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Episode Transcript
(Jimmy)>> You're watching Powernation!
(Jeremy)>> Today on Carcass we're out of the shop and we're trying to get another piece of old iron back on the road to redemption. We'll take a handful of parts and a little bit of elbow grease to get this rundown vehicle back in shape to hit the highway in a Driveway Rescue.
(Jimmy)>> Then we head to the hills of Kentucky for some grassroots racing that is a major draw to a small town that has many positive impacts. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome to Carcass. We are not in the studio today. We're actually in the RockAuto Driveway Rescue van cause we're gonna go do a Driveway Rescue. The guy sitting next to me is Flamur. He's with RockAuto. Jimmy's out actually at the place looking the vehicle over cause we tentatively might take it with us. We'll let you guys see the vehicle once we get there. Flamur, RockAuto has a been a huge part in what we do, especially in the Driveway Rescue side of things. You guys are also a huge part of what we do in the studios. And it doesn't matter if we have a vehicle that's from the '60s or '70s, or all the way up to current or even back further from the '60s and '70s. You guys have all sorts of parts to get a vehicle back on the road, or just to keep a vehicle on the road as far as maintenance goes. So, tell me a little bit about RockAuto and how it's so easy to sit down at your computer and get your hands on the parts you need.
(Flamur)>> We're work really hard at making sure our catalog is as easy to use as possible for everybody. If it's an old part. If it's an old Model-T. If we can find it and put it in the catalog we'll make sure we have those parts, the most modern parts. We'll work very hard to make sure it's easy to understand, and you can go to the catalog and you can select. I need this, I need that, and it's easy to ship, easy to use, and we pride ourselves on giving you as much data as possible. There is no reason to hide anything behind a counter in big hard to read books anymore. All of that data we release to the customer, we put on the website, to make it as easy as possible. You need new wiper blades, that's easy. Pick your wiper blade. You need a camshaft for a '62 Dodge Dart I'm sure we can help you there as well. That's why things like we're doing today. This is just a thrill for us. This is a real person who needs real help with a real car, and we're overjoyed and excited that we have everything that you need to get this car back into the shape that it deserves to be in.
(Jeremy)>> You guys do carry so many parts now. Like you said, if you need wiper blades, if you need an air filter, if you need a wheel bearing, but there's so much more on the website than that. You guys do have some performance parts. You've got this little area that has tools and universal parts. You've got off road lights in there. You've got receiver hitches. I've seen some towing accessories. All the way back to when we worked on the green Silverado we got a performance cam for it. So, it's not only those little things that you can buy for your daily driver. There's so much more to it than just that.
(Flamur)>> A lot of people know us as a great source for getting your air filters, and your brake pads and your rotors, for your modern car that just needs a freshen up or a tune-up, but one thing that we do have. I encourage people to go look at the 1950s and the 1960s, and those cars from the '70s. We'll have carpets. We'll have badging. If somebody has it on a shelf somewhere, somebody manufactures a quality part we'll do our best to get it in the catalog cause it does nobody any good to keep all this inventory on the shelves, and we just want to make the world aware that there still are brake pads for a Studebaker somewhere. If we can find them we'll get them to you. We pride ourself as well on our transparent and reliable pricing. One thing we do not do is we don't play the free shipping game. Where we'll give you free shipping, but we've got to charge somebody else extra money to pay for your free shipping. Exactly what it costs us is what we're gonna charge you for the shipping.
(Jeremy)>> Well we're almost there. Jimmy's got his eyes on the car. We do have a bunch of parts with us. So, we're gonna go ahead and try to get some stuff on the car. See if it can start. And then if it does maybe we'll go for a little bit of a test drive and see if it's something we actually want to take care of. So, it should be right up here, and we'll go see what we can find here. Well, here we are. There is the station wagon that we're gonna be working on today.
(Flamur)>> Nice, it's even brown.
(Jeremy)>> Let's go see what it's all about. I think Jimmy's doing a little bit of work. Then we'll see if we can give them a hand. Looks like Jimmy's already working. You already got the gas tank out I see.
(Jimmy)>> I figure while we're down here we'll do a diff service and get this thing back on the road.
(Jeremy)>> Well we brought a bunch of parts with us.
(Flamur)>> Good thing we brought a tank.
(Jeremy)>> Let's go unload, and if you need a hand let us know.
