It's Not the Car

By: Sam Smith Ross Bentley Jeff Braun
  • Summary

  • It’s Not the Car is a podcast about speed and life under pressure—we tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts. Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. We don’t love motorsport for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the human at the wheel. New episodes on Tuesdays!
    Sam Smith, Ross Bentley, Jeff Braun
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Episodes
  • How to Drive It: Porsche 911
    Sep 24 2024

    OUR NEW WEBSITE IS WORSE THAN YOU HOPED: ⁠⁠⁠www.itsnotthecar.com/⁠⁠⁠


    Once, long ago, a German engineer looked at a VW Beetle and thought, “Ahh, my little streitzel, we should tango with the hot-rod physics of love!”


    The Porsche 911 is divisive. People love ’em. People hate ’em. People fire ’em backward into ditches and Armco and spit excuses for how it wasn’t their fault—widowmaker car, Wreck-cellence Was Expected, blah blah blah. (“Too much understeer! Too much oversteer! Chappell Roan! ANYTHING BUT ME!”)


    Is it the [fault of the] car? It is not!


    This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This ep’s format is called “How to Drive It.” Please do not hit play while you are in the middle of crashing a Porsche and expect it to help.


    Related Trivia: Ross and Jeff have raced 911s professionally. Sam has tested countless 911 variants for places like Road & Track and 000—from 2.0-liter Daytona winners to a 934, a 935, and most of the road models since 1964. Also, “streitzel” is both a Hans Stuck nickname and a kind of German pastry, and if those facts bring you joy, you are indeed nerdy enough for this show.


    This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.

    **


    Support It’s Not the Car:

    Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


    **

    Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think:

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


    **

    Check out Sam's book:

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


    **

    Where to find us:

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


    **

    ABOUT THE SHOW:

    It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

    Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

    We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.


    New episodes every Tuesday.

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 20 mins
  • Sex, Shocks, and Rock ’n’ Roll
    Sep 17 2024
    AVERT YOUR EYES FROM OUR NEW MERCH STORE: ⁠⁠www.itsnotthecar.com/⁠⁠ ***Don’t ever go there! It will rot your brain! (These annoying store mentions will stop soon, we promise.)*** Once, in college, Sam studied under a dignified old journalism professor. “The thing about putting the word ‘sex’ in a headline,” this prof said, “is that it’s the easy way out. Like an exclamation point or a question mark—those are language cheats, to avoid thinking of something smarter. You can always do better.” But enough of that! What did that prof know, anyway? Sam is very tired right now! Does he find shocks sexy? Who doesn’t? Have you ever considered how many damper-adjacent words are lightly titillating? Let’s share a few! “Digressive!” “Frequency!” And even—gasp!—“knee!” (Cue the fainting grandmothers.) This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this ep's format “My Life With.” It has nothing to do with sex and is instead a chance for an INTC host to tell the story of how they came to understand a complex racing topic over their working life. In this case, that host is JEFF, our very own champion race engineer and IMSA-team competition director. The subject is DAMPERS! Related Trivia: This ep description is light on substance because Sam is very tired—he’s worked too many late nights at his day job over the last few weeks. Unrelated Trivia: In spare moments, to relax, Sam stares at the website for this podcast. There have been no ill effects to date. Probably. This episode was produced by Mike Perlman. ** Support It’s Not the Car: Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠⁠ ** Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think: ⁠⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ ** Check out Sam's book: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ** Where to find us: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠⁠⁠ ** ABOUT THE SHOW: It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts. Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine. We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel. New episodes every Tuesday.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • To Pilot a Mercedes — (Le Mans CLR Crashes, 1999)
    Sep 10 2024

    WE HAVE A MERCH STORE NOW: ⁠https://www.itsnotthecar.com/⁠

    You asked, we delivered! . . . is exactly what we will tell the authorities.

    *** 10% OFF ALL ORDERS FOR THE FIRST WEEK ***

    BRIEF SALES PITCH: Sam built a website. That site holds both useful info about INTC and driving-adjacent merchandise. Sam wrote every word there and designed all of our merch.

    Is he a seasoned design professional, you ask? No.

    Our advice: Visit ⁠ItsNotTheCar.com⁠ not to support this podshow or engage in the unparalleled joy of commerce, but to marvel at the garage-couture trainwreck therein. Or . . . to read a lengthy excerpt from the lyrics of the 1957 Broadway musical “The Music Man.”

    (Perhaps you think that last line is a joke. I assure you it is not.)

    This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing history. In this case, the time in 1999 when three Mercedes-Benz Le Mans prototypes left the ground at nearly 200 mph and hurtled dozens of feet into the air.

    (Our “normal” episode descriptions will return next week.)

    Related Trivia: ⁠ItsNotTheCar.com⁠ also contains trivia. Did you know that Ross has coached fighter pilots? Or that Jeff has won the 12 Hours of Sebring eight times?

    Sam is writing these words and will share his own trivia here in a sec even though he absolutely loathes talking about himsel—OH LORD WHAT IS THAT LOOK OVER THERE oh whew nevermind it was nothing but hey gosh gee darn now wouldn’t you know it, we’re out of space!


    This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.



    **


    Support It’s Not the Car:

    Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠


    **

    Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

    ⁠⁠⁠INTCPod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠


    **

    Check out Sam's book!

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠


    **

    Where to find us:

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/INTCpod⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠

    ⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/Drivercoach⁠⁠⁠


    **

    ABOUT THE SHOW:

    It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

    Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and a world-renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

    We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.


    New episodes every Tuesday.

    Show More Show Less
    2 hrs and 6 mins

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