
We're back in town! Zack flew a Ranger Raptor, drove some old cars, and nearly bought a very nice '66 Mustang GT350 replica (he'll explain); Matt went to Vegas to drive a new Audi and had some Taycan problems; tariffs being tariffing; and we're answering your questions. Recorded March 28, 2025 Get TWENTY PERCENT off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE at checkout. To listen to DRIVE with Jim Farley, just search for “DRIVE with Jim Farley” in your podcast app. https://www.youtube.com/@Jim.Farley New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/ Want your question answered? To listen to the episode the day it's recorded? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! Enter code TST25 for a 10% discount on your first case on the Off The Record app, or...
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Matt Farah
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire podcast. Today's episode is brought to you as always by off the Record. We love off the Record and so do you. You constantly email me to tell me about how much you love it. Three emails this week. Dismiss, dismiss, dismiss. These guys are just absolutely crushing it over there. I absolutely love off the record. Use code TST25 on the off the Record app or go to offtherecord.comt to get 10% off all your legal bookings from off the Record as a little gift from us. They cover 97% of America. They work with local lawyers who know the jurisdiction where you've been pulled over and know that system. And boy, do they get it done. Again on the app code TST25 or with the website. It's off the therecord.com TST very, very easy. All right. On this episode of the program 998, Zach and I are back in studio a little late, but we were both traveling. Zach went to Tennessee to go play with old cars and then Austin to go do something very fun. And I went to Las Vegas. I took the Taycan and some things happened. I talked about that plus an update on the Nissan POW's electrical issues. Johnny, our friend had a great cars and coffee. We talk about that plus a little tease about Willow Springs. It's the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. Guten Morgan. I shouldn't be here right now because the original plan was to spend the night in Las Vegas last night. And then I decided not to do that and instead to drive home. Yeah, when you said last night, the show's in the morning. Right. And I just said yes. I didn't go. Actually, we said it was at 2, but the morning is better. Cause I'm now driving home instead of staying over a second night in Vegas.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, in my defense, when we set that schedule, it was like 12:30am on East coast time where I was and I was like, yeah, sure, show morning Friday sometime.
Matt Farah
Sometimes things just work out.
Zach Klapman
They do.
Matt Farah
And so yeah, I drove back last night and you had like a double head or a multi leg trip. And I want to hear about it because it was fun. But since we just started there, the drive, I went to go drive E Tron GT performance, the new fast one, which I can't talk about until April 1st. So forgetting that drove the Taycan there and back and I had. I have. There was a new milestone for me with eving. Actually, I was not held up by the car even one second the car when I, when I stopped, I plugged the car in. Right?
Zach Klapman
Oh, I see. But did you charge it at the.
Matt Farah
Which I charged at the hotel overnight in Vegas. So I left the house with a full charge in the morning, went to Baker, plugged in, walked inside, got a jersey, Mike's tuna sub on wheat, ate that, you know, enjoyed being outside for 5 minutes. Checked email real quick. Maybe that, maybe I was stopped for 15 minutes. Pee sandwich, eat emails, walk back to the car, unplugged, back in hotel. And the reverse, same thing. But I made it to Barstow.
Zach Klapman
Did they have charging at the hotel or no?
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Oh, okay.
Matt Farah
Yeah, charging at the hotel and the valets did it. So I just valeted the car and it. And I was on an Audi program and Audi did streamline that process. But it was something the hotel does offer. Like so this is replicable. And then the other way. Started with a full charge, got to Barstow, plugged in and just went inside long enough to like pee and eat a short dinner. I mean I think I was there for maybe 15, 16 minutes back in the car, made it home, 60 miles left. Like I did not have to wait for the car, period. And it was ea.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. And also it's a testament to the plug in pay situation if the valets can take your car and just plug it in and it just goes right.
Matt Farah
Yeah, well, I don't know if they put it on a level 2 overnight or if they put it on a.
Zach Klapman
Fast charger, but either way did you didn't have to give them a credit card. You didn't have to. It just worked.
Matt Farah
No, here's the car.
Zach Klapman
Cool. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Matt Farah
Yeah, it was great. On the other hand, the car is doing two things that will need to be addressed, neither of which is terminal, but because the point of this whole thing is to talk about what happens with this car.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
The first thing it's been doing since I bought it, but I had one software update done that fixed basically everything else except this one issue, which is that every once in a while, and I think it happened four times in this trip to Vegas and back, which is, you know, 600 miles of highway driving. I have all the ADAs turned off. Right. But I'm using radar cruise control, so I'm steering. I have no steering assists at all, but I'm steering. It will all of a sudden out of nowhere flash a red thing and say take over steering. And yeah, he's already pulled over.
Zach Klapman
He can't pull over.
Matt Farah
And I have to do This I have to wiggle it where I have to do a little jerky on the wheel, and then it goes away. But I am already steering, so that's odd.
Zach Klapman
I wonder if the Taycan has the sensors in the wheel or it's all about the torque put on the wheel. Remember we drove that car? I can't remember which one, but, like, if your hand was in one, it was lucid.
Matt Farah
Lucid, yeah.
Zach Klapman
If your hand's in the wrong spot, it thinks your hand's not on the wheel.
Matt Farah
So I called our. Contacted Porsche, the person who was the head of PR for Taycan, who's John Porsche. John Porsche. John Porsche and Steve Taycan. They're great guys.
Zach Klapman
Steve Taycan, we named it after.
Matt Farah
Yeah, they. So I called him, and he goes, okay. He looked up my VIN and said, there's a power steering update that you can get for this. For this car. And so I'm gonna try do that hopefully.
Zach Klapman
And hopefully that will ota.
Matt Farah
No.
Zach Klapman
Okay.
Matt Farah
It is. There's no. It's hard. It's whatever. You have to go gg.
Zach Klapman
It's on the ground.
Matt Farah
You have to go to the dealer. Yeah, yeah. You have to go to the deal through the wire. And the other one is brand new, and it's funky. So two stops at fast chargers on this trip. Both of them, okay. Immediately, you know, I'm finished. I unplug, hang up the thing, get in the car, power it on. The cars were off while charging, Right? Get in the car, turn it on immediately. Just sort of a faint, like, little must smell from the H vac. And then I realized very quickly that no air conditioning. It's just blowing. It thinks it's blowing cold air, but it is not. And I'm like, oh, that's. So again, with the same phone call. The reason for the phone call to our friend at Porsche got it was actually for the H Vac. And while you're in there, hey, this thing is happening with. So basically, the answer in both occasions, the fix was turn off the car, get out of the car, hit lock in a 1, 2. In that cadence, lock twice.
Zach Klapman
Interesting.
Matt Farah
And then walk, like, far enough away from the car that it won't detect the remote, the fob, and hang out for, like, two to three minutes, and.
Zach Klapman
Then it comes right back on that fix the ac.
Matt Farah
It's a sleep cycle reset. There's apparently, like, soft resets and hard resets and most things. Like, it's the equivalent of holding both buttons down on your iPhone.
Zach Klapman
Right.
Matt Farah
It's that as opposed to like some big. Yeah, yeah, but that. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with the climate control.
Zach Klapman
Nothing wrong with the condenser? It's not.
Matt Farah
No, no, no. Nothing.
Zach Klapman
R134.
Matt Farah
No, no. It's just like some software hiccup is like not having the air conditioning come on. Which driving. It happened on the way out and on the way back and I've plugged in the desert. Yeah. On the way out, it was 94 degrees bigger. And I was like, oh, boy. Please don't let this be a thing.
Zach Klapman
Oh, my God.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But fortunately, I called right away and I pulled. It was like. I went, 10 minutes.
Zach Klapman
Okay.
Matt Farah
I fixed it real quick. And I was very stoked when the fix worked, of course.
Zach Klapman
Cause that's a real simple thing. All you have to do is push two buttons and wait and the relief washes over you.
Matt Farah
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Otherwise, so that's cool. But that is still a problem. So we're traveling next week to the east coast. And so I'm gonna drop it off at the dealer and they can fuck with it while we're gone.
Zach Klapman
Are the windows tinted on the car at all? Oh, man. So 94 degrees, you'd feel every degree of.
Matt Farah
Would be a greenhouse for those 10 minutes. I drove with the front windows down about halfway. And it wasn't bad. It was all right. And the ventilated seats still work because they, you know, they suck. They don't blow.
Zach Klapman
That's a cold seat.
Matt Farah
So it doesn't actually use the. Yeah, it was. I would have. I would have been fine, but it was like.
Zach Klapman
It's just something I've noticed I'm more sensitive to now because I've got good UV tints on my car. Sarah has it on her car. And then when we get in a rental or something, I just like feel like I'm getting hit by all the UV noise.
Matt Farah
We're getting tints. I'm just waiting for a client to book them so that when the guy comes, they can just do mine too. Than make a separate appointment for just my car. I don't care that much.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
But anyway, despite the H Vac thing, which good thing, it's literally just some software hiccup that can easily be fixed. Obviously, just the fact that we are at a place where that kind of a drive. And granted it's just LA to Vegas. It's 285 miles. It's not. But it's 5,000ft up going there, and it's 5,000ft down coming back. So like. Oh, it's just 285 miles. Like almost no regular EV will actually make it on one. Like that charger where I stopped in Baker. That is the biggest Tesla supercharger that I've personally ever seen. There's probably shit, there's gotta be over 100 stalls and it's full of fucking Teslas. So it's not like long range Teslas can do this, you know, either pretty. And by the way, your bladder and your hunger are probably not gonna do unless you're some kind of road warrior. You're not doing four and a half, five hours without stopping for something. Guys, we gotta take a quick break today for Deleteme. They are bringing that heat, making it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. I've now been with Delete Delete me for a couple of months and man, they get it done. They work in the background. You don't hear from them but for once a month. But they are always going. They're doing the hard work of wiping my and my family's personal information from data broker websites. They know my privacy is worth protecting and they offer an ongoing, not one time, but ongoing service to help stop those robocalls, reduce the spam emails and protect my privacy. And I have an in my hand. I printed it out. It comes digitally, but I printed it out. It's my fourth report, my privacy protection program. It's got a summary and the COVID letter from my privacy advisor telling me my status. And in March of 2025, delete me found, found and reviewed 2,626 listings. 12 of my listings were removed. 10 data brokers had my personal info. 89 instances of personal info found. They did a lot of searching and they sent me a very, very detailed report from the data broker websites where they found different bits of my information, past addresses and friend connections and things like that. It's pretty good. And then they show you what they've deleted I it very much. And you can get 20% off your delete me plan. When you go to joindeleteme.com tire and use promo code tire at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com Tire and then enter code Tire at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com Tire CodeTire. And now back to the show Lucid.
Zach Klapman
Their big battery says they can do what, 400, wasn't it?
Matt Farah
You could, I mean the lucids go I think the lucids real world do go the farthest but like you're gonna go 300 miles, 400 miles without stopping. Like, come on, that's a, that's a terrible thing to do. Like don't do that to your body. Like we should be telling people to not do that because you're gonna have problems.
Zach Klapman
Well, yeah, I mean doctors say that if you work from work at a desk, but you're supposed to get up and walk around every hour or something like that to get your, your blood moving and prevent clots and have back out and stuff. So you shouldn't do it in a car either for this time.
Matt Farah
I mean there's other. And there's gonna be a few people that are like fucking yeah. The commute in EVs or really drive EVs all over the place and are gonna be like, yeah, dummy, this is how it is now. But for me, this is the first time that I did that drive at my specific pace. Now I wasn't going 120 miles an hour across the desert, but I had the radar cruise control set at a reasonable speed. It was set for 75 pretty much all the way. And even though in a gas car I probably would have been driving faster. There's no moral justification for. You know what I mean? Like the speed limit's 70. I set the cruise at 75. Some people went faster than me, some people didn't. But like it's. I can't complain. I can't do 90 the whole way and make it in one charge. Like you're not supposed to be doing that.
Zach Klapman
I think it's, it's a problem that people. That doesn't really exist. No, it's almost like it's something you can say as a negative about an ev, but really there's not that many people that would want to drive that long in a gas car anyway. So it's kind of not a real issue.
Matt Farah
I mean like you drive all the time. If you were driving from here to Las Vegas, wouldn't you stop at either Baker or in a gas car?
Zach Klapman
Well, here's a good example. We drove Sarah's RAV4 from Atlanta here.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
2,000 miles, whatever. That thing, when you fill it up, has a range of 487 miles. It's like, it's amazing. We never ever drove it from full to empty. It's just way too long. We always stopped about the halfway point. Cause bathroom, mice back, whatever it was. You just need. You just get fidgety.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Around a little Bit.
Matt Farah
Yeah. So, like, I was able to stop at points that my bo. By the time I stopped, dude, I had to pee so bad both times. Like, I. The car went 10% further than my bladder.
Zach Klapman
You got to get that catheter.
