The Great Aston Martin Valhalla Drive

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast – "The Great Aston Martin Valhalla Drive"

Date: March 31, 2026
Hosts: Matt Farah, Zack Klapman

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on Matt Farah’s recent experience driving the Aston Martin Valhalla on road and track in Spain, with detailed behind-the-scenes discussion of the car’s performance, design, and technical highlights. The hosts also field listener questions on car culture, buying habits, and industry trends, blending their signature humor with technical expertise and storytelling. Secondary topics include nostalgia for old tech and music, car club value debates, and some colorful digressions about Vespas, music memorabilia, and maturing as a car enthusiast.

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Key Topic Summaries

1. Driving the Aston Martin Valhalla (04:01–13:15; 18:23–23:56)

• Matt’s Test Drive & Video BTS:
  Matt provides in-depth impressions from his recent drive in Spain, focusing on the Valhalla’s carbon tub, hybrid drivetrain, and dynamic performance, both on road and track.
• Car’s Technical Evolution:
  • Developed under Lawrence Stroll’s era, incorporating lessons from McLaren’s 720S and featuring contributions from ex-McLaren engineer Andrew Kaye.
  • Hybrid system: Mercedes-AMG-derived engine, hot-rodded by Aston Martin (pistons, turbos, valves), tri-motor hybrid layout with two front motors for torque vectoring and one in back for power and traction.
  • Carbon tub and F1-derived inboard suspension from the F1 team's design department.
  • Aston’s in-house carbon fiber capabilities now fully realized.
• Driving Experience:
  • "The steering ratio, like, is so bang on, like, the amount that you turn the wheel to get through the corner is the exact right amount, no matter what corner you're in." (08:33)
  • Highly usable and approachable at 5/10ths, with ride comfort and seat ergonomics that make long stints manageable—“six, seven hours. And it's very comfortable. No problem.” (09:10)
  • Electric motors provide seamless traction, torque fill, and advanced traction control for an "infinitely variable" driving experience, resulting in minimal performance loss even with aids engaged.
  • Titanium and regular exhaust options available, but all test cars featured the titanium system—“It doesn't even have mufflers. Between the turbos and the euro particulate filter, it doesn't actually have a muffler at all.” (13:15)

Notable Quotes:

• Matt: “[It's] sort of like if you took the vibe of the 7 Series McLaren car and went, well, let's hypercar this thing up… and like, let's flex our carbon fiber muscles.” (04:28)
• Zack: “This is a bit like kind of the GT3Rs of super —ish hypercars. Just because it's comfortable, usable ingress, egress is easy.” (32:34)

Memorable Moments:

• Track session with British motoring journalists—high-pressure environment for Matt.
• Matt purposely drifts the Valhalla multiple times; video editor Zack surprised at how many slides made the final cut.
• Matt spins the Valhalla into a gravel trap ("just about as scared as I've ever been in a car," 27:05); car is unscathed thanks to PPF and quick work by the Aston team, leading to shared laughs afterward.

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2. The State of Aston Martin & Hypercar Comparison (18:23–23:16; 30:28–34:22)

• Aston Martin’s evolution under Lawrence Stroll, from “nice GTs” to serious performance contenders, including sports cars that can compete with Ferrari, McLaren, and Koenigsegg.
• The Valhalla compared favorably to rivals (Koenigsegg, Pagani, GMA T33), especially regarding comfort, approachability, and day-to-day usability.
• Matt would take the GMA T33 if price no issue, but calls the Valhalla a true standout regardless of badge.
• "It wasn't just that it was fast. It was remarkably pleasant all the time. Getting in and out of it to make the video a zillion times wasn't annoying." (32:34)

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3. Listener Q&A Highlights (38:41–104:41)

Car Projects & Daily Life

• Advice on swapping to lighter wheels—benefits most apparent during spirited driving, not around town, but always directionally positive unless strength compromised.
• Manual-transmission swaps for Mercedes AMGs—strongly recommended, always improves engagement and value.
• Pre-owned Lucid Air for $30k: Great value if comfortable with new-tech service challenges, but expect issues and prioritize proximity to service centers.

Automotive Community and Culture

• Car clubs: Value varies—if you’re paying $5k/year, expect high-level networking and exclusive experiences. Manufacturer-supported clubs can offer more for less.
• Nostalgia: Favorite music, car, and film eras often set in late middle/high school; for hosts, that means mid-‘90s through early 2000s.
• The changing face of automotive media—fragmentation means young enthusiasts cobble together their own “Top Gear” experience from YouTubers, not one show.
• The impact of magazines like Dub on wider car culture, especially influencing customization and wheel trends.

Miscellaneous Quotes & Humor

• “I had a C5 Corvette at 18. Like, that's some old, old man.” (76:00)
• “Amazon, same-day, if it's not really urgent, is pretty garbage.”—on team "garbage" behavior (52:08)
• "If you can get an exhaust fan that's like small. Ours is like super small, solar powered and activated by, like, temperature. So when it's warm, it turns on." – on dealing with old car fumes (59:55)

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4. Digressions: Vespas, Music, Mature Car Guys, and More (40:16–44:00; interludes throughout)

• Matt sells his scooter and debates new color options, with lighthearted discussion of Vespa’s available shades and customization options.
• Conversation about the value and emotional meaning of owning a famous musician's instrument. Matt: "There's something different for me about a movie prop… without the musician to play it, I can't pick up MacReady's Strat and make it sound like MacReady."
• Growing old as a car enthusiast—transitioning from always buying the biggest engine to seeking comfort and usability.
• Quick debate on same-day Amazon delivery to bars, the maturing perspective on New Year's Eve, and the draw of napping.

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Notable Quotes

| Speaker | Quote | Timestamp | | ------- | ----- | --------- | | Matt Farah | “The steering ratio, like, is so bang on, like, the amount that you turn the wheel to get through the corner is the exact right amount, no matter what corner you're in.” | 08:33 | | Zack Klapman | “This is a bit like kind of the GT3Rs of super-ish hypercars. Comfortable, usable ingress, egress is easy.” | 32:34 | | Matt Farah | “I dumped the million dollar car into a gravel trap. I had to be towed out, but the car was okay.” | 27:26 | | Matt Farah | “It wasn't just that it was fast. It was remarkably pleasant all the time.” | 32:34 | | Zack Klapman | “We probably wouldn't have Donks without Dub Magazine.” (on the mag's cultural impact) | 53:40 | | Matt Farah | “Most things I do now are like 10 to 15 years older than my actual age… I had a C5 Corvette at 18. Like, that's some old, old man.” | 76:00 | | Matt Farah | "I don't want to get into a hundred thousand dollar Porsche build again… I think a lot of what's really nice about those air-cooled cars is their usability." | 55:50 |

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Aston Martin Valhalla Driving Impressions: 04:01–13:15, 18:23–23:56, 30:28–34:22
• Spinning the Valhalla & Recovery: 27:05–29:29, 34:01–36:21
• Aston Martin’s Brand Evolution / Hypercar Context: 18:23–23:16
• Behind the Scenes, Drifts, Filming Pressures: 22:22–27:04
• Listener Q&A (car culture, projects, buying advice, club value): 38:41–104:41
• Vespa Discussion / Color Choices: 40:16–44:00
• Nostalgia, Personal Growth Anecdotes: 75:26–78:16
• Musician Memorbilia Rant / Collectibles: 92:10–96:18

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Overall Tone & Structure

The show is casual, witty, and deeply knowledgeable, blending the hosts' irreverent banter with serious technical and experiential car commentary. The listener Q&A segments are interactive and run the gamut from technical advice to playful social commentary. The hosts' style is self-deprecating and candid, anchoring their expertise in relatable personal stories—especially during the lively recounting of Matt's off-track adventure.

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Conclusion

This episode stands as a comprehensive, characteristically smoking tire review of a landmark supercar, with plenty of insight into modern car enthusiasm, the evolutions of brands, and the personal journey of being a lifelong car obsessive. Perfect for any listener looking to understand not just how the Valhalla drives, but how it fits into the broader context of the enthusiast world.

Transcript

[A]

What up, everybody? Welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. This episode is brought to you, as always, by off the Record. We love off the Record over here. They are looking out for you wherever you are. 50 states. If you get pulled over for a moving violation, big or small, don't plead guilty, Call off the Record. They will arrange for a qualified attorney to represent you in your case and at a hugely high percentage. Get those points off your record. Go to offtherecord.comtst. that's offtherecord.comtST we'll give you 10% off all legal services booked through off the Record one more time. Offtherecord.com TST and also this morning, welcome to Avance. You guys know Avance, right? It's a quarterly print magazine. It's a cool editorial website and Instagram and they do awesome in person events all over the US I've known about Avance for a long time. My red car was even on the COVID of their magazine. And now they've got a new membership program allowing you to save money on things that you're buying anyway, like tires. Avance members get 10% off a discount tire, plus an additional 10% off all Michelin and BFGoodrich. So if you spend 1500 bucks on a set of Cup 2s, you're going to save $300 just for being an Avance member. It's only $99 a year and it comes with a $70 griots garage gift card. So it's basically paying for itself right off. Now you can use code TST for 10% off your membership. Go to avance.com TST and use code TST to sign up one more time. Avants a v a n-t s.com TST and code TST for 10% off your avance membership. And thank you to Avance for sponsoring the show today. All right, let's just get right into it. Today we are reviewing the Aston Martin Valhalla. A little BTS from my review in Spain. Go check out the video. It's up now. Talking about that plus old computers and old music. And what would I pay for Mike McCready's guitar? It's the Smoking Tire podcast. Let's go. How's everybody doing? It's Monday, isn't it?

[B]

Mmm.

[A]

That means Christian will post a meme of some kind.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

He's like clockwork.

[B]

They're good, though.

[A]

They are pretty good.

[B]

They're good. And I usually haven't seen them before.

[A]

Yeah, I think I was Just fed an article that I literally was, like, the exact. Like. And I read this article, like, a year ago, and it was just, like, copy paste, new title, and just, like, posted to a major news site as a new article.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

But I literally recall reading this exact, exact article, like, a year ago, the word for word. And I think the title also, like, it wasn't even. Like, this article originally appeared in the edition of the Da Da Da.

[B]

It was just, like, published March 30, 2026.

[A]

Yeah. I was like, oh, is, like, Apple News feeding me, like, throwback? And then I was like, no, this is just. This was written. No, like, I've definitely read this. Exactly.

[B]

The classic rock station of articles.

[A]

Crazy. I don't know.

[B]

Hi.

[A]

How's. How's everybody? Zach did a lot of work this weekend making sure the Aston Martin Valhalla video went up. So we appreciate that. They. I mean, it happens. But they moved the embargo date up by a day. By two days. Yeah. And they were like, sorry. But then, like, you know, Zach had to edit all day on Sunday, which sucks. Fortunately, we kind of make our own weekends. But, like, also, we do, but neither of our wives do.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so that. That when Hannah wasn't working, didn't fucking matter what day we did anything.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

You know, now weekends matter a little bit.

[B]

Yeah. It's okay, though. It happens now and then. And it was fun to edit because it's a cool car.

[A]

It is a very cool car.

[B]

Lot of shots.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You did so many slides. You undersold it. When you came back from the trip, you were like, I slid it around. I was like, all right. And then I'm. This video. I'm like, oh, this is. All right. That's the. This is the drift turn. And then, like, literally eight minutes later, I'm like, all right. They're all drift turns. Do I keep all of them? Do I.

