Durango Hellcat Review; Waymo vs Taxi; Mercedes Update

Summary

---

The Smoking Tire Podcast – April 30, 2026

Episode: Durango Hellcat Review; Waymo vs Taxi; Mercedes Update
Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman

---

Overview

In this energetic, wide-ranging episode, Matt and Zack dive into their review of the Dodge Durango Hellcat Jailbreak after thrashing it at Road America, pit modern tech (Waymo rides) against classic human taxi driving, and update on several ongoing car projects—including a Mercedes-Benz E55 swap. The conversation branches into dealership secrets, travel, car culture, and even watch collecting. The duo’s signature mix of irreverence, deep car knowledge, and banter is in full effect, making this both an entertaining and informative listen for car enthusiasts.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Dodge Durango Hellcat Jailbreak Review (07:17–34:41)

• Context: Matt, Zack, and TK took the Durango Hellcat Jailbreak (in ‘Destroyer’ gray) to Road America for a race weekend, using it both for transit and as a practice/pace car.
• Performance:
  • Over 700 hp, “So fast…Skyline fast...I think this is faster than a stock Skyline ...it’s more like an Aussie hot rod, you know, like one of those fast Falcons.” – Matt (02:08–02:25)
  • Surprising top speeds on track; hit 135 mph in the Durango at Road America, comparable to their race car.
  • Despite its speed, “I had to stop way earlier in the Durango than the race car, like hundreds of feet earlier. And I saw speeds that I believe were higher in the Durango than I saw in the race car.” – Matt (14:30)
• Handling/Ride:
  • “For a three-row vehicle, [the handling is] appropriate. The steering is communicative.” – Matt (15:37)
  • “The ride wasn't great. And in track mode, the ride was like brutally bad.” – Matt (27:24)
• Brakes:
  • Brakes were a weak point—warped and faded quickly under track abuse. “The fluid boiled on about the second stop.” – Matt (16:32)
  • “Like fiberboard in a hurricane or something.” – Zack (17:48), describing fade after practice laps.
• Tires: OEM all-seasons (Pirelli Scorpions) left a lot to be desired for track use.
• Practicality/Comfort:
  • Handled three tall drivers and luggage easily.
  • “Seats are very nice and very comfortable.” – Matt (11:02)
  • Odd tech choices: separate physical buttons for adaptive and non-adaptive cruise control; odd UI quirks.
• Fuel Economy:
  • 16 mpg highway transit; as low as 2 mpg on track!
  • “Burned lots of gas…our cumulative for the trip was like 12.4 [mpg].” – Matt (26:34)
• Value:
  • “If you never took it on a racetrack, you would find it to be a fairly dynamic and certainly fun family hauler…It’s a true hot rod.” – Matt (23:30)
  • Compared with the more expensive Trackhawk; Trackhawk had better brakes/tires.
• Notable Moment: Used as a pace car for the race start. “Made a great sound…Trucker…came back from running those pace laps just like, dude, what the fuck is this thing?” – Matt (23:13)

---

2. Comparing Waymo vs. Human Taxis (44:46–53:54)

• Waymo Experience (Matt):
  • Took a Waymo robotaxi home—criticized its inability to ‘think like a human’ when merging into traffic: “A regular human would have either goosed the throttle for a half a second and gone up or dropped down to 25…The Waymo did neither.” – Matt (46:00)
  • Observed the system makes odd, overly-cautious route choices.
• Cab Experience (Zack):
  • Cab driver exploits knocked-over cones to avoid traffic, demonstrates clever workarounds human drivers use.
  • Discusses Uber’s algorithm ‘punishing’ drivers with short fares after they refuse rides: “So he stops accepting rides for three days, and then they start giving him good rides again to come back. They woo you back.” – Zack (53:25)
• Takeaway: Human drivers find shortcuts and adapt; robots lack that improvisational flexibility—for now.

---

3. Mercedes E55 Project & Personal Car Updates (36:41–44:45)

• Project E55:
  • Matt’s donor car arrives; excitement about the “perfect donor” despite body damage: “The crash isn't that bad. …the powertrain is totally untouched…” – Matt (36:58)
• Project Management:
  • Expresses shifting focus toward a curated, keep-for-life set of vehicles.
  • Recap of maintenance, including Taycan recall, Porsche canyons car with a gear indicator gremlin, Manx upgrades for summer.
• Detail on Issues:
  • “When I put the car into fourth gear, the indicator on the dash is getting confused and going like 4, 3, 4, 3…” – Matt (41:07)
  • Ongoing detective work and mechanic troubleshooting highlighted.

---

4. Road America/Travel & Car Nerd Tangents (passim)

• Racing/Trackside Stories:
  • Recap of oddities with track surface (planter box/grasscrete naming debate, 28:24).
  • Reflections on car choices for towing; stories about towing racecars with Macans, Colorados, etc.
• Flight Misadventures and LAX Transit Routines:
  • Hilarity of almost missing flights due to mistaken itinerary (47:01–49:31).
  • Tips on negotiating short-fare rides with LAX taxi drivers (51:32–52:17).

---

5. Miscellaneous: Car Culture, Watches, and Listener Q&A

• Watch Talk (61:13–62:59):
  • Matt scores a rare MAD Edition watch, after four failed lotteries.
  • “Persistence is key,” reads the ‘Redemption’ edition, a theme for car projects, too.
• Quick Hits:
  • Brief excitement over the new turbo AWD rally-spec BRZ in Japan: “A turbo BRZ would be rad.” – Matt (55:21)
  • Venting about bad car exhaust sounds—especially catless BRZ/BMWs—vs. the “wheelhouse Mustang” and AMG GT, which sounded great on track.
• Listener Q+A Highlights (63:45–end):
  • Parking with spoilers up, popping hoods, “base model” pride
  • Corvette depreciation with new LS7 engine rumors (66:06–67:12); perception of Corvette as “white trash” car changing (92:14–94:05)
  • Best travel destination for food (77:05): “Italy, Japan, Spain, New York, LA…”
  • Miata vs. 86 vs. used Mustang/Camaro as best $30k beginner track car (90:05–91:39)
  • Value of analog/refreshed sports cars (Nissan Z) vs. new platforms (111:08–115:48)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “It's a 700+ horsepower, three row SUV...not fun on track from a braking standpoint, but it's a true hot rod family hauler.” – Matt Farah (23:30)
• On the Durango Hellcat’s fuel use: “The average [on track] was like 2…which is unreal. Two is amazing because Road America's four miles. Two is two gallons, all lap!” – Matt (25:00)
• Waymo vs. Taxi: “A regular human would…goose the throttle…The Waymo did neither...It was a very odd choice.” – Matt Farah (46:00)
• “When you have to pre-defuse the situation with a cab driver at LAX…that’s a fun bit of negotiation that reminds you, you live in a f***ing society.” – Matt (51:32)
• “Persistence is key.” – On getting to buy the MAD2 Redemption watch after losing four lotteries (61:57)
• Regarding the elusive turbo BRZ: “It would be so nice to have a turbocharged [BRZ]. I don't care if it's less balanced.” – Matt (55:24)
• On rising early 2000's Ferrari V8 values: “Yes, I do think that … collectors don't like Ferrari's current hybrid lineup and prefer NA V8 engines.” – Zack (86:18)
• On electric daily drivers & camping: “Are you aware that Rivians are just about the least reliable vehicles being sold today?...People love them but man, these things break a lot.” – Matt (117:01)

---

Segments & Timestamps

• Durango Hellcat Review – 07:17–34:41
• Waymo vs. Taxi – 44:46–53:54
• Mercedes (and car collection) Updates – 36:41–44:45
• Flight & LAX transit misadventures – 47:01–52:17
• Watches & Miscellaneous – 61:13–62:59
• Q&A (selected highlights throughout, esp. 63:45–end)

---

Tone & Language

The episode features the hosts’ hallmark blend of humor, sarcasm, blunt honesty, and deeply informed car geekery, sprinkled with NSFW jokes and “inside baseball” asides. Their affection for the absurdity of both cars and travel shines, but they balance fun with delivering genuine consumer and enthusiast advice.

---

For listeners who missed the episode: You’ll come away caught up on what an aging, 700-hp SUV can (and can’t) do, why human cabbies still sometimes win over AI, the cautionary tales of buying certain used cars, and why car culture’s best storytellers are just as likely to spin off on a tangent about watches, food, or 1980s t-shirts as about turbocharged rally cars.

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

What up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record here, and you guys do, too, based on the number of emails you send me about off the Record, saving you from getting points on your license from a pesky little moving violation. You see, if you get points on your license, you could be at risk for insurance premium increases, possibly employment issues if you have to have a clean driving record for your job and more. Not to mention the fines and all the other inconveniences. That's why off the Record is here. If you get pulled over for any kind of moving violation, big or small, in any state in the US don't plead guilty, get off the record. They will connect you to a qualified attorney in the jurisdiction where you got pulled over, and they will fight that ticket all the way as far as they can take it. And then most of the time, it goes away. It's great. They get those points off your record. They have an amazing track record. Go to offtherecord.com TST that's offtherecord.com Tst for 10% off all legal services booked through off the Record, one more time, that's offtherecord.com TST guys, the smoking tire is giving away a 992.1 Turbo S. In partnership with Dream Giveaways, we are giving away a 200 car with some slick choice mods. The proceeds benefit charity and you don't have to buy any merch. It's a straightforward entry process. So hit the link in the show notes and get entered to win today. Doug texted me. He was like, why didn't you let me do this one? I would have loved to drive this fucking thing. I drove it. It's so fast. How many watchers go, oh, no. Dave will get market price. 1000 is what you need to get market price. Basically.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a cool car. Good color, stance is great.

[Matt Farah]

It is so fast.

[Zach Klawonn]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Zach Klawonn]

Wow. It is Skyline fast.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Basically it's kind of similar, right?

[Matt Farah]

I think this is. No, this is faster than a stock Skyline, I think than like an R32.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's faster than R without the T30.

[Matt Farah]

This feels. But it's definitely. It's in that family. It's absolutely. It's the twin Turbo. It's more like. It's more like an Aussie hot rod, you know, like one of those fast Falcons or something.

[Zach Klawonn]

Looks like, too.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but it's like. But basically that's. That is the vibe. It's absolutely. The boost curve and shit like that is very Skyliney.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's that kind of engine. But put into a normal car, right. Versus the GTR is like that was the Focus.

[Matt Farah]

I mean it seems like it handles nicely and you know, it rides well. It has decent enough brakes. It's a 92. So you know, it's not like they're going to be great, but the seats are fabulous. Seats look like an Acura legend seat, something like that. But. But man, when you fucking roll into this thing in third gear. Fucking goose. So talking about the Lotus Carlton. That my head of concierge. Of concierge, I guess. Is it really? I don't want to mistitle him, but he's selling it on bring a trailer. It's his personal car.

[Zach Klawonn]

Is this little intercooler here right before the engine. It's cool.

[Matt Farah]

Little air. Air to air.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So it's these. This was the fastest sedan in the world in 92. They only made 950 of them.

[Zach Klawonn]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Fucking real, real quick, this thing cool. It was. It was a treat to have a go in it.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, it's very rad.

[Matt Farah]

This one's lived in California for a long time. Hi everybody. Welcome to the program. It's only 10am here in LA, but I've already had like a four hour workday.

[Zach Klawonn]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. No wife this morning, so.

[Zach Klawonn]

So you're just focused?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Murdered her last night and now I'm free, you know.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right. Isn't that the move?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I recommend everyone just, you know, if you really want to be productive life hack. New silic. New Silicon Valley life hack.

[Zach Klawonn]

Strip away distractions.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Peter Thiel says.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Peter Thiel. Yeah. If you. It's. Oh, who's the Scientology guy?

[Zach Klawonn]

L. Ron Hubbard.

[Matt Farah]

No, no, no. Miscavige.

[Zach Klawonn]

David Miscavige.

[Matt Farah]

Miscavige, yeah. This is new new productivity hack from David Miscavige. Make your wife disappear.

[Zach Klawonn]

Did he kill his wife?

[Matt Farah]

She hasn't been seen or heard from in a.

[Zach Klawonn]

Really? I did not know that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's shady. Have you seen the thing that the TikTok slash Instagram thing of the kids who are running into the Scientology buildings for sport?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. That's nuts. I love it. It's like a one way to die.

[Matt Farah]

I love it. They talk about these kids, the kids today, like they're hopeless. Are you fucking kidding me? That's so dope.

[Zach Klawonn]

They're speed running like filming and just running through a building to see how far in they can get, right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But it's a Scientology building, which is great.

[Zach Klawonn]

But what if they have armed security? What are the rules?

[Matt Farah]

They don't. They're gonna shoot kids on video. I don't think they are.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a good point.

[Matt Farah]

I don't think they are.

[Zach Klawonn]

All right, no. Use that below.

[Matt Farah]

David Miscavig shoot his wife, at least publicly and on video. She's just gone.

[Zach Klawonn]

She has not been seen in public since 2007.

[Matt Farah]

Habibi. That's a long time. I thought even, like, Richard Simmons was seen a couple of times. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

This is two decades.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Ladies never gone to a Whole Foods. Like, come on, dude.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So just saying.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's chilling. I'm just saying, I wouldn't spend religion. Look what they do.

