| An Interview with Frankie Muniz |
Toronto Star Wheels - 2007 |
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It's understandable if you have difficulty picturing Frankie Muniz as anything other than "Malcolm in the Middle", the child genius character who, over the course of seven television seasons, grew up amidst an amusing but dysfunctional sitcom family. These days however the 21-year old Muniz would prefer people think of him not as an actor but rather as a professional race car driver, - something that's easy to do once you've seen him motoring around a race track at 170 kph. An invitation to participate in the 2004 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, (which he won the following year) kickstarted his fascination with racing. "I had an amazing time and knew from that moment on that I wanted to be involved with racing in some way. And here I am a few years later racing in Champ Car Atlantic", marveled Muniz during a recent interview. |
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After signing a two-year deal with Jensen Motorsport Team, last year the rookie driver participated in the Formula BMW USA series. This season's schedule has him racing in the USA and Canada including driving the streets of Toronto at next weekend's Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto.
Q. I understand you have somewhat of a car collection. A. I really wouldn't even call it a collection, it kind of got called a collection because I've had so many different cars in my life. But you know, I don't really collect cars, I've just got cars I liked and drove them around and then sold them. But I've actually sold most of my cars now. I have a 1964 Chevy El Camino and a Mercedes Benz E63. Other than that, that's it right now. Q. What was your first car ever? A. My first car ever, I bought the actual Jetta that was in The Fast and The Furious, the movie that they did a few years ago. I got the actual car they used in that. Q. That had a few toys on it, right? A. Yeah it had a lot of stuff on it, TVs and Playstations, and all that kind of stuff in it. It was pretty cool. I still own it actually. It's in a museum or something now, I just let it kind of go because I don't drive it 'cause it's more of a show car. I still do own it. Q. Did you pass your driver's licence on the first try? A. I did and I actually made sure I got off of work, - I asked for my birthday off, just so I could specifically go and get my licence because I was so excited to be able to drive. I went in, -I think I had like a 9 a.m. appointment, and I passed right away but I got a few marks off. I think you're allowed, like, seven. In California you're allowed seven mistakes as long as they're not serious. I got four marks for not stopping close enough to the crosswalk. I just was stopping further away to be safe, -so he wouldn't did mark me for going over. But I still passed. I got it. Q. Who taught you to drive? A. My mother was always with me in the car. When you get your Learner's Permit you have to drive with a parent or somebody over twenty-five, so it was my Mom. But I wouldn't really consider her 'teaching' me, she never, like, told me anything specific, we kind of just got in the car and [I] started driving and taught myself. Q. What car did you learn to drive in? A. In my Jetta. Q. So you owned the car before you had your licence? A. Yeah, I owned the car first before I learned to drive. But I got a Lotus Esprit V8 Twin Turbo and that was the first car I learned how to drive a stick in. I actually had this racecar driver who was in Vancouver for the Vancouver Grand Prix, he taught me how to drive a stick in that car. Which was not very fun because the Lotus is like the hardest clutch to drive in the world. Q. Do you have any other type of licence? A. I do have a motorcycle licence, I got it a few months ago. That's my new thing. I love driving a motorcycle around now, it's so much fun. Q. So do you have a motorcycle? A. I have one, a 2007 Triumph Thruxton which I really like a lot. Q. Are your personal vehicles coddled or cluttered, filthy or flawless? A. My cars are... -there's not anything in them. I keep my cars so clean. Like, if there's one item in my car I consider it to be a mess. I totally keep them very clean. I'm super, super psycho about keeping my cars nice 'cause I love my cars more than anything so I make sure I keep them in perfect condition. Q. Gearhead or haven't got a clue? A. I really don't [know the mechanics]. I've learned a lot about the mechanics of how a car works since I've been racing but I couldn't fix anything or take anything apart, or anything like that. But you know, being a driver you have to be able to tell the engineers how the car feels, but I wouldn't really know how to fix it. I'm learning more and more every week, but I wouldn't call myself a gearhead.  