Aston Vantage Roadster vs Porsche 911 GTS; Buy a Swapped Car?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Smoking Tire – "Aston Vantage Roadster vs Porsche 911 GTS; Buy a Swapped Car?"

Release Date: May 13, 2025
Hosts: Matt Farah and Zack Klapman

---

1. Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Review

Matt Farah opens the episode with an in-depth review of the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, sharing his experiences driving the car in Palm Springs. He highlights its performance on both the racetrack and the highway, noting its "absolutely fabulous balance of ride and handling" (12:05).

• Performance & Handling:
  The Roadster is praised for being "loosey goosey and slidey" on the track, offering a thrilling driving experience. However, Matt mentions that it feels a bit "bouncy on the road", attributing this to the suspension tunings—specifically the Skyhook adaptive DTX dampers and a new transaxle mount (12:33).

• Comfort & Practicality:
  Despite being a high-performance vehicle, the Vantage Roadster is described as "relaxed on the highway" compared to the Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid. Matt appreciates the car’s "very quiet" interiors and the innovative Z fold top, which allows the convertible roof to operate independently of the trunk, maintaining ample luggage space (24:54).

• Interior & Design:
  Both hosts commend the Roadster's fabulous leather and fabulous construction. Matt highlights the big gear indicator integrated into the new gauge cluster, which significantly improves readability over previous models (21:25).

Notable Quote:
Matt Farah states, "This roadster has a absolutely fabulous balance of ride and handling. Really, really, really beautifully balanced." (12:32)

2. Comparison with Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid

The discussion transitions to a comparison between the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster and the Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid, both driven by Matt.

• Driving Dynamics:
  Matt remarks that while the Aston Martin feels more "relaxed on the highway", the Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid is "way dartier", akin to the GT3 model. The Porsche offers a sharper, more aggressive driving experience but can be less comfortable over long distances (18:12).

• Transmission & Performance:
  Zach Klapman points out the differences in transmission, noting that the Aston Martin uses a torque converter automatic, which contrasts with Porsche's dual-clutch transmissions (like the PDK). This leads to more "snap" downshifts in the Aston, enhancing its performance feel (32:29). However, Matt expresses some frustration with the consistency of gear shifts in the Aston, which can require more "mental bandwidth" during dynamic driving situations (33:36).

• Engine & Sound:
  The Aston Martin's 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 is lauded for its unique sound, distinguishing it from other Mercedes engines. Matt notes, "It really doesn't sound much like a Mercedes anymore. The sound is different." (27:26).

Notable Quote:
Zach Klapman shares, "The crank downspifts in the Aston vs Porsche GTS are real fast in this car. Like, it really separates from competitors." (32:29)

3. Lamborghini-Themed Yacht Sinks

A significant portion of the episode covers the sinking of a Lamborghini-themed yacht in Miami Beach, which tragically involved 32 influencers.

• Incident Details:
  Matt describes the yacht, built by Technomar in collaboration with Lamborghini, featuring Aventador styling cues. The vessel, supposed to hold 12 passengers, was overloaded with 32 individuals, leading to its capsizing (02:35). The overloaded condition, combined with insufficient life jackets, was identified as the primary cause (05:07).

• Emergency Response:
  Both hosts discuss the swift response from Miami's emergency services, emphasizing the communal instinct to help in such maritime emergencies. Matt reminisces about a past incident where they assisted a stranded boater, highlighting the importance of community in rescue situations (04:03).

Notable Quote:
Matt Farah reflects, "You shouldn't overload your yachts by that much. It's crazy how many people were on board." (05:54)

4. Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) Discussion

The hosts delve into a technical discussion about GVWR, exploring its impact on vehicle performance and safety.

• GVWR Challenges:
  Matt proposes a GVWR challenge, suggesting performance tests with super saloons to evaluate how cars handle at maximum capacity. They debate the feasibility and potential insights such a test might provide (06:05).

• Impact on Handling:
  The conversation touches on how increasing a vehicle's weight affects its tires and overall handling dynamics. Matt humorously requests expert opinions on GVWR calculations, acknowledging the complexity of the topic (08:04).

Notable Quote:
Matt Farah muses, "You could do basic performance testing at gross weight with super sedans or something. That would be a good time." (07:04)

5. Listener Questions and Advice

The episode features listener-submitted questions, providing the hosts with opportunities to share their expertise.

• Turbo vs. V8 Swaps on Miatas:
  A listener asks whether to choose a turbo Miata or a V8 swap Miata based on intended usage. Matt and Zach discuss the implications of each modification, emphasizing that turbo kits retain the Miata's original character, making them more suitable for daily driving, whereas V8 swaps significantly alter the vehicle's dynamics (55:23).

• Buying a Pre-Engine Swapped Car:
  Another query addresses the risks of purchasing a pre-swapped engine car. The hosts caution about potential issues arising from inexperienced swaps, advising prospective buyers to thoroughly vet the quality of the swap and the expertise of the builder to avoid future maintenance headaches (58:30).

Notable Quote:
Matt Farah advises, "You could install a turbo kit on a stock vehicle and have a daily driver without negative externalities. But a V8 swap changes a lot." (55:33)

6. Enthusiast Communities and Car Culture

Matt and Zach explore what makes certain car brands have stronger enthusiast communities, citing examples like Jeep, Honda, and Porsche, each with diverse modification cultures and passionate fanbases.

• Diversity in Mods:
  They highlight how the Porsche 911 accommodates various modifications—from track-focused setups to stance-oriented styles—fostering a robust and diverse community (79:23).

• Influence of Japanese Tuning:
  The influence of JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) trends on American car culture is discussed, noting how time attack, drift events, and various modification styles have energized communities around brands like Honda (80:06).

Notable Quote:
Zach Klapman states, "The JDM community has brought so many motorsport and style trends to America, making it a very passionate and diverse group." (80:46)

7. Road Infrastructure Improvements in Massachusetts

Matt shares insights from a conversation with a representative from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation about a 100-year plan to transform public spaces into pedestrian-centric areas while improving road safety.

• Safety Enhancements:
  The plan includes measures like protected bike lanes, reduced lane counts on certain highways, and unconventional solutions to enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety without necessarily increasing traffic flow (41:41).

• Impact on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH):
  Matt connects this discussion to his work on an article about the redevelopment of PCH, advocating for common-sense safety improvements such as better crosswalks and aligned parking to protect pedestrians (45:24).

Notable Quote:
Matt Farah emphasizes, "We can drastically improve safety with some concrete and paint. We do not need self-driving cars or to eliminate cars for this." (45:08)

8. Additional Topics

Throughout the episode, Matt and Zach engage in various other discussions, including:

• Defunct Car Brands:
  They reminisce about brands like Saab, Duesenberg, and Spiker, acknowledging their unique contributions to automotive history.

• Daily Drivers for Enthusiasts:
  Recommendations for practical daily drivers are shared, with suggestions like the Prius, Honda Civic, Model 3, and Subaru Outback Wilderness being highlighted for their reliability and practicality.

• Personal Stories and Anecdotes:
  The hosts share memorable moments from their careers, such as attending high-end car launches, experiencing unique hospitality events, and navigating the challenges of automotive journalism.

Notable Quote:
Matt Farah reflects on daily drivers, stating, "I loved my Mach E and even though it said Mustang on it, that wasn't a fucking Mustang, that's a toaster." (83:03)

---

Conclusion

In this episode of The Smoking Tire, Matt Farah and Zack Klapman provide a comprehensive review of the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster, juxtaposed with the Porsche 911 GTS Hybrid, delving into their performance, handling, and practicalities. They also tackle a range of topics from the tragic sinking of a Lamborghini-themed yacht to technical discussions about vehicle weight ratings and enthusiast communities. Listener interactions and personal anecdotes add depth to their analysis, making the episode both informative and engaging for automotive enthusiasts and casual listeners alike.

---

Timestamp Reference:

• 02:35 Sinking of Lamborghini-Themed Yacht
• 05:07 Contributing Factors to Yacht Sinking
• 12:05 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Performance
• 12:33 Suspension Tuning Details
• 21:25 Gear Indicator Improvement
• 24:54 Convertible Top Functionality
• 27:26 Engine Sound Comparison
• 32:29 Transmission Differences
• 33:36 Gear Shifting Frustrations
• 55:23 Turbo vs V8 Swap Discussion
• 58:30 Pre-Engine Swapped Car Maintenance
• 79:23 Enthusiast Community Diversity
• 80:46 Influence of JDM on American Car Culture
• 41:41 Massachusetts Infrastructure Plans
• 45:24 PCH Safety Improvements
• 83:03 Daily Driver Recommendations

(Note: Timestamps are referenced contextually and do not link to actual audio segments.)

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smokin Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you, as always, by off the Record. We love off the Record and they are here for you. If you get a moving violation, don't plead guilty. Get off the record. There's only one way to do it. There used to be two ways. Now there's only one. You go to offtherecord.com TST that's off the Record. Once you're there, you just tell them a little bit about the ticket you got, the circumstances, etc. They fight that ticket on your behalf. More often than not, they win. And if they don't win, you don't pay. Those points come off your record. It won't affect your insurance, your job, etc. Once again, offtherecord.com TST that's offtherecord.com TV TST all right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, I review the Aston Vantage Roadster, which I drove out in Palm Springs and compare it to the Porsche 992 GTS Hybrid that I drove out there and back. Actually quite an interesting comparison. And that takes a lot of the show, to be honest with you. And of course, we talk about the highlight of the week, which is that a Lamborghini themed yacht has sunk off of Miami beach with 32 influencers on it. Frankly, the jokes write themselves. It's the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. Hi, everybody. How you doing? What's happening? Let's actually, we don't need to talk about depressing things. Let's talk about some. Let's talk about something fucking funny. Like you're saying, no, no, no, this is good. In Miami last week, where only good things happen, a Technomar 63 Lamborghini yacht. You know the company that builds the yacht is called Technomar.

[Zach Klapman]

I do not know that, but they.

[Matt Farah]

Did a collab, an X, a big collab with Lamborghini. And they made a yacht that has like Aventador and Lamborghini styling cues on it. And last week one of them sank in Miami. Now, the oldest one of these boats is like two years old, brand new boats. But we have recently learned that a contributing factor is the fact that there were 32 people on a boat that I think was supposed to hold 12. All these influencers just influencing on this.

[Zach Klapman]

Boat overloaded by 20 people, bro.

[Matt Farah]

You know how bad you have to fuck up to capsize a 63 foot boat? That's so crazy. Wow. Wait, what's do we have a good. We have a Better photo. Oh, what has happened? It's all gone wrong. But it is truly a video. Yeah, there's a video of it ass down. It's like those trucks in Carolina.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Squat trucks, SC squad or whatever.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Ass down, face up. Just pointing out of the water.

[Zach Klapman]

That signals it was overloaded. Cause it didn't tip over, obviously. Cause it'd be very hard to do in that boat. I mean, it's just too heavy. And they didn't notice until they were too far away.

[Matt Farah]

So, yeah, the Lambo yacht. Man down.

[Zach Klapman]

Look at the emergency response.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, there are like five police, fire department boats.

[Matt Farah]

I'll tell you what, when shit goes down on a boat and people are around, they come to help. People want to help on boats. You know, the stakes are real high on water. You know, if people see a boat in distress, you gotta be a real piece of shit to not come running. If there's a boat in distress, definitely.

[Zach Klapman]

Or Captain Sully there's with us for.

[Matt Farah]

Hannah's birthday two years ago, when we towed that guy in. In South Carolina. Yeah. This guy had a fucking outboard that just fell off. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

It was just him in a tin boat. Yeah, it was like a shell fishing boat.

[Matt Farah]

The chillest dude ever flagged us down, like, hey, man, lost my motor.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. All right. We towed him for 10 minutes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. We gave him a fucking jo. And gave him a joint to smoke in his little rowboat. And we towed him. Towed him in. And.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I think. Yeah, I remember she was admiring his shoulders.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But she. Remember, she tossed the rope and tossed the joint.

[Zach Klapman]

I remember that from the rope part. And we towed him over to the land.

[Matt Farah]

Yep, there we go. So, yeah, this photo is really. It's gone badly, but this thing's got, like an Aventador steering wheel or it had. Right.

[Zach Klapman]

It just.

