David was super impressed when he drove the 2024 Toyota Tacoma and we wrote about it, a lot. Right after David took his turn in the Tacoma we had a chance to talk to two designers from the legendary CALTY design studio at the LA Auto Show and they provided a ton of great detail on how the truck came to look like that.
This podcast, presented by our friends at Marble, was shot a few weeks ago and features our own Beau Boeckmann, David Tracy, and Jason Torchinsky before his circulatory system went full Lucas.
As our guests, we’ve got both Adam Rabinowitz, exterior chief designer, and Benjamin Jimenez, General Manager at CALTY. Additionally, the one-and-only Stephen Walter Gossin joined us to talk trucks.
I’m in the background laughing in this podcast and there are a few highlights I’ll call out, but mostly I was impressed that Toyota’s designers felt like they had the room to talk honestly about the product. A lot of automakers try to whitewash serious issues.
As with Toyota’s engineers, both Adam and Benjamin were comfortable talking about the weird air dam and had no issue admitting that it was a thing they were told they needed to do for fuel economy and aero reasons.
Additionally, it was fun to learn that the brief for the Tacoma was to make a ‘Bad-Ass Adventure Machine.” I think they succeeded.
Finally, and to the surprise of no one, Jason takes the designers through a fun history of CALTY designs, including the MX-21 concept.
Also, as a reminder, we have a sponsor! If you want to support the podcast please sign up for Marble, which is a useful tool that allows you to track your insurance policies and rewards you for doing so. It’s free and helps us keep doing this. You can read more about Marble here.
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Listen to more podcasts:
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Kia’s Chief Designer Explains Why Kias Look So Good Now – The Autopian Podcast
- Here’s The Weird Thing You Have To Do To Supercharge A New Car In California – The Autopian Podcast
- Bruce Meyer — The Ultimate Car Guy — Tells Some Incredible Stories On This Week’s Autopian Podcast
- “I Have A Flat Brim Hat And A Subaru. I Got This” – Zack Klapman Explains How He Stuffed A Subaru Into A Wall Of Snow
- Listen To Us Chat With Bring-A-Trailer Co-Founder Randy Nonnenberg About How He Built His Empire, How He Used To Be A BMW Engineer, And About This Amazing Ex-McLaren RV
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Every time these auto industry insiders get in front of serious car weirdos, it seems like… do you guys remember that SNL sketch where William Shatner encounters the superfans at the convention, and he tells them to get a life?
“You. What are you, about 30? Have you ever kissed a girl?”
Great bit!