Doug Demuro

Summary

Podcast Title: The Smoking Tire
Episode: Doug Demuro
Release Date: December 12, 2024

Hosts: Zack Klapman (A), Matt Farah (B)
Guest: Doug Demuro (C)

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1. Introduction and Sponsor Segment [00:00 - 05:00]

The episode opens with Zack Klapman promoting their sponsor, Off the Record, highlighting its effectiveness in dismissing or reducing traffic tickets across various states. He encourages listeners to use the service via their website or app with the promo code TSTpod.

At [03:00], Zack announces the special annual appearance of Doug Demuro, emphasizing that Doug rarely visits Los Angeles, making his participation a noteworthy event for the show.

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2. Light Banter and Car Enthusiasm [05:00 - 15:00]

Zack (A) and Matt (B) engage in friendly banter about Doug’s appearance, discussing his hairstyle and beard with humorous remarks. They express excitement about Doug joining the podcast, setting a light-hearted tone.

At [07:11], Matt shares his experience with a Super Bowl commercial for a Hulu original show, illustrating the potential benefits of high-profile advertising through residual income over extended periods.

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3. Advertising and Marketing Strategies [15:00 - 25:00]

Zack (A) criticizes their previous advertising efforts with Venice Living, noting the lack of tangible business results despite multiple ad attempts in print media. He expresses frustration over ineffective marketing strategies.

Matt (B) introduces a theory emphasizing the importance of repeated advertising for effective marketing, using Stradman as a prime example of successful sponsorships achieved through consistent promotion.

At [16:15], they discuss the necessity of systematic and repeated advertising to build brand recognition and secure long-term sponsor relationships.

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4. Challenges with Modern Automotive Technology [25:00 - 40:00]

The conversation shifts to the volvo EX90’s and other cars' ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems) malfunctioning, with specific issues like Apple CarPlay glitches disrupting the driving experience.

Matt (B) criticizes the trend of releasing cars before they are fully ready, likening it to Tesla's early release strategy. He suggests that rapid innovation pressures are leading to compromised reliability among automakers.

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5. Reviews of Chinese Automakers and Market Trends [40:00 - 50:00]

Matt (B) discusses his experience with the MG Cyberster, critiquing its heritage branding efforts and practical limitations, such as teardrop-shaped key fobs inspired by historical designs.

He also covers his review of the second-generation VinFast, describing it as a blend of mediocrity enhanced by heavy incentives like $1.99/month financing, making it more appealing despite lacking distinctiveness.

Zack (A) adds observations on the acceptability and challenges of integrating Chinese cars into the U.S. market, pointing out necessary improvements for effective competition.

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6. Restoration and Maintenance of Classic Cars [50:00 - 70:00]

The hosts delve into the intricacies of restoring classic cars like the Lamborghini Countach. Zack (A) shares his ongoing challenges with restoring his Countach’s powertrain in Italy, citing missing parts and communication issues with restoration shops.

Matt (B) talks about his experiences restoring a Turbo R, highlighting high costs and complexities, including a recent issue with a malfunctioning fuel gauge that required significant attention.

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7. The Impact of Influencers and Content Creation [70:00 - 90:00]

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the evolving landscape of automotive content creation. Matt (B) laments that platforms like TikTok overshadow YouTube, noting that while short-form content generates high views, it offers low revenue returns.

They debate the relevance and effectiveness of podcast shorts versus traditional longer-form content, observing that short clips do not translate effectively into deeper audience engagement or monetization.

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8. Collectability and Auction Dynamics [90:00 - 110:00]

The conversation transitions to the differences between car auction platforms like Bring a Trailer and their own site, Cars and Bids. Matt (B) argues that while Bring a Trailer focuses on high-value, rare vehicles, Cars and Bids cater to a broader market, including more attainable enthusiast cars like the M3 and Land Cruiser.

Zack (A) confirms that both platforms have their niches, emphasizing that the market is extensive enough to sustain multiple auction businesses effectively.

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9. Personal Success and Business Insights [110:00 - 130:00]

Matt (B) reflects on his personal definition of success, emphasizing contentment and avoiding societal pressures to constantly achieve more. He distinguishes personal happiness and mental freedom from traditional success metrics focused on wealth and external validation.

Zack (A) shares his perspective, defining success as being happy and secure without the burden of constant anxiety over business or personal achievements. They agree that true success encompasses personal satisfaction rather than external validation.

---

10. Final Remarks and Wrap-Up [130:00 - 173:16]

Towards the end of the podcast, they engage in a rapid-fire Q&A session, addressing listener-submitted questions covering topics like the aging of specific car models, the viability of collector cars, and definitions of success.

The episode concludes with casual banter about social interactions with celebrities and car enthusiasts, emphasizing the niche nature of their content and the challenges of balancing passionate automotive interests with real-world responsibilities.

Notable Quotes:

• Matt Farah at [07:11]: "Repetition is the move. You're 100% right that if you content creator or me content creator can hook a deal like that for a title sponsorship, we should do it right."

• Zack Klapman at [15:00]: "I don't want to wait. Here's the real button."

• Doug Demuro at [31:42]: "I love Joe."

• Matt Farah at [87:08]: "If you have an M3 or a 4Runner...I mean if you go on the main page on bring a trailer there's 800 cars."

---

Conclusion

In this comprehensive episode of "The Smoking Tire," hosts Zack Klapman and Matt Farah, along with guest Doug Demuro, navigate through a myriad of automotive topics. From the challenges of restoring classic cars and the pitfalls of modern ADAS systems to the changing dynamics of content creation and the nuances of car auctions, the discussion is rich with insights and personal anecdotes. They critically analyze market trends, marketing strategies, and the impact of technology on both car ownership and media engagement, offering valuable perspectives for automotive enthusiasts and industry insiders alike.

Transcript

[A]

What's up everybody? Welcome to the Smoke and Tire podcast. Today's episode is, as always, brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record over here at tst. And I had not one, not two, three emails this week from people who used off the Record and got tickets fully dismissed. Different states, different people. It was a lovely thing to see off the Record doing their job. If you get a moving violation of any kind, big or small in the US get off the record, go to offtherecord.com TST or download the off the Record app and use code TST Pod TSTpod from there. Off the Record, we'll fight that ticket on your behalf and in the vast majority of cases, get it totally dismissed or drastically reduced. Off the Record is the best. You gotta have it in your pocket, ready to go. That way if you get pinched, it's no big deal. You got people in the game. Again, offtherecord.com TST or code TST pod TST P O D on that off the Record app. Do it. You know what happens every December? It's a tradition. I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about Sir Doug demuro who graces us with his presence. You know, he never comes to la. He only comes up here to do this program because it's good friggin radio. We are going to go round the world with Doug Demuro in two hours and 40 minutes of podcasting. Let's get to it. Welcome to the Smoking Tire. That is a great photo.

[B]

Look at that Ford gt.

[A]

I mean, look, I was thinking about the size of that Joshua tree is big. The big fucking Joshua tree.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is that a Joshua tree? Yeah, it is, right? Yeah.

[C]

The knife tree.

[A]

It's not like a mini pine, right?

[C]

No, it's a Joshua tree. Those are the leaves that. They look like Edward Scissorhands, a tree expert.

[B]

Okay, are we doing this? Do we like do this?

[A]

I like. I sometimes. I know a lot about trees. It just depends on which kind of trees.

[B]

Oh, that is a marijuana.

[A]

That is a fucking weed joke. Which. Listen, now that I see your current hairstyle, you should understand you're now a guy who understands weed jokes.

[B]

I'm experimenting. Can you. I like beard with me.

[A]

Beard Doug, is okay.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

It's good, the beard. Doug, your hair is getting lighter. It's not going gray, but like. Did you, did you like put sun in in your hair?

[B]

No, this has always been my hair. I don't know.

[A]

I think the top of your hair is lighter.

[B]

He's crazy.

[A]

His hair not lighter.

[C]

Well, he's under the lights. I don't know. I think it's longer. I feel like your hair is long.

[B]

That light lights my hair.

[C]

I don't know.

[A]

I don't know. But you. You really, you. Your hair looks like someone who uses the word summer as a verb.

[C]

And I think he just has a brighter disposition. And because he's driving around in his countach.

[A]

Right. Here we are.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Do you understand how the studio works?

[B]

Is there anything that I should know before?

[A]

No. Are you okay with the chair?

[B]

Oh, it's great.

[A]

It's a good chair.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm really excited to hear about your chair.

[B]

Oh, the heated chair. We gotta build it first, though.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, is it some assembly required?

[B]

I hate that shit. I hate building stuff.

[A]

I know.

[B]

Hire a task rabbit to do all that.

[C]

Have you ever had four minutes?

[A]

A chair is pretty easy. You pop the wheels in, you pop the things together.

[B]

I gotta unscrew the thing, move it over 4 inches.

[A]

Fair point. Chairs are held together.

[C]

I would grab the mic in a second. I got the like.

[A]

Unlike an Ikea end table, a desk chair is held together by gravity. You put the wheels in, you put the top on, and then gravity just keeps that chair.

[C]

Well, the top needs screws, but yes, together. Yes. That's why you can never separate them to move.

[A]

Right.

[C]

You'll never undo that.

[A]

No. It's no good. Annual Doug show. Here we are.

[B]

Here we are.

[A]

Welcome. Welcome back. We're doing it.

[B]

This is it.

[A]

This is it. We're in the radio. You're in the radio.

[B]

This is my favorite time of year.

[A]

It is. Why? Because the ad rates are real high.

[B]

Well, it's. It's Christmas.

[A]

You like Christmas?

[B]

When I come here to do this show, it's Christmas.

[A]

It is. It's Christmas for us too.

[B]

I put up my.

[A]

The ratings.

[B]

Right.

[A]

There are some.

[B]

My inflatable holo Christmas decorations yesterday, and now I'm here, and that's. That makes it Christmas.

[A]

What does Doug's house look like on Christmas?

[B]

Okay. You know, I got that dog.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Noodles Noodle. Yeah. There's an inflatable one. They sell that. He's wearing a Santa hat and it's like nine feet tall, and that's my only decoration.

[A]

Just a giant dog on the front yard. Yeah. Nice. Nice. My wife really is pushing the Christmas lights. She wants to do the light up our house.

[C]

It's nice. I think it looks nice.

[A]

It does.

[B]

Look of your wife loved the spread in Venice Living.

[A]

Oh, yeah. You know how Much business. You know how much business Venice Living got us? Fucking this much business. That much business.

[B]

You know what I love about this podcast is you have no problem with calling out people who have not been better. Like, I am very careful about that. I'm very scared to. Like, if I went in Venice Living, I'd be like, oh, you know, it was a lovely experience.

[A]

It was a lovely experience until we got no business from it. And then I was like, well, that wasn't worth our time.

[B]

Well, someone from Venice Living is watching you. Don't care about that.

[A]

I know for a fact they're not. Not the first one.

[B]

Well, I'll tell you something. I loved the spread.

[A]

It's not the worst because it didn't cost anything. That was editorial.

[B]

That was editorial.

[A]

We'd like to put you on the COVID They came to you, right? You invented every other bit of print I've ever bought to promote this business. I bought a full page ad in Hagerty magazine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All the money. Fucking goose egg zero. I bought. I bought a couple ads in those, you know, those circulars that you get for people for like, contractors and shit? If you want to renovate, renovate your house. Yeah, we figured. We're like. Because we get people who are like, yeah, yeah, I'm renovating my house. I need to get the cars out of the garage. Right? So I was like, oh, that's where. No goose egg zero.

[B]

So where do you get people coming in?

[A]

Google Maps. One by far.

[B]

Really?

[A]

The smoking tire number two by far.

[B]

That's it.

[A]

Outside of that, any other dollar spent on anything. I just. It's lit on fire.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Should we advertise Venice Living on the smoking tire to help Venice Living as we.

[A]

Yeah, it'll be a circle.

[B]

Venice Living a fine be.

[A]

The living Ouroboros of not making money.

[B]

They gotta pay you, though. Can I tell you a theory I have about advertising?

[A]

Yes, please.

[B]

I think that you can't just advertise once. I think you have to, like, build that up. So, like, for instance, Stradman, who I hope we talk about dearly on this show.

[C]

What a breakthrough theory.

[A]

I don't want to wait.

[B]

You mean.

[C]

You mean repeating the same commercial or advertisement more than once?

[A]

Many, many times.

[B]

So he's like, oh, we advertised in the circular. We advertised. No, dude, you gotta hit it over and over and over. Some people are like, oh, that thing.

[A]

Stradman, you're 100% right.

[B]

Who I am interested in as a person. He advertises for Simplisafe. And he does it in every video to the point where Stradman is the Simplisafe guy. And I gotta tell you something, when it came time for an alarm system for our business, I'm like, you know, these two seem the same, but Stradman does one of them.

[A]

You are 100% right that repetition is the move. You're 100% right that. That if you content creator or me content creator can hook a deal like that for a title sponsorship, we should do it right. It's better for.

[B]

But don't you think it helps?

[A]

Don't you think so?

[B]

You think strategy sitting there counting as riches. And also Simplisafe is sitting there counting their riches.

[A]

The sponsors that pay us over time the most amount of money are the sponsors that have stuck with us for years and years and years. And they're also the sponsors that get the best returns by a lot.

[B]

You need to go and do another spread in Venice Living. You gotta get them. You gotta get him to do another thing about you guys.

[A]

Every month should just be me and my lifts on the COVID That's right.

[B]

Like Oprah Magazine. Except your. It's you.

[A]

Right. Oh, man. Or like, do you remember Vantage? Aston Martin's magazine? James Bond on the COVID Every issue. Every issue.

[B]

That's what they got.

[C]

How many issues could they.

[B]

That's what they got.

[A]

I got that magazine for years as an Aston Martin owner. You get. You just get it. I got it for years.

[C]

But there's only so many James Bond movies.

[A]

They eventually canceled. Canceled it. They don't. They don't do it anymore. Maybe they do. Well, I don't know. It's.

[B]

We'll click on that most Recent one.

[A]

Victor 21 versus Muncher, June of 21. 21. Yes. Not. Not great. Muncher. What a great name. Was that car called the Muncher?

[B]

Well, this one's not called the Victor.

[A]

Well, the new one is the Victor.

[B]

No, the new one is the. Is the Valor.

[A]

No, no. But the Vic. There's also the Victor.

[B]

There was.

[A]

The Victor was the one. And then the Valor is the sort of production joint. Yeah. They're running out of fucking V's is what I'm saying.

[B]

Well, they should go back to using some of their historical names, such as Muncher.

[A]

Muncher.

[C]

The Michael Douglas Muncher is the best.

[A]

Car name of all time, I think. Yeah, I know.

[B]

It's certainly interesting.

[A]

Yeah. And if someone's driving is that. Then it's Muncher by proxy. And then it becomes all Kinds of.

[B]

How are things going here at the Smoking Tire? You got stuff going on? You got cars?

[A]

There's cars. That's what we're doing.

[B]

You should see all the cars. Can I. Do I talk to this camera? You want to talk to the people?

[C]

That's your camera.

[B]

You should see all the cars here, folks. If you haven't gotten your car into Westside collector car storage, you may never. Or maybe you can't. I don't know.

[A]

The rules are sold out.

[B]

We're sold out.

[C]

Thanks to Venice Living.

[A]

Thanks. And what was the other one? Top Pros. Top Pros magazine. Which is where. That's where you find, you know, people to redo your kitchen, whatever.

[B]

You got it. I'm just saying you gotta get out there more. You also should think about a Super bowl commercial, but those aren't one.

[C]

It only happened once, though. You were saying repeat advertising is the way to do it.

[B]

It's an interesting point. You need to advertise during the entire NFL season.

[A]

You know, the single best day of work I've ever done in my life, Doug, was a Super bowl commercial.

[B]

You did a Super bowl commercial?

[A]

Yeah. I was on a fake reality show that was the first ever Hulu original programming show called the Ford Focus Rally. And it was the Amazing Race, but in powershift automatic equipped Ford Focuses. That was it. And it was a.

[B]

There were celebrities on this too?

[A]

No, there were not celebrities.

[B]

Who else was on it?

[A]

Other people who were very like early level influencer types were on it.

[B]

Like yourself.

[A]

Like myself. And I mean, we're talking. This was 2011. Okay, so this was. This was back then.

[B]

Wait, Hulu existed back then?

[A]

It was the first ever Hulu show.

[B]

Damn.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I thought Hulu was like yesterday.

[A]

No, Hulu started to do. To be like the place. The place where you would go to like watch TV after tv. Well, you know what I mean? Like they had like NBC and shit. And then they decided to do original stuff. Anyway, we. Yeah. Focus Rally America. There's the fucking dumbass show. Although Johnny Mosley, who was the host, the skier.

[C]

Oh, he's awesome.

[A]

He was awesome. He was cool as shit. I love Johnny Mosley.

[B]

Shout out to you getting paid for this?

[A]

I got paid a very small amount of money to do the show, but I got paid union rates for doing the super bowl commercial for the show.

[B]

So what was this? Oh. Cause the show was being promo.

[A]

The show was being promoed in the Super Bowl.

[B]

It was a commercial right before Team Red Candy. That was you?

[A]

Yeah, Red Candy. Me and Brittany Boddington, red candy. And point is, not only did they fucking pay out big for the super bowl commercial, for the one day of work, I got residuals. They ran that motherfucker for three years. So I showed up for one day at work.

[B]

The show was on for three years.

[A]

No, the super.

[B]

I'm.

[C]

So they ran the commercial over and.

[A]

Over in the commercial, but they were.

[B]

Running the commercial even after the show.

[A]

Years. Months. Okay, they ran for three months.

[B]

So every month for the whole quarter, he was getting checks.

[C]

That's three.

[A]

The one. The one day of work probably turned out to be about 15,000.

[B]

No way.

[A]

Yeah. For showing up for one day.

[B]

Did all these people get. Do this?

[A]

As far as I know.

[B]

John Jung get residuals?

[A]

As far as I know.

[B]

What about Donna Ruko? Do we know any of these people anymore?

[C]

They live next.

[A]

I haven't looked at their names in quite a long time.

[B]

Gonna write in and be like, yeah, I'm an editor for Venice Living.

[C]

None of them have photos on IMDb except for Johnny and then two people at the top.

[A]

Yeah, Adam and Clayton were like actors. That's why.

[B]

I don't know. I should have a fucking stuff.

[A]

Apparently.

[B]

Me, I. You know, I did a dead For Audi.

[A]

You did?

[B]

You know this story?

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay, here's a great story for you. Many years ago, I did a commercial for Audi. I had an Rs2, and they wanted the Rs2 and the Rs6 in the same commercial.

[A]

Oh, right.

[B]

It was in my Porsche commercial. There was a water balloon fight.

[A]

Dude, I do remember the water balloons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, keep going.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, we did the commercial. During the filming of the commercial, we. They broke my windshield of the RS2. They were throwing water balloons at it and cracked the commercial. We found a replacement windshield in San Diego on a shelf. We put it in the next day for 200 bucks.

[A]

No, I was like, okay, that's fine.

[B]

The commercial went up for one day, and then Audi killed it and took it completely off the Internet. It's totally scrumptious.

[A]

They were like, this has gone very badly. Let's make it disappear. I don't know why.

[B]

I thought the commercial was pretty good.

[A]

Funny. I don't know. No copy for you.

[B]

No, I don't think. I don't think maybe somebody took one of those, you know? But I have. Absolutely.

[A]

Someone took a cell phone video. Your mom. Your mom videoed the tv. It was too quick for even my mom.

[B]

It was up and gone.

[C]

The guy that leaked the aliens flying over that military base, he has the Video.

[B]

He might. Yeah, that's real shit stuff.

[A]

Now let's talk about you. We can talk about me and my commercials later. We've got. You've got. You're driving your Countach.

[B]

I want to talk Countaches very soon.

[A]

So yours first, because you're the goddamn thing.

[B]

There's things I want to talk about on this show.

[A]

Okay, Your list.

[B]

The Countach is one of them. There's others, though. Okay, let's start with the Countach, because basically everything I'm going to talk to you about is stuff. My friends were like, oh, you're going with Matt. You got to ask him about this. My friends are all obsessed. They don't care about me. They don't watch any of my stuff.

[A]

I don't either. If I want to know what you have to think, I'll text you.

[B]

Dude, that is actually one of the most annoying things. I get texts from, like, my neighbors, like, hey, what do you think of the Volvo EX90? And I send them the video.

[A]

I send them the video and they're.

[B]

Like, yeah, but what do you really think? What I really think is in the video, what do you think this is?

[A]

No, no, that's the translation of what do you really think means Cliff notes me. That's what it means. I don't want to watch the video. It doesn't mean I don't trust you. I do exactly the same thing.

[B]

You're trying to buy the car. Watch the video, do it on 2x speed. You'll get to it in 12 minutes and you'll learn where the funnel is depending put in the windshield washer flip.

[A]

But anyway, we did not like the EX90.

[B]

You didn't like it?

[A]

No.

[B]

I'm gonna name it my car of the year. Spoiler. Why didn't you like it?

[A]

Are you serious? What was wrong with it?

[B]

What didn't you like about it? The comfort, the beautiful styling, the excellent technology. The fact that it's built in America.

[A]

Had nothing to do with any of those things. It has to do with a lot of the technology didn't work properly. That's why. Well, is why we didn't like it.

[C]

That's why technology.

[A]

And the stuff that didn't work properly couldn't even be turned off so it would shut the fuck up.

[C]

The stuff they were excited about is the stuff that didn't work. That was the light up a big problem, the lidar, but also the automatic lane change.

[A]

The lane keep the lane change was really bad technology. Their ADAS is straight garbage.

[B]

Technology is one of those things that they're working on.

[A]

How about this? You work. Here's an idea.

[C]

Give it your word. Car of the year. Eventually, when they finish working on the.

[B]

Things they promised me that the steering wheel will turn the wheels in the second quarter.

[C]

So you're giving car of the year based on iou, bro, this is a.

[A]

Problem where we've just. What we just described is a problem.

[B]

Let me tell you something. I drove this gently here today. The Apple CarPlay quit halfway through. And you know what happened? I got on the 405. Then 40 minutes out of Apple CarPlay not working, I got on the 405 and I switched the screen to that display. You know what? If I'm not getting the screen, I'm just gonna see the gauges.

