Driving Cool Stuff Fast with Fred Ashmore | Starting Strength Radio #99

Mark Rippetoe | March 12, 2021

8-uJy1Dlh50: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

https://youtu.be/8-uJy1Dlh50: this 8-uJy1Dlh50 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Mark Wulfe:
From The Aasgaard Company Studios in beautiful Wichita Falls, Texas... From the finest mind in the modern fitness industry... The one true voice in the strength and conditioning profession.. The most important podcast on the internet.. Ladies and gentlemen...Starting Strength Radio!

Mark Rippetoe:
Welcome back to Starting Strength Radio. It's Friday, but it's about to be Saturday so fast,= you can't believe it. Because today we're talking to Fred Ashmore again.

Mark Rippetoe:
Fred is our buddy that ran the Cannonball Run, the famous race from ..well, it's a timed event, it's not really a race, just one person at a time doing it. From a garage in Manhattan to another, a hotel in Southern California, Los Angeles or something. And he did this in about three and a half hours, and it's never been done that fast before and...Well, it was...what did it actually take?

Fred Ashmore:
It took me the better part of twenty five hours and fifty five minutes.

Mark Rippetoe:
Twenty five hours and 55 minutes, which is less than twenty six hours now.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, you can't do that. OK, let me point out that you people can't do that. And the way Fred did it is he had a lot of gasoline in tanks, in the car. He had modified the car. Took the seats out, replaced them with gas tanks so that he only had to stop for gas like once in Oklahoma. And, and just drove real goddamn fast the the rest of the time.

Mark Rippetoe:
I think your average speed was one hundred and six, is that right?

Fred Ashmore:
The overall average was one six. My moving average was one hundred and ten.

Mark Rippetoe:
So overall, average of one hundred and six miles an hour. And you'll notice the the matter of fact way that Fred addresses this fact. Fred is different than you and I.

Mark Rippetoe:
And what we want to talk to Fred about today is something that is of interest to you and I: Fred knows cars. And I wanted to talk to Fred about cars. Now we all like cars here at Starting Strength Radio. We've all got nice cars. We kind of think they're fun. Right?

Mark Rippetoe:
I think they're fun. I've got a couple of pretty cool cars. I've had several pretty cool cars. Nick's got some cool cars. We, you know, the kids, of course, are just children and they don't have any. They don't have cars. They don't think about them like that. Rusty's just a child. Bre's just a little girl. And, you know, eventually they will eventually, eventually maybe end up with a neat car.

Mark Rippetoe:
But those of you guys listening to the listening to Starting Strength Radio today appreciate cars. And I wanted to talk to Fred about cars. And I think we'll start off the show with asking Fred bbout his favorite cars.

Mark Rippetoe:
What do you what do you like, Fred? You've driven a hell of a bunch of cars real fast. What's been your favorite one to drive real fast?

Fred Ashmore:
You know, I was very blessed to be able to get a lot of the cool cars I always wanted as a child. There's a couple that have escaped me that I haven't had the opportunity. Years and years ago when I was a kid, I got to ride in a Lamborghini, which which always caught my interest.

Fred Ashmore:
I really am an American muscle car guy, really, the American muscle car, as it morphed into like your Panteras, your De Tomaso Mangusta, you know, cars like that. I really enjoy kind of the the Carroll Shelby style ace where they put the big motors in it. That's really my style.

Fred Ashmore:
I've always had a really, really soft spot for, you know, mid 70s Aston Martin. Kind of looks like a Mustang II, but for some reason, that car's always caught my attention.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, it's beautiful car, yeah.

Fred Ashmore:
That will be the one that that eventually when I get retired and settle down that'll be the one in the garage. You know someday, when we stop doing this stuff and I just do some cars and coffee or, you know, settle down a little bit, which I really don't plan on doing any time soon, that that Aston Martin is probably one that will fill up the garage.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, the Aston Martin you're talking about is the James Bond car, right? No, that's the 60s. That was the DB 4, right or the DB three?

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, yeah. This is this is a later Aston Martin. I only I've only ever come across that a couple of times up for sale. And it's it's still obtainable for a guy like me to to have, you know. It's not, you know, ridiculous, like the DB, the DB4s or the DB6s and stuff.

Fred Ashmore:
So, you know, it's it's one of those cars I've always loved. I, I don't know what it was that kind of attracted me to that car. But, you know, that's the cool thing about cars is certain things about all cars attract people. That's why we have people that collect Pacers or Gremlins or, you know, get cars or what have you. So there's always something about them that draws you to them.

Fred Ashmore:
And that Aston Martin is something that I've always kind of caught my eye and it's different enough that everybody doesn't like it. That's that's one of the clichés I really, really stay away from. I'm not a cliché car guy.

Fred Ashmore:
I happen to have like four Mustangs, but most of the Mustangs I have had have been, you know, odd Mustangs or the semi-unobtainables that I saw as a childhood.

Fred Ashmore:
And and so I really like... I've got a couple of preproduction cars, prerelease cars, corporate cars that I have in my fleet, that... Those are the type of things I like to collect. They're different enough that it's it's kind of a niche thing. A lot of your experimental cars are very niche or very cliche. People either like them or they don't.

Fred Ashmore:
And just like a baseball card, a car is only worth what somebody else wants to pay for it so. Along the lines, I've managed to pick up a couple of these cars, promotional cars, that Ford had and kind of squirrelled them away. And who knows, maybe some day they'll be worth something.

Mark Rippetoe:
Have you driven the Aston Martin you're talking about or is this just something you've seen?

Fred Ashmore:
No, I've never I've never had the opportunity to drive one. I've really I really never met anybody that has one, to the point where I've never even actually got to be in person with one. I've been in person with the James Bond ones and the later Aston Martins that they've come out with, but that this model's kind of eluded me and eluded my friends as far as anybody having one around here.

Fred Ashmore:
So, you know, I can send you a picture of it and of what it looks like. And it's it's kind of like I said, it kind of has a slight resemblance to a Mustang II, you know, with the front of the car. But it also is different enough that it's not everybody's car that they want.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, let's talk about the Mustangs. You you mentioned Mustangs. I've only had one Mustang. I just sold my 2010 Shelby GT500. And I just got through selling that a couple of months ago. And I have got a... Now I've got a Porche, I've got a 911 Carrera S Porche. And I've got a rather special BMW M6 and I...

