Top 5 OEM Engine Swaps

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast: Episode Summary – Top 5 OEM Engine Swaps

Release Date: March 6, 2025

Hosts: Zack Klapman & Matt Farah
Podcast Description: Matt Farah and Zack Klapman engage with automotive icons, pro drivers, comedians, and friends to delve into automotive industry news, racing, projects, and more.

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Introduction

In this episode of The Smoking Tire, hosts Zack Klapman and Matt Farah explore the intriguing world of OEM engine swaps. Inspired by the Lotus Emira's use of a Mercedes engine, they compile a list of their top five sports cars that incorporate engines from other manufacturers, discussing the benefits, challenges, and unique characteristics of each swap.

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Personal Car Updates

Bentley Turbo R Listing on Cars and Bids

Matt shares exciting news about his Bentley turbocharged R being listed on Cars and Bids with no reserve, highlighting its pristine condition and comprehensive documentation.

Matt Farah [07:40]: "The car looks great... there's a lot of photos, there's video and there's service records. Everything is as documented as it can be."

He emphasizes the vehicle's luxurious interior, mentioning meticulous detailing and high-quality materials that have held up exceptionally well despite regular use.

Acura NSX Maintenance Update

Matt provides an update on his Acura NSX, which recently underwent service at Evasive. The car received a clean bill of health, allowing Matt to continue enjoying its smooth performance.

Matt Farah [09:27]: "Clean bill of health. He was like, this car is still so mint."

Top 5 OEM Engine Swaps

The core of the episode revolves around the top five OEM engine swaps, where each selected car features an engine sourced from a different manufacturer, enhancing its performance and reliability.

1. Lotus Emira (Mercedes Engine)

Discussion Points:

• The Emira utilizes a Mercedes-sourced engine, specifically the powertrain from the GLA and CLA models.
• Matt expresses dissatisfaction with the transmission's performance in urban settings, citing vibrations and aggressive shifting.

Matt Farah [10:58]: "This car is so far not great for urban driving so far."

He critiques the dual-clutch transmission's behavior in traffic, noting that it causes noticeable vibrations and jerky movements, making everyday driving less enjoyable.

2. Maserati Gran Turismo / F430 (Ferrari F136 Engine)

Discussion Points:

• The Maserati Gran Turismo and Ferrari F430 share the Ferrari F136 engine, renowned for its sound and performance.
• Despite the engine's impressive capabilities, Matt mentions that the Gran Turismo's driving dynamics leave something to be desired.

Zach Klapman [35:22]: "What do you have next?"

Matt highlights the versatility of the F136 engine, noting its use across various high-performance vehicles, and appreciates its integration into Maserati models.

3. Koenigsegg CC8S (Ford Modular 4.6 Engine)

Discussion Points:

• The Koenigsegg CC8S incorporates a heavily modified Ford Modular 4.6-liter engine, originally shared with the Ford Crown Victoria.
• Koenigsegg's modifications include dual overhead cams and turbocharging, transforming the engine into a high-performance powerhouse.

Zach Klapman [37:56]: "But it's a bit of a stretch maybe compared to some of the others."

Matt acknowledges that while this swap might seem unconventional, Koenigsegg's expertise ensures the engine performs exceptionally within their supercar framework.

4. Pagani (Mercedes V12 Engine)

Discussion Points:

• Pagani vehicles, such as those in the Utopia line, utilize Mercedes-sourced V12 engines.
• Matt praises the engine's power and sound, emphasizing its reliability despite being sourced externally.

Matt Farah [38:44]: "Pagani's use of the Camry engine in general is pretty epic."

He underscores that despite not manufacturing their own engines, Pagani's integration maintains the brand's reputation for exclusivity and performance.

5. Aston Martin Vantage (Mercedes Twin-Turbo V8 Engine)

Discussion Points:

• The latest Aston Martin Vantage models are powered by a Mercedes twin-turbo V8, delivering impressive horsepower and modern performance.
• Matt appreciates how Aston Martin leverages Mercedes' engineering prowess while focusing on design and interior enhancements.

Matt Farah [41:36]: "Leave Aston to do things Aston does well... leave the power plant to Mercedes and they gave them a good one."

He notes that this collaboration results in a balanced vehicle that excels in both performance and luxury, benefiting from Mercedes' advanced engine technology.

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Insights on OEM Engine Swaps

Reliability and Performance Balance

Both hosts emphasize the importance of balancing reliability with performance when opting for OEM engine swaps. Matt highlights that sourcing engines from manufacturers with proven track records ensures longevity and minimizes maintenance headaches.

Matt Farah [35:30]: "Let the power plant do its own thing."

Zack concurs, stressing that a well-integrated engine can maintain the car's intended driving experience without introducing unforeseen issues.

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Audience Interaction and Technical Discussions

Listener Questions and Modifications

The episode features interactions with listeners, addressing technical aspects of engine swaps and car modifications. Topics include:

• Characteristics of Italian V12s: Matt and Zack differentiate between Ferrari and Lamborghini V12s, noting Ferrari engines offer a more relaxed feel, while Lamborghini engines are perpetually aggressive.

  Matt Farah [80:22]: "The Ferrari engine feels more relaxed when you're not on it... The Lamborghini engines almost never feel like relaxed."

• Easiest Cars to Drift Under $100K: Recommendations include BMW M2 and M3 for their balance and ease of handling, as well as the Toyota 86 for entry-level drifting.

  Zach Klapman [82:19]: "BMWs, I think M2, M3. They're so easy."

• Cars with Largest Non-Enthusiast Followings: Tesla tops the list, thanks to its paradigm-shifting electric vehicles attracting a broad audience.

  Matt Farah [83:28]: "The answer is absolutely. Tesla."

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Conclusion and Upcoming Events

As the episode wraps up, Matt and Zack discuss upcoming projects and events, including live shows and special episodes celebrating milestones. They encourage listeners to support the podcast through Patreon, offering exclusive content and early access to new releases.

Matt Farah [91:19]: "It's going to be an eight-hour podcasting extravaganza and we're going to put it on live for the public too."

They also tease future discussions on performance modifications and share personal anecdotes, maintaining an engaging and personable tone throughout.

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Key Takeaways:

• OEM Engine Swaps Enhance Performance: Leveraging engines from reputable manufacturers can significantly boost a car's performance and reliability.

• Balanced Integration is Crucial: Successful engine swaps require meticulous integration to maintain the vehicle's original character and driving experience.

• Community Engagement: Listener interactions enrich the discussion, providing diverse perspectives and technical insights.

For more detailed discussions and to engage with Zack and Matt, visit their YouTube channel or follow them on Twitter (@thesmokingtire) and Instagram (@thesmokingtire).

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

So the Lotus Emira, which has an engine from Mercedes, got us thinking about what other cars were good that used engines from other manufacturers from other places. Folks, welcome to the Smoking Tire podcast. As always, today's episode is brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record and you guys too, because you send emails to me all the time telling me how off the record got you out of trouble. Maybe you got a little moving violation just a couple ticks over the speed limit. Maybe you got a big one. Maybe you really need help. Off the Record is here. They will connect you with a qualified attorney in the jurisdiction where you got that ticket. They'll fight that ticket and man, most of the time they will win. Their winning percentage is extraordinary. What you need to do is go to offtherecord.comtst. that's offtherecord.comtST. we will get you with that code, 10% off every service you get from off the Record, man, don't plead guilty. That is for suckers. Off the record, they work. And if they're not going to work for you, they'll tell you there are some areas they don't cover and they'll tell you they're not going to like take your money and then be like, sorry. So they're awesome. I've used them myself a bunch. My friends, my family and they absolutely work. So go to offtherecord.com TST make an account, have it ready and then if you get pulled over, you're not in panic mode, you're ready to go with off the Record. All right. On this episode, in honor of the Lotus Amira 2 liter AMG that's in the driveway right now. Zach and I on this episode of the podcast are talking about our top five sports cars with engines that come from other cars. Right. Plus I give my first impressions of that four cylinder Lotus Emira. An update on the Acura NSX and the Bentley is now live on car cars and bids. We've got the video up, Doug's video up. And the car is going to sell at no reserve. I am very excited. We talk about all of that and more on today's episode of the Smoking Tire podcast.

[Zach Klapman]

Hi, we are here.

[Matt Farah]

We exist. Ya existe. Bienvenue. Now I have coffee. Good morning. What's happening? Starting to rain here.

[Zach Klapman]

I was supposed to fill my car tomorrow and it's like raining today and probably tomorrow and that's not great.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, we don't get rained out very often here in la, but it's like Twice a year. Yeah, but rain is good. We can't get mad about getting rained out, because rain is good. It's a good thing for a lot of other things other than the very specific task that we do for work.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. It benefits the entire world.

[Matt Farah]

Everything else, except the thing we need to do. But that's okay. We have a studio. We can. We can always podcast more. I suppose we could do more of that, but it's a. It's a very exciting day. The. The video is up about the Bentley. How much it cost me to maintain it for a year. Doug DeMuro's review of the Bentley is also up on his channel. And the auction, you sort by ending or by posted soon. Instead of newly listed on the right there. Newly listed. And it's up on cars and bids. No reserve. You can buy my Turbo R. The very talented Jonathan Harper shot the photos for this one. The car looks great. There's a lot of photos. There's actually two sets of interior photos for this car. There's one set that was taken outdoors, and they had just detailed the car. And I actually think there was, like, a little too much product left on the seats. And so the outside photos of the interior, it's a little shinier than it should be. There's a whole entire second set of interior photos that were done the next day. And it was the day it was pissing rain, and that's why it wasn't outside. They were done in the shop. And after they had redone the seat leather. Yeah. The interior photos, those are the after. So that accurately represents what the leather looks like. Whereas the outdoor photos, it's a little shinier than it's supposed to be. But my guys fixed it, so total transparency. Yeah. These interior photos, you might be like, why did you do it in the interior? Because when Jonathan came back to reshoot the interior, it was the day that it was, like, flooding all over the city.

[Zach Klapman]

It was raining again.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And I just had, like, a Derek Bemis paint correction, and I was not.

[Zach Klapman]

Gonna be like, yeah, here's the outside one. So that's driver's seat.

[Matt Farah]

So it's just a little shinier than it is in real life. And it was. It annoyed me because it didn't. I didn't feel like it accurately represented the car.

[Zach Klapman]

But this is why you are a person to buy a car from. Because I was there when you guys were like, ooh, it's a little too shiny. Yeah, the wrong thing. And it was a big discussion. And then you went back and, like, Redid it.

[Matt Farah]

We had the guys redo it and I had to pay Jonathan to come back and reshoot it, which I was happy to do in both cases.

