BRICKLIN SV-1 why it was created! Why politics killed it with over 40k back orders!

PROMO 10 - BRICKLIN CAR STORY - v2

Wed, 4/7 2:08PM • 35:17

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

car, problem, engine, mile, brooklyn, build, doors, money, close, bumper, sell, story, people, kid, acrylic, fiberglass, meet, happen, business, subaru

SPEAKERS

Jeff Sterns

Jeff Sterns  00:00

If you're not looking forward to waking up in the morning, why do it when something happens? That's more than a coincidence. I pay a lot of attention to it. I'm going to push a button and doors are going to go up, I got to introduce you to guy, you're going to have to meet Bruce Myers, the Myers, Max. And Bruce is one of the best human being one of the nicest human beings you want to meet in your lifetime. I'm now learning about the car business, painfully another million, another million monthly from production. I don't have the doors. I want Mr. Brooklyn, we have a problem. What's that American Motors said they are not going to sell those engines. If you take that position, you're pushing me out the window. And if you push me out the window, I'm grabbing a hold of your time because I'm landing on your stomach. And what does that mean? It means I'm leaving here and I'm going straight to Washington. And I'm going to tell them how you and the rest of the car companies are in collusion to put me out of business. Because of the safety things that I'm putting in my car. How can I build a car if I think the bodies are gonna fall off? Malcolm said you're not gonna like what I got to tell you. Yeah, okay. What is it, Mr. Premier? He says I'm closing it down. Jeff Sterns connected through cars, if they're bigwigs, we'll have him on the show. And yes, we'll talk about cars and everything else. Hearing is now Jeff Sterns. Phenomenal story, like I didn't even know this. I'm so excited to hear this. This is amazing. I'm so happy to meet you, Malcolm Honest to God. I mean, you know, my pleasure, Jeff, it's my pleasure. I really, you know, because I've known your name. Since I'm 10 years old ish. I wish my dad was still around if he knew about 56 or 5755 55. Because I have three sons that are older than you 6058 and 56. So your fourth son, I got a 44 and a 34. And a 29. Also. Got it? Well, I'm gonna have a little bit because I have an 18 and 21 year old and a five month old. Oh, ready to go. Right. So I'm in the Malcolm club. What can I tell you are you are so how does it go from that to Okay, so I always wondered, when you're importing you go and importing Fiat. I'm like, I wonder how he got into like, I know that for example, people in the clothing business right schmatta they they're going over seas and or to Italy or to Asia or whatever, or France and they're doing they're buying and I'm like how did this guy like find this car that car but now I understand that from the scooters to the Subaru, you know, a 360 and the Subaru. Now I understand how you got your taste for that. So how does it go to your own car Bricklin and what was behind that? Okay, so now, one of the traumatic things in my life was consumer report, sending out a piece of crap because it was unsafe. Yep. Because it was unregulated. They assumed it was unsafe because it was unregulated. Now it was unsafe, because it was small. No matter how much regulations I would have put on that car, if two trucks went smashed, and in between, you'd be smashed and in between. But the truth of the matter is it was a monocoque body. So it was like, if you hit it, because it was light, it would go like a ping pong ball. And that would take all the energy from the person inside, because instead of standing there and getting the energy it would go. So other than the thing you mentioned, other than getting sandwiched, right, it's gonna bounce and absorb paper safer than a normal car would be. And it wasn't unsafe, because we didn't need the safety rules. It was just more End of story. But it puts me off. You have a hobby? Do you have a copy of that consumer report? I went out of my way to make sure I did. Oh, sorry. I don't mean to pull it up. And it was it would be no, no, it wasn't it was drama, then. It would have been about 69 or 70. Just put content about the consumer report that add a picture of the Cadillac face to face with that Subaru 360. Or the article, the article a bad article about Subaru. Back in the early 60s. Okay, all right. So But anyhow, that was in my head and never left it. It really annoyed me because I did nothing I could do to answer it. Because they were going down to premise I couldn't argue with it was did not meet the regulations. You said earlier, you're not motivated by the money. You know, it's not the money. And when you're when you had these machines that the MTV before the MTV at the checkout stands that you sold so easily. And it probably was decent money, or at least a proven business model. And