[C]

I think Apple CarPlay or Apple has an update due because Apple CarPlay turned off in the Ineos two days ago. It turned off in Sarah's RAV4 yesterday. Like, it seems like it's happening across platforms where it just shuts down. And then if you have to, like, restart your MMI or the car, and then it's fine. And it's an issue because I looked up, oh, is this a Toyota update? People were reporting this a year ago.

[B]

Like, on my Sequoia. I drove cross country this summer and back Apple CarPlay the whole time. So 7,000 miles. And it happened once on the way there and twice on the way back. But I was able to just go back through the menu and get it running back again. And I didn't have to turn off the car or the phone.

[C]

No, it depends on the car. Like Sarah's car. You can just hold down the volume button. It turns. It resets the screen.

[A]

Oh, really?

[C]

Which is such a great discovery.

[A]

You learned that by reading the user manual?

[C]

No, I just tried.

[A]

Really?

[C]

Yeah. I'm not reading that thing. But INEOS didn't do it.

[A]

All right, but who wants to text.

[B]

The user manual and say, what did you really think?

[C]

I text the engineer. Yeah, but what do you really think about this button?

[A]

But it brings up.

[B]

Here's the real button.

[A]

A problem that we experienced with Volvo. I just experienced the same problem with Cadillac or shades of the same problem, which is car launches like we were on with Volvo or press launches or cars going out to journalists. They're sending out cars that aren't finished.

[B]

You know what I think it is? I truly, truly think, like, Tesla started this game when they just would release stuff like right when it was done.

[A]

And this is good for society. People Loved it.

[B]

Right? People were like, I'm happy to be a test driver. And now these automakers are under so much pressure to get stuff out quickly because you fall behind fast if you don't. And so. And they've also kind of realized that some of these automakers do that and don't really get penalized for it. When we were kids, the consumer guide would be like, the Tundra does not do whatever. And we really get into it. If the car was unreliable, but now it's almost like a. Well, it's unreliable, but that's because you're a strip. The update will change that. And then Fisker goes out. My Ocean is worth six grand.

[A]

Let me tell you what, if you want me to beta test your shit, I'm not paying you for that privilege, mother.

[B]

People are, though. The thing is, people are.

[A]

You may not be, you know who does. People in a cult. People in a cult will pay you for things you should be paying them to.

[B]

Tesla people do this for EX90. People are going to buy that thing to be the first EX90 Fisker Ocean. The people over this. I saw Vinfast on the way here. Are you aware of Vinfast deals?

[A]

There's a Vinfast in my neighborhood and I just go, do you know what they cost? Like $85 a month or something?

[B]

0 down 1.99amonth.

[C]

Do you know what they cost?

[A]

I might buy one for that. For 199amonth.

[C]

When they first arrived here, the MSRP on those was like 60 to $75,000. It was super high. And then no one bought them. I think they have incentivized.

[B]

I will say you guys all reviewed. They never let me review the Gen1 VinFast.

[A]

I never drove it into it.

[B]

They sent me a gen 2, the up updated one. I thought it was fine. It was boring as hell. It's not a special car, but it was. The infotainment was not glitchy. Yeah. It was no different from like a Nissan Rogue or any other boring car. And I was actually surprised at all the hate that car got. In fact, I'm doing my end of year list of video and what it's going to be one of my biggest surprises of the year because I went into it thinking it would be utter trash and it was merely mediocre. But that's kind of what they're going. I don't think they're trying to make a special car like a mediocre crossover. And it zeroed down in 1. 99amonth.

[A]

Wow. That's compelling. Mediocre crossover that is compelling. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But in order to incentivize, in order to get people to buy it. If you have to incentivize it that heavily, it's not a good situation for two years.

[C]

That's pretty good.

[A]

The Fisker they sent me was worse than most people are saying. It was really, really bad.

[B]

You know, the one I reviewed was a customer who sold it on the site and it was fine. It had one or two little glitches, but I thought it looked cool. It had cool tech. If that company had worked and the car had worked, it would have been really cool.

[A]

No, the idea of the car wasn't bad. It was that it left me stranded three times in 12 hours. That was really the problem with that.

[B]

Particular technology is something that work in.

[A]

A way that was like settled science. Like it had a fob and it wouldn't detect the fob. And it's like, yo, they've been doing this for 20 years.

[B]

Okay, speaking of fobs, we gotta get back to the countach, which I brought up as a topic. But I gotta talk to you about key fobs because I have a hilarious one for you. My video today went up with the MG Cyberster, which is get the fuck outta here. Which is a Chinese automobile. It's manufactured in China.

[A]

Yeah. You drive it?

[B]

I drove it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

In America. Which is sketchiest. Temporary plates. I don't know anything. A cop pulled up at one point, he's like, what's your review in there? I'm like, nothing. It's a Honda. Get the hell out of here. Anyway, MG Cyberster, which is this vehicle here?

[A]

Folks, we got to take a quick break. And the holidays are here and it's time. This is the best. This is the best gift for your parents, your grandparents or other family members, particularly if they are not the most tech savvy. Right. It's weird to get them a tech adjacent gift. But the aura frames is perfect because it's tech, but it's easy and it doesn't require the person you give it to to really do much of anything. I've got my parents on the other coasts, I've got my siblings on the other coasts. And Zach just got married and needed a way to effectively give photos to his parents and his new wife's parents. Aura frames dot com. It's the Carver Mat frames. Okay, Basically, here's how it works. You, you give them the frame. It's connected to an online account which you put pictures in the frames, then appear in their house. Did I describe that exactly. Right.

[C]

We did it. It was fairly simple. And we were able to give my mom this frame that just played wedding photos for her.

[A]

Right?

[C]

We can add the photos, we can take them away. And we gave her access on the app and she can do it. She's text heavy enough to do that. But we were able to just curate this thing instead of printing a photo album that will sit on a table or any of that stuff.

[A]

It's way better if you got kids and you got parents, right? You just dump the photos of the kids and then the grandparents get them. It's like totally instant. Takes like two minutes to set up. It's got free unlimited storage. The photos look like real prints in the frame. You can send videos and photos from any device and they'll instantly appear in the frame wherever it is in the world. No memory cards required. It is all some save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com that's a U R A frames.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver matte frame using promo code tire at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code tire. This deal is exclusive to TST listeners, so get yours now in time for the holidays. Promo code tire terms and conditions apply. Now back to the show.

[B]

Oh, cool. There's a lot of weird stuff about it. It's kind of interesting. But the most interesting thing the MG is trying to do like a heritage tie in. Even though it's heritage. So on the side of the car, it's very small. But printed on the side of the car right in front of the rear wheels is the word Hundredth anniversary. Because the company was founded in 1924, they're skipping the 20 year period where it went into receivership, left British hands and is now in Chinese zone.

[A]

That's like being like, I bought this car for 25 grand, then I sold it for 21 grand and it only cost me 35 in between to maintain it. But I made money.

[B]

The best part though, the key fob is shaped like a teardrop. And apparently the intended shape of the key fob is some MG race car from the 60s. And it's a heritage play. Like for all the people who remember the mg, it's called like the flying teardrop or it has some famous historical name and they're trying to do this tie. Yes, the key fob is shaped just like that. As if there's.

[A]

You can't think of anything else you're supposed to do with things that are shaped like that.

[B]

They are desperately trying to tie into the heritage that they don't have because it's now a Chinese company.

[C]

And then people don't remember and the people that are buying an EV roadster aren't going to remember that this random land speed car existed.

[B]

Except I'm in the alley behind our office getting in the car and sitting on my camera as a dude walks up. He's like, mg, my son has an old one. I'm like, oh my God. God, you actually made the connection. I can't believe it.

[A]

That's crazy.

[B]

He's like, yeah, my son.

[A]

Here's my sons.

[B]

And he shows me like an old mgb. I'm like, wow.

[A]

So on a scale of actually pretty nice to actually this is pretty shitty. Where does this thing fall?

[B]

It depends on the name.

[A]

I'm so over the word cyber. Well, which is such a terrible name for anything, but.

[B]

Well, the other car, the other Chinese car review which is coming out soon is called the Xiaomi SU7. Would you prefer that name? Maybe the answer to how good the car is. Do you think the party leaders are watching? Do you think it was great?

[A]

In which country?

[B]

No, it wasn't so bad. Yeah, the drive wasn't amazing. It was fast. The drive wasn't amazing. The steering could definitely use some work. It looked awesome. Everybody who was in the car who was in the office was like, I.

[C]

Can'T believe this is the MG or the mg. Okay.

[B]

And the interior was like excellent. The materials are. We all think of Chinese stuff as like cheap, crappy stuff. That car was on par with.

[A]

I think it's probably fine. I mean, 10 years ago, I think. Yeah. But now they can probably Koreans a.

[B]

Long time to catch up. Oh, yeah, the Chinese are there. Like, if these cars didn't have 100% tariffs and crazy. Like I could see people buying these.

[C]

Parts for a lot of like, if they've been the supply suppliers for a lot of OEMs, they're literally just learning.

[A]

They can make a door card over there.

[C]

They can ramp things up much more quickly, Right?

[B]

Absolutely. And it's electric, so they're not engine development. There's not all that certification and stuff. Like the Xiaomi SU7. They told me Xiaomi was making cell phones in 21 and.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

And now they have a car which, by the way, set the four door Nurburgring laugh record.

[A]

Yeah, it did. But yes, the electrification of it has given them a major boost because they were building real garbage assets back when.

[B]

We did it in America. We had to do engines.

[A]

No, I mean, Those knockoff Lexus RXs and shit with those little garbage hamster engines. But okay, it's electric now, so there's a lot they've been doing that anybody.

[B]

Can just get a billion horsepower. In fact, the Xiaomi SU7i drove, which was called the Max, but was actually the mid trim model, had like 700 horsepower. There's an ultra that has like 1500 horsepower.

[C]

Do you want to hear something interesting? So today they announced. Ford announced today that the Mustang GTD. Yeah, the Nurburgring, in under seven minutes.

[A]

657.

[C]

It's like one of six cars, whatever, to do that. First American car, the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype, ran a 646. They were making phones three years ago.

[A]

Yeah, that's. That's crazy. Wow. I mean, even to go back to Korea, if you think about a 2005 Elantra, right. Versus a 2015 Elantra, think about the difference in car that you're talking.

[B]

Totally. Hyundai came in 86 and Kia came in 95. And. And it took them even in the mid 2000s. They were still playing ketchup. They obviously aren't anymore. And it was in that range, 2005-15. It happened in there that they like finally kind of. But it took them a while. The Chinese. I swear, if that SU7 was sold here today, it would be a successful car.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If people are willing to give Xiaomi the chance. I think naming is an issue.

[A]

It is an issue. It's like Hyundai and Kia.

[B]

That was already.

[A]

It was already. That's like pretty far out there for America, right? This is like. Starts with an X.

[B]

Like the fuck out of here, bro.

[A]

Well, down there.

[B]

They're down there in Mexico, though. I see them every single day with Mexican plates in San Diego. Yeah, Mexico. Chinese cars, they sell them down there. Yeah, people are buying them. Can we talk about the Countach? We can try. Okay. I have a Lamborghini Countach.

[A]

As do you.

[B]

You forced me to buy mine. Yeah.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

You were having so much fun. My co drive is great. I drive it all the time. It's been wonderful. Can you tell me what the current status is of yours?

[A]

Yeah, my complete powertrain is in Italy right now at a place called Top Motors, which is a family business that's been servicing Lamborghini engines since the 70s.

[B]

Why didn't you send it to Evans? Why don't you call George and just send the damn thing to Ohio? He's the man.

[A]

Because. Because here's why sending the entire car? I talked to a lot of people and several of them recommended George. The after all the math was done and everything, the where I landed was send the power train out and then keep the car local. Sending a disassembled car and a completely, completely dissembled car to Ohio is incredibly risky, very annoying and may or may not have actually resulted in a better situation than I'm in now.

[B]

So what is the latest. How is Top Motor doing on the boater?

[A]

So they've inventoried what I've sent and there are some things that are still missing. I had to go to Donny's. Right. And collect a disassembled car.

[C]

Yeah, I came back with a 250 GTO that was part of the Lambo.

[A]

And so I did the best I could but like there was shit. Every like look at a disassembled car and go, what's missing?

[B]

Especially if there's other disassemble cars there. Who knows what's part of this car.

[A]

So I did the absolute best I could but like some stuff was missing and so they have to find it and replace it. Some stuff. So there. The engine rebuild. It's engine transmission rebuild and what they call a semi Euro conversion. It's Euro cams. Euro exhaust.

[B]

You're taking off the fuel injection?

[A]

No, no, it stays fuel injection.

[B]

We feel that the emissions components are tremendously important.

[A]

Yes, they are. They're tremendously important and so they're. They, they. They're so important that they're going to come back in a box where they'll go on a shelf for the next.

[B]

25 minutes when downdraft carburetors because you have a QV it.

[A]

The. My understanding with from Top Motors is the I can have the reliability of injection and I can have the power of carb if I do this. That's how it works. That's what they say. So. Okay, that sounds good.

[B]

I will say people are so worried about carburetors, but my car starts every day.

[A]

No, no, I'm not worried about carburetors but I'm not going to go through the effort of converting the car for some incremental difference.

[B]

Yeah, but you have a round belly qv. It's a very special car. Yeah, it's just injected. If you downdrafted it, I'd have to. I'd be jealous of you again. I'd have to go get another downdraft myself.

[A]

The engine cover is specific to injection cars. It doesn't look like your engine.

[B]

I know you get a downdraft engine car. It's got like a power dome on.

[A]

It where you find a downdraft engine.

[C]

How many carburetors do you have? Does yours have six?

[B]

Mine has six.

[A]

Six, right? Yeah.

[C]

You gotta tune every one of those.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

With a hose pipe and a spoon. And he would do it downstairs.

[C]

He would definitely tune the way you tune your carburetors. But you have someone else assemble your office chair.

[B]

This chair's hard to do. I don't know. You gotta screw it.

[A]

I'm not motivated to convert it to carbs. But downdraft.

[B]

You could have a downdraft.

[A]

I know I could.

[B]

Harry Metcalfe. You could join. Harry, have I ever told you the Joe Psaki story of the downdraft? Did I tell you this last time?

[A]

Let me just tell you something about people that fucking snob injected countach owners. There are a few people who don't need to be named, but may have already been named that are literally the snobbiest fucking people on the planet who will fucking slide into your comments to point out that your countach is injected and somehow it's not as good as fucking theirs. And these people are the biggest losers. Imagine.

[B]

Okay, this is my joke psyche story and I've never told this story before. I actually like Joe. It's one of my all time. Clearly some. There are some different opinions, but I think this is one of my all time favorite stories. I did not come from a world where people have countaches. And so all of my friends have like M3s and S4s and the kind of cars that you have when you're my age and are into cars normally. And I called Joe Psaki when I was looking for my countach to say, I want a countach. He said, well, you have to buy a downdraft. He said, if you buy a downdraft, all of your friends will say, oh, he has a downdraft. Yeah, that's amazing. And I'm thinking to myself, my friends will be like, holy crap, you got a Lambo. There is no distinction made in my group of the people that I care about what they think that I have a downdraft versus an ass versus a low bot. You know, like nobody I know even could tell the difference. Now in Joe Sacchi's world, that may be true, but I don't care to be appreciated by that world. But he was like, if you have a downdraft, all of your friends will really. I'm like, no, they won't. They will not know. I could put a Chevy V8 back there. They'd be like, holy crap, you got a couple like that would.

[A]

Yeah, I don't. I agree. I totally agree.

[B]

Nonetheless, you could downdraft. The thing about it is. The thing about it is the best Countach is the round belly QV downdraft. Round belly QV downdraft.

[A]

So that's two of the three. I have two of the three. My car will make more power than a downdraft.

[B]

I know, but then you gotta tell that story. Whereas you see the engine lit and you just know life is telling car stories. Please tell me something now. Do I give a shit?

[C]

Also. Also, he'd have to tell the story to people who don't know the difference. Why he converted it from fi to ground drive.

[B]

Can I tell you something? If you had a downdraft, your friends would really appreciate this.

[C]

Is everyone trying to live through someone else's money?

[B]

That's what Joe did. That's what you're doing.

[C]

I do think the same thing.

[B]

The hilarious thing about the Countach thing is 99.9% of people don't have any clue even between an anniversary.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And are just like. They generally know that the early cars are special and more valuable.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But even between an anniversary and the one I have, they don't care. They're seeing a Countach and they're freaking out. And that's all they really care about.

[A]

Do they know that your car has less displacement than my car?

[B]

Right.

[A]

Did you. Do we ever talk about how they got that displacement in the engine? Which I learned from taking the engine out of my car.

[B]

Oh, God.

[A]

Folks, we gotta take a quick break. And the holidays are here and it's time. This is the best. This is the best gift for your parents, your grandparents, or other family members, particularly if they are not the most tech savvy. Right. It's weird to get them a tech adjacent gift. But the aura frames is perfect because it's tech, but it's easy and it doesn't require the person you give it to do much of anything. I've got my parents on the other coasts. I've got my siblings on the other coast. And Zach just got married and needed a way to effectively give photos to his parents and his new wife's parents. Aura frames dot com. It's the Carver Mat frames. Okay. Basically, here's how it works. You give them the frames frame. It's connected to an online account which you put pictures in the frames, then appear in their house. Did I describe that exactly right.

[C]

We did it. It was fairly simple. And we were able to give my mom this frame that just played wedding photos for her. We can add the photos. We can take them away. And we gave her access on the app and she can do it. She's text heavy enough to do that. But we were able to just curate this thing instead of printing a photo album that will sit on a table or any of that stuff.

[A]

It's way better if you got kids and you got parents, right? You just dump the photos of the kids and then the grandparents get them. It's like totally instant. Takes like two minutes to set up. It's got free unlimited storage. The photos look like real prints in the frame. You can send videos and photos from any device and they'll instantly appear in the frame wherever it is in the world. No memory cards required. It is all awesome. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com that's a U R A frames.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling carver matte frame using promo code tire at checkout. That's a U R A frames.com promo code tire. This deal is exclusive to TST listeners, so get yours now in time for the holidays. Promo code tire terms and conditions apply. Now back to the show. The block is the same.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

From the early cars from the 400s to all the way through. They literally add a spacer that's like an inch long.

[C]

Big, dude.

[A]

It's very thick. It just sits on top of where? Oh.

[B]

So instead of boring it, literally, it's just more. It's just higher.

[C]

It's a longer piston stroke.

[A]

It's just more. They just add a plate to make the cylinder longer.

[C]

I was there when they took the engine out and I was like, what is this? And Donnie's like, that's to give it more displacement. I was like, this is a huge. This is not a head gasket thickness.

[A]

No, no, no.

[C]

Half inch to an inch.

[B]

My car, you know, has been bored out, so. So what's up? You want power? I got power. Mofo. You're bored it like a Trans Am.

[A]

Your car got overboard.

[B]

My car's overboard.

[A]

Did George do that?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Apparently when the car came to him in 05, my car was owned by the same dude from 87 until he died in 2020.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So 30 years.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And apparently he took it to George for a major overhaul in 05. The car was getting.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Because it was $100,000 bill, right?

[B]

It was something like that. In 05.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And George was like the cylinder linings starting to wear like we can overboard. And then obviously that removes that wear and put in new pistons. So I got overboard engineering new pistons. What's up, Mopar?

[A]

How much displacement that is added? It's not usually much.

[B]

He said like 0.02 millimeter. I don't know what that translates to in terms of like.

[A]

So for comparison, when my good friend Larry Casilla, right back in the day, he bored out his Fox body Mustang to what they called 30 over and it went from 302. It was a very popular thing to do. It went from 302 cubic inches to 306. So it was a small amount, but like something, whatever something. So yeah, you probably got a couple milliliters.

[B]

In my case. It added power, he says, but more importantly, it added reliability. They put in new forged pistons, better pistons. And it's interesting because I think someday when I go to sell the car, that may be a demerit. But to me, who uses the car a ton, I'm. I totally happy.

[A]

Could also just not tell anybody.

[B]

Yeah, I don't.

[A]

Nobody would ever know. I know. So. So the update on the story.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I don't think I've talked about this on the podcast yet, is that Donnie is out of jail.

[B]

Donnie's out of jail.

[A]

So Donnie. The charges were dismissed against Donnie. So now does that necessarily mean he didn't do what he was accused of? No, not necessarily. Does it mean that he, quote, got off or beat the system? I think that is un. And the reason I think that is because Donnie was basically alone in a jail cell in Arizona. They seized his. His. His funds. He had no money. He couldn't pay a lawyer. And I know this because he was asking me for money in which I didn't give him. So he's public. It's public defender. The fact that. That he with no resources and a public defender got the charges dismissed, to me is an indicator that maybe despite the fact that he has kind of a shady past, maybe he didn't actually do what he's accused of.

[B]

But nonetheless, your car ain't going back to Donny.

[A]

It doesn't seem that way. It doesn't seem that way.

[B]

So that's.

[A]

I've made other plans.

[B]

Do we have an idea on ETA on this top motor situation?

[A]

No. Just like before with don't money, their ability to get work done is approximately commensurate with my ability to pay them. So if this gets dragged out for a couple months and I gotta trickle out some cash to Italy. That's okay. Instead of them sending me a bill and going here, by the way, it's $80,000 or whatever.

[B]

What do you think it's gonna be?

[A]

So I was told that if I had started with everything, meaning had they not had some parts not been missing, I was looking at around 50 for the engine and around 10 for the gearbox, plus shipping both ways. So it will be more than that because they've got to find some stuff.

[B]

Which is a shame because your cost basis in that car was so wonderfully low.

[A]

My cost basis is still very good.

[C]

This show is brought to you by SimpliSafe.

[A]

No, and I just, you know, like, you want to keep your Kunta for as long as you can physically drive it, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I feel exactly the same way about mine. I'm up. I think I'll always be up. So, like, whatever it takes to set it up to drive for the next 30 years, just do it. And I'll tear the bandaid off and we'll move on with our lives.

[B]

You considered overboard?

[C]

He's not.

[A]

No, bro, but really, I'm thinking about going downdraft.

