Today we discuss a man who’s charisma might just overshadow his racing accolades. MIGHT. An American businessman that managed to put STP stickers across the USA and even in Vietnam, a man who left a lasting mark on the Indianapolis 500, a man that might be motorsports greatest showman, and a man who managed a steal a kiss on Mario Andretti’s cheeks.. If you haven’t already guessed it we are going to be talking about Anthony ‘Andy’ Granatelli.

Today we discuss the Most Important Car Company You’ve Probably Never Hear about, an automotive manufacturer that basically wrote the recipe for most normal cars today.. Today we discuss

When people talk about automotive history, they think Karl Benz, Henry Ford, maybe even Ferrari if they’re feeling dramatic. But if we’re being honest — the layout of almost every “normal” car on Earth traces back to a French company with a name that sounds like a law firm: Panhard et Levassor.

And while they didn’t survive as a household name did invent the blueprint of the modern automobile — and then went racing across France to prove it worked.

Panhard et Levassor began in 1887 in Paris, founded by René Panhard and Émile Levassor. At first, they built woodworking machinery but they had their sights set on something grander.

Panhard et Levassor was formally established in 1887 by René Panhard and Émile Levassor in Paris. Originally manufacturers of woodworking machinery, the firm’s trajectory changed through a licensing agreement to produce engines designed by German engineer Gottlieb Daimler. The rights were secured through French industrialist Édouard Sarazin, whose widow later played a pivotal role in continuing French access to Daimler’s technology.

While many early vehicle builders treated engines as add-on components for carriage-like machines, Levassor adopted a fundamentally different approach: the automobile should be designed around the engine itself. This insight led to a decisive engineering breakthrough in 1891.

Basically Levassor asked “What if… the car is designed around the engine?” This might not sound like a wild thought to you BUT this was actually Revolutionary stuff — especially in the 1890s during the birth of the automobile.

Today we are going to be talking about the man to built the first slingshot dragster, the first American to go over 400mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats, and a man who was murdered in cold blood in his driveway.. Famed motorsports promoter Mickey Thompson.

Today we discuss one of the world’s leading manufacturers that all started with experimental rubber bouncy balls in a tiny workshop. A company that changed the world of tires repeatedly. Today we discuss the fascinating history of Michelin Tires.

LIVE radio show recorded in South Texas with guest Porter Felton of Function Drives Form & Board Member of the National Automobile Museum.

What does the 24 hour of Le Mans, drug smuggling, and Texas have in common? The Whittington brothers. Today we tell the wild tale of the Don and Bill Whittington and how they went from humble Lubbock, Texas to the highest echelons of racing and funded it all by drug smuggling.

Today we discuss one of the wildest car races ever in the history of motorsport, a race that lasted 5 months and had half the cars drop out, a race that traversed Siberia, today we discuss the nearly impossible 1908 New York to Paris Race.

Let’s paint a little picture of the times, in 1908 the automobile is still an oddity. They were loud, temperamental and unreliable. The horseless carriage was still just a play thing for wealthy eccentrics.

It was a two newspapers, Le Matin in Paris and the New York Times, that came up with the wild idea of an automobile race to span from New York all the way to Paris.

The whole idea behind this wild feat was to prove what the automobile could do. Cars of the day were more like tractors than modern vehicles we know today. They were chain-driven, hand-cranked, snapping axles, and blowing gaskets.

Drivers were to maneuver from New York, across the United States, then cross the frozen Bering Strait into Siberia, in which no one had ever traversed by car at this time, then cross through Russia into Europe, and THEN finish in Paris. If you are thinking that sounds tricky, you are right. The drivers would encounter obstacles and also the discovery that the Bering Strait doesn’t exactly freeze over enough to drive over.

Plus, I want you to think about doing all this WITHOUT ROADS! Asphalt wasn’t even invented till two years after this race. Many spectators didn’t even think the cars would get out of New Jersey let alone get through Siberia!

LIVE @ Coastal A's & Rod's Car Show | Bad Blonde Automotive History

Today we discuss a car company that could have been the 1960s F1 rival to Ferrari, a car company that should have stolen the grand touring seat from the prancing pony, a car company that helped pioneer mid-engine placement in grand touring cars, and car company that couldn’t quite get it together. Today we discuss Automobili Turismo e Sport aka ATS.

To understand ATS, you have to start in Maranello in 1961 with the famous “Palace Revolt.”

Alright it is the ’60s, Ferrari is successful but chaotic. Enzo Ferrari is running the place like a personal kingdom and he and his are fighting like there is no tomorrow.

Ferrari staff tensions are boiling over when several senior staff clash with Enzo and, most importantly, with his wife Laura, who was increasingly involved in business matters. The result was a mass walkout (and a few firings for good measure) of some of Ferrari’s brightest technical minds, including chief engineer Carlo Chiti and development engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, one of the brains behind the 250 GTO.

These “Ferrari runaways” were angry, ambitious, and very aware that Enzo’s dominance in both racing and road cars wasn’t inevitable. So they went to wealthy industrialists such as Giorgio Billi and Bolivian mining heir Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, and with a few other rich backers they decided to create a rival of Enzo Ferrari.

And that was the dramatic start to Automobili Turismo e Sport aka ATS. TheATS was founded in 1962 in the Bologna area and their goal was simple. BEAT FERRARI.

Today we discuss the close competition between steam, electric, and combustion, during the birth of the automobile and The Battle to Build the First Car

In the middle of the 19th century, the world ran on steam. Giant iron locomotives thundered across continents, steamships across wide oceans, and in the cities, the hiss of boilers and the clang of pistons were the soundtrack of progress. The future, it seemed, would always be built upon water and fire.

But beneath the soot and steam, a few restless inventors began to wonder: could motion be made smaller? Could power belong not to railways or ships — but to people? The idea was radical — a carriage that moved without horses, a machine that could carry a man down any road, under his own command.

It was an era before gasoline had even found its purpose. As we mentioned a few shows ago, Chemists still treated it as a junk by-product of kerosene lamps — often burned off as waste.