From EV Demand To Texas Swap Meets

EV demand slows down, a classic American brand hints at a sedan return, and BMW flat-out says software is now the core of the car. That’s a lot of change for one Saturday, and we talk through what it means for real drivers and real enthusiasts when factories idle, platforms get shared, and “digital functions” become as important as horsepower.

We hit the week’s automotive news from multiple angles: GM’s EV production pause in Detroit, the surprising direction of Buick’s future lineup, and the broader race where legacy automakers are trying to keep pace with Tesla and the rapid-development mindset coming from Chinese electric vehicle makers. Along the way, we get nostalgic about the old auto show era of clay models and concept shells, then contrast it with today’s reality where the biggest upgrades often arrive as software, screens, and updates.

Then we switch gears into pure car culture with a mini deep-dive on the Model T Ford launch. If you’ve always believed it was black from day one or that the moving assembly line started immediately, you’ll want to hear the details. We wrap with a practical, boots-on-the-ground guide to swap meets in Texas, including why events like Lone Star Park, Conroe’s Hot Rods of Texas, and the massive Pate Swap Meet still matter if you love classic car parts, project builds, and the thrill of finding the right piece.

Subscribe for more weekly automotive news and car culture, share this with a friend who still loves the hunt for parts, and leave us a review. What’s the best deal or rare part you’ve ever found at a swap meet?

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Audio Trouble

Don Armstrong 0:07

It is the award-winning Inwheel Time Car Talk Show. Richard Tomlin. Remember that name? I think from Apex Auto Works. Uh-huh. He's been found. And we catch up with him about the Pike's Peak Hill Climb in the 69 Roadrunner. Are you nuts? In Jeff's car culture, things we didn't know about the launch of the Model T Ford. And Mr. Mars has swap meets going to one in the top five United States. Depending on where the top five are. Thank you very much for joining us. It's turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous Saturday live show here. Rub it in. No, but I mean look at the sun. It is. It's nice. I cut the grass on Thursday just before it was.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

You are rubbing it in the rain. Yeah.

Don Armstrong 1:05

And um, yeah, because you're going to do that today?

Jeff Dziekan 1:07

Well, I cleaned the gutters this week and I washed the house this week. You? I did.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

I got some clothes that need to be washed. You got more time.

Jeff Dziekan 1:16

Just bring them over. I'll take them down to the creek and beat them. Rock.

Don Armstrong 1:22

Who is joining us? Did I hear somebody knocking on the door right here? Would that happen to be Richard Tomlin with Apex AutoWorks? Oh my God, it is. Richard, we thought that you had gone into another world. You look taller.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Richard?

Don Armstrong 1:39

Richard, have you muted your microphone, Richard? Because we can't hear a damn thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Okay. Let me let me let me work with Richard here.

Don Armstrong 1:49

You work with that. At any rate, so uh you did all of that? You did not do all of that. I did do all that.

Jeff Dziekan 1:56

I did. I saw you land at Sugarland Wednesday. Did you, Sobby? Yeah, well, I heard and I got on the app and oh be darn. So I went out there and I was uh I mooned you. You know, kind of you know did all that. Yeah, I I didn't see that, thank goodness, but yes.

Don Armstrong 2:11

Yeah.

Jeff Dziekan 2:12

No, but I saw you, I I heard you. I didn't actually see the bird coming in, but I heard you. Yeah, well, we we did. We landed out there for a brief while and uh got back up again.

Don Armstrong 2:22

Anyway, figure fueling. Get into our fuel. Yep. And and get all that nice jet exhaust all over me, which you know, I walk into someplace and go, but yeah, it smells like jet exhaust. Well, it's kind of like you know, nitromethane exhaust. Add beans for lunch. Exactly. Oh my god. Well, um you know, I didn't do any headlines.

Jeff Dziekan 2:48

Oh, you know what? I got something.