Mark Rippetoe:
Compared to those cars, I could not stand the way that Mustang drove. I just hated it. It scared me. It was a frightening experience to drive. You get that thing up to 110 miles an hour and it's... It may not stay on the ground.

Fred Ashmore:
It can be a handful. You get you get north of the triple digits in those... And that's always been a Mustang thing. And I think they they've curtailed a lot of that with reintroducing the IRS back under them.

Fred Ashmore:
Ford first did that in, I believe, the two thousand three Terminators. And they got a lot of flack from motorsports in general. So they went back to the live axle and took it away from the 03, 04 car. And as soon as they did that, everybody said, well, why didn't why didn't you leave the IRS in the back of it? And so when they come out with the 15 model, they put the IRS back in them.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, this this thing had a solid rear rear end. It just... Solid axle, rear end. And it was... The oversteer on that thing was just horrible. And oh God, I hated it. I really did, I didn't like it at first, I didn't know why I didn't like it, but then I, I got the investigating and that it's that the independent rear suspension is kind of important if you're going to go fast, right?

Fred Ashmore:
Oh, definitely. Definitely. And I think I think, like you said, that that 99 to 04 Cobera with that IRS in the back of it made it such a better car to drive.

Fred Ashmore:
When I built my fox body, the seventy nine Cobra that I broke the event record with that car. I put IRS in the back of it. The Cobra four cam and the car was, was just a dream to drive for Fox body.

Fred Ashmore:
And I really think that, you know, Ford kind of went against the grain going backwards and putting a solid live axle back in that. And I think it took away from them for a while. And and I think they were just trying to balance that act out. And I think they finally just smartened up and went back to IRS and put their car back where it belongs.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, this thing that I had, the guy bought it from had put an adjustable Panhard bar on the back end of the thing. And I could... It didn't help at all. It was it was just a death trap. It was a fucking death trap and, you know, I'm glad somebody else is having fun with that thing.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now, in its defense, it started every time I got in it. It was good, dependable transportation. And it sounded great. And, you know, you pull up to the gas station and everybody wants to admire the damn thing.

Mark Rippetoe:
So, I mean, I had a lot of fun with it, but it just it's not a long term car to buy and keep, if you're really interested in driving the thing, you know.

Fred Ashmore:
It's really a niche car. They really build a crazy car there. I think is the 13 and 14. Those had they had a five eight you know and that thing had, I think like 660 horse from the factory. Same thing. Live Axle. And it's no wonder all these people with no experience is going out and leaving car shows and running into people and stuff because the south side catches the north side so fast.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, you can see all kinds of videos of that on on the internet. People coming out of a parking lot with too much right foot and ending up in a tree, you know. Is it the you can't control the car. It's it's it's it's a, you know, like a real, real, real fast engine in a dump truck.

Fred Ashmore:
Oh, that's a very good way to put it. I was just thinking more like a shopping cart, because you can't really control the wheels on it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Wheels aren't controllable!

Mark Rippetoe:
So, Fred, how many cars do you actually own right now?

Fred Ashmore:
Right now, everything, lock, stock and barrel probably about three hundred and thirty.

Mark Rippetoe:
Three hundred and thirty cars

Fred Ashmore:
Yep.

Mark Rippetoe:
And where do you keep them?

Fred Ashmore:
Most of them here in Oklahoma, but I have probably 30 back home in Maine. So I've got a lot of stuff. I got a lot.

Mark Rippetoe:
You do, don't you? Now...

Fred Ashmore:
I could hear the guys laugh about me in the back.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, well, they're wondering if if you've got them all tagged and insured.

Fred Ashmore:
No, no, no, no.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that would be impossible.

Fred Ashmore:
That would be foolishness. I don't license my stuff. I drive so fast, if I'm going to get pulled over, I'm going to jail anyway.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that's probably true. And as Fred told us last time, he's never been to jail.

Fred Ashmore:
Nope, I've never been.

Mark Rippetoe:
Now were I to behave that way, things would be different.

Fred Ashmore:
I never said I never should have gone to jail.

Mark Rippetoe:
That's a different matter entirely.Oh, God Almighty.

Mark Rippetoe:
So what...if you were going to build a car - and maybe you've done this - to drive, you know, around town. Which, you know, would mean, you know, just normal use. One hundred and five miles an hour occasionally. You know, good low RPM torque, you know, a fun car to drive. What would it be?

Fred Ashmore:
Fun car to drive. Man, it's awful tough for me to tend to not like just the the last series of the four eyed foxes, the eighty six, eighty six Fox body. I really, really liked that car.

Mark Rippetoe:
So you're talking about a Mustang, right?

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
Which one which ones were these?

Fred Ashmore:
The Four eyed Foxes were the first series. They went from seventy nine to eighty six and then in eighty seven they changed them over to the plastic headlights. So what they call the arrow swap. And then the fox was the fox - the original Fox series was done in ninety three.

Mark Rippetoe:
And and this was a, this is a model of Mustang that was produced by Ford or this is just an aftermarket modification to a stock car? What?

Fred Ashmore:
No, they call four-eyed foxes because they had four four square headlights as adverse to the later ones that had the plastic headlight. So they always called them four eyes. That was kind of a term that they started using loosely for the the first series of Fox bodies. And the last year for them was nineteen eighty six.

Mark Rippetoe:
And the Fox body was which one?

Fred Ashmore:
The Fox body was the little... It was after the Mustang II, the first series right after the Mustang II. And the original Fox body, four-eyed, ran from seventy nine to eighty six.

Mark Rippetoe:
They made that car for how long?

Fred Ashmore:
The actual first series made made it for seven years. And then the second series of it, what's called the Arrow Cars, they ran from eighty seven to to ninety three. That's that's the GT Mustang that you see in all the Vanilla Ice videos. And and like, you know, all the 80s TV shows like Magnum P.I. and stuff like that, you'd see a lot of those, those eighty seven to ninety three GTs there.

Fred Ashmore:
The platform of the fox they ran all the way to two thousand four, but Mustang lies to me. The true Fox bodies are the are the first first series of the Mustang.

Mark Rippetoe:
What did they put in those?

