Best Cars from Each Country; Reviews: Ranger Raptor and 2025 Cayenne GTS

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Smoking Tire – "Best Cars from Each Country; Reviews: Ranger Raptor and 2025 Cayenne GTS"

Release Date: February 13, 2025

Zack Klapman and Matt Farah return from their exhilarating experience at King of the Hammers, delving into detailed reviews of the Ford Ranger Raptor and the 2025 Porsche Cayenne GTS. This episode seamlessly blends firsthand racing insights with in-depth automotive analysis, providing listeners with a comprehensive look into some of the industry's standout vehicles.

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1. Return from King of the Hammers

The hosts kick off the episode by sharing their recent adventures at the prestigious King of the Hammers race. They recount the intense competition, the unique vehicles, and the vibrant culture that defines this off-road extravaganza.

Notable Quote:

• Zack: "We have returned from King of the Hammers and we have a review of our Ford Ranger Raptor." [00:00]

2. King of the Hammers Experience

Zack and Matt delve into the challenges and thrills of participating in King of the Hammers. They discuss the logistical hurdles of watching off-road races in person and emphasize the superior experience offered by live feeds and expert commentary.

Key Points:

• Spectator Challenges: Viewing the race in person proved difficult due to the vast distances between obstacles.
  • Matt: "Trying to watch racing in person sucks a fucking pee hole. It's terrible." [02:50]
• Cultural Insights: The event is not just about racing but also about the community of enthusiasts showcasing their custom builds and innovative solutions.
  • Zack: "Watching the people mob those things around is more entertaining than watching the race itself." [05:23]
• Vehicle Innovations: Highlighting creative modifications, such as converting box trucks into RVs and adapting vehicles for the rugged terrain.
  • Matt: "They just have to get something that can hold my toy because my toy has 38-inch tires on it." [09:35]

3. Ford Ranger Raptor Review

The discussion transitions to the Ford Ranger Raptor, where Zack provides a thorough evaluation of its performance and features compared to its larger sibling, the F150 Raptor.

Key Points:

• Size and Weight: The Ranger Raptor is significantly smaller and lighter than the F150 Raptor, making it more agile on trails.
  • Zack: "It's 22 inches shorter, 17 inches shorter wheelbase, it's 8 inches narrower, 5 inches lower, and 600 pounds lighter than an F150 Raptor." [23:43]
• Handling and Suspension: Equipped with Fox Live Valve shocks, the Ranger Raptor offers impressive suspension performance both on dirt and pavement.
  • Matt: "The Fox Live Valve shocks kick ass." [24:46]
• Braking Performance: Noted as a drawback, with longer stopping distances and a spongy pedal feel.
  • Zack: "The brake feel on this thing was garbage. Car and Driver tested it at 218ft from 70 to 0." [35:11]
• Interior and Comfort: While the Ranger Raptor excels in performance, some ergonomic issues were noted, such as limited thigh support and an underwhelming V6 engine sound.
  • Zack: "I wish there was more thigh support. And I can't get behind the sound of this V6." [34:03]

Notable Quote:

• Matt: "It cornered better in the loose stuff than the Ranger did." [32:50]

4. Porsche Cayenne GTS Review

Shifting gears, Zack and Matt provide their insights on the 2025 Porsche Cayenne GTS, exploring its balance between performance and everyday usability.

Key Points:

• Driving Dynamics: The Cayenne GTS offers a sporty driving experience with a powerful yet refined engine, though some find its aggressiveness less suited for daily commutes.
  • Zack: "It's a really nice sporty thing, but it feels a little unrefined to me." [40:11]
• Engine and Performance: Equipped with a detuned Coyote V8, the GTS delivers around 500 horsepower, providing robust torque and a thrilling sound profile.
  • Matt: "The GTS is making 495 horsepower, but it sounds like it's a hundred more." [47:32]
• Technology Integration: Features like rear steer and advanced torque distribution enhance handling, making it comparable to high-end AMG models.
  • Matt: "It's really a stand-on it, waggle it and then pick which one you want to stay." [29:09]

Notable Quote:

• Zack: "The GTS is the most dynamic that this five-seat SUV formula gets." [46:34]

5. Off-Roading and Urban Planning Discussions

Beyond car reviews, the hosts touch upon broader topics such as urban planning and its impact on automotive culture. They honor the late Donald Shoup, an influential urban planner, and discuss how parking strategies influence city layouts and desirability.

Notable Quote:

• Zack: "Donald Shoup is one of the most important urban planners ever. His book, 'The High Cost of Free Parking,' is incredibly important." [51:07]

6. Audience and Patreon Questions

The episode features a segment where Zack and Matt respond to questions from their Patreon community, covering a range of topics from car suitability for tall drivers to the future of electric vehicles in off-road racing.

Selected Discussions:

• Cars for Tall Drivers: They debate which vehicles accommodate taller individuals best, citing models like the Porsche 911 and discussing the limitations of sports cars like the Lamborghini Huracan for taller drivers.
• Collectibility and Restomods: The hosts express their opinions on collecting cars versus enjoying them on the road, highlighting the intrinsic value of driving versus merely owning.
  • Zack: "Cars are annoying and expensive to deal with if you're not going to get the enjoyment of driving them." [105:19]

Notable Quote:

• Matt: "If you own multiple 250 GTOs, you're essentially building a collection that rarely gets driven." [105:20]

7. Future Episodes and Wrap-Up

Zack and Matt conclude by teasing upcoming content, including a cross-country trip in a Toyota Corolla and a live commentary on the auction of Zack’s Bentley.

Notable Quote:

• Matt: "We should do a live show as the auction ends. That was very fun during DeLorean." [56:38]

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This episode of The Smoking Tire offers a blend of high-octane racing experiences and meticulous vehicle reviews, all wrapped in the hosts' trademark candid and humorous style. Whether you're an off-road enthusiast, a Porsche aficionado, or simply a car lover, Zack and Matt provide valuable insights and entertaining discussions that keep their audience engaged from start to finish.

Transcript

[A]

What up, everyone? Welcome to the Smoking Tire podcast. You know how it be. We sponsored by off the record this week, just like every week, some of you guys experienced a bit of an outage. Sent me a DM. Two people sent me a DM. Our TSTpod code had expired at the end of 2024, so we've extended that code into 2025. But just a heads up, in a couple of months we're gonna have a new that we're going to be changing over. That way all of the people using off the Record can't just get our code off other weird code sharing sites. It's only for TST people. So if you get a ticket, a moving violation. Don't plead guilty. Get off the record. Download the off the Record app and use code tstpod TSTPOD for Now to get 10% off off all your legal services from off the Record. And oh, by the way, I have gotten a bunch of emails from people. Off the record's been killing it, dude. Dismissals left and right, all over the place. We love off the record. You can also if you want to use a web browser offtherecord.com TST or download the app and use code TSTPOD on that off the Record app. 10% off all legal services. Don't plead guilty. Get off the record. All right, guys, we have returned from King of the Hammers and we have a review of our Ford Ranger Raptor. We also got a ride in Ford's Raptor Dakar T1 rally raid truck, which is one of the crazier vehicles we've got to been in. We talk about the cultural experience that was the King of the Hammers race. Plus we review the Porsche Cayenne gts. I give an update on some of my cars and we have some fantastic Patreon questions. Cover. So it's a cruise show and let's start now. Welcome. Welcome to the program. I guess as we just discussed, you're gonna be hearing this after you just heard us on stage from King of the Hammers with Vaughn Gittin Jr. And Dave Cole, the founder of King of the Hammers. Dave Cole, very innovative fellow.

[B]

Yeah, I like him. Yeah, he's a genius.

[A]

I like him a lot. And yeah, I mean, I think when we left you, we were about to go play at night out in one of the obstacles. Not like in trucks, like watch other people be silly. And that was something.

[B]

That's the thing. That's not the thing to watch. But make sure it's on your schedule. If you go out there because it is its own universe compared to the race day.

[A]

Yeah. In fact, I mean, with respect to racing, and I have respect for racing as a spectator, I learn. And maybe everyone else out there learns this over and over as well. I learn over and over that trying to watch racing in person sucks a fucking pee hole. It's terrible. It's always terrible. It doesn't matter where you are the fucking. If you care about the race, watching it, it stinks to be there in person.

[B]

Well, because to be more specific, especially with an off road race, there's so much distance between areas. It's not a two mile road course where you go, oh, they're really piled up at the Corkscrew. I've been standing on the straight for an hour and haven't seen anything that doesn't happen on a road course. But in off road racing, all these trucks get bunched up at one of the rock crawling obstacles and like literally no one's showing up. We're at the other obstacle 60 miles away and no one's coming through.

[A]

Well, it's like, you know how watching rally in person is the worst possible thing you can do? Cause it's just sitting out in the fucking desert for hours to watch.

[B]

Watch.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So that's pretty much what this is, except less predictable and on time.

[B]

Yeah, that's true.

[A]

There's a lot more slack in the schedule. And I'm not trying to like shit on racing because when we eventually went back to like the VIP tent and watched, you know, on a big screen, what was ultimately the feed that people at home could watch? That's the shit. The fucking FPV drones, the commentary from the experts who are there analyzing it and giving us context to what's happening. The full size helicopter.

[B]

There's onboard cameras.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

On some of the drivers that they're switching to the coverage. The video coverage is astounding, especially considering the distance between everything.

[A]

Yeah. And so. And we tried like several times to like go to cool places where racing might be happening and we didn't find racing there, even though it wasn't like we were at the wrong place. Like lots of other people were fucking there too. But then. And so like, if you actually care about the race, find a, you watch the feed somewhere comfortable.

[B]

But the cool thing is that if you, to get to the different event spots, you get to off road and drive at whatever speed you want from corner from. Let's call it corner to corner. But it's really rock obstacle to rock obstacle. And that's a very unique experience.

[A]

Well, that's the asterisk, right? Because people out there, and half a lot of it isn't about watching the race. There's a huge. It's just like we're all doing this this week and everyone's got their own toys, their own buggies, UTVs, crazy truck builds, whatever. And I actually think it's like watching the people mob those things around is more entertaining than watching the race itself. Like as a cultural experience, as a spectacle, like particularly the night stuff. It's a wild thing to see. And I, if I went back again, I would have my own toy, which we did. We had a Ranger Raptor. We could talk about that in a little bit. Just. And I would just play with my own toy basically all day, go in the tent for lunch, check in on the feed. Okay, back to my own toy. And then nighttime, be up on one of those obstacles where people are just hitting it in their own vehicles. Crazy times.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And like, you know, it's a lot of, lot of freedom, lot of murka, a lot of heavy, heavy that, heavy bike that. And so culturally it is very much something to see. There is a look, there's a uniform Carhartt work boot, dusty black hoodie, name of a tow company, you know, on it. Something to that effect. Wraparounds, hat like mine, but like way dirtier. It seems like people are, they're out there for a long, long time. And they are because it's like a two week event and some of them do the whole thing.

[B]

Will do the whole thing. I mean, it definitely we were there on Wednesday night, right. And you know, this was, this was when people were funneling in this photo I'm showing. I mean, they're probably like what, 200 spectators standing on the side of the mountain watching.

[A]

I think 200 is a low estimate, but go. Sure. Yeah.

[B]

I saw photos from last night or two nights ago. It had doubled for real. And like the daytime, call it parking lot near Chocolate Thunder, people are watching the racers was like eight cars deep instead of three cars deep. So it really fills in on the final weekend. But yeah, some people are out there for two weeks.

[A]

It's so nuts. Every single one of those lights in this photo that we're showing, I mean, it looks like you're on the hillside overlooking, you know, a small city or a big town, you know, and that's all like just rigs, just rigs and rigs and rigs and rows of rigs.

