Adam Carolla

There are a few car guys that most enthusiasts would love to talk to. For us the list is very large and we have already spoken to some, such as Alex Ross, Magnus Walker and Graham Rahal. Even on our long list we have a top 5 and we recently got the opportunity to speak to talk to one of these people, Adam Carolla (in case you’re interested, the others are Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Patrick Dempsey and Jeremy Clarkson).

Mr. Carolla recently released a documentary about Paul Newman and his 35 year racing career. It is called Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman. Because of this we asked some questions about the documentary as well as about his car collection and love for automobiles.

Us: What made you want to work on Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman

Adam: I have a lot of his cars and I drive a lot of his cars at vintage events and I just thought it made sense to me to make this movie. I was familiar with the story, I kept asking people if they were familiar with the story and nobody was familiar with the story. That is when I realized I should make this story because nobody was familiar with it.

Us: Do you get to drive your vintage racing cars on a regular basis?

Adam: Yes I do get to drive them on a regular basis at the races. So, I’m preparing one right now and I’ll be driving it at the Rolex Historics in Monterey coming up.

Us: Is that Paul Newman’s 1985 Datsun GT1 Champion Car?

Adam: I was trying to get that car together, but it doesn’t look like I’m going to get it together in time. So, I’m going to end up driving an Oldsmobile Trans-Am Cutlass Car with a ’90s Peerless chassis.

Us: What is it about the Datsun marquee that really attracts you?

Adam: I’ve also just kind of liked them and it turned out to be a handy coincidence that Paul Newman drove them. I don’t know, I like an overhead cam car, they’re fairly bullet proof. They are pretty easy to work on. I don’t know what makes a guy an Alfa Romeo guy, I don’t know what makes a guy a Jag guy or a Porsche guy. I’m not really an anything guy; I like old Lamborghinis, I like Bizzarrins, I like anything. Once you go Datsun and then other Datsun guys start recommending other Datsuns to you and then the next thing you know you have a few of them. Then you blink your eyes and you’re a Datsun guy.

Us: You have a pretty good car collection, is there any particular car you drive on a regular basis?

Adam: I’m not like [Jay] Leno, I don’t really drive my car collection. I sort of focus mainly on my race collection and preparing the cars for vintage events and that’s pretty much the way I do it. I’m not a purist, I drive a 2014 car everyday, but for me it is mainly getting the race cars together for the events. That’s what I’m in the middle of doing right now.

Us: Well that sounds like it would be more fun as you can’t really drive some of the cars how they were meant to be driven on the road, at least legally.

Adam: It’s not as much fun once you get strapped into a race car and you start doing the racing thing. It really isn’t that much fun to do anything else.

Us: Is there any track vehicle that you haven’t driven that you would like to?

Adam: A car that I’ve always liked, they sound great and kick ass on the track is the BMW M1 Pro Car. So, that has always been a car that I’ve wanted to own and wanted to drive.

Us: We saw the documentary and it is very good, is there any talk of awards?

Adam: No there’s no talk of any awards. It wasn’t accepted into every festival that it was entered into, so I don’t think it is going to win a lot of awards. It’s not eligible for some awards if it doesn’t get accepted into some festivals. So, it’s not really in the running for any awards that I’m aware of.

Us: That’s too bad because we thought it was very good.

Adam: No it is good, it’s me not the movie. Sundance is not a fan of mine. It’s more a political thing than anything.

Us: What is the best place for our readers to watch the documentary?

Adam: I don’t know if it’s a best, but it is on iTunes or Amazon or Video on Demand. However they normally see movies they can see it there. Pretty straight forward. I don’t want to tell them what their favorite way to watch it is, but they can figure it out.

We would like to thank Mr. Carolla for taking the time out of his very busy day to talk with us. Also, if you haven’t already checked it out, make sure to watch Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman. If you enjoy cars and racing then you are sure to enjoy it.

Picture Source: Twitter