Motor1.com Podcast Network

The Specialty Equipment Market Association holds its annual trade show every year in early November in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is… a spectacle. Fortunately, Motor1.com Editor and Video Producer Clint Simone used to work for SEMA and loves attending the show. He’s back with a first-hand report of the most popular cars at SEMA, and we’ve got another big debut that happened last week to talk about on this week’s podcast.

Kia this week released a teaser image of the 2021 Optima sedan that set our corner of the Internet on fire. It looks fantastic, at least what we can see of it. This is hardly surprising, though, as Kia and its corporate cousin from Korea, Hyundai, have been pumping out awesome designs for a few years now.

This week Volkswagen introduced the eighth generation of its Golf hatchback, a global car that’s one of the best-selling automobiles of all time. It offers a comically long list of power options, and it looks like, well, like, Golfs have looked for decades, just a little newer. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about this mega-important debut, as well as hatchbacks in general. They’re a curious type of car that Europeans love and Americans seem to change their mind about a lot.

Welcome to the second episode of our new podcast series, Motor1 On One, where we interview the interesting and unsung characters who make car enthusiast culture so colorful. On this episode, Global Editor-in-Chief John Neff welcomes master car detailer Todd Cooperider.

Cooperider is the founder of Esoteric Fine Auto Finishings near Columbus, Ohio. You may know him from the company's YouTube channel, or from the incredible before-and-after photos he's shared online of his work detailing million-dollar cars from brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini.

Today, we’re talking about power. The Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye comes straight from the factory with 797 horsepower. And it was just announced that the 2020 Ford Super Duty can tow up to 37,000 pounds thanks to a 6.7-liter diesel engine that produces over 1,000 pound-feet of torque. These monster motors beg the question: can you ever have too much power? Is there a point at which cars and trucks are being sold with more power than is safe for the average driver to handle? It’s a great question, and returning to the podcast this week are Writers Christopher Smith and Anthony Alaniz to help us answer it.

It’s Truck Week on Motor1.com, and not because we planned it that way. For whatever reason, there’s just a lot of truck stuff happening this week. The biggest thing is the Texas State Fair, which has become the place for truck makers to debut new editions and updates for their popular models. On this week’s episode we’ll talk about all the news coming out of the Texas State Fair, and then ask the big question: why are we Americans so obsessed with trucks?

This week John Neff talks to Patrick Calello, the founder and designer of Automoblox, the toy car company which sold beautiful heirloom-quality wooden cars which were as fun to play with as they were to look at.

The Frankfurt Motor Show happened this past week, and among all the new cars that were shown was one we just couldn’t stop staring at. It’s the BMW Concept 4, which is a two-door concept car that foreshadows what the redesigned 4 Series coupe will look like. We weren’t staring at it because it was so good looking, though. We stared because of its grille, which is a comically large version of BMW’s iconic twin kidney grille. This whole giant grille trend has finally jumped the shark, and we’ve got BMW to thank for it.

The all-electric Porsche Taycan super sedan is finally here, and like all new electric cars, comparisons between it and what Tesla’s selling have already started. The most obvious matchup for the Taycan is the Model S, so on today’s episode, each car is getting a champion in the form of a Motor1.com editor and we’re going to duke it out to discover if a superior EV can be crowned. John Neff plays the part of Tesla fan boy, which shouldn’t be too hard because he owns a Model 3. In the Taycan’s corner will be Managing Editor Brandon Turkus who is the only one among us who has seen in person what the Taycan can do. He came back from that experience a changed man, a newfound EV acolyte as long as the EV in question is a Porsche.

There was a time when station wagons were thick on the ground across this country. Times have changed, though, and now crossovers are the most popular form of family transportation. Some automakers, though, continue to make wagons, and we salute them.

This week Audi unveiled the RS6 Avant, a nearly 600-horsepower, all-wheel-drive super wagon that will, for the first time ever, be sold in the U.S. We’re going to talk about it on today’s episode, along with why station wagons have fallen out of favor, and which ones are our favorite of all time.

2019 Audi RS6 Avant
- 25-year history
- Twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8
- 591 hp / 590 lb-ft of torque
- 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, 155 mph top speed (174 with Dynamic Package, 190 mph with Dynamic Package Plus)
- New version of Virtual Cockpit
- Cool-ass headlight and taillight shows

What happened to the station wagon in America?
- Wagon sales are up, but their share of the market is down to 1.4 percent

What is it about crossovers that is so appealing?

Favorite wagons of all-time (John’s choices)
- Mid-‘90s Volvo 850R Wagon (222 hp, turbo 5-cylinder, box on wheels)
- Car and Driver’s custom second-gen Taurus SHO wagon
- Dodge Magnum (SRT8 specifically)

Now tell us YOUR thoughts:

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