[B]

And RVs and stuff.

[A]

But speaking of which, some of some of those RVs. Incredible. And I'm not talking about like baller shit. I'm talking about people who turned semi trailers into RVs. People. The guy who turned the school bus.

[B]

School bus is cool.

[A]

The school bus RV hauler was so sick.

[B]

The narrow body box truck. Like the guy took a box truck and narrowed it by like two feet and then covered one side in solar panels. I think he had an electric off road buggy because he had a lot of wires going into it.

[A]

So I mean. And like that crazy crab walking tow truck.

[B]

Yeah, that was cool.

[A]

So many gambler cars. All variety of gambler cars. Some really good ones, some good serious Crown Vicks and big money builds. And there are some proper Tour bus type RVs. As well. But more so the crazy ones was where someone bought a flatbed trailer, but one that would be towed by a semi truck. And then they bought a small little camper that normally you would tow behind an F150, took the axles off it and then plopped the camper on the front half of the flatbed and then put their UTV on the back half of the flatbed which then became a porch. There were a lot of those. Yeah, those were kind of impressive actually.

[B]

It's very creative. It really is. It's like Dave said on the show, it's an event of doers and it's a lot of people who go, what do I need? I need a toy hauler that also has a cabin.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I don't either. Can't afford one that's built for that. Or the ones they make for that won't hold my toy because my toy has 38 inch tires on it. So what I do, I make my own.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And they just go, oh well, I can get this camper that's cheaper and then I can get this flat towing whatever the heck open trailer from a semi for a discount. And then you put the two together and you get some straps or whatever.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I mean by like the sort of cultural. The things to see to me were like much more interesting innovation.

[B]

People's innovative problem solving for sure. Whether the problem is I want to go up Chocolate Thunder and pass everyone at nighttime who's stuck because we saw that guy in a Toyota who just didn't give a fuck.

[A]

Yeah. Imagine like, you know, rush hour traffic on any freeway in America and you got that one guy who's hitting the shoulder pass at like 70, you know, every once in a while that happens. That was this guy. But up A cliff with Volkswagens the size of like Volkswagens with boulders the size of Volkswagens. And like on the small end we're talking three foot diameter boulders. Big, big rock, crawly stuff. And that hill was constantly changing because every, you know, single vehicle up it is sort of digging a new trench into the hill as it goes. It's like, it's like erosion at 16x.

[B]

Yeah. In that particular area it was really crazy to see because we got to Chocolate Thunder. Chocolate Thunder is one of the main rock crawling like areas in the race.

[A]

Pretty much all the exhibits have butt sex themed names.

[B]

What is it? Backdoor Jackhammer Thunder.

[A]

I mean it's really, it's an awful.

[B]

I forgot about jackhammer.

[A]

There's an awful lot of butt stuff. And it's good.

[B]

It's really true. Well, I think they were named the first person who ever did the roots got to name them. So it's 20 years ago or more so.

[A]

And you know, very mature human chog of thunder is not about butt sex. It's actually about pooping. It's shitting yourself.

[B]

It's actually a commentary on the Hershey's chocolate company's takeover of small business.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

What were we talking about?

[A]

I don't know. The night shit.

[B]

So we got out there and they were like two trucks going up. Chocolate Thunder. And we went, oh, how does this work? Do people just line up or what's going on? Within an hour there were five going up at the same time. And like one person got stuck next to them. Someone's trying to go past them, but almost hit them. And then Toyota, whatever. Toyota Thon man. Just fucking full throttle. Drives around everybody and just storms past everyone kicks up dust clouds. It was incredible.

[A]

Yeah, some people were incredibly effective and bold. And bold and just really, truly sending it. But like some of the rigs I expected to do better. Like visually, you know, sometimes I see someone get something stuck and I'm like, I'm like, you have like the same tires that you have 59 inch tires on this thing. Like, how are you getting stuck? And then the dude in a utv, like little tires, like. And then remember the one dude who. There was the guy who was doing the rock crawling equivalent of talking so much shit. Folks, time to take a quick break for hello Fresh. Boy, do I love me some hello Fresh. They sent us the big box this week. Hannah and I were cooking hello Fresh at home all week. And boy, do you get that farm. Fresh pre portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. Skip trips to the store count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy, fun and affordable. That's why it's America's number one meal kit. They sent us the box this week and I was real excited. There was some crusted parmesan crusted chicken breasts. We did. The mashed potatoes were absolutely kick ass. In fact I saved the recipe card for the hello fresh mashed potatoes and I doubled the recipe and made them again for my friends. Two nights later ate it for Hannah. One night cooked the same recipe for friends again. It was great. They line up all the recipes on the card. That way when you cook it is a 30 minute meal. They're easy. The 15 minute meals they have are done in just three simple steps. If you got to eat even quicker. And there's all kinds of add on items you can add to your weekly box like quick breakfast and packable snacks, beverages, a whole lot more. I thought this week's HelloFresh delivery had some really good food. There was Monterey Jack cheeseburgers with the roasted potatoes. I really liked their recipe for roasted carrots. I modified it slightly with a different seasoning but it worked really well with the burgers and it was great. It was easy. Everything we needed was in that bag pre portioned. When I opened the bag I was like is this going to be enough food? And it actually was. Although if you eat a lot, if you're very hungry, if you work out a lot, consider double proteining. Just I'm saying it's a thing I might consider if you really want to go hard on the meats with that one. But the meals were fresh and tasty and I really enjoyed them. Now you can too get up to 10 free meals and a free high protein item for life. @hellofresh.com Smokingtire10FM they have made the code a little bit complicated this week it's one item per box with active subscription free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's up to 10 free HelloFresh meals. Just go to hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit. And now back to the show as he there were people crawling up the main obstacle which is sort of the deep V of a chute going up between two mountains. But there was a guy who went up it and then you turned at the top and went down it and then went up it in reverse, right? And then went around like two people on the way back down and then went in reverse up the Side of the hill no one else was exploring. Yeah. And he was like, he was basically like weaving s curves through other people.

[B]

And he had a small engine because I got close to him for a shot and he had like a four banger or something.

[A]

Were those shots good?

[B]

I haven't found. I haven't looked through them yet.

[A]

But listen, I'm gonna need all you motherfuckers to watch this video because we bought a very expensive new camera for Zach to play with. It looks. The Ranger shots look nice.

[B]

Yeah. So I. But as you said like there were, there were trucks getting stuck that had big V8s and big tires and it's, it is the driver of course.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And reading the rocks and stuff as Vaughn said on the stage show. And then you've got this truck driven by a very skilled dude. Guy was like in his 50s with his friend. And the engine was quiet, little four banger. But he was a stock. Actually a lot of people run who told they run EcoBoost with a little Chevy engine. 2.3 liter EcoTech. EcoTech, yes. Thank you. I guess a lot of people are swapping those in because they're torquey and.

[A]

Light Swapping into what?

[B]

Into the monsters we saw. You know they're taking out. Well, a lot of these things are like custom built buggies.

[A]

Oh sure.

[B]

So you can put whatever in, whatever engine you want. Some, I mean some of the V8 stuff seemed also very effective to get up the hill.

[A]

Yeah, the LS motors, etc were all over the place. Sick stuff though. I mean it was, it was fucking. It's crazy that people. So many people can build things like that and really fucking run them with absolutely zero fear.

[B]

Yeah, it's really hard.

[A]

People on their roof, people on their.

[B]

Side, people that had formerly been on roof or side that had the vehicle back out there.

[A]

Dude. And I saw some spectators standing in places that were so dangerous. Remember that one guy who tried who did the up and over of the spectator?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think that was, that was not the correct move from the driver of that vehicle. I probably wouldn't have done that if I was in that.

[B]

But yeah, I feel like they probably saw. I mean they're basically. There are people up on the side of the hill 100ft standing on a rock. Three people and this person went up, up around them, uphill of them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So if the car tipped, which is.

[A]

Kind of possible, kind of was.

[B]

The people scrambled away very quickly. They got the fuck out of there. So that was kind of a dangerous move. But yeah, you also if you're a spectator, it's dangerous to assume that cars can see you even though they have bright lights and stuff. The way the shadows are being cast. I mean, you need to be very.

[A]

Smart about off roading at night.

[B]

Yeah. At speed, at some. In some points. Because when they would get over that main, let's call it like the 10 foot drop where people were getting stuck, then everyone got to the top of the hill, just full throttle, everybody would just rip up there. And if you were a little too far over as a pedestrian, like, you could get shot with rocks, sand, whatever. You need to be careful.

[A]

Yeah. Speaking of night off roading, if you're watching the video version of this, in the photo of where we're standing, you can see some cars, including, like a white van on the left side of that. That's like where we were parked there with our Ford Ranger Raptor. And we were staying in the. And you can sort of see the train of lights coming from the town going to where our cars are parked. Right. Because this was taken earlier in the evening when lots of people. When we left to go back into town, nobody was going the other way. And, like, half of it is a trail, but half of it is open dry lake bed. And at night, when you don't have someone to follow, you can see the town. You go, well, I'm gonna generally get to the town and when I get there, like, I'll know what I'm seeing and where to, like, drive around the perimeter of the town until I go in my design entrance. Right.

[B]

You're driving across the ocean. When you get to the island, you'll find your dock.

[A]

Yeah, basically. Except this dry lake bed. Zach and I'm driving and we're cruising it. You know, it's a raptor. So we're cruising like 35 miles an hour, 40 miles an hour. All of a sudden, dry lakebed sand gets dark and we have hit a wet spot.

[B]

It got shiny. I remember noticing it got shiny. And that was a drastic change.

[A]

And all of a sudden there's the spray, you know, up in the air onto the windshield, onto the hood, and we go, oh, no, this is now mud and sand. And I have been in a position like that before. So I put my foot on the fucking floorboard. And I don't know how long. How long would you say it was? Maybe it was probably like five to eight seconds. It felt like 20.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, of just like mud. You know, that noise of like mud raining on your car. It sounds like being in a Car wash. Yeah, you know, and we got it. We didn't get stuck. We got out of it. But immediately afterward it looked like somehow the headlights had been turned off. But the mud and the clay was so thick that it just blacked out.

[B]

Hid headlights right away really alarmingly quick. And you thought you had turned the switch off and you reached for the switch. Changed nothing about our forward visibility. And then we were trying. We were very close to like Hammertown. And we're like, all right, let's pull up next to this fence to clean our headlights off. And there were two vehicles coming at us. And one of them went to our right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because it was just heading that way. But the other one was not deviating from a head on collision with us. We had to move over. And we're like. And you, I remember, you're like, what's this guy doing? I was like, I don't think he can see us because he was in the light and we were coming from the dark spot and our bright blue.

[A]

Truck was now clay gray.

[B]

We got out and we really learned how caked on it was because yeah, the clay there, well, it's clay so it sticks to itself.

[A]

It was goo gluey, really gluey. It was so gluey and actually that we, you know, we parked the truck outside our RV overnight. The next morning it was wet, like mottling clay. We would have had to get towed out of there if we stopped.

[B]

And imagine walking across that at night and trying to flag someone. Like one, your shoes would get stuck, but two, you might get hit by a truck trying to get out of there.

[A]

And then, you know, fun. Finally we got home, but I parked the truck outside my house on the street and they were coming and collected the next day and it was fucked. It was so, so dirty. But it rained. It rained for 12 hours straight when we got home. And the next morning the top half of the truck was clean. And so when the press fleet guys drove it away, there's a distinct clay ring. Like where a dead chalk outline where a dead body. The street in front of my house right now. It's probably going to be there for a month.

[B]

It will. It's going to need. You need a few more rainstorms to get rid of that.

[A]

Oh man, it was so bad. But God, was that fun. Should we talk about the Ranger Raptor? The Ranger Raptor is. Dude, I think I'm going to give it pretty high scores off the bat. It's got a ton going for it. The only picture I have of it is when it was clean, that was, that was probably its last ever clean day. I liked it a lot. It's the right size. So compared to, I wrote it down. Compared to an F150 Raptor, it's 22 inches shorter, 17 inch shorter wheelbase, it's 8 inches narrower, 5 inches lower, and 600 pounds lighter than an F150 Raptor. I don't have the measurements compared to a Bronco Raptor, but it shares a powertrain with Bronco Raptor and it definitely doesn't drive as wide, you know, Bronco Raptor I think, I'm pretty sure is wider, but it's like 30G's cheaper than the Bronco Raptor we tested. You looking for it?

[B]

I was trying to find it real.

[A]

Quick, but yeah, it's a lot less expensive than the Bronco Raptor. I actually, I do think the Bronco Raptor was a little more fun and flickable. A little shorter wheelbase, I think a little more responsive when turning than the Ranger.

[B]

I agree with that. It felt like, I think almost like the Bronco had slightly stiffer suspension or maybe something where like the connectivity from steering wheel to wheels was more reactive.

[A]

It cornered better in the loose stuff than the Ranger did. I mean, but they're clearly the same family. These Fox live valve shocks kick ass. We tested it and for the video that we're doing, you'll see it's the same as the King of the Hammers video. Please watch it because we bought a new camera. Did I say that? Please fucking watch it because we bought a new camera. It's it. We, we tested it on the same bit of sand area that we had just been driven around in a, in the literal Dakar truck.

[B]

The Raptor T Plus.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, Raptor LOL. T Plus. Which is the easily the best sounding Coyote V8 I have ever heard in my life.

[B]

Yeah. And I think, well, I was gonna say the best off road ride I've been in, but they're all pretty special.

[A]

So it was, it was fantastic. It was basically like a big cross cart.

[B]

It's like, it was a mid engine, it's like a mid engine car, but it. With, with a lift kit. It was actually something from like micro machines if you think about it. And it had all wheel drive, mid engine, two extra tires running on the flanks like behind your door. And it was bananas fast. And it's, you know, that car, oversized.

[A]

Mid engine rally car. It's got a Coyote V8 that they swear is just a production off the shelf. V8 obviously it's tuned to run, you know, like, for race. It's tuned for racing, but they swear it's. And it's. Mitch Guthrie, who is the driver, said it's detuned for Dakar rules, so it's making less than 400 horsepower. Whoa. Which, I mean, honestly, in the dirt, there's a sort of a limit to, like, you know, how much in this type of sport beyond a certain amount, I imagine doesn't make much difference.

[B]

I don't know, because some of the Baja trucks, they're making 800 to 1,000 because they're trying to, you know, they can carry more stuff. They carry a lot of parts and tires, and, I mean, a lot of, you know, they carry spare wheels, and.

[A]

Maybe it's a fuel economy thing.

[B]

Maybe there may be a, you know, the curve there of, like, well, how much fuel economy do we want versus outside speed?

[A]

But Mitch. I mean, Mitch said that detuning it makes it, like, more robust and reliable because you beat the out of it.

[B]

Which he does.

[A]

Which he does. And it really revved. It's probably got a super light flywheel on it because it's got a. It's got a Sedev gearbox. But it really sounds like, you know, almost like an F1 car or something that's got this eight into one exhaust. And what's crazy is, like, we heard it idling, like, when we were setting up our cameras. Like, it's really quiet, like, at idle and, like, just kind of puttering around. It's very, very quiet. But, like, holy shit.

[B]

Once he's on it, when we watched him leave the start finish line for that demo run, first we like this GT350, like, R voodoo engine.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then. No, it's just eight to one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That was.

[A]

Or it was flat plane.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But really, really good time. So, anyway, we rode in that, and then the next morning, we go out in our $58,000 Raptor Ranger pickup truck. And while you definitely can't do the same kind of stuff, you can go, like, pretty goddamn quick.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Everywhere in this truck. It's pretty fun.

[B]

It's very fun. I was really impressed with it until you get to really deep whoops, which is where these vehicles with larger tires and bigger travel and honestly, they feel more disposable when they're a race car versus when it's, like a truck that you would drive to the event and then drive around in.

[A]

Right. Yeah. In the Dakar, the leading edge of the car is a tire, so it's clearly meant for that whoops are always the limiting factor of these types of production based trucks.

[B]

Yeah. But we were ripping around between the obstacles 30, 40, 50 miles per hour on some of the kind of more open desert with either really small, you know, whoops. I mean, I'm talking like 4 inches tall. It could just skim across that ripples. Yeah. The stuff that would. The stuff that we drove on, we did that off road trip across like Moab.

[A]

Yeah. The washboard.

[B]

The stuff that shakes cars apart. This thing just kind of hummed over.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And dynamically, you know, you could. You could slide the thing. It would just do what we wanted to do. We were slashing these sandy dunes, which is super fun. Like really impressive vehicle for what it is. And real quick, the measurement. Bronco Raptor is 6 inches wider than a Ranger Raptor.

[A]

You can feel every one of those six inches. Not so much in the trail, but when you're trying to put it in a garage or a parking space, that's when you really notice those six inches.

[B]

And at no point I didn't feel like the Ranger Raptor ever felt unstable because it was too narrow, you know.

[A]

Oh, no, no. I think it just. I think it doesn't. I think the wider track and the wider tires of the Bronco make it turn in better on the sand. You know, when you load up the brakes. I distinctly remember in the Bronco you could load up the brakes and huck it and throttle hard and it would actually rotate pretty good. This, it was very much a stand on it, waggle it and then pick your. Pick which one you want to stay.

[B]

You had a scandi flick it kind of. Yeah.

[A]

You had to really wait and then hard on the throttle. And I thought that just it. Everything happened like a little slower in the Ranger. I think it's longer wheelbase too, but it was. But it's still like for the money. It's responsive and fun and, you know, it's got a very usable bed. See things I didn't like, folks taking one more break because support for today's show is coming in from deleteme. I use delete me. They set me up with the program because I was getting spam. I was getting email marketing, I was getting phone marketing, text marketing, political bullcrap marketing. And you know why that's all happening? Because our data is out there on the Internet for anyone to see. When you buy something online, when you make an somewhere, when you enter your personal information anywhere, that data is probably getting sold. Your Social Security number, your home address, your phone, all of It. It's being compiled by data brokers and sold online. These data brokers are making a profit off of your data. It's a commodity. It stinks. Anyone can buy your private details on the web. And this can lead to all kinds of things. Identity theft, phishing attempts, harassment, unwanted spam calls, and more. But now you can protect your privacy. With Deleteme, I use Delete me and boy, did they find some things. The first time I made the account, answered a few questions and put in information like my current and former addresses, my current and former phone numbers, my close relatives and their basic contact information. And then DeleteMe went to work, and I didn't hear anything for like a couple of days. And then I got an email saying your. Your profile has found 1,000 points of contact and we've automatically deleted a bunch of them. But here's some other ones that we need you to manually verify. Like, is this your address? Is this your phone number? Unfortunately, most of them were old address and phone numbers. My current stuff is still pretty safe, but still, it made me feel better getting that stuff and hitting yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Delete, delete, delete, delete, delete. It then kept going, and it keeps going. Every month it sends me a new report saying what it's found, what it deleted, and what I need to approve to be deleted. It's pretty cool stuff. I really like it. You can use it too. Take control of your data. Keep your private life private by signing up for Delete me now at a special discount for TST listeners. Get it today. Get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com tire and use promo code tire at checkout. Gotta do it twice. The only way you get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com Tire and then also enter code Tire at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com Tire code Tire. Now back to the show.

[B]

Ranger raptor. Wheelbase is 12 inches longer.

[A]

That's a lot.

[B]

That's a lot.

[A]

Yeah, it's a lot. So all those things contribute to sharper handling. I would say when we were doing all wheel drive like donuts in the Bronco Raptor, you could over rotate more than you could with the Ranger.

[B]

True. I will also say, though, that the surface we were on at jawbone is harder. And where we were was like deep kind of silt sand.

[A]

Yeah, it was like Sahara sand.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is fun. So I wrote here great things, size, suspension, performance on dirt, much improved ride on pavement with light loads. And that's compared to the last F150 raptor. I was in the F150 raptors. You have to put a couple hundred pounds of shit in them. If you drive one by yourself. They ride like garbage. You gotta like load them up with the stuff and like preload the suspension. Then they ride good. This one rode better empty. Yeah, not great. The lower seats are short. The seat bottoms.

[B]

Oh right. Yeah.

[A]

I wish there was more thigh support.

[B]

2 more inches or something.

[A]

Yeah. And that. That was weird. I don't. I can't get behind the sound of this V6. It just. It doesn't sound very good.

[B]

I can't get behind the sound of almost any V6. Yeah, it's just.

[A]

I don't know what to do about that. Yeah, I would love to someone who knows a lot about fuel economy. I know that the optimum cc. There's a reason that 500 cc's per cylinder is like what most people do. Like a 2 liter 4 cylinder or a 3 liter 6 cylinder or 4 liter V8 cylinder. There's a reason those are common. I think 500 cc's is the best balance of power and efficiency. That's how everyone has ended up on it. It's not by accident but I would like to know what the trade off would be for if say ford had a 3 liter V8 versus a 3 liter 6. I'm sure that what the trade offs are but I'd like to know how big they are because if you could make a real. Because small V8s are so awesome with all this torque.

[B]

But I guess you put the turbo in it and then maybe.

[A]

Yeah, with turbos. I don't know. So. And I. I'm sure someone knows and maybe someone wants to tell me. The shift lever. I don't know who designed that, but it's not good. It was kind of not intuitive.

[B]

Confusing.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Not intuitive. Tows less than the regular Ranger if you care about such things. It'll tow £5,500 instead of the regular Ranger which do £7,500. 5,500 will do. A race car on an open trailer.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

UTV on a trailer limit.

[B]

I think like imagine like a caged up Miata is probably what, £2,500?

[A]

Yeah. But a trailer is like 1500. So that's well within. Yeah, yeah. Open trailers for boats, open trailers for stuff. You're fine. The brake feel on this thing was garbagio. Now this was a 5700 mile press car. So take that into consideration. Maybe. But Car and Driver did test the braking 70 to 0 and it's pretty atrocious. It's 218ft from 70 to 0, which is the same as the F150 Raptor, but the F150 Lightning, which is heavier than both 180ft. So that's a lot.

[B]

I'm sure that uses clever regen first but also focused tires. But even 218 is nearly twice as long as it takes. Like a good Corvette.

[A]

It's bad. Yeah, it's a bad number. And it's one thing if like it's bad because you lock up these off road tires and they're sliding a lot and stuff like that. But. But in my experience, the pedal is also really soft and spongy and shitty. And I had to really adjust braking distances accordingly. And not only that, the person who reviewed it for Car and Driver. The reason I keep going Car and Driver is because they weigh the trucks, they measure. So I get my specs. But I just happened to look at their little highs and lows thing and one of them was like, like shitty brake feel. And they drove it when it was brand new. So I don't know what can be done about that. On the dirt, it doesn't matter. But on the highway, like literally, like, don't follow too close in one of these things. Yeah.

[B]

You're using way more. The pedal pressure. You'd use a lot more pedal than you expected from other similar trucks and SUVs. And then the braking distance is also much longer. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

So if you're a, if you're a close follower, probably not the, the car for you.