Fred Ashmore:
All the they started out with... They started out with everything from a four cylinder right up to the biggest motor they actually ever put in one from the factory was just a 302. They did get modded, Roush modded one with, I believe, a twin turbo charged 351 for the Mustang anniversary car. And there was a couple of companies out there that stuck some three fifty one Windsors in them, but there were nothing that was factory in the first series.

Fred Ashmore:
The second series, they put a 351 Windsor in the Cobra R model and then they turned into the modular 4654 motors. That's similar to the Coyote you see today.

Mark Rippetoe:
So in a situation like this for just a driving around town car like that, you would prefer one of these to a Corvette?

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, honestly, um I'm not a Corvette fan.

Mark Rippetoe:
I have...I could agree. I don't like them. I don't... I think they're stupid looking. I think the best looking one they ever made was a stupid looking car, and I just don't like that body style. I don't like a two seater, I like a coupe. I don't like a two seater, but they haven't ever had the rear end correctly. It just doesn't look good to me and... I mean, like a sixty four is nice, that looks like a car, right? But the rest of these things all look like Hot Wheels to me. And it just they're just silly looking. And I've never wanted one, I've never owned one, never had any reason to even ask about one. Just, you know, not on my screen at all. That you... You feel the same way about it, I guess.

Fred Ashmore:
No... Everybody's always ask me about the 70s Corvettes, and I always told everyone, I said - save you the money, go out by a 16 foot aluminum boat, put a big motor on the back of it and ride it across a choppy lake. Now you have a Corvette.

Fred Ashmore:
It's no different. You sit down in the back of them, you're trying to look over the front. You've got these, like bat wings up on the front. You can't see anything. They ride like crap. They really don't handle that great. Just to me, they were just an overpriced novelty.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. Right. Blindspots your bad. And Corvettes have always been bad about blindspots. I had a I had three Z cars back, awhile back. I had the first one was in 84, then I had a 90, then I had a 95 three hundred ZX. Fun little cars to drive, handled great, but my God, Blindspot City. You you can't see out of the back of the damn thing.

Fred Ashmore:
No, and I was very surprised when I drove the new Camaro, you know, that, you know, Chevrolet kept that on without being able to see out of them. The Z cars I like. I'm always liked, you know, right from the first series of the Z cars, you know, right up front. You come out with three hundred of my biggest issue of the Z cars is just not fitting in it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right.

Fred Ashmore:
Just that to me, it was like tattooing a Nissan on my chest. There's really, really no way for me to fit in it and feel comfortable.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, I've I've really enjoyed mine. I drove those things for about 20 years and. Hell, that first one, that 84 had a... That was the first year they put that V6. That was that... A three oh three liter V6 Factory balanced engine. I bought that thing and drove it for a long time. And it had two hundred and seventy five thousand miles on it when I got... When I sold it to a buddy of mine's son. And that rotten little bastard drove the car up until it was I think he had 340,000 miles on that. And and he wrecked it.

Mark Rippetoe:
It was still running like a sewing machine. You know, I mean, Nissan knows how to make an engine and man, that thing, they must have made 50 million of those little three liter V6s. That was a great little engine.

Fred Ashmore:
Oh, I think I've only ever replaced one of them. And I think.. You see, where I'm from in Maine is they they usually don't get those miles because they rot out. So, you know, you'll have great motor and a great, great car, but, you know, all of a sudden you'll go out one day and the lower control arm will be hanging out on the ground or, you know, some broken out of it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Rusted off, right?

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah. Now you have this great motor, but you have you have no shell left to put it in. So now that Nissan motor is a great motor and I really like the Z cars. And I think it's along the same lines of what we talked about, you know, with like the Corvette. It's a niche that you like them, something that attracts you to them. And they're they have a great following. The Z following is amazing. I have I've sold lots of parts for the Z guys over the years. And and most of them are really good guys. And and it's actually a really good product. The car.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, it's excellent car. Excellent car. That they quit making those in 96. And the last one I had was in 95, and that was a beautiful body, too, that the last generation Z car was a pretty car. And they weren't just insanely fast, you know, they're like 300 horsepower car, but they were they were just fun to drive.

Fred Ashmore:
Were pocket rocket.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, yeah, it was a great little car. And Nick's got one of the new ones. What is your model? You have a 15?

[off-camera]:
It's a 15 370Z, 2015.

Mark Rippetoe:
And they didn't make a coupe in that. They just, that's a two seater.

[off-camera]:
They've been to two-seaters since the 350Z.

Mark Rippetoe:
THey didn't make a... they used to call that a two plus two.

[off-camera]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
That's what they called both of them I had. We had a back seat. And I like the way the body looked with that little bit longer body. I thought it was a pretty good car to see.

[off-camera]:
And in the new one, the four hundred that's coming out is still a two seater, I think they're just going to stick with two seater, if I'm not mistaken.

Mark Rippetoe:
Probably are. What engine is in your's three and a half liter.

[off-camera]:
Three point seven.

Mark Rippetoe:
Three point.... 370.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, I've I've driven Nick's car and it's a it's a fun little car. You know, it's not as fast as this other shit I've got, but...

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, it's really tough. You know, I talk about the Fox body that, you know, I'd like to drive if I was just driving around grocery gettin, riding around town. I really I really think it's tough to beat the new cars. It's it's really tough to get in an old car and hope the AC works, or hopefully...

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, I hope the carburetor float doesn't stick and hydro lock the engine. Yeah. There's so many advantages to newer cars. Oh my God. I used to have an old 79 model Chevrolet pickup, three quarter ton pickup that I would haul horses down the highway in an old bumper pool trailer.

Mark Rippetoe:
And I had beef the rear end of that truck up. It had eleven leaves in the spring set. And it didn't drive normally until you had a trailer on the bumper with three horses in the back of the thing.

Mark Rippetoe:
But the the way a modern truck drives versus that death trap son of a bitch, it it's night and day. I'm surprised I'm still alive. I really am, because that was a dangerous vehicle to be driving around because it sways from side to side. And it just, you know, it didn't have a front end of any description in it. And it was...

Mark Rippetoe:
The advances in... I mean, a modern Camry handles better than that DB3 that you're talking about.

Fred Ashmore:
Definitely.

