Our First Cars with Lake Bell and Rob Corddry

important cars in the world are our first cars. These were the cars that gave us our first real taste of freedom, not to mention our first taste of the late night Taco Bell drive through. First cars are important enough to us here at Car Show that we're going to mix it up this week and do a couple of interviews with two of our favorite polymaths, Lake Bell and Rob Kordry. Lake and Rob are actors, writers, directors, and voice artists. To these multi hyphenets, we add car people.

They're going to tell us about their first cars and how formative they were to their lives and careers. I'm Eddie Alterman. On this special Hollywood episode of Car Show, we delve into the automotive lives of these two committed gearheads. First up, is Lake Bell. You might know her as Agnes Adler in the movie It's Complicated or as the voice of Katrina peanut Butter in BoJack Horsemen. She also wrote and directed the film In a World. Lake's car

enthusiasm runs in the family. She grew up in Florida and New York, and her dad, Harvey Siegel, is a collector of Shelby Cobras and special Fords like the GT forty and the Shelby Mustang KR. In our conversation, Lake talks about everything from the car that sparked her obsession with Italian medal to finally mastering the manual transmission. But first we play my favorite parlor game. Guess that first car.

Do you mean the first card that I purchased with my own money or the car that I was generously given from my father the car that you were given from your father? Okay? So that tells me something. So let me ask you a couple of questions. Did you start driving in New York City or in Florida, Florida? Okay? Was it domestic or import? Import? And it was your dad's car? No alease? Okay, give me three guesses. BMW three series convertible, No, sir, to this day, I'm just

I'm not a convertible person. But you're kind of going in the wrong direction. To be honest, Really, you're giving Harvey too much credit. So Honda Civic no warmer. Warmer in the sense that it's less exotic and less sort of rich kitty, but still but little a sprinkle of I mean, there was a great privilege in the car that I have. It's getting tough. Well, let me let

me say this. It's I mean, if you're a father and you don't want your daughter getting in a in a bender, you know, a fender bender or whatnot after a bender? What what would you want her to drive? Would you want her to be in a in a two door? No? Would you want her to be even in a sedan? Probably not. If you're really neurotic in you're Jewish and you're from New York, you're gonna want an suv. You want to put some metal around. Yeah, you want her a little higher up? So was it

a Nissan pathbinder? Closer? See, now you're in the pocket. Now you're in the zone. We almost got that one floor runner. Okay, there he is got it. Yes, I got it. Okay, Forerunner, that's a great choice. He got me the Forerunner, and it was boy, it was terrific. But I will say there was one kicker about it, which is just ironic really, given that it is the Forerunner. He got the two wheel drive, didn't mean yeah. But then I ended up going to Skidmore for a year.

And let me tell you something. Upstate New York, I bought a lot of kitty litter for the back for the trunk. Let me tell you didn't have a cat. Didn't have a cat, but you put snow tires on it, right, you know what we put There was like a lot of talk of putting chains on the tires, which, you know, the eighteen year old version of myself I was like, I don't know how to I don't even know where to begin with that, Like I don't know, like who am I gonna go to? I don't want to do it.

It seems like a big you know, because then you would drive into the city and all of a sudden you got chains on your tire, and what I'm supposed to take them all? Yeah, you just take them off. I'm like, I'm not taking no. So it was it was more just like bricks and kitty litter in the back. Smart. I was eighteen, listen, I you know, I ended up leaving going to England. So I left at nineteen to go to England. And that's where I have my first car that I actually purchased because I collect I saved

up some money. I had two thousand dollars. So that's going to help you figure out and guess what I consider my real first car. Okay, So was this a car that you could only get in your own I mean no, but the thematic of the UK is heavily at large here, okay, So a Mini, yes, sir, nineteen eighty seven deg And at the time I didn't even drive stick. So I had this like real kind of block against driving stick because driving in my family was such a thing and like if you're not going to drive,

you know, how dare you not drive stick? And you know, there was just such an onnus on it that I was rebelling by saying, I'm going to buy an automatic. And if you think of like a nineteen eighty seven Austin Mini, that's automatic, I mean that's like a go cart. Yeah, that's basically a golf cart, right, and you were in London. It's super parkable. That's a big kind of spectrum to go from. I know, I know, but I mean in the UK, a Mini is like an suv. I mean

