Fastest Car (2018) s01e07 Episode Script
Electric vs. Gas
I wanted to build an innocent-looking little car that was a monster inside so that people would say, "Wow!" My electric car leaves the line instantly.
It's just like you're shot out of a cannon.
There would be no Tesla if it wasn't for what we were doing.
I'm gonna go all the way, as far as my machine will let me go, and if it breaks, it breaks, if it wins, it wins.
There's no other car like this car.
I mean, the performance is unbelievable.
Nothing comes close to when you really feel inside like, "Wow.
I'm going fast.
" People underestimate me, but I have an amazing car.
One of the fastest cars in the world.
Nobody remembers last place.
Shit! Oh, my God.
- Do you copy? - 10-4.
Copy.
Lamborghini was always on my bucket list, and, I mean, I remember having, like, a poster, I think it was a Countach, like the white one.
I think most car people had that in their room, and I put it on the refrigerator as a goal like, "This is what I want to get.
" I got into commercial real estate and started making a lot of money, and who doesn't like money? And then eventually, I got it.
I still can't believe it.
Eventually, while it was in my garage, I would go open the door, and I'd look to see if it's still there, like a lot.
You know? 'Cause it feels like a dream.
You know, it still feels like a dream.
I grew up in Los Angeles in the valley.
I was a valley girl, grew up with all the valley girls and said, "Oh, my God, totally," and, "Gag me with a spoon.
" I actually got a car when I was 15 and a half, like, "Smack, get your permit, you're ready to roll.
" So, I got a red Datsun 280Z, and it was just it was awesome.
Like, it was pretty cool.
You know, a 280 back then was fast, and, like, after school, I'd race with the boys, and most of the time, I won, so that was even cooler.
This car is a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador.
This is the SV.
It's a special edition, so this is one of 600 cars in the world.
This car is a pure adrenaline rush.
You barely touch the gas, and it's flying.
It's powerful, it's orgasmic.
I don't listen to the music, I listen to the exhaust, to the engine, to the sound.
It makes me happy.
This car looked the closest to a Batmobile that I would think I would get without paying probably $4 million.
It's not every day you see a Lamborghini Aventador SV, and then the girl gets out of the car, and she's wearing Batman stuff.
People are like, "Holy shit.
What the hell?" I always loved Batman, just what he represented.
You don't have to have superpowers to be a superhero.
I just kind of related to that.
So, there is a drag race coming up, and I'm excited, because I don't really drag race but that's fine.
I mean, I track my car, I go on rallies.
I've done tons of things, but I've actually never drag raced, so I'm pretty excited.
Definitely.
I'll be honest, I have never done launch control, because you can't just do it anywhere, you know? Might get arrested.
It's very fast.
But if I want to win in a drag race, I have to do it, so it makes me kind of nervous, because I'm pretty sure my car is probably worth more than their house is.
I'm very competitive.
I like to win, you know? And I think also, being a woman, it is just so hard in like, the car world.
You don't get much respect, so being a female and winning would really be frickinâ awesome.
I'd like them to eat my dust.
Is that what they say? "Eat my dust"? Do we get, like, an award if the super car wins, you get a super car on top of a sleeper car, like, crushing it.
No, I'm kidding.
Do you want to see the world's fastest-accelerating electric car in history? It's right there.
That is the world record.
It'll do the quarter mile in 10.
258 seconds at 123.
79 miles an hour.
I maintain, boldly so there would be no Tesla if it wasn't for what we were doing.
It sounds like I got a fat head if I tell you I think I'm a pioneer, but if I'm being perfectly honest with you, yeah, I am.
But some people think I'm just a little crazy.
This used to be a 69-horsepower economy car, noted for its high gas mileage.
It now runs on electricity.
It's simply controlled by the varying of this throttle.
It's kind of like turning the volume up and down on a stereo.
So, instead of a gas tank we have a battery pack.
I don't think I wanted to be different.
I know I was different.
You know, I was the weird little kid that was always, you know, talking about science and math, and I was always interested in the way things ran.
The electric thing was planted in me at an early age.
My father-in-law was an interesting man, and I was in his garage, and I literally stubbed my toe on something, which hurt, and I'm kind of, you know, a few choice words, and he goes, "You know what that is?" And I says, "No, it hurt," and he says, "That's out of a DC-3 aircraft.
" And it was a generator, and it was this big around, it was that long.
He says, "You know, if you can turn that into a motor, that would power a car," and I kind of laughed.
I said, "That would power a car?" He goes, "Yeah.
That'd move a car really well.
" So, he gave it to me.
So, I found this little Datsun 1200 I got real cheap, and I crudely bolted this electric motor up to the transmission, and I grabbed a collection of used car batteries, and I sparked them together with a big splash, and off I went, and it flew out the driveway with the tires literally smoking, and it broke the transmission, and there was fluid all over the driveway, and I was going, "This is great!" I mean, I discovered torque, electric torque, and nobody had ever told me about this, and that just lit it right there.
I went, "Wow.
The world's got to realize that this is the way to do the thing.
" I mean, this little, tiny motor had all this power.
It's just a mind-blowing car to drive.
Every time I accelerate to 60 in under two seconds, I find this big grin on my face.
The electric power in this car is absolutely amazing.
I'm doing the race because I think it's gonna be good for the electric car to show it knocking heads with something very exotic and powerful and expensive.
It's been about four years since I've actually competed with the car, and my battery pack is aging.
It is now 10 years old, but it appears to be in top shape, so we'll put it on the track and see what it does.
I enjoy a good race.
There's always something faster out there, I'm sure there's cars that could beat this car but not a lot of them.
Electric cars are definitely better than gas cars.
They don't make any pollution.
Everybody likes clean air, for God's sakes! It seems kind of like a no-brainer to me.
My name is Ron Schneider, I live in Nuevo, California and my car is a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 Diesel.
This truck is an extension of me, which is all about show but all about go as well.
I've always known I've been destined to be good behind the wheel.
It's just something that's in me.
When I have the opportunity to show off, you know, I'm just good at it, and that's just what I enjoy doing.
As far as getting hooked in the cars, I used to go out at night and snag my parents' Ford Ranger truck, you know, at the age of 13, which, you know obviously, didn't have a license at that time, and I just kind of taught myself how to drive.
I mean, I was towing trailers at the age of 14 and 15, and all the way through high school, I was always working on vehicles, and I even went as far as doing the high school drag.
He was even racing while he was in me because he came out like "boom.
" I have such an amazing family.
They're part of my crew.
They support me 100 percent.
I should say closer to 200 percent, 'cause they're always there making sure that, you know, that I feel supported and loved.
He's gonna kick ass.
I'm telling you that right now.
I mean, a family that races and plays together stays together.
That's the way we've always looked at it.
1999 is when I got the invite to the Warren Rock Crawling Nationals.
The easiest way to describe rock crawling is taking modified Jeeps and driving them up rocks and canyons that you couldn't even walk up.
I mean, it's stuff that vehicles should not be able to do.
My wife, who is actually my teammate, she was what's called a spotter, which is your eyes and ears outside the vehicle, and, I mean, she only weighed, you know, 110 pounds wet, but her speed, her agility, and her ability to get out there and get me lined up on where I needed to go, rivaled anybody else.
Go, go, go! I was very well known in the rock crawling industry as "Rollover Ron," because that was what would always show up in the videos, always show up in the magazines, Ron's upside down.
We raced together for over a decade, you know, all through the West Coast.
In fact, both my boys grew up in the back of those buggies.
The reason we stopped rock crawling was the doctors basically told her that she was done picking up heavy rocks the way she was.
And at that time, we decided that we would try something different.
I went out and bought her a dragster, and we just started going fast.
Unfortunately, after being together for, you know, 18, 20 years, we just kind of separated and grew apart.
You know, to this day, I still don't know exactly why or how.
We both just stopped racing, went our own ways.
It was very tough.
I mean, it still gets to me to this day.
