Free bonus episode! To celebrate the release of Sam’s new book, “Smithology,” we’re releasing one audio excerpt from it, read by him, every Monday for a month. This is the third installment.

The book’s full title is “Smithology: Thoughts, Travels, and Semi-Plausible Car Writings, 2003–2023.” It’s an anthology of Sam’s writing for car magazines over the last 20 years.

Today’s story originally ran in Road & Track magazine in 2018. It’s called, “Dajiban!”

There is a race track in Japan. A vehicle goes two-wheels-up over a curb. Taylor Swift makes an appearance. The rest . . . well, hey, strap in. It gets weird.

“Smithology” is available on Amazon in print and as a Kindle e-book.

Enjoy!

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ABOUT THE SHOW:

It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.

Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.

We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.

New episodes every Tuesday.