
Zack spent a little more time repairing his beloved BMW M3 than the instructions estimated; Matt has a photo update on his Lamborghini Countach's engine rebuild; there's a new emissions proposal in CA regarding classic cars that actually makes sense (for once); we review the 2025 Porsche 911 T Cabriolet; and we answer questions from our Patreon members including: What vehicle is better with an automatic transmission? Which exotic cars dodge registration? Our dream Nissan R36 GT-R would be... Did ADRO fix the M2's front end? What is happening with Lucid? A gated shifter conversion for Miatas? Hot or not: Nissan Stagea Autech The rule on watch-size to wrist size Cars that were truly one-of-a-kind. And more! Recorded March 3, 2025 Start your new morning ritual & get up to 43% off your @MUDWTR with code tire at https://www.mudwtr.com/tire #mudwtrpod Check out the full lineup of Truewerk's high performance workwear and get 15 percent off y...
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Folks, welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. As always, today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record. And you guys, too, because you send emails to me all the time telling me how off the record got you out of trouble. Maybe you got a little moving violation, just a couple ticks over the speed limit. Maybe you got a big one. Maybe you really need help. Off the Record is here. They will connect you with a qualified attorney in the jurisdiction where you got that ticket. They'll fight that ticket and, man, most of the time, they will win. Their winning percentage is extraordinary. What you need to do is go to offtherecord.com TST that's offtherecord.com Tst. We will get you with that code, 10% off every service you get from off the Record, man, don't plead guilty. That is for suckers. Off the Record, they work. And if they're not going to work for you, they'll tell you there are some areas they don't cover. And they'll tell you they're not going to, like, take your money and then be like, sorry. So they're awesome. I've used them myself a bunch. My friends, my family, and they absolutely work. So go to offtherecord.com TST make an account, have it ready. And then if you get pulled over, you're not in panic mode. You're ready to go with off the Record. All right. On today's show, we got a lot to talk about. Zach. Zach did himself some wrenching. He had a weekend of turning wrenches and getting dirty. And we learn all about those things that are happening with his E46 M3. Plus, we drove the Carrera T Cabriolet. I got the most insane email I've gotten in a very long time. And we have some amazing questions from the Patreon to ponder. It's the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's get to it. Cruz show. Let's go. Hello. Hello. Hello.
B
Hi.
A
Hi. Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. It is my duty to report that we have new merch. Yes, this one looks like an Aston Martin.
B
Indeed.
A
We have not infringed, but we've gotten close.
B
Spread your wings and then encase them in comfort.
A
So we've got the Aston Martin logo. This one, this one looks like Porsche. I don't know if this color combo plays well to camera. This may look weird under studio light and iPhone. Silver on blue. It looks better on the shirt. And you can get a bunch of. You can get them in a bunch of Colors. Go to the smoking tire shop right now and get one for yourself.
B
This would perfectly match the 911T cab.
A
It was. I had that thought. Yeah. If you wear this while driving that and be fucking matchy matchy. Welcome to the program. I just got back from a little trip. I'm trying a new look. Trying the bald on top, beard on bottom look.
B
Oh, yeah.
A
You didn't even notice.
B
Well, because I've seen you when you don't shave the goatee and it does that.
A
Yeah.
B
But it is tighter.
A
Yeah. And then the top. Yeah.
B
Well, I mean, you've obviously shaved your head for, like, a long time.
A
Yeah.
B
Usually even.
A
But if the beard is this long, I haven't normally shaved the top at all. I'm just bald.
B
Right.
A
So now I. But now I did the cutoff.
B
Yeah.
A
The glasses. To be the guy who shaves his head but then has a full beard.
B
Well, also, because when you don't shave for two days, your goatee is much longer because you continue to keep. Keep that ahead. You want to get it.
A
It gets a couple cycles.
B
Right. It's got a head start.
A
Yeah, yeah.
B
But, yeah, it looks good.
A
We're trying. We're gonna see if it works. It's a pain in the ass. You have to shave your head, like, every other day. Whereas I could go like a week or two previously.
B
When you go a week or two, aren't you wearing a hat a lot of the time anyway?
A
Yeah, but you're getting. You get scruffy, and it looks weird. This looks weirder if you don't shave your head.
B
Okay.
A
Yeah.
B
Oh, because you're keeping the beard the same length all the time. So the heads catching up.
A
No, but it's the head. The head very quickly becomes messy if you don't shave it. Okay, but if it's like a uniform, then it's less noticeable. It's a hard edge.
B
Okay.
A
Trust me. I was just.
B
I believe you.
A
Yet this morning, I was at that point went, oh, oh, no. Four days is too many days.
B
I'm just. You can just brio beardscape your beard and it looks good. Cause I can't do that. I have to, like, beardscape down. Then shave or let's shit.
A
Oh, for this?
B
Yeah.
A
Well, I buzz and then I shave in the shower.
B
Your head has the same maintenance as my face. That's what it is.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
B
My face looks weird if I don't shave.
A
I have some new keels. Shit. They didn't pay me to say that. But they have new Aftershave cream that I really, really, really like. That's excellent. And I'm now getting quarterly facials, which. Have you gotten one ever?
B
Yeah, once. It's like. It's amazing.
A
It's awesome.
B
It's so relaxing. Holy crap.
A
Yeah, it's really a delight. And apparently I have, like, a higher tolerance for pain than most of the women who get facials regarding my face. Because she's like, this is gonna hurt. And then she does a little, like, you know, vacuum of my cheeks, and it does not hurt at all. And I'm like, when's the part that hurts? She's like, that didn't hurt? No. Who thinks that hurts? And she's like, a lot of people.
B
Wow.
A
Wow. All right, fine.
B
What are they doing to your cheeks?
A
Fine. It's like a. It's. It's all. It literally looks like the machine that we use to fucking shampoo carpets, but a small version. And on your face.
B
Interesting.
A
That's the move.
B
Yeah, I'll ask her. She'll know.
A
It's like a mini Bissell.
B
Okay.
A
And there's one that, like. There's one that looks like a mini version of the thing that janitors use to do. You know what I mean, to do a spinny thing. There's a mini version of that.
B
I hope it's a full size, two hands, and they're just there on your face, like, don't move, sir.
A
Yeah, she's hot. It's a whole thing. It is. But you can't. You can't go down that rabbit hole. Pretty soon you're like, skin care guy.
B
We like Rob Lowe. Remember when Burt had him on and he's like, what's your face routine? He's like, oh, I got one. Like, yeah, you do. I mean, you look amazing.
A
Yes. Yeah. Pretty soon you've got a regimen you've got to stick to, and it becomes very good.
B
I tried to do that for a while. It was a lot. I got enough maintenance to worry about, which we'll talk about. Don't worry.
A
Do you want to start with that? Because I walked in and I was like, what's this? And you're like, it's a Dremel. Don't ask me why I need a Dremel until we're recording. So why do you need a Dremel, Zach?
B
Well, as I mentioned on the show, when I went to Office Autosport a few weeks ago, they said, we need to talk about your power steering lines. And I said, why? And they said, because all of them are Leaking. There are four. And then they told me how much they'd cost to change and I said, I'll do that. And they also said, we need to talk about your pulleys, because your pulleys talk to us. When you turn the car on, like, there's like a sound.
A
Does it sound like a dolphin?
B
No, that's more of the belt, which also had an issue. There's more of a. There's a clickety sound. Like bat sonar. Yeah, you shouldn't hear that. And then one of the other pulleys was making just sort of like a.
A
We just shouldn't have any pulleys replaced on the. The big main fan here.
B
Oh, that's because of the vibration. Yeah, there was a big job.
A
Yeah. Yeah. The pulleys and the belts were worn out. Yeah. Five years.
B
Yeah. My. Some of my pulleys are. I changed them the year I bought the car, so they're five years old. The belts are newer than that. But to quote Ken at office, he's like, you could probably get rid of the Turner Motorsports pulleys because you're not really tracking it. And I was like, I know what is.
A
What would a Turner Motorsports. Is it a different ratio? Is it like an underdrive pulley?
B
Yeah.
A
Oh, you have underdrive pulleys?
B
I did. Oh, for the horsepower, Matt. For all the speed.
A
Damn. They're like a high school mistake.
B
I mean, dyno charts say that they do work.
A
They work. They work great at full throttle. How does your car feel off idle?
B
It doesn't idle great. I don't know if that's why, but I'm going to Google that later. Oh, yeah, it is interesting.
A
Ye. It's because it's fucking under.
B
Driving your alternator to defend Turner. When I looked up idle issues with BMWs, I found posts from 06 where brand new owners were like, does anyone else's car idle weird above 500? And I was like, they do that. And the cars were fucking new.
A
Maybe they do. And I mean, I'm not saying that if a part an underdrive pulley works for racing because you're always spinning the motor on to where your alternator is making full output. Well, above that. But like, dude, I put underdrive pulleys in my Mustang in high school and when the car would drop to idle, all the lights.
B
Oh, mine didn't do that. I didn't have a dimming issue or a battery issue.
A
I paired it with a fucking choppy cam.
B
Yeah.
A
So I definitely made it worse. But like, yeah, if you're experiencing things happening around your idle area.
B
It's like a prescription. Do you have problems with your idle area? Try OEM pulleys. Side effects may include loss of forum horsepower.
A
We have. Yes, you have minus one bragging rights.
B
Exactly. Pretty. Pretty much. I mean, dude, the pulley. The pulley, like the. The OEM pulley. Let's say it's as big as this coaster, which, I don't know, four inches across.
