Part of the Hagerty Podcast Network, the Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled conversation with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott, two car enthusiasts who are curmudgeonly beyond their years. Proving you don’t have to be old to be grumpy, they spend each episode talking about what’s wrong with various parts of the automotive universe. Despite their best efforts to keep it negative, they usually wind up laughing, happy, and extolling their love for cars. Which just makes them angrier and more bitter.
Jason Cammisa is an automotive journalist, social-media figure, and TV host with over 300 million views on YouTube alone. Jason’s deeply technical understanding, made possible by a lifelong obsession with cars, allows him to fully digest what’s going on within an automobile — and then put it into simple terms for others to understand. Also, a Master’s Degree in Law trained him to be impossible to argue with.
Derek Tam-Scott still tries. He’s a young automotive expert with old-man taste in cars, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering — which means he knows how to be civil to Jason. Or at least he tries. With a decade and a half’s experience buying, selling, driving and brokering classic and exotic cars, he’s experienced the world’s most iconic cars. And hated most of them.
In this episode, Burnout Specialist Jason begins today’s episode with a guided presentation on vehicles that do the easiest burnouts- a discussion that starts and ends with V6 front-wheel-drive. It turns out that in his findings, Jason has also determined a way to pull off a smokey burnout *even* in a vehicle with an electronic parking brake- an answer that we don’t recommend trying at home, or in a press car… The term of the day is automotive archeology- in other words, the art of uncovering th...
Jul 18, 2022•53 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast
This week, Jason drives Derek’s Lamborghini Miura- which, as it turns out, is a vehicle that most commonly enjoys flirting with its own death by fire, inclement weather, or just modern day traffic. Jason and Derek discuss the car’s other difficulties, including but not the mystery of non-standardized interior button labels, glowworms for headlights, and windshield wipers which prefer to eject versus function. Conclusion- if anything happens to your Miura, make sure the whole thing burns to the g...
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast
Every once in a while, a great new car comes along that, despite its overall excellence, still reveals its incapabilities in becoming a sales success. In this episode of The Carmudgeon Show, Jason remarks on his recent experience with the new Acura Integra, a car which looks better in person despite its snot-inspired launch colors. While Derek initially judges the car based on Legend and not Vigor, he ultimately concludes that maybe there’s more than meets the eye when stacked up against the cro...
Jun 27, 2022•49 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast
In this episode of The Carmudgeon Show, amateur interior designer Jason Cammisa and living encyclopedia Derek “Hyphen” Tam-Scott go back to the basics and recall their respective foundations in their respective automotive ecosystems. Derek embarks on a trip into his past of Alfa Romeo brake jobs, buying and selling old cars, and building a prolific knowledge of cars and planes through books received since his childhood. In fact, Derek's encyclopedia became certified by age 8 when elaborating on ...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast
In this episode of the Carmudgeon Show, 95-year-old Derek Tam-Scott and ex-Yinzer Jason Cammisa discuss their enjoyment of the Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing. They cautiously approach the startling conclusion that the Blacking is the world's best current sports sedan — but not without a seaworthy exploration of Cadillac’s post-landyacht identity crisis. While unpacking the good, the bad, and the Malaise, Derek realizes that maybe there’s more to our perception of a 120-year-old brand than meets the ey...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast
In this episode of the Carmudgeon show, part-time ambulance chaser Jason Cammisa befriends some forbidden freeway fruit in form of the Volkswagen XL1 — a car that hardly exists at all, let alone on a California freeway at 11 PM. Jason recounts his seat time in the mirrorless, peak-Piëch Bugatti Veyron of MPG and how its small-footprint journey across the US makes for a large-footprint cause — more on that below. Side effects may include a string of broken-necked Bolt drivers and/or a stay in you...
Jun 06, 2022•55 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast
In this episode of the Carmudgeon Show, Derek Tam-Scott helps Jason Cammisa make a not entirely welcome discovery about the past of his recently-acquired Honda Beat, which somehow transitions seamlessly to a discussion about homologation cars and how they are both strange and cool. Included among these are Derek’s recently-acquired Mercedes-Benz W201 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth. The main focus, however, is the homologation cars Derek drove on his recent trip to Europe, including the Lancia Fulvia HF Fa...
May 30, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast
There’s a new Z in town and Jason has driven it! In this episode of the Carmudgeon Show, award-winning automotive journalist Jason Cammisa and award-deserving automotive encyclopedia Derek Tam-Scott discuss the 2023 Nissan Z. And the Jaguar E-Type. And Bridgestone S007 tires. And Aston Martin Vantages — V8 Vantages with blown engines. And Gordon Murray T.50s. Derek takes a turn for the nerdy by pointing out that British tax-horsepower regulations encouraged the tractor-like long-stroke engines t...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast
If Eight is Enough, Ten is too many: Jason just bought his tenth car, and it’s a problem. It’s also slow. Japanese Kei cars are limited to 660 cc and 64 horsepower — but the Honda Beat is an 8500-rpm 3-cylinder with ITBs and sounds like a Porsche 911’s flat-six. Just without any chance of a speeding ticket. Jason also just drove an Autozam AZ-1, which has Gullwing doors and is surprisingly fast — so the boys wonder if a Suzuki Cappuccino is just as good? This leads a discussion of slow cars, whi...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast
In this episode, Jason Cammisa and Derek ("Hyphen") Tam-Scott discuss having to choose between the Miata NC and ND, specially NC3 and ND2, after driving them back to back on a rally. Of course, the meandering conversation starts with BMW E90 and E90 LCIs, the term Life-Cycle Impulse, and the hideousness of E60 and the E65 BMWs. NB, Hyphen says, is not the right answer. But NC2 and NC3 might be. ND Miata proved the entire industry wrong — it's possible to drop weight and gain performance. But it ...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast
In this celebratory 50th episode of The Carmudgeon Show, Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott regale us with tales of their 624-mile weekend old-car road rally. Derek brought his 964-chassis Porsche 911, Jason brought "Beatrice," his beater E30-chassis BMW 325i. Two friends bought Miatas: an NC3 and an ND2. More on the Mazdas in a future episode, we promise. Derek picked a route of the twistiest back roads Northern California can offer and the boys grabbed a couple hotels. Several things occurred t...
May 02, 2022•1 hr•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast
Historically, sedans were viewed as non-collectibles. But history was wrong — these days, sedans are doing just fine. In this episode, Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott ("Hyphen") discuss the collectible and awesome sedan — everything from the Mercedes 6.9 and 6.3 to the W124 500E, and the AMG Hammer and Hammer Wagon 500E 6.0. To say nothing of the W201 190E 2.3-16 with its triumphant debut at the grand opening of the Nürburgring GP circuit in a one-marque race won by none other than Ayrton Senn...
Apr 25, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast
What is Luxury? The boys are back, proving once again that you don’t have to be old to be bitter. On their inaugural episode for the Hagerty Podcast Network, automotive journalist Jason Cammisa and Walking Encyclopedia of Automotive Knowledge Derek Tam-Scott discuss different types of luxury cars. Their unexpected conclusion: the best luxury car might be a cheap beat-up car. After all, there is no luxury greater than not having to worry. Or at least, that’s the theory. Along the way, the Carmudg...
Apr 18, 2022•57 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast