
Driving the Mustang GTD; we toured the Czinger and Divergent 3D factory; Matt tells us about the great Mustang day of 2025; and we answer a whole lot of Patreon questions including: Cars that journos loved but failed to sell? Top automotive pilgrimages Why do RVs people choose Wranglers? E34 BMW: better than E36 or no? Prettiest Mustang ever? Next US car brand to go under will be... Driving a Panoz is like... When you shouldn't mess with a Porsche intake Best / worst days at work And more! Recorded September 15, 2025 Show Notes: DeleteMe Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout. MudWtr Start your new morning ritual & get up to 43% off your @MUDWTR with code tire at https://www.mudwtr.com/tire ! #mudwtrpod #ad Factor Go to https://www.FactorMeals.com/tire50of...
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What's up folks? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Matt Farah here on today's episode of the show, we went down to the Zinger factory and saw some of the craziest stuff you've ever seen in your life. We're going to tell you all about that. Plus I got an entire day by myself at a racetrack to absolutely rip on the new Mustang GTD, GT3, Dark Horse R and Dark Horse. And I'm gonna give you my track reviews of those cars right now. It's the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. Hey folks, I thought the show was supposed to be at 3 today.
B
Sorry, there's a lot happening.
A
How is everybody doing? Zach and I had a fun morning down at the Zinger factory. Zinger slash, divergent 3D factory. We got to see both. They're next to each other before. And I want to talk about that because we drove the car and now we get to see how the car is made and Zach has like the only three photos. Yeah, yeah. But before we do, I have a correction. I have to issue a correction. I had a. I had a. I had a thing wrong. It's very important that you acknowledge when you're wrong and you make a correction. When we talked a couple of weeks ago about the BMW R1290s motorcycle, I inaccurately referred, I said about the engine that it was the 1200 last generation that still carries on. It's actually not accurate. It's actually like a much older generation. Because what I neglected to mention is that the R12,9T has an air cooled 1200cc BMW engine, whereas the new GS's going back 12 years to 2013 are all water cooled. So this isn't just one generation backs powertrain, it's way back. So that partially explains, you know, why like the quick shifter is not so refined and things like that. Because it is a. It is actually the old, old powertrain which is neat and different and cool. And I neglected to mention that because actually, to tell you the truth, I didn't really think about it. Which it should have been obvious because there isn't a radiator and fans on that motorcycle. I suppose I didn't think about the fact that the GS is water cooled more so than not thinking about that this one was air cooled.
B
Right, Good point.
A
Either way, I got it wrong. A fan very politely corrected me with an incredibly thorough explanation and now I'm correcting it for all of you folks.
B
Oh yeah, okay, Right. See look, it does have, it's got a thing That's.
A
That's gotta be an oil cooler. But I just looked at it and uncritically. And I wasn't like, is this a radiator or oil cooler? And look, if you. Some people are like, would hear me say that and go, but you're supposed to be a professional. And like, I mean, yes, but also, I don't know everything. And if you. If I was told, okay, you know, okay. But like, I just. Like, nobody was ever like, hey, this is what makes this one different. And I just, like, didn't think about it.
B
Yeah, well, is. And it's a finned box on the front. That's right. So unless he looks at the lines really closely at the size of them, and even then, like, I wouldn't go, that's a motorcycle.
A
It just wasn't.
B
The lines can be small.
A
It just. Yeah, it wasn't something that I thought about. But it is a difference, and it's an important one. So there you go. It's basically the equivalent of the roof, you know, scr. And then this new roof that they have that looks the same on the outside, but has an engine that looks the same, but is air cooled, you know, doesn't look the same. But like, at first, if you were. If you didn't know, you'd go, what's different here? You know? So anyway, that's different. That is an important distinction. Now. Zinger. We went down there this morning. I didn't post pictures yet. Actually. The pictures that are on my phone suck.
B
We could. We also couldn't take very many.
A
We couldn't take very many. That's a good picture. So we talked about the car in last episode, right? That. Yes, that was last episode. Sorry, we start. We kind of recorded things out of order. So if I'm a little confused about what happened when it's been a busy week and things are not airing in the order they recorded. We drove the car. It's absolutely crazy. Did 30 minutes on it last episode. Go listen to that. So they were like, you really have to come see how it's made. Because that sort of defines how it. They wanted me to see how it was made first. The scheduling didn't work, but I promised that I would go and. Pretty nuts.
B
It's amazing.
A
Yeah. So Divergent 3D is the parent company of Zinger Cars, Zinger Automobiles. And the car is. Although the car is a very real thing and very serious business, it's a showpiece for the technology which can be applied to aviation, military, boating, like submarines. Like, who fucking Knows like, everything.
B
Anything you need to make that's made out of this kind of metal and requires being stress tested in a certain strength, it can make.
A
Yeah. And so think airframes, but also subframes for cars, chassis components for cars, structural and braking components for cars. I hadn't heard the term fluid manifold today, but they mention that a lot. It's essentially a 3D printed structure that has multiple hoses, for lack of a better word in it. So, like, rather than having three rubber hoses from point A to point B that run somewhat in parallel, they have a single part that just has those things. So they're all the same, you know, and, and, and fit exactly the same, you know, every time. There's probably other advantages besides that, but, like, that's what it's just.
B
They showed us so many different shapes and parts for so many different things, some of which we definitely could not take pictures of. But I feel like this picture, which we have up.
A
But we could say what they were.
B
We can.
A
We saw missiles.
B
Okay.
A
We can say that they just. They said, did you see this say thing? The yes. No. No. The no column was like photos of the missiles and. Or names of the military partners.
B
Oh, right. Yeah.
A
But like, we could say the list of the companies that they made there was the Bugatti Tourbillon. They were making control arms and probably other things. We saw control arms. The Ferrari F80. They were making some bits for. And unidentified Aston Martin. I'm guessing it's the Valhalla. Right. Basically, it was pretty much like control arms and suspension type componentry that they were making for those companies.
B
Yeah, yeah. But the other ones.
A
And then we saw missiles.
B
Saw missiles and other parts. But, like, what was what they highlighted and what you can see in this photo, even though this is not a defense picture or a defense product picture, is like you can take something that used to be 200 parts and turn it into like, four.
A
Yeah.
B
Which looking at that thing sitting on the stand was crazy because you can look at it and you can go, oh, that bracket used to be an individual bracket that was affixed to this, like, fuselage. Now it is part of it, like, literally all seamlessly done.
A
And the ladder structures used to be like bits bolted to bigger bits, bolted to bigger bits. And now it's just like one, you know? And so what Lucas Zinger, who's real fucking smart, was saying was that they have a software where you essentially put in what you need the part to do and the shape that you need it to be, and it figures out where metal needs to be and where metal doesn't need to be. And it is capable of finding the perfect form, not just the outside form, but like the inside form. So there's like these weird honeycomby things they can do.
B
Totally asymmetric too. That's when you really notice that the, I guess success or the use of that program is when they would have like a piece cut open or almost unfinished and you'd go, oh, wow, there's like a weird dongle hanging off of this end. I think one of the Bugatti control arms had that. But it was like. Well, it just needed structure there. It thickness there, but not around it. And it ended up looking very like. Like a melted wax. Almost weird.
A
And then the other bit, which I think was for a drone, actually, I think it was one of the like intake bits for a drone.
B
Oh yeah.
A
And it had cooling like, like it almost the inside of it was like a seashell and it swirled the air like that was a cooling channels as the air like moved through it. It was like an air cooling. Like an air to air heat exchanger basically. Just. But with no moving parts or. No, it was really cool.
B
Yeah. And I imagine that that idea, the company who commissioned that had had it or whatever. But you'd have to like, you know, build a fuselage and then get like some sort carbon thing that slides into there and fixes in there. And does it move around when it's up in the air and is that a failure point? And what's the strength of that thing? And now it's just all this whatever alloy single piece, honeycomb thing. Yeah, yeah. It's really, really, really cool. And we're watching it make something slowly because it takes a while. But it was actually different than I expected. It was. It was very different than when you watch plastic 3D manufacturing or additive manufacturing.
A
It doesn't like squeeze it like, you know, toothpaste from a tube when it does it from dust and lasers. It's a bit different.
B
Yeah.
A
Extremely wild.
B
Yeah.
A
The engine as well. We saw a powertrain on a stand. The engine itself, like the, the. The. The block was really small. I. Shockingly compact. The heads were kind of normal size. And it had. It had really big heat exchanger sort of air. Not air boxes, but like charge coolers sitting on top of it. The charge coolers were probably twice the size of the heads. It's a really small little thing. And then we saw the battery packs, which were shot. They were. The battery packs were so small, I thought they were Oil coolers.
B
That's true. They're really narrow.
A
Yeah, they look, they're probably 4 inches wide and maybe 18 inches long and 6 inches tall. And I thought they would have to be bigger than that to generate that level of power, but just all around extremely cool. The circle of robots in the middle is very Iron Man.
B
Yeah, the assembly area.
A
The whole point of this, the 3D business, not is that it's actually far less wasteful. It's far. It's a better use of material. What is that? It's cost per kilogram. Yeah, I think that's how they measure it cost. So they've been able to get it like much, much cheaper cost per kilogram. And it used to be somewhere in the thousands, now it's somewhere in the hundreds. And I think. Did he say if it gets to 100 then it becomes viable for like regular cars instead of just super exotic cars? I'll get the number right for the article. Certainly we'll fact check it. But he said when they started it was in the thousands of dollars per kilogram. It's been eight years now. It's like 200, $300 a kilogram. And if it gets to 100 then you could start using it for like 911s and stuff. And if it gets down to 80, 70, then it's the kind of thing that could be done in really regular cars. But what, what he is crazy is they, their 3D printing factory essentially is a fully modular assembly, meaning you build one factory and that factory can then build anything and it can build anything like in quantity 1 or quantity 1000 or whatever. And so if you put these things around the world and if they're making complex assemblies for cars or planes or whatever, like everything that you can make regionally doesn't need to be shipped by air or sea. You know, you can have very low impact production facilities so you don't have to ship subframes from fucking Detroit all over the world or whatever. And according to Lucas, who I believe that type of savings at the manufacturer level can really compound, I'm sure the.
B
Cost of shipping frames or subframes or blocks or whatever, whatever heavy thing it is around the world. You know, we've talked about this before, like there's stuff that gets built here, then shipped to Germany and then assembled over there or proving, you know, try it out over there and then sent over here. The when the tariffs were announced, all the people talked about the crisscrossing of cars from like Mexico to America and back. So it might you know, relieve some of that. The capital expenditure.
A
Yeah. Then the car's like real fucking fast.
B
The car is very fast. And it looks, it doesn't, it doesn't get old to look at. It looks insane. It looks as fast as it is.
A
I actually think it gets better looking the more that you look at it. Folks, we gotta take a quick break from the action because Delete Me is supporting us today. They have been fabulous to us and so you should hear me out on them. I hate spam text, fake calls, fake stupid emails. All this stuff that just comes in, clogs up my streams, my inboxes, my DMs, everything. And it all comes through data brokers. When you sign up for websites, when you order things online, your data, it gets sold to data brokers and then they use it for nefarious things. Your name, your contact info, your social, your home address, even information about your family members. It could all be compiled by data brokers and sold online. And Delete Me is here because it's the wirecutter, top pick for data removal services. And as someone with an active online presence, I use Delete Me. Privacy is important to me. And here's how it works. 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B
The more I actually appreciate Rad.
A
I mean, it looks great. I think it looks great. But it, like, it's, you know, like a, like a, like, like some really good albums. You know, a movie that requires a second watching to really appreciate. The first time I saw one, the, the just the pure aesthetic of it didn't stop me in my tracks. But now that, like, I get it and I drove it, like. And I've seen them in different colors. I've seen the one without the wing. One with the wing, you know. Oh, okay. Now, like, yeah, okay. Maybe, maybe not in this color, but in this color, it looks sick. And like, you know, that kind of thing.
