DRIVE CENTRAL - February 14, 2012

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MIKE SPINELLI: Hey, it's Mike Spinelli.
It's Drive Central, where you'll find out all the things
going on on Drive this week.
I've got Leo Parente with me today--
LEO PARENTE: How are you?
MIKE SPINELLI: Good. --from Shakedown
on Fridays and Mondays.
LEO PARENTE: Thank you.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yes.
So Happy Valentine's Day.
LEO PARENTE: Oh my god.
That's right.
It's Valentine's.
MIKE SPINELLI: So what'd you get Chris Harris?
LEO PARENTE: Chris Harris.
MIKE SPINELLI: I'm just assuming you got
Chris Harris something.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, well, you know, he's such a
deity here on Drive.
MIKE SPINELLI: Certainly is.
LEO PARENTE: I got him a rosary bead full of prayer,
because you know, you spell Chris-- the "t" is silent.
MIKE SPINELLI: Absolutely.
LEO PARENTE: Right?
Get it?
Got it?
Get it?
MIKE SPINELLI: Yes I get it.
Well done.
He's a deity.
@drive is where you'll hit us up on Twitter.
And people have been doing that, and that's amazing.
LEO PARENTE: You write them.
We read them.
MIKE SPINELLI: We read them-- and actually really good
ideas, and I wanted to go through a
couple of those today.
LEO PARENTE: Cool.
MIKE SPINELLI: So Kale Golden says, "Perhaps a tutorial on
old rally styles, Scandinavian flick, heel-toe, double
clutch, etc.?" So sort of basic racing techniques, but
with a rally spin, so to speak.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, like drifting for adults.
That's what I call rally, so I like this.
So, you drifters.
MIKE SPINELLI: So that's cool.
So maybe we'll try that.
Also from L. Coulter, suspension settings--
LEO PARENTE: Ah.
MIKE SPINELLI: Suspension settings--
how did I say that?
LEO PARENTE: English accent-- racing--
I get it.
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.
And an explanation of what, how, and why
in suspension settings.
Didn't you guys do that?
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, so here's the gig.
We do Shakedown University--
started it last year.
There's five or six of them out there.
The most recent one was January 20, and
the links are there.
On August 19, 2011, we talked about car setup.
I bet you this is covered.
And you're going to annotate.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yes, so click on the screen because we'll
have that annotated.
LEO PARENTE: Or go to the January 20th or annotate.
Shakedown University may have some of your answers.
MIKE SPINELLI: And one last thing-- oh, and that rotary
series, probably talking about Star Mazda?
LEO PARENTE: Star Mazda--
part of the road to Indy-- one of those junior series.
MIKE SPINELLI: Open wheel?
LEO PARENTE: Open wheel.
We kind of replaced Atlantic now, so all the young sperm
are finding their way into professional racing through
Star Mazda.
MIKE SPINELLI: It could be an A and E show.
LEO PARENTE: No, it's a Drive show.
MIKE SPINELLI: But we should do it on Drive-- exactly.
Also Ian Hemmings says, "A comparative test of standard
car, a well-modified car, and a badly modified car." And
that's kind of cool because there are a lot of really
badly modified cars out there.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, I think Matt Farah on Tuned kind of
talked about quality of modifying.
That may be something for him to kind of dive into and scare
the hell of himself with that badly modified drive-around.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
Cool, Ian.
Maybe we'll try that.
Maybe Matt will try that.
LEO PARENTE: Not me.
I don't get into bad cars.
MIKE SPINELLI: No, exactly.
And also, Joe Watkins says, "I just joined Twitter, and it's
all your fault.
I hope it's worth it.
Great show, by the way."
I hope it's worth it, too, but we'll try our best.
Cool.
But what's next is what's on Drive this week.
We better get to it.
LEO PARENTE: And even though we're going to talk about
Monday, this isn't like TV.
We just want you to know what's going on for the entire
week, so we can start with some of the
Monday shows, such as--
MIKE SPINELLI: This week on Tuned, Matt Farah stopped by
New Zealand racing legend Steve Millen's Still in Tuning
Shop in California to test out a mean 370Z.
Let's see how that went.
STEVE MILLEN: We did everything.
We did wheels, and tires, and suspension, exhaust, and
engine improvements.
We did the supercharger kit.
We did body work.
And we did everything in that car, and, again, it's a very
successful car for us.
MATT FARAH: The whole point of this car is that it's
well-rounded.
It can be a daily driver.
It can be a canyon car.
It can be a track car.
It could really be all of them at the same time.
And I like it because of the balance--
because it doesn't feel overdone.
There's no weird squeaks or rattles because things have
been gutted and rebuilt so many times, there's no strange
noises from the suspension, because it's a race car.
