Afleveringen
-
They had a shot at winning, you know? You always have a shot! Even though sometimes you don’t. This is what happens when… well, when you try very hard and it doesn’t happen.
Jeff was on the wall with Toronto’s AWA Racing, helping that spunky little team’s Corvettes go faster. (Fresh off their Daytona win!) Ross was focused on LMP2 and his driver there and coaching his heart out.
Everybody had heart on the table. And then…
Well, you’ll have to listen!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES.”
RELATED TRIVIA: There is crashing in this episode. Sam is not in this episode, but he once broke a long bone in his foot at a Connecticut Airbnb while crashing through the kitchen after a day at Lime Rock. (Insert journalism joke here.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
The first answer? Money, of course. The second answer? Also money.
The third answer, in case you’re wondering: also also money! But we don’t care about those answers! We care about how, if you work hard and maybe get lucky… you might not *need* the money. (Much.)
Ross is a former IndyCar ’shoe and a pro driver coach who has trained thousands of racers. Jeff is a pro engineer who’s helped countless teams chase wins, and he raised an IMSA-champion son, Colin Braun. Ross and Jeff know things. They share things!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “ROSS & JEFF STEAL THE SHOW.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam had to sit this one out. We could tell you why, but it’s more fun if you guess. Email your totally untrue answers to [email protected]—our favorite answer will get a free INTC shirt and a shout-out on the show!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
“A mythbusting episode,” Ross suggested. “Great idea!” Sam and Jeff said.
Then we blinked, and we had gone off-topic again, taped an entire show about 19th-century American cultural hegemony. What a corker! More specifically, we had taped a show about the life and times of a long-dead American statesman who also happened to be a strong supporter of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, a.k.a. Prohibition.
Naw—that’s an exaggeration. We wouldn’t do that to you. This episode is about *20th-century* political hegemony. (Everything else above stands.)
Still here? Good! Everything above is a fib, a gambit designed to root out the nonbelievers. Except the “mythbusting” part.
Here’s a myth for you: It’s never important to read all the way to the end!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “IT IS VERY UNLIKELY THAT THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL WILL SUE US.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam, Ross, and Jeff will all be at the Long Beach Grand Prix in April. Jeff will be working his day job with AWA Racing; Ross and Sam will just be hanging out. Sam will have a pocketful of free INTC stickers. And yes, that last sentence is a threat.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
You guys have emailed to ask what we talk about off-air: "Have you ever considered an off-topic show?"
Hey, why not?
Sam cracked a beer on an empty stomach. Jeff poured a large coffee. Ross continued his streak of amusingly clean and healthy living. With no plan, we ended up yapping on—among other things—racing, Lotuses, how Sam’s grandpa got out of mowing the lawn forever, and that time Jeff’s son Colin whacked straight into a flying bat while lapping a kart in their yard in the middle of the night.
This format is an experiment. If you like it, we’ll do it again. If you don’t like, hey, no worries, it’ll go Poe’s raven, nevermore!
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “INTC TANGENT HOUR.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam was drinking Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. From the world’s oldest brewery, which dates to the year 1040. “Fruity nuances of banana and cloves,” their site says. Coincidentally, that’s how Sam’s wife describes his writing. (Sam: “Tough, but fair.”)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
We’re back! And one of our hosts just won the 2025 24 Hours of Daytona!
His name is Jeff Braun, he’s the competition director for the IMSA Corvettes of Toronto’s AWA Racing, and he’s won Daytona twice before. We’re dang proud of him. We asked him to break down this year's win—moment by moment, all the ups and all the downs.
AWA’s win at Daytona this year marks the first 24-hour win anywhere for the Corvette GT3 car. It’s also the first time in decades that a privateer Corvette has won the race.
This show changes format weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES.” Which might sound a little tawdry, but hey, Sam wrote it, so there you go.
RELATED TRIVIA: Hey, it’s a show again! It’s Not the Car took a short hiatus just after Christmas, but our second year starts here. Thanks to everyone who emailed or DM'd to check in and ask when we were coming back—it means a lot!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
How is speed on a bike different from speed in a car? Is chasing the limit different if you’re more likely to get hurt? And just why did your crazy old Uncle Eddie yardsale that ratty Ducati across a field, anyway?
Complex questions. Except Uncle Eddie. Dude owns a Chevelle and loves Foreigner a little too much, you know? Probably got hot blooded one night, wanted to know what love is. Maybe it felt like the first time? Tires were cold as ice, though, too many head games! But I digress.
Nick Ienatsch is the creator of the Yamaha Champions Riding School, one of the country’s best two-wheel performance training programs. He’s also a writer, a racer, and a hell of a good teacher. Before his current gig, Nick spent more than a decade as the lead instructor at the celebrated Freddie Spencer Riding School.