A
Yeah.
B
The Turner one is like six.
A
It's big.
B
Oh, yeah. It's much lighter, too.
A
Your car's gonna be like.
B
It's getting a spot treatment. Yeah, pretty much. Crazy.
A
Okay. Yeah. So wait, but Dremel, right?
B
So I change all the pulleys. I follow Shadow. I mean, FCP Euro hooked me up with a lot of parts, but they also have a through video of the entire process that is like, one of the best shot DIY videos ever. They're like, here's it. Because they don't just show you. Here's how it should go if your car's oem. They're like, by the way, someone might have changed one of these bolts at some point in the life of your car. That happened to me. So it might not be this thing. Like, they show you a lot of the tricks, which is very handy. Pulleys goes fine. Brake lines are just. I hate them so much. And I follow this other video from a very thorough guy. And he. He's taking off this hot. There's a line that goes to the power steering cooler that's in front of the radiator. So it's kind of a hard line. It's affixed to a hard pieces of aluminum. There's two of them. They're vertical. They're right next to each other. And in his video, he's like, you might need a special tool to take this off. And he tries the special tool, and it doesn't work. And he goes, I'm gonna try the other one. I have. Tries a second special tool. He goes, all right, I'll come back. I'll come back to this. Comes back to it with a Dremel and has to cut it open because the line, like, has seized itself. Because it's like 100 years old or 140,000 miles old. So even when you take off this stupid, annoying. I know an engineer is screaming because it's intentional. But, like, the collar that goes over this hard fitting, even when that's released the tension, the thing is, like, frozen on there. So last night you have to cut it off. Yeah. I have to like cut it off. And I got. And I cut mine open last night with wire cutters, which shout out to the wire cutters. I'm impressed. They held up through that and it still didn't come off. And it was too late at night to hammer on things in my apartment with like a hammer and a screwdriver.
A
Oh, wait a minute. Where. Where are you physically working on this?
B
Well, I've got my garage now, which is awesome.
A
Yeah, but are you doing this in the garage? Yeah. Oh, okay.
B
That's why I have a garage.
A
The way you said that I have you said in my apartment. I was like, hang on, are you bringing.
B
I brought the radiator into the bathtub.
A
This is karu garbage. Have you brought componentry into the for repair?
B
Not at this apartment, but yes. But my. My individual garage is below someone else's apartment.
A
Yeah, it was considered of you. Yeah.
B
So it's 10pm And I'm like, I probably shouldn't hammer on a screwdriver.
A
No problem.
B
I got a lot done. But Dude, I spent 12 hours working on my car yesterday and I had to keep telling myself how much money I'm saving by not bringing to somebody. Otherwise I would be so upset.
A
How much are you saving?
B
Like 2,000 bucks probably.
A
Okay.
B
Yes.
A
That's a day rate.
B
It's.
A
Is it?
B
Well, that'd be a good day, right?
A
Yeah. Now, is the Dremel here at the studio? Because it's on the way to your house or from your.
B
To my house. I texted Vinny last.
A
So there's more.
B
Yes.
A
12 hours ain't done.
B
No, no. If I'm done in an aggregate of, let's say 18, I'll be pretty happy.
A
Bro. Bro. But your day. But you're worth more than 100 bucks.
B
An hour, depending on what we're doing. Yes and no. I know. That's what's tough. And also, I mean, if we do that math, writing kind of goes out the window. Not for like.
A
Yeah, yeah.
B
Article stuff.
A
Yeah.
B
So. But it's about the reward.
A
Sure.
B
So on the pro side, I now have a better understanding of my vehicle and I'm let. And all the shit won't be leaking and whatnot. Well, that's really the best downside. 18 hours. That sucks. Yeah.
A
As you're. As you're in. Because your garage opens to a large carport for your apartment complex. Right. So are a lot of people coming by and checking in on you?
B
I close the door.
A
Oh, you do?
B
Yeah, for sure. I don't want people to talk to me.
A
Is it. Is there ventilation of some kind in there? Guys, we gotta take a quick break from the program because today's episode is brought to you by Mud Water. You ever heard of this stuff? It's different. It's a new thing thing, right? I found Mud Water because. And I've talked about this a lot. My experience with caffeine has been not good. I have anxiety and so I try to avoid caffeine. But I love the idea of a cup of coffee, right? More so. And I like drinking the coffee way more than I need the caffeine, right? I need that. I want that jolt of energy. But without caffeine. Let's refresh our routines, shake off the winter blues and focus on a new way to feel energized throughout the day. This is a cool thing, right? Mud Water is not your average cup of joe. It's got a blend of cacao chai, turmeric and adaptogenic mushrooms helping you feel more focused without a caffeine crash or those caffeine jitters. It's smooth, steady and honestly just makes you feel better. And it's easy because we're all busy, right? Just two minutes, mix it with hot water or milk and you are set. No hassle and no over caffeinated craziness. No anxiety, just pure focus. So whether you're ready to embrace this new season or just want a fresh start to your daily routine, give Mud Water a try. Save big today our listeners can get 43% off your entire order. That is a very specific number of percentage because they want you to remember it. 43% off your entire order plus free shipping and a free rechargeable frother. Head over and you gotta spell it. Think like a tech company. M u d w t r.com and use code tire at checkout. You say Mudwater, but it's M u d w T r dot com. Use code tire at checkout. Mud Water is also available at Target and sprouts across the US So grab a cup of this. Pick me up, but use our code. Really? M u d w t r.com code tire at checkout. 43% off. Free shipping and a free recharge frother. Let's do it. We're also brought to you today by Truewerk. Truwerk is hell bent on creating the most technical high performance workwear in the world. The Truewerk story begins in the Colorado mountains where a trade worker knew there had to be a better solution than the wet heavy gear weighing him down. And TrueWerk was born. Man. They sent me three items that I really like. They sent me specifically this hoodie that is really lightweight but keeps me warm. It's got zip pockets, so my wallet, my phone aren't falling out. It's got a great insulated hood and it fits really perfect. It's got the perfect fit. And they sent me some of those technical cargo pants that are made of that durable synthetic fabric. But they have a really nice waistband with a soft inside. They fit really good. They're the right length and they're light. But also on a chilly day, they do keep me warm. It's great. These guys. TrueWerk makes good stuff. I'm stoked on this. Every TrueWerk product is designed for maximum comfort, protection and efficiency with minimum bulk or extra weight that when I'm packing for travel international especially, every bit I can cut out of my suitcase makes a big difference. Denim and cotton canvas has not changed much over 200 years. TrueWerk upgrades the traditional classics by using the same fabrics worn by elite outdoor athletes. But for workwear, it's soft, stretchy sweat, wicking soft shell work pants are a major upgrade over wet, heavy jeans. Wind and waterproof shells use intelligently placed insulation for streamlined warmth that lets mobile and agile. Truwerk's got over 50,000 5 star reviews and countless stories from trade pros in every state and every job across the country. So upgrade to True Work. For a major change in the way you work, TrueWerk helps you be your best when your best matters most. Check out the full lineup and get 15% off your first order at truework.com tire that's 15% off at T R U E W E-R K.com Tyler everyone's gotta, gotta have a new spelling for stuff. So remember, it's spelled the German way. T r u e w E-R-K.com tire and now back to the program. Is there ventilation of some kind in there?
B
There's enough. There's enough.
A
Okay.
B
Well, actually, last night, so we had an earthquake. Yesterday, we had a 4.0.
A
Really?
B
Yeah, really. And it was located two miles from here. And I was on jack stands. It's on four jack stands.
A
Oh, boy.
B
Well, I wasn't under it, thank God. But like, I felt something and I thought, big truck. I was not under the car at the time. I will say that when putting the car on jack stands, I had the thought, like, I'll double up the jack stands because only the front's in the air. Because I do live in an Earthquake state turns out pretty long 4.0 earthquake happened, so. But the car didn't. Car didn't fall.
A
Would have to be a pretty big one for.
B
Oh, but that leads me now I have the garage door open like two feet. So if I wanted to run out, I could just run out and roll under because I had it closed to keep it warm.
A
And also, did you take the creeper that we got?
B
No, I don't. They ra. They. They add like 2 inches to how, you know, they lift you off the ground.
A
Yeah.
B
And sometimes I need the space. Someone.
A
Someone gave us like a really nice creeper.
B
It's very nice. I saw it. But it's big.
A
Yeah. I mean, it looks like a luge. It does. It does look like a luge. I don't know like what we're gonna ever do with it, but it's a. It is nice.
B
I thought about it. If I had easy jacks which lift the car higher, I would probably use the roller and I would be much cleaner. Maybe. It was pretty gross.
A
Maybe one day we'll build.
B
I went to kiss Sarah good night last night. She's like, no, no. I go, it's not on my face. She goes, yeah, it is. So that's what I'm doing. So I'll be done. And then I can finally film my car.
A
Wow.
B
It's being delayed anyway.
A
That's nuts.
B
Speaking of high maintenance, high performance sports.
A
Cars, you want to talk about the Lambo? We can talk about if we have a few things. We can talk about the update on the Countach. We could talk about the Carrera T Cabriolet that we had. We could talk about the craziest lunatic email I possibly have ever gotten. We could talk about a new. You talk about government. Talking about laws. You want to talk about laws?
B
Which laws?
A
A California Senate bill has been proposed that would abolish the hard cutoff year for smog and would instead have a rolling 35 year smog exemption once a car hits 35. Exempt.