[B]

Other things, especially when you're bouncing around in the desert adjusting the temperature or your seat heaters and whatnot. Because it's a touchscreen. Because those are the scrolling knobs. Oh, I was using the slider thing.

[A]

It's also there.

[B]

I didn't see it, but right below.

[A]

It there is a knob. Yeah. Touchscreen while bouncing is bad.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But there are knobs for that. I fell into the trap of using the touchscreen because it's the same as the Mach E. So I was used to it. Don't have to though. They thought of that one. Okay, I'm wrong.

[B]

I admit you're wrong. I mean I didn't. I was bouncing around in the desert, so I was like, where's my temperature adjust? There it is. And you know that was it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I like overall trucks, trucks of this size that are off road ready I think are correct. And I know that some people might have different requirements. If you're towing a lot more, you might want the big F150 raptor. But if you're not doing that, I mean parking this thing, driving it, it felt more agile. You could see it on trails, it's narrower. And I have off roaded both regular raptors and Titan Pro 4X like full size trucks. And I've off roaded these trucks, both the ZR2 and the Ranger Raptor. And the size of this is just correct.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, and I would argue that with the Bronco Raptor, despite its width being annoying in the city for off road, the size of that is even better. I think the most isn't the most capable Raptor. Like literally according to Ford, the Bronco.

[B]

I don't know how they define that. So I'd have to look at that.

[A]

I think in the marketing it was, I don't know.

[B]

I think it also depends on what you're doing. Like it was probably trails where it's too wide.

[A]

Mob it on a fucking trail.

[B]

For sure. You know, there's trails where it's too wide. But all but it's shorter wheelbase makes up for some of that. Because one of the challenges with doing, you know, slow 4 by or 4 wheeling with the F150 raptor is you have length plus W. So making u turns on tight mountain trails and stuff would be really hard.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that's a big boy. The proper. And there's not really an argument. It's not like all the raptors still have V8s and so you go, well, I really want the V8. It's like, no, dude, you gotta listen to that V6 and the F150 too. Unless you shell out for the R which most people are not able to do.

[B]

Yeah, The Ranger has 400 horsepower.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, it's got the power to.

[A]

Weight of the Ranger Raptor is a little better than the power to weight of my 6.2 liter Raptor F150 back in the day.

[B]

Yeah. We looked up the horsepower and torque specs are almost exactly the same. But obviously the Ranger Raptor weighs a lot less.

[A]

We can, we can talk real quick about that Cayenne GTS which you drove in Spain. Spain?

[B]

No, I drove in Georgia.

[A]

Oh, it was Georgia.

[B]

I drove in outside Atlanta and I.

[A]

Drove it here last week. This one was weird for me because on the one hand it is 95% of the way to what a turbo GT basically drives like. But a Much more sort of subtle look. More practical with the full size, you know, hat hatch SUV hatch, not the SUV sports car hatch. And it's got the sound, it's got the engagement, like cranked way up, up. It's a really nice sporty thing. But on the other hand, after driving some like fast Daily Driver Like EVs, I feel like this like very aggressive powertrain in a gas powered SUV that is really meant for everyday use. It's a little like, it actually feels a little like unrefined to me and like kind of a way I don't really love.

[B]

Hmm.

[A]

I'm not really. Maybe I'm just getting older, but I don't think I. I'm starting to think that maybe it's me, it's the cars executed fine except for a couple of things. But like I'm starting to lose the appeal of a fast sporty suv because they're actually worse like in traffic and in the city than just sort of the regular one or the much worse than an electric car in that same situation. And so while it was nice to drive it up on the mountain briefly and it's pretty, it was pretty nice on the highway as well in the city. It was pretty like jerky because of how like aggressive it's tuned, particularly with the stop start, which is like so fucking problematic.

[B]

Just gotta turn that off.

[A]

Yeah, you have to turn it off. I wrote about this on Instagram. This happened also with the Cayenne S, the V8s that drove a year ago. The start stop stops before you come to a stop.

[B]

Yeah, that's very weird.

[A]

And it locks it, it locks the steering.

[B]

That's not great.

[A]

So you are, you're on that trajectory even if in your brain you're like, and now I'm gonna steer back to the right. It's like, no you're not. Wait, what the fuck? There were at least three times that that system cut off when I needed the engine to be on because I was still moving and planned to maneuver and there was a very big delay in the engine kicking back on and the system coming back.

[B]

They should change that with an over the air update. They really should change that timing because we've never experienced that from another brand. I don't think, I don't think so. There's plenty of stop start out there, but it just, it doesn't turn off until you're at a fixed location. You can tell you're done, come to.

[A]

A stop and you're usually there for a second or two. But like it can't turn off while you're rolling. That's like crazy.

[B]

Yeah, it's a preemptive.

[A]

And so, yeah, I mean, if you have one of these or an S, like, yo, you gotta like go find somebody and code that shit out. But like, that's really bad. And it put me in a couple of sketchy situations that I didn't need to be in. But like, you know, dynamically ride, excellent handling, excellent. You know, seats, great. All that other shit.

[B]

Because it gets. I'm looking at my notes from, you know, a while ago, but it has like the same steering knuckle as the Turbo gt. It has the same damper as the Turbo gt. It's got some new engine stuff, a new turbo, a bunch of like, more pressure. I mean, they did a bunch of changes on it. And that means, like, I was really impressed with how it drove in the Georgia mountains. Yeah, when you're ripping, it's really, really good at that. And it felt smaller and a little lighter than you expect. But I get it. For a daily driver, I think, you know, you've owned EVs for dailies for so long with the Bentley as an exception, that, that is, that is, let's call that peak refinement in terms of everything. And when you go back to kind of this older formula, unless you are really into that old formula of, ooh, I get to hear the sound. And yeah, it's a little jerky, but that's fun because it's an innate quality V8, then it just feels different.

[A]

Well, and if you, if you pull out of your house and immediately surrounding you is a nice road where you're moving. I mean, you might be straight, it might be windy, but you're not pulling out of your house into an urban area where for the most part you're going light to light, or where your commute is heavy traffic. I mean, you know, my parents live in Connecticut. A lot of you pull out of their house and they're on a. You're on a beautiful windy road. So if that's what your driving is like, then this type of car is awesome because it's the most dynamic that this five seat SUV formula gets. Yeah, it's real fast. Sounds awesome. They definitely out AMG with the sound of this thing. Yeah, sounds great.

[B]

But it's a weird thing because it makes 25 more horsepower than the S, which is not that much. And zero to 60 is a lot. It's a half second quicker, which is pretty significant for 25 horsepower. They do some other Changes. But unless you are like really into the handling aspect. So unless you either have the pallet for that and also you live and commute in that environment that will showcase that, then I go, well, then who is this for? Yeah.

[A]

And even when I drove the S, it was objectively fine other than the stop start thing. But I drove it in very mixed conditions. I drove it from Georgia to Pigeon Forge and back, but then I drove it in a whole bunch of traffic in Pigeon Forge and my cumulative fuel economy was not very good. I very rarely used the extra power. I almost never went above like half throttle and. And it was kind of expensive. It was like 120 grand. And this red GTS is like 140 something grand. And you know, whereas like you can get a cayenne hybrid for like, you know, 85 grand, 90 grand starting. I don't know the exact MSRP, but it's under 100. And having now driven my dad's cayenne hybrid a whole bunch, I just think that's like a better everyday vehicle most of the time.

[B]

Yeah, I agree.

[A]

But if you're, if you have to be a one car person where you've got your kids and you, and you've got your, you know, everyday life stuff, you've got a lug around four seasons, you know, but you want some dynamism in there, this is it.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But there are trade offs.

[B]

Yeah. If you don't want that part of you to die.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You have a family. No, no. I still need to have a little bit of sports car injected into my life, then that's what this is for.

[A]

And honestly, compared to what AMG is putting out right now, I'd rather drive this. This is more of an AMG product than pretty much all the AMGs right now.

[B]

And like the cornering ability of this thing and the way it transitioned from corner to corner was really, really good.

[A]

Yeah. Quick steering, rear steer, and a chassis that's very good at weight transfer. It does drive small. It's fucking.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

It's really. How much? I don't even know. How much horsepower does it have?

[B]

495.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, that's. I was gonna say my guess would be 500, but it actually drives like more than that, I think because it's loud. I think this car really demonstrates the effectiveness of a cat back exhaust.

[B]

Yeah. And its ability to transform your sense of speed. Yeah.

[A]

25 more horsepower than the S, but it sounds like it's a hundred more anymore.

[B]

It's fun. It is fun. And you get all these good pieces of hardware that we. That made the Turbo GT so good, which was such a remarkable suv. But yeah, it's for a very specific.

[A]

Market, which is gt. I mean, that's what GTS is. Right. The GTS is the focused one. But before it gets too far into like, impractical lunacy like this one, the GTS doesn't have the like 3 degrees of negative camber that the turbo GT has. So you won't need to replace the tires every 1200 miles.

[B]

Yeah. Remarkable. There was no dirt on the outside of the tire when we parked.

[A]

We have a couple people here at WCCS who have turbo GTs and they go through the world's most expensive tires. I mean, These are like 23 inch R compounds or 22 inch R compounds or something. And like the inners are just ripped off and bald. But from the outside, you know when you're washing it from the outside, they look fine.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You have to lay down and look underneath and you're like, what the fuck?

[B]

So most people are going, I have plenty of tread left.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Actually look at the inside. Yeah.

[A]

And actually that's what someone said was going to happen with my Spider. When I put the new tires on the Spider, someone was like, when you take off your tires, you're gonna see that the inners are totally shot in the rear. Because these cars wear out rears. They were fucking perfectly flat across the car. I don't know. I don't. I don't know. Maybe someone had a problem and that became a trend somehow. But mine were fine.

[B]

Maybe that person only drives in a straight line ever.

[A]

Or maybe it's a track car that's really loading up the suspension in a way that mine isn't. Or Maybe it's a GT4 with a big wing and it's making downforce in a weird way. Or I don't know. But the wear was good. Now I got my PS4s's going. The sidewalls don't look as good as the other tires, but that's okay.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

People have tried and people have tried to customize sidewalls in, like, interesting ways, and they all look corny as fuck.

[B]

What do you mean? With, like, the lettering or lettering or whatever?

[A]

Yeah, I do, like, shout out to the. The Giugiarostein tire. That's cool. You seen that?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, I had him for a.

[A]

While while you had the Jaro one.

[B]

Oh, no, but I saw them on. Did you put them on something?

[A]

I didn't put them on anything. But no, did I. I know what.

[B]

You'Re talking about and did I put them on something? But if you're more than they're for.

[A]

80S cars, they look there. It's a good looking sidewall for an.

[B]

80S car more than six feet away. I don't think you can tell.

[A]

Well, that's, I mean that's true of so many things.

[B]

Right? So I guess I go, sure, great.

[A]

You only change things on your car you can see from six feet away.

[B]

No, I'm saying I would only care deeply about the sidewall design if it was like hugely noticeable. Otherwise, whatever.

[A]

Listen, we gotta fill 90 minutes here. We're past care deeply.

[B]

We're 45. We can switch to Q and A. We got all kinds of things.

[A]

We're on to random musings.

[B]

That's what car. Yeah, the car hobby.

[A]

All hobbies are of the show is care deeply and then it's random musings from really then on.

[B]

We work from big to small. Like more people care about this. And by the end it's an upside down pyramid, really.

[A]

Yeah, by the end it's what else do I give a fuck about?

[B]

If you're still here, let's talk about metallurgy of valve sp.

