Never Build a Whole Car: Autopian's David Tracy and Griffin Riley

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast: "Never Build a Whole Car – Autopian’s David Tracy and Griffin Riley"

Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman
Guests: David Tracy & Griffin Riley (The Autopian)
Date: July 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features an energetic and deeply nerdy conversation with David Tracy and Griffin Riley of The Autopian, an enthusiast-run automotive site. The main thrust: the insanity of building a classic Willys Jeep entirely from individual eBay-sourced parts—plus a dive into DIY automotive apparel, the state of affordable trucks, and the many misadventures and philosophies of project car life. There’s humor, technical insight, and plenty of hot takes on current auto trends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “Stainoflage”: Motor Oil as Fashion, and Other Gearhead Apparel Ideas

[02:32 – 12:02]

• David Tracy introduces "Stainoflage," a shirt designed to hide car stains using a camo pattern inspired by movie theater carpet, so you can work on your car and still look public-ready.
  • “The idea is you wear this... you can work on your car, get stains on it, and you don’t have to throw the shirt out.” – David Tracy [02:37]
• David describes, in visceral detail, the time he literally dyed his clothes using used motor oil for maximum stain-camouflage:
  • “I solved this problem by actually dying my clothes in used motor oil. And it actually... looked good.” – David Tracy [06:37]
• The downsides: carcinogens, ruined washing machines, and a shirt that still “smelled like motor oil” [08:43].
• A tongue-in-cheek suggestion for a companion product: “Stankoflage.” [03:51]
• Memorable quote:
  • “We’re trying to solve a really important problem here.” – David Tracy, deadpan, about using carcinogenic waste as fashion [08:00]
  • “This is the science that we all come here for, isn’t it?” – Matt Farah [10:33]

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2. Meeting Griffin Riley and Autopian Origins

[15:15 – 17:01]

• David tells the unlikely story of meeting Griffin in the basement of his apartment; a car-guy bond over a Jeep Wrangler and Mazda 3 leads to collaboration at The Autopian.
• Griffin’s role in getting spy shots of the Ford “Slate” electric truck – a story in journalistic hustle and oddball car culture.

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3. Electric Truck Weirdness: Ford Slate and Minimalist Trends

[17:04 – 24:42]

• David and Griffin describe the ultra-basic electric “Slate” truck: all steel, barebones, crank windows, no radio, and modular in a very old-school way.
  • “It’s such a weird thing... Their engineers are not trying to convince you that this is the greatest, most advanced car ever. Actually, it’s kind of the opposite.” – David Tracy [17:05]
  • “If it were a boring car with no features, 25 grand would be outrageous. But it’s a truck. It’s got a cool factor to it.” – David Tracy [21:23]
• Debate: Is the Slate for fleet buyers, hip neighborhoods, or just as a golf-cart alternative for the wealthy? – “You may find it accidentally replaces neighborhood electric vehicles.” – Matt Farah [28:47]
• Commentary on “shrinkflation packaged as modularity,” i.e., the trend of automakers offering ‘less’ as a feature [23:38].

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4. The (Im-)Practicality of Affordable Trucks: Gas vs. Electric

[29:16 – 32:49]

• David’s hot take: If the Slate were a $17k gas truck (with a small engine and a manual), it would be the true people’s truck, not the $25k EV.
  • “That would be incredible.” – David Tracy [29:47]
  • “The cheap gas truck being the move.” – Matt Farah [29:47]
• Comparison to used Tacomas, and speculation on whether cheaper, smaller trucks have a future in the US.

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5. Automotive Startups, Real and Vaporware

[32:49 – 35:12]

• Discussion of “Rio” – another purported cheap truck startup that may be little more than a website, and the general skepticism about startups with big promises and little history.
  • “Reservations open before revealed. I cannot recommend anybody spend their money on this.” – David Tracy [32:59-33:01]
• The fun anecdote about the self-driving van company "Zoox" changing their name from “vaporware horseshit” (as called by Autopian co-founder Jason Torchinsky) to “VH.”
  • “That’s why they’re called that. It’s because Jason called it vaporware horseshit in the blog.” – David Tracy [34:09]

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6. Wacky Autopian Adventures: Track Day Mayhem

[35:12 – 37:09]

• Recap of an Autopian track day at Lime Rock featuring a Citroen 2CV driven with a grandfather clock in back (a nod to a classic ad), a Grumman diesel van, and even a reader who showed up in a cement mixer.
  • “A cement truck actually showed up… they weren’t sure if the cement truck was gonna do laps.” – David Tracy [36:14]

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7. “Don’t Ever Build a Whole Car”: The Willys Jeep eBay Project

[40:30 – 71:49]

The Genesis & The Build

• David Tracy details the Herculean task of building a “new” WWII Willys Jeep from nothing but eBay-sourced and reproduction parts, plus used key components.
  • “The problem was building a car from scratch is horrible. You really have nothing to go on.” – David Tracy [41:00]
• The naive pitch becomes a logistical (and marital) nightmare: hundreds of parts from all over the world, body from the Philippines, engine from France, organizing “a mountain of boxes” in his driveway [43:44–44:57].
• The myth-busting: Putting together a “kit” like this is NOT like Lego—it’s hundreds of fitment and tolerance problems, requiring grinding, drilling, welding, and improvising.
  • “You have to fabricate half this stuff.” – David Tracy [47:29]

The Shakedown: 900 Miles Without Sleep

• The Jeep is finished only hours before their 900-mile shakedown road trip to Moab, Utah.
• The build includes both brand-new and “new old stock” parts, some scavenged/fabricated [46:07–46:34].
• The test drive is grueling: 40 mph cruising speeds, 6-volt electrics, and constant vapor lock.
  • “The top speed was 40. We were doing this at 40 miles an hour... you don’t want to go more than that.” – David Tracy [51:33]
  • “I wore the same thing for four days. I never changed. Just the coverall.” – David Tracy [63:42]

Off-Road Epiphany

• The “new” Willys is a revelation off-road—still impressive compared to modern vehicles, with primitive but rugged design.
  • “It became clear why it became the blueprint. It’s unfair.” – David Tracy [50:57]
• The challenge of period-correct builds: David insists on using even a 6v electrical system for historic accuracy, although upgrades (like 12v) would be pragmatic.
• The cost? “Probably double as much as if you had actually bought one already restored.” – David Tracy [55:52]. Estimated close to $50,000, not counting labor.

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8. Q&A: Iconic Badges (and Villains), Automotive Marriages, & More

[74:43 – End]

• Lightning round questions from Patreon supporters.
  • The decline of cool automotive badges, and whether brands are losing distinctiveness [79:44 – 81:44].
  • The ever-present issue of spouse-imposed project car limits:
    • “Three years ago I had like 14 cars... I don’t want to have that many cars [anymore].” – David Tracy [77:53]
  • Who are the “villains” of car history? A dark-humor riff—“Stalins and Pol Pots of the car world”—leads to an honest note on the complexity of auto history (citing Henry Ford, VW's Nazi origins) [85:04].
  • The “Murano Cross Cabriolet” and other overlooked oddball cars [86:49–87:58].
  • The future of Porsche hypercars and the pragmatic brilliance of the LC500/LC500h [88:54–98:40].
  • Other highlights: the Prowler/Prangler, custom license plates, the economics of resto-modding and the “supply chain” sticker-wrapped Jeep.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Willys Jeep project:
  • “It was a dad in the driveway... It was supposed to be more power to the normal dude.” – David Tracy [59:09]
• On David dyeing his clothes with oil:
  • “Let’s look at the results, not worry about the carcinogens.” – David Tracy [08:06]
• On the “Slate” truck’s barebones design:
  • “Shrinkflation being cleverly marketed as modularity: See how you can make it your own—by, you know, giving you nothing.” – Zack Klapman [23:38]
• On DIY car building:
  • “Never build a whole car. It’s a nightmare.” – David Tracy [71:49]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Stainoflage & Motor Oil Dyeing: 02:32 – 12:02
• Meeting Griffin & Spy Shots: 15:15 – 17:01
• All About the Slate Truck: 17:04 – 24:42
• Affordable Truck Debate: 29:16 – 32:49
• Jeep Build Project: 40:30 – 71:49
• Q&A / Audience Questions: 74:43 – End

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Episode Tone & Style

Lots of self-deprecating humor; enthusiastic but realistic about the pain of project car builds; nerdy detail on everything from mechanical assembly to fashion for car guys. Language is casual, peppered with in-jokes, banter, and profanity. The guests are warmly ribbed and given space to “nerd out.”

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Final Thoughts

This is quintessential “Smoking Tire”: projects that border on car-masochism, friendly debates over market trends and badge culture, and a deep, personal love for all things automotive—no matter how impractical. If you want to hear why building a Willys Jeep from eBay is rewarding, ruinous, and insane—all at once—or just hang out with some of the car world’s most affable DIY weirdos, don’t miss this episode.

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Related Links:

• Watch the Willys build video: [Available July 4th, 2026, Autopian YouTube]
• Full article: [Autopian.com]

End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

What up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Matt Farah here. And our show today is sponsored by off the Record. We love off the Record because they're looking out for me like they're looking out for you. If you get a ticket behind the wheel of your vehicle, could be a big ticket, could be a small ticket. Doesn't matter. You don't want to plead guilty to that ticket. You want to get in touch with off the [e-mail] TST off the record, we'll send a qualified attorney to represent for a very reasonable amount of money. And these guys have an unbelievably good track record. Off the Record will fight that ticket as far as they can to keep those points off your record, potentially saving you lots of money and insurance or potentially saving your employment situation. You don't want points on your record. It's bad scene. Okay, so go to offtherecord.com TST use that link for 10% off all services rendered from off the Record and tell them we sent you, and then tell me how it went. I like when you guys send me emails that say they got dismissed. It's awesome. You get that text message. It's great when it shows up fully dismissed. Offtherecord.com TST. All right, kids, on this show, we've got David Tracy and Griffin Reilly from the Autopian in studio. David Tracy is a complete lunatic. Griffin's the new guy. David Tracy spends 20 minutes telling us about dyeing his shirt with used motor oil, which is a crazy thing. That actually looks better than I thought. He then built a Jeep using only parts from ebay. From nothing, which is one of the crazier stories I've ever heard. And they drove it 900 miles to Moab. And also they lapped Citroen 2cv around Lime Rock with a grandfather clock in the back. So typical autopian stuff from these two. And we'll welcome them to the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. Do you like the hoodie blazer that Zach and I designed?

[B]

Is that what you guys designed that?

[A]

Yeah, his is outside. We're gonna be selling these Collab.

[C]

Yeah, that's hot.

[A]

So you got the blazer parts removable or the hoodie parts removable. And you can use it just as a regular blazer. So Zach's is called the Monterey, and this is called the Woodward. And so we're gonna have it available in time.

[D]

That's right.

[B]

No, no. It's really dope. I was wondering what that was.

[A]

Buttons Are very. The buttons are amazing.

[B]

So we actually.

[A]

We did all of it.

[B]

We actually designed some clothing ourselves.

[A]

Did you like that hat? The hat you're wearing?

[B]

This hat. The Yawn patrol.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, this.

[A]

I have one of those.

[B]

This hat doesn't compare to what we. We designed. We designed a shirt. It's called Stainoflage. And the idea is you wear this. We actually got the shirt off of a movie theater carpet so that you can work on your car, get stains on it, and you don't have to throw the shirt out. You can just wear it. You can wear it out. People don't know you've got freaking ATF and 15W40 on them.

[A]

I really like this.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Are there mics? The right distance? Are we good on audio? All right, don't, don't, don't. Don't lean too far back, you know, You're a professional, Tracy.

[B]

Yeah, you're right.

[A]

I'm just saying act like a broadcaster for once. No, no, don't never act like a broadcaster.

[B]

You're right.

[A]

Stain.

[D]

Bottom of the seventh inning.

[A]

Do you have working prototypes?

[B]

Yes, we do. We'll send you one. Have you actually tried in the field? No, we just got them in.

[A]

Okay.

[D]

All right.

[B]

But I'm gonna try them out.

[A]

Are they at Gas?

[B]

Yeah, they're at gas.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

After watching your video and also working on cars like myself a little bit. Yeah. You need that shirt.

[C]

He desperately needs that shirt.

[A]

You're marketing exclusively to Land Rover Willys owners, and I think a stain of

[B]

flash is going to catch up.

[D]

Does it hide the smell?

[A]

No, that's. See, now. Now you need a special, but I

[B]

think it's easier to hide the smell, though. You could.

[D]

Easier?

[B]

It's easier to hide the smell.

[A]

All right, how about Stainoflage and Stankoflage? Stankoflage is the companion.

[B]

That's a good idea.

[C]

Yeah, I think that's what it is. We need to get in touch with Axe Body Spray, the Ax Topian, or something like that.

[B]

That's not bad.

[A]

We're fucking do it.

[D]

Let's do it.

[C]

Yeah, we can figure this out. We can get this.

[A]

By the way, the Acquired was the name of that podcast, Zach, about business that I was talking about last show. Some. I got like 10 DMS about that.

[D]

Right.