[Zach Klapman]

This is, you know the amount like you took care of this car mechanically, you know, to whatever, at every degree.

[Matt Farah]

No.

[Zach Klapman]

But also cosmetically.

[Matt Farah]

This car had two paint corrections by Derek Bemis in 12 months I've been running the shop for 5 years. I've never seen anything like that before.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Although we have one car that had a full correction down at our South Bay store. An awesome car. It's a real keeper of an air cooled Porsche. It's one you'd want.

[Zach Klapman]

Got it.

[Matt Farah]

And shout out to the homie who owns it whose name I will absolutely not use. Took it on a long road rally. He had a correction done on a long road rally. And then the thing showed back up on a tran. He's somehow someone booked it home on an open carrier. So this fucking thing shows back up. It had a crazy paint correction like a month ago. And it is unbelievably fucked. And now we have to get. And like Phil, our main manager down there is like, oh my God, this car's so fucked. I'm like, I see an opportunity. Didn't get fucked up here. Right back fucked up. That's a different framing.

[Zach Klapman]

You can clay bar and see what it looks like.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it's gonna need a lot more than a clay bar.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh geez.

[Matt Farah]

That's horrib. It's horrible. It's fixable, but it's not great.

[Zach Klapman]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

But it's. You know what? If I was, if I was rolling on the level that this person is rolling, that not a problem.

[Zach Klapman]

Right? Right.

[Matt Farah]

Fucking beat the balls off the car. Send it back on a truck. Just clean it back up when it gets there.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

This person like this is. It's that level of rich.

[Zach Klapman]

Right? Doesn't matter.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Well, where you're.

[Zach Klapman]

Where.

[Matt Farah]

It's my favorite level. It's where you're buying a bunch of shit, but you're not buying like governments.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

You know, he's at 2.

[Zach Klapman]

You can optimize everything. So let's make the car optimal.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Let's clean it perfectly.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. I like that. We have both types. Okay, so the Bentley's up on cars and bids. It is fucking no reserve. And I'll be answering questions as WCCs in the comments if anyone has questions. It's actually still at cars and bids in San Diego. So if people want more photos, which I can't possibly imagine, there's 314 photos.

[Zach Klapman]

There's no way they want more photos. I just went through them and it almost looked like a video spinning around.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, there's a lot of photos, there's video and there's service records. Every thing is as documented as it can be. So I'm not saying you should buy a Turbo R, but I'm saying if you want to buy a Turbo R, you should probably buy one from me.

[Zach Klapman]

Buy this one.

[Matt Farah]

You're not going to find a better one. You could go to San Diego to cars and bids right now, get in that car and drive it anywhere in the US just right away, no problem. So that's like the submarine shop there. The red light. Yeah. The burl wood is excellent. The leather is excellent. The deep pile carpets are still in fantastic condition. Even though I decided I was going to live like a rich guy and use them, I didn't take them out and put them in the trunk. Like the super luxurious floor mats. A lot of people take them out because they don't want to ruin them because they're fucking. To replace those is like $3,000. But I was like, nope, we're going to live like rich people. We're going to use them. And actually they held up really well.

[Zach Klapman]

Nice.

[Matt Farah]

We were careful what we did.

[Zach Klapman]

They feel nice.

[Matt Farah]

Barefoot road tripping when I drove to fucking Palm Springs barefoot in the. Oh, the best.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, it's the best.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. If you have luxurious feet you want.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, you could set cruise and then do that die hard thing where you scrunch your feet against the carpet, you know, fix jet lag.

[Matt Farah]

So good. So anyway, buy it and if you pay enough, I'll go down to San Diego and meet you. Also, fleet update NSX went to service at Evasive. They said all fluids were good, all filters were good, oil change, all the things good to go.

[Zach Klapman]

Nice.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Clean bill of health. He was like, this car is still so mint. I was like, it leads a life of luxury. He's like, you should probably drive it harder. And I was like, all right, I'm trying harder.

[Zach Klapman]

So you drive harder.

[Matt Farah]

The gears are long. It's hard to really drive it hard.

[Zach Klapman]

They are. They're very tall cars like that. You kind of just sit like my car. You sit in third in the canyons most of the time because you don't really need to shift.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

We just filmed something recently that was the same case. Yeah. Okay. It doesn't, it doesn't feel like you're driving it that hard.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Because you're just Staying in that gear.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It's not like you're going to like wind out first to eight grain. Not doing an autocross.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah. I don't do that very often.

[Matt Farah]

It's a great car though. We're gonna keep that NSX around for a while. And this Lotus Amira four cylinder showed up. We drove it in England.

[Zach Klapman]

We did.

[Matt Farah]

It was two summers ago.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. And at the time the transmission was disappointing. Paddle shifted, eight speed, it was slow.

[Matt Farah]

It's the Mercedes entire powertrain out of the GLA and cla or the front half. It's not the all wheel drive, it's the front half. So it's the Mercedes engine, the Mercedes gearbox. And at the time they were like Lotus was all, don't blame us, Mercedes won't let us adjust the gearbox. It's as it is in the GLA and we didn't like that. And so we, we. This showed up yesterday. I. All I've done so far is errands and traffic. Haven't driven in the canyons yet so far as an urban runaround. This is the automatic. I don't like it. I'm not happy with it.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I've been told that they improved the transmission from two years ago.

[Matt Farah]

So we didn't do you know, when we did two years ago we drove it to dinner on that country road in England and then we drove it at the track and that was all. We drove it.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. We did not putter around really.

[Matt Farah]

And I have a feeling that this car, it's just like that fucking the GR Corolla I just drove. Even though this is a dual clutch and that is a automatic, when you're sitting at a light in gear it's so vibrate y. Whereas the six cylinder is very. Because a you're in neutral, there's not a constant. Even with a dual clutch, it should be open. Right. Dual clutch. There shouldn't be any drag when you're sitting there, but there's a vibration in the whole car. If you've owned an Evo or any Mitsubishi product really, but particular. You understand what I'm talking about. Or if you've had a really high strung four cylinder turbo engine before, that's what it's just vibrating and buzzy. Whereas the V6 Samira is so smooth, always so smooth. This isn't. This gets smooth when you wind it up but at idle it's not.

[Zach Klapman]

But I wonder like there's other cars we've driven that have inline fours that are not as buzzy and they're not as shaky. So I wonder if that's.

[Matt Farah]

Either cars might have more insulation or.

[Zach Klapman]

Maybe they have softer engine mounts. Maybe really solid engine mounts.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, well, and the engine's behind your back, not. Not right in front, in front of you. There's less opportunity or more opportunity for those vibrations to come into the car.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

It smooths out when you wind it out. But like if you're in automatic in traffic or whatever, it's vibrating when you're sitting there. And then when you start to go, there's a huge surge of. Not like you were talking about with that tuner car, but like the tip in is like real aggressive and then it kind of like dies and then it comes on again. I don't know why it's doing that. This is in full automatic mode. And then. And this could be. Cause I'm coming out of the taycan. The brakes are like crazy grabby. I probably have like one to two hours of like traffic time in this car so far. And the brakes just are really, really grabby. And I'm driving this thing around. I'm like. I'm in the car by myself and I'm like. I'm so jerky in this thing now. I suspect that when we go on the mountain, it'll be quite a delight. And if you live somewhere like, I don't know, rural England where your B roads or Greenwich, Connecticut, or if, you know, if you pull out of your house and it's green pastures and whatever, it's probably great. But in a city, this is so far not great, I'm sorry to say. But it might be awesome on the mountain. And remember how if you like turbo noises, forget a Supra. Forget. Forget a Skyline. You want a Lotus Emira 2 liter. This car is the king of. Because it's behind your head, it's right. If you open the window, the fucking suction and back whooshing and fluttering, it's like. It's kick ass. If you like tuner tires.

[Zach Klapman]

Do you hear with the window up though, or is it very insane?

[Matt Farah]

You hear it a little bit with the window up.

[Zach Klapman]

That's good.

[Matt Farah]

But you hear it a lot with the windows down. Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Because the MC20 GT2, the problem was you had to have the windows down to hear any of the turbo. And it was quieter even though you had these huge intakes right by the window. Kind of strange that it quieted down. So I like that you can hear it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's like. It's almost like Spider rs but without the bad parts. Of having no roof, you know, like, it actually is a very. I think if you're driving, if this is a five to seven tenths car, as the one we tried in England still was, and you're going on and off the pedal, not needing every millisecond of shifts, it's actually, I think, going to be pretty good for that kind of driving.

[Zach Klapman]

Like a fancy SR20Mr.2 situation.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I mean it's still like such a nice thing, but this powertrain is not good for urban driving so far. Maybe my mind will change or you drive it, Maybe you don't experience that. Maybe I'm a fucking asshole who doesn't know.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I mean the tipping thing, that's annoying. That is a very annoying thing because that's what that Z1 Nissan did. Yeah, it was just too aggressive at the top, then it calmed down, then it went back up again.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So it's weird, it's just a little strange but like it did remind me how nice of a car an Amira.

[Zach Klapman]

Is in general to sit in and use.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like it's the right size, the right visibility, it's low. But I can sit upright, you know, compared to my NSX where I have to like scrunch right, you know, a little bit down.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, because the nsx, I bet, has a smaller, like door sill to roof.

[Matt Farah]

It does, right, yeah, yeah, it's. And so it's. You should buy an Amira V6, like now, like while you can. You should buy one with a stick. Like the Evora's are like reliable, like they don't have problems. Those are some like, easy to use everyday sports cars that like give you the really good sports car vibes and like work properly.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Toyota engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Great.

[Matt Farah]

But the less computers, the better. This one with the DCT and the Mercedes powertrain, there's more shit going on. I've already gotten. I've gotten more warning lights in the last 24 hours in this car than I've had in two and a half years of my Spider. And it has a different engine in it.

[Zach Klapman]

Whoa.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. Dude, I fucking put my phone on the passenger seat this morning and it got the. Your passenger isn't wearing a seatbelt warning like a phone.

[Zach Klapman]

The Z1 car did that with no one in the seat. I had to buckle the seat belt every time I drove it like that.

[Matt Farah]

Come on.

[Zach Klapman]

A phone, that's too sensitive, that's not good. Yeah, you should be able to put your cat in a carrier and it shouldn't alert.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. It's gotta be like. Yeah, £20. Cause even if. I'm pretty sure that even if you. If it's a baby in there, which A baby in a seat could be 30 or 40 pounds, maybe.

[Zach Klapman]

Sure.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. I don't. And I'm not a parent, so don't say.

