July 13, 2026

Modern Tech Upgrades For A C5 Corvette Without Cutting

Modern Tech Upgrades For A C5 Corvette Without Cutting
Modern Tech Upgrades For A C5 Corvette Without Cutting
In Wheel Time Podcast
Modern Tech Upgrades For A C5 Corvette Without Cutting
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
TuneIn podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconTuneIn podcast player icon

Your car doesn’t just get you places, it reveals what you’re willing to put up with. We’re back on the In Wheel Time car talk show and we jump straight into a question every owner of an older performance car eventually faces: do you modernize it, or do you move on? Don’s 2001 C5 Corvette still has that old-school factory setup, so we talk through the real-world appeal of a modern aftermarket display with Bluetooth and Android Auto, and whether a $500 upgrade makes sense if the car only comes out once in a while.

From there, the conversation widens into used car buying decisions that have nothing to do with bragging rights and everything to do with comfort, reliability, and how your body feels getting in and out of the driver’s seat. We also get honest about turbocharged four-cylinder engines and turbo lag, especially when the transmission tuning doesn’t match the way people actually drive in heavy city traffic. If you’ve ever needed the power now to clear an intersection, you’ll know exactly why this matters.

Then we shift gears into pure car culture: Jeff runs through overlooked 1960s cars most people forgot, from sensible compacts to oddball engineering like the Mercury Breezeway rear window and the early-turbo Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire. Mike takes us underground for a Houston driving destinations segment featuring the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern and the downtown Houston tunnel system, a hidden way to escape heat and storms without leaving the city core.

Subscribe for more car talk, share this with a friend who’s debating their next ride, and leave us a review if you want more straight answers. What’s the smartest upgrade you’ve ever made to an older car?

Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!

The Lupe' Tortilla Restaurants
Lupe Tortilla in Katy, Texas

Gulf Coast Auto Shield
Paint protection, tint, and more!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

---- -----
Want more In Wheel Time car talk any time?

In Wheel Time is now available on Audacy!

Just go to Audacy.com/InWheelTime where ever you are.
----- -----
Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast provider for the next episode of In Wheel Time Podcast and check out our live multiplatform broadcast every Saturday, 10a - 12nCT simulcasting on Audacy, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and InWheelTime.com.

In Wheel Time Podcast can be heard on you mobile device from providers such as:

Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music Podcast, Spotify, SiriusXM Podcast, iHeartRadio podcast, TuneIn + Alexa, Podcast Addict, Castro, Castbox, YouTube Podcast and more on your mobile device.

Follow InWheelTime.com for the latest updates!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/InWheelTime

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inwheeltime/

https://www.youtube.com/inwheeltime

https://www.Facebook.com/InWheelTime

For more information about In Wheel Time Podcast, email us at

info@inwheeltime.com






InWheelTime.com/InWheelTimeCarTalk.com available on iHeartRadio, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and most podcast providers.

00:00 - Welcome Back And Show Setup

04:20 - C5 Corvette Audio Upgrade Debate

10:40 - Used Sedan Shopping And Turbo Lag Risks

17:33 - Break And How To Hear More

19:23 - 1960s Cars Most People Forgot

24:26 - Houston Cistern And Downtown Tunnels

30:55 - Quick Wrap And Where To Watch

Welcome Back And Show Setup

Don Armstrong

It's always good to start a show off just that way. Hello, and good morning, and welcome to the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show from our dual city studios in Texas, USA. I just admitted it, didn't I? Yeah, you did. Sorry I did.

Jeff Dziekan

We're good. Nobody knows.