Mark Rippetoe:
A modern Camry is better than that. It's it's amazing what they have done with with with the chassis and suspension components of modern cars. It just it's like night and day. Imagine driving a 53 Chevrolet. You know, the shifter up on the column and you know.

Fred Ashmore:
My dad has a fifty three Henry J. A Fifty three, Henry J. Kaiser and I drive that around town when I'm back home in Maine.

Mark Rippetoe:
Just for the challenge.

Fred Ashmore:
Oh its... you know, when you don't you don't ride on anybody's bumper either because you need at least 10 car lengths to stop it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah. Yeah I didn't... The brakes they put in those things are. A suggestion. You know, I am now going to suggest to the car that it begins to slow down. You know, and several days later, come to a...

Fred Ashmore:
People don't realize that the breaks back then, most pe... Most cars were manual, so they used the motor to stop more so than the brakes. So they would actually gear the car down before it got to the stop sign. Well, people now just smash on the brake when they get to the stop sign and that they rely on all the brakes to stop.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, drum brakes, you know, were not as effective at slowing the car down as the engine was. You know, I mean, if if some people, older people, you know, that learned to slow down with the engine a long time ago don't realize that a modern car with disc brakes, you don't use the engine to slow the car down. That's what the brakes are for. But hell, that's not the way it used to be.

Fred Ashmore:
No, no, not at all.

Mark Rippetoe:
Have you ever driven... And this is a and you may have you may have driven one of these damn things. Have you ever driven an old nice car like a cord or an Auburn or a Duesenberg?

Fred Ashmore:
I've driven a Pierce Arrow. A Pierce Arrow. I'm not sure if you're terribly familiar.

Mark Rippetoe:
I yeah, I, I remember the Pierce arrow that was I'm old enough to where people were driving those back when I was a little kid.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, yeah, you had to have been a pretty little kid. These old buggers... There was actually a lawsuit from Pierce Arrow sued Ford Motor Company because the one thing Pierce Arrow was known for was their headlights coming out of their fenders.

Fred Ashmore:
So when Ford adopted that platform in the late 30s, Pierce Arrow actually sued them. And I can't remember what the outcome was in court. I don't know if they had to pay royalties or not. But your Pierce Arrow was really around the lines of early Rolls Royce, which I. I hadn't driven one, but I've been in one of the early Rolls Royces before as well.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. My brother in-law had a Packard at one time. That's how old I am.

Fred Ashmore:
I got a forty seven, I got a forty seven.

Mark Rippetoe:
This probably was a. Late 40s, Packard. I remember it, it was dark green. A pretty car. Pretty car. Lacquer on it, I think.

Fred Ashmore:
I got a forty seven Packard limousine.

Mark Rippetoe:
Do you?

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
But you've never driven a cord or an Auburn, right?

Fred Ashmore:
No, that's... When you start getting into cars like that. I enjoy those cars, but that's kind of where I'm different from a lot of people. I can look at a car and I can enjoy it for what it brought to history and its aesthetics. But I also understand the difference between at a certain point when you get into cars like that, you don't own the car. The car owns you.

Fred Ashmore:
And so I'm very much I can appreciate their spot in history, but it's something that I'm just as content looking at as I would be to driving it just because, you know, it's one of those deals. Anything silly could happen.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. It's just not... You're right. It's it's almost as though. Yeah, I see what you mean by that. You're owning a piece of history if you've got a Duesenberg and you're you're more responsible to it than it ever will be to you. You know, I mean, they haven't made parts for those cars in 70 years and they're just a lot of trouble to drive.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, most of all that stuff Jay Leno has? Jay Leno is, you know, president of the more money than God Club. And and a lot of times he's out... He has to have parts made because they just don't exist. When you have something that's in that category, you know, somebody somebody like me, if that was my car, I would never want to own it because I wouldn't want to drive it.

Fred Ashmore:
And my car I'd be taking the Duesenberg down to McDonald's if it was my car. And it's just I'm not the right person for that car. I didn't appreciate it in that way, whereas I enjoy cars and I had a really good buddy, I have a 70 Boss too. I'm building and been building for years, belonged to my uncle. And my buddy said to me, he goes, you know, I really wish I built my Boss 302 to like, you're doing yours.

Fred Ashmore:
And I asked him why. And that's where this came from. You know what I've been saying about them owning you. He said, I can't enjoy my car. He goes, I have an MCA gold Boss 302, he said I might be able to drive it once a year on a really good day, he said, but the rest of the year it has a heated garage, climate controlled. I have to carry a ridiculous amount of insurance on it. And honestly, he said, you know, the car owns me. I don't get to enjoy my car that I care so much.

Fred Ashmore:
And he goes, and you're actually building your car so you can race it across the country or you can drive wherever you want to go. And you're you're not you're you're doing it right is what he said to me. There's there's plenty of cars that deserve that pedigree. And, you know, the Cords and Duesenberg are the cars from the history that do. I'm that guy. If it's in my garage, it's going to get driven.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. Well, that's an interesting that's an interesting thing to talk about. There are two types of people that buy a lot of cars. There are guys like your buddy - and I've got a friend that does the same thing. He's got several cars, but he he ends up keeping them in a garage and taking them out to the car wash and driving them back. And he just likes own into things. He's a collector. And these aren't even particularly hideously expensive cars. It's just stuff he likes. And he but he doesn't drive it right.

Mark Rippetoe:
On the other hand, I've got this stupid BMW M6 with a stroker motor in it, that's, you know, six hundred and seventy five horsepower car and it's just.. You know, it's a three pedal M6. It's a rare car, think they made three hundred 23 of the damn things in the six year production rub, they made 323 of these cars with a clutch and I've got one. This damn thing is way too fast, but I drive it. I drive it every day I can drive it. It stays dirty. I don't care if the paint is scratched, I don't care if it's got door dings on it, I drive the car.

Mark Rippetoe:
I don't... I don't house the car, I drive the car. And it sounds like you're kind of the same kind of person, I wouldn't anymore have a Duesenberg and tie up that kind of capital in something I can't actually enjoy because I can't enjoy it if I'm looking at it. If I just want to look at it, I'll just get a picture of a Duesenberg.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, that's exactly, you know. Exactly.