it you said, it didn't turn me on. It wasn't my thing. So you really are about the passion, no doubt about it. Oh, 100% present. Because if you can't AP, if you're not looking forward to waking up in the morning, why do it this right, I enjoy this. I enjoy doing the talking, doing that meeting that I enjoyed. That's what my life is about. And I want to live a long time for no particular reason, except something else happened. That was the way divine wind works when something happens. That's more than a coincidence. I pay a lot of attention to it. But that's another story. The end of the story. Yeah, I am passionate about what I do. And I can do anything. I could be passionate about sweeping the floor. As long as it's something I'm adding to what I'm doing. I'm willing to do it. Beautiful. So I think we started talking about the Brooklyn car before we break up. Okay, so you got this thing in my head Safety Safety part of my nagging over because the Consumer Reports Okay, I can't I can't answer it, no matter what I say nobody gives a damn, they were right with what they argument they were wrong in their conclusion, anyhow. And that got me my bigger car. So the end of the story is thank God, they did that. Because if I didn't get the bigger credit, the 360 eventually would not have been okay, no matter what, okay, today, it would be okay. But not anyhow. So got me the bigger car. Now things are going really good with Subaru. I'm hearing all this stuff about safety. And they're talking about putting rules that you have a five mile an hour bumper with no damage to the car, and the car companies are fighting it like crazy, because at five miles an hour, you get a couple $1,000. But the damage, that's parts and service the dealer can make. That's parts that the factories can sell. So they were fighting it. And their argument was, if you keep giving us all these rate regulations, the cars are going to have to be looking very ugly, to design them safe, and people aren't going to buy them, and therefore the industry is going to be ruined. That's the argument I'm coming from. why in the hell are they saying that? I know why they're saying it, nobody can believe that, that's all bullshit, I am going to build a gorgeous car is going to be the safest production car in the world. That was the that went through my head. On top of that, I with my kids on Saturday morning would watch cartoons. And one of the cartoons of the era was 1999 A Space Odyssey or space something. And it was a show with real people instead of cartoons on the moon. And the beginning of the show every show as what their format was, a car would come out quietly, and the door is going to go up quietly. And I fell in love with the doors in the car. And I couldn't wait to see the 15 seconds every Saturday of that particular thing and said, building a car like that. You're going to push a button that doors are going to go up. And now I'm going to build it make it the safest car in the world. And I'm going to have 25 mile an hour bumpers no damage, and I'm going to find the material that you can't that night. I don't know what I'm talking about. But I'm saying it. So I go out to figure out what I got to do. I'm have offices in California, one of the guys I meet Alan Lipinski, the guy that invented arm roll, it's hanging around and trying to get involved with me and I give him a job prior to Emerald. And he says I got to introduce you to guy you're gonna have to meet Bruce Myers, the Myers max. And Bruce is one of the best human being one of the nicest human beings you want to meet in your lifetime. He just talked to Winnie his wife about two weeks ago. He's not doing well, that I'm sorry to hear. But there's a there's a really special human being. So if you happen to talk to her, please give her my love for him. Alright, so now I get together with Bruce. And of course, I love them because I had bought in the Myers mags, my kids and I used to drive around in Philadelphia, all over the neighborhood and pick up the other kids and go drive into dune buggy. So I tell him what I want to do and I need a prototype. So we play with it, we design it and he builds me a prototype. Now not the normal way you build if not the real way I don't know for many things. I just see a cry that's pretty close to what I like doors don't open except by hand, you know. And we've got an engine from I don't remember where to help we got an engine, but it looks pretty close and it's called the gray goes. So I have this car. I send it back to Philadelphia and I have pictures of the car gone with my rolls behind it and I had a spotter and had that there. And then I'd opened the doors next to the car because goldwing opens like this so you can get out when you have this much room and are used To go take it to the banks, so I can borrow money on my Subaru stock, so I can start to fund this thing. But I now I got to get to the next step