[B]

You thinking about Joe said Joe Secchi will respect you then.

[A]

Thanks.

[B]

And the people in his circle will respect you.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

But then they'll tell you, well, his was converted. It wasn't his originally.

[A]

And of course, the guy doing my engine rebuild, of course, his name is Guido. Like, why wouldn't it be, you know?

[B]

Look at that SC30. You ever think about getting an SC30?

[A]

I've driven them. They drive really good.

[B]

I know. We had an SV at the office the other day.

[A]

We were selling SV drives, so.

[B]

Well, there are deals too.

[A]

What color was it?

[B]

Black. With the silver. Silver. Giant SV across.

[A]

We have a client at Westside Collector Car Storage that is a Diablo enthusiast.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

He has four and has got a fifth one on the way. He's got two SES, an SV and a 6.0. And it is two SE 30s. Two SE 30s.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Neither of which is purple.

[B]

That's a shame. The purple was the thing.

[A]

The purple was the thing. I respect the purple. You know what? Actually, the big money item On a Diablo SE30 is the bumpers. The front bumpers. They're made by hand. They don't exist. And they only made 30 and no spares. And so you can't.

[B]

There are some unusual. Like the wheels too, are only for that car, etc. But it's so cool.

[A]

But the front bumper is completely different from all other Diablos. And it's basically impossible to replace that.

[B]

It was the only one that had the badge in that. In that little spot there. And then the lower. Yeah, it's really not.

[A]

It's not. It's not my favorite Diablo front bumper.

[B]

I agree with that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But it's kind of the ultimate Diablo and I kind of want one, but I'm done with buying cars.

[A]

Are you. You're over. You're tapped out.

[B]

I haven't bought a car in 15 months except for Toyota Sequoia.

[A]

You're tapped out, huh?

[B]

Yup. It's over.

[A]

Are you. No. What? Like, are you. Have you reached the, like. I realized that I.6cars is all I can manage in my life.

[B]

Right? That's. And I got six.

[A]

Boom. That's it. Right. Beyond that, it becomes annoying.

[B]

We built a garage. I have been. Had a long construction project going on in my house that's just wrapping up this week. I don't have time. I can't do that. And plus I have the three greatest cars ever. And you need to. To get them also you need to.

[A]

Get a 4 GT and a career. I miss the Ford GT. You know my Ford GT story.

[B]

I do, but I got fucked. They still exist.

[A]

I know.

[B]

They're still out there.

[A]

So expensive.

[C]

Four times more expensive.

[A]

I know. So expensive.

[B]

Buying a 4gt is like buying bonds. It is going up at this rate. It's not going up at this rate. It's going up at this rate.

[A]

I know.

[B]

And it's always a store of value and you're always going to get out of it. I'm too.

[A]

I'm too sour about telling everybody to buy them in 2011. That's really what I could have had. A quicksilver, no stripe, 3,000 mile car for $110,000.

[B]

Well, you know, you screwed up, but sometimes we screw up. Dude, you know what I paid for my Countach. You're over here driving your $200,000 Countach. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, you did.

[B]

Life moves on. And I'll tell you something. There's a guy at Cars and Coffee who comes to our Cars and Coffee San Diego. He's got an F50. He told me he paid 800 for his F50. Had to be like strong armed into it. He really didn't want to spend that much. Now it's a $3 million car. There was a time when he could have got it for less. Right? When he could have got for 500. But he didn't start going, damn, I wish I had. And watched the Market go up. He bought.

[A]

Dude, the best time to buy a car is yesterday, right? Always. The best time to buy a car is always.

[C]

And the second best time is tomorrow. Because, hey, today. Today would have been better.

[A]

I'll just come out and say, I don't have 400 grand.

[B]

Doug, Matt, you've got 400 grand. I saw the spread in Venice Living it. Talked all about your lust industrious balconies.

[A]

And there's a passage in paragraph three. Mr. Farah, who has 400 grand sitting in his checking account, has built the beautiful building.

[B]

No, it's just borrow against stuff. That's no problem. That's what.

[A]

Yes, leverage that Ford gt. Leverage a Ford gt, no problem. I mean, yours. And you put a lot of miles on it. And Carl put a lot of miles on it.

[B]

I got it from car with 31,000 miles, and it's now at 43. I've had it for six years.

[A]

That's good.

[B]

So I've driven an average 2,000 miles a year. It's pretty good, especially cause I'm not here in the summer. So I'm only here nine months out of the year.

[A]

Have you had to replace anything unexpected?

[B]

My car has been dead reliable.

[A]

Cause I heard. I mean, obviously the powertrain is stout as shit, but I've heard, like, the tax stops working and then it's like five grand to fix it.

[B]

It hasn't been expensive. My fuel gauge has failed right now.

[A]

Oh, it is.

[B]

Which is not ideal.

[C]

The fuel. Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Not great, right?

[B]

It's actually working suboptimal.

[C]

That seems like one of the most important gauges in that car.

[B]

It's more important than you realize, especially because you don't drive very often. Because it's like right now, E is full. It's still working. Like, it hasn't completely stopped, but it's just shifted. And so right now, E is full, but it looks empty. I mean, like, you're looking at that. You're like, I don't know, I'm not gonna try. So you go to the gas station, you put in a gallon and a half. And no, that was full. But so I took it to Palm Springs. And that's a problem? Yeah, it's like, I don't know, but.

[A]

That should be doable in one tank right there.

[B]

And then I filled it there and drove it home. And then I filled it at home. Like I filled it all the time now.

[A]

Well, this is what I do with my countach, because my gauge, it moves, but I don't know what it's saying, what does yours do?

[B]

Well, does your car. Two fuel tanks. Oh, yeah.

[A]

So how do you fuel your car?

[B]

I just fill up one of them, and then I fill it up a half tank. And then I end up filling it up all the time because that car is impossible to fill up. It's the worst car in the history of the world to fill up. Because the thing. Well, this is true of all old cars now in California. The little vapor lock thing over the right. And so I sit there and the other day, a quarter gallon of gas ended up on the ground. And I'm like, I'm glad they're catching the vapor.

[A]

So what I do, or what I did up until 18 months ago, is you fill it until it clicks, and then you let it go and you wait three minutes for it to flow to the other tank.

[B]

I would do that. I just don't drive the car so much that I'm cool with filling it only half tank. And then occasionally I will say my car gets unbelievably bad fuel mileage. I don't know about yours. I've never been able to fully fill the tank, which you can really do, which full is.

[A]

So I can't tell.

[B]

But just based on, like, how many miles I'm driving and how many gallons I'm putting in, I truly believe I'm getting four miles per gallon. Ish. I think a start in that car, the carbureted V12 start is, you know, what's really efficient.

[C]

Fuel injection is great for miles.

[A]

My car is not that important.

[B]

If I did fuel injection, Joe seemed.

[C]

To me Joe would. He wouldn't invite you to Christmas. He wouldn't invite you to dinner. Expect me, I know.

[B]

As it is, I already have an overboard car with aftermarket pistons.

[C]

You can barely even call it a countach at this point.

[A]

When I had first bought the car, I drove it to Palm Springs and back on. Not Palm Springs, excuse me, Santa Barbara. And back on one tank, which is about 200 miles.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And I. And it. And it. Once you're like, you know, cruising in fifth on the highway. It's fine in town. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

It's not good.

[B]

And I only really ever drive it in town. Cause I take it to work. I drive it to work every. Almost every day.

[A]

Do you?

[B]

My commuter.

[A]

Imagine good.

[B]

Imagine you're driving down the freeway and I could like. I think I'm the only one in San Diego who's got one. I've never met anybody else. We've never had another one. Show up at any local show. It's never. Maybe there's one like. Like festered away, so no one's ever seen one. And so it's a huge deal driving the thing around. People freak.

[A]

I mean, people. People freak, even.

[B]

Oh, of course.

[A]

It's not like you see them in LA all the time. No.

[B]

When I lived in Atlanta, there were two that would, like, be around occasionally. And I remember just freaking then. And I can't believe I didn't think about, like, this is a 150 car. I should buy it. I didn't have 150, but I could have beg, borrowed and stolen because it was so clear that there was so much interest in the car relative to what it cost. And it's insane that they were ever that affordable.

[A]

Yeah, influencers are. And I don't mean quote influencers. I mean people in our community of influence are jumping on the Jaguar XJS bandwagon real hard right now.

[B]

What?

[A]

Harris just bought one. Chris Harris bought one. Magnus is doing his TWR thing. I fucking talked for six months.

[B]

I talked for six months. Okay, so Chris Harris, a known British person, bought one. That doesn't count.

[C]

Well, the question is also, will Chris keep it for longer than six months? A year. And I say it cause he likes to move through cars, have the experience and move on. I think it's different where people buy Countach. It seems like everyone keeps it for 15, 20 years.

[B]

Except Stradman. Can we talk about Stradman? You don't consume so much content. I'm also.

[A]

No, and I don't know him personally. No, and I don't know him personally.

[B]

I'll get you up to speed.

[A]

I know who he is.

[B]

Stradman's this guy. He lives in Utah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He's seen the house he makes carving. Okay. He built a house that was like 10,000 square feet. It's done. It's all good. Everything's fine. He just did a house. Half of it is actually unfinished. The basement was never finished. The stair risers, some of them still are plywood. There's a second kitchen where nothing is hooked up.

[A]

Oh, no.

[B]

And the whole thing shocks me. But anyway, he's selling his Countach, but he's got an 88 and a half. With the little side skates.

[A]

Yeah, the side skates. I don't like those.

[B]

Look at this Joe Secchi stuff over here.

[A]

That's the hill I'm dying on, is extraneous body kits designed by Horatio Pagani. That's where.

[B]

Well, Pagani did just the Annie. He did the anniversary, which actually looks better than the side straight cars to be totally.

[A]

The side street cars are very mismatched. They don't fucking work.

[B]

It was like the 09 Mercedes SL facelift where they facelifted the front and not the rear. Which was.

[A]

Which was. Let's just do half this one. It was an unusual design. Side strikes don't do it for me. I don't like 88 and a half. My car's the end. It stopped. They built mine and then went, guys, we can't do any better than this. Let's fuck it up a little bit.

[B]

You're not wrong, though. I know a round belly QV is kind of the dream. Harry has the downdraft. You have yours.

[A]

Yeah, Harry. And my cars are all.

[B]

I love that. Minus white.

[A]

White is great. If your interior black, though.

[B]

My interior is black.

[A]

Yeah. So you don't want a white interior.

[B]

Yeah, that's the thing. White, white. White sells for more and is cool in theory, but I hear that it wears poorly.

[A]

The fucking white leather. Because they bleached it. That's how they made it white. It cracks like crazy. They just dried it all out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

My black interior looks. Looks nice.

[A]

My tan. I think tan ages the best of the. Of the interiors. But either way, if you're going to go. If you're not going to go red, gold like mine, then white or some of the blues. There was a couple blues that were the one at pebble this year. The light blue was unbelievable.

[B]

I've never seen a bad color on the car because it wears weird colors.

[A]

Well, did you see that yellow 88 and a half that Ivanhoe we sold? You sold it. That was not my favorite.

[B]

The brown interior wasn't what I would have done.

[A]

It was not my favorite. I wonder what that. What did that car go for?

[B]

Pull it up, Zach. I think it sold for six cars and beads cars. Yeah, just type in.

[A]

It wasn't like a. It was. It brought like a pretty decent number.

[B]

It was an eight. It was an 88 and a half. And it was a US car sale.

[A]

There was 675.

[B]

That's a pretty decent number, you know.

[A]

In that photo, which is like super hdred up it actually. The richness of the yellow. I.

[B]

Never mind. I actually reviewed this car. I was there in person with it. I never minded the exterior color, but the interior yellow on brown is not. I wouldn't call that the ideal spec. If I was. If I was personally.

[A]

Can you. Can I see the interior? Zach, scroll down. Whoever shot this did a very nice job.

[B]

Yeah, well, Ivanhoe does the best, you know.

[A]

Oh, did. Was this Ivanhoe guy do it or something?

[C]

Yeah, that's.

[A]

That is chocolate.

[B]

There are some angles where it's. Where it's.

[C]

When the sun hits that it's not. It's gonna look worse.

[A]

That's not great.

[B]

It's pretty brown.

[A]

Yeah, it's brown. Brown. Okay. But still, 675 is pretty decent number.

[B]

Yeah. For a U.S. car. For a stupid, ugly, fuel injected.

[A]

Fuel injected car thing. That's the combination of the tan carpet too. It's like not the. It's not the brown magic. Okay, so Countach's.

[B]

I'm done buying cars. I did buy a Toyota Sequoia. Have we talked about this?

[A]

No, but I saw.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Why did you buy a Toyota Sequoia?

[B]

I needed a car that could both my family and a lot of other people and go off road. I'm the only person in the world who has this requirement, apparently because no one else has bought those cars. But are you coming to tell you a couple interesting things about it?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The TRD Pro Sequoia. Like no one buys them.

[C]

It's like a bizarre.

[A]

I've never seen.

[C]

I've met. You're the only person that has a family and goes off road. And I was like, hold the fuck up.

[B]

You know what? I thought that more people did that, but it turns out a lot of people don't like to go off roading with their infants and toddlers. And I'm like, come on.

[A]

For you, off roading is a Nantucket Beach.

[B]

But I'm. They're like.

[A]

And every day, I'm not taking away from it, I'm just specifying the type.

[B]

Of offer with a regular. People get stuck. I may have gotten the G Wagon stuck this summer. But anyway, here's a true fact for you. A factory option, the Sequoia TRD Pro dealer installed option, is a locking gun safe in the center console.

[A]

Yes. Which you got.

[B]

No, I bought a new one. But when I was looking at used ones, they were all the ones in Texas had the gun safes in them.

[C]

Ford started offering that a few years ago. I don't know if they were first, but I remember it because I drove one that. That had it and. But these are made in Texas, I believe.

[B]

They're made in Texas.

[A]

Yeah. GM has the thing where the screen drops down. You just hide the fucking piece right behind it.

[B]

You agree that's what that's for?

[A]

Yes. Or weed gets guns every time.

[B]

I'm in cars and there's like weird things like that. I'm like, this is where people are gonna hide some stuff that they don't want. The law enforcement officials.

[C]

Sure.

[A]

Yeah. Have you ever seen that one that replaces your headrest with a safe. Just Google head car headrest, gun safety.

[C]

There's a Planned Parenthood in one. Whatever.

[A]

But is the Sequoia good?

[B]

No. What are you talking about? They're all bad. You ever been in a giant suv? You ever driven a Tahoe?

[A]

Yeah, they're not good.

[B]

They're all trucky and ponderous. And I was gonna come here and I was like. I just really.

[A]

But this replaced the Defender.

[B]

I guess. I don't know. I'm done with cars. I'm not buying any more cars as long as I live.

[C]

I don't believe you.

[A]

I don't believe you.

[B]

Okay. I'll still buy daily drivers.

[A]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

But how am I.

[C]

Are there no other interesting cars you.

[A]

Like A Ford GT could. I don't know how you could.

[B]

It's over.

[A]

I really don't know how you could. Unless you got like fastback Mustang. The only spin I might put on that is a. The manual 575 that you were looking at downstairs would be a nice one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Although you're more Ferrari. You're more than willing to road trip your not such GT cars. So maybe you don't need a GT car.

[B]

I'm missing Ferrari. I really wanted an after. Didn't happen. And now it's never going to happen.

[A]

You just borrow. Get one today. Just borrow.

[B]

I probably should have done that, but years ago.

[A]

Yeah. When they were 1.2, that would have been the time to borrow. I know there was a time.

[B]

There was a time. They were 250.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What were we thinking?

[A]

I don't know. That one was pretty obvious.

[B]

Courage T2. Honestly.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The second owner, Microt paid 303 and it's now worth a million too. And I did the math and I think that if you had the Courier GT outperformed the S P, even including servicing, repairs, maintenance, insurance and fuel.

[A]

Not often that happens.

[B]

No. No, it's not usually cars are an investment. Yeah, but like you don't lose money if you're lucky.

[A]

There's probably.

[B]

That one was actually an investment.

[A]

There's like 10, 15 cars in the history of cars that have outperformed the S and P. Not a lot.

[B]

It's very rare.

[A]

McLaren the Clarine F1. Ferrari F50. Ferrari GTO. If you held it long enough.

[B]

Why don't we have f 50s?

[A]

Why don't we have f 50s? I can think of one reason.

[C]

Because you spent all your money on these other cars.

[B]

I want an F50s so bad. You ever driven?

[A]

Yeah, they're great. Yeah.

[B]

Had one.

[A]

Who? Oh, yes. Oh, we. Yes. On the last show, we did evaluate Assad's car collection. What did you think?

[B]

Pretty trash. Except for that F50, which you got to assume is in danger. I mean, if some dudes taking cell phone video in like a Sentra or driving through the warehouse, someone's going home with that.

[C]

I think brokers saw that video and they're trying to make calls to friends that are in the Defense Department. Like, can you connect me with someone on the ground? No, that's happening.

[B]

No, I totally agree with that. But that's a process that's going to take time. And looters. Right.

[A]

The rebels are like, you know what? I've never driven an F50.

[C]

Someone watches our channels, but also lives there.

[B]

You know, what the hell, though? Like, that car couldn't have been maintained. Like, no, it couldn't.

[A]

I bet you it's been sitting for 15 years doing that.

[B]

Was the thing about the F40 in Iraq, like, it had like a, like a, like a video game steering wheel. Like, they, you can't. No one, you can't.

[A]

No one can get parts. Yeah.

[B]

Like, a lot of the countries that could be dealing with, like, won't. You just can't. Straight up, can't do it.

[C]

What's the dealer network like in Syria?

[A]

Right.

[B]

So what even is the closest dealership network?

[A]

What is the dealer network?

[B]

Closest dealership is probably Istanbul, which is countries away.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And even then, when is the Istanbul Ferrari dealership had a lot of time with the F50. And even then, like, what are the, you know, what are the rules about other countries dealing with Syria? Like Turkey, maybe, I don't know.

[A]

It's right.

[C]

What are the Ferrari dealership sanctioning rules? Like, if Putin needs his scar surface.

[B]

Remember when Toyota, when they like, called Toyota before Congress to explain why so many military groups were driving Toyota? Like, how are these getting these?

[A]

They're very durable, sir.

[C]

And Toyota was like, car theft exists in your country.

[A]

And you saw the photo dump of the Brunei shit. Right? Everybody sent me that.

[B]

Let me tell you something, like 30.

[A]

People sent me that.

[B]

I don't want to get into it on this show because it would take the rest of the show. But all I think about is Brunei. All I think about is Brunei.

[A]

So you're not buying Cars. But if, if a Brunei Bentley came up, you would be in the game.

[B]

I just do. You know, I did a deep dive on it and one of the things I discovered was that Prince Geoffrey, who ordered all the cars is generally agreed to have spent $14.8 billion. And I read an Atlantic article going through the whole thing and one of the things it said was he has probably spent more money than any other living, than any other human being in.

[A]

The history of humanity on cars or just in general.

[B]

In total, he bought crazy stuff. And you know, we also calculated they had 7,000 cars during the period. It wasn't that long that they were doing this. Ten years, eight years. We calculated he was buying three cars a day.

[C]

Oh my God.

[B]

People are like, I can't believe these cars have no miles. It's like, of course they have no miles. What was he gonna do? Three cars a day on average? I mean, who knows?

[A]

Think how long it takes to buy a car. Now you're trying to buy a car that doesn't exist. You're calling Bentley three times a day and going, and now a convertible.

[B]

Right?

[C]

Cocaine.

[A]

And now an suv.

[B]

Was cocaine involved?

[C]

It had to be the pace of those phone calls for custom cars that made some sense and no sense. They had to be just drug addled consumers.

[B]

Absolutely crazy. Now to be fair, a lot of the car, most of the cars were not Ferrari one off Ferrari station wagons. It was. They bought hundreds and hundreds of Bentley black Bentleys that they probably just were like, give me 100. That was one phone call.

[A]

Send a rack.

[C]

We crashed 10.

[B]

But like, what the hell, you know, one of the other interesting.

[A]

Look at that.

[B]

You know what that is?

[A]

That is the best Ferrari 328 in the history.

[B]

That's a Testarossa. That's the 90.

[C]

That is not good looking.

[B]

There are some hain cars.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Cause Pin and Freena in the 90s was like, you got money. It was like we were maybe mentioning before your credit card clears.

[A]

Yeah, you can do whatever you want.

[C]

I imagine that this, the buyer had some influence. They were like, you know, make it rounder. And Pinfrin's like, okay, you know, it doesn't look good, but sure.

[B]

You know what I loved though? All the cars are right hand drive. Cause it's a right hand drive country. Except the Bugatti EB110S. Left hand drive. Bugatti was like, can't do it. No matter how much money you have, we physically cannot do it. That was Italian Bugatti. You know, when the EB110 was. They were like, we just don't. We just don't have the capability. Sorry. We don't care how rich you are.

[C]

That.

[A]

Yeah, that one. Zach. That car or one exactly like it was parked right next to me at the hotel at pebble beach this past year.

[B]

So a few of The Venices, the 456 Venice estates, there were Venice sedans and Venice Estates. A few of the Venice Estates didn't make it to Brunei.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so that one, which is right hand drive was initially so good looking. It was in the UK for years and then it went to someone in the United States.

[A]

It was a really good looking car actually.

[B]

Ferrari should have made it.

[C]

Do you still have your or Mercedes wagon?

[B]

I still do. It's greatest car I've ever owned.

[C]

I was gonna say if you need a wagon and you need a Ferrari, put them together.

[B]

I wonder what that would cost though, because the 456 is not the best car. But like it's a one kind of a one. There were 10 of them. Like, what would. What's a number? I don't know. I would just. I would want it so much.

[A]

I want it so cool.

[B]

I just think if I was. If I had endless money, I too would commission.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah, well.

[A]

And people are like, no, I wouldn't do.

[B]

If you were spending $14 billion after the first billion, you'd be like, all right, the stuff that's out there isn' doing it for me anymore.

[A]

Yeah, you would very quickly get there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, and, and you can, you know, Rolls Royce is doing the boat tail and Ferrari will do this shit today.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

They're doing it today. You can go fucking get.

[B]

Not on the scale. That's the thing that's so insane. I mean they would if you came to him, but it's amazing that he had not like, like what's his name had like Clapton had. Clapton had the one off.

[A]

Which is cool.

[B]

They had hundreds of like, think about that.

[A]

No, the volley. And they were proper up the OEMs, rolls and Bentley.

[B]

As soon as, as soon as it all went south for Brunei. Rolls and Bentley, when, yeah, they went.

[A]

To Volkswagen and BMW. We can't do this.

[B]

Why weren't we born from an oil rich oligarchy?

[A]

I don't know, but we really should have been. How come 40s and f.50s.

[B]

Oh, it's crazy.

[C]

GT Ferraris. Wow.

[B]

We should be part of this. Why was our life not like this?

[A]

Why did we suffer so much? It's so fucking cool.

[B]

McLaren F1.

[A]

What's. What's happening? And I mean, you guys are your. Your cars and bids podcast now, which. We got a podcast, which is good. Seems nice. And do you like podcasting?

[B]

Yeah, we do it like a quick, easy. We don't do guests. Is very different situation than this is like a deep dive. People have fun and do things. We do like news.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What's going on in the market?

[A]

Well, that's. That's where I was going with that. What's going on in the market?

[B]

I don't know, but Focus RSS are cheap. One of them sold for like 20 the other day.

[A]

Really? Yeah, that's. I mean, that's cheap. But also I sold mine, so I had a. I had a 17 Focus RS that I sold with 16,000 miles in 18 for 27 grand. So if someone bought that car for 27 grand and sold it for 26 years later, it's actually very good.

[B]

Yeah. The. Nonetheless cars are dropping again, which is. As an enthusiast, as a purveyor of automobiles, I wish for another bubble. And I hope that, however, as an enthusiast, it's kind of fun. You know, i8s are under 40, and I know that nobody likes the i8, but like.

[A]

Yeah, but at 30 grand price. 30 grand. That's got butterfly doors, bro.

[B]

Right. There's a price where you starting to think, could I turo this?

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Like. Like some of these cars are starting to get cheap. Plaids are in the 50s, which is wild for that level of power.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

The other day I drove an Aston Martin Valkyrie. You wear this car.

[A]

You drove a Valkyrie?

[B]

I drove an Aston Martin Valkyrie in Orange county in Newport Beach.

[A]

A customer's car.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. And dude, I'll tell you something. We got up next to a C63 and that dude was having the reaction.

[A]

He's like, what is.

[B]

I give us one of these on the road.

[A]

Holy crap. Fit in it?

[B]

Barely.

[A]

Yeah, barely.

[B]

Like, just like this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That car cost four and a half million United States dollars. Oh, okay. Here's a Valkyrie. Here's a Valkyrie fact that you'll absolutely digest. I didn't post it yet. Got it anywhere. I'm keeping it quiet.

[A]

Except I'm announcing right now, right now.

[B]

Aston Martin Valkyrie in order to service it in the United States. One service point in New York. That's it. I asked.

[A]

It's at Miller.

[B]

It's at Monticello.

[A]

Oh, it's at Monticello Motor Club. Is there. Oh, wow.

[B]

Or nearabouts. Yeah, they told me that put the.

[A]

Service center at Monticello.

[B]

They told me the car is so difficult to service that if you took it to an Aston dealer that only like 2% of the components on the car could even be removed using the tools a typical Aston Martin dealer has. If you get a flat tire in order to jack up the car, there are front and rear jacking points and a specialized custom built jacking tool that the car has. And you have to use that and the Aston dealers don't have it. It's only in New York. So if you're driving the car in LA and you get a flat, you.

[A]

Ship it with a flat to New York.

[B]

Yes. I asked the owner of the car who has a YouTube channel, Supercar Ron, is this. I asked him what about this? He was like, well, I got a plane, I got a couple planes. He's like, I'm used to maintenance. But like, damn.

[A]

Wow. When I went to Laguna Seca for the Hypercar Invitational and I got a in the Valkyrie pro with Andy Prio, who was their test driver, who's a phenomenal driver, we did a five lap run, at which point I almost shat myself and threw up. And I got out of the car and I go, this is the dumbest car in the history of the world. Because literally nobody can drive this. This is like. It's not even like you need to be a pro. It's like you need to be a pros pro.

[B]

It is exceptionally compromised.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And there's a procedure to start it. You know about this.

[A]

I don't. Because the race car's different. The race car doesn't mean the hybrid shit in it.

[B]

Well, getting in it. Like there's all these things that have to be like, you turn this to this and this turns on and you have to wait till you hear this and then you do this and then you press this and it's like four minutes and so you're leaving. You know, you're leaving cars of coffee. Someone's come up to you trying to steal you. They're trying to shoot you. You're like, hey, wait a minute.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Now that doesn't usually happen in the world where the Valkyrie owners live. But anyway, here's a great. Here's another good.

[A]

And if it did, they would definitely go online and be like, you can't enjoy your nightstands anywhere at all. I can't drive my five million dollar car to dinner without somebody wanting to steal it. With zero reflection of what kind of a society they've built for themselves. Right, sorry. Continue.

[B]

Ain't that the truth.

[A]

I can't wear my Richard Mille to Spago because somebody might want to steal it. Says the guy who fucking underpays his employees by fucking thousands of dollars a month.

[B]

This is all fairly accurate.

[A]

PPP loans paid them back.

[B]

No PPP loans.

[A]

That was wild.

[B]

I could go for days on the subject of PPP loans.

[C]

Stimulus checks.

[A]

So it takes five or six.

[C]

That is my. That is a lie. That makes me very upset. Like, $1,600 total for people. And people were like, they're still riding those, like, three years later.

[A]

You got one month rent, homie.

[C]

You got one Twinkie a day.

[A]

You're out of money.

[B]

It was all PPP loans. All the inflation which was blamed on President Biden was all PPP loans, which were bipartisanly agreed upon. And it turned out to be a terrible idea. Managed terribly. All the reason cars have gotten expensive is because people blew.

[A]

People scamming their government gave all those loans.

[B]

A lot of those businesses never even closed. I could go for days about this. I am so upset about PPP loans anyway. I think it is so annoying. You know, my accountant came to me, Here's a little Doug factoid for you. I'm gonna toot my own horn. My accountant came and said, you know, you qualify, you could get PPP loan. And I told him I didn't think it was American. And I was like, I'm not gonna do it. My business did not suffer. It is not suffering. I can keep paying my people, and I'm not doing it.

[A]

Boom.

[B]

And I didn't also turn.

[A]

Turned them down. Westside opened three months after they gave the loans. I probably would have taken it from Westside.

[B]

Well, maybe you would have had to. But I didn't. And so I know a lot of people took them, and they didn't.

[A]

We qualified at the Smoking Tire for loans which I did not take. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I mean, my business did well. You know, people were watching stuff.

[A]

Yeah, no, it was fine.

[B]

People were on the Internet watching stuff.

[A]

We did not need the money, and I didn't take it. But later I found out that other people did not need the money, took it and bought G Wagons and never paid it back.

[B]

And the government forgave it. The government made that possible. The people who are scammers are not even that much of scammers. The government was complicit, and then they blamed anyway. Okay, we'll move on.

[C]

Is this car what you get just below the Sultan of Brunei calling and ordering custom cars? Because if the motivation of him was Everything that's available to the public is boring. I need more to get.

[A]

I guess.

[B]

I guess.

[A]

So.

[C]

You have this crazy thing that no one can drive, but it's the only thing that is special when hypercars are easy to drive around and so prevalent.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Yeah. And that scares me because there's a huge tide of cars that are being made right now just to make rich people feel special. Do you know that new Countaches trade under msrp?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, there are, like, it's very important.

[A]

If billionaires aren't entertained, they start buying governments. And so. And so what you have to do is make sure that your billion are sufficiently distracted enough to buy enough to do. Let them go to space. That might keep them from. Let's just call it musking. I just worry about deciding they want to buy a government.

[B]

As a car enthusiast, when I was a kid, there was one car that cost a million bucks, the Veyron. And it was a purposeful thing. It cost a million bucks because it had an enormous engineering effort behind it. And the Countach was a special car. Not because they wanted a toy for rich guys to feel special. It was the best they could do, and they made as many of them as they could, which wasn't many these days. There are these, like, fake limited cars that only come out truly to make rich guys feel special. I bought my Countach from a guy like this who sold the Countach to make room for, like, a Senna and a new Countach. And all these cars that are kind of bs, to be honest. And I think it's all just kind of pathetic. Like, I see some of these collections on Instagram that are, like, trying to. And it's like you're just buying new stuff that has no intrinsic value in my mind.

[A]

Well, a lot of these companies, they're selling cars to the same couple hundred people, and it's not. Well, do you buy a Pago or a Koenigsegg? You're getting both, and then you're getting the next one of both, and then.

[B]

You get in the market as it's been. They've generally been able to get out of the cars and make money.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so for them, it's been like, oh, well, I think that's gonna start changing when you have 18 different $2 million cars. You know that the Lamborghini dealer in Newport beach has stock pit infarina Batistas just sitting on ground unsold. It's a $2.5 million car.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's not a good situation.

[C]

It's a good looking car too, but it is, it did go up.

[A]

I know a person whose name won't be named, who bought and then sold his Nevera and took a seven figure bath on it in six months. It's the worst depreciation I've ever heard of.

[B]

Yay.

[A]

Seven figures in six months.

[B]

I just think in order to justify a car at that price level, and actually I think Valkyrie is a car at that price level that I could justify. It's insane to drive and not really operable, but at least it's special. Like when I get behind the wheel of that car, I feel like that is an experience I can't get anywhere else.

[A]

That's what Jethro said as well. And because he drove it, he actually, he drove Aston Martin's car for four days in England. Jethro did. And I was like, was that awful? And he was like, yes, but it was uniquely awful.

[B]

Yeah, it's like how I feel about the Countach people. Like, isn't it terrible? It's like, well, you don't get it. Like, it's a different. It's a special experience. And that's what that car offers. It is not what the new Countach offers or what the Lamborghini Sian or all of these other Vs. Do you.

[C]

Think the problem then that like, because the Senna to me is a very. It's a high performance automobile, it's a decent track car. It's just an uprated version of existing platform they had. Now, do you think that it's not special enough or purpose built enough, or do you think it just has too many lookalikes to put it.

[B]

Senna may be okay. I think Sene is very unique and purpose built is probably a bad example. But the ones that I'm thinking of, SF90, for example, that car is those things that is not special enough, it is not purpose built enough. It's just not ringing the bell. And that's clearly been proven by fact that they're selling sticker at 800. On the used market, they're 380.

[A]

Yeah, they took it. Yikes. Yeah, yeah, they're not great.

[B]

Right. And at some point people are gonna rebel against that. And then Ferrari's got a little problem on their hands. Because if their top clients stop buying the cars that lose money, you know, they've got to figure out how to get the cars that make money. But if they're losing more money in the cars than they're making, then they got anyway.

[C]

It's tough because the performance of. Let's call it the base cars. 296 is so good, so fast, etc.

[B]

I would literally rather have a 296. I think the.

[A]

I'd rather have a 296 than.

[B]

I think from a view usable perspective, I think they're the same. Maybe one of them is a little quicker. SF9 might be a little quicker, but like you'll never.

[A]

It's. Dude, it's like the 296 does like a 9, 8 quarter mile and the SF90 does like a 9, 6. It's not hugely different. And the Ferrari was the only rear wheel drive car that road and track ever tested to run a nine. Factor. Yeah. First car to. First car to ever do it.

[B]

Speaking of cars that run nines, yesterday I shot the ZR1. They didn't let me drive it, but I shot it.

[A]

Really?

[B]

I shot around it. You seen that wing?

[A]

It's big.

[B]

It's big.

[A]

You know that.

[C]

The.

[A]

You know that.

[B]

Are you aware that they had their president do the 233mile an hour run?

[C]

Yeah, they did. Pretty cool.

[A]

Same.

[B]

He's just a guy.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, isn't he also the guy who crashed the car in the warm.

[C]

Up lap down at Long Beach?

[A]

Yeah, it was Royce, right? Yeah, yeah. He crashed a C7 while leading a pace lap at Long Beach.

[C]

There's like, there's a weird bump in the crest thing and I think he.

[A]

Just flipped the car.

[B]

Yeah. The car gets wide. It doesn't even hit anything else. It just like he comes over a crest or something and hits and it gets a little loose and then it.

[A]

I mean, the new ZR1 is the logical conclusion of GM doing the thing that now everybody else is doing. Right.

[B]

You know, this car is 1064 horsepower, which we needed. The thing about the Corvette though, I.

[A]

Drove the Z06 and I went, you.

[B]

Know what I'm thinking?

[A]

Like we need like 400 more horsepower.

[B]

We need another Corvette on top that they like. Top. Top speed was a thing like no one talks about top speed anymore. Veyron and Chiron and all those Konix took all that off the table. Yeah, it's kind of cool that like that's like 233 is not the fastest car in the world, but it ain't.

[C]

Slow very high because most supercars, it's 205, 206. And then there's these other echelon where it's 268.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But 266, there's usually a Difference in.

[A]

Tires and iteration and aero to able.

[B]

To just have a guy do it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And Mark Royce ultimately is a guy. Like he's not a race car driver. Right. It's harder than people think to drive 233 miles an hour even though you're going dead straight.

[C]

But I would wager that someone like him and like someone like the chassis engineers that work at GM and other places, like they have all the levels of driver training. Some of them will probably practice it a couple of times.

[A]

Before they hit.

[C]

The red button on the camera. They're like, just make sure you don't hit anything this time.

[B]

Right. There's some key man risk there. If he dies.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Or has an incident.

[A]

That car to me is not necessarily designed desirable because the roads that I drive on. Right. They're the same.

[B]

Yeah. But you could impress people. You continue to miss the Joe Sacky point. You can impress people.

[A]

Take off the turbos carburetors. Downdraft.

[B]

Oh man. Sacky be all over that turbo fed carburetor.

[C]

There you go.

[A]

You got an angry email after this.

[B]

I love Joe.

[A]

Had it coming, buddy. No.

[B]

He sells Twitty GT Joe. I actually legitimately do like him. I feel bad. I just. There is an echelon of car collectors that would look down on you for not having a downdraft.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And I never. Or like your 300 SL doesn't have rudge wheels. And I never want to be part of that echelon of car collectors. I want to be part of.

[A]

I would pack up and move if someone talked to me like that.

[B]

Totally get the. I just find that stuff too be silly. Like if you're at a level of wealth where you have to distinguish yourself.

[C]

But that's exactly. That's what it is. They have to separate themselves because they go, well, now there's too many people in the Countach club. Well, you're not really in the club because I have made this new tier.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You got an injected car. Ew.

[A]

Clearly you couldn't afford the good one. Right.

[B]

And that's exactly how those people operate. There's some of those people.

[A]

I am very excited to get my car back and start driving it. I really. I know it is and I've got other shit to drive. But I really.

[B]

If ever had that car, you'd be driving it.

[C]

Today someone asked, are you going to go to Donnie's garage and ask Donnie to give you the parts that you are missing?

[A]

Or I have already purchased, texted Donnie the list of missing parts. And I Said, look man, it would be a big favor to me if you can find any of this. And he said, I just got back to my place. It's a disaster in here. I don't know where anything is. I've been gone, but I'll try. That's what he said.

[B]

Interesting. How much do you. How many is it? A lot of parts? Yeah.

[A]

You want to see the list?

[C]

The part I mean. The parts. You may know the parts are not inexpensive. A washer is dollars.

[B]

Is it. Is it big stuff?

[A]

Probably.

[B]

One of the cool things about the car, the engine transmission are connected. So if you got one, you got the other.

[C]

That's true.

[B]

It's all one big.

[C]

I was amazed at the language.

[A]

Okay, let's see.

[B]

We've.

[A]

There's. There mostly little things. So. Camshaft sprockets, lower connecting rods, valve co nuts for valve covers. Chain tensioner wheels. Chain tensioner bolts. Differential. Check. Control injector retainers. Water pump. I sent the water pump. I don't know why they didn't but. Injection enrichener injectors.

[B]

We're going to go to your air pump, get the parts again and then send them to Asia and then send them to China. Even less stuff will happen.

[A]

Intake and exhaust valves.

[C]

Like Free Willy, but with car parts.

[A]

Those are big. That's it.

[C]

What was it?

[A]

There's 24 of each of those.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

The valves. The valves are not there.

[C]

They're in a pencil cup.

[A]

Supplementary oil pump, motor mounts.

[B]

A lot of stuff. This is real stuff.

[A]

Air conditioning compressor, which we. Which I do have. I don't know why they wanted us to send that, but I absolutely have the air conditioner.

[B]

I don't participate.

[A]

So that's the list of things we don't have.

[C]

Bigger list than I thought.

[A]

The. Huh?

[C]

It's a bigger list than I thought. When you say there were some things missing, I imagine four things.

[B]

That's an expensive parts list.

[A]

The valves and the valve covers are going to be expensive. Yeah.

[B]

They are just valve covers either. Huh?

[A]

The valve covers. I bet Donnie could find those. They're. They're. They're. They're probably somewhere.

[C]

The valves are usually under the covers.

[B]

Nice. Got it solved. He's got it all figured out.

[C]

You guys.

[A]

Look, I mean I've. I've gotten pretty fucked on this deal. This is a. This is a bad situation. I'm just trying to fucking clean it up as best I can and move on. I mean but like.

[B]

So where's the physical car is somewhere.

[A]

At our South Bay store along with Good. The body.

[B]

Yeah, just like interior and all that, like, all that stuff.

[A]

The body of the interior fight. I mean, the body's original, Right? The paint's original. So the paint is scruffy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, but I talked to John Tamari and it curated about, look, the car's never going to be more apart than this. Is this the time do we, you know we're going to paint the car?

[B]

Right.

[A]

And he goes, here's how this is going to work. He goes, a Countach Repaint is 100. And he goes, I'll tell you why. It's because we plan for 85 grand. But then expensive things always break when pulling the car apart.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Such as the windshield. Such as, you know, blah, blah, blah. The body panels are incredibly fragile and they need special prep.

[B]

When I was looking for an F40, we found some off color ones, and I wouldn't stand for that. So we talked about paint. 200, 150. Yeah, that's a lot. That's like, that's a expensive, huge amount of money. Like, I've painted entire. My entire house. A fraction of that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you'd think it'd be less the car because it's smaller.

[C]

You could buy. You could buy other Ferraris for that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, when he said the number, I was like, all right, I'm out. You know, but he also said, like, look, I presume you want to drive this car. And I said, yeah. He goes, then don't fucking paint. He goes, here's what happens. You spend all this money, you get a perfect car back, and now you don't want to drive it.

[B]

I would paint panel by panel when it's necessary.

[A]

I'm not going to touch it.

[B]

I don't even PPPF mine's not PPF. In fact, I scraped mine.

[A]

I don't even ppf a countach. No, the paint won't. Yeah. If you repainted the whole car. Yeah, then you could. But if I put a fucking. If I put a tsd sticker on my car and pulled it off.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it was shit. It was shitty paint. Then there's, you know, this panels aluminum. This panel's carbon kevlar. Like they don't know how to paint anything.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Fucking all tracks.

[B]

That is absolutely true.

[A]

Yeah. You want new Countach Weather stripping? $6,000 for weather stripping? What the else are you gonna do? Guy with a countach and no rip.

[C]

Dude, I wanted to buy new window trim. You know that the c. Whatever on the back of the side of the E46. Fifteen hundred dollars for that piece. It's like one of the most expensive pieces on.

[A]

Dude, when I had my. When I had my C5 Corvette, the Targa roof that came off, the weather stripping started to peel on that. Just the bit around the targa roof was 1200 bucks on a fucking C5 Corvette.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

That's. When is labor a component? No. Whenever someone is like scissors. Oh, it's a. It's a Chevy. It's a fucking like. Dude, there are so many. So many things in a C5 that are not shared with other GM.

[B]

Matt, speaking of your old days, here's another question I have for my friends. I don't know if we're talking about this on the pod. I'm nervous. There's a very famous video with you in it.

[A]

I can't wait to hear this.

[B]

Would you and Feretti trying to get a speeding ticket first? This video gets coming around weekly.

[A]

Yeah, it keeps coming around. Yeah. Every few months.

[B]

Be fair. It's a great.

[A]

It's classic. All time. All time classic.

[B]

It is so watchable. And I've seen it a thousand times. And when it comes up on my reels, I'm like, I'm gonna watch this.

[A]

I wish you could see the whole thing. We gotta get Rob.

[B]

Okay, so the.

[A]

That. The clip from Instagram, which is like 12 seconds, that's a 40 minute video that Rob and I make.

[B]

So this is the question I have and my friends have. Is it real?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The whole thing.

[A]

Yeah. And we got real tickets. And the cop got fired.

[B]

Well, okay, someone told me that the cop got fired. Why the cop? What did he do?

[A]

He left me to go chase someone else instead of staying to, like, give me the ticket. And he was identifiable in the video.

[B]

So wait, if a cop has got someone pulled over for going 11 over and a dude drives by shooting out the window, he's not allowed to hood.

[A]

Let me explain something to you about this video, Doug. I don't care about the fucking cop. So whatever. Someone, whenever Rob was like, yeah, this happened to the copy. I was like, okay. And then I went back to my dinner. I don't give a. I didn't fact check this or follow up. I do not care. So it may not. You know what? I can. Here's what I can tell you. That reckless driving ticket I got cost me thousands of dollars and points that were on my license for years. They were real.

[B]

So it was a real thing. It really happened. He also got a ticket. The way the video is portrayed, it Seems like you didn't get a ticket. You were about to.

[A]

No, because that's what I say. You should see the full clip. Because what I did was go out and find another cop. The ticket. The contest was still going on. He left me to go chase Rob. I had to then go find another cop. And then I did the same thing again and got a real ticket, which you see in the poll.

[B]

At that point, had Rob already gotten the ticket?

[A]

The cop got Rob and got a ticket, so he won the contest, but we both got real tickets.

[B]

Why did you go out and get another ticket after you?

[A]

Because it was first to get a ticket.

[B]

The cop left you to get robbed. He wasn't going to let Rob off with us with a warning, but.

