Vantage S Review; that Ford GT Lap; the Peril of Selling a Project

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast – April 7, 2026

"Vantage S Review; that Ford GT Lap; the Peril of Selling a Project"

Hosts: Matt Farah and Zack Klapman

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Matt and Zack dive deep into recent car news, their latest drives, and misadventures in project cars. The main focus centers around their impressions of the new Aston Martin Vantage S, an in-depth discussion on Ford’s record-setting GT Mk IV Nürburgring lap time, and the real risks of selling a project car with a loan. The hosts also reveal their plans to skip Monterey Car Week in favor of the Woodward Dream Cruise, offer listener advice, and share plenty of banter and relatable auto-nerd moments.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Car Culture Catch-Up & Banter (02:43–08:10)

• Rum Chat & Inside Jokes: The show opens with a classic Matt-and-Zack digression—this time, a riff about discovering and gifting a $60 bottle of rum:
  “A $60 bottle of rum is way better than a $500 bottle of bourbon.” – Matt (03:09)
  They recall past trips and compare bourbon to quality rums, musing about tricking friends into thinking the rum is a high-dollar rarity.

• Social Media Gripes: Matt vents about algorithm-driven feeds and post-April Fool’s confusion, lamenting how Instagram intentionally limits desktop usability.
  "Your TL isn't your fucking TL, it's your AL." – Matt (08:52)

• April Fools’ Car Pranks: Quick round-up of the best car world April Fools’ jokes, including fake titanium trumpet exhausts for the Z.
  “They did very good, probably AI animation… Like, hand-welded four trumpets.” – Zack (10:10)

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2. Aston Martin Vantage S Deep Dive (13:08–35:20)

Evolution & Driving Impressions

• Long Gestation to Perfection: The current Vantage has been around since 2018; the S version is presented as the culmination of years of incremental improvement (“S is for sorted”).
• Driving Dynamics:
  “Everything is super harmonious… it does exactly the thing you want it to do, all the time, which is lovely. 671 horsepower in a short wheelbase means you can spin the tires into third.” – Matt (19:12)
• Emotional vs. Rational Choice:
  “The emotional side of me would buy this over a 911 Turbo. The mental side would buy the Turbo.” – Zack (18:48)
  This Vantage S is framed as the choice for those who seek drama, as opposed to the calculated superiority of the 911 Turbo.

Comparisons & Practicalities

• On Price and Competitiveness: Compared to the Porsche 911 GTS and Turbo S, the Vantage S is positioned as a performance ‘bargain’ within its rarefied class:
  • Base: $198k, As tested: $248k
    “It does make it, in the game of Top Trump, seem kind of a bargain.” – Matt (21:48)
• Comfort Critiques: Both hosts wish for more seat travel and legroom, with Matt detailing the importance of small ergonomic differences on comfort for long drives.
  “One to two inches more legroom, seat travel, that’s the only reason I’d get a 911 GTS…” – Matt (20:51)
• Updated Looks: Consensus is that Vantage S now nails aesthetics after earlier, less-attractive iterations.
  “The aesthetics are there now, for the most part. Very pretty.” – Zack (22:07)
• Practical Storage: Hatchback is praised for its luggage capabilities—enough for clubs, gear, and a gun safe (30:11).
  “You could live out of this car for a couple weeks.” – Zack (30:46)
• Attention Factor: The Vantage S doesn’t attract much street attention in LA, likely due to the saturation of high-end cars.
  “If you’re seeking attention, it’s the wrong car.” – Matt (25:27)

Memorable Vantage S Quotes

• “It’s like Carl’s matzo ball soup. After so much time simmering, the ingredients have really come together.” – Matt (19:15)
• “If you want a tent [attention], it’s the wrong car.” – Matt (25:27)

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3. Changing Up: Dream Cruise vs. Monterey Car Week (35:32–46:32)

• Why Skip Car Week? After years of attending Monterey, the hosts feel burned out and opt for Detroit’s Woodward Dream Cruise—framed as “traffic surrounded by wildness, but not the same cars as Pebble Beach.”
• Dream Cruise Ethos:
  “Imagine that same [Monterey] traffic, but it’s tuner cars, wild muscle cars, a guy who built a sleigh pulled by eight Harleys… The word ‘contraption’ is never used at Pebble, but it is in Detroit.” – Matt (36:14)
• The event is described as a 16-mile parade of automotive oddities, with hundreds of thousands of attendees and nonstop variety.
• Plans: Secured a house, looking for interesting cars to drive—including possibly the “Drift Hummer” (40:22). Calls for local Detroit tips and possibly a live show.
• Comparing Car Cultures: The breadth and wildness of Detroit car scene is contrasted with the high-dollar, ticketed, vineyard atmosphere of Monterey.

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4. Project Car Perils & Mercedes Build Update (53:37–59:33)

Project Car Progress

• Matt’s Mercedes E320 Cabriolet Project:
  The saga of converting a W124 Cabriolet into the 500E convertible that Mercedes never made. Heavy praise for Shont at CMS Motorsports for creativity and resourcefulness.
• Swap Details:
  The preferred heart is a 1999 E55 5.5L V8 for reliability, compactness, and torque.
• Surprise Progress:
  “They have two E55 engines running on stands, two harnesses, all four replacement body panels ready. Next week, I should come see where we’re at.” – Matt (58:10)
• Key Quotes:
  “That’s a lot farther than we thought, huh?” – Zack (59:36)

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5. Ford GT Mark IV at Nürburgring - Record Lap Discussion (49:04–53:33)

• New Lap Record: Ford GT Mk IV posts a 6:15 lap at the ‘Ring, making it the fastest gas-only car ever and third fastest overall.
• Made-Up Stats Fun:
  “It’s the fastest vehicle ever that you can buy… That’s the first time anyone made that distinction.” – Matt (50:17)
  The hosts joke about manufacturers inventing new categories for records to own a headline.
• Comparisons: It slots behind the VW ID.R and Porsche 919 Evo (both not street-legal), but beats all other petrol cars.
• Car Details: 780hp, sequential gearbox, new aero—race car spec.

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6. Car Market, Selling Projects, and Listener Advice (61:26–107:22)

Listener Q&A Highlights

• Used Performance Car Shopping:
  – Mark 7.5 Golf R as a smart S4 replacement
  – AMG E63s as “Maserati-flavored” sedans for $50–100k – First-gen M2 praised for dual-purpose (track+road), with concerns about service history and running costs of 996 911s
  – “The M2 delivers a lot of those things…good duality.” – Zack (71:32)

• When is a 996 No Longer Worth It?
  While special, 996 values have gone up—there’s “no substitute” for the 911 experience, but “40k was 30k five years ago.”

• Life Advice for 20-Somethings Today:
  – Save early; “saving is buying your future time.”
  – Value of skilled trades jobs in an AI world
  – “Money gives you options or security later. You probably won’t have a lot of it in your 20s, but you can at least have some…” – Zack (80:58) – Don’t dismantle a car with a loan on it and expect to recoup mods.

• Best Place to Test a Car’s Dynamics:
  Nürburgring seen as an all-in-one test; LA’s Angeles Crest combo also gets props.

• Trashy Cars: In LA, “90% are Model 3s,” but it’s “regional”—with no easy answer for “trashy women’s cars.”

• Project Car with Debt—What to Do?
  Advice: Be realistic on price; go no-reserve if you want it gone, but if you set a high reserve and it doesn’t sell, be ready for the consequences (106:02).

Other Notables

• Hypercar Servicing:
  Most get annual “regardless of miles” maintenance, making low-mile examples not inherently less desirable.

• Tech & Robo-Taxis:
  Brief discussion on Rivian and Uber’s plan for autonomous R2s; doubts expressed about the ambitious 2030 timeline.

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7. Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Vantage S:
  “S is for sorted.” – Matt (18:48)
• On Detroit:
  “Detroit is a city full of flavor, a good time. Dream Cruise is the best time to be there. It’s a total shit show.” – Matt (42:32)
• On Project Car Risks:
  “I do not recommend taking your car apart and turning it into a project if you owe money on it, that’s a tough place to find.” – Matt (107:04)
• On Social Media Algorithms:
  “Your TL isn't your fucking TL, it's your AL.” – Matt (08:52)
• Life Advice:
  “Saving is buying your future time.” – Matt (81:53)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Rum & Bourbon Comparison: 03:00–06:30
• Algorithm Rant & Social Media: 08:00–09:50
• Vantage S Discussion: 13:00–35:20
• Dream Cruise Preview: 35:32–46:32
• Project Car (Mercedes Build): 53:37–59:33
• Ford GT Nürburgring Lap: 49:04–53:33
• Selling Project Car w/ Debt: 104:52–107:22
• Life Advice for 20-somethings: 79:27–84:27

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Conclusion & Takeaways

The episode blends sharp car analysis, personal stories, and candid advice. The Aston Martin Vantage S earns praise as the most harmonious and sorted in its lineage—ideal for the emotional buyer. Dream Cruise beckons as a refreshing shift from the usual scene. The perils of project car finances are underlined with humor and hard truth. Plus, a record-breaking Ford GT and the always-insightful Q&A segment round out one of The Smoking Tire’s richer episodes, full of quotable lines and practical wisdom for enthusiasts and everyday drivers alike.

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[Links & Further Resources]

• Smoking Tire YouTube Reviews
• [Dream Giveaways Turbo S Details – Link in show notes]
• [Patreon Access – patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast]

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Original Hosts’ Language & Tone:
Conversational, irreverent, insightful, and peppered with inside jokes and honest takes.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

They had it there. We spooled. Okay.

[A]

We just got it. We just got it.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

Just walked in the store and bought it.

[B]

So I found out not only that

[A]

they had a lot, like a bunch of rums. Yeah, they probably. They probably had 150 different rums.

[B]

They have a Zafra. I didn't look, but I found out my neighbor. Whatever, dog. Neighbor, whatever. But he's really into rum. And I started talking about it. I was like, it's $60 bottle of rum is way better than $500 bottle of bourbon.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He's like, kind of.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm literally like, I'm. So I was just talking about doing a rum tasting.

[A]

I got. You know, I got one for myself as well, of course. And I had a little sipski last night with a. With a big rock. Fucking excellent.

[B]

Yeah. For people listening. We drank this in BVI.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Planteret 20 year old rum. And it was so smooth, but not sweet, aggressively smooth, like cheap rum.

[A]

The box open for sure to show the bottle because the bottle's cool. So we did a rum tasting on Cooper island, which I can't. I can't recommend it highly enough. It was fabulous. Talked about it. And look at. This is a bottle. It gives you that little. That pirate wrap. It does, you know, that you need. It was probably like when you're, like, hucking bottles on a pirate ship. This gives you, like, extra grip, you

[B]

know, and it also. If they keep them from clinking together.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And shattering.

[A]

And you could hang it from something maybe, too, but God damn, is this shit.

[B]

It's really good.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, if we're gonna fuck this all up like we did with. Remember we went to Kentucky in 2013 and tasted Blanton's and then wouldn't shut up about how great Blanton's was. And then it became $300.

[B]

So we should buy 10 of these, sit on them.

[A]

I'll tell you what I started. I sent an. I actually bought three bottles. One for you, one for me. And then I sent one to big Raj because Big Raj actually likes rum.

[B]

No way.

[A]

Like, he. Not like, he's never really fucked with it like this, but he'll like. If he gets a cocktail, it's a rum and Coke or a Dark and Stormy. Like that's his cocktail. Yeah.

[B]

And he has nice bourbons.

[A]

And he knows about bourbon and whiskey. Yeah. But, yeah, he doesn't really. I go to the South Carolina house every year. A couple times a year and there's never any whiskey drank from the last time I've been. There's no denser. He'll have some when we're having some, but on his own, like, no. So I send him a bottle of this and be like, I think we need to get about this rum life, because this is a different. This is for, you know, I don't know, for people like us, this is uncharted territory.