Mark Rippetoe:
But if I can't get in it and drive the damn thing around... And from what I understand, those cars are a lot of fun drive. That's 100 mile an hour car. Made in1935 or whatever the hell they had, their little short production run was, they were one hundred mile an hour car. Now on on 50 mile an hour tires.

Fred Ashmore:
Exactly. Very very true. Non-radial tires.

Mark Rippetoe:
Bias ply tires. Going one hundred miles an hour down the highway. You have to have a screw loose to do something like that. But they didn't know any better. They didn't know what a radial tire was back then.

Fred Ashmore:
That was the best they had and it didn't matter. I mean, that was that was the way it was. You know, to say you went one hundred miles an hour back then was a big deal. That was that was an accomplishment.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah. Didn't...most stuff didn't do that. And an Auburn that would go one hundred and ten miles an hour and that's a that was a wealthy man's cars again. It was a it was an organized crime boss's car.

Fred Ashmore:
And boy, I remember watching Packard set all those land speed records. It was old film, but they showed from back in the 30s when Packard went to a racetrack and drove for somebody. Back then, it was ridiculous speed for a certain number of hours. And and just the endurance and stuff that that really had something to say back then. And, you know, you're looking, you know, 90 years later and you look back on that stuff for their time and their technology, you know, where they were and what they accomplished was was really mind blowing.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, it was quite a deal in the 30s, going 100 miles an hour. People thought you would die if you went 100 miles an hour. Just human body can't go that fast.

Fred Ashmore:
Well, here's an odd perspective to put on it. Most of your major manufacturers didn't even have hydraulic brakes at that point. Most of them still had mechanical rod brakes or cable brakes.

Mark Rippetoe:
I hadn't even thought about that. That's true. They didn't have any kind of hydraulics anywhere on that car. The clutch was a mechanical clutch. Just a linkage.

Fred Ashmore:
I'm pretty sure General Motors was was one of the first with the hydraulics, you know, they started in the 30s. But I know Ford didn't come along with their hydraulic brakes, I think until like, thirty eight. Thirty nine. So, I mean, and they were these were the big time manufacturers. So, you know, you're talking about these guys with hand-built cars like Duesenberg, like Cord, like Ogburn. There's so many more we can name Packard. Packard was a little more production car. Pierce Arrow. And they're out doing stuff over 100 miles an hour on very skeptical brakes at best.

Mark Rippetoe:
And, you know, on a track, not on the highway, obviously. You know, you can't drive a car like that on the highway if you might have to stop.

Fred Ashmore:
Or or how about this? Let's go another step up, a wooden wheels, you're not far out of the wood wheel era.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, well, it's certainly true. I wonder how you balance a wooden wheel. It gets wet, it gets out of balance.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, you go through a puddle and your spokes start swelling up.

Mark Rippetoe:
Part of the spokes, starts swelling.

Fred Ashmore:
Depending onn how old the tree was and how good it dried.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. Oh, God.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well. What about cars that everybody else likes and that you don't?

Fred Ashmore:
Everybody else likes that, I don't.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, we already talked about a Corvette, you know, Corvette is a good example of that. Everybody, you know, most people think that the pinnacle of American automotive technology is the is the Chevrolet Corvette and...

Fred Ashmore:
We can touch on the Corvette for a minute and here's my perspective on it, and some people are going to throw rocks at the radio.

Fred Ashmore:
My issue with the Corvette is really simple. Corvette has always followed technology. They've never been the pinnacle of technology. When the C8 came out, all the Chevrolet guys were like, oh, my word. The second coming of Christ you know.

Fred Ashmore:
Well, that's awesome, but. You know, Ford had that technology in the 60s and ran it for years and, you know, that mid engine technology's been around for almost 60 years. Why is why is this some great pinnacle of American sports car that we're finally releasing a miniature Corvette? And, you know, in the 2020s.

Fred Ashmore:
That's that's really not the pinnacle of technology. When you look at it, you can look back, you know, way back into the 60s, you could buy a CT40 and drive it on the street. I mean, or a Pantera. You could buy a Pantera and drive it on the street.

Fred Ashmore:
So that's that's really my my thoughts behind the Corvette when it comes to technology to me. I think it's a great I think it's it's good. I like that they've come out with see, my point basically behind it is I think they're kind of always behind the eight ball in the fact that it took them so long to build one.

Fred Ashmore:
But in realistics, you know, what General Motors has always done is they've always kind of... They're the guys who's always let everybody else test the waters. OK, you just you jump off the cliff first and let's see if you live when you hit the water.

Fred Ashmore:
And then so then you jump in and, you know, you're right over your head and you swim to shore and stuff and you do it several times. Well, now that they go, it's safe. They're going to jump off and they're going to do a backflip.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, speaking of that, whatever happened to the Fiero? Do you remember that car?

Fred Ashmore:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Mark Rippetoe:
That was a mid engine car. That...

Fred Ashmore:
I actually got a kick out of the Fiero because when the C8 came out, I said, well, well, that's great. I'm glad Corvette brought out a new face for the kid cars of America, so the Fiero can now be retired.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, God, they only made that thing, what, three or four years?

Fred Ashmore:
Oh, man, made a couple of versions of it, too, they had a four cylinder version and they had a six version and they had a Fastback version of it.

Mark Rippetoe:
That was a Pontiac label, wasn't it?

Fred Ashmore:
Yes, Pontiac. Let's go back to further than that, how about the Corvair.

Mark Rippetoe:
I had a Corvair. I had a sixty four model Corvair. No, it was a sixty five, a sixty five model Corvair with a flat four engine in that thing. Had a boxer motor in it. And I had that thing a couple of years, I bought it real used.

Mark Rippetoe:
But I tell you what, I loved that little car. It was fun to drive a little car. The thing handled flat. It was it was a great little car and. You know, then Ralph Nader had to had to come along and destroy the thing, but... Because the gas tank, for those of you who don't remember, the gas tank was in the front. And, you know, they faked up some video of explosions and people, you know, burning to death in the front seat of a Corvair, and it just so Chevrolet had to discontinue the damn things. But those were good little cars now.

Fred Ashmore:
So do you do you remember that back then - a Corvair was a spoof off of the Volkswagen because I had that pancake six in it. And they actually made a Corvair bus called the Greenbriar that actually had the same rear engine mount in it. But like the Volkswagen, it didn't have any heat. So my dad had one back in the day, the side door on it, and he actually had a propane heater in it so you could...

Mark Rippetoe:
If I remember correctly, my Corvair was the first car I owned. That had a manual transmission. And that I don't believe I had... No, I think I had a truck prior to that that had a three speed manual in it.

Mark Rippetoe:
And nowadays, the... I think the numbers are that the national fleet in the United States is ninety six percent automatic transmission. Does that sound about right?

Fred Ashmore:
That would not surprise me at all.

Mark Rippetoe:
I mean, the overwhelming vast majority is automatic transmissions. And I have always... I mean, I don't own a car with an automatic transmission, I will not buy one. It's just.. I'm just odd in that way. And I'd like to drive the car, I like to shift gears. I think it's part of driving the car is operating the engine as it interfaces with the wheels. And not letting the transmission do that for me, just like the control that I have when I'm in charge of the engine power at the wheels.

Mark Rippetoe:
What do you think about the trend away from manual transmission? The only good thing about it that I can think of right now is that most people can't steal any of my cars because they don't know how to drive the damn things.

Fred Ashmore:
Well, that's a good anti-theft. And and you had asked me before I kind of beat up on the a little bit of what was the thing I don't like about cars. And I think probably one of the biggest things I do not like about cars is the fact that they nannyized them. So, you know,

Fred Ashmore:
Everything from... And I think are a lot of it started with the Ford Explorer, you know, people driving around on flat tires, rolling trucks over, and it became Ford's fault. And so I think we were probably raised around the same time where, you know, we were taught how to change a flat tire, that was part of driver's ed class. I already knew how to do it. But now we got tire sensor monitors to tell you if your tire's flat. We have...

Mark Rippetoe:
And they never work.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah. Yeah. They're always broken.

Mark Rippetoe:
They're always broken.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah. And that's the same thing with a manual transmission, I think. I think ninety nine percent of the time, the reason we have the problems we do and a lot of accidents is because people don't understand the machinery they're operating.

Fred Ashmore:
If you're going to go be a forklift driver in a forklift plant, you need to take a class on how to operate a forklift or you're supposed to, not that I do. But they do that because people need to understand the machinery that they're driving and taking all the controls.

Fred Ashmore:
We're almost in an autonomous, you know, era where people aren't even going to drive the car anymore. I think that what's happened is, you know, the first the first thing to kind of castrate the automobile was to take the shifter out of it. You know, that's kind of a pun, I understand. But, you know, you take the manual shifter out...

Mark Rippetoe:
No, that's that's exactly what they've done. You just.. you set it one time, put it in drive and just now your right foot is driving the car. And that's the only thing that you have to... The only way you interact with the car is with your right foot. And it's it's just it's not any fun.

Fred Ashmore:
No, no, no, and that's that's to me, it has been become the death of the automobile. We're basically getting to the point now we're just riding in... You know, the car tells you... I mean, it's gotten to the point now if a car gets up alongside you, your car starts beeping in the mirror because there's a car next to you.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right.

Fred Ashmore:
You know, if you're somebody too close to you or you're approaching too fast, it starts beeping and applying the brakes. I mean, to me, the biggest thing I don't like about cars is the nannyization because I think number one, it takes a lot of responsibility away from the person behind the wheel and puts it on the manufacturers.

Fred Ashmore:
Where the way I look at is the manufacturer gave you something to drive. It's up to you to learn how to drive it properly.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's heading in one direction. It's heading in the direction that if you have a wreck, the manufacturers is is liable, not you. I mean, I see it going in that direction.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, well, you look at it with the air bags. I mean, they've already they're already you know, General Motors had all those air bags with taqiyya keko or something.

Mark Rippetoe:
Takata is the name of that company. And you know that that company is owned... You wonder what Takata has not been sued by everybody out of existence? Because it's owned by the manufacturers. It's a wholly owned subsidiary of both Ford and GM and Chrysler. And the Japanese companies are all involved in it so that they are providing products to the to the car manufacturers and the car manufacturers aren't going to sue themselves.

Mark Rippetoe:
I've got recalls on two pickups that I've got that I just hadn't... I need to go get it done. I just been fucking around and hadn't done it. But I have to have that driver's column airbag replaced so that it doesn't launch shrapnel through your chest when, you know if you hit a pig on the highway or something like that.

Mark Rippetoe:
I hit a...I've only had an airbag deploy one time, I hit a feral hog on my way home one night in my in my M6. And I was probably going 60. And I hit this two hundred and fifty pound hog. Oh, it was it was...Oh, it was quite surprising and. And my knee airbag deployed.

Mark Rippetoe:
I didn't even know there was an knee air bag and the damn thing hits me in the shin, just bruised the fuck out of me. And you know, of course, the steering column air bags and get that dust all over you and shit and I...

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, they wanted to total that car out because the airbags had deployed?

Fred Ashmore:
Oh, I see it all the time.

Mark Rippetoe:
And I, I just had to yell at them and argue with them and shit to leave me alone and just play the... I mean, the claim ended up being 15 grand. That car is worth a lot of money because all the aftermarket shit that's on it. But they wanted to total the car on the basis of the safety equipment going off. That's how built into this business model all that.. the safety equipment in that car is now.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, well, I think what you find is it's a coconut shell game where, you know, everybody sues everybody. And everybody puts everybody in line as to who's going to get sued. And when one person isn't sued, well, and they move the coconut to the back of the line and, you know, try to sue the next person.

Fred Ashmore:
And, you know, the airbags, you know, like you said, those companies, the insurance companies, are trying to take their liability out of it and say, hey, your car is totaled, we don't have to fix it because they look at a secondary liability. Car gets fixed and they wreck it again. Airbag doesn't go off. This doesn't happen, now we're, you know, back to an insurance company because, you know, it gets back to what you said about the manufacturers. Somebody's got to be at fault.

Fred Ashmore:
I've only had one airbag go off in my face. And I was working... I had worked a really, really long shift, a couple of days in a row. And I was on my way home and I fell asleep and I rolled my truck. It hit it hit the culvert of a driveway and went end for end and when it come down to come down on the back bumper. And the airbag went off and blew my face through the back of the cab, blew my head through the back of the cab of a regular cab pickup.

Mark Rippetoe:
Wow.

