To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History

Monster Truck Driving: Nicole Johnson on Engineering and Off-Road Success 🛞💥

• To All The Cars I've Loved Before • Season 2 • Episode 10

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Monster truck racing and engineering with Nicole Johnson. Success in Monster Jam and off-road rock crawling...

What happens when your daily driver has 66-inch tires and your job description includes "destroying cars"? For Nicole Johnson, that's just another day at the office. 🚜💥

In this episode, we sit down with the history-making Monster Jam driver who famously piloted the Scooby-Doo truck to global fame. Nicole shares her incredible journey from navigating treacherous terrain as a national champion rock crawler to becoming the first woman to land a backflip in a Monster Jam truck.

We dive deep into her automotive roots, including learning to drive a go-kart at age five and her time behind the wheel of her husband's 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser (affectionately dubbed the "Japanese Thunder Chicken").

In this episode, you’ll hear:

  • 🚙 The Rock Crawling Roots: How driving a friend's rig in a 2004 competition launched a family obsession that led to two National Rock Crawling Championships.
  • 🐶 The Scooby-Doo Era: What it's really like to pilot a 10,000-pound fan-favorite truck and the pressure of being a role model for young girls in a male-dominated sport.
  • 🔄 The Backflip: The terrifying and triumphant story of landing the first-ever backflip by a female driver at the Monster Jam World Finals.
  • 🚜 From "Taz" to "Grinder": Nicole's rapid rise through the ranks, driving the Tasmanian Devil and filling in for the Advance Auto Parts Grinder truck.
  • 🔧 Garage Life: Growing up with a diesel mechanic dad and how her husband Frank went from being her spotter on the rocks to her biggest supporter in the stadium.

You'll love Nicole's favorite episode with John DeLorean's daughter, Kat DeLorean, who shares heartwarming stories about her famous father: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2316026/episodes/15009054

Whether you're a fan of high-horsepower destruction, curious about the mechanics of rock crawling, or just love a good story about smashing glass ceilings (and cars), this episode is a must-listen.

🔗 Links & Resources:

📢 Join the Conversation: Have you ever been to a Monster Jam event? Which truck is your favorite? Let us know on Instagram @toallthecarsivelovedbefore

Connect with Us: Got a great car story? Email us at stories@carsloved.com. Find all our content and social links here: linktr.ee/carsloved.

Podcast News:


Remember, every car tells a story. What’s yours? 


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Nicole Johnson

Speaker 1

Welcome back Planet Earth 2 , to All the Cars I've Loved Before , your podcast , where every car tells a story . Your past , your future , your parents , the people you grew up with . You know you weren't riding around in wagons or sleighs , it was cars , right . So life lessons through cars , and we've . It's been a while since we've recorded .

Speaker 1

This is Christian , with my esteemed partner Doug , how you doing over there , doing great Good to be back with you , indeed , indeed . So yeah , I had a big month of June we're not really going to get into it much because we have such a fascinating guest this week but took several trips to the Mid-Atlantic for work and then went to Ireland for a week for pleasure . They drive on the left-hand side of the road , which is , if you've never done it before , you got to be careful . The roads in Ireland are very skinny . They're scribed by rock walls on either side . Sometimes you go down the side road . It's only one car at a time . We almost died twice . But here to tell the tale . Let's get on to today's interview . You've heard of the expression Renaissance man . Well , I'm going to coin a new one Renaissance woman , because our guest has really been around the world , done it all , done so many different things . Nicole Johnson , a dyed in the wool . How are you doing today ?

Speaker 2

Nicole , I'm well . Thank you so much for having me on . I really appreciate it .

Speaker 1

Thank you so much for being part of our world . And just a couple of highlights . I really don't know where to start or where to stop , but in walking through the resume a little bit , your website is NicoleJohnsonDetourcom .

Speaker 2

Nicolejohnsondetourcom with an S , nicolejohnsondetourcom because it's like plural , you know , but you can't put a little apostrophe , it's NicoleJohnsonsDetourcom . You're going on my detour vicariously with me .

Speaker 3

And you can find her on YouTube .

Speaker 1

Yeah , so Nicole started with driving monster trucks and being very successful in that realm . I'm going to say what ? From the early aughts to 2016, . Do I have that date range ?

Speaker 2

Well , that's not where I started . That's how I got what I got into monster trucks . Because of where I started , Because you don't just show up , you don't just walk in and say , hey , I want to be a monster truck driver . You know the number one question I was constantly asked how do I become ?

Speaker 2

a monster truck driver , or what's it like being a woman , you know , driving a monster truck ? And I'd be like , oh , probably the same as being a guy driving a monster truck . I mean , I don't know , you just push the gas , steer it . But anyhow , the number one question I was constantly asked was how do I become a monster truck driver ? So I'm going to ask you what do you think ?

Speaker 1

the answer to that is Well , like any other overnight success , years and years of prep , you become a rock crawl .