[Zach Klapman]

I think you put them in the back seat. Don't take.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, I don't know if there is a back.

[Zach Klapman]

Was there a back seat in that car?

[Matt Farah]

This one? No. This one has a partial shelf. Yeah. But like don't take my word for this. I'm not a parent and I don't know, but I think you're supposed to not have a passenger side airbag activated if your baby is correct.

[Zach Klapman]

Especially if the kids facing backwards.

[Matt Farah]

That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. So. So anyway, we'll have to. We'll have to evaluate further. That's just my initial. And you're gonna take it today.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You take it today. And I've got the. My. My first Barbies Mercedes.

[Zach Klapman]

Right? You got your, your quinceanera Mercedes.

[Matt Farah]

It is your Beverly Hill.

[Zach Klapman]

It's Beverly Hills.

[Matt Farah]

It is a hundred percent a Glendale quinceanera.

[Zach Klapman]

Or like.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's.

[Zach Klapman]

What? Clueless. It was remade today.

[Matt Farah]

Dude. My super sweet 16. It's my super sweet 16 fully. Guys, we gotta take a quick break from the program because today's episode is brought to you by Mud Water. You ever heard of this stuff? It's different. It's a new thing, Right. I found Mud Water because. And I've talked about this a lot. My experience with caffeine has been not good. I have anxiety and so I try to avoid caffeine. But I love the idea of a cup of coffee. Right. More so. And I like drinking the coffee way more than I need the caffeine. Right. I need that. I want that jolt of energy. But without caffeine. Let's refresh our routines, shake off the winter blues and focus on a new way to feel energized throughout the day. This is a cool thing, right? Mud Water is not your average cup of joe. It's got a blend of cacao chai, turmeric and adaptogenic mushrooms. Helping you feel more full focused without a caffeine crash or those caffeine jitters. It's smooth, steady and honestly just makes you feel better. And it's easy because we're all busy, right? Just two minutes, mix it with hot water or milk and you are set. No hassle and no over caffeinated craziness. No anxiety, just pure focus. So whether you're ready to embrace this new season or just want a fresh start to your daily routine, give Mud Water a try. Save big. Today our listeners can get 43% off your entire order. That is a very specific number of percentage because they want you to remember it. 43% off your entire order, plus free shipping and a free rechargeable frother. Head over to you got to spell it. Think like a tech company. M u d w T r dot com and use code tire at checkout. You say mudwtr, but it's M u d w T r dot com. Use code tire at checkout. Mud Water is also available at Target and sprouts across the Grab a cup of this. Pick me up. But use our code. Really. M u d w t r.com, code tire at checkout. 43% off, free shipping and a free rechargeable frother. Let's do it. We're also brought to you today by TrueWerk. TrueWerk is hell bent on creating the most technical, high performance workwear in the world. The TrueWerk story begins in the Colorado mountains where a trade worker knew there had to be a better solution than the wet, heavy gear weighing him down. And true work was born. Man, they sent me three items that I really like. They sent me specifically this hoodie that is really lightweight but keeps me warm. It's got zip pockets so my wallet, my phone aren't falling out. It's got a great insulated hood and it fits really perfect. It's got the perfect fit. And they sent me some of those technical cargo pants that are made of that durable synthetic fabric. But they have a really nice waistband with a soft inside. They fit really good. They're the right length and they're light. But also also on a chilly day, they do keep me warm. It's great. These guys. TrueWerk makes good stuff. I'm stoked on this. Every TrueWerk product is designed for maximum comfort, protection and efficiency with minimum bulk or extra weight. I love that when I'm packing for travel international especially, every bit I can cut out of my suitcase makes a big difference. Denim and cotton canvas has not changed much over 200 years. TrueWerk upgrades the traditional classics by using the same fabrics worn by elite outdoor athletes. But for workwear, it's soft, stretchy, sweat wicking soft shell work pants are a major upgrade over wet, heavy jeans. Wind and waterproof shells use intelligently placed insulation for streamlined warmth that lets you stay mobile and agile. TreeWerk's got over 50,000 5 star reviews and countless stories from trade pros in every state and every job across the country. So upgrade to true work for a major change in the way you work. True work helps you be your best when your best most. Check out the full lineup and get 15% off your first order at truework.com tire that's 15% off at T-R-U-E-W-E-R-K.com tire everyone's got to have a new spelling for stuff, so remember it's spelled the German way. T-R-U-E-W-E-R-K.com Tire and now back to the program.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, that was a crazy time. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Just kids being like, look how rich and silly I am.

[Zach Klapman]

But I was just. I mean, I was 15, so I didn't realize how much wealth was in the. In the world.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Who spends this much money on a. On a party?

[Matt Farah]

I mean, little did I know, I went to. You know, I went to a bar mitzvah every weekend. My. While my bar mitzvah specifically wasn't the most extravagant, it was. My bar mitzvah was kind of in the middle of the level of extravagance. I went to a couple that were batshit. I mean, that were probably knocking on the door of like a million dollars or like, crazy. Yeah. It was insane. It was. It absolutely was. That's not. I'm not saying that's not something I would be, like, proud of. Like.

[Zach Klapman]

No. And it's just relative. And someone's like, Well, I have $400 million and I'm good and I make 30 million a year.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, sure, let's go for it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But, but, man, what a precedent to set for your kid.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I've said this a bunch on this show and in other places. I went to middle and high school with the children of the worst people imaginable. Like, everybody who wrecked the economy in 08. And the Sacklers. I went to school with all their kids. Wow. And, you know, they didn't do that shit until, like, a little later. Like, the sacklers in the 90s, sacklers weren't a problem.

[Zach Klapman]

They were still trying to figure out how they sell it. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, they were probably terrible, but, like, it wasn't like oxy. That happened like, a couple of years later. And the people who crashed the economy. That was a couple years later. Oh, and fucking Judge Jeanine Pirro's daughter. I went to school with her.

[Zach Klapman]

Who's that?

[Matt Farah]

The fucking Psycho on Fox News, who was an act. Judge Jeanine. You've never heard of Judge Jeanine? Consider yourself very lucky. She was the corrupt DA in Westchester county, which is where I lived. And her daughter went to school with me. And she. Her husband went to jail for tax evasion while she was the da wow. 34 counts, shout out to him, al Piro. And now she's a fucking screaming lunatic on Fox News.

[Zach Klapman]

Now she's a pundit.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So, like, pick a terrible person from New York. I went to school with their kids. Yeah. So, like, I know. So that's. These are the bar mitzvahs I was going to.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

The fucking heads of investment banks and fucking corrupt politicians and crazy shit. But, like, you know, Tommy was just fucking Tommy. I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

What do you know?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. You know, it's like, if from your town, you're like, oh, so and so became a murderer. And you're like, but their kid was so nice.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Or they were nice.

[Matt Farah]

Like, you know, it was fucking craziness.

[Zach Klapman]

I have a quick fleet update. Also. The dremel that Vinnie brought worked. I needed it.

[Matt Farah]

When you last heard from us, Zach was about to Dremel his car.

[Zach Klapman]

I was about to Dremel a fitting on my car, and it worked. But there's no way it would have happened without cutting that stupid thing apart. So that's good.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

Co. And then, as I've talked about before, I got these tartan samples from a Scotland shop because I want to do interior bits.

[Matt Farah]

Hell, yeah. And if you're going to get tartan, Scottish tartan. Oh, it must be.

[Zach Klapman]

But some people. I've had comments in every direction about color and also placement. So some folks, like Vinnie and my friend Ryan, they're like, if you. If you put plaid on the A pillars, it can actually make the car feel claustrophobic. And.

[Matt Farah]

Or are your A pillars light or dark now?

[Zach Klapman]

Right now they're dark. They were kind of a dove gray. We talked about this on the show about, like, I was gonna only do B pillars.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And you wisely advised, like. But then you're only getting, like, a tiny glimpse, so maybe there's other places you can put them. So this guy, I'm gonna mispronounce his name Abimelech Design, who does really cool, like, renders. Kind of like Kaiser does a little more.

[Matt Farah]

Ooh, his Crown Vic looked all right. Isn't the Crown Vic awesome, that Crown Vic on the right?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. How sick is this?

[Matt Farah]

10 out of 10, by the way. Did you Know that there's spec Crown Vic racing now.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, not just at Cletus place.

[Matt Farah]

No, no. Like, yeah, like, it's like an SCCA or NASA. Like, class.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm so happy I met a guy.

[Matt Farah]

Who has a Crown Vic proper race car.

[Zach Klapman]

Manual swappers. You keep it, Auto.

[Matt Farah]

You can't. There's no. There's one class that's stock powertrain, and then there's another class that's like. Got an awesome name. I want to say it's like Super Interceptor fucking or something like that where you're allowed to run a manual swap.

[Zach Klapman]

Dude, we need to get on that Cletus train. We gotta get on that list.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And I think he's got race.

[Matt Farah]

If I had known that Ultima race was happening, I probably.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, the Crown Vic one is coming up in April.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

I think it's the first week of April. Yeah. This thing's hot. So.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Zach Klapman]

So anyway, this guy's. He said, hey, man, send me pictures of the tartans and I'll put them on a pillars and you can get an idea of it. So I haven't looked at these yet. So we're doing this live.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, real time.

[Zach Klapman]

Real time. So.

[Matt Farah]

So we've got. Oh, this is a good rendering.

[Zach Klapman]

Now there's a bunch of different tartans. Like, we don't have to choose a tartan necessarily, but this is more. I wanted to look at how it would feel to stare at a pillar.

[Matt Farah]

Stare at a tart.

[Zach Klapman]

Might give me dyslexic. Or not dyslexic. Epilept, seizure while driving, definitely.

[Matt Farah]

You want to consider your pattern. Consider for where they are. I mean, the A pillar is. It's right. It's right there all the time.

[Zach Klapman]

Right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I think seeing these tells me that I might only do B and C pillars.

[Matt Farah]

You don't want to look at that.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't think I want to look at this.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Yeah, well, that's fine. But you know what? I like it. I would do it. And while I was at it, I might do my door inserts.

[Zach Klapman]

The door inserts. I'm tempted.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, if I did B pillar and door inserts.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Tartan door inserts are fucking sick, dude. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But I also.

[Matt Farah]

How are your seats? Can we go. Can we take this to its logical conclusion of what. How are your seats?

[Zach Klapman]

How are my seats?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

What do you mean?

[Matt Farah]

Are they in need of tartan?

[Zach Klapman]

No, like, the leather's held up. Yeah, but I mean, we could do it. Definitely could do it.

[Matt Farah]

But While you're in there.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

You're not just gonna do the inserts with 135,000 mile outer leather. Wait, this is where we buy Recaro seats?

[Zach Klapman]

That's the real move. No, because, honestly, the shape. This is so nerdy. But, like, the shape of the E46 seat is good, but the actual shape of the leather panels on it are kind of like oblong, round. Like, they don't. To me, they don't match the exterior of the car. And I think if you cut them out and replace them with a plaid, you would have, like, a plaid circle in the middle of a seat. Whereas a Recaro. It's a nice rectangle. It's an insert. So that's. That makes me want to get Recaros and put them in there, you know?

[Matt Farah]

But the problem with getting Recaros is then it kind of eliminates your back seat. You can't fold them right.

[Zach Klapman]

Which I do use. And I fold my seats and I put the dog in there.

[Matt Farah]

Tucker goes back there.

[Zach Klapman]

I need. I needed a. I would need a folding Recaro of some kind.

[Matt Farah]

But you know what could be dope?

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, black.

[Matt Farah]

What about the back of your headrests?

[Zach Klapman]

That could be cool.

[Matt Farah]

That could be sick.

[Zach Klapman]

And I think. I think I could do the seat pillars also, because I'd only see that when I'm looking. The rear view.

[Matt Farah]

That can be kind of fun.

[Zach Klapman]

So. But I think so. Here, look. Black. A pillar. Just B pillar.

[Matt Farah]

That's not. You're. Yeah, it's not bad. I would go all the way and do a pillar. Yeah, I would go a pillar. But if it bothers you, you definitely don't want to experiment with something you have to stare at.

[Zach Klapman]

And it's my only car. That's the other thing. Like, if I had five cars, I could probably go, all right, sometimes I do this, but I don't know. It's hard.

[Matt Farah]

It's a fun thing, though. I would say ditch the A pillar if it's going to bother you. And do door cards. Do your door centers. Cause that's pretty fun. And then maybe your shifter boot to tie it together.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I could do that. I just got a new shifter boot as a gift from a good friend of ours. And so I'm like, ooh, I'd feel a little bad, but it would make the most sense because you kind of tie the middle, you know, it's a bridge.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So I might have to do that. And just.

[Matt Farah]

I think that this tartan that you've got here, which looks like to be me. This is probably gonna be wrong for me. It looks green, blue, yellow and white.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Correct.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, okay. I got that right.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Wow. Colorblind, man. Good.

[Zach Klapman]

Are you not colorblind? Have you been lying about it all this whole time?

[Matt Farah]

I'm cured.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, all the tartans are very similar. So I bought a first set of swatches, and then some guy who's like a color theory nerd, he goes, hey, man, your wrap is actually more of a bluish green. You ordered a bunch of foresty greens. You should switch those out. So I ordered new swatches, which I agree, he was right. So they're all very close. It's more about, like, accent, stripes and shit.

[Matt Farah]

I think this one is fun, though. But that's cool. I think that's a good idea. But, yeah, we really tie the. Tie the vehicle together. That's all right today because we podcasted yesterday and not a lot. Although I guess more things than I thought would have happened. Happened. Half an hour worth of things happened between yesterday and today.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, I'm just kidding. Let's not do it.

[Matt Farah]

Yikes. The word union's funny. I am so excited to cook hibachi for Gareth and Dave on Saturday. It is going to be hilarious. Yeah. We're going to cook. We're going to do Benihana. The question is, do I do it 100% Benihana accurate, or do I make some of my own improvements and adjustments?

[Zach Klapman]

How big would the adjustments be?

[Matt Farah]

I mean, minor. Like, I might go. I might upgrade the steak to something, like, awesome instead of, like, what Benihana uses, which is pretty average quality.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, you could do that. It wouldn't be. No. I was thinking, like, you don't want it. It's hard because you. You're telling them you're making it according to Benihana, and I can want them to go, this is Benihana.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I can do that.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Don't, like, alter the sauce. No, no, no, no.

[Matt Farah]

The secret to making Benihana at home, on top of, like, going to Benihana and learning how to make it, is actually just to buy the sauce from Benihana.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, really?

[Matt Farah]

You can make the sauce at home? It's shockingly annoying. There's so many ingredients. It takes a really long time. Like, I love cooking, but it's so much easier to walk into Beni HANA and go, two quarts of ginger, two quarts of mustard, and they go, 20 bucks. And you go, thanks.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Because they have a factory somewhere with a bunch of tanks that dump it into, like, one little bottle.

[Matt Farah]

It's really funny. I walk in there because I'm an early morning person and I'm not going to Benihana to eat. I'm going to buy the sauce. They open at 10 or some silly number. No one's going to Benihana Tuesday at 10, but that's when they open, I guess. There's a guy at the front desk and the place is a ghost out. I walk in, the guy looks at me like, why are you even here? I haven't seen a customer at this part of my shift since 2022.

[Zach Klapman]

You guys got muffins?

[Matt Farah]

And I'm just like, quart of mustard, quart of ginger. And the guy gives me the nod and he's like, I'll be back. That's the shit, dude. Benihana University. Do it. So the Lotus Amira, which has an engine from Mercedes, got us thinking about what other cars were good that used engines from other manufacturers from other places. And it occurred to me that of my 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 choices of cool cars that use engines from other manufacturers, four of the five never made their own engines at all. The companies only got engines from other places. So I don't know if that devalues my choices versus, like, I don't know, like, the. There's a. There's a current like. Like, there's a Mazda, like, crossover right now that uses a RAV4 engine. You know what I mean? Like that.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Like, Mazda makes its own engines, but.

[Zach Klapman]

They chose this one.

[Matt Farah]

They chose this one. So mine are mainly from companies that do not manufacture their own engines at all.

[Zach Klapman]

Okay. Mine. Mine are mixed. Mine are a mixed bag. Yeah, I had Lotus in there, but we already talked about it, so. All right, well, that'll be an honorable mention.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I actually also put the Lotus Amira, but I put the V6.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes. Correct.

[Matt Farah]

That. Actually, Lotus's use of the Camry engine in general is pretty epic. It makes great power. It sounds really good.

[Zach Klapman]

It feels sporty, super reliable.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And if someone didn't tell you that that was a Camry engine, you probably wouldn't know.

[Zach Klapman]

And I think that car, the Elise, the Exige, all of them, they have so much character anyway, like, from the weight and the handling and the way they look and just all of that. That the engine doesn't need to be out in front as the most, like, memorable thing about the car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, I think that car would work with a V6 from anywhere. But choosing a reliable one means you can track this car, you can drive this car, you can use it the way it was intended a lot without going. It's good for that. But you gotta be really careful with it. Like that would actually. It's like this is the mid engine Miata and so you want it to have an engine as reliable as that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like we've seen Lotus with Lotus engines. They're called Esprits. And you don't want one.

[Zach Klapman]

Exactly, exactly.

[Matt Farah]

Like that's not what they do.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So let them do what they do and get an unkillable engine and put it in there.

[Zach Klapman]

Let it get out of its own way.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you have next?

[Zach Klapman]

I have the Maserati gran turismo slash F430. So the Ferrari F136 engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Which was developed and built. Developed to put together. Built by Ferrari. But pretty much the only really memorable thing about any Maseratis that they sound amazing and they look good. Some of them. But that engine was used in the early 2000s Gran Turismo also in the Alpha 8C, which is a car that people don't really talk about.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Because it drives like garbage.

[Zach Klapman]

But it sounds like magicio.

[Matt Farah]

It sounds like a Gran Turismo.

[Zach Klapman]

Sounds great.

[Matt Farah]

Which is good.

[Zach Klapman]

Amazing. And then the engine was used in the F430. The scud eventually got turbos and was used in the 458. So that is a pretty awesome engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's. I'll give it to you. Even though that's more of a family of engines.

[Zach Klapman]

Fair.

[Matt Farah]

Like I have a, like one that is the Lancia Thema 3.2, which literally they took the Ferrari 328 powertrain and put it in the front of a Lancia sedan. So it is a transverse V8, 3.2 liter Ferrari, actual Ferrari engine, FEMA 3.2 T H E M A and it is not a great looking car. It's not a terrible looking car. It looks like one would expect an 80s lawn series.

[Zach Klapman]

This looks like a Jetta.

[Matt Farah]

It's a two box.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, it looks like a free Jetta with a Ferrari V8 in the front. That's very cool.

[Matt Farah]

You know it has Ferrari esque wheels. That's. That looks kind of. No, the wheels of a 348, an early 348 look a lot like that. Seriously, look up a 1991 Ferrari 348 and tell me the wheels don't look a lot like that. They do. The spokes are a little fatter on the Sedan. But it's similar.

[Zach Klapman]

It's similar. I think it's because the wheel is smaller on the Lancia. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

It's probably like a 15, right?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, maybe.

[Matt Farah]

But, yeah, that has an actual Ferrari 328 powertrain in the front of it.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good one.

[Matt Farah]

Which is funky as hell.

[Zach Klapman]

That is a good one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. What else you got?

[Zach Klapman]

All right. The Koenigsegg CC8S 4.6 modular Ford engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Also shared with the greatest car in the world, the Ford Crown Victoria. You can't escape it. It's everywhere.

[Matt Farah]

No, it's the 4 6. You can't will. Will outlive us all. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And then, of course, like, Koenigsegg did a bunch of things to it. And the original engine block.

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Zach Klapman]

But.

[Matt Farah]

Right, yeah. Because Koenigseggs had dual overhead cams.

[Zach Klapman]

They did.

[Matt Farah]

They had turbos. They had a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

But yes, it wasn't the engine. This one's a bit of a stretch maybe compared to some of the others, but I just thought it was pretty funny. Especially because other supercars, like Ultima GTR uses the LS engine and so use.

[Matt Farah]

Whatever the fuck you put in there.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good point, but for a lot. But it's basically LS's for a long time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once the LS came out, it was. I wasn't just in everything. Yeah. That's a good one, though. I do like it. Yeah. I have all Paganis. You don't even have to. You pick one. I mean, you can pick one of the R. You know. Although a lot of the Zonda and Huayra Rs like the track day crazy ones. Those actually are not. They're built by, like, other people. They're built by, like, the racing. Like, I'm blanking. It's not Dallara, but it's like a place that does, like, race cars. Like, actually builds those. But all road going Paganis use a version of that Mercedes V12 up to and including the new Utopia, which I reviewed for last month's Road and Track. And they're all great. They make a bunch of power. They sound really cool. You know, It's a very. No. 1. It's never stopped anybody from buying a Pagani.

