Barbara Terry interview with Mike Piazza

When you think of Mike Piazza, you think of the all-time home run champion for Major League Baseball catch­ers, hitting 400! You think playboy, because of his good looks and success. You think of a 12-time all-star during a career that is likely to end up getting him into the Hall of Fame. You don’t necessarily think of a family man and a guy that’s hip on car dealerships.

All right Mike, let’s start with the very beginning. What was your first car?

I believe it was a, yes, it was a ’72 Nova. It was kind of neat. It had the air shocks in the back with the air hose. It was red. My father was in the car business so we always had a plethora of cars. I even had an IROC Z.

What motor did you have in the IROC Z?

I don’t even remember. I think it was the larger motor. The sport with t-tops and stuff. That was standard issue in high school for me. What else did we have? We had a bunch of stuff. Like I said, the good thing about being in the car business was that you get so many trade-ins. I mean, my first job was when I was 12 years old, washing cars down at my dad’s car lot. So I was driving around the parking lot when I was 14. I’ve always loved cars and it is such a big part of my fami­ly history.

Your dad’s dealership, was it a used car dealership or was it a franchise?

My dad started with used cars and then he was one of the first Datsun dealers in this country in 1968,1 believe, which is now Nissan. Then he eventually went into Honda. He got a Honda franchise, and the gas crunch hit in the ’70s. They did really well for him, especially in the last year or two, as there’s been a big push for hybrids because of the gas prices. Remember, back in the ’70s, there was a gas crunch and people were lin­ing up for gas? Do you know what I’m talking about?

Mike, I was not pumping gas in the ’70s, so I do not remember that!

There was this gas crunch in the ’70s and people were waiting for gas. I don’t know if it was OPEC or what.

Each station had a certain allotment of gas per week and when they sold out, they were done. So, the point is, there was a rush on Hondas. They were selling hun­dreds and hundreds of Hondas a month based on what was going on with gasoline.

Cars are cool.

No, they are very cool. It’s a part of Americana. Like the way horses were in the 1800s and horseless carriages were in the 1900s. There’s something about America and its vastness and the freedom it offers, you know.

People love to drive with the top down. It gives them a sense of freedom, it’s what the United States is, where­as, in Europe, the towns are laid out in a communal sense. You have the plaza orthe piazza and the church.

You could walk to church or walk to breakfast or walk to coffee. This country is a little more based on the automobile. I’m going off on a weird tangent here.

That’s okay (ALL LAUGH). You mentioned you were driving at 14. How old were you when you got your dri­ver’s license?

Seventeen.

Why were you 17 and not 16?

Because my dad wouldn’t let me drive. He thought if I drove at 16, that I wouldn’t be as focused on baseball.

Ohhhhh.

Yeah. I think it goes back to what I was saying. You’re rebellious at that time. I think if I got my license at 16,1 would have been too worried about cruising for girls instead of baseball.

That’s what we all did at 16.

Yeah, but I remember him telling me,’If you get to the Major Leagues, you’ll have all the cars you want and all the girls you want but you have to get to the Major Leagues first’ I remember him saying those words, so, again, I have to thank him for that.

Your dad was very insightful and correct regarding his beliefs in your future career.

He was right, so maybe, again, I have to thank him. In his defense, too, I was a very aloof, free-spirited kid. It all worked out, as you can see.

Okay, so you got your driver’s license when you were 17 and you had a Nova. Can you tell me more about the Nova. Was it a trade-in at your dad’s dealership?

Yeah, it was a trade-in. I actually think a friend of his had it and then I drove it for a few months. I really only had it for a couple of months, then I just started looking around at other cars. I would be at my dad’s dealership when a trade- in would come in and would drive the salesmen crazy because they wanted to resell all of the trade-ins, but I wanted dibs on some of them.

This is how I got my IROC. It was funny because I remem­ber that car, being as I have an affinity for those late-’60s muscle cars – the Camaros, the GTOs, the Chevelles. I love watching auto auctions on TV. I think it’s cool. But I’m more into the one-off classic car look with a new car vibe. I’m not big into the whole complete reproduction, which I think is cool, but I like the newer versions of the old car.

Of course! Like the new Camaro and/or the Challenger coming out. What do you think about the Saleen Mustangs?

I think they’re cool cars. I’m not a huge Ford aficionado. Obviously, some people are Ford and others are Chevy. There are a few Fords that I like, but I was always big on GM – a little bit of MOPAR and I like the Chargers. I watched The Dukes of Hazzard as a kid and those are cool cars. Some guy here locally has a beautiful Charger. He’s trying to sell it and keeps reducing the price.

How fast have you gone in a street car?

It’s pretty funny. I had a ’97 Mercedes S-600 in California when I played with the Dodgers. It’s so funny, but I don’t want to tell it. A friend of mine is a guy named Eddie Braun – a Hollywood stunt man. He has crashed cars his whole life. He’s Charlie Sheen’s stunt double and I met him in California. He’s huge. So I had this, not the SL, but the S, the 600, the two-door with aftermarket 19-inch Pirellis. I just remember we were going down the 405 with no traffic, about 11:30 in the morning. Eddie kept telling me to step on it so we could see what it could do. So I hammer it down. This car was a monster, the V12.1 look down and I’m doing 120, and I blow right by a C.H.I.P.

No way.

Yeah. He pulls me over. He comes up to the window. He says, ‘License and registration.’ Then he says, “Where you going so fast, Mike?’ Just like that. Apparently he recog­nized’ me. I was playing for the Dodgers, so I was some­what recognizable, I guess, and my buddy Eddie said, ‘Officer, I’m a stunt guy. It’s my fault. I encouraged him. I said let’s see what this can do.’ He was totally trying to help me out and this guy goes, ‘Do you know this girl?’ He just started to make small talk and didn’t give me a ticket. I told him, ‘Officer, I never drive like this – wide open road, not a truck in sight – so I opened it up.’ I don’t want to say that’s an excuse, but this was the most safe condition where you could actually do that. This was so straight, at a point after Laguna Beach, where you could see for five miles. I ham­mered it and never felt anything like it It was, like, 120. That’s it -11:30 in the morning and I got pulled over.

It’s too tempting not to feel the rush of the speed when you have perfect conditions.

I’m not advocating breaking the law, but you’re right. I find it hard to believe that someone in the middle of Montana in the summer with five lanes and no cars… again. I’m not saying it’s okay, but, if you’re going 100 miles an hour, nobody’s going to notice.

I love coming to Florida. It is so laid back here.

Yeah. There are so many cars out there now, it really is dangerous. You don’t know. In Florida, a cop told me 20 per­cent of the drivers are over 80.

Oooooh!

That’s one in five over 80. With that statistic, you have to be careful. You have to drive defensively.

It should always be about safety and safety first.

Yeah. Now I have Cheerios on the floor of my Mercedes.

Do you ever see yourself owning a hybrid; don’t you want to go zero to 60 in 30 minutes?

That’s a good question. The Escalade – isn’t that the biggest contradiction-the Escalade hybrid. It’s like having a huge golf cart.

Yeah. You don’t have the horsepower like you would with a big V8 gas engine, so do not expect to really be able to punch it.

Until they really perfect the technology of some kind of alternative fuel, whether that be the hydrogen cell or the hybrid, I think I will stick with my current cars.

Have you heard about the Tesla?

Yeah, the four-door they’re now making. I just had the Car and Driver that it was in, and that’s a pure plug-in car, right?

Yes, and it does have quite a bit of umph and get-up- and-go!

No, I don’t doubt that. I think the question is, again, if you plug it into the wall, you’re still using some form of fossil fuel – some coal plant or whatever – unless it’s nuclear. I don’t know. I have no problem with alterna­tive fuels. I think it’s cool and there is a market for that one day. I don’t think you’ll ever get the gas-fueled combustible engine out of the Americana, as it is in our blood. Of course, you can tone it back. If you have a Prius you take to work every day, that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that. I’m not saying you always have to have a Ferrari or a Mercedes, but I think there is an affinity for a combustible engine in this country. I don’t ever see it subsiding.

Well, it can’t totally. For instance, you take the South, you take construction workers. They’re never going to work out of a Prius. They need a truck. They’ll have to have their three-quarter and one-ton pick-up trucks to use for their careers, to make a living.

You’re right. It’s like when I travel; I take the babysitter and my wife, my daughter and the luggage and her coach and other stuff. So I have to call for an SUV to pick us up at the airport. Am I going to take two Priuses? We’re a traveling culture, we’re a driving culture and I think alter­native fuels are great. I think they should be pursued and perfected. I think it would be great to pull up and get hydro­gen. It would be cheaper. I just don’t want to end up like the Hindenburg. I don’t want to blow up.

(LAUGH) When you first got signed to a big contract what was the car that you went out and grabbed up?

That’s a good question. I would say, not when I first got signed, but that Mercedes was like my first toy car, that two-door.

Now you have a Mercedes and a Range Rover. What other cars have you owned?

Living in New York, I always had an affinity for Mercedes. I had one of the first BMW 7 Series in this country-the new 2002, black 745.

You know not to buy the first year of any new model. Why’d you do that?

Because I wanted it. Because I wanted to be the first to have one.

They had a series of mechanical problems with that new body 745 in 2002, so your car probably spent more time in the shop than in your garage, right?

Yeah. I don’t follow suit with most people. Usually you’re either a BMW guy or a Mercedes guy. I like them both. I think the BMW 7 Series is a great driving car. My Mercedes S-550 I have now is a great car. I think there’s something to be said about German engi­neering. The doors shut more crisply.

Nice luxury suspension. There’s a butt for every seat. That’s why so many manufacturers stay in business – because we all have different tastes.

I couldn’t agree more. It’s like with wine – there’s French wine, a little more European, a little smoother. There’s California wine, a little more robust; Cabernet, out-of-the-barrel drinkable, a little smoother. I think that’s the cool thing, and I’m into being all over the map. If I see a car and I like it, then I will buy it. I don’t stick to a genre.

Do you have your eyes on a particular vehicle now?

Yeah. I want the four-door Lamborghini, black exterior with parchment/tan interior or the silver. I just don’t know if I want to pay $400,000 for a car.

A four-door Lambo?

I think it’s cool. I have to have a baby seat in the back.

I can’t have a two-door anymore. When you have kids, your whole life changes.

What has been your favorite car from the get-go?

That’s a good question. That’s like picking a favorite fla­vor of ice cream, a favorite candy.

You probably have a certain passion for each car that you have owned.

I was never a huge Porsche fan. It’s sort of smaller and I’m a bigger guy, so it’s tough for me to get in. I’ve always liked larger formatted cars with four doors, and with that said, yeah, it’s fun driving a Ferrari. I was actually considering getting the, you remember the 456 GT automatic Ferrari. When it first came out it was the first automatic car that I can recall. It had a front engine, so it was kind of a cool car.

I see you cruising down South Beach in a Bentley Arnage.

The Bentley Arnage. Maybe the Silver Spur, but I don’t know about the Arnage. I would have to say that this is the largest collection of Bentleys in the world, in South Beach. There’s no question. It’s funny, you pull up to a hotel and you expect special treatment with a Bentley. I have a friend and we joke. We’re, like, There’s anoth­er Bentley and another Bentley. There’s another Bentley.’ Yeah, when those first came out, they were all over the place. But look how Bentley got in that market, that higher-end luxury market in the U.S.

SUVs, without a doubt give you a sense of security by being elevated.

Oh my God, you just want a fighting chance if, God for­bid, you get in an accident. There’s something to be said about that. With a lot of cars in America, there are also a lot of bad drivers…really bad drivers. I now think, as a parent, your priorities shift. You kind of become more evolved. I want my daughter in a nice safe Mercedes with something around her.

What Mike was most proud of was his wife, daughter and family. He seemed to be at a very happy place in his life, improving his dream home – a renovation project he began as soon as he retired – and building a family.

Barbara Terry interview with Arnold Palmer

Arnold Palmer Is known as ‘The King’ for many reasons. He was king of the golf world for years, being the first man to reach a million dollars in earnings; and having won seven majors throughout his career, includ­ing the Masters four times fbetween 1958 to 1964); the U.S. Open in I960; and the British Open in 1961 and 1962. He is the king of charity, too, having won numerous humanitarian and golf achievement awards over the years. He is also king of the business world, as he’s an excellent entrepreneur, helping found the Golf Channel and owning successful car dealerships

Arnold’s choice in his Cadillac dealerships is a perfect fit for him because, in reality, he’s the Cadillac of golf. He has set the pace that Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have followed and driven themselves to break. Arnold was very enjoyable and informative, and very passionate about aviation throughout the course of this interview.

What was your first car that you owned?

You don’t want to go back that far.

I do if you do.

Well, the first car I had was a two-door Ford sedan, and it was a 1949.

Okay. Did you buy it with your own money or was it given to you?

I bought it with my own money, as I have with every car or every mode of transportation that I have ever had.

Let’s start off with airplanes and your fascination with flying. Then we can get into your history with cars, other modes of transportation and your car dealer­ships.

When I was very young I went on a golf trip to play a tournament as an amateur. It was a DC3, which was a mode of transportation in those days. I flew through a thunderstorm on my way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It scared the life out of me. I saw things I had never heard of and I didn’t know what was happening. So, having been scared, I decided that, in my life, I was probably going to do a lot of flying and traveling. That was going to be very important to my destiny.

As soon as I got home, I decided I was going to learn more about aviation and traveling. As the years went by, I studied and worked on learning more about avia­tion, and the first year that I became a professional and I had enough money, I started adding to that by taking flying lessons. Time went on, and within two years, I had a private license and started flying by myself to various exhibitions and tournaments. I found that, in doing that, it afforded me the opportunity to do my work-meaning play golf-and do exhibitions. And it allowed me to spend time with my family. I would go out in the morning, for example, play an exhibition, do the things I needed to do and then fly home at night so I was with my family.

