Ep 229 Bobby Akin Founder of Mechanical Rabbit Productions and Son of Hall of Famer Bob Akin

Subscribe ‪@classicautomall‬ Get the Classic Auto Mall App: https://classicautomall.appimize.app Visit Classic Auto Mall - https://www.classicautomall.com/ 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:19 Bobby Akin Joins 00:03:03 Coca-Cola Livery 00:07:12 Ralph Lauren Sponsorship 00:09:56 Valentine Research 00:11:34 Akin Ancestry 00:13:50 Mechanical Rabbit 00:17:26 ESPN 00:22:20 Car Build Shows 00:26:45 Auction Popularity 00:30:00 Famous Quote 00:34:00 Cars That Got Away 00:40:30 Daily Driver 00:41:55 Bob Akin Award 00:47:35 ’70 Road Runner 00:48:10 ’60 Galaxie 00:48:59 ’24 Pierce Arrow 00:49:28 ’75 Daytona 00:50:26 ’23 Scat Pack 00:51:29 ’68 Firebird 00:52:26 Where Cars Sold 00:53:10 Recent Auctions This week’s special guest is race car driver and founder of Mechanical Rabbit Productions Bobby Akin, who is also the son of IMSA Hall of Fame race car driver Bob Akin. They discuss Bob Akin and his Porsche 935 and Porsche 962 Race Cars with the iconic Coca-Cola and liveries. Bobby Akin tells the story of the origins of the Porsche Coca-Cola livery. Daytona International Raceway, built by the France Family, really came to fruition because of several partners. One of those partners was a guy named Chapman Root. The Root family owned the Coca-Cola bottling franchise for most of the South. Somebody at NASCAR decided it would be a great idea to sell the sponsorship rights to the Daytona Speedway to Pepsi. Chapman Root was not happy. The 24-Hour was the first race to happen at Daytona under the Pepsi sponsorship. Root wanted a car on the front row that first race to be covered in Coca-Cola Red. And that’s how it began. My dad got a phone call one day and [Root] said “Bob Akin, I want to sponsor your race car.” That car was a Porsche 935 and it did its job. Technically, the deal was over, but Akin thought the Porsche looked great and having Coca-Cola’s name on it would help him get more sponsored. He also tells Stewart about the issues created when the Daytona race track naming rights were sold to Pepsi. Chapman Root wanted to sponsor Bob Akin’s car so the Coca-Cola livery would be on the Pepsi sponsored track. They discuss Polo Ralph Lauren sponsoring the Porsche 962 with Coke. Ralph Lauren wanted to sponsor Bob Akin’s Porsche race car to promote his new line of sunglasses he called the racing glass. They also discuss BBS Wheels sponsoring the car. Valentine Research who made radar detectors was also a sponsor of Bob Akin Porsche race cars. The discuss the Valentine Research Sponsorship deal that involved Michael Valentine of Valentine Research buying the race car and Bob Akin racing it before returning it to him for his car collection with the pedigree of being an actual race car driven by Bob Akin. Bob Akin’s Great Grandfather started the Hudson Wire Company in 1902 and produced tinsel for Christmas Trees using real silver. He discusses his grandfather Robert Akin being involved in the atomic bomb testing during World War 2. They talk about the name Mechanical Rabbit and how his father used the name because a mechanical rabbit never lost in dog races. Bob Akin discusses Motor Trend Magazine and Discovery and leaving them which led to starting Mechanical Rabbit Productions within days. Bob Akin discusses his racing career where he won his class at the 24 hours of Daytona. He tells Stewart about leaving racing a channel that would become Speed Vision. He discusses the issues with running a 24 hour station and the enormous amount of content and money needed to produce that amount of content to fill 24 hours per day. Bob said Car and Driver Magazine was huge at the time and reached 5 million people, but a network TV station could reach 20 million people and do it with video rather than print that could really showcase cars. He asked a friend at Audi if they could do a full 30 minute episode testing one of their new cars, and that became the first test drive tv show which was hosted by Derek Bell. The ended up producing more than 100 of the test drive shows many hosted by Tommy Kendall and then produced the show Shut Up and Drive. Stewart and Bob discuss the popularity of car building shows and how they are fairly easy and cheap to produce. They also talk about RACER Media purchasing MAVTV and rebranding it RACER Network and how it will be close to the style of the original Speed Vision. They talk about the channel showing British cars as well as historic races. The guys talk about Bruce Meyer and his incredible car collection. Hi father Bob Akin is also known for the quote “You can't make a racehorse out of a pig. But if you work hard enough at it you can make a mighty fast pig.”. The quote may have been for Road and Track Magazine and was regarding the Porsche 935 and 911. The original design of the Porsche 911and 935 wasn’t great or ideal for a race car so they were always designing the race car around the poor design. #classicautomallshow