you can fit ten people in there. I know they're huge inside kind of Yeah, I mean I really. I mean I was nineteen and then twenty twenty one. I spent four years in London and that that red Mini was like integral to my existence and my lifeline to my social life. I mean I was the only one with the car, so you know, everyone's like, gonna take that call, we'll get in. So do you you were like the designated driver always that's sort of unfair. Yeah, but it's cool to have wheels, so you know you've

given your take. Yeah, did you get the knowledge of like how to get around London because you know Kevys talk about that. Oh yeah we had um, I had my eight to Z map. You would just have to look up where you're going. So you go in the back and you're like, okay, I'm going to Shu you know, like Bluvod you know who, and then you go se twelve or whatever, and then you have to look it up and figure it the fuck out, and then you

came back to the US. Was the Four Runners still there? No? No, We sold the fur Runner and then I moved to LA and then I had to again I had to borrow money for this one because in in LA. Again, I was like, oh, I can just you know, sell the mini for like seven dollars and then and then you know, get a car in LA. But of course my dad was like, you'd drive in in LA. You can't have a small car, you know. He's like, you

need a proper SUV. You know, like he had a real thing about like kids and su I want to talk about your family. I love that imitation of your dad. So he's a Brooklyn guy, you know what. He is a New York your quintessential New York gentleman jew. So he has um. You know, my brother and my sisters and I all kind of amp up his plosives and whatnot when we do an impression of him, because if we didn't, it just wouldn't be as fun. But you know, you know the key, you know, you don't want to

load of the ground. That's how he speaks. And then my mom has like a really sort of like the opposite of whatever that is. So she has a very sort of um, soft spoken, um, you know, sort of more quintessentially kind of waspy sound. So they have a

real vocal cortail. And speaking of sounds, I mean often when I think about cars, I grew up with um on race car trucks my whole life because of my father, other Harvey Seagal, who owned and restored Virginia International Raceway, um as well as best you know, yeah you should, you should, um, but I'd been going to like Lime Rock and you know, the Poconos and you know just I mean but really vir and and the New Jersey Motorsport Park was also his, and so you know, he

had been an amateur racer and very serious collector for my whole life. So, um, this relationship I had with cars really stemmed from you know, the car world was the way in to connect with him. In many ways, it's just that's his that's like his other children, you know.

And so there were times where it's like, oh, I didn't really know how to access and have a deep conversation with him, but he would take me to the Javit Center to the auto show and we would walk around and those are really important moments, you know, because

those are like kind of my main connection point. And he enjoys telling you know, his children the kind of history of certain cars, the great kind of melodramatic stories of racers, and and why you know, why Porsche is cool and what or why it isn't you know, and why he prefers forwards in general. The smells and the experiential kind of connection that I have to automotives in general is just you know, it comes from this place and then now I've taken on its own life, within

my own sort of experience. I had the same sort of experience with my father. I got all these talmudic lessons through the car business. You know. He was so into cars, and I inherited that from him. But that's how he liked taught me about the world. Absolutely. I mean, cars are touch points for indelible moments in our life.

There's a nostalgia and a sort of visceral kind of the smells and the sounds and the way the leather felt or the way the fabric felt, or whatever it is about a car that really reminds you, Oh God. That's when I went to Skidmore or oh god, that's when I lived right on Creek Road, remember in you know, And so there's utility involved. Obviously, there is efficiency involved, but then there's also just like god, that's your conduit

to getting anywhere. You know, it's a privilege, Like not everyone gets to have a car, like it still ends up being this thing that's that's special. You know, whether you're a single mom of five kids, you know, and you need that goddamn car, or if you're just like I have dreamed of this two four six my entire life, you know, and finally made enough money to get it. There's this kind of magic of self guided locomotion, right, self directed locomotion. There's nothing but when you're like driving

and in control, it's incredible. It's an incredible feeling of power. There is a sense of sacred privacy, the sanctity of that cocoon that you've earned that can take cute places. I mean, good lord, it's magic, you know. It's That's why I say it's a privilege, because we often forget

and we take it for granted. But I mean, that's why there's so many times while you're driving and you're in the car and you're listening to a song and a song comes on and you're like, I could drive to Oregon, you know, and there's something about you know, like you're not going to do it, but you could. Yeah, exactly the promise of the maybe how do cars inform character? Like one of the coolest I thought car character matchups was in It's Complicated and Alec Baldwin's character driving that