[A]

The Acquired podcast. Fucking get at me. We got ideas circling around. Welcome, guys.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

That's a good place.

[C]

Thanks for having us.

[A]

Stainoflage.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, it's rolling. It's the next big thing. You're talking about this incredible blazer you're wearing. It's part blazer, part hoodie.

[A]

What if the next one we did was like a true working man's blazer that you would wear?

[C]

Now, is the hoodie portion stain oflage or is the jacket stain oflage?

[A]

No, see, here's the thing. Here's the thing. If the hood is. Looks like camo, that's trashy.

[C]

Sure. Right?

[A]

Yeah. A camo hoodie inside of a blazer is trashy.

[C]

Yeah. No, we aren't.

[A]

This type hoodie inside of a camo blazer is also trashy. Something Pharrell would wear.

[D]

Yeah, that's actually Right. That's true.

[A]

You put if you had a camo blazer hoodie inside of it and it said Victor Abloh on it. You know, $20,000.

[D]

He would. He would rock it. But so would like the executive board of black rifle coffee.

[C]

That Venn diagram suddenly becomes.

[D]

There's a lot of Venn diagram between.

[B]

You know, it doesn't look quite like camouflage. It looks more like a movie theater carpet, which I don't think is better.

[A]

I thought you were going to say it looks more like a stained mechanics overalls, but I'm trying to picture it as a movie theater carpet, and I'm kind of struggling.

[D]

Well, like a casino carpet similar to casino.

[A]

Casino carpet. So it's like a crazy.

[B]

It's just a crazy wild.

[A]

But it's the right colors on a dirty mechanic. And also Bo Bachman's everyday wardrobe is what you're trying to say.

[B]

Look at that.

[A]

You wait. Which one?

[B]

I think both necessarily this flashy. Which.

[A]

Does one of these patterns generally resemble what we're talking about?

[B]

Not really.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

I mean, I would say that the one that's like five over the kind of. That is similar, but that is.

[A]

That looks like. That's like a Criss Angel's necktie.

[D]

That's a very 90s necktie. That's bar mitzvah necktie for me.

[B]

I think it's genius. How many shirts have you wasted? You got an oil on it.

[A]

This solves the problem. It's been cooking oil normally. Normally cooking oil for me shirt while I'm making dinner, and that's that.

[D]

I'm throw a curve ball at you, though. David, not to I like your idea, but I'm just saying. Have you tried wearing a black T shirt?

[B]

No, but I actually. Back when I was my first year of July, my first year as a car journalist, I solved this problem by actually dying my clothes in used motor oil. And it actually.

[D]

No way.

[B]

Oh, yeah. So the idea was you could hide the stains if you just dyed it. And it worked. So I had a shirt that basically it was dyed motor oil. I had pants. Even my shoes. Leather shoes. Dyed and used motor oil.

[A]

Are you fucking.

[B]

And it looked good. It's out there somewhere on the Internet.

[A]

What do you have to then do to the shirt to get the actual oil out of it? You're just wearing motor oil in your skin, baked in.

[B]

Have you ever seen those, like, Texas dirt shirts where, like, they dye a white shirt in, like, the Red river or whatever? It's the same concept, except used motor oil. There it is.

[C]

Look at that.

[D]

I mean, did it fade?

[B]

Just look at the results. Okay, those are orange pants. Just starting with.

[A]

I guess, like I.

[C]

Look at that.

[B]

Look how good that looks. That's dyed with motor oil.

[A]

What color did those shoes start?

[B]

They were much lighter. Look at that. You can see how they started down sort of a. But they had some oil stains on. And I hid them.

[A]

Okay, so like in a pair of lead shoes. I can understand the concept.

[B]

Look at that. Before and after. Come on. Speaks for itself.

[A]

I admit. You improved the shoes.

[B]

So I wore a dress shirt to

[A]

work on a car. This is fucking nuts. Oh, my God. This is you truly soaking and wringing out.

[B]

We're trying to solve a really important problem here.

[D]

I think you're causing another problem, which is a carcinogenic problem.

[B]

Let's look at the results, not worry about.

[A]

Have you been tested for skin cancer? This is nuts. Wait, wait, go back. Let's see the shirt.

[B]

Wait, is that before.

[A]

Right. Unusable. Okay.

[B]

Unusable shirt.

[A]

I agree. This is unusable. You're dressed this shirt.

[B]

I can't believe, by the way, you got this.

[A]

What happened?

[B]

Can you tell me the story?

[C]

Come on.

[A]

I.

[C]

Wait.

[B]

That's the shirt. We have resolved the problem.

[A]

Wow.

[D]

It's like people listening. It's like a dark salmon.

[C]

Yeah, that is a salmon color.

[A]

Listen, I. Color wise, I actually think you did save the shirt. I mean, I think it looks.

[B]

You have to wear something under it. And by something, I mean like a tarp. Like a. Oh, God, like a rain jacket underneath it.

[D]

Or did it smell like motor oil?

[B]

Actually, yo, it does. And I put it through my wash. My. My washing machine and dryer, which ruined it forever.

[C]

Obviously.

[B]

Every piece of clothes that went through there.

[D]

But that barrel never squeaked again.

[B]

No, that's true. That is true. I was young when I did this.

[A]

Smart and dollar Foolish Sam's assured killer cost me a 1,200 dire top load fucking dryer.

[D]

This is a very funny idea.

[B]

I actually wore this outfit to a Gawker Christmas party back way back in the day.

[D]

No one would stand next to you.

[B]

It was looking fresh. The issue was fire department followed you around.

[A]

Used motor oil was like. It was like a sex panther.

[C]

It was an aphrodisiac.

[A]

Was all over me.

[B]

The problem was it was raining that night, Stacy.

[D]

Exxon got so turned off as I

[B]

walked down the sidewalk. I was leaving like rainbow puzzles. Honestly, this might be one of the dumbest things, but I was young.

[D]

Did the rain roll off your shirt like a duck?

[B]

Yeah, he was very hydropho. It was incredible.

[D]

This is crazy.

[B]

Anyway, stainless. The point is stainless is a better solution. Yeah, I know, I know you were thinking you would go this route, Matt, but you don't have to now we got stain of flash. You just wear that shirt.

[A]

I'm really impressed, actually at the fitted. The finished color speaks for itself. Dude. I just spent a lot of money on a shirt that looks exactly.

[C]

And you just needed motor oil. That's all you needed.

[B]

You're going to live longer than I

[A]

like tie dyed with motor oil.

[C]

It seems like the results are there. You just have to be delusional to get right. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, look some, you know, what do they say? You know, looking good is beauty is pain. Right? You want to wear this color, you're going to need to become the creature from the black.

[D]

You also just wrote the ad for the new thing because you're just like, are you tired of dying motor oil

[B]

to hide the stains from your skin checkups? You don't have to do that anymore.

[A]

This is the science that we all. This is the science that we all come here for, isn't it? That's true. Unbelievable. I bet this post got an unbelievable.

[B]

How old is this? This is probably from like 2015. This is when I just started. I just. By the way, I just left my job as an engineer, okay? Someone who is supposed to be not an idiot. And one of the first stories was this. And all my engineer friends at Chrysler were like, what happened to you? Like, you were designing a cooling system for a car.

[D]

I think they got to know you. That's what happened.

[A]

Came out on my birthday, December 1st.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

That is amazing. And dude, someone's got to figure out. All you got to do is figure out. Someone's got to figure out how to. How to remove the actual oil from the. Because, well, if you removed the oil, would you then Remove the color is. The color is just the oil soaking.

[D]

If only there was something we could dye clothes with that, like could change

[B]

it or what you could do is you could replicate the exact color of the oil. That's the move.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

It's oil inspired.

[D]

What oil did you use? Because the shirt, I was expecting the shirt to be like dark gray.

[B]

Oh, you see the engine right there? I just hydrolocked that Jeep engine while off roading.

[D]

This is used oil.

[B]

Drained the oil. Absolutely used oil. Which is the worst oil, by the way. New oil is not really that bad for you.

[A]

No, it's probably not.

[C]

It's not.

[B]

You can actually drink. Don't do it. But I went through all the do not do that material safety data. I wrote an article about this. Oh, all the automotive fluids and their relative dangers. I went through all the safety sheets. New motor oil is not that bad. Used motor oil is bad. I wouldn't do it.

[A]

Stay away from this carbon. I had a conversation once, a three way conversation with Bozie and Carl Ruiz. Guys, gotta take a break from this show for fitbod Lovin fitbod. Why Variety. Repetitive workouts are the fastest way to fall off your exercise game. Especially during the summer when you just wanna kick back. And I know it. I plateau and fall off, but I just default to cardio every day. I need my TR trainer changing up those workouts constantly. That way I'm always doing new muscle groups. I'm always confusing my muscles. It's good to confuse your muscles. Make some strong. But Fitbot is here to keep you locked in by making every season a new challenge. Taking that mental load away from planning the right exercises at the right intensity so you can stay focused on your gains. And it's much, much more affordable than an actual trainer at your house. I mean, I have such PO motivation and I also have a lot of physical therapy needs, so I do spend a lot of time with my trainer. But using fitbod is as close as you can get to a real trainer. It's like having a trainer in your pocket. It customizes workouts based on your goals and that could be targeting specific muscle group, weight loss, recovery. The app can help you stay focused and get a better workout. Right? The intensity goes up and up and up as you go. And with all of the videos, the 1,000 demonstration videos that show you how to do each workout, you know your form is going to be great, right? Over the last three years, I've worked on my strength, my endurance, and it's all gotten better. And this could be you too, with fitbod. Right? It creates a personalized workout routine based on your goals, workouts that adapt to your growth so it remains challenging enough to push you to make progress. Fitbod tracks your muscle recovery so you can avoid burnout and keep up that momentum. Fitbot is fine tuned by experienced certified personal trainers. So you've got best practices and exercise science built right in. And you can level up your workouts with those customized fitness plans that work for you with over 1000 demonstration videos. So this summer, push your progress and see what you're really capable of. Join Fitbod today. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app for free for seven days at fitbod Metire. That's F I T B O D. Metire. Fitbod Metire. Me, Bozie and Carl Ruiz. Imagine it was basically me watching Bozie and Carl Wiese. Carl's my dear departed chef friend. He died a few years ago and he knew a ton about food science. And Bozie knows a lot about chemicals and shit too. And they were talking about just how close motor oil and that synthetic truffle oil shit that restaurants put on everything like that. You get it? Like a Chili's.

[B]

Is it legitimately close?

[A]

It's extremely close.

[C]

That's crazy. And I paid 5. All the $5 extra for the fries, right? That's crazy. Yes.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Just for motor oil.

[A]

Like very, very close.

[C]

That's wild.

[B]

Yeah. By the way, I would like to introduce Griffin, whom I met.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

In the basement of my apartment building.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

This is how we got to know each other.

[A]

What were you doing in the. No.

[D]

Well, isn't it like dying? His clothes and fucking moto.

[C]

That's what it was.

[A]

Lest you think I. I snubbed you, there was an intro that I record after this show, which I will introduce you. Dive in live.

[C]

No worries.

[B]

I like it that way.

[A]

Yeah. It's better vibe that way than you be sitting here going in. Welcome.

[B]

Let's stop and do this.

[A]

So. Yeah. I wasn't snubbing you on an intro. No, it's dive in culture on this show.

[B]

I like it that way. I just want to mention you can find talent everywhere. We were in the basement.

[A]

In any basement too.

[B]

Well, it was a part.

[C]

It's typically basement. Yeah.

[B]

We actually have a basement. Only recruiting utop. Griffin actually, he had a Jeep Wrangler and so naturally. And a six speed Mazda 3.

[C]

Yeah. Mazda 3 hatch.

[B]

And we just talked and then.

[A]

That's a good basis on which to start. A friendship.

[B]

100% professional. Yeah, exactly. And then we just started working together. And now we recently shot. Oh, look at that electric Ford truck. Griffin shot the very first spy shots of the new Ford Electric. What do you call it? The universal.

[A]

Because you stalked it or because you just happened to catch.

[B]

We got a tip.

[A]

Yeah, we got hot tip.

[B]

Hot tip.

[A]

Where did the hot tip.

[B]

Nobody knows where the tip came from. But I'll tell you, we don't realize. That's right, we don't.

[A]

But certainly, certainly not from the biggest Ford dealer in the. Nevermind.

[B]

Actually had nothing to do with BO for the record. But Griffin and I, we've been running around doing small EV truck stuff.

[C]

We've been busy. 100%. Yeah. So we went down to Long beach for that, took these spy photos and wrote a couple of articles about it. And then was it the next week we were with Slate.

[B]

Driving the Slate. Yeah, we got to drive it. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's real, huh?

[B]

It's. I mean, it's. Yeah, it's real. It's weird though. It's such a weird thing. Like, the Slate thing is strange. It's unlike any company I've ever met, ever. They, you go into their. Their headquarters and their engineers are not trying to convince you that they're like the sharp. Like the. This is the greatest, you know, most advanced car ever. Actually, it's kind of the opposite. They're like, look, it's made out of steel. The body's made out of like 250 parts. We could have. We could have made it out of a lot fewer and it maybe would have been more efficient. But like, it's simple, it's cheap. We're getting it out soon. And you know, they were not like. Like you go to any. I just go to a Rivian.