Q. When you're at the wheel are the tunes blaring or is there blissful silence? A. I'd say I'm in the middle because I don't blare the music - 'cause I don't want to mess with the speakers. But I don't have the music off, so I'm kind of in the middle. Q. What do you listen to? A. I have satellite music in my cars so I usually just listen to a station...whatever's on. Q. Finish this sentence: I'm a pretty good driver but I do have a habit of --------? A. I have a habit of tailgating. Q. What's your pet peeve of other drivers? A. Nobody knows how to drive. Not that they're slow but nobody pays enough attention. Everyone complains, -in L.A. the traffic is so bad, so everyone complains that nobody can go. Whenever they have the opportunity to drive they don't, they don't take advantage of it. They're all either slow or not paying attention, not using their blinker. I just want to just hit them, as awful as that sounds. Q. Any tickets or haven't been caught yet? A. I have got a lot of tickets actually. For speeding, not stopping at stop signs all the way, all that kind of stuff. But they've never been anything ever serious, they've always be kind of crappy stuff. But whatever, I guess I was breaking the law. Q. Do you ever get let off when they see who you are? A. I've gotten let off a lot. I say I've been pulled over maybe twenty times and only got maybe five tickets. I always hope for the best. Q. What option on a car could you not do without? A. Definitely navigation now. You know once you get a car with a navigation system it's really weird to get a car that doesn't have it because you just really rely on being able to put in an address and it tell you where to go. It's weird to have to write down directions or look up directions online before you go somewhere. Q. Best day on the road? A. One day I decided I was going to drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit some friends, and I was by myself. I was in my Range Rover and I just cruising and it was just really nice. Driving through Arizona was really pretty. I like driving by myself just because it gives me a lot of time to think and just kind of relax. I really like that. Q. Worst day on the road? A. Any day in Los Angeles driving, -the traffic is so bad. To go to the grocery store, it's basically less than a mile from our house but it still takes, like, 10 minutes which is pretty ridiculous. Yeah, any day in L.A. Q. I thought you might have said the day you got punked. (Thanks to Ashton Kutcher's show Punk'd, Muniz was led to believe that his 1956 Porsche Speedster had been stolen.) A. Yeah that was bad, but it wasn't real, so... Q. On a roadtrip whom would you most like to invite along to ride shotgun? A. Ummm, I don't know, that's a tough one. I don't know who I'd be able to deal with for the whole roadtrip (laughs.) I don't know, I'd have to think about that. Q. And where would you head off to? A. I'd like to go over Route 66 and experience all that. I don't know, I haven't really put much thought into that. Q. Who is absolutely the worst driver you've ever been with? A. Probably my mom. Q. Your mother's going to love you for that. A. I'd say my mom just because, I don't know, it's just the things that she does kind of freak me out. But then also when she drives with me, -when she's in the passenger seat, she's just always trying to tell me what to do And I'm like 'Listen, you do this and that's scary compared to what I'm doing now' so, I don't know, I'd say her. Q. During your acting career were there any car-related incidents? A. I got to drive a Ferrari Dino in the Cody Banks movie and I didn't know to drive a stick then, and so that was pretty hard. Q. Are you discounting acting totally for the future? A. Well I'm only 21-years old so I can't say 'forever' but any time within the next. I'd say, three years, I don't see anything happening because the amount of time I have to put into this (racing) is a lot. Q. What about the physical requirements for racing? A. Racing is extremely physical. I train with a trainer every single day. You have to be super, super fit; our heart rates are at basically 180 beats per minute the entire time you're driving the car and our races are about an hour long. It's a lot of work. A lot of people don't call racecar drivers athletes but really, more than I think any sport, drivers are athletes. There's no breaks, no time-outs, there's no rest periods, it's just non-stop, and focus-wise you have to be so focused. If you're not focused you can have a big accident and get hurt so there's really no room for error when it comes down to being a racecar driver. Q. How do other drivers treat you, after all you are famous and new to the sport? A. At first I think they thought it was kind of odd, you know they didn't really respect the fact that I was a real driver. But you know the only way to prove yourself is by your performance and I think I've been performing really well so they can't think that I'm not capable of being there. It's been nice. Q. Is there anything in particular, any skills, you're working on? A. The only way to become a really good race car driver is to be in races, to experience it, so I'm just trying to get as much seat time as possible and I've come a really long way in a super short time. I'm racing against drivers who have been racing since they were five, six, seven years old and I've been racing for sixteen months and I'm competitive. So I think it's been great, but I still do have a lot to learn which I'll just learn over the next few years while I'm actually driving. Q. If you could choose any race to drive in professionally is there something on your wish list? A. Well I've kind of been fulfilling all my wish list right now with being in Champ Car Atlanta. I love racing. But definitely to be in a Formula One race would be incredible. To race in Monte Carlo or something like that would be awesome but we'll see what happens in the future. |