Talbots Turn Fast Podcast

In this episode I talk with Randy Johnson who is the owner of D&Z Customs who has built several high-end pro touring cars and trucks. Don’t be fooled by the show-car appearance of these hotrods, they were built to perform on the autocross and track at a high level. Randy brings us back to the beginning of D&Z Customs and we discuss several of his personal cars and customer cars.

Johnny Cichowski is the owner of Nine Lives Racing, who specializes in designing and manufacturing aerodynamic components for a variety of cars. Johnny shares his journey from the US Army to professional motorsports to owning a business in a very niche market. We discuss his approach to designing wings and splitters and how they can affect the performance of your race car.

In this episode I’m joined by Pat Gorman, the owner of a 1970 Oldsmobile 442 known as the Oldsmobeast. Pat is also the owner of Gorman Performance Engineering who specialized in the design and manufacture of high-end GM A,F, & X  body suspension components. We discuss the current setup of the 442 consisting of a big HP LS, BMW DCT transmission, and the full catalog of GPE suspension parts.

Doug McIndoe is a rookie auto crosser with only one event under his belt at the time we recorded. The skyrocketing costs of muscle cars forced Doug to take a different path for his corner carver and chose a 2003 Chevy Silverado. In this episode, Doug shares his motivation for getting into auto cross along with details of the truck. I love the enthusiasm Doug has after such a short amount of time participating and I think you will too.

Don’t let the patina fool you. Underneath the perfectly weathered paint of Sean James’ 1969 Pontiac Firebird lies a 600HP LS, a T56 transmission, and some serious suspension upgrades. I was able to check out this awesome hotrod and meet Sean and his son (who was co-driving) at the St. Louis CAM Challenge. In this episode we briefly talk about our experience at the CAM Challenge and Sean shares the history of the car and the events he’s participated in over the years.

Justin Peachey is likely the most decorated guest I’ve had on the show so far. He’s the Holley Grand Champion triple Crown winner, 3x SCCA Pro Solo National Champion, 3x SCCA TT National Max1 Champion and holds the Gridlife NCM lap record. Besides these notable trophies, he’s had a slew of FTDs at his local autocross days. In this episode we learn more about his driving history and the C6 Corvette he uses to destroy his competition.

Nearly everyone has a dream car, but how often do people get to own their dream car? For Eric Peachey, his dream car was a Dodge Viper. Who could blame him for loving the raw V10 power and sleek bodylines of this American supercar? After selling his first autocross car, Eric was able to find the car of his dreams, a 2008 Dodge Viper. Don’t be fooled by the garage queen stereotype, Eric has driven his Viper to many autocross class wins over the years with only a few performance modifications. While Eric isn’t collecting trophies, he’s sharing his performance driving knowledge with others. Find out more about Eric and his beautiful Dodge Viper in this episode.

Finally, a guest with an early Mustang!  Dan Hipskind has only been into autocross for a few years but has had some great success so far. In this episode, we learn how Dan transformed his run of the mill restomod1966 Mustang into corner carving animal with help of a Detroit Speed aluma-frame front suspension, Steet or Track watts link, and a Ford Performance Coyote crate motor for more than enough horsepower. The power and grip is put to the ground with some Forgestar wheels wrapped in sticky Bridgestones.

If you were to say a Jeep CJ7 doesn’t have a place in autocross, Gary Hebert would say you were wrong. However, his CJ7 isn’t an ordinary Jeep, it was hand built by Gary himself to beat up on Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, and Miatas on the autocross. In this episode, we discuss the well thought out features that make this Jeep CJ7 brutally fast around the cones. We also discuss his motivation behind becoming the Regional Executive for the Delta Region SCCA

Arnie Gonzales is the owner and founder of OBS Chevy Racing and the Pro Touring Truck Shootout. In this episode, we discuss the history of Arnie’s racing career and what led him to racing an OBS Chevy truck and eventually designing parts to increase the truck’s handling performance. With the Pro Touring Truck shootout coming up next month, we talk about the different classes and how the shootout portion of the event work.