Porsche GT Pricing Scam(?); Zack's M3 Tariff; EV Charegers Cancelled

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast – March 19, 2026

Episode: Porsche GT Pricing Scam(?); Zack's M3 Tariff; EV Chargers Cancelled

Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman
Summary by AI Expert Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

Matt Farah and Zack Klapman return from a sailing trip to discuss the hot topics shaking up the automotive world: a wild Porsche GT3 price-fixing expose, an absurd tariff on Zack's M3 part import, the sudden cancellation of the federal EV charger program, plus new car updates, automotive journalism, and a lively Patron Q&A. The episode weaves classic “Smoking Tire” banter with sharp analysis of car culture, industry trends, and the realities of owning, buying, and selling enthusiast vehicles.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Post-Vacation Banter, Boats & Rums

• 00:00–10:20
  • Matt & Zack swap travel stories about their yachting trip in the BVI. Matt discusses the paradox of renting vs. owning luxury yachts (“There’s no faster way to burn money on the planet south of space flight than a giant fucking yacht.” – Matt, 02:04).
  • Reflections on seasickness, “sea legs,” and their experiences at renowned rum bars (“These high end rums… if you drink old rum, it’ll cost a tenth or less the price of an equivalent bourbon and taste better” – Zack, 08:08).

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Tech Woes: Alarm System Disasters

• 10:25–13:58
  • Matt describes the frustrations of “farm to table security” and why high-end tech (alarm/camera/home theater) often gets worse after corporate buyouts.
  • Notable quote: “You have a very fancy system put in… the system is so good that a bigger company acquires them… and your features stop working.” – Matt, 10:29

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Zack’s M3 Tariff – A Tale of Bureaucratic Absurdity

• 13:58–17:44
  • Zack recounts getting a Department of Homeland Security bill for $37 in tariffs for three tiny 3D-printed plastic clips from Taiwan: “A bill from the Department of Homeland Security for tariffs owed on three tiny clips about the size of a bottle cap—in the amount of how much? $37.” – Matt/Zack, 15:21
  • Discussion about reversed car part tariffs and the confusing landscape post-Supreme Court decision.

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Petrolicious’ Monthly Newspaper – Nostalgia in Print

• 20:00–23:57
  • Matt shares excitement for Petrolicious’s new car culture newspaper (“I’m into the idea of a car newspaper. $5.99 a month… it looks nice. The front story is about Ice Race for this month.”—Matt, 21:14).
  • Broader conversation about the appeal of curated, limited car journalism vs. overwhelming online content (“The Internet, there’s too many things to see. So if you just want a certain number of things about cars and move on, the newspaper helps.” – Zack, 22:14).

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EV Charger Program Axed—Loophole Politics

• 26:30–33:01
  • Matt & Zack dissect the recent “killing by loophole” of the $5 billion federal EV charger mandate, requiring 100% U.S.-built chargers—a near-impossible hurdle.
    • “They just found a loophole… must be 100% made in America, and it’s literally not possible to build a high voltage EV charger using 100% American parts.” – Matt, 28:27
  • Broader issues about domestic manufacturing capacity and parallels to the garment industry.
  • Oil stock prices’ rise gets a mention as a sign of slowing EV industry support.

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Porsche GT3 “Price Fixing” Conspiracy Explored

• 34:54–48:27
  • Matt & Zack break down a bombshell Rennlist thread (“A study in manipulation by Chicago Marketing”), revealing a systematic “hot potato” dealer network flipping GT3/Touring cars through BAT and consignment to pump prices.
  • Key insights:
    • Only 27% of ~130 BAT sales were true private-party transactions; most involved a dealer flip chain.
    • Dealers sell at MSRP to friends/partners, who relist/consign on BAT, then another dealer buys and relists as CPO for even higher prices, artificially inflating comps.
    • “He found one VIN that’s a year old, got five owners, and it’s got 100 miles on it.” – Matt, 40:04
  • Matt likens this to the NFT “pet rock” boom—manufactured, circular price inflation not based on real demand.
  • Legal status unclear: “It’s not like illegal to do this… but it’s… price fixing. There’s probably an actual term for it that isn’t that, but that’s kind of what it feels like.” – Matt, 42:14.
  • BAT comps for high-demand GT cars deemed unreliable due to this manipulation.

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Listener Questions: Patron Q&A Highlights

Storage Limits, Platform Sharing, and EV Adoption

• Storage at WCCS: The only real disqualifiers are lack of insurance or vehicles too large for the facility (65:16).
• Porsche Panamera/Taycan Platform Merger: Hosts think it makes sense financially, as long as it doesn't compromise key design differences (66:14).
• Increasing EV/Hybrid Adoption: Main barriers are infrastructure and affordability; “The market does not need a missing feature—the problem is wages haven’t kept up.” – Matt, 78:55.

Automotive Trivia & Tactics

• Reserve Prices at Auction: “Reserve should be the absolute lowest amount you’re willing to take… putting in all that work and not selling the car is a burden.” – Matt, 74:10.
• Best “Surprising” Forced Induction Cars: Pontiac Bonneville SSEI, Grand Prix GTP, Shelby Omni GLHS, and Toyota Previa supercharged get nostalgic nods (71:32).
• Best $50K Family Cruiser: Lexus GS-F: “Great car, that’s got the V8, 470 horsepower, sounds good.” – Matt & Zack, 100:13.

Philosophical & Practical Banter

• “James May Moment” – When Enthusiasm Turns Practical: “It was when I started driving Porsches… fit and finish started to matter more when I couldn’t use all the performance.” – Matt, 85:30.
• Vespa vs. Motorcycle Commutes: Vespas praised for cargo capacity, ease, city utility: “The difference between a scooter with a cargo box and one without is 100% utility versus zero utility.” – Matt, 59:06.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Matt on Yacht Ownership: “There’s no faster way to burn money on the planet south of space flight than a giant fucking yacht.” (02:04)
• Zack’s Tariff Debacle: “A bill from the Department of Homeland Security for tariffs owed on those three tiny clips about the size of a bottle cap—in the amount of how much? $37.” (15:21)
• On the GT3 Resale Conspiracy: “This car goes from being sold as a new unit…sold to an individual who owns a dealer…consigned through another dealer, bought on BAT by a franchise dealer, now becomes listed as a CPO even above that price.” – Matt (37:10)
• Price-Fixing Parallels: “It’s tough because everyone wants GT3s, but…it creates a fraudulent, price-fixing kind of system.” – Matt (42:14)
• Infrastructure Over Manual Hybrids: “The market does not need a missing feature…they need infrastructure and they need to be able to afford them.” – Matt (78:55)
• Resale Reserves: “If you're ready to sell that car, mentally that car's gone anyway. Every day that car is still here is a burden.” — Matt (76:52)

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:00–04:20: Vacation recap & luxury boat banter
• 10:25: Tech/Alarm System Disasters
• 13:58: M3 Tariff Story
• 20:00: Petrolicious Newspaper Launch
• 26:30: EV Charger Mandate Loophole & Industry Impact
• 34:54: Porsche GT3 Price Fixing Scandal Dissected
• 50:09–107:41: Patron Q&A; includes car trends, Porsche platform rumors, best practical cruisers, auction strategy, and more

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Closing Thoughts

The episode offers rare insight into deep-rooted dealership gamesmanship, the global complexities in automotive parts sourcing, and the precarious state of U.S. EV infrastructure. Matt and Zack continue to cut through hype and myth surrounding enthusiast cars, pricing, and automotive culture with a balance of humor, skepticism, and enthusiasm.

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Further Reading/Links

• Porsche GT3 Pricing Scandal Thread on Rennlist – See episode notes
• Petrolicious Car Culture Newspaper
• Westside Collector Car Storage

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For dedicated car enthusiasts and industry observers, this installment stands as a must-catch for honest talk on how the sausage gets made in the car game — and the moves you need to avoid getting burned.

Transcript

[A]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record. And they are looking out for all of you, just like they're looking out for me. If you get pulled over for a moving violation in any state in the U.S. don't plead guilty. Get off the record. Go to offtherecord.com TST that's offtherecord.com TNT and you get 10% off all legal services booked through off the Record. They will vigorously fight and defend and your position in a court of law. You trust me? Want this? Don't plead guilty. It could affect your insurance, your employment, and any other number of things. Offtherecord.comtst. write it down. Have it ready. Yeah. All right, folks, on this episode of the podcast, we are back in studio after about a week and change on the ocean. It was amazing. I have an all new alarm system that's causing me a little bit of headaches. Zach gets a tariff bill for a tiny little nothing car part. The EV Charger mandate got taken away while we were gone. And a whole lot more, including scams with GT3s. It's the smoking Tire Podcast.

[B]

We have confirmation of good audio.

[A]

That's not a pen. That's a fucking pen. I refuse to live like that.

[B]

Very Crocodile Dundee of you.

[A]

I refuse to live like that anymore. Gonna have a yacht like we saw down there. Never gonna have one of those, but what am I gonna have? The best of the little things.

[B]

That's a good way to go.

[A]

I actually think that's affordable. Pretty. It's like a pretty good way to a nice life, I think.

[B]

Sure. Well, you use that every day. And the people that own those yachts do not, you know, especially if they rent that shit for a week for $400,000.

[A]

Well, that's. Believe it or not, that's better. That's the value option.

[B]

Oh, versus owning it. Oh, yeah. That is less expensive.

[A]

Oh, yeah. There's no faster way to burn money on the planet south of space flight than a giant fucking yacht. I mean, but we saw some beautiful ones Zach and I got back last night. Welcome everybody. Got home at like 11 o'. Clock. Long travel day. California to the BVI is a bitch. That's like, certainly not like complaining about vacation, but like a funny thing about places that like east coasters vacation versus places that like west coasters vacation. Like, if you're in the east coast, like everybody down there was like, oh, we're from you Know the Midwest. We're from New York, we're from Florida, whatever. Because it's real easy to get there from there. Even our buddy Nat Mundy, bro, HPN to San Juan.

[B]

Yeah. Easy flight. It's like us flying to Hawaii.

[A]

Yeah, we're spoiled with Hawaii. And even Tahiti, the South Pacific is like pretty accessible from California.

[B]

Well, it's six hours closer than if you flew to Tahiti from New York.

[A]

Well, and it's long, but it's direct.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like you fly fucking to Papeete.

[B]

You know why? Cause there's just ocean between.

[A]

Yeah. What choice do you have? Well, you could have fucking Indiana Jones did through like, you know, Hawaii and then some other like, random like Amelia, Amelia Earhart island and fucking whatever. But yeah, Got home last night and I feel. I feel refreshed.

[B]

Yeah. So good.

[A]

Do I look tan?

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

It happens gradually.

[B]

Well, the lighting in here is weird. Like your head and face got much tanner throughout the week.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

But now with this light, it's hard to tell.

[A]

I'm real farmer's tanny. I did a lot of shirts, did a lot of rash guards, a lot of SPF 50. Got to be smart about this shit. We're in our 40s, can't fit.

[B]

Well, remember we saw those 20 year olds, like a group of five dudes, all who were just cooked red.

[A]

Oh my God. My sister in law, Jillian, who cannot help herself, just screamed at them from one boat to another like, you know, they sell sunscreen in the store in there like. And I was like, you could have just been like, nudge, nudge, check out the redness instead. But all right, she gotta do it.

[B]

That's how she rolls.

[A]

She's aggressive like that. Yeah, she's gotta do it. I'd say it's in love, but I don't think it is.

[B]

It is.