At that time, I sold off the dragster, because I had built it for my ex-wife, so it was time to let it go along with everything else, and I was left with the truck, and one of the signature things I did to it, was I put dual 6-inch stacks out through the shell.
You know, go big or go big, go big, and I went from a single turbo over-sized to dual turbos to upgrading the turbos bigger to upgrading the injectors bigger.
You know, it's a rocket ship.
I would say the biggest reason it's a sleeper is because from the outside, it looks pretty normal.
You know, it's still got full leather interior, heated seats, full stereo system, air conditioning, cruise control, and you know, people look at it, and they way underestimate it, till I mash that pedal and it comes to life.
There's a lot of pressure.
You know, I've got my family, I've got my crew that, you know, I don't want to let down and I don't want to let the other diesels and the other trucks of the world down as well.
You know, I feel like there's a lot riding on my shoulders.
Where you've got the advantage is, when you get ahead of them and you got all that smoke, they can't see where the hell they're going.
Yeah.
You always try to keep them somewhat hungry so you can have control over them.
The feed is a control.
I've had pigeons since I was about 7 or 8 years old.
I've had them for such a long, long time, it's a part of me now.
In my local club, I almost all the time win every single fly.
I've came in second in the nation two years in a row.
I look at it this way, why are you gonna waste your time doing anything if you're not gonna be the best at it? And I wanted to be number one in the pigeons just like I wanted to be number one with the Mazda racing.
My very first car, which my mom and my uncle purchased for me for my 15th birthday was the 1976 Mercury Capri Ghia, and there was only one interest and one purpose, and that was to go out and get whoever I could find at the light and make everyone my victim.
But then one day, the tables turned, and I encountered this weird-sounding car, and we pulled up to the light and we took off, and he just, like, left me.
I was like, "Man! What's going on here?" So, then I said, "Hey, what kind of car is that?" He said, "It's a Mazda.
" I said, "What kind of engine does it have?" He goes, "Rotary engine.
" And it was just I had to have one.
These rotary engines, compared to the piston motors, have a lot less moving parts.
There's no valves.
There's no pistons.
It's real tiny, it's simple, and this is capable of making a 1,000 horsepower.
So, it's the late '80s.
Life is great.
I got a hold of my first Mazda RX-2.
I'm going to the street races, making a little bit of money, I'm going to USC, studying to be a mechanical engineer, and then, all of a sudden, one day, my girlfriend goes, "I'm pregnant," and that sort of became the turning point.
And that's when I decided that there was no way I was gonna be able to finish college and get good grades and at the same time try to support a family and take care of her and the baby.
The way I got into racing was I got this R-100.
It made excellent power, so I went down to the local track and, wow! The first pass was, like, real, real fast.
They went, I think, 9.
30 or 20.
Came back around and did another one, and we went an 8.
60, which at the time was the fastest time for a rotary engine car and import car in the world, and just like that, it just blew all over.
I mean, I started getting phone calls from everyone, you know, companies wanting to help, and that's how my professional career got going.
Abel Ibarra, one of the pioneers of import drag racing.
I've had three race cars: 1971 Mazda R-100, very successful with that one.
Then I built a second race car, a 1995 Mazda RX-7.
Abel Ibarra has one of the baddest RX-7s on the planet.
Here comes Abel Ibarra, one of the hottest guys going.
That's the car that I had my most success with.
I won tons of money with that car.
I think one year I had a $75,000 paycheck.
Then my last car is my 2004 Mazda RX-8.
That's the car that I've actually gone the fastest with, but the competition started to get so rough at that later stage of the import racing, and I just didn't have the funding that those teams did at the time to be able to be successful.
I had to stop racing, because by this time, my two daughters were getting older, and I had to put them through college, and I wanted to make sure at least if I didn't get to finish college, I was gonna try to do the best that I could, so I had to, whatever money I could come up with or save, use that for them and the family instead of spending it on the race car so that the race cars just sat.
I had to put them on the back burner.
My car that I have now is a 1972 Mazda RX-2, exact same thing as my first Mazda RX-2.
I wanted to bring back those memories of my first Mazda.
It's taken quite a while to build, not only because of how much work is involved, but because of the expense involved.
The car, from the outside, untouched.
Original paint job, like it came from Mazda in 1973, interior, original, but on the inside, it has the best parts that money can buy with the best technology available for any car to date.
I love my little Mazda RX-2.
It's just so simple, but it's just a complete monster, and the best part about it is, that I can drive it normal.
I can drive it like a grandma.
I can go to the store.
But when I want to get that adrenaline rush and really, really go fast, all I got to do is give it some gas, and off we go.
It's been a long time since I actually have been in a real race scenario, probably close to 10 years, so you have no idea how bad I want to win.
I think it will let other people know that, "Hey, Abel hasn't gone anywhere.
He's making a comeback with his street car, and pretty soon, he's gonna be out there with the race car.
" What if you come up with a socket from the bottom side? - We can try it.
- Hey, guys.
Yep? Looks like we're going against a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador.
- All right.
- So, we need to talk about tunes, we need to talk about setup, talk about everything we need to do to make this girl put out it in first against that thing.
That's a 2016, so Yeah, so you're 691 to 740 horsepower.
- Okay.
- Roughly 4,000 pounds.
- That's half our weight.
- Yeah.
Four hundred thousand dollars, you know? - Okay.
- We almost got that in our motor.
- The convertible's 450.
- Okay.
Just got to get low 10s and we're golden.
- You've got the tune for it.
- Yep.
- Let's get back to work.
- Let's get this thing back on the road.
The biggest reason I'm confident going into this event now knowing what we're going against is what you see right over there, is my crew.
They're the best around.
Most of my team is family and good friends.
I got my tuners that came in from Michigan just to tune this truck for this race.
You know, they're gonna set this truck up exactly for what we need.
Between the tuning that we got and the turbo setting in, we'll dial in our tires, and if I need it halfway down the track, I'll spray nitrous and finish off the rest of it.
Evidently, I'm gonna race a Lamborghini Aventador SV.
Let's just see what that thing can do here.
Aventador.
Here we go.
Yeah, that's gonna be a good race.
6.
5 liter, that's a big one, V12, seven-speed.
Yeah, that's a pretty quick machine.
2.
7 to 60.
You're definitely gonna get off the line.
- Yeah, I think so.
Well, you know - That thing's geared for high-end.
Yeah, he's gonna have fun trying to catch up to me, I think.
Well, the thing that you've got going for you is My good looks? Oh, okay.
Sorry.
What? All you need to do is push the pedal down.
That car needs a skilled driver, somebody who's got to be able to clutch that thing off the line and go through the gears.
Yeah, but once he gets into the right gear, he's gonna be sucking me up on the quarter mile.
Perhaps, if he's not way too far behind.
Yeah, we'll see if we can psych him out on the launch, right? I believe things happen for reasons, and I honestly believe we're all on a path, and we're just following it, and I believe certain things came into my my path like that was meant to be.
It was always in my head, what could I do to make a difference? So, I dressed as Batgirl, and I went to the children's hospital.
I bought toys out of my own money, and I saw how happy it made the kids and then I saw a little girl named Lilly on my Instagram and I said, "Wow," and it had the back of her, she had, like, a cape.
And now Lilly, at the time, she's going through Chemo, and she was seven or eight months, but she started when she was three months old, so I went there, and Trish, who's Lilly's mom, introduced me to this world that I just didn't know really existed, like, childhood cancer, you know? I never knew about it.
You gonna put a cape on? Aww.
Nice.
- Thanks for the demo, Lil.
- You made that look so easy.
It doesn't just take money, it takes heart.
She didn't just walk us through my daughter becoming cancer-free, she's walked through us with me launching our nonprofit foundation, she has helped us fund three funerals.
She is family to our community.
You look good, girl.
It's a good feeling, you know, to see a kid smile, 'cause I know what they go through.
When you meet a child with cancer, it changes your life forever.
Like, you don't look at things the same.
You know, they have to appreciate her day, and I think other people need to appreciate her day too.