blue nine to eleven Caabrio. I'm like, of course, well I know, and you know what it's like. For instance, there was in a world I had to have. I had to have like a certain kind of nineties Corvette

and it had to be maroon. It had to be maroon, like like metallic maroon for my dad in it, played by Fred Melman, who is like the king, right, but the best And I have a whole scene in there where you know, the father who's just not considering his daughter at all, Um says, you know, I'll take you there, and of course there's no back seat in that model, right, So she's like, there's a whole there's story in that of like yeah, like if we get into an accident,

like you're you're cooked, like there's no seed for you at this table. Okay, all about him in that sort of like maroon car. It's like, no, it's not red. Oh it's got a metallic Who have a red corvette? Like, you can't have a red corvette. That's totally cliche. I have a maroon corvette. Yeah, Burgundy, marooney that maroon love it um. So Anyway, those are the kind of things where I really enjoy when I'm making a film or or you know, creating a character. I do think about

it a lot. Um. I think it says in the same way that the wardrobe says a lot. You know, you can you can paint a picture of what someone's morning routine might be like and what they're doing off camera if you can know what they are dawning or what they are driving. What are some of your favorite movie cars? Well, I mean, look Scorsese, Good Fellas for

Me was a really good car film. I mean there's just something about those massive body U sixties seventies caddies, the El Dorados and the ber Ritzes and the you know, there's such balls that like to take up that much space for two doors. You know, you're like like tiny inside, huge on the outside. Yeah, Like I'm taking up some space, you know what I mean, Like it's just a little

but it's it's it's perfection. It's so gradyos right, Like remember in that scene and she's like, oh, I thought that you know, these the wives would be so fancy. You were all like wearing those rayon blands. That's when those cars were. They were not like europeanngts. Yeah, and which I really and yet I understand and see the

appeal in it. I mean I have looked into purchasing one, but um, you know, I wouldn't kick one of those out of bed, but um, I you know, because also there is something so unbelievably sort of whimsical and wacky about the color schemes they had in that day. It's like all white on white and then bright cherry red interior, and it's like that was just yeah, that's factory you know, Like I love it. I love it. It's got such um personality. And now it's like, uh, what kind of

gray do you want? So when you were growing up, did did your dad teach you how to drive on the track? So I was terrified of speed. I'm still not a massive speed demon. I'm more interested in the kind of tetris driving, I call it, which is like city driving where it's like, oh, this person going over there, Okay, I'll go over there. You know, it's like oh, I see you, I see you. Okay, you're up my ass Orr. I watched this. You know, it's like I think I

probably would be more interested in like rally driving, you know. Um, but that said, um, my father did teach me to drive on a KR five hundred, so King of the Road five hundred. Yeah. He's a big Shelby Cober guy. Yeah, and you know, my relationship was good with him. But I mean that's a lot because remember I had in the whole like hang up about manual when I was a kid, and so I was just like, oh shit, like you know, he's I'm just gonna fucking fuck this

car up. Who was it a test? You think? Like he was saying, like, honestly, this is it's cars is where he shines, right, So like he really was like all right, kid, you know, like get in there and let's see what we can do. When we were out in the in New Jersey at our country house and that's where his like uh mechanics live and where we have a big garage of toys and we were on like a gravel road and we were in the KR

and he's like, go ahead, give it a go. And I was like throwing it in first and then you know, just like fourth, just like such tentative clutch touching, like not oh got stalling, you know. But then of course it's like once you get it into first, it's like the torque on the thing is like insane. You could throw it in third and you're fine, you know, like, so explain what the KR is. You're like in a Mustang like beast basically, and it's like, I mean, it's

called King of the Road. So I think you know, when you're coming out with balls of steel like that, I think you understand exactly what we're dealing with. You know, it was complicated sometimes where you know, it felt like there was and onus, as I said, on manual shift and all that stuff. And I would talk to my brother about it, who did race, and I'd be like, are you I mean, I just feel like I don't know.