Speaker 3

Yeah , be it first . And maybe you started off with a Jeep , something like that . That's right , love Jeeps .

Speaker 2

So you do have to start in another discipline or you can just pony up , go build yourself a quarter million dollar monster truck and show up , but that's not usually how people get started . If you want to so like I was a fly-in driver Bell Motorsports , monster Jam owned the truck and all of the rights to it I would just show up , which isn't a bad gig at all , because I didn't have to wrench , I didn't have to find sponsorship , it was pretty easy . But you have to start with something else or they're not going to even let you test drive . So I was fortunate that I was in the right place at the right time when I got that opportunity to go test drive . And yeah , so rock crawling , you know , driving on big , gnarly rocks , and and I have rolled and crashed and done all kinds of crazy things , which was a really good , as it turns out , a really good resume for getting into monster tracks . If you can roll and crash and still live through it , you're great .

Speaker 1

And what sort of cars would you ? Okay , jeeps , what would be an obvious but any other car on the rock crawling activity circuit ?

Speaker 2

It was all custom tube chassis .

Speaker 2

Well , I shouldn't say all of it was custom tube chassis , because I started in a vehicle that was a 91 YJ and it still had its Jeep frame rails on it and then everything else was . That was pretty much the only thing that was still stock on that vehicle and then it was just a buggy . We would just call them a rock buggy . And when you live out in the Western United States we've got really dry terrain , lots of rocks crawling . We're going slow .

Speaker 2

You think of Moab or if you've heard of King of the Hammers , that came along later , but anyway , it's more rocks and rock crawling as a competition is very precise and it's about precision . It's not about speed . And if you're now four-wheeling in like the east somewhere , it's rainier and wetter and muddier in trees and it's faster like big axles , lots of horsepower because you got to fling yourself up these mountains and rocks and it's not as there's less precision involved . So there's kind of two different sports under the same category as rock crawling really . But yeah , so I started out doing rock crawling competition with my husband and he was my spotter and I drove on some of the hardest rocks that there are and learned to , I guess , get over your fear of driving off a cliff and stuff , or driving up something new , you know .

Speaker 1

And so that that you thank you for explaining that , because because we had questions about that in looking over your past and so , yeah , so that led to the very successful and groundbreaking career in Monster Trucks , which , if you are listening to this podcast and have never been to one , the one word I can use to describe it is operatic . The sights , the sounds , the brightness , the loudness of the trucks they kick up onto the crowd . I think in the ones that I went to , the first 10 or 20 rows are even roped off . You can't go there for the insane amount of dirt that gets kicked up . It's loud , you smell the exhaust , you smell the fuel , you feel the rumble in your bones . It's really something else . And if you're listening to this in the United States and I've never been one , check it out If you're somewhere in the world and you're saying , what are these crazy Americans doing , bringing these huge trucks over here , you've got to give it a try . It is not to be believed . Anything to add to that either , nicole . Yeah .

Speaker 2

You know , I described it as being in a cartoon . So like people would be like , well , what's it like being in that truck ? I'm like , well , it's like you're in a cartoon because for me , I was driving a dog , I was driving Scooby-Doo . I had , you know , there was a big collar with a dog tag , the Scooby-Doo dog tag . Yeah , yeah , a tail that was on a ring , and so you're just flying through the air with wild colors and , like you said , really loud noises , and you need to wear hearing protection if you're in the audience , because they're 1,500 horsepower . It's a lot , it's really loud . You know , and that's all part of the show , though . Even the way the suspension is set up as part of the show . How much do you know about sprung versus unsprung weight ?

Speaker 1

Do you know what sprung weight is Not as much as you ? Please share , please continue .

Speaker 2

Okay . So when you have , let's say , we've got this 10,000 pound truck and you've seen trophy trucks and they go through the whoops really , really smooth , you can see their axles are articulating really , really fast , at a rapid pace , but the truck stays very level , real smooth , like a Cadillac . So what's happening is , above the suspension is all the weight , that is called sprung weight , below the suspension , very light wheels and tires right Lightweight wheels and tires and axles and allows it to really articulate quickly , smoothly and keep the truck super , super level . Exactly opposite in a monster truck , because , well , it's a lot more entertaining .

Speaker 2

So we have in a 10,000-pound truck . We have 7,500 pounds of unsprung weight . 75% of that truck is the weight comes from the axles , the wheels . The weight comes from the axles , the wheels , the tires . Each tire and wheel is 700 pounds . So what happens is this dramatic bobble effect . It boings all . That's a technical word boing . It boings all over the place and it is super entertaining , but it's also rashes your body because you're inside of that thing boinging all over the place I see . So it's super dramatic being in Especially when you do a backflip .

Speaker 1

Yeah , yeah , right , and I can testify the couple of shows I went to . The trucks will break , they will break , they push these trucks to the limit .

