Vin Anatra

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Smoking Tire – Episode Featuring Vinny Russo

Episode Details:

• Title: Vin Anatra
• Release Date: January 6, 2025
• Hosts: Zack Klapman, Matt Farah
• Guest: Vinny Russo

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1. Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale and Maintenance Insights

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into Vinny Russo’s prized possession, the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale. Vinny shares his experiences with owning and maintaining this high-performance vehicle, emphasizing both the allure and the challenges associated with it.

• Vinny Russo [03:01]: "It's a six and three quarter V8 with a turbo."
• Matt Farah [03:25]: "Not depreciating flat, just expensive to maintain."

Key Points:

• Depreciation vs. Maintenance Costs: Vinny discusses how the Ferrari 360 doesn't depreciate rapidly but is costly to maintain. He compares it to maintaining a boat, highlighting the significant expenses involved.
• Manual Transmission Swap: Vinny successfully performed a manual transmission swap on his Ferrari, sharing details about the ease of the process due to the car’s accessibility and his collaboration with specialists in Costa Mesa.
• Service Records: The car comes with extensive service records, including work from Beverly Hills Ferrari, ensuring reliability despite its high maintenance costs.

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2. Negotiating Car Purchases and Ownership Experiences

Vinny recounts his negotiation journey in purchasing a Ferrari 360, offering valuable insights into the dynamics of buying high-end vehicles.

• Vinny Russo [09:38]: "We settled on 47,000 for a 42,000 mile Ferrari 360 with $22,000 in service records."
• Matt Farah [21:40]: "So I started to think of it as, I want something for everything."

Key Points:

• Price Negotiation: Vinny details the back-and-forth negotiation process, ultimately securing the Ferrari 360 for $47,000. He highlights the importance of being willing to walk away when a deal doesn't meet his standards.
• Multiple Ownership Issues: Being the 10th owner of the Ferrari, Vinny discusses the implications of previous ownerships, including unwanted colors and subpar maintenance by former owners.
• Value of Authenticity: Vinny emphasizes the importance of maintaining the car’s authenticity and shares a humorous anecdote about selling parts of the car for less than market value, underscoring the complexities of maintaining such a vehicle.

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3. YouTube Content Creation and Challenges

The conversation shifts to the intricacies of creating engaging automotive content on YouTube, with both hosts and Vinny sharing their experiences and hurdles.

• Vinny Russo [23:19]: "People just are looking for that."
• Matt Farah [27:15]: "Have, like, seven cars. You can have an occasion car."

Key Points:

• Content Performance: Vinny expresses frustration over track day videos underperforming on YouTube despite their personal enjoyment of the content. Matt and Zach discuss similar challenges, noting that high-production content can sometimes fail to resonate with the broader audience.
• Scheduling and Reliability Issues: Both hosts highlight the difficulties in coordinating with guests and managing schedules, leading to missed recordings and inconsistent content delivery.
• Focus on Engaging Content: Vinny plans to pivot his content strategy by focusing on what the audience enjoys and what they can learn, rather than solely creating content based on personal interests.

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4. Racing Experiences and Financial Realities

Vinny delves into his racing endeavors, discussing both the excitement and the financial strains that come with it.

• Vinny Russo [78:44]: "I learned that I have no desire to become a race car driver because I'm not rich."
• Matt Farah [81:17]: "Like, imagine having a $60,000 weekend."

Key Points:

• Race Incidents: Vinny shares harrowing stories from races, including a teammate crashing his car and extensive damages incurred from tire blowouts, highlighting the high costs associated with racing.
• Sponsorships and Support: He mentions the support from Hyundai, which covers certain damages, alleviating some financial burdens but still emphasizing the overall expense.
• Balancing Passion and Practicality: Despite his love for racing, Vinny acknowledges the financial impracticality of pursuing it as a professional endeavor, balancing his passion with economic realities.

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5. Car Market Insights and Depreciation Strategies

The hosts and Vinny discuss the current state of the car market, focusing on depreciation trends and strategies to mitigate financial losses.

• Vinny Russo [50:23]: "Real wealth is buying assets that don't hold money."
• Matt Farah [52:24]: "There's no secret."

