Don Heditsian-Part 2! 180 degree Lotus spin, brake loss-150mph-944 Turbo S, Derek Bell ride Le Mans!

Don Heditsian - Part 2

Wed, 3/3 9:41PM • 33:34

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

car, lotus, driving, tires, colin chapman, turbo, road, horsepower, bought, brakes, miles, cooled, cylinder, hour, spree, pull, jeff, turbos, porsche, winery

SPEAKERS

Jeff Sterns

Jeff Sterns  00:00

Jeff Sterns connected through cars and I hope you enjoy Part Two Don Hudson, coming up right now, and Don did hear something that nobody wants to hear when they're going 150 miles an hour on a freeway, you'll have to watch to find out. first car I bought with my own money, like my first purchase was a Lotus Esprit turbo. Really? Yes. You want to ask me what my second car was when the Spree was sort of selling at the same time as say a Ferrari Testarossa, which was a 12 cylinder car. The four cylinder spree was actually close to half a second quicker to 60 miles an hour, despite having eight fewer cylinders, 930 Porsche, some of the Saab turbos and certainly the Lotus Esprit turbo and the car begins to rotate. And if you know anything about mid engine cars, they kind of spin on their own axis, right because the weights in the middle. So this car does 180 degrees spin. the sake of argument, let's say we were above 150

01:12

Jeff Sterns connected through Guys, if they're big wigs, we'll have him on the show. And yes, we'll talk about cars and everything else. Here he is now, Jeff Sterns.

Jeff Sterns  01:30

So you asked me what my first car was? The first car you had first car you bought? Well, the first car I bought with my own money, like my first purchase was a Lotus Esprit turbo. Really? Yes. That you might be the only person ever to say that first car that I bought Lotus Esprit it well, it was Pre Owned. And I was. I was in my late 20s when I bought my first car because as I mentioned, right out of school, I was always with a dealership. And not so much today. But back then, salespeople and dealerships and managers all had demonstrators

