Ed Pearlman was ahead of his time, creating the first Mexican 1000 which later translated into NORRA; he founded the Off Road Motorsports Hall of Fame, as well. Today we remember him with a conversation with his son, Mike Pearlman. Ed is why we say; legends live at ORMHOF.org. Be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
3:10 – we never saw a Land Cruiser before, it was a real Tarzan vehicle back then.
8:18 – if we can only get 60 entries, at $100 an entry, that’d be enough to pay for the event
11:37 – you misunderstood, this is the Off Road Rally Association, it’s not a race, it’s a rally
22:11 – why don’t we just put on a vintage race?
34:43 – it all started because Dad wanted to take his kid hunting
Special thanks to ORMHOF.org for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:15.250] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I’ll be talking with Mike Pearlman about his dad, Ed.
[00:01:21.480] – Big Rich Klein
Mike and Ed had lived the life of Offroad. Ed was the first to organize the Mexican 1000, co-founded NORRA, founded the Offroad Motorports Hall of Fame, was a 1978 inductee into ORMHOF, the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame. And we’re going to talk all about the history of Ed and into Mike, and we’ll probably do Mike in a separate show. But Mike, it’s really good to have you on the air here and talking with me.
[00:01:55.090] – Mike Pearlman
Thank you, Rich. Thank you. Yeah, I have a lot of information. I go way back, starting back when I was like 14 years old, got into the offroading. Here we are today. I’m 75 and still doing it.
[00:02:13.900] – Big Rich Klein
You’ve been at it quite a while then. Absolutely. You got started a lot earlier than me. I was in my 20s, and I’m only 65, but a few years behind you and not the storied history that you have, that’s for sure. Let’s talk about your dad. Okay. He’s the founder of a lot of things. We’ll get into all of those things. But first, where was he born and raised?
[00:02:42.520] – Mike Pearlman
Philadelphia.
[00:02:43.900] – Big Rich Klein
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. All right. I have to ask, how was his… I know that you weren’t there with him yet, but I know that I heard that he fought in World War II. I believe he was a Marine.
[00:03:04.520] – Mike Pearlman
Yes.
[00:03:05.700] – Big Rich Klein
And can you give me some background on his early life?
[00:03:10.720] – Mike Pearlman
Well, he went into the Marines, and he was some a mechanic that worked on Jeeps. He worked on the old military Jeeps, I imagine, and had a little niche for the off-road stuff. Then after, he went down to Baja one time, and after he got out of the service and had a good time, and that was it until later in life, I was born and I became 14 years old and dad wanted to take his little kid hunting. He said, Well, if we want to go hunting, we need to have an off-road car. Let’s look for a Jeep. We lived in Tarzana, California. One day we were driving down Ventura Boulevard and there was a FY40 Toyota Land Cruiser parked on the side of the road. This was like 1964-ish, okay? Okay. And we said, Louis, what’s that? We never saw a Land Cruiser before. That was like nobody had them back then. And it was in front of the Edgar Rice Burrows estate who made the movie Tarzan. And so I imagine that was a real Tarzan vehicle back then. And it was for sale. We looked at it and dad said, Okay, we’ll buy it. READ MORE