He's like, you can do it. Like kids in fucking rural whatever driving stick you know, they're like fourteen year olds driving stick trucks. Everywhere, you know, to tend to farms, like why are you making this so neurotic? And so eventually, when I was a big kid and grown up, I found a mini, secondhand mini that had all this, like, um, it was a Cooper that had a bunch of aftermarket shit on it and it was lowered and I was like, but it's a mini, Like why is it lowered? They're like,

I don't know. The guy, some guy from Devo owned it. I was like really, yeah, it was really cool, I know. So immediately I was like, well, yeah, I need to buy this. So um. I went to this dealer in Lakenyata, like it was really far from my house, and I took a cab there and I fucking and got there, signed all the paperwork, and the guy gave me the keys and I said, listen, I don't fully know how to drive manual. I've only done it once on a

KR and and he's like like not at all. And I was like, well, could you just give me like a parking lot tutorial, you know, and he was like yeah, okay. So then we're just in the parking lot with this random guy and we just you know, he gave me some hot tips and I with because it wasn't like the onus of my cool driving dad. I just was like I felt more comfortable in a way, you know, to just do it. And I drove it off and I drove got right on the highway and went home

and I just thought, oh my god. I literally talking to myself, I was like, Okay, at the RP, I'm now, you know. And so that's that became my Mini for many many years, you know. And so because I had this this connection to the Mini, because it was my car, and because it was like, god, my formative years in England, like you know, those are the years like nineteen twenty two,

you know, like that's big deal. So to have it again at like twenty six or whatever, you know, one that I earned because I was like on TV shows and I could buy a car now and and it's going to be a stick damn it. You know. It's like it was a real kind of moment for me. See, I made it. I made it. I got my fucking lowered Mini that hits on like every parking lot I went into would be like scrash, you know. But it's also like the antithesis of like a Harvey car. It's

not like a big boy for it exactly. It was like I had to define my own automotive journey. So what was sort of like your spark car? You know how Burgers talk about having a spark bird, like the first bird that they like fell in love with and got them into it. Is there one for you? Yeah? I mean I got a lot of spark cars. Um. You know I when I first saw a Lamborghini Mura, I was like, I'm sorry what I just was like, am I am I dating that car? Like? Did he?

Is that car throwing me rhythm right now? Like? You know, I just just like what is happening to me? M And there was something about the Italian cars of that era, the seventies, um kind of shark cars I call them, where they're just they just you know, they're dangerous, but you love them and you're intrigued by them. Um and they probably break down a lot. I don't know, but you know it's like the detO, Mazzo and the you know the kind of these these beautiful, um, very sexy

uh Italian you know, I love Italian culture. So for me, I think that really sold it even harder to me I was like, so then I started learning Italian just so that, you know, one day. But I also love the the original. I saw them on the track and they were so damn cute and all with such great personality and senses of humor. I was like, I can get into this. So just to go back to it was like, there's a sense of humor to the Mini,

So I think that's what I was gravitating too. I wasn't like, oh, I want to be you know, sexy, you know, badass girl. Yet I just wasn't there. I was like, I'm still a kid in some ways, and I just think this is cute. And then the Mirra was just like, wow, I'm going to be an adult one day, That's what I said. Really interesting polls, right,

you know, like I know, culture. And then of course it was like the Pantera, you know, the shapes were were were appealing, you know, and so impractical, and there's you know, killed Bill um. Oh yeah, Bill drives a mangusta. He tries to. Yeah, the mangusta is amazing, just the wheels, the way they like they're punched into the body and they're just like, oh, just oozing. Just I mean, I yeah, just like this is all kinds of wrong, and give me the case, like the worst car to drive, so

unreliable that okay, light me around three dream cars. Well you got me onto the Mangusta. So let's do a little Mangousta. Let's get a two four six in there, and then I'd like a Pontiac Transam. You would with the screaming Chicken. Yeah, absolutely, I listen. I like a car with a sense of humor and with a whole like I could build a whole character around it, you know, smoking in the Bandit, Yeah, smoking in the bandit. Yeah. If anyone has a Pontiac Transam with the fucking bird

and all, call me. My friend Ilana who writes for Current Driver. She's got one. It's brown. Oh I love brown, so sick. Yeah, I mean listen, I gotta talk to Ilana. Ye take care of it. Next up Lake's friend and now mine, Rob Cordry. You probably know Rob from The Daily Show with John Stewart, where his stand up segments bristled with manic energy, or from Hot Tub Time Machine, which is maybe the best movie title this side of

Snakes on a plane. He's brought his ink black comedy to shows like Ballers with the Rock and now the latest American iteration of Top Gear with Dak Shephard and Jethro Bobbingdon. Their new season launches July. First, we spoke with Rob about his first car and those thereafter. Why does the trans am always keep coming up? Thank you for being here. You're one of my favorite closet car geek. But now you've you've outed yourself with your Top year experience. Yeah,

I've finally come out. I've had the courage. You know. All my friends are like, what are you talking about. You're not a car guy. And I was like, I met you in New York. Like, I lived in New York for twelve years and I kind of dropped the whole car thing because there's no need for it, and I don't know, I just kind of lost the fire. But then when I moved to La it's it's, you know, fast to rekindle. Oh yeah, it's a car show every day in LA. But yeah, yeah, I admire your bravery.

My dentist invited me to his cars and coffee. Everybody's got a car shown you. That's awesome. Um So I want to take you back to the beginning. Okay, I googled this, so it was no you know process of you know, divination. I just figured I should do a little research and figure out what your first car was. Um, it was a nineteen seventy five Ford Pinto wagon white with the woody walls. M A right piece of shit. And now this this is a car that had a reputation for exploding if a bird so much as shit

on it. Right, Oh yeah, you will. You know what I was fond of saying, because I loved that car when I had it, right, like it was my first car. I got it for five bucks, you know, um five bucks, five bucks from this old man who just used to drive it to the dump and he just you know how like you need a bill of sale. Yeah, well he actually collected the five bucks that usually you just write down, but he was really by the book, so he was like and five dollars please. So I actually

bought bought it for five bucks. And yeah that it wasn't the wagons apparently that were famous for exploding. And you know, I did a piece on this. It hasn't aired yet, it's going to be in our third season. Um, about the Ford Pinto and its tendency to explode, and it's sort of a tongue in cheek piece, but it was greatly exaggerated. To say the least. The American cars were losing at that point. You know, all the great muscle cars were sort of fading away, and it was

all being smogged out of existing. Like yeah, powers being choked down, and you had like the trans Answer making ten horse power and had you know good. I drove one of those, man, I drove on I drove top gear, like nineteen seventy eight, like the Smokey and the Bandit carcam What a piece of shit. I mean, it was a gorgeous, museum quality car. The guy had done beautiful work on it, but he was like, yeah, trying not to take it above fifty five it'll overheat. It just

spent the whole day overeating. Yeah, I mean, the best one of those in the world is still an unmitigated piece of crap. Yeah, it's too bad. It's too bad. But I want to talk more about that Pinto because like, do you have any memorable adventures Oh yeah in that Yeah. So I loved that car more than anything I would go into, you know whatever. The East Coast equivalent of an O'Reilly's is and try and like, what am I going to do to this car? And there's nothing. I

don't know what I'm doing in a car. I had no idea I'd end up getting an air freshener or something. And I had a girlfriend at the time. I was very much in love. She was like two years older than me. She was in college, you know. And and I used to take her out in my car and it was a wagon. And it came that I was the guy, the old older than the dirt man. This

guy could barely walk. And he was like, and if you notice here in the bed we've got, um, you gotta left a pillow and a blanket there for you in case you want to take a nap while you're driving. So so yeah, I used to park with my girlfriend in the cemetery built only guy that had a pillow in the back of his car, that's for sure. Um an old man's pillow. And it used to didn't last. No, she cheated on me. She cheated on me. Now forget now,

she probably cheated on me with somebody else's car. Really, it was probably that car that killed it because the floorboard on the passenger seat was completely rusted out. So every time we went over a puddle, which in Boston was significant, like they were everywhere, she would get soaked. She would to like just put her feet up on

the dashboard. What we went over a puddle? And I would like to drive by my old house growing up right now and see if they've paved over the holes that car left in the driveway, because apparently oil is a corrosive. I had no idea there were you know, two inch deep holes and that, and I had that car for maybe two years, burned a hole right in there. Amazing, yeah, and left its mark. Do you have like sort of memorable associations with moments in your life and certain cars?

Those cars were long before I even realized that acting was a job that people could do. You know, growing up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, it's like ten minutes fifteen minutes south of Boston, there wasn't a job that people Nobody ever left Weymouth and let alone became you know, you know, became movie actors or TV actors. So it took a long time for me to realize that was an actual goal.