Speaker 2

Yeah , for sure you can't see it over there . The listener can only hear us , but I'm going to show you guys . You see in the background over here , this shiny big giant trophy right here that is called the Crash . That is a 2013 Crash Madness of the Year Award , because I wanted up a truck real bad and they give you a big booby prize , that big old trophy right there , did you say Trash Madness ?

Speaker 2

Madness , I had the most spectacular crash of the entire year , but it totaled the trunk . I never found out how much money it cost to put it together , but it was a miracle , miracle and all the resources to get it back together so I could be competing the next week .

Speaker 1

I love it . Thank you for sharing that . It is a real deal right . It is on the bookshelf with what looks like many more awards .

Speaker 2

I have others in my closet . Those are just too big for the box .

Speaker 1

But yeah . So Nicole has now moved on to a new phase in her professional life , and it is a show on YouTube called I'm going to get this wrong , nicole Johnson's Detour . You got it right . Nicolejohnsonsdetourcom . It's a really fun website . Check it out and the show on YouTube is so entertaining . Block off an hour or two because you will binge it

Car Enthusiasts Discuss Favorite Episodes

Speaker 1

and you've got . I think there are three full seasons , something like over 30 episodes 35 episodes .

Speaker 2

Yeah , 35 episodes , and they're , you know , 20 , 25 , 30 . We got one that's 39 minutes long .

Speaker 1

Yeah , they're the perfect length . They're all around 20 , 25 minutes and I don't know how you find these people or these automobiles , but I was checking out the episode today One gentleman had a Renault and I saw a bunch of those in ireland but a bunch of those in europe never see them over here , but the renault r5 , the rally car that you tore up on a dirt track , as well as the gentleman who had hand crafted .

Speaker 1

I believe it's the day yeah , yeah yeah , yeah and then he takes you in the garage and you're taking the aluminum between an English wheel and you're working the curves . It was just so . There's nothing quite like this show , and if you're listening to this as soon as you're done , you really do have to check it out and you watch it with your kids because it's so interesting and so kinetic and colorful , much like the guest herself . So , Doug , which episodes have you seen ?

Speaker 3

Let's see . So I'll save my favorite for last . I've seen probably too many to remember , but Daedalus I watched this morning , that's a good one . The Pantera really great episode .

Speaker 1

The Mercedes Gullwing , that's next on my list , that's next .

Speaker 2

The Bandito yeah .

Speaker 1

Very , very cool . The . That's next on my list . That's next the bandito . Yeah , very , very 356 . Yeah , yep , 356 , yep . Let me squeeze in here real quick . Daedalus reminded me I had a Pontiac Solstice . If you know what that is , it's a little green , it was a Pontiac sports car and it looked just obviously . Yeah , yeah , exactly exactly . It was all around for a few years until GM went into receivership belly up and Pontiac and Saturn were discontinued . Sorry , partner , go ahead .

Speaker 3

No , no , no , it's okay . So the Magnus Walker episode was my favorite . I like Porsches . I owned a 996 briefly . 996 briefly and actually when the prices were low , and my buddies who are Porsche guys , they're like , yeah , you know . Magnus Walker gets on and says you know , 996ed , he's so passionate about it .

Speaker 2

Once I drove his , his number 277 was the very first air-cooled 911 or any 911 I'd ever driven on a street and my first one was on the dirt . But anyway , I really got bit by that bug and only got my 911 in probably December I think .

Speaker 3

Okay , he was the influence . Yeah , there's something so great about having the engine behind you , whether it's mid-engine or rear engine and even you know my plug to my DeLorean not the same but the engine's behind me and I just like hearing it . It's not air-cooled , but yeah , air-cooled is so so interesting . See , it's just uh iconic , if you will . Yeah , it's visceral too .

Speaker 2

I mean just has this . It's it . And my car is not a fast car . It only has I don't know 180 horsepower . It's not high powered car . It loves to be between four and 5500 rpm . It loves that range because it's real torquey in there . But it's a very different experience , like the steering wheel is slightly offset and you know you're just like it's strange ergonomics and it's just little and you feel like you're going to get run over by people and it's great .

Speaker 3

Yeah , it's a . It's neat . What year is it for the fans ? 78? .

Speaker 2

Oh , I have a 78 . Yeah , so my SC is a 78 . Yep In petrol , blue , metallic , nice , and it's a coupe . And I'm actually going to be at work's reunion at Monterey Car Week next in August , so I will , and I have a little roof rack on it , which is really cool . I got Renlein gave me a little roof rack so I can put all my shoes , my pillows and go travel .

Speaker 3

So I also really liked the episode I didn't finish it , admittedly about the bug eye sprite and I really like the theme . And this is a family show we had Christian's sister on we talk about . You know , and that gentleman I forget his name , his name's Dave , dave grew up with that car . He said how long people ask how long did it take your dad to get this car together ? He's like , oh , about 50 years .