B
Yeah.
A
Cool. Which I'm 100% for sure.
B
I'm surprised they did it.
A
I think that's common sense. Well, it's not been approved yet.
B
I'm surprised.
A
It's a proposal. Senate Bill 7 12. It's a proposal in the California Senate, so we'll see. Yeah, I mean, but I think it's wise. I think you'd have a lot of people who would register their cars in California instead of Montana or whatever if there was a path for that smog exemption.
B
Yeah. Because we talked about this before the number of cars that drive around are so small. I hope this bill has more viability. There's been a politician in I think Kentucky putting forth bills as a sort of statement that's like bill to outlaw masturbation because spilling seed is discarding embryos. And he's doing it as an example of how ridiculous some of the restrictive laws are. So I hope this isn't met with laughter, like this is a very good thing.
A
I mean, it's fairly common sense legislation.
B
Yeah.
A
And there's so many cars from the 1980s and 1990s that were imported and are very valuable and were not originally built for California's emissions laws. And people want to drive them in California. It's a small number of them, but they're disproportionately valuable. And so if you could provide a path to drive those cars legally in California, you could collect an enormous amount of revenue from high net worth individuals who are willing to pay the tax to drive on California.
B
Right. I would hope that, like maybe they can tag something to it where it's like, you can do this. I just want people to stop avoiding. With the Montana thing, like, here's now the path, here's the emissions path. And if you live here and you know, you live here, you know, don't, don't skip town and use the Montana thing. Just skip taxes.
A
And I don't think that, I mean, people are always going to find ways to cheat taxes.
B
I know.
A
I just, I think, I mean, and believe me, I am not an expert in taxes. Taxes fucking scare the shit out of me. Or anyway, getting on the wrong side of taxes, I should say, scare the shit out of me. It may be honestly like on Montana to stop letting people do that. I mean, it's Montana. Montana will allow you to create an LLC in Montana without living there and register vehicles to that llc. Without living there. Yeah, without having any physical real address there at all.
B
But I think it's on. It would be on California, because Montana, if you do that and you're in Montana, like you're not breaking a Montana law.
A
No, you could have to have a. But you could. Montana could require you to have a physical address. To own or lease a physical address. Yeah.
B
You need pressure from other states.
A
So many states do that. I mean, so many states will allow you to. If I live in California, let's say, but I have a vacation home in wherever fucking Kansas, then I can register the car in Kansas and the bills and shit come to my house in California, like they allow that. But like in Montana you don't need to have property. So like, if they just all of a sudden said you have to own a property, it would cut out. I mean, maybe people, you know, maybe if you're buying fucking five Koenigseggs, then.
B
Yeah, it would shrink a lot.
A
Get a property. But. But it's too easy. Yeah, it's too fucking easy.
B
Yeah. What was the used before this? I mean, Montana's always been very friendly to it. There's always been some.
A
There was a Vermont, I think, for a while, I think. Vermont? Yeah, one of the Dakotas. Like there's. There's ways to do it, but like.
B
To get back to it, this emissions thing is great. And I think it also helps people who are not rich and trying to avoid taxes, but just have an old car and, you know, just want to drive it around and. And for them to go, oh, you gotta get the emissions going on this. 84 Les Saber.
A
Yeah. The idea that you would need to have a California compliant catalytic converter for a car that hasn't been in production for 35 years is silly. It's just silly. The numbers don't make any sense. And so anyway, I tried to get the California state senator who put the. I don't have her name here, but I tried to get it, but I'm not in her district. And they were like, sorry, contact your own representative. Like, you're not in her district. And I was like, I just wanted to get, like, I literally just wanted to ask, A, wanted to show support and B, wanted to ask like, was there a piece of information that was presented to you that caused you to. Was it from sema, was it from a lobbyist? Or was it like a study? Because remember they did that study a couple years ago that people were freaking out about about cars that sat a lot in California. Maybe they were studying like vapor from fuel tanks or whatever, trying to find out how often these classic cars are actually on the road versus parked.
B
You could probably contact our office just as a journalist.
A
I probably could, yes, that's true. I tried to go through the basic website constituent thing. Maybe if I submit a media inquiry again. But I was just trying to find out if there was a specific study and I didn't get anywhere and I didn't try hard enough. But either way I think it's a good idea. And so that could be cool. That could be very helpful. Okay. Countach engine update. So I got an email from Guido at Top Motors and he said, you know, hello, Matt. Nice. Just wanted to send an update, your engine is about 50% of the way through the rebuild. They've done the heads and he sent me a little photo album in Google Drive and I have not looked through the photo album yet. So for the people enjoying this on YouTube, we can all look through them together and I will try to describe, as best we can, what we see.
B
Let's go to the first one, I guess.
A
Granted, there's a lot of shit I don't know. Yeah. So you know, the engine and the gearbox are in Italy. Oh, we've got bearings, right? Those are definitely new bearings, right?
B
Yep.
A
Got a bunch of new bearings there. Along with what could be either an alternator or a starter motor. Maybe not an alternator, maybe a starter motor, I don't know. But they've also sourced some of the parts. So the water pump. Remember when we went up to Donnie's and we found the water pump had been cracked and welded back together?
B
Poorly welded. Let's just state that.
A
Yeah, at first when they sent me the bill, the invoice of like things we need, they were like, water pump. They're like, unfortunately, new water pump. And I was like, dude, we totally sent them the water pump. But then I forgot that the water pump. Well, I mean there's like a.
B
It worked.
A
It had been welded in the 90s.
B
Yeah, and that's a good point.
A
But a new water pump and a water pump housing is $6,000. Oh, yeah, yeah.
B
Put that other one back on there. That's why it's worked. Yeah, whatever.
A
That's why the last dude welded it up. Bro, that's crazy.
B
I mean, it had a buttress added, but whatever.
A
All right, so we've got bearings and I think those, those square things are camshaft cover caps.
B
That would make sense.
A
Keep going. By the way, I'm 100% going to get some of these parts wrong. We've got nice clean, shiny metal. That's what this whole bench is covered in bits that go inside the engine.
B
Oh, yeah. This is definitely cam shit related.
A
That's cam shit. Yeah, yeah.
B
Does it have variable cam timing? No. I don't know.
A
No, that was invented in the 90s.
B
Okay. Very fancy.
A
What was the first? I think BMW Vario cam vtech. I mean, actually VTEC was literally the first one, I think.
B
Was that the first one or did they simplify it and make it reliable while BMW was like, v made it, dude.
A
I feel like Honda VTEC was. I feel like Honda invented variable valve timing. I'm pretty sure, if not like, maybe it was Ferrari, but I'm pretty sure it was Honda.
B
Actually. No, Corliss. Orville Barant, American engineer working in on a 65 Corvair.
A
There was a Corvair with VTEC.
B
I think he developed it on that and then. Oh, and how VTECH changed the world, I don't know that. Take too long to look, but.
A
Well, that's cool.
B
That's very good to know. Maybe he invented it. And then someone went, oh, it's a good idea. Corliss thought of this.
A
It had to be the first production. Had to be Honda.
B
Yeah, probably.
A
Okay. Okay, so here's. We have an Italian gentleman in blue overalls working on my engine block on a stand.
B
Alfa Romeo, first manufacturer to get the fuck out of here in production cars.
A
When was that?
B
1980 Alfa Spider 2000. Had a mechanical VVT system. Then Honda in 89 put it on stuff. All right, now, Alpha. Yeah. Who would have thunk it?
A
Go get em, tiger.
B
Way to reach now. I mean, they have made some really impressive inventions racing engines.
A
Yeah. So it's a. We have a man with in glasses and overalls working on my engine. Zach, can you do. What is he doing with those? Those? I think those are head studs that he's putting in and lining up.
B
I think probably. I think that's what it. Yeah.
A
Again, I am stupid. There's a bunch of rods sticking out of the.
B
Look. If there's not a YouTube video telling me how to do this that I just watched, I don't know what's happening.
A
Engine.
B
Engine. Engine man with engine man, I gotta.
A
Get me a pair of these overalls. I'm gonna ask these guys to tack on a Salvioli top motors overalls. So if I ever go to Goodwood Revival, I can fucking rock that shit.
B
That's a great idea. We desperately want to go to that. Also, can we just talk about the tools on the wall here and how I've never seen any of these before in my entire. All of these. Oh, these are all individual socket wrenches on extensions permanently with swivels at the bottom.
A
Yeah.
B
And they have T handles at the top. That's amazing.
A
Dude, I guarantee you that wall of tools is exclusively like. This is what you need to work on a Countach V12.
B
I agree.
A
Is all of these and like nothing else.
B
Yeah, this is probably like a 4 mil to a 13 mil wrench.
A
1, 2, 3, 4. Yeah, it's like 15 swivel sockets on really long rods with T handle.
B
Amazing.
A
Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome.
B
Look at this old thing? It's one of those old time drill. Yeah, it's like a hand drill.
A
Like a hand crank.
B
Wow.
A
Like in shop classes. Ooh. New rods and pistons. Those are brand new. We couldn't reuse any of mine, which is cheap, really expensive.
B
Sometimes it's cheaper to just buy a new one, you know? You know, like a waste basket breaks, and you go, I could repair this. Or I could just order a new one. Is that what happened here? Is it cheaper to buy new ones? Yeah. He's nodding.
A
Yep. Yeah, it was. It was somehow.
