The Weekly Driver Podcast

The Hemmings Motor Club Rally: Paso Robles returns for its second edition October 24-26, 2025, bringing enthusiasts from both ends of California together for three days of back road driving, poolside gatherings, and the kind of automotive camaraderie that makes the hobby worthwhile. The car collector car community has a fresh opportunity to celebrate what these machines were built for: driving. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for The Weekly Driver to grab one of its own collector cars and join in on the rally to Paso. The timing of the rally coincides with Paso Robles' most energetic season. Harvest typically runs from late September through November, with October designated as official Harvest Wine Month. October traditionally delivers exceptional weather in this region. Warm days cooling into comfortable evenings perfect for outdoor dining and fireside conversations. More than 100 events occur throughout the month, including specialty tours, winemaker dinners, grape stomps, and live music performances. The harvest atmosphere creates an electric environment throughout wine country. Many California wineries harvest between midnight and early morning because cooler nighttime temperatures help concentrate and preserve fresh fruit aromas and flavors while stabilizing sugar levels. This 24/7 activity gives the region a unique energy during October. Rally participants benefit from this timing. The region's 300-plus days of annual sunshine typically deliver daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s with comfortable evenings, ideal conditions for outdoor dining and sunset vineyard views. This event converges in Paso Robles during harvest season, when the wine country radiates with golden vineyards and the energy of winemakers working around the clock to bring in the year's crop. Rally participants have a choice: depart from either the San Francisco Bay Area or northern Los Angeles County. Both routes cover roughly 220 miles of California's most scenic backroads before arriving at Rally headquarters, the River Lodge Paso Robles. The Northern Route: Bay Area to Paso Robles Bay Area participants gather at Alice's Restaurant in Woodside at 8:30 AM on Friday, October 24. This starting point holds significant weight in California car culture. Built in the early 1900s as a general store for the logging industry, Alice's became a restaurant in the 1950s and was bought by Alice Taylor in the 1960s. The location sits at the intersection of Skyline Boulevard (Route 35) and Route 84, surrounded by towering redwood trees. Alice's has earned its reputation as the Bay Area's ultimate car hang-out. The wooden building, which remains family-owned, serves as a world-famous stop for motorcyclists, sports car enthusiasts, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs alike. Kawasaki chose this location to release its landmark Ninja in 1991, and Tesla held test drives here in 2008 with on-site electric charging stations. The drive to Alice's through the Santa Cruz mountains on any given weekend rewards visitors with an impromptu car show. Vintage Porsches parked beside modern EVs, custom choppers next to pristine BMW motorcycles. From Alice's, the northern contingent travels 136 miles through the Santa Cruz mountains, past Moss Landing, and into Monterey before stopping for lunch at Baja Cantina & Grill in Carmel. The restaurant was founded by Patrick and Gina Phinny, whose love for racing and automobiles directly shaped the venue’s distinctive character. Patrick Phinny, a longtime car enthusiast, recognized an opportunity after spending time vacationing on the peninsula. Despite the area hosting the world-class Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, he noticed a lack of gathering places specifically catering to car enthusiasts. When he discovered a location that reminded him of a Route 66 gas station, he decided to share his extensive personal automotive memorabilia collection with the public. Vintage car memorabilia covers the walls, creating an atmosphere that appeals to both casual diners and serious collectors. The collection reflects Phinny’s decades of passion for automotive culture and racing. The route then continues 123 miles through Carmel Valley, Lockwood, and around Lake Nacimiento. Carmel Valley offers a striking contrast to the coastal environment. As drivers leave the deep blue Pacific behind, the landscape transforms into rolling hills, open meadows, and vineyards. The winding road climbs to 2,000 feet, providing sweeping views of the Salinas Valley before descending again. Cattle graze on hillsides shaded by overhanging oaks, creating a pastoral scene that defines California's inland beauty. The Southern Route: Los Angeles County to Paso Robles Southern California participants start at The Stonehaus in Westlake Village at 8 AM. The 136-mile first leg takes drivers through Ojai and the Casitas Valley before reaching Los Olivos for lunch at Plenty on Bell in Los Alamos. The Stonehaus was conceived by Westlake Village Inn owner John L. Notter and Chief Operating Officer Chris Cuilty as a European-inspired enoteca that would transform throughout the day, from gourmet coffeehouse to wine bar. The concept originated when Notter, inspired by his travels to Saint-Tropez, envisioned creating a vibrant gathering place on hotel grounds that had previously housed a gas station at the corner of Lakeview Canyon and Agoura Road. Notter’s vision extended beyond simply adding another amenity. He planted a vineyard on the hotel property, which sparked the entire project. “That’s how the whole concept started,” Cuilty explained. “You can come and visit the property and feel like you’re in Tuscany”. The one-acre vineyard grows Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, and Syrah grapes, producing approximately 200 cases annually through a partnership with Pacific Ridge Vineyards. Ojai deserves its reputation as one of Southern California's most beautiful drives. The small valley town sits surrounded by hills and mountains that frame every view. Highway 150, which connects Ojai to Santa Barbara, ranks among the region's most scenic roads, offering elevation changes and sweeping vistas. The route through Foxen Canyon Road between Los Olivos and Los Alamos provides another highlight. This 30-mile stretch of rural Santa Barbara County backroad combines natural beauty with agricultural heritage. The road winds through varied terrain, from flat agricultural fields to rolling hills dotted with vineyards. Foxen Canyon Wine Trail wineries line the route, with Rhône varietals dominating the southern portion and Burgundy wines in the cooler northern section. Plenty on Bell, the lunch stop in Los Alamos, occupies a charming downtown location at 508 Bell Street. The restaurant emphasizes locally sourced ingredients and offers both an indoor dining space and a romantic tree-lined patio. The restaurant operates under the leadership of Chef Jesper Johansson and co-owner Christine Gallagher. Johansson holds a distinguished place in Los Alamos history as the first chef to establish the town as a serious culinary destination. For 16 years, he served as head chef and partner at Café Quackenbush, where he cooked for clients throughout the Central Coast region, including Julia Child. After lunch, the southern route covers 98 miles through Casmalia, the Woodlands, and along the coast past Morro Bay. Morro Bay presents one of California's most recognizable landmarks, Morro Rock, a 576-foot volcanic plug rising from the harbor. The town sits directly on Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, making it a natural stopping point for road trips along the Central Coast. Saturday's Loop Into the High Desert Both groups reunite Friday evening at River Lodge Paso Robles for a welcome reception featuring cocktails and Italian-inspired fare from Ciao Papi Restaurant + Bar. Northern and Southern California participants finally meet, able to share stories from their respective journeys. Saturday delivers the rally's centerpiece: a 230-mile loop that ventures into California's high desert and back. The morning departure at 9:30 AM takes participants on a 125-mile route through Central California's backroads to New Cuyama, where lunch awaits at The Buckhorn Restaurant. This drive through the Los Padres National Forest on Highway 33 and surrounding roads offers dramatic scenery. The Jacinto Reyes Scenic Byway, which includes portions of Highway 33, travels through some of Southern California's most picturesque and diverse terrain. The route passes through Wheeler Gorge, where the road squeezes through narrow canyons alongside boulder-strewn creeks. Water seeping from cliff faces sustains maidenhair ferns, mosses, and orchids. Further along, the dramatic white sandstone outcroppings of Piedra Blanca come into view. The Buckhorn in New Cuyama represents a piece of mid-century California history. Originally constructed in 1952 during the region's oil boom, the roadside resort served workers and travelers in the remote high desert. The property sat dormant for years before being revitalized by new owners in 2018. The restoration preserved the building's mid-century bones while updating amenities. Today, The Buckhorn serves as both a roadside oasis and a destination, featuring locally sourced ingredients and partnerships with small Cuyama Valley farms. New Cuyama itself sits at the intersection of four California counties. San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. The town's name comes from the Chumash word "kuyam," meaning clam. The landscape here blends dusty plains, grasslands, and rolling hills, all yielding to pines and mountain slopes under the shadow of the Sierra Madre. The afternoon leg returns to Paso Robles via a 105-mile drive through Los Padres National Forest, arriving back at 2:40 PM. ...

In this special The Weekly Driver podcast episode, Michael Kahn takes the reins from longtime hosts James Raia and Bruce Aldrich in an interview with Raia, who reflects on the journey in automotive journalism and podcasting over the past seven years. Raia leans forward and with a bit of a journalistic tone, he casually shares, "After reviewing cars every week for 21 years, I still find myself asking, 'What’s the story behind this car?'” With candid humor and heartfelt anecdotes, Raia shares the story of how he and Aldrich built the podcast from scratch, interviewing everyone from car enthusiasts next door to industry giants like the CEO of Fiat. "Some of our best episodes were just like having a coffee with a friend—it’s like you forget the mic is even there," Raia reminisces fondly. Michael Kahn and James Raia driving the 2023 Lucid Air Pure. Transcript Michael Kahn: All righty. Well, weekly driver podcast final episode with James Raia being taken over by myself, Michael Kahn. What are we doing here? James Raia: We're doing a final podcast of the weekly driver Bruce Aldrich and I started it more than seven years ago, and I think we're, we went past 275 episodes. We mostly did it weekly because the site's the weekly driver, and that was corresponding to the fact that I test drove cars for each week for about 20 years before you purchased the site. And Bruce and I decided to do this podcast on a whim and we just had a blast that we got to meet a lot of important people in the car world some internationally famous, some locally famous, people with used cars, people with vintage cars, people with new cars, book authors, all kinds of different people. Analysts, anybody who was marginally related to the automotive field; we interviewed a lot of people. Michael Kahn: Yeah, in listening through all of your episodes over the past seven years, you have such a diverse array of subjects and people you've talked to, friends you've made, and just the way that you ask your questions and tell people or let people tell their stories. It's a really good podcast. James Raia: Thank you. Michael Kahn: And I know that I'm taking over and of course I have my own personality and my own direction, which is fine. James Raia: Sure. Michael Kahn: But I'm excited just to leave these episodes up and let people continue to listen to them. And also they're, they're timeless. The things that you talk about aren't relevant to whether they were published last week or seven years ago, they remain very interesting and they're certainly worth revisits and I'm sure you have plenty of favorites. James Raia: Oh, absolutely. I think, before discussing some of the favorites, one of the things that made the podcast work, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that Bruce and I have been friends for a very long time. Michael Kahn: Yeah, how did you meet Bruce? James Raia: Bruce was a Triathlete, a pretty prominent local triathlete, and I worked at the Sacramento Bee years ago, and I did a story on him. Michael Kahn: Sacramento Bee, being the Sacramento based newspaper. James Raia: Yeah, back then Sacramento Bee was it was the daily newspaper in Sacramento for a long time and now it's six days a week. And it back in the day, you know 30 years ago, it had a large budget and I was interested in endurance sports, I still am. And Bruce, I'd heard about Bruce and we met, did a story on him. And, we struck up a friendship and, Bruce inherited from his father a 1959 Volkswagen bug, and I had an old Volkswagen bug. So that kind of just got the ball rolling in terms of our friendship. And we have, other common interests and his wife knew my then girlfriend and now wife and so the four of us are friends. And it turns out we live down the street now with a new home. But I think in addition to that, Bruce's personality and my personality we're complimentary. I know about journalism and he knows about the automotive world. He rebuilt engines he's gone to a lot of shows, he has friends who are car enthusiasts. So, I think we were able to bounce off kind of the lay person approach that I had with his perspective as a person who knows about engines and other things about automobiles. So that's how it kind of developed. And I think we just had a casual way of approaching it, that was kind of fun. Michael Kahn: And you guys definitely had a great yin and yang conversation. James Raia: Yeah, I always, we always told guests, we'd call up somebody and we'd say we're going to do a little bit of a countdown and then what's just going to be like having a cup of coffee or a beer with somebody, or a glass of wine, it's very relaxed. Some people still didn't know exactly what a podcast was or is. And so we said it was, you know, audio only. And sometimes we interviewed people overseas with a big time difference, sometimes it was somebody down the street. And we always told them that the half hour went pretty quickly and with the very few exceptions it goes pretty quickly if you get into the subject. Michael Kahn: Yeah. That's always a favorite of mine, whether I'm interviewing someone or listening to a podcast, it's just how conversations can flow and you can really tell when both the guests. You and Bruce did that so many times, time and time again. James Raia: Yeah, we started out with literally on a shoestring budget and we had sponsor. Michael Kahn: I've seen the shoestrings James Raia: Had two strings and a tin cup, and then we mostly, we did it in back Bruce's backyard. And we had, as we got into it, we had a little bit better equipment and Bruce was a very good editor and we took different approaches at different times and we was, we would always look forward to having, if nothing else, being friends, but just having the microphone on at the same time and it got us into a few places and we got to interview some important people in the automotive space. Some people were a little hesitant. Some people who were, like the president, we interviewed the president of Fiat one time. We didn't know he was, we were going to interview the president of Fiat. We were at the LA auto show and there were some interesting cars there and we asked the marketing or public relations guy if we could do an interview about some of the new products they had, the guy said sure let's do it tomorrow. And we show up and there's a nice room and this guy walks in and he's the president and CEO of Fiat. Michael Kahn: That's so much fun. James Raia: It was so much fun and it came with a surprise and that would be corresponding to someone who I met in Midtown, Sacramento. One time, I was at lunch and this guy drove up and it was a like a 1930 something Packard and I looked at the guy, happened to see him, and I said, that is a great car. And he said, well, I have a few of them in my backyard. And so it turns out the guy was, lived about a mile away. We went over there one afternoon and sat in the back of his 50 something Lincoln Continental. And he ran a little company to take people out on fancy dates or anniversaries or whatever the occasion was. And he was working on cars with a bunch of other guys and they had, he had 10 or 12 cars and they were all great. So it was just a guy down the street in comparison to the president of Fiat. It was something. Michael Kahn: Yeah. And that's kind of what I really enjoyed about revisitings of your old episodes is just how it can be these automotive executives to marketing people to the guy down the street who just has a real passion for cars. James Raia: Yeah. Michael Kahn: I'm curious. Okay. So what's your story? We talked a little about Bruce, but I'm kind of curious about the story, the origins of James. James Raia: Oh, in the automotive space I was a beat writer for the AP covering the Sacramento Kings. When they first came to town in late 1986 was the first season, 85, 86 season was the first season of the Kings. And I was the, one of the old Arco Arenas. Now they're office buildings. And I was sitting next to another reporter named Jeff Wiedel, and he, just chatting and he said he started to do car reviews and I asked him how he did that. And he said, well, he didn't really know much about cars, but he'd heard about this outfit that has a liaison company to the manufacturers. And he told them who he was and what his experience was as a journalist. And I said, do you know anything about cars, Jeff? And he said, not a thing. And so I figured, well, I don't know a thing either. But I'd been a reporter at that point for, you know, 20 years or so. And so I got started just by providing some clips of other stories. And then I got involved with a very small syndicate in Canada. It was called City Express. And I started doing some reviews for this outfit that distributed columns to a few Canadian newspapers. And developed from there. I met a guy who was early on in the internet business and we developed this Weekly Driver website because I was reviewing each car for a week and then I got to meet this fellow, Mike Kahn, who helped me develop the site and Michael Kahn: Sounds like trouble. James Raia: So it was trouble, a lot of trouble and, but we're still friends. And so I just kept the car reviews going for about, well, I'm on my 21st year now of reviewing. Michael Kahn: That's amazing. 21 years. James Raia: Yeah. And I think Michael Kahn: A car a week, do the math. James Raia: 800 reviews, something like that. And that's also moved into some other areas where I've done magazine stories on cars. Again, very lay person. It's not the how to dissect an engine or to, how to replace a transmission. It's none of that. It's more about, I prefer to talk about the people who own the cars rather than the cars. But it's triggered some good assignments for magazines and newspapers and automotive shows. And for example, Monterey Auto Week is coming up on the Monterey peninsu

It was just before the opening evening session of the recent2024 Nvidia GTC conference at the San Jose Convention Center and it got quiet quickly. Alwin Bakkenes, Russell Datz, the carmaker's national media relations manager, Bruce Aldrich, the co-host of The Weekly Driver Podcast, and I all stepped in and closed our respective doors of the 2024 EX90 electric SUV perched in the corner of the expo hall. The 2024 all-electric Volvo EX90 sport utility vehicle was presented at the recent Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, California. Volvo and Nvidia, the multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, have had a business partnership since 2016. And with the conference an in-person gathering for the conference for the first time in five years, Volvo was among several manufacturers' representatives in attendance. Despite his software engineering expertise and his explanation, Bakkenes didn't need to apologize for his lack of speaking abilities. He's a skilled corporate spokesperson and he was our guest on episode #284 of the podcast Aldrich and I started in August 2017. "This particular car is the start of the new era for Volvo Cars," said Bakkenes. "It's born electric, it's born software-defined and it's very safe. What we have done is build the software architecture based on what we call our core technology which we built with Nvidia." What Bakkenes means, and how the soon-to-be-available EX90 is different from the current Volvo lineup, is the subject of our podcast. Please join us as our guest explains how the new vehicle's powertrain, chassis systems, and the driver assistance features all operate on their own computers and what that means to consumers.

Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson are colleagues in The Wall Street Journal's virtual sports department. Clegg, the sports editor, is an Englishman who lives with his family in New York. Robinson is an American based in London. They share global sporting interests, particularly soccer and motorsports. The duo's reporting expertise has led to a long collaboration away from daily journalism. They're now book co-authors for the third time. The most recent effort, published on March 12, is titled "The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport.” (Mariner Books, 304 pages, ISBN: 9780063318625; $29.99). With co-host Bruce Aldrich on vacation, I interview the two writers on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. The once-faltering circuit is now thriving. With its focus for many years at global venues, except North America, the elite motorsports circuit now has three events in the United States. It debuted in Las Vegas last November in the first year of a 10-year contract, joining U.S. stops in Austin and Miami. With events also in Canada and Mexico, five of the 24 races this year are scheduled in North America. The 11-month circuit began in late February in Bahrain, and it continues through December 8 in Abu Dhabi. The 20-car circuit will travel to 21 countries on five continents. "Both of us grew up in Europe with F1 during its first real peak in the late 80s and early 90s," said Robinson. "We both saw it as it fell away; people got bored. It just didn't have the same cultural relevance for about 15 years. That really changed in the last five or six years." The resurgence was substantially assisted by "Formula 1: Drive to Survive." The documentary series on Netflix debuted in 2019 as a behind-the-scenes look at drivers and races and money. The sixth season debuted in February. "We thought the time was right to kind of explain the rise, fall and reinvention of a sport," said Robinson. Clegg and Robinson also co-authored: "The Club: How the English Premier League Became the Richest, Wildest, Most Disruptive Force in Sports,” and "Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two Goals, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game." "We spend a lot of time before we commit a single word to paper or a computer screen," said Clegg. "We spend a lot of time sort of thinking about the characters and episodes we want to include in the book and the narrative arc we are trying to unpack with the story we are telling.” What's detailed is compelling. The authors are veteran reporters, skilled scene-setters and writers who write succinctly about rich subject matter. The cars, teams, and staff require extreme budgets. Drivers are charismatic, fans fanatical, rivalries intense. Races are held in opulent locales among pretty and handsome faces and bling. The sport has emerged from corruption. Two additional major themes of the book: Red Bull and the energy drink’s billionaire Austrian owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, and Liberty Media, the American company. It purchased F1 in 2016 in a multi-billion-dollar deal. Mateschitz infiltrated the sport quickly and retains supremacy in Formula 1 unlike any other brand in sport, according to Clegg. Liberty Media drastically changed how the sport is presented. It rebranded the logo, modernized marketing and emphasized streaming broadcasts. For years lapped by the popularity of other motorsports, the authors present F1 as the "world's fastest-growing sport." "I think we realized pretty early on that the one through line that can be traced back from the very beginning of F1 in the early 1950s right through to its current present-day success as a sort of global entertainment monster and streaming property is that this is a sport that has been defined by reinvention," said Clegg. The Weekly Driver Podcast encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friends and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media accounts. Please send comments and suggestions for new episodes to James Raia via email: [email protected]. Every episode is also available on your preferred podcast platform. All episodes are also archived via the link: www.theweeklydriver.com/twd-podcast.

The autonomous vehicle industry has reduced its speed. Its future is here, but it's not quite as in focus as the next signpost. Even the most fervent believers have re-evaluated their enthusiasm for the human-free driving mode. What's ahead for autonomous driving and an array of other pending driving technology is among the many topics in many industries set for explanation, examination and speculation beginning March 18 during the four-day Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC). Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's vice president of automotive, is our guest on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. With Co-host Bruce Aldrich on vacation, James Raia interviews Shapiro about the pending conference. "The autonomous space is progressing very nicely," says Shapiro. "It's taken longer than we initially thought. "In fact, the entire industry underestimated the complexity of being able to safely navigate." Shapiro was also a guest on The Weekly Driver Podcast (Episode #123) in February 2020. The conference involves the advancing usages of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for accelerated computing and AI. The naming sponsor, Nvidia, is the Santa Clara-based multinational corporation that designs and supplies graphics for data science and high-performance computing. It's also the dominant global supplier of AI hardware and software. Founded in 1993, Nvidia took its name from invidia. It's the Latin word for envy, the ancient Greek Titan deity of hatred and jealousy. The company chose its name to symbolize its vision and innovation in the fields of graphics and computing. The quickly evolving automotive industry and its AI future will share the conference with similar advancing innovations in healthcare, accelerated computing and data science. Organizers note more than 900 talks, training sessions, workshops and panels and more than 300 exhibitors and demonstrations are scheduled.
" Any companies that are doing work in AI will have NVIDIA in their data center, in their workstations or their vehicles," Shapiro says. "We have hundreds of car companies and truck companies; robot taxi companies have our data platform in their vehicles." According to Shapiro, organizers anticipate 20,000 in-person attendees and several hundred thousand virtual attendees. In the automotive portion of the conference, Shapiro details AI's part in improved safety. Humans still have erratic behavior whether they are driving or pedestrians. Many companies, Shapiro notes, are integrating driver assistance platforms. "The owner of the vehicle, the person behind the wheel is the driver still responsible but artificial intelligence is making the road a lot safer,” Shapiro says. "It can alert them (the driver) and it can take over certain functions on the highway, lane-keeping, emergency braking, adaptive cruise control. "These are all very complicated software systems that are getting better and better. Now, there's the notion of a software-defined car or a vehicle that can get updates just like your phone. Vehicles are just getting smarter and smarter."

A strong argument could be made that Ralph Teetor is responsible for what is now called autonomous driving. Blind since he was a young boy, Teetor invented cruise control in the 1940s. It was one of more than 40 patents granted to a native of Indiana who died in 1982. Inventor Ralph Teetor. Teetor will be inducted posthumously into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on May 9 in Washington, D.C. Jack Teetor, the inventor's great-nephew, is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Teetor the family legacy and the fascinating life of his great-uncle. Teetor has spent many years making the documentary film “Blind Logic: The Ralph R. Teetor Story.” Screenings of the film are scheduled throughout the country in the coming months. As Teetor shares, his great-uncle was remembered primarily for his invention of cruise control. But his life was remarkable in many ways. In our interview, Teetor details the circumstances of his great uncle's blindness and well as how the disability didn't stop the inventor from achieving his goals. Please join us for an intriguing episode on Ralph R. Teetor and presented by Jack Teetor. For more information about Jack or Ralph Teetor, visit: www.blindlogicproductions.com. For more information about the National Inventors Hall of Fame, visit: https://www.invent.org

Ken Karklin, the CEO of Pivotal, has had a several-decade career in engineering, aircraft and robotics. He knows technology as license holder of multiple patents. His latest passion is the Helix. Highlighted at the recent Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the Helix is the only personal flying vehicle in production in the United States. Public sales began January 8. Ken Karklin is the CEO of Pivotal, the manufacturer of the Helix, the electric personal flying vehicle. Image © James Raia/2024. Karklin is our guest on this week's episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Karklin the new vehicle and his experiences flying the Helix. We examine the practical uses of the aircraft, the regulations of the ultralight and the specs of the 15-foot-long machine. It has vertical take-off and a forward-tilting design for flight mode. Weighing just 360 pounds, the Helix falls under the FAA Part 103 (Ultralight) classification, allowing flight without a pilot's license. The EV has dual wings housing eight motors and batteries and can fly for 20 minutes at 62 miles per hour With deliveries scheduled to begin in June, the Helix base model is priced at $190,000. With extensive additional features like 4K cameras and flight-traffic control systems, the price increases to $260,000. Please join us for a look at the future of personal transportation.

As co-hosts of The Weekly Driver Podcast, Bruce Aldrich and I have for the past several years picked the top cars of the year at the end of the calendar year. This year, as we do most often, Bruce and I interview a guest on the podcast and then drive the week's review vehicle to lunch. We often extend the day to further drive the vehicle, take images and share our opinions. The 2023 Lucid Air is The Weekly Driver Podcast's 2023 Best Car of the Year. Image © Bruce Aldrich/2023. Bruce has certain interests and knows the mechanics of cars and trucks far better than I do. I write reviews of vehicles for several publications, including TheWeeklyDriver.com since 2004. I usually drive every week for a week. Bruce has contributed images for dozens of vehicles and has produced every podcast episode. Like we do every year, we selected best-of-the-year lists is based only on the model year corresponding to the same calendar year. The plush interior of the Lucid Air. Image courtesy of the manufacturer. This year we individually chose our favorite vehicles of the year based on 2023 models of 37 vehicles fully reviewed. As has also occurred several times, we both selected the same vehicle as The Weekly Driver Podcast's best vehicle of the year. It's the 2023 Lucid Air. The Lucid Air (Grand Touring) and Lucid Air (Pure) both were reviewed. Here's what I wrote in part in my review of the Lucid Air (Grand Touring): "Available in Pure, Touring, Grand Touring, Grand Touring Performance, and the new-for-2023 Sapphire trims, the Lucid Air is a high-performance, handsome, and the-future-is-now vehicle that provides a new definition of a sedan. "Spacious and wide-bodied, the reviewed Lucid Air (Grand Touring) has 819 horsepower and a 112-kWh battery that provides the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive wonder with a 516-mile range and acceleration from 0-to-60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds." "For performance enthusiasts and the electric vehicle obsessed, the stats are industry-best numbers. For the rest of us, sub-three-second efforts may cause lightheadedness. Conversely, driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles and halfway home isn’t possible in many gasoline-powered vehicles. A recharge isn’t required for long hours behind the racing-styled Lucid wheel." Please join Bruce and me as we further discuss the upstart Lucid lineup and also reveal the rest of our respective Best-of-the-Year lists.

John Vincent is the Senior Editor and Correspondent/Vehicle Testing on the Autos team at U.S. News & World Report. With more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry, Vincent knows new cars, manufacturers and trends in the industry. The former long-time newspaper reporter is our guest this week on The Weekly Driver Podcast. Honda was recently named one of the best brands for 2023-2024 by U.S. News & World Report. Image © James Raia/2023. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia talk with Vincent about his publication's recent release of its Best Cars of 2023 and 2024. Besides individual rankings throughout the spectrum of the industry, the publication also selected Best Car Brand (Honda), Best SUV Brand (Mazda), Best Truck Brand (Ram) and Best Luxury Brand (Rivian). Vincent details the publication's methodology and the publication's site also explains it: "The Best Vehicle Brand awards are an objective assessment of quality across all of a brand’s offerings in four categories: Cars, SUVs, Trucks and Luxury. "Brand ratings are based on the U.S. News Best Cars overall scores for each vehicle, which incorporate the consensus opinion of the automotive press, as well as safety and reliability data." Vincent also discusses his recent attendance at the Los Angeles Auto Show and his analysis of the show including why several mainstream manufacturers and prominent upstart carmakers weren't there. Please join us for our informative episode #276 as we talk with one of the automotive industry's most prominent journalists.

Craig Jackson is the CEO of Barrett-Jackson, the country's most well-known auction company, and he owns 108 vehicles, from muscle cars to sports cars and modern classics to resto-mods. Immersed in the automotive world since he was a boy, Jackson recently attended the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) annual gathering in Las Vegas. He was our special guest for the latest episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts James Raia and John Berg spoke with Jackson inside the Barrett-Jackson trailer on the showroom floor in one of several exhibit halls that housed the massive automotive showcase. Jackson, 63, discussed Barrett-Jackson's legacy and details of his vast personal collection. He also shared his business philosophy and thoughts on the expanding electric vehicle industry segment. "For an auction house to be over 50 years old, we've through a lot of changes," said Jackson in the wide-ranging episode. "The changes are that when we first started it we were selling all pre-World War II cars. Then it evolved. It started changing when we decided to go after the cars that the 'boomers' like, muscle cars." Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Barrett-Jackson began in 1971, as an expected one-time-only event. Its success prompted an annual auction. The Arizona event remained the showcase of the company's auctions around the country. It starts each season and is scheduled for January 20-28, 2024. Jackson took over full operations in 1995 following the death of his brother and his father. Jackson added vendors and live entertainment to the auction events. Barrett-Jackson saw increased popularity when the Speedvision network, later Speed Channel, began broadcasting the auctions in 1996. It was the first collector car auction to be televised, and coverage has since continued across several channels. "We are in the live event business," Jackson said. "We are in a very passionate business. And what it's all about is bringing new people into the hobby."