[A]

No, it's in love. When it's to someone she loves. She talks shit to me and that is love. And to her, to Hannah and that's love. But like, to those guys, I think that was just raw roughness.

[B]

She uses the same instrument to communicate to different people.

[A]

But yeah, had a good half second half of our sailing trip. I don't know if you, anyone who watched the video version of our little yacht cast. One thing I noticed a lot when I saw the video is how much you could actually see the boat moving. Because we were at Marina Cay and that was the only night of the trip where I was like, this sucks

[B]

because it was 2 to 3 foot, like rollers for 20 hours.

[A]

Yeah. And it was. Dude, it was fucking. We were. It was at a. We were at a position where the wind and the swells were not going the same way. And that's real shitty on a catamaran. Particularly on a catamaran. It's almost the only circumstance on a catamaran. The other circumstance being trying to sail upwind. But that notwithstanding, it's the only circumstance where living on a catamaran sucks balls. Because we had this sort of reef break that was bending the swell a certain way in front of us. The reef break that like sort of protected this area ended right at our boat. Cause we had like the shittiest last minute mooring and the swell bent around so the wind had us pointing, you know, on our mooring. Right in the wind. But then the swell was coming at the side. Oh, that shit's.

[B]

It's a lot of movement.

[A]

That was tough, dude. That was a tough night. There was. There's nothing luxurious about that night after that though. Yos Van Dyke. Luxurious. Fabulous. What a great place to visit.

[B]

Well, and I noticed, people might have noticed, if you listen to the audio, that when I was reading the questions, I stumbled on the words a lot. It was freaking me out. And like later that night I was trying to read in bed and I was like having. Trying to read your book, which had smaller font than I'm used to and I didn't have readers with me. And I was like, am I entering Bruce Willis dementia this week? Like, I got real worried.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then I looked it up.

[A]

Seasickness.

[B]

And it's. Trying to read like small font on a boat, the first couple days is hard because your brain is paying attention to the movement of the boat. And when it's these weird swells, like there's basically a ton of information happening while you try to focus on something stationary.

[A]

It would be like trying to like read your phone while being a passenger in a car that's off roading.

[B]

In a rally car.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And especially where we were on that mooring, the swells were not even when you're sailing, the motion of the ocean is actually fairly predictable. Like if you're going upwind, it's like bounce, bounce, bounce from the front. Okay. And if you're going downwind, you sort of have this wave surfing that happens. It's just a sort of like a very mellow surfing, but it's like pretty predictable and you don't actually get like sick like that. But man, that was a tough one. But it got much better and I. Do you have any. Do you still have any sea legs, Ness?

[B]

Yeah, when I woke up, it was gone yesterday. And then I woke up this morning and apparently, like, until you start walking around, your brain thinks it's still on the boat. So that was annoying. I didn't like it. But Sarah's like, I don't want this feeling to end. She wants to carry the vacation memory

[A]

with her sea legs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Valium. She needs to stop

[B]

drunk all the time.

[A]

Start taking a lot of Valium. Yeah.

[B]

Or some Captain Jack Sparrow.

[A]

It. What was the rum? I don't want to blow it up too hard. Before. Yeah. The wasn't one called Plantation, which is. Yeah.

[B]

Uncomfortably named.

[A]

That's tough. But plant the plantation. 20 year anniversary.

[B]

Basically, we learned that if you drink old rum, it will cost a tenth or less the price of an equivalent bourbon and taste better and be delicious.

[A]

Yeah. Quite good. Like, that was like whenever did you. Did you. When did you discover really expensive tequila? That really expensive tequila, like sipping tequila was like a good thing?

[B]

I think I was 26 and I had taken a five year break from tequila because of an unfortunate.

[A]

21 to 26.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Predictable. I did too. I did too. That vomit was tough.

[B]

It was that with Tabasco sauce. It was a. It was a heaven and hell party. Oh, yeah, I forget what the shot's called.

[A]

Tabasco.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, no. Nothing says frat party like some shit like that.

[B]

And that was the second worst drink that night. The worst is called a cement mixer.

[A]

Oh, I know what that is. Please don't even. No, no, go ahead. I'm just gonna. I'm gonna.

[B]

It's a shot of Bailey's. You put lime juice on it. You put it in your mouth and then you shake your head and it curdles and turns to cottage cheese in your mouth. So that's the worst one. But my friend, we're at a restaurant, he said, you got to try this. It's Don Julio 1942. And I sipped it and it brought me back in.

[A]

Yeah. No. Once you have a very expensive tequila and you go, oh, this can. That can be this. And I think we learned. We learned that with rum on this.

[B]

The rum was $60 for the bottle.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like it was. It's expensive, I guess, for rum, but that's.

[A]

But 30% if it was bourbon, it would have been 600 for a bottle.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Man, these high end rums. We were at the Cooper island rum bar, they had like 300 rums and a guy who really Knew his shit. And then the next night, we went to the Bitter End Rum bar.

[B]

Yeah, they used to run.

[A]

And there was a guy who used to run that place.

[B]

And he was.

[A]

When we were like, oh, we were just a Cooper island, this dude was. His face. You could just start to see the hatred he turned into Darth Vader of rum.

[B]

Yeah. It's like meeting. Meeting someone and telling them your girlfriend's name, and they stare you and go, do you know her? And, like, yeah. Like, oh, did she leave you for me?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was it.

[B]

About those dolphins.

[A]

But, dude, if you don't know. If you don't know about fucking, maybe we're just really late to this, the rum game. But, like, damn, that Jimmy Buffett was onto something. All right, enough boats. We got back to a couple of surprises. I have a new alarm system installed at the shop here that I had to get. This is a tech thing that happens. This has happened to me twice now. Maybe it's happened to somebody else. You have a very fancy system put in that's like an alarm or security camera system or maybe like a home theater kind of thing. And you. The system is so good that a bigger company, like a Honeywell or whatever, big industrial giant, like, acquires them for, like, $10 billion or whatever the fuck. But then a couple years later, it's, like, absorbed into the greater system, and your features stop working and. Or the customer service is absorbed into, and it's. You know, all of a sudden, you call customer service and you get the big company, and they don't even, like, know what the little company is anymore.

[B]

To purchase a plane. Press, too. You're like, it's Honeywell.

[A]

Yeah. So, like, I got to a point with my, like. Like, my. My systems, like my admin system of the. My cameras and alarms that this. This company that we used was acquired by a much bigger company. The system still worked. That company was acquired by a bigger company. It went from guppy to fucking medium fish to shark. And now. I don't want to say nothing worked. It works. But many features became inaccessible, and I had to do a master admin password reset, and that function stopped. So, like, my cameras were still recording, my alarm still working, all that shit. But, like, all of a sudden, there were no changes I could make. Whoa. Yeah. Like, the web portal, like stuff.

[B]

Is that what happened, like, six months ago when some of the displays in here were just showing, like, binary code? Mm. Oh, okay.

[A]

That was that. And annoyingly, the big security. The big monitor that I have in My office and whatever that shows me. The cameras that stopped working, which is. That drove me nuts. So anyway, what choice do I have? Start over. Upgrade the entire system to a new. This new one, blah, blah, blah. This has happened a couple times now and I was like, this new one, we need to find a company that is like committed to farm to table security. Like not like not being acquired. Like they like a long term company. Like at least. Because this is like tens of thousands of dollars for this shit. So anyway, and the company that does my installs, they're professionals. They're doing huge, huge commercial projects, apartment buildings and hospitals and shit. And they're like, I understand how crazily frustrating this has happened across the industry for all of these high end specialized systems. Maybe people can relate if they're in other industries where this happened too. Maybe it's healthcare, whatever portal they're using, or audio or. You know, I'm sure there's a million of them where shit just like stops working. So just spend fucking all this money. But we're gonna have a better system now. But you got a surprise?

[B]

I got.

[A]

You got a surprise from the government.

[B]

I got a note. I got a letter from the government. You know, a couple weeks ago my C pillar fell down in my car.

[A]

Your C pillar?

[B]

My C pillar, yeah. And inside, inside passenger side, you know, rear glass area and all the. There's all these like little clips on the inside, this large piece of plastic. And they got old and shattered. Yeah, you know, right after the interior was reupholstered.

[A]

Did we find them? The clips?

[B]

No, fuck.

[A]

By we, we me that like. Anyway, so I'll get there.

[B]

So I was going to, you know, instead of ordering a whole new panel from like FCP because it's like $260, I found a company called. Was it like Rendition or something? And they make 3D printed pieces that just replace those clips. And they're well designed, they fit right around the old ones. It's so much easier to install those than I expected. And then you get the $10 clips that Thad brought to your house that the cats promptly ate. And I went, oh, this is a great solution. It was like $60 for these clips and I'll just save some money and put those things in. And I ordered them from this company's website and I selected the shipping that was slow because that's all I needed. And then today I get in the office and there's a bill from the Department of Homeland Security for tariffs owed on those three tiny clips that are about the size of a bottle cap

[A]

in the amount of how much?

[B]

$37.

[A]

How much were the clips?

[B]

48 or $62. Yeah, my tariff was, like, 50%, but, like, I. Oh. Invoice. 5253.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So the cost of those is now almost 100% up. But I'm also.

[A]

But, like, wasn't there just a lawsuit and so many of the tariffs were, like, reversed.

[B]

Yes, true.

[A]

So do you think you have to pay this?

[B]

Well, this was invoiced March 4th. Oh, let's find out when the Supreme Court.

[A]

Yeah, we were. This happened while we were. While we were gone.

[B]

Well, let's see. Two days. Two days ago. There was a lot of articles about the tariff in Supreme Court. Oh, no. So the tariff. The supreme court ruling was February 23rd. So this was invoice after that. So they're trying to get that money before. Yeah, the laws get put back in place.

[A]

Are you gonna pay them?

[B]

I'm gonna email the company. I bought it from ago. How come? Like, I don't. I don't remember being notified by.

[A]

What country is this company in?

[B]

I guess manufacturer ID Motor. Oh, country of origin? Tw. I assume that's Taiwan.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Hmm. Didn't know that either. I thought they were based somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Weird. Yeah.

[A]

Who? Yeah. Wow. But that's.

[B]

You know, when you try to save yourself money.

[A]

I know. I. I'm gonna go. Cars are so dumb. My fucking house. AP Find. I'm writing it down, Zach. So Thaddy has brought these things to my house. It's a little plastic clip full of plastic clips.

[B]

Everyone's got them in their car. They hold panels to doors.

[A]

At some point, he, like, threw them on my kitchen counter when he came over for dinner and was like, these are for Zach. And I'm like, okay. And I just. They got put somewhere, and it's a little bag of clips, and who the fuck knows? And I need to find them. So I couldn't find them. I did a cursory look before we went to the bvi, but I was only here for two days.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I have been in Los Angeles for two days since February 23rd.

[B]

You filed the Supreme Court ruling.

[A]

Crazy. That's so silly. I don't know what's wrong with me.

[B]

Valhalla. Awesome.

[A]

You know, it's crazy. I almost, like, don't even remember going, like, we're.

[B]

That phase of.