GM EV Slowdown And Buick Plans

Don Armstrong 2:49

No, no, no, no. I've got to get some headlines in because I've got so many and I want everybody to know. Okay. GM again has idled production at an electric vehicle plant in Detroit due to waning demand, less than three months after a mass layoff and reduction to a single shift. 1,300 workers remaining at Factory Zero, where were temporarily laid off March 16th. They're expected to return April 13th. According to the UAW, the plant was previously idled October 27th through November 24th before being cut to a single shift in January. Sorry. Blame Mary Berra. Oh boy. GM plans to introduce to the U.S. market a Buick sedan built on the same platform underpinning as the next generation Cadillac CT5 and the Chevy Camaro. Now, how do you do that? Is the Chevy Camaro going to grow to the size of a Sedan Deville? Those designers are doing a lot of drinking. Uh the car would be the first in North America for Buick, once known for luxurious sedans and coupes, since it discontinued the Regal in 2020. Yeah. Buick's North American lineup now consists of the Enclave, the Encore GX, the Envision, and the Invista crossovers.

Jeff Dziekan 4:06

The Envision's becoming uh more high-end as the years go by. The this year's model of the Envision, which I have, is a little bit more optioned.

Don Armstrong 4:15

Yeah, so you beat them all to the punch.

Jeff Dziekan 4:17

Well, I but you know you optioned it up. No, but they can. I haven't optioned by it. Mine just came standard and I love it.

Don Armstrong 4:23

Well, I know, but it but it it's not the bottom of the barrel. Oh no, no, no, no.

unknown 4:26

Okay.

Don Armstrong 4:27

Well, shall we try it? Richard. Richard, do we have you now?

SPEAKER_04 4:33

Richard.

Don Armstrong 4:35

Mars, well, I'm gonna turn you down. So I'm just gonna continue on with the news of the day until you're not sure why we can't hear it. Wave at us and let us know when you got him. Um production of the next generation CT5 and Camaro expected to begin in Lansing in the fall of next year. Uh GM expects to produce 60 to 70,000 CT5 and Camaro vehicles annually at the plant according to the source.

Jeff Dziekan 5:00

So it's going to be built in the Michigan.

Don Armstrong 5:02

Yeah, Lansing.

Jeff Dziekan 5:04

Oh, yeah, capital.

Don Armstrong 5:05

Where is uh where is Lansing? Lansing in Detroit. Uh in the middle of the state?

Jeff Dziekan 5:09

A couple hours away, maybe. North? Yeah, northwest. Okay.

BMW Software Shift And Auto Show Nostalgia

Don Armstrong 5:15

Big college town. Um in the past, platforms were largely defined by body styles and engine layouts. Today, digital functions and software are at the core of everything we do. That according to the BMW folks. Uh the comments highlight the scale of transformation underway at BMW as Legacy Automakers' race to keep pace with Tesla and a new wave of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers that have prioritized software and rapid development cycles. BMW rolling out its new class program, the automaker's next generation vehicle architecture, and on March 18th unveiled the i3, a new class-based version of its Core 3 series. The I3, which starts production in August at BMW's Munich factory, is the second model on the new class platform after the IX3 SUV. Here they come. But I guess that the the the point to make there is the fact that all of the cars now are computer assisted. Remember, back in the day it was the clay models. And the clay models gosh, I miss those days when they, you know, hey, uh the uh Houston Auto Show is gonna have five brand new concept vehicles and they'd roll them out, they'd be all painted up. Of course, there was no inside to that. Yeah, just a shell. But oh they were they had them way up on a big platform, going in a big turntable, and some hot looking chick describing the car. Gone are those days. It's a shame.

Jeff Dziekan 6:54

Oh well. That's how they designed for computers.

Don Armstrong 6:58

And here uh this falls under the bad dealership again. Uh-uh. All right. A former high-level executive in Courtney New Jersey luxury dealerships who embezzled more than one point six million dollars over seven years was sentenced to eighteen months in prison in order to pay four hundred and ninety-four thousand and eighty-two dollars in back taxes. That's how they got him. Well, that wait a minute. They got mobsters that way too, didn't they?

