Download CarCast Episode Here (Click Me!)
Show Summary
Adam Carolla and Sandy Ganz take a rare look into Joey Cavaglieri’s restoration and fabrication shop. Joey’s shop features a small group of craftsman that restore some of the most expensive sports cars around. In his shop on this day are 2 550A Porsche Spiders, and an ultra rare Scarab race car that was in a wreck at the 2010 Laguna Seca Hisorics. Joey’s tells us about some of the amazing hand fabrication and restoration on these projects. Then Sandy jumps in the Motorator Matt to do some quick brake bleed on ‘The Ripper’ and some of the various tools that can be used.
Video
Joey’s Shop
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlylG6ZgSbE
John Morton in the Scarab – Wreck Clip
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_dYoHT_Ry8
Brake Bleeding
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0KXN0baVEI
Racing At Willow Springs
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDdtRWKUZY
Image Gallery
[nggallery id=168]
Joey seems like the perfect kind of boss: if know what you’re doing, and you do it well, every now and again he’ll come by and pat you on the shoulder. No words needed.
Did anybody else notice that it said “seinfeld” on the 550a? Sandy, is this his car?
Yeah, we did mentioin it, but not sure if it got cut in editing. I think we did the ‘Who is this STeinfeld’ guy you mention’ comment or something like that. Might have got clipped in the editing but yeah it’s his.
Sandy
That Scarab crash was a terrible bit of bad luck, glad he’s OK.
Only video I found on a quick search is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_dYoHT_Ry8
Thanks, I’ll post the link too, when a video of the wreck was up a while back it was pulled very quickly and gone off of YouTube. I’ll post this so folks can see the wreck!
Thanks again!
Sandy
I most enjoyed the Willow Springs video; hard to get a feel for the speed until a pass comes up, but notice that nobody came up behind The Ripper! Then, of course, noticed in the “Bloopers”, how much of an impact new tires had.
Question: We know the car had to be shaking and bouncing, but the image stayed steady. Is that software, hardware, or both? What, ya got Steadi Cams on The Ripper?
Here are all the details as a few others have asked –
The car has 2 permanent cameras that are the older style lipstick models connected to a pair of Chase Cam recorders (NTSC TV Format), the outside cameras are HD bullet cam/recorders from ContourHD that were mounted on their suction cup mounts to the rear fender. The CountourHD’s are a combination recorder and camera and are very good and inexpensive. The Chase Cam’s are older and last years technology and cost about 4 or 5 of the ContourHD’s. The Chase Cam’s are just mounted to a solid mount to the roll bar in the car and no software or other video stabilization was used. The ContourHD’s do have some form of stabilizer which you can see as a wavy effect in the video. In my experience the more solid the mount the better, no rubber isolation on any of the cameras. At one time I had an I/O Port isolation mount for Video Camera that I used and video was always better with a solid one (They make both). Both companies have new models, my stuff is getting old!
Audio was recorded with a Tascam 8 track DR-680 porta-studio with 1 stereo mic behind the driver, one in the engine compartment behind the carb, and one on top of the shifter boot area. One thing that has been less then stellar was audio from all the recorders. Either mics in the wind or just poor sound quality. You can do better with a bit of work, but it takes some experimenting, like masking tape over the mic openings for cameras in the wind, foam, etc.
All the gear was strapped into the passenger seat and well secured.
Video was edited on Sony DVD Vegas (NTSC TV not HD mode) and this was the first time I tried really editing it up with more then one camera (It was very easy).
That’s about all I can think of right now. The mounts I made for the in car lipstick cameras can be seen here (Easy to make) –
CameraMount
http://www.chasecam.com
http://www.contour.com
This guy is typical of master craftsmen — modest, but unafraid to correct you when you’re wrong. Although the correction is always a matter of fact, nothing personal.
Some beautiful shapes there. If God had a workshop, he’d be designing women, while we have cars.
Yes, Joey was super nice for letting us take a peek into his shop. He has no advertisement, no web page, and didn’t want to get a plug out, so you have to figure he is pretty well booked up and is someone that is sought after.
I watch one of his craftsman working on a fuel tank that was bowed up, using a torch and a hammer to shrink the metal. Was cool learning a bit of metal work. All amazing to say the least.
Sandy
Great talent showcase!
People like Joey are very inspirational to me.
Thanks for showing this level of quality work.
Jack
Hey Ganz- Do you do a heel and toe rev-match when you down-shift? I heard a couple of throttle blips in the video but am curious as to how you do it. I imagine the Ripper has enough torque to power out of a corner in a less than ideal gear without lugging. Just curious. Great vids; any footage of Adam’s Lexus at Willow?
Awesome show! Thanks for doing this every week. Now off to amazon…….
Can you please if you have time on the next carcast talk about what Lambo has done with their new Aventador LP 700-4 for a couple of minutes. This car is straight nuts from what the early reports are saying!
ACE / SANDY
Can you do a show with car wax and polishers as a topic?
What do you use or should I say have people use for you? dual action polisher?
thanks
Frank
Frank, you have great timing. We are doing an episode at Ace’s place in a few days. Not sure how much instructional stuff it will have, but we can push it into that direction. So hang tight should be something in the next week or so.
Sandy
Just got my chevy s10 tuned up now when I started it sounds the the battery dead. What’s up
Great interview with Joey.
I had the pleasure to meet and talk with him at the BRE Reunion at the 2010 Mitty (his room was next to mine at the hotel). Joey was extremely polite, and I think he is one of those brilliant people that likes to keep a low profile and let his work do the talking for him.
One thing I wish you got into with him is how he can recreate a whole body from scratch and keep the proportions correct. It is absolutely an art, and it blows my mind.
Thanks for the entertainment!
Came across your video with Joey Cavaglieri. A continuation Scarab, built by scarab motorsports in Kansas, is being transported to Seattle next week to receive a custom SBC 377 cu inch engine built by Blood Enterprises. There will be vids.
Enjoyed watching this.
I actually wanted to write down a quick remark in order to appreciate you for all the wonderful ideas you are sharing on this site. My rather long internet search has now been rewarded with incredibly good suggestions to share with my good friends. I would state that that we visitors actually are truly blessed to exist in a decent place with very many lovely professionals with insightful principles. I feel very much blessed to have seen your web site and look forward to some more excellent minutes reading here. Thanks a lot again for a lot of things.