[A]

You know, see, that's for brevity. No, like, this car's like, I get it. It's like a million dollars. You know what I mean? So, like, I. If you listen to this podcast for five minutes, there's, like. There's upfront eye rolls with, like, it's a fucking million dollars plus, but. But it's. Imagine the guy who developed the 7 Series McLaren in charge of that program was given a Lawrence Stroll assignment and a bigger checkbook and 10 years newer technology to say, okay, impress people for us now. And so that's, like, kind of what this. This car is. It's sort of like, if you took the vibe of the 7 Series McLaren car and went, well, like let's hypercar this thing up with like two motors at the front and you know, and a motor generator and like all those things and like let's like flex our carbon fiber muscles. Like let. Because they're making that stuff in house now, the carbon. And like they're making carbon in a. It's. Fuck. It's been so long since I drove this car. I'm like, holy shit. I have to rem what I learned in the video. I should go watch my own video.

[B]

What do you want to know?

[A]

No, but the carbon tub and structure, it was done by the F1 team. It's incredibly rigid, it's got this fabulous inboard suspension. And remember when we drove the Mercedes black series, the AMG GT black series, the orange one, and we were driving and we're like, this engine feels like a front engined McLaren with the flat plane crank and all that. It felt like a supercar motor just in the front. Well, now a similar version of that motor is in the back of a carbon tub car. So it's cranked up to make like 100 more horsepower, bigger turbos. And Aston really gets to. They get a Mercedes engine to start with, but they really have contractually earned themselves the right to hot rod the fuck out of these things. So it's different pistons, it's different turbos, it's different fucking valves. It's like, it's pretty meatily rebuilt. And then you have the tri motor hybrid system, which in this thing is fucking cool because not only is it doing torque vectoring and brake vectoring and torque fill, but also it does the traction control, which is so awesome because unlike grabbing the brakes, it has this infinitely variable traction control ability. So it can. It doesn't. I don't use it in the video because I was having too much fun. I'm just like and off. But like I did run some laps with it on. And it doesn't like almost every traction control system you'll ever use in some way inhibits your pace, you know what I mean? Like, you can feel it pulling power or worse, when it's brake vectoring, you can feel it going, go, go, go on the. And you're like, oh boy, that is very much not real.

[B]

Right? It's like a tank tread because it stops the inside tank tread. And so you stop and you turn left, you stop and you turn right a little bit. So it just does a small version of that.

[A]

So when it can do it at the front sort of infinitely. And when it can do it at the back using the motor generator, it really feels. Because it's got so much fucking power, if you're trying to put down 800 or 900 horsepower, but 5 would do, really manages to give you the 5 without feeling like it's slowing you down, you know, at all. It's doing some, like, really good math. And then I don't know how many times I said it in the fucking video. We had you cut it down a couple of times. But the steering ratio, like, is so bang on, like, the amount that you turn the wheel to get through the corner is the exact right amount, no matter what corner you're in. And, like, that's.

[B]

And not too much like Ferrari and not too little. Like, you know, older cars, basically.

[A]

And then it's got, you know, it's a carbon tub, and it's got these buckets. But because it has the door cutouts or the roof cutouts, which I sort of complained about in the Maserati video, the carbon tub gets really narrow, and then the seats are, like, kind of, like, laid back a little bit, like, halfway to it.

[B]

To an F1 car. Sure. Yeah.

[A]

The impression of you end up feeling in almost this, like, a zero G kind of seat. And, like, unlike the MC20, the lumbar pillow was, like, sculpted correctly. And so it was like, I was in this car for, like, I don't know, six, seven hours. And it's very comfortable. No problem.

[B]

And also not the. Well, like, when you open the door, you know, the pedal box, there's a cut forward so you can swing your legs in. That's instead of having to, like, shove them, you know, around this corner.

[A]

Right. The opening to get your feet to the pedals is deeper.

[B]

You can sweep in instead of, like, turn yourself into a baby and then put your feet in.

[A]

That combined with the plop down is, like, real nice. It was very easy to drive on the road, like, you. And not only easy to drive on the road, like, pretty fun at five tenths. Like, I wouldn't say it's like, quote fun at 65 on the highway, but it has a really good ride. So you could put it in comfort mode and you could do a road trip in it. Except for the fact that it has no trunk. You'd have to figure out one of them John Olson racks. Cargo box situation.

[B]

Be tough with the door.

[A]

I mean, a true boss would ship their luggage or something or have a

[B]

support vehicle, have a friend drive behind you. But I think the five tenths is important because there's some cars where it's either boring at 510 or it's such a compromised car that you don't even enjoy it. And it's not until you start going fast, start getting adrenaline, start having fun where you, you go, okay, these compromises are worth this price or worth. Or the price is worth the fun. But if it's still exciting and like fun to steer and feels pretty comfortable and looks cool, but isn't like the Konig. Remember, it's not like that. Where you're like, this sucks. Unless I'm going 1,000 miles per hour and I forget that it sucks.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I think that's the good blend for this, for a superc.

[A]

And a lot of the really fast EVs when you're launching and doing whatever, they're super fun and then they're whatever. And with a lot of hypercar type cars, it's like, well, this is amazing at a zillion miles an hour. But an 80s Ferrari is more fun at slow speeds for a very, very fast car. This is really nice to drive at low speeds. And that's what, when you talk about like, is the steering communication good? Does the brake pedal feel nice? Does it feel small and agile and like, does it take a mid corner bump? Well, you know, can you see through a tight hairpin and is it good through an open sweeper? And like, is it just generally very nice to drive and like sporty and fun and like, it actually it really is. And it. If you keep it in. Well, sport quotes. Sport is comfort, right? There's like EV to like putter out of your neighborhood, which actually you don't even need to do because it's a pretty quiet engine unless you're like really, really on it. It's got those, the double exhaust, which,

[B]

I mean, it was in the AMG GT also. Like, that was one of my complaints about it is it didn't sound cool and tough in like the other cars because it was just a fast, flat plane.

[A]

But yeah, I would say it sounds in this like a. And I keep making the comparison, but like, like a more refined version of a McLaren.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Yeah, you could. There will probably be some. I mean, some crazy person will make an aftermarket. This already has the. Believe it or not, they sell this with two exhausts. They sell this with two exhausts and two different sets of wheels. Like you can get regular wheels and magnesium wheels.

[B]

That makes sense. That makes sense.

[A]

You can get a regular exhaust or like the titanium exhaust. I'M like, for who isn't just getting that for like a million dollars? Just fucking make it incredible.

[B]

Were you able to hear both exhausts?

[A]

All the cars had the titanium.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So they were all the loud.

[B]

It doesn't seem that loud.

[A]

It's not that loud.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, it's a mid engine twin. It doesn't even have mufflers. You heard me say this in the video between the turbos and the euro particulate filter, it doesn't actually have a muffler at all.

[B]

Oh, the new Ford gt. Is that a car? I only drove it on a track. That car seemed to me like something that would not be fun or exciting at 5/10 the way this is.

[A]

Guys, taking a break. For our friends. Hellofresh supporting us today, nothing hits like home cooking. And hellofresh makes it easy to do more of it this year with recipes that feel good and taste delicious night after night. You know, last night I literally gave my trainer, Sean, my gym trainer, a course in meal prepping, helping him meal prep for his week. But I was also like, hey, you know, you could also just join hellofresh and that way you can have 100 new recipes every week. Cuisines from around the world, meals that help you with extra protein in the gym. Super protein recipes each week including Mediterranean options. There's wholesome ingredients, good sustainably sourced seafood, antibiotic and hormone free chicken. And he was like, that's okay, Matt, that sounds really good. But why don't you just cook this dinner for me and that'll be like meal prep. And that's what I did. But I really did recommend the hellofresh for him because it is so easy if you love cooking but you don't like the annoying parts of cooking, such as going to the store, figuring out what to make, buying more food than you need and having to waste some of it because you got to buy a whole thing of spices for one recipe. Hellofresh is your jam. And now they're throwing in all this good stu. They've got new grass fed steak ribeyes. They've got seasonal produce like pears, apples and asparagus. And there's now three times the seafood for no upcharge. But like I said, I love cooking it. The recipe cards are good to keep around if you wanted to make multiples of the original recipe for a crowd. And when I am busy and I don't have time for the shopping or the thinking, but I still want to cook a fresh meal at home. Hellofresh is it. Go to hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free Zwilling knife $145 value on your third box offer valid while supplies last Free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. One more time hellofresh.com smokingtire10fm that's Smoking Tire 10fm to get 10 free meals and that Zwilling knife also supported today by Deleteme Making it quick, easy and safe to remove your personal data online. At a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable, data brokers are out there making a profit off of your data. The way it works is you buy something and then you have to give them your data to send you the thing, but then they sell your data to the next guy. That's just how the Internet works now. And those guys are called data brokers and they'll sell your data to anyone, right? This can lead to identity theft, phishing attempts, harassment, spam calls, all of that stuff. But now you can protect your privacy with Deleteme, right? All you have to do is sign up for Delete me and I'll tell you how at the end. But you give them the information, right? You tell them your address, your phone number, your email, your job, your brothers, your sister, your cousin, your former roommate, your old addresses, whatever you can think of, and then they go looking for that information on data broker websites. They then come back with you a couple weeks later with a Probably scary, it's going to be scary how much of your information you'll find, particularly the first time you run a delete me search. But they'll come back with it and they'll delete a lot of it automatically. They'll click a couple of things here and there, have to do a couple small proactive steps to file these takedown notices and then Delete me will keep going. It's not a one time service. They're always looking out for you. They're going to keep going and then a couple weeks later they're going to send you another email and there's going to still be more stuff. It's going to be less than before for and then on and on and on and eventually that number gets to be really low, but it never gets to zero because we're always shopping and they're always doing this. So Deleteme is on the game. So don't worry about it. Take control of your data. Keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at A special discount for our listeners 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 enter code Tire at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com Tire code Tire. Now back to the show.

[B]

But you've driven it more.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I drove it. I drove one around, like three or 400 miles in a day, and that was it. But at the time, it was very exciting. It was new and very exotic, and it drove nicely on the road. But also because it's like a homologation race car and has so little insulation in it, all the gravel and all this Senna, it almost felt like cheap and thin like the Senna, even though it was the opposite. To get it that way, it's very expensive and intentional to do it. But it's part of the reason I like the older Ford GT better as a road car. Even though this. This one, when you're going really fast is fucking super impressive. But, like, I don't know, Aston is really not fucking around here. Like, the guy's name, I wrote it down back then is Andrew K K A Y E. He was the chief designer and Engineer on the 720s who's in this. In now at Aston and in this program. But, I mean, yes, it's very, very expensive. But, like, you know, the assumption wasn't just that Aston didn't want to make a car like this in the past. Like, the assumption was kind of that they weren't capable of it. You know, like, oh, they make a great GT, but Ferrari's in Formula 1 and Lamborghini's. You know, they're Lamborghini.

[B]

Technically, Aston's in Formula one, although this year, not really.

[A]

I mean, previously, but, you know, like in the sort of Lawrence Stroll era, the cars went from, you know, These are nice GTs, but there's a few asterisks on there to like, well, hey, hang on a second. You know, to now we're in Formula one. And even when they. When they first got in Formula One and it was like, remember, we got the Vantage F1 edition, and it was sort of this, like, okay, it's the safety car. But like, it's a. You. You put a wing on it and you made the suspension stiff and like, all right, come on now. You know, that's. That's cute. But, like, sort of nice try, but what was that? Five years ago, maybe.

[B]

Yeah. Covid.

[A]

Ish time, you know, and here we are, you know, and the Valkyrie was a bold statement, but obviously it was. It's. It's not a real fucking car. It's like a ludicrous thing. That's, you know.

[B]

Yeah. So, I mean, I didn't realize.

[A]

I looked.

[B]

They were in F1 from 59 to 60 and then not till 2021.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that F1 edition car was probably 20, 21, five years ago.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And.

[A]

And it was cute.

[B]

Yeah. But it was like a dressed up version of the existing car. And the existing car was not great to look at or sit in or whatever.

[A]

Which. Sidebar. I'm driving the S this week and we'll talk about it next show. But times they have a change with that vehicle. Yeah, but you need to drive it a little more.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Have you driven at all? Did you drive at all yet?

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay. You need to take it.

[B]

I drove the. Because the one I drove was just a regular.

[A]

No, no, no. You need to take this one today. You need to drive this. It's. This is awesome.

[B]

Are we taking it to track this week? No. Okay.

[A]

No. Unfortunately, sadly, Aston declined. They wanted to Porsche too. It's not about the car being on track, it's that they don't want it to go to a track without a support person being there. They want to make sure the tire pressures are good. They want to make sure the fucking check the torque. They want someone to be there.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

And they didn't have somebody. So they said we couldn't do it this time. But you should still drive it. Because anyway, to go from that Vantage F1 edition, five years later, we've got this fucking thing which is not just insanely fast and made of a lot of in house stuff, barring the engine, but also it's so good to drive that a fucking idiot like me can, with not a lot of practice, drift it comfortably around a circuit that it's my first day at.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, like, with like reasonable competency. Not perfect, mind you. Patrons know what's up. There's a shot of.

[B]

You should promote that a little bit. But yeah, like, this track seemed like it had wonderful corners with such good radius.

[A]

Navarra was all right.

[B]

There were so many places. I know. I watched your video and I watched like some of Jethro stuff, but there were just lots of corners that were friendly to sliding at not 800 miles per hour.

[A]

Yeah. Jethro threw multiple sets of tires. We were there together and he got I didn't request multiple sets of tires. If I really wanted to, I maybe could have. And in fact, Jethro, this was smart. I forgot to do this. And when he finished his grip portion of his video and wanted to do skids, he asked for super sports or

[B]

the PS5, which I was. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I did not. Which, although it turned out okay, I think was ultimately a bit of a mistake.

[B]

It might have made it a little easier.

[A]

It would have made it a little easier, but with 1000 horsepower, it was not difficult. But it goes back to that perfect steering ratio, because whether you're trying to grip through that corner and the front motors are helping you, or whether you're trying to slide the corner and the front motors are really not helping you, it has the perfect ratio for doing that kind of stuff.

[B]

But you also get the Dynamics of the McLaren boss, because to go back, you know, whatever, six years ago, I did that show with Dayo Shahara and he was drifting the 720s on this track.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he. And he comes in, he goes, you should try to slide that thing. And I said, absolutely not. I've never slid a mid engine car. He goes, I'm telling you, this is pretty easy dummy proof. And it was true. So if you take that with the new technology, as you've said, and then you also give it kind of the magic traction at the front like an NSX has.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, now you've got all these systems. You know, the front maybe can pull you a little bit if it feels you understeer, but then it helps you wag the back a little bit. And I mean, you know, your skill should also be commended because you were like sending it in there.

[A]

I was. So, dude, it was so high pressure. It's me and Jethro. Was Jethro's video for Evo or Top Gear, Whoever, whichever. It was the other guy who was there, his video was for the other one.

[B]

You were there with the entire British drifting army in the English, dude, I

[A]

know you can't just be at a track with me and three English like super pros and have me not at least put up a good effort. I had to do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Pressure was extremely high.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Guys taking a break from the action because support is coming in fast. Like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, who's now got a podcast and you're always asking me what I'm listening to when not recording this show. And right now it's this, the new season of Drive with Jim Farley in it. The Ford CEO Talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving and what drives them to succeed. Like Formula one driver Daniel Ricardo. Listen, there's a well worn trope about racing drivers not being interesting to listen to, but if there is one that is interesting to listen to, it is Daniel Ricardo. I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great. And look, Jim is a racing driver also. I personally raced against him like two months ago. And for me, a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends is about the pinnacle of CEO dom when it comes to car companies. So the two of them together obviously have a lot of things to discuss on Drive with Jim Farley, which you can get on your podcast app. Very easy to find. Drive With Jim Farley. Check it out. That was great. Right up until the end if you were listening.

[B]

If you're not a patron, the BTS video is quite good. Couple angles, great. You also undersold. You know, you came back and you're like, I don't want to. You can tell why you don't want to put in the video. But the reason you told me, you're like, I didn't say anything cool afterwards, which, you know, you're on the radio talking to safety and stuff like that was smart. But you didn't say the amazing sound you made during.

[A]

Oh, what I. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

And it's definitely worth going to Patreon. Patreon and giving it a listen.

[A]

You're punching and I hope you didn't

[B]

take a. I was just like. It was funny.

[A]

No, no, it's funny.

[B]

I would have done the same thing.

[A]

No, it's funny. No. And you can. I'm sure anybody can relate to the thoughts that happened in my. That happened really fast.

[B]

Sure did.

[A]

Really, really fast.

[B]

Sticky, tired.

[A]

But those, I don't know, 1.5 seconds were just about as scared as I've ever been in a car.

[B]

I bet. I absolutely bet. And it was great that it happened on like a second gear corner because you came to a halt quickly.

[A]

It was not a second gear corner. It was the top of third gear corner.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Yeah. I mean it's an eight speed car, but it was a top of third gear corner. And yeah, I dumped the million dollar car into a gravel trap. I had to be towed out, but the car was okay. Dude, PPF is so good. PPF's amazing. The car was fine and it was back on track an hour later after they gave it a. They had to take off the undertrays to just like get all the Gravel. Take all the undertrays and the wheels off to get the gravel out of it, whatever. But like it was fine. Hannah Elliott drove it on the next wave. Couple people, Anyone you see? Anyone who drove the white one? It might have been a little dusty in certain places, but yes, I'm not afraid to say that. I did try to be a hero and it went a little bit wrong at the. Dude, here's where it really went wrong. I think I did say it in the video. I think I say like this. I think I say one more lap or this is the last lap. I say it out loud. Yeah.

[B]

You're like, I'll do one more.

[A]

Yeah. You never say that.

[B]

You'd never say that. But in your. Not credit. But like, look, you didn't spin immediately after you said that because that's usually where the kind of karma shows up. It was like five corners later.

[A]

No, it was. The second to last corner is where I spun. It was two corners before my day was done. I had to try and nail one in a place I really hadn't nailed one yet. And that's a bad idea. But I felt really confident. Cause I felt like I was doing a really good job. So, yeah, if you're a patron, that video is up. We never ever have bts. Like, why would we have behind the scenes footage like it, like first off, like, I very rarely break stuff or crash stuff. It doesn't. It doesn't happen often. And it's just if you have it, usually it's worth putting in the video itself.

[B]

But. And we're also not. We don't do like vlog stuff where we're rolling between moments. Yeah, well, cameras get left on, but then we're gone and they're just stuck looking at the sky or I'm looking at the inside of your suitcase.

[A]

Right.

[B]

That happens.

[A]

But anyway, I didn't. It wasn't pertinent to the review itself and I don't think. Well, I don't know how Aston would feel about it being on the public side of it, but either way, I was like, finally something I can give the patrons. That's like a real good, meaty, funny BTS moment. So there it is up on the Patreon right now. But is there anything else that I need to cover regarding the car? Like, what else do we. Are there questions about the car in today's show or.

[B]

There were not yet.

[A]

Okay. Well, if there are any in the livestream. But did. I mean, essentially, it feels.

[B]

There was one question. Sure. Someone said, would you Take this, any Koenigsegg or any Pagani. And I will add, although it might be more expensive, T33.

[A]

I would have a T33 over all of it if that were a possibility. I'll tell you what, how many times have I said that I'm like an Aston Martin fan despite their flaws.

[B]

I think everyone says that, you know,

[A]

I've got an old one and we drive all of them and they're imperfect and you want to love them anyway. And so like I, you know, you, you can be, you know, an Aston Martin fan despite, like, despite Aston Martin sometimes. But in this case I think it's, it's such a car that I'm like, I'm just such a fan of like whoever's badge was on this. Like if this was the new McLaren, you know, if this was the replacement for the seven series, I'd be like, oh, okay, now, you know, now we're fucking humming, you know what I mean? So like that's the realm that we're playing at now. Is that like elevation of that? So I haven't driven a new Koenigsegg in 10 years. So Christian, get at me. Yeah, let's see, let's see what that's about. But you know, but I think I could get one of these serviced in Los Angeles. I'm not really sure about a Koenigsegg. Paganis are beautiful, but they don'. The Utopia didn't blow me away to drive. Although it's fucking steampunk as hell. Fucking nasty looking thing. Really cool. But this is a real treat. I really enjoyed my time driving this. It wasn't just that it was fast, it was remarkably pleasant all the time. Getting in and out of it to make the video a zillion times wasn't annoying. Other than that I had to like throw all the camera gear cause I couldn't put the case anywhere. So I had to like it would be you need a separate camera car or you have to throw your shit off the passenger seat to film it.

[B]

This is a bit like kind of the GT3Rs of super ish hypercars. Just because it's comfortable, usable ingress, egress is easy. Those things are usually like when you get into supercar realm. Porsche has always excelled at that because their normal car, on which it's base is also egress.

[A]

It's a good use of space, but it has no storage. And if you leave it in Sport plus, which is everyone else's sport, and the engine stays like it sucks when the Engine's going on and off, like in your basic hybrid modes, but you gotta do it. So I get it. Flick it to sport plus or individual mode, and now the engine stays on. And the fact that it's a hybrid is pretty invisible to its operation. It just is a car with great steering and a cool engine and a bunch of fucking power. The brakes don't feel weird. The blend is very nice. You wouldn't know on the street you're using regen, like, 95% of the time. Braking, you never know. And it's just a. For something that goes so fast and can do so much, it's remarkably approachable and easy and pleasant to drive, like, all the time. Really fast. I think it looks good. The one we just. The one we. The photo that we just switched the thumbnail was great. That. The green. Whatever. Victory green. But the other one I drove, which is the pearlescent white, was fabulous. But, you know, they'll paint them.

[B]

I gotta say, the white.

[A]

Whatever color you want.

[B]

White looked good in all the shots. So, like, the white they use, plus the shape of the car, there's so many round shapes that bends light, which, you know, for people, like, if you look at a white car that has flat sides or tops in the daytime, like, it just disappears. Looks like crap, especially in thumbnails. But this looked really good. Someone also asked, what did Aston say to you after you spun?

