Ford Raptor T1 Meets American Desert Racing

Cold Open And Host Banter

Don Armstrong 0:03

It's the Unreal Time Car Talk Show just ahead. Matt Martelli and the new Ford Raptor. Yep. Racetruck. Jeff has the crews in at events calendars. Plus, we'll have this week's top automotive news stories. Howdy, along with Mike Out of this world, Mars. We always need more Jeff Seekin. David Ainsley is vacationing in the UP of Michigan. And he called in earlier. Just to take the screwdriver and put it in just a little bit further. Trick trick.

Jeff Dziekan 0:34

I thought he was calling in sick for a minute, but I he didn't sound he didn't sound sick. Well, he is sick.

Don Armstrong 0:38

Well, he's saying there is that. But uh anyway, just to rub it in, it was like, I don't know, 65 degrees up there while he's drinking his coffee on the lake.

Mike Marrs 0:47

Oh well on the porch, watching the boats go.

Don Armstrong 0:49

Yeah, that. Um, anyway, so that's what he's doing. I'm Don Armstrong. Glad you could join us

Meet The Ford Raptor T1

Don Armstrong 0:55

today. Let's get right to it and let's talk to Matt Martelli and the debut of the Ford Raptor T1 at the Casey Folks Vegas Torino run. Right. Well, good morning to you, Matt. It's good to see you. Good to talk to you. And um, let's find out first of all about you. Who are you and who are you with?

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Oh, absolutely. I'm the CEO of Unlimited Off-Road Racing. Uh, we run the American Off-Road Racing Championship, which is now the largest off-road racing championship uh in the world. Um so pretty exciting year for us. And you know, like you were alluding to, the uh the uh T1 Raptor is coming to race with us, it's making its American debut. Um, so we're really excited about that. It's a very unique vehicle, and uh we're we're excited to see what it does in our style of racing.

Don Armstrong 1:46

Why did Ford decide to go with you for its American debut in this race?

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Well, it's it's interesting because these cars are what's called rally raid cars, so they're they're used to doing multi-stage events, um, usually about 300 miles per stage. Um, and they have limited travel, so it means that most of the courses we we run in North America are too rough for them. Um, so this particular race is very smooth. Um, it's a lot of graded roads and it's 550 miles, so it would effectively be the longest stage that any one of these vehicles has ever run consecutively in one day. Um, so they saw it as a really good opportunity to connect the dots with the European style of racing of rally raid and and the discipline that they're racing at Dakar and American off-road racing.

Don Armstrong 2:40

So is the truck built for off-road racing and they were putting it on the street? Is that basically it?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

No, it's it's racing off-road, so it's just it's built for milder conditions than what we normally race in America, like Baja. Yeah, like Baja or the Mint 400. Um, the Mint 400 in particular is the roughest race we have all year, and so our vehicles have bigger tires, more horsepower, uh, more suspension. They're they're actually the only form of racing that is truly unlimited. If you can build it and dream it and bring it and race it, then it's on.

Don Armstrong 3:17

So, this is the Ford built uh and and designed truck for this race, but it can obviously do other races as well. But they've decided that hey, we're gonna put it in this race and put it up against all of these hot rod folks, for lack of a better term, and see what it does.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah, no, it's really cool. The this particular car was designed by Ford in conjunction with M Sport out of Europe and was designed specifically to race the Dakar rally, um, which is you know a 14-day uh 14-stage rally that um is a lot of dunes and and some some rough terrain, but nowhere near the amount of rough terrain that we have here in the United States. You know, our deserts produce some of the most wicked conditions on the planet.

Jeff Dziekan 4:05

Yeah, pretty, pretty deep sand. Now, is this forged version maybe closer to one of their uh street spec trucks rather a more accommodating uh segment of a Ford truck rather than what you're doing to it out there? More of a uh daily driver.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

It's it's a it's not, it's a specific built race vehicle. Um, my guess would be about a two and a half to three million dollar car. Oh okay. Four-wheel drive. I mean, the acceleration on these things is absolutely remarkable. Um, they're really wicked cars.

