► Listen to our most recent episode

Tag: the muscle car place

TMCP #649 (BONUS): Bri Lynn, Winter, and the Road to SEMA: Autism Awareness Through Jeeps, Family, and FlexTread

This week on The Muscle Car Place, we’re bringing you a special bonus episode recorded live from Jeep Jam in Panama City Beach, Florida. While a Jeep event may seem like an unusual stop for a muscle car podcast, the connection comes through FlexTread Floor Mats, a sister company to Legendary Auto Interiors. Legendary has long been known as one of the premier suppliers of restoration interiors for classic Mopar and GM muscle cars, while FlexTread has expanded that same commitment to quality into the Jeep and truck market.

Kirk Hansen sat down with Bree Lynn of Houston, Texas, to share the powerful story behind her Jeep, “Grace,” and her son Winter. After years of searching for answers regarding Winter’s developmental delays and autism diagnosis, Bree found herself navigating a journey filled with challenges, uncertainty, and ultimately hope. One of the most emotional milestones came after years of speech therapy when Winter finally called her “Mama” for the first time, a moment that symbolized just how far he had come.

Today, Bree uses Grace as a rolling platform for autism awareness, helping families connect through shared experiences while encouraging compassion and understanding for those living with autism. Her message, “Show Grace to Even Those That Are Different,” has resonated with countless families at events across the country. Winter’s own motto captures the spirit of their journey perfectly: “I have autism. Autism doesn’t have me.”

The autism-awareness campaign will continue throughout the year as FlexTread and Legendary Auto Interiors work toward a major display at SEMA, while also offering special autism-awareness floor mats for Jeeps, trucks, and muscle cars. This is a heartfelt conversation about family, perseverance, community, and the unexpected ways our automotive hobbies can bring people together. We hope you’ll listen, share it with someone who may need it, and help spread a message of hope, acceptance, and grace.

TMCP #646: Ask Rick – Memorial Day Muscle, Summer Flip Strategy, and Parade-Ready Classics

In this episode of The MuscleCar Place, Rob Kibbe and Rick Schmidt kick off May with a thoughtful look at Memorial Day—balancing its deeper meaning with the traditions that bring car enthusiasts together, from local parades to community gatherings. The conversation then shifts into the latest Dallas Kibbe Racing update, where steady progress on the track is matched by a big off-track milestone: a new presenting sponsor stepping in behind the program. From there, Rick delivers his signature straight talk on topics ranging from whether giving a car as a gift is a great idea or a logistical gamble, to the future of continuation builds like Revology and whether the Camaro comeback rumors hold any real weight.
The episode wraps with two fun but strategic car-buying segments. First, the guys pick parade-ready classics under $50K that can be enjoyed all summer without losing money. Then, with the budget removed, the focus turns to real profit—analyzing a ’92 Corvette ZR-1 as an undervalued opportunity, a 2000 Saleen Mustang as a niche play, and a ’71 Chevelle as the safest bet for consistent return. As always, Rick cuts through the noise with practical insight, making this episode equal parts car culture, market reality, and smart enthusiast thinking.

TMCP #632: The Full Business of “Give Away Sweepstakes” with Hodson Motors — Riley Hodson on Building, Giving Away, and Growing the World of Classic 4×4’s Sweepstakes

Just outside the chaos of SEMA, we sat down at Hodson Motors—Riley Hodson’s backyard-born, fast-growing sweepstakes operation that’s taking over the classic 4×4 world. What started as a humble father-and-son hobby turned into a full business when Riley realized people weren’t just following his truck builds…they trusted him. From diesel-swapped Suburbans to bone-stock Toyotas, Riley breaks down the real math, the real risks, and the real heart behind giving away fully built vintage trucks to everyday enthusiasts. No hype, no gimmicks—just honesty, hustle, and a shop full of lifted classics ready for their next home.

Riley walks us through how he chooses the trucks, why some sweepstakes boom while others flop, and why every winner needs to know they’re not just getting a truck—they’re inheriting a hobby. It’s a rare, transparent look behind a world most people only see through ads and hashtags, and it proves why Hodson Motors has become the trusted name in classic 4×4 giveaways. And let’s be honest…nothing makes your muscle car look better than a perfectly built vintage truck parked next to it. After hearing this episode, you’re going to want to check out HodsonMotors.com and throw your name in the hat for the next one.

TMCP #626: Ask Rick – Preview for the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals 2025, “The Pebble Beach of Muscle Car Shows”

It’s one of the biggest months of the year — SEMA, MCACN, and Thanksgiving! In this episode, Rick Schmidt joins Rob to tackle the real questions everyone’s asking: turkey, beef, or ham? Cranberries from the can? And of course, what makes MCACN (the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals) such a world-class event. Rick gives us an inside look at his 13-mile 1964 Ford Galaxie XL, shares why authenticity matters more than perfection, and explains why this show has earned its nickname: “The Pebble Beach of Muscle Cars.”
From Thanksgiving table debates to restoration realities, Rick dives into the surprising truth about American vs. Taiwan-made panels, plus which cars—classic or modern—could be future MCACN stars. Whether you’re restoring, collecting, or just daydreaming, this one’s packed with laughs, insight, and muscle car wisdom. Tune in and find out: is Rick Team Turkey or Team Ham?

TMCP 623: Don Abenante – Fabricator to YouTube Star – Building And Driving a 1970 Chevelle From Rhode Island To Vegas For SEMA 2025!

Don Abenante of Retro Fabworks isn’t your average YouTube builder — his story blends Hollywood grit, family legacy, and pure horsepower. After early stints on Below Deck, Horsepower Wars, and Netflix’s Resurrected Rides, Don found his true calling behind the welder instead of the camera, documenting every cut and weld for his growing audience.

His current project is deeply personal: a 1970 Chevelle he first planned to build with his late father. That dream paused for years but never died — and now it’s roaring back to life. Don’s transforming the Chevelle into a Ford Coyote–powered showstopper for SEMA 2025, filming the process step by step for his followers. The twist? He plans to drive the car all the way to Vegas, proving that craftsmanship, creativity, and heart still belong on the open road.

K&F Show #335: Getting a Win for Your Bro; Public Infidelity Dukes Review: S3E08 “Mrs Rosco P Coltrane”

As most of you know, our Patreon audience has the INSIDE access to the KF Show. The year 2025 will be an important one for Patreon specifically and if you’d consider jumping up to the $5 level it would sure help. The $10 level will remain and we now have a brand new $20 level as well! All members who join at that level will receive a sticker swag pack in the mail, you’ll be IMMEDIATELY entered in the monthly prize grab, and you’ll receive a phone call from one (or all) of us to chat up whatever you want for 30 minutes!

Thank you SO MUCH to those of you who have joined in for the extra content that is only for Patreon supporters. To get in on the action and support the show with a minor financial contribution just click the link below to sign up.

Join up via Patreon at patreon.com/KFSHOW

========================================

Presented with Holley – Back for 2025!

Phase 3 of Kibbe and Friends is officially here, and Holley is back for more fun, foolishness, and flying orange Chargers! Once again we’re proud to be associated with the historic name that has made cars fast for years and years, and their innovations continue forward (as always)!

Make sure that you visit Holley.com to place your speed parts orders – and THANK THEM for continuing on as the Title Sponsor of the KF Show!

========================================

Ron Francis Wiring Brings you the Celebrity Automotive Birthday! https://www.ronfrancis.com

========================================

Dallas Kibbe Racing Update!

To follow Dallas Kibbe Racing you can watch his stats and other racing information here. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/DallasKibbeRacing

https://www.instagram.com/dallaskibbe_13/

https://www.tiktok.com/@dallaskibbe_13

MyRacePass.com/drivers/178661.

========================================

Dukes Review: For the record, we chose this episode because Corndog wants to pile on that CEO and that HR lady that have made infidelity the most popular public shaming event since the invention of the internet Meme. We also learn that the P in Rosco P Coltraine stands for Pervis.

This episode starts with an upside down smashed GL….and just gets better. Rosco p Coltrane gets the CEO Treatment by a well built mail order bride, and it’s the oldest trick in the book: young woman with a husband and crony convince a Sheriff to get him out of the way so Boss Hogg can be conveniently robbed while everyone is attending a wedding.

In the midst we see the General get totalled, untotalled, retotalled, untotaled, and then retotaled again (only to then be replaced by a horse). The sloppiness of automotive continuity in this episode is awful, and that’s what makes it so right – plus the stunts are off the chart. Oh, and the saying The Lord Helps Those That Help Themselves…..that’s not actually in the Bible. Might be in the US Constitution though. Or possibly National Treasure.

Rating: 10 (of 10) Corndogs

========================================

National Parts Depot Presents: Bernie on the News! https://www.npdlink.com.

K&F Show #334: Key Lime Pie, Jet Skis, and AC/DC; Rick Hurst Tribute Dukes Review: S1E11 “Money to Burn”

Thank you SO MUCH to those of you who have joined in for the extra content that is only for Patreon supporters. To get in on the action and support the show with a minor financial contribution just click the link below to sign up.

Join up via Patreon at patreon.com/KFSHOW

========================================

Presented with Holley – Back for 2025!

Phase 3 of Kibbe and Friends is officially here, and Holley is back for more fun, foolishness, and flying orange Chargers! Once again we’re proud to be associated with the historic name that has made cars fast for years and years, and their innovations continue forward (as always)!

Make sure that you visit Holley.com to place your speed parts orders – and THANK THEM for continuing on as the Title Sponsor of the KF Show!

========================================

Ron Francis Wiring Brings you the Celebrity Automotive Birthday! https://www.ronfrancis.com

========================================

Dallas Kibbe Racing Update!

To follow Dallas Kibbe Racing you can watch his stats and other racing information here. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/DallasKibbeRacing

https://www.instagram.com/dallaskibbe_13/

https://www.tiktok.com/@dallaskibbe_13

MyRacePass.com/drivers/178661.

========================================

Dukes Review: I thought this was an episode with, by, and starring Cleetus in his debut in the Dukes of hazard. It is, it isn’t, and it isn’t in that order. Cleetus Hogg is introduced to us all in this Season 1 Dukes episode to play the role of Boss Hogg’s second cousin twice removed flunky. He does and he is. But he somehow ends up helping Boss Hogg in a bank heist…..that he was in on before it was conceived. And then he fails at it. And then Bo and Luke save the day…..by doing a literal body snatching swap, only I’m not sure that they meant to. Just like Cleetus said in the S3 Episode The Great Santa Claus Chase, “Can someone come get me; I’m lost!” But, it is a Season 1 Dukes Episode, shot in California with 14” wheels on Chargers, and Al Wyatt stunt driving the General in Full Send mode for the entire. C’est magnifique!

Rating: 8 (of 10) Corndogs

========================================

National Parts Depot Presents: Bernie on the News! https://www.npdlink.com.

K&F Show #333: Jumping Cars Through Fountains and an All American 4th; Movie Review: “F1” (The Brad Pitt Movie!)

Join up via Patreon at patreon.com/KFSHOW

========================================

Presented with Holley – Back for 2025!

Phase 3 of Kibbe and Friends is officially here, and Holley is back for more fun, foolishness, and flying orange Chargers! Once again we’re proud to be associated with the historic name that has made cars fast for years and years, and their innovations continue forward (as always)!

Make sure that you visit Holley.com to place your speed parts orders – and THANK THEM for continuing on as the Title Sponsor of the KF Show!

========================================

Ron Francis Wiring Brings you the Celebrity Automotive Birthday! https://www.ronfrancis.com

========================================

Dallas Kibbe Racing Update!

To follow Dallas Kibbe Racing you can watch his stats and other racing information here. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/DallasKibbeRacing

https://www.instagram.com/dallaskibbe_13/

https://www.tiktok.com/@dallaskibbe_13

MyRacePass.com/drivers/178661.

========================================

Movie Review: “F1” (The Brad Pitt Movie!)

