Bad Nostalgia Examples; TX Kei Trucks; We Polled You

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Bad Nostalgia Examples; TX Kei Trucks; We Polled You"

The Smoking Tire Podcast
Hosts: Zack Klapman & Matt Farah
Release Date: May 27, 2025
Episode Title: Bad Nostalgia Examples; TX Kei Trucks; We Polled You

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1. Introduction

In this episode of The Smoking Tire, hosts Matt Farah and Zack Klapman delve into a multifaceted discussion encompassing the latest developments in the automotive world, nostalgic revivals in car designs, and insights from their Patreon community. The primary topics include a comprehensive review of the Volkswagen ID Buzz, an exploration of nostalgia-driven automotive models, and the results of a recent Patreon poll determining future content directions.

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2. Volkswagen ID Buzz Review

A. Overview and Aesthetic Appeal

The hosts begin by examining the Volkswagen ID Buzz, highlighting its modern interpretation of the classic van design. Matt expresses admiration for its aesthetic, stating, "The ID Buzz is a look by van standards, it's pretty rad" [15:02]. The vehicle stands out with its vibrant color options and charm-driven design, evoking a sense of nostalgia while embracing contemporary styling.

B. Interior Features and Comfort

Zack and Matt praise the ID Buzz's interior, emphasizing its functionality and comfort tailored for adult transportation. Matt notes, "It really feels like a van for transporting adults" [16:22]. Key features discussed include:

• Massaging Seats & Electrochromic Roof: Both hosts appreciate the luxurious amenities, with Matt mentioning, "It has a good stereo" [17:07], likely referring to the high-quality Bowers and Wilkins audio system.
• Storage Solutions: The ID Buzz offers impressive storage, including a trunk with a folding shelf and bins, catering to practicality without sacrificing style.
• Seating Configurations: Each captain's chair is equipped with dual armrests, enhancing passenger comfort and versatility [42:20].

C. Driving Experience

While the ID Buzz impresses in several areas, the hosts point out notable drawbacks concerning its driving dynamics:

• Steering and Handling: Matt observes, "It is very precise" regarding the steering, though he admits it feels somewhat disconnected [16:22]. Zack concurs, appreciating the steering precision but noting the vehicle's large size affects maneuverability.

• Wind Buffeting Issues: A significant concern discussed is the severe wind buffeting when windows are down. Matt emphatically states, "It's the worst wind buffeting of any car I've ever driven" [39:21]. This issue undermines the vehicle's beach cruising appeal, making it uncomfortable at lower speeds.

• Braking Performance: Both hosts express dissatisfaction with the braking system. Matt notes, "The brakes are legitimately not good" [32:45], highlighting the vehicle's struggle to decelerate effectively, especially when fully loaded.

D. Practicality and Design Flaws

Several practical issues are raised regarding the ID Buzz's design:

• Turning Radius: The large wheelbase results in a poor turning radius, limiting the vehicle's agility in tight spaces [28:56].

• Window Mechanisms: The centralized window controls complicate usability, particularly for rear passengers attempting to access door pockets without closing the doors properly [49:44].

• Climate Control: Matt criticizes the climate control system's inefficiency in managing the vehicle's extensive glass surfaces, leading to temperature inconsistencies.

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3. Nostalgia in Automobiles: Successes and Failures

A. Successful Retro Models

The conversation shifts to the resurgence of nostalgic designs in the automotive industry. Zerack and Matt cite the Volkswagen Beetle as a prime example of successful nostalgia revival. Matt remarks, "The Beetle was a wildly successful product" [61:04], emphasizing its commercial success and enduring popularity.

Additionally, the hosts acknowledge the resurgence of iconic models like the Mustang and Camaro, which blend classic aesthetics with modern engineering, maintaining their status as favorites among enthusiasts.

B. Unsuccessful or Questionable Revivals

Contrasting the successes, Zack and Matt discuss models that attempted nostalgia but fell short:

• Volkswagen ID Buzz vs. Classic Beetle: While the ID Buzz aims to capture the Beetle's spirit, Matt believes it doesn't fully resonate with classic Beetle enthusiasts due to fundamental differences like engine placement and driving dynamics.

• BMW i8 and Koenigsegg Models: The BMW i8 is criticized for its unconventional design paired with a less powerful engine, making it appear out of sync with consumer expectations [57:23]. Similarly, Koenigsegg models are discussed, highlighting issues with engine choices that don't meet the high-performance standards expected from such brands.

• Chevrolet SSR and Other Throwbacks: Matt acknowledges the Chevrolet SSR as a successful retro model but suggests that some nostalgic revivals, like the BMW i8, struggle when their modern interpretations don't align with the performance or design elements that made the originals beloved.

C. Personal Anecdotes and Industry Insights

The hosts share personal stories, such as Matt's father's adventurous cross-country journey in a classic Beetle, illustrating the deep emotional connections enthusiasts have with nostalgic models. These anecdotes underscore the complexities of blending nostalgia with modern automotive technology.

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4. Patreon Poll: Future Content Directions

Engaging with their Patreon community, Zack and Matt discuss the results of a recent poll aimed at understanding their audience's preferences for future content creation amid challenges with their YouTube channel.

A. Poll Results and Preferred Content

The poll revealed three primary interests among patrons:

1. Live Podcast Tours (51%): The majority expressed a desire for live podcast recordings, potentially incorporating driving events or meet-ups.

2. Group Road Drives/Road Rallies (29%): A substantial portion favored organized road trips or rallies, allowing fans to participate in shared automotive experiences.

3. Travel Guides (16%): Some patrons suggested creating detailed travel guides, offering curated road trip itineraries complete with recommended stops and driving routes.

B. Implementation Challenges and Ideas

• Live Podcast Tours: While an appealing idea, Matt acknowledges logistical hurdles, such as coordinating locations and ensuring quality production during live events [70:58].

• Group Road Drives: Zack and Matt consider the potential of hosting road rallies, drawing inspiration from events like those organized by Drive while Awesome (DWA), which offer affordable entry by requiring participants to manage their accommodations and meals [71:07].

• Travel Guides: The hosts explore the possibility of developing downloadable guided road trip packages, combining video documentation, articles, and interactive maps to enhance the user experience [74:12].

C. Supporting Patreon and Content Value

Emphasizing the importance of Patreon support, Matt highlights, "The Patreon is really what is making the podcast worth doing" [75:22]. Both hosts discuss strategies to provide greater value to patrons, such as exclusive content, early access, and ad-free episodes, reinforcing the community-driven nature of their podcast.

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5. Additional Discussions

Throughout the episode, Zack and Matt engage in various other conversations, including:

• Automotive Accessories and Modifications: Discussions about items like bongs tailored for automotive use, reflecting the hosts' diverse interests and the intersection of lifestyle with automotive culture.

• Business Travel Anecdotes: Sharing humorous and exaggerated stories about expense reports and business-related automotive expenses, adding a lighter tone to the episode.

While these segments provide entertainment and personal insights, they serve as supplementary content to the main topics of vehicle reviews and nostalgia.

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6. Conclusion

In wrapping up the episode, Zack and Matt reaffirm their commitment to their Patreon-supported community, expressing gratitude to their patrons and emphasizing the collaborative spirit that drives their content creation. They tease future episodes, including a deep dive into the BGB Cayman and upcoming automotive events, ensuring listeners remain engaged and anticipating forthcoming discussions.

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Notable Quotes:

• "The ID Buzz is a look by van standards, it's pretty rad." – Matt Farah [15:02]

• "It really feels like a van for transporting adults." – Matt Farah [16:22]

• "It's the worst wind buffeting of any car I've ever driven." – Matt Farah [39:21]

• "The brakes are legitimately not good." – Matt Farah [32:45]

• "The Beetle was a wildly successful product." – Matt Farah [61:04]

• "The Patreon is really what is making the podcast worth doing." – Matt Farah [75:22]

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For more detailed discussions and car reviews, visit The Smoking Tire YouTube Channel. Follow the hosts on Twitter @thesmokingtire and @zackklapman, or on Instagram @thesmokingtire and @fakezackklapman.

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. My name is Matt Farah. And before we get to the program, y' all gotta know about off the Record, which I'm sure you already do because you listen to every single episode that we put out. And if you don't, you should. Off the Record is our sponsor. They are awesome. I love off the Record and so many of you do too. Leave a comment if off the Record has saved your backside on this program, because they have saved mine many, many times. Here's the scenario. You, you are minding your business on the freeway and there is a police officer who pulls you over for whatever. You then get a ticket. Don't argue with the officer. Fight it out in court with off the Record. Take that ticket, say thank you, sir, go on your way, and then call off the Record. They will assign an attorney in the jurisdiction where you got pulled over to fight that case. And most of the time they is getting them points off your record. And if they don't, you, you don't pay. It's like that. It's great. I love off the Record. You love off the Record. And the way you use off the Record is go to offtherecord.com TST that's offtherecord.com Tst. That'll get you 10% off all legal services from off the Record. And just keep that one handy because sooner or later you are going to need it. Just trust me on that. All right? On today's show, we review the Volkswagen ID Buzz Texas codifies Kei cars, making them fully titleable and legal. We talk about most and least successful attempts to revive nostalgia. And we go through a Patreon poll of what we could do with ourselves and our audience instead of making videos. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I look like a spinal.

[Matt Farah]

God damn bullshit.

[Zach Klapman]

As I keep saying, stupid human body, which is also like an absolute marvel of evolution.

[Matt Farah]

But yeah, and I was listening to a podcast, listen to behind the Bastards about Robert Maxwell. Shout out to. Shout out to Robert Evans. Not Robert Maxwell, Robert Evans. And behind the Bastards is excellent podcast. I'd love to get Robert Evans on this podcast if we could. You know, he was at Cracked. We talked about that. And like, Cracked is one of those sites that like 15 years ago was amazing. When I went cross country, I first learned about. I know the day I learned about Cracked when I went cross country with Alex Roy in the Polizi M5, he was like, do you read Cracked? This was like 2006. And I was like, no, what's that? And he just starts reading me shit. It was so fucking funny. And then it was sold to private equity and. And gutted. And that's why it's shit now. But everyone from that original team is, like, doing rock star shit at other levels. So, like, behind the Bastards and Cody Johnston of Some more news, which, by the way, today's Some more news is about why car insurance and. And the cost of car ownership is such a scam.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, wow.

[Matt Farah]

I can't fucking wait.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow. I feel like they've sped up their production lately. There seems like they're cranking out more.

[Matt Farah]

Stuff because they're now doing what we did seven years ago and doing a podcast on the same YouTube channel. I just should send him an email and tell them not to do that. It's not going to work out for them.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Even though I like their podcast. Actually, it's like a pretty good podcast. But they.

[Zach Klapman]

But if it's a huge departure from.

[Matt Farah]

What they're known for, it's exactly the fucking thing we did in 2017. Someone knows Cody's direct email. Please fucking hit me up. Cause I did send him a message on Instagram and was not responded to.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah. Or if you're listening, Cody, what was I gonna say? I wanted to write for Cracked when it was a thing and I just didn't know. And I didn't put in any legwork to figure out how to do that. I was reading it and I think I cold emailed someone and I was like, oh, man, it's like an actual humor website. Like, what an amazing invention. But that was the end of that.

[Matt Farah]

Gawker was the other one. I mean, all of the Gawker, the original Gawker properties, all of them, like, spawned, you know, people's careers that went on to, like, write and do other really good stuff too. Yeah. Before being fucked over. You know, exactly the same thing.

[Zach Klapman]

By Hulk Hogan.

[Matt Farah]

By Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Which is a. If you want to talk about an episode of behind the Bastards, that is a must listen and goes into detail about that is the Peter Thiel one.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, boy.

[Matt Farah]

Because it's all about Curtis Yarvin and that, like, insane philosopher. Yeah. And like you, it's just. And then now you start reading. You listen to that two years ago, and you start listen. Reading about Curtis Yarvin. Now you're like, shit, it's too real.

[Zach Klapman]

Not like I like the behind the Bastards. When it's like this person who's 85 did something 40 years ago is Vlad the Impaler. Well, it's like watching, I don't know, his biopics on Jeffrey Dahmer or something, which I'm not into. But I understand because people I keep talking to Sarah about this, like, why it seems like women are more drawn to the serial killer podcast content. And I say that anecdotally only because.

[Matt Farah]

No, Hannah likes the true. The true crime.

[Zach Klapman]

The only people I hear talking about it are female friends. I don't hear any dude friends being like, you know what I watched and loved. And I wonder if it's like, there's closure so there's safety. Like, you know, Dahmer was in jail and the case is solved. It's not an unsolved mystery. And they're out there.

