The Car Nerd with Jason Hassett

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Welcome to The Car Nerd by Jason Hassett, your go-to destination for all things automotive excellence. From legendary classic cars and cutting-edge engineering innovations to the thrilling world of racing, F1, and electric vehicles, this channel dives into the heart of the past, present, and future of the automotive world. Originally launched in 2020 as "The Grand Prick" and later "Wheel Sports," this channel has evolved alongside my passion for all things racing and automotive. While Formula 1 remains close to my heart, The Car Nerd now expands to cover stories of automotive

  1. 4D AGO

    The Billion Dollar Plot to Kill the Seatbelt

    The Billion Dollar Plot to Kill the SeatbeltIn this episode of The Car Nerd, Jason investigates the dark, forty-year conspiracy by the American auto industry to suppress the single most effective lifesaving device in history: the seatbelt.It wasn't just negligence—it was a calculated decision. We take you inside the 1950s boardrooms where executives explicitly weighed the cost of chrome bumpers against human lives. We expose the "Nut Behind the Wheel" propaganda campaign, a brilliant piece of corporate psychological warfare designed to convince the public that cars were perfect and drivers were the only flaw. While families in 1956 drove "death traps" with rigid steering columns and shattering glass, manufacturers sat on the technology that could have saved them.We uncover the infamous "Spreadsheet of Death," where engineers discovered a fix for fatal flaws that cost just eleven dollars—and accountants decided that letting 180 people burn to death annually was cheaper than installing the part. This is the story of how General Motors hired private investigators to destroy a young Ralph Nader, how Lee Iacocca begged President Nixon to kill safety regulations in secret Oval Office tapes, and how the industry turned "safety" into a dirty word.From Volvo's heroic decision to give away the three-point belt patent for free to the "personal liberty" con that delayed airbags for decades, this video traces the timeline of a cover-up that cost tens of thousands of lives. This is the true story of why your car has a seatbelt, and the body count it took to put it there.Chapters:0:00 Intro2:24 Safety in 1950s3:48 The Nut Behind the Wheel8:43 Volvo’s Free Gift10:23 Ralph Nader Spying GM12:13 Nixon Meeting13:02 The Ford Pinto14:54 The Seat Belt Interlock16:28 Seatbelts are Anti-Freedom17:46 The “Standards Will Kill The Automotive Industry”18:54 How Safety (& Volvo) Eventually Won🔖 Hashtags: #CarSafety #AutomotiveHistory #RalphNader #FordPinto #Volvo #EngineeringDisasters #TrueCrime #TheCarNerd #SeatbeltHistory #CorporateGreed

    22 min

  2. FEB 14

    How BMW Stole Rolls Royce from Volkswagen.

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/🎥 Video Description:The Heist of the Century — How BMW Stole Rolls-Royce from VolkswagenIn this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason dissects the most bizarre, ego-driven, and legally complex acquisition in the history of the car industry: the battle for Rolls-Royce and Bentley.The year was 1998, and the "Crown Jewels" of British motoring were on the auction block. On one side stood Ferdinand Piëch, the terrifyingly brilliant technocrat of Volkswagen, looking to crown his imperial expansion with the ultimate status symbol. On the other stood BMW, the preferred partner who believed they owned the brand by right of succession. What should have been a polite transfer of power turned into a corporate bloodbath. Volkswagen brought the cash—a staggering £430 million "knockout" bid—but BMW brought the lawyers.We trace the timeline of a deal that went spectacularly wrong for the highest bidder. While Volkswagen celebrated buying the historic Crewe factory, the workforce, and the famous Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, they failed to read the fine print regarding a dormant trademark clause from 1971. In a move that humiliated the Wolfsburg giant, BMW utilized a connection with the aero-engine division to "steal" the Rolls-Royce brand name for a mere £40 million—less than 10% of what VW paid for the rest of the company.This is the story of the "Green Label" hell, the awkward four-year divorce where VW was forced to build cars for their rivals, and the secret "Project Rolls-Royce" that gave birth to the modern Phantom. We look at how this comedy of errors eventually saved the British luxury industry, creating two distinct powerhouses—Bentley and Rolls-Royce—out of the wreckage of a feud between two Austrian billionaires.🔖 Hashtags: #RollsRoyce #Bentley #BMW #Volkswagen #AutomotiveStorytime #CarHistory #BusinessWars #FerdinandPiech #V12 #LuxuryCars