Speaker 2

Yeah , I mean , the first date with his mom was to go pick up that body of that car and they , you know , he and his brother both grew up with it . It has a 478 Hemi in it , which that doesn't go together in the sentence of bug-eye sprite 478 H heavy . And his dad was an engineer and his dad is still alive . I actually know Dave Marion very , very well . It's funny . I get to become friends with everybody after we film everything . We stay in contact . But his dad is still alive and he was a really brilliant engineer and completely rebuilt all of that car . It was an incredible car and we did a little burnout in it . It was just so funny . I was like , does your dad know we're going to do a burnout ? He's like he'll watch the video , like let's go do a burnout . And it pulled straight . You know tiny little wheelbase and it just pulled straight . It didn't go squirrely on us . It was great , handled wonderful , cool car .

Speaker 3

That was a really neat car , and so that was probably his first car that he fell in love with , and so that brings us to what was your first car .

Speaker 2

Ah , so my stepdad was a thrifty car rental franchisee . When I was in high school we had we lived in California and so all of us kids kind of eventually worked at the car rental business . So all of us kids kind of eventually worked at the car rental business and when the cars were about two years old then they would just be sold . So my very first car was a 1988 Dodge Colt sedan , four doors with vinyl interior . That was like kind of like hard plastic and it was a horrible little car .

Speaker 1

Like sitting on a football helmet .

Speaker 2

Yeah , yeah it was just like it had bare bones . It was nothing fancy , totally stripped down . But my birthday is in January and so , if you back it up , christmas comes three weeks before my birthday . And so they surprised me because they figured that I kind of figured that I was going to get a car for my 16th birthday , right ? And so , to surprise me , they gave it to me for Christmas and of course I didn't know my license yet , but when they weren't looking I would sneak it out , and when they weren't home I would drive to my friend's house and stuff . I didn't have my license yet , I would sneak the car and I eventually totaled that car .

Speaker 2

I got in a wreck . My high school was in the middle of strawberry fields in California and we were the strawberry capital . Oxnard , california , in Ventura County , has amazing soil and we grow the best strawberries , right yeah , my high school . To get to it you had to go down this really long straight farm road and then there was this four-way stop and then the road kept going until it got you to the freeway and then I had to take the freeway to get home , right ? Well , I had a car full of kids and normally my best friend who was sitting in the passenger seat trolling the radio . Well , for whatever reason that day , everybody mixed it up . She hops in the passenger seat trolling the radio . Well , for whatever reason that day , everybody mixed it up . She hops in the back seat . Somebody else is in the front . I got three other kids in the car with me and so there's five of us . We're coming home from school and somebody wants to change the radio station . Well , I'm driving , so that was her job , which meant I had to go do it . I had to reach over and change the radio station . And then I look up and this road is a , you know , a 50 , 60 mile an hour one way farm road , like just long and straight . I look up and there is an F 250 truck in stopped right in front of me at that four way intersection , that four way stop , and I just slammed right into the back of him and we totaled the car . Nobody was severely injured . I found out later like oh yeah , everybody had whiplash and all their parents sued the insurance and they probably got a few bucks . And I never knew any of that until I was an adult . My parents tried to probably keep that from me so that I wouldn't feel different about my friends , but it was . You know it sucked . I totaled my car . It was a foot shorter . It was literally a foot shorter . Nothing wrong with the pickup truck , absolutely nothing wrong with it , not a scratch on his bumper .

Speaker 1

That's the way yeah .

Speaker 2

Yeah , so okay , my next car was an 89 Dodge Colt , so I had an 88 Dodge Colt and then I got an 89 Dodge Colt .

Speaker 1

We've never had that before . But that is very symmetrical of you .

Speaker 2

Luckily I actually liked the 89 because it was a hatchback and if you remember , the Honda Civic hatchbacks of that same era were kind of cool cars . I was hoping if you blurred your eyes you thought my little red hatchback Dodge Colt was actually a Honda Civic because it kind of had that vibe and so it was a little like . I thought it was a little cooler . And then I blew up the motor . I didn't put any oil in it , so I learned the hard way what happens if you let it go bone dry . So there were these call boxes on the freeway because this is before cell phones For an emergency , every mile there was a call box . And I was on the freeway and this is my second Dutch call and all of a sudden it goes and I'm a pull over and I don't even know what's going on . Right , it's blowing up . I walk over to the call box and I called my dad and I said I don't know what's going on . Right , it's blowing up . I walk over to the call box and I called my dad and I said I don't know what's going on . This is the noise it's making and he goes . You walk over there right now . You pop the hood , pull the dipstick and I want you to tell me what the reading is . Okay . So I walked back to my car . He waits , he waits . I walked back to my car , I waits , he waits . I walked back to my car . I come back and I say it's dry .

