Driven to Fail is an automotive podcast about failure hosted by journalist Sam Smith. Each episode focuses on a different successful person in the car business, examining how we learn to pick ourselves back up after falling down. First-season guests include the man behind Ken Block's broken Pikes Peak Porsche, a racing driver who nearly died at the wheel, and a retired Ford executive who helped save thousands of lives.
The man who was "The Stainless Steel Carrot" - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 8 - John Morton
Does ambition make us who we are? Can you ever really see yourself as others do?
Around 30 years ago, in middle school, I discovered a book called The Stainless Steel Carrot. It tells the true story of a young man once loved by thousands, a 1970s hero whose actions helped kick off a national movement and who now lives a quiet, retired life in Southern California.
John Morton got his start sweeping floors for the legendary Carroll Shelby, but he always wanted to get to the top—to open-wheel, to Indy cars, possibly even Formula 1.
A goal is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s hard to get anywhere if you don’t know where you want to go. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible to have a successful life without landing the one thing you’ve wanted forever.
Does missing a goal like that make you a failure? Of course not. But it can change how you see what you did accomplish.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together.
Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
This is the final episode of Season 1. Thank you for listening!
28 Mar 2023
The 200-MPH Psychologist - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 7 - Ross Bentley
How much can you learn from teaching someone? If you put everything on the line and nearly lost it, would you try again the next day?
Ross Bentley is a pioneering driver coach, a teacher, a storyteller, and a bestselling author who nearly burned alive while trying to qualify for the Indy 500. He makes his living by studying the human condition under pressure.
Bentley's Speed Secrets books, first published in the 1990s, reimagined the mental side of motorsport. As a younger man, he was a BMW factory driver in E36 M3s, he drove Ferrari prototypes, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona. We talked about self-improvement, learning, good and bad days at 200 mph, and why, above all, you never stop trying to get better.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together.
Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
21 Mar 2023
When life hands you The Onion... peel the layers - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 6 - John Krewson
If a dream job ends too early, is it still a dream? How would you feel if you had to rebuild your life from one of those ends . . . twice?
John Krewson was a founding editor at comedy landmark The Onion. While there, he cowrote a number-one New York Times bestseller. Chris Farley crashed his wedding. An Emmy-winning writer for Rick and Morty and Community called him “the most talented writer I’ve ever worked with.”
When that career began to crumble, he chased another unlikely passion—he became an automotive journalist, at Road & Track. The years that followed held death, heartbreak, depression, job loss, struggle, and, ultimately, a happy ending.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together.
Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
14 Mar 2023
The Man Who Saved The Mustang - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 5 - John Coletti
What does it mean to really care about what you do? How much should you have to compromise when building something great?
A few decades ago, John Coletti made a huge gamble to keep the rear-drive Ford Mustang from being canceled. Later, he ran Ford’s Special Vehicle Team. He chiefed the programs that produced the second-generation F-150 Lightning, the SVT Focus, the Cobra R and Cobra “Terminator” Mustangs, and the first Ford GT supercar.
Before we began taping, Coletti asked if we could keep our chat positive. Of course, I said—that's the whole point of the show. He smiled. But then, this is a man who once put his job on the line because he believed in something greater than himself. You'd expect nothing less.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together.
Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
7 Mar 2023
Improving Every Day, Even When You Think You're Not - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 4 - Larry Chen
How long would you fight to build something you believed in? Would the answer change if you had to make it up as you went along?
In car photography, Larry Chen is about as big as it gets. He has nearly 800,000 Instagram followers*. He is a Canon featured artist whose clients include Toyota, Hoonigan, and Monster Energy. Over 20 years in the business, he has worked in more than 50 countries, shot every form of motorsport imaginable, and covered every 24-hour race on earth. If that weren't enough, he is the only person behind in a camera in this industry whose name means anything to kids in small-town America. And he worked his way up to all of it from a job selling computers out of the back of his Nissan S13.
I wanted to talk to Larry because he believes, in a very specific way, that he is not any good. The way he sees holes in his work, his constant drive to move past a weakness—they make him who he is, both in car culture and as a person. And they're why he's made the difference he has.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together. Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
*Note: This episode’s intro gives Chen’s follower count as 675,000—that number was correct at tape time but has since grown to more than 790,000.
28 Feb 2023
The Man, the Myth, the 1400-horse Porsche - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 3 - Betim Berisha
What do you do when a dream isn’t working? Would you leave a big-league life behind for a chance to be happy?
Betim Berisha builds race cars out of Porsches. When he was young, he left a globetrotting job at Porsche Motorsport North America because Daytona and Le Mans and some of the fastest cars on earth didn’t seem like enough.
At first, that journey was risky and exhausting. It still is, except now Betim has won Pikes Peak multiple times and created one of the coolest indie speed labs in America. Last year, he designed and built Ken Block’s Hoonipigasus, a mid-engine, GPS-controlled, 1400-horse Pikes fever dream that nearly bricked the internet. When that car blew up on the mountain before its first run—when they couldn't fix it, world watching—Betim simply did what he always does: He went back to the shop and started over, thinking about what came next.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together. Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
Note: This episode was taped late last year, before Block’s tragic death in January.
21 Feb 2023
Crashes, Blood, and Learning at 220 MPH - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 2 - James Hinchcliffe
If you nearly died, would you want to remember it? Would that moment change how you saw your own shortcomings or the loss of a dream job? What if you had to watch an old friend go through the same thing?
James Hinchcliffe is a Canadian, a former IndyCar driver, a broadcaster, and one of the nicest guys in Indianapolis. Eight years ago, when a 220-mph crash drove a suspension tube clear through his leg and femoral artery, he lost 60 percent of his blood. A few years after, he watched from the cockpit as a teammate and childhood friend was paralyzed in another violent crash.
Hinch has since come to grips with a lot. How that friend’s talent lit IndyCar on fire when his own just didn’t. The importance of brutal honesty in a course change. And what it really takes, once you reach the top, to stay there.
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn while putting it back together. Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
Note: The pre-taped intro states Hinchcliffe’s age as 35. Due to production delays, this episode was not released until after he turned 36. We apologize for any confusion.
14 Feb 2023
The Real PR Story Behind Ford Vs. Firestone - Driven to Fail w/ Sam Smith, Ep 1 - Jason Vines
Would you sacrifice your career and reputation to save thousands of people you’ve never met? Faced with the world’s attention, would you tell the truth no matter what?
Jason Vines is a PR man and a legend. He was a vice president at Ford during the Firestone scandal of the 1990s, where tire failures caused hundreds of people to die in crashes. He helped make decisions that saved lives, and one of those decisions got him fired.
The Ford debacle is just one story from Vines’s remarkable career—he also worked at the top at Chrysler and Nissan. He knows what it feels like when an entire industry loves you, but also how a job can push your family to the brink of collapse. We asked about all of it. (Fair warning: He likes profanity.)
Driven to Fail is a podcast about what happens when things go wrong. What we do when life falls apart, and what we learn when we try to put it back together. Brought to you by the Hagerty Podcast Network.
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