I don't think I'm a superhero, I think they're superheroes, like, because they go through so much.
I think, yeah, it would actually be cool to kind of win for, you know the kids.
They already let me know what car we're racing, and it's gonna be a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador.
- Who's driving the car? - Look.
Might be some rich guy that doesn't even know how to drive his car.
- We might get lucky.
- We don't know.
- And get a easy pass? - And get a easy pass.
It's the fastest Lamborghini, and if we stand a chance, we're definitely gonna have to hook up the vehicle speed sensor so that we can do the boost by gear, and we can get maximum traction in every gear.
We'll turn this thing up, you know? We'll give it everything it's got.
Raise it up so we can get it going.
All right.
Right there.
That's good.
Good spot right here so we can run this thing back inside.
It's better if we go up through the trunk.
Yes.
Yeah, that's what I was That's exactly what I was thinking.
The Aventador has a lot of power, and I believe it's all-wheel drive.
That car's gonna get maximum traction, so that car's gonna pretty much put down 740 horsepower in every gear, so I need to have every advantage I can get by installing this vehicle speed sensor, that allows me to manipulate how much horsepower I can put down in every gear.
Then I could get my car to accelerate to the full potential and not lose any traction.
The problems I've had is overheating damaging the motor, so here's what I'm gonna do, I recently added this high-powered blower.
Moves a lot of air.
Pretty quiet.
But right now, it only comes on when I tip the throttle in, which is fine for street driving, but at the drag track, when you go down the quarter mile and you really put a lot of juice in the motor, it gets hot really fast.
You know what I have that might interest you? It's a little temperature sensor, and you can just have it be automatic.
- You got to show me that.
- So, here's what I got.
This is a little temperature sensor, really simple.
- It's just a little bimetallic strip.
- Yep.
You can mount that in the exit air, and as soon as it heats up, it'll turn your fan on and keep it on.
- What temperature does it trigger at? - It's, like, around 100 degrees.
- Kind of like a thermostat in the house.
- Yeah.
It's very simple.
I like this idea.
I really do.
We can just, - like, put it in here somewhere.
- Perfect.
I've been driving it hard on the street for four years, but that's a lot different than taking it to the track, balls-out, and you're putting 2,000 amps in the motor.
It gets hot, and then you pass another 2,000 amps, and at that point, that's enough combined heat to melt the armature and ruin it, so we've added a temperature switch.
When it starts getting warm, it's gonna kick on the fan.
If it gets cool enough, it'll just shut itself off again.
So, we're adding an automatic temperature-controlled higher-velocity fan to the whole thing.
- It works! - Yeah.
And yes, I admit it, I was kind of doubting you.
Okay.
Go ahead, Joe.
Strap it up.
We're gonna put the car on the engine dyno to make sure that the sensor's working correctly.
I've had great success with race cars.
Now with my Mazda RX-2, I want to prove that, "Even though you may have a brand-new car with all the technology in the world I can build a street bucket sleeper that will outdo your brand-new, highly-sophisticated car.
" The ultimate thing is I want to win and prove to everybody not even so much what Abel can do but what the little Mazdas can do.
For this occasion, we're going up against a supercar, and going up against that kind of speed and power, we're gonna go to our new 33" 22.
50 slicks, and as you can tell, I mean, that is a tire.
That's that's as big as my arm, so that rubber right there is what is gonna put that truck down the track.
One off.
Let's get the big rubber in here.
All right.
Look at that.
Let's see that Lamborghini try and spin these tires this big.
There we go.
That's what I'm talking about right there.
That'll put our power to the ground.
The next thing, we're gonna start playing with our tune, making sure we have enough fuel to be able to spray nitrous if we need it, and just making sure our numbers are right where they need to be.
All right, Mike.
I think it's gonna definitely come down to to tune and setup, so what are you thinking? We should pull a little bit of fuel and timing out of the bottom end - so we can get some traction.
- Okay.
- Make the truck hook up - Good call.
and then hit it hard on top with fuel - when we spray the nitrous.
- Okay.
I know what this truck can do.
I know what my crew can do.
I mean, I got the best guys in the industry when it comes to diesel standing behind me.
This truck is built, not bought.
It's ready to rock right now.
Ready to go.
When it comes to sleeper cars, I don't think all of them are junk cars, 'cause they fix them up really nice, I just know that there's probably different levels.
Like, on my car, you know how fast my car goes.
It's a book.
"This is how fast it goes," depending on the driver and a few things, but I think in a sleeper car, like, you don't know, right? Like, how fast, like, you know, how much power they have in that car.
Eilan, the new race car driver.
- Look.
He knows what to do already.
- Look You have to make sure, when you're doing tests on the streets, that the police do not see you, and you can't get greedy, you have to only do it once or twice and then call it a day.
The car's really, really fast, it's performing, and even though I know it's a fast car, the Aventador, you know, it's a different story once you get into competition.
Maybe this guy hasn't raced before, you know, he's just a rich guy that drives his car around, but I bet you he doesn't have as much racing experience as me, so that's why I'm pretty confident where he's probably gonna get a bit nervous.
Well, I'm back at the drag track tonight because I haven't been to a drag track with a car for about four years, but I want to see what my car's still got in it, and if there's any quirks, I can get them ironed out, and plus it's just back in my blood again.
I want to hit the strip.
Hundred and fifteen miles an hour.
- Electric? - Yep.
Oh, my God.
Son of a bitch! He does a heck of a lot of smoking, but a lot of electricity there.
One hundred miles an hour! - So, what do you think, Gadget? - Looks like the cells are still rocking.
- After 10 years.
- After 10 years.
Wow.
I'm real happy that the car is running in sixes in the 1/8 mile right out of the box after being off the track for four years.
Oh, my God, and these batteries are 10 years old, and it's putting out that kind of I mean, that's very amazing.
I think Lambo is in trouble.
You know, it's gonna be close.
But, you know, I think we got him.
If you're a woman and don't win, they're like, "Oh, she's a woman.
" But if you're a woman and you win, they're like, "Holy shit, it's a woman.
" Hashtag "girl power.
" Rolling in with this truck and the intimidation factor when I pull it off the trailer, everybody's gonna be thinking twice about whether or not they should be there.
They don't even have an idea the demon that this car possesses inside when you step on that throttle.
There isn't a gas-powered car on the planet that comes from a factory that can out-accelerate that little white car from a dead stop, nothing.
I'm gonna win.
It's that simple.
How you doing? Just back it up over there.
I'm just gonna go out there and put the hammer down.
My tires are gonna bite, and I'm just gonna be gone, and they're gonna do their best to catch me.
It feels great.
Actually, you know, I always get a little bit anxious, a little bit of nervous before I used to race.
I was feeling that way this morning.
It's starting to go away now, and I know once I suit up and I get in the car and we do the burn-up, instinct's gonna kick in.
It's a rotary.
I love it.
It's gasoline's attempt - to be an electric motor.
- Yeah.
Hello.
How you guys doing? - My name's Abel.
- I didn't know if I could come - and meet you.
I wanted to.
- I know.
You know, I love this car.
- You do? - I love rotaries.
Well, we love your car, too.
We're surprised to see a Datsun.
Yeah, nice car.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of these, and that's a very big turbo you have there.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, I like it.
- I mean, how can you not like a rotary? - Exactly.
- It's almost an electric motor.
- Almost, huh? It uses a lot of fuel.
One of my favorite cars is a rotary.
They make a lot of high-end horsepower, so I think I'll probably nail him off the line, but he'll be reeling me in with that high horsepower coming on.
Nice.
Very nice.
It's all original interior, original paint.
Well, that's the best part.
That's the best part.
So, on mine, because I run on torque, I have a 325 direct drive, no transmission.
No transmission! Interesting.
Electric car.
When he showed us it was electric, I'm like, "Wow.
" We got our work cut out.
Forget about the rest of the cars.
That one's gonna be the one out front first.
We're gonna have to play catchup.
