His ideas were wild, his concepts extreme, his timelines always stretched. In 1967 he would unveil a car so far out there that the media went crazy, the tech inspectors didn't know where to start, and engineers the country over scratched their heads.

Front engine, front wheel drive, four wheel steering, and a driver seated basically between the rear tires, it was incredible. It was also powered by a custom made 3-valve small block Chevy.

It was also doomed to fail. This is the story of the 1967 Wynn's Spitfire of Mickey Thompson.

While these methods were not invented in WWII, their use was vastly studied, tweaked, and tested to their limits back then. This video is the next in a series about the history of centrifugal superchargers and their use on piston engines.

Consider this your 101 level course in WWII supercharging. Here we go over the various methods and systems used on aircraft from the USA, Germany, and Great Britain. Which countries did it best? Which country made a mistake in their method? Who ruled the horsepower roost and why?

It was a war of horsepower and boost was a huge factor in making more of it than the other guys 

It was the lightest, most powerful airplane engine in the world during WWI and it was designed by two guys in a hotel room during a five day marathon in Washington D.C.in 1917.

Making 450hp and being produced by multiple American car companies, this engine was a master class in simplicity, integration of existing ideas, and mass production.

While it can't really be said that it solved the war for the allies, what it did do was to introduce the idea of an America that stood as a colossus of industry among its peers in the world.

The Liberty V-12 has an awesome story and the engine itself is worthy of your admiration.

The WWI Liberty truck was designed and manufactured in great haste for an American Army that had all but forgotten to modernize itself before The Great War began. After chasing Pancho Villa around Mexico with a rag-tag fleet of hundreds of different vehicles in 1916 and early 1917, the US Army finally realized the need for standardized vehicles.

An incredible national effort of engineering and manufacturing was put out to produce an order of more than 40,000 trucks in 1917 and 1918. But did it come too late? Could the nation answer the call?

That's the crux of this story.

The story of the WWI Liberty Truck is about the can-do spirit of a country wholly unprepared for war, the chutzpah of it's leadership in industry, and the idea that when the entire might of a country is thrown behind an effort, magic can happen.

The lingering question though. Was it worth it?

The accomplishments of this short lived racing marvel are huge in the history of the automobile. The speed record it set stood as the outright automotive land speed record for four years. I

t held the steam powered speed record for 103 years. Yes, 103 years.

This is a historical exploration of the history of the Stanley Brothers, their car company, their adventures with steam, and ultimately their conquering of the world's land speed record with a car that used a body and frame made by a canoe company.

A story of early automotive history, Yankee ingenuity, and plain guts, there are elements of tragedy and triumph you will never see coming.

What they designed was dual overhead camshaft, 255ci V8 that made peak power at 8,000 RPM, was tested to within an inch of its life, and arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ready to win. While 1964 didn't go Ford's way, the engine would win 7 Indy 500 races, countless USAC events, and spur the development of a horsepower war that lasted into the 1970s with turbochargers and ever increasing speeds.

This is an in-depth exploration, starting in 1962 of the development of this awesome engine.

Motivated, fearless, and every bit the match for the man who would eventually become known as the greatest drag racer of all time. The rivalry between Garlits and Postoian in the early days of top fuel drag racing was contested across the nation.

They were among the earliest match racing stars and battled from California to Maine, from Tacoma to Tampa, Florida. It was a relentless fight waged between 1957 and 1960. This is the story of the man who made Don Garlits.

The man who pushed Garlits to be better, to be faster, to be more relentless than he ever knew he could be and who forced him to a lay a foundation that would build into drag racing immortality.

You've likely never heard his name...until now.

These were the first tractors with rubber inflatable tires and that changed the farming game as well as entertained millions of fans over the course of five years in the 1930s. They raced, they crashed, and they performed as well as many available cars at the time.

From the road trips they took to the records they set at Bonnville, these Allis-Chalmers Model U tractors were amazing. Here's their story.