of getting it ready for manufacturing. And I get introduced to people who know what they're doing in the real car business. They have to they look over my prototype, they tell me, there will be not one nut or bolt in the real car that you got in this car over here. There's nothing over here that we're going to ever be able to copy. So that was my first shock. Instead of two cents, gonna cost me a couple million dollars to get my prototypes, we had to build a clay model to 110 1,000th of an inch then we have to pull a plaster which ruins the clay then we have to have a read of wood model made and it has to take care of that shrinkage that's going to take in when you make the acrylic. Well I don't know about acrylic yet. I'm still looking for the body. So we're getting now what kind of body they want. They want me to do steel, I don't want to do steel. Then to go fiberglass. I don't want to do fiberglass it runs I had a couple Corvettes. So I'm looking around, and I get to Roman Haas, who builds acrylic sheets. And they use these acrylic sheets which are solid color in bathtub baths, in bathrooms. But on the wall, boom, you got a new wall. Okay. Tell me about it. Well, if you get a scratch, you just buff it out. If you're working for a company reinforced with fiberglass, you can't make a dent. If you hit it hard enough to make a dent, you make a hole and you can put the hole right back in the glue on buffet. You got your body back. No kidding. By the way, at 35 mile an hour crashes, it goes into the wall, the fenders crack and go off. I can put the fenders back. Cool. I'm in the back. Alright, so now I got your acrylic reinforced with fiberglass. Isn't that great? Now they got to make molds and they got to figure in what they what? Just a million different things. I had no idea. And we're doing it. And where I'm now learning about the car business painfully another million another million. But I'm talking little millions I'm not talking billions like they talk now. And then I got to get a motor from somebody an engine safety regulations you can't build engines anymore and that not then cuz you had to meet all the safety thing. You've just had a question the amount of money you needed to build it to create an engine and the transmission and meet all the regulations was too much serious money. So I had to buy it from somebody. So we got an American Motors 364 barrel, nice engine and we got a contract from them. 1000 a month, we put it in, we had a meet at 50,000 mile test, which is a royal pain in the ass. We met the 50,000 mile test. Now. We don't have bumpers, the 25 miles is out. I'm finally convinced that's way too much stuff. I have to have a bumper about this big to go in that much an income out that much. Oh my god, it will look how could you be stupid? I mean to just nothing good. Show I find Okay, great. Like we still don't have what we're going to do to have this happen. We're going to build the body around the bumper. So we can go in and out without hurting the body. I'm flying into la one day. And as we land, it hits me. What did we just do? We just had that a plane, the wheels went in and out. That's what I want. I get off the plane getting a taxi go to the company that makes the wheel mechanism because they keep the wheels going back and forth when you land. And I tell them what I want to do. Yeah, so I say here's what I want to do. Here's what the car is going away. I want 10 mile an hour bumpers can you get them for me. Instead, of course, they ended up making me two little units for the front and two units for the back. Each one cost me $1.50 I have 10 mile an hour bumpers. Now, that would not make General Motors or Ford or Chrysler happy. Because further lousy dollar 50 they just lost a couple of $1,000 worth. Now the bumper was sturdier than the normal bumper and it costs more money. So I mean, I'm exaggerating on how low it cost, but it didn't cost very much. Now I have a body that won't dent, I have an exterior that will look the same. I told him 40 years from now it's 47 years they look exactly the same. All you have to do is bump them. And if you want you can pay them it doesn't matter. Now, we have to build a dozen of them to send them around the country to find out what happens in in the mountains and what happens in the hot and what happens in the cold. Let's find out what the hell happens with with our wonderful vehicles. Oh, the first thing is I nobody will give me the door I want I gotta go wink. I insist on the grass that goes up and down. By the way no going door ever made has a window that goes up and down. Because the physics of it when it's out when it's down and when it's up is so dramatically different. That what you need is whatever and my guys refused to find it solution. They wanted to talk me out of the grass and they wanted to talk me out of a push button wanting to go by hand. And I refuse. I remember now we're a