[A]

It's a good thing that we have, like, notes and video, because, boy, would that be a struggle. While we were gone. Petrolicious. Launched a newspaper. Folks taking a quick break because hellofresh is in the house. And I love hellofresh actually. Not because it's so healthy, although that's a good move, but because it allows me to do the thing I like doing, cooking without doing the thing I don't like doing. Thinking about what to cook, right? Bringing everyone together with meals that are simple and rewarding, but not having to spend the second half of my day searching recipes endlessly buying more than I need, figuring out what to go where. Instead, hellofresh is in the house. I can choose from more than 100 recipes each week, including cuisines from around the world and meals that help beat the winter blues. They've got bigger portions to satisfy everyone. They've got high protein, They've got Mediterranean GLP1 friendly. They've got the chef specials. Oh my gosh, that's so good. You can feel great with wholesome ingredients like sustainably sourced seafood and 100% antibiotic and hormone free chicken. Now there's now three times the seafood for no upcharge. And you can impress guests or treat yourself with new grass fed steak or ribeyes. Man, I love hellofresh also, because when you get the recipes from HelloFresh, you just keep them in a little folder in your kitchen. Before you know it, you've got a cookbook. And when you need to cook that recipe later, maybe for a big group or for a party or for someone else's family, if you've got a second family, you don't want them to know that your real wife is getting the hellofresh. Ah, you know how it is. Then you can bring the recipe card over and make it later, right? It's so delicious. You can go to hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm to get 10 free meals and a free Zwilling knife. A $145 value on your third box offer valid while supplies last free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. HelloFresh.com Smokingtire 10fm to get 10 free meals and a Zwilling knife on your third box. 10fm a monthly newspaper which actually I find interesting. And when we were at Ice Race we met Paolo who is one of their new creative directors. Petrolicious was big 10 years ago and then fell off for several reasons. Sort of hilarious reasons, but it was a good brand and still remembered fondly. And so I like this idea of a newspaper. $5.99 a month and it's, I don't know, 20 pages 20. How many pages is it? 25 pages. 20 pages? 22 pages and it looks nice. The front story is about Ice Race for this month, but they sent it to me and I would totally subscribe to this. There's some. I haven't gotten through it because literally I came in this morning and saw it, but I'm happy to see that it exists. That's a cool thing to be doing.

[B]

Let me look at this thing. What an interesting, like. Well, it's like an example of, you know, cyclical fashion. Cyclical fashion. And this is like cyclical media.

[A]

There's a classic classifieds, which I like. Classifieds old and new and current. So like here's some cars that are for sale.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then throwback March 89. You missed out.

[B]

Oh, this is called the anger section. This is called one of the sadness, the rage section.

[A]

Don't really feel sad and stupid.

[B]

Well, let's see. A 959 is expensive back then. Still expensive today.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

72 Ferrari 308. Oh, call for prices.

[A]

I'm pretty sure this is a story about Matt Crook collecting his, his Porsche here from Germany.

[B]

A DB6 for 40 grand though. That's pretty sick.

[A]

And some classic here. The Ice Race piece about a night the only Porsche 964 in Armenia. Yeah. Cool artist feature. I'm into it. A story about the how emissions technology also helped cars go faster.

[B]

I like this stuff because it helps you focus. Because like these days, you know, the Internet, there's too many things to see. So they go if you just want it. It's like the newsletters you subscribe to. Like you just want to read a certain number of things about cars and move on with your day. So you just, you read only the Petrolicious or only the Road and Track magazine.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then you just kind of go about your life.

[A]

Yeah. This is a good one though. I like, I, I'm into the idea of a car newspaper. It's like, it's like sort of. I mean it's, you know, 5.99amonth for a newspaper is still a lot, I suppose, but high end magazines are a lot now. I mean literally like road and tracks a lot. Like Road Rat. Like good, good. Car journalism is expensive. Road Rat is I think 15 an issue when they're quarterly.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, that's not bad. I thought it's more expensive than that.

[A]

No, I think, I think I pace well. Oh shit. It might be pounds. I think I pay 60 British pounds a year for my subscription maybe.

[B]

Oh, that's still pretty good.

[A]

I think it's worth it.

[B]

Yeah, right. It's 15 pounds per.

[A]

15 pounds an issue? Yeah.

[B]

How much is this? Five bucks. And how often?

[A]

Six dollars once a month.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

This is their third issue. Yeah. I mean, I personally would subscribe to that for six bucks a month. I spend that much on other people doing creative writing that I like. I read a book I didn't like. I wouldn't say I didn't like it. I thought I would learn something and almost everything in it I already knew. I'm not trying to say I'm that smart. I just like. The title was targeted toward my thought process, but I had already reached the same conclusion that the book had.

[B]

We had the same experience. I started reading that Michael Pollan food book. I got 10 pages in on it. Oh, like eat real ingredients and not too much of this. That like. Okay. And I literally just set the book down.

[A]

I think it's a very. I finished mine because I was on a fucking shitty ass American Airlines flight with no entertainment. So I was like, well, I'm here. I might as well. So I didn't put it down. Hannah kept being like, put it down. Pick up this other book. And I was like, eh. And I finished it and I kind of of like. But it happened. Okay. What the fuck else is going on, guys? Taking a quick break because support's coming in liquid from AG1. Today. We have liquid support. You can take a break from your school or work routine, but stay consistent with your health like Zach and I are doing on a yacht right now with the AG one. That's how we're getting those vitamins and minerals while we're out there not getting scurvy on the boat. You feel me? They've got the AG1 travel packs to support. Celebrate the adventure. That's what I'm talking about. You can come out of your winter slump and reset for the season ahead. Me, I'm just making sure I get all my vitamins and minerals and veggies Every single day. AG1 is a daily health drink clinically shown to support gut health and fill in common nutrient gaps. With 75 plus ingredients, including five clinically studied probiotic strains, AG1 replaces the need for a multivitamin, probiotics and more. It's very challenging to stay consistent with your nutrients every day as your schedule is all over the place. Maybe you're traveling to three different countries in a week like I am sometimes. And that's why you can take advantage of each morning and make sure that you get every nutrient you need in one place. That's where AG1 comes from. The superfoods and B vitamins in AG1 provide nutritional support. Support to help you stay steady and consistent. And daily energy support keeps you moving throughout the spring. It helps your immune system with support that helps you stay at your best. It's got antioxidants, probiotics, and functional mushrooms. And AG1 Next Gen delivers five strains of clinically studied probiotics shown to support digestion, immune function and alleviate occasional bloating. So, you know, do you want to poop better? Do you want to have better nutrients? Do you want to have a better, stronger immune system? You're going to need that. AG1. Go to drinkag1.com tire to get an AG1 flavor sampler and a bottle of vitamin D3 and K2 for free in your AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription. Order only while supplies last. That's drinkag1.com tire. Or we can talk about Trump finding a loophole in order to kill the EV charging program. That's fine. We have. Speaking of things being killed, we have a Volvo EX30 press car coming tomorrow. And like, two days ago, Volvo announced they're killing that model. I've never. I don't know if I've reviewed a dead car. Well, I have. We've done, like, when a car's going away. We did that, but, like, I don't know if I've ever reviewed a new car that became dead before. We got like, this car's been out for, like, a year.

[B]

Well, I went to Korea to drive the Ionic 5N, and they're keeping the Ionic 5N in the United States, but they're canceling the regular Ioniq 5.

[A]

Seriously?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

When did they announce that they're canceling the regular Ioniq 5? Don't they sell, like, a bunch of them now?

[B]

Maybe they're gonna remake it and bring it back in two years. Maybe they're sunsetting the model for now.

[A]

But that would be crazy.

[B]

I see a lot of them in

[A]

la, but I really feel like the. Oh, the six.

[B]

Oh, I'm sorry. I meant the six. The swoopy one.

[A]

Yeah. Well, the ugly one. They're keeping the five, which looks good.

[B]

Yeah. But I see a lot of sixes around here.

[A]

Well, because they're cheap in la. They are incredibly efficient and they are cheap. But, like, I thought you meant the five. I was, like, distraught. I was like, that's crazy. They're super popular all over, like, anywhere. EVs are popular. The Ioniq 5s.

[B]

Ooh. 2024 sales totaled 12,000.

[A]

That's not great. That's not great.

[B]

Yeah, that's bad. All right, so I see all 12,000 in this city, probably.

[A]

I think that's probably true. All right, but dude, and they just killed the fucking. They just found a way to kill. So the federally mandated $5 billion EV Charger program, they weren't able to like kill it. Cause it's fucking mandated. It was voted on. All this sh. But they found a loophole and they said, oh, the chargers that we are installing, they must be 100% made in America. And it is like literally not possible to build a high voltage EV charger using 100% American parts. It doesn't exist. This goes back to.

[B]

Well, there's probably a lot of critical minerals, stuff we get from other countries that we know we get from other countries. All kinds of shit.

[A]

Think how many fucking parts, electronic parts are in this thing. Where they come from. They come from all over the fucking place. I mean, dude, back in the day when my dad was running Ralph Lauren, there was like a big fucking hullabaloo about one of their sweaters that they were wearing not being made in America. Okay? It was like, do you want to make the clothes in America? Like, ideally, sure, for the Olympians, right? But this was like a zip up, not a hoodie, but like a zip up fucking sweater. And they made a huge deal about this fucking thing not being made in America. And my dad explained to somebody from the news and then to me over dinner what it would take to actually make this very basic. Nice, but basic thing in America. It would involve, like, there isn't a factory that can make it. Or at the time there wasn't. Maybe there is now. But like, it's like the ship fucking sailed on making this type of garment in America.

[B]

Like, if you like the COVID thing during, you know, the PPE stuff, right? Or the personal protection things, like we don't have the factories anymore.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So like, shout out, like Jocko Willink, you know, he has this origin company and they make boots, shoes, jeans. Like, they make clothes in the USA with USA products. But it's taken a long time to build the facility to then make it, which can be done. The stuff is expensive. But, you know, to your point, like, to have Ralph Lauren just pivot immediately to make the thing. Like, they don't have the looms. They don't have it.

[A]

Yeah. Or to do it proactively out of, you know, he's making they're making 40 or 50 garments for the, for the Olympic collection, the high end ones. Because the real. Some of the really expensive stuff was made in America. The purple label, the handmade shit like, like that stuff. Sometimes it was Italy, sometimes it was the uk, sometimes it was, and sometimes it was Asia. But it's only the very cause it's the way clothes work. You would have had to pay Americans, it was unionized, whatever. But you'd have to build a factory with those type of looms. It didn't exist. So anyway, that was whatever 25 years ago and we're talking about a fucking sweater. This is like EV chargers with crucial minerals and computing stuff and who knows where the circuit boards come from. Who knows where you'd have to design an all new EV charger and you'd have to design many, many, many new components and then you'd have to manufacture from the bottom up this whole thing. So they've essentially killed this because it is not possible to meet the requirements.

[B]

Well, and some of the stuff with the EV things like it's where they source the minerals from. So do we, do we have on US soil these specific metals that we need to go into the circuits or into the wiring or into the other things for that. Which is almost different than like, you know, a clothing factory. Like you could set up here. Things be expensive, but do you bring in the plastic to make the poly? You know, whatever. Yeah, but if we don't have, if we don't have a cache of like Lithium's a bad example. I don't.

[A]

Cobalt.

[B]

If it literally doesn't come from our ground, then it's impossible to make it here.

[A]

Yeah. I'm not saying that it would never be possible to make an entirely made in USA EV charger. If you start now, eventually you probably could, but given the entire state of the industry, the technology, the available componentry, it's effectively impossible. Yeah, that's what I'm so yeah.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

That's great. So we get. So we vote on stuff. We do it and then they're just like, you know what, let's find a fucking loophole so that it actually doesn't get done.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And like for fucking what? You know, like to just to make everybody that this whole industry to make everyone's life harder who's invested in the. It's like a. It's like as a punishment or Zach's Googling ExxonMobil stock price. Are you saying that it's good?

[B]

Well, g will occurs.

[A]

Would you look at how well ExxonMobil has done it. Looks like it's gone from about 14 at the end of last year to 158 today. Wow.

[B]

It's up about 50%.

[A]

It seems if you own a lot of ExxonMobil stock, boy, are you fucking stoked. Oh, boy. Wow. It looks like. It looks like this. Where does, where does that big jump happen? Right?

[B]

Is that 22, 25?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

So Christmas time.

[A]

Yeah. Nice. God, I just love. I love oil and gas stocks. They're my favorite things to invest in. They really. That's how we went sailing. We did a very low emissions vacation. Powered by my dividends. No, no. Absolutely not. I do love me some zero emissions sailing.

[B]

It's awesome. I'm a big fan. I wish I appreciated it when I was a younger person, but it is nice.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's funny. It gets quiet, but then when something starts to happen with the sail, it gets real fucking loud and it feels like the boat is going to shake apart.

[A]

Yeah. So you want to talk about this?

[B]

Yeah. Let's talk about this Renlist thing. Okay.

[A]

Few people sent me this.

[B]

Yes. Set this up. This is a pretty wild story.

[A]

So it's a thread on Renlist in which someone describes an almost price fixing adjacent scheme.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In which franchise dealers, independent dealers and consignment stores that sell on bat sort of have a circle, a swirly hot tub of hot potato with new GT3 and GT3 touring units in order to serve a couple of needs. Basically what happens is this person has done a lot of research following like 100 plus GT3 sales. Right.

[B]

How many?

[A]

It's like over 100. Maybe 130. Maybe. Okay, 130 sales. So right there, where the. So basically analyzes 130 sales from BAT Bat and alleges that in many of those sales, only 27% of those 130 sales are actually one person selling a car to another person.

[B]

To another individual.

[A]

Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with a dealer selling cars on bat. There's nothing wrong with the dealer buying cars on bat. But what this person is talking about is basically the franchise dealer will get an allocation on a really hot car, specifically a GT3 Touring. That franchise dealer will sell that car to a friendly independent dealer. But not dealer to dealer. They'll sell it to the owner of the dealer as an individual customer. Zach Clapman owns Culver City Motor Cars. And you, Zach Clapman, are also a good friend of Porsche dealer X. Right. Porsche dealer X allocates Zach Klapmann the

[B]

car which I buy at MSRP is required by Porsche Ag.

[A]

Right, you buy it at msrp. You then immediately under a pseudonym username on bat, either listed on your lot or more likely consign it back, can sign it on bat through another consigning dealer. So you now can sign it back through another dealer. So it's going to be appeared as listed by someone almost like Westside, but I'm not a dealer, but like a quote name, you know, kind of a popular bat dealer, one of five, six or ten on there. Right. And so now a franchise dealer will pay a bunch of money under another pseudonymous username, buy that car back, list it as CPO on their lot, and at each step in the process, 10 to $20,000 is added. So this car goes from being sold as a new unit, allocated, sold to an individual who owns a car, dealer consigns through another car dealer, bought on bat by another franchise dealer and now becomes listed and by the way, bought on bat at a high price, which establishes a public market. They then put it on their lot as a CPO as even above that market.

[B]

Now and one thing that this person pointed out, and this is a great thread to read, we'll put it in the description.

[A]

By the way, I'm summarizing like an 8,000 word thing full of data, so forgive me if my words aren't exactly accurate, but would you say I describe that system pretty accurately?

[B]

Yeah, definitely. So some of these large dealerships, sorry, there's two terms. There's franchise dealerships like Porsche dealership of X City and then there are the independent dealerships. And so Porsche X of one city would basically move cars through these intermediary companies and then end up selling the car at a different Porsche of X of Y City that they have a partnership with or possibly own. Because some of these dealership groups will own 20 to 25 dealerships around the country. They list Hendrick, one of the largest dealership networks in the country. Porsche of city X will sell it for msrp, but eventually they're dear friends at Porsche of City. Yeah, can sell the car for 100 or 200 over by kind of building these steps, these price steps. Through each transaction it goes up 10 to 15 grand and ends up as a CPO car in some cases that has zero miles added in all of these transactions. You know, I mean, there's a lot of interesting intermediary stuff happening here.

[A]

This guy found one VIN number that has like, it's like a year old, it's got five owners and it's got 100 miles on it.

[B]

One of them had 14.

[A]

Yeah, 14 miles. Yeah. So like it' Sanand the independent dealer guys are getting multiple allocations and then it's all. It's a few people that are just sort of swirling these cars around. But they're creating the perception of a big public market which then is used to justify high prices of these cars all across dealer lots, across the entire industry.

[B]

Yeah. So it's a way, it seems like it's a way for franchise dealers to get around the no markup rule and eventually sell a car with a huge markup that they had to sell at MSRP originally. But it also works to pump the whole market. So even so all the comps go up. So they get to pump the inventory, they have the secondary inventory that they're kind of involved in and they just all make way more money.

[A]

And the problem is there isn't an actual reality, non business customer in most of these transactions. These are the public stuff that's referenced on bat. That becomes a point of data for the industry. It's then written up in the car, maybe something like this or a Hagerty's roundup or whatever, that becomes an authoritative point of data. But the problem is that's not a real customer buying a car from an individual or from a dealer or from an auction. That's one person selling to his buddy who's listing it through his buddy who's selling it back to his buddy in order to just fleece the last guy at the end who shows up and buys it at this inflated markup cpo.

[B]

It's something that people thought was happening and they never proved it. But with the NFT stuff, the pet rock, whatever they're called, but it's just people that are involved in that system, trading them back and forth, raising the price and then eventually retail shows up and goes, this picture of a rock is worth $150,000.

[A]

Yeah. And so it's tough because like everyone, everyone wants GT3s and like, you know, I guess it's not like illegal to do this. I just think it's. I don't think it is. I just think it creates a fraudulent. It's like price fixing. It seems like price fixing to me. There's probably an actual term for it that isn't that, but that's kind of what it feels like. Remember in 10 years ago, 12 years ago, I wanted to bid on that, or I did bid on that Hokosuka skyline at pebble. And the guy who won ultimately had spent. He paid more for it than anyone had ever paid for one of those. And it was. It was way more than he had to and way more. The estimate. And I saw the person later, and he was like, yeah, I have six of them. I wanted to pay more for this because it pumps the value of the other ones. I was like, oh, well, a, that makes sense. And B, it sucks ass that someone like me is bidding against that person. I was sort of like, you know, that's life. And it is life. That's if that guy wants to invest enough money in a bunch of cars that have never sold publicly at auction because he thinks that's a good thing and he can buy one publicly at auction and doesn't mind paying too much for it. I was sort of like, well, okay, that's a move, but this seems more systematic.

[B]

Yeah, it definitely does. I don't know what I was going to say. I looked at price fixing, but it's an agreement, written verbal or inferred from conduct among competitors to raise, lower, maintain, or stabilize prices at price levels now. So if these dealerships are, like, talking to each other and agreeing to do this, and I'm only mentioning wab, I know he was a guest, but he's mentioned in this renlist. Write up a lot. If Wab in the dealership down the street that's listed in this write up up ever had a meeting.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Where they said, hey, we can. We. Wob can provide this service to you guys. And here's how this circle could work. Like, that would be. Seems like it'd be price fixing, but I don't know if.

[A]

Yeah, who knows? I mean, I. I like Rob.

[B]

I.

[A]

You know, I. I don't think. I mean, he's. He's, you know, he is taking a commit. Like, he works on commission. Like, we don't, you know, so. So if he takes a car on consignment, he's gonna do his thing and, you know, sell it. I'm not sure if he has a real responsibility beyond that. I'm sure he flips a lot of GT3s for people.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, on here, they said he was responsible for a huge percentage of them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

There's also someone listed. One of the usernames from Bat was a bidder on your nsx.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

Yeah, with an M. Oh, that's funny. Like Meeples or something. Not Meeples, that was the artist, but it was one of those I recognize.

[A]

Oh, that's funny. So, I mean. Yeah, I mean, it's this list, I'm sure it's up. Where do you find on red bat and GT3 prices? A study in manipulation by Chicago Marketing. Yeah, that's up on redlist. I hope I did a good job summarizing it because there's a lot in there.

[B]

It's really interesting. And Chicago Marketing, it should be said, is a username. It's not like a company called Chicago Marketing. But, yeah, the TLDRs. It seems like. It seems like these seemingly independent dealerships are not working independently of some of the franchises. And the result is that anyone like us out there who wants to just buy a GT3 goes, well, I guess the price is 400 grand because that's what they're going for.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The reason they're going for that is because of.

[A]

Is because they take a lap around the track before coming back to the lot where you're expected to pay that.

[B]

Right. And they keep getting listed for more and more money until the end up as cpo, where they get listed for even more.

[A]

Yeah, Wild.

[B]

Wild. Really interesting.

[A]

And I mean, it's, you know, it's the kind of stuff you sort of expect to hear is happening, you know, and then you go, well, it's a free market.

[B]

Yeah, of course you'd expect it. It's a free, fair market.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, not like, you know, it's tough. It's not like anyone has a right to a GT3, you know, but it's. It also is. For a while, we've been like, wow, you know, Porsche sales are not so great. Well, except. Except the 911s and the GT3s and all that. You know, they're unobtainium and this and that, but actually, if this is the case, then maybe not. Well, I think, I mean, they're still doing it. You still. This is still like it's happening. So it's not like, I think it

[B]

adds an asterisk of, you know, here's what cars are going for, you know, so. And this person concluded the same thing, like, like you said, using bat as the sort of. As the indicator of what things are selling for. And that gets proliferated around different blogs and other things, like, should it be used as a tool of information or should it not be trusted as much or maybe just looked at with a different, different eye because of this.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, if. If it. Basically, the. The lesson is, I think BAT comps for Porsche GT cars are probably not good comps. Yeah, Unfortunately, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I Haven't done bat versus cars and bids on this one yet. But like it's an, it's, it's, it seems the system may have been abused here. And so it's not that there's like, it's not, it's not that we're like making accusations of like criminal activity but like the comps seem not what they should be because of this and people should read this. It's pretty like, like it's pretty, pretty thorough. So yeah, that's an interesting thing. But speaking of Porsches, here's. You know how you can get one, you know you can get one without going through this. You can enter to win ours.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

It's up right now. It's going to be in the show notes. We're giving away a 911 Turbo S modded to our specific canyon carving and road tripping tastes. I think you will like very much what we've done here. When are we putting the first video

[B]

up with that qc? It probably put it up tomorrow.

[A]

Oh, okay. Yeah, tomorrow morning we will put the video up. If you're watching this podcast live, it'll be up on Friday the 20th. And it's great. It's very straightforward. There is a charitable element to it. You can go in the link, you can read about the charities we're working with. Dream giveaways. They're extremely transparent. You don't have to buy any merch. I know nobody wants another coffee cup. Got lots of coffee cups. But it's all very transparent. So you can go read all about it. But the thing that you need to know is that you can win a brand new 911 Turbo S modded by us in a very, very delightful specification. You could win it and you could daily drive it for 20 years.

[B]

We will reveal more about the modifications as the videos go out. Yes, we gotta tease it a little bit. Yeah.

[A]

You know what happened, Zach, right before the show, I got like crazy heartburn and so I chugged like a liter of water and now that water needs to come out.