The development of the multi-disc, centrifugally controlled clutch was incremental in all areas. From the materials, the design, and finally the manufacture of these pieces, everyone had their own ideas on how to approach the issue.

It was one major revelation by racers. The idea that a slipping clutch as far more efficient than slipping tires that allowed performances to sky rocket while the danger level of the sport did the exact same thing.

If you love the history of early drag racing, especially the mechanical side of it, you'll enjoy this deep dive into the clutches that almost stopped the sport and then those that saved it.

Beyond the cities and towns, past the population centers, there was another looming nightmare...the forests. Nearly 1,000 square miles of New England Pine Forest were blown down, placing nearly 2 billion board feet in logs and lumber in jeopardy of not only waste but of becoming a massive fire hazard.

No salvage logging operation on the planet before or since has been as large or as robust as that of the New England Timber Salvage Administration of 1938.

In this video we tell the story of the hurricane, the aftermath, the plan, and the execution of this most audaciously bold plan. Somehow a Hurricane helped restore the forests, prepare the country for WWII, and in a plot twist has had a very pleasant after-effect on modern life in New England.

The story of this amazing and massive collaborative effort has been largely forgotten until now. If you love American history, you'll love this tale of grit, gumption, and communities rising up to take on a problem the likes of which the world had never tried to tackle before.

He was a visionary and created the first commercial dragster chassis business in the world circa 1958, but his life story goes far, far beyond that. For the first time ever, learn the back story, learn the success story, his precipitous fall in the sport, and how he managed to continue his career for years after people thought that he had disappeared.

One of the sports most off the wall, acerbic, and out-spoken characters, it was Scotty's mouth that no only sunk his business, but dead stopped a career that was on track to be one of the most influential in drag racing history.

The answer is no.

H.H. Buffum was a genius engineer of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He made a fortune making equipment for the shoe manufacturing industry and then turned his attention to cars. Take this fascinating ride back into the history of American cars, to the earliest days of the industry when anyone with some money, a machine shop, and a dream could be a car manufacturer.

This fast moving history talks patents, inventions, breakthroughs, theft, horsepower, and more. Where did the first V8 come from? How about a small town in Massachusetts.

No kidding.

The truck out-performed every other rig in this role worldwide and was just beyond cool. With nearly 1,400 produced between 1942 and 1945, many still exist today in the hands of collectors and more. Learn the fascinating story of the small forgotten company that designed it, the massive company that built it, and the fascinating engine company that powered it.

Mechanical history rules!

But how did it come about? In this video we not only look at the awesome specs and mechanical feats that this engine is known for, we also look into its murky and wild history.

A history intertwined with international governments, shifty deal makers, and perhaps a little big of industrial espionage mixed in. Far more than just an engine, the GAA is a fascinating piece of American mechanical history which in some ways is still unrivaled more than 80 years later.

He was the type of guy they write rules to slow down, to save from themselves and to prevent lesser talented people from trying to venture down avenues they have no business entering. Robinson's 10 year run in the sport both in top gas and top fuel place him among the greatest not just of his generation, but of any generation. His use of simplicity and light weight made him the Colin Chapman of drag racing.

His unique and off-the-wall ideas, rooted in aerospace engineering are the stuff of legend and don't seem real until you actually see them. Understand that had Pete Robinson not lost his life in a 1971 crash he would have gone one to likely be an incredible drag racing crew chief, innovator in open wheel racing, and the high performance aftermarket.

This is the story of drag racing's mad scientist, "Sneaky Pete" Robinson.

The story of this car, its driver, and their attempt to qualify at the insanely jam packed 1966 Indy 500 is one every hardcore racing fan should know.

10 days of partying, racing, hanging out on the beach, and enjoying life with some of the world's greatest stars is just as awesome as you think it is. Racers like Stirling Moss, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Phil Hill, Masten Gregory, Roger Penske, Carrol Shelby and others showed up year in and year out to battle for the money and glory in the world's coolest cars. 

The first ever 427 Cobra race car debuted at this event, Duntov brought the Gran Sport Corvettes, Ferrari, Porsche, and on and on it goes. 