Don Armstrong

It is the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show just ahead. Why is pedestrian safety important to you and me? Because we're driving the car. We're going to find out, we hope. Plus, Jeff has cars from the 1960s that no one remembers or doesn't want to. And Mars has the Houston Hidden Underground. Again? But it's not so hidden any longer. There's the candy driving destination. Howdy, along with Mike out of this world, Mars. We always need more Jeff Seekin. David Ainsley is vacationing up in the UP of uh Florida. He wishes. Yeah, no, he definitely wishes. He called this morning. Now he's 2,200 miles away. He calls this morning and says, Well, it's 63 degrees here. I'm sitting outside in his teenager uh pants that he wears to the Kmart uh and uh drinking his coffee and just checking in with you guys. Well, we appreciate it, David. Thanks a lot. Let's go boating later. He's probably got his boat all fueled up there now. So I'm Don Armstrong. Glad you could join us today. Uh we're back from a week's vacation, as you can tell, and we're all amped up. I know Mr. Mars is.

Mike Marrs

Absolutely.

Don Armstrong

You all amped up, Mars? Oh, and we got sunshine today. You do. We got a little cloudiness today. It's cloudiness, and it's supposed to storm here today.

Mike Marrs

I know it's it'll be here this afternoon, but for this morning, we had to do it.

Don Armstrong

We do send it all off to your direction.

Mike Marrs

We appreciate you sharing.

Don Armstrong

Yeah, just to mess up your day and that clean car wash. So is that your car that's behind you this morning?

Mike Marrs

I wish. That's my that's my dream car. I used to think I was going to build one, but at my age, I think it's gonna be buy one.

Don Armstrong

No, at your age now, it's you can't afford it.

Mike Marrs

I haven't gotten to that age yet.

Jeff Dziekan

Is that channeled? Is that a channeled uh no?

Mike Marrs

I don't think that was channeled. It's just uh lowboy.

Jeff Dziekan

It's a lowboy, yeah.

Mike Marrs

No fenders, things like that.

Don Armstrong

Well, behind us today, we have my soon-to-be son-in-law's hippie van that uh he and my daughter took a trip, another 2200-mile trip from Denver to I think Montreal or somewhere up in the northeast. And um and it made it and it didn't have a problem. Go figure. Those are the kind of people that you just don't like and that don't watch this show. Yeah, they just roll the dice and go with it. Whatever, we'll deal with it. That's what we did this morning. We did with this show. Hey, so glad you could join us. Do we have our guest, Mike? He's I think he's on the phone with him. Okay, I I love to get the show started like this. But uh, anyway, Mars, you do we have our guest?

Mike Marrs

Not yet. I think I'm gonna step away and see if I can uh find her.

Don Armstrong

Okay, okay. Well, you got about two minutes, otherwise, we're just gonna move on because I don't want to beleaguer the show any uh this morning.

Jeff Dziekan

So um, anyway, uh, how was your fourth of July? It's good. Uh uneventful, of course. Uh of course, we got a little rain and all that good stuff, but all in all good.

Don Armstrong

I was in bed, I think, by 10, 9, 10. Yeah, generally, and then stayed up half the night listening to people pop in firewalls.

Jeff Dziekan

See, that didn't happen. That normally happens. They were pretty much done by 10 o'clock, 10:30 after everybody had the big finale on TV and all that. It pretty much died out, which was good. And they really don't bother me, anyways. We don't have pets.

Don Armstrong

Well, maybe it was the gunfire I heard from the freeway over there. I'm not exactly sure. Uh it's hard for me to describe. Backfiring cars out here. Yeah, it ain't that. Um, I've done nothing with the Corvette since we drove back from Grand Berry. Uh, that was a month ago, uh,

C5 Corvette Audio Upgrade Debate

Don Armstrong

three weeks ago, three weeks, three, three, four weeks ago. At any rate. Um, but I do have things to do, and I ran across, you know, I have a C5 Corvette for those that don't know, which is a 2001 for me. And it is so old school that it's got a perfect fit. Go ahead, old school. It is old school, like me. Um, so it's got this little bitty display screen that only shows what radio station you're on. The 10 disc CD player that was back in the back end of the car. I took that out a long time ago. I'm not gonna mess with that thing. I think I still have one on the shelf at home. Yeah, I do, and so uh I even sawed the bolts off that thing is supposed to mount to back there. Waste of time. Because what I've done is that I've got a little Bluetooth adapter. Oh, yeah, that plugs in the cigarette lighter, and it's really cool because it shows what frequency to tune the radio to. So it takes the Bluetooth signal and pumps it into the radio at that frequency.