(Jimmy)>> I will! [ drill humming ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright, he's gonna need a bunch of different stuff. So, we'll just start unloading here. Some's heavy.
(Flamur)>> I'll take one more.
(Jeremy)>> That's an easy one, sending unit. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> Something else that's great about RockAuto too is since we're on the road sometimes we need tools and supplies so we can make jobs a little bit faster and easier. So we use these absorbent mats, even a catch pan. So, let's see if we can get this cover to crack and get this thing drained. [ Music ]
[ Music ] [ metal scraping ] [ Music ]
[ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> There we go! Get our gasket on here and get the cover back on. [ Music ]
[ Music ] [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> Like I was saying before. RockAuto literally has everything that we need to do this job. They've got all the gear oil, and even if we needed tools like transfer pumps they have some of those. Luckily we have enough room under here that I'll just be able to put this in, and then we'll put the plug back in.
(Jeremy)>> Coming up, we have a few more parts to replace on the old Caprice. Then we see if she's road worthy once again.
(Jeremy)>> So one of the things we're gonna start working on now that Jimmy is buttoning up the rear diff service is we're gonna be putting a new gas tank in the Caprice. Now one of the odd things, or crazy things, about RockAuto is the fact that they do carry a bunch of different parts. Now the Caprice is a wagon. So, it's a little bit different than your standard Caprice sedan, and the fact that they carry a gas tank for this car since they didn't make a lot of these cars is pretty unique. So, we've got a new fuel sending unit, the gaskets and the locking ring to put it all together. So, we're gonna go ahead, get this all put together. Then we'll go over and slide it underneath the Caprice and help Jimmy get that up into place.
(Flamur)>> New tank, slipping in a new sending unit, might as well.
(Jeremy)>> There's nothing worse than putting a new tank in and not having your fuel gauge work cause you're using your old sending unit. So definitely a big plus here new tank in and new sending unit as well. [ metal clanging ] [ Music ] [ banging ]
(Jeremy)>> We'll go ahead, put the hoses on. We'll make it easy on ourselves here, and then Jimmy can just trim them to fit when we're underneath the car. [ Music ] Let's go slide it under the car. Alright Jimmy, got you a gas tank. We're gonna go up front and start working underneath the hood.
(Jimmy)>> I've got everything on my end pretty much wrapped up.
(Jeremy)>> While Jimmy's in the back buttoning up the fuel tank install on the Caprice wagon here Flamur and I are gonna tackle a couple of things underneath the hood to make sure this thing is ready to hit the road.
(Flamur)>> New fuel tank, new sending unit, let's throw in a filter. [ Music ] Just like the pumps that Jimmy showed you earlier, these fuel filters are from the tools and universal parts section of the catalog. It's one of my favorite places to look for parts and all those little odds and ends that you didn't quite know that you needed. Just like when you walk through that mom and pop hardware store, there's always something that you're gonna find that you do need. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> A couple more things here underneath the hood here on the maintenance side of things. We've got a couple of belts we're gonna replace. We're gonna throw on a radiator cap cause there isn't one, put in a hot battery, and we'll see if this thing starts up. That should be enough. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Okay, that's one. [ ratchet clicking ] Here's a little trick. When you guys go to put your belts on instead of taking your fan completely off you can just feed it over one blade, feet it over the second, third, fourth, fifth, and it'll walk around to the back. That way you don't gotta take your big cooling fan out of the way. Just loop it around, slide your belt up and on like that, and you're ready to go. [ ratchet clicking ]
(Flamur)>> One final step!
(Jeremy)>> Get this one out of the way and set that one in there. Get it hooked up and see if she runs. [ Music ] Alright. [ Music ] That should button it up. Jimmy hop in this thing and let's see if it starts up. If so we can take it for a test drive. Should be a little gas in the carburetor. So it might fire up. [ engine starts ]
(Jeremy)>> There we go! I'll move the van and we'll go hit the road. [ Music ] [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> It's first test drive. Alright guys, we're out on the road and the car's running. What do you think?
(Jimmy)>> This is awesome! It runs, it stops, it steers. It's got everything you need.
(Jeremy)>> It's very old school feeling, that's for sure.
(Flamur)>> It's so satisfying to get a car like this back out on the road in just an afternoon with just a few simple parts.