Speaker 2

He was really mad at me , real mad because now I just killed my second car and he wasn't going to let me get off that easy . He told me when I crashed my car listen , I had full coverage on that car because I knew you were 16 and I knew you were going to be dumb and odds were you were going to wreck that car . So on this next car , I don't even think he carried full coverage . The next time around he was just like look , you got your one accident out of the way . Well , then I blew up the motor and he goes okay , you're going to pay for that motor , you're going to work it off .

Speaker 2

So I had to work . I mean work it off . My dad , you know , fronted getting a new motor put in it , but I had to work it off at the car rental business , washing cars and driving customers back and picking them up and working the counter and everything else . So yeah , even though I knew the trick was , if I just pulled into a gas station I could bat my eyelashes and the guy would check the oil , I didn't do it . I was so dumb I didn't do it . I should have batted my eyelashes and I should have just let some guy check my oil . And I didn't . I blew up my car .

Speaker 1

And so the third car was a 1990 Dodge .

Speaker 2

Colt Actually , no more Dodge Colts for you . No , I drove it all through the rest of high school , all through college , and when I was in college I commuted because my husband had a job . I got married at 19 . We were really young when we got married and I was like I'm still going to finish school . So we lived in Bountiful , utah , and I went to BYU in Provo , utah , and that was 110 miles round trip every day .

Speaker 2

So I drove fall , winter , spring and summer in all the bad weather in the winter and I took all summer classes so I could get through my degree in four years and I drove for three of my four-year degree from , you know , all the way from Bountiful and back every day . And so when I graduated from college I had 150,000 miles on that car . And then I got a job in Vegas and I kept driving that car and , of course , I think it was a couple of years later and I moved to Vegas and the AC went out and so I drove it for an entire summer with no AC . It was hot , it was very , it was very hot , it was hot I should put it out and I sold it for 750 bucks and bought a dining table with it , so I remember that's a whole life . It became a dining table and it had I don't know everything wrong with it by then , but I drove the snot out of it , so I don't know what I got after that .

Speaker 3

I didn't think I can appreciate the heat in Vegas and this is a quick story of Christian and I's youth . So Christian knew I liked cars . He liked cars so we rented a for his bachelor party . He got married in Vegas . I was there . So we rented a Ferrari 348 , spyder 94 . You know those fancy rentals , they get pretty beaten up . Air conditioning didn't work . Let's just say we had a few drinks the night before . We were a little starved for fluids . I could not wait to return that car .

Speaker 1

Well , I will tell you

Heat, Cars, and Family Memories

Speaker 1

. In August in Vegas , driving out to the Hoover Dam with the top down in the morning , delightful Cruising the strip , you know , in bumper-to-bumper traffic at noon when it's about 112 , 118 degrees .

Speaker 2

That's what it is right now here . That's how hot it is right now here .

Speaker 2

We're in the teens . Bless you . Right now , here we're in the teens . Last week I took my 9-11 and I drove across town and it was in about 11 in the morning . It was , I don't know , 105 or six degrees and it was about a half an hour drive . Each way that I went I needed to take it somewhere for somebody to look at the car , and I was dripping sweat by the time I got back , because I don't have any AC in it either . It's hard to drive that thing in the summer .

Speaker 1

Can imagine . Can imagine .

Speaker 3

Yeah no , yeah , and I think it's totally different how home ACs work out there . You have like a pad that gets soaked , something like that . Somebody told me about that . Out west your home AC systems are different .

Speaker 2

You know , if there's water involved it's probably a swamp cooler . But we are too warm for swamp coolers . They don't work well . We just have regular air conditioners , you know , with a condenser and all that yeah .

Speaker 3

Okay .

Speaker 2

Gotcha , and you would die with that one .

Speaker 3

You would really die .

Speaker 2

Yeah , we're having a heat wave . It's literally in the . It was 120 on Sunday . It was really hot , but it's a dry heat . They all say that , but it's a dry heat and I swear there is a difference . At least it's humid . Oh , yeah , yeah , from Florida . Like ew you guys have like bugs that fly and like big cockroaches that fly .

Speaker 1

Yeah , I was passing a cockroach on the street the other day and it looks up and it says can you believe this humidity ? It was pretty , it's pretty awful , you know , but that's all summer , that's for a couple of months . And then I went out to you know , I've been out west Vegas , Amarillo , Texas , where my aunt lives , and they say it's a dry heat . True , but it just presses down on you like nothing else . You know that extra . I don't know like I sweat like crazy . I'm originally from Louisiana . I sweat at the drop of a hat , so your body can kind of cool itself . So the moment the humidity kicks in , I just start sweating and sweating and cool yourself to some degree . But something about that heat , I don't know , it's another level . I guess it's a pick your poison kind of thing .

Speaker 2

But and , to be even weirder , what I choose to do to for workouts is infrared sauna workouts . So , like this morning , I was in 130 degree sauna .

Speaker 1

Oh , you like to sweat too , yeah .

