Koenigsegg Record; RTR Spec 3 Review

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast

Episode: Koenigsegg Record; RTR Spec 3 Review

Date: November 13, 2025
Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman

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Overview

In this episode, recorded on the road from Barstow to Las Vegas, Matt and Zack dive deep into the review of the RTR Spec 3 Mustang, discuss Koenigsegg's reclaiming of the Laguna Seca lap record, field listener questions, and riff on car culture, press trips, and more. The tone is conversational, insightful, and peppered with their signature wit.

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Key Discussion Points

1. RTR Spec 3 Mustang In-Depth Review

[02:45 – 28:26]

• Background:

  • RTR is Vaughn Gitten Jr.'s Mustang tuning brand ("ready to rock"). Matt calls him “basically the Carol Shelby or Jack Roush of our generation.”
  • Spec levels: Spec 1 (appearance/suspension); Spec 2 (more suspension, still no power); Spec 3 (full package, including significant horsepower bump).

• Powertrain & Specs:

  • RTR Spec 3 uses a 3.0L Whipple supercharger (bigger than the GT500’s), making 810hp.
  • Manual gearbox (Getrag, not Tremec). Improved feel vs. older GTs, likely due to general Ford updates, not RTR-specific.
  • Unique shift knob—heavy, asymmetrical, and “looks like a hot air balloon.” Functionality and feel discussed in detail.

• Driving Experience:

  • Zack: “I thought the shock tuning...was good, damping was good, response was nice. But on the highway...it actually still rode pretty well. I thought they found the balance perfectly...” [07:44]
  • Matt: “It was a pretty good balance between ride and handling and body control...if the Dark Horse is the M5, then this is like the Alpina.” [08:25]

• Ergonomics & Comfort:

  • Huge rear tire sidewalls; improved everyday ride.
  • Subtle exterior styling—“if it didn’t say RTR across the windshield, I don’t think you’d know it wasn’t just a regular GT.” [09:35]

• Pricing & Value:

  • Their test car: $107,000 (“which is crazy”).
  • Critique: At this price, the car still had “bad” base seats, lacked significant visual distinction from the GT500, and was not as collectible.
  • “To see a six figure price tag in a performance car with those seats is like brutally bad.” – Matt [10:55]
  • Inflation and decreased dollar value partly responsible for the high price.

• Comparisons:

  • GT500 vs. RTR—GT500 offered unique engine components, better seats, DCT, carbon wheels; RTR is more subtle and manual-only.
  • Not as “track-y” as a Dark Horse, but “if I had to choose...I’d get an RTR over a Dark Horse.” [16:04]

• Performance & Character:

  • “Front engine, rear drive, huge power, manual gearbox – you just can’t get that anymore.” – Matt [15:17]
  • Cold start described as “seriously in the top few I’ve heard...right like snap and bark.” [15:18]
  • RTR Spec 3 feels “wild” and drivable, more “characterful” than some exotics with similar horsepower.

• Criticisms:

  • Expensive relative to perceived upgrades and competitors (e.g., Z06).
  • Seats (“base” GT seats) are a glaring flaw.
  • Too subtle; “If you know, you know” only.

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2. Koenigsegg Laguna Seca Lap Record

[37:19 – 39:34]

• Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut (Jesko Attack SÖDERSPEED) ran a 1:24.16 at Laguna Seca—beating Czinger 21C’s record.
• The Jesko boasts ~1600hp, 9-speed gearbox, all to the rear wheels. Major downforce.
• Comparison with past lap times: hosts marvel at being 10 seconds slower (in fast road cars) at “their quickest.”
• Quote: “That’s so nuts. That’s so fast. My fastest...is like a 1:34.5...10 seconds off.” – Matt [39:02]

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3. Manual Gearbox News: C8 Corvette Possibilities

[39:34 – 41:00]

• Tremec has built a manual gearbox with the same mounting points/dimensions as DCT unit in C8 Corvette.
• Raises prospects for manual C8 swaps; challenges include programming, interior changes.
• Other potential applications (kit cars, Gallardo, Ferrari, etc.). “Someone will do it for sure.” – Zack [40:44]

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4. Listener Questions (Highlights & Memorable Moments)

Car Culture Behavior [89:21 – 91:51]

• Mount Rushmore of corny car culture:
  • Instagram handle stickers.
  • Fake upbadging and “cosplaying” special editions without tracking.
  • Intentionally tuning “gunshot” pops and bangs.
  • Montana registration for CA-legal cars (“just open tax evasion”).
  • Porsche color obsessiveness: “does not bother me the way it bothers other people...I’m not gonna throw stones in a glass house.” – Matt [91:10]
  • G-Wagen as “commercial vehicle” as a dodge.

Press Trips: Best & Worst [95:57 – 104:22]

• Best event, worst car & vice versa.
  • Worst event with great car: “15 hours flying to Spain for six laps around a wet track, R8 GT, embargo on Thanksgiving – just punch in the face after punch in the face.” – Matt [96:43]
  • Best event for a not-special car: Vegas, Mandarin Oriental, Spring Mountain, for the Genesis Coupe, Elantra, Sonata.
• The real value in press trips: “Seat time is the real luxury. Food, hotels – whatever. Give me the track time.” – Zack [97:43]
• Events with excellent hotels + little driving = worst for real journalists.
• Industry as a whole: Executives pick press trip venues for their own enjoyment; journalists just want seat time.

Advice & Miscellaneous

• Choosing between new 911 Carrera S and Carrera T manual:

  • “I’d rather have a manual T than an automatic S; you can make the horsepower back easily.” – Matt [61:40]

• Selling a beloved car:

  • “If I don’t want to drive it for months, I’m over it. Sell, take a photo, move on.” – Matt [86:07]
  • Zack: “If you’ve done all the adventures, take a good poster photo and sell it – make new stories.” [87:07]

• Best Car Gifts by Budget ([58:03 – 60:20]):

  • $10: Hot Wheels or model of their car, vintage poster, 10mm socket.
  • $100: Quality tool, Fantic gadgets, AAA membership, emergency kit.
  • $1,000: Driving school, track experience, ceramic tint, detailing, new tires.
  • $10,000: Racing school, wheels, supercharger, Nurburgring trip, fun car.

• Shifters – Best & Worst ([77:26 – 79:59]):

  • Loves: Ferrari gated shifters, S2000/Civic Type R, Ford GT, GT3 6-speed, classic Hurst shifters.
  • Hates: Ford “hockey puck” rotary selector, PRNDL dash buttons, Subaru WRX’s new shifter.

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5. Random Fun Quotes & Segments

• On the cold start of the RTR Mustang:

  “It’s the right tone, right volume, right anger. Snap and bark. It’s really, really nice.” – Matt [15:18]

• On modern turbo cars losing “the surge”:

  "I do love older turbo cars for that reason – waiting for the occasion..." – Zack [53:03]

• On price inflation:

  “Our dollar has devalued, I think, 40% in like three years...” – Zack [11:49]

• On relationships with automakers:

  “If I have a better relationship with the people getting us the cars, I’m more likely to bring something up...We want the cars to be better.” – Matt [33:47]

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6. Other Notable Topics

• Upcoming cars/events: RTR Spec 5 coming—a more aggressive Mustang.
• Driving route: Recording while on a trip to Utah in a nicely spec’d 911.
• New gear: Discussion of camera equipment overheating, on-the-fly battery swaps—a reminder of car journalism’s logistical challenges.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamp Start | |-------------------------------------- |--------------------| | RTR Spec 3 Review Start | 02:45 | | Comparison to GT500/Dark Horse | 10:15 | | RTR Pricing & Value Discussion | 13:14 | | Koenigsegg Laguna Seca Record | 37:19 | | Tremec Manual for C8 Corvette | 39:34 | | Best Car-Related Gifts | 58:03 | | Best & Worst Press Launches | 95:57 | | Listener Q&A, Car Culture, Advice, etc| Throughout (44:50+)|

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

"Vaughn Gittin Jr's basically the Carol Shelby or Jack Roush of our generation." – Matt [02:52]

"To see a six-figure price tag in a performance car with those seats is brutally bad." – Matt [10:55]

"If the Dark Horse is the M5, then this is the Alpina." – Matt [08:25]

"You want a stick shift Mustang to drive daily for the next couple years, I'd get an RTR over a Dark Horse." – Matt [16:04]

"That [Laguna Seca] lap time is so nuts. My fastest ever is like a 1:34.5...10 seconds off." – Matt [39:02]

"If I have a better relationship with the people getting us the cars, I'm more likely to bring something up...We want the cars to be better." – Matt [33:47]

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Conclusion

This episode blends an in-depth, enthusiast-focused review of the RTR Mustang with broader industry conversation—on cars, culture, prices, the realities of automotive journalism, and what matters most as a car enthusiast today. For listeners, it's a comprehensive, honest, and highly entertaining look at where performance cars (and their creators) sit in the landscape of 2025.

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

What's up, everybody?

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Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. And man, are they coming in handy for our people. This week alone, I got two emails from listeners that used off the Record to get points. Completely dismissed after being pulled over and issued big old tickets.

[Matt Farah]

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Get off the record. Go to offtherecord.com TST and off the Record will set you up with a qualified attorney in the jurisdiction where you got that ticket. You will not have to do anything else. Just send them a copy of the ticket, fill out some basic information, and they take over and do the rest. They have an amazing success rate and you can get 10% off all legal services booked through off the Record using our [e-mail] TST all right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, Zach and I are on a little road trip and using the time wisely to record this show in which we review the new RTR spec 3 Mustang. This thing is super cool. Can't wait to tell you all about it. Plus, Koenigsegg has retaken the Laguna Seca lap record and a whole lot more on the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go.

[Matt Farah]

Hi, podcast people. Matt here, Zach here. We are doing a road show today. We're out of the office and this is our auto reply. We are. We're driving a 911 out to Utah for a video thing that you guys are going to see real soon. Don't want to give too much away just yet, but if you are watching the video and you're like, hey, they're in a nicely specced 911, you'd be right. We are.

[Zach Klann]

We are.

[Matt Farah]

And if you hear. If you hear flat six engine in the background, well, that's. You're not. Your eyes are not. And ears are not lying to you folks. So we're. We're leaving, leaving Barstow right now, heading towards Las Vegas, which we're going to drive through and then to Utah. But first we're gonna go to this pizza place in Vegas that Thad, our friend Thaddeus keeps talking about called Double Zero Pies, I think it's called. So we're gonna. We're just gonna roll this on our way to. To Vegas. What do we got today? Well, Zach, mostly Zach, but some of I have. Has been driving the RTR Mustang.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, yeah?

[Matt Farah]

You want to talk about that? You want to start there?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, let's start there. So RTR von Gitton Jr. Right.

[Matt Farah]

Ready to, ready to rock.

[Zach Klann]

He's, he's basically becoming the Carol Shelby or Jack Roush of our generation. Like, you know, pretty much. I mean he's got like, he's, he's won some things. Not road racing, but he's won some things. He's, he's the, he's that for our generation. So put his name on it. But he also improves the cars. So we drove the spec 3. There's three levels. 1, 2, 3. First one is appearance, mostly little suspension, no power upgrades. Second one is like even more of both of those things. This has 810 horsepower.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. This one has a Whipple on it.