[A]

Well, the game wasn't.

[C]

That cop didn't catch Rob in the time that it took Matt to go find a new police officer and get.

[A]

His game was still on. Dude, you should never do this.

[C]

The real trick is to not go too fast, because they need to catch you. If you go too fast, they won't catch you.

[B]

Chase Rob. It was no chase. Rob drove by as fast as he could and then pulled over immediately.

[A]

Yeah, pretty much. Yes. Pretty much went off to find another cop. Yeah.

[B]

Of course. He goes, you should never do this. I wasn't planning on it.

[A]

You should never.

[B]

I wasn't thinking that in my Toyota Sequoia, I would go out and try to go 107 miles an hour.

[A]

And it's not. I'm entirely proud of participating in. With the understanding that the video does remain.

[B]

Although I gotta say, I could understand why you're not proud of participating. That's good content. It was for 07.

[A]

That is O7. YouTube, like. Yeah. And I was in an SLR McLaren, too.

[B]

You were an SLR?

[A]

Yeah, I was an SLR. Damn. Yeah. I took that car because I hated it so much. I tried to drive it like such an asshole because I hated it. It was the. I fucking hated that car.

[B]

You still hate those.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, they drive like shit.

[B]

Yeah, they do. You know, brakes. I thought about buying one, though. You know, brakes. You know, brakes are like 10 grand a corner.

[A]

Yeah. And they're awful. Rentech has a SLR brake upgrade. Yeah, they're terrible.

[C]

Transmission's awful, too.

[B]

The transmission's bad. The brakes are bad. The interior is bad. I like how it looks.

[A]

Got a cassette deck.

[C]

Yeah, it looks like a Batmobile from the cassette deck.

[B]

Yeah, it's got a cassette deck, which is great. And I think that's. That's one of my primary factors that I look for in a car.

[C]

How do you listen to your Spotify playlist on with this? Let me tell you.

[B]

In my countach, I have a cassette deck and I use it. And it's original. It's an Alpine original.

[A]

Oh, so you got the cassette. I got the Alpine cable CD.

[B]

Oh, wow, you were rich.

[A]

88 was the first year. Look at this. That was the first year, dude.

[B]

That's how you flex on Josecci. I got the CD player.

[A]

First year. That was the first production car with a CD player.

[B]

I don't want the CD player. I got the cassette. So I plug in my Bluetooth connector and I play my Spotify while I'm driving along my countach.

[A]

My stuff stereo was a $6,000 option in 1988 for the CD player for premium Alpine sound.

[B]

You're kidding. Wow. Six grand in 88. That's like 20 grand.

[A]

It's like 25 GS today and you got a CD player.

[B]

Although there are a lot of cars that have like high end cars that have $25,000 stereo options.

[A]

Yeah, you could. Bentley, Range Rover, you can get a bunch of that.

[B]

You know, cars now have like 30 speakers in the car.

[A]

Well, so I had a guy who was storing his car with me here, okay? And he has, and I shit you not, four Oscar wins and 12 nominations for sound design. Yeah, okay? Think about Spielberg in the 80s. This motherfucker was right there, okay? Okay. I'm talking about like E.T. star wars, fucking Indiana Jones heavies all through the 80s and 90s. This is the guy who mixed them, okay? He has his little C class that he stores with me, okay? Yeah, it's like a nothing 06c, 300, whatever the fuck in it. He has a stereo that he designed. It's six speakers, but very strategically placed. His whole. His door cards and his dash have been remolded so that for the perfect placement. And he has his whole trunk is a fucking music server, okay? And he goes, he wants to demo it. So, okay, we demo. This is the best car stereo I've ever heard in my entire life. Interesting by a lot.

[B]

So it's not number of speakers that you should be paying attention to.

[A]

So he was very frustrated because this guy was going, this is six speakers and it sounds better than what Bentley is doing with 30 speed. And he wanted to sell his technology and he goes, if I could sell this to a car company, they could offer a cinematic level stereo at a much more affordable price in regular cars. I set him up with some people at some OEMs to talk to. And the conclusions were so funny. Customers are fucking idiots. We don't care about how the stereo actually sounds. More watts, more speakers.

[B]

That's what we want. I got 25 speakers.

[A]

25 speakers in the Meridian 2000 watts. They don't want to go. My stereo has only got six speakers. It's only 800 watts. But it sounds better than numbers.

[C]

Not subjective. Even if we can sit there and go, this is actually the way it sounds.

[B]

They care about how many speakers.

[A]

And this dude, it's like horsepower. I just watched fucking life drain from this guy's face because he just went, I have this thing that's so much better and it's just not what anyone is looking for.

[B]

Right. And he's a music purist.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He cares about the actual sound experience. We all just care about having a speaker in the headrest, which they all do.

[A]

Yeah. And have you seen what Range Rover is doing now with their, the, the seats? So they have these new seats that have like capacitive type things in them and they replace the subwoofer so you can feel like club level bass, but it doesn't blow your eardrums out. It's like incredibly targeted bass.

[B]

It's like physical as opposed to physical.

[A]

Bass as opposed to sound. And it is. Dude, you have to. You gotta get. It's called bass. The body and soul seat. But I tested it at the range row over Octa, the Defender Octa event. It was so cool.

[B]

How many events are you going to?

[A]

Only when they're like easy. Like the Octa one was like right up the road from my house. Like come have drinks and look at the Octa. So I went. But I'm not like, I'm not like leaving LA to look at a car for leaving town.

[B]

What about to drive? How many driving events are you going to?

[A]

Probably more than I should. Probably one or two a month.

[B]

Two a month?

[A]

Yeah, one or two a month. I probably have three or four press cars here a month and then one or two.

[B]

What is good enough on your radar to make you go to an event? For me, the answer is nothing.

[A]

You're smarter than me.

[B]

I went to Ram Rho in Palm Springs. That's the furthest I'll go. I do one Palm Springs trip a year so I can drive one of the sports cars out there.

[A]

Yeah. You drove the Carrera GT to GT3RS.

[B]

I would have driven it to this except it's still being serviced for the recall.

[C]

I feel like you Guys have very different interest in the driving experience. Like, because these press events, you guys do track stuff. It's content for road and track. So like if road and track is interested in the car, that helps. But it's okay. You get to go and drive fast.

[A]

Which, if I fly somewhere, you don't.

[C]

Do a lot of track days.

[B]

I don't. It's always nice to have early videos though. As you know, I just. It's just such a. The problem is I now shoot basically every day. Like I shoot one to three videos a day in my office and going. You lose three days.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you have found a way through, you know, strategy or sheer force or whatever to make the cars come to you, which is fucking great. I don't.

[B]

You got a lot of cars here.

[A]

I don't have that pull, so I can't do that. So I have to go to them. So I'll go. If my curiosity for the car, my general expectation that the video should perform at least average. And if I'm really going fly, it's got to be like. It's not. I don't care about the hotels or the flights. I. It can be basic. I don't give a. But I really want seat time. I really want. I want to be driving the car. I want there maybe a racetrack and.

[B]

So you went to the Bay to do Volvo EX90 because, you know, such a great.

[A]

You were in Newport. We did it in Newport.

[B]

God, why didn't I do that? I think I was.

[A]

We did it in Newport. Yeah. I didn't go to the Bay.

[B]

Right.

[A]

We wouldn't. And it was pretty nice Newport, actually.

[B]

Oh, Pelican, whatever.

[A]

Wherever the fuck we stayed.

[B]

I don't know the most. A lot of the reason the cars come to me is because I shoot a lot of cars that we sell.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So it's a lot of the press cars. I still miss out on being first. I used. They used to be like, I'll get you one right away. But then my views kind of declined. Well, they're like math. So you're actually all you.

[A]

You and I. I mean, you're on a bigger scale obviously than us with your videos, but you've seen this.

[B]

Everyone, everyone, everyone. I consider Stradman to be my barometer for a lot of things. Like I was thinking about building. I was thinking about building a 14,000 square foot house. Then I saw him with his 8,000. I was like, I'm gonna do that instead.

[A]

Did you build a new house or did you just Modify your order.

[B]

That's crazy. Have you seen what he's got? He's got a 26 car garage.

[A]

Okay, I know it's a little over the top.

[B]

I just, I get deep into stress also.

[A]

If I had to live in Utah to do that. You can keep Utah. Thanks.

[B]

Look at that thing. Look at that thing.

[A]

That could be you half done. You know what? Like, God bless him. I hope he's fucking happy, dude. But I've been in houses. Look, I'm looking behind the house, behind the house. I'm looking at a neighborhood I don't want to live in. That's a, that's what I'm looking at right now.

[B]

You know the problem, the problem. And I told my friends, I just want to be consulted by everybody about every decision they make.

[C]

But if your neighbor texts you and asks you about the card, you don't want it.

[B]

Watch my video. I don't want to be consulted.

[A]

You know, guys, I don't need much. I just need to be involved in every decision you make.

[B]

Every decision every person makes. If he had come to me and said, should I build a 9,000 square foot house in a very remote suburb? The problem is this is what young rich people do, basketball players do. I got all this money and a house won't satisfy me. I need my own custom house. And it's gotta have a basketball court and a 26 car garage and a lap pool and our. Another pool.

[A]

Dude, remember the fucking. The Mike Tyson house in Farmington, Connecticut? What are you doing out there?

[B]

And all that stuff? And that stuff always comes up for sale. And you know what happens when houses like that come up for sale? They sell for pennies on the dollar. Because it turns out nobody who lives in the middle of Nowhere wants a 26 car garage. And this is a constant issue. And I just want to explain this to people. No. Buy a house in a dense area. That's already proven. Oh, I need a 26 car garage. Well, figure it out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But nonetheless, Stradman is my barometer. And even his views are declining, which is a problem because he's got that house.

[A]

He's got payments, mortgage payments.

[B]

Make that house payment.

[A]

I understand the mindset of building that dream car, person, house. Like, especially when you see it on someone else's Instagram. You go, yeah, that's what I want. Hoover say, you know, Tyler, I love Tyler. Same thing. Yeah, you know, that's, there's. It turns out I've started a business in order to avoid having to do that.

[B]

And that was Just. That was smart. The, the, the dream allure, though, of this 9,000 square foot house with 18 bedrooms. And I'm gonna have a. I'm gonna have a room where I can put my rooms. Yeah, like that's not what you should do. It's never a good store of value.

[A]

I don't want to tell someone how to dream or not dream. It's not. That's. I don't. I grew up living in like pretty big houses. I'm a little spoiled. My parents had.

[B]

But you grew up in an area. See, this is what I want to tell people. This is the big thing I want to tell people. You want to live in a house where the land is worth more than the house.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, There you go.

[B]

And you don't want the other thing because there's no intrinsic value to the middle of nowhere, near or now when you're in southwestern Connecticut or Rye or Greenwich, all those places there is incredible. That's incredibly desirable. Your house can be torn down. The land is still tremendously valuable.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

When you're building out in the middle of nowhere, that's a whole other situation. It gets sketchy.

[C]

Well, that's why I follow this account. That's like huge garage houses or whatever the hell it is.

[A]

Oh, barndominiums. I like the barndominiums.

[C]

It's similar, but it's basically like mansions around the country that have garages bigger than the house, essentially. And it's a high octane garage. That's what it is. And all of these houses are like, look at this. Eight bedroom, three swimming pool, you know, 15 car garage, $1.2 million.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And you go, wow, that's. You can't buy a house anywhere in Los Angeles for that. But it is next to.

[A]

And then you look at Google Maps.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

It's next to an operating farm 20 miles from the nearest town.

[B]

A cattle farm. Smells all the time.

[C]

Someone basically built a man cave. But it's a whole house.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're still having trouble selling it. Even though it's. Even though it's cheap by the standards of a 10,000 square foot house with a 12 car garage. Because nobody wants to do that. And the few people who do kind of want to design their own thing, they don't want to get into somebody else's. Built in 1994.

[A]

14 car garage house.

[B]

That's not their thing. It's a disaster situation.

[A]

But okay to circle back around. Stradman's views are down. I'm sorry to hear that. Stradman. Ours are like, fucked.

[B]

You know what I think ours are really bad. You know what I think happened?

[A]

Shorts.

[B]

The Chinese. Yeah, shorts. TikTok.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And other things like TikTok.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

We're hoping for a TikTok ban, am I right?

[A]

Let's go. Yeah.

[B]

Bring them back to YouTube. You know, they're protectionist about the vehicle car industry. Let's be protectionist about your favorite local influencers.

[A]

Let's put tariffs on American influencers first.

[C]

We need a YouTube ally in the White House cabinet to investigate TikTok.

[A]

Let's cancel all international influencer visas.

[B]

Totally. This is why you can't trust Chris Harrison. That Jaguar xjs, He's a brick British influencer. Don't watch this content. The Throttle House.

[A]

No, no. Canada.

[B]

No, Canada doesn't know. We need to tariff that. Trump said 25% tariffs. You should only be able to watch.

[A]

25% of their video and you can't tell which 25%. You just move this slider and randomly drops the middle.

[C]

You don't get the fun intro and you don't get their conclusions.

[B]

I do think shorts is a big factor. I will tell you this. Here's a little.

[A]

Do you make shorts?

[B]

Little tip for you. I got a little tip. Podcast shorts have been doing unbelievably well for us. Not for money. We put up a podcast short. It gets 20 million views. We make US$11. I can't even buy a poke bowl at Sprouts.

[A]

What we found about podcast shorts is they don't convert to views of the regular podcast.

[B]

That is also true. So there are some issues.

[A]

So that's.

[C]

That's the thing for us, the amount of.

[A]

Do this thing that doesn't make money. It doesn't make money, does not drive.

[B]

To people audience, but it gets views in the moment.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay, so here's some numbers. This year, YouTube shorts got 70 billion daily views, which is more than double the number they got in 2021. So, like, it's literally eating more too, by the way. That's where I think just short content in general. Obviously TikTok won and has a great algorithm and that set the precedent. And then it took a couple years for YouTube and reels to catch up. But I think they are.

[B]

They are.

[C]

They're pulling viewers away from.

[B]

They're pulling viewers away. This is the name of the game now, is like shorts, shorts, shorts.

[A]

And YouTube has also divided the revenue share to shorts. So if you supposedly.

[B]

Although that's never really. They're like, oh, well, the short is only two minutes and your video is 26 minutes. And it works out proportionally. It may, but a two minute short doesn't take like that little amount of time to. If you want to make a good short, it requires time and effort.

[A]

Our revenue was cut by a third when they started paying out shorts.

[B]

Are you doing shorts? No, you got to do POD shorts. You guys say funny stuff.

[C]

I know, but we did it for two years. I mean, we paid a team to cut them and stuff.

[B]

Yeah, I used to see them all.

[C]

The time, but again, it brought us no money.

[A]

Change translate into action is a loss. Streams or downloads.

[B]

It's like advertising, which I already taught you about at the start of the podcast. You gotta do it a lot. Two years wasn't enough. You gotta do six years.

[C]

Six years, then maybe someone will come watch the show.

[B]

Six years of paying people and then maybe get a couple more viewers to the pod.

[A]

We never got a single noticeable result from any of it.

[B]

Yeah, I know, but you gotta be on it. You can't not.

[A]

But you have to do it because what are you gonna do? Not do it?

[B]

What are you gonna do? Not do it?

[C]

You sound exactly like a marketing team that's trying to sell their service of cutting.

[A]

I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna. No, you're not.

[B]

I know it's not helping you, but.

[C]

But listen, everyone's doing it.

[B]

Everyone's doing it. What are you not doing it? You're not doing it. He's doing it.

[A]

Not doing it. Building another building.

[C]

Everyone's over levered on their.

[B]

You're not gonna do it to get an F50. I would.

[A]

I'm building another building so we can fit more cars. So people can live in urban areas and still collect cars.

[B]

And that's because me and you, we've talked about this before, but I want to reiterate it, especially if Hoovy's watching. Hoovy? Are you watching Freddy Tavares? Are you watching creating a business on the back of your content? Success is the only real way to get successful in this industry. Yes, and people hate me now for it. Oh, you're a sellout. Well, fine, I'll take you a sellout.

[A]

That's dumb. You're not a sellout.

[B]

People are like, oh, you only shill car on the site. Well, it's like, not really. If you watch the videos, like you.

[A]

Have both kind of.

[B]

It's kind of the same. I kind of review the car the same way.

[C]

Are you selling a lot of ex 90s on the site.

[B]

Well, that's the other thing. I'm sure a lot of them are new cars. We're not selling any cyber stores, although I wish we were.

[A]

Wait, how do I drive that?

[B]

You don't. You don't. You're not allowed. Okay. It was special. No, here's what happened, okay?

[A]

No dynamic analysis whatsoever.

[B]

All right? I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you how it went down, and you'll get on the list. Now, I, on our podcast, made fun of the Yangwang U8.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I'm sure you're well aware of the U800%. For some small modicum of possibility, you are not. It is a Chinese sport utility vehicle that can float. I am not making this up.

[C]

Oh, this is the one that also did access turns.

[B]

Yeah, obviously we made fun of that. I was like, oh, we could get out on the harbor and drive our U8. But apparently when it's floating, it only goes 5 miles an hour, which is BS cause OE on the road, it has a thousand horsepower, but in the water, it's limited to five.

[A]

That's so stupid. Like a paddle boat.

[C]

It needs paddles.

[A]

5 is not as slow as it sounds when you're in a car on water. I just want to put that out there. I have a captain's license. I have a lot of boating experience. When you're on the water in a car, five is okay. Yeah.

[C]

If you put a more aggressive propeller on the back, it might go six.

[A]

The real move, Doug, is you got to go down to Balboa island, you know where the ferry is, and just fucking drive down that ramp.

[B]

I don't need to wait for the ferry and then go to the other side, the peninsula. Everybody's like, what's this guy doing? I'd be like, no, I know exactly what I'm doing. I got a Yang Wing U8.

[A]

The problem. That might be a crime, but also it might not be a crime.

[B]

The problem is.

[C]

I know. Love that.

[A]

What? Who would ever drive down the launch ramp?

[B]

The problem is that once you float the car, you got to take it to the dealership, and there's a thorough service that needs to be cleared.

[C]

You don't say.

[B]

Mostly because the car was just floating in water. So naturally, we made fun of the car.

[A]

What is the car? Is the point of this that you can drive it? If you were to drive it into water, you won't sink and die? Is that the idea?

[B]

In China, the cars are all thousand horsepower electric cars. And so they're trying to come up with little ways to distinguish the cars from one another, which is what they do in this particular case. The car floats.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. I think it would have been cool if it had antlers. Instead, it has three LIDAR things. Volatile.

[A]

I'll tell you what those. Do those LIDARs work? Like, what do they do?

[B]

Well, one of them is probably sonar.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. So the point is, we made fun of that car, and then we got contacted, or maybe we contacted some Chinese car.

[C]

Sonar. Fucking talk to whales while it's in the water.

[B]

Talk to the whales?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And the whales are like, why are you so slow? Anyway, so we found. We got hooked up with Chinese YouTubers somehow, and they were like, we're bringing all these cars to the U.S. why don't we bring them to you? And I was like, great, I want to review the floating car. And they were like, oh, no, you can't. And also, when it floats, it's got to go in for service. And I was like, all right, how about the cyber stir? And they're like, okay, fine. So they brought us that. It's apparently these Chinese YouTubers who were given, like, a government edict to, like, go share Chinese cars with the world.

[A]

So I met with them.

[B]

Oh, you did?

[A]

I know who you're talking about. I had lunch with these guys. What's the problem? Well, the problem was they wanted me to go to China and review cars in China.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Which I actually said I would be interested in doing.

[B]

Really? You don't think you're going to get.

[A]

I've never been. I'd like to go.

[B]

Aren't you afraid of.

[A]

No, I'd like to try going. But they were like, great, it's next week. I was like, I'm sorry, what? You want me to come to China in, like, five days? Like, yeah. I'm like, no. Right. So I said, why don't you hit me up if some of these cars come here? Otherwise we could plan something for 25. They never called me again.

[B]

Well, I'll put them in touch with you.

[A]

And it's definitely the same people, though. They were talking about the government money spreading Chinese cars to American audiences.

[B]

I'll tell you this. And by the way, where's my government money?

[A]

You know, you could have had the PPP loan, dude. You could have had it. I was there.

[B]

I had the Chinese government.

[A]

So.

[B]

By the way, nice badge on the front of that. So they brought the cars down in.

[A]

It looks like a drawing of a pregnant woman.

[B]

It kind of does. And Then much in the way they wanted you to come to China, they said, hey, look, the U8. I couldn't review the U8. And the reason for that is the U8 is in Alaska and actually they're sending all the cars right to Alaska.

[A]

For cold weather testing or no, just.

[B]

To like do videos in the snow.

[A]

And I.

[B]

And they were like, if you come to Alaska. And they, we shot these cars two weeks ago and they were like, it's next week, come to Alaska. Which actually to me is even less appealing than next week. Go to China. It's no, it's December.

[A]

It's cold. Yeah, it's winter.

[B]

And I was like, no. And then they offered us apparently some decent sum of money, like 20 grand. Give you 20 grand to come to Alaska. And I was like, no.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Partially because that money would filter to the business and not to me directly. And so that didn't happen. And the cars are all in Alaska right now. So if you want to drive a cyber store, I think you have to go to Fairbanks. They're going to come back.

[A]

That's a no. But I would drive it in Los Angeles and I was interested in going. They didn't say anything about paying me, but they did say they would cover the transport.

[B]

I made sense with the Chinese and the Vietnamese. Like Vinfast offered me money too. And I was like, no.

[A]

Yeah, they offered me money to go on that, on that thing.

[B]

I can't take it.

[A]

I'm not taking it.

[B]

What amount would you take and not.

[A]

Disclose from an OEM? I've turned down. I've turned down. Really?

[B]

OEMs have offered you money turned down? Nobody's ever offered me money.

[A]

Not to like, just like, not to pretend to review. But they've, they've asked, OEMs have asked me to make influencer level content for their social for money.

[B]

They're doing what the Tick Tockers. I'm sure the Tick Tockers can't make money any other way.

[A]

I'm 100% certain. Yeah, I'm sure they are.