Don Armstrong 4:38

Um, you know, but what kind of motors it got in it?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Um, it is running a Ford engine, the um Coyote, I believe.

Don Armstrong 4:45

Oh, the kids that okay. So this is a race truck through and through, is what this is.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Absolutely.

Don Armstrong 4:51

So it doesn't have an eco-boost six cylinder in it. This is the real, the real McGillah.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Well, it is, but what's interesting is is when they're racing in Europe, they have very tight restrictions, right? So the the the engines restricted, the travel's restricted, the wheel size is restricted. But when they come to America, essentially they're they're racing against our uh unlimited trucks, right? Which are real unlimited vehicles. So, to give you an idea, like the unlimited trucks that we race are a thousand plus horsepower, they have 40-inch tires and 36 inches of wheel travel, right? So unparalleled suspension. When we talk about all different forms of racing, you know, what our vehicles do that's totally remarkable is really the suspension.

Rally Raid Vs Unlimited Desert Trucks

SPEAKER_00 5:40

They don't accelerate, they don't have the highest top speed, and they definitely don't turn like street uh race cars.

Don Armstrong 5:47

So that so basically what you're saying is is that they wouldn't even know what a curb stop is in the Kroger parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

No, not even you wouldn't even feel it. Couldn't even feel it.

Jeff Dziekan 5:57

No, that's about six inches of travel, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Right. Like that's what's wild about our form of racing is that we measure travel in feet, not in inches, right? So like our top trucks are three feet of travel, right? So just really remarkable vehicles, just incredible. I mean, 160 miles an hour going over three to three and a half foot, you know, whoops. Um, there's nothing like it in the world.

Don Armstrong 6:24

Matt, uh, and and I'm not trying to change the subject here, but what happened to what I considered an extremely popular venue, and that was stadium racing for trucks like this, trucks and other off-road type vehicles. What what what happened? We all went.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah, no, it's it's great, it's a great story of uh really a great American, Mickey Thompson. Um, he started um

Suspension Travel And Real-World Speed

SPEAKER_00 6:48

really promoting desert racing and realized he needed to take it to the masses, so he created Mickey Thompson's short course racing, uh, you know, back in the 80s and and into the 90s and really went all over the world and it was very remarkable. Unfortunately, he was assassinated. I don't know if you remember that. Oh, yes, but you know, still, you know, there's a lot of people that believe that the the person or the people responsible are still not figured out yet, right? So after his death, um, it kind of fell apart. Like he was a true, not just a visionary, but he was a guy who could walk into a room and you know convince huge corporations to invest into off-road, which you know, to his credit, led to what we have today in off-road vehicles, even street vehicles. Like, I can wholeheartedly tell you that without Mickey Thompson, there'd be no Ford Raptor, right? Um, there'd be no uh Bronco return, you know, uh on and on. So um it kind of lost its way, and then it it changed from stadium to kind of like a more bigger track outdoors racing, which we still have today. Like the biggest track we have is Crandon in northern Wisconsin. Um, they do two races there a year, and I I highly recommend if you're a motorsports enthusiast and you have the opportunity to go to Fall Crandon. Turn one in Fall Crandon is probably the most spectacular thing I've ever seen on all of motorsports. Uh, when you have 20 plus vehicles going into one corner off camber on dirt, it's wild.

Don Armstrong 8:23

Well, it's Wisconsin, my friend. We call it a few beers and some brats, and you're ready for anything. Yeah, some courage, man. Gotta get some courage. Gotta get some courage, curds. Okay, so uh, so how are you are you involved in this? Are you are you currently in Reno?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Uh no, I I actually reside in San Diego. Um well, I'm sorry to hear that.

Jeff Dziekan 8:48

Poor you.

Don Armstrong 8:49

Yeah, poor you.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

I was born in actually funny story, right? I'm a Michigan kid. I was born in Kalamazoo, and my parents relocated in 1984, dropped us in El Cahone, which is one corner of what we call the Bromuda Triangle.