So I would say it would have to be if I had any car connection to my career, it would be that my wife and I when we were living in New York. I was on the Daily Show and I inherited her father had died, and I we inherited a what wasn't ninety four Corolla five speed? Another piece of crap in a long line of crappy cars I've had,

but that car. Man. I lived in Brooklyn. The Daily Show was on like fifty fifth and by the water, like all the way as far as you can get away from Brooklyn, and I used to race myself every single day and if I caught the lights right, I can make it home. I think I may home once in twelve minutes and my friend Jim. My friend Jim said Hey, can I get a ride home with you? He was just like, live right down the block. And I was like, you can, but I want to warn you.

You're not going to enjoy the ride. It's it's gonna be terrible. I drive like an a hole and he was like, ah, come on, come on, I'm an adult, and he's just gripping every handle in the car. I didn't hit a brake once. It's like when you're driving in New York there's taxi driver rules. You don't look behind you, you just turn switch lanes. It's it's one of the best driving environments in the world. It really is, if you know how to do it. If if you're

confident in the taxi driver rules, you cannot hesitate. You can't hesitate. Yeah. When I constantly cut into long lines to get off, I hear in LA because everybody they're not great drivers, that they're very careful drivers, they're very courteous to a fault, and so they'll be waiting in a long line to get off the highway and I just scream right down to the very end of that line and just cut someone off. And I call it

Brooklyn Brooklyn and Crooklyn ning it. I love that. I mean, do you think legalized marijuana has anything to do with it? It's not helping the melanists in Yeah, it's it definitely doesn't help. No. I mean, I think the richest experience in New York it's behind the wheel of the car because you're so stressed out and you're just it's moment to moment, and you know, you kind of I think cars are about context in some way, Like you know that piece of shit, Carolla is like maybe the best

car for New York City. You don't care about it for sure. No, And you're gonna get You're gonna be rubbing and dinging it up, and oh yeah, you don't care what happens to it. I mean, do you remember all those no radio signs? Yes? Yeah, yeah, the car was just sort of like a delivery system for the radio. And yeah, would smash windows and just grabbed those like yeah, I had an ashtray full of change, and that was

my mistake. So my window got smashed and they just took like four dollars and pennies and nickels, you know, and a couple of very valuable quarters in Manhattan. You know. The quarters are like you know, although have you ever heard of the Universal Life Church. It's one of those like sort of matchbook churches that you just you become a minister just so you can marry people. Oh my daughter just did that. Yeah, sure, sure, a lot of people.

I actually married our friend Lake Bell. You're the efficient. I was the efficient. Yeah, I didn't marry them, so I did it originally so I could get the parking PA asked, I got a minister parking past and a little thing that you know, what do they call those things you clip on your rear view mirror, the a little thing that said pastor. And I had an official

thing with a gold seal on my dashboards. So if I parked in Manhattan anywhere near like a block or two away from a church, I would never get a ticket. It's like a diplomat plate or something exactly. And it worked. It worked. I parked for free in Manhattan for years, Like the Daily Show was right near a church, so I just parked anywhere. Incredible that that is, that's like what their kids call a life hack. That it was

life act before there were life acts. Yes, I wanted to talk about how after you branched out into directing and started to think about kind of the bigger picture of filmmaking. I was really interested in how do you think like cars informed character, Like when you're sending something up in like the production design or whatever, how do

you approach that. It's very very important, and it's very difficult to convince a line producer, the guy that's in charge of the schedule and the money and the budget, that you know you need a nineteen eighty seven g n X, you know, you just need it for this for this character, it's it's you know or or you know or whatever the car may be, like you have to be on like a Baller's basically because Ballers. It's like story came second to to the cars, the sneakers

that the watches. Um, you had a McLaren on that show, right, I had. Now, unfortunately I did not have a McLaren. I had one of those BMWi right, So it's like the fake McLaren. They tried. They tried very hard to look like a McLaren, and you know, that car gets a bad rap. I only got to drive it a couple of times, but I get air in that car. It was fun. That's a super cool car. I mean it was I mean it didn't last long, but but I enjoyed it, you know, the very little I got

to drive it. That character started off driving a Buick and the season one, because that's the car that Peyton Manning drove, and Spencer the Rocks character basically had to explain to him that that's just a sponsorship deal man. Peyton drives a Corvette, he doesn't doesn't drive a Buick, And I was like, oh, so then the next day I had the I a nice you know, and so then just yeah, it was a long stream of pretty good cars. It's so many that I can't really remember.