As time went on and I started playing more tourna­ments, I found that I could get to the tournament sites far easier flying than I could driving. The first couple years, I drove across the United States. I drove to L.A., back to the East coast, back to the West coast. That was very trying. After about five years of that, I was to where I could afford to fly more and I flew commercially. That started in about 1955, and about 1961, I bought my first airplane – a twin-engine Aero Commander. By then, my family had grown a little and, during the summer, I put my wife and children in the airplane with me and I flew to the golf tournaments.

As my schedule got more hectic, I bought another air­plane in 1963, which was a 560 Aero Commander. I bought that new and, because of the heavy schedule, I hired a pilot part-time to go with me to help take care of the air­plane and to fly with me to tournaments. As the years went on, I had a great interest in some of the executive travel that was going on. I was watching the executive airplanes turn into jets. In 1966,1 leased a Jet Commander and I flew that for two years. The lease ran out and I made a new deal with Lear for a Lear 24. That deal was a nine-year deal. I flew it myself with the pilot who accompanied me, took care of the airplane and did a lot of the stuff that was necessary to be professional and fly yourself around the country.

Nine years I did that, and then, in 1976,1 had a good friend who was an attorney who represented me. He became an aviation expert and became a part of Cessna. So, when the lease ran out on the Lear 24, I went to a Cessna Citation 1. That was one of the first Cessna Citations built. I got the No. 1 Citation 2. That was in 1978. Then, in 1983,1 got a Citation 3.1 had a couple of those. And then, in 1992, I got a Citation 7. In 1996,1 got a Citation 10-the No. 1 pro­duction airplane. Then, in 2002,1 got my second Citation 10 and that’s what I’m flying today. I fly these airplanes myself. I go to Flight Safety once a year to do my recurrent training for the Commander, all the Citations and the Citation 10. I’m somewhere in the area of over hours of flying. I fly my airplane everywhere I go.

Is there a favorite place that you like to fly to?

Everywhere that I fly to, I go on business. I fly for golf, for business. One of my favorite places, of course, where I do a great deal of business, is Palm Springs, California. I do like to fly there.

How old were you when you first got your pilot’s license?

I was 26 years old.

Have you ever been caught up in the air in a bad thun­derstorm? Other than the first one you told me about?

I have been in thunderstorms flying on numerous occasions and, particularly, in my early days. The first airplanes that I flew did not have radar. So I flew in weather, and occasionally, I got in a thunderstorm, yes. In those days, it wasn’t quite like it is today, where you can get directions around thunderstorms. In my early days of flying, if you flew on instruments, you were inevitably going to fly in thunderstorms. That was just a part of the business of flying.

What’s been your all-time favorite plane that you’ve owned or had from the get- go?

Citation 10.

At what year did you open up your first car dealership?

The first dealership I had was in 1981. That was Arnold Palmer Motors.

How many dealerships do you have now?

Well, we built the dealerships up to nine and I have sold all but one. I still have Arnold Palmer Motors in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

While flying yourself around on the golf circuit, did you find that you were the only player doing so, or were there other players also flying themselves around?

No, actually, there were some before me. A guy by the name of Johnny, who goes way back. He was a pilot and did some flying. Then guys like Lloyd Mangrum had a Bonanza. Jimmy Demaret had an airplane that he flew. There are others, I just can’t come up with all of them. And, of course, in the early days, not long after Jack Nicklaus came on the tour, he got an airplane. He wasn’t a pilot, but he had an airplane and he had a crew that flew him wher­ever he wanted to go.

What do you currently have going on,? Do you do a lot of charity work? You mentioned that you still fly to events. What current events do you have going on?

I have the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women; the Arnold Palmer Medical Center here in Orlando. It’s quite large. We have, in the medical cen­ter, we have the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Children and Women. That’s brand new and it’s huge. We have the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in that medical cen­ter, we have a trauma center in that medical center and we have a cancer research center in that center. I have an Arnold Palmer Pavilion, which is a cancer treatment center in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I have a prostate cancer center in the Lucy Curci Cancer Center at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs, California. We have a hand center that is in Baltimore – Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. And a guy by the name of Tom Grant, who is in charge of that, is doing some work with people like John Kanzius, who is working to help cure cancer with M.D. Anderson. And I’m chairman of the hospital foundation at the Excela Latrobe Hospital.

Don’t you have an annual golf tournament that you host?

I have a tournament here at Bay Hill that is an annual tournament that is called the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It goes on every March. One of the recip­ients is the Arnold Palmer Hospital or Medical Center here in Orlando.

If you had a dream plane that you have yet to acquire, what would that plane be?

Just the Citation 10.1 just want to keep it. I love it.

What all do you love about it? Tell me a few key things.

It’s my second Citation 10; I had the first production model. I’m now at 176 production-the fastest private executive jet in the air. It seats 11 people and it’s a wonderful vehicle to get around the world in.

Is it a common thing, in this day and time, that players fly themselves on the circuit?

There’s a few of them that have airplanes that take themselves from one course to another, such as Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus. But they do notflythe air­planes, they have crews that fly them.

Do you happen to listen to music while you’re flying?

No, I’m busy working. I can’t afford the luxury of music while I’m flying an airplane. I have to pay attention to what I’m doing.

Arnold Palmer is all about class. From major championships to Cadillacs to airplanes, he exudes elegance and style. He is one of the greatest golfers of all time and, along with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Bobby Jones, is one of the few professional golfers that can truly be included In the conversation as perhaps the greatest golfer of all time. It was a pleasure to interview him and it’s a true honor to have him included in this book.

Barbara Terry interview with Dan O’Brien

Dan 0′ Brien is a three-time world champion and gold medal Olympic dec athlete. How many people could com­pete in so many events -10-10 track and field events…to be able to finish them, let alone beat everybody in the world at the 100-meter run, the long jump, shot put, javelin toss events and so forth ? How much energy must a guy like Dan O’Brien possess, how much drive?

So, what was your first car?

My first car was a beat-up B210, when I was in 11th grade. I got it for $500.

What color was it?

It was primer gray.

So, it was obviously used when you got it. How many miles did it have on it?

You know what, I don’t even remember. But it was really old and beat-up. I do remember I sold it when I went off to college. I had that car in high school, but I didn’t drive it a whole bunch. I had a buddy that knew this girl that had a convertible. We drove around all the time. My car was just kind of a rig that I would use when I didn’t get a ride from somebody else. And it was amazing, I sold it for more money than I got it for when I went off to college a couple years later.

Wow. It sounds like you were a kind of car wholesaler.

Well, you know what? I lived in an apartment complex before I went to college and there were a couple of girls that borrowed my car all the time. Finally, I said, ‘You know what? I’m leaving in a couple of months and it’s yours if you wanna buy it.’ I had a couple people that wanted it and I sold it to the highest bidder.

Where do you think that truck is now?

Oh, you know it’s gotta be in the scrap someplace.

All right so what’s your favorite car, or dream car, if you don’t already have it? What would that car be and do you think that you’ll ever buy that car?

Absolutely, and I do believe I will actually own that car at some point. But the car that always catches my eye, that always stands out, is the E55, the Mercedes E55. They’re sports sedans, top-of-the-line sports sedans.

Do you think you’ll ever pull the trigger on the Mercedes?

You know, I’m actually looking around right now and I like the older Mercedes. They offer a little bit more room inside. I owned a C Class – I owned two C Classes – in the ’90s that were actually World Championship awards. A Mercedes with an IAAF Track and Field sponsor in the ’90s, and I won a C Class Mercedes in 1993 and then another one in 1995. So I owned a C Class Mercedes, you know, for many years. I got rid of those, and I got my wife a car. I’m sure that I’ll get my E-Koff at some point. It’s interesting, I always look for a carthat’s a couple years old. I’m kind of stuck in the old models. I like the old European, where it’s really, really roomy inside.

What color combination Mercedes are you going to buy?

You know, I like the traditional black exterior with the tan interior. I also like the silver and white in the desert. It hides the dirt better, if you’re always clean­ing your cars. Leather’s a little bit more tough to han­dle in this heat, but I don’t know. I think it’s probably gonna be the black or silver.

Okay, I guess living in the desert area, you have to change the batteries a little more often.

Yeah, you do. It’s really interesting. I lived in the Northwest my entire life until about 2002 and it didn’t seem like you had to really pay that much attention to the service on your vehicle. Every 3,000 miles, 2,000 miles, you get your oil changed. But your tires seem to last a lot longer, your bat­teries seem to last a lot longer. Here, I’ve moved down to the desert where, in five years, I’ve changed my battery, I’ve had to get a new windshield. You really gotta keep up on the maintenance of your vehicle just because of the toll the hot weather takes on the car.

Yep, and with the air filter, you’ve gotta change it every 3000 miles, 10,000 miles because of the dust.

Absolutely. And when I moved down here, my car had to go through an emissions test. I’ve never really had to do that.

Can you drive a stick shift?

Absolutely. Yeah, I learned how to drive a stick shift when I was just in high school, when I was just learning to drive. We had about a 20-acre farm and it was important that I, even at age 14 or 15, knew how to drive a car. My uncle had a Volkswagen Bug that he made into kind of a beach dune buggy, and he used to let me drive when we got out into the country. That’s how I learned.

Sounds fun. How old were you when you got your driver’s license?

I was 16, and I think I failed the first time.

The classroom part or the driving part?

The classroom part. But I remember I took my driver’s test in a stick shift.

Oh really?

And I remember I stopped on a pretty decent incline of a hill one time and had to gun it pretty good. But I can remember, it was like a little Toyota pick-up that I took my driver’s test in.

So, funny stories? Like any bad mishaps?

Actually, there is an interesting story. I told you about my friend…he always had a convertible, whether it was a V-8 or an MG. His name was Don and he and I were best friends. We were such good friends that people could’ve mistaken us for each other; we looked alike and hung out together all the time. But he had an MG – a ’78 MG – where, instead of the lug nuts, he had one big bolt in the middle and you could screw off the bolt and you could pull the whole tire off. I remember driving down the road one night and, all of a sudden, the back right half of the car clunks down,

sparks are coming out the back and we’re going 45,50 miles per hour, and we see this tire pass us on the right side. The tire had come undone on that side. The big locking nut in the middle had come undone and the tire had come right off. We’ve got a big rooster of sparks coming off the backside and we see this tire just go past us on the right side. It’s at night, and it looks fantastic with the sparks and everything. So, the tire goes down into the ditch and I’ll bet that tire went a mile into a field. We had to go find this tire in the mid­dle of the night, jack it up and put it back on. That little MG, we just put it through so much. But it was a real­ly strange little car. It was always in the shop. We were always working on it or something. But I haven’t been in any major accidents. Not any mishaps too major, anyway.

What has been the most interesting thing you’ve done in a car?

The most interesting thing.J’ve done a lot of driving, I will say that. Actually, my dad, when we were growing up, bought a, instead of a motor home, he bought a converted school bus. Somebody had converted a pretty good-sized school bus into a camper and it had a woodburning stove in it. It held, like, six or eight peo­ple and we had a pretty large family growing up, and we took this bus. It was white and green. We took this bus everywhere. We went camping in it, we took it to southern Oregon, clear down to L.A., up to Disney World, into Disney Land in Magic Mountain. We real­ly lived in this thing. My dad worked for warehousing in Oregon and there were even times when he would take it out on his work station for the weekend and work for four or five days in one area, and he would live in this. As kids, my brother and I used to go with him and live in this converted school bus. It was real­ly big, and we had a lot we took in there. Now that I think about it, man, I don’t remember growing up being a hippie, but I guess we had this hippie bus.

All right, what are your thoughts on owning versus leasing a car?

I always own my vehicles. Always. I’ve always tried to figure out why people lease and what the benefits to that are, and I’ve always been brought up with the mindset that, if you can’t afford to buy it, then don’t.

Buy the thing so you don’t have to make payments on it. That’s the financial advice that I’ve gotten from the people around me. I thought about leasing a vehicle and I asked a lot of questions. I know people that own car dealerships and I know people that have done both. There never seems to be a standard answer. It seems like it’s different for everybody, and I’m still try­ing to figure that one out.

Well, I think a lot of people are told that they can write off their payments when they lease more, but if you drive your car to or from work and you own your car, then you can do the same.

That’s interesting. I’ve always owned my vehicles, but I’ve been on a leasing program as an athlete – a professional athlete – where I would do a deal with a local Chevy deal­er or some Pontiac dealer and I would get a car to drive for the season or the year. Pretty handy to trade that car in every 4,000 miles or 9,000 miles and get to drive a new one. I enjoy that, but there was always that kind of underlying idea that, This isn’t my car’ so you treated them in the sense that, ‘No, that’s not my car.’ When you’re leasing a car, you watch how you treat it and watch where you park and the kind of stress that you put your car through. I remember, when I first got my first Mercedes, I wanted to cover it up and keep it hidden away because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to it So you really have to treat the car differently when you lease them.

other cars in the past you’ve had leases on cars – but how do you think that affected your decision in cars?

I’ve always just been kind of practical when it comes to cars. I want the thing to be comfortable, clean, I wanna go out and just know that it’s going to start up every day. Even when I didn’t have much money. I’ve tried to take care of my cars. People have gotten into my cars and said, ‘Gosh your car’s clean.’ I don’t go really overboard with cleaning my car. It’s kind of part of ownership with me because I like a clean car so that I can have anyone in it at any time and not think, ‘Oh, my car’s dirty and I don’t want to drive it.’ It’s about practicality. I don’t put big, fat tires on my trucks or big, crazy rims or extravagant paint jobs. I like a good sound system in my car, and I usually just go with however I buy the vehicle. I usually just keep it that way. I have never spent an abhorent amount on changing the look of my exterior of my car. I’ve put a step-aside on my Land Cruiser because it had an option.

