MotoManTV Podcast

What makes a Maserati a Maserati? Is it the Trident, Italian design, engineering, or something deeper? And why does Maserati approach its heritage so differently from Porsche? In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast , George Notaras sits down with Klaus Busse, Maserati's Head of Design , for a candid conversation about automotive design, Italian culture, corporate influence, and the future of one o...

When Nissan was on the brink of bankruptcy in 1999, it threw the fight of its life—delivering a renaissance of unforgettable machines. But how does a company that created legendary nameplates like the Z, GT-R, Maxima, and Xterra find itself repeatedly fighting for survival from the inside out? In this rare, unfiltered sit-down in Miami, MotoMan reunites with longtime friend and retiring Senior Vic...

What do Porsche, Tesla, Chinese automakers, and the decline of affordable cars have in common? According to automotive journalist and racer Jack Baruth, the industry may be building faster, more technologically advanced, and more expensive cars while losing sight of the people who actually drive them. Jack Baruth returns to the MotoMan Podcast for a provocative conversation in our Michigan Cigar L...

Is Scout Motors building the anti-Tesla? While Tesla, Rivian and other automakers embrace futuristic electric vehicles, Scout Motors is taking the opposite approach: physical buttons, traditional truck engineering, a solid rear axle and less technology between the driver and the road. In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Scout Motors Chief Design Officer Chris Benjamin reveals the strategy behi...

The global auto industry is changing faster than it has in decades — and Bob Lutz has some very strong opinions about who is getting it right, who is getting it wrong and which automakers may be in serious trouble. This week on the MotoMan Podcast, Bob Lutz returns for a wide-ranging conversation about China, the future of the German auto industry, electric vehicles, Porsche, Volkswagen, BMW, Merc...

Are EVs actually failing—or did the automotive industry simply promise too much, too soon? This week on the MotoMan Podcast, George sits down with EVgo product leader Alex Keros for a candid reality check on electric vehicles, EV charging infrastructure and where the industry goes from here. Alex has spent years working on alternative-fuel vehicles, from hydrogen at General Motors to today’s publi...

How does a young engineer from the Greek island of Crete go from selling buses to leading Mercedes-Benz in America? Dimitris Psillakis never mapped out the career that followed. He joined Mercedes-Benz through an international management-trainee program, took responsibility for a small bus division in Greece and then accepted a series of increasingly complex assignments across four continents. Alo...

Slate is promising a $25,000 electric truck with no traditional trim levels, no sprawling options list and a radically different approach to personalization. But can that idea survive contact with manufacturing, service and the realities of launching a new car company? CJ Waelti joins the MotoMan Podcast to explain why the electric powertrain may be the least interesting part of Slate. Drawing on...

Chris Benjamin’s path to the top of automotive design was anything but straightforward. Long before becoming Chief Design Officer at Scout Motors, Benjamin arrived at design school unable to properly draw a car in three dimensions, learned a painful lesson after being labeled “unreliable,” and eventually landed what looked like a dream job at Mercedes-Benz. There was just one problem: he was so de...

What will car collectors want when today’s roads are filled with electric, autonomous computers on wheels? According to Tommy Mica of TFLcar, the answer may be the exact opposite of a Tesla Model Y. In this very different MotoMan podcast episode, Tommy makes the case for the strange, tactile and overlooked cars hiding in plain sight. They discuss why analog experiences are returning, what actually...

Slate Auto has been described as a Jeff Bezos-backed EV startup building a $25,000 electric truck — but that is only part of the story. In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, we sit down with Rod Copes, Slate Auto board director and employee number one, to discuss the real strategy behind Slate: radical simplicity, American manufacturing, affordability, and avoiding the mistakes that crushed so m...

Most car designers are supposed to follow a path. Alfonso Albaisa did not. Before he became the global design leader behind Nissan’s future, he was a Cuban-American kid in Miami who did not learn English until he was six or seven, dressed like Napoleon, drew in a closet, nearly failed engineering with a 0.5 GPA, and found his way through art, architecture, balsa wood boats, New York, Detroit, and...