Jeff Dziekan 7:35

I don't know. But that's tax evasion?$228,571 a year. He wasn't living too bad off the hog, was he? That's just scratch.

Don Armstrong 7:45

Uh Ju Yong Lee pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Hayden to filing a false income tax return in 2021. From approximately 2015 through 2021, Lee embezzled over 1.6 from various high-end dealerships in New Jersey, where he worked. When he filed his tax returns, Lee failed to report or pay tax of the funds as income. Dummy. Lee was general manager of Maserati of Central New Jersey, Bentley, Edison, and Ferrari of Central New Jersey, all in Edison. Um the stores are part of the Mergado Automotive Group of Miami, which ranks number 65 on the top list of top 150 dealerships in the U.S. Well, they ain't uh they won't be in the top. You couldn't you couldn't take that amount from like a uh a Volkswagen dealer. Or uh uh a McDonald's restaurant.

Jeff Dziekan 8:35

Right.

Dealership Theft And USMCA Uncertainty

Don Armstrong 8:37

Mercedes, yeah, Maserati, all of that other big money stuff. USMCA. You've heard that? It's US Mexico Canada. Okay, it's an agreement that uh has been in place for a long time. Well, U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer said Tuesday that he does not expect negotiations on the U.S. Mexico-Canada agreement to on trade to be resolved by July 1st. They were hoping to get it done by July 1st. July is the required deadline for USMCA to notify Canada and Mexico about its plans for the trilateral trade pact known as USMCA. The USMCA review sets up a three-way choice for j uh each country. The they can renew the deal for another 16 years, withdraw from it, or signal both non-renewal and non-withdrawal, which triggers an annual review that could keep negotiations going for up to a decade.

unknown 9:35

Oh God.

Jeff Dziekan 9:36

Didn't George Bush uh the younger put that in place? I think he he negotiated that. Got a meeting.

Don Armstrong 9:43

Let's go to a meeting. Let's go to another meeting. Okay, what time's that meeting? Three? Well, let's go. Wait a minute. And then after the three, we got uh wait, we got one at seven o'clock in the morning before everybody gets here. Oh wait, that's not we're not done. The lunch? We're gonna cater with it. We got another meeting. Let's have a meeting about lunch. Let's have a meeting about a meeting.

unknown 10:02

Kidding.

Jeff Dziekan 10:02

I was in a company that did that.

Hyundai Truck Rumors And Lost Guest

Don Armstrong 10:04

Have we lost Mars? Where is Mars? Uh he's working with uh Richard, trying to get Richard. Well, I think that he needs to go down there to Apex Auto Works. There you go. Uh either that or just give up on the whole thing. Um, I can continue on with headlines if you'd like. Well, you go right ahead if you got them. All right. Uh are you are you able to do the launch of the Model T Ford from here? Uh with the video and everything? Well, maybe let me see. All right, because it we can't go you do that and I'll work on this. Oh, you work on that. I'll work on that. Over 40 years in the U.S., Hyundai has worked its way into a position of strength in mass market passenger cars and family haulers. Now Hyundai is entering the last big uncharted territory in its quest to join the ranks of North America's full line automakers. With its first body-on-frame platforms in the U.S., the fast-growing company is muscling in on the highly profitable pickups and SUVs that are the lifeblood of the Detroit 3. The first vehicle on the new platform, a mid-sized pickup truck scheduled to arrive in 2029. Hyundai hinted at its vision for full-fledged trucks with the Boulder concept, a sleek powertrain agnostic utility, it says can tackle the toughest terrain. In Boulder, the Boulder, though only a concept, is aimed squarely at the growing off-road segment owned by Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler. Hyundai already has a pickup in the U.S., the compact unibody Santa Cruz, but it musters only a fraction of the Ford Mustang's uh Mavericks sales, I should say. Uh sources have told Automotive News that Hyundai soon will give up on the Santa Cruz. So they're gonna do a whole new thing and they're gonna get serious about it. I saw a Santa Cruz just yesterday and I'm going, man, that thing is small. Why not smaller than a Santa Fe? I'm sure that I I'm sure that they've done the research, but I don't understand why they don't build a El Camino or El uh or a Ranchero uh size vehicle that was built on a car freight. Why don't they do that? I guess they've done the research.