Don Armstrong 9:04

Bromuta Triangle.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Okay, we hey, we're gonna expand that.

Don Armstrong 9:08

That's too good that yeah, Bromuta Triangle.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

So it's basically, you know, it's San Diego, uh uh Las Vegas, and Phoenix. That's what we refer to as the Bromuta Triangle, where all the the um really the the growth of off-road culture, which was born from uh hot riding culture, right? So uh you'll see a lot of crossover names and a lot of parallel people who you know took techniques that were being um you know created for making cars go faster in the 1950s, and they put them in off-road.

Don Armstrong 9:42

Well, I have to tell you that I mean I'm not an off-roader, but I certainly do appreciate all of the technology that goes into those trucks. I mean, and as you said, you know, you could you could put a million horsepower into anything, but when it comes to uh the suspension work on these trucks, mainly trucks, uh, because I I know that there are other forms other than trucks, but we're focused on trucks here. To see the suspension on these, I have been fortunate enough to see that. You're going, how did somebody manage to put that pencil to paper and create create this thing that's like an elevator? I know how they did it. How do they do it, Jeff? They went, hold my beer, watch this. Yeah, that's it. It's somebody with a welder and going, you know what? We we could probably get at least another foot out of that suspension. But if we taps blue rib, it'll do it. Yeah, I mean, it's truly amazing to see how that thing works, and to think that they I know that the probably this truck is a custom chassis and all of that sort of stuff, but these guys will take an actual stock chassis, gussy it up, and somehow, somehow get the suspension travel on the thing and make their own shocks, yeah, you know, yeah, uh fluids and all that.

Jeff Dziekan 11:09

Yeah, it's truly amazing. So Ford's got this several million dollar vehicle they're bringing over here to run on your on run on your turf. What are some of the other teams? Are they do they have several million dollar vehicles or is it like a backyard kind of setup or what?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Well, yes and no. That's the beautiful thing about our sport in particular, is that we have the top-level teams that are the unlimited trucks, which are multi-million dollar vehicles, right? Yeah, and they're spending millions of dollars to race them every year. And then we have 28 different classes of vehicles below that, all the way down to I'd say the slowest class is still stock VW bugs. So, you know, the great thing is, unlike NASCAR or Formula One, you can still go build something in your garage with your friends, and you can come and race our races, right? So, and and

Stadium Racing And Mickey Thompson

SPEAKER_00 12:00

that's really for us like that's very important because that's the American spirit that that spawned hot rotting, that spawned off-road, right? Like, people built all this stuff in their garages. Now, we have a we have an industry now of race vehicles that are being built that are very remarkable and capable, you know, if you if you have the budget to go that way. So, you know, it kind of gives a space for every budget level to come play in our in our sport. Great.

Don Armstrong 12:28

So, what do you have, Matt?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Um I've learned something a long time ago of about um keep your money in your pocket and just go enjoy everybody else's dough. Yeah, basically, like I if it if it flies, floats, or whatever, right? Then rent it, right? Um, so no, I I have a uh handful of UTVs, which are remarkable vehicles. If you if you've never been able to either ride in one or go um drive one, I highly recommend it. There's a lot of rental places all over the United States where you can go rent a Can Am or a Polaris. Um, so we've got several of those that we use um both for fun and for the the work that we do out course marking, um, you know, several trucks, um, etc. But no, I I uh I get to enjoy racing with other people's things, which is which is the best way to do it.

