Ed's Auto Garage Podcast

Edward Arango

Ed's Auto Garage Podcast Ed Arango talks about classic cars, racing, the auto industry, and occasionally insurance. He's a SoCal native that's been turning wrenches for over 35 years. Ed's Auto Garage Podcast is proudly powered by Novamar Insurance, where he can meet your Garage, Collection and Auto Service Industry Insurance needs. Ed can be reached at ed@novamar.net.

  1. 12/06/2022

    Justin Bell - Torque Media Group / Motorsport Host / 24hrsLM GT2 Champion...All Around Good Guy!

    Like many successful car racers, Justin Bell nurtured and developed his passion for speed and competitive racing at an early age. With natural talent and the encouragement of his father Derek Bell, a five-time Le Mans 24 hours winner, he started out fast and got faster, and soon began carving his own place in history. Since beginning his career in 1988, Justin has achieved many significant racing accomplishments, including the 1997 FIA GT2 Championship, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class in 1998 and second-place finishes in Le Mans and Daytona, and a pair of SCCA Trans-Am wins.  Along the way he raced for major car manufacturers including Saab, Peugeot, Porsche, BMW, Dodge and General Motors. For Dodge Viper, he won the 1997 FIA GT2 world championship and the GT2 class at Le Mans in 1998. In 2000 Justin signed with General Motors as a driver for the factory Corvette Racing team, finishing second in the Daytona 24 Hours, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. Justin co-founded Torque Media Group in 2018 with Tommy Kendall and Jason Jacobson. Breaking with the traditional TV model the trio created The Torque Show as a branded Livestream Show to support Michelin in the IMSA Series. Evolving into a vibrant chat show style format, JB and TK interview the highest profile people in the Sportscar world, attracting a huge audience on their Facebook Live channel.  Another series integrated into The Torque Show is 'The Love of Cars' presented by Hagerty, which has seen guests such as Jay Leno, Patrick Dempsey and Danny Trejo.  Drawing on their vast experience in Live sports broadcasting, and led by the producing talents of Jason Jacobson, the company branched out into live event hosting with the Audrain Newport Concours and Motorweek and the incredibly prestigious honor of hosting and producing the livestream for the Pebble beach Concours d'Elegance in 2021.  After all this, Justin still felt like something was still missing. The medium to express himself and the world as he saw it. But when he saw a Hasselblad medium format camera he knew he had found it!  Learning the craft was fun and frustrating and led him to the world of Leica cameras, where he really found his footing. He likes to focus on portraits of the men and women who inspire him in the world of speed. He is not a technical photographer (although he is learning all the time) but he thinks because of his skills as an interviewer, people open up to him and he simply transition that trust and access into the images you see on his Life. with Legends website.  Life.With Legends is an intimate collection of his conversations with fascinating people that arguably are legends in the world of racing, cars and speed. These portraits are all taken at the time of the recordings and are unique to the shared moments between artist and subject.

    54 min
  2. 09/28/2022

    John Saccameno - Vintage Race Car Driver & Owner of Sport & Specialty

    John is a life long car guy. All of his favorite toys had wheels. Growing up on the north side of Chicago, two of his favorite early memories includes drives down Lake Shore Dr. in an MGA with the top down, (which really started his love of British Sports Cars) and when the orange pedal car was brought downstairs for a sidewalk drive. That was officially his first car. His second was a fairly ratty, but still loved red 1960 TR3. There were a variety of cars in the early days, foreign and domestic. A 1969 Road Runner, a 1973 Grand Am with a four speed, and a 1972 MGB were among a few early cars. Later came a long string of practical and sporty BMW 3 and 5 Series cars. Somewhere in the late 80 and early nineties was a 944 Turbo. In 1996 John bought a 1963 Austin Healey BJ7 3000. He met his long-time friend Mark Baker when Sport and Specialty did some much-needed maintenance on the car. Re-bitten by the British Car bug, and deciding it was “now or never” John found a 1960 Bugeye race car and brought it back to racing duty. Next, he joined North Suburban Sports Car Club and went to his first driving school in 1998, and received his Novice Competition License. He has held a competition and instructors license since 1998. He also holds a Chief and Operating Steward’s license from Midwestern Council and serves as the Vintage / Historic Racing Chair and Vintage Motorsport Council delegate. He campaigns his lovely yellow 1969 Alfa Romeo GTV and BMW 2002 with MCSCC and the Vintage Sports Car Drivers Association (VSCDA) in general vintage races and the B Sedan Trans Am series. He also runs his track and street ready1983 Caterham Super Seven when the occasion arises. After a long and successful career in sales and marketing and general management, John knew it was time to do something he truly loved. After the passing of his friend Mark, the business that he knew so well through his friendship with Mark was in danger of shutting down. The business had a talented and dedicated crew and good business basics in place, so after helping the family operate the business in 2012, he began discussing some purchase options to keep the business alive and growing. At the end of 2012, he purchased the business and hasn’t looked back. He couldn’t be happier, he works with a talented crew, gets to go racing when he can, and has successfully turned his passion into his livelihood! What could be better?

    54 min
  3. 05/24/2022

    Zoe Whittaker - Driving With Zoe

    Zoë Whittaker is a racing and rallying professional. She is now pursuing her dream and has begun to tour some of the most beautiful and unnoticed countries in the world with Driving With Zoë.  Born in the UK, Zoë’s father brought home his first classic car when she was 12 years old, a 1966 Corvette Stingray. His passion for classic cars then began.  Zoë spent a great deal of her teenage years attending classic car rallies with her father where she navigated for him in UK and European rallies such as the Alpine Challenge and Paris to Marrakesh. From that day forward, Zoë was inspired by her father’s zest for cars and racing and decided she too wanted to sit behind the wheel. Zoë achieved this goal as soon as she got her license and took part in classic car rallies by the age of 19.  Though Zoë experienced some track racing, support her father at many race meeting, when he raced single seaters in the Formula Ford series, Zoë realised her true passion was rallying. Zoë found the sound and feel of the vintage engines captivating and the differentiating terrain inspired her to want to participate in as many rallies as possible, not only to quench her thirst for driving classic cars but to also experience and discover new destinations.  As much as Zoë loved her previous jobs, she was becoming frustrated being behind a desk all day and desperately wanted to be on the road, rallying and racing cars. www.zoewhittaker.com.

    52 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Ed's Auto Garage Podcast Ed Arango talks about classic cars, racing, the auto industry, and occasionally insurance. He's a SoCal native that's been turning wrenches for over 35 years. Ed's Auto Garage Podcast is proudly powered by Novamar Insurance, where he can meet your Garage, Collection and Auto Service Industry Insurance needs. Ed can be reached at ed@novamar.net.