American muscle, market sense, and garage truth.
The MuscleCar Place covers American muscle cars from the garage to the trade-show stage. Episodes move between restoration decisions, aftermarket business realities, collector-market chatter, wiring details, custom trucks, concours judging, and interviews with builders and industry figures.
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The MuscleCar Place is a long-running weekly show about American muscle cars and the ecosystem around them. It is not limited to nostalgia. The recent episodes move through concours fields, January auction rooms, restoration shops, aftermarket trade shows, wiring benches, YouTube car culture, and charitable work inside the automotive aftermarket. The center of gravity is still the classic American car world. The range, though, is wider than one badge, one decade, or one kind of build. Ask Rick installments bring a recurring rhythm of market reads and opinionated car talk. Those conversations cover awards, pedigree, paint colors, late sixties Broncos, eighties performance cars, green factory finishes, employee ownership, and the realities behind headline auction prices. The show also spends time with builders and business owners who explain how shops actually survive. Scott Bowers talks about Ron Francis Wiring through the lens of quality control, customer service, and the details that can make electrical work go right or wrong. Jason Noel's Fat Fender Garage episode follows custom truck work, full builds, chassis decisions, and the slow path behind a so-called overnight success. Mike Finnegan brings the automotive media side, including Roadkill history, YouTube momentum, NASCAR curiosity, and the challenge of replacing car-show personalities. Dr. Jamie Meyer frames the High Performance Expo as a meeting point for racing, the aftermarket, business development, and new technology. John Kairys introduces the Automotive Aftermarket Charitable Foundation as a support network for people in the industry when life turns hard. The host keeps the pace personal and informal. Tangents appear, but they usually circle back to cars, shops, parts, money, or the people who keep the scene moving. The show works best for listeners who like practical detail with personality attached. It respects originality, but it is curious about modern reengineering too. It can admire a concours winner and still make room for Revology's rebuilt Mustangs. It can talk about a dark green paint job, then pivot to tariffs, CEOs, or sponsorship economics. That combination gives the show its identity: garage culture with trade-floor access and a collector's eye for what matters.
Made for: For classic American car fans, restorers, collectors, shop owners, and aftermarket watchers who want detailed conversations beyond surface-level horsepower talk.
What sets it apart: The show blends enthusiast storytelling with practical industry context, moving easily from concours judging and auction prices to wiring kits, restoration-shop strategy, trade shows, and charitable support inside the aftermarket.
The best darn podcast about American muscle cars, ever!
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The MuscleCar Place connects American performance cars with the businesses, craftsmanship, market judgments, and people that keep the automotive world moving.
The MuscleCar Place treats American performance cars as machines, collectibles, and the center of a working industry. Interviews trace how restoration businesses grow, while the recurring conversations with Rick Schmidt connect auction prices and build costs to larger questions…
This is the garage where your green-car opinions meet six-figure Chevelles and Santa's jet sleigh.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Rob Kibbe talks with AACF's director about help for automotive aftermarket workers facing hardship.
The Muscle Car Place turns from American muscle cars to the people who work in the automotive aftermarket. Rob Kibbe talks with John, AACF's executive director, about a foundation started in 1959 by industry members who wanted to help widows of colleagues who had died.
Rick makes a case for green cars and weighs the debt risk of selling a shop to employees.
Rick has a soft spot for green cars, and The Muscle Car Place gives him room to make the case. His medium ivy green Torino and dark green Shelby are the examples, but the useful part is his advice on finish: a dark metallic green car can draw a crowd if the panels are straight…
A wood-bed job leads to twenty years of trucks, full builds and shop decisions.
Fat Fender Garage began with a 1953 Chevy truck Jason helped his father-in-law fix up. They put in a wood bed, cleaned up the truck, sold it and bought another with the proceeds. Five or six trucks were enough to turn a pastime into something larger.
Rob Kibbe and Rick Schmidt sift through January auction sales for clues about the car market.
January's big car auctions give Rob Kibbe and Rick Schmidt plenty to argue over. Looking past the headline cars at Barrett-Jackson and the other major sales, they linger on 1950s T-Birds, 1980s performance cars, and late-1960s Broncos.
Santa returns for Christmas jokes as the host recalls taking his Chevelle to SEMA.
Santa Claus returns to The Muscle Car Place for his seventeenth annual Christmas interview, and the host wastes little time getting to the mechanical jokes.
Dealer news with market evidence.
Used-car industry talk with operational teeth.
Used-car retail timing, measured weekly.
Rick discusses meeting Burt Reynolds and his Trans Am, and the push to remove AM radio from new cars.
Rob Kibbe interviews John Kairys about the Automotive Aftermarket Charitable Foundation, which provides cash grants to aftermarket employees facing hardship.
Dr.
Rick discusses winning at Concours car shows, the meaning of awards, and his impressions of Revology's modern 1969 Boss Mustang.
Rob Kibbe interviews Mike Finnegan about his transition from automotive TV to YouTube stardom, discussing old Roadkill cars, new projects, and opinions on automotive shows.
Rob Kibbe interviews Scott Bowers of Ron Francis Wiring about proper hot rod wiring, quality control, and customer service.
Host Rob Kibbe and Rick Schmidt from National Parts Depot cover six unrelated topics in this Q&A episode: preferred car colors, the impact of presidential addresses on business decisions, Taiwan tariffs on restoration parts currently at 15%, Chinese electric vehicles potentially entering the US market, Jim Farley's reputation as the most car-obsessed CEO among Big Three automakers, and how to sell a business to employees.
Host Rob Kibbe interviews Jason Knoll, founder of Fat Fender Garage in Gilbert, Arizona, a restoration and parts company specializing in classic Ford and Chevy trucks from 1947 to 1997.
Rick Schmidt breaks down Mecum Kissimmee's $441 million result and says the market looked stronger across 50s Thunderbirds, 60s Chevelles, and 80s-90s performance cars.
The Muscle Car Place #633 is Rob Kibbe’s 2025 Christmas show, featuring Santa Claus for his 17th annual interview and a year-end family and network update.
Dan Kahn provides a no-nonsense guide to navigating the SEMA 2025 trade show for first-time attendees, including exhibitors, content creators, and job seekers.
Rob Kibbe interviews Mike Finnegan about his departure from Motor Trend, the future of events, and who is winning on YouTube in the car space.
Rob Kibbe interviews Rodger Lee of Ironworks Speed & Custom about his approach to building a production-line Chevelle and his business development class for car builders.
Rob Gibby interviews Santa Claus about his new electric sleigh and reindeer mishaps in this annual Christmas episode of The Muscle Car Place.