[A]

This is truck.

[B]

Pretty much exactly.

[A]

It is truck.

[B]

It really. It was so strange because I just gone to a Rivian thing and they're like talking about how they consolidate all these electronics. They got all this cast structure in their body. The slate thing was like, listen, this is very conventional. It's steel. Like, don't look for any like fancy materials anywhere. We just built this like a car like, like we've been doing for like 50 years.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it was very different in that way. Crank windows. It's very.

[A]

Is it kind of just like a Honda element that's electric? That's how I feel about it. It's just El Camino to Honda element.

[C]

Sure.

[A]

You would effectively have this. Right?

[B]

But it's even weirder an element at least comes with a radio. It comes with.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, this is. This is radio. Really didn't.

[A]

No. Needs a radio.

[B]

Ma.

[A]

No, sorry. I watched and dumber on the last flight.

[B]

Oh, okay. I don't get any.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You have no pop culture joke on our site is that I don't get any pop culture references because I agree.

[A]

Have you not seen Dumb and Dumber?

[B]

That's. I think I've seen that one.

[A]

Habibi, we're gonna have to solve this problem. Like there's not knowing pop culture and then there's. I've never seen dumb and dumb.

[C]

I probably not knowing the pillars of civilization.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. That's fair. That's fair.

[D]

Executive branch, legislative branch, judicial. And dumb and dumber.

[C]

And dumb and dumber. Exactly.

[B]

That's the fourth estate.

[A]

How low rent is it to sit in? Like are the seats like compared to a Nissan Versa. How are the seats?

[B]

The seats are cloth and they have zippers and you can zip them off.

[D]

Huh.

[B]

So like to replace them with a different cover if you wanted to.

[D]

Are they shaped for humans?

[B]

Like they feel comfortable enough. But I only drove it a few blocks.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

It's got a very weird suspension. It's a didion tube, solid axle. It's very bizarre.

[A]

I haven't heard didion used in any fucking thing since like a Jaguar XK or something.

[D]

Since I drove that Alpha like off roading.

[B]

They're engineers. They were like. We were actually considering drum brakes on this car. We were considering leaf springs.

[A]

I think most people ditch drum brakes because they became more expensive than disc brakes. Isn't it just cheaper to make a disc brakes?

[B]

It's hard to get them now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

And more expensive to service and all kinds of shit.

[B]

They looked at. They looked at everything like stuff that you would never really. A leaf sprung solid axle. That's what was so weird about it.

[A]

It was considered, you know, wooden wheels.

[D]

Pretty much.

[A]

Pretty much. We were looking at Easygo for inspiration.

[B]

But here's the thing about the slate. Everyone is freaking talking about it. This is a company that has really only been in, you know, around for a year in the public conscious. And everyone's talking about it because it's so strange. It's a bizarre machine.

[A]

Talking about it and buying it.

[D]

I know, I know one person that ordered one. Marco did.

[A]

Marco Degrassi ordered.

[D]

So Marco, you know, Marco runs a Porsche restoration shop and he's like, this is right now. His part running around town is done by a pathfinder. That's like 230,000 miles on it.

[A]

Do not ever insult the Infiniti QX4 like that. Oh, that is no Pathfinder, my friend.

[D]

I think he called it Pathfinder.

[A]

That is an Infinity.

[B]

That's cool.

[A]

Qx.

[D]

I don't think I've seen it either way for someone. The question like I have with this thing is it seems like it makes sense for a lot of industry like that. Parts running, you know, pool clean, like, you know, local gardener type stuff, you know, is it aimed also at consumers who would buy this instead of a Maverick for like a runabout pickup? Or is it really just focused on you make it what you want for your job.

[B]

Here's the weird thing about it. It's 25 grand plus destination charge. Okay? For a truck that has crank windows, cloth seats, no radio, no paint. I mean, the actual numbers, the more you look into it, don't make sense. But people are buying kind of that sort of clever modularity of it. So it's, It's. If it were just. If it were a boring car with no features, 25 grand would be outrageous. But it's a truck. It's got a cool factor to it. I don't know. I don't know if anyone's actually going to plunk down the money to buy

[A]

it versus like 25 grand gets you a fucking maverick with 12,000 miles on it.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And it's. And in America, being like, being smaller than a certain size makes like no dip. You know what I mean? It's like diminishing returns. Like, if you like, it's one thing to be in like Europe and if you have a tiny little car, you can actually squeeze it into little places. But like, in America, like, there's a standard size parking space or as long as you're within that basic footprint, getting smaller doesn't really make a difference. So, I mean, cheap is a new cheap thing is like, generally good.

[B]

I like a new cheap thing.

[A]

A new cheap thing.

[B]

But here's the weird thing, though. We have found that, like, people do have like a minimum here, especially in the States. Like, crank windows are gone for a reason. Like, people don't want them really. And like, people at this point are wanting. Everybody wants AC in their car, I think.

[A]

I think everybody wants to have ac.

[B]

Well, this one does.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

I'm just setting the basis for, like, we all have, like, minimum standards. And I think in the US it's a little bit higher than crank windows. It's a little bit higher than like, no radio. I think It's a little bit higher than no paint. I, I don't know. I don't know if people are actually gonna buy it.

[A]

It has, does it have speakers? Does it have a Bluetooth speakers?

[C]

No. Yeah. So what it is is it either has like a, a place for you to mount your Bluetooth speaker or you can pay. I think it was like a holder for your. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Basically just like, like two claws that just hook it in right there. Yeah. Or you can pay. I think it was like 250. Yeah, it wasn't that expensive for a center unit. And then you could have two additional speakers on basically right where the doors are for both. Yeah. For 150. Something like that.

[D]

Shrinkflation being cleverly marketed to us as like modularity. See how you make it your own by, you know, giving you nothing.

[C]

Yeah, by doing it yourself. I mean, I was talking to David about it.

[D]

Because you can't afford to buy it.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

Yeah. Ikea homes. But no, like talking to David while we were there thinking about the Ford EV truck. I mean, in theory these are like a similar market because they're both around that 30 grand. Ish. 25 versus 30. And then it's 200 miles of range versus like 300 miles of range. Targeted. There's so many things that make them on the surface similar. But I feel like, because Ford is Ford, like I just feel like Ford is gonna be forced to make this a nicer thing than what Slate could ever be. And as a result, I think that unless you're somebody who really cares about the quality of your truck and the legacy of the brand, like if I was to buy one, I would buy the Slate all day because I'm not doing active truck things all the time. I like the idea of a small truck, let alone an EV truck. But I want the cool, cute one as opposed to like the legacy automaker.

[B]

But I'd buy the Ford because I need four doors and everyone needs four.

[C]

Yeah. And you have a family. But I don't.

[B]

Two doors don't sell at all. I mean, look at the, like when the Wrangler four door came out and it, the two doors just became irrelevant.

[A]

Like it, it did really wreck the two door.

[B]

Completely wrecked it.

[A]

Yeah, I like the idea of the two doors much more like. But I probably wouldn't actually buy one. I know, I, I, I think that my problem with think something like this guys taking one more break because our friends at Avance are back in the house. You guys love Avance. Actually, I got a Few emails about this when they advertised with us last time. Avance is an organization that helps enthusiasts save money and and enjoy their passion more right now. How do they do that? They get sweet discounts on stuff you would buy anyway. You get a bunch of events that Avance put on all over the country that you get exclusive access to and you get a nice quarterly print magazine, one that has featured me more than one time. I just got the new Avantz. It's got the Carrera GT on the COVID It's quite sweet. The photography is excellent. So we've known Adam and Avance for a very long time. They're great people. We've been to their parties all over the west coast.

[D]

Get this.

[A]

They're helping you save money on things you buy anyway. For instance, tires. Avants members get 10% off at Discount Tire plus an additional 10% off when you buy Michelin and BFGoodrich. So if you spent 1500 bucks on a new set of Michelin Pilot Sports, you save $300 just by being an Avants member. Now it's only $99 a year to join and they send you a $70 gift card to Griot's Garage when you sign up. So if you get a set of and you detail your car like once, you're basically you've more than paid for itself if you do those things once in a year. And TST fans, even better. 10% off. Right. Go to avance.com TST and sign up today. Avants A V A N T S.com TST I mean for real, they send you this gift card, it's $99 a year and you would save $300

[B]

on

[A]

a average plus set of tires for your car. Could easily eclipse $1,500 if you've got a sports car. So this is like a no brainer. Avance.comtst we love them. Get over there, get that discount. And thank you to Avance for thinking of us at the smoking tire for your advertising needs.

[B]

Back to the show.

[A]

It solves the wrong problem. We kind of tend to find out when we do the math on like inflation and shit that like at the entry level like for a Maverick or like if people think there needs to be a smaller truck than a Maverick. Okay if there's math for that. But the super decontented cheap truck, we keep finding that like Maverick say or like we talk about the Miata a lot just because the math works out like those are actually like from inflation like it's the same as they were Charging many years ago. It's not that. It's actually just the wages are not keeping up and not that the. So it's so making a super cheap truck versus not and then not solving like the wage problem. Solving the wrong thing.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

That's fair. I mean the thing, the thing I like about the slate is that it's weird and fun.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

I mean I got to drive it and it felt quick and it was weird and fun and honestly I can't hate that. I really can't. It'll be a tough sell as a two door truck, but I don't.

[A]

I like it as like I mean as a Marco wants a fucking parts truck. I totally get that for you know, it can live at his business. It can be charged.

[B]

You know, look at this. This is how you can outfit it. You can turn it into an SUV. It's five grand to turn into SUV. So now it's 30 grand.

[A]

We're gonna see him in Nantucket. That's a Nantucket car.

[B]

Do you think this is actually going to be a rich person's car in

[A]

the end as a novelty for 18 months.

[C]

Have you ever been to Coronado Island? Yeah, Coronado's just covered in golf carts. Like I think that it'll be replaced.

[A]

It may, you may find it. You may find it accidentally replaces neighborhood electric vehicles. Be actually it would still be a good market.

[B]

It would be a detriment and the environment. But I think it would look cool.

[C]

It would look pretty sick. And I mean realistically nobody's going to be doing like nobody's actively going to be wrapping their stuff all day the way they talk about. But even then again thinking if this was me, I still love the base stripped down truck.

[B]

Sure.

[C]

So and I think that there's probably a not insignificant amount of people would feel that same way.

[B]

When this came out, I wrote a take on the Autopian and it was controversial because this is an EV truck. My take was if this were a gas truck then it would be more of a people's truck. If this were a $17,000 gas truck instead of $25,000 electric truck with crank width 17 grand. I'm going to a dealership buying a truck for 17 grand and I have no range anxiety. I've got a little 1.6 in it. Naturally aspirated, five speed or okay, give me a four speed auto, whatever if it's cheap enough. That would be incredible.

[A]

Yeah, I think you're probably right. The person who's looking for a very affordable truck maybe doesn't have somewhere at home to charge. Maybe lives in an apartment. And if they're working hard, their time is pretty valuable and they may not want to worry about public charging. I could see the need the cheap gas truck being the move.

[C]

Well, does that also go back to how you just believe in E Revs all day?

[B]

I'm an E Rev guy.

[A]

The irony is, if it was gas, its biggest comps would be like a 2001 Tacoma.

[B]

250.

[A]

We'd be getting fucking questions on the podcast like, should I get a new slate? Or a 36 year old taco.

[B]

Oh, that'd be a great question.

[A]

That would be a pretty tough question.

[C]

I think when the slate comes out, we need to get our hands on both of those and just do like a breakdown of them.

[B]

Have you guys heard of this company Rio? Out of its. I don't know if it's a real company.

[D]

Someone asked us yesterday and the answer, we have not heard of it.

[A]

So explain.

[B]

Well, I have barely heard of it.

[A]

Really?

[B]

This gentleman on X. Oh, is it Rio or reo?

[A]

Because REO Speedwagon, like the band. That's an actual car. There's a car called an REO Speedwag.

[B]

Yeah, this is like a Oldsmobile. I think this is kind of like a reference to the Rio Runabout or something. But anyway.

[A]

No, dude, REO was a real car brand that was so obscure and dorky, even the fucking dorkiest car person I know has never heard of of it. That's how dork. They're trying to show me that. It's like a scout or something. Zach, can we get an OG REO Scout?

[B]

I'm saying, I think this is a reference to Ransom E Olds in this case. In the case of this. This truck.

[D]

I mean, there's this. This reo.

[A]

Yeah, reo Royale.

[D]

That's 31.

[A]

Yeah, it's old school.

[D]

Very old school. First One was in 1906.

[A]

1939. REO Speedwagon truck.

[B]

Okay, but this is all connected to Ransomy old, right?

[A]

I think so.

[B]

Maybe. Anyway.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

This new art.

[D]

Look at this.

[A]

Not letter by letter. The car company is not pronounced letter by letter, but the band is. I was wrong. I'm sorry.