The history is interesting, led by a tyrant named Red Crise the event was his idea and with a unique combo of an iron fist on one side and a velvet gloved Baronet's hand on the other, he made magic. 

This is the fantastic story of Bahamas Speed Week. 

The story actually begins in the 1930s and the indoor drag strip followed go kart racing, midget car racing, even a road course indoors! The promoter, a man named Bill Schade is a story in and unto himself. 

This is a story of the city of Chicago, a brilliant promoter, and a hot rodding culture starved for action in the winter. Enjoy!

In this episode of the Dork-O-Motive podcast, we tell the story in every way possible. The history of the track, the history of the poeple involved, the immediate aftermath of the incident, how it changed motorsports in America, and so much more. 

This is a bleak day for racing and one that carried with it very, very significant consequences. 

The greatest stars of racing were gathered to compete against one another in "stock" automobiles. There was cheating, there was a wild promoter, and there was more star power in one place than the racing world had ever seen. 

Learn the full story of how this race changed American motorsports and understand how deadly, daring, and downright dangerous auto racing was in this era. Loads of research, period materials, and information was gathered for this exhaustive look at a race that truly changed the world. 

What if I told you that the machine simultaneously made Ferris a world-wide celebrity while destroying his life. This is a story with so many twists and turns you'll hardly believe it. 

It is a fascinating look at the way engineering and the American spirit converged in the late 1800s to help the fledgling country arrive on the world stage and how anyone, even someone as smart as Ferris can become obsessed to the point of destruction in their personal and professional pursuits. 

Did Ferris steal the idea? Where did it come from, anyway? How was it HIM that got the glory? All those questions and the amazing size of the machine are all covered here!

One of the most successful industrial programs ever, 8 of the 10 heavy presses of the 1950s are still working today, making parts for everything from cars to stealth aircraft. Here's the story told the Dork-O-Motive way!

Some of the guests on this show remember the race fondly, some with regret, and some, frankly, with their teeth gritted together, even 30 years later. It is a story about an event that changed the course of drag racing, changed the course of lives, and ultimately created things like Drag Week, Sick Week, Rocky Mountain Race Week, and the entire genre of Drag-n-Drive competition. 

The answer? The Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade. This armada of 500 brand new combines swept from Texas to the Dakotas, nearly into Canada harvesting while a second team worked the fields of California and the Pacific Northwest. The relentless work and coordination resulted in a population of allied countries that were fed and armies that marched on full stomachs. 

A perhaps long forgotten story of horsepower, work power, and patriotism, enjoy this telling of a tale that should make your heart swell. 

This was the premise behind the Questor Grand Prix, a race held at Ontario Motor Speedway with a massive prize fund and more importantly bragging rights on the line. 

Who won and how it all went down is only half the story. There's all kinds of cool sub plots here and if you love racing history, you'll totally dig this deep dive into one of the coolest and weirdest one off races in history. 

Because no suitable electric bulb for cars had been invented yet, brave entrepreneurs looked for a solution and found one in the form of acetylene gas. This cheap to produce and highly flammable gas burned bright enough to shame all other available light sources. There were problems, though. Like the fact that the Prest-O-Lite company had 15 plants explode between 1907 and 1917. 

This episode of the Dork-O-Motive podcast looks back at these wild years, the technology behind it, how fortunes were made, buildings were leveled, and lives were lost. All to simply see a little bit better in the dark. 

And then someone had an idea. 

By creating a shadow Navy of secretly armed merchant ships, Britain created their first line of submarine defense and it was brilliant. They were called Q-ships and from the outside they looked like fishing trawlers, sailing ships, and simple tramp steamers, but they were manned by experienced gunnery crews and had powerful secrets hiding in plain sight. 

Starting in 1915 when U-Boat captains surfaced to attack an unsuspecting merchant ship, they were at risk of they themselves becoming the victims of these awesome new weapons. 