[B]

It is, but it's also more affordable territory than the bourbon territory. I think if you poured this. I wish we hadn't talked about this. We could trick Johnny to Johnny, pour this in some bottle and be like, this is a $4,000 bottle that a fan sent us a sample and see what.

[A]

I think you could tell that it's not. Yeah, it's not. I mean, it's. It's. It's. These very good rums are like bourbon in that they are oftentimes aged in bourbon barrels or aged in whiskey barrels or wine barrels. And so you end up with something that'. The. It's in the same family of. Of flavor profiles, but, like, it's not exactly. If you actually put whiskey next to this, you'd go. These are not.

[B]

They go down the same freeway, and they take slightly different flavor off range.

[A]

Yeah, but one's in the carpool lane.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

The bourbon gets a little spicy and has, like, a little more, you know, kind of alcohol at the back, I think. And these are just smoother. Yeah.

[A]

And bourbon's a little more corn, and this is a little more vanilla.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like bourbon. A good bourbon to me is like. It's like breakfast almost. You know what? It's got a breakfast smell.

[B]

Wildly different sweetness and cold maple syrup type thing.

[A]

Syrupy sort of thing. This is, like, very vanilla forward. But anyway, that is for you.

[B]

Thank you. I'm glad I drove today. Sometimes I walk to work and I would just be carrying.

[A]

Walking down the street. I mean, listen, if you're walking down this street carrying a bottle of booze,

[B]

I look like Gareth. I look like Gareth Reynolds coming into your house for dinner. Just showing up out of the sh with bottles and bottles in a grocery bag.

[A]

Oh, my God. That's so funny. He walked really far with all that fucking alcohol. And then we did it. But we really did honor him by drinking it, by the way. In a recent episode of the Dollop, he fucking. They sort of shouted us out, but also talked shit while doing it. He basically, like. Yeah. He basically said, like, cool. We got really drunk at his house, and they Sent us home in Waymos. Which was funny. But also there may be some ties to Epstein. Like, that was what they said.

[B]

That is unfair.

[A]

It was pretty tough.

[B]

Uncalled for. I am not in that.

[A]

Garrett. That was brutal. I forgot I heard that. I was listening to the show and I was like, I should probably follow up on that.

[B]

I think that's. You just went for the easy, low hanging joke fruit.

[A]

I was like, pepstein. I mean, look, I know I had. I know I've actually. I know I've personally hung out with three or four people that are in the Epstein files.

[B]

That's true. But look, Gareth is technically from the uk, I think born there. So is Prince Andrew.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So I'm just saying.

[A]

Definitely Rhode Island. Definitely.

[B]

There's some connections.

[A]

The genes don't lie.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Right. Sydney Sweeney said that the.

[B]

That's marketing.

[A]

Right? Hi. Hi, everybody. Smoking tire podcast. Bilkerman. Cars. Allegedly. Allegedly cars. We have things. Oh, man. There's things to talk about today. I actually found a lot of things to talk about today. So many things have happened since we did a show two days ago. First, I want to complain about something. Social media sucks my fucking asshole on April 2nd because the algorithm is feeding you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All these people's leftover April Fools posts because it's not Timeline anymore. Your TL isn't your fucking tl, it's your Al.

[B]

I don't know if you can do it on the desktop version of Instagram, but.

[A]

Oh, can you not sort chronologically?

[B]

Well, on Instagram, like, you can. You have to go to the tap down and go to, like, following. And then it's in order, but it's not the default.

[A]

And that's not on the desktop, which

[B]

is dumb because I get served stuff from three weeks ago.

[A]

Yeah, a lot.

[B]

Yeah, very annoying.

[A]

And when you're on desktop, particularly, and for my sanity, I only keep Instagram on desktop. I don't have social media on my phone. It's better for you. I don't wanna say you. I don't wanna project my own onto other people. It's better for me by all that. So anyway, Instagram definitely doesn't want you using Instagram on your fucking computer. They want you on a phone. So using Instagram in terms of clunkiness, it's about 2013, what Instagram desktop is. But like. But, yeah, algorithms. So, yeah, that drives me nuts. Okay, so get this.

[B]

There are some great. Did you see some great April Fool's car content? I saw Z tuning that built. Z1 engineering that built that 400Z I drove. It was like the new titanium trumpet exhaust. That's sort of funny. And they, I mean, they did, they did very good. Like probably AI animation. Like it looked like hand welded, four trumpets.

[A]

That's pretty funny.

[B]

Into pipes. That was a really good one.

[A]

I think I, I that in Cabo on the bunch of pickup trucks in about 2003.

[B]

You heard it for sure. There's just some good stuff. Some of the aftermarket companies had a really good time.

[A]

Yeah, a couple did. And I just, you know, I just zoned out for April 1st, but because I'm not fun. So I didn't really, I didn't get in. I don't get in on like social media trends. I posted a picture of Finn like my cat. No, you know what I, you know what I posted was the picture the memory of Carl. The day that Carl came to visit in LA and we made matzo ball soup. Or he made matzo ball soup. And then we went to APL and fucking ate everything on the menu. And then he threatened to throw me off my own roof in Venice if I didn't buy the Countach. All of those things happened in one day.

[B]

I'm just pulling the picture.

[A]

That was a good. We went three up in Avaston Vantage and that was 2018. That's how long the Aston Martin Vantage has been out in its current iteration. Current ish iteration. Wow. Cause this was the first press car. Matter of fact, this wasn't the first press car. The first press car was the white one. That was the year before. This was the facelift. This was the. Sorry, we've fixed the grill one because

[B]

the lights were too small in the beginning. Oh, that's right. Because the first one was 2016. The first one was 16 on drive. And that was a long time ago.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then.

[A]

And that was an 18.

[B]

That was slower than it should have been. They were like, it has this much horsepower. You go, sure, sure, amg. Didn't you? Okay. I can't believe you guys fit two people, three people in this car.

[A]

Well, I mean, look, two of them were, you know, probably so they were, you know, on.

[B]

But no, nonetheless, the fact that, and also for people listening, Carl is sitting on the woman, not the inverse.

[A]

Well, she shout out to Britain. She's great. But she's probably 4 inches taller than him.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah, she's like tall like a model. She's built like a model. And he was a little. Looking like a troll.

[B]

Logistics fairness there.

[A]

And it wasn't a particular. We didn't do this all the way to Hollywood, to apl. I picked him up at his hotel in Marina del Rey. We went to the Ralphs in Marina del Rey and then we went to my house in Venice.

[B]

Oh, it was like a 10 minute drive.

[A]

It was a 10 minute drive. And then we took a fucking Uber to Hollywood. But this dude made. I posted the recipe on Patreon. The greatest matzo ball soup in the history of matzo ball soup, which I think I might make this weekend. I haven't made it in about a year, but we're due. You want to make matzo ball soup this weekend?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

It takes like fucking four hours. It uses every dish in the kitchen. It's so labor intensive.

[B]

Sarah might go out of town this weekend, so she does it and I'll definitely just sit there for five hours.

[A]

Yeah, but so it made me. Because we were driving the new Vantage, the S, and it made me. I was looking, I was like, ah. I remember when was it that me and Carl had our day in the V8 Vantage. And it was 2018. So it's been like nine years this fucking thing's been on the market. Which is like, you know, a slow gestation to perfection.

[B]

Because usually they'll tweak things then like GR Corolla. I know I've mentioned a lot, but I drove 24, 25, 26. The change from 24 to 25 was totally noticeable on a racetrack.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Big jump in one year. And the change from that one, it

[A]

was a little more. It wasn't a huge amount. The jump from 24 to 25 was a big one.

[B]

Five to six, also noticeable.

[A]

Well, this is the. And this being the S, it's like I like to say S is for sorted. And like that's. If you click one post to the left on, we can just go right into it. The Aston Martin, a full post to the current one to the Vantage S, which I drove for most of the week. And Zach just had a quick go in because I thought it was a day longer than it was. And I'm very sorry for that. Folks, taking a break from the action today because this episode is brought to you by fitbod. Dude, there are so many ridiculous fitness influencers on Instagram who are trying to sell you less for more. Right? They've got a system and it's like a multi level marketing thing and it's like Manosphere adjacent. It's all bad stuff. But fitbod combines workout planning, tracking. You need to stay consistent. A whole bunch of helpful tips and Demonstrations to help you make more progress, right? Like when I'm working out, I cannot work out without professional help. Whether that's a trainer, physical therapy, I can do cardio, I can do a couple basic things, but I need my workouts adapted to my brokenness, my fitness journey. And so when you have something like fitbod, right, it makes working out an easy process. It's like having a personal trainer in your pocket because it customizes workouts based on your goals, whether that's targeting a muscle group, having better recovery, weight loss, better energy, et cetera. And it shows you how you're working your way through that process. Right? You can learn new exercises and techniques from fitbot. There's all these demonstration videos and it would help you get to a goal with a sort of step by step process. It's super, super easy. And now when I'm working out with weights, I used to not like weights anymore. I real that now when I work out with weights, I have to like start light and get heavier. And four days a week, the key to my workouts is getting to the next one. So I don't push super weight. I just try to like, I work out today, I get sweaty, I get tired and I make it to tomorrow. So it's super important to have a coach like fitbod because they create a personalized workout routine based on your goals. Those workouts adapt to your growth. Fitbod tracks your muscle recovery so you can avoid burnout and keep up your moment. And all these workouts are fine tuned by experience certified personal trainers bringing out best practices and bringing their exercise science to you. You can level up those workouts with customized fitness plans with again over a thousand demonstration videos. So level up your workout. Join Fitbod today to get your personalized workout plan. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app for free for seven days at fitbod. Me Tire, that's F I T B O D Metroid tires and oh boy. In my 44th year on this planet, BlueChew has supported our podcast. That's right, the future of erectile function is here. Bluechew Gold is changing the way millions of men are having sex in 2026. That's right. The new arousal boosting formula combines passion and performance into one tablet that dissolves under your tongue for super fast onset. No more waiting for a pill to kick in. No more moments ruined by performance. Anx the results you want when you want them. Because most ED meds only focus on blood flow, bluechew Gold goes further by combining two ingredients for blood flow with two for mental arousal and connection. So you're not just physically ready, you're actually in the mood. This type of innovation is why bluechew Gold is the number one brand in erectile dysfunction. The process is simple and all online. Get started [e-mail] and go for gold. And then it says to riff on these thought starters. But to be honest with you, Bluechew hasn't sent me any product. Get on it. Bluechew. I'm going to need to get some BlueChew. I'm going to discover my [e-mail] this reed came out of nowhere this week. I was not prepared. With product in hand, I can't tell you about my boners. So we've got a special deal for our listeners right now. When you get two months of BlueChew Gold, you get the third for free with promo code tire. That's promo code tire. Go to bluechew.com for. For more details, important safety information, and thank you for Bluechew for sponsoring the podcast, but for God's sakes, man, get me some Bluechew Gold over here. We need to endorse this product accurately. And now back to the show. Did you enjoy your day, though?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, if I hadn't gone on the launch of the regular one, I would have been kind of annoyed. But it was close. It was similar enough things so fast. And I do. The emotional side of me would buy this over a 911 Turbo. The mental side of me would buy the turbo. That's kind of my tldr.

[A]

Yeah, that's like the thinking man's choice. And this is the, like, let's fucking go.

[B]

This is the Ferrari man's choice.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But there's no Ferrari at this price. Not good one.