B
Tinted carbon always wins my heart.
A
Tinted carbon does.
B
There was a customer car. There was tinted carbon, and it's always a good idea.
A
Yeah, I could. I would find a way to do, like, my. A variant on my, like, rose, you know, like the cassis or the frozen berry. I think that would be a crazy if you could. If you could get the richness of it, right? Because I don't know if you. If you make that a clear, it may not work. If you could, though, it would be incredibly.
B
I wonder if you could do a clear with a tiny bit of colored flake in it. Wonder if that, you know, not too much flake because you don't. Don't want to obscure the pattern. I don't know.
A
I've never seen that clear with flake on the carbon. They had that. They didn't have a car, but they had one of these bucks that was a tinted British racing green. Dude. It in a room full of crazy shit. One little piece of tail. I was like, that one. And the woman who's. I regret not getting her name. I looked up at her and I was like, you're the color person, right? She's got the color person. And not just because she had a bunch of these things in front of her. She looks exactly like Brenda from Minx lot.
B
A lot like her. Yeah.
A
I was like, brenda, you have two jobs. Like, looks exactly the same. But yeah, she has a fun job. And that.
B
That and those. Cool. They had the speaker covers with different finishes on them, you know, for it to show a customer. Which of these. Yeah. Which of these three things do you want to pick? It just looked awesome. And it's anodized. It's not just like painted plastic or whatever. Yeah, it's super cool.
A
That's. Yeah, that's really where for that kind of money for a car, I think. I think you're getting the right amount of crazy.
B
If you get that tour as a customer, you go, oh, wow, it's a good sell.
A
Yeah. I mean, compared to, you know, compared to some other stuff out there, I think that this price for this car is actually a value.
B
It. It seems special and unique. Like literally from the Adams to the finished product. Like, you know, not just you. Oh, it's fast. Got these attributes and like we've talked about almost ad nauseam about this car is not only does it look different than anything else out there, it feels and sounds different from anything else out there. It's constructed in a way that it.
A
Looks like it was built by aliens.
B
Yeah. From 20 years in the future. Yeah, it totally does.
A
Yeah. Shout out to him. That shit is fucking sick.
B
That shit is like, look at this.
A
I don't know if customer. How does a customer, like, they need to have some kind of. Do they have a public facing anything that customers can. Like that.
B
Like.
A
Like regular people can see what do.
B
You mean, is there.
A
Is there like a fucking showroom somewhere for one? I should probably have the question.
B
I think they sell them at o' Gara and different places like that.
A
They have dealers, but I don't think the dealers have, like. Like a car. You can go look.
B
Probably not.
A
If you get a. Just. If you get a chance to go see one anywhere, you should try and.
B
Ask them to open the engine compartment.
A
The clamshell.
B
The clamshell. Because then you can really see the subframe and stuff. Because that's what we're looking at here. Like, these crazy shapes that. Like, this looks like whatever this big support is on the top right, looks like a huge chicken breast. And that is one of the engine mounts.
A
What's really funny is it's almost impossible to tell. This photo that we're looking at, which is on Zach's Instagram, is. You have almost no idea what direction this photo is taking. Which way is off?
B
That's a good point.
A
Like, what are we looking at? And it's actually. So you're actually looking at. Zach's knees are on the rear. Left wheel hub. That's where your knees are.
B
Right rear.
A
But yeah, it's right rear.
B
It's right rear.
A
Yeah.
B
Because this is the back of the car.
A
Oh, the back of the car is to the left.
B
Okay.
A
Yeah. I thought the shocks went the other way.
B
No, no, in the front, the shocks go across, which I have a video of, but not a picture.
A
I thought, okay, the shock is mounted that direction, not the other. Okay, fine.
B
Oh, yeah. Because I remember this is a screen grab from the video where I panned down. No, I get it. Because you look at this and it's like, it'll be a challenge to most people to, say, identify a part of this car that. And just name it the same thing you've seen on their cars. Like, find the A arm. That's probably the easiest one. But after that, you know, there's pivot points where the shocks go. Because it's. What's it called? Can't lever cantilever suspension. But, like, what's the thing under the shock do? I don't know.
A
It looks like a shell that looks like a decayed jaw. Like, no idea.
B
When we walked through, there was a shelf there, and I said, these look like skulls. And they weren't. They were just like some component for something. I think it was a bunch of, like, the break hub and whatever, but it looked like a bunch of, you know, cyborg skulls.
A
That would be a fun game down there. Body part or suspension? Part.
B
Yikes.
A
Yeah.
B
Super cool stuff.
A
Real, real, Real crazy and very. I, I. You know, it's one of those times where you're like, oh, there's, like. It's. It's hard. It's hard for me to say this with a straight face because they also make missiles, but you could say, oh, the tech is being used for good, but, like, it's. It's also being used for some bad. I mean, I don't think, like, I understand that the militaries need missiles, but, like, you know, I think. I don't know. I wish I lived in a world that had less missiles, I guess. Right. Or so it's. I have mixed feelings about that. Like, there are. There. There are militaries, and they. They buy weapons, and, like, they buy them from somewhere, and, like, here's a company that does it, like, right? And they're like. Seems like they're pretty good at it.
B
Like, when you look at the list of, like, the biggest defense contractors in the United States, I remember every time I see Boeing, I go, really? They make the friendly planes that work pretty well. Not so well. So well, they used to be so used to.
A
These guys are contractors for the contractors, you know? Yeah. So. But. But, yeah, it's hard, you know, I'm a little morally conflicted about missiles.
B
Well, it's weird to see one.
A
Yeah.
B
They're, like, being made. But also, I'm like, this technology.
A
Sure.
B
Like, I am won over by it every time I see it. I think it's so fascinating. Incredible to see it is. And to look at the shapes they can make. And then I. And then I step back and I go, that's gonna fly into someone's house. But look at these cooling ducks.
A
That's what I'm saying. Yeah. No, it's a. It's a. It's a tough thing to, like, you know, morally reconcile.
B
Sure.
A
Especially when, like, the cars are awesome, too. So. But, like, all right, that was. So we were in it. We live in a. And for me, a little bit of a moral gray area. What am I gonna do? I don't know, but I like the cars. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna stop them from their core business over there.
B
I think that is a human experience where you, you know, you like this part of a thing, but this aspect of it makes you feel icky.
A
Yeah, sure. Yeah. I said. I said that to Lucas, and he was like, yeah, yeah. You know, God, I get it. Cars are pretty cool, right? Yeah, Cars. Pretty. So, so that was cool. But like. So this was crazy last week. I mean last week we started with the Zinger on Wednesday. I guess it was Wednesday last week then. Well, I started the week with a 911 in Georgia, got home zinger 21C drive on the mountains. And then Friday I went to Chuckwalla and I spent the day with four of Fords. The dark horse, the dark horse R, the GTD and the GT3. Like the real GT3 race car is.
B
Four Ford's called a Fjord. She's that.
A
Oh, that's a good one. It's a good one. You gotta make sure AJ gets that. Now the story I'm doing is for road and track and like road and track paid for the track and shit so I could do their story and like it's a great opportunity to get to do a story like this. There's a lot of resources put into this story. Multimatic employees flew in from far away to support me doing this. And I mean they brought multiple race cars. They brought cars in, they rented an entire track for me for an entire day, which is crazy. My neck hurts and my body is actually quite sore from number of race car I drove and drove a lot. And when you were the GT3, I've got to drive a couple big name race cars before every time it's like a little taste, get a little taste. You know, you get a couple, get like 2, 10 lap sessions maybe and like, and then you get to do some your photos and that's pretty much it. And that's better than nothing. I'm not paying and, and it's for videos and like I'm happy to be there. So I show up.
B
I didn't.
A
It was, I was the me and our photographer, Paul was it. There was no, there was no editorial staff beyond me. Like no, there was the Ford guys with the, with the cars and the Multimatic guys and they were like, so what do you want to do? And I was like, well like, you know, I'm going to start with the start slow and go to fast, you know, and, and I'll probably do that a couple of times before lunch. I'll go through, you know, the thing and go, go through it again, do some mounted shots. We'll break for lunch when it's really hot and then we're there till dark. I was like, we have so much time. This is so crazy. After lunch I just like jump around between cars, I guess and okay, cool. And I was like, how much. I was like, I don't want to be you know, greedy, and, you know, it's your race car and everything. Like, how many. What's. What's an appropriate number of laps? You know, I just, you know, I didn't get it. I'm doing a story. I'm not, you know, qualifying. And they're like, like, what do you mean? And I was like, what? Like, you know, 10, 15, like, what's cool? And they're like. Our instructions were full tank of gas, full set of tires. So have fun.
B
Like, the car's supposed to work.
A
Yeah, yeah, have fun. So. And this was. This is the number one car. This was their development car. It's never actually raced. It's only done development work and stuff. But it has a lot of hours on it, and it's supposedly very good. And it also doesn't have the GT3 restrictors on it, so it's like 640 horsepower. But, I mean, hilariously, going from the Zinger two days later to this, this.
B
Has half the power.
A
Half the power in the straight, and it weighs more boring. So I was sort of like, you know, it's not like I was like, wah, wah. But, like, I knew I was like, prepare yourself to be under. Underwhelmed on the straightaways with this car. Now, fortunately, it's really loud. The straight pipes right there. It's so loud that it doesn't matter if it's not as fast in the straightaways. Well. And, I mean, look, it's also on slicks and fucking with downforce and all this. But so. So if you're a patron, you're gonna get to hear about GTD a couple of days early. Don't fucking ruin it, okay? That's what being in the club means. So I got a dark horse to drive out there just to get re. Used to and. Oh, my God. You want to talk about a. This is a lovely car. The engine's great. The gearbox is great. The brakes are really good. It's got Trofeo RSS on it as a street car. CarPlay. Instant bang on. No. No issues. Right. I don't love the big screens, but, like, it's got that.
B
It's got the quick button for carplay.
A
It does.
B
The Porsche doesn't have.
A
Right. Quick button for carplay. It's good, but the alignment on this goddamn thing and the front tires. I drove it out to Palm Springs. This car is exhausting on the highway. It's fucking moving around. It's darting. You cannot drive this car with one hand. You can't do it. It's so tiring to go straight in a dark horse. I mean, I think the Ford guys said that the company, who. Whatever the company is that preps the Mustangs here, puts track alignments on all these things, and you can dial it back. It doesn't have to be like that. But he's like, yeah, you can also make it like that. So, you know, I'll assume that they aren't all like that. But this one was. Oh, my God, it was brutal. Now, it was fun on the track. It was a. I really. The. It's not really included in the story for the magazine, but I ran. I hadn't been to Chuck wall in about two years, so I ran like 15, 20 laps in it. And it's like a fun car. Easy to drive, very nicely balanced, you know, decent. Decent amount of grip, you know, with those Trofeo rss, you know, for a streetcar. Really sticks pretty good. The alignment's nice on track. You know, you don't have to worry about it. I did get the brakes hot after about eight laps, so you probably want to do pads and fluid because the hardware is definitely there. But dark horse R is the. The cup version of that Mustang challenge. And you can. I got to drive Jim Farley's car. So Shout out to Jim. Thank you very much. Yeah, that was it.
B
That's a gtd.
A
No, no, go back. That's it.
B
That's it.