We ask Nick about motorcycles in this one. Ross, Sam, and Jeff are all bike people, but that's not a prereq here. At the core, this is an episode for anyone who likes wheels and owns a brain.
And maybe also Uncle Eddie.
RELATED TRIVIA: This episode marks the end of INTC’s first year on air! Fifty-two shows, one every week—weird, right? Honestly, we’re just geeked to still be here. Thank you for listening!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Fifteen years ago, a guy from Maryland took a camcorder and a bone-stock Ford Mustang GT to Japan and filmed a series of YouTube videos on drifting and local car culture. Back home in the States, a handful of people—including INTC producer Mike Perlman, then 15 years old—watched those videos and asked, What the hell is going on here?
By that point, Vaughn Gittin, Jr. was already an accomplished professional drifter, an off-road racer, and a self-proclaimed “professional fun-haver.” Fast forward a decade and a half, and Gittin’s hands-on approach has helped drifting be taken seriously in America—and he’s done so much more.
For INTC’s 50th episode, Gittin joins us to talk about the nuance and difficulty of drifting, building a career in motorsport, and how our very own Ross Bentley changed his life!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Have you ever been in the zone, or in flow, behind the wheel? Want to get back there again and again?
This podcast is all about what’s driving the car, and in this episode, we dig deep into the minds of high-performing drivers. We talk with Dr. Sue Jackson, a psychologist who has specialized in sport and exercise psychology. She co-wrote the book "Flow in Sports" with the “father" of flow research, Mihaly "Mike" Csikszentmihalyi.
In her latest book, "Experiencing Flow," Sue looks into how we can all spend more time experiencing peak performance, whether that means on the race track or at any other time in life. Sue also talks about her recent interest in racing, and specifically about Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. (Since they knew a thing or two about getting into the zone!)
**
More information about Dr. Sue Jackson and her books:
https://www.bodyandmindflow.com.au
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/suejackson_flow/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/bodyandmindflow
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drsuejackson
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
This episode has everything: Punches. Pepsi. Snow! Plus, a guy named Cale crashes a 190-mph race car in sneakers and kicks somebody on national TV.
Naturally, save the snow, this all happens in Florida.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, that means the 1979 Daytona 500 and the childish, joyous three-driver fistfight that changed NASCAR forever.
RELATED TRIVIA: To hell with trivia this week—we’re just gonna use this space to rattle off every badass old NASCAR first name that’ll fit. Here goes: Dale and Cale and Fireball and LeeRoy and Bobby and Davey and Donnie and Joe and Curtis and Marshall and Lee and Richard and Buddy and Pearson and Benny and Cotton and Junior and Buck and Hershel and AJ and the other Bobby and Harry and Dan and Red and Dick and Weatherly and Rex and the other other Bobby and Ned and the other Lee and you know what? Each and every single one of those dudes knew how to slide a big ol’ Detroit sled like ***nobody’s business***.
And we like that.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Strap in, kids—it’s time for another story from Jeff’s past, and this one’s a doozy.
In 1967, future pro racer and INTC host Jeff Braun won a contest to visit the United States F1 Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
Jeff was nine years old. The trip blew his mind.
Guaranteed in this ep: Our very own J.B. as a wee man! Quality hangs with Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham! Sam explaining why Sixties F1 was bonkers-deadly but great! Jeff swimming at the Glen Motor Inn with Gurney and Jim Clark and Graham "Mustache" Hill! A private garage tour! And more!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Jeff Tells a Story.”
RELATED TRIVIA: So at one point, our boy hits the Watkins concession stands. He wants a burger. Being nine, he is not tall, can’t see over the counter. Then, suddenly, someone lifts him up. He turns around—it’s future F1 World Champion Jochen Rindt! Suited and booted, driving that weekend, three years before his death at Monza. RIP, you legend: Trackside meatwich brings everybody together.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Tony Quiroga is the editor-in-chief of Car and Driver. For the last 18 years, his magazine has rented Virginia International Raceway once a year. And each time, they’ve spent three days—normal people, not pro drivers—flogging the best new fast cars, lapping nonstop and chasing time.
Sound like a dream day? A pile of stress? Tony is an old friend of INTC, and he says C/D’s annual “Lightning Lap” test is… both!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episodes this fall because it sounded like fun? We are!
Related Trivia: Sam and Tony once worked together Car and Driver. Later, they worked together at Road & Track. Then it was C/D again. If time is a flat circle, then car magazines are a… flat skidpad, I guess?
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Once, humans set foot on the moon. Some steely eyed engineer types did some math and took some gambles, and then some steely eyed pilot types sat on a big firework and flew off.