Fred Ashmore:
See the scars. Ripped my face all off over here. And I didn't sue anybody.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well well, you're a nice guy, Fred. That would have been very tempting, wouldn't it? The un... No, I agree with I agree with that. I think that. There's got to be a point at which any car worth having is going to be 15, 20 years old.

Mark Rippetoe:
I mean, from what I understand Mercedes Benz hasn't put a clutch in a car since 05. It's not even an option. You can't buy those little fast Mercedes with a with a manual transmission.

Fred Ashmore:
No, an AMG, no.

Mark Rippetoe:
BMW is the same way. They've stopped putting a manual transmission in a car. You can't buy one.

Fred Ashmore:
Well, I'm sure on the warranty. And if it has probably become, you know, so few people can even drive them now, that it's become at the expense of the dealers, the warranty, if it burned out and you know.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah. Having to stock parts, you know.

Mark Rippetoe:
I've got to dodge pickups. I've got they're both four door, long, wide beds. One is four wheel drive, one is two wheel drive. They got the 5.9 Cumins in them and there's three quarter ton work trucks, towing vehicles. You cannot buy a three quarter ton pickup in the United States right now with a with a stick, with a manual transmission.

Fred Ashmore:
No, you can't.

Mark Rippetoe:
You have to get up into the one ton class before you can order one with a stick. It has to be a commercial truck that before you can find it on a manual transmission in the truck.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah, and I'm thinking almost, too, that you might even go so far as to might even have to be a diesel.

Mark Rippetoe:
I don't know it maybe it does.

Fred Ashmore:
I think it does. I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that. But I think we've gotten to the point now where it's got to be a diesel. I'm pretty sure most of your Ford trucks ended back in the early 2000s, you know, with their half ton pickups. Used to be able to get that little crappy 4.2 V6 they had with a five speed behind it. And that's all gone. And the Ranger pickups for all all the standards had been taken away from them. So, yeah, I really think you're probably right. It's...

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, as and as a result, that that four wheel drive truck I've got, it's an 04 model is right this minute, it's worth what I paid for it. Because people want those things. People want them.

Fred Ashmore:
And we're going to be looking like Cuba here in a few years if people driving these old cars...

Mark Rippetoe:
Everybody driving an 05 truck.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, just, you know, and that that my diesels don't have to have the DEF. They're just a whole lot simpler. I don't even know what that shit does. Do you have any idea what that blue shit is?

Fred Ashmore:
What it does is it and it's a chemical way to do what they used to do with the air pumps. See, what they used to do is they used to pump air into the exhaust to try to reburn.

Mark Rippetoe:
So it would finish burning.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah. So basically what it does, it does a finished burn in the in the catalytic converters and stuff. So it keeps the the emissions cool, coming out clean, coming out the back of the,.

Mark Rippetoe:
And so the blue stuff is just a oxygen source. Is that what it is?

Fred Ashmore:
I'm not sure exactly 100 percent with the chemical compound is, but it does similar to what the air pumps used to do by putting it in there. The cheap way was manufacturer put a pump in and pump air in the exhaust. Obviously, if it burns it or not, there's going to be... With more air going in right afterwards,...

Mark Rippetoe:
It's going to dilute the pollution, right? Yes, that's the numbers, OK It's just a dilution calculation.

Fred Ashmore:
It's like watering it down before it goes out the exhaust.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that's that is interesting.

Mark Rippetoe:
So what do you think? About the future of this situation? Are you looking forward to owning a Tesla?

Fred Ashmore:
No, I won't own a Tesla. I'm actually... I've been involved in some electric car builds recently, one for a TV show. And I've been I've been talking with a manufacturer about driving one of their electric vehicles. And I think it's one of those things that, to be honest, I have to try it before I knock it. I don't I don't know if I like it.

Fred Ashmore:
I don't see myself as being the next king of electric or anything. But I also think that that's unfortunately that's just where it's going. I mean, really, we can't... When all we're really doing is diluting down the fact of, OK, you know, we're we're we're going to be green now.

Fred Ashmore:
It's kind of like people that go to church for the status symbol. It's like buying a green car. We go buy a green car and we're driving a green car, but we destroy the environment from batteries and disposal.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right, you're just pushing the you're pushing the the the immediate responsibility, one layer away from you to the electric generators, the electric generation provider. He's polluting, but you're not. So you feel better about it. And now you're green and morally superior. And all this other shit.

Mark Rippetoe:
I... I have driven a Tesla one time, and the damn thing is torquey. You'd have to say that it's got a hell of a bunch of torque. It's a it's a different experience than a... than an actual car. And then they came out with the idea of that roadster, the little the little two seater... Zero to 60 in one point nine. Now what is that like 4Gs or something like that?

Fred Ashmore:
Don't know if it is quite 4, but it's up there.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's it's it's a I don't think it's quite two, but it is... I mean, it's that's an acceleration experience that most people would never, ever experience. But I... They were talking about the roadster five years ago, and they haven't got it in production yet. Nick, you know what the schedule is on that? What's what is what's the...

[off-camera]:
I heard him on, Joe Rogan the other day, and I think he said 2022. But there was there was some holdup. But it's in process, just like the cyber truck thing.

Mark Rippetoe:
I wonder what it is. They probably going to have it down to one point seven.

[off-camera]:
Oh, it's something like that. He wanted it faster.

Mark Rippetoe:
Because when I first heard of it, it was it was one point nine, which is stupid. Nobody can drive that.

[off-camera]:
And there's going to be a version that has a rocket on it, like it'll fly.

Mark Rippetoe:
An actual rocket rocket?

[off-camera]:
And he wants and he also wants to do one that has compressed air so it can hover. No shit. So the rocket is...so it's compressed air. So it's hovering, but the rocket propels it.

Mark Rippetoe:
Right. This is the future. HThis is like the Jetson's, finally.

[off-camera]:
Musk is insane.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah. Yeah, he's an interesting guy.

[off-camera]:
I just read that he invited Putin onto his little clubhouse internet meeting he does. Just to talk shit. Talk shit with them. Because why not? And the Kremlin was like, yeah, I think he said that as a mistake.

Mark Rippetoe:
He didn't really mean that, did he?

[off-camera]:
I don't want to talk to Putin.