02:15

to drive. Right? That's right. So

Jeff Sterns  02:16

I so I never had to go out and buy a car because I was working 70 hours a week. And they're giving me a free car. So the last thing I was going to do is go out and buy a car I had to pay for. Okay. And frankly, the cars they were giving me to drive were nicer than what I could afford. Because they were Yeah, I was trying in a Mercedes Audi Porsche. Yeah, I was generally driving a BMW three series or five series and I drove a lot of Porsches. 940 fours 911 so I was always driving a car I couldn't afford anyway. So there's no point in in buying a beater that I didn't have time to drive. Frankly. You want to ask me what my second car was? I bought. We can go right there. I was gonna ask you about that Lotus. But please, what's the second car? Well, it's kind of related. It's also a Lotus Esprit turbo. Well, then you might be the only one. I probably the only person whose first two cars were Lotus Esprit turbos. We'll have a call Guinness. That's probably a narrow audience. I would think we'll have to call Guinness I can already. I'm gonna make a note here on the clickbait. You're never gonna believe the first one was read. The second one was white. Okay, so it's very interesting that you ended up working for that company. But let's not go there yet where they both the Spree turbos. They were so Lotus. And you could I'm sure speak to it better than I can. And I'm looking at the paraphernalia behind you on the wall. I'm pretty sure you could speak to anything better than I can relate it to these cars. But Lotus was about wait. Lotus was not about the giant horsepower are the giant motors in racing. And who is the founder of Lotus Hollen, Anthony, Bruce Chapman. And if you look at the emblem on the front of a lotus, it's ca BC, intertwined. On a yellow and green background, which were the Lotus colors, in case you were interested in knowing very interested in that variant. So Colin Chapman didn't have a saying about he would just remove parts off of cars until the thing would swell and then put it back on. Yeah, I mean, he's famous for saying add lightness and lightness it. Yeah, the concept from an engineering standpoint, he was an engineer was to innovate using lightweight materials, using you know, high tech ground effects. For example, he was he was the founder or the first I should say, innovator, to do ground effect racecars in Formula One with the old Lotus 79 which, you know, was an amazing car and won the world championship with Mario Andretti. So the number of patents that Colin Chapman holds is literally, you know, in the in the dozens, the innovations that he's come up with over the years are amazing for suspensions? Have you ever heard of a Chapman strut? No, I have not heard of it. Okay, well, that's named after Colin Chapman. And Colin was not only an engineer and an auto builder and a racer, but the Lotus company actually did engineering for many other car companies as a customer. So they were they were very respected as engineers, not only for the cars they built for the cars, they helped other automakers, you know, design and refine, including DeLorean. Well, that's an interesting subject. That's always an interesting subject. Did you know, Lotus is who engineered that car? Well, there was there was certainly a relationship between, between Colin Chapman and john DeLorean in the development of that car, as there were with other people as well, and designers in Italy, that that actually designed the shape of the car. You know, Chapman, and Lotus has some things to do with the with the with the chassis and the platform. It was really, I don't know, it was a car that came from many directions, many nations, many auto builders, it really was a lot of a kind of a melting pot of technologies and things the the engine was a Peugeot, Renault Volvo engine, you know, different components on the car came from different places. And one of my regrets is that I never met john DeLorean because I was always fascinated with him. You know, growing up as a kid, as well as when I was in the industry. I just always thought of him as just an incredible Maverick, for what he had accomplished at General Motors with being the division chief for, I believe, Pontiac, and maybe Chevrolet and rising up the ranks of GM. And there was talk of him being the president of GM one day if he had, if he had stayed, you know, with the company. But as you know, he left the company to start his own dream. Just wasn't enough celebrity for him, but he was the father of the GTO. Yes, right. Yes, he really he really created the muscle car. And this was watching the drag racing, I think on gratiot Avenue in Detroit as well. And saying, okay, we have to do something so it's a Lotus Esprit turbo was a four cylinder car. Initially, it was Yeah, later cars were eight cylinder, the original cars when you were selling them, that would have been what you're now at? 9898 99, something like that. Yeah. 2000 ish. So So by the time you got involved, Jeff, they were all VA twin turbos, the original prior to the VA, the four cylinder turbo, the idea even though it was such an amazing supercar was the weight. Exactly. Well, yeah, the weight was, was pretty low for for a GT sports car. I'd say it was in the 28 2900 pound range, you know, fully dressed. And the the four cylinder at its peak, was putting out about 300 ish horsepower, on boost. So you know, by today's standards, it was a quick car that was a 4.7 seconds zero to 60, something like that. very respectable 20 years ago. Yes, very respectable 20 years ago, and unless you're in a race cars, very