    26 min

  3. FEB 4

    How the Dodge Viper Saved Lamborghini

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/Automotive Merch: https://shop.hassettstudios.com/collections/automotive (use FOREVER20 for 20% off)🎥 Video Description:Venom & Violence — The Unlikely Life of the Dodge ViperIn this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason dissects the anatomy of the most audacious, dangerous, and politically incorrect vehicle ever to leave a major manufacturer's assembly line: the Dodge Viper.The early 1990s were supposed to be the dawn of the safety era, a time when computers began taking the wheel and refinement was the ultimate metric. But while the rest of the world was building sophisticated grand tourers, a skunkworks team in Detroit—led by Bob Lutz and inspired by the ghost of the Shelby Cobra—decided to build a sledgehammer. The Viper wasn’t just a car; it was a rebellion against the sterilization of the driving experience. It arrived with a massive V10 truck engine re-engineered by Lamborghini, zero windows, no exterior door handles, and a complete absence of the electronic safety nets that kept drivers alive in other supercars.We trace the lineage of this analog monster from its debut as a concept car that wasn't meant to be built, to its reign as the undisputed king of American excess. This is a story of industrial violence and corporate bravery, looking at how a cash-strapped Chrysler managed to bypass standard protocol to create a vehicle that burned your legs with its side pipes, terrified you with its lack of ABS, and humiliated Ferraris with its torque. We look at the evolution of the "Team Viper" philosophy, the transition from the raw RT/10 roadster to the iconic GTS coupe, and the final, track-shattering days of the ACR.This is the complete history of a dinosaur that refused to die—a machine that traded traction control for cubic inches and treated aerodynamics as a suggestion rather than a law. It is the story of how an impossible idea became a legend, surviving for decades on sheer attitude until safety regulations finally closed the cage for good.🔖 Hashtags: #DodgeViper #MoparOrNoCar #V10 #AutomotiveStorytime #AmericanMuscle #CarHistory #SRT #ViperACR #BobLutz #TheCarNerd

    28 min

  4. JAN 28

    The $3 Million Land Ship That Vanished in the Ice

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/Automotive Merch: https://shop.hassettstudios.com/collections/automotive (use FOREVER20 for 20% off)🎥 Video Description:The Antarctic Snow Cruiser — The 37-Ton Behemoth That Drove Backwards Into HistoryIn this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason takes you deep into the story of the ultimate "Land Ship"—a machine so ambitious it carried an airplane on its roof, yet so flawed it was defeated by basic friction. This is the Antarctic Snow Cruiser.Born on the eve of World War II, the Snow Cruiser was America's attempt to plant a flag at the South Pole with sheer industrial might. While early explorers like Shackleton and Scott relied on dogs and endurance, Dr. Thomas Poulter envisioned a 55-foot-long mobile base that would allow men to live in "shirtsleeve comfort" while blizzards raged outside. It was a diesel-electric marvel designed to "jump" over crevasses and conquer the ice.But this monument to American engineering had a fatal Achilles' heel. In a catastrophic error of physics, its designers treated the Antarctic ice shelf like a swamp, fitting the 37-ton vehicle with massive, treadless "balloon" tires. The result? A futuristic science vessel that could barely move forward, forcing the crew to drive it 92 miles in reverse just to reach their base.Using archival records and the technical autopsy of a $3 million mistake, we explore how a vehicle decades ahead of its time in powertrain technology became a stationary dormitory buried in the snow.You’ll discover:❄️ The "Crevasse Jumper": The geometric genius behind the hydraulic suspension designed to retract its wheels and slide over 15-foot gaps in the ice. 🔋 The First Hybrid? Inside the diesel-electric powertrain that used Cummins engines and GE hub motors—decades before the Toyota Prius. 🛑 The Traffic Jam of the Century: How the Cruiser's drive from Chicago to Boston caused a 70,000-car gridlock and a crash into an Ohio creek. 🎈 The "Swamp Fallacy": Why the smooth Goodyear tires, designed to "float" on sand, turned the granular Antarctic snow into a frictionless trap. 🔄 ** The Reverse Miracle:** How the crew discovered the massive vehicle actually had better traction going backward, leading to the strangest road trip in polar history. ✈️ The Aircraft Carrier Concept: The audacity of mounting a Beechcraft Staggerwing biplane on the roof for aerial scouting. 🌊 The Final Fate: The mystery of the Cruiser's disappearance, likely entombed in a giant iceberg that calved off into the Southern Ocean.From the factory floors of Chicago to the crushing depths of the Antarctic sea, this is the story of the machine that tried to negotiate with nature, only to find that the ice doesn't compromise.🔖 Hashtags: #AntarcticSnowCruiser #EngineeringFailure #History #AutomotiveStorytime #DieselElectric #TheCarNerd #Antarctica #ExpeditionVehicles #ThomasPoulter

    20 min

  5. JAN 27

    The Most "Illegal" Car to Ever Win an F1 Title

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/Automotive Merch: https://shop.hassettstudios.com/collections/automotive (use FOREVER20 for 20% off)🎥 Video Description:The Ghost in the Machine — The Forensic Anatomy of F1’s Most Controversial CarIn this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason opens the "black box" of the 1994 Formula One season to investigate the single most suspicious vehicle in motorsport history: the Benetton B194.The 1994 championship was intended to be a "Great Reset"—a return to pure, human driving after the FIA banned the robotic "gizmos" of traction control and active suspension. But while rival teams struggled with skittish, lethal cars, Michael Schumacher’s Benetton arrived with an uncanny, unnatural stability. It launched like a missile, gripped like a gecko, and sounded... wrong.To the uninitiated, it was the underdog defeating the Williams dynasty. To the forensic historian, the B194 was a masterclass in the weaponization of the "grey area." From hidden software menus to illegal fuel flow rates, this car didn't just bend the rules; it operated in a different physics engine entirely.We strip away the bodywork and examine the hexadecimal source code, the telemetry traces, and the shattered carbon fiber that defined a year of war between the rule-makers and the rule-breakers.You’ll discover:👂 The Phantom Signal: How Ayrton Senna stood trackside at the Pacific Grand Prix and used his "educated ear" to identify the acoustic signature of a traction control system that wasn't supposed to exist. 💻 Option 13: The explosive discovery of a secret "Launch Control" subroutine hidden deep within the software, accessible only by scrolling into the blank darkness of a laptop screen. 🎮 The Konami Code of F1: The incredibly complex sequence of clutch, gear, and paddle inputs the driver had to perform to arm the illegal system on the grid. 🔥 The Hockenheim Inferno: The forensic truth behind the terrified pit crew engulfed in flames—and how a missing fuel filter designed to save 1 second nearly cost a life. 📏 The Erosion of Legality: How a simple plank of beechwood under the chassis led to Schumacher’s disqualification at the Belgian Grand Prix. 💥 The Terminal Velocity: The frame-by-frame breakdown of the Adelaide collision, revealing why the championship-winning crash was likely a calculated "professional foul."From the auditory hallucinations in Aida to the concrete wall in Adelaide, this is the story of a techno-thriller villain: a car that was brilliant, ruthless, and ultimately, victorious.🔖 Hashtags: #BenettonB194 #F1History #MichaelSchumacher #EngineeringScandal #AutomotiveStorytime #Formula1 #MotorsportForensics #Senna #TheCarNerd

    29 min
  6. The 'Nazi Killer' Car that the Germans Banned (and Copied)