Mike Marrs 13:25

I feel do you ever get to ride with someone?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, absolutely. Um what I I'm very uh I guess I would call myself a like an off-road tech nerd, right? So when there's new innovation, uh a new type of vehicle or new shock system or whatever, I I want to experience it so I can really speak to it. So, you know, I have the luxury of of calling some of our top guys and saying, hey, um, you guys put this new engine in, it's you know, whatever, 300 more horsepower. I want to see what that feels like. Can I come and take a ride? And um, most of the time they're excited to you know just share the the evolution of the technology. And we've had some really cool evolutions as of late. We've just recently um been able to have four-wheel drive vehicles um because prior to about you know 10 or 15 years ago, we couldn't get the the suspension, the four-wheel drive suspension to live, right? Like it was um predominantly two-wheel drive vehicles, and now there's some four-wheel drive vehicles that are starting

Reno To Vegas Details And New Tech

SPEAKER_00 14:32

to make some headway.

Don Armstrong 14:33

So, Matt, uh, when is this race?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

Uh, this race is coming up at the first park part of August, August 12th through the 15th. Um part of the year. Yeah, it's gonna be a little warm, but in the desert. The um the cool thing about this year is that it's the 30th anniversary, um, and we are running it backwards. So we are running Reno to Vegas, which we've never done, um, which is gonna create all sorts of additional drama because we're racing from a cooler area at elevation down to a hotter area. Um, so typically at the end of the race, the vehicles are pretty spent, and you're trying to like you know get it to the finish line, and now you're going into the heat, so it means that the cooling fans and electrical will be running at full clip. So it's gonna be a real test of the mechanics um of the vehicle.

Don Armstrong 15:27

So are we gonna be able to follow along during this race or how how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, absolutely. This year also, this will be the first year that we'll be live streaming it. So you'll be able to go and watch the entire race for free on YouTube. Um, as well as one of the coolest innovations that have happened lately is that um we've begun attaching Starlinks to the vehicles. Cool. So now you can see in cars the entire race uh via Starlink.

Don Armstrong 15:55

So what do we look up on YouTube?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Um, just Unlimited Off-Road Racing and uh Best of the Desert. Um, both will have uh um the feeds for the YouTube um live stream. Um, if you just search for uh Vegas Sereno, it'll come up as well. Um, pretty easy to find.

Don Armstrong 16:14

Matt's great to talk to you, my friend. Thanks so much for all the info.

Jeff Dziekan 16:17

Are we now uh a part of the Bromuta Triangle? Are we part of that now?

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Well, you know, it's funny is I was just up in um in Michigan and northern Michigan in uh Traverse City and in South Haven. I'm like, maybe we should loop this part of the country in.

Don Armstrong 16:32

Yeah, well, well, we'll we'll talk about that. That's another show. Matt, thanks again. We appreciate you talking to us.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Awesome. Thank you guys.

Don Armstrong 16:40

Thank you, Matt Martelli. Okay, hey, be sure and join us for our live show every week. In real time airs, Saturdays, 10 to noon, Facebook, YouTube, and inrealtime.com. And of course, if you miss it, you can catch 30-minute podcasts of this show at your favorite podcast store. Thanks for joining us. We'll back after this break. The Tex Max dining experience is defined by Loopy Tortilla, your destination for Texas's best beef beheads and frozen margaritas. Since 1983, Loopy Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients. Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience of Loopy Tortillas, all developed in a little house near Highway 6 to 90 and Houston. Visit any of the Loopy Tortillas, and you'll see the stable attention to detail at each and every location. Start your loopy experience with queso flameato and guacamole, along with a classic roast of margaritas, dine on famous loopy beef and chicken fajitos or pepper short crochet, or a finished or vegetarian entree, and finish with a scrub to fly for dessert. Find loopy tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort North. There's a Texas location near you. The recipes are authentic and time-tested. The ingredients are always fresh. Loopy tortilla. Thank you. We continue to build and grow our fan base, and it's all because of you and your auto enthusiast friends. We appreciate your support. It's always great to see you at our remote broadcast, too, and we hope you'll continue to stop by and say hello. It's been a great ride, and we hope to bring you more fun and adventure right here on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.

Cruise-Ins And Car Show Calendar

Don Armstrong 18:30

We really appreciate it for our live version of this. Um it's time now here on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show for our cruise in and events calendars. Yeah, we've got some headlines after that.