A
Yeah. It has a similar livery to the GT3, but it's a dark horse powertrain straight up, which even has the rev match. They left the rev matching in. So it's on a toggle. You can just toggle it on. And they're like. Everybody in the racing series has their pride, and after about two test sessions, they leave it on. And I agree with them. If I was racing. Yeah, if I was actually racing and every. Every tenth counted, I would use the auto rev matching. It was. It was pretty snappy in the dark horse R. You know, it's got a cage. The car. You know, it's stripped out. It has upgraded suspension. The dark horse R was really fun. These things are about 150 grand. And if I was joining a racetrack country club, this would be my first race car. This fucking car. It sounds like a nascar. The shift. The shifter is great. The steering is really sharp. It's got a shitload of grip on slicks. The brakes are ace. The balance is really good. You don't need, you know, you don't need traction control, stability control at all. You sit, you know, really, really low in it. And they put like a small, like, you know, racing steering wheel on it, which makes the steering like really sharp. But because Mustangs have such like over boosted steering anyway, it doesn't feel like, tiring. Super fun. Unfortunately, when we. After I did like a couple. A couple flyers, they were looking over the car, checking the tire pressure, and they found a crack in one of the rotors. So I couldn't continue lapping this at speed. So I basically gave myself a really fun game which was basically like, how fast could I get around the track without like braking essentially. And so I had a kind of a fun, like 20 minute session where I was like, can I go quicker? Like, can I come out of every corner like really hard and then find the exact right spot where like 5% break was enough, but just slow down enough to like really huck it into the corner?
B
Because if you clamp too hard, we worry.
A
Yeah. They essentially were like, look, we shouldn't. They weren't. They didn't say outright no. They're like, we shouldn't. If it. They weren't like if it was someone else, but they were like, I'm explaining to you like you. You really cannot use the brakes. Like, it's not that they're gonna. Something's gonna happen. But like, we're a big corporation and liability wise, like, we don't want to take the risk of something happening. So like draw. You have to essentially drive it like for photos, like without the brakes. So like that's the game I came up with. I was like 5. Literally 5% brake pressure and they're like, that's probably fine. So I did that and it was like kind of an interesting game. Cornering speeds are really good on this car.
B
I bet.
A
So the GT3, that shit is nuts. I mean, it's. It's. It is a. It's. It's a. It's full on. This is. This is a. This is not a. A fort. Okay. This is a Multimatic product through and through. They were said over and over that there are three production parts on this car. And I'm pretty sure two of them are the outer and inner door handles because those are stock. I didn't ask what the third was, but I didn't see it. You know, the engine is so low and so far back, you can't even believe it. It's obviously a dry sump. It is based on the production block, actually, but it's bored and stroked to 5.4 based on the block.
B
Does that mean they take the stock block okay.
A
Yeah, yeah. They modify an OEM block. Yeah, they do not. It's not like it's a billet block with the stock displacement. Yeah, Stock. They also. The heads are. The stock head chamber design. But the stock car has variable intake exhaust, variable valve timing on the intake and exhaust side. This car only has it on the intake side because it never needs to be quiet and it never needs to pass emissions. And then it also has, you know, better valve hardware that's designed to fucking run it, you know, 8,000 RPM for 24 hours. Whereas the streetcar isn't really designed to do that, obviously. Sequential gearbox. It's X track. Those have gotten really good. No more third pedal. And it's. So you're sitting in this thing. It's big, and you're. Look at the sealed. See the. See the windshield banner. How far down the windshield it comes. Yeah. Wow. You sit so low that. That is not.
B
It is not in your way at all.
A
Not in your way at all. You're slammed on the floor. Fortunately, I fit in the seat. It was actually very, very comfortable sitting there. Has air conditioning. And as long as you are moving at speed, the air conditioning is really effective. That is. Air conditioning in race cars has been a great thing. So where should I start with this? It. Apparently you're supposed to wear earplugs, which I. Which I did not. I bet you are, and I didn't. It's insanely loud. Surprisingly. Right. It's got these side pipes. It's unbelievable. And you get about 50% engine, about 50% gearbox wine. It's actually very well behaved at half speed, so not at, like super low speeds. Every race car's like the gearbox with the straight cuts. Just when you're trying to go slow for the photos, the 20 miles an hour, they hate that. But this race car was better behaved than any other car I've driven. For those first two getting to know you. Laps where I'm shifting at five, you know, short shifting, light braking. It wasn't like shitty when the tires were cold. It wasn't shitty when the brakes. Brakes were cold. I mean, you do have to warm things up, but it wasn't a clunky piece of junk when you weren't doing that. So it was incredibly approachable, which was really nice.
B
Does that have ABS or traction or anything?
A
It has abs. It has traction control and it has stability control. I drove it with the abs on 2 out of 12. Wow. So that's minimal abs. That's. That's. Yeah. Low.
B
I'm Just, I'm just saying the range of adjustment there, that's a lot of numbers. I thought it'd be like one to five or something.
A
Well, they race in the rain, you know, they race in the rain and they want you to be able to, to micro adjust it. All of them went to were 1 to 12, the traction control, the, the yaw and the end of it. And, and I drove with. I did. I never got the ABS to off nor. I don't want to drive with ABS off. That's for some people. Maybe there's a point of pride in driving hard with ABS off. I don't need to prove anything to anybody, but I did drive with traction stability control fully off. And I felt good about that actually. And this car, this car has no bad habits. I mean it does exactly what you tell it to. The steering ratio, the inputs were crazy sharp going back and forth from the GTD to this because after, you know, I didn't drive the street dark horse anymore. And once the rotor was done on that car, you know, after lunch, it was like. And then there were two and you have five hours. So like, you know, what do you want to do? So I just kept going back and forth between the GT3 and the GTD. And the GT3, I would say I did like two or three, five lap sessions and then a couple of 10 lap sessions. By the end I felt like real nice. And Mike, the multimatic guy, there was a couple Multimatic guys. This guy was awesome. He started. He basically, as he sees you getting more comfortable, they drop the tire pressures lower and lower so you can keep going quicker. And the full Pros run like 24 psi in a race. And he started me at 28 and he got me to 24 by the last session. And by the last session I was fucking humming. Like I went by the last session as fast as my body would allow me to go. They were running telemetry, but what I didn't have was a ghost to chase. So they had never been to Chuckwalla before. So they were like, these are your times and you look great. But I can't tell you if this time means anything because this car's never been here before, right? So we can look up if you want to look up Chuck Walla times, my time was a 140.0. So you we can look up if that's good or not. But they said I was looking good and they said my feedback on the car was, was good and that they were making adjustments based on that. What was your time 1:40.0.
B
All right, well, according to fastest laps, you're faster than Randy poped in a GT3RS by 15 seconds.
A
Well, that's a street car. I'm in a race car on slicks, so.
B
I know that's a lot. That's a lot, though.
A
So wait, hang on. What. What do we have? Do we have a real race car? There any real race cars up there? Someone else will have a. Have it. So I don't know if that's good. Someone else can tell me if that's good, but that was my fastest time. Oh, wait. What? That's. Oh, wait. There are other. Whatever. Feel. It felt good. It. I went as fast as my fucking brain would let me go. I mean, I just. I would need. I need a. Like, I had Jordan Taylor @. @ amp. I would need another line to go. All right, well, you broke here, but the car is capable of breaking 10 meters quicker later, and I did not have that. So the motorcycle track record is a 154. Oh, here's another thing. By the way. I went. You can run this track either way. We went counterclockwise, so that will matter. I don't know which way they're. Oh, this is clockwise. So we went counterclockwise.
B
Okay.
A
Look for ccw. The. The car was very. I really, really got. I really, really got to understand how far you can get with one full day of training in a car like this. That was enough for me to be like. I don't know if I'd be comfortable after one day of training going wheel to wheel in this car. But I do feel like with a couple of days of training, which if you're planning on racing GT3 is nothing, then you could really be comfortable. I did not feel comfortable messing with the settings and shit while driving. I'm not. I don't know. I don't know how much you have to do to. To get there. If I was messing with stuff, it was while I was stopped, not while I was laughing, dude.
B
So this. This person. This driver was in a KTM Expo GTX 2022 on slicks, and they ran a 143. Oh, I guess.
A
I guess I was wrong.
B
The title is one 143 isn't fast enough. So I guess maybe they beat that.
A
Guess I was pretty good.
B
I think it's. I think you're fast, dude. Oh, yeah. Here. 992 GT3 Cup. 143.
A
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. I think I got that wrong. I don't think it was 140.0. I think it was 143.0. I think it was143.0 and not 140.0.
B
Okay. I mean, still very fast company.
A
No, that. That sounds right. There's. I was. There's absolutely no chance that I was three seconds faster than a GT3 cup car. Zero. I actually, in hindsight, I think I said it wrong. And I think it's 143. I have this written down, by the way. My job, My primary job is to write this for an article. Okay. I have the documents. I think I got it wrong. It's not 140.0. I think it's 143.0. So either way. Either way, that's the record in a cup car. That's the fastest cup car.
B
Well, I mean, it's the fastest thing I have found in quick search.
A
Okay.
B
But this is.
A
So either way, decent.
B
Ccw. Yeah. All right.
A
Yeah, decent. Sure. And go forward.
B
I. Like I was about to say, I don't know any of these people's names. Then I get to Dog Bone, and I don't. I do not know who Dog Bone is.
A
Yeah.
B
You know, whoever this. And Romano is, they're driving cup car Expo gtx.
A
What is a crossbow gtx? That's the. Is that. That's the racing crossbow, right?
B
Definitely.
A
Yeah. Okay, well. Okay, so the point of all this is, I guess, the gtd, isn't it? So before I get there, I. I will say I. I. Here's why I'm me. I did that one great. My one best feeling lap. And I was like, nope, that's it. And I probably. And they're like, you got about 10 minutes of fuel left. And I went, nope, nope. Thank you very much, good night and good luck, sir. Yeah. If I went one more off, for sure. And I think this particular track makes me look better than I am because there is no runoff here. So if, you know, if we were at a track with a bunch of runoff like Coda or something, Pat Long or Jorg or fucking whoever Ford's factory driver is, is going so deep into the runoff every corner, and my brain isn't wired to do that. Chuck Walla has no runoff. It's curbing and then rocks.
B
Y.
A
So the advantages that a comfy pro driver would take in line don't really exist at this particular track.
B
Right. Like when. When you watch F1 or something else. But they're 90 95% of their car is over the line, but the tire just stays in so, you know, they don't get a five second penalty.
A
Exactly.
B
Right.
A
Exactly. But I. I mean, I had so much fun driving the race car. Like, it's. I think. I think I don't have what it would take to race that car. Like, I don't want to drive it in a field of other race cars. I think just me trying to push it myself on my. With no one else there, that was hard enough like that. I. That was it. That was. I found that to be a very rewarding challenge. But the. The challenge of racing it wheel to wheel, I don't know, might be a little further than my. My desires. I don't think I would. I think there's other people that would push harder than I would push in a race like that. I think I want to race. Race something. I'd want to race the dark horse. R. I could. Yeah, I can. I have time to think in between things in a car like that. Whereas it's. It's Even to run one lap in the GT3 for me is, you know.
B
I think graduating up is. It's you. It's how a smart person would go about racing. And if you win the lottery and you suddenly jump from getting your SECA license in a Miata to I'm getting Ferrari challenge now because I can afford it. And the speeds increase so dramatically and everything happens so fast. There's a lot to get used to. And that's probably why you end up.
A
With people going off the Multimatic. Guys are like, you. You wouldn't be surprised to find out how many people go from license to this because it's just, you know, money. You know, you can hire a team, rent a car. And he's like, you know, I go, I'm trying to tell him about the car. I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm probably not that good at, like, describing the nuances of race cars. He's like, well, there's pros. He's like, but you're better than, you know, the hedge fund guy, you know, who's like, my first race car is a GT3. He's like, you at least have like an idea of like, what grip and dynamics and stuff are. Right. Cool. So that was crazy. And now my neck is hurting. Yeah, I wanted to do some of those band exercises on my neck. Damn.
B
Yeah. If you're good, well, before Koda, you probably should.
A
That's a street tire race I'm running. We're running E92M3 on street tires. So I'm not worried about my neck there. This running 60 laps with downforce and full slicks. Especially there. Chuck Walla is all third and fourth gear sweepers. And that fucking bowl corner, which dude. The bowl in the GT3 was really.
B
Something that's gotta feel like Daytona. It was private Daytona.
A
That was a. It was really one of those super cool. Yeah.
B
What a good day.
A
I'll tell you what. The GT3 makes curbs disappear. Just. Just glide.
B
Wow.
A
And to segue. You know what else does the gtd really. The GTD is made for hitting curbs hard. And it. This thing. This is. This is nice. This is. This is all right. You know, they're asking a mega fuckton of money for this car for a Mustang. This blue. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful blue car. They thank God they brought a good car. I had to educate the Multimatic guy. They were like. I was like, oh, thank God you brought a good color. They're like, yes, we have white, black and blue. I said use the white and black ones for crash testing. Get some red, some yellow. And I explained to him why press cars? And he was like, oh. And I was like, just. Thank you for bringing the blue because this blue is beautiful. This also, they were very clear to point out, is a Multimatic product. This is. This is. And it drives like it. This is. This thing is fucking awesome. It's okay. It's 815 horsepower. It's a fuck ton of power. It's a huge amount of power. And it's that fabulous. The tremec transaxle, the eight speed similar to the GT500, upgraded a bit. It has rear mounted oil and trans coolers in what is effectively a hollow trunk. A huge amount of active downforce and aerodynamics front and rear. This crazy swan neck wing. They don't all have the swan neck wing. That's a package, right? You can get the. Or they all have the swan neck. They don't. Some of them have a fixed wing. Then they have the active wing. I had the active wing because of course. And then it has the track mode drop like the generation 2.4gt did, where you have to be parked and it goes like slams it. In this photo it is in track mode, I think. I think it gets like low and it goes back up when you turn the car off. So you can't shut it off in track mode.
B
Can't hard park it.
A
Yeah, you can. You have to leave it running.
B
Which we had the wing on this thing. It extends beyond the rear bumper.
A
Yes.
B
You need to put a red flag on it when you drive on the highway.
A
It is enormous. Yeah. So it's sat. And. And because of the center exit Akrapovic exhaust, it does have a unique sound that I've not heard really from a Mustang before. It does sound different. It's cool. It's a metallic rasp that typically you would get from German cars that you. That you get from here. The body's carbon. This one had the interior carbon. Also, the multimatic guys, like, remove the hood grates before the track, which they said you don't really have to do. But it was 100 degrees, and they were like, can't hurt. And so it has inboard. Inboard rear suspension, which you can't see in the mirror while you're driving unless you tilt the mirror down. But if the passenger, like, looks back there and I have a camera, there's.
B
A window where the back seat backrest would be.
A
Yeah. And unlike the GT3Rs, you can fold the seats forward so you can actually throw shit back there, which is good. You know, Farley made a big deal about this going after the GT3Rs, which I think strictly on a lap time, for lap time comparison is fair. I mean, they run. I think the 3Rs manti is still quicker, but they're in the same league. You know, they're both doing sixes, which is insanely fast. You know, regular. Regular drivers aren't doing sixes in either of those cars.
B
Yeah. The official time for the GTD is 652.
A
Yeah. And what's GT3RS? It's. It's a little better, but I think it's a little better. But nevertheless, they. They're. They're. They're in the zone. Right.
B
Six, 49.
A
Okay.
B
Yeah. So eight seconds.
A
Absolute 652 to 649.
B
That's 650.
A
You said 52.
B
Oh, 52. Right.
A
Yeah.
B
Three seconds.
A
Yeah. So that's, you know, different day, different driver. May. Right. So I got. I only drove it on the street for maybe half an hour during lunch. My concern, because it has 325 fronts and 345 rears, was that it would be even nastier to drive on the street than the Dark horse, which has 305 fronts and I think three 25 rears or 315 rears. But on the street, amazingly enough, it tramlined less than the Dark Horse.
B
So it's just an alignment thing.
A
It's just an alignment thing.
B
Yeah.
A
Now, it did catch Some edges because these front tires are crazy wide. But it wasn't bad. My initial concerns about how it drives on the street may have been premature because it actually seems to drive straight just fine, which is good. That's. That's what we want now. And on the track it's really good. The front rear balance is fucking awesome. I just turned everything off right away. Not to brag. I just wanted to see like how it was. Man, talk about a car that does not do anything you don't tell it to do.
B
Wow.
A
Does all the things you tell it to do. It does nothing you don't. It's great if you. It's in some modes. The guy, Multimatic guy, bless his heart, kept telling me that it was gonna shift when I hit redline, even in manual mode. And maybe there's a mode where that does happen. But I hit spin the knee hit M. And it didn't do that. If you hit red line and bang, the red line. Perfect. It's eight gears, so the gears are a little shorter. So it's the most people. If you consider a corner a quote second gear corner in this, it's a third gear corner. Particularly because you just have monster torque across the thing. You don't need to sit at redline all the time. You can rev the engine a little lower and still go like real fast. So it's stupidly fast. Obviously. I would say for the first, let's say 10.
B
Maybe.
A
The first. Yeah, the first like eight to 10 hard stops. Like full bore threshold braking for the first 10. The brakes are better than the GT3 car. Like, and then it, and then it tapers off. And I'm not saying the brakes go away. You could easily run a full track day session with the brakes. But, but, but they go from holy motherfucking shit to simply very, very good after about 10 stops on a hot day. But the first stops I was like, what the fuck? Like huge. Just, just amazing braking performance. Really good.
B
Well, the front tires are.
A
And also wide as 325 fronts.
B
Yeah.
A
And 345 rears and an active arrow under braking. So you haven't. You have the use of an air brake to a certain degree. It's not the same as a big McLaren Flippy one, but it does do a thing. And like when you, if you break because you're braking late now when you turn in and you've got 325 fronts, like the turn in is just sick compared to the GT3 car. It's got lazy steering. But for a streetcar you know, a front engine streetcar. The steering is very sharp, but it's not. It's not darty like Ferrari. Like, you know, Ferrari steering can be like, whoa.
B
Too quick. Yep.
A
For some people it's, you know, especially like the F12, like, before they started doing the rear steer stuff. Little twitchy. This is like, no problem.
B
How's the feedback? Because I remember Dark Horse. That was one of my complaints about that car in the canyon was it was pretty numb.
A
Same. I mean, they've, you know, there's not a lot there. I mean, you can tell what the front wheels are doing. But that's where GT3RS, you know, has them dead to rights. It's still a fairly digital, you know, experience in the same way it is in all the other Mustangs.
B
Speaking of 3Rs, quick correction. The 3Rs did the 649Manti. That was just the regular car, not the Manti car. Oh, good.
A
Sure. Fair. So the 50, 50 weight balance is absolutely crucial. It's mainly because you have that rear transaxle and because you have that cooling system at the rear. They've just. And that. Because the wing is hanging off the.
B
Back of the car.
A
But you really do. Like, that's so important because it just means that you can make these micro adjustments in the mid corner and you can really get the fucking hammer down super early and just dance it on the way out. Like, it's just fabulous. When you hit, like, at Chuck Wallace, where is the best? The best? Because this is gonna be a little inside baseball. If people have never been to Chuck Walla. But Zach's been there a lot. Okay. The front running, running counterclockwise. So you're passing the pit left to right.
B
That front that's on your right side.
A
Yes, that. That. The front straight. The braking zone has a chicane in it. And it's a chicane where you can take a lot of curbing. If your car can be steady under braking, you can take a lot of curbing. So this car, I dove in before hitting the brakes, stood on the brake pedal about 20ft before the curb, and was full engagement over the curb. And the car just went. Huh.
B
Really? It didn't go, like, anything weird?
A
No, it was really nice. Yeah. Right. Oh, there we go. Get us a little visual there. Yeah. So it's this chicane at the end of the front braking zone.
B
You're coming here from top right down here, and you just.
A
Yeah, this is a. This is a very fun track, Chuckwalla. It's really flowy It's a great endurance track because it's not very hard on brakes. This front braking zone and then the long back straight, if you zoom out, those are the only two hard braking zones, and they're both followed by long periods of not breaking. And so your brakes really don't get too hot. So you can run a good endurance race here. I really like this track.
B
It's really fun.
A
It's in the middle of nowhere, but as long as you rent the cabin, it's all right.
B
And there's good elevation, which obviously this doesn't show very well. But there's the. I mean, the bowl is fun, but you climb this hill on the back straight. And when you're going clockwise, the way this drops down from the back straight into the bowl is really exciting. It's only like a 30 foot, maybe 50 foot drop, but it's enough. And then, of course, over here, this is what I will call Cayenne Hill, where we almost had a big oopsie Daisy in 2012 with a camera car.
A
Yeah, it's like. It's similar to Button Willow, this track, but it's prettier than Button Willow and it's, I think, more fun and has 20% more elevation than Button Willow.
B
Yeah. And I would say the elevation feels more natural here in Button Willow. Like the hill.
A
Yeah, they just built mounds.
B
Plop. It's just a plop.
A
Yeah, it's a plop.
B
Yeah.
A
Yeah. I really do like Chuck Wall.
B
Chuck Wall is really fun.
A
So, okay, what else can I tell you about the gtd? Are there questions? We can't even have questions. We can talk about it.
B
I have a quick, funny GTD story to add. So I did Spike's car radio on Saturday, and I decided to drive the dark horse up there. Cause you were back in time. And I said, great, I'll drive that up. And he had never seen one before. He had no idea what it was, even though he likes mustangs. So I get there, we park it, and he goes, oh, a friend of mine is coming, and he's bringing someone else who's bringing a mustang. And I was like, who's your friend? His friend is like a police captain. This guy shows up, his police captain's friend who pulls in is Bo Bachman. Oh, that's driving his pink GTD just up. Just, I mean, upstage. The dark horse. I don't care at all. But the dark horse. Or, sorry, the gtd. When pulled in, did they do a.
A
Show or did they just hang out?
B
He was just hanging Out. It looks incredible.
A
Looks big. Bose, like cycling Bose.
B
Color is cool, but the window to the suspension is rad. I mean, everything about it. It has a Perez.
A
Yeah.
B
It's a large vehicle.
A
Yeah, it's huge. Well, that's. So that's the one thing, like the one thing I didn't get. And they're. And Ford says they're at. When the car comes to la, we're absolutely gonna get one for a week. So, like, whatever. But. But it's enormous, right? And Mike Levine was there and I was like giving him some shit about the thing being enormous. And he's like, what does it matter on the track? And I was like, people are gonna park these at fucking Trader Joe's, dude. Like there it's the size of like an F150. Like, it's huge. But that's. So I got my capsule experience on a racetrack that I had all to myself. Does it feel big on the track? No, it doesn't feel big on the track. When you have a whole track to yourself, it's fine. In Malibu, it probably will feel enormous.
B
Yeah. I want to measure it. I'm curious how much.
A
We did the width. We did the width. It's pretty close to the width of an Aventador if you count the GTD's mirrors. But don't count the Aventadors. The Aventador has really long mirrors. That accentuates its width, but it's. It's big. I mean, it's like 8 inches wider than a regular Mustang.
B
Yeah. And because it's a front engine car, the hood is very tall because of pedestrian crash standards. Yeah. So it's. It's a thick. It's thick.
A
Yeah. Not much. You can do it. So. So other than the lap time, the vibe of it is so much different from the GT3Rs that I don't think the comparison works. I just don't. I do think that if you like Mustangs and you want the ultimate street legal track day Mustang. This is the best Mustang I've ever driven. Sure. I mean, by a. By a margin, you know, the 3 GT350R was incredibly special, you know, 10 years ago. And they're still special now. Absolutely. But this is another. This is a Multimatic product. This is not a fucking Ford. It's barely a Ford at this point. The way that it. And like, what is it? What are the compromises for this thing? Well, you have no back seat, you have no trunk, you have very wide front tires. It's enormous. And it's Expensive. Those are your, those are your compromises. There aren't others. That's it. The software, the ui. Oh, yeah. And other downside is when you're sitting in it, there is zero difference from a dark horse to this other. I mean, it's an automatic, but so zero difference from a GT with a fucking Recaro. It's Mustang. That's it. Even, you know, the GT3RS, a 911 is much nicer than a Mustang, but a GT3RS is nicer than a 911. They have unique door cards, they have certain unique interior features that do go above and beyond in a way that GTD does not go above and beyond. Okay, so, but, but having said that, like, they just feel completely different. I mean, the vibe of the ultimate Mustang and the vibe of the quote, ultimate Porsche, they're different vibes. They're. One is the Caribbean and one is Hawaii, one is Paris and one is Rome, one is New York and one is fucking la. You know, they're like, they're both sick, but like, they're just so different, so. And like, is it worth. It's insanely expensive. That blue car was $460,000. Like, does it feel like that? Like, what does that mean? Like, what does it feel like? Not when you're sitting there parked. Certainly doesn't, you know?
B
Well, I mean, it does a. Just a GT3 RS feel like the MSRP they charge now, it has different door cards. It does feel different than a 911, but does it feel like 300, 400 grand? This is such a subjective question based on, I think money you have.
A
Yeah, no, I think it's. That's an insane number too. But I think it's somehow more easily justifiable, I think somehow. But like, I don't know, I don't have the fucking kind of money anyway. They'll sell every one of these things. Every one of these. There are enough rich Mustang enthusiasts that they don't even need to go outside that pool.
B
Mm.
A
They're. What? If you're not already, like, you're not gonna be able to get allocation for this fucking thing.
B
Not for a while. Yeah.
A
So like, it's amazing. It's amazing. Whatever it costs, it costs like it's a fuck time. Ton. It's a ton.
B
But it is cool that it was made by Multimatic, who made. I mean, the G, the Ford gt. I mean, they've made a lot of different really high end, amazing race cars.
A
Honestly, if I had to do a track day in a 2017-2019 Ford GT. I'm not talking about the crazy Mark 4 race car, but like the one that we drove down in Curated. If I was going to do a track day in that or the gtd. Gtd, why?
B
Other than sound, in addition to sound.
A
I should say I just, I think I'd be more comfortable pushing it harder. Like it was really fun to like push the GTD really hard. Where I would be nervous about doing that in the GT because of its value and I don't know, I've never tried to push a GT that hard to really see what would happen. I'm sure it's good.
B
Well, it's funny is with this day, you had this, this ramp of Mustangs, you warmed up to gtd and there's no warm up for four gt, there's no baby version and then, you know, stouter version and then you hop in it or gt.
A
Yeah, but I just, I found the Mustang to be not necessarily more exciting because visually, obviously the GT is more exotic and exciting. But like just in, in the way it, in the way it went through a corner, in the way it took a bump, in the way, you know, the brakes were just like mind blowing in the stability of it. When you really started to push it really hard, I just thought was exceptional across the board. The only things that I don't like about it are that in some ways it does feel kind of like the interior's bland and Mustangy and it's huge. And those are things that, that neither I nor they are going to change. So like, it's just, it's fabulous to drive. It really is fabulous to drive.
B
It is a bummer that for a car that is this expensive and is made by people who are absolutely brilliant and can transform any material into anything they need to really, that they couldn't do something with like door card and little dash accents.
A
Something that there are some carbon bits. Like this has a carbon dash trim thing.
B
We can buy that on ebay.
A
Yeah, yeah.
B
You know, so that's what I'm saying is it'd be cool if they could judge up the outside or, sorry, the inside. Because the outside looks insane.
A
Outside, outside looks real special.
B
And if you look in the back seat, that's like there's the whimsy.
A
Yeah.
B
But it's, you have to look everywhere except right in front of you when you're driving the car. The only downside that I hear, but.
A
Like, I mean, it's, it's, it's at least on the track and on desert highways. I Haven't got to take in the canyons yet. Well, we're gonna get to do a road driving video with one. It's just as soon as we get it. What?
B
So this panel right here.
A
All the same. Same as regular Mustang.
B
So in the Dark Horse, when I was driving to Spikes Zach's talking about, there's a.
A
There's a row of hard buttons sort of in front of the shifter.
B
Yeah, yeah. So when you press on those buttons in the Dark Horse, at least all of them moved a little bit. And if you press on the top of it, it doesn't activate any of the controls, but all of the buttons move because it's all actually one plastic. You're hitting the button underneath the panel.
A
Yeah.
B
I was wondering.
A
I just.
B
That just left to my mind as I look at this, I'm wondering if it's a little better than this.
A
It's. I doubt it. It's probably exactly the same piece. Yeah, exactly the same piece. I did do a few slides, and while the 50, 50 balance and the 800 horsepower are certainly good for sliding, I very easily hit the lock stops on the steering. There is none. I did the last two corners before the front straight. Then Lee was sliding in 2012 in.
B
The yellow car, two rights. Yeah.
A
The big left and then the big right and then the big left. So the first one, pretty nice little wiggly on the gather up. And then the last two were great, except I fucking hit the lock stops on both. And I was like, no, that's it. So there's not a lot of angle on this car. So it's not. It's not optimized for a doriftos.
B
I'm sure the turning radius is not good. I mean, those tires are so wide.
A
Dog shit. You know what's funny is I did it in track mode, which is lower now the turning, the. The angle won't change.
B
The tires are huge.
A
Yeah. They're just big. Yeah. It's just not gonna do it.
B
Car looks awesome, though.
A
It did hold a third gear slide through the sweeper right until I hit the line.
B
Until you just.
A
That's it.
B
Did you loop or did you just.
A
No, I gathered it up, but like, that was the end, but, man, it's a. It's a thing, though. It's. This is.
B
This.
A
This car is sick. It's. It's imperfect in. In ways that compromised machines are. In this case, it's just giant. But it's fast, it's balanced. It's a lot of fun to huck around a racetrack and it's. It's nice when you're driving slow too. I mean it's. It's not clunky at all when you're slow. When it's regular car, it's great. Yeah. Comfort mode is like very chill.
B
Super cool.
A
Yeah. Really, really nice.
B
Good job, Ford.
A
I wish it was half what it cost. I understand why it probably can't be, but like at like 200 grand, like no brainer. Absolute, you know, toe to toe with the ZR1. No brainer. But at, you know, 100k more than the ZR1. You know, forget the GT3RS. That's really where the comparison is going to be. And we will have both at performance car of the year, which will real. That's good. That's going to be getting to go back to back with GT3 Vit. Not RS. We don't get an RS. It's. The GT3 we're getting is a. Is a wing car with comfort seats and a stick.
B
Okay.
A
So my guess is it doesn't win the lap times, but Editor's Choice. Maybe it's a contender for Editor's Choice. We got. We. I mean, this year's lineup is heavy.
B
This versus ZR1.
A
This is the R1.
B
Goliath. Goliath.
A
It's gonna be. Yeah, I mean, I mean it's gonna be. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I can't wait to go back to back with this and the ZR1. It's gonna be a really, really fun. But I'm just. I'm extremely impressed with what they're able to make this car do. It's really good. It's very, very fun. And even with everything full off, like if, if you drive, you know, not stupid. It's great. No, no. Ill manners.
B
Nice.
A
Really nice. Yeah. You want to get to questions? You know what, before we get to questions, I. Yeah. I am gonna have a little whiskey for questions. What do you say?
B
I'm gonna skip.
A
Okay.
B
But you can get.
A
Hold the fort for a minute. The live. Are there live people? They can wait.
B
They'll wait.
A
Oh, hello. Last.
B
Someone did a 145. Yeah. David. I think in Lap Meta. That was a. Oh, I closed the window. I think it was like a Huracan Evo track car or something like that. So 143 is fast. And what is the power of this Expo thing?
A
Expo g.
B
The Expo GTX 2020. Well, looks in every way like a race car. Let me go back for a second. Wow. Crossbow, whatever you Want to call it KTM, Crossbow GTX and GT2. Six speed sequential, 530 horsepower. And this car cannot weigh that much. Car. Whatever you want to call it. So weight without fuel. So dry weight, I GUESS let's call 2200 pounds. 2300 pounds. 2300 pounds. The CR, the Crossboro GTX, Matt Farah.
A
Yes, sir.
B
Is a 530 horsepower car that weighs about 2200 pounds dry. So for you to be knocking on the door of that thing, that's ripping a lot more weight. The GT3 is way heavier. That's incredible.
A
Wow. A little Johnny Walker blue. Let's keep it real.
B
We got that from Hussein, right? Yeah. Captured it from his bunker.
A
We did. All right, let's go to the people.
B
We got some leftovers and then we got a bunch of new stuff.
A
Okay, well, we'll. And let's see what kind of energy we got. Yo. Of course, if you want to ask questions for the live show, if you want to watch the live show, if you want to get the show before everybody else, if you want to get the show without ads, if you want to get extra bonuses and features and even extra podcast episodes entirely. Patreon.com the Smoking Tire podcast. Not to mention, if you're in that kind of mood, by far the best thing you could do for us as creators, as a fan, is join the Patreon. It's better than watching all the ads. It's better than watching us or listening on any platform. It's just the best thing that you can do. A couple leftovers from last show. Flyin Monkey. The electric G Wagon has been declared a flop by Mercedes due to poor sales, but loved by journalists and reviewers. Can you think of other cars in the past that got high praise but were complete failures with the public and didn't sell? Yes. But first, can I just say that I think maybe in two years a used electric G Wagon may be my next daily driver around car because the.
B
Depreciation is probably insane.
A
It's crazy cheap. Yeah, we're gonna have to. We're have to revisit that in two years because Hannah loves a G Wagon. So that could be the kind of thing that we could find for fucking nothing. Yeah. What else was praised well but didn't sell very well?
B
I mean, every Lotus.
A
Yeah.
B
It'S all pretty well.
A
Every look up, like every motor trend car of the year is like a flop except for Porsche stuff, right?
B
Yeah.
A
Pretty. I mean, apparently the Alpine A110 does not sell very well, even though everyone who Drives it seems to think it's the greatest thing ever.
B
Small light sports cars in general maybe just don't do that.
A
Great Caterhams.
B
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
A
Disrespectfully agree. That's a good username. Last week on vacation, I drove up Pikes Peak. It was wonderful, but terrifying because it confirmed I have a fear of heights. Are there other automotive pilgrimages I can put on my list that are maybe a bit lower to the ground? Sure. Certainly Car week is one. Going to any number of iconic racetracks to watch a race, that's I guess the equivalent of going to all the, the baseball stadiums or whatever. Right.
B
You could go to events like you go, you could go to the Daytona 500 or you could go to Grid Life to like watch people drive and race. And then that way you don't have to get too high off the ground. Oh, Monster Jam. Not really a pilgrimage, but you can just go.
A
It's a pilgrimage.
B
Oh, what is it? Million Dollar. Well, that's half the ground. Million Dollar highway in Colorado is amazing. It is, but amazing.
A
It's that, that goes up a mountain.
B
That's True, yeah.
A
Route 66, Death Valley.
B
That goes down from mountains, but true. Choose your, your month wisely.
A
It depends. Is a pilgrimage a road trip or like because you could, you can come here to California and see where they filmed the iconic Race wars scene from Fast Furious. A lot of people want to do that by the way.
B
Really? I want to go and they want to go to the Tuna place store and. Oh, that's the Furious house.
A
Yeah, I usually just take them to Neptune's Net. The house and the tuna store. Not good. Dance of the Carvoyance. A little Pearl Jam reference in there. How come I see an RV flat towing a vehicle 9 times out of 10 it's a 2 door based Jeep wrangler. Is there something specific about a Jeep that makes it good for flat towing or a runabout? Yeah, I think it makes, I think a two door wrangler. I don't know what makes it. I might be easier to hook up a flat tow bar to the front of it just because it's like, I don't know, solid axle or whatever. Like.