[Zach Klapman]

That's fair. I thought about using that, but what I don't like about that car is that they rev to like 6500. A lot of them. The redline is very Corvette LS. Well, which I find disappointing in terms of exotic cars.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. Well, that I Mean, that engine is from. From luxury cars, right? You know, and those, those track day ones that rev like crazy high. Like I said, they're using a different version of that.

[Zach Klapman]

Are they just using the block and they're putting another.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they. They turn it into a racing engine. It's like a completely different. What?

[Zach Klapman]

Because you give me shit that Koenigsegg just uses the block of the 4 6.

[Matt Farah]

I wasn't giving shit.

[Zach Klapman]

It's okay.

[Matt Farah]

That wasn't shit. That was just like. They didn't just drop in a Ford engine and put turbos on it. They heavily revised it, which is the same thing. I'm not saying it doesn't belong on the list. It's the same thing that happens with the Huayra R and stuff like that.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like, look, I mean this is a subjective list anyway, so we can play with the rules as we play the game.

[Matt Farah]

It's not Cosworth, it's not Micheloto, it's like. But it's one of those places that just builds race cars. Okay, what else?

[Zach Klapman]

I wrote like seven and then choose from them. Well, this is like a family thing. But I like. I'll go back to speaking of AMG, the new Aston Martin Vantage, the newest one, the 2024, not the one before it, which I know both of them use the 4 liter twin turbo V8 basically from Mercedes handed over, shipped over on a boat and they bolted it. But I felt like the previous generation Vantage always felt slower. Maybe it's subjective than the equivalent AMG GT and. But the new one like 500 and whatever. No, 600. No, it's 615 horsepower or something. 652, like it's fast as shit. It sounds awesome. It's a great fit for the car. And it's like, you know, leave Aston to do things Aston does well, kind of like Lotus let them design the thing and make it pretty and better inside, which they did. Leave the power plant to Mercedes and they gave them a good one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's actually. I mean, it's funny because Aston Martin, their engines are always sort of based on Ford architecture. You know, the V12 was like two 3 liter engines. Mondeo V6s put together their Vantage engine before the naturally aspirated one was like sort of based on the Jaguar Lincoln engine architecture, but like punched out. So they were actually, when they were making their own engines, even based on the Ford architecture, those were pretty good engines. The V12 was a pretty good engine. The Vantages V8 was a pretty good engine. The Mercedes ones are obviously more powerful, more modern and all that stuff and probably objectively better. But it's not like they were Lotus making like real shitty engines before their in house engines were like, like pretty cool.

[Zach Klapman]

They're exciting. They're exciting engines. That's true.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And that the V8, they were making the Tadic Merrick V8 that they had that went in like all the DBs from like the 70s through the V8 Vantage and the Lagonda of the late 80s into the early 90s. Like that was actually a pretty good engine too.

[Zach Klapman]

How much power did that make back in the 80s?

[Matt Farah]

Because nothing made power like an X pack car that we talk about all the time I think was about 385 horsepower.

[Zach Klapman]

Like they went pretty good on the Vantage one. Yeah, yeah, those had a lot going on.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they were cool. I have the Spyker C8. It was the Audi 4.2 liter V8. Sadly, it wasn't the RS4's V8, it was the S4's V8. But I know of a couple of people who've done RS4 R8 V8 engine swaps into spikers. Yeah. Because it's like 80 more horsepower and a bunch more revs and apparently it's a fairly direct, you know, swap. It's, it's mostly the same engine. I, I was just starting to do this job when Vinnie Russo was the head of PR at Spyker and so we got to do a bunch of miles in those Spiker press cars and they were fun as.

[Zach Klapman]

They look so cool. I would buy one so fast.

[Matt Farah]

They're so fun to drive. They really are. They were actually put together pretty well. They were. The, the engagement was really high. I mean I wouldn't want to take one to like a track day, but for like cruising around and just like, just like it was rad.

[Zach Klapman]

Good canyon car, like for eight, ten. Oh my God. They look nothing. Looks like them. Nothing.

[Matt Farah]

They were so cool. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I think this is my last one. The Noble M600. The first one used a 4.4 liter V8. From whom they added turbos. Yamaha added turbos, but the engine was.

[Matt Farah]

From the M600 was the Volvo XC990. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And I also. There's kind of a tie.

[Matt Farah]

Wasn't that engine developed by Yamaha?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, Yamaha took it from Volvo and then they put turbos on it.

[Matt Farah]

Wasn't it developed by yamaha in the XC90?

[Zach Klapman]

I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

I think it was.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

I think that's one of those things that people talk about, like the sho.

[Zach Klapman]

That was on my. Deeper on my list. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And my boat had sho engines. My parents whaler in Spring Island. The original. It doesn't have the original engines. They came in 2001 when we got that boat. Yamaha 225. Four stroke offshore outboard engines were literally sea water cooled sho engines with a different cam profile. Designed to rev all day at 5000rpm like you do in a boat.

[Zach Klapman]

It's super cool.

[Matt Farah]

They were the fucking best boat engines imaginable. They were so smooth and tons of torque. Love to rev. So powerful. And they were dead to nuts reliable for 18 years until as happens with outboards, the seawater corroded the wiring harnesses.

[Zach Klapman]

I wonder why more people don't swap that engine into shit. I wonder if the engine's hard to find. Not the boat engine version. Car one. Or there's just other options now that make more power.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I feel like you could probably. An LS would take up the same amount of space in your engine bay and make more power.

[Zach Klapman]

Or A modern Camry V6 makes like 300 horsepower, so makes like 80 more. And a great marine engine. Similar swap is that the Morgan Aero Plus 8 uses the 4.4 liter from BMW.

[Matt Farah]

The BMW engine, the Morgan. Yeah. BMW V8. And the Morgan does make sense. I drove one of the Aero. It was either Aero Supersports or Aero Max in England and had side pipes. And that BMW V8 with side pipes was pretty goddamn good. Glub glub. Heavy glub glub.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Pretty nasty little thing.

[Zach Klapman]

And the engine I think fits that car. It's like a grand touring sporting Gatsby thing. And you know the BMW V8 is like a smooth luxury GT engine. Yeah, that one's good.

[Matt Farah]

The interior of the one that I. Of the Morgan I drove was about as close as I've ever seen to a spiker. Oh, it was the whole. Just engine turned fucking aluminum all over the place. And big heavy milled speaker grills. And it was an automatic, but it had the. The shifter was set up to be sort of a sequential. You know, you'd slide it over and it was that. And it was a nice milled gate. It was fucking real cool.

[Zach Klapman]

I would buy one of those so fast.

[Matt Farah]

How long until you can import them? Because they were not federalized.

[Zach Klapman]

So they were early 2000. Right.

[Matt Farah]

3, 4, 5 maybe. Soon Jeff Dunham had the early one, an arrow 8 which was federalized. And they're pretty cool. But you want.

[Zach Klapman]

You want the Super Sports. I think it's the. Oh, the Super Sports.

[Matt Farah]

No, the Aero Super Sports or the Aero Max is like the crazy one. They would be so expensive. Last one on my list. Very kind of obvious. Ditomazo pantera.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, good one.

[Matt Farah]

Use the Ford 351, which was, you know, used in all kinds of shit in the 70s, 60s and 70s. What was so great about the Pantera's version of that Ford engine and what so many people get wrong when modifying and restoring Panteras is it had a very small cam profile. So it revved beautifully and smoothly and. Bless you. And it almost felt like a modern German V8, like out of a 928 more than a Mustang engine. And when people put these fucking hot roddy chopper cams in them and turn them into like muscle cars, basically nitrous and stuff. I'm not saying people shouldn't do that. Customize your Pantera all you want, but like, like I've driven some modified ones and I've driven the stock ones and the stock ones are so much better. Like I really, really. They drive like kind of like Countach's actually, which is good.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like the engine in that case can dictate the character of the car. It's an Italian designed car and they kind of put this Italian V8 feel to it with high revving, smooth thing. And if you change it to go supercharger or big block kind of cami Detroit stuff, which is cool, it just changes what that car kind of feels like.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So I would, I mean, if someone was gonna hot rod one of those things, which I generally support, I guess you'd want to get like a coyote motor or something that's smooth and revs. You don't want a hot rod engine in there. It just will it all up.

[Zach Klapman]

I think having a low revving engine in a mid engine car, it just doesn't work in my brain.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. So I. Leave a comment if you want. Let's see, let's see if you've got a better. But I like that we had. Basically we had one overlap. Lotus was our one overlap.

[Zach Klapman]

Otherwise pretty good.

[Matt Farah]

Otherwise a pretty good spread there. Yeah, Leave a comment, let us know if you have a good one that we missed. And let's get to the people. The patreon is open. Patreon.com thesmokingtirepodcast if you wanna ask questions for the show. If you want to get the show live, get the show early, get the show without ads, get extra show, get early access to collabs and things such as the green dial notice canyon watch that I'm wearing today comes out in April. Very excited. It's so dope, you guys. The green dial is so sick.

[Zach Klapman]

Really nice.

[Matt Farah]

Do you want one?

[Zach Klapman]

Kind of.

[Matt Farah]

You do?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Pretty red. I like green. It looks really good.

[Matt Farah]

I didn't know you wanted one.

[Zach Klapman]

No, I know. When you showed it to me, my brain was like, I don't need another watch. Like, I have four. You're now at that point. And then I went. I was like. But it does look really.

[Matt Farah]

Yes. Yeah. No one needs another watch. But you want it.

[Zach Klapman]

I understand how this slope happens. It's happened with other hobbies of mine. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Watches don't take up space, though. They're. They're. It's easy to, you know.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I get it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. But if you want one, I'll get you one. Yeah. But this. This green is super, super.

[Zach Klapman]

It's the whatever you. The gradient color all. It works on all of them. And I don't think I've seen that. I don't know watches that well, but I haven't seen it commonly where the color, like, transition from white to dirty. It looks really cool.

[Matt Farah]

It works. Worked great on the mint green, and it works really good on this one, too, so. And then the very last one, you know, we're doing 100 of these individually numbered. We're doing 50 of the very super special ones at the end. And then that's gonna be the end of this line of watches.

[Zach Klapman]

Those are made of stem cells, right?

[Matt Farah]

Yes. Very rare. It's the Project Veritas edition. Peter Thiel bought all of them. Yes. It's the collab with Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel, and Project versus Protochrome.

[Zach Klapman]

What is the stuff they try to drink?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah. Adrenochrome.

[Zach Klapman]

Adrenochrome.

[Matt Farah]

This is our new dial. It's made of an adrenochrome. The good news is the lume is super bright. The bad news is it makes you trip balls and turn into a snake.

[Zach Klapman]

Found in. Assembled in Chernobyl.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. It would be fun if someone had a watch with, like a stealth back that you could put. You put the poison in, you know, you undid the crown, and maybe, like, you could do the little poison dump somehow.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I don't know. I think about how to smuggle acid all the time. Don't you? No.

[Zach Klapman]

It's like waterproof to 300 meters, but also on the inside.

[Matt Farah]

Waterproof ratings are so funny. Let's see what the people say sloppy toppy 5000. Which company deserves to be put out of its misery first? Jaguar, Nissan, Chrysler or Maserati?

[Zach Klapman]

Chrysler, Chrysler, Chrysler.

[Matt Farah]

One car.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And that car could be branded anything else in their portfolio and nobody would give a fuck.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. They would still sell them. They'd be in rental fleets. Minivan. It's a good minivan, but that's all they have.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. What are we doing over here? Yeah, fucking take it out back. Let's go.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. There's too many brands. The list of American car companies has always been like shockingly large and all right. They don't all have to exist forever.

[Matt Farah]

I'm sorry, Tim. And Chrysler's had a good life. He's been a very good boy. But he's down to just one. One minivan and, well, that's just the way things go sometimes.

[Zach Klapman]

None of the legs of his industry work anymore.

[Matt Farah]

The leaked bowpub or bow pub. Is that a. Is that a sailing reference or an archery reference?

[Zach Klapman]

The sailing. That's a question for you.

[Matt Farah]

Well, leaked is a water thing, so let's say leaked bow pub. What is your pain threshold for maintenance and costs to own for a daily driver? I love my Mark 7 GTI, but it seems the last few years I can't go six to eight months without something terrible happening and then lists off a bunch of bad things that happened. I mean, it's extremely low, as we just learned in my Bentley things. I mean, it's. I am happy to deal with old sports car bullshit, but I need to have a daily driver that is not going to fight me on stuff. I just, I got too much time. Can't be dealing with that bullshit ever. You obviously don't feel the same way.

[Zach Klapman]

I feel different. But I also have an E46 M3.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klapman]

But I also have press cars and a wife with a reliable car. If I didn't, I would own a reliable car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Because I agree with you, like there's just, just as life gets busier, you can't be stuck dealing with stuff and go, I can't make it because my car broke or whatever. Yeah. And it can also end up like costing you a ton of money. I still like my car a lot, but if it was, no offense, like, I like Mark 7 GTI's, but there's other GTIs that do the same thing and other front wheel drive cars that are newer that do the same thing. So I might hit a point where I'm spending too much money or too much time and I could get a newer version that would work better or have a warranty.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And I don't feel like I'm losing that character of car.

[Matt Farah]

I agree completely. Yeah. My, my, my pain threshold, not necessarily financially but for shit going wrong when I need the car to work properly is pretty fucking low. One of the. I mean I, and even with the Bentley I didn't mind. I don't want to say I didn't mind because it was really expensive. But like spending money on the car is one thing. The car being down for shit is a different story. And so as expensive as it was to drive the Bentley for the year, it really wasn't down very much at all. And so that's good. That would have driven me nuts if it was sitting over at Charlie's for three weeks waiting for parts. Silence of the Lambo. That's a good one. What was the sentiment around the Dodge Neon SRT4 back in the day? Were they good cars and has time been kind to them? They were pretty much like fast shit boxes. Right. Like the Neon was not a great car but SRT was capable of making them go pretty fast.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And they did.

[Zach Klapman]

I was in big like steeped in Subaru community at the time and so there was a big rivalry and they would call it the faster like oh, it's front wheel drive only that's super lame. Which I know now is like is a dumb idea. But they were known for being able to make. They were fast and they could make big power with simple modifications which boxer engines could not do as well.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And they weren't horrible to drive but just like any Chrysler product from that era, they were just.

[Zach Klapman]

Wasn't that the 4G63 engine same as Mitsubishi?

[Matt Farah]

I think it was related to the Mitsubishi engine if not exactly the same. I could not. I'm sure you'll be able to tell me soon. But I knew a couple people that had them and they would tune the fucking shit out of them and they would do long front wheel drive burnouts.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, they did a lot of that. Watching them drag race was funny because obviously just wheel spin and now when I see them around they can look kind of tough. I think they did a good design job turning a Neon into something that looked kind of tough. Although the front apron, the side skirts, it looked cool.

[Matt Farah]

It wasn't bad looking. And actually the, the first gen Neon ACR is actually like a DL autocross monster. It has no power but an incredible chassis and they can put up some pretty amazing times on autocrosses. I think time will be kinder to the Neon. Like if I saw a mint SRT4 Neon today, I would be like, respect.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, me too. The engine is a mopar engine. I was wrong. The turbo though came from Mitsubishi.

[Matt Farah]

A lot of turbos come from Mitsubishi. Dodney, Rangerfield. That's pretty good. Where do you see Rivian in five years? My wife and I test drove a tri motor yesterday. It was insane. The R2 seems like it will align better in terms of value. Will Rivian bring its quality up or price down to balance its value or do the capitalist thing of giving you less for your dollar? I think Rivian is, is pretty well set up for long term success. I think that starts with building high quality products that people really like, which I think they overwhelmingly do. The fact that Elon is a Nazi I think will help Rivian in the short and long term. And I think them having more than one vehicle will really help. I mean, I mean five passenger SUVs are more popular than seven passenger SUVs. And that R3 thing looks fucking sick.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. That got the enthusiast community excited and the smaller car community excited. I think they've done a couple things right off the bat that are hard. They have a product a lot of people like, they have a dedicated fan base already. They have a cool factor and the execution of the vehicles inside and out and the way they drive is pretty damn good. I know they have reliability issues, but it's not like other luxury companies don't have reliability issues and still have a dedicated fan base. So that's not going to necessarily chase away everybody and, you know, kind of sink your ship. Plus they have partnership with Volkswagen and other big companies.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So they hopefully are well funded enough because I know that's been a bit of a struggle for them.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. To me it all starts with the product. I don't really know what's going behind the scenes. I don't really know what, what the stock is doing. I don't know what the executives are doing. But I've driven the cars. A lot of people in my neighborhood, in the city have them. People love them. You definitely hear some reliability stories. But it always starts with good product. Unless you're just lying to people. If you want to survive, you make good product. If you want your company to be valued more than all other automakers put together, you just lie and get away with it. So there's that. You could also just do that. Yeah, I don't recommend it, but like if you want to win capitalism, shameless lying.

[Zach Klapman]

Hopefully there's no wrenches thrown in Rivian's gears by.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Zach Klapman]

People that are looking for efficiency now. Because they. And I say that not speculatively, like they talked about that. I think right after inauguration, it was like, we're going to look into this Rivian financing.

[Matt Farah]

Like, yeah, there was. There was a. Yeah, there was some kind of loan or a deal, a finance deal that they could possibly make go away. Well, we'll see where the tipping point is, but we're not there yet. By the way, shout out to Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow, who used to be in the car business and is a state senator in Michigan now, married to Ray Wirt, former editor of Dominick. And she actually called yesterday and about, because I've donated to her campaign in the past. And she called and I was like, are you scared? And she was like, not yet. She's like, because elections are like, run by states and it would just be like, really, really hard to control all of that. Like, not that he doesn't want to, but that it would actually be really hard to do. And, you know, she's a state senator, which is a person of influence and power, and she didn't seem too freaked out. So. Okay, I'll take that under advisement.

[Zach Klapman]

That'll help me sleep.

[Matt Farah]

That'll help me sleep for a day or two. Then they'll do something terrible and then I'll. Again, can't wait for Benihana on Saturday. Avant to go fast. I like that, man. We have a very creative username base. Was there a first mod you had to do to the Taycan to make it your own? I mean. Yes, we've already started that. We should cut that Instagram reel together. I knew from day one we had to get new wheels and they are being made by HRE right now. We'll probably have an Instagram reel up in the next couple days showing the process of selecting the wheels, which is pretty fun. And they're gonna look fucking so sick.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, they're cool.

[Matt Farah]

And then my homie down at R? Strada in Torrance, who is my sort of go to for what you would call, like, OEM mods. He did my side scoops and my brake calipers on the Spyder. He's gonna do the clear Euro corners like the Spider. We've got the fender arches from the Taycan Turbo, which are painted. Painted, not Subaru Outback black. And we're gonna paint them white to match the car. And then that, with the wheels, I think will be in. Will be in really good shape. That'll look really nice. And we just. I just did the license plate sticker, which I got from the state. I applied for it. So I have the letter. So it's not as good as no front plate, but like way better than a real front plate. So it's. I had 405 motoring like, do it with the, you know, make it nice. So because it's curvy, it's like two. It's two intersecting curves. So I could a compound curve. Excuse me. So I couldn't just do it at home, but they did it in like 10 minutes.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, they're pros.

[Matt Farah]

So, yeah, I think that's all we really need to do. The Taycan, I don't think needs anything else.

[Zach Klapman]

Not gonna fiddle with the battery and try to get some extra power. I'm kidding.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Plug a laptop in that car.

[Matt Farah]

That car's so fucking great. The ride is so great. And just sitting in that 18 way seat with that driving position and that ride quality, God, I fucking love it. It's so great. Lemonhead, in honor of Zach's underdrive pulley, what is the most dirtbag performance mod for a streetcar? Okay, before we get to this, this morning I come in to work and Eric, my general manager's here. He has an awesome 03 Lightning. It's got like the choice mods. It's the right color. It's a rare color. Very low miles. I think it's 30 or 40,000 miles. It's fucking mint. But he had driven it to work yesterday and was driving it home, and the traffic was really bad. He's like, yeah. You know, when I'm sitting, when I come to a stop in traffic, it's like he goes, it's almost like the dash lights get dim. And I go, eric, do you have underdrive pulleys? And he goes, yeah. And I go, go, get rid of the underdrive pulley.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Your alternator's struggling.

[Matt Farah]

And on a supercharged car, you really don't want to fucking do underdrive pulleys on a car with a supercharger.

[Zach Klapman]

My alternator had the OEM pulley size, but it had different pulleys on water pump. And the water pump. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So the math ends up being the same.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, I think the alternator is gonna be spinning at the same speed. That's why the diameter of the pulleys is different. Right.

[Matt Farah]

I think if you change the other pulleys, it changes the speed of the belt, which changes the speed of the alternator. I don't think you need to actually change the alternator pulley itself.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, right. Yeah, okay, good point.

[Matt Farah]

Like if you're. If you're on a bicycle and has front gears and back gears.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. The larger gear. So it's spinning, it's moving slower. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I wonder if you.