Jeff Dziekan 18:41

Yep. Uh for so for next weekend, uh, July 17th, Saturday, you've got the Travis County Exposition Center. It's the Texas Heat Wave out of Austin's going on next weekend. So enjoy that if you're out there uh take an air conditioner. Yep. Uh, and then also uh Saturday, that would be started Friday, I should say, for the Texas Heat Wave Coast of the Weekend. Uh next Saturday is the Hempstead Watermelon Festival Car Show. It's a barbecue store. Now, this is anybody that knows Houston and Northwest Part, uh Highway 6 and 290. This is the old uh Lawrence Marshall lot. It's where they had the car dealership. Wait a minute, didn't he go to jail? I don't know. That's not in the story, but it is Hempstead Commerce and Civic Association. They're going out there to watermelon festival. Get yourself, you know, bury yourself in some of that sweet red watermelon juices and all that good stuff. Uh 50-50 rabble. There's a big event going on out there. So another Saturday event is the Tint World Cars and Coffee. Wait a minute. What did you just say World with an N in it? Yeah, it's a new brothel, so get either way. Tint World 50 uh 553 South Business Interstate Highway 35. Uh, so Tint World Styling Center is host cars and coffee every Saturday. Uh and then on Sunday, the 19th, you got the Will Rogers Memorial Center. This is the 35th annual Yellow Rose Classic Southwest All Ford National Car Show. Dang, yeah. Can you get that on a bumper? These are only for fours that have not been recalled. Uh this is up in Fort Worth. I'm kidding. Uh up in Fort Worth. Why not? And it's the 35th annual. I don't know how they count that high because they're they're up there. And then, of course, the uh you got the Will uh the Willis Classic Car Show coming up, and then what are you talking about, Willis? Car meets at 403. So that's all going on next weekend. There's a lot of car shows. So in your community, all you gotta do is Google car shows in your area, and boom, they'll pop up.

Don Armstrong 20:33

You know, when we started this show, there were maybe a dozen, you know, cruise-ins over. Now there are so many, there's no way we could ever get to all of them.

Jeff Dziekan 20:44

Well, you sent me a link to one this past week, and I looked into it, and there's you got to go through like 20 steps to get in anything hard concrete information. So uh a lot for posting. So if you got a car show, if you want to advertise it, let us know. Yeah, exactly.

Don Armstrong 20:58

All right, yeah.

Ford Fires Worker Over A Cookie

Don Armstrong 20:59

Um, speaking of Ford, this is a story that it just uh it's unbelievable, but it's not too far-fetched. Ready? Ford Motor Company reportedly fired an electrician, earning more than $200,000 a year at the automaker's most profitable assembly plant over a $1.95 chocolate chip cookie. Kurt Crom told Shifting Gears that Ford had him escorted out of the Kentucky truck plant after accusing the 60-year-old diabetic of stealing a cookie during his overnight shift on May the 9th. Ford had a break room surveillance video, according to them, showing him getting a red failed payment screen on a self service kiosk. But Crom, who was feeling lightheaded at the time, said he succeeded. Successfully swiped his credit card on a second terminal before eating the cookie to raise his blood sugar level. He said, I thought this was all a joke at first. Um, he said, if you wanted to get rid of me, you could have just asked, and I'd quit. Why are you doing this over a cookie? Crom later produced a bank statement listing the $1.95 charge. Wow. And Ford eventually offered to rehire him after confirming the payment with Aeromark, the vendor that operates the kiosks. But by then, Crom had already moved back to his hometown in Wisconsin, go badgers, and gotten a new job with better pay. So he's making more than 200 grand a year. We don't talk about individual cases, but there are times when we look into things and realize it could have been handled differently, according to a Ford spokesperson.

Jeff Dziekan 23:01

You know.

Don Armstrong 23:02

When that happens, we try to rectify it. We value our employees and want to be as fair as possible.

Jeff Dziekan 23:10

I, you know, I know a company that's just like that. Yeah, but I've waiting for him to say he's got a $10 billion lawsuit against Ford or something.