[Zach Klann]

It has a 3 liter Whipple which is bigger than the blower that came on the GT 500 in 2022.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

So it does make a little more power. It makes a little bit, a little bit more torque.

[Matt Farah]

But it's manual.

[Zach Klann]

But this one's manual.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

However, it's not the Tremec, I believe it's based, it's a. Because it's based on the Mustang gt. So it's just the normal Getrag. It does feel better than the GT Trans felt in years past. But I did not see anything in the spec sheet that said RTR changes anything with the shifting. So that might just be that Ford has refined that transmission after getting sued.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klann]

In a class action thing. So the shifter felt pretty good.

[Matt Farah]

When I went to drive the stock Mustang performance pack when it came out, you know, whatever it was two years ago, I, I did remark that the shifter was improved in that car from previous ones. So I don't know. They've definitely changed the knob. It has the metal knob.

[Zach Klann]

It does.

[Matt Farah]

And the metal knob is a different weight from the stock knob, which does. Moving, you're moving a weight around. So I don't know if anyone out there has ever changed their shifter to an aftermarket one. And you could, you can. I'm talking just about the knob, not the mechanism. If you make the knob lighter or heavier or if you make the length of the shifter rod shaft taller or shorter, you can really change the feel of the shifting action.

[Zach Klann]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

Without changing anything mechanical. Right. I remember back in the day, Rob Ferretti was unhappy with any of the offerings of short throw shifters for his C5 Corvette. He didn't like any of them. So he took a stock shifter and just cut it down 2 inches. And so he had this very tiny little, almost like a, like a BMW 1M little shifter.

[Zach Klann]

Right, right. A little.

[Matt Farah]

The little stubby shifter almost like that in his Corvette. And it really felt nice.

[Zach Klann]

Well, but it also probably increased the effort needed to move it because the lever has gotten shorter.

[Matt Farah]

Right. But not as much as if the real bolt action. I had one of those. I had a hearst or a billet Pro or one of those, you know, ones you buy from like jegs. And it was really. And Rob's was much more slick, like almost like a factory feel, but a little heavier and a physically shorter throw.

[Zach Klann]

Because I guess he didn't change the other mechanism. So it was factory, but it just required more effort because it had shorter throws.

[Matt Farah]

Right. And so if you, if your car came from the factory with like a heavier shift knob and you put a lighter shift knob on it, it might actually increase the feeling of resistance going through the gears because you don't have the weight of the knob. Once you get that weight moving, it helps you the rest of the way.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And conversely, if you put a heavy shift knob where there was not one before, it may actually make your shift action easier because the inertia of the knob will help you go through the thing. It's a funky thing.

[Zach Klann]

It is a weird thing because, you know, the heavier thing, an object at rest will remain at rest.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klann]

But once you start pressing on it, it can help it of get out of those locks.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klann]

What was funny about the RTR shifter is that it's kind of asymmetrical. You know, for people listening at. It looks like a hot air balloon. Yeah. But one side of it, the side that faces you is flat and has RTR etched in it, which looks cool. But I kept wanting that flat side to be on the far side for my fingers to like press on. The only time I recognized its benefit was pushing from like 2 to 3 or 4 to 3, like pushing forward. But I just kept. But you know, if it was on the other side, I couldn't see the rtr.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klann]

That was just a weird little thing. Pros, I thought the car, I took the car to the canyons, I filmed it. I thought the shock tuning, which they have their own RTR tactical performance coilover suspension. I mean, it's filled with tiny guns. Tiny guns inside the shocks.

[Matt Farah]

The recoil is incredible.

[Zach Klann]

Recoil is good. Recoil also a good video starring BJ Baldwin jumping trucks, flying through the air. I don't know why I'm doing that. The suspension was good, damping was good, response was nice. But on the highway, going, you know, driving all the bad highways on the 405. It actually still rode pretty well. I thought they found the balance perfectly and then. And it has new adjustable sway bars too, which were also set up well. So in the corners, they. It dove in pretty quick. It. It didn't lean that much. There was enough where I could tell that, you know, I could feel the G forces and see them in the hood. But it was a really good balance of stiff bars and like medium suspension.

[Matt Farah]

I didn't drive it in the canyons. I drove it around town. I drove it on the highway. I. I had been traveling, so I just didn't have the time to go up there. But I thought it was a pretty good balance between ride and handling and body control. Actually. It was nice. It was sort of like, to me, it was like, if the dark horse is the M5, then this is like the Alpena.

[Zach Klann]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Where it effectively achieves a similar thing, but it actually, it's a little more pleasant on the everyday.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. It also had, if you noticed, huge sidewall.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

The rear tires were so thick. Like, I kept reading the section number over and over and like. Is that right? Is that like. It looks like a 50. It looks like a drag tire in the back. It's so thick. It's not like a dumb 21 inch wheel with rubber bands on it. So that probably contributes to the comfort, I think.

[Matt Farah]

It's a 20, right?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, it's a 20 inch wheel.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

With just so much sidewall. I mean, the thing looked rad. It had little lip spoiler on it. It's got like a whole new front fascia. It's got all these vents and intakes that things. And there's underbody arrow.

[Matt Farah]

It does look good. But I think also kind of like an Alpena. It's pretty subtle.

[Zach Klann]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Like, you wouldn't necessarily. If it didn't say RTR like across the windshield. I don't think you necessarily would know how it was different from a regular. Like, my one thing about it is, it's, it's. I actually have very few notes for how it drives. I think that JR and his team have basically made a Mustang GT drive as good as you can make a Mustang GT drive. Yeah, pretty much.

[Zach Klann]

Pretty much. I mean, short of having Mag ride in like the Mach one.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klann]

Or something like that. And when we've driven the track pack two GTs, those tend to be stiffer.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

And too stiffer around town.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like, I want, I want this as a road car, not a track car, which I think is great. But it's really expensive.

[Zach Klann]

It's super expensive. And I need to do the math on this before my video goes up. But we. It's $107,000, which is crazy.

[Matt Farah]

This one, the one that we have.

[Zach Klann]

This one because the package is like 30 grand or something like that.

[Matt Farah]

And then.

[Zach Klann]

And this thing had heated cooled seats. It had like every single option.

[Matt Farah]

I would not get this package on any car that didn't have bucket seats, by the way.

[Zach Klann]

The seats are, the seats are so bad.

[Matt Farah]

To see a six figure price tag in a performance car with those seats is like brutally bad.

[Zach Klann]

We were just. I mean I'm moving around like I had to brace myself with my legs. And this is a problem with so many Fords I've driven with anything that doesn't have Recaros.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

The Ford seats, these seats are honestly like in some ways worse than the ones in your Mach E. Like the shape of them and stuff. And, and they. The bolstering is almost equal.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

So it's very, very pointless. What was I, where was I headed?

[Matt Farah]

But for that, for that kind of money, to have the basic seats and to have styling that is I think attractive and tasteful, but actually rather subtle. You know, it's not as like in your face and it. And not a lot has changed for something that is six figures.

[Zach Klann]

It I. And I saw a GT500. I might have actually seen one of your customers cars when I was out with this thing. So I got a good look at this like baby blue metallic GT500 and it does stand out because of the taller wing in the back and the front fascia. Of course. Now I really like the way the lip spoiler looks on this car. I think it's a good looking car. But to your point, it's a real like if you know, you know, bro, it's. If anyone sees you on the highway, they'll probably just think you put a wing on the trunk of your GT and because like the front fascia is subtle, the LEDs around the intakes, like you need to know Mustangs to know that this isn't just the GT with some stuff stuck onto it. And you definitely won't guess that it costs that much money. So to go back to the math one, there's. I mean inflation is a huge part of it and our dollar has devalued, I think 40% in like three years is part of it. So if this car was 60 grand, which is what the Mach 1 cost like four years ago when we drove it, I'd go Wow, That's a pretty good bargain. You're getting a really strong car. Riot's great. Tons of power for what a Mach 1 fully loaded cost. But I think, you know, it's either inflation plus profit plus whatever. $107,000 dollars is so much money for something that doesn't say isn't as collectible, maybe as a GT500.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Doesn't have. If you want the manual, great. But if you want like the performance of that transmission.

[Matt Farah]

Well, the GT. Yeah. The GT 500 also has a lot of differences that can justify its price tag.

[Zach Klann]

Forged internals, I believe.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It has a different engine block, it's a different engine on top. It's got the supercharger, it's got the Tremec auto, you know, dual clutch.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

Which say what you want, but that's obvious. That's clearly an extremely premium upgrade.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Someone, some people might prefer manual and I get it. But like you could see why a dual clutch costs more for that for over six figures. You're also talking about carbon fiber wheels, which are very expensive. And you're definitely getting bucket seats. You're definitely getting uniquely trimmed interior in terms of the alcantara and the suede and stuff like that.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So like, I think like, and I mean, yes. That Shelby is now out of production. Right. So you're not getting.

[Zach Klann]

That's the thing when you know, look, I tried to look at like the new cars today for 100 grand, but the speed is still pretty competitive. I mean you can get a fully loaded like BMW competition like X drive. The one we drove a few years ago was like 92,000 bucks. Yes. It has less horsepower. I would guarantee it's faster around a racetrack if you're looking for that kind of thing. There's just, there are fewer fun hundred thousand dollar cars now, which is a weird thing to say, but like Porsche, you know, the 718 and the Cayman, all you can get is the GT4RS. The C63 has a terrible engine. Yeah. So, you know, there's less fun cars all around. But this is just so much money for you know, what effectively to most people will just look like a GT that has a blower on it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Now like there's a lot like I think has a character that is sort of unique in the space right now. Front engine, rear drive, huge power manual gearbox.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, real throaty engine sound. The cold start is amazing on this car. Yeah, this, this cold start is seriously in the top few, I've heard. I mean, it's got the right tone, the right volume, the right anger. It's the right like snap and bark. It's really, really nice.

[Zach Klann]

And it's got the adjustable exhaust. So once it's cold started, I was able to hit the button and you know, throw it into quiet mode, like from an experience perspective. Because I feel like I've been very critical. I had a blast. Yeah. Car rode well, sounded great, did burnouts. Like, it talked to so many parts of my car youth and my car present that it's really hard to find these days.

[Matt Farah]

And I think they've done. Like, if I had to choose which one I would prefer. If I'm a huge mustang guy and I'm thinking I want a stick shift mustang to drive daily for the next couple of years, I'd get an RTR over a dark horse. Yeah, I would. Like, I totally would.

[Zach Klann]

I would too. It rode better. It had the same steering problem the.

[Matt Farah]

Dark horse has, which is no feel.

[Zach Klann]

Which is no feel.

[Matt Farah]

But it didn't tram line like the dark horse.

[Zach Klann]

Right. It didn't tram line and it, the tires were a little bit softer. And I don't know, it still had plenty of grip. I had, I had plenty of fun in the canyons that I don't think would be really surpassed that much by the dark horse. And the dark horse comes with all the compromise when you drive to the canyons. Yeah. As well. As. Well, I was gonna say price premium, but I guess that's not really true.

[Matt Farah]

Dark horse I drove was 74 grand. So it's not like that was cheap.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I will say like the. I think. Oh, we need to pause show, folks. We gotta take a quick break for.