[Matt Farah]

And it's got, like, you know, the hexagons all over the dash. Sort of looks like the Lambo styling. It's a real Collab piece. Conor McGregor got one because, of course, he did.

[Zach Klapman]

For free, probably.

[Matt Farah]

I don't think so. I don't think they're giving influencers or even Conor McGregor $5 million. Yachts or whatever these things are.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, here's another reason there was such a response was, if you're overloaded by 20 people, you have 20. Too few life jackets. Right.

[Matt Farah]

Probably. Right.

[Zach Klapman]

So they're going, oh, we only. We have 20 people with no life jackets. How far do you think they are from shore here? Half a mile.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, it's Miami. So one photo does it like they might be half a mile from whatever that is, but you know, a couple hundred yards. I mean, probably further than you'd want to swim.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But probably not further than someone could swim.

[Zach Klapman]

Depending on individual. Yeah. Worth of.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, it's hopefully. Yeah. Yikes. Hopefully everyone. I think everyone's okay. I don't. I think. I think they rescued everybody. Fine. But yeah, you shouldn't overload your yachts by that much.

[Zach Klapman]

Specs matter. Specs really, really matter.

[Matt Farah]

You ever do a track? Run a couple laps on a track five up in a ctsv? Because I have.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, right, yeah. Full gross weight.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. You go the GVWR challenge. Oh, has anyone ever done that?

[Zach Klapman]

I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that would be a great bit, wouldn't it? What if we took a bunch of like.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, that's the Moose test.

[Matt Farah]

You'd probably want to do like super saloons, right? Cause they probably have the biggest. Cause like a two door sports car with a small trunk would have a bigger discrepancy, a smaller discrepancy between their curb weight and their gross weight. Right. Cause gross weight is everything you can fit into a car. People and luggage.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

So like. And with trucks, it's loaded beds and shit too. But super saloons, you're talking about five people and pretty maxed out luggage. It's usually a pretty big number.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, well, it's what, 6,000 pounds? Yeah. If your car weighs 5,000 pounds, I'm sure that the max weight now is like seven.

[Matt Farah]

I think we should. I think it would be fun to see if we could do like some basic performance testings at gross weight with a bunch of like super sedans or something. That would be a good time.

[Zach Klapman]

I think that would be cool. The Moose test, the famous one with SUVs. Part of the reason it's such a difficult test is because they load it to max and then they do that crazy braking slalom because then you have all this weight momentum up high that is thrown around and that's why so many things tip over.

[Matt Farah]

That makes a lot of sense. Actually.

[Zach Klapman]

The gross vehicle weight rating of the new M5 is 6482.

[Matt Farah]

That's a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. And so it weighs 5400 pounds. And so you can.

[Matt Farah]

So it's a thousand pounds of stuff.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Which actually isn't that much.

[Matt Farah]

Like in America.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. If you had four people that weigh 200 pounds, you get 200 pounds of luggage, 50 pounds each.

[Matt Farah]

In Germany, like four people, 200 pounds.

[Zach Klapman]

Tires can only take so much. Well, I would. I would wager that as the weight of cars goes up, the max weight, the difference between that and the max weight probably has shrunk because tires are only so strong. Right. I'm not sure you know what I'm saying.

[Matt Farah]

The formula for gross vehicle weight may be dependent on a standard sized passenger and a standard sized sort of piece of luggage. Send out the Tuig signal. Mr. Tuig or any, if not Mr. Tuig, any of three or four different vehicle product line managers. If you're not a vehicle product line manager or formal vehicle product line manager. Want to hear from you on this. You are not an expert. We're not chatgpting this shit. I want a fucking expert with a resume. Please tell me how we calculate gross vehicle weight for a given car. We'll come back to you on this one. Next episode.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, cool.

[Matt Farah]

From a professional. We need a professional. You send out the two egg signal and you and you get a professional like the plumbing signal.

[Zach Klapman]

Read his book if you're listening to this.

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Zach Klapman]

Inside the machine.

[Matt Farah]

I went back to how to build a car. I read the first chapter of Adrian Newey's book and then I think it's a big thick, fucking heavy ass book. I think I started it and I was like, this is very good. And then I went on some trip and I was like, I'm not carrying that on an airplane. And then I forgot it. My housekeeper shuffles books around. You know, if I leave it out on the kitchen counter, it doesn't go back on my desk. It goes like on the bookshelf. And then I forget that I'm reading it forever. Yeah. So I found it after like a year and I was going back to that one. I think our Pastimes episode went up today.

[Zach Klapman]

Did it? I think it supposed to go up yesterday.

[Matt Farah]

Me and Zach were on the past times and I think it went up today. It certainly will be up by the time this goes up for the public.

[Zach Klapman]

Correct.

[Matt Farah]

So definitely go listen to that. It's on the Dollops. Is there a Pastimes feed? So they have to go to the Dollop podcast.

[Zach Klapman]

They have to go to the Dollop.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah Podcast and it's the sub show on the Dollop podcast. We're going to keep refreshing until it's there.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm. I was yesterday because I had so much fun doing that right now it's still not up, but maybe it'll go up today.

[Matt Farah]

It's. It was really, really fun. It'll be up by the time basically Anybody listens to this unless they're on the live stream right now. Ben and Zach's RFK impression is getting huge. Huge traction, huge laughs.

[Zach Klapman]

That was fun.

[Matt Farah]

I'll find more very accurate impression from last episode and there should absolutely be more of them. Let's talk about a car for a minute. Last week I went to Palm Springs where I drove the new Aston Martin Vantage Roadster. I drove it with Johnny. Spent six hours driving around with Johnny. Boy, did we talk about a lot of things that you'll never hear about. No, I'm just kidding. It was this car.

[Zach Klapman]

Magic George Soros in the back seat with you guys.

[Matt Farah]

Listen, yes.

[Zach Klapman]

First off, that was the plan.

[Matt Farah]

We were. We. We successfully. You can fit two immigrants in the trunk. Got them safe. Then we brought him to a voting yes. We stopped it. We stopped at George's place in Palm Springs to talk about some policy. Old GS, this place is fire stop to talk some policy. You know all Jews go through there, right? Every. Every Jew does. And he was like, is that the new roadster? I was like, yes. He's like, I'll take one. I was like, just take this one. Just make the Jews control more. And he was like, okay, understood.

[Zach Klapman]

That's the second bar mitzvah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And as. As Johnny and I were leaving, he was like, how do I turn off the ADAs? Good old George. Me and George, we hang out all the time. We're friends. The roadster magic has happened here, one might say. Chew magic. No, no, magic has happened here because you drove the Vantage Coupe.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

In Spain and super fast. And in Spain, probably where the tarmac is good, the ride was probably pretty good.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Right. True performance. Car of the year, Northern California. The Vantage Coupe was fabulously fun on a racetrack. Loosey goosey and slidey. But it was a little bouncy on the road, like a little harsh. They haven't changed much suspension wise for the roadster, but the ride is awesome.

[Zach Klapman]

Is the roadster heavier?

[Matt Farah]

Yes, it is 131 pounds heavier. The only thing they've changed is some of the calibration for the shocks. And it's the skyhook thing, not the air suspension. It's not air. It's Sky2 Bilstein Skyhook adaptive DTX dampers. So they retune them software. And there's a new transaxle mount.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I mean, as we know from 911st, you can do a lot with.

[Matt Farah]

You can do a lot with a little.

[Zach Klapman]

It can feel like a spring change, but it's not.

[Matt Farah]

And also, it was not lost on Johnny and myself that we might have been approaching GW VR. Gvwr. Guys, we gotta take a quick break from the show for True Work. Loving True Work over here. They keep sending me clothes and they are great. True Work is hell bent on creating the most technical, high performance workwear in the world. The True Work story begins in the Colorado mountains, where a trade worker knew there had to be a better solution than wet, heavy jeans. And they were weighing him down. And True Work was born. Every TrueWerk product is engineered for maximum comfort, protection and efficiency with minimum bulk or extra weight. And that's what I love about the truewerk stuff that they sent me. They sent me the cloud shorts, which fit really good. Beautiful technical fabric, lots of pockets, a nice lightly elastic waist that fits with my belt, holds all my things, and they seem like they would be great out on a summer hike. Also, they just sent me this sun blocking technical hoodie. It's very thin, like a base layer, but it's got a hood on it. So if I'm out in the desert shooting video or driving the spider on a hot day, it's got UV protection, keep me from getting sunburned, getting too hot. And man, it is nice. Soft, soft. Soft and comfortable. I love it, man. You know there's room in your life, right, for denim and canvas, but they haven't changed much in 200 years. And TrueWerk, that upgrades your workwear by replacing traditional fabrics worn with modern technical fabrics worn by elite athletes. They're soft, they're stretchy, they're sweat wicking, and they are strong. They're windproof, waterproof, and have intelligently placed insulation for streamlined warmth. Right? Check out the full lineup and get 15% off your first order at truewerk.com tire that's 15% off at T R U E W E-R K.com tire that's T R U E W-E-R-K.com tire gotta give 60 more seconds, folks, to Kremo. I love this Kramo. When I go out for a morning filming session, right, I get up at like 5am I'm up on the mountains, I'm in and out of the car, crawling over all over these hot cars, setting up cameras, getting back in the car. In, out, in, out, in, out. Now it's like 90 degrees. Now. I'm sweaty. Now I have to sit in the car all the way back to city and then do podcasts and office stuff afterwards. I don't have a time for the Shower, Right. But Kramo has got me covered. They've their deodorant provides me with a 48 hour odor protection. Now I don't need all 48 of them hours, but I'll need four to six and this more than covers that. Krameau products are barber grade, made with pride, professionalism and passion to guarantee quality without compromise. You can elevate your deodorant experience right now like I just did. They've got new signature scents, folks. The Italian bergamot. It's bright, fresh and robust. And then of course the Palo Santo. That's what I've been using. I love my Palo Santo. It actually it replaces a cologne. You can wear it a little heavy bike and then you're good. You are ready to go out, not just ready to go to the office. I really like it helps me keep me going throughout the day when I don't have time for a shower. Kramer is using enhanced multi layered scent technology for a longer lasting experience. Lasts all day and they are really, really thoughtfully blending those ingredients. They're soft to the touch, they don't leave a residue on you and they smell delightful. You can get them now at target or target.com to find Cremo's new line of antiperspirants and deodorants in Italian bergamot and Palo Santo scents. Once again, get that cramo at target or target.com so that may, we may have preloaded the shocks a little bit. It's possible, but you feel what you feel. And both of us agreed that this roadster has a absolutely fabulous balance of ride and handling. Really, really, really beautifully balanced. And what's really interesting is I drove the same road the day before in the Carrera GTS hybrid and then I drove it again in the Vantage. And I drove the same highway two days in a row in the Carrera GTS hybrid and the Vantage. The particularly the GTS I was driving had no back seat bucket seats. It was the wannabe GT3 spec. This there's no replicating the feeling of either a Porsche flat 6 or a car that has no weight on the front axle.

[Zach Klapman]

Like a mid engine car.

[Matt Farah]

Sure, yeah. A mid engine or a rear engine car. You can't replicate that steering in any front engine car. It's not possible because of the weight. But for a front engine car, the Aston is incredibly pointy. But also much more relaxed on the highway than the Carrera gts. The Carrera GTS was way dartier on the highway. More like the GT3. This was much more relaxed on the highway.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, this might have a more relaxed alignment than where GTS might be more aggressive for that turn in and just in outright grip handling and stuff like that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But also the ride ratio in the vantage is really nice and quick. It is, and it does. It directs that nose. Even with a big engine and stuff. I mean, relatively big. Like, it's pretty quick to turn.

[Matt Farah]

They were sort of mimicking the Ferrari Roma steering, which, ironically, immediately after this podcast, a Roma Spider is being dropped off here. So we will be able to drive them almost back to back and really feel that's the closest competitor to this is Roma Spider. Next closest is probably 911 Turbo or maybe 911 GTS price point. It's turbo. Yeah. But there isn't a new turbo. This is expensive. They haven't actually given me the US price yet.

[Zach Klapman]

But it starts with a 286 or something.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it starts with a 2. But the new interior, which you can also get in the coupe, that comes from the DB12 and the new UI, really, really good.

