, but onlyas news.
(43:46):
I did not want to be the uh thehost, but I had no choice, and I
was so dreadful and so deadpanthat from the beginning we said
this is a show about cars, notthe people driving the cars.
So the cars are the stars, yeah.
And that has been our mantra tothis day.
(44:07):
I mean, when you think about it,you hear me a lot, but on the
average show, you probably onlysee me about two and a half
minutes out of 26, 46.
So uh it's uh it's the cars, andwe always put them first.
And I think also one more thingis that when you hear our
opinion, it is not one person ortwo persons' opinion, it is a
(44:30):
group opinion of all the folksthat work on the show.
They all get plenty of time withthe vehicles, they all
contribute to the road test.
Yeah, so you're getting a wideview and not a narrow lens when
it comes to what we think aboutit.
SPEAKER_01 (44:45):
I love that.
That's good.
And in that hall marketconsistency, I know from
watching it's been that way fordecades and decades.
So, Ed, we guide the podcastgently to the off-rent, John.
I have to ask, now is the 45thanniversary, but what do you
have planned for the 50th?
We love scoops on this show.
50 is a big, nice, big roundnumber.
(45:07):
What's what's going on?
Do we know yet?
No.
Great answer.
SPEAKER_00 (45:12):
Uh, you know, God willing in the creek don't rise.
There will be a 50th anniversaryshow.
I would not predict whether Iwill be the host anymore.
I might just be a throwback.
But uh, I think the show's goingto continue what it's doing, it
has to continue to adapt.
We talked about all the changescoming for the automobile.
But one thing I don't think wewill ever lose that will keep us
(45:36):
being somewhat unique is westill do instrumented testing of
all the vehicles we get in for aroad test.
And there's only about threepublications that still do that
anymore.
And that's something we neverwant to lose.
That scientific or at theminimum semi-scientific approach
to try and have a level playingfield.
(45:56):
So you can read our road testand really compare one vehicle
against another.
But with the young staff, uh, wekeep having being fortunate to
hire.
Uh, I think the uh young bloodwill keep us very pertinent uh
as we go forward.
At least that's wide open.
I think that's it's what's it'swhat's kept us relevant so far.
SPEAKER_01 (46:16):
It's a great plan.
It's a great plan for sure.
Well, what do you think, Doug?
Any more questions on the wayout?
We're we're kind of up against ahard break here.
SPEAKER_02 (46:24):
Oh, so many.
Um, I did want to ask John,let's see if he remembers.
If not, I'll I'll remind him.
Um, so you won an Emmy, right,for Motor Week?
Do I have that right?
SPEAKER_00 (46:36):
Well, we've won several Emmys, but not a
national Emily.
We've uh uh we've won Emmys forworking uh with uh WGN in
Chicago, producing shows aboutthe Chicago Auto Show.
I've gotten a couple of um,shall we say, long-serving
survivor uh honors from the uhChesapeake area Emmy uh folks,
(47:01):
including what they call theiruh golden circle, which, you
know, it's basically if you livelong enough and you keep in the
in the business in this area,you get it.
Uh we've never really been uhthe type of show that wins
national Emmys.
It's very difficult for a smallshow uh that's as specialized as
we do, but we are Emmy Awardwinning, and uh we're very proud
(47:22):
of it.
Absolutely.
And we've won a lot of otherawards along the ways, many of
them from very generous uhjournalists uh around the
country and their organization.
So we're very proud of uh of allof our accolades, and again, it
was a team effort.
SPEAKER_02 (47:37):
Right.
And and uh the quote that wefound in uh preparation was that
Motor Week has been the love ofmy life easily.
That was your quote.
SPEAKER_00 (47:48):
My wife would agree with that.
Okay, although she comes first,yeah, but you know, Motor Week
is probably second.
Yeah, maybe maybe my dogs are inthere somewhere between the two.
Uh but no, we've uh we decidednot to have children early on,
and so Motor Week's our baby,and I know she feels the same
way.
SPEAKER_02 (48:07):
That that is that's a partner you want for life,
yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (48:12):
Uh that in that aspect, I am the luckiest human
being on earth.
SPEAKER_01 (48:17):
There you go.
There you go.
You are indeed blessed, and itit's been really a pleasure to
spend some time here with you,John.
Um, I I was really excited whenDoug got a hold of you, and it's
great to see you and spend timewith you, but the something
about your voice is just magic.
Um, so it's just been been areal real treat to spend some
time with you.
(48:37):
Thank you for making time for ustoday.
SPEAKER_00 (48:39):
Christian and Doug, it's absolutely been my
pleasure.
And uh for the rest of thestory, come back sometime.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (48:46):
You got it.
You have just heard the highrevving, low mileage late model
heard round the worldauthoritative podcast on
automotive nostalgia.
Check us out at carslove.com.
You know where to catch JohnDavis.
You have for the past 45 years,uh 45th anniversary, check out
his YouTube, uh, motorweek.com,uh, public television, uh, all
(49:08):
over the place.
You'll know where to find him.
If you like what you hear fromus, let us know.
He's at Doug at CarsLove.com.
Check us out at carslove.com.
Or can you give the link tree,Doug?
Sure.
L-I-N-K-T-R dot e slashcarsloved.
There you have it.
So on the way out, I am surewe'll see you at the next local
car show, showroom race trip, orconcor.
(49:30):
We appreciate just taking alaugh with us, and we'll see you
next time.
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