month and a half from production. Now Excuse me. Yeah, a month and a half from production. I'll tell you about the In a minute, month I have from production, I don't have the doors. I want the reason I built the car, I can't have the doors. And at that time, there wasn't computers designing the car. I had two engines 200 engineers sitting on the boat, drawing the engineering for a year. And I'm walking out to the car to go to the airport, and I'm really frustrated and a kid comes running after me networks, enzyme, Chair, Mr. Brooklyn, he said, I can get you what you want. I said, Really? What is it? He said, You take the hydraulic cylinder from the convertible that takes the convertible up and down, you put it on the B pillar, and you push a button, it'll open the depression button. No close. No kidding. Why don't you tell them? He said, Oh, I told him. He said they're not interested in doing it. And in fact, if you do it, when you leave, I'm getting fired. Oh, really come here with me, kid. Walk in, like all everybody. And I said, This gentleman just told me a very interesting solution. And I have to tell you, I'm excited. I know it'll work. So I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave, I'll be back next week. If it's on the car and working, we're in production. If it's not on the car, I'm working, I'm closing the place. We're not building the car. And if anybody messes with the kid getting fired, came back a week later, you push the button in the work, right? And I'll tell you the story with that. But now I got the doors at work. And I have because it's hydraulic enough for the exams to be either way, I got no more problem, everything is solved. Things are ready to go. Now back off another four or five months before that. And I get a call from my guys. They say, Mr. Bricklin, we have a problem. What's that? American Motors said they are not going to sell those engines. They say What do you mean, they're not going to sell us engines? We met the 50,000 mile test, we're going to be in production for five months, we got a contract with them. What do you mean, we're not taking what they told me? We're not selling you any engine. So I said, well, Who the hell is the president. And I forget what his name is. Now, whoever was the president at the time, it was a really roughing came from the bottom up kind of guy, I called his office. And I say I am in a very serious problem. I've been told that you're not going to honor a contract. And before I have to go in a different direction, I want the courtesy of a meeting with you tomorrow. I'm bringing my people, please give me a time she came back to me and gave me a time. Let's say it was 930. A couple of my people and I are there. He has a couple of his people. And I can I started telling them listen, if you don't sell me, your engines, I'm going to go out of business. I engineered the car with your engine. I met the 50,000 mile test with the engine and I did all my other tests around the country with your engine in it. I need your engine. He said Mr. Bricklin. He said, I've been trying to sell my cars for a long time. And it's really hard. Now there's a market out there every car I build I sell. So that means every engine I sell you I don't sell that car. And if you think I'm going to sell you engines instead of a car, you're out of your mind. I said, Well, let me be real clear about my position. If you take that position, you're pushing me out the window. And if you push me out the window, I'm grabbing a hold of your time because I'm landing on your stomach. And what does that mean? It means I'm leaving here, and I'm going straight to Washington. And I'm going to tell them how you and the rest of the car companies are in collusion to put me out of business, because the safety things that I'm putting in my car, and you I guarantee you wished you sold me my goddamn engines. I said and if you want to fuck me, you're gonna fuck me, but it's gonna cost you, you son of a bitch. And he said worse than that. How dare you mad that babba babba back. I'm selling your 700 engines. Now get somebody else to get an engine from them and get the fuck out of my office. I said, Thank you so much. I said I apologize if anything I said was crude, or not apply. But I was desperate. And you saw my desperation. So please excuse my excuse, excuse me. Just get out my office number, Lindenberg. That was his name. Number. All right, so now I had 700 that were going to come in, I needed another engine. Oh my god, I gotta start over. This is not what I want to do. And I got to do it right away. A couple days later, I'm sitting in the Lavonia office, and I'm with Keith crane, who is there to convince me not to be an asshole. Because I've told everybody Don't be no stories about what we're doing until I'm ready to introduce it. And he tried to sneak in to get a picture of it and so forth. And my guys took his camera and broke it. And