[Zach Klapman]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Asterisk. When you take the top down, a lot of those big black buttons that control major drive functions like the suspension settings and whatever, they light up red. In a coupe, no problem. When the top's down, you have absolutely no idea when they are on or not. You have to do this because you can't tell when the little light is point.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm like Porsche. A lot of their lights are also red, but I can't remember the last time I drove a convertible. And, like, Porsche convertible, and then looked at the center console, like the Panamera we drove. It's also red.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But I'm wondering if theirs is brighter or if it's just something we overlooked.

[Matt Farah]

Porsches are a little brighter, and where they place them is a little more in the shade. Like the Porsche dash is more vertical, and the buttons are sort of forward at the base of the wall. This dash is much more of a waterfall on an angle, and everything is just sort of out in the sun. There's not a lot you could do about this. I mean, it's just like, all right, you know, it's a convertible. But if you're driving a lot with the top down, that might bother you.

[Zach Klapman]

A little bit, maybe. I guess I would. Well, no, I was gonna say you probably don't change your driver settings a lot if you're not a journalist. But, you know, you get off the highway, you get onto a twisty road, you want to adjust your stuff and Then you get back on a highway, you want to adjust it again.

[Matt Farah]

So, I mean, in fairness, the big drive mode knob is gonna do most of your mode changing. The buttons are for like, if do you want sport, but a soft shock, do you want, you know, if you want to then further change. Do you just want to turn off this? Okay, fine. So that's one drawback.

[Zach Klapman]

Was there an indicator, an indication on the gauges when you would change those suspension things?

[Matt Farah]

Yes. And remember how everybody, including you, complained that you couldn't read the gear indicator in the gauge cluster? This was a size 4 font new gauge cluster. The entire inside of the tach is now a big gear indicator. Very clear. Great message received retroactively. Not retroactively, but applied to the new coupes.

[Zach Klapman]

Fantastic.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Also look at the steering wheel. Almost all the way round.

[Zach Klapman]

Mostly round.

[Matt Farah]

Almost all the way round. Love it. I love the gauge cluster surround, the binnacle. I mean, you know, I'm not going to repeat my feelings on LCD screens for gauge clusters versus analog, but I love the surround. Very nice. The stereo was really good. I love Aston's side view frameless mirrors. Those don't get enough love. There's no frame around them, so you use the full size of the mirror, which is great. Just in general, a really, really lovely place to be. Fabulous leather, fabulous construction.

[Zach Klapman]

So I have a question.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Because we've driven DB. Well, you driven DBS. I drove DB12.

[Matt Farah]

I drove DB12.

[Zach Klapman]

We drove it together.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

In Malibu convertible, etc.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

When you drove this, did it make DB12 feel a little bit. Not obsolete, but like the draw to that is reduced versus previous generation.

[Matt Farah]

I'll tell you what I mean, because.

[Zach Klapman]

Of the powertrain, because the power is insane in this thing. It's like 680 horsepower. Right.

[Matt Farah]

It's 655, 656 and 590 torque, which in a short wheelbase car is an unbelievable. This car is so fast.

[Zach Klapman]

So DB12 has 671 horsepower, so 20 shy in this thing.

[Matt Farah]

DB12 has the longer wheelbase. Right. It has something resembling a back seat and it has more legroom. You can move the seat further back than the vantage. That's actually kind of a big one for me. I'm just. I'm not even that tall, but I'm right on the line of being able to drive this car comfortably. The DB12 does have a lot more space and I think the DB12 is still prettier.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I agree. And especially the back, because the back on this is the same as it was the previous generation, basically with like I have said it since 2016, like these big plastic angles around the exhaust pipes. I do not. Like I'm not a top half of the car is like, I'll say standard Aston vantage, little, you know, flip up on the trunk, it's pretty looking. And then it just falls apart into transformers.

[Matt Farah]

I agree. That rear diffuser segment is not my favorite. And I don't think the US bumperets around the license plate are doing it any favors. I think you could probably get rid of those and make the car look a lot better. But look, the top up or down, it looks great. Very well insulated, very quiet. With the top up, eight layers. Goes down in under seven seconds. Up to 30 miles an hour. It's really fast. And in the trunk doesn't have to do a thing. It's called this Z fold top. It doesn't have. Because the trunk doesn't have to open at all. It's all in that self contained, just up down. That really makes it work fast. And it also doesn't. It has a surprisingly big trunk. Two rolling carry ons in the trunk of this. And the top up or down does not impede the trunk.

[Zach Klapman]

That is a very nice thing because a lot of cars we've driven, like I think Portofino and SL was it. I mean, the top goes into the trunk. Yeah. And does impact it. 7 seconds is half the speed it takes to put down an RF Miata top.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Or I think like McLaren's like 12.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. That's really fast. So. And what that really means is you might put the top up and down multiple times per drive. You know, like you might put the top down to drive from your house to the highway. Put the top up to get on the highway and go on the highway. Put the top down when you get back off the highway. Like when you. When things are that easy and fast, you do them more.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Compared to like my Spider where my top comes down for the day.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. You have to get out of the car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, I park that car, I go to lunch. The top staying down, you know, do I have any pictures of it with the top up? Did I take a single photo with the top up? I don't know if I did or not. It was a beautiful day. But like Aston's. Aston's really, really getting there dynamically. The only thing that really holds this car back and only compared to its competition, in a vacuum, this car is absolutely fabulous. There's not much to criticize, actually. It's like whether you like it visually or not, Some people will love it, some people won't. I'm not gonna judge. I happen to think it mostly looks good.

[Zach Klapman]

I agree.

[Matt Farah]

I absolutely would be proud to be driving it around. But I could nitpick some things if I wanted to. In general, I think it's very pretty from almost every angle and it's really fucking fast. This is a 202 mile an hour car and it does 0 to 60 in the low threes. The 30 to 100 is obscene. The passing power on a single lane, you know, getting around someone, it's absolutely obscene, the power on this. And Aston now has full control over the engine and gearbox. And they've redesigned a lot of stuff. So it is the 4 liter engine. But it really doesn't sound much like a Mercedes anymore. The sound is different. I think it. I mean, it's a four liter V8, twin turbo. Right. So they all kind of have the same sort of sound. But it does sound different enough from what Mercedes engines sound like right now.

[Zach Klapman]

I am, I am always amazed at the difference. It's subtle, but it's just, it's noticeable between like Porsche and Mercedes, anyone with the 4 liter. And I know it's not the same engine, but like it's a 4 liter V8. But they can sound very different. And it also depends across the different model lines. Sometimes, like they might sound louder. It's just mufflers.

[Matt Farah]

Well, a G Wagon sounds way different from, you know, an E550 or whatever. Even though they use the same exact 4 liter version of the.

[Zach Klapman]

It's almost like they can make the G Wagon sound like a bigger engine or smaller engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but they made a point of having this sound as different as they could from the Mercedes. And I do think it sounds and feels it has a different torque curve from the Mercedes. The Mercedes goes up and stays flat. This builds a little bit and peaks. It's supposed to have a more linear peak, which I actually think it does. The only real negative is that compared to its competition. Guys, we gotta take one more quick break for Mud Water. Listen, Mud Water, it's a different thing. It's a totally different thing. You might have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about right now, but hear me out. Mud Water is a cozy mix of cacao chai, turmeric and adaptogenic mushrooms to help you feel focused and balanced and not wired. Right. Because I've been there. Right. I talk about my anxiety and jitteriness that came from drinking caffeinated drinks, right? I was drinking some light roast. It was intense, right? But what you want are the benefits of that coffee beverage. But without the jittery, without the crash, right? And that's where Mud Water comes in. Every ingredient in mud water is 100% certified organic, non GMO, gluten free, vegan and kosher. There's also no sugar and no sweeteners. All you do drop the powder into your favorite mug, pour some water in it, give it a mix. Some like to go a little wild. Add a little creamer, honey, CBD oil. I'll do a drop of maple syrup. That's right, I said it. Little grade A, light amber, Grade B, medium amber. The maple syrup is secret. Actually, that's a good one. I shouldn't even be telling you this, but it's pretty fire, to be honest with you. And the best part about Mud Water is it provides sustained energy delivery, but without the spikes and crashes of coffee. Right? And Mud Water does have some caffeine in it. But they do have a caffeine version also. But it's not as much caffeine as coffee, right? But every ingredient in Mud Water is serving a purpose. The cacao and chai have a hint of caffeine and hot chocolate flavor. There's Lion's mane for focus, Cordyceps to promote natural energy, and Chaga and Reishi to support a healthy immune system. I'll be honest, I have no idea what a Reishi is. But it sounds good. Sounds legit. You know what I'm saying? Then you can get the Matcha starter kit. You can get the Turmeric starter kit, the Rest starter kit. They all use different starter kits for different functions. You start with your desired outcome and you work backwards with Mud. That's what it's about. So are you ready to make the switch to cleaner energy? Head over to mudwtr.com and grab that starter kit today. Right now, our listeners get an exclusive deal. Up to 43% off your entire order, plus free shipping and a free rechargeable frother when you use Code Tire. That's right. Up to 43% off with code Tire. T I R E at m u d wtr.com after your purchase, they'll ask you how you found them. Please show your support and let them know that we sent you. Keep your energy natural and refreshing all year long with Mud Water. Because life's too short for anything less than clean, delicious energy. And now back to the show. Compared to its competition, it's the only one with A torque converter auto.

[Zach Klapman]

No DCT.

[Matt Farah]

That isn't bad. But a DCT, particularly if you're talking about PDK, which both the Bentley GTC and the 911 Turbo will have. A PDK downshift is exactly the same every time, every gear. An automatic isn't. You know what I mean? And I told the engineers this. The difference in speed, like, 5, 4, 4, 3 are real fast in this car. 3, 2 is a completely different speed. And a 3, 2 downshift is an important one. And so I was like, does it not lock the torque converter until third gear? And that's why the faster ones are snap. And he was kind of like, I'll get back to you. Like, he didn't. The person I asked didn't really know that usually they lock either after first or after second. If this is after second, then maybe that's why that downshift is. Or the gap in RPM is more. I don't know. But like. Like, that shit don't happen in other absolutely, you know, $300,000 cars.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, that was, you know, we. When I went to the launch of the coupe, it was at a track. I mean, we did road and track driving. Get the magazine. But one of the things that this track had were, I'd say, two second gear corners, like sharp hairpins.

[Matt Farah]

You had the big chicanes, Montablanca.

[Zach Klapman]

But there was also one that was like a U turn almost.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, the end of the front straight.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh. Then there was three. There was that one. And then you kind of do like the wiggle wiggle thing. And then there's the downhill, which with the sharp right hander, that was like a fun thing to slide. You had to do a lot of three, two downshifts is basically it on that particular track and many tracks. And that's where I noticed that you need more of that RPM gap before it would let you downshift. What I don't like about that is, one, the competition doesn't have that problem. But two, I was left waiting and paying attention to the gauge and watching. Do I have the gear yet? Am I gonna be in too tall a gear when I start to turn in? Because then I have to adjust my throttle tip in. Because if it's stuck in third for some reason, well, now if I had too much throttle, my wheel speed is gonna go crazy versus thinking I was gonna be in second gear.

[Matt Farah]

Totally.

[Zach Klapman]

It just required a lot more mental bandwidth.

[Matt Farah]

Isn't it weird? Like, I never have problems asking for a gear and getting it in a, in a proper sports car with a dual clutch. Never. I'm never like tugging the battle and not getting the gear and in torque converter ones all the time.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm sure. I mean if someone is like a transmission engineer, put it in the comments, let us know why this is. It is clearly a problem that's native to the hardware. Yeah, there's a limitation and automatics have gotten better at this over especially in the last like 10 years, like ZF8 speed, everything. But when you're charging this much money and your literal competition is Porsche with their transmission, the comparisons are gonna have to be made. Yeah, that's where they really separate.

[Matt Farah]

This is pretty much the cheapest car in its class. Unless you consider the LC 500 ITS class.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I mean that's far below this performance.

[Matt Farah]

It is, it is. You know, also half the price. It's half the price. You know, I actually, I think it's a better value than this objectively. I think you get a lot for your money with an LC500 convertible. That's a fire looking car. It sounds great and it's as fast as you'd ever realistically need to go.