[Matt Farah]

But it's just funny that that happens two days in a row. So anyway, what is the most dirtbag performance model? Like speed holes are pretty dirt bad.

[Zach Klapman]

Speed holes on the bumper, unless you really race a lot are dumb. My new favorite are cheap wings bolted to a trunk. But the wing is angled up so that it is creating lots of lift.

[Matt Farah]

That goes beyond dirtbag. That's like where you just. You literally don't know how the thing works that you've put on your car. Dirtbag is like, I see it more as like, how do I improve performance without spending any money?

[Zach Klapman]

How do you think you. No, no. How do you perceive. To improve performance? But you actually might make it worse.

[Matt Farah]

My choice would be the removal of interior bits that are actually pretty light. I took the entire interior out of my fox body and when I took everything out, I picked it all up and I was like. So now I have no sound deadening and I've saved like £16 because it just wasn't made of anything.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, that's a bad one, I think. Removing muffler.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I would say removing your muffler or drilling holes in it or something like that.

[Matt Farah]

Or just like removing cats. That's also like removing cats is real, real grimy.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Especially because you can buy high flow cats.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Blurple. What era of car culture had the best clothing associated with it? It. Oh, that's kind of interesting. Yeah, you've got your. You've got your like early, early, like we were doing the audrain thing. Like your motorman shit.

[Zach Klapman]

Then you've got your baggy back then.

[Matt Farah]

Right. Then you've got sort of like the Fonz where you've got your jeans, boots, leather jacket. You're sort of James Dean era.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. Everyone wore kind of the same thing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Then you've got your McQueen era where it was the turtlenecks. The turtleneck.

[Zach Klapman]

I think it depends. But that was. But sports cars in the 70s you had McQueen turtleneck. But if you stayed in the muscle car area, you still had like beer T shirts, bell bottoms, you know, like mutton chops. Yeah, stuff like that.

[Matt Farah]

The guy, the homies in the 80s with the sidekicks on Daytons, they knew how to dress the fucking new Jack City basically. Wesley Snipes New Jack City. That's. There's that. Which was pretty fun. I could obviously never be for reasons that are obvious. But like it was cool.

[Zach Klapman]

I think the 90s was bad.

[Matt Farah]

90S was bad for everybody. For pretty much everybody. Right. And then like now we have now. I mean car culture and clothing don't usually go. It's not. You don't find fashionable people at car meets very often.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, it's also fashion is larger than car culture. Like the fashion that people were wearing in the 50s wasn't just related to cars. It was like everyone was probably dressing like that. Or the 70s bellboy. Everyone was dressed like that. So it just happened to like coexist with that time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So like the best crossover of car style and fat, it's probably like probably 50s, early 60s, like literally like James Dean era. I think that was a pretty cool look. And the cars looked great too. Too.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I think so. I think. Yeah. I think the 70s were also pretty cool because you had a lot of. The 70s were cool because you had more color on cars and T shirts.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And people got really psychedelic with like vans and like that. A lot of creative thought.

[Matt Farah]

Or like how about like when Billy Madison pulls up to the high school, it's like every time that song comes on the radio. I know, like, find me a high school.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Nice car. Loser. Such a good scene. He's like, all righty then.

[Matt Farah]

Imagine that guy. Billy Madison is now so powerful and successful that he can wear basketball shorts to the Oscars.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, like the. Yeah, yeah. The actual actor. Sure.

[Matt Farah]

Awesome.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And with range. He's got a lot of range.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Good actor. And he doesn't care about fashion at all.

[Matt Farah]

He's awesome. I'd love to be that kind of fucking rich guy. That's great. Matt's hard. Naw. Which is a great fucking username too. Any examples of beautiful cars that don't get enough attention? The Ferrari 288 GTO is jaw droppingly gorgeous and no one seems to talk about it. You know who talks about the GTO fucking RM auctions. Because them things sell for like, like $4 million. I don't think the GTO is that overlooked, my friend. No, I think those are deep in the seven figures.

[Zach Klapman]

I think it's not filmed a lot because there are not many of them and they're so expensive. So you think it's not talked about a lot.

[Matt Farah]

But in terms of culture, the F40 had more impact than the GTO. But in terms of collectability, a GTO is almost 2x an F40. So the people who know know very well what a GTO is. But the question isn't about the gto. The question is about other examples of cars that don't get talked about enough. I think the BMW M1 is a great car. It looks great. I've driven it a bunch. It drives great. It's not crazy fast, but it's more than adequate speed for modern driving. It looks really cool. If you roll up to a car show with one, I guarantee you're the only person there with one of those.

[Zach Klapman]

Performed pretty well.

[Matt Farah]

It's a Giugiaro design. I mean, this was originally gonna be a Lamborghini. And it was only when Lamborghini bailed out that BMW picked up the pieces and put their own name on the thing. And I don't know what that photo is, but that could very well be BMW's car that I drove in South Carolina. And it was rad as hell.

[Zach Klapman]

I would add the alpha 8C because they don't talk about it because they drive like garbage. But I love them.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, Levi Sinclair. In honor of Zuckerman's choices of car purchases, the year is 2040. What SUV, sedan and sports car. Are you rolling to cosplay rich guy from 30 years ago because you have the money now? I like this question. So a sedan, a sports car and an SUV from 2000 to 2010. But it's in 40 years, so they're going to be classics.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

So I would say the 09.10 Bentley Mulsanne, which was the last car with the 6 and 3 quarter twin turbo V8 Bentley, which was like 400 grand when it was new. I would say 20, 2010. I would do a 1 BMW X5 4.8 IS and sports car. I would have to do a. A Ferrari 575M with a manual gearbox.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And the handling package, I think I.

[Zach Klapman]

Will go with that car's rival, which was Vanquish. That was a vanquish vanquish or DBS.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, DBS was 09. So you would have had.

[Zach Klapman]

That would squeak in.

[Matt Farah]

It would squeak.

[Zach Klapman]

So I would do dbs and then I think for a sedan I'd go kind of oddball and VW fate. And because it is a mistake and you had to be rich to buy one, but you also had to make. It was a terrible error.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's going to be right up there with, I'm sorry, we no longer support this vehicle.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, yeah. Your iPhone is too old to use this software. And then Sports car, sedan, suv, I think. Well, I don't want to do double Volkswagen, but I remember the. Was it the Tiguan TDI with like the Turbo V10 TDI, which could be made really fast and was super complicated.

[Matt Farah]

I knew a couple like gentlemen racers that use those as their tow rigs.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. I think they're kind of cool.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they were sick. Yeah, I'm about that. Did you. You want to fucking. Here's a funny. Google, Google. Volkswagen Phaeton, Bentley wheels and grill. If you put Bentley wheels and grill on a Phaeton, it looks way too close to a Bentley gt. Who. That's not a great way. There's fucking. There's the grill. What not to do. The grill is pretty.

[Zach Klapman]

The headlights are the giveaway.

[Matt Farah]

Really. I saw a better one. Maybe it was like a full nose swap. But if you put the Bentley wheels on it, it gets awfully close. And the Bentley interior and the Phaeton interior are also a little too close. Yeah, those look good, right?

[Zach Klapman]

Those are all right. Such an expensive car to maintain that no one cares about. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Rolling invisible. That looks great. That looks hard as fuck.

[Zach Klapman]

Rolling invisible. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

If I was gonna roll a super sedan from that era, I mean, the Mulsanne is the game over. But also that the 2001-2003 Audi S8.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Is very sick.

[Zach Klapman]

That was great.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, those were interior bad Gardener. What companies are positioned to make a jump into the next tier of sports car? Could Hyundai make an Ioniq 1N for 200k? Should Lamborghini have an F80 competitor? I think we said this on the last show. I think Cadillac should be doing a Corvette based supercar.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

No question about that. I mean, that's the one that repeatedly comes to mind for me.

[Zach Klapman]

I don't think Hyundai could make an Ioniq for 200 grand, like, especially if it's electric. I think we've seen that the market for electric supercars is not great. Yeah, there's like not even enough room for remotes. There's one.

[Matt Farah]

No. Electric. Yeah. Electric supercars and hypercars I think are dead for a while. I mean, maybe they'll come back, but. But talk to anybody who can afford that kind of car. And nobody wants the electric. I mean, it's one thing with the hybrids. I mean, the Revuelto is a fantastic example of how hybridization can work for a car like that. And I'm sure the Bugatti Tourbillon will have a similar hybrid system, which could be great. Hybrids will save natural aspiration.

[Zach Klapman]

I Think a lambotech sent me a message telling me some additional information. I'll talk about it about fuelto.

[Matt Farah]

But yeah, my main one is Cadillac there. Sandy Lane said, how emotionally attached do you get to your cars? I recently upgraded from an 05 Sable to a 2020 Mustang GT. I'm happy to have a fun car, but handing the Sable keys was. Handing over the Sable keys was harder than I was expecting from years of memory. Any cars you were glad to let go? I've said this on previous shows. If I sell a car mentally, the car's already gone. I'm very fortunate that I've never been forced or at least it's been a very long time since I was forced to sell a car for economic purposes. I've always been like, I'm over this. Let's get the next one. And that goes for daily drivers and fun cars. And Zach told his story on a previous episode as well. But I get it. You're. If you're attached to. If you've had a lifetime of memories with a car, I totally, I totally get it.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, of course.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And there's people who will, who can afford to. Who will hang on to their first car or whatever, you know, as long as. As long as they can. I know a lot of people that still own their first cars actually, and they're not like amazing cars.

[Zach Klapman]

Quick thing from this lambotech, he said that all revueltos come with a cup holder which is hidden behind the trim strip above the glove box. But it is a thousand dollar option. It's like it's included and it's there. We didn't notice it.

[Matt Farah]

I don't think ours. I feel like we would have found it if it was there.

[Zach Klapman]

Maybe.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

If it's, if it's that hidden.

[Matt Farah]

And also to know that you can get one though. Thank you.

[Zach Klapman]

The rear electric motor is attached to the gearbox and has its own synchro and shift fork rather than being bolted to the engine. So when it recharges the battery, the gearbox puts the rear wheels in neutral and spins the motor generator and drives on front motors only. So it's a front wheel drive Lambo while it's charging the battery.

[Matt Farah]

When it recharges the battery. Meaning if you put it into charge mode.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I believe so.