[A]

Oh, they just. First they asked if I was all right, as they do, and they said, is the car in the wall? And I said, no, it's not. And then they said, all right, we'll be out. And then they came out with a tow strap and some shovels, and we had to dig a little bit, and they towed it out. They didn't have to, like, crane it out or anything like that. And we laughed about it. I mean, I was obviously very apologetic. I was extreme.

[B]

I was vomiting and apologizing.

[A]

No, I mean, look, they're so cool you went on the launch for the Vantage. They're really cool about stuff like this. The car wasn't damaged. It was just dusty. They knew I had to do to make it look good in the video. And it happened on a track. It didn't happen on the road. So it was good fun. I mean, nothing was fucked. So it was okay, and it was good fun. And now they get to make fun of me.

[B]

At the Vantage launch, a YouTuber that we both know who is a good driver, spun on the final, like, third, fourth gear turn onto the front, onto the straight.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Didn't hit anything, but spun it, then pulled into the pits and was like, whoops, and went and ate lunch and then went back out for another session. So I'm saying to Aston, like, they're cool. They were cool if they trust you and you don't hit anything.

[A]

Yeah. And then they were like. And then they were like, you know, are you done? Did you get all the footage you need to get? You know, like, I think if I needed more footage, I probably could have waited for them to clean up the car and gone back out again. I mean, they were very cool about it. I heard. Not to start rumors, but I heard someone did crash one on a later wave. Not somebody we know. I don't know where they were from.

[B]

It's a lot of car. And turn one. I mean, that straightaway is big. Turn one, you were like, I could take this flat. Which blew my mind, because I think you're going about 150, 60 miles per hour at that point. And then it comes into, like a 25 mile per hour corner.

[A]

It's like the corner we talked about at Brainerd. It's like that, where you take this kink at an enormous speed. But the next corner, it's a great corner to slide because your weight is loaded so much on the nose that you just. All you have to do. Same reason the McLaren is so good at it. When you can initiate a slide under braking with the weight on the nose, it just makes your life so much easier. That's just the right way.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Because if you try to make it on power, you're trying to recover control versus under braking, you're much more under control. But, yeah, that corner, Jethro, I think, did take it, take that corner flat at one point. I didn't have the balls to do it.

[B]

Yeah, he's raised Nurburgring 24.

[A]

Oh, no, that's not right. Jethro said he was at this track and took it flat in the Val crop.

[B]

Oh. Which is stickier, but using it a little bit more.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It's that first. First kink there on the bottom left of the screen. It's like. I don't know, what would you call that 150 degree bend here? Yeah, 150.

[B]

It's like a 30 degree bend.

[A]

Oh, I guess if I was talking about, like triangles. Yeah, 30. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I mean, you take a 30 and then it's into a. Oh, I see what you're doing. Yeah, that's hard. No, then it's like a 45 and then it's like a 1 70, right? Yeah. But this first thing is 30, 45 and then.

[A]

Yeah. One. Yeah, right.

[B]

I mean, and look at the length of a straight.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Was it half a mile? Maybe not brainerd long.

[A]

But you. You definitely are hitting the brakes at what did I see two? Did I see 270 kph?

[B]

Yeah, I think, I think so. Because when I zoomed in on the speedo, I was shocked. It was like 220, 230. And you had so much straightaway left. It was well before the finish line.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Probably.

[A]

It was. I think it was so weird. I mean, it is so fast. Obviously it feels. It stops feeling fast probably because of like the downforce and the aero stability above like a 120, 130 miles an hour. It stops feeling fast. But then the numbers just. You just look at the numbers and they're going ups. I said in the video, like for like, you know, the front E motors never disconnect. They're making power to top speed. Wow. Some other cars above a certain speed, the front E motor doesn't do shit. So Including I think the ZR1X, I think. But. But this, they keep going. But it's. For some reason it. I mean, you know, we're talking about over 150. It just sort of feels the same. But the numbers are like, we'll probably settle down.

[B]

Down for us. And then just, you know, your brain kind of gets used to that stuff. It's awesome. Yeah, it's crazy.

[A]

Sweet car. I mean, for that much money, it better be sweet. But I've driven cars that cost more and aren't is good.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

That thing is really something. Sold the scooter on quickly, didn't you? Yeah. When did I post that? 3 days. Sold it yesterday. So 2 days on Instagram. Shout out to TST fan Brian from Los Angeles came down with that cash.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

And motorcycle movers sending it out to his house in East LA tomorrow. So it's a fabulous motorcycle. I will miss it. But I think we're gonna go with the blue on the new one. The matte blue mine that I'm selling is a super. And the one I'm getting is a Super Sport. The GTS 300. Super Sport 310. Excuse me. Super sport. Thought about this lime green, but we're not gonna do that one. Instead, see the blue on the right top on the colors there?

[B]

Oh, whoops.

[A]

Oh, no, not that. That's the dark blue. That's a super tech, which I can't buy on name alone. It's super sport. And then the name alone. Blue.

[B]

Oh, that's a good one. That's a nice French. A little lighter than French.

[A]

Like a Riviera. Ish. Blue

[B]

looks like the water we were just vacationing in.

[A]

Caribbean Sea blue.

[B]

Yeah, that's a good blue.

[A]

Pretty cool, right? It's got black trim instead of the chrome trim. I don't hate it.

[B]

No, I think. Well, I think it works. It's a little lighter than a grabber blue for people listening.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, but that'll be. That'll be the new. The new scoot.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not sure when it's coming in, but. Dude, cool the shit.

[B]

Very cool.

[A]

I elected not to do the pts.

[B]

Well. Yeah. I didn't know they had it. You explained to me how much is it? A couple GS.

[A]

It's a couple GS. And they. They will pts your scooter.

[B]

It's a good blue.

[A]

I know. I think going with one of the better colors that they have.

[B]

Oof. No, Right.

[A]

Grigio.

[B]

The blue is interesting because there are other colors. And I'll put it up for people watching, but for people listening, it's like you kind of have olive, drab, green, gray, black, and then white. So it's pretty, like Swedish. This is like Swedish Volvo colors with a dash of tactical. But then you have this amazing, beautiful electric that's just kind of the outlier in general.

[A]

I don't love their color lineup right now. Like, even the super tech, which is like, look, the super is only available in red, white, black. Yeah, no, thank you. The super tech. The super tech is only available in blue, white, red, white, black.

[B]

This is like navy blue.

[A]

Navy blue, which. That's.

[B]

No, this is navy blue, white, and this is the. In gray.

[A]

Oh, gray. I mean, I don't hate those colors, but I need something. I need bright. And then the regular GTS is available in the beige, which I don't hate, but I also don't want.

[B]

I mean, here it looks more gray. Maybe it looks better in person. And then black. And this mint green's kind of nice. This is a color I kind of expect to see. That is a nice. But they don't have an orange. There's no yellow. But I guess that's what PTS is for.

[A]

Oh, that mint green is not terrible. Yeah. Do you like mint green better than blue?

[B]

The more I look at this?

[A]

No, the blue I like better.

[B]

Yes, I do too, because this is also the color of a lot of 1950s kitchen tile and appliances match my mid mod kitchen.

[A]

It is very much the color of my grandma's bathroom tile.

[B]

Yeah, you gotta be the right kind of stylish to rock this all the time.

[A]

Verde Annabelle.

[B]

Yeah. And with the chrome, all I'm thinking now is refrigerator.

[A]

You know, it's like what's the. What's the smeg? It's like a smeg.

[B]

What is. I think smeg is a turbo.

[A]

It's a terribly named refrigerator brand. Look it up. But it's like new. Old looking. Like new appliances that look like exactly that. Yeah, it's Vespa X Smeg.

[B]

Pretty sure.

[A]

I know it's a very unfortunate name.

[B]

Well, who named what first? I think was Smeg an 80 year old company and all of a sudden. All right, all right then that's not good.

[A]

Yeah. What did we learn about. Is our podcast gonna be available on video through Apple Podcasts?

[B]

I have not done the research yet, but I think the answer is yes.

[A]

Okay. We just saw that it's possible to get video the video version of the show of shows in general on Apple Podcasts. So why not ours?

[B]

Yeah, and we'll.

[A]

That's nice.

[B]

Basically our. Our. Our host company does have that function, which is great because if we had to move companies I'd be so sad for myself. But it looks like simplecast can handle it, so I'll figure it out this week.

[A]

Sweet. Yeah, that's gonna be.

[B]

And it should become available on Spotify also. Yeah.

[A]

Were we not on Spotify?

[B]

Not for video.

[A]

Oh, for. Oh, video on Spotify.

[B]

Oh no, no.

[A]

I was gonna say that that could be problematic. No video on Spotify.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, I didn't really know video. I didn'. I was doing video now too.

[B]

They do. I don't know how many people. If you listen and use it, let us know in the comments because I'm always curious. I don't use it on Spotify because of the data usage and also I'm just gonna listen to whatever it is. I don't need to watch people talk most of the time. Depends on the show. Of course some pull up a lot of visual assets, but I don't know. YouTube I just am more familiar with. So if you use Spotify video, let us know.

[A]

Okay. We can go to the people in.

[B]

Can we quickly help to our friends. Yes. Our very good friends. Former bosses in many regards, Sam Smith and Travis Akulski. Both of them worked at Road and Track for a long time. Then Motor won some of the best writers and Drivers in this game have created an event for Goodwood Revival called A Damn fine way to 2026. Goodwood Revival. So it is sort of a curated event. You pay a price, you stay at an estate with that them you have meals with with the whole group and then they take you to Goodwill.

[A]

You're forced to have meals with them.

[B]

You're not. They're available. But I will say, I mean, these are some of the most entertaining people I have ever met. And they also are super knowledgeable about the like old race cars. So they'll probably be great docents.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you like Miatas, be like miatas. But I mean, Sam's also owned like, you know, formula Fords and raced all this old shit. He qualified second place in a mini race in Goodwood Revival like long enough ago next to one Chris Harris. So if you're interested in this kind of thing, go to revivalspark.com and there's information about it and then you can reach out to them for more info on like price and schedule and stuff. It's not the cheapest thing in the world, but it's a pretty rad thing. And I think this is one of the greatest motorsports events on earth.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So shout out to those guys.

[A]

Oh, right. Revivalspark.com Nice. And then, yeah, I mean, I guess if we're going to talk about one car trip. Entries are open for our road and track Pacific Northwest shift. It comes with two motorsport days. PIR track day, Portland International Raceway. Also a day at Dirtfish Rally school. We're driving the Cascades. It's going to be absolutely, spectacularly gorgeous. Go to experiences.roadandtrack.com if you would like to come drive with me. You can bring any, pretty much any car. It's got to be, it's be. Got to to be a sporty car. But, but people ask, you know, can I bring my gti? Can I bring my Miata? Of course. Can I bring my classic car? Yes, you can. Someone always does. A couple people usually do. But yeah, everything is included. And two motorsport experiences at this one.

[B]

That's good.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

PIR Rally is the greatest thing ever.

[A]

Dirtfish is the.

[B]

Which one are they doing first? Do you know?

[A]

The track is first and then Dirt

[B]

Fish because, you know, there's so much sliding happening at Dirtfish.

[A]

Oh, you.

[B]

I would worry, you know, people get

[A]

excited, people get confidence at the track would be very high. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But it's gonna be super fun. But I love the Pacific Northwest and it's gonna Be a great place to fucking drive sports cars. It's gonna be super fun. So come drive with me if you want. This summer in, in a couple weeks I'm going out to the desert one. It's gonna be great. We are driving the Dodge Charger six pack on that one.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

Should be interesting. Hell yeah brother.

