LC500 for 1100 miles; Hydrogen Lawsuit; Kitten rescue

Summary

Episode Summary: The Smoking Tire – "LC500 for 1100 Miles; Hydrogen Lawsuit; Kitten Rescue"

Release Date: June 24, 2025

In this engaging episode of The Smoking Tire, hosts Zack Klapman and Matt Farah delve into a blend of personal experiences, in-depth automotive discussions, and heartwarming rescue tales. The episode seamlessly weaves through high-octane car analysis, pressing industry issues, and unexpected acts of kindness, providing listeners with a comprehensive and entertaining auditory journey.

---

1. A Harrowing Panic Attack on the Road [00:00 – 07:33]

The episode kicks off with Speaker A sharing a deeply personal and unsettling experience of having a severe panic attack while driving. Consuming an excessive amount of caffeine led to intense anxiety and physical discomfort, culminating in a public display of vulnerability.

• Notable Quote:
  • "I pulled in here cuz I was not feeling well and having chest pains... I need to sit on the porch and drink water for as long as it takes for me to not feel like this anymore." ([02:23])

This segment not only highlights the dangers of overindulgence in stimulants but also underscores the importance of being prepared for medical emergencies while on the road. The hosts discuss the psychological and physiological interplay during panic attacks, emphasizing the cyclical nature of mind and body responses.

2. Rescue Efforts Amid Tragedy [04:00 – 07:33]

Speaker A recounts a tragic incident where a friend, Paul Kramer of Auto Kennel, and himself performed CPR on a man who suffered a massive heart attack while driving, leading to a fatal crash. The juxtaposition of life continuing normally just minutes after such a traumatic event serves as a poignant reminder of the fragility and resilience inherent in everyday life.

• Notable Quote:
  • "They stopped right on the spot where the guy was and just have a normal mother baby, puppy interaction... sometimes it's better that we don't know things." ([05:43])

3. Driving the Lexus LC500 Across 1100 Miles [10:00 – 33:07]

The conversation shifts to an extensive road trip undertaken in a Lexus LC500, covering 1100 miles through scenic routes like the Seaside to Sierra Road. Speaker A provides a detailed review of the vehicle's performance, handling, and comfort during long-distance driving.

• Key Highlights:

  • Route Selection: Emphasis on unique scenic paths and the challenges of scouting new roads.
  • Vehicle Performance: Discussion on the LC500’s transmission issues, suspension setup, and analog features that cater to driving enthusiasts.
  • User Experience: Comparisons with other performance cars like the Mustang, highlighting the LC500's balance between comfort and sporty handling.

• Notable Quote:

  • "It's a beautifully responsive and balanced and fun." ([24:11])

4. Hydrogen Mirai Lawsuit Against Toyota [52:18 – 64:19]

A significant portion of the episode addresses the emerging lawsuit against Toyota concerning the Hydrogen Mirai. Owners are taking legal action due to the car's fueling inefficiencies and the inadequate hydrogen infrastructure, which has rendered the vehicle virtually unusable for many.

• Discussion Points:

  • Filing Individual Suits: Transition from a class-action lawsuit to individual cases, reflecting the varied impacts on owners.
  • Fueling Challenges: Technical explanation of hydrogen fueling mechanics and the practical issues faced by Mirai owners.
  • Sales Practices: Allegations against dealerships for misrepresenting the viability and accessibility of hydrogen fueling stations.

• Notable Quote:

  • "This lawsuit is from a bunch of different owners... meaning shortages of fuel at stations, lack of stations, freezing thing, the nozzle freezing to the car." ([53:55])

5. Heartwarming Kitten Rescue [43:12 – 50:41]

In a delightful turn, Speaker A narrates the rescue of three kittens stranded in a tree. Despite initial challenges and limited resources, the collaborative effort with his wife and community members leads to the safe retrieval and eventual adoption of the kittens.

• Notable Quote:
  • "They started trying to come down, and the first one, like, eight feet from the ground, like, fell on the ground... we became friends right away." ([46:05])

This segment showcases the hosts' compassionate side, reinforcing the theme that even amidst discussions of high-performance vehicles and industry lawsuits, acts of kindness remain paramount.

6. Listener Q&A and Automotive Insights [68:05 – End]

The latter part of the episode transitions into a listener-driven Q&A, where Zack and Matt address various automotive queries, ranging from car recommendations to watch choices. Topics include:

• Best Steering Feel for Daily-Driven Sports Coupes: Recommendations like the Porsche 911 variants, Toyota GR Corolla, and Mazda 6.

• Complete Passenger Experience Cars: Suggestions based on budget and comfort.

• Sim Racing Considerations: Debating the merits and drawbacks of participating in sim racing events.

• Notable Quote:

  • "If you are struggling with what to do, how do I come up with a workout to get these goals? Fitbod is for you." ([08:00])

7. Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up [87:00 – End]

As the episode nears its conclusion, the hosts reflect on their experiences, upcoming events, and share personal anecdotes that bind the episode's diverse topics into a cohesive narrative. They advise listeners on health awareness, specifically emphasizing the importance of regular cardiologist visits.

• Notable Quote:
  • "If you're over 40, make sure you see a cardiologist every year. That's my PSA." ([98:30])

---

Conclusion

This episode of The Smoking Tire masterfully balances intense personal stories with technical automotive discussions and endearing rescue missions. Zack Klapman and Matt Farah engage their audience with authenticity, expertise, and genuine camaraderie, making it a must-listen for automotive enthusiasts and general listeners alike. From the exhilarating performance of the Lexus LC500 to the critical examination of hydrogen vehicle infrastructure and the sweet rescue of kittens, the episode offers a rich tapestry of content that resonates on multiple levels.

---

Stay Connected:

• Watch Car Reviews: www.youtube.com/thesmokingtire
• Twitter: @thesmokingtire | @zackklapman
• Instagram: @thesmokingtire | @fakezackklapman

---

Note: The timestamps correspond to segments within the provided transcript and are used to highlight significant moments and quotes for better navigation and reference.

Transcript

[A]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire podcast. On today's episode, I go a thousand miles in a Lexus LC500. Also, we rescue kittens out of a tree. And a bunch of people are suing Toyota because their hydrogen cars kind of suck. It's a good one. And Zach and I are back in studio for the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's get to it. Panic attacks blow.

[B]

I mean, that's a lot of coffee. That's 400 milligrams.

[A]

Yeah. But when you're. It's so easy to. To do that. Like, I woke up really early and I had, I had a cup in my hotel room. And then Ellie and I went to breakfast at the diner and I had a cup.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I was leaving for the drive and so I had my pink Porsche cup and I asked the diner to fill that.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Then I filled that and drank that. And then when I stopped, I really had to piss. But the bathroom was all, you got to buy something.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And so I refilled it and then I drank it again. And then I think that was it.

[B]

I think you just, you hit a point where you have to. You, you have to consciously pay attention to caffeine. You. And you take in. Yeah, because I knew this last year, like, no, like, oh, it's 3:00pm I shouldn't, I want to. I shouldn't.

[A]

I knew it like two years ago. I learned that. You know, I learned that lesson five years ago. And then it slowly slipped.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I didn't. I haven't had to really learn it again. Like, that was really bad. Yeah, it was really bad. Hannah was really. Hannah was like, turn your location sharing on right now. She was like, and I need to know, like, exactly where you are.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

And she's like, and when you get there, you need to go inside and you need to tell the lady behind the fucking counter what's happening. Which I did. In front of people.

[B]

Like the hotel?

[A]

No, at the gas station I stopped at.

[B]

Wait, why'd you tell the gas station.

[A]

When I was having a panic attack? She's like, cuz if you're really having a heart attack, she's like, you. They need to know.

[B]

It's a good point. Wow.

[A]

And I, like, in front of people, had to say to like a Shell gas station attendant, ma' am, I pulled in here cuz I was not feeling well and having chest pains. And even though it kills my ego, my wife insists that I tell you that I'm going to sit on the porch and drink water for as long as it takes for me to not feel like this anymore.

[B]

Smart.

[A]

And would you please check on me?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

How many times do you think she checked on me in the next 60 minutes?

[B]

60 minutes?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

0.

[A]

0.

[B]

Through the window.

[A]

0. 0 is the right answer.

[B]

She looked through the window.

[A]

She was like.

[B]

She's like, I get paid minimum wage. Yeah.

[A]

For those of you just joining us now, welcome to the program. I was in the middle of describing a massive panic attack I had while driving to Zach and how you never want that to happen to you. And if it has happened to you, it's really bad.

[B]

It is.

[A]

And if it's happened to you, particularly while driving, and you know anyone that has had a heart attack and died while driving, then it's really bad. That guy like two weeks ago, three weeks ago.

[B]

You see that UPS guy? No.

[A]

Our buddy, our buddy, Paul Kramer, Auto Kennel. Shout out to him. One of the good ones. When it comes to car. When it comes to car dealers, not a lot of people get the one of the good ones badge. Paul Kramer and Auto Kennel. One of the good ones. I wasn't there. He was on a drive, a rally, a road rally up north. I think it was up north, old 911s. An older guy driving solo had a heart attack, a massive heart attack while driving.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

And you know, crashed. And the doctors said the heart attack killed him before the crash. Later it was said that he was dead. No, no, that's not true. I think he either died in the ambulance or at the hospital, but it was not, I don't think the crash that killed him. I think it was the heart attack. But still, I think fucking Paul did CPR on him, to be honest with you, which is a crazy thing to have happened.

[B]

That's a good thing to know.

[A]

Larry and I did CPR on somebody that had a heart attack while driving and crashed into the telephone pole in front of our shop in Harrison. When Larry and I had the car wash, our first business, we heard a revving of an engine followed by a full throttle crash into a telephone pole. It was like a 92, two door blazer. The square one fucking. The pole was in that motherfucker and the dude was on the steering wheel, foot to the foot to the floor. And me and Larry dragged this dude out of the truck and I for. I think I did chest compressions and he did cpr. I think. I don't think I. I don't think I gave mouth to mouth to the guy. I think Larry actually did. And, and he was alive when he got in the ambulance, but he did ultimately die.

[B]

Jesus.

[A]

Yeah, it was fucking scary. And then like actually shit. He. They might have called it on the ground. I'm not sure if he actually got a lot. Either way, it was very sad and very crazy. And the weirdest thing about it by far, I mean, because someone dying is tragic, but not like weird. Five minutes after the ambulance left, there's a mother with a stroller and a baby and a dog and they stop right on the spot where the guy was and just have a normal mother baby, puppy interaction. Like, and I'm not trying to say the guy's soul or any of that. I'm saying like on that spot, five minutes later, life went on.

[B]

Right. Like, and also new life was happening.

[A]

No. Yeah. Yes. But like, but it was still like, like, you know, if you told that mother, like, hey, 30 seconds ago, there was like a, a dead guy Rick right there. Like that would probably bug her the out too. But like, sometimes it's better that we don't know things.

[B]

Well, yeah. And if that kid drops a cracker on the ground, she's not doing five second rule.

[A]

Straight up. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Life has to go on. It's weird.

[A]

Like. So anyway, those stories in mind was what was going on in my head that started the deeper level two of the downward spiral. That was the caffeine induced panic attack while driving.