[B]

Oh, don't.

[D]

All right. Anyway. What is this new thing?

[B]

I don't know what it is because I don't know how real it is because anyone can make something that looks like a car. Like a car company online nowadays. You can vibe code something to have like a nice silhouette of a truck.

[A]

It does the Thing where it shines the spot.

[B]

Fifteen years ago if you saw this site, holy, we got a car company here. But now it's like, could be like a 13 year old with vibe coding skills could create this.

[D]

True.

[B]

In reality it's actually a real estate person in Florida who wants to create an inexpensive gas truck for 25 grand. Oh, it's. I don't know if it's actually real, but he's been reaching out to like all the media outlets telling them hey, we're treating, trying to drum up interest in this truck. I don't know if it's real at all, but I would. I like the idea.

[D]

Right. Well, reservations are open for $25.

[A]

Holy shit.

[D]

And then they'll figure out how to build it.

[A]

Reservations open before this is this most Silicon Valley.

[B]

Let me just.

[A]

Reservations open before revealed.

[B]

I cannot recommend anybody spend their money on this. For the record, I don't know enough about it. So don't.

[A]

All right, let's do. I would say like Vegas odds, but let's say in more contemporary poly market odds. What are you more likely? What money is more likely to return a car? A Tesla Roadster purchased in full in 2017 or throwing $5 at this company today?

[D]

I would probably say Tesla only because they have the pressure of the promising that even though they haven't delivered, but they exist as a car. This person has to figure out how to make cars. And we know that that is almost infinitely complex.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Tesla at least has infrastructure.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. They have plants and whatnot.

[B]

You know we have.

[A]

They could make a roadster if they wanted to.

[D]

This person wants to, but I don't know if they can.

[B]

Well sometimes, sometimes you get surprised. Like a few years ago our colleague Jason Torchinsk once referred to this like self driving van thing, which I think is a zoosk. Now I don't remember exactly.

[C]

Zoo.

[A]

Yeah, Zook.

[B]

He referred to it as vaporware horseshit. And you know what the company did? They changed their model name to vh and then like that's why they're called that. It's because Jason called it vaporware horseshit in the blog.

[A]

And you know what? That's a real company now running real cars. There's a someone shout out to the guy, I'm not gonna say his name who works at Zoox, who DMed me. We were talking back and forth on Instagram.

[B]

I might know this person about the

[A]

Tesla crashes and whatever and, and he invited me to come try out some Zoox's up in San Francisco. She might do so.

[B]

I mean, look, Jason called the vaporware horseshit. They're a real thing now. So, you know, maybe. Maybe we just need Zoox.

[D]

I don't know.

[A]

I think. I think he might have been in Zoox for a minute. Yeah. Real company now. But that's very funny to put that in. In your, like, legal filing.

[D]

Yeah, well, shame works, I guess. At least on that company, shame always works.

[A]

What's vh?

[C]

Well, there was this guy.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

They're like, oh, what does VH stand for? It's like. Well, there was this guy. Yeah.

[B]

Short guy, strange dude, this blogger.

[A]

How is the old boy?

[B]

Jason's good. You know, a few years ago, he had. He had that heart thing and he nearly died. And so, I don't know. I appreciate him every day after that, you know, because they. What's that?

[A]

Before he had the heart thing, did he try on the oil shirt?

[B]

No. He might have been.

[A]

It wasn't.

[B]

Cause, Yeah. I don't know. I was just hanging out with him.

[A]

The timeline is suspicious.

[B]

I was just hanging out with him at. We had an autopian meet up on the east coast at Lime Rock. And he's, you know, he was a lot of fun. He brought his Citroen 2cv. One of our readers.

[A]

Please tell me someone ran a lap time in that mother.

[B]

Well, he did. He did run around the track. But the crazy thing is one of our readers bought a grandfather clock because there was an old Citroen 2cv ad where they were showing, hey, look, you can fit everything in here. And they put a grandfather clock and made him run laps with the grandfather clock hanging out.

[A]

Great movie.

[C]

That's insane.

[B]

We got some very wacky readers. There was someone with a Grumman diesel van. He ran it around the track, got on three wheels, was just smoking the tires.

[A]

This is like a tourist day at the Nurburgring. There was a Sichuan 2cv and a work truck was there, like a Harley and also a GT3 running around in the same place.

[B]

There were some very nice Porsches, all sorts of stuff. I mean, we have some very wacky readers. A cement truck actually showed up during our track day, and someone from the track had to ask us whether it was part of our crew. It wasn't. They were just, like, repat.

[D]

Peeving.

[B]

But that's. That's something I'm always gonna take pride in.

[D]

That's incredible.

[B]

They weren't sure if the cement truck was gonna do last.

[A]

Well, it was painted a funny color. He seemed like an enthusiast.

[B]

Exactly. That's exactly Right.

[A]

And he was wearing Stano Fox. Yeah. His shirt was covered in front of you.

[B]

We're gonna send you one of these. I think you're gonna love the Stano box.

[A]

I will rock it under this blazer,

[B]

spill some coffee on it, and you even, dude, I need that shirt.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

If someone's got to get the shirt and then get one of our blazers and wear that to the quail, and then.

[B]

Yes, take off and then you're in.

[A]

If you are, you.

[B]

I think so. I think if you are, we will

[A]

make sure you have a blazer to wear with the sto flaw.

[C]

So fresh.

[A]

We need to see it and see if anyone.

[B]

We did last year at the. We went to Dawn Patrol. We did the Yawn Patrol thing.

[D]

Oh, that was a great video.

[A]

I did not wake up early, but it's a good hat.

[B]

Well, yeah, that's the whole point of this. Nobody wakes up early enough. So we gave them an option, the Yawn Patrol hat. And I will say, if you wake up early enough, it's like piranhas eating. Eating like a freaking chicken leg. It's very rich. People going crazy over a hat. I love. It's amazing. It really is.

[A]

You know why? Because when you can buy anything so easily, having to be standing somewhere to get it, it's a big fucking difference.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, these folks are so rich, they can make a phone call and a singer shows up, but you have to be physically standing there. You know, it's a. It's a. It's a different kind of brain.

[C]

They feel, like poor for an hour because they have to beg. That's what it is. Yeah.

[A]

It's a masochism thing.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah. They forgot what. What it's like to feel normal.

[A]

Please, Daddy.

[C]

Just one.

[A]

Yes. Yeah. And then some. And then later, hard agree was like, here, dude. And like.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Slipped me on someone. The Manx. By the time we're done with this podcast, the Manx might be back. Oh, it's coming back today.

[B]

What's going on with it with the Manx?

[A]

It was getting many upgrades because it's, you know, a stupid radial engine. And so they're. I'm doing engineering development with them, so it has many upgrades, but it's coming back. But they must have had a good day testing yesterday because. Do you know Laura, that Porsche girl on Instagram?

[B]

I think I do.

[A]

Lovely, lovely woman. She sent me a video of my car just like, ripping by her on the PCH in Orange county yesterday.

[B]

She was like, is this you?

[A]

And I was like, no, Max is

[D]

having a good time.

[B]

Is there any equipment equivalent, like what's the closest in terms of engine behavior? Is there anything that I would have driven that's similar in the way it

[A]

behaves once you start it and do the little stupid oil purge? Not stupid. It's very fun and awesome.

[B]

That sounds cool.

[A]

Airplane style oil purge thing to do the startup. It drives exactly like a regular engine. It just sounds funny. It redlines at 6,800. It's got a really nice linear power bank and it sounds like a biplane, which is just awesome. You should, you should drive it. You love it. It's the greatest thing you can ever imagine, dude.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

It's 1580 pounds and it's 175 horsepower. It fucking rips. Yeah. It's so great. It's got Porsche steering, Porsche brakes, like shocks developed by like King of the Hammers guys, like independent reservoir shocks.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

It's a good time. It's like really fun. It's the most, it's seriously, it's the most fun. I'm gonna be driving the of it all weekend.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

Yeah, it's really good. And it goes. It sounds like you're about to get, you know, Baron von Munchausen.

[B]

I'd love to drive that.

[A]

Yeah, it's really, really a good time. You should, you could get. You should just call Manx and have them let you borrow it for a few days. Theirs for a few days. Oh, okay.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

Yeah, they've got a bunch of them. Yeah. So. So let me talk about this Willys Jeep with you for a minute. I know you love a Willys Jeep. Do you love a Willys Jeep, Griffin?

[C]

I love Willys. Just period.

[A]

Just like Willie T ribs. Just general things named Willys.

[C]

100%. The concept of Willys, it just fascinates me.

[A]

All wills and Willys. Okay. Not just automotive ones. But do you actually like. Are we joking or are you.

[B]

This is not really your vibe. Right. Let's be honest.

[C]

No. Well, I mean, I have my 04 Wrangler. Yeah.

[A]

So you're in the zone.

[C]

Yeah. And I grew up off roading. He's a Corvette guy. Yeah. My daily's a cd.

[D]

You got Stockholm syndrome into liking this because you were dragged for 900 miles in a week.

[C]

Yes. From precisely watching this madman drive all over the roads of the southwest.

[A]

Yeah, but this isn't the shittiest willies that you've driven all over the southwest. Haven't you road tripped in like the

[B]

shittiest Willys imaginable That's what I used to do. I used to buy like a five, just 500 bucks. And just I was welding up frames using a, like harbor freight welders. Like, that was my Michigan selling. And this. This is a brand new World War II jeep. And a lot of like, in the beginning, I was kind of wondering, would this be easier? I mean, it's got no rust. It's all new parts. It should be easier than buying like a rusty $500 junker and fixing it up. The problem was building a car from scratch is horrible. You actually have nothing to go on. You don't even know what you need. You don't know, do I need a little spacer here or like a bolt here or.

[A]

So there isn't a manual somewhere? Like a sufficient service manual.

[B]

Oh, that's what I was doing. I was reading through books, like, all day trying to figure out what parts I need. Which, by the way, you need over a thousand parts to build that.

[D]

Can we tell the audience who doesn't know, like, what you did? And then when you ordered it, like, I watched your video, everyone. It's very funny. It's. The pacing is great. You are so entertaining and, like, your joy shines through, which is super infection.

[B]

July 4th. You want to watch July 4th?

[D]

Okay, so two days from whatever today.

[B]

Building the past.

[D]

But when you ordered the box, it came with the body. So the body was brand new, but they didn't ship it with all the parts. Like, if you were in the army in Vietnam or World War II, they would have given you the box with everything, right?

[B]

They had all the parts.

[D]

I just wanted to clarify. You didn't have all the parts?

[B]

This huge wooden box. It was like 15ft. It was huge. I've never received a package. This business. I bet you get all sorts of weird stuff.

[A]

But it was a. I mean, not really like that, but I know the kind of thing you're talking about.

[B]

It was a gigantic wooden crate, and it was just the body tub and like the grill and the hood and the windshield. That's it. I had to order the engine. And it was just a bare engine block. Brand new engine block. They still cast the World War II engines in France.

[D]

Why did they do that?

[A]

For the people who are obsessed with

[B]

World War II jeeps.

[A]

Recreations, dude. Fucking Norman Recreations.

[B]

They actually built World War II jeeps there into the 50s. There was a company called Hotchkiss that was founded by an American. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, but I got a brand new World War II G block. And I had to build the whole. I had to get all the little parts of the engine, the big parts, the crank, the everything. Conrod pistons. Put that all together.

[A]

They won't. Will they sell you the kit or you just had to buy?

[B]

The whole point was to show what you can get from ebay. This is a partnership with ebay.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And to be honest, when I first

[A]

pushed, Wouldn't it be nice if you could just click to buy now?

[C]

Once I know, add everything to cart

[B]

on the recipe, Putting together the 1500 parts, you know, one click. But I wish making sure do that. When I first pitched this, I was at like a. It was at a media event with ebay motors. And I'm not sure I expected them to, like, bite. I mean, the idea was like, hey, I showed them this body that you can buy on ebay. And I was like, you know, you could theoretically build a whole World War II jeep from scratch. And they came back to me like, do you want to do that? I was like, obviously the answer is yes, of course you do. Having a brand partnership is huge for any publication. But, like, I didn't realize how hard it would be. I was getting just dozens of boxes, dozens every week. I mean, they were just stacking, piling up. And we had, you know, I recently married, just had a kid, moved into this house. My wife was like, what is going on? It was like a freaking mountain of all these parts. And I had to figure out. I had to organize them all. I had to build, like a bill of materials. My friend helped me help with that. And I had to figure out how to build all the of. Of it from nothing. And it ultimately happened. And all the building happened in. Roughly 80% of the building happened in two months.

[A]

That's crazy. And actually this stuff actually, like. Because, like, you stuff is from different suppliers around the world.

[B]

A lot of stuff's from India. The body and the frame are from the Philippines, engines from France.

[A]

Did things fit together? Like, not perfectly? No, no, no, no.

[B]

A lot of.

[D]

A lot.

[B]

I had to.

[C]

You know, that's when the body sucked a lot, right?

[B]

Yeah. I had to hammer, I had to grind, I had to drill. You know, all these parts coming from around the world, they've never been together as one system ever. And I had to get them together. And I didn't. I wasn't able to. I ran out of time. So I wasn't. Because the goal was to go to the Easter Jeep safari. And I finished the car, like, the day I had to leave. So the Validation test of the thousand new parts on this was the trip. It was the 900 mile trip to Utah.

[C]

I have footage of him literally like tightening basically the last bolt on a seat, putting on the jumpsuit and then it was action. Like we're going on the road. Like not even long time. We had to go.

[B]

It was way more than I expected. Like, like in terms of. Because I thought it's all new parts.

[D]

It should all be easy to help you. Like some of the. It was all new parts. But like the differentials you bought were not new.

[B]

No, no.

[D]

And you bought four to have backups. Very smart. But you know, so some of the

[B]

things, some of the things that's true. Yeah. Like the axles, they don't make the them new. The transmission, all the guts are brand new. But you can't buy the cases. So that's an original case. So there's some stuff that isn't brand new. But just getting it all together and figuring out what goes where was it was.

[C]

So there was new, there was actual old stuff like yeah the casing. But also a bunch of new old

[B]

stock that you used too.

[D]

That's right. Did you ever talk to. I know you met some Willys experts back in the day. Did these things assemble perfectly or because of QC and manufacturing, did they also have to like adjust things? Or is this because it's all remanufactured from somewhere else?

[B]

This is what I tell myself. I tell myself, look, some of the gaps on this are not quite right. Like you can put your hand in certain areas where you shouldn't be able to. I tell myself, I bet a World War II jeep wasn't perfect coming off the line in Toledo. I'm sure it was. It had to be functional. And look, look at it from a distance.

[A]

An interesting, like an interesting test would be like if you had a perfect one.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Like if someone somewhere had a perfect one that they and they would let you test fit like each part onto that one. It would be interesting to see if like they fit on an original most of the time and they just don't fit because these other everything else is off by 1%.

[B]

The thing is a tolerance stack up was a real problem because you've got tolerance in every part and now you've got, you know, 10 parts working together all with their own tolerance. So it wasn't just assembly. That's the thing about seems like, oh, it's a LEGO kit. You get all these parts, you get them from all from ebay motors and you bolt them Together? No, it's like you have to fabricate half this stuff. You know, you have to break out the cutting disc, the grinder, the drill, the Dremel, everything, the welder. And that was the hard part. I was very naive when I initially pitched this, but actually it ended up being really epic in the end.

[C]

It was fantastic.

[A]

It makes you think about when Fuck and Clarkson and Hammond in May went to draw, got an airdropped vehicle and like assembled it in like three days in the middle of the desert.

[D]

I bet I'm halfway through Richard Porter's book. But like, the amount of planning they did into those things, I'm sure that the team who like designed or made that car built it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

And then took it apart and made sure it all fit pretty easily because, I mean, you were, you were doing so many adjustments and creative solutions to things and like, some of the new parts didn't work and then some of the old parts didn't work and you had to, like, you had to play with both of those.

[B]

Yeah. But I mean, in the end, like, it looks like a World War II jeep and it drives like a World War II jeep. That new engine. If you read online about like reproduction engines, usually there are problems. Usually. And so Those first, like 20, 30 miles that I was. I was just waiting for the shoe to drop, just waiting for something. But it just, it just sang right up.

[C]

Yeah, it was pretty painless the entire way over.

[A]

Is it the most rattly car you've ever driven?

[B]

No.

[A]

Solid. Really?

[B]

Surprisingly, the thing is it actually feels like a new. It feels like a new car. I mean, there's some things I still need to finish. The gauges need to be put in. Right. But it feels really solid. And when we took it off road, it was unbelievable.

[C]

It was fantastic.

[B]

The crazy thing about off road kit, you're kind of more of a sports car guy than an off road guy. Is that safe to say?

[A]

I actually have like a pretty decent amount of off road experience. It's. It's just that that type of content doesn't do well for us, so we don't really do it.

[B]

But.

[A]

But go on.

[B]

So, sports cars. If you get into a 1940s sports car and you compare it to a model, it is insane. It's like it's not even close.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You would lap a 1940 sports car around even a short, you know, of course, even a short track.

[A]

I drove, I've driven a. I've driven Le Mans cars from the early 50s and they're like, they're terrible. They're fucking death traps.

[B]

I mean, yeah, they're horrible. But the great thing about off road capability is they that it doesn't really care about all of your modern gadgets. It's all about the simple things like geometry and torque at the wheels. And this World War II jeep, it's kind of the first. If you read the development of the World War II jeep, it's the most unbelievable story. I think it's the next Ford vs Ferrari movie. It was 16 dudes.

[A]

Get AJ on it.

[B]

It was 16 dudes in Butler, Pennsylvania. Their backs were against the wall. Their business was about. They were about to go out of business. And the government put this thing out saying hey, we're looking for a reconnaissance vehicle. And they designed what was basically this machine in 45 days. By the way. This isn't just like a off road vehicle. This became the blueprint for every. If you look at the Toyota Land Cruiser, they copied this. You look at the Nissan fj, the Land Rover, copy this. This was the beginning. The blueprint of every major off road vehicle. And it was created by a couple dozen dudes in Butler pit. It's crazy story.

[D]

That is amazing. Yeah.

[B]

And off roading it, it became clear why it became the blueprint. It's unfair.

[A]

I've seen the old fucking grainy ass, you know, videos of the fucking dudes

[B]

like flying off the seat, you know. What do you think about how it did off road?

[C]

I was stunned the entire time. It just ate pretty much everything that we could throw at it. I mean sure there was like one or two points that maybe like we hit your front bumper on a shelf, but that would have happened in a modern Jeep too. Like some of it is, that's just what it is. But otherwise it climbed everything.

[A]

Well, how much power does that engine make? Like 50 or something. 60 horsepower.

[B]

I think it's.

[A]

And then it weighs like 1500 pounds.

[B]

Actually weighs like 2300 pounds. It does, but it's geared so low. The top speed was 40. So we were doing this 900 mile trip at 40 miles an hour. You can go 60, but you don't

[A]

want, you don't want to go more than 40 RPM. Are you at is 40?

[B]

At 40 it's fine. You're like 2000 RPM or 20.

[A]

What is the quote line or whatever.

[B]

It doesn't like to go above 2500 for any longer. It just, it just doesn't.

[A]

It for whatever reason it runs on just gasoline.

[B]

And Griffin was in a modern. In the camera Car which is a modern F150 tremor.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Going 40 for 900 miles. It must have been terrible.

[C]

But it was the coziest thing ever.

[A]

Radar cruise control, as I'm sure you.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I was doing well. I, I put it on blue cruise the entire time and you know, it was great as a camera car because of it. I could go hands off for a second, get some great shots and then go back to driving. It was fantastic.

[D]

Well, I thought was amazing when you were off roading. It is the pace you were carrying up like, you know, these foot tall ledges. And I've seen a lot of people that have, you know, a new Wrangler, Rubicon, whatever, and they would approach that stuff much more slowly, partly because it's expensive, but also the, the new stuff weighs more and this thing, there's just less inertia and it just kind of like bounces load up the. Up these ledges.

[A]

You're almost driving it like a specialized utv. More than like a car by today's

[B]

standards, by the way. Like, you know, I say the off road capability hasn't really, you know, progressed that much. But then if you look at the UTVs, it's a different world. Yeah, yeah. They're like on a whole different world. They're the, they're incredible. Yeah, they are crazy.

[A]

You should do, you should get. Meet up with Bothwell and do the mo. The Super T versus this. Have you seen our. Our friend is a huge Model T enthusiast and has a bunch of Model Ts his original one, he's got a Model T race car that I drove. It's unbelievable. And then he has the Super T which is the Model T with like every possible period aftermarket upgrade for off roading. Because he came with Zach and I on a really long off road trip and we drove like regular cars and he drove a fucking Model T. And it was amazing. Off road.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Cause they flex so much, aren't they?

[D]

They flex a lot. And the diameter of the wheel is. It's funny, the wheel is like I wonder if the diameter of your wheels and tires is the same as the Model T. But the Model T is mostly wheel. You know, it's like a low profile tire and yours is a high profile tire.

[A]

So it's just like.

[D]

But the ground clearance on the T is probably no joke, like 50% higher than that, if not more because it's just the way it's sprung.

[B]

The advantage here is the four wheel drive system in the low range. That's what it's got. And those NDT tires are actually really good. I mean, they're way better than you think they are. The ride quality over these horrible roads, I was able to air those down. They have inner tubes in them so you don't have to worry about the beat. You know, you can air them down pretty far. So supple.

[A]

Where are you actually airing this thing down to?

[B]

I don't air down, like, crazy 15 psi or something like that.

[A]

What's the normal pressure for these? Like, thirty?

[B]

Yeah, around thirty. 25 to 30. Yeah, that seems. Actually seems maybe 25 to 30. 25 to 30.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

But they're really. I thought, okay, look at those little skinny tires. They're gonna be terrible off road. They're great.

[A]

It does. A lot of the model T is on, like, fucking bicycle tires. You should have seen that thing go up these. These, I mean, certain, you know, elements of bouldering I'm sure are better, but, like, for like a fire road that had, like, rocks and big gravel and shit in it, the thing was great. Yeah, we should get you with.

[B]

I would love to go.

[A]

How did this thing get home?

[D]

Model T versus you drive it home?

[B]

I didn't drive it home.

[C]

Yeah, we towed it back. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, you had a trailer on that truck?

[C]

Yeah. Okay, cool.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But, I mean, I was just, to be honest, up until the very end, I didn't think this thing. I didn't have any time. I really kind of ran out of time. It was so much more of a project than I expected. But it just. I mean, it just. You gotta watch the video. It just all did come together. And, like, almost all. All of it is from, like, you can actually basically build a whole jeep from ebay, even though old parts, like the axles that are not brand new. I just bought it from some dude in Washington who was selling it. So it's.

[A]

Yeah, that's a rad project, man. I can't believe that, like, worked.

[B]

Neither can I. And I also, I have to hand it. I have to hand it to ebay for even trusting us to do something this insane. Like, this is crazy.

[A]

How much did it cost in parts to build this Jeep?

[B]

So it probably costs. So one of these fully restored stored is usually around 25 grand.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I haven't done the full cost roll up, but you can imagine buying every part piecemeal is going to be maybe the most expensive way you can possibly build a car. So it was probably double as much as if you had actually bought one, you know, already restored.

[A]

And then you had to physically do the fucking work.

[B]

Yeah. Then you had to do the work.

[D]

Wait, so this is like a $50,000 Jeep Willys.

[B]

It's probably almost. Almost that much? Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. It could be one of the most expensive ones, huh?

[B]

Yeah. But we kind of knew that going in because we're buying every individual part.

[A]

I see an opportunity for fucking a Tracy brand Willys Jeep kit car that does actually come with all parts. And that is like. I feel like you could somehow reverse engineer what's available into one kit that people could buy. Like a Lotus 7 or a Cobra. Do people still build Lotus 7s and Cobras themselves or does everyone get. Just buy them fully built now?

[D]

I don't know.

[B]

I'm not sure.

[D]

I think it depends on cost because I think you can buy. I think ironically, like the Lotus 7 is cheaper if you buy. If you build it yourself done, it's more expensive. You. You bought a kit car essentially, but made it more expensive than a finished car.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Which is not a kit, right?

[A]

Yeah. I mean word kit comes with a lot of value.

[B]

And the thing about this is, this thing is it's. We're getting it ready, like registered, like street legal was strange. There's no VIN or anything. It's a. It's basically like a. What would you call like a reproduction or whatever.

[A]

So I. Ghost gun dude.

[C]

No, he has a ghost gun.

[D]

A vehicle.

[B]

So you probably familiar with the. There's like the California specialty vehicle thing, the SPCN or whatever. And so I went through that for this. And so it is technically a 2026. I don't think they actually put mollies, but it's basically. It's a 2026 World War II jeep. I think the only one in the world.

[A]

That's awesome. Awesome. And so you have real tags on it.

[B]

Well, right now they're temp tags, but. But like getting a real California registration 100.

[A]

That's so dope.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

What is your. You got to get a custom license plate.

[D]

I don't know.

[A]

What is the custom license plate?

[B]

I haven't rattle. It's not. It's not a rattle. I'm telling you, it's not that bad.

[A]

Oh, man.

[D]

I was going say time machine.

[A]

Why 2026?

[B]

Oh, yeah. You gotta let the world know.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

People are just gonna think this is just a. You know.

[A]

No, we go. We'll workshop this one a little bit. I'm very good at this. We will. My. You know, my Manx has the license plate. Radial. Oh, that's California Black plate, radial, legit.

[B]

I assume you had to talk to a bunch of radial fanatics and get to get that and you had to pay them off. And it was.

[A]

No, it was just available because presumably I have the only radial powered car

[D]

because radio fanatics have planes, by the way.

[A]

Despite the fucking. Despite that plate and despite the fact that you can just look at the engine and see it, I have to explain that, no, this is not a rotary. To dozens of people every time that no one knows the difference. Yeah, this is fucking sick, dude.