Jeff Dziekan 12:14

It's not in line for the next idea. They've got other ideas that they want to take care of.

Don Armstrong 12:18

Well, they need to stop that. What do they think they are? Moving forward, yeah, allegedly. Mr. Mars, are you with us? Yeah. He is.

Mike Marrs 12:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was gonna say, I thought I read something about some rumors that Chevrolet was going to resurrect the Okamino.

Don Armstrong 12:30

They're gonna re-re re-erect resurrect. Re-erect. Whatever. I've I've screwed all that up all morning long. So I guess uh Richard Tomlin is a no, huh?

Mike Marrs 12:42

Yeah, we're not sure what's going on down there. We got video, but no audio, so we're gonna work offline this week and see if we can figure it out what's going on.

Don Armstrong 12:49

Just a minute, isn't he an Alvin?

Mike Marrs 12:51

Yes.

Don Armstrong 12:52

Alvin.

Jeff Dziekan 12:57

We could bring him up as an in in studio guest up here. You could, yeah. We'd take him a club to get here.

Mike Marrs 13:02

Yeah. Well, but still, he's talked to us before from the parking lot, showing us some of the projects and stuff. He's talked to us from Pike's Peak. So I don't know what's going on, but we're gonna work on it this week.

Don Armstrong 13:13

Mike, you ought to know all about it.

Jeff Dziekan 13:15

You live in Aderville. Could be Theodore did it. Theodore. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And what was the other one? Alvin. Alvin, Theodore, and Oscar? No. No, no. The three three chipmunk boys. Oh boy. If you know, contact Mike at Mars at Impact.

SPEAKER_05 13:36

Alvin Theodore.

Don Armstrong 13:39

What were the names of the three? Of the three.

Jeff Dziekan 13:42

Are you Googling it? If George is listening, George knows. George will know. But George is listening, but Simon. Simon. Simon!

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Of course!

Jeff Dziekan 13:53

G Davy. Squirrel. That was Simon. Speaking of uh speaking of our listeners, uh Jeff Heitzman, congratulations on his Artemis. You know, Jeff was part of that program. I think he's an Artemis III. He's working on Artemis III project.

SPEAKER_05 14:10

So yeah, he's working on some future parts of it. The next step or two. Yep, yep.

Jeff Dziekan 14:14

So good for Jeffrey. Yeah, yeah.

Don Armstrong 14:17

Very exciting. My Katie is out in Vandenberg. She's been out there all week. She's working on uh a SpaceX project that um is gonna launch six, count them six of her satellites on one rocket ship. Oh boy. The in-wheel time space cases. That's it. That's right. Well, that's gonna be our next title. We should do remote from the moon, Mike. Actually, we are. Uh based on all of our uh trials and tribulations with this Zoom thing that Mars has saddled us with. That's been over a year, and every week it's something. Well, no, I'm just it's not his fault. No, no, it's not. But it's it it is. We we bust everything. Mars, yeah, listen, uh I know Becky, and it's always your fault. Absolutely. So I don't want to I don't want to bust the cycle there. Uh so I'm just gonna keep up the movement and bust his butt.

Mike Marrs 15:14

I would be disappointed to learn that I actually I did something right every once in a while she'll say something. I'll say, Can you write that on the wall? Nope. Ain't gonna write it on the wall.

Space Talk Tech Jokes Then Break

Don Armstrong 15:23

Put it on a camera. Yeah. That wall was painted 15 years ago, and there's still nothing on it. Exactly. We're going to take a quick break, okay? Because we deserve it, my god.