- Now that sucker's light.
- There's nothing in it.
That sucker's probably 1500 pounds.
That's almost not even fair.
Forget about the Lambo.
Oh, my God.
- A lot of pollution coming out of those.
- Lot of pollution.
That's right.
That represents everything I hate in vehicles that pollute too much.
I understand he's modified it and he's having a good time with it, but it is belching out more smoke and pollution than all the cars here combined.
Those motors aren't as big as one of my turbos.
- How you guys doing? - Good.
- How's it going today? - Good.
Good.
Good.
- My name's Abel.
- Abel.
I'm Ron.
- Nice to meet you, Ron.
- She's a beautiful little car.
This was my street car.
I mainly did it for the freeway - or the half-mile stuff.
- There you go.
- Not to quarter mile it.
- But it's never been on a track before.
- Yeah.
Never been on the track.
- Beautiful, though.
That rotary Mazda is a bad-ass little car.
Definitely representing the sleeper cars out there, but it doesn't have enough ponies.
That engine's not as big as one of my turbos.
Good luck today.
We'll be talking to you later.
Good luck.
We're all gonna need it, especially against that white one.
That's the shocker right there.
Wait till you see it.
- Look at this gorgeous girl.
- They're invading our space.
No! - We got to come see the real cars here.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Hi, I'm John.
- Ron.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- So, here comes the electronics.
- Yep.
That's about how big my batteries are for my stereo system.
- There you go.
- Yep.
Yep.
The one I'm most worried about, honestly, is the electric car, just all of that torque.
If those little tires can handle it, that car's gonna be quick.
When I dress in the Batgirl outfit, that's where they hit me with the most insults.
Look at that.
Batmobile.
But as long as I make a child smile and they're forgetting about the hell they're going through, that's all that matters.
They can say what they want about me.
I'm not gonna say all super car owners are cocky, but most of them, they'll see a car like mine pull up at a light and, like⦠I'm not even gonna waste my time with you.
" That's a mean car right there.
That's a killer car right there.
Oh, I like that.
I am so confused.
I have so many thoughts going through my head.
Well, welcome here.
- Thank you.
- Welcome.
She's got a designer bag.
- How you doing? - I'm fine.
How are you? - Good.
I'm Ron.
- Hi.
Debbie.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
- It's a cute little ride.
- Thank you.
- So, I like Batman, obviously - Okay.
and I do a lot of stuff for a children's hospital, - kids with cancer.
- Nice.
This is actually a custom wrap, and I honor some of the kids that passed away and some that are cancer survivors.
- Good for you.
Batgirl, right? - Yeah.
- I like what you're doing.
It's very nice.
- Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, as you were pulling up, I'm going, "Okay.
I don't know what to think about this.
" That's pretty awesome.
I think it's a tossup between the Datsun and the Dually getting up front first, and I think I'm gonna have to play catch-up.
I just hope I have enough to catch him.
Definitely, I feel a lot on my shoulders.
You know, I've got Lilly and my whole cheering team on, and I want to win for them.
I've got to make sure the diesel is behind me so that somebody else can put up with the fumes coming out of it.
I would say, a supercar, it's definitely got some advantages, you know, with all of the electronics and everything, but I don't think it's gonna hold up against just pure power.
We're gonna win big today.
Yes, we are.
Drivers and crew, gather around.
We're gonna draw straws to pick the lane right now.
You want to help me? Here.
Come on.
Whatever you pick is fine.
Go ahead.
Just go eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
That's pretty good.
You pick the one.
- Lane number one for you.
- Four.
- Lane number two.
- So, Ron picked lane number one, Debbie picked lane number four, Abel picked lane number two, and John got lane number three.
The winner of this race will move on to the grand finale to face six other drivers in a seven-wide race at El Mirage Dry Lake.
I'm feeling really confident right now.
My crew and my team did an excellent job of getting my truck ready, and we put in the wrench time, and now it's time to perform.
I want to see what my little car can do.
I've never really had it opened up like we're gonna open it up today.
I'm just gonna go out there and just do my race.
I don't care who I'm racing.
The ultimate thing is I want to win.
I got to say, I'm a little bit nervous.
You know, is the car gonna slide into me? Who knows? It does make me a little nervous thinking about who is actually driving that car beside me.
My car is ready.
It's got full torque instantly the minute I touch the throttle.
I just have to make sure I don't give it so much throttle that I can't control the car.
Very unusual selection of vehicles that we have today.
Having electric, having diesel, having rotary, and of course, the supercar.
I see us out in the winner's circle, definitely.
Shit! Oh, my God.
Fuck.
Guys, off the court.
Fire and ambulance are coming in.
- Off the court.
- Fuck that shit.
- Did he just lose control, or - I don't know.
One of the car lose control, and they hit each other.
- They hit each other.
- Yeah.
Exactly.
Why do these things happen to me? - I'm very sorry, but you're okay? - I'm fine.
I'm all right.
I'm fine.
Well, nobody did that on purpose.
It was just loss of traction.
It never hooked up.
Why does this happen to me? Why? Why, why, why? He's been racing that car for a long time.
He should have known.
It happened for somebody being irresponsible.
- Sorry about your car, man.
- Yeah.
You should have - Mario.
Mario.
Do you copy? - 10-4.
Copy.
Everybody's okay, luckily.
Who won the race? Who won the race? White truck won the race.
The Lambo came in second.
I feel like a million bucks.
We wouldn't have got here without my crew and the hard work that they put in, my tuners that came down from Michigan, but I'll tell you what, unbelievable run.
The truck went straight, powerful all the way down, never let up.
She charged hard.
Damn! Fucking what a run.
- Oh, my God.
- You're alive.
Oh, my God.
I'm fine.
See? I'm fine.
I'm okay.
My launch control didn't work, so I was the last off the line, and then I got really scared when I saw that guy lose control, and I didn't know if he was gonna hit me.
Then I just punched it, and I just kept going.
Something I learned today, let a 5-year-old pick your lucky lane.
I think I'm gonna go play lotto on the way home.
Which one got squirrelly? The electric? The electric car? I had a feeling it would.
That's why I told you I wanted to be on the outside.
I didn't want him next to me, because if it came, I could have gotten over it.
- You got him twice, it looks like.
- Yeah.
We hit twice.
Yeah.
- No, you hit twice.
- I'm not sure how it all happened.
It happened pretty fast.
If I was in his shoes, I'd probably be going, you know, "Gee, dude.
You know, keep your car in your lane.
" But who knows what happened? Sure looked like you broke something in the axle.
- See? You can see from the skid marks.
- It just went crazy.
- You just went sideways.
- Plus, it wasn't hooking up.
- I feel bad for his car.
- I know.
I feel bad for him, because earlier, we were talking about the pride he had in his car, the fact that it was mostly factory paint, which I really appreciate, and, you know, it's it's ruined.
I love my cars, especially when you put that much hard work into them for that long.
To fix that thing right is probably gonna take 15 to 20.
After all the money I've spent, I can't fix it.
I can't afford it.
I have a little boy.
I have to worry about his future, and it wouldn't be right for me to put him on the back burner.
It doesn't work that way.
You okay, though? - I am all right.
- All right.
Come here.
It's okay.
It's all right.
- How'd you do? - My launch didn't work, so It didn't work.
So, you had to roll out? It's okay.
So, that's a pretty terrible ending of a beautiful day.
- Yeah.
- Unfortunately, this is racing.
It happens sometimes.
Ron, you clearly won, so congrats on that.
- Thank you.
- You will be going to El Mirage - with your truck.
- Nice.
- And face six other driver.
- Nice.
So, that was a great win.
Good job.
Yeah, baby.
Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about right there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This race was actually beyond important to me.
It brought my life back around full circle through the struggles that I've had recently.
You know, divorced four or five years ago, back where I'm supposed to be, and that's racing.
You did good, bro.
You did good.
- That was a fucking run, man.
God! - Beautiful, man.
Beautiful.
