Photography by Murilee Martin

What did the 24 Hours of Lemons (Thunderhill) and the “C Sports Racer” class of the SCCA 2008 Runoffs have in common? They were both won by motorcycle-engined lightweight specials that didn’t quite belong…

This is an outrageously long podcast — nearly 18 minutes — and it covers two primary topics. The first topic is the “spirit of Lemons” and what happens when it takes a bike-engined special to win a “budget” race. The second is a rambling diatribe on the notion of “driving at the limit” complete with some racetrack times from a recent press event.

This is, with any luck, the last podcast we’ll do with this lousy microphone — so if you can live with one more episode full of “pops”, things should be better next time.

Junkyard photography by Dave Everest

Remember New Coke? Sure you do. Some people liked it more, some people liked it less, and eventually the Coke people gave up and just put the old stuff back on the grocery-store shelves. So here we are with the “New Coke” of podcasts.

Our veteran podcaster Kasey Kagawa has taken a hiatus from bringing you the latest podcasted auto-industry news, so instead you get me as your podcaster du jour. The format’s a little different; it’s less “informative” and more “unhinged ranting”. Feel free to let us know how you feel about the change!

Yes, we’re back for another week of SSL Radio. Supposedly, the automakers are heading back to Congress this week to beg for their lives, but we’ll have to wait and see if anything actually comes out of it. Aside from that, there’s not that much going on, so we’ll have to see what we can dig up to send your way in glorious podcast format.

On 12/1, we start off by reviewing the stuff that we missed over the vacation (it wasn’t that much), and the news from Monday (which was even less).

And we enter the week of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, which means diddly-squat will be happening this week in automotive news. Enjoy your day off, everyone, we’ll be here, desperately combing for anything to talk about.

For 11/24, due to reasons beyond my control (read: college), the actual podcast will be going up tomorrow. However, as for right now, we have the text of what you’ll be hearing me say later on tomorrow, anyway! It’s situated right below the jump.

11/25 is the first victim to fall prey to the ravages of the Thanksgiving vacation, as we talk about rumors surrounding a new range-topping VW Scirocco and the mass exodus from the upcoming 2009 North American International Auto Show. It’s only 2:36 people, you can’t even boil an egg in that amount of time.

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Continue reading Speed:Sport:Life Radio: Turkey Week Edition

Yes, it’s time for the LA Auto Show! I’ll be there, bringing you coverage of all the cars that we actually give a crap about. Also, as this is the first week of our new daily podcasting schedule, the format of this post might change a bit from day to day as we figure out what the Hell we’re doing. And please remember to, as always, Share and Enjoy™.

First, the podcast for 11/18, wherein we kill time before the LA show opens by talking about the VW Touareg V6 TDI, go over Ford’s sale of part of their stake in Mazda, find one great deal on two awful cars, and rediscover just what makes Bernie Ecclestone so damn evil.

For 11/19, we wonder why ABC News is wasting our time complaining about the fact that corporate CEOs are acting like coporate CEOs, and cover the few interesting debuts from the LA Auto Show that we haven’t done previously, which only leaves the Nissan Cube and 370Z and the 2010 Ford Mustang.

11/20 has come and gone, and brought with it news of Porsche finally committing that final sin, and economic crises and the stupid Congressional pissing matches that cause them.

And finally, the podcast for 11/21 contains news of the pricing for the 2010 Ford Fusion refresh, the debut of the US-spec Smart Fortwo Brabus, and final proof of why we’re so awesome.

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Hello, and welcome to the first of our new daily editions of SSL Radio. We figured it’d be a good idea to make this first edition a special one, and so we present to you an extra-long podcast, all about the current crisis the US automotive industry (GM, mostly) finds itself in. We break down the current debate over the potential new bailout for Detroit, discuss how the Big Three are doing at the moment and if they’re likely to live to see a bailout, and finally, I do Chris Matthews from MSNBC a solid and present my own answer to the question that he and many others have been asking for the last few days: What the Hell happened to the Big Three? If you have any questions, comments or hate mail about this podcast or the new format, my email address is kasey@speedsportlife.com. And as always, Share and Enjoy™.

I apologize for my voice, the fact that half of southern California is on fire and the other half is coated in ash (just in time for the LA Auto Show) has played havoc with my voice today. This week, we have cool leftovers from SEMA, a confusing new Ferrari, some nice diesel news, and all the coverage you could want for the slow collapse of the American automotive industry.

On another note, we will be attempting to move the podcast to a nightly schedule instead of a weekly schedule. Now, that might sound like more work for me, but it should really allow us to get more content to you, the listeners, and more on time, as less news per day means we can cover more esoteric stuff and not have to pound out four or five pages of text for a single podcast. We’ll just have to wait and see how it goes this week, so wish us luck.

Imagine I said something devastatingly witty here, something that caused women to desire me and men to envy my rhetorical skills, at least until I put up a real summary of this episode. Until then, Share and Enjoy™.

Edit: Alright, it’s amazing what actually sleeping will do for one’s disposition. Anyway, here’s what you can expect from this week’s podcast (no promises, though). Audi drops the basic stats for the upcoming TT-S, a bit of rumblings and rumors from Ford, Rolls-Royce muses about a cleaner, greener Phantom, and the British are planning to break the sound barrier yet again. We’re unfortunately forced to talk about the GM-Chrysler merger rumors, the auto industry continues its death spiral, the FIA compounds its mistake, and we get to add a new marque to the “featured on” list in this week’s Useless Automotive Tchotchke.

We’re taking our progress back towards being on schedule one day at a time here at SSL Radio, literally. And on this day, we come bringing news! General Motors announces the pricing for the Cadillac CTS-V and the Chevrolet Camaro, and shows just how great of a bargain they both are, Mini debuts an exciting new green car, Mitsubishi debuts an exciting new scarlet red car, GM and Chrysler consider combining their problems into one enormous morass of fail, Emanuele Pirro retires from racing, Formula 1 prepares to become even more boring, and the most precious little engine you’ll ever see in this week’s Useless Automotive Tchotchke. We have the video below the jump, and as always, Share and Enjoy™.

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Continue reading Speed:Sport:Life Radio: Boys and Their Toys Edition

Goddamn, does it ever feel good to be back. In a emotional sense, I mean, as you’re about to hear, I’m still not at 100%, so please excuse me if I sound like I’ve been gargling tungsten carbide blasting media. Anyway, in this week’s make-up edition of SSL Radio, we cover the remaining debuts at the Paris Motor Show (yes, we’re that far behind), Toyota debuted their new iQ city car for the UK and rumors on it coming to the US, the US sales figures for the month of September are here to ruin your day, more lame fanboy BS, the situation for Formula 1 in the United States gets even bleaker, and a special federal bailout edition of Useless Automotive Tchotchke. Again, I can’t say how much I love being back (literally, my voice is now shot from recording this), and please, Share and Enjoy™.