Key Points:

• Depreciation Dynamics: Vinny explains how certain cars, like the Ferrari 360 and modern EVs, either hold their value or depreciate minimally, making them better investments compared to mass-produced models.
• Strategic Car Ownership: Both hosts advocate for strategies that keep ahead of depreciation curves, such as maintaining cars with lower mileage and selling before significant value drops.
• Market Predictions: They predict a stabilization or even increase in values for specific models, such as the Porsche 911 and BMW M3 variants, due to controlled production numbers and enduring popularity.

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6. Automotive Modifications and Enhancements

The episode explores various modifications that can enhance a car’s performance and aesthetics without compromising its integrity.

• Matt Farah [58:37]: "The gear ratios, you can do lightweight wheels and good tires."
• Vinny Russo [76:08]: "If your car sounds like shit, just don't make it loud."

Key Points:

• OEM Plus Mods: Matt discusses how certain OEM plus modifications, like lightweight wheels, better tires, and improved brakes, can bridge the gap between base models and their higher-performance counterparts.
• Exhaust Systems: Vinny emphasizes the importance of maintaining a quality sound without making the exhaust overly loud or unpleasant, advising against modifications that degrade the car’s original acoustics.
• Practical Enhancements: Both hosts highlight practical modifications that improve driving experience and performance, such as suspension upgrades and brake enhancements, which are considered investments in the car’s longevity and functionality.

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7. Personal Projects and Future Plans

Vinny shares his upcoming projects and aspirations in the automotive world, providing listeners with a glimpse into his future endeavors.

• Vinny Russo [59:22]: "I'm gonna bring it out to California. I'm gonna, like, rebuild it for my dad."
• Matt Farah [82:54]: "We did avoid the issues with my Mach E by having support from the dealership."

Key Points:

• Rebuilding a 1970 Chevelle: Vinny is embarking on a project to rebuild his father’s 1970 Chevelle, aiming to modernize it while preserving its classic charm.
• Upcoming Races: He confirms participation in two upcoming races, including a 12-hour endurance race at Road Atlanta and a touring car event in Alabama, aiming to satisfy his passion for racing without the extensive financial strain.
• Charging Infrastructure for EVs: Matt discusses his recent experience with renting a Tesla Taycan to prepare for his upcoming purchase, while Vinny shares challenges faced with EV road trips, emphasizing the need for improved charging infrastructure.

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8. Patreon and Audience Engagement

The hosts touch upon their Patreon offerings, encouraging listeners to support the show and access exclusive content.

• Matt Farah [56:17]: "Patreon.com/theSmokingTirePodcast is where you do it."
• Vinny Russo [73:43]: "I’m building this car."

Key Points:

• Exclusive Content: They highlight the benefits of joining their Patreon, including ad-free shows, early access to episodes, additional podcasts, and live streams.
• Community Interaction: Listeners are encouraged to engage with the hosts by asking questions and contributing to the content direction through Patreon support.
• Upcoming Specials: Matt mentions upcoming projects like a gin tasting session and exclusive behind-the-scenes content available to Patreon subscribers.

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9. Closing Remarks and Future Directions

As the episode concludes, the hosts and Vinny reflect on their experiences and outline their plans moving forward.

• Matt Farah [89:57]: "We're taking off the podcast for the month of January."
• Vinny Russo [90:13]: "I'm excited for you to get your car done."

Key Points:

• Taking a Break: The hosts announce a hiatus for January, planning to resume with fresh content in the new year.
• Upcoming Events: They tease upcoming events like the King of the Hammers race with Ford and the launch of the new GT3, generating excitement for future episodes.
• Final Thoughts: Vinny expresses his gratitude and enthusiasm for the podcast’s journey, sharing personal anecdotes and highlighting the camaraderie among automotive enthusiasts.

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Notable Quotes:

• Matt Farah [03:25]: "Not depreciating flat, just expensive to maintain."
• Vinny Russo [09:38]: "We settled on 47,000 for a 42,000 mile Ferrari 360 with $22,000 in service records."
• Vinny Russo [78:44]: "I learned that I have no desire to become a race car driver because I'm not rich."
• Matt Farah [52:24]: "There's no secret."
• Vinny Russo [56:17]: "Patreon.com/theSmokingTirePodcast is where you do it."