[B]

That's a good segue for the TST catheter which is going to be coming to our future merch store.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

We'll go to the people. Let's go to those patrons. They're our favorite. They keep the ship floating down the ocean.

[B]

They are the wind in our sails.

[A]

They are the wind in my jib. Yeah, of course. Patreon.com the Smokingtirepodcast is where you get in the game. It's where you ask Questions for the show. It's where you watch the livestream, it's where you get the show before everybody else. It's how you can get an ad free show, it's how you can get extra show and it's how you can get access to all the fun collabs and other creative things that we are making. We have in addition to the new Bros and Ferry Notice Canyon, which will be available very, very soon, we got another fun collab that's happening that's going to be really, really very special. And I'm super excited about that one too. And it's going to be only for patrons. It's not going to be watches or pens. It's going to be fucking different and fun. So we'll go to these folks and see what these motherfuckers have to say. Wheat City Night Court says, as our young. As younger gen Xers reach 50, will 80s and early 90s cars plateau? Because we've already bought our dream cars. I think there's probably some precedent to. You can look at cars from the 60s and I would say that in some cases they plateau, like and then in the really special ones continue to. Continue to rise.

[B]

I think that's. Yeah. I would look at where the 60 cars started around with the boomers. Were the boomers 50 or 60 years old? Roughly.

[A]

Like where does their spending go in like 1946? 40. Right. You know, 46, 47. Then they would be. They would have been in their 40s in the 80s, 50s in the 90s and like 60s in 2005.

[B]

That's when muscle cars.

[A]

That's when muscle cars really.

[B]

Yeah, I think 60s people have Max spending power and they retire usually and

[A]

they're retiring and they want to recapture their youth. Yeah. So I do not think these cars have plateaued yet, particularly if they're the special ones. I mean, if you look at muscle cars today, then. A fairly crappy muscle car that went up in 2007 to like 30 grand kind of stayed there. Like they didn't go back down to five. You know, they went up and then they did plateau. But then the really collectible stuff did kept going. Like it went up, it came down and now it's like back up again and past. You know, if you're looking at a Hemi Cuda like or one of those rare whatever Chevelles with the crazy racing engines and shit in them, like those are past where they were in 07 now. But the other stuff just sort of stayed where it was at. Same thing, I think will happen with 80s and 90s. Hold me closer Bertone Danza.

[B]

Bertone Danza.

[A]

Bertone Danza.

[B]

Hold me closer Bertone Danza.

[A]

That's pretty good. Fuck, marry, kill current M, AMG and RS lineups.

[B]

I'd marry the M, I would fuck the RS and I would kill the AMG. Yeah. Because they're, I mean they're the four cylinder hybrid thing. Like my meat and potatoes of AMG is always the C63.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I do not like it right now.

[A]

Sure, the GT63 still has the V8.

[B]

That's true. But it's big.

[A]

Yeah, I know.

[B]

And the new, the new GT is a good car, but it grew a lot. It's more like the sl, which I don't like that much.

[A]

The m marry the RS. The RS3 is delightful.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And the RS6 isn't, isn't exciting. But I could live, I could live with it.

[B]

And then there's also RSQ8 and all.

[A]

Those are very good. Yeah, yeah, those are good. Crater says. Oh, wait, okay, wait. I bought myself a Bulova machina, a watch in black. And I love the color of the black case. But a friend of mine says avoid black watches because of how the black wears over time. I haven't had much issue with this. Am I nuts? What are your thoughts on black watches? So I don't personally love black watches, but just the aesthetic just for me. I have no problem with them on other people. Just not my vibe. I like a little brighter. Right. But this is a cool watch. Actually kind of interesting looking. It depends. There's really two kinds of ways to make black. There's like DLC and pvd.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so PVD is what they did like sort of back in the day and DLC is more of what they do now except on like really cheap watches. So if it says, I mean, this isn't a really cheap watch, it's $740. Let's see if it does say what the case. It just says black stainless steel. It doesn't say what type of coating it has. So maybe you could send an inquiry to Bulova and see what type of coating it has. If you care. I mean, the worst thing that happens is like over, you know, 20 years, the edges, like the corners of the watch that get like knocked into stuff might, the black might come off dlc. That's much less likely than PVD though.

[B]

Yeah, they use DLC on guns and it's pretty damn sturdy stuff I couldn't find with a quick search. I could not Find if it's DLC or something else.

[A]

Well, maybe. Maybe there's a way to ask.

[B]

But I also say like. Like this watch is very colorful. Like, well, the case is black, but then the inside. What is this called? The whole thing.

[A]

The dial.

[B]

Dial's like Technicolor. So it's not like a black on black watch.

[A]

No, no, it's. It's cool. I get it. Yeah. No, aesthetically, if you're into it, like, I'm down. I don't. I wish it said. But yeah, it'll probably be fine. I'm not. I wouldn't worry about it wearing. Unless you're really gonna be. That doesn't look like the kind of watch that you would wear to like smash into stuff.

[B]

Yeah, true.

[A]

A dog named Frog in a Unimog. Oh, I purchased a Studio Underdog salmon and love it. Oh yeah, Studio Underdog's fun.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

AM87 says if the Amira is based on the Evora, where did the rear seat space go? I don't, that's. I don't think that's accurate. The Amira is based on the Evora. I don't really think that's entirely accurate. I think the Amira is a. They share a power construction, they share a powertrain and they're made in the same way. But I don't think they're like the same. The same. They don't drive like they're the same.

[B]

They also, they had to make some room in the engine bay for Turbo with the AMG engine. So I think they moved that firewall forward a little bit and that just. There wasn't a lot of space in the back seat. And maybe they looked up how often people put people back there.

[A]

Yeah, the rear seat, stupid.

[B]

Yeah. It was a parcel shelf for most people anyway, but I think they had to make room in the engine bay for different engines.

[A]

Yeah, Tim, I says I'm looking at a higher power. Wait, moped or scooter for a five mile commute into downtown Denver on surface streets. What should I look for in a commuter? And what makes a Vespa preferable to commuting with a motorcycle? Okay, so Vespa is like, like that's the primo shit, right? Like, that's the. You are paying for the brand. But also, in my opinion, they're extremely well made. Having said that, for many years I had a Yamaha Zuma125 that I thought was kick ass and I thought that was the shit when I had it. And it was actually quite fabulous. So like, what should you look for in a commuter? Like, Denver is like at altitude, so you're going to have less power than you would have here. So, like, do you need to go over hills? Like any kind of hills? If so, you probably want a 300 and not a 150. Just like, if you can afford it, more power is better. Five miles is both. Not a lot and a lot, you know what I mean? And just because your commute is only 5 miles, you may love this thing and ride it more.

[B]

Very true.

[A]

But if it's only service streets, a 150 is probably fine if the hills aren't too big. Super important is gonna be your wheel and tire size, what kind of brakes you have, and the robustness of your suspension. Like cheap, shitty Chinese scooters that will look like Vespa knockoffs, kind of. They're not robust. And so the bigger your wheels, sometimes scooters have almost motorcycle y wheels. There's some Piaggio. And like, those take potholes really well.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And those are really stable. Like, the bigger your wheels are, the more stable you are. But, like, what is important to me more than anything else is actually the fucking cargo box. Having the cargo box means you can, if you're commuting with a backpack, the backpack goes in the cargo box. You can put grocery, you can stop and pick something up. Like the difference between either a motorcycle or a Vespa with a cargo box and one without them is like 100% utility or like 95% utility and fucking zero utility. So that's really important. Why do I like a Vespa in the city? Just light to light, stop sign. A stop sign. Like, having a manual transmission doesn't make my life better. It actually makes my life a little more annoying. Like sport motorcycle. Yes, of course. Manual transmission, commuter motorcycle. I don't give a fuck. I have nobody to impress. And I just fucking zing the throttle off the light. I can beat anybody in a drag race. I don't need to like ride a clutch. It's just a centrifugal thing. It just goes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And.

[B]

And I also think seating position, way more comfortable. Like, yeah, swinging your leg over a motorcycle, it just, it's a little bit more effort. Depends on the pants you're wearing. Blah, blah, blah. You know, scooter, you just like. It's like a bar stool you sit on.

[A]

Yeah. And like, although a scooter is effectively as dangerous as a motorcycle, I don't personally wear like motorcycle boots when I ride my scooter. Whereas I Always wear them if I ride a motorcycle. So, like, I wear a jacket, gloves, helmet. I don't wear motorcycle pants or shoes on the Vespa, whereas I would if I was on a motorcycle. So, like, Vespas are just a little simpler. They're a little less assuming nobody thinks you're an asshole. Everybody lets you in. Everybody loves you. You know, you get them in a fun color. Like girls, like, if you have a brand name, Vespa. Girls like that shit. Like, so, like, I mean, I love my Vespa and I'm getting the new one, so I'm pro Vespa, but you don't have to go Vespa brand. But I would get. I would get one even if it's used. Certainly I would start with a used one. I would get one from a brand that's known for reliability and stuff like that. Like. Like, I loved my Yama. Can. Is it. Can you look? Do they still make a Zuma if they still. If Yama still has a Zuma. I haven't seen a new one in a while. They might just call it something else.

[B]

Now they do 2026 Zuma 125.

[A]

Yeah. How much is that new?

[B]

Four.

[A]

Four grand?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Yeah, so a used one is three grand. Like, I really liked my Zuma with. Oh, wow, it looks weird as fuck now. What have they done? Oh, God. Why does it look like that? That's not great. Mine looked way better than that.

[B]

Yeah, it's gotten very chunky and sort of trail rated is what I would say.

[A]

Oh, that looks.

[B]

It looks like they borrowed a designer from Forerunner.

[A]

Wait, can you. There's a little tab. Can you click to 2025 and see if this is new for this year? If that's. Nope.

[B]

No, they changed because yours was what year? 20. Oh, God, maybe 12.

[A]

Mine might have been. Yeah, 12, 15, something like that. It was old, but that looks weird.

[B]

Get a used one.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. I miss When AI met. A shop in Westchester says that when I explained diplomatically that your tires should be okay to run in a previous show, I was being a cheap fuck and shouldn't risk a car that means so much to me over that many. That over tires. Hey. There you go. Okay, good. What was each of your high school dream builds and what do you think? Modern. Wait, and what do you think you would think of your mod choices in high school? I've revisited this a few times. I mean, I almost had my dream. I mean, my dream build in high school was effectively the thing I built in 10 years ago. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. My dream build in high school would have been like a 41 Willys with a blower sticking out. I was that into hot rod culture. And modern Zach looks back at high schools, Zach's high school car, and wonders why I had like blown shocks in the front, which is why my car had so much rake. Probably should have addressed that. Yeah. And maybe looked at the brakes ever, because I never. Because they were behind. I had the solid like moon eyes wheels.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I never saw the brakes. They worked.

[A]

That's so fun.

[B]

But I literally never looked at them.

[A]

That's hilarious.

[B]

Yeah. Modern Zach would be like, what's wrong with you?

[A]

We've talked. My Subaru that I had before the Mustang was like. I did some pretty embarrassing, like 16 year old mods to that. You know, this was before the Fast and Furious, but I put Street Glow. I put like Shelby stripes. This was a Subaru. I put the fucking Thule rack on that thing. I had a literal like AutoZone muffler. That actually didn't sound terrible. Believe it or not. It was. I mean, maybe it was a MagnaFlow or something, but I got it at AutoZone. It was all right. Like it was embarrassing in hindsight, but it wasn't at the time. It was okay at the time.