Speaker 2

Yeah , doing , doing um a yoga workout . So yeah , yeah , I , I think I'm conditioned for heat , though . Yeah , I mean I would rather have a summer than winter . I don't like winter .

Speaker 3

Yeah , I hear you . Yeah , so you know , before the show we talked about your dad and the car , but for the show we were talking about , I talked about my dad and the DeLorean , which he wasn't around , but you mentioned a Model A .

Speaker 2

Yeah , so I had two dads because my parents divorced when I was four . My mom remarried when I was six . So my dad with the car rental business , who was also prior to the car rental business , was a manager of a Porsche Audi dealership . So that's where I yeah , that's how I met my mom , because she went in to go buy a 924 . And so I had a

Connection Through Cars and Memories

Speaker 2

Porsche dad . But then my biological dad lived in Hawaii , was born and raised in Hawaii , lived in Hawaii , was born and raised in Hawaii and he was a diesel mechanic , hot rodder into Panteras and he had a Model A . And when he died , so he , you know , in probably 2003 , when my kids were little , he sold everything in Hawaii and came to Vegas to be Papa , so he could be near his grandkids . And then he died in 2010 , cancer , and we held a little memorial for him at my house because we were going to end up burying him in Hawaii and I brought his Model A over .

Speaker 2

He had this green Model A . The license plate said ribbit like a frog . The interior was terrible . The interior was not done at all . So from 50 feet away it looked like a cute green . You know it was all done . Yeah , it just had a paint job on it . He had bought it off of a friend like that and he never had a chance to restore it . But in fact the interior would catch you on fire , like the passenger seat frame was literally sitting on the battery and arcing on the battery one day and we might like it caught fire while we were driving it one time .

Speaker 2

Anyway , so the story with this Model A is , when my dad died , I was like it would be a cool thing to bring his Model A over and just have it in the driveway , like like , just bring his car over , you know , and have it in the driveway . Well , it sat in our driveway for a couple of weeks after the most this little memorial that we had at my house , and I needed to move it because it was blocking access to my gate and I had to get my trailer out . Behind the gate , frank , my husband , was at work . I had never driven the Model A . I knew there was some weird procedures to starting it , but my dad had never actually taught me what to do , how to do it . He bought it , then got sick and died , and so there wasn't a lot of experience that we had together with this car and I was standing there in a pickle , I had to get this trailer out . There was something pressing that I had to do and I had no idea how to start this car . So I sit there and I just you know , I , I just said dad , uh , just tell me , tell me how to do this . I need to know right now how to start this car . And it was very clear in my head Um , okay , walk over to this engine compartment , you know , and had this side lifting like I don't even know , like , like it didn't , it wasn't like a hood right , it lifted from the side and he told me to lift that up . Okay , and then he told me to do this and do that , and , and , and there were like five or six things that I had never done or watched him do . And I fired up that car and I moved it .

Speaker 2

Now I don't care , you know this isn't supposed to be , you know getting into like religion or anything , but you know I , they , they are around us . They are around us and and I have felt very connected to my dad , even you know , he died in 2010 . And so , all these years , what's weird is , almost every single day at some point . You know every we have 24 hours in a day and so every single minute only comes around two times on the clock , right Twice in that day an am and a pm . 8.42, .

Speaker 2

My dad was born in August of 42 , and he was obsessed with that number 8.42 , 8.42 . Almost daily since my dad has died I will just casually glance and , oh my gosh , is it 8.42 ? Now I don't know if my body is just like sat on an alarm to look at the clock , but my dad is constantly saying hello . When I see 8.42 on a clock , it's literally where I have to look at it and I go , hey , dad , and I usually sit there and stare at it until it turns to 843 . And then I move on with my day and it's really weird . I feel like my dad is like won't leave me alone , man . He is just like like pestering me all the time to like hang out . He really likes cars too . He loves what I'm doing right now . So you know , I feel like they never really leave us and they're everywhere . You know people who , our family , who have passed on before us are really still here around us , if you allow them to maybe access you .

Speaker 3

Actually Christian's late mother , his sister inherited his late mother's car so they were having such a great conversation on the episode that just came out . Just I remember the car and it still has the burn marks and your niece , christian , was asking your sister to open the sunroof so she could see the sun and it's in granny's car or grandma's car that your niece is after . Is really such a touching , beautiful story and just , you know , siblings , family , everybody connects through cars and you know you , um , not to belabor things , but you , you told us so many great stories even before we started , but uh , I loved your story about doing the Jeep thing in France . Oh , if you could share a little bit of that for the listeners .