Matt Farah
Although then I guess I would be pissing myself. The car. No, my bladder did make it to where, but. But it wasn't pleasant.
Zach Klapman
It was a race.
Matt Farah
No, no, no. It wasn't a race. It just wasn't fun.
Zach Klapman
You had to do the quick walk.
Matt Farah
There was a quick walk? Yeah, yeah, there was a quick walk.
Zach Klapman
Hold the door for someone so they get inside quicker.
Matt Farah
And you're like, there was the plug and charge works great. You just plug it in.
Zach Klapman
You're talking about ping or electricity.
Matt Farah
Both. No electricity. But I don't like to walk away from the car until I see the thing go. The green check mark that, you know, it's 10 seconds. That's really. But it was a long. It was a long. And you start going. You start going. If I pee near this, is it gonna arc up my dick?
Zach Klapman
Don't pee on the charger. I might not do that. Pee into the vent.
Matt Farah
But yeah, man. You know, despite whatever little stupid hiccups, this car. This car is fabulous.
Zach Klapman
Continues to be a good purchase.
Matt Farah
Oh, it's fucking extraordinary. It's so. It feels like a million bucks. Not like regular car.
Zach Klapman
They're awesome looking too. You got the right one. I am jealous when I see it.
Matt Farah
The wheels.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, the wheels.
Matt Farah
The tires have arrived. Yeah, the tires have arrived at HRE&I.
Zach Klapman
Because right now, especially because it's parked next to Eric's white Maverick. So there's a lot of rental car happening in the driveway right now. But when you put a white car on wheels, suddenly it look well.
Matt Farah
And we get rid of the black plastic also, that's. Most of the black plastic's going away. It's gonna be painted.
Zach Klapman
There's a white E36 with gold BBS's over at the body shop right now, which just looks awesome. So your car's gonna have some wheels. It's gonna look good.
Matt Farah
Yeah. The. Okay, so anyway, that's Vegas. Desert. Good times. All fun things. Yay. How exciting.
Zach Klapman
Cool.
Matt Farah
And obviously, whatever is hiccuping with the software will be fully covered under my unlimited mile warranty.
Zach Klapman
At least you didn't drive it to the dealership to watch a guy just hold two buttons.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
And then hand it back to you.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Let's see. You went to Tennessee and then Austin.
Zach Klapman
Yep.
Matt Farah
Which one do you want to Go second part first or first part second?
Zach Klapman
I don't think I can talk about the Austin adventure because it was a road and track. It's for a road and track article.
Matt Farah
You can just give the basics.
Zach Klapman
I can.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Yeah. I do this all the time. Yeah, yeah. No, it's. The story isn't a surprise. It's your wordsmithing and the photography that'll make it a thing.
Zach Klapman
The photos are gonna be sick.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Give the cliff's new version of what you're doing.
Zach Klapman
Well, the assignment is how to jump a car.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
All right. So that's so something I've wanted to do since I was a child, I think. I mean, I would fall asleep watching Dukes of Hazzard a lot. And what was rad. And I don't want to share too much. I went to rally. Ready?
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Great place to do it. Nice, safe place to do it. They had three different size jumps. No one else was there. Dave, the owner, who we know very well, came in to be my instructor briefly. He, like, showed me how to do it in his modified Ram diesel daily driven truck. Like, there was a coffee grinder in the backseat, and we're going over a tabletop, and I just look back, and it's like. Floats up and floats back down.
Matt Farah
Yeah. If you do it right, it should be a pretty natural flow.
Zach Klapman
There's a big difference between when you get it right and you get it a little wrong.
Matt Farah
Yeah. That's kind of when we were talking about this story in the brainstorming session for the magazine that was kind of like what it was. Like, there's a lot. There's a science. It's like, what is the science?
Zach Klapman
There's a couple sciences, which I'm really excited about. I have a call today with someone who built very big ramps for the very big ramp thing. And then, you know, next door is.
Matt Farah
A company that builds skate ramps.
Zach Klapman
Oh, that's. I'm talking about, like, I understand, but.
Matt Farah
Like, they probably have, like.
Zach Klapman
Well, this person built ramps for a bm, Like a famous BMX camp, and they also build ramps for Nitro Circus. And so, like, the science is the same.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. And then I think I'm gonna talk to someone next Tuesday who does giant record setting ramp to ramp jumping. Yeah, Mr. Foust.
Matt Farah
Oh, I was going to just say. Have you called Tanner yet?
Zach Klapman
Yeah, yeah, he's out of the country, but he said we can talk next week.
Matt Farah
Oh, yeah, Tanner. He knows all the math on jumping cars. Yeah, that's.
Zach Klapman
There's a lot of I'm curious what the similarities are when you're doing let's. I mean, smaller jumps of 60ft versus what did he do?357 on the top of this thing? Whatever. I mean, it was a football field.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
So that shit's insane. And I'm wondering.
Matt Farah
He does movie jumps too. And movie jumps have to be really exact. Oh.
Zach Klapman
Cause of cameras placement and stuff.
Matt Farah
Well, like a lot of times. Yeah. Camera placement and, you know, there's other. Like if you're doing a spectacle ramp jump, like, not to take anything away from this, but it's just you and the ramp. Often in like movie jumps, like in like, I don't know, gone in 60 seconds or like the Rock or those kind of movies. There's like other moving pieces around. So, you know, a couple feet left or right could be problematic.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, yeah, very true. His jump. His record jump was 332ft. It was beaten recently by a guy whose name escapes me, but went a little bit further. But I don't. I know Tanner, so that's who I'm like.
Matt Farah
The difference is we have his phone number.
Zach Klapman
Right, Exactly. So that's why I reached out to him. No disrespect to the current record.
Matt Farah
Well, that'll be a great story.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. It was a nutty day.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
I can tell you more about it once the.
Matt Farah
Yeah. When the issue comes out.
Zach Klapman
Comes out.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Comes out. But Ranger Raptor, because this doesn't really. That's the vehicle that was used for it. And that's not the key to the story.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But we also took it to King of the Hammers.
Zach Klapman
What a great truck that is, dude. Like I said, I had the whole place to myself. So the return back to one, as we say in production, going back to the start line for the shots was at times more fun than the actual jump itself because it was like, oh, I have a triple S turn. Well, traction off two wheel drive.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
That thing is a lifted rally car. And this was hard gravel versus the soft dirt that we had at King of Hammers. So you had more speed. The angle you can get and the steering angle it provides is really shocking. I mean, I thought I was gonna loop it once and it was like, no, just add more angle. It was fine in four high. Of course. I mean, you've experienced that. Like, the acceleration difference is quite significant.
Matt Farah
Oh, it's all. Yeah, it's all wheel spin.
Zach Klapman
This thing just hangs it out. And it was. We were in the same spot. We did our crossover comparison. Pendulum turns. Does it Slaloms, does it? It feels so much lighter on its feet when the ground is a little bit firmer. But I was really impressed at that whole trip.
Matt Farah
Well, it's got the long wheelbase, it's got the torque, it's got the suspension.
Zach Klapman
Travel, but it still had an agility that the F150 Raptor does not feel.
Matt Farah
Like a way quicker steering rack. Way quicker steering rack than, you know, it's a smaller steering wheel and it's a faster ratio than the F1.
Zach Klapman
It's a lighter thing. That is a great truck. Yeah, I like it a lot.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
When I picked it up, the. We found out later, the ride felt too stiff around town. I was like, man, it felt like it was better in la. And then we dropped the psi, the tires down a little bit before jumping. Turns out they were 10 over OEM. So I went, oh, okay. It's not my brain remembering this truck with rosy colors.
Matt Farah
I thought you were gonna tell me there were shipping spreaders in the spring there.
Zach Klapman
They're powder now. I'll tell you what, they are squished into pancakes now, my friend.
Matt Farah
That'll be fun. That's a good time. Okay. But Kyle Kennard from Motor1 was with you in Tennessee, and he said you had a good time, but he didn't want to ruin the story, so he didn't tell me what was going on.
Zach Klapman
So I was hanging out with him. Zach Bowman, who used to work at Road and track with you, and then Sam Smith, who also used to work.
Matt Farah
There at the same time. And Zach Bowman reviews UTV's next.
Zach Klapman
Yes. He ran UTV Rider.com for three or four years. And now him and Sam have a new website venture called Dirt Hammer, which is going to be a very cool thing. I don't know how much they've talked about it, so I don't know what to spill. But just check it. Just follow Dirthammer on Instagram.
Matt Farah
Okay.
Zach Klapman
But the quick character description of these gentlemen so people understand we're all. There's a lot of Venn diagram overlap. We're all the same kind of idiot, the four of us. But Zach Bowman, like, likes to rescue old, rusty American shit. He owns, like, two or three Willys Jeeps. An old F150. Kyle Canard, I found out, has three race car projects.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
In addition to having a kid, which is very impressive. Yeah. And then Sam's, like, got the old BMW rescue shop going on with his crazy 2002 and some other stuff, but they've all driven a lot of old cars. So the main story from this place is that Zach's neighbor, her husband, passed away and left an E Type 4.2 and a GT350 clone, a 66 that is like a perfect recreation of an original one. And it was built by incredibly notable people. And we get done with our camping trip, and Zach's like, oh, I'll go ask her if we're like, if we can take him for a drive, because she likes to see the cars exercised. That's the best neighbor in the world, right? Sure enough, she's like, oh, yeah, go have fun. So we got this powder blue periwinkle E type, which is the best color for Jaguars. Like, period. Everyone who has an E type or.
Matt Farah
It is a good color.
Zach Klapman
It's good.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Or an early Corvette. I mean, any. Any early 60s sports car that's. Everyone made a version of that color.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, that's true for a good reason. It just. It shows so much shape and. And it's not an offensive aggressive. It's not red, and it's not trying to be registration green. It's just like a nice, approachable color. So the Mustang rolls out of the garage and I text Sarah a picture and I say, we might be buying a Mustang.
Matt Farah
Guys, support for the smoking tire comes from the podcast Drive with Jim Farley. You know Jim Farley. He's the CEO of Ford. Not only that, this guy has a GT40 and a Cobra and all kinds of amazing vintage American metal that he races wheel to wheel at places like Goodwood. He's a boss. And you gotta check out this show. It's where Jim talks to some of his favorite people about what they drive and what drives them to succeed. They just started season three with some sick new guests, including Vicki Butler Henderson, the British racing driver and fifth gear personality Randy Nonenberg from Bring a Trailer and T Pain, the musician turned drifter. Guy's got skills, actually. I listened to it the other day. It is great. Jim is a great interviewer. He's insightful, and it's interesting hearing these folks open up to him. I really am about it. I support Jim's venture here. To listen to Drive With Jim Farley. Just search Drive With Jim Farley in any podcast app. That's Drive with Jim Farley. And thank you for supporting this episode.
Zach Klapman
Because it's for sale.
Matt Farah
Oh, really?
Zach Klapman
And Sarah loves fastback Mustangs. Like, that's her only favorite car, really. And I want to own something old. And so we take them for a drive up the mountains, and I'm having the Best time. And Zach and Sam are making strong pitch because they both have.
Matt Farah
That. You should be buying.
Zach Klapman
That I should be buying this car. Because they. Because Sam had driven at some point, like, an original car that was worth a million dollars. And it's like, this one's pretty damn close. Zach has built a ratty but fun Mustang. So they are.
Matt Farah
Sam had a GG350 clone a cup. Many years ago. Like, 10 years ago. He had.
Zach Klapman
Very true.
Matt Farah
That he sold to Larry Webster.
Zach Klapman
I think that's correct.
Matt Farah
Or did he buy it from Larry? I think he sold it to Larry.
Zach Klapman
To Larry.
Matt Farah
To Larry Webster.
Zach Klapman
So the problem with having friends like this is that I see them as qualified. Let's call it financial advisors.
Matt Farah
Oh.
Zach Klapman
You know what I'm saying?
Matt Farah
Oh, no.
Zach Klapman
Their votes of confidence carry weight because they know.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
So, you know, they're the guys going, well, this is a good car. I'm like, well, then this is a good car.
Matt Farah
Yeah. No, no, no. That's not how that works.
Zach Klapman
But it is, Matt. It is how that works. You know, you need some outside experts, and that's what they are.
Matt Farah
No, I've had people. Yeah. Yeah. I've had people that are. Quote, they're experts based on the fact that they've owned one. Be like, you should own one.
Zach Klapman
Yes. Correct.
Matt Farah
And, like, neglect a lot of what the real ownership experience was like in that process.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
Like. But they're not actually qualified to, like, inspect. Do a PPI on this particular car.
Zach Klapman
Well.
Matt Farah
Well.
Zach Klapman
But they kind of are.
Matt Farah
They could be.
Zach Klapman
Zach has rebodied and rebuilt so many vehicles. Like, I trust his mechanical ability. I mean, Sam, too well.
