TMCP #555: THE Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan – SEMA 2023 Preview – Pro-Touring Dinner – Ron Francis Goes To The OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational,

It’s once again is the quarterly Pro-Touring Update, Presented by Ron Francis Wiring, and starring Mr. Larry Callahan! Technically this is the 3rd quarter update, but with the schedules of events (and the possibility of something special in the first weekend of Oct) we needed to push it back a couple of weeks. I’m happy to say that the gamble was worth it! The focus of this update – as always – is to stay on the inside scoop of what is going on with Larry and The Pro-Touring community as well as getting the inside scoop on upcoming Pro-Touring (autocross) events for the end of 2023!

TMCP #498: Larry Callahan – Pro-Touring Update, New Autocross Events – SEMA Low-Volume Manufacturers Act Has Been Enacted!

Spring is just around the corner and that means it is finally time for a new Pro-Touring Update with Mr. Larry Callahan! It has been six months since our last full update and it is very good to talk and catch up. He let me know that big things are changing but not with the website or his cars. Larry is moving! He found a house with land for his wife to grow animals and plants as well as the added benefit of room for a hoist and room for cars. He figures he can lift a full size truck over his head and save himself the pain of crawling on the floor to work on cars. I asked if this was going to affect the website due to moving the servers and he settled that real quick by clarifying that the server was never at his house and in the hands of a professional service.  

TMCP #461: Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan – Spring Autocross and Pro-Touring Events for 2021!

Larry Callahan is back! For 2021 Larry will be joining us quarterly in a feature interview to bring the latest Pro-Touring event information straight from Pro-Touring.com. Larry is the “OG” of the Pro-Touring social media movement and a dear friend. You can take what he says to the bank!

Upcoming Events: Larry was able to get a comprehensive list of events for this quarter and I have posted it below. He also said he would be adding links to it and hosting it on the Pro-Touring.com website. It is exciting to see so many events listed including many that are brand new while some events are older established events that are going to see a huge upswing in interest due to pent up frustration. It will be very interesting to see what new vehicles emerge freshly built and ready to race as well as old familiar vehicles with new updates bursting forth from sequestering garages. People are anxious to use their cars after a completely missed summer in 2020 and this year will be the one to watch and attend.

TMCP #432: Frank Mecum; Growing Up Inside the Worlds Largest Classic Car Auction – Ask Rick, How Ford VIN Verification Began

This week I spoke to Frank Mecum of Mecum Auctions. In most of my interviews the story starts “at a young age with a love of cars”. This story does have that theme, but begins with two generations of Mecums (including Dana Mecum and his father) working in and owning new car dealerships for years. Early on they came across a large collection of collectible cars that allowed the set up the first Mecum auction ever. The event took place at the Rockford airport in Illinois and after the cars were sold a tornado came through and destroyed nearly everything – including the cars. Frank said that his grandfather owed so many people money after that auction that he had to do it again the next year. The start was humble, but it led to the Mecum auction enterprise we know today.

TMCP #431: Kevin Marti and the Marti Report – The Holy Grail for 1967 and Newer Ford Model Data; Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan

This week I spoke to Kevin Marti of Marti Auto Works, home of the world famous “Marti Report”. For the Ford faithful, this famous report allows one to know the actual manufacturer data for any Ford built 1967 or newer, including options, colors, build dates, rarity, and otherwise! It’s the actual proof to know if your rare Ford or Mercury is the Real McCoy. But….as all good stories go, Kevin’s intent wasn’t to create a report company at all. It was born out of a search to solve a problem he had!

Holley is the official EFI source for Kibbe and Friends and is the PROUD sponsor of this episode! Their Terminator Stealth system on my General Lee is killing it. There’s a BRAND NEW MOPAR EVENT listed on their website that you need to save the date for as well: Sept 18-20 in Bowling Green, KY. Hint – there’s a General Lee jump! https://www.moparty.com

The Pro-Touring Update – Presented by Ron Francis Wiring – STARRING LARRY CALLAHAN – is back! 2020 Pro-touring Events: With the COVID-19 virus shutting down all large gatherings, the question remains of what events will still be allowed to operate. Even a small GoodGuys event would draw large enough crowds to violate even the most generous relaxing of the rules. Stay tuned and we will provide updates on these events as they come available. As of the release of this episode, GoodGuys events all will restart after July 1, 2020. Visit Pro-Touring.com for details and updates!

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TMCP #399: Seth Withers, Our New Muscle Car Place Network Sales Director – Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan

This week our guest was Seth Withers, our brand new sales director for The MuscleCar Place Network of shows. After ten years of building our network shows the shows to an amazing level of production and content, I knew that to achieve our goal of “big time” it would require a full time Sales Sales Director to place over the entire network. This person had to have a sales track record, be a real car guy or gal already, be a fit with out existing team, and (most importantly) be a true believer in our podast network already. As always, I asked my existing listeners for help….and Seth was the fit we needed. He is a long time listener of both The MuscleCar Place and the Kibbe and Friends show and he is anxious to start working with the team. He began a few months ago and we’re now going public with it!

Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan: Good Guys Columbus and Des Moines results, APOLLO Astronaut Corvette’s, and the never ending saga of his ’68 Camaro!

TMCP #385: Gray Fredrick of Advanced Fuel Dynamics, A Simple Way To Get Affordable E85 Power with an E85 Engine Tune! – 2019 Pro-Touring Kickoff with Larry Callahan

In this episode I spoke to Gray Fredrick, the sales director for Advanced Fuel Dynamics. AFD’s entire goal is to maximize the affordable power-adder benefit available in E85 fuel…but without the need for an E85 specific engine tune. Why? Because E85 fuel is an inconsistent blend pump-to-pump and state to state. With that said however, they have found a way to let the ECM do the job needed to gain that happy wonderful octane supplement  and this discussion is all about that very process. The OEM’s have found a way to utilize E85 well enough with fuel economy in mind….but performance is the objective of AFD.

TMCP #382: “Small” Front Tire Cars Have a Shot Again! Ed Capen on The New Rules Changes for the 2019 Good Guys Autocross!

This weeks interview is with Ed Capen, Vice President, Sales and Sponsorships for Good-guys Rod & Custom Association to talk about the new rules for the 2019 racing season. Ed has been on the show previously and we got straight into the rules. Good-guys is first and foremost a car show with an Autocross added on. The customer is the car show attendee and the goal is to make it fun and so that car owners do not have to build their cars specifically for this race series.

The new rules are very exciting and make it possible for a normal or slightly modified classic car owner to be able to compete against other similar vehicles. Classes such as Pro-X now exist but the massive tire, super lightweight, race specific cars are not competing against Joe Normal’s heavy car with smaller tires.

TMCP #364: Ron Francis Wiring’s Super Cool Coyote Powered SVO Mustang; Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan

In this episode of TMCP our feature guest is the owner and president of Ron Francis Wiring, Scott Bowers. Scott is a  huge supporter of the show I have come to know him and look forward to every time we can get together. He and the staff at Ron Francis are car fanatics with a passion for electronics who enjoy putting their products on the road.

This year the Hot Rod Power Tour introduced the Sponsors Shootout for manufacturers to participate in featuring drag racing, auto crossing and the long haul road trip all without changing tires or swapping parts on the vehicles. Scott thought this would be a great time to showcase the new car they just put together. The Ron Francis Wiring team built a 1984 Mustang SVO and put a Coyote engine in it. After developing the engine harness for sale, there were many parts lying around the research lab and of course this was the perfect excuse to try it all out in a very cool event.