C8 Grand Sport revealed; Gas Prices; Odd Volvo; Racing!

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: C8 Grand Sport revealed; Gas Prices; Odd Volvo; Racing!
Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman
Date: March 24, 2026

---

Overview

In this lively episode, Matt and Zack dive deep into the latest happenings in the automotive world, including the official reveal of the C8 Grand Sport Corvette, ever-rising gas prices and their implications, a quirky Volvo experience, and their upcoming racing endeavors at Road America. The hosts also lampoon odd manufacturer choices (looking at you, Cadillac torque badging), discuss the cost-saving shift to touchscreens in car interiors, and indulge in audience Q&As, peppered with candid industry anecdotes and the signature banter fans love.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

---

1. Podcast & Giveaway Updates

• 911 Turbo S Giveaway:

  • The team is giving away a 2025 911 Turbo S with HRE wheels and a mega-build sheet, plus $75,000 toward taxes.
  • Contest ends August 20th ([06:53]).
  • Matt: “It is brand new except for the few miles that Zach and I personally put on it… You can win it. It’s very easy to enter.” ([04:46])

• Upcoming Events:

  • Road & Track Pacific Northwest Drive in June: Cascades, high-end hotels, and a unique car. ([06:54])
  • Live Podcast at the Heritage Invitational, Ten Tenths Club, Charlotte – April 10th. Includes car show and Trans Am exhibition races. ([12:44], [13:49])
  • Matt racing at Road America with WRL April 23–26, hoping Zach can fill a driver spot. ([14:00])

---

2. Automotive News & Commentary

Touchscreens vs. Buttons: Cost and User Experience

• Ferrari CEO revealed that touchscreens and haptic interfaces are 50% cheaper than physical buttons ([08:03]).
• Matt:
  • "When I read the headline, I was like, fuck this guy… But he was just explaining, not complaining. For his customers, he’s happy to go back to buttons." ([08:39])
• Insight: The savings are huge, which explains universal adoption, though long-term reliability and user experience are question marks.

---

Volvo EX30: A Review of a "Dead" EV

• Matt’s testing a Volvo EX30, which was discontinued right before his review. ([09:43])
• Interior criticism: “It’s so touchscreeny… There’s no forward gauge cluster at all. It’s basically like a copy of a Model Y, although… it’s put together a little nicer.” ([10:10])
• Challenging interface: “Trying to find max AC when it's 90 degrees—just cannot. They gave a quick reference guide, which tells you a lot.” ([11:10])

---

Racing at Road America — Track Talk

• Upcoming endurance race with WRL in BMW M235iR; Zach prepping for a competition license with Skip Barber. ([14:00]-[15:14])
• Matt waxes poetic:
  • “Road America, in my opinion, is the best racetrack in America. It’s our Spa.” ([19:02])
  • Discusses track layout, “Canada Corner” (the notorious corner for crashes), the fun and challenge of chasing telemetry lines, and the importance of precision at speed. ([20:23]-[23:39])
• "If you have a savant to follow [with data], do what the kid does… The arc of that corner allows for a 3 mph higher exit speed that at the end of the next straight results in a 9 mph difference." ([23:39])

---

C8 Corvette Grand Sport Reveal

• Announced at Sebring with a classic blue-over-white livery ([27:51]).
• “There’s never been a bad Grand Sport Corvette.” ([28:15])
• Notable history: Each previous generation gets praised—C4, C6, C7 (“nearly perfect sports car”) ([29:09])
• Rumor mill: Expect a 6.7L V8, and a “Grand Sport X” perhaps replacing E-Ray. ([30:41])
• On hybrid branding: “Call it ‘X’ instead of ‘E-Ray’—name matters for buyer perception.” ([31:12])
• Design critique: “Blue cars with black wheels—they are particularly clashy. I’d go brown with blue.” ([29:56])

---

Cadillac Drops Silly Torque Number Badging

• News that Cadillac is ending the “rounded to nearest 50” Nm torque labeling (“600”, etc.)
• Matt: “I thought they would ride this one directly into the mountain…”
• Lack of meaning & confusion: "They're in newton meters, which to Americans don't mean shit." ([33:02])
• Zack: “They [Cadillac] wanted bigger numbers. They just measured from the back.” ([33:56])

---

Gas Prices: Causes and Consequences

• Soaring premiums observed in California and Arizona (up to $7/gal in LA!) ([36:55])
• National average just shy of $4/gallon, up 33% in a month ([38:24])
• Matt: "How high and for how long do you think gas would have to get before people change away from big thirsty cars?"
• Hosts think it would take sustained high prices for 2 years to shift US habits due to short leases and optimism. ([38:01], [40:18])
• Zack: “Americans are not good long term thinkers…" ([45:25])
• Cheeky math: "If it gets 10 mpg better, that is 30% better. If gas goes up 30%, a 30% improvement would offset it.” ([44:04])

---

3. Q&A & Listener Engagement Highlights

Notable Audience Q&As

• Manual swapped Ferrari F430 vs. Scuderia:

  • “Manual 430 swap… maybe a Spider, and you are very much in the weekend driving business, my friend.” ([51:48])

• Annoying Car Owner Habit:

  • Matt: “People who drive their cool cars and if you take a picture, ask you to blur the license plate—eat a dick!” ([59:46])

• IndyCar America 250 (Washington, D.C. Race):

  • “If it was a normal president, I’d go, okay, cool… But I’m still waiting to see how the fascism will be attached to this event.” ([82:22]-[85:37])

• Noise-cancelling headphones in old cars:

  • Matt: “Try it—it will make your car sound like it has a bunch of Dynamat in it.” ([76:06])

• Best tires for track/autocross:

  • Mixed—no clear favorite; recommend reading up on Grassroots Motorsports tire tests, with praise for Dunlop SP Sport Maxx and Hoosier TDR Attack Pro. ([67:55])

• Sports Car Definition:

  • “Any car that puts driving dynamics above things like practicality and space.” ([68:57])

• Radar Detector Setup:

  • Matt uses a Valentine One Gen 2 in advanced logic mode + Waze navigation, recommending simple, stand-alone detectors over app-dependent ones. ([69:41]-[72:23])

• Reliable car from an unreliable brand:

  • “Huracan… anybody could daily drive a Huracan. And if you don't, if you drive it like once, they still work like fine. They're so easy.” ([88:25])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On touchscreens:
  Matt: "For his customers, he was happy to go back to buttons… 50%! That’s a huge number." ([08:39])

• On EV ergonomics:
  Matt: “Trying to find max AC and I just cannot. They gave a quick reference guide, which tells you a lot.” ([11:10])

• On track precision:
  Zack: "Two feet matters. One foot matters... That sets up this thing." ([22:48])

• Corvette Grand Sport Design Beef:
  Matt: “Blue and black are clashy… I’d go brown with blue.” ([29:56])

• On Cadillac's failed badging:
  Matt: “I do this for a living. I couldn’t fucking tell you what the conversion is from a newton meter to a thing. I’m sorry. I just, I don’t have room in my brain for it.” ([33:02])

• On US car buying habits:
  Matt: "Americans are not good long term thinkers..." ([45:25])

• On car culture:
  Matt, about 'blur my plate’ types: “You don’t get that deference, dude. You don’t get to be shady and then it’s my responsibility to cover for you in public.” ([60:11])

• Racing Preparation Humor:
  Zack: “I think if you crash, you fail.” ([15:21])
  Matt: “You have to have a colossal fuck up to get, you know, not get a NASA comp license.” ([15:22])

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] – Show open, 911 Turbo S giveaway intro
• [06:53] – Giveaway contest details
• [08:03] – Ferrari CEO on touchscreen/button cost
• [09:43] – Volvo EX30 'dead on arrival' anecdote
• [14:00] – Road America WRL endurance racing plans
• [19:02] – Road America = “America’s Spa”
• [28:15] – Grand Sport history/legacy discussion
• [30:41] – C8 rumors: 6.7-liter V8 & Grand Sport X
• [32:29] – Cadillac drops torque badging
• [36:55] – Gas price realities
• [44:04] – Maverick vs. F150 MPG math
• [51:48] – Manual Ferrari vs. Scuderia for fun/weekends
• [59:46] – License plate anonymity: “eat a dick”
• [76:06] – Noise cancelling headphones improve old cars
• [82:22] – IndyCar America 250, politics, and track layout
• [88:25] – Best reliable supercar from unreliable brand

---

Tone and Style

The episode balances wide-ranging industry commentary and personal stories with witty, often irreverent banter and deep technical insight. Matt and Zack’s conversational flow makes it accessible yet informative, with occasional explicit language, in keeping with their candid style.

---

Conclusion

This episode is a must-listen for fans of performance cars, racing, and behind-the-scenes automotive industry talk. From cost-saving tech trends to the cultural quirks shaping car enthusiasm, Matt and Zack cover it all—with plenty of laughs and no shortage of strong opinions.

Transcript

[A]

What up, everybody? Matt Farah here. Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record here because they are looking out for you everywhere in the country. Look, if you get a moving violation, big, small, or in between, don't plead guilty, get off the record. They will fight that ticket all the way up if they need to, to the Supreme Court. I'm telling you no, for real though, they will connect you with a qualified attorney in almost any jurisdiction in the United States. Those folks will fight these tickets and I gotta tell you, the vast majority of the time, they win. It's relatively affordable. And if you use code TST offtherecord.com TST, you get 10% off all legal services from off the Record, don't plead guilty, get off the record. They can only help offtherecord.comtst. all right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, Zach and I talk about the new Corvette Grand Sport. Crazy high gas prices. The silly Cadillac torque badging is going away racing at Road America. And did you know buttons cost more than touchscreens? It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go. What's happening? Hi, everybody. Hello, good afternoon, good evening, and good night. Maybe if it's late night for you. Good night.

[B]

East Coast. Iceland, right?

[A]

Iceland. If you're in Yellowknife, it's night pretty much most of the time. Right now we're doing, we're doing a one dram of Japanese skate on this one. And boy, are there things. I have a bucking long list of things to talk about today. Starting, of course, reminding everybody that we are giving away a 911 Turbo S. This is an important assignment as anything. There are not a lot of chances we're gonna have. Cause like, this is a pretty, pretty Porsche centric show. It's outsized versus. Right. Porsche's actual market share. The Porsche fandom, the kind of questions that we get asked about subtle nuances between one Porsche to another that's clearly important to people.

[B]

That's true. Porsche also releases, or used to release more sporting models per year than any other company.