[Matt Farah]

Solves the world's problems, especially. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Although ironic, right now I am rooting for the Pope because it's like, well, sure, he's saying the right things, and he's a certain person.

[Matt Farah]

And he was probably at the same Pearl Jam show I was at back in Wrigley Field in 16. Yeah. Leo's all right.

[Zach Klawonn]

Chicago dog. He went to the concert.

[Matt Farah]

By the standards of Pope, Leo's all right.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

The entity in general. Whatever. We'll talk about something else.

[Matt Farah]

Right? How do we get on that one?

[Zach Klawonn]

Let's go, Durango. You want to talk Durango?

[Matt Farah]

Sure. Because cars are coming back from the dead with giant supercharged V8s that go.

[Zach Klawonn]

So, I mean, obviously, for people listening, we went racing this weekend, but we're gonna save all the stories of the racing for next week because we're gonna have Matteo Seiderman and Tommy Kendall on the show.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's, like, better.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. So that's the teaser, and that's why we're not talking about it right now.

[Matt Farah]

Don't give away what you can sell.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, we could sell it here also.

[Matt Farah]

Tease it.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

No, don't give away what you can sell. Is Jeff Goldblum, the Great White Hype.

[Zach Klawonn]

I haven't watched that in a long time. You reference it a lot, though.

[Matt Farah]

It should be. It's a rewatch annual. It doesn't. It ages like a fine wine. Like a Merlot broham. It ages. Which is also from the Great White Hype. You must watch that film at least once every two years. It remains current. So we got a Dodge Durango, Hellcat, Jailbreak in Destroyer. That's the same color I had the Charger Destroyer. It's battleship gray.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep. That makes sense.

[Matt Farah]

I'm writing about the Charger that we talked about. Last show or last week or whenever it was. Dodge has, you know, they have good whimsical names for color. And I think Destroyer is the best name I've heard for this drab ass fucking color.

[Zach Klawonn]

I agree. It's shorter than Battleship Gray. And also it's Destroy, which is like rawr. And that's what they do.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It's not as good as Blue to Chris. Which is what. Which is what I was supposed to get for the Charger instead of Ludacris. Is good.

[Zach Klawonn]

Wow. Because they sponsor Fast and Furious. That's where the partnership began.

[Matt Farah]

The Dodge color lab is probably like working in the Taco Bell experimental kitchen.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Like Doritos Blue Cool Ranch.

[Matt Farah]

Right? Like if you're an engineer, the dream is to maybe work at Ferrari or Rivian or if you're into Formula One, maybe you want to work at McLaren or something. And if you're in the color lab, Dodge. If your job is paint, Dodge is it, baby.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, the naming, the room full of people that just come up with the names is like marijuana. Lots of gas station snacks that are crazy colors and names and just a notepad. Yeah, just go for it.

[Matt Farah]

Just maybe they cross over with the Taco Bell people. It's the same brain, it's the same brand.

[Zach Klawonn]

They might share an office. Same 22 year old. Just like ludicrous.

[Matt Farah]

Fuck life hack. Here's a life hack, people. Start a fast food research agency. AI cannot tell you if something tastes good. Okay. Fast food research agency. You'll be able to make weird shit and eat it all day for sport and money.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So this is a 700 plus horsepower, three row SUV that they've been building in basically this car. It goes Back to like 2016, I think when this thing came out. So it's not a new vehicle. And the reason we got it is because we had three of us. Me, Zach and tk. Tall people, lots of luggage. And we had to do both a two hour transit each way to and from Chicago to Road America as well as run. I wanted a practice car for the HPDE day because I knew I would get limited seat time in the race car. And all laps are good laps. So I was like. I had done the Trackhawk at Road Atlanta back in 2019 and I was like, yeah, this thing can handle some track work. And Dodge was a good sport about that.

[Zach Klawonn]

They are good sports. They know how to have a good time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So it was as I remembered it, we picked it up at the airport and it was very much old Hat I didn't take enough pictures of it, if I'm honest. But everyone's seen one.

[Zach Klawonn]

Everyone knows it's gray Durango. For people listening, grey Durango, some racing stripes, hood scoop. That's it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And it's got having gone out of the new Charger and back to this car. I actually appreciated quite a few things about the way they did it before. I thought the UI was actually a little better in the old car than in the brand new.

[Zach Klawonn]

This is uconnect, right? I think they had the best UI for years until Ford Sync caught up. But it wasn't until Ford Sync V5 or something that they finally were more even.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I thought the seats are very nice and very comfortable and all that stuff. The old school cruise control controls are hilarious. They have on this steering wheel a button for the adaptive radar cruise control which works well. And then maybe an inch away, the next button, a button that looks very, very similar for the non adaptive cruise control. Usually if you have adaptive cruise control in a car, you can then go into a menu somewhere and turn that off. You can toggle it off in a secondary menu. It is wild that they have a physical button for Matt because I do you know of people that.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, when we saw it, I think. I don't know people that toggle between them, but when you pointed this out, I think the Hyundai we recently had or the Kia also had this and Volvo has a weird thing, but Volvo like hides it in the same button. Like you tap it a couple times to get adaptive and regular.

[Matt Farah]

I've seen that.

[Zach Klawonn]

But the double button, it's not just Dodge and I wonder if they get their, their hardware from the same supplier because I think I agree and it is nonsense. It's very confusing and I find myself tapping the wrong one. I mean, it's a journalist problem, but like, you know, it just doesn't make sense to have both.

[Matt Farah]

I don't know, man. I think people confuse the gas and the fucking brake. I think if you are expecting adaptive cruise control and don't hit that button, you could have a problematic situation on your hands.

[Zach Klawonn]

But on the way up, didn't the radar sensor get covered? And so we actually had to switch to two guns from missiles.

[Matt Farah]

That's funny. Not exactly. It was a check. It was a cel sensor error that happened. And I was like that. Well, we were about to be. Because it said sensor error, adaptive cruise disabled and some lights set up. And then for a moment I was like, well, this is the perfect situation. I guess Dodge is sending Me a sign of this is why I put the manual cruise button right next to it. It's a backup cannot use. It didn't work with the cel up. The regular cruise didn't work either. Now, after we stopped somewhere for whatever 10 minutes and turned the car back on, the errors went away. They didn't come back. So it's just some stupid bullshit. Who knows what it was? But anyway, that's a weird thing. But in general, this one is because it was a jailbreak. And somehow this is a special paint scheme and whatnot. This one was like 90, but effectively you can go on Dodge lots right now. And these are low to mid-70s. Right. To really buy one of these in a non special color that underneath is the same car. They are really fucking fast. Did you notice, Zach, in the race car and what speed you hit the brakes on the front straight of Road America?

[Zach Klawonn]

I think it was 130something.

[Matt Farah]

130something. In the Durango it was 135. Okay. And in the race car, I'm hitting the brakes at about the three and a half board. The Durango, there isn't a board, but it would be a seven or an eight. Okay.

[Zach Klawonn]

So the speed and you began using more boards as the week went on. The weekend went on. So we'll talk about that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, Forget the race car for a minute. I don't want to get too much, but just as a comparison, I had to stop way earlier in the Durango than the race car, like hundreds of feet earlier. And I saw speeds that I believe were higher in the Durango than I saw in the race car. Most of the time, I swear you

[Zach Klawonn]

hit 150 on the straight. I really think when I rode right seat with you in the Durango. Yeah, no, 150. I thought you did. I mean, this thing.

[Matt Farah]

No, I'm pretty sure I saw 135 on the front straight. I don't think I ever saw 150

[Zach Klawonn]

when we went out for the HPD stuff. And like you, you know, you were giving me orientation basically because I hadn't been here in 10 years. You know, through the corners in the back section, we're getting caught by like a GTO car, which is like the most powerful car that was there.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

The straightaway shows up and you started gapping this thing. I couldn't catch you.

[Matt Farah]

I did gap race cars.

[Zach Klawonn]

It just started pulling away. It's so funny.

[Matt Farah]

There were multiple race cars that I. Oh, the prototype car.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, forget about it.

[Matt Farah]

There was a prototype race car that I gapped on the front straight. It was very funny.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, those have 200 horsepower or something like that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. The difference in Cornering speed is 60 miles an hour or something. But the handling of this thing is for a three row vehicle, appropriate. Right. The balance is actually pretty decent. The steering is pretty communicative. It does not have enough brakes. The Trackhawk has better brakes, had better brakes. It costs more money than the Durango. It always did. But it had. It had beefier brakes. It also had, I think, better tires. This had some like extra, extra all seasonees like Scorpion zero something or other SUV tires. They were not particularly sporty tires, but yeah, the brakes, the fluid boiled on about the second stop.

[Zach Klawonn]

So Dodge lists the brakes as just Brembo four wheel disc. And I think you were saying that the Trackhawk has like 10 pistons.

[Matt Farah]

The Trackhawk had the beast brakes. It was like not quite Urus level brakes, but it was serious, serious business. It was a big deal. When the Trackhawk brakes came back to the regular Hellcats, they were the biggest brakes ever put on an American car at the time or something like that. And the Durango, to make it sit below the Trackhawk in the. When it first fucking came out, the Trackhawk's gone. But when it first came out, it was below it in the hierarchy. And in part of the way it had that was the brakes weren't as good. So that's why, like, it's actually kind of why in hindsight, Jeep was a little more justified. I thought the word Trackhawk was sort of stupid, but like it was more like ready for the track. Like it really was.

[Zach Klawonn]

This thing felt ready. I mean, I went out with you in the first session and you did many more sessions. But then I got in it, you know, five hours later with Tato, just so he could show me some stuff because the race car was having problems. He pulls out of pit, he brakes for turn one and the whole truck goes and shakes. Like these brakes withstand, you know, braking force. It was like, I don't know, fiberboard in a hurricane or something like that.

[Matt Farah]

It was so.

[Zach Klawonn]

It was so warped.

[Matt Farah]

It was not great. Guys, gotta take a quick break because support is coming in from Aura frames. And you know what Aura frames are? We've been talking about them for a while. They're those digital frames that are the perfect gift for your mom, wife or partner. They can capture and relive mom's magic every day. What about throwing in there a candid shot that she never knew you took a special shot from a moment in your histories and aura brings it back into her purview whenever you want, right? You can, you can send little blips of joy to the person in your life. That is the most important. Basically, the way it works is it's a digital picture frame which you [e-mail] and then you add photos into a virtual album. The frame connects to the Internet and then there's a never ending rotation of photos you can add that go in the photo frame that sits on the nightstand of the person you love. Right? It's great. There's free unlimited storage, so you can add as many photos or videos to as you want. And you can preload photos before the Aura frames even ships and then keep adding from anywhere, anytime. So the second they open it up, boom, there's stuff on there. And then you can keep it going. You can personalize it with a gift message and even use a gift box so you can make Mother's Day. This Mother's Day super special with Aura frames. It's named number one by Wirecutter. And so save on the gifts moms love by visiting auraframes.com and for a limited time, listeners can get $25 off the best selling Carver mat frame with Code Tire. That's a U R A F r a m e-s.com promo code tire. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Support's also coming in today from Delete Me. We love Delete Me over here because they make it quick, easy and safe to remove your personal data from the Internet. At a time when surveillance and and data breaches are common enough to make everybody vulnerable. It's easier than ever for someone to get personal information about people online. Your address, phone number, family members, names are all hanging out on the Internet. And that can have real consequences in the real world, making everyone vulnerable. And more and more nefarious actors, online partisans, etc. Can find this data and use it to target political rivals, civil servants, even outspoken citizens posting their opinions online. And with Deleteme, you can protect your personal privacy or the privacy of your business from doxing attacks before sensitive information can be exploited. That's why Wirecutter named Delete Me the top pick for data removal services. I use Deleteme. And it is so easy, guys. All you have to do is sign up, make an account and put in your information and things about your employment, where you used to live, your family members, things like that. And then it goes looking. It goes looking. It does not stop and Then after a couple of days, you get back a report saying, look at all this stuff we found about you. Here's stuff that they can delete automatically. Here's stuff you have to click a couple times to go through some disclosures to delete. There's things that require a little bit more of a second step because it's not as easy as just like automating a macro to delete you from a list. Some are a little more involved, but nevertheless, you have a total picture of what you look like on the Internet. And Delete me keeps going every month as long as you stay signed up. They keep looking, finding and deleting. And the result is I have less fake spam phone calls and text messages and emails than before. It does work and you can do it, too. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan. When you go to JoinDeleteMe.com Tire and use promo code Tire at checkout. The only way to get 20 off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com tire and enter code Tire at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com tire code Tire for the brakes. The brakes are not up to the

[Zach Klawonn]

task of running the temperature cycling. Yeah, truly, like, you didn't do anything. It's like they needed the 10 piston and whatever the metallurgy was in the Trackhawk is what we needed because we were. You were being a Trackhawk.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And I tried as hard as I could to be as easy as I could on the brakes because this is a big suv. But it didn't take very many stops for it to go. And it was like. Well, then it stayed that way. We did use the. Do you have the little video I shot? We used the Trackhawk. Excuse me. The Durango. To pace. To pace the start of the race, which was a pretty cool visual, actually. He was kind of on it as we came by. Made a great sound.

[Zach Klawonn]

It sounds so good.

[Matt Farah]

The guy who was driving it for the pace lap, his name was Trucker, which is a great name. And he came back from running those pace laps just like, dude, what the fuck is this thing?

[Zach Klawonn]

He didn't know what it was.

[Matt Farah]

It is a ride. It's a true hot rod. I would not recommend the Durango for actually running a track days, but if you never took it on a racetrack, you would find it to be a fairly dynamic and certainly fun family hauler. That was essentially the Same price as the Genesis crossover I had, but it's like 700 horsepower and three rows and can tow some stuff and all that.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's like. I don't know, it's some sort of weird party. Like. Like, I think the regular RT has enough power for most things. Our gas mileage, you know, I think we topped out at 16, but at times we were down to, like, 11. When we were in traffic, well, we

[Matt Farah]

had ongoing bets going. So when we first got in the car, me, Zach, and Tommy. Price is right. Rules. We all bet that it would be somewhere around 12.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But we didn't. We thought that was just gonna be for our drive to the track, the two hours, which ultimately we got around 16. We left the Detroit airport, we got. Excuse me, excuse me. Left the Chicago airport, got straight on the highway and drove two hours. And we ended up getting around 16 miles a gallon for, like, a pure highway drive, which is bad, but, like, better than you'd think.

[Zach Klawonn]

Technically, we. The EPA rated it at 16. I think we got 16.4, which, I

[Matt Farah]

mean, considering we were definitely going faster than you'd go in the EPA cycle,

[Zach Klawonn]

I bet 11 for the record.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And then when we started lapping it, the average was like two. Like, on the track, it was getting two, which is unreal. Two is amazing because Road America's four miles. So two is two gallons, all lap. Wow. Which is fucking awesome. So much gas to burn. Even our race car, it was like, I think probably.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, that car's pretty efficient.

[Matt Farah]

I think our race car was probably getting, like, eight or nine miles a gallon, which is probably like two laps. Two and a half. Two and a quarter laps a gallon.

[Zach Klawonn]

But famously, Clarkson, when he reviewed the Ford gt, got four at, like, track speed.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

This was half that because it's also about twice as heavy.

[Matt Farah]

Absolutely incredible amount of consumption. But I took a photo of the gas pump. Dude. I mean, if you're from California, you're so spoiled. Because the racetrack at the track 91 was 575. Up the road here, it's 699. So I'm like, hell yeah, brother. Fucking fill her up. Let's burn some more. Whatever.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. Instead of driving, you know, the nearest station outside the track was, like, a

[Matt Farah]

couple miles away, and it was like 480, you know, so you wouldn't save all that much. And in case you're wondering, 100 octane here was 12. So it's not like, you know, it's not like. Oh, everything was, you know, it's like, no, no, no, it's. There's just that. So anyway, so we burned lots of gas and then on the way back, we got the same mileage and so our cumulative for the trip was like 12 4.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think you win.

[Matt Farah]

I think I won.

[Zach Klawonn]

I was 11. Tommy was 11.5. And then you were like 12.2.

[Matt Farah]

I think I was 12.1. Yeah. So I was actually closest, but it's. And you'd be spending so much money on fucking fuel driving this thing around.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. Couple of funny things. I know because I rode in the back most of the time because you guys are taller than me. Back seats, very comfortable. USB ports are still usb A. They didn't cross over yet. So you bring your adapter. The ride in this thing is not great.

[Matt Farah]

Hang on. The one in the front is a

[Zach Klawonn]

C. That makes sense.

[Matt Farah]

The ones in the back.

[Zach Klawonn]

Kept the ones in the back as an A. Save a few bucks. But you know, is it the tracky version? So it should be stiff? Yes, I guess. But in the back, even over some smaller, like just little concrete junctions, it was like kind of messy.

[Matt Farah]

The ride wasn't great. And in track mode, the ride was like brutally bad. Like I had. Even when I went on the track, I put it in first sport mode for suspension and then actually back to comfort.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Use more curb. Yeah, Take a big line, go over the gray curb. You're not supposed to touch.

[Matt Farah]

Well. Oh, dude. So Ryan, the commentator for wrl, shout out to him. Me and him were doing the radio and I apparently referred to them as planter boxes. And he's like, I like that we're keeping that. So I guess now they're called planter boxes. I like driving on those. You're not supposed to drive on those.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, the inside gray curbing is where most of them potato was like, don't touch that. Or it could cut a tire. And there's the outside gray curbing, which is very ripply and is okay. It just like bounces you around a lot. Which I explored many times.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, like when there's like.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, and you're talking about the gray where the grass is growing. Yeah, no, that's pretty smooth. Yeah, yeah, that's okay.

[Matt Farah]

They had a word for it that wasn't as good, like grass crete or something like that. They called it grass crete. And I was like, no, no, no. If you're gonna call it. If you're do that, it needs to be lawn crete. Cause that sounds like concrete.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

And then I was like, but I Like to call it.

[Zach Klawonn]

It is called grass Crete.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's stupid. That should be long crete. These people don't ever think about naming stuff. And I liked planter boxes though. We thought that was better.

[Zach Klawonn]

But that is better.

[Matt Farah]

There's these weird extra curbings at Road America. So you could take a fucking big wide line, but it's like cinder blocks with grass growing through them so you can drive on them. But it's like 60% grip of the. But it's way better than the vibrate y curbing. So you basically you just. If you've got some fucking cojones, you just go straddle the vibrate y curbing and drive on the fucking planter box a bit. And then it's fucking nicey and then come back. Then it's a nicey nice. I like to do that. Especially on the exit of 14. Took a nice line there.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh yeah, I did that. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Exit of 14. Yeah. I didn't do it in the kink. Cause I didn't have that kind of balls.

[Zach Klawonn]

No. When Tommy did it, remember once and he's like, I touched the dirt once and I did not want to touch it again. Yikes.

[Matt Farah]

No, thank you. But man, despite the fuel economy being such shit, I still think this thing at like 9 years old or whatever this is, is a pretty good value for money. Still.

[Zach Klawonn]

I like the Durango a lot. I mean, I think almost any spec. It's like choose your fuel mileage and just choose the efficiency level you want. It's like a character in a video game. And then looks nice, held a lot

[Matt Farah]

of luggage, held a ton of stuff. Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And if you get like just a regular rt, I think the towing rating on those is pretty damn good.

[Matt Farah]

Well, so the rt, because I looked at, you know, this is part of our consideration package for towing. The RT has a higher tow rating than the Hellcat because of the self leveling suspension. And like the tow package option with the sport suspension, it just like can't handle as much weight and it's not self leveling. So the Hellcat can tow like £5,000 and the the RT tows £8,000.

[Zach Klawonn]

Imagine the mileage like you're getting track mileage while towing something on the highway.

[Matt Farah]

There's got to be someone who tows with a TRX and can tell us what. I bet it's just terrible.

[Zach Klawonn]

And also, well, towing with your Raptor back in the day was bad because it was so soft. Now maybe the TRX has a better leveling system or something. But having that Much squat. I did not enjoy it.

[Matt Farah]

No.

[Zach Klawonn]

I did something to Vegas.

[Matt Farah]

It made the steering suck.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It was not fun. The. Yeah. The regular Durango RT with the self leveling would probably be a pretty good tow rig. Actually, I just. Who was I just talking to? Oh, Ryan from Sacramento, who said he used to tow his race car, which is a track car, which is a Cayman GT4R with a fucking Macan with a tow package on it. Like, it was a Macan GTS with a tune with a tow package. And he said, like, it would tow just fine. It was great. It had air suspension, like, no big deal. Open trailer, not fancy. He said it was about £4,500, no problem. And he's like. And then I got rid of that, and I got a Chevy Colorado. And he's like. And it sucks.

[Zach Klawonn]

Like a four banger.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. He's like. Even though, like. Like the horsepower and torque say it should be fine and the tow rating is fine. He's like, it is the wheeziest motherfucker. You know, it's like a totally different scenario. He's like, yeah, like, I've had fun

[Zach Klawonn]

with that truck, but. And I know the numbers are similar, but the Colorado, the Bison one, like, versus the Ranger Raptor, just having more cylinders, it just feels more responsive. It just. One engine is trying its hardest. And I think the Ford engine is like, oh, I could put a couple more plates on the bar.

[Matt Farah]

Just because it can doesn't mean it wants to. Yeah. But the Durango is the opposite. The Hellcat is the opposite. He's like, I have about three times the horsepower you would need for any given task. Pretty much a lot of radar bouncing around in Wisconsin. Lot of extraneous radar. My Valentine 2 was going batshit out there constantly for pretty much no real reason.

[Zach Klawonn]

I wonder if they have sensors along the highway for something that are using ka. Like, KA has gotten so cheap that they use it for that instead of X maybe.

[Matt Farah]

We have to start researching if the effectiveness of KA radar detectors are somehow declining.

[Zach Klawonn]

One of our patrons in the chat said they used to tow their race car with a macan. They got 20 miles per gallon while towing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, imagine thinking you need a super duty for something like that. You.

[Zach Klawonn]

It just depends on, you know, one single car trailer open. You can make do. And then once you start adding tires, toolboxes, and stuff, like, then you need a super duty.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, not. Well, there's. There's stuff in between.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Thanks, Dodge letting us warp your rotors a little bit. Other than that, we took pretty good care of it. The tires, like, did not exhibit much wear at all. We probably could have dropped PSI a few, you know, but like, whatever, I think.

[Zach Klawonn]

I wonder if this track seems like it's hard on brakes but not that hard on tires. It's a lot of long straights and sweepers and then heavy braking zone and then, you know.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, carousel's hard on tires. That's probably really about it. Yeah. No, I mean, the tires didn't really seem to go, you know, either in the Durango or throughout the race really, until the very. You know, I'm sure that there's a difference in lap times, but it's like. It's not like the car. Car became a sloppy piece of shit.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, yeah, the tires fell off, I think, pretty smoothly. And we'll talk about. I know Tommy brought up some differences between his lap times and Tato's. Cause he's like, his ideas are impossible when you're the fourth driver on these tires.

[Matt Farah]

That's why you put the experienced driver at the end.

[Zach Klawonn]

Very true.

[Matt Farah]

All right, so that's that. Shout out to Dodge for letting us burn fucking all the gas. Sorry about your brakes. I got update from Matt Quick, quick down in Tennessee that my cars. Cause there are two of them have arrived. Guys taking a break from the action because support is coming in fast. Like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford who's now got a podcast. And you're always asking me what I'm listening to when not recording this show. And right now it's this, the new season of Drive with Jim Farley. In it, the Ford CEO talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving and why. What drives them to succeed. Like Formula one driver Daniel Ricardo. Listen, there's a well worn trope about racing drivers not being interesting to listen to, but if there is one that is interesting to listen to, it is Daniel Ricardo. I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great. And look, Jim is a racing driver also. I personally raced against him like two months ago. And for me, a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends is about the pinnacle of ceodom when it comes to car companies. So the two of them together obviously have a lot of things to discuss on Drive with Jim Farley, which you can get on your podcast app. Very easy to find. Drive with Jim Farley. Check it out. Here's the first and only photo I have of our E55 donor car. And as you can see, it's like, like the perfect Donor car. It's a very much an example of the crash. Isn't that bad. It got sideswiped and like, sort of like crunched by like a semi truck. So the suspension on the left side is messed up, but, like, the powertrain is like, totally untouched. Perfect. And the body on the left side is like gouged. And I think the. I think the drivers and passenger doors may not open, but again, you don't need those. Who fucking cares? Yeah, it's very much like. It's very much a complete and not that bad E55.

[Zach Klawonn]

Nice. I hopped up. Cause I thought the windshield had a hole in it, but it's just the building.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah. No, no, no. The glass is. I don't know about the driver's side window, but the fucking rest of the glass is in there. And then you can see on this other, like, fairly look. When you're transporting two shitters, you do not spend money on the transport. I'll fucking go enclosed on the way home, but on the way there. Fucking gas is expensive.

[Zach Klawonn]

Look at the difference between your fenders and then the outer edge of your wheel. Two or three inches. We see this sometimes someone. They could afford the fenders to bolt it on, and they're driving around, but they haven't bought the wheels yet or they haven't bought the spacers yet. And it just looks weird. Or when I did drifting in my car and I put the narrow wheels on the back, it looked like I'd been hit from both sides by a truck that looks.

[Matt Farah]

I've seen people put wide bodies in their car and then no wheels.

[Zach Klawonn]

And it looks really strange that E46, that was one of the race cars, had wider front fenders than an E46 M3. Yeah, it looked like a drift car, but it was out there running laps.

[Matt Farah]

The white and woolen.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Widespread in the skill set of the drivers of that car.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, widespread. One guy was like, insanely fast, and someone else was like, what the fuck are you doing? So, yeah, you can see the metal fab and the primer that they did on those. And Matt said, like Sean said. I think he said it when he was here last week. Why even bother sending brand new bumpers across the country twice when he's just going to unbolt them to put the powertrain in? So no bumpers, no lower rockers on the car. And then we'll put all that stuff on when it comes back. But the new fenders are made of metal, so they're on there. Yeah, but fucking Stoked. That's gonna be. This car's gonna be real cool.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's gonna be really cool. I think you'll keep it for a while.

[Matt Farah]

I hope so. Cause I'm sort of like pivoting toward like I've got the Porsche. That's a keeper, obviously. Countach keeper, obviously. Between those two, that really covers your weekend dynamic sporting needs completely. And then there's like the Manx for the perfect day. Fucking bullshit running around here. And then I think Hannah probably wants to keep. She likes the Taycan, actually. But if we eventually get this Cayenne, she'd probably roll that. This is the daily cruiser.

[Zach Klawonn]

This is like a combination, I think of the Taycan and the Manx.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know, there's whimsy in it and it's got style and it's custom made and all that shit, but you could drive it 50 miles. Whereas the Manx. Like you're not gonna drive the Manx to Burbank probably. Unless like for an errand, you're not.

[Matt Farah]

No, you're right.

[Zach Klawonn]

You would take this? Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

No, I would not drive. No. But the Manx is getting picked up tomorrow. Almost all cars are.

[Zach Klawonn]

Almost.

[Matt Farah]

I could, if I wanted, I could have all cars in service at one time right now. Cause we need to get this.

[Zach Klawonn]

You need a ride?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. No. Here's the list. So this car is going to Nashville. Lamborghini, obviously mid reassembly. Who the fuck knows. The Taycan has a recall that it needs to get done, which is probably for some stupid software bullshit. It seemed non urgent. But also when I'm pulling into my driveway or a real kind of articulation, the suspension is a little creaky, just a little bit. And I've tried power washing it all out in there just to see if it was mad dusty or whatever. And that didn't do it. And Calvin said you can. It's possible to get like dried out bushings and I guess they squirt grease

[Zach Klawonn]

in them or like a copper grease or whatever.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. So he said they could just do that. So I got to get that done. But like nbd, the Porsche they have. Mitch thinks he has this maybe this thing for the cooling system that I'm talking about. But also, did I. Have we talked about the gear indicator light feature?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So the gear indicator light thing. I was waiting to get a hold of Rick demand to get the exact ratios he put in so they could program them correctly with Mitch's tune. Because the gear indicator thing only came up after Mitch did the 91 tune.

[Zach Klawonn]

But is the indicator not. Does, does it not react just off of where the shifter's positioned?

[Matt Farah]

No, I'm guessing it does not. Okay, because it should. It seems like it should, but it does not. Because when I put the car into fourth gear, the indicator on the dash is getting confused and going like 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3. And it's only for fourth gear. Don't really know why no other gear is affected, but I have all. I've noticed that when I'm in fourth gear in the canyons and I do a hard accel to a big lift, there's a bit of, a, bit of a stumble before it settles into decel. Whereas with any other gear when that cel. Because by the way, if I'm going through gears, the cel will come on in fourth and when the things. But then I'll put in fifth, the cel will go away. Like it goes and comes and goes and comes and goes and comes.

[Zach Klawonn]

Which gears were changed? 2, 3, 4.

[Matt Farah]

2 through 5.

[Zach Klawonn]

2 through 5.

[Matt Farah]

But only fourth is affecting this thing and any other gear goes away. So if I. Let's say I go in third gear and I do accelerate a big lift, perfectly smooth, but in fourth when the CEO comes on. And so I would like that addressed. So I haven't done anything about, about it just yet, but they're working on that and they're going to have that. The Manx is getting picked up tomorrow to get all those upgrades in time for summer. The front mount, the cooling system, the new tune, they don't need to service it because they just serviced it from before ice race and I drove it nine miles and then nut and bolt the whole thing. Because after a thousand miles you gotta nut and bolt it. Cause it's, you know, it's a fucking fiberglass thing on a thing. And there's a couple up recently, particularly after ice race, there's a couple squeaks, a couple new squeaks and then fix my horn spring that flew across the starting line that ejected right before my ice race laps, which is a clip of on Instagram. It's pretty funny. So that's getting that. And then. Yeah, that could be pretty much everything right now.

[Zach Klawonn]

One of our patrons says that there's a speed sensor that tells you what gear you're in. So it's an issue I guess you've had before. So maybe there's a sensor that's having wonky and that's what talks to it. Because I was like, well, you know, maybe there's switches. If there's six switches where the shifter hits it and it's like, I'm in one, I'm in two, I'm in three. But that would add a complication.

[Matt Farah]

There is a hard sensor that plugs into the gearbox that can get, like, grime in it sometimes. And so they blow it out like a Nintendo cartridge. They checked that, and that wasn't the problem, so. But Tim believes the issue is related to the programming of the ratios in the tune and. I don't really know, but.

[Zach Klawonn]

Cool. Well, just don't put them all in for service at the same time.

[Matt Farah]

No, no. And also, like, there's Hannah's cars, you know, the POW is fine, so. And the Delica pays for itself every day, working properly.

[Zach Klawonn]

Nice.

[Matt Farah]

But all the fun cars could be in service at once right now if I really wanted to. I don't, though. That would be stupid. What else do we have? Oh, A, I just took a Waymo ride to go home to get the Taycan. And A, it took a fucking weird route. Instead of taking its normal, like, pretty direct route, it took a roundabout route all the way around there, which I thought was very odd. Then tried to turn right into my neighborhood and got, like, sort of boxed out by this car and the Waymo. They were both going the speed limit. And this BMW was X5 was at our rear three quarter. There was room. The Waymo could have gone, but it wasn't, I guess, enough of a gap for the car to be comfortable. And it didn't want to speed. There was enough a couple hundred yards. There was a little bit of room to get there as we're approaching the necessary intersection. And a regular human would have either goosed the throttle for a half a second and gone up or dropped down to, like, 25 miles an hour and ducked behind.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right. Get the draft. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The Waymo did neither. The waymo maintained its 35 miles an hour, did not move over and until after the intersection, that x5 goosed the throttle to scoot up, and then it just moved over and made the next right. But by then that was, like, kind of far out of the way, which, I mean, I suppose it didn't do anything that was unsafe. It did not make an unsafe move, and it did not exceed the speed limit, and it did not dramatically dip below the speed limit. But at the same time, like, I feel like it should have, if it's not gonna speed, I feel like it's appropriate to drop to slow down and duck.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's an odd choice.

[Matt Farah]

It was it made a very odd choice.

[Zach Klawonn]

I have a related story. So I took a cab from the airport. And I'll tell you what human drivers do.

[Matt Farah]

Human cab.

[Zach Klawonn]

So we both flew in. I don't know if you did like the curbside pickup. I went to the cab line.

[Matt Farah]

Our flight home from road. You should just tell our flight home from road America story because it is pretty fucking funny.

[Zach Klawonn]

Okay, I will. Because it starts with the flight there. We get to the airport to fly there and I go, I think we're on different flights. And you go, what? You're like, why would we do that? Which is a valid question. And I pull it up and I go, well, I fly three through whatever. Whatever city. You go, yeah, me too. I go, oh, huh. Not sure why I thought that happens to me all the time. I'm used to this conversation with my brain. So we have the race through Minneapolis. Minneapolis. Like we fly there together. We're on the same flight. We're like two seats apart, blah, blah, blah. Flight back. We, we, you know, are like, you look at your flight and it's taken off at 7:10. And I look, I'm like, oh yeah, it's 7:05. Close enough. You're probably rounding up. And we go to the lounge and it says like, oh, your gates. M7. Yeah. And I look at my thing, it says M9. And I go, oh, app's not updating. People know where we're headed. So we hang out for a couple hours, we go to the gate, we're sitting there and then when did I. How did I figure it out?

[Matt Farah]

Because I had, there was a, they had a like a 10 minute like, boarding delay.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

For the flight to Salt Lake City. And you were like. And you were like, you were like, we are going through Minneapolis. Oh, that's right. I was like, what are you talking about?

[Zach Klawonn]

So we go through Salt Lake.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

And yeah. And I looked, I was like, oh man, we're going to Minneapolis. And you're like, no, we're going through Salt Lake.

[Matt Farah]

We're going through Salt Lake. And we're at a gate saying, you know, this flight departs for Salt Lake. And your phone just says Minneapolis. And we're like, what the fuck? And realize my flight was, my return flight was 7:10. And your flight was like 7:08, you know, but to a different city.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. That's when I was like, we are on different flights on the way home. And I'm at the wrong gate right now. And I, and I literally stood up, took off running. See ya I said, and, like, just ran away.

[Matt Farah]

Just fully gone.

[Zach Klawonn]

And thank God the gate was two gates away and not, like, different terminal. And I ran up, and they're on boarding group six out, 10 of. Of eight. And I was just, like, laughing, Holy shit. And then I land and I sit at the back of the plane. I don't get upgraded. I'm at 27. Takes me a while to get off the plane. Like, everyone around my area is sitting because the European egress has landed. In America, people go row by row from front to back, and people are more respectful. Remember, it used to just be, like, people would rush. So I'm just, like, chilling. I finally walk off. I walk off. I look to my left, you're walking

[Matt Farah]

off to the minute. To the minute. To the minute.

[Zach Klawonn]

Minute. Oh, my God.

[Matt Farah]

To the minute, yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Human driver. So I get a cab and I'm like, man, what's going on today? There's, like, more traffic. Cab line is devoid of cars, which is rare. And the guy says, oh, they're doing construction on three different roads by lax. Everyone has to go out one way. It's just like. It's a pain in the ass. And so we're kind of following the route and meandering towards where everyone converges. And all of a sudden we look ahead and there's all these. Those yellow vertical cones, like a block off a lane. Two have been knocked down, and a car drives through that gap. And he just follows and he goes. He's like, somebody knocked these over earlier. And I'm like, hey, man, shoot.

[Matt Farah]

Go for the gap.

[Zach Klawonn]

And he just like him. And I love it that, like, nature finds a way and the cab drivers always find a way.

[Matt Farah]

Look to the cat.

[Zach Klawonn]

Waymo would not have done that. But everyone's like, oh, the wall has a hole in it.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. I love the adventure of the yellow cab home from lax. So for lax, for those, this is a little inside baseball. Sorry. But LAX has, in order to help try to alleviate traffic within the LAX terminal area, they've moved all the taxis, but also the Ubers and everything else to, like, a side area. And you have to either walk or take. Take a shuttle to the side area. Oh, Zach has pulled up the side area. It's called LA Exit, which is actually a very good name. But, like, zoom out a bit. So it's just. Zoom out a second. So it's like the terminals look like a fucking NASCAR track, right? That's where they should have the fucking LA Grand Prix, dude. The LA Grand Prix around lax, we Found it. Crazy.

[Zach Klawonn]

If the world falls apart, you and I are doing that.

[Matt Farah]

Yes, dude, for sure.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So that looks like a NASCAR track. And it's a pretty. It's bigger than it looks in a fucking photo, obviously. But then there's outside of it. So you have to walk or take the shuttle. I like to walk.

[Zach Klawonn]

I walk.

[Matt Farah]

And then you either are calling an Uber or a Lyft to there, or you're grabbing a yellow cab and there are tons of them and it's just easier. They're just right there. And so I like the adventure. Cause I live close and the cab drivers don't like that. So you have to like sort of negotiate this like you're in fucking Calcutta or something. And that's okay, man, you know, I got extra cash, I gotta take care of you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's a fun bit of negotiation that reminds you, you live in a fucking society.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, ever since I just get in, I go, I live close, but I'll take care of you. And I've never gotten. No one's ever gotten mad with what I've tipped. This guy was like, you know, you said it, you did it. I appreciate it. Yes. He was Russian, so I'm doing his voice.

[Matt Farah]

You gotta pre defuse that situation. And then you're good. Yeah, but I've had that before I learned that technique. I had a guy get real mad that he had waited for 30 minutes or 40 minutes to get a ride. And they're only going fucking this few miles. And what the fuck? And the guy drove like he was so mad.

[Zach Klawonn]

Get rid of you.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, he beat the shit out this priest. Serious so hard. It was wild.

[Zach Klawonn]

This guy, I asked him on the way, I was like, what do you. How do you feel about the cab versus Uber thing? And he, he said he drives for both. And he's like, if you drive a cab, you are, you know, they do background checks, they do all these things. You're licensed by the city, the same as a school bus.

[Matt Farah]

Commercial insurance too, all that stuff.

[Zach Klawonn]

And the commercial insurance is expensive. But he said with Uber, if they give you a really long drive, like, hey, here's a new. A new fare, it's really long. And you accept it. And then it cancels it. If you then don't do the short rides they hand you, they'll stop scheduling you long rides. Like they punish you. Like, he had a ride, it was like $100, 40 minutes. And he's like, okay. And he drove all the way to wherever and Then they canceled it on him. And then they started giving him these really short routes. Like it's almost like a fishing lure.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

So then what he does, he's like, when they do that, I stop accepting all of their rides. I just stopped driving for them for three days. They start giving you good rides again to come back. They go, yeah, they woo you back.

[Matt Farah]

This dude is 4D chess.

[Zach Klawonn]

He is.

[Matt Farah]

This is the move. Yeah. This is canceling your serious subscription just to wait. Just to wait him out.

[Zach Klawonn]

I'm out of order. You're out of order. Yeah. I was impressed. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That's a. That's respect.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I. That. I'm not playing your game. You. You come to me when you've got a good offer.