B
And I think they probably have the space that's open for a winch. You can probably just put a flat toe thing in there probably.
A
There's probably some very easy way. But also like if you're a traveling person, like retired or whatever, whatever, and you wanted a car that could do any adventure, you know, a two Door wrangler is a pretty good choice for towing behind an rv. I mean you can take the top off if you're somewhere nice. If you're going like skiing, you could drive it in the snow. You can, you know, it's an old school automatic transmission, so you just throw it, put it in neutral easily, which makes it good for flat towing. I think that it's light. A Wrangler is a pretty light, light vehicle.
B
I was looking. It seems like they're all about £3,000. 85 CJ is 26 to 2900. Not bad.
A
Yeah, I mean it's got a small footprint, easy to maneuver. Yeah, I think it's a great choice. Great choice for towing behind your rv. Yeah, my Vanos is bleeding. I drive past the body shop on my commute and it's starting to accumulate crash. Teslas are replacement parts still an issue. I haven't heard that in a while. I don't know.
B
I don't know either.
A
Yeah, everything clean but the ashtray. If the SSC Tawatara is a Corvette to Pagani, what is a Corvette? Wait, is a Corvette Pagani? What's a Corvette 911? Oh, no, that. Right. So that's sort of not how that works. The answer to what is the Corvette to a 911 is just Corvette is an actual Corvette.
B
Yeah, right. I don't think there's anything in between. Right.
A
Yeah. I mean there is nothing else that has a rear engine flat six configuration. So you can't. There's no like one to one but like Cayman.
B
Not rare. It's mid but sure. Yeah, I guess that is it.
A
No, the, the, that's not how that works. The metaphor was. Doesn't work like that. The answer to what is The Corvette of 911s is Corvette like. I'm sorry, it just is like that's, that's why I used Corvette of Paganis. Because Corvette of other things was already taken by the actual Corvette. Sorry Dick. But like ah, Clapman's freshman dorm bed. How well, how well screwed together are E34 BMWs? Are they more like E39s or more like E36s? That's a good question. And I'm going to say that they are more like E36s but like they're more expensive. So they're the materials and some the seats and some things are better.
B
Maybe. I, I don't know. They were built from 87 to 96, so maybe if you get the ones that were made in the late 80s, maybe they're glued using the toxic stuff that works versus the biodegradable stuff that didn't work in the 90s. I don't know. My mom had an old. Not an M5 or anything, but I don't remember it having as many interior clinkety clunks as every E36 I've ever built.
A
It was a much more expensive vehicle, so it was put together better to begin with. But I think E46 and E39 go together and are built about the same and E34 and E36 are built at about the same quality. It may also be that the E34s that I've been in the presence of have just been nicer. Cars like Zuckerman's E34s are like amazing, but other ones I've seen are like kind of shitty.
B
Browsers freaking out. I'm trying to open this link to.
A
Show not working about Instagram handle on my window. Have we had any more discussions about having a meetup in the Northeast? No. Did we ever have discussions about having.
B
Well, doing something in Seattle?
A
Yeah, that's the Northwest.
B
Oh, sorry. The Northeast Monticello Car Club. Let us know.
A
No, I mean, like, I don't know if I had. Meetups are a strange thing.
B
I was thinking of live podcasts.
A
Yeah.
B
So if.
A
If the live podcast tour happens, there will first be a West coast one and then there would be an east coast one. We. We have to do baby steps. If I'm. If I go to something on the East Coast, I would certainly share that I was going to be there, but I don't have any plans. We. I may. It is possible I may go to the Hilton Head concourse with my dad. Can't. Oh, wait. So here's Bad Gardener says. Have you seen the 912Barca on Instagram? Most Monaco car ever. Yeah, look at that. It's a. It's a 912 turned into a jolly, basically.
B
Kind of. Yeah, sorry.
A
Like they have the doors taken out. It's a convertible. It looks like there may. No, may not be a top at all. It has the doors taken out. It looks like there are teak panels. Right. Is there. Can we scroll through these images? Yeah, we've got. We've got a tie down like a cleat and a rope. We have.
B
Look at the floor.
A
Yeah. Teak floors. Like those are. In some ways they're like a sailboat. In other ways they look like this cutting board that I have that's designed to catch crumbs of bread.
B
It looks like A sauna floor.
A
Right.
B
Water can just fall through, no problem.
A
Yeah. As long as those floors don't, like, raise the height of the floor too much. In general, I absolutely love this vibe. I wonder if it structurally sounds, but I. 10 out of 10 would roll around. Oh, look at that Bimini.
B
That top is weird.
A
Bimini is crazy.
B
What is it covering really? Like, your head? Half your head? Sort of.
A
Yeah. Is there another angle of this? This overhead view is very, very odd. I want to see. I do like the teak outboards. And the shape of the cutouts is very similar to a BMW Z1.
B
I just want to show this to the audience once more because Switcher cast was having a conniption. That's the weird top. All right. And then. Yeah. Z1 doors.
A
Teak bumper. Hell, yeah. On the teak bumper, I would. I would ask them to make a teak bumper for my 911 just because. Oh, then it's elect. Oh, is that a hose? It's a hose. It has a. It has a water tank.
B
Yeah, that is the same hose. They have it at our dog park at our building. Yeah, they have one of those to wash dogs.
A
Yeah. So this would be to hose off your feet before you get back in your car at the beach. It's actually kind of a boss move. I. Dude, I'm about this. I'd. I would roll that on nantucket, but from 10ft away, it doesn't look like. It's probably, like. It's probably $600,000. And from 10ft away, it looks like Rob Ferretti cut it with a sawzall.
B
It does. Yeah. I mean, the colors don't help. When you get up close, the colors look amazing, but from far away, especially with this camera, dark wheels, they just disappear. The whole thing looks like someone's ratty 911 they chopped up. You get close, then you can tell it was expensive. Yeah.
A
I mean, but I do like where their head is at, and I think that these. These. The Resto mod beach car is a. Is a good genre and should be explored. Fiat jollies are great. Like, I'm Obviously Team Manx 100% shit like this. Like, yeah, let's fucking do all that. That sounds great. Holy. What? Okay, Matt's missing Countach part. We're gonna find out what that part is and how expensive it is. Since it's a Mustang day. What is the most beautiful Mustang ever? Zach and I are gonna have wildly different answers.
B
Maybe. I don't know.
A
Most beautiful.
B
I mean, that's. I think like I think 67 GT350 was very good.
A
And then.
B
You know what, the SN95, if you lower it I think actually has a really good shape to it. Especially with the terminator front. You need the lower valance, otherwise it's too tall. Yeah, but that's a pretty good looking car.
A
Yeah. I mean for me the most beautiful Mustang ever is the SN95 saline S351. And that's, that's where it's at for me. We can, we can stop there. Specifically an S351 Speedster. Now that is a ridiculous vehicle. That is not elegant by most people's standards. But in terms of.
B
Oh, the George Foreman car, that one.
A
Is triple fucking yellow. But like. Yes. Different color.
B
But yeah, that's a good, that is a good looking car body kit. Yeah. Even with. Yeah. The convertible or Speedster, whatever, in the right color.
A
This is fabulous.
B
I think, I think these are, I think these were quite shapely and I love the proportions of headlights and the front intakes and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
A
And mine when I was a kid had very. Was. Was a clone. I cloned a Cobra R so mine looked a little different. I didn't go this direction with mine. But it was if, you know, I think I've talked about it. But if I fat. If I found the right SN95 Saline Speedster, that, that might be something I was interested in. Can't unshitbox this. Bought the notice Canyon Black Pearl as my first collector grade watch. Thank you very much for your support. Recommend recommendations on tools and cleaning regular care items for watch maintenance and storage. Well, I clean my watches with a very soft toothbrush and hand soap. That's it. Just like the hand soap I wash my hands with and a soft ass tooth. Like literally my old toothbrush, when I retired it from my teeth, it cleans my watches. And like there are people who are like, don't use a toothbrush but like then they buy some crazy expensive watch brush that's. It's fucking made in the toothbrush factory.
B
Exactly. Yeah. It's made by. Made by oral B. Yeah.
A
Don't get a toothbrush with stiff bristles, the softest bristles you can. And then warm soap. And like once in a while if your watch is like real grimy. The super secret toothpaste. But like you don't want to use toothpaste all the time because it is abrasive and like over time. Yeah. And I wouldn't use toothpaste on gold, but On a steel watch once a year. Little toothpaste polish. Not so bad. Still use the toothbrush. Same joint. Just a quick scrub. Not too much, not too heavy, but it's nice and it makes your watch smell minty. Put it back on fresh and you know tools. You get a spring bar tool. Buy a nice spring bar tool if you really give a shit. On fucking Amazon, get a set of watch screwdrivers. There's like the cheap set if it's your. If you've never had anything, get the cheap set. It's 20 bucks. That'll get you two years. And then you'll start breaking them. And then you go, okay, now I'm committed. Now I want a good set. The good sets may be 75. If you want to commit now, just get the good set now. It'll last you the rest of your life. So you get a good set of screwdrivers, you get a good spring bar tool, and then you're in business. That's it. If you really care, get. You can get a loop. Like I have my reading glasses now. Help me when I'm working on my watches. But like, having a loop does make it easier to change straps and do shit like that. It's. You feel like a dork, but like you see better.
B
Well, you feel like you're a safe.
A
Cracker or that too street parked. Favorite and least favorite localized road designs, I. E. The jug handles in Jersey or Texas frontage roads. Okay. My favorite are roundabouts. Roundabouts. And I've been so surprised to see them in many red states. Places where I would have not thought to see progressive road design like Arizona. And where. Where I. North Georgia. I just was. Roundabouts. Fabulous all over the place. The worst. Those Michigan U turns. Those stink.
B
What's a mission like in Woodward?
A
Although you. You can't cross anywhere. You have to make these. It's similar to the jug handle. It's basically a jug handle. New Jersey jug handles stink. Texas frontage roads also suck.
B
I don't mind them that much. I just think they're. They seem redundant. Like everyone's going the same speed as the highway. There's so many lanes and they stretch for such a long time. It's like it's the gentlest off ramp. It's just, you know, and then they drop you into like a four lane, you know, frontage road. So I'm sure there's a reason for it.
A
But I like. I like the really old highways like the Hutchinson River Parkway and the Merritt in Connecticut. And here, here, the 110 freeway where the. The on ramps are so short because they're from like the. That you get to use launch control in like a turbo S. You have to. Yeah, you like have. And. And no one's like has a problem with that.
B
It's a safety issue if you don't. Yeah. If you're in Aversa, God help you.
A
I like when an exit ramp on or off is designed for funsies. That's a good, you know, a good nice camber on there. Let me load up the front end a little bit for.
B
I think whoever designed those short on ramps here, they either had like a built muscle car in the 60s and they're like, yeah, people figure it out.
A
Quadrifoly O face. Next car brand to die in the US Gotta be a Stellantis member. It does seem that way, doesn't it?
B
It just. I'm just waiting for when Chrysler. Chrysler has to be their product gets absorbed by someone else because they make one thing.
A
Yeah. I mean, well, why.
B
Oh, a question are they saying has to be a U.S. brand. Oh, it has to be a Stellantis.
A
Member car brand to die in the.
B
U.S. it could also be struggling a lot like Nissan having some trouble.
A
Yeah. Nissan would probably be acquired for sure. Right. There's got to be some value left in that. I think it's possible that Fiat just exits the US entirely. Like have you. Is the new Fiat 500 like on sale here?
B
I don't know. That's a good question.
A
What Fiats can you buy right now? I don't even know what Fiats it is. It is possible to even buy today. It's gotta be Fiat or. I mean Chrysler just has a Pacifica.