Jeff Dziekan

For those of you playing at home, what word did he say was key in that? Cigarette lighter. No cars have cigarette lighters, so you have a car, but they do have outlets. Well, they have outlets, but they're not called that.

Don Armstrong

They're called I'll bet you if you bought it, if you go to U totem and buy the cigarette lighter for 1095, I'll bet you stick it in there and it'll heat up because the cigarette lighter had coils on it that were warmed or heated electrically through that plug.

Jeff Dziekan

Yeah, with you plug your phone adapter in there, that's not the same type, as you know.

Don Armstrong

Oh, that's why the last phone started smoking.

Jeff Dziekan

They got a hot call coming in. Yeah, either that or that kind of smoking. I know, but I think that I don't I don't I wouldn't trust that. I wouldn't trust the guy at the quickie mart to sell me a plug.

Don Armstrong

That's it. Yeah, so um, anyway, this that thing works great. Do I use it very often?

Jeff Dziekan

Hardly for your radio, you do.

Don Armstrong

Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it connects up the phone to the yeah, but I don't really play the music. I have some CDs that I bought way back in the day. Headbang and yacht music, or what none of that, but it's turned into yacht rock radio now, headbang. Uh-huh. Or the the the Beatles' greatest hits and you know, 10 CDs or what whatever it is that I've got in there. So I've got that in some sort of a portfolio thing. You just flip flu it and put the thing in, whatever. I've got it all Taylor Swift. It works for me, but the point of the story is that I was scrolling, Doom scrolling, perusing, and uh Doom scrolling. And so one of the things that I found on there, somebody had put a member of the C5 Corvette bunch, of course, several of them actually. Somebody had posted something about he wanted to change out the radio and wanted to put something more modern in there. And I'm going, ooh, I could do that. So for 500 bucks, you can buy an actual display screen. You don't have to cut up according to the instructions, you don't have to cut up the structure behind it, which was a big thing. Cut up the structure, and the current surround that goes around the current radio just goes right up to it. I'm thinking, well, 500 is an awful lot of money, but it's pretty cool. And then, of course, it's got Bluetooth, and then you can marry your phone because it's got Android Auto in it. You marry your phone to it, and there's your there's a couple of things I see in this.

Jeff Dziekan

One, the cost of it, obviously. And you helping me. That's the other problem. Yeah. But how long are you going to keep this car? You're going to put $500 investment in a radio and you drive it once a month. You haven't driven it, you said, since for three weeks. Three weeks. Well, and here's so is that really so here's the answer.

Don Armstrong

Here's the answer to that. It's gonna be kind of uh really a fight to the finish to find out whether I'm gonna sell it or I'm gonna change the radio or do none of the above.

Jeff Dziekan

I say upgrade. You say sell it, I say upgrade, not with the radio with the vehicle. I would say look into something else. I I'm thinking it's time. Well, here's the problem that has occurred in the past.

Don Armstrong

Let's see, I bought that thing in 2017. Okay, bought it in 2017, and so we're coming up on, you know, I've owned it for eight years. My left knee isn't what it was.

Jeff Dziekan

See, you're gonna buy a new car, or you're gonna get a new left knee. What are you gonna do? No, well, there ain't gonna be a new left knee. Well, then you need to uh I know a guy that's he bought a wonderful car, it's a Buick. And of course you might be looking into those, yeah. Into a Corvette, no, a Buick.

Mike Marrs

Of course, the Buick.

Don Armstrong

Mike, so I'm thinking, you know, the question then comes all right, so what are you gonna buy? Well, it's not gonna be anything new, it's gonna be used.