[A]

There is something that I very much care about. Actually. We lost somebody and I'm not joking. Actually, someone did die. His name is Donald Shoup. He died just the other day. And he is one of the most important urban planners ever. And his book the High Cost of Free Parking is incredibly important because it demonstrates that whether you look at urban parking solutions from either a lefty progressive angle or a righty libertarian capitalist, hyper capitalist angle, the pricing of parking, how that works in different areas has like completely fucked up our cities. And if you look at how the certain cities that were built before cars, et cetera, and a lot of those areas, the areas that were built before the cars, are the most desirable areas to live. And the areas with all this crazy. With all this parking are actually much less desirable. And there's way more than we need. And on and on and on. Now the high cost of free parking is like 1,000 pages. It's a good textbook. I don't expect everybody to read, but Henry Graybar, who wrote Paved paradise, cites it constantly. And basically that book was written in like the 70s or something. But Henry Graybar's book was written two years ago. It's modernized for today and it's very, very current. And you will never look at fucking cities the same way until you start thinking about Parking and how badly parking is implemented. Despite what you think common sense is, the data doesn't fucking support a lot of, quote, common sense about parking. And so he died. But if you don't want to read Paved paradise either, we interviewed Henry Graybar. Listen to the fucking Smoking Tire podcast with Henry Graybar where we talk about a lot of the most important concepts in Paved Paradise. It's like episode seven something, I think. Is it? But yeah, dude. And I was just talking about this guy because our friend David Zipper, who's been on our show before, is profiling me for Bloomberg, which is still a little uncomfortable of me to say, but we spent two days talking about urbanism. We went out in my Acura NSX and we talked about cars. We talked about good urban design, bad urban design. We did some bike share. We went and had lunch at Bluey's and then did bike share to Venice. I told him that Venice should be like, mostly car free, I think, or like a lot of it. Like, and. And he asked me to, like, basically redesign Venice to be like, more walkable, which was actually like a really fun exercise and something I found I could. I'm sure a professional would shoot it right fucking full of holes. But I was able to be like, oh, yeah, no, I would do this and I would move this here and I would do this and I would do and give this to them and to like, I actually had a fucking solution to that problem, which made me feel kind of cool.

[B]

Where did the cars go?

[A]

The cars didn't all leave. It wasn't about making Venice actually car free. It was about prioritizing cyclists and pedestrians. And so what that really meant was like, better crosswalks, like, better, like more divided bike lanes. Like the triangle of certain. Like, I made, like, I send you the map, but, like, you understand the triangle that is Venice, like, should have like a perimeter with like a central bike lane kind of through the middle of it. So you can kind of make that whole area not car free, but, like, car optional.

[B]

Yeah, that would be good. You could alternate car street, bike street, something like that. Where.

[A]

Yeah, or there's areas where the bikes, like, there's space to make for bikes. And like, if you put like a parking garage or something on the perimeter of it, it. Rather than parking cars right on. On the main street, you could like, give that lane to bikers and pedestrians and have like, sidewalk outdoor dining and things like that green space, blah, blah, blah. You could just. They park on the back of the building instead of the front and you could you better use that space because, like, right now it's those two lanes with a center turn lane. That's like, always a shit show.

[B]

Totally. Yeah.

[A]

So anyway. Anyway, you should read. You should read. At least read Pave Paradise. It's very high on the TST reading list, so. RIP To Donald Shoup. That stinks. Personal news. The Bentley has left. Not. It hasn't been sold. It's on its way. It's at Cars and bids, the Bunker down in San Diego.

[B]

It's in the Batgirl Daddy.

[A]

Doug will be reviewing it. I'm excited. Doug's never reviewed one of my cars before, so that'll be a fun. Fun thing I've given him. You know, I wrote him some. Some bullet points of fun things that I know about the car, and I'm sure he'll have a. I'm sure he'll have a bunch of shit that I don't know about the car. But it's going. No reserve cars and bids. We should do a live show as the auction ends.

[B]

Oh, yeah, let's do that.

[A]

We should. We should call live commentary.

[B]

When does it end?

[A]

I don't know. It hasn't been scheduled. So. So Jonathan Harper, who shoots a lot for R and T and others, did the photography. It looks beautiful. And I got a. I got a text from. From Kenan when. When it got down there, and he was like, dude, everybody in the office is losing their over this car. He's like, this thing is great.

[B]

Oh, I wonder if one of them will buy it. Canon buy it.

[A]

It's a very. It's a good Canon car. I told him, I said, look, take. Take it home. Take your wife. It's a real charmer. One. You drive this car once, and you're like, yeah, chill on. And Matt already did all the maintenance. Oh, and then Doug was like, bro, these receipts.

[B]

Yeah, once you look at the math that's been done. And you bought a good one too.

[A]

Yeah, we. I started with a really good one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The. The what? I. Here's what I do. Think someone who bids on the Bentley will get a. It is a very rare opportunity to buy one of these with zero unknowns. That's a fucking rare thing. And my paranoia of someone out there going onto the Internet and going, matt Farah sold me a piece of shit. I can't. I can't have that. So if you buy a car from me, I have gone above and beyond. And, like, we got service records to brand new known ownership, known everything. No questions, turnkey, drive home. So it's gonna be fun to see when it gets. I have no idea. But I think, you know, clearly, if Doug's making. Making a video of it and with our audience and whatever, you know, we are, we're gonna maximize value.

[B]

It'll get a lot of attention. We'll see if that leads to lots of money or some money.

[A]

Well, you're. This is a. This was a company car. The money's going back into the company. So you're invested in this company, paid for this car, and the company gets all the proceeds.

[B]

Let's promote it. Let's livestream when it goes up. That was very fun during DeLorean with the DeLorean.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, this was mad stressful, dude.

[B]

I mean, it was. It was fun for me the whole time. It was only fun for you for the last five minutes. But the first two hours were rough.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But. But it's. That's. That car is ready to go. Drive it home and. And daily drive, please. And look at that Mercedes Sec next to it. Cars and bids. There's a. The best comment on my Instagram post was like, if either of these roll up to your house, your daddy's either getting fired or going in the trunk. And I was like, that's the tits, dude. That's great. Yeah, that's definitely a your dad is getting fired today car. Awesome. And there's a couple people in the comments that are saying things that I know for a fact are rich as so get game.

[B]

Oh, commenters are rich. Okay. Yeah, got it.

[A]

This is. This would be the best beater ever for a billionaire. You could fucking ride dirty in this thing.

[B]

Mark Cuban, get in there.

[A]

M. Cuban one says I could drive the mavericks around. Let's go to the people. The people get to speak now. The patrons from patreon.com the Smoketirepodcast. The best website in the entire world. We love our patrons. They are exceptional people. Every single one of them. I bet a very less than normal percentage have felonies on their records. And even if they do, that's okay. We love them all.

[B]

That means we're part of the reformation process.

[A]

We are absolutely. Both the Christian version and the prison version.

[B]

Reformation Population Proclamation.

[A]

Tim A. Let's say Tim. Oh, do you think it's Tim A. I think so.

[B]

I think it's South Park Timma.

[A]

Oh, you think it's South Park. Tim A.

[B]

What did you think it was?

[A]

Tim Armstrong from Rancid. I don't know a Tim and a person with a last name.

[B]

I hope it's Tim A.

[A]

Well, I guess now he's Tim A forever. Let's see. On the show, one of us said that Porsche has marketing data that a disproportionate portion of Cayenne Coupe owners are male. Question, does that seem counterintuitive? To me a Cayenne Coupe is a definitive chick car.

[B]

I remember this. Porsche showed us this, I think at the Cayenne GTS launch. Basically it was like the GTS is bought by 12% more men than the normal Cayenne S. And then the coupe is again, it was like 13%. I don't remember the numbers. I could look them up somewhere. But it was definitely skewed more towards men. Men wanted to buy the one that is worse for carrying things around.

[A]

But look like a sports car.

[B]

Look like a sports car is basically. It's what we've talked about before. It's the new luxury coupe.

[A]

My. My trainer. We talk about cars all the time and you know, I'm always bringing home cars. We're talking about my trainer. Fucking. He knows a little bit about cars, but he's just a regular dude who wants to drive a cool car every day. This motherfucker loves a coupe suv. That's his favorite shit. And I cannot explained to him that it is neither a sports car nor a good suv. He doesn't care. And I've had this type of battle before with people and I've lost. I used to try to convince my mother that she shouldn't have got a Lexus RX300 because the crossover wasn't a real SUV. It wouldn't work in the snow, it wouldn't. Blah, blah, blah. She should have got a Tahoe. Who was right?

[B]

Yeah, she was. Yeah. So, yeah, in my experience, in my limited experience, I would say that women tend to be much more practical purchasers than men when it comes to large things like this because, I mean, we, we are from a young age, whatever. We like sports cars and fast things and things that don't really do jobs better necessarily. But yeah. So I think the coupe has more character, let's call it. Yeah, but it doesn't mean anything to people who actually want to put stuff in the car.

[A]

It. It also doesn't really hold less unless you're stacking shit to the ceiling. Unless you're like moving your kid into their dorm room. The part that it takes away is mostly normally air. Yes, in fairness, I agree, but I.

[B]

Also think it's kind of. But as we know with cars, people go, well, what if I wanted to Dibba D and that informs their buying a lot.

[A]

Yeah. Mr. Balloon Hands Gooding and company announced for Amelia that there is a low multiple mile time capsule Yellowbird with an estimate in excess of $6 million. Along with the only two AMG hammers with manual transmissions. Estimated 1 to 2 million each. Unheard of prices for publicly traded examples. Thoughts? Seems like the new generation of collectors and the cars they're interested in are coming full swing. I am not surprised to see those numbers. I would bet that that that time capsule Yellowbird is probably the only one like that. It's probably the only chance someone will ever have to buy a like new Yellowbird. Any Yellowbird at auction is probably 2 million bucks right now. Having driven them. I get it. You know, and to people that are our age, in their 40s, these sort of late 80s, early 90s Euro tuner stuff that have either in the case of AMG merged with Mercedes or in the case of RUF continued on to do great things and become legendary. And part of that's video games and people, you know, what they wanted, what they couldn't have because it was in the game, like the skylines. But I get it. I mean, look, people are buying fucking Koenigseggs and Paganis and all this stuff. They're millions of dollars. Why no one else can have that. That's where all of this goes all the way right up to fucking Elon Musk buying his way into the presidency. Once you're rich, it's the constant search for buying the thing that other people can't. Can't.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. For having something different. Yeah.

[A]

And so to the kind of person who wants, you know, who's doing this, there is no difference between 2 and 4 million or 6 million or 8 to somebody. There just isn't.

[B]

And like you said, the Koenigsegg. Koenigsegg is a good example because the experience of driving a Koenigsegg will be very different from a yellow bird. And it is at the, you know, the front of technology. But the Koenigsegg changes the technology so much like every couple years that there's no, I don't think, in my opinion there's like a grounded heritage example beyond the first one, which is not a very good one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so they don't have their. Not flagship like, they don't have like this embedded in history kind of thing. Whereas the Yellowbird goes. That was on everyone's mind, it was this famous video and they made them the same. And there's A small run like it is a kind of pillar of the Porsche car community. Community. And that's part of where the value comes from. So I'd rather buy that than buy a new hypercar that's going to be beaten by its successor in three years.

[A]

Yeah, and it's an interesting thing where brand name tuner cars and don't come at me the roof in thing, blah, blah, blah. Yes, we know. But like in reality the Yellowbird, what we're talking about is like a very tuner tuner car. It's amazing. But like that's the roof, CTR carbon tub, the new one, the current one, not a Porsche, that other one, an amazing Porsche. But like yeah, it's a Porsche. Okay, come on, we get it. But those brand name stuff and that may happen today. We may have, I mean we've already got stuff, brand name JDM stuff. Skylines from garage source and mines and whatever. You know, we may find that early Hennessey cars might be worth something or Rentech cars or Brabus. There's other companies doing stuff that, where it's a complete package, a known package that could be worth something. Saleen's. There's a fucking. You see George Foreman's. It's the kind of thing I would buy but it's too nice. I can never afford it. It's A yellow Saleen S351R Speedster with yellow wheels. And like it's on. Bring a trailer. It's got like 600 miles on it. Last I looked the bidding was only like 40 grand. But it's absolutely going for like 150 grand.