B
What was wrong with your shit?
A
I don't know. Worn old. I mean, I. I don't know. I don't know.
B
That's. That's a bummer.
A
Yeah.
B
Just like super quick tangent, you know, because of who I am. Like, repair shop says, you should fix this. And I'm like, should I really? Are they. Are they just lying to me? And I post a photo of my hoses, and some guy who's a BMW tech in different part of the country goes, wow, bro. He's like, I think those are original. That is really messy.
A
So, yeah. So these people know and I don't. So I'm listening to them. And that if that's gonna cost me money, so be it. All right, so, yeah, installing. Looks like we're installing rods and pistons. That's excellent. Very cool.
B
That's a nice shot.
A
Oh, dude, look behind. Fucking subtle photobomb. Do you see what that is? That's a silver Countach.
B
Yeah.
A
Do you know how rare a silver Countach is?
B
I have no idea.
A
I think there's fucking like five of them.
B
Why was that so rare back?
A
I don't know. Yeah, it was just not a thing Lambo was doing. Wow. Yeah. Which I've seen. I think I've seen a photo of that car assembled, and it's incredible also.
B
Oh, no, it's not. I thought it was right hand drive. It's not.
A
Oh, it. Yeah. I don't know.
B
It has like another.
A
It has a bunch of like, interior things.
B
Something behind it. Yeah.
A
Okay. Cool engine block. Oh, shit. Well, we could have just. Just clicked one. That is indeed a silver. Fucking God damn. Is that awesome.
B
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
A
And then behind it looks like possibly an Espada on the COVID up there. It's a front engine Lamborghini. It could be a 400 GT or possibly an Espada. You know what, there's a Miura, a green Miura in the back right. Of that photo.
B
This wheel arch. I was like yours doesn't look like this. And I looked it up, and this is an LP400.
A
This is old. Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
Is there a picture of this car?
B
There is a picture of a silver car that I.
A
Silver LP.
B
Yeah. LP 400.
A
Yeah. They have the different shaped rear wheel arches. Yeah.
B
That's cool.
A
Yeah.
B
Wow.
A
Fucking sick. That's amazing.
B
All right.
A
Oh, look, a bell housing.
B
There you go.
A
There we go. We need that. I'm getting a new flywheel and clutch, so. Yeah, that's good news. Keep going.
B
Is that it?
A
More pistons. Rods. Whoa.
B
All right.
A
Oh. Crankshaft installed in the lower engine case. Cool. Crankshaft.
B
Very shiny.
A
Yeah.
B
That is beasty.
A
We did not do the stroker crank on this one.
B
I think these are called journals. I think they're thick.
A
Dude, this is big tractor engine, man.
B
Yeah. Overbuilt tractor.
A
Yeah.
B
Cool. I think you're right on your head stud install.
A
Look in the back. I see an orange Diablo gt and I see a black countach. Cool things happening. Engine things. Oh, that's my Bosch. They've rebuilt my Bosch injection system. Cis.
B
Okay, so. Oh, right. We talked about.
A
So we're keeping the injection system but tuning it for the Euro cams and the Euro exhaust and the smog delete. And the underdrive port pulleys. We're not doing underdrive pulleys. Went right over Zach's head.
B
He was lost in photos I was looking at. Yeah.
A
Sorry.
B
Why aren't you. Are you not trying to win? Is that why you don't want underdrive pulleys? Do you not want to gain 4 horsepower for lots of money?
A
3 horsepower. And we're not doing carburetors because I like injection.
B
Yeah, that makes sense.
A
Yeah. I don't want to back date. Okay, Cool. Is that the end of it?
B
All right, great.
A
So along with this photos. These are beautiful photos. Came a bill.
B
So it was like most expensive photos.
A
Mr. Farah, I have sent photos. Please send 22,000 Euros. Fuck.
B
It's a good thing you're selling the Bentley.
A
We're getting there. Yeah. Bentley goes live Wednesday, Wednesday the 5th. And then we're gonna have the.
B
The day after the show.
A
The end of. End of show. Want you know Santino's Mercedes is up on. On. Bring a trailer right now. Check it out. It's a really nice E63s with super low miles and warranty until October. And that auction ends Tuesday. No, it's on. Bring a chill.
B
Oh, sorry.
A
And there's a. There's an Instagram post I did about it that shows it that the gray one, right? Yeah. It's a diamond graphite metallic. Real nice interior, really well kept. We just did like the super detail on it too. It looks like a fucking brand new car. It's actually awesome. 14,000 miles and it actually presents as if it has even less. Santino's a real skinny boy, so he doesn't abuse his leather when he gets in and out of it.
B
He's not dropping.
A
He's not creasing that shit.
B
Yeah.
A
Yeah. These are rad. This is the twin turbo, all wheel drive. No hybrid. Just 600 horsepower of meat.
B
Yeah.
A
Very good car.
B
Also a good indicator that you can have ride height but still look mean. Like this has plenty of clearance. Still has a lot of attitude. You don't need to drop your car on the ground scrape all the time.
A
Should we talk about Carrera T?
B
Yeah.
A
Loved it.
B
Yeah.
A
Just. Just spectacular. This is a great fucking car. This like everything about this is nice. And I firmly believe if you're gonna get a 911 cab, you want one with a pretty soft suspension. You don't want like the hard like a turbo S cab. Like you don't want that because like the softern it, the softness of the T. It's pretty soft in soft mode which is good. It works well with the Cabriolet.
B
It lends itself to the attitude of the car.
A
Yeah.
B
I think getting. Trying to make convertible race car just does not make sense to me. Or super sports car. Like it's going to be a great GT thing. You want to put the top down and cruise. Like that's the attitude. So soft suspension.
A
Yeah. But the six speed shifter. Great. The seats, I said 14 way in the post. They're 18 way. Sorry, whatever. They're 18 way seats with this beautiful cloth tartan. Just. I didn't love the wheels, but it really drove nice. It's like. It's just a row of 8.7s across the board. Everything traffic, canyons, highway, you know, going to dinner. Anything you could do with a car. Obviously if you're doing track work, you want the coupe. But for anything else, this is just so fucking great. And I could happily have this and not be thinking about more. More 911.
B
Yeah, I agree. I mean it's exactly what I drove in the coupe. But it's got a. It's roofless.
A
Yeah.
B
So. Okay.
A
It's just. It's a very, very not. It doesn't feel like. I feel like people, you know, 911 people don't want to get A base car. They never want a base car. So this doesn't feel like a base car. No, it feels like it's got a bunch of good stuff in it, it. And, and if you put your foot down it's, it is properly quick. It's got nice brakes, it's got a great ride, great steering. It's so nice.
B
It's well respected by enthusiast community obviously. So it's like this is better to me than just getting a Carrera.
A
Oh.
B
Because that's the base car. This feels special but it's, it's like.
A
A bargain and I'd rather drive it on the street than like a GT3. It's, it's really nice in just all the time on the highway and shit. Oh, it's great. It was so nice.
B
The great cruiser, the Frunk is huge. Yeah, we know that. But like as a pretty practical machine and it's not 600 horsepower, it's not super fast, but it's definitely fast enough. Like once you get into the power band, the thing hauls ass.
A
It's faster than 390 horsepower would suggest. All 911s are faster than whatever their horsepower number would suggest, but particularly these turbo motors. And with the manual you don't have to put it into sport mode every time. So it's not bogging. It feels really, really. The three liter engine is really well matched to this six speed manual gearbox. It's really good. The clutch is so light. Everything about it is involving without being tiring. You know, you could drive this car for eight hours. Like I'd love to do one of the road and track events in one of these. That would be fucking great.
B
And someone in the chat asked, would we rather have this or the SL63? I'd have this all day.
A
100%.
B
I hate the SL's interior. It feels claustrophobic. And I hate the giant tablet.
A
I get the hybrid on Wednesday. Oh, we'll see what happens with that. But I mean there I. There, there's nothing that this car isn't very good at, including track work. We had a Carrera T coupe, you know on performance car of the year last year. It was a good time, really fun.
B
Yeah.
A
So how I, I didn't actually get the window sticker for this one because it's a European model. What were the coupes?
B
The one I had was option like 130 something. I mean they start, they start high. It's, it's inflation thing. It's still priced along with or priced like accordingly compared to the other ones, it hasn't actually gone up that much in price compared to when they started at like 103. But it is what it is exactly.
A
A lot cheaper than a GT3 for sure. And it's still an excellent sports car that's used totally daily drivable. When I went back to the Spider, though, I gave it back.
B
The Cab starts at 149.
A
Yeah. That's expensive.
B
It is expensive.
A
Yeah.
B
I, what was the GTS you drove? How much was that one? Red one?
A
The red. The GTS cab?
B
Yeah.
A
Oh, it was expensive. 180.
B
That's wild.
A
Yeah, it was really expensive. It was also a 4, so it was an all wheel drive and yeah, it was, it was up there. Ceramic brakes. I mean it was fucking way up there. I think spec for spec, you save probably 20 grand, 25 grand getting a T versus a GTS. But stick, I mean, it comes down to like, do you want to drive stick? Here's how you're gonna do it.
B
There's no stick GTS and the cab is a $14,000 premium over the coupe.
A
I, you know, neither you nor I would buy the cab, but I do have to say that as a, for a week as a press car, I loved it. I put the top down all the time.
B
And that interior stuff, the sound deadening on that top is amazing. It feels like a rigid top.
A
Yeah. It feels more like a coupe than most cloth tops do. Yeah. I'm such a big fan of this fucking thing. It's so great. And then when I went back to the Spider the next day, I drove the Spyder, I took Thad out to dinner and the Spider is just such a monster by comparison, but it's, you know, I never like, I don't want to get in the Spyder to like go to the grocery store, but I would hop in the Carrera T like all day to just do anything and just use it as a car. The Spider, like I can't. I've tried to make it feel like a full on regular car. Like it's too hard. I'm not inspired to go take it for normal errands. I drive it a bunch. But like this would be like, like it's one of the first cars in a long time that would make me consider daily driving a manual transmission again, even in this city.
B
Wow.
A
Yeah. It's easy. It's so easy.
B
It is very easy.
A
Yeah.
B
Yeah. It's still a pain in the butt, but it is, it is. Yeah, yeah.
A
It's not. It's no take in, no use take in.
B
Right.
A
Speaking of which, picked it up from service, it wasn't actually really serviced. I had a major software update that apparently will lead to fewer major software updates. Supposedly this hard update plugged into the fucking thing made the over the air update system much more powerful. Oh, that was one of the things. We also had a little bit of bugginess on our road trip. Just a couple little software y hiccups that I'm hoping that helped. And they replaced my portable charge cable, which there was a recall for that was it cool?
B
How long did it take to do the update?
A
One day. Dropped it off.
B
So it's similar to like with the Mach E, you had to drop it off and took a long time. They gotta plug it in and wait. Yeah, it's.
A
The data transfer is not that fast and it has to like restart a whole bunch of times and who knows what they're doing. But I swear to God it could have just been in my head, particularly because I was just driving a TRD Sequoia which we can talk about later and the UI was like mad clunky. I got in the Taycan when I picked it up from the dealer and I swear carplay felt faster. Like just the responses to my touches. It felt like the refresh rate was better, but it might have just been quicker than a Sequoia. Oh yeah, I don't really know. But felt good to be back in it though. Man, driving that thing is fucking sick. So nice to drive.
B
Seems like a good idea.
A
Oh man. Okay, should. Should I read the craziest email ever?
B
Sure, yeah.
A
I sent this to you because I was like, I think I have to. I haven't done this in a long time and I. And because frankly a lot of the, A lot of the really the real nuts kind of sorted themselves out and found other places to play, which is nice. Most of our fans are like real fans.
B
Right.
A
You know, or at the very least like somewhat regular people.
B
There was an era where there were a lot of viewers and listeners that kind of sat there with their arms crossed like, let's see what these fuckers say now. And then they would like to write a comment.
A
But like as we know, in our current, you know, pre fascism state of our country, you know, there's an information ecosystem out there that like most people don't really know about but like has very much affected a certain segment of the population. So here's an email. This is in response, retyclon. So Dave, this is David. He doesn't Have a last name. And he wants to talk about the Taycan Matt. And I'm going to read this as written as spelled. Matt. Vaccinated. Dooded. Love their electric cars. You know that you've been pumped full of self assembling nanotechnology and emit a BLE signal with your very unique Mac address. Right. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry when you monkeys masked up. And I definitely wanted to cry when you monkeys got quote, vaccinated. Knock yourself out with that. That vaccine mobile. Ha ha. I fucking hate EVs, David. That's a very normal thing to write a person.
B
You know what else, what happened today that this person might be interested to read? No.
A
How long has he had the job? Like 18 days?
B
Sure.
A
Has it even been that long? How long has he had the job? He's telling people to get vaccinated. Vaccinated. I got measles vaccinated when I was a kid. That's all you need. We don't need a measles. Right?
B
Yeah. You get that?
A
Yeah. Like a fucking regular person.
B
A lot of people are pushing against it. And now there's a unfortunately like legit tragic measles outbreak happening in Texas and RFK Jr yesterday said actually you should go get this vaccine two days after. He was like, yeah, it's gonna happen. So. But it's all right. But David is speaking, of course.
A
Can't wait for polio to come.
B
David's talking about a different vaccine.
A
Yeah.
B
That you know, a lot of people got in 2020.
A
I don't know. Like you can subscribe to my ble signal.
B
It's a lot of it.
A
You can find it in my unique Mac address.
B
There's a lot in that email. A lot.
A
There's a lot. Dude. You think his family likes him.
B
Because they're afraid?
A
No. Like, is this person, is that person even capable of having a fucking. Like they're Charlie Day in a room full of strings and pins connecting shit.
B
Yeah, maybe. For. Yeah, sure.
A
Can you even have a conversation with someone like that?
B
No. What are you supposed to do? That person is fucking scary when they start going into like it, you know, I don't want to get into the vaccine debate of like heart issues and whatnot, but once they go into Bill Gates is putting nanotechnology inside you. I'm like, oh, oh. I don't. There's not gonna be a discussion. It's gonna be. It's gonna be a one way discussion for each of us.
A
100 to 1, bro. That this would chug like a 32 ounce Mountain Dew right now and doesn't know what 3/4 of the ingredient in that beverage are. Couldn't tell you what, like, you know, Axiosapam.
B
Right.
A
Whatever it is in mountain. And he's like loving it.
B
Prescription drugs, other things. Yeah, no problem. Problem alcohol, not good for you.
A
Right? Yeah. Anyway, that's fun. Keep them coming. So, yeah, we should go to the people, right? I think we should.
B
We can go to the people. We have a lot of things from the people.
A
We should go to the people. And of course, if you want to be one of the people. Patreon.com the Smokingtirepodcast support the show, ask us questions for the show, catch the livestream, catch the show before anybody else. Get an ad, free viewing and listening experience. And get an extra show every month at the pro driver level. The special show for special people just like you. Let's see what we have. I still can't figure out if it's. If reading the TV is better with my reading glasses or without them. It's sort of a. I think it's better with them. Hyman Roth. Name a vehicle that was available as a stick and an automatic that you'd rather have the automatic. Oh, this is very easy. Any pickup truck or suv.
B
Yeah, that's true.
A
Yeah.
B
Yeah.
A
I mean, that's, there's, there's. To me, there's nothing fun about driving a truck that's a stick. I don't give a shit.
B
Mm, I agree.
A
Here for Matt's cats, man. You should have seen Mike, how happy my cats were when we got home last night. We had four cats in the bed last night. You have never, you haven't fucking lived until you've woken up at 2am to four sleeping cats in your bed. It is the best.
B
Did you wake up because the cats were annoying you by being in the bed or you just woke up because you woke up?
A
I mean, I wake up a couple times throughout the night, but in this particular case, I woke up because I couldn't move because I had cat leg. Cat leg. Cat.
B
Right. Okay.
A
I was frozen like Han Solo.
B
If you have a fifth cat, that's the one that interrogates you.
A
Okay, here from Matt's cats. Is there a rule for walking face size, relation to wrist size? Or do you just eyeball it? Asking for all the dudes out there with dainty little princess wrists? No, you eyeball it. I mean, and anyone can rock anything. I've seen dudes with big ass fucking gorilla wrists pull off like little 34 millimeter vintage joints. And during the big watch craze of 2014-2016, everybody had a huge Panerai. Even if you had a tiny little wrist so you could go either way, way, there isn't a mathematical rule. I mean if you've got a really small wrist, and I'm talking like a low 6 inch joint, you probably want to look at like a 36 millimeter watch. That's just like a smaller men's watch.
B
What are the.
A
I'm wearing this omega speed. That's 41. I like 41 because it's like if you have a small wist, it'll be a little big.
B
Small width, small width, got a widow width.
A
If you have a widdle width, it'll be a little big, but it'll still, still pull it off. And if you have a bigger wrist, it works.
B
Oh, nice.
A
Yeah. Yeah. I have a big wrist so I can't wear anything under 40. But if you have a smaller wrist. Yeah, stuff in the 30s is where you live. Justin Gerard says okay, wait, how can I justify a new 911T versus a used 718 GTS 4 liter? They're different cars and experiences. But how would you compare them? New versus used isn't really fair. It's a tough one to do. So. So you still, I think can order a new 718 GTS 4.0. So like let's call. Let's go new for new. New for new. A GTS 4 liter is a car that's in the 90s. Right.
B
So it's 40 grand.
A
It's a 40 grand savings to me. That's enormous. And I would rather have the Cayman or the Boxster at 40 grand.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
Some people just have. They can't be seen. They have to have a 911. Okay. Some people need the back seats for their K. Okay. Me, I would not trade. I don't think that. Excuse me. I think that's a much better value even new for new. Good question. What exotic car owners are most likely to be to. Are most likely to evade taxes using. I mean almost 100% of. I have never once, I don't think seen a California registered Pagani or Koenigsegg.
B
Yeah, I was gonna say hypercar owners.
A
Yeah.
B
You know, anything. Anything over that price.
A
Yeah.
B
Especially in that. Extroverted for some reason. Yeah. But they are usually.
A
Yeah.
B
Hiding some money somewhere or optimizing the tax.
A
10% sales. They don't want to pay a half a million dollars in sales tax.
B
Right.
A
And I understand that because who does? But like you've just bought a $3.5 million car grilled tail of the Dragon. Assuming Nissan had the budget to pull it off, what would your dream R36 GTR look like? Spec wise, I think it would be a manual gearbox with a twin turbo inline six driving the rear wheels and a very mild hybrid system driving the front wheels.