[B]

Sure. And I think stripes were more prevalent back then. Like, there were a lot of cars, new and you know, new cars on lots that had racing stripes of some kind.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, a lot of the stuff that, that we did to our engines in our high school Mustangs were the same shit that was done to my Mustang's engine did later.

[B]

Yeah. Make it breathe better. That's what I did. I would do that again.

[A]

Duffel Shuffle Retirement club says is there anything that disqualifies a car from storage at wccs? Not paying. No. The cars have to be insured. So if people don't want to carry insurance on the car, that's. That's one. And then like being too big, we do, we do actually have size limits. We can't do like big, big trucks and stuff.

[B]

Big trucks meaning like a 3500, like a long truck or lifted truck.

[A]

The biggest thing that we can store at Playa is like the size of a Tahoe. And the biggest thing we could store at South Bay is like the size of a Raptor. But I could only do maybe two Raptors. And I think we actually have. We have one Raptor and we have one. We have a. We have a Bronco Raptor here. That's fine. That's shorter, but we have a Raptor. And then we have that, a Hummer H2, which is that. That Hummer H2 is absolutely the biggest thing I could, I could store. They're so wide. They're not that long, but they're so wide the hood left unlatched. That's pretty good. What is the rumor, what do you think of the rumors of Porsche merging the Taycan and Panamera onto the same platform for the next gen of cars? That makes sense. I don't really see a downside to that.

[B]

It's kind of what Audi does. Right. They just have so many things in Mercedes too.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, they're not going to make all of it EVs, obviously they have to have some kind of modular construction so that you could do a gas version as well. I mean, even if it's a hybrid version, there's no way that Porsche would sell two pure EV sedans. Not in today's market anyway. How old was that story that you found? What was the date on that? Is that recent? March 12th. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I don't personally have a problem with it. I think it could make financial sense

[B]

and that's why, I mean, that's surely why they're doing it. Like, they need to cut costs aggressively.

[A]

Yeah. So I wouldn't like it if a Taycan had, for instance, a Panamera's hood line. You know, I wouldn't like it if they were like, if I had to. I love the Panamera for what it is, but I don't wish my Taycan looked like a Panamera. Right. You know what I mean?

[B]

Because the hood's different because there's no engine up there.

[A]

Yeah. The low cowl to me is incredibly desirable in this particular ev. So I wouldn't like it if I had to drive a Panamera in order to drive a Taycan, but I'm pretty sure that. I don't want to speak wrong about this, but I went to Leipzig and where they build the Macan, the Panamera and the Cayenne and all three of those cars are built on the same assembly line. Now, I don't know if that means that they share architectures in any way or if they just happen to have a factory that can build three separate cars at the same time. But like if that was turned into four or something. You know what I mean? That same factory now builds Taycan's like, also because they can. But yeah, like the way Audi does, it doesn't seem to bother. Like the A6 and the A8 being like platform shared don't necessarily make them worse, right?

[B]

Well, yeah, I think with Porsche they have to just maintain the performance, you know, levels that we've come to expect, the handling, all that stuff. But both the Taycan on the port and the Panamera handle really well and they kick.

[A]

Yeah, they both handle best.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So I wouldn't be super concerned about it, especially now that Active ride is coming into play. Run. GMC has been looking at reviews on the Audi B7RS4 and found an old TST video and wanted to ask me what's up with the fucking sideburns and would I go back to them with today's instruction 90s nostalgia challenge. I don't really know why the sideburns ended up. I always had the sideburns, by the way. You go back to pictures of me when I'm 14, 15, and there were sideburns and then in parts of. And then I always had the goatee and the sideburns at one point became a beard connector like they're on in

[B]

your photo with the Subaru.

[A]

So that was when I was 17.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I did. That was like the smash mouth guy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I separated the beard from the goat, the sideburns by sort of doing that sharp. The pointy thing.

[B]

Sure, dude. It was a fashion trend. If you could grow facial hair back then, especially if pointy facial hair. Pointy facial hair was a thing. It was the same. Like when I look at photos of college. Faux hawk, aggressive. So much gel. And now I go, wow. Just. It's how it was.

[A]

I had an actual mohawk for a while too. There's not a lot of photos of that. I have to go to my parents house and dig one up because there are a few, but they're like. They're not like digital. They're like in my mom's like, album.

[B]

Yeah. They're locked up somewhere. She doesn't want to look at them.

[A]

My mom's photo albums are crazy. My mom has a physical album for every year I've been alive.

[B]

Like, I'm just blue.

[A]

No, no.

[B]

Or like a family. Sure.

[A]

But like, it started. I'm the oldest child, so it started the year I was born. And so it's every year she has. It's. She has 44 blue binders. Yeah. It's crazy.

[B]

Like a Britannica.

[A]

Next time you come to granite, you have to see it. It's fucking nuts. But I couldn't. You couldn't do it today. Now imagine I had side and no hair.

[B]

No, I had hair. It's just not the trend right now. Ten years ago, it was huge beards. Nino. Everyone was like going for long beard. And now everyone's kind of come back from that a little bit.

[A]

Now. A trim beard is okay.

[B]

Trim beard is okay. It's just fashion.

[A]

I'm honoring Rob Reiner, I think, in that. In this way, this works. Now this is more of a today look.

[B]

It is very Rob Reiner.

[A]

Imagine you had signburns and no hair. That'd be when I had signburns. I had hair.

[B]

No, in 09 when I met you, you had aggressive chops, very angular saber tooth from Marvel. But you were shaved.

[A]

Not fully shaved.

[B]

Really?

[A]

It was short. It was short, but not fully shaved. I promise.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I did not go Bic until maybe 2015 or 2016. All right.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

From Habibi Unworthy. Have you run across surprising everyday cars that have had superchargers, turbochargers, or other surprising performance oriented options? I recently found out that the Buick Regal GS from the 90s had a factory blower on the 3800 V6. Not just the GS Habibi. The Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. That was the shit.

[B]

Yeah, bro, that car kind of hauled ass back then.

[A]

In 96, you couldn't fuck with a Grand Prix GTP. That was the shit. How about the Bonneville SSE auto? Pontiac Bonneville SSEI. Dude, that's. That's where it fucking gets real hot. Supercharged fucking Bonneville, baby. That's the 2000. I like the 90s one a little better. The 2001 is the Chris Moltisanti Bonneville. Look at that fucking thing.

[B]

Kind of haul that. Oh, yeah. This one Pontiac was doing these like.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Raised creases along lower. The lower valence everywhere.

[A]

They learned how to mold plastic.

[B]

Yeah, they did. And they really went to town with it. SSC Crowley's wheels.

[A]

Yeah, baby. Oh, bad.

[B]

Oh, it's a six spoke, but it looks like a three. And they're curved in chrome. Yeah, that's not good.

[A]

That's a tough.

[B]

I think that, you know, forced induction was an experiment that was a bit like more common than you think, but not that common for like the 70s, 80s, 90s.

[A]

I mean, you have the Previa. There's a supercharger on the Previa that you could get. There were wasn't the.

[B]

What was the. The Shelby Omni had a turbo.

[A]

Oh, the glhs. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

[B]

That thing was turbocharged Weird. I know that was a performance model, but back then you just don't expect that.

[A]

Yeah, I don't know. Front wheel drive. NSX wants to ask about a Porsche cars North America lawsuit. I don't know anything about it. Allegedly a car had been used at a Porsche experience center and sold that car to a customer and the car got lemonlawed. Sale of new GT3 allegedly used for mechanic. Mechanic training. Oh, so they allegedly Porsche used a car to train mechanics. They disassembled it and are alleged to have not put it back together. Right. That's different than driver training. I'm not sure there is a law against

[B]

training center, so we assumed it was driving and it's mechanic training.

[A]

That's not great.

[B]

It's not great.

[A]

That's not great. I don't know about the lawsuit other than what we just said though. Wait, is it BM trouble? You says? Oh, wants to ask me about a watch brand that I have never heard of. Sorry. Tortola, Beef Curtis curtains. Gross. Do you think it's better when selling a car at auction to have a reserve at your minimum? You'd be willing to take the number you'd want, ideally. Or do you send that shit? No reserve and trust the market. No, the reserve should not be the number you want. Absolutely not. That's not what a reserve is for. A reserve should be the absolute lowest amount that you're willing to take. And like, putting a car up at auction, like, to do it properly is a real investment of time and energy and money. Right. So you have to ask yourself when this auction is over, if I don't, if, let's say I want $50,000 for a car, I don't know what the fuck it is. Make up a car. If I don't get $50,000, the auction ends, I've done all the work and I still have the car. Am I happy because I didn't take less for the car or am I annoyed that I've put in all this work and now I still have the car and I have to do so? Like part of that is your financial position, whether you're up, down or sideways

[B]

on the car and what it's costing you each month to keep it and how much of a strain that is.

[A]

Yeah. And how important it is to get a big number for it or a bigger number for it now versus keeping it versus stopping the bleeding or whatever other reason you want to sell the car for now. If you are capable of putting in the work and getting eyeballs on the Auction and doing great photos and doing all the things you're supposed to do to really sell a car at auction properly. I go, no reserve. If you do the things right, there's enough eyeballs and the market will provide. Having said, I realize we're having this conversation right after Talking about this GT3 possible fixing situation, but like, outside of that one model of car, we have never done a car here at Westside. No reserve that absolutely tanked. It's never happened. So. But your reserve should be low. I mean, you shouldn't be. If the car sells for reserve, like, you shouldn't be happy. I mean, you should. Maybe you're happy the car's gone, but like, like it shouldn't be a number that you're like, woo, you know.

[B]

No, it's like selling a car in person. You go, I'm Gonna, I want 20. And you always, Facebook, marketplace, whatever. Back in the day, Craigslist, you'd set that. But you know what you're willing to take from the car. So it should be that or lower.

[A]

Yeah. If you go, look, I want 20, but I'll take 15, I want 50, but I'll take 40, you know, set your reserve at 40 and at the very least the bidders will. No one's gonna fucking beat to knock the price down. They'll beat each other up to knock the price up. So at least you have that going for you. No one's gonna fucking be all, well, your thing's a piece of shit, except in the comments, but you have to do everything right. And so I like a no reserve auction because, I mean, personally, with my, with my cars, if I'm ready to sell that car, mentally, that car's gone anyway. That car's. Once I decide I don't want a car anymore, anymore, every day that car is still here is a burden. I want it gone. I did put a reserve on the NSX because I sold it between Christmas and New Year's and I thought that there was a chance I could still do everything right and nobody would see it and it could tank. That was why. But if I had done it at almost any other time, I probably would have gone, no reserve. Matt's M984A1 hemped tow rig. I don't even know what the fuck that is, but. Okay. Is there something you think manufacturers need to do to increase hybrid and EV uptake by consumers? Like a manual hybrid or some other missing feature the market needs? No, the market does not need a missing feature. I mean, for EVs, they need infrastructure and we just talked about that. They need infrastructure and they need to be able to afford them in the first place. Someone just asked me, sent an email about Slate, what I think Slate is going to be because they're going to do this low cost ev. But this is fucking Bezos, dude. If there was things to prevent Bezos from keeping all that money and instead paying people what their labor is actually worth and they could afford regular EVs, we wouldn't need the super low cost ones.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

Cars themselves only seem so expensive because the wages haven't kept up. It's not because you're getting less value for money with a current car. We've done this formula almost over and over and over and we find that universally the prices of the cars have really kind of kept up with inflation versus what, oh, BMW M3 was $46,000 and now it's like. Yeah, but like your, your wages for the most part haven't and that's why everything seems so expensive and so like, I don't think we need a super low cost ev. We need to find a way to get people to make more money so they can afford the fucking regular ones. You know, like, why do we, why do we want a world where a fucking regular person can't afford a fucking hundred? You know what I mean? Like that's crazy, right? Yeah, like we're a Hyundai and a Kia are too expensive and a Nissan are too expensive for regular people to buy new. Like what kind of. We don't need like other than like on farms and stuff, like for little utility commercial purposes and like urban commercial stuff. Like I don't, you know, know we could just not have the, that problem that we could stop the problem that caused that need in the first place.