Mike Marrs 15:34

I I would like to say one thing though. So so we're kind of like the the Artemis toilet that they had problems with. You know, we we're we're going into areas unknown as far as live streaming goes. That most people don't they record it and then they fix it so they don't have anything. We're real.

Don Armstrong 15:54

That's the problem. They have money and they just throw money at it. Either that or they go to a podcasting studio. They go to a podcasting studio, pay a fortune for it, kind of like we did in the old radio days. Remember that? And we go there, and somebody else would make all the money from us and we would broadcast it to zero people.

Jeff Dziekan 16:17

I think what you were trying to say is we got a lot of crap floating around here. We do, yeah.

Mike Marrs 16:21

Just saying that that it's we are leading technology in this field. And it's not like that toilet.

Don Armstrong 16:28

Sometimes you gotta stop fixing it. They fixed it. They had they had more computing power on uh on uh Alan Shepherd's first rocket.

Jeff Dziekan 16:39

Well, yeah, they said that the the calculators nowadays have more power than what they went up with, you know, all the computers that they had. I was trying to be functions.

Don Armstrong 16:46

Oh, so they still haven't got the toilet fixed. No, the toilet still is a problem. Well, you just go to the backyard.

Mike Marrs 16:53

Exactly. Go on the back side of the moon. You shouldn't take care of that when you were on the back side of the moon.

Don Armstrong 16:58

Just ahead in Jeff's car culture, the launch of the Model T Ford and Mars has top five swap meets in the U.S. of A in his driving destinations after this break on the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show. The Tex-Mex dining experience is defined by Lupi Tortilla, your destination for Texas's best beef fajitas and frozen margaritas. Since 1983, Lupi Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients. Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience at Lupi Tortilla, all developed in a little house near Highway 6 and I-10 in West Houston. Visit any of the Loopy Tortillas and you'll see the same attention to detail in each and every location. Start your loopy experience with queso flammiato and guacamole, along with a classic frozen margarita. Dine on famous loopy beef and chicken fajitas, or pepper shrimp brochette, or a fish or vegetarian entree, and finish with a scrumptious flan for dessert. Find loopy tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort Worth. There's a Texas location near you. The recipes are authentic and time-tested. The ingredients always fresh. Loopy Tortilla, East Beady Goose. Apple or Android, NWL Time Podcasts can be found everywhere, on the stream and through downloads. Whether you're on the road or at home and Jones in for a different kind of car talk show, give InWheel Time a try. Honest new car reviews, fun, informative interviews with real car people, weekly automotive news, features like Jeff's car culture and Mike's driving destinations, all on In Wheel Time. Check us out on Sirius XM Podcasts, iHeartRadio, or while you're shopping on Amazon through Amazon Music. Mm-hmm. Inwheeltime.com has a list, and we know you love lists. Beat over the head with lists. I got lists. All right. Um Inwheel Time invites you to join us 10 to noon, Central Time, every Saturday if we're there. Uh for our live show about all things automotive. We hope you'll join us. Shut up. Thanks for being with us today. I wrote that on there. I'm sorry that you're with us today. How's that? That I cover all the bases?

Jeff Dziekan 19:04

I see it. Yeah. I see it.

Don Armstrong 19:06

Time now for Jeff's Car Culture. Launch of the Model T Ford.