[Matt Farah]

So Hannah does not listen to podcasts. Like, I listen to podcasts fucking at all. And it really makes me all the time consider that other people listen to podcasts the way that she does rather than I do. There's about four or five podcasts that I listen to, and I listen to almost all of their episodes and they're like, almost always about terrible people from history or it's Tom and Bert. That's pretty much all of the podcasts that I listen to. There's the dollop, whatever. There's four or five. And I listen to all the episodes and I'm in the car and traveling enough that that is actually like the right amount of content. Hannah subscribes to no podcasts, but using, like, browse features, seeks out like random podcasts about topical things, you know, like, and some of them are serialized and some of them are. Most of them are individual capsulized episodes. And she does return to a couple, the same ones here and there, but she'll literally be like on the fly. Be like, oh, here's. Here's one about this city in Oklahoma where everybody collects dollhouses, you know, or whatever the fuck. And while subscribing, while not listening to any podcasts that are like ours.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. Yeah, gotcha. She doesn't follow a show. She seeks out topics.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And shorter form and non committal, one might say. I'll have to ask her about the. I've never actually. I know she's done this, but I've never asked her about, like, what the psychology might be of that and if it somehow relates to why more women like murder mystery podcasts.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

Hannah also listens at 1.25.

[Zach Klapman]

We do that sometimes. Yeah. There's some people where if you turn it up a little bit, it doesn't really change the tone of their voice. But you know, we want to get going.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

We want the information for sure.

[Matt Farah]

And there's definitely podcasts that, you know, like recipe articles draw out.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

You know, things that don't need to be drawn. Or fucking Netflix for that matter. I mean, every four parter on Netflix is really a 1.5 parter, if not a 90 minute movie. Hops.

[Zach Klapman]

And there was also a style of podcasting that seemed to have emerged from like certain networks where there's a way they talk. So you know, John Samuels, it's like the NPR, right? It's that and. All right, let's go 1.25 here. Let's hear what John has to say.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, in fairness, like, I like live Pearl listening to live Pearl Jam because they play all their songs about 5% faster.

[Zach Klapman]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, especially if you, if you, if you really want to get nerdy. The period of about 2000 to 2010, the lot, the really heavy live period of Pearl Jam where they were doing three and a half hour sets and fucking 80 city tours. Like just crushing on the road, giant stadiums. You know, you can get all the bootlegs by. I have like so many of these bootlegs, but the live versions of their early songs when played at like 1.05. Fucking perfect.

[Zach Klapman]

I play them at 5x.

[Matt Farah]

You can't go back. I can't go listen to like the studio versions of 10 songs. Now they feel too slow.

[Zach Klapman]

I wonder if they consciously did that to up the energy at a show or they just were energized by being in front of huge audiences and everyone was amped, you know, like the whole band is like heart flutter stuff. And so drummer just starts playing a little too fast and the guitar starts, alright, I gotta keep up with the drummer.

[Matt Farah]

And well, think of the energy of. Well, they don't. First off, they don't change the tone throughout the song. But like that's like amateur band shit.

[Zach Klapman]

From the moment they sit down.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Maybe playing at whatever instead of 70 beats per minute, it's 75. Because of the energy.

[Matt Farah]

Could be. But they've done it consistently for the last 25 years. I've been seeing them live. So it's not like a fluke.

[Zach Klapman]

Gotcha. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

At this point it's just like what they do. But think about, you know, particularly this is so Pearl Jam nerdy. But the 10 album was their first album. Like it's not like they've never played A live show.

[Zach Klapman]

That wasn't the 10th.

[Matt Farah]

That a joke?

[Zach Klapman]

Kind of.

[Matt Farah]

10 is Pearl Jam's first album. 91. It's called 10 because it was Mookie Blaylock's number. Pearl Jam's original band name was Mookie Blaylock until Mookie Blaylock found out about it and they couldn't use the name anymore, so they called the album 10 instead.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Blaylock is a. Was a basketball player. Oh, he was a basketball player.

[Zach Klapman]

There we go.

[Matt Farah]

That's a person. They used his name as their man.

[Zach Klapman]

And his Jersey number was 10.

[Matt Farah]

Correct.

[Zach Klapman]

Now I understand.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Sorry. I needed to go a couple layers.

[Zach Klapman]

I had opened further there.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, right. But their first album, they never, you know, they didn't have that energy yet.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay, right.

[Matt Farah]

That came from, like, probably, like being successful at their first album maybe. Okay. Hi, everybody. Fucking somewhere. There's cars in there. I don't know where.

[Zach Klapman]

Use cars to get to the shows.

[Matt Farah]

They each have their own tour buses now.

[Zach Klapman]

Each band member. Yeah, that makes sense.

[Matt Farah]

On the road. Yeah. Because they have families and stuff and, you know. Yeah. If you're pimping like that, why would you not have your own tour? But who shares a tour bus? There's. They're almost 60.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, it's a good point. They make their own.

[Matt Farah]

You and I were worth a hundred million dollars. Are we sharing a tour bus? No, we're each getting our own. We're parking them next to each other and putting a little fire pit in between them. Yeah. Just probably what they do.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I've seen the buses. When you go, you know, you go see them, it's like they're all. They all look the same. They dope.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, that's, like, pretty. That's how you don't know who. Where. Where Vetter is.

[Matt Farah]

Did you go in that bus? We went in the bus at 10. 10, right.

[Zach Klapman]

Jeez.

[Matt Farah]

3.5. That bus was 3.5 million.

[Zach Klapman]

That was crazy.

[Matt Farah]

That's. That's.

[Zach Klapman]

It was nice. I mean, it was. It was very nice. Really crazy technology. Like a slide out cabinetry underneath and like granite things this and that. And. Yeah, it was wild.

[Matt Farah]

It was. It was quite luxurious.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I also could see how the depreciation happens on those because some of the materials inside were very nice for being in a bus. Legit. And some of them look like RV stuff because they have to be lightweight to a degree, you know, for the thing to be able to move. So you look at that and you go, that's not going to age great in five years, you know, and.

[Matt Farah]

And it's like a. Like a three and a half million dollar RV is like a $700,000 house, you know, it's not like a $3 million house on a bus. It's the other. It's like the other way around.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, I just wanted. I was curious. I just looked up used Prevost prices. I don't know what the spec is of these, but a big Prevost, that looks like the one we. We were in. This is a 2022 is for sale for 1.7.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, so 50% depreciation in three years.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Yeah, I would. I. That's what I was expecting, give or take.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So like an AMG kind of.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. You know what?

[Matt Farah]

You got to be rich.

[Zach Klapman]

This one. You can make popcorn.

[Matt Farah]

You got to be rich to be rolling in one of those.

[Zach Klapman]

Or Clarence Thomas.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's like pretty much what they look like. Yeah. Prevost Emerald H345, 1.7 million.

[Zach Klapman]

Can we get an interior shot here, please? To drive it.

[Matt Farah]

Isn't that crazy?

[Zach Klapman]

Just. Just hop in and go.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, no interior shots. Yeah, of course there's gonna be interior shots. It's got some of those. Oh, it's got a big pop up 80 inch that comes out of the side. So you can. Yeah, a lot of these, they have the slide out kitchens, you know, the outdoor kitchens rolled out on the drawers. This is just like big TV on the outside.

[Zach Klapman]

Big TV on the outside of the.

[Matt Farah]

Love it.

[Zach Klapman]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Inside it's, you know, quilted leather. Whoa. Like marble on the floor here.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I think it's a marble looking rug.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that's a rug.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, shit. Here we have the fake wood floor.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Lots of LED lighting.

[Zach Klapman]

So much.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, look, it does look nice.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And it actually looks just as nice as the one that we were on for double the money.

[Zach Klapman]

It does. So this is a pretty accurate look at. You got these.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, those chairs are the stressless chairs from Relax the Back. I know because I had one of those, remember? That was like my chair for like 10 years.

[Zach Klapman]

Those are great.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. All right. So. I mean, it's sick. Obviously it's sick. We're talking about a $1.7 million RV. It's pretty sick. But that is a 50% appreciated, give or take RV. You have to talk about money for the algorithm, you guys. You have to just. A wild, very important. You start the show by talking about money.

[Zach Klapman]

Highly relatable. $3.5 million RV.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, look, my guess is Pearl Jam's RVs are a business expense.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, of course.

[Matt Farah]

Straight up, there's probably cool. So there are actually a couple things to talk about. We drove the ID Buzz, so we can talk about the ID Buzz. I don't know what the SEO is on ID Buzz. I haven't put any pictures of it on Instagram yet. I was gonna do a Instagram review, but I'll have pictures up by the time this podcast airs for everybody else. And, yeah, the ID Buzz is a look. By van standards, it's pretty rad.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

By the standards of some other things, it's. It's maybe lacking. There's. There's really a lot to like. Like. Even though I don't particularly like it dynamically, there's a lot to like about it. Just from a charm vibe. It looks fabulous, especially in the bright colors. Pretty much all the bright colors. I don't really give a shit which one. I would like to see some really good colors that people come up with in, like, wraps or custom paint. I don't know if they're doing paint to sample on these, but I hope they are. That would be very sick. You know, there's people that were, like, slightly aghast that it's $70,000, but I have to say, it absolutely feels like every bit of a $70,000 vehicle. If a Rivian is a $70,000 vehicle, which it absolutely is, then this is a $70,000 vehicle. That's about the level of quality I see is between this and Rivian, I'd.

[Zach Klapman]

Say it's pretty nice. Most of the touch points are nice. There's a. There's some hard plastic here and there, which I expected from Volkswagen on the doors. Yeah, there are more USB ports in this thing than I think I've seen in any other car.

[Matt Farah]

There's a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, every passenger has their own, including front, right passenger. Like, there's one in the little, like, door nook, and then there's also ones in front of you. So there's. There's kind of tech all over the place.

[Matt Farah]

You know what I like a lot about it is it really feels like a van for transporting adults. It doesn't feel like necessarily something for running little kids around. I mean, you certainly could. But I can fit in the third row comfortably. Like, I've almost never been in a van where I can fit in the third row comfortably. And I can in this, the inside. I mean, the second and third row is pretty much the same as the Volkswagen European vans. That we've been riding around in on press launches. Sure. For the last couple of years. I mean, it's restyled a little bit, but like, they haven't reinvented the van. No, but like, this is like, oh, my God, 70 grand. It's a luxury van. Like the materials, especially in the front. Two seats.

[Zach Klapman]

We have massaging seats, heated, cooled seats.

[Matt Farah]

Electrochromic roof.

[Zach Klapman]

Electrochromic roof. And a huge electrochromic roof. It's what, five times longer than the one in a McLaren.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's.

[Zach Klapman]

The entire roof is electrochromic, which is pretty incredible. It's got, you know, radar cruise. Like it has all the technology that you would expect in a modern vehicle.

[Matt Farah]

It has a good stereo.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I actually had.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it has a pretty good stereo. I think it's. I think it's Bowers and Wilkins. I'll make sure I get that right on Instagram. But it does sound nice.

[Zach Klapman]

I would say the items it comes with add up to 70 grand.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It has really good storage solutions. Like that trunk. I really like the trunk with the folding shelf and the bins. That is fabulous. And all three rows have really good leg room and headroom for tall people. Like, you want to transport 6, 6 footers, you can do that in this thing. But also the sort of visual that they're trying to make to make it look like a throwback to the original transporter. Volkswagen microbus. It's basically what they did in the 90s with that beetle. Compared to the original Beetle. They put the engine in the other. It became a front wheel drive like golf based car. But they still had to have it do that throwback style. I actually think they did it more successfully with the Beetle than they did it here. You can't do a cab over now. And so it's trying to be this cab over, but the driver's head is like pretty far back from the front axle and really far back from the front bumper.

[Zach Klapman]

Several feet behind the front axle, I would say.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like, if you could, you could just put regular like Chrysler Pacifica minivan bodywork on this and it would fit.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, exactly the proportions of it. When you look at the profile and you kind of see through the visual trickery of the paint, you go, oh, it actually looks like a front engine minivan. You know, there could be a front engine, front engine up front.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Or a cab over axle is actually what we really. Even though. Because in the. In the original the engine would be in the back, but it could be a cab over axle, which it's clearly not. Having said that, one of the things I put in the good column is the novelty of feeling like you're driving a monorail.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. You feel like you're at the front. Front of a train.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

The wraparound glass helps with that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But like, it's a quirk. It's not for everybody, but it is. You know, I'm at the end of the fucking car Rainbow here. I've seen everything.

[Zach Klapman]

The level of you ran out of drugs and you're like, give me. I want to drive a monorail. And they're like, all right, I'm taking.

[Matt Farah]

Delivery of a thing with an airplane engine in it. I'm out of options here.

[Zach Klapman]

You are very close to reaching Sultan of Brunei where you're like, build me a ram truck that's the size of a building.

