J.F. MUSIAL: Welcome to a very special DRIVE CENTRAL from the
North American International Auto Show where Leo Parente
has joined me--
LEO PARENTE: I'm on the step for you.
See?
J.F. MUSIAL: I like that.
I like that.
LEO PARENTE: OK.
J.F. MUSIAL: Anyway, so DRIVE CENTRAL is a program to tell
you, basically, as a partner channel of what's happening on
Drive over the coming few days.
Now, as you saw, yesterday, pretty good, right?
LEO PARENTE: I know a few guys are talking about too much
talking on the show.
But we've got to have a little bit of storytelling and
information to share.
But yesterday with Matt Farah, you got to love that Porsche,
J.F.
J.F. MUSIAL: You see, last week was more of a soft roll
out of the Drive program.
This week, two episodes every day.
So today, after this show, Alex Roy goes on a road trip.
And tomorrow it's Chris Harris after a road test.
Now, Chris says he saw a teaser--
LEO PARENTE: Don't tell them.
Don't tell them.
More driving.
J.F. MUSIAL: Now, a little cautionary note.
After this program, Alex Roy goes on a road trip.
I want people to rest assured, you know, we have separate
compartments for different shows.
Chris Harris reviews cars.
You speak motor sports and shake down.
Matt talks about after market tuned vehicles, so he's
reviewing cars.
Alex's show is not about reviewing cars.
It's about the journey.
It's about the road trip.
He does talk about the car.
He's driving, with Mike Musto, a '68 or '67 Dodge Charger.
But it's going to be different cars every episode.
I just want to make--
rest assured.
LEO PARENTE: I mean, honestly, not to be too literal, the
channel's called Drive, and the drive is an experience.
And Alex is sharing those experiences when you drive the
car across wherever.
J.F. MUSIAL: Exactly.
It's not about driving, always.
It's about stopping.
You know, you've done road trips.
I've done road trips.
It's pretty fun to go experience this country.
And actually he's going to be experiencing the world.
He's going to be taking trips to Europe, South America,
whatever it may be.
LEO PARENTE: Alex Bourdain watch out.
It's Alex Roy on the road.
Oh, my God.
J.F. MUSIAL: Yeah, but Alex's diet is
a little bit different.
If you like chicken wings, you'll like Alex.
LEO PARENTE: I wasn't talking food.
I was talking personality.
J.F. MUSIAL: Well, we're at the Detroit Auto Show.
We can't just not reference the show.
LEO PARENTE: Right, we've been here all day.
J.F. MUSIAL: Tomorrow on Road Testament, and the day after,
we'll be going through some interviews.
You have some interviews with some
drivers for Friday, right?
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, yesterday, Monday, and today, we talked
to a number of people in the industry, and there are a lot
of race car guys around, race car drivers.
We spoke to them a little bit about the whole craft and
grassroots and how they started racing and the skills
involved in doing this job.
So there's some interesting stuff there.
Don't give me any crap about talking.
It's good talking.
J.F. MUSIAL: Yeah.
It is.
What else is going on?
We have to reference the show.
Anything you like here?
We've got the Dart behind us, the Alfa Giulietta.
But what do you think?
LEO PARENTE: OK, so there were three cars that it felt like
everyone was waiting for, the Ford Fusion, and--
OK, you maybe got his opinion from that.
Here's the bottom line.
The car is crisp.
The car's an adult, thought out.
No offense to the Hyundai Sonata, but the lines on the
Fusion look like the adult was playing with the PANTONES and
the pens and whatever.
And maybe the Hyundai is a little different.
The second car was the Dodge Dart.
You know what?
It may be Italian underneath, but it looks really crisp,
really clean.
It's all going to be in the driving.
But they've got a good job.
And this is the first, the first Dodge Chrysler that's
really come from this whole Fiat combination.
And the third car--
I always change my list, but the third car is the ATS.
And I will just say it's polarizingly good.
But it's all going to be in the driving.
J.F. MUSIAL: It all comes down to driving.
Actually, the only car I really want to drive here,
though, is actually the Subaru BRZ Scion FRS.
They released their, what is it, trip car?
Is that what they had?
Spotted it.
[INAUDIBLE].
So that was cool.
NSX is here.
LEO PARENTE: Well, and that's where I was going to use my--
you always say, I ask 14 last questions.
J.F. MUSIAL: Yes.
LEO PARENTE: I was going to add to my list of three with
four and, it is the NSX.
Literally, I haven't been over to see it yet.
Just scanned it from a distance.
It looks kind of cool.
There's a lot of talk about how the electric power train
is built into the gas power train.
So I've heard everything from front drive, all wheel drive
electric, to rear drive electric.
Somewhere in there we'll find the truth in
about 5 or 10 minutes.
J.F. MUSIAL: You know what's funny?
And this is a different element of this show.
We came here.
We kind of knew what we were going to get.
That car, Acura-Honda did an amazing job keeping it secret.
They did a very good job not releasing
any photos, any details.
And it was good hype.
And it built the hype up, and that's something that auto
shows kind of have lost because of all the spy shots
and the leaks and whatnot.
Good job, Honda.
I have to give them that.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, everyone got caught with a lot of
advanced stuff.
The show, Detroit here in the center of Motown, has these
little cliches like some of the OEM suppliers have
displays on the floor.
But beyond that, I was afraid that it was always going to
feel too American, too homespun.
And you've got a pretty good blend here going on of what
matters, everything from the import brands to
the American brands.
J.F. MUSIAL: Hold on.
We've got to leave a little bit for Road Testament.
LEO PARENTE: OK, very good.
J.F. MUSIAL: Now, last week we posed the question, what do
you guys want us to do with Drive?
This is a very interactive show with YouTube and Google.
We want this to be a two-way communication.
You guys can communicate with us on
Twitter, on the comments.
Now, a lot of people, all they referenced, actually--
a fair portion of comments last week said, more races.
Daytona.
We're going to Daytona.
That's the basics.
LEO PARENTE: Yeah, I mean, I thought I heard two things
very clear.
More races, and you gave us a great list of races.
J.F. MUSIAL: Yeah.
Trust us.
The budget's there for the those races.
LEO PARENTE: Wow.
I haven't heard "the budget's there for those races" in my
racing career ever.
So this could be a first.
Yes, races.
And we had some of those on our list.
But there were some great additions.
And the second thing was see cars driving.
I assure you--
and I've even commented, I'm even going
to get behind wheel.
So there will be driving of cars.
Just stick with Drive.
That will be there.
J.F. MUSIAL: Racecars though, we haven't seen a lot of
comments of other unique things to do, and that's what
we really want you guys to get to.
You give us a crazy, unique idea, we may pick it up.
That's the thing, you and I, all we do is come up with the
crazy, unique ideas.
The problem is we're on the road constantly.
We don't always have the opportunity to really follow
through with some of these ideas.
And we don't know if they're actually going to stick.
If you guys reference them--
Go ahead.
Sorry, you were--
LEO PARENTE: No, that's OK.
I ask for a little bit of caution.
We're not Red Bull, and we're not going to be dropping a
sonic bungee cording off a tower.
But things that really are feasible and possible,
possible, let us know, because we'd love to try.
J.F. MUSIAL: This show is for you.
Well, these series of shows are for you as hopefully we've
made that statement before.
LEO PARENTE: And if you haven't figured it out, we've
got an eclectic group of hosts from Chris to Matt to you to
me to Spinelli.
J.F. MUSIAL: Not really host.
I'm not supposed to be host.
LEO PARENTE: By the way, isn't this supposed to be Spinelli's
DRIVE CENTRAL?
J.F. MUSIAL: Yeah, where is he?
Oh, yeah.
LEO PARENTE: Oh, lost in the auto show.
J.F. MUSIAL: Either way, guys, leave your comments
below and Tweet us.
I hate that word, but--
LEO PARENTE: I'm too old to know what the right word is.
'Cause it ain't twat.
J.F. MUSIAL: I'm young enough, and I still hate it.
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