What Moves You | Speedway Motors Podcast

Two generations of Taylor gearheads joined us to talk about everything from their origins in the automotive industry, to career successes, and discussing the Isky Tribute Roadster.

Dennis is the owner of Hot Rods by Dennis Taylor, a custom shop that operates in Booneville, Arkansas. Growing up, Alex spent most of her time at her dad’s shop. At the age of 15, Alex and her parents began to build her car, and at 16 she became the youngest driver ever to compete in HOT ROD Drag Week, driving her "Badmaro" 1968 Camaro.

Now, Alex runs her own business, Alex Taylor Racing, along with an awesome YouTube page amassing over 100k subscribers.

Over the years, Dennis and Alex have grown close with Ed Iskenderian and the rest of the Isky team, so for the 75th anniversary of Isky Cams they teamed up to create this historic tribute Isky Roadster that will be at SEMA 2023.
 
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Bob Larivee, Sr. was born in 1930 and grew up in the Motor City. His father was a painter and Bob’s interest in the automotive industry started with the Soap Box Derby. He was studying to be a dentist, but his career path took a drastic turn.  

In the early 1950s, he got into cars and racing during the golden age of racing that many only dream about. In November of 1959, he started Promotions Incorporated with his brother and charged $1.25 for entry. Imagine that! The indoor car show was a new idea. There was no car activity in the winter. No professional sports. People were craving activity and Bob delivered. By 1982, they were doing 100 shows a year.  

Bob Larivee, Sr. shares story after story about how he became life-long friends with many industry leaders throughout the years. Listen to hear how it’s been said that he was responsible for naming the “Ridler Award”. Or hear about how he ended up at Disneyland with Ed Roth and his family. Bob chuckles, “...being with Ed you never knew what it was going to be.” He also shares the story of how he got Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward) to attend one of his car shows and how he almost didn’t open the doors for John Lennon. 

Bob Larivee, Sr. is also a published author, Founder of the Automotive Fine Arts Society, a contributor to the Museum of American Speed, and the magic behind the Museum of American Speed’s new art gallery. You won’t want to miss this one!

Steve Strope had multiple magazine features, lots of media coverage, and a top 10 car all before he had a shop or even a garage. What started out as a humble operation with a Craftsman 3-drawer toolbox out of his apartment parking garage, lead him to unveiling his first car at SEMA with Chrysler.

Steve Strope opened his shop, Pure Vision, in 2001 and has kept that same mentality from the early years. You don’t need a big shop to build award-winning cars. Strope credits his talented, hardworking and loyal team that has helped him continue to win accolade after accolade, including the prestigious manufacturer’s design awards at SEMA.

In this episode, Steve Strope talks about how he approaches builds, his favorite car—Martini Mustang, his current “anti-SEMA” Chevelle, and what’s ahead. Take a listen.

Elana Scherr didn’t find her way into old cars as early as most. In fact, she didn’t even get a driver’s license until she was 21. Then she picked up a cheap Duster and, with a little help from her friends, learned not only how to drive it, but also how to fix it when it broke. When she met her future husband Tom and started making passes at the dragstrip, she was hooked.

Many of us came to know Elana from her time spent on staff at Hot Rod Magazine. Her articles jumped off the page with a unique voice that made the reader feel like they were right there, driving around in the featured car or behind the scenes at events like Pike’s Peak and Baja.

Since Hot Rod, Elana has worked as a freelancer, written a book with Don Prudhomme called Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320, and made her way back to a magazine staff position, this time as Senior Features Editor at Car and Driver. In her current gig, Elana gets to drive around in brand new cars, comparing and contrasting with her ever-growing fleet of vintage drivers. She still works plenty of the clever storytelling and automotive adventuring that we’ve come to expect from her into her copy.

Be sure to check out Elana and Tom’s YouTube channel (Challengeher) and follow her on Instagram @challengeher.