Huge achievement, neat space candle. And that plan—the *strategy*—made it possible.
Related: A host of this show is a pro race engineer. Jeff Braun has won the 12 Hours of Sebring eight times and the 24 Hours of Daytona twice. His résumé includes a whopping ten IMSA / Grand-Am championships.
Race strategy makes Jeff’s job go ’round. So we had him explain it!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “Instant Expert.”
RELATED TRIVIA: Once, Sam found himself at the end of a grueling enduro. It was the last corner of the last lap; the win was make-or-break. In the heat of battle, he made a strategic choice—he took out two drivers at once. And hey, those little girls were really unhappy about that, but they were also Sam's nine- and eleven-year-old daughters, and that’s how the MarioKart cookie crumbles, rugrats! Boom goes the red-shell dynamite! Dad-strat champion forever!
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
In this episo… ah, screw it. Cut to the chase: Do you know what a Mazda R26B rotary sounds like?
Four rotors of fury! The littlest beer keg that could! The 700-horse shrieker from the first Japanese car to win Le Mans!
BEEOWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!
Except… louder. Nastier. You hear that noise even once, it makes a bee-line for the whoopy-monkey core of the human brain and lives there forever.
So we got ourselves here yep a story about that.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time an underfunded Japanese carmaker and a strange little engine design went to France and slayed 200-mph giants.
RELATED TRIVIA: Sam once track-tested a real live Mazda 787. Ross used to own Mazda RX-7. And in 2014 and 2015, Jeff was competition director for the factory-backed Mazda SpeedSource diesel IMSA prototypes.
***
CORRECTION: Sam got the location of Hiroshima wrong here; it's actually quite far from Tokyo and a large city on its own. That was off-the-cuff brain fart and not from his notes, please forgive us. (What's more: Sam has been to Japan multiple times and knows better.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Corner by corner, inch by inch, one of the greatest tracks in the world. We’ve got thousands of laps there. Walk the track with us!
What makes Laguna Seca so great? Is the answer . . . California? The mountains? Memories of Mario, getting loose in Turn 9, that cotton-candy morning fog, or how the rear axle just snap-crackle-pops into the Corkscrew on trailed brake?
Yes! And so much else, right?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “Walking the Track.” In this installment, Sam and Ross destitch their love for a deeply American, deeply Californian, and deeply wonderful track.
You will learn where the apexes are, if you don’t already know. But that’s the least interesting part.
***YOUR RELATED TRIVIA STARTS NOW***
Ross has strolled Laguna’s pavement countless times while teaching people to go fast there. Sam once got yelled at by track security for daring to walk a lap at sunset, on a club-race weekend, after everyone had gone home.
(Not allowed, they said. Which is ridiculous, but also, in that case, why were the gates open? Boo hiss.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Jeff and Ross co-host this show. Jeff is a race engineer. Ross is a performance coach who’s worked with thousands of drivers—Indy winners, Le Mans winners, even the late Ken Block.
Thirty years ago, one kid stood out from the rest; he would become one of the most decorated drivers in American history. Oddly enough, that kid was Jeff's son.
Colin Braun is now 36. His resume holds three IMSA championships, four Daytona 24 wins, a Le Mans win, and a NASCAR rookie-of-the-year title. He’s raced in IndyCar, World Challenge, and Global Rallycross; he’s driven Le Mans prototypes and GTP cars, Porsches and Ferraris and Ford GTs.
The most successful drivers do one thing better than the rest. So we got Colin on the horn and asked about that—and about what it takes to go fast in everything.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episodes this fall because it sounded like fun? We are!
Related Trivia: Colin recently signed to drive one of Meyer Shank Racing’s factory-backed Acura GTP prototypes for 2025. This is neat. We like this.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
Chris Andrews was once a NASCAR Cup Series engineer and crew chief. He’s worked hand-in-hand with drivers like Robby Gordon, Bill Elliott, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Kasey Kahne. His resume holds names like Roush Fenway, Evernham Motorsports, and Richard Childress Racing.
What you have probably guessed already: Chris has some *excellent* stories.
Is this another of our “How the Pros Cheat” shows? You bet! And now with guest!
Related Trivia: After more than a decade at the top of NASCAR, Andrews switched to sports cars—he’s currently lead engineer for Vasser Sullivan’s championship-winning IMSA GTD Lexus coupes.
Related Trivia Part Two, Badass Two-Lane Camry Edition: This episode’s guest once made a NASCAR Cup-spec Toyota Camry street-legal and drove it around suburban North Carolina. Because he is a steely-eyed missile man. Or a hero. (Or—wait, no!—both. Definitely both.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
“You jerk,” they’ll shout, “that show title isn’t relatable! Only the die-hards will understand! For pete’s sake, man, think of the traffic analytics!”
Who cares? I am Sam and I write these ep descriptions, and that title makes me happy. If you don’t like it, hey, you probably aren’t the kind of person to listen to a show about a “flap,” anyway.
And: This is a show about a flap! It’s also about two of the greatest American racers to have ever lived. The moment where two men of experience and wisdom grew frustrated. And how they stumbled onto an invention that changed aerodynamics forever.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time when Dan Gurney and Bobby Unser used an Indy car to discover something that would later be used to help helicopters fly.
Related Trivia: Ross can fly a helicopter. Sam once rode in a Robinson R22. Jeff is a private pilot and about 1000 times cooler than Sam and Ross combined, so he probably taught his sons to autorotate in the womb or something. (I don’t know, I’ve never asked, but you do the math, the guy is basically our Fonzie, right?)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Who We Are + Spicy Merch:
www.ItsNotTheCar.com
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!
**
Check out Sam's new book!
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
How do you know when to let go of something you love? What if you know it’s time but still think about that something every minute of every day?
If you’re INTC co-host Ross Bentley, you back up but you don’t give up—and you lean into what you’re good at.
Ross was once a pro driver in IndyCar and IMSA. He is now a pro driver *coach*. And while he’s too modest to admit it, he’s one of the best in the world at what he does. He has coached Indy winners, Le Mans winners, even Ken Block, and he has made them all faster. Plus, he wrote bestselling books on how he thinks.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “My Life With.” It’s where an INTC host tells the story of how they came to understand a complex racing topic over their working life. In this case, that means Ross and coaching!
Related Trivia: Sam just got home from being a keynote speaker at the Lotus Owners Group national gathering in Texas. He has wanted an S1 Lotus Elise since forever. (That’s really unrelated to this ep, but hey, Sam is a Lotus nerd and can’t let it go.)
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book:
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
OUR NEW WEBSITE IS WORSE THAN YOU HOPED: www.itsnotthecar.com/
Once, long ago, a German engineer looked at a VW Beetle and thought, “Ahh, my little streitzel, we should tango with the hot-rod physics of love!”
The Porsche 911 is divisive. People love ’em. People hate ’em. People fire ’em backward into ditches and Armco and spit excuses for how it wasn’t their fault—widowmaker car, Wreck-cellence Was Expected, blah blah blah. (“Too much understeer! Too much oversteer! Chappell Roan! ANYTHING BUT ME!”)
Is it the [fault of the] car? It is not!
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This ep’s format is called “How to Drive It.” Please do not hit play while you are in the middle of crashing a Porsche and expect it to help.
Related Trivia: Ross and Jeff have raced 911s professionally. Sam has tested countless 911 variants for places like Road & Track and 000—from 2.0-liter Daytona winners to a 934, a 935, and most of the road models since 1964. Also, “streitzel” is both a Hans Stuck nickname and a kind of German pastry, and if those facts bring you joy, you are indeed nerdy enough for this show.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book:
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
-
AVERT YOUR EYES FROM OUR NEW MERCH STORE: www.itsnotthecar.com/
***Don’t ever go there! It will rot your brain! (These annoying store mentions will stop soon, we promise.)***
Once, in college, Sam studied under a dignified old journalism professor.
“The thing about putting the word ‘sex’ in a headline,” this prof said, “is that it’s the easy way out. Like an exclamation point or a question mark—those are language cheats, to avoid thinking of something smarter. You can always do better.”
But enough of that! What did that prof know, anyway? Sam is very tired right now! Does he find shocks sexy? Who doesn’t? Have you ever considered how many damper-adjacent words are lightly titillating? Let’s share a few!
“Digressive!” “Frequency!” And even—gasp!—“knee!” (Cue the fainting grandmothers.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “My Life With.” It has nothing to do with sex and is instead a chance for an INTC host to tell the story of how they came to understand a complex racing topic over their working life.
In this case, that host is JEFF, our very own champion race engineer and IMSA-team competition director. The subject is DAMPERS!
Related Trivia: This ep description is light on substance because Sam is very tired—he’s worked too many late nights at his day job over the last few weeks.
Unrelated Trivia: In spare moments, to relax, Sam stares at the website for this podcast. There have been no ill effects to date. Probably.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
**
Support It’s Not the Car:
Contribute on Patreon www.patreon.com/notthecar
**
Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:
[email protected]
**
Check out Sam's book:
Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023
**
Where to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/intcpod
https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/
https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/
https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/
https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod
https://rossbentley.substack.com/
https://speedsecrets.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach
**
ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.
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