[Matt Farah]

It's ramous.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I meant the one that has the apartment in it. You know, like that's. Now this is how you get there.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Is access.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Folks, we gotta take a quick break for today's sponsor, hellofresh. Yo. The summer is here and that means fresh air, sunshine and good food with your friends. And hellofresh makes it easier to fit quick home cooked meals into your schedule each week by curating delicious recipes like pasta primavera, chicken dijon and pecan crusted trout, as well as over 100 seasonal snacks, sides and treats. They've offered even more for 2025. Every possible lifestyle. We've got ready made meals with chef crafted, flavorful dishes that are ready in just three minutes. So you can dig in and get outside, get work done, or get some me time. And every hellofresh meal uses high quality ingredients, including seasonal fresh produce and proteins that travel from the farm to your doorstep. I personally like hellofresh because I like to. I like the cooking part of cooking. I don't like the shopping part and I really don't like the figuring out what to make that's gonna be easy and quick and delicious, but also isn't something I've made a million times. I love that my hellofresh shows up with recipes that I've chosen off the website, but are maybe not things that I would actively choose out of recipe books to make. But I know because it's easy, because the ingredients are coming perfectly proportioned, because it's gonna taste great at the end. That I'm happy to get Hellofresh so you can fit great meals that fit your spring schedule and make the season even more delicious. If you go to hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm man they are really getting complex with these codes. Write it down folks. Hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm and that stands for 10 free meals with a free item for life, one per box with active subscription free meals applied as a discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. Hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm and we're also brought to you today by Kremo. Loving this Kramo because I have been trying to be a good husband to my wife and doing morning workouts. That's right. Normally I'm an afternoon workout guy, but I have been hitting the gym before work and going to legree class with my wife and the exercise is good but coming to work after is problematic. Also if I'm up on the mountain all morning filming, it is hot up there now and there is some potential for stank. And Kraimo is here to solve this, providing men with 48 hour odor protection. Kraimo products are all barber grade, made with pride, professionalism and passion to guarantee you quality without compromise. I'm using the Italian Bergamot this week. It is delicious. The skin is great, my body smells great and my wife likes it too with their deodorant. It's awesome. Krameau's got that enhanced multi layered scent technology for a longer lasting experience so you can apply it once and enjoy how you smell all day. But deodorant isn't just for smelling good and avoiding sweat. The scent you choose sets the tone of how you present yourself and Kramo helps men make an unforgettable impression every time. This stuff smells nice guys. It does. I really like it. It's natural, it makes me smell manly and it does keep me from sweating through my clothes when I go to work after the gym. Yep. And Kramo has got other stuff too. A wide range of other grooming products for men including shaving cream, beard oil and shampoo so you can find your favorite scent and buy the whole body care line. Head over to target or target.com to find Krameau's new line of antiperspir, sprints and deodorants in the Italian Bergamot and Palo Santo scents. Once again, look for Cremo at target or target.com and now back to the program. So the novelty of feeling like you're driving a monorail or a train. I can't think of any other car that feels like driving a monorail. And if that seems like a fun if you're a real Disney monorail person. You go, I want to feel like I'm driving a fucking monorail. This is your car. It's here.

[Zach Klapman]

I wonder. I feel like that market is either infinitesimally smaller than you imagine or way bigger than I imagine.

[Matt Farah]

Way bigger than you imagine.

[Zach Klapman]

If anyone who's watching or listening has wanted to drive a monorail, please put it in the comments.

[Matt Farah]

Disney freaks outnumber car freaks. Sure, maybe not Disney monorail freaks.

[Zach Klapman]

That's what I'm talking about.

[Matt Farah]

But still, there's enough of a crossover of like hippie boomers and fucking monorail freaks. That is a niche.

[Zach Klapman]

To your point, the only time I went to Disneyland when I was seven, I remember being on the monorail vividly.

[Matt Farah]

Me too. I demanded we stay at that hotel. I believe it's called the Contemporary, where the monorail goes through the middle of the hotel. It's like almost like a pyramid shaped hotel. And the monorail goes right fucking in. And you're there having that unlimited pancake ass buffet. And it's like, I was obsessed with that shit. I didn't give a fuck about Mickey Mouse. I was like, oh my God, I just wanted to watch that.

[Zach Klapman]

You were a huge fan of public transportation even as a young man. You're like, give me a go kart and an electric monorail, dude.

[Matt Farah]

Listen. Walt Disney may have had some incredibly problematic views, but his views on transit were bang the fuck on. He wanted all of Los Angeles to look like Disney World, where you'd park on the outside and you'd walk and you have a transit system. Like there's. Oh, is it Shit. Whose fucking podcast? Where was it? What book did I read it in? God, it must have been one of the parking books. I gotta go find it. The chapter about Walt Disney and Master. It was fascinating stuff. I mean, obviously, if you're black or Jewish, Walt Disney is not your guy. And highly problematic individual. Sure enough, on the area of transit. The man was a visionary. And actually when he died, fucking all of it just got steamrolled right over. If he lived maybe 15 or 20 years longer, it would have made a big difference in public transportation.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, he would have had to fight Firestone and Shell and all them. Right?

[Matt Farah]

But he was Walt Disney. Walt Disney's. That's fucking heavy.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, he would have the children, they would support him, the young voter would grow up with him and then he'd go, by the way, please vote for his monitoring public transit.

[Matt Farah]

You want monorails? So wait, ID, Buzz.

[Zach Klapman]

Big Tire wants to Separate us.

[Matt Farah]

Back to ID Buzz. Okay. I wrote a good bad list. Good. I actually really like the looks. I love the vibe. It's very comfortable. The storage solutions are great. And although the steering isn't much connected, it is very precise. I thought the steering for a van is pretty good. The wind buffeting. Dude, we have to talk about the wind buff. This is such a.

[Zach Klapman]

Let's finish good things first and then we'll go. Is that the end of your list?

[Matt Farah]

The last thing. I mean, the last thing on the list is it feels like driving a monorail. So I actually did, you know, first part last.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay. I. Every time I got in it, I just felt like in a good mood. And I think part of it is the brightness.

[Matt Farah]

That's the vibe.

[Zach Klapman]

Huge greenhouse. The color selection of the interior. Ours was like a cream and a. Almost not tangerine. What is that? What is the ice cream?

[Matt Farah]

Shermer.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, like an orange sherbet color. And it was just friendly and airy. And once you get going, it's a wonderful thing to drive. And it's pretty quiet despite the size of it. Like, wind noise is not bad. With windows closed.

[Matt Farah]

With the windows closed now, one of.

[Zach Klapman]

The prices you pay for having all this legroom. This thing is humongous. Like parking it. It's gotta be. I feel like it's longer than an R1S. I'll look it up in a second. But it just. It's a wide vehicle and a long vehicle.

[Matt Farah]

It's not longer than an S. Oh, an S. R1s it might be, but it also doesn't have rear steer. R1S has rear ste. And so it's able to have a very tight turning radius. This doesn't have rear steer, and the wheels are pushed out to the corners of the body. So, yeah, the turning radius stinks. You know, in Europe, they do a shorter wheelbase. This would be the only one we get here is the longer wheelbase from this.

[Zach Klapman]

So this is 195. So it's actually five inches shorter than an R1S. So, yeah, it just feels longer because of the lack of wheels.

[Matt Farah]

I bet. Look up the wheelbase versus the R1s. I bet it's longer. And I bet the. And the lack of rear steer would certainly make a difference in the tight turning range.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. R1S wheelbase is 121. And ID, Buzz. ID buzz is 129. You are right. Yeah. Eight inches. Cool.

[Matt Farah]

But okay, so there are a couple of bad things. The ride. You know what the ride reminds me of? You know how Speaking of Rivians, you know how the R1T rode perfectly, and then the R1S was a little. They clearly had developed everything for the T and then just made it shorter and it, like, wasn't quite right. Speaking of Rivian, you know how they started with the R1T and then they went to the R1S and they shortened it, which is better for a lot of reasons. But something was always kind of off with the suspension. It never quite rode as well. It was sort of seemed like maybe the whole setup was, like, matched for the longer wheelbase. And it got, like, a little better over time, but it still isn't, like, quite right. I feel like the ID buzz is maybe a little the same. Like, maybe if you got the shorter wheelbase one, like, available in Europe, the ride might be a little better. But something about the ride in this, it's like, a little off. Like, the way it sort of, like, bounces and moves a little bit. It's like a. Not. It could be because the wheels are just so far out to the corners. And it's also a big vehicle.

[Zach Klapman]

I thought it rode fine.

[Matt Farah]

I think it rides fine in some situations, and it rides weird in others. It has, like, weird movements over, like, turning into, like, for instance, like, you know, when you turn into my street to go up the hill, that transition is, like, real, like, wobbly, like, wa. Wa. That. Like left, right, you know, a hard rock back and forth.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Like, a lot of those transitions are like a pretty hard, hard movement back and forth. And I also, in the city was getting some of these sort of, like, wave, like, bounces. I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

I felt like maybe I just didn't drive the same roads, but I felt like over, you know, the big bumps on 405, the little things around here, it muted it all pretty well. And I. And it seemed like a one and done damper. You know, I didn't feel like there were secondary bounces happening.

[Matt Farah]

No, that's true.

[Zach Klapman]

So I. I thought it. It doesn't feel like a cheap ride, which I was glad.

[Matt Farah]

No, it's not.

[Zach Klapman]

Unreal. Sophisticated enough.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I don't know. Maybe if. Maybe this is phantom shit. I don't know. Certainly those transitions are the. Are a big, like, vertical.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure. I mean, you're also sitting up higher, so maybe it's a little bit of like, you know, the pen, not the pendulum, like the. The lever because you're at the top.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Versus, I don't know, we have to look up the seating height of this versus, like, R1s.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, but like, compared to my Delica, which is actually closer to an original Volkswagen than this is, those things are much better in the Delica with a shorter wheelbase and a cab over, but also squishy off road tires. This has big like whatever 21s or whatever those are. It wouldn't keep me from buying it, let's just say that. But it was like a criticism of it dynamically where I'll tell you what, when you put it in one pedal drive mode, which I like too, in this car, it was enough where it made my foot bounce, which then also made it jerkier, which created a sort of perpetual cycle of bouncy jerky. Okay, so the one pedal drive was tuned a little too sensitive to be paired with this suspension. I tried it shoes and I tried it barefoot. And in both cases the bounces made my foot do that and it made the car jerk.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure, if the throttle is too sensitive, especially on a one. I mean, it's like the Jaguar Sport problem from back in the day, but yeah, that can create this perpetuating cycle. On, off, on off, on off.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, exactly. So it wouldn't keep me from buying the car, but like I wish they would numb that down just a little bit. The brakes are legitimately not good. Yeah, they're just not good. I don't know if something has happened to this vehicle that the brakes would for some reason be smoked in an ID buzz.

[Zach Klapman]

Maybe every journalist took it to the canyons like we, we were using it as like a film vehicle. Not to canyon test it, but it feels under braked for the mass or whatever. And considering so many EVs tend to have fantastic braking because they use the regen pretty aggressively, it's weird to be in one where you go, well, I'm assuming it's using regen and caliper or maybe it's not using both. But like it slows down at a rate that is surprising. Yeah, it's heavy, but they're all heavy.

[Matt Farah]

I haven't done a full bore panic stop yet. Maybe I'll do that today. I'll try that. And maybe it's like you just have to get to the floorboard before. I haven't tried that. I don't know. Most people wouldn't just do that. But it does matter. I will say at 2/3 to 3/4 of full pedal pressure, I am surprised at how ineffective the brakes are. And I think Volkswagen knows because when we use radar cruise control, the following distances are very conservative. Yeah, I had it on follow at the Closest level. And it was a huge gap compared to what my Taycan would follow in the same setting. And my Taycan has the base breaks. I don't have ceramics or any of that shit. I have like regular ass or the.

[Zach Klapman]

Mustang Mach E would follow much closer. And this has five or six levels of proximity adjustment, whereas most cars have four.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So I, I would have thought that they would use that so you could space it out more specifically. But even with the closest one. Yeah, it was like other cars. Two or three. Setting of two or three and we weren't dry.

[Matt Farah]

We have never driven it with more than two people in it. And so I can't imagine the difference. If you've got six. If you've got six, the brakes aren't going to be any better.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Matt Farah]

I think. Yeah. We just talked about gross vehicle weight. If you've got an extra £800 in this thing, that's not gonna get better. That one. The brakes wouldn't necessarily. Also wouldn't necessarily keep me from buying the car. But it is a little concerning. I wouldn't want a car actually that might keep me from buying the car. That breaks.

[Zach Klapman]

No. You know what would keep you from buying this car? We didn't hit it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. No. The last thing that would. There's a 100% deal breaker that we're gonna get to in a second. Would it keep me from buying the car? Probably. Would it keep me from recommending it to my mother if she wanted to run around Connecticut in one out of nostalgia? Probably not. I feel like my mother's following distance is sufficient to not push the brakes.

[Zach Klapman]

I wouldn't. It wouldn't keep me from recommending this car to people because I don't think. I think most people just make do and they'll put more foot in the pedal or whatever. Unless you do a panic stop later and then it seems like it's under brake to, you know, that would be. Then I would be more concerned.