I don’t know a thing about F1, but if this movie does for F1 what Days of Thunder did for NASCAR, an entire generation of kids are about to dream about being the next Sonny Hayes. And just like Days of Thunder was Top Gun on Wheels, F1 is Top Gun Maverick on…more expensive wheels!

Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes – an aging multi series vagabond driver who lives for the thrill of driving and the hope that on the track he can feel God’s pleasure upon him. (He didn’t say it that way in the movie but that was the gist of it.) As a kid he was coming into Formula 1 when he had a devastating accident. It cost him his future to be the next Senna. He went to drinking spiral, bad marriages, then driving taxis, and then found his way into any racing series that would have him and let him try to tame it. And they all did. Sports cars, NASCAR, Off Road, and now F1.

His job in this movie, to get a young hot shot up to speed and save the rag tag racing team they’re all there with to save their jobs. It’s predictable, it’s beautiful, it’s fun, and it’s fast. In a nutshell: awesome.

Rating: 10 Corndogs!

========================================

National Parts Depot Presents: Bernie on the News! https://www.npdlink.com.

K&F Show #332: Hollywood Cars – Props Vs Copyrightable Characters; All Racing June Dukes Review: S7E1 “Happy Birthday General Lee”

As most of you know, our Patreon audience has the INSIDE access to the KF Show. The year 2025 will be an important one for Patreon specifically and if you’d consider jumping up to the $5 level it would sure help. The $10 level will remain and we now have a brand new $20 level as well! All members who join at that level will receive a sticker swag pack in the mail, you’ll be IMMEDIATELY entered in the monthly prize grab, and you’ll receive a phone call from one (or all) of us to chat up whatever you want for 30 minutes!

Thank you SO MUCH to those of you who have joined in for the extra content that is only for Patreon supporters. To get in on the action and support the show with a minor financial contribution just click the link below to sign up.

Join up via Patreon at patreon.com/KFSHOW

========================================

Presented with Holley – Back for 2025! 

Phase 3 of Kibbe and Friends is officially here, and Holley is back for more fun, foolishness, and flying orange Chargers! Once again we’re proud to be associated with the historic name that has made cars fast for years and years, and their innovations continue forward (as always)!

Make sure that you visit Holley.com to place your speed parts orders – and THANK THEM for continuing on as the Title Sponsor of the KF Show! 

========================================

Ron Francis Wiring Brings you the Celebrity Automotive Birthday! https://www.ronfrancis.com

========================================

Dallas Kibbe Racing Update!

This episode featured the Dallas Kibbe Legends Car Racing Update segment! Dallas joined the show himself after his last race on June 13 at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, IA. Long story short…..he won! It was his first win in a Legends car, ever!!

To follow Dallas Kibbe Racing you can watch his stats and other racing information here. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/DallasKibbeRacing

https://www.instagram.com/dallaskibbe_13/

https://www.tiktok.com/@dallaskibbe_13

MyRacePass.com/drivers/178661.

 ========================================

Dukes Review: S7E1 Happy Birthday General Lee

The greatest race of the General Lee is not in this episode…..but it’s the first win of the General, and I have recently been reminded that your first win is irreplaceable. There’s no doubt about the fact that in the course of the Dukes of Hazzard, this is the race that put him on the map.

Thomas Steven Wopat presents the birth of the General Lee and – whether he meant to or not – creates the canon of the entire series by answering what every little boy needed to know most. Why are the doors welded shut? It’s here. What’s under the hood of the General? It’s here. Why is the General orange, with a rebel flag on the roof, a dixie horn under the hood, and why is it named General Lee? It’s here. More importantly, how does an old dead wreck from a junkyard become able to fly leaps and bounds, win every race, catch every bad guy, win every girl for the Duke Boys, respond to it’s name on command, be so much of a family member it gets it’s own birthday cake, and become the most magical car in the history of the known universe and the most famous car in the world? It’s here!

Legit Episode Info
Season 7, Episode 1
“Happy Birthday, General Lee”
Written by Si Rose
Directed by Tom Wopat
9/21/1984

 ========================================

National Parts Depot Presents: Bernie on the News! https://www.npdlink.com.