respectable for four cylinder car. Absolutely. In fact, in fact, when the Spree was sort of selling, at the same time, as say, a Ferrari Testarossa, which was a 12 cylinder car, the four cylinder spree was actually close to half a second quicker to 60 miles an hour, despite having eight fewer cylinders, which was a pretty amazing thing as you are and but how to talk to me about turbos then, because we were talking on another podcast, probably about this Maserati. But what were turbos like then I mean, now, a lot of cars, production, cars have turbos. We can use low displacement. You don't, it's smooth. You don't feel anything. You don't hear anything. What was the driving experience? I mean, when when you're going zero to 60, and four point, whatever, it wasn't a linear acceleration curve when you took off at Harley now that I mean, the original turbos like the 930, Porsche, some of the Saab turbos and certainly the Lotus Esprit turbo, these were, these were engines that were running quite a bit of boost. And when you would accelerate hard with them, they would really kick and they came on like a light switch. So the car would have very low torque and be very docile, like a normal four, six cylinder engine, as you're pulling away, you know, to 30 miles an hour, and then all hell would break loose after that, and sometimes the tires would break loose as well. So it was they were a handful, the cars didn't handle as well back then obviously, the tire technology was not as good as it is today. And now they've learned to harness the turbo power, either through a single turbo or by Turbo situation in a way that comes on in a much more civilized way to give you the boost and the torque, but to make the car more drivable, and frankly, more safe, most drivers, so now technology's come a long way, but but Lotus was on the forefront of turbo technology. My first sprit did not have an intercooler. And the second one I did did, they actually call them a charge cooler? Because it was liquid charged rather than air to air. So I'm not trying to get technical on you, Jeff, but intercooling even takes the turbocharged engine to the next level of performance. Are you able to explain? Are you able to explain what an intercooler does or not, I'm not, I'm not a technical guy. So I don't want to I don't want to pretend to be but the intercooler allowed for a more dense charge by cooling the charge beforehand. So as you know, you know, if you get cold air induction on a car, you have a bigger spark a bigger bang, you make more horsepower. In simple terms, it's it's essentially that just calling it the, you're calling it the charge, I'm calling it the air. So when that was a load that was a lotus thing, Lotus called it a charge cooller that was very Lotus. While they were doing that a lot of other automakers were doing just what they call intercoolers. But that was a lotus sort of coined name for their system. And it was very effective. I my first a spree was I think 228 horse and very low torque. And the second one that I had was putting out 264 out of the same engine. And I think on peak it would get to 280 under a full charge for like 30 seconds, it would make extra power until it until the power would dissipate. So on a cold day, when you got a nice charge on that car on a crisp morning. The car was making you know good 280 horsepower for a while. And 280 horsepower for even 10 or 15 seconds will get you you know gets you up to speed pretty quick. What came after the second Lotus. After the Lotus, I actually bought my first Porsche 911 air cooled 911 Alright, so for the gearheads listening, I mean, you're, you're going to be the favorite guest. First, he had a lotus, any handle Lotus, then he had a 911. All right, right. Anybody now? How old are you? Early 30s, mid 30s. Actually, there was a little bit of a break in between where I didn't have a car. So I'm not I'm not sure exactly. I can't recall. But I was probably in my I was probably in my 40s when I bought the 911. Okay. And then the 911 was followed briefly by a Corvette 06. But I only had it for like four months. I enjoyed it. I really had a lot of fun with it. I put about 3000 miles on it over a summer. And then I sold it in the fall and you know, just just moved on to something different. It was a lot of fun. I also had a mini cooper for a little while Cooper S which I drove for just six months. Again, it filled a niche. I needed a car to get around in for a few months, between different jobs that I was coming and going to so I had fun with that all at all. I've had five nine elevens and I currently have one in the garage. That's my that's my toy right now. You love the 911 Did you ever take any on a road trip? I did. Well not I wouldn't call it a road trip. I'd call it to drive home from the store. So I actually bought one in Chicago. And I was living in New York at the time. So the road trip was bringing the car home from the dealership after I bought it. And I was by myself. I flew into Chicago dealer picked me up. I got on the road at like noon. And I got back to New York at 6am The next morning. And I drove the whole time. And you may say you must have been driving very slowly to make a trip from Chicago to New York that long. But I ran into some interesting weather on the way and let's just say that when I was going over the mountains in the Poconos. I needed windshield wipers on my side windows more than the windshield. Oh my goodness. Because I had the car going down the mountain, literally at an angle most of the way down the mountain. Because the tires were just not the right. These were summer tires, high performance