Adventures in Travel and Partnership: The Lilienthal Rally Team

Baltic Sea Circle Rally Adventure

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast , a 30-minute mini version of the In Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am Central . This is the only place to go for all things automotive , the award-winning In Wheel Time Car Talk Show . We check in with our globetrotters , the Lillian Falls , to see what they're up to Later . Jeff has the racing calendar , mars has this Week in Auto History and I'll get you caught up on the stories making automotive news headlines this week . Howdy , along with Mike , out of this world bars down there . We always need more . Jeff Zekin here , our chief engineer , david Ainsley over there , and I'm Don Armstrong , glad you could join us . Ladies and gentlemen , direct to the Pacific Northwest . Andy and Mercedes , the Lilienthals . Ladies and gentlemen , yay , where in the heck have you been ? We missed you guys . Are you muted ? Oh , they're muted . You're muted , you're muted , you're muted . We can't hear you .

Speaker 3 1:07

No , they're not muted .

Speaker 1 1:08

They're not muted . We can't hear you . Why can't we hear you , mars ? Is this your problem , mars ? Uh-oh , I got the Zoom potted all the way up here . There's no reason why we can't hear them . We're going to have to have a reason ?

Speaker 3 1:21

There is a reason , but it's not sure what it is Okay .

Speaker 1 1:23

Well , that's good , all right , so we're going to pause them while Mr Morris works on this and in the meantime and in between time we will . Oh , wait a minute , now I can hear you , okay .

Speaker 6 1:38

Was it on your end ? No , it's the ONOFF switch .

Speaker 1 1:42

Oh , it was not . Well , at any rate , you're there , we hear you .

Speaker 5 1:46

Oh good , hey Hi Hi . Thanks for having us on the show .

Speaker 1 1:50

God , I love the electronic stuff .

Speaker 5 1:53

Especially when it's live .

Speaker 1 1:54

Yeah , and there's nothing you can do . What I was going to do is I was going to read the whole one-pager that I got on you and one-pager that I got on you , and I figured after we run out of that , then well , I've run out of stuff . How have you guys ?

Speaker 2 2:07

been Good . We've been good Doing all kinds of cool stuff , traveling a lot , traveling a lot . Yeah , so trying to stay out of all your southern winter weather .

Speaker 5 2:20

Oh my God , yes , it's sunny and beautiful here in Portland , which is really weird this time of year yeah , it's like two days .

Speaker 1 2:26

Well , are you so , are you guys ? Your guys are back home , then , obviously yeah , we , we are .

Speaker 2 2:30

We were in , uh , new orleans uh , four days before that big snowstorm thing and just on kind of a vacation . And it's funny because I'm trying to sell a set of snow tires up here and nobody wants them . But I was like I should sell these in Florida or Louisiana . Yeah , absolutely .

Speaker 1 2:46

Yeah , or here in Houston , texas , where we had a rash of wrecks the day after the snowstorm , when you know , people were getting out and all the streets are okay .

Speaker 2 2:57

Yeah , it's cold black ice .

Speaker 1 2:59

And then I had a truck passing me 70 miles an hour on the beltway and I'm going this is not good Bigger than daylight . Two miles down the road he crashed his brand-new pickup truck at least $10,000 with the front-end damage when he hit the wall by himself , nobody else .

Speaker 3 3:16

Yeah , is that Well that was good , just him .

Speaker 1 3:20

So , besides those places that you've been , what have you been doing for fun with a car underneath you ?

Speaker 2 3:27

Yeah , gosh , lots of stuff . Yeah , we took our annual winter road trip over to Wisconsin visit family over the holidays , which is always a good time for us , gives us a little mini vacation before and after and get to get some miles on the car .

Speaker 1 3:43

Now is it you or Mercedes that have family there ?

Speaker 2 3:46

We both do yeah .

Speaker 1 3:48

Are you both from Wisconsin ?

Speaker 2 3:50

I'm from Minnesota originally but both my mother and my uncle both live in Wisconsin now went to college in Wisconsin , but he's still a Packers fan so all good .

Speaker 1 4:00

So I want to know where in Wisconsin .