[Zach Klawonn]

He figured it out. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That's a move. I love it. I love that. That's great. You see the new. That BRZ rally car?

[Zach Klawonn]

No, but I won't.

[Matt Farah]

It's got a turbo and.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, it did. Yes.

[Matt Farah]

And all wheel drive and a sequential gearbox. It's probably is. It's probably just like a Vermont sports car. It's not. It's probably not Subaru, but like. Okay. Looks badass. Hey, Subaru, get at me.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. We have the training.

[Matt Farah]

This is where fucking. This is what they're gonna do for. What's his name, David Higgins. To set some new Isle of Man record in. Right.

[Zach Klawonn]

Probably. Or to give give rides.

[Matt Farah]

The rally spec Z. I mean I am. I am ready for this.

[Zach Klawonn]

Lighter than current WRX based cars.

[Matt Farah]

Wow.

[Zach Klawonn]

Same specs. That's a good combination.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh yeah. It's for the All Japan Rally Championship.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But I want to drive turbo motor.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's awesome. Look at the ground clearance.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Dude, that would be so fun.

[Matt Farah]

Big, big tall fenders. But this one, this one in the photos has more like a tarmac setup. Rally wheels right there. The motor looks beefy. I think they say it's. You know, they say it's 280 horsepower, whatever, but that's more than sufficient. Look at that.

[Zach Klawonn]

They're dirt.

[Matt Farah]

Looks great. Yeah. No, they've only. This is just this set of photos.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that'll be cool.

[Matt Farah]

We will never get this.

[Zach Klawonn]

No. No one will ever get it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. It's for the one. One race that doesn't happen on this continent.

[Matt Farah]

It would be so nice to have a turbocharged. I don't care if it's less balanced, but yes, a turbo BRZ would be rad.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

I feel like, I feel like they could develop that and probably sell a bunch of Them for less than it would cost them to develop an all new car.

[Zach Klawonn]

I don't. They know.

[Matt Farah]

People say that knowing nothing about what it costs to develop, there has to

[Zach Klawonn]

be a reason they don't do it. And maybe it's cafe averages or something. They know everybody wants it and how good it would be. Like they're not dumb. But come on, do something. Sell a bad evaluation.

[Matt Farah]

What if they just put like a fucking GR Corolla three cylinder in that? Sure. 300 horsepower. You know what I mean? Sure, why not?

[Zach Klawonn]

I gotta tell you, if you're out there and you own a brz, don't put a catless exhaust on your car. Because one of the race cars had the Skip Barber car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's one of the worst sounding vehicles I've ever heard in my life. And while I'm on the subject, if you have an inline six BMW and you put a catalyst exhaust on it, you sound like a 350Z.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Those race cars sounded like the, the E36.

[Zach Klawonn]

That one sounded like two of the E46s. It was the loudest, most 350Z sound. Yeah, dude.

[Matt Farah]

Very farty.

[Zach Klawonn]

So much farty.

[Matt Farah]

Extremely far.

[Zach Klawonn]

All Brussels sprouts and beans.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. What race cars sounded like really good.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, the AMG gt.

[Matt Farah]

The amg.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, the Mustang. Yeah, the wheelhouse Mustang sounded rad.

[Matt Farah]

The Corvette could have sounded good. It needs a little LE to sound good. Yeah, it's just too quiet.

[Zach Klawonn]

It had an aftermarket exhaust.

[Matt Farah]

But yeah, they tried to. I talked to the guys about that car.

[Zach Klawonn]

There was a TC Klein's C8 Corvette.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, there was a C8 Corvette which was based on a street car that was turned into a race car, which was pretty fucking cool actually. And because of balance of power for wrl, it effectively like had to be. They had to cut the throttle by like, like a third. They said to. For the class we were in, it's 10 horsepower at the wheels per, wait, 2,800 pounds, 280 horsepower. So yeah, 10 to 1. And so that's what it was for us. So whatever it was for them, it's still 10 to 1. So they had to cut the throttle output by a bunch in order. You can get to that number however you want. So whether it's cutting fuel, whether it's cutting revs, whether it's cutting throttle position, like however you want to do it, because they just strap your car on a chassis dyno and they just check the output, they don't really give a shit how you get there. So these guys, I thought they were cutting revs, but they weren't. They were cutting throttle pressure. So basically the car never went faster than like 2/3 throttle.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, I think they said they pulled timing. So if they pushed it past that cut point, it just didn't do anything. It just stayed there.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it just stayed there. So like it would keep going up in revs until the normal red line, but it wouldn't add any, like, power. So it was very. So our little 2 Series BMW was dead even with it in the straightaways. But then it became a 2020 Corvette with suspension and AP racing brakes in a cage. And it was braking 50 meters later than us. It was cornering faster than us. We did not have much of a chance.

[Zach Klawonn]

Very true.

[Matt Farah]

But I mean, actually that was the car that whatever ultimately knocked us off podium in race one because we had a mechanical and we might have beat it otherwise.

[Zach Klawonn]

But that car looks hu when you're behind it in traffic, like we're in a modern car, but it's a smaller one. But it's around E46s. 36s. I could not believe the size of the ass on the C8 compared to other older cars.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And with the big wing on it and stuff. It didn't.

[Zach Klawonn]

Huge wings.

[Matt Farah]

The Mustangs too were really big.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's true. They're gigantic.

[Matt Farah]

We'll get back to the race next episode. Let's go to the people. Let's go to the fucking people out there in patreon.com the Smoking Tire podcast where you can get the show live, get the show early, get the show extra, get access to exclusive collabs and special edition merchandising that we do, such as the Brosen Fairey metallic canyon from Notice that is coming out very, very shortly. We will have news of this watch very, very soon. I want to wait until the watches are in hand and assembled. That way when you order them, you're to get one quick. Oh, speaking of watches, I bought a watch. There's a company called MB&F. They make crazy shit. What if a watch was more like a dog? Yes. Starting at like $80,000. All the way up to millions of dollars. Never probably going to have something like that. But the guy who started it, Max Buser, started a subdivision of that company called Mad Designs. That is avant garde watchmaking at a lower price point. It's like M A D. Yeah. Matte editions. That's it. Sorry. And so they have a new. They had this watch that had the rotor on the front and you have to enter lotteries to get them. They're more affordable. This watch was like 4,000 bucks instead of whatever. So they have a new watch that they've been doing. It's not this one. Is there more on the. Go to the MAD? No, that's MB and F. Sorry, go back to MAD editions. It's the 2. It's the new one. Keep going. Scroll down. Is it that one? The MAD two. So it has these two dials. And then you see the little dots around the outside? Those are on the winding rotor, which spin around the back. So there's like this crazy lume light show.

[Zach Klawonn]

The spin constant constantly.

[Matt Farah]

As you're moving your. Yeah, as you're moving your wrist, it spins. It's pretty neat.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's pretty cool.

[Matt Farah]

So this is like 3,000 bucks. So they've done. For their. They've done four lotteries so far to get watches. I've entered all four and lost. So they've just have a new version of the Mad 2 called the Mad 2 Redemption, which is exclusively for people that have entered four lotteries and lost. If you've entered four and not gotten to win one, then they invite you to buy this one. And it's a special color of that. And on the back, it says something like, persistence is key on the back of it.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's cool.

[Matt Farah]

So I had lost all the raffles, and I was invited to buy the Redemption, which is the red dial version of this mad 2.

[Zach Klawonn]

And I bought it where don't have a picture of it,

[Matt Farah]

type MAD to Redemption. And there were a couple news stories about it. Yeah, that's it. It's very red. It's that one.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, yeah. I think it's the same pictures they were using today.

[Matt Farah]

They may have just shown it on the other side.

[Zach Klawonn]

All right, cool.

[Matt Farah]

So red dial, black disc. Very exciting. It's very thin.

[Zach Klawonn]

Nice. One of the other ones looked really thick.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, well, the MAD one is super thick. The one with that rotor on. And I really wanted one of those. And our buddy Jared at Neighborhood Watch Club had one for sale. And I tried it on, and it was like wearing a Abraham Lincoln top hat on my wrist. I was like, I can't wear that. Yeah, this is much thinner. It's a cool little piece.

[Zach Klawonn]

Very cool. Little logo's cool.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

Not.

[Matt Farah]

Not insanely expensive, but I love it is. Yeah, totally. Totally.

[Zach Klawonn]

But it's cool.

[Matt Farah]

I love Max Booster, and I will never probably be able to afford a real MB and F. And so this is where we're at it says delivery April to December of 2026. That's what it says. So it'll show up eventually. This year my credit card was billed, so it will show up eventually this year. And I'm happy to wait. I don't mind. Max Bousser has a track record of delivering the products that he's selling to people, so it's okay. But I don't want our customers with the canyon to wait. So we're waiting till all the watches are ready. That way when we launch it, you actually get the thing you paid for quickly.

[Zach Klawonn]

Got it.

[Matt Farah]

This is important to me. So. To the people. To the people. Christian says, do you guys cringe when you see base model sports cars park with their spoilers up? I wouldn't say cringe. I would say chuckle. I chuckle.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, it's a little silly, but I get it. They're excited. It's got a wing. They want to show it off.

[Matt Farah]

I've also seen recently a bunch of folks who park and pop their hood in order to ostensibly cool their engines in cars that absolutely do not need that.

[Zach Klawonn]

Not at a car show.

[Matt Farah]

Not at a car show.

[Zach Klawonn]

They just parked.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. After like a drive. Yeah, yeah. Like maybe a group drive. And for the record, and I want to say, I'm not talking about ABHI who comes on the road and track drives. Who was doing. Who was doing that? But he had a Ferrari 355 and he was ripping it. That's fine. Them shits run hot. I'm talking about a regular modern car.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a modern car. Will it cool it quicker? Sure, but does it need that? No. I mean, at press drives we do track stuff and they never pop. They just cycle people in and out.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but the spoiler up. Yeah. I drove my Spider and put the spoiler up the last time I went up the Crest. And when I got to Newcomb's, I got out of the car, forgetting that it was up, and I felt like a real loser and got back in the car and put it down. Open wide, throttle. DDS says, what do you think of the new LS7 base C8 and LS7 Grand Sport, Grand Sport X, et cetera. What is that going to do to the Dodge dot one C8 markets? Corvettes depreciate. All Corvettes depreciate in the short term except the manual transmission ZR1 from 2019, but that's for very specific set of circumstances. All C8s depreciate if a flood of people go to trade in their base C8 for a Grand Sport or trade in their Z06 for a Grand sport. There may be more on the market and the price of the used ones may go down.

[Zach Klawonn]

Wait, are they putting an LS7 in the base C8? I'm trying to find the story.

[Matt Farah]

The word is that eventually the refresh, there will be an LS7 in the base seat. That's the word. I don't know if it's confirmed yet, but for now it's going to be grand sport and Grand Sport X which has the electric all wheel drive. And then the word is the refresh. That will be the base motor.

[Zach Klawonn]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Unconfirmed.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. I don't know if it'll switch, speed up, depreciation that much. But I mean the base engine's awesome. I think it's amazing. Works great, put power into it, put mods into it. But yeah, the LS7 does have the lore and it is an impressive engine. Of course.

[Matt Farah]

I was talking to Serge at the race about like, what would be. Cause I was like, why don't you. Why have you guys not like fucking joined Willow Springs yet? And we were talking about like what would be the perfect, you know, like weekend track toy. And I was like, right now, dude, a 5000 mile Z06 is like game on for your weekend track playing. I mean you cannot do better than something like that for 100 grand. That car is so fast.

[Zach Klawonn]

It is. And I wonder, you know, because Tato races, Super Trofeo, rear wheel drive, mid engine, big power car.

[Matt Farah]

The ZR1's I think faster than the Super Trail.

[Zach Klawonn]

The Z06. Excuse me.

[Matt Farah]

The Z06 I think is faster.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right. But it's like, at least it's similar.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know.

[Matt Farah]

No, he said they were similar. He said like in dynamically they were

[Zach Klawonn]

kind of a good training tool. They quite great car.

[Matt Farah]

Tato was also saying that like used super trofeos are really cheap. That's nuts. Like a Gallardo super Trofeo. Like that would be a. That'd be a good time for a track toy. Co ed naked969. I haven't heard the term co ed naked in 20 years.

[Zach Klawonn]

I don't remember if was it from.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, you don't. Oh, for. For a few years there was a whole theme of like T shirts. There was like fake events. That was like co ed naked volleyball. It was like right along the same times as the bar hats and the circle hats.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, right.

[Matt Farah]

That were in favor. I haven't heard. But I haven't thought about co ed naked in fucking forever. I bet you go on Etsy and get some vintage co ed naked shit.

[Zach Klawonn]

There's a website, coednaked.com, selling 90s themed shirts, but they're remade. Coed naked billiards. Okay.

[Matt Farah]

I definitely had at least. At least. And there's a slight, like, it's like co ed naked billiards. And then there's like a joke.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. Coed naked lacrosse. Rough, tough and in the buff.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that's the one I had. That's absolutely it. Yeah. Cause I was lacrosse man. God damn, I did have that lacrosse shirt. Yo, fucking email me that link. We're bringing it back, baby.

[Zach Klawonn]

Hannah's gone. You're like, I'm ordering this shirt. I'm bringing it back.