tires. I had a surprise freak winter storm that hit me halfway through the trip. So your hail hanging out through the polios Oh yeah, I mean, I had to make a decision to either pull over and get snowed in because the snow was coming down like an inch an hour at that point. I mean, I pulled into a rest stop and the snow was over the tire going up on the rim. And I knew that if I stayed there too long. I wouldn't be able to pull it back out. So my theory was just keep it on the road, keep the heater on, just keep it between the lines and, and get home as quickly as I can. So when I was in the mountains, it got a little treacherous and the car was really loose. And you know what i bonded with the car to a degree that had the weather been dry and sunny, I wouldn't have enjoyed the ride home as much because it was white knuckles for like, seven or eight hours of the trip. And I remember calling my wife and telling her not to wait up that I'd be in sometime in the middle of the night. And then I called her at like six in the morning and told her to have the garage door open. Because it snowed in New York as well. And I had about 120 foot driveway from the street to the house, and it was uphill. So I knew that I have to get a running start and try to plow my way up the driveway. And I couldn't stop because if I lost momentum, I'd be in a snowdrift. So I had to just keep this thing going until I could pull into the garage. And I didn't make it. But it was it was touching go for a while. It's a shame you didn't have the right tires, because really that rear engine with the right tires is a phenomenal car to have. Yes, yeah, no, I had to wait over the drive wheels, which is exactly what you want. But unfortunately, I have these tires that the rubber compound, frankly, isn't designed to work below about 40 degrees. And it hadn't been over about 25 degrees all night. So these things were like hockey pucks. And they're just sliding all over the place. And it was a used car. So it's not like it was brand new rubber, the tires were half worn out to start with. And they were the wrong tires to have a winter driving. So the whole thing was a disaster. But to this day, that however many hours it was, by the time I got home with the time difference. It was the most memorable drive of my life. And I've never connected with a car and gotten you know, bonded with a car to that degree of any car I've ever driven around since I had a blast. In fact, I never enjoyed that car as much ever again after that day bringing it home. And I ended up selling it a couple years later because I got bored with it. What year was the car? There was a 1997 career for us. Is this the last air cooled? What's the last air cold? It was close to the last air cooled 9097 98 was the end of the air cooled. Okay, I don't even know what sir was it? 98? We'll have to look it up. No, no, no, no, no, there was there was water. 98 was the last air cooled 99 was the first liquid cooled 911. And it had a completely different body. Those were the nine nine sixes in that horrible speedometer gauge cluster. And by the way, I didn't mention this. That cart was all wheel drive. It should have made it up the driveway. So you would have thought it would it would have gripped really well. But But in that kind of weather with those tires, even all wheel drive will help you. I had done I had a 96 after a white and blue after I had an 88 or 89 poster car red whaletail black interior. Nice. Well, you're both great cars. So your first car was a G Series car. And your second car sounds like it was a 993. Yes. And I drove the red 88 to North Carolina and back to visit a buddy. I think I think it was Raleigh as a matter of fact. And I can still right now when I'm thinking about it. Hear that engine sound that air cooled engine sound? That's magical. Yeah. I was selling those cars brand new. That's that's when I was selling Porsches was that that era of the late 80s. So that was the best experience. I don't want to say best experience you ever had in a car may have been but certainly the best experience that you had in that car. What about like you ever had a bad or scary experience out a few. One of them was in North Carolina. In my Lotus, my first Lotus that I bought, and I was with my girlfriend, and we were going to a winery to do a wine tour and a wine tasting. And I thought what a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. Sunny, great temperature. Is this. We've done? Is this upstate New York. No, this was North Carolina, in North Carolina. Okay. Yeah, in North Carolina. Not to say that North Carolina is known for great wineries. It's not, but there was just a local vineyard like, you know, 40 minutes away that made muska dine wine or something. So we thought it'd be just a fun date to go on right with my girlfriend. So I'm in I'm driving the red 89 a spree my girlfriend's sitting next to me. We're driving down these back roads, country roads, trying to find this winery because this is before GPS, this is before cell phones. This is like, you know, you get a map, and you're trying to figure out on a map where you are and where you're trying to be. So this is very, you know, old school navigation system. So I'm driving down this road, and we realize that we've gone too far. It's just, there's no way it's down any farther than this. So we turn around figuring we missed the turn off somewhere. So now I'm a little frustrated that we've been driving around for 45 minutes haven't found the place. So now I'm driving, you know, a little quicker to get back to where we need to be. And there's a line of cars in front of me. And I