TMCP #622: Ask Rick — Can American Manufacturing Return for Restoration Parts? Rick’s Take: Bob Lutz Says EVs Will End the Internal Combustion Engine!
The MuscleCar Place
Robert Kibbe
4.5 • 702 Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kick off October with a fresh Ask Rick as Rick Schmidt weighs in on the value of car-show trophies, parts sourcing, and where the market’s really headed. Are small-show awards worth chasing—or are they just eating into charity budgets? Rick also unpacks the hot question in restoration parts: will manufacturing return to the U.S., or will Taiwan’s increasingly high-quality tooling keep leading the charge for low-volume classics?
Then it’s “Rick’s Take – Car Deals: The Bob Lutz Edition.” Rick sizes up a supercharged ’99 Viper GTS ACR, a ’09 Solstice GXP, and a ’00 Prowler for long-term ROI in a world edging toward electrification—followed by an “Investment Hedge” round featuring a ’87 Trans Am, ’06 Ford GT, and ’87 Buick GNX. Which has already peaked, and which still has runway? Tune in to hear how Rick reads the market—and which cars he’d flip first.
The post TMCP #622: Ask Rick — Can American Manufacturing Return for Restoration Parts? Rick’s Take: Bob Lutz Says EVs Will End the Internal Combustion Engine! first appeared on The Muscle Car Place.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Muscle Car Place online podcast episode number 622. This week, Rick Schmidt is here for the |
| 0:06.6 | Askake segment, and we're going to do a business show. Some of my favorites are the business shows. |
| 0:12.1 | First, the business of making new restoration parts like sheet metal here again in the good old |
| 0:17.6 | US of A. The economics of our market are changing. Tariffs are a part of it, but they're not all of it. And we'll dig into whether that could happen here again, maybe for Gen 3F bodies. And then we'll dig into a businessman, Mr. Bob Lutz. Now Bob is a legend in the OEM world. He's had a stint at all the big U.S. players, all of them, for, GM, Chrysler. He's now retired. His opinion is still |
| 0:40.1 | very sought out. He's the man behind the Dodge Viper, among other things, also the Chevy Volt. |
| 0:45.0 | He's got a great track record mostly of wins, but not all. He thinks that the internal |
| 0:50.9 | combustion engine will soon fall away to electric cars. He thinks |
| 0:55.1 | electric is the future and that internal combustion will be just nostalgia. Rick's take is this. |
| 1:01.0 | I think it's a little too early to be making such a bold prediction like that. Regardless |
| 1:06.7 | of range and costs and battery technology, You've still got to charge him. |
| 1:11.2 | We know that we're not ready for that. |
| 1:16.0 | This is the Muscle Car Place online podcast, brought you by National Parks Depot. |
| 1:22.8 | This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American muscle cars. If you're buying, |
| 1:30.3 | selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you. Now here's your host, Rob Kibby. |
| 1:38.8 | Yes, indeed, I am Rob Kibby, and welcome to the Muscle Car Place podcast. Well, here we are, |
| 1:42.8 | everybody. Happy October. Man, |
| 1:45.9 | all right, according to my Googles, we are less than 90 days from Christmas now. We are just about |
| 1:51.5 | 30 days from the Seema show. The sun is setting earlier and earlier, and Rick is here to rain on the |
| 1:57.1 | parade of Bob Lutz predicting the end of the internal combustion engine. Well, |
| 2:01.3 | sort of. I mean, Rick just has a different spec. You'll hear Rick's take. Rick sees all the options, |
| 2:06.3 | I would say. A very fun segment. I truly enjoy his business take on where the market can go. |
| 2:13.2 | This is an area that I just, frankly, love. I love the business side of the aftermarket and the |
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