[B]

Hell yeah brother.

[A]

We can go to the patrons. Thank you very [e-mail] thesmokentyuerpodcast last week I posted up or a couple days ago that we had seven extra notice canyons that we were able to build from the remaining stock of parts. So they were sort of a continuation series. Happy to report they were gone in about an hour after posting it. So shout out to the seven patrons that got their hands on continuation series notice canyons and we will have pink excuse me, Brosen Fairy metallic notice canyons with the all new deployant class. I'm not wearing it today but available for purchase in December exclusively to the Patreon first. If there are any left they can go to the public. I somehow doubt there will be but I wanted to. The reason we haven't announced it yet is because unlike last time, I really want to reduce the amount of time as much as possible in between when you order and when you receive your watch. These are impulse buys for many folks and so in order to reduce that time between purchase and delivery, we're not going to make them for sale until they are literally ready to ship like that. But they're coming soon, within a month and you'll have your watch in time for summer. I just took it sailing. Trust me, I tested is it good for summer? And yes it motherfucking is. Every day in the water, eight days in the ocean. I didn't take very good care of it and it's fine. It's great. The water resistance, the sand resistance, the scratch resistance, the boat life, it is fine. You can could dive with it if you want. So those people [e-mail] smokemtirepodcast who get all those things we just talked about plus access to the live stream, access to the show, early access to extra show which the Pro Driver show just went up for this month, go check that out on Patreon. The ability to get the show without ads and a whole lot more shout out to them. Sterling says thanks for getting me hooked on Are youe Garbage? Segura was just on Are youe Garbage Again. It's very fun.

[B]

Oh cool.

[A]

I've got a garbage question for you car. You garbage questions Are welcome on this show. Is it garbage to get something delivered same day on Amazon to the bar you know you're gonna be at all day? I did this last weekend loving my new pair of AirPods and deodorant.

[B]

It's smart, but I think it's kind of garbage to be at a bar all day. Well, that.

[A]

First off, there's segments of this story that are garbage. You're right. Being in a bar all day is my one. But it could be a sporting event.

[B]

True.

[A]

If you're there for a sport, it's

[B]

a five, six hour event.

[A]

It's like March Madness. I think people were at the bar all day, so. Okay. But yes, that's garbage. Amazon, same day, if it's not really urgent, is pretty garbage.

[B]

Yeah, there's a lot of. We need more clues. If you're at the bar and you go, I have a flight after this. I need my AirPods. Right, okay. But if it's like you're impulse shopping because you've had a few and you're like, you know, I do need AirPods now.

[A]

Look, new AirPods and deodorant.

[B]

But that I actually think goes back to class. That is urgent. And I actually say it's classy because, you know, you have a problem and you need it solved now. And you went, I can fix this. But it's very funny that while you're in there for deodorant, let's be honest, that was the more pressing issue. You were like, let's add some AirPods.

[A]

Here's real class. Knowing you have a problem. And next time you're drinking at the bar, you pre, pre order, pre order deodorant to be delivered that day. But days ahead of time, I knew

[B]

where you were headed. You won, like, your own private bottle of deodorant at the bar. That is gross. That is something they should not keep for you behind the bar.

[A]

I got halfway through the thought and was like, this is not a good idea, but I'm committing right now.

[B]

That's a team garbage event. That means you and the bartender are both trying to.

[A]

I was thinking of the deodorant. Sort of like it was the Fresca that I used to bring to the bar, except I realized that they have opposite implications and effects.

[B]

Yeah, you wanted a beverage at the bar. They didn't offer, but they're willing to kind of bend this thing. This is like, hey, I smell every time I get here. But I'm not showering or deodoranting at home because who has that kind of tough.

[A]

This problem needs to be solved elsewhere besides the bar. That's a good point. Yeah. Garbage. Fully fucking garbage. Giggity Airlines says nobody talks about Dub Magazine anymore. I think they had a big impact on car culture, like super street magazine. Thoughts? Did they? I mean, they certainly had a cultural impact. I think for the segment of people that read Dub Magazine a lot. I wasn't really into that magazine. Cause it was more like show cars and big wheels, stereos and stuff like that. And I was more into sports cars. But like, respect.

[B]

We probably wouldn't have Donks without Dub Magazine.

[A]

Yeah. We wouldn't have had the iconic Donk Box and Bubble magazine.

[B]

Very true. I think, you know, any magazine that was pointed at any part of car culture is a good idea.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And this brought that part of car culture to more eyeballs and probably, I think there's probably more subtle crossover. People realize like a magazine basically focused on customizing and rims. Well now everyone who gets a sports car is like, how should I pts my interior, Should I get custom interiors? Which wheels am I getting? I think those things have helped each other. And also I'm looking at Dub now and there's Chiron reviews and you know, Cadillac V series review. Like the still exists. They still exist. Sports cars are over there too.

[A]

Yeah. Accidental reverse entry says one question for each. Zach, you've gone through many iterations with your M3. At what point do you think you'll be ready to go in the same type of journey with a different platform?

[B]

I think like a year. But I think I have to decide if I want to go, you know, four door E90. I talk about it a lot. Do I just want a fast sedan and is that the best one for the money? I don't know. I'll have to start.

[A]

It's one of them.

[B]

Looking around. It's one of them.

[A]

Certainly one of them. Yeah. Everyone in my neighborhood right now, you know, my neighborhood is like full of two kinds of people. Like old retired people and then like people kind of like me and Hannah and everyone that's, that's like about the same age or whatever as me and Hannah is kind of like on my first Porsche right now. And so my neighborhood in the last two years is like so full of 997s's and 996C4s's and literally like my whole block is filled up with these exact like two cars. I could see you going down that train. I could see you in a 997S

[B]

within 18 months I think I've talked about it. Like Cayman S is more attractive to me or gts. I think it's more expensive though than I'd want to spend.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

But that is an attractive idea. Zach's first Porsche.

[A]

Yeah. And Matt, you've expressed interest in having another air cooled Porsche in the future. What direction would you take it? I would. What direction would I take? Take it. I mean I'd really like to have just like the Safari car was so cool. But the problem is I didn't like really do much with it. Like I didn't. It was a car for a thing I didn't really do. Right. Which that's fine but like let's not do that again. So it would, it would be the. Just, it would be a nice. I mean I honestly like I've driven some stock ones where I'm like, yeah, this is good. It does not need to be like a big build. I would want it to be something that was like very easy to drive with light controls and that kind of stuff. It could also just be the kind of thing you see and fall in love with. But like I don't want to get into a hundred thousand dollar Porsche build again like anytime soon because like I just, I think, I think a lot of what's really nice about those air cooled cars is their usability. So what I would, I think really like to have is like maybe just another five speed G50, you know, Carrera, sort of like the car I started with but with like some more miles, low hundreds. It's had the major Service, done the 100k major service, you know, and then just drive that a lot. You know, take it on vintage events and just drive that a lot and be like ah, the miles are fucking whatever and just sort of like leave it and drive it instead of like making it a big project. I think that would be fun. Not like there's no such thing as a. Like just something like that you didn't, that I didn't have to like think

[B]

about all that long oem but well used so you don't worry about it.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Not collector grade. You know, maybe somebody else did a 3.4 kit or something in it. You know, maybe like one of Marco's clients wants out of a good car that Marco's looked after for 20 years. I mean that kind of thing, like it would be like, you know, Thad going hey, like nudge, nudge. This thing is the shit. And it's been like, you know, the guy died or whatever it is. Like something like, kind of like that where like, hey, there's great value and fucking please don't start sending people me cars. I'm talking about. This is from like two people that I know, you know, where like this is the specific thing and there's a ton of value in this and, you know, you could not have to do much with it for a couple years other than drive that sort of thing. Harlequin E63AMG how do you mitigate? Jesus. How do you mitigate? Gas fume smells for the older cars at wccs. Does that present a problem for some of the cars in storage? Outside of running an exhaust fan in my garage. Garage, My old Mini Cooper just kind of smells from the carbs and fuel tank. There's not a fancy way to do this. You run fans. At wccs, we have an exhaust fan that runs at a very low speed all the time and then filtered air comes in from the outside and it goes out. So at wccs it's not a problem. The fan is never off. It's only on very low. Or there's three or four different speeds based on how many cars we're running at once. At home. Home. I feel you. When my Ferrari was there, it smelled a little fumey. The Manx, although it's a brand new car, the actual seal on the fuel tank, which is up front, is not that good of a seal. So it's not like fuel comes out. But over a couple days, if it's hot, it'll smell a little fumey. But at my garage I have an automatic exhaust for fan too.

[B]

Yeah, I think it's just. You need ventilation.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you can get an exhaust fan that's like small. Ours is like super small, solar powered and activated by like temperature. So when it's warm, it turns on. And like once a year I have to get up on a ladder and like vacuum the dust out of it. And that's pretty much it. But it's a very basic ass solution, so that's kind of what I recommend. Recommend or just walk in there with a lit candle once in a while, see what happens. Wheat City Night court. It's been 16 years since the Clarkson era of Top Gear came to an end. Fucking where does it go? Obviously it was hugely influential on Gen X and millennials. What is the equivalent touchstone for younger generations? And how do you think those new heroes perceptions of automobiles will drive Gen Z's enjoyment of cars? I mean, there's fucking youtubers and like they Kept doing the grand tour for like 12 more years after this. So it's not like those guys went away.

[B]

No, but I think, I think the YouTubers, the important point is I think there are more heroes now. It's just everything's fragmented and there's people that are big fans of car youtubers that you and I have never heard of because they're 20 years younger than us or they're just not in that algorithm, whatever, like, and they do this thing like Mighty Car mods. There are people, people that probably don't watch, you know, driving videos, but love Mighty Car mods. Those guys have been at that game very successfully for like 15 years.

[A]

Right? Like there used to be this one show that did news, that did car reviews, that did, you know, occasional projects and stunts and that did like road trips, right? And now there's like four different channels, each of which says that does the segment.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

And so like they're watching like whistling Diesel for stuff, stunts. And they're watching Harry Metcalf for road trips, and they're watching this show for news, and they're watching Chris Harris for Drifting.

[B]

For Drifting. Harris does the Clarkson track driving side of things.

[A]

And so that collectively is how people get to a Top Gear. That's how fucking good Top Gear was, is they did all of those things in one. But like, it's also a testament to almost all of those other things I just mentioned. Did pretty decent Top Gear inspired films for like fucking no money. I mean, you know, like, they're all very like very low budget and basic and often just one or two very talented people applying their craft and approximately sort of what Top Gear had to spend an awful lot of money to do.

[B]

I just saw a random reel popped up on my wife's phone. And the short version is, guy walks around the neighborhood and goes, hey, can I paint your car for free? And everyone says no. And it's like new Tesla says no. I mean, he asked like six people and some guy who, as soon as he starts talking, he goes, oh, that would be awesome. He's like 70. I went, this guy is down. And of course he's got like a 62 Ford pickup that looks like shit and it's rusted to fuck. And. And this guy who is clearly, he's like a 28 year old, amazing painter, pinstripe skills, painting skills, but he has to have a body shop weld panels on and, you know, you get the glow up. He repaints this guy's truck and basically restores the thing and he Just does it for free. And he's doing what Overhauling did with a production crew of 10 or a working crew of 10 plus production, plus half million dollar budgets. And it's just wild. That shows like overhauling and the show with Mike Brewer, an aunt. Like, those are now independent YouTube channels. Dozens.