[Matt Farah]

Well, I tried to get my mother and my sister out of their first gen Toyota Highlanders because they literally didn't have enough brakes. You could press the brake pedal to the floorboard in my sister's car and not activate abs. And they took it to the dealer a couple times and they said it was within spec. And I was, I was like, I. I'm not driving that and you shouldn't drive it either. Either.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

It was. It was crazy. And we had two of them. It was.

[Zach Klapman]

Your cars. Did they have.

[Matt Farah]

It was whatever. The first gen Toyota Highlander was 2018.

[Zach Klapman]

They had a recall for the brake vacuum pump.

[Matt Farah]

This was way before that. This would have been like 2004 or something.

[Zach Klapman]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, because I would have been. Yeah, that would have. It would have been like 04.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, because I. Or maybe, oh, two. Like whatever the earliest Highlanders were, they were fucking garbage. I mean, it was. I couldn't believe it. They were based on the RX 300, which is like one of the greatest cars ever made.

[Zach Klapman]

But was it same chassis and everything?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, okay.

[Matt Farah]

The Highlander went the other way from the RX 300. The same way that the, like the Camry to the ES is the other way to the Highlander. You know what I mean?

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, in terms. Yeah, the fanciness went down.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But then. But then the Highlander has grown since then, I think.

[Matt Farah]

Right. So now the Highlander to go up from the Highlander is not an rx, it's the tx. My dad just bought one. He got rid of his Highlander and I didn't. I talk about that.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Shout out to that Lexus dealer. Was it Lexus of Hilton Head, Lexus of Bluffton? Wherever you're at, shout out to him. TX.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

A TX500. I think that's what my dad got. Is That a thing?

[Zach Klapman]

Yes, 500H.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, he got it. He fucking loves that. He's about it. He's like. He's like. It's all blacked out first. His first blacked out car. He's really excited about. Yeah, I forgot where I was going with that. So anyway, the deal breaker brakes. That's where I was going with that first gen Highlander brakes. They're shit. The deal breaker, the fucking wind buffeting. This one is. This is so crazy. I cannot believe this vehicle left the factory or the design floor like this. How could it have happened? Like, how could somebody go, let's build the most perfect California beach cruising vehicle possible. But you can't put the windows down.

[Zach Klapman]

You really can't. And you are more sensitive to wind buffeting than I am because you drive around with the windows down a lot. And I don't. However, I agree with you completely on this because I was driving in the Canyons, you were driving in the subject car and I noticed it. Whether the front windows are down. Sorry. Whether the rear windows are open or not. And I started adjusting the speed from like 27, 29, 34. It just kept getting worse. And those are the beach cruising speeds. We're not talking about your 70 miles per hour on the highway. This is perfect around town speed and it is so loud it just gives you a slow concussion.

[Matt Farah]

It's the worst wind buffeting of any car I've ever driven in the history of driving cars. Previous worst offenders included the first gen Volt that was so bad that you could take your car back, which I did, and force them to put fins on the mirror at their cost. And this one was bad because they had to, they weren't like plastic glue on shit because this was like a TSB at the factory level. They had to take apart the mirror housings, paint the part and the dealer would do anything to talk you out of it.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

So the guy tried to talk me out of it because they didn't want to do it. And he tried to be like, you know your range is going to go down, I don't give a fuck. He goes, yeah, you're going to lose like 2, 3 miles of electric range. I go, I can't drive this car with the windows down. I'm gonna return the car, put the fucking. And they did. Range didn't change a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

They might do that with these because this is a serious problem.

[Matt Farah]

It's horrific.

[Zach Klapman]

And of course, by the way, this car is based on the VW 21. Window open all the windows, drive around like say hi to the beach and you can't do that. You are in a greenhouse. You're like in a terrarium and you are cosplaying as old hippie person.

[Matt Farah]

And actually considering you're stuck in the terrarium, the climate control isn't that powerful. Like it's fine but it's not like considering you're. It's glass and there's a lot of space, you have to really crank it. Like if I set it to like 71 auto, sure it'll be that here the top of my head will be hot.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh yeah, the. Even with the electrochromic roof, it obviously is going to heat up a bit. Like I think if I, if I bought one of these I would do the Johnny Lieberman and get the roof tinted also with a ceramic tint. Yeah, the glass roofs are cool and obviously it adds to the area atmosphere that I like. It's bright but over time it's in la it would get really hot and.

[Matt Farah]

You gotta have a real pair of fucking balls to get a white steering wheel on a car. That's crazy. I mean if you had this car you would have to budget and I shit you not, you can go watch our Taycan video where I now have experience with this Because I have a car with a light colored interior. I would budget easily $1,000 a year on interior cleaning alone in this white interior vehicle. It's going to get gnarchti in there.

[Zach Klapman]

There are other interior choices which I'll.

[Matt Farah]

Pull up, of course.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, our interior photographs. Great. But would wear terribly.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I would avoid. I would avoid the white. But having said no, ours are. Have. Ours doesn't have that.

[Zach Klapman]

This is ours.

[Matt Farah]

Ours is that. Yeah, it's white. White.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

With like the little orange inserts on the door uppers.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, by the way, you know how the door armrests seem like, not right. Did you know there's also a fold down outboard armrest? Yeah. Oh. Did you like it?

[Zach Klapman]

I mentioned the car. I was like, this thing has two armrests. That's awesome.

[Matt Farah]

I didn't know that's what you meant. I thought you meant it had the. The inner. And then than that.

[Zach Klapman]

No, no, because the door one is too high far. Yeah, yeah. So this has. Each captain's chair has its own armrest on either side.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like sort of a Land Rover style armrest.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like, it's as if you were meant to swivel the chair around to talk to the passengers when you camp. And it has two armrest, which maybe it doesn't.

[Matt Farah]

The steering wheel. I don't think it swivels. No, no, no, the steering. The steering wheel is a little too high and tilted a little too much away from you. It's actually okay if you. What you want to do is put your elbows on both armrests and then drive on just the bottom of the steering wheel. It's good at that. But I really need to be able to get the steering wheel lower and closer to me. And that tilt angle is weird. It's exactly the same as we experienced in a Tiguan five years ago. But this is a lovely. I mean, you look at this picture of the dash, the interior layout, it's a lovely place to spend your time, you know, to go on like a road trip or whatever. Would be. Would be quite good. No problems with the range. Mid twos? Yeah, you know, mid two is fine. I've been charging at home. I haven't tried to fast charge it, but that. But the wind buffeting, dude, I'm not, I can't. If you, you can't drive with the windows down at very low speeds. And can you look, Google, is there an aftermarket fix? Is there a fix for ID Buzz Wind buffeting. Maybe there's like some forums. If there, there's going to be an aftermarket fix and it's going to be the same thing it always is, which is just a very simple change to the outboard mirror housings. That's what it always is. Porsche 991s and 992s. Horrible wind buffeting. You can get different mirror caps. My Taycan has buffeting, but only at highway speeds under like 60. It's fine. And the other problem with the fucking ID buzz with this, the Taycan has buffeting. If you put the window all the way down. Most cars you only get buffeting. If you put the window down a couple inches, you don't get buffeting. Right.

[Zach Klapman]

Which windows?

[Matt Farah]

Front windows. If you put them down a couple inches, you don't get buffeting. Or if you balance it out with a window on the other side or a rear window, you don't get buffeting. In this car, as you discovered, there's no escape.

[Zach Klapman]

So Reddit has a thread going about it does not look like there's. Oh, here's Buzzform. I'll look at that too. Someone said that if you close the rear windows like halfway, which I admit I did not experiment.

[Matt Farah]

You didn't try a halfway?

[Zach Klapman]

I just went down. Because it works in most cars. They say that that helps a lot. And then a bunch of people are like, keep the windows closed, it's more efficient anyway. Which is, you know, not a good excuse.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, shut up. Yeah, it's one thing if it happened at 70, I would understand. And what's tough about this, and I kind of feel for Volkswagen and other people here typically, and I'm sure someone, a two egg or one of these guys can give us the exact scientific relationship for this. But the more aerodynamically effective a car's shape is with the windows closed, it seems that that also is the more buffeting you get with the windows down. And when I drive cars that are really not aerodynamically efficient, that could be a Jeep Wrangler. That could be the Delica. That could be even like an 80s supercar. 80's supercars are not aerodynamically efficient at all. They just look like it. Those cars are great with the windows down because they're not that aerodynamic. But the more aerodynamic you get, the worse the buffeting gets. So lucid. This, all that kind of shit, it's really bad, but it's just so bad in this at low speeds. That's where it drives me nuts.

[Zach Klapman]

So there are some companies now selling an aftermarket wind deflector okay, what does it look like?

[Matt Farah]

Is it something that would really change the look of the vehicle or you just made a face?

[Zach Klapman]

Well, it's just a lot of pieces, but, you know, where does it go? No, confirm.

[Matt Farah]

I can't do the. What. What am I looking at? Where the fuck does this thing go?

[Zach Klapman]

Oops. I don't think it's hidden all along. Where'd the fucking buzz go?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, my God. Is that. Are those like. No, those are vent guards for, like. For smoking in the rain. Yeah, that was how I used to roll, probably in the Mercury Mountaineer. That's not what this is.

[Zach Klapman]

That's not what you want. And these look like they're made for, like, every car. It would go around the window.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, you'd put that on a 92 accord. That's not.

[Zach Klapman]

That looks terrible, that Civic here.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it can't be that. I'll tell you what, though, as a smoker in the Northeast, if you know what's up with those, man, when you were rolling, like, pack a day and it was all weather, you get that 2 inch, 3 inch crack in the window and fucking, you're good to go. It's all right, here's.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, here's another. This one's on. This one's easier to see, but either way, it does. It is exactly what you said. So this goes around the outside of the window.

[Matt Farah]

I don't think these are. I mean. Well, that one does look better, admittedly, that one goes inside the sort of frame of it. But I don't think they're meant to do that. I think this is meant to do the. So you can lower the window and have a cigarette with a couple cracks.

[Zach Klapman]

But isn't the science of that the same as it sends the rain and stuff around the window?

[Matt Farah]

Not. No, I don't think it's like, what.

[Zach Klapman]

Was the problem with smoking in the car with the windows down without the deflector?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, like water and shit would come in when it was raining.

[Zach Klapman]

Because the wind would bring the water into the car.

[Matt Farah]

Well, yes, but also, like, water would flow off of the windshield and into the car and stuff like that.

[Zach Klapman]

Because it would come around.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you'd crack the window so it didn't dip below the visor. That was the thing. It was literally just. The water couldn't make a U turn and come in.

[Zach Klapman]

Got it.

[Matt Farah]

It didn't. It would not fix buffeting. Okay, But I was driving a fucking Mercury Mountaineer. That's basically a refrigerator with wheels. Sure, but that wouldn't have buffeted it anyway.

[Zach Klapman]

But perhaps the water coming around the window was the same as little pieces of string that Dan Gurney used to understand. Aerodynamics, though.

[Matt Farah]

This is just some garbage. This isn't like. This isn't a thing that's designed. Where does it say this fixes buffeting?

[Zach Klapman]

It just says wind deflector.

[Matt Farah]

That's not the same thing. That's not. I'm sorry. It's not. Okay, fine.

[Zach Klapman]

We'll have to see.

[Matt Farah]

As far as I know, if someone out there knows of an actual fix, it's like a mirror housing or a deflector that's for buffeting. Let me know. But, like, fuck, that's a deal.

[Zach Klapman]

I think that that will be developed. I think the car's new, but this is a known problem. That's crazy. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That's like a more egregious aerodynamic error than like the Audi TT wing.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, that was more egregious because it was dangerous.

[Matt Farah]

This is dangerous, too. Blow out your eardrum. You drop the window at 90 miles an hour, you might lose your fucking hearing on this thing.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. It's gonna vacuum your brain out of your head.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And this afternoon, I'll test fucking full break to the floor and see what happens. We didn't do that one yet.

[Zach Klapman]

Rear window half down.

[Matt Farah]

Halfway. They don't go down. They go back or back, whatever. Like that wind. Oh, this one doesn't have it. But the one in the photo that you have have.

[Zach Klapman]

You know.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. They go.

[Zach Klapman]

This has that. I hate it has the same switch, same window switch as the ID4 head. You don't have an individual rear window switch. You have to tap the capacitive thing that says rear. And you have to notice the light on. And then use the same switches you use for the front windows, for the back windows. Yeah, I wish. This van is so big.

[Matt Farah]

Wait.

[Zach Klapman]

And I hated that.

[Matt Farah]

Here's something that's infuriating. Dude. If you put something. If you're sitting in the back seat.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And you put something like a water or whatever in the door pocket that's in the sliding doors. That's your door pocket. If you're in the middle row, you then open the door and you want to. The door. The way the door opens. You cannot get anything out of that pocket while the door is open. You can't reach in there. The angle is not possible.

[Zach Klapman]

I kind of expect that. Because the door.