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[Matt Farah]

Pardon the interruption, you guys. We had to take an ad sales phone call and stop the show. But I remember what we were talking about. I was going to say I used to really get down on Mustang GT based aftermarket performance packages that would advertise like over 700 horsepower. But the cars never really felt that fast.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

You know, like, and in the case of this RTR, I mean, look, the, the GTD is 815 horsepower. So I have a pretty direct, you know. But I'll say it's not so much that this car accelerates like the GTD because it doesn't have the gearbox, it doesn't have the super sticky rear tires. It's definitely more tail happy and, you know, turns tire into smoke, more sore than spin. But it has that wildness that you want that you don't actually get from the gtd. The GTD is very planted.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

It's very, you know, serious. It's serious.

[Zach Klann]

It is a GTD Porsche in a way. Right. When I drive a Porsche, I never think I'm going to do a burnout in this or try to slide it here or whatever.

[Matt Farah]

Right. This is built by a drifter, not a racer. So although it's not the same as 800 Porsche horsepower or 800 Ferrari or McLaren horsepower, when you put your foot down, it feels really fast.

[Zach Klann]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

And when you're just cruising around the blower doesn't seem to get in the way of anything.

[Zach Klann]

Well, and what I noticed is that it, you know, it doesn't feel, I mean I was at altitude, it was 80 degrees, so that was some compromise being there. But part of that lack of feel of speed is like there's a squat to the suspension, a squat to the tire. The seat is kind of soft. I think all of that like absorbs the acceleration a little bit versus a McLaren. The seat back is very thin, but also well.

[Matt Farah]

And when the engine is behind you, you know, it doesn't have such an accentuated squat. You, you get, you know what I mean? Like.

[Zach Klann]

Right. And also there's a big power to weight difference, you know. Yes. This has 750s power or more actually. But it weighs 3, 900 pounds. Yeah, I mean it weighs 600 pounds more than a McLaren. Transmission's different, so like my guess, more drivetrain loss also. Yeah, it definitely. Well, there's a longer distance for that, that power to go until it gets to the back wheels. But. So I, I'm driving this thing and I'm going, I don't know if, does it feel like 800 horsepower? And I look down at the speedometer and I go, well that's, that's certainly increasing at a rate. Yeah. That I think would surpass some of the other cars we've driven that didn't feel like they had the power advertised, you know, that were based on the Mustang platform.

[Matt Farah]

It's not so much that in the past I've thought they didn't re. I thought that I, I'm sure that that mo, that seven, whatever number was correct at the crank. I just didn't ever thought it made it out. The tires. I thought it lost a lot in between engine and tires. Yeah, this one, it's, it seems better. It seems better, like more efficient. Like the GTD and the GT500 before. It seemed with that Tremec dual clutch to have less drivetrain loss than the get track based GT1s.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. Maybe someone else, someone has to throw one on a dyno or, or just look at like, I don't know what a Mustang GT makes on a dyno. We can look real quick.

[Matt Farah]

Well, we'll see what happens. I, I think we're going to do this story for Road and Track, the next volume of Road and Track. The theme is numbers. So it's about, it's about data, it's about things like that. So one of the stories that I submitted for a proposal was a dyno tasting.

[Zach Klann]

Oh great.

[Matt Farah]

Where we take one car, some stock car and bring it to four different types of dynos to see how they out they.

[Zach Klann]

That's a good idea.

[Matt Farah]

The only one we wouldn't do is we is take the engine out of the car and put it on an engine dyno.

[Zach Klann]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

That's a little too invasive.

[Zach Klann]

So this is Mustang forum from two years ago. They put a 2024 GT convertible, but they put it on a dyno stock car and it made 408 to the wheels.

[Matt Farah]

It's pretty good.

[Zach Klann]

Supposed to be 485 advertised, right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

So it lost 20 a little bit less. 15.

[Matt Farah]

50.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

15. That's about like, usually if you, if you lose like a really good car might be 8 to 10% and a really bad one might be 15 to 20%.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. So someone else had a Mach 1, they dynoed it made 409 to the tire.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klann]

So yeah, so that's, that's kind of what they're losing. So 15. So if 1080 minus 120. So the RTR might be 160.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, 15.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So it's probably 600 of the tires. I mean it, it goes.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. Six plus to a tire.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It's fast. I mean it feels like a fast car.

[Zach Klann]

It's a good time. It looks rad. Yeah, it's, it is very expensive. But I, I'm gonna do the math in the video. I don't think that is RTR and Ford trying to price gouge people. I think that is literally just our spending power has gone down so much.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Since the last time we drove like a brand new regular GT or Mach 1.

[Matt Farah]

Well, the GT that I drove on the launch two years ago was over 60. It's like 63.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

That's a, that was a fully loaded like PP2 or whatever. Right?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And then Dark Horse, you know the press car Dark Horse I drove was 74. So this has more, you know, it's got more than that, it's got more than all that stuff. But it's just when you start to talk about really expensive Mustangs, particularly now that the Corvette is mid engined, particularly now that the Z06 has come down. There's no more ADM for Z06s and it is not. I mean look, money's real, I get it. But like it's not a huge gap to go from 107 to like 125 to get into a Z06. Like if you're already spending 107 a Z06 at 125 is like, you're almost, you're like, it's like, it's a huge difference in car.

[Zach Klann]

Well, and also you could get a fully option Z51 which is very good. You get performance pack, all that stuff for under 100. Under 100. And that's a lot of car. Different vibe, different look. Ford versus Chevy of course.

[Matt Farah]

But, but yeah, that's like if money's real, but if we, if money's not real and we're just asking the question, did Vaughn Gittin Jr. And his team do a very good job? I think they did.

[Zach Klann]

They did.

[Matt Farah]

They did do a very good job. So shout out to them. Guys, got to take one more break.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

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[Zach Klann]

Right.

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[Matt Farah]

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[Matt Farah]

Oh, and I do have to, I have to address potential. Hasn't happened yet. Potential upcoming conflict of interest. And part of the reason that Zach did the video RTR starting in January, as of now, starting January, they're going to be storing two press vehicles for a few months at wccs. So I haven't yet, but in a couple of months I will be slightly benefiting financially from RTR storing their press cars. So there, there is a conflict of journalistic integrity there. Hasn't happened yet, but eventually.

[Zach Klann]

Well, but I mean, I'm not benefiting from that. And so I drove the car.

[Matt Farah]

That's what I'm saying. That's why you did the video.

[Zach Klann]

Right. And my feelings, you know, have similar feelings about the car.

[Matt Farah]

So I mean I have, I, I Have given honest feelings as of you.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But for anyone who wants to discredit my honest feelings, here is some ammunition. I mean, you know, it's.

[Zach Klann]

It's.

[Matt Farah]

It's. You know, as we talked about in a previous show, like, sometimes you can get accused of saying, well, they're. You're not going to be honest about the car. You're not gonna. You're not gonna give a negative review of a car or be critical of a car because of your relationships.

[Zach Klann]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

With the people that are getting you those cars.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

I think in a lot of cases, if I have a better relationship with the people getting us the cars, I'm more likely to bring something up.

[Zach Klann]

I think.

[Matt Farah]

I think in our line of work, we want the cars to be better. Like, it's very satisfying to me to be critical of a car and then drive the next one and it's better.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

That's enormously satisfying. So an opportunity to be critical of a car and say that criticism to someone that you like and respect is a good thing, you know, and you're not just gonna blow smoke up someone's ass because they've flown you somewhere. Like, maybe somebody would, but I. I wouldn't.

[Zach Klann]

I would be like, you do not.

[Matt Farah]

I'm happy to be here, man. But, like, let's talk about the steering, you know, let's talk about this or that or whatever.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, and maybe this is something that could be changed or maybe there's a reason it's the way that I don't like.

[Zach Klann]

But, you know, that's why I was especially vocal to Hyundai about the steering and drift mode, because I'm like, this is just programming. Yeah, I know it's not the box.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Because I drove it in normal mode and it felt different. So why did you do this? I prefer it this way. Maybe they'll change that. Because all it takes is. Whereas Ford steering. And I still have commented on it many times, like, I know it's the tuning plus the box, plus the system.

[Matt Farah]

For sure.

[Zach Klann]

You need to fix that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, for sure. But anyway, it's a really cool car. And we have. That's the Spec 3.

[Zach Klann]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

So we have a Spec 5 coming. The Spec 5.

[Zach Klann]

That wasn't even on the list.

[Matt Farah]

It wasn't even on the list. That's their new thing that. That looks vaguely like a gtd.

[Zach Klann]

Whoa.

[Matt Farah]

And I. I don't know the price yet, but it's like this. This motor. Manual gearbox, but it has this, like, pretty aggressive body package on it.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Like, kind of gtd.

[Zach Klann]

Ish.

[Matt Farah]

Right?

[Zach Klann]

It does. Especially in the. The front fender. The back of it is like. Well, it doesn't black and open.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. Like the back. It keeps its trunk and stuff. Like a GTD has no trunk.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So this. This keeps its trunk. But. But we're gonna get to drive that. And I will, I will. I will give an honest review of that as well. But they. I think by then they'll be actually paying my business to.

[Zach Klann]

Geez. That'll make 70 horsepower. Different intercoolers.

[Matt Farah]

Good times. Good times.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, and it's wide bodied. Yeah. Composite, wide body in front fenders, bumper, Blah, blah, blah. Carbon fiber. Jeez.

[Matt Farah]

Did you try the drift handbrake?

[Zach Klann]

I didn't try to drift with it. No.

[Matt Farah]

I need to go try it. Junior said I have to try it. I didn't really. When we had the Dark Horse, I like couldn't quite like, get it. It wasn't like acting. Right. But.

[Zach Klann]

We should also ask him. You know, the dark horse had really sticky tires on it. Yeah. And at a certain point, like, this is why drifters have hydraulic handbrakes. Because the clamping force needed for tires that big and sticky is more than the e brake. So I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

They chose the tire that they chose apparently for the. This car. And I didn't go quick enough to get it to move around really. But apparently they chose this tire because if you set it to like 32 psi, you can get like 5 degrees of over steer coming out of every corner. And if you set it to 27 psi, it can be super sticky.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, very cool. Yeah, I think it was n. Yeah, they're nittos.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

I don't remember which ones.

[Matt Farah]

I don't either. Neat car, though. Cool. Did you see that? Koenigsegg with their sudair Spear beat the Zinger 21C by a few tenths around Laguna.

[Zach Klann]

I did not see that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they went out around and they.

[Zach Klann]

Beat him around Laguna months after Zinger. Yeah, like, we did it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Dude, they're. But they're running like low 24s at Laguna. That's crazy.

[Zach Klann]

So fast.

[Matt Farah]

I. I think I. I'm gonna get it wrong. I think, you know, the, the Zinger did like a 246 and, and. And Koenigsegg did a 241 or 24 2. Like it was. It was moving. I haven't seen the in car video yet, but that's pretty. That's pretty amazing that they went out and. And, and got it back. The Koenigsegg does have like 400 more horsepower. I think the Sedar spear is like 1607.

[Zach Klann]

1603.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So it's got. So it's got 300, 300 extra horsepower.

[Zach Klann]

With a nine speed transmission all to the rear wheels.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Good lord. I mean the arrow must be downforce.

[Matt Farah]

Must be crazy on a track like Laguna. You're not using much in those front motors on the Zinger anyway.

[Zach Klann]

That's true.

