Car Guy Confessions

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Marcel Venable from Auto Revolution shares wild stories of last minute SEMA builds and painting the ‘Worst Car at SEMA.’ Special guest host Jason Lewis grills Steve Strope of Pure Vision on his worst SEMA experiences. And how it led to building multiple cars featured in the Fast & Furious movies. Follow Auto Revolution on @autorevol...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Special guest host Jason Lewis joins Steve Strope in talking to funny car racing legend Fast Jack Beckman. Fast Jack has stepped into the seat of John Force running the Peak/Chevy Camaro for John Force Racing following John Force’s accident. Follow Jack Beckman at @fastjackbeckman_fc and www.gofastjack.com Checkout Auto Edits with Jason...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Special guest Will Handzel brings on a few of his former General Motors behind the scenes guys. Mario and Al have been part of GM’s Skunkworks testing the new C8 Corvette in secrecy, innovating EV vehicles and the fold down tailgate. Recorded at the Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles @petersenautomuseum and www.petersen.org. Visit www....

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Special guest Will Hanzel and Jeff Smith recall their wild roadster road trip from California to Iowa and Detroit…in a 1931 Ford Roadster hot rod, the Budget Beater. Of course the hot rod got dialed in with Currie and TCI suspension, but that didn’t help climbing mountain grades in the middle of summer or navigating gas stations on the...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Head of Hot Wheels Design Bryan Benedict shares his journey from the art center to creating generations of Hot Wheels enthusiasts dreams. His latest creations capture automotive memories of his own life with a few easter eggs hidden in the toys. Recorded at the Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles @petersenautomuseum and www.petersen.org...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP The Car Guys remember the contributions of hot-rodding legends Alex Xydias and George Poteet. Sharing stories of Charger builds, land speed cars. Photographer Neil Britt is remembered as well. But Jeff shares a story he wishes he could forget, the time a cruise night photo got him put handcuffs. Recorded at the Petersen Auto Museum in L...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP This episode of Car Guy Confessions is a special one as we bring you the uncensored and unleashed recording of an interview Cam Benty did with automotive legend Carroll Shelby nearly 20 years ago. Keep in mind, the sound quality reflects the date of the recording. Visit www.arp-bolts.com for all of your engine fastener and hardware need...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Zac Mertens sits in to share his journey from working with Ken Block and The Hoonigans to starting his own shop and channel building big power in some old school Chevy trucks and SUVs. Now he is taking burnouts across the country with the Burnout Wars series. Follow Zac Mertens at @MISTERZACHARY @mister_zachary on Instagram,  @BURNOUTWA...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Dave Shuten of Galpin Speed Shop specializes in restoring, recreating and crafting iconic hot rods and kustoms from the early, wild years of hot rodding. Some of these include the Mysterion, Pink Panthermobile, and the most recent arrival of the lost Uncertain T. Follow Dave Shuten at @daveshuten and  @galpinautosports and @galpinspeeds...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Garrett Reed of @americanmusclehd joins the Car Guys Steve and Cam to share his journey as an automotive influencer and growing his following on Instagram. He shares the latest updates on his Monte Carlo muscle car and taking the Corvette ERay on an epic California road trip. See more of Garrett Reed at @americanmusclehd and @garrettist...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Industry legend Bret Voelkel and his son Andy Voelkel join Jeff to share tales of the early years of pro-touring and autocross racing. Air Ride Technologies becoming Ridetech and venturing from air bags to coiler suspension and their series of 48 Hour build cars and trucks. Andy joins in with numerous championship wins in time trials wi...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Legendary drag racer and all-around performance guy Mike Ruth joins in to share projects he has worked on with Ford Performance, Heidt’s Suspension, and Saleen including a drag race between Jay Leno and Tim Allen. Mike Ruth is keeping nostalgia pro stock cars from the 1980s alive and honoring the legends of racing history. See more of M...