[Matt Farah]

I'm order for her.

[Zach Klawonn]

God, when I was a kid, I like fought my parents to get one of those dumb big Johnson shirts that was like the least classy. And I think I wore it once like an asshole. But now looking back, like, those are just like gross boomer jokes and like huge, like on. And for people listening, it would be like big Johnson crawfish. Like, pinch the back, lick the head. It's like it's all really overt sexual shit.

[Matt Farah]

I used to. One of my first jobs when I was doing graphic design at the firm in New York City was not to do like gross boomer joke versions of it, but it was like to come up with fake events to make T shirts for like the shit you see at Target. Like, you know, some down home fishing tournament, whatever the bullshit, you know, events that are on these shirts. Yeah, dude. Coed naked lacrosse. I fucking had that.

[Zach Klawonn]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Haven't thought about that in a minute. Let's go back to when your name is too good. It sends us on a totally decent. You can time travel once to a car related event. Where do you go and why? Is it the Monaco Grand Prix 1988? Yeah, how about. That's a good one. How about the Nurburgring for that? The one night? How about I am. I have the job I have now, but it is 1984 and I have been invited by Mercedes to attend the 190e 2.5.16 Global Launch Program at the Nurburgring, where they will be holding an exhibition exhibition race featuring niki Lauda, the F1 grid, and a young rookie called Ayrton Senna who might do something impressive now.

[Zach Klawonn]

And they put you in the car at the back. You think, like, were there journalist drivers too, or.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah, no, I'm riding right seat.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, There you go. Yeah, that would be cool.

[Matt Farah]

This is a Jeff Day program. I'm riding right seat.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. I think I would choose Monaco but in the 70s instead of the 80s. Or like pre AIDS.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, pre AIDS.

[Zach Klawonn]

I don't wanna be there.

[Matt Farah]

Pre AIDS. Yeah. Like yeah. Watkins Glen, you know, 69.

[Zach Klawonn]

That shit's nuts.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

What do they call it? The Pit? Whatever it is.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. The brains I had went to my head says could a Taycan rear wheel drive or 4s be a good enough replacement for a Cayman on good curvy roads? Yes. I mean assuming you obviously don't mind the lack of fizz of an electric dynamically steering, ride, handling. Fuck. To the.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Particularly the rear drive. The rear drive car is the super super sleeper secret. Cause it feels just like a cam.

[Zach Klawonn]

And I think not only is the visibility out the front really good, but like you see the little pontoon fender. So it's a good visual. It feels very much like a sports car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know, put on the soundtrack of

[Matt Farah]

an engine quadrifolio face. I bought a 4600 mic mile 2021 E63 wagon to replace my Maserati Trofeo. Okay. I don't like having cars out of warranty and I've never bought a 5 year old car before. It has one year of CPO left. But I'm having trouble justifying buying more warranty when I'm gonna tune it and it doesn't have air suspension. Am I taking a risk? Well, if you're gonna tune it, you would mess with your powertrain warranty potentially. And if it doesn't have air suspension, that's the other really bad big one on one of those cars that could, could be expensive. I mean, is it risky? Yeah, but it's just math. Like it is just math. Like you're probably not going to blow something up. That's like $40,000 you're going to. You can. You might break something that's three or $4,000. Is that going to really fuck you up?

[Zach Klawonn]

I don't know. I would, I'd refer to the forums and see like is there a weak link especially with the tune that is known for breaking or are they known for handling it no problem and running fine for 20, 30,000. So I would do that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean I've owned some cars out of warranty and so far it's been all right. I have to fix something once in a while, but it's not been that bad. I don't think I'd want to own An EV out of warranty because it's still questions surrounding what happens if something goes wrong with the battery and what that might cost to fix. There's. There's just. To me, there are some uncertainties that I'm not personally comfortable with. Somebody might be, but I'm not. But it's not like an AMG E63 is a horribly unreliable car. They're not known for being pieces of shit. They're known for having some expensive maintenance needs. I'd be more concerned with your brake replacement costs. Dude. If that car has ceramics on it, like brakes could be $20,000. And even when, remember we had a. I was selling that guy's E63 and the buyers were bitching about how much brake life was left and this and

[Zach Klawonn]

that, engine mounts and stuff.

[Matt Farah]

And dude and I went to the dealer to find out what a replacement cost was on a steel set of brakes. And it was like 10 G's. That was crazy. So like I'd be more concerned about that than I would be about something breaking that is unexpected. I'd be like, because AMG brakes, I was truly shocked by the cost of. Because those cars don't seem to me like they are quote, exotic and those are exotic car brake prices. So that was very surprising. Darian Lux says Slayer famously did their earliest tours in a Camaro hauling a trailer. Can you get a photo of that? What are some other inappropriate vehicles and setups for going on tour that would command the most? Street cred. Street cred and going on tour. I mean, you have to be like. If you want street cred and tour, like you kind of have to be like broke. Right? Isn't that doesn't have to be like shitty? Yeah, like you have to have a pretty shitty vehicle. So it would have to. To be like, you know, old school, really terrible vans. That's. I. I feel like, I feel like a van. Like a rolling heavy van from the 70s or 80s is your sort of ultimate touring band. Street cred. Right?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, those are rad bands. We saw a couple in Charlotte, man, they just, they got a good stance. They look fun.

[Matt Farah]

Or if you like. I mean, if you were like a punk band, if you're like a three piece punk band, you'd have to go like an old, like an EX U Haul truck where you're just sitting three across and like you're somehow living in that box.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think like an LTD wagon from back in the day would be cool with like an exhaust on it. Shove everything and someone can lay across the Back. I cannot find a.

[Matt Farah]

No photos, huh? Slayer's Camaro.

[Zach Klawonn]

A photo of it, I find there's an interview where they talk about it.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klawonn]

You know, they started touring. Touring. 84 Tom Aria's Camaro was towing a U Haul trailer. All right.

[Matt Farah]

Duffel Shuffle Retirement Club says, what travel destination has the best food? Because I sure as hell know it's not Wisconsin. Shout out to Duffel Shuffle Retirement Club, who we met.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

At the race this weekend.

[Zach Klawonn]

And we won't spell his name, we won't dox him.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But lovely chap.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Nice to meet him. We met a few nice fans at the race this weekend.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, we did.

[Matt Farah]

Wisconsin people. Very Wisconsin of you. Loved your cheese, loved your sausage. Sergio had a butcher in Sheboygan that delivered the bomb steaks. And boy, if you need someone on the grill, normally I'm happy to grill, but we had a Argentinian. I was like, that's all you, homie. And he did not disappoint.

[Zach Klawonn]

Did not.

[Matt Farah]

Superb. I mean, what travel destination? I mean, dude, fucking Italy, Japan.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think New York is amazing. I also think LA has some of the best, most diverse, high quality food of anywhere on earth.

[Matt Farah]

Totally Spain. I mean, it's not diverse, but I eat very well every time I go

[Zach Klawonn]

to Spain, New Zealand. It's kind of limited menu, but everything's grown there for the most part. Really fresh and delicious. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Holy macaroni. Just watched Zach's 2019 video on the Miata, right? RF right now, 2026, pricing for the same car is 43 to 45,000 out the door. Is it still a worthy proposition? No, no. The soft top is substantially cheaper, isn't it? It's in the middle 30s, isn't it? I forget what the last one was that we drove.

[Zach Klawonn]

The last one we drove was a

[Matt Farah]

Grand Touring, I think, right? Middle 30s.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, it's middle 30s.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, dude, for 40, like, I would rather get the soft top. If I want a hard top coupe, I'd rather get a GR86.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

For 10,000, 15,000 less dollars. And, you know, not a lot of

[Matt Farah]

justification for an RF method for that much money when you could have the

[Zach Klawonn]

BRZ or the 86 with the updated engine and stuff. That's way better.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Harlequin E63AMG opinion on the decision for McLaren to start making golf clubs and sponsoring Justin Rose. Is McLaren making golf clubs?

[Zach Klawonn]

I think the question is, are they making them? Are they white labeling them and, you know, launching off of their F1 success news?

[Matt Farah]

Give it a quake. This is the first time heard. Have I forgotten to talk today? Did it.

[Zach Klawonn]

You didn't forget to talk. You forgot.

[Matt Farah]

How did you. Were you fucked up yesterday?

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh yeah, I was.

[Matt Farah]

Yesterday I was hurt.

[Zach Klawonn]

I was sick. I felt so exhausted.

[Matt Farah]

We got home at 1 in the morning after what was effectively a 22 hour day. And I was just. And then all yesterday I had so much catch up work to do. I was like, go, go, go, go, go. And then at 8 I was. I was like, oh, there's the wall. And just fucking done. And I slept and woke up and Woke up at 5:30am and I was fucking crazy. Still a little wonky. Okay, McLaren irons. Look at this. Okay. The late way. Okay. I've had the opportunity. I mean it does seem like. It does seem like these are made at least sort of by McLaren. Short heel toe. McLaren Papaya Speedmark logo, top level. Designers at McLaren Golf, who is a designer at Honuma Golf. Okay.

[Zach Klawonn]

It has been a thing.

[Matt Farah]

It has.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, joining designers at top. At McLaren Golf. So I guess they've been around for a little bit.

[Matt Farah]

I. We gotta call McLaren, dude. We gotta call McLaren and get a press loan. Sure. Some clubs. Let's fucking go.

[Zach Klawonn]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

I would try some McLaren irons. You think they make the carbon shafts? Probably.

[Zach Klawonn]

Maybe. I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

Row, row, row. You're Bo Bachman. Some people say that cars are. Wait. Some people say that cars that are hated, new or struggle to sell when now will be valuable in the future. Like the Ford GT was back in the day. What car now fits that mold for the future? Maserati MC 20s probably.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, for sure.

[Matt Farah]

Not hated. But they'll be rare. They'll be pretty.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean probably a lot of the M cars, the designs are controversial, but if eventually we're more electrified, people will always look to like. What was the last really fast thing that was fun. Maybe. See, well, I mean there's, there are. What do people despise or not buy right now? Well, it's always the things that like hatches have gone away and we all finally look back at them. So small cars, the more and more we get, more crossovers and larger vehicles, we'll probably look back back like that.

[Matt Farah]

Specifically Nismo Z's. They don't sell a lot of those. They'll probably be valuable. They usually hold. They hold value really well. You know, I think in this, this fuel economy maybe you know, Hellcats and stuff, if there's still whatever Hellcat powered thing, you know, maybe some EVs, you know, maybe the. Maybe the Rimac Nevera. Maybe Lucids. Lucids.

[Zach Klawonn]

Those don't. Those are struggling.

[Matt Farah]

Maybe that would be weird. But maybe Paul says, wait, oh, are there aesthetic car designs that are okay, I think the wording of the question is weird so I need to change the wording to something a little less weird. But I know what you mean. Are there any brand keys in styling that you really don't like? For example, the grill shape of 2000s and 2010 infinities, which is that like oval grill shape. I know what you mean. Such as the mouth of Aston Martins or whatever aesthetic designs common between a given. I don't like what most of the Hyundai, Kia Genesis brands are doing with the front of their electric vehicles where they're all sort of froggy and fishy. Except for the Ionic 5 which has got its own sort of that not steampunk 8 bit sort of aesthetic. But all the rest of them, the Genesis and that the froggy front of the EVs I don't love. I really don't like a lot of what like Ferrari going on across Ferrari's entire lineup right now.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, well, 296 is fine. I think. What I don't like, I think Kia does it where they split the small headlights up top and a big light down below where it looks like a giant fog light and it separates. You know the headlight design. I just think that looks really weird on pretty much anything.

[Matt Farah]

I don't like on Nissan's SUVs that blacked out C pillar. The floating roof design.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah, that was a weird choice then they keep doing it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Makes the roof look like the roof line of a boat. Over like the over like a center. It looks like a center consoles roof or like a fly bridge roof.

[Zach Klawonn]

I still don't love McLaren's you know, headlight intake design, but it's distinct and the cars are amazing. Like it's just when I look at it, especially with the lights off, I just go this weird pocket. It's kind of strange. I just prefer like the smoother shapes of other things. But you know, the cars are still so good that I will let it pass.

[Matt Farah]

Every other week I gots to buy new vogues. Was an M113K ever considered for the Mercedes project? Why or why not? That's the supercharged V8 that you got for the 2004 E55 that everybody loves to modify and tune. No, because it's, it's just so much more power than I would ever fucking need. I mean the odds that my Mercedes will see full throttle at 400 horsepower more than a handful of times in its life are very small.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's a cruiser and it's going to feel fast.

[Matt Farah]

This is a car that came with a 220 horsepower inline six going to a 400 horsepower V8 and a five speed auto is going to be with a different diff ratio as well. This is going to be a model monster at the 20 to 80. This will be a very fast car by the standards of. Does this feel fast or not? Yes, it will feel fast. It'll pull a vet from my understanding about talking with Shont and Matt Quick the cost of a donor and the complexity because it's a different chassis of vehicle. It's now a 201 or whatever it is W2. It's the next gen of car. The electronics and integrating the electronics from that gen into this are much more complicated. It's way more involved, it's way more expensive and the benefit would not be something that I am seeking. So a lot of people on the Internet were like fucking supercharger or bust. But like no it's not. That's not needed. Keel in tow says do you think the uptick in values of early 2000s and 2010s Mid engine V8 Ferraris is a sign that collectors don't like Ferrari's current hybrid lineup and prefer NA V8 engines?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yes, I do think that and I just saw a thing from the intercooler that values of F8s with higher miles are higher than 296 with lower miles.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, the V8 Twin Turbo people hybrid people want that?

