CA Tire War; Luce Conspiracy Theory; Q&A

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast

Episode: CA Tire War; Luce Conspiracy Theory; Q&A

Date: June 4, 2026
Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into automotive launch culture, the rumors surrounding Ferrari’s new EV (the “Luce”), and an in-depth discussion about proposed California tire legislation that sent the car internet into a panic. Matt and Zack also address audience questions spanning everything from perfect old hot hatches to economic indicators in the car market, and riff on recent car spotting, restomod trends, and the bridge between new luxury car launches and musical guests.

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Main Themes & Segment Breakdown

1. Flashy Car Launches & Musical Guests (01:15-06:35)

• The hosts discuss recent extravagant car reveals, focusing on Mercedes hiring Blink182 for a launch event.
• Zack finds it strange and out-of-place, noting, “It’s like pandering to SoCal aggressively... Do you like the car? No, but I like the band.” (02:45)
• Matt reflects on how lavish car launches can be distractions when a product is weaker, comparing them to “over-the-top weddings” as omens for underlying issues (03:13).
• They trade stories about elaborate launch events, from Hawaii for a Toyota Sienna to closing LA’s iconic 6th Street Bridge, and consider which audiences automakers actually court at such events.

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2. Driving Impressions: Latest GT3 & Malibu Spottings (07:14-08:40)

• Matt recounts “babysitting” a customer's 911 GT3, praising its revised suspension and road manners:
  “It just tracks straighter, handles bumps better. What a delight.” (07:47)
• He notes new folding bucket seats and subtle changes for the North American market, specifically how lane-keeping ADAS is less intrusive.

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3. SP40 Restomod: Argentina’s Unique Take on Retro-Futurism (13:06-21:29)

• Matt introduces the “SP40 Restomod,” built by an Argentinian company crafting high-end, prewar-style replicas.
• The car is inspired by the Edsel Ford Model 40 Special Speedster: long nose, open wheels, Coyote V8, tube frame, full carbon body, approximately $500,000.
• Zack questions the high price:
  “It’s a curve, like simple radius and then flat... It’s an off-the-shelf motor. 500 grand seems a lot.” (18:42)
• Matt is optimistic: “There’s a chance this thing drives really good... I’m not, I don’t need to fucking say something is worth money if it’s not. But like, there’s a chance this is amazing.” (19:52)
• Discussion of side pipes, unique analog experiences, and why the future of interesting, analog cars may come from boutique builders as mainstream OEMs go hybrid or electric.

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4. Ferrari Luce Conspiracy Theory (21:29-28:11)

Key Discussion (21:29-28:11):

• Zack brings up an internet theory (popularized by Thomas Holland) speculating Ferrari intentionally built the Luce EV to flop—so they could “prove” the market doesn’t want electric Ferraris and revert to making “real” cars.
• Matt calls it “the plot of Major League,” and notes:
  “No publicly traded company would ever allow... an intentional tank. Elon Musk would do that. But for Ferrari? Not a chance.” (21:58)
• They walk through the scale of production challenges, quoting industry friends, and conclude it’s more likely Ferrari was simply too slow to pivot after committing to the project years ago:
  “Six years ago, this was a really good idea. It just took them this long to do it…There doesn’t need to be a conspiracy.” (27:19, 27:51)

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5. Instant Reaction: Jason Castriota’s Carrera GT-based 917 (33:06-37:35)

• The hosts react to designer Jason Castriota’s Carrera GT restomod with 917 styling.
• “It’s a Restomod 917 on a Carrera GT – it’s fucking cool... not quite the sexiness, but damn cool.” (33:17)
• Zack respects owners making bold, sacrilegious moves: “I applaud someone who has a Carrera GT and... just wants to make it their own. Mod it if you got it.” (36:33)

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6. Corrections on Math, Parroting Internet Claims (38:14-40:14)

• Matt apologizes for misreporting the Indy 500 margin of victory, illustrating how easy it is to parrot bad info from “credible” sources:
  “Multiple announcers, I swear to God, said ‘thousandths’, thousands…” (39:22)
• They segue into the dangers of misinformation online, especially surrounding car news.

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7. Deep Dive: California Tire Legislation - Fact vs. Hysteria (40:14-58:19)

Key Segment (starts ~40:14, with most essential details 43:36-58:19)

• The hosts dissect a viral Instagram reel about California “banning” tires, which many—up to and including Joe Rogan—spread without source checking.
• Matt reads directly from the executive summary, clarifying that the bill aims to set rolling resistance and wet grip standards for replacement tires, NOT banning enthusiast tires outright.
• Notable quote:
  “Almost anything people were really concerned about... is not really going to be affected.” (42:14)
• Specialty tires (off-road, track, low-volume, winter, emergency, motorcycle, etc.) are all explicitly excluded from the proposed rules. (46:25)
• Zack flags the lack of specificity around ultra high-performance summer tires, but Matt notes later exceptions:
  “In addition, the proposed standards offer exception for a tire if there’s no other compliant tires available for a given model operated in the states.” (49:08)
• They urge for measured, fact-based debate and remind listeners that California environmental regulation often leads to innovation (direct injection, turbos, better tires), and that real panic is premature.
• Fun tangent: Do all-season tires really last 65,000 miles, as claimed in the viral video?
  “That to me seems like a pretty unreasonable expectation for a tire.” (56:54)
• Conclude: Don’t panic, read the source, and engage in constructive debate rather than social media rage.

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8. Quick Reviews & Car Culture News (59:01-61:17)

• They plug Tom Segura’s “Bad Thoughts” Season 2 as “Chappelle show level” sketch comedy, with amusing anecdotes about the premiere and an awkward encounter with Kevin Nealon.

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Q&A Highlights (62:04-end)

[Selected Audience Questions & Notable Timestamps]:

• 62:04 — Opinion on the “one make, one model” dealership (Ferrari 550 Maranello; Lexus LS430).
• 64:19 — Which single-clutch automated manual car finally “got it right”? (Short answer: None; even late Ferrari F430s/LP560s are ‘acceptable,’ but DCTs are superior.)
• 65:45 — Is a 2-door Bronco a good idea for Chicago? (Yes, except for rear gate swing in tight parking.)
• 67:01 — Live music nostalgia and wedding bands; the true cost of Real Big Fish.
• 71:57 — Does swapping a torsion beam for IRS matter on a daily Jetta? (No; new shocks and bushings will do more.)
• 73:32 — Fun front-wheel drive cars from the early 2000s for $25k? (Mark 4 GTI, Prelude SH; avoid Civics because the questioner’s been there.)
• 76:32 — America’s least fun racetracks? (Sebring, Big Willow called out for being flat, hot, and generally unpleasant.)
• 79:45 — Upgrading from Boxster GTS for $70-80k: Prime choices—C8 Corvette, GT350R, LC500, Viper, late first-gen Vantage S.
• 85:36 — Why Mazda doesn’t offer more colors? (Cost; “Wrap your Miata, dude.”)
• 86:36 — Worst restaurant customer ever? (Man with “allergy to green things.”)
• 88:08 — EV on $5k/year budget? (Used Mach-E, or lease a Fiat 500e for $49/month)
• 90:48 — Explaining wheel types: steel, cast, flow-formed, forged, magnesium, carbon, multi-piece, etc.
• 96:19 — On cops cracking down on trivial violations (window tint, expired reg) at car meets: “You can’t drive your car on the fucking road and then complain about cops seeing things that are illegal.”
• 99:25 — Car market recession indicators? (Surging auto loan delinquencies, longer loan terms, market bifurcation between Gilded Age super-exotics vs. regular buyers stretching longer loans.)

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Memorable Quotes

• “If you have a really like ridiculous, lavish, over the top wedding, your marriage won’t last very long... I think that science applies to car launches.” — Matt Farah (03:13)
• “There’s a chance this thing drives really good... There’s a chance this is amazing.” — Matt Farah on the SP40 Restomod (19:52)
• “This is the plot of Major League. If the team does bad enough, I get to move them to Miami.” — Matt Farah on the Ferrari Luce conspiracy theory (21:58)
• “You just... have to read the fucking source material and calm down.” — Matt Farah (42:14)
• “There’s like, I got sent this in a panic. It’s presented in a way that you’re supposed to panic, but we’re so far from that right now.” — Matt Farah (51:19)
• “Dude, everybody’s got Carrera GTs now. I mean, you gotta, like, be different.” — Matt Farah (36:59)
• “Cars are great, but people are more important.” — Matt Farah (53:14)
• “You can’t drive your car on the fucking road and then complain about cops seeing things that are illegal...” — Matt Farah (96:19)
• “The average length auto loan is six years... it’s bad.” — Zack Klapman (100:06)

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Episode Tone & Personality

• Profane, pointed, and energetic as ever, Matt and Zack mix technical knowledge with skepticism and humor about internet panic.
• The vibe throughout is informed but anti-hysteria, especially during the tire bill discussion.
• Self-deprecating moments, inside baseball on car launches, and relatable Q&A keep the show accessible and dynamic.

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Notable Moments

• [14:09] Photo-real discussion of the SP40 Restomod’s design.
• [21:29] Ferrari Luce conspiracy bloomed and debunked.
• [40:14-58:19] California tire legislation is dissected and contextualized for non-specialists.
• [59:01] Sketch comedy recommendations and celebrity run-ins.
• [76:32] The hosts gleefully tear into “least fun” racetracks.
• [86:54] Zack’s tale of a customer allergic to “green things.”

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Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• Car culture is awash in rumor and reaction—do your homework before reacting online.
• EVs, expensive restomods, and environmental regulation spark passionate debate, but nuanced understanding matters most.
• Brand launches and musical guests increasingly represent spectacle over substance.
• The best upgrades and car choices often focus on experience, not just numbers or prestige.
• The current automotive market is deeply uneven, with growing signs of stress among typical buyers.

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For Further Listening

• For rants about car shows, audience Q&A, and the intersection of culture and the car market, subscribe to The Smoking Tire across platforms.
• Check out past episodes for deep dives into car economics, automotive design, and Matt’s distinctive drive reviews.

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[End of Episode Summary]

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record out there on the road looking out for us. If I get pulled over, I know who I'm calling. It ain't my daddy, it ain't my wife. It's otr. They are looking out for me. And if I get a ticket, big or small, they're gonna fight that ticket all the way to the top. And then I get that text message a couple of months later saying, your ticket has been dismissed. That's my favorite text to get. That's better than a drunk text from an ex. You know what I mean? It's a sober text from your attorney saying, you can breathe now. Offtherecord.com TST that's offtherecord.com TST if you get pulled over, don't plead guilty. Get off the Record. On today's episode of the Smoking Tire, I talk about a cool, custom built car out of Argentina that could potentially be the future of retro future, if you know what I'm saying. We talk about a viral Instagram video in which almost nobody is actually checking the primary source material and a whole lot more. It's the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go.

[Zach Klawonn]

Mm. Did you think it was weird that Blink182 played at the Mercedes launch? You did? Yeah, I was just like, oh, that's how money works. I just.

[Matt Farah]

Well, I mean, no, I didn't think it was a strange short. I mean, I, you know, I've seen multiple artists that are now dead play at the Gran Turismo party at sema. So, like, you know, Scott Weiland in a fur coat and, you know, I doubt he cared much about Gran Turismo. Wasn't like. But like, yeah, it's a bit of an odd choice.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Cuz like, like, here's the thing about Blink 182. Like, I'm like, do you like Blink 182?