[B]

Yeah. The body can influence the mind and then it goes in a circle.

[A]

Yeah. And then the mind goes back to the body. You know what happened while I called Hannah to tell her this was going on and that I was going to stop at the next place, but she wanted to talk the whole way, which was actually a good idea because I started to feel better. And then when I hung up the phone and didn't have her to distract me, I felt worse. But actually my body, my left arm hurt, which is what would happen if you were having a heart attack.

[B]

What?

[A]

It's also what happens if you drive 1100 miles in four days because you're holding the wheel one handed, so you.

[B]

Have like a shoulder.

[A]

So actually this muscle here is like, is sore from doing that amount of driving. So like, but. But the spiral continues.

[B]

Right?

[A]

So like.

[B]

That'S the word. I can't. That was terrible.

[A]

It was terrible. Really terrible. Yeah. And getting back in the car was hard. And I had six hours to go when I got back in the car.

[B]

What day was this yesterday?

[A]

This was Saturday.

[B]

When you drove back?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's shitty, man. Panic Attacks are the worst. I really. Yeah.

[B]

You need to call friends to distract you for the drive.

[A]

Well, I mean, fortunately, I have a. You know, a loving wife. Right.

[B]

I'm saying, like.

[A]

Oh, the whole way. Yeah, the whole way. I sat at the gas station for one hour, and I set timers every 15 minutes because I was like, you know, time is like a different thing when you're having a panic attack. I had one in Italy, too. It was terrible from humidity and being, like, sweaty.

[B]

Did you set a timer so an alarm went off every 15?

[A]

I set a timer so I wouldn't look at my phone or anything. You know, I had a book so I would read. I read the book, and for 15 minutes, I wouldn't look at the time. I knew it would tell me, and if I didn't, it took four of those before I was like, okay. It wasn't even like, okay. I feel better. It was, okay. This isn't an actual heart attack. Right? Meanwhile, by the way, the whole time this is going on my heart rate, what do you think it was?

[B]

106, 64. What?

[A]

64 beats per minute.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

I checked it, like, every five minutes. Well, then you're probably absolutely not having a heart attack.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not only that, my cholesterol. My cholesterol back. It's really good.

[B]

But you also didn't even have an elevated heart rate. No, it wasn't even 90, where you're anxious and it's going like this. Huh.

[A]

Isn't that nuts? That's 100% mental. And I made pains happen. I made, like, symptoms happen. I made all of that happen with my mind. Isn't that fucking crazy?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And my heart didn't even buy it. My brain was such a bad liar to my heart.

[B]

It's the power of it. That's wild, right? Yeah.

[A]

Heart didn't buy it.

[B]

It's amazing that your heart rate wasn't actually up, though.

[A]

No. And I have a very low resting heart rate, like, naturally, you know. It was way up, though. It was my blood pressure. So that's weird.

[B]

It is weird.

[A]

I don't know. Some doctor right now. Don't worry.

[B]

No, I know you do. I'm not here. I'm, like, trying to remember the. You know, the wilderness medicine book I read is, like, three pages, but the heart section was like. I read. I went, I gotta read this at least two more times.

[A]

Yeah. There's a reason there's doctors.

[B]

And in that book, there's, like, a whole chapter about how panic attacks and heart attacks and diagnosing Heart attacks is very difficult even if you're at a hospital. Like.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Without having actual medical equipment story. Exactly. So it's like being in the field and trying to do this. The book's like, forget it. Just extract somebody. Yeah.

[A]

So tough day on Saturday.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

All that and a nine hour drive.

[B]

But you know what soothes nervousness like this? The LC500.

[A]

It's a great car.

[B]

It's a great commercial.

[A]

That is a great car. I mean. Yeah, I guess we could talk about that. I did 1100 miles. 1100 and something miles. Drove to San Francisco, did the entire seaside to Sierra road and track experiences route. It's fucking awesome. Shout out to a fan named Steve who turned me on Wentworth Springs Road east of Sacramento out in those mountains because fuck me, that one was a banger. We're gonna do that one on the road. Berryessa Road looks fabulous. There was like all kinds. There was like the burned out trees from five years ago with like beautiful golden, you know, wildflower blooms happening. Pretty kickass drive if I'm honest. It's cool and never been. You're in a grass valley in Northern California.

[B]

I don't know. I have to look it up.

[A]

Cool. A really cool old mining town. Stayed in a hotel for the event. We're staying in it called the Holbrook Hotel. And it's from like 1850 but like a really cool walkable town. And they actually just. They just. Their main street in the middle of town. They just banned cars.

[B]

No way.

[A]

If you go to the Google street view of like, I think it's called Mill Street. It shows cars and parking spaces. But I was just there and like cars aren't allowed there. And it's this like delightfully popping off.

[B]

Like pedestrian mall now on Main, right here.

[A]

It's not Main. No, it's called Mill Street. It's like in the middle of town. Like just look up Hotel Holbrook. It's across there it is. And the quick hotel's down there. The middle one. Yeah, they bought an ad and it's working for us. Where are you? There you are. So it's across that little street, Mill street right here. Yeah. If you street view that, it'll show cars. But it's, it's actually a pedestrian street. Now this town is a really cool little town. See that? Turn right. Now imagine that without the cars.

[B]

Oh yeah. It's all this old timey early 1900s architecture. Yeah. Gold rush stuff. Yeah. Cool. There's a lot of these towns like what is it one of them Starts with an A. That's basically. I've had to stay in those before when our scout broke down on the way to Tahoe. So I'm familiar with the architecture, but we also did the gold painting thing once one summer. That was fun.

[A]

That's when you're a kid. That's all right.

[B]

It's amazing. Yeah.

[A]

I got some gold at Dahlonega, Georgia. That's where they do it north of Atlanta.

[B]

We found no gold, and I ended up buying, like, the little vial, you know, probably overpriced.

[A]

Whatever got nugs. But, man, these roads. These are fucking good. The roads going in and out of Tahoe, fabulous. The roads going across Napa from between San Francisco and there, that's gonna be. We got four banger hotels. This one's gonna be really nice. And I tried to make a new section of route to avoid using. I don't like reusing routes. And we did an event in 2022, and we had to get, like, kind of similar place. I was like, ah, I need to find a new route because we did this, and I. And I did it, and it was terrible.

[B]

Oh, no.

[A]

So if specifically anyone who's on the 2022 route versus this is gonna have to drive about 36 miles of the same road we drove three years ago.

[B]

That's not. Out of how many miles, though, total?

[A]

Oh, like 600.

[B]

All right. Percentage wise, that's not bad.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, it's not bad.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

I try to not do it. It's unavoidable.

[B]

I was about to ask, like, how often have you scouted something? And you go, mm, actually, this won't work. We need to find an alternate.

[A]

Every single time I do a scout, I either hit another one. Ali and I. Ali came with his green car, which was a lot of fun, and he's from that area, so he knows, like, all kinds of good stuff about it. It was very helpful. But, you know, when I'm doing Google Street View, I'm not. Every hundred yards of tarmac for 500 miles, I look at sections that look and I make assumptions. And then you drive it and you go, oh, shit. There's a half a mile of gravel for no reason in the middle of this road. And that happened. So, yeah, like, the road is great. The road is great. The road is great. And then there's no road. Half a mile of gravel, Actually, it was, like, up over a levee. There's, like, these levees up there. So it's up over this big levee. It's gravel and Then it turns into pavement again. But like, we. I don't think people will appreciate that.

[B]

Oh, okay. Even, I mean, streetcar was fine with.

[A]

It, but I mean, you know, most people won't mind. You know, out of 25 cars, two people will be super annoyed that they paid money and had to drive on gravel.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

It's like, that's life. That's how.

[B]

Of course it is. I was thinking like half a mile and you're like, all we have to do is go over this levee. It's kind of cool. This is where the trucks come and bring whatever the hell and yeah, it won't damage wheels and stuff.

[A]

But a half a mile, you know, at 5, 5 to 10 miles an hour, that's a long time for folks to like stew about how dirty.

[B]

That's a good point.

[A]

You know, their car is or whatever.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, the dust trail. Yeah, that's a good 10 minutes.

[A]

It's long enough where you go. Is that all? It's a half a mile. Like, I clocked it. It's a half a mile. But like, it's a long. It's more than like a Billy Joel song on the radio.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It's multiple songs. So. Yeah. What are you gonna do? Right? I had to move the road. It's okay. The road wasn't good enough that it was like. It's not like I threw away big to Hunga because there's a bright Stelvio pass on there. No, I threw away an average road and picked up different average. You know, they can't all be super bangers and like, you know, a third of one of the days is like farm road, straight transit. Like, well, you know, what are you gonna do? You have to get to this town.

[B]

But sometimes if it's just. If it's 600 miles of twistiness, even that can get like monotonous. Unless you're, you know, at some point you just go, let's go highway for an hour. Rest your brain.

[A]

No, you're right.

[B]

And then you can get back on a twisty thing.

[A]

You're totally right. And there is, there is such a thing as like too much twisty. We are going to get close on this one because the drive from Grass Valley to Tahoe, we're making it a two stopper because like, there's a bit where it's like a full hour of like hardcore canyons and it's awesome. It's like for most people, even for me, it's like probably top four or five roads I've driven in the country in this country. Yeah, like it's awesome. And by the way, I'm not calling like the three that we use. That's not three. I'm talking like this is, this is. We got some serious road on this one. But it's a lot. But like there's just nothing, there's nowhere to stop. So you go from this end of it to the this end of it and then. And there's a stop literally at each end. But there's, it's just.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Pretty hardcore in between. Yeah. And it'll be fun as fuck though. Sick that car. Guys, we gotta take a quick break because support today is incoming hot from Delete Me. Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to take your personal data off the Internet. At a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable, DeleteMe does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information information from data broker websites because they know that your privacy is worth protecting. So you can just sign up and provide Delete Me with exactly the information that you want deleted. And they're experts, taken from there. That's exactly what I did. I got the membership to Delete me. They sent me sort of a questionnaire where I put in previous information about where I used to live, old phone numbers and email addresses, plus like my parents names, my sisters, et cetera. And it does take a few minutes but like these are the things that you want protecting and so you want to be thorough and then you submit it and then a couple days later they send you this huge report of all this stuff that they found and then they send you regular personalized reports, ongoing, once a month or so, showing you what they found, where they found it and what they have removed. So it's not just a one time service. Deleteme is always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information that you don't want on the Internet. And I have to say, since I started with Deleteme, compared to my wife who has not used Delete Me, she gets way more like spam calls, texts, emails than I'm getting. Like, I still do get some because Deleteme is always looking for new stuff. It's always popping up, but I get way, way less than my wife does who didn't use Delete Me. So take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20%. Your delete me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com tire and use promo code tire at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com Tire and enter code Tire at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com Tire CodeTire and also Fitbod. Coming in hot. Listen, I work out every single day and here's what happens. You plateau, right? You get bored with your current workout. Maybe you're new, you don't really know what to do, or you've been working out on the same plan. You just can't get any further. That's where fitbod comes in. They set you up with a custom workout plan tailored to your fitness goals. When you use the app right, you. You input, you know where you want to be, right? And then whether and how you want to be in the future, right? Like here's where I am now and I want to. I want better biceps, I want better legs, I want tighter abs. And then fitbod customizes a workout for that, right? It's very, very easy, it's straightforward. And actually you do sort of feel the pressure of having a real trainer there, right? I've only been using it very, very shortly, so I can't say that I've improved, right? It's been. They're new. We just started with fitbod this week, but I'm gonna get on it every day and we're gonna see over time how well it works out. Maybe I can fire my trainer, you know what I'm saying? Save myself a little scratch, you know, a lot of coffees to drink around here. But if you are struggling with what to do, how do I come up with a workout to get these goals? Fitbod is for you. They create workout routine based on your goals, fitness level and the available equipment and workouts that adapt to your growth. So each workout is challenging enough to push you to make progress. Fitbot also tracks your muscle recovery to help you avoid burnout and keep up your momentum. All their workouts are fine tuned by experienced, certified personal trainers to bring best practices and exercise science to you. And you can level up your workouts with customized fitness plans that work for you with over 1000 demonstration videos. So get in shape this summer with Fitness Fitbod. Join Fitbod today to get your personalized workout plan. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app free for seven days at Fitbod Me Tire that's F I T B O D metire and now back to the show. It's so funny. It's other cars since the Lexus LC500 came out, which I think was like 17 or 18. And I haven't driven one. We had a con. The yellow, a yellow convertible.

[B]

Wow. But it was time ago, six years ago.

[A]

Right. So haven't driven one since. And they, they made some like nuanced suspension tweaks and like Chad, they changed the strut tower bracing and, and you know, this and that. They. It's got a touchscreen now. The interface is like incredibly basic. Like a, like a Toyota but like usable, which is like better than was before with the touchpad. So it's fine. It's just like it's fine. But it's crazy how and this happened with the Nissan GTR also how this car has now become the analog choice. Dude. Compared to an sl, compared to any GT car on the road at any price, this is more analog. The steering feels more analog. It's a naturally aspirated V8 with an eight speed gearbox. That's not bad. But it's not, you know, it's a little bit of an older school design and it makes a sound that cars don't make anymore. It has a power band that cars don't have anymore. It's hilarious how much you need to rev the shit out of this thing to get any power. Consequently, you can't fucking drive it in automatic. It's like it's bad. You can put her around town and drive. If you try to go like a medium pace on a medium road or a highway over mountains like, like i70 in Colorado or this thing is like it's picking a new gear every two seconds because the power band is up here. Meanwhile, manual mode, you know, it's an eight speed. Just go click, click and sit it in five and in five like it's fine. Just leave it there right when you tell it what to do. It's beautifully responsive and balanced and fun.

[B]

But it's got that programming for max mpg.

[A]

It has no idea what to do. So you gotta be like, wanna use the paddle shifters? And if you do, it's pretty good in that. But it's got a very nice balance with the PS5s tires. It's got a bunch of grip. The traction control sucks. That is some garbage. Mid 2000s era traction control. But if you fully turn it off in hairpins, you can get a beautifully balanced bit of over. That's just really, really nice.

[B]

Is it 8 speed or 10 speed? Lexus says 10.

[A]

Is it 10?

[B]

Direct shift automatic, 10 speed. I mean that's even More gears, which is probably why it hunts so much.

[A]

I don't. Whenever I drove it in any mode that showed a gear indicator on the screen, it never went over eight. And I can't imagine that there's more ratios. The thing would be like idling even at speed. I can't really.

[B]

Unless this is for the hybrid.

[A]

That can't be right. I think it's the eight speed that it's always had. I don't think it has. It's actually. It's kind of funny. It's kind of like. In a lot of ways it's like a really fancy Mustang. I mean it has a similar. It has the same displacement engine with very similar power. It makes a similar sound. You know, it has an automatic just like. Like the Mustang's automatic. A torque converter based auto. It's kind of similar sized in terms of a footprint to a Mustang. It's obviously much better looking. It's much better built. It's much tighter. That's the. Is that the updated car or something? Am I driving it? I don't have the key on me. Am I driving a 24? Is there something new? 5 liter V8.

[B]

It's 10 speed, direct shift.

[A]

Maybe I'm wrong. I will before I. I'm writing this for road and track. I haven't. I haven't actually researched. Sure.

[B]

No. And I know that you always want to be accurate, so.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Pulling it up.

[A]

I don't know. But I never saw a number on the gauge higher than 8.

[B]

Imagine. And imagine if it has a 10 speed, but the transmission software is so optimized for MPG it never uses 9 and 10.

[A]

That would be.

[B]

The ratios are actually too fucking tall.

[A]

Ouroboros of transmission technology.

[B]

That would be really funny.

[A]

No, actually one of the things I think about the transmission is it would be better for enthusiasts. Not necessarily if it had fewer gears, but if it held individual gears longer and it didn't like. It will do a double downshift a lot. It doesn't need to do that.

[B]

Well, does it go 10 to 8 or 8 to 6? Or does it go 8, 7, 6? Sometimes.

[A]

Sometimes both.

[B]

Okay. Because I don't mind a double. I like the skip, though. I don't want to have.

[A]

I like the skip if it's smooth. If it's smooth, it's good. It was much, much better. If the road got the least bit twisty or the least bit hilly. I put that motherfucker in manual and I kept it there. Having said that, and I've told Lexus about this. Ali was following me and he said to me multiple times, I smell transmission fluid from your car. Now, everything seemed okay, but. And this is my butt and my hands. This isn't science. They're picking up the car tomorrow. I said, when you take the car back, I think you should maybe check the transmission because of what Ali said about the smell. And I feel, and I have no evidence, but I feel that over my loan, the shifts got a little rougher and it doesn't feel like it's shifting. Like $120,000 car should be shifting. So I don't have a diagnosis, but it might not have an issue or a burned or leaked transmission fluid or something. Pretty low mile car 3,000 mile car 4,000 now. But. So I do want to like restrain a little bit about the transmission too much. But like, even at the beginning, it's an old school, you know, design. It goes all the way back to the isf really. But God damn, what a nice car.

[B]

How is suspension? The last time I drove one of these at distance, we had one on drive years ago. And I remember I drove it back from our track shoot, I drove it like 400 miles through like Death Valley or whatever canyons at night. But I just remember it feeling very soft, you know, and we were doing a 7/10 810 transit. But I was like, this thing is awesome. But it leans a lot, so it's better.

[A]

It has a little body roll, but you know, it's adaptive shocks. You know, there's. So to put it this way, there are some cars where you never put the shocks in sport, right? My Porsche never. Most Mercedes, you never want to put the shock because they're too stiff, right. And like you really want comfort. This car, sport shocks, okay. Like this car, I would do sport shocks unless the road was particularly bumpy. So yeah, it's set up soft. It's set up to be a daily drive.

[B]

This car's Sport is Porsche's normal.

[A]

Pretty much got it. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But it's incredibly charming, especially if you pull up the picture from my Instagram. This sort of copper color. It is.

[B]

It's really cool.

[A]

It's a fabulous color. I mean, I especially, I'm driving around with ali's mint green 911 Targa and I'm in this copper, like rose gold colored thing. We got stopped and chatted a bunch.

[B]

The LC is sweet.

[A]

Oh, it's so nice to have. I would love to have one of these things, you know, here's what's great about it. I did so many. I did four nine hour driving days in a row normally. Like if I was going to do that kind of driving, like if I'm driving a sports car, like my body will be pretty fucked up and if I'm driving like a Bentley, it won't be. The LC is a much simpler. It's much more like a Mustang than it is like a Bentley. Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Of course the seats have forward, back, up, down lumbar and they have heating and cooling. But as far as like they don't have any of those advanced adjustments. It's not an 18 way seat. It's probably an eight way seat. Fine.

[B]

Just shaped the right way.

[A]

It's just shaped the right way.

[B]

That's what Acura does.

[A]

It doesn't need to be fancy, it's just made right. Aside from this potential, maybe transmission leak, the build quality exceptional. Not a fucking squeak, not a rattle, not a nothing. Everything fits exactly right. I drove something the other day. What did I drive?

[B]

Well, this had a thousand miles on it's basically brand new. So I would, I would not expect.

[A]

But you. But yeah.

[B]

Did you drive something recently that was new and had.

[A]

I drove a brand new car recently where the fucking door fit of the left and the right were completely different and now I can't remember what it was. What was it?

[B]

I can't believe you rented a Tesla and didn't tell me that.

[A]

It was something where I was pretty horrified at the difference in the panel gaps. I'll remember it at a time that it's like much later. It was pretty horrifying though. But like. Yeah, no, of course. But it's much closer to the price of a Mustang than a Bentley. But it's much. It's got enough of that. What you want out of a Bentley, which is just. I got to do so many hours in this thing and I want it to be really comfortable and it just is. But if it's time to go quick, you're going quick. Like you can go real quick in this car. It's not a problem.

[B]

470 horsepower, that's enough.

[A]

But you gotta zing the fuck out of this motor though. It has nothing below four grand. Nothing. And with the normal economy tune of the transmission, it never wants to shift past like three and so you have to press the pedal to the fucking floor and then it just zings the thing to the moon and it gets all confused. So in manual, manual mode you can do a really good job of man. What?

[B]

Yeah. Max torque is at 4800.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's way up and then max power is 7100, but max torque, that's like 48. Yeah, that's way up there.

[A]

Yeah. For a big GT.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, that weighs 4000 pounds. That's like I do have to say, I know. We've seen actually Johnny got some spy video. You see that on his gram? Johnny caught the replacement for this car testing on Angela's crest.

[B]

Oh, someone asked about that. Okay.

[A]

Yeah, all I saw was his video. But like, you know, full disclosure, Zach and I were hired by an independent research company to give our opinions on a future luxury product for a high end Japanese automaker. And you know, we all kind of know what this thing is going to be, right? It's going to be twin turbo, probably all wheel drive, probably hybrid. It's going to be super fast, but it's going to be the evolution of this.

[B]

Here's an interesting trivia for you.

[A]

Uh oh.

[B]

At what RPM do you think a 2024 Mustang GT makes its maximum torque and horsepower?

