Manual Swaps (and Drama); How Mustangs Get Expensive; Q&A

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Smoking Tire
Episode: Manual Swaps (and Drama); How Mustangs Get Expensive; Q&A
Hosts: Zack Klapman & Matt Farah
Release Date: May 20, 2025

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1. Weekend Recap

The episode kicks off with Matt Farah sharing his somewhat hectic yet fulfilling weekend. Despite attending two car shows, Matt balanced his time between automotive events and managing work stress, especially on Friday afternoons.

Matt Farah [00:00]: "It's a pretty slow-moving weekend... I have to get emails and all kind of work shit done before, like 1:32pm on Friday because otherwise east coast hours, it's lost into the fucking ether."

Zack Klapman chimes in, highlighting Matt's attendance at the "Good Vibes" car show and their subsequent activities, including a creative project with Lego cat and sticker counting antics.

2. Wagon Fest at Peterson Museum

Matt and Zack discuss their experience at Wagon Fest held at the Peterson Museum, emphasizing the dominance of Audi wagons and the impressive array of modified vehicles on display.

Matt Farah [07:33]: "There was probably like, I don't know, dozens of RS6s and many other Audi AVANTS as well, including a B5 RS4... Always a treat to see one of those Chevy nomads, Ferrari Lusso, Lexus Sport Cross."

They reminisce about specific models and the unique modifications, such as drop links on Porsche Taycan rims, debating the comfort and practicality of these alterations.

3. Manual Transmission Swaps and Texas Drama

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the controversy surrounding a manual transmission swap shop in Texas. Matt recounts the allegations of scamming by the shop owner, Art, who was reportedly forced out due to delays and mismanagement.

Matt Farah [22:18]: "Someone got mad because they thought that what this collector said to me is a mischaracterization of the pricing of the car."

However, recent Instagram activity suggests Art might still be involved with the company, leading to confusion and uncertainty about the current state of affairs.

4. Mustang GTD Pricing Breakdown

The hosts delve deep into the pricing complexities of the Mustang GTD, exploring how customization and option selections can drive the cost upwards.

Matt Farah [34:47]: "So he said it is possible to get a car that starts with a six... you have to check all of it."

They break down various options, from paint stages to performance packs, illustrating how each addition incrementally increases the total price, sometimes reaching six figures with exhaustive customization.

5. AI and Car Purchasing Concerns

Matt expresses apprehensions about the rising influence of AI in the automotive industry, particularly how AI chatbots might manipulate consumers into making purchases under the guise of friendship.

Matt Farah [49:51]: "What he's not saying is that those AI friends will seem like real people... AI chatbot to a lonely person is even easier."

Zack agrees, highlighting potential ethical dilemmas and the risk of AI subtly steering purchases to benefit companies financially.

6. Gross Vehicle Weight Calculation

An insightful segment features Matt sharing an email from their friend David Tuig, explaining the intricacies of gross vehicle weight (GVW) calculations across different regions.

Matt Farah [54:32]: "Each OEM figures out their own gross vehicle weight. It's basically the maximum weight the car's structure can stand."

David outlines how GVW is determined based on factors like occupant mass, cargo, and regional standards (EU vs. Japan vs. US), providing listeners with a clearer understanding of vehicle design constraints.

7. Listener Q&A Highlights

The Q&A section addresses a variety of listener-submitted questions:

• Car Choices for Teenagers: Recommendations include front-wheel-drive models like GTIs, Fiesta STs, or Focus STs for their balance of performance and safety.

  Zach Klapman [69:19]: "I would say front wheel drive cars. GTIs, maybe Fiesta ST..."

• Ceramic Coating Over PPF: Matt shares his positive experiences with applying ceramic coatings atop Paint Protection Film (PPF), noting ease of cleaning and enhanced protection.

  Matt Farah [68:13]: "We put ceramic or what we call what we use ammo reflex, which is a ceramic like coating. It's not exactly the same as ceramic, but it does the same thing."

• Supercar Gimmicks: The hosts critique various automotive features they consider gimmicky, such as Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) and extravagant activation mechanisms in supercars.

  Matt Farah [95:34]: "Those are done by Tesla... they're promising a future version that doesn't exist yet."

8. Additional Discussions

Beyond the main topics, Matt and Zack touch on:

• Their Past Trip to Panama: Recounting their adventurous episode involving school bus racing and discovering the transformation of an abandoned drug lord's racetrack into a sanctioned motorsport facility.

  Matt Farah [46:20]: "It was scary as hell. But earlier in the video, we look for this drug lord's race track that was abandoned in the woods..."

• Car Enthusiast Lifestyle: Conversations about personal car projects, modifications, and the balance between passion and practicality in automotive pursuits.

9. Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, Matt and Zack emphasize their commitment to providing in-depth automotive discussions while engaging with their audience through platforms like Patreon.

Matt Farah [84:15]: "I'm cleaning coffee... Our friend ACP has a really nice four speed car that's like an 83 maybe. It's a euro spec car that was brought here legally in the 80s."

They sign off by thanking their patrons and encouraging listeners to support the podcast for exclusive content and early access to shows.

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Notable Quotes:

• Matt Farah [34:47]: "But the GT3RS. It's the same thing. Like you can make a GT3RS start with a six."

• Zach Klapman [51:31]: "There’s so like to your point, they’re spending a lot of money on AI. It might not be working for their company or whatever."

• Matt Farah [54:32]: "Here's where it gets fun. In Europe, European law defines that a human is 75 kg and that a person will have 25 kg of luggage with them."

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This episode of The Smoking Tire offers a comprehensive exploration of manual transmission swaps, the escalating costs of customizing Mustangs, the potential pitfalls of AI in automotive sales, and various listener queries, all delivered with the hosts' characteristic candor and expertise.

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

What up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast, your favorite automotive podcast. I am Matt Farah and today's episode is, as always, brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record here. They are here for us and they are here for you. And I love when you guys tell me that off the Record keeps points off your record. I don't have to tell you anymore. You guys are now telling me because you're using the thing left and right. Basically. If you get a ticket, you don't plead guilty. Step number one, don't plead guilty. That's for suckers and idiots. Then you get off the Record, you go to offtherecord.com TST and then off the Record, we'll ask you a few questions about what happened. Why did you allegedly get pulled over? You send in a photo of the ticket. They will then fight that ticket for you. You don't do anything. They go to work in the background and then they get back to you later and they're like, hey, guess what? Dismissed. It's a beautiful system. Off the Record, don't be a sucker. You gotta get off the Record. They are the clutch hookup. When you're road tripping, when you're driving around, when you're commuting, when you're having a little fun, you need to know off the Record's there for you. And they are. Offtherecord.com TST 10% off. All legal services at offtherecord. All right, on this episode of the podcast, we are talking about Mustang GTD pricing. We're talking about a return to gross vehicle weight that we talked about a couple weeks ago. We got some information on that. We're talking about why I'm a little nervous about AI and how people could be persuaded to buy cars using AI Chatbot, fake friends. We're talking about racing school buses in Panama and something is happening down in Texas. It's the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. Well, it's Monday morning. I mean, this weekend was like, I don't know about you. For me, this weekend was a pretty slow moving weekend.

[Zach Klapman]

Really? But you did. You went to like two car shows, didn't you?

[Matt Farah]

Well, I went to good vibes on Friday. I guess Friday is also the weekend for some people. It's not the weekend for me, even though I go to a car show up on a mountain for half the day. Because I do spend the second half of the day super stressed out at work about getting things done before the weekday's over. That time between noon and 2pm on Friday, very stressful for me because I stupidly go to Good Vibes and I really have to get emails and all kind of work shit done before, like 1:32pm on Friday because otherwise east coast hours, it's lost into the fucking ether. But because. And then I didn't go out on Saturday. Instead, it was raining. Hannah and I stayed in, did Lego cat, which is beautiful. I'll post pictures on Instagram. It's pretty sweet, actually. We were waiting to get the one of Cricket sitting next to the Lego cat that looks just like Cricket. And we did go to Home Depot and get a little bit of spray paint to selectively spray paint some of the pieces on the cat to make it look more like Cricket.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, cool.

[Matt Farah]

Like it's a tuxedo cat, but we put Cricket specific markings.

[Zach Klapman]

That's cool.

[Matt Farah]

Which is fun, fun little project. And then Wagon Fest on Sunday, Adam and the guys at, you know, Avant's magazine, they do a great job. They put out a really nice magazine and they keep inviting me to stuff. They put me on the poster, which. I've got a bunch of them. But look at these. I got a big rack of Wagon Fest stickers with the taycan on it. So I don't know how I'm gonna give these out. They probably gave me. They gave me this and then another stack of these.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like 50.

[Matt Farah]

This is probably 100, and I don't know. You think that's 50? You want to make it interesting.

[Zach Klapman]

I think that is 32.

[Matt Farah]

You think that's 32?

[Zach Klapman]

I think that stack is 32.

[Matt Farah]

Now, that's a low enough number. I'm going to count it live. I think this is more like 60.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Sorry. This is not going to be riveting radio. Maybe we'll run it and fast forward. But listen, if you're listening to this podcast at not even 9am on a Monday, you're. You're trying to kill time, right? But here we go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 90. Wow. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 31, 2.

[Zach Klapman]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

1, 2, 3, four, eight, nine, four zero, three four, five, six, seven, nine. 50. Exactly. 50. Wow, these are. Stickers are way thicker than you think they are. Okay, so I have a hundred of these stickers, and that was probably only about 25 seconds of wasted radio.

[Zach Klapman]

That was. That's not bad counting.

[Matt Farah]

I could count pretty fast. I think it's. I pride myself on it. I talk about it on dates. Really first dates, always.

[Zach Klapman]

Sarah talks about my fast math, my server math. She's like, it's impressive.

[Matt Farah]

You do server math? What kind of server math are you talking about?

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I was a waiter for like nine years.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, right.

[Zach Klapman]

If someone's like, you know, what's percentages? 47 plus 16 or something, I'm just like. And it just.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, like. Like my dad.

[Zach Klapman]

No, no, no, not percentages of like annual interest rates. Yeah, do that.

[Matt Farah]

He trained. He practiced that. If you can do. If you can already do the 4 function, you could teach yourself the interest rates. There's the way to do it. Okay, that sounds like the kind of thing Sarah would do, though. She would train herself. I'm surprised Sarah hasn't already trained herself to do that, by the way.

[Zach Klapman]

It just isn't necessary for her survival. But if it is, I'll be fucked.

[Matt Farah]

Frankly, I'm gonna consider her an underachiever. If she doesn't, she doesn't. The way she talks about shit. I would not be the least bit surprised to see her next weekend and be like, you know, I taught myself to do interest rates in my head.

[Zach Klapman]

She like, read a Series seven trading book. She's like, I should learn this. I'm like, okay, it's just 500 pages.

[Matt Farah]

It's the kind of person that she is, and I respect that. Very few things surprise me about her, and I mean that in a good way. She achieves at a high level and like, just tries things that are very high level, like for funsies.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. It makes me feel very stupid.