David Newbern was always into cars, but he wasn’t always into cars on-camera. That is, until someone named Mike Finnegan moved nearby and needed shears and a finger brake. 
 
Growing up, David tagged along with his father to every car show possible, watching while his dad worked a kind of car guy magic to trade cars on the spot. They’d show up in one, and drive home in another, which happened as many as 20 times. His father’s habit of swapping cars on a moment’s notice gave a young gearhead practice on the idiosyncrasies of various cars and engines. 
 
Before his television career, David made a profession out of installing gates, security cameras and construction. On the side, he was always building something with a passion to get it rolling as soon as possible. After trading his ‘71 Camaro for a ‘26 Essex Coupe, the Buick nailhead began knocking as soon as he got it home. He had a 2004 LS1 on the garage floor before LS swaps were common and made it work.  
 
That old spirit of getting it running no matter what made David fit right in with the Roadkill crew. The rest, we already know. We’ve always been big fans of David and it was a pleasure to have him on the podcast. 
 
Follow David on Instagram @DavidNewbern 
 
Watch him on Finnegans Garage, Faster with Finnegan, Roadkill and more.

In the early 50’s Peter Vincent saw a car that changed his life forever. 
 
He was a 6th grader standing on the corner for junior traffic control when a lowered, drop top Merc pulled up with frenched headlights, nosed and decked with a smooth bumper and no grill. Needless to say, it made an impression. He has been hooked on cars ever since, and his passion stayed with him as he bounced from mechanical engineering to architecture and finally landed in his true passion, photography. Like that Merc, the act of creation in photography grabbed Peter like nothing else and never let go.  
 
Peter learned photography from workshops with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, taking in their formalism and methodical zone system of visualizing, measuring and capturing images. As he honed his craft, he turned his camera to cars. Much like architecture and landscape photography, cars provided subjects with lines and shapes that appealed to his passion for disciplined image making. Bonneville provided the perfect setting to capture hot rods in their purest form, built by like-minded car enthusiasts with their own spin on disciplined craftsmanship. 
 
Since those first images, Peter has published five books of photography and made a reputation for himself as the premier hot rod photographer. We talk with Peter about his extensive experience in photography, his own cars and getting to know early hot rod legends like Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt of the Rolling Bones hot rod shop. 
 
Don't miss the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed feature of Peter Vincent https://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/peter_vincent_photographer.html 

Kyle Kuhnhausen sweats the small stuff.  
 
Over the last seven years, Kyle has built a reputation for showstopper builds made up of incredible details tucked behind every corner. Even the parts you can’t see are cool. Take for instance the water pump he made for his upcoming LT4 Corvette project. It’s a D-cast water pump converted to clamshell hydroflow, beautiful in its own right. Kyle has carved out his name building cars where every component, down to each fastener, is cool to look at. His cars are the cars other builders enjoy, even if they don’t particularly enjoy the car itself. 
 
In fact, we saw his Datsun 240Z at the 2018 SEMA show. We were surprised to be so captured by a Datsun build, considering we’re usually obsessed with stuff many decades older. The folks at SEMA were also enamored, and that build won Kyle the 2018 Young Guns Award. 
 
In this episode, we talk with Kyle about getting his start sneaking away with his dad’s MIG welder, learning the trade and pulling off the last-minute theatrics that come with the car building territory.  
 
Kyle talks building his 1972 Datsun 240Z, the Ballistic Beige and some upcoming projects he has in store, including a wild Triple 20 Dodge Dart he has on the backburner.

Growing up at a speed shop doesn’t give you the “normal” childhood.

And when your parents were Bill and Joyce Smith, founders of Speedway Motors, your life looks radically different than most kids. Whether it’s piling parts in the rafters, sitting at a table with Carroll Shelby, or driving an Excalibur back to Lincoln, Nebraska, from Virginia, life comes at you fast.