he said, You're making a mistake. We're very powerful. I said, I don't give a shit. And he started convincing me why he would make us and he said, By the way, why is how smeller out in your waiting room. I said, who's out Spurlock? I said, I use Coke is right here, man. No kidding. I said, Keith, you know what? I'm going to give you a story. Go ahead range when you want to have it. I'll do the interview. And you could take pictures of what we got right now. See you later. Goodbye. I put your mind Do you have it? I bring house Berlin. Hey, how are you? you Nice to meet ya. Tell me you're working for Iacocca. yam is right in man. babba babba that I said, You're just a man I want to see. You know, I was thinking I'm buying the American Motors 360 but I'm building it in Canada, and they would like me to have more Canadian content. What do you think? Is it possible to get the 351 Windsor? He said, Oh, yeah, no problem. I said, Great. Drop a contract. I'm To hell with Gen. America motors. I'm going to use your car. I mean, I got to buy some of their engines now. But I'm going to give it How fast can I get some bad things so I can start the 50,000 mile test. Baba, Baba, Baba. Anyhow, we ended up that's how we ended up with the Windsor 350. Do you know that story is not over. Okay. That's not the end of story. Now I got a contract with them. Now we met them 50 out of 50,000 miles. So again, now let's December around Christmas about 19. right before Christmas. I'm in the LA airport, in the VIP room, waiting to get on a plane to go to Acapulco with my family for Christmas. For I think 10 days, which we did every year. I get a call from my secondary. got a call from Ford. They're not going to sell us the engines. Now, please don't suck this. Now I start making calls. First, Henry Ford. He doesn't take my call, then Iacocca. He doesn't take my call. Then it just burlock. He takes my coin say what the hell is going on? He says I have no idea. I'll get back to you. I said please do. I am on my way to Alka poco. If the answer is I got no problem. I'm going to continue that road. If the answer is I got a problem. I'm changing my vacation and I'm going to Washington game the same story. And I said I don't believe this is the way you treat people. I wouldn't have changed if he calls me back. He says okay, you got it. I said what was the problem? Usually, the lawyer said, How many cars? How many motors that were going to sell who needs the liability? And they're not wrong. By the way. You know, if anything happened to the car, they were going to sue them too. Anyhow. So that catastrophe got over really fast without me having to be nasty, or say anything I rather not say and Hasbro what a sweetheart he is. And so we had that engine and that happened. Now the last story. We have people out all over the country, testing the car. I got a call. One night from one of the guys goes everybody had my phone they knew they could call it whenever. And that was before cell phones, by the way. And it says Mr. Brickman we got a serious problem. Yeah, what's the problem? Well, I'm in Scottsdale. I've been driving the car in 114 degree heat. It's July or August. Things got Sam. He said when we take the car we pocket inside in an air condition. Probably 65 or 70 degree garage. Okay. Well, I came out and the acrylic body is on the floor. What are you talking about? He said the acrylic separated from the fiberglass and is sitting on the ground. I said all the pieces? He said Yeah. I said well, what how could that happen? Is because we glued it and fiberglass and acrylic move at different temperatures different times. So they broke apart. Oh my god. All I need is one car to do that. And I'm out of business. I can't even imagine doing that. And I say to him, do you have any idea what the solution would be is a very simple, you need a bonding material that will go into both materials and be flexible enough for them to move at different rates. Really? No problem. Come up Roman us. We know about acrylic. We don't know anything about five of us. calling up I forget the fiber guys, we because we know everything about fiber guys, we don't In other words, both of us go fuck myself. They ain't got no solutions. And they have no intention to try to figure it out. So I called meeting all my people, none of which Do I have a chemist on board by the way? And I tell them what the problem is. And I tell him one, we can't have one. And we have to we have to invent that bond. And we got exactly 10 days to do it. We can't build a car. I got to stop everything from coming in. How can I build a car if I think the battery's gonna fall off? under any circumstance? They invented it. Nobody ever fell off. Nobody's ever fell off. We never had a problem. It was like it never existed to this day. I have no idea how that was possible. I've had a few nail biters in your life. Whoa, that was a nail biter of every nail