[Matt Farah]

Listen, I mean, I've been there. Yeah, I have definitely been there, but yeah. Anyway, Wagon Fest was fun. Obviously it's lots of wagons. And is it the Peterson Museum? And the Peterson Museum is great. It's the best. The best car museum. But it's traditionally a terrible place to go to a car show, especially from where we live, because it's just like, wake up, turn on your car, drive into 30 minutes of shitty traffic on very bumpy roads, and then park in the parking lot and then do it the other way. So to get to do it in my electric car was like a real. I was like, oh, this is living. This is absolutely living. But wagons so obviously heavily dominant Audis, in fact, the entire slightly inside baseball. The photos on my Instagram. The upper deck of the Peterson parking garage, which is where cars and coffees and car shows happen. The roof is sort of two tiered. There's like the top roof and the top roof only covers half of the second level down roof so it's levels three and four of the parking deck. But there's like, it's part of it's open, part of it's covered. It's kind of nice actually. So the entire top level. Audi RS, Audi RS 6S.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, there was probably like, I don't.

[Zach Klapman]

Know, that's dozens 60 that spot.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, no, I'm bad. Obviously I'm bad. I count over.

[Zach Klapman]

No, but look how long. I mean that's 15 cars down and there's multiple rows up top.

[Matt Farah]

There was, yeah, there was definitely dozens of RS6s and many other Audi AVANTS as well, including a B5 RS4. Holla. And there was all your, all your boilerplate items, all of your E class wagon variants. I didn't take a good picture of it, but right where the mouse is there, that's a row of about 6 cts v wagons in a row. You have a variety of subi component, of course, Subies, a variety of BMW wagons. Your requisite Volvo 850R in yellow wagon which you could spot out from anywhere. Always a treat to see one of those Chevy nomads. Ferrari, Ferrari Lusso. Yeah, that's a good one. Lexus Sport Cross.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, is 300, but Sport Cross.

[Matt Farah]

I saw a sport cross fucking like as soon as I left my house and turned onto the main road that's in front of my house, which is, I don't know how far is it to Peterson? Eight, seven, eight miles from there. My house to Peterson. Soon as I turned onto the main road in front of my own house, I saw a sport cross. I went, he's going to Peterson. I see two of these a year. And he was, I saw, followed him the whole way. Saw him there. Yeah, Datsun five 10s. There were some other taycans. That Neptune blue in the top right of that photo was on some big ass motherfucking rims. And it was big rims. And it was on drop links too. And the homie who was driving it was very cool and swore the ride wasn't ruined. And I didn't believe him for one fucking second. Everyone, everyone says, here's what everyone says. My customer who lowered his takeout on drop links said the same shit. I go, how's the ride? I go, oh, it's fine. It never scrapes right. That's what they're. If it doesn't scrape, it's fine. Not like. Does it feel like driving on bump stops?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Is it more comfortable? Less comfortable?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Does it feel like you're in a race car?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And then I ride in the car and I'm like, oh, fucking hell. No, Absolutely. No, I mean, like, no offense. If you want to look like everything's a trade off, Right? Everything's a trade off. So maybe you don't have back problems and are comfortable with a luxury car that rides poorly.

[Zach Klapman]

How old was the owner of this car?

[Matt Farah]

Give or my age, give or take.

[Zach Klapman]

Usually, you know, the younger people are down for a little bit of gluttony or sorry, punishment.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, and they're just. They'll deal with it. And then they turn 32 and they go, you know, what car's a little low?

[Matt Farah]

I mean, it depends. It depends when and where you're driving. I mean, I don't know. Not everybody values, like, having a great ride in a luxury car. I mean, if you just look at the luxury cars that I store here, more of them ride poorly than ride well. I mean, even some. We have like two brabus s classes here on, like huge rims and rubber band tires. Like, you know, whatever.

[Zach Klapman]

It's been a problem since, I mean, what, the early 2000s.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, when rims just started growing and the tires had never, you know, he can't grow in proportion.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So you get thin tires.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, dude. And even like my taycan, I went from 20s to 21s and like, the car doesn't ride as well. Like, they're light, the wheels are lighter, the tires are a higher quality, the suspension is still stock, but the car does not ride as well. You know, it's what you do.

[Zach Klapman]

It's what happens is a bummer because, like, you know, music videos or photo shoots. I mean, the ads for wheels, especially in the 2000s, were very effective because. Damn. I mean, look at concept drawings. That's a perfect example. The tire is always one pencil line for decades and decades. So, like, that's the best look is wheel fills tire.

[Matt Farah]

Well, yeah, I cannot argue with that. Like, if you look at my car compared to that other dude's car on big rims and other ones I've seen on big rims, like, they look better like the guy. The rims that inspired my rims that I saw in another Taycan, his were 22s. Like, he had the 22 version of what I've got, the 21. So, like, I was never gonna look as cool as him, but I'm like, I gotta drive this thing in Los Angeles. Yeah. It's not just going from the garage to the show. It's going on that shitty road to the Peterson Just to do things.

[Zach Klapman]

And most of these people also live in Los Angeles. That's the funny thing. If they came from Nevada, Arizona, where the roads are usually smoother, then I would get it.

[Matt Farah]

But if they're local also, we went in the Peterson Museum and we were just talking about the Ford G290 on the show. And there it was in the Peterson, parked next to the Chrysler ME412. And these are two of my favorite functional running concept vehicles of all time, right in my fucking wheelhouse. You got the Chrysler when they were Daimler Chrysler with Mercedes. And it's got a quad turbo V12 in the back, which is clearly the Mercedes V12. You can look in the engine bonnet and it's like the intake runner is literally the S600 intake runners, which, hey, no problem, works good enough for Paganis. Matter of fact, that engine like might be close to what like a WIRA had. You know, ultimately not with four turbos, with two, but like this was like they were almost ready to produce this thing. The ME412 and the GT90, which is so awesome looking, is also a quad turbo V12 and the Ford one.

[Zach Klapman]

God, it looks like NASA built the back half.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, there's a lunar Rover.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, it's like tapers and the intakes are so aggressive. It's amazing. I remember the issue when like the magazine cover when this Chrysler car came out and I was a kid and I went, what? Yeah, Chrysler's making a supercar. And I was totally for it because when you're a kid, you just want more supercars. But also I remember being confused seeing the badge on the front going, sure, but like, I see town in countries all over the place, you know, and Sebrings and stuff like that. Weird.

[Matt Farah]

And the details of this car that made it to like the crossfire is the most inconsequential shit. Like the strakes on the hood, on the front bonnet and the wheels.

[Zach Klapman]

But look at, look at the size of the emblem on the front. I mean, it covers half of the front bumper between the headlights. These look like Nissan 350Z headlights.

[Matt Farah]

That's all handmade.

[Zach Klapman]

I know it is. I mean, that's way, way before the 350Z. But shape wise, if you shrunk it about 30, you put that on Nissan.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, I don't know if this was before the 350Z. I think the 350Z, I think this came out right around the time of the 350Z. Is it?

[Zach Klapman]

I think 350Z came.

[Matt Farah]

That was like 0405.0202. Yeah, I think this was. This was around that time. This was. This might have been later. When was when. I think this might have been 0405. The ME 412. I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, these lights might be handmade, but they're.

[Matt Farah]

But they look a lot like the same dude. Really? Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Let me pull up this photo.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. I really like the. The knockoff blue Halibrand style wheels on the gt. Huh. Those look pretty. Okay. So it's got that projector in pretty much the same space. Yeah. In the lower half. Click back.

[Zach Klapman]

It doesn't have the LEDs, so.

[Matt Farah]

No, I think the projector protrudes a little bit on the. No, it doesn't.

[Zach Klapman]

No, it didn't. But this is.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's pretty close. It might have started with the 350Z housing and then cut part out of it or something.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, this is.

[Matt Farah]

I wouldn't.

[Zach Klapman]

This is longer on the.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

On the Chrysler, but good.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, that's a spot though, Zach. That's like. I mean, that's a detail that I. I may not have spotted that one. That's a good. And I didn't for 20 years. Did you find out what year it came from, though? That's why we started down that rabbit hole.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh.

[Matt Farah]

First, was it even plausible that they stole the Z's headlights? And I think it was. I think it was. This concept car was shown in like.

[Zach Klapman]

0506, maybe produced in 2004.

[Matt Farah]

It was.

[Zach Klapman]

The Z was before it.

[Matt Farah]

So the myth is not busted.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, man. When you see the front shot of this, these headlights. These headlights are gigantic. Yeah, they.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah. Big ones.

[Zach Klapman]

Those are huge. Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Wow. Everything in this photo fucking rules. This is the concept lawn of pebble beach from what I guess would have been 04. So you've got a spiker behind it. I don't know what that thing is over there. That looks like an interpretation of shit. I don't know. It's a. It looks like something like similar to that Jaguar turbine concept. But it has weird like 80s style strakes on the side of it.

[Zach Klapman]

These strakes are odd. The headlights look a bit like Tesla, but then you got like a Bugatti nose or Bugatti intake here. That's a weird looking car.

[Matt Farah]

And then there's like a Bentley in front of it. That would have just been like the current Bentley at that time.

[Zach Klapman]

I feel like someone just parked there and got out and they were like, oh, don't That's Clint Eastwood car.

[Matt Farah]

It's the Rodney Dangerfield. Park it. Park it for me, would you, sir? This is the concept lawn here. Whatever, you know, make it a parking lot.

[Zach Klapman]

Here's a concept.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they should have made that. Yep, should have made that fortune. Made the fucking GT90 too. That was sick. And if you've ever seen a Ford GT like an 0406 Ford GT on those GT90 wheels. Yeah, like it is.

[Zach Klapman]

Are these actual center caps?

[Matt Farah]

I don't think they're real knockoffs. It would have been dumb to make real knockoffs like that. They could be a center wheel that just has a decorative knockoff style.

[Zach Klapman]

Flair maybe.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, it was a fucking concept car, but those Halibrand style wheels look pretty cool on a modern Ford gt. I've seen it a couple of times. I forgot who forget who made them, but they were badass. Wow, we got so many minutes of radio out of that. Okay, a couple of like important things though. Folks, gotta take a break from the action because today's episode is brought to you by car gurus. Making a big car purchase should come with confidence, not confusion. And Cargurus helps you cut through the noise, showing you the best deals and in depth vehicle details so you can feel confident about your purchase. When it comes to your big deal, you deserve the best deal. Car shopping is crazy in America right now. There's so many cars, there's so many sites, you have no idea which are like scammy, which are great, which are just not even real. And you see so many cars, they look so similar and you hope you kind of pick the right one. With Cargurus, they take all the guesswork out of it. They've got real price analysis, vehicle history, price drop alerts and the best deals. No bad dates here, just good cars. It should be exciting to shop for a car. Not exhausting, but Cargurus brings the fun back. In the excitement, they get the best deals and verify dealers making sure you never pay more than you should. Cargurus will connect you with the trusted dealership when you're ready, ensuring a transparent and hassle free buying experience. There's over 4 million listings on CarGurus, more than any other major online automotive marketplace in the US it's no wonder similar web estimated traffic data shows Cargurus is the number one most visited car shopping site, giving you the control to shop how you want with the tools and information and data driven deal ratings you need. Buy or sell your next car today with [e-mail] Go to cargurus.com to make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C A R G u r u s.comcargurus.com do it today. Also brought to you today by Deleteme. Been talking about them for a while and I love it. Your personal information, my personal information, everybody's personal information is easier to get than ever before. Why is that? Because we sold it for convenience. We shop online, we get tickets to events, we book hotel rooms, airplane tickets, rental cars, et cetera. And your information is out there. And people are selling your information to data brokers for money. And then they sell that information to anybody who needs it for a variety of things, most of which aren't good for you. With Deleteme you can protect your personal privacy privacy or the privacy of your business from doxing, from phishing, from spam, from fraud, all kinds of things that they could do with your information. Identity theft, harassment, you name it. You can take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme. It's great. What you do is you put in all this information, things you might not want on the Internet. You give it to Deleteme to get it off the Internet. They then go about scraping and a couple days later they come back with an enormous list of things that they found. Examples of your information on data brokers, websites, maybe it's your family or old addresses. And then they ask you, which one of these can we delete? Do we want to keep this? Do we want this? Anything, blah blah blah. You go through it and then every month they do it again. They keep doing it. It's not a one time use. It's ongoing. It is good stuff. And I love getting that email from Deleteme saying here's all these things I and here's all these things we are going to delete. It's great. You can get 20% off your delete me plan. When you go to JoinDeleteMe.com Tire that's JoinDeleteMe.com Tire and then use promo code Tire at checkout. Join DeleteMe.com Tire with promo code Tire at checkout. And now back to the show one. So this I, I don't know what to make of this, but I sent you the text over the weekend. We talked a couple weeks ago because someone asked that was, was that the pro show that we talked about EAG a couple weeks ago or was that the public show? I think it was the public show.

[Zach Klapman]

I think so, because, yeah, the pro.

[Matt Farah]

Someone asked about the shop that was doing manual swaps in, in Texas and what, like my quote, beef was or whatever with them. And the answer was, like, the owner got forced out for like, scamming people, basically. And the last I had heard was they were under new. Total new management and everything was okay.

[Zach Klapman]

Now, to be more specific about scamming, wasn't. Weren't they. They had a lot of deposits for cars. Yes, but they weren't producing the cars as quickly as they needed to. And there was a lot of money being spent on other things, things that.

[Matt Farah]

Weren'T getting cars done.

[Zach Klapman]

Right?

[Matt Farah]

Yes, that was the accusation. That was, you know, I don't, I don't know. You know, we don't, I don't want to get in a legal situation, but that was the accusation. And the guy whose name is Art, was forced out of the company. That was the last I heard of it. Okay. And for, And I don't, I don't know why, because I never followed them before on Instagram. But as I'm scrolling Instagram yesterday, I see a video that comes, a reel that comes through from this eag and there's Art and he's in it and he's getting into one of their, like a car there, there's like a development and it's for a Maserati Gran Turismo. And like there he is getting in the car and like driving it off. And I'm like, I thought this dude was out, like, what the fuck? And I go to their Instagram page and there's like a couple recent videos. And like, because I, you know, this was, I don't know, a year ago or so. And I stopped thinking about it because why do I care? But because people keep asking me about it and this just showed up and I was like. So I stopped thinking about it for a long time, but now I go and it looks like the last couple of months this dude is like all up in their Instagram again. I don't know what the fuck is going on down there. But like, I don't know. I just, like the last thing I said a couple weeks ago, we talked about this and I said the guy was gone. And so he's clearly not gone. So I don't know if, like it was gone or back. I don't know if he's. I don't know if they gave him the food and beverage job, you know. Right.

[Zach Klapman]

He's not running the company, he's hosting a late night show. He's not running the casino anymore. I want to add to everything we.

[Matt Farah]

Said before is allegedly.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Matt Farah]

No, well, there's no allegedly. It's him in the fucking.

[Zach Klapman]

No, no, not that. I meant what he. What they were accused of. What he was accused of.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah. And by a lot of people. And it was all over, you know, it was a. It was a real thing. It was not maybe. I don't know if the. The offenses were. If he was held criminally liable or if there were civil. I know there was multiple civil actions against this person. But. But anyway, you know, there were a lot of people who were very angry about cars that were sitting down there for a very long time, and somebody was living quite an expensive lifestyle and the work wasn't getting done. And so anyway, this dude is now back in their Instagram videos, so make of that what you will. He might be running the fucking food and beverage job, but I doubt it.

[Zach Klapman]

Or maybe he's now their head tech. Cause they realize, like, you're good at putting the transmissions in the car.

[Matt Farah]

He wasn't. He never did. No, no, he never did that. He always had other people doing the mechanical work. And I'm not saying he had no know how, but. But when I met him, and every time since he was the business owner, he was not a wrench, okay? And he's not wrenching in this. He's demonstrating in social media. He's wearing, like the glasses, the meta glasses, and like driving like stick shift prototypes around. But you could tell it's him because he has the tiniest, skinniest legs and arms. Like, he looks like he's going to just turn to dust. And his face is like gaunt, like a fucking Holocaust survivor. And you see his face, you go, I can't. I can't miss that guy any.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay?

[Matt Farah]

I'm not trying to, like, make a thing of it, but like, that dude is back at that company, so.

[Zach Klapman]

Situations like this, everything will reveal itself in. In due time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I. I don't know what the deal is, but, like. But because manual swaps are now like a thing that people our age are using to get the car we want. Actually. It's like a. Like, I get emails like, did you see this on Bring a Trailer? Right now is a CLK Black series with a manual swap. There's a guy who hit me up in email who is going to bring us, I believe, an SL55 with a manual swap done using mostly factory parts. I mean, the manual swapping early 2000s AMG cars is a very good idea because all of those cars are fabulous driver's cars if you can get past the transmission or change the transmission, which is awful. Yeah, I drove like an average quality one that was a complete game changer like 10 years ago and I've never forgot it. And so when you start talking about all of those, you know, automatic Porsches, automatic BMWs, automatic Mercedes, that becomes options. Yeah, this thing's already up to 100 grand and it's a high mile relatively car 28,000 miles, which is not a lot for a Mercedes, but it's a lot for a black series.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. And I think, I don't know if the previous generation, the one before us was not into swaps or maybe parts availability made it impossible or technology made it impossible, but our generation seems more focused on how does it drive and how can we optimize the fun of this thing.

[Matt Farah]

I think there's a certain, I don't know if it's generational. I think there is a certain contingency of people who, mainly investment concerned collectors who want a car that's perfectly original and would not be happy with a swap. And I think there's other people who go, I don't want the, I can't afford the manual 430 but man, this fucking high mileage paddle car is like 90 grand and the swap is 25 and like man, 115 grand for a manual Ferrari mid engine. Like I could swing that, you know, so.

[Zach Klapman]

But also this swaps like this like the CLK and other cars like you said. I mean you're taking the one real negative about. There were so many cars that came out in that era that were like, wow, these are amazing. I love this. The engine and the handling and the brakes and the steering feel and the styling and all that. And you're. Oh, but, but shifting it and driving it makes it feel like it was made in 1984. And it's so much worse than these other cars that were offered with manuals from their competitors. But if you can change that one.

[Matt Farah]

Thing, learn that 2014 vanquish, right? We were there. We were, we were as usual with everything else, way ahead of the fucking curve on this shit. But I think this car with a manual would probably be a really good time. And it's. If you can find a car that's not, you know, super low mile, pebble beach investor grade, 28,000 miles on a Mercedes is not a lot. So this car is still going to be in. I mean I'm not endorsing this car. But a 28,000 mile black series will not be a piece of shit in the way that, you know, there's certain cars that couldn't keep up with that kind of mileage. Right. Shifter knob looks nice. The center console looks nice. Yeah, I bet this.

[Zach Klapman]

That's very tidy.

[Matt Farah]

I bet that's a good time. Someone gets one of these in la. Get at me. I'd like to. I'd like to try it. And like, honestly, even that video with, you know, what's his name down in Texas, driving the Maserati Gran Turismo, I was even, you know, despite his whatever I think about this guy personally, I was sort of like, oh, manual transmission. Maserati Gran Turismo is pretty sweet. Can't hate on the concept.

[Zach Klapman]

Totally.

[Matt Farah]

You know, like, that sounds pretty awesome, actually, because those artists. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, they sound great.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, those are cheap enough where you genuinely wonder if, you know, even if the manual swaps like 10, 12 grand, it might not be worth it.

[Zach Klapman]

If the car's 30, it probably won't be from an investment point. You need to be, I think, wealthy enough where you don't give a shit about that. And you're like, I'm gonna have a good time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but if you're doing that, you're not buying a used Maserati Gran Turismo.

[Zach Klapman]

Two people will, you know, Two people.

[Matt Farah]

It's like, if you're doing that, you're doing it. Doing it with a Ferrari 599, not a Maserati Gran Turismo.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, how much? But a 599 costs $100,000.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but you're talking about rich people. Shit.

[Zach Klapman]

But there's different.

[Matt Farah]

That's a lot of money to us. Not to like rich people.

[Zach Klapman]

No, but I'm saying if someone, Someone might not be able to afford 599 plus conversion, but they can afford Gran Turismo.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, sure, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

That's what I mean.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. No, I just like, it's. To me, look, I've. I've spent more money on cars than the car was worth several times in my life, so I'm gonna not throw too many stones in the glass house. But if a used Maserati is 30 and it's 15 to swap it, that's a. That's a tough proposition.

[Zach Klapman]

It is. The math is not great for anything other than you're having a good time and then 10 years later you go, ooh, I kind of lit that money on fire, didn't I? Yeah, you'd have fun.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And it would be. I mean, it would be like objectively better than the car was before. So if that's your dream, that's cool. I know a guy whose dream is a Maserati Gran Turismo. He's a lovely guy and he could afford 12 Maserati Gran Turismo's and that's what he likes. He lost one in the hurricane in Naples.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, is there a better Naples car?

[Zach Klapman]

That's a. I was gonna say, like, that's where they all are.

[Matt Farah]

That is Cocci di Napoli.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good car.

[Matt Farah]

That's a Naples car. Yeah. His pedals look good in this black series. That's all right.