Jeff Dziekan

Yeah, certified, sure.

Don Armstrong

No, well, maybe because they're more expensive, but I don't know, so I may even do that. I'd like to buy something like you know, five years old, 35,000 miles on it. I'm thinking, I don't know. I haven't driven one in a long time, and that would be a 2000, do the math, whatever it is, and um maybe a Cadillac four-door sedan with a V6.

Jeff Dziekan

There you go. Now you're talking. Now you're talking.

Don Armstrong

Yeah, nice ride.

Jeff Dziekan

I'd help you work on that. Air conditioner works. So, those of you listening at home, send to info at inwheeltime.com suggestions of what Don should buy, trade, sell.

Don Armstrong

Now you know who's gonna jump right in on it. You know, George is going to. Yeah. And so does Heitzman, but Heitzman doesn't count because if you see. Heisman's got a Cadillac, doesn't he? No, he's got like a Kia or something.

Jeff Dziekan

Oh, I thought he had a Cadillac.

Don Armstrong

No. Oh, you know, here's a guy that claims to be a car guy, but he's not a car guy.

Jeff Dziekan

He is.

Don Armstrong

No. So he takes all the money he makes down there at NASA because you know it's government supported, uh, and uh socks it away. Maybe he should buy a mail truck, government supported. Hey, now there's an idea. Yeah, unair conditioned old mail truck with a billion miles on it.

Jeff Dziekan

But no, send in suggestions of what you think Don might be be trying to do. Well, I was thinking about it.

Don Armstrong

You know, is it a Cadillac CTS C T it's a CT, it's a four-door

Used Sedan Shopping And Turbo Lag Risks

Don Armstrong

sedan, it's a mid-sized four-door sedan, and uh, I think that it's built on the old Camaro platform with stretched. I don't know, and uh it's got an old school V6 in it. I mean turbo'd, yeah. No, I don't I don't want turbo, I don't want a turbo. No, right aspiration. I have unsold myself from turbocharged anything. Okay, some of these cars that I drive turbocharged four-cylinder, oh 200, 250 horsepower. Here's the problem how long let me ask you this. How long have manufacturers been selling turbocharged four-cylinder engines?

unknown

Oh, oh, oh.

Jeff Dziekan

You you bring that up.

Don Armstrong

Well wait, do you got to answer the question?

Jeff Dziekan

Selling or making? Well, okay, uh making available to the public. Okay, let's let me back this up because my last part of the segment that I'm doing has a turbo in it. Oh, so we'll from the 1960s.

Don Armstrong

Well, yes, I I I can tell you right now that the Corvair from 1964 had the Corvair Spider, yeah, that had a turbocharged engine in it.

Jeff Dziekan

Didn't the Tucker have a turbo? It was a helicopter motor, wasn't it? I think Tucker is some sort of weird motor in it, but I don't know as if it's turbocharged. Oh, I don't know either.

Don Armstrong

I was I was thinking Tucker. But at any rate, I have had some absolutely horrible, horrible turbocharged four-cylinder engines, and it's not the engine's fault, it's turbo lag to begin with, and then they marry it to a transmission that doesn't understand turbo lag, and they have damn near gotten me killed. Oh, and and I am I'm I don't hot rod these things. I rarely floor the car, but I will tell you that with the turbo lag connected to a transmission that doesn't get it, we're talking about a three-second lag before the thing takes off.

Jeff Dziekan

It can be dangerous.

Don Armstrong

In in this city, with all the cars and all of the situations that I drive in, I need the power now, not three seconds from now, to get across the intersection.

Jeff Dziekan

And a lot of times you have to wait anyways because people are running red lights left and right all the time.

