HomeCar CultureLivestream program provides a gathering place for car community

Livestream program provides a gathering place for car community

Concours canceled, so ’The Love of Cars’ makes its debut

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Considering that this could be a year for the car world “where we cannot be together,” McKeel Hagerty didn’t hesitate to provide a gathering place for the collector car community. It’s a weekly livestream webcast/vlog called The Love of Cars.

The series debuted Tuesday evening and new episodes are planned for each Tuesday evening, but can be viewed anytime subsequently on the Hagerty Media website.

The series hosts are Justin Bell and Tommy Kendall, both accomplished auto racers (Can TK really be in his mid-50s? Doesn’t that make you feel old?) and both with magnetic and outgoing personalities. Both moved from the cockpit to the broadcast booth and already were doing The Torque Show, a motorsports-oriented livestream.

Bell and Kendall apparently were chatting off air not only about auto racing but about their shared love of cars in general, realized an opportunity to expand their programming, and Hagerty almost immediately agreed to be presenting sponsor, and the new show’s first guest. Each episode is planning to run for about an hour, and the last full segment of the debut episode features Jay Leno, who was celebrating his 70th birthday — where else? — in his garage.

Jay Leno opens the hood on a Wills Sainte Clair

But don’t fast forward just to hear Leno talk about the history of the Wills Sainte Claire (yes, he even opens the hood to show the car’s complicated engine architecture), or about the 1950 Plymouth station wagon and the attention it got during a recent grocery shopping trip, or even about how he’s always been unwilling to pay the price to buy an Aston Martin DB5, even back when they were available for $25,000!

Fast forward and you’ll miss Kendall talking about The Chicken Car, Bell talking about being a teenager and his father’s Porsche triggering Justin’s car love. You’ll also miss the hosts’ conversation with Hagerty, his insightful words about the future of the car hobby post-pandemic, and about lowering the bar of entry for young enthusiasts.

“Our job isn’t to judge, but to welcome,” he says.

That’s McKeel Hagerty (lower right), and yes, he did have hair as a teenager restoring a Porsche 911S he’d bought for $500

The Love of Cars is a welcomed addition to the collector car world. 

Episode 2 will feature a visit with Porsche outlaw car-builder Rod Emory, TV personality Courtney Hanson, Michelin star chef and car guy Gary Menes, and perhaps a look at the future of iRacing. 

Reviewed

The Love of Cars

Vlog featuring Justin Bell and Tom Kendall

Torque Show and Hagerty Media

Weekly series, episode livestreams on Tuesday evenings

https://www.hagerty.com/media/

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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