[A]

I mean, they may. There's like a fucking press launch for every variant of the 911, right? And there's like 32 of them. Yeah, actually, sidebar, Hannah and I were talking about now that we've. We don't have a. We like to always have a big vacation on the schedule, even if it's far away. So now that we've done our boat trip, we don't really have anything. So, like, we're trying to figure out what to do next. The New Zealand road trip trip is high on the list, but we've repeatedly talked about Spain. And so we were like, should we just do Spain? And it was like, well, no, because the odds of a manufacturer inviting me to Spain in the next 12 months are like 97 fucking percent.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so we'll just wait till someone invites me somewhere and you know, there's one plane ticket and you know what I mean? And by the way, those in the audience, like that is a sort of potential hidden perk of the business is if you go somewhere on a launch, you can always ask the manufacturer, like, hey, can you just book my return trip ticket home like five days later? And you don't ask them to pay for the hotels. It's the same amount of money and they don't give a fuck. They're like, sure. So you could, if you're flexible or you want to have your spouse come out or like, whatever, you know, people. I've seen people do that.

[B]

People do it a lot. All the time.

[A]

Yeah. Some people push it and bring the spouse on the launch, which is a little like, come on. I don't like personally care. I won't talk shit about that. But like, it's like a little come on. But anyway, there is a non. We're gonna get half of our Spain flights paid for. Yeah.

[B]

I was at a thing and I. And some people, they, their, their, their partner is their business partner and they make the videos together. So when they're both there, I get it.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

But I was at a launch and the wife came along as camera operator, did not know how to turn on anything.

[A]

I've seen that.

[B]

That was funny.

[A]

Definitely seen that. So anyway, bringing it back around. We're giving away a 2025911 Turbo S. It is brand new except for the few miles that Zach and I personally put on it. It is. Well, we haven't put the video up yet of what we've done to it, but in order to make the contest work, they put the video, they put the photos of what it looks like now so you can clearly see it has a beautiful set of HRE wheels on it. It's a very amazing spec. And we just put up the first video. It's up on the YouTube channel. I go through every option on the list on the car so you can see everything that's in it and yeah, you can win it. It's very easy to enter the rules are up on the thing. There's photo gallery of the car. And we're gonna be, you know, talking about it a lot. So get in the game. What's. I forget. What's the closing date? Does it say when it closes? It says.

[B]

I think it was. It runs for almost a year.

[A]

No, it's not that long. It's actually not that long. What is the closing date? I probably should know this and I will learn it for the next show, but it is not official rules. FAQs. FAQs, maybe sheet. I think it might be. All right, well, you figure it out. You can find it. Some will find it. I promise. There's no weirdness here. I probably just should know the exact closing date. And I don't want to say it wrong because you can get in trouble if you say things wrong about giveaways. But it was originally going to be the entire year. It then became shortened. I think it. I think. If I had to guess, I think it's like five, six months, but I forget the exact thing. Anyway, it's up there. Everything else is straightforward. And by the next show, I will have the exact date of when the drawing is. It's fucking sick, though. Also, the rodent track.

[B]

Oh. Ends on August 20th.

[A]

Thank you very much, Zach. August 20th. Okay. And you get $75,000 to cover the taxes that you would be assessed for. Because these are considered income when you win something like this. So they cover that. Anyway. Also, come drive with me. Road and track, Pacific Northwest event this June. Entries are open. It is going to be extremely beautiful. We're talking Cascades mountains. We're talking absolutely stellar fucking hotels. Real banger, proper hotels. It's at experiences.roadtrack.com it's going to be super, super fun. And I'm going to hook up a really special car for it. And. Yeah, so that's [e-mail] right now. Entries are open and. Yeah. Come drive with me. Okay. Do you want to talk about the new Corvette Grand Sport that was revealed? Do you want to talk about something that the Ferrari CEO said that everyone already knew was true?

[B]

Yes, let's do that one.

[A]

Okay. So the CEO of Ferrari basically said in an interview that touchscreen interfaces and haptic interfaces are 50% cheaper than making buttons. And that is why everybody does it. We knew this, but he said that's the first time I think someone has really said publicly the 50% number.

[B]

That is. That's a really high number. I would expect that from a screen, but actually the haptic capacitive stuff. It's amazing that I guess they can just. There's no, I guess there's no springs, there's no action. They have to like decide there's no reliability there. It's just like the connective circuit. That's pretty wild. 50% though.

[A]

So much. And I mean, he. When I read the headline, I was like, fuck this guy. He's like whining about the cost of going back to, you know, to buttons, right? And these guys are. Ferrari's making like so much money. But I read the actual quote in full, which is why it's important to read.

[B]

It is important.

[A]

And he was not actually complaining. He was, he was explaining, you know, in the entire industry wide transition. And actually he said that like for his customers, like he was happy to go back to buttons. So, like, he wasn't actually complaining. But yeah, 50%.

[B]

But if you read David Tuig's book, which we have inside the machine, you know how much small bits of profit matter. So imagine if someone comes to you and says, this will save you 50% on your interior button construction. Like, no wonder so many companies jumped on that. That is a huge number.

[A]

For once, two or three companies do it. It's. We'll save 50%. And everyone's doing it. And by the way, everyone's gonna be Tesla anyway.

[B]

Yeah, of course, everyone jumps on the

[A]

bandwagon driving a. I'm driving a Volvo EX30 right now. Which is not a review. We're gonna come, we're gonna do a review of this car because Zach's gonna drive it for a few days. I haven't posted a picture of it. It's just hilarious that I booked this car a few months ago because I thought it looked interesting. A week before the thing showed up. That white one on the screen is exactly what the one looks like that's sitting outside right now. And a week before this thing shows up, Volvo announces they're killing the model. So I'm reviewing a dead car. Like, what am I even doing with this?

[B]

You think they'll let you keep it? Cause they don't want it back.

[A]

Yeah, what am I supposed to do with this now? So, I mean, I don't know, do an Instagram review, we'll talk about it, I guess. But it's real touch screeny. It's so touch. First off, I do not understand. If Volvo is building full battery electric vehicles, what exactly is the point of Polestar? Like, I thought it was gonna be Polestar was the electric.

[B]

Well, wasn't Polestar, their quote skunk works like where they basically developed their new technology and they kind of developed the EV tech and now they can hand it to Volvo. I think that was how Polestar was kind of advertised.

[A]

Yeah, all right, I'll buy that. But like, they're not that innovative.

[B]

Not anymore.

[A]

So I'm not really sure. But it's extremely touchscreeny. There is no forward gauge cluster at all. The interior is basically like a copy of a Model Y, although I do think it's Volvo. So it's put together a little nicer than a Model Y, but square steering wheel and certain things in the touchscreen that when you're trying to figure out how to drive the car, you're just like, stuff's buried. It's all Android. Like shit's just like buried in menus. It's, it's, it's not terribly confusing once you know where everything is. But they dropped this thing off when it was like 90 degrees outside. And I'm like trying to figure out how to like get find like the max AC and I just cannot. And it's so hot in there. There's actually. They actually gave a quick reference. They gave like a quick reference guide, which is not something most manufacturers give. So I guess they know it's not instantly intuitive.

[B]

That's handy. That's like the ineos that gave us that for the off road stuff. Really, really helpful. It's just funny that a normal car needs that. But yeah, this prevents the journalist problems.

[A]

It does. It prevents you going, where the fuck is this? You know? But like it's very touch screen. We'll see what I have some interesting. I think they're interesting thoughts about this car and like what exactly we're doing here. But. But I'll wait till you drive it first because I'd like, I'd like you to experience. It's an odd duck. All right.

[B]

Just like the one I'm driving. I think we'll talk about that on another show.

[A]

Yeah, we both drove also the M2Cs, but I think we'll save that for next show because I want to drive it a little more. But dude, you know what? Oh, also if you want to come see us or me in person, we are going to be doing a live podcast that you can buy tickets to. Actually discounted tickets, I think. Right. Didn't Graham send us a link for discounted tickets? Didn't we get a link? Today we're gonna have a link for discounted tickets to the Heritage Invitational at the ten Tenths Club in Charlotte. We're gonna have a live podcast. It's going to be Friday night. I think it's April 10th, right? Friday night, April 10th. And you'll be able to buy tickets to the festival that are good for all day up to and including and after our podcast. So it's not an expensive ticket. I think with a discount it's like what we charged for just the podcast in Texas and you get a whole bunch of other cool stuff. They're doing exhibition racing. There's going to be a car show. So we were there last year. It's a great time. It's going to be really fun.

[B]

Some serious metal is brought out for that. And then was it Trans Am racing was pretty fun to watch a lot of old stuff moving around and getting real loud. Pretty cool.

[A]

It was a good time. And so we're doing a live show on April 10th there. That's in Charlotte. You can come see us. And also I am racing at Road America April 23, 2023, 24th, 25th, 26th with WRL racing again with Tato Seiderman and Tommy Kendall. Actually, Johnny just told us today that he has a gig and cannot make this race weekend, which I have. I have pitched in for Zach Clapman to fill his, his seat.

[B]

I appreciate that you lobbied.

[A]

Well, I've lobbied for Zach. The ball is in the air. We'll see. We'll see where it lands.

[B]

Because the race is eight days right after I go to school for my comp license.

[A]

There's no, literally no better time to do a race other than like the very next day.

[B]

It's true.

[A]

Your concepts will be so fresh.

[B]

I think they say people just out of med school are better doctors than people have been in the game for 20 years.

[A]

That fuck that makes sense. Absolute sense. Totally. So yeah, Zach's gonna go to Sonoma and do skip Barber, get his comp license and maybe come race. But like I, I think there's no better time than, than right after a comp license.

[B]

It just means the pressure to pass the, the comp license test is because I'll have planes.

[A]

You have to, you know, I mean,

[B]

look, I think, I think if you crash, you fail.

[A]

But otherwise, yeah, like you have to have a colossal fuck up to go get a, a NASA complex. Is it NASA or scca?

[B]

I think it's SCCA and JF who did it. He just said that they really frown on going off. You know, if you go off, if you go off four wheels twice, you're like your class Is over. Well, yeah, they want to protect the vehicles.

[A]

Yeah. Four, two, four, off twice. I mean that's a, that's a big old whoops if you're doing that.

[B]

Very, very much so.

[A]

And I mean. Yeah, like really. I mean you can go off once for like. But you probably shouldn't in school. And I say that as someone who has crashed a literal skip barber vehicle. It was not great.

[B]

No, I'm very excited. So yeah, I'm gonna go up there on Saturday to do some SIM training and then don't get too much power. Well, yeah, I just haven't been to Road America for like last time I was there was shooting for Hagerty like eight years ago. So I was driving a minivan for camera car. So I know where it goes, but I don't know the breaking mark at all.

[A]

Oh yeah, and there's, there's only like first off Road America in my opinion is the best country, the best racetrack in America. I don't think. I think it's our spa guys taking a break because support is coming in hot from Delete me. You guys know about delete me? Because I've been talking about it for a while, because I've been using it for a while. They make it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everybody vulnerable. Because data brokers are making a profit off of your data. It's a commodity. People buy it, sell it, trade it. And by it, I mean your private details. This can lead to identity theft, phishing attempts and harassment. But now you can protect your privacy with Delete me. And data brokers are out there running entire businesses about this. You gotta fight back. And that's what Deleteme does, because this is important to me. I had a friend who got their identity stolen. Someone opened a credit card in my dad's name somehow in Texas. It's crazy out there. So all you have to do is when you go to joindeleteme.com tire we'll get back to that. You give them your personal information, and I understand the irony there, but that's what you gotta do. You have to tell them what to find. So you tell them where you used to work, where you live, where you used to live, your family, your siblings, et cetera, your boilerplate information. And then delete me goes to work finding all this stuff and sending takedown notices. And then after about a month, you get a thing saying, we found your name and address like everywhere. And then you have to click a few things to confirm that you want stuff deleted. And then every month that happens and the number of places that they find your information gets smaller and smaller and smaller. It's probably never going to go to zero because it's always an ongoing system. But the calls, the scam calls, the text messages that I was getting before have definitely been reduced thanks to Deleteme. So you can get 20% off your delete me plan and take control of your data, keeping your private life private by signing up for Deleteme Special discount for our listeners. When you go to joindeleteme.com tire and then use promo code tire at checkout, that's the only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com Tire and enter code Tire at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com Tire code Tire in my opinion.

[B]

Yeah, I agree with that.

[A]

It's as close to driving spa as you can get without going to fucking Belgium. It is the only place that I know of in America in motorsport that you can in a fast car hit 150 miles an hour, three times a lap. You're not going to do that. In a BMW M2 235 IR, you probably hit 125. 120 maybe 125 three times a lap.

[B]

Well, because the front straight is uphill for most of it, but it's so long. It's very long. This car might struggle until that crest.

[A]

And then the second straight is shorter, but it's downhill.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And then the third straight is also long as fuck.

[B]

Yeah. This back section, right. With a little slight kink. That's a good one. Yeah, that'll be flat through this probably, right?

[A]

Oh, yeah. And in a car that's like a medium speed car, it's like. That's not a. That's not a problem. Yeah. Where that, where that kink at the back of that is like, is in like a 600 horsepower car with insufficient aero. You know, like when I drove it in one lap of America in the X5M, you know, you get like. I think it was. I forget if it's like. I think it's an out lap and three flyers, dude. By the end of the. But the brakes were nothing. Nothing.

[B]

And you're coming into this tight right.

[A]

They call it Canada corner. And that's Crashy Corner.

[B]

Right.

[A]

There's a special bleacher right there. Yeah. Look at the size of the gravel trap on the outside of that corner. You can like See it from space.

[B]

Then for people listening, there's a large gravel trap, a wall. And then this is actually a very steep hill covered in trees. So if you hit it fast enough, you go up the hill and launch and land in Canada.

[A]

Yeah, it's, it's. But what a place to drive.

[B]

It's gorgeous.

[A]

I mean, it does not get better than that in America, if you ask me. So I've. I raced a fox body there in the very first season of Champ Car.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

And it was a really shitty fox body and it was so slow. And the race was red flagged for snow.

[B]

What month was it?

[A]

Like March. And when they were finally like, okay, it's all right to race again. Farrah, you're in. And I'm like, what? I had to go out there in like the snow cleary lap.

[B]

Yeah. Like 30 degree track temp crazy.

[A]

Yeah. Whoa. So that was a good time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then one lav of America and then I filmed something else there. Or there was a press launch of something else there that was like. I don't recall what it was, but I remember it being really fast.

[B]

Didn't you go to like a ZR1 launch there?

[A]

ZR1 was wrote Atlanta, but I went on some launch for something there that was like where the car was super, super fast. So I don't really remember what it was, but I'm very excited to drive it again.

[B]

Me too. It's a spicy track. I'm excited to see what Tao does on this huge right hand sweeper.

[A]

The key is on, we get Tayto to drive the car first on Friday and lay out a telemetry line that becomes a ghost car for us to chase.

[B]

Perfect.

[A]

And then. Cause like if you're like a halfway decent student and you've got a fucking savant to follow, like, no problem. Do what the kid does. Like just do that. Like it's actually not hard to watch someone grates data and then just do that until you get to the point of this person is so skilled that what is on that is actually seems impossible.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And. Or this person is 21 and doesn't think.

[B]

Think he can die when you mix those together. And there's also like when I did the Spring Mountain School, they had overlay data with the pros. Really, really helpful. And my line would be like one foot off from theirs. Or two. And you go, well, I'm close enough. Like, no, no, no. Two feet matters. One foot matters. And they had a great. They had an overhead drone showing where everyone was on these Two apexes and you would think that you're on the right spot. But then you watch that thing. Nope. 14 inches away. Yeah. And that sets up this thing.

[A]

It's a big percentage and it all

[B]

adds up a little bit. So yeah, like.

[A]

And like the shape of a corner with you not hitting. Not taking curbs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Versus the shape of the corner with him taking like as much curb as is legally possible. Like you're driving in the fucking lawn.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know those. The, the arc of that corner allows for a three mile an hour higher exit speed that at the end of the next straight results in a nine miles an hour difference. And there's three tenths.

[B]

Totally. We've all watched the V8 supercars. There's a head on shot from. I don't remember the track but there was an S's. And the way they were hitting the curbs so that the only tires that were on the track surface still were the outside tires. The entire inside 90% of the car was flying over what would effectively be the infield. It was crazy.

[A]

That's the line I really like at Road Atlanta.

[B]

Have you driven Road Atlanta A decade ago.

[A]

Road Atlanta, it's got the very long front straight and then a big sweeping uphill right hander that's got sort of a jog on the top. And if there isn't a cone placed right there or if that cone has been taken out by somebody else, you can effectively jump the chicane. Which when I tested the Trackhawk there at Grid Life, I did repeatedly and got like serious air over it. And if you can't do it in a low car, but in a car that's got some ground clearance, it's like uh huh. There's a tenth here.

[B]

Let's see. I wonder, is there anywhere on this track for hitting curbs with this car?

[A]

Well, I mean look, this uphill left

[B]

maybe there a little bit.

[A]

I don't know. You know, I can't. It's been a few years since I've been there, so I don't really recall the shape of the cur.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Specifically where you could really cut. I don't. The end of the end of that straight there. I don't really think you can so much. You. Oh, you know what you on the exit of that corner which is turn six. Oh look, Google Maps has put turn six there.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

You can take a pretty wide exit there. So you know you can, you can pretty much be, you know, deep into the paint on that.

[B]

We got street view.

[A]

Yeah. For the track but wrl, like, at Cota was pretty strict about, you know, at Cota, of course, where the track limits. Right. So. Because in Cota, you can, like. You can drive, like, well outside the track. They were, like. They didn't really dock a lot of people, but they nailed Tommy Kendall for it. On, like, the second to last lap. He admitted he started to push it and get a little greedy, but, like,

[B]

using the NASCAR lines, as far as

[A]

we knew, they didn't hit anybody else else with it, but they hit Tommy with it with a fiver. They gave him a five seconds.

[B]

These are these big rumble strips.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

All right. So you don't want to touch those.

[A]

No, you could drive on that.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah, you could drive on that.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I think. Pretty sure.

[B]

As long as the control arms aren't built by Nissan. Right.

[A]

What you didn't want. Yeah. What you didn't want to do at Coda with this car was hit the ends of the hot dogs. That's where you, like, break, like in the S's. If you. You can. You can use curbing, but you need to, like, run up on the angle of the curbing, not hit the end of the curbing, because apparently you can snap control arms in these cars. If you hit the end, the edge of the hot dog.

[B]

Like, meaning the outside edge of the curbing where there's, like, a vertical shaft.

[A]

Like, the curbing is, like, a long thing that has, like, rounded edges at the end. Like, instead of going up on the curbing and down, if you hit the end.

[B]

Oh, right, right.

[A]

Pointed end of it. I call it the end of the hot dog. It's, like, rounded off, but, like, if you hit the end of that, it's a much more abrupt transition than going up on the curb and then back down. Yeah, it's totally fine.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Anyway, I hope you go fast enough in a video game that you are confident that you'll be able to drive. And I'm already. I'm already more than confident that you'll be able to drive.

[B]

I appreciate that.

[A]

This car is, you know, if you were able to safely lap Willow Springs in that fucking silly little thing outside.

[B]

Good point.

[A]

This is. This is effectively the same car with the same gearbox and half the horsepower.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Like, stick your tires. No, no, same tires.

[A]

The same tires.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

No slightly worse tires than this, but. But still. Don't worry about it. All right.

[B]

Corvette announcement, you said?

[A]

Well, yeah, they revealed the new grand sport kind of at this. At Sebring. Right. They also. They also Said that that manual Tremek transaxle was not real. Tony Romo, Tony Romo said that. Shit. But it looks. It's this. This is a great photo actually of all the grand sports. I was thinking about it. There's never been a bad grand sport Corvette.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

They've all been good. You go back to the, the cool one from the, from the 60s. The race car. Fucking crazy. Love it.

[B]

Awesome, right?

[A]

The C4 Grand Sport, actually pretty exceptional. That's a quality automobile.

[B]

Never driven one. Nervine. I see more ZR1s actually.

[A]

Yeah. If you, if you. Because of. I think because of where you were at that time. Where I was in. Where I was in 98 or 7 or wherever. Whatever. What? You know, 7. No, it would have been 96. Yeah. Where I was. These were very popular.

[B]

Gotcha.

[A]

This, These. The grand sport took over Long Island. Everybody. Everybody either had one or wanted one. And it was a very good car. C6 Grand Sport.

[B]

Fantastic.

[A]

Fucking awesome car.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Awesome car. And the C7 Grand Sport is one

[B]

of the best bargain performance cars out there.

[A]

Almost no notes on the C7 Grand Sport. That's fucking. That's an exceptional automobile for a driver of any skill level. Yep. That's. That's a nearly perfect sports car actually. Very, very good. And so the new one, it's the same color because of course it is the blue, which is a nice color actually. The blue. The blue. White. I fuck with it. But you know what I don't love? I grew up in the school of Ralph Lauren. Blue and black are clashy. And I don't like blue cars with black wheels.

[B]

Oh, you mean. Sorry. Blue and black clash when they're paired together.

[A]

Blue and black colors clash when they're together.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Ralph Lauren designers try to avoid blue and black.

[B]

Black wheels mostly. A mistake. I'm just. I don't like them on pretty much anything.

[A]

They can work on some. They can work on gray. They work on white. They work on black. They can go black, that's fine. But I think on blue cars they are particularly clashy. Just like wearing a blue tinted outfit would be with a black belt and black shoes. I would go brown.

[B]

True.

[A]

With blue.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

So I don't love the wheels. You can probably hopefully maybe get them in a silver. The wheels will look great in silver. The C4 Grand Sports look better with silver wheels.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

But they're saying it's a punched out motor. They're saying it's maybe like a 6.7 liter.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

That's still rumor mill that that's the. It's going to be a 6.7 liter. And then the other rumor mill says that the there will be a Grand Sport X that will replace the E Ray which. That tracks. That makes sense because E Ray is to Corvette people. E Ray is not cool.

[B]

Yeah, but I feel like that'll be the same thing. Corvette people won't want a Grand sport hybrid either.

[A]

No, no. It's just not called E Ray if you don't call it hybrid. You never know. I drove this thing around for six days. You never would know it's a hybrid if you call it something tough instead of E. E means like green. Call it X.

[B]

That's true. But you just gotta lean on the 0 to 60 time and the performance

[A]

benefits because it'll have the new motor with the E Ray effectively hybrid system which will be pretty cool.

[B]

Probably drive great. That's the thing, it will drive great. But will anybody Will the majority of people care where they just go by the normal Grand Sport with the punched out engine. It'll be slightly lighter because no battery.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

You know.

[A]

Well, the majority of people will do that regardless. But I think more people would get a Grand Sport X than would buy an E Ray.

[B]

That's probably true. Just from. You mean just from the marketing.

[A]

Just the name? Yeah, just the name. Oh, and speaking of the name, did you see the fucking story that Cadillac is dropping their metric newton meters of torque rounded to the nearest 50 branding because it's stupid. I thought they would ride this one directly into the mountain but they actually, they bailed on it.

[B]

Well, or did they wait until like are they canceling a bunch of these models? You know, because.

[A]

No, no, no. It's.

[B]

They're just changing the name of everything

[A]

all across the brand. It's not about canceling models. It's just about getting rid of the number. They're sort of like tiptoeing around it like they're saying it's part of a global strategy but our American audience didn't really understand it. And also we're trying to like declutter the back of the cars and have like fewer badging.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

But also like the, the numbers didn't like mean anything like a. They're in newton meters which to Americans don't mean shit. I do this for a living. I couldn't fucking tell you what the conversion is from a newton meter to a thing. I'm sorry, I just, I don't have room in my brain for it. And also it's rounded to the nearest 50. Like it's not even like an act. Like at least like the Mercedes 63 was like a 6.29.

[B]

Right. Right. For a while. And then it was a four liter, but it was a six point.

[A]

You know, but like.

[B]

But I know. I know what you're saying. It's just not because they wanted bigger numbers. They just made.

[A]

It's effectively they.

[B]

Effectively they measured from the back.

[A]

Well, they just. Yeah, they started backwards.

[B]

They go behind the ball.

[A]

They go, how can I put a 600 on the back of this? Yeah. What combination will Yield me a 600?

[B]

Which is funny because if it was 550, still a good number. Mercedes uses it. I mean, it's still a stout, large number in Simple America. Brand 550 is big number.

[A]

Like on the Escalade. If it was. Actually, I think the escalade is like 480 horsepower. Right. It's a fucking Corvette engine. Effectively. Right. I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know the exact horsepower of the escalade, but it's basically 485 if you just called it the fucking 500. It worked for Mercedes for like three decades.

[B]

I wonder, do you think Mercedes owns. No.

[A]

I guess because Lexus, Shelby.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You can't. One, one cannot own 500. One may only use it until Carroll Shelby needs it again.

[B]

Well, that's a good change. So what are they gonna do instead? Forgive me for not reading this.

[A]

I was editing videos all day. This is the kind of thing that excites me and no one else. They're calling it like on one of the other crossovers, like the Lyric or something. They're getting rid of 600 and they're just calling it like a four or something. Just something that indicates it's the four wheel drive one.

[B]

Okay. So kind of like the GMC truck thing, like at 4 is

[A]

like kind of similar to what the GMC thing is.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. The most important thing is they're stopping the dumb thing that they were doing for three years and made no sense.

[B]

Yeah, this is a good change. I can't believe they watched what Infinity did with the Qs and they said, no, no, no, no, we can do it better.

[A]

Wait, was it Johan Denyshen? Did they get Denishin twice? No, he was at Audi and he was Infiniti and he was also at Cadillac and he was there when a lot of bad things happened at all of those companies. Where is Johan right now?

[B]

Let me see.

[A]

Where was he three years ago? Is really not where Is he now?

[B]

Well, in 2014, he quit infinity and went to Cadillac.

[A]

And then it's just 2014 dash blank.

[B]

All I got is LinkedIn. Yeah, that would be funny if he.

[A]

I mean, look, he is the one that did the. He's the reason that we don't know what infinities are what anymore. He's the reason. You have absolutely no idea. When I tell you that this is a QX60. You don't know what that car is. That's because of his leadership, I believe.

[B]

According to Jalopnik, this article is 12 years old. But he was behind their product expansion plans and the switch to the controversial Cubase naming structure.

[A]

Yeah. So you're welcome.

[B]

You're welcome. And you'll get to do it again. To Cadillac.

[A]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

What? Okay, how expensive? Because I saw. We saw some $7 gas in California. Yeah, we did see some seven. Do you see Sevens? I saw a lot of sixes.

[B]

I saw a lot of sixes. I think I drove past. Oh, down the street. Premium was like 7, 10. And then friend of mine in Arizona

[A]

in front of CMS down the street.

[B]

No, that place or the Jeff.

[A]

The place that's like scamming Amazon over here.

[B]

Oh, yeah, no, it was the one down the street.

[A]

The one by CMS that was expensive. 7.

[B]

I think it was 692. And whatever we bought yesterday was 5.99 by out of the track.

[A]

Yeah, the track was. I mean, dude, 5.99. And by the. That Rosemond. That's crazy out there. Yeah.

[B]

And it's over 6 in Arizona. least parts of it, according to a friend of mine.

[A]

How.

[B]

It's a lot.

[A]

How high and for how long do you think gas will have to get for like actual American car buying habits to change away from like big fucking thirsty cars?

[B]

That's a very good question.

[A]

Couple, do you think? I think a couple like two. I think like two years. I think the. I think the price would have to stay at like 6, $7, possibly nationwide for like a couple of years.

[B]

Well, it's never gonna be six bucks nationwide. It's always like. That's probably true. You have to look at like the aaa. They track the national average.

[A]

What's the national average? Like four.

[B]

Probably four.

[A]

That's still like. Was it national average? 395 national average. So let's see, the REIT on the entire west coast from Arizona to Washington is between $4 and 579. And I mean, obviously California is a

[B]

little special because it has its Own type of gas.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Which is more expensive? We special. Not only do we have special gas,

[A]

it's also special in the way that mean people use special. Well, it's, it's both special in the

[B]

way, cleaner, it's more expensive. But they have to make it at certain refineries. So we can't, we can't bring our gas over from like Nevada or Texas.

[A]

Like, it has a shitty octane rating.

[B]

It's shitty octane rating, but, you know, it's a little bit clean. I don't know. I don't know the intricacies, but the national average is a good place to look. And let's see, yesterday average.

[A]

It's funny, our country broken up this way. Almost looks like the flag of France.

[B]

Here's what, here's what you want to look at. A month ago, the average across the country was 293. Now it's 395. So it's up a dollar in a month. That's a lot.

[A]

Now it's 33% increase.

[B]

It's big. Now. I was one of those people during the last election campaign when people would be like, the gas prices are high. Go. The President doesn't set the gas prices, which is true. But if this person starts a fight and then closes a straight, that does affect the gas prices. So when we're operating in a vacuum and there's no conflicts happening, the gas price is not set by the President of the United States.

[A]

Right? No, but the President could certainly fuck enough shit up.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

You know, as a side effect of all that shit being fucked up.

[B]

Right, that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

[B]

So back to your question. I think you make a good point. I think if gas prices were elevated for two years, I think that's a good number because that's like the length of a normal lease churn.

[A]

Yeah, truly.

[B]

Because then people will go, I'm going to trade this in how long? And I want to get something more efficient. Yeah.

[A]

How long until I can get further upside down on this loan payment. I have now rolled four loans over. I am at 100%.

[B]

I'd like to roll my TRX into an ES hybrid, please.

[A]

At 36% interest.

[B]

I was sitting next to TRX in traffic like two weeks ago and went, this person's getting eight miles per gallon right now. And it's so expensive to operate that truck in California. I hope you're rich because you're about to not be.

[A]

Yeah, you probably are. If you're fucking with the TRX in LA for sure, you're taking up space, baby.

[B]

That's a good question. You know, how long is the, the memory? Like, like we think some of the new Land Rovers, they get like 26 miles highway, which is not phenomenal. And that's not that, that different from what they were getting 15, 20 years ago.

[A]

Like, I think it's better than what Land Rovers, Land Rovers specifically we're getting 20 years ago.

[B]

I think like forerunners, like they haven't that much, but people, they just kind of oscillate their purchases.

[A]

All right, look up, up, look up the fuel economy of a 19976 Land Rover Discovery.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Because that's if we're talking about the closest thing to the, the Defender, it's going to be the Discovery, not the Range Rover. Right. Are we talking about Range Rovers?

[B]

No, I was, I was thinking Land Rover and I'm going to look up the 2006.

[A]

I bet you are going to be shocked with the factory fuel economy of a good running Defender.

[B]

I might have to walk back to my statement.

[A]

Yeah, this is, this is not gonna be great.

[B]

Well, let's see. 96s got 16 highway. 2006s got 17 highway. An improvement of 10%.

[A]

And so, and so from, and so now we're getting 26.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

That's pretty good.

[B]

Yeah, that's pretty good.

[A]

I learned. Good. You know. Thanks, Tata, like, you know. Nice, nice job.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, that is much better.

[A]

Ford, Ford and Tata combined. Yeah. So they, so that is an improvement.

[B]

That is an improvement. Yeah, I retract.

[A]

But like what would it take for someone to not get an F150?

[B]

Get like a Maverick.

[A]

Yeah. And get a Maverick instead. I'm genuinely wondering. I'm not saying no one should have an F150.

[B]

So you're saying their purchase will be based purely on price of gas. Not like they're their job change. They don't need to tow things or whatever. They're driving too big a truck. Yeah.

[A]

Make somebody who would typically buy a very big, very powerful vehicle, buy a smaller, less powerful one. Like, I wonder how like in Europe, that's why people don't for the most part buy bigger vehicles. Like they're either too big for whatever tiny little village you live in or the gas is so fucking expensive that it's insane to buy something that has a engine.

[B]

Don't they also get taxed on.

[A]

There is a tax on displacement also. Yes. But in general it's like, it's much more, it's just much more expensive. It's not because they don't like ever want it. It's just because, like, it's really expensive.

[B]

So a 3.5 liter power boost, then that's the hybrid one. Like F150 gets about 25 miles per gallon highway,

[A]

I think Mavericks can get in the 30s, right?

[B]

Yeah. Let's see.

[A]

I'm pretty sure they can. I think, I think some people would.

[B]

Some of The Mavericks get 42.

[A]

Oh, that's probably the hybrid, right?

[B]

The hybrid, yeah. I think some people would. Of course. I mean, how many? Who? When? I don't know. But I think if anyone's feeling the squeeze on their wallet and they have to get a new car and they go, well, shit, this truck, this little Maverick truck does a lot of what I needed my truck to do. And it gets 10 miles per gallon. Gallon better. Which at these prices will save you four. But now you got tough math. That's tough math. You gotta do that 10 miles per gallon better.

[A]

Well, look, I'll tell you what. If it gets 10 miles a gallon better, that is 30% better. Okay, so if gas goes up 30%, a 30% improvement in efficiency would offset it.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

So it costs you the same today to drive a Maverick as it costs you a month ago to drive an F150.

[B]

Yeah, in gas.

[A]

That's like, that's a way to look at it. There's some Roger Farah math, not Roger Farah math. Roger Farah math.

[B]

He would just calculate.

[A]

He would look at this entire thing and tell you how to solve that problem.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

Yeah. I can't do that.

[B]

I need a calculator for it. I don't know. We'll see. Some people, some people asked in the comments, in the Patreon comments what it will take for people to move to hybrids. And I think gas prices definitely has an effect.

[A]

If gas prices went up 50%, 75%, 100% for the length of their lease. Also. I dropped my pen, sorry. Also, Americans are not good long term thinkers, obviously. And so it might be as simple and as stupid as how much is gas when my lease runs out? Or my. You know what I mean? Like, how much is gas this week when I'm thinking about buying a car versus like, if it goes up, if gas goes up for six months and then for whatever reason, shady, somehow this war is over, you know, whatever. Like some miracle causes it to go back to where it just was, right? In like month seven, you'd be like, F150 Raptor R, please. You know what I mean? I don't think because that kind of has happened in the past with us.

[B]

I think a lot of people, I think it's kind of a national problem is the lack of financial education in grade school and high school leads to so many problems. People over finance, everything. And the short term thinking, like you said, they go, well, gas is coming down and I've really wanted this truck or this exciting sports car, whatever, really excited about it. And I just, I really want to have that thing. And you'll find ways to justify it. And then you buy it. And then two years later, if something happens and gas goes up a lot, you're like, oh, shit, I can't really drive this thing. It's gotten really expensive.

[A]

My colorblindness makes me sort of unable to see how big the spike is. At the far right of this chart is the spike. It's not as high as it was.

[B]

No, it's right here.

[A]

The next top spike to the left, the big high spike. Yeah, I remember that. That was when it was like, for a minute, it was like eight bucks in LA for a second. Yeah.

[B]

So this is. We're looking@macro trends.net and in 2022, June 2022, the national average was 484. And this, right, this spike that we're looking at now from this month, it says 357, which is slightly behind what AAA shows. But this chart is a little less detailed.

[A]

But I remember the 2022 one because someone went around all over the city putting fucking Joe Biden did that. Stickers on all the gas pumps.

[B]

And now you see the Trump I did. That meme is in a lot of stuff on social media today.

[A]

We reap what we sow. Except if you're Donald Trump, then you actually don't. So those are the things, really. I mean, I think those are. Those are the things that. That I wanted to talk about today. Is there something that you wanted to.

[B]

No. I spent the day editing the video, so I didn't really read much car News.

[A]

Which video?

[B]

MG20.

[A]

Is that all right?

[B]

Yeah, except for the audio situation.

[A]

But the ghosts are sometimes in the machines.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So Zach has me literally on video turning the audio recorder on, hitting record, saying it, doing the slate, driving, talking. And it should have been file number four. Should have been file four, except there was another file called four which we

[B]

recorded after this in car, which was recorded afterwards.

[A]

And the file does not exist. Yeah. And so there will be a section in the Maserati MC20 GT2 Stradale video where I hope my Audio isn't noticeably different, but it might be slightly different.

[B]

So the Adobe software, I'm handling it gently, like, what it can fish out is amazing, but the more processing I use, the stranger it makes you sound.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's fighting with a V6 engine.

[A]

It's on a racetrack.

[B]

On a racetrack. GoPro audio. It does a pretty impressive job, but I'm trying to find that balance between where you sound like a totally different person and where we can't hear you at all.

[A]

But either way, this file, it's not that it's. It was like. It's not that it was, like, not transferred or something. Like, I didn't get them all. It's like, it seems like even though it was there, it was not. It was. It was recorded into thin air.

[B]

Yeah. I captured the footage, so this would be my fault, but I looked at the file numbers. I'm like, 1, 2, 3, 4. But 4 was created after the fourth shoot. How is that possible?

[A]

And you have me on video.

[B]

I have you on video looking at. Look at when you're done driving in car and you pick up the recorder and look at it. And this is when I expected your eyes to go, go. And you go, boop. And you're like, unspeed. And you set it down. So that's why I wrote you this. And attack. I'm like, I have no idea what happened.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, look, this is what we discovered. So, I mean, look, if it sounds a little funky, I'm sorry.

[A]

In this life, we do our best, and sometimes it doesn't always work, and then we fucking move on. That's.

[B]

That's.

[A]

That's.

[B]

We used to get really sad and stressed.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, I used to care very much about these things, and now so bad.

[B]

But it's like, well, we made 2300 videos and sometimes the recorder doesn't record.

[A]

Yeah. And, like, you know what happens? Like, four people notice because they're listening on their, like, fucking Sonos system. They have a private movie theater in their house just for watching YouTube videos.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Let's go to the people. I'm sure they have a lot to say. They usually do. Patreon.com the Smoking Tire Podcast is where you ask the questions for the live show and then subsequently watch the live show to hear their answers. It's where also you can get the show before everybody else. It's where you can get extra show every month. It's where you can get the show without ads. And it's the best way, honestly, to support your Favorite podcast creators and also entering to win a 992 Turbo S that is. But Patreon's recurring. What can I say? But we love you folks. And so we're going to get to your questions. Two new patrons coming in hot. Hamdan. Hamdan. Hamdan. I assume it's Hamdan. That would make sense. But also if it's Ham, Dan respect

[B]

or Hamdan would be nice because he's like the don of ham.

[A]

That is true. It probably is not compatible with someone named Hamdan. All that pork.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

But I'm just saying, whether you go one way or the other on that issue, I'm with you. For fun weekend driving, would you suggest a manual swapped Ferrari F430 or pay up and get a scooteria? I've driven a special and a Pista and as much as I love the rawness, it wasn't great for long drives or when you're not in the aggressive mood. I'm with you. Manual 430 swapped. Maybe make it a Spider. And you are very much in the weekend driving business, my friend. Yeah, absolutely right. I never drove a swapped one but I've. That's not true. I drove that, that Scud that was built by those shady people. But I drove a factory 430 Spider and it was absolutely a delight. Everything you could in a stick, everything you could want. And I assume if the, the, if the swapperoo is, is factory level feel, then you'll have a really, really nice T. They're. They're good. They're fucking good. Those cars. They're stout too. You could beat the shit out of them.

[B]

That's a sturdy Ferrari.

[A]

They are very, very sturdy. I really like that about them. Base trim also coming in new this week, wants to talk about B pillars as a design element. I think we've moved beyond all B pillars being black. Would a body colored B pillar be better? I don't like when the exterior of a door is made of one material, but then plastic is used for the B pillar. I think they're trying to make that space in between those two windows smaller to the point of disappearing. I think that's the point of making it black. Right.

[B]

I'm trying to pull some profile pictures, but yeah, I think it's, it's like making it neutral. You know, it's wear black shoes with a suit because you can wear them with almost any colored suit or something like that. Just, it's kind of like let the lines of the car speak and you don't need these things to hop out.

[A]

Yeah. And I think I have a feeling that in manufacturing of these cars, if you think about like a unibody that's being assembled, having that B pillar be body color would be like fuck all expensive.

[B]

I think that's a great point.

[A]

You have to make it out of metal. The same metal.

[B]

Cause if you painted it, if it wasn't metal, if it wasn't the same material as the door, it would fade at different rates probably. So it would look different after a year or five years. And I think. Good point, Matt. Is that painting it alone, painting smaller things can be more difficult. Painting the edges, like the way the thickness of the paint adheres to a corner versus a flat surface. So the door, they can just shoot that. It's probably a little bit more consistent than painting this tiny strip.

[A]

Yeah. I agree that in some cases it would look better painted. But I also think I understand why they don't do it. I think I'm also an idiot. So who knows? Drew Moog says. Okay. The other. Do you have. Okay. Do you have a reliable way of informing someone their high beams are on without yelling at them?

[B]

No. And I wish I had one. And their example, like I've been on at, you know, whatever intersections where I think the other car is facing up a hill slightly. So their beams are shining in my eyeballs. And. And sometimes you'll flash your high beams and they have their lows on. It's just. They have all four lows on. Like an Acura or a BMW. It is what it is. Um. But no short of a bullhorn. There's no way.

[A]

Yeah, I, I agree. I don't. I don't think there's a great way. I think it. I think there's been some funny attempts at like vehicle to vehicle communication. Including this one company that's basically made the whole front of their car like a tv. Have you seen that thing?

[B]

Is it.

[A]

Was it the Faraday?

[B]

Faraday with the van?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

But they didn't say in the press release. That's for telling people to go fuck themselves. And then their high beams are on.

[A]

You know, the world finds a way.

[B]

That's very true.

[A]

575 Super Dave America says after misreading one of your posts about Trump, he thinks you're glazing him and appoints you ambassador to Cuba.

[B]

You're in charge.

[A]

That's actually possible. You have the power to bring five vehicle models from around the world to take over from the aging 50 cars. These models and no others. Will be available in Cuba for 10 years. What cars? This is so easy. This is so easy. The 1990s Toyota Corolla. Absolutely fucking unkillable.

[B]

4Runner. The 4Runner from the same era.

[A]

The 4Runner, right?

[B]

Yeah. The

[A]

Honda Civic, 1990, late 1990s, early 2000s Honda Civic. All single cams, no dual overhead cams. All the. All the single cam engines.

[B]

The V8 powered tundra would be a great one, but I'm throwing that as a sixth option because it's another boring Toyota option.

[A]

I would say the. Like the, like the Taco, like the Tacoma.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I want to. I think, I actually think an ev. Like a simple aerodynamic power grid. No, but they don't have any.

[A]

All you need. You don't need a reason. They don't have.

[B]

They don't have one.

[A]

No.

[B]

They have.

[A]

Their whole country apparently runs on generators or something approximating generators. And they don't have any. Yeah, no, you need a. You need a car that can effectively run on urine. That's like really where we need to be.

[B]

I saw a video, I think it was from Cuba. This guy converted his car to run on coal, but I think it was like a steam. A coal fired steam situation. Very, very clever.

[A]

That's fucking.

[B]

But he did say he would prefer gasoline. Yeah. He's like, it's easier to check for a reason. But he's like, hey, buddy, made it happen. Yeah, bro.

[A]

That's crazy. Jeep Wrangler, Dragon Edition. Allegedly. Have either of you tried careers that disappointed you had required a pivot? Zach was a waiter. Yo.

[B]

I was good at it, though. Yeah, but it had a ceiling.

[A]

I sold shoes and I'm proud.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, I mean, I've been doing this for 20 something, 20 years now. So, I mean, I don't. My career changes were in youth. I don't have a good one.

[B]

I produced. I worked as a PA on a reality TV show for two weeks. And I immediately knew I never wanted to do that again.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

That would be the closest thing.

[A]

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I wanted to be a photographer. That didn't work out. It wasn't that it disappointed me. It was that I couldn't make any money. I wanted to be a graphic. Then I was gonna be a graphic designer. I was bored to tears. I then was going to run a car wash. No. And now we park cars, so it's okay. Ball caddy. If you could eliminate two bad driver habits, one for safety and one annoying, what would they be? I wrote down ball caddy. This one. This is A driver habit. The car is not necessarily in motion, but things that really grind my gears. And I wrote this down for today's show. We didn't do it as a topic, but it's a really good answer to your question. People who drive their cool cars in public, and if you take a picture of the car, they ask you to blur the license plate out. Eat a dick. You get to choose bringing your toy out in public and taking everything that goes with that, or leave that motherfucker at home.

[B]

Did someone send you a picture of a green Ferrari that had this?

[A]

Yep. And I told the person who sent me the photo, cool spot. Why did you blur the license plate?

[B]

Same.

[A]

They said. They asked and I said, that person's a huge loser.

[B]

And I said, Montana? And they said, yes. And the car was not in Montana.

[A]

Yeah, no, you don't get to. You don't get that deference, dude. You don't get to be shady. And then it's my responsibility to fucking cover you. Cover for you in public.

[B]

You brought the car to a car show. That's the thing. Like, the car is out. It's at a thing to be seen.

[A]

Fuck out of there.

[B]

Let people just post the photo and it really doesn't matter. And, like, if the AG wants to find you, they're gonna look. They're gonna find your car through registration, through a dealership. They're not gonna find you on Instagram. On Joe's Instagram page. So I would add, if you're at the front of a line in traffic for a light, you cannot look at your phone. You're not allowed to look at your phone if you are the first person in line at a stoplight. Because the number of people that mess that up, they can look for the big cue of the car moving. But you need to focus on that light.

[A]

Right. It's your job up front.

[B]

You have one job, right?

[A]

Yeah. Right. Going top down with the top down.

[B]

I'm not topless with the top down.

[A]

Going, oh, topless. Oh, titties. It's a titties joke, right? What do you think the values of the F90M5Cs and F87M2Cs are going to do in the near Future? Is the F90, though, the last one?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, that one you didn't. Valuable. Because people won't want the hype.

[B]

Yeah. So the car drove awesome.

[A]

It did drive awesome. I just thought the seats were stupid.

[B]

The seats are stupid.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The rest of it's great.

[A]

I think in the short term, they will hold. I Think in the long term they may not like all computer controlled cars.

[B]

Probably true. The the M2, you know, it's kind of a legend and the legends tend to do pretty well. So I think it might just hold like the one M did. Mm. Especially now the new M2Cs is out. Yeah.

[A]

Front wheel drive NSX. In a recent Cletus video he found out that Richard Childress Racing builds some Singer engines. Any other odd crossovers from race teams to streetcar stuff that you know of? I mean Tom Walkinshaw Racing did a lot of stuff. Jag xj220, things like that. Obviously Cosworth has done a ton of work for people like Aston Martin, McLaren,

[B]

McLaren and Gordon Murray's GMA.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. GMA for sure. I mean I'll also. I mean Singer has had a lot of different very, very well regarded people build their engines from Porsche Motorsport North America to Ed Pink Racing engines to fucking Williams. I mean there's been a ton of stuff from them.

[B]

I'm curious if they have multiple people building engines at the same time just because they many cars that they need supp. They need that many engines for the classics.

[A]

They were.

[B]

When they were.

[A]

When they had the tiny shop and they were doing all classics there was like a couple different ways you could get engines and then they were trying out some different people. I think as they were growing and I think they've got good. Not their vendors have always been good, but there have been a few different.

[B]

Okay. I wonder if you know like NASCAR teams do R and D for people like Chevy or Ford, you know, Mustang stuff and then once they can, because they can just move more nimbly and just R and D it and then if it gets approved it gets put into like the assembly line HWA which

[A]

recently was in the news because they're doing this 190evo sort of repop thing that's like a completely new like car. Like have you seen that thing? Look up the Hwa Evo. I guess it looks like a Mercedes 190 Evo 2. But it's like fully, fully everything. It's everything. It's one of those. But this company, which you may have, if you weren't deeply nerdy thought maybe the company sort of came out of nowhere. They actually build the engines that are in the Huayra R are race cars. Whoa. Yeah. They don't use. Because those Mercedes V12s are like cool. But they redline it like 60. Like that's not that like. Yeah, like for those engines like you can't actually do that with the Mercedes motors. Yeah, yeah. So that's. So they're doing these, which is pretty cool. There was that Pratt Miller C6Rs thing that we drove. That was.

[B]

That was the red one.

[A]

The red one. That one just dug. That car just sold at auction. I don't really got. But it was auction. Yeah. Matt's Miller Industries Century M100 tow rig. The. The Monoxide podcast likes to ask all their guests give us a show car, a daily and a track car. Unlimited budget. What's yours and Zach's?

[B]

How do we define show car? Does it work? Can it be driven?

[A]

It has to be driven. I think it has to. It has to physically work as a car. But it could be a show car. I could do this. I could do this. A show car. I mean, unlimited budget. It would have to be something French from the 1930s. It would have to be a Delage or a Delahay or a Bugatti Atlantic or something that looks like a bunch of teardrops with an engine. Some crazy ass French shit that like, is like pebble beach level show show car, but that you could drive. Track car. The. That Gordon. The new Gordon Murray thing. That's whatever.

[B]

Second 50 GT3, one of them. Yeah.

[A]

That's kind of perfect and ultimate. Daily. Nothing beats a Taycan. I'd say a Taycan. No, I would say a Panamera turbo SE hybrid with active ride.

[B]

Okay. I would go. I'd go low rider. I think like 64 impala.

[A]

Good choice.

[B]

And then daily, I'm gonna go with Ranger Raptor and track car. God, that's really hard. I'll go Hoonicorn. Even though I don't know if you can really drive it on.

[A]

It's actually a pretty good track, but sure.

[B]

Yeah. Can you set it up for road? Course. They'd be like, what are you. What are you on about?

[A]

That's true. My track car. I mean, as cool as that Gordon Murray thing is, my track car might have to be a drift car. I don't think I. I think your

[B]

choice is near perfect. I just didn't want to have the same choice. But it's like, it's a Gordon Murray car.

[A]

You kind of want to have a drift car.

[B]

Yeah. But if you want to be gripped up also, just learn to slide that thing.

[A]

PTS normal. Do you have a favorite autocross and or track tire? That's hard because I don't have the same car that I drive on like eight different tires like a regular person. Every car has like its own tires. Like Their own. Even their own compounds like a Pilot Sport Cup 2 Porsche and a Pilot Sport Cup 2 BMW and a Pilot Sport Cup 2, like you know, whatever fucking Corvette are actually kind of different. So I don't really have a good choice for that.

[B]

I mean I went on the Hoosier launch for the track attack Pro which was a very good track and autocross tire. But I don't want to be biased and say like that's the best one. So I would say PTS Normal should go read like grassroots motorsports. Yeah, those folks, they know tires inside and out and they will have all the comparisons for tires in that class that you need.

[A]

Yeah, I would say an underrated tire that I liked that I've not really taken on the track. But my spider came with Those Dunlops, the SP Sport Max 2 and I thought they had equal grip over a longer period of time and better long term wear than Michelin cup twos. I'm not a huge Cup 2 guy. I love the Pilot Sport 4s and S5, but I've never loved Cup 2s, including on this BMW. Those tires did not impress me at all. Although they might have been pre tracked before we got the car. Giggity Airlines says the cars and bids crew were struggling to define a sports car. What's your definition?

[B]

I mean I think it's a car whose main objective is to be enjoyable, to drive and have, you know, perform.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Track roads, et cetera.

[A]

Yeah, I'd say it's any car that puts driving dynamics above things like practicality and space. You know what I mean? It could be any car. It could be a sedan, I would say. Probably can't be an SUV by nature but like it could be a coupe, convertible, sedan. Engine could be in the front and the back and the middle. That doesn't really matter. But like the car should be compromised in other ways in order to be good at driving. That might mean a stiff suspension, that might mean it's small, that might mean it doesn't have certain features. Right. You think so?

[B]

That's what I think.

[A]

Yeah. Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel. Wants to get a radar detector. Do you use radar detectors? What do you think? How do you set them up and what is the move? So I'm not a, There's a, there's. What's the radar guy? We had Vortex radar. Was that him? The YouTube channel where the guy tests radar detectors? I believe it was Vortex radar who is like a guy who just tests radar detectors and so he's very objective about this. Kind of stuff. I have had a pretty foolproof methodology for the last 10 plus years, which is I have the Valentine, I now have the two. I used to have the one, I now have the two. And I combine that with Waze and honestly, them two together, that's pretty foolproof. You're pretty rarely going to get caught out if you're running both of those together.

[B]

I think the only thing to add to those two things is attention. You just, you have to look at ways. You gotta look for those alerts and you have to have long vision down the road. Yeah.

[A]

And you have to know how to listen to the language that a radar detector. Because like radar detectors are like chirps and boops and beeps and shit. I don't like radar detectors that have like a lot of app integration, but I don't like. I like a radar detector to operate standalone without the need for a phone. Yeah.

[B]

Oh God, yes, absolutely.

[A]

And I use the logic modes. I think it's called advanced. It might be called advanced logic mode in the Valentine 2. It's the small L, not the big L. And it effectively filters out almost anything other than very strong ka. Excuse me, very strong K band and ka. It filters out all X and weak

[B]

K signals, which you want because x was basically 711 doors that open automatically, which would go off a lot back in the early days of radar. And then a lot of cars nowadays with the proximity sensors that was setting

[A]

off a lot of these, that's like K band lite. And so the newest Valentine 2s, ignore those. And I've heard the Passport is good. There's people like that, there's people that like other brands.

[B]

I think Escort has Arrows now.

[A]

Yeah, Valentine had arrows proprietary for a while and now some other ones. I think they're whatever their patent ran out out or the time that they were allowed to have that. But. But yeah, the combination of a quality radar detector, which will be a couple hundred bucks. I mean you're probably looking at 500.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Combination of that and Waze is pretty foolproof. And then if that doesn't help you. Off the record, baby. Offtherecord.com TST well, I do. I want to read that one. I don't know if that one's accidental. Reverse entry says that we appear to be pretty grounded while being somewhat successful and having financial means. I don't know, man. I don't think we have as much money as you think we have. It's not that I have a lot of money. It's that my spending Habits are incredibly recognizing. Reckless. I just saw that meme on a watch forum. It's like, you think I'm successful. Actually, I am incredibly reckless.

[B]

The average savings account has less than $500 in it.

[A]

I mean, but yes, the example that you used of the fourteen hundred dollar rental car being expensive, like that was expensive for that rental car for four days.

[B]

Right.

[A]

For Ice Race 20, it was six days with a Chevy Blazer. Trailblazer. No, Blazer. Blazer, yeah. And it 1400. Ali Dhaneshvar says, Can you enjoy going to the track without being a competitive person? 100%. Going to the track can be about your lap times, if you want it to be. Going to the track can also be about finding the limit of your car. Sliding around a little bit, maybe just going faster than you would be legally allowed to go. On the street.

[B]

Sure. Driving in a manner you can't on the street. Yeah.

[A]

Hanging out with your buds. Yes, of course. Learning something. It could be about learning. I mean, you can go and there's instructors who will help you get better at driving and those skills will back translate to the street.

[B]

And I think you can be competitive with yourself in terms of trying to learn and improve those lap times, but you don't have to be competitive with other people. And go, oh, you set a 201. I'm at 207. Do I need to buy parts or come out here? More like, okay, good for you. I'm just trying to work on me.

[A]

Yeah, that's also true. Like a track day isn't an actual race. Like, you're effectively racing yourself at a track day. And if you're in one of the advanced groups where it's open, passing and you're like dicing it up with somebody like, okay, cool, do that. But like you're not racing them, you know, so like you can. And also I suspect that once you are onto the racetrack and have a lap time and have a time to be, people tend to get competitive once presented.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't know if I said it on the podcast, but I certainly said it to the team that I race with, which is that I don't give a fuck if we win this race or if we finish dead last, unless we might be on podium at the halfway point and then all of a sudden nothing else matters. I am out here racing for funsies. Oh, wait, you mean we could win? Never mind. Yeah, you know, Blue Chews and Blue Clues. I've been driving my ND Miata with an exhaust, wearing Airpod Pros with The. In the adaptive sound noise canceling mode, they seem to filter out so many unpleasant frequencies of NVH and wind while making the exhaust sound even better. Have you ever had the same experience? Yes. 100% yes. When I drove my Ferrari 328 to Pebble Beach. I did it with noise canceling earbuds the whole way. And it made the engine sound beautiful.

[B]

Really.

[A]

It eliminated every squeak and rattle in the car. And I listened to the. And it complemented the level of the music perfectly with the volume of the Ferrari engine. And it actually was one of the best drives I ever had in that car. Wow. Yeah, I drive with noise canceling. I actually fuck with raycons now. The AirPods don't stay in my ears. The raycons actually stay in place.

[B]

We are not sponsored by them right now.

[A]

We're not. Although they did acquire about a month ago. And so you may hear an ad, but either way, that's not why I have these. They didn't send them. I've had them for a while. They fit in my fucking ears. So anyway, I wear them in the Manx a lot like obviously, because I just don't have a radio anyway. And I have the same exact experience in this.

[B]

Yeah, it filters out all the high frequency shit.

[A]

Yeah, totally. Totally happens. And if you're driving an old car, could be a Miata, could be a muscle car, could be whatever. Try it because it will make your car sound like it's got a bunch of Dynamat in it. Yeah. Elitist Erewhon shopper says you can steal one car from three friends. What are you taking? And from whom? Great question.

[B]

Yeah, I'd steal your Spider.

[A]

Okay, that makes me happy.

[B]

I would steal Vinnie's Cadillac, assuming it's in good working order.

[A]

It was last I saw it.

[B]

And I would steal Larry Chen's. I might actually steal. You know, I might steal three his car.

[A]

I would steal three of Larry Chen's car.

[B]

I would steal his R34 because it's perfect. Okay. Yeah, okay.

[A]

I will. I would take Mad Catz's F40. I would then take the. We forgot to talk about. I would then take the gold Singer Dls that I drove on Sunday. That was mind bendingly good. And I would then take. Ooh, fucking. Who's got something like just the titties? I mean Larry's. Larry's R34 is a great one.

[B]

He's got the 32, which is California legal.

[A]

Nah.

[B]

Yeah, the 34 is right there.

[A]

It's right there. I would then have to take Leno's McLaren F1.

[B]

Oh, sure, right.

[A]

He's. He's friend enough. I could, I could call him a friend. He's been kind of one. Did you see his, his commercial for the Yamava Corvette giveaway? It's on like it's everywhere. I don't. They must be running this now. But honestly, I'll have to ask him if I see him. I might have to even text him. It sounds like it looks it. It sounds like it was made by AI. Like there's like, there's like a shot of him walking up to a Corvette and getting in and like giving a thumbs up. But the voiceover sounds like if you had AI do Leno and there's no shot of him speaking. Ooh, yeah.

[B]

I wonder if they did.

[A]

I don't know, guys. I can't make it. Just fucking. Just chatgpt it.

[B]

Maybe.

[A]

I don't know. I have to text him and ask, listen and sometimes watch. What mileage and condition of car makes for the best manual? Swap the nicest one you can find or something with some while you're in there. Good question. Very easy answer. One with a blown E gear pump or F1 pump or a blown clutch

[B]

if it needs drivetrain work, transmission work anyway. That's the best one. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Particularly because the clutch you're replacing anyway and the E gear pump you're throwing in the garbage. So if someone's dumping their Gallardo or R8 or Ferrari because the F1, the hydraulic pump that controls that is out, that's your gold mine right there. Wheat City Night court says, is there a new car on sale today which if seen in the wild is almost certainly owned by a car nerd. I would say the GR Corolla. I've never met someone with a GR Corolla that didn't really like driving.

[B]

Yeah, that's a good point.

[A]

If you have an Ioniq 5N, you are a pretty big nerd. I've seen people on the mountain like mobbing Ioniq5ns. They are. Are fucking so fast on the mountain. They will, they will walk away from a BMW M3 no problem. The torque is ridiculous. So fast, dude,

[B]

like a BRZ ts. I don't know if they still sell those.

[A]

Oh yeah, that's like if you have some special, special edition of a. Of a really low powered car.

[B]

I saw the. What was the green one they did that was start with an H. It was named after that road. I saw one of those in the wild the other day. I reviewed one, like six years ago. I went, oh, wow. Someone spent the extra six grand for the green.

[A]

If you have a Nismo Z, that's pretty. You're pretty. You're pretty car nerdy. If you have a Nismo Z, right?

[B]

I think so. But then the Nismo is going to come out. That's also.

[A]

That's what I just said.

[B]

Oh, I thought you meant, oh, I

[A]

got to mix Nissan a Nismo. Nismo. Sorry that I thought that I did.

[B]

I. I have Nissan Z performance stuck in my head from last week.

[A]

Right. Jacking off the record, if you could gift each other a $25,000 car, what would you pick for each other?

[B]

25 used, I assume.

[A]

Do you want. Do you want a daily or do you want a drift car?

[B]

Drift car.

[A]

I would get you a pretty decent Nissan Z drift car from somebody.

[B]

What do you want?

[A]

Or like a 240 with an LS that someone's just tired of and has. No, like, has those bumpers that are just a bar. Just one. Sure.

[B]

One bar, yeah. With a center jack point. Yeah. Do you want a drift car? You want a Daily

[A]

Legends?

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Brand new. I want to. New Legends car. Legends car. Wagon.

[B]

All right.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

The wagon's a good one. The long roof. Yeah.

[A]

Randy says, besides the obvious fascism thing, what do you think of the IndyCar America 250?

[B]

Why they asked? Because the trailer track map, proposed map was laid out.

[A]

I will absolutely, I will admit that my political bias here sees this event in a certain way. Totally does. If it was not even necessarily like a Republican president, like just a fucking normal human, you know what I mean? Where everything wasn't like an assault on freedoms. If it was like our country's 250th anniversary, and it was like even fucking George W. Bush was the president, and they said, yeah, we're gonna have a race in D.C. i'd be like, all right, cool, Right? Would you, Zach?

[B]

Yeah. When they proposed this a few weeks ago, I said on the show, I was like, this is a pretty cool idea as far as the mandates go. This is pretty rad. And we looked at the map and I said, I think they have a lot of good opportunity here to make a good track. And that's why I want to pull up the map, because I don't think they did as much as they could.

[A]

I. I have to say that map, and I don't know that it doesn't, to me, look like an expert level racetrack. It looks pretty fucking Mickey Mouse, the shape of it.

[B]

Well, yeah. So I'm putting on the screen for everybody. It doesn't cover a little bit.

[A]

Look great.

[B]

It's just. So for people who are listening, it's a lot of 1, 2. There's 390 degree corners, a sort of. I guess that'd be like 120 long straightaway.

[A]

There's a 120. There's an open one.

[B]

I mean, what does this look like? This looks like a map of. What state is this? This looks like. If you rotate it.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, it looks like Alabama.

[B]

It does.

[A]

It looks like Alabama has. Has fallen over.

[B]

Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like, but with less curves. So I was just. I looked at this and I got kind of disappointed because when we looked at the National Gallery, like, area map before, when this was all proposed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I went, okay, like, you got some. Like, you could. Why not incorporate these bridge roundabouts here?

[A]

Yeah, we had. We had things with curves in them. There's a lot of natural curves.

[B]

Yeah. There's a lot of opportunity. Like this Lower Senate Park. This is a nice curve to it. There's just a lot of cool stuff. And they ended up with this. I mean, this makes the Vegas F1 map look amazing. Look amazing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That has a little. And that's a pretty, like, you know, straight turn. Straight turn kind of place. But it was a lot more going on.

[A]

It was. But the Vegas track, you know, as one of a very few people who drove it, it had a flow. It did have, like this. This to me says straightaway corner. Straightaway corner, Straightaway corner.

[B]

A lot of drag races. Right?

[A]

Like, it's kind of like Long beach, dude. Like Long Beach. Like, I'm sorry. I love that we have a race, but I drove the Long beach track and it sucks. It's like, not a fun track. Crack. Because of the same reason.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And yeah. Do I think fucking Donald Trump's a fucking dick bag? Yeah, I do. And if this was a normal president, even a normal Republican one, I'd go, okay, all right, cool. But I'm still in the process of wondering just how the fascism will be attached to this particular event.

[B]

Which flag will they unfurl?

[A]

They find a way. Way. The swinging tire says favorite BMW CS car. Oh, so easy. The original.

[B]

Oh, the original 3.3 CSL Batmobile.

[A]

Granny shifting. Not double clutching like you should. Is the fear of exorbitant and frequent maintenance for McLarens justified or overblown? If it's. If, if overblown, would you still purchase a 720s or would you Stick to more mainstream brands like Porsche with palatable maintenance. I think McLarens work pretty well when they're driven a lot. I would get a McLaren and drive it, use it as my car. I would not want a McLaren that I drove once a month. We have a couple customers that drive their McLaren 570s, mind you, all the fucking time. One guy in particular has a bunch of miles on that orange one down there. Car's eight. Always works. Wow. Nope. Not like changes the oil, puts tires on it. The car always works. We had another one that sat and sat and sat. Always fucking broken. It's, I think, even more. There's a lot of cars like that. McLarens in particular, they need to be driven like a ton. That 13,000 mile car I took to pebble that year, Fucking ace. That's the car. So I would buy one and I would drive the shit out out of it. I wouldn't want a McLaren unless I could use it as my car, like my everyday car. I would not want to.

[B]

You'd have to get. If you had two cars, you'd have your. You have a Taycan and a McLaren. You couldn't have six. Yeah.

[A]

Or you ball out and use it as a daily.

[B]

Or that.

[A]

I'd keep my Spider in the garage for weekends and Daily. The McLaren.

[B]

I think you'd get tired of that after a couple of months, I think, because the car, twin turbo. Like, you gotta warm it up. But, you know, your errands are short. I know they're very. They're comfortable.

[A]

So many times they're so easy. If you get the comfort seats and you get a coupe, so the roof cutouts, so you can plop down in there. It's got a nice trunk. I've daily these cars for weeks at a time. It's no big deal. They're easy. They're so easy. That's why it's so lame when people don't daily them.

[B]

Are someone around the corner? Daily's one.

[A]

Oh, yeah, I know that dude. Yeah, he's chill. He's fucking great. But, man, his is the blue color, and it's the same color as the launch color for the C8 Corvette. And, man, when the fucking Corvette came out and people asked him if his was the Corvette, oh, he felt like, oh, man, his car is so sick.

[B]

Yeah, it looks nice.

[A]

He's on his second one. The money or the hammer? You can't have both. What's an example of a reliable car from a historically unreliable company?

[B]

We talked about, I think The Alfa Giulia 2.0 is known for being pretty good and Alpha's not so great reputation.

[A]

Yeah,

[B]

I mean, the F430.

[A]

Yeah, I think both the 430 and the 360 Ferrari are very. Actually, like the 458 is really reliable.

[B]

I think that's more reliable also.

[A]

Huracans are fucking great. Huracans are super, super reliable. Yeah, I mean, actually, I think the. I don't know if there's a better example of reliable car from a company known for unreliable cars than the Huracan. That's a fucking. That anybody could daily drive a Huracan. And if you don't, if you drive it like once, they still work like fine. They're so easy. Bad PPI8 Matt, you recently bought a relic guitar, the Mike McCready Signature, which has been a popular offering for a couple of decades now among guitarists, though not without controversy. Do you think the same concept of making a new thing look like an old and well used thing will be popular among car enthusiasts now that vintage cars with patina are commanding what seems to be the same remorse more than a restored example? Fake patina, I don't think that would

[B]

pull a lot of money. Also for bad PPI8, the patina thing isn't new. This term got thrown around a lot in the early aughts as the pro touring thing came about. People would take muscle cars that look old and they would refurb all the suspension chassis, et cetera, and it would have patina and then they'd rip. So. So. But I don't know if putting fake patina on something would probably never command a higher price than clean paint or real patina.

[A]

Sure, with my guitar I really like it, but I care less about the patina than I care about the fact that when I plug that guitar in with no pedals or anything else, it sounds exactly like Pearl Jam. It sounds exactly like Mike McCready's guitar sound. So like you fucking play the opening notes of Yellow Ledbetter on that and like you're in Pearl Jam. Like, so to me, for after many, many years of like playing what is effectively 90% Pearl Jam songs on like other guitars, because I liked them for one reason or another, having this one that sounds like Pearl Jam is like, oh, yeah, this makes a lot of sense. Actually. I think if it was mechanically or electronically what it is and didn't have the aesthetic patina, I'd probably still be into it. But I get it. I don't think I'd buy fake patina on a car. But this guitar isn't designed to look like any 1959 Strat. It's designed to look and play and sound exactly like, like one person's specific guitar.

[B]

59 Strat?

[A]

Yeah, like Mike McCready's, but like that he's been playing with since, like it's like in the. I don't know if it's in the Alive video, but I'm pretty sure it's in at least one of the music videos from ten. Like, he's been playing this guitar forever. And if you look at music videos and live performances over the years, you can see this guitar getting like more and more and more weathered. It's pretty fucking awesome.

[B]

But it's a 1959. What is it?

[A]

It's a Stratocaster.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It's a Fender Strat. His is. Yeah. And it would be worth a fucking fortune.

[B]

But my point is, like, this person says, do we think the same concept of making a new thing look like an old thing, but in this case his is an old guitar? Right, Right. So they made your new guitar sound

[A]

2023 or whatever it is guitar that looks like his. Now. It helps that a brand new fan, like the Stratocaster hasn't really, really changed aesthetic.

[B]

Right. If you tried to take a new car to make it feel like an old car, you'd have to like, I don't know, break would look so stupid. It would work too well.

[A]

Yeah, but I think what they're doing in cars is like with what Marco did with that air cooled 911 that you drove, where they just sort of leave it rough, unfinished. They leave the patina. They might. There's some paint. There's like some paint you can put on cars to like make them rust a little bit. Like, I've seen stuff like that. I can't imagine them doing it with a new car.

[B]

Yeah, I think it would look weird.

[A]

That'd be so weird. Ocean Parkway, Blunt Rider. Love it. Now that the M badge is available in some capacity on basically everything BMW sells, has it lost all meaning? Or does a true M car elicit the same response it did 20 years ago? Is there an opportunity for BMW to do what Caddy did with the Blackwing and create an additional sub brand?

[B]

That's what the CS is, right? I mean, the CS is the hardcore enthusiast model of the M brand.

[A]

I agree to a certain extent. Yeah. But I think, I mean, true M car. I mean, the M cars are really fucking fast, but they also, they don't do a lot for me. Me in A lot of ways like the M5 and the M3 and M4 and M8 don't really like excite me in the way that an E46 M3 and a Sharknose E31 and an E39 M5 sort of did. I thought maybe it may have just been that that was a pinnacle to me of styling and engines and driver engagement and the new cars are much faster, but don't like do it for me.

[B]

I think we also can't discount our exposure. Like at that time in our, we were like late teens, early 20s. We were just, you know, every magazine like these M these. I think the M cars at the time were very unique in their. Their combination of performance and comfort. But it was also like we were so excited about cars and weren't saturated with information the way we are now. We've driven more stuff. You can get the Black Wings a good example. Like now Cadillac has a car that can do what the M3 and M5 used to do. And that didn't exist before. So I, for me, it was like I put those on a pinnacle because they were the best. They were the best sedan.

[A]

At the time 5 came out, it was like that was a real game changer.

[B]

400 horsepower. I mean that was. It was Corvette horsepower. It had it handled well. It looked good and it was a luxury thing. And Mercedes at the time had a five speed auto. Yeah, you were awesome. And they also did a good job marketing with the. The driver, the guy Ritchie film, the guy Richie stuff. So it's all those things combined.

[A]

Yeah. I'm gonna call the game there. The wife is waiting for me for dinner, you see. And we'll hold any interesting questions for the next show. We got a lot to talk about. Next show. We got the BMW CS. We got the Volvo EX30. And I didn't even get to review the fucking DLS I drove over the weekend.

[B]

Did we know you did.

[A]

I went to go to breakfast. Me and Christian took the Manx. I was so excited to have the Manx back with the tires back on it, the right tires and everything. Took it to Malibu. Saw Maz and as he was leaving and he was like, I was about to leave. I was like, well, don't fucking leave. Come back. I dragged him back. He was in the dls, the gold one. It's on my Instagram. And I go, you want to drive this? Because he was asking at Ice Race when he was going to get to drive it. I was like, fucking next time I see you. So I Go, you want to go drive it? And he just hands me the key to this, and I go, okay. And he goes, you're gonna go drive that, right? And I was like, oh, I thought you were just leaving your key with me. I don't know, because it's parked weird or something. And he was like, no, you should go drive that. I was like, okay. And I was like, christian, get in this car. Get in.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And. Oh, baby. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that next week. But Maz also had some very nice. By the way, Maz Fawaz is the former CEO of Singer. He was the CEO of Singer from when they Come Company started until last year. I think he's now, like, vice chairman or. I don't know his exact role right now, but he's still at the company.

[B]

He's still there.

[A]

He's still there, but he's not the CEO anymore. Raj Nair is a CEO now. But he had very nice things to

[B]

say about the Manx Chief Strategy Officer. There we go.

[A]

He came back and he was like, I can't believe this thing drives so nice. He was like, it's. You know when you have a weird engine, because he has some weird engines. He's like, the calibrations of, like, the low speed maneuverability and, like, the engagement, the tip in. And like, he's like, that stuff's really hard. And like, this is really, really nice.

[B]

Good endorsement.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll talk about the DLS next week. It was unforgettable. We'll see you then. Thanks to our patrons for asking such good questions. Thanks to everybody else for listening. Have a nice evening.