Don Heditsian- Part 3! Derek, Phil, Rubens, Michael, Ayrton, Gerhard, Johnny, Mario Andretti, Nigel.

Don Heditsian - Part 3 - v3 (2)

Wed, 3/3 9:46PM • 32:30

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

car, driving, ducati, ride, factories, ferrari, watching, hear, jeff, ice, fun, speed, people, dinner, called, world, driver, year, apex, russian border

SPEAKERS

Jeff Sterns

Jeff Sterns  00:00

Jeff Sterns connected through cars, part three of donhead Datsun, you're going to want to watch as he talks about his passenger seat ride. With Derrick bell. It's worth watching and there's much, much more the table next to me. At the president of Ferrari sitting next to giorgetto Giugiaro, the designer, and Pininfarina, who are two of the greatest Italian designers of design. Most of the Maseratis and Ferraris that have ever been created. You're you're on ice, you're on a frozen lake, you know, 20 minutes from the Russian border. Fastest vehicle I've ever driven, is not the vehicle I've driven the fastest.

00:46

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  01:05

we, we missed the apex, and I'm, 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? And I answered him, and he kind of it calculated in his brain. And he said, Ah, I understand now. And he corrected, he corrected the slide, we were sliding away from the apex. And he gave it some throttle, and he and he rotated the car, like a pro that is instinctively the perfect exit to the corner. And then the next lap, it was a perfect lap. But what he needed to do was recalibrate his driving to compensate for my bodyweight, because normally he's in the car by himself. And he doesn't have an extra couple 100 pounds sitting next to him. But he had that. So having that extra ballast onboard? I mean, that'd be like carrying an extra fuel tank, or having a bigger engine or something. So imagine how his brain worked. Because if you wait around, you know, 200? What if you would have said 180? Or 220? What do you have turned another, you know, quarter ml, I think, I think it was, I think it was a question of, he had been giving rides to different people all day. And just before me, there was a, like a teenage girl that he took around. And this was for charity. This was like a silent auction kind of thing. rides with Derek bell for a great cause. So someone had bid on this, and sent their teenage daughter. So this, this, you know, 1617 year old girl that maybe barely weighed 90 pounds, had been in the car before me. And so that's how he was used to the car handling. And this was early in the morning is, you know, first couple drives of the day. So then I jumped in, and I'm 200 Plus, and I get in the car and the car didn't behave the same way. And it threw him off. And he immediately, you know, corrected for it like the pro that he was. And then on the next lap, we nailed it. Because he was conscious of what the car was doing. Just just phenomenal to ride with him. He's a genius. He truly is. Who else famous or aspirational? Have you met? Well, you know, I've met a lot of interesting people in the brands that I've that I've been working with over the years, but staying on racing for a minute, I've had the privilege of, you know, being in the company of if not, I wouldn't say I'm friends with it, a lot of them but I've had I've had dinners where Phil Hill, who was the first American Formula One champion. We also had Carroll Shelby at that dinner, which was amazing. I when I worked for Ferrari, I got to meet Rubens Barrichello as well as Michael Schumacher, who was world champion. At that time, Luca door who was the test driver for the team. I've been in close company with Ayrton Senna, in the pits at Montreal. I didn't speak to him because he was getting ready for the race. And I didn't want to bother him frankly, but got five or 10 feet away and took some great pictures and so been been around you know, a lot of interesting drivers. I've met Gerhard Berger, used to be a Ferrari f1 driver. I've actually met and spoken with Johnny Herbert who used to be a Formula One driver for Lotus. So yeah, these are all my heroes. And I've been to a couple events where Mario was and Nigel Mansell. So, you know, it's like pinch me I can't believe I'm in the room with these people, let alone You know, maybe having dinner with them or something like that. That's been great. Nigel's got a house near us, does he? Yeah, now don't get me wrong. I don't live in Nigel's neighborhood. The he's on the intercoastal in bel air towards Clearwater but we've been going by on the boat for 9 million years and I remember one dealership I was working at prior to the one where you and I met we we sold him a car I never met him but our dealership sold him a car and the used car manager took it over to his house and so we all knew it was amazing now a buddy of mine that's a root canal surgeon is good friends with him. So now I like I know you know that that's how but from the intercoastal looking from the boat, there's a seawall and there's like a guest home right down on the seawall and then you go up steps up, step up step to this estate and go past whatever cabana and pool and, and then this giant house but the guest the guest house just looks like a little out crop and it's bigger than my house. And I hear he's a super I mean, I don't know him. I mean, my, my buddy, the surgeon is, dear, dear friends, they go boating together and get together and go to, he says he's just the sweetest guy in the world. Amazing, amazing driver, amazing talent. And from what I from what I know about his life story, just really bootstrapped his way into the top echelons of motor racing, you know, mortgaged his house and borrowed money, and just he knew he had the talent. And, you know, it's tough, it's sometimes getting the sponsorship that you need, and finding people to support you. But he, you know, he clawed his way to the top, he did a great job, and then obviously became World Champion, with the Williams team. should see if I can get him. You know, our it'd be fascinating to talk to, well, the podcast is people I know we know each other. So I don't know. But maybe it would, maybe we could kind of make that gray area because we both have a very good, one of our best friends that mutual. So we'll see. We can get them on there. I'll give you a credit. We're going to say Listen, my buddy, Donna desean says, cowboy. I gotta have you. So in your garage, you mentioned you have a late model car. But I've got a GT three Porsche in your garage, you have a GT three, but not your daily driver. That's your you mentioned toy, the GT three What year was that? Because it's a stick, right? It is a stick. It's a 2018. So I think they're done with manual transmissions in those cars. They were for a while they they stopped building them for a few years. And then when the 2018 came out, they actually brought back the six speed due to popular demand. So I had an older one, I had an O seven with a six speed that I was going to keep. And when I found out the 18 was available to order with a six speed I went ahead and did that. So I'm enjoying it. It's a great car. It's a great car. What else in the garage besides croquet set? I don't have a croquet set I did growing up, though. What else is in the garage? It just seemed like I just you know it. Not enough adrenaline for you. I'm picking up Right, right. Well, I'm not a collector. So I only have one car that I you know, that's a sports car like that. We have you know, we have a pickup truck and we have a SUV, but I also have a Ducati that I ride. And you know you mentioned adrenaline. That's what I take out when I need my therapy. The Porsche is fun. But the Ducati Ducati is my medicine. You know, my sons that are watching. They're not allowed to have motorcycles. But if you have to have one, and you're gonna go behind my back, make sure it's a Ducati at least make sure it's make sure it's a Ducati. Yeah, no, it's the bike sounds great. It's got a titanium race exhaust on it, and dream. It's just, it's just amazing. It's, it's, it's, it gets your blood going. Every time you take it out. It's a lot of fun. You know, I didn't take up motorcycling till I was 55. You know, no kidding. You realize like, I had enough anyway, what's the difference? You know, I had a neighbor that was interested in buying a Ducati for him and his son to do a little father son bonding, before his son was going to go to college. And they decided to go take a safety course together and get, you know, get their motorcycle licenses. And he asked me to tag along so I did. Next thing I knew I had a license. Next thing I know they're buying a couple Ducati keys. And my wife says to me, are you going to buy one too? And I said, No, I don't think so. I just, I just wanted to get the skills and you know, get my license just to have it. Just a nice thing to have another, another license in my wallet for something and two weeks later, I went out and bought one. I couldn't I couldn't wait. I couldn't resist. But where you are, I mean, you remember our area. I mean, could you imagine trying to ride that thing on us. 19 are up and down and side streets by my old dealership with half the retirement with the cataract glasses. You know, I really, I'm not sure I don't remember the streets that well there but it you know, where I live there's some decent roads and and I stay off the highways as much as I can just because of inattentive drivers. There's just so many people speeding and texting and not paying attention or just, you know, not driving well. So I try to stay out of their way. Put it on the side roads and just kind of go out and ride. But you have some places. Yeah, yeah, definitely. What's some good roads around here? I think that we would need to probably for me to feel comfortable. Need to trailer 3040 minutes. I wouldn't even want to try. I used to ride Harley davidsons when I was younger. And that was, you know, very loud. Very, you know, you'd think easy to know. But I can't tell you how many times that I've driven down the grass and bushes and whatever in the middle of a Boulevard when someone change lanes right into me. Oh, really? Yeah, I mean, easily half a dozen times. Yeah. And being paranoid at every side street. So I sold them when my ex wife was pregnant with my first son. I says, you know, that's we're not gonna have bikes when we have kids around here. But I am a little jealous when I do see the Ducati and my now wife, I don't want to hear her. I don't want her to hear me say how excited I'd be about it. Because she loves that kind of stuff. Right? She'd be like all over it. So let's get a couple of human interest. You remember September 11? Who doesn't wear you? I mean, I remember, I was yelling at my salespeople at the Cadillac dealership who were in the conference room watching TV cuz I used to chase him out of there. Go call customers go do whatever. And a plane had just flown into a building. So of course, we thought, an accident. And we're watching and then the second one went. And it was not an accident. Where were you? Believe it or not, I was in Frankfurt, Germany on 911. And it was a surreal day hearing the story of what happened. And you know, at first we were at the Frankfurt Motor Show, we got news of the first plane, and we didn't know if it was, you know, terrorists, or if it was an accident, because we didn't realize what had happened, you know, in any detail. And when the second plane hit, we got a phone call. And then and then after that, obviously, the world changed after that. And I was living in New York at the time. So I didn't go back home for almost three weeks. I actually flew to Italy The next day, and spent three weeks in northern Italy, just kind of waiting for some semblance of normality to be able to travel again. Because if you remember, there weren't flights for a while after that. Everything was shut down. Right. Everything was shut down. Well done. Thanks for turning on that light. That helped a lot. Yeah, we were sundowning here for a little while. So let there be light. While it was starting to get like into storytelling time where it was getting a little more and more mysterious. I wish that we could have affected your lighting or we could have just put it on half your face. or something. Oh, that would have been dramatic. Yes. We're a little more drama. Absolutely. So when you were in Frankfort during 911. Were you hearing like were you doing something and hearing news of it? Or was it like me where you're watching the TV live while the second plane was ending? No, no, I was I was at the Frankfurt Motor Show working. I was there representing our brand I was with Ferrari. We were walking through the exhibit hall. I was actually with with my president at the time. And his wife. He lived in New York as well. And his wife was calling from New York to tell him about the first plane. And then However, many minutes later, we got the second call. And that's when we realized what was going on. And it was surreal after that. We actually had a dinner that night. All the importers from around the world gathered for a group dinner with the brand. And obviously it was a very solemn mood and the president Ferrari spoke and said some very eloquent things about America and about how America is such a great friend to to Italy. And it was just just a feeling of really unity and coming together with the different cultures in the room. Because we literally had people in this room from every corner of the world. All the dealers from around the world all the distributors and importers and and and the people in the room where you asked me about meeting interesting people. The table next to me The president of Ferrari sitting next to Giorgio djaro, the designer, and Pininfarina, who are two of the greatest Italian designers of design, most of the Maseratis and Ferraris that have ever been created. And there's these two guys sitting at the table next to me having dinner. While all this surreal news is coming over about New York. So I was staying in Modena in a hotel. And the only channel that was in English was CNN. So I was watching, you know, from, I'd get back after dinner every night, and I'd flip the TV on and watch CNN for four or five hours until the wee hours of the morning, just to try to stay on top of what was going on back home. And I was in Italy, in Italy for three weeks. So it was it was crazy. And when I came back, I remember in the in the car ride back, passing, you know, passing the city coming back from Newark Airport, you could still see the smoldering coming from the city that that many weeks later, and it was just so heartbreaking. That that had happened to our country. To this day, I have a commemorative license plate on my car, which has the the 911 emblem on it, commemorating you know what happened on 911. And, you know, we'll never forget that type of thing. So I keep that on, I keep a special plate on my car as a reminder of that day. I remember that day, being in the exotic car business, we had science all over the country. So we just called everybody in new New York in New Jersey, that we knew to see what was going on for them. And it was so strange, because there was a lot of the fast busy signal, you know, the lot of out of service. Right? Phone and that Yeah, that was very, very, very strange. No doubt about it. Yeah, I mean, it really it really changed. They really changed America. That day. Everything is either before 911 or after 911. Really, do you think about how life change? or travel? No doubt.

17:13

Yes.

Jeff Sterns  17:14

No doubt about it. How about where you were when the space shuttle blew up? Well, that's a tough one. Do you remember what year that was? Well, I was at that Ford dealership, standing outside it watching it happen over the building looking east. So that would have been 86 Oh, wow. Okay. So I was finishing college and 86 you know what kept me out of college? Oh, high school. That's a good line. I like that. I don't know if I can keep that in or not. Because it's probably the third podcast where I use the line. I feel like we're here anyone to know. I think that's a classic, you know, a good a good joke. Like that is worth repeating. That's my, my dad, my uncle, my whole family. And it's, it's funny, because every time I would take Okay, so for those of you not in the car business a to Don was talking earlier a turnover. When the salesperson needs a little help from a manager, they say I needed to I need some help. So the manager comes out meets the customer, whatever the issue is. And my salespeople got so used to that stick, that when they would get to know their customer. Oh, they're here to get their daughter who's just going to med school a car? Do you know what kept Jeff out of med school? And I probably use that line in the showroom one to five times a day, every day of my life. And that sounds like a classic. That's like a classic vaudeville joke. You know, like, do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall practice? Now I have another one. So or my wife's credit cards were stolen. And I still haven't reported them to the authorities reported to the authorities. The thief is spending less nice No, but that's it's funny, like people that have known me and heard that in the showrooms. Someone will mention something about school or college on Facebook. And all I'll put in the comment is you know, kept me out of college and I'll get 22 high schools on my Everyone knows that. So now you do too. And now hopefully our 17 listeners Where have you been and I mean associated with mean factories raises auto shows. Like what what like especially if it's audio only paint the picture help us be there with you. I mean, like where am I gotten gotten to visit and travel? Yeah, yes. Oh, wow. So then you can leave Detroit out if you want. Okay, well, we'll start in Detroit. I've had the pleasure of being there many times. I actually worked in Detroit for a About a year and a half, back in the early 2000s, doing some work for Volkswagen. But now I've had the opportunity to work for German, British and Italian car companies. So I've been to those factories many times and corporate offices many times. And that's been a lot of a lot of fun over the years, gotten to go to some really interesting auto shows motor shows around the world. I've been to Geneva. I've been to Paris for the Paris Auto Show, Frankfurt Of course, on 911. And then car factories are fascinating. You know, I've gotten to the opportunity to visit car factories both in America. I've been to factories in Detroit, I went to the Pontiac Michigan assembly plant back in the old Pontiac days back in the 70s. I went there, I've been to the Van Nuys plant where they used to build Camaros and Firebirds in California. These are probably all closed down. Now. I know the Pontiac one is probably repurposed or something else by now but and then, of course, I've been to the Lotus factory, the Bentley factory. I've been to the McLaren factory in England. And I've also been to Ferrari and Maserati and Italy. So I've had a lot of great opportunities to travel the world and do fun things. One, one that really stands out was getting to go to Finland. years ago, we took a group of dealers to Finland to do some ice driving on a frozen lake with a three time World Rally champion you ha Cancun. And I think Derek Bell was at this also. He's I think he's done some stuff but he wasn't there when I was there. Okay, cuz he told a story about driving on the ice and oh, no, no, he's done the real ice driving he did the record setting. So what Derek did was actually drive the car at high speed. What I'm talking about what what my dealers and I did was sort of driving around in circles that on a course carved out on the ice. But Derek and and u haul Cancun, were part of the ice speed record setting, which was a totally different, a totally different deal. We weren't like we were in the little league. They're playing in the pros. Okay, yeah. Is there anything? No, tell us about this ice driving. It was a it was a blast. You're on ice, you're on a frozen lake, you know, 20 minutes from the Russian border. On a lake with it with the ice is three feet thick, frozen. In the middle of the winter. You're driving a Bentley with 600 horsepower with Pirelli studded tires. And they literally plow out a racetrack in what looks like five, six feet of snow banks. And you follow the course, you know, through the snow banks, and you're drifting the car, you're putting the car into a slide. It's all about car control, and just really managing the weight of the car. It's a lot of fun. And you can get in was there as our sort of instructor and mentor and, you know, watching him do demonstration laps was like, it's like watching a ballet. I mean, the precision if his driving is astonishing. But they teach us something called a Scandinavian flick. Never heard of that? No. Okay. So what that is, is you're heading towards a corner. And you actually steer the car abruptly in the direction opposite of where you would instinctively turn. So if you're, if you're heading for a left hand corner, you actually pull the car to the right, and then snap it back to the left abruptly to put the car into a pendulum so that the car will go into a drift, essentially. And it ends up pointing, you end up pointing the nose of the car at the apex of the corner, which is where you want to go. But if you didn't do that, you actually wouldn't be able to turn the car in sharp enough to get that angle through the corner. You're actually flicking right flicking left, and it's it's something they teach us at the school and we had a blast learning it. And not it's not something I'd probably use anywhere anywhere else in my life. Other than on a frozen lake. It's not something I'd use on a public road. But it was a lot of fun and learning to have the car move around on the ice and driving on the ice is spectacular. It's beyond fun. And we rode snowmobiles up near the Russian border. We did dog sleds, with with some beautiful Huskies taking us through the woods. Just a great trip. The dealers that went on that trip. This was probably 