[Matt Farah]

Other vans, you can reach. If you've got something in the wall. Yeah. And it's open, you can go.

[Zach Klapman]

It stays open.

[Matt Farah]

Just a little A little bit, yeah. And your water bot, the cup holder portion of that door pocket is still accessible. And then you can. If you take that out, you can, because it's there. You can reach your hand in for whatever's also there. If you've got a book in there or something. You know what I'm talking about?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, right. Yeah. I just. I think maybe Volkswagen went well. We can open the door more for better ingress egress and has all this leg room for tall people.

[Matt Farah]

I'm just saying that my coffee cup sat in there for a couple of days because I was like, I didn't want to, like, get in the van, close the door, get the coffee cup because it's this slow, like, power door, and then get it out. I didn't want to get in the van just to take the coffee cup out. So it sat there until I had to get in the van again.

[Zach Klapman]

So you have to use the cup holders on the back of the center console then?

[Matt Farah]

I suppose. Yeah. I hadn't at the time considered that, but yes, that's true.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm more pissed off about the window switch, but that's because I'm still mad about it.

[Matt Farah]

Well, there's just. There are a series of errors that make this car unnecessarily frustrating to use. But, like, I still respect it because it has. It says something or it at least. At least makes a valiant effort at trying to say something from a. Like a stylist, a stylistic perspective. And there is genuine substance there. Like, in terms of, like, minivans, like, it's probably the nicest minivan I've driven straight up. You driven a nicer minivan?

[Zach Klapman]

A nicer one than this?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

It's very nice.

[Matt Farah]

It's very nice.

[Zach Klapman]

They're all pretty impressed. Like, top spec ones, even Pacifica and stuff are pretty impressive. Very comfortable, A lot of tech, a lot of places to plug things in if the seats are designed well. And this just has an EV powertrain, so it's quieter and smoother and has all of those things, all of those attributes.

[Matt Farah]

But from, you know, from that air bright, airy design and, you know, comfy seats massaging, which, by the way, the massage seats are nice, but they use air bladders, which, as they're inflating and deflating, massaging you, it sounds like you're in a room with somebody that's on a fucking ventilator. Like, it's like at a certain. I turned off the radio at one point, I'm driving around it's, it's electric, so it's otherwise very quiet. Yeah. And I'm like, yo, is there. Is there an iron lung?

[Zach Klapman]

That's exactly what it's like.

[Matt Farah]

It's.

[Zach Klapman]

It's a little different. And it. Remember that, I think Dodge. Dodge's AC seats, when you turn up to, like, level two, it sounded like a second radiator fan kicked on. And the number of times I was driving a Dodge product and I turned the radio down and go, what's making that noise? And I go, oh, my God, it's a seat. It's a SEAT fan.

[Matt Farah]

Listen, is your ass swampy? I mean, really swampy? You know, like Louisiana swampy ass. Our ventilated seats here at Ram, our seats go up to 12. Listen, you might need a Cummins in the front, but you got a fucking 1500 CFM in the back. You know what I'm saying, brother?

[Zach Klapman]

When you're towing your fanboat, you want your own fan. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Nobody does it like Porsche, though. They go from blow to suck.

[Zach Klapman]

Does a Mercedes do that too?

[Matt Farah]

Does Mercedes do suck also? Who else does suck? I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

Pretty rare.

[Matt Farah]

Let us know if anyone else is sucking out there. But as far as far as I can personally confirm, Porsche is a superior fart sucking disposal device. Yeah. Fucking.

[Zach Klapman]

I can't wait to clip this.

[Matt Farah]

If you're riding in a car with someone and it's winter and they mysteriously turn on the cooled seats.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a great point.

[Matt Farah]

I'm just saying there's something to hide. But you can also, you can do heated and cooled seats together when you can do that.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay, you talk about this a lot. Why? Why? Why?

[Matt Farah]

It only works if it's a suck, right? Because what it does is it heats, but then it sucks away the humidity. Like, if you ever turn on heated seats because you want it for, like, therapeutic reasons, right. Maybe it gets a little humid, a little sticky back there. I'm talking like if it's for a while, like on a road trip or something, right? And if you turn on the cooling, it wicks away the humidity.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

You don't want to turn them like full crank, but if you do like two heat, one cool, like, that's a pretty nice combination. And after a couple hours, your back won't be a little sticky the way that it would have been if you just had the heated seat on like the whole time.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay, so you just. You basically want the fan to pull the moisture away. Yeah, we talked about that. It's a dehumidifier at that point, I always. And you've been talking about this for a long time, and I was always like, why does he want to heat his body and cool it at the same fucking time?

[Matt Farah]

You're like, what a fucking glutton that guy is. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Cause you're always like, you can have everything, but then you end up back at zero.

[Matt Farah]

No, it's not net zero. There is an actual function. Yeah. And once you try it, you go, oh, that's fucking kind of nice.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Maybe if you're, like, not fat and constantly self conscious about being sweaty in public, then you don't care. Maybe then it's not a function you need. But, like, I'm gonna go ahead and say that a significant percentage of Porsche buyers are fat enough that. That's justified.

[Zach Klapman]

That makes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, it's good for me. I'm a big fan. Shout out to my big boys that know what to do with those red and blue buttons.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, your back's not sweaty when you.

[Matt Farah]

Got to integrate them shits.

[Zach Klapman]

Do you like to wear gray T shirts? You need this function.

[Matt Farah]

Do you own nine identical gray T shirts? Yes. But it made me think, if we wanted to consider this, you know, what are some other very successful and very unsuccessful attempts at somewhat cynical automotive nostalgia?

[Zach Klapman]

Chevy ssr.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. That's to go. Yeah, that's to go back, you mean.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, do you want new examples?

[Matt Farah]

No, I mean, not necessarily. I mean, there's some. There's some, like, successful ones. The SSR for sure. The. The. Oh, I think it was the Mustang and Camaro.

[Zach Klapman]

No, I think. Yeah, I think the SSR was like. Like we've gone too far, personally. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, actually, like, the Prowler, like, could have been successful and I guess in some ways was successful, but, like, it's not really looked upon very kindly because of the powertrain. But, like, I'm not sure that's the fault of the design. They always said they couldn't fit a V8, but, like, they clearly could have figured out a way to if they really wanted to.

[Zach Klapman]

That would have helped a lot. I mean. Yeah, it's so interesting now that you bring that up, that in the last 10 years, the car companies, especially Dodge, have realized if you put the biggest fucking engine you make in something, people will buy it and they'll be excited about it. But with Prowler, they were like, well, people will be happy enough with a V6 and. Absolutely not.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I do think most car companies have figured out to stop making cars that look really outlandish and have puny Engines.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

Actually, that's not true at all. I mean, I guess the BMW i8 was. Well, it was 10 years ago, but that was fairly outlandish looking with a pretty puny engine.

[Zach Klapman]

But I also think that that hurt that car's sales.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I think it was.

[Zach Klapman]

Look at this exotic spaceship car. What's in it? A three cylinder with a hybrid system.

[Matt Farah]

And everyone's like, Koenigsegg tried to. I mean, even Christian couldn't convince people, like whatever thousand horsepower, three cylinder, whatever he was selling, he discontinued it, according to him, because nobody wanted it.

[Zach Klapman]

Makes sense.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

In that market. Market, your customer has all the money.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And you go, well, we have a three cylinder or an amazing twin turbo V8. And like, what are they gonna do?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, no, people like, people with that kind of money. They. They want an intro, an interesting machine to talk about, you know.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes. But I think, yes, it also has to compete with the other options out there that are interesting.

[Matt Farah]

Well, it has to be powerful first and foremost. But now with electrification, powerful is like a joke. Powerful is easy.

[Zach Klapman]

No. And I think a three cylinder can be in a quirky way and it's powerful. But at that point you're going, yeah, but my neighbor has a Twin Turbo V8 that sounds like that. And Christian's cars are not cheap. The problem with that and the i8 are that they were expensive. Also, if you're going to have a tiny engine, you have to have. It has to be heavily discounted and pull those people in. But now you've like, I'm buying a hypercar.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't need a cheaper engine.

[Matt Farah]

That's definitely true. And I think the story went that he offered this three cylinder engine and then some and took a few orders for it. And then sometime later went, we're also going to do a V8. And everybody forward said V8. And like two of the three who had already ordered it also said, can I switch to a V8? You know. So yeah, at Koenigsegg's level, sure. You just want the biggest thing that they're offering. But it should also be like, I think, mate. Ramat. No, it should be technically interesting so that bringing back the V16. Like, why? Like fucking why not? It's weird, you know, like things. It should be like me with the radial engine. Like, why? Like, because it's weird. Like, do you have one? No, that's exactly why. So it's gotta be. It's gotta be not just powerful, but also interesting for one. I mean, even like you Know The Hennessey Venom F5, right. Like, yes, it's like a. You get deep enough in there, it's like a GM architecture such and such. But. But they've done an awful lot to make that engine something worth, you know, talking about. Not a lot of GM left in there. It's sort of on the level of like early Koenigseggs were, you know, Ford architecture, but like. Yeah, kind of. But, you know, Ford doesn't make this in 1300 horsepower.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. And they don't put it in that car.

[Matt Farah]

So. All right, so anyway, like, what are other. Like, where else did the nostalgia go? Go really bad?

[Zach Klapman]

Look up like list of nostalgia.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, the Beetle is a kind of. Is, you know, to an enthusiast. Most enthusiasts Matt Crook exempted, you know, the Beatles. The new Beatle is sort of a joke. Even though it was like a wildly successful product.

[Zach Klapman]

Why do you see it as a joke? I actually see it as totally successful and probably the reason we have the throwback Mustang design. Throwback Camaro. Like, I think that was the first.

[Matt Farah]

One that in PT Cruiser might have been the same year. Beetle might have been first.

[Zach Klapman]

But PT Cruiser. Well, I agree, like, the language of it is a throwback. It's not specific.

[Matt Farah]

It's not one car.

[Zach Klapman]

Exactly. Yeah, the Beetle was. I mean, people went nuts for it. The commercials were great and they sold really well. And I think that informed car companies, hey, pick your best looking car from the 60s and make a new one and it will sell like crazy.

[Matt Farah]

That's probably true. Yeah. I mean, I just think if you're, you know, if you're a, if you're a classic Beetle person. I don't know a lot of people that are like classic Beetle enthusiasts that are also 90s beetle enthusiasts.

[Zach Klapman]

Ooh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, like, sure, somewhere there's a crossover. But. But I think you're probably more likely to like an ID buzz if you're a classic bus enthusiast than you are to like a new Beetle if you're a classic Beetle enthusiast.

[Zach Klapman]

What is it that you think the classic Beetle people like that they wouldn't like about the new one.

[Matt Farah]

Air cooled rear engine, you know. Oh, wait, with Beetles we're talking about Beetles. Yeah, yeah. Air cooled rear engine, uniquely innovative, affordable in a way. In a way that, you know, that wasn't being done at the time. It wasn't just a new styling on top of a Volkswagen Golf. Some people might think that. I mean, that's kind of, that's kind of how I think about it. Like, I don't Like, I don't think about the new Beetle very often. Every day. Yeah. But, like. But, like, when it came out and when I was thinking about it and I think I reviewed one at some point, maybe one of, like, the turbo ones or something. But, like, I don't know, it just. It. It felt like a Golf that had, like, you know, it wasn't. If you drive an original Beetle, it's a very unique thing in the way that driving a 911 is. It's the same kind of thing.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I'm gonna say at the time, though, of old Beetle, there were other things that probably felt like that, but they were based on the old Beetle, like, you know, a carma.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Or. Well, a thing.

[Matt Farah]

356, right? Yeah. I mean, there's. Sure.

[Zach Klapman]

My mom owned an old wheel. I'll ask her when she bought it, was she excited about, you know, the new technology and the idea of it, or was it just, like, the cool thing to have?

[Matt Farah]

My dad had one, too.

[Zach Klapman]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

My dad's like, first. First car he shared with his two brothers, all of whom, my uncle Scott is six two, my uncle Ron is six one, and my dad was six five. And the three of them shared a beat from 1967 to 1971. Or two.

[Zach Klapman]

One of the best scenes in Police.

[Matt Farah]

They went cross country in it is.

[Zach Klapman]

When Hightower, they steal a Beetle, and Hightower can't fit. And he's like, or we could just take the front seats out and sit in the back. And then it's like a smash cut. And they did that. And he's like, I was joking, but comfort's important.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. That's the Shaq move.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Or just stretch your 360.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But, yeah, my dad and his two brothers fucking cross America in a beetle. Three people overseas.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, they all drove in it. I thought they shared it. Like, they shared, like, I'm driving it Monday.

[Matt Farah]

No. Well, they did. And then one summer, they drove from fucking New Jersey to the Santa Monica Pier in it.

[Zach Klapman]

And, yeah, dude, I mean, your dad never sat in the backseat. There's no way.

