Rj[-Y rA]|tr,, TOlIl. ffiACHOIII : GEf sl;n[LI!,AUIO,O$fllIRS|H, :OEAR IlilIII ilUT$AilDlBOITF CAN TAIK , \. h E\ -,"*lf*XK ,\'\ f,".' l"Every cor eventuolly ends up in o iunkyord, no motter how well you toke core of it " soys Tom, right, next to Roy. lJ he voice isn't speaking in the hushed. simply a laugh. The Tappet Brothers-in but they couldn't find the problem. I chamber-music tones lamiliar to Na- real life, Tom and Ray Magliozzi-will Ray: "I'm gonna make the noise for tional Public Radio listeners. "Though supply all three during the hour to come. you. Woooooooo." your relatives wouldn't approve, you are In a weekly program reaching an estimat- Joanne says thal's the noise. in fact listening to us, Click and Clack, ed I million listeners, Tom,52, and Ray, Ray: "It's a bad front-wheel bearing. the Tappet Brothers," the voice cackles 40, fleld questions dealing with every- But let's not assume it's in the front. happily over the airwaves. "Don't touch thing from engine noise to bumper rust. Noises can fool you. It can easily be the that dial oryour dipstickwill fall out!" A There is no script; every line is off-the- rear-wheel bearing as well." chorus of ha-ha-has follows, then the cuff, and many are off-the-wall. Almost A woman named Bertha complains strains of hoedown banjo music. all are right on target. about a year-old Toyota "with a lot of That's Car Talkyou're listening to, Na- A woman named Joanne phones about noise coming from the back." tional Public Radio's callin show for auto a Pontiac that makes a roaring noise. She Tom: "You got any kids?" owners in need of advice, sympathy or had taken the car to several mechanics, "No, not that small," says Bertha. Photogrophs by Richard Howord I Tom, on mike with Roy, quips, ' . "We tell cor componies they con'f ii sue us becquse we're unsuiloble." "What about your neighbors? Are any of them missing kids?" Tom persists. Ray: "You should re- When WBUR-FM, National place the tires. And you may dis- Public Radio's Boston outlet, invit- cover you miss the noise. Don't ed several local mechanics to an on- throw those old tires away." air panel discussion about car re- Despite their lube-pit humor pairs in l976,Tom Magliozziwas and street-cabbie manner, the the only one who showed up. His brothers Magliozzi (pronounced straight answers and quick humor Maliotzee) aren't ordinary grease earned him a second invitation, and monkeys, and both pack rather se- when he brought his brother along, rious degrees from MlT. Sons of a Car Talkwas born. After I I years as businessman who owned a heat- a local radio fixture. the show went ing-oil firm, they got interested in Roy ond Tom, with mechonic Howie Tornower, right, national in 1987 as part of NPR's :; cars while growing up in East do some diognosing ot fie Good News Goroge. weekend Edition, then later that Cambridge, Mass. Ray liked to same year was glven its own tlme pester his older brother as Tom slot and offered to National Public tinkered and fiddled with the countless ing his own MIT diploma in the human- Radio's over 300 member stations. More jalopies he bought. "He was always re- ities and science before beginning a one- than 200 accepted. building them out in front of the house," year teaching stint at a Vermont junior The hosts decided "very early on that says Ray. "I'd always be saying,'Why high school. By 1973 he, too, wanted a we didn't want the show to be for motor- are you doin'that?'So I learned, and we change and moved back to Cambridge, heads, the people who read Car and Driver learned together." where he joined up with Tom in an auto- in the bathroom," says Ray. They prize Tom eventually attended MIT on repair business. utility over pizzazz, admil to a prejudice scholarship, graduating in 1958 with de- They founded Hacker's Heaven, a in favor of big American cars ("Imperial grees in chemical engineering and eco- place where do-it-yourselfers could pay Star Cruisers") and often look beyond the nomics. He spent l2 years with a compa- by the hour to use the shop's tools and tool rack for answers. When a caller ny that made instruments for chemical equipment. Two years later Hacker's named Jack insists he needs a four-wheel- plants, but he wearied of life behind a Heaven evolved into a full-service repair drive vehicle for an upcoming highway desk and quit. Ray, meanwhile, was earn- shop renamed the Good News Garage. trip-and rejects the idea of renting one cheapskate. You're gonna get killed." Communications building to start fleld- These days, Ray runs the garage with ing calls and answering mail. They al- the help of four mechanics, Tom having ready receive 750 letters ooWhen each week, and quickly spots the problem. left the business in 1980 to return to aca- the pile is growing. Car Talk "is the most -Tomyour was 40th birthday?" he asks, laugh- demia. The latter has since accumulated popular new program we've added in the ing. "Two years ago?" two M.B.A.s and a Ph.D. in marketing, a past year or two," says Ken Davis, pro- "Four." Jack: subject he teaches twice a week at Boston gram director of WBEZ in Chicago. Says Tom: "Youove got a lot of suppressed University. Both live in modest suburban Mike Flaster, program director of KPBS desires, so I guess you've got to do it. For homes outside Bos- in San Diego: you, get the biggest oneyou can find." ton, Tom with his "We're predomi- Later, when the call is done, Jack mar- second wife, Jo- The Magliozzfs'show "is the nantly a classical vels at the brothers' wisdom. "They're anne, and two chil- music station. very perceptive," he says. "They knew dren (he has a most popular new program lButl they're liter- they were talking grown to someone in the daughter weve added in the pastyear or ate and funny, sort throes of a mid-life crisis." from an earlier of Zen and the Art Such praise hasn't changed the Ma- marriage), Ray two,'o says one program of Motorcycle gliozzis or their tastes. Tom proudly tools with his wife, Mo- director. Maintenancecomes around tn a'74 Chevy convertible whose nique, and their to radio." top seldom works and whose radio never two kids. In their Even for NPR's plays. Ray drives an'87 Dodge pickup. off-hours, the highbrow listeners, "People shouldn't take their cars so seri- brothers have been working on a layman's the mix has proved as potent as high-test ously," he says. "It's not brain surgery." car-repair book, due later this year. And octane. Says Tom: "Some guy I met said There are, of course. exceptions. starting this month they'll put their advice it's amazing how we use cars on our show When a caller tells the brothers about into a syndicated newspaper column. as an excuse to discuss everything in the overinflating his tires to stop their Meanwhile, car owners who like to taik world---energy, psychology, behavior, squeal, their voices turn somber. "This about their troubles wait for Sundays, love, money, economics and finance. The joke," is serious, this is no Tom tells the when the brothers head for their tiny stu- cars themselves are boring as hell." caller. "Don't be a fathead. Don't be a dio at Boston University's School of Schulman in Cambridge -Amy 6 With bonio ployer Ron Foccendcr, left, the brothers Mogliozzi tune up ol o living+oom iom session for Roy's wife, Monique..