[Zach Klawonn]

I do.

[Matt Farah]

Like, I, I like.

[Zach Klawonn]

And it's okay if you don't.

[Matt Farah]

They're like, I like Blink 182 also. But, like, it doesn't seem like the right music for a German car launch. That's what I mean. It's not that having that level of band is weird.

[Zach Klawonn]

No, no.

[Matt Farah]

But that actual band, it's an odd, like, Blink 182 music, even though these guys are like in their 50s, is like juvenile music.

[Zach Klawonn]

A lot of it's like high school age. It's just better musically than a lot of their competition was. So I think that's why. Part of why it was catchier. Like it was pretty. They were pretty great. But yeah, a lot of it's like, nobody likes me right now.

[Matt Farah]

And it's. Well, that might. You could say that about the Mercedes super sedan.

[Zach Klawonn]

Very funny point. It's like pandering to SoCal aggressively. Like, hey, your SoCal royalty is here. Do you like the car? Like, no, but I like the band. And they're like, yeah, 6th Street Brits. So therefore you like the car, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Anything to it is a distraction. You know how they say like if you have a really like ridiculous, lavish, over the top wedding, like your marriage

[Zach Klawonn]

won't last very long, renew your vows after two years.

[Matt Farah]

I think that science applies to car launches. If you have like it's not one to one, but like there's, you know, you could do a pretty over the top thing for a sort of where it's like, please talk about not the product.

[Zach Klawonn]

Toyota Sienna was the invite was Hawai. And from what I didn't go. But my colleagues that went, they were like most of the time we spent doing Hawaiian activities.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Harris talked about this when they did like an emergency podcast about the Luce.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And he's like, you can always tell like the more curated the launch is both in terms of where and who they bring. Like, he's like, they didn't bring a lot of drivers to that launch.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. They probably. They brought tech people.

[Zach Klawonn]

It was a lot of tech because. Yeah, yeah. So it's all very major.

[Matt Farah]

They brought people that were more interested in seeing what is Jony I've's next thing than what is Ferrari's next thing. I mean it's not always. Sometimes a brand has a very important product. I point to the 2013 Range Rover when we went to Amangiri. That was pretty crazy. But we then went out and did very Range Rovery things in the cars. We did some pretty sweet off roading out there actually. And so it was like both or the DB12 in Monaco. But when you shut down a city, city infrastructure, you know, to launch a car, it's like, oh, there's. This is a little more than normal.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know, the 6th Street Bridge. I mean that's. Is that the most. It's an oddly famous part of la. Like it's been in a lot of movies.

[Matt Farah]

The old bridge, which is gone and now we have the new bridge.

[Zach Klawonn]

But like it is a funny thing. Like, hey, remember in T1, you know Terminator 2 when they shot at each other on this bridge, like.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Like, would you like to have a car launch there? Like, your brain is wired. I mean, they just. It's like a famous thing. It's almost become a meme of, like, if you shut down 6th Street Bridge and shoot on it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's a cool thing to do.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know, black. Double black. Location scouting, I suppose. You know it. Highly advanced. Highly advanced. What?

[Zach Klawonn]

It hurts to laugh.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Double flag.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Location scouting. That's like. That's like what Scotto does, you know?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

It's that kind of thing. You do it just to say you're doing it. But, like, if they really thought the car was gonna be fucking super, super well received by everybody, they may not have gone to the lengths of hiring Blink182. Do you think they just gave him each a car?

[Zach Klawonn]

No, I think they took cash. Yeah, but, like, you know, George Russell's there. They have to be.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, shit.

[Zach Klawonn]

Brad Pitt probably wanted or had to be.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, he. Probably. Cause there's gonna be a sequel to the film. Right.

[Zach Klawonn]

They're heavily invested.

[Matt Farah]

I. Yeah. So, yeah, I think the film is like a total F2. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

F1. Two.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

F12.

[Matt Farah]

How do they get into this conundrum? Because F2 is.

[Zach Klawonn]

They can't do F1, colon two. They're gonna have to call it something. But.

[Matt Farah]

But F2 just means something completely different.

[Zach Klawonn]

They're gonna call it F1, season two, maybe.

[Matt Farah]

I hope not.

[Zach Klawonn]

I hope not. That wasn't.

[Matt Farah]

I certainly hope not. I don't know. Listen, these guys can figure it out. They're smart boys and girls.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. But.

[Matt Farah]

Hi, everybody. Podcast time. What's happening? It's. It's Monday. It's Monday. I hope everybody is doing all right. Had a nice weekend. Drove. I was gonna drive my own car, and then one of my customers was like, can you please take my car out? He's out of town for, like a month. I'm like, car's gonna be fine. A lot of cars sit for more than a month. It's all good. He's like, please. So I took out his GT3, sent him pictures of it. Like, it was like I was babysitting his dog. You know, Proof of life, right?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, proof of canyon, proof of beach. But it was a. You know, it's a dot two GT3 with a stick. And so it's. I. I haven't driven a dot two in the homeland yet. Drove it in Spain where the roads are fucking perfect. Really good. Drove this one in Malibu and I drove it up some pretty bumpy roads. God, it's so much better than the first one on the bumpy roads.

[Zach Klawonn]

They took that ST programming, right? They did a little command C, command

[Matt Farah]

V and it just tracks straighter. It handles bumps better. What a fucking delight. And the bucket seat, the folding bucket seats, now they have new seats. They're really good. Just a fucking great thing. And actually the, the ADAs, the full ADAs did not come on on the restart. So I think they have given the North American market potentially a little under the table. Fucking handy.

[Zach Klawonn]

Nice.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. They have done a little reach around and just tickled the balls just for us.

[Zach Klawonn]

He's got a trunk full of preservatives that they're not allowed to have. And turn the ADAs off. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And so, yeah, you don't. I think it does have limited ADAs, but the lane keep assist does not seem to turn on by default, which I am fucking 100% down with.

[Zach Klawonn]

Cool.

[Matt Farah]

In a sea of fucking ADAs. Shit. Ification everywhere, you know, it's nice, but I saw this fucking thing in Malibu. You see this, folks? Today's support is coming in from VIN bidders. Let's face it, buying a car is fun, but selling a car super sucks. Whether it's Facebook, Marketplace, Bat, the forums, whatever you do, you're giving up a combination of money, time and privacy. Selling to a dealer is by far the easiest option. It's immediate, it's clean, it's easy. They handle the paperwork, they handle the logistics, and you get paid. But the real challenge is finding a dealer offering the convenience, but also the right price. VIN bidders is is here to help you find that one dealer who really wants your car and is willing to pay for it. They've curated a network of high end independent and franchise dealers around the country who regularly buy enthusiast cars remotely. VIN bidders offers stronger results than other channels, but with a fraction of the effort. Their dealer network buys everything from GT350s to Carrera GTs. And here's how they do it. You submit your car in just five minutes. Just the vin, the miles, the condition, eight recent photographs, and your desired reserve price. Once a listing is approved, they send a service to your home to photograph the car and prepare a condition report. You don't drive it anywhere. You don't answer any unnecessary questions. Your auction goes live for 24 hours, because that's all a dealer needs to make a strong, binding offer. There's no publicly listed vin, no comments, and no drama. Your info is only shared with the winning dealer. That's it. You can go from submitting your car to a confirmed sale in under one week with Vin Bidders and you only pay $149 if the car sells. Smoking Tire fans get 100 bucks off the listing price with promo code TIRE and by visiting vinbidders.com tire that's vinbidders.com Tire and we're also getting support today from Fitbod. Now, every workout routine, no matter your fitness level. You could be fat and slovenly or in incredible shape. It needs variety to be sustain and that's why fitbod is the jam. It customizes every workout and adapts as you improve to avoid boredom and plateaus on your journey. I have totally been there. I've gotten for many years. I just did cardio. It's all I did. And cardio does help and I still do cardio sometimes, but without the variety of different types of workout. I do hiking, I do pilates, I do tennis. I do fitness training with an actual trainer. That's how you really get the results. And fitbod is your personal fitness trainer in your pocket. It makes working out easier because it's like having that trainer without having to pay for an actual trainer. You know what I mean? Fitbod can help customize a workout based on your goals, which could be targeting a muscle group or recovery or just general fitness. Fitbod can help you stay focused and get a better workout by constantly ratcheting up the intensity and throwing variety at you so your muscles are always fucking being challenged, right? It can help your strength and endurance and help you stay motivated by always throwing new challenges at you. Fitbod creates a personalized workout routine based on your goals, fitness level and available equipment. Those workouts then adapt to your growth so each workout is challenging enough to push you to make progress. Fitbod can then track your muscle recovery, helping you avoid burnout and keeping up that momentum. Experienced certified personal trainers help fine tune your workout to bring out the best practices and exercise science to you. And there's over 1,000 demonstration videos so you know your form is legits level up your workout. Join Fitbod today to get your personalized workout plan. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app for free for seven days at fitbod Metire. That's F I T B O D fitbaud Me Tire and now back to the show. This is called a SP40 Restomod and the reason it's like awkwardly named Restomod is because these guys are Argentinian. English is a second language. So these guys are the company behind this thing have been sort of like another persang, like a competitor, building pre war type replicas. And they had been building a replica of the Edsel Ford Special Roadster, I think it's called. It looks like. So Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, went to Europe and saw some Grand Prix cars basically and was like, yo, that's the shit. And came back to America and that's the only picture we got. It's called. Yeah, the Model 40 special speedster. So he asked the Ford Special people to build him this really dope European looking speedster thing. It's pretty sick.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, it's very cool.

[Matt Farah]

Looking at it.

[Zach Klawonn]

1934 combo of like a 32 Ford with a Morgan seating position though you're sitting almost on the rear axle. Super long nose. And then these cool lower lights. Let's go back to your picture.

[Matt Farah]

And then the current one actually does look proportionally a lot like it. It's a little lower nose. It doesn't sit quite as tall. A little more aggressive. But generally it's got that same speedster shape with the sort of rounded front radiator. And it's almost an open wheel, actually. The front wheels are open, you see the open control arms, they have covers. But it is an open wheel front car. It's got a coyote motor in it. Whoa. And a built five speed gearbox, a Tremec five speed has longer gears. They thought it weighs 2,600 pounds. So they said they built one with a six speed and they said that a. It was a lot of shifting and it was so much power that they did one with a five speed and they're like, oh, actually this is kind of better. Just long torque. It's not a, you know, it's not a race car. It's a fucking cruiser.

[Zach Klawonn]

So I've never driven the Cobra and thought, I need six gears, you know, I want more shifting, you know, to really stay in this torque band.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean some cars you clearly do want five, six gears, but in this car they said it really wasn't very necessary. And the fact that the center tunnel is effectively the gearbox, I mean, it's just a housing around the gearbox. They said the physical case of the six speed was much bigger. And with the fact you actually have a lot more room for your right leg.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, cool.