[A]

Really like this thing. So much like, it's. It's a. Like I would describe it like Carl's matzo ball soup. After fucking so much time simmering on the stove, the ingredients have really come together in a. In a very nice way. Whether it's applying the talents of the Formula one engineers in the off season or whether Andrew Kay, who did the Valhalla, had his hands on this thing. I didn't go on the launch for this, so I didn't speak to the engineers, but everything is super fucking harmonious in this car. The power, the tip in the brakes, the gear changes, the steering ratio, the rebound on the shocks, all of it. It does exactly the thing you pretty much want it to do. All the time, which is lovely. And then it has 671 horsepower in a very short wheelbase. And so you can spin the tires all the way into third gear if that's what you're trying to do. The only thing about this car, there's two things I don't like about it. One is the ADAs, which they need to make it stay off through restarts. This is just. This is not good. And then the other is all vantages. There was nothing that's been changed about this. It's like I need. Like, I can drive this car for 90 minutes before needing to, like, get out and stretch. I need one to two inches more legroom, seat travel. That's the only reason I would get a 911 GTS, which is the same real price as this, because turbos are more. This is cheaper than a turbo now.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

But more than a gts.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

So it's. Yeah, a loaded gts. You can knock on the door of this. A loaded GTS is more than the base price of a Vantage S. This one is 198base, 248as tested. Wow.

[B]

I mean, that's so much money also. But what's a turbo base?

[A]

A turbo base is like 230.

[B]

Oh, geez. Okay.

[A]

You know, and the one. The Turbo S that we are giving away. And by the way, our Turbo S is a DOT one.

[B]

Right.

[A]

The new one's even more expensive. Our turbo S is 275. But it's loaded. It's got a bunch of options in it. Go to our Instagram link in bio to enter to win our Turbo S. By the way, the best Turbo S is a free Turbo S. Very true.

[B]

That's absolutely true.

[A]

Yeah. But it really makes this thing seem like. I mean, and again, we're talking about funny money for rich people, but it does make it in the game of Top Trump. Seemed like kind of a bargain.

[B]

Well, I think it's a competitor finally, which it wasn't in the middle, in my opinion.

[A]

It's a dynamic competitor.

[B]

It's a dynamic competitor. And I think it's also. The aesthetics are there now, for the most part.

[A]

Very pretty.

[B]

The speed is there, which wasn't there for a little while. It was almost like the V8 Vantage in those earlier days was closer to the 911. Not the turbo, of course, but, like, it was pretty good dynamically. It had pretty good power, and you could make the case for it. And then I feel like in the middle, it just. It aged poorly, and they made some Bad decisions. They didn't have the money, basically. And now it's kind of.

[A]

Well. And also adding in context, in the first half of this car's life cycle, the AMG GT was a thing which had the same engine and a better

[B]

gearbox, and it was cheaper.

[A]

And it was cheaper and arguably prettier.

[B]

I agree with you. And the interior, much prettier, like, as a place to sit, made a great race car. And, you know, this is just my take. When I drove this car on the old one on the track, it just felt like. It felt like there were some horses that didn't make it on the boat from Germany to England. You know, I don't know. The AMG GTs always felt faster, tighter, all that stuff, so.

[A]

But now, in the nine years they've been making this, they've gone inch by inch, refining this, getting better, getting better. More power, tighter, better dampers, better handling, better brakes, better wheels, better cohesion. The AMG GT is still competent, but is now a fairly soft GT car. Less pretty, heavier.

[B]

It kind of turned into the sl.

[A]

Well, they did. They merged those two things into one product. And then also, all 911s have gotten more expensive faster than this has gotten more expensive.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

And so now you can get a pretty bad motherfucker Aston, which is in the hierarchy of exotic car, probably perceived higher than most 911s for what is actually seems like fairly reasonable money.

[B]

I think if you ask most people at a curb, what costs more, this car or a gts, they're gonna probably go with the Aston because the name, the marketing, all that stuff, it is. And it's. It's a rarer thing to see.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So the s is only 14 more horsepower than the regular car. Yeah, it's more about the handling and stuff, right?

[A]

Yeah. And. And it's. It's. It's a damper tuning. It's got. It's got the ceramic brakes and. And all that stuff that. That come with it. And then there's trim, but it's. Usually. It means more to me as like, a signifier within Aston Martin of, like, we finally nailed this one. Like, whenever you get to an S, you're like, ah. The biggest difference was the fucking Rapide. Remember the Rapide, dude? The first one was a pig. And then the S was like, whoa, what'd you guys do? This is all right. You know, Fucking ripped. We went to. The launch was at a track. It was at Atlanta Motorsports Park.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

It was a hard track. I was like, wow, this is Fucking all right, you guys doing it. And it was like, it was a big but vanquish to vanquish S, you know, the last vantage S was a big change. Although arguably the seven speed manual was a step back from the six speed. But you know, that notwithstanding. Fucking cool car.

[B]

Very cool car.

[A]

It's so nice. Everyone who saw it, like loved it. Although I did not get a lot of like love on the street, like people. And like I said, I think, did I mention that there was an identical car and even that person like didn't acknowledge it? There doesn't seem to be a lot of like just, you know, people in traffic looking at it. There's not a lot of like if you're, if you're seeking attention, it's the wrong car is what I'm saying.

[B]

Now, what cars have you driven in the last year that did get lots of attention?

[A]

That's a good question.

[B]

Like, I'm wondering if this is just people in traffic looking at their phones and they're not really noticing cars. That right?

[A]

Well, LA is a tough because there are so many nice cars here. So you really, you have to drive something wild for people to really give a shit. Hmm. You know, that's a very good question, I would say. Well, if I have to narrow it to new cars, that makes it tough too. Oh man, that's a harder question than I expected. Clapman guys taking a break from the action because support is coming in fast. Like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford who's now got a podcast. And you're always asking me what I'm listening to when not recording this show. And right now it's this, the new season of Drive with Jim Farley. In it, the Ford CEO talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving and what drives them to succeed. Like Formula one driver Daniel Ricardo. Listen, there's a well worn trope about racing drivers not being interesting to listen to, but if there is one that is interesting to listen to, it is Daniel Ricardo. I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great. And look, Jim is a racing driver also. I personally raced against him like two months ago. And for me, a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends is about the pinnacle of ceodom when it comes to car companies. So the two of them together obviously have a lot of things to discuss on on Drive with Jim Farley, which you can get on your podcast app. Very easy to find Drive with Jim Farley. Check it out. What have you experienced those people really looking at? I'M really struggling to answer. I mean, there's like. Like the. Like revuelto of the C8.

[B]

When the C8 was new, because it was a new idea. Sure, that got a lot of attention, the Alpine, but it got question marks. Like, I had more people say, what is that? And look at it. But I was shocked by the number of heads that turned. Also, in Monterey, it was car week.

[A]

I mean, I guess the spectre, although it was a little more than I wanted, driving one of those revologies around where it looks like a brand new 1969 Mustang, like that. That gets a lot of the. I mean, I'm a broken record, but the Manx.

[B]

Yeah, of course.

[A]

I mean the Manx.

[B]

Because that's an oddity. And it's also bright. I mean, it is literally a bright signal in traffic.

[A]

I drove it to dinner last night in Venice. And driving into the sunset, going around the marina, I just looked at her hand and I was like, it's so sparkly. I just said. I said. I was like, it's so sparkly. She's like, do you hear yourself?

[B]

The depth, dude. The depth of the gel coat.

[A]

Yeah, it's crazy.

[B]

When we were at the factory and I looked at it, I mean, it was a little bit like being on a hallucinogen.

[A]

It shifts.

[B]

There's thick, clear coat, and then you can see it's like looking at a bed of crystals, right? You know, and you could like zoom into it. It's nuts, right?

[A]

Because it's not paint with flake in it. The flake is suspended in the gel, which has a depth to it. And therefore there's flake at different heights. So that when you move your head back and forth or turn across the light, it creates a fucking tr. Yeah, yeah. It's the best. It's fabulous. But like. Yeah, no, I'm just saying, not a lot of, like, dang, like, not a lot of street cred in terms of. If you want a tent now, it doesn't mean I took it up to up the mountain on a Friday and people asked about it. People are interested in it. You know, it's very. No one. No one was like, ew. And it's a hat. I forgot because I haven't had a coop in a while. The ones I've taken home for the last six years have both been roadsters. The hatchback. Great golf clubs. I delivered a gun safe to Corey.

[B]

You did?

[A]

I mean, one of those ones that goes. It was my golf clubs, my golf shoes, a duffel bag. Cause I had to shower before going to Sergio's after golf. And then a gun safe there, look. Oh, I took the gun. The gun safe was in the empty space in the top right where the.

[B]

When we had a picture. This is a lot. The golf clubs go across, you know, like a Corvette. But you got a lot of bad. It's a lot of depth until you get to that small.

[A]

And then my shoes. My shoes and that other thing.

[B]

Totally usable space.

[A]

Those are my other shoes. Go up on the shelf up top. Like, you could. You could live out of this car for a couple of weeks.

[B]

Definitely.

[A]

For sure.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If you wanted to, like, travel the country road tripping, this would be an excellent car to do it in.

[B]

The only thing when I jumped in this car that I did not like about it is the seats. By comparing to a 911's like 18

[A]

ways compared to an 18 way.

[B]

But I think the thigh bolster is just. Is a little too short, and that's kind of it. So for really long term driving, you

[A]

like very long thigh.

[B]

I do. I like it to go to the knee pretty much. Yeah.

[A]

I want almost like, you know, horse like. No, you like a long thigh bolster.

[B]

I do, yeah. I want as much support because I think for me, with my body, like, the more pressure moves back, like, the more it's on my spine and tailbone.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I. I have problematic tailbone due to the snowboarding. Wrong.

[A]

I actually, if I extend the thigh bolster too long, have, like, it creates a problem somewhere else.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Yeah. So I need. Yeah. But on the 18 ways, I put it out, like, maybe an inch.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But if I. But even if I don't put it out at all, it's still kind of fine.

[B]

Well, you spent more time in this,

[A]

so how did you.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

The seat. The Porsche seats are better if you're talking about an 18 way. It's better if you're talking about like a base Porsche seat or a bucket. I'd rather spend the time in this. But that one inch of leg room that I don't have in this car, like, here's how I know that it's a difference. I spent a half a day driving it barefoot because I had, like, flip flops on, and I was going somewhere with flip flops. So, like, I drove it an hour each way barefoot to golf. I drove it all the way to fucking Moore Park, 60 miles each way barefoot. And when I can stretch my legs out or tuck my feet, like behind the pedals or whatever, different sensation at the end of that trip than trying to drive it with the shoes on, where I have that extra, you know, half, three quarter inch on that pedal.

[B]

Right, yeah. It's so interesting. It's interesting for people, like just highlighting how different everybody is. You and I think have the same inseam.

[A]

32.

[B]

Oh, I'm a 30. Okay. That's different.

[A]

Yeah, I'm 31. 32 inseam, depending on an inch different.

[B]

But that's pretty like.

[A]

But that inch. Yeah, it's nothing and it's everything. It's a. It's a big difference. Not just the inch, but also the fact that specifically Porsche's pedal box is wider. There's no engine up there, you might notice. And so even if I'm wearing these NBS, which you see my new NBS, these are the 1000s. These are kind of fun. Even when I'm wearing NBS, I can put my left foot between the brake pedal and the dead pedal all the way down. And the Aston didn't have a space for it.

[B]

You do feel like you're sitting a little closer, you know? You know, like in a Formula one car in this thing, like the tunnel is really tall. The. I mean, the door sills on everything now are really tall. But I felt like I was really sunk down in the car. And some people, Harris famously, really like to sit as low as possible.

[A]

I do too.

[B]

I like a little more visibility. Like sometimes, you know, people are looking just over the top of the wheel and I want to be able to see more than that. But this thing, the hips on this thing are very wide. It looks like overhead view of this and911. It'd be very interesting. I don't know off the top of my head, the measurements, but like. So this almost looks like a rear engine car.