That was life for Carson, Craig, Clay and Jason Smith, the four sons of Bill and Joyce Smith. They were there from the beginning and watched Speedway Motors go from humble beginnings, dodge disaster, and become the speed shop it is today. For our 70th Anniversary episode, we talk to Carson, Clay and Craig about the history, growth and future of Speedway Motors. Jason passed away in 2021 joining Bill and Joyce, but we continue to celebrate his passion for racing, dedication to our customers, and the forever impact they all had on our company, community, and family.

We hear from the three brothers about Bill and Joyce, the early days of Speedway Motors and the Lincoln hot rodding community that sprang up around the local Air Force base. The brothers share about how the Museum of American Speed began and the importance of preserving automotive history. Finally, each brother shares about the most important aspect of Speedway Motors – customers like you, and how your passion for cars has fueled the automotive community from the beginning.

Brian Limberg didn’t set out to become one of the most sought-after metal shapers and coach builders in the automotive industry. He just wanted to build cars.  
 
But since opening The Tin Man’s Garage, he has been recognized by many, including the Al Slonaker Memorial award in 2020, for mastery of his craft in metal shaping, coach building, and chassis engineering. Even the tools he’s built himself over the years are now in-demand across the world. He also takes a few students a year through a metal shaping workshop program, educating them on the art and science of forcing metal into the right shape. 
 
This episode of What Moves You is all about how Brian became a master of his craft, working through various shops, and picking up enough skills to open up The Tin Man’s Garage. We talk growing up around cars, building his Model A roadster from scratch, and how a Slonaker-worthy 1936 Willys pickup. 
  
We have a personal connection to Brian that reaches back a generation to his father, Mike Limberg. Mike worked at Speedway Motors in a number of departments, including with our own Joe McCollough as they both wrenched on Team Speedway’s race cars. Mike was widely known as a humble, highly skilled professional with a highly skilled son. We saw a lot of Brian’s work come together through the pictures Mike proudly showed off in the shop. 
  
You can find more images of Brian’s work and builds at TheTinMansGarage.com 

Jess grew up helping her dad’s crew build a Streamliner. After the build and upgrades were complete, the whole family would road trip out to the Salt Flats to crew. In the final year, on its final run, the MacKichan/Schulz Streamliner set a new landspeed record. Streamliners make for an incredible childhood, but it wasn’t until later that Jess realized her family was pretty special. Not many people grow up with a parental figure as passionate about getting their kids in the garage as John MacKichan. It was important to John that the kids were involved however they could. 
 
After a few close calls and some health scares, Jess began to prioritize time in the garage with her father. Together, they built her shop and a 1933 5-Window Coupe which John had purchased the year Jess was born. John squirreled it away and when Jess was 10, he promised they would build it together. When it was time to build, Jess would work full time then head out to the farm and work in the shop until 10pm. Over time, it all came together. 
 
In 2016, a tangle with a ‘32 prompted him to sort through a mountain of magazines and boxes of photos to decide what was important to keep. Finally, he filled a box with photos from the 1960s and gave it to Jess, each photo painstakingly documented with parts, colors and locations. She began cataloging the photos on her Instagram account, Photos_From_My_Dad. 
 
Jess has worked at Speedway Motors for 23 years. In her time, she has won a number of awards, including recognition from Rod Authority’s Lindsey Fisher in 2014 as one of the automotive industry’s Leading Ladies, marking Jess as an up-and-coming leader in automotives. She participated in Speedway Motors’ Bucket Beauties T-Bucket build. In 2016, SEMA recognized Jess as one of 35 under 35 industry leaders. 
 
Now more than ever, Jess emphasizes how important it is to get in the garage with family. When a family builds a car together, they don’t just get hours of time spent. They get a living, breathing machine that represents all the tough moments, hard work and shared experience that goes into getting a car onto four wheels. This Father’s Day, we hope you feel inspired to start the project you’ve always talked about! 
 
There’s nothing like time in the garage with people you love. 
 
We couldn’t agree more!