decide that I'm going to pass them, it's single lane inside, I decide I'm going to pass them and just get you know, get clear of them. Because I can see a mile down the road, there's not a car coming. So I know I have an open lane there. So all is good. So I I dropped down a gear, I step on it, and I pull out on the left side of the road to pass a couple of cars very easily. What I didn't realize, Jeff, and what and this is, you know, hindsight is 2020, right? I watch out for this now when I'm driving as I'm older and wiser. But you know, those little lines on the middle of the road, you know, they go from solid to slotted or striped. Yes, well, when they're dotted, it means you can pass the direct. And when they're solid, it means you shouldn't pass. Right? Alright, so this is a lesson for the kids, this lesson for the kids. So I ignored the fact that it was a double line. Because I thought my line of sight was far enough that there's no way anything can be a problem. To make this quick, easy pass. What What didn't occur to me was that the car in front of me was going to begin braking, and then turning left in front of my path. So if you can imagine I'm now dropping down a gear, I'm probably going from 40 to like 5060 to make a clean pass, the car in front of me is going like 35 miles an hour. I get alongside it. And then I realized that the car in front of them is now literally breaking down to like maybe 1520 miles an hour, and turning left across the road. As I'm heading straight for them, going for a driveway or a side street or whatever. And the road was crowned It was a country road, it was sort of crowned, so it was much higher in the center for drainage. So I get on the brakes, this car did not have abs, this is pre ABS braking systems. This car is just you know, you and your skill level, that's all the car gave you. None of the driver aids that we have today that will save you. So I get on the brakes. And the brakes begin to lock in. And the car starts to slide. And I get a couple of wheels on the soft shoulder. And I'm going you know, again 60 miles an hour here. And as I get two wheels on the shoulder, the car begins to go into a slide and the car begins to rotate. And if you know anything about mid engine cars, they kind of spin on their own axis, right because the weights in the middle. So this car does 180 degrees spin at 60 miles an hour, it comes back onto the road facing in the wrong direction. And I'm going backwards at speed. And I slow the car down. And I park it and I'm literally straddling the line on the middle of the road. The first car that turned I missed the bumper by probably inches or maybe a foot. The second car, the car that I first passed is now headed straight at me. Because it's still going in the direction it was going originally. But I'm now opposing it blocking the road part. I go to fire the car and it won't restart because it's hot and I just spun it. So I'm sitting there and my girlfriend is sitting next to me mortified. She's turning, you know three different shades of white. And I finally fired the car up. I'm now face to face with the driver of the first guy parked because he stopped literally at my front bumper, and I'm making eye contact with him and waving and I got the car fired up. I get it off the road. I turn it the correct direction. And we and we drove off to the winery. Needless to say we got to the winery and we both needed a drink. That girlfriend ended up marrying me. But she never drove with me again after that. Yeah, I'm gonna need to talk to your wife. I don't think that's a good idea. We need a separate one for your life here. Oh my god. What about this one Speed break issue. Oh, and by the way, just just to finish that story, we go to the winery, we end up spending a few hours there, we drive home back to my place in Raleigh. I put my car back in the garage. And not only is there not a mark on it, but it's not even dirty. There's not even like a fleck of dirt or stone chip on it. I was so lucky. I was so blessed Jeff, to be able to get into that kind of a violent spin and not damage the car in any way. The tires weren't flat spotted. There wasn't even any dust on it. It was like it was just God looking out for me that day was unbelievable. It's it's also unbeliev. I mean, to get in a spree out of whack is an easy. You know, it's a very it's a very benign handling car. It's a very good car. You're right. I mean, what what happened with me was very extreme. And I put the car into a situation where I couldn't recover it. That was my doing. So right. But you're right. It's not it's not a car you typically hear about. There are some cars they call widow makers. Typically, the Asprey is not a Widowmaker it's a pretty friendly car. The 940 450 miles an hour. Was your wife. Was your wife in it with you all? You remember that story? I told you. Okay. No, that was a different situation. That was I was actually working, I was on the job. We had bought a 1989 Turbo S 944, which was the really one of the best and fastest versions of the of the 944 lineup, I want to say was putting out about 250 horsepower, which at the time was considered a lot, really a lot. A regular 944 was putting out like 150 160 horsepower. So this was a very fast car, my Porsche master tech, was working on the car and needed to road test it. So he pulled around to my office and asked me if I wanted to go for a ride. So I said, Sure. We jumped in the car, we're up on Route 95. And he's showing me what the car can do. And anyway, we pull off the ramp, and we get back on the ramp to go back home. And as we're heading back towards the dealership, he