Don Armstrong

It's nerve-wracking. And uh, I've actually called one of the cars out that I didn't really want to, but I'm not gonna lie to you. Um, the one I'm driving right now, that out there, that Toyota, spot on. Really? Yeah, it's great. It's an electric car. It's uh it's a plug-in hybrid. Plug-in hybrid, okay. Right. So it's got a gas motor in it, and uh that that's coming up next week. I'll review that. But I will tell you that uh one of the cars that I reviewed and didn't wasn't really kind to it, was the fact of this turbo lag. And it's not against one brand, it's against all of the brands that do this combination that the car doesn't talk to the transmission and engine at the same time.

Jeff Dziekan

Well, this is how the technology is buying, is what you're saying. It's turbolag. So the next question is send your cards and letters to what color he should buy. There you go. That'd be the next one.

Don Armstrong

Yeah.

Jeff Dziekan

Okay, so what would I buy? Would I buy a red one? No, I think you'd you would probably uh it wouldn't be yellow. It would be a dark color, but it wouldn't be black.

Don Armstrong

No, it was not no, I'll number out another black.

Jeff Dziekan

They make a lot of nice, the uh like a darker than a battleship gray kind of no, no, not doing gray. No, uh the car you have out there now is red. You like that?

Don Armstrong

I actually do. All right, it's not it's not a fire engine red, it's uh uh kind of toward the maroon side, maroon red, yeah. But it's very nice. I like it. Okay, I I it's and it's it's not a hot rod thing. What about looking into one of these, like a a uh pre-owned Toyota SUV? No, all right, no, I I have no reason for it to buy an SUV, I don't want an SUV. No offense. I mean just saying, yeah, yeah, I mean, they're great, they're the number one seller in the world. Yeah, I get that. But uh there's no reason for me to own that. What about a pickup truck? Absolutely not.

Jeff Dziekan

Okay, no, okay. So we narrowed down our choices out there. Yeah, there's no pickup trucks. Okay, no pickups, no, no uh SUV.

Don Armstrong

No, I want a four-door sedan. Okay, yeah, all right. Not that I'd ever use the back seat, but just to have it, and you can't find a big two-door anymore. 40 years ago, you would have been using that back seat. And you know, I saw I saw while there's that. I might not have been a little bit older than the 40 years, yeah. But um I saw, and you know who's got it for sale? Chase Murray. Oh it was a 19. I ought to look it up. 80 Lincoln Continental, four-door sedan. That's it was absolutely gorgeous, and it only had 35,000 miles on it.

Jeff Dziekan

Yep.

Don Armstrong

The problem with that is then I'd be okay. Well, Don, it needs to have a transmission overhaul. No, no, we don't want to do any of that. I don't want to buy somebody else's property. Oh, yeah. And when you get into that old stuff, then you cut yeah, parts, all of that.

Jeff Dziekan

Does anybody know how to work on them anymore, too?

Don Armstrong

Well, I mean, I could work on it, we could work on it. I'm I'm uh no, I don't know that. Oh, yeah, we yeah, no, we we we got that down, but uh anyway, those are the things that a man of my stature, age.

Mike Marrs

Age of stature, yeah.

Don Armstrong

Well, not the stature, it's just the age. Uh, I don't want to be bent over a fender working on, you know, some carburetor issue. No, I I'm I'm over the I bought this is when I first got I know I I when I I got into uh the Corvette thing, the 1977 Corvette. I took it off the road, spent way too much money fixing it all up, show it, got the trophies, all that. So I bought a 55 Chevrolet half-ton pickup truck. It had rust holes in the cab that were as big around you could put your head in there, but it looked cool. It's brown, other than that, it was okay. I found myself working on that to keep it running as my second car, then I did the Corvette. Yeah, no, I don't want to get into all that. Been there, done that, and got the trophy. All right. Well, so much for Caroline Cash and the safety expert, why pedestrian safety is important to you. And the reason I say that is because I wrote that and I didn't want it to pass by.

Jeff Dziekan

Okay.