[A]

It's probably not. Yeah, I bet you like the stag. The wheel tire proportions are not that different. A 911 will have this thing from 0 to 60. Obviously the traction is going to be an issue here versus a 911. But beyond that, if you got two buddies dicing it up on a canyon road or if you've got two people at a track day running, lap times, I think it's going come down to driver. I think. I think the better driver could drive the car, either of the cars faster. I don't think they're. I mean, it might be, you know, a small number of. A small amount of time, a lap difference if the Stig is doing it or something. But like on any given track day, the better driver Will be faster in either this or an equivalently loaded up 911 GTA. I think a 911 Turbo S would probably be quicker than this on a track. I think it's capable of that.

[B]

Definitely. Also all wheel drive.

[A]

All wheel drive. Super clever.

[B]

Everything that makes sense.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

2025, the rear track width of the Vantage was 65.2 and 2025 GTS rear track width is 61.2. So.

[A]

Requires more.

[B]

Requires more actually. Which is when I backed it into my garage. I was really paying attention to those walls.

[A]

Got big hips in there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Fucking cool car. Yeah.

[B]

Cool thing.

[A]

I guess we'll Talk about the M2Cs next show. We should say we should. Should we talk about Dream Cruise?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This year Zach and I are changing up a little bit. We're not gonna go to car week. Instead we are gonna go to Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise. I have rented us a beautiful house. I'm not gonna say exactly where it is, but it is very affordable. God, what a terrible fucking picture they use to promote this. That makes it look like a boring ass sock hop cars and coffee, doesn't it?

[B]

It does.

[A]

If you don't know what this is, I've been before like 10 years ago. It's pretty fun. It's the same weekend every year as Pebble Beach. It's in Detroit and on Woodward Avenue for not the entire length of Woodward, but miles and miles of. Of basically becomes anything is street legal, whatever historical car. Yeah, one of those. Yeah, that's. Even the Wikipedia page is better. Thousands and thousands of cars. You know, we talk about Pebble Beach. Traffic is a crazy place to find yourself. Right? You could be in traffic in pebble beach and There's a Ferrari 250LM next to you and there's a 73 RS that raced in period in front of you. And like that's a crazy thing. But you do that enough, you need to change. This is. Imagine that same traffic, the same level of surrounded by craziness. But it's not the shit you see at Pebble Beach. It's tuner cars and crazy muscle cars and a guy that built a fucking sleigh that's towed by eight Harley Davidsons that he's somehow controlling. I like to joke that the word contraption is never used at pebble beach, but it is in Detroit. Even in this photo, which is just pulled off Wikipedia. Look, parked on the sidewalk. You got tens of thousands of people lining the sidewalk just watching people cruise their crazy shit back and forth. And Then you've got car shows the whole way. They're open to the public. Almost nothing is ticketed.

[B]

You got like Pantera club here. I'm a huge fan. It goes all the way down, dude.

[A]

Yeah, there's like 30 Panteras right there. And there's. Look, there's a C4 Corvette with a Greenwood kit. There's some kind of bizarre little yellow hot rod thing behind it. I see a Porsche. I see a 911 cab back there. I see another C3 Corvette at the traffic light. Is that like a Diablo or something? That gray thing? Like there's like a prototype. Yeah. What is that?

[B]

I think it's a C5.

[A]

Oh, is it? It looks like something kind of wedgie.

[B]

It does look wedgie, but the front looks C5 to me.

[A]

But you will absolutely see Italian exotic classic. Italian exotics and crazy shit. Oh, a police cruiser with some kind of Gian drag set up. So anyway, we think this would be fun. A change of pace, something different to do. See and talk about. We got a house. Oh, is that a map up top? Oh, dude, that's this photo. What a great photo. This is the kind of shit this was from 2020. Sorry, but that photo was. Dude, look at all the stuff we can find in this one photo. Oh, this is gold. So you've got, starting from the bottom right, you've got a trans AM 70 giant blower.

[B]

Hell yes.

[A]

You've then got like maybe some kind of Roush Mustang convertible next to it. An Acura NSX 2017. There's an Excalibur. There's like a Unimog with a bunch of dudes rolling in the back.

[B]

Buick not often seen today. Buick 60, maybe a GTO or a 66 GTO convertible.

[A]

Then behind it, some weird Bel Air modified.

[B]

That's terrible. But that's what that. Yeah, that's like a 58 Bel Air with a Corvette grill. And that's just a bad. That's a contraption.

[A]

Then a F150 with MAGA flags on it. Yeah. And then some kind of Firehawk maybe. Yeah. Trans Amy. And then a Challenger. Maybe a Red Eye or a Demon.

[B]

It's over here now.

[A]

And then a muscle cars. There's an Eldo.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Right Fin tail Caddy going the other way. So this is just. This is one random snapshot of a thing.

[B]

I'm so about it. I mean, I used to go hot August nights like annually for a couple years. And this is like a much bigger version of that which will have is love way more Cars. Well, not more cars. Probably a wider diversity of cars.

[A]

Well, it's just a different vibe. It's a totally different.

[B]

And they do the. Do they still do the roadkill nights, like, drag race down the street?

[A]

I think so.

[B]

Awesome. Crazy.

[A]

And so I've put in a few phone calls to people that might be able to get us interesting and unique cars to cruise in. You know, I haven't called the guys with the Drift Hummer.

[B]

That thing's nuts.

[A]

The Drift Hummer.

[B]

We should cruise that up.

[A]

That was pretty good.

[B]

Yeah. Cummins diesel, right?

[A]

Yeah, it was a Cummin. No, it was a Duramax. Thousand horsepower Duramax with an Allison gearbox and a rear drive conversion. Yeah, it was very good. And I do have one story idea that's very. That I don't want to even talk about until I know if it's gonna happen or definitively not happen. But anyway, the reason I bring it up is. Cause I'm sure we have some fans in Detroit. And so if any of you guys know about interesting things. And please don't give us, like, don't say roadkill nights if you know some interesting, cool, local shit that's going down in Detro for Dream Cruise, specifically. Stuff that's, I would say, in the sort of Royal Oak to Birmingham corridor, which is, I think, where we're gonna be probably spending most of our time. Do let us know in the comments or whatever. And I'm trying to see if there's a way we can do a live show there. So we'll see. But we do have the house, which is a starting point. And, yeah, people. If people are a little burnt out on Pebble Beach. I think this is gonna be a fun. A really fun alternative. It's so different.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And like, the question will be, if we get our trailer, do we end up, like, hauling like, the Manx or something out there? Does that become something that's worthwhile?

[B]

The Manx would be a good thing to cruise around that.

[A]

It would.

[B]

It fits in.

[A]

It would. Yeah, but it's a long. You know, it's probably like. Like a three day. It's. No, I drove the fucking Taycan back from there.

[B]

It's four days and you're towing now.

[A]

Yeah, but I was driving an ev, so that's the same.

[B]

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's the same. Average speed, man.

[A]

That's a fucking wash. Average speed. Yeah, yeah, No, I. You know. Ooh, four days.

[B]

That's a long time.

[A]

No, if I had to, I would just ship it, but I don't want to tow it that far. That's just a waste of fucking time. But anyway, Shout out to Detroit. I loved it. I don't care what anybody says. I'm just kidding.

[B]

That's cool.

[A]

I do love Detroit.

[B]

I mean, I haven't been there in 10 years.

[A]

Detroit is a city full of flavor, a good time. And Dream cruise is the best time to be there. It's a total, total shit show. Just.

[B]

I mean, how many people show up for this thing? It's gotta be hundreds and hundreds, Hundreds of thousands.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And it's not like, it's not like, you know the Tour d', Elegance, right? Which is the thing that if you want to win a trophy at Pebble Beach Concours, you have to do this drive down Big Sur and back and you have to complete it in order to win. Not to show, but to win. And so watching it is fabulous. You pull over on the side of this extraordinarily beautiful place and these fucking $10 million gilded era shit comes by and race cars. And you've seen the photos, you know what it is, but it's like an hour. It happens and then it's over. This from Thursday until Sunday morning, this is going on. It doesn't turn off. I mean, maybe it turns off kinda at like three in the morning. I don't know, I was asleep last time. But like, far as I know, it doesn't turn off. And the house I got is walking distance from Woodward. So like we can get absolutely fucking shithoused at our house and then just walk over to Woodward with a yeti cooler. I mean, I can't imagine there's open container laws in this city. There's basically no laws in this.

[B]

No, not during this. We saw plenty of people sitting on the sidewalk. Just if you have a cup that looks like nothing.

[A]

Yeah, post up. Yeah, we. Look what we have, buddy.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

It's going to be a fucking rum August.

[B]

I was just curious about the scale. So the hot August nights loop is four miles long. The. The Woodward Dream Cruise is 16 miles long. That's so that many more cars, that many more people hanging out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Whoa. That's crazy.

[A]

Dude. It's so like the last time I went, it took me something like like an hour and a half to do a lap. Like it was. It was like. It was like a whole morning.

[B]

Basically you're at idle speed, right?

[A]

Basically. I mean, unless you find yourself at the front and then you're obligated to like hammer down two gears.

[B]

No one is trained for this. Like us, because we live here, you know, stop and go traffic for 16 miles. We've done it.

[A]

We are pros.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then what's crazy is you go like a couple of blocks off of Woodward either way, and it's like back to normal. Detroit. Yeah. It's not like you have to deal with the traffic to go anywhere. Like, you go just a couple blocks and then it's like just a bigger

[B]

city, whereas Monterey is bigger. It's kind of traffic everywhere because there's only a few ways to get around the city.

[A]

And I love car week, but I just. I looked and it's been. It's been nine years in a row. I've gone. So it's. And I've gone like 14 of the last 16 years. So, like, I think it's. And actually the two years I didn't go fucking went to. I went to this

[B]

week every time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm excited.

[A]

So, yeah, we gotta. We're gonna. We need. We need a couple things. We need a car to cruise, and then we need to figure out, you know, what. What we can get. That's a. That's a cool enough daily. So even when we're not cruising, we're still rolling. You know, obviously it's gonna have to be something American because all those cars are there. But. And we're gonna maybe have wives and maybe have friends, so it'll probably have to be something big. But.

[B]

So Escalade V. It'll be Escalade V.

[A]

Basically what I'm saying is we're going to require an Escalade V is what I'm saying. Yeah.

[B]

Burning through gas so fast. Yeah.

[A]

I mean, let's. I don't know, idling in traffic or just a trx. The new TRX will get like one mile per gallon.

[B]

Probably. Probably.

[A]

Well, we're gonna have. You booked it. You booked it. We're going to Road America. You're racing.

[B]

Well, even if I'm not racing, I'm going. I'm coming.

[A]

Oh, my God. Imagine you fly all the way. Actually, no, just.

[B]

The license falls through.

[A]

Johnny. Johnny is out and you are in. And so, yeah, team, it's gonna be you and I and fucking Tato Seiderman and Tommy Kendall.

[B]

Rad. Amazing.

[A]

Your first race with a competition license is gonna be with Tommy Kendall. So cool. That rules.

[B]

Never. Never would have dreamed this in my life.

[A]

You'll likely be handing the car off to him because it's probably gonna be Tato, Me, you. Well, I don't know. I don't know last time that was, it was, it was gonna be Tato, me, Johnny, Tommy, but then Johnny tapped out, so it was just me. But it would probably be Tato, me, you, Tommy, but like, whatever. It's gonna be fun.

[B]

That's rad.

[A]

Amazing racetrack. Do we dodge Got us a Hellcat Durango to get from Chicago to the track and then to run practice.

[B]

Slaps Tato. The day I went over there to do sim training with with him, he's like, how do you think the Durango will be like, on the track? And I go, what do you mean? And he goes, like, how do you think it will handle some of this stuff? And after this is, after he had shown me, like his line and hitting these bumps, and I was like, you mean like curbing? He goes, yeah. Like I knew he was asking something without asking. I go, I don't think you should

[A]

do it four up first.