(Jimmy)>> That's the great thing about RockAuto is something old like this, everything we need was available to us. And even a daily driver we need to maintain, something like that, RockAuto's the one place we need to do to get all that kind of stuff.
(Jeremy)>> I've got a really good idea. Let's take this back to the shop. Maybe we can convince the highers up that we should own this thing. Future project?
(Flamur)>> I'll take it, brown station wagon, why not?
(Jimmy)>> Up next, we head to southeast Kentucky to check out a small town race that has huge impacts for residents and racers.
(Erik)>> Eastern Kentucky is built on moonshine and racing. We look for the most technical roads inside the region for all kinds of different events, and Pine Mountain State Park, this makes so much sense to put a hill climb on. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ Music ] ( )>> The car's sliding around a little bit but we're learning. We put the slicks on it. So, we hope to go faster this afternoon. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, we're in Pineville, Kentucky, and we're at the Pine Mountain Hill Climb, and this is grassroots racing.
(Heyward)>> Thank you Pineville, thank you Kentucky. We are thrilled to be home again in Pineville. Thank y'all so much for hosting us. This is motorsports nirvana. It's beautiful, the weather's awesome, it's an incredible road, and we get to drive some really fast cars on a really awesome course.
(Erik)>> The Pine Mountain Hill Climb is based on something we call the chain. Our mobile application you can download for free, and it's for car and motorcycle enthusiasts to come and explore.
(Jon)>> It's very grassroots here, and that's my favorite part. We get people coming back without even having to advertise because they hear about it from their friend, and it just grows organically like that. This event is really important. It showcases! We want to welcome people with open arms, and we want people to leave this feeling like they had a good experience and they were received well. People come and spend money in hotels, restaurants, downtown, and for a small town like us it's huge.
(Ryan)>> Pine Mountain is our first new hill climb in many, many years. It's super exciting! I was actually lined up to do the world famous One Lap of America. Happened right at the same time, but then Pine Mountain came up and I said there's no way I'm gonna miss an inaugural hill climb. So, I've been here since day one, and it's really exciting because I'm seeing people for the third time. They're recognizing me, they're coming up to me. I'm a little more flashy this year but they've been supportive since day one. First and foremost, so many people didn't know girls can do this. Oh yeah, we can do it. Curvy roads are the bleep! [ engines revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright guys, so in the idea of picking out some pretty odd and cool cars we're here with Phillip Glass-Hess and this appears to be a '94 Miata but it's not really that car anymore, is it?
(Phillip)>> The chassis is technically still a Miata. If you run the vin it comes back as a '94. The driveline's not very much of that anymore.
(Jeremy)>> Tell us about the driveline. I see that says Honda on it.
(Phillip)>> It's a Honda motor, a K-24 out of a second gen TSX.
(Jeremy)>> We've walked around your car a little bit and there's this little hidden thing over here in the corner, and it's a-b-s but it's not for this car either.
(Phillip)>> It's off a BMW. It's my theme of just stealing as many parts as I can off of different manufacturers. So, it's a Miata chassis with a Honda powerplant, and then BMW a-b-s, and there's a few other different things on the car as well.
(Jeremy)>> It's a mismatched piece of equipment at this point.
(Phillip)>> You could say that. It's whatever works. [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Why is Summit so involved with this grassroots racing?
(Jim)>> Grassroots is the bread and butter of what we do. You look through the catalog and you look through our online website. This is who we really cater to. We've got the truck here. They need anything this weekend we've got parts here. It's definitely a learning curve for me. I got this 1987 Porsche that I picked up to do some autocross and h-p-d days, and I saw this and said we've got to get back down here next year.
(Jeremy)>> It's a race to the top. We take you through the twists and turns to find out what it takes to be the fastest up the hill.
[ engine revving ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright guys, we're here at the Pine Mountain Hill Climb in the pits, and of course Jeremy and I were attracted to another second gen Camaro since we are building one on our show. Here we are with Cody Puckett, the builder and driver of this 1970 Camaro. So, Cody what can you tell us about this car? How did you get it and how did you get it to this point that it sits at now?
(Cody)>> I found this car. It was a rusty roller. Got it at a swap meet. It was a vinyl top car, floors were gone. It was the perfect car to cut up and build into a race car. The transmission is probably the funnest part of the whole car. It's a Mid-Valley Dog Box four speed out of a Nascar cup car. You use the clutch to start and stop, but on the go you just blip the throttle and rip gears.