    JAN 10

    The 'Nazi Killer' Car that the Germans Banned (and Copied)

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/Automotive Merch: https://shop.hassettstudios.com/collections/automotive (use FOREVER20 for 20% off)🎥 Video Description:The "Nazi Killer" — The Aerodynamic Genius & Fatal Flaw of the Tatra T87In this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason takes you deep into the story of the car that looked like it landed from the future and drove like a weapon: the radical, stream-lined, and infamous Tatra T87.Decades before the world understood aerodynamics, a visionary Czech company built a machine that defied every convention of the 1930s. While Ford and Mercedes were building "bricks" that fought the wind, Tatra created a teardrop-shaped marvel with a rear-mounted magnesium V8 and a dorsal fin that belonged on an airship. +3But the T87 wasn't just a triumph of science; it was a "Trojan Horse" for the occupying forces. Legend says this car killed so many high-ranking German officers that it was known as the "Czech Secret Weapon"—a machine that lured drivers in with Autobahn luxury, only to punish them with a suspension flaw that turned physics into a death sentence. +1Using declassified history, engineering breakdowns, and the true story of the greatest intellectual property theft in automotive history, we explore how the Tatra T87 defined the future... and why Volkswagen had to pay for it decades later. +1You’ll discover:💨 How the "Zeppelin Lineage" of Paul Jaray brought airship aerodynamics to the road, achieving a drag coefficient of 0.36 in an era of 0.60 bricks ⚙️ The "Magnesium Masterpiece": Inside the air-cooled, 2.9L V8 engine that was light enough to hang behind the rear axle yet strong enough to run at full throttle all day 🦈 The Physics of the Fin: Why the car's iconic dorsal fin wasn't just for looks, but a crucial stabilizer to manage the Center of Pressure ⚠️ The "Snap Oversteer" Trap: The swing axle geometry that caused the rear wheels to tuck under during lift-off, creating the legendary "Nazi Killer" spin ⚖️ The Great VW Heist: How Ferdinand Porsche "looked over Ledwinka's shoulder" to create the Beetle, and the 1,000,000 DM settlement that finally admitted the theft 🌍 The Ultimate Road Trip: The story of Hanzelka and Zikmund driving a T87 across Africa and the Andes, proving the car was rugged, not just radical 🔮 The "What If" History: A look at how the Tatra T97 could have been the People's Car if a dictator hadn't intervened to protect the KdF-Wagen +4From the wind tunnels of the Zeppelin works to the courtrooms of the Cold War, this is the story of the car that cheated the wind but couldn't cheat history. +1🔖 Hashtags: #TatraT87 #HansLedwinka #CarHistory #AutomotiveStorytime #ClassicCars #Aerodynamics #AirCooled #NaziKiller #TheCarNerd #TatraHistory