[B]

Thank you very much. Yeah.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

2026 World War II jeep.

[B]

I mean, it ruined. I mean, I did this in my driveway. Just a regular driveway. It was like. It wasn't like. Usually if there's like a sponsor, like, build, there's a garage, a lift, and there's a whole team. It was a freaking dad in the driveway.

[A]

I don't have access to the Pimp My Ride.

[B]

I literally do, actually. He told me, yo, we can help, like. And I told him, look, what I wanted to show people is that an average dude in his driveway can build this using primarily ebay parts. That was the whole point. It was supposed to be more power. Obviously it's more expensive, you know, but people are not going to build the whole thing. They're going to probably buy some of these parts.

[A]

It would have been pretty funny, though, if midway through the build, Mad Mike just popped by.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

And was like, I heard you

[C]

during Dire Straits, bro.

[A]

I heard you producing our videos.

[B]

It would have been a great idea, actually. Yeah, that would have been really cool.

[A]

Did he ever tell you, by the way, about the electrical diagnosis on Hannah's pow? I remember I asked you about it if you knew.

[B]

I do remember that. I asked him about it and he might have told me. I forgot what he said.

[A]

It was 30 hours it took him to diagnose the electrical drain on Hannah's pow. And he's like an electrical genius.

[B]

He could have replaced the whole harness.

[A]

He could have bought a new car for that.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

It turned out it was just a blinker. There was just a bad switch in the blinker$37 part. But it was like. It was a very expensive diagnostic.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Even though. Even when he cut the ring by 50%, he.

[A]

And I was like, at hour. When he called me to tell me it was like 15 hours and he hadn't figured it out. I was like, never give up, dude. I was like, do not stop until you find out what's wrong with this fucking car. I cannot have It. But now it's fine. Fixed it.

[B]

Blinker switch, man.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Yikes.

[A]

You could. Now you can, like, put a fish tank in the back of it or something.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

With the PS2 as well.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

What would you do to pitch to Pimp out the World War II? Can you.

[A]

Could you. Oh, man, no. I would like to have, like a Bimini style top.

[B]

Yes. You can do a lot with a top.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like you could.

[A]

You could sort of make a top that, like, looked. Looked kind of cool.

[C]

Well, you could do the machine gun mount, but instead of a machine gun, you do like a money gun. Something like that, I think would be pretty hot. Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Water cannon. Big giant. Giant water cannon off the back of it. That could be pretty fun.

[B]

No, I like a water cannon. I like, like that.

[A]

Is it. Did you paint it that color? Did it come that color?

[B]

It came that color from the, like that body's from the Philippines. It's like red. That's red oxide primer.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I wanted to keep it that way, actually. I like the way it looks. I wanted to keep it that way for two reasons. One, it sort of highlights where the new parts. Because usually they're painted green, like all over.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And that just kind of disguises all the parts as one big green mass. So I meant to try to highlight some of the new parts, but also, also I ran out of time and I like the red.

[A]

No, the red's not bad. I like the red. Is there any. Because you've been around these things, is there anything that, like, oh, all of the Willys Jeeps have, like this problem and like, this one has maybe sort of solved that problem or. No, it has all the same problems the old ones have.

[B]

No, it does have all the same problems. It really. It does.

[A]

It's the same.

[B]

Yeah, no, it is actually. The weird thing is there were certain things, things that usually you upgrade when you buy a World War II jeep, but I wanted it to be factory original, which makes no sense because this is not even. It's like, for example, the 6 volt system. Most people would gut that and put a 12 volt, especially if that's not even a real quote unquote, World War II jeep. Why would you do it? Because I wanted it to be. And I was trying to make sure it was as representative as a 1942 World War II jeep as possible. So all the holes I had to drill in exactly the right spots. It made no sense. Why am I trying to make this look like it's a 1940 exactly. Like an April 1942 Jeep. But it is just like one six volt system. Everything's in the right place. Doesn't have a gas can in them because in April 1942 they wouldn't, wouldn't have had that in the back. Yeah.

[A]

What is the, what is the range of this vehicle? At 40 miles an hour, how far can you drive?

[B]

Well, we drove.

[C]

Well, I feel like we got, we

[B]

drove like 500 miles in one one day. But that was a huge mistake.

[C]

Yeah, that was bad. It's crazy.

[B]

We actually tested the range because we.

[A]

500 miles at 40 miles an hour in that. That's a nightmare.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What was your wardrobe?

[D]

You fell asleep a lot while that was it.

[B]

I wore the same thing the whole pullover. Four days. I, I never changed. Yeah, just the, the COVID all there and the problem, the fuel. The, the steering wheel on this thing is so huge and I've got dad bod going and so the steering wheel actually would touch my stomach the whole time.

[D]

That's your blue cruise though. That keeps the wheel straight. That's your ADAs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This thing was designed to be driven by like 16 year old kids in the 40s.

[B]

Yes. And different. You're six two. Right. When you sat in it, it was like.

[C]

Yeah, when I sat in it. There's a shot of me with like my forehead. Not just my hair. My forehead is above the windshield line and then my knees. I have have to like very aggressively maneuver under the wheel. Cause otherwise I just, I can't get there.

[B]

You're looking at the top of the windshield frame and you probably would be the same.

[A]

I probably couldn't even drive it at all.

[C]

Yeah, it's tough. It's very tough for big guys.

[A]

I am. Yeah.

[D]

That.

[A]

Oh, look at that crate. You know what that crate is? It's about the same size as the crate that my engine and gearbox for my countach came back from Italy in. Because they came back together like weighted. So it's about the same.

[D]

Did you have big lazy boy couch pallets?

[A]

It was, it was one giant pallet. Giant pallet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

The, the build for this was just an absolute blast. I mean it was fun for me because I wasn't doing any of the hard work. But there were so many days that they would be like, hey, come over tomorrow. We're gonna do a bunch of great stuff. And he would send me a list of everything. And I pulled up and he's covered in his stainology shirt or a stain of flies. Like he's just absolutely, absolutely destroyed. And he can barely even speak to me. He's like, I'm just gonna put this thing on, and then you can go home. So many days like that. He just had nothing in him.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Yeah, I bet it was.

[D]

And it was amazing. You had a couple people come in to help you, and they. And it wasn't like they came in for a day. They were there for, like, three weeks.

[C]

Yeah. We had a buddy there for three,

[D]

working hard and still, like, they'd leave. And I was like, oh, they're gonna be done, right? Like, no, it's just one of my

[B]

friends, Brandon, he had. He was. He works for Jeep. He's been, you know, huge. He's a world expert on World War II jeeps. He came in for a weekend. We built the transmission. We did a couple things. Lawrence came in from Australia for 20 days. We did a lot. But even. And that was huge. Like, him coming was huge. Even after that. Like, the worst part is when you're by yourself, like, if you're working on a car and you have a friend, even if they're not doing anything, it's a big psychological thing.

[D]

Oh, I can do that for you.

[B]

Seriously.

[D]

I can show up and do nothing,

[A]

stand around, hand tools.

[B]

I told my wife, 30 pack next to him. She's like, I'm not gonna. But it's just like being by yourself. You're, like, on your back. There's no one there. You're, like, turning some ball. It's just. It kind of sucks.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

That was rough when Lawrence left and I had all this stuff to do.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

To mount the body, do all the suspension, steering work. That was the hardest part. Just trying to motivate myself. Like, every day, just get up and just 12 hours under the car for, you know.

[C]

Yeah. Because, I mean, we got the engine kind of running when Lawrence was here, but it was, like, backfiring like mad. None of it was working right.

[B]

Well, that's my first drive. I'm sitting on the litter box there

[A]

on the top of that. Oh, yeah.

[D]

That was so weird for you.

[B]

It is.

[D]

You're driving around the neighborhood in this place.

[A]

It's more or less comfortable than the actual seat, by the way.

[B]

It's the same. The seat is so hard. It's a cushion that might. It should just be, like. It's no softer than, like, a tile. The actual seat.

[A]

It would have been maybe better to, like, not mount the driver's seat and, like, put, like, a beanbag chair. You'd probably sit lower and probably Ergonomically better.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

If you sit on a gas tank, so you need a very slim seat. The jerry can on that is zip tied to the grill on that. So once I put the gas tank in, then I needed something slim. So a bean bolt bag. I would have been looking over the windshield, but I like the idea of a bean bag chair.

[C]

We can figure that out.

[B]

Well bolstered, I think. A bean. Bean bag chair.

[A]

Well, you could, you could have it in sort of the recline position.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

If you were doing 500 miles, that would be nice.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

It would save your belly as well.

[A]

Cool. Like a phantom.

[B]

Oh yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Right.

[A]

That's crazy.

[C]

Doing.

[D]

Very cool.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, it was what broke on the 900 mile drive.

[B]

Anything. Well, I just disagree.

[C]

Spirit. Yeah, that's about it. Yeah.

[B]

That's the thing about it. Like I thought, okay, this is the first time we have all these thousand parts together. This is the first time they're working together as a system. There's gonna be some bs. You would think.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But actually nothing major happened. I had to disconnect the generator. You know, basically an alternator because I think it was something internally was frying. So I couldn't use the headlights. And if I stopped, I tried to like for gas. I tried to keep the engine running so I wouldn't have to use the starter too much. But that was pretty. The biggest issue was the vapor lock.

[C]

Yeah. So he was vapor locking the entire time.

[B]

Have you ever dealt with vapor lock in a car?

[A]

Not like. I know, not really because I've never tried to drive really far in a car this shitty. But like I know about it. I've dealt with, with like fuel cavitation issues and boiling basically.

[C]

Yeah. So like, truly the biggest issue was him dealing with vapor lock. So like anytime there was stoppage, it killed the car. And then he was like trying to avoid using the starter too much. So it was hard to get going in the first place. But also the car was such an exhausting drive for him that sometimes he had to pull over for naps. And so that first day, like we, I mean we made I think over like 300 miles on that first day. Second day we went 110 miles. We went nowhere. In a full day of travel, we went absolutely nowhere because I pull over

[B]

to nap and then I try to start it. But all the fuel in the, in the lines and carb and fuel pump had vaporized. So I had to then prime it. These luckily have a hand primer on the fuel pump.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But still it's just a waste of my time.

[C]

It was horrible because we were supposed to go. I mean I think we were trying to keep it even like 300 miles a day. But we just kept getting so behind schedule with the vapor lock and the starter it issues that we just kept getting pushed back.

[A]

And then at one point because you just like bump started.

[B]

You could. And we tried. Tried to do that when I. Sometimes we were just in the desert and there was just nothing there.

[A]

You got a truck.

[C]

Well. And that's why like cheating.

[B]

We couldn't cheat.

[C]

Yeah. But like. I mean you see the top photo there? Like that was. I mean my cameras. I exposed it properly, but that was like pitch black. On the side of the road outside of Prescott and like on the base of Prescott in between like Wickenburg and Prescott there. And several points. We were just driving through the night.

[B]

Well, we had a flash strapped to the front bumper.

[D]

Which insane by the way sounds dangerous.

[B]

Until you realize that the 6 volt headlights on this World War II jeep probably even worse than the flashlight.

[D]

Yeah, right.

[C]

Yeah. Truly. Yeah. We had a.

[A]

If you have like a beast of like a camping thousand lumen headlamps. Probably better than. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

He had.

[A]

That would be jumper reason to use 12 volt.

[B]

Oh, totally.

[A]

Without question. We, you know, we. We take care of seven or eight Porsche 356s. Only one is still a 6 volt. All the other commitment.

[B]

Hard to get him to even fire up 6v crane. Yeah, it's. No one likes it.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

And the lights are terrible. But that photo is awesome.

[B]

Griffin climbing it. Yeah. Great job.

[A]

Nice job, Griffin.

[C]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[A]

Yeah, I love that. And the red really does work in the desert.

[C]

It pops so well.

[A]

It really pops.

[C]

Honestly, that was a good visual choice. It made my job easier as a photo and video guy.

[D]

Huh?

[B]

Yeah, it was totally a deliberate choice.

[D]

Oh God.

[C]

Oh yeah. Horrible.

[A]

Yeah. No, if it was tan or green, I think it would be. It would be worse. That did. Did. Were there other willies. People around Moab?

[B]

Yeah, there were lots. There was. They do have like a flat fender run every year there. And it was like, you know, a lot of people. Only 100 people there.

[C]

No, there was a huge chunk.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And they. They were all, you know, looking at this like this is brand new. You have the new engine from Frank. Like it was. It's a weird thing. Like no one. It's a bad idea to do, by the way. It's just if you're gonna. If you're Thinking, well, maybe I could do that and build my own World War II jeep from scratch. I don't know that I'd recommend it. It's not the. It's not. It's nightmare is what it is.

[A]

Here's an idea. Here's an idea. Part it out on ebay motors. Oh, go the other way. Part it out to zero.

[B]

I just built.

[A]

I know, but think about how much money you can make.

[B]

Do you have a 50 grand?

[A]

Do you have a no parting out clause?

[B]

But I want to keep this thing, by the way, was just in the San Marino Motor Classic, which is a fancy ish car show. And for this to be in it is kind of hilarious.

