OFFRE D'UNE DURÉE LIMITÉE. Obtenez 3 mois à 0,99 $/mois. Profiter de l'offre.
Page de couverture de The Weekly Driver Podcast

The Weekly Driver Podcast

The Weekly Driver Podcast

Auteur(s): James Raia and Bruce Aldrich
Écouter gratuitement

À propos de cet audio

 Hosted by James Raia and Bruce Aldrich, The Weekly Driver Podcast dives deep into the highways and byways of the automotive world. Each week, we put you in the driver’s seat, exploring unique, unusual, and often untold stories from across the industry’s spectrum.© Copyright 2023 The Weekly Driver Politique Sciences sociales
Épisodes
  • The 2025 Hemmings Motor Club Rally: Paso Robles Returns for an Encore Drive Through California’s Wine Country

    The 2025 Hemmings Motor Club Rally: Paso Robles Returns for an Encore Drive Through California’s Wine Country
    Oct 23 2025
    The Hemmings Motor Club Rally: Paso Robles returns for its second edition October 24-26, 2025, bringing enthusiasts from both ends of California together for three days of back road driving, poolside gatherings, and the kind of automotive camaraderie that makes the hobby worthwhile. The car collector car community has a fresh opportunity to celebrate what these machines were built for: driving. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for The Weekly Driver to grab one of its own collector cars and join in on the rally to Paso. The timing of the rally coincides with Paso Robles' most energetic season. Harvest typically runs from late September through November, with October designated as official Harvest Wine Month. October traditionally delivers exceptional weather in this region. Warm days cooling into comfortable evenings perfect for outdoor dining and fireside conversations. More than 100 events occur throughout the month, including specialty tours, winemaker dinners, grape stomps, and live music performances. The harvest atmosphere creates an electric environment throughout wine country. Many California wineries harvest between midnight and early morning because cooler nighttime temperatures help concentrate and preserve fresh fruit aromas and flavors while stabilizing sugar levels. This 24/7 activity gives the region a unique energy during October. Rally participants benefit from this timing. The region's 300-plus days of annual sunshine typically deliver daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s with comfortable evenings, ideal conditions for outdoor dining and sunset vineyard views. This event converges in Paso Robles during harvest season, when the wine country radiates with golden vineyards and the energy of winemakers working around the clock to bring in the year's crop. Rally participants have a choice: depart from either the San Francisco Bay Area or northern Los Angeles County. Both routes cover roughly 220 miles of California's most scenic backroads before arriving at Rally headquarters, the River Lodge Paso Robles. The Northern Route: Bay Area to Paso Robles Bay Area participants gather at Alice's Restaurant in Woodside at 8:30 AM on Friday, October 24. This starting point holds significant weight in California car culture. Built in the early 1900s as a general store for the logging industry, Alice's became a restaurant in the 1950s and was purchased by Alice Taylor in the 1960s. The location sits at the intersection of Skyline Boulevard (Route 35) and Route 84, surrounded by towering redwood trees. Alice's has earned its reputation as the Bay Area's ultimate car hang-out. The wooden building, which remains family-owned, serves as a world-famous stop for motorcyclists, sports car enthusiasts, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs alike. Kawasaki chose this location to release its landmark Ninja in 1991, and Tesla held test drives here in 2008 with on-site electric charging stations. The drive to Alice's through the Santa Cruz mountains on any given weekend rewards visitors with an impromptu car show. Vintage Porsches parked beside modern EVs, custom choppers next to pristine BMW motorcycles. From Alice's, the northern contingent travels 136 miles through the Santa Cruz mountains, past Moss Landing, and into Monterey before stopping for lunch at Baja Cantina & Grill in Carmel. The restaurant was founded by Patrick and Gina Phinny, whose love for racing and automobiles directly shaped the venue’s distinctive character. Patrick Phinny, a longtime car enthusiast, recognized an opportunity after spending time vacationing on the peninsula. Despite the area hosting the world-class Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, he noticed a lack of gathering places specifically catering to car enthusiasts. When he discovered a location that reminded him of a Route 66 gas station, he decided to share his extensive personal automotive memorabilia collection with the public.
    Voir plus Voir moins
    Moins d'une minute
  • #286, James Raia Behind the Wheel: Seven Years of Stories, Cars, and Conversations