I can't even describe how amazing it feels right now inside to have the support of everybody behind me.
It's awesome.
Love it.
It's just like you're shot out of a cannon.
There would be no Tesla if it wasn't for what we were doing.
I'm gonna go all the way, as far as my machine will let me go, and if it breaks, it breaks, if it wins, it wins.
There's no other car like this car.
I mean, the performance is unbelievable.
Nothing comes close to when you really feel inside like, "Wow.
I'm going fast.
" People underestimate me, but I have an amazing car.
One of the fastest cars in the world.
Nobody remembers last place.
Shit! Oh, my God.
- Do you copy? - 10-4.
Copy.
Lamborghini was always on my bucket list, and, I mean, I remember having, like, a poster, I think it was a Countach, like the white one.
I think most car people had that in their room, and I put it on the refrigerator as a goal like, "This is what I want to get.
" I got into commercial real estate and started making a lot of money, and who doesn't like money? And then eventually, I got it.
I still can't believe it.
Eventually, while it was in my garage, I would go open the door, and I'd look to see if it's still there, like a lot.
You know? 'Cause it feels like a dream.
You know, it still feels like a dream.
I grew up in Los Angeles in the valley.
I was a valley girl, grew up with all the valley girls and said, "Oh, my God, totally," and, "Gag me with a spoon.
" I actually got a car when I was 15 and a half, like, "Smack, get your permit, you're ready to roll.
" So, I got a red Datsun 280Z, and it was just it was awesome.
Like, it was pretty cool.
You know, a 280 back then was fast, and, like, after school, I'd race with the boys, and most of the time, I won, so that was even cooler.
This car is a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador.
This is the SV.
It's a special edition, so this is one of 600 cars in the world.
This car is a pure adrenaline rush.
You barely touch the gas, and it's flying.
It's powerful, it's orgasmic.
I don't listen to the music, I listen to the exhaust, to the engine, to the sound.
It makes me happy.
This car looked the closest to a Batmobile that I would think I would get without paying probably $4 million.
It's not every day you see a Lamborghini Aventador SV, and then the girl gets out of the car, and she's wearing Batman stuff.
People are like, "Holy shit.
What the hell?" I always loved Batman, just what he represented.
You don't have to have superpowers to be a superhero.
I just kind of related to that.
So, there is a drag race coming up, and I'm excited, because I don't really drag race but that's fine.
I mean, I track my car, I go on rallies.
I've done tons of things, but I've actually never drag raced, so I'm pretty excited.
Definitely.
I'll be honest, I have never done launch control, because you can't just do it anywhere, you know? Might get arrested.
It's very fast.
But if I want to win in a drag race, I have to do it, so it makes me kind of nervous, because I'm pretty sure my car is probably worth more than their house is.
I'm very competitive.
I like to win, you know? And I think also, being a woman, it is just so hard in like, the car world.
You don't get much respect, so being a female and winning would really be frickinâ awesome.
I'd like them to eat my dust.
Is that what they say? "Eat my dust"? Do we get, like, an award if the super car wins, you get a super car on top of a sleeper car, like, crushing it.
No, I'm kidding.
Do you want to see the world's fastest-accelerating electric car in history? It's right there.
That is the world record.
It'll do the quarter mile in 10.
258 seconds at 123.
79 miles an hour.
I maintain, boldly so there would be no Tesla if it wasn't for what we were doing.
It sounds like I got a fat head if I tell you I think I'm a pioneer, but if I'm being perfectly honest with you, yeah, I am.
But some people think I'm just a little crazy.
This used to be a 69-horsepower economy car, noted for its high gas mileage.
It now runs on electricity.
It's simply controlled by the varying of this throttle.
It's kind of like turning the volume up and down on a stereo.
So, instead of a gas tank we have a battery pack.
I don't think I wanted to be different.
I know I was different.
You know, I was the weird little kid that was always, you know, talking about science and math, and I was always interested in the way things ran.
The electric thing was planted in me at an early age.
My father-in-law was an interesting man, and I was in his garage, and I literally stubbed my toe on something, which hurt, and I'm kind of, you know, a few choice words, and he goes, "You know what that is?" And I says, "No, it hurt," and he says, "That's out of a DC-3 aircraft.
" And it was a generator, and it was this big around, it was that long.
He says, "You know, if you can turn that into a motor, that would power a car," and I kind of laughed.
I said, "That would power a car?" He goes, "Yeah.
That'd move a car really well.
" So, he gave it to me.
So, I found this little Datsun 1200 I got real cheap, and I crudely bolted this electric motor up to the transmission, and I grabbed a collection of used car batteries, and I sparked them together with a big splash, and off I went, and it flew out the driveway with the tires literally smoking, and it broke the transmission, and there was fluid all over the driveway, and I was going, "This is great!" I mean, I discovered torque, electric torque, and nobody had ever told me about this, and that just lit it right there.
I went, "Wow.
The world's got to realize that this is the way to do the thing.
" I mean, this little, tiny motor had all this power.
It's just a mind-blowing car to drive.
Every time I accelerate to 60 in under two seconds, I find this big grin on my face.
The electric power in this car is absolutely amazing.
I'm doing the race because I think it's gonna be good for the electric car to show it knocking heads with something very exotic and powerful and expensive.
It's been about four years since I've actually competed with the car, and my battery pack is aging.
It is now 10 years old, but it appears to be in top shape, so we'll put it on the track and see what it does.
I enjoy a good race.
There's always something faster out there, I'm sure there's cars that could beat this car but not a lot of them.
Electric cars are definitely better than gas cars.
They don't make any pollution.
Everybody likes clean air, for God's sakes! It seems kind of like a no-brainer to me.
My name is Ron Schneider, I live in Nuevo, California and my car is a 2005 Dodge Ram 3500 Diesel.
This truck is an extension of me, which is all about show but all about go as well.
I've always known I've been destined to be good behind the wheel.
It's just something that's in me.
When I have the opportunity to show off, you know, I'm just good at it, and that's just what I enjoy doing.
As far as getting hooked in the cars, I used to go out at night and snag my parents' Ford Ranger truck, you know, at the age of 13, which, you know obviously, didn't have a license at that time, and I just kind of taught myself how to drive.
I mean, I was towing trailers at the age of 14 and 15, and all the way through high school, I was always working on vehicles, and I even went as far as doing the high school drag.
He was even racing while he was in me because he came out like "boom.
" I have such an amazing family.
They're part of my crew.
They support me 100 percent.
I should say closer to 200 percent, 'cause they're always there making sure that, you know, that I feel supported and loved.
He's gonna kick ass.
I'm telling you that right now.
I mean, a family that races and plays together stays together.
That's the way we've always looked at it.
1999 is when I got the invite to the Warren Rock Crawling Nationals.
The easiest way to describe rock crawling is taking modified Jeeps and driving them up rocks and canyons that you couldn't even walk up.
I mean, it's stuff that vehicles should not be able to do.
My wife, who is actually my teammate, she was what's called a spotter, which is your eyes and ears outside the vehicle, and, I mean, she only weighed, you know, 110 pounds wet, but her speed, her agility, and her ability to get out there and get me lined up on where I needed to go, rivaled anybody else.
Go, go, go! I was very well known in the rock crawling industry as "Rollover Ron," because that was what would always show up in the videos, always show up in the magazines, Ron's upside down.
We raced together for over a decade, you know, all through the West Coast.
In fact, both my boys grew up in the back of those buggies.
The reason we stopped rock crawling was the doctors basically told her that she was done picking up heavy rocks the way she was.
And at that time, we decided that we would try something different.
I went out and bought her a dragster, and we just started going fast.
Unfortunately, after being together for, you know, 18, 20 years, we just kind of separated and grew apart.
You know, to this day, I still don't know exactly why or how.
We both just stopped racing, went our own ways.
It was very tough.
I mean, it still gets to me to this day.
At that time, I sold off the dragster, because I had built it for my ex-wife, so it was time to let it go along with everything else, and I was left with the truck, and one of the signature things I did to it, was I put dual 6-inch stacks out through the shell.