[Zach Klapman]

It's not a great Canyon. It's a 7/10 car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. It's a GT. Yeah. This is sportier for sure. But so the 911 GTS in that particular spec I had was slightly sharper. I mean, are we shocked? It's a rear engine car, of course it's going to be slightly sharper. It's got no weight on the nose, it's got no resistance to turning in. Conversely, the Aston was slightly more relaxed on the highway. The Aston, I think on a track these two cars would actually be pretty close. I think it would come down to the driver more than anything else. Particularly if the GTS was more of a touring specific, you know, without the bucket seats and all that and with a back seat and you know, things that would spec it more like this on a canyon. These cars are the same speed but they have completely different feel. Yeah, you know, it's a front engine car, but it's a very pointy and responsive front engine car. The steering is a little less communicative but a sharper ratio with the aston. Whereas the 911 requires a little more wheel input, but you feel a little more through the wheel. Cause there isn't the weight of an engine to dampen all that stuff. Both incredibly fun. I mean honest, I can't say I had more fun going down the twisty road. In one than the other. Driving home from the Aston launch in traffic and shit in the nine. Maybe I wasn't clear. I drove the 911 GTS to the Aston launch and then home. So I drove the canyon route on the way there and I drove the highway route on the way home in the 911 and in between, I did the reverse of that in the Aston Martin. It was actually quite convenient to be able to do that going home in the 911. I wished I was in the Aston because it was more mellow and insulated and after a long day, it was a more welcoming place. And with the 911's buckets, I would drive it for 20 minutes and go, I should have fucking bought the buckets in my car. Why did I get the comfort seats? I should have bought the buckets after an hour. Thank God I got the comfort seats.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, the adjustability is very important.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, no lumbar. If you're in like peak physical condition, sure, your buckets are fine, but if you require lumbar support. No.

[Zach Klapman]

But it also depends on how long you're driving your car. In my opinion, even if I'm in a seat that a great bucket that has lumbar and fits my body, after two hours or an hour and a half, I need to adjust things a little bit just because I have to. So having that fixed back and it's like, here's how you're sitting no matter what, forever. I wouldn't like those. Unless it's a track car or it's only a canyon car. Sure.

[Matt Farah]

I'm good in a bucket for about an hour and then it's tough. So, you know, this Aston though, you know, you could easily daily it, I mean, in all but snow. I think with the wet traction mode, I think it would be just fine in the rain. The trunk is big enough for everyday use. It's absolutely comfortable. You drive it in like whatever. I mean, I think sport is the mellowest drive mode other than wet, but with the exhaust closed like it's mellow. It's not bad. Really. Continues that formula of the, you know, the British roadsters and the Shelby Cobras into the Vipers and the F types and, you know, that traditional front engine, rear drive formula fast roadster, sort of British brute force muscle car. Just a really, really nice thing. Yeah, really fun.

[Zach Klapman]

I think it's super well rounded compared to the last generation Vantage, which had this very old feeling interior even when it was new.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

The interiors, the one with the 30 buttons that all look the same. It didn't look up scale. And the car still costs a lot of money. I think the front end design of this is much better than the old tiny Miata lights. Like, I think it's better visually. Outside the interior is of a quality and a architecture from a design point that justifies the price.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. In general, I mean, it's a fabulous thing. I really. I actually asked straight up, I asked Aston Martin if they would mind if I take one on the September Northern California road and track event, which would be some laps at Sonoma and driving across from Sonoma to Lake Tahoe. Fuck, yeah. In this. Absolutely.

[Zach Klapman]

That's why they give you one. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, well, they were kind of stoked because they were like, don't you normally drive Bentleys on those things? And I was like, yes, I normally do drive Bentleys or McLarens. Matter of fact, I've driven every major British automaker so far.

[Zach Klapman]

Except yours.

[Matt Farah]

Except yours.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Consider it a conquest.

[Zach Klapman]

I think this thing moved up a lot. That's why I said it reminds me of the DB12 because the interior is so nice and looks so good and has a lot of similar hardware where I went, ooh, this feels like it moved up in price a lot. Like price point.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And kind of closed the gap a bit. Whereas the other one felt slower or like felt. To me, it felt slower than the AMG GTs.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klapman]

And didn't look as nice inside and cost more.

[Matt Farah]

Look, it didn't help that Mercedes discontinued the, you know, the old AMG gt. You know, they don't have a car now that's better than this.

[Zach Klapman]

It's true. That might have opened up some.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, Mercedes used to make a car that's better than this one and they just don't now. Right. They make another car, but it's not better than this. But really, I mean, I have to drive it alone, I guess, to see if it was the gross vehicle weight. Or maybe it's the transmission mount, or Maybe it's the 131 of extra pounds from the convertible top that moves the weight distribution 1%. Rearward, it's now 49, 51 instead of 50 50, but less bouncy. And that's a big, big deal in a car like this because it's so easy to make a front engine sports car bouncy.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

Because you have to make them stiff to turn in.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Especially like Mustangs are a good example because it's a big honking engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So not a non bouncy car. Is luxurious, but really interesting to get to do back to back with the gts.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, that's great.

[Matt Farah]

And then this and then to have the Roma coming today, like what a treat. So we get to. We get to try them all. Very niche market. Do we have anything else to talk about? I've been talking to a guy who. Wow, that's. It's gonna get into a whole fucking can of worms. But shout out to Massachusetts. Let me just say they're doing good things in Massachusetts, okay?

[Zach Klapman]

They got so fake, huh?

[Matt Farah]

I've been talking to someone who works at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and they're talking about some of the infrastructure improvements that they're doing there. And there's like a very long term plan that's like a hundred years plan to essentially undo a lot of the car fic from the 1970s and turn a lot of their public spaces back into pedestrian centric areas. And it comes along with road improvements and stuff like that.

[Zach Klapman]

That's cool.

[Matt Farah]

Holy shit. That's awesome. Fucking rad. I wonder if my article's up on road and track yet about pch. They said they were gonna put it up by the end of the week. I wrote a bit on the the new. There's a plan out that they're asking for votes on about the redevelopment of pch. Not just because of the fire. Go down to like the culture section. Not just because of the fires. In fact it's totally independent from the fires. But actually because pretty much everyone hates pch. I mean, we need it and we love the idea of pch, but people die on it a lot and it's not up yet. Okay? People die on it a lot and there's traffic and the parking is all wrong and a whole bunch of things about it are designed really badly. And it turns out something that I have been saying for quite some time is we could drastically improve safety with some concrete and some paint. We do not need self driving cars for this and we do not need to eliminate cars for this. And the plan is incredibly brilliant and I'm super supportive of it because it literally says what does do each of these sections of PCH really need and how can we give it to them and prioritize the humans that have to be here as opposed to prioritizing getting more vehicle per hour through this area? And that doesn't necessarily mean increasing traffic. By the way, traffic will still be traffic at the times that the beach and shit are in demand. If traffic's already moving at fucking five miles an hour, then having Going from, going from an area that supports 55 miles an hour traffic to an area that supports 25 miles an hour traffic won't change anything. There'll still be five mile an hour traffic. Traffic, you know what I mean? So it won't change that, but it will hopefully not just reduce the speed of vehicle traffic because that's not what I'm talking about specifically. I'm talking about making it safer to cross the road, making it safer to turn left, making it so that street parking is aligned with whatever that street parking is for. Like for instance, right now there's a historical thing to preserve the view of the ocean from your car. And what that means is they don't allow beachside parking. They make you park on the side opposite the beach and make you fucking run across a four lane highway with a 55 mile an hour speed limit and no crosswalks carrying your beach ship.

[Zach Klapman]

So that you can sit in your car and look at the beach so.

[Matt Farah]

That you can see the beach as you're driving by. They're preserving the view of the beach for the motorists, which like view for motorists or keep people from getting fucking hit by cars.

[Zach Klapman]

Well also the number of sections where people are walking across to get to a beach is pretty small. Like it's not like the entire talking about.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So like preserving that view in that section is kind of silly because you'll see the ocean a little like a moment later.

[Matt Farah]

Correct. And it's, you know, that's not like hostile to cars. That's just like common sense shit and vice versa. There's a lot of places where parking is opposite businesses and so people have to park on the other side of the street and run across to the restaurant or to the whatever. And so they can change the parking rules so that your parking is happening on the same side as the thing. I mean it's just like, it's like pretty common sense stuff. It shouldn't be political or anything. We're talking about concrete and paint. Common sense measures.

[Zach Klapman]

What is it about the fire that has allowed them to make these changes?

[Matt Farah]

Nothing. It has nothing to do with the fire. It was already happening anyway. There's gonna be emergency. There's eyeballs drawn to PCH because of the fire damage. I got a quote from Caltrans. There are emergency repairs happening to make PCH open. Now this isn't that. This is a 20 year plan to make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists. We're talking about a full length protected bike lane. That'd be the Entire length of Malibu. How amazing would that be? You could ride from the north end of Malibu all the way to Palos Verdes on a bike path. That's fucking sick. Have you ever ridden a bike on pch?

[Zach Klapman]

No, I do not want to.

[Matt Farah]

You want to fucking. You want it? The scariest day of your life will be a day that you ride a bicycle on PCH. It's fucking terrifying.

[Zach Klapman]

Everyone's going 60.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And taking pictures.

[Matt Farah]

Roundabouts. Plans for four roundabouts, you know, at the base of four of our favorite roads. Tuna Canyon, Latigo Canyon, Encinal Canyon, Mulholland Highway. You have to make an unprotected left turn onto PCH to get out of there.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes, that's true. Yeah, yeah, right.

[Matt Farah]

What if there was a big fucking roundabout?

[Zach Klapman]

Interesting.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

The flow of everything. But that's okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But one of the plans is to reduce PCH to single lane north of Tranquis, which there isn't really a good justification traffic wise for that being two lanes anyway. They could better use the space for cyclists and things like that because it's.

[Zach Klapman]

Two lanes each way right now.

[Matt Farah]

Two lanes each way right now. And there's never enough cars to justify that. That's always an empty section of road. And so they could better use that space. And if it's single lane, then a big 200 foot roundabout or 100 foot, not 200, but 100 foot roundabout probably would not impede traffic flow by very much at all.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure. I mean when we were in UK with Lotus and stuff, there's, there's. We're on a highway, there's a roundabout, all of a sudden it's just there and everyone slows down and it just worked. But it filters those.

[Matt Farah]

Do you remember when we drove for like three hours across the UK without stopping? Like on country roads and we drove and we drove like the whole way without coming to a stop.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. There's no lights.

[Matt Farah]

I understand that that isn't possible within our cities, but like that is possible in our more like rural areas. Like it's totally possible. It's fucking concrete and paint. Like you don't have to invent anything.

[Zach Klapman]

That will help in some ways because some, you know, the stop signs and stop lights in some places, like motorists linger too long and there's this backup thing that happens. Like it keeps things moving, keeps it flowing.

[Matt Farah]

It's so nice.

[Zach Klapman]

Cool.

[Matt Farah]

So anyway, that story should be up at some point, I think. I don't know. I think because it seems like anti car. It's not anti car. This plan adds. I think I want to. It'll be correct in the article, but I want to say it adds 700 parking spaces. Adds by moving this, and it adds 300 bicycle parking spaces.

[Zach Klapman]

Cool.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a lot.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I'm down. Should we Patreon it? I love the Patreon. It's where you pay to be a triad.

[Zach Klapman]

Pay to be a triad.

[Matt Farah]

The Patreon is where you watch the livestream. It's where you get the show early. It's where you get the show without ads. It's where you get to ask us questions. And actually, in today's case, it's where you get to listen to a car review two days before the embargo. Because the embargo's the 11th, so most people are gonna hear this two days after the embargo.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good point.

[Matt Farah]

But if you're a Patreon boy, don't fuck it up for everybody else. Okay?

[Zach Klapman]

Don't start tweeting about it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Patreon.com thesmokingtirepodcast yes, sir.

[Zach Klapman]

You also sometimes early access to watches.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. If you want either of the last two watches, you almost certainly will have to be a patron, because they's gonna go. We got the notice canyon in British racing green with gilt dial, as well as the Tahitian Black Pearl. There's only gonna be 50 of the Black Pearl and 100 of the Green. Wow. Yeah. Are you interested in one, Mr. Clapman?

[Zach Klapman]

I do like the green one.

[Matt Farah]

You like the green?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, I thought we were saving you a green. I think we're saving you a green.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I was fucking with the green the other day. That is a superior watch.

[Zach Klapman]

It's a really good green.

[Matt Farah]

The green is excellent.

[Zach Klapman]

When I saw the prototype, I was like, oh, that's.

[Matt Farah]

And if I'm being totally honest, I've pre sold 15 of the mother of pearls to my friends.

[Zach Klapman]

That's Patreon tier 5.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Well, I say my friends, but two people emailed me are patrons and owners own all three of the other colors, and they said they plan to buy the last two, and could they please just ensure that they could get a complete collection? And so I put their names on the list, and yes, if you already have the other three, I will ensure that you get the last two. There's a few people that have that. So, yeah, if you want to complete the collection, hit me up. I like having the complete collection. It is good. You know what I did for Mother's Day. I, you know, we were gonna do a purple dial.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And we ended up not doing it. I thought it was a little too close to the blue. My mom really liked the prototype and so I gave it to her for Mother's Day.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Cool. She was into that.

[Zach Klapman]

That's red.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Piece unique. She's got the one of one purple dial. Never, never produced.

[Zach Klapman]

Nice. She's flipping it on ebay.

[Matt Farah]

And did I tell you about Cameron? Did we talk about that?

[Zach Klapman]

You said he was a new watch.

[Matt Farah]

He has a new movement. But I tell you he took the Delica on a vacation.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Did I tell you on the show. Did we talk about. Oh. So Cameron Weiss, the watchmaker, our good friend, my former co host of the Watch and Listen podcast, which doesn't exist on Apple podcasts anymore. It does exist on YouTube.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

So you can go get the complete Watch and listen podcast on YouTube and I strongly recommend you do if you're a watch nerd. He was sponsoring a bike race in the Alabama hills, which is not in Alabama. It's in Lone Pine, California. It's where they shot a lot of like Lost in Space and John Wayne shit in the 50s. It looks like Mars.

[Zach Klapman]

It's a very cool place to stop if you're in the area.

[Matt Farah]

So he was like, I was gonna drive the Land Rover there. Which that sentence is insane because a, it's a 1962 Land Rover and B, he lives in fucking Nashville. He was going to drive a 1962 Land Rover there from Nashville, but then he decided, he says, that that wasn't a great idea.

[Zach Klapman]

Is this bike race called Whiskey Tango Fondo, and it's a gravel bike race called the Hardest Race. Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Did you find it?

[Zach Klapman]

I did.

[Matt Farah]

So I lent him the Delica. I said, he goes, where can I rent a cool 4x4? And I go, you can't rent anything, but you should take the Delica. It should probably go on a little adventure. So he flew in and took the Delica, which is like a three hour road trip to out there. Sent me some amazing photos of it in the dirt. I'll have to post them on Instagram. It looks right at home.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, it's perfect.

[Matt Farah]

He came back, like, loving it, and he was like, I have to buy one of these. I was like, this is when people learn that Land Rovers aren't as good as everybody says they are. Because, like, this little fucking billy goat is better than your defender.

[Zach Klapman]

It does a great job and it rides. It's very soft speed. Bumps, it kind of pogos a little bit, but it's a nice riding thing.

[Matt Farah]

But if you're by yourself, if you're not. If it's not loaded down with weight, a Delica will cruise comfortably at 70 miles an hour. No problem if you've got like seven people in it. Different story. But he sent me these great pictures anyway. He asked if he could, like, pay, which was insane. Of course you can't pay, but I did. My wife's watch needed a service, so it doesn't need a service. It's fine. It's just been long enough. So I said, hey, how about a service? And I said, while you're in there. Well, while you're in there. I thought was. Was maybe pertinent. I asked him to paint Lume on my dial.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, that's a good idea, right?

[Matt Farah]

Little upgrade.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Well, little while you're in there.

[Zach Klapman]

Because at night you can't see it.

[Matt Farah]

Can't see it. The hands have loom.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And I can tell time without. Without. But. But why not? Little upgrade. So, anyway, cool. And he's got a new movement he's working on. Very exciting. Okay, back to the Patreon. Sorry, Mama. Miata says timely question. Turbo Miata or V8 swap Miata. Would your choice differ based on how much canyon driving you're planning to do relative to using it as a daily driver? I think it's more like, what vibe do you want? Is this because we have the Flying Miata car here?

[Zach Klapman]

I put it in the description, so.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, it also depends on, like, your level of, like, finish on the swap.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, that's true.

[Matt Farah]

Like, you could install a turbo kit, this Flying Miata turbo kit, I'm assuming, on an otherwise completely stock vehicle and have a car that you could just daily drive and would not be remotely affected. You'd have. Other than maybe, I don't know, fuel economy or something, you'd have no negative externalities from the turbo kit. If you put a V8 in that car, you're changing a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

You're changing a lot of stuff. And there's plenty of companies, including Fly Miata, that sell kits for LS swaps, fully swap cars if you want. We drove their swapped nd.

[Matt Farah]

We drove their swapped nd and for one reason or another, and maybe I'll ask Keith why they abandoned that project, but they sold that car to an outfit in Florida that is now selling those under their name. And I don't remember the name of it. It's that same fucking car, the Silver.

[Zach Klapman]

Car and I filmed for a TV show an NA from them that was amazing. But what I remember about all those is it changes the vibe to mini Corvette.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And it's or mini Cobra. I mean, it's exciting. Especially the NA with the V8. Swap was nuts. Cause it's such a tiny thing, but you add more vibration into the car and it changes the character into something that's like. It's a hot rod monster Miata hot rod. Whereas I think the turbo kit one, you retain the longitudinally mounted inline four so you keep the smooth engine. Which I have come to really appreciate in my car whenever I jump in a press car with a V8. But also I think the turbo it just to me, for whatever reason, it's very subjective. Is more in line with the Miata ethos, Japanese tuner car thing. And I think it remains more of a Miata and a more interesting thing than making a miniature Corvette.

[Matt Farah]

I agree. LS swaps tend to turn any car into a Corvette. And so, yeah, if you want a mini Corvette or if you want the vibe of a Shelby Cobra, then you have your V8. But if you really want a Miata for its Miata character, then doing a turbo kit will not fuck that up. You'll just have a little more fun when you're accelerating.

[Zach Klapman]

Especially if it was gonna be a daily. I'd rather have the inline four.

[Matt Farah]

I mean this one we're doing for this NC I. This turbo kit is a carb legal 91 octane daily drivable turbo kit. It's not a huge amount of power, but when you put your foot in it, it is exciting and it'll pass smog and you can run pump gas and that's great. So we'll do a thing with it when we get a chance. It's gonna live here for a little bit. Nicecam says thoughts on buying a pre engine swapped car. The idea of an LS swap GR86 is appealing, but I'm not a wrench. So should I be worried about maintenance on a car I didn't swap myself? Our friend bought an engine swapped car recently.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes, he did.

[Matt Farah]

How did that go?

[Zach Klapman]

Medium.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, medium is right. Yeah, the bones were okay, but there was some Mickey Mouse stuff in there that he that a professional shop had to fix. Correct. And we're talking about. This is an E36 M3 with an S54 in it. I talked about it last show because he was mobbing it down big to Hunga. But yeah, no, there was some tidying up that Needed to be done for a bit.

[Zach Klapman]

It's a hard thing because I mean when I was shopping for cars I came, I couldn't afford at the time, but there was a nice LS swapped is 300 done by a race shop. Amazing documentation and the forum response to this build and this car. And the builder was super strong. Like it had everyone's endorsement but it was at the time it was more money than I could afford. But looking at Thad and other places like who did the swap? Is the first question was it an individual or a professional mechanic or shop? And either way, how good is that individual or shop? Have they done a lot of these things? Like because you're receiving this project in whatever state it's in and if they Mickey Mouse some stuff or they haven't done a lot of swaps and they figured it out, well, you are going to have to bring it to someone to work on it if you're not mechanically inclined. And now they have to look at how this person did these things and they have to figure out how their brain worked to work on it. So I think if it was done by a really professional place that's done a bunch of them, you could end up with a great car that has very minimal issues. And when someone goes to work on it, it's not a hard thing to work on. But if they Mickey Mouse shit, then someone has to reverse engineer these mistakes and then fix them. And that can be expensive and complicated.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, basically, yeah, you're rolling the dice. Save some cash on the side, you know what I mean? Worst case, what's the bet? What's worse? You know, worst that happens, you don't spend it.

[Zach Klapman]

And this is a case. I mean you talk about getting a ppi, like if you have someone who's a high end tech, go look at the thing first, do that, it's worth your pay.

[Matt Farah]

And you also may have problems that are completely unexpected because this engine was never designed designed to go where it is. Also a good point that could come up down the road, heat management or whatever, you gotta.

[Zach Klapman]

Does the AC work? I mean there's shit like that. Thad's AC doesn't work. So sometimes swaps will cut corners because they go I don't need it or it's hard or the bracket's not made for that. So you need to look at those things.

[Matt Farah]

Right keel and toe. I hear this one all the time. Great question though. Where do you see singer going if and when they run out of 964s to reimagine I asked Maz when I was at the factory that this question. And he rolled his eyes through the back of his head and out his fucking asshole and said, and said, do you know how many of these fucking things they made? He said, they're all over the place. We're not gonna run out. He said, I got a warehouse over there. It's got 250 donors sitting in it. This is not a problem.

[Zach Klapman]

And they make how many cars a year now? How many they can they put out?

[Matt Farah]

Maybe a hundred.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, it takes like a year, year and a half to build, but they can do a lot of them.

[Zach Klapman]

At a time with a new factory.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean, it's. There's thousands of them. They're not gonna, they're not gonna run out of cars. Scandinavian booger flick what are some of the most memorable non car moments you've had? Huh?

[Zach Klapman]

Real quick. Do you know how many G series were made between 74 and 89?

[Matt Farah]

Not G series. 964s.

[Zach Klapman]

I typed you 964. Why did I give you.

[Matt Farah]

That's not a G series.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, sorry. Okay, up here I have the right number. Numbers 63,000, 762. So there's a lot. And it's somehow considered the rarest. That's AI. But that's a lot. A lot of cars. All right, sorry, continue.

[Matt Farah]

It might be the. It could be some of the rarest, but they still made a lot of them. They're not running out. Some of the best, most memorable non car moments you've had traveling on a press launch. I mean, there's not, you know, let's see, a lot of these, A lot of them would be like partying in.

[Zach Klapman]

Places, I suppose, which means the memories are fuzzy.

[Matt Farah]

The memories would be a little fuzzy. I mean, going in search of jamon in Spain, dedicating almost a whole day to tasting and finding the best Jamon in Seville is pretty awesome.

[Zach Klapman]

I think the old Hyundai launch where we discovered that our little hotel room, the door that adjoined to the next room, was open. And we went in and it was.

[Matt Farah]

A suite, the super presidential suite.

[Zach Klapman]

Six rooms, a weird gym made out of chrome wall. It had a full bar and a library. And it was like at the Mandarin.

[Matt Farah]

Orientation across the railroad track. Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

That was weird.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that was a fun one. Let's see. Oof.

[Zach Klapman]

You had to be driven from that hotel to the racetrack because at the time you had speeding tickets on your record.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, they wouldn't let me drive on the road. Yeah, that's pretty funny. I had priors.

[Zach Klapman]

So ridiculous. That was when they were very strict about that.

[Matt Farah]

So funny and very fucking true. Yeah. I mean, at the DB12 launch in Monaco, I mean, we had a Michelin star dinner with a professional wine pairing by this guy Ollie. Ollie is like. I'm blanking on his last name. He was so, so fucking cool too. I sat next to him and we chatted all night. He was great. And I follow him on Instagram and he's like a TV wine guy. So he's a big personality. And he did this whole spiel about the wine and pairing with the food and just ridiculous stuff like that. Amanjiri for Range Rover.

[Zach Klapman]

A lot of very nice fancy hotels. For sure.

[Matt Farah]

Fancy hotels. I mean, they've taken away some of the non. And I don't go on the ones where there's like things that aren't driving. I don't really give a shit about that kind of stuff. We flew. We drove a Jaguar F type Coupe. We drove one way from Seattle to like, I don't know, most of the way to Oregon, like the windy way, wherever the Ridge Motorsports park is. We drove from Seattle to there and then drove to the ocean and then got in a seaplane and they flew us back.

[Zach Klapman]

That's super.

[Matt Farah]

On a seaplane, which was pretty rad. But I don't put the non car things. I mean, you know, I've gotten like real drunk with like serious power players in the industry that got like, you know, crazy nights in clubs, you know, like strip clubs and shit in Vegas. Like just all kinds of stuff with people. It's like, like you designed like this supercar, like, all right, cool. Turns out there people too.

[Zach Klapman]

There's a great article. Not to sell our competition, but on the intercooler, someone wrote an article about like, you know, what are legendary stories from auto journalism that aren't talked about. And it was basically like, well, here's the 80s. Cause it's like it's safe to talk about these without naming names. There are a lot of stories in that article about illegal substances and brothels.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, for sure. I buy every word of that.

[Zach Klapman]

Wild.

[Matt Farah]

I took our friend, you know who to a brothel in Germany on a press thing.

[Zach Klapman]

You have to tell me who afterwards, you know who.

[Matt Farah]

I don't remember the one. The little guy up there who built the house.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah, that's what I thought. But my brain was like, well, it can't be him because you're probably talking about an industry person.

[Matt Farah]

No, no, no, yeah, no, I think he had to drop. He did actually bring me there but then I was like this, this is weird. Not about it. Rich in New York has a stock NA Miata and is thinking about an even older 2 seat sports car like a British roadster. I do my own wrenching thoughts on if it is an upgrade from the Miata. As far as an experience, tough to put a value on that.

[Zach Klapman]

I love this question.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So is the original thing better than the Japanese thing that was made to be a better version of the original thing?

[Zach Klapman]

Is it better somehow? Because it's worse but it's truer to the original idea.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Your experience will be different because you'll have to fix it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Miatas don't really need much. You know, every 200,000 miles you do like a valve cover, gasket.

[Matt Farah]

Those type of little British roadsters don't appeal that much to me personally. I've driven a few of them for videos and I've never walked away from them being like, yep, that's the thing. I, I might, if you wanted to go for it and go older, I'd say like go for an E type because now you've got something that might feel like an upgrade. I think going to a Triumph Spitfire would feel like a downgrade from a Miata.

[Zach Klapman]

Honestly, it really would. I know Thomas of Throttle House, he loves his Fiat very much. It breaks very much. Yeah, but so, mate, like you could have the experience for maybe a year, but then I would leap to something like an E type, get something with a really interesting engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Not just the version point one of what you're driving.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, they'll sound a little different and you'll have to fix them, which I guess can be charming if you're into that kind of thing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But I feel like the E type is worth the trouble.

[Matt Farah]

I agree.

[Zach Klapman]

Like a big 4.2.

[Matt Farah]

And like, how about here, my personal experience, I had the Ferrari 328 and then I got the Spider and then I got the nsx. Right. And I've now had, if I had had the NSX, I wouldn't have liked the 328 at all.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

It would feel like a worse version.

[Zach Klapman]

Of the same thing because you're literally going back in time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I had to have the 328 first to appreciate the NSX.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And if you drive the NSX you appreciate the Boxster even more.

[Zach Klapman]

This is like if, have you ever tried to watch a movie recently that was made in the 60s and the pacing is terrible, even if it was, like, heralded as amazing. I mean, I think I have to start at the 70s before it gets too slow.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, for me, it's like early 80s. Like, maybe, like. Well, maybe late 70s. I'd have to look at exactly where the line gets drawn. But, like, Animal House is, like, pretty much where my ability to process the pacing of a movie starts.

[Zach Klapman]

Right, yeah, yeah, I get it. It's stripes, stuff like that. Comedies are different, too, but drama like Taxi Driver, Tough drink, tough to watch.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, like, yeah, Bullet is unwatchable trash.

[Zach Klapman]

It's also bad French. Yeah, it's also bad French Connection's better because he's.

[Matt Farah]

French Connection's better, but it's also like, just, whoa.

[Zach Klapman]

That good nectar. Come at me, bro.

[Matt Farah]

And he's a piece of shit. Fuck Steve McQueen. He sucks. Oh, someone mentions McQueen in the next fucking thing. Frozen dingleberry metallic. What? If you were to have an automotive celebrity cameo In Pixar Cars 4, what car would you be. Cannot be a car you own. Okay, okay. Well, it would have to be an anthropomorphic version of us, right? So it'd have to, like, reflect our personalities and maybe physical attributes.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. Okay. I would do a Baja Bug that's got a little too much engine because it's a cheap version of a Porsche. Because I am the cheap version of many other things, I think. You know, and it's like. It's kind of silly and fun and it's kind of a risk. I think I'll do that.

[Matt Farah]

It'll be fun to be like.

[Zach Klapman]

Like a Subie engine. But it hurts. It breaks a lot, too.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, the kind of car I'd like to be in a movie is different than, I think the kind of car I'd like to drive as a human.

[Zach Klapman]

No, no, no. This is not drive. This is you. You said it perfectly. This has to represent you as an individual. So I think I am a somewhat unreliable, often problematic in my skeletal system. I have a lot of maintenance issues.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, so.

[Zach Klapman]

But I'm not as.

[Matt Farah]

I'm, like, big and crush under the weight of my own mess.

[Zach Klapman]

No, but you're strong. Like, you don't.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but also strong. So, like. I mean, I almost would be like a fucking, like a Bronco Raptor or something if I'm, like, loud and not very nuanced in my presentation.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, but you're smart also.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, so what's the smart version of that?

[Zach Klapman]

What's his face? You're like Joe Scarborough. Those crazy trophy truck.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, A trophy truck. I could be a trophy truck. That would be fun.

[Zach Klapman]

That'd be very fun.

[Matt Farah]

I'd like to be an amphibious vehicle.

[Zach Klapman]

You're Land Rover's Octa.

[Matt Farah]

The Octa. Land Rover Octa.

[Zach Klapman]

Your Land Rover Octa.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Sort of like. Yeah, like a. Maybe. Or how about like a Dakar. Like a Kamaz. Dakar truck. Kamaz Dakar truck would be fun. Or maybe one of those Brazilian racing semis.

[Zach Klapman]

I think you're more refined than those things, you know, you Brazilian racing semis.

[Matt Farah]

Pretty. Pretty refined.

[Zach Klapman]

What those. That shit's like.

[Matt Farah]

That's not like trashy in Brazil. That's like f.1 of trucks.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, but it's. I'm sure that the NVH is rather.

[Matt Farah]

High in those things I did in the sim. I was pretty good at it at cxc, I was like, yo, throw me in the trucks. At Interlocutor, I was pretty decent. Are you doing. Is it east or west?

[Zach Klapman]

It's like the whole thing.

[Matt Farah]

It's full course.

[Zach Klapman]

Full course. Because I think they have so many cars. They stretch it out.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, and you're driving that box though, aren't you?

[Zach Klapman]

First of all, the lemons. They're almost all shipped.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but some of them are fast. This one's not fast. Yeah, just the Tiptronic. Very good. Drove my new manual 91S from LA to San Francisco. Finally had an empty visibility, empty stretch of the 101 with long vis. Did a hard pull and got clocked at 113 by CHP going the other way. I hope you call off the record. That is absolutely an off the record. Offtherecord.com TST if you haven't already done that, you need to be doing that immediately. They will take care of that for you.

[Zach Klapman]

I know exactly where this person was. If there were grapevines on the west side of that highway, I know exactly where you were.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but just the Tiptronic wants the worst ticket story. I mean, the first to get a ticket contest.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't have a story better than that. For sure.

[Matt Farah]

Tom Morningstar and I got six tickets in one day between the two of us on Bull in 2011.

[Zach Klapman]

That was. I got two in one day in a Cadillac ELR with Thad driving in an ELR.

[Matt Farah]

That stinks. Justin Gerard, the real one. If you had to choose the new Pope Mobile based on an American car. That's a good question.

[Zach Klapman]

I thought about this a lot because I did scroll through these. At first I didn't want to. I think it would be an E350 van that says free candy on the side.

[Matt Farah]

I haven't done the whole.

[Zach Klapman]

So that sums up my feelings on that particular organization.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. Yeah. I didn't know if this particular one was problematic. Specific. Hey, I'll take it a little more seriously. I think it should be.

[Zach Klapman]

I think I'm taking it more seriously than you are.

[Matt Farah]

I think maybe you are. But I would say, I mean, it's America, Right. So it has to be a Hummer pickup. It's very America.

[Zach Klapman]

Ev. Quiet.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Driving slowly through crowds.

[Matt Farah]

Through and over crowds.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good. Yeah, that is a good selection.

[Matt Farah]

That might actually be like a decent.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, Cadillac Celestique would kind of represent the Vatican. Well, in terms of the opulent decor.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I think they have. Don't they. Didn't they have one that was based on a Jeep product? I think they had a wrangler based one at one point.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, G Wagon was the famous one. 1. It's also easy to maneuver versus the Hummer's much bigger.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but the crab walk helps.

[Zach Klapman]

Hummer's a good call.

[Matt Farah]

Bad gardener says. What are the laws for. Can you scroll down for police car visibility? Some are very visible, but even the more undercover ones seem to have stickers. I've seen towns whose cop cars use paint match, so they're impossible to see.

[Zach Klapman]

True.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I don't think police cars need to be marked at all.

[Zach Klapman]

There's plenty of unmarked cars.

[Matt Farah]

There's tons of unmarked cars. I've been pulled over by unmarked cars before. I mean, I don't.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm sure it varies state to state and maybe even in different counties would be the answer. A bunch of people sent me these videos. There's a new CHP cars rolling out here. They're unmarked Durangos.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So watch out.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I don't think there's any laws saying the cops need to or cannot have marked. I think it's. It's whatever they feel like.

[Zach Klapman]

I think. But Georgia, I've seen where there's chp. They're not unmarked. They have stickers that are visible in the daytime or. Sorry, the stickers are body color, but at night they light up.

[Matt Farah]

Oh.

[Zach Klapman]

So that's like. I think their law. There seems to be. It has to be highly visible at night, but doesn't have to be especially visible in the daytime.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Barbecue sauce on my titties. All right. I'm guessing that's a man. Do you. Will Dodge ever bring back the Viper as a mid engine platform with a Hellcat motor? I don't think so.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, this is fun. They go on that with the MC20 under Stellantis Wing. Could they use the same tub with the Hellcat? That would be fucking exciting. If Rich Rebuilds or Tavares want to put a Hellcat engine in a salvage MC20. Yeah, I don't. Probably wouldn't. Fit, but that would be quite a thing.

[Matt Farah]

I doubt it would fit.

[Zach Klapman]

That's like a Forza build.

[Matt Farah]

But that is a good thing to think about. I think it would be fine. And I don't think there is a market right now for a $250,000 Dodge.

[Zach Klapman]

Probably not. Yeah, they have a lot of issues. I saw my first new Charger on the road the other day.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's weird looking, isn't it?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I was just behind it. It was almost unrecognizable. I mean, it looks fine, but. Yeah, it is.

[Matt Farah]

It is strange. I'm only looking at my watch because the Ferrari is coming at 11:30 and I just want to make sure I don't miss them. Auto Bon Jovi. Oh, well, this is. I mean, look, I appreciate the sentiment, basically, in reference to me talking about the great New York bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, which is bacon, egg and cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup on a kaiser roll. And he wants to know where to go in New York to get the best version of that sandwich. That's what makes that sandwich, that sandwich. It's universal. You go to any bodega, you get that, it'll be the same. There is no. There's no secret sauce. That's what makes it so good. You get it any fucking where. Like bodega, deli. That's where you go. Bacon, egg and cheese, salt, pepper, ketchup. It's all you say. You get it exactly the same. Yeah, I can't wait to go.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like the kilogram, like there's a standard weight measure of this New York sandwich.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's true. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

They make it the same.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. If you're in New York, the idea that somebody would. That there would be a best version of this sandwich is insane. In California, of course, who's got the best burrito, who's got the best this, who's got the best that in New York, this is such a universal thing that there is only one way to make it right. Everybody makes it the same. No one even attempts a competitive advantage in this area. It's just. This is how it's done. It's great. Some things should not be fucked With Maxfield says what car brand has the strongest enthusiast community? And why do you think that's the case?