Don Armstrong

Uh, that I didn't write it, but I did. Gotcha. Just ahead in Jeff's car culture. 60s cars that no one remembers. And Mars drives us to the Houston Hidden Underground after this break, when the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show continues. Stay with us.

Break And How To Hear More

Don Armstrong

The Tex The Texas Max dining experience is defined by Loopy Tortilla, your destination for Texas's best beef bajitas 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 and I 10 in Houston. Visit any of the Loopy Tortillas, and you'll see the same attention to detail in each and every location. Start your loopy experience with quiz of flamingato and guacamole, along with a classic frozen margarita. Turn on the famous loopy beef and chicken tour pepper chip crochet, or a finished vegetarian entree, and finish with a scrumptious vlog for dessert. Find loopy tortilla in Houston, Holland 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 always fresh. Loopy tortilla. Eat pretty good. Apple or Android In Wheel Time podcasts can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads. Whether you're on the road or at home and searching for a fun car talk show, give In Wheel Time a try. Honest new car reviews, fun informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's cart culture, Mike's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time. Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music. InWheeltime.com has a list, so check us out. Invite you to join us 10 to noon Central Time every Saturday for our live show about all things automotive. You get a heads up on all of those uh podcaster people.

Jeff Dziekan

Yep.

Don Armstrong

Because this is the real this is the real deal. It's a fun ride. We invite you to join us every Saturday. All

1960s Cars Most People Forgot

Don Armstrong

right, time now for Jeff's Car Culture, we call it. This week, 60s cars that we don't remember. Do we really need to remember them? Well, you're gonna help us out.

Jeff Dziekan

Yeah, you might remember one or two, but vaguely. So here we go. And this opening pick right here, this is actually a Plymouth Valiant Signet. The Signet was an upscale version of the Plymouth's popular Valiant Compact. It was comfortable, reasonably stylish, and perfectly respectable, which is another way of saying nobody's hung a poster of this car in their garage in 40 years. Moving on. The next one is a Rambler AMC. This Rambler had one of the coolest names of the decade. Unfortunately, the car itself didn't leave quite the same impression. AMC sold plenty of them, but today most people remember the company's later oddball choices like the Gremlin and the Pacer. Hey, we like the Gremlin. I had a good friend of mine, Kathy that grew up with a she grew up with a high school friend that had a uh PACER. It was a cool little car. Uh that was the fishbowl. Yeah, no, no, the gremlin was the fishbowl. Well, the pacer, yeah, you're right. The pacer. I was thinking of the another one. Anyways, Rambler American is the next on the list, and the millions of Americans once drove the Rambler American, but spotting one today feels uh about as good as finding a payphone that still works. They were dependable, affordable transportation for people who cared more about saving money than impressing the neighbors. Wasn't exactly the recipe for a long-lasting frame. That would be the AMC Rambler. Next one, uh, the Mercury Meteor. The meteor existed in a strange space between Ford and Mercury, where buyers weren't entirely sure why it existed. It wasn't a bad car, it wasn't an exciting car, it was just there. Uh and it was green and boring. Uh, which might explain why even many Mercury fans forgot about the meteor, even though it was part of the lineup. How about that? Forgot about it. Next about it. One of my favorites, and I did see one of these, and I do remember this car is a Mercury Monterey Breezeway. Oh my god. Mike, we're uh oh, we're we're gotta go one more. I think you gotta go one more.

Mike Marrs

You need one more?

Jeff Dziekan

Yeah, that was the meteor. There's the breezeway. Uh, the breezeway featured one of the strangest production car features ever offered. The rear window rolled down.

Mike Marrs

Oh, yeah.