[C]

I mean, Tick Tock pays out revenue too, but I think there's probably, there's probably a lot of influencers as there were on YouTube on TikTok that go, here's the thing and here's the five things about it.

[A]

And I've talked to TikTok because, you know, now, now Tick Tockers are like on press launches like the same way that like, okay, we were YouTubers and that was a new thing and the.

[B]

Old magazine UZ launch.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which, by the way, that's a real car. No rz. There were tick tockers.

[A]

Yeah, so there were. There have been tick tockers in the last dozen events I've been on, and some of them have told me that they were getting paid.

[B]

So the automakers are like, yeah, we don't. We're not above this, of course.

[A]

No, no, they're not at all.

[C]

They weren't above it with YouTube.

[A]

No, they're not above it at all.

[C]

That we won't talk. Like, they were doing YouTube reviews and they were getting paid big money. And because. Yeah.

[A]

Which is. I understand why audiences accuse us of shit like that. It's because there are people taking the fucking money. Yeah, it's that there, you don't get. You don't get credit for not taking the money.

[B]

Right, right, right. That's the baseline assumption.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

One thing that has always annoyed me because I, like, was militant about not taking the money to the point where when I went to press launches, I paid. One thing that was always really beneficial was YouTube was a golden era where you actually could make the money doing the bit, doing the job. Whereas TikTok, you should see. We talked to a tiktoker, nameless, who told me that he got 100 million views in a month and made seven grand.

[A]

That's crazy. They don't.

[B]

100 million million views. Seven. And that's pre tax.

[A]

So you have to get a hundred.100x more views than on a YouTube video to make basically the same amount of revenue.

[B]

Isn't that crazy?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And so, like, you kind of understand why they have.

[A]

Imagine being able to tell someone, I got 100 million views and they're going.

[B]

Yeah, in the history of the world has ever gotten that? He did in a month. And you know what? He made enough to, like, cover rent. He told me that his dream. He lived in California. Told dream is to buy a house in California. I'm like, dude, if I was getting 100 million views on YouTube, I would buy Modesto. It's wild to me. But so you start to understand why the tiktokers have to take money because they don't make the money coming in off a TikTok. It does pay out, but it doesn't pay out.

[C]

Like, yeah, I didn't know it was that low.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Isn't that crazy?

[A]

YouTube. 22nd YouTube shortcut was really the one you wanted. That was 2018 was a big old year for the smoking tire. We had volume of videos and a real healthy base.

[B]

18, 19, 20, 21. Yeah, they were my, they were my years and it's still going. But like YouTube, even if I was doing the same number of views as before, I mean, it's just the things aren't. The things aren't there. Like the situation isn't there.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I don't think anybody's doing those views. A lot of people migrated off to TikTok and I see comments sometimes. Like I could get all this information on a tick tock. It's like, well, I don't think that's true. But at the same time, like, I get it. If you're interested in an EX90, you'll watch a long video about it because you want to know if you're just a casual person who wants to see a couple of glove boxes open, see it on your reel, scroll to the next one.

[A]

Look, you got other things going on now. The videos are the marketing for the auction site right now here at Westside. It's obviously much lower revenue than an auction site. Fewer people and whatever. But how do people find us? 70% Google Maps, 30% the smoking tires.

[B]

Well, this is a real business and that's my thing. And I tell this to, I've told this, I've talked about this before on the show, but I really believe it's so important. Like I talked to all these guys like Hoovy, like, you gotta start a business. And they all say the same thing, which is. What do you mean? Like, YouTube is so time consuming. How do I possibly build a building? And you gotta figure it out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because it's not, it's not gonna last. And some of these guys are already seeing that.

[A]

Yeah, you're reliant on this other big machine that doesn't give a fuck about you.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Giving a fuck about you. And they won't.

[B]

Not only do, will they not. But like, I think they're kind of incentivized to try to find and develop new people to keep the churn. At some point people get sick of Doug. You know, if I do a Valkyrie, they'll watch that. But like 20 years of Doug, people are like, yeah, maybe I want to watch Throttle House.

[A]

I think that YouTube is heavily incentivized to give young new creators a big hit of both dopamine and money by feeding their video. You know, my first video did 350,000 views. Interesting. It didn't do it on its own, buddy. The system made that happen. And then they've got all this data. They know how much they've paid you Every month for the last 10 years. And they know based on everyone else how little they can pay you before you quit. Okay. They go, okay, well, Doug, he would quit if this number got to here. So we'll just hover it about here.

[B]

I have always felt. And it's kind of conspiratorial, but I have always felt that there's some. It's not purely democratic. There are some unseen hands behind the scenes that are like, we're gonna push this video a little higher or, we're going to do this. Sometimes ad revenue numbers aren't where they should be. Sometimes in a positive direction.

[A]

And it's probably not a human doing it. It's probably a program that a human wrote that looks for factors and moves.

[B]

However, when I write the story of my life, I will say that I was the one who. I did it all.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That's how. That's how a lot of people.

[A]

Rugged individuals.

[B]

All me.

[A]

I need nobody. Total libertarian.

[B]

Right. It was all me. The truth is, there's an enormous amount of luck. And my luck was that I did it at the right time. Yeah. Which I didn't know at the time.

[A]

Everyone who's been successful has figured out a thing that worked at the time. You know, us, Me fucking going out and driving people's random ass cars for three years worked really well at the time. It was awful.

[B]

I know. But I'm sitting around here and I've watched every Stradman video. I already know every inch of that house. I made a little map on a legal pad, and I'm looking like, where is this smoking tire?

[A]

1 take content every day. People are like, why don't you do that anymore? It's not that fun. It was frustrating.

[B]

It may not have been fun for you, but it was fun for me, the viewer.

[A]

Cool. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[C]

I mean, like, I enjoy doing it, too, but the liability of it also, like, I don't know, Becoming more of an adult.

[A]

Yeah. It's just.

[C]

There's a liability attached to that. You're driving a stranger's car.

[B]

Often modified.

[C]

And we have insurance. Modified. We have. We have insurance and that thing. But people seem to be crashing in the canyons more frequently. Or maybe they're just being filmed more frequently. You're also driving a modified car. It was modified by a person. Maybe a shop, maybe not. How was it modified? Did they skip one of the breaks, maybe. So there's that, like, there's just a lot of it that for me personally, it just felt like the risk was going up and the reward which was it was so fun to experience other people's cars. And I like the stories they would tell of why they did these things. But the effort plus relia, plus liability attached to it just was like, I don't know.

[A]

I started running out of cars, he.

[C]

Ran out of cars.

[A]

I ran out of cars. And at the same time I started running out of cars. People started getting more flaky. People would not show up. I'd schedule them, they wouldn't show up. And I really found myself judging the owner of the cars choices as opposed to judging. Ford wants you to spend 80 grand on a dark horse. Should you. Big company.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And it just stopped being, you know, that thirst for I want to try everything. I hit the end of that.

[C]

I also think, and it could have been that it was me on the screen, not Matt. But I think that the trend of video has shifted towards higher production values. Like there was. There was a time, I mean the one takes hit hard when the vlogger style uncut stuff was doing really well. But now it's changed Throttle house. Everyone does really high level stuff.

[B]

YouTube always made the most sense with a low level of production value from a financial perspective. In fact, our friends over at Motortrend ostensibly left YouTube in part because it was difficult to make money producing the type of content they wanted. I have always found it interesting that. I have started to find it interesting that now things are swinging back towards that high production content. That's what people want to see. But the drawback is like it's hard.

[A]

How do you make. You can't. It's not possible.

[B]

You can't.

[A]

No. We did a thing in 2023. We committed at the beginning. Was it beginning of 23 or beginning of 24?

[C]

What?

[A]

When we attempted to write scripts, increase our production value and create what we were told people wanted higher production and we probably got a 50% increase in views to by doing it. But it probably took four times longer and more energy and so it wasn't worth the increase.

[B]

You know who's got a great situation? Is that Jason Camisa fella.

[A]

Yes, definitely. Just we could just go to work for an insurance company. That'll just solve all the problems. Yeah.

[B]

They are saving driving.

[A]

Saving driving.

[B]

They own Radwood.

[A]

Yes, saving driving that they saved driving.

[B]

Already with the Radwood purchase.

[A]

It's saved. It's being saved.

[B]

No, he's got a good situation.

[A]

Yeah. Working for a company that doesn't want to make money on their videos is a good position to be in. It is, yeah, he does a great job. He's got a good budget. He does a great job. They make use of their resources, so good for them.

[B]

What do you think about him and Laborman? I always feel that they should have gone off and done their own thing.

[A]

They have this weird frenemy thing happening.

[B]

Well, I know that. And everybody in the business either hates, hates or likes, but hates each other. Like I go to press launches and I'm like, I don't remember if we hate each other or not. I like them all but a lot.

[A]

You find out by the second drink.

[B]

But like, why don't they. Why don't. This is a contention I've had for a long time. You're friends with these, both of these guys, you need to get in their ear. Why don't they both go out and start their own thing? Lieberman, why doesn't he have his own YouTube channel? He should have done this five years ago. What's the deal there?

[A]

I think Motor Trend has always dangled sort of just enough in front of him to keep him engaged, I think.

[B]

But his audience, he could make a YouTube channel.

[A]

He has, he, I think he has personally a better audience than Motor Trend is offering him.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, Johnny.

[B]

But a lot of people know Johnny. I don't even know that he works for Motor Trend.

[A]

A lot of people watch Camisa's videos and couldn't tell you if Hagerty sells fucking eggs or insurance or homes.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So what's the deal there? Why doesn't Camisa go out and make the money all for himself?

[C]

Well, as we just talked about, making the money is very, very.

[A]

I think they're losing money.

[B]

Camisa a part of it must be that he knows he can't produce content like that on his own.

[A]

Yeah, he's losing money.

[C]

Look, I mean, and that's a, that's a really great system because you need a sponsor to pay for those videos. They cost a lot of money. But also Hagerty's a brand that has a reach to a lot of different customers that have cars that he can film for different videos. And they also have a pull in relationship with the OEMs. I mean, I don't. It'd be hard to imagine a sponsor or partner that has a better network and resources than just money.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. You know, I'm a big supporter of when people own their own stuff.

[C]

Sure, I get it.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. But, but I, you know, Johnny's Been with Motortrend for so long, it's probably, like, all he knows.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, starting a new channel from zero to it would be hard.

[B]

It would be hard, but it wouldn't have been so hard five years ago, when I first started harping about this to my friends. And I never told Johnny, but I probably should have.

[A]

Yeah. Dude, I've drank three waters and two coffees. I have to pee so bad. Y'all talk among yourself. Sorry.

[B]

What do we got to talk about, Zach? What are you driving?

[C]

Same M3.

[B]

M3.

[C]

You want to see the photo of what it's doing right now?

[B]

Uh. Oh, you got S54 problem.

[C]

It's getting. It's getting wrapped because my clear coat was peeling in six different places.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Do you know what the prep procedure is for wrapping really, properly wrapping a car that has really bad clear coat?

[B]

No, What? They got peeled off.

[C]

They sand the car down, but they also were like, hey, we can fix all the little pits and spots that are all over your cars from 140,000 miles of road rash. Do you want us to do that? And I was like, yeah, sure. Let's just go for it. There's no coming back anyway. I knew that. Look how many problems my car.

[B]

Like, it's like a police shooting. And all the bullet holes are marked.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah.

[B]

What are you. What color are you wrapping it?

[C]

Obsidian green. Metallic. So it should be close to Oxford green, which is a.

[B]

What are you gonna do with the paint underneath?

[C]

Well, eventually.

[B]

Are you just gonna leave it like this? Yeah, because you're wrapping it, so.

[C]

Wrapping it.

[B]

So you're gonna leave it with all the little black lines and holes and everything.

[C]

Yeah, because all of that is. They. They filled all the little spots, and it's all sanded perfectly down, but it's just gonna.

[B]

The finish is perfect. It's just that it's not the color right.

[C]

It's perfectly smooth. It just looks like it's not.

[B]

And then looks like the three years in cars and bids with the wrap on and be like, you know, the paint looked good the last time.

[C]

I mean, if I want to sell it in a couple years, I'll be very honest about what happened. Like, here's the value of the wrap, and here's what's been done to it. Or I have to make a choice in five years and go, I guess I'll paint this car, or it'll become a race car. Because the cost of painting a car, as we just discussed, even on a car that's not worth $3 million is expensive.

[B]

How many miles do you have in this?

[C]

145 thousand.

[B]

Have you had to do cats? No, I got a buddy, incredibly. And cats were ten grand on what? E46. M3. Are you serious?

[A]

Ten?

[B]

My, like eight, but like in that range.

[A]

So get this, my trainer just. He trained. He's got a van, it's got all his gear in it. You know, I have a gym at my house. So he comes in, we train, but he also train people in parks or whatever. So he's got a big. He just bought a. For a used Ford Transit commercial van, right? He buys it in Oregon, drives it back. Halfway through the drive home, he got a ppi. He did everything I did. Halfway through the drive home, check. Engine light comes on, he gets home, back to California, bad cat from a three year old van he bought in Oregon. $4,800 for a commercial fucking Ford transport for about 650. Listen, do. Listen. I was like, hey, here's some options. Here's some options. I was like, you can go Montana, which is shady, or I said, you can sign this employment agreement and drive around on my dealer tag.

[B]

I'll do that. Can I do that? What would you charge me to do that?

[A]

To drive on your dealer tag?

[B]

On your dealer tag.

[A]

On the record, you may not drive.

[B]

We'll talk later.

[A]

You have to be an employee of my. Of my dealership, of my company.

[B]

All right. And can I pay you to be an employee?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay, let me ask you.

[C]

If I get $8,000 cat bill on.

[B]

The Johnny Lieberman subject. You, you're buddies with Johnny, you could like call him up. Who is the most famous person you could call up? You.

[A]

Who's the most famous person I could call? Get on the phone.

[B]

Hey, it's me, Matt.

[A]

They're like, oh, I mean, I suppose Joe Rogan.

[B]

You. If you called Joe Rogan, you think he'd take your call?

[A]

Be like, yes, I do.

[B]

Pretty famous, Len.

[A]

I mean, Leno. I guess I could.

[B]

You got Leno's number?

[A]

I do.

[B]

Whatever he calls me. Calls me from block number.

[A]

No way. Really? That's so funny. I have. He did not block his number when he called me. Yeah. Do I know anybody more famous than that?

[C]

Yes, but I don't know if I want to name them.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

We got some people we don't talk about here on the show.

[A]

Someone I know more famous than that.

[B]

Keeps his car to be more famous than Joe.

[A]

I don't have. I don't have Seinfeld's number. If he was sitting here, we'd have a great conversation. But I don't have Jerry's number.

[B]

Did you read the whole Jay Leno fell down the Hill story?

[A]

No. I saw the headline. It didn't look great.

[B]

I'm gonna tell you the story. Buckle up. It's the wildest. So I also saw the headline, and I was like, that sounds crazy, but like, okay, whatever. And for some reason, the next day, I decided to dig further into it.

[C]

This is like the opening to Cereal Season 3.

[B]

It's like that.

[C]

The Hill.

[B]

Honestly, it's like the whole story is like, Jay Leno, a man who is probably worth a half a bill. I don't know, 200, 250 million. He's got him a Clarence one.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's rich as fuck.

[B]

He's in suburban Pittsburgh staying at a Hampton Inn.

[A]

Is he doing a gig?

[B]

He's doing a gig. He's in suburban Pittsburgh staying in a Hampton Inn 30 miles outside Pittsburgh. I'm not talking about, like, he was at the Hampton Inn. He's like rural Pennsylvania, but, like, close enough that those people may be going to Pittsburgh for a. Okay. 30 miles outside Pittsburgh, staying at the Hampton Inn. This is Jay Leno, McLaren F1 owner. He's at the Hampton Inn, and he decides. This is what was reported, and I verified it all on Google Street View. He decides he wants to get some wings from the Wings place in the strip mall next door, whose anchor tenant is, like, a party supply company where they sell confetti. Okay.

[A]

I mean, look, all of this is tracking so far. This all sounds just like Jay.

[B]

The Hampton Inn is. Is elevated on a hill. From the Wings Place, you can walk to the end of the parking lot of Hampton Inn, turn around and walk all the way to the Wings Place. Or you can try the Hill. And by the way, the hill has, like, a dirt path that people have walked in over the years, a desire path that people have walked in to get, presumably to the Wings Place. He's walking down the hill, which is a pretty severe hill. Trips and falls, hurts himself, goes on to do the gig that night. This was lunchtime. Goes on to do the gig that night in front of a crowd of like 2,000 people. And then that's the story.

[A]

Oh, here's the hill.

[B]

Here's the hill.

[A]

This is.

[B]

This is literally the hill.

[A]

It's not that bad of a hill. That's the Hampton Path. That's the Desire Path.

[B]

And the parking lot is where the Wings place.

[A]

I'm a hundred percent walking down that dirt path. Totally. Yeah.

[C]

But I'm thinking Also, he is 70.

[A]

Pittsburgh.

[B]

I'm thinking to myself, how many McLaren F1 owners are staying at this Hampton Inn in suburban Pittsburgh trying to go get wings? And by the way, the wings place is one of those. It's probably a3.3 on Google.

[A]

BDubs, dude. It's probably Buffalo Wild Wings.

[B]

It's one of those places with like.

[C]

A neon, you know, like, it's not Dino's Sport Lounge. He was headed to Dino Sport Lounge that specializes in Buffalo chicken wings. This is from Reddit. According from R. Pittsburgh, this guy is a McLaren F1.

[B]

And he's going down a little path to get to Dino's Sport lounge.

[C]

He shaved 350ft off of his walk by going down that hill.

[B]

To be fair to him, I looked at the street view. It is a long to go all the way around.

[A]

Seems annoying. Yeah. Other people have bought into the walk down the hill theory with this one path. What's actually the weirdest part of this story? He told me once that he doesn't stay in hotels. He goes and does a gig and they fly him home.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Either they fly him back to his home in la or they fly him to his home in Rhode Island.

[B]

Someone told me, or he intimated, one point to me that he uses a private jet, which surprised me because he has a lot of gigs.

[A]

It's usually. It's usually the. It's not his. It's. It's the gig sends the plane for him. It's part of the. Part of the promoter and whatever.

[B]

It is interesting to me that a guy who's flying private is staying at the Hampton Inn.

[A]

That's the part add up because he normally would get a fucking black car back to the airport and fly off.

[C]

Is there a venue near there? And that was the only option.

[B]

I mean, I know. I think the whole thing seemed reasonable, except that, like, it's insane.

[A]

It's so funny that he. I mean, other than the cars, which are obviously excessive by any one standard. Right. He really doesn't live like a rich guy. No. You know, he's like. His taste level is not particularly. I don't want to say it's not sophisticated, but, like, he doesn't give a shit about a lot of things that rich people give a shit about, which is pretty funny.

[B]

He grew up in a world that isn't and he. He doesn't care.

[C]

I think that's great about him. I love that aspect.

[B]

Me too. I'm having this happen to me more and more. Chris Rock has this bit where he says, I'm rich, but I identify as poor. I'm having this happen to me more and more. I don't identify as poor. I was never poor. But, like, I don't know what rich people do. I never was around them. Like, people have private chefs. I'm like, that's a thing.

[A]

I don't know about any of this.

[B]

You could just have a dude come to your house and cook. Does he get the ingredients?

[A]

I know a couple people that have private chefs. It's. It's kind of a thing.

[B]

I find it to be, like, the whole thing. And that's how. That's how I view Leno. He, like, hasn't really. Even though he's a rich guy, he doesn't know that, like, someone needs to tap him and be like, dude, listen.

[A]

Well, that's why when he said, you know, when he goes, I don't stay in hotels. I fly home from the gig. And I go, you know, what if I was that fucking rich and still doing gigs, presumably for his own entertainment. It's not like he needs the money, right? So he's doing gigs for fun. Okay, well, if I'm going to keep doing gigs, what do I want? What. What would make that better? Not staying at the Hampton Inn.

[B]

Yeah, totally.

[A]

That would make that better.

[B]

I would probably try to stay at the nicest hotel in Pittsburgh, which probably.

[A]

There is one that probably is the.

[B]

Nicest hotel to the venue. That's what I would do.

[A]

That's.

[B]

They got Chevy Suburbans in Pittsburgh and probably hotels with.

[A]

What if he's got a gumar.

[C]

I was going to say, what if he's got, like. There's a garage outside Pittsburgh that he likes. There's a car being worked on. Like, where does Wayne Carini live?

[A]

He's in Connecticut. He's by. He's by Lime Rock.

[B]

But Mario Andretti would.

[C]

The middle of nowhere, you know?

[B]

You know, Myron Vernis told me that one time he was, like, sitting in his, you know, that shop. He hasn't told you been there. And he says he gets a call from Leno and he's like, hey, I'm doing a gig tomorrow. Can you want to come get chicken wings with me? And they go to the place, and it's like, 4 o'clock. Place doesn't open for two hours. They knock on the door and, like, Jay Leno, like, puts his face in the window. They're like, all right, yeah, we'll open up. Yeah. And he and Jay just Kind of stood there and didn't.

[A]

Leno pulling rank means getting wings before opening.

[B]

And just kind of sat there and I was like, that's probably what he does. He probably is like a network of car people and just sort of talks about cars and does his gig and. Or comedy. Comedy.

[A]

I mean, I only have his number because every time I call from it, I get a call from him, which is not often, but it's like. It's something weird, you know? Heard you got a turbo R. You know, be careful with the this and this or with the shop. We change the thing and then. All right. I don't even know how, you know I got a turbo R, but here we are.

[B]

Does he text you?

[A]

Yes, he does sometimes. Yeah.

[B]

Texting Leno.

[A]

He's.

[B]

He's. All right, I'm over here. I'm over here texting, like, my wife.

[A]

My wife also text me.

[C]

You haven't met famous people. You are very. You really know. You people know you.

[A]

Jerry absolutely knows.

[B]

Yeah. I told you that I was on this one time. I told you. Jerry Seinfeld walked out to me the first time I ever met him and said, hey, Doug, I watch all your videos.

[A]

Yeah, isn't that weird?