[Zach Klapman]

How do we define strongest? I think that's important.

[Matt Farah]

I think it's probably a good. It's a blend of things to do with your cars. Events online representation by a variety of different types of people. Right. Diversity in culture. Maybe multiple different genres of modification for that type of vehicle. You know, like just as an example, the 911 could be a track car or a stance nation slammed car or a rally car. Right.

[Zach Klapman]

True, 911 is not often stance nation, but I hear what you're saying.

[Matt Farah]

No, but I went to that car show with Vinnie in East la, one of those Brekkie car club shows, and there was a whole group of folks doing like hardcore 90s JDM mods to 996s and 997s.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, there's an emerging thing like VIP style.

[Matt Farah]

Not like full, not VIP.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

But definitely like stanced.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like they used to back in the.

[Matt Farah]

With like the clear dildo shifters and like, you know, the cage will be pink and there'll be.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, got it.

[Matt Farah]

Like take it off of RX7 and put it on a 911.

[Zach Klapman]

I understand.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean Ferrari has an incredibly. I mean, not diverse I'm talking about, but a passionate community.

[Zach Klapman]

They have definitely. Very true. Tifosi are very passionate. I think they're not as friendly to modifications, but that might be changing with generations. Hopefully it is. That's hard because I think Jeep. Yeah, that's a good answer. They have a lot of events.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, mostly there's a lot of ways to. To get out and drive your Jeep and talk to people about your Jeep.

[Zach Klapman]

I would say like the Honda community, but maybe larger is jdm because there's time attack, there's drift events, there's parking lot events, there's VIP stuff. I think that might be too broad, but that group has brought so many motorsport trends to America and style trends and parts and all kinds of things. And it's also. It can range from someone who, who especially nowadays spent 300 grand on a first gen NSX that's rare, or someone who has $3,000 Honda Civic that they've modified. You could see both at a show.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Misfit Cyclone. What do you think of the idea that Cadillac should have been a competitor to Bentley, Rolls Royce and Maybach rather than BMW and Mercedes, and that role should have been been done by Buick. The problem, I mean, I understand that ethos. I think in the 1950s and 60s, Cadillac, if they wanted to, was already kind of there and could have maintained that, but they chose not to because they got really greedy, I think.

[Zach Klapman]

True. I think they also had sold such a large volume of cars, they really increased their volume versus Bentley, Rolls Royce, etc. Now Bentley, Rolls Royce may have wanted to sell more cars and couldn't because the price point, but they went, all right, we're going to keep this hand built, super expensive, super elite thing. And Cadillac used to be that, but then by the 80s was selling like, you know, almost K cars to anybody who would buy them. That right there, that separation lasted for decades. And I don't think they could come back back to that.

[Matt Farah]

I don't think. And I haven't seen a Celestiq in person yet. You know, Jethro wrote the review for Road Track and seemed to be intrigued by it. But I've never seen any Cadillac that I thought was built to a, an actual, you know, standard that justified its, its price point other like, other than the Blackwing. But that's only because of how it drives. You know what I mean? Like the Blackwing does not have a crappy interior or anything. Like it's a very nicely built car that's worth its price. But I've never. Excuse me, let me rephrase that. I've never seen any evidence that Cadillac can build a better Bentley. I've never seen any evidence that Cadillac could build a better Rolls Royce if they just tried. I've never seen, go back to 1950 or 55 with the Biarritz or whatever to find a time where Cadillac actually built something. Resemb. Assembling a Rolls Royce or a Bentley. They're not doing that shit now.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I think you can't discount the amount of the decades that have gone into each company. Cadillac, Bentley, doing different things for this long and they've been perfecting those processes. So to have them try to pivot or to have Cadillac try to pivot and suddenly take this huge assembly line that's trying to sell Cadillac, the CT4 and everything else and go quick, make a $500,000 sedan. It's perfect. Like, you just can't change that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Enrico, Palazzo, Matt and Zach are forbidden from owning or daily driving anything considered to be an enthusiast car. What are your picks for a daily driver meant for normies? I mean, look, I loved my Mach E and even though that said Mustang on it, that wasn't a fucking Mustang, that's a toaster. But it was a fabulous daily driver that I'd recommend to any. Anybody.

[Zach Klapman]

The Prius pretty great.

[Matt Farah]

Dude. The Prius so nice.

[Zach Klapman]

Sorry, not C. The new Prius looks really good. I think I would drive that for sure. Or like, man, I haven't driven a Model 3 in a while. You like the Model 3 performance? I don't want to buy a Tesla.

[Matt Farah]

But Yeah, the Model 3 Performance did some things well. Yep, it did. The new Model Y's are, you know, out. I don't hate the front end. That's got the sort of cyber truck truck light bar thing on it. I actually don't hate that when paired with like regular headlights too. The. That flat bar across the rear. That's terrible. That doesn't look good at all. That's a real downgrade from.

[Zach Klapman]

Depends on what car. I mean the Charger did it and looked fine because.

[Matt Farah]

No, I mean the Model Y. It's horrible on the Model Y, Y.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a weird. That's a cheap way to try and sell an old car. As a new car I can just go full outback too.

[Matt Farah]

Outback, yeah, Outback Wilderness was lovely. That's a great, great normie car. I mean, I suppose because it being a wilderness does make it something enthusiasty, but I'm pretty sure that's not what you're talking about here for. Matt's Katz wife has expressed an interest in a scooter or Vespa for around town. I know nothing about them. Any buying advice? Sure. First off, make sure that she and maybe you do it together. Take a motorcycle safety foundation class. You can do it on a scooter. You don't need to do it on full motorcycle. You learn a lot and you come away from it with a license. And so that's helpful. And I think your insurance may be affected as well. Positively. Vespas come in three sizes, basically. 50, 150 and 300, almost everybody. A 150 is the right one. If it's like for puttering around your gated community or if your wife weighs like a hundred pounds, a 50 might be fine. A 50 is like 7 horsepower. A 150 is about 15 horsepower and a 300 is like 28 horsepower. Three hundreds are for big boys. If you're a big boy, you want a 300. Everyone else almost should have a 150. Tops out about 60 miles an hour. The best advice I can tell you is a Vespa brand scooter is generally worth the premium. Premium because you get it back on the other end. And if you buy them used like on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. A used 150 should be $3,000 forever if it's not been crashed or horribly fucked up. A used 50 should be about $2,000 forever. And a used 300 should be about $5,000 forever if they're in anything resembling decent shape. So you buy it now, 100 bucks a year to insure it. You're selling it for exactly the same amount on the other end. So that's how I would roll. I would get a Vespa brand, but I had that Yamaha Zuma for a while and it was all right. It was fine too. If the company also makes like motorcycles, like I would buy a Honda or a Yamaha, you know, or like a Piaggio. If the company makes motorcycles too, you're probably okay. A lot of scooter companies all use the Piaggio engine. Like Piaggio owns Vespa. But like other companies just use the Piaggio engine, even if it's like a Japanese bike.

[Zach Klapman]

Really? Yeah, like a Honda uses.

[Matt Farah]

I don't know about Honda particularly, but there are other companies that use Piaggio engines. Insert username here. Can I buy WCCS SWAG from the Playa Vista store? Store? Yes, you can. We have hats, you can come buy them. You can give us a credit card or you can pay buy in cash and we'll give you a tour. That's a lot of nuts. Are car companies gaslighting us into all the outdoorsy off road trims or are people actually using that way? I swear, every brand has an off road trim for every crossover they sell. Ruggedness sells, bro. That's nothing new. It's where could I go? Where could I go if.

[Zach Klapman]

And I'm sure that they part of the people took things places that they weren't meant to. But also the number of people that buy the rugged thing but don't go there is. It's probably very high percentage.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. When you see our King of the Hammers video, that will probably be out by the time this podcast comes out for everybody else, you know, we're driving a Raptor in the desert. There's all these people in all these buggies and then there's just a dude in like a two wheel drive pool guy's truck going to all the same fucking place. So it's like what we need versus what we want. And what gets us going is what.

[Zach Klapman]

We could do is at the root of almost all marketing. Choose cars, sports cars, off road things, everything.

[Matt Farah]

You could run a 6 minute and 55 second Nurburgring. You could climb the top of that mountain. You could move a couch. If you ever wanted to move a couch. You're not gonna, but it's nice to know you could. The yacht formerly known as Tiffany. That may be username of the year. That's exceptionally good. Very much like that one. At what point do autonomous AI powered cars turn into a horse guided by a homing pigeon? Let me hang on. A horse guided by a homing pigeon.

[Zach Klapman]

That seems more complicated than designing an AI car.

[Matt Farah]

Right? That is more. Is the implication that that's more trouble than it's worth?

[Zach Klapman]

I don't. I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, like, last night I was out drinking with some friends, all of whom are in the car industry, and we were talking about, you know, autonomous driving, because we were talking about PCH and stuff like that, and it just, over and over, it comes up that we don't need autonomous driving to drastically improve safety. You know, we can do so much with. With willpower, paint and concrete.

[Zach Klapman]

But I think. I mean, we've talked about this. I think safety is the lie. And they're trying to sell convenience to people who are like, you don't like driving. Wouldn't you rather look at your phone because you're stuck in traffic? That's. That's what people want.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. You have to work from the assumption that things will stay the way they are from an infrastructure perspective. We don't want to. We don't want to build new things. We don't want to change society. So here you're here. You're going to be stuck in traffic, but, you know, you'll be able to scroll Instagram. Fuck you, Angeles Breast highway. That's pretty fun. Did you solicit sexual usernames today? No, it's just. Oh, it's just gone that long?

[Zach Klapman]

I think it's just springtime.

[Matt Farah]

I'm wearing my summer shirt today.

[Zach Klapman]

Your Summer Journey shirt?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, dude. Tripping. Boo. This is my gor. This is my Gordon Murray shirt.

[Zach Klapman]

That'd be a very funny shirt to wear when you get. If you got pulled over.

[Matt Farah]

I wore this shirt to the Quail two years ago.

[Zach Klapman]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Last year I wore a Doc brown shirt from Back to the Future.

[Zach Klapman]

How many people. You don't have to name them. How many people when they saw the shirt? For people listening, it has psychedelic mushrooms all over it. Asked you if you had any.

[Matt Farah]

No. None.

[Zach Klapman]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I think they know me well enough to know I'm not holding these days.

[Zach Klapman]

They don't know either.

[Matt Farah]

Two separate people to me did suggest doing Hallucinogens during Car Week this year. And my response was, at the very minimum, to ask my wife very kindly to make some Fear and Loathing in Monterey T shirts with me and Ali as fucking Raul Duke. And the lawyer, what's his fucking name? What's Benicio's name? In Fear and Loathing. My attorney. Fucking fuck. Fuck. Zach will find that. Anyway, Angela's Breast Highway. Got a new job. Congratulations, Dr. Gonzo. Dr. Gonzo. Thank you. I almost said Gonzo, and then I was like, that's not right. And my dream is to have a GMT Master Pepsi. That's a Rolex. My parents bought me one for the new job as a congratulations. Once I calmed down from the excitement, they told me that it's fake. That's funny. I wonder if it's, like, a real legit one. I don't want to be ungrateful, but it also ruined the moment I always dreamed of. If this happened to you, would you wear it or hide it away and forget that it happened? Man, that's tough. They bought you a fake Rolex knowing your dream is to have a real one. They told you it's fake. Shit, man. Was it a prank? Like, no. Like, I mean, like, that's that. I'm serious. Like, was it.

[Zach Klapman]

My dad is Jake Paul.

[Matt Farah]

Was it done as a goof? Or was it done in a way that was like, I know we can't afford the real thing, but I want you to. You know, I want. Like, it kind of matters, like, what the vibe is of the gift.