Greg Tada left software development to chase something far more personal: motorcycles. In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Greg joins MotoMan at ArtCenter to tell the story of how he went from working in tech to designing motorcycles for some of the most important brands in the industry, including Kawasaki, Indian Motorcycle, Piaggio, Aprilia, and Moto Guzzi. This conversation covers the momen...

What happens when a university engineering project completely upends the power dynamics of the world's most elite supercar manufacturers? In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, we meet Dr. Tim Woolmer, the CTO and Founder of YASA Motors. Long before the automotive establishment fully embraced electrification, Woolmer engineered a radical departure from traditional propulsion: the axial flux &...

What happens when you apply the brutal discipline of elite military training and the high-stakes pressure of a two-Michelin-star kitchen to the wild west of the modern digital algorithm? In a total departure from our usual deep dives with the key people shaping the car, tech, racing or business worlds, this episode MotoMan sits down with digital creator Read Choi for a raw, unscripted peer-to-peer...

What happens when you take the collective genius behind Tesla, Lucid, and BYD, and use it to build an EV that completely rejects Silicon Valley tech bloat? In this episode of The MotoMan Podcast, we sit down with Mark Tapscott, co-founder of the radical new British automotive startup, Longbow. Mark shares his incredible journey through the EV revolution—from early days spent as Elon Musk's chauffe...

In this exclusive vault episode of the MotoMan Podcast, MotoMan goes behind the scenes at Toyota’s North American R&D center with legendary former Chief Engineer Mike Sweers. Before his recent retirement, Sweers was the driving force responsible for the engineering DNA of Toyota’s entire body-on-frame lineup. But it almost didn’t happen. In this career-spanning deep dive, Sweers uncovers the h...

What does it take to become the ultimate authority on classic car values? In this special vault episode, MotoMan sits down with Dave Kinney—the founder and the publisher of the Hagerty Price Guide. From a fateful, unfiltered conversation at a New York City Shake Shack in 2006 that completely altered MotoMan's career path, to Dave’s own wild journey of turning a 2.3 GPA and severe dyslexia into...

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Philipp Skogstad , CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, to discuss the radical shift in how the world’s oldest car company builds for the future. While Philipp’s background includes a rebellious streak—hacking a serial port into his father’s car in the 90s to get internet on the road —his primary focus today is bridging the gap betwee...

How do you build a global automotive media brand from a "B-Tier" city with no budget and zero industry connections? You get scrappy. Today on the MotoMan Podcast , we sit down with Jakub Wrobel , the visionary behind the "Walmart Top Gear" production style that helped The Straight Pipes leapfrog the automotive establishment. Jakub pulls back the curtain on the "psychopathic" decision to quit his s...

What does it actually take to become a racing legend? For Ron Fellows, it wasn’t a silver spoon—it was a shovel. In this episode, the Corvette icon pulls back the curtain on the brutal financial reality of his early career. From spending nearly a decade digging trenches for a natural gas company to fund his passion , to the "red flag" moment of financing a race car through a local bank , Ron share...

For over 30 years, Simon Sproule has been inside the rooms where the biggest decisions in the car industry get made. From working alongside Elon Musk at Tesla… To witnessing the rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn… This is a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how the modern car industry actually works. We go deep into Tesla’s early momentum, what made it different, and why the rest of the industry is still...

What happens when a hobby born out of "doomscrolling" turns into a global audience of 11.8 million people ? In this episode, we sit down with Forrest Jones , the pioneer of the vertical car review format who fundamentally changed how we consume automotive media. Forrest opens up about the high-stakes journey of building a massive digital empire, from the "leap of faith" moving...

Most people see the smoke and the sideways Mustangs, but they don't see the payroll, the sleepless nights, or the massive career gamble that started it all. In this episode, Vaughn Gittin Jr. pulls back the curtain on the 20-year journey from a stable 9-to-5 to becoming the CEO of RTR Vehicles . We discuss why he chose to move his entire life to the "Silicon Valley" of racing to stay...

In this episode of the MotoMan Podcast, Sasha Selipanov shares the story behind some of the most important modern performance cars — and why he ultimately left the biggest automotive brands to start his own company. From growing up in 1990s Russia and sketching cars as a kid, to shaping icons like the Lamborghini Huracán and Bugatti Chiron, Sasha reveals the tension between engineering and design...