(Jimmy)>> That's what we're excited about too, and that's one thing we noticed talking to you. Our car has the same one, Mid-Valley four speed. So, we're really excited to learn how to drive it.
(Cody)>> It's a learning curve for sure, but once you figure it out. They're noisy, and they're loud, and they're just mechanical.
(Jimmy)>> Just clunk it into gear!
(Cody)>> Everyone in the pits always looks at you when you put it in gear, all the noises it makes.
(Jimmy)>> So how are you doing today? What's the course like, and what kind of times are you running?
(Cody)>> We're currently in the lead at the moment with a 1:51. The hill record is a 1:40. So we'll see if we can get another 11 seconds. We've still got all of today and all of Sunday, and the weather's supposed to be great. I think we may be able to get pretty close.
(Jimmy)>> You'll get comfortable, and run some laps, and hopefully you can take home the win.
(Cody)>> We're gonna try for sure. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> So at events like this it really comes down to everybody's here to compete, but this is a big family event, and a group of guys that show up with these really cool karts, they all come together to help the next guy get back on the course if there's a problem. They're working on their clutching right now. As you can see they've got their car set up on a set of tires to use them like jack stands. They're tearing the clutch apart. They're trying to get the next guy, or even their competitor, back out on the course just to have fun and just to have a good time out here on the course. [ high pitched engine revving ]
(Jon)>> Once coal kinda left in 2010 or so we started thinking about tourism as a way to prop up our community as an economic driver. People kinda laughed at it, and events like this just changed people's mind, and that's the greatest thing. Same people that didn't believe that tourism could be a thing here, and now they see something like this and they're like now I get it. That's the greatest part. And just to have people who aren't from here, who have never been to our community come and give a kind word about it. Just to hear positive things for once is really nice. ( )>> I love! A bad day at a racetrack is way better than a good day working.
(Jim)>> If you've done some autocross, some stuff on road courses, come give it a try cause it is just a blast.
(Erik)>> The road sells itself, but our people make you tell your friends to come back again and again!
Show Full Transcript
(Jeremy)>> Today on Carcass we're out of the shop and we're trying to get another piece of old iron back on the road to redemption. We'll take a handful of parts and a little bit of elbow grease to get this rundown vehicle back in shape to hit the highway in a Driveway Rescue.
(Jimmy)>> Then we head to the hills of Kentucky for some grassroots racing that is a major draw to a small town that has many positive impacts. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome to Carcass. We are not in the studio today. We're actually in the RockAuto Driveway Rescue van cause we're gonna go do a Driveway Rescue. The guy sitting next to me is Flamur. He's with RockAuto. Jimmy's out actually at the place looking the vehicle over cause we tentatively might take it with us. We'll let you guys see the vehicle once we get there. Flamur, RockAuto has a been a huge part in what we do, especially in the Driveway Rescue side of things. You guys are also a huge part of what we do in the studios. And it doesn't matter if we have a vehicle that's from the '60s or '70s, or all the way up to current or even back further from the '60s and '70s. You guys have all sorts of parts to get a vehicle back on the road, or just to keep a vehicle on the road as far as maintenance goes. So, tell me a little bit about RockAuto and how it's so easy to sit down at your computer and get your hands on the parts you need.
(Flamur)>> We're work really hard at making sure our catalog is as easy to use as possible for everybody. If it's an old part. If it's an old Model-T. If we can find it and put it in the catalog we'll make sure we have those parts, the most modern parts. We'll work very hard to make sure it's easy to understand, and you can go to the catalog and you can select. I need this, I need that, and it's easy to ship, easy to use, and we pride ourselves on giving you as much data as possible. There is no reason to hide anything behind a counter in big hard to read books anymore. All of that data we release to the customer, we put on the website, to make it as easy as possible. You need new wiper blades, that's easy. Pick your wiper blade. You need a camshaft for a '62 Dodge Dart I'm sure we can help you there as well. That's why things like we're doing today. This is just a thrill for us. This is a real person who needs real help with a real car, and we're overjoyed and excited that we have everything that you need to get this car back into the shape that it deserves to be in.