On this episode of the Dork-o-Motive podcast we examine the incredible history, bravery, and innovation that these oddball fighting ships brought to WWI and how they were a legit threat to U-boats and frustrated German commanders on the high seas. Wild history you never knew!

Through vintage audio, interviews with Charlie Baker the winningest driver in the history of the series, Bobby Doerrer the announcer for the first several races, and a myriad of newspaper clippings from sources all over the country, we tell you the story of how a promoter used a tsunami of bad news and dire outlooks to propel his event into the history books of American racing. 

14,5000lb trucks with 1,000hp on the high banks of Atlanta and the Indy of the West, Ontario Motor Speedway. It's so crazy that if we didn't have the proof you wouldn't believe the story!

With ports mangled, railroads destroyed, and all their stuff sitting on the beach war planners had to think fast to supply, feed, and fuel the armies fighting on the front lines. Their answer was one of the greatest single logistical feats in the history of war. They created the Red Ball Express and supplied multiple armies with more than 6,000 trucks working 24-hours a day on a closed loop highway system. 

On this episode we tell the story of the Red Ball Express. How and why it was done, how it worked, how much stuff it managed to serve up, and why it was so key to the Allied successes in France during 1944. It is something that no other nation on Earth could have done at the time, but America did. This is an awesome story. Truckin' awesome if we may say so ourselves. 

Unfortunately, it killed the drivers about as fast as it made them legendary. Even worse, with banking angles that sometimes approached 50-degrees or more, the tracks killed spectators as well when cars and motorcycles would fly into the stands. The Motordromes were then called "Murderdromes" by the newspapers of the day. 

From coast to coast, the tracks sprang up and the speeds grew and grew. The performances from drivers and motorcyclists are still nearly beyond belief today!

This show tells the story of why the tracks were built, how the tracks were built, who built them, and why this bizarre racing supernova flashed so semingly fas t across the American racing landscape. This is this a story of suicidal speed and splinters. The story of American board track racing. 

A series of coincidental mistakes culminating with some bad math set the wheels in motion to produce the scenario that was and will forever be known as The Gimli Glider. This is the story about how some small breaks in communication, a mis-calculated math problem, and dauntless skill all combined to create one of the most fascinating stories in the history of modern aviation. 

Think running out of gas in your car is annoying? Try it miles in the sky while trying to get hundreds of thousands of pounds safely to the ground!

You may have heard of the "Crash at Crush" before but you likely don't know that Crush, Texas was not the first time this had been done. The famed wreck at Crush launched the practice into the national spotlight and proved that the huge undertakings could be as profitable as they were destructive. 

In this podcast we examine the people, the places, and the things that lead to this very American activity becoming so popular and why it died a quiet death as a profit making enterprise in the middle 1930s. We tell the story of the times, the trains, and the consequences of taking tons of steam driven steel and iron and pitting it all against good sense and physics to make a dollar. 

This is truly an odd tale of profit and performance art. 

There is one area where he failed spectacularly at though. Bending the laws of physics. Later in life Lear became obsessed with steam engines and steam power to end pollution. He designed steam engines, and was planning on running the 1969 Indy 500 with a steam powered race car! It was a spectacular failure lead by a dubious English engineer who’s credentials fell far short of Lear’s. He would go on to create a working steam city bus among other things but the Indy 500 effort was really something. 

Rich, eccentric, and seemingly unstoppable, the laws of nature ground Bill Lear to a halt and cost him the majority of the fortune he made in his life. This is the story, some of it in Lear’s own words, of how that happened. 

15 airplanes entered the race and the death toll was nearly a dozen lives by the time the event concluded. The intersection of bravery, ignorance, fame, and the chase for big money all came to a head at this event and it helped to shape the future of American aviation.

Oh, it should be mentioned that the whole thing was rendered largely pointless just months and weeks before when multiple people completed the incredibly difficult flight across the Pacific ahead of the actual race. 

In a tale of steam-punk meets real life, learn how this 692ft long iron beast used sails, paddle wheels, and the largest single propellor ever placed on a ship to drain the bank accounts of its investors and eventually connect the world in a magical new way. 