What kind of music do you listen to when you’re driving?

I’m very odd. I’ve been told by many people – people not even my own age, kids that I coach – that I have a very wide range of musical tastes. The kind of music that I lis­ten to? I actually listen to a lot of talk radio when I’m driv­ing in the car. I listen to the Adam Carolla show, I listen to Howard Stern, ESPN radio, and just this last year. I’ve been listening to a lot of political discussions on the radio, and I listen to some local guys here in Phoenix. It seems that that’s where I get the majority of my flavor when I’m driving in the car. The kind of music that I listen to is, I like classic rock and roll and R&B. The only bad thing about the radio is that you get the same pop music or same R&B over and over and over again, so I change the channel constantly. But on Saturdays and Sundays, especially dur­ing football, I’m always trying to find a football game.

What do you currently drive?

I drive a ’97 Toyota Land Cruiser, with 70,000 miles.

And that’s actually the one we’re going to do the photo shoot with?

Yup. And that’s a pretty cool car. I bought that car in ’97 and, at the time, it was my largest single purchase. I wrote that check and thought ‘wow’ because I’d never written a check so large for anything, ever. I put it in the garage and I drove a leased car with a local car company that I did a trade-out for a commercial, and my Land Cruiser sat in the garage for a couple of years. So, when I brought it here to Arizona in 2002, it had 30,000 miles on it and it was six years old.

How fast have you driven in a car?

I think I’ve gone 110,115 with a friend of mine that owns a Bentley.

Let’s say, if you would’ve not become an athlete – obvi­ously you’ve chosen a ’97 Land Cruiser and you’ve had been very practical. Saying that, if I still lived in Oregon, where I grew up, I probably would’ve gotten into a Ford F-150. If I lived in California, I would’ve had a car because you do so much more driving there. I like driving on the freeway a lot, I like seeing where I’m going. With the gas mileage, it’s kind of hurting me right now. But, for me, it’s a technicality. My all-time favorite car that I had in the mid ’90s was a Toyota Camry. It was a six-cylinder, it went fast, it went tight, the driving went tight, it was clean. I put my Mercedes in the garage and drove my Camry on a daily basis.

Dan was enthusiastic, to say the least. We thought, on the way to meet him, that he had to be high-energy, but the man we met, the guy that beat the world at track and field in 1996 when he won the gold in Atlanta, was far more energetic than even we conceived. I suppose, as a decath- lete, you learn wasting time is wasting possible success. Dan was gracious and infectious, excited to be part of the book, and he wanted to get the whole process going.

Dan gave Catherine and I more material than we could have asked for. He gave us action shots – jumping hurdles, throwing his javelin, running the bleachers, sweating his tail off – and he graciously gave us pictures of his Land Cruiser.

So, how many Gold medalists are this cool. It takes some energy to enter the 10 events in the decathlon – running, jumping, throwing, let alone to be the very best on the whole planet at it I He was a joy to be around, and we had a great time at the University of Arizona with him. If the stu­dents that he teaches get half the energy we got, they’re lucky kids.

Barbara Terry interview with Shawn Marion

Shawn Marion has played in the NBA since 1999 – for the Phoenix Suns from his rookie season until he was traded for Shaquille O’Neal (along with Marcus Banks) to the Miami Heat in 2008. He is currently playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Shawn is a four-time all-star and won medals in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. He is called The Matrix because he is known as one of the most versatile players in the NBA today; in fact, twice in his career – in ‘04-’05 and ‘06-’07 – he was top five in rebounding and steals in the NBA. He was the first person to accomplish that feat since The Admiral – David Robinson – did it in 1992. While he’s known as a gamer on the court, off the court Shawn is an avid car collector.

What was your first car?

Buick Park Avenue, 1996, gold, four-door.

Did you buy it with your own money or did your par­ents buy it for you?

I bought it for $1,000 back in college at Indiana, at one of those little, you know, those car places – little shop, like a little lot.

Like a little tote-the-note type place.

Yeah, yeah. Saw the lot, had a little car out there and I test-drove it. I guess my coach took me because I didn’t have a car. I had a little bit of money. We found one.

How many miles did it have on it? Was it a little on the rough side?

It had enough. That’s why I paid $1,000 for it.

How long did you keep it ?

I had it for a year and a half, possibly two years.

Where do you think that car is now ?

Actually, I shipped it to Vegas when I went to college. That was my car. I had, maybe, two months out there in Vegas. Come to find out, I was trying to do right by having it serviced, but they didn’t really service it when they said it did. I heard this ticking and it blew up.

Did it overheat?

Actually it didn’t overheat. What happened was, after they said they serviced it and they didn’t fix it, I kept on driving it. I had it checked again and the guy was, like, ‘Dude, it’s gone. It’s just a matter of time until it stops going.’ So I was, like, just keep it then. He impounded it and took it to the impound.

What all do you drive now?

I drive a variety of cars. I drive a ’71 Cutlass Supreme; I just had that redone. I drive a 2008 Maserati, a 2006 or 2007 Mark LT, a 2004 760 BMW, 2006 Mustang GT…

What color do you like when it comes to your cars?

I like white. Most of my cars are white except my Maserati. That was my 30th birthday gift to myself, so it’s yellow. I was going to get white, but went yellow instead.

What other cool cars do you sport around in?

What else do I have…a 1966 Lincoln Continental GT,’70 Chevelle. I’m missing something. How many is that?

Wow…l lost count.

Oh, an H2 Hummer. That’s in Chicago with the Mustang. The Dodge Magnum’s in Phoenix. That’s it, those are my rides.

What cars are you going to show us today?

’71 Cutlass and my Maserati. I would do my Lincoln, but the Lincoln’s not here. It’s at the arena.

How old were you when you first learned how to drive?

Twelve or 13.1 spent a little time in Arkansas with my fam­ily on farms and stuff. My uncle used to let me drive pick­up trucks and tractors and stuff. That’s where I learned.

And how old were you when you got your driver’s license?

Fourteen.

Fourteen? Was it a hardship license?

Yeah, it was a hardship license.

Can you drive a stick shift?

Yes I can. I used to drive a Porsche Carrera.

A 911?

Yeah, a 911.1 had a brand new one, right when it came out. A 2006-2007, right around there.

Those are nice. Nothing drives like a Porsche 911.

I love a Porsche. I’m thinking about getting another one. I’m going to get a turbo this time – a white on red one.

What type of music do you listen to while you are cruising?

I listen to a little bit of everything. It doesn’t matter who it is – alternative, variety, pop, whatever.

What about H?

That’s rap.

A little bit of Luther Vandross?

Luther’s all right, you know. I guess it depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I listen to a little bit of everything, though. Luther is kind of chill. Maybe I will listen to him when I have a girl around or something.

Yeah, Luther is a little bit of baby-making type music.

Yeah.

Do you get a lot of speeding tickets?

I’ve had my share.

Is there a points system here in Miami, or do you just hire lawyers to take care of them?

I don’t hire lawyers for anything. There was a points sys­tem in Phoenix. Here, it’s a point system as well, but I had an out-of-state license, so I just paid the fine. Once you’re here so long, you have to get a Miami license. Now I have one, but I haven’t gotten a ticket as of yet.

Knock on wood. Do you find that when you get pulled over, you’re able to talk your way out of the ticket?

(CHUCKLESI Interesting. I got pulled over because my Maserati didn’t have the right exhaust system on it. So I got pulled over for my car being loud.

What kind of exhaust? Flow Master?

No. I have one of those on my Chevelle. This one was cus­tom-made for my Maserati, but it was loud. Real loud.

Okay, so you modify your vehicles. Do you modify all of them? Do you get larger rims, low-profiles, new exhaust systems on all of them or leave some of them alone?

For the most part, I love my music, so I might put a sub­woofer in all of them. And I definitely have iPods hooked up in all of my cars. The only one I don’t have it in is my Maserati, but that’s because it’s new and they haven’t come out with a system to hook it up to yet. Hopefully, they will soon. Pretty much, I put larger rims on my cars, not low-profiles because the streets are really bad and the more you hit bumps and stuff, you have a tendency to get flat tires with the bigger rims. If I do put low-profiles on, I don’t put big rims on to make sure I have enough white­wall showing to have cushion in the car. I don’t like to change the rods out. If you go too deep, you’ll mess up the rod.

What’s the top speed that you have driven in a vehicle?

Maybe 115 or 120 in a BMW.

You will have to ramp up the speed when you get the turbo Porsche.

Not on the highway. That’s why I got rid of the Porsche. Even in my Maserati, it makes you want to go fast. It’s, like, you do 80 miles an hour, you don’t even feel it.

When you sit down in the driver’s seat, you go, ‘Yeah’…You get that umph.

Everybody thinks when you get in a fast car, you’re on the Autobahn. You just go for it. Plus, I’ve seen a lot of bad accidents.

Speaking of accidents, do you wear your seatbelt?

Sometimes. You know what. I’ve been in a couple acci­dents, nothing crazy, but you definitely need to wear a seatbelt. I think I’m restricted by them when I’m in my seatbelt. If I crash and I can’t get out. I’m going to be mad.

All right you obviously like speed and flash. Would you ever own a hybrid?

Yes I would.

A basic Prius or something like a Tahoe Hybrid ?

I’d go with an SUV hybrid. I don’t have any room for one now, but if I had another house and enough space for all my cars, I’d have one – a Lexus, maybe. There’s so many coming out on the market, you would have your pick. It just depends on what you like and what you want.

When you were a kid, did you ever have that certain dream car?…

A Saab.

A Saab was your dream car? How old were you at the time?

A Saab. I thought it was the hottest car. You remember a Richard Pryor movie called Moving?

Yes I do.

He had a Saab in that movie. It was fast and the dude took the car, with the split personality, and floored it and tore it apart. I wanted a Saab. I don’t know what it was about that car, I just loved it.

Do you have a dream car that you haven’t pulled the trigger on as of yet?

A couple cars I’ve wanted have come out, but they cost too much. I can’t see myself spending that much on a car. Cars are the worst investment you can make. I love them, though. I try to be reasonable. I definitely want a Ferrari. I’m going to get one in my range, though. I’ll be responsible. I have to get one that fits me. I have long legs and a smaller torso. My legs are really long.

How long are your legs?

They’re long. I’m six-foot seven.

You say you like to make your own statement with your choice in cars. Have you ever looked at a team­mate’s car and wanted what they had?

Maybe I have. It was a BMW. One time, one of my team­mates had one. I got one when the 760 came out. It drives better than the 745.1 put the 22s on it and kept the thick walls on it, and it rides unbelievably. I love that car. I’m never in that car. I put 14,000 miles on it in five years.

And I bet it is a white exterior with a tan interior and chromed up.

Yes it is. They changed the body style on it this year for the first time since I bought that one. I remember when I ordered it, though. I ordered it during the summer. I ordered it in downtown Chicago and it came in right before the season started.

When you first were signed, you mentioned the BMW. Was there another car that you spoiled yourself with?

That I bought with my NBA salary?

Yes.

I bought myself an Escalade.

But the real question is, what size rims?

The first set was 18s then. That was hot, but that was what everybody had.

Factories were 17, or 16?

Sixteen, yeah. It wasn’t long before I had 20s and then I got the 22s. Then 24s. I didn’t go past 24. That’s as far as I went. I’d never go past 24 in a car. They cost too much and they mess with the ride. It’s a pain to get them fixed. Like, some of these rims I have on my Benz. I had a 600.1 loved that car, but I sold it. I went through rims left and right on that car. I had Lorenzos on there and, man, they cost. Every time I bent the rim or broke it, I had to replace them. It cost $2,500, so I was, like, ugh…

Do you prefer cars, trucks or SUVs?

I like trucks.

Why are trucks your choice?

All of my family has had trucks. I wanted a truck, too. You can do a lot of stuff with pick-up trucks. You can haul stuff. You can pull stuff.

How many cars do you think that you’ve owned from the get-go?

I have nine. Now, let me see if I’m forgetting one. No, 15. Right around 15. Two Escalades, Park, Jeep, Benz, Porsche. No, two Porsches. So, 16.

Have you ever been involved in a car accident ?

Yeah, but never in my own cars.

So you only wreck other people’s cars? CHUCKLES!

I had demo deals. Now, if you want to count those…

Okay…

I had a Chrysler and I had a GTX. When it first came out, it had TVs. It had the 20s on it. It was nice.

Sounds like they really hooked you up.

I had those two cars. I had a Durango, a Chrysler 30. Now, if you’re asking how many I bought since I’ve been in the league. I’ve bought more than that because I bought my family some, too.

What are your plans after basketball? Have you thought about it at all? I don’t want to push you into retirement but I am curious.

Yeah. I want to travel the world when I finish playing.

What places have you traveled to so far?

Where do you want me to start? Australia, South America…Brazil, Greece, Istanbul, Turkey, Suri, Montenegro, Italy. I’ve also been to Germany, we went to Paris and London this pre-season. I’ve been to

Barcelona, Spain. I’ve been to Saint Tropez. We went to Nice. We drove up to Monte Carlo. I’ve been to Kuwait. Oh, I’ve been to the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico.

Out of all the cars that you’ve owned, what has been your all-time favorite car?

All-time favorite? I love my BMW.

The 760.

Yeah. I love that car. All my cars are different and I love all of them.

You love them all in different ways.

Yes. I love my old-school, though. There’s nothing like an old-school muscle car.

I do agree, there is nothing like a good classic ride.

Those are the only cars that maintain value. All my old cars, I can get top dollar for. All three of my old cars have matching numbers. They have the same engine in them. I just did some modifications to them. I did some body work, of course. I upgraded the brake sys­tem to a custom disc break system in my Lincoln. That thing is big. They all have a custom disc brake system in them. Those interiors are originals restored, but to my liking. I get attention in my new cars, especially the Maserati because it’s yellow. But those old cars turn heads, too, everywhere I go.

Everyone loves classics. You’re into a whole other demographic, at that point.

Yeah, classics hold their value. You can go buy an old- school muscle car and put 30 or 40,000 in it and you have a collector’s piece. You can hold it for 30 years and pass it through generations. Even if you only hold it for five or six years, you can get all your money out of it – especially if you do it the right way. That’s the thing I learned. Cars are cool toys. They’re fun, they’re expensive habits. I drive my cars, too. I run them hard. I don’t take them to shows and put them away. I have them insured to drive them every day. –

Shawn had a really great personality, and he knew how to work the camera. He was loose and ready at our photo shoot, used music, danced, was cute and funny, and we got some great photos. When we arrived at his house, Shawn, his college buddy from Indiana and his cousin Craig Carter Ialso Shawns publicist) were watching the Miami Dolphins play on one of his big-screens. We also found Shawn to be one of the biggest Cubs fans around.

Barbara Terry interview with Bob Lilly

Bob Lilly is about as decorated and respected as any NFL veteran to ever play the game. For starters, he was the first player ever selected by the Dallas Cowboys in 1961, and it doesn’t get much better than that. What an excellent way to start a Hall of Fame career! Bob was one of the best defensive tackles to ever play the game. He was a seven-time Pro Bowler who only missed one game due to injury during a long 14-year career. He also wears a Super Bowl ring on his finger and is a member of the Cowboys Ring of Honor. Now, as for many years, he is a world-class photographer, busy with an active life.

What was your first car?

The first car that I ever owned was when I was in col­lege. I bought a 1953 Plymouth in the summer of 1958. I drove it for a few years and gave it to my brother. He went to TCU, drove it for three years and then he bought a new car.

It was a four-door sedan and it ran well, and I worked in the oil fields in the summer to pay for it. I learned to drive in a Studebaker Terraplane. You probably never heard of that, but it was a little coupe from the ’40s. My dad had it around and he let me drive it. Finally, it rust­ed out and it was hauled off. I started driving when I was eight in an International pick-up following my dad who was driving a tractor pulling a combine. Without a doubt, International made a durable product.

The International pick-up truck…which transmission did it have in it?

A four-speed – a granny gear, first, second, third and fourth, plus reverse. It was on the floor, had a long stick with a knob on top. Everything I learned on, all my first cars, had a stick. The pick-up had the stick come right up through the floorboard, was metal, probably two feet tall. Started left and up, and right and back, to get to granny gear.

I guess that’s where four on the floor comes from.

Yeah, four on the floor.

I’d seen where Bob came from. Now I wanted to see where he was presently.

What cars do you own now?

Right now we have a Toyota Mini Van and a Nissan Milan. I have a, just actually gave it to my son, but I had a four-wheel-drive Toyota Sequoia I’ve been using for hunting and photography and all that. I’ve been driving it for the past five years.

That’s what Lee Roy Jordan drives now.

Well yeah, that’s because of me. I know how tough it is because my youngest son and his family have had it for a little while and they haven’t been able to destroy it yet.

(LAUGHTER)…Okay. When you entered the NFL and got that first substantial contract, what vehicle did you buy to spoil yourself?

You didn’t get too spoiled back then, on a $2,500 bonus, but I bought a Chevrolet Corvair. That car was pro­duced for a short period of time. I bought it after my senior year, in 1961, when I got my bonus. I drove it for a short period of time. Right on University Drive by TCU, by the Chevy dealer, half of the motor mount came loose and dropped down on the ground. I came to a screeching halt on my way to my first meeting with the Cowboys. They came over and hauled it over to the Chevy dealership. The owner at the time, of Jack Williams Chevrolet, Mr. Williams, gave me a Bel Air Chevy and he didn’t charge me the extra $500 that it cost. I never forgot him. He was a wonderful man. I’m glad that happened earlier than later because I would have been fined for missing a meeting.

There would have gone your bonus.

Yep. They felt so bad about my bonus later that they gave me a $2,000 extra bonus. Had I known that, I would have bought an Oldsmobile hard-top with a 454 in it.

That’s a big motor.

I owned one of those later.

Well then, what was the sportiest car you owned?

Let’s see. Probably two cars I had. The one I had that was really sporty was a ’65 Oldsmobile hard top, two-door, red and white on the inside, white on the outside with red down that little thing on the side. I think it had a 454 cubic inch motor. The gearshift was in the middle where you just pull it back. From reverse to neutral to drive. You could burn rubber for about 200 yards. I went through about four sets of tires before I wised up. That was really a sporty car. I remember a little Mercedes 220SL, I believe it was, which was pretty sporty, but it was too small for me. It cor­nered great and looked great, but wasn’t practical. Then, another car I had, was a Lincoln Continental Coupe in 1971. That was sporty, was light blue on the bottom with a white top or vice-versa. I don’t remember, but that was a very pretty car. I really enjoyed that car, very comfortable.

Did you ever look at a teammate’s car and say, T have to have me one of those?’

I did. Teammates were all different; the single guys had nicer cars than the married ones. I’m trying to think. Probably in the mid- or early-’70 s, some of the guys start­ed driving four-wheel-drive Suburbans. They had a lot of room and you could even take out the back seat to sleep, because we fished and hunted a lot back then. The Suburban really made a lot of sense, but it was a big car and I couldn’t get it in the garage. I couldn’t shut the door or I couldn’t get in the house, but I owned a Suburban for 20 years after that. I always enjoyed them. Then I got that Sequoia. Ironically, we moved down to Sunset City and I had the Suburban, which would fit in the garage, but you had to go out of the garage to come back in the garage so you could go in the house. I got the Sequoia, which fit fine.

I could have gotten a Tahoe or something, but the Sequoia took the Suburban’s place.

What’s your favorite color combination on cars?

I’ve been through all of them. I had a red Suburban and a blue and off-white Suburban, which I liked. After the Cowboys, I had a gray Mercedes. A black one. A blue Plymouth, way back. The Sequoia was silver. Just trying to think of all of them. I think, in Texas, my favorite is white or kind of off-white. What do they call that, pearl?

Yes, pearl. I actually think GM calls it white diamond.

Yeah, maybe that’s it. It makes sense down here because there’s lots of sunshine down here – and mud and dirt – and white doesn’t show dirt as much as black. And you can knock it off real easily. I don’t know, it’s just a nice color. Easy to touch it up if you need to.

What has been your top speed in a vehicle?

Top speed? I never have on the freeway, but down in east Texas there are a lot of open roads. Say, near Fort Stockton where there’s nobody or nothing for 50 or 60 miles, you might see one or two cars. I have a friend. We photograph down there. I think, probably, the Suburban I had up to 120 one time, and once, in his sedan Mercedes, we got it up to 140. That’s about it.

He not only ran fast on the field, but he obviously liked speed in a vehicle.

Very impressive, that is pretty fast.

Yes, not bad.

Okay, he played for the Dallas Cowboys, so I wanted to find out if he was into country music or another selection while driving.

What kind of music do you listen to when you’re driv­ing?

I like – when I’m in the city -1 like classical. I listen to the classical station more than anything. I like the oldies. I have a CD collection. I like some country western too, old and new. Number one in town would be classical, where you’re focused. On the open high­way, where there’s no stress, I like oldies and country and western…where you can hear the lyrics.

Have you ever been involved in a bad accident?

I’ve never had one, but I’ve been in a car when some­one else was driving and had one. My roommate – the quarterback at TCU – and I were going to his home­town in north Texas, in Amarillo. We were going up and it was rainy. We were going up to be clowns in the rodeo. We borrowed a car from an alumni, I think. I don’t remember. Anyway, this truck had stopped in the middle of the road. A big truck. We came over the hill and it was raining and we couldn’t stop. He hit the brakes but we slid into the back of the truck, went under the truck and it took the top of the car off. Thank goodness we were as low as we could get. That was the scaredest I’ve ever been. We were stout, so we kicked the doors out even though they were jammed, and the cops came and the truck driver came down. His truck had stopped, quit running right in the middle of the road. He went down to the diner and called, but he came back. That was the worst wreck I ever had.

When you were a kid, did you have a dream car that you might have had a poster of?

Yes. Not when I was a kid, but when I was a sophmore, maybe I was a junior. Chevrolet came out with the ’55 Chevrolet. We were in a small town – Throckmorton – 1,100 or 1,200 people, I guess, and the Chevrolet dealer there was right next to the movie theater. There was no crime back then, so the back door was a big wooden door, like a barn door, and you could pry it open. We went back there and had a look at it. We just couldn’t believe how pretty that car was. It had a big V*, and was pretty. I real­ly lusted after that car until the ’57 came out. That was my senior year. And when the ’57 came out I’ve never stopped lusting for one of those.

Well, maybe you can find a good restored version of that ole ’57.

You know, the guys at General Motors might bring a good Chevy back out with a new motor. I think it would sell very well to the baby-boomers and people like myself.

I hear that you are into photography. What can you tell me about your history and fascination with photographs, and do you develop your own photos?

Yes, I’m pretty much into it. My senior year in college, I made several All-American teams, including the coaches. All-American team, and that team was sponsored by Kodak. In fact, that team was intact until about four years ago. Kodak finally pulled the plug on it. Anyway, they gave us nice 35-millimeter cameras made in Germany and 200 rolls of film with pre-paid envelopes that we just mailed in and they mailed them back. And that’s when I started. I started taking pictures of my teammates, candid shots of my teammates on the all- star teams. Then I had a darkroom my second year of pro ball. I had a new Locker camera and continued to take the candid shots. I actually had a book called Bob Lilly: Reflections, a reflection of my years with the Cowboys, my teammates as I saw them through the camera. I had a darkroom until I moved here. I had a wet darkroom all my life, but when I moved here, I have a digital darkroom with a scanner. I shoot a lot of film. I do shoot some digital high-end cameras, and I have a high-end Emerson printer. I really don’t market it anymore. I give a lot of it to charity. I re-copy and re­touch old pictures, things like that. I still like to go out and take pictures of nature. I take pictures of the grandkids and various holiday functions. My passion now is traveling the highways with my buddies. We go for a week or 10-day photo trips. Shoot New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, quite a bit in Texas. It’s much easier and more comfortable now. I shoot the film and scan it, and take the ones I like and work on the computer, take out the scratches and all of the things that you couldn’t used to do. Then when I get them the way I want them, I save them to the hard drive, and to gold CDs or DVD so they’ll last. Supposedly they’ll last 100 years, which is longer than me, but I don’t believe all that. If they last 25, I’m happy.

Being a devout Cowboy fan, I had to ask the question.

Okay, one more question. Who is your favorite Dallas Cowboy of all time?

Well, I have a lot of them, obviously, but my favorite is Roger Staubach. I don’t know why I say that. In some ways, Roger is my favorite. Lee Roy Jordan was another, Mel Renfro, there’s so many. The reason I say Roger is that he was the catalyst to winning the Super Bowl. We were in the playoffs so many times. Meredith would have got us there, but Don was so beat up before we got a good team that he gave it up. Craig Martin did a great job, but he had two bad knees. Roger came about the time we had a good team, but we weren’t making the big play at the right time. We went to Super Bowl VI and won the game, and I think a lot of that was due to Roger’s leadership skills. He and Lee Roy Jordan, both, were really good leaders on the practice field and in the games. We had a lot of really good leaders. I could make a list, but I won’t. That’s what it takes to win. You have to have leadership from your players. The coach can motivate you so much, but players have to motivate each other, especially during practice, which prepares you for the game.

On the drive from Dallas to Bob’s house, I was explaining to Catherine just how much of a legend Bob Lilly is – not just in the Dallas, Texas area, but to all football fans worldwide. He and his wife, Ann, were very gracious, inviting us to their home and showing us an extensive collection of Bob’s amazing photographs. Bob even gave Catherine some of his prints and a copy of his book! I was honored to get to explore his automotive history in this interview.

Barbara Terry interview with Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard is a man who needs little introduction. He is a two-time World Boxing champion, once winning the WBC World Welterweight and WBA Junior Heavyweight championships. He is a former Olympic gold medalist, winning it all at the 1976 games. He won two AAU championships, the Pan AM Games in 1975 and three Amateur National Golden Gloves titles. He was voted the boxer of the ’80s and is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time.

What do you miss most about boxing?

It’s so amazing for me and other people. You don’t appreciate things until they’re gone. The moments that I cherish with my family, my dad, my brother, my friends, I miss my friends. I don’t miss boxing, I miss the camaraderie. Being around my friends and family, when that comes to an end it’s, like…wow…

It’s very unique that you say that because a lot of ath­letes that are in the book are from team sports, like hockey, baseball or football. Some of them are retired, some of them are getting ready to retire. My question to them is always: Number 1, What are you going to do with yourself, and, number 2, Are you going to miss it? The team sports guys always tell me that they miss the camaraderie and their teammates. That’s what they talk about It’s interesting to hear you say the same thing, because boxing isn’t considered a team sport…

Boxing is individual, although there’s a team concept because you need a great corner. You need a great trainer, you need a great prep man, you need all of these things, but it’s more of a mano a mano. It’s more you versus me. I miss that time in training camp, and Dad and Mom cooking meals. It was one big family.

Right. All of the people that surrounded you and assisted you in your sport and all of those people cre­ated an unspoken team.

Right, right. Yeah, exactly.

Operating as a team sport instead as a one-on-one.

Exactly. Now that I look back on it, it was a team. You know, the trainers were more than just training me, they were rooting for me with their spirit and with their belief. It was awesome.

Well, for you to be successful, you really had to have that foundation and that belief. If you look at the real successful athletes, it seems that they had the strong push from their parents, and it seems like your par­ents totally supported you and gave you that neces­sary foundation.

Yes. I started boxing when I was 14. When people look at me or meet me, even my wife, she can’t believe that I was a fighter because I don’t look mean.

You don’t look mean. (I laugh because it’s true, but he was a world champion boxer. He chuckles as well). Right. I don’t have that edge or that air. I just don’t. So when they show a documentary about me, I look and I can’t connect the two. I mean, I am who I am. This is truly the way I am. I remember, eight months ago, they honored me at the Riviera Country Club. It was me, my wife and my kids. Daniel was seven at the time and Camilla was 11, and they showed old highlights of my career: the Olympics, some championship fights. I was watching my kids through my peripheral vision, and they’d look at me and they’d look up there at the screen because they couldn’t believe it, because, to them, I am Papa!

Right. They were having a hard time putting two and two together. (We both laughed hard at the thought of his wide-eyed son, puzzled at his father mauling so many hapless opponents. Doubt they’ll ever break curfew or get smart with dear old Dad!)

It was the cutest thing ever; it was so cute because they just could not believe that was their papa! I asked my kids, ‘Do you know what Papa used to do?’ They said, ‘You were a boxer. You won the Olympics!’And that’s what they know.

But they don’t know the visual of the sport itself.

No they do not, which is good.

What was your first car?

I wish I had that car. It was a dark blue 1967 Chevy Nova. I bought that car myself; I paid, like, $300 for the car. I worked at the Glen Arm Recreation Center. I saved my money and I saved my money and I bought the car. I remember, back then, years ago, you could change the gas pedal for a metal foot, so I did that because it was the cool thing to do. Then I changed my gear shift into a little ball. Yeah, and I had a little crucifix on the rearview mirror. That car was mine. I was so proud of that car. I bought that car with my own money and I cherished that car. It was so cute; I wish I had it again.

Where do you think that car is now?

Jesus Christ. I was looking for it.

You should find the VIN number and find it; it might still be in one piece!

You know what? My little car was so resilient; I bet it’s still around. I might put an APB out on it.

(WE LAUGH.) See, you have a passion about that first car. You bought it with your own money.

Oh, I did. It was my car. I bought it with my own money. I saved and I kept it clean.

Can you drive a stick shift?

Yes. Not well, but I can because I had my toys. I’ve had the Porsche, I had a Maserati, a Ferrari, I had all of those little toys.

And what happened?

I never drove it because I’d leave it in the garage and the battery would die. I had some wonderful cars.

How many cars do you think that you’ve had during your lifetime – since that first pride and joy?

Oh…I think…I would say…50 cars. Yes, 50.

Fifty, that is a great number. What cars do you have now?

The one that I drive, that I cherish and that I love the most is my Smart Car. I love that thing. My wife bought it for my birthday. She surprised me. Because I looked at the Mini-

Cooper. One day I saw a car zooming past and I said to myself, ‘What the hell is THAT?’ Because it looked like a golf cart, like a baby’s shoe, a large baby’s shoe. I remem­ber we then looked for one. It was hard to find because they were on back order. We drove around looking for them and asked, and the manager said these cars are hard to come by. There’s a six-month or a year wait, some­times. He said he’d keep an eye out, and if something came up, he’d call me.

After that, my wife pursued it. So, my birthday came around and we went to Orange County, being as my wife’s mom lives there, and my wife told me that we needed to go by her mom’s house to pick up something. We went by her house, she raised the garage door, I walked in the garage – and the garage is large – but I didn’t notice it sitting behind the trash can because it’s so small! It’s so tiny, she parked it parallel. And I thought, this is my car! I kept it in Laguna, so when we went to Orange County I always had a carto drive. Then I decided that I was going to bring this car to L.A.

I drove it, got off of the exit and on the freeway. I was driving, like, 50 miles an hour because it was so little. I thought I could get blown away by a tractor trailer. I tried it at 60 and I tried 70, then here comes a big truck flying by. The car didn’t move from the burst of wind from the big truck and that surprised me.

Sounds like your Smart Car has excellent grip.

Right. It’s stable. It hugs the road, it’s so low. I got it to 80; I wasn’t supposed to, but I did it because this is my car. I love it. I drive it every day.

What tires do you have on it; maybe the tires helped the car hug the road?

The same tires that come on it – muffin tires. They’re cute tires. The tires are no bigger than on a golf cart, but I love the car.

How many miles per gallon do you get in your Smart Car?

Thirty-five easy, maybe more.

Okay, so you have the Smart Car and what other vehicles do you have…

We have a Tahoe hybrid, and that car is for the kids. We take the kids to school in that car because my kids – and all kids, I think-they don’t believe in keeping a car clean. That’s their car. I love driving my car because, going a long distance with the family, it is a great car. The thing about it is, you don’t know the damned thing is on because you can’t hear it. Sometimes I start it twice, not knowing it is already started. But it’s a great car. I love that car.

So you’re all about the Green Movement.

No question, yeah. I have two cars-two vehicles-that I think benefit the environment.

Would you ever buy another gas-guzzling vehicle after owning the hybrids?

No. That’s my car. The Tahoe hybrid is my car, and my Smart Car.

If you had a dream car that you never pulled the trigger on, what would that be? I know you had the Maserati, the Ferrari and you had the Porsche. Was there ever a certain car that one of your friends has owned that you have desired?

The only car that comes to mind was an Aston Martin. That was a cool car. Didn’t James Bond drive that car?

Yes, the D.B. 9.

Yeah, yeah, I liked that. That is the only car that comes to mind. But I’m kind of past that point now; I’m a Smart Car and hybrid type of person now.

What’s your favorite color combination when it comes to cars?

I like black on black. I like blue with a cream-color interi­or. I like white. My wife doesn’t like white; she thinks it’s too showy, but that is why I like it!

Very crisp, like your Smart Car.

Yes. My Smart Car is white. I like my color combination of my Smart Car – white with kind of a red interior.

What kind of music do you listen to when you’re cruising down the freeway?

My kids laugh at me. I like the oldies, but the goodies. I like Luther Vandross.

Hey, Luther’s good. He’s not an oldie-but-goodie!

My kids have me listening to some of the rap. They like Tl.

Everybody’s into Tl, a lot of the athletes. Tl, Tl!

I also like Johnny Gill. My music is Johnny Gill. Johnny is a very, very close friend of mine and my family. Johnny will come over here and sing, and the kids love it. The kids love his voice.

Yeah, he has a good and grooving voice.

Oh, a great voice.

Have you ever been involved in a car accident?

Yes. Two accidents, to be exact. I was in one back in the late-’60s, with my mom. My mom was driving me and my two little sisters to South Carolina. What happened, it was late at night and she had just gotten off work but wanted to get on the road, and then fell asleep at the wheel and we went off the road and into a ravine. It was frightening. It sends chills up and down my spine when I think about it. You know how big the old jacks were back then?

Yes.

Well, the impact of the crash, when we hit the ravine, sent the jack straight through the trunk and all the way into the back seat of the car. I had just grabbed my little sister and brought her up front. It was awful. Then I had a head-on collision in a Laredo Jeep. What happened, I took a left turn and this guy went, like, BOOM, straight into me. I had contusions and bruises, but you don’t feel the pain until, like, two days later.

Right like the inner bruising that you get from the impact

Yes. It was really, really horrible.

How old were you when that accident happened?

I was probably in my mid-20s.

How old were you when you were in the childhood acci­dent?

I was in my teens -17, or maybe 18.

Do you have any favorite road trips that you like to take? I know you said that you have relatives that live in Orange County, but any driving trips that stick out in your mind?

Yeah. My wife and I like to go to Santa Barbara. It’s a nice drive down the coastline. It’s so beautiful. We also think a beautiful ride is to the Montage along the PCH. That’s a nice ride, and we know the owner of the Montage in Beverly Hills. He is a friend of ours. It is fantastic. Beautiful.

Do you prefer cars or trucks? Do you think that you lean towards one or another?

Well, I do like both. It depends on what the activity or trip is. If it’s a long trip, I like a big truck. If it’s just around the corner, I like the smallest car I can find – or a convertible.

How fast have you ever driven in a street car on the free­way?

The fastest I’ve driven…! drove 100 miles an hour one time because I wanted to see how it felt. I was scared of the police and it is not smart to drive that fast, but I had to do it. I did it for, like, two seconds and it was, uhm. I don’t know if it was a revelation or I got some big feel out of it, but I did it. I had to do it.

What has been your favorite car out of all of the ones that you have owned since you first got your driver’s license? Is there one that sticks out in your mind that you wish you still had?

You know, I truly loved my 280Z.

Oh my gosh, I am a huge Z person. Those are great cars.

There was nothing like it and I remember when I first had that car. To me, from my memory, when I got in that car, especially at night, the dashboard lit up like a cockpit of an airplane.

Yes, the orangish dashboard lights.

All the lights and all the whistles. I loved that car.

I was always a huge Z fan myself. Then they stopped making them in 1996. Then they came out six years later with the 350ZX, which was similar to an Audi TT or the Infinity coupe, so the Nissan Z no longer made a statement

Back in its day and time, it was the sexiest car on the road.

No question. It threw its hair back and said, ‘Look at me, baby.’

It was so cool. To be honest with you, I liked driving it at night because of that orange light.

Was yours an automatic or a stick?

It was an automatic. It was so cool.

What color was it?

I’m thinking it was a cranberry, like a reddish cranber­ry-

Did it have burgundy cloth interior?

It was burgundy! I also remember that car so well because, when I took it to the car wash, it smelled great and was clean. It smelled great, like a strawber­ry!

Sugar Ray Leonard was a genteel, relaxed, awesome man. He was so easy to talk to. To his kids, he’s Papa. He’s a devoted husband to his wife and, surprise surprise, into the Green movement. Here is one of the greatest boxers of all time – wealthy and affluent – a happy family man who drives a Smart Carl Go figure. Hard to believe his punch could literally kill a man. He could have been the greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time. He had the fastest hands and the quickest feet. I’ll never forget this interview. Frankly, when we got to the questions about the cars, it was just like I was talking shop with an old friend.

Barbara Terry interview with Chad Knaus

Chad Knaus is the most talented and driven pit crew chief in the history of NASCAR. No kidding, and I know a little bit about racing. He’s the first crew chief in NASCAR history to win four consecutive NASCAR champi­onships with his current driver, Jimmie Johnson. He’s worked with Daryl Waltrip and Jeff Gordon, and was actu­ally a part of the original Rainbow Warrior crew. He’s been involved in racing with his dad, John Knaus, since before he was legally able to drive. Simply put, he knows cars, power and speed.

What was your first car?

My first car that I ever owned was a 1972 Rally Sport Z28 Camaro, and that was a long, longtime ago. It was cool. I bought it beat up and junked, and worked on it and tried to get it going, but it all did not work out quite the way I wanted it to. After that, I had a Chevrolet Blazer, then a handful of other cars. I had a couple other Camaros, including a Camaro SS and just some things like that.

I was curious, with that inauspicious beginning, how he got to where he is and, with success and a life immersed in cars, what his tastes are now.

What do you drive now?

Currently, my daily drive is a Chevrolet Tahoe. I drive it every single day, but one of my favorite cars is a 2007 Corvette Z06.1 have a BMW M5, which I love. It is a very cool car. I have a 2003 C4S Porsche Carrera; I have a Silverado pickup truck; and I have four motor­cycles, so I have all kinds of stuff.

A good variety.

Yes. I also have a 1966 Chevy Nova. I bought it last year. My father actually built it when I was about 14 years young. Then he sold it, and the guy that bought it from my father approached me last year and asked me if I wanted to buy it back.

Tell me about your classic Camaro that you just treated yourself to.

It is a second-generation Z28, which is what my first car was, and I always wanted to get another one. It’s a great car to drive and it is currently a great project that I love a lot.

How did you acquire it?

I actually got it from Mr. Hendrick. He started the Hendrick Performance Group. It is on-site, here, so we have a lot of very skilled race car mechanics and fab­ricators that are working on these cars. Rick located the car and the guys here at HMS have done some engine and electronic work to it. So it has turned out to be an awesome ride.

How much money do you think Mr. Hendrick made off of you on the Camaro? (LAUGHS)

He may not have made a lot of money off of me for the Camaro, but in other areas, he makes plenty of money off of me! (LAUGHS)

What kinds of work do you suppose has been done to the Camaro up to this point since Mr. Hendrick acquired it?

It has a different engine in it than it did when it was factory, so it is putting out additional horsepower over what it did with the original 350. There is not a whole lot that has been done to it from a performance stand­point, from the original stock equipment. We want to make sure to keep it as stock as possible with the appearance, but we are going through it to make sure that it is running right, and that the engine is up to par and that all of the running gear is correct. We are also going through it to fine tune it, which will make a huge difference with a car like this.

What is your favorite color combination with cars?

I think it is hard to argue with black. When black is clean, it is nice. Blue and silvers are also nice; silver on black is nice. My BMW is silver; my Porsche is blue. I am not a big red fan. I do not like a lot of red.

How fast have you driven in a street car?

Probably, on a street, 145 to 150 miles an hour. I have had my Z06 up to 150 miles an hour when I was driving to Rockingham one day. I have been faster on two wheels. I have gone 174 on my GSXR.

Have you had any bad accidents dating back to the get-go?

I have had some accidents, that is for sure. I had an all­black 1997 Camaro SS that was really nice, and I was driv­ing home here from work at Hendrick Motorsports one day. A Volvo stopped in front of me as I was coming along a bend a little too fast. I had to go down into a ditch to avoid him, and called the tow truck and all of that cool stuff.

This seems like a very silly question, but to be fair to all, I have to ask it. Can you drive a stick?

Yes, absolutely.

What age did you learn how to drive?

Young – probably 12 to 13 years old. My grandfather used to take me out to drive through the hills and the apples orchards in Wisconsin where I grew up, so it was hilly and wavy roads…we used to go out there and drive around a little bit. It was a lot of fun.

Do you prefer cars or trucks?

It depends on the day; it depends on what I am doing. If I am going out to dinner or something like that, I would probably rather drive a car. But just driving to work every day, I choose to drive my Tahoe. I like them both, I really do. I think that a truck definitely serves a purpose – to haul my motorcycles and trailers around – so it all really depends on the situation.

When your career took off, did you find that you were ever influenced by someone else’s car?

Personal car?

Interesting that he differentiates the two automatically. To Chad, there’s work cars, cars that fly and must be kept running with unbelievable efficiency, and there are those other cars – the ones you take out on a Saturday night.

Yes.

I can remember when I started here at Hendrick, one of my biggest motivators was when we won the champi­onship with the 24 car and Ray Evernham was the crew chief at the time. Mr. Hendrick gave him a bright red Acura NSX, which is a beautiful car. So that was one of my moti­vating factors in my life – to be that successful, so that I could get those perks.

If the Z06 is not your ultimate dream car, then what would it be?

I have always wanted an Aston Martin DB9 because I think they look really cool. Obviously, when you start to get into exotics like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, they are sec­ond to none. They are pretty awesome pieces of equip­ment. So I have not gotten my dream car yet…once I figure out what it is, I will. I am a car guy. I love cars, so there are not a lot that I do not enjoy. I do think that if you are going to go into exotics, then it would have to be the Lamborghini Gallardo.

Hmmm…Chad in a James Bond-type vehicle. I don’t know. It doesn’t quite seem to fit, but…I’m betting that this question can only be answered one way, and perhaps lead to some interesting, maybe even humorous, stories.

Do you get pulled over a bunch?

I used to a lot, oh my, a lot. One time I got nine tickets in one year. That was really bad, but now I am usually good for one speeding ticket a year. So, nine is my record.

What is the craziest thing that you have ever done in a car?

On what level? ‘CHUCKLES. I do not know. Ummm. Not that I think it is a good thing, but when I was young, I would run from the cops and stuff like that.

Wow, not what I was looking for, but that deserved a follow- up or two, for sure.

Run from the cops?

Absolutely.

What were you doing?

We used to get together as kids and we would all kind of park and hang out, just like kids do. As the night pro­gresses, we would start drag racing and doing things like that on the back streets. Cops would find our new spot about every two weeks, so we would have to split and get away.

Have you ever hit an animal while driving?

I had a buzzard fly into my Tahoe as I was driving down the road to the airport. There was some type of road-kill on the road and I see this big bird coming in with approximately a six-foot wingspan. I could see it flying down towards me, then I saw the piece of road-kill on the road, then figured out that it was trying to get to it. The buzzard flies right into the door of my Tahoe and scared the *&%*%* out of me. My girlfriend at the time was in the passenger’s seat screaming. It was bizarre.

What kind of damage did it do?

Thankfully, it did not do any damage; it made a heck of a noise.

Do you have any favorite road trips?

We were actually racing, so we had to drive from Birmingham, Alabama, to Phoenix, Arizona, which was an incredibly excruciating drive, as you can imagine. And I was young; I was 18. It was three people, nonstop driving all the way across the United States. It was pretty intense, and I remember we were going down the road and it was my turn to drive. You know those little road aspirin pills, like No Doze type pills. The guy that I was riding with said, ‘Here, take a couple of these and they will help keep you up through the night.’ I told him I would take some in a lit­tle bit and I remember looking at the bottle and, as I was driving, I read the bottle wrong. Being young and not real­ly understanding the dosage, it said to take so many mil­ligrams per 10 pounds of body weight, so I ended up taking, like, 10 of them. I was wired for two days straight. I was a wreck. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck, but I drove all the way across Texas by myself – from one end to the other.

What kind of music do you listen to when you are driving?

Oh my. I have every type of music that you can think of. It really depends. Like, if I am driving the Corvette, you obviously want to have something that is a little more upbeat, like a hard rock and roll, to a heavy metal, to a rap. If I am driving my BMW, I listen to Ray Charles, Michael Buble. If you looked at my iPod, you would be shocked, as I listen to everything…Hall and Oates, James Brown, Journey.

Variety keeps it interesting.

That is what they say.

If you could describe the perfect woman as a certain type of car, what type of car would she be?

I think you would have to go back to the early years, because I think you would want something that is del­icate, curvy, smooth lines and fast all at the same time. You are going to have to look at late-’50s Corvettes or ’50s and ’60s Jaguars, ’50s Ferraris. It would be easy to say a new Ferrari or a Lamborghini Gallardo, but I think I would personally have something a bit more elegant.

Even though you mentioned elegant and curvy, you did make reference to all cars that have horsepower and tend to be fast. So, does she have to be fast and a multi-tasker?

Yes, to a degree. Nothing wrong with a little cross- training! I like fast cars, yes I do, but I also like beauti­ful cars, so I think that you have to be able to dress it up and take it for a night on the town!

You obviously won your fourth straight championship last season <2009), so where do you see yourself in, let’s say, five years?

You know, I think in five years my crew chief years will probably be winding down pretty dramatically.

Why do you say that?

It is very taxing to live this lifestyle as a crew chief; it is like living in dog years. You sacrifice so much in life in order to fully commit to work. You sacrifice friends, family, relationships. It is something that, if you are going to try and operate at the full level of being a crew chief, you just do not have time for a lot of other things in life. I do not want to go the rest of my life and not have a family and close friends and enjoy week­ends off. I want to do things that other people do, like watch races on Sundays, as that might be kinda fun! I think that, once we get to the five- to six-year area, when I get up into my 40s, I think that I am going to be ready to slow down a little bit.

When I met Chad, I realized that I was in awe. He is, simply put, a living NASCAR legend. When you race, your car is your universe. It’s what separates you from the pack. The crew chief Is In charge of making your universe run at opti­mum efficiency, under hellish circumstances. Chad Knaus has done this better than anyone else on the planet. He is a very, very intense, in-your-face pit crew chief. Always go, go, go, and also a witty and clever guy – a workaholic for certain – but a genuine good ol’ guy.

Barbara Terry interview with Ricky Johnson

I met the most extreme sports guys I think I’ve ever come across when I met Ricky Johnson. You could say he has been a thrill-seeker since he was a young child. He’s been riding a bike since his dad bought him a mini-bike at the age of three. Ricky is, to put it simply, a legend in the motocross world. He’s a seven-time AMA champion and a four-time national champion. His name is synonymous with motocross, as he notched an astonishing 61 wins, dominating the sport in the 1980s. He retired as the all-time wins leader (until Jeremy McGrath, who is also in this book, later broke it).

What was your first car?

My first car was a 1978 Datsun pick-up truck I bought when I was 15 years old. I started professional motocross racing when I was 13, and my father said, ‘You save up your money, I’ll pay for the racing. But you have to save up the money to pay for your own vehicle.’ I paid cash for it; I think it was $420.1 bought it and he let me drive the truck home before I had my license.

That’s cool. Where do you think that truck is now?

It went from myself to my sister, to a really good friend of mine, so it’s probably floating around L.A. right now or in an LA. junkyard.

I was going to ask if you thought it might still be in one piece.

Doubtful (LAUGHTER). No, actually, I babied that thing. It was my first vehicle. I spit-shined it and took really good care of it.

You spit-shined it?

Not spit. I shined it.

What color was it?

It was actually tan. My dad was a painter and he was into what colors stayed clean. Since I was going to the motorcycle track all of the time, he thought a beige truck would be the easiest for me to take care of, so I took his advice.

What do you drive now?

Right now, I drive a 2008 Toyota Tundra. I don’t know if it’s a SuperCab or whatever, but it’s perfect. It fits me and my wife and my three kids, and it has plenty of room.

What’s your favorite color combination when it comes to cars?

When it comes to…silver and black. I like silver because there was an artist who did a lot of artwork for No Fear. His name was Emile Boray. He’s an American guy who sounds very French. He said silver is great because it’s a different color every time you stick it outside. It’s a different color at night, it’s a dif­ferent color during the day, it’s a different color in the evening. It can be blue, it can be white, it can be dark. So, my first car was a light metallic silver with a black interior.

That’s nice. How many cars have you owned since that first Datsun pick-up truck?

That was kind of, you might say, my drug of choice when I was young and successful. I loved cars, so I’ve probably had about 15 different trucks. Racing, I won some, I think, three different Nissan pick-up trucks. Then driving for Chevrolet, I got quite a few. The vehi­cles that I bought, I bought a grey market Mercedes 190, six Cs out, which was fun… a blast to drive, That’s why I bought it. I had a Ferrari 308 at one point, had a convertible ‘vette, which was also one of the most fun cars I ever got to drive because you could slide it at will. I had the automatic, not the manual, so it was an easy car to drive. It was black with a red interior. I had a Lexus Legend when they first came out, when I raced for Honda, and assorted Chevys. Not so many Fords and a few Toyotas over the years.

Okay. If you never pulled the trigger on your dream car – because you had a good selection – but when you were a little kid, did you have that particular dream car that you never got? If you did get it which one was it?

Well, particularly because I raced motorcycles, you could never have your dream car because you always had to put motorcycles on the back. For me, it was what I bought – a Toyota SR-5 – with nice wheels on it and a great stereo system. That was my pride and joy for a long, long time. It was great – black with a gray interior. As far as my dream car, I’d have to say it’s a ’60 Impala. I love the fact it has the wings, the size – the two-door Impala with a convertible. Brian Simo – Mark and Brian Simo – and Jeff Bitiasakis, the original guys that started Life’s A Beach, had ’60s and that’s what we’d go out in. Top goes down immediately, it’s a manual top, so BOOM, the top goes down immediately and you jump in the back. You could fit four people in the front seat and four people in the back, and you just go. I very much loved the style. Maybe it’s because I come from the Batman era and it’s very much like the Batmobile. (LAUGHTER) So…

Wham-Bam-Pow!

Yeah, all that good stuff I But it wasn’t a ’59, it was ’60, right when the wings started to mellow out a little bit. As far as a sexy vehicle, that’s the one I like.

You going to get one?

Maybe someday.

Did you get a lot of speeding tickets?

I did. I used to get, I even got taken to the, what is it, the 2 percent club or whatever – 2 percent of the worst drivers on the street. I actually stood up in the class and argued with them that, since I was a professional racer, I should be able to drive faster than everybody else. They didn’t like that so they told me to sit down and shut up.

How old were you?

I was 18. I got speeding tickets all the time. I was just cruising along at 90 miles an hour to a race and, next thing I know, there’s a cop behind me that’s been chasing me for a while.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done in a car?

Hmm. Let me think. I’d say a friend of mine named Norm who owns a junkyard in Wisconsin. This was when Jimmie Johnson and I both raced AMA cars. We went out and we had a good time one night. We called Norm and asked him to get us a bunch of junk cars. After we had a good time, we went over – my wife, too – and ran the junk cars. Whoever was co-driver ran the emergency brake. Whoever was driving ran the steering wheel and throttle. So Jimmie and I were a team. I’d drive or he’d drive and we’d swap. We had races in this muddy junkyard in Wisconsin, cars stacked three high and our crew chief, Ron Malick, whose now on his team, would have a cooter chasing us down. The exhaust was ripped off so he had a lot more horsepower, but we had maneuverability and we proceeded to destroy all six cars we had.

That sounds fun.

It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a vehicle.

What kind of music do you listen to when you’re driving?

I’m kind of a funk guy. I grew up with R&B and I had some friends who were really into dancing and stuff, so I tend to go towards stuff with a stronger beat. I’m not a metal guy. I like a little bit of country and classic rock.

What do you think about the Go Green cars, about the hybrids?

I think it’s time. I think it’s great if you look around – just in my lifetime – how people treated the world, thinking it was a never-ending thing. Bury as much garbage as you want, dump as much garbage as you want in the water. Test nuclear bombs. How many fish do they kill when they drop one of those things in the ocean? Now you see recycling bins for green waste, for plastic and all the things people are doing to save the Earth. It’s like back in the day before we were born, parents drank and smoked…

And ate tons of butter.

Right. They didn’t think anything of it They thought we were in a little cocoon and nothing could get to us, but as we learn and evolve. This isn’t forever.

Do you see yourself buying a hybrid?

Yeah. I would love it because I would love to not by gas every day, even though it’s back down to $1.85 a gallon. That would be my first motivation. My second would be that I’m being friendly to the ground.

Ever had any accidents on the freeway?

I was in one car accident. Someone ran a red light when I was 17 years old and turned in front of me. It was on a New Years. My dad told me, don’t go out. There’s too many idiots out there. I’d bought my new Dodge D-50, had it cleaned up and was going to go out with some friends and couldn’t find them. As I’m com­ing home, the light was green, the guy goes in front of me. I hit the brakes and we hit and I sliced my arm open. That was it. I don’t go nuts on the roads.

Not anymore.

I didn’t go nuts when I was speeding back in the day, either. I spent a little bit of time speeding when I got a 924 Turbo Carrera GT.

Nice.

It was a very nice car. I got it from Jim Gennard at Oakley. It was one of my contract perks. It was a great car. They only built so many, so they could run those. It was the beginnings of the 924. There was this road I’d drive on at night that I knew like the back of my hand. I finally pushed the envelope a little too much because we ran at some pretty high speeds in those things, but I got lucky and got away with it

How fast did you go?

I remember seeing 130 a couple of times.

That’s not too bad.

The road had less than…I think the longest straight­away was under a mile.

Oh, then that’s pretty bad.

We were sliding a bit there. It was…as much as I’ve raced with stock cars and all that stuff, there’s no way I’d drive that fast. I was naive and I got away with some crazy stuff.

You started racing at what age?

When I was nine years old. Started racing amateur at nine. I raced mini-bikes, 80 CCs and 85s until I was 12, and then got tired of the politics of the mini-bikes – like soccer dads and all that – so Brock Glover, who was a friend of mine, and then the current 125 National Champion, helped me out quite a bit when I was young. Let me try one of his bikes. So I started 125s when I was 12 and turned pro at

12. From there, it was just go as fast as I could go.

How old were you when you got your drivers license?

Sixteen. On my 16th birthday. I was there at five ’til six, waiting for it to open up.

What are you doing right now?

A lot of stuff. Things that I’m very proud of. I work with the U.S. Military. I teach them how to ride bikes and quads, how to get in and out of situations with speed and stay safe, and I’ve helped a lot of military guys in the past. I feel my call to duty is to take the knowledge I have and teach these guys with it. I take, mostly…not the knowledge, but the riding technique, I take from motocross. But the driv­ing situations, I take from the Baja 50 and 1000 because you’re dealing with sometimes hostile territory there and you have to get in and out without getting hurt. The other thing I’m doing is, I’m a driver for Pro Tube for Barlow Motor Sports, for Red Bull. I’m a Red Bull athlete, so I focus on everything I can do to help Red Bull athletes, find new talent and help them with their marketing. But win­ning races is priority one. We only won one race last year. We should have won more, but everybody says that. I am the current owner of Paris Raceway. It’s a motocross track. It’s the No. 1 track in southern California. Most of the pros and all the top amateurs practice there every week and we do quite a bit of racing. My No. 1 job is to be a hus­band to my wife, Stephanie, and a father to Luke, Jake and Cassidy. All this other stuff I do just affords me time to be with them.

Wow, anything else?

Nothing else. Let’s see…l do some stunts, some stunt driv­ing, whether it be precision driving. I just did a Polaris shoot on quads. I’ve been in Goodyear spots and Chevrolet spots.

Okay, do you prefer to own, lease?

Cash.

So you like equity.

No, I like to endure the pain once. It kills me to write a check each month. I’d rather write the big check and be done with it, feel the hurt.

So you don’t have to worry about it in the future.

And I know it drops in value immediately, but, if I can, I just paycash.               j

At any given time in the past have you ever looked at somebody else’s car and said, ‘Man, I just have to have that?’

Yes. I was in Europe and met with Eric Gabors who was the current 500 World Champion – actually, a 250 world cham­pion at the time, and he took me for a ride in a 190 Mercedes. He slid the thing around and drove the hell out of it, and I said, ‘I have to have that!’ And Rocky Coster, who was my team manager at the time, had one in America -the same color as my truck, the metallic gray, and it was like I had to have it. It was like when I test drove a ‘vette. I was just screwing around one day and, the guy, I thought he was making a mistake. Let me take it, and my friend and I drove the hell out of it. I came back and I had to have the thing. It was too much fun.

What do you think of the Z06?

Awesome cars. They’re…

Pretty sweet. They need better seat belts.

They respond. Having a better set of seat belts would help. You’re pretty bolted. They lift you up and spin you around, and the seat belt latch will tighten. Still, like you say, a set of six-point harnesses would be good. °

A man after my own heart is Ricky Johnson. He has the same need for speed as me! He’s a very strong, very grounded family man who has lived a remarkable and inter­esting life so far. He was not exactly what you might expect from an off-road champion – not burly or roughshod. He showed us pictures of himself and Ronald Reagan from the 1980s, when Ricky dominated motocross like Reagan dom­inated communism. I realized, as I watched Catherine, who was taken aback by all the memorabilia that Ricky had, that I was in the presense of a real champion and legend!

Barbara Terry interview with Bruce Jenner

Bruce Jenner went to two Olympics in his track and field career – in 1972 in Munich Germany, and then in 1976 at the Montreal games. In 1976, he won the Gold medal for the decathlon, a grueling 10-activity track and field event. Post-Olympics, he became a celebrity in the United States, getting that Wheaties box I remember, receiving endorsements and appearing on television shows. In 1976, he was declared the Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press.

What was your first car?

Boy…Nobody ever bought me a car. I have a tragic story.

At what age did you learn how to drive?

My dad taught me how to drive in Tarrytown NY, in a grocery store parking lot. I was 15, turning 16. He had a little convertible Austin-Healy Sprite; you know, those little bug-eyed Sprites they have. It was red with white stripes. It was a four-speed. That was probably three months before I got my license. Of course, I snuck it out a few times when he wasn’t around. We lived in an apartment complex and I drove it around the apartment complex and never got caught. The day I got my license, my dad sold the car.

Ouch, that was bad timing.

Yes. When I got home from getting my license, all excited, my dad said, T sold the car today.’ I was dev­astated. Actually, about a month ago, I was driving past a used car lot and saw a little bug-eyed Austin- Healy Sprite. I wanted to go in and buy the thing, paint it red and fix it up, just so I would have it. That was a pretty tragic start to the car world for me. My dad would let me drive a Ford Falcon station wagon when I was good, only when I was good, so I never had a car when I was young.

When I was 18 and had about six months left in high school, this friend of ours had a 1954 Cadillac hearse in the backyard and he wanted to get rid of it. He says, ‘I’ll give it to you for $150.’ I snatched that baby right up. Now, I do have to admit, coming back from a party one time, I think we had 24 people back in the hearse. It was my record.

(LAUGHTER)

Yeah, 24 people back there. We still had the rollers in the floor!

Nooooo!

We were coming back and we decided how many people can we get back in the hearse, and we got 24 in by the time I slammed the back door shut. Halfway home, somebody back there had to get out; they were going to get sick. I stopped and everybody came piling out right before this guy loses it. I rebuilt the motor – took the motor out and rebuilt it – all the gaskets. I rebuilt it myself.

How many miles do you think you put on it?

Not a lot. I didn’t have it that long because this friend of ours had a ’56 Ford Fairlane, which was the coolest. I would love to have that car today. It had new tires, and he was going to trade it in on some new car and they were only going to give him $275 on the trade-in. We were, like, that’s ridiculous, so he said he’d sell it to me for $275.1 bought it-two-tone salmon color with a blacktop, convertible. It was really a cool car. It’s a classic car; it would probably be worth $50,000 today if it was fully fixed up. I bought it for $275, had it for a cou- ple of years, until I went to college, and I sold it for $350.

There you go!

I was ready to go into the used car business.

Interesting story for you. This story made it on Paul Harvey. Here goes…l competitively water-skied that year- when I was 18 or 19-the year I had the Ford. I had driven it to Richmond, Virginia – from Connecticut to Richmond – to go to a water ski tournament I was competing in. My freshman year in college really didn’t go all that well. I had knee surgery from football (January 2,1969). I didn’t know if I was going to play sports anymore, didn’t know what I was going to do. I had missed a lot of school, so my grades sort of sucked. And I’m thinking, do I go back to school or not after the knee surgery.

So I’m in Richmond the summer of 1969.1 thought, since I had the knee surgery, well, you know, the draft, they had the draft back then. If you weren’t in college, they put a target on your chest and shipped you off to a lovely, tropi­cal country – where a lot of my friends had gone – and I thought, well, because of the knee surgery, I probably won’t pass the physical. I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do this summer?’ This friend of mine that I was staying with – in his house in Richmond during the winters – went to Cyprus Gardens, Florida, and skied in a show. He called the guy and says, ‘I got Bruce and we’re going to come down.’ They offered me a job. So I’m sitting there that morning and I remember I’m driving this ’56 Ford and I’m heading to the freeway, and I have my water skis sticking out the back and I had the top down. What do I do? Do I go south and head for Cyprus Gardens and get out of school, water ski all winter and be in the show, you know? Sounds like fun when you’re 19, right? Or do I go north and work with my dad, then go back to college?

I’m driving this little ’56 Ford and I’m almost down to the entrance to the freeway and I just don’t know what to do. Which way do I go? I’d never run a decathlon at this point – I’d run track and played football and played other sports, but I’d never run a decathlon before. So, as I’m getting closer to the freeway, this car pulls up on my lefthand side. To go south, I’d either have to slow down or pick up speed because he was sort of blocking my way south. But the freeway going north was wide open, and this car was right there…l sat there like this and I was thinking, ‘You know what, let’s go north on the freeway.’

All because that car was sitting right there to your left?

Yep, all because that little car was sitting right there. It was like the final thing, you know? I decided it was the right thing to do, go back to college. Then, the next year, I ran my first decathlon, so.Jt’s kind of a good car story.

It was the right decision.

It was a great decision. As Paul Harvey said, ‘Now you know the rest of the story. He went north. He went back. He entered the decathlon!’

(LAUGHTER). So, what do you drive now?

A 2007 Escalade. I had a 2004 Escalade and I traded it in with 175,000 miles on it. I carpool and that car runs all day long. This car is a 2007 and it already has 60,000 miles on it, driving kids around! I did win a car last year; I won a Mercedes, playing golf. Of course, my wife got that. The only other thing I have is a Harley.

Harleys are nice.

Harleys are very nice.

What model?

It’s a 2007. It’s a very unique Harley. They only made five like the one that I have. It’s technically a V-Rod, but it’s an upgraded version that supposedly Porsche designed. A friend of mine is a real big car guy. I mean, he has ware­houses full of cars, and Harley called him up and said they ‘have this bike, you wanna buy it?’ So he bought it. He took pictures of it, put it in his garage and it never moved for eight months. Then, one day, I came in and it was covered up, and I said, “What’s that?’ He lifted it up and I said, ‘Ooooh.’ I had a Harley, but I sold it a couple years ago and I’m kind of itching to get another one. With the gas prices the way they are, it’s kind of the smart thing to do, right?

Yeah, but to buy a Harley, you really do not need an excuse!

I looked at it and it had 12 miles on it. He’d never driven it. He says, Well, I haven’t driven it, but I got the bike and…’ I said, This is ridiculous. You have this beautiful bike and you’ve never driven it? Sell it to me, I’ll ride it.’ So he sold it to me.

What is your favorite road trip on your bike?

To the golf course to play golf. Yeah, how’s that? If I don’t have to carpool, I’ll just fire up the bike and go down to the club, and hit golf balls and come back.

Tell me more about your racing career. It sounds interest­ing.

I raced for what was known as IMSA – International Motor Sports Association. I raced in the GTO Class. (GOT PICTURES AND SHOWED THEM TO ME) This was my car. I raced that for Ford. I was a factory driver for Ford for 10 years. I was a factory driver for Ford Motor Company for about five of those years. I found this young kid – his name was Scott Pruitt – on a go-kart track, and Scott was, like, 13 times National Champion. He even won world champi­onships in karting. We became good friends and I told him I wanted to help him get started. He was, like, 23 at the me, and I told Ford I wanted to get Pruitt in the car with. This was 1985. He drove 10 laps and put it on the pole. He’d never driven a car that big and that heavy. The two of us, in ’86, we teamed up for 7-11 in this car and we basically won everything. We won 24 hours in Daytona, Sebring, we won seven races that year. We just ate ’em up. Scott won Driver’s Champion and I was runner-up. We had a great year.

People do not understand just how much goes into racing and getting sponsorships.

You gotta go do the track all day long, then you have to do the media, then you have to do the Ford stuff. You have to entertain clients. The list just goes on and on and on.

You’re worn out before you even get behind the wheel.

That’s the only time you get any peace and quiet. You throw the helmet on and everything shuts down and you go, ‘Yeah, now I’ve paid for it. Let’s go and do it.’ That’s what I did for a living. I just kind of got wore out. Scott was moving on. He got an Indy car ride at that time. So I just slowly, gracefully, bowed out. Then, when I met Chris, I had a few races, raced a couple offshore boats and did some fun stuff. Just decided to get out of it. Picked up more kids.

If you have never pulled the trigger on that dream car of yours, what would it be?

I have that story. Nineteen seventy-six – the year I won the games – was the first year that Porsche came out with the Turbo Porsche. I was driving a $175 VW Bug. That’s what I did when I was training. I drove this ’63 Bug to the track and back. Six months before the games, I signed this deal with Adidas. I made no money for the games; I couldn’t make any money. I lived on, like, $10,000 a year. I had a $145-a- month apartment and I trained. That’s what I did. I trained and ate. But I always had a fascination for cars. I signed this deal with Adidas six months before the games to wear their shoes. They couldn’t sponsor me, but they could sponsor my track club, and kind of filter expenses through the track club. It just so happens, I’m the only member of my track club.

Wow, that sounds complicated.

Very complicated. I signed this deal and got $6,000. I thought I was rich. I’m thinking, I was making $70 a month in the insurance business – as a draw I took out of this insurance business my friend covered for me – just so I could live. Then, six months before the games, I have $6,000. I’m thinking, I get$170 a month and I only spend $400. So I bought this brand new 914 Porsche, green in color, the only new car I’d ever bought – for $5,600. My payments were $98 and I’m thinking, how am I going to pay that?