just gives it the full beans. And I mean, we came off the ramp at probably 80 to 100 miles an hour. And I don't even know what speed he got up to. But it was it was in Top Gear redline. So I think the car maxes out at 158. So for the sake of argument, let's say we were above 150. At this point, I'm in the passenger seat, he's driving. And I hear him yell out something that was, you know, not not a nice word. And I could see that he was a little bit stressed. And I looked over at him. And he said no brakes. What do you mean? He said, the pedals gone. Now here's a guy who has been driving high performance cars his entire life. He had his NASCAR license. And he used to be the head mechanic on a funny car team back in the 1960s. So this guy has been around horsepower since he was about 14. And he's a really good driver. We lost him a few years ago, sadly, just a fantastic guy. His name was out. And after he realized the pedal had gone down. Being a car guy being a mechanic understanding what's happening, he realized that he had just overheated the brakes trying to get on at that speed. He got off the brakes, he let some cool air run over them. We're still traveling at you know, 140 150 miles an hour. And he waited until we got right up on a cluster of traffic. And at the last second, he did a blip in a big downshift. And then just got on the brakes again, giving them some time to cool. And the brakes were working again. And a little bit of faith there that the brakes would come back but he knew they would he just wasn't sure how strong that feel when we when we got back on them. Anyway, we slowed down by this time were slowed down about 80 miles an hour, without gaining on a cluster of traffic and the sensation of speed coming from what he was doing to where we were. It was the strangest thing I've ever felt. By the time we got down to about 60. It felt like I could open the car door and just step out. It felt like we were parked already. It was just an amazing experience. Not one that I'd ever liked to repeat. Definitely nothing, nothing that exciting. At that dealership, that was the that was probably the scariest ride of my life. Because it was on an unpredictable problem that we had to deal with. And it was always the risk that we're going to hit something or an airbag is going to open. But it wasn't the most exciting drive. So okay, there's the setup. So here's the setup. Ellis I, I I got to ride shotgun, with Derek bell in the Bentley racecar that raced at Lamar. Oh my gosh, back in the early 2000s. So we, you know, Bentley, Bentley one, the lottery 24. In 2003. In essentially the same car, it was a different car. You know, they had several cars on the team, the one that I was writing in was a different vehicle than the one that crossed the finish line first, but it was virtually the same car. And Derek Bell was demonstrating laps down in Palm Beach. And I was I was fortunate to be in the right place on the right day, and was invited, they fitted a second seat to the car, which it doesn't normally have in it. And I got to go around the track with him for three laps at tremendous speed. And I'd have to say that was the most thrilling ride I've ever had. period in a vehicle. It was amazing. And I know he's been one of your guests. The passenger thing I can never be okay with. So when you're telling me the story in the 944, you're telling me the story going to buck 85 with Derek. I know you trusted al. Funny car NASCAR license. And of course, how can you not trust Derrick Bell, but they to me when I'm doing? And I never did like rosary. But I'd be doing like, in my mind, like, you know, Lord, I have kids. I mean, you know, if we could just get through this, like, I'm not enjoying any of it. Right? I know, I know, you weren't enjoying the freeway thing, because that wasn't meant to be enjoyable. But that being a passenger thing, to me, makes it 10 times worse. And I believe that the you know, the first situation I was in, I didn't expect that to happen, right? I didn't. I didn't expect him to go that fast. And I certainly didn't expect the brakes to go out. So that thing happened before I could even sort of deal with it mentally. You know, I mean, it was just in the moment. The thing with Derek, I knew I was getting into that car and that we were going to go fast. So I had plenty of time to kind of anticipate and get excited about that. And and I really enjoyed it. It was it was scary. I'm not going to kid you. I mean, you're not in control. And and you're in a car going, you know fast enough to potentially kill you or hurt you if something went wrong. But you're doing it in a safe environment. At a track with safety workers. You're You're I was wearing a helmet. I was wearing a flameproof suit. I'm riding with a guy, that's one of them all five times. So if that's not a great qualification, I don't know what it is. So it took a lot of the risk out of it, really. And he talks about it while he's doing it, too. He's so cool about it. Right? So yes. Oh, he just Christ. Oh, my God, you know, oh, yeah, I'd be like shooting a little. No, I can remember we went around the track and one lap, we missed the apex. And, you know, I've done enough driving on track to know the line and you know how to drive the car and where we should have been, and I could see that we missed it. And I looked over at him instinctively and he looked over at me and he and this is while he's managing the car close to 100 miles an hour in a corner. He looked over at me and said, How much do you weigh?

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This has been Jeff Sterns connected through cars.