Don Armstrong 23:19

A UAW official told Crom that Ford was changing its policy to suspend workers over suspected break room thefts rather than immediately firing them. Ford also paid Crom $28,000 for five weeks of lost wages. There we go. That's more than 14,000 times the cost of the cookie it thought he stole. Way to go.

Premium Gas Prices And Octane Myths

Don Armstrong 23:47

Wouldn't that be so? Drivers across the U.S., including some behind the wheel of performance vehicles, are switching from premium gasoline to regular in a search for savings as fuel prices remain elevated. This from automotive news. Between June 22nd and June 25th, daily sales of premium gasoline were down nearly 5% by volume compared to the average from February, just before the Iran War, led to a rapid spike in prices, according to data from fuel cash bank. Sorry, fuel cash back app upside. Mid-grade sales were down 2%, while sales of regular were up about 10%, according to the data. Regular gasoline averaged $381 a gallon as of July 3rd, while premium averaged $470 a gallon according to the AAA. That's good for a roughly 90 cent difference between the grades and all-time high. And premium prices typically stay higher for longer.

Mike Marrs 24:49

On the truck, that's that's 27 bucks at a fill-up.

Don Armstrong 24:53

Does it only take premium?

Mike Marrs 24:55

No, but I mean if it did, if I put premium, it takes the regular unleaded, but that would be the difference if it was premium, like a raptor or the big TRX or something. You know, you're talking 25-30 bucks. Yes. Every fill up.

Don Armstrong 25:08

Yes. Somebody said, Well, I have to run premium in my car. No, you don't. Um, if you are a heavy right footer, then um maybe perhaps you could back off the foot just a little bit. But most modern cars today have a thing called an ECU called an electronic control unit that it knows and has uh knock sensors in the engine, that if it's not getting enough of the knock reducer uh in the fuel, i.e. premium, then it backs off the timing of the engine so you don't get engine knock, which is detrimental to engines. So you can run regular in most gasoline engines.

Mike Marrs 25:58

I think even a lot of the more performance ones, it says recommended to run premium. Doesn't necessarily I don't try to remember of one that says required, probably some of the Corvettes or the Hellcats or something like that.

Jeff Dziekan 26:10

Well, if if you run a performance car from like a Hertz or an Avis, that they require you to put in the fuel that takes the car, like premium. They they ask you to put in and what happens if you don't? Well, that's just it. I don't know. Uh, because I've done that.

Mike Marrs 26:23

I've that's what I'm saying. A lot of the gas caps say it's recommended, it doesn't say required.

Don Armstrong 26:28

Yeah, but you know, who knows about these rent car companies, and what do they do? Give it the smell test. Oh, that's regular.

Mike Marrs 26:36

Yeah, we know they pull the car around to the back to clean it up for the next guy, and there's a gas pump there, and they only got one type of gas. Exactly right. That's exactly right.

Don Armstrong 26:46

I I don't okay, whatever. Whatever, but um, that's the way I see it, and uh, I'm sticking with buddy.

Jeff Dziekan 26:53

There you go.

Don Armstrong 26:53

Yeah, uh, the Corvette runs premium. I put premium in it, and uh about once or twice a week.

Jeff Dziekan 26:59

We were on a search for Tecron on the trip back from Granberry.

Don Armstrong 27:03

We were, and um, I finally found it, and it was ten dollars a jug. But I I I and it's funny because I went to uh a place, a Chevron Station. They didn't have Tecron. What are you talking about, boy?

Mike Marrs 27:18

It's in the gas, it's in the gas or wire in the tank before we poured a can in the tank on the ground when we filled it.

Jeff Dziekan 27:25

And then that was the the dex fuel I was asking questions about. That was another story. The gallon of dex fuel, how much is that? We'll take that's another day.

Don Armstrong 27:35

Yeah. Road trips are always interesting and fun. All right. It's

Break And Sponsor Messages

Don Armstrong 27:40

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