She held 10,000 tons of coal in her belly, had steam engines weighing 1,300 tons powering her, and had room for 4,000 passengers. It was all for naught. Learn the how's, the why's, and the who's of this amazing ship in this episode. 

Blizzards and storms piled up one after the next until an area virtually the size of France, over 190,000 square miles was completely snowbound. Since this was rural country and many of the people suffering were farmers that had livestock, there was definite concern for their health and safety. The direness of their situation was recognized all the way at the top of the governmental food chain and the 5th Army was mobilized to help. They started moving men and equipment into the area and set forth clearing roads, opening up paths in fields and getting livestock food and shelter. The fear was so great for the cattle that the Air Force was actually used to air drop baled hay into fields to feed the beasts. Despite the best efforts there were big losses of life when it came to the animal population. There are lots of dead cows shown in the film (take note cow lovers!).

The operation commenced in earnest on January 29th, 1949 and was concluded on March 15th. At its height, more than 1,000 bulldozers were working at once to open roads, open fields, and free people from their icy bonds. Below you’ll find a link to the full government report that was written as a review of the operation by the 5th Army and the video from Allis Chalmers that documented the massive and valiant effort. It seems that some expense was laid out for this film as there is lots of ariel footage and a general feel of a decently budgeted production for the era.

This was not a quaint romp through the snow. 115,000 miles of roads were opened, over 6,000 people were working simultaneously at the peak of the operation, four million head of livestock were fed and effectively saved from certain death, more than 1.2 million people were directly helped by this effort, and the cubic yards of snow moved, removed, and otherwise relocated number in the 10s of millions. A total of six people working in the operation died as a result of accidents and/or exposure to the elements.

And that's what this episode is all about!

Through story telling, period text, and a load of period audio, you'll learn the story of this uniquely American event and how it all came unraveled long before Knievel pushed the fire button on his rocket. It was a defining moment in the career of Evel Knievel, a defining moment in America, and a story that's so insane with so many different twists and turns you likely won't believe it!

This is the story of how business was done 100 years ago and how even then, one man could not load an entire industrial colossus on his back and ignore his investors...even if those investors were using their own dividends to fund a company in the same business as they one they were profiting from.

The capitalists and industrialists of the early 20th century were not the nicest guys in the world but the were smart, tough, and in so many ways fearless. Here's the story of the the Dodge Brothers and Henry Ford went to war on a battlefield paved in gold. 

Along with the patent, Lincoln's work as a lawyer representing rail roads, bridge builders, and equipment manufacturers had a profound effect on how we move in this country and how mechanized our lives are today. 

From a young man who hated splitting wood at the family cabin to the Great Emancipator, this is the story of how one guy not only stood in the leadership of a nation, but also stood in the leadership of that nation's future progress. 

And now you know. 

In March of 1958 at a conference of drag strip operators, Wally Parks stood before them and made the shocking announcement that the NHRA and ATAA would merge. All operations would be run under the NHRA name as directed by him. All of the massive ATAA membership would immediately transfer to the NHRA banner, and that would be that. 

It was, in effect the greatest coup in drag racing history. One that set the stage for the sport's unification and explosive growth through the 1960s. There were other organizations, but they all paled in size and scope when it came to the NHRA.

It's a story of money, a botched beauty contest, and plots twists that you'll never see coming. Wally won in the end and somewhere he's still smiling about it. 

Within scant minutes, heroic tunnel personnel were rushing people and cars out of the tunnel so fire crews could run in at the blazing inferno. Temperatures skyrocketed as trucks continue to explode and burn with the peak being recognized by engineers and those studying the disaster after the fact at some 4,000-degrees F. 

As the brave crews battled the fire, trucks, telecommunication lines, and even the ceiling supports melted. 650-tons of rubble were left on the floor of the tunnel when the fire was completely extinguished.