Jeff Dziekan

Seriously, Mercury claimed it improved ventilation, which it did. It also guaranteed that anybody seeing one would immediately ask, wait, why is the back window doing that? Now, this was ahead of its time because now you got pickup trucks with the window goes down. But look at the roof line in the back. It's jacked. It's I like it. I like that car. I'd I'd do things with that car. The next one, Mike, is a Chevrolet Biscayne. The Biscayne was a budget-minded full-size car. Millions were built, but it lacked the flash of an impala and the prestige of a caprice. It perfectly a perfect example of a vehicle that was everywhere once and almost nowhere today. That's true. Mercury Comet Cyclone. I had a friend of mine that had a Mercury Comet and it was a cool car. He had velocity stacks on it and twid bowls on the front.

Don Armstrong

Did it have those great big nostrils on the front of it?

Jeff Dziekan

The hood was so chopped up for the velocity stacks, we don't know. The cyclone had one major problem. It existed in the same era as the Mustang. That's a little like trying to become a famous rock star while standing next to the Beatles. It was actually capable of performing, it was a performance car, but it spent most of its life in somebody else's shadow. That's a cool car. I drive that today. And lastly, Don mentioned turbocharges in the first part of the show. Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire. Look at that, baby. The jet fire deserves far more attention than history has given it. This thing featured a turbocharger years before turbocharging became cool. Unfortunately, early technology brought reliability headaches, and the jet fire became one of the most overlooked performance experiments of the entire tech. Wait a minute. Is isn't that Marvin Zindler behind the wheel? I think guys got a half. Every one of these I would drive.

Don Armstrong

So Buick had a version of that. Was it the Skylark?

Jeff Dziekan

I believe. I think it was. I think it was the Skylark.

Don Armstrong

But uh same platform. So my my buddy Ross Putnam that had the hot rod. Um somehow, some way, I guess he got grandma's car or something. It was a four-door sedan, uh, this body style. Right. It was white, and we called it whitey. And I'll never forget the evening that it had rained. Pardon me? It fits code. And it uh it was uh uh parking, it was a strip center, strip mall at an intersection. The intersection was Hillcroft and Brazewood, and there was nobody there after all closing time, and they had no curb stops. So you get out there and you'd floor it, and that right rear tire would just spin up to yeah, and uh we'd do donuts, all six of us in the car. Yeah, that's my memories of that car. Put the heavyweight guys on the right wheel, pretty much. Yeah, very good. Mr. Mars has driving destinations, Houston Hidden Underground, Mr. Mars.