B
I would go with a PDK like gearbox because I think the GTR has always been about maximum speed and technology. So I would go dual clutch, a fast one, but with torque fill, kind of like the E Ray. So it just makes it as quick as possible. But I would want engine driven wheels. Four engine driven wheels.
A
Lou Skunt.
B
That's fucking very funny.
A
Cadillac is joining F1 in 2026. Should we expect an F1 powered Cadillac hypercar in the future or a vastly more sporting lineup? Alternatively, why is Caddy joining F1?
B
Well, they're joining F1 partly. GM is joining F1. That's what's happening. Cadillac just is the racing name.
A
Yeah.
B
For like LMP1 and all that kind of stuff. So that's what it is. And I think GMs coming into F1 as an engine supplier.
A
It's not going to have much to do with the road cars. Like, dude, both of the black wings are best in class dynamically.
B
Yeah, true.
A
So like they already have a very sporting lineup. Now would I like to see a sports car from Cadillac like always? I would, but I'd love to see a Corvette based Cadillac. I mean, I actually thought they were really, really onto something with the xlr. I thought it should have had a Corvette motor and not a fucking North Star.
B
Well, now you have the mid engine configuration so you could really supercar it up.
A
Yeah, there's a lot you could do with a Corvette based Cadillac and it's a bummer they didn't keep the XLR thing going because I thought it was rad. Actually. I don't know what that is. Koji. Koji wants to know about what's it called?
B
The Adro front. New front end for M2s for the new M2. Does it fit fix? What is wrong with it? I think that looks way better.
A
I think it looks better. It makes it look like the M8 kind of.
B
Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.
A
I think it does look better. Yeah. I would want to make sure that the car cools properly because I mean, I don't necessarily take them 100% of their word, but BMW people said were Saying, like, it all has to look like that for the cooling. So I wouldn't want to trade style for functionality.
B
Yeah.
A
But I do think that looks better. Yeah. I've never heard of this company. Do they make quality product?
B
I have no idea. Never heard of them either.
A
It makes the car look more like the older car, I would say.
B
Well done, design wise.
A
I really do think that is an improvement. Yeah. Jared says you call the reviews with two of you. Two takes is an obvious reference to the OG One take. Was double take ever a name?
B
We talked about it once, but I. But my point was that one take one and two and three.
A
Yeah, yeah.
B
Double take is like single take. Double take. So it's just.
A
Yeah. Automatically.
B
Yeah, yeah. And a double take is usually done by a single person. You do a double take.
A
Sure.
B
So we were doing two takes.
A
Sure. Stolberg, Zach wants to know what will your family buy an ev and do you do?
B
Not until we get a house that has charging. And an R2 looks cool. So does the R3. Of course. I don't know what we would buy, though.
A
Is there any power in your garage?
B
Yeah. No. There are people that have EV spots. There are, but you have to just sign up for them. I don't know if they're full. Someone has a couple people. There's one, there's an R1T, a couple other stuff. Someone has a lyric. Surprisingly, they seem to love it.
A
Hey, if they've put enough on the hood. Max Field says it seems like the car community skews more conservative than liberal, at least here in Miami. And from what I see online, no shit. Do you think this is because car enthusiasm focuses more on individualism, competition and freedom versus social welfare? Or could it be that car culture is more prevalent outside of densely populated cities? Well, okay.
B
I mean, I think the argument that conservatism focuses more on individualism and expression, I think is a faulty one. I mean, I think that's just like, you're gonna probably support, like, it's clear where this person comes from, I think, and what side you're on. But I think both sides have been. Have shown constraint on the individual. So I think that's kind of a flawed art argument.
A
I think part of it is more regional. You're going to have more car culture in a place where you've got more driving. And I think it's more reflective of the region than the fact that it's car enthusiasts. I think if it was chess enthusiasts in one region versus another, you may find a very similar divide Right. I do think that it's not directly related to the question, but I do think that we need to, as car enthusiasts, draw a real distinction between car enthusiasm and car dependency, that we fucked that up. It's not related directly to the question, but there's people that sort of misunderstand people who are into urbanists, that mistakenly group car enthusiasts into this sort of group of people that are like, you'll never take my car away when no one's trying to take their car away. And I do think conservatism embraces more of the like, fuck environmentalism. Fuck, you got mine. I want a big fucking truck. Cause freedom. I'm gonna roll coal. Cause freedom. I'm gonna do these donuts and these burnouts. Cause freedom. I think that lines up pretty well. Whereas a leftist is not gonna roll coal. A leftist might hit the canyons, go to a track day, do something else that is a little more aware of what your impact might be on things around you. But a lot of like, specifically on like YouTube and shit, a lot of like the. That kind of stuff does lean a little, you know.
B
I completely agree with that. Sure. I mean, if people are. I don't want to put you into like single issue voters. But yes, like anyone who was against EPA regulations on the aftermarket and were loud about it, most of them were probably leaning or voting conservative versus just going, well, I'm leftist. But this actually is very misguided, which we have said sometimes, like the rules on old cars seems misguided and unnecessary. Even though I'd say we're both environmentally minded.
A
Sure. Yeah. I think. Yeah. You can be both pragmatic and pro clean air.
B
Yeah. And like, regarding social welfare, I would say that just because people need social support may not tell you that they are not car enthusiasts. They just don't have the money to have a car. But you know, there's plenty of people that have never driven a car.
A
Yeah.
B
Five year olds are a good example and they love them and they like seeing them. They like being around them even if they can't afford them.
A
Again, here for Matt's cats, my local coffee and bagel place has been a huge hit. I suggested they host the cars and coffee. Said I'd love to tell me how to set it up. Any advice? Get someone whose job it is is to put on car events to do it. Don't have the bagel place do it. Just make the bagel place be available to provide the bagels and the coffee and maybe prepare for a busier day than Normal. And then have somebody else, a third party, set up a car club of any kind, set up that event.
B
Yeah, it's a good idea.
A
Be happy. The bagel place will have you. Don't give him more work to do. Just have them make bagels. Angle of the dangle. What car from Sorted would you want to own the most and what would you change about it? That was a really long time ago. What car do I remember from that show? There was a really cool RSTI Subaru that I love driving, but it got overheated and took a crap on the racetrack track. And I mean, that Viper was just like batshit. Oh yeah, the Calvo Viper.
B
Yeah.
A
That's one of the fastest things I've ever driven in my life. It was just crazy. That was a good time. Those are the only two cars I really remember.
B
Yeah, I don't remember at all. I actually was mixing up sorted with the show we did in Palm Springs that I can't remember the name of with the like with the BBI car and the Maximum Motorsports Mustang tuned. Was it tuned?
A
We did a shootout tuned to tuner car shoot out, which was fun. JCAT says there's a gated shifter conversion for NA Miatas by a company minotech. Either way, what cars deserve this type of treatment? I mean, any car. Dude, gated shifters are fun. I'm pro gated shifters. I've seen them in. I've seen a conversion, I think for a Corvette at one point. This guy's Miata conversion looks very nice. I mean, if you. Dude, that doesn't look all that different from like a Mercedes.
B
Of course not. It's all just milled aluminum. That's all it is.
A
It looks like a. Basically like a Lambo console.
B
And it adds the click click, which is magical. Nothing against this.
A
No, I'm pro all of it. And any car that is a stick shift where really fast gear changes aren't required.
B
I was gonna say just be ready to shift a little bit slower.
A
Yeah.
B
So if your car is like, oh, I mean, like, look, this picture here, this guy's got Momo seats, you know, kind of aggressive track setup type of thing. And then all of a sudden your shifts slow down a little bit. But engagement and joy goes up.
A
It's a good time. Shout out to this guy. And I mean, I would say pretty much any car, you know, I've found in actual Ferraris though, in like 430s and stuff, is those cars have a really light flywheel and so you actually with the gated shifter have to feather the throttle a little bit in between your gear changes. It's okay. Like it's just a different kind of driving.
B
But it's not optimal. Optimal for the engine.
A
The engine isn't designed. The engine was designed for the F1 gearbox.
B
Yeah.
A
Yeah. Ivan Capote is debating whether or not to do a manual conversion on a Mercedes C63.
B
Yes.
A
I wonder, is it always the manual version of a car that gets more valuable when time passes? I can't think of an example that's not the case. Is that because of the enthusiast tax? Yes and yes. And also like old automatics were shipping shitty. Like it wasn't. Like you're talking about a six speed manual versus a seven speed PDK with like perfectly rev match downshifts. You're talking about a manual 4 speed manual Hurst shifter versus like a 3 speed auto slush box.
B
Yeah. Or the auto in that C63 is not that good.
A
Yeah. I think a manual conversion on that sounds very hard, but like you have our super fun.
B
Yes.
A
Zach's high standard sti. Okay, we're in New York about to leave for a Cannonball. You have to drive a Gremlin or a Yugo. I don't even want to drive a Cannonball in a perfect car. I don't want to drive a Cannonball in a Bentley GT Speed with massage seats. I don't want to drive a Cannonball, period. There's nothing about being in a car for 30 hours without really getting any out that is appealing to me at all.
B
I would, I think Gremlin. I'll go Gremlin. Just because of Wayne's World.
A
Yeah. I mean I think a Gremlin could go fast. A Gremlin had like a six cylinder engine like and could actually probably go like highway speeds, whereas a Yugo is like a one liter.
B
Right box? Yeah. Terrible car.