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Kevin Oeste takes over the podcast bringing up memories of his start at Hot Rod magazine after a last minute Power Tour run in the mid 1990s. That led to a career of TV and event hosting for SEMA, Speed Channel, and more! Kevin, his wife and their team at their shop V8 Speed & Resto have crafted muscle cars and custom rides for enth...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Doug Jerger of Squeeg’s Kustoms provides insight into the judging and history of the AMBR competition. Having won the award in 2011 and been a part of winning roadsters since; the crew at Squeeg’s brought out their latest creation to compete again. The Foose-designed Brookville body highlights custom rods from the early 1970s and comple...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP The Car Guys welcome Dean Livermore of Hot Rods by Dean in Phoenix, Arizona. Since 2001, the shop has crafted many award-winning hot rods, muscle cars, Kustoms, and trucks. Their latest creation was up for the Slonaker Award at the Grand National Roadster Show. It’s not just a cookie-cutter Chevrolet C-10 on air but features custo...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Ron Cambra and his team at Cambra Speed Shop in Orange, California are the Grand National Roadster Show’s 2024 Builder of the Year! They celebrated bringing out several builds including a full kustom Merc. As a kid, Ron ventured to the Oakland Roadster Show seeing Kustoms and insane chopper motorcycles on display and was hooked. It has...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Iconic street rod, muscle car, and land speed builder Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy joins the Car Guys to share his journey from pro-street-inspired builds to winning the AMBR and Ridler awards. Currently, several builds are ongoing at Rad Rides by Troy including the long-term F1 and Ferrari technology-laden F87 Camaro and an inno...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Next on our Car Guy Pro Street Pioneer Series is the one and only Rick Dobbertin. Rick’s iconic Pontiac J2000 “Most Famous Pro Street Car” is now in the good hands of the Hay’s. Rick shares his pro street journey and wild builds on the road, water and both! Rick Dobbertin’s Surface Orbiter started as a fuel tanker turned amphibious adve...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Next on our Car Guy Pro Street Pioneer Series is Matt and Debbie Hay! The couple have continuously looked to keep Pro Street heritage in the spotlight. Their famous Tbird saw a full restoration and was featured in Dorito’s Super Bowl Commercial with Chance the Rapper and the Backstreet Boys. Beyond that car, now turned into a Hot Wheels...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP The first of our Car Guy Pro Street Pioneer Series, and the first door slammer to break into the 6-second 1/4 mile, Rod Saboury and his wife Tina sit in to share their story of pushing the outlaw racing and pro street envelope throughout the years. Rod shares his numerous Corvrvette and Camaro race cars that helped set the pro street tr...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP The Car Guys are all back together! Did another winter in Iowa turn Jeff Smith into a true snow farmer? Did he trade his high horsepower builds for skillet tossing and bike rides? Steve Strope breaks down the judging behind America’s Most Beautiful Roadster and the Slonaker award at the GNRS show. Cam Benty brings up a list of the world...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP We will be recording from the Grand National Roadster show again this week. We took a look back at the last few years and the amazing guests we have had including Troy Ladd of Hollywood Hot Rods, Tim Strange, Mike Ring of the Ring Brothers, Pete Santini, and last year’s AMBR Hot Rod winner! Visit www.arp-bolts.com for all of your...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Sean Smith Designs joins the Car Guys again at the Petersen Auto Museum, this time with Marcel Venable from behind the scenes. Sean and Marcel reminisce of the early mini truck and import designs Sean has done. Sean shares the design process behind comedian and car guy Kevin Hart’s Roadrunner dubbed ‘Michael Meyers’ including a custom p...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP Award-winning car designer Sean Smith joins the Car Guys at the Petersen Automotive Museum to share his Art Center journey and designs behind his latest creations. Including the Twisted 67 GTO debuting at SEMA 2023 and taking home several awards including the Best Interior TMI Products Trim Award. See more of Sean’s work at www.seansmit...

With Jeff Smith, Steve Strope, and Cam Benty Presented by ARP The Car Guys are joined by Ben Schaffer, co-founder of Unplugged Performance and Bulletproof Automotive at the Petersen Auto Museum. Naturally sparking a debate over EVs. Ben shares his journey from building and racing import cars to being an early adopter in the EV Tesla customizing game. Not only has Unplugged Performance developed hu...