[D]

You got to keep this thing.

[C]

That's a nice.

[A]

They don't talk about that car show enough.

[B]

They don't.

[A]

That's in Pasadena. It's right here. And it's a very nice event.

[D]

Great.

[B]

It's beautiful. And also the fact that they let this in. I have to give them credit for that because they didn't have to.

[A]

No, I think it makes sense. I think it makes sense. What, what category was it in?

[B]

It was in the modified category.

[A]

That's appropriate.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, I think so too.

[A]

I mean that, that's. That category is sort of like.

[B]

But I was surrounded by.

[A]

Keep it interesting and weird.

[B]

But even, even the other modified cars were mint. I mean just cherry and mine had gauges popping out.

[A]

I mean,

[D]

do you have other Willys Jeeps still?

[B]

Not anymore. This is the only four.

[D]

Yeah, that makes sense. You wouldn't need two anymore. I mean, this is the one.

[C]

Yeah, that's the one.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

We also sticker bombed it with like price tags for every single part as well.

[B]

Well, we tried to do that.

[C]

Yeah. The primer wouldn't hold a lot of the stickers. Huh.

[B]

The plan was to put a sticker to show the ebay seller for every part and put a tag or a sticker on it. It was like eight. I don't know how many parts was it like 300, 400 pound parts probably.

[C]

That was a lot.

[B]

Those were just the ebay parts. And, and yeah, we got there and we were trying to put it on basically dirty primer because you gotta do that beforehand when it's clean. And so. And there are like not that many stickers on there.

[C]

So it's a little.

[A]

You could do, you know, you could do like a. Have a wrap made for like the hood. That was like a receipt.

[B]

Oh yeah. That made it.

[A]

And have like Photoshop up a receipt with the seller. Name and the part and the cost, you know, and it wouldn't have to be like forever. And it could actually, like, stick.

[B]

I like that idea.

[D]

Racing stripe down the middle.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

Keep it narrow.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Cool. That's fucking crazy. You guys. Good times.

[D]

Really cool.

[A]

How's the Autobian doing otherwise? You guys having a good time?

[B]

We're having a great time. Yeah. Well, we're having a great time. You know, it's always fun. The recent thing is we were able to get two. Two scoops, the ones we mentioned about the slate and the. The Ford truck. It's always nice to be able to give our readers something new and exclusive. And, you know, the big thing about the Autopian is like, we're trying to create a community that's open to everyone. We got a lot of weirdos, we got some normal people, but it's just people who love cars. We keep it cars. It's always. It's pro car. We're not ignorant about the issues that cars create in this world. But we're a pro car website. We always keep it that way. And no, we're having a great time. Yeah.

[A]

Cool. Do we have something from the people? I'm sure they have something to say. Let's go to our folks at patreon. Patreon.comonetirepodcast where you ask questions of the live show. Watch the live show, get the show early, get extra show, get the show without ads, and get exclusive access to some of the fun things that Zach and I decide to make for you. Let us see what we have,

[C]

huh?

[A]

Let's do questions for the other guys first and we'll save those other ones for us for later. Unless we don't have that many Johnny Ev Gearberman to the Autopians. Do you think the K4 hatch has potential to be a fun car in the aftermarket, or is it too similar to the Mazda 3? What's the K4? Oh, is that that Hyundai?

[B]

It's the Kia. Yeah, I drove that recently.

[A]

The weird looking.

[B]

No, no, I drove the gold. You've seen reviews of these gold K4s. They came out a couple months ago. And I drove it around Angeles Crest, which is a little strange for that car to be the Angeles Crest Press drive because it's not a very sporty car. It looks kind of sporty, but it's just not. It's not a very sporty. It's nice inside. It's like a three door or four.

[A]

Is there four doors?

[B]

There is. I don't know.

[A]

Okay, this photo Just hides the back door line there. Oh, this is a very strange looking car.

[B]

It is. But you know, I love a good hatchback, you know. So this is. Looks like the sedan. Is this the sedan one? Yes, the hatchback one is cool. You know, I love a hatchback. And this is a really nice hatchback. The inside's really nice, but it's not very sporty. It's. Could the aftermarket do something? Probably. I think it has enough. It makes enough power to where it's fun. Fun enough? I don't know. You could get it on par with a Mazda 3 maybe in the aftermarket. Is it ever going to be a gti? Absolutely not.

[D]

No.

[A]

No.

[D]

And yeah, I'd be shocked if the aftermarket shows up for that.

[A]

And by the way, like the current Mazda. The current Mazda 3 manual just like, is not that dynamic of a car either. Like, I'm happy they're offering a manual, but that ain't a Mazda speed or anything. Like, we had one as a press card and like it was pretty slow and soft.

[B]

Yeah, you could definitely get that there. But yeah, it's the K4 IS. It's pretty, pretty normal car. Not very fast.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, if I would. Yeah, I would just get an Elantra N if you care about that. They're not that expensive. There's a lot of them out there.

[D]

That was the only one that specifically mentions that.

[B]

All right, great.

[A]

Okay. Quadrifolio face. Do any of you guys endure any formal spousal restrictions on car payments purchases? My lovely wife is rightfully more concerned about the frequency of my purchases than the total cars owned. So my new contract is to keep everything for three years. Oh, well, happy wife, happy life. But any, any of you guys?

[B]

Yeah, I mean, basically when I, I used to have.

[A]

If you want a car, you're gonna have to build it yourself from parts.

[D]

He'll never do that. And then he does.

[B]

The thing is, like, three years ago I had like 14 cars. And then a lot of stuff happened quickly. Had a wife, had a kid. And now I don't want to have that many cars. Like, when you're buying all these cars, you're thinking about yourself. When you have a kid and a wife, you're not thinking about yourself anymore. You still want some cool cars. Sure. Because it's part of your identity in a way, and it's fun. You need to have your own thing, but you just don't think the same way. It's like a completely complete shift. So my wife doesn't tell me what to, you know, what I can buy or not. But it's, it's never been an issue because I don't really want to, you know, I don't want to cause strain in any way.

[D]

Having.

[B]

If I had 14 cars outside my house, it would be, it would be a problem for number of reasons.

[A]

You'd be Alana Shear and her husband Tom.

[D]

They're aligned in that they're aligned. That's the thing is you need to be aligned.

[B]

By the way, it's rare to find that aligned.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like that's an anomaly.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. No, my, my, my wife has never said anything about. She assumes I know what I'm doing and I buy her cars too. That's, I mean that's really the move. It's like if you want someone to be okay with you buying cars, drive

[B]

them with a great car, you better

[A]

buy them some cars. Like you can't. It's not a one way street. Like, you know what I mean? Oh, sorry about that. I didn't take my own advice re the table there. But yeah, no, I mean you got to do what you got to do. And Zach's one world, he's limited by space.

[D]

Yeah. But also like I think my wife and I are aligned financially so that's really helpful. Yeah. I mean I just don't want to own like.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Either new things that are going to cost me lots and lots of money and depreciate too quickly or have like a bunch of things that I have to insure or you know, park here and you know, take up your extra space and like that. So I think if you know, people have a contract like you just be. It's just easier if you're aligned with your spouse on your finances.

[B]

100%. That's right. Yeah.

[A]

Just buy motorcycles. Two in the Ruby, one in the Star. As more carmakers are opting to spell out the brand name versus the logo on a trunk, are logos losing significance? Additionally, not many cars have model specific logos either anymore. Why is that now?

[B]

Have you noticed that Griffin like on Lexus and Tesla. Tesla, yeah.

[C]

They are spelling them out all over the place.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I mean I wonder

[D]

if that's because from it like from a distance you can read, you know, if they make the font really big and you see the back of this egg that is like the same shape as every other egg on the road, you just go, what is that? Oh, that's the Alexis. Instead of having to go, what's that oval circle mean with the thing in the middle Yeah, I was confused when

[C]

Kia had that new one that they

[D]

were doing a couple different nails.

[C]

Well, now it's just kids KN that you see now on the back of their car too.

[A]

Yeah, no, I, I think, well, that's

[D]

the thing is it's like a Kia, but it, but it was like a kn.

[A]

Yeah, I think you're right. I think the fact that all the cars are kind of eggy, you know, in the 90s you kind of knew what a Mercedes was without having to see the badge, you know, and, and, and now they're eggs.

[B]

And so by the way, there is someone who is selling the dot for the I so the, so the K and you purchase with a double sided thing with the dot and so now

[D]

it looks like people are so.

[B]

That, that is great. I think it's true entrepreneurship. Yeah, yeah. I, I, I'm pro badge and I think that, that I don't know, I don't know if this works long term because putting a full name only works sometimes. I don't think you can put a full name name on all designs. A badge is small, easy to put anywhere and if you get people used to reading your name and not associating your car with a badge, then if you do have to go to a badge, what do you do then? Yeah, I don't know.

[A]

A badge is good. If it's a good badge. Like, like Subaru is a good badge. If I was Buick. If I was Buick.

[B]

What even is their badge?

[A]

It's the three.

[B]

The little shield, Triple shield.

[A]

The triple shield, yeah. Link it. We could go about that.

[B]

What are they, what are they good? I think Subaru is great.

[A]

You know, it's kind of. Subaru badge is good.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche badges are good.

[B]

Oh yeah, that's.

[A]

Well, how many Aston Martin and Bentley badges are similar but good.

[C]

How many model badges are there? Because I just think about my, I'm a Corvette guy. So they, they obviously have their model

[A]

badge, but Mustang, Corvette.

[C]

Sure, yeah.

[A]

Viper had one.

[C]

Yeah, but Viper's out now.

[A]

No, I mean it's all, it's just all that was a great badge. Enthusiast cars, really only. And then all the Hellcats.

[C]

That's true. Yeah.

[A]

Those are great badges. Dodge has a cartoon whimsy.

[C]

100%.

[B]

The best badge is the Plymouth Prowler badge.

[C]

Oh, I don't think I've seen the Prowler badge. Is it pretty good? Oh yeah. A little before my time.

[A]

Just think about the fact that they were making the Prowler badge and The Viper badge at the same time. And you really think about badge.

[C]

Genius. Look at that.

[B]

Look at that.

[D]

Oh.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

That is so good.

[C]

No, that's hard. That's hard.

[B]

That's prowling, that thing.

[C]

That cat forgot about how gorgeous that was.

[A]

Are there people doing hemis in. In prowlers? Is there a hemi swap that might be too big?

[B]

You know, the thing about the Prowler is I think it's drip. We just drove one. Yeah, but it's driven by older folks. I mean, the whole thing is like, hey, here's a hot rod for, you know, the boomer generation. So I think they're probably fine with it.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

Somewhere you look, that whole thing doesn't fit.

[A]

Thing is, my friend, horse shit.

[B]

Because it does.

[A]

It very much does.

[B]

Because it was just like a 3.5 V6 in that, right? With a four speed. Yeah, it was all show.

[A]

It was just. Yeah, it was 253 horsepower. The first 300M. Remember the 300M?

[B]

Oh, I remember the 3 6.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, bro, I would. I kind of would rock a Prowler with a hellcat swap.

[D]

Oh, I would just do with the regular 392, right?

[A]

You don't need the block blower. Nope.

[B]

It looks incredible. The thing looks amazing.

[C]

Yeah, it was fun. It was a cool car.

[A]

It's in its own way, it is fun.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. And did you. Did the one you drove have a trailer?

[C]

No, we didn't have a trailer.

[A]

That's when shit gets real.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

There's a Jeep connection for the. Ready?

[A]

Wait, is it Yuri or Jacob that has a prowler? Which one of them was Yuri?

[B]

It was Yuri.

[A]

Does he still have it?

[C]

No, he sold it, right?

[A]

Oh, he might have.

[C]

If I remember correctly. He sold it.

[B]

You guys do know the Jeep connection with the Prowler, right?

[A]

No.

[B]

Tell me. They used the Jeep Wrangler YJ as the prototype development car for the Prowler. And there are pictures of the. What do they call it? The Prangler. It's called the Prangler. It's the craziest looking car ever. Really? It's a really. Part Jeep, part Prowler. It looks crazy. It looks like a shed with a, like, nose on. Really Strange.

[A]

Oh, wait, I think I remember maybe seeing a spy shot of that back in the day.

[B]

It was grainy. Spy shot.

[A]

Oh, dude. Shout out to Brenda Priddy, who probably got that motherfucker. Yeah, good question, though.

[C]

Ben's.

[A]

Ben says.

[D]

Oh, this.

[A]

All right, everyone can think of some automotive heroes but who are some automotive villains? Who are these Stalins and Pol Pots of the car world? Jesus Christ. From auto execs to influencers. I'm not sure there's any car influencers

[B]

that would be on the level. Now. That is hyperbolic question. Because if there were someone like that, we should talk about it.

[C]

Yeah, we should call them out fast.

[A]

Whose YouTube channel do they do the genocide in? I'm just wondering, like, everyone. Jesus.

[B]

I don't have an answer for this at all. That's.

[A]

That's. That's a lot. But I mean.

[D]

I mean, we know one of them.