[Matt Farah]

Right? Those die off around like 80 miles an hour.

[Zach Klann]

It ran a 124.16.

[Matt Farah]

That's nuts. That's so nuts. That's so fast. My fastest driving time ever around that track is like a 34. 5. Like I'm like 10 seconds off. That is my quickest lap ever there.

[Zach Klann]

Let's see. The Jesco last year ran a 124.86.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

So the Zinger about a second slower.

[Matt Farah]

The Zinger did a 124. 6. And then he went out again and did a 124.4.

[Zach Klann]

I think this says 125.4. That was at 2021. So. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And he went out again and then he did a 24. 6 or 24. 4. They got beat like that's, that's so fast. Dude, that's really crazy.

[Zach Klann]

I think you're did a 124.7.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like respect.

[Zach Klann]

Super fast.

[Matt Farah]

What else did I. Oh, oh, speaking of this, I forgot. Did you see that? So I got sent the story like a bunch. Tremec has made their DCT gearbox for the Corvette and the GT500. So they've made a gearbox that's the same dimensions and same mounting points, but it's a manual.

[Zach Klann]

Whoa.

[Matt Farah]

So it in theory opens up the door for manual conversions of C8 corvettes. Whoa. It also in theory, but like, I mean the interior program, the interior and the programming is a whole different story. But in theory there is, there is now a manual that fits there. But also I think this gearbox could be used for other stuff. Kit cars, you know, if you wanted to do some kind of manual build on like a Gallardo or maybe a Ferrari or something like that. I feel like maybe it's. It could be used for that down the road.

[Zach Klann]

That's very cool.

[Matt Farah]

That's kind of neat.

[Zach Klann]

That's very appealing.

[Matt Farah]

But like a bunch of people sent it to me and they were like manual C8s incoming. And I was like, oh, I mean that. I. I just don't know if it works like that.

[Zach Klann]

So.

[Matt Farah]

Well.

[Zach Klann]

Sema next year you'll see some. Whether or not they work right remains to be seen because you got to get the computer to talk to the transmission.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klann]

And that's a whole ball of wax. Plus, like, the console, I think the parking brake is there. You got the hockey puck. Yeah. To cut that open and move that controller. But someone will do it for sure.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But I thought that was kind of fun. And then the other thing is, I wanted to talk about our. We just announced our next road and track experiences event. It's going to be in April. It's going to be a really good one. It's going to be Vegas with Las Vegas Motor Speedway outfield as the track day.

[Zach Klann]

The.

[Matt Farah]

The good one, the road course. Then we're going to go Valley of Fire, Zion. We're going to stay at a, like a glamping place in Zion with these cool, like, tent cabin things. They're rad. And then from there to Sedona, and then from there to Scottsdale, ending in Scottsdale.

[Zach Klann]

That's awesome.

[Matt Farah]

That's going to be a really, really fun one. It's going to be in April. I'm doing the scout for it in December as soon as we sign our deals with the hotels. And it'll be really, really fun. You know, great weather. It's going to be beautiful and the roads are going to be fun. It's going to be really nice. I'm super stoked.

[Zach Klann]

Zion is a drive for convertibles.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

I mean, the mount, the, the whatever buttresses mountains and things above you like, that is so worth looking up at.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And it's like, it's high desert, so there's going to be those, you know, straight, open desert run sections. But there's also, because it's mountains, a few, like, pretty cool, tight technical sections. I'm, I'm, I'm down with it. I'm. I think it's gonna be fun. We have great food and anyway, that's going to be coming up in April. So we have all. We have four events next year, 20, 26. And so that's the first one. I'll announce them as they become final. But if you want to come drive with me. Vegas, Zion, Sedona, Scottsdale is going to be the, the route. It's going to be very, very cool. Should we go to the people or do we have. Do you have anything else? Do I have anything else in my notebook? I forget I'm driving, so I don't want to be too notebooky. Koenigsegg. No, that's pretty much it. All right. Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Temple of the Dodge.

[Matt Farah]

Of course, Patreon. We love our patrons. Do you, oh, do you have an extra battery in your pocket for the time lapse?

[Zach Klann]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Let's do that again. Of course, if you want to join the Patreon, what you get is live stream where it exists. You get to ask questions for the show, which we're about to get to. You get to get the show early. You get to get the show without ads. You get to get extra show once a month. You get to get access to exclusive merch collabs and brand collabs that we do and a whole bunch more. Patreon.com the Smoking Tire podcast with the GoPro in the background.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, that's the bad battery, isn't it?

[Matt Farah]

That battery has 14%. I might as well run it into the ground. It's okay then.

[Zach Klann]

This is the good one.

[Matt Farah]

But why is this in video mode, though?

[Zach Klann]

Well, because it's automatically set to one button. Video start.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, got it, got it, got it. Okay, let's try that again. This is BTS now, this is on the podcast.

[Zach Klann]

There you go.

[Matt Farah]

Extra Patreon BTS is me, me doing this while driving and answering questions on Patreon. This is the glamorous work of automotive journalism. All right, I have 14 battery time lapse on there.

[Zach Klann]

I put them, I put a bad one in a pocket. I forgot which pocket.

[Matt Farah]

Do better with your batteries, Zach. You know, wow. Where is this cut? We're in the desert. And so the Valentine 2 is probably good for like 8 to 10 miles out.

[Zach Klann]

That's Reading, Nebraska.

[Matt Farah]

It's so far away.

[Zach Klann]

But it's just he might be moving.

[Matt Farah]

With us every once in a while. Yeah. So let's see what the people have to say.

[Zach Klann]

All right. User Temple of the do of the Dodge says there are jubilee clips and banjo bolts. What are some other goofy names for car parts that you know?

[Matt Farah]

Oh.

[Zach Klann]

I think strut tower is kind of funny if you imagine it walking like in a fashion show. Yeah. Because like, how often is the word strut used outside of the car world? It's used for a form of walking or a method of walking.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's pretty good. Oh, wait a fun. I I, this is one I should have thought thought of last night and, and really written down some. I think the word binnacle is kind of weird. Which covers the the gauge pod. Oh.

[Zach Klann]

What's. It's tough. It. This is a tough one.

[Matt Farah]

Weird sounding names, huh?

[Zach Klann]

I don't know. I only had one yeah, sure. I've taken parts off that have weird names, but I know what they were. I just knew I needed them off.

[Matt Farah]

Huh. Man, that is really, really challenging.

[Zach Klann]

What.

[Matt Farah]

What is a funny named car part?

[Zach Klann]

Oh, what's the toggle? Toggle's kind of fun.

[Matt Farah]

Manettino.

[Zach Klann]

Is there something that's like the master gear or one?

[Matt Farah]

Well, there's like the master and slave cylinders. There's.

[Zach Klann]

That's that problem. That's it.

[Matt Farah]

Problematically.

[Zach Klann]

That's the one. Yeah, that's it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Slate. We can probably get rid of master and slave cylinder, I think primary. Primary and secondary.

[Zach Klann]

Just do that.

[Matt Farah]

Just do the bedroom thing. Whatever they did for bedrooms. Oh, is that the cop? Looks like cop.

[Zach Klann]

That definitely cob.

[Matt Farah]

A mile ahead on the right maybe.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, yeah, that's the one.

[Matt Farah]

Yep, there it is. Silencio.

[Zach Klann]

The Karma Rivero.

[Matt Farah]

What's up?

[Zach Klann]

It says Johnny likes the new Karma Rivero. Would we ever review it?

[Matt Farah]

No. Why? I reviewed that car when it came out in 2010. Go watch that. It was called a Fisker Karma. It's the same car.

[Zach Klann]

Same car, yeah. All right. Two girls, one cup, two r. Very good. When we do. When you guys do p. Cody, that's.

[Matt Farah]

Performance car of the year, do you.

[Zach Klann]

Try to ensure every car has the same tires, or do you take what the manufacturer recommends is best for that car?

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

No, you.

[Matt Farah]

You have. It has the tires that the car comes with from the factory. Almost every sports car now is developed with a unique tire with a tire that's developed for that car. I mean, occasionally you'll get a boutique car company like Zinger for instance, or ssc where they go, oh, we pride ourselves on using an off the rack tire, which is usually just code for we didn't want to have the manufacturer develop a tire for us, which is fine. No. And then some manufacturers, like, for instance, the Honda Civic type R was. One was available with a very sticky tire and then also a road tire. And they would send us the sticky tire for the track work and then the regular tire for the road driving. And that would be okay for us. I mean, as long as the tire can be got ordered or, you know, comes on the car from the factory. That's how we would.

[Zach Klann]

And the test from you guys and other magazines will always mention the tires because sometimes two cars that are direct competitors if. If the only car that was shipped to you had all seasons versus the other car has, like, super track summer tires. That's mentioned because it's a. It's a valid point. It's important to, you know, for the lap time.

[Matt Farah]

I mean the manufacturers know exactly what we're doing with the cars. So they either send us just the super sticky tires and they'll send us a couple of sets of those because a lot of people driving or they'll send us the sticky ones for the track and then the, the less sticky ones for the road and we'll swap them over. Ferrari sent like seven sets of tires. But we, we did find like for instance back to the Honda Civic type R in 2022 or 22, I think it was 22, maybe 23. Whatever. The civic type R beat the Elantra N around the track by almost the exact amount that could be contributed to a. A cup tire versus a road tire. The, the Elantra N had like PS4S's the, the Civic tie had cup twos and it was like 3/4 of a second a lap difference. Those two cars are the same speed, which is amazing. Which was. That was why that was what really took the Civic Type R off of that pedestal for me was actually the Elantra is like $12,000 less, has better seats and is actually just as fast. And no one's talking about it. Whereas everyone's like all all over this. All over. The Civic Type R which does. It has a better shifter and better pedals. Looks better and looks better. But, but otherwise for the price difference that it was like 35% more expensive.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, that's a lot.

[Matt Farah]

So it matters at that price point anyway. Yeah, good question.

[Zach Klann]

Lucid Gravity Bong says oh I love it. Some great names. Are there any modern turbo cars that give the feel of quote, building boost like the turbo cars of the 2000s. Feels like they're all linear now. And he wants more of a surge the way you got back.

[Matt Farah]

I totally. There are not a lot of turbo cars that, that, that do that kind of surge.

[Zach Klann]

I mean this is not really relatable but like the totem did that and I think I commented it felt like an old turbo car. Oh that did have to like build and build and build and build. But newer stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Most new turbo cars are really going for a flat torque curve.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. They're trying to. They're doing that on purpose.

[Matt Farah]

I would say this. The manual transmission Supra has a. Has a good, a good build. Yeah, I would say the.

[Zach Klann]

Oh.

[Matt Farah]

Let'S see.

[Zach Klann]

Oh you know what did the flat six motorsports 911T some aftermarket.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, aftermarket packages tend to put that back in. Cuz people want that.

[Zach Klann]

And actually I mean, the regular 911t did. Because the gearing is really tall.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

For, you know, for the power. So it, it definitely had like a build. Build, build, build.

[Matt Farah]

Subarus are really flat now. Volkswagen products are really flat. The Audi products are really flat. BMW is trying to get as instant as it can.

[Zach Klann]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

Porsche V8s, they're going for flat. Yeah. Nobody's really doing, you know who's doing it. Well, as it. It's not. It's buried beneath some other technology. But that Mercedes 53 engine has a nice build, but it also has a mild hybrid.