[Matt Farah]

My dad was the youngest, and he did not have a driver's license. And so he basically sat in the back. And then when they would get out to, like, whatever, the middle of fuck all nowhere in Kansas, you know, from the passenger seat, my Uncle Scott would hold his foot on the throttle. Cause there's no, like, console. You just reach your foot across, hold his foot on the throttle, hold the steering. And then my Uncle Ron would Hop in back. And my dad would hop in front and just like, foot on the floorboard.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Steering wheel straight for like four hours while the other people, the other two would nap. And apparently when they got to the US they had spent so. The US Excuse me. When they got to Santa Monica, they spent a couple, like a month or two here. You know, it was like two weeks driving across. They were camping and they said when they got here, they had spent so much time at full throttle in the car that it had like low compression in the engine and had it fully be rebuilt. And so the bill was like some crazy amount. And my grandpa came out and saw the bill and was like, fuck that, and left the car and took my. Took him on a plane.

[Zach Klapman]

It's cheaper to fly back and leave the car.

[Matt Farah]

Wow.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, the front seats must be comfortable for big people because it's like they're, you know, designed in Germany. They're tall there.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, look, I've driven Beetles and I would not want to go cross country in one. But I guess, like, it's different when that's a brand new car. I mean, that they had. They had a Beetle. It was a brand new Beetle.

[Zach Klapman]

It was exciting. If I was your dad, I would have just lay on the roof, put me on the roof rack.

[Matt Farah]

That cross country story is really the only story of his that I have about the Beetle. I don't. I haven't asked him about more stories about the Beetle. Like, why a Beetle? I think it was just that they were cheap.

[Zach Klapman]

They were cheap and they were cool, though. I mean, my mom traded in her Mustang, which I remember as a kid. I was like, you did what?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And she traded in a Mustang for a Beetle because it was San Francisco in the 60s.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So I think that's why I'm curious if a lot of the old Beetle owners, they were into it because it was a fashionable, exciting thing. It was friendly. It had had this interesting rebranding from where it came from versus, like, my mom probably didn't give a shit that it was air, cool, cooled, but she liked that it was a cool thing to have around. And maybe with a new one, it looked good.

[Matt Farah]

She might have liked that it was like almost impossible to overheat it, you know, I don't know if she ever had overheated her Mustang or anything like that. They might have. That might. Hey, you can't overheat this.

[Zach Klapman]

Possible.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. I should ask my dad about if he. If he knew about any of that or cared.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes. Yeah. Let's ask. We'll ask our parents a record.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that'd be very interesting to find that out about Beatles when they were new.

[Zach Klapman]

If your dad was thinking about getting the new one and when he learned it was front engine, he's like that now. He's like a. He's, you know, an office executive and he's like. I was about to rock a yellow new Beetle, the, the flower holder.

[Matt Farah]

But one of my good family friends got one. The, the. The husband got one for the wife as a birthday gift. When they first came out, it was like her, she was so into it. And, and it was, it was an early one and had like a lot of problems. It had. It was. The whole thing was like wrecked. But they, they were, they were fine. Eventually this one was like, oh, I got the first one in the state. It was a whole, you know, thing and it turned out.

[Zach Klapman]

Never do that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Never ever.

[Matt Farah]

Not with a new model. No. I suppose whatever it was about the Beetle with my dad, it's possible he didn't choose that, by the way. It's possible. The most likely scenario is grandpa was like, here's your car and I fit in it at the dealership. He was five, six, by the way. My dad's next car was a 72 GTO. So whatever it was about the Beetle, it did not at all.

[Zach Klapman]

Didn't stick at all. He did not care about the air cooled rear engine situation.

[Matt Farah]

No, not even close. Full throttle across the country.

[Zach Klapman]

He went the other direction entirely.

[Matt Farah]

America on the floorboard. Yeah. I did see a story that Texas is codifying K cars into law. So there isn't gonna be any of this weird ambiguity where these other states, you see that weird lobbying group is trying to get rid of K cars for some reason, even though they clearly fall under the import rules that all these other JDM cars are totally fine. And so Texas of all places, probably because people realize how practical they are on the farms and.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, maybe it's also hard to run to another state in those things, you know, it's uncomfortable drive.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. They're trying to get that put into law that K cars are totally legit.

[Zach Klapman]

That's wild. Yeah, they're such. They're handy things.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Do we want to talk to the people? We certainly can talk to the people. And while Zach's pulling that up, do.

[Zach Klapman]

You want to talk about this today or leave it for later?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, we can do that today. Oh, I forgot you want to do that. Do we have enough results? 416 votes. Yeah. Okay, let's forget last show or two shows ago, whatever. Someone suggested that we do polls among the patrons, of course, @patreon.com the smokingtirepodcast and that we can use that as content. We can see what the people think. And then if enough people a bit of research makes, we can potentially either explore new exclusive opportunities for the patrons, we could potentially explore new revenue streams, or talk about any variety of like podcast topics that people find interesting. In this case it was because I was in a deep depression about the state of YouTube and I was like, yeah, if we had to pull the plug on making videos because it just was not worth it, what else could we do? What else would be a thing that people might like to see us do? And I guess my three main ideas are pretty good ideas because I put up four options on the Patreon poll and the something else option is only 4% of respondents. So people didn't have anything necessarily better, although maybe someone did. And 51% of our 416 respondent patrons said they'd like to see us do a live podcast tour. Let's go. That's pretty good. We're working on that. It's a little easier said than done, but that one, 29% said they'd like to see us. He has put on group road drives or road rallies. Sort of basically what I've been doing for road and track, doing it for our audience and our friends of our.

[Zach Klapman]

Audience, but also totally different so that we don't get sued by Hearst. I don't have a. I know, I'm joking. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean that does seem like fun. I just, I hope like there's like the DWA guys, the driving, while awesome guys, they put on a great bunch of events that are very affordable. Right? And that's great, like, because basically the cost of entry to the event is pretty low. But you're responsible for booking your own hotels and for the most part getting your own food. Except for I think one big dinner maybe at the end. Is that really?

[Zach Klapman]

I think so, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And sometimes it's two dinners but one dinner. But for the most part it's a low cost of entry. But also you can then say, okay, they'll go, well, the recommended hotel is here. It's 300 bucks a night. There's an upgrade up the road that's 500 bucks a night and you can kind of do what you want. That's a pretty good formula, I think. But the problem is if you're going to have an event that's put Together by supposed experts. There should be, you know, expert level elements and like the hotel should be pretty good. Like maybe there should be racetrack time or something, you know, not unlike what I've done with other people. And then it ends up getting, you know, pricey. You know, you stay in nice hotels. Like, you know, these road and track events, for instance, are like $15,000 to enter with two people in one car. There's less margin in that than you think. If you really add up everything that gets done. Renting a racetrack, which if it's a prestigious racetrack, is very expensive, and having having a professional team of instructors there on site as well, you know, three, four nights in five star hotels, you know, you know, dining with its open bar for, you know, many hours for a bunch of people and all that kind of stuff. And it just, it does, you can, you could see how it adds up if you look at an itemizer list. And so all I'm saying is like, if we're going to do that, it should be, it's got to be a business that makes sense. It's not a hobby. Right?

[Zach Klapman]

Because yeah, I think I would go somewhere in the middle, you know, there.

[Matt Farah]

Probably is somewhere in the middle.

[Zach Klapman]

I think there's a middle ground road and track.

[Matt Farah]

You know, a big part of it, as I just said, is the track. And so you could have, you could put together a great event that didn't have a track track and it would be probably 50% cheaper, you know, or.

[Zach Klapman]

A less expensive track or not have as many instructors. I haven't been to these events, so I don't know how many instructors there are like that staff basically, they basically.

[Matt Farah]

Would book, you know, they book out four or five people from hooked on driving to do lead, follow and do that. And then, and you got to have that stuff. You can't just be like open track day, you know, it's, you end up having a problem. It's just the way it is. So anyway, 30% of people thought that that was a good idea, 16% thought about create travel guides. So we've been talking to someone at a company that is working on a piece of software that could potentially allow us, that could allow us to create all over the US and potentially even the world guided tours. We could create a road trip like I would create for a rally, but you could buy the route or buy the travel guide and just do it yourself. And Zach and I would go out and do the trip. We could make a video, we could document it and write an article. Our column, a Travel guide and come up with where to stay, where to eat, where to do this, where to do that along the way, and good driving roads. And then maybe for whatever, 25, $40, you can buy that and download it and use it as a gps, essentially. So that would be a fun thing that we could do and that others could potentially use that platform as well to do. Those are the three things I've thought of.

[Zach Klapman]

There's also 60 comments, but I don't know if we want to go through all.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, really? Was there. Were there any.

[Zach Klapman]

I did not look through them, I'll be honest.

[Matt Farah]

All right, well, let's take 30 seconds of this radio to just scroll and see what's. I mean, there's people. Okay. People creating, like saying, just talking about different types of content. Creating. I'm talking about. This would be an abandonment of YouTube. Like, like Sean has won, like a suggestion for like a parts unknown style show series. Like, I would love to make that. Like, literally nobody wants to pay for.

[Zach Klapman]

That and no one would watch it on YouTube or very few people would watch it. Like, here's a racetrack that's kind of forgotten. You know, we think it's cool and there's a subset that likes it, but it would just not have massive deal.

[Matt Farah]

I'm not trying to single out Sean negatively because he's describing exactly the thing that I want to make. By the way, did Sean go watch the King of the Hammers video? Because that's what that is. And it's been up for two weeks and it has 12,000 views. So like, there is no YouTube audience for that type of content. You need a TV network or a streaming network to commit to a season of that or at least like a pilot. I mean, we could make a TV pilot. Like, if we were like, listen, we're gonna spend 50 to $100,000 of our own money and make a TV pilot. Like, we could do that if we wanted to. I just, like, I'd kind of rather park cars and travel for fun.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, if someone of means or if someone of taste or if someone of taste and means wants to fund such a travel show, I would be happy to do it for a very reasonable rate because it's exactly the thing I would love to do. But it has to be a thing that makes money.

[Zach Klapman]

This is a unique idea.

[Matt Farah]

Sterzer says people might be interested in more in depth breakdowns of car comparisons. Okay. Basically, like be a car buying consultant that would provide in depth research and driving impressions. That's a good one. But man, it would feel weird selling that.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. You know, and there's also a lot of people that offer a lot of really detailed content for free because they have, you know, Edmunds or any of these companies that have big checkbooks behind them that will like buy a car, drive it for a year, you know, Consumer Reports style stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Dusty says don't limit the podcast to automotive guests. Get people from outside that industry. Look, I love that idea and I love using this platform to talk to random ass people that I find interesting that have nothing to do with cars. But that isn't what works in podcasting. It would have to be like starting a new show about those topics. It just doesn't. It doesn't work.

[Zach Klapman]

Show called Matt on everything.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean, we could start a whole other pod. I mean there's. Yeah, I suppose the other option that isn't mentioned is like start a podcasting network that has sub shows about other things, some of which would be hosted by. By you and I and some of which could be hosted by other people. And that didn't make the list. But that's something that I wouldn't hate myself doing, I suppose. Right. David says if YouTube doesn't work, why wouldn't car review videos be a good value add to the Patreon? I completely agree. From the perspective of patron, car review videos would be a good value added to the Patreon. The problem is, is car manufacturers don't want to lend you cars for you to then put the review behind paywalls. It makes it sort of unshareable.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, we learned this From Drive paywall 10 years ago.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Let's see car reviews in audio form. Okay, well now that's interesting. I suppose I could go out and drive the car and just talk with one camera. I'm reduce the one take even further. I like this. Let's cheapen it even further. Dude. One camera, straight vlog zero. Anything podcast, second channel.

[Zach Klapman]

It'd be an interesting experiment because Spotify is adding video to a lot of different shows. So you could have the, you know, the in car video component.

[Matt Farah]

That would be. That would be very weird and very interesting. But it's the kind of thing I haven't heard of before. And so it might be the kind of thing that you don't know. You didn't know you needed it until it was. Until it existed. That's either. That's a good one. Okay. That one makes you think. Okay. That's okay. Okay. Okay. I like hearing reasons I shouldn't buy expensive Cars I can't afford. Anyway, you know about the algorithm. Shitting on cars. Yes. Shitting on cars, huh? Trying the live tour with live. Combine the live tour with some drives in the region or a hosted cars and coffee. Sure. Ryan's. That's a pretty good idea. There could be something like that. There could be a whole weekend where you have. Have a curated couple of days driving that culminates in a podcast and you could get tickets to one or both. You know, maybe you'd get vip. That's a good idea. Yeah, I like that one. Ryan Morris. Combine it maybe, because then the drive.

[Zach Klapman]

Is a lower lift than planning a whole trip with hotels and things like, hey, we're going out here in the morning and just route.