B
Yeah, exactly.
A
Maybe they just rename the division Pacifica.
B
Why do they even have models so Fiat? Well, most of the models on their website are from 2024. Huh.
A
So the 500E. Giorgio Armani RIP baby. Fiat 20. These are all 2024 models. Wow. Okay. Okay.
B
Could be them.
A
So maybe. Yeah, maybe Fiat. Christy Yamaguchi main. Nice. Okay. Interested in a Miata? Talk to me about NC versus nb I prefer the nc. It's. It's a much bigger vehicle by Miata standards, which does translate to room inside.
B
Yeah. And the interior does feel like a big step forward. A little more livable. And I know it's like was it 200 pounds heavier? But yeah, it's still a very light car.
A
Yeah.
B
And as we experienced with the turbo setup from flying Miata, it's a very, very fun car. So. So I I would go NC if I was going to go back to it.
A
If we could make a video, Matt Farah's Million Piece Countach if we could make a video about. If we can make a video without worrying about cost or numbers, what would it be about? Like I would make, you know, I would try to make that, that show that everyone tells me can't be made basically, which is the quote Bourdain of Cars show, which can be done and should be done, but someone needs to pay for.
B
I always wanted to do the Learn to Drive Everything series, but now that has basically been done by Rob Dahm and other people. But if I didn't have to worry about money, that's what I would do. I just go around to different. Every single different kind of driving vehicle school, including buses and shit, and just learn how to drive that stuff.
A
Tim A says, have we seen Larry's GT3 for sale on bat? That's really funny. I was, I didn't know he was selling it, but I was on Bring a trailer today and I saw a car and I was like, oh, that looks like Larry's. I didn't realize it was actually his. Yeah, I know why he's selling it. I do know why. He talks to me about it for a while. He doesn't. Great photo. He just doesn't have time and energy to drive it in a way that it deserves to be driven. He's got a kid right now.
B
Who.
A
Is very into baseball and he spends all his time doing baseball stuff with the kid and he can't take the GT3 to do that. And when he's not doing that, he's doing other stuff and he just doesn't have time to drive it. And he has, he said when he's, when he's on, you know, it was his dream to buy a GT3 and now he's had it for whatever, a year or something and he, you know, he found himself like running errands in it just to drive it for something. You know, when he bought it or a year or so before he bought it, he was, he was really going to the track a lot and whatever. And then, you know, he kind of, he moved on from that. So, so he, he thought it was a, it was a very expensive car and who's. And huh. Sorry. It was a very expensive car. And he, he said, you know, I could, I could free up some capital to do some other things I wanted. And, and you know, he's got four other cars or something. But, you know. Yeah, he talked to me about it. I said, get fucking rid of it, dude. So a GT3, if you really. If you really, really care, you can buy another one someday. You know, Bush did 997. Do you have any Venturi experience or know anyone who's owned one? I know my Venturi experience is only coming through Matt Ivanhoe at the curated Collector. The curated collector Saudi is called. What's Matt Ivanhoe the Cultivated Collector. That's Matt Ivanhoe, the Cultivated Collector. And it's Venturi. Venturi. Not venture. The N T U R I. It's a weird French car. Venturi 400. And this is the one that we had here at Westside Collector Car Storage.
B
Wow. It's.
A
They called it like the French F40. It was similar power and I drove it once. It drove weird. It drove sort of like a fast like a Lotus Esprit kind of thing. It was that. That sort of vibe. Cool looking car. I mean generally a very attractive car.
B
I forgot about this thing was at. It was here years ago. Right. And I forgot about it when we first opened.
A
It was out here.
B
Great shape. Like really good looking cars. Yeah. It's like an F355 kind of.
A
Yeah.
B
Temu. Yeah, a little bit. Right.
A
Okay.
B
Keep going down.
A
Hold on. I think we've answered that one. Keep going. That's a fun. Ben, that's a fun name for a user. But I don't want to answer the question right now. Into the void. Do we have any experience with Panos? Very curious about these cars. I drove an Esperante once. It drives a lot like it has a, you know, as a Mustang Cobra powertrain, but it's sort of like it's. It drives nicer than a Mustang Cobra. I think they're kind of weird looking. They were, I mean, reasonably successful as race cars.
B
Pretty fast cars.
A
They're pretty fast. I only drove the one once though. But I smile if I see one around. John Henness, see you until next John Hennessy, you next Tuesday.
B
So funny.
A
Pretty funny. Funny. Obviously they're cheap for a reason, but at what point does a 2009 Mercedes 600 V12 become an actual goodbye 10k 5k. Like when you can just like leave it on the side of the road when it breaks. I guess.
B
I think it's. It's really a finance question for the person asking too. I mean this fun engine. You can do some fun things with the car.
A
Yeah.
B
But if it breaks in any significant way, it will be so expensive.
A
Yeah. Like the reason it's like at 5k. You still are going to have a catastrophic failure that will totally like there is no price at which it's a good idea. Like because it's like instead of what? You know, like are we cross shopping it again? Is the game that we're cross shopping it against the hypothetical $30,000 hatchback and so if I get it for 20 and I have to spend 10, like no, because that won't work. But if I get it for five and my cushion is 25, does that make sense? So that's the math. The problem is the lines don't like cross. Like there is. It never makes sense. So it's like it only makes sense if you can throw the car in the garbage. Like if you're a person not of means trying to make this hack work for you ain't gonna fucking happen.
B
It could be very painful. Yeah, I would, I would refer to the forums because they might be able to tell you, you know you, hey, you can swap the air suspension for coils and you can do this thing but just expect every computer that controls the H Vac to explode. But maybe you can end up with a beater drift car with a V12 that'll last six months.
A
The problem, yeah like not these 600s have so many unique parts over the other car. Like everything is expensive on them. Regular is. I don't know. I don't know where the math works at all. It may not.
B
I think it's very subjective math.
A
Yeah.
B
It's up to you. How, how much is that?
A
If it costs five grand and your budget is a hundred grand, it makes sense because you can just drive it and when it breaks you just leave it on the side of the road, take off the tags and now you can go buy a $95,000 car. You've had your fun. That's when the math makes sense. When the car is a literal throwaway item. If you wanted to go drive off road thousand miles, buy one of those for five grand would be great. Jim Khanna says, checking out an auto check report on a certified pre owned car recently, I noticed an accident. The report gave no indicated area of the car. It said only police. Car runs and drives beautifully. I don't see any signs of respray. Have you ever seen this? And do you know what this means? Have you ever seen police? Was it rear ended by a cop?
B
That would be very funny.
A
Yeah. Was said police. I've never, I've never seen police. Can you.
B
What if you can ask the police?
A
Maybe. I don't know.
B
Ask Auto check. You should hit their contact.
A
Yeah, you can probably call auto check and find out. Get a PPI is all I'm saying. Dre from Houston. Okay. Wait. Oh, all right. Okay. Any movies or shows where the hero car in reality would be the downfall of the hero?
B
Oh, yeah. What did I watch? Great. Okay. Gray man, it's like two years old. They made it on Netflix with Ryan Gosling. It's a good action movie. Whatever. He doesn't have to emote much. He got his acting chops, took a break, he shoots people. But Audi obviously sponsored it. And there's a scene where he is rescued by an Audi that is extremely damaged in many ways and yet continues to run flawlessly. So I think there are so many movies where a car continually gets crashed into, but because they sponsored the movie, it just keeps working fast. Nine or ten Dodge, like outrunning the underwater explosion thing. And there's no way any of this would continue to function.
A
Almost every chase sequence, the cars would just be falling apart before the end of the chase sequence. The Roger Farah Podcast, four years after it came out, is the base C8 something noteworthy for under 100k. Cross shopping it with a 991.2 C2 or higher mileage. S PDK like not like fully base. But if you get the Z51 and the good stuff, then sure, yeah, they're great cars.
B
Yeah, they're well under a hundred now.
A
Yeah. Really well known. Yeah, I mean I guess if they're talking about getting a new one, but I would get Z51. I'd get Mag Ride, I'd get the. I would get all of the performance stuff you can afford. Puff the Magic Dragon.
B
Love it.
A
Cool. Okay. Looking to get in my first Porsche. Leaning towards a 718. Have good budget. Obviously I prefer the looks and exhaust howl of the RS Spider. However, I already have a crazy car, a Drakken that's more comfortable with earplugs for a long drive and I don't want another. I'm thinking I could reroute the intake of the RS to reduce the noise or make a valved setup. But would that solve the noise problem or would the top still be loud?
B
I think the question is with the car work.
A
Yeah. I reroute the intake system. I mean I wouldn't. Why would. I wouldn't bother doing any of that.
B
Or a valve setup. I don't think that's a good idea.
A
Yeah, I mean if you really want to get a fat, just get a demand motor in a Cayman or A Boxster, if you want a really fast Boxster. And without having to deal with that. I mean the, the top is still pretty loud. Like it's a single layer top. Non insulated. Like it's. It's not great for long drives. It's okay. It's not great. It's not. That car is about. I fuck. I wouldn't get the RS and then fuck up the intake noise.
B
Porsche spent a lot of time.
A
Yeah.
B
Engineering that and messing with it could change so many things. Probably void your warranty. So I would not do that way.
A
Mo handjobs from women I hardly know. Have you ever had an HPD instructor give you completely contradictory directions? Whether it's proper line, too much slip, too little slip, et cetera. It seems like each person is different. How do you handle that? Especially if you have a preference for a driving style. It's not the instructor's style. For context. I'm in an a group with lots of solo experience and I'm working towards being an instructor. Yeah. I mean who you have teach you is important.
B
Important.
A
And now that they have data, I don't want someone in my fucking car anymore. And I don't think they want to be in my car anymore for not. Not prohibitive amount of money. You too can get telemetry and compare a. A line with a. With a. With a pro or have a pro review your lines and see if you can be accelerating or braking or turning differently based on video and that without having someone in the car. I've never had two different instructors give me contradictory directions on the same day because I've never taken HPDE instructors. I've always done schools and that's fine. I'm spoiled and not everybody can do that. But it's never happened. But that's funny.
B
I haven't had it back to back, but I've seen people who are instructors and ridden with them and they drove a very different way from other instructors. So I don't know how to like. If you get back to back. If you get different advice, corner to corner with someone, that would be very confusing. Ask for clarity and then maybe hop in with a different instructor if you don't think that you like their style.
A
Yeah, my Vanos is bleeding. That's pretty fun. How do you feel about retro style wheels particularly? Yeah, there's. I. I like retro style wheels when they're done right. But it's a pretty fine line that's being constructed well.
B
Also like built well and look. Look perfect.
A
Yeah. Jethro. Null requests and Anything but Cars episode. That's interesting.
B
Maybe we could do that as a.
A
That's more Patreon pro show. Yeah, anything but Cars could be a pro show for September. Maybe be okay. Hang on. My other car is your mother. That's funny. Looking for a Porsche 997S cabriolet manual for 70,000. That's a ton of money for one of those, isn't it? I just sold a 997s manual earlier this year for like 42 grand with an additional 10k set aside for maintenance. I live in New York City. I drive primarily on Long Island. Okay, trying to decide between a C2S or C4S or is it worth waiting until I can afford a turbo? Well, hang on a minute. Do you. If you're not driving in like snow, and I literally, I mean snow, not rain. Snow, you do not need an all wheel drive Porsche. Don't need it. Cars fine. In the rain, you don't need the all wheel drive. So why are you trying to decide between a C2S and a C4S? And I don't mean that to be insulting. Like, is it because you want to drive this car as your only car throughout the winter? My guess is not. Because if you have 70 to spend on this car, car that's not your daily, probably. Right? Like, I don't think you should get a 4s. I don't. If you don't, unless you're driving the snow, I would skip it. Turbo, different story, different feel.
B
Right?
A
Different car.