[A]

Folks, we gotta take one more quick break from the show for Hellofresh. Listen, I love hellofresh. And it's the summertime now. It's hot out, it's barbecue season, it's beach season, it's workout season, cycling season, surfing, whatever it is. From home improvements to self care to having fun in the sun, whatever it is. But you don't want to waste the time this summer spending time in the kitchen, or worse, the supermarket. You can make your summer both enjoyable and delicious by getting the number one meal kit as voted by USA Today's readers. It's HelloFresh. They make it so easy. HelloFresh makes it easy to fit quick home cooked meals into your schedule every week by curating delicious recipes right to your door. Like panko crusted chimichurri, barramundi or sun dried tomato grilled cheese Sando's, as well as over 100 seasonal snack sides and treats. And man, I loved HelloFresh. Here's what I really liked about hellofresh. They sent me recipes that I could choose from their website that looked great, but that I might not find on my own or that might be too annoying to make on my own. But because HelloFresh sends you the exact right amount of ingredients, you don't need to buy like a big jar of something and then use a third of it. You don't need buy an expensive spice and then use it once because they send you exactly the right amount of ingredients to make this meal. There's less waste and there's less stuff rotting in your fridge or your cupboard. It's great. You can choose from 60 recipes every week including prep and bake and ready made meals. Plus those snacks and shakes and everything. It's delivered right to your door. It's so good. Make your summer enjoyable and delicious by Signing up for [e-mail] Are you readyfor for this Smokin Tire 10 FM that stands for 10 free meals with a free item for life. Hellofresh.com Smokingtire 10 FM for 10 free meals and a free item in every box. Hellofresh.com SmokingTire 10 FM one per box with an active subscription, free meals or applied as a discount on the first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan and finally we are brought to you today by Smalls. Listen, in this program I'm talking about three kittens that I found in a tree and you all know me. We love our cats. My cat, my four cats are the best and they don't ask for too much, but they are picky on what they eat. Like my little cat Monty. I have a little spreadsheet of what he will and won't eat eat right. My cat Finn sometimes has some digestive issues. He throws up a lot. Mainly I think it's because he eats bamboo, which is not great for them. But Smalls is here and Smalls is the best. I've been feeding my cat Smalls for the last couple months and they love it. Even Monty, who's picky as long as he gets chicken. He doesn't like tuna or salmon, he likes chicken and turkey. Smalls cat food is protein packed, made with preservative free ingredients you'd find in your fridge delivered right to your door. Or that's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. So get 60% off your first order plus free [e-mail] with promo code Tire for a limited time only. Smalls is so good for your cats. My cats really really prefer it. I used to give them a very well known healthy brand and they got pretty bored of it, honestly. And when I stood a side by side, the cats did go to Small. I mean, look, they know how much I need. I have a regular order with them. It comes right to my door. I don't have to go to the store and my cats are happy. Their coat looks good, they're not shedding so much. I really, I really really like it. After switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health Improvements. That's a big deal. And the team at Smalls is so confident that your cat will love their product that you can try it risk free. That means they will refund you if your cat won't eat their food for a limited time. Only. Because you're a SM& Tire listener, you can get 60% off your first order of Smalls, plus free shipping by using my code tire. That's 60% off when you head over to smalls.com and use promo code tire Again. Promo code tire for 60% off your first order, plus free [e-mail] and now back to the show. Oh, okay. A GT, huh?

[B]

Mm.

[A]

May I have the red line, Bob?

[B]

The red line.

[A]

Can I phone a friend? Okay. I don't need the red line. I'll. I'll. I'll say that the Mustang GT makes.

[B]

Peak redline is 7500.

[A]

Okay. Peak torque 3800. Peak power 7000.

[B]

Peak torque. This is from the drive.com, but peak torque is 4900.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

Higher than the LC.

[A]

Wild but close, right? 4800. 4900. Isn't the LC 4000?

[B]

It is. No, they're close. You said 38. And peak power is 7150.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

So I'm telling you, these sound like Mustangs, too. When they go through the game, the firing order might be the same.

[A]

They sound like Mustangs, but, like, just with a little more. A little more tightness to them. Everything. You can feel the tightness in the powertrain that I don't get from a Mustang. It's not to shit on a Mustang. This is double the price. But, like, that's where like, if I say it feels like a Mustang and you go, well, why would I pay the extra? It's for that bit of.

[B]

Oh, I would pay the extra in a moment.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

But I also. It would be cool to see the underside of these and how the Mustang exhaust is routed and how that changes the pulses because they sound very similar at low RPM and they change a little bit at the higher rpm.

[A]

Yeah, there's a big change in sound with this Lexus engine when it comes on cam. It's a pretty hard line. And when it happens, you get a ton of almost E46 M3, like, intake, which you don't get so much in the Mustang. But, hey, shout out to Ford for even making that a comparison. But great trunk and tons of room, tons of comfort. And. And I'll get back to you on the. If that transmission was messing up. But either way, I mean, I. I honestly, I definitely endorse this product. This is a great car for the money. And, like, a couple of our fans DM'd or whatever like that, bought them when they were, like, new when they first came out and have had them, and they're like, yeah, no, no, no. Major issues. Very good. Very good cars.

[B]

If I could justify owning a grand touring luxury coupe beyond the one I have, like, this is the thing to do.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Because you can't. You can't lie to yourself and say this is a track car in any way, which you can do with an M3. So that's what I'm saying. It would be very comfortable daily.

[A]

Yeah, it could be a daily carries.

[B]

Two people, all that stuff.

[A]

It has a back seat. You could put Tucker in the back seat.

[B]

Okay. All right.

[A]

Yeah. And some important things are analog. The temperature controls are levers. There's a scrolly wheel for volume, a scrolly wheel to scroll through tracks on the radio. There's. Yeah, there are buttons on the steering wheel, but they're real buttons, not haptic. It is clearly like an aging car, but it's still great. And some of the things about it that are kind of old, we sort of still kind of want. Because you can't really get them anywhere else anymore, but you can still get them here. You know, this is like. Like, I bought my Spider because I was like, it's a brand new car, but, like, it's like an old car. Like, stick, key, manual, top strap pulls. Like, that's like an old car. Like, this is kind of like what a Mercedes SL or a BMW M8 or whatever was like eight years ago.

[B]

But it has none of the problems you've mentioned with the Ferrari Roma. Different price point, but Ferrari, because they have to be at the pinnacle of technology and charge more money, they go, let's put haptic buttons everywhere. And they order those products from their suppliers. And then everyone starts testing them and say, we hate these. And they go, fuck, we have six more years of this.

[A]

That was it. It was the aroma.

[B]

Volkswagen did it. What?

[A]

Where the panel gap on the left side and the right side were wildly different. Oh, really? It was the aroma. Yeah. Yeah, that was it. Thank you for showing me that picture. I knew the second someone showed me my Instagram feed that it would be there. Yeah, it was the Roman.

[B]

Got it. Wowzers.

[A]

Yeah. That didn't take very long, but really. But then here's the thing. Here's the thing, Zach. Then we got to Truckee, which is a place that I is new to me. I haven't really spent a lot of time in Truckee. What a lovely town.

[B]

So good.

[A]

I'm into it.

[B]

Ooh, snowstorm hits there.

[A]

I'm into Truckee. I'm in a summer Truckee too. Summer Truckee was very nice. We stayed in a really cool hotel. Shout out to Gravity House. The guy working there was a fan and really helped me find a place for this event to do some potential off roading, which is fucking cool.

[B]

Hold on. Before you're saying that the group wouldn't want to drive half a mile on.

[A]

Gravel, not in their own cars.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. I don't want to give more details because it's not a finalized thing, but a potential sponsor potentially would want to show off and offer a product.

[B]

Good add on.

[A]

Yeah, it would be a good fun add on, but. Oh, shit. Oh, But Ali was like, I want to show you around Truckee. And we took his car. I got in it and I went, oh, fuck me. 911 Targas are the best.

[B]

I was like, shit, what seats does he have? 18 way.

[A]

18 ways. Well, they might be 14, but whatever. Comfort seats, stick shift. And he's got, you know, the roof tune and the whatever. I forget who's what exhaust it is, but when he was in front, I was just hearing like, his car sounds amazing. It's just like fucking tuner turbo noises. And it sounds great. No burble, no fake burble tune. Just all spoolie noises. Fabulous.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Yeah. So come drive with me in September if you want. It's gonna be a really good time. Food's gonna be great. Wine's gonna be great. Roads are fucking great. I got a V8 Vantage booked for that event. That'll be aces. And yeah, we're gonna have great weather. It's not gonna be like a thousand degrees. It'll be a good time. Do you want to talk about the kittens that I found?

[B]

Yeah. Found kittens in the tree.

[A]

Literally in a tree. So they weren't so funny. Hannah and her friend were going for a walk in our neighborhood. Okay. And Hannah's friend is a dog. And it's a very friendly dog. And most of the time it does not need to be on a leash. It's a very well trained and friendly dog. But they're walking and all of a sudden dog fucking runs and goes around the corner and it has chased these little tiny kittens that are now up a tree. Fuck. So they come back to the house and Hannah's like, there's kittens. They're in a tree. And so you grab your cape. Grab the cape. I go back. We go back, and Hannah thought there were two there. Two torties, which is the black and brown, and then a gray tortie mix. All girls. So they're up the tree like, 15ft, and we don't know what to do. I don't own a ladder that tall. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna stay here. Hannah, you go back to the house and get some kitten food, which we always keep on hand. You never know. Get some kitten food.

[B]

Wait, that different than snacks? You have a lot of cat snacks?

[A]

We have a lot of cat snacks. Well, there's always left. There's always a point at which the kitten is no longer a kitten and there's some leftover kitten food. So it's just there. And so she brings back the kitten food, and obviously these cats, like, first while she's gone, I go, I can't believe I'm gonna do this, but I call my local fire station, and I go, hey, man, can't believe I'm making.

[B]

This call, but it's 1950. There's a cat in the tree, there's three kittens.

[A]

Click. And I am really. Yeah, clicked. I'm clicked. So, okay, that's no longer an option. Shout out to you guys. I don't want to fucking shit on them. Not because I don't think they should be shit on, but, like, because it's the name of the place where I live.

[B]

Well, I wonder if there was an era where that was something they frequently responded to, or if it's just, like, comics made us think that and it's just. Just the stereotype that's lived on. And fire department's like, whoever put that story out there, Marmaduke, go fuck yourself.

[A]

Sure. For decades, you know, and maybe I deserve that. But, like, you know, I had no other ideas.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

But when she came back with the food, they started to make their way down the tree on their own. When I opened the food and put it out, so food works. And they started trying to come down, and the first one, like, eight feet from the ground, like, fell on the ground. Oh, shit. I got it. Put it next to food. She was okay. And then I managed to, like, get the other ones, like, to sort of jumping height and, like, yoink them off the tree. And they ate, and they instantly liked me. We became friends right away. And I was like, I can't have seven cats. This is too much.

[B]

You pussy. No Pun intended.

[A]

Can't have seven cats. But they really were very social and very happy to be friends. Fed. They ate so much. And Hannah got the carrier. And there were some neighbors across the street, so we talked to them. Oh, shit. Friend. Friend. Oh. And so she called over her other friend who also lives in our neighborhood, and the other friend agreed to take them in the immediate need. And so these photos are of the friend's house, and they're, like, around the corner from us. And I posted this on Instagram. I sadly, I got about 10 inquiries for the gray girl and none for the torties, which is very, very sad. A, because torties are beautiful, and B, because torties are fucking beautiful.

[B]

Yeah. People are weird.

[A]

People are really weird. And I think I did the torties a disservice. If you go to the last photo, the gray kit.

[B]

Are those Hannah shoes? I just want to linger on that for a while.

[A]

They're Hannah shoes, everyone. See my wife's feet in shoes. The gray. I mean, look, they're all very adorable, but keep going. The last photo is of the gray one, which is hit in a perfect sunbeam in, like, portrait mode. And it makes her look like a little angel.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. And this one is the tort. He's, like, on the sidewalk looking down. Right. So we need a photo.

[A]

I didn't do a photo shoot, but it's okay, I think. And I don't. I want to, you know. Knoxy Wood. Michael Tio Van Runkle, automotive journalist. He writes for the Drive. He's got a very funny name. You'd fucking know it if you saw it. I think that 7:00 clock tonight, he's adopting all three.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Which is, like, gold mine. Because a. This. Keeping them together was, like, the number one priority, actually. Keeping them safe. Excuse me. Is the number one priority. Keeping them together is the number two priority. And this is a person who I know personally and has a lot of experience owning cats. You know, you really. You can't just, like, give cats to people off the Internet, so, you know, a lot of. There's still. I still have a backup list in case for some reason, but I think this is an optimal situation for a variety of reasons. His experience has taken all three, and. And he lives close by, which means I could visit potentially and be an uncle to these kittens. But even though almost everybody who inquired just inquired about the gray one, I still appreciate you, so thanks for that. So rescued a few kittens. That's pretty nice.

[B]

That's super cool.

[A]

Yeah. And they are. They're all so sweet. This was yesterday.

[B]

Wow. All right, well, that's a nice busy weekend. So you have to know super long panic attack drive and you're like, oh, I get to rescue some kittens, right?

[A]

Exactly. What about you? You were driving this Mazda CX50 for the week.

[B]

I did. I didn't get all the specs on it yet. So, like, I'll post it.

[A]

We'll save that.

[B]

But I will say, like, quickly. It's got a lot of analog controls, which is very nice. Seats are very comfortable. They do that very well. There's some things it didn't do great, like accelerate. Accelerate is part of it.

[A]

Mazda doesn't do that.

[B]

The color was interesting. And the biggest glaring thing is the ride makes no sense to me. This thing has wild peak off road tires and it's this strange sand color. Cars come in different colors. Sure. This is just an interesting choice. So it looks like the off road outback wilderness thing. It rides like. It has KW V3s on it. It is stiff, it's proper stiff. And someone DM me, they own one, they've had it for a year and they said, hey, it feels like it's kind of stiff on sharp edges and cracks tracks. Is that your, your assessment as well? Is it? Definitely.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, around this town it feels quite sporty, very weird, which doesn't make sense given the tire choice, given the aesthetics of it, whatever. So that's awesome. If you live in a place with smooth mountain roads, it's sure great. But off road would not be very good choice. So I was a little confused by that. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, that is a confusing choice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Weird. Okay, well, you can expect.

[B]

Yeah, we'll do. I'll talk about the next show. I just want to get all the, like the numbers of the competitors and all that.

[A]

Do you want to talk about the hydrogen thing?

[B]

Yeah, we can talk about the hydrogen thing. So the short version is that a bunch of owners have gotten together to sue Toyota over the Hydrogen Mirai. Now, I read the webpage of the. Of the law firm that is conducting this. It's called Jason Ingber.com Jason Ingber is the lawyer. And in this description, this was updated in April. They were going to do a class action. They have since changed it to individual suits.

[A]

Oh, that's like Hannah's Twitter thing.

[B]

Oh, really?

[A]

Yeah, Hannah's Twitter. She was, you know, they were good talking about suing in class action.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But it's individual and there's like her, the lawyer that's representing Hannah has 2,000 individual cases. Hannah's was like, number 130. I was like, serious?

[B]

Look, this is gonna take a long time.

[A]

Yeah, it's a long time.

[B]

The list of plaintiffs here, each of these lines has multiple names, at least two of them. And there's like, 30 lines shown.

[A]

Yeah, it looks like some Ellis island shit.

[B]

Actually, each of these is 20. So this is like a hundred names.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And there's a bunch. So they list a bunch of reasons. They say that the cars were having problems. I think it's really built around salesmen pushing the Mirai while not informing customers of the fueling issues, meaning shortages of fuel at stations, lack of stations, freezing thing, the nozzle freezing to the car, which then you can't get it off until it warms back up again. And people reporting what I experienced, which is you can only fill up your car a fifth of the way, and then you have to move on from the station. And that is.

[A]

Wait, why was that?

[B]

So this is probably a problem of misinformation. This is what I was told to back up. I got a Mirai press car a few years ago, and if you saw my reel, I got stuck overnight at this place.

[A]

But in a place that doesn't smell bad, fortunately.

[B]

Fortunately, it's in the Central Valley of California. Off of the five, there is one hydrogen station. And if that hydrogen station is out of fuel, you stay the night at that hotel, which is what I had to do.

[A]

It's next to a fucking cattle rack.

[B]

So it smells bad for 15 seconds, and then you eat an overpriced steak, which is ironic because it's right next to the cattle station, and people that were in line were saying, yeah, sometimes I can only fill up a quarter tank and the pump clicks off. And I don't understand why. The man who delivered the hydrogen to the station explained that the way the system works is there's a giant tank of hydrogen somewhere on the property. And then you have, like, your filling tank, which pressurizes to then put hydrogen into your car. But what you need is you need the pressure in that filling tank to be higher than. Than the pressure in your tank. In your tank. Otherwise, once it equalizes, it can't put more gas in there because it's not a liquid. You know what I'm saying?

[A]

And there isn't, like, a pump to pump the gas.

[B]

Exactly. It's all hydrogen on pressure. So once that pressure equalizes, like, your ears or whatever, that's it. So if people don't wait for the filling tank to Fill. And there's no graphic or alert that says, hey, this middle tank is filling. People just pump it clicks off. They go, what the fuck? They try again. It doesn't give you any more hydrogen. They leave.

[A]

And it doesn't. There's not like a thing.

[B]

When I, when I had this experience a few years ago, there was. And it would be so easy to have a digital graphic that says, wait 18 more minutes. Wait 17 more minutes.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

It didn't exist. So this lawsuit is from a bunch of different owners. Let's see, people are saying they received vehicles that are virtually unusable due to a critically deficient hydrogen infrastructure. There's only 20 fuel nozzles across the state, many of which are frequently inoperable. People are saying salesmen misrepresented to them how the cars worked. One of the plaintiffs was a man in the military who was deciding between a Mirai and a Prius. And the salesman said, well, they're both. They're actually very similar. And pushed for the Mirai. They're not similar because of the fueling situation. So this is a kind of, of multifaceted case, you know, and you can read more about this. Autopian did a good job breaking it down. And then of course, if you go to their website, it gets into a little bit more detail.

[A]

Who decided to make it individual cases?

[B]

I believe the law firm.

[A]

Yeah, I think it's. I mean, I bet there's so many different ways in which these people were lied to. Like, like if a salesman lies to you, like, that's probably one kind of, you know, fraud or non fraud. You know, if there's other types of. Yeah, there's probably different types of.

[B]

So here's what they said. This is, quote, our firm initially filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Mirai owners to hold Toyota accountable for the widespread fuel system failures, power loss issues, and performance defects affecting these vehicles. Vehicles. However, after speaking directly with numerous Mirai drivers and hearing how differently each person was impacted, ranging from lost use of their vehicle to safety concerns, we recognize these cases couldn't be treated as now.

[A]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[B]

What that tells me is that maybe some of these complaints will be thrown out. So I've reached out to the, the law firm because I want to know what were some of the safety situations and were when they say, like, the vehicle didn't work correctly, is that the pump situation or is that the vehicle itself having a problem? So we'll follow up.

[A]

Sure. But that kind of. That basically says what I just guessed, which is that people had different impacts. And, like, some of those might be a small claim.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

You know, and some of them might be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some of them might be. Who knows what. So some of them might just be, well, a salesman lied to them, which actually isn't a crime. You know, there's probably a spectrum of that.

[B]

Yeah. I think they'll figure out if this was a. If it was one dealership, if it's multiple dealerships pushing the Mirai instead of other hybrids they offer and misleading customers. Like, that seems like. And I'm not a lawyer, but that seems like a different issue from the vehicle itself having a mechanical problem to the fueling issues being. And now is that Toyota's fault or is that one of the, you know, several different companies that ran the hydrogen station's fault?

[A]

I'm sure. All right.

[B]

It's fucking messy.

[A]

No, I know, but I. My friend Brian, who is in the hydrogen industry, knows, like, who fucked who here, kind of. I think this. I think the state offered to do to pay for a bunch of it and then pulled the funding. There were supposed to be lots of stations that ultimately just, like, didn't get built for, you know, who knows what reason. Yeah, I feel for that. I mean, that's. I don't want a hydrogen car.

[B]

Nope. So, you know, it's. It's cool in theory, but as we've discovered a couple times, we've tested them, actually.

[A]

Oh. Yeah.

[B]

I didn't drive them. Right. I had the Neo, but we had a Mirai press car. Same problem.

[A]

Same shit.

[B]

Would have had the same problem.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's availability. It's the system. It's the information given to owners. And in a lot of cases, it's the dealerships telling folks, hey, there's. There's this many stations, which is not that many in the state, and then you find out it's only in California. You can't even drive the thing outside California because there's literally zero.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Other hydrogen station state car. It is a one state car.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you have a very, you know, predictable commute that happens to go by a hydrogen station, they're fucking giving these things.

[B]

We had listeners even back then, they were like, I did the math and they went, my lease is cheaper than this and I always drive this route. And there's always fuel. Fuel. And for that specific person, the economics really work out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But for anyone who tries to use this as a normal car, it's. Dude, it sucks.

[A]

Yeah, it does. That's a problem. Especially now that basically the, you know, interstate charge network is dependable and available and every car is able, you know, every car that needs to find chargers has onboard software for finding chargers.

[B]

And it's legitimately, in my experience, real world experience, it was quick. It would be quicker to plug a car in and go get coffee and come back than it was to sit there at the pump and wait for the pump to prime itself. Because I probably can't leave. People will think I'm an asshole for unattending leaving my car.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I still had to wait for the thing for a long time.

[A]

You have to wait, but you have to wait there.

[B]

I have to wait there. And I don't know how long I have to wait to fill the car up.

[A]

That's crazy. That. That's because that was like early stage EV charger failures where it was like the problem wasn't getting the electricity into the fucking car. The problem was reading my credit card. It's like, this is the holdup, like my fucking credit card. And so with the hydrogen thing, it's like the problem is that you can't figure out a way to put a 50 cent LCD screen on this thing that says pump will be ready in.

[B]

16 minutes if they did that. Because what they did is they pitched it as, this is just as quick as fueling a gas car. That's true if the tank is pressurized. But if you start showing people you have to wait 20 minutes between hydrogen cars and there's a line of cars, that myth of a five minute fuel.

[A]

Up can that little tank only, the filling tank, only do one car?

[B]

I think it depends on which station you went to. Like, the reason Sarah and I got stuck is we tried. We had to drive from Santa Cruz to San Jose for a hydrogen station. And there were a bunch of cars in line and we watched one person give up. Then the next person waited and fueled their car for like five minutes. And we talked to them and got their story. And then I called like the help line and they said, the place you're at is the one, you know, they have hydrogen that you just have to wait there. I waited 15 minutes, then I tried to fuel it. I got half the tank and I said, okay, well, I know there's this place in the middle of Central Valley. We'll make it there. There. But. And when I was on the phone with customer service, I said, is there hydrogen at that place? Was it called again Harris Ranch? Harris Ranch. I said, is there hydrogen there? They said, yes, but in the two hours it Took us to get there. All of the hydrogen there was exhausted and gone. So I arrived and there was no hydrogen. So me and another number of other people were stuck overnight until the hydrogen was delivered.

[A]

I wonder if you could. If you could sue to get here.

[B]

Well, they keep inviting me to the rally. They're like, you got to show up, man. Because they know my story. And I like, look, I'm not an owner.

[A]

Owner.

[B]

I don't.

[A]

Inviting you to what?

[B]

Well, there was a big protest in Sacramento. There was. And there's another one planned for Los angeles on the 29th where the state House or whatever. I think they're trying to get state support or something like that. And like, look, I don't own. I said, I'll do this. I will talk about this case because it's interesting and I experienced it. But I don't own a car, so I don't own a Mirai. Like, I'm not gonna show up to the courthouse on stage. You know, when I. The one week I had one of these bent.

[A]

The night at the Harris Ranch. Yeah.

[B]

They forced me and my wife to buy $38 hamburgers and stay at this hotel. Yeah. So that was. That's what's going on with there.

[A]

If Delta reimburses me for a lost bag, they should totally. You should be getting reimbursed for that by somebody.

[B]

It's. This is. There's going to be a lot of. Is it Toyota's fault? Is it the infrastructure's fault?

[A]

Yeah. Cause that station's like a Shell or something. Right.

[B]

One of the stations that was on. It's like Neo or Nexo or something like that. It's blue. And then the one at the. Oh, right. And then the one at Harris Ranch. Shell owns the gas, but I can't remember who owns the hydrogen side of it. I don't know if it's the same one. Yeah. There's a few different companies and it's problematic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's not even getting into how they make the hydrogen, which we covered in our Mirai review. It's not. It could be clean. It's not right now, so.

[A]

Well, the clean way is very energy intensive and that sort of thing is not worthwhile.

[B]

And then you need. Yeah. If you have clean energy, then you can do the energy intensive way.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Right now they just do the. They get it out of the ground.

[A]

Right now it's fracking, mainly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, if you can't get fucking rich while saving the planet, it is not worth doing. Because like, like saving the planet's great, but like capitalism.

[B]

I mean, look, if I could wave a magic wand, and this is magic, so don't come at me bros like. And I could go, here's all of the solar power we need. And then you can get water, desalinate it and then extract hydrogen. Sure, that would make a lot of sense if we want to keep using some sort of combustion engine. But on the other hand, if we had. And then you use, I think you use a lot of less precious metals than if you gave everyone an EV and used the limitless solar power to charge.

[A]

Hydrogen is supposed to be the most abundant element in the universe, right? You get it from fucking anywhere.

[B]

Right, right.

[A]

So in theory that makes a lot of sense.

[B]

Yeah, it does. But it's converting it to this tiny thing that you can put in a tank that's that last 10%.

[A]

There's a guy I know who has a company that is working on a combustion hydraulic hydrogen as opposed to a fuel cell hydrogen. Fuel cell hydrogen is basically it takes the hydrogen and turns it into electricity and water through a reaction. Right. And that's why it deep, deep, deep, deep dip, drips water out the tailpipe. Like it's always fucking leaking. This dude is trying to burn it like you would burn E85 basically. And the difference is apparently if you're burning it versus fuel, selling it, you can use a much, much lower pressure. Like lower pressure by a factor of a lot. Like 10 or more. I think it goes from like four digit pressures to two digit pressures actually. But yeah, they said they have like prototypes and they can do. They're looking for. I was like, you need to go to Myers Manx. They will build a hydrogen combustion car in two seconds.

[B]

There's a couple people that have tested race cars in, in I think like as a, like a development series within imsa or it's not imsa, but something like that. I think Toyota of course is trying.

[A]

To do it too with their Baja. They've got a Hojin Baja team.

[B]

It's a cool idea.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it is. Should we go to the people?

[B]

Yeah, we can go to the.

[A]

Probably a few of them out there. At least two or three.

[B]

A lot of questions.

[A]

Of course. If you want to ask us some questions. If you want to get the show live, if you want to get the show before everybody else, if you want to. To not have to deal with those pesky advertisements. If you want to get exclusive early access to Merch collabs and other things like that. Patreon.com the Smoking Tire podcast is where you do it. Not to mention you support the boy over here, and you're his boy. And the things that we do together over here. Yeah, got a lot of them. Shit, I can't figure it out. Do I want to wear my glasses or not?

[B]

Do you want me to make the font bigger?

[A]

Just make the font bigger because I'm getting older, and I think then no glasses. Okay. Whoa, what's happened here? Okay, Roth V says basically, what newer sports coupe that you could daily drive prioritizes steering feel besides the Porsche sports cars, the. The 86 twins. Oh, yeah, those probably have the best steering feel on the market for the money, right?

[B]

Alpine was great.

[A]

Well, let's assume that Roth V is in the US Right? If you're in. If you're in fucking Europe, just end it now and get an Alpine.

[B]

Yeah, I think that. I think the 86 twins are better than Miata's. Now, I think Miata's is a little bit overpowered and just not quite as good as it used to be.

[A]

And GR Corolla is pretty good, I would say that has good steering. The Integra Type S. The Alpha Julia.

[B]

Alpha Julia Quad. Better than the M3.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Julia Quad. That's pretty good. Yeah, those three are good. We're gonna need more. Advil says my father has a neurodegenerative disorder. Won't be able to walk much longer. That's a bummer. I'm sorry to hear that. What is the best complete passenger experience car to take him on? Drives under 60k.

[B]

That's interesting. I was gonna say V12. I think you go for sound. Sound with some speed. And let's assume your dad's a car guy. So I think the only asterisk is what is he into? You know, if he's an older gentleman, obviously, if he's super into muscle cars, then you get something like a ZL one that just makes all the good noise and goes like, fuck, Yeah.

[A]

I mean, my first question would be, what does he want? Because, like, if this whole. If this whole thing is for him, like, does he have an opinion? I'm sure he does. If you're gonna buy a car that's just for him to enjoy himself, I'm sure he has some kind of opinion on what he would enjoy him.

[B]

Yeah. The other thing is, you know, is it. Is it. Is it op's car that he wants to take his dad in a lot and dad will like it, or is it like your dad's Gonna buy this car that you'll drive him around in. That's two different things.

[A]

Yeah. Under 60k, you could. How about like a Aston DB9 Volante with an exhaust on it. That's pretty cool. That'll go a long way.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, or a V8 Vantage Roadster. That would be pretty. That would be a good time. Obviously. You know, Porsches are great. They're. They're nice. Well, let's see. But yeah.

[B]

Oh, you can get R8. Oh, wait, 60. No, 60.

[A]

Probably not.

[B]

No.

[A]

I mean you could get a fucking 981 Cayman or Boxster with a light flywheel and a nice sounding exhaust on it and that would be a good time.

[B]

A convertible might be fun. Or you could go for like RS4s or any kind of, kind of cool sounding V8.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know.

[A]

Yeah, but we need to know what he wants. Yeah, that's. That's the first question you have to do more scrolling now because the, the screen fonts, way bigger. Mini finney. Oh. How do you store my watches? I got a big safe, son. It's heavy. Shit's like £900 big.

[B]

Do pillows. Do you, you know, do you wrap them around the pillow?

[A]

Oh, in that. Okay, so I have go to Bosphorus Leather, shout out to Bosphorus Leather. They make these fucking cases and they make infinite numbers of them. They have like these briefcases for watches. Yeah, these guys. So I have the one. I don't know, I have the ones that hold 15 watches. And you get them, you choose your own leather. They have ones with like rivets. And mine don't like look quite as fancy as that, like crazy riveted one. But I have a couple of those that live in a fucking big ass heavy safe. And then I got the.

[B]

You had one of these for a while too.

[A]

Well, the Rolls are for. If you want to travel. That's the Rolls. And then they have a variety of these sort of briefcase kit. I don't display my shit. There's people that wanted to like look at a watch box and look at their watches. I get that. But I got some at the bank at the safety deposit box.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And then I got most. Most are in the big fucking big heavy boy safe. JCAT says. Oh, the Lexus Halo car. Yeah. With an alleged price double the LC500. Will the new Lexus replacement be an instant hit or suffer the same fate as the LFA did on launch? Launch. And I think it's probably more of what Lexus customers actually want than the LC 500 is, I think all wheel drive, a twin turbo, torquey motor. God damn. Does it look good though? Looks mean.

[B]

Doesn't it look wide? It does look cool.

[A]

Yeah. It looks mean and wide and even higher performance. Because the LC500 is quick enough, but it's not that fast in the modern compared to your modern stuff.

[B]

Even when it came out, it was a little behind. I think some of the other stuff.

[A]

Once you get it fucking going, if you keep the revs up, it's pretty quick. It's quicker on a track because you're at the top of the power band all the time. When you're in and out of the power band all the time, it's not as quick. I think it'll be really fast and I do think they will sell them. Angela's breast. Don't know what that is, but okay. What are your cutoff points for cars and watches that make you say to yourself, oh, that's a big boy collector for cars. If you're driving roofs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then you know something.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, if you're driving a roof that you bought new, you know something.

[B]

When you spend near hypercar money on something that doesn't look like a five year old druid, you go, ooh, yeah.

[A]

I mean it's hard in LA because there's a lot of people that have nice cars but like aren't quite as rich as you would think considering their car. We have some people that I've dealt with in the storage business that are shockingly cheap considering the fucking cars that you got. And I don't know how they got their allocations like that.

[B]

People with customized stuff. I think especially if it's like, like an alcoholics type thing where it's a celebrated car that they have then fully restored and customized, where it's like an atelier. Which one's that?

[A]

An atel. No.

[B]

What?

[A]

That's not a car thing, it's an atelier. Is like, like singer Gunther Alpha, where it's a. Where it's a company that does this one thing at a super high level.

[B]

Yeah. If it comes from someone, definitely.

[A]

Yeah. With watches, actually, I think it was like John Mayer, who, you know, say what you will about the guy, but he's a fabulous guitar player and he knows a thing or two about watches. If you see somebody out and about wearing a Patek Aquanaut, like travel time, like a world time or a travel time Patek Aquanaut, if that's what you're sort of wearing out and about, you've got fucking heavy bike shit at home. Because the people that have one super fancy Patek tend to not, like, wear it out. And the people that have aquanauts use them as beaters.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

The two people. I know.

[B]

It's like an $80000 watch.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. But it's not even that. It's $80000. It's $80000. And you. You have to spend $500000 to be invited to buy one.

[B]

Wow. Or you can get this replica for $400.

[A]

Yeah, dude. There's some very interesting and very high quality reproductions that are available right now. That there's fucking fakey Rolexes right now that will fool watchmakers. They will fool a bad watchmaker or fool a dealer, like, which is crazy. And that's not why I buy watches like that. But like, yeah, the fakes are amazing. You know, 99.9% of people cannot spot one of those good fakes. Most dealers couldn't. Yeah. You have to open it up and look at the fucking and stuff. Or have a real one right next to it. Ice in our cars, not our streets. Shout out to ya. That's a pretty good one. Although I like electric cars too. I like having an ice chest in my car. Yeah. Why do some models like the Corvette Mustang and 911, stand the test of time while others fade away? When all models have stronger and weaker generations, the corporate commitment. Corporate commitment and strength of brand. When you already have a big brand, it makes a lot of sense to keep that big brand going. And what. Once you get through two or three generations and the car is an icon, you probably don't want to throw that away.