The best one was the car my My final car in that show was a TBS twelve cylinder Aston Martin and oh my god, what what a car. I mean heavy, as you felt the weight of that car as you were driving, which was kind of a hindrance, but it was such it's such a beautiful. I've been an Aston Martin fan, a reluctant Aston Martin fan, ever since, just because I'll never be able to afford one. And I mean that's a great character development right there, from the

buick to the cylinder, you know. Yeah, and those cars have that secret handshake, that smell like when you get into him, you feel like you're in some English drawing room, you know, absolutely, It's like, um, yeah, every car from the seventies has a certain smell, and those Aston's have. They smell like money man, and they're I've luckily somehow finagled my way into becoming the Aston Martin guy on top Gear Night, so whenever there's a new Aston Martin

I get to review it. I just reviewed the DVX seven h seven awesome car. I was very surprised. It's an awesome carum the vantage I got to, you know which, every time I want to buy a car, I price, I build and price a vantage online and it's just it's never gonna happen. It's disgusting. I mean, like, you know, somebody was saying that one hundred thousand dollars is the new forty thousand dollars. Yeah, man, I mean it's I forget, like it's upwards. If you really want to spec one

out correctly, it's almost two hundred grand. It's I can't justify that even even if I had. I'm a character actor, you know, I'm I'm a working man for hire. I can't do that at a very high level. But no, I understand what you're saying. It's like, I think those are just cars for traders and for them, like two hundred grands like buying a sweater or something. Yeah, and then they just keep it in their garage and they're you know, they put a humidifier in there and whatever

they do. I don't know what they do. There's a cruelty to that, you know, the people who want these things, the most can't get near them. But it's you know, not Gear a lot like me. You know, my whole job allows me access to these things, and I'm sure top Gear is the same for you. How did you come to be on the show? Right? Um? Like, it's true.

I mean, it's true. I I since I got to LA in two thousand six, five or six, I have been basically monopolizing my press time by saying that I loved cars because I was really started to get back in the cars and I was able. I you know, you have to buy cars when you're in LA whereas you didn't in new Ark, and so I was able to sort of exercise that. You know, there's I was never able to lease cars before. And boys have a car for three years and then you can have another

great car. It was just awesome and and so you know, I basically just planted it in the press, and it was really just so I could get press cars, which didn't really work. And then all of a sudden, you know, fifteen years later, top Gear called. They were like, we're going to have three posts. Of course Deck Shepherd is already on, we want you to be the second one. And I was like, I didn't even let them finish their sentence. I was like, you can go through your spiel.

But the answer is yes, it's the best gig in the world, right, it really is. I mean it was terrifying, you know, because I sort of on the show represent the sort of the everyman, the enthusiast. I'm the Pinto guy, right, Yeah, Jethro and Dak Shepherd have a lifetime of car experience, and I just you know, like looking at them and driving them and kissing them and licking them, you know, like I love them as a museum goer loves art and you know, I and so I am that. I'm

I represent that. So on top Gear, I have become the guy they put in very awkward, scary situations. And now they're like, Okay, we're gonna fill up your car with packing peanuts and you're gonna have to drive on this track and I have like basically a little tiny window and all these peanuts just sort of really susceptible to gravity, and it was just and I hate peanuts to begin with. Those packing peanuts are like a phobia

of mine. Basically they didn't even know that at the time, but they were thrilled there's this thing about like that show where the cars really are a prison, you know, for the relationship between the three hosts, and you know what, do you what was a kind of memorable thing for you in those seasons where the car was really sort of for lack of a better term, that that kind of vehicle for the adventure for for what, like a car that really said something about what you were trying

to accomplish. Well, I think it was probably my first real,

real victory. I mean I decided that if I was going to have any success on this show, and I mean success in terms of winning races and that sort of thing and challenges, it was going to be because I chose the best car for the job, yeah, you know, and I would actually just do research and I would spend days trying to figure out what the right car is, whereas those guys were like, I'm just gonna get a car that I want to drive, interested they invariably just

choose their own car. So it was it was like an off roading race to get to the top of this hill. It was made out of like lava rock, basically this big, pretty big hill and we were an Arizona somewhere and it was gorgeous and I'm sort of an outdoor guy. This is my sweet spot, and so I chose this fore Runner, one of the older four Runners, you know, with all the chrome. I forget what year it was, but it was the perfect perfect car for this.

And Dax had one of those aftermarket four wheel drive kits in a in a Ford van, the Accounto line van. That yeah, there were this famous aftermarket thing. And when he presented it, I just smiled. I was like, it's gonna break, it's gonna break. It's raking right now as they're talking. You should get in there and drive it. And what did Jethro chose this amazing? I think it was like a also four wheel drive, after market big tires.

It was like a Subaru. It was like a WRX or something, but it was totally tricked out for off road. And he did fine. You know, he had the speed

for sure, but I had all the power. And my first victory was not only getting to the top of the hill first, but then going back down three quarters of the way down the hill and towing decks all the way up because he had put a water bed in the back of his so I also had this big knife on my side, this big bowie knife, and I got to take it out and like slash his water bed, just compounding humiliation. Yeah, it was I was the best and he was just bummed out the whole time.

It's kind of hilarious that, like, you know, the actor comedian is the most pragmatic when it comes to the cartoy for the challenges. Well, I mean, you know, I guess I guess that's that's an interesting comparison because I mean the way I, you know, approach comedy, it's it's to me. They're like people say, oh, would you ever do a drama, And I'm like, well, yeah, sure, it's

the same thing to me. I approach it this. I you know, put together a character the same way I did for you know, when I was doing Shakespeare years and years and years ago. M I you know, you I build the can want there to be a light behind my eyes, and so yeah, I am very pragmatic when it comes to making choices and acting and on

top gear you know, in cars, super intentional about it. Yeah, I made one really bad choice and it's kind of like because I was just in a bad mood, I think, and I just shout out my choice, and I ended up with I forget what the challenge was, but I ended up with a SOB nine hundred. That card just I ended up. I gave up. At one point, I was like, nah, I'm out here, you guys go. I've got a whole theory about sobs and guys who own sobs. They want to be car guys so badly, but they

just don't know what's good. Well, this was also like I just didn't know what to choose for this particular challenge. I don't even remember what the challenge was. And one of the one of the producers, Dave, was he would like suggest some cars, and I just took his first choice because he loved sobs. He's the kind of guy that loves crappy cars just to like love, you know,

just to be that guy. I don't want to offend you if you own a Tesla, but I feel like, come on, man, we've been talking for forty two minutes, so I think I'd own a Tesla. I knew better than to Oh my god, my wife won't even get a Tesla. I love it. Yeah, but what do you have now? You have the nine eleven? I got rid of the nine to eleven because I was ordered the Bronco. I ordered the new Bronco, and I've been waiting for it for two years. So I finally just lost interest

in it and I canceled it. You know, it still wasn't in production. And um, you know, because I ordered the Wild was a wild track and of course the hardtop multiple roof, which is impossible apparently like you're seeing Bronchos out there, but they're all soft tops. And so finally I just canceled that. And now I've got no car. I've got I've got cars. But you know, my my UM nineteen seventy eight two eighty Z is not a daily driver, you know, my sprinters not a daily driver.

And I'm waiting basically from my guy to uh send me a bunch of m I finally say, I've never had I've never had a an M, a BMWM, I've never had an AMG, and i've never had a V a Cadillac v okay, but I've driven all of the I've driven like a bunch of cts is and a bunch of ATSs and stuff. And to find that, I decided, you know what, now's the time I'm going to get the new black Wing black Wing. I mean, first of all, how cool is the name black Wing black Wing Man

No Sinister? Yeah, and then it's just phenomenal. I mean it's one of those can't wait. It's one of those like new digital cars that feels analog. It feels it's so good. It's so like nuanced and like it's got titanium rods and the shifter and they just went all out on anything. Yeah. Yeah, that magnetic damping and all that. It's like, I'm if he has trouble finding one that gets even close to my spack, I'm gonna be heartbroken. I think you need that. I think I need that too, Rob.

This was amazing. Thank you so much for man. It was just so good to talk to you. Oh it's so great. Yea, I love talking cars. Car Show is written and hosted by me Eddie Alterman. It's produced by Sam Dingman, Jacob Smith, and Amy Gaines. Our editor is Jen Guera. Original music and mastering by Bentaladay. Our executive producer is Mia Lobell. Our show art was designed by Sean Karney and airbrushed by Greg la Fever. Our patron saints are Leetal Malad and Justine Lang, and be sure

to check out Lake Bell's forthcoming audiobook with Pushkin. It's called Inside Voice, My Obsession with How We Sound, and it comes out this November car show is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin Industries, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and uninterrupted listening for just four ninety nine a month. Look for

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