Houston Cistern And Downtown Tunnels

Mike Marrs

Yes, sir. We had uh quite a few things I want to point out here about the uh Houston Hidden Underground. And starting off with if you everybody that drives around Houston, particularly if you happen to go out the Katy Freeway while they were doing the big widening job here years ago and made it what the widest freeway in the world, yep, you could see all of the utilities that are underground. I mean, there's gas lines down there, there's water lines, there's sewer lines. Phone companies spent millions of dollars on that project trying to get their underground equipment over and get it out of the way. So when you're driving over these roads, unless you're on the tenth story of a stack of freeways, you don't really think about what's underneath you, but there's a lot of stuff that's down there. Now, there's also a couple of other things that are down there in the Houston, and one of those is the Buffalo Bayou Sister. Now, I wasn't aware of all this stuff that was going on down there whenever uh back in whenever so this was started in 1926. It was a project that was built in 1966 when Houston was growing so fast they needed more drinking water storage. And they so they came up with this plan to make it one of the earliest underground reservoirs, which is unusual in Houston considering the static water level, the ground water level. But this thing holds 15 million gallons of water, and that's what kind of what started out helping maintain the water pressure while the city was growing. Now it's the size of one and a half football fields, and it's actually supported by 21 columns that are built down here underneath this area. And each one of them is like 25 feet tall. Now, it's been in business for 80 years, it's been working, and uh the engineers have done some repair leaks and repaired some leaks, but they took it out of service actually in 2007 for realistic use of supplying water for the city. Now, it's still been down there ever since, but then during the Buffalo Biopark redevelop redevelopment, instead of tearing it down and trying to fill in this massive area, they opened it up for tours. So, some things to that to really notice, if you happen to take this tour, 221 cop concrete columns, 25 feet tall, 15 million gallons of water when it was operational, 87,500 square feet down here under the ground. And if you stand there and it's quiet to where you can do an echo, it takes 17 seconds. Your echo will actually run for 17 seconds across here, and so it still has that little thin layer of water at the bottom, so it reflects it and it makes it look even bigger. Now, the other thing that's going on downtown Houston, and I'm sure some of you guys have heard of it. I have never heard of it until recently when I started looking for this stuff. There were rumors, but there is an underground tunnel system in downtown Houston. Now, it was started in 1935, and what it was done was to connect two buildings together because of the heat and the rain and everything. So it was just a convenience thing that actually started. But now there's now six miles of interconnected tunnels beneath downtown, and dozens of office buildings are connected. There's restaurants, there's coffee shops, there's convenience stores, there's even some banks down there. So that these people that are downtown working, I mean, you can literally go downtown and go underground and stay down there literally all day long. And it's just uh a lot of that reason, again, it was started because of the Houston summers and uh the late afternoon thunderstorms that make a mess of it that we have that we're still dealing with, obviously. But if it's 98 degrees outside and the humidity is up at 80%, and you want to walk down two blocks down the street to go to a restaurant, by the time you get back to your office, you're not gonna be in the best of shape as far as heat goes. So you go downtown, you go down into the tunnel system to the restaurants, the coffee shops. If you want to do walking, because you want to get in shape, there's long corridors that you can walk, just like at a mall. It's almost like a mall down there. But uh, you gotta be careful to make sure you don't get lost down there because it does wind around quite a bit. So that's two places underground in Houston that most people don't think about because of the water tip table that's in the ground and the fact that it's out of sight, it's out of mind. So if you're looking for some place to go this summer in the Houston heat, here's two places that you could go to get out of the heat and find someplace a little bit different to hang out.

Don Armstrong

Good story. Okay, thank you, Mike. Appreciate that. Uh Houston Hidden Underground. I've been down there in that I haven't been to the cistern, but I have been to the tunnel system, and you can get lost real easily.

Jeff Dziekan

That's understandable.

Don Armstrong

Yeah, I think most of those shops down there are closed, but it's still, I don't know what part of it's open and closed. I don't know anymore. So go. Thanks, check it out. Thank you, Mr. Morris. All right, in wheel time continues right after this quick break. Stay with us. Your car is a direct reflection of you, so don't be satisfied with color fade or a dingy dull appearance. Get rid of those terrible automated car wash scratches. Gulf Coast Auto Shield is your save the paint company. John Gray and his team of detailing experts can help your cars finish without a full repaint. Searching for real experts in window tent or windshield protection, Gulf Coast Auto Shield. Dash cans, radar detectors, Gulf Coast Auto Shield. Got a new car? Get it protected as soon as you take delivery. If you don't know which of the multitude of protection products to go with, John Gray will give you an honest opinion and won't sell you something you don't need. John will help you understand the many options in pricing right on the spot. He's your guy to have your ride looking its best and protected too. See the state-of-the-art shop yourself, free tours anytime. Gulf Coast Auto Shield is easy to get to, located just south of the Southwest Freeway on the Sam Houston Parkway. Gulf Coast Auto Shield, full-service luxury car care today and online at gcautoshield.com. Gift giving should be meaningful, and we have an idea: a hand-painted custom illustration of your car from one of the nation's leading artists. Now you can get one or a car show poster customized for you, a friend, or a loved one. Bill Sitz will be happy to guide you through the process. No matter what the day, birthday, anniversary, or any day, an autographics custom illustration adds an extra touch of class to any home. Call Bill today, 832-922-0963. That's 832-922-0963.

Quick Wrap And Where To Watch

Don Armstrong

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 InWheelTime.com website. Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartPodcast, Podcast Addict, TuneIn, Pandora, and Amazon Music. Keep listening, and we'll see you soon.