biter I've had in my universe. That one scared the crap out of me. So do you have a Bricklin car? I had five and I gave them away to museums. I'm not a collector. I don't collect anything. My kid one of my oldest son has storage areas all over the country with Bricklin crap. I don't have anything. How much was the car new? How much did it sell for know it sold for $9,998 and it started off it was gonna sell for like 30 $500 but I kept putting more shit in there. Were like this is what I hope doesn't happen with the new Brooklyn again. I don't want to jinx it. Oh, no, no, the difference is I started from pricing it out before I decided to go for them. There's a I'm looking online while I'm talking to you because now I want one so bad. And there's just because now I know the bubble miser. Right so 1234 there's four four Spears for for sale on classic trader. How much and one's in an auction announcement? So don't know. Another one with 40,000 miles and a 351 is they're asking 14 and a half. Another one with a 360. Did you have a 360? Yeah, that's a 360 American Motors 364 bow. Okay, that those are the three was the first 700 Okay. I know that was a AMC was a 340. I thought so. But that's a no, no, it's a 368. It's a 360. Okay, 28 grand, 2829 grand with 12,000 miles. And finally, the one that I want is a white and tan 17,000 mile one owner in San Diego for 26. Eight, in the late 20s, or early 30s is where most of them are selling. As soon as we come out with the Brooklyn three Visa card prices will go up dramatically. Because what will happen is if you have one of each, you have something that's never going to be duplicated. So you're gonna have 3000 of the other ones, maybe 500 are probably off the road someplace, you know vegetating so that will be very rare. As I said, we need to corner the market on all of them. I'm thinking about that. I was thinking I've been jokingly thinking about that, because it's more work than I'm willing to do. Why did the Bricklin cease production? Is that a story or no? Oh, it's a story. We have, at the time 46,000 backorders. Corner dealers can't bring them in fast enough. They're getting over this for the car. I got some problems, I got to figure out I mean, some production problems that are interesting problems, one of which I'll tell you, which is another scary toe, we're building them. And we're trying to fix the things that we need to be fixed as fast as we can. And one day, I have my home in Philadelphia, I have a Brooklyn and I have it with the doors up as much as often as I can have it. And I'm looking at her all the time, because that car with the doors up just to this day, just gets my attention. I love looking at it. And I'm looking at the car and it starts to rain. But not in a normal rain windows fast rains, it comes pouring down. So I run out the shut the doors. Now remember the hydraulic. If you have the hydraulic go too fast, you maybe cut your hand off if you don't do something smart. So I push the button and it takes six seconds for the door to close. Did you ever stand in the rain for six seconds? right now but first I got to jump in and now I'm inside. I'm closing in. It's raining in on me. So it means in the rain. Normally I have to wait six seconds for the open. jump in and six seconds. Oh my god. This is the utmost bar. But this is the next worst thing to the bodies coming apart. But I got cars out there out there. They're they're already delivered. And I'm building more. Oh my god, what am I going I remember it was hard as hell to get this solution. What am I going to do? I got to change it. This is not acceptable. So I called my friend Frank Turner in Graham, Texas, who is was is no longer live a great inventor. Not a good inventor. I've all right inventor. Actually frank, I got a problem flying to Detroit. And somebody will pick you up and you got to solve the problem for me. It comes in I show him the door. And I said I need the door to go boom. I need the door to come down and stop. And then come close slowly so it doesn't cut off anybody's figure. And I got to do it so I can put it into the car that I got right now. said Okay, no problem. I'll be back in a week. It tastes good. I said give me a car. I get McCarney drives to Graham, Texas. The end of the week, he calls me out there. Come on in. So I fly in. everybody walks out to the car. He pushes a button that goes well. He pushes another button goes wrong. Stop six inches above and closes. This is fantastic. What do I have to change? Nothing. He said I took the hydraulic fluid out of the hydraulic lift and put in air and you have a box frame. Your engine makes air and it pumps it into the box frame. That's it. We didn't get one of the cars in production on because they got closed down before we could do it. But 90% of the cars on the road today have that in because some people who left the factory to go be in their business of fixing Brooklyn's