2008 something like that. They still talk about it to this day, fondly. I mean, it's like it was everyone's favorite trip with a brand had a blast. That's thank you for telling us about that. That's now that's the kind of story like, I could imagine being there when you're describing it anyway. How about the fastest car that you've actually driven? I mean, I know you've written. I mean, you went 185 with Derek, and 150, with your buddy in the 944. But how about driving? So with me driving? Was it in your GT? Three, I need to think the fastest vehicle I've ever driven, is not the vehicle I've driven the fastest, if that makes sense, okay. So that the fastest vehicle I've had the privilege to drive in, was 1000 horsepower, Bugatti Veyron. I had with me, Butch light singer in the car, who was hosting a bunch of VIP clients to test drive the car that day. And so I had the opportunity to ride alongside him, and then also to drive the car briefly. So I probably put 15 miles on the car. And that was definitely the fastest thing I've ever driven. Yeah, that has a top speed, I think of about 260 at the time, which is mind boggling. Because you know, where are you going to drive 260 miles an hour? And if you did, where would you have the room to stop more important? Well, and I mean, 150 on the freeway makes perfect sense. But where are you gonna go to? And I don't, I don't and I don't condone speeding and reckless driving. You know, but on a track. These cars are absolutely thrilling the drive Really? What is the fastest you've driven? I'm gonna take the fifth on that one. Okay. So I will, I will, I will say this. It was it was early in my automotive career. And it was in a Porsche 928 f4. If you remember those very, very, very comfortable car to drive quickly in the evening. deceivingly, fast front engine v eight Porsche. Yes, very comfortable. Very, very good handling car very well balanced. 5050 weight distribution, I believe at the torque tube. And very powerful car for its time, it was over 300 horsepower back in the late 80s, which was a lot of power back then. And it was a handful, you know, when you get up, when you get up at the speeds, you have quite a bit of weight there. And you could feel it. You could feel the aerodynamics, it was pretty exciting. I'm not going to give you a number. But I will just say that I was in college still. And I had been loaned the car for the afternoon to run an errand. And I knew it wouldn't be an opportunity I had offered to me too often. So I made full advantage of it. And we'll just leave it at that. We can leave it at that to this day, Jeff. Every time I see a black on black 928. I get weaker than these. Because I remember driving that car that day and how much fun I had. It was a great car. Yeah. Okay, how about the best advice you've ever given someone else? Wow, these are really like thought provoking. The best advice I've ever given. Okay, I've got it, I would say the best advice I've ever given was to someone that I was mentoring in corporate. And they had an opportunity to leave the organization that we were a part of. And they were very distraught over the decision of whether to leave or not. They were very valuable, you know, employee, great person, great asset to the company. And I personally didn't want this person to leave because of that. But I also realized that this person has much more opportunity if they had left the organization we were in at the time. And so the best advice I probably ever gave anyone was telling that person to follow their dream and to leave the comfort and security of what they know, and to take the risk and see what life has in store for them because I believed in them. And I wanted them to believe in themselves, that if they left things could only get better. And there's no there's no worrying about what's next. What's next was just a great opportunity for them. And it turned out that way. And they left the company and they thank me later and we affirm that it was the right decision and that made me feel good that that I had given them encouragement to do that, folks. Don did not have that answer pre written. I didn't I did not that was not a Jeff stern question. I did not expect that one coming. That was not a Jeff Sterns question that hurt just a little bit like that was a little deep and insightful for Jeff was very it was very deep. Yeah, I'm used to more like howard stern type question. But that was a Jeff Sterns question. I got it. Okay. How about something that nobody knows about you? Well, there's a lot of things that nobody knows about me. Probably. You mind making it interesting? I'll try. I mean it doesn't need to be about bedwetting or anything. Oh no, no, nothing like that. Okay, I actually do a Rodney Dangerfield impersonation. My mother wouldn't breastfeed, breastfeed me. She said we should just be friends. What are you kidding me? We got no respect. No respect at all. Come on, Jeff. JOHN, thank you. I just went and did my driving test. I scored 18 out of 22 guys jumped out of the way. Try to contain yourself. I love seeing the side of you because it's really unexpected. Really? I am a performer much like yourself. I just have to be provoked. He and he is a genius. And And speaking of driving humor, did you hear the one about when I die? I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. No, not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car. I've never heard that one. That's a good one. I like that. Don, I want to thank you. We've been together a while now. I'm completely on. I mean, we've had fun. Sincerely, I called you a little over a year ago said we wanted to do this. You were amenable, we didn't do it. I called you back out of the blue. We had COVID we had all kinds of things trying to keep business together having babies whatever you had what you were doing, I said we're gonna do it. And you said, let's do it. And I'm completely grateful because I knew that you had to make sure it was cool at work. I knew that. You had your taking your Friday night with me. So I'm really grateful. I'm really appreciative that you did this with us. Well, thank you for inviting me. And it. It's been a blast talking with you in planning doing this. This has been you know, a long time coming like you said, but I've enjoyed I've enjoyed the process up to this point. And I had a lot of fun doing it with you and and I want to wish you success with your podcast and I know you're gonna have a lot of interesting guests. One thing I can promise you is if I ever need another thing, I'll call you again.

32:19

This has been Jeff Sterns connected through cars.