The reason I moved to California the first time was to build the Cobra. I thought it was stupid to have a 1918 taxicab engine in what Europeans like to call a performance car when a little American V-8 could do the job better.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The car provided Americans with an enviable standard of living. You could not get a steady job with high wages and health and retirement benefits working on the General Livestock Corporation assembly line putting udders on cows.
I drive a 1965 Shelby Cobra. I love classic muscle cars.
The Cobra is my personal favorite car. The original 289 Cobra is the car I respect the most. I like to drive the 289 better than the 427.
I had my airplane, and I'd use it as a car whenever I could. If the drive was going to be longer than an hour, I was flying the plane instead. And in California, it's really easy to have a drive longer than an hour.
We think there's a huge opportunity in smaller vehicles. Smaller vehicles done in an American way.
I love it in the States. The roads are big, the food is big. If it was possible to be in L.A. and still live my racing life, I would move now.
California has always led the way on environmental protection and always reaped the benefits, pioneering everything from catalytic convertors on cars to stationary source reduction.
Before 2000, we were unable to design a single car; all the cars were designed in Japan, Europe or somewhere else. We were just converting.
I took a Ferrari under the 405 freeway. We took rent-a-cars through the desert. That was fun.
Growing up in the Sacramento Valley in the '70s, we were all pretty big into cars. Of course, I had to nerd out and be a fan of Bob Tullius' Group 44 Jaguars instead of Corvettes/Camaros.