[Matt Farah]

Having said that, it does add another wrinkle because, like, you know, if we're traveling somewhere to do a live podcast, we'd probably rent like a minivan and we'd have to find a sports car, but. Okay. I like the thought though. Good question. Also wants in depth audio car reviews. Oh, interesting. Okay, maybe there's. Maybe there's something to that.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay, I bet we're going back to the live show with driving events. If there's any kind of tuning company in that area, we could just borrow a car from them.

[Matt Farah]

No, no. Like, cars are around. We could find a car. It's just, it does add a third thing. Wait, Ryan west says, can I do car reviews just for pro driver? I think we've already answered that. Car meets. Okay. Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

Well, those are great comments. We don't have to go through more. I think we got a good spread. There's some real. I mean, you guys are. They're all very thoughtful ideas. Some of them are really just suggesting new types of content to create. But there were some really, some good, helpful ones in there that I think are definitely worth noodling. And for the record, we're not giving up videos. But it's not getting better. So podcast is okay. You guys are great. Patrons are the best. I mean, truly, the Patreon is what is. The Patreon is really what is making the podcast worth doing. It's not worth doing on ads alone. Maybe eventually we don't have to do ads. If it's just Patreon, that'd be great. It could be like universities where 20% of the people pay full price and everyone else gets scholarship. That's how Patreon could be. Like 20% of people contribute to Patreon, everyone else gets to enjoy it for free. Like, that would Be a nice thing. It won't happen because people in America are like, I'm paid.

[Zach Klapman]

Why?

[Matt Farah]

No, no, you shouldn't get this because I'm paid.

[Zach Klapman]

But it's okay so far. Patreons, they're happy to get their ad free shit. And they complain that other people get to listen to it.

[Matt Farah]

So, dude, there's no better value than getting ad free from a creator you like for a couple of dollars. I mean, especially if you consume, what is it, 25 hours of content a month from that person, you're paying like a dollar an hour or something. Okay, but we have other patreon questions, so patreon.com the Smokingtirepodcast, of course, is where you get ad free. It's where you get extra smoking tire. It's where you get early smoking tire. It's where you get live smoking tire. You must be a Patreon member to get the final two versions of the notice Canyon. I'm wearing the green today, coming out at the end of this month, et cetera, et cetera. We love you guys. Paint by numbers says there's a consensus among enthusiasts and journalists. Let me just emphasize that I haven't read the rest of this, but with the first sentence, this is. Someone else is saying there's a consensus. Let's see if I agree with that. That the automated manuals and single clutch transmissions of the late 90s and early 2000s are bad. Bad. Okay, Yes, I agree with that. They are bad. Yes. And people who defend them are wrong. What was the reception for this technology at the time? They were extremely popular. Almost no one ordered 599s with the available manual. And did these autos perform terribly compared to the later DCTs or were they seen as compromised when they were new? I and someone you may have heard of named Jeremy Clarkson and thought they were terrible when they were new. Go watch old Top gear from like 05 to 07. He is complaining all the time about how terrible single clutch, automated manual gearboxes were all the fucking time. The Vanquish sucked when it was new. All the Ferraris sucked when they were new. All of them.

[Zach Klapman]

They're very. They're just slow.

[Matt Farah]

Everybody was so fucking apologetic about them. Oh no, they're great when you're on. When you're full flat. Which was true. They were better.

[Zach Klapman]

They were better. But I mean, I drove the. What, that E46 from Volt Garbage or Steiner. Yeah, like amazing, beautiful car build, etc, but like the SMG with the CSL programming, I don't care who Programmed it. It's not impressive.

[Matt Farah]

They try to tell me that about the clk too. Oh, you gotta tune it.

[Zach Klapman]

No, it is. It is not. It did not feel faster than me shifting a manual transmission.

[Matt Farah]

It is hardware limited. Yeah, yeah, no, that's. They were trash when they were new and they had lots of apologists. Yeah. So. Oh, did you. I guess you said that we drove the BGB car, right? Is that. Okay, cool. I think we'll probably talk about BGB next show. Sure. We have to. I'm going to Italy and Zach is going to race lemons. And so because we're both gone, we have to get a little bit ahead. And all BGB Cayman questions will be deferred to next show where we will do a full discussion on a fucking batshit car that we drove yesterday. But thank you for anyone who wrote questions about that in advance. Hoopty157. Oh, went to see Fast and Furious musical in Brooklyn and it was great. If you're not following them on Instagram, you should. They're putting dates. They're doing more shows. If you absolutely must go see the Fast and Furious musical. It's fucking hilarious. Those guys are so funny.

[Zach Klapman]

It's so good.

[Matt Farah]

And all the actors are so good.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

All of the men in the thing are played by women, which is really, really funny.

[Zach Klapman]

Kyle Kanane's new stand up special, which I highly recommend, it is smart and hilarious.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, wait, is he tube man? Who's Kyle Kanane? Which one? Is he in the play?

[Zach Klapman]

No, no, sorry. He's not in the play.

[Matt Farah]

Oh.

[Zach Klapman]

But just coincidentally, Kyle Kanan, who's one of my favorite comedians, he's like. He's like Patton Oswalt with a little bit more coffee and a beard. He does 20 minutes on the ridiculousness of Fast and Furious and I'm like, I have to find out how to get him to see this play. So good.

[Matt Farah]

Someone knows him. Get at him. And number two, reading about the RAM charger and how the engine just charges the battery and is not connected to the drive chain. Essentially a V6 generator. There seems to be a ton of use cases for this, like power, etc. Etc. Etc. Many things. Thoughts on the truck in the future? I mean, I am. I've been pro this. I was a Chevy had goddamn Volt. They were there. They were there and they fucked it up. This was the thing. They had it. Yes.

[Zach Klapman]

Mi3. It's a range extender. It's a powerful one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I'm pro that. Yes, yes. AMG whiz. Best and worst car chimes slash bongs. I saw bongs in the question. I was like, best bongs. I was like, yo, ill adelf is what's up. But I like a roar. I used to have a zong.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I remember the song.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you never know. I never. You never saw it.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure did. No, the Zong. I. I remember the name very well.

[Matt Farah]

So the three foot song, that was college. You never. I never knew you. When I had the three foot, I called it the Saxomophone.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Like from the Simpsons.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, who says that?

[Matt Farah]

Saxomophone.

[Zach Klapman]

Homer. Yeah, okay.

[Matt Farah]

No. And the guy I used to buy mad weed with from Philly became a glassblower and started a company called Illadelph, which is now one of the biggest bong companies in the world. Shout out to him. Used to hook up lbs. Know what I'm saying?

[Zach Klapman]

I remember you had this like the tank zong thing. I think there was like the squiggly.

[Matt Farah]

One, the tank zong.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, man, there's a lot of glass.

[Matt Farah]

There's a lot of zongs, there's a lot of zong. The best bong ever though, is. Is easily, hands down, the hurricane. There's never been anything like it. It was made by a company called the Republic of Bongland and it was made of boron glass. And it had these little holes cut in the side of the of it that would swirl the smoke. Like it would look like a fucking hurricane inside there. And it was the most pure, beautiful fucking bong hit you've ever taken in your life. And because it was made of this boron glass, which they would brag was the same as the canopy of fighter planes. When you go to buy one in a store, the demo would be. They would huck it across the room.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, oh, it's indestructible.

[Matt Farah]

And it would go like, da ding ding ding, ding, ding ding. And it survived my entire second half of college. I then sold it to. To the literal, clumsiest person that I know, and it survived with him for about two years before he dropped it down a concrete flight of stairs, which is where it finally met its end.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

What's wild is can you even buy a hurricane anymore?

[Matt Farah]

You can.

[Zach Klapman]

I found it. Well, it says sold out £289. I also found a website.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, cheap? Really?

[Zach Klapman]

Well, they were like 800 Germany. That says it's made in Germany.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they are.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay. In Germany. Germany, it's 489 Euro.

[Matt Farah]

That's probably the real. There's Knockoffs. There's a bunch of knockoffs, including ones that are not made of the boron glass. But you need that. Real Germans.

[Zach Klapman]

This is so funny.

[Matt Farah]

Almost all good recent weed innovations have come from. From the Germans.

[Zach Klapman]

This is like the least German ad.

[Matt Farah]

This is it. Oh, that's it. Same photo 20 years later. So they come in milliliters. Yeah, that's the 7 5th, bro. Fucking ain't nothing like a hurricane.

[Zach Klapman]

That's funny.

[Matt Farah]

They are awesome. If you like. I'm telling you, if you must have the most superior smoking. Because there's also those ill. Adults have. The ones that have the gel in them.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, right.

[Matt Farah]

Where you put it in the shit, Right? Put it in your fridge and your freezer and it freezes it. That seems great in theory. I got one for Jillian.

[Zach Klapman]

We were sponsored by a company that did it for me. Right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And I. And then I was like, oh, these are so cool. Let me get one for Jillian, because she's the biggest fucking stoner I know. And she goes, matt, I used it, and now my freezer smells like bong water. I was like, oh, that's a good call. You need a separate freezer for this fucking thing.

[Zach Klapman]

Gets very expensive very quickly.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So that's our favorite automotive bings and bongs.

[Matt Farah]

That's my favorite automotive bong. Yeah. Yep. We'll just move on from there. Matt Salcantara steering wheel says stories of outrageous business travel expenses is. I mean, I certainly am not going to cop to fucking anything. I mean, Zach and I once reviewed a yacht in Thailand. We went there for a week. We did a full review. The video's on YouTube.

[Zach Klapman]

It did well, but the boat was less expensive, so that was like a business expense. But it was all of us, so it was like a seminar.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, we had to test the boat to film the boat, didn't we? That's a business expense. Expense.

[Zach Klapman]

We.

[Matt Farah]

It is.

[Zach Klapman]

I think I will. I will say some of the most ridiculous business expenses. And don't say prostitutes. No, no, I'm not gonna talk about that. I don't know. Someone asked about that, but that was never business expenses. No, no, no. You and Harris would both go on drive shoots, and you would arrive. Harris would famously arrive with no clothing. He did this all the time. And then he would be like, JF, I have to go buy this 700 jacket. And we're like, why? And he's like, it's very cold. And he did it to kind of fuck with us. But he would go buy some expensive sweater thing that's really cool. And then you would be like, well, I want a fucking sweater too.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And you'd both come out of this store. Oh, so you can't play favorites and Papa jf. Yeah, exactly. Can't play favorites. And Daddy Jeff would just shake his head and be like, let's go film this goddamn stage.

[Matt Farah]

Listen. We were getting. We were getting robbed blind by that fucking place. If I gotta get a. If I need an Icelandic fucking Viking sweat in Iceland. Chris Harris bought so much stuff at 66 north that he had to buy a 66 north suitcase for it. He went on a tear. I don't think the company paid for all that.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't think they did.

[Matt Farah]

But he went on a real tear in that place. But nobody knows fucking cold weather gear like an Icelandic person. That's the best shit I ever wore in my life for cold weather. No, but let's see. Like, have I ever, like, real. I've never really abused an expense report. I mean, because we go on like, these press launches. It's all kind of covered. The road and track trips, they're all covered. I don't. I don't have to. I don't have to do anything. It's all. It's all kind of already covered. Yeah. No, and we don't. We don't. I don't. I haven't. Was the last time I really filed an expense report to somebody that was like, of consequence, I don't think a long time.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, our company is too small for. For that to get away. Like, this person said that someone at their company used to rent premium cars instead of normal ones and they were gonna get fired. I feel like we need to work at a bigger company where people have access to platinum cards and they're like, strip club. Sure, two grand. We just count it as lunch. Those things happen, just not to us.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. Well, yeah, I've definitely had other people take me to nice places and do nice things that their business paid for for sure. But it wasn't me doing that shit. I have absolutely no idea. Idea what anybody was doing with their own credit card bill. Max says, what's holding me personally back from getting an R34 GTR from Top Rank? 150 to 250,000. Current asking price will look like a bargain in five to 10 years. I mean, you're not wrong. And one day, I'd like to have another skyline eventually, but it's not today day. That's a lot of money. And I. I'm. I'm. I don't know if you know this, but I have a half finished Lamborghini.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. And also the terror situation is affecting R34 prices. Maybe that's changed because it changes quickly.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean it's, they're so, they're so great and like maybe one day but like I think when it comes I, I, with both cars and watches and maybe other things too, I think I know how much stuff is enough before it becomes like problematic. And I'm, I'm really there with both cars and watches. Like I just remembered like two days ago that I have an nsx. They forgot. I totally had forgotten for like, I don't know, a week or two. Just not thinking about it.

[Zach Klapman]

And like too many cars, you have to. Registration, insurance, you have to keep track of all these things even. And even with your business, it, you have to pay attention.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So it's, it's.

[Matt Farah]

Those are fabulous. And anyone who goes, I'd like to get one. Yeah. The cheapest day to get one was yesterday and then the day before that, like they're not going to be cheaper. And they are great.

[Zach Klapman]

But excellent name by the way. Max Von Strap on.