[Zach Klapman]

Definitely. Because the parents could be saying, there's two things that came to my mind. They could be either saying, we know you love these. Maybe put this on your desk, and one day, like, with this new job, we're very proud of you. You get the real thing. Like, it inspires you to work hard and get it. Or it could be a misunderstanding, like, where the parents don't understand how Watch Culture works, and you just talked about this all the time, and they got you one that looks the same, and they go, what's the difference? It still works. It tells time. It looks the same. And that's just the difference. Disconnect.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And, I mean, I don't think it would be that weird to have a conversation with your parents that are like, look, I see what you did here. Let's assume that they meant it as a real gift. I see what you did here. But I really don't feel comfortable, like, wearing a fake out into the world. I wouldn't, you know, it's a thing. And watch culture, you know, fakes are sort of looked down on. I think you can say, I really appreciate the gift. I'm gonna keep it. I'm gonna hold onto it. I'm sorry. Like, I just don't feel comfortable wearing that to my new job as it's a fake. Now, look, between you and me, if it's real, good, and there are some. There's a couple companies out of like China and you can. On Reddit, there's all these forums about these fakes. Some of them you cannot tell. You literally cannot tell. You certainly couldn't tell from across the room. You couldn't tell unless you took the case back off. I mean, really. Or if you had a real 1 1/2 loop, like at a bar, at a meeting, at the office. Nobody's telling nobody for sure. Thad brought me one that he got in Dubai and I have the real one. And it. I had to weigh them. Wow. The real one was five grams more.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And otherwise, dude, the quality of the. I mean, literally, if you were wearing it right now, now there is no question I would think it was real. And especially if you. New job, if you're at a tax bracket that justifies you wearing that, the most common giveaway of a fake is like, you know, this dude doesn't have 50 GS or whatever, right? That's a giveaway. But, man, I don't know if it's really, really good. Maybe wear it. I don't know. But when he's talking about the moment you've dreamed of, what I like about that person is, is it's not about showing off that you have one to somebody else. A lot of people get fakes because if you walk into that boardroom with a heavy bike on, people will notice that know what that is. And it's like sort of a power move, right? It's a status thing. I don't really like watches like that. And I'm not trying to be holier than thou. I don't care if you do honestly be flashy, even if you want to wear a fucking fashion. But like, the satisfaction I get from wearing the real deal could never, ever, ever be given with even the best fake. It's just because that's not. It's the reward for the thing. It's like cheating or faking or shortcut. You don't. It's less rewarding. It's always less rewarding when you've cheated. So I like the question. You don't want to be Ungrateful. But I would say be honest with them about how you feel about wearing a fake outside of the house.

[Zach Klapman]

And I'd also add, depending on what tax bracket your parents are in, make, they don't feel like you're pressuring them to buy you a $50,000 watch. If they clearly couldn't, don't be like, oh, this isn't the cause. Then they're going to feel like they haven't done enough in life.

[Matt Farah]

And my guess is over time, getting the real one will remain your goal and this won't ruin the moment. And you'll be very happy when you get the real deal, which you will. You could do the switcheroo eventually, right? Andre says as modern car design often draws cues from past designs such as the Nissan Z or Charger, or even goes retro future such as the Envision Hyundai's. Which of today's car designs or trends will inspire the next generation? Are there any modern cars that you think have truly original or timeless designs? Hmm, good question. I think the Aventador styling is very. Could be very inspirational for a child. I think some of the really ridiculous hypercar styling would probably inspire a child.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, that always grabbed my attention when I was a kid. Look at it.

[Matt Farah]

It looks like a spaceship. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Revolto. I mean, also Revolto is a busier version of Aventador and just looks even more extreme.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, things like Raptors, you know, Tonka truck looking stuff.

[Zach Klapman]

I think things on the extremes will probably always inspire children because it looks different than what they see every day.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. Plethora of pinatas. Which of the four generations of the Miata is best for a taller driver? Six one long legs. Tried an ndrf but a little tight. I think the. I think the ND with the soft top. Is there a difference in the bulk the of. I don't know if there's a difference in the bulkhead. I think the seats might be the same.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm not sure I think they're the same.

[Matt Farah]

You can do like various tall man mods. I mean, you like. By the way, you can take seats like the Miata I used to race. That was an NC and the stock seats were taken out and there was a Recaro racing seat in it and it was mount it was so luxurious. How low and how far back I could sit. I could sit there for six hours, no problem. And the seat, it was on a slider because other drivers were driving it too. And there seemed to be no negative impacts from me buying a Recaro from Buying a Recaro seat. And you can make a lot more room in that car by getting rid of the stock seat. And I think you could probably make that work in any of the four generations, to be honest with you. But NC or not, nb, nbs, I think are small.

[Zach Klapman]

It also depends on torso versus legs. I remember Thaddeus could drive my nail pretty comfortably, but a passenger seat, forget about it because of the, you know, the glove box shooting on, like, legroom. So if you're a very. If you're a very torso, tall person, they all might be challenging.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Gary Reynolds. Nicely done, my friend. Top three defunct car brands, not for resurrection, but because they made cool stuff. Saab, Duesenberg and.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, what's the. Why am I blanking on? Spiker.

[Matt Farah]

Spiker.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm gonna go Spiker.

[Matt Farah]

Spiker, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

More modern brand for sure.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Saab, man. Saab could have. If Saab could have kept it together, they could have some dope shit going on.

[Zach Klapman]

They. I think for me, they had clever stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And they definitely moved some parts of the market for it. But, like, if I see one, I don't care that much. I go, oh, my. Some family members had them. They're cute, but they were never very exciting for me.

[Matt Farah]

You gotta be a Northeast kid for that.

[Zach Klapman]

I think possibly, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

If I see a Saab 900 Turbo, that was in the early 90s, those drove. Those were awesome. That was a fabulous car.

[Zach Klapman]

My grandma, right before, maybe the car, right before we took her license away, she got a Saab Turbo, and it was terrible, terrifying because she was 80 and the boost would kick in and everyone would just kind of hold on to the. Oh, shit. Handle.

[Matt Farah]

Watkins Glendale. Watkins Glendale. That's funny. I don't know what you're talking about. Talking about a road trip that was canceled, but I don't. Did we have a plan to go to Canada?

[Zach Klapman]

No.

[Matt Farah]

And cancel it for Covid.

[Zach Klapman]

Was there a road and track thing?

[Matt Farah]

I don't know. I don't think so. We try to not do international because there's, like, a lot of headaches involved with people going in.

[Zach Klapman]

Ready. Organization.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, maybe it was an adventure drives one. Yeah. There might have been an event. I don't know. I was an attendee on any adventure drives. I don't work there. Mellow greetings. Plans for more podcasts or events at WCCS South Bay? Eventually, yes. But not until Building 2 is open. All right, wait.

[Zach Klapman]

These are the end. This is the end. All right.

[Matt Farah]

This one's so many words. Can you. I'll do the next one. Can you make that less words? Too many words. Using a Montana zip code to avoid sales tax on Patreon. You know what? I encourage that. If you have to VPN your Patreon to not pay sales tax, that's all right. I like it. With how bad drivers are getting and the invention of self driving cars, I'm considering adding a dash cam to my vehicle. Obviously you have cameras on for reviews, but do you have normal dash cams for normal commuting? Why or why? Why not? We just advertised the Van Tru dash cam, so we're gonna have a link in an upcoming video. So it's actually a really nice little rig. If you're gonna get a dash cam when our King of the Hammers video comes out, buy the one at that link and help us out. It's very small, so if you drive one car every day, you should absolutely have a dash cam. There's no reason you shouldn't. You should also have like a valentine too. And you know, like my biggest accessories in cars is that I'm always in a different car. I'm just changing cars all the fucking time. And so if I was having stuff like that, it would just be, I would be either forgetting it or it would be so much time. You know, on any given day I might drive three different cars and ride a motorcycle. And so it doesn't make any sense for me personally, but like if you drive one car mainly, totally get a dash cam. It might save your fucking ass, dude.

[Zach Klapman]

It's true.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. No, no downside, huh?

[Zach Klapman]

I should probably install one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, no downside really. Unless you, you don't like it being on your dashboard or on your windshield or whatever. But yeah, I think, I think it's a good thing to have. It might, you know, if someone tries to scam you or you know, break check you or get insurance or you get into an accident and you know, you catch something crazy going on. Like you never know what. Couldn't really hurt. Okay. Did you shadow ban me? EV swapped Mitsubishi Delica. Would you do it for 70k? Absolutely not. I would not. No. I would see the appeal for a resto modded Delica EV that had a cool interior, some nice attention to details, and that was sort of turned into like a beach cruiser. Like I think that could be a cool thing to do. Now I don't know if there's a market for it or not, but like, but like the del. The problem with the Delta with doing that is the Delica engine does have enough power. It's not that slow. You can drive it basically anywhere you want. You can't speed, but it's fine. It's not so slow you can't use. Use it. Very reliable.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

It's reasonably fuel efficient. And the nicest Delica L300 in the world is like 25,000 bucks.

[Zach Klapman]

Plus you have this good four wheel drive system.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

My parents neighbor asked me, he wanted to EV swap a VW bus. An old one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And I was like, you'll never get the money back. But I get it.

[Matt Farah]

It makes sense.

[Zach Klapman]

Engines are weak. Yeah, somewhat. I mean unreliable, reliable. You have to tinker with them a lot. And I think they have a style that lends itself to that. And his doesn't have four wheel drive. So you're not really losing any of the abilities. But with a Delica, unless you can marry, you know, put in two motors. So now you keep the four wheel drive, but then you lose the range and ability to go really exploring. You lose so much of what the Delica can do just to what, give it some power and highway speed.

[Matt Farah]

I think having a dependable under stressed diesel powertrain train fits the character of that vehicle just fine. Maybe there's a way to swap in the engine from the L400 to make 50 more horsepower. Someone might have done that. I would EV swap. I'd spend, let's just say play money, not real life play money. I'd probably spend 25k EV swapping the pow. That would be awesome. A little neighborhood vehicle. The engine in it is such a pile of shit.

[Zach Klapman]

Now you got a pow golf cart.

[Matt Farah]

57 horsepower. Fucking gutless little piece of junk. Three speed automatic. I mean it's not a good powertrain. If I could rip that out and put in a single motor, 100 horsepower, maybe even rear drive, solid axle, you know, let's call it a 20 kilowatt hour battery. 60 miles of range.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Fucking. That would be the dopest little golf cart thing like ever.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Let me just fucking give it to Philip. Just give it to Max.

[Zach Klapman]

Find a crash. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So I mean yeah, these vans though, I don't think EVs swaps the move with that one Beneteau driver. What is next with wccs? More locations, franchises? Seems like there's a lot of growth potential and a strong brand. Thank you. That's a very nice compliment. I've talked to some people about franchises and they don't seem to work. I don't think car storage is a great business if you don't own your building and your land. It's not a great business. And if you have to pay the franchisor, I. I think based on the reactions from people, it seems like in many areas a lot of the margins that they could earn in this business, they'd have to give up too much to the franchisor me to make it worth their while. And I'd have to charge more for my time. I'd have to charge something for my brand and my time and my expertise and our methods and all that kind of stuff for me to make it worth it from a work perspective. Perspective versus what works for their business. I think that doesn't really work. My business model is to slowly build more locations at a pace that won't give me a heart attack until eventually I can coast out the second half of my life doing a fairly low impact business and having a real estate portfolio and maybe being like our new friend Harry Metcalfe and playing with cars when we want to, not because we have have to. That's sort of the plan. And to not have those buildings scattered across the world. So it requires flying, you know, flying for fun, not for work. Great show today. Thank you all for joining us. We appreciate you. Go watch our King of the Hammers video. I don't know if it's gonna go up. Probably Monday at this point. Right. Are we supposed to put up another video on Monday though? Or is 911 GTS Wednesday? Might be Wednesday.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't know. I'll have that one.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

Probably today.

[Matt Farah]

All right. Either way, we will make it happen. King of the Hammers, the video, I think it's. I tried to do a little bourdainy in there. Tried to make it a little more inspired by like parts unknown. Although there is a ranger raptor car review in the desert in there as well. It's a good, good time. That's cool. Zach, anything else?

[Zach Klapman]

No, I'm trying. Find that thing.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Thank you to our patrons. We love you all. Thank you to our non patrons. You're awesome too. Don't fuck it up. Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

If you like the show, like share, subscribe like share and leave a review on itunes. That does help a lot.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yep. See you later. Bye.