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. They don't want to deal with the hybrid and they do want to deal with more cylinders and and non hybridized speed. Expectant widowmaker. My wife needs a commuter three days a week. 30ish miles. Two days 50 miles. That's easy. Any car would cover Currently has an Audi A4 which she likes. What would be a better option than a cheap lease on the new Audi Electric coupe Looking to upgrade. Must be new. No SUVs are crossovers. All right, so electric coupes or sedans. Well it sounds like you're mostly in the right place here. I mean I don't recommend Teslas to people but like a Model 3 maybe Mach E that's probably considered a crossover crossover. I mean the gen I just BMW what's it called is the new i3. When is the.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's not out yet the new class

[Matt Farah]

at all but looking to upgrade in 12 months maybe this New BMW that's coming out, the new i3. I mean, there's no. All these cars are small crossovers. There's not a lot of electric sedans.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right. Hyundai canceled the Ioniq 5. Unless you want. They cancel the 6. Unless you want to jump to the end, which is expensive.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, if there's a leftover Ionic six somewhere, they'll be given that. Motherfucker.

[Zach Klawonn]

They look weird, but, you know, drive nice. I feel like we're missing something.

[Matt Farah]

Besides, it's a little. It's a little crossovery. But I really liked that Genesis GV60. It's not going to be. It's not going to be, you know, know, as cheap as the. As the. The cheapest Audi one. But like, I thought it was great. Yeah, but like, when you say. If you say it's got to be a sedan, like, there just aren't that many.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. Especially with ev, if you switch to gas, there's a few more, but there's still not a ton.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, how about a Prius? Like, Prius would be, like, rad. I mean, they're very comfortable and they look nice. Throw some rims on.

[Zach Klawonn]

And if she wants to be more premium, you could look at Lexus. You could go ES hybrid. That's a really nice car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's bigger than the A4, but there's A.

[Matt Farah]

If you do the Prius plug in.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

You'd get like 38 miles of EV. So most of those three days a week, you're be. You're driving EV only. And then the two days, 50 miles.

[Zach Klawonn]

Like, that's.

[Matt Farah]

You know what I mean? Like, you still. You're still mostly EV there.

[Zach Klawonn]

Very true.

[Matt Farah]

I would check on the Prius, honestly. They're fucking giving them shits away. I read an article that now that basically all of Toyota's hybrid is just fully or Toyota's lineup is hybridized. The Prius is like, why are we getting a Prius instead of just a hybrid Camry? Because a hybrid Camry is not much more expensive than a Prius. And it's a bigger, more comfortable vehicle. And bless you. And it gets 40 miles a gallon or 45, instead of 52, 53 city,

[Zach Klawonn]

53 highway for the Camry. Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Wow, look at that.

[Zach Klawonn]

That's wild.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. I can understand why not many people want to get a Prius, but I think the Prius looks good.

[Zach Klawonn]

It does look cool.

[Matt Farah]

Looks good on rims. Go Mifune. Live in the Upper West, I'm looking for a sub 30k weekend car. I plan on doing a beginner's track school. Eventually get some laps at Road America. Would I be missing out on some fun with a Miata or any 86? Or should I get a nicest vet I can find for the money?

[Zach Klawonn]

If you're a beginner, I would not get a Corvette. That's a great track car. You can grow with for. For forever, basically. But as your first foray into this on a track that has this much speed, I would 100% not buy a Corvette if you're going to do track stuff in it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, 30K, fortunately, is a good budget. It's not like you said, 10, you know, 10 in today's money is not getting you very far. But 30, dude, the world's Mustangs and Camaros are your fucking oyster right here. 30 is all the money in the world for a used Mustang and some suspension and brake parts and tires eventually.

[Zach Klawonn]

Or you get a used GT that has the track pack, one or two, and they probably have fallen down. In the 30s. You might be able to find a boss CO230 with high miles on it. 330 CI. We talk about a lot.

[Matt Farah]

You could probably find a Camaro SS1 LE for 30.

[Zach Klawonn]

Such a good car.

[Matt Farah]

That'd be great.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's also really pretty fast.

[Matt Farah]

It is pretty fast. They have the Camaro, the V6 with the one the. With the handling.

[Zach Klawonn]

Pit handling, the V6. One Le.

[Matt Farah]

Rare.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. Probably pretty cheap.

[Matt Farah]

But if you don't, I mean, Road America is very, very fast. And so on the one hand, it's more fun when you've got some horsepower. On the other hand, as a beginner. Beginner. Your consequences there can be very, very high if you start to push it in a really big power car.

[Zach Klawonn]

And I also think you'll learn more from a slower car. And those lessons apply to a faster car. Of course, a GR86 or something. Look into the mods with the oil draw issue. But that would be such a great car. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Stan Gable did nothing wrong. What would it take to change the public perception of the Corvette being kind of white trash? Many years.

[Zach Klawonn]

I mean, I think it's. Look, they gotta sell a lot of them. And I think if there's just a proliferation of something, it's just gonna attract a label and like, they're great cars, but they're bought by so many people and there's such a stereotype behind them at this point, after decades, like, how do you get away from that?

[Matt Farah]

I think the C8 has done a lot to break up some of the trashiness. The kind of people I see driving C8s are not monolithic at all particular, particularly in this city. I see old people, I see young people, I see men and women, I see young Black men driving C8s all the time around this area. I see Asian people in LA driving C8s, particularly high spec ones in the Beverly Hills area. I think more people are buying Corvettes now because of the C8 then definitely would have bought a car in the past. And I think for the most part GM has not turned off their core audience with the car either. I think a lot of those old guys that would have had the C6 or C7 are rolling into C8s and a lot of the people who come on our road and track events bring C8s. And now that Z06 has been out for a couple years, now that ZR most recent event in the desert, we had two ZR1s, two Z06s and two base cars. So I think people are getting high specification cars. And you know, a fucking full carbon ZR1 track pack like that ain't trashy. That's an exotic car.

[Zach Klawonn]

Now it's an exotic car because before they were very fast and they kept up with a lot of exotics, but they didn't look exotic. And now it does look like an exotic car and obviously it keeps up. I don't know. Let us know in the comments if in your area outside of la if the ownership is as diverse.

[Matt Farah]

Chris P. Bacon says, just sold my C5Z06 and used the money as a down payment for a new GTI. Couldn't be happier. Also drove the new M2 and M3 and wasn't blown away by the interior quality considering they're more than double the price of the gti. At what price point do you start getting diminishing returns on interior build quality? Good question. I think there's not much. For most European brands you hit about 50 grand and then it really stalls until you hit about 100 to 150 grand.

[Zach Klawonn]

Maybe at least.

[Matt Farah]

At least, maybe even more.

[Zach Klawonn]

Because I think these days I think suppliers have figured out Hyundai's a great example. You can get a lot of similar looking buttons and controls in those cars. They figured out how to make quilted, you know, leather ish door cards that look like something out of a Bentley essentially. So I think you have this gap where everything looks really nice and then at 50 you have to jump to 200 where suddenly the hardware you touch, like in the Aston, you know, the wheels feel a little bit more solid and like the resistance on the buttons is just a little bit more perfect and not as, you know, lightweight and flinty, that kind of stuff. But I think there's a huge jump you need on the spend to feel that difference.

[Matt Farah]

The Honda Civic Si, I think has a lot of the same materials you'd find in a BMW M3. And in order to go up to that, you might have to get $180,000 Alpena something, something with the next level materials or something. Right. Porsche is an interesting one because I actually think the kids Cayman and the 911, they're screwed together just as tight. The quality is pretty consistent, so the materials will get nicer as you go up and up the food chain. But even when I drive a base 911, even though it's rubberized on the top, the quality is really tight. So I'm not as bothered by it. It's really premium rubber. But then there's a really, when you go from 100 to 400, when you go to Bentley, then it's like, okay, now here we go, you know, and it's truly exotic materials and there's like no plastic. And even the quote piano black is the higher quality. It's not just black plastic, it's like actually the piano black or like the

[Zach Klawonn]

ceramic white they use in the Range Rover. Just like things that you do not see in other cars,

[Matt Farah]

but in general, like a Volkswagen, like a loaded up GTI will have approximately the fit and finish level of a 80 or $100,000 car. It's a pretty flat curve in that range.

[Zach Klawonn]

And plus when you add the screens in these days, that makes your center stack looks as nice or nearly as nice as something from an Audi or more expensive car because it's delivering you crispy information.

[Matt Farah]

Occasionally you'll have a surprise and delight like Volvo's wool or something, where you go, oh, this is a material that goes above and beyond what I'm paying for here. You know, a particularly well sculpted seat, a thing that's wrapped in leather or suede that isn't normally wrapped in leather, that kind of thing. But like most of the time, it's pretty flat. Up to the exotics. Sigs inside. I want to take my dog camping soon because the girls I date are only interested in glamping or luxury hotels. Uh oh, this is a Zach question. What essentials do you recommend for camping out of your vehicle? A weekend at a national park, especially With a dog. Perfect for Zach. I'm going to pee. Take it away.

[Zach Klawonn]

Go for it. I mean, first of all, I see here's dog camp. Well, I had a bar mitzvah, but not genetically. But first of all, I think you might end up eventually changing the choice of the girls you date, because then you can do the things together. There are plenty of women out there that really like camping with a dog. But that notwithstanding, maybe your girlfriend, wife doesn't want to camp. I don't see the benefit to sleeping off the ground on a rooftop tent. And I've talked to a lot of people that do it. I'd say half of them regret doing it. Yeah, you can park your car and once you level it, like, you have this sturdy platform, if you have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, you have to go down the stairs. And getting the dog in there depends on the dog you have. Depends on the stairs you have for that rooftop or truck bed, tent. So that, I think is a huge point against the rooftop tent. Also, if you want to drive somewhere and leave camp behind, you can't. Now, if you want to camp in the vehicle, SUV or something like that, things to pay attention to. It's the same thing as when you sleep in a tent, is you're going to have air going under the car. Sometimes the air underneath you can get very cold, and that cold air will go through the body of the car into the thing you're sleeping on. So you need to have some sort of like, ground mat or blanket between your sleeping pad and the car. Also true on if you're sleeping in a tent, but the earth tends to be a little warmer than the air moving around it. So those are all things to keep in mind. Nothing wrong with a tent. Our dog, we slept with a tent. If the dog wants to go out and bark at something, you just unzip it and it just gets to go. So I don't really see advantages to camping in the vehicle, except it's like bear proof and more weatherproof. So that's my thought. Perfect timing.

[Matt Farah]

You solved their problem, Zach?

[Zach Klawonn]

I think so.

[Matt Farah]

Great.

[Zach Klawonn]

Told them to break up with their significant other.

[Matt Farah]

Martin site says. Ten years ago, when I was in engineering school, all the automakers who talked to us said the major focus was advancing materials to make things thinner and lighter in pursuit of better fuel economy. Somehow cars are elephants compared to 10 years years ago. Being that a design cycle is nearly that time span and they change their mind on what's important, how Quickly, could we see turnarounds on automotive trends? We just saw it. The Tesla Model S came out in 2012. By 2017 or 18, several other major automakers announced plans to build EVs. And then by 2020, 2021, almost all mainstream automakers came out with at least one EV. 2022, even more. And then it was like, oh, by 2030, maybe there's the mandate. So they all was like, pivot to EVs. And then now, now you have Trump throwing all that in the garbage and now everyone running away from it. Over the course of 15 years, we've seen a swing and then a swing back. That's the turnaround time, right. Seven, eight years to make plans and then break them.

[Zach Klawonn]

It seems like they've also had so much success with engine efficiency and aerodynamic efficiency that they're getting the, they're hitting the goals that they need to hit. So they don't really need to make the cars lighter. And if people are always going to ask for more creature comforts, more gadgets, more stuff, they'll go, all right, well, you can provide the customer with what they want. And we hit the MPG targets. We don't need to make the cars lighter. Only we give a shit. Only journalist drivers really care that the cars are getting heavier.

[Matt Farah]

Right. Everyone else only cares about features.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Big Ben says, I'm doing my first track day in my F80 in, in June, an HPDE event. I need to provide my own helmet. Someone getting into hopefully more track days. What do you recommend as a helmet? Open or full face? Opinion about your criteria, about other brands, et cetera. Okay, so for the only reason, the only reason that I even own an open face helmet is because I have a camera pointed at my face when I'm on the racetrack. Outside of that, I don't really see a good reason to wear an open face face helmet. A closed face helmet, even in a car with airbags, will protect you more than an open face helmet will. So mine is just for television. I have no other. Or for YouTube or whatever the fuck. There's no other reason for it. Full face is good. The most important thing is not necessarily the brand, because any of the top brands are going to be good. But is the fit. I mean, really, it's the fit. I wouldn't buy the cheapest helmet they sell. I would go up a little bit from that. But you also don't need to go out and get a $2,000 custom made. Anything you really want a good fit. And so if possible, even if you have to drive an hour from home or something, I would try to find somewhere where you can try helmets on.