Speaker 2 4:04

So my mother lives in Hudson , wisconsin , right on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin . Mercedes and I both went to college at University of Wisconsin Stout , which is about 60 miles east of the Twin Cities , and my uncle lives in La Crosse , wisconsin .

Speaker 5 4:19

And my mom lives in a tiny town in central Wisconsin .

Speaker 1 4:22

Well , you know , I'm from Waukesha Wisconsin . Did you know that ?

Speaker 2 4:25

No , I don't think so . I don't think so . Well , we lived in Milwaukee for five years . Well , there you go See . Yeah .

Speaker 1 4:34

Well remember on Happy Days .

Speaker 5 4:36

I think Waukesha was some sort of like remote , ooh like a vacation place , not as you well know , it's like Miami , a vacation place , not , as you will know , miami , yeah , wow , yeah , we moved to oregon in 2006 and before then we lived , we lived several years in milwaukee . So , um , the east side , uh , on prospect avenue , and then , uh , bayview , so yeah , and then andy worked out there at kalmbach publishing yeah , I worked for steel auto magazine and uh in waukesha , kalmbach publishing well , I want you to know that .

Speaker 1 5:03

Uh , going to grade school in waukesha , wisconsin , I walked by Carroll College , which is now the University of Wisconsin at Waukesha .

Speaker 5 5:11

Yeah , yeah , wow , very cool Small world . It is a small world , that's great . Well , thanks .

Speaker 6 5:14

That's all the time we've got guys . That's all we've got . Thanks for checking in .

Speaker 1 5:18

All right , and we're out , that's it . So you know , the last time we talked to you , what was it ? The Alcan 5000 ? No , they went to Europe .

Speaker 2 5:31

It was on the Baltic .

Speaker 3 5:32

Sea . Circle Rally yeah yeah , that's it yeah .

Speaker 5 5:35

One of those two . We did both of them this year and they were both very different and successful in their own ways .

Speaker 1 5:41

Well , so do you want to talk about that , or let's talk about something you got coming up ? We're going to do all of them , but we'll make it your order , whatever you'd like .

Speaker 5 5:48

Let's talk about what we did .

Speaker 2 5:49

Yeah . So the last thing we did was the Baltic Sea Circle Rally , which was nine countries in 16 days and about 5,000 miles , all in a Volkswagen IDBuzz electric van , just to make things a little bit more difficult . So it's not enough to have a variety of different languages , currencies and all that , but let's do it in an electric van . But we successfully did it . We were the first Americans to actually do it in an EV , first non-Europeans to do an EV . It was certainly a challenge , but it was incredible .

Speaker 1 6:24

Where in the Baltic Sea do you find charging stations ?

Speaker 5 6:29

That is a very good question and , as the navigator , we have to find them carefully . This rally it's called the Baltic Sea Circle Rally . For those of you watching it's about a five-inch or five-inch sorry , half-an-inch thick book . And this rally is a backroads rally . So no autobahns , no major motorways , that kind of thing . So backroads , no GPS . You have to get your own paper maps . Oh my God , Try to live in the US and find Estonia , latvia , lithuania and Poland any kind of paper maps , much less current ones .

Speaker 5 7:02

And in English and in maps much less , uh , current ones , and in english , and in english , and yeah right , because most of everything was spelled in their native language . So it was like oh , norway is norway , or however you pronounce it . For instance , um , but for charging , when we knew we were close and we were in a city , because we had to , kind of , you have to plan your own routes , by the way too , um , we had to use gps to find the actual charging stations there . There was no way around that . So that part , you know , that's the only part where we really engaged GPS .

Speaker 1 7:30

And how was that ? I mean , did you on your route that you had planned ? What ? Do you have to drive 60 miles off the route to find the charging station ?

Speaker 2 7:39

No , the routes we usually planned were around to get to charging stations , so kind of like unlike maybe some of the people in gas or diesel vehicles who could kind of go whichever way they decided we were sort of tied to like , OK , we've got to get to this town because it has two charging stations , and that's one thing that we did was we made sure we went to places usually that had at least two options for fast charging .