[Zach Klann]

Maybe like vanquish a new one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, 400 grand. Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Right. Because. Well, it's a V12, so the power's up top, plus a turbocharger. Yeah. But I think the thing is that all these companies know that the earlier boost hits, the quicker your zero to 60 time, the quicker your car, the easier it is to sell to beat your competitors. So now they've all had that same kind of arms race.

[Matt Farah]

Totally. The good thing is you can almost always tune that back in in the aftermarket. If you have a turbo car and you get a tune. You can, you can. Especially if you get a protune.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

They can, they can make it like that.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, you can. You could say, here's the kind of power curve I want for what I'm doing. That's true.

[Matt Farah]

But I do love older turbo cars for that reason. I think it's fun.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. I like the. I like waiting for the occasion.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Disrespectfully agree. I like that name. Says I can't afford a CTSV. Is the Alpha chassis good enough for the V6 to be fun and engaging.

[Matt Farah]

Option the Alpha Romeo?

[Zach Klann]

No, no, I think Alpha chassis.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, a regular cts.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, I would get.

[Matt Farah]

I would not get a regular cts.

[Zach Klann]

Get an atsv.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

If you're. If you want. If you're going to get a V6 Alpha chassis anyway.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Get the ATS V. Or get a CT4V. Black wing. I mean, the answer is like, yes. I think in the corners and the steering and the braking is all very good. Balanced car's talkative and stuff. The engine just sounds meh.

[Matt Farah]

All right, Sorry. We had an overheating camera, you guys. It's the perils of filming in the car. But now we've activated our dash vent.

[Zach Klann]

See, if this was water cooled, not air cooled, it wouldn't overheat.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, it would be crazy if we could come up with some kind of like liquid cooled battery. System for a GoPro.

[Zach Klann]

That'd be very.

[Matt Farah]

It would be easier to have like a gel jacket for the camera.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, like a cold one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's no. Nothing better than a center vent that can blow cold air on it.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, yeah, that's fine.

[Matt Farah]

I know that the air is better than that for sure. All right, well, we were saying about the Black Wing, honestly, about the. About the Cadillacs, I didn't love this CTS CT5V Sport.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

But Johnny said that it was because I drove the all wheels drive one and if I had driven the rear Wheeel drive one, it would have been fine. I have no evidence to support that.

[Zach Klann]

But like, so this person me said ctsv. So I'm wondering if they're looking.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that's older one. No, forget it. Skip it.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, I would go. I would go for atsv.

[Matt Farah]

Yes. At that price, for sure.

[Zach Klann]

One last question and then I have to pee. Says, considering your attitude, personality and style, what is one car that you could choose as a representation of yourself?

[Matt Farah]

What? I mean, I think my pink spider is a pretty good representation of myself. There's a contrast between what you see, the contrast between your first impression and what's underneath. But at the same time, it's like, it's a car that is like also just the right car for the occasion.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

You know, and it's got aggression, but practicality, a little bit of custom touch, but not too in your face.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I would say it's loud, but the.

[Zach Klann]

Thing that makes the noise is smart.

[Matt Farah]

It's loud. We're backed up by some kind of performance, right?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, exactly.

[Matt Farah]

Have I turned my heated steering wheel on? No, I haven't.

[Zach Klann]

The hidden button.

[Matt Farah]

That's funny.

[Zach Klann]

We have not reviewed the Defender Octa. That was a question.

[Matt Farah]

No, I just saw one parked in the street, though.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, really?

[Matt Farah]

One I've seen. Yeah. It looks nice. It's a very nice looking. It looks so good, actually, that looking at regular ones afterward, they look kind of lame. It's such a Jamal Hamidi production. That car, everything about it says Jamal.

[Zach Klann]

Dustin Bateman says he listened to us describe all the time and cost and everything goes into making a video. Have we ever thought about doing a behind the scenes video showing the whole process from planning, travel, behind the scenes, filming final product that might emphasize. Emphasize the effort put into this review, although it has its own production costs.

[Matt Farah]

No, I mean, I see where the question comes. That was the. That was the speedometer camp. I see where the question comes from, but a I don't think it would be received well. I think it would come off as a little like, woe is me, look how hard I work.

[Zach Klann]

And well, it sounds like a, I think the way to do it. You could do it like a. It sounds like a vlog. You're like, hey, we got invited this thing. And now if you're gonna see me walking on the plane and you're gonna see me sitting in a nice seat. Yeah. And you're gonna see us walking into.

[Matt Farah]

A building, you know, I've put elements of that into certain videos like where being on a press launch was part of the story. The Aston DB12 and the Spider RS. Press launches come to mind where I've included elements of like. And going to Morocco for Dakar, where I've included the elements of the travel. And particularly in Dakar where we went, we had to go to a different country for a day on the way, like that kind of stuff. But like the other bit isn't like exciting. Like I'm choosing which flight to take. I'm doing this. Like, that's just not very exciting. I, I don't think it would make good content. And if I. If just telling you guys on the podcast, here's what the process is, I think is as good as making a video.

[Zach Klann]

Sure. You know, I mean, maybe we'll do it as a BTS Patreon video.

[Matt Farah]

BTS Patreon, Maybe value add.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. Rolex LT Lariat, King Ranch. I love that name. Today's their birthday. Happy birthday.

[Matt Farah]

Happy birthday.

[Zach Klann]

What are the best car related gifts for 10? 100, $1,010,000.

[Matt Farah]

For $10, the best car related gift is something like Hot Wheels versions of someone's car.

[Zach Klann]

Yep, that's exactly right.

[Matt Farah]

A fairly entry level model version or cool vintage poster of someone's car. Or maybe a thrift shop t shirt. 10 millimeter socket is a meme gift, I think.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, I think 100 bucks you can get someone a good tool.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, a hundred bucks is awesome. You could get like anything we've advertised from Fantic. Any of those battery powered blowers, tire gauge things like the air compressor. Air compressor, emergency roadside kit. Those. That's, that's your hundred dollars right there.

[Zach Klann]

Or how much is a AAA membership per year? I think it's like if someone doesn't.

[Matt Farah]

Have that, that's a great $85.

[Zach Klann]

That's a great $100 or something. A thousand bucks. I'd go with experience, I would say I go two things. Either you could do a driving school Like a one day something or tent. You live in a hot place. Ceramic tint's expensive. I mean it's half of that. But like doing your whole car with ceramic tint if you live in a very sunny area will change your life and is literally probably healthier for your skin.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But for a thousand, like there's a lot you could, if you're in a major city that has this type of thing, you could get someone like a supercar driving experience.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

You could take them on a multi day road trip and pay for it. You could, you know, take them to a destination that's, that's not too far away, maybe doesn't require flights.

[Zach Klann]

You can usually do drift schools. Road course schools tend to be more expensive than that now. But you can do a drift school single day.

[Matt Farah]

You can do, you could do a Porsche experience center day for like 6, 700. That's pretty cool. You could also get someone like an amazing super high level detail on their car. Yeah, like a polish or whatever. You might be able to at the lower end get someone a set of wheels, someone a new set of tires, they needed it, that kind of thing.

[Zach Klann]

And then ten grand, ten G's. Ten G's?

[Matt Farah]

Well, you could get, you could really customize somebody's car. You could start, you could get them some very high end parts.

[Zach Klann]

You could get wheels, tires, coilovers.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you could get someone a supercharger, a turbo kit. You could do a proper racing school.

[Zach Klann]

You could get your SCCA license.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you could do it zero to competition license at Spring Mountain for that I think.

[Zach Klann]

Or you could buy a car. You could also, you could also buy a fun car.

[Matt Farah]

You could take somebody to the Nurburgring. That's about what that would cost to fly to trip for two to the Nurburgring, including like five laps in a rented, you know, prepped car. That's probably 10 GS and that would be awesome like if you got it. That's a, that's a. No regrets. Way to blow 10 GS if you got it.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, another thing you could do with, with a thousand to go back is you could get a shitty car and do an all cars thing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

You could do a gambler type, a.

[Matt Farah]

Disposable car that you do an off road camping road trip with. You could probably get away with that for a Jeep.

[Zach Klann]

All right. Yellow lead footer says.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it's very good.

[Zach Klann]

Given the choice, would you choose the higher horsepower 20, 26 Carrera S or the old school manual of the Carrera T?

[Matt Farah]

I would personally. Now he says old school manual. Am I to take that as being the seven speed? The current the new Carrera T has a six speed. But he says old school manual.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, but the new T is priced very close copper. Well close to the Carrera. Not the S is more expensive.

[Matt Farah]

I, I would rather have a manual T than a automatic S because I could make the horsepower back very easily with any number of reliable brand name packages. But there's no way I'm gonna manual swap an S. That's true.

[Zach Klann]

And the seven speed.

[Matt Farah]

Look at you my boy.

[Zach Klann]

Good spot.

[Matt Farah]

Look at you with a good hiding spot. Not good enough for uncle Matt cop.

[Zach Klann]

For people listening cop hiding around a.

[Matt Farah]

Blind great hiding spot. And I'm gonna put the alert up here. I'm gonna. I'm a good citizen of the road tripping world and now I have it. Now I have a tail. A tail gopher. So a blah. He's a big car is blocking. So now I can go fast again.

[Zach Klann]

I also think the 911T just has character to it where driving a, you know, just I don't know. Carrera S is a very good car. It is very good at doing its job but to me it just has like walking up to it, I just don't feel like it's. Feel like it's a special.

[Matt Farah]

Well, I just road tripped an S. I just did a thousand miles in an S a month ago. It was a fabulous car, absolutely fabulous car. But the only real ways in which it was better than the T was the extra power. Other than that, you can make a T virtually identical to an S. I would take if budget allowed a six speed T with the 600 horsepower package from flat six. Not the 700 horsepower package, the 600 horsepower package which has a little less turbo lag, a little more usability every day. But where the bottom end is going to be. Not even stressed out.

[Zach Klann]

What was the MSRP of the SU drove?

[Matt Farah]

It was expensive. The new S I drove was fully loaded. It wasn't PTS, but it had extended leather 18 ways. All the luxury options and it was like 180.

[Zach Klann]

Oh it was so expensive. So the, the new T is starts like 137.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klann]

You can get that and you can get the horsepower. You're good to go.

[Matt Farah]

I would even take the T if it was the seven speed. I'd rather have the six speed if money allowed. But I would still go with the T even if it had to be a seven speed.

[Zach Klann]

All right. Quadrifoglio face Says I'm eyeing a Taycan.

[Matt Farah]

That's great.

[Zach Klann]

But it's got the lame 14 way seats. Do you think I can put a single 18 way driver's seat in there?

[Matt Farah]

Not worth it. Not worth it. And 14 ways are pretty good, dude. It's not like the base four ways like a 14 way versus an 18 way. It's different, but it's not like it's not hugely different.

[Zach Klann]

I, I would wager and you, you, you should email a Porsche tech, but I would wager that the computer would get confused and that would probably cause a problem. And then you have two seats in your driveway that don't work, dude.

[Matt Farah]

It's just it, whatever it would cost you to get a seat that matches aesthetically. I, I, now you've got whatever that costs to get it to fit, get it to work, whatever those extra like four, four ways are. I don't know, I tell you, I don't know what four ways they are. I couldn't tell you in which specific adjustable measurements.