But no one died at the scene. Not only that, the tunnel was back in operation just 56 hours later like nothing had happened! This is an amazing story of a fire, a tunnel, bravery, and the get it done attitude of 1949 America. A truly miraculous disaster. 

The physical dimensions of the forest area that needed clearing were huge, some 34 miles long and 3.5 miles wide at points. Basically it was 35 square miles in total. As you can imagine, clearing that much area in the wilds of Montana wasn’t a job that most people had ever considered completing before. While we’re not sure what they were proposing for a method we know that the two guys who came up with the winning formula were S.L. Wixson and John H. Trisdale of Redding, California. Their idea, never before seen at the time was to essentially tie two big bulldozers together with steel cable and use the the cable as a giant scythe, cutting down and ripping over anything on its path. The men figured that this idea would be the most cost effective and quickest way to get the land cleared within the parameters that the government set for the work to be done.

Incredibly this nightmare is known by very few people in America. At the time that it happened, the civil war had just ended and 1,700 people dying in a night was not large enough news to displace stuff like the end of the Civil War, the assassination of Lincoln, and other large moments in history that were all happening at the same time. 

In this show host Brian Lohnes tells the story of the nightmare, reveals the characters involved, talks 1860s technology, and explains how a boat rated for 376 people ended up with nearly 2,000 rebased former Union POWs jammed onto it. 

This is truly one of the most macabre and stunning mechanical disasters in America history. 

The plane was a hot rod of the highest order before the phrase was coined. The machine was called the Gee Bee R1 and it was destined to become a race winner, a widow maker, and one of the most celebrated planes of the great era of air racing in America.

Its pilot was Jimmy Doolittle, a man destined to become one of the greatest war heroes America has ever known in the 1940s for leading the daring and near suicidal Tokyo Raid. He was among the best pilots in the world in 1932 and that was good because had he not been, this airplane would have killed him dead at the first chance and it tried. 

This is a story written in horsepower, risk, and blood. 

This episode of the Dork-O-Motive podcast celebrates the life and times of this amazing America, a man some argue is the greatest hot rodder of all time. The story is told through period stories, period audio, and interviews with guys like Humpy Wheeler, author Samuel Hawley, historian Bret Kepner, and Art's son Tim Arfons. This is one of the most in-depth studies on the life of a man who was so brave and brilliant, you'll be blown away by the end of the show.

Arfons is a personal hero to anyone who has ever taken on bucks with their brain and won. From his drag strip exploits to his triumphs and failures on the Bonneville Salt Flats, we hope you enjoy the story of this legendary man and the legendary machines that he created.

This is his story. 

The proposed was a pumper engine was powered by a Deltic locomotive engine, could throw 10,000 gallons of water per minute. The pumper had a cannon with 600ft of range, could simultaneously feed five independent pumping units at a time, and drew water from the sea up to mile away while fighting fires in the city during its life. 

This hulking beast was a massive success working for more 20 years, answering thousands of calls, and providing the frontal assault needed to battle fires large and small in places where getting water was an issue and where the lives of brave men were at stake. 

A beautiful beast!

One day of racing set motorsports back nearly three decades, claimed the lives of internationally famous businessmen, soldiers, and kids. Four classes of cars scheduled to leave a Parisian palace at 3:30am turned into a spectacle the likes of which the world had never seen before and was fearful of ever seeing again. 

Through the sounds of the cars that were there, the first hand accounts of competitors, and the news reporting that was done around the world, we tell the story of the 1903 Paris to Madrid Race, or as it was known then, "The Race To Death". 

The history of the car is incredible and the men behind this wild creation were brilliant. Too often dismissed as a Darwin Award winner, this is the real story of the brains and the guys who designed and built the first solid propellant rocket powered car in United States history and raced it all over the country. 

The Vulcan Shuttle story ends badly but not in the way you think. We believe you'll have a newfound respect for the ingenuity and talent of the men who built and raced this machine after listening to their story. 

Accepting the challenge to run what would certainly be the fastest and most dangerous race in the history of the automobile, a brave team of American drivers and car owners shipped their machines to Italy, ready to take on the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, and even high performing endurance sports cars from Jaguar. 