Jeff Dziekan 19:09

It's about time. So the things that you really didn't know and the kind of speculation, but the Model T revolution revolutionized transportation and manufacturing in America when it debuted in 1908. While many know it was the first affordable automobile that put American on wheels, Henry Ford's vision created the new car for the common person. So here we go. Talk about price. Well initially the car sold for eight hundred and twenty-five dollars in nineteen oh eight, equivalent to about twenty-five grand today. Uh the affordable compared to other automobiles of the area, which typically cost about two grand. Ford managed the price point by focusing on simplicity and efficiency. And then you talk about the color. Well, despite the popular saying that customers would have had any color as long as it's black, the earliest model T's weren't actually black. The first production models came in gray, green, red, and blue. Really? Black became standard in nineteen fourteen because black paint dried faster. That's why and it sped up production. Wow. Who knew? Who knew? So you talk about the people doing that? Well, workers were paid five dollars a day in nineteen fourteen, which was just generous. It was revolutionary. The wage doubled and the industry standard uh to follow. Allowed workers to afford the very cars they were building, and that's what Ford wanted. He wanted uh understanding that the customers create what was important to them. Talk about the budget. Ford's budget was uh not anything uncommon, but modern vehicles launched with massive marketing campaigns. Ford spent almost nothing on advertising for the Model T. The car essentially sold itself through word of mouth and newspaper coverage. Ford relied on the product's quality and affordability to generate the buzz. The assembly line? Well, contrary to popular belief, the Model T didn't launch with the famous moving assembly line. The innovation came five years after the release in 1913. I was gonna say by 1914 when everybody got a ring. Yep, yep. Uh before that, cars were built in a stationary position with workers moving between them, taking about twelve hours per vehicle. Wow. The capacity? Well, Ford's factory could produce eleven cars per day by nineteen fourteen and implementing the moving assembly line. The numbers skyrocketed to about ninety-three uh a car every ninety-three minutes, which was very good back then. Efficiency allowed Ford to continue dropping prices throughout production. The first global car. Well, it's what they called it. It was designed as the world's first global car. Ford built factories across six continents. And the Model T was manufactured in twenty countries. That was that's pretty crazy back then in nineteen thirteen, nineteen fourteen. Talk about the procedures. Well, uh the Model T wasn't as simply as simple as turning the key. Drivers had to set multiple levels to adjust the throttle, physically cranking the engine by hand. The crank would kick back dangerously and sometimes breaking a wrist or a finger if the unprepared person was operating it. That they had. Well, the unique material solutions it's a magneto part of the connection. It was built in the flywheel using materials that had been used in automobiles before. The innovation eliminated the need for batteries in early mod in the early models through significant engineering achievements. Transformation of it was uh the Ford specifically designed the Model T with high ground clearance and flexible suspension to handle America's most unpaved rural roads. Don't forget, there wasn't any concrete back then either. The Model T arrived before proper roads did, actually driving demand for better infrastructure nationwide. So I kind of contributed to that for that. No, that's a Model A. Yeah. There's other pictures in there too. Uh the the source, many farmers used the Model T as a stationary power source by jacking up the rear wheels and attaching a belt to the axle, the Model T could perform uh farm equipment like saws, pumps, and threshers effectively serving as a mobile generator. The name well, the T designated seems obvious now, but if you know the representative representative Ford's twentieth design attempt, this previous model ran through much of the alphabet. Several failed several of them failed prototypes before the model team was a success. The earliest prototypes from 1903 were simply named with letters in the sequence. So the T finally was at the end of the alphabet, basically. Other milestones, the production ended in 1927. Ford manufactured an astounding fifteen million model T's. The record stood until 1972 when the Volkswagen Beatles finally surpassed it. No other single model dominated the market so completely for so long. So there you go. You're just gonna drive it through America and that's a little tidbits and facts about that, and people didn't know all that. Now you do.

Don Armstrong 23:48

I always thought that the Model T was uh assembly line made from the very beginning. But no, five years later.

Jeff Dziekan 23:56

He was very innovative back in the beginning. So you know thank you, Henry Ford and all the Ford family. You know, but he must go recall something. He wasn't a very nice person. No, he wasn't. He was uh uh no, he was not. He was an ass. He was I think he was an anti-Semite, that's what he was.

Don Armstrong 24:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

There was a lot of stories about that too.

Jeff Dziekan 24:15

Yeah, yeah. And every one of those pictures you saw, those vehicles have been recalled.

Don Armstrong 24:20

Oh my god. You know, I haven't even done recalls, but uh, Mr. Mars, uh it's time for your driving destinations and five swap meets, and it's time for you to go. You want me to get a mic?