[Zach Klann]

Is it bolstering? Is it independent bolstering?

[Matt Farah]

It might be independent.

[Zach Klann]

Probably that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Cuz I think the 14 Ways have, they have lean, obviously forward, back up, down, and lumbar. I think it's the bolster that's fine. Yeah, it's fine. I, I think the bolster is only. Well, yeah, it's fine.

[Matt Farah]

Is that a cop with a customer on the right? Yeah, it is. I really think that if you've got my truck, yeah, I really think that if you've got 14 ways, if you sit in them, if they're comfortable for you. I can't see the math working out on swapping out a single seat.

[Zach Klann]

I think we've been asked this before. The lottery ladder, like you win the lottery, how do you buy cars that are progressively faster? I swear we answered this question a few months ago. A business person's like, if I won the lottery, I'd buy a GR86, then an A110, then a 911ST, then a 750s, then an F40.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, okay.

[Zach Klann]

You know, so you're just, the car's getting more expensive and progressively faster. That's a good list. I think we answered that.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, is this frozen? My screen's frozen.

[Zach Klann]

Otto Bon Jovi. Since we both grew up in other parts of the country and ended up in California. Wrong. I was born in California. Do you ever see yourself retiring somewhere else? Yes. Or splitting time somewhere else in retirement like your dad does?

[Matt Farah]

Well, look, I personally don't see myself ever Retiring like I would like. The goal is to have work be optional and fulfilling. Right. To have financial security. So you could at any point say it and go off and do whatever. But my, my long term plan is to have something that keeps me engaged with the community forever. The shops do that. There's always customers coming and going, there's always events to go to, there's always new people to meet, interesting car collectors and I can hang out at the shops as much or as little as I want. I mean, once the shops are built, once they're open, once they're running, it's not a lot of workload for me to, you know, manage them. And I only need to be in a day and a half a week and I can be out here doing this with you all the time, which is fabulous. So I could do that pretty much indefinitely. Having said that, if I'm not creating content in Los Angeles, which Los Angeles gives us so much from a content perspective, I would happily move somewhere else and, you know, come to la, you know, a few days a month to work, to see my friends and then go back to wherever my preferred place to live would be.

[Zach Klann]

Same because it's a really expensive city. Sarah and I have definitely talked about long term, like retiring in two places because I love snow and she loves humidity and tropical water and there's, you know, that's. We have discussed a lot about how we would retire in two places like that and just split time.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Because we enjoy activities in each of those climates.

[Matt Farah]

For us, splitting time would be fun. My parents do it. They do a month. They bounce back and forth between their two homes every about every six weeks, which, like, that actually sounds great. I mean, it really does sound nice. And they have tons of friends in both places, which is great. With the cats, you can't do that. Like, you could move, you could bring Tucker or, you know, whatever. Like when you have four cats, that is not a reasonable thing to do. And Hannah and I have also said that we, there's nowhere we like enough where that's easy enough and convenient enough to get to from la, where it's like I'd want a vacation home somewhere that I could go to a lot. I'd rather, you know, we'd rather either just have one house and take vacations and, you know, or, you know, I don't know, maybe, maybe a boat one day or something that's based here and we could go places or something like that. But when you have the cats that those really long periods of travel is limiting Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

I mean we're talking about like for us, like 20 years. Yeah. And that, you know, that is if there's no anchor keeping us in Los Angeles.

[Matt Farah]

But like we're always gonna have cats. There's no way. We're not gonna have cats. We're not gonna be like. And when our current cats die, we're never gonna get it, you know. Yeah, that's like.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, it's true. All right. Carl's Mazda ball soup says, how does the 918 compare to a modern ZR1?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that's interesting. Well, it's very different. ZR1 is a naturally aspirated. Excuse me, that's not true. Sway Turbo. It's non hybrid rear drive. It's pretty raw. Whereas the 918. The overwhelming sensations of that car are how settled it is and how technological it is. The 918 sounds better. The engine is one of the best sounding V8s I've ever heard in my life. The ZR1 sounds cool. It sounds like they tried to do a Ferrari 488 kind of sound and it. And succeeded. But because it's turbocharged, a lot of the very best sounds don't come into the cabin. The ZR1 is probably quicker in a straight line and feels it. But the 918 has that sort of starship enterprise level of acceleration where it's a no drama, no wheel spin, just go. Whereas the ZR1 is fighting its own traction control system a little bit. The ZR1 is much more like a McLaren 750 than a 980. A 918 is separate from those other, other rear drive twin turbo supercar experiences. 918 is much more similar to the Temerario actually or the Revuelto than to.

[Zach Klann]

The ZR1 or NSX but.

[Matt Farah]

Or the power. It's more like the NSX but with an engine that actually sounds good.

[Zach Klann]

Right? Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Let's see. Ghost of Matt's sunken Porsche. We kind of addressed that. This is about the walls at Streets of Willow. I think they're temporary. They're working on it. People have complained about the tire walls at Streets of Willow now are dangerous for motorcycles. So I think the question is are they going to make it safer for motorcycles? I have heard, yes, I have heard that this is right now, this is the short term plan. They've been working on it for like a few months. Yes. So. But yes, in the long term they are, they, they know motorcycling is a big part of the. The. I don't know, the enthusiast group that attends Willow Springs. And so they're going to change that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I hadn't, I hadn't asked them ever about motorcycles specifically. Maybe that's an oversight on my part.

[Zach Klann]

Well, but Corey did and he, you know, our friend Corey works with them too and has raced motorcycles and he has said yes, there is a longer term plan that involves moving the walls and making it safe for motorcycles.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. The current renovated streets of Willow is the immediate emergency. Short term. This is very dangerous.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You know, improve it by as much as we can without getting special permits. Because there, you know, there's, there's a line when you're doing renovations where it's like below this you don't need a permit. So they like, let's do this. What we can do right now while we're applying for our bigger permits. So I think that's part of it. Let's see my hamstrings, dude. Oh, this is going to be tough. We're going to have, I'm going to have to major stretching this afternoon.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. And I, I mean walking will probably make them feel better.

[Matt Farah]

Probably hot tub as well.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Leg day.

[Matt Farah]

Really me up.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, hamstrings are hard. Jared asks, can we talk about how we logistically formulate thoughts for car reviews? Do we have a set of basic questions we always look to answer, take notes of what stands out, create an outline, etc.

[Matt Farah]

Do you have a real process?

[Zach Klann]

I mean, I have things like I always, I always just go, okay, I'm gonna write down all the specs and then I'm gonna write down changes from what, you know, whatever the car came from. So I gather a lot of info. That's always, I guess my process is I gather info, I gather a bunch of facts, drive the car, write pros and cons, and then I try to come up with like a thesis for the car at the top of the video that I'm going to try to talk about and you know, get to some sort of in my experience with myself, a wandering conclusion at the end that I usually change to voiceover later.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean, I really, I kind of do. I do something similar. You know, I study the, the specs. Right. The press sheet and the process of not just reading the spec sheet, but I have a very specific like format I use when I copy the specs into my notebook. And the act of copying it over and writing it down puts, puts it mostly in my head. The handwriting.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So doing that, writing it down, comparing it to the old one. Okay. It has more power, more torque. Power bands wider.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

But the weight has gone up. Okay. But it's then it's got this, this and this. And then it's really. I kind of the, the flow of the video happens in the, in the flow of what I'm feeling. How do I, how does it feel pulling out of this driveway? How does it feel accelerating to speed? How does it feel breaking and turning into the first corner? Like, and then that really just kind of comes out in the video and it, you do enough of them, they, it naturally leads from one thing to the next. Yeah, I think.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. I mean, as you're assessing those pieces, as you interact with those pieces.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. With writing is different writing. You need to find something out in the real world that's outside the car or a thing from history or a thing from pop culture to connect it to, to tie it to together. Open your thought in the beginning and then talk about the car and go back to the end. That's a little harder than trying to do that in real time in video. Supposedly there is a police somewhere.

[Zach Klann]

All right, Tim A says, do we see a future where Porsche creates a 911 on a carbon tub chassis the way roof does?

[Matt Farah]

I mean, eventually, maybe.

[Zach Klann]

I think, you know, the hard thing for them is that the 911 has to be a T and a turbo s and a GG3RS. Right. So, and you know, they make a lot of them, they mass produce them. So to mass produce that many carbon tubs would probably, probably be cost prohibitive. But I could see them doing, you know, how do you make the special editions more special?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

And they could say, all right, now the new GT5RS we'll call it, or the new ST is a carbon tub car and it's, or you know, call it the nine. Like 911k did. Like, they go, this is now going to be 700 grand. But it is so different from all the other ones below it in that way. I could see that happening.

[Matt Farah]

I think they'll have a halo car above the 911. That is a carbon top car. But I, I, I think they're more likely to use like 3D printed parts from Zinger and stuff like that in 911s than they are to use.

[Zach Klann]

That will happen before. Yeah, carbon tub will happen for sure. And now with their, their new financial troubles and their profit dropping by 90 or whatever, I don't think they'll have a halo car. Or at least they won't announce one for quite a while. Joe Manchin's Glickenhouse boat says what Gear select knob control stick in. Wait, what. Oh, what gear knob or shifter or whatever do we love in cars and which ones do we hate? Like he hates the Prius shifter even though the rest of the car is great. Well, the 19 you hated the little.

[Matt Farah]

Well I didn't. The little, the little razor one. It was just old. Like you'd have to manually release the parking brake every time. That's stupid. Yeah, I'm used. It's basically this shifter here. Here. I'm used to that. I mean manual shifters like the Ferrari 360 and 430. Like any Ferrari gated shifter is great. Civic Type R, the Honda, Honda, the entire honda shifter from S2000 to civic.

[Zach Klann]

Type R, even NSXs though back in the day were. I thought those were great.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, my NSX is pretty good.

[Zach Klann]

I like old school Hurst shifters. You know, on a good like motorsport transmission, they feel great.

[Matt Farah]

The GT3's six speed is really good.

[Zach Klann]

911 T1's pretty good.

[Matt Farah]

The six speed, yeah, the six speed is fine.

[Zach Klann]

BMW shifters are gotten better, but I would just say there's more like. It just feels like there's more rubber separating you from the action because they're trying to make it a more comfortable experience I guess than something like, you know, Corvette back with the six speeds. They had a lot of feel but they were hard to move. It's like this. It's. It's that. I don't know. It's the heaviest weight. It's the weight of it and the notchiness of it so you know where your hand is and where the gear is. I do appreciate that, but the weight would be. It was annoying.

[Matt Farah]

What about the 0406 Ford GT shifter, which is probably one of my favorite shifters of all time.

[Zach Klann]

I've not driven one.

[Matt Farah]

It's so, so beautiful. So beautiful to use it Never, never been, never been topped I think since. That's a lot of good ones. Okay, what about bad ones?

[Zach Klann]

I don't, I still don't like the Ford Hockey puck. I know that it keeps like the cow and you know, it works on the Mach E for me. But when I get in a Mustang that. Especially when it has like a lot of power and then I just spin this wheel that always feels like it's lost some teeth in the gear even when it's brand new. Yeah. There is something so unsatisfying about the action of just turning that thing.