[Zach Klapman]

The spacing looks good. That's why I wanted to look at that picture.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So I got an email from somebody who was. Because we talked about the collector that I knew who priced out a Mustang GTD and said it started with a six. Several people took that. We didn't make a clip of that, but several people took what I said and turned it either into clips or to Instagram reels and shit. Which we do not get paid for. Doesn't even really get linked back to us. It's just pure theft. Doesn't help us in any way or turned it into like pieces. Like someone for. I think the drive turned it into like a story, which is okay and I appreciate them listening to the show. But someone got mad because they thought that what this collector said to me is a mischaracterization of the pricing of the car. And to prove it, they sent me the pricing of the car. And this is pretty exact. And so he said it is possible to get a car that starts with a six. You have to do that stupid thing that people do on the Porsche configurator where you just. You try to check as many boxes as possible. So like I'll Skip the base car. 322 carbon car 365. Black roof is free. Body color 5G's carbon 10G's performance pack 46,000 or 40,000 if you've already got a carbon car. Stripes 5 to 15,000 depending on color. Interior titanium package 10 GS car cover, thousand bucks. Tow hook 5 Hyundai painted calipers 2500. Black is included. Painted other colors. Custom paint 20K stage 1, 25K stage 2, 55K stage 3 plus 5. If you want the roof painted that color as well. Color lockout to make ensure your colors. The only one is 25 GTD. Graphic on the rear wing. 750 mirror caps in carbon 2500. I based on that, built my GTD and I got to 442. You have to go pretty. I mean, you have to get. I mean, if you check all of this shit, it does get to six, but you have to check all of it.

[Zach Klapman]

You need like, especially paint. It sounds like you could do a three stage paint and lock it out and that can be in on the roof. And that could be like $80,000 just for paint.

[Matt Farah]

Right. So 60. It would be 85 if you want a full stage three custom paint with lockout. And then 86 if you want the GTD graphic. And then you can add 15K and get to 100. 1000 if you do some crazy stripe. Also 15,000. So you know. Wow. Yeah. So like. But it's like the GT3RS. It's the same thing. Like you can make a GT3RS start with a six. Our friend's car did. Yeah, but you have to try. Yes, hard as fuck.

[Zach Klapman]

You have to get special phone numbers for people that are in the, you know, special wishes. And you have to come up with the ideas to make. You need to have special wishes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. You have to try really hard to get a GT3RS at MSRP to start with a number like that.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And you have to like know people in this. Maybe you don't have to know people. I mean, it seems you kind of have to know somebody get a GTD at all. But you gotta go ham.

[Zach Klapman]

Ham. Were you able to get one to a six just by.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, if you check everything.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

It's like 6. 0 something.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So I guess then we should clarify. When we were discussing it, it seemed like the markup was insane or like the car was being priced higher than we originally thought it was. But it's just, you have to take every single option.

[Matt Farah]

Just that this person said, you know, there's. And you know who the person is. That makes sense, doesn't it? We know the person and them saying give me one with everything.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

Is fully on brand. So. Okay. I would skip a lot of stuff here. Right.

[Zach Klapman]

Was there anything in that category of anything that gets it to a six that you liked? You know, you built one. Did you build the restrained one or did you.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, you want to know what I built? I'll tell you what mine was. Mine is a carbon body colored roof performance pack with a Stage one color roof matched and a car cover. That's it. Yeah. Do you want to. Do you want to do one that's just That's a different thing. But I'll. I'll do the math. If you want to. If you want to.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't want to do it live because I want to look at like, I don't know what the titanium interior option is, but since I think it's magic money land, like do I want that or not? I don't know. I needed to take a look at it. I guess I could pull.

[Matt Farah]

It's probably like a titanium roll cage instead of a, you know, a stainless one maybe or something like that.

[Zach Klapman]

Kind of cool.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But you. Point being and point taken. You have to try to get into that. It's sort. You sort of end up with a silly spec car. I mean, it'll probably look cool. Now there. I will say that there isn't. There's. If you're a heavy bike collector, there could be an argument to be made for the color long term. Shit. That's painted a super custom one of one provable sunder witch plus plus plus plus plus comes with a blow job kind of color. You might get your money back on something like that down the road.

[Zach Klapman]

But your taste, that's what I'm saying. To be the taste.

[Matt Farah]

Well, that's the thing. It has to be that you have to get a custom color that also would have really mass appeal.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And that's. I think that's really challenging because Ford knows that the mass appeal colors should be available to more people. Like the colors they're famous for or the things that are more popular. They're gonna make more than one of those. I mean, to choose a one of one color that hasn't been thought of. But the masses love and. Sorry, the masses love it. And then the population of people that can afford this car at second hand also love it. That's tough.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And the way I interpret stage one, two and three is stage one is the equivalent of a Porsche paint to sample where it's an extended palette. And stage two is going to be the same extended palette but some extra. Either extra metallic or some other. Because it's a $5,000 difference, 25% more. So that's just like either a further extended palette or like metallic versions of other colors or something like that. And then the 55 is gonna be color matched. You bring us a chip, right? Yeah. And possibly there might even be another level where, you know, like Bo's car for instance, where he invents a mystichrome type color. And fuck me, let me tell you something. Here's where it could be Worth it. If you can lock out mystichrome, that's like. There are a couple of colors. There's a couple of Ford heritage colors from the Mustang back catalog. And if you can lock out those specific colors, that would be worth it.

[Zach Klapman]

I would hope that Ford would have that color in one of the public facing stages.

[Matt Farah]

No, it's a really hard color to paint. The paint itself is super expensive.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

But maybe that's the 25. Maybe that's the 25.

[Zach Klapman]

That's what I'm saying.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, I hope that that's not. They're not just waiting for one person to make the phone call because it's pretty awesome.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But if you could lock that out on the gtd, I doubt they'd let you because it would probably disappoint too many people. You probably have to bring in the color yourself. Like, you can't lock out. You can't lock out a stage, a color from pts. It's like, here's a chip. Nobody else. That's how you probably. You can't. But that's. I could see that being that would be an amazing investment is if you.

[Zach Klapman]

Said, all right, make me a mystichrome. But instead of, you know, purple being like, let's call it the base color just for simplicity. Because that's what it looks like if you're like British racing green as the base. But it's mystic green.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Well, Porsche has, I believe, four mystic colors. Or they don't call it that. Jesus. What do they call it? Can you look up what the Porsche color shifting paints are? They're a hundred grand and they have. There's different bases. Bo came up with his own, which is purple, and that's the Bowberry.

[Zach Klapman]

This one is called Celestial Jade Sunderwind.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, that, that one. I've seen that one in person. Actually. It was at the Au Drain. No, the one at the Au Drain was like the bamboo. Metallic Sunderwush, something, something. And it was bananas. It was the highest MSRP of a GT3RS I'd ever seen. Previous generation. And it started, I think, I think with a 7. The guy showed it to me. I think it was a seven.

[Zach Klapman]

Urban bamboo.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Urban bamboo. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think pictures will. So I saw it on GT3RS, but that is the color and you need.

[Zach Klapman]

A walk around video.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, the other. It's Chroma Flare. That's the fucking name. So python green, magic magenta, shifting carbon and explosive gold. But Urban Bamboo is what I saw on the GT3Rs and it was ba. Shitty. That's not even a word. Batshit. I tried. I tried. Yeah, I tried to. I think batshit became one word. We should put that on a T shirt. If you Google GT3RS Urban Bamboo, you will get the. The one car. I think it's the only car that has it. And look, because it has a full white leather interior. It's fucking insane.

[Zach Klapman]

That's nuts. Because I found a GT2 that's in Chromaflare.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, maybe it was a GT2RS.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, it is a white. Well, it's a whitish interior.

[Matt Farah]

It might have been a GT2RS and not a GT3RS. I'm sorry.

[Zach Klapman]

Because if you're going to invent a color.

[Matt Farah]

Wait, this is it. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it was a GT2RS. I apologize. That's how you get to a fucking seven. But, yeah, the chroma flare urban bamboo with the white leather on the buckets. Is there an interior photo of this thing scrolled out? It's fucking nuts. It's got all these signatures on the underside of the bonnet. The guy at the time, look at. It's got a white trunk. White leather trunk. The guy said this was the most optioned GT2Rs ever. I mean, he was the owner of the car, so. But, like, if you look at it, like, it's possible. I mean, it had the silliest stuff I've ever seen on a car like that. There it is. There it is.

[Zach Klapman]

Look.

[Matt Farah]

It's white leather with houndstooth inserts, white steering wheel rim, white dash, lower black dash, upper white rocker panels. It is fucking crazy. I don't think the interior looks good.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't think it does either.

[Matt Farah]

No.

[Zach Klapman]

And this is the thing of, like, if you do a lockout color and you're like, this is the most expensive GT2Rs ever. You need most people to go, that is amazing.

[Matt Farah]

I think I would have made some different decisions on the inside. The outside, I think, is quite beautiful. That chromaflare paint with the gold wheels, I think looks great.

[Zach Klapman]

It's very cool. But I don't think that the white pairs with those exterior colors. Not even that. Like, I don't like white. Interior is difficult to maintain if you sit in it ever. But I think it just looks weird. It's very harsh. It's a very sharp white inside.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And the outside has, like, gold wheels. There's some gold in the paint.

[Matt Farah]

You know what? If that interior was a cream, it would crush. I Honestly, Maybe not the steering wheel, but if the leather bits, the other leather bits were a nice cream, it could look fabulous. But that white jarring is the right word.

[Zach Klapman]

This is paper white. That's what this is. This is office.

[Matt Farah]

It's the movie Belly. Remember Belly?

[Zach Klapman]

No.

[Matt Farah]

The entire aesthetic of the movie is.

[Zach Klapman]

That stuff to watch. Yeah. Yeah. Cream is great because when more light is hitting this paint, it is a more cream gold color. And then when it's in the shade, it actually turns to like a jade aqua. That's pretty rad. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So those are a hundred thousand dollars, those paint. Those paint colors.

[Zach Klapman]

That's. What a crazy sentence. But, you know, I understand like. Like hot rods can get $50,000 paint jobs.

[Matt Farah]

That shit ain't painted at the factory. I mean, that's. That's a. That's done like you would do a hot rod.

[Zach Klapman]

And when I was searching for this car, I found the company that makes that paint. Like it's an. You know, someone had to invent the color shifting technology. And then, you know, you have to shoot it perfectly.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And maybe more than once.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Shout out to the homie Bo, who got Boberry metallic, which is. He invented a chroma flare. Paint rules. Did you see the email from our pal David Twig about gross vehicle weight?

[Zach Klapman]

No, I thought you were gonna say the Panama thing. I did not see the one about gross vehicle weight.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, we can talk about. So 12 years ago, Zach and I and Tom and Thad went to Panama and. And we did an episode for what was actually. It wasn't the smoking tire. It was for drive, and it's still there. And we went to Panama. The country. Not the city in Florida, I should say. The city in the country.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. We went to Panama City, Panama. We've also been to Panama City, Florida. Very different experience.

[Matt Farah]

Panama City, Panama's better. And our plans completely fell apart as soon as we got there. And so we made this film about trying to figure out what to film. And actually, I think it's one of the better things we've kind of ever done. It was really, really well made. And we ended up finding these guys who raced these school buses on the highway, and it was scary as hell. But earlier in the video, we look for this drug lord's race track that was abandoned in the woods, and we sort of find it, or what's left of it, the grandstands. Well, in the however many years since then, that track has been reopened and is now a track. And the AP has a photo story. They're now racing the school buses at the track.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, my God.

[Matt Farah]

Which is awesome. Now they're a quarter mile, so it's sanctioned. They actually have, like, sanctioned school bus racing at a real motorsport facility. And one of my clients here at the shop is from Panama City and has an awesome fucking car and has invited us to come back to Panama and do some more things and see what's happened. And when we were there last time, there was so much construction and development. I was like, man, we do have to come back and when all this is, like, completed and see, like, what's going on. And I flew through Panama City twice in the last 18 months.

[Zach Klapman]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So I've only been in the airport. I hadn't left the airport when my dad and I went to South America.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, right. I was like, what? Press launch? Who's in?

[Matt Farah]

No, no, no. Well, I did once with South America, and then once when I went to. I. I can't fucking remember. It doesn't really matter. But it does look like a much more modern and developed city, even as you're just flying into and out of it. And so I really would like to go back. Do you think maybe, like, we could do, like, a Patreon thing where, like, we do, like, a special film for the patrons if we raise a couple thousand bucks to go down there?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, the Ayg movie.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. If we get to. I don't know, whatever it. If we could raise, I don't know, let's say maybe like, 6,000, $7,000. We could maybe kick in for the rest personally and have a car adventure, catch up with some of our old people.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Find your own.

[Matt Farah]

Some new people. Now. There's a track there. We could do some other things. Apparently, my. Yeah, Autodromo Panama. That's it. Recognize the grandstand? The grandstand on the right is the grandstand that was there before that was left. We were up on that hill behind this photograph on the road, eating arepas, contemplating what to do. And looking down on this racetrack.

[Zach Klapman]

It was all covered in, like, grass. Like, I think the dirt was cut, but there was just grass growing through everything and cracked pavement and shit.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And now there's. Now there's. Racing there.

[Zach Klapman]

Cool.

[Matt Farah]

So I'd like to go back to Panama. I was. Oh, well, we do have an update from our friend David Tuig about how gross vehicle weight is calculated. So we can. I can literally talk about that or I can sort of read his email, but it's like a thousand words or so on gross vehicle weight. Do we want to do that or do we want me to talk to you about why I'm. Why Mark Zuckerberg saying AI therapy and AI friends are really bad.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, that one kind of explains itself.

[Matt Farah]

But it relates to cars. This is a great quote I read.

[Zach Klapman]

What a terrible idea.

[Matt Farah]

From a site, one of the newsletters that I read criticizing technology. What he's not saying is that those AI friends will seem like real people. Your years long friendship will culminate when they convince you to buy a very specific truck. Suddenly they'll blink out of existence having delivered a conversion to the company who spent $3.47 to fund their life.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, so the AI will nudge you towards purchasing something.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, because like right now AI is just roasting through money.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Well how are they going to make it back? Well, how does Mark Zuckerberg know how to make money? You are the product.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

So you know this AI chatbot that slowly over time you really start to feel like is a friend cuz you're lonely, you're gonna ask, you're gonna talk to it about stuff that you know, they might be able to nudge you in a way that someone has paid them to nudge you. Now we've talked about it in terms of self driving cars, but an AI chatbot to a lonely person is even easier. Way easier.

[Zach Klapman]

Very true. I mean there's been problems. There's plenty of stories out there of like, you know, guy falling in love with AI chatbot. A young man unfortunately unlifed himself last year and that was a big story. This article on Futurism.com and I saw this stat going around, but basically less than I think it was like 44 of CEOs who responded said that they were realizing value from their AI investment. So half are not.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So there's so like to your point, they're spending a lot of money on AI. It might not be working for their company or whatever. Their objective is a way to make up that Delta.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Is have the AI try to sell you shit.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And, and, and if it's a, if it's a, if it's just a computer program. Right. Or series of computer programs, whatever.

[Zach Klapman]

If it's a chat bot, series of tubes. Such an old joke.

[Matt Farah]

Like why rather than, you know, Ford, to use an example, paying you know, 5 cents a click, why wouldn't they pay $5? That, and so that an automated thing would over, would slow roll a sales pitch into a friendship to you over six months. I mean that's, that's fucked some Fucking dystopian.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, if you mix, like right now, if you go on ChatGPT and you say, hey, give me, give me a list of the top, you know, three quarter ton trucks made in the United States. Yeah. And which one is the best that I should buy for this and this and this. And right now, you know, it pulls from the entire Internet and whatever and it'll spit out an idea. But a car company could say, hey, like the way they influence Google search results. Yeah, let's influence this. So it says that the best one is blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And like just apply that to everything. Just.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I mean, AI therapist. That's very dangerous. Well, for sure, the nudging is very dangerous.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And you're telling me these people are going to resist the opportunity through ethics for a company to pay them to fucking have their chatbots steer you to something.

[Zach Klapman]

I saw a post last week about GROK and how it's trying to talk about this South African immigration thing. And this person screen grabbed first they asked about the South African immigration thing. And so it spit out, you know, this, this answer that had a very subtle direction. But then this person asked about something unrelated and Barack added the South African story to the answer. I mean, the answer, the question had nothing to do with South Africa at all.

[Matt Farah]

I recommend Gabby's for hummus around the corner.

[Zach Klapman]

Exactly.

[Matt Farah]

And while you're walking there, maybe consider white genocide.

[Zach Klapman]

That was really. It was show out of left field. So not the sudden.

[Matt Farah]

I'd call that right field, my friend.

[Zach Klapman]

Far right field.

[Matt Farah]

Far right field. Yeah, it's all bad.

[Zach Klapman]

Just pay therapists, please. Billionaires pay taxes. Then we can pay therapists, socialized medicine, et cetera, et cetera.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, okay, now we should talk about gross vehicle weight. Do we care about how gross vehicle weight is calculated? Yes, I want to read the whole email. I probably shouldn't because it would take too long. The last time I tried to paraphrase David, I got like two really angry emails that I was somehow disrespecting his expertise by not reading every word of the email. Something that I guarantee you David would find ludicrous because of course I respect his expertise.

[Zach Klapman]

If you want to read his thoughts in their entirety, go subscribe to the Intercooler where he is a contributor.

[Matt Farah]

Yes. Okay, so I'm gonna fucking take some words out selectively to make this a little punchier for radio. How about that? But I appreciate every word that David wrote here. Long story short, each OEM figures out their own gross vehicle weight. It's basically the maximum weight the car's structure can stand. And so it's up to the OEM to figure out how many people, bags, fuel, cargo, et cetera, before something breaks. Oftentimes it is limited to a tire rating. From there it's usually axles and the strength of where axles meet the body in white. Okay, this can be pretty accurately digitally simulated long before any physical cars get built. So about he goes, here's where it gets fun. In Europe, European law defines that a human is 75 kg and that a person will have 25 kg of luggage with them. So the average five seater car needs to be designed for 500 kg or 1,002 people. Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

People plus bags, 1,002 pounds.

[Matt Farah]

1,002 pounds, sorry. Of people plus bags. Okay. In Japan, many cars used to be designed around an occupant mass of 55kg. That's 121lbs. Which explains a lot about my Nissan Pow. So anyway, that's how you get to it. It's the sum of mass plus cargo. Now here's an example. A Mercedes E Class base brochure says Curb weight of 1810 kg. Gross vehicle weight of 2450 kg. Curb rate includes 90% of a fuel tank and the driver at 75 kg. We can work backwards to get to there gross vehicle number. So blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, math, math, math is like, okay, hang on, so 1810 plus 5, that's the 10% fuel plus 4 times 75, that's the other 4 people plus 5 times 25, that's everyone. Luggage is 2240. Okay. And that leaves 210 kilograms for other cargo. For instance, if the suitcases are heavier than the weight or if the people are heavier than the weight, if there's a roof rack, if there's a bike rack, et cetera. So it's that much. And then they leave 210kg of cushion for overweight, anything. And that's just for an E class. He said. What's really funny is in the US because of course there is no one legal standard for how big or heavy an occupant needs to be. SAE says 150 pounds per person plus 50 pounds per luggage, per person's luggage, which is surprisingly a bit lighter than the EU's standard person. Which makes me chuckle. That's editorial. Makes me chuckle. That's me, not him. Many US carmakers use 150 plus 50. No simple formula and quite regional. Yeah, but that's how you get there.

[Zach Klapman]

That makes sense.

[Matt Farah]

Yep. It does.

[Zach Klapman]

It's funny that we don't have a standard here. Like, who's gonna tell me what the standard size should be for a human being? Did you see for safety standard?

[Matt Farah]

You know, I'm sure it was kind of like a TV test, but like, I think it was Matt Watson, that guy in England, Car Wow guy had a Runway and a cybertruck and a couple other like regular fucking cars. Like might have been like a Fiat Panda. Like regular cars, like not sports cars and they just were cruising at a constant speed and all jammed on the brakes at the cone at the same time. And I mean The Cybertruck took 80ft longer than these, like regular ass. Yeah, like so much longer than the other cars to come to a stop. It was like, it was pretty good. Now it's a TV test, right? I don't, I'm not saying that Car Wow is dishonest in any way, but it's clearly one of those tests that is optimized for screen, visual more than necessarily like 100% scientific, peer reviewed accuracy. But I mean three, three guys appear to hit the brakes at the same time. I don't, I don't, I don't think there's like real fuckery happening.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, so, so Motortrend, when they tested the cybertruck last year, their 60 to 0 was 126ft, which was 8ft longer than a Ford Lightning.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, 8ft is a bit in 60. Maybe they were going faster than that. Maybe they were going like 100 or something. They were on a Runway.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean they do some pretty high speed test.

[Matt Farah]

They're on a Runway, so maybe they're going faster. They didn't, I saw it on Instagram. Okay, so they didn't say, I'm sure in the YouTube video they go, we're going to go to 100.

[Zach Klapman]

Here's what I'll say. Like, not in their defense, but like they do things for entertainment, but when I've watched their videos with various rolling tests and stuff, if one of the drivers messes something up, they'll say it on the radio. They go, I hit the brakes too late. I hit the gas too late. They'll do it again, do it again. And then they'll get to a point where they go, that's about as good as it's going to be. So maybe they had to redo it.

[Matt Farah]

It, I don't know. But the clip on Instagram which was posted by them indicated a much, much longer breaking distance. And I think if that I haven't watched the Video. But if that's a. I don't think they would post that. A misleading clip.

[Zach Klapman]

I totally agree. It may very well be. Take that long. I'm saying. You said they make things for kind of television. I think they do a good job of making sure it looks pretty damn objective. But because they do that, that truck may take that long to stop. It might be higher than 20, than 60 miles per hour.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

What a piece of shit that truck is.

[Matt Farah]

Did you see they're sitting on $800 million an inventory. They're sitting on $10,000. 10,000 unsold cyber trucks. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, that's why they'll sell 400 million of them to the U.S. all right.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Donnie O' Baila maybe. Maybe if he's like fascist enough, maybe Donnie will bail him out. Should we go to the people? Yeah. I think I'm at the end of my. Oh, did you see the photo I sent you of the driveway of the house in Pebble Beach? Yeah. How fucking great is that?

[Zach Klapman]

Very big.

[Matt Farah]

I booked a house for us in pebble and Zach and Sarah are gonna come too for part of it. And I finally. You know, they don't. On the site, they don't give you the address, but they give you like a general. Like a circle.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah. Ye.

[Matt Farah]

And there's only so many places within the circle that it could be. So I just like went on the street and just like clicked through until I found the house. And when I got there, the driveway. It's a three bedroom house. The driveway looks like it holds like nine cars. It's like so luxurious. I could three point a trailer in there, which I actually might have to do. And. Yeah, and there's a couple things that we can actually walk to.

[Zach Klapman]

Nice.

[Matt Farah]

Which is pretty cool.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I don't want to say what they are. Cause they'll give away where the house is.

[Zach Klapman]

But.

[Matt Farah]

But there are a couple things we can walk to. But. Yeah, let's go to the people. There's a lot of things. A lot of things. Like the amount of coffee I had today. Did you ever do it maybe by like a 0.5, little bit of a heater? This. Okay. Okay. Nice cams. Oh, I forgot to promo the Patreon. Patreon is where you ask us questions. It's where you watch the livestream. It's where you get the show before it goes up for everybody else. It's where you get the show without ads. It's where you get an Extra show. It's where you get early and sometimes exclusive access to merch collabs and things of that nature. So patreon.com thesmokingtirepodcast is where you get, er, done. We have, by the way, I think seven people have contacted me so far and have all three canyons and want the last two. So we've allocated them the guaranteed slots for the last two this week will probably be the last week to guarantee those because we're going to be doing orders in a week and a half, I think. So if you have all three and you want the last two guaranteed, this is. This is probably your only chance to do it. Nice cam says my dad really wants a Ferrari F8 Spider. How do I convince him to get a 750s instead? He can't shake the fact that the McLaren will depreciate like crazy and the Ferrari has more brand value and beauty.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, I don't think you're winning that argument. Nice cams. If your dad thinks the Ferrari's better looking and, and retains its value, like, those are pretty strong arguments.

[Matt Farah]

I don't. Yeah, I don't think you should try to talk your dad out of getting the car he wants. Yeah, it's his money. Just let him enjoy it. If he gets the Ferrari and he hates it, maybe he'll go to the McLaren, but if that's what he wants, just let him get it. I don't like talking people out of cars that they want unless there is something horribly wrong with the car. And there's nothing wrong with a Ferrari F8 Spider. That's a fine car.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. I feel like nice cams is going, but the steering feel is so much better and the ride is very, very infinitesimally better. It's not going to work.

[Matt Farah]

My money, even with my money, I would rather have a 750 Spider. I would. I'm in love with how they drive, but I'm not going to try to talk somebody out of a Ferrari if that's what they want. Zach's RFK impression. Doug mentioned he'd love to buy the one and only Cadillac CN concept car. If there was a concept car you'd like to own, what would it be? And why would it be the Ford Indigo? You fucking nailed it. I think we talked about it recently.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I think that's why they mentioned it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it would be the Ford Indigo for sure. That CN concept car was parked right next to where the ME412 was. But it wasn't there when I went there. So I didn't actually get to see it, but I've seen it before.

[Zach Klapman]

I would go the Cadillac 16.

[Matt Farah]

Cadillac 16. That's a great choice.

[Zach Klapman]

Or I mean, what was a Mercedes version of that? They made that really long.

[Matt Farah]

The Maybach accelerator.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Is actually the other one that I would really want to have that's better looking than this. That would be very exceptional. Yeah. Here for Matt's cats, the new Toyota Venza and VW Atlas are lower and ever so slightly more wagony than their previous generation. Could wagons be poised for a comeback? I think crossovers will slowly morph back into wagons and they'll be wagons again before you know it. They already, some of them already really are wagons just resized to fit 22 inch wheels.

[Zach Klapman]

Absolutely agree. Yeah. The crossover is a lifted wagon. But I don't know if they'll ever get to go back all the way to wagons because too many people like the hit point. They like being able to see, they like the ingress egress. I think those things are here to stay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Even after we're about to, after this podcast, you know, make the six month update on the Taycan video. But I have to say daily, one of the only things I don't like about the Taycan, and there's very few of them, is getting in and out of a low car with small doors that often, you know, for someone my size and shape and with a busted ass back, a crossover, you know, getting in and out of a crossover is a nice easy thing.

[Zach Klapman]

I drove my wife's car here because she's out of town. There's a reason.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Up to your ass in gasoline. Which will be the first manufacturer to give us a compelling, enthusiastic. Well, first off, and why is it already Hyundai? I mean, I don't. That's not to say that the Hyundai Ioniq 5N. I have to say it's hard if you drive that on a track or in a sporty situation and you're not having some fun in that. I would question what would make you have fun.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, I think people want a small sports car. People want a Miata ev.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, well, that's just. I mean, I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

I just think that's what they're waiting for.

[Matt Farah]

People don't buy that many Miatas.

[Zach Klapman]

Very true. No, they want the icon, they want that. I agree with you. I think, I think the 5N is like, it has almost everything other than being a large crossover. But it's got the sound and the shifters and the speed and the Handling and the steering feedback like it's better than the Mach E Rally. The Mach E Rally is super fun, but the 5N has the extra things like the fake gears and stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Spartan Huxley VR Love child. Very deep. But I like it because we got a guy for everything including detailing. Thoughts on ceramic coating, but more so on top of PPF? I've heard mixed opinions. Bought my Boxster 4.0 with PPF already applied. But I'm interested in ceramic. We put ceramic or what we call what we use ammo reflex, which is a ceramic like coating. It's not exactly the same as ceramic, but it does the same thing. We put that on top of PPF all the time.

[Zach Klapman]

405 does it for all their big wraps.

[Matt Farah]

It makes it really easy to clean. Yeah, I mean it actually does. The only downside of putting ppf, putting ceramic on top of PPF would be like applying it sloppily and somehow like getting over wipe on your trim or whatever and like fucking it up. But like if you do a good job or if it's professionally done, other than the cost of doing it, there isn't really a downside. Yeah. And the, and as Zach pointed out, the PPF shop that we use here at Westside, which is 405 motoring, they do it by default. If they do. If they PPF your car, it just comes with it. So it's kind of like the standard at this point to just do it. Both of my cars have that and it makes it really easy to clean. It's so nice. Enrico Palazzo says don't. I agree with your previous statements about buying teenagers fast cars. Are there any enthusiast cars that you would let a kid drive? Sure, yeah, there are, I think, yes.

[Zach Klapman]

I would say front wheel drive cars. GTIs, maybe Fiesta ST, a Focus ST, something like that. This person lifts Miata and the 86. I wouldn't do that because. Because young people in rear wheel drive cars are probably, especially in 86, like they're going to go try to drifto and that would get them into a little more trouble. Audi TT depends on what. That's a good choice. But it depends on which generation. You need to make sure it has the downforce problem solved.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah. If it's a first gen one.

[Zach Klapman]

First gen one, because the kid's going to top it out.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean you want to give somebody, a kid a slow car that has good inputs. So I'm not against the Miata. As long as it's like one that has the modern safety features. I wouldn't put a kid in an NA Miata, but if it's like an NC or then you're probably fine, you know. Volkswagen Golf's gti. I don't think a GTI is a particularly sketchy car. A variety of naturally aspirated Subarus, you.

[Zach Klapman]

Know, or honestly, even wrx. Like WRX is quick, but it's all wheel drive. You can't like slide around. It's not that fast. I think it'd be hard to get yourself into a ton of trouble. And the trouble you could get yourself into with that is just overcooking a corner, which you could do in a GTI or basically anything else.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, like a Focus ST or Fiesta ST, something like that. That name your 200ish horsepower, front wheel drive hatchback. That's kind of where I would be in rs. Forget about it. Off the Record has been an absolute lifesaver. They are man, they are the best. But I'm trying to be more proactive in avoiding tickets. Do you drive with a radar detector? What do you like? Should I get it built into the car? What's the strategy? Here in Los Angeles where I live, I don't need a radar detector. In my day to day life there is very few, very little speeding enforcement in the city and there's too much traffic to speed anyway. Where enforcement happens is right where our city meets desert, right at the edge. That's where you get all the enforcement. So but on a road trip then I'm running full countermeasures. I do the Valentine 2. Technically it's the Valentine 1 gen 2, but Valentine 2 just sounds better. And then I run Waze also and you're pretty well covered if you run them too. There's people who like laser jammers and if you're driving the same car all the time, then it makes sense because you have to build laser jammers into your bumper and stuff. But I'm always driving different stuff. I have my little kit, I have a little, it's like a dopp kit, like a bathroom bag. And it's got my Valentine 2 and all the accessories. It's got my phone, windshield mount, it's got like a couple different iPhone, cables for different power ports. And it's got like a 12 volt 1 to 2 like splitter. And it's just like I grab that bag and I throw it in my suitcase anytime I'm going on a road trip trip or going to be in a rental car or like peacody or any of those kind of Road trips and then I'm fully, fully covered.

[Zach Klapman]

Smart. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Those two combined, you're pretty foolproof.

[Zach Klapman]

I would add that if you're driving the same car all the time, I recommend hardwiring it into the roof because then you don't occupy your USB lighter thing and all that stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Right. Gavin Sullivan was saying Doug was singing the praises of the current Subaru wrx. What do you think of that compared to a used Civic Type R? Similar money in Austin. New verse. Used isn't fair, but. Isn't fair. But that new WRX is not a serious performance car.

[Zach Klapman]

No, we chose the wrx. What's it called? Tune, ts, whatever. Yeah, it had, you know, the additional things.

[Matt Farah]

It was slightly better, but it still is not a serious performance car. Car.

[Zach Klapman]

I think the Civic is such a good car in basically every way except it doesn't have lumbar support. And I know I complain about you. We complain about that a lot. But Ross Bentley and I can't remember the guy's name, Eric. They just did one lap in a Civic Type R and they had the same complaint because they did 2,000 miles in the thing in like 10 days. Yeah, but otherwise, like the Civic is a nicer car. The inputs are great, it's faster, the handling is good.

[Matt Farah]

There was a better fix for the overheating thing. I think on the track there was like a deal, like a factory or dealer level fix for that that was.

[Zach Klapman]

More common with the last gen. Do is happening with the new one too.

[Matt Farah]

Well, isn't FL5 the last gen? I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't know how five is the newest one.

[Matt Farah]

Is the new one? Yeah, no, like the new new one.