[B]

I think you should do it one person. Because. And then I explained to him moose test and gross vehicle weight limits and how center of gravity, like, and, and, and he had never heard of the moose test. I go, well, let me tell you how this works. So I think he should go out by himself and see before he starts doing school.

[A]

I don't think Tato's signing the. I don't think he's signing the loan agreement. He's definitely not insured to drive this vehicle on a racetrack. Absolutely fine.

[B]

All right, then you, you can do the. Because, you know, we can do the taxi laps, bro.

[A]

I show everybody capable of this. Yeah, you are. I am. Yeah. And I, I have precedent at Road America with the Trackhawk.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Excuse me. Rode Atlanta with the Trackhawk. And you absolutely can take an extremely generous. Not necessarily the exit you don't want to because you don't want your outside loaded up rear tire in grass.

[B]

No.

[A]

What you can do is cut the apex extremely generously to where if you're turning, let's say you're turning left, only the half of your right tires need to be on tarmac and the rest of the vehicle can be basically in grass.

[B]

Four wheel drive.

[A]

Go watch my Trackhawk video. It's, it's from, I don't know, 20, 19, 18, maybe 17, maybe. But it's basically the same. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to Dream Cruise and we're going racing in Road America. You can actually, if you, if you're in that area and you want to come say hi during the race, like you can. We will be there.

[B]

Tickets are cheap. Someone, a fan hit us up. It's like $10.

[A]

Yeah. To get the WRL.

[B]

Of course, it's a really cheap ticket and you can. You can get full access. Yeah. And it's all access. And you can get like a weekend pass for $18 or something like that. So very affordable.

[A]

Speaking of racing, did you see the press release this morning? This Ford GT Mark 4 ran a 616 at the Nurburgring.

[B]

What?

[A]

Technically it was like 6 15, like 9.7 or something, but we'll call that a 6 16. And. Yeah. So third fastest time ever and fastest gas only car.

[B]

Third fastest time ever for what, like, category?

[A]

Well, ever behind The Volkswagen, like, ID, whatever the fuck thing.

[B]

And then the 919 Evo.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, my God, those two. And then this. And they also. Which is amazing. I mean. And fastest petrol ever is also amazing. They also, like, made kind of made up another flavor fun statistic. In the press release. They said also it's the fastest vehicle ever that you can buy, which is a total. That is the first time anyone has ever made that distinction as regards Nurburgring time. So I applaud their PR department for making up a new statistic to crown themselves.

[B]

There's this guy.

[A]

It could be really instantly invalidated, by the way, if Volkswagen just sells the idr. Sells the IDR to some. Anybody. Anybody.

[B]

It's like when they make up Guinness World Records. Like, there's this crazy stunt guy I follow on Instagram and he's like, new world record. And what he did is they rode guy strapped to car. He's. He's operating a motorcycle next to him, no rider on it at like 150. And then he sends the motorcycle off a ramp and then he's still strapped to the car. So they just sent. They just ghost rode a motorcycle at like 150 off a ramp. And he's like, new distance record. And went for unmanned motorcycle. It's probably zero. Yes. For unmanned motorcycle jump. Yeah. The guy's like shiboter of life.

[A]

Motorcycle, cycle, distance record.

[B]

I'll find it for you. But making up records, they all do it these days. But that is.

[A]

But also, I mean, look, that's also. It's also really stretching the quote that you can buy. They made, I think, 67 of these things.

[B]

Well, and it doesn't look street. I mean, it's not street legal.

[A]

It's a race headlight. No, no, they don't claim it's street legal. It's fastest that you can buy. Which, I mean, maybe there's an implication there, but I Mean, it's a fucking sick car. And that's a crazy time did they make.

[B]

Is this all new body panels in the back. These intakes look even bigger than on the regular gt.

[A]

I think they have changed some things, but that also might be like the most perfect angle.

[B]

That's true of it.

[A]

No, I think they're bigger. I think they might be bigger. On the Mark four.

[B]

This whole gap looks bigger.

[A]

And also the front bumper doesn't seem to have headlights.

[B]

No, no, there's no headlights. I think these are just tape and intakes. NACA ducts. But that said, what's the powertrain? It's still the same.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, effect. Yeah, I mean, I think it has. It has more power than the road car, but it's not. It's not a different engine because the

[B]

IDR is full electric. 919 EVO is hybrid.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So it's pretty rad that it's closing in and it's just gasoline.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

Crazy, right?

[B]

Really crazy for them.

[A]

Six fucking sixteen. Nine something something. We'll just call it six sixteen. But like God motherfucking damn.

[B]

I think Ford's GTD unofficially beat the ZR one's time.

[A]

Yeah, I saw that, but I. Well, someone. Somebody said they did that. But then I thought that maybe it was a mistaken story and they actually should have been been. It was actually this. And they heard the rumor.

[B]

Wrong. Oh, really?

[A]

Well, I don't know. I think if Ford actually did it, they probably would have just said like, why. Why not say it if you do it?

[B]

I don't know. I'll look it up. We got the time. The fastest road registered car on the street was the MG1629.

[A]

Which, you know, sort of barely road legal there, but. Oh. Power is up on the mark IV to 780. 89 from 650. And it has a sequential gearbox, so, you know. Yeah. Obviously it's a race car, so it's got race car shit.

[B]

That's amazing. Yeah.

[A]

Good for them. 6 minute 15. 977. Fuckity fuck. That's kind of crazy, isn't it?

[B]

It's very crazy.

[A]

That's kind of crazy. Okay. And before we go to the people, because we're gonna go to the people. Get this, Zach. I called Shont over at CMS Motorsports. I look at your car there every day, our friend. You drive by it, you see it.

[B]

I walk by and I look for progress.

[A]

Yeah. Do you see any?

[B]

No.

[A]

Okay. That's because there isn't been any. But there has Been some. You just haven't seen it.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I know what you're saying. It's because I know there was, there were ideas developing.

[A]

What we're doing is building a ballroom. No.

[B]

Got canceled recently.

[A]

No. So they have another shop in the Valley. Because of course you do. When you're in Armenian, you always have another shop in the Valley.

[B]

Well, and the place here is. It's tiny.

[A]

Right. So. So I call him and I was like, hey man. And when we last left off, it was a month ago and he said when doing the powertrain swap. And again, if you're just hearing about this for the first time, I got a free Mercedes 124 Cabriolet. And I'm trying to make it awesome on the kind of cheap. That's what I'm trying to do. And my friend Shont who owns CMS Motorsports, maybe you've seen him, he's one of if not the most ridiculous Mercedes Benz builders in the country. He does all these insane Euro tuner cars. Pre merger AMGs. He collects all these cars and these parts. At pebble last year he built a shooting break, wide body like AMG Hammer. That was just so cool.

[B]

Yeah. Won the awards.

[A]

He's very creative and his team is very talented. And so anyway, he's wanted to do something with me, I've wanted to do something with him. This fucking free Mercedes fell into my lap and I said, well, wouldn't it be cool if we took this E320 and turned it into the 500E cabrio that Mercedes never made. Shawn was like, fuck to the yes, my brother. So first step is a V8 and a five speed automatic gearbox. The M119 which is the 500E.4 Cam V8 is actually like not a great engine. I mean it's a fine engine but it's. You don't need a 4 cam engine for a car that's going to putter around in traffic. What you want is torque and also the 320, which my car is, has a different length of engine compartment than the original 500E. It was longer. The M119 is a physically big engine. What you actually want is the E55's engine from 99 to that. The round or the four eye square. The first E55, 369 horsepower, naturally aspirated five and a half liter V8. That's the engine that you want. Okay. It's physically smaller and it is incredibly robust. And so anyway, that's the engine we got. I didn't realize that there were some other key differences. And so what he was doing was going to build. His brother was building something similar to this out of a coupe. So he was like, we're going to do it, and if it works good, then we just do it for your car. So to make the engine work, it's smaller, it fits. You also use the gearbox. It fits. But this 2000, 2001 E55, is throttle by wire and also has digital gauges and he wants it to look stock. So he told me, and I thought he was just gonna finish his brother's cousin car and then we'd come back to mine and whatever. He got a very short way into his brother's car when he said, you know, this would just go better if we build both cars at the same time and just double everything. You know, we do it on this car. If it works, we just. Right on this car. So he's a little further than I thought. So they have two E55 engines running on stands. They have two functional wiring harnesses. They're still trying to figure out the gauges, but they have running engines on stands. They have gearboxes. And so they actually sort of have a lot of the mechanicals needed for the powertrain swap ready to go, which surprised the shit out of me. I didn't think they were anywhere. They also have all four replacement body panels ready. Whoa. Like, they're not.

[B]

Oh, shit.

[A]

Yeah. He's like, your front and rear quarter panels are done too.

[B]

Like, you're getting close to install time for this stuff.

[A]

Yeah. Whoa. And he was like. He was like, so, yeah, like, next week you should come, like, see where we're at. And I was like, wait, really? Like, we're like, you've made body. He's like, oh, yeah, we've made. He's like, this is going to be an all steel E55. It's going to look just like Mercedes made, but it's, you know, but it's going to have this, this. This better engine. And I was like, we need to go see the material guy. We gotta. We gotta do leathers, we gotta do inlays. We gotta do, you know, make sure we order that the fabric, the right fabric that we, like, get that done.

[B]

Dude, that's crazy. When I walk by, like, it still looks like this. Yeah.

[A]

No, he hasn't put any of the

[B]

things on the car, but they've got all the parts ready.

[A]

A bunch of. Yeah. Whoa. I don't know if he's got the front and rear bumper Handy yet.

[B]

But I think.

[A]

Think he didn't need to make those. He just bought those.

[B]

But the fenders he had to make. Right?

[A]

The fenders he had to make because this is a two door and the E55 was a four door. You can't just make. The way it meets with the doors is completely different. So you make it look just like the E55 Fender or the. Excuse me, the 500 E Fender. But you make it by hand. Yeah.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

But I. Of metal.

[B]

Yeah, that's great.

[A]

Which is rad.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. And the hood. The hood, the trunk lid are both staying. They're fine. And. Yeah. So that's pretty sweet.

[B]

It's happening.

[A]

Yeah. Dude, that's a lot further than we thought, huh?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Crazy. All right, so I want to go to the people, but, man, it's been. I really. What is wrong with me? I chugged a little bit of water before and now I have to pee.

[B]

That's how it works.

[A]

Will you. Will you plug everything they get with Patreon?

[B]

Sure. Boom. If you're a new listener, what you get on Patreon is pretty awesome. For a long time, people were asking us, hey, can I get that episode sooner than when it would go up on public? When is that episode going up? People are really excited about it. So if you join Patreon, depending on the tier you sign up for, you can get an ad free experience listening and watching. You can also get the shows early, right after we record them instead of waiting a day, a week, a month until it's time to drop them to the public. You can also get exclusive or early access to rad collabs like the notice watches that Matt has designed, and top tier people, champion tier. You can get our car review videos ad free. And we also are starting to pepper in some BTS stuff, some polls asking people for feedback on our content or style of things. You get a whole bunch of stuff. It's over at patreon.com thesmokingtirepodcast tiers start at just three bucks. And now what do we do while he's urinating?

[A]

Oh, did you keep them entertained?

[B]

I did.

[A]

Yeah. That's right. Okay. What do we have going on here? Did you already tell them what they get with the Patreon? So I don't have to do that?

[B]

You don't have to do it. I did it. Wow.

[A]

That's a relief. Nishant Ketterpal says any thoughts on this car replacement? Replacing an Audi S4 B8.5 Audi S4 with 100,000 miles with a 50,000 miles mile mark 7 Golf R mark 7.5 Golf R manual year round driver in Michigan.

[B]

Perfect.

[A]

Yeah. Okay. Perfect. That's fine. Yep. I think that's fine.