[Matt Farah]

I really don't like PRNDL4 buttons across the completely. I really don't like that.

[Zach Klann]

Like Lincoln did that. Yeah. Buttons on the dash is not very.

[Matt Farah]

Good in terms of manual shifters. I mean there's a bunch that just don't feel very good. I think we just drove that. That the Subaru WRX shifter stinks. The current one.

[Zach Klann]

Oh yeah. That was very good.

[Matt Farah]

Not. Not fun.

[Zach Klann]

Which is surprising because like the GR86 shifter is pretty good.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klann]

The regular Supra, you said the shifter was not good, but then once they did the GR edition, they had improved it a lot.

[Matt Farah]

Wait, what? No, no, the manual Supra. Oh no, the manual Supra shifter is better.

[Zach Klann]

Oh, sorry.

[Matt Farah]

What I said is it's better that shifter, considering it's a BMW powertrain.

[Zach Klann]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

The Supra shifter feels nicer to me than most modern BMW.

[Zach Klann]

Right. That's what it was. They tweaked that a little bit. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The Z4 version of it I think is only average. It's fine. The Z4 shifter is nice when you're driving it. 6, 7, 10. When you're really ripping it, it's not that great.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. That's so John Hennessy, you next Tuesday. That is funny. This person's 23. They just moved out to San Diego. I think on their own job or. Sorry, on their own with a job. Their parents were always boring and pragmatic with cars so he wants to give them a middle finger lovingly and buy something that is the most 23 year old daily driver possible. They want some enthusiast cred and some speed, but at least a few safety and daily driver comforts. They're thinking for 20 grand of a C5Z06 but would love to hear other options.

[Matt Farah]

20 grand. A C506. I think the most 23 year old San Diego car ever is a BMW 335 with a super burbal too.

[Zach Klann]

That is very true.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's so San Diego.

[Zach Klann]

It's very. Yeah. Or like a clapped out F80. Yeah. Actually those are more expensive than that.

[Matt Farah]

That's probably going to be over 20. But like A1C, A1 135i or A. Or like that or 235i.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Super verbal tune or get you there.

[Zach Klann]

A high mileage convertible, E90. Your E92 or E93 I guess it's called.

[Matt Farah]

If you want Corvettes like C5Z06s are, they're just really old now and they were built like when they were new. So like the good thing about them is the powertrain is very robust and they're very fast for what they are. They're light and if you want to turn a lap time, big brakes, sticky tires and a set of coilovers and you're. You're right there and you're like almost running like 911 GT3 lap times. But like they're also rattly boxes. And I say this as someone who has.

[Zach Klann]

They are. What is the. What do Camaro SSS cost now? Like 5th Street?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean that's. They're under 20 for sure. That's a lot. Even be able to get a sixth gen, right?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, sixth gen. Like that's a. That's a pretty good car. A little more livable than a C5 for sure. More comfortable trunk or actually smaller trunk. But it has a back seat.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Or get a slam G35. That person.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Totally.

[Zach Klann]

All right. The rainbow shakes Shroom. I can't see the whole name. Oh, nope. I still can't. Jerry Seinfeld said He prefers the 918 to the Carrera GT which surprised. Which was surprising to Spike and Doug Demiro. How do you feel about that?

[Matt Farah]

That's interesting. I don't. As far as I know, Jerry doesn't like crazy cars. Like he doesn't like cars that are known for being like ragged. Yeah, he's a little more, you know. So I think he probably likes that he can use his 918 a lot and it's a little more like normal. Yeah, that, that does surprise. But he's not. He doesn't think about cars the same way that I do. He thinks about them a little differently. So. Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Education through Lancia Delta says I'm trying to decide between a Focus st and a 2011 plus Mustang. My daily drive consists about 30 minutes of interstate cruising at 75 miles per hour. Is the Focus's engine comfortable for that long or should I stick to the Mustang? They're about the same price in my area. Interesting.

[Matt Farah]

I mean it's more like do you want a front wheel drive car or a rear wheel drive car? This is. These are hugely different experiences.

[Zach Klann]

Like neither engine should have a problem cruising on the highway.

[Matt Farah]

No, it's fine. Focus St. It's like 240 horsepower. Like you could definitely go down the highway just fine in one of those.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, totally. Yeah, it'll might. Well, gas mileage might be the same. I don't know off the top of.

[Matt Farah]

The head, but it's more just like a front engine. Mustang is, is a. Is a very specific driving experience and a front wheel Drive hatchback is a very. That's okay, we don't need that one anymore. Is a very different kind of driving experience. The Focus will feel a little more European, whereas the Mustang is very much, you know, it'll handle okay, but it's very much a muscle car vibe.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, I think if I was getting a straight commuter car, it's very much what you want. The Mustang is going to be a little more vibration because of the engine and you know, the hood's very tall. I mean in the 2011, there's the visibility is better than the new ones, but there's a little more vibration to it. So that might bother you, but like they're such different cars, you just have to drive them both and decide what you want.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Interesting comparison. Would we take a brand new GLC 633 with the Hybrid or a slightly used X3M?

[Matt Farah]

X3M?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, the, the 63 Hybrid 4 banger. It's just not working for me. If.

[Matt Farah]

Can you. I don't know if you can get a GLC 53 with the six cylinder. I don't know if you can. I haven't looked. If you can. That's the one.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. How do we know when it's time to. Oh, this is from Mikum. How do we know when it's time to move on from a car? I've had it for almost 10 years, done every mod under the sun and I've done all kinds of adventures with it. I have sentimental attachment, but I want something new. So what do you do?

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I've never, not never, but I'm very rarely been sentimentally attached to a car in a way that would keep me from selling it if I was like over it. Like, if you do the things, then you're like, I, I, when I'm going through my car journey, I eventually just get to a point where I don't really feel like driving that today and then I don't really feel like driving that this week. And then I don't really feel like driving it this month. And once I look at it not being driven for a month or two, I go, guess I'm over it. And then I sell it and I really never think about it again. I, I couldn't tell you. There's a car where, there's a couple cars in my history where I was like, ah, the trade I made there wasn't great. Maybe I should have held on to that for a little longer. But it's not like I need to go back and find that car now and get it back. I don't have any regrets.

[Zach Klann]

I think, I think this person like, look, you've modded it, you've done it. If. And you say you've done all kinds of adventures with it. Those are the things I want to do with a car. And I haven't sold my car because I haven't done all the adventures I want to do yet. But if you have had all the memories, you've done all the things I would say have a friend with a great camera, take cool pictures of it, print a poster so that you always have a great like, yeah, that's a picture poster of the car and then move on. And then when people say oh, what car is that? You go, oh, that's this thing. I did this with it. I did. Like you can tell the stories but you don't need to have it in the garage. Like you can use the money or the time or whatever to do new things, make new adventures, have new experiences because it seems like you've done it.

[Matt Farah]

I have pictures of a couple of my older cars hanging around the office. After a while that's, that's, that's as good as having the real thing.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. It primes the story and the memories and that's what you're doing. Johnny. Evie Gear woman. That's funny. Lucid air pures are now $33,000.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Wow.

[Zach Klann]

How much of a bargain is that?

[Matt Farah]

A bargain? That's a, that's like a no brainer level bargain.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. That's pretty amazing. I mean, assuming that the service network of some kind will exist. Although I used to worry about that and now that I see people driving oceans around, like someone out there will figure out a way to fix anything and you can pay them to keep it going. So that's an amazing car for three grand.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, that's a ton of car. Yeah, I mean it legitimately does feel like a six figure car. Not a deep six figure car, but a six figure car nonetheless.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, it looks like a spaceship inside and outside. Let's see. Emmett Fitzhugh. Is there a good reason I shouldn't get a 996C4 and turn it into a safari style car? The roads where I live suck and I'd like to take it skiing. I think that's awesome.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean there's not like there's.

[Zach Klann]

No reason to not do that.

[Matt Farah]

There are reasons to not buy a996. You probably already know what they are, you know, but like if you, there isn't a reason other than money to not make your car ready for winter.

[Zach Klann]

This is interesting. What is our Mount Rushmore of corny car culture behavior? Some examples. This is from Shep. An Instagram handle sticker on your car that's fake up badging. Buying your own quote sponsorship stickers and putting them on your car as if you're sponsored. That's hilarious. Porsche nerds who'd rather discuss paint to sample colors on their GT3 than lap times and camber angles. All right, so basically, what is the top worst behavior in our opinion?

[Matt Farah]

I mean, there's the Ferrari guy who put his window sticker on his law for. On his whatever. That's very SP3 is pretty up there. Instagram handle on your car pretty up there. That's pretty bad. Intentionally installing a fire tune and then just making fire like a traffic lights is pretty bad.

[Zach Klann]

Or I mean, the gunshot tune, which is what it's called for BMWs and other cars is terrible.

[Matt Farah]

I think fake up badging is pretty bad.

[Zach Klann]

That's one of the worst and funniest. I don't see it as much anymore. I think if you get a exotic car and you get the most track focused version like Ferrari Fiorano or GT3Rs or anything, where you've added all the wings and stuff and your mileage remains so low, it's clear you don't go to the track.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klann]

That should be up there. Like you are cosplaying to the nth degree.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. The Porsche guys talking about paint to sample colors does not bother me the way it bothers other people. I don't think they can help themselves. And the fact is you can get one of those cars in basically any color you want. And that makes it interesting and unique compared to other cars. And so I think that that's totally fine. I, I don't, I don't. I'm not that offended by that.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Especially because people ask me about the color of my all the time. So I'm not gonna throw stones in a glass house. Yeah, no, fake up badging is pretty bad because the only people who notice are the people who, who know it's fake. You're not fooling anybody.

[Zach Klann]

I would, I would add driving a G wagon and saying it's a commercial vehicle when it's probably not. That would be up there.

[Matt Farah]

Or, dude, how about just straight up registering your car in Montana, Even if it could legally be registered in California.

[Zach Klann]

Why did I forget that? Yeah, that, that it can be and you can afford it. And you're like, well, I want to Save the money.

[Matt Farah]

Just open tax evasion and don't move. There is my mine.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That's the top. Panic stop at the disc brakes. That's funny.

[Matt Farah]

Well, that's pretty good.

[Zach Klann]

I'm starting to see on occasion Australian Ford Falcon XR6 and XR8 listings on cars and bids and bring a trailer. I've been intrigued by them, but they seem irrelevant when the Pontiac G8 and Chevy SS are available for a similar experience. Have we had any experience with those cars?

[Matt Farah]

Never have. But I, but I absolutely understand the appeal.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Of just wanting to drive something that's different. And I think if you wanted to get a mostly normal, you know, a high performance sedan that is mostly normal. It's a Ford, you know, but, but something you could bring to a car show or a cars and coffee that people go, I haven't, I've never seen one of those before. They have the, the, the, the turbocharged six cylinder engines. They're pretty cool. Like.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, they're strong too. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

There is something to be said for just for being different, you know. And it's not like they're shit boxes. Like I don't know anything about them, I've never driven them. But they seem different, interesting. And if you wanted a sedan that you could put your family in that you know is, is, is going to be weird in America but you know, isn't like a complete fucking wild card.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

There you go.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Matt's MISSING MISSING COUNTACH PART Leave cars for a moment. What's the silliest disagreement you've ever had with your wives?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, did you have one?