[Zach Klapman]

2023 and up.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, really?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, according to.

[Matt Farah]

I thought, I thought it was the shredder helmet one.

[Zach Klapman]

I thought it was too.

[Matt Farah]

What was that?

[Zach Klapman]

Look at.

[Matt Farah]

Isn't that fl. What's that one?

[Zach Klapman]

Wasn't that F8 or something?

[Matt Farah]

Fuck it. I don't know who can keep track of all this shit? What are we supposed to be professionals over here? I don't know what that one was, but if it's the. If we're talking about the current one, it's like not even close. Not even close. If it is the. Even if it's close, it's a closer thing. If it's the old one. If it's the current one, not even close. Mr. Wagner. Wagon. We've discussed our feelings about how unnecessary.

[Zach Klapman]

AK8, that was the shredder helmet.

[Matt Farah]

Got it. Okay. Yeah. That doesn't make any Sense how unnecessary big pickup trucks are and that the majority of these owners would be better off with a midsize like the Ranger Hilux Tacoma. Market trends in the US Obviously differ. Do you think Ford's and I. By the way, nothing about this recent announcement. I'm hearing it from Mr. Wagon. Ford's recent announcement about a Ranger Super Duty would be a good compromise for those buyers if Ford decided to sell it in the USA and market it properly. At the risk of eating into their F150 moneymaker. I don't think Ford would ever eat into the F150. Have you heard anything about a Ranger Super Duty? I'm guessing this is a global market where. Where more Rangers are used as work trucks than. Too smart for America. Yep. Okay, so it's a Ranger with more towing and hauling capacity, just like an F150. And I bet you most Americans would probably skip that.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I personally might not. The Ranger Super Duty. Oh, wow. Yeah. Gross. Vehicle is mass. Is that mass? GVM is 99, £20. That's a bunch. Well, that would be sweet. Yeah. We can't have it. I don't think they'd sell it here. I think that overlays too much with the F150, which is already here.

[Zach Klapman]

Correct. Vehicle. Mass.

[Matt Farah]

Mass. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Mass. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Looks cool, though. I get it. I get it. But I do like me a small truck, man. I'll tell you what, that Amazon money.

[Zach Klapman]

Fuck, dude, they have so many.

[Matt Farah]

I'm getting all this slate trash just shoved in my face.

[Zach Klapman]

They got a lot of reservations. They have a ton of deposits, but.

[Matt Farah]

Like, leave me the fuck alone.

[Zach Klapman]

What do you mean?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, every. So many ads, so much. Sponsored Reddit posts, sponsored Instagram posts. Oh, I just got one of those scammy easy pass texts.

[Zach Klapman]

Yep, yep.

[Matt Farah]

Everyone's got one of them. Gotta pay my ticket. Christian says, if you had unlimited money, what precious car would you modify the hell out of? Ferrari 288 GTO rally car.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, wow.

[Matt Farah]

As it was intended.

[Zach Klapman]

Nuts.

[Matt Farah]

288 GTO is going to be a group B car, right?

[Zach Klapman]

I love that. You. When we talked about, like, the Gunther Singer rough roof thing, you were like, ooh, the Gunther might be too extreme for me on the track, but now you're like, 288 group B rally car.

[Matt Farah]

No, but, like, that would be fun on the street.

[Zach Klapman]

That would be super cool.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. What about you?

[Zach Klapman]

I think I'd take an lfa but put a different transmission in it to start. Just because the single clutches Are not for me. Put a really good dual clutch.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I don't have the answer to Hyman Roth's question. I'm sorry. Matt loves Pearl Jam. Do I have the freedom to do a collaboration with Sheffield watches or working with Notice? Is this not an option for me? I can do anything I want. I happen to very much like the guys at Notice. I also the guys at Sheffield are really nice too, but they're doing their thing over at Sheffield. I don't need to do a watch with them. We're. We're already talking about an all new watch at Notice. We're trying to bring the price point down so a few more people can buy it. Not as cheap as Sheffield. Sheffield's like 2, $300. I am unable to make the quality of watch I want to make for that price, but I can make it for under 1000. But if we're going to make a watch, it has to be. It can't just be a new color or different bezel. It has to be a new watch. So we're working on a new watch at Notice. All new angle of the dangle. What is your Lamborghini? Mount Rushmore. I suppose that means like a car I can't have or can't buy.

[Zach Klapman]

No, I think like what would be the four Lamborghini models that you would put on? Oh, the four.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, I misunderstood that what that meant. The four. Countach Miura.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

I mean dynamics aside, probably like Aventador.

[Zach Klapman]

And Dynamics included. I'd go Huracan.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, probably. I would go Stirato. Huracan. Stirrado.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good one. Yeah, I definitely would do that over LM002.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's not a. That's not a. It's not a high point for them. It's an oddball, but not a high point. Yeah, I don't. Okay, hang on a second. Prashan says the new Mustang seems to be holding up quite well in imsa, which got me thinking. Do the general driving dynamics of race ready road cars carry into their GT3 cars like Road vs Racing BMWs, Huracans, Mustangs, etc. Yes, I would say yes.

[Zach Klapman]

Specifically I listened to a good episode of it's not the Car Podcast and Jeff Brown, who's like a race team engineer, he's talking about when they were campaigning with Mercedes AMG GTs, they had to do very little with that car when it was given to them. It just handled really well. They didn't have to do much other than do like good alignments other cars they've received from other companies, they'll have to do a lot of cooling work or other, like bracing or, you know, whatever's allowed within the rules to make the car go as fast as they want to go or handle the way they want it to handle. So if the OEMs put the money into developing the streetcar, it's going to make the race car perform much, much better. Better. And you know, a lot of times they'll go when they're engineering the streetcar, they're looking to the future for GT3 racing, IMSA racing, etc. And you know, they want to work within those rules and they want to give the race teams as much as they can and give the public as much as they can within the confines of the cost, of course. Matt is cleaning coffee.

[Matt Farah]

Weak, weak sauce. Farah. That's what I got get for spilling my coffee. Oof. That's that bad gardener says. And I'm not going to answer his question, but I appreciate the question. You're building a home in la. Each room will have an automobile as decor.

[Zach Klapman]

One car in each room.

[Matt Farah]

The idea of this makes me want to jump off a bridge. Having a house with just cars in the house is I. You have these secret dreams sometimes of living in a big warehouse like fucking Top Gun, Maverick or whatever, or fucking Donnie and living in there with your cars. But the fundamental needs of a car and the fundamental needs of my living space, they're at all, frankly, they're not the same.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I think our friend did it right. He had one car in his office and that's fine. But if you do a car per room is just like now. You're taking up all this space and it no longer becomes cool, it becomes garish immediately. So I think you'd have to have one car that means a lot to you and that's it. Or you can have the garage with the glass wall and you can see it from inside something.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Being able to look down the garage or something like that. You ever see Tanner's house in Newport?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Tanner had an elevator in his house that would lift his car up into his office, which was above the garage.

[Zach Klapman]

So amazing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Which was pretty. Pretty rad.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. That guy's the coolest. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But not in each room. Oh, God. That's a no go. Yeah. Barbecue sauce on my titties. Is considering living life more. More. And saving up to have a sports car before there's kids in the picture. For 30k, do I get a 996? Probably. Auto so the wife can drive it too. Or a PDK986 Cayman. Which would you prefer? Is the Auto in the996 bad? Yes, it's very bad.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. The Porsche's autumn. Yeah, it's very. It's horrible. It's. It's really bad. You should not get an automatic 996 PDK. Yeah, there are reason. An automatic 996 is $8. They suck. Yeah, you should get a PDK. The worst PDK is better than the best auto.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

And yeah. Pdk. You have to then make sure. For an early Cayman, you have to make sure you get the sport paddles, not the thumb buttons on the wheel. You may have to.

[Zach Klapman]

I forgot about the thumb buttons.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, right. Yeah. There was a time Porsche was like, not everybody needs these fucking paddles. Which is hilarious. But you could do it. Byron's car. Byron's car came with the dumb buttons and he did a steering wheel out of a macan with paddles. And it works perfect. Yeah, yeah. Wait, I don't know what. I have absolutely no idea what the thing is that he's talking about while you figure it out. Benito. Driver says you've been asked to be paid crew on a 50 foot sailboat delivery from LA to Hawai 30 day passage. You each must take one additional crew member. Who in the automotive scene are you choosing?

[Zach Klapman]

Are we trying to stay alive or is this just someone you could be on a boat with?

[Matt Farah]

Someone you could be on a boat with for 30 days?

[Zach Klapman]

Okay. Because those are different things. Yeah, like if I need someone to help me make the voyage, it's you, because otherwise I'm going to die.

[Matt Farah]

No, you're paid. You're paid crew. You're paid crew. So someone's in charge telling you what to do.

[Zach Klapman]

All right. There's a great Instagram I just found of a guy he built. He's sailing a boat from Oregon to Hawaii right now. And he's never done anything before with his cat. With his cat.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And he's like. He's got a thing leaking and he's like, oh, shit. Yeah, I built this myself. And like, we're all here for this adventure.

[Matt Farah]

That's wild. I mean, the automotive scene and I assume I can't choose you, so I.

[Zach Klapman]

Would say, who could you sit with for 30 days on boat?

[Matt Farah]

Scotto maybe. Although he would take up a lot of space on a boat, he wouldn't enjoy it. He's very tall.

[Zach Klapman]

He's so tall.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, maybe like Jethro. He's really? Like mellow and easy, you know, even. Even keeled.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good idea. Oh, there you go. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Blurple.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I found the Jag conversion.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, okay. What is this?

[Zach Klapman]

It's. Oh, I placed it already. Company is dropping big engines into Miatas. Oh, and. But they're, you know, they have. It's like singerizing a Miata in a way.

[Matt Farah]

Oh boy.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean not quite as expensive, but.

[Matt Farah]

I certainly hope not. I wonder what engine are they using. Go to the about our vision. Okay. Slow moving website. Just like a Miata.

[Zach Klapman]

Nice.

[Matt Farah]

They don't tell us keep going, go down. When do they tell us what's the. Come on. Explore build options. There we go. What can we do with these things? I mean I like the name Rocketeer. I hope it's not copyright turnkey conversions. There we go. What do we have? Jesus. His website's so exciting.

[Zach Klapman]

It's very nice looking, but it is fluff.

[Matt Farah]

It's pretty. But it probably looked great when they were loading it locally at the developer's place, you know.

[Zach Klapman]

Very good point. All right, here we go.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, that is a V6. And what is it? I mean it looks fucking good. Can you go up? What does it say at the top of this with this is MX V6. Oh, AJ30. Okay, so AJ30 is going to be the. Is that the three liter engine from the like the XE and the F Pace.

[Zach Klapman]

Is that what that is based on a Ford Duratech V6.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, okay. Oh, is it?

[Zach Klapman]

It's originally a Porsche design bought by Ford. Cosworth cylinder head.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, so it's like a SVT Contour. This is. It's half a vanquish engine. That's what this is.