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, well, I don't know. I'm, I'm not interested in a Tesla. I've just you know.

[off-camera]:
They're cool cars. I am.

Mark Rippetoe:
They're cool cars, you have to appreciate them in a in a in an aesthetic way. They're beautiful. You know, the new ones are just gorgeous bodies.

[off-camera]:
What Fred is talking about is exactly right, though. The thing is going to I mean, with the new... They've got full self driving, you know, and the idea is that you will get in the car, it'll drive you to work. And you do.. You know, you answer emails and play games while the things driving you around.

Mark Rippetoe:
I'm not interested in being in a moving car... I don't like riding in a car as a passenger. Much less the passenger of the car. That doesn't make...I'm just not... I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that.

[off-camera]:
I think that in California, there are working on self-driving taxis now.

Fred Ashmore:
Haven't they moved to something in California where all vehicles have to be electric by a certain year?

Mark Rippetoe:
Twenty, thirty five.

Mark Rippetoe:
You know, 14 years from now, no gasoline will be sold in California.

[off-camera]:
Somehow, I think that's not going to actually happen.

Mark Rippetoe:
Somehow I think that it won't matter if it does happen because they won't be part of the country anymore anyway.

Fred Ashmore:
Nobody can afford gasoline in California. What's it matter?

Mark Rippetoe:
Yeah, I wonder what it is now. Have you looked at the price of gas recently? Hell diesels up to $2.69 not. So it's gone up 80 cents in the past three or four months. You don't think that's got anything to do with the election?

[off-camera]:
No, come on. Come on, man.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's preposterous.

[off-camera]:
Come on, man.

Mark Rippetoe:
Why even the suggestion is un-American.

Mark Rippetoe:
So Fred's not getting a Tesla and I'm not either and... I don't know. I wonder 30 years from now what what what are things going to look like?

[off-camera]:
30 years from now? Unimaginable.

[off-camera]:
You can have this special license to even use gasoline.

[off-camera]:
I don't even know 30 years from now. I mean, that's really far away in terms of where we'll be.

Mark Rippetoe:
If they're really serious about this electric car shit, they have no choice but to go nuclear. Have to there is no mathematical way to do it, any other to have to for any other approach to actually generate sufficient power. I mean, hell, they can't keep the air... They can't keep the heaters on in Texas when it gets to five below zero. But you want them to charge everybody's car to go to work? You know what are you...?

[off-camera]:
Because you can't reasonably expect everybody to get solar panels and stuff, you know. I mean, you could get that...

Fred Ashmore:
Back to what I was saying before... They're going to have to get going to have to use the "fossil fuels" to power the plants.

Mark Rippetoe:
Exactly. That's exactly what's... So nuclear is the only way out of this. And for some reason, we can't even have that conversation.

[off-camera]:
If you actually want to be green, it's going to be nuclear.

Mark Rippetoe:
It has to be nuclear if you want to be green. Uranium is green, right?

[off-camera]:
It glows green.

Mark Rippetoe:
It's got a green glow.

Fred Ashmore:
You're thinking of kryptonite.

Mark Rippetoe:
Oh, yeah, that you're right. I am. Never mind.

Mark Rippetoe:
OK, well, Fred, anything else on your mind, man? What's what what we leave out? What what cool thing are you doing now?

Fred Ashmore:
I'm actually doing a couple of cool things right now. I just finished up with Street Outlaws down in Oklahoma City doing some builds for them and getting ready to head down to Gulf Shores, Alabama. I'm on a TV show down there where I'm going to build some houses down on the beach - Battle on the Beach.

Fred Ashmore:
So I'll be one of the lead carpenters on that with a couple of contestants under me. And we're going to see if we can build better than the other people. So, got that going on.

Mark Rippetoe:
And that shows called what?

Fred Ashmore:
Battle on the Beach.

Mark Rippetoe:
Battle on the Beach, we'll look for that.

Fred Ashmore:
Yeah. And I've got some car builds that are coming up. You asked me earlier what what my favorite car was and I said an eighty six Mustang. Well I actually owned the car that I would I would cruise around in. And unfortunately the car was totaled here in Oklahoma City on my way home from Cannonball Run in 2019.

Fred Ashmore:
And I'm putting the car back together now. So I'm doing to build on that. That will all be televised and it'll all be put together on a on a YouTube channel and stuff. So everybody can follow that.

Fred Ashmore:
And that's the 1979 Cobra wide body that was in the Miami Vice TV show in the 80s. And it's got a Cobra IRS in it and a Cobra 4 cam and a manual transmission and 70 gallons of fuel. It's a pretty cool car.

Fred Ashmore:
So we got that car going back together. I've got a Hawaiian Tropic car here that we're building for the fiftieth anniversary of the Cannonball Run. We're having a party down here for the fiftieth anniversary this fall.

Fred Ashmore:
And I'm building a car for MGP Maine Veterans Program back in Maine. It's it's all all my time, all everything I have donated to. And it's a Corvette. And I do I do appreciate all cars for what they are.

Fred Ashmore:
We're taking a 70s Corvette, the 70s style Corvette. I think it's a C3 Corvette. And I volunteered we're going to put an LQ LS motor in it. And it's going to have an automatic so that some of the veterans of who'll be amputees and stuff can drive around in, go in parades. And and a Santa Fe customs up in Kansas has volunteered to paint the car for the for the veterans.

Fred Ashmore:
So I've got quite a bit of cool stuff kind of going on. And really, when I'm not doing that, I'm working on my house here down in Oklahoma and I've chased a lot of cool cars and I've bought a lot of cool cars over the last month. So.

Mark Rippetoe:
Well, that sounds like fun, Fred. I appreciate your time. I'm glad you stopped what you're doing to sit down with us and talk and we'll do it again. Always... cars are big fun thing of mine. And I always enjoy talking to somebody who's got an informed opinion about such things.

Fred Ashmore:
I always appreciate coming on and I love talking about cars. And my dad always said I had the gift of gab and I could probably talk about anything. I'm very fortunate. I appreciate you guys having me on the show and I'd love to come back and talk about anything in life.

Mark Rippetoe:
Absolutely, Fred. We'll do it again soon. I appreciate your time again.

Mark Rippetoe:
And thank you for watching us on Starting Strength Radio. We'll see you next Friday. Bye now.