[B]

Yeah. This question is more complicated and in

[A]

SoCal, what should replace a high mile Maserati Quattro Porte S that will surely need very expensive repairs soon. Four door automatic and not so collectible. So a bit of abuse is full fine for 50 to 100k. I mean I would say almost any lightly used AMG car. There's so many E63s and CLS63s or even GLE63s and all that shit. 50 to 100k gets you all of that.

[B]

All of them. They start cheaper than that if you want to.

[A]

Dude, you could probably get a lightly used E63 wagon for that.

[B]

Yes, absolutely could.

[A]

That would be my jam.

[B]

That's what I would do. I feel like that's the Maserati flavor versus anything from BMW or Audi.

[A]

I mean there might be a brand new Alfa Giulia left on the lot somewhere.

[B]

That's true. Like a Quattroporte. Like you get the fast one. Brand new.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. Quadrifoglio.

[B]

Quadrifogio. Sorry, yeah.

[A]

Quiffolio. Yeah. Ll Coolbean says with Metallica scheduled to play at Sphere later this year, I'm wondering what would be each of your dream shows to see there. I mean fucking Metallica is not far off. I'm going to that. You are Metallica with Smithsphere.

[B]

Yeah, I texted Christian to see if it's gonna be a good one.

[A]

It's going to be.

[B]

Do you have dates set and shit?

[A]

No, but our person who is there is Christian's person and I'm friendly with her as and she's fabulous. And if it had only been like a month or two since we saw you two, I would probably text her directly. But it's been like a year and I haven't seen her and I don't want to be like, hey, hey. You know, I kind of want Christian to ask for me. So I'm flexible on the dates and we are going. I'm just, I'm waiting to find out.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Keeping open. Do you have a dream show there that would be. I mean, I'll. I'll make you mean if you ask

[B]

if I can go. Because when I saw Metallica was playing there, I texted Christian also and I said, is this going to be a good one? Yeah, because there's so many variables there. And he said yes, yes, that will be rad. I also. I always thought the Sphere would be good for more, I don't know, like, slower music, because the visuals can really play, but I don't really know, but I thought Glass Animals would be cool. Something like that, where it's a little. A little trippy. They could. If they really spent the time on the visual side.

[A]

Yeah, they probably could. You'd have. You'd need a budget that I'm not sure Glass Animals could pull off. But, like, I see where your head is out there. I think Nine Inch Nails, that would

[B]

be insane, fucking epic.

[A]

Because you have Trent's creativity and I think the music would lend itself well to that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Metallica is going to be crazy because, you know, when I saw. When I went to that. The Power Trip festival, the Treatment, which is the company that is doing a lot of the Sphere stuff, did Metallica's set at this festival and it was bananas. Whoa. The visuals that they did for an outdoor festival were about the best I've ever seen for Metallica.

[B]

I had no idea that Metallica would have visuals besides just zooming in on their faces. Like. I didn't know. Didn't expect that.

[A]

No. I mean, they had the whole. It was fucking crazy. Yeah, it was really cool. Really cool. And they had a lot of fire. I don't know if you can do fire in Sphere, but you need to be a. You need to be a big band to pull off that venue. And you also can't be like, well, the Dead. You either can't be an improv band or you need to, like, be an improv band like the Dead. I know what they had to do to make that. They had to, like, make so much more than they needed because they might be like, let's play.

[B]

Let's make this stretch this song. Shrink this song.

[A]

So they had to make the. The. The visuals much more like flick flexible than U2 did, where it was incredibly, like, precise. Metallica is precise. I've seen Metallica three times. I don't think I've ever seen a band that's more precise than Metallica.

[B]

Even Lars, dude.

[A]

Go with Corey. Corey, when he came. He hates Lars.

[B]

I know.

[A]

He does so much. It's so funny.

[B]

That's rad. I think I would throw a curveball. I bet a symphony there with the right crazy visuals and maybe some enhancements would be good.

[A]

Oh, yeah, no. Bring your drugs for sure.

[B]

I would never.

[A]

No, not. Surely not. Crusty.

[B]

I would never.

[A]

Afila. Great disturbance in the first.

[B]

This name is so good.

[A]

That's really Good.

[B]

They canceled that project. That's one of my favorite names.

[A]

It was a really bad name. Now the username is good. Affila for a car.

[B]

Terrible name for a car. Commercials were weird. Great username.

[A]

Yeah. Your pets not included. Your own pets not included. Best cat and best dog among auto journalists. That's cold. Judge people's cats.

[B]

I haven't met any journalist dogs, I don't think. And also I've got it.

[A]

I must have met journalist dogs. Doesn't. Hmm.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Oh, that's a good one.

[B]

Like, we have friends that have dogs,

[A]

but I'm not really sure. Other. Yeah, we don't see a lot of these folks in their own homes. Journalist dogs.

[B]

Okay. Andrew Collins puts up photos of his dog a lot. It's a half Aussie, so that one, Wes Seiler Harris puts up photos of his. What is it? American bulldog. Like living in GT3.

[A]

Yeah, he's got one of those. Yeah. And Wes Seiler, who was on the show, has dogs. Cats, obviously. Michael T o variant Runkle, who is the guy who, along with his partner, adopted the three kittens that I found with Hannah in the tree. And those cats are unbelievable. I've never seen, like, the idea that one could randomly end up with those cats is crazy. They're so beautiful, so well behaved and so social with strangers. Like, it's. They're amazing. Yeah, Good cats. Great cats. I wish I could. Could have kept them. Coheed and Camber. Oh, ace. Superb, superb. Mid 2000s reference, if I will. We will accept any and all 2000s alt rock. What is Coheed referring to the band Coheed and Cambria.

[B]

Oh, I didn't know.

[A]

Oh, you've never heard of a band coed in Cambria? They're kind of like. Kind of like My Chemical Romance. They're of that same. They're the Deep Impact and what's the other fucking movie? Armageddon. The Armageddon and Deep Impact of that type of music.

[B]

Got it. Yeah.

[A]

My parents have an 80s Fiat Spider 2000 and the engine feels pretty meh. No shit. I've heard the carb versions of these engines are loved, but this one leaves me wanting so much more. Even though the fuel injected system is, quote, better. What are some other cars that would be better if they were worse? I mean, a lot of snobs will tell you that Lamborghini Countaches are better with carbs, but I don't necessarily agree with that.

[B]

Yeah, I think some cars. I don't know, I hear people say the Sound of the carb makes it. But the cars I've driven that have carburetors are so loud exhaust wise that I can't really hear the intake.

[A]

The Morgan 3 Wheeler, I hate to say going to the Super 3 which they make the now it has a car engine and it's quieter and it has more power and it has more emissions. Excuse me, fewer emissions. I'm sorry. And it's more reliable, it's less vibrate y and all of those things make it worse than the motorcycle engine.

[B]

You lost the umpada thumpada steampunk thing that.

[A]

Sorry guys. You didn't know why we were here in the first place.

[B]

Yeah, that's true. I mean a lot of new cars and they make them too stiff and the quest for lap times makes it worse for 90% of the people. 99% the of of the time.

[A]

Sure. Like respect to Ford and what they've done with this Ford gt, the Nurburgring, like that's insane. But if I had to go spend a day. Had to. If I got to spend a day and there's two cars in front of me and I'm going to drive the mountain passes in Switzerland or our road's here or I'm driving from here to car week and I get to drive a current gen Ford GT or I get to drive an 06 Ford GT. I will take the 06. So like it's slower, it has less power, it's a manual. It's not blah blah blah blah blah. And when they tried to race one, it was garbage as a race car. But it's better on the road because it's worse. Yeah. Okay. Llcardier. I work mostly from home but have to drive out of state once a month. I want to do it all car for long drives and quarterly track days. And I have racing experience. So the car needs to be legitimately fun. I'm thinking 996 Porsche first gen M2E 90 M3. I've got 35 grand and it's got to have a back seat big enough for a baby. Okay. I really like the specificity of this. The car is pretty much for road trips and track days. So that's a tough thing because a lot of ways those are like kind of opposites.

[B]

They are. But I think the cars he's listed, I mean the duality, the dual ability of those is very.

[A]

I agree.

[B]

Is part of that car's ethos. Like and you can get M2s. I'm looking at cars and bids around 30 grand with 26,000 miles on them.

[A]

Really?

[B]

I've talked to people that have these cars and they all profess the reliability of them. And I say how many miles are on the car? And it's like 30,000. They're pretty fine. So that might be a good choice. Check the forums.

[A]

But a first gen M2 is a great choice. It really is a 996. It's not that there's anything wrong with it, but if it doesn't have like service records and I don't mean service records that are like the oil's changed and blah blah blah. I mean like at this point the newest 996s need like bushings and they should have had like motor mounts and like all the shit that comes up. These are 20 year old cars. So for you like a great, great996 that needs nothing is gonna be like 45, 50 grand probably. You know the kind that you're gonna like. Road trip and track days are like two pretty high pressure environments. You're gonna strain this car at the track and you're gonna be far from home a lot, you know a lot with this thing. And these are out of state drives, probably for work or for something important I'm guessing. So like it's not that these cars aren't dependable but, but like the one you buy is gonna either have needs or you're gonna pay for the one that doesn't have needs. I know this cause my neighbor just bought a 996 4S and he's into it. It's a great color combo. It's got reasonably low miles and he got it for a good price. It's got like 60 some thousand miles. I think he paid 40 grand for it but. And right in the first like week some things have like come up, you know like the check engine light is this and he hit a bump and heard a thing and now he needs to get it checked and you know, just, just stuff like that.

[B]

Do you think an S would be more expensive than A4s because it's less sought after?

[A]

There are no 996s's sorry.

[B]

Just not regular rear wheel drive.

[A]

Sure. It'll certainly be less expensive than a 4S.

[B]

It'd be less expensive than 4S.

[A]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

But 35 grand is.

[A]

But they all, it doesn't matter. They all, they all need something.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

So like your money. If you could buy like a five year old car or a four year old car for that kind of money versus a 20 year old car if you like need it as a car. You know what I mean? I would do that. Like my home, my neighbor like has a regular car. Like so if this thing's in the shop, he's whatever, he's fine. Okay, listen, there's here's a question just exactly related to what we were doing is that with 996 coupe prices now hitting 40k for the good ones, at what point is a 996 no longer quote worth it? Is it a 40k driving experience in 2026 or are there other two twos that deliver a similar experience for that price? There are no cars that feel like 911s. Yeah, there's no similar experience.

[B]

Doesn't exist because there's nothing else. That's rear engine.

[A]

I mean. Yeah, that's why that car is what it is. There's nothing like it. There is no substitute one might say. But like 40k was 30k 5 years ago like in like inflationary reasons. So like everything else is like, is more expensive. It's not like there's some new option that's come out that's affordable, an affordable alternative to the 911. I mean they're kind of just like isn't. Sorry to say.

[B]

I think this person has to write down, you have to remove the rear engine platform and feel from the equation and, and think about what else do you want from a driving experience. Like do you want precise controls, do you want speed, do you want grip and handling? Do you want a quiet, quiet interior on a highway? Like other aspects that the 911 also has, can you get those somewhere else for 40 grand or less? Like I think the MT delivers a lot of those things just as an example. But if you wanted like outright grip and maneuverability you could drop to like a GR86. But it's not going to be quiet on the highway like a 911. It doesn't have the curb presence of a 911. So you have to look at other things you want because 40 grand's pretty cheap. Yeah, that's a low budget.

