The Smoking Tire Podcast – Episode Summary
Podcast: The Smoking Tire
Hosts: Zack Klapman & Matt Farah
Episode: '25 Aston Vanquish Review; Kart Drifting; Matt's Law
Date: September 23, 2025
Episode Overview
This episode is a lively, meandering ride through recent car adventures, geeky tech gripes, automotive nostalgia, and their signature comedic banter. Zack and Matt kick things off recounting their escapades at a wealthy Southern California Cars & Coffee, dig into the technical quirks of drift karting, deep-dive into the much-anticipated Aston Martin Vanquish review, and wrap it all together with jokes, wild audience questions, and offbeat tangents—like Ferrari key design and how to move a dead McLaren with dish soap. If you love both cars and irreverent humor, this one delivers.
Major Segments & Timestamps
1. Cars & Coffee, Theology, and Speeding’s Place in the Bible
[00:00–06:07]
- Matt opens discussing the luxurious scene at Rancho Santa Fe Cars & Coffee and the joys of early-morning, high-speed driving.
- Spirals into a satirical riff about speeding as a “law of man vs. sin,” inventing a fake scripture about highway etiquette.
- The hosts jokingly recall awkward experiences at religious events.
Memorable Quote:
“If we're going to live in a goddamn theocracy… then anything God didn't say, fair fucking game. I'm driving 100 miles an hour.” – Matt Farah [02:06]
2. Drift Karting at K1 Speed: Slippery Mayhem
[06:09–13:31]
- The guys recap a recent drift karting night with friends (including pro drivers and sim drifters).
- Highly technical, shares why sliding a plastic-tired kart is much harder and less controllable than drifting a car.
- “Nobody has it”: Even experts kept spinning out — laughs all around.
- Share lap time results, reveal how track regulars set unbeatable times, and recall their early years living at the kart track.
Quotes & Moments:
- “The things you think will help mostly don’t. It is a game of nuance... If you go for 30 [degrees], you loop.” – Zack [06:40]
- “You can't use your brakes. You effectively have no brakes.” – Matt [08:17]
3. ’25 Aston Martin Vanquish Review: The Art of Excess
[13:32–21:10]
- Matt’s road & video review of the latest Vanquish: “Like a ruby slipper down the road... candy apple golden red.”
- Explains dynamics: two seats, huge size, ultra-precise steering, 830HP. “Hang on—pro-grade weaponry.”
- Comparison: "If you’re not going really fast, just get a DB12 or Vantage. The Vanquish is for time-warp fast."
- Zach notes Matt’s unusual silence during acceleration shots in the video.
Memorable Quote:
“Third and fourth gear in this car are very crazy... I'd love to have a go in one of these on the Autobahn. It would be insanity.” – Matt [15:37]
4. CarPlay Ultra: How to Ruin a $450K Supercar Drive
[20:33–29:24]
- Matt’s major gripe: Apple CarPlay Ultra’s slow, unreliable connection (“sometimes 10 seconds, sometimes not at all”).
- Explains glitchy startup routines, how the system never recovers after repeated short trips, and the hazards for less tech-savvy owners.
- Tech digression: Recent Porsche user interfaces, hard vs. software solutions, Dunning-Kruger on retrofitting modern UIs.
Quotes:
“Even though it's a scroll knob, you still need the display to know what’s, you know... And that’s a pain.” – Matt [20:39]
“This is a thing, and it happened in the Vantage too… Some of this could be Apple, some of this could be Aston.” – Matt [26:11]
5. Ferrari Keys: The Shift from Discreet to Bling
[29:52–37:06]
- Story: Chris Harris loses his Ferrari key, which survives being run over.
- Deep dive into Ferrari key design through the decades—“the modern key is designed to be thrown down on a bar.”
- Comparison of various exotic keys: the evolution, aesthetics, practicality, and a shoutout to the “dinky” Countach key.
Memorable Commentary:
“Modern Ferrari key seems designed perfectly to throw down on a bar and impress women... It’s the badge off my 328 just as a key.” – Matt [33:23–34:33]
6. Workshop War Stories & Car Owner Nightmares
[37:07–44:41]
- Extreme lengths to move a bricked McLaren: dish soap-soaked floors, dragged by a diesel Delica.
- McLaren’s 38-day “countdown to dead battery.”
- The mandatory (and expensive) use of proprietary battery tenders for new supercars—a cost passed on to customers if not provided, complete with outrageous dish soap clean-up tales.
Hilarious Moment:
“The solution is to squirt an enormous amount of dish soap on the floor and connect the tow hook to my Delica...” – Matt [38:53]
7. Offbeat Tangents: Foam Parties & Biohazard Laughs
[44:41–47:30]
- Ridiculous reminiscing: foam parties, medical ‘fun facts’ from recent reading, and over-the-top ideas for safe, biohazard foam get-togethers.
- Scuba diving specialties and dry suit parties.
8. Race Gear Rabbit Hole: The Search for Comfy Driving Shoes
[47:31–51:37]
- Why most driving shoes suck for endurance racing—Matt orders fireproof New Balance sneakers intended for pit crews.
- Detailed discussion of failures in racing shoe ergonomics, returns policy anecdotes, and the joys of comfortable gear at the track.
Quote:
“I want my foot to be the shape it’s supposed to be—or the shape of a sneaker.” – Matt [50:08]
9. Patreon Q&A: Advice, Hot Takes, and Rants
[51:38–End (~97:15)]
- Audience questions (with timestamps for key questions below).
- [56:21]: Exposing a Mustang V6 as a “GT” at a dealership.
- [63:40]: “If we ran General Motors...” Three ways to fix the lineup: smaller trucks, bring back the Volt, make the Camaro small and light again.
- [75:20]: 19-year-old tires on a seldom-driven C4 Corvette? (“Absolutely must be replaced. This is your own life.”)
- [76:04]: Automotive bucket list activities: Baja 1000, Nürburgring laps, and Colorado Hillclimb.
- [91:05]: What car for a modern ‘Rendezvous’ film in LA at 3am? (Rally car for ground clearance, or Mach-E Rally for silence.)
- [96:23]: Best TV show for “cars as subtle character building”: Sopranos and Breaking Bad both get the nod.
Other Fun Quotes:
“I always describe a nice watch as a car that comes into the bar with you. If you don’t like watches, you can just bring a little bit of the car in with you.” – Matt [33:51]
“You can just walk around in [the pit crew shoes]. Driver shoes, you shouldn’t walk much.” – Zack [48:09]
Tone & Takeaways
- Signature Humor: Plenty. Irreverent, self-deprecating, deeply knowledgeable but unsparing (even of themselves, their partners, and their teenage years).
- Insider Automotive Knowledge: Strong pro-level insights on the Vanquish, infotainment stack problems, and the reality behind high-end car ownership/service nightmares.
- Nostalgic Vibes: Bar mitzvah stories, old Ferrari/Countach lore, racing suit failures, and decades-old dealership scam tales.
- Audience Value: Tangible advice for aspiring track rats, home mechanics, and car buyers on reliability, safety, and the hilarious pitfalls of the “cheap option.”
Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)
-
Speeding as a Sin?
“If we're going to live in a goddamn theocracy… then anything God didn't say, fair fucking game. I'm driving 100 miles an hour.”
Matt Farah [02:06] -
Drift Karting Humility:
“You get a nice flow... and then two corners later, you're just backwards in a wall.”
Matt Farah [07:04] -
Aston Vanquish Power:
“It's such a luxury item... The front wheels are like 8ft, 9ft from your head... And so that's kind of an interesting and different thing, but just insanely fast.”
Matt Farah [13:35] -
CarPlay Ultra Frustration:
“The problem is it never fixed itself. That then became a permanent problem. It couldn't find my phone ever again.”
Matt Farah [28:01] -
Ultimate Ferrari Key:
“Modern Ferrari key seems designed perfectly to throw down on a bar...”
Matt Farah [33:23] -
Dish Soap Adventures:
“The solution is to squirt an enormous amount of dish soap on the floor and connect the tow hook to my Delica...”
Matt Farah [38:53] -
Tire Replacement Math:
“You got a car for the price of the tires. That's how you think about that. This is your own life.”
Matt Farah [75:27]
Closing Thoughts
The episode is a great mix of hearty laughs, joking rants, and real-world car advice. The Vanquish review is insightful, but the real treats are in the sidetrack tales: weird keys, drift fails, and broken supercars. Matt and Zack bring their A-game as both car nerds and entertainers—making this a must-listen for gearheads who appreciate wit and honesty along with their horsepower.
Listen to the full episode for the detailed flavor, tech tangents, and plenty of proverbial “spinning out” into entertaining territory.