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Conclusion:

In this episode of The Smoking Tire, hosts Zack Klapman and Matt Farah engage in an in-depth conversation with Vinny Russo, exploring the highs and lows of owning a Ferrari 360, the complexities of car maintenance, the challenges of creating automotive content on YouTube, and the exhilarating yet costly world of racing. Through personal anecdotes and expert insights, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the automotive landscape, enriched with humor and candid reflections from seasoned car enthusiasts.

For those passionate about cars, racing, and the behind-the-scenes workings of automotive content creation, this episode offers valuable lessons and entertaining narratives that resonate with both casual listeners and dedicated aficionados alike.

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For more detailed discussions and automotive reviews, visit The Smoking Tire YouTube Channel.

Transcript

[Matt Farah]

Up, everybody. Welcome to the Smoking Tire podcast. This episode, like all of them, brought to you by off the Record. We love off the Record. I got three more emails this week from people who used off the Record to save their little backsides in a court of law. Off the Record is a service that were you to get a moving violation, big or small, connects you with an attorney in the jurisdiction where you got that ticket. Then they go to work on your behalf, and they do everything they can to get those points off your record or not on it in the first place. Really? Man, they cover almost all of the US and they have an unbelievable track record of getting people out of little sticky situations with their cars. Download the app and use code TSTPOD for 10% off all legal services with off the Record. And if you prefer the web, go to offtherecord.com TST. You'll get that same 10% off all legal services booked through off the Record. Don't Plead guilty. This, in fact, I swear, I've used Off the Record a whole bunch of times. I swear. It is easier, faster, more efficient, and cheaper and with much better outcomes to use off the record than just to plead guilty. Everything about getting a ticket is improved with off the record. Use code TSTpod on the app or offtherecord.com TST on the web. We love you off the Record. Thank you for sponsoring our little program here, Amber. I mean, I don't know if you noticed, but, like, I hid up here, and you were downstairs, like, bullshitting with them for a few minutes. I didn't come down. That wasn't. I have cameras. I could see the whole time.

[Vinny Russo]

Because Zach and I already, like, blew our talk about it. I got nothing left.

[Zach Klapman]

We have three minutes of conversation. That feels good.

[Vinny Russo]

That feels good. We're about topped out on everything to talk about. The most interesting was just talking about our lineup of vehicles outside, which is hilarious.

[Matt Farah]

And it could have been if it was a few minutes earlier. Then Zach driving an S54 swapped E36 would have really rounded out the late 90s drug dealer aesthetic that was happening together.

[Vinny Russo]

We just look like a pretty successful dentist, maybe even like an orthodontist or.

[Matt Farah]

Something who like that Chris Rock joke where he's like, I live in Alpine, New Jersey. Jay Z is in my neighborhood. But either side of me is two dentists.

[Vinny Russo]

And he's like, that's the difference between, you know, we got a. What is that, Bentley? What? A Turbo R. Bentley Turbo R. Yeah. Great name for 360.

[Matt Farah]

It's a luxury sedan named like a Japanese hatchback.

[Vinny Russo]

It's fantastic. Yeah, it looks really cool.

[Matt Farah]

And it has. You should the size of the turbo. It has one.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, wow.

[Matt Farah]

It's a six and three quarter V8 with a turbo.

[Zach Klapman]

No intercooler, right?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it has an intercooler.

[Zach Klapman]

It does.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Six and three quarters are really interesting way to say that.

[Matt Farah]

That's how you have to say it. Not only that. Yeah, they get very mad if you don't say that.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I don't know anything about that car. It's probably a car I would avoid in most of my life because it seems like a just depreciating asset.

[Matt Farah]

Not depreciating flat, just expensive to maintain. Yeah. Ye. And sell them at the same number all day. But it's. It happens in between. As my video will show.

[Zach Klapman]

It's expensive to keep a boat floating.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. But it's.

[Matt Farah]

My video will show.

[Vinny Russo]

The 360 is like that. People always come up to me and they're like, this thing costs a fortune to maintain. I'm like, nah, actually it's great.

[Matt Farah]

So that's sort of. Yeah. