Nothing gets car guys fired up quite like the throaty growl of an exhaust system – the balance of loudness and quality, the flavors of the exhaust notes. As systems are getting more and more complicated, the guys wonder what’s coming down the pipeline, literally. “We’re in a world today where you have total system continuity,” answers the man from Magnaflow, Richard Waitas. “From the bumper to the motor to the exhaust to the interior, everything’s connected.”
Will Dover, Director of Category Management, Undercar at CarParts.com joins the guys to discuss one of the two most essential aspects of driving – stopping. While not everyone sees the fun factor of brakes, those who do can really appreciate how great stopping power enhances vehicle performance and driving pleasure. Selecting the right kit can be daunting, posing this challenge for Will: “How do we make it as simple as possible for the customer to find the right product for their car so that we can get them back on the road as quickly as possible?”
The 20th Anniversary Season Finale brings Kevin and Willie together with past hosts Dave Bowman, Sam Memollo and Bryan Fuller to tackle a 20-year-old Jeep Wrangler TJ that was popular when the show first began. Once this newly retrofitted Jeep is ready to hit the trails against its modern counterparts, the guys relax and reminisce about their long journey to today – an episode 20 years in the making!
The owner of this 1979 Z28 hit a wall when it came to getting his vehicle up and running after doing an at-home engine swap. So, Kevin and Willie step in with a slew of upgrades to get it running again.
The owner of this 2012 Dodge Challenger R/T loves racing and wants to start the first steps of getting his vehicle track ready. So, the guys outfit it with some suspension upgrades as well as a few extras that are virtually guaranteed to help the owner shave some precious time on the track.
Former co-host Bryan Fuller joins Kevin and Willie to celebrate Two Guys Garage’s 20th Anniversary and chat about the trio’s recent reunion with original hosts Dave Bowman and Sam Memmolo on the milestone season finale. They also go deep on one of Bryan’s latest and most unexpected projects, outfitting a ’69 Cougar convertible with Tesla underpinnings.
Willie B is deep in the throes of his first solo SEMA build on a rare 1966 Dodge Charger “slapper” car that is most definitely NOT a General Lee. With the clock ticking down, he’s sliced, diced, cut, chopped and wide-bodied it, learning firsthand that “most nightmares occur while you’re awake.” In this final installment of our five-part series, he begins to question whether all the lost sleep, high stress, and hurdle after hurdle will be worth it in the end.
As president of Factory Five Racing, Dave Smith is the poster child for pride in ownership. The “Built, Not Bought®” kit car company has weathered its share of storms over the course of 27 years, with the last year-and-a-half being “both the most challenging and maybe a lot of fun, too, but not in the way I thought.” Consider this: There are 4500 parts in one kit, and with 10 kits sold in an average week, that’s 45,000 parts leaving the building in a single week. Add a global pandemic to the mix and, as Dave tells the guys, things get complicated real fast.
Rob Ida is a third-generation car builder and, in Kevin’s estimation, one of the most talented designer-builders on the planet. His penchant for Tuckers is renowned, and he also tackles an incredible array of projects from the most modern to most archaic and just about everything in between. In Part 4 of our five-part series, Rob chronicles the hurdles and headaches of restoring a rare 1962 Holman Moody Ford Falcon/Challenger 3 for SEMA.
Once upon a time, old school hot rodders had to sacrifice cabin comfort for horsepower. Today, there are zero reasons for any cool car not to have AC. Much of the credit for this can be attributed to the folks at Vintage Air and its Chief Innovation Officer, Ryan Zwicker. The company’s SureFit and Front Runner systems have revolutionized the industry, leading Willie to dub them “the panacea of pulleys,” and Ryan to note that the “best way to judge a fan’s capacity to do work is how much motor it has on it.”
As owner of the successful Girl Gang Garage and co-host of MotorTrend’s long-running hit series All Girls Garage and Garage Squad, Bogi Lateiner has earned an enviable reputation in the automotive world. Now deep into her third all-female SEMA build – “I did not expect to be building a SEMA car, ever!”– she takes time out to chat with Kevin and Willie about the project in the third installment of our five-part series. “It’s the biggest undertaking that I’ve ever done; it is absolutely insane, it’s just an unreal project!”
The WRX STI platform comes nicely packed in its stock form, but Kevin and Willie want to squeeze even more out of this little car. They’ll install a quick shift kit and then ensure the drivetrain is up to the task by performing a few upgrades. By the end of the day, they’ll be banging gears in this tight boosted import.