Speaker 2 8:08

A couple of times , one time , for example and this was one of these things where we should have verified it was we drove to the highest point you can drive , or , excuse me , the farthest north you can drive in Europe , which is the top of Norway called Nordkapp or North Cape , and on one of the third-party charging apps Charge Finder , I believe it was it said that there were two 150-kilowatt-hour chargers . I thought , well , that's amazing , we're going to drive to the end of the world and there's going to be two chargers . So we didn't charge on the way up . It's all about the weather as we approached Nordkapp , which was about 33 degrees Fahrenheit with about 45 mile an hour , winds and pea soup fog .

Speaker 2 8:59

we approached and I think we had about 30 kilometers left 45 . 45 kilometers left . 45 . 45 kilometers left .

Speaker 1 9:07

Downhill .

Speaker 2 9:09

How many freedom units that is , but it's something like 20 miles left and I pulled up to pay our entrance . There's a little hut and I said where are the chargers ? And she looked at me and said I don't know what you mean the EV chargers ? And she says I don't think we have EV chargers here .

Speaker 6 9:27

Oh .

Speaker 2 9:27

God , oh no , I mean , like the record went off , the needle went off , the record , you know , and so we marched inside , and I mean it was a march due to this weather .

Speaker 5 9:37

We couldn't find anything . We couldn't even see the tour center that was there , much less the globe sculpture that was at the end .

Speaker 6 9:44

You were the globe sculpture .

Speaker 2 9:51

A moderately helpful person inside who told us we couldn't come inside because we apparently hadn't paid enough money to come inside . She said there was a charger on a hut in the parking lot and again , we can see about 10 feet in front of us as far as we can see .

Speaker 5 10:03

So we eventually found this hut and the hut had been completely fenced off and there was an old Tesla wall charger that was unavailable to us and we thought , oh boy maybe we have to stay there for 24 hours if we're even to get any kind of charge at 11 kilowatts an hour .

Speaker 2 10:21

So we thought well , you know , maybe this is the time , maybe this is going to be the first time we actually run out of juice on this thing . Maybe this is the time , Maybe this is going to be the first time we actually run out of juice .

Speaker 5 10:30

on this thing which you have to realize , if I may interject for a second , there's no help if we run out of juice . You can't just get a gas can or a petrol or diesel can and fill us up . We have to be towed somewhere .

Speaker 2 10:40

Right , so we played it extremely conservatively .

Speaker 2 10:49

Luckily , we were at elevation at NordCAP and we were able to do a lot of coasting and used the Volkswagen ID Buzz's regenerative braking to feed back some clicks to the odometer and we made it down to the next town with a fast charger , which I believe was Honesvagn Yep and they had a fast charger and we coasted in and we actually added miles to the odometer because of all that regenerative braking , we added about 14 or 15 kilometers back on , and that saved our butts and by the time we got down there we were in single digits as far as percentage left .

Speaker 1 11:20

So does the car have a neutral , that you put it in neutral and just use the brake while the car is actually on ?

Speaker 2 11:27

So it has a regenerative braking mode . So tell them when you d motor b , so you have d drive , and then you have b , which is , as in boy , which is the regenerative braking mode . And so when we would go down these hills , I'd put it in the b mode and it would regeneratively brake as we went down the hill without touching the brake pedal . So it helped to feed some of that back and uh , yeah , we , we got lucky and and , uh , you know , played it all right .

Speaker 1 11:54

So here here's the real question that's on everyone's mind how many fights did you have between you two ?

Speaker 5 12:06

during the rally , we had two pretty good ones . That's all the spirit of rally , right , whether it's a time , speed , distance , precision rally or this one where you make your own route . It's all back roads , it's complete different languages and currencies , as Andy said , and you have to make your own sleeping accommodations .

Speaker 1 12:25

Oh , my God .

Speaker 5 12:27

We have a sleeping platform and a cook set up , called a cuckoo because essentially a cuckoo . Well , you Q , u , q . Yes , yes , I can't remember the exact name . I think it's the bus box for specific , specifically made for the ID buzz that the German made company so we were able to sleep within our van , and , for instance , in Scandin they have . What is it called ?

Speaker 2 12:49

It's called Right to Rome , where it allows you to camp anywhere you want .

Speaker 1 12:53

So I have to ask you now so when you have this fight Mercedes , does he get to sleep outside ? I ?

Speaker 5 13:02

wanted him to . I wanted him to . Yeah , that's what happens .