A
I mean, I guess Gremlin, but okay. Stew Dog says, circling back to the spring spacer conversion, someone I knew who worked at the local Ford store. The normal PDI for the Focus did not mention spring spacers because they usually weren't included. Only the RS models that shipped from Europe had them. So yeah, if a Toyota dealer is typically getting cars from whatever the Chattanooga plant and this one comes from Japan from the special factory. So that could be why. But like that's a pretty silly excuse.
B
Or whoever's doing prep doesn't know that this is a special Corolla. Not a regular Corolla and it's Spacers. But on a press car that's bad. No, no, that's bad.
A
That's like people are like oh, they just juice their cars for the press. Fucking all the press cars are hot rotted. Like not all of them hamstrings. Not all of them my friends.
B
But also from the company that literally rewrote the book on how to manufacture things. Like people like every company basically uses the Toyota method. They need a QC for special edition cars coming in and taking out the spring spacers.
A
Oh Chris N. Coming in hot with the question. Every couple of shows someone asked me a would you rather Question when I pretty much already own one of the cars and the would you rather question is a 718 GT4 or a 991.1 GT3? Dude, I have a Spider. I have a 718 Spider. That's the I I already had that option on the table. It was there could have done it, didn't do it. So the would you rather was pre solved. Not trying to be a dick but like I did that I would go.
B
GT3 for the investment 9.
A
There's no investment in a 2014 GT3.
B
Really?
A
That is the only. That's like a non buy really. PDK only. All the engines replaced. That's a fucking. That's the one you buy for a beater track rack car. That is not an investment grade GT3 and it's possibly the only non investment grade GT3. Seriously?
B
Leave it to me to choose.
A
There's a reason dude that GT3 is cheaper than 996 GT3s. There's a reason for that.
B
This is like selling Nvidia at $8. It's all done.
A
You're still. I mean look, it's not a bad call, but not investment grade. Nope. Jrg says I run a driving club and typically do lead follow rather than publishing a route since complicated routes are a pain in the ass to map out in Google Maps. Any advice on how to easily publish a route? Well, you can do up to a 10 stop route in Google Maps. You can also make a route in Rallista. We just figured this out. We've been using Realista for road and track for the last three years and we've actually been like paying Ralista for their full suite of services where they give you these very nice graphics and they brand the whole thing as yours. But it's Ralista we just sort of learned and it's a good bit of software but we just learned that you could pay $15 for like Ralista Pro and you can do all of that yourself without having the branding or anything. But it's still like $15 versus thousands of dollars. I would say you could get Ralista Pro, whatever. It's pro or up plus or whatever it's called the paid version of the Rallista app. And you can make custom routes for that. It is not difficult. Jd, what is your take on Peter Rawlinson stepping down from CEO of Lucid? I don't have a real take on it. I don't study the corporate side of the industry all that much. I don't know what the stock looks like right now.
B
They had a fourth quarter loss of $400 million and that contributed to the annual shortfall of 2.7 billion billion.
A
I would say if you lost $2.7 billion, being out of a job shouldn't surprise you. I met Peter once. He was very nice to me.
B
But like, ah, it's a bummer because the cars are good, but they have really struggled to capture market. You know, for some reasons that make sense to me, some that I'm sure are something maybe a new CEO can take on. It's a complicated business for sure. It's hard to break into.
A
But in terms of like making a car that is, you know, pretty, pretty nice for, for a company's first effort, I think they did a nice job.
B
They did, yeah. But it's, it's a bold. They're trying to step into luxury.
A
Yeah.
B
With no name.
A
Yeah.
B
And new technology, which is going to scare some people, of course. And talk about, like, if adoption rates of EVs are slow in general, even for ones that cost 40 to 50 grand, which is, quote, the cheap ones.
A
Yeah.
B
$180,000.
A
Yeah. 981 RS wants to hear about my routine for drinking coffee in the car. Specifically the spider.
B
Use the mouth. Right.
A
I put it to my lips.
B
Right.
A
Lift, tilt, tilt back gently.
B
Oh, you tilt back. That's what I was getting wrong.
A
I have the Porsche cup holder. The Porsche cup holder works nicely with my Porsche. Excuse me, the Porsche coffee cup holding, which you buy at the Porsche design store, which is in your dealer. I think you probably get them on their website. It has the locking flip top lid. I've actually like locked it and I've dropped it and it's like da ding ding, ding, ding ding. And like not a drop. So I'm not worried about my interior.
B
The Porsche cup holder is seriously impressive because it holds things tightly. So even though your cup cup is four times taller than the depth of that cup holder, it locks it in in the canyons it does it pretty good. My BMW one is like the fixed circle size but the things jiggle around.
A
Yeah, the.
B
It's all about fitment.
A
Basically the Corvette one was like flat like this. It was just. You just put your cup there and if you had a 2G corner it would just slide into your lap. Chris, thoughts on the Nissan Stagia AUTEC edition? That is a Skyline Wax. Yeah, I'm pro Skyline wagon. I'm pro R34 nose swap on the Skyline Wagon. Yeah, stagias are awesome. Stagia260rs AUTEC is a literal Skyline wagon and I recommend them. The nose swap is a big upgrade. Yeah, the stagia nose stinks. Okay, wait. Okay. I don't. Let's see. Sorry, I'm reading a bunch of questions and trying to find the best one queen shit of Liesville. There was only one all wheel drive mid engine supercharged vehicle ever made. Do you know what it is?
B
Not often, no.
A
It's a Toyota Previa.
B
Is it really?
A
Yeah, yeah. What are some other notable lone wolf platforms that fit the only made one of one mentality? Well, you've got your Cheseda Moroder V16, right. That's two V8s transverse side by side. You've got all number of twin charged engines. Twin charged engines are crazy.
B
Very rare. Yeah, Volvo had that. Volvo's doing it.
A
My dad's boat had twin charged Volvo diesels.
B
Remember the early Volvo one that we drove? I remember the press car vividly. The tuning was weird.
A
Yeah.
B
It was like driving the handbars with one foot.
A
Yeah.
B
The handoff.
A
Let's see you the vector. Well yeah, the Vector W8 was just all kinds of weird. That was an Oldsmobile Toronado front wheel drive powertrain in the back.
B
There's been. Oh no. There's been multiple W12. Right. But there's only been one W16 which is the Valley Veyron.
A
Yeah. And one and one W8 for the Volkswagen. The Passat W8 which is a really weird engine.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
You don't want.
B
No, you don't.
A
No, I think. I think Audi's. Well, I think that's a good number. Yeah. Let's see what is nice. Do we have the second half of nice cams as question. Oh, there it was. Okay. Nice cam says for 400G's 750s knowing it'll lose 100k in a few years or an F8 Spider if you knew it would hold its value. I realize the 750s is the better car. But is it worth losing your shirt on? Listen, the truly rich do not consider depreciation.
B
I was going to say it really depends on how much money you have and if you really have enough. If they equal money, it doesn't matter. I would rather go 750, because the driving is just. It's that much better.
A
I'm not trying to be an elitist dick bag about this. I wouldn't buy either of those cars unless I had enough money that the difference between them didn't matter.
B
Yeah.
A
You know, like 100k is like. That's so much money. It's a huge amount of money. More than most people make in a year by some market margin. But if you're talking about buying that level of cars, that needs to be not so much money.
B
Right.
A
Which is like a crazy thing to think about. It's a very small number of people and, like, it's that your scale is already kind of fucked up if that's where you are. But, like, that's where you have to be.
B
That's. That's where we think you should be. Some people do stretch and they finance a used Ferrari at 8% or whatever. They do it, man. People do it and then they can't drive it, you know, or they buy a Ford GT and they never drive it because they're afraid to, because they're worried about depreciating or something like that. But you shouldn't do that. You'll have more fun and be less stressed if you buy something that costs less and you can drive the shit out of it.
A
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Is Mercedes threatening to get better? Yeah. There was a big story that Mercedes finally admitted that big screens are not luxurious. Something we've kind of been saying for a little bit. Yeah, good, good. Hopefully they change their tune there. Let's see. Trey Rutledge. Something I know about. My dad purchased an 03 Vanquish and I think I've convinced him to send it to Aston to be manual swapped. Trey then says, a couple questions. Will most of the money you spend be seen on the other end when it is sold? And did it take a year due to long shipping times, it being early and Aston offering the service, or is that just how long it should take? So I don't know what it's like now because once we did it, I never called them again. So I do think that most of the money spent will be seen on the other end eventually, particularly if Aston does it themselves and they have paperwork that's a real reason to do. Took A year for all the reasons you mentioned. It took a year because I sent it by boat and not by airplane because it was a quarter of the price. It took a year because I think mine was like the fourth or fifth car they've ever done. They've done a lot more since then, so I'm sure they've streamlined some bits of it. But honestly, I don't know. I might call Matt Ivanhoe at the cultivated Collector in the Northeast. He's run a lot of those through his dealership. He might know more about it. Or I might just. Honestly, I might just call Aston Martin Works and just ask them. I mean, I'm sure they'll tell you all of those things you can look at. Bring a trailer and cars and bids results for manual swabbed vanquishes. They're there and I don't know what they're charging these days, but I do think you get a substantial portion of that money back. Makes the car way better. Most importantly. Okay, wait, that one from Subaru in the left lane is just like too many words. Wait, favorite model? Oh, modded west side collector Cat storage. Favorite modded 86 that you've driven. I drove one with a Rotrex that I really liked.
B
I drove linear power that was insane. But it needed a fuel smoke management situation. The whole car was filling with gas fumes. But other than that, that was exciting.