Matt Farah
But you said that they were encouraging you in a way that led me to believe that they were steering you wrong.
Zach Klapman
I don't think they're steering me wrong.
Matt Farah
Okay.
Zach Klapman
But the problem is that when you've had a fun weekend and everyone's in a great mood, and then someone's like, do you want to buy a rad car? And you, Zach, and Sarah don't have children. You know, And Zach's a little bit of an impulsive idiot. He's like, sure. And everyone's going, do it. Do it. And so I text Sarah. I'm like, guess what? We might buy a Mustang.
Matt Farah
And then we texted me the same thing. Yeah.
Zach Klapman
And he talked on the phone, and we're not gonna do that.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Was it very expensive?
Zach Klapman
It was pretty expensive. Yeah, it was pretty expensive. It wasn't as much as your taycan, but it wasn't far.
Matt Farah
Oh, it was like, start with five. Yeah, Yeah.
Zach Klapman
I mean, it's not.
Matt Farah
It's probably one of those things that's, like, worth that.
Zach Klapman
Right?
Matt Farah
But, like, does that. And Sarah need that pro, I bet. I mean, just from what you've described, that I've seen. No, it does. It seems too nice for you. A little bit.
Zach Klapman
It's kind of nice. It's not you. I would be nervous beating the shit out of it, which is probably the.
Matt Farah
Wrong car for you.
Zach Klapman
Like, Zach's car. You can beat the shit out of this car. I would be tempted, but also afraid to, which is very true. And really, it's like, you know, we're. Without getting into politics, we're in, like, let's call it interesting. Unsure financial times. And I'm well aware of that. And I was very well aware of that up until the point I drove this Mustang. And then I was like, well, then.
Matt Farah
You go, well, I have one more dollar than this costs.
Zach Klapman
It's all falling apart anyway.
Matt Farah
Yeah, yeah, send it. Yeah, yeah, send it, spend it. Let's go.
Zach Klapman
Pretty much.
Matt Farah
Let's listen to Seinfeld. Every cent.
Zach Klapman
See, that's a great point. I should have used that as a counterpoint.
Matt Farah
Listen, a billionaire just told me to spend every cent, so if it was.
Zach Klapman
If it cost a little less, we would have done it. But it's expensive, so we have to back away from that situation.
Matt Farah
Yeah, that's. Yeah, yeah. But did you leave a card and say, call me if you're desperate?
Zach Klapman
No, but I'll text Zach this much.
Matt Farah
Text Zach and be like, 29. Nine standing up.
Zach Klapman
If she wants to go to a good home, which I would. And get exercised, because she does. I mean, that's what's been pretty cool about this person. I don't want to blow up her spot and send other buyers to her door.
Matt Farah
Oh, no, nor should you. Nor should you. But, yeah. I thought. I was like, oh, Hannah, Zach might be coming home with a cool car. All right, fine. She was like, and you're going to have to give him parking. Huh? I was like, yeah. She was like, okay.
Zach Klapman
I like that. I get ran by her for. Well, I did. I had to ask you because I knew. Because Sarah was like, where are you going to park? And I said, already, Sol. Matt said, we can park it in Gardena. She goes, so we have to go to Gardena to get it. I was like, that's not far. We climb right there.
Matt Farah
Listen, you want free or not?
Zach Klapman
I don't know. She wasn't mad at you. She was running past Me. She's like, how often are we gonna drive it? How often? You know all these other things.
Matt Farah
Yeah, you'd have to drive it a lot. That's the point. If you. If you buy something that. And you don't drive it a lot, it's stupid.
Zach Klapman
Right? Two other funny stories from that. They're very quick. So Zach has a new truck. He's been driving old truck, but he has a relatively new ram pickup truck. And when you ask him what kind of truck he has, you have to be very specific in how you describe this truck, because it is a white space. Space. Power wagon. It's a ram power wagon, but it's white.
Matt Farah
Yeah, yeah.
Zach Klapman
And he was like, I wouldn't.
Matt Farah
He's like.
Zach Klapman
I want to emphasize that when you describe this to people, you need a double space. You need a. You need a long pause.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Poorly named.
Zach Klapman
Like, the valet be like, oh, which truck is yours? You'd be like, the power wagon. Which one? It's the white. It's the. It's the. The. It's. Power wagon. White power wagon.
Matt Farah
White man. I see. Yeah. Yeah. Are you. What parts of the country do you think a valet is saying to you? Which power wagon?
Zach Klapman
This power.
Matt Farah
Okay, cool. I was just checking.
Zach Klapman
We. I mean, look it. We went. We went off roading, more like gravel roading, but we went out into the sticks to go just basically as an alternative to the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. You can take a gravel road the whole way, which is fucking cool.
Matt Farah
Really.
Zach Klapman
Now you get to the end of it, you realize there's no signs that say the gate is closed, which it was. So we got to see that road twice, and we missed breakfast.
Matt Farah
Oh, how far. How far was it is the road.
Zach Klapman
That's probably 30 minutes, so. Okay.
Matt Farah
But it's, like, pretty and nice.
Zach Klapman
Oh, it's gorgeous. It's along a river the whole way. There's fishing spots the whole time.
Matt Farah
Oh, cool.
Zach Klapman
But I bring it up because we ended up in a line with five other trucks, people going fishing. Like, you need. This is truck country or previa country.
Matt Farah
No, I wasn't saying, like, a lot of trucks, but just specifically power wagon.
Zach Klapman
Saw a lot of rams out there. I saw a ram dealership, too. So, Yeah, I think there's a lot of those.
Matt Farah
So you got to specify which one.
Zach Klapman
Which power wagon.
Matt Farah
Yeah. And you definitely don't. Don't say it. Fwat. You just definitely don't do that.
Zach Klapman
I think it's power wagon, comma, white. It's the way you'd write your name In a bibliography, that's how you have to describe your vehicle.
Matt Farah
It's fucking brainy.
Zach Klapman
That was funny. So, yeah, great trip. Almost came back with an old car. And now of course I'm going to start shopping for old beat up Mustang things that I can drive the out of.
Matt Farah
You're in the right city for them.
Zach Klapman
Exactly.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
And oh man, I've been thinking. I've been thinking about project cars just for like funsies.
Zach Klapman
You.
Matt Farah
Yeah, you know.
Zach Klapman
Okay.
Matt Farah
Because the mind wanders.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, sure.
Matt Farah
Mind always wanders. I'm not. We're not. The. The Manx is coming. The Countach in process. No more money is being spent on cars. But.
Zach Klapman
Right, but.
Matt Farah
But I was just thinking that a 6 liter V8 in a 4 seat Mercedes convertible would be a pretty cool car.
Zach Klapman
You haven't stopped thinking about that since you asked the guy.
Matt Farah
You have to wear a Coogee while driving it. But that's okay. I have one.
Zach Klapman
So explain to the people what we're talking about. Have you before?
Matt Farah
This is the 1995 Mercedes E320 Cabriolet. That was like $90,000 when it was new. And you know, they seem to be terminally 15 grand. And the idea would be to take this. Oh, there you go. That red, I mean that red one is sort of a similar vibe.
Zach Klapman
This is Coogee spec. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.
Matt Farah
So basically you would take the 320 and you would do an AMG body conversion and make it look like the E500. But then you'd actually put the E500 powertrain in it also. And you wouldn't necessarily. I mean, I'd have to really do some research on if you want the actual 4 cam E500 engine or if you really want the single cam one for cruising around. You actually might prefer the torque of the single cam engine. But either way. Yes, you would. You would have an appropriate section in your closet for clothes that you would wear while driving such a vehicle.
Zach Klapman
Okay, can I go back? I say this respectfully. You say project car. I think we're talking about a car that you have built.
Matt Farah
Well, someone has to build that. It doesn't exist.
Zach Klapman
Right? You wouldn't build it.
Matt Farah
No.
Zach Klapman
Okay. You would assemble a wardrobe.
Matt Farah
Things to do.
Zach Klapman
I just wanted to. Okay.
Matt Farah
I would assemble a wardrobe. Yes.
Zach Klapman
All right. That would be pretty rad. The engine would fit, right?
Matt Farah
The engine does fit. Yeah. It's the same.
Zach Klapman
And then you got the fenders.
Matt Farah
Yeah. It's not, it's not like rocket science. Like it can, it can Be done.
Zach Klapman
I think when you described this to me first, for some reason I thought you were turning a four door into a two door cabin.
Matt Farah
I was like, oh no, they already make this. These things are everywhere.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
And if you were willing to commit to it, to being a speedster, then you could probably.
Zach Klapman
I would want to see renderings because the speedster hump. And when we talked to Jerry about this, it really depends on the artist, the sculptor.
Matt Farah
You know what would be crazy? How about this? What if you did swb? What if you took out the back seat and shortened it now and made a short wheelbase?
Zach Klapman
I mean, I like this.
Matt Farah
Shorten the whole car.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, sure. No one's done a wide body.
Matt Farah
We talked about the fucking. Oh, look at that one. One to the right. Yeah, no, no, no, left, left, left. That, that fucking flip tail. That looks cool as hell. That's like. That one is like the, the. The pre merger AMG body kit. My idea is just to make it look exactly like the E500, which is more subtle.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, no, I don't think these flares work with the design. These are round and the body to me is very square.
Matt Farah
Those are fucking ICE T 1989. Actually this car came out in the 90s, but like you need the subtle.
Zach Klapman
Flares that start at the front bumper. Yeah, yeah, for sure. This would be cool.
Matt Farah
But I think the E500 uses a different. Like a different grill or different. Some other different bits like. But it should look exactly like the E500 is the point. It's mainly for handles.
Zach Klapman
Hannah.
Matt Farah
Hannah's fun cars are really slow. She was into this.
Zach Klapman
Right, but whose idea was it? Yours.
Matt Farah
I mean where do all car ideas in my household originate from? The POW was her idea. She started talking about the pow.
Zach Klapman
I mean this is a cool idea.
Matt Farah
Oh yeah.
Zach Klapman
Oh yeah. Look at that.
Matt Farah
Yeah. So you just do the full E500 front end and then those fender flares, those wheels. I mean that's a totally doable thing. Thing.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, that is. I think you just cool gentleman's coupe or luxury coupe rather.
Matt Farah
Yeah, you just mold the metal.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
And you could either do air suspension or you know a. Like a. A luxury focused like fixed sort of height suspension air.
Zach Klapman
Because then you can drop it.
Matt Farah
Yeah, yeah. I mean I think and I talk. You know, I talked to is him.
Zach Klapman
I know about it. I know.
Matt Farah
No, not that expensive. Yeah, but someone's birthday is coming up in. A big birthday is coming up for somebody in a couple years so we could get ahead of it.
Zach Klapman
And that birthday has a 5 in it, if I recall. And this had to have a five in it. You're welcome, Matt Farah. You're welcome for that justification, honey.
Matt Farah
And it would take amount of time that starts with a five, probably.
Zach Klapman
And it would cost a five.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Do you see the wagon he's doing?
Zach Klapman
Have you heard of numerology?
Matt Farah
Do you see the wagon he's doing?
Zach Klapman
There are so many things happening over there, it's hard to keep track. I'm not trying to be disrespectful.
Matt Farah
The two door wagon that he's building.
Zach Klapman
Oh yes, it looks cool. The proportions are sick.
Matt Farah
It's real.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, it's like a shooting break.
Matt Farah
It's so sick.
Zach Klapman
There's so much cool shit over there. I don't know what's his and what's a client's.
Matt Farah
Honestly, I think he builds them and then sells them. I don't know if he builds them.
Zach Klapman
Oh, that would make sense.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
We're talking about Marina. Was it Marina West Auto Body?
Matt Farah
I think CMS Motorsports or that is the AMG building arm of that. They also have like a regular body shop for regular stuff.
Zach Klapman
But there's a lot happening there.
Matt Farah
Shant shout out to him. Guy rules, dude. But so the pow. We talked about the pow, right, With Mad Mike, right? Where was the last. I told you about the POW?
Zach Klapman
That it fixed the. It took him 30 hours. He diagnosed it. He found the thing, the blinker. The guy, they fixed it, right.
Matt Farah
Brought it home. Hannah drove it for a couple days. Yeah. So. Well, guess so. Here's. I discovered something. I discovered another thing that was all real. They didn't replace the battery though. So that battery was already pretty weak.
Zach Klapman
Okay, wait, you replaced that battery when you guys got the car, right? It's like a Prius battery.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Okay.
Matt Farah
But it had died a bunch of times in between, right? So it was not holding a charge. Okay, fine. So I get another battery and I realized that these Prius batteries, which are the only batteries that fit in the PAL are AGM batteries which are more like motorcycle and power sport type batteries. But they're a little. They're bigger than a motorcycle battery, but smaller than a car battery. And it's for a second gen Prius. So weird. Anyway, not all battery tenders fit. This AGM will not quote fit because you just clipped but will recognize and connect to this AGM battery. Unfortunately, the CTEK tender doesn't. The Optima tender does. But I had had a CTEK quick connector on this thing for a long time and for some reason The. They just won't connect to it properly. And the Optima does, which is just a weird thing I learned. I don't know why.