Marital Communication Challenges on Rally

Speaker 5 13:09

It can be a challenge , no matter what type of team you have , right , if you're you know , father , son , if you're friends , if you're partners any of those types of things . Rally can be pretty stressful , but the thing is is you might be mad at the situation . You just have to stay surgical and the fact that you're not really mad at each other , or try your best to not be it's . It can be if you're locked into a steel box together with with each other for almost 5 000 miles , 16 days , 16 days in nine countries .

Speaker 3 13:36

Just imagine that I kill you , you have to kill you . You have to make sure there's no guns in the van , don't bring nobody brings a gun and you gotta pee and you got to pee .

Speaker 2 13:46

We did have a spare tent in case I did need to .

Speaker 5 13:53

In all fun we did really well . I mean , you know , a lot of it was communication , a lot of it was , you know , trying to pre-plan and allow each other forgiveness Because this one didn't have a designated route . There was a tracking app through a program called find two penguins , where you , where people , can see all the rest of the teams , and it was nuts because the first day or two were like , you know , we started really early knowing that when we stopped to charge , everybody else would start keeping you know , would start adding their mileage against us and in and come up , you know , next to us and pass us .

Speaker 2 14:26

So we would . We would wake up really early , like 4 or 5 in the morning and we'd pass everybody else that's already sleeping , and then we'd stop somewhere for coffee and a charge and they'd wave and honk and say , hey , as they were headed past .

Speaker 5 14:41

But with this app , after the first day or two trying to figure out how back roads are back roads Like we were on some farm roads where you could barely get a tractor down and there was grass that was growing in the middle of the median livestock laying in the road I think we're supposed to even be on this road . It's not on the map . I'm I'm sweating bullets . But we quickly realized that there were people that were like you know , 500 kilometers ahead , way off in this country , or there Some people dived , you know dived , or dove into Sweden , for instance , for a good bit , or you know wherever else . It was like holy cow . And then there are people that just said , ok , I'm just going to beeline it all the way up to Nordkapp , and they were a day ahead of everybody else . So we quickly realized oh , you really plan your own route and make it work . You just have to show up within an hour and a half time , within the 16th day , in Hamburg at the fish market .

Speaker 1 15:31

Oh my God . So you guys volunteer for this ? You know what I'm thinking ? I'm thinking that you are going to be the both of you as a couple couples . Therapy 101 class .

Speaker 2 15:47

I can tell you everything not to do you know what , when we went on our honeymoon a hundred years ago , um , we rented a tandem bicycle . Oh gosh , and we . It requires communication . So the joke was like if you ever need couples therapy , rent a tandem bicycle because for a tandem kayak , but I like your idea of like . We're gonna lock you in a car for 16 days and send you on your way and you've got to figure it out .

Speaker 5 16:10

The best part of the whole entire Baltic Sea Circle rally . That was our 20-year wedding anniversary gift to each other Willingly I would

Speaker 1 16:21

never , raise my hand for that .

Speaker 6 16:24

Do you know what ? The best part of that 20 years was 21 years ago .

Speaker 2 16:30

Well , I'll tell you what . It definitely requires you to communicate and make sure . I guess you could stay mad the whole time , but it would be pretty miserable .

Speaker 5 16:41

I mean you learn every time you travel period , especially international travel , we learn what to do do , what not to do , and we take those lessons . If we disagree on something or if we have a spat later on , we reflect on that and we work that back into our marriage and say , okay , this is what I learned from this , because we have to agree to disagree on x or y or whatever it may be . So you know .

Speaker 1 17:05

So your degree is actually in therapy and not cars . I got it . Listen , guys , we're running out of time and Mr Mars is sitting here . And Mr Mars , do you think that we could have them as guests in a couple of weeks ?

Speaker 3 17:22

That's going to depend on . They're hard to nail down . I know that they are .

Speaker 1 17:26

Where are you guys going to be in two weeks from today ?

Speaker 2 17:29

Oh , we'll have to look .

Auto Industry News and Racing Schedule

Speaker 2 17:31

We're actually doing a rally up in Canada starting the 1st of February called Thunderbird , so it's apparently going to be a very snowy rally , but yeah , well , two weeks we'll get back to you .

Speaker 5 17:46

We'll get back to you . Here's another day-long rally , so yeah , well , two weeks we'll get back to you , We'll get back to you .

Speaker 1 17:48

All right , here's another day-long rally , but yeah , we'll find time , because we've gone too long without speaking to you so we've got to play catch-up here . So we're going to do that as soon as you guys can do that , because we want to talk to you some more . We'll have our people call your people . Yeah , okay .

Speaker 6 18:03

Yeah , yeah .

Speaker 1 18:04

We love you both . Thank you so much for joining us today . Y'all take care , be safe out there and stay in touch .

Speaker 2 18:09

You too . Thanks for having us . Thank you all .

Speaker 1 18:12

All right . The In Wheel Time Car Talk Show is available 24-7 through the In Wheel Time Odyssey radio apps . Download them to your phone . And don't forget , we video stream this program on Facebook , youtube and InWheelTimecom . Podcasts available everywhere , including SiriusXM . Just ahead , jeff has his racing calendar , mars has this week in auto history and more auto news headlines . We are back in a flash .

Speaker 1 18:38

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Speaker 1 19:37

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Speaker 6 20:42

You bet February 2nd , next Sunday is the Clash Bowman Gray , that's NASCAR stuff going on and of course the 16th is the actual Daytona 500 .

Speaker 1 20:50

Is that ?

Speaker 6 20:50

at Bowman Gray Stadium , I believe . So , yes , wow . And then you got the 16th is the actual 500 . And I guess the 500 is actually losing interest with some of the fans out there . They're having problems getting traction on it for NASCAR . But that's NASCAR overall . And then you've got coming up another month . And then we've got the NHRA Gator Nationals in Gainesville Raceway . That's coming up there . Soapbox Derby you've got February 8th and two weeks Florida Soapbox Derby , february practice that is in North Florida . So if you're out there , go ahead and do that . Fia Formula E racing got February 13th and 15th in Saudi Arabia . So you got Formula E open wheel with electric . And then you've got March 14th . Through the 16th You've got demolition derbies at the FI Tech Fuel Injection Spring Nationals presented by Grundy Insurance in Scottsdale , arizona . So that's coming up as well at Demolition Derby time .

Speaker 1 21:47

Okay , time now for this week's auto history , and Mr Morris has that .

Speaker 3 21:52

Yeah , I do so a couple of things I've found rather interesting this week . In 1915 , the first geared differential in an automotive drivetrain was patented in the United States . This is something that you don't think about too much because it's just there and it does its job , but it's a crucial component that allows the drive wheels of the vehicle to rotate at different speeds , which is essential for smoother turning . Before this innovation early vehicles they had a simpler system , but it struggled with getting the power around , and when we were teenagers and didn't have any money , we would go in and have those spider gears welded Because we were trying to drag race and we didn't care about going around corners until we started going around corners .

Speaker 1 22:36

Yeah , and they looked really funny . When you come back on the return road at the drag strip , Absolutely and hop across that .

Speaker 3 22:42

Yeah trying to make that turn . It's kind of like whatever . So also this week , back in 1968 , canned Heat released their album Boogie with Canned Heat , which included the song On the Road Again .

Speaker 1 22:57

Yes , great road tripping car .

Speaker 3 22:59

Also this week , in 1975 , mercury Bobcat goes public . Now this the Ford Motor Company announced that they would begin selling the Mercury Bobcat in the United States because the car had already been on sale in Canada for a year . That was to give them a subcompact vehicle . Now , this was initially available in two body styles , a three-door hatchback and a station wagon , and it was targeted as kind of like an upscale version of the Ford Pinto . It was basically built off of a Ford Pinto Designed during the 70s fuel crisis . It emphasized fuel efficiency and affordability with inline four-cylinder engines . Built 224,026 Bobcats between 1975 and 1980 .

Speaker 3 23:42

No 26,000 26 bobcats between 1975 and 1980 . No , also this week , in 1987 , the jeep wrangler yj was introduced . Now , this was supposed to mark a new era for the jeep brand . It replaced the classic cj that had been produced since 1944 square headlights .

Speaker 1 23:59

Everybody hated it and sales went down the toilet .