Speaker 2

Sure , in 2011 , I was invited to go to France . It was the 70th anniversary of the Jeep that year and there was this big event in Europe called and I'm going to butcher it because I'm not , I don't speak French right Chambon-sur-Giep , and it was held at Chambon-sur-Lac , which is the name of the lake . Chambon-sur-lac was the name of the lake , and they held this event and they called it Chambon-sur-Giep , and people from all over Europe would bring their Jeeps . They had a lot of , you know , like military style Jeeps , all kinds of Jeeps , newer ones and they asked me to be a guest at this event . And that was kind of the first time . Well , first of all , that was the first time that I had ever been to France , but I also it was also the first time that I realized that anybody in France even knew who I was . I got , well , what , you're inviting me to come over to some Jeep event .

Speaker 2

That's really super cool , and I had only ever known what I had kind of typically heard as an American , like oh , the Jeep , or the French don't like America . There was this . There's this stereotype , that and I don't even know if other people believe that or not , but I grew up thinking the French don't like Americans . You would sometimes hear jokes and whatever about the French looking down their nose at Americans . So I didn't know what to expect when I went over there and what I found was that , even though some of the culture was different , the Jeep was what united us . And people who were into Jeeps felt like , oh no , no , we see the Jeep as liberating us from the war . It freed us from Germany . So we're , we are grateful for the Jeep and we , we love Americans and but for the Americans we might not have . You know , this Jeep is what saved us . So they felt totally different . And then I realized that cars are uniting . We might have different cultures and grew up in different areas and different beliefs , but a car could bring us all together .

Speaker 2

And I got a chance to eat frog legs , which everybody says tastes like chicken , and they do just very , very , very small chickens . You're just eating really itty bitty little small chickens , do Just very , very , very small chickens . You're just eating like really itty bitty little small chickens and it does taste like chicken . But I ended up coming home from that trip and I wrote an article for an off-road magazine and the article was called it Tastes Like Chicken , because not only did the frog legs taste like chicken , the experience in France of being around other Jeepers felt like what I was used to and it was so cool to see that they celebrated the Jeep like we did .

Speaker 2

And the bigger difference was if you go to like some off-road event , you know in the States everybody's redneck drinking their beer and they're hooping and hollering , they're like , yeah , and they're just really rowdy , right , and they're just , they're heckling and they're doing all kinds of stuff . That's the biggest difference . You go to France and they go , oh , oh , better , better , good , better good . And they , you know , or my French , that's not very good for Czech , but they would clap very lightly and small and and they would have wine in a red solo cup oh wow , red solo cup wine , gentle , gentle , golf clap when you were on the rocks .

Speaker 2

That was the other thing that was different .

Speaker 3

Did they do the Jeep wave over there Like we have it here . We see another Jeep .

Speaker 2

That's a great question . I didn't really drive on the streets enough . Yeah , the only people I was with were a bunch of Jeeps , and so we were all in a big group together . I don't know , but the Jeep wave is definitely a thing , and I found out the Porsche wave is also a thing . I got a couple of people who were like giving me the little nod when I was driving around town . I thought , oh cool , they're acknowledging me .

Speaker 3

So , magnus , we thank Magnus for getting you into the 911 .

Speaker 2

Yeah , so Magnus Walker . If you don't know who Magnus Walker is , check out the episode on my show called Iconic 9-11 , because he is a man who I love , Magnus , but if you've never seen him , I'll just describe him as a six foot tall garden gnome , because he that's what he looks like . Very good .

Speaker 1

Wow .

Speaker 2

Yeah , he wears a big often has a hat . He has a very long kind of dready beard .

Speaker 2

Striking gentleman yeah , he's very , yes , and he has a very distinguished look about him and he has a killer Porsche collection .

Passionate Car Enthusiasts Share Stories

Speaker 2

You might , if you didn't know who he was , you might see him because he lives in downtown L or you know his garage is in downtown LA and he often walks his dog , you know , around the streets there and you would think maybe he's I mean , let's just call it a homeless man , you know , because he chooses to dress a certain way . But don't let that fool you . He is incredible and he has an incredible collection and he has a very artistic side about him and he was a fashion designer , which is how he kind of got his start . And he's from England . He's a really unique guy .

Speaker 2

So his Porsche it is a 1972 , it's a 72 911T and he calls it 277 because that's the number on it . Right , it's famous . There are Hot Wheels cars patterned after his little 911 . And he's got Nike shoes and he has . It's incredible how this guy has built an entire brand image around this car and so calling this episode iconic 9-11 was the only thing I can think of calling it . You know , his car is very iconic but he's so passionate does not ever talk about anything but Porsches . So you leave his presence going . I have to find a Porsche . Oh my gosh , I need one of these . He's the best salesman there is . He's a great dude .

Speaker 3

He makes the Porsche market move .

Speaker 2

Yeah , he really does . And if you go and bring a trailer and you see one that was an ex-Magnus Walker car , it usually goes for more than it should , you know because of his influence . So he's a neat dude , Very , very interesting guy .

Speaker 3

Yeah , and that's one of the cool things about your show is just meeting all these amazing people from different walks of life .

Speaker 2

Yeah .

Speaker 3

And the travels .