[Zach Klann]

I do. We, we have like a running thing. So I, I oftentimes my reaction to being like not criticized but like corrected about something is I'm just averse to it for reasons we don't need to get into. But I always, almost always recognize that my wife is right. Like, like I'll say we should do something. And she goes what if we do it this way? And I'm. And I'll just say and now the joke is I'll say no. And she goes, is that because it's a worse idea or because you just don't want to do it? And I go, because I just don't want to do it. You are right. That is smarter. We should do it that way. But for a moment I'm gonna say no. And then we crack up and we do it like every week.

[Matt Farah]

That's pretty funny. It says take the H to the hove. Okay.

[Zach Klann]

Like, I don't have. Like, I'll say, like, okay, let's carry our stuff down to the car. And she'll go, well, why don't we wait a minute? And then we'll wait till the groceries get here because we need that in the car also. And I go, no.

[Matt Farah]

So the main silly Hannah doesn't know the value of her own time, and I do. And I know the value of my time because it's all I have, right? And so Hannah will spend a lot of time and energy doing things that don't return any value, monetary or otherwise. So she'll, you know, she'll buy some very cheap thing, and then it doesn't like it, and she'll go, all. Have to go all the way back to the store to return it. And she'll have spent a half hour doing this to get, like, $6 back on a. On a whatever, when it was, you know, a hundred dollars of her time that she spent doing this. And so I regularly have to remind her of what her hourly rate is. And. And she doesn't. She'll waste all kinds of time. So. So that's the main. The main one. She doesn't want to know. She. She gets satisfaction in returning the thing. Yeah, it's part of her whatever process.

[Zach Klann]

Or, like, her selling things for very low money on. On Facebook or something.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, that always makes me laugh. Last two. Perfect timing. We got eight minutes. All right. Heavy Gravy says, given all the discussion around press events, what was the best press event with the worst car and the worst press event with the best car?

[Matt Farah]

These are really easy. The worst press event with the best car. Ironically, Spain, the worst press event is the one with bad seat time. Like, I know it's hard for people to believe this, but I don't really give a shit what hotel we're at or where we are. It makes no difference for the video, and it makes no difference for me other than the novelty of saying I've been to a new place. Like, we're not on vacation, we're there to work. It's nice that a hotel is nice, but I don't give a. What I care about is, Is the seat time good? Do I get to experience the car in a variety of ways? Do I have enough opportunity to create content that's going to be good, you know, etc. Right? So the.

[Zach Klann]

The.

[Matt Farah]

It's hard for me to say best for the worst car because we. It's been a very long time since I've been on a press Launch for what could be considered a bad car.

[Zach Klann]

Right. There's, I mean there's just not many bad cars anymore. We get invited, we're not going to.

[Matt Farah]

The new Corolla launch or whatever. We're going, you know, with respect to Toyota but like the stuff we're going on is like fairly high end. So like the, there was a, there was a Lotus event that, that was like.

[Zach Klann]

Oh no, that's the one I went on the Lotus Eletre launch.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Which was a cool event in Norway and you know you get to see a new place and blah blah, blah, blah. And the car was like had tech that didn't work because it's just like Volvo, they have this radar that eventually will happen. The mirrors that we can't get in the United States. But I had to experience them there anyway. And the car is, you know, a 6,000 pound electric lotus that looks weird and it looks like Temu Urus.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

And now they're not even around here anymore and they're very expensive. So that was, that was the worst car in a good event I went to.

[Matt Farah]

And also a Lotus one was the Evora GT which was a Gingerman and it was like a Holiday Inn, Subway sandwiches and like 7 hours of track time. Like I'll take that all day. That's a great, that's like that to me it's like peak awesome. Like don't care about the food, give me all the track time. So. And then like worst event for best car. I mean I think that's that one. That, that's probably it. Yeah. Best event for worst cars is really hard. I, I can't recall going on a great event for like a. We went to fucking.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Dude, we get.

[Matt Farah]

Remember Vegas, Mandarin Oriental, full day at Spring Mountain.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

It was for the, the Hyundai, the Genesis Coupe and the, the 36 and the Elantra or something. Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

We were driven out there in the Genesis Sonatas. What do they call it back then?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it was Hyundai Sonata and Genesis Coupe and neither of those cars were bad. But that was a pretty big money launch with a lot of track time and nice hotels for a. Whatever car.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, that was fun.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

All the journalists left the track early. Yeah, A line of cars and we literally would like do two laps, pull in, get out, walk to two other cars and then do laps and yeah, that was great. That was John Craft coming out with us.

[Matt Farah]

But I also, you know, I went to Spain once. I talked about, I talk about this a lot, being the worst press launch I ever went on. Fucking 15 hours of flying to Spain for eight. Six or eight.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

I don't remember.

[Matt Farah]

It doesn't really matter. I think maybe six laps around a wet racetrack lead, follow in an Audi R8 GT with an embargo that was either on Thanksgiving Day or the Fourth of July. So it was just like. Just like punch in the face after punch in the face.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, it was challenging. There were a couple years where a lot of the embargoes were like midnight on Thanksgiving was like, because, you know, it doesn't matter to the rest of the world. Germany, but, you know, the largest car market in the world.

[Matt Farah]

Thanksgiving at 3pm get the out of here, dude.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, yeah, you crazy. They've done that a few times.

[Matt Farah]

So that was, that was, you know, nothing wrong with an R8 GT. That's a lovely car, but like, to fly that far, I mean, that's two hours of air travel for every lap of racetrack. That's awful.

[Zach Klann]

You know, like, my funny one is this trip to South Korea. The first car I drove, which I drove for eight hours. No, not eight, nine and a half hours. The Nexo, the hydrogen car, like, comfortable radar, like, all the functionality was good. And they've got these new screens for mirrors, but you don't want to own one here. You can't drive it in any other state other than California. So, like, in some ways, well, neither.

[Matt Farah]

That's the most whatever car. Car ever. Like, it's not like it's exciting to drive.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, but I mean, it's the same as, you know, any regular Mach E or anything else. Yeah, for sure. Just feels like an ev.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean, there's. And there's launches. I mean, there's a lot of these mommy bloggers and like, not even just mommy bloggers.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

Like, what?

[Matt Farah]

A lot of journalists that are like our friends have young kids and will get invited on launches. Like, I think the minivan. The minivan. Hawaii. Yeah, bring your whole family to Hawaii and take them on this trip in this minivan. Which for me would have been stupid and boring, but for them is like, you know, a pretty good time.

[Zach Klann]

When I've heard a lot of those, they offer activities out. Like driving's not the thing. So it's like, yeah, just tell us what you want to do while you're here.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but to fly a long way, have no seat time and have the. Have the car be something that's nice but iterative, like R8s are great. They're great cars. But by the end of the R8 production run, nobody gave A. Oh, this is the performance. Oh, this is the gt. Like nobody cared. So. So it was like a bunch of like things that were against that.

[Zach Klann]

The MC, the MC20 Stradale plan, before it was changed on the ground for us, thankfully by someone at Con Media, was like, you get three laps in the car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's terrible.

[Zach Klann]

And that's it. And we, we flew to Spain and it was. And they, they really fought for us when we got a couple sessions, but the plan and other people had to adhere to that. I feel bad for them was they flew to Spain and they drove for six minutes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Which car, sorry, which car was it? MC20 Stradiva.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's no good. You can't have people flying that far to drive so little.

[Zach Klann]

Well, it just, I mean it's not, it's just not a good use of that person's time. But it's also not a great way to demonstrate the abilities of the car. And in this case, it's. It's a car with all the aero downforce, quicker this, bigger brakes that like, it's the track version of the MC20. You should let people get to know it because this is meant for driving on a track. So why, why not let them drive it on track for more than five minutes so that they can actually get to know the thing.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, and that was at Ascari too, right?

[Zach Klann]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That track is too complicated to learn it in three laps.

[Zach Klann]

Sure is.

[Matt Farah]

You cannot learn that track complicated in six laps. There's like, there's like 19 corners. There's. Yeah, that's crazy.

[Zach Klann]

And elevation and.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, a lot of the blind. Yeah, that's tough. That's. So that's, I mean, the, you know, I went to a pretty country and, you know, top line item, stayed in a nice hotel, drove a nice car. But the people that really give a. About this job, and there's a lot of us, there's a lot of us more that more people do this job that really give a shit about doing it than, than don't you know, they want the seat time. They don't really give a fuck about. There's a couple of them old school guys that are on permanent vacation. Admittedly they're still out there.

[Zach Klann]

But look, what got us into this job is driving. Because when we read the magazines, I can't remember ever reading, like the hotel was like, no one ever described the environment they were brought to. It was about, here's the car, how's it drive? So that's what we wanted to do. And that's what excites us.

[Matt Farah]

Well, and the audience doesn't give a shit. The audience doesn't care where you've reviewed the car. You go where you have to go to drive the car. It makes absolutely no difference. But there's just a very clear look. I understand that most people can go on fancy vacations right now and maybe never will. And it does seem like you're going.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

On a fancy vacation because you're going on a curated experience.

[Matt Farah]

You know who's on the kind of a fancy vacation? The fucking manufacturer executives that get to sit there for two weeks.

[Zach Klann]

Yeah, but they.

[Matt Farah]

They're working. They're working, they're working. I'm not taking away from. But, like, you know as well as I do that a lot of these destinations are chosen because the executives want to go there.

[Zach Klann]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

Like, remember, like, oh, wait, do I go left here? Remember, like, the decade of Tenerife, like, every somebody at Porsche was fucking somebody in Tenerife.

[Zach Klann]

Joke. Yeah, it was a joke. You know, allegedly. Like, someone has to have a mistress here because this is just too many visits to the same place.

[Matt Farah (Ad Reads)]

We're going down there.

[Zach Klann]

So you turn left and right.

[Matt Farah]

Left and right. Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

You know, these folks have to go. Like, they got to keep picking places on Earth that fit these criteria of driving and access and all these things. There's only so many places. But anytime I talk to those folks, they. On week two, like, they're tired, they've eaten the same thing, they've had the same conversations, they're getting up early, they're going to bed late. It's. It's kind of. It's a grind for them. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And I mean, it's just.

[Zach Klann]

It's just. And you know what? Fancy hotels can still have terrible bedding. Bro doesn't breathe and you're sweating your face off. And in Europe, the air conditioning does not cool the room enough.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, you're not wrong. I've stayed in hotels that had great restaurants, you know, really, really nice lobbies, a good bar and all that stuff. And then the bed sucks. Oh, man.

[Zach Klann]

Bedding's made of, like, grocery bags.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klann]

Just, you know, immediately. It's not plastic. It's not breathing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I still. I. I'll. You know, we do this job voluntarily. We love it, but it's sometimes.

[Zach Klann]

Can I say, the density of restaurants per hundred feet on this strip mall is record holding.

[Matt Farah]

Real serious. Well, here we go. We're gonna try the double zero artisanal pizza and bar at 10:30 in the morning. Breakfast pies, baby.

[Zach Klann]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

Thanks to our patrons.

[Zach Klann]

Shut up.

[Matt Farah]

Thank you to our patrons for asking such good questions today. We like to do shows in the studio where possible, but we got to drive to Utah. What you going to do? And we'll see you guys back in studio next time. Thank you so much. See you later.