[A]

Yeah. And you know, either you can pay for a good one or you can get a cheaper one and have to put question mark mark you know, into it once you get it home. My fucking poor physical therapist got this 996, also a 4S and dude, the cat blew out like a thousand miles into him owning it. And an OEM replacement cat was like $9,000. And even the MagnaFlow like you know, car BL he wants to pass smog. He's like, no, this is, this isn't a fucking. This guy's not like a hot rod guy. He's a fucking physical therapist. The MagnaFlow replacement that would pass CARB, it was about 3,800, still a huge amount of money, but it was backordered for like four months. And so homie's car just sat at bbi who felt very bad but couldn't do anything. And he had to, he had to do a bunch of stuff to this car. He had to have the shifter linkage adjusted, do the service, the cats, have the car corner weighted because it had coilovers on it, but they were set up all fucked up. So, you know, he bought this car and then he had to do immediately within 1,000 miles, like seven, $8,000 worth of shit. And then the car had to sit

[B]

for a while, you know, 10 to 20% the value of the car. Yeah. And that hurts because you go, I wasn't planning. When you bought a car, you wanted to spend X. If you knew you were going to spend 20% of that right afterwards, maybe you would have just bought a more expensive car.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. So Chef Carl's spice tolerance, going to Tuscany for a month in the fall, doing a food wine tour. That sounds all. Is it worth trying to rent an interesting car, bike or scooter while I'm there, or is the transit and walking situation good enough? Well, I mean, if you're staying in Tuscany for a month, the food, wine. Alright, so this sounds awesome, by the way. Congrats. If you're doing the food wine tour, presumably they are going to bring you to the places you need to go. I hope so. You don't need any transport for that. I think, having said that, when Hannah and I went to Tuscany for our food and wine school tour, we did rent a little hatchback Alpha Julietta. It was fairly shit. It was not that fun. But at the moments that we weren't required to be at a place, we did have options. And then once the school ended, we did drive around to some different places and drive to Rome and whatever. So like, yeah, having transport if you're in Tuscany for a month is probably good because there's villages. But in between the villages I'm sure there's some kind of transit. But like, if you've got the budget to rent a little something. Something you probably want to. Yeah, it's amazing. You can hike, but there's like the wine trail and you can hike the wine trail between the villages, which is which is awesome. I love Tuscany. The user formerly known as Donnie's cellmate. As men who had their early to mid-20s in one of the roughest times in American history, what general advice do you have for Jesus, 20, 25 year olds going through our more formative years of adulthood right now? Shit. Yeah. I mean, I was 26 when the 08 crash happened, so I certainly. I definitely saw one of them when I was in my 20s. Dude, I don't fucking know.

[B]

There's a lot of unpredictables.

[A]

Well, there is one thing that's predictable and that's that people will continue eating and shitting. So if you get into an industry that involves people eating or shitting, you will be foolproof. No, I mean, I don't know, man. We should probably ask my dad that because he's been through like five recessions, my dad. When I talked about the economic situation right now, my dad liked to remind me that he bought our first house in New Jersey at 19% interest in 1970.

[B]

For houses used to be a lot higher. The houses were cheaper and there's a whole thing there. But like, that is true.

[A]

Yeah, no, but say that. But I think, I don't know, Patience maybe. I think the power of compounding interest.

[B]

I mean, that is a thing. Like I'd say start investing or start at least saving. That's what I'd say to someone in their 20s. Like, I don't know, it's hard. You're not making any much money and you want to do a lot of stuff. Just save some money, like 5 or 10% of your paycheck, even if you save it in cash, which is different. Appreciating. Because saving money now will give you options or security later. And that's something I wasn't able to do or figure out till I was like in my 30s.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And it can allow you to quit a job that's terrible or go back to school or a trade school to get a better job or do a different thing. Like money gives you flexibility and you probably won't have a lot of it in your 20s, but you can at least have some where it gives you less stress, some options.

[A]

That's a good point.

[B]

I would say that, that. And look, there are like. To your point, Matt, there are going to be some jobs that will last through AI. The, the guy that's going around and he was like a, an AI programmer at Google is saying jobs in trades, like things that require hands. Yeah, he's like, H vac robots are not going to be Able to install, crawl into crawl space, do that for decades, 100 years. Like, yeah, getting a job like that, it'll pay well. It will be physical. It's, it's not sitting at a computer, but. Which is probably a good idea. I mean jobs that require some physical activity that a bolted in machining robot can't do is probably a good idea.

[A]

Yeah, built, making things, building things, fixing things. You know, fixing people's, people's real world problems. You know, also like, you know, like you just said, I mean, with saving. I read this book recently and it wasn't a fucking very good book and I didn't get a lot out of it, so that's why I haven't really talked about it. But one passage that did work for me and I'm not gonna be the guy who quotes the book, but he was talking about saving and he basically said by saving you're buying your future time. Which is a good way to think about because I think one of the problems I hate to be. I'm not gonna be the guy who's like, these kids don't wanna work. Some of the people I talk to in other industries are very much like, these kids don't want to work. And I'm sort of like, look, if they don't see that their work is building to something, if they don't see that their company or their society or their city or their civilization will somehow take care of them for the work that they're doing, but why would they try? Why wouldn't they just take every day off they can take and whatever and be a fucking slacker? If it all seems bad, bleak, then of course what are you investing for? So I understand that young people feel that way and maybe act accordingly. But yeah, if you can save money, what you're buying is your future time, which odds are you'll live long enough to want some. Odds are you'll want to have some time in your future at some point where you want to be able to make a choice to short term or long term, not work.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So like you kind of have to start early if you don't want to. You don't want to find yourself at fucking 45 with nothing. Yeah, that's, that's shitty.

[B]

Yeah, it's real bad because you're, you will also have to continue eating and shitting.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I, yeah, when I see people that are like Walmart greeters at advanced age and maybe some of them might be doing it because they want something to do, but to be obligated to work at a very late age I think would be really hard and it. And especially physically difficult, mentally difficult. And to put yourself in that. If you can prevent that position now, because you can if you're in 2025, even just with a little bit of savings and money, I would recommend that. And also go out and live and meet a lot of people from a lot of different walks of life and like go make mistakes and expose yourself to lots of different stuff.

[A]

That too. That too. Do the Lancer evolution pretty good?

[B]

It's good.

[A]

When we think of douchey or trashy drivers, dudes in lifted trucks or G37s come to mind first. Maybe for you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In LA they're 90% model threes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What do trashy women drive? This question can't get me in trouble at all. I think what is a trashy woman?

[B]

I think it always depends on where, where you are. Like regionally in the city, you know, shitty people drive everything. Some just have bigger budgets. So it depends on how you define trashy too.

[A]

Yeah. Ecold911 says. Thinking about those hypercar collectors who rarely drive their cars, do they service them based on mileage or time? And if time. Would you be hesitant to buy a low mileage example versus a high mileage car that's had more frequency servicing? A lot of those folks send the car to service once a year whether it gets driven or not. So I imagine most cars you're buying in that there's going to be a couple of shitters out there. There's going to be cars that have been crashed or. Oh, that one was Prince Jeffrey's car. It's got glitter all over it and it's full of fucking sand or something.

[B]

Maintenance skipped.

[A]

No, we don't have a lot of hypercars here at Westside Collector Car Storage, but we have a lot of high value air cooled stuff. And your singers, your gunthers, your roofs and stuff like that and then your run of the mill quote supercars. The vast majority of these cars will go to service once a year whether they're driven or not. So miles don't bother me on cars. If I was McLaren shopping, I'd want some miles. I don't, I don't want a car that's got 1500 miles and sat for two years. I'll take an 8,9000 mile car that's been through a few services and been through a set of tires.

[B]

Because those seals, you want that liquid splashing around to every part of the seal. If it just sits and then Gets serviced. There's stuff deeper in the engine or in the diff or whatever that's just not really getting any attention from the liquids and it might dry out quicker. Yeah.

[A]

Ideally a car does thousand to 2,000 miles a year kind of minimum. Keeps things moving, dude. Elitist. Erewhon shopper says thoughts on the refreshed 2026 Lexus IS. You know what's so funny? I didn't even know there was a refresh. I was driving down La Brea the other day and I saw this weird looking Lexus front end and I was like what is that a prototype? What is it? And no, it was the facelifted is which has a very Prius like nose on it. Is that, would you describe that as? It looks like a Toyota ized front end more so than a Lexus. I see like, I see like GR Corolla and Prius in this front end more than I see Lexus.

[B]

I wonder if Toyota has come to. I mean it still has the giant mouth. It does that Lexus started. I think it's pretty good looking car.

[A]

Yeah, no, I'm not saying it's bad. I just, I, I saw this on the street and I was like oh shit. I guess Lexus went and did it without telling your boy over here.

[B]

So wait, let me see. 20, 26. I think the Prius has. Oh come on Toyota.

[A]

I don't know, I feel, I feel like it. I mean obviously it's a bigger, it's a much bigger grill but from the middle section up I think it's got some Prius in it.

[B]

This hood looks very gr and 86 to me which I think it's a good looking bolt.

[A]

No, you're right, it's more 86 and GR Corolla than it is Prius.

[B]

Yeah, but with you. I didn't know they were going to refresh it. Keep it going. This thing's got legs. They keep just changing. Every couple years they change the headlights. I know it's a facelift and I haven't driven one since the IS500.

[A]

The 500.

[B]

I haven't driven a regular one since long before that. I mean like 22 miles per gallon so bad. Six seconds.

[A]

That is.

[B]

These are bad numbers, not competitive. These two things are why I didn't buy an IS 300 back in the day. They're not that fast but they consume a lot of gasoline.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's still the case.

[A]

Yeah. How about that? Interesting. Revved up like a deuce. Front collision warning systems are. I'm Assuming pretty effective, what do you think of a rear collision warning system to potentially prevent getting rear ended in sudden traffic slowdowns, et cetera?

[B]

It's a really fascinating question.

[A]

How do you suppose that would work? Right, so let's play this out. I am. Okay, here we go. I'm here and I'm coming to a. Coming to a stop. Okay, here we go. I'm coming. The microphone is traffic, so I come to a stop. Okay, and now here you are barreling down. And so what is my rear collision avoidance system going. Going to do?

[B]

Right, because what are my choices? A front collision system stops you because you are moving. I don't know. Do they have evasive steer plugged in now? But like a rear one, if you are stationary, it would have to then begin moving. Right. And it would have to look ahead of you and to the sides, theoretically, I guess to the sides. See what gaps exist around you and then decide to accelerate aggressively and shoot for. For a gap between cars or moving lanes. Also, while reading the language of the car that's approaching behind you and going, if I duck to the right lane, that car is not going to do right. It's going to stay the course and hit the car that's in front of me. Just seems like complicated and dangerous.

[A]

And also if you're not, if this system has come on, it's because a rear ending is imminent and you haven't already taken an action. So now the car is going to start driving by itself and you're not gonna know why aggressively, and you're gonna freak out and slam on the brakes, probably hampering it from doing the thing it's trying to do, I think. All right, if you really want to prevent getting rear ended, what we need are obviously rear mounted rockets that will blow the car up. It'll be more effective if it gets too close.

[B]

Yeah. Or a ramp that you deploy. You have ramp on the back of the car and if it's impending, it drops and it sends the car over you. Also imagine how many, you know, how many times you drive a car and it has the front collision warning that just turns on. No, like you're taking a left on a street. Imagine if it suddenly accelerated because it thinks there's a rear ending happening.

[A]

Problematic BBI Autosport. Is there a perfect place to test a car that showcases everything about its driving dynamics in one look?

[B]

Location, proving grounds.

[A]

Yeah, an oem. I mean, second to that, I think there's an argument for the Nurburgring. I think that one would have to, because The Nurburgring is a place. The Nurburgring is also a thing that people like. When I say, say the car was tested on the Nurburgring, you assume that somebody is out there trying to go as fast as possible, should one want to. They could also use the Nurburgring as a road to test ride quality, to test all kinds of different things if you wanted to. Like, the Nurburgring can be used for other things besides pure speed. So I'm suggesting that you could use the Nurburgring for everything, even things that are not related to speed. But then you essentially have a proving ground, right?