Yes, but the purr of the engine makes it worth it!

Yes, it’s the purr. So I got this little 914 Porsche. Well, low and behold, right after I buy this little 914 — my first new car ever – what does Porsche come out with? The first Turbo ever. I see this thing and I’m going, ‘Is that the coolest car ever.’ I go into the dealership and check it out and I’m thinking, man, look at this thing!

You were picturing yourself in it. Cruising down the freeway.

I’m thinking to myself, if I can pull the games off, I will get that car. If I can do it, I’ll find a job. Don’t know if I can find one, BUT, for 12 years of my life, I’m buying that car. Done deal. I cut the picture of the car out. I took the picture to Montreal. I was in a bunk bed on the top and I taped the picture of that car above my bed.

You used it like a focal point.

Yes, and three months later, it was sitting in my drive­way.

I’m sure you opened it up. How fast did you get it?

I had it over 100, but I never really drove it that hard. I’m not a big, hard driver on the street. Too dangerous. I just go to the track and do it.

What kind of music do you listen to when you’re driv­ing down the road?

Talk radio.

Sports radio?

No. News. Never sports. Don’t really follow sports that much. I’m on the good Republican conservative side, so I listen to all but the bad guys – Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Marc Levin. >

On the drive to Bruces home, all I could think about was his face on the cover of the Wheaties cereal box that sat on my kitchen table when I was a little girl. He might even be the reason I started watching sports in the first place. We relaxed in his home office, and it was awesome to see his memorabilia and view all of the accomplishments he’s amassed throughout his celebrated career. It was also obvi­ous that he is a big fan of remote-control helicopters. He has a unique collection and told us that he loves not only col­lecting, but flying them.

Who would’ve thought that, as a little girl looking at that Wheaties box so many years ago, I’d have such an amazing conversation with the guy on the cover. Enough said.

Barbara Terry interview with Natalie Gulbis

Natalie Gulbis has been a golfing phenom since an early age, introduced to the sport before she was five years old. She played her first LPGA event as an amateur at the tender age of 14 and joined the tour as a pro at 18 while attending college. She’s also a part-time model and builds motorcycles with her dad. She has a love of trucks, big cars and classic muscle cars.

What was your first car?

My first car was an ’83 Ford Bronco. It was in college, my second semester. My parents bought me the Bronco.

What color was it?

Navy blue exterior with a tan interior. It was an Eddie Bauer and I loved it. I’ve always liked big trucks and cars.

Was it a full-size Bronco?

Yes. Then, when I turned professional, I bought a Tahoe. A 1999 two-door Chevy Tahoe.

Do you play for the most part now?

Yes, now I just fly. It’s so International. We play more outside the United States than we do inside the United States.

Your two-door Tahoe, did it have a cloth or leather interior?

Cloth. Bright red, big rims, it was really tall. I felt safe in it. I’ve always felt safe in big cars and trucks.

I wondered what happened to it, she seemed to like it so much.

I love those. Great choice.

The next car I bought was on eBay. It was a Harley Davidson truck, a 100th year anniversary truck. I was obsessed with it. It was silver and black. I looked everywhere for it for about four to five months, then found it on eBay. I flew my dad out to Texas and he drove it back to Vegas. I still have it.

That’s awesome!

Yes. This is actually the first car I’ve had, the Lexus you are shooting today. I’ve had trucks for eight years of being professional; I’ve had an Escalade and an Expedition. I would just keep on changing out big cars and big trucks. I would take my car out on the road to tournaments, but now I won’t. Now we have an International schedule. I used to drive to all of the tour­naments, so I always had a big vehicle.

And you sold it?

Yep.

Ouch.

I kind of turn them over. Sell them or give them to fam­ily, but turn them over.

Do you like leasing or owning your vehicles?

Owning.

Because of the equity factor or the fact that the vehi­cle is yours and you can do whatever you want to with it?

So I don’t have to make another payment!

Hi

(LAUGHTER) Yes, that’s a good thing. How old were you when you got your driver’s license?

I was 16. My parents couldn’t afford to get me a car, so I went to college without one. In my second semester, my parents surprised me with a car for my birthday. That was my 18th birthday. I was a freshman.

What do you drive now?

Now I have a Lexus 350is, which is the car you’re shooting today.

Awesome. How long have you had the Lexus?

A few months. I just sold an Escalade and got it.

How well do you like being in a smaller vehicle?

I love it. It’s so fun having a car. I can’t believe how easy it is to buzz around in it.

It’s easier, but different, if you’re used to sitting up high in trucks. It’s a different feeling. When you used to travel going to tournaments, what was your favorite road trip?

My favorite city in the United States is Los Angeles. I’m from Sacramento, California, but I love L.A. I pretty much like driving all over the U.S. I’ve been cross-country, prob­ably, five times. I spent a lot of time on the road. I’ve been on the road since I was 14 playing in tournaments.

Can you drive a stick shift?

Yes. And now the Lexus that I have has the paddle, so I learned how to drive with the paddle shifter. It’s so much easier than a stick. I learned howto drive a stick a couple years ago. I had a TV show on The Golf Channel and my dream car at that time was a Dodge Viper. I said I wouldn’t buy a sports car until I learned how to drive a stick, so my producers on the show surprised me and brought me a Viper for a weekend, and it was a stick. They actually set it up because they wanted to shoot me learning to drive a stick. I drove it around Vegas all week­end, stalling it out. It was fun. That’s how you learn, though. Usually, you don’t learn on a Viper.

So you were grinding the clutch…screeeeeeeech.

Well, I was doing okay. They started to shoot and said, ‘You’re ready’ and started me out going up a hill.

Oh no.

Yeah, a big old hill.

And to learn on a hill is impossible, especially at a stoplight with a car coming up behind you. You feel like, ‘How am I going to do this?’

And I have another car, a ’68 Mustang Fastback that is in showroom condition. I keep at my parents’ house.

I wish we could have shot that! Sweet!

They don’t drive it much, maybe take it to a show if there’s one nearby. I’ve always liked the old classic Mustangs.

Is it all original or has it been restored?

No, it’s been restored and we put some extra bells and whistles on it.

How long have you had the Mustang?

Five years, but I only drive it when I go home to Sacramento. My parents make sure that it’s kept up because I’m not home very much. I’m on the road 90 percent of the time.

How many miles does it have on it?

About 18,000, not many.

What color is it?

Bright red, Ferrari red. I’m going to put white stripes, racing stripes, over the top next time I go home. I used to go to car shows all the time. You go to different cities, you get to see different cars.

Oh, yeah, get different ideas on how to restore clas­sics. What’s your favorite color combination with cars?

I tend to buy black cars over and over again. I like the blue Viper with the white racing stripes. Definitely, the Mustang I’m putting those stripes on, but I’ve tended to buy black cars for the last seven or eight years.

When you were a teenager, before you got your dri­ver’s license, you probably thought about cars and thought, “Wow I’d like this.’ What was that dream car? Was it a Lamborghini, was it a truck with big rims? What really caught your attention?

A white Lamborghini with tan interior where the doors went up. And I thought the Camaros looked like that — had the same slant, and looked like it. I thought one day I could realistically get that when I became a pro golfer, but I didn’t. Then I set a standard and decided that when I won my first tournament, I would buy a Viper. In 2007, when I did (win), I threw a big party, but I’m not home enough to feel I can have a car like that. Maybe one day, when my life slows down a little bit. I go to car shows, and they have great Lamborghinis and Ferraris at the museum here in Las Vegas.

Isn’t there a Ferrari dealership in one of the hotels here?

Ferrari is inside the Wynn and Lamborghini is inside the Palazzo, but I love classic cars. One of the maga­zines I get when I travel is the Du Pont Registry. Many athletes love classic cars. My favorite part of Cribs is when they show the cars.

(LAUGHTER) Yeah, it’s funny. When I started this book, I didn’t want all spectacular cars. I wanted some different cars, like Sugar Ray Leonard has a Smart Car out in LA. He’s driving this little bitty white Smart Car all over Los Angeles, it’s hilarious. It’s cool, though. What about car accidents? Ever had a car accident?

No. No car accidents, no speeding tickets, knock on wood.

No speeding tickets?

Nope, no tickets. I do not think I have ever even gotten a parking ticket.

Have you ever been pulled over and talked your way out of a speeding ticket?

One time. I was on my way to the airport about 4:30 one morning to get on a plane to go play a tournament in Singapore, and the officer said, ‘Natalie, where are you going so fast?’ I told him I had to catch a plane to Singapore and he let me go with a warning.

That was nice of him.

Yes. My management team, I think, currently has an over/under on when I’m going to get a ticket in my Lexus.

Would you ever own a hybrid?

Yes, absolutely. I think the next car I get will be a hybrid. They used to be so small, but now that you have choices. I’ll probably get a Lexus hybrid. They’re beautiful and so quiet.

They’re sweet yes. What kind of music do you listen to when you are driving?

A combination. I like classic rock and top 40. Now that I have satellite and regular FM, I’m always changing. It’s easy with a touch screen.

How many cars do you think you’ve owned throughout your life?

Twelve.

That’s pretty sweet. Have you ever looked at another golfer’s car and thought you might need to get what they have?

No. I never see the other golfers’ cars, but I do see celebri­ties’ cars on TV. All tricked out. I just saw on the last Cribs, Kim Kardashian had a white Range Rover with white seats with pink trim, and pink on the rims iLAUGHTER) ..yeah, but it was custom and it would be nice to have custom stuff.

Leading right into my next question. Speaking of custom, what do you like to modify on your cars when you get them straight from the factory? Is it rims you want first or an upgraded stereo system? What do you find that you’re not happy with completely, as far as factory goes?

I like to upgrade everything. I like it supercharged. I like to change the brakes, put all high-performance stuff on, high-performance tires with the biggest rims that I can fit, but still make manage. I have never had bigger than 22 inches, but I’ve seen them. Definitely leather seats. If I can fit TVs in there somewhere…I’ve always had SUVs, so I had TVs in the back for group travel with a pile of DVDs.

Well, with that you know that they are sitting in the back seat and occupied. They’re entertained while you are driving.

Now, a navigation system. I don’t know how you can travel without a navigation system. I used to have my little Garmin, but now I get navigation systems in the car. Tinted windows. You know, Nevada is more lenient than most states. You can get the windows tint­ed very dark here, but then if you drive that car in California… ticket! You have to be pretty careful, being as different states have different regulations. Now I take off all the logos, too, all except for the one Cadillac symbol. I like a clean look.

How fast have you driven in a car?

Donald Trump let me take his Ferrari out at a tourna­ment a few years ago, and I’d say 150 or 160.

Was that on the Long Island Expressway?

No, it was in West Palm Beach. He’d just gotten a new Ferrari, and for our tour championship, we got to stay at his hotel and we got to play at his golf course. He has beautiful cars, and a friend and I got his car for a night. I’d like to drive on a track once. I know they have a racing track here in Vegas, and I’d like to do that one time. You know, where you can actually take a car out on a track.

If you ever want to go to one of my off-road races, let me know. I’ll take you.

Really? Do they have them here?

Yeah. I just did the Vegas To Reno back in August. The way the course was mapped out it came out to be

What!!!

Yeah. Not on the road, but up in the mountains, on the sides of cliffs doing 80. We raced the Ford Raptor truck, the only Raptor they modified for racing. Off- road is fun, but it’s not very glamorous. If you don’t mind eating dirt for a few days…

Okay, speaking of your Tahoe, it was lifted. Did you put the lift kit on it?

I bought it that way.

What do you have going on right now, or what is your favorite charity?

This year, I got to be on Celebrity Apprentice, which was fun because I got to play for my favorite charity. The Boys & Girls Club. Now that the off-season is here, I have more time to spend here and in Sacramento where my parents live, and I’ll spend more time with the kids here and there. I’ve got great sponsors. My largest sponsor is Addidas. (Others are) Taylor Made, Cannon, Outback Steak House, Mastercard, 24 Hour Fitness, Sky Golf and Winn Grips, which are two golf companies. I do stuff with Addidas Eyewear. I got to design an Addidas shoe for 2010. That was exciting.

That’s cool. When does it come out and where?

In January, I think all over the world. You always have a dream of having a shoe.

(LAUGHTER) Yeah. Why did you choose Vegas?

I chose Vegas because my coach is here. Butch Harmon lives in Vegas. I came across this area of Lake Las Vegas, which doesn’t have the feel of Vegas. You have a man-made lake, beautiful homes and a sense of community. You’re a half an hour away from the strip and anything and everything you could imagine. There’s great concerts, spas, restaurants and shop­ping.

An international airport

Yes. There’s a lot more to Vegas than just the strip. You can go hiking in Red Rock. There’s skiing a half-hour from here.

Great spas.

(LAUGHTER) Yes. I would love to check out every spa in every hotel.

That’d be a book in itself.

Yes. It would make a great TV show. Get paid to do it and order every treatment on the menu.

Tell me about your motorcycle.

One of my favorite toys that I built with my dad is a custom bike. It’s beautiful. It has caricatures of me and my dad, and it is a retro baby blue. They actually had it on display at Treasure Island. They’ve shown it across the country at different motorcycle shows and now it’s at home. One day, I’d like to have a room where you can have it up on display.

You don’t ride it?

No, it’s too beautiful. My dad rides it when my parents come to visit me here in Vegas. It was on display for almost a year on the strip.

That’s neat. Have you ever had a bike you rode a bunch?

No. Being on tour, you cannot really take chances. Yes, you have to be extra careful with the body.

I was excited to meet Natalie knowing that she was not only an accomplished athlete, but a lover of horsepower. She was gracious, sweet and inviting/ A hot lady that knows her cars!