[B]

This is terrible looking.

[A]

It's terrible looking but it's like, it's also kind of amazing. Like it's terrible but also awesome.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah. Wow.

[B]

Yellow on yellow Mustang convertible.

[A]

Yeah, but it's a 351R though. That's a 5.8 liter supercharged. That's a big fucking motor. That's the fastest one they were making at the time and it is for me the right year. But anyway, brand name, I'm telling you, this will go for easily over $100,000. Easily. Whereas a regular ass. Yeah, it's got the Speedster Tonneau on it. It doesn't have the roll bar which it would need and you can get from Celine.

[B]

You're gonna want that. Huh?

[A]

I don't know if it's functional. I think it's a light bar. I don't know if it's a roll bar.

[B]

Oh, like a proper function.

[A]

Yeah. But God damn. But like that's. That's gonna go for 10x what a regular 1995 Mustang GT convertible would go for. You know what I mean? So brand name tuner is in. Dude. And a prop. A manual transmission AMG hammer. There are. I mean, the only two ones. I mean that's. That's gold. I. I absolutely believe a million to 2 million each for one of those, I mean, 560 hammers, which are amazing. And they're all automatic. Those are 7, 800 grand.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Why would a manual transmission hammer not be for 50% more than that?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Love to drive that. I bet it's a good time.

[B]

The hammer.

[A]

A manual hammer.

[B]

I bet it's fun. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. But it's great.

[B]

It needs.

[A]

I wonder if it's got a dog leg like the 190.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

Yeah. I don't know what gearbox they use. They said there's only two, so who the fuck knows. In a Boxster to the left. Picked up a new Z4 M40 manual. But I normally only keep cars a year or so. Planning on getting an EV, commuter lease and then a 20k fun toy. What toy should that be? I feel like I want to experience an older car. E30.996. E30 is a great one.

[B]

I would choose E30 over 996.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

996. I don't know exterior looks, of course, but also for me it's more about the interior. I don't find it to be that special feeling.

[A]

I think 20k gets you a bad 996 or a pretty good E30. Yeah, there's a difference.

[B]

Very true.

[A]

I'd rather have a pretty good E30 than a bad996.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

A bad996 is really bad. A good996 is pretty good. A nice one that is. Is sorted works, you know, Especially if it's like a later one, like a C4S or something like that. One of those good ones. But like a 20K996 is a. That's a dice roll he does throw out.

[B]

He could also just get a C8 Vet 3 LT Z51 for 50 and daily it. That's a strong buy for $50,000. That's a lot of really good car.

[A]

Yeah. I wonder where they'll settle. Where do you think the floor is for a C?

[B]

I don't know. Like, it depends on how. How far out we go.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If gas gets cheaper or something. Who knows.

[A]

Be wild when they're like 15 grand if it ever gets to that, you know, I mean, what's the cheapest C6 is like 19, I think 1819. The cheapest C7 is 24, 25 probably.

[B]

If these are. If these are your only cars. Meaning if you get a C8, that's literally your only car. It depends on your lifestyle though, because like an EV commuter is great. You can carry things in it, take it to Costco, you can give less of a fuck and then you have a fun car like an E30 which will feel different. Whereas a C8, all right, you can carry two people total and a certain amount of luggage, but it's very limiting, I think.

[A]

I'm not so sure. A used C8, when used as an only car for a year, is a year worth of interest. I think I might rather have a regular EV to commute in and a fun car for the fizz that I drive one or two days a week. But that is very engaging. That's just my opinion.

[B]

I think it depends on where you live. I think if you had access to canyons like we do, you know, C8 is so good at that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That it would still be really fun. And you go, oh yeah. And I can do. It'd be more like I canyon it a lot or track it a lot. And then I also make the compromise to drive it to work and stuff. But if you don't have access to really good roads all the time, I think you need more separation.

[A]

Yeah, C8s are good cars. I mean, a 3 LTZ51 for 50k, assuming it's in good shape. That's not bad.

[B]

No.

[A]

Excuse me, XPatrick last show you mentioned during a recent trip to Spain, you were on the ground for 30 hours. That is true. How do you manage to beat the jet lag enough to do your job? Well, that is a good ass question.

[B]

It's hard, dude. I'm doing that this week.

[A]

So I always. I don't nap. So when I land in Europe, I do what I have to do to get through that day and go to bed at a regular time. And then when I wake up, which is usually going to be earlier than I would have normally, but still I'll have gotten seven, eight hours of sleep, then I'm pretty much good to go that next day. I work through the day and then I'm fine, it's gone. But when I come back, I usually sleep on that flight, but land in LA at like 11am so I kind of have. It's almost like I slept in the night before and then I'm just sort of back on that schedule. And I'll sleep a little weird for a couple days, but I could do.

[B]

I work backwards based on when I'm landing. Like on my flight. I'm going to Spain literally for like 30 hours this week. And I land in LA at 4pm So I go, okay, well, I need to stay awake that whole flight. Like if I sleep on the plane flying to LA and then I wake up at 4pm, I'm fucked. So that means so similar. Like I have to stay awake on the whole flight. And then going out there, I look, if I'm, if I'm landing at 6am Europe time, I will go, okay, I'm gonna take a sleeping pill on the plane. I'm asleep six hours plus, like, I just try to set my internal clock according to where I'm going, but it always ends up a bit rough.

[A]

It's weird that I don't have to put so much thought into it. Most flights from LA to Europe land the next, you know, they leave in the like 9am LA time. They land at 9am or 10am the next day in Europe. So, you know, if I, if I, and it's like a lot of times I'll have, you know, I'll be able to sort of fall asleep whether it's through drugs, because I'm not against taking an Ambien a couple times a year if I need to do that more like wine or whatever at 10, 15 milligrams. No problem, no problem. Now, now I'm set. But, but the key, I think is when I lay and don't take that nap. Go for a walk, hit the gym, be active, and then you'll be tired at the right time later. Yeah, but if you're coming, if you're starting, if you're doing the trip, the reverse. That's like a strategy that's specifically for like Western US to Europe. If you're doing the reverse, it may be harder. Christian says you say that daily driving an EV makes you more relaxed than a internal combustion car train. Is the Vespa more draining physically than a car? I suppose the answer could be physically, yes, but mentally, no. Mentally, I am so happy that traffic does not apply to me.

[B]

Really. But you're not paying attention to traffic more because of your physical danger.

[A]

I am, but it's not physically draining for me to do because when I'm on a Vespa, I don't have earphones in. I'm here, I'm just. I'm riding and that's it. So I don't listen to music, I don't do calls or listen to podcasts or anything like that. So I'm really just focused here. And my brain doesn't have to work that hard to do that. Not at like Vespa speeds in the city anyway. And I'm so happy to be moving through traffic, not applying to myself the. That. That is such a joy in itself to have exited that system that. No, it doesn't. I mean, I suppose if I'm doing a highway ride and it's either like hot or freezing, or it's like 80 miles an hour with wind holding on for half hour, 45 minutes, definitely physically exhausting. But for urban riding, not at all. I remember one of the last times I saw John before he died. He was out of Monrovia, which is east. East la. At the base of the mountains, like by. Right by Altadena. I don't. Maybe. I think Monrovia is okay, but. And it was winter. It was like February. I was riding a Ducati press bike and I was gonna go have dinner with him out there. And it's like 40 miles at dinner time. And I was like, well, I have to do motorcycle. This will take three hours on a car. And the ride out there was great. And I did it in like 30 minutes. And then the sun went down and I had to do that ride home. And it was less time, but I couldn't feel any part of myself because I'm not. I'm not. I don't do long rides at night in cold. It's just not something I'm prepared for. Was it terrible?

[B]

Well, did you have a textile jet, like a hot weather jacket on the way out? And then.

[A]

I wasn't the hot weather jacket, but I was underdressed. I just. I had a. I had my winter jacket, but it was just a T shirt under it. And I didn't have my winter gloves. I had my regular gloves because it was hot when I went out there. Yeah. So. But. But moving through traffic is great. Enrico Palazzo, great name. Do you recognize the reference?

[B]

No.

[A]

Enrico Palazzo is from the Naked Gun. It's the opera singer that Leslie Nielsen, like, knocks out and impersonates. I mentioned my dad was tall like me on a recent show. What are some great cars that won't work for tall guys?

[B]

And he specified six foot is not tall in his book. Taller than that is tall.

[A]

In whose book?

[B]

In Enrico's book. He was like, car and driver says that 6ft tall is tall, but that's not.

[A]

Yeah. My dad was 6 5, but now that he's over 70 he's shrinking and now he's 6 3. I am 6 2, but depending on what shoes I wear, my legs can be different lengths. Like so if I wear well, your.

[B]

Legs are still the same.

[A]

They are. But like the overall, the net result. Right, of course. So cars that are bad for tall people.

[B]

F40s.

[A]

Yeah. I literally can't fit in an F40. Diablos are tough. Lotus Elise's and Exiges, very tough. Esprit Camaros. Which ones?

[B]

Sixth gen. Oh, the fifth.

[A]

Yeah, fifth gen. Fifth gen. If your fifth gen is fine for long legs, but you never short torso, otherwise your neck is hunched down.

[B]

Oh, the Viper. We filmed that with Magnus and he was like hunched the whole time.

[A]

Yeah. Viper's not great. Huracan's not great for tall people. Huracan spiders really bad. They're a lot worse than regular ones. Even R8 spiders are bad. Yeah. Really like any Lamborghini that isn't a Revuelto. Revueltos are great if you're tall. We're gonna have one. We have one next week. Sweet.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's so comfortable. It's amazing because that separation of the.

[B]

Drivetrain or the front, rear.

[A]

Yeah. They don't have a fucking tranny in there. It's great. It's fucking awesome. It's so comfy. I would go cross country in a Revuelto. What else? I mean, obviously Miatas. It's like they're small.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

911S are good for tall people. Corvettes generally good for tall people. BMW products generally fine for tall people. Although the E90 you sit real high. I don't like that. You gotta do an aftermarket seat.

[B]

Very true. Even my car sits too high.

[A]

My NSX is great if you have like fucking giraffe legs, but if you have a even regular sized torso, it's too low.

[B]

That's true. Yeah. In E46 if you have a sunroof. If you're over six one wearing a helmet is not going to be fun.

[A]

Right, right. Siamese sportscat enthusiast. What objectively terrible cars would you most like to own? Great question. I'll lead off with the Aston Martin Lugano Honda Series 4.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

Not a good car, but man, does it get. It does something for me. That's, it's, it's so stupid.

[B]

Reliant Robin for like six months just to experience that terror. Yeah. Three wheeler.

[A]

I'd like a Maserati Shamal which is like the ultimate BI Turbo. It's the wide body box flare one. I would like to have a Renault R5.

[B]

I don't think that's a terrible. But like your trunk is always warm and so your groceries are always kind of being cooked.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Dynamically it's also not very good.

[A]

I'd like to have an Esprit. They're kind of. I'd like. I drive that once a year.

[B]

Spree Turbo will be five in a Spree Turbo. So good looking.

[A]

One time. Yeah, one time a year.

[B]

The one time it works.

[A]

Yeah. Same goes for like a Unimog. Like some. Some stupid thing like that like crazy off road thing. That is. That is dumb.

[B]

But I was so anti hummer H1 and then I drove that one for cars and B. And I realized that it's actually the same size as a Bronco Raptor. I went, oh, it's actually not that big. This is kind of fun.

[A]

It was huge for 06.

[B]

Yeah. But it's the same as Bronco Raptor.

[A]

It's not that the exterior dimensions are that big. It's that for a vehicle where the exterior dimensions that big, the interior dimensions are so horribly small.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That an H1 is basically like sitting in a Spirit Airlines middle seat.

[B]

Yeah. It's like while driving a six speed. It's like that the line the Witch in the Wardrobe. Like you get in the closet and then suddenly you're in a smaller interior from like a Geo Metro. You're like, what happened? It was so big on the outside.

[A]

Crazy. Prashan. Top five cars. One of you likes but the other hates. That's gonna. That's a bigger question.

[B]

We may have to go every muscle car.

[A]

I can't. I can't do a top five list on the fly. Yeah, I know. It seems like with this level of genius we should be able to do that.

[B]

Those are tough.

[A]

Those are tough. They take time. Up to your ass in gas. Hypothetical scenario. You're drafted to help create a round the world collection for a billionaire. I mean hypothetical. Hypothetically you're going to be in charge of making a billionaire's toy fantasy. True, Zach.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Which is actually what our real life is going to be this year. Your task is the best driving cars that each represent the best of breed from their respect Nation.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It's DEI for car collection stuff. The all right.

[B]

430 Scud from Italy.

[A]

Okay. My Italy will be the F40 even though I can't drive it. So I'm just gonna take other people's word for it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

If you, if we limit to cars, I can drive.

[B]

I'll do the F50 best driving cars. But yeah.

[A]

Okay, so England wind. I'm gonna go with the Bentley GT speed hybrid. It's fantastic. Daily. It'll be the daily driver in his collection.

[B]

That's a good point.

[A]

Or how about the. No, no, no.

[B]

750S.

[A]

No. Oh, that's a good point. How about the Rolls boat tail thing that like Jay Z bought? That's like the pointy tail roll. It's like $20 million some.

[B]

I mean that, that is also a gorgeous car, I think. Yeah. We have to, we have to round it out well though. So a Bentley is a good idea. A Rolls is a good idea.

[A]

All right. If we're talking billionaires, it's got to be a. It's got to be Phantom based. So coach built Phantom.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Let's just say that is pretty good. That's better than a 750s America.

[B]

It's got to be 04054 GT.

[A]

Oh, that's a very good one. And America, I mean, I really can't disagree unless we're going to talk about something like, you know, the 1966 Cobra Daytona or something like the original one. That's like millions of dollars.

[B]

Oh, that's a good point.

[A]

You know, or a GT, a real GT40 from the period.

[B]

True. I think it would be easier to drive the 04051. And so that's why I would choose that because I would drive it more often.

[A]

Fair enough. Okay. That's America. Japan. R34 skyline. You know, pick your special minds.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Special tuner. Crazy one. Twins. No singles.

[B]

Oh, John.

[A]

Turbo twins.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Nicely tuned up. Twins. What other countries do we have in America?

[B]

Japan, Germany?

[A]

We need Germany. Best of roof. 997. Oh, Rue. Oh, we're going roof. Yellowbird.

[B]

I'm going roof. And I think I would. Well, I've never driven the Yellowbird, so you. I'd have to defer to you. But the one exceptional. But compared to the one we drove in Miami.

[A]

Oh, the new one. Ctr. Yeah, the CTR anniversary.

[B]

Does that drive better?

[A]

Quite exceptional. It's. It drives definitely more modern. I mean, what makes the original Yellowbird great is you have to go back and think about what Porsche was doing at the time. Porsche had a single turbo, four gears. This thing has twin turbos and six gears. It drives way different. It drives much more like a, like a 993 Turbo. Back when Porsche was, you know, almost 20 years from doing twins on their turbo. So it's this much flatter, more modern feeling torque curve paired with an exceptionally light core car.

[B]

It's fast, but we gotta look at that versus, you know, is there a generation of GT3Rs or.

[A]

Yeah, I mean I'd say 997Rs 4.0 is the, the best of that range. Or you could also say Carrera gt.

[B]

This is tough because you're choosing different like I mean all the time periods of Porsche, of Germany, of driving in general.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Damn, that's hard.

[A]

The most German sports car ever is I think that 996 GT340. Actually it's probably not. That's probably not the most most German sports car ever is like a 997 Turbo S PDK where it's like. Right. That is, we have taken the fun away. But it goes much faster. Right.

[B]

It's better at its job. Better at an amazing, amazing thing.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. D I L L space D O E Dill doe. Would an event like King of the Hammers benefit from EV builds or would it take away from the spectator experience?

[B]

So is this a beer made ent of dill the herb. Is this like a hedge design sort of thing? What's called topiary.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a Chia Pet.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Bit of dill, but looks like a deer.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

Yes, exactly.

[B]

And you put it in your butt. Okay.

[A]

Directly in your bottom. EV builds at King of the Hammers. There are some.

[B]

There are, there are some.

[A]

There is an EV class and they run a shorter route because they run out of juice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But they do finish.

[B]

But to the question which was would it take away from the spectator experience? Experience. In a lot of instances, I don't think the engine sound was doing a ton like the UTVs.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, some have DCTs, some have the words escaping me.

[A]

CVT.

[B]

CVTs.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So there's that. And. Or if the car, if the cars have like a regular four banger, the engine sound wasn't doing a lot. So you'd get to hear more suspension. Squeaky. Squeaky. And more roof cave in. Y crashy over Rocky with the easy ev. Yeah, but I don't think the sound would remove that much.

[A]

I, I agree. I mean there's certainly a few of those builds where sound is a factor. Some hot V8, that monster truck thing that was running like 18 to 1 compression.

[B]

Oh yeah, we never saw that Nitro meth or whatever it went.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It probably ate itself. But other than that, outside of Some of those very small examples, the sound of the engine doesn't really come into play. There were a couple of Toyotas that were sounding pretty good. I think somebody had an RB in something, but mostly cool turbo things. Most of the engine is just there to make the wheel spin in this sport. I mean. And also like if there were some EV builds, it would make no difference. I don't think the whole of it.

[B]

That would. I think I should retract a little bit if it was OEV only that would be disappointing because. Because you lose the, you know, the problem solving of. What engine did you, Matt, put in your off road build versus what did I put in mine?

[A]

Yeah. Ryan says restomods are broadly popular cars from the past modified to create better driving experience than what today's OEMs can legally offer. They're getting hotter and hotter. If you could wave a magic wand and make a restomod appear regardless of cost, what would it be and how would you update?

[B]

You get this one a lot.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, and most of them already exist. I mean we're going to get to drive that Ferrari 355 with Evoluto soon. You've got Lancia Delta Integrale's got one. The air cooled Porsches are out there. I mean, I guess maybe you would like to see like a Ferrari 308 GTB that was somehow hotter with quicker steering ratios. Actually, did you see the kit that Officina Fioravanti came up with? It's a kit that's designed to make F40s better to drive. So it's got different suspension, it's got a faster ratio rack with E pass. It's got different, I mean fucking pull it up. It's got a whole bunch of ceramic brakes. Just things that are designed to make the car drive like new center lock wheels and more new hubs. New. Just new shit. That's not like supposed to make it like a tuner car. It's just supposed to make it feel less old.

[B]

What is the company called?

[A]

Officine O F I C I N E Fioravante F I A F I O fi F F I O F I O R a V a N T I yeah. So the going on the F40 section, is it in the. Do you have to click in? They've also done a manual swap on an Alpha 8C which I think would probably be a very good time.

[B]

Oh my God, that's it right there. I love that car so much.

[A]

They also did that Testarossa from like a year or two ago. Remember that like white Testarossa there?

[B]

Oh, we were supposed to go drive these.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Circle back with me, homie.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Wait, is the F40 not on their website? Go up to their website.

[B]

Where's the manual swapped? 8c would be.

[A]

Manual swapped. Is it? I don't know if it's hyper classic or Evoluziona. Coming soon. All right. Made their website like a lot of Italian things. Not exactly up to date, let's just say. But yeah, it's a kit that is a bunch of select parts that are potentially reversible down the road. Designed to make your F40 feel more modern and actually safer. Better brakes, better steering, things like that. Good times. Mr. Hussels owns a tuned TT RS. Great car. Looking at B7RS 4S. Would like to hear your thoughts. Order of priorities. Daily spirited back roads, road trips, track days, live in Canada. I think that RS4 is a beautiful car that sounds really good and is engaging to drive. Drive. But to go there from a ttrs, it's gonna feel slow and it's gonna.

[B]

Feel really nose heavy. Yeah, it's not going to be a very good track car.

[A]

I agree. It's a good highway car. Yeah, really good highway car. Not bad on back roads. Open sweepers mostly. But that nose heavy is. That's not great.

[B]

You're better off budget. He didn't post the budget. But like a new RS3 is much better at that kind of stuff. Or even the last gen RS.

[A]

Yeah, if you can get it. I mean the RS3 is the upgrade from that car. I don't think the B7RS4 to me is like a great classic. If you want to have, you know, a classic euro car that's fun to drive but you got to put your kids in the back like E39 M5s, get all the credit. The RS4 is pretty sick.

[B]

Even though they're different sizes, I feel like they are competitors for the same driver. Driver.

[A]

And I love the RS4 convertible. Not a lot of people do, but I'm about it. And it's the rarest modern Audi. But I would go Rs3.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you wanted to stick with.

[B]

And if you have. If you don't have money for R3, you could go Golf R and you're getting very similar.

[A]

Okay. JJ Apex, a friend of mine's son is looking for a luxury SUV with a max budget of $200,000 dollars. Safety is his biggest priority. Suggestions? Don't get a $200,000 SUV which is max budget. I Mean, if this person really wants an suv, I mean, I would really say just like a regular one. Regular Mercedes GLE or X3.

[B]

Get that Alpena. We drove the big comfy one. But not with the champagne thing in the middle.

[A]

Those things are so fast.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. But I don't know.

[A]

Not our problem. Okay.

[B]

Well, no, no. I mean, it's not. That's true. That might be too fast.

[A]

The Maybach safety is a priority.

[B]

Just get a new car. Because. Meaning, don't get something that's 5 years old or 10 years older. Don't get. For 200k, don't get something classic. Don't get a Restomod Bronco. Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying. You get something that is a 2025 sticker, and it will be a very safe car, because cars are very safe. 200. Get a Cayenne S. Yeah, I mean, I would. Depends. There's so many different. The world is your oyster at that budget.

[A]

The most important thing for a young driver. Because we're talking about your friend's son.

[B]

But is the son an NHL player? So it means, like, he's in his 20s.

[A]

I think the. The. No, I think the.

[B]

You think the friend is the hockey player.

[A]

Friend is the hockey player.

[B]

If your friend is a hockey. A pro hockey player, he's buying his son a $200,000 car. He should not do that. If you're. If the son is.

[A]

Oh, the son is the hockey player.

[B]

I think the son is the hockey player.

[A]

Oh, the son is the hockey player. Okay. All right, fine. The son is an NHL hockey player. So. So this is an adult we're talking about. All right, so that's a different story. I'm thinking of someone buying it for his kid, not an adult buying it for himself. That's how I read that.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

All right. Luxury SUV. The Alpena B7 or Alpena XB7 is pretty slick, especially in the right color. Yeah, a fan of that. I'm also a fan of the Maybach GLS in its own way.

[B]

Also true.

[A]

I'm also a fan of the Cayenne Turbo Hybrid, which is a little more subtle. Stealth.

[B]

Yeah, that's. That is the stealth one.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Although the XB and the Maybach are also kind of stealthy, because unless you know what those are, you just see badges in two tone paint.

[A]

Also, the answer is always Range Rover. Range Rover with the sickest stereo they offer.

[B]

That's true. And you can get a really nice one for, like, 150. You don't need to go full 200. That's what I would do.

[A]

Range Rovers are always the answer. If you can get one. Yeah. Tim McLaren, my son is approaching driving age and we're considering what his first car should be. My wife and I are of different minds. She says a 67 Mustang. Oh. Her first car was a 67 Mustang convertible and mine was a 92 Honda Accord. I'm leaning towards a Crosstrek Sport, but what do you think the better approach is to a first car? Safe, boring and utilitarian or cool and vintage? Does this generation even care? I mean, does your son have any say in this? Like I had, you know, even though my parents could easily afford it, I had to work to save up for my first car. But like, ultimately, with my dad's like, approval, I did get to choose the car that I wanted to drive. Now I wanted a 67 Camaro at one point and they said, absolutely not. It has to have airbags. That was the rule. Dual airbags. So. Okay. Limited to that. So I ended up in a 90s Mustang. But like, if the sun cares, let them get something sporty but slow. Like an 86 GR86, right?

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Or like a four cylinder Mustang EcoBoost or something that's not super fast.

[B]

I would. It depends a lot on the kid and who you are and how responsible they are. But like, as a general rule, I would not get like, I would lean towards a front wheel drive slow but fun thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, used Fiesta ST or something or like a Veloster. I don't know. You could get Elantra and if you want to get a new car, but I definitely would go, that's a fast car. That is kind of fast. I would go with a new er car.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I say this as someone who drove an old car in high school, but the fact that I didn't get in a car accident is kind of a lot of luck. And if you do unfortunately get in an accident, or even if your kid's talking to his friends and they get T boned by somebody, like, even if it's not their fault in an old car, it's really not going to go well.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, you need them to be in something safe.

[A]

Yeah, I would definitely say safety first, slowness second, because they're going to drive whatever you give them as fast as it will go, so it might as well go slow.

[B]

That's a great point. Yeah. I'd go low center of gravity and front wheel drive and not Crosstrek's.

[A]

Not bad. I like Crosstrek. That's a good one. But like they should also be involved in the process and maybe there's something that they like that meets your requirements. Yeah. Einhorn is Finkel mentioned. We mentioned Segura on the last cruise show. Whatever happened to Two Bears racing in the spec BMW? Tom? I don't know. I think he still owns the BMW. I know I saw it. I did get to sit in it and start it. It does exist. I mean the actual Two Bears racing was one of those things that Burt came up with in some sort of mania, as he does. And I think everybody knew full well that nothing would ever actually happen to it. You know, Tom tours like, you know, 220 to five days a year.

[B]

They're both so busy.

[A]

They're both so busy. So. And you know, Tom's got a bunch of cars and he was asking me about another car he wanted to buy for track use in Austin.

[B]

That's very funny. So you know that's funny like you own a track car.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe they did. Maybe he sold it. I'm not really sure. Sure. I'm actually gonna be. I'm going to Austin on Monday. Tomorrow. Unfortunately Tom isn't there. He's on tour somewhere. But I'm gonna be at the place where Tom's that race car lives. So I will see if it still lives there. And we'll come back to you next week. Fully loaded Muscatel, bro. Him I. That is the way. Winner. That is the winner. Even though I think you spelled Muscatel wrong. But great white hype references move to the top of the pile every time. And I prefer a Merlot broham, but I will take any broham. Do you know that reference?

[B]

No.

[A]

They mispronounce Braum like Cadillac Braum as broham. In a whole. In a bunch. It's Jamie Foxx's mispronunciation of Brooklyn is fucking some real classic Jamie Foxx shit. Fully loaded Muscatel broham has started sniffing around a 992.2 Targa GTS order. It appears targas have moved into the allocation realm like GT cars. Is that accurate or is that dealer tactics? I don't know, bro. I mean they. I think all 911 GTS allocations right now are still. Still hard to get. The car hasn't even hit the ground yet. Like the US press cars aren't even going to be here until like April or May. So I don't know what it's like to order a GTS right now. I don't know if target allocations are harder to get or GTS allocations, because you've got both. But the GTS is the new engine, and the Dot 2 Targa isn't even out yet. Like, there's only coupes and convertibles right now. The Targa will be next year, so I have no idea. But I bet you the GTS Targa will be fucking sick. That'll be the only road trip Porsche. Chunhound says, what is the dumbest thing to collect that lots of guys collect, and his vote is sneakers.

[B]

I get sneakers, I think. But I think at the core of it, collecting things that seem redundant to people who aren't in the hobby. It's gonna be dumb to anyone who's not into that hobby. Like, I agree, I don't understand the sneaker thing, but that's just because I wasn't exposed to it at a young age. But, you know, it could be like, it could be watches, it could be cars. Just any of it that does the same thing as the other thing you have. It's all gonna seem silly.

[A]

Yeah. Every watch column I write for Road and Track, which I turned one in this morning. Morning. For the next issue, I have to find new way, innovative ways to say, this is all stupid. Your phone works. I wrote about a $360,000 watch for this issue, and this watch is one of the finest masterpieces of mechanical engineering in the history of humanity. And it's slightly less good at telling time than my phone. So I have to find new and innovative ways to say that.

[B]

The difference I'd with sneakers, if people don't ever wear the sneakers, they're always in a box as, like, an investment or just as a collection, then it's kind of like art that stays in a box, which is different. A watch, hopefully the people wear it because it doesn't lose value by being worn once it gets damaged.

[A]

That's the problem with sneakers. The problem with sneakers is either you keep them in a box and you really don't see them, or you wear them and literally devalue them each time you wear them in a way that is irreparable. Whereas if you buy the right watch, as long as you don't smash it into something, yeah, you can. You know that that value is inherently retained.

[B]

And then cars can go either way because someone could bubble wrap a car and has. It has delivery miles forever.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then that's not the right way.

[A]

Maybe it is the right Car.

[B]

If it's the right. Yeah, if it's the right car. All right, then that works. Or you can drive it for like a thousand miles carefully. But I don't know if you can wear shoes carefully a little bit. And then, I mean, you could wear.

[A]

Shoes in the right situations and not in the rain and whatever. But, but still, liter, every time you wear that very expensive shoe, it does lose value. So like, like, while I understand collecting shoes, it's the same mentality as collecting watches. For sure. It's like male fashion. It's like you with male fashion, we don't have as much like no one. We don't care about jewelry. But like a lot of men wear watches and all men wear sneakers. And so like, and I'm not trying to exclude women from this. I'm just that with watches it's a heavily male dominated thing. And so like with our regular ass clothes, like, and generally terrible fashion sense, we could dress like shit and wear a dope watch and cool sneakers and we're good. We don't need to do the rest of this dance.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

So I think part of that is why sneakers are so such a collectible thing and desirable thing.

[B]

We should ask. Remember Garrett Reed? He was on the show.

[A]

Yeah. He got a lot of sneakers.

[B]

He has a lot of sneakers. Maybe he could provide insight.

[A]

Yeah, I, I think sneakers are kind of dumb to collect because you can't. Because you really could. Could easily wear out. And, and not only that, they will eventually disintegrate like on their own.

[B]

Oh, like the glue will let.

[A]

Yeah, they'll kind of, they'll. They'll turn into the. The foam will get hard, the leather will get brittle. Like that'll happen eventually. Whereas at least this watch is made of metal. It will last last 100 years. My stupid hobby is better than your stupid hobby. I'm sure there's things that are dumber than that that people collect. I mean, I'm sure people collect really stupid shit.

[B]

Something that I think is silly, I guess it's more of an investment is when people buy expensive art and then it's forever in transit to avoid taxes. Then you don't really get to see the art. So you're just tax avoiding or what do you, you know, know it's just a financial move, but then it's just kind of a waste of something beautiful.

[A]

I mean there, if we're really honest, there's not a lot of things that are more stupid than collecting cars and not driving them.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Which I see all the time. Huge collections of cars that have delivery miles. You saw that like white collection or whatever. A hundred Porsches with delivery miles.

[B]

I mean, people that own multiple 250 GTOs.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, it just. Cars are annoying and expensive to deal with if you're not going to get the enjoyment of driving them. And with respect to the fact that you can appreciate a car just by looking at it, but these huge collections of cars that are no miles and it's like if you're going to buy a car to look at it, it's probably. I forgive you more, I think if it's like a really old car, Le Mans car from the 60s or some brass era thing and you buy it to park it in your garage and pour over it and look at it and drink a beer and stare at it and look how cool this is. Like, I kind of get that. But when people are getting these GT3s and GT2 RSS and Aventador and just filling a warehouse 3 miles exotics is like, God, that's fucking boring and stupid. CHRIS N. Last one before we get the fuck out of here. Okay. With Porsche's new electric turbo in the 992.2, is there a need for the turbo to be connected to the exhaust gases for spooling? Porsche could technically keep the GT3, but add a fully electric turbocharger that doesn't impede the sound or back pressure in any way. Other than system complexity and reliability of the electric turbo. This new system could have all the benefits of a naturally aspirated and turbocharged engine. You're half right. Yes. Porsche could run a turbo that is completely electrically driven driven and does not need to spool off the exhaust gases at all. However, it would probably use more energy.

[B]

That way because there's a handoff that happens. It's spooled by electricity, but then it is propelled by exhaust gases. So to keep this turbo going at the speed needed to keep building power through the revolution range would require a really big amount of energy.

[A]

Correct. Additionally, a lot of energy is recovered into the system by off throttle exhaust gases, which continue to drive the impeller. And so when you're on it and that turbo's making boost, you then get off, the thing still spins. And rather than going whoos and bleeding it off like a normal turbocharged car car or circulating boost into that, back into the system, the intake system. Like some other cars, this uses the exhaust gases to keep that turbo spinning, which generates current the other way back into the battery. So once there's Enough either exhaust gases on the throttle to drive that turbo on its own. Any excess goes back into the battery and then off throttle, the turbo keeps spinning to go back into the battery. So the exhaust gases serve multiple functions and they you would need it. Although if you were doing some kind of a drag car or something, you probably could run an electric turbo for a quarter of a mile with, you know, an appropriately sized battery. I think the system that Porsche does use optimizes turbocharging in a very, in a way that really does make the car not feel like turbocharging. Where a lot of turbocharged motors, particularly that 3 liter Carrera motor, it's a real dead zone. Below 2000, you got to spin the motor. It's just got nothing at the bottom. And then that regular standard drive mode with a PDK for fuel efficiency, it just keeps the motor in that bog. So you have to drive it in sport sport. So it goes where the motor is really designed to go. But with the gts you can drive it around in normal and it makes so much more torque and it's so much smoother that that bog is gone, which is really nice actually. Above at the top of the power band, it behaves much more like a regular turbocharged engine. And you don't notice the hybrid anymore. Well, look at that. That's our show. That's our show, folks. We appreciate y'all. Go check out our videos that are up. What's going to be up by now? The Taycan probably cross country trip video. Very exciting. Go watch that. And then we're going to have King of the Hammers after that. That'll be fun. I'm going to Austin to scout a route for road and track beyond city limits. Go to experiences.roadtrack.com we have two spots left to drive with me in April. Me and Hannah are going to go scout it in a GR Corolla automatic. And it's supposed to to be thunderstorms the entire time. Awesome.

[B]

Yeah. All wheel drive.

[A]

That'll be fun. Rally car. Rally car. The actual event I'm doing in a McLaren 750, which will be a real delight. See you kids later.

[B]

Bye.