[Matt Farah]

I didn't pronounce it right. Did it?

[Zach Klapman]

You just said Max.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, I did, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Sorry. And in first place, Max Von Strappen.

[Matt Farah]

I didn't do him justice. Sorry. Ooh, misfit. Cyclone wants me us to vote for their Golf R vanity plate options option number one. Maybe we should put this for a poll for next week. Option number one, baby Rs6. Cute.

[Zach Klapman]

But not accurate enough.

[Matt Farah]

No, you take that motherfucker to HPA and you make it like 700 horsepower, then you get that plate.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, that's true. It's a four cylinder, turbocharged. I don't know, it's a little bit too different.

[Matt Farah]

Porsche spelled P O O R S C H. No, that's, that's a 924 license plate.

[Zach Klapman]

Correct.

[Matt Farah]

That's not a Volkswagen license plate.

[Zach Klapman]

Or maybe a first gen Cayman base 996.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, cheap. S3. That's pretty good. And factually accurate. Same platform, same powertrain. That's pretty good.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Rated R, R A T E, D. If that's not already taken. You have to get it just to have it.

[Zach Klapman]

It's the funniest one.

[Matt Farah]

And you can keep that and put it on almost any sports car you get for the rest of time. You put that on a McLaren, you don't have to explain to anybody what it means.

[Zach Klapman]

That's true. You know, applies to all kinds of stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Put it on. Fucking you put that on anything. That's a universally awesome place.

[Zach Klapman]

Gtr. It works for that. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I vote full throatedly. Full throat for rated R. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Chunehound says. Are you ever surprised how quickly cars disappear from our roads? Saw a 2nd gen Eclipse parked next to a 4th gen Eclipse the other day and it blew my mind. Haven't seen either in the wild forever. Yeah, cars that are just cars just kind of used up and thrown away. There's a. Zach and I were in roughly the same location up in the Angeles Forest past two days and there's a guy who must work up at either Mount Wilson or one of the places up at the service centers because there's a guy with an absolutely flawless Chevy Metro base. Steelies white. Fucking. This was like on the prices. This would be on the price is right as a prize. Comes with standard features including windows, California.

[Zach Klapman]

Emissions, radio, steering wheel.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I hadn't seen one of them in forever. We saw that yesterday. We went to go see that place, that absolutely mint late 90s Cadillac extended wheelbase that we were looking at for a minute.

[Zach Klapman]

Long rear door.

[Matt Farah]

Last time you saw one of them fucking things. Yeah, I mean it's. It. I am surprised. But. But it's always nice when you see one that's been kept and you have to wonder like especially when it's a kind of an average car, you're like why this?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, second gen Eclipses, the fast ones were driven so hard for 18 owners and eventually blew up, just fall apart. Crank walk problems, et cetera. And then the base ones were just cars. So eventually they just melt in the sun. I mean, you know, coupes are less popular. So why get a coupe that's 30 years old?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, slow car, slowed, missed the other color besides green, it's Tahitian black mother of pearl. It's a natural material and everyone will be very slightly different because it's a natural material. But it's fucking sick. Watch food Manchu. That's pretty good.

[Zach Klapman]

That is.

[Matt Farah]

Requests a Pacific Northwest R and T driving event. Cascade and Olympic mountains. Every meeting, bro, every, every meeting I request this. The pushback. There's a couple bits of pushback. One, potential for weather even in the summer is always real. And two, they've found this one once I say it will be not that surprising. The further you go to the edges of the country, the fewer people who can come because a lot of people want to drive there. So like Colorado, Smokey, Texas, those are the most popular ones. They fill up the fastest because people can drive from like a lot of places and it seems like less daunting to get there from wherever than you know, full transcontinental. Although we can do shipping now. But every meeting I bring up Pacific Northwest and every meeting I will continue to bring up Pacific Northwest and eventually they will fucking hear me out. Eventually. It would be the best. Okay, wait.

[Zach Klapman]

How do we. Zach's RF400K impression on their 87 Mazda B2200.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, I mean is Sarah's Instagram Our friend Sarah stunt driver Sarah bought a Trims440 on Instagram. Pull that up. She bought this beater ass Toyota 80s truck. Okay. And she did a few things to it it that make it mechanic that make it sort of whimsical. I think it's mms. Oh no, you're right, sorry. So somewhere in her Instagram will be photos of that truck and there it is. So. Oh, that's like an animated rendering of it. There's the actual truck. So this started out as a yellow. Just a yellow ass truck. So she had the wheels painted white. She put the white. White light bar on it with the 80s things. And then she had just the top painted with that sort of rainbow bit.

[Zach Klapman]

It's rad.

[Matt Farah]

Which is super rad.

[Zach Klapman]

Now the cab is blue, the hood is blue, but then it's got these scallop stripes.

[Matt Farah]

I guess they are, yeah. With a gradient sort of thing that goes from blue through red and orange to yellow. And then the interior's got this sort of Mexican blanket. Kind of somewhere between a houndstooth. Well keep. I bet there's a picture of it somewhere. Somewhere I thought there it's. Is it houndstooth in orange or is it a Mexican blankety? Either way it's. Oh, there it is. It's brought them, right? It looks amazing. Look at this. It's rainbow houndstooth. Sorry, I was off. It matches the outside. How do you put whimsy in a shit pile old truck that. And you know, Sarah earns a good living and so she had a body shop and a professional do this. But like you could do this on the Chevy or something like this on the cheap if you were so inclined.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So that's how you add whimsy to a cheap. To a cheap car. Angle of the dangle. If you could add the Ferrari 575 Super America roof to another car, what would it be? Funny thing about it is the Super America roof is it does this thing where it flips back. I mean, if you mean the electrochromic roof because it's electrochromic and it does this flippy thing.

[Zach Klapman]

I think they mean the flip.

[Matt Farah]

The flip?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The flip isn't, like, good. Like, regular retractable hard tops, like on McLarens and stuff are just better than that.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. And the flip dictates the design of the rear deck because it has to be big enough for the whole roof.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Which I also don't like.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Kentucky Fried chicane. Not bad. Thoughts on the Weenie 500 this Friday. They're apparently racing wienermobiles at Indy. But they're not really racing.

[Zach Klapman]

It's an ad. It's a marketing move. I looked it up. The drivers are just the wiener mobile. They're not pros.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

They're not gonna go for it. Here's what I bet you'll see. And I'll bet $20 you're gonna see one's in the lead at first because their name Chicago, New York. So they're all gonna lead at a certain point.

[Matt Farah]

It's the mascot race.

[Zach Klapman]

Whichever one is most close to Indy will probably win. Yeah, it's the mascot race, and that's what it'll be.

[Matt Farah]

It's. It's not. It's what it's trying to mimic. What? Like the Porsche tractor race was at McCarwick, like a silly memey type of thing. But at the Porsche tractor race, it was slow as fuck, but it was a race.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, because all individual people, like Pat Long drove someone else's tractor. Sure they'd want to win.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It was like people racing tractors. It's not like Oscar Mayer racing its own fleet of vehicles against itself.

[Zach Klapman]

This is a spec series, basically.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Koji. Koji, last time you went to Japan and any interest in doing anything there again in the future? Future. Second part. First? Yes, always.

[Zach Klapman]

Go ahead. Oh, interested? Yeah. There's an event in October we should talk about after the show.

[Matt Farah]

What's that?

[Zach Klapman]

Kei car rally I've been invited to. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

In Japan.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, wow. Okay. Maybe that could be interesting. Yeah. I think 2015 or 16, I was there. It was not long enough. It was very fun, and I would love to go back. It's just very expensive. I can't justify, like, I would love to go to Japan spending my own money, but if I'm gonna spend my own money, I'm not doing work. Like, that's how it works. That's how work works. Like, I'm not going to Japan to make films on my own dime. If someone wants me to do that and will pay for it. Like, I would absolutely love to. Conversely, I'd love to go on vacation and eat fucking ramen and like chill and explore and not tell anybody what I'm doing. Bushdid997. Favorite example of an American motor in a European chassis.

[Zach Klapman]

Ford modular in the V12.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, Aston. Yeah. Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

That'll be my loophole.

[Matt Farah]

Maybe a little bit of a loophole there.

[Zach Klapman]

Maybe a bit of a. I mean, they said motor. I'm saying motors because they're put together.

[Matt Farah]

I'll go with the original Pantera. No bumpers. Early car 351 Cleveland.

[Zach Klapman]

Still want one?

[Matt Farah]

Still good. Bald, bearded and beautiful. Beautiful. Good one. Okay, what are some of my favorite exciting watches and or watch dials? The meteorite stuff's kind of fun. I like a bright color. I love a vivid color. They don't need to be busy. I don't really like date cyclopses, the magnifier thing. I like a dial that's like, that you can read. It's got bright lume. I mean, in terms of what's being produced right now, I think if I was to go out and blow money today, I'd be blowing money on a white dial. Speedmaster. That's really good. MB and F just came out with a new watch. It's like $300,000. But it's fucking incredible because MB&F is always incredible. Yeah. Enrico Palazzo wants to buy a used watch off ebay. I mentioned that it was no big deal. Yeah, I mean, ebay has this authentication thing. It's obviously not 100% perfect, but it is a pretty good system where they do physically receive the watch and authenticate it. I've read a few stories on the Internet of fakes getting through that system, but I think by and large it's a pretty good system. And if you're talking about Speedmasters, for better or worse, there's not really a lot of people faking Speedmasters. They're not valuable enough. People are faking rolexes that cost 10 grand and up. Pateks AP's $50,000 watches. If you go to the Reddit forums about the fakes, they're really, really good. They are really good. Some of them are amazing. But. But not a lot of Speedmaster fakes. Rich in New York. Oh, wants a chronograph, is a lefty and wants a chronograph. And wants a left handed chronograph. I'm not sure I've ever seen a left handed chronograph, but I mean, I've never had A problem operating a chronograph on my right wrist. So, like, it's one thing like the right wrist, left wrist. People who want to set the time on their watch without taking it off your wrist. Okay. I usually set the time and then put it on my wrist. So that's never like bothered me. And with chronographs, like, if I'm using one, my thumb and forefinger, like are perfectly fine doing this on my right wrist. So I don't. I've never even. Have I seen any left handed chronographs ever. Not that I could think of. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. Let's see. See two more. The Delco Pooper. I need summer tires. What do you recommend? It's an Audi S4 in Pennsylvania. Pilot Sport 4S will do you just fine.

[Zach Klapman]

Fantastic.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. All around. If it rains, you're in good shape and you'll even be okay in the winter. Right up until it snows.

[Zach Klapman]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

JF's last one. JF's transverse. Transverse skidmark. Y' all don't have to name companies, but what's the craziest thing an automaker has tried to gift you during a press event? IPad. When it first. When it was new. Like literally when the iPad was new. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Someone tried to give me an expensive down jacket and it was like, I can't get too specific because it will turn into like. There was only one company that did this, but it was like in the seat. And I was like, I don't think I'm allowed to accept this.

[Matt Farah]

In the seat of what? Of a car.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like a one off thing. So. And I'll tell you afterwards, but like. And I texted my editor. I went, this is like the first time I'd ever driven such a thing. I was like, is this normal? And they're like, you definitely shouldn't take that. Like, yeah, okay. And I just give back to them.

[Matt Farah]

We took jackets from the Bridgestone winter driving school.

[Zach Klapman]

We did. But I would add that in that instance, it was six degrees out. It was unseasonably cold, even for Steamboat Colorado. And the Bridgestone people were like, we had these made really quickly because we didn't realize it was gonna be 6 degrees and we would have been in trouble.

[Matt Farah]

But I did take it home.

[Zach Klapman]

That's true.

[Matt Farah]

I did.

[Zach Klapman]

I gave it to.

[Matt Farah]

Most things of value I give away or don't take. But like, if you give me an article of clothing that has the logo on it and it and it fits well, I'M probably gonna keep it. Probably. I turned down a helmet from Acura, A stilo helmet.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah, you did?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, at the end. Nsx. Yeah. That was a little. That was a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a weird, like. Huh. Because I've done the same thing in both directions and so like iPad, you know, maybe at the time I had.

[Matt Farah]

Really seemed like a lot. That seemed.

[Zach Klapman]

That was also early iPad days when they were like, no, it was when.

[Matt Farah]

The iPad first came out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Thing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I brought it back. I thought because they sent the press kit on it.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I was like, oh, that's novel. Digital press kit. That was like a new thing. I was like, here you go. That was cool. They're like, no, no. I was like, no, no, I'm not keeping that. Okay, we are going to save the rest of you for the next program. Thank you all for listening. Particular thank you to our patrons. A particular thank you to our patrons with good usernames. Consider that people you will be favorited by the crazier the. By the effectiveness of your username marketing. For sure. We'll be back with another show. Shit. Tomorrow maybe tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, I think tomorrow. So. Yeah, same bat time, same bat channel. See you then. Bye.