(Jeremy)>> You guys do carry so many parts now. Like you said, if you need wiper blades, if you need an air filter, if you need a wheel bearing, but there's so much more on the website than that. You guys do have some performance parts. You've got this little area that has tools and universal parts. You've got off road lights in there. You've got receiver hitches. I've seen some towing accessories. All the way back to when we worked on the green Silverado we got a performance cam for it. So, it's not only those little things that you can buy for your daily driver. There's so much more to it than just that.
(Flamur)>> A lot of people know us as a great source for getting your air filters, and your brake pads and your rotors, for your modern car that just needs a freshen up or a tune-up, but one thing that we do have. I encourage people to go look at the 1950s and the 1960s, and those cars from the '70s. We'll have carpets. We'll have badging. If somebody has it on a shelf somewhere, somebody manufactures a quality part we'll do our best to get it in the catalog cause it does nobody any good to keep all this inventory on the shelves, and we just want to make the world aware that there still are brake pads for a Studebaker somewhere. If we can find them we'll get them to you. We pride ourself as well on our transparent and reliable pricing. One thing we do not do is we don't play the free shipping game. Where we'll give you free shipping, but we've got to charge somebody else extra money to pay for your free shipping. Exactly what it costs us is what we're gonna charge you for the shipping.
(Jeremy)>> Well we're almost there. Jimmy's got his eyes on the car. We do have a bunch of parts with us. So, we're gonna go ahead and try to get some stuff on the car. See if it can start. And then if it does maybe we'll go for a little bit of a test drive and see if it's something we actually want to take care of. So, it should be right up here, and we'll go see what we can find here. Well, here we are. There is the station wagon that we're gonna be working on today.
(Flamur)>> Nice, it's even brown.
(Jeremy)>> Let's go see what it's all about. I think Jimmy's doing a little bit of work. Then we'll see if we can give them a hand. Looks like Jimmy's already working. You already got the gas tank out I see.
(Jimmy)>> I figure while we're down here we'll do a diff service and get this thing back on the road.
(Jeremy)>> Well we brought a bunch of parts with us.
(Flamur)>> Good thing we brought a tank.
(Jeremy)>> Let's go unload, and if you need a hand let us know.
(Jimmy)>> I will! [ drill humming ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright, he's gonna need a bunch of different stuff. So, we'll just start unloading here. Some's heavy.
(Flamur)>> I'll take one more.
(Jeremy)>> That's an easy one, sending unit. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> Something else that's great about RockAuto too is since we're on the road sometimes we need tools and supplies so we can make jobs a little bit faster and easier. So we use these absorbent mats, even a catch pan. So, let's see if we can get this cover to crack and get this thing drained. [ Music ]
[ Music ] [ metal scraping ] [ Music ]
[ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> There we go! Get our gasket on here and get the cover back on. [ Music ]
[ Music ] [ drill humming ]
(Jimmy)>> Like I was saying before. RockAuto literally has everything that we need to do this job. They've got all the gear oil, and even if we needed tools like transfer pumps they have some of those. Luckily we have enough room under here that I'll just be able to put this in, and then we'll put the plug back in.
(Jeremy)>> Coming up, we have a few more parts to replace on the old Caprice. Then we see if she's road worthy once again.
(Jeremy)>> So one of the things we're gonna start working on now that Jimmy is buttoning up the rear diff service is we're gonna be putting a new gas tank in the Caprice. Now one of the odd things, or crazy things, about RockAuto is the fact that they do carry a bunch of different parts. Now the Caprice is a wagon. So, it's a little bit different than your standard Caprice sedan, and the fact that they carry a gas tank for this car since they didn't make a lot of these cars is pretty unique. So, we've got a new fuel sending unit, the gaskets and the locking ring to put it all together. So, we're gonna go ahead, get this all put together. Then we'll go over and slide it underneath the Caprice and help Jimmy get that up into place.
(Flamur)>> New tank, slipping in a new sending unit, might as well.
(Jeremy)>> There's nothing worse than putting a new tank in and not having your fuel gauge work cause you're using your old sending unit. So definitely a big plus here new tank in and new sending unit as well. [ metal clanging ] [ Music ] [ banging ]
(Jeremy)>> We'll go ahead, put the hoses on. We'll make it easy on ourselves here, and then Jimmy can just trim them to fit when we're underneath the car. [ Music ] Let's go slide it under the car. Alright Jimmy, got you a gas tank. We're gonna go up front and start working underneath the hood.