[B]

Yeah. Last time we talked about that, someone was like, you know, wages have gone up a lot since 2022. And I'm like, you just look at the last couple decades, there's lots of charts about it. Cost of living, things like housing, health insurance, education or health care and in education and how they've all outpaced actual wage growth. Yeah.

[A]

Under the cuff says, would Porsche ever rejoin F1? And if they did, would would IWC switch from their patronage from Mercedes to Porsche? I don't think Porsche is that interested in F1. I don't think F1 sells Porsches to people.

[B]

I think Porsche sells enough. Well, they sell enough of their sporty cars. It seems like where they're lagging is all the other stuff.

[A]

Yeah, I Think Porsche is more interested in the endurance racing there. The endurance element of it, I think really does translate to the, to the road cars and how people perceive the road.

[B]

Well, also because those cars look like the road cars.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, if it looks like an F1 car, it doesn't help Porsche sell GT3s.

[A]

Right. Right.

[B]

I mean, 919 Evo, like all that stuff is very impressive. It does get them headlines. But their meat and potatoes is their IMSA racing is always really strong.

[A]

Yeah. I think F1 actually works for Aston Martin because Aston Martin, even at its base level is a very ultra high net worth lifestyle brand. The fact that they have done well in F1 and they're coming out with cars like the Valhalla and they did the Valkyrie, I mean, I think there is a. You can draw a much closer connection to Aston Martin's F1 racing with the Valhalla and the Valkyrie than with the fucking DB12. But as a luxury package, like the whole thing works.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I don't. Whereas I don't really see that with Porsche compared to what they do with the endurance racing program.

[B]

Also, this is the tow rig that was recommended to you.

[A]

That's awesome.

[B]

That's the Hemtt.

[A]

That's equally as practical as some things that other people have suggested that I.

[B]

I think Mike Tornabene bought one of these, bro. Science. I think he bought one and kept it for like three months.

[A]

This picture looks like it was taken in Marina del Rey. Maybe that was his. It might be Tooty's last heater. How are we feeling about the reveal of the Neue Klaas 3 Series? Yeah, the new electric 3 Series. I don't hate it based on how it looks. I haven't seen one in person and that's really what matters. And I've never been totally blown away with BMW's EVs. The i4 and i5 I thought were competent and fine, but not exceptional in any way. And certainly not exceptional in the performance, really. But I do like how this looks generally. What do you think?

[B]

I think the front gives me big Lincoln bailing.

[A]

Oh, shit. Once you see the mkz, you can't unsee that. Wow.

[B]

I'm not really into the grill, but this back quarter looks good. I want to see from the side. I like that. This, this whole front valence lights aside, looks like a return to like the first gen M2 era, which I appreciate. Yeah, it's all, it's all a bit smoother, which is nice. This is just not for me. Okay.

[A]

Yeah. I think the rear 3/4 is not bad. Not bad.

[B]

I mean, this is kind of what we've seen around, like, these rear lights. This is not too big a departure.

[A]

Yeah, it's. It's, you know, it's okay.

[B]

It's fine.

[A]

It's fine. Carbon monocoque and ball torture. I recently said to someone, you either die a Jeremy Clarkson or live long enough to become James Merritt. Meaning at some point, the fervent obsession with performance dims slightly and you start looking fondly at quality and practicality. What was your James May moment? Or car? That's funny. You could also say you either die a Jeremy Clarkson or live long enough to become Jeremy Clarkson. But the. I really think it's just with our jobs, we get to drive these cars that are so fast and the roads are the same size, and so. But if you're talking about the shift from performance and you start looking for quality and practicality. It was when I started driving Porsches. I mean, straight up, like, I was when I had the Corvette and when I had my. At one point, for like a year, maybe two years, I had the Mustang and the Corvette at the same time. So I was like, horsepower. It wasn't like American muscle. I wasn't like that brand or nationalistic. But, like, my friend Alex, his Dad had an E36 M3, brand new, and I had the Corvette. And he was like, the M3 is the shit. And I was like, well, I have, like, 115 more horsepower here for, like, the same. It was like they were about the same price. 115 more horsepower, you know, and. But. And so that really mattered for a while. But then when we came out here and started driving, like, Porsches and shit, I was like, oh, the plastic and the buttons. Once you. If you can't use all the performance of a car all the time, then the fit and finish and the materials and stuff start to matter in a Miata where you're, like, zinging it out all the time. I care less about the materials than, like, if the car's too fast to use all the time.

[B]

Right. Because then you start looking at the other pieces of it. I think, I wonder if this James May thing is more. Is aimed at James's appreciation of, like, Dacia Sandero, like, his famous interest in boring, slow, practical things. He's like, he would love an Aztec, that kind of thing.

[A]

How about this? When I traded my Ford Raptor for a Chevy Volt and my life got instantly better.

[B]

Perfect.

[A]

Like, literally, my life got better.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, that was. That Was a crazy thing. Like I had the bro. Iest bro truck ever and I thought that was what I wanted. And I don't remember what it was that made me get the Volt, actually. Maybe it was just. It was cheap or the Raptor wouldn't fit in the garage. I remember that.

[B]

That's part of it. I don't know. The raptor's getting 11 miles per gallon, which probably got annoying.

[A]

Yeah. I think when I realized that it was like, like more like a Tesla than a Prius and it was like made really well and GM was losing money on all of them and I was like, oh, wait, really? Yeah. Going from a Raptor, from an EV in my life, getting instantly better was really a thing.

[B]

Yeah. And I think some of it is maturing. And if you're Clarkson, if you have enough money basically to get a practical car that's also fast, you probably will, you know, that's why you have M5s running around. But I don't know. James May is also a unique individual. Loves to take apart lawnmowers.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, he's a very simple guy. I mean, he does have some nice cars, but he also, he loves a practical tool in a way that I

[B]

don't think some people really appreciate the cleverness of that kind of stuff.

[A]

I mean, look, Clarkson does too. Clarkson, you can see it on his farm show all the time. He uses a 2012 Range Rover as a farm truck, like all the time. Like, like he really does believe in the utility of the Range Rover. Like he uses it for like farm shit all the time. He's towing trailers with it and he's written for years about the practicality of them as camera cars too. So like he's like, yes, a Range Rover is an expensive thing, but like a used. A 12 year old range Rover is not.

[B]

That's true, you know. So the diesel ones they have here we could get for 20 grand.

[A]

Yeah. I did see that it is possible to get a 7 or 8 year old diesel range rover for 20,000 bucks. But fuck me, am I. I wonder

[B]

what diesel is now. Gas around here, six bucks a gallon. I wonder what diesel's at.

[A]

Thank you. EVs 2008 Funkmaster Flex Expedition. Says Zach, at what point, at what price point does a Nissan Z Performance become an option for you as a daily $8? I don't know.

[B]

It has to be so, like, I'm not into them. I want you on a daily that's

[A]

less practical than your current.

[B]

Exactly. I don't want to go to a 2 plus 0. I have a 2 plus 2.

[A]

Yeah. You'd be more likely to buy a fucking 2006Z as a drift beater than you would to get a new 100%.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I get, I get the question because like I think, I don't know, what are they, 28,000 bucks or something? Something.

[B]

It's a lot of power and performance for that money. But I don't love the engine and the room it does not provide. There's so. And also like the Nismo is the good one, but the regular performance is

[A]

not got invited on the Nismo launch. It's in. It's at Sonoma.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

When I want to say it's end of April.

[B]

Oh, that's funny.

[A]

Why?

[B]

Well, I'll be at Sonoma mid April for the Skippy school.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I forget exactly when, but cool. Oops, I tapped the table. The new RS5 Avant is a plug in hybrid with 4,951 weight distribution. Is that enough to help save it from Audi's historical understeer? Good question. Possibly. It certainly worked for the Bentley gt, didn't it?

[B]

It's worked for lots of things.

[A]

Giggity Airlines says, I know you always say don't buy a car from Florida, but does that apply to regular cars? Yes, all cars.

[B]

You have to be so careful. Yeah, that's the real thing. Because if you live in Florida or a humid area, then like buying a car from a humid area, you're just used to that. You're used to it. There's just all the caveats you have to pay attention to.

[A]

Christian says, what bad modern car would you love to be in the boardroom for? When they were planning to know what they were thinking. So this is not a car that's. That is just. Is a good idea executed poorly. Like I think like the Fisker Ocean. You know what I mean? Like the Fisker Ocean as a concept wasn't a bad idea. It was just like nothing worked. So that's a problem. But like what car is just a bad idea? Deal.

[B]

I would like to be in the room when they made the Range Rover Evoke convertible just to see. I just want to hear the convo that led to that car. And I know what the. I feel like I know the target market, but I want to see if I have confirmation bias. That's the problem is that new cars are not really that bad. Like they all.

[A]

No, we don't have. I mean, bad mod modern. Could be. I mean like I would love to know why? I'd love to be in the room when Ferrari decided that haptics was going to be what people wanted out of Ferraris. That would have been an interesting one.

[B]

That's a good one.

[A]

Yeah. Do we have more? Is that it?

[B]

Oh, yes.

[A]

I will happily do more. But guess what? I'm going to pee first. Sorry, you gotta have to do two cuts in the live streams.

[B]

Need the catheter.

[A]

She only wanted me for my turn in says. What is your opinion on Hobie cats? I sailed one. Did we talk about that?

[B]

No, you guys rented it before.

[A]

It was before.

[B]

We haven't talked about it.

[A]

So they are fun in small bursts. I don't. I don't like. I don't love how they sail compared to like a laser. But if you're going to be at a resort and they're on the beach and you get one for 100 bucks an hour and you go out and it's windy and you have a good time, like, you can get going really fast in those, but you really. They're fucking hard to turn if you're too close to the wind. And if you're not going fast enough, they could be a little frustrating. But they are neat jacking. Off the record says I recently drove by a house with three Cadillac Elantes parked outside. What is the strangest driveway lineup you've seen? Well, my buddy hydrogen Brian with the five Mirais.

[B]

What's he doing with those? Testing with them.

[A]

His company is. He basically runs, like, the hydrogen lobby for the state of California. And so he is not. His job isn't necessarily to convince people to buy hydrogen cars. His job is to really convince industry to adopt hydrogen stuff at, like, the ports and shit like that. But in order to demonstrate hydrogen, his company has five hydrogen cars. And they don't always live at his house. Actually, they normally live at his office. But it just so happened that, like, I don't know, his office was being remodeled for whatever the fucking reason. When I walked by his house for the very first time, all five of the cars were designed house. And I was like, that's weird. And then we became friends. Actually, he's been bugging me for about a week because he's borrowed my floor jack and we've been gone. I've been gone for like a month. What the fuck do I care? And he's like, I really want to return your floor jack. Really? Dude, I haven't had any flat tires. I'll call. I really appreciate he's so proactive about returning my floor jack.

[B]

But like Russell here has to borrow my lower floor jack. While we were gone I was like you can but I'm gone.