[Zach Klapman]

It was used in the early 2000ss type X, type XJ and then later in the XF, the weak one and the Lincoln LS.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, okay. And they build it and make it racy. I bet it's fun. I bet it's a good time. I mean, you know, flying miata is doing LS's here, I think. I think if someone's going to spend that kind of money in America, they probably want an LS. Not to mention the LS. EROD is a 50 state motor swap. So if you really wanted to go that route, you could have something that was carb legal but like looks cool.

[Zach Klapman]

It does. I think what was their question was like would this work in the U.S. probably not because of the engine. And it also looked. I imagine these are expensive. I mean some of these builds on their Site have like really nice, you know, bespoke looking interiors and I don't.

[Matt Farah]

Know, go to build options. Resto mod on the left. What do they have for.

[Zach Klapman]

Do you think the Miata market is strong enough for this?

[Matt Farah]

No, but I mean, if they need to sell 10 cars. Yeah, there's 10 nerds, you know. But it doesn't say price on request.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh. Because you just build it to your spec.

[Matt Farah]

You really have to love Miatas for this. I mean, and I understand why somebody would love a Miata like that. This. If you're the right size and shape and you love the vibe of this, then spending 50 or 60 grand to have a perfect, you know, Miata like that makes sense.

[Zach Klapman]

I totally get the same. A similar buyer to the manual swapped Maserati from before. It's like, oh, you're losing this money immediately, but it's going to be the most perfect, wonderful Miata in the world. Yeah, it's the built by legends version of the Miata. That's what it's like.

[Matt Farah]

That's kind of what this is.

[Zach Klapman]

That's what this is.

[Matt Farah]

It looks like fabulous work. It looks like a beautiful engine. Those valve covers look exactly like my Aston Martin valve covers.

[Zach Klapman]

They probably are, right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they probably are.

[Zach Klapman]

Ford modular shit.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Well, I mean, dude, it looks rad. And if I was over in England or wherever they're doing this, I'd love to have a go. But in the US they would not use. Even if this company came to the us they'd use EROD LS motors. They're a lot more power and they fly fit. And that one, the guy in Florida that took over flying Miata's LS swap thing, that thing was nasty. Good time. Blurple is currently in Saudi using a vpn, I hope. And I haven't seen any of the wild supercars that the region is known for, but there are tons of BMW and Mercedes SUVs. If you were to live in a region like Riyadh, what would your fun car of choice be? Santa Toys. Yeah, desert shit.

[Zach Klapman]

This person below them replied and said, you want something with big suspension because the roads there are terrible. Yeah, they'll eat your car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I would, I would definitely want a sand car.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, for sure. I. I want something. I forgot that. Remember Formula off road in Iceland? Bring that to the dunes. Like that's the kind of thing I would want to do there, you know? Thousand horsepower, just screaming up a hill.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Flappy McPaddleton has a question that I don't have the answer. T.O. is thinking about getting an aerial atom and says, which transmission do I get? I didn't know there were multiple transmissions available.

[Zach Klapman]

I didn't either. The ones I've driven were both.

[Matt Farah]

I've only ever driven a manual. Yeah, I've never seen a. And while you're. What does it say?

[Zach Klapman]

Does he mean sequential versus three pedal, like traditional H pattern?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, I would just get a regular stick. You don't need a sequential gearbox unless you're racing. Yeah, sequential gearboxes on the street suck.

[Zach Klapman]

Especially if you're not getting the most extreme at them. If you're just getting any of the other ones, like, manual's fine. They're plenty fast and exciting and the shifting action is pretty good. It's cool.

[Matt Farah]

What engines are they using now?

[Zach Klapman]

The last one I drove had a turbo. It had the Civic Type R engine.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, they're probably using the Civic gear linkage too, which would be really nice. Nice.

[Zach Klapman]

It was cool.

[Matt Farah]

I drove two. I drove an old Honda one. And then I drove when they were using the, the Cobalt SS Turbo GM Ecotech 1, which was also insanely fast and sketchy. JF's transverse skid mark. Oh, wait. If you could add hydraulic suspension bounce mode to any car, for shits and giggles, what would it be? I mean, it doesn't matter. The point is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't need to match the car. Just bouncing is enough.

[Zach Klapman]

Why do I always forget that? What's the Nissan PALS coupe counterpart?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, a Figaro.

[Zach Klapman]

Figaro. Because it would be. Because it's such, like, a cute, silly thing anyway. And then if it started bouncing around.

[Matt Farah]

A tiny car on drawlicks would be awesome. Josh says, I saw a 992.2 GTS the other day with a big factory wing. Is Porsche trying to up the performance credit of the GTS now that the GT3 has essentially become unobtainable? What you saw is the factory aero kit that is available on all Carreras and they're going all the way Back to the 996. Even the 993 did not have a factory. No, the 993s you could get. Was there a factory arrow? I don't, I don't know, but maybe. Yes.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So, yeah, you could all you, I guess you could always get a factory arrow kit. Oh, yeah, it's the, it's on the 993. The double wing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's ugly.

[Zach Klapman]

I think we just don't see them very often. I, I, the number I see on the street every year is like two. Most people around here just rock 911s that just no wing, no nothing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, back in the. Back in the day in New York when 996s were new. I feel like a lot of people got the Arrow kit on the 996.

[Zach Klapman]

A lot of people wear chains there with their shirts open, so I get it.

[Matt Farah]

Fucking goombas. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

It's an extroverted city in some ways.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, hang on. Keep going down. I want to do one. One more. Oh, there we go. Suck it up and buy. The Linglong says what supercar has the silliest gibbon gimmick to try to appeal to people with more wealth than brains?

[Zach Klapman]

Well, going. I'd say the bounce mode. It's not a supercar, but like.

[Matt Farah]

Well, the bounce mode is just. It does serve some purpose.

[Zach Klapman]

It does in some places, but not really in the United States.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klapman]

So that's why I think it's kind of a gimmick.

[Matt Farah]

Right? Well, it could get you unstuck in snow.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. I don't think you'd get stuck in snow in those cars anyway.

[Matt Farah]

I don't think you would either, but it does. That one's easy because it's just like the hardware was already there. Someone just had to program that thing.

[Zach Klapman]

In to do it. I bet it's more helpful in sand than snow, but. Happy to be corrected. Maybach, if you want to bring me to a snow driving adventure.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, almost all of the silliest ones that I can think of. True. Silliest gimmicks. Are done by Tesla. I mean, like, almost all of them. Fsd. FSD is by far the silliest, silliest gimmick to separate people from their money.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. But I would argue, because they have whatever it's called, the current autopilot thing, they have like a half measure there. So they're giving you a version of it and they're promising a future version that doesn't exist yet that you pay for now. Right. I think the supercar gimmick is, I'd say drift control, which, similar to the hydraulic bouncing thing. They have these sensors. They had the E diffs. They have it all there. And for the select few supercar owners who go to a track and then are willing to shred some tires. Like, it's a great teaching tool. But how. What percentage of supercar owners don't use it? 96%.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah, man. Gimmick, gimmick. What is like real gimmicky? I mean, I really hate. I hate the red. I'm over the red Lamborghini start button cover thing that I have to flip up and down every time.

[Zach Klapman]

The aerospace, I get it.

[Matt Farah]

It's like a plane.

[Zach Klapman]

Are you sure you want to start it? Are you sure?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Gotta lift this thing.

[Matt Farah]

And I'm over. I really don't like where all the controls are on the steering wheel and densely packed in a way that even though I can reach it without taking my hands off the wheel, I have to take my eyes off the road. I'd rather keep my eyes on the road and take my hands off the wheel than the other way around.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I agree with that. Just from a UI perspective. I know it's hard because with supercars, like a lot of their functions are useful if you drive them fast and really hard, but if you don't do that then you know, your hydraulic pop up wing under braking, like doesn't matter unless you drive hard enough to use that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but I do think, yeah, most like supercars and hypercars don't need a lot of gimmicks. It's usually EVs, you know, or cars where they, where the driver's experience isn't as engaging that they have to come up with gimmicks to substitute for the absence of true feel. You know, drift control is a great example, you know.

[Zach Klapman]

Well like the Tesla just was it. The Falcon door was called like show and display mode or whatever where like.

[Matt Farah]

The dance mode and shit music and.

[Zach Klapman]

The things flapping like, look, the hardware is there. How do we make a thing that will go viral in video content and get attention? Like, here's a way to do it.

[Matt Farah]

Last one. Zat Flatman. Do you have any strong opinions on the Porsche 930? 30. Is the driving experience worth the $150,000 price tag? I mean if all you're looking at is driving experience, then it's hard to take any G body 911 and go this is a $150,000 driving experience. Because off the rack the truth is that none of them really just feel like that. Unless you're talking about like the ultralight Club Sport or something, some special racing version or something.

[Zach Klapman]

Especially if you compare it to any modern car. Like they don't feel as sharp or as fast or as tight.

[Matt Farah]

Having said that, driving those cars, they're nice and small, they're ergonomically correct, they're very reliable. 930s specifically, I don't love the four speed cars. Some people really like the four speed cars that long Laggy peaky power band with the four speed car is you get those old school turbo characteristics where you're in and out and in and out of the Powerman all the time. The final year 89 G50 car is in my opinion much better and worth the premium. But it's money in, money out, right? So is it worth 150? Well, it's not going to cost you 150 because you're going to get most of that back, if not all of it. If not maybe a little more. Maybe you'll get a little less, maybe a little more somewhere in the middle. You're not spending that money really. You're parking it. I don't see a world in which the 930 market completely collapses for some reason. Those are desirable cars and even if that trend dips a little bit, it's not going to completely collapse. And if it does, just hold onto your 930 for longer. Drive it and eventually it'll come back to you. If you like the idea of it, you'll probably like driving it. But I've driven four speed cars and I've driven five speed cars and I much, much prefer the five speed car. The four speed car I drove had a turbo. The last one had a turbocraft motor in it and it's really tuned for big power and also torque to come on lower. And it was nice but it was probably a $50 or $60,000 engine in the car. So it's not the experience of a stock car. In fact, our friend ACP has a really nice four speed car that's like an 83 maybe. It's a euro spec car that was brought here legally in the 80s, like a gray market car. He's looking to sell it soon I think. Think nice car driver quality but very well kept. Anyway, that's our show.

[Zach Klapman]

Cool.

[Matt Farah]

That's the show. We have to get back ahead before I go out of town, don't we? So we have to do four shows this week. That's a lot of shows. Many shows. We're gonna have to comment on many topics.

[Zach Klapman]

We have thoughts.

[Matt Farah]

Let's hope things happen.

[Zach Klapman]

Things always do.

[Matt Farah]

They tend to. Thanks for playing along everybody. Thank you to our patrons for asking such great questions. Patreon.com Theodore Smoking Tire podcast if you want to get in that game. And we will see you later this week. Bye.