(Jimmy)>> I've got everything on my end pretty much wrapped up.
(Jeremy)>> While Jimmy's in the back buttoning up the fuel tank install on the Caprice wagon here Flamur and I are gonna tackle a couple of things underneath the hood to make sure this thing is ready to hit the road.
(Flamur)>> New fuel tank, new sending unit, let's throw in a filter. [ Music ] Just like the pumps that Jimmy showed you earlier, these fuel filters are from the tools and universal parts section of the catalog. It's one of my favorite places to look for parts and all those little odds and ends that you didn't quite know that you needed. Just like when you walk through that mom and pop hardware store, there's always something that you're gonna find that you do need. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> A couple more things here underneath the hood here on the maintenance side of things. We've got a couple of belts we're gonna replace. We're gonna throw on a radiator cap cause there isn't one, put in a hot battery, and we'll see if this thing starts up. That should be enough. [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Okay, that's one. [ ratchet clicking ] Here's a little trick. When you guys go to put your belts on instead of taking your fan completely off you can just feed it over one blade, feet it over the second, third, fourth, fifth, and it'll walk around to the back. That way you don't gotta take your big cooling fan out of the way. Just loop it around, slide your belt up and on like that, and you're ready to go. [ ratchet clicking ]
(Flamur)>> One final step!
(Jeremy)>> Get this one out of the way and set that one in there. Get it hooked up and see if she runs. [ Music ] Alright. [ Music ] That should button it up. Jimmy hop in this thing and let's see if it starts up. If so we can take it for a test drive. Should be a little gas in the carburetor. So it might fire up. [ engine starts ]
(Jeremy)>> There we go! I'll move the van and we'll go hit the road. [ Music ] [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> It's first test drive. Alright guys, we're out on the road and the car's running. What do you think?
(Jimmy)>> This is awesome! It runs, it stops, it steers. It's got everything you need.
(Jeremy)>> It's very old school feeling, that's for sure.
(Flamur)>> It's so satisfying to get a car like this back out on the road in just an afternoon with just a few simple parts.
(Jimmy)>> That's the great thing about RockAuto is something old like this, everything we need was available to us. And even a daily driver we need to maintain, something like that, RockAuto's the one place we need to do to get all that kind of stuff.
(Jeremy)>> I've got a really good idea. Let's take this back to the shop. Maybe we can convince the highers up that we should own this thing. Future project?
(Flamur)>> I'll take it, brown station wagon, why not?
(Jimmy)>> Up next, we head to southeast Kentucky to check out a small town race that has huge impacts for residents and racers.
(Erik)>> Eastern Kentucky is built on moonshine and racing. We look for the most technical roads inside the region for all kinds of different events, and Pine Mountain State Park, this makes so much sense to put a hill climb on. [ Music ] [ engine revving ] [ Music ] ( )>> The car's sliding around a little bit but we're learning. We put the slicks on it. So, we hope to go faster this afternoon. [ Music ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, we're in Pineville, Kentucky, and we're at the Pine Mountain Hill Climb, and this is grassroots racing.
(Heyward)>> Thank you Pineville, thank you Kentucky. We are thrilled to be home again in Pineville. Thank y'all so much for hosting us. This is motorsports nirvana. It's beautiful, the weather's awesome, it's an incredible road, and we get to drive some really fast cars on a really awesome course.
(Erik)>> The Pine Mountain Hill Climb is based on something we call the chain. Our mobile application you can download for free, and it's for car and motorcycle enthusiasts to come and explore.
(Jon)>> It's very grassroots here, and that's my favorite part. We get people coming back without even having to advertise because they hear about it from their friend, and it just grows organically like that. This event is really important. It showcases! We want to welcome people with open arms, and we want people to leave this feeling like they had a good experience and they were received well. People come and spend money in hotels, restaurants, downtown, and for a small town like us it's huge.
(Ryan)>> Pine Mountain is our first new hill climb in many, many years. It's super exciting! I was actually lined up to do the world famous One Lap of America. Happened right at the same time, but then Pine Mountain came up and I said there's no way I'm gonna miss an inaugural hill climb. So, I've been here since day one, and it's really exciting because I'm seeing people for the third time. They're recognizing me, they're coming up to me. I'm a little more flashy this year but they've been supportive since day one. First and foremost, so many people didn't know girls can do this. Oh yeah, we can do it. Curvy roads are the bleep! [ engines revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright guys, so in the idea of picking out some pretty odd and cool cars we're here with Phillip Glass-Hess and this appears to be a '94 Miata but it's not really that car anymore, is it?