    #286, James Raia Behind the Wheel: Seven Years of Stories, Cars, and Conversations
    Nov 4 2024
    In this special The Weekly Driver podcast episode, Michael Kahn takes the reins from longtime hosts James Raia and Bruce Aldrich in an interview with Raia, who reflects on the journey in automotive journalism and podcasting over the past seven years. Raia leans forward and with a bit of a journalistic tone, he casually shares, "After reviewing cars every week for 21 years, I still find myself asking, 'What’s the story behind this car?'” With candid humor and heartfelt anecdotes, Raia shares the story of how he and Aldrich built the podcast from scratch, interviewing everyone from car enthusiasts next door to industry giants like the CEO of Fiat. This conversation covers career-defining moments, memorable guests, and why cars are more than just machines—they’re connections to our history, personalities, and even families. "Some of our best episodes were just like having a coffee with a friend—it’s like you forget the mic is even there," Raia reminisces fondly. Whether you’re a car lover or just love a great story, James Raia and Michael’s final chat offers a look back at the people, places, and stories that made "The Weekly Driver" an enduring success and where it is going from here. Michael Kahn and James Raia driving the 2023 Lucid Air Pure. Transcript Michael Kahn: All righty. Well, weekly driver podcast final episode with James Raia being taken over by myself, Michael Kahn. What are we doing here? James Raia: We're doing a final podcast of the weekly driver Bruce Aldrich and I started it more than seven years ago, and I think we're, we went past 275 episodes. We mostly did it weekly because the site's the weekly driver, and that was corresponding to the fact that I test drove cars for each week for about 20 years before you purchased the site. And Bruce and I decided to do this podcast on a whim and we just had a blast that we got to meet a lot of important people in the car world some internationally famous, some locally famous, people with used cars, people with vintage cars, people with new cars, book authors, all kinds of different people. Analysts, anybody who was marginally related to the automotive field; we interviewed a lot of people. Michael Kahn: Yeah, in listening through all of your episodes over the past seven years, you have such a diverse array of subjects and people you've talked to, friends you've made, and just the way that you ask your questions and tell people or let people tell their stories. It's a really good podcast. James Raia: Thank you. Michael Kahn: And I know that I'm taking over and of course I have my own personality and my own direction, which is fine. James Raia: Sure. Michael Kahn: But I'm excited just to leave these episodes up and let people continue to listen to them. And also they're, they're timeless. The things that you talk about aren't relevant to whether they were published last week or seven years ago, they remain very interesting and they're certainly worth revisits and I'm sure you have plenty of favorites. James Raia: Oh, absolutely. I think, before discussing some of the favorites, one of the things that made the podcast work, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that Bruce and I have been friends for a very long time. Michael Kahn: Yeah, how did you meet Bruce? James Raia: Bruce was a Triathlete, a pretty prominent local triathlete, and I worked at the Sacramento Bee years ago, and I did a story on him. Michael Kahn: Sacramento Bee, being the Sacramento based newspaper. James Raia: Yeah, back then Sacramento Bee was it was the daily newspaper in Sacramento for a long time and now it's six days a week. And it back in the day, you know 30 years ago, it had a large budget and I was interested in endurance sports, I still am. And Bruce, I'd heard about Bruce and we met, did a story on him. And, we struck up a friendship and, Bruce inherited from his father a 1959 Volkswagen bug, and I had an old Volkswagen bug.
    Voir plus Voir moins
    57 min
  • #285, Hagerty’s 40-year celebration

    #285, Hagerty’s 40-year celebration
    Apr 18 2024
    Tarra Warnes and her husband once owned two Yugos. The sub-compact three-door hatchback and two-door convertible are often cited as the worst vehicles in history. The Yugo enthusiast family's idea was to use one vehicle to provide parts for its counterpart's restoration as a race car. The outcome isn't as relevant as the irony of Warnes telling the tale. She's vice president of creative strategy at Hagerty. It's the insurance company, marketplace, magazine, website publisher and automotive event organizer focusing on classic cars and their owners. Tarra is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-host Bruce Aldrich and I interview Warnes about Hagerty's advancement from a small company to its current status with more than 1,700 employees. The company began in 1984. Husband and wife Frank and Louise Hagerty couldn't find satisfactory insurance coverage for their wooden boats, so their new Michigan company did. Insurance for cars and other vehicles followed. The couple's son McKeel Hagerty became CEO in 2000. "We started as a niche insurance company; it was built by people who love cars and it was built for people who love cars," said Warnes, a 15-year employee. "We have grown now in 40 years to insure about 2.4 million vehicles and we are a community and hub for millions of classic car lovers." From its insurance beginnings, Hagerty's magazine, the company reports, has 815,000 print subscribers and a "robust" online presence with social media channels. Hagerty is also the "steward" for multiple automotive events. The brand's most recent offering is Marketplace where consumers can buy and sell vehicles. Live auctions are also held via Hagerty's relationship with Broad Arrow Auctions. The company also owns the Greenwich Concours d'Elégance, Concours d’Elegance of America and the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. It also established MotorsportReg.com and Hagerty Garage. The magazine's success has prompted substantially increased public brand awareness. The publication debuted nearly 25 years ago, but it was renamed Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine in 2020 and it's part of member benefits. It's also available as a stand-alone subscription. Published six times per year, the country's largest automotive publication has a lifestyle slant. It's largely absent of engine performance nuances, gear ratio analyses and other automotive complexities. Columnists include renowned collector and entertainer Jay Leno and Wayne Carini, the car restorer and television personality whose prominence arrived with the 2008 debut of the documentary series "Chasing Classic Cars." Warnes' responsibilities encompass marketing the Hagerty brand. The company's approach is far removed from heavy-handedness. "We are not trying to hit people over the head with direct marketing or product all the time," she said. "I think that really great brands can create really compelling content that people enjoy seeing and that bring a smile to their face, that puts a tear in their eyes and that sort of connects with them on an emotional level." Recent article headlines provide ideal examples: "Tattoo artist’s ’56 Bel Air Sport Sedan is a rolling marquee," "This restored 1969 Ford Torino is staying in the family," and "Blind at 58, one man chose to keep loving life—and his classic Plymouth." Hagerty's year-long anniversary campaign includes a television commercial, broadcast on various networks, titled "Keepers of the Flame." It's "to signal to the automotive world that Hagerty has 'plenty left in the tank' for the next 40 years." What vehicles qualify is subjective. The Warnes sold their Yugos when they moved and downsized their garage space. They no longer own a classic, but may have a future purchase. Tarra Warnes drives a red Volkswagen Jetta turbo diesel wagon. But she desires a car from her childhood, a station wagon from the mid-1980s or a minivan from the early 1990s.
    Voir plus Voir moins
    30 min
Pas encore de commentaire