You know, go big or go big, go big, and I went from a single turbo over-sized to dual turbos to upgrading the turbos bigger to upgrading the injectors bigger.
You know, it's a rocket ship.
I would say the biggest reason it's a sleeper is because from the outside, it looks pretty normal.
You know, it's still got full leather interior, heated seats, full stereo system, air conditioning, cruise control, and you know, people look at it, and they way underestimate it, till I mash that pedal and it comes to life.
There's a lot of pressure.
You know, I've got my family, I've got my crew that, you know, I don't want to let down and I don't want to let the other diesels and the other trucks of the world down as well.
You know, I feel like there's a lot riding on my shoulders.
Where you've got the advantage is, when you get ahead of them and you got all that smoke, they can't see where the hell they're going.
Yeah.
You always try to keep them somewhat hungry so you can have control over them.
The feed is a control.
I've had pigeons since I was about 7 or 8 years old.
I've had them for such a long, long time, it's a part of me now.
In my local club, I almost all the time win every single fly.
I've came in second in the nation two years in a row.
I look at it this way, why are you gonna waste your time doing anything if you're not gonna be the best at it? And I wanted to be number one in the pigeons just like I wanted to be number one with the Mazda racing.
My very first car, which my mom and my uncle purchased for me for my 15th birthday was the 1976 Mercury Capri Ghia, and there was only one interest and one purpose, and that was to go out and get whoever I could find at the light and make everyone my victim.
But then one day, the tables turned, and I encountered this weird-sounding car, and we pulled up to the light and we took off, and he just, like, left me.
I was like, "Man! What's going on here?" So, then I said, "Hey, what kind of car is that?" He said, "It's a Mazda.
" I said, "What kind of engine does it have?" He goes, "Rotary engine.
" And it was just I had to have one.
These rotary engines, compared to the piston motors, have a lot less moving parts.
There's no valves.
There's no pistons.
It's real tiny, it's simple, and this is capable of making a 1,000 horsepower.
So, it's the late '80s.
Life is great.
I got a hold of my first Mazda RX-2.
I'm going to the street races, making a little bit of money, I'm going to USC, studying to be a mechanical engineer, and then, all of a sudden, one day, my girlfriend goes, "I'm pregnant," and that sort of became the turning point.
And that's when I decided that there was no way I was gonna be able to finish college and get good grades and at the same time try to support a family and take care of her and the baby.
The way I got into racing was I got this R-100.
It made excellent power, so I went down to the local track and, wow! The first pass was, like, real, real fast.
They went, I think, 9.
30 or 20.
Came back around and did another one, and we went an 8.
60, which at the time was the fastest time for a rotary engine car and import car in the world, and just like that, it just blew all over.
I mean, I started getting phone calls from everyone, you know, companies wanting to help, and that's how my professional career got going.
Abel Ibarra, one of the pioneers of import drag racing.
I've had three race cars: 1971 Mazda R-100, very successful with that one.
Then I built a second race car, a 1995 Mazda RX-7.
Abel Ibarra has one of the baddest RX-7s on the planet.
Here comes Abel Ibarra, one of the hottest guys going.
That's the car that I had my most success with.
I won tons of money with that car.
I think one year I had a $75,000 paycheck.
Then my last car is my 2004 Mazda RX-8.
That's the car that I've actually gone the fastest with, but the competition started to get so rough at that later stage of the import racing, and I just didn't have the funding that those teams did at the time to be able to be successful.
I had to stop racing, because by this time, my two daughters were getting older, and I had to put them through college, and I wanted to make sure at least if I didn't get to finish college, I was gonna try to do the best that I could, so I had to, whatever money I could come up with or save, use that for them and the family instead of spending it on the race car so that the race cars just sat.
I had to put them on the back burner.
My car that I have now is a 1972 Mazda RX-2, exact same thing as my first Mazda RX-2.
I wanted to bring back those memories of my first Mazda.
It's taken quite a while to build, not only because of how much work is involved, but because of the expense involved.
The car, from the outside, untouched.
Original paint job, like it came from Mazda in 1973, interior, original, but on the inside, it has the best parts that money can buy with the best technology available for any car to date.
I love my little Mazda RX-2.
It's just so simple, but it's just a complete monster, and the best part about it is, that I can drive it normal.
I can drive it like a grandma.
I can go to the store.
But when I want to get that adrenaline rush and really, really go fast, all I got to do is give it some gas, and off we go.
It's been a long time since I actually have been in a real race scenario, probably close to 10 years, so you have no idea how bad I want to win.
I think it will let other people know that, "Hey, Abel hasn't gone anywhere.
He's making a comeback with his street car, and pretty soon, he's gonna be out there with the race car.
" What if you come up with a socket from the bottom side? - We can try it.
- Hey, guys.
Yep? Looks like we're going against a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador.
- All right.
- So, we need to talk about tunes, we need to talk about setup, talk about everything we need to do to make this girl put out it in first against that thing.
That's a 2016, so Yeah, so you're 691 to 740 horsepower.
- Okay.
- Roughly 4,000 pounds.
- That's half our weight.
- Yeah.
Four hundred thousand dollars, you know? - Okay.
- We almost got that in our motor.
- The convertible's 450.
- Okay.
Just got to get low 10s and we're golden.
- You've got the tune for it.
- Yep.
- Let's get back to work.
- Let's get this thing back on the road.
The biggest reason I'm confident going into this event now knowing what we're going against is what you see right over there, is my crew.
They're the best around.
Most of my team is family and good friends.
I got my tuners that came in from Michigan just to tune this truck for this race.
You know, they're gonna set this truck up exactly for what we need.
Between the tuning that we got and the turbo setting in, we'll dial in our tires, and if I need it halfway down the track, I'll spray nitrous and finish off the rest of it.
Evidently, I'm gonna race a Lamborghini Aventador SV.
Let's just see what that thing can do here.
Aventador.
Here we go.
Yeah, that's gonna be a good race.
6.
5 liter, that's a big one, V12, seven-speed.
Yeah, that's a pretty quick machine.
2.
7 to 60.
You're definitely gonna get off the line.
- Yeah, I think so.
Well, you know - That thing's geared for high-end.
Yeah, he's gonna have fun trying to catch up to me, I think.
Well, the thing that you've got going for you is My good looks? Oh, okay.
Sorry.
What? All you need to do is push the pedal down.
That car needs a skilled driver, somebody who's got to be able to clutch that thing off the line and go through the gears.
Yeah, but once he gets into the right gear, he's gonna be sucking me up on the quarter mile.
Perhaps, if he's not way too far behind.
Yeah, we'll see if we can psych him out on the launch, right? I believe things happen for reasons, and I honestly believe we're all on a path, and we're just following it, and I believe certain things came into my my path like that was meant to be.
It was always in my head, what could I do to make a difference? So, I dressed as Batgirl, and I went to the children's hospital.
I bought toys out of my own money, and I saw how happy it made the kids and then I saw a little girl named Lilly on my Instagram and I said, "Wow," and it had the back of her, she had, like, a cape.
And now Lilly, at the time, she's going through Chemo, and she was seven or eight months, but she started when she was three months old, so I went there, and Trish, who's Lilly's mom, introduced me to this world that I just didn't know really existed, like, childhood cancer, you know? I never knew about it.
You gonna put a cape on? Aww.
Nice.
- Thanks for the demo, Lil.
- You made that look so easy.
It doesn't just take money, it takes heart.
She didn't just walk us through my daughter becoming cancer-free, she's walked through us with me launching our nonprofit foundation, she has helped us fund three funerals.
She is family to our community.
You look good, girl.
It's a good feeling, you know, to see a kid smile, 'cause I know what they go through.
When you meet a child with cancer, it changes your life forever.
Like, you don't look at things the same.
You know, they have to appreciate her day, and I think other people need to appreciate her day too.
I don't think I'm a superhero, I think they're superheroes, like, because they go through so much.