Speaker 2

Yeah , Today we talked to a young gentleman that will probably film something in the fall . He's got some things he's going to be doing to his car , so we've decided to hold off until he's got these other upgrades done . We've decided to hold off until he's got these other upgrades done . But we talked to a kid that just turned 26 years old and he's built himself a really neat car and he's had it since he was 17 .

Speaker 2

And this guy's story is really cool because there are yeah , there's a lot of old white dudes on the show , because that's just who happens to have the cars we're looking for . It's not like we're seeking out old , we're seeking out like old white dudes , but like , this kid is really interesting . He's of immigrant parents and he I swear he's like a , like a 40 year old for only being 26 . He's really cool . So I can't wait to like show his story . His story and his car are going to be pretty unique . So we love meeting people , hearing their story . That's a massive determination . It's not just the car . We have found great cars and didn't do an episode on someone because maybe the story wasn't there , you know , or the person wasn't all that interesting .

Speaker 3

So every car tells the story . Right , that's one of our taglines , actually .

Speaker 2

Yeah , well , potentially , unless they're just sitting there . I think cars that that people just speculate on and and don't use are sad , are sad little cars . We , you know , I . I saw something recently about like I don't know some pickup truck that was like from the 80s and only had three miles on it . Really , that poor truck never lived its life as a truck , you know .

Speaker 3

Yeah , exactly , should be driven For sure .

Speaker 1

Well , thank you so much for spending some time with us today , Nicole . Again , the next chapter in her professional life is NicoleJohnsonsDetourcom , which is a serial show on YouTube , and let's see deep into season three or season three in the books , would you say .

Speaker 2

No , no , no , We've got 35 episodes . So we're like , you know , we we roughly say 12 is a season , so we're we're sort of taking some summer break right now , but you know .

Speaker 1

Yeah , it's a trip . Check it out , watch it with your kids . It's a really fun time spent with family . Again , sharing is we often talk about your life lessons through cars and cars and the generations and how we are connected backward forward , up and down .

Speaker 2

So and in every episode I get to drive the car because that is my requirement . I I want to drive everything and I'm on this quest to find all the weirdest and craziest and neatest and unique things I can .

Speaker 3

If you haven't driven a DeLorean and you're on the East Coast , let me know .

Speaker 2

Yeah , I think that would be really cool . Actually , some people were comparing the Pantera to a DeLorean .

Speaker 3

Yes , not really .

Speaker 2

No , it's just so weird . You know that that particular car was a little , had a lot of different things done to it . It was very unique . But yeah , that's cool .

Speaker 3

Yeah , and I also have a couple friends with DeLoreans with LS V8s in them , so if I know you like a little more power , so that's .

Speaker 2

Well , what's in their stock ? What are they coming ?

Speaker 3

A , peugeot , renault , volvo , v6 .

Speaker 2

What I would never guess , that I had no idea .

Speaker 3

And with all the emissions controls , had 130 horsepower from the factory .

Speaker 1

Zero to 60 , eventually , I think .

Speaker 2

So 88 miles an hour was really ambitious . It is .

Speaker 3

I was driving it . It was off to the shop for nine months . My friend does work on it . You really need somebody specialized who knows what they're doing . And I was driving at home and I'm like man fortunately AC , by the way , I added electric power steering made such a difference in my life and it's variable assist , so it's really nice . Yeah , just driving home and I'm like going 75 . I've slowed down a lot , uh , just in general , no matter what car I'm in , and uh , probably cause I daily drive a Tesla and you know I can pass anybody if I need to , so I actually don't bother . Yeah , I was going 75 and I'm like , wow , 88, . Uh , 88 in a parking lot . Obviously , we know that didn't really happen , but 88 in a parking lot would be pushing it .

Speaker 2

Right , 50 in a parking lot , maybe , yeah , yeah , well , if you ever get pulled over , you can tell the man that you are honored , like like for speeding . Oh what if I'm so flattered ? I'm so flattered .

Speaker 1

I got a speeding ticket . Thank you , yes .

Speaker 2

Yes , thank you .

Speaker 3

My 85 , my 85 mile per hour speed limiter . Speed limit , speedometer , Speedometer . Thank you , Richard Nixon . There's a sticker you can get to go over if you want to . Oh , that's pretty funny . But yeah , we'll leave it at 85 for classic value .

Speaker 2

Well , thank you guys for having me . Thank you Anytime you want me back . I have 900 more stories , so I can do it for days .

Speaker 1

Nicolejohnsonsdetourcom . Check her out on YouTube and , for us , just hit us up . I'm Christian at carslovecom , he's Doug . At carslovecom . Carslovecom , you can find out about us , see photos , summaries of episodes , as well as links to the podcasting platforms where we exist in the ether , and feel free to join . It's easy to be on this show . We're just what your one email away from infamy is how I like to put it . And hey , we'll see you next week . Thanks for making time . Thank you , nicole . Take care .

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Doug

Co-host