Skip to content
TrackPodcasts
sportsNov 19, 20241:08:30pending

Inside Car and Driver's "Lightning Lap" — w/Tony Quiroga

About this episode

Tony Quiroga is the editor-in-chief of Car and Driver. For the last 18 years, his magazine has rented Virginia International Raceway once a year. And each time, they’ve spent three days—normal people, not pro drivers—flogging the best new fast cars, lapping nonstop and chasing time.

Sound like a dream day? A pile of stress? Tony is an old friend of INTC, and he says C/D’s annual “Lightning Lap” test is… both!

This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. Are we doing a run of guest episodes this fall because it sounded like fun? We are! 

Related Trivia: Sam and Tony once worked together Car and Driver. Later, they worked together at Road & Track. Then it was C/D again. If time is a flat circle, then car magazines are a… flat skidpad, I guess?

This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.


**

Who We Are + Spicy Merch:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.ItsNotTheCar.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Support It’s Not the Car:

Contribute on Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/notthecar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Check out Sam's new book!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writing, 2003–2023⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

Where to find us:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/intcpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thatsamsmith/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/j.v.braun/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rossbentley/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://rossbentley.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://speedsecrets.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

**

ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.


Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.


We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.


New episodes every Tuesday.

Get every episode summarized

Each time It's Not the Car publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

Hosts & guests

No transcript yet

This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.

Inside Car and Driver's "Lightning Lap" — w/Tony Quiroga

It's Not the Car

0:00
1:08:30

More episodes

More from It's Not the Car

View all episodes →