(Phillip)>> The chassis is technically still a Miata. If you run the vin it comes back as a '94. The driveline's not very much of that anymore.
(Jeremy)>> Tell us about the driveline. I see that says Honda on it.
(Phillip)>> It's a Honda motor, a K-24 out of a second gen TSX.
(Jeremy)>> We've walked around your car a little bit and there's this little hidden thing over here in the corner, and it's a-b-s but it's not for this car either.
(Phillip)>> It's off a BMW. It's my theme of just stealing as many parts as I can off of different manufacturers. So, it's a Miata chassis with a Honda powerplant, and then BMW a-b-s, and there's a few other different things on the car as well.
(Jeremy)>> It's a mismatched piece of equipment at this point.
(Phillip)>> You could say that. It's whatever works. [ engine revving ]
(Jeremy)>> Why is Summit so involved with this grassroots racing?
(Jim)>> Grassroots is the bread and butter of what we do. You look through the catalog and you look through our online website. This is who we really cater to. We've got the truck here. They need anything this weekend we've got parts here. It's definitely a learning curve for me. I got this 1987 Porsche that I picked up to do some autocross and h-p-d days, and I saw this and said we've got to get back down here next year.
(Jeremy)>> It's a race to the top. We take you through the twists and turns to find out what it takes to be the fastest up the hill.
[ engine revving ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright guys, we're here at the Pine Mountain Hill Climb in the pits, and of course Jeremy and I were attracted to another second gen Camaro since we are building one on our show. Here we are with Cody Puckett, the builder and driver of this 1970 Camaro. So, Cody what can you tell us about this car? How did you get it and how did you get it to this point that it sits at now?
(Cody)>> I found this car. It was a rusty roller. Got it at a swap meet. It was a vinyl top car, floors were gone. It was the perfect car to cut up and build into a race car. The transmission is probably the funnest part of the whole car. It's a Mid-Valley Dog Box four speed out of a Nascar cup car. You use the clutch to start and stop, but on the go you just blip the throttle and rip gears.
(Jimmy)>> That's what we're excited about too, and that's one thing we noticed talking to you. Our car has the same one, Mid-Valley four speed. So, we're really excited to learn how to drive it.
(Cody)>> It's a learning curve for sure, but once you figure it out. They're noisy, and they're loud, and they're just mechanical.
(Jimmy)>> Just clunk it into gear!
(Cody)>> Everyone in the pits always looks at you when you put it in gear, all the noises it makes.
(Jimmy)>> So how are you doing today? What's the course like, and what kind of times are you running?
(Cody)>> We're currently in the lead at the moment with a 1:51. The hill record is a 1:40. So we'll see if we can get another 11 seconds. We've still got all of today and all of Sunday, and the weather's supposed to be great. I think we may be able to get pretty close.
(Jimmy)>> You'll get comfortable, and run some laps, and hopefully you can take home the win.
(Cody)>> We're gonna try for sure. [ Music ]
(Jimmy)>> So at events like this it really comes down to everybody's here to compete, but this is a big family event, and a group of guys that show up with these really cool karts, they all come together to help the next guy get back on the course if there's a problem. They're working on their clutching right now. As you can see they've got their car set up on a set of tires to use them like jack stands. They're tearing the clutch apart. They're trying to get the next guy, or even their competitor, back out on the course just to have fun and just to have a good time out here on the course. [ high pitched engine revving ]
(Jon)>> Once coal kinda left in 2010 or so we started thinking about tourism as a way to prop up our community as an economic driver. People kinda laughed at it, and events like this just changed people's mind, and that's the greatest thing. Same people that didn't believe that tourism could be a thing here, and now they see something like this and they're like now I get it. That's the greatest part. And just to have people who aren't from here, who have never been to our community come and give a kind word about it. Just to hear positive things for once is really nice. ( )>> I love! A bad day at a racetrack is way better than a good day working.
(Jim)>> If you've done some autocross, some stuff on road courses, come give it a try cause it is just a blast.
(Erik)>> The road sells itself, but our people make you tell your friends to come back again and again!