    24 min
  7. The Forgotten Car That Invented the Crossover

    12/27/2025

    The Forgotten Car That Invented the Crossover

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/Automotive Merch: https://shop.hassettstudios.com/collections/automotive (use FOREVER20 for 20% off)🎥 Video Description:The Car That Invented the Crossover — The Rise & Legacy of the AMC EagleIn this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason takes you deep into the story of the car that defied every category and accidentally predicted the future of the entire industry: the rugged, wood-paneled, and visionary AMC Eagle.Long before the modern SUV took over the suburbs, American Motors Corporation did the unthinkable. They took a humble family wagon, lifted it, and gave it a legendary Jeep-inspired heartbeat. It was a "safe" sedan that could conquer a blizzard—the car for people who needed a station wagon but wanted a tank.But building the world’s first true crossover wasn't just a stroke of genius; it was a desperate, brilliant gamble by a company fighting for its life against the giants of Detroit.Using rare archival history, engineering deep-dives, and the story of how AMC’s partnership with Jeep changed the automotive landscape, we explore how the Eagle soared... and why the world wasn't quite ready for it yet.You’ll discover:🚗 How AMC’s underdog spirit birthed a brand-new segment by marrying a Concord body to a revolutionary 4WD system ⚙️ Why the Quadra-Trac technology made the Eagle the most capable all-weather vehicle of its generation 🔧 The engineering "Frankenstein" magic that allowed AMC to build a luxury off-roader on a shoestring budget 🎬 How the Eagle saved AMC (for a while), becoming the cult-classic darling of the 1980s 🏭 The transition from the 258 Inline-Six to the "Iron Duke," and the quirks that made these cars indestructible—and eccentric 💥 The "Woodie" Wagon vs. The Sedan: Exploring the different body styles that tried to be everything to everyone ⚖️ The Chrysler takeover legacy: How the Eagle’s DNA paved the way for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the modern crossover revolutionFrom dirt trails to the suburban driveway, from innovative 4WD to the eventual sunset of the AMC brand—this isn't just a station wagon. This is the pioneer that taught the world how to fly.🔖 Hashtags: #AMCEagle #AmericanMotors #CarHistory #AutomotiveStorytime #ClassicCars #AMCCars #CrossoverPioneer #4WD #CarLegends #TheCarNerd #HistoryOfCars

    22 min

  8. 12/18/2025

    Why Detroit Had to Kill the Tucker 48

    The Weekly Classic Newsletter: http://weeklyclassic.hassettstudios.com/Automotive Merch: https://shop.hassettstudios.com/collections/automotive (use FOREVER20 for 20% off)🎥 Video Description:The Car That Detroit Tried to Kill — The Rise & Fall of the Tucker 48In this episode of Automotive Storytime, Jason takes you deep into one of the most dramatic, controversial, and misunderstood stories in automotive history: the incredible rise — and brutal destruction — of the Tucker 48.Known as the “Car of Tomorrow,” the Tucker 48 was years ahead of its time. A safer, faster, radically engineered American sedan designed by one man who refused to play by Detroit’s rules.But Preston Tucker wasn’t just building a car — he was declaring war on the industry’s biggest players. And they fought back.Using real engineering history, newly uncovered details, and the dramatic courtroom battles that followed, we explore how the Tucker 48 almost changed the auto industry forever… before being crushed by forces far more powerful than bad luck.You’ll discover:🚗 How Preston Tucker’s wild imagination and wartime engineering background shaped one of the boldest automotive startups in American history⚙️ Why the Tucker Torpedo concept was so radical that Detroit executives quietly panicked🔧 How the Tucker 48’s innovations — from safety glass, to fuel injection dreams, to its rear-engine layout — were decades ahead of their time🎬 What really happened during the 1948 unveiling, and why the car became an instant sensation🏭 The brutal reality of taking the car into production, including rushed engineering, supplier sabotage, and political pressure💥 The infamous endurance test crash, and how it was weaponized against Tucker⚖️ The legal war that followed, the accusations, the trial, and the shocking verdict that came too lateFrom engineering brilliance to corporate sabotage, empty factories to courtroom showdowns — this isn’t just a car.This is the American dream… put on trial.🕒 Chapters:0:00 — Intro2:15 — Who is Preston Tucker5:25 — The Tucker Torpedo9:04 — The Tucker 4817:08 — Unveiling the Car20:30 — Into Production25:58 — Endurance Test Crash28:25 — The Legal Problems🔖 Hashtags:#Tucker48 #PrestonTucker #CarHistory #AutomotiveStorytime #ClassicCars #AmericanCars #TuckerTorpedo #CarLegends #TheCarNerd #HistoryOfCars

    33 min
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About

Welcome to The Car Nerd by Jason Hassett, your go-to destination for all things automotive excellence. From legendary classic cars and cutting-edge engineering innovations to the thrilling world of racing, F1, and electric vehicles, this channel dives into the heart of the past, present, and future of the automotive world. Originally launched in 2020 as "The Grand Prick" and later "Wheel Sports," this channel has evolved alongside my passion for all things racing and automotive. While Formula 1 remains close to my heart, The Car Nerd now expands to cover stories of automotive

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