What Moves You | Speedway Motors Podcast Speedway Motors

Two generations of Taylor gearheads joined us to talk about everything from their origins in the automotive industry, to career successes, and discussing the Isky Tribute Roadster.

Dennis is the owner of Hot Rods by Dennis Taylor, a custom shop that operates in Booneville, Arkansas. Growing up, Alex spent most of her time at her dad’s shop. At the age of 15, Alex and her parents began to build her car, and at 16 she became the youngest driver ever to compete in HOT ROD Drag Week, driving her "Badmaro" 1968 Camaro.

Now, Alex runs her own business, Alex Taylor Racing, along with an awesome YouTube page amassing over 100k subscribers.

Over the years, Dennis and Alex have grown close with Ed Iskenderian and the rest of the Isky team, so for the 75th anniversary of Isky Cams they teamed up to create this historic tribute Isky Roadster that will be at SEMA 2023.
 
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Bob Larivee, Sr. was born in 1930 and grew up in the Motor City. His father was a painter and Bob’s interest in the automotive industry started with the Soap Box Derby. He was studying to be a dentist, but his career path took a drastic turn.  

In the early 1950s, he got into cars and racing during the golden age of racing that many only dream about. In November of 1959, he started Promotions Incorporated with his brother and charged $1.25 for entry. Imagine that! The indoor car show was a new idea. There was no car activity in the winter. No professional sports. People were craving activity and Bob delivered. By 1982, they were doing 100 shows a year.  

Bob Larivee, Sr. shares story after story about how he became life-long friends with many industry leaders throughout the years. Listen to hear how it’s been said that he was responsible for naming the “Ridler Award”. Or hear about how he ended up at Disneyland with Ed Roth and his family. Bob chuckles, “...being with Ed you never knew what it was going to be.” He also shares the story of how he got Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward) to attend one of his car shows and how he almost didn’t open the doors for John Lennon. 

Bob Larivee, Sr. is also a published author, Founder of the Automotive Fine Arts Society, a contributor to the Museum of American Speed, and the magic behind the Museum of American Speed’s new art gallery. You won’t want to miss this one!

Steve Strope had multiple magazine features, lots of media coverage, and a top 10 car all before he had a shop or even a garage. What started out as a humble operation with a Craftsman 3-drawer toolbox out of his apartment parking garage, lead him to unveiling his first car at SEMA with Chrysler.
Steve Strope opened his shop, Pure Vision, in 2001 and has kept that same mentality from the early years. You don’t need a big shop to build award-winning cars. Strope credits his talented, hardworking and loyal team that has helped him continue to win accolade after accolade, including the prestigious manufacturer’s design awards at SEMA.
In this episode, Steve Strope talks about how he approaches builds, his favorite car—Martini Mustang, his current “anti-SEMA” Chevelle, and what’s ahead. Take a listen.

Elana Scherr didn’t find her way into old cars as early as most. In fact, she didn’t even get a driver’s license until she was 21. Then she picked up a cheap Duster and, with a little help from her friends, learned not only how to drive it, but also how to fix it when it broke. When she met her future husband Tom and started making passes at the dragstrip, she was hooked.
Many of us came to know Elana from her time spent on staff at Hot Rod Magazine. Her articles jumped off the page with a unique voice that made the reader feel like they were right there, driving around in the featured car or behind the scenes at events like Pike’s Peak and Baja.
Since Hot Rod, Elana has worked as a freelancer, written a book with Don Prudhomme called Don "The Snake" Prudhomme: My Life Beyond the 1320, and made her way back to a magazine staff position, this time as Senior Features Editor at Car and Driver. In her current gig, Elana gets to drive around in brand new cars, comparing and contrasting with her ever-growing fleet of vintage drivers. She still works plenty of the clever storytelling and automotive adventuring that we’ve come to expect from her into her copy.
Be sure to check out Elana and Tom’s YouTube channel (Challengeher) and follow her on Instagram @challengeher.

David Newbern was always into cars, but he wasn’t always into cars on-camera. That is, until someone named Mike Finnegan moved nearby and needed shears and a finger brake. 
 
Growing up, David tagged along with his father to every car show possible, watching while his dad worked a kind of car guy magic to trade cars on the spot. They’d show up in one, and drive home in another, which happened as many as 20 times. His father’s habit of swapping cars on a moment’s notice gave a young gearhead practice on the idiosyncrasies of various cars and engines. 
 
Before his television career, David made a profession out of installing gates, security cameras and construction. On the side, he was always building something with a passion to get it rolling as soon as possible. After trading his ‘71 Camaro for a ‘26 Essex Coupe, the Buick nailhead began knocking as soon as he got it home. He had a 2004 LS1 on the garage floor before LS swaps were common and made it work.  
 
That old spirit of getting it running no matter what made David fit right in with the Roadkill crew. The rest, we already know. We’ve always been big fans of David and it was a pleasure to have him on the podcast. 
 
Follow David on Instagram @DavidNewbern 
 
Watch him on Finnegans Garage, Faster with Finnegan, Roadkill and more.

In the early 50’s Peter Vincent saw a car that changed his life forever. 
 
He was a 6th grader standing on the corner for junior traffic control when a lowered, drop top Merc pulled up with frenched headlights, nosed and decked with a smooth bumper and no grill. Needless to say, it made an impression. He has been hooked on cars ever since, and his passion stayed with him as he bounced from mechanical engineering to architecture and finally landed in his true passion, photography. Like that Merc, the act of creation in photography grabbed Peter like nothing else and never let go.  
 
Peter learned photography from workshops with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, taking in their formalism and methodical zone system of visualizing, measuring and capturing images. As he honed his craft, he turned his camera to cars. Much like architecture and landscape photography, cars provided subjects with lines and shapes that appealed to his passion for disciplined image making. Bonneville provided the perfect setting to capture hot rods in their purest form, built by like-minded car enthusiasts with their own spin on disciplined craftsmanship. 
 
Since those first images, Peter has published five books of photography and made a reputation for himself as the premier hot rod photographer. We talk with Peter about his extensive experience in photography, his own cars and getting to know early hot rod legends like Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt of the Rolling Bones hot rod shop. 
 
Don't miss the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed feature of Peter Vincent https://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/peter_vincent_photographer.html