[Matt Farah]

What are you saying? Yeah, yeah. That's basically the same. It's similar as if you, when you first start the car, you get in it, you press power, it turns on into hybrid mode. When either you or it decides it's time for the engine to turn on. It turns on and it just idles at like 1800rpm while you're driving around on electricity. And eventually it connects and engages. I think that's probably what he's talking about as well. Although I do believe that in charge mode, if you are moving on the highway or whatever, you can put it in charge mode. It does not decouple the engine and it just uses your motion to do it. I think if you put it in charge mode but you drop below a certain speed, the engine disconnects and stays.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, maybe I don't know if he's listening can let me know.

[Matt Farah]

I think that's because I've driven it in charge mode while proceeding at a pace and it didn't disconnect the engine, it just did a little torque drag in order to charge it.

[Zach Klapman]

I think he's saying it disconnects the rear wheel. So the engine's still going, but it's front wheel drive. And then what? And the extra power that was going to the rear wheels is then going to charge the battery. I think that's what he said. But if you're going.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm sure there's parameters though. If you start accelerating harder, driving faster, it goes. Yeah, we need all wheel drive again.

[Matt Farah]

Interesting. I'm not sure if you're the driver if it makes much difference, but neat. Yeah. I mean you definitely, if you're driving around in EV mode, it's front wheel drive.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I mean that's same with E. Ray. Okay. Tim A. Can you break down Characteristics of the NA Italian V12s by Ferrari and Lamborghini? What makes the NA V12 different in a Ferrari versus in a Lamborghini? That's an interesting question. Let's see. The Ferrari engine feels more relaxed when you're not on it. The Lamborghini engines almost never feel like relaxed. They're always like, let's go, let's go, let's go. Whereas if you're just kind of cruising around in an 812, it's pretty like, like normal feeling. If you're. It's not. It's true.

[Zach Klapman]

I wonder if that goes back to what we spoke about earlier in this show. You know, mid engine mounted. Well, yeah, mid mounted engine versus front mounted engine. So in the 812 you have a little more separation from the engine. Maybe they have softer motor mounts. And then with the Lambo, like the Lotus, we were speaking of the engines mounted right behind you, I'm sure more vibration gets transmitted right to your seat. So it might feel like, hey, we have to go, we got to go, we got to go.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. There's also. It's hard because it's been a very long time. When was the last time I drove a mid engine V12 Ferrari? I drove an Enzo once. That was the last one. So, like where the engine is is different. It's a major change that can affect the feel of the car. Maybe a little more so than the characteristic of the engine itself.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, I bet if you had the exact same engine but you were able to put it in a car in the front or the mid and exhaust note, everything about that is the same somehow. Like, it would probably still feel different and you'd be hearing different sounds.

[Matt Farah]

Sound wise, the Ferrari is more of a snarl, whereas the Lambo is more of a howl. The Lambo, it feels to me like it's moving so much air. Even though they're basically the same displacement. It sounds to me like so much air is being moved by the Lambo compared to the Ferrari.

[Zach Klapman]

I think there's something about Lambos that, and it may be perception of the car that makes me think it's about the engine, but like it feels like an engine with larger displacement even though it's not. Ferrari feels like tiny cylinders moving at a billion miles an hour.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny that they're the same displacement because they sound and feel quite different. Chris N. What car under 100k is the easiest to drift?

[Zach Klapman]

BMWs, I think M2, M3. They're so easy. Or if you want to go way under 86.

[Matt Farah]

An 86 is a great entry level drift car because you can get it with those Michelin primacy tires, which you can slide the thing around at like 25 miles an hour. It's a very low risk the M cars will slide at lower speeds, but they're also a lot more powerful.

[Zach Klapman]

Totally under 100 grand is a very wide price point. I was like, all right, so we close to 100 or are we close to 5,000?

[Matt Farah]

Right. Corvettes also have good drift balance and believe it or not, chargers, excellent. V8 chargers are awesome. Like, not the Hellcats. The 6.4 SRT8 charger with the 8 speed gearbox, 392s. The balance on those things is so great.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, the wheelbase is 80ft long. It's really. That's a great call.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Frozen dingleberry metallic. What car has the biggest following of people who know absolutely nothing about cars?

[Zach Klapman]

Teslas.

[Matt Farah]

That's pretty funny. What car? I don't That's a tough one, I think.

[Zach Klapman]

Tesla following. I mean, that's the biggest for sure.

[Matt Farah]

That. Yeah, I.

[Zach Klapman]

100% now, if you want to. If we want to go to like a cool car that has the biggest following of people that don't know anything about cars. Yeah, you probably have to go up into supercar territory or. Well, biggest. Are we talking about the number of people biggest following?

[Matt Farah]

Dude, the answer is Tesla. You're right. The answer is absolutely. Tesla. Tesla. The kind of. The shit that I see those folks say is on another planet.

[Zach Klapman]

Well, because it. People are such fans of the car and it was a paradigm shift, so it brought in people who weren't into car. I mean, it's not a news story people. There's been literally like numerous articles about this, but it brought in a huge population of people who are not into cars and made them excited about a car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Fast wagon equals dad bod.

[Zach Klapman]

You're just.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, okay. You generally hear about manufacturers buying engines and then increasing attributes for a more high performance platform, but has there ever been a case where a manufacturer dumbs down the engine output for a less capable car, like a DT Maserati? Yeah, I mean, the Maserati uses these, quote, Ferrari engines that never make as much power as they do in Ferraris. What else did we. We just had one of these. Didn't we just have a car that used the same engine as another car but made less power? Didn't we just like, deal with this? Oh, it was the Ranger Raptor. The Ranger Raptor has the same powertrain as the Bronco Raptor.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And it made. I think. Was that it?

[Zach Klapman]

Does it make less power?

[Matt Farah]

No, no, no. Was that it? We drive a lot of fucking cars.

[Zach Klapman]

It was a lot cheaper, which is a big deal. I'm sure there are some.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, there's definitely detuned stuff. I mean, the Focus RS engine ended up in like a Lincoln crossover and made less power, so stuff like that. Yeah, Waybads rad. Do you have question? You have a. Okay, wait, wait. We've already done that one. Sorry, Date Ray. We've already done that one. Okay. Ryan Morris says car engines in boats. Yay. Lambo V12s. Oh, also those twin turbo. Oh, this is a.

[Zach Klapman]

This is a request for people just giving their input on what.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, car engines and boats are good. Boat engines and cars are also good. Airplane engines and cars are even better.

[Zach Klapman]

Are these are the last two?

[Matt Farah]

What? Oh, toddler on Hayabusa. Contra rule question thoughts on the R word. No disrespect I've heard you say it in the not so distant past. Yeah, I try not to say that. Have I really said that publicly in the not so distant past?

[Zach Klapman]

It could be distant past.

[Matt Farah]

It says not so distant past.

[Zach Klapman]

No, I know. I'm just saying I can't recall you saying it recently. I said not so distant past.

[Matt Farah]

There's definitely words and phrases that throughout adult life, if you're a respectful person, you say things and people go, you know, that word or phrase hurts or marginalizes or others, me or a group. And you go, oh, shit, okay, I didn't know that. And now I know. I'm human. I learn, I move on. And you try to do better. And that's what being human is. So today I would absolutely not say it. And I don't believe I've said it in the distant past or in the not so distant past. I definitely said it back in the day, but like a lot of people did. And hopefully those people learn and do better. Hopefully. Hopefully they're not gonna vote for a fascist. Don't. Because they don't think that. They think they should be able to see that, say that kind of stuff, which is a lot of people.

[Zach Klapman]

Everything's expensive. But hey, we can.

[Matt Farah]

But yeah, no, I. I would say don't. Don't use that word. R word. N word. Maybe just keep those. Keep those. Alf.

[Zach Klapman]

Right. There's a couple. F word.

[Matt Farah]

Also, I would recommend not sig heiling at political rallies. Unless you want to. If you want to, you should. But you should also understand that you will be seen as someone who seek heils at.

[Zach Klapman]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

Political rallies.

[Zach Klapman]

Right? Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I will have no choice but to see you as a person who does that. Is this last one Christian? Where do Christopher Ward and Longines fall in their quality? Looking for a watch in the 1-5K range, 36 millimeter. Both Christopher Ward and Longines make a high quality product. The problem with watches, when you go sort of between 1500 and about 4000, in a lot of ways, you're getting a watch of the same quality. Watch quality begins at like 300 bucks and improves to about 1,500 bucks. Beyond that, from 1,500 to about 4,000, you're paying for that same 1500 quality plus some like brand heritage and things like that. When you get to like 4 or 5,000, the quality starts to go up to the next level. Like when you get to entry level, Omegas and Tudors and IWCs and things like that. And like, no disrespect, to Chris Ward or Longines, but they're in that middle region. I don't really personally shop in that region because of that thing, but I get it if you do. And like, like, no disrespect, no hate, but I think Tissot and a lot of the sort of what you'd call an entry level Swiss brand, the quality is not much far above micro brands that are selling products for 1000 bucks or things like that. It's not until you start to spend a little more that you really get better machined cases, better dials, better movements and things like that. That's our program reminder. Go to thesmokentyreshop.com support us. Grab a T shirt, grab a hoodie, grab one of those things, grab my Bentley. It's on Cars and bids right now. No reserve. Whatever it be, it be, it's gonna sell. All the service records are up there. Our video just went up this morning about how much it cost me to run the car for a year. Check that out. Check out Doug's review. I posted it on Instagram, but when Doug drove it, he said, this is absolutely the nicest one of these I've ever seen and you could take it home. What do we have coming up for video? Well, podcast wise, we have Jeff Glucker Friday afternoon. We'll have a little happy hour Friday at 4 with dinner afterwards if you'd like. Zach Latman. And you're gonna drive the Amira some. I'm gonna drive it a little bit. We're gonna. And then.

[Zach Klapman]

Big shows next week.

[Matt Farah]

Shit. Is Monday the 10th? Yeah, it is, isn't it? Oh, Monday's a big. Monday's a big one. Unfortunately, I don't think you guys are gonna come along for the ride. Well, maybe. It's a maybe.

[Zach Klapman]

Depends on if the Internet works there.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, if the Internet works good there, then pro drivers Monday afternoon Pacific time is going to be a fun live show. And then we're working towards TST 1000, which is going to be Sunday, March 30, from 10am to 6pm Is that what I said?

[Zach Klapman]

10 to 6?

[Matt Farah]

It's going to be an eight hour podcasting extravaganza and we're going to put.

[Zach Klapman]

It on live on for the public too.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Sorry, patrons, we appreciate you, but this one time, the live.

[Zach Klapman]

The live once every thousand episodes.

[Matt Farah]

It's full public.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Thank you to our patrons for their support for their questions. Always Great. And we'll see you on Friday with Jeff Glucker in studio. Thanks for listening. Bye.