Speaker 3 24:02

Absolutely , that was . Its most notable design feature was a controversial rectangular headlights , which most Jeep guys like you say they'll tell you that's not a real Jeep because it's got square headlights . Now it did solidify the Wrangler as a modern icon , even though the square headlights were used from 87 to 95 . The Jeep YJ sold as the Wrangler in the United States and when it was originally sold in Canada , even though it was built in Canada , they couldn't use the Wrangler name because Chevrolet already had a truck branded with that . They can now use the Wrangler name in Canada , but they've also moved the Chevy Wrangler . I didn't know that . I tried to find one and I couldn't find a picture of one , but the Jeep's now built in the United States and they can use the name , so it's all good .

Speaker 3 24:46

Now , also this week in 2013 , the Hennessey Venom GT set a Guinness World Record for the fastest road legal car 0-186 mph in 13.63 seconds . Good looking too . 0-200 13.63 seconds yeah , good looking too . Zero to 200 17.68 seconds , making it the unofficial fastest accelerating road legal car in the world . Now , zero to 60 was a mere 2.7 seconds out of this vehicle quarter mile 9.92 at 163 and had 1244 horsepower at 6600 rpm out of an 11 uh . 1155 pound feet of torque out of an engine 427 engine . Wow , it is just a technology monster with carbon fiber framing and body panels on it to get the weight down . It's just an amazing vehicle from a technology standpoint . That's this week in automotive history .

Speaker 1 25:47

Okay , I was trying to get these in order because I don't want to bore you in any way at any time .

Speaker 3 25:55

But he's going to anyway . Well , I hope not .

Speaker 1 25:58

Honda has told its dealers it will shift its production mix to lower trim levels to combat sticky affordability issues that continue to impact the industry in 2025 . That means dealerships will be able to offer more economically priced versions of Honda vehicles to budget-minded customers . Budget-minded customers those sales will be a small portion of the pie , but they say that they'll have options to help somebody with affordability of buying a new car . Well good , we look forward to hearing about that . Stellantis has canceled the long-range variant of the electric Ram 1500 Rev or REV pickup , according to a company notice distributed to suppliers and obtained by Mopar Insiders . According to a company notice distributed to suppliers and obtained by Mopar insiders . But now the Rev will be available in one variant , 350 miles of range , when it arrives in 2026 . That is the Ram Electric source told Automotive News . The move was related to the company's decision to delay the Rev's 2025 debut . Electric vehicle startup Canoo C-A-N-O-O said it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will cease operations effective immediately .

Speaker 6 27:13

Bye-bye , we don't care .

Speaker 1 27:15

We looked into them a couple years ago , I knew that they would not make it with that . It's a California company , isn't it ? Yeah , and it's way overpriced and it's ugly , and it's just bizarre . Ford has the highest-ranked website amongst mass-market automakers , while Tesla was the highest-ranked for those designed as premium automakers . According to JD Power's US Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study released January 9th , jlr and Mercedes-Benz ranked second and third highest amongst premium automakers , while Alfa Romeo ranked lowest . Okay , well , good luck to you . We'll be back right after this quick break .

Speaker 1 27:58

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Speaker 4 28:58

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Speaker 1 29:29

Well , that's all for this week's In Wheel Time Car Talk Show . Be sure and check us out online at inwheeltimecom . If you're looking for award-winning car talk . You'll find the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show 24-7 on the In Wheel Time app On the road . Grab a podcast anytime from your favorite podcast provider , including the new SiriusXM podcast channel , and be sure and catch us on the Odyssey radio app . We live stream every Saturday on Facebook , youtube and InRealTimecom . The In Real Time video technical director is we Need More Jeff Zekin For booking agent , video editor and people finder , mike out of this world , mars and chief engineer David Ainsley .

Speaker 1 30:05

I'm Don Armstrong . Next week we're live at the Houston Auto Show and when you're there , look for us inside NRG Center across from the Camp Jeep event . We hope you'll join us then . Have yourself a great week and we'll see you at the car show . That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show . I'm Don Armstrong , inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook , youtube , twitch and our InWheelTimecom website , youtube Twitch and our InWheelTimecom website . Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts , spotify , stitcher , iheart Podcast Podcast , addict TuneIn , pandora and Amazon Music . Keep listening and we'll see you soon .