I think, yeah, it would actually be cool to kind of win for, you know the kids.
They already let me know what car we're racing, and it's gonna be a 2016 Lamborghini Aventador.
- Who's driving the car? - Look.
Might be some rich guy that doesn't even know how to drive his car.
- We might get lucky.
- We don't know.
- And get a easy pass? - And get a easy pass.
It's the fastest Lamborghini, and if we stand a chance, we're definitely gonna have to hook up the vehicle speed sensor so that we can do the boost by gear, and we can get maximum traction in every gear.
We'll turn this thing up, you know? We'll give it everything it's got.
Raise it up so we can get it going.
All right.
Right there.
That's good.
Good spot right here so we can run this thing back inside.
It's better if we go up through the trunk.
Yes.
Yeah, that's what I was That's exactly what I was thinking.
The Aventador has a lot of power, and I believe it's all-wheel drive.
That car's gonna get maximum traction, so that car's gonna pretty much put down 740 horsepower in every gear, so I need to have every advantage I can get by installing this vehicle speed sensor, that allows me to manipulate how much horsepower I can put down in every gear.
Then I could get my car to accelerate to the full potential and not lose any traction.
The problems I've had is overheating damaging the motor, so here's what I'm gonna do, I recently added this high-powered blower.
Moves a lot of air.
Pretty quiet.
But right now, it only comes on when I tip the throttle in, which is fine for street driving, but at the drag track, when you go down the quarter mile and you really put a lot of juice in the motor, it gets hot really fast.
You know what I have that might interest you? It's a little temperature sensor, and you can just have it be automatic.
- You got to show me that.
- So, here's what I got.
This is a little temperature sensor, really simple.
- It's just a little bimetallic strip.
- Yep.
You can mount that in the exit air, and as soon as it heats up, it'll turn your fan on and keep it on.
- What temperature does it trigger at? - It's, like, around 100 degrees.
- Kind of like a thermostat in the house.
- Yeah.
It's very simple.
I like this idea.
I really do.
We can just, - like, put it in here somewhere.
- Perfect.
I've been driving it hard on the street for four years, but that's a lot different than taking it to the track, balls-out, and you're putting 2,000 amps in the motor.
It gets hot, and then you pass another 2,000 amps, and at that point, that's enough combined heat to melt the armature and ruin it, so we've added a temperature switch.
When it starts getting warm, it's gonna kick on the fan.
If it gets cool enough, it'll just shut itself off again.
So, we're adding an automatic temperature-controlled higher-velocity fan to the whole thing.
- It works! - Yeah.
And yes, I admit it, I was kind of doubting you.
Okay.
Go ahead, Joe.
Strap it up.
We're gonna put the car on the engine dyno to make sure that the sensor's working correctly.
I've had great success with race cars.
Now with my Mazda RX-2, I want to prove that, "Even though you may have a brand-new car with all the technology in the world I can build a street bucket sleeper that will outdo your brand-new, highly-sophisticated car.
" The ultimate thing is I want to win and prove to everybody not even so much what Abel can do but what the little Mazdas can do.
For this occasion, we're going up against a supercar, and going up against that kind of speed and power, we're gonna go to our new 33" 22.
50 slicks, and as you can tell, I mean, that is a tire.
That's that's as big as my arm, so that rubber right there is what is gonna put that truck down the track.
One off.
Let's get the big rubber in here.
All right.
Look at that.
Let's see that Lamborghini try and spin these tires this big.
There we go.
That's what I'm talking about right there.
That'll put our power to the ground.
The next thing, we're gonna start playing with our tune, making sure we have enough fuel to be able to spray nitrous if we need it, and just making sure our numbers are right where they need to be.
All right, Mike.
I think it's gonna definitely come down to to tune and setup, so what are you thinking? We should pull a little bit of fuel and timing out of the bottom end - so we can get some traction.
- Okay.
- Make the truck hook up - Good call.
and then hit it hard on top with fuel - when we spray the nitrous.
- Okay.
I know what this truck can do.
I know what my crew can do.
I mean, I got the best guys in the industry when it comes to diesel standing behind me.
This truck is built, not bought.
It's ready to rock right now.
Ready to go.
When it comes to sleeper cars, I don't think all of them are junk cars, 'cause they fix them up really nice, I just know that there's probably different levels.
Like, on my car, you know how fast my car goes.
It's a book.
"This is how fast it goes," depending on the driver and a few things, but I think in a sleeper car, like, you don't know, right? Like, how fast, like, you know, how much power they have in that car.
Eilan, the new race car driver.
- Look.
He knows what to do already.
- Look You have to make sure, when you're doing tests on the streets, that the police do not see you, and you can't get greedy, you have to only do it once or twice and then call it a day.
The car's really, really fast, it's performing, and even though I know it's a fast car, the Aventador, you know, it's a different story once you get into competition.
Maybe this guy hasn't raced before, you know, he's just a rich guy that drives his car around, but I bet you he doesn't have as much racing experience as me, so that's why I'm pretty confident where he's probably gonna get a bit nervous.
Well, I'm back at the drag track tonight because I haven't been to a drag track with a car for about four years, but I want to see what my car's still got in it, and if there's any quirks, I can get them ironed out, and plus it's just back in my blood again.
I want to hit the strip.
Hundred and fifteen miles an hour.
- Electric? - Yep.
Oh, my God.
Son of a bitch! He does a heck of a lot of smoking, but a lot of electricity there.
One hundred miles an hour! - So, what do you think, Gadget? - Looks like the cells are still rocking.
- After 10 years.
- After 10 years.
Wow.
I'm real happy that the car is running in sixes in the 1/8 mile right out of the box after being off the track for four years.
Oh, my God, and these batteries are 10 years old, and it's putting out that kind of I mean, that's very amazing.
I think Lambo is in trouble.
You know, it's gonna be close.
But, you know, I think we got him.
If you're a woman and don't win, they're like, "Oh, she's a woman.
" But if you're a woman and you win, they're like, "Holy shit, it's a woman.
" Hashtag "girl power.
" Rolling in with this truck and the intimidation factor when I pull it off the trailer, everybody's gonna be thinking twice about whether or not they should be there.
They don't even have an idea the demon that this car possesses inside when you step on that throttle.
There isn't a gas-powered car on the planet that comes from a factory that can out-accelerate that little white car from a dead stop, nothing.
I'm gonna win.
It's that simple.
How you doing? Just back it up over there.
I'm just gonna go out there and put the hammer down.
My tires are gonna bite, and I'm just gonna be gone, and they're gonna do their best to catch me.
It feels great.
Actually, you know, I always get a little bit anxious, a little bit of nervous before I used to race.
I was feeling that way this morning.
It's starting to go away now, and I know once I suit up and I get in the car and we do the burn-up, instinct's gonna kick in.
It's a rotary.
I love it.
It's gasoline's attempt - to be an electric motor.
- Yeah.
Hello.
How you guys doing? - My name's Abel.
- I didn't know if I could come - and meet you.
I wanted to.
- I know.
You know, I love this car.
- You do? - I love rotaries.
Well, we love your car, too.
We're surprised to see a Datsun.
Yeah, nice car.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of these, and that's a very big turbo you have there.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, I like it.
- I mean, how can you not like a rotary? - Exactly.
- It's almost an electric motor.
- Almost, huh? It uses a lot of fuel.
One of my favorite cars is a rotary.
They make a lot of high-end horsepower, so I think I'll probably nail him off the line, but he'll be reeling me in with that high horsepower coming on.
Nice.
Very nice.
It's all original interior, original paint.
Well, that's the best part.
That's the best part.
So, on mine, because I run on torque, I have a 325 direct drive, no transmission.
No transmission! Interesting.
Electric car.
When he showed us it was electric, I'm like, "Wow.
" We got our work cut out.
Forget about the rest of the cars.
That one's gonna be the one out front first.
We're gonna have to play catchup.
- Now that sucker's light.
- There's nothing in it.