This was truly a clash of cultures, a clash of engineering, and a clash of horsepower. Through vintage audio and race details, host Brian Lohnes gives you the whole story behind the story!

They used an old used up Indy car with a supercharged Dodge 413 engine built by Ed Iskendarian and Malone conjured up driving skills no one knew he had. As a drag racer Malone was awesome, a lifelong friend of Don Garlits he set the record on Garlits' car after a bad fire in the late 1950s. 

Bob Osiecki's engineering brilliance, ability to call in help from Georgia Tech, and trust in his speed demon driver all resulted in one of the neatest automotive stories ever.

The contrasting story here is that the 1974 US Grand Prix was a wild race where Emerson Fittipaldi locked up his first Formula One world championship. There was, like so often at this time in history death in the race as well. 

The whole story is told through the recorded history in newspapers, racing magazines and more. You'll be reminding yourself that this is a real thing that happened multiple times during the telling of this story. 

They truly partied like hell. 

In 1971 when Don Garlits perfected the rear engine dragster and won multiple national events, the world knew that a new era had dawned. By 1972 it was a full on flood of rear engine cars making the slingshots look all but obsolete. As the racing gods are want to do, though. A final curveball would be thrown at the sport's heavy hitters on a strange weekend in Montreal, Canada. 

This is one of the most fun drag racing stories ever. Long live the dinosaurs!

Here's a detailed look at the Turbonique story with period audio, quotes fro magazines, quotes from court documents, and some of the very words that landed company founder Gene Middlebrooks in federal prison on mail-fraud charges. 

A story so weird that it HAS to be true. 

Anyway, this is the funny and semi-painful story of a pre-race ceremony gone wrong, a classic airplane, a beauty queen, and one fed up NHRA competition director. If you can believe it, they did not just have one airplane incident on this day but rather two of them!

Truly one of the funniest drag racing stories you'll ever run into...whoops, bad choice of words. 

Through historical research, interviews with people who knew and raced with him, and police records we piece together the mafia controlled New York of the 1970s, a funny car career that lacked any semblance of success, and a man who's life ranged from the bizarre to the downright evil. 

This is a story of crime, drag racing, money, honor, and ultimately sadness. The man who lived a mafia life and a funny car racer's life at the same time. 

Is that true? Who knows, but there's loads of evidence that these are some of the hardest core dump truck drivers who ever lived. A Detroit Diesel engine and a 13-speed Road Ranger transmission powered the rig over hill and dale. Incredibly a documentary film was made about the whole adventure. 

Here's the story of the weirdest dump truck drive of all time. 

Jack McClure did many things but the fact that he raced a hydrogen-peroxide rocket powered go-kart for years and lived to tell the story is the best. Making 200mph runs at strips all across the country, McClure defied physics in front of millions of fans during this career. A boat captain when not drag racing, a racer who competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona, and a man who's real life exploits are better than any novel, you'll dig this story of American ingenuity and guts. 

This is the first Dork-O-Motive "Short-o-Motive" a quick look back at an awesome and obscure event in gearhead history. Enjoy!

Host Brian Lohnes takes you through Rossi's incredible career, his amazing near success at Daytona 1971 and his shocking and mysterious disappearance in the early 1980s. Unquestioned on the race track, his story ends with thousands of questions. 

Host Brian Lohnes tells the story with the depth and historical perspective that you just cannot get anywhere else. This is an awesome tale of a great driver, a strange car, and a shockwave that went straight through the auto racing world. 

How did the two time Indy 500 winner and national hero pull this one off? You have to listen to find out!

Few people remember Roberts' foray into sports car racing nor how good he was at it. You'll learn the history of this great story, all the players involved, and how a near miracle was turned by a souther fried racer and his professional opera singing co-driver. A true racing story for the ages with historical documentation and quotes to back it all up. 

Researched, explored, and explained. That's the Dork-O-Motive way!