A
Let's see. Last one. Chunehound. What is the dumbest auto journalist hot take that. You see, endlessly repeated mine is that the new Mini still isn't six feet long. Actually, I disagree with you. I think the new Minis are all too fucking big. I think the R53 Mini, the one from 02 to 06, when that came out, that was such a great size car and I don't know why they kept making it bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
B
It looks weird to do that.
A
And now all Minis look weird as fuck. And I actually think that was a mistake. I don't think they should have been six feet long, but they should not have gotten as big as they've gotten. The brand is worse off for it. 90% of fucking time you hear a journalist say that a car understeers at the limit, they're driving wrong.
B
Very true.
A
I mean, almost all the time. So many times people talk about turning off traction control and doing things that they're not actually doing. And I've seen, I've just. I don't know about hot takes, but like I have definitely Been in places where I've heard people say things and then me and Jethro make eye contact.
B
And we're like, okay, yeah, sometimes like a car. Most cars are engineered to be to go understeer before oversteer for safety. But when it's reported, a lot of times it's not necessary. Like, you can drive around that very, very easily. Like that really means if you just go way too hot because you don't know what you're doing and you're going downhill and the brakes go out, like it's not gonna swap around on you. But yeah, it shouldn't make itself known very quickly.
A
Yeah. Thank you, patrons. Thank you, listeners. That is our program. Don't forget to check out our new merch@thesmogentireshop.com we got a couple new designs in a bunch of different colors and a bunch of different functions, meaning like T shirt and hoodie and whatnot. And the green notice canyon is coming in the month of April. That will be very exciting. We're going to have a hundred units individually numbered. We can't call it the one green that everybody knows, so it's called deep forest green. It looks really good, but it's very sick. Gold hands, gold hour indicators. It's rad. And like I said, individually numbered hundred units only. We have decided based on the availability of movements and our desire to make other watches, there will only be two more versions of the canyon. There's going to be this green one which if you actually scroll down on Instagram, maybe a couple of weeks. Keep going where me and Teddy Baldessar. There he is. Me and Teddy in the middle. If you scroll to the right in that post, there's me in the green canyon. So we got this one and then we're going to have one more after this one. That is going to be the super special. 50 units only. It's gonna be a bump up. People have been requesting a special or special one. So we're gonna do that. So that'll be fun. And of course, episode 1000 is coming up. It's gonna be a podcasting extravaganza on Sunday, March 30th. It's gonna be a live event. Eight hours of podcasting, lots of guests. It's gonna be fun.
B
Live being live on YouTube. Not. We're not having an audience live.
A
No, live on YouTube.
B
Just want to clarify.
A
Yes, it will be live on YouTube. And do we have anything else?
B
We're not doing the thing in Texas, right?
A
Not right now.
B
Okay.
A
No, but the Taycan video. I mean, I guess Gangbuster, it turns out. Vying. Yeah, it turns out it only cost me $70,000 to make the video.
B
Right.
A
But it's the Taycan video is doing really well. People have said some really nice, nice things about it. So I'm happy that people are enjoying it. Better that than nobody cared. I mean, look, this is a project that I'm supposed to be committed to for three years. I'm glad people at least like the beginning.
B
Yeah, it's good, man.
A
Yeah, it did good numbers. And actually the watch time was really long. We had like an 11 minute average watch time, which is long. So that's pretty cool. Thanks everybody. We will see you next time. Bye.
The Smoking Tire Podcast – Episode Summary: "Forever M3 Wrenching; Lambo Engine Update; a Good CA Car Law?; Q&A"
Release Date: March 4, 2025
In this episode of The Smoking Tire, hosts Zack Klapman and Matt Farah dive deep into a variety of automotive topics, ranging from personal car projects to industry news and listener Q&A. This comprehensive summary captures the essence of their discussions, highlighting key points, insights, and memorable moments from the conversation.
Zack Klapman kicks off the episode by sharing his hands-on experience working on his beloved E46 BMW M3. The weekend was filled with intense wrenching sessions, addressing several mechanical issues that surfaced during his maintenance routine.
Key Discussions:
Power Steering Lines and Pulleys Issues: Zack reveals that during a visit to Office Autosport, he was informed about leaking power steering lines and malfunctioning pulleys in his BMW M3. He decided to take on the repairs himself to save approximately $2,000.
"[06:31] Zack: ...they said, we need to talk about your power steering lines. And I said, I'll do that."
Underdrive Pulleys Concerns: They discuss the implications of using aftermarket underdrive pulleys, highlighting potential idle issues and the impact on alternator performance.
"[08:25] Zack: ...driving your alternator to defend Turner. When I looked up idle issues with BMWs, I found posts from '06 where brand new owners were like, does anyone else's car idle weird above 500?"
DIY Repairs: Matt commends Zack's dedication to DIY repairs, emphasizing the satisfaction and knowledge gained from hands-on work.
"[12:07] Matt: It's about the reward."
Insights:
Matt provides an exciting update on his Lamborghini Countach engine rebuild. Through a series of photos shared by Guido at Top Motors, Matt walks Zack and the listeners through the progress made.
Key Discussions:
Engine Rebuild Progress: At the halfway mark, the new bearings, camshaft covers, and other critical components are installed. They showcase the meticulous work involved in restoring such a high-performance engine.
"[26:18] Matt: Granted, there's a lot of shit I don't know... We've got bearings, right? Those are definitely new bearings."
Unique Features and Customizations: Matt highlights the customizations, including the installation of a crankshaft and the careful alignment of head studs, ensuring the engine's integrity and performance.
"[33:36] Matt: So along with these photos, these are beautiful photos. Came a bill."
Insights:
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing California's proposed Senate Bill 712, which aims to abolish the hard cutoff year for smog exemptions. Instead, it introduces a rolling 35-year exemption once a car reaches that age.
Key Discussions:
Legislation Overview: The hosts express strong support for the bill, emphasizing its common-sense approach to emissions regulations for older, valuable cars.
"[20:16] Matt: I'm surprised they did it."
"[20:19] Zack: I'm 100% for sure."
Impact on Car Enthusiasts: They analyze how the bill could attract high-net-worth individuals to register their classic cars in California, potentially boosting revenue through taxes while allowing enthusiasts to maintain their prized vehicles legally.
"[21:12] Zack: And so if you could provide a path to drive those cars legally in California, you could collect an enormous amount of revenue from high net worth individuals who are willing to pay the tax to drive on California."
Regional Influence on Car Culture: The duo explores how regional policies influence car culture, suggesting that more driving-centric areas naturally foster a more car-enthusiast population.
"[58:15] Matt: I think part of it is more regional. You're going to have more car culture in a place where you've got more driving."
Insights:
The episode transitions into a lively Q&A session, where Matt and Zack address various listener questions ranging from vehicle modifications to automotive industry trends.
Notable Questions and Discussions:
Manual vs. Automatic Transmissions:
"Name a vehicle that was available as a stick and an automatic that you'd rather have the automatic."
Matt and Zack agree that for pickups and SUVs, automatics are preferable due to practicality and ease of use.
Gated Shifter Conversions:
"Justin Gerard asks: There's a gated shifter conversion for NA Miatas by a company Minotech. What cars deserve this type of treatment?"
They discuss the joy and practicality of gated shifters, advocating for such conversions in cars where manual shifting enhances the driving experience without compromising performance.
"[63:54] Zack: Any car that is a stick shift where really fast gear changes aren't required."
Mercedes and Luxury Automation:
"Jrag asks: Why is Cadillac joining F1?"
The hosts explore Cadillac's entry into Formula 1, speculating on its implications for the brand's sporting lineup and connection to road cars.
Memorable Quotes:
Insights:
Matt and Zack address a particularly unusual listener email from David, who expresses strong anti-EV sentiments intertwined with conspiracy theories.
Key Discussions:
Addressing Anti-EV Rants:
"[44:37] Matt: I sent this to you because... you monkeys masked up. And I definitely wanted to cry when you monkeys got quote, vaccinated."
Navigating Polarizing Opinions:
The hosts navigate the challenge of responding to extreme viewpoints, balancing humor and understanding while maintaining their stance on automotive enthusiasm.
"[47:02] Zack: A lot of people are pushing against it... but once they go into Bill Gates is putting nanotechnology inside you, it's gonna be a one-way discussion."
Insights:
Towards the end of the episode, the hosts share exciting news about new merchandise, upcoming special editions, and milestone celebrations.
Key Announcements:
New Merchandise Launch:
"[82:52] Zack: Don't forget to check out our new merch@thesmogentireshop.com."
Limited Edition Watches:
They unveil the upcoming Deep Forest Green Canyon watch, limited to 100 individually numbered units, followed by an exclusive version of 50 units based on listener demand.
"[82:58] Matt: The green canyon is coming in the month of April... We'll have this one and then one more after this one."
Milestone Celebration – Episode 1000:
The hosts announce a grand celebration for their 1000th episode, scheduled as an eight-hour live event on March 30th, featuring numerous guests and interactive segments.
"[82:56] Matt: Episode 1000 is coming up... It’s gonna be a podcasting extravaganza on Sunday, March 30th."
Insights:
This episode of The Smoking Tire masterfully balances personal anecdotes, technical discussions, and listener interactions, providing a rich and engaging experience for both long-time fans and newcomers. Zack Klapman and Matt Farah continue to solidify their reputation as knowledgeable and relatable automotive enthusiasts, making this episode a must-listen for anyone passionate about cars and the culture surrounding them.
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