[B]

Scariest moment of my life. He was just on spikes and talked about his YouTube obsession and that he watches these, like, really specific, like, dialed in YouTube channels about, like, guys doing only Volvo 240 restos and stuff. And it really is frightening to me. Whenever I review a Porsche, I'm like, oh, God, yeah.

[A]

You know, things got 800,000 views and one of them Seinfeld, Right?

[B]

Who else do you think is watching? You think Obama's watching? Do you think Trump's watching?

[A]

No.

[B]

What about Trump? Trump at 4:30 out of Diablo?

[C]

He's watching. He's watching his own content.

[A]

I think there was a time that he just bought the most expensive sports car he could find.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah, that's. I'm not surprised.

[B]

None of those guys will ever tell us they were watching, because that's like giving an endorsement.

[A]

When Jerry did, I was very. Not only did he bring it up, he was like, I love that little notebook you carry around everywhere. I was like, do you want one? He's like, no. I'm like, all right, fine.

[C]

Do you want mine?

[A]

I like it for you.

[B]

Don't you agree that the dream in life is to get to the Jerry point of view where you don't really care? Like, you don't have to say. You can say whatever you want. And if it has negative repercussions you don't like. He went on thinking Spike, about how he hates watching TV anymore because, like, actors are given lines and he thinks that's stupid. And it's like, that was him for years, but now he's in a financial position where he can just say that. And it's like, if no one ever gives him lines ever again, it's like, wow.

[A]

No, he's way into not giving a fuck, which is actually pretty fun. I mean, it's nice to be around that. It is a good time, right? He's. He is definitely not on earth anymore. Right? Whatever. Right?

[B]

We should all be so lucky.

[A]

Yeah. No, we. Dev. Oh, phones ringing, dude. Phones ringing, dude. And it's Donnie. And we're recording right now. So he's not Donnie.

[C]

Are you a Patreon member?

[A]

Are you? Donnie's not in the Patreon. But. But the. I do. There's a. There's a level. Level of rich and success, right? Where you stop giving a fuck. But before you decide you want to bend the world to your way of life, right? That in between, right? You got toys, you got time. Right. You know, you don't really have anywhere to be.

[B]

Right?

[A]

But you're not like, you know what would be good? If I entrenched my money and power for generations.

[B]

Right? Yeah. Jerry doesn't seem to care about anything. I've never heard him say, say anything political. He doesn't give a shit.

[A]

The one time he did get, a couple months ago, he got in some heat. Cause he did blame, as the thing that older white guys do, he blamed the Left for canceling. Blah. And actually to his credit, he backtracked and he went, you know what? I was wrong. And he did say that later. So I give him credit for that. He didn't have to. He could have just written that out. But he actually did go back. Donnie's calling me again. Someone must have given him the fucking stream something. He don't call twice in a day unless he found my valve cover and.

[C]

Say, I'm recording right now. What do you want?

[B]

Maybe Donnie is the most famous person that you know.

[A]

Maybe. Hang on. Oh, what's happened here? Hey, I'm recording. What's up? Let's see. Well, maybe we can. We can figure out what's happening right now. Maybe he'll text back.

[B]

I can't believe all these famous people. I gotta get.

[A]

I live in la. There's around.

[B]

I gotta get in there.

[A]

It's not like these people sought me out. I just see them in la.

[B]

You know what annoys me?

[A]

What?

[B]

A lot I only know from the car. The cars that I filmed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I only know rich car owners, and that isn't particularly interesting to me.

[A]

Well, they're not interesting people.

[B]

Simply has money.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

That has like a zero percent interest to me.

[A]

It could be negative. It could be. There's a lot of people that have these big car collections who are actually, to me specifically, less interesting because of that.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Oh, Matt, you gotta meet this guy. He's got this and this and this and this and this. And I go, I don't care about any of that stuff.

[B]

I love that kind of stuff all the time. And it's like, don't care. I'm good.

[A]

I've seen cars. I know what they are, right.

[B]

And I've driven them all. And I just can't find any more rich people who are trying to buy their way into an audience. I just can't do it anymore.

[A]

The worst is if you're that rich and then you decide you want to be an influencer, Right? It wasn't enough to be a billionaire, right? Now I need.

[B]

Well, these people have a currency that is beyond money, which is views and likes. And they're obsessed. They're obsessed with. Because they've already made all the money, right? Conquered that world. Now they want to get a likes and views world. And I just have so little respect for it. And I get a lot of these, like, you obviously like a lot of these intros, like, yeah, you gotta meet this guy. Do I?

[A]

Why?

[B]

I mean, unless he's the sultan himself.

[A]

In which case there are a couple of people that are interesting and cool despite the things that they own. But it's almost always an exception and not the real. Particularly in this city.

[B]

People who don't have a ton of money don't realize that they think that if you get a countach or you're suddenly interesting, I have literally, like. You're saying I've literally found the opposite. That, like, these people are just like. It's just rich guys who want to, like, show off their stuff. And I just find that to be so dull.

[A]

And I have to. The allocations.

[B]

Oh, my stuff, it's just Porsche specs.

[A]

Do you. Isn't it crazy how for some people, allocations are so addictive? They buy cars they. They buy cars they don't plan to keep. They buy cars in colors they didn't want, specs they didn't want. Just on the dangled promise of maybe getting an allocation for the next one for the next one, not even that bad one Crazy. I have a person who I may or may not have kept cars with me in the past that had to buy two extra Lamborghinis to get a Revuelto allocation.

[B]

2.

[C]

Exclusivity, I think, is one of the most powerful drugs. It's the saddest thing in the brain, which is serotonin, I think, but which.

[B]

Is why all those multimillion dollar cars, those guys think that they're exclusive. I will say Ed Bullion gave me the absolute classic line about allocations. He said, the way to determine if a car is actually special, if the dealer has reached out to you for an allocation and you have done nothing to deserve it, don't buy that. A special car like sto. They were having trouble and still are. That ain't a special car.

[A]

Like, that's, you know, I. I understand why, but it actually is a special car. So, you know, that might. That might be in 20 years. Maybe it'll be a big money one. If you wanted a Lamborghini sports car to actually drive around every day, you want a st. Remember you said you almost bought.

[B]

I had, I had. I was choosing my spec. I was all ready to go, and then I bought the Countach instead.

[A]

I mean, you made the right choice.

[B]

Maybe, but, like, there are days when I wish I had a serato with a tire on the roof and I think that'd be cool as hell.

[A]

St are good.

[B]

I will say objectively good. I'm not opposed to buying a serato. I just. I'm watching the market and I'm. I'm a wait this one out a little bit. I do think.

[A]

Going in at 205.

[B]

Yeah. Or 1. Something.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I do think that car has legs long term. And I think that a lot of the cars that are the most successful were. Hated their time.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

But the point, Ed's point was about flipping like if. If you've been offered the car.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And you're just a guy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No, you ain't making money on that flip flop. That's very true.

[A]

No, I tried to get an ST and I got laughed at.

[B]

You know what I really want is an st.

[A]

I. They're amazing.

[B]

You know, I have this thing about.

[A]

When did you. Did you ever go with the press card?

[B]

They sent me the press. The gray one where you open the door and it said cool for heritage or cool forever.

[A]

It's pathetic. Yeah, yeah. It was the fucking icons of. Is that what it was? Icons.

[B]

Icons of cool. Like, where does it say that?

[A]

You know, on the door sill of.

[B]

A Porsche, like the things that project the puddle lights, it was instead of like the Porsche liquid said, icons of cool.

[C]

That's terrible.

[A]

What? So what's worse? That. Or in the electric G wagon where it says stronger than time, stronger than wow. And it's like, imagine calling that shot on an ev.

[B]

On an ev.

[A]

Stronger than time. Get the fuck out of here.

[B]

Okay, the 911st. Let's talk about the 911st.

[A]

It's the greatest car on sale right now.

[B]

I have this thing about Porsches where I kind of hate all Porsches. I kind of hate the community. I hate the whole thing. I encourage you to. But that's like, that one is kind of an example of why, like, they were all silver, they had no options. Like, that is an example of why I don't get into the Porsche world now where it's less about the driving experience in more about the color. And then I drove a 911ST. And I think it's really special that we live in a time where like a lot of people talk about, oh, the old days of Lambo, the V12s, the manuals, like the old cars were the cool ones. Porsche's making one of the cool ones.

[A]

Yeah, you can do it right now.

[B]

Right now.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Like 993 Turbo is amazing car. This is in that echelon and that car is air cooled, old school. Like, this is that now. Like, it's amazing that there are very few cars that I'm gonna look back on in 25 years and be like.

[A]

That was the one.

[B]

911St is.

[A]

Cannot afford one of those. But as soon as I drove, I.

[C]

Came back from the launch and I was like, matt, find a way to.

[A]

He called me from Italy.

[C]

I said, find a way.

[A]

And he goes, call the dealer, get an allocation from Italy.

[B]

Did you think about calling Porsche? I've always. I thought about calling por.

[A]

I called, yes, I did. I asked Porsche and they said, there's nothing we can do to help you. You have to go through your dealer. So I called my dealer, which I have a great relationship with, and he openly, he laughed at me. It wasn't like, sorry, can't help you. It was like, you and everybody else. You think you're gonna get that because.

[C]

You bought one Spider? I don't think so.

[A]

And they said that there was like a Hail Mary move you can do. They said there was like 50 to 100 cars that they were gonna build, but they hadn't decided who was gonna get them yet. And so you would do a build on the website, submit it. The, the dealer principal would have to approve it. The regional GM would have to approve it. PCNA has to approve it. They then send it to Germany and there's a person in Germany that will look at your build and determine if they.

[C]

Because they're like, is this gonna be a good representation?

[A]

Wow.

[B]

I should.

[A]

I did it. It got to Germany and then they said, good night and good luck, sir.

[B]

So what are those selling for? Do you know?

[A]

I told you what my client had to do to get one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So he had to turn two current. Current GT cars. Yeah, it was, it was. It's five.

[B]

600.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's a lot. I mean I Love the car. 600.

[A]

Oh no, dude. I couldn't afford it at MSRC.

[B]

Get a stick Mercy. There's a lot of cool cars.

[A]

Yeah. But you could buy an ST today, keep it for 30, 30 years, drive it every weekend and I don't think you'd get tired of it.

[B]

I don't think you'd get tired of it. You wouldn't lose money in it. Although 911 Rs lost a little. But I think the world's hip to that and are priced in the fact that there's probably going to be more.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I'll tell you, I drove that car. I was absolutely astonished. I now consider that to be like one of my top five Porsches. 993 Turbo, 996 GT2 Carrera GT911ST. Maybe there's only four.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

997 Turbo.

[A]

They are. So my general manager, my general manager here, eric has a two stick turbo.

[B]

Wow. That's a special car.

[A]

15,000 miles. He's looking to sell it. But here's where Doug gets interested.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

This car is covered under a bumper to bumper warranty until September of 2026 or it hits 70,000 miles.

[B]

Those cars aren't that unreliable. I wouldn't be the one.

[A]

This is the last 997 on the planet.

[B]

Covered.

[A]

Covered under warranty.

[B]

What's the warranty?

[A]

Is it Porsche cpo? Like he extended it like you know.

[B]

They sold them through 12 or 13 and I think CPO will even give you a warranty on a 10 year old car. And then.

[A]

Yeah, it added to. He added to it.

[B]

That's a special car.

[A]

Yeah, it's rad.

[B]

Two turbos are 0.2 stick turbos are really rare.

[A]

Sorry to bring up your competitor but one ended at the moment on bring a Trailer, same spec as Eric's.

[B]

But that car. 2,000 miles.

[A]

It had 2,000 miles. Eric says 15,000 miles. Slightly different. But I would like to see what it went for because it was holding at 200 with five minutes left. I think it was going to go for two and a quarter. Go to results and it would have happened in the last.

[B]

You got to type in 997turbo.

[A]

No, you do. You won't just give you the most recent.

[B]

It will, but if you really think it was that recent.

[A]

No, it was like an hour ago.

[B]

There you go. Porsche 907.

[A]

Let's see. I am very curious to what this goes for. Go down the black one. Keep going. That one.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

230. I said 225. I'm pretty good at this. Those are special cars. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

The point two turbo sticks.

[A]

Yeah, they're very, very good.

[B]

Yeah, they're very, very good.

[A]

So you know, I saw you did a. I saw one of your podcast clips actually. I think you were comparing a Ferrari 812 that was like. That did not sell on bring a Trailer and then it did sell on. On cars and bids later. What do you see as the trends of one site versus another? Are you starting to see real differences or is it.

[B]

I don't know what our team would want me to say. But I'll tell you what I really think. I love bring a Trailer and I have enormous respect for them and I go on bring a trailer premium every single day. But they really a good chunk of their business. What they're known for is super high value car. And I think if you have an M3 or a 4Runner or a land Cruiser. I mean if you go on the main page on bring a trailer there's 800 cars. I don't want to talk bad about them because it's a great business that does great. But start scrolling down. If you've got over on the. Right there the thing where that has all the pictures, you got to scroll pretty far to find it. All those. Those are just little pictures. And if your car is one of those little pictures, does it really get the. On our site, I think those cars, we feel that they're a little bit more special so they tend to get more views and more bids and more money. That type of car with us. And I'm always surprised to see someone sell stuff like boxsters and Caymans. Right.

[C]

There's a lot of like very normal Cherokee. This is a.

[B]

And you got a. But you have to kind of work to find those Listings because they're like little and sort of hidden and you know, FJ Cruiser, that kind of thing. Like those. We sell a ton of those cars.

[A]

Assad would want that.

[B]

But they're just. It's. I think that those cars are special to us and maybe a little bit less clearly special there which is why they seem to get. Based on the. We've had some cars that have gone on both places, the same VIN on both places in the last year and we've got more money on the majority of them.

[A]

That's so interesting. I don't, I don't.

[B]

If I'm selling a Countach, you know, I don't know. We've sold some Countaches. We've done actually okay on Countach's.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

We do okay on Lambos but they've obviously got you know they slant nose Porsches. Bring them money. I get that we have work to do there but it is an interesting thing to think about.

[A]

Yeah. I don't.

[C]

Isn't that the whole. When you built cars and bids, you saw this underrepresented market I guess and you're like oh well what if we.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And at the time a lot of cars were being denied from bring a trailer as well, which I think they've loosened some of their permissions.

[B]

But that still doesn't. Just because they've loosened it and are running those cars. I still don't think that necessarily means they get topped off.

[A]

Oh no. I just. I mean they were literally rejecting cars and so there was a business case to be made for these people still want to sell their cars. It's still an enthusiast car. Whatever.

[B]

It's still a great business. So is ours. Honestly. The thing about this is people consider them to be close competitors and they are. But the market is huge. When you think about the number of enthusiast cars that transact every year in North America and they sell some stuff in Europe, the market is huge. There's room for both businesses to succeed and succeed well. And they have. Both of them have and you know.

[A]

Does there. Oh the was I just gonna say. I just. I just. I had a little. And it's.

[B]

You've had Randy in here.

[A]

Where did it go? Oh, damn it. It wasn't about one versus the other. It was about. It's gonna come back to me. I'm sorry. Fucking just brain farted so bad right there.

[B]

How's your Bentley?

[A]

Pretty good.

[B]

Yeah. I got a buddy who bought an orange yesterday on bringing it arrived and.

[A]

It is a disaster. Oh no. Really?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean Mine, dude was title jumping it. Oh really? Oh no, ours. Ours is as good as a turbo R could be. And you know we're gonna sell it. The year is coming up December 27th. It'll be a year we've been dailying a turbo r. We've done 4,200 miles in it.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

We have. We did. We had to do a big, big service on it. When we first got it as one does it was 12 grand which is.

[B]

Of course the value of the car.

[A]

But since it was. We've. We've done a couple little things. Nothing that's mechanical in terms of like the car never broke down.

[B]

Like never got stranded.

[A]

Never. Not only that, the car has never had a mechanical hiccup since that very first week we got it. That was the. That was the only one. I just. What did we just do? We just did the 4,000 mile oil filter service. And I'm going to take it to Charlie one more time before I put it. I'll probably put with you. I'd like you. Have you done it?

[B]

I would love to review it.

[A]

You want to do it? Yeah, I'll bring it down to you. You just do it. I'm gonna have my guy. My guy Derek detail it because he's the best detailer probably in California. And. And we're gonna send it no reserve if you want to do it. This is. It's got 24000 miles the way. Do you see the paperwork? The. I have the order sheet from Rolls Royce Bentley Beverly Hills from 1990. I have the factory build sheet. I have.

[B]

Who was the original owner?

[A]

The guy was. He lived four houses over for it.

[B]

Was the same guy. Had it the whole time.

[A]

Bought it new. Bought it for himself for his 60th birthday. And when he died at 94, I bought it off his kids. And so he drove it once a week.

[B]

You going to sell this thing?

[A]

Yeah, I'm going to sell it. Because we've done what we can we can do with it. We've had the experience. I don't really feel like there's anything else for me to learn about it. And in order to complete. Because the experiment was can I do it for a year and spend less money than if I had just leased a whatever car.

[B]

Does it make you want to do this again?

[A]

It makes me want to try something. Try another one. It does. Yeah. But there's also. It also made me realize how much I do enjoy having one leased car that I don't give a about.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That you got to Start at baseline there.

[B]

Plus modern tech. And it's nice to have carplay. It's nice to have cooled seats. It's nice to have like there's some, there's some actual real benefits.

[A]

There are. But most of it is mental. And me going, I want to just go to the goddamn grocery store in a car I don't think about, you know. And it's like, like the Bentley like you need. It's a big fucking heavy lumping, you know motor and you really want to start it and let it run for 60 seconds or so before you drive anywhere. But is that what you want your life to be? I swear to God, no bullshit. I have spared not a penny in making this car perfect. It is as perfect as a Bentley Turbo R can be. Everything works, every gauge, every light, everything. I did it with that experiment in mind. What would it cost to do right. So the.

[B]

What do you think? How much are you in it for?

[A]

You think I can tell you exactly? You want to know exactly? I just have to get my notebook.

[B]

Well, just a ballpark. I mean you put 12 grand, what did you buy? 12.

[A]

I bought it for 20 cash.

[B]

So you're probably in it for what like 35?

[A]

I'm probably in it for about 35, 36. Can I get that at a no reserve auction? Maybe if it's presented well. If I really, you know, if you do a video and I get all this. Amazing. Because with a Turbo R it's about ownership history and making maintenance history. And this goes back to before the car was built.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You can't. You're never, you'll never see a better.

[B]

Turbo R. That's crazy.

[A]

How about that?

[B]

Yeah, most of them when they got cheap.

[A]

Oh they. Yeah. This one like your Countach. Right. Your. You got the best Countach because it never went to that cheap opportunity to.

[B]

Go to the fourth owner, the fifth owner, the ninth owner, the 11th owner.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

Who didn't do any of that.

[A]

Yeah. And so many Bentleys and Rolls is from the 80s 80s are 18 owners and like fucking new shooter coming in. Let's go.

[B]

You know, just hoping for the best. Like my buddy who bought the Arnash.

[A]

Yeah. But it's been such a good car. I can't believe what like how well made it is and how nice it drives, how solid it feels. It's so great.

[B]

You ever see anybody else on the road with them?

[A]

Never.

[B]

They're not around often. I see one maybe every. It used to be somewhat. Frequently you'd see in the spur and the Spirits, I never really see them anymore.

[A]

And when we rolled to Vegas in it, God was like, king of the world. Young people in Vegas really took notice. People in their 20s really were like, yes, you're fucking doing it.

[B]

It is a big body, big grill. Yeah. I'm gonna screw you up.

[A]

And I put the yellow. The French market fog lights in it. So, Charlie Ronin vibe, you know, it's very good. Yeah, you should do it. You should do it.

[B]

I would love to.

[A]

It's really. It has five ashtrays and zero cup holders, which is.

[B]

What was the deal with that. The ashtrays were far more important, bro. And the Europeans always made fun of us.

[A]

They're mad grits, dude. They love it.

[B]

This is one of my biggest annoyances. The Europeans always used to make fun of America. You need cup holders. You drink in your car. Meanwhile, they got 20 ashtrays, they're ripping grits. They got no problem at all. The backseat, they got three seat belts and three ashtrays back. Like, the middle passenger is on an.

[A]

Ashtray, and you get a heater and you get a. Yeah, that's so five ashtrays. Isn't that unbelievable?

[B]

Yeah, it is. You know, the only one of those types of cars. Actually, no. Years ago, I did a Spirit, but I did a Bentley at that place over Checkered Flag.

[A]

Remember? That still existed.

[B]

They had a limo conversion. One that was owned by some famous family in New York, like the Rockefeller or some shit.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it was like there was like a call button to talk to the driver, driver and that kind of thing. But it was like extended wheelbase with more wind. Like, it was a totally different beast from what you got.

[A]

Yeah. I'll tell you what. We were just talking about people that are not interesting because they have big car collections. But there are some people I know that are very rich, but they buy shit that, like, you and I would buy, you know, they're not buying the typical Richie Rich shit they're buying. And this fucking dude bought a 1996 Lincoln Town Car limo for, like 5 grand because that's what they cost. And it's mint. It's got shag. It's got the boomerang antenna. It's got the fucking landau roof, the crystal glasses in there, CRT tv. And this dude has. He just, like, hires a guy to just. When he wants to go to Beverly Hills for dinner, he just rolls this thing.

[B]

And I was like, yes, those. There was a time those cars were the coolest things on the road. You didn't nothing like that Happened.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When I was a kid, those were the only limos.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, Hummers came later. Things like that came later. Yeah, yeah, but you were the king of like.

[A]

Yeah, it was when I was in high school when. When we started looking at limos for like prom. That was when SUV limos became a thing. Yeah, they were like, just.

[B]

I guess for me it was a. Yeah. I was in middle school. But like navigators and Escalades. Otherwise it was just Lincoln or Cadillac. Yeah, the big fin. Cadillac limos. And that was like it my old free. Now we sell occasion on the site. They are limos. Yeah. Oh, 90s limos are free. Nobody wants to. What do you do with Nobody wants to. There's not limo fire trucks. Like, we had a fan who bought.

[A]

A fire truck and had regret after like a week.

[B]

Everybody think this will be fun. But like, the truth is it's too big to do anything with. You got a driver, you got to figure all this stuff. It's too hard.