Zach Klapman
Okay.
Matt Farah
So I had to take it off and switch it.
Zach Klapman
Oh.
Matt Farah
So that may have also somehow contributed to premature killing of the battery.
Zach Klapman
Okay.
Matt Farah
Because I've had a CTEC tender on it for, like, a year.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
So I don't know. Weird little fucking car.
Zach Klapman
So, yeah, small car, big problem. Small car, like, silly problem. China.
Matt Farah
Yeah, silly problem. These batteries are, like, $280.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
Battery.
Zach Klapman
I don't know. Batteries are expensive.
Matt Farah
Mad Mike is more expensive than a battery.
Zach Klapman
Well, yeah, of course. Thirty hours. But I think my new battery for my car was 300 bucks or something like that.
Matt Farah
Yeah, yeah, they're all. All those batteries are super expensive now, like everything else. And wait till the tariffs hit. Yay. Everyone is so fucked.
Zach Klapman
I'm glad I bought my fucking power steering hoses when I did. Hope I don't need more parts for my BMW. Yeah, of course not everything else will work for.
Matt Farah
I bet the price of everything, it just goes bleep.
Zach Klapman
I wonder. I need to. I need to order my tartan fabric. I need to figure out how much yardage I need.
Matt Farah
Hurry.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
Hurry, hurry, hurry.
Zach Klapman
I'm gonna talk to tlg.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Okay. Shout out to Johnny Lieberman and Sang Yoon for the cars and coffee they put on at the new Helms Bakery. It was a delight. I went 100% incognito in a Revology Mustang. It was like being Clark Kent. Nobody noticed.
Zach Klapman
How'd you like your day in the Revology Mustang?
Matt Farah
I mean, those things are so cool. Did I actually put any pictures on Instagram? I didn't. Although I was probably tagged in some. You know, those cars are rad. This one was an automatic. It's just the one that's here. It's like a gold. That gold green GT350. 1968. You know, it was cool, but, like, no one expects me to roll up to a cars and coffee in that.
Zach Klapman
Right.
Matt Farah
And I. Johnny looked right past me, like he was standing there directing traffic and literally looked right past me. It was hilarious. I hope that succeeds because Helms Bakery was very tasty. The breakfast burrito is good.
Zach Klapman
Are they gonna do it regularly?
Matt Farah
I think they wanted to. I mean, I think they just kind of, like, sent it and, like, we're, like, waiting to see, like, would the neighbors get mad? Would anybody care? And, like, if not, then, yeah, do it again.
Zach Klapman
Well, did saying buy Helms Bakery? Yeah, I mean, well, it's a way to bring people to it. Or it's also just a fun thing.
Matt Farah
Well, so hang on. There's two different things in la. There's a place called Helms Bakery. It used to be a giant commercial bakery. We were talking about the fucking van. The van. Oh, P.S. the van that we were talking about. The literal one that we pulled up the auction and sold at rm. That one was at the Cars and Coffee.
Zach Klapman
Holy crap.
Matt Farah
Yeah. You know who owns it? Philip.
Zach Klapman
Oh.
Matt Farah
Because of course fucking Philip owns it.
Zach Klapman
He owns all things Fun and cool. Truly.
Matt Farah
Of course. He fucking whimsically throws up a paddle for this thing. This is our friend Philip, who is, you know, the owner of Meyers Manx, Basically CEO of Meyers Manx and has all these like amazing silly fucking weird cars that are like. Like you're 38 to 45. They were like early video game level cars, like pre Gran Turismo video, like Rad Racer shit. But also apparently a Helms Bakery truck. So we probably could drive it if we wanted to.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
Ali said he'd have to sit on it.
Zach Klapman
I'd have to sit on the dashboard while you drive.
Matt Farah
I got a fucking text from our friend Ali Javadon, who said he rolled around Carmel with Philip in this thing.
Zach Klapman
That's the perfect vehicle. It's adorable. I had dinner with him in Austin. He was there.
Matt Farah
Oh, with Ali.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. So he knows Dave now and they're.
Matt Farah
Oh, good times. But anyway, that Helms cars and coffee was good. So follow along on I guess Johnny's Instagram to see if they do more of them. That'll be fun.
Zach Klapman
Cool.
Matt Farah
Very. And Pat Long, who I spoke to yesterday and will be here for the 1000th episode, would like me to remind everybody to please get your tickets early for Air Water. It's gonna be busy, I'm sure. And actually I was talking to him. Cause they have a mid engine feature and they're gonna put the paint car on some type of a stand.
Zach Klapman
Cool.
Matt Farah
I had a little thing made, a little display license plate made that's like, what am I? And has a little fact sheet. But I think it's in like a little. It's kind of boomerish to do a fact sheet about your car, but it's literally like an actual license plate that I'm to screw onto the car. Oh, cool. So it's not like a look that's pretty. Yeah. If someone looks at the back, it says like the stuff about the engine and whatever, you know, that's good because.
Zach Klapman
People go, what why is this here?
Matt Farah
Yeah, someone will see it. Yeah, but I'm not going to, like, put something on the windshield that likes up people's photos.
Zach Klapman
Right?
Matt Farah
You know?
Zach Klapman
Yeah. And you don't want to have the weird little kid doll.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Speaking of license plates, I got a phone message yesterday from AAA that my custom plates came in, like, seven months earlier than estimated, which is sick.
Matt Farah
You got custom plates?
Zach Klapman
I got custom plates because I got black with yellow.
Matt Farah
Oh, okay.
Zach Klapman
And they say unreliable.
Matt Farah
Oh, really?
Zach Klapman
How amazing that that call would come in when my car is on jack stand.
Matt Farah
How is it unreliable spelled?
Zach Klapman
I had to. I went with U, N, R, Y, L, Y, B, l. Wait, no, no, that's too many. Hang on, let me look.
Matt Farah
U, N, R, Y, L. Oh, it's fine. Oh, unr Y, unry. Unre. Yeah, unre.
Zach Klapman
Oh, do you have a picture somewhere?
Matt Farah
You do? I. I can't. Unreliable.
Zach Klapman
Unreliable unry.
Matt Farah
Oh, there it is. Oh, there we go. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. U, N, R, L, Y, B, L. Yeah. Yeah, that. Yeah. It looks like an app for mechanics.
Zach Klapman
Oh, it was this. Or I had one other one that had a three in there, which would have been good for the M3 thing.
Matt Farah
No, this is. This is good.
Zach Klapman
Six to one half does in the other.
Matt Farah
No, it's good, but when you spelled it before, you added a Y. Oh, yeah.
Zach Klapman
All over the place.
Matt Farah
Yeah. And I was like, ah, that doesn't make it. That's not right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no, this. This is U, N, R, L, Y, B, L. That's.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, it's very phonetic, I think.
Matt Farah
Well, it also could be you. Oh. It almost looks like you are not liable if the R and the N you are. Could be. You are not liable. Right. If they were switched.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. Then I'd be a lawyer who's trying to help people get out of things. Like, you're not liable.
Matt Farah
No, it's good. I like that.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, that's good. Perfect timing. But I'm glad because, you know, you order these. They go, all right, nine months. And I went, what time I had one.
Matt Farah
I forget which one it was. I think the Mustang one or one of the ones I ordered took forever. The Bentley one showed up in, like, three weeks.
Zach Klapman
Wow.
Matt Farah
Which was pretty awesome.
Zach Klapman
Nice.
Matt Farah
The Bentley was spotted in Seattle. It went to Seattle, and two different fans sent me pictures of it.
Zach Klapman
Cool.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Very cool. I'm glad it's still kicking around.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Yeah, I am. People. I'm glad the homie is driving it, man. Should we go to the people? Oh, yeah. Before we Go to the people. Dude. We were staying at the Fountain Blue in Vegas and Pizza Con was going on in Vegas. It's a thing. And it's so. The whole hotel is filled with pizza industry people. So shout out. Shout out to Lorenzo from Joe's Pizza in New Canaan. Big fucking. Looks like the big goomba version of me. He said, I talked to the guy for 30 minutes at the bar. This motherfucker said the Shkarol about 65 times. He was awesome.
Zach Klapman
What does that even mean?
Matt Farah
He's money. Look at that. That guy's doing well. He's got a good, you know, guy. He was great. But I learned a lot about pizza. Someone acquired a dough balling machine that's gonna do 400 pounds of dough. But I was thinking that when press launches, go to Vegas, something that they should absolutely do is look at what type of industry convention is in Vegas, throw some money at sponsoring said convention and get passes for the journalists to be like, hey, while you're here, you wanna go to the fucking corduroy convention? Who wouldn't check that out for a couple.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
Not corduroy, but.
Zach Klapman
Well, that one, I do 30 minutes. Pizza convention.
Matt Farah
Pizza convention. Yeah, yeah, they were. They had demos.
Zach Klapman
It was all this.
Matt Farah
Yeah, commercial home stuff.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, I want to go to that. I'm gonna tell Sarah that exists and she's gonna want to go.
Matt Farah
If you. If anyone out there is a fan who owns a pizza company, Pizza adjacent company, and wants to make Zach and I employees for next year, I'll trade you. I'll tell you what, if you get me and Zach into Pizza Con, I'll trade you for a pass to see much.
Zach Klapman
Straight up, pizza is the perfect food.
Matt Farah
Let's fucking go. And I really want to go to the concrete thing with Scotto.
Zach Klapman
Oh, the concrete convention.
Matt Farah
The concrete convention. Yeah. We should really look up the full. Can we get the Las Vegas Convention center full list of conventions for 2025. There's got to be some fucking random shit that they have a convention for that we gotta. We could fucking scam our way into. Right? Like, what is the weirdest convention that happens?
Zach Klapman
Avian Awards.
Matt Farah
That's not weird.
Zach Klapman
Well, depending on which side of the.
Matt Farah
No, that's. What's the most awesome convention?
Zach Klapman
Not. I'm with you.
Matt Farah
Holy shit. The Q Sports International Expo. Okay, Here we go. March 2020. Q Sports. That's got. That's pool, right? Billiards. Natso Connect. College basketball. Okay.
Zach Klapman
What is UC Catch ball usa Catch ball tournament.
Matt Farah
What the fuck is catch ball? I Don't know the. Okay. Healthcare information job fair. Nothing interesting yet. Dice Tower.
Zach Klapman
Safety Professionals. That seems.
Matt Farah
Society of Safety Professionals. Yeah.
Zach Klapman
You know what? That would either be. That might be the dullest on the floor, but after hours they go ham. To a degree that's almost alarming because they're like, my whole life is just no risk. Yeah, let's get choked. They're just like risk management.
Matt Farah
Who's got a belt and a closet? All right. Nothing is. Radiation oncology. Oh, boy. Whoa. The Yu Gi oh. Championship series.
Zach Klapman
Whoa.
Matt Farah
Wedding and Portrait Photographers Conference. EV Charging Summit.
Zach Klapman
Adobe Summit can learn about editing software.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
EV Charging Summit. That might be the thing.
Matt Farah
Oh, this was just this month. We're actually looking at like, we're looking at last week.
Zach Klapman
That was just this month. Good lord.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Bar Expo, Cinemacon, Travel goods trade show.
Zach Klapman
Oh, that'd be interesting. International Security Conference.
Matt Farah
Yeah, it's probably shady as hell.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Farah
Let's pick another month. Let's pick September. September maybe is a good time to go to Las Vegas. Sorry, I'm going to extend this bit by a few more minutes. And you guys can just deal with that because we're learning today. September, the Pack Expo. What is that? Can you click on that?
Zach Klapman
Is it just backpacks?
Matt Farah
What is the pack? The Pack Expo. Don't even know what it is.
Zach Klapman
No description is available.
Matt Farah
No description. Pack it Out. Event website. Here we go.
Zach Klapman
Packaging and processing.
Matt Farah
Oh, dude, this is the one. Packaging and processing. This is a whole fucking show of logistics, equipment. No, you're not about this. You don't want to see, like, how factory equipment works and how. How they, like, automate, like, packaging and products.
Zach Klapman
I don't. Because the picture here is a robot. So this is basically to show us. Here's how jobs get taken away from human beings. So they're just me selling new robots. Look at this. The robots moving a donut around. It would be interesting. Like, I am process is interesting, but of the whole 400 events they have here in a year, I'll let you go to this one. I'll go to Corduroy.
Matt Farah
But what about Concrete? Does concrete interest you or not really? Is it just me?
Zach Klapman
Scotto's pitch.
Matt Farah
Okay.
Zach Klapman
Because he's so enthusiastic, I need to know, like, why does he want to go to Concrete? He has an update on his Patreon, like, that says, what is like the Scotto Farm nightmare. So I'm like, oh, he'll have things.
Matt Farah
To talk about on Sunday.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, there's no events in August.
Matt Farah
That's gonna be fun. By the way, the thousandth episode, Sunday, 10am Pacific to 6pm Pacific. Eight hour live show. It's gonna be a lot, let's just say. Oh, and shout out. Thank you, Hunter A. Who I'm pretty sure is a patron, right? That's a name I've read a lot for questions. Hunter A sent that Jack Daniels Sinatra edition for us for the 1000. Shout out to Hunter A. And then someone sent us this giant bouquet of cookies and donuts, but there was no card or anything in it. So I don't know, whoever sent the delicious orchards this awesome looking, literal bag of donuts, I am 100% about it. It looks fucking delicious. And thank you. And maybe, maybe there's a card inside there.
Zach Klapman
Do you want to crack it today or do you want to wait and save it for Sunday? Will they keep till Sunday? I guess so.
Matt Farah
I think they will. I'm sorry there's no card, but I.
Zach Klapman
Think there's coffee in there too.
Matt Farah
Whoever you are, thank you for sending those. That's very kind. No one needed to send anything, but we certainly appreciate it.
Zach Klapman
Someone says Doug sent it. I bet that would be a Dougie thing.
Matt Farah
He's not coming, unfortunately.
Zach Klapman
He would send a basket of apples. What do they grow in Nantucket?
Matt Farah
In Nantucket?
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
They grow.
Zach Klapman
What's. What is their staple?
Matt Farah
There are a couple farms. I don't think they export anything, but.
Zach Klapman
It feels like a place where they would import something and then present it as like, this is the Nantucket tree, you know?
Matt Farah
Hmm. Salmon pants.
Zach Klapman
Delicious.
Matt Farah
Well, I mean, Nantucket's like, its history and its heritage is whaling. Nantucket was the whaling industry and whale oil capital of the universe for a long time.
Zach Klapman
They saw whale oil. What are they called?
Matt Farah
The Essex? Moby Dick. You ever see that? In the Heart of the Sea is the movie. Yeah, that's out of Nantucket.
Zach Klapman
Oh, okay.
Matt Farah
I swear to God, the Nantucket Whaling Museum is the most delightfully interesting museum you'll ever go to. Even though in hindsight, whaling was pretty gross.
Zach Klapman
It was just fine. We didn't know.
Matt Farah
Yeah, the museum is amazing. The people are here and we love them. Over@patreon.com thesmokentyrepodcast get in on the action, ask questions for the show. Catch the show live. Catch it before anybody else as we upload it the same day we record. And we don't wait till Tuesday. Thursday, get an ad. Free listening experience on both YouTube and the other platforms. And an extra show every month. Let's do it. Kojikoji says how do you feel about old luxury SUVs being turned into Overlanders instead of sticking with something tried and true like a Jeep or a land Cruiser? Early first gen German SUVs, those companies at that time thought their customers were going to go off road. So like first gen versions of these cars had more like robust stuff than the later versions of the cars.
Zach Klapman
Like the early Cayennes had legit mechanical locking differentials instead of. Now they're mostly braking systems, torque vector.
Matt Farah
Yeah. And they're still really good off road. They are, but the first gen ones are kind of what the old school people are looking for and are a lot cheaper, obviously. I mean, I think it's cool to see them out there. Dude, I'm down for folks doing, I've seen a million Land Cruisers and I've seen a million Jeeps. So if I'm out on a trail, which is admittedly not that often, and I see a dude fucking getting her done in an X5 4.8, I'm like, let's fucking go. Right? And I mean, yeah, Cayennes are great too.
Zach Klapman
Yes.
Matt Farah
Joey Bag of donuts. How would you guys differentiate a midlife crisis sports car purchase versus someone who has grown in their career and is now able to afford a nicer sports car?
Zach Klapman
That is a tough question. I think. I think there's an impulsivity to midlife crisis.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
It's not thought out if someone buys a bad. If someone chooses a bad car.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
That usually is not something they. They grew up wanting. For a long time. They researched, they dreamt about, they thought about and they went, finally, I can get the real, the good one. They just go, oh, shit, man, I'm having a bad day. Maserati convertible.
Matt Farah
Yeah, Like a crisis is like kind of like out of nowhere urgent. You know, something's gotta change now, you.
Zach Klapman
Know, stretching the budget.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Versus like someone who had a sports car when they were younger, had a kid, had to sell it, you know, has been talking about buying it. Has been, you know, has been for a time, you know, letting people know around them that a sports car purchase is coming. And then also it's sort of like. I mean, I think that term is like a dated term.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
You know, but it does. I think there are certain types of cars that imply midlife crisis more than others.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, but I agree with you. I think it was a term that was used for just like making fun of usually men. But, you know, they hit a certain age and they go buy something that is seen as fiscally irresponsible or impractical vehicle. And it's like, oh, oh, there they go in their 40s. And you're like, all right, sure. Maybe there's an element of like, I'm going to die. What am I working for? To just buy practical things. I'm going to have some fun with all of the work I've done. But I don't think that's invalid. I think we should reward ourselves in some way and just. It's like work, life, balance. But that was just the old way to do it.
Matt Farah
Yeah. I've heard the term midlife crisis sports car a million times. I don't love it. And the people that we know who buy cars are not. Not having a crisis. They're enthusiasts of cars.
Zach Klapman
That's right. I like the GT350. I was not having a crisis.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Stolberg. Oh, that was. Oh, these are left over from last one. Oh, sorry. Okay, let's see. Aidan Squire says, should we do. Oh, a couple people have asked us if we would do another notice collab. But we. With a Seiko movement or other things that could bring the cost down from the 1200 where the canyon has been at to something more like 500 or 600. I'm definitely not opposed to that idea. I don't want to make the same watch with a cheaper movement just to save money. I do think we're doing this green dial, which is going to be coming up in April, and then we have one more special dial. And then in my opinion, we're gonna retire the model and move on to something else. And that next thing that we do will look different than the Canyon. But I've heard that people are interested in a more affordable watch and we could certainly do that. Yeah, no problem. Can do. Sloppy toppy 5000 says model 3s are now under 15k used. At what point will these replace Kia Souls and Nissan Altimas as the official car of people? Bad credit and nothing to lose.
Zach Klapman
We're getting there.
Matt Farah
We are getting there. Yeah. I mean, there's a million Model 3s running around out there and they're starting. The thing about Tesla's is because they never change their styling of the cars very much, it's sort of tough to tell what year a Tesla is unless you are sort of a connoisseur. But a lot of the early model 3s are starting to look kind of ratty. You know, they're like missing wheel center caps and shit. And so especially like over in this area.
Zach Klapman
Falling apart.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
What's funny is I think there's a lot of drivers that operate their vehicles the same way in Altimas and in model threes. There's a lot of just, like, going for it, blowing that red to hope everybody stops.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Beneteau driver watch question. What are your thoughts on putting leather straps on divers? Highly controversial.
Zach Klapman
Sure, Highly. Leather's not great underwater, right?
Matt Farah
No, it's not. But I am pro doing this. I have no problem doing this at all. It's your watch. So many people buy divers because of how they look, and they have no plans in going in the water.
Zach Klapman
True.
Matt Farah
And that is totally fine. My old Rolex. My old old. It's not that old, but, like, oldest from like 05 is in, quote, retirement.
Zach Klapman
What does that mean?
Matt Farah
Well, it's out of everyday wear. It's now in the special pile. It has amazing amount of patina, and I would like to freeze it in that amount of patina forever.
Zach Klapman
Oh, you don't want it to patina more. You're basically getting sun baked. Right?
Matt Farah
I'm not.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
Yes. I'm not, like, specifically against it, but I now have other things for every day. And so that watch has a leather band on it so that I wear it in a little more formal, dressy setting. And I'm not just, like, knocking about in it all day. But, like, if you're down to, like, change straps a lot. Yeah. Fucking throw a leather on there.
Zach Klapman
That's the other thing. Changing a watch strap takes three minutes. It's so easy.
Matt Farah
So it's not hard. Yeah, but, like, leather does get gross. So if you're gonna wear the watch every day, that leather's gonna get nasty. I only ever seen a cow swim.
Zach Klapman
I didn't think so.
Matt Farah
Yeah. I only do. I only put leather on watches I want that I'm not gonna wear every day. See? Oh, God. Oh, that's actually funny. Sorry. Okay. Stolenberg. During TST 620 with Spike, I named the color scheme for the Taycan. I said, first fucking person to go full Outback, like, from the first outback, 1995, with that branding on their Taycan cross. Turismo is the winner. That's the thing. Just got to go full Paul Hogan. Hello, mate. Sport utility wagon.
Zach Klapman
So I guess you should have gotten a yellow taycan.
Matt Farah
Well, you could do it in white. I mean, just let's get a photo of the 95 Subaru Outback and let's see what the what. And maybe if we can get one in white. There we go. That's the photo that's Literally the photo. That's the exact photo from the, from the, like the brochure that I remember. I don't know what it was about this car, dude. So when my mom had the Mercury Villager Nautica, it went in for service and we were. And we got one of these first gen as a service loaner in 95. And when my mom brought this thing home, I went apeshit over this thing. I do not understand what it was about it. The commercials or whatever.
Zach Klapman
You know what I loved back then? I remember this too. The hood scoop.
Matt Farah
Oh.
Zach Klapman
I was like, fabulous. Cool. Because it's a normal car, but it's got a hood scoop.
Matt Farah
Okay, so. But if we wanted to go full out back, it is a two tone.
Zach Klapman
Yes.
Matt Farah
So we got. We'd have to do a lower half kind of wrap.
Zach Klapman
I wouldn't do that.
Matt Farah
I don't think it would work.
Zach Klapman
No.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But I do think my idea from episode 620 was funny. And if somebody, you know, someone sent me a photo shout out to this guy, a guy has the same Taycan as me. Okay. It's a white cross Turismo. And he got the same HRE wheels.
Zach Klapman
No shit.
Matt Farah
Okay. Slightly different color. Same HRE 522s. He has a lighter gold and mine is a very dark bronze. But I got the 21s. The size of the Turbo. It's an OEM Porsche size, but for the Turbo he got 18 with some meat. Some meat on the buns of sidewall. He got some meaty sidewall. And it looks like a Dakar and it looks amazing. And I was like seconds from fucking calling Hre and be like, abort, shrink the wheel, resize, put it in the dryer. But I was like, yo, fucking hit me back in like a month and let me know what your range is. Cause I bet it's not good.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, I bet it's a lot worse. Sure.
Matt Farah
I bet it's a lot worse. And I can't whack 50 miles out of the battery in this car. I just can't do it. But it looks. Looked sick.
Zach Klapman
That's a lot more sidewall because the total circumference has to be the same, right? Yeah, he's got 18.
Matt Farah
Yeah, it's a bunch of sidewall.
Zach Klapman
So yeah, it looked awesome. Show me that picture later.
Matt Farah
I have to. I probably have to dig it out of my Instagram DMs, but I don't know where it's from, but I'm sure we can find it. Doug Levy. Oh, wait. Okay. You talk so much about amazing car experiences. What's the one where you got done and said, I'm never doing that again?
Zach Klapman
I was a little sore yesterday.
Matt Farah
There's definitely no, I mean there's definitely been some people's personal cars that turned out to be real sketchy. There's some of those cars I drove at Grid Life. There were these people, homebrew, psycho things. That's pretty shady. I mean I've talked about it before, but I traveled 30 hours each way for six laps of a racetrack in the wet in a rear wheel drive supercar with our compound tires on it. And so that was the worst unpaid travel experience for the least amount of seat time in which I learned almost nothing.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, the shine on that stuff wears off. I could see us slipping individually to like, yeah, I don't know if I want to do that. How much driving is there? Do I need this video? And sometimes you just do and sometimes you don't. And yeah, yeah, probably something like that.
Matt Farah
Siamese sportscat enthusiast. What cars would you prefer the modern version over the classic? Thinking of Zach's recent mention of how much better the new S3 is over the B5 S4. Doug has talked about the virtues of the M2 over the 1M. Yeah. Okay, so the modern versus the the classic.
Zach Klapman
Well, okay, the new Golf R I think is much better than the original R32. And I love the VR6 and I love the way it sounds, but it feels really front wheel drive biased. It feels really heavy. Turn in fine. I mean it, it was like it's an early all wheel drive thing from Volkswagen. And now the Golf R has, has drift mode, which granted is like a little bit of trickery, but it feels very neutral. So I think from the steering wheel, if you ignore all the capacitive haptic buttons, I think it's a much more fun thing to drive. And the transmission, I mean, granted the first R32 is manual, but like the new DSG or dual clutch is way better than the early ones.
Matt Farah
I mean, I agree with you 100%. All Volkswagen Audi products, basically. I mean the early ones, they look great. You know, you remember them as being great if you're really. And they're cool cruisers. Like I'd rather, in a collection, I'd rather have a B5 RS4 than anything Audi is selling today. But if you're talking about I want to fucking hit the canyon or I just want to like use it as a car, then Yeah, a new S3 or RS3 is way better than an old RS4.
Zach Klapman
I also think Camaro, you know, first gen, I love to death. And then in between. Sure, they had their cool times, but going to the latest one, which became a really great sports car, comfy GT car still had a good engine. I would much rather have a newer Camaro than an F body or than an irok.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Ted Theo Logan IndyCar is at thermal this weekend, which is hysterical. And they're saying the track surface is a cheese grater. Is that true? And are European tracks just better kept? I haven't driven Thermal in like probably two years. I think what an Indy car driver says about their experience versus what a club level driver would say about a track surface are probably not the same thing. Thermal was certainly, I mean you would think that's go to fucking Willow Springs as it was. I mean Willow Springs is like rough. Tear your shit up rough. Thermal must be better than that.
Zach Klapman
I drove it last year and it was definitely better than Willow because when they lay that asphalt, as the black little stuff gets worn away, the rocks are exposed and then it gets a lot rougher. So Thermal felt much, much better and very smooth. But I think thermal's probably been 10 years.
Matt Farah
It might need resurfacing soon.
Zach Klapman
Maybe.
Matt Farah
I mean it may be there, but the way an Indy car driver is going to feel a track surface and the a club racer is going to feel a track surface, I just don't think are the same.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
I've heard, I've heard over and over that the IndyCar drivers hate going to Thermal. It's too small for an Indy car.
Zach Klapman
That is too small.
Matt Farah
That's a Cayman fucking track.
Zach Klapman
Yeah.
Matt Farah
Same with, the same with Concourse Club and I love, I and I love Concourse Club for what it is. But like those, you can't drive a truly fast car on those tracks.
Zach Klapman
And Thermal also doesn't really have. It has like what, one kind of big sweeper turn. But it won't feel fast in an IndyCar. I'm not sure if they even get into downforce there.
Matt Farah
Wait till I just set it up. On April 22, you and I are going to go out to Willow and we're going to sit down with Sam of Cross Harbor Capital and Maz of Singer and we have an exclusive and they're gonna tell our audience everything that's going to be happening, happening at Willow Springs.
Zach Klapman
Cool. Is Maz an investor or Singer is.
Matt Farah
Involved in the track.
Zach Klapman
Got it. I didn't know that.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Carlo says I have an Audi A3 as a daily and a 991.1 GTS as a weekend car looking to add a manual open top experience to my garage. Narrowed it down to a. A late NA1 Acura NSX or a Ferrari 355 Spider. Budget of 100k. Okay, here's. I mean you're basically talking about. Given that you already have two other cars, a 355 is a better third car than an NSX. Having said that, the Spider top mechanisms are scary stuff. If that goes down you have a problem.
Zach Klapman
What if you went t top? Can you get 3.55?
Matt Farah
The GTSs are a lot more. The Spiders are the cheapest by like $30,000. For this reason. For this reason. And I totally get it. And the Spider with the top down looks great. I get it. But that mechanism. Yikes.
Zach Klapman
100 grand might not be enough to maintain it because I, I agree. Like to me the NSX and the GTS are too close because they're both the practical, smart, kind of reliable decision. And I think you, I think you need something with some serious noise and the NSX won't provide that. They sound pretty good.
Matt Farah
But 3v2.5 NSX is too normal. If you already have a 911 you need something stupider than that.
Zach Klapman
Yes.
Matt Farah
Here's my, here's my wild card for you. Skip the 355. What you want is a 1994348 Spider.
Zach Klapman
That's a good one, right?
Matt Farah
That is. They're overlooked compared to the 355. But they have all the updates the 355 got. And they have the cheaper running costs of the four valve head instead of the five valve head. The five valve head makes that thing expensive. And a bunch of other or magnesium and titanium and F1 shit make that thing super expensive to run. The 348's a lot cheaper.
Zach Klapman
That's true.
Matt Farah
And it's like. Actually I think the steering's better because it has manual steering and the 355 has the 90s power steering.
Zach Klapman
You get at least 90% of the driving experience of the 355. You don't get the walking up to it and looking at it experience because the 355, I think is prettier. 348 is not bad.
Matt Farah
It's prettier but it's incrementally prettier.
Zach Klapman
That's true. But from the driver's seat it will feel every bit like a top down Ferrari.
Matt Farah
But your 100k goes a lot further in 348 than it does in 355.
Zach Klapman
Very true.
Matt Farah
Yeah. And you might even. And the 348, I'm pretty sure. I think it might have a manual top, which would be a big difference.
Zach Klapman
We put it down because we drove. Well, we drove in the.
Matt Farah
I don't remember if. I don't remember if it had. I think it might have had a manual top.
Zach Klapman
Top, probably. Let me look.
Matt Farah
I'm so over cars says. Let's say you had to sell everything. If you had a major, major expense, what would you buy as your first start over car when you're making 75 grand a year? Well, for 75 grand a year, I would hope that everything else was in order, but might be something like an E30 or a fox body or something like that. Or a Miata. You know your entry level. Right. Entry level sports car. I'd go back to the beginning.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. Because also 75k a year is not enough to get crazy.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
It's just. It's just not.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
No matter where you live in the country, you got to still be careful. Yeah. 348top is manual. There's two methods. You release a lap.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
And then you pull a lever down by the E brake. And that brings it the rest of the way down.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But like that, dude, that's worth its weight in gold. You do not want. I mean, any of those. The 355, the 360 or the 430. You don't. I hold my breath every time I operate one of those.
Zach Klapman
I wonder if automatic tops have gotten more resilient with the proliferation of electric actuators. Because I know with the hydraulic system, my friend, he was a Volkswagen tech. And to repair, to completely rebuild an eos top was $12,000.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Well, retractable hard tops are when they have to hold all that weight. And it's hydraulic. I think the newer soft tops are really good. And there's cars where you don't. I don't hear that much. I don't hear a lot of problems about boxsters, things like that. But 90s Ferraris and Mercedes SLS of that. Those are like cable operators. It's like levers and pulleys and shit. And it's like you got to exercise it. But be careful when you're exercising, you know? Yeah. Greg Scott. It's funny. Someone else was just talking to me about this. If you were given the opportunity to work with a manufacturer on a special edition of a sports car, you have final approval for any aspect of design or performance changes. What brand model and what changes are you bringing to the table?
Zach Klapman
Do we have to adhere to modern pedestrian crash standards, Hood Heights, etc.
Matt Farah
I don't know. Why are we lowering cars?
Zach Klapman
I was gonna. If I could, I would make them smaller.
Matt Farah
Oh, you'd make the car smaller?
Zach Klapman
Yeah, yeah, I would. I would shrink the cars if I could.
Matt Farah
I would do a Spider, a Porsche Spyder RS Touring. I would bring it back around where it would basically be a Spyder RS but with a manual comfort seats. And the whole car would be painted one color, no naked carbon.
Zach Klapman
Oh, interesting.
Matt Farah
Yeah. I would basically st the Spyder rs. I think people could envision what that might look like. Like.
Zach Klapman
I would redo or adjust. I want to say this delicately, the new Aston Vantage because I still don't like the back end that carried over from the previous generation with the huge black plastic that goes around and looks like angry eyebrows. I would get that redone more like the older Vantage and maybe shrink the front because the interior is really nice. I don't need to mess with that.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
But I think I would change that and just make it simple, simpler, smoother, less busy.
Matt Farah
Cool. I'd like to do a Bentley too. I'd like to do a fucking. A Flying Spur. Not a Flying Spur. I'd like to do a GT speed with rear seat delete. Not change the front seats, but do a cool carbon back on the front seat. But rear seat delete. Just partial shelf. Maybe with a fitted hand luggage that could go in there and just a fucking epic color scheme. And a really cool stone material for the dash. They're doing those stone dashes. I'd love to do like a. Like a tiger's eye or some fucking crazy ass stone inlay.
Zach Klapman
Having luggage that locked in somehow would be cool. Or like a leather strap would also be clicking. Yeah, yeah. Click in like a ski boot.
Matt Farah
Like step in snowboard boots. That would be fucking sick. You know what? We need that for the man. Oh, click. Yeah, click. If you could click it down so you wouldn't have any straps. Overneath. We need to call Philip. He needs to buy a snowboard binding company. Philip, I have an idea. Quick ride snowboards. Let's go. Oh, boy. Ferrari jizz hat enthusiasts.
Zach Klapman
Great name. Yeah, we had some good ones.
Matt Farah
We showed the jizz shorts too, right? Yeah, the hat and the shorts. The shorts. The hat is bad. The shorts are much worse.
Zach Klapman
The shorts look like you did it to yourself. The hat looks like someone did it to you.
Matt Farah
Is it up to me? It's up to me to Decide which of those two things is worse.
Zach Klapman
It's totally subjective. It's a weird looking design.
Matt Farah
Here's an interesting question. Is there a foreign car that is good enough that it would still be worth buying with a 25% tariff? Conversely, is there a car that's not worth its MSRP that should be 25% cheap? I think it's good enough. I think it's important to say that a lot of American cars are built in other fucking countries too. And vice versa.
Zach Klapman
Very true.
Matt Farah
You know, and there's also like, there's parts coming in from all over the world to build cars that are, quote, American.
Zach Klapman
That's the big thing. Headlights, tablets, so many of these little electronics we know are not made here. We know they're not. So there's a, I mean so many of the components, the electronic components for other cars.
Matt Farah
Even if the car, like I know the Tesla Model Y is the most American car, right. But even that, there's a bunch of shit from China and other places in that car. But like here's the thing, like other countries do have crazy import duties on cars and people do find a way if they want the car, they certainly sell. They sell fewer of them for sure. Because people go, I meet Australians and they're like, here's my Ferrari whatever. And they tell me the price. I'm like, holy Fuck. It's like 50%, 60%, 100% more expensive than here. Yeah, but some people do still buy them. I mean there's a lot of people for whom the difference isn't significant. If everybody in the country has to pay this price, it's the same relative to you. And it's not, you know, like all these incredibly stupid fucking policies, they're going to affect the people with the least.
Zach Klapman
Oh, of course, talking about supercar taxes isn't really a relevant thing, but when I think of like Ford Transits that you see driving around Germany competing with Mercedes and I know, I read that Germany has an import tax on American cars, but we, a lot of Fords are also built in England and other places in Europe. So I don't know if that affects it or if it's only cars that come from mainland United States that get, those get taxed like that. But it's just, it's going to affect so many things I'm going to say.
Matt Farah
It'S going to affect Volkswagen's sales and the Audi A3 and the Mercedes CLA and those type of cars way more than it's going to affect sales of the Ferrari 2. Hundred ninety six.
Zach Klapman
Oh sure.
Matt Farah
Or, you know, Revuelto. Yeah, right.
Zach Klapman
No one's gonna go, well, there's a tariff on the 296, so I guess I will go buy a C8 Corvette instead. Because US doesn't have a competitor at that price.
Matt Farah
I don't. I haven't studied the parts content of cars. There's probably someone who does that. I don't spend my time doing that, nor fucking should I. But I don't know what manufacturer is going to escape these tariffs. Like, I think these are gonna be industry wide. Cause like everyone's using parts from everywhere.
Zach Klapman
Sure.
Matt Farah
And if fucking 8 out of 10 car companies have to raise their prices from tariffs and the other two don't, like they're not gonna raise their fucking prices too.
Zach Klapman
Right.
Matt Farah
I mean, this shit just happened. It just fucking happened. That's why the price of groceries is still high as fuck.
Zach Klapman
Some of it was inflation and then they.
Matt Farah
Some of it was inflation and then they went past inflation and they were like, I don't know. It's inflation. And they're like, you're like, but inflation's down. And they're like, what inflation? You're like, no, no, no, you're, you're. It's up. And then, and then when they level that out a bit. Well, now it's 6 ounces in this bag, not 8.
Zach Klapman
Shrinkflation. Shrinkflation, very real thing. You're getting less for the same amount of money. It's wild to look at that or look at the profits of the companies. It's inflation. You're like, well then if your costs went up, should your profits have stayed the same? Because they also went up to record highs.
Matt Farah
If anybody out there has been tasked with doing shrinkflation on behalf of their employer, I would love to hear from you anonymously. And what you were made to do. Did you have to reduce the amount of liquid in the bottle by a little bit or like, what was it? Let me know. You don't even have to tell me the company, but I just am so curious as ways that people have been asked to do this shit.
Zach Klapman
There's even more air in the chips bag than there was before.
Matt Farah
Shaquille Oatmeal. That's pretty fucking funny. Just got a Ranger Raptor and love it. Looking for a first sports car to complement it. Live in upstate South Carolina. I live in North South Carolina. It's different from South North Carolina. Them northerners don't know shit. Us northern southerners, we know more than them southern northerners.
Zach Klapman
Wasn't there like a battle line between the two of them?
Matt Farah
No, they were both on the same side. They were the Mason Dixon. Mason Dixon, I believe goes right. Well, it's been a while since I looked that map. Let's just make sure I get that right. Where did it go anyway?
Zach Klapman
It was way farther north.
Matt Farah
It was.
Zach Klapman
Right.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Virginia.
Zach Klapman
Maryland was Maryland.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm glad I got that right. Okay. Sports car for 50k to complement a Ranger Raptor.
Zach Klapman
Used. Used Cayman.
Matt Farah
Yeah. I mean, boxster. Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Used M2. Used M2. Be really fun.
Matt Farah
Yeah. I mean, it's. It's first sports car, so you don't want anything with. With insane horsepower. Right. Boxster Cayman is great. You're gonna learn a lot about driving.
Zach Klapman
From one of those forgiving mid engines. Forgiving. Can't loop it very easily.
Matt Farah
I also think you'd learn a lot about driving from an M2 that has very. It has predictable characteristics. It'll do what you tell it to.
Zach Klapman
Yeah. It's just got way more power, especially if you start tuning it. So it's a little spicy.
Matt Farah
If you like The Ford family 50k gets you a bunch of Shelby. Mach 1 gets you a bunch of Mach 1 or Shelby. Have fun with that. Murray says driving from Seattle to San Diego, I have a $3,000. Wait, is this a real thing? I have a $3,000 budget to buy a car in Seattle and get it to San Diego in a week. What would be fun choices? I keep finding red Subaru Outbacks.
Zach Klapman
I feel like those two sentences are at odds with each other.
Matt Farah
I have to do a very boring and long drive that's incredibly tedious, but I want something fun.
Zach Klapman
And you're first thought is Subaru Outback.
Matt Farah
No, I said I keep finding red Subaru Outbacks, like within the budget.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, I mean, three grand is not a lot of money.
Matt Farah
It's not.
Zach Klapman
I think you have to have whimsy fun, not sporting fun. Unless you go a up Miata.
Matt Farah
Yeah, but like 1200 highway miles on a. In a Miata, it's so shitty. Yeah, it sucks. Honestly, I don't any with cruise control at that point. Like. But yeah, dude, I mean, Zach said it right? Whimsy fun. Not. Not sporting fun. You're talking about a long, boring highway drive.
Zach Klapman
Like, not to bring it up all the time. It's top of mind because I saw one. But it's like Crown Vic because it's. It's a joke.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Yeah.
Zach Klapman
3. 3 grand is buying you a joke. So what joke do you Want to make. You could pretend to be a cop. You could buy an old Volkswagen that might break down. Like, you could buy a Beetle that runs like shit and have that adventure. But you're not going to find anything sporting that you're going to want to drive that far.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Honestly, at that price point, it's like it's. You start with that price point and it's what's available here. It's not like I can't suggest, oh, you should get a Civic for three grand. Like, how do I know that there is one for that price? It's not a complete fucking piece of shit.
Zach Klapman
Like, yeah. LS400 if you could find one for three.
Matt Farah
Three. Three grand. Oh, that's gonna be.
Zach Klapman
You felt one for 1900.
Matt Farah
That's a very good point. And I did make it home.
Zach Klapman
I did make it. Yeah, that would be comfy. And just keep pouring power steering fluid in it. That could be good.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Lexuses. All Lexuses. JOSH J. As a professional cat dad, tips and favorite toys for playing with adult cats. I use the. It's called Da Bird the cat. It's the wand toys. Just all about active play. As much active play as you can possibly do. Wand toys. It's a thing on a string.
Zach Klapman
It's like a fishing pole.
Matt Farah
Yeah. And that is the main. That you're the cat's natural cycle. Hunt, catch, kill, eat, groom, sleep. Right. The hunt, catch and kill portion of that. That's your job. And eat because you have to feed them. And then if you do that, you start with the wand toy by playing with them if they. Maybe they like a mouse. Maybe they like one that looks like a butterfly or fucking feathers or whatever. My cats like both. They wreck a toy every day. So I go through a lot of.
Zach Klapman
These things when you're out of town. I like to give them live mice. Takes care of itself.
Matt Farah
Just fucking dump the box in the house.
Zach Klapman
It gets the catch thing, the kill thing, the fetch thing. And I don't. I can just look at my phone.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But once you. You play with them for a while and then when they get really tired, you feed them and then they will groom themselves and then they'll sleep for six hours. And you can do that three times a day if you can. If not, you definitely want to do it twice a day. Once after your break, after you eat breakfast, and once before you go to bed for sure. 2001 Subaru Forester says, what's a new car? You guys were excited to drive, but it ended up being disappointing.
Zach Klapman
Subaru S209. And I don't want to offend my new best friend Jerry Seinfeld, so. I know you're listening, but I drove that TV production, and I'm a Subie fan. I know you've heard this before, Matt, but it had the same power as the old cars. Yes, it handled better, but to have come so far, and the thing was, it was like 65 grand new in 2019 money. Yeah, it was a lot for what felt like an 04 STI with some suspension on it.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Let's see. A new car. I was excited to drive. This not being disappointing. I mean, the new C63 Mercedes, you know, I suppose. Well, was I excited to drive it?
Zach Klapman
I think we came in with negative.
Matt Farah
Negative thoughts about that, I think. Huh. Let's see. I excited the drive, but ended up being disappointing.
Zach Klapman
The early GT500.
Matt Farah
Oh, exciting.
Zach Klapman
A lot of things. Poorly.
Matt Farah
Yeah. The 2012 GT500 with. With the big power was bad. Yeah, that was bad. Vipers. Most Vipers.
Zach Klapman
Vipers, they're really. They feel. Suit. The steering's so heavy. They feel heavy.
Matt Farah
Clunky as man. They are, yeah.
Zach Klapman
They carry speed, but you look down and go, I'm going that fast?
Matt Farah
Yeah, yeah. Pretty much all Vipers. Yeah. The Cobra R, the Mustang Cobra R that Ferretti had, which was such a piece of shit. I can't believe that Ford sold that car like that. That's one I wanted to love so bad.
Zach Klapman
The nose flexing and touching the ground.
Matt Farah
It was a fucking junk, man. That thing stunk. Sucked. That's Pre Jamal. Shout out to Jamal. That was a Pre Jamal project. Christian says, have you ever canceled an Uber because of the type of car? No, but I recently got a fucking quote, extra legroom, like a premium, and it was a Kia Niro. And I was like, what the fuck? This isn't some. This is like a. This is an economy car.
Zach Klapman
That just means the seats push forward. That's crazy.
Matt Farah
Yeah. That was bullshit.
Zach Klapman
I've heard Scott Galloway say that he cancels Uber when it's a Tesla now, like, as a form of protest, but.
Matt Farah
I think you're protesting against. Does he message the driver and say, I'm canceling this because you're driving a Tesla, otherwise the driver's not going to understand this problem.
Zach Klapman
Also, it's like, I don't know. The driver might have had the car for three years, and it's not really.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Or he might be fucking renting it for the week also.
Zach Klapman
That's a very good point.
Matt Farah
You Know, toddler on a hayabusa. Thoughts on 90s T birds. Cheap manual fox body bait. I hate the roundy ones. I think the one. You know what I like the Lincoln Mark 7 and the Lincoln Mark VIII. Those are my. Those are my luxury Mustangs. Oh, that's hilarious. Whatever you just found.
Zach Klapman
I wrote.
Matt Farah
Oh, they thought it was braids. 90s braids. Yeah. I don't really like the round body ones, though. I actually am getting kind of into the 2002 retro future ones, which I think someone could do a cool project car out of. No, no, the one. The convertible one I'm into now. Like, if you did a. If you did a. If you did a hot rod of that, it could be cool. I mean, it would take work, but you could make that cool.
Zach Klapman
For sure. It's a cool. You know what this kind of. This reminds me of the. Not the pow. The other, the.
Matt Farah
Yeah, the Figaro.
Zach Klapman
Figaro. Yeah, it's like a bigger Figaro. I like Figaro. Yeah.
Matt Farah
Yeah. I'm not into the round birds, though. They remind me of those awful Monte Carlo and.
Zach Klapman
Yeah, this looks like rental car spec.
Matt Farah
Yeah, that's a fox body underneath that, though.
Zach Klapman
I mean, you know, you could turn one into a drift car, I guess. Yeah, you could be bad, but I'd rather just get a fox body.
Matt Farah
Yeah, that is the. That, man. Fuck it. If you have one of those, you go through some mar breads like there's fucking no tomorrow.
Zach Klapman
When we were buying before we bought the Corolla on all cars one, I was DMing with someone that had the T bird from before this really ugly 80s. It almost looked like a Lebaron. But it had a five liter. That was a junkie car.
Matt Farah
I liked the Lincoln version of that. The Lincoln Mark 7. Yeah. I had a friend who died in one of those T birds back in the day. Not wearing a seatbelt. Fucking ejected like 100ft on the FDR Drive, dude.
Zach Klapman
Wear your seatbelt, people.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Charles Rain is not insane. That's a fucking drop, dude. You know what that's from? It's Charles Rain, passenger 57. That's the back guy. Passed 57. Since you drive for a living, how do you drive your personal cars at 5/10 or 10/10?
Zach Klapman
Depends on where we are.
Matt Farah
It depends on the. Yeah, where we are and what we're doing most of the. I mean, I have a great deal of mechanical sympathy in all cars, but. But normally I'm just cruising. If I'm. I'm not. I don't drive Aggressively at all. If I have, like, nowhere to be.
Zach Klapman
If I'm in the canyons with my car, I would say it's an 8, 10 at most. But I also go, this is my only car. We're in the canyon. We need to have a margin of safety. Lots of grip left. Sure, yeah, Yeah.
Matt Farah
I drive my cars eight tenths. Really? Okay. Jail jellied all over myself. What changes would we see in the auto industry if it were dominated more by women than men? Historically, I was impressed with Lynn Calder and wish there were more leaders like her. As a man asking men, I know we're probably not the best qualified to answer, but I'd love to hear your perspective. We should have asked Hannah that. Oh, wait, is that a question for Hannah? Was that left over from another? No. Right.
Zach Klapman
I think this was copied today.
Matt Farah
Okay. I think you'd probably have better cars. To be honest with you. The cars would just be better if they listened to more women.
Zach Klapman
Well, because I think we get excited by. And I'm not trying. This is gonna be. There's so many blanket statements about to happen. But that's the question. Like we can distract ourselves with a great engine and then we ignore the interior of the Corvette, you know, C5 and C manufacturing limitations being what they were. But it's easy to distract ourselves with some speed. And maybe women would go, well, yeah, but this is so lopsided. We need this to be more well rounded.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
It'd be better thought out. Probably.
Matt Farah
There'd be some really much better storage solutions.
Zach Klapman
Way better organized. Yeah. You probably never get in a car and go, what do you mean? No cup holder. We still have that problem today.
Matt Farah
Yeah, I think, I genuinely think if you go and I'm talking about if we. And there are many, many women in the industry today, even though it's still male dominated. But if you had women in the auto industry, starting at the levels we had today, starting in the 30s, I think you'd have better cars today.
Zach Klapman
I wonder how many female designers there are. That would be an interesting question.
Matt Farah
There's a few. The woman. The 2017-2020 Acura NSX was designed by a young woman. I think someone who wasn't even 30. Love to talk to her. Yeah, let's see. Okay, hang on. Let's go to Mini Finney. What are your favorite 7/10 cars? Cars that might not be at their best when wringing out their neck on track, but have other redeeming qualities. It's a great question. And a lot of cars are like this. There's so many cars that are great 7/10 cars.
Zach Klapman
Maserati, the new Gran Turismo.
Matt Farah
The Maserati Gran turismo. The BMW Z4 with the stick. The new one, classic BMWs, classic Ferraris.
Zach Klapman
Even E39 M5. Yeah, I know it drifts well and stuff, but when you go below that, it's just heavy. Like it's a much better 810 car.
Matt Farah
My Acura NSX first gen NSXs are fabulous 7/10 cars. Yeah, 911s are fabulous. I mean a car that's great at 1010 will also be great at 7 10. The question is, are there cars that are great at seven, ten that then become shit at ten tenths, Right? Yeah.
Zach Klapman
I think anything that is comfortably sprung when you start to go 10, when you proper 10 10, that's when you start going, I need suspension, I need sway bars because the movement of the body is too great and it's unsettling and it's slowing me down. Or you want wider, stickier tires.
Matt Farah
Yeah.
Zach Klapman
Where car at 7/10 might have narrower tires. Maybe a little more slip, more playful. Yeah, anything like that.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But like let's like for example, the Amira AMG, I think that was. That's a fabulous 710 car.
Zach Klapman
I think even the V6Amera, same thing. Yeah. Above 810 it's like, oh, the shifter's moving when I downshift a bit. The throttle was inconsistent when you're trying to rev match, but. But below that amount it's like really nice.
Matt Farah
Yeah, I'm trying to find. There's a bunch that's on Mercedes. There are a bunch of. Nah, nah, they're not that fun. They're beautiful and they're great cruisers, but they're not fun. There's a bunch of people that have multiple questions and we appreciate that, but I want to make sure that we get.
Zach Klapman
First time I hit Joey a lot.
Matt Farah
B Cam 4 Life. Talk me out of a Ditomazo Pantera.
Zach Klapman
Can't do it. Can't talk you out of it.
Matt Farah
I'll talk you out of buying a modified one. You should buy a stock one. They are better. We've talked about it a bunch. They're really cool cars. But you want a stock one. And they're not all considered equal in the eyes of collectors. There's wildly different values, but I like them too, man. I don't want to talk you out of them. But he's Also considering a 997 Turbo, an R8 Viper or C6Z06, you're talking about four cars that are all from the same time period of 2005 to 2010 and then one car from 1973. How well do you need this thing to work? He says, I work on cars for a living, so maintenance isn't too much of a concern. But like a Pantera is nice, but it's old, it's a 60 year old car.
Zach Klapman
Like how long is your enjoyable drive route? You know, if it's 50, 60 miles, sure. But if you're someone who likes to do coastal range rally, you know, and you want to do a multi day, multi leg rally, then one of the other cars you mentioned will be much more reliable, comfortable, etc. Now I think if you don't do long drives, I'd say do the Pantera for a year as an experience, because all the other cars listed, you have the pick of them all the time. There's plenty around. But the Pantera, you want to find a good one and when you find that good one, you buy it, drive it for a year and then sell it. And you could probably improve it a bit because you know how to do that. Maybe just break even, drive it for free and then move on.
Matt Farah
Yeah, buying the government ain't gonna fix your daddy issues. Says if Toyota does come out with a new Mr. 2, which is a roof rumor, it's likely to have the three cylinder engine from the GR Corolla. Do you think it would suffer from the same problems as the AMG Amira with a hot hatch engine? Or because it's not meant to be refined, would it get a pass? I think that 3 cylinder in the GR Corolla engine only does the Vibraty thing when connected to the automatic gearbox in the manual gearbox. It doesn't do that. We don't have a manual in the Amira to compare it to with that same engine, so we don't really know.
Zach Klapman
You can't completely decouple the drivetrain.
Matt Farah
Yeah. But I do think the Toyota would probably get a pass, especially because that engine is obviously good enough for its other cars already they have the engine.
Zach Klapman
It's a good point, but maybe are we asking the Amira to be too smooth, considering it's like the successor to the Elise and I mean those are pretty aggressive cars. They want the smoothest things in the world. So. Yeah, I think it'd be fine.
Matt Farah
Yeah. Last one and then I honestly have to pee so bad that I'm going to call the show because of it. But I think we've done 90 minutes. Haven't we more. Have we given.
Zach Klapman
We've given the people.
Matt Farah
We've given the people the fucking nothing. They paid for this experience. Except for the patrons who did pay for this experience. Last one, Craven Mohead. Oh no. Is asking can we get Bill Burr on the show? Working on it. We're actually having Dean Del Rey on the show on April 1st. Who is Bill Burr's opener. So maybe I can fucking try to ask, but we'll see. Chris Limbright says what are some shows or movies that absolutely nail the car and character pairings. It's a good question.
Zach Klapman
Good question.
Matt Farah
What is hard to me is gonna find an answer that isn't so obvious. Like I don't wanna say like gone in 60 seconds. That's lame. What's one where it's a little less obvious? I mean I just read an article about the car placements in severance which I think were very smartly done. I think the car placements and severance make it very hard to exactly date when this show is taking place. Like the newest car we see is like maybe a 98 or 99 Volvo that Adam Scott's character drives. I don't think I've seen any newer cars than that. But there's cars that are like people's regular cars that are shit from the 60s so they really.
Zach Klapman
So on the flight back I while I was organizing footage like I watched I am Legend again turn around and this has both good car placement and bad.
Matt Farah
The GT500.
Zach Klapman
GT500 I think is bad car placement because it's not. It wasn't like Justified. All of a sudden he's just, well one, he's chasing deer but can't catch them in the GT500 just run them over. He's trying to hunt deer with a rifle. Like just hit one with a car. It's very effective. There's a lot of evidence of that. And then you need to do.
Matt Farah
It's been a true, true method for many years.
Zach Klapman
He's, he's like right behind 30 deer and he's like, I just can't get a shot. You don't need to so. But, and I get it, like you're out having fun, the apocalypse happened. But I think that was just a weird disconnected thing versus the expedition he drove that looked like it was ready, you know, to survive anything.
Matt Farah
I mean I think you know, Mad Max Fury Road just does. Does an incredible job of that. But if we're talking about like regular ass car cars, I think who has a great just a Perfect. It's. I'm. I'm trying to find one. That's a.
Zach Klapman
That's a boring car, Lebowski. Those were boring.
Matt Farah
Yeah, the.
Zach Klapman
The cars in the old Nova. Wasn't it.
Matt Farah
Some kind of green piece of. I don't know. All the cars in the Big Lebowski are great. All the cars in all Coen brothers movies.
Zach Klapman
They 73 grand Torinobowski car. Wow.
Matt Farah
Coen brothers, they always nail it. I mean, Bill Murray, as the fucking principal of the private school in Rushmore is driving a turbo R, which I was like, yeah. Fucking Coen brothers. Yeah. All Coen brothers, Yeah. I really have to pee, so I'm gonna call the game, man. That's our. Sorry. This show went up a day late for everybody, but we were both traveling, so we got it up as quickly as we could. Y and of course, Sunday the 30th, two days, TST 1000 live recording. It's gonna be live for everybody, not just patron. It's gonna be on the smoking tire podcast YouTube channel. Live for everybody. Eight hours, like 20 guests. Everyone's coming through. It's gonna be a good time. And then, by the way, because it's episode 1000, it will actually air Thursday, so it's like live recording, but then it comes down Seinfeld Tuesday, and then the actual eight. I don't know. Can we upload an eight hour video? It just is. It'll just take a long time.
Zach Klapman
But, yeah, I'll upload it here.
Matt Farah
Yeah, we have the super Internet. All right, thank you, everybody. We love you all. See you next time.
The Smoking Tire Podcast - Episode Overview
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Hosts: Zack Klapman & Matt Farah
Episode Title: Taycan Problems; Buy a Mustang GT350?; Q&A
Timestamp: [02:08] – [03:48]
Matt Farah and Zack Klapman kick off the episode by sharing updates on their recent travels. Zack recounts his trips to Tennessee, where he engaged with classic cars, and Austin for a Road & Track assignment. Matt discusses his journey from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in his Porsche Taycan, touching upon the dynamic scheduling that led them both to update their plans last minute.
Timestamp: [03:48] – [10:08]
Matt dives deep into his experience driving the Porsche Taycan from LA to Las Vegas and back. He highlights the efficiency of the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, praising the seamless process at hotel valets who handled the charging without requiring additional steps like credit card transactions.
Notable Quote:
Matt Farah (03:48): "There was a new milestone for me with EVing. Actually, I was not held up by the car even one second..."
However, Matt also addresses two recurring software-related issues with his Taycan:
Unexpected Steering Alerts:
While using adaptive cruise control with steering aids turned off, Matt's Taycan intermittently flashes a "take over steering" warning. Despite actively steering, he receives this alert, necessitating manual intervention to dismiss it.
Notable Quote:
Matt Farah (05:07): "Every once in a while... it flashes a red thing and says take over steering."
Climate Control Glitches:
After charging, Matt experiences a lack of actual air conditioning despite the system indicating it's active. This issue was temporarily resolved by performing a "sleep cycle reset," involving locking the car twice and waiting a few minutes away from the vehicle.
Notable Quote:
Matt Farah (08:19): "It's a sleep cycle reset... nothing wrong with the climate control, just a software hiccup."
Despite these issues, Matt commends the overall performance of the Taycan, emphasizing its reliability and comfort during the long drive. He mentions plans to take the car to the dealership for further diagnostics and fixes under his unlimited mileage warranty.
Timestamp: [10:08] – [24:19]
Zack shares his recent experiences in Tennessee and Austin, focusing on his foray into rally driving and learning to jump cars—a childhood aspiration inspired by shows like Dukes of Hazzard.
Learning to Jump Cars:
Zack attends a session at Rally Ready, where he practices jumping cars using ramps of varying sizes. He collaborates with experts like Dave, the modified Ram diesel truck owner, and discusses the science behind car jumps with industry professionals.
Notable Quote:
Zack Klapman (19:25): "There's a big difference between when you get it right and you get it a little wrong."
Team Dynamics and Projects:
He introduces friends like Zach Bowman and Sam Smith, who are deeply involved in automotive projects such as Dirt Hammer. Zack also recounts a camping trip where they borrow a neighbor's meticulously restored E-Type Jaguar and a Mustang GT350 clone.
Notable Quote:
Zack Klapman (23:22): "We did our crossover comparison... It feels so much lighter on its feet when the ground is a little bit firmer."
Timestamp: [24:19] – [35:58]
The hosts delve into the discussion around potentially purchasing a Mustang GT350. Zack describes the enthusiasm from friends urging him to buy the car, leading to tentative steps towards ownership.
Friend Recommendations:
Both Zack and Matt receive high praise from automotive-savvy friends, reinforcing their interest in the GT350.
Notable Quote:
Zack Klapman (27:36): "But it is, Matt. It is how that works..."
Financial Considerations:
While Matt expresses excitement about the car, he also acknowledges the hefty price tag, balancing the urge to purchase with practical financial awareness.
Notable Quote:
Matt Farah (30:03): "It's probably one of those things that's, like, worth that... but it's expensive, so we have to back away from that situation."
Practicality vs. Passion:
The conversation shifts to the practicality of owning high-performance cars amidst uncertain financial times, highlighting the tension between automotive passion and fiscal responsibility.
Timestamp: [35:58] – [99:43]
The hosts address various listener-submitted questions, providing in-depth answers and personal insights on a range of automotive topics:
Converting Old SUVs to Overlanders:
Discussion on the viability and benefits of turning first-generation German SUVs into Overlanders compared to traditional choices like Jeeps or Land Cruisers.
Midlife Crisis vs. Career Growth Car Purchases:
Exploration of the psychological motivations behind significant car purchases, distinguishing between impulsive midlife crises and thoughtful acquisitions after career advancements.
Notable Quote:
Zach Klapman (59:48): "It's not thought out if someone buys a bad. If someone chooses a bad car, that usually is not something they..."
Gender Diversity in the Auto Industry:
Reflection on how increased female leadership and input could influence car design and the overall automotive industry's evolution.
Notable Quote:
Matt Farah (98:21): "But I genuinely think if you go and... then there'd be some really much better storage solutions."
Favorite 7/10 Cars:
The hosts share their favorite moderately rated cars that offer redeeming qualities despite not being top-tier performers.
Supercars and Tariffs:
Debate on whether certain foreign cars would still be worth purchasing despite a hypothetical 25% tariff increase, considering global parts sourcing and market dynamics.
Timestamp: [99:43] – [107:38]
Throughout the episode, Matt and Zack extend gratitude to their listeners and acknowledge contributions from patrons. They highlight ongoing projects, such as Matt's engagement with DeleteMe for privacy protection and Zack's new custom license plates.
Upcoming 1000th Episode Live Recording:
Announcement of a significant milestone celebration with a live episode featuring multiple guests, scheduled for April 1st.
Notable Quote:
Zach Klapman (107:07): "And so I'm gonna call the show because of it... Thanks, everybody. We love you all. See you next time."
Community Engagement:
Encouragement for listeners to engage through Patreon, submit questions, and participate in future events like Car Conventions and Watches Collaborations.
The episode concludes with Matt and Zack reflecting on their discussions, expressing excitement for future projects, and teasing upcoming content for the 1000th episode. They reiterate their appreciation for the community's support and encourage continued listener participation.
Noteworthy Highlights:
EV Reliability and Software: Matt's Taycan experience underscores the advancements and occasional glitches in modern EV technology.
Passion for Automotive Projects: Both hosts demonstrate a deep commitment to automotive culture, from rallying to classic car restoration.
Community and Collaboration: The episode emphasizes the importance of community support, listener engagement, and collaborative projects in the automotive podcast space.
Listen and Subscribe:
Stay updated with Matt Farah and Zack Klapman's latest discussions on automotive news, projects, and more by subscribing to The Smoking Tire on YouTube and following them on Twitter (@thesmokingtire) and Instagram (@thesmokingtire, @fakezackklapman).
Note: This summary intentionally omits sponsor advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections as per the request.