[A]

Habibi's wheel, Habibs wheels. The Audi RS3 and the Acura Integra Type S seem like your favorite all arounders. Is the RS3 worth the 12 to 15k premium over the Integra Type S? It very, very much depends on two things. One, do you want to drive a dual clutch gearbox? And two, do you want as an all wheel drive?

[B]

Well three, how much money do you have?

[A]

And also does the price is 12

[B]

to 15 a big deal to you or not? You know if it's not, I would totally get it because all wheel drive, I prefer it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I like the dual clutch.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But you know, I don't. The Type S is a great car. I mean phenomenal car.

[A]

If I lived in a fair weather climate and I didn't have to drive in traffic a lot, money be damned. I'd rather have the Acura. Actually I, I get more enjoyment out of driving the Acura than I do out of the RS3. Even though the RS3 is very good at what it does. Most people I know who buy Rs3s and this is a small sample of five or six people, they can afford much more expensive cars. They could probably afford a car 30 or $40,000 more expensive than the RS3 easily. But they want that. And so yeah, I would say that if you have to stretch for an Rs3 it may not feel like 75 grand but if you, in a lot of ways it does feel like more expensive. It has the same seat, like the good seats, the good materials. It does feel very premium.

[B]

They both punch above their weight class. But the Acura, if you get in a Civic you'll see the same H Vac controls, like you'll see that kind of, that stuff. Whereas the Audi is just a little, feels a little more expensive.

[A]

Yeah. Stan Gable did nothing wrong. I hope I'm not saying that out loud and defending some like fucking guys on the island. What is your dollar figure tipping point between full PPF on the car or just the front clip also known as impact zone ppf. I got a smoking deal on a delivery mile CPO macan EV in gentian blue. I plan on front clip only. So like it's a math problem. It's just a math problem. You know is, is, is, is the, the damage that's you're gonna, that's gonna happen to your car over the time you own it. More than putting the film on and. Or does having the film change your vibe about the car? Like. Like, I. I'm with my Spider, full ppf. I know I'm keeping this car a long time. I'll very likely keep it for the length of the PPF and beyond.

[B]

Expensive car, expensive car.

[A]

Tough to maybe paint if you had. If you had to touch up paint. Tough to do, you know, tough to get it right. Right. And it made sense. The Acura nsx, perfectly preserved paint makes sense to do full car. My Taycan Daily driver didn't do any.

[B]

Right. I mean, cpo macan ev, in my opinion, not that expensive a car. I would do the front clip because you're behind people, they kick rocks up and stuff like that. But I don't. I wouldn't feel the need to spend what may very well be.

[A]

Dude, it could be 10, could be $8,000.

[B]

Right? That's like 10% of the price of the car just to protect the paint in the back of it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

From what?

[A]

Yeah, from like, like a couple rock chips. Like, I, you know, the, like with. I, like, with the Spider. I like that. Like, because it's ppf. I'll just, like, lean on the car. I'll, like, I'll like, throw my backpack up on there and I'll know it's like, fine, you know, like. But like, with the Taycan, I just do that shit anyway. Like, I just don't. I just don't care. It's white. It's fucking. It's a daily. Like, like it's rapidly depreciating no matter what. Putting an $8,000, $5,000, or $10,000 PPF on a rapidly depreciating vehicle seems futile to me. But if you're obsessive and you want to make sure it stays real nice, and you really are afraid of getting blasted with gravel off of trucks and shit down there in Texas, then do the fragments, Rod. I wouldn't. I wouldn't do the whole thing.

[B]

Yeah. Also nowadays with. With paint repair, dent repair, and like, doing it, like, cutting your clear coat. Like, you can repair four years of damage pretty well for less than doing a full ppf.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

So I would do that.

[A]

Yeah. If your car is like. If your car is white, you could spray the nose for fucking two grand.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

You know, like, if your car is. If it's a very complex color.

[B]

Maybe not, but Stan Gable was the antagonist in Revenge of the Nerd.

[A]

Oh, right. Thank you. AMG Hammer Time Kun Touch this. Pretty good. If you were to Restomod a Grumman llv. What do you do for the drivetrain? That's a post office truck.

[B]

Electric.

[A]

Electric. The only answer is electric. Yeah. Prayer of the refugee wagon with Montana plates. I'm looking for a fast, fun, mature family cruiser for my 40th birthday. They budget is 50k. I saw Lexus GSF with 31k miles go over 44 on cars and bids. Curious if you've driven one. Yes, we have. Go look at our videos. We have a video review of that car. GSF is excellent. 2017 GSF, 31k miles for 44 grand. Yep, I'm in.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I'm in for sure. That's a great car, right? That's. That's got the V8 in it, right?

[B]

I think so, yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Because there was a G. There was a GS F Sport also that had

[B]

the other end, that had the V6, which I also liked, but

[A]

that's a game.

[B]

470 horsepower.

[A]

Yeah. Fabulous.

[B]

It'll sound good.

[A]

Yeah. Why don't princes fight the war why do they send the poor so good? Yeah. Yeah. Past an Isuzu Oasis on a back road in Chicago. Rare to come across a car I know nothing about. Although this one is a Rebadge. Yep. Actually, it's. I think it's not. I think the Geo is the Rebadge. Oh, sorry. No, the Oasis was the minivan. Sorry. That's the Honda Odyssey.

[B]

Is this it? Yeah, it looks like a Windstar.

[A]

No, it's a Honda Odyssey. I was thinking of the Isuzu Impulse. That was the Geo was the Rebadge. Can you recall the last time you saw something in the wild you didn't recognize? I can, because it was very recent. Because we were in the British Virgin Islands. And in the Virgin Islands, they have Chinese cars now.

[B]

Oh, you know what's funny? I didn't realize, but I took a picture of that car the day we got there and took a picture the

[A]

way we left the M. Zoom. Yeah. There was a bunch of really weird and funny Chinese cars in the Virgin Islands, which actually, because to my understanding, the vehicle registrations down there for us and Britain. Virgin Islands, I think are like. Like, I don't know if they're separate. Like.

[B]

What do you mean? Oh, like, you could register cars from either one.

[A]

Plates didn't say British Virgin Islands, they just said Virgin Islands. Now, I don't know if that is like a rebellion. Rebellion against the monarchy. And there's the US Virgin island plates are different because we didn't go to the US Virgin Islands or if it's back and forth. But like down there you can do right hand drive, left hand drive, they don't give a fuck.

[B]

Chinese cars like whatever saw Jimny, we wrote Jimny 3500 Chevy Silverado. There's, there's like everything.

[A]

It's all, it's all going on down there. They'll bring whatever down there. So like I don't. That may be the only place you can get a Chinese car registered on even a sort of US kind of tag. But what was the question? I don't even remember. Oh, last time we saw cars from non manual transmissions. Unworthy. Good attempt, but that's clumsy. How good of a driving experience is the B7 Audi RS4 before I've seen a lot about how they're nose heavy, but they're a very attractive manual sedan option. So they are great highway cars. Yeah, that's really what they do. They're nice. The open sweepers, they're nice. They are nose heavy. They don't handle all that well, but they sound great, they look great.

[B]

They're very cool, very comfortable. Cool interior. One of the best sounding engines ever made. Absolutely. You know, if you're coming from BMWs, which they say they are, an E90 M3 will absolutely destroy it on a back road track. Anything else like that, dynamically, it'll just feel better.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

M5 gonna be a little bit softer, I think. I bet this person would own it for six months and move on. If you're coming from rear drive well balanced cars.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's gonna feel very different.

[A]

Yeah. And they are cool. But you kind of, if you're looking at them objectively, it's an engine in search of a chassis.

[B]

Yes, absolutely. And that's why the R8 exists. And if by weekend car do you mean you're going to drive it on 70 or over to Estes park or are you going up twisty roads for a fun time in the mountains? Because if you're doing that, you're going to get bored quickly.

[A]

Yeah. The Panamera papers says the California Tax and Fee Administration posted the list of the top 10 cities where can you see you can find this where suspicious car sales to Montana purchasers occurred. It's about as expected. But based on the locations, do you have any guesses as to the most offending brand? Do we have this?

[B]

This?

[A]

Okay. All right. As expected is correct. The top 10 cities where shady Montana sales have taken place. Beverly Hills. Coming in up top. 416. Costa Mesa. Yup. 359, that's Richie Rich area down in Orange County. Van Nuys, a little more surprising because Van Nuys isn't specifically a rich area where people live, but there are lots of high end dealerships in Van Nuys. San Diego. San Diego gets to be taken just as a whole.

[B]

That's, that's pretty funny.

[A]

That's a pretty big one compared to like Beverly Hills, but Murrieta, Irvine, Santa Monica, Newport Beach, Mill Valley and Carlsbad.

[B]

I mean what, nine of these are pretty expensive places to live.

[A]

Well, a bunch of them are where fucking Porsche stores are. I think, I think every single one of those, maybe not Santa Monica has a Porsche dealership. I think every single one of those has a Porsche store. So I can't help but think that Porsche is the most offending brand. But also Beverly Hills, San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, they all have also rolls Royce, Bentley, McLaren, Ferrari. Newport beach has a Ferrari and a McLaren dealer. Beverly Hills has every fucking dealer imagined. I mean there's Pagani in Beverly Hills,

[B]

there's everything how offensive. It's just, it bothers me so much. Like if you can afford to live in Beverly Hills and buy a car in Beverly Hills, but you want to skate the sales taxes. Yeah, it just. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can't have nice things.

[A]

I have to, I have to bet the most offending brand is Porsche. Just probably by volume, you know, but. Right, probably.

[B]

Yeah, probably that or.

[A]

Dude, I gotta tell you, in this city, 90% of the Ferraris I see driving around are on Montana.

[B]

Right, that's what I'm saying.

[A]

Like 90%. Yeah, like, like almost all of them.

[B]

And the, and the entry price for that car is a lot higher than Porsche. I mean they start, they begin where Porsche ends effectively for the most part.

[A]

Yeah, for the most.

[B]

I bet Ferrari is the most defending.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oem.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that could be. That could be. Be because we're not talking thousands of cars, we're talking hundreds of cars.

[B]

Yeah, the Beverly Hills one, it said there was 419 instances.

[A]

It was 463. But still it's. But across all, across that many dealers. 416, sorry, it was that many. Across that many types of brands. Like there's a Ferrari, there's a lambo, there's a McLaren, there's a Pagani, Rolls Royce, Bentley, like all Porsche, every single brand is in Beverly Hills. I'd love to see the percentage of

[B]

Paganis that were out of the five sold. Yeah, yeah, probably a lot.

[A]

It's gonna be a lot. But yeah, that's hilarious. All of it. Thanks, everybody. Good show today. I can't believe I'm saying this after a week on a boat, but it is nice to be back.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

My bed was never as comfortable as it was last night. It's. Yeah, it was. My bed was so great. Four cats in the bed all night. Cats were so happy to see us. It was great. And now we have a heat wave. And tomorrow we're gonna go to the track Friday.

[B]

Oh, tomorrow's Friday.

[A]

Tomorrow's Friday.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Tomorrow we're gonna the track with the BMW M2Cs. It might be here. I don't know.

[B]

We'll see. Nice.

[A]

Yeah. Thank you to our patrons for keeping it all going on. We'll have a March pro show for you next week. The travel is over for a little while. And check out our video we're going to put up tomorrow with the 992 Turbo S that we're giving away. Extremely exciting. Great questions this time. We'll see you next time. Bye.