[B]

There's that flywheel effect. They also have to keep it going. But it's gotten. The longer it's been around, the more momentum it has. And Corvette, most of the generations are really good performance cars. And the oil crisis is not really Corvette's fault. So you go, oh, it's got this huge cachet of amazing decades and years. And so that's why it remains an icon and they keep it going.

[A]

Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. I don't have an sti says we mentioned sims and sim racing in passing. Have we ever considered getting into sim racing and trying out some iracing special events? No.

[B]

My friends that have done iracing, some of whom have done it like a pretty high level. They go, it's a whole different ball game from other sim stuff. It's way harder. And it's not. They said it's not. It's not fun. It's like difficult.

[A]

Imagine a video game that's not fun, right?

[B]

I don't like to play those.

[A]

No, I don't either. If I'm at someone's house or place and there's a sim, I'll give it 10 minutes. I'll have a little go, see what's up. I just know though, we drive real shit so much all the time.

[B]

I know if I had a little more space in our. I've said this, I think recently the office at my house, we would probably have a little sim thing because I'd like to use it to keep my track skills sharper because I don't get as much track access as you do. But iracing just seems like work. Like, you know, you gotta learn these tire models and it responds different and you can, I've heard like you can't lean on the tire much. It doesn't just, it doesn't slide a little. Just steps out and it's gone. That's not what I want to do for fun.

[A]

Yeah, no, I enjoy simulator racing once in a while. It's a good time. But like I, I would not. No, it's not really a thing I ever think about doing. Sir Bartholomew Archibald Queevington iii. That is someone with a very big house and a very small income. I simply adore your splendid podcast. It's become the highlight of my auditory engagements. Nice. Relocating to San Diego this August. Did you know that San Diego means a whale's vagina? Where I will be driving a Ford Edge every day. Day. Boo. Not boo.

[B]

I like wedge.

[A]

No, there's nothing wrong with the selling edge. I don't know why I said boo. It's an enthusiast podcast and that's a boring car. That's why I thought he was sort of going that way. That said, I find myself enchanted by the idea of acquiring a C4 Corvette, ideally with an LT1 and a six speed, as a weekend diversion. I'm toying with the notion of a budget supercharger built. Any thoughts? I think there's a lot of value in late C4 corvettes. I really do. They don't look great, but they drive better than they look.

[B]

I think they actually, they've grown on me. They look pretty cool profile. I don't like pop up lights, but in the daytime they're nice. The interiors are whatever.

[A]

Not great. Yeah, yeah, they're not great. But I put, you know, if you're, if you're as a San Diego weekend car on a budget, C4 Corvette's all right. I, I Probably would skip the supercharger. I don't. I mean, if you really give a shit, you can like do the heads cam thing that some people do. But like, I'd leave it alone. I just. I don't think. I don't think it would make that Corvette that much better.

[B]

Yeah. And in San Diego, there's not a ton of good canyon road nearby. There's no drag strip. I don't think like. So you're not going to. I don't think you'll gain much by getting that performance. You won't get to stretch its legs very often. And all you'll have is sound, which you can have. Just put a good set of pipes on it. You'll get a lot of the experience and.

[A]

And maybe some suspension and some good tires and. And you can make that thing pretty fun to drive.

[B]

Very true. You can autocross or track it, you know, but super.

[A]

You know, superchargers end up being 5, 6, $7,000 in San Diego. It's gonna get hot. You need a charge cooler for something like that. I. I don't. They don't really fit so great in C4 engine compartments. There's not a lot of space in there. I wouldn't.

[B]

How much would that build be? Also because we might start creeping into like C5Z06 territory, which you just buy that.

[A]

I would just put a nice set of pipes on it and a good set of shocks and coilovers or whatever. And. Oh wait, C4S or Leaf Springs. So it's. It would be. It would be shocks, not coilovers, but you can get that kind of stuff. Yeah. That could be a really fun canyon car. Without a lot. You don't really need a lot more power in that thing. It's fast. Actually. Turns out cars are quick off piste. Watch recommendation for a high school graduation gift for my son. He'll be attending a private military university in Vermont. Whoa. Thinking about some type of field watch. Budget up to 1500. So many options, dude. Hamilton's are always the go to. But you know, in the used market right now, shit, there's a lot of options. Now military, they have, you know, there's like specific military like history connection watches. Like what they call the Dirty Dozen watches, which are a series of field watches. They were from a variety of different manufacturers that were issued to soldiers. There were 12 of them. And that's why they're called Dirty Dozen watches. Most of those are not rare. And if you wanted to buy him like a cool vintage Dirty Dozen watch, like you probably Could. I don't think that's what you are talking about here.

[B]

If you want to guarantee his employment, you get a Trump watch. Get him one of those.

[A]

I would say high end G shock or like a Hamilton field watch is probably what you want to be doing here for up to 1500. And that will be a great watch to take to a military unit. Barbecue sauce on Matittis. In a parallel universe, what would an Aston Martin DB10 or V10 Vantage look like? I don't think V10s are really an Aston Martin type of engine. That tone. Can you imagine any of the V10s, a Viper, an R8, a Lambo, any of those cars with that sound coming out of an Aston? It doesn't do it for me.

[B]

I with agree.

[A]

I think the eights and the 12s have a better tone than the tens for a front engine car.

[B]

Yeah, but that's just because, you know, that's what we've heard them in for a long time. You know, Astons have been eights, twelves, inline sixes, way back in the day. Right.

[A]

Line sixes. They use some, they had their own engines, but then they also used some Jag. They had A. The 1997. The first DB7s had supercharged Jag XJS engines in them. And they're kind of interesting actually their own way. Drew Frink sold my ND Miata and I want to add something different and quirky. Okay. I have a Morris Minor and an MGB for the Canyons. What other kinds of cars would you think about? Maybe an old 4x4 street or mild off road?

[B]

Well, 30 to 50 grand.

[A]

That's a lot of money.

[B]

Pajero.

[A]

Yeah, Pajero Evo.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

That's the right choice. Yeah, I don't think I could think of anything better than that. For that kind of money. Paired with those other two types of vehicles, maybe you could get one of those like European diesel like G wagons, you know, like an old, like an 80s imported G wagon. They're, they're, you know, they're well made. The parts are expensive as hell. But Bentley Turbo are. Did you see Alana bought an Arnaz T?

[B]

Wow. Yeah, I mean she can fit hard, dude.

[A]

The Arnage T is the good one too. That's the twin turbo version of my motor of the six and three quarter. Because you know, Arnages came in two engines. It was in the big BMW like when Rolls and Bentley went to Volkswagen and Rolls went to BMW, but it was still Rolls Bentley at that time. And BMW was like Mid takeover. And so the Bentley Arnage red label had the Bentley motor. The Bentley Arnage green label had the BMW V8 in it, which was a piece of shit in that. Yeah. So you do not want the green. You want the red label or the T, which has the. Which is the. The. Actually the faster one. Yeah. Seven Seikos recently moved to south Florida. I'm sorry to hear that. And I'm looking for a manual convertible. I'm approximately mat sized. Okay. Target budget is 30k, which keeps the field pretty limited. Yes, it does.

[B]

Does.

[A]

V6.1 Le Camaro is the best handling, power, price compromise in this range. Should I be considering a 370Z or an M235i convertible instead? Dude, you don't have corners. What do you need a sports car for?

[B]

Well, that's why you don't need the one LE.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The M235 would be a much better, more comfortable, luxurious choice. I think that's the way out of these three. I'd go with that. Fly Florida for sure.

[A]

Yeah. But if you could get a V8 Camaro SS convertible.

[B]

True.

[A]

With a manual for 30K.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

100% you can. All fucking day. Or a Mustang GT convertible. The manual. All fucking day. It's just. How many miles in what year can you afford?

[B]

Yeah. And how much maintenance can you afford? That would also influence 235 versus Mustangs.

[A]

Yeah, 235i is not heinous.

[B]

No, I think they're. I think they're very nice cars.

[A]

I mean, in terms of. In terms of maintenance costs. That's not. They're not like hideously bad.

[B]

I don't know. I'd have to look.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Better than the 135. We know that.

[A]

Yeah, that's true. I mean, also, like, just like. Just saying you could get. If I wanted a. If. If I wanted a budget convertible with manual, I would get a little like 2006 BMW 330ci with a manual. You get one on, bring a trailer. It have like no miles on it. Do a huge major service on it. You're into this thing for 25, and if you keep it nice, it's worth that forever. Like, you know what I mean? And an E46 today, if you put CarPlay in it, that still feels like a new car. Crazy. I would do that. That's if it was my money.

[B]

Thaddeus, I forgot. He submitted a question to us via text.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

If you and I were given $2 million to buy the other person one car, what would you buy for me and what would I buy for you?

[A]

Uhuh. And. Okay. One car.

[B]

One car. Can't do a three car Monty garage thing. It's just one vehicle. Up to two. We don't have to, you know, can't. We don't have to nail the two.

[A]

I mean I think. I don't know if it would get it. I mean which. I think I might be able to get the hoona corn for 2 million bucks. No, I couldn't. Probably not. The Hoona truck went for 900 grand at Barrett Jackson.

[B]

Yeah, that's not the one. I don't like the engine or the shape of it. I understand. Yeah.

[A]

It would be a gymkhana type vehicle.

[B]

Great answer.

[A]

Or it would be like a rally car. Like it would be like that. Like if I was going to use something brand new, it would be that pro drive thing. That pro drive 22v carbon thing. That would be that.

[B]

Great answer. I would get you the Singer turbo that we just drove.

[A]

That would be correct as well. I would be very, very happy with that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. I would need nothing else. Right. Silence of the Lambo. That's called hybrid mode. E mode. Kendrick Lamar's latest album is called gnx. What was the sentiment of the Buick GNX back in the day? Were they good cars and has time been kind to to them? How do you think? How old do you think I am?

[B]

Right. Yeah. What were they like?

[A]

Just so you know, in 1997 I was six.

[B]

Yeah. I was five.

[A]

So I do. I. I remember when I was 15 or 16 and really started to get into drag racing. That them fucking guys at the drag strip all respected the grand national and the GNX. The GNX's. They didn't get driven like there should be.

[B]

That's the problem with them.

[A]

Yeah. No, every GNX had eight miles on it. They didn't get driven. You never saw them on the street. They were too rare. And we're talking about at the period of the 90s to the mid 2000s when muscle cars were just. They were too valuable to drive. Now they've kind of softened a little bit and some people did choose to drive them. There's a documentary about them.

[B]

Black Smoke.

[A]

Black, I think. Is that what it's called?

[B]

I think it was.

[A]

And it's like a two hour documentary. The gist of which is about three dozen different people telling you that they have never seen a blacker car in their life.

[B]

Black air. Sorry? Black air.

[A]

Yeah. They don't drive very well. They're kind of stupid. It's an attitude car. And I think there was never a point in between when that car was new and today where it didn't say exactly the same thing going down the road. It never had a period where it wasn't cool to see a nice Grand National. It never had a period where people were like, them things are stupid. It never happened. They came out of the box, they were awesome, and then they kind of stayed awesome to that audience. And I think people like Kendrick, I mean, I talked to Killer Mike about Grand Nationals. I think, you know, black folks that grew up seeing people driving them and shit, they were all about that.