B
You're almost buying it for the engine instead of for the drivetrain or for the all wheel drive versus two wheel drive.
A
I mean, should I. Should you wait until you can afford a turbo? I don't know. Do you. Would. Would you rather have a turbo? I mean, if you think you can afford a turbo in six months, then don't get this now. And that. If that's what you want. But like, is that what you want? There are different cars, you know, if it's your first Porsche, you probably don't need a turbo.
B
I think if it's your first one doing 997s and just have the experience, enjoy the two wheel drive. It'll be a little lighter. The steering will be different than the steering.
A
Especially in 997. The. There's a big difference in steering. The newest. The newer the car, the less the front drive matters. The older the car, the more it matters. All right, two more and then we're.
B
These are the last four period.
A
Oh, okay.
B
We could probably just speed Run.
A
All right. I don't know, whatever that thing is at the bottom.
B
What the la.
A
Whatever that car is. Oh, yeah. Find what that is.
B
Okay.
A
Hickory dickory Doc. The rod has windowed my block. And that is. That is very fucking good. Every job has its good days and bad days. What is an example of a great day at work? And what is an example of a shitty day at work in the automotive journalism field? I mean, I just told you about a great day. I got a whole racetrack to myself. And even a day before, like, a great day is a day where you get to drive something good, learn something new, experience something about cars that maybe you've never experienced before or, you know, maybe improve your driving skills. Maybe you nail a slide for camera. Maybe you look like a hero because you did something cool. Those are good days.
B
Yeah, cars were. And the car works.
A
Car works.
B
No one gets hurt. Nothing bad happens. All that stuff.
A
That's a great day. A bad day is. It could be a day where you're not doing anything related to cars. You're, like, just sitting at home editing for 10 hours, or you're selling ads or doing emails. Or a day where you have an insane transit to get somewhere, and then when you get there, you get like six laps of a track and then you fucking fly, you know, 30 hours each way to go somewhere. Like, you know, it's, it's. It's nice to say you went to Spain. It's nice to say you drove X Car, but if it was really, it could have been any hotel, it could have been any racetrack anywhere. You didn't. You weren't in Spain. You were just somewhere with a racetrack and it took you forever to get there. You didn't get paid for that. Forever to get back. And, oh, by the way, the car is not that interesting to the general masses. And so you make a video that makes no money. So a bad day at work isn't the worst. A bad day at work means you crash the car. That's the worst day at work. Or you get home hurt. Second to that, a bad day at work is you put in a huge amount of time for something that doesn't return any money. And also where the experience wasn't very good. We've done plenty of gigs that made no money, but they were super fun or super unique or something happened that made it awesome and you went, I don't give a shit if I made money or not. That was sick. Going to Morocco to drive the Dakar in the Sahara desert. Probably made some money. Think so don't care. Doesn't matter.
B
King of Hammers had a great time. Video didn't do great.
A
Great time, no money. That. That's one of those. But long way bad time. Not a car that's not interesting enough to draw attention followed by no money. There's your trifecta of shitty day at work. Yeah. Because you've just spent a huge amount of time somewhere, not home for something that just, you know, it's not. It's not your fault. You did the same thing. Like, you did the job. But, like, sorry, people don't give a shit about the car and therefore you don't get to make money today. All right, last two. And then I get to have ad reads. Woohoo. Three. Sorry. Jacking off the record says, how do you think Chinese EVs would sell if they were allowed here, assuming they're tariffed like other Chinese goods? That's a math problem. I don't know. I don't know. I. Someone can do the math, I guess. But my understanding of Chinese EVs is that they are fucking shockingly cheap compared to what we get here.
B
And people say that they seem to operate pretty well until there's like some sort of of, you know, big problem, or there's these stories that pop out, like, oh, the brakes don't work on this thing, or the car that was driving around in the parking lot by itself with nobody in it.
A
Right.
B
Stuff like that. But I think at the core of it, if you were able to sell them here and they were a lot cheaper than any of the competition, which is what they are selling for in other countries, they would probably do really well, because ultimately, you know, folks here just want to buy something that works, that costs less than whatever existing option they have.
A
I was talking to someone yesterday in Malibu, someone who works for an oem. I don't want to say who he is, just in case. Who? In case it's a thing, but he was saying that he was kind of jealous. He works for an OEM that is heavily ev and he was jealous. He said basically, all the suppliers, the way that they're networked and it's much more fluid, streamlined, they're not just like locked into Google or Apple or whatever. And so all the UIs and stuff just like, work way better over there. Gin and Taconic State Parkway. Have I wanted to open a car storage place in New York or Westchester? Do I think it would do well? Why or why not? I don't want to open any car storage places anywhere. I Have to fly to. That's not a great way to do business unless you're that kind of person. And granted, you know, my parents live in that area. So if I was going to have to fly somewhere, that's not the worst place I could fly to. It's really far though. And. And people have big houses there.
B
I was gonna say they seem to have more land.
A
People have big houses, big garages. There is a place there now called Collector car Garage. It might actually be a hagerty something now but. But they've been open for probably 20 years maybe. Yeah, 20 years, maybe more. But they do. Well, there's probably room for another one somewhere for sure. But the demand is not really there. I mean if you get into Manhattan, if you could get really, you know, close, close, then you'd have something. But I don't want to do that. And it wouldn't make more money than doing one here. And I don't, I just, I don't care, you know, about having property there. Like it's same as anywhere else. Getting on a plane to go visit retail establishments. Stinks. Don't want to have to do it. Last one. Lucky man to count on both hands. The one I love. The Pearl Jam is coming in. Heavy thoughts on the central seat. 1300 pound 250 horsepower analog automotive ghpk. As a former lease owner, the idea of this is very pleasant. When you start to get this light 1300 pounds I start to get concerned. It seems like there's. That's not enough weight to have car. My Manx is 1500 pounds. So this looks like an Elise, just not an Elise.
B
Is it based on an Elise?
A
Oh, is someone making like a full carbon body Elise a center drive?
B
Yep.
A
Okay, so it looks like someone has made a center drive carbon body to lease. Well that's cool.
B
See if we go to configurator. Oops.
A
So here's. It'll be cool if the steering is good. You know when you, when you move the steering to center seat sometimes it gets a little wonky. I've never driven a car that was converted to center seat. Center steering from left hand drive or right hand drive steering where it didn't change the feel of.
B
Looks like they build Elise copies or something. But maybe the VHPK is a even smaller lighter version of the super sport.
A
No, they're basically taking S1 Elise's. This is a resto mod company. They're taking S1 Elise's and making carbon bodies and shit like that. Yeah, they take, they, they restore and modify elite s1elises is what they're doing. Which, like, cool. Like, I get that. But like, I. 1300 pounds is a little too light for me. I don't need to be quite that light.
B
Just a little heavier than a motorcycle.
A
Yeah, I don't need to be quite that light. I. I bet you it's fun. I bet you it's cool. But it could also be fragile and getting into an Elise is hard enough without the seat being in the fucking middle. If that has a roof on it, I can't get in that. You know, I need to take the top off just to get in it. But okay, I get it. I think they will probably find a few takers, you know. Well, thanks everybody. That's been fun. Appreciate you. We got it. We got. So I'm going out of town on the road and track Seaside to Sierra the 23rd to the 28th. And then we. I go straight to Performance Car of the Year from there and then I go straight to pebble beach where I play around golf with my dad and then come home. So I'm gone 23rd to the 6th. And what I'm saying is we are going to have so much podcasting in between now and the 23rd. We do another show tomorrow. I don't know what the fuck we're talking about. And then on Thursday I have a double header with Moto Man George Notaris at 2pm, followed by Nicole moved from the morning of the afternoon. Now Nicole Johnson is coming in at 4:30. So I got a double header in the afternoon sans Zach. Yeah, that will be awfully interesting. And then we have another show before I leave. Right? Right. Yeah, one more show before.
B
On the weekend.
A
On the weekend or Monday. Yeah. So patrons are going to be getting just punched in the face with podcasts in the next five days, but then it's going to be trickled out to everybody else, you know, over the next two and a half weeks. And that's how we have to do it because I have to travel. So the Mustang story is going to be in the next issue of Road and Track Print, as is my written zinger 21. It's going to be this. There's going to be both in the same issue, so I have to finish both those pieces this week. Yikes. And we'll have a Zinger video soon. But first we'll have a Mustang GTD video Thursday the 17th. All right, see you later. Bye.
Date: September 18, 2025
Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman
Title: Mustang GTD Drive; Czinger Factory of WTF; Q&A
Matt and Zack offer a deep-dive into cutting-edge automobile technology and performance, sharing firsthand experiences from their tour of the Czinger (Zinger) / Divergent 3D factory and a full day of track driving Ford’s latest high-performance Mustangs, including the road-going GTD and GT3 race car. An extended Q&A covers automotive culture, car buying, and more, maintaining the show's relaxed, expert, and candid tone.
[00:43-03:32]
"It's very important that you acknowledge when you're wrong and make a correction." — Matt [01:09]
[03:34-29:15]
Fluid manifolds: 3D-printed structures that can replace multiple hoses with a single, intricate part.
Generative design:
"They have a software where you essentially put in what you need the part to do, and it figures out where metal needs to be and where it doesn’t." — Matt [07:44]
Organic forms: Asymmetrical, honeycomb internal structures, surprising shapes sometimes dictated by mechanical necessity alone.
Military applications: Production includes missile and drone parts—acknowledging a moral gray area in dual-use tech.
"You could say, oh, the tech is being used for good, but like, it's also being used for some bad... I wish I lived in a world that had less missiles, I guess." — Matt [26:14]
"Literally from the atoms to the finished product, it feels and sounds different from anything else out there." — Zack [23:24]
[29:15–76:43]
"Our instructions were full tank of gas, full set of tires. So have fun." — Ford Team, relayed by Matt [31:25]
"If I was joining a racetrack country club, this would be my first race car." — Matt [34:46]
"This car has no bad habits. I mean, it does exactly what you tell it to." — Matt [42:39]
"It’s the best Mustang I’ve ever driven. Sure, by a margin." — Matt [66:33]
[76:43–End]
Topics included:
“It’s very important that you acknowledge when you’re wrong and make a correction.” — Matt [01:09]
“You can take something that used to be 200 parts and turn it into like, four.” — Zack [07:12]
"Literally from the atoms to the finished product, like, you know… it feels and sounds different from anything else out there." — Zack [23:24]
“It’s the best Mustang I’ve ever driven. Sure, by a margin.” — Matt [66:33]
“It’s amazing. Whatever it costs, it costs. Like, it’s a fuck ton.” — Matt [69:42]
“The challenge of racing it wheel to wheel… might be a little further than my desires.” — Matt [50:06]
“It’s hard for me to say this with a straight face because they also make missiles, but you could say the tech is being used for good, but, like, it’s also being used for some bad.” — Matt [26:14, paraphrased]
| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------|----------------| | Correction: BMW R1290s | 00:43–03:32 | | Czinger Factory Tech & Tour | 03:34–29:15 | | Ford Mustang Track Day | 29:15–76:43 | | Notable GT3 Laptime Discussion | 44:34–48:06 | | Mustang GTD Deep-dive | 52:31–76:43 | | Listener Q&A (highlights) | 76:43–end | | Inside Baseball: Road Trip/Track Notes | 61:06–62:45 | | Memorable Mustang Design Chat | 90:31–91:53 | | Watch Care Tips | 92:53–94:19 |
Expert, friendly, and engaged, Matt and Zack blend critical review, technical discussion, and authentic personal impressions. They aren’t afraid to get candid about what works, what doesn’t, and the unexpected consequences (like a racing tech company making both supercars and missiles). The episode is full of both deep geekery on automotive construction and fun, accessible asides that make it approachable for enthusiasts and newcomers alike.
If you missed this episode, you're missing:
Recommended Listening: For fans of performance cars, emerging tech, and garage-culture banter.