[A]

Yes, but I mean, if you want to go like. Like Henry Ford did. Did quite a bit of. Quite a bit of the old white nationalism, Nazi flirtation.

[B]

Obviously. Volkswagen started Volkswagen.

[A]

Yeah. Pick your German car company. And I mean, there's. There's a lot of heroes that are also villains because people are complicated.

[B]

Yeah, totally. And there have been, like, sketchy startups throughout the years.

[C]

Yeah, I was gonna say it has to be mostly startup people these days right now.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. But I would not put them on that level. Like that is that John DeLorean and

[A]

Pol Pot are probably. No, I'm saying Beastie boys of Turin. Is the Lexus Altezza gauge cluster gimmicky or awesome? It's awesome because they clearly reference the watch for the styling. It's awesome. That's a fantastic gauge.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

AKA Lexus is 300 gauge.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

My friend's mom's Murano Cross Cab.

[B]

Great name. Great name.

[D]

Yeah. Do you guys still have that car?

[B]

We still have the car.

[A]

Know about the Volkswagen T Roc Cross Cab?

[B]

I've seen the T Rock, but I don't know if I've seen the convertible.

[A]

I was in Tanner Brief last week for as one does. And these are incredibly popular rental cars on the island of Tenerife.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

Right?

[B]

You know, I actually think it's weirder that crossover convertibles are not common because the old convertibles were just the daily driven sedan. Like a Mustang convertible in the 60s. You take your daily driven car, which is a Mustang, you take the roof off of it. Now the daily driver is the crossover. So why.

[D]

That's a good point.

[B]

Is that so weird now? It looks so off. It'll never look like.

[C]

Yeah, but when we were in Monterey last year, driving it around, every time it would be the four of us, Matt, Torch, David and I, and we're like, this is the way to live. Like, it felt fantastic in that car.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

It objectively is a decent, functioning Vehicle.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

It's just like so many points against for being so bad looking and how

[D]

many, how much did it impact the rear storage of that car? Like what's the trunk like? Because yeah, it's terrible. Have crossovers, they can pile shit up in there and blah, blah, blah. But with a car, especially the older 60s cars, the convertible didn't even intrude on the trunk that much because the car was so long.

[B]

It definitely hurts the storage. Yeah. The Cross Cab. You want to know the, the number one comment we got on the Cross Cab? It was, wow, you guys built that just like once or twice.

[A]

It was.

[B]

Dozens of people didn't believe it was a real production car. How is that possible? It's like over 10 years old and people still don't know it was real.

[D]

I've seen two and my life and one is yours.

[A]

The people, the people at Car Week have never been in a neighborhood poor enough for someone to drive a Nissan Murano Cross Cab. Yeah, that's why, that's like when I said to the Maserati people, like the whole interior, all of the switch gear of this is the same as a Dodge Charger in a Chrysler 300. And they said, really? Our customers have never been in a Dodge Charger.

[B]

They told you that?

[C]

Yeah. That's wild.

[B]

But they can read the Internet though.

[A]

That's the problem, as it turns out. Yeah, yeah. Let's see what else we got. Oh yeah, my friend's mom's Verana's crosscab said, do you think Porsche will miss out on this generation of hypercars entirely due to EV write offs and keep pumping out exclusive versions of the 911 to make some of that money back with minimal capital.

[D]

I think it's very possible they spent a lot of money on R and D for the thing that they had to shutter. So yeah, you know, unless they go, I mean, to develop, develop a new hypercar at the level they would have to do it I think would be so expensive. It's not something they could just crank out and then make profit.

[A]

No, they can make money by reimagining their existing cars though, and by restoring and modifying Carrera GTs and doing, essentially trying to compete against companies like Singer themselves. They can make a lot of that money back with the in house sort of resto modding business, which I'm, I'm, you know, it's a little bit cynical but like, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. I guess when I drove, I drove, I spent a week driving a 918 last year. Which was like whoa. Which was really cool.

[B]

What's that like to drive for a week?

[A]

Fucking awesome. When it's Porsche's car and it's a prototype still and it's old, it's got like 15, 13,000 miles on it but it's serviced and taken care of and it needed some exercise and they let me take it on a road trip and they can't ever sell it. Right. It's got like no VIN and so it doesn't like to have a car like that that doesn't have an investment grade value and you can just like it's a car and when you just use it as a car, it was so magnificent to use as a car. I was really shocked. The hybrid system aged way better than I thought it would. And I came away from this going if they made this like, you know, updated the center thing to work with CarPlay, you know, put a current USB

[B]

port, they wouldn't have to do much, right?

[A]

No, like upgraded the battery chemistry to today's, you know and you'd probably go from like 15 miles to 30 miles of EV range with the same size and weight and like not much else.

[B]

The formula is great.

[A]

Like leave the powertrain like you don't

[B]

have to do anything.

[A]

You don't do anything else. It's so fast. The steering was incredible. Like you just make that like dude, they call it the 919 and it's the same car and everybody would buy it.

[B]

The truth is electric motors and gas engines, they work together so beautifully. They fill each other's voids. It's, it's a beautiful thing.

[A]

They fill each other's voids.

[B]

Well that sounds a little.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Interesting. David. No, crazy. Like a stain live on a podcast.

[B]

So used motor oil. Wow. All right. Wow. We got some. Yeah.

[A]

Hybrid fan fiction going on the. Okay, hang on a second. Hang on. Keep, keep going, keep going.

[D]

That.

[A]

Our man in Barbados wants to know if the blazers can be made in customers sizes. They're going to be made in all the US normal sizing with room material in there to have your tailor take it one full size either way from what you order. But they're not going to be full custom. I think maybe unless you come to LA and get fitted by them. Maybe. I can't promise that but that's the only way it ever really.

[B]

Who's them?

[A]

Our partner at the Grotto who is actually here in la.

[B]

Wow, that's dope.

[A]

Sorry. Honda Multi Passport. Will any legacy manufacturer parentheses non low volume ever Focus on engineering the sound of the engine the same way Lexus did with the lfa. Has emissions made that impossible or will it only ever be digital? I might argue that General Motors with the Corvette Z06 had accomplished a similar feat.

[C]

I was going to say, I remember listening to you on the car show where you were talking about talking with a Ferrari engineer and it drove by and he's like, can you believe Ferrari gave that up? Yeah, it's crazy the sounds that makes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think other companies do focus on it. They just may not have like hired Yamaha. And also they had an engine that was like going to be in a Le Mans car already. So they were starting with that, you know, and. But dude, Ford with the, with the GT350. Oh, that was incredible. They're focusing on that kind of stuff. Yeah,

[D]

it's a weird name.

[A]

Okay, round up all the moms and force them to drive EVs. Whoa. All right, we don't.

[D]

I don't want to round up any

[B]

anti roundup around here.

[C]

Yeah, EV cams.

[A]

Should vehicles with ADAs and quote, self driving systems be required to have a beacon on them when the systems are in use so other drivers can make informed decisions in factories where these cars are made. When autonomous systems are in use, they get beacons to warn people. I don't hate it. Mercedes showed something like that with the teal corner lights. Right.

[B]

Teal is the color for that.

[A]

Teal was the color. I don't hate the X idea.

[D]

I mean have, I wonder like, what do you. What does the other driving public get from that? Because in theory, if it's been approved as a, you know, self driving system, it should just drive like a normal person. Yeah. So I think it's like, it seems like a, a fear based reaction to like, what are we these things gonna do? But they shouldn't do anything wrong.

[A]

Well, that's true.

[D]

And it might honestly lead to more traffic if people start like giving birth to them, you know, moving away from them and then all of a sudden you have that ripple effect.

[A]

We live in a city right now that is. And particularly right here because there's a, the Waymo like depot is right there. So every night, you know, when the shift changes, there's like whatever 400 Waymos right there.

[D]

They all come here to feed.

[B]

What are those weird vans that they're using now?

[A]

Those are the new zeekr. So you know, they've been using E paces for like ever. So they bought all the E paces. But they're, you know, so the ZEEKR is a Chinese. Chinese. It's designed for this so it's like a six passenger thing. And I first was seeing him like a year ago with human drivers. Now I'm seeing them with no drivers. I haven't seen. Have you taken one as a passenger yet?

[D]

No, but probably soon.

[A]

I haven't seen one with a passenger yet. Yeah but Waymo's are driving all over the place now and we know that they're autonomous because. Because we know what a Waymo is. But people don't really drive differently around them. Like it doesn't really make a difference most of the time that they're autonomous.

[B]

The only difference is if you see one parked you, you know, you gotta, you know how people behave around them. They stomp on their hoods and they flip them over and they set em on fire. That's the only difference. Yeah, you'd ideally like to know if it's some poor person's car if you're gonna set it on fire for some reason. Autonomous car the target, Is that what you're saying? The target. Everyone seems to go after the autonomous cars.

[D]

Choose a different descriptor by the way.

[A]

Sure. I think it's probably because there's, you don't actually want to like burn somebody alive and you think about it that way.

[B]

Well, I think that the reason why people go after these self driving cars is it's this mega company's vehicle. It's not an individual's car.

[D]

Right.

[B]

It's not. This person needs us to get to work. This is just this big company, they have this ridiculously expensive car. Car. And maybe the car's taking my job. Maybe they don't like it for that reason too.

[D]

It's a form of protest.

[C]

It's our right as Americans.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I, I, I, I understand sometimes you want to set a car.

[B]

I don't for the record. Right.

[A]

But like I understand wanting to set a car on fire.

[B]

It's a good time. Oh yeah, well it's a good time.

[A]

I hate Google a lot too. Those people.

[B]

I can't say that because we run a website and we need them and they

[A]

kind of also do. But like what are you gonna do? Christian says it's clear the market for low production million dollar cars is strong. Wouldn't it be smart. Oh for Lexus to make an actual LFA replacement?

[B]

Dude.

[A]

I mean I think it's, I don't know would help. Brand percent I don't know. Should Alexis be making another supercar?

[D]

I don't think so because I I think they have that. I mean, they've got, like, the Toyota GT thing.

[C]

Yeah, that grg.

[D]

Close enough.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

But I also. It took a long time for people to accept the lfa, and it really happened many years after it was sold. Yeah.

[A]

So they were unsold on dealer showrooms for quite a bit.

[D]

It didn't really prove its case to do it again.

[C]

So I think it's a situation where the people who love the LFA the most were the ones who, like, could have never afforded it in the first place. So they're, like, begging for that legacy to come back, but it's like, they're not gonna buy one regardless.

[D]

I mean, that's true with, like, performance wagons and so many other things. It's like, we like this thing. Can you buy it? No.

[B]

Should Lexus be making any sort of, like, super, like, big, flashy car?

[D]

What do you think they should be? I think they should make a fast GT car. Yes. Always. Because if they want to be a luxury brand, Mercedes does it. BMW, does it keep in the family? Yeah, but you don't need a super.

[A]

The LC is dope. The LC is dope. And you should. Everyone should buy one.

[B]

Does the average Lex owner know what that is? I wonder, because my wife is a big Lexus fan, but I'm not sure she knows what the LC is.

[D]

I don't know.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

She would. I think she'd recognize it as Alexis. I think it has Lexus DNA. Visually, you'd. I think if you saw one, you'd probably recognize it as Alexis.

[D]

I mean, face and interior, certainly.

[B]

Yeah, they're cool.

[A]

It looks nice. All right, we can. We can wrap it there. Okay, this is the time. Thank you guys for coming.

[B]

Thank you.

[C]

Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, it was a pleasure meeting you.

[A]

Tell your dad to leave me the fuck alone. No kidding.

[C]

He's gonna love that.

[A]

I need to go back and see what those. What those DMs were.

[C]

Yeah, he came.

[A]

He's like, my dad's been DMing you, and I genuinely.

[B]

Not the crazy.

[A]

Well, no, not that.

[D]

No, no.

[C]

My dad's a separate crazy man.

[A]

I don't. I genuinely don't recall, but it. There's. Whatever, but I just felt like I had to throw that in there.

[C]

No, I appreciate that. Thank you.

[A]

Dude, good job. Building a Jeep from ebay parts. Real crazy.

[B]

Yeah, It's a new.

[A]

It's a new high.

[B]

Don't recommend it, but it was awesome.

[A]

Yeah. When you do your first oil change, you can do a new clothing line and everything.

[B]

Yeah, there you go. Watch the video. It'll be on YouTube. Read our article.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

When does it come up? Fourth.

[C]

Fourth of July.

[B]

And we have. I wrote an 11,000 word story about the whole thing also going up on the 4th of July. So if you want to clear your

[A]

afternoon, if you have to drive to Moab at 40 miles an hour and you.

[B]

Yeah, you have a driver. There you go.

[A]

Damn, that's crazy.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

Love it. Thanks, guys.

[B]

Thank you, man. Thank you.

[A]

All the things, you know where to find them. And yeah, thanks to our patrons for asking such good questions today. We appreciate you. Our blazers, mine and Zach's will be for sale probably by the time you read this. So check the, the links wherever they are in our fucking Instagram and shit and get them while we're selling them. See you guys later.

[B]

Bye.