Spike Feresten has carried out nearly all there is to do in American comedy. He wrote for David Letterman’s Late Evening and Late Show in the 1990s, penned an episode of The Simpsons, and while he was writing for Seinfeld, place with each other the classic episode featuring the Soup Nazi. He also had his personal late-evening talk show, cleverly titled Talkshow with Spike Feresten, for 3 seasons on Fox. But it is the Massachusetts native’s enjoy for cars that will be on display in his most current project.
Feresten’s new series Vehicle Matchmaker runs on Esquire Ne2rk, the new cable ne2rk for men put collectively by NBCUniversal and C/D’s brother title Esquire. The show is a cross in between comedy, road tests, and automotive adventure series mixed in Feresten’s tips for the forlorn, if not really hapless, auto purchaser. The show runs on Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET—so make plans. Our sophisticated, multiplatform, synergistic corporate advertising and marketing is counting on you. Here’s a fast appear at the show:
But just before we dive back into that, let’s discover that point where American auto culture and comedy collide and find out the truth about how Jerry Seinfeld came to personal Steve McQueen’s Porsche 917. Then how McQueen is responsible for the speed bumps on the street exactly where Feresten lives. And lastly how McQueen and Jerry Seinfeld inspired Feresten’s new series.
Car and Driver: What is it with comedians and automobiles? So several of them—Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, David Letterman—seem to be into vehicles.
Spike Feresten: And it goes on extended before these guys. Johnny Carson was huge into Corvettes, I think. I bet if we kept going back to Groucho Marx that we’d discover that most guys are vehicle guys. Comedians or not. They just have a tendency to have a louder bullhorn than everyone else.
You do not feel there’s necessarily a connection amongst the mentality of a automobile guy and the mentality of a comedian?
That is a actually excellent query. Obtaining worked with a couple of these guys—Dave and Jerry—you know, you’re busy all the time. And automobiles are the ideal hobby to fill quick pieces of time. Like obtaining the newest Vehicle and Driver or Autoweek. I don’;t forget that Dave would often be flipping through the classifieds. It appears like it does not take a lot of your time. For me, when I’m operating, I adore the distraction of looking at vehicles. That’s exactly where this whole show is born from that vehicles are a excellent distraction from function, but not so distracting that you can’t get your function done.
This [occurred] back just before he had his IndyCar team: I was working for Dave—I was a writer on the show—and I came across this charity event, I don’t don’;t forget what the trigger was, but it was a go-kart race. I recommended that we enter a go-kart on behalf of The Late Show. He jumped at the notion. He believed that would be wonderful.
So the Wednesday just before the race there’s a knock at my office door and it is Dave. That just does not occur. Dave, although he socializes with the writers, does not quit by in the middle of a show day just to shoot the shit. And he says, “What you doin’ here?” “Working on Leading Tens,” I replied. He came back with, “Don’t you believe you ought to be down operating on that go-kart engine? Let me be clear, I don’t want to come in fifth location in that race on Saturday. So you want to make sure you do everything to guarantee that we have an edge.” So for the next 3 days I’m out in the planet tweaking the Briggs & Stratton lawn-mower engine and acquiring racing gas to try and get us an edge to win the race. And on Saturday—his day off—Dave is calling [producer] Rob Burnett who is also co-driving with me every half-hour for updates on how we’re undertaking. He was seriously involved in each aspect of how we had been carrying out in the race. It created total sense soon after that moment that he bought a racing group.
I’m proud that I was his initial race driver—the initial Worldwide Pants race driver. We launched his career in racing.
How’d you guys do?
We won—until they checked the engine. They saw it was a diverse type of spark plug, that the speed governor had been taken off, and the gas was bright purple. We weren’t disqualified since they realized we’d be speaking about it on the air. We have been bumped down to fifth place. Cheating is a gray area. We thought of it as carrying out everything to win.
What was your 1st vehicle?
I grew up in a blue-collar, middle-class Massachusetts household and, like a lot of men and women, I didn’t really have a choice what my 1st automobile would be. So my dad showed up 1 day with a Ford Torino 500 that he had bought for about $ 480 and he stated, “Here’s your vehicle.” It was blue with a black interior, and I was satisfied to have a vehicle with wheels that rolled. It didn’t matter what the automobile looked like.
From there my obsession was American muscle vehicles. You know Mustangs and the like. Then my mind was blown by the first Honda Accord that came to town. A car with a 5-speed manual transmission was a revelation to a teenager.
But it wasn’t until I brushed up against Letterman and his collection and drove his cars that I even began to recognize what Porsches are and why they’re fantastic. Until that point, it was nevertheless American vehicles like Corvettes in my mind.
So what do you drive now?
Here’s what I have correct now. A 1971 Land Rover Series IIA that I got as an impulse get on eBay for $ 6900. Hands down, it is 1 of my preferred automobiles I’ve ever owned. I have a ’58 Porsche 356A Speedster and a 1968 911L lightweight Trans-Am factory race car that was after raced by Dickie Smothers, so it has a comedy provenance. My main driver is a 2007 911 GT3 RS that I drive quite much every day unless I need to have to choose up more than one particular kid.
I just picked up a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4. I utilized to have a Dino and [even though] Daytona costs have gone by means of the roof, men and women have largely ignored these cars. I drove 1 and fell in love with it. And that’s my obsession correct now—I was working on the amp gauge this morning. It is such a stunning, enjoyable, smelly, gassy, Italian beast. Like a massive plate of spaghetti and a sloshing goblet of Chablis. And it is the very first V-12 Ferrari I’ve owned.
Has Jerry Seinfeld ever let you drive his 917?
I’ve driven it, so . . . yes. I’ve driven his 917 and his 908/3 and it actually is an amazing issue to have Jerry Seinfeld as a friend and that collection of automobiles. It’s proper down the street from me at Santa Monica Airport. You wake up and you’re at Laguna Seca driving a 908/3 and you are like, “How did this happen?”
And the 917, I helped him discover it.
That’s the 917 that Solar Productions—Steve McQueen’s company—owned and employed although filming Le Mans.
Yes. And it was on La Cienega in Hollywood and I referred to as him up and stated, “You’re not going to think what’s on La Cienega in a showroom window. Steve McQueen’s 917 from Solar Productions.”
A couple of weeks later he was in town and the 2 of us went to look at it. And we just stared at this auto for hours. 2 hours just walking around it and hunting at it. It was such a factor of beauty and we were so taken by it. And this predated the Steve McQueen hysteria. Except that in my little group of close friends, we had been currently hysterical about Steve McQueen.
So Jerry looked at the automobile and it was a lot of money back then and he didn’t want to get it. And I told him he had to. There was no other guy in the globe who could personal this automobile and really feel okay about it. “You’re that type of collector,” I stated. And he’s been thanking me ever since.
And that’s why this show started. It was stuff like that. Quite frequently men and women don’t want to take your guidance, but I’ve had a tiny luck at convincing folks what to acquire.
So that is the basis of your show on the Esquire Ne2rk—it’s you choosing out 3 vehicles for a buddy and helping them pick the proper a single.
Just before we pitched this show I had sold 20 or 30 vehicles to friends, households, and famous close friends, and my wife was like, “You genuinely ought to be acquiring paid for this, because it is consuming a lot of your time.”
If you can take an individual out of their comfort zone and show them, “Here’s the auto you want and right here are 2 more you should consider,” you can see them opening their eyes and comprehend what’s going on. This show usually speaks to people who don’t know anything about vehicles.
Are these all new automobiles or a mix of new and older vehicles?
Most of the time we’re dealing with budgets that are about $ 40,000 or less, and it’s new vehicles that individuals are following. But I’d say on more than half the episodes I mix in a vintage automobile. We had a Buick Grand National in just since I was a huge fan of that car and what it stood for. Plus I wanted to drive it and I had never driven one particular.
Did you have any individual come in who had an unlimited budget?
No. We’re searching for that guy.
And you’ll have some showbiz-type buddies on?
Yeah, I had Will Forte on and Seth Meyers and Jerry Seinfeld all in one particular episode. My brother Wally was in that episode. And he is the cue card guy for Saturday Night Reside and Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. And I believed it would be enjoyable to have them in that episode due to the fact they knew Wally. The show is not just cars, it is comedy and vehicles. I’m becoming funny the whole time.
Are there any vehicles you’ve owned that have disappointed you?
I bought a vehicle I had been chasing out in Malibu, a 1973 911S. It was a silver-over-black automobile, formerly owned by Otis Chandler. I purchased it and couldn’t stand the way it drove. It was a lot heavier than the 911T that I had owned. It was a lot slower than the RS I owned at the time. There was something going on with it so that it just didn’t fairly really feel as good as a 911T or RS.
Are there any automobiles that impressed you although generating the show?
The F-variety. This season the 2 cars that just blew my thoughts were the F-kind and the new Porsche 911 Turbo S. Those 2 have been just such large wins and functioned so beautifully.
The F-sort because of the sound—it’s just like an angry electric trumpet. It sounds like gunfire when you let off. I’ve in no way had such an experience exactly where I’ve loved a “sound car” more than a “speed auto.” This is a auto you can have enjoyable in making sounds up to 40 mph and never ever breaking any speed limits.
And the Turbo S is an pricey automobile but it’s worth every penny. You can blast it via canyons on a Sunday and then I took my little ones to school in it on a Monday morning. That Sunday/Monday transition was just seamless.
Do you have any distinct auto films that you love?
Properly, Le Mans is the large 1. But far more than that, it was all these Tv shows from the 6ties. Like CHiPs and Emergency! Something, you know, that showcased that PCH and Malibu driving lifestyle. It genuinely spoke to me when I was living in this modest Massachusetts town exactly where it was cold and cloudy most of the time.
And here’s a strange coincidence I reside 2 doors down from where James Garner and Steve McQueen lived.
We interviewed Garner and he stated that McQueen and he used to race their Minis up and down that street.
Well there are speed bumps there and I asked somebody the other day, “Where did these speed bumps come from?” And they mentioned, “These are the Steve McQueen speed bumps.” Garner and McQueen would race up and down the street and the families began receiving upset about it. So they dropped them in.
Is there anything else we ought to know about your show?
I like to do things the dealerships will not do. You go into a dealership and you really feel scared that you are getting taken benefit of. You come on my show or you watch my show and you’re going to have entertaining and you are going to discover about these cars and you’re going to encounter them—without any pressure whatsoever.
Watch Spike Feresten’s new show, Auto Matchmaker, on Tuesday nights on the Esquire Ne2rk at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT. Head here to uncover the Esquire Ne2rk on your provider.
Seinfeld Writer Spike Feresten on His Love of Vintage Automobiles, Driving Jerry’s 917, and His New Auto Show
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