[B]

Well, BMW, they use Los Angeles and I think they do a lot of efficiency testing here. We see them in the canyons a lot. They're probably doing. I mean, I think in the canyons you can do ride quality, you can't do limit, you know, grip or braking. But I think what I would want is a road that has bumps, hard braking, some sweepers, and then just. Just a lot of bumpy shit. So I know one place, but la. Pretty good.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, I would say the pairing of a racetrack and Angeles Crest highway in the Angeles Forest is a pretty good place. And that's why most OEMs can be spotted up there once in a while. Yeah, I blow horns. Can you describe how the forces and sensations in the steering wheel and seat change when one fits lightweight, unsprung components like carbon ceramics or carbon fiber wheels? Sure. So you'll have less resistance to start spinning the tires. So when you accelerate, you'll have less mass to get moving. So your acceleration will be snappier and more responsive. You'll also have less inertia going forward when you transfer from throttle to brake at the end of the front straight. And because your wheels and rotating mass is lighter, your brakes have to work less hard to slow that all down. And then you have a gyroscopic effect of your front tires turning in a straight line. And that helps to keep your car going in a straight line. So lighter wheels have less resistance to turning in a direction off of straight. And so it's literally everything about a car gets better. The input, the steering feels lighter because the wheels are lighter, but it's also more eager to turn because you have less gyroscopic effect going forward. The brakes work better because they have less mass to stop. The power goes down better because it has less mass to start. So, yeah, you can really feel that kind of stuff. Prayer of the Refugee Wagon with Montana PLATES do either of you remember the moment that you met. Do you remember what your initial thoughts of one another were and how those thoughts may have changed?

[B]

Was our first in person meeting at the barbecue at Redondo.

[A]

It was at my house, right? Yeah. You came to my house.

[B]

I know, but I'm saying, did I meet you in person before that or did I start writing for the site online?

[A]

No, I met you. I met you over email first, and then you came to. To my house. I liked Zach right away. I did. I was like, oh, this guy's cool. Great. I have a friend.

[B]

I remember you seemed like a very confident adult. And I worked as a server with a bunch of let's, you know, people. Frozen adolescents. Yeah, because you were like, you had a house that you rented, right. And you seem to know everybody. You're very much in command of the situation. And you had sideburns. And I was like, oh, this is

[A]

like, this guy knows.

[B]

This is a person kind of in charge of shit. Yeah. You don't to have.

[A]

Have those sideburns unless you really know. And my girlfriend lived with me, so I guess you're like, someone can stand this guy. Tracy was living with us.

[B]

Yeah. You just seemed like an actual adult. And I was like, that's funny.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't seem like a child.

[B]

Oh, that's.

[A]

But I was like, I like this guy. This is all right. Yeah. Friends. Yeah. Yeah, I was. I was very much in the. When I. My first year in California, I was very much, like, trying to make friends. Like, I would say, I'm not doing that.

[B]

I was only have so many.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And even so, I think you meet a lot of new people. Yeah, I mean, I think we. We hit it off. And then very soon after you, you guys were like, do you want to come help on shoots? Because you're not insane. Yeah, that was great.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I would say have thoughts. Have thoughts. My thoughts changed. I mean, no, not really. I mean, I don't. I don't want to, like, not have a good answer to that, but, like, you don't, you know, you don't stick around for 15 years with somebody unless you like, like them.

[B]

Agree.

[A]

Okay, wait. Darian Lux says, can you. All right. With the recent Valhalla video, can you list the seven figure performance cars you've driven? Oh, there's. Okay. Veyron, Chiron, Koenigsegg, Pagani, Utopia. Koenigsegg. Excuse me. Agar, Pagani, utopia, pagani, huayra, carrera, gt 918. Enzo mc12, Ssc.

[B]

Some of the singers seven Figures.

[A]

Sing. Oh, yeah. Every singer except the Turbo dls and that weird Carrera thing that no one's driven yet. All the roofs, everything. Everything. No, not the scr.

[B]

No, that was 700, 800.

[A]

Okay. But the roof. The roofs that are over whatever. The Rodeo is over a million and the twin Turbo one is over a million. I'm trying to think.

[B]

Gunther's close.

[A]

Gunther with tax. The Gunther Turbo. Gunther Turbo was over a million.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The Zinger.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

The Zinger is over 2 million.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The. There must be more. There's definitely more. I can't. I. This is a tough one. That's a lot.

[B]

That is a lot.

[A]

McLaren fit. One that was not over a million new. But I think it generally falls into what people would refer to as that sort of thing. What are other. Are there other, like hypercars that are. That I'm not thinking of. There must be. I'm trying to work my way around Revolt of. I'm trying to work my way around the Quail. No, no, not Relto's. Like they're like sixes sevens, but that's crazy. But no. Todd hill.

[B]

Oh, oh. 9 11K.

[A]

Todd Hill. 911K. Obviously. Valhalla. Yeah. I think that Senna. McLaren. Senna. Were those under a million new? Okay.

[B]

They're like 760.

[A]

All right. But Holy Trinity cars. I think we can. We can probably put them in the similar. Similar vibe. Yeah, that's. That's. That's a bunch, right? I think that's a bunch. Oops. I tapped the table says congratulations, it's 2002. And you're in charge of casting Jason Statham's vehicle for the transporter. What is he driving instead of what he already was driving?

[B]

I looked up the first CTSV wasn't till 04 because that would have been a fun one. But in 2002, I mean, I'm.

[A]

Those are. That's a very well cast thing aside, the M5 I think would be too attention seeking. The fact that he has a. A 7 series. It's under. More under the radar. It's got the small wheels.

[B]

Well, I think there's supposed to be livery cars essentially. Right. It's like this is a limousine, you know, fast.

[A]

It could be Arnage T. Bentley. Arnage T. True.

[B]

Not as subtle, but fast in a straight line.

[A]

But British.

[B]

Gtr, was it gtst go for Skyline. Skyline four door. Yeah. Or understated. I'll go chaser.

[A]

A chaser, sure.

[B]

That's kind of. No one will expect that.

[A]

But a Lotus Carlton.

[B]

That also would be. That's what the bad guys would drive to chase you.

[A]

I think TGS is going to have one of those for sale soon. We're selling one on. On bat pretty soon. It's really nice. Christian says. What do you think about Rivian partnering with Uber? Did Rivian partner with Uber? What have I. Have I missed that? How?

[B]

Uber and Rivian partnered to Deploy up to 50,000 fully autonomous roll robo taxis.

[A]

Oh, boy.

[B]

Old word choice. Rivian.

[A]

Okay, well, this is. Let's see the story. Uber will invest 1.25 billion through 2031, subject to the achievement of autonomous performance milestones. This [e-mail] funny. Uber or its fleet partners are expected to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robo taxis with the option to purchase 40,000 more in 2030. Initial commercial deployments for San Francisco and Miami in 2028, scaling to 25 cities through 2031.

[B]

Is the R2 going to have lidar?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I believe it will be at least lidar ready. Yeah. So we'll see.

[B]

I mean, this is. I don't know how many cars have come out now that say lidar ready. Yeah, we've driven a couple of them. It's all about, like, getting the cost down and deploying them and the testing. So this is 2030 is a, I think, a very bold timeline considering they. Considering that in this press release they say this all depends on them achieving autonomous performance milestones.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So which that tells me that Rivian has not proven yet that they can meet those milestones. Sure. They have to do that and then, you know, they'll sell more cars. But. Okay.

[A]

Yeah. And I mean, Rivians are an emotional purchase. Our friend Tim, I would say, has a problem with his want to purchase an R2, and it just needs to be over already. He needs to stop talking about it.

[B]

Yeah, just ask her out.

[A]

Just get it. Yeah, just ask her out, man. Does it lower the brand value? I mean, listen, not selling cars lowers the brand value. And selling 40,000 cars to Uber probably makes a. Makes Rivian shareholders feel nice. Even if it's a only if you can make them drive themselves kind of deal.

[B]

I think I would say that. Look, Toyota sells 400,000 RAV4s a year in this country. Does seeing them everywhere lower the brand value and make people not want to buy them? Obviously not, because they keep selling. So if the car is good, seeing them around won't, I think, diminish that value?

[A]

Well, I'll say that. Remember when Lincoln came Out with the Continental in 20, whatever it was 13 to 15 sometime. I thought it was like a pretty nice car. And then I just saw like 10 of them at the airport as liveries and I was like, oh, never mind.

[B]

I agree, but I think the difference is that with Uber cars, they look like normal cars except for that little sticker. The livery cars, they're all black.

[A]

They have the numbers.

[B]

They got the number on the back and you didn't see them anywhere else.

[A]

Right? That's true. Crucially, we didn't see them anywhere else.

[B]

I think that's the big thing.

[A]

Yeah, I think it devalues Rivian less than if they said. Rivian is now offering a ride share special where you can lease it by the week or something for that directly from the company. That would probably devalue it more. Blurple says car selling question. I'm ready to part ways with a car I've owned since new and I have a few questions. The car is a project that's 90% finished, needs interior and repaint. What is the best platform to resell a car that isn't carb legal or able to pass smog? I'm not interested in returning the car to stock. Do I set a reserve that pays off the debt owed? Oh God. Guy's got a project car with a loan on it. Yikes. Do I let the market determine the price, which is likely less than the debt owed, or do I try something else to recoup the funds from modding the car? Dang the obvious. I mean, dude, fuck debt owed, no interior, no paint.

[B]

Shit really hard because you're, you know, it just means your market is smaller. You need. Your market are people who see the dream you had and they think they can complete it.

[A]

So yeah, I mean, selling what. What platform to sell a car that isn't carb legal? It doesn't really makes make a difference. You can sell a car on any platform that's not car as long as you say as they'll say like, you know, can it be registered? And you know. Right, and it'll say that too. But like bring a trailer cars and bids, like they don't go fuck, they'll

[B]

list it just means you're selling to 49 states and people in California will be less likely to buy it.

[A]

Yeah, or sketchy people. That's 49 states and some sketchy fucking motherfuckers here. Look, here's the thing. You got to run comps for this car. Setting a reserve based on what you need to to get is A strategy. I totally get it. That may be totally incongruous with what the market says this car is worth. So ask yourself, if you auction this car and it doesn't sell and you don't get the money and you're now stuck with the car because it didn't get to your threshold, are you happy about that or are you annoyed because now you're stuck with the car but you didn't take less? Or if you go, no reserve, reserve, send it and you get less than you're owed and you gotta write the bank a check, but the car's gone and it's over and you go on, your life is. Which of those scenarios is better? It doesn't sell, you still have the car, or it sells and you gotta take a little fucking haircut on the loan.

[B]

So I would add a third option that I know this person said they don't want to do, but if you.

[A]

Insurance fraud. Exactly right, exactly. You light it on fire, get full coverage. I don't know nothing.

[B]

I would. I definitely would not suggest that in a public forum. People do it. I was going to say, if you put it up with a reserve that you need and it doesn't get met, that is telling you you have to put it back to stock. So you. Right now, you say, I don't want to do it. I get it. It's a pain. I don't know how much work has been done on this, but that might tell you no one wants to buy this project. You have to separate it back to a regular car that doesn't have paint, but at least have an interior and shit, and then sell that, and then sell the parts and then you're stuck. Going to lose money.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's a bummer. Yeah, it's a bummer.

[A]

I. Man, I don't know everyone's situation, but I do not recommend taking your car apart and turning it into a project. If you owe money on it, that's a tough place to find.

[B]

I mean, if you're. If you're a business that does. Like, if you're building a SEMA car, sure.

[A]

Oh, no.

[B]

That's what we're talking about. But as an individual, don't do that.

[A]

That's hard. Yeah, it's hard. Let's save the rest. It's been. It's been a good run. We'll save the rest for the next cruise show. Thank you to our patrons for. For asking such great questions. We appreciate it. Thank you to everybody else for listening and playing along. And we will see you guys next time. Bye.