[Matt Farah]

Because like leg room was kind of an issue. So. Yeah. Side hinge hood. The full body is carbon. It's a tube Frame and it's got the aesthetic of the interior. Is that like that kind of vibe they had in like 2005 where it was an art deco, like that Cobra concept with the V10 that I drove around and curated?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Remember that, like that kind of vibe054 Ford GT idea? And then these seats, it's pretty cool. They're these sort of high back buckets, vintage looking, but they're hinged. And actually the backs fold forward and you can put a bunch of luggage behind the seats in that trunk area.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, cool.

[Matt Farah]

So it's actually sort of like. There's no roof, but you can tour a little bit in.

[Zach Klawonn]

Looks pretty awesome. Yeah. I heard they want you to drive it. Did you talk to.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I think I'm gonna drive it on Thursday.

[Zach Klawonn]

Cool.

[Matt Farah]

You wanna come? Maybe we don't have to film it.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, but just like getting in and out of cars right now is not great and. Sorry, that doesn't look particularly. It's very cool though. Maybe I will. I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

It's. It's, you know, it's worth coming along and fucking having a little take all

[Zach Klawonn]

the Tylenol in the morning.

[Matt Farah]

£2,600 and 460 horsepower.

[Zach Klawonn]

I bet. I'm really curious to see how it feels steering wise because we've talked about the Morgan. You steer the front end turns, you wait a second and then you go with it. You know, it's very much like. It almost feels like you are doing your own. What is it called? Like caterpillar racing. You know, demo dirt where they tie two cars together. It's a little bit like that. So this is you, you're sitting all the way at the back.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And then way out front. I think so. Yeah. But it looks very cool.

[Matt Farah]

It looks cool. I fired it up. It sounds mean as hell.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know what? It's like a better looking dunk dunker.

[Matt Farah]

Fort Dunkerford.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Those are always. Those have gotten a little extra in the design department. I mean, they are. They're fast and capable, but they've gotten a little extra.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they've got. They're fucking hard. But you know, the comments on the. In my Instagram are pretty mixed. Marco's pretty fucking salty on it.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. The car looks like the answer to a question.

[Matt Farah]

You know, he's in the middle of a remodel of a building right now. He's a little fucking salty. His comments appear across my feed and he hates everything right now. You're not gonna find anything on the Internet that's making him happy this week. Sorry, Marco. Fucking. You're. You're. You're the edge on your comments. It's standing out to me right now. But people, you know, it's. It's expensive because of course it is. They say it's $500,000. Yeah. No, like, I don't have that kind of money to blow in a car. And if I did, I probably wouldn't buy this. But that doesn't mean it isn't cool as fuck.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's very cool. That does. I'd have to look at it in person because the specs are like carbon body with pretty simple panels. I'll say. I mean, the louvers might be a pain in the ass, but like, it's a. The design is, you know, it's a curve, like simple radius and then flat. Simple radius then flat. And you've got like a coyote motor. So it's an off the shelf motor. It's a tube chassis. 500 grand. Seems a lot.

[Matt Farah]

I agree. No, it is. You're telling me. I mean, I suspect it costs that much because that's what they think they can get for it. There's probably good margins in it. I mean, look, just sitting in it and poking around it, it looked screwed together very nicely. I don't know how hard it is to make this thing. I said, is it a solid rear axle? And they go, oh, no. And they showed me photos of a pretty complex rear suspension architecture that was fully. I mean, there's a chance that this thing drives really good. Like a chance. Like, I'm not. I don't. It probably won't be, you know, a McLaren, but there's a chance. This drives, like beautifully.

[Zach Klawonn]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

You know, so I'm not. I don't need to fucking say something is worth money if it's not. But like, there's a chance. This is amazing. Like, I don't know.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. I would like to be optimistic because it looks cool.

[Matt Farah]

I was pretty stoked on it to just see it out and about. And it seemed to be put together nicely. The shifter feel was good. The steering feel. I mean, just moving it back and forth sitting right there was nice. The sound was really cool. Cause it's side pipes, but they're very long and they're muffled so it's not insanely loud like some fucking meathead in their Cobra. It sounds about the volume of a Viper. Maybe a little louder than. A little louder than a Viper, but about. About that, you know, it's not like insane insane. More like an original COBRA. An original Cobra 427 Cobra is not a particularly loud Cobra.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's true. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The replicas are all way louder than we did.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, ours was quiet. And then all the. All the fiberglass packing blew, like literally flew out of the muffler. And now it's like straight piped by accident. So I get it.

[Matt Farah]

So this isn't that loud. This is bearable. But I don't know. I mean, look, if the mainstream OEMs are going to become hybridized and, you know, if Ferrari's gonna fucking drop this, an electric egg, somebody needs to fill in the gap of interesting cars. And so it's gonna be weirdos like the chimeras and the fucking these and. And whatever else. You know, it's gonna get weird.

[Zach Klawonn]

Thomas Holland of Throttle House had a conspiracy theory he wrote about that went. Got pretty popular. He thinks the Luce is Ferrari intentionally taking a dive.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I read this theory.

[Zach Klawonn]

Did you read the theory?

[Matt Farah]

I read this theory.

[Zach Klawonn]

I thought it was a very fun theory. I don't know if it's true or not. They're just for people who didn't read it. He's basically saying Ferrari goes, what if we build it? So what if we build an EV that's so undesirable. The whole market moves away from EVs and then they can say, see, no one wants these. We have to go back to building cool cars. Yeah, it's pretty. A bold play, Kyle.

[Matt Farah]

This is the plot of Major League. If the team does bad enough, I get to move them to Miami. That's what this is. He thinks the conspiracy is an intentional tank, which would be like, amazing, except that no publicly traded company would ever allow if like, literally. I can't believe I'm saying this. Elon Musk would do that. That is an Elon Musk move. You need to control everything to be able to do an intentional dive like that. A publicly traded company would never risk an intentional div.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think that's probably true because the board can't afford to invest this much money and show this kind of loss. Unless. Second conspiracy for real. Unless they want to move the company back to private or half private.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, so tanking the stock to buy

[Zach Klawonn]

it, which is a thing that people do.

[Matt Farah]

Pick up the business. Financial crime is legal now.

[Zach Klawonn]

I don't know if that's a crime. It's just like that does happen where the public thing tanks and then someone buys it back later. Or like the value of barstool. I don't like them because their business operation but like they, you know, Dave sold it at 400 million and then whoever took it ran into the ground. And I think he bought it back for like a dollar. Some ridiculous number. So. Double tank.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

It's a fun conspiracy to think about. And I brought, I mentioned it because I had breakfast on Sunday with Maz and he was like, dude, that would work if you were us. And Maz, when he says us is Singer. And this was not a confidential conversation. He's like, basically we were talking about scale. And we were like, look, to go from a. That builds 20 cars or 40 cars a year, like Koenigsegg or Pagani, to one that now builds like 200 cars a year, quote, excuse me, restores 200 cars a year, like Singer vehicle design. He goes, you basically take the same systems you have and just like multiply them. A bigger shop, more technicians, maybe some better machinery. Maybe you bring things that were outsourced in house, like your paint or whatever. Right. And then maybe your carbon fiber becomes in house. He's like, but to go from a couple hundred cars a year to what Ferrari's talking about, he's like, to do a couple thousand cars a year, he's like, now you're building a factory, and not one where humans are assembling the cars. You're building a factory where robots are assembling cars. He's like. And that, he's like, that type of investment, you couldn't do that to do an intentional tank.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that's true.

[Matt Farah]

You know, he's like, if they were, if they tried to build a. He goes, if they tried to build, like for instance, he said, if the Pin. And remember the Pininfarina Battista, which is the Italian bodied version of the Nevera. The Rimac. Rimac.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

There was the Italian one also. They made like three. If Ferrari said, this is the electric Ferrari, and they had some minimal investment,

[Zach Klawonn]

they made the body, but it was dropped on the skateboard from somebody else. Right, right, Correct.

[Matt Farah]

And then nobody wanted it. It was a total flop. Then you could go to the board and go see, even our most hardcore customers are not buying this. What makes you think anybody. So that's how you would engineer a tank.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, but they are building it at a new e build. It's called e Building Factory in Marinello. So they've made the building or they're making it next door to their other factory. And like, it's gonna be very serious.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. No, so it'll, it'll be a might Be a tank that they see coming from a mile away. But that's different from a fucking intentional

[Zach Klawonn]

tank because I got an Instagram dm. A fan's friend works at a. For our. An exclusive dealership.

[Matt Farah]

And I won't hearsay, you, Honor, but.

[Zach Klawonn]

Okay, this is hearsay. That's true. This is all alleged. But their friend alleges that they've had a couple of luches sitting, like, in the back so they could show fancy customers early. They have zero orders for them, and they're also allegedly not attached to any sort of allocation yet. At least when this came out, we're like, maybe it's so you can get the SF100.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Doesn't seem like there is an SF100 at least known by this person yet. So, you know.

[Matt Farah]

Cool.

[Zach Klawonn]

You're right.

[Matt Farah]

It's gonna go well.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's an interesting choice. Anyway, we can move on. But it's. I post your conspiracy theories in the comments.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, no, the conspiracy theory is fun.

[Zach Klawonn]

It is the kindest theory. I think it's like, hey, what if they're doing. What if Ferrari hasn't lost its way? Yeah, they're on top of it. That's what this is.

[Matt Farah]

No, I mean. I mean, I think the truth is so much simpler, which is that. That six years ago, this was a really good idea. Six years ago, everyone needed a super EV. Like, let's go back there. It's fucking. It's 2020, everyone. When is your Super EV coming out? I mean, that was it. It just took them this long to do it. And, like.

[Zach Klawonn]

And it's a ship that's hard to turn. I mean, all of a sudden, the incentives go away, the US Market goes away, and they're like, well, the tanker is already headed there.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, Lamborghini cut fucking bait. Lamborghini's Dunzo Porsche just lost. Wiped 90% of their profits this year by cutting and running from this shift. Ferrari said, no, no, we proceed, and here we are. There doesn't need to be a conspiracy. They just didn't cut bait when other people did.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, it might have just been too far. I mean, Porsche is so far along. I mean, they cut bait kind of at the last second, and you go, maybe you should just put on sale. But is it. They know the numbers. I don't know the numbers. It's obviously cheaper for them to just stop.

[Matt Farah]

I hope they still put it on sale.

[Zach Klawonn]

But, you know, Ferrari's like, let's just go for it.

[Matt Farah]

Tough. Tough, man. Yeah, but if that's, you know, I don't think that will be the permanent direction of Ferrari, but let's say it is. We need weird shit like this Resto mod carbon fiber thing because we need something analog to be driving, don't we? Oh, speaking of which, do you see my old pal Jason Castriota's new thing?

[Zach Klawonn]

No.

[Matt Farah]

Look up the Castriota JC9 guys. Support is coming in today from hims. And when that hair starts thinning, it's not just the hair taking a hit. It can change how you feel day in, day out. HIMS makes it simple to take control of hair regrowth with personal personalized care that fits your life. How is that you say? HIMS offers convenient access to a range of prescription hair loss treatments with ingredients that work, including chews, oral medications, serums, sprays. Dr. Trusted ingredients like finasteride and minoxidil can stop further hair loss and regrow hair in as little as three to six months. And you shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself. And that's why Hims brings that expert care straight to you. With 100% online access to personalized treatment plans that put your goals first, you can find the right hair growth, hair regrowth treatment for you with flexible subscription options, 24. 7 provider support, and once a day treatment options that fit your daily routine. Think of HIMS as your digital treatment's front door, getting you back to your old self with simple 100% online access trustworthy for real health concerns all in in one place. So for simple online access to personalized and affordable care for hair loss, ED, weight loss and more, visit hims.com tire that's hims.com tire for your free online visit hims.com tire Featured products include compounded drug products which the FDA does not approve of or verify for safety, effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions and important safety information. Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride. And support is coming in today from Delete me. I love DeleteMe. I have been rocking Delete me for over a year now and I have really noticed the difference. And are you not doing that? Why not? Do you know how many people I hear tell me talk to me openly about crazy amounts of scam, texts and emails and phone calls and weird personalized information? I know people who have been hacked, scammed out of money. It is crazy. And Delete me is how? It's the first step to stopping all of that, particularly in the age of AI where you can scrape the Internet. Any malicious actor can get the entire Internet by just typing in one sentence. It's absolutely crazy. This is why you need Delete Me. The way it works is you make an account, you give them the information you don't want anyone else to have. Yes, I see the irony in it. But you have to tell them what to look for. Then they go looking. You don't hear for a couple of days and then you get a crazy report that says just how many instances of you being on the Internet there are. And it is a shocking number. Delete Me will then go to work deleting that stuff automatically. Some you need to do a little click, click, click, click. Some you have to type in your initials or a digital signature to delete to file a takedown notice. And then the next month it's a little less. The next month it's less. Then it's less and less and less. It probably won't ever go to zero because you continue to be yourself on the Internet. But it keeps it down for sure. That's why Deleteme was named top pick for data removal services by Wirecutter. Deleteme does all that hard work with the discounts getting even better with a two year plan. Or when you enroll with your partner or family. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your delete me plan when you go to www.joindeleteme.com tire and use promo code tire at checkout. That's the only way to get 20% off www.joindeleteme.com tire and enter code tire at checkout one more time. Www.joindeleteme.Com tire code tire. This one is interesting. And he has 917'd a Carrera GT. So that's, that's, I mean, that's kind of what you see here, right? A little bit. I mean, more than a little bit.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, as soon as I looked at it, I was like, oh, it's 917 inspired. And then you look closer and the proportions are different. It's much better, like rounder. You know, the 917 is real flat.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

From the, from the front. But when you.

[Matt Farah]

Well, also the 917 wasn't designed to like, you know, fit people or for

[Zach Klawonn]

you or to prevent your legs from dying.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. Like this is probably, you know, it's a Restomod 917 on a Carrera GT and so it's. I mean, look, it's fucking cool. It doesn't have the quite the sexiness of the 917 because it couldn't. Because a 917 is such a thing that's not meant to hold humans well.

[Zach Klawonn]

But also when you look at it, your brain knows everything it's done and connects all that to it. Like, this is a brand new. For me at least the 917 comes with a cachet. You know, it's like.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. But I think even if it didn't, it's so fucking pretty.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think it is better looking than this, but I think this is pretty cool looking. This looks like it's from 2014.

[Matt Farah]

It actually, it has. I mean, you know, I see some SSC Tuatara in there as well. The bottom eight inches of the car that are closest to the ground are SSC Tuatara for me. And then the mid section and up is very much 917. It's damn cool.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's very cool. I bet it's real fast.

[Matt Farah]

That's 100% 917.

[Zach Klawonn]

The overhead, high rear view, the video

[Matt Farah]

game view is a hundred percent fucking 917.

[Zach Klawonn]

Very much so. Wow, that's really cool. I mean, it's crazy. So does it ask, you know, do you need to be a nice. Sorry, Carrera GT owner, donate your car, then they turn it into this thing?

[Matt Farah]

Because that. What's funny is I'm not sure if this is a business. There's. There's this one which may have just been done for a client, but I'm not, I'm not, not sure this is a business model, but I would like to. What does it say? Coach built? Does it say. It doesn't necessarily say that. There will be more.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a special project, special commission.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, cool. All right. So either he wanted to do it or a client wanted to do it and they did it. Yeah, it's like the P4 or 5. Okay. Awesome.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So there's. If you look at the sort of front, through the front, front overhead view, there's a lot of P45. Although the cockpit is substantially further back in the cabin than P45. P45, you'd sit really far forward.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that's true. The nose looks very long from this view.

[Matt Farah]

I think that's because the only way A917 works is by having your feet all the way forward in the nose. And in a Carrera gt, your feet are in like a normal place and the nose is much Shorter, tighter back. So, like, there's a lot of length in front of the front wheels, Whereas in a 917, there really isn't.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

It's fucking cool, though. I do. It's very interesting and cool, but I don't think this above front 3/4 is the best angle. The above. The 3/4 rears are the best. And I do like what they did with the seats here. This blue suede seat with a tartan center.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That is pretty fucking bitchy.

[Zach Klawonn]

Really awesome.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's. That's a winner.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that's cool. I. I think I applaud someone who has a career GT and was like. And maybe Jason pitched him and they're like, yeah, let's do it. You know, someone who's just like, let's modify something that is appreciating aggressively in value. A very celebrated car, but they want to make it their own. And I'm sure a lot of people will scream some sacrilege, but whatever. Like, talk about, you know, modded if you got it.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, everybody's got career GTS now. I mean, you gotta, like, be different.

[Zach Klawonn]

There are neighborhoods where that's probably true.

[Matt Farah]

Like, everybody. Well, that's kind of the thing with that, you know, that. That RML car we talked about last week, the orange 992.1. It's like, you know, I wanna. I admit that these cars just drive the best, but everybody, quote, everybody's got one, and I just want mine to fucking go a little faster and look different. Here we go.

[Zach Klawonn]

True.

[Matt Farah]

You know, is it better? It's different. I don't really care.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's just fine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, that's what car culture is. It's like, right. For a lot of people. Turn it. Make it yours. Yeah, Yeah. A second while I take Tylenol.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah. You fucked up right now. Damn. Was there one incident that did it?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, I was picking up the dog leash aggressively.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, Something sucking. Fucking such bullshit, too. It's never like, oh, I was, you know, I had just finished squatting 350, and I thought maybe I could go up to 400. It's like I bent over slightly sideways instead of straight forward, and now I'm in the hospital.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Matt Farah]

While you're doing that quick correction from last week. So here's the thing.

[Zach Klawonn]

Pronounced Ferrari. That's the correction. Right.

[Matt Farah]

With the fucking Indy 500. When the race was over, I saw the margin of victory was.02 seconds. I saw that on the screen.

[Zach Klawonn]

But you said 2000ths, which is not.

[Matt Farah]

But Then I walked away, literally towards the bus and multiple announcers, I swear to God said 2000ths, 2000s, multiple announcers on the radio that day. And I went, oh, that's funny. I guess I read that wrong. I read that as 200th and it was 2000ths. I then never read it again or thought about it again and just repeated what I fucking heard on the radio. I can do basic math. I know that 0.02 is hundreds, not thousands of. I swear to God, I was parroting what I heard an announcer on the radio say that fucking day. I apologize. He won by 200ths of a second. Not 2000ths of a second. But I do know how to read math on a page, I swear to God.

[Zach Klawonn]

How many comments did you get?

[Matt Farah]

I got a couple. Some were nicer and some were very fucking angry about it. And you know, sorry, but like I said, I just heard. I heard someone saying thousands, thousands. And so I guess thought I got it wrong the first time, but I actually got it wrong by listening to someone else. That happens to me a lot. I get something right and then for some reason put some shit in my head second guess it and I was like, just right the first time, sure, yeah. Fucking bullshit.

[Zach Klawonn]

Speaking of parroting. Well. Cause I did the same thing. I had read it as 200ths and then you said it as thousandths and I was like, huh, maybe.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that happened. That happened. That's the same exact shit that happened to me, but at the race by professional sportscasters.

[Zach Klawonn]

We'll talk about.

[Matt Farah]

You want to talk about.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, parroting and not verifying. Yeah, I did this with the tire thing and you came in and corrected me.

[Matt Farah]

Everybody did, yeah, about. About a hundred people sent me this Instagram reel from a content creator I had never heard of before. That doesn't mean they, they had. Don't have an audience or something. Something. What is the guy's name? The clip? Did you pull up the clip? I don't know. I have it. This clip, like a hundred people sent me this this morning and yesterday it's tire reviews on Instagram. Okay. Tire with a Y. And it's the catchy headline, California to ban tires, which is great headline. So, okay, and it's this reel where this guy is talking about a California proposed legislation that would. That could, according to the Instagram rail ban your favorite tire. And so when you see something like that, it is very important to just go read the fucking source material. Especially because even though it is a big like ballot proposal type thing, it's a pseudo science. I don't mean pseudo. It's a scientific ish paper. They have the executive summary right up front. It's effectively a two page. A document that just summarizes what all the shit in the rest of it says. And so a whole bunch of people, up to and including Joe Rogan, you see this shit?

[Zach Klawonn]

Him not fact checked.

[Matt Farah]

No way. I think you'd be proud of my response.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, he texted you?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, okay.

[Matt Farah]

And I had to tell him to go read the fucking source material and calm down. Please read the source material and calm down. Because basically almost anything that people were really concerned about this bill is not really going to affect so much. So effectively the bill is designed to help curb the emissions that come from tires, right? The particles in the air and CO2 and things that are bad for the air because of tires. And they're effectively saying they're trying to create a standard for rolling resistance so that if a car comes with a certain type of tire that is designed to deliver a certain type of efficiency, they don't want people putting tires on their car that are way, way less efficient than that or release more particles into the air or things like that. And so if that's all you know about it and you don't learn anything else, you go, oh my God, they're going to ban the fucking pilot sport or something and freak out. But what have you just highlighted there?

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, that was just. You covered it. But okay. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So you know, rolling resistance has to do with fuel efficiency. It also has to do with emissions. It also has to do with the particles that come off of the tire themselves. So. So the staff report proposes five new regulations to. Number one, set reporting requirements for rolling resistance from tire manufacturers. Right now there isn't a consistent standard for reporting rolling resistance. That's fair. That seems okay.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right?

[Matt Farah]

Number two, develop and maintain a database of information for replacement tires and limited production tires sold in California. Also seems pretty fair. Database of tires that you're selling in the state. Okay. Number three, set minimum performance standards for the energy efficiency rolling resistance of replacement tires. Okay. It doesn't say what those standards are in the summary, but setting a minimum performance standard. Okay. Number four, set a minimum performance standard for wet grip for replacement tires to ensure safety. Fair. One of the ways that tires can have better rolling resistance is by having shallower grooves. And so a lot of OE tires that are designed for EVs and stuff, they can have shallower grooves than some other tires. Minimum performance standard for the wet to ensure you're not selling cars with slicks on them. Probably fair. Number five is a rating system for tire energy efficiency that will enable consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions. I mean, so the only one of those that might alarm anybody would be number three, which is minimum performance standards for rolling resistance energy efficiency. Because you immediately start thinking off road tires, winter tires, high performance tires.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, for us it's specifically high performance tires. I think number four could have draw concern as well. But we can address three first.

[Matt Farah]

Well, minimum performance standard for the wet. Oh, you mean it could inadvertently affect a cup too because it won't perform

[Zach Klawonn]

as well in the wet. A tire that's designed for track in certain temperatures and is not meant to perform well in the wet. Like tires of my car, your car, a lot of them. Hopefully those don't get caught up in this as well.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. Now it also does say that it also has to be. These are replacement tires only. So if a car is sold, let's say with a cup too, they'd have to keep even if they banned, you know, like you'd have to keep offering that.

[Zach Klawonn]

But that would affect, I mean pretty much every tire manufacturer would be affected. You know, Advan Falken, like a bunch of the car, a bunch of tire companies that primarily sell to the aftermarket would be heavily affected.

[Matt Farah]

There would be an easy way around this, which would be to quote, offer it as a factory equipment. All of a sudden you might see car makers offering four or different tires as potential factory equipment. So there's a way around. There's always a creative solution. But. So those are the five things. Okay, so number three, potentially bad. And number four, the wet performance is potentially collateral damage of number three. Right. So that's like, that's the big freak out. But if you just. That's this page one of the executive summary. If you go to page two, there's a whole section there that says the following tires are excluded from the proposed regulations. And that list is even longer than the fucking proposed regulations. So specialty tires, including certain off road tires, low speed tires, deep tread tires, winter tires, space saver tires and temporary use tires. Tires with a rim diameter of 12 inches or less, such as like go kart tires and lawnmower tires, tractor tires, things like that. Motorcycle tires, tires manufactured specifically for off road motorized recreational vehicles vehicles, tires used on emergency vehicles, tires for heavy duty with a high load index 122 or higher, or limited production tires produced in quantities fewer than 15,000 units during any calendar year, etc. So I see, and again, this is not all this is proposed, but I see that that exemptions leaves open a lot of the things that people might be worried about. The only thing it doesn't say specifically call out by name is ultra high

[Zach Klawonn]

performance tires, which I think is probably why we got sent it. I mean, because off road tire, like it does not at all mention in any way tires meant for track performance sports car tires.

[Matt Farah]

Well, it does say specialty tires, right?

[Zach Klawonn]

So I think it does say temporary

[Matt Farah]

use tires, which you could argue fucking slicks are.

[Zach Klawonn]

You could argue slicks are. But in the middle there's PS4s, whatever, REO888s, like all those things. I'm trying to figure out where those would land in here. And then if tire companies had to start labeling those as temporary use or off road only, could you then be pulled over? Or if you were pulled over for something else, the cop goes, oh, you're running these Triple 8s. Those are meant to be off road use only, blah, blah, blah.

[Matt Farah]

And also if you look at the very bottom, in addition, the proposed standards offer exception for a tire if there's no other compliant tires available for a given model operated in the states. So if you have, let's say a 1994 Na Miata with like 15s on it and your choice is currently some shitty eco tires or like Hoosiers, you know what I mean? You might still be able to get your Hoosiers if there's no other options. I just had to get new tires put on the package. Pow. My wife's 57 horsepower. Pow.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. It was either race tires or.

[Matt Farah]

Or that's it.

[Zach Klawonn]

That was it.

[Matt Farah]

There's it. I got the super stickiest R compound. This thing pulls like two and a half GS right now.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's awesome. It's gonna tip over now. Above this, it does say this might give some people a little bit of rest. Under public resources code section 25773A, these regulations make must be technically feasible and cost effective, not adversely affect tire safety. So stuff like that is an argument that could be made, you know, if they're going, hey, you got to put really efficient tires on your 911.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And Porsche argues like, well, this car is designed to. The safety systems are designed for a certain grip level of tire, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of ways out of it.

[Matt Farah]

No, this is only for replacement tires. So any tire that is, is. You have to be able to get the tire that your car Comes with, at the very least. So if your car comes from the factory with PS5S's PSS5S and you need new tires, you have to be able to get those tires.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. But again, that rule, which is like, all right, that's good. In some ways, it does restrict your options as a customer. That's not good.

[Matt Farah]

Sure it does. Potentially. Unless they figure out how to make those tires. Kind of like.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

And also it doesn't necessarily say what the standards are that they need to meet for rolling resistance. And it doesn't say that sports tires don't meet them.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's true.

[Matt Farah]

So, like, we actually don't know whether or not to panic yet.

[Zach Klawonn]

That is very true. Yeah, that's very true.

[Matt Farah]

There's like, I got sent this in a panic. It's presented in a way that you're supposed to panic, but we're so far from that right now.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, and also the timeline is developing requirements for tire manufacturers. They want that to go into effect in two years.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And then the energy performance standards phase one is 2028, phase two is 2031. So, you know, people. People should read up on it, think about it, and then ask for more information, but don't frequent.

[Matt Farah]

And also consider this California smog. Controls fucking worked. They did. And cars didn't get worse. I mean, they did for a couple years, but then they pretty quickly got better globally.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

If you challenge, if you say in 10 years your tire must meet this standard to be sold in the state. You're giving the engineers a challenge and a bunch of them might meet it. And then they have a tire in 10 years that has the grip of today's sports tires but has a lower rolling resistance. And then they go to the Nurburgring and they fucking take off two seconds. Because their tire has lower rolling resistance than it had before with the same tire grip.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that would be insane. That's how it's grippier.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but like, that's how we got direct injection. That's how we got turbocharging. Like, that's how we got like so much of the shit that makes cars faster. Now true is these challenges that are imposed by governments in order to have cleaner air. And like, listen, cars are great, but people are more important. And so like, if this is not a perfect proposal, like, cool. There'll be like public debate. And I could write an article. We could write a thing. Hey, listen, we should probably carve out an exclusion for ultra high performance summer tires that are sold for road cars. Because if you have a GT3RS or something, you could materially compromise its grip. If they have to be sold with less grippy tires than they come with, fine. But that's like a, hey, this. Can we just like, just tweak that like a little bit? Because like of this and this and this, that's not like, holy shit, we gotta shut the fucking. Fucking California fucking socialist. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, bro, this is some real incremental shit.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, and I think it's good. People pay attention to it and then ask questions and have healthy debate about it. I mean, every industry should do more of that. What was I going to say? I wonder if this is aimed at Chinese tire manufacturers. And I don't know, I'd have to go on like, Tyrac has great data on stopping distance. They do great independent tires testing. But if people are putting on the cheapest tire in the world and all of a sudden their stopping distance goes

[Matt Farah]

up by 2 or 3x, the fuel economy goes down.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, or it might go up because like, if the tire's super hard, then the rolling resistance goes down. But your wet grip could turn to shit. Your stopping distance could turn to shit. I mean, the fact that they pointed out like wet handling is a priority makes me wonder if they have had a lot of reports of, I don't know, cars sliding off of roads or something because they're running who knows what tire.

[Matt Farah]

The Instagram clip, according to that guy, tire reviews guy says that the lower rolling resistance tires tend to have shallower tread depth and therefore don't perform as well in the rain. And if you were aiming to make your tire, the tire you already had, have better rolling resistance, you would just have shallower grooves in the same tire. And he said so you have to establish a minimum standard for. Yeah, so, okay, that makes sense. You don't want fucking mom's minivan running

[Zach Klawonn]

around on slicks like, that's 8, 10.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but the one thing that gave me a little question mark in that Instagram clip was he said, in Europe, the average all season tire is expected to last 27,000 miles. In America, people expect an average all season tire to last 65,000 miles. Have you ever gotten 65,000 miles out of an all season tire or really even heard of that happening?

[Zach Klawonn]

Is that, I mean, I'm the wrong. I haven't owned a car long enough. I haven't owned a car long enough or owned a car on the same set of tires long enough to have that data point.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, my Mach E came with Regular all season tires, Michelin Primacy, whatever the fuck tires. And I took them off with like 29,000 miles on them and they were pretty close to worn. And it's not like we did anything in that car that would like. I just didn't run at the track or anything. Like even when I drove it, quote in the canyons, it was like not anything but that. Maybe chime in in the comments if you are genuinely expecting your all season tires on your everyday car to last 65,000 miles. But that to me seems like a pretty unreasonable expectation for tire.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's a long time.

[Matt Farah]

That's a long time. I've never had a set of tires last that kind of length ever. 65K. Okay, that's crazy.

[Zach Klawonn]

Let's see. Tire rack says the most optimistic tire life expectancy is 70 to 80,000 miles.

[Matt Farah]

That's. I mean, dude, that's rock hard garbage ass tires. If you're getting. I've never seen anything like that.

[Zach Klawonn]

If you had a really hard tire, maybe also perfect roads like dude, perfect

[Matt Farah]

roads in like a 94 Corolla that weighs 2,300 pounds.

[Zach Klawonn]

And you go straight. It's just Kansas.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

You go straight to work and you go straight home. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

What the fuck would I have to do to make. I'd have to drive on a treadmill to make a set of tires last that long. Never even go outside. That's crazy.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's a long time, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. People let us know in the comments what's the longest your tires have lasted. Genuinely on your normal car. You're just whatever, daily driver.

[Matt Farah]

So anyway, don't freak out about this tire thing. There's a lot of. There's still a lot of room to play in this game. The argument is much, much more nuanced than fucking California's socialists are going to pan the fucking tires. And I mean, dude, you should see the fuck the comments on that post. Fucking.

[Zach Klawonn]

I know. I mean also these days I feel like 70% of comments on Instagram are bots. Like you just click on the private. The profile is always like hidden, hidden, hidden toothpaste. And they're just, you know, yelling Hungarian woman has huge titties and big opinions on California tire laws.

[Matt Farah]

Really, really interested in what Donnie feels about this. Yeah, dude, we're gonna go to questions right about now. But before we do, gotta give I forgot to last episode but an extra special shout out to Tom Segura. Bad Thoughts Season two. Zach and I went to the premiere.

[Zach Klawonn]

I was dying so funny.

[Matt Farah]

It was so funny. And I watched the next episode last night. It was amazing. I seriously think season two of Bad Thoughts rivals, like, some peak Chappelle show sketches in that kind of way. The Freaky Friday one, that was really. And the one with the dancing were. Yeah, dude, I was actually crying the.

[Zach Klawonn]

Set it off or what. Like, they. Yeah, they really hit it out of the park. It's like, I feel like the torch gets passed from, you know, Chappelle to Key and Peele and now Segura. Like, just great comments on all parts of society cinema. I mean, it's really funny stuff.

[Matt Farah]

It's a very good show. And we were. Zach and I were sitting during the premiere. We sat right in front of Burt and fucking. To have the soundtrack of Burt crying with laughter in your left ear while watching something that is very funny is a real heightened experience.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, it was pretty. Like, I was laughing so hard, almost crying at some points, but then Burt was crying through the whole thing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it was. Tom is a really good actor.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, he really is.

[Matt Farah]

I'm surprised at how good of an actor he is.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, he's got real range. The characters are pretty different. And I've seen the trailer for, like, some of the upcoming stuff. Yeah, there's some big makeup changes that you can't just have the makeup or the bodysuit and not have, like, a different voice or person.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you have to, like, act the makeup, which is.

[Zach Klawonn]

I feel hard. That whole team, like, him and whoever writes with him and the directors, like, they. They lock into the genre for that vignette or that sketch, and, man, it's really good.

[Matt Farah]

We also had the fucking. A really. A really awkward five minutes with Kevin Nealon.

[Zach Klawonn]

We really did. I didn't know what to say. I was like. My brain was just like, oh.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, wow.

[Zach Klawonn]

I was absolutely starstruck and had zero good questions. You did a decent job.

[Matt Farah]

No, I tried, but it's just. I fucking had nothing for Kevin Nealon.

[Zach Klawonn]

He was such a loser. He paused. He, like, engaged with us, and then he was listening, and then he was like, all right, see you later.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, he punched out, and I understood. Yeah, I had nothing for Kevin Nealon. Dude, it was bad. Let's go to the Patreon. Of course. Patreon.com. the Smoketirepodcast is where you get the live show. It's where you get the show early. It's where you ask questions, where you get the show without ads. It's where you get extra show. It's where you get access To. To exclusive collabs and things like that. We got prototype in hand for our latest one the other day. It is a fucking banger. Very excited about the new bit of exclusive schwag and we should be able to do we need to get. We had a couple of tweaks. Are we gonna get a second prototype before we launch? I didn't actually ask about that.

[Zach Klawonn]

I hope so.

[Matt Farah]

I think we should. I think we should. I think the things that we want to change, we could probably photograph around, but we'll see. But either way, it's going to be real cool and we're not going to sell it until it's right. So listen. And sometimes watch says, oh, yeah, there's a road and track article about this guy in Wisconsin that's selling exclusively one type of car, the 04 to 06 Lexus LS430, which I think is pretty fucking cool, actually. Wow. But this guy's also. I mean, he's refreshing them, he's going through them, he's restoring them, he's getting the parts. He's. I think. I mean, it actually sounds really neat. This guy will sell you like a new, you know, one of those. So the question is, if you opened a one make, one model car dealership, what would it be?

[Zach Klawonn]

One, one make, one model. This isn't really grounded in reality, but Ferrari 550 Marinello. Yeah, I could probably just look at those for a long time.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, here's the thing. I'm not sure I could do better than this dude in Wisconsin. I mean, if you were doing that, you would have to do it because you genuinely thought the car you were selling was the best car in the world. That would be the best way to do that.

[Zach Klawonn]

And you love it. And other people love it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a very surprising choice. I hadn't read that article yet. So someone who's just like, this is all I'm doing. You're like, all right, let's click over.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Boom. Commuter sedan. Great. Commuter sedan. But

[Matt Farah]

I would say 992 GT3s. Sell all 992 GT3s.

[Zach Klawonn]

Fox bodies. You could do that.

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Zach Klawonn]

Focus on that.

[Matt Farah]

I could be the Fox. You don't want to sell Fox bodies. You know why? Fox body customers. You know, you don't. You don't. Because half the people are people kind of like me, and then the other half are not people you want to be selling cars to.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right. Sox, inside Birkenstocks, the whole thing. Yeah. Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Jeep chemtrailhawk says, what Was the first single clutch automated manual car you drove that made you think, okay, they've got this figured out. Out now. Single clutch zinger. Like this one.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that's true. Like, because everything previous was. It's too slow. So I think even in the early 2000s when I was a valet, I was excited because it was new and different, but I didn't like the pausing. I remember going, I think I shift this fast. So is this. It's cool, but it's not great. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I will say that, like, late Ferrari 430s are acceptable. And like late, like Lambo LP 560s. Like late ones. The very end. Those are like. Yeah, it's okay. It's not what you want. But like, it's okay. But like, even. But even.

[Zach Klawonn]

Even though I remember doing the Gotham.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Whatever it was called when I was doing like autocross instruction in the 430. And like, you shift, you go pull the paddle and you're like, all right, this is. I'm driving a Ferrari. I was so excited by that that I probably kind of ignored the fact that it was a pretty slow shifting car. But it wasn't great. Dual clutch is the way.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I find that many apologists for those really just haven't spent time in anything better.

[Zach Klawonn]

Should drive any dct. Yeah, any.

[Matt Farah]

A fucking gti.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Mark seven GTI with a dct. My leaky valve gasket says, is a two door Bronco a good idea for a city in Chicago?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I don't see why. The only reason I could say potentially not is when we drove the two door Bronco, it didn't ride so great on like washboard roads. Now, Chicago isn't washboard roads. It's just bad tarmac. And when I drove it around Los Angeles, which is also bad tarmac, I didn't have that many complaints about it. It was really just that washboard.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, you mean like washboard dirt.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, when we went.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, but that stuff's terrible for anything.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, unless you're in a UTV with soft springs. So I think that's a great car for Chicago.

[Matt Farah]

I do too.

[Zach Klawonn]

Good in the winter. Looks cool. Easy to park, you know, hard top. Just be. I think the door. I think the rear gate like swings out. So if you park close to another tall vehicle, it may be hard to open your trunk.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I forgot about that. That's.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's the single hinge G wagon style, which. Small problem. Very specific.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

But it just depends, like if you're parking those new York City distances where everyone's hitting each other to get in. You're not opening that tailgate, right? Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But in general, that makes a good city daily.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Murray, Long last name. I'm gonna go to Warped Tour to see Real Big Fish next month. Fuck, yeah, dude. Straight up. I don't know if I've told this story before, but I'm sure I have. Hannah's cousin is a party planner to the stars. And she. When Hannah and I were gonna get married, I was like, hey, Shira, can you get me that list of what bands you've heard of Charged to play your wedding? And she got me the list. And so I looked at it, and if you want Real Big Fish to play your wedding, $35,000 will do it. Which is like, look, that's a lot of money. But it was enough where I went, huh? Like, we're not having a ska band play our wedding. What are you doing?

[Zach Klawonn]

And I was like, okay, well, that's the depreciation, right? Like, you know, 25 years ago, they would have cost, I don't know, 500 grand to play your wedding.

[Matt Farah]

There was other bands where it was like, really, you know, like, you get like Soul Asylum or something for like, 40. And we thought about it for a minute and we were like. Because, by the way, like, all wedding band. If you get a real band, it's 15, it's not like it's 5. So, like, fucking. We were like, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, you know what I mean? But we were. Then we were like, we don't want our wedding to turn into a concert, which is what would happen. But there were a couple bands where it was like, like crazy, like, where it was like, you know, 10, like, where I like, Save Ferris, who I saw. Oh, remember Save Ferris? That was another ska band that I saw open for Real Big Fish back in the day. And they were like, you know, 10 or something. I was like, I fucking. That's. I'll go to your gig for that.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right, right.

[Matt Farah]

Funny. What's a band you haven't seen in years you'd like to see again?

[Zach Klawonn]

Years, like, no Effects. I'd love to see them. I know they play that Vegas, like, punk show thing all the time.

[Matt Farah]

There was a band that Larry and I, Larry Cassilla and I loved in high school called Fuel, which I think the band. That band still exists, but I think it's just the singer with a whole bunch of new people. But their first album was kick ass, actually. And they were a great live Band. The other. Oh, what was the other band that was so good live that I saw in college, Creed. They. I saw them once as part of some fucking festival. They were all right, actually.

[Zach Klawonn]

They're pretty good music. They were okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Mark Tremonti is an incredible guitarist. Oh, story of the year.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, yeah, I remember them.

[Matt Farah]

Do you remember them?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

They put on a crazy show. They would do backflips off the fucking amps and all kinds of wild stuff. Yeah, they were amazing.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Duffel Shuffle Retirement Club for brands like Notice and Seiko. Does the quality remain consistent across the entire price line? I like quality in terms of like a standard of QC and assembly. Yes, but like if the Canyon compared to other notices, like we use a Swiss movement. They have other watches that are cheaper that use Citizen movements or Seiko movements or whatever that are cheaper. And like, does that really matter? Because it still fucking tells time. Not to some people and yes to others. So I think their standard of quality control is consistent, but the standard of materials and the standard of machinery is not and is variable depending on price. The Canyon's more expensive. Not because our name is on it, because it's actually better. Like, I had to convince Notice to make their first thousand dollar plus watch, but it's worth it. So I think the case material and the bracelet and stuff, that's the same for their lower quality watches. For the most part though. Lamborghini panel Wagon. Would swapping a beam axle rear to an independent rear suspension on an economy car make a meaningful difference in ride quality handling? I'm considering doing the GLi's independent rear suspension onto my Mark VI Jetta Diesel. It's mostly a bolt in swap, but I feel like it would not be worth it on a daily driver. I agree with you.

[Zach Klawonn]

I agree with that.

[Matt Farah]

Not worth it.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Would it make the car better? Like, yeah, but it would cost you. It would be like a $5,000 job that would immediately net $1,000 in difference.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. And when I started reading this question, I thought it was like, oh, someone's got a sporty VW and they want to make it a. But this is your daily. It's a commuter, it's a diesel, whatever. I think the improvement would be so marginal, but the work would be significant.

[Matt Farah]

I think you'd have a better result by having all your shocks rebuilt and all your bushings replaced.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And the car would feel so new.

[Zach Klawonn]

Or improve. Like you could get upgraded shocks that have a little bit better damping. You could smooth things out in that way that'd be worth it. Mm.

[Matt Farah]

I just. She wait. She likes a choke to get started. It's a great name but put some fucking spaces in it maybe. Or use. Let me maybe use the capital letters to help me read it better. Just swapped Pirelli Scorpions for Michelin PS4s on my Macan Turbo. Modest if any improvement. Have you done a car mod that didn't deliver any improvement improvements? Sure. I mean like I put like an intake on a car that didn't do anything. You know there's. There is stuff that only does things in your head.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, I put an intake on my Jetta and I like the way it sounded. No performance. My seats didn't change the performance of the seat at all. In fact it actually made the seat, like I said, higher in my car. But they look good.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you could say on my spot Spyder, I made it worse by putting PS4s's on it rather than the Dunlop R compounds. It objectively does not handle as well now.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, that's what the California's talking about. Those are the replacement tires. Doesn't handle as well.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but if I get caught. Yeah, if I could only put the OEM tires it would handle better. But if I get caught in the rain now I'm better.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Look like a Phantom. Till a Phantom pull up says I want to relive my high school and college front wheel drive fun days with some cheap fun. Maybe a Golf, maybe a Prelude SH or an SVT Focus. Something I can throw some period wheels and stereo in and have fun. Other suggestions for front wheel drive cars from 2000 to 04. No Civics. I've already been there.

[Zach Klawonn]

25 grand.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, a Mark 4 GTI. A Mark 4 GTI is actually like a pretty well made thing. Looks good, looks great. With the right set of wheels, you know they make a decent sound. So 1 8T. Not very fast but if you care you can do the turbo upgrade and make them a little quicker.

[Zach Klawonn]

But great looking car.

[Matt Farah]

Great looking car.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And on the inside actually pretty comfortable. Insulated. A nice ergonomically correct place to spend your time.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, the cloth is nice.

[Matt Farah]

I used to commute back and forth when I had a buddy in college that had one of these new and we would, whenever we would go back and forth we would alternate who would drive when we would go back and forth to New York City from Philly and we would take his GTI sometimes. Lovely.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Such a nice car.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean Prelude sh. Cool looking car. I've seen a lot of those at Radwood. Lately I think they've gotten popular. They're just a good looking coupe.

[Matt Farah]

Tough to find a good one. Yeah, almost all of them are just total shit piles. But if you can find a good one, then they are cool.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think SVT Focuses are probably really fun to drive. I don't know if they're more fun than a Golf and I'd rather spend time in the gti.

[Matt Farah]

I agree. SVT Focuses, I've driven them before and they are decent but they just don't do. They just don't do anything for me. Is there anything we're missing? The only thing that I think you. That I mean, dude, if you could find an RSTI, an already built 2.5

[Zach Klawonn]

RS, which I bet you can for $25,000. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

An RSTI is objectively the best car you could buy for that money. I mean, bro, you could get the world's nicest cobalt in SSS Also if

[Zach Klawonn]

you wanted to, you could do that.

[Matt Farah]

I mean the world's nicest, which will mean it'll be medium.

[Zach Klawonn]

They're kind of quick. They drive good. They just. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah. They go. But they're just, you know.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a Cobalt. Yeah, looks like a cobalt.

[Matt Farah]

Herkimer Battle Jitney says what is the worst and or least fun racetrack to drive in the country? Oh, that's so funny. What is the country's worst racetrack?

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, there's the one where the grass was growing through it in Texas. I think it.

[Matt Farah]

Texas World Speed Speedway.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, this'll be mean. Okay, well we gotta. How do we qualify it? What makes a track the worst, least fun? Least fun is pretty easy actually.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think if it has no elevation. Sebring, it's not that fun. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I fucking hate Sebring.

[Zach Klawonn]

I'm gonna go there in a month. It's flat and bumpy.

[Matt Farah]

Were you racing lemons there?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Jump overnight in the Ranchero?

[Zach Klawonn]

No.

[Matt Farah]

What?

[Zach Klawonn]

The E30 that I ran lemons in like four years ago with my father in law.

[Matt Farah]

That could be interesting through the night.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. It starts at 6:00pm oh, wow. I was like, are you sure you guys want to do this? Because they're 50, 60 years old.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that'll be interesting. I hate Sebring. I think Sebring's a shithole. It does nothing for me. Tato fucking loves it. I don't. Maybe I'm just missing some. Something that's hard.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, I think I have fun racing there because racing's fun and driving's fun. But if we're comparing. It is definitely at the bottom of my list of tracks I've driven because it's just totally flat. Yeah. The only elevation comes from the very uneven concrete in turn 17.

[Matt Farah]

It's just a trash. It's just a trash place. Like, I. I just hate it. I hate being there. It's hot and humid. Like, it just sucks. It's a. It's. It's like a. It's a shitty part of a state I already don't like very much.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's probably it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Dude, I don't know if I could think of a worse track than that. Where else have I been? That's not fun. I mean, it's so. You know how hard it is to find a racetrack that's not fun.

[Zach Klawonn]

Most of them are fun, even. What was the one in Texas? The one you drove?

[Matt Farah]

Harris Hill.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

They repaved Harris Hill. It's lovely.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, nice.

[Matt Farah]

Harris Hill. I love Harris Hill. It is the track. No one cares about it because it's next Dakota and it's a tiny little track, but. But it's like the best value in racetrack memberships in the world. It was like a couple thousand bucks for a whole year and you got a bunch of days. Whoa. It was amazing. It was an amazing value. The people who ran it were so nice. It was great. I love Harris Hill. Great place to slide. Yeah. Shit. What's another place? I can't really think of anywhere else that just openly sucks, but see, Sebring is it. That place is fucking terrible. You know what? How about this? Big Willow? Big Willow's the other one I don't like.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's a good call.

[Matt Farah]

I can't wait for them to fix it.

[Zach Klawonn]

Enough elevation. But it's. There's no runoff.

[Matt Farah]

It's just the most underachieving track that there is.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's very difficult. Like the risk and reward there is kind of weird. Very bumpy. Turn three.

[Matt Farah]

It's going to be. Wait till they. When it's be amazing.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it's gonna be great. A second Jay Z has hit the supra. Very good. I've had a 981 Boxster GTS for two and a half years and considering moving up to a different experience for 70 to 80. What's a good step up for a canyon car in the southwestern us? Tons of money to spend.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Fucking Richie Rich over here. Fucking big smoke spending. Here's where you want to be looking. 70 to 80. That's all the C8 Corvette. That's a C8Z51 loaded. Bunch of shit on it. Low miles.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. LT3 lightwear, cold seats, everything.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. How about Vipers? That's all the Viper that you can fucking take. And that's very different from a Boxster.

[Zach Klawonn]

You could also go like a Camaro Zone or maybe a one le.

[Matt Farah]

Like 70 to 80 gets you a GT350R.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's. Yeah, that's probably. That's better than the Camaro, which is the competitor for that. You could get all the F type

[Matt Farah]

in the world, but yeah, you could be a hot boy. F type R. Lower.

[Zach Klawonn]

You get the classy one, the supercharged with a manual. That's like half price.

[Matt Farah]

That's gonna be 40 grand. You spent more than that. LC 500. Do you want to cruise? LC 500 is. Is pretty sweet.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's a great car and probably gonna. You could probably own it for a while and just get out for even money. I think Vinnie keeps getting offered like over what he paid for that.

[Matt Farah]

I think so 70 to 80 will get you a very nice late first gen Aston Vantage S. Yeah. Which would be fabulous.

[Zach Klawonn]

That would be really cool. You could get M2. I think they're still 100.

[Matt Farah]

Are they?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, unless it has high miles.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's a great car. You could get all kinds of M2 comp if you want something. They're a little stiff in my opinion, but fast as hell.

[Matt Farah]

R8.

[Zach Klawonn]

What was I gonna say?

[Matt Farah]

70 to 80.

[Zach Klawonn]

You can get an early R8, which sound great. Look great. Steering's not. I mean, you're coming out of a boxer gts. Like you'll hate the steering, I think. And the seating position is kind of weird. Yeah, just looks good. It sounds good by you say different.

[Matt Farah]

I assume you've ruled out 911, which is why we're not just saying. We're just not saying 911.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, get something. Front engine. That's loud. That's what I would say. Vets C7, vets 350R. I think that's, that's. That. That's like the. The best overlap with handling and steering feel from coming out of the. The Boxster. I think you'll like it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that'd be cool. Waymo handjobs by women I hardly know. Is there a danger. Wait, what? Oh, the white dial. Speedy. Wait, what? Oh, sorry. I need to read the whole question first. Is there a danger that the white dial Omega Speedmaster with a black rubber strap could become the Ferrari 360 with an F1 gearbox of watch resale I don't see many new with a steel bracelet. Was told by the jeweler there's no steel bracelets to retrofit. Do I go new with rubber or used with steel? That's weird. I don't know why you can't get a steel bracelet. I have no idea about any of this. But Omega is the General Motors of watchmaking, and they will always make one more watch than they can sell. So if you can't get a steel bracelet now, just call another dealer or weight. Like, call Teddy Baldessar. He will absolutely sell you one with a steel bracelet for sure.

[Zach Klawonn]

I would say, not knowing much about this at all, but if this person can find the white dial with rubber strap all over the place, but you can't find the one with the steel bracelet, it seems that the demand for the steel is higher. So, yes, you might end up buying a Ferrari 360 with an F1 gearbox. Right?

[Matt Farah]

Maybe.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, it seems like there are less people buying this watch. He's. And so if you're worried about popularity,

[Matt Farah]

that one's more popular. Yeah, the bracelet is more popular.

[Zach Klawonn]

The bracelet's more popular, for sure.

[Matt Farah]

But I believe the bracelet and the. So here's a weird thing with the Rolex Daytona. If you get one with a bracelet or you get one with the rubber strap, the cases aren't the same. They're not interchangeable. So if you have a rubber strap, you can't go and just buy a Rolex bracelet and put it on. It won't fit. It's a different case. I don't think that's the situation with the Speedmaster. As far as I know, it's the same case no matter what they put on it. So you could buy the rubber one.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, this person said. The jeweler said there's no steel bracelets available from Omega to retrofit it.

[Matt Farah]

Well, does that mean there aren't any available right now to buy, or. That doesn't mean it doesn't fit. You need to be much clearer about that in order. You know what I mean? If it is, and I don't know the answer, I think it does fit. I think it's the same thing. But he might be saying we can't sell you any because there aren't any. In which case, just wait. Or if it actually is a different case, then you gotta buy the one you want. But you need that question to be answered first. Who's to buy used? Dude, I worked with Bob's for many years. They're. They're legit. I trust Teddy Baldessar. He's not going to sell anything. Fake Menta Watches out of Miami. The best. Eric Wind at Wind Vintage. The best. Cameron from Craft and Tailored also very good. Those are my go tos. Although I don't really buy anything anymore, which is kind of nice. Jeep of Theseus says Mazda just announced a new green color only for it to look like another shade of gray. Except for soul red. Why does Mazda seem unwilling to give their fun car fun colors? I think cuz fun colors are expensive and Mazda is trying to keep the cost of the car down. Isn't that why. Oh, zinc green.

[Zach Klawonn]

Their new color is.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it's like a green gray. It's a. It's a. It's a green gray.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. This looks like it would be straight out of Volvo. Like this looks color. Right? Very Norse cold climate kind of. Kind of color.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I don't hate it. What color is the top, Zach?

[Zach Klawonn]

Gray.

[Matt Farah]

The top is also gray.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, but so the car is like a dark stone green.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And then the top is gray. Gray.

[Matt Farah]

But I haven't seen a gray top with any other color. I've only seen black and tan. This is a new top color as well.

[Zach Klawonn]

Maybe that's true. Or it's just the way it's shot. I can't really tell. Yeah, it does look gray. It doesn't look like a black top.

[Matt Farah]

It's a nice color. I think they don't have more colors because that would drive the price of the car higher than they were probably. Yeah. Wrap your Miata, dude. Wrap your Miata. Get the fucking. Pick a color, any color. Soul Red is lovely though.

[Zach Klawonn]

Great red.

[Matt Farah]

Great red. Yeah. If you're gonna. If you're gonna make one color awesome, have it be your. Have it be your red. I like her rims. I'm glad she adas 100% in favor of restaurant stories with Zach. Please recap. The worst customer you ever had as a server.

[Zach Klawonn]

We could do a whole thing on Patreon, maybe as a bonus thing. The worst customer, I mean, the one that always jumps to mind is when the restaurant I worked at in LA would do too many substitutions, which is a very popular thing in la. Everyone has a dietary preference. And so finally the new. We had a new chef who's like, we're not doing that anymore unless someone is allergic to something. And this dish came with a side of like potatoes and broccolini. And this guy looks at me, he goes, I'm allergic to broccolini. And I said, you're Allergic. And he literally says, I'm allergic to green things. And I stared at him and we, but we were, we both knew, we both knew. I was like, you're allergic to green things. And he said, yes, I'm allergic to green. And I was like, touche. Touche salesman.

[Matt Farah]

So you live in Montana full time with those flip flops on this surfboard

[Zach Klawonn]

and I just happen to see this car all the time.

[Matt Farah]

And the CHP 1199 frame.

[Zach Klawonn]

You live in Montana because California won't smog this 2024 Suburban. Yeah, that guy, he won, but I hated him. I'll try to think of more and we'll just do a Patreon video sometime.

[Matt Farah]

Probably your only patron in Maine. I bet that isn't true. Can any other patrons in Maine leave a comment in the show? I guarantee you there's more than one. Last show I mentioned my tolerance of 10k a year to spend on a daily driver. I'm looking to spend 5k a year on an EV. Any recommendations? Preferably a brand I'm not judged for. Yes, a lightly used EV, an off EV. If you picked up my, for instance, my 20, I don't know how many miles, how many miles were on the Mach E when I sold it? 32,000, 33,000 maybe it was a 35,000 or 36,000 mile lease and I was slightly under it. But the car like still like looked great. It worked perfectly. It had had all the updates. It hadn't had any issues in years. And I bet you you could pick that fucking thing up. Could have picked that up somewhere for like 28,000 bucks. Yeah, and if you drove that, I mean there's almost no way that if you kept that car up, you'd lose more than that a year. There's no fucking way.

[Zach Klawonn]

Probably if you want to go new car. TF Valcar leased a Fiat 500E last year for $49 a month.

[Matt Farah]

Hell yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Two grand down, $49 a month. Sorry, 900 down and $49 a month. So two grand for a 27 month lease, that is. They've been leasing those things for pennies like since they came out. It's small, I get it. But man, if you just want an EV for no money, hit them up.

[Matt Farah]

If you could find. It would take some, some digging, but if you could find a leftover 2025 somewhere like fairly base Kia EV6 or Ioniq 5.

[Zach Klawonn]

I love the EV6.

[Matt Farah]

Like my neighbor got one like a leftover 2025 dude. Actually might do. Dave, our homie Dave F, who works in Hollywood, Zach. Dave F. Got a fucking Acura ZDX3 SUV for 275amonth. Yeah, it's like, so like, all right,

[Zach Klawonn]

great radar cruise control.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So like, if you dug around, you could find a new one. But if you want to lock that 5k a year in, I honestly, a lightly used EV is gonna do it. Assuming you can charge at home, etc.

[Zach Klawonn]

Let's jump down, let's do this one.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. V6 weighs till Sunday. Says. Can you explain the pros and cons of different wheel types? Three piece, two piece alloy, magnesium, etc. Okay, so your cheapest wheels, you know, you've got your steel wheels, your basic steely wheels. They'll last a thousand years, but they're ugly. And then people put what are called hubcaps on them that are made of plastic to disguise that they've got steel wheels. The next step up from that is going to be cast aluminum wheels. These are your mass market wheels. The vast majority of all metal wheels on cars are made like this. You can see the brakes through the wheels. They're like silver or black. And basically 95% of the wheels you see on the road are going to be a cast aluminum wheel. They, they are strong enough, light enough, and cheap enough to cover the vast majority of the car world's needs. Up from that, you have what's called a forged monoblock wheel. And a monoblock wheel means it's forged from one casting. Those are like sports car wheels. Pretty much like forged wheels. You'll see. Yeah, forged aluminum wheels you'll see on a lot of high performance sports cars. But not like super, super exhaust.

[Zach Klawonn]

Actually.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, your standard supercars will come with forged aluminum wheels. Your McLarens and your Lamborghinis that have steel wheels, those will have forged aluminum wheels. Performance. Wise up from that. You have magnesium wheels which are also forged. They're just lighter, super light. That's it. They're not quite as strong as the forged aluminum, but they're strong enough that you can use them for racing. Carbon fiber, even lighter than magnesium, not as strong.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right. Those two tend to not handle daily use. Where you might hit cracks, potholes, things like hard, you know, hard hits like that. Right. Tracks tend to not have those unless you go off and come back on.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klawonn]

Which can maybe shatter a carbon wheel during a film shoot in 2017. I don't know. I don't know. People are saying, people are saying, right.

[Matt Farah]

A two piece wheel will have, have typically a forged center section and then an outer barrel that you'll see that's like chrome or something. Most of the time that outer barrel is made from a rolled sheet of aluminum and then bent around. A two piece wheel has a fixed offset. A three piece wheel is like a two piece wheel except by changing, changing the size, the relative sizes of each inner and outer barrel. You can change the offset of the wheel by using the same face. So like a company that makes a three piece version of a wheel can have one face and a virtually infinite

[Zach Klawonn]

number of offsets from more cars, suspension setups, stuff like that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So like a lot of style wheels are thin three piece wheels. Now HRE has come out with this new thing called FMR which is a two piece wheel that looks like a three piece wheel but the barrel isn't rolled, it's forged. So it's a stronger wheel. So you could put them on heavier cars, it can take heavier impacts and you can use them for higher performance applications than you might typically want to to use a three piece wheel. The wheels on my, excuse me, on my Taycan are FMR wheels. So they're a two piece forged barrel wheel that look like a three piece wheel. The wheels that were on my Acura NSX were not fmr. Those were actual three piece wheels from their classic series that are made in the old school style. The wheels I am getting for the Mercedes are not FMR because they do not have the technology to forge a 17 inch FMR barrel. I think their minimum for FMR is 18 inches. So I can't get those on the Mercedes because we're doing 17s. Have we missed any other type of, of wheel?

[Zach Klawonn]

No cast. Yeah, yeah. All that forged.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And it's, you know, it's, there's a balance. Right. Like wheels ideally you, you want to reduce weight in your wheels. That helps you do everything. But if your wheel weight, some types of wheels are heavier than others and you know, style comes into play and your application.

[Zach Klawonn]

And my apex wheels are flow formed which I think HRE also sells kind of lands between like the cast wheel and the forged wheel in terms of price. But they're still really light and strong. You just don't have as many options with like the centers and they can't move the offset as much and stuff like that. So they make a certain number of offset and that's what they sell.

[Matt Farah]

Flow form is. Yeah, it's. I don't know exactly how the process works but it's somewhere in between a cast and a forge. Yeah. Fast. Back to the future. Oh, future says, how do you feel about. About. What's our time right now? About 90.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, let's do these two more and then we'll wrap it up fast. Back to the future says, how do you feel about cops strictly enforcing seemingly trivial violations like window tint, out of date inspections, and other things like that? Park police have been very strict at the Bear Mountain Wednesday night car meets. Do you see this type of enforcement of seemingly trivial laws around you? I'm not talking about burnouts or obviously straight piped in annoying cars. I mean, here's the thing, dude. Like, you can't drive your car on the fucking road and then like complain about cops seeing things that are illegal, right? You just like, you just kind of can't do that. Like you can do it. Like, I'm not gonna fucking call you out on it. I'm not gonna narc out.

[Zach Klawonn]

But like, it's a bit like when they got Capone on tax evasion. Yeah, I mean, that's like they knew he was killing people and doing stuff, but they could only get him for this. So, you know, I'm not saying the cops know that you guys are up to murders or something, but maybe they've had complaints about people drifting, doing burnouts around car meets. Maybe not yours, maybe yours. So they go, okay, well, what can we do? What can we do to punish these guys, these people who are there? Well, we can go around and write what we, you know, call chicken shit tickets. But technically, if they write you up because you're breaking the law, you're breaking the law.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. You know, this happens in California. California a lot. I mean, if your car's obviously been modified and they don't have a justification to pull you over, but you have no front plate on or something like, well, one crime at a time, bro. This goes right back to one crime at a time. If you're only doing one thing wrong, you're probably not. Is it annoying to see to have this bullshit take tickets? Like, yeah, but, like, pay the cost to be the boss.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know, the laws are there. Yeah, I have a front plate because I didn't want to deal a lot of people with E46s go, I just rock. No front plate. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to get parking tickets or whatever. I don't care that much. I got a ticket for tint once. I got pulled for expired reg. And then when the guy walked up and I rolled my window down, he was like, oh, he did the fingernail Test. I'm like, okay. But I just. I paid the fine. Mm. And that's it. That's it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

So just. You got understand that that might happen and it's gonna be annoying.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

But it is.

[Matt Farah]

Think about training day. We just gotta tax them a little

[Zach Klawonn]

bit, you know, Stick that pen up his mouth.

[Matt Farah]

Gotta fucking. Just gotta tax them. You know, he's letting. You're letting them operate. They. The cops need their taste.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, he's so good. They need their end. I saw. Remember when I went to Huntington beach to a car show to that fucking cars and copters and cops or whatever and fucking. That cop told the only black kid around for like a mile to pop his hood.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that's really shitty.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

You should also check everybody's Montana registration and see where they live.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I hear there's some Koenigseggs over there that. Whose owners might have not paid the full sales tax on these vehicles. Probably 50 rare shades of gray says what are some recession indicators in the car world recently.

[Zach Klawonn]

So this is news from May 6th. Car payments squeeze Americans as auto debt hits $1.68 trillion.

[Matt Farah]

As much as Elon will be worth next week once he dumps his company on everybody else.

[Zach Klawonn]

Basically more and more people are missing their auto loan payments. Also the. Since 2018, the average typical auto loan payment has increased more than $680 from 506. Like cars are getting more expensive. Payments are getting more expensive. Especially when they draw out these loans for a really long time.

[Matt Farah]

I heard six year. They're doing six years. Six years, dude.

[Zach Klawonn]

Um.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it's so bad.

[Zach Klawonn]

Average length. Yeah, the average length auto loan is six years.

[Matt Farah]

I think average.

[Zach Klawonn]

When I bought my STI in. Excuse me, eight. Something like that. I think getting a five year loan was like, whoa, dude, you're really stretching this out.

[Matt Farah]

A 48 month on my mini.

[Zach Klawonn]

And look, we made more money relatively, things were less expensive. And so this is the solution to wages remaining relatively stagnant, but everything getting more expensive. They go, how can we get people to sort of afford these things? You stretch the. You just stretch the loan terms out. But yeah, we might be seeing more people getting their cars repoed. Just stats come out a lot.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean I think there's. It's not so much recession indicators. What I'm seeing is like Gilded era, like Gilded age shit where you have crazy coach built supercars and luxury cars, the price of which is going completely bananas. The number of cars that are available for seven figures right now is just Mind boggling. We've got coach building, we've got companies building entire business plans, multinational corporations building entire business plans around selling 10 or 20 units of something a year. Meanwhile we have what you just said with what regular people are doing.

[Zach Klawonn]

Delinquencies are at a 32 year record high. So that's on Yahoo Finance.

[Matt Farah]

That's good.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that's good.

[Matt Farah]

That is no problem there. Yeah, those are a few.

[Zach Klawonn]

Now does that mean we're in a recession? I mean there's so many recession interests indicators and the joke is always like the last accurate recession person who predicted it, they predicted two out of the last hundred. What's the inverse? 100 out of the last two. It's like they say it until it happens but things aren't great. Things aren't great. Everything's more.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And the stock market and the economy is essentially propped up on these four or five companies swirling the same hundred billion dollars around among amongst each other.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, it's a weird time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's good.

[Zach Klawonn]

It really is.

[Matt Farah]

Totally good. That's like no problem at all. Just saying, just like chill, you know, it's fine. Vote everybody, please vote. I voted.

[Zach Klawonn]

Me too.

[Matt Farah]

Thanks everybody. Appreciate yalls. Thank you to our patrons. Very good questions today. If there were any left, we can roll them over till next week. We have more show. I am, I'm taking a little mini road trip with the wife tomorrow. Taking the pink car up to Santa Barbara to see Lord Huron. A band I struggled to describe on this podcast earlier this year. And then when I looked up the. I looked up how to describe this band to somebody and it got like the craziest fucking description from the AI that made it seem like the AI was on the drugs I hoped to be taking at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Yeah, we appreciate you guys. See you later. Bye.