[A]

Unless you're like the rainbow chic. And then have at it, bro. Let's turn a car into an apartment.

[B]

That Instagram is one of the great Instagrams ever to exist. Like, seven Jeep Wranglers joined together.

[A]

I could get behind that rich Dodge truck.

[C]

I read that on Larry Chen's Instagram.

[B]

Really?

[C]

The giant Dodge Power Wagon is a four bedroom apartment. There's like a meeting room in their bathroom.

[A]

And not only is it a four bedroom house, it's a four bedroom house built in 1992. And so they show the inside. And you're like, this doesn't look like billionaire toys.

[B]

This is the Brunei stuff.

[A]

This is the kind of stuff you.

[B]

Do when you're oil rich and you have nothing to do. You know, I was in Dubai many years ago, driving down Sheikh Zayed Road, which is the only road in Dubai, I think, more or less. And a G Wagon 6x6 just cruising along. I'm like, okay, this is where we are.

[A]

So when I was in Dubai, we stopped at a gas station and there was four G6 63s lined up. Right.

[B]

G Wagon thing is impossible to explain to regular people.

[A]

So all four of them have the same license plate. It's just the number three. They're all the same tag running.

[B]

It'll come back to me, but you're not going to want to do anything crazy. That is so crazy. The G Wagon situation there is absolutely out of control. It's like the Hamptons and then everything is just. I'll never forget when I went there And I rented a gx, which was a Lane Prado, and they told me if I didn't fill it up when I returned it, they would have to charge me a penalty fee of like 196A gallon. What?

[A]

Equated to. Yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna fill it up. That's free. Speaking of G wagons, before we wrap this up, did you drive the electric one?

[B]

Drove the electron. Loved it.

[A]

You liked it?

[B]

Loved it.

[A]

No, I did. I liked it a lot. I thought it gave me what I wanted from a G wagon.

[B]

One of the first electric cars that I think I would be into. Beyond the fact that it's an electric car, like, it's just good.

[A]

Yeah. And it's Mercedes only compelling electric product at all.

[B]

Oh, dude. I was at a Mercedes Benz dealership the other day.

[A]

Are they giving them away, the eqs?

[B]

It's not even that they got product. Like he said. They had to rent other lots off site like that. Hundreds of Sprinters.

[A]

No way.

[B]

They got my box sitting outside.

[A]

No way. Oh, wow.

[B]

They got no just cars car. I had to shoot it at a public park down the street. There was no flat surface at the dealership where I could shoot the video.

[C]

So not just electric cars. They're having trouble moving everything.

[B]

I think electric cars is a. Is a big contributing factor because that's probably taking up a lot of the space. They said they're still selling GLCs and these C classes and stuff, like, kind of like normal, but.

[A]

Yeah, but those EQs, nobody wants that stuff, dude.

[B]

EQB.

[A]

It's not good. I don't think we drove an EQB. EQS.

[B]

EQE.

[A]

Yeah. And then. Yeah. Which one is B?

[B]

EQB is a small.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Not good.

[B]

And they're free. The lease rates on these. I don't know if you've been watching used EV prices.

[A]

Oh, used, yeah. Nothing. I was thinking maybe get a Taycan cross turismo for 58 grand.

[B]

They're getting cheaper. Well, you should see what we sell. We've talked about this before, about lucid airs. We talked about. Because you sold one. We have a sapphire on the site right now.

[A]

Very curious.

[B]

No one's sold one yet, so I'm very curious.

[A]

What do you think?

[B]

I honestly haven't. I truly have no idea.

[A]

I really want to see what a sapphire. I bet it's buck 42.

[B]

That becomes an appealing car at 70 though, which it's going to be in a. About three years.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like I'd be interested in that.

[A]

Yeah. I mean the Sapphire we had a lot of time in. Sapphire was amazing. But like with all EVs, 90% of the time, the fast one versus the slow one, it's exactly the same.

[B]

That's a good point. I never really thought about that.

[A]

You know, you go take out a V6 charger and a Hellcat and in traffic you can feel the difference.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Go take out a Taycan base and a Taycan Turbo GT in traffic. Same car.

[B]

And even the base EVs tend to be pretty powerful. Yeah. Like they Pretty quick.

[A]

Yeah. Because it's instant torque and you're just like even like my fucking. The base Mach E that I had the rear wheel drive, whatever. How often did the accelerator pedal hit the floorboard? And I was like, not enough. Need more.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Very rare. Not once.

[B]

Yeah. It's only like a bragging rights thing. Yeah. The model, the Tesla performance.

[A]

Well, and it's such an easy thing for them to do technologically today. I mean, not the first time time, but today it's. And the power doesn't affect the range or the efficiency. They're separate metrics.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You can have a very efficient EV that's also very powerful. Which you can't do in a gas car.

[B]

Right? Yeah.

[A]

So they're like, why not?

[B]

Right? And they do. So they just jack it up. And that's why speed isn't special anymore. Yeah. That's why we got our countaches. And that is what is special.

[A]

It is. And you're very slow. Carrera gt, which is still having the recall fixed.

[B]

The recall is done, but now I gotta do it. Dude. Okay, here's a good one. I go into the dealer.

[A]

Cause I thought you were like, you had a workaround for the recall or did you just like not. I just drove it. See, that's.

[B]

They didn't have any incidents.

[A]

That's called interesting rich guy. You know what I mean?

[B]

They put a stop drive on the car. They didn't have any incidents. It was just like inspect it and see, mine was fine. But here's a great one. So I go to the dealership to do the recall and we discover that I need to do the four year service. It's been five years since I've done the last four year service. I'm like, all right, I'll do the four year service. And the guy, the service writer's like, yeah, okay, you wanna do the four year service too? That'll be about 15. I'm like, excuse me? He's like, yeah, about $15,000. I'm like, what?

[A]

Whoa, what? Like he sent me what's in the four year service?

[B]

Dude, it's like a couple belts, fluids. That's it.

[A]

Engine loans come out. No. Okay.

[B]

15 credit GT tax is what is called in the.

[A]

That is a heavy list.

[B]

Isn't that wild?

[A]

Heavy tax.

[B]

Okay. I guess it'll be eight years before the next four year service.

[A]

Yeah. Wow.

[B]

He just like. It was like I should assume that of course it's going to be 15 grand every four years. I have every service record for that car. Going back to new. They used to be the oil changes used to be 1100 bucks. Like just.

[A]

It was the same when they had. When they had probably dealer techs that were more trained up on it and had the equipment ready to go and whatever.

[B]

Oil changes are still not that expensive. Maybe like two grand. But the four year service apparently is.

[A]

It's a dry sump, right? It's gotta be a dry sump. Yeah. So it probably holds a lot of oil.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. And that's a component of it. And changing the belts apparently is a pain, et cetera, et cetera. Few things. But like it's not like I'm doing a big thing.

[A]

No, I know. Yeah. The Bentley in the major service when we changed all the fluids, it's like, holy shit. This holds a lot of oil and coolant. This holds like $300 in oil. It's like 11 quarts.

[B]

That doesn't surprise me, honestly. It's a big countach.

[A]

Enormous amount of oil.

[B]

Yeah. And it takes forever to get it warmed up. I can drive that car for 20 minutes. And the needle barely starts.

[A]

When I would leave here, the needle would come off when I would get to Malibu. Yeah.

[B]

George Evans was like, don't drive, don't drive the car hard until it starts to warm up. And I'm like, then I would never drive it hard.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Ever.

[A]

How about. About how many minutes is your home to office to make?

[B]

It's not enough to get the temp needle.

[A]

It's not. When I moved, I was like, oh, my new house is so close to the office. And then I was like, wait, this isn't enough to drive any of the old cars.

[B]

I do all sorts of stuff. I do all these loops though, around it's like a 40 minute, 8 minute.

[A]

Yeah. It's 1.2 miles direct. Or I have like a 9 mile loop I can do if I need to actually get the car warmer.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's radio. That's our program.

[B]

We don't take questions anymore from people.

[A]

I mean, we do, but when we have a great guest and we're doing two and a half hours of radio, it's not something we need.

[C]

I mean, we have them.

[B]

Zach, hit me a question. Hit Matt with a question that you have for Matt.

[C]

That I have for Matt.

[A]

Oh, you mean a fan?

[B]

No, no, no, a personal question from Zach.

[A]

What questions could Zach have for me.

[C]

That we haven't covered in in every.

[A]

Fucking thing we do together?

[B]

Oh, my God, there's so many questions.

[A]

No, there's always a lot. But like, I'm gonna pick two.

[C]

Speed round, ten second answer.

[B]

Okay, I can do that.

[A]

All right. All right, fine. Speed round. We're gonna do five, six questions. One minute, 10 questions, 10 seconds each. And I'm gonna start the timer. I got a timer ready. Zero. Oh, wait, I actually don't want timer. I want to stopwatch. Okay, I'm gonna start timer as soon as I finish reading Liang's question. Of course, if you want to ask questions of our guests, patreon.com the Smoking Tire podcast is where you do it. Okay. Liang says with Toyota pulling the plug on the Supra, are enthusiast gas cars losing the business case for manufacturers that only the niche old and expensive are moving that segment forward?

[B]

Kinda. Next question.

[A]

Kinda, yes, I legitimately worry about that.

[B]

And I think the fact that they're pairing up like the BRZ and the supra and the Z4 is kind of proof of that. It doesn't make financial sense.

[A]

Next question. Okay, that was 9.1 seconds. Micah says how has the R8 aged? And what is a good modern equivalent?

[B]

Shockingly well, those early R8s are still desirable. Good modern equivalent.

[A]

The R8, they stopped selling six months ago.

[B]

Yeah, I guess that's a good one. Lexus LC maybe. Although it's not as special. But yeah, the R8.

[A]

Still the R8 pretty expensive compared to.

[B]

What it was, but yes, it is. I think the early ones have aged really well.

[A]

That took 25 seconds. We need to do better. Paul says which one car from the Brunei Leaks would you choose to own if possible?

[B]

I mean, McLaren F1, but really the Bentley Dominator, their SUV that they made.

[A]

Just for them, which was based on a P38 Range Rover. Hell yeah, Very funny.

[B]

You know it'll have no problems. A one off car based on a P38 Bentley based.

[A]

A 90s Bentley based on a 90s Range Rover.

[B]

And by the way, the fact that the Sultan they figured out at luxury SUVs before Bentley did. They were like, you should make this. And Bentley was like, we're just going to make a feud. They should have done it early.

[A]

Ferrari Fiero. 3 to 400k to spend on a weekend driver. Is a Ford GT the answer yes or not? A big Porsche guy?

[B]

Yes Or a Murcielago or I'm going.

[A]

To go out and say a Ferrari 430 with a manual.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

I'd rather have a mercier Ford gt.

[A]

I would too, but I just wanted to throw in a little extra fun. Doug, my father. Nice cam says father's looking to get Ferrari F8 Spider. Market seems to be 30 to 50k over sticker. Should he wait to see if prices fall or is the whole last v8 non hybrid going to help?

[B]

It depends how long he's willing to wait. I don't think prices are going to fall that quickly because 296s are so much more expensive. But if you want to wait three years, yeah, they'll fall. But go get a 458.

[A]

Get a 458 or 488.

[B]

I mean, I like the F8. I'm not one of those people who's like.

[A]

But 488 to F8 is an incredibly incremental.

[B]

Yeah, get a 488.

[A]

The same car. Yeah, basically Christian says, why is Doug such an LFA hater?

[B]

Cuz it's trash.

[A]

You think it's trash?

[B]

I was there. I was there when they couldn't sell them, when no one wanted it, when everybody complained about the transmission, when everybody thought it was ugly, I was there. And now everybody's backtracking.

[A]

Now you know, you know why that was. Trans is trash. But the car is good despite it.

[B]

It's. The car is uggo. The LC looks way better and cost nothing.

[C]

Didn't you just say when we were discussing the ST and the sterrato that cars that are unloved and always end up being like the best exciting ones.

[B]

The LFA is proof. I don't like it, but the market does not agree with me.

[A]

Yeah, I happen to like the LFA despite the gearbox. But there are definitely people who have said to me recently, you know those single clutch automated manuals, they have more character. And I go, they're shittier, they're worse. They're definitely.

[B]

It's like driving a manual. I'm over pdk. Dual clutch is like, it's too easy. It's too easy.

[A]

Well, no, I think it's still good.

[C]

And fun and it functions well.

[A]

I use it myself.

[B]

But you get my point. It's too easy. Those single clutches, there was some work involved. It felt a little more mechanical.

[C]

It gives the worst combination of both.

[B]

Give me a bat. Give me a 612 with a formula with an F1 transmission. I'll drive that thing all day long. 70 grand.

[C]

The front end of this looks weird, by the way.

[B]

Well, yeah, it was a heinous car.

[A]

Right?

[B]

So not worse than the LFA though.

[A]

Keep scrolling down. I don't like those three questions. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.

[B]

These are. These are great. Doug, why have you Never viewed a B7RS4? I'll do a Sprint blue and when it comes up on the seat.

[A]

Why haven't you done that? Seems like a pretty obvious.

[B]

When it comes up on cars and bids. I will do a Sprint blue one. But it's.

[A]

What if it's a convertible?

[B]

I would do. I would do a convertible. Then I would also later do a sedan. I would also do a wagon. Which are going to be legal soon.

[A]

Rs4 convertible is sneakily the rarest production Audi ever sold in.

[B]

I was in Manhattan earlier this year. I saw a yellow one. Sick drives driving down the west.

[A]

Huge money. I've tried to get a bunch of people to buy them.

[B]

It's a shame. They gave us the convertible. They had the sedan and the wagon and they were like, no, we'll give America the four seat convertible.

[A]

Okay. Ryan says after watching Kenan's video on homologation cars. I'm obsessed with the 328 Si. What are some other lower trim cars that are cool and collectible? How about the Italian market E30,320I, which is a. Which is a sort of stealthy M3.

[B]

Other ones I'd have to think about.

[A]

How about the Ferrari 2, which you know's got one. Glickenhaus has one. Really? Yeah.

[B]

It was bad.

[A]

I mean it probably was, but like he just has one because it's Ferrari tech's displacement.

[B]

Cars based on displacement and they slipped it under like the two by having a two liter turbo V8. Yeah, they called it the 208. It was a 308.

[A]

Kind of neat. I'd like to try one. I would like to try one.

[B]

Oh, absolutely.

[A]

I bet it would be really cool. Other. Are there any other lower trim level? I mean you could get. I would have to think, how about this? I don't know if it's collectible, but you could get in Europe the Defender, the new Defender with like the commercial package that has like no Interior and anything like that.

[B]

Any truly stripped out car that isn't stripped out because it's a superleggera. But there are those. Those are generally cool.

[C]

That is the funny rich man, poor man thing.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Like, car has no options because it's the cheapest one. Car has no options because it's the most expensive. Both are light.

[B]

But then the cheapest car, no options, I generally find to be pretty cool.

[C]

It's like the Evo 8Rs, right?

[B]

Yeah. That were like totally stripped out, no.

[C]

Wing, but the best race car.

[A]

We're going to end on Alex Hay's question. Doug and Matt have become very successful. How do you measure success or feel like you've made it?

[B]

Well, my measure of success was when I started, when I had more subscribers than Matt Farah. The Smoking Tire podcast.

[A]

Success? No. Do you feel successful?

[B]

Yeah, now I do. It took a while.

[A]

Yeah. Selling the site did that.

[B]

I'm going to say this, and it's not intended to be a lib point of view. When you're born like I am, I kind of feel like I better get somewhere. You know what I mean? We weren't rich. No, we didn't have. But I was a smart, socially adept, tall, white person. You better succeed. I meet some of these people and it's like, why haven't you done more?

[A]

Wow. You had a lot to work with.

[B]

I think that sometimes. And so it's like, I never really thought that I had. Yeah. Probably selling the business was the big. It was like, okay, I've done something that is really extraordinary at this point that even in that set of circumstances is very difficult to do.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I feel, and honestly, I've always respected you for that. That like you with your family situation. A lot of people, I know a lot of people who just don't do much or kind of stick around.

[A]

I mean, I was born on third base. Right. And not necessarily born on third base, but my parents definitely got to third base. By the time I graduated high school, I was pretty well set up. Not super spoiled, but definitely taken care of. Graduated college with no debt, that kind of thing. And was in a position where I could take risks in my career. And if they, you know, my parents weren't just like giving me money, but if the shit hit the fan and I ran out of money, I wouldn't have literally been on the street. And so that is a privilege to be able to do that. Not to mention what you said. From a good area, from a good family, tall, white, educated, knowing how to talk to people. Not a complete moron.

[B]

Right. Those are. Those are so. To me, I only define success as, like, even going beyond what I think the baseline of success should have been. Like, everybody who's kind of born into our circumstances can at least ends up at least getting some desk job that pays good enough that they can, like, live and they're not worried about their. And so, like, that's not enough. I always felt like that wasn't enough. Like, I could have done that. A lot of people do that. It's fine. But, like, I don't view that as, like, a. The next level of success if you. You already have all these. There are people for whom that would be a major success coming out of much more difficult circumstances.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But that wasn't me. It was like, that was almost kind of a given. And so, like, in order to really be successful, you had to do better than that, is how I felt about it.

[A]

I don't really feel that successful. I mean, I feel like the measure. A good measure of success for me is like, contentness, I think, just, like, being able to be okay with where life is and whatever. And, like, I think it's great that I don't have to think about every Bill. I don't have to think about every meal. You know, we're beyond that, which is, like, awesome. But, like, I think I'd be content if I was, like. I'd feel successful if I was, like, happy with my body, you know, if I didn't feel like I had to do a lot of work on that, if I didn't feel like a failure for eating a cookie right. You know, or whatever, that kind of.

[B]

Thing, being a kind person, being a. There are many ways to define success beyond business success. I presumed the question was in that range. But if my kids don't do anything and are just, like, good people, I will consider them to be successful. When I grew up, and probably when you grew up, based on where we went to school, my parents were pushy about college. You had to do this. You had to go to this college. And all my friends who went to really crazy private schools to go to the best college, their outcomes were not significantly different than the ones who didn't. And I certainly don't consider them to be, like, happier or better off in their situations. So I'm not hoping for that for my children. Success for my children, to me, looks like they're happy, which is hard. A lot of those people who are in that track of crazy schools and colleges are like, anxiety. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And that's happened to me here at work and on YouTube at work. A lot. That crushing anxiety of not good enough, I'm not smart enough, this isn't working. And so success to me is being able to take a longer view.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Think about what is working and how do I just enjoy the rest of my goddamn day with my wife and my cats and my dinner without having to go to bed going, oh, my God, tomorrow. You know, there's something to that mental freedom, right? Which is independent from money, beyond your basis basics.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Always a pleasure. Time stamp. What are we at?

[C]

244.

[A]

244.

[B]

I got to sit in the same seat. Johnny Lieberman. Did he leave anything? Can I.

[A]

He left some whiskey. We're doing. We're doing a industry night. Whiskey tomorrow. And you want to come get shitfaced.

[B]

The only time I ever come to Los Angeles. No, the only time I ever come to Los Angeles is to do this podcast.

[A]

We appreciate it.

[B]

I have a rule now that I don't go north of the Hyundai building in Fountain valley on the 405. Like, that's a hard and fast.

[A]

That's your Mason Dixon. Them Northerners, they living differently up there. I don't know. I don't cross that dang Korean building. I don't. I don't know what's going on up there.

[B]

I passed it today, and I was like, I can't believe I passed this Korean. No, but it all worked out. And, you know, they got the Ionic nine over there now, so you go check that out.

[A]

Oh, are you checking that out? The 9?

[B]

No, I'm not.

[A]

What's your favorite ionic?

[B]

The 5N.

[A]

The 5N is sick.

[B]

The shifting will have to go into other cars, of course. So we're not going to do that. You need to, like, today, yesterday.

[A]

Yeah, that's. Never have Jorg Burgmeister answer questions about will they put whimsical features in the car. The German racing driver is like, no, why would we do that? This does not make the car go faster.

[B]

If they don't do it, they're insane. That was the first time I've driven an EV and been like, interesting.

[A]

This is the thing.

[B]

This could be something. It felt like I was driving a.

[A]

Golf R. That and the fact that the Mach E Rally is literally better on dirt than either the Storado or the Dakar. That is.

[B]

I think the straddle and the deck are both missed opportunities to make them crazier. I would have given. I would have bought A Strato. If it had been. If it was crazy three inches and a couple more. I mean like it was. It's cool. But like when you see him around, especially in annoying bright colors, they just look like someone put a tire on top of a Lambo kind of. If they had done three more inches and some portal stuff and like who.

[A]

What shop is going to do portal axles on?

[C]

Well, those are usually speed limited pretty low. That's the downside.

[B]

True.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

But Lambo probably would have. They wouldn't wanted to release a car with 107 mile an hour speed or something. But I would have been all over that.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Here's the new Huracan. It's limited to 82.

[B]

Dude, I'll take it. I'm not going more than 82.

[A]

I'll do my port.

[C]

It would have sold one to you.

[B]

I would have thought it.

[A]

I have yet to see a privately owned one on the street. I've seen the press cars around a whole bunch, but I've never seen.

[B]

I've seen a few. A couple. Only a couple. Someone in Vienna, which is an odd place for them because you can't off road in Vienna or near it.

[A]

Snowy maybe. But what a great car though. They're fun. Yeah, I know.

[B]

I'm still. I'm still.

[A]

That's a long play. It's a long play on the Sturado. My man. Thanks for coming to visit us. Merry Christmas. Much successes in in the new year. Thank you to our patrons for their questions. I'm sorry we didn't get get to more of them, but when the radio is good, you don't stop the show. Donnie did not tell me what he wanted. He just said call me when you can. So I don't know what that means, but we'll see. And of course, cars and bids. You know the this car podcast.

[B]

Like and subscribe.

[A]

Like and subscribe.

[B]

Do we still tell that to people?

[A]

It doesn't. Doesn't get you anywhere.

[B]

It's just like shorts, right?

[C]

Rate us and review us on itunes.

[B]

That's one.

[A]

Yeah, actually that does help. Leave a review on it.

[B]

Leave a review.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Doug, the podcast.

[A]

All right, we're gone.

[B]

Bye.