[B]

His is a Grand national that was converted. Right. His is not a gnx. Killer Mike's Killer Mics. He had that one built right before the Grammys. Must.

[A]

Oh, and that was not a real gin.

[B]

Yeah. Cause so GNX is they made 547. They made 1500 Buick Turbos, and then they made 20,000 Grand Nationals. I think his was a Grand national converted to LS9.

[A]

If you were gonna do a Hemmings build, you wouldn't use a real grand, real gnx. There's no. There's the. The difference is you eliminate by doing the build.

[B]

Sure. There's just.

[A]

There's.

[B]

People were mad at him for, for, you know, for them for cutting up apart the Grand National. And it's like they made 20. They made a lot.

[A]

There's a bunch of Grand Nationals and.

[B]

There'S a lot of them sitting nowhere with rust. Like just take the engine out.

[A]

Who cares? There's a bunch of Grand Nationals. They're not that Precious. We've had three different GNX's here at Westside. One is here now and the two that are no longer here had like no miles on them. Like low four figures miles. And the one that's here now has. Has like 70,000 miles on it. And it looks just as nice as the other as the brand new ones did. It's actually kind of great. They drive like shit. I mean, they're just sloppy 80s, three speed.

[B]

Yeah. You put the foot down, it goes.

[A]

You can get Detroit speed. Makes a fucking whole like chassis for them, basically. And if someone. If you could do a manual swap and a chassis, you could have a fun little hot rod. But no one's really doing that. They should though. Randy says on June 12, Musk tweeted that they were launching the updated model S and X and they don't look much different. And I've heard no media coverage. Is this more of him trying to Pump the stock. No, you know what's funny there? This is. He actually wasn't lying. There is an updated Model S and Model X. They haven't changed much. One thing they did change is the price. They made it more expensive. Another thing they changed is they dropped the top speed of the plaid from 200 to 150.

[B]

I saw that story, but I also saw a comment saying the website was a little misleading. And if you get the track package or whatever, the top speed is still the same.

[A]

Oh, okay. Well, then actually, if they did that, that would be one of a very small number of responsible things that they did because, yeah, you shouldn't be able to go 200 without the ceramic brakes.

[B]

Right. But it got a new color, it got some new bushings. A little more range for the Model.

[A]

S. That's an old fucking car, man.

[B]

I know, but the prices on all of them went up five grand.

[A]

Yeah, I'm sure that'll help people.

[B]

Little better. Noise cancellation.

[A]

Listen, it's five grand more expensive, but you get to drive around a right wing political building.

[B]

Yeah, you can't get. You can't buy the bumper sticker. Yeah, no, see those around and sometimes I see them on a car that's really new and I go, you. You bought that afterwards?

[A]

50% or more of those. I got this before. Elon was crazy. Are from a car where that is a literal impossibility.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen him. Yeah, like you're on dealer tags, dude.

[A]

Thoughts on his robo taxi launch in Austin? Seems like a bunch of desperate attempts for relevance. Yes, that's. I mean, that is actually. Actually that second bit there is what I would call elon Musk in 2025.

[B]

Niedermeyer was retweeting on Blue sky some funny clips of, like, robo taxi stopping in the middle of the road at three different places. It came to a stop when there was a police car on a different road. Like, it saw blue lights and went, oh, emergency situation. And the robo taxi just stopped in the middle of the road. So right now it's. It's in beta and not great.

[A]

And there's drivers monitoring.

[B]

I don't know. I couldn't tell from the photo. The photo was from behind a little ways away. And that was not the post.

[A]

Yikes.

[B]

Well, there are four pages more.

[A]

We've been going for an hour and a half, so we certainly don't have to do that. But let's do two more and call it a day. We'll save the other ones for Our next show, Adam says, what are your preferred stereo settings and EQ levels in your call? I listen to a mix of music and podcasts, if that makes any difference. Bro, I don't have the ear.

[B]

Depends on the stereo too.

[A]

It hugely depends on the stereo, but I do not have the ear to advise you how to set your car.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, in I guess a middle of the road car, I typically put the treble pretty high, put the bass medium high, and then leave the mid sort of in the middle. Usually that kind of does it, but like, I don't know, it really matters what kind of stereo you're listening to.

[B]

In the Mazda, the stereo sounded very thin. And then I went and I bumped bass up by three. And it was a little better for conversation and for music, but it totally depends on the stereo.

[A]

Yeah, fic and chucker. That's pretty good. With so many popular watch and color combinations named after pop culture characters, what cartoon comic inspired combo would you like to see? See? Okay, that's an interesting one. There's stuff like the Snoopy. Well, I don't know about pop culture characters. I mean, like, we've got, in terms of Rolex, you've got Pepsi, Coke, Root beer, you've got Starbucks, you've got Hulk. Most of those are like brands, not characters.

[B]

Yeah, well, when I got mine painted, I got the, the. The hour hand done sort of in Savage Dragon Green, which is a comic book from my youth.

[A]

Did you literally say Savage Dragon Green?

[B]

I was like, yeah, what you were talking about. I sent him some, some pictures from the comic and I was like, here's what I'm going for. And then he sent me three options and I went, that one. Okay, but. But like a full like, watch combo design with a back and everything. I don't know. It's hard. Now they're. They're all like brand deals in now. It's just all advertisements. Well, there.

[A]

A lot of them are collab brand deal. The Rolex nicknames are just sort of organic based on the color themes. But like, what cartoon? I mean. Oh, I guess there's Batman, there's Hulk. Well, I've never seen. It's not a cartoon character, but I've never seen Sprite. I want to see a Rolex GMT that has a green and yellow. No, the corporate colors.

[B]

There's like.

[A]

Oh, fresco. A fresco. Watch.

[B]

You see the new cans?

[A]

They rebranded it new cans again.

[B]

Yeah, I think. Well, I don't know. They look new to me.

[A]

They change to like they're trying to look classy.

[B]

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

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's called, like, soda beverage.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I swear to God, it's not.

[A]

No, it is. You're right. It is something that's stupid like that. Yeah.

[B]

You need a fresco watch.

[A]

I saw someone did it on Instagram as a rendering once. It's. It's the Sprite, where it's green and yellow on the bezel, which I really liked.

[B]

Yeah, that'd be cool.

[A]

Yeah, it would be cool. So I think you can get it custom. Did you find the can?

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Is it. Is it sparkling soda beverage?

[B]

It's sparkling soda water, which is.

[A]

Sparkling soda water is a really misleading.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Because what it is is diet soda.

[B]

Yeah, it's aspartame.

[A]

That's a diet soda.

[B]

Citrus. Whatever the fuck. But it's definitely not. It tastes more like soda than it does like sparkling water, because it absolutely is soda.

[A]

To call that fucking sparkling soda water is very, very.

[B]

If you do a blind taste test between that and Lacroix and club soda, you're. You're picking Fresca if they ask you to find it.

[A]

Now, in fairness, ain't nothing goes better with a little vodka or a little blanco tequila than a Fresca sparkling soda water.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That is a true dream of a. Of a lazy cocktail drink.

[B]

Yeah, it goes well with tequila. Also, we discovered at the lemons race. Yeah.

[A]

Mm. What's your favorite celebrity tequila? Based on the taste of the tequila, not the quality of the celebrity.

[B]

We had the Rock. We had Teremana up there, but it was only with mix. It was mixed, so I don't know.

[A]

Okay, but was it, like, gross? No.

[B]

Fine.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then what's the other costume?

[A]

Egos, I assume. And that's close.

[B]

That one's pretty good. Yeah, I can do that on the rocks.

[A]

Casamigos is kind of like my new, like. Well, not. Well, I don't mean to be like, like, uppity, but like, like, my. My. That's like my. My kind of. Because I don't want to drink cheap tequila. I work too hard to drink cheap garbage tequila.

[B]

I drink it very rarely. So if I drink it, I'll do Mezcal on the rocks, and then I'm. Okay.

[A]

So I tried the Dos Hermanos, the. The Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston mezcal.

[B]

A lot of energy in that one.

[A]

I. I don't really like Mezcal, and I really didn't like their Mezcal if.

[B]

It'S heavy handed on the. It was.

[A]

Yeah, it's like drinking a campfire.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Gnarly.

[B]

It's not good.

[A]

Yeah it was gnarly but I don't like mascot. Okay I'll real quick this one below it on the regular cat reviews said last week. Does the LC500 with the updated touchscreen fix the infotainment issues with the mouse and trackpad? The answer to that is yes. Yes. The touch screen with scrolly wheels interface is much better. Hannah, who is my UI expert at home drove it for 5 minutes and was like we need to talk about this and she really didn't like that. The forward and back buttons on the steering wheel only do your favorites. You can't use the steering wheel button to scroll through the all channels.

[B]

I completely agree. If that's how it works and it's not a setting or a thing you can change, it is fucking dumb. It's bad because if you're listening to satellite radio, four channels in a row are hip hop and sometimes I like different ones and if I don't favorite all of them, you're saying I can't just go to the next hip hop.

[A]

Station with the steering wheel control. Now there's a central console scrolly wheel that will where you can scroll individual channels outside of your favorite favorites. Even if you're using that in tandem with the steering wheel favorites.

[B]

And I I still say no. I wish, I wish there should be a toggle in settings where you can say I want this steering wheel control to do favorites or channel by channel because I could totally see why someone goes how come it's going channel by channel? My favorites are 50 channels apart.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Give us the option because some of the there's so much good music on sat radio from like 27 to 49.

[A]

Yeah. I need to individually be able to go through those channels. The only other UI complaint I have about the LC is the heated and cooled seats is two touches in the touchscreen and then you have to touch to select your seat. You can't. It's not on the home screen. It's not a button on the side and it actually has an auto setting so it just matches kind of whatever the climate control is doing. Which works pretty well. Well. But still that's too many menus for heated seats.

[B]

Yeah. Cuz it, it may be something you start when you're parked but you're going to change it once you've been moving for 30 minutes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So that's, that's a bad one. But other than that I do love me some LC500 that is a delight. And I'll figure out. I. I'm pretty sure something isn't quite right with the trans on this one. It. It seems like it was either burning or leaking fluid in a way that's not natural. But I wouldn't be surprised if they call me tomorrow and go, yep, you were right about that. But don't want to be presumptuous.

[B]

Two gears fell out of it, by the way.

[A]

Stupid. Yeah. Also didn't have 9th or 10th gear, apparently. That's all, folks. We're gonna be back later this week. It's. It's actually gonna be real busy around here because there's an Aston Martin press launch happening here this week, so a lot's happening at wccs, and obviously, I can't review the product because I'm providing the facility. Are you doing it? Do they call you?

[B]

They did not call me, but I'll be. It's gonna be here all day, so I'll just pop by and.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

See if I can do it. Look at their new UI.

[A]

Yeah, it's the. It's the CarPlay Ultra Aston Martin launch, so Zach can do it because he's not benefiting from Aston Martin being here. Right. But that's all. We appreciate you. And if you're over 40, make sure you see a cardiologist every year. That's my psa, this one. Bye, guys.