That sucker's probably 1500 pounds.
That's almost not even fair.
Forget about the Lambo.
Oh, my God.
- A lot of pollution coming out of those.
- Lot of pollution.
That's right.
That represents everything I hate in vehicles that pollute too much.
I understand he's modified it and he's having a good time with it, but it is belching out more smoke and pollution than all the cars here combined.
Those motors aren't as big as one of my turbos.
- How you guys doing? - Good.
- How's it going today? - Good.
Good.
Good.
- My name's Abel.
- Abel.
I'm Ron.
- Nice to meet you, Ron.
- She's a beautiful little car.
This was my street car.
I mainly did it for the freeway - or the half-mile stuff.
- There you go.
- Not to quarter mile it.
- But it's never been on a track before.
- Yeah.
Never been on the track.
- Beautiful, though.
That rotary Mazda is a bad-ass little car.
Definitely representing the sleeper cars out there, but it doesn't have enough ponies.
That engine's not as big as one of my turbos.
Good luck today.
We'll be talking to you later.
Good luck.
We're all gonna need it, especially against that white one.
That's the shocker right there.
Wait till you see it.
- Look at this gorgeous girl.
- They're invading our space.
No! - We got to come see the real cars here.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Hi, I'm John.
- Ron.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- So, here comes the electronics.
- Yep.
That's about how big my batteries are for my stereo system.
- There you go.
- Yep.
Yep.
The one I'm most worried about, honestly, is the electric car, just all of that torque.
If those little tires can handle it, that car's gonna be quick.
When I dress in the Batgirl outfit, that's where they hit me with the most insults.
Look at that.
Batmobile.
But as long as I make a child smile and they're forgetting about the hell they're going through, that's all that matters.
They can say what they want about me.
I'm not gonna say all super car owners are cocky, but most of them, they'll see a car like mine pull up at a light and, like⦠I'm not even gonna waste my time with you.
" That's a mean car right there.
That's a killer car right there.
Oh, I like that.
I am so confused.
I have so many thoughts going through my head.
Well, welcome here.
- Thank you.
- Welcome.
She's got a designer bag.
- How you doing? - I'm fine.
How are you? - Good.
I'm Ron.
- Hi.
Debbie.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
- It's a cute little ride.
- Thank you.
- So, I like Batman, obviously - Okay.
and I do a lot of stuff for a children's hospital, - kids with cancer.
- Nice.
This is actually a custom wrap, and I honor some of the kids that passed away and some that are cancer survivors.
- Good for you.
Batgirl, right? - Yeah.
- I like what you're doing.
It's very nice.
- Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, as you were pulling up, I'm going, "Okay.
I don't know what to think about this.
" That's pretty awesome.
I think it's a tossup between the Datsun and the Dually getting up front first, and I think I'm gonna have to play catch-up.
I just hope I have enough to catch him.
Definitely, I feel a lot on my shoulders.
You know, I've got Lilly and my whole cheering team on, and I want to win for them.
I've got to make sure the diesel is behind me so that somebody else can put up with the fumes coming out of it.
I would say, a supercar, it's definitely got some advantages, you know, with all of the electronics and everything, but I don't think it's gonna hold up against just pure power.
We're gonna win big today.
Yes, we are.
Drivers and crew, gather around.
We're gonna draw straws to pick the lane right now.
You want to help me? Here.
Come on.
Whatever you pick is fine.
Go ahead.
Just go eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
That's pretty good.
You pick the one.
- Lane number one for you.
- Four.
- Lane number two.
- So, Ron picked lane number one, Debbie picked lane number four, Abel picked lane number two, and John got lane number three.
The winner of this race will move on to the grand finale to face six other drivers in a seven-wide race at El Mirage Dry Lake.
I'm feeling really confident right now.
My crew and my team did an excellent job of getting my truck ready, and we put in the wrench time, and now it's time to perform.
I want to see what my little car can do.
I've never really had it opened up like we're gonna open it up today.
I'm just gonna go out there and just do my race.
I don't care who I'm racing.
The ultimate thing is I want to win.
I got to say, I'm a little bit nervous.
You know, is the car gonna slide into me? Who knows? It does make me a little nervous thinking about who is actually driving that car beside me.
My car is ready.
It's got full torque instantly the minute I touch the throttle.
I just have to make sure I don't give it so much throttle that I can't control the car.
Very unusual selection of vehicles that we have today.
Having electric, having diesel, having rotary, and of course, the supercar.
I see us out in the winner's circle, definitely.
Shit! Oh, my God.
Fuck.
Guys, off the court.
Fire and ambulance are coming in.
- Off the court.
- Fuck that shit.
- Did he just lose control, or - I don't know.
One of the car lose control, and they hit each other.
- They hit each other.
- Yeah.
Exactly.
Why do these things happen to me? - I'm very sorry, but you're okay? - I'm fine.
I'm all right.
I'm fine.
Well, nobody did that on purpose.
It was just loss of traction.
It never hooked up.
Why does this happen to me? Why? Why, why, why? He's been racing that car for a long time.
He should have known.
It happened for somebody being irresponsible.
- Sorry about your car, man.
- Yeah.
You should have - Mario.
Mario.
Do you copy? - 10-4.
Copy.
Everybody's okay, luckily.
Who won the race? Who won the race? White truck won the race.
The Lambo came in second.
I feel like a million bucks.
We wouldn't have got here without my crew and the hard work that they put in, my tuners that came down from Michigan, but I'll tell you what, unbelievable run.
The truck went straight, powerful all the way down, never let up.
She charged hard.
Damn! Fucking what a run.
- Oh, my God.
- You're alive.
Oh, my God.
I'm fine.
See? I'm fine.
I'm okay.
My launch control didn't work, so I was the last off the line, and then I got really scared when I saw that guy lose control, and I didn't know if he was gonna hit me.
Then I just punched it, and I just kept going.
Something I learned today, let a 5-year-old pick your lucky lane.
I think I'm gonna go play lotto on the way home.
Which one got squirrelly? The electric? The electric car? I had a feeling it would.
That's why I told you I wanted to be on the outside.
I didn't want him next to me, because if it came, I could have gotten over it.
- You got him twice, it looks like.
- Yeah.
We hit twice.
Yeah.
- No, you hit twice.
- I'm not sure how it all happened.
It happened pretty fast.
If I was in his shoes, I'd probably be going, you know, "Gee, dude.
You know, keep your car in your lane.
" But who knows what happened? Sure looked like you broke something in the axle.
- See? You can see from the skid marks.
- It just went crazy.
- You just went sideways.
- Plus, it wasn't hooking up.
- I feel bad for his car.
- I know.
I feel bad for him, because earlier, we were talking about the pride he had in his car, the fact that it was mostly factory paint, which I really appreciate, and, you know, it's it's ruined.
I love my cars, especially when you put that much hard work into them for that long.
To fix that thing right is probably gonna take 15 to 20.
After all the money I've spent, I can't fix it.
I can't afford it.
I have a little boy.
I have to worry about his future, and it wouldn't be right for me to put him on the back burner.
It doesn't work that way.
You okay, though? - I am all right.
- All right.
Come here.
It's okay.
It's all right.
- How'd you do? - My launch didn't work, so It didn't work.
So, you had to roll out? It's okay.
So, that's a pretty terrible ending of a beautiful day.
- Yeah.
- Unfortunately, this is racing.
It happens sometimes.
Ron, you clearly won, so congrats on that.
- Thank you.
- You will be going to El Mirage - with your truck.
- Nice.
- And face six other driver.
- Nice.
So, that was a great win.
Good job.
Yeah, baby.
Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about right there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This race was actually beyond important to me.
It brought my life back around full circle through the struggles that I've had recently.
You know, divorced four or five years ago, back where I'm supposed to be, and that's racing.
You did good, bro.
You did good.
- That was a fucking run, man.
God! - Beautiful, man.
Beautiful.
I can't even describe how amazing it feels right now inside to have the support of everybody behind me.
It's awesome.
Love it.