It's a street car.
It's just a really good one.
MIKE SPINELLI: And that's Tuned on Drive every Monday.
And if you haven't seen this week's episode yet, go back
and check it out because it comes out on Mondays.
This is Tuesday, obviously.
LEO PARENTE: Rod Millen was a Nissan factory driver legend,
so him tuning Nissans makes perfect sense.
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.
Cool.
Also this week, on Live and Let Drive, Alex Roy demos the
highway patrols' favorite weapons.
I don't mean, you know, guns meow.
[CHUCKLING]
That's such a stupid line.
Why did I write that?
Anyway, we were talking about laser and radar gear for
speeder nabbing.
And here's a clip of that.
ALEX ROY: Know your tools.
Don't assume that because you have a radar detector, or
laser jammer, a police scanner, better tires, bigger
brakes, or a great car, that you are as good
as any of the devices.
A tool is only as effective as the user's knowledge of it.
We'll now demonstrate the correct way to go over a
crest, coming up at illegal speeds, not that we
would ever do that.
[INAUDIBLE], would you?
No.
LEO PARENTE: So if anyone should know about avoiding
speed traps, it's Alex Roy with his
cross-country gig, right?
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.
And that's Live and Let Drive every Tuesday on Drive.
And back to Chris Harris.
Chris puts a BMW M5 up against a Nissan GTR in
a top secret showdown.
And I say top secret because we actually haven't
seen this clip yet.
LEO PARENTE: Oh, well that makes sense.
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, let's take a look at it.

And that's Chris Harris, On Cars, every Wednesday, but you
already knew that.
LEO PARENTE: Based on the views, you already know that.
MIKE SPINELLI: Exactly.
LEO PARENTE: And by the way, you people watching Chris
Harris, there are four other days of the week
you can watch us.
MIKE SPINELLI: [LAUGHING]
Exactly.
But Chris is obviously awesome.
But you're awesome, too.
And let's talk about what you guys do on Shakedown, and by
guys, I mean just you, because you only got one guy.
LEO PARENTE: We have a whole team of little--
MIKE SPINELLI: Elves?
LEO PARENTE: Oompa-Loompas--
MIKE SPINELLI: [LAUGHING]
LEO PARENTE: --doing Shakedown.
What's your point?
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, we were talking this week about
American racing.
Racing in America is awesome, even though a lot of people
think it sucks.
LEO PARENTE: So the Monday show is all about American
racing, and the American racing that has its roots in
this country, like NASCAR, like off-road rock climbing
racing-- we did something that a viewer suggested--
like super cross.
And the essence of it is do you guys like
this type of stuff?
Should we cover more?
And, quite frankly, what is it about American racing say to
the outside world?
Do you offshore non-American people look at American racing
with credibility, or some doubt, or whatever?
MIKE SPINELLI: Well, because a lot of it seems crude compared
to racing in Europe.
But then again, Europe has tractor pulls.
I mean, it's not like the Dutch don't do tractor pulls.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, but drag racing and tractor pulls-- a
lot of those things, I fear, started here.
And the question really, really does become, are we
happy being in our own little American bubble of what the
roots of our racing are, or as American Le Mans and other
series have done, adopting offshore forms of motorsports
and brought it to our country, should we be
more global with it?
I think that to say that NASCAR, for example, is just
rednecks driving in a circle-- how hard can it be-- is
obviously missing the point.
But does it resonate outside of our shores?
Or is it like American football versus
international football?
MIKE SPINELLI: Also, sprint racing, where you're driving
these little tiny, small, wheel-based cars around a dirt
track, and they flip into the stands, and they do
all kinds of stuff.
LEO PARENTE: --and sprint cup cars?
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, the steering wheel is like a bus.
They're all staggered to basically
drift through the corners.
You ride the dirt berms--
very American--
the roots of American racing.
Does it play around the globe or not?
MIKE SPINELLI: We're going to cover it, anyway.
LEO PARENTE: So we were pretty much trying to not form an
opinion, or share ours, and just find out
what you all think.
Already, the comments are good.
I know it was a Monday show.
I want you to go back and look at it if you haven't.
I'm really curious what you think.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yeah.
And that's Drive Central for today.
Also, keep hitting us up on Twitter, because we're going
to keep talking about this stuff that you hit us up with
on Twitter.
LEO PARENTE: As full of ourselves as you think we are,
more and more, we're going to pay attention to your
thoughts, your comments, and what you want to see, and try
to tailor it.
But it's not like we don't have a spine, but together,
we'll make a good Drive.
MIKE SPINELLI: Yes, exactly.
And that's it for this week @drive on Twitter.
LEO PARENTE: Cool.
MIKE SPINELLI: See you next week on Drive Central.
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