put them on all the cars that come walking in they want to be fixed. And it's fabulous. Not good. That bump Bump that's Simple, how many ended up getting delivered and how many got read 3000 3000 got delivered 46,000 backers from dealers how now I'll give you the last story on that. When I met him, the reason I was there is because he was willing to give me my first 3 million from outside sources with my own money. He did it, because he told me clearly he wanted attention to the province. So they wouldn't think of them only as people who go fishing and cut wood that they see they they're right out there with the you know, futuristic automobiles, safety automobiles, and he thinks will get a lot of attention. And that's what he wants for the money. All right. And by the way, we were on talk shows together we were at Harvard Business School together we were although he got his money's worth plus and was happy as hell out the attention New Brunswick No, nobody ever heard of including me, before the car. So and we became friends. I mean, we really became good friends. And he was what I consider a really true good politician gave a shit about one thing, doing good for the province was not married, worked 24 hours a day, lived in a shitty little hotel. That I mean, if you're homeless, you wouldn't only get there, because he just worked all the time. He comes in one day. I mean, I'm talking about a good friend. He comes in one day. By that time, I think he got about 20 million from them, which is a lot of money back then. By the way, I did the whole damn project, but 35 million and a half a billion plus people now a couple billion dollars to do. So I did everything about 35 million. Not important. What is important is he comes in and says, Malcolm said, You're not gonna like what I got to tell you. Yeah. Okay. What is it, Mr. Premier? He says I'm closing it down. I said, That's not a good joke. He said, it's not a joke. Why would you be closing it down? I got 45,000 backorders. You're paying people union wages. They're getting paid more than they ever got paid. And I've been loving it. And you get publicity of the kazoo. Why would you even consider closing us down? He said, Well, unintended circumstances? What's that? He said, last month, I came to you. And I said, Give me three Brooklyn's. And you said, what are they for? And I said, I'm calling an election. first car is going to be a Brooklyn's going to get the crowds. The second car is going to come with my mother in it. And the third car is going to be me. And he did. And the day after the election, the front cover of all the papers, had him in a superman costume flying out of the top of Brooklyn. And the headlines in bold print was premier wins the Brooklyn election. I say, I got it not I own this place. He said, we got all that and it was all true. Now let me tell you about my life. Every day I wake up, I have my breakfast, and I go have my day late press meetings. There are two questions they want to answer. How's Malcolm and what's happening with the car, they have no interest in anything else. I got to say. So I'm banking, I close it down. I get abuse. a year from now I call another election. And I wind it on my own or not. And that's exactly what he did. He close this down. And he called another election year later, and he won the election. And it was if that's the end of the story, thank God. Because otherwise, not that I thought it was thank God then at that time, when I mean for damn sure, I didn't think it was Thank God. I said, Oh, my God, like I would be stuck with a car factory. I'd have to come up with new credit. I don't want to own a car factory tell you the truth. I might have to own one. But I'd rather not. For sure. I damn sure don't want to have anything to do with political money in any way, shape, or form. If I can't get our money, public and me putting in the hell with it ain't gonna happen. I don't want any political involvement. It's just not good. Because that happens. And that's the last thing in the world. They won the election that you saw in our car, and now they're gonna close it down. That's ballsy. I'll tell you what I mean, you've had By the way, they did a musical happen, that they had to wait a while to say Thank God. No, yeah, that's true. But they did a musical a couple of years back up there called Brooklyn, and automotive fantasy. And the story I just told you. Don't ask me how they got that story. There must have been in politics. The writers wrote what I just told you, but they did it in a musical that I saw and it was fabulous musical

34:35

cowboy entrepreneur and flamboyant premier and dare to change the automotive industry of

Jeff Sterns  34:46

the break. I'm gonna give it a shot.

34:51

Big Dreams collide with sports cars in the sexiest funk infused musical Audiences can't wait to take for

Jeff Sterns  35:07

this has been Jeff Sterns connected through cars