Texas Swap Meets Worth The Walk

Sponsors And Where To Watch

Mike Marrs 24:31

If you would, sir, I'll pull it up and get you started. There you go. All right. So swap meets are something that we used to. I remember when I was much, much younger that that was something that we always went to looking for parts. It was a big deal. It was almost like almost every car show had a swap meet, and it's not so much anymore. Now, if you're going to find something, and generally it's tied into a flea market. But there are several swap meet. Or you go online and get it, you know, it takes all the fun out of watching, walking through it. So, but one of them that's going on that is still a pretty big deal, is the Southwest Swap Meet at Lone Star Park. Now, this is right between Dallas and Fort Worth. Happens twice a year. In fact, it's going on this weekend, is the spring event, and there'll be one later on in the fall. Now, this has been around since 1968, and it's set up on a six on a 300-acre horse racing facility. So it's not a lot of open fields and stuff. You've got parking lots and grandstand, the tracks all right there in the background, but there's like 5,000 spaces available for vendors, food trucks, and the auto corral. So if you want to go looking for something in a little bit more of a laid-back atmosphere that's not totally too big, put on your walking shoes and go check out this one. Now, getting a little bit closer to home down here in the Dallas part of the world, Hot Rods of Texas swap meet happens up in Conroe. Again, this one is twice a year, and this is the second largest swap meet in Texas. Now, uh the October event is set for October the 23rd and the 25th. Again, Montgomery County Fairgrounds out on Airport Road. We've been out there a couple of times with some other events. It is a real fairgrounds. It is a large place, and they use the whole thing. Hot rods, muscle cars, project builds. And the great thing about this one is if you're going to be a vendor there, if you're going to come in there and set up, you've got to have at least 75% of your content, your stuff you're bringing in, has got to be auto-related. So you're not really going to turn this into some sort of flea market with a lot of handicrafts on it. And uh it usually draws a lot of a pretty big crowd because isn't that a cute person with a lot of there? Got a car on it. So um then we're gonna go to the big one. Now, this is the biggest in Texas, and it is considered one of the largest in the country. Now, this is the Pate Swap Meet. Happens April the 23rd through the 25th, so still got time to get there. Now, this was started in 1972 by several Texas car clubs who were going off to Pennsylvania, to Hershey, and places like that, and they got tired of making the drive. So they decided to set one up here, and it's been through several different places, and now is home at the Texas Motor Speedway. Fourteen clubs get together to put this together. They have 2,000 vendors, and they have 9,900 spaces for people to set up and swap parts and swap stories. Then they have an auto corral. And there's some pictures, part of these pictures are from the top seating of the track looking out over the field. It uses the in the whole track. And uh a lot of people, I mean, they now have uh golf carts, a lot of people use scooters, a lot of people get around. Um last time I was up there, it wasn't quite this big, it was pre-COVID. I was there two days and still didn't get to walk through all of it. So there's a lot of stuff up there and lots of things, and if you buy something, if you can't carry it, they got people that'll actually carry it to your car. So one thing about these car these swap meets, whether it's these big ones or the small ones that you can find, the biggest thing you've got to remember is bring cash. Cash is king because out there in the middle of the parking lot, you're not gonna necessarily have access to a credit card. And the other thing is if you want to get something in particular, if you're really looking for a hard-to-part find, you ought to get there a little bit early and get started on it. Bring your walking shoes. And um a couple other yeah, yeah. Yeah, you walk your feet off with that. A couple other things I want to mention quite real quick. Greenville Swap Meet, that's an old school option early in the spring that's up there. And the other one is the Corvette Chevy Expo down in Galveston. It's pretty close. That one also has uh a swap meet, but it's primarily GM focused, uh, obviously heavy into the Corvettes. But swap meets are still out there and you can find them. Uh, you just got to kind of look for them. They're not uh as plentiful as they used to be, but they're still a lot of fun.

Don Armstrong 28:55

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