[Zach Klawonn]

There's also, I think, some kits or maybe some shops where they will kind of measure the shape of your head because so different manufacturers are kind of known for making helmets with slightly different shape, like oval shape, square shape. And I didn't think about this at all until I started researching helmets. And my helmet, if I don't shove it down perfectly, like pressure puts pressure on the front of my. My head a little bit in a weird spot because I think it's slightly the wrong shape.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klawonn]

So find a way to do that, and that will help inform you which brands you should start with. And then if you can put it on and leave it on for 20 minutes, that will inform you on size and shape.

[Matt Farah]

So that's the first one. I mean, if you can go somewhere to try one on in person. If not, maybe you need to look for a retailer that has a pretty solid return policy. And maybe you need to order three or four helmets and try them on and send them back. Sometimes. If the manufacturer that makes the helmet also makes motorcycles helmets, you can go to the motorcycle shop, try on their motorcycle helmets, and get a sense of how that brand's helmets fit your head and then you can go from there.

[Zach Klawonn]

Great point.

[Matt Farah]

But, yeah, I mean, and with brands like, there's the big ones, there's Bell, there's Zamp, there's Arai, there's. What do you use?

[Zach Klawonn]

Race? No, Bell.

[Matt Farah]

My racing helmet is from a company called Impact that I'd never even heard of before.

[Zach Klawonn]

So.

[Matt Farah]

And I love my helmet. Mine is custom made. And actually, as I just found out, it expires well.

[Zach Klawonn]

But in Impact, I think you said was started by the guy that started Simpson Racing, right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it was started by Bill Simpson. Yeah. Pretty good. Simpson is another good brand. And the other thing is, I don't like. Personally, I don't like tinted visors. I don't ever drive with a visor down. And if I. So I wear sunglasses inside my helmet

[Zach Klawonn]

on the opposing side. I swapped a tinted visor this weekend and I loved it. But that's because whatever it is, with my helmet shape and also the glasses I was using, they were fitting weird and putting pressure. So if you do that, like, make sure the glasses like you do wrap around your head and really hide back there. My helmet wasn't crazy expensive. Another thing is weight. Look at the weight of the helmets. Because when I bought my Bell, I could have spent 200 more dollars or something for like the entry carbon. But it weighed more than the one I got. And I'm pretty sure the store owner was like, it's because it's carbon on the outside of plastic.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like, sometimes the entry level carbon. Carbon helmets aren't carbon.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's like aesthetic carbon cart jump to like 1500 to 2 grand for a lighter helmet. Because, you know, weight will matter, but how much does it matter to your wallet? Yeah, and I have some vents on the top. I think that's important for anybody. They don't have to be complicated, expensive things. But like, venting the heat out of the helmet is very handy.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. When you're. I mean, it doesn't matter so much for track days. If you're in the car, your visor will probably be open anyway. But like, dude, when you're doing an endurance race and you're doing a driver change and you have to have your visor are down and you're breathing hard and it's hot and you're trying to, like, do your fucking harnesses that are going to keep you alive and you can't see those things matter.

[Zach Klawonn]

Trying to find the tiny fuel reset button. Flat button on a black dashboard.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, these things matter.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Wheat City night court. The Ferrari F80 is starting to hit the streets in various colors. Have you changed your opinions on the design since the initial. Initial announcement? No. Ugly car. That's an ugly car. And actually I saw. I've seen more photos of the Testarossa that's gotten worse in other colors. Can you notice these nuts?

[Zach Klawonn]

This is great. That flows pretty well.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, sorry, that's. Oh, Tappan Z's nuts. Sorry. Some other nuts. I don't have a budget for ppf. What are some ways I can protect my. My paint and current condition? The ceramic coating is a lot cheaper than PPF and offers some protection not from rocks or impact, but from bug splats and things like that. And also just like washing your car a lot. Just keeping your car generally very clean.

[Zach Klawonn]

There's some good waxes out there too. Right. That'll prevent it, protect it against little sand blasts and things.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, wax was the thing for 50 years, and it does work, for sure. And coatings work too. I mean, ceramic coatings, ammo reflex, we like. You can. You can do ammo reflex at home by yourself. You don't need to go to a professional to do it. Larry has a great video on it. You can just follow his tips and do it yourself without messing stuff up. So I have Ammo reflex on my cars. Okay. Don't judge an engine by its value. Valve cover. I'm looking to Turo a C8 Corvette for a vacation. How tight do we need to pack in order to fit our bags in the C8 or is there plenty of room? So okay, you got your frunk and you got your trunk. I assume the C8 is not going to be an E ray or a Z06. Assume it's a regular. Can you just get like I think for the trunk. It's not. The trunk is very roomy. So your frunk can hold one rollaboard. Oh look, there's can hold one rollerboard. Okay. In the frunk or a pair of backpacks.

[Zach Klawonn]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

And maybe a pair of backpacks and a purse. And then in the back the shape of it is a little odd. So that's someone's. That's a specific luggage set to fit the C8. So you want to be a baller. You order the 1,360 DOL Roadster bag and then you have her royal highness's fitted luggage for the rear. Outside of that your rollerboard is not going to fit in the trunk. So when I took the C8E ray on my scouting trip I had to bring soft sided luggage. And I mean like duffels. I brought two duffels.

[Zach Klawonn]

This is a totally common away rollerboard and you know they put it in the middle but I think if you tried to flank you can't fit two of these anymore.

[Matt Farah]

No, you could fit one in the middle standing up on its end. So my recommendation. But it is a pretty big trunk once you bend the bag in there. So you got to go big duffels. That's your only move. But there is once you shape it in there then you're all right. See this person midengine corvetteforum.com has a good photo here of a three duffel solution that I like.

[Zach Klawonn]

Yeah. And it looks like autoblog did a luggage test with one. So I would refer to that. And then you can inform your partner how much or how little they need to bring.

[Matt Farah]

Tldr. You can fit a lot. You just have to get the right the right flexibility in the shape of your bag.

[Zach Klawonn]

These are the last three.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Last three. Zach's sandwich based humor. The affordable sport compact segment is essentially dead. And when viewed from today's eyes. What do you consider? Consider the sport Compact champ from 2000 to 2010 Civic Si. Probably the 2000 Civic Si was the jam. Also the like 2004 R32 Volkswagen was the jam.

[Zach Klawonn]

That was a cooler car. Handling wise. I think it would get destroyed by the Civic, but yeah, it was a cooler car. Remember the Focus ZX3? That was a pretty rad thing.

[Matt Farah]

I liked the RSX Type S a lot. I thought that was a good, great car.

[Zach Klawonn]

Oh, when did they stop making no rsx. Took over for the Integra. Nevermind. I'd go Civic si for the Champ. Yeah. Still raced the best all the time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Oh, wow. A lot's happening here. Okay. Explorer. I hardly knew her. I noticed a trend with automotive journalism recently. Okay. Noticed a trend with automotive journalism recently to take what Nissan is doing lately and add an asterisk to anything they do, I. E. The Z is an older platform that's been updated. Therefore it's a lesser car because it's not modern enough. Although the same journalists complain that sports cars are too tech focused and overly complex and a more old school vehicle is what we desire, etc. The Armada Nismo is called silly. And I haven't seen the inside of that vehicle. I haven't called it anything aside from. Even though almost every German luxury automaker does basically the same thing. From my perspective, there's a double standard for Nissan who are making an effort to get away from big Altima Energy and they're not getting enough credit this truck. Let's see the looks. That's a crazy looking vehicle.

[Zach Klawonn]

So Armada Nismo.

[Matt Farah]

Imagine getting wanting a Nismo Armada. But can we see the inside? What, what, what do we have to go on here? Yeah, I mean it looks like. Yeah, kind of the same as everything else.

[Zach Klawonn]

Red seats, red. It's, you know, it's, it's, yeah, it's whatever.

[Matt Farah]

I don't know.

[Zach Klawonn]

Kind of like Japan. Like Japan seems to be go. If it's a sporty, sporty car. We do the red seat, you know, Civic, Type R, Armada Nismo. It's, you know, Ferrari does it too. It's like it's the color of the passion.

[Matt Farah]

I mean it. Oh. So the question is the exist the existence of the Armada Nismo is silly even though there's an A G63. And we don't think, I think that we call those silly.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think that's the question. The question is like why.it seems like people give Nissan unfair criteria. We go, hey, the new Z is an old refresh car. It's not a new thing. That's not great. And then we drive brand new cars and we go, I wish they were more like the old way.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So here's what I think what is going on? And by the way, if you go look at my review of the Z, I wrote about it favorite favorably because of its trueness to being a Nissan and not being platform shared or too similar to other cars. I think I said the Supra was objectively a better car that performed better, but the Nissan has a more unique character to it and it was very much reflective of the values of the brand. I said that. And you can probably go read that on roadandtrack.com what these folks want, It's not that it's not modern enough. It's that they're saying it's a bit lipstick on an older platform. They want a new chassis that's analog. A new lightweight analog chassis. Like for instance, when Mazda came out with the nd, they want Nissan to be doing what Mazda's doing with the Miata, which is where you are doing entirely new platforms and chassis and stuff every whatever, six to 10 years. And to have those values of being an analog, lightweight, engaging sports car, that's not too complex. The complaint of the Z is that the basic platform goes all the way back to 2003, which is a different thing that's happening.

[Zach Klawonn]

Well, because then you, with a new platform, you get more rigidity. They usually can improve hard points or things that might have led to complaints about the cars. It also means when you're comparing apples to apples, you go, well, this car B over here from this company is a whole new thing. It's totally rethought, re engineered. I get newer materials, I get newer thoughts. Whereas the other one, the Nismo, you go, well, it's better, but it's still an old thing. So for my money, what do I want? And. And then I think, oh, I had another thought that I forgot about. Oh, and then the complaints about the old cars still can remain because you go, okay, well, the thing's kind of heavy. The engine design is a little bit old. They added turbos to it, but they're not changing some of the fundamental complaints.

[Matt Farah]

Sure, yeah, I can see why you think like that, but I don't think that you think the journalists are saying exactly what they're saying. I think they're not saying that it's not. They're saying the platform isn't modern enough. Not that the idea of a rear drive stick shift sports car needs to be somehow more techy.

[Zach Klawonn]

I think McLaren's a good example. Price point is different, obviously, but it's a carbon tub thing. It's made with more Modern materials than Ferrari still uses aluminum for a lot of their unibody and the chassis. So it's made with very modern materials. But then they go, the steering is going to be old, it's to be hydraulic, the dynamics are going to be compliant. Kind of an older style. There are. They take all the best of the old sports car attributes and then they use the most modern materials to make those attributes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Song Singh I'm looking to make my next car purchase. It'll be a daily commuter but need some space for hobbies, outdoor stuff, fishing, kayaking, camping, surfing, etc. From New Jersey. I want, I've always wanted a last gen Lexus GX but I can't stop looking at used Rivian R1s. Any reason I shouldn't get the Rivian? Sure. Two of them. One. Does an EV fit your lifestyle? I mean you're doing all these activities with an ev. Is that gonna work? Maybe it is, maybe it's not. I don't know how far you have to go to do those things. Right.

[Zach Klawonn]

And how long do you camp for? Are you going to drain the battery and then be stuck in the middle of, I don't know, northern New Jersey away from a charger?

[Matt Farah]

Right. Also, are you aware of the fact that Rivians are just about the least reliable vehicles being sold today? I mean literally they're at the very bottom of the. And people love their Rivians and I've driven press Rivians and I go, I know why people like these. My friend Brad has lemmoned two of them and has a third like they love them.

[Zach Klawonn]

I had a question on the driver's test show. Consumer Reports said that Rivian's were one of the least reliable cars in the world, like in the United States right now. But the driver satisfaction was the highest.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's inverse.

[Zach Klawonn]

It's crazy. People are hooked, they're in the club and they want to stay. Yeah, it's inverse.

[Matt Farah]

So at least if you were to buy a used one and you have a great warranty and blah, blah, blah, maybe you could avoid some of these issues. But you're talking about buying a used used one. My concern would be that it's problematic. So make sure your warranty is intact and very, very long and very comprehensive and that you factor that in when spending one of these. When it's used, when spending money on one of these, you may have some issues that need addressing and they may or may not be covered under a warranty. And man, these things break a lot. So that's it. Thanks folks. Long show today. A lot of talking to do. Must have been all the caffeine. Don't forget we're giving away a Porsche. Hit the link in our show notes. 997 Turbo S. The drawing is happening in August. Still have plenty of time to enter. It is very straightforward. There's a charitable component. If you win, you get 75,000 bucks. That covers the federal taxes. And this car is a brain. Brand new.991. Excuse me. 992.1 Turbo S in ice gray with an amazingly optioned up interior. All the luxury features, rear wiper, glass roof. Super, super, super fucking fast car. And you can buy it. Buy it, buy it. You can win it. Wow. I think I need another day of rest before we do another show. Fucking hell. That's it folks. Thank you for listening. We appreciate you all. Thanks to our patrons for asking such good questions. And we'll see you next time. Bye.