[A]

How's this dude making money?

[B]

I have no idea. I didn't look into that part. I mean, either he has sponsors or he just, you know, Rev Share is big enough. Probably a little bit of both.

[A]

How you going to.

[B]

Well, like, there's this guy named.

[A]

How are you going to make money in Rev Share to do bodywork?

[B]

There's a guy named Uncle John who is like a construction influencer. And he just goes around.

[A]

I love.

[B]

I love his.

[A]

You just said construction influencer. That's a crazy home repair but crazy world that we live in.

[B]

All his videos are like, I made a fence for my neighbor for free. She's older, you know, da, da, da. And he used to be a contractor and now he does this. And he'll have a sponsored post by whatever.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And that pays for the fence. But it's like, yeah, you're going to help people. And you know, look, I.

[A]

People. I'm not. And I'm not so cynical to think that people won't just do something to be nice. The mowing guy, whoever. The mowing. You know what I'm talking about. I want to say it's like SB Mowing, I think is the dude.

[B]

Oh, he goes to people's lives. As long as he can film it. Yeah.

[A]

And he says, can I? It's a wonderful thing. And it looks like it takes him a day to A couple of days to do and like, respect, dude, respect. And I'm not trying to be cynical, but like, I could see the Rev Share, you know, paying off of that because your overhead is very low. But if you're like using a paint booth and like doing bodywork and stuff like that, it just costs more to do. More time, more money, more people, more help, more fucking whatever. Like. So I just. I'm interested in the math of that.

[B]

No, as was I. I watched it with. And I thought now maybe this project got away from him and was larger than he expected. Normally he just sprays cars. Tesla. But he's like, oh, God, I'm. Well, like, he had to hire people to cut metal in the middle.

[A]

That's what I'm saying. Like, that's.

[B]

So he might have been a loss on that one.

[A]

But you're like, this dude does the job that overhauling did. But on YouTube, I'm like, well, it was expensive to make overhauling, and not just because of the camera operators.

[B]

No, that's right. But yeah, they got all these people. So I think to go back, there's just, there's content for any kind of interest in cars.

[A]

Yeah. Prayer of the refugee wagon on Montana. Tags says recently purchased a 2026 Bronco bad. And people have been stopping me in my tracks to talk about it. It's a nice car and all, but it seems to have gained a fair bit of attention from people in my small and sometimes sheltered little town. Have you ever gotten a lot of attention while driving what you'd consider to be a fairly normal car? Dude, when the Bronco came out, everybody wanted to talk about the fucking Bronco. Everybody wanted to talk. I'm surprised it's still going on. I mean, now there's broncos everywhere, but man, people love those things. And I, I get it. A Bronco's like a wrangler. You have to be an enthusiast to have one. It's a little compromised as a road car. So it's enthusiasm. You're saying something about yourself by driving one.

[B]

I don't know if it's a normal car. It's such a. Like you said, the off road audience is into it. That's a pretty large.

[A]

Have we ever gotten a lot of attention driving what you would consider to be a fairly normal, normal car? That's an interesting question, and I'm sure we have because we've driven cars either right when they first come out or ahead of when they come out. I've been very surprised every time I drive an Audi RS3, the new Audi RS3, people know, and it's always like a facelift or whatever. And people notice that shit right away, which I'm very surprised by. They're really into a new RS3.

[B]

It's tough because we don't test a lot of normal cars.

[A]

Yeah. But like, even back in the day, like we, we did, like,

[B]

I think of all the cars we've owned that, you know, got attention.

[A]

I got to go back a long way in the database here, but. And it turned out to be a fairly normal car. But when we had, when we had the first wrap Raptor.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

People were really, really into that. When I had the Shelby GT350R, I mean, that's not normal, but like, you know, it's a Mustang. People knew what that was right away.

[B]

Yeah. I feel like, I mean, if you drove a Tesla early on People are like, oh, is that the thing?

[A]

I reviewed a Tesla Roadster when it was new and people didn't really give much of a shit about it.

[B]

No, I think like the S was

[A]

probably, probably when you had a very early one.

[B]

But that's, that's man lucid no one really cared about. It's just like, I think most people go, huh? And that's it, you know, like nobody asked us anything about the Sapphire. Huh?

[A]

Oh, well, I, I mean again, it turned out to be a normal car. But I got pulled over in a Dodge Challenger SRT prototype in 2009 doing 90 and a 30. And I got out of it because it was the new Challenger and the cop was so, so into it that I could have done anything south of killing somebody. And all this fucking guy wanted to do was check out the car. Car. I mean, imagine this is 09. Imagine you have never seen a Dodge Challenger right now and now you're a cop and this fucking asshole with sideburns is doing 90 and a 30 in the first one you've ever seen. So he took his chance. So that's the wrong kind of attention. When Nissan R32s first became legal, you could drive a great, you know, a gray R32 around and people would like lose it. Don't be alarmed where nino's sound drops. I'm in Utah and I want an all wheel drive over landing van for around 15k. I need the ability to do over 80 miles an hour, which rules out VW synchros and Delica L3 hundreds. My heart says Delica L400. My head says Chevy Express all wheel drive and the wallet says C Sienna. Do you have a recommendation? So correct if I'm wrong, but I believe that a Delica L400 is a true four wheel drive vehicle. Like a 4x4 with a transfer case. I drove and that's the newer Delica than mine, the rounded one.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I think that's like an actual off road vehicle. Whereas a Sienna isn't. Yes, Sienna is like it's got like Camry all wheel drive, like hall decks. Like that's not for overlanding, it's for like a snowy day.

[B]

Yeah, I agree. And, but they, the Della Dell, if you want a real overlanding van, I think you have to, this person has to be really honest about the terrain they're on. Like you can make a Sienna work pretty well with thoughtful driving, but if you're going up steep stuff and you know the van's gonna be loaded a lot, you're putting a lot of stress on the half shafts and the system then. Yeah, maybe something a little bit stouter would be smart.

[A]

If you have someone who can work on an L400, they are dope. They're fucking awesome. I tried to convince Hannah to get one of these because it was so much more powerful and so much nicer than ours. But she likes the look of ours. That's the whole thing is the shape. So she didn't really care for it. But I think this is a true 4x4 vehicle. Whereas the Sienna is not. A Chevy express fan is a real piece of shit. I mean, I'm sorry to say it, like, yeah, it's based on a truck frame, but like that's a piece of shit.

[B]

It's like their E350 Econoline. Right.

[A]

It's like a 35 year old product they're still making.

[B]

I mean, I think the pro of that is it's not as much a cab over right. As the L400. So it might be slightly more comfortable. And also you can get parts anywhere. That's the other thing. It's a Chevrolet.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So that is a benefit. Yeah, but it's very uninteresting. I don't know.

[A]

Terrible. You ever drive one? Yikes. Misery.

[B]

I can hear it though.

[A]

Yeah, I can do. Yeah. She only wants me for my turn in. Oh, last week I asked about Hobie Cat. Oh, that's. Sorry, I don't. I don't know about the adventure sailing kayak. I didn't. I have not seen that before. So I don't have. It looks. It sounds interesting but I don't have an opinion on it.

[B]

Sorry.

[A]

Listen. And sometimes walk watch. Manual AMG swaps seem to be getting more popular. Is there a driving experience value in swapping a C63? Consider a decent example to be about 25k in the swap to be about 10. I'd like to try one. Every manual swap Mercedes AMG I've ever driven has gotten notably better. Right. I mean that SL was lovely.

[B]

Dude, a manual. Manual C63 would be sick. I drove one. I mean the engine's amazing. They look good, they're still comfortable. And then it shifts and you go yeah. And putting a normal just. It would just bring it up to like an 810 car. There's not even a 1010 car. But that needs one. That's a great car.

[A]

We have a CLK black series at our South Bay store that is a manual swap and it is nice. Very high cod. So there's more Value in manual swapping a better car. Because if it's 10k to manual swap a cheap car and 10k to manual swap an expensive one, it's less of a percentage increase in your expensive one. So like if it's 25k for a car and 10k, it's like 45, whatever, 40, 45% of the car to swap it versus if you got one that was twice that it would be 20% of the car. So it is a math problem. But every manual swap Mercedes I've ever driven was better than stock by like a pretty solid margin. So take that the ghost of Woolworths. Both the brand and FW Woolworth pre owned Lucid Airs are available from the mid-30s directly from Lucid. Is now a good time to buy and enjoy until the warranty is up? Maybe I could. Lovely car for $30,000, isn't it?

[B]

Fenske bought one and he's got a video that explains some of the issues he's had with it.

[A]

Right. So he bought one new I think. Right. Didn't he lease it and that's why he hasn't gotten rid of of it yet? I think he leased it new for a couple years and it was a very cheap lease.

[B]

Let's see. Well, there's an article from January that says Lucid responds to scathing air criticism that Jason. Yeah, so he has a 2025 Lucid Air Touring.

[A]

So I mean look, there's a price at which the headaches are worth it.

[B]

Sure. I think the question with that because the cars are amazing, handle great. I think they look great, very comfortable when the tech works inside. The only thing I would worry about is how many problems is it going to have. Are they covered and do they have loaners to give you and how close is a service center?

[A]

True.

[B]

If Jason's having a lot of issues with a new one, are the older ones better? Probably not.

[A]

I don't think so.

[B]

Speculation. Don't sue me Lucid, but probably not. You need to just be ready for having issues. It's like owning an Alpha. You want to be near a service center.

[A]

Tickle your pickle for a triple nickel. Says I'm turning 30 this year year, but I don't feel like it. But the other weekend I found myself going full uncle mode and sitting in the garage, the door open, in a lawn chair with my dog and a beer, just looking at my car in the driveway. What's something you've done that makes you realize you're as old as your age? I mean a lot of things.

[B]

Yeah, naps.

[A]

Most things I do now are like 10 to 15 years older than my actual age. Like, most things I've. Like, I had back surgery in my twenties.

[B]

Old shit.

[A]

I had old shit, dude. Yeah, I had a C5 Corvette at 18. Like, that's some old, old man.

[B]

You just love reading the news and getting cranky in the morning.

[A]

Balances the whole time.

[B]

Yeah, you've been a comfy shoe man since the beginning.

[A]

Shit. What are some things? I mean, napping for me.

[B]

Napping is one when I can squeeze it in. And at 2pm I'm just like, oh, I'm just asleep and then awake and then productive.

[A]

Yeah. Enjoying a nap. Fuck. Realizing how hungover I get when I drink. I get crazy hungover now, whereas I pretty much did not get hungover when I was younger.

[B]

I think getting rid of alcohol for the most part has been very helpful. And I think the funniest one is realizing that New Year's Eve is just an evening of expensive disappointments and you just stop caring. Yeah, it is a night. The marketing for New Year's Eve has been fantastic. They're like, this is gonna be the best shit ever. You know how sex you're gonna have. You know where everyone's gonna be out? Yes, everyone's gonna be out.

[A]

Everyone's gonna be where you're not.

[B]

Very few things happen ever. Some of my least memorable nights are spending lots of money getting very drunk on New Year's Eve.

[A]

For sure.

[B]

Halloween wins all the time.

[A]

New Year's Eve is a bad night for going out. Yeah, I'm with you on that. What else? That's a good question. I'm sure there's like.

[B]

I mean, the list of physical things could be endless.

[A]

The list of physical things are certainly endless. But also, like, buying, like, I used to always buy, as a policy, buy the biggest engine of any car that I was gonna buy. Like, just because I knew I would be, like, upset if there was if I saw the bigger engine out there.

[B]

The AMG business plan down the road, you know?

[A]

And now I do not think like that anymore. I kind of buy the, like, with the Taycan. Like, we didn't. I got the slowest one like that EVs, I think have really shifted that. But also with maturity, like, making decisions about what I really need out of stuff.

[B]

And I'd say having a daily that is just a whatever car and being like, I don't need to advertise my aggressive car personality seven days a week. Like, when you're younger, I'm like, I'm gonna drive the fast loud thing every day so everyone knows who the fuck I am and what I'm about. And. And now you're like, I do that on the weekend. Sure.

[A]

Comfort getting comfort seats. I mean imagine telling 25 year old me that I was going to get a Porsche Spider with comfort seats. Fuck is wrong with you? Yeah, yeah, that for sure. Bmtroubleyou what is something you were able to do early on in your video career that you couldn't do now either doing to ever changing skill sets or circumstances. Something you can look back on and say, I wish we could still do this. Besides using copyrighted music, earn money making

[B]

videos when CPMs were amazing and the views were like 500,000 views.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Yeah. Again, there was a time that we could support a small crew of people to make these videos. That's the main one. Can't do that now. Here's something we were able to do. Have someone subscribe to our videos and then have the videos go to them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean a huge amount of our traffic.

[B]

I know that's not the question, that's

[A]

not the question you're asking but like those are the actual answers to those questions.

[B]

I really liked driving fan cars. I did it less than you. But it also connects to the previous question because after a certain amount of time I went, this is kind of risky for a lot of reasons. I matured out of that. But that was fun.

[A]

I look back on those times for like very fondly, for the most part actually. But at a certain point I like ran out of both things to say and cars and it was risky, but things I used to do. Yeah, I mean used to do a lot of burnouts. Don't do so many burnouts anymore.

[B]

Used to speed.

[A]

Used to do a lot of speed.

[B]

Used to do a lot of, you know, rapid transit back then.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a lot more highway speeding. Honestly.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That one is like when you, if once you do a couple of like real races, I mean amateur shit, but like races where you're in a caged car racing other people that know they're racing you, the idea of speeding on the highway becomes like almost instantly very, very dumb.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Yeah. By the way, I talked to Tato because you went over and used the sim.

[B]

A couple hours of sim training with.

[A]

Yeah. And

[B]

good, bad. I was better in the beginning and I think I ran out of glucose and forgot about that. I was there for like three and

[A]

a half hours staring at a screen for three and A half hours. Sucks.

[B]

Tato is a great instructor. And there were so many funny moments where he's like, okay, use all of that concrete on that turn. And then he would go, now, in the real world, there's a concrete block there, and if you hit it, you could probably break a wheel, and it's gonna be really bad, so don't do it. Nice. And. And I say, all right, so should I probably practice within the bounds then of reality? And he goes, no, no. Here, use it. Cause we're trying to get down to 232. I'm like, but if we're there, I can't do it. But that's just. He's great instructor. He's super fast. And I did not get where I was.

[A]

But you can go faster here. You can go faster here in this game, right?

[B]

Yeah. And then just remember, practicing for something real.

[A]

Doesn't matter. Here you can get a lower number on the screen.

[B]

I mean, dude. His knowledge, though, of that track, like, and in the virtual world, he's like, okay, there's a bump here, and that's your turn in. And I watch. And he had to do, like, one frame at a time, moving it forward. And he goes, you see that dip? I've played a lot of video games. I can spot bad guys really far away. This was two pixels of movement of a dashboard. Matt Ferry was like, that. That. And he goes, see that bump? I'm like, I barely see that bump. That's your turn in marker.

[A]

So that's.

[B]

And it speaks, though. There's no feel in. Yeah, Sims. Because in the car, you're gonna feel the bump, and then you're turning.

[A]

That's the thing with the sim. Like, I respect that. He. I saw him later because I went to their Formula One party for a minute, and I was like, how did Zach do it? He was like, great. He's gonna be awesome.

[B]

He's very complimentary.

[A]

He is. But, like, okay, fine. But he didn't say, like, I'm concerned.

[B]

That's good. I mean, it's funny. His dad walks in. Sergio. He's like, how's it going? And I could tell his eyes are like, we putting this guy in a car? And Tato was like, no, his brake trace is right. Like, we're just working on the turning points. Like, I'm not doing anything that makes him go, you do not know how to control a car. What are these terrible ideas you have? It's just remembering all of the brake markers for every turn. Some turns, you turn in early, some you turn in late. I'm just, I need to memorize those things for Road America because I have never raced the there before.

[A]

Yeah. But also like, so many of those also are like, become apparent once you do it. Once you do it the right way once in the car, then you go, okay, yeah. And then you don't have to. You know what I mean? It's so much harder to learn that kind of stuff when you can't feel. Yeah, you know?

[B]

Yeah, that's true.

[A]

Like you want to. The point of the sim is to like get past right, left, right, left. And then after that you kind of just like get the subtleties of it. But you gotta wait till you're in the real car. It's just like. And that.

[B]

It was fun though.

[A]

It is fun. It's helpful.

[B]

Very helpful. So I'm gonna do some sim time here and go back up there when he's back in town, but. And then we watched a video of him racing super Traffeo and passing like 18 cars and 7 laps or some crazy number. Like he started from 30, 39th and finished 4th in class and like 16th overall. Yeah, just bananas to watch. And there's, there's a lot more contact in that series in superdurveil. There's some, there's some rubbing, racing happening little nudges that people are doing to him as he powers through. But man, that dude's impressive.

[A]

Yeah, he's very, very fast. Let's see. Find Me the Squiggles said. I've read before that for the majority of people, your favorite era of music is from late middle school, early high school years. Mine would be 84, 85, 86, which tracks what is yours? And does that translate to other things like movies and cars? All of the above, dude. All the above. For me, late middle school would be into high school is 1994 through 2000. So yep, that's pretty much in line.

[B]

I think my music magnet was like age 12 to 22 and like, I just listened to that shit all the time. Like it bled into college. I listened to a lot of college

[A]

music, a lot of hip hop music. You know why? Cause you and I, we got downloadable music.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

So I would say that, that for music specifically, we went from CDs to Napster to Limewire to itunes, all during college and like the year after college. So like, because of that, because like it became so easy to share music for us during college than never before. I did learn a lot new music in college.

[B]

Yeah, it's a Good call. Otherwise you had to like it was radio or you'd buy the album. Money was finite, right.

[A]

We were like. It was crazy. Like I. My first like school computer class was on like an Apple II and it was like clack clack, clack, clack, clack clack. Soft floppies.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then I got to the. My first WI fi was in my frat house sophomore year of college. Ooh.

[B]

We had a LAN at our house. And then I think when they moved to a bigger house. I didn't move in there. We had WI fi. Was my apartment senior? No, that we rented that apartment because it specifically was like a new building that had Cat 5 cables like in each. In each room. Oh, no, I may not have had wi fi. Was not for a few years.

[A]

Oh, no, I did not have wi fi. No, I had. But I had like, I had fast. My college Internet was like fast. But I think it was plug in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway. But that, that does. But that also tracks with movies and cars for me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You saw my taste is a lot of things in that era. Yeah. Run gmc. What was the last notable concept car revealed at a car show?

[B]

Well, I think was it last year the Toyota's Toyota GTO thing? Yeah, I think that's pretty notable. That got a lot of press and was a pretty rad important thing. Yeah.

[A]

The vision, the BMW neue class concept from last year year which is now the i3.

[B]

Dude, I'm not going to get invited to a BMW launch, but I haven't been in a very long time anyway, so whatever. Like there is a Lincoln MKZ parked on my block right now and I drove past it and I was like, I'm not wrong. The headlights on the new, new Class.

[A]

It looks like the mkz.

[B]

It looks so much like the mkz. It's a choice.

[A]

Jim Khanna is safari ing dead or will lifted long travel sports cars be remended as a moment in time or a stalwart niche market with brands producing upd, Dorados, Dakars, et cetera. I mean, dude, I think people. Now that people do understand that a rally car is a cool thing and that there's a market for rally type cars for people, I think it will remain an option in both the aftermarket and from some manufacturers. Both the Serato and the Dakar were enormous successes.

[B]

Very true.

[A]

The Raptor brand is an enormous success and there's rumors of possibly a Raptor Mustang of some kind. I'm, you know, I'm very surprised. The Mach E rally Wasn't called Raptor. Even if it did something different, I think that would have been a good extension of that brand.

[B]

Honestly, I think their base would have hated that.

[A]

Yeah, maybe that's true.

[B]

They would have been real upset.

[A]

But I mean I don't, I don't have any indicating an indicator that it's dead as, as a trend. I mean, ice race, you know, there are a lot of dak cars and safari type cars. Granny shifting, not double clutching like you should. What are your thoughts on car clubs that don't charge memberships versus those that charge huge amounts? For example? Oh, I don't know. Well, okay, I don't want to. For example, car club a version versus. Well, I don't know what these two car clubs are. I know one is Porsche Club of America, but I don't know what the other one is. But would you ever pay $5,000 to be a member of a car club if you weren't automotive journalists? I mean, here's the thing, like what are you getting out of this club? Are you getting something for your $5,000? If you're paying $5,000 presumably for a year or so, something, I would hope you're getting at least monthly events with maybe catering and entertainment, special access to stuff if you're getting that. Okay. And if you join a club that is supported by a manufacturer now, I don't know how much PCA is supported directly by the manufacturer, then maybe they don't need to charge because they get funding from the manufacturer and they get to do shit and you don't have to pay and it drives business and cycle. Cycle. Right. So like I don't know. Or maybe there's a club that just like has a newsletter and nothing else and it costs $2 a month or whatever. So it's. I think there's a club for every budget. Probably.

[B]

Yeah. And it depends on your budget. So like do you want to stretch to join this club because it's cool or does it give you all these things you said? I remember a few a year or two ago there was like a car show around the corner and they wanted to charge 50 bucks and a ticket and the to enter your car was also like more expensive and it was like. And we kind of laughed at it because there's so many free car events in la. It was kind of a bold thing.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Did that provide something special to its members or, you know, participants? I don't know. But that's what you have to think about.

[A]

I mean, look, I can tell you the Demand is there for clubs. When people email us asking about storage, they do frequently ask, like, what is the social element? Are you doing events? So the people do want to make real life connections based on car culture. Because I have this other job and I'm running. We don't really do it so much at wccs, but other people do. And if I wasn't an automotive journalist, I'd probably be a member of the motoring club, for instance, which is something like a hundred bucks a month. And they do some events and they have a cool space. And yeah, that's a kind of thing where I would go to be a social member of a club if I wasn't doing this. But I think because Zach and I, because of what we do, just so much car culture just lands at our feet. Like, why would we. You know what I mean? Why would you join a club? But yeah, I would just say that I don't know what the clubs are, what they offer, the ones you mentioned, but 5G is a year for a quote, for a car club is like, that's a lot.

[B]

It's a lot of money. That's like dipping into the country club model, I think.

[A]

Yeah. Like, that's a country club in the Midwest.

[B]

Like, and that might be kind of like we Talked about with 1199 Foundation. When you get to the top of it, it means you get access to, like, the meetings with the CHP heads so that you can really rub shoulders and probably like, if you're running for office, like, so five grand, is it getting you in the room with people that you want to be in the room with and.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Networky guitars and bids. Suppose Mike McCready feels weighed down by his material possessions and puts everything up for sale for charity before retiring on an ashram.

[B]

Great.

[A]

What's my cap on bidding for his actual Strat? Dude, I cannot afford it.

[B]

I was gonna say.

[A]

Yeah, can't afford it. Don't want it if I don't want it if I could.

[B]

I mean, that band is one of the most famous bands in the world.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And there are a lot of extremely wealthy people that would be bidding on it.

[A]

It would be deep six figures, if not seven. Probably seven. I think there's enough rich Pearl Jamf. I mean, it would go to like one of those, like that Jim Ursay collection or Hendrix Hendrik's guitar collection or something like that. Well, the. Jim Irsay was the Colts owner.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

He died and they've just auctioned off, like, all. They just had the auction. So he had David Gilmore's black Strat. That's now the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. He also had Jerry Garcia's Wolf. So that's now the second most. And then I believe the third most is the Kurt Cobain unplugged guitar.

[B]

How much did the Jerry Garcia guitar?

[A]

12 million.

[B]

Yeah, so.

[A]

Well, dude, think about how rich Deadheads and the guy who bought it that particular. I happened to read an article about it. The guy who bought that guitar, Rush a effectively guitar museum and is going to display it. So it can be.

[B]

I think Mike's would go for at least 4 million.

[A]

Then I think it would be millions for sure. That's not to say like I wouldn't love a piece of MacReady or Pearl Jam memorabilia. I would something about like, mentally, there's something different for me about a movie. But prop. A prop. It's like it's a thing to be filmed and then it's just this thing that's like. It's almost junk, but it's immortalized on film. Whereas if you have a musician's actual instrument without the musician to play it, you know, I can't pick up MacReady's Strat and make it sound like MacReady. It might have the right tone, but like, I can't do it and it wouldn't make me feel good to try. You know, I like having my rep replica, which I didn't mention when we talked about it. You know, it is a replica of his guitar. It's signed by him on the back. Like it is actually like it's his addition. So it is proper signed by him on the back on the headstock with a paint marker, which is pretty cool. But like replicating the tone on a. I feel like I deserve a replica. I don't. Even if I had the money, I don't deserve the real thing. Yeah, I get why. Why a collector would want to collect the Kurt Cobain unplugged guitar or McCready Strat or any iconic. The same way you'd want to own. He also owned in the Irsay collection Hunter S. Thompson's Red Shark. The car. The red car from Fear and Loathing. He owned that and that I think sold as well. So he had a bunch of crazy shit. I mean, really had some. For a billionaire. This dude was doing it. He was buying some good stuff. Yeah. So I get it. But I don't think I deserve a musician's guitar. I'd rather have like, if it's like a professional's thing. Right. I'd rather have like, what could I do like a little bit of justice to is like, I don't know, somebody's, somebody's rally car. At least I can slide it around or do something, you know what I mean?

[B]

Because the other thing is movie prop ingesting the content is watching it. It's visual, but with music, it's, it's hearing that musician play it. You go to the, you go to the shows, which I think is a great thing to do as a fan versus buying some stuff. Like it's a swag, but you go there and you, you could close your eyes and like listen. And that's most of it, right. That's like for me, like 90% of watching them perform. And so you can't do that when you put it on the wall. Yeah.

[A]

It's almost sad that it won't be played anymore.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Yeah. That's the thing you gotta. With a movie prop, it doesn't need to like to live in a way. I will say the guy who bought Garcia's guitar, the reason I read the story is because the very next day he took it to a Chris, I think it was Chris Stapleton and let Chris Stapleton play it for a set. And he was like, well, what else would you do with it other than let people play it that are worthy of playing it? Which was pretty cool. That's why I read the story about it in the first place. Yeah, pretty rad. The money or the hammer? You can't have both. Allegedly Porsche wants to go higher end than the 911. What does that look like to you? The 918 replacement? It looks like a carbon tub hypercar that's somewhere between 1 and $3 million and takes the 918 technology to the next level, in my opinion. I mean, that's the only one of those cars from that era that doesn't have a successor. And why is that? That makes no sense. But if Porsche is wanting to go higher end and also simultaneously pivoting from EVs back to hybrids, well, a hybrid hypercar might re juice those waters.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And also if they're having trouble losing money, we've just discussed this. A great way to get a bunch of money is to build a low volume car for all the billionaires that will trip over themselves to make it. And you can make like 500 cars instead of 50,000 cars and like print a couple hundred million dollars.

[B]

It is surprising because the business case is clearly there because like all their competitors are doing it every week. And they haven't.

[A]

Yeah, Kellogg's Rice Crispy Tune. One or two more and then we'll. Then we'll save the rest for next time. Kellogg's Rice Krispy Tunes says when you have a car that you're researching or thinking about buying, and all of a sudden you start seeing it everywhere. I'm currently experiencing this. I'm shopping or looking for a Crosstrek, and all of a sudden I'm seeing them everywhere. Everywhere. What would you call that? I mean, recency bias.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I think is probably the most accurate term. I don't know all of my biases. There's like, so many biases and I don't always get the terms right for them. I try, but there's a lot. And I'm stupid, but I'm pretty sure recency bias, it's right. It's top of mind because you're researching

[B]

it and people overemphasize recent events, data or experiences. So you're going, oh, man, these are everywhere Now. It's like, no, not now. They've been there.

[A]

But you've been researching, you've been looking, looking at the shape on the screen, you've been looking at wheel designs, you've been looking at colors, you've been looking at blah, blah, blah, and now you're just noticing them more in public. It's probably the same amount as were there last week.

[B]

Yeah, yeah,

[A]

Last one. Donnie's bikini bot. Shout out to him. Shout out to the upscale bots that he paid more for to follow me.

[B]

Nice. Hey, your following account's increasing.

[A]

We should. I wonder what will happen if I turn off the. You have to follow to comment if it'll come back.

[B]

If they're gone forever, wait another month, then see?

[A]

With N shitification constantly being present with any new technology being introduced, what? Cars have truly gotten better in the sense of driving enthusiasm rather than increasing measurable figures in the past five years. Cars that have truly gotten better in the last five years. Okay, I mean, the last five years isn't a very long period of time. Sometimes not long enough for an entire life cycle. Let's just stretch that to 10. Stretch it to 10 models. Or here's an easy one, Miata. The NC versus the ND, which came out 10 years ago. The ND and then subsequent ND variants. ND. What are we, three now? We're the AT three now. Those are all better. The Miata does not seem to get worse, or at least hasn't in a very long time.

[B]

And the ND2 is better. Because the engine got bigger. Amira. Really good Amira. Yeah.

[A]

How about this one? Not for the people, but the Bentley gt last generation to this generation is better dynamically more enthusiastic and a more focused driver's car.

[B]

BRZ and all those filling the torque hole was very helpful. Sure.

[A]

Let's see. Enthusiasm. I mean look, it's, it's not a great seller but the, but I think, I think the Nismo Z has really good inputs. I'm driving the first week in May. I'm driving the new manual transmission Nismo Z. I mean better late than never, but I'm driving actually I think that the last Nismo Z I thought was a great improvement off the regular Z and had a really good inputs and was really nicely focused.

[B]

Oh. Because I drove all the GR Corollas back to back to back at Sonoma. Each year was progressively better. The way they just, they changed little bushings, little mounts, little hardware here and there. There was absolutely a noticeable difference especially from the 24 to the 25 5. Like wow. Way better. Cool.

[A]

Yeah, that'll do. Oh, here, wait. Last one. Zen's. Because it's an easy answer and then we'll, and then we'll wrap it up. Zen says how much do light difference. Excuse me? How much difference will lighter wheels make on a daily car? I understand unsprung weight, but I don't know if that matters on a daily used for spirited drives. I'm getting ready to swap my 21 pound OE for a set of 15 pound JDM yo memes. Is that a real name or is that a goof?

[B]

I'll look it up.

[A]

I don't know if that's a goof, but I mean the answer is when you're on those spirited drives, you will feel the difference. When you're puttering around town, you probably won't.

[B]

Probably not.

[A]

I mean it's gonna be situational potholes

[B]

maybe like the wheel might not. It'll spring back up out of the hole a little bit easier. But I don't know if you would even notice.

[A]

I mean in general, unless they're so light the structure's compromised. Lighter wheels help you everywhere. They help you brake better, accelerate better. They're less resistant to turning, so they help your turn in. They make everything better. So even and that, you know, it's sort of like aerodynamics. Like those weight savings they do scale linearly like down to zero. Like you know how like wing, like downforce with wings increases linearly all the way up, up to your top speed right and also that line goes all the way down to zero as well. Right. But like, you don't feel anything until you get to 80. But it's happening. You just don't feel it. Same thing with the unsprung weight. Like, if you're driving down a highway in a straight line, like, you're not going to feel much difference on your unsprung weight. If you're puttering around at the grocery store, like, you're not going to feel a difference. But, like, the second you start doing anything dynamic. The more dynamic it gets, the bigger the difference is.

[B]

Yeah. This is literally the last question.

[A]

Oh, it is Guardian of Dat Asgard. Wait. If you have a project car that is, quote, regular traffic, I'm not sure I invested that term. I know what that term is, but I'll. Maybe you'll figure it out. Okay. But you're heavily invested it and like it a lot. Is it cool to bring to a car meet? I've been doing a DIY restoration on a 90s Ford truck that I'm passionate about, but not sure if it's cool enough to bring to a car meet. It is cool enough to bring to a car meet.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Almost any car that is. That is your project or that you're working on or whatever is cool enough to bring to a car meet.

[B]

Yeah. And now you can find car meets that are more into the, like 90s. Like, Radwood would be the perfect home for this truck meet. Ford meet, whatever. But at any meet, people always respect DIY stuff. And if you're like, oh, I did that. Someone's gonna be big fan. Yeah.

[A]

So thank you very much. Of course. Don't forget we've got our project. It's project. It's not really a project. It's a 911 Turbo and we're giving it away. You can go to the website, which is dreamgiveaway.com TST you can get tickets.

[B]

Oh, it's not that, right?

[A]

Oh, is it?

[B]

Well, this is.comticketsporsche no, we have this. Or go to our code in the description because it's got some extra characters that are important. So basically go, go to the link down below.

[A]

Go to the link in the show notes. But it's very straightforward to enter. There is a charitable element to it. Zach and I have customized the car in an awesome way. You get 75k in your pocket to pay the federal taxes. It's a very, very nice motherfucking car. So you can be able to take that home in August. But get your entries in now for the 992 Turbo S giveaway. Thank you to our patrons. We appreciate you very much. If you want to see me spinning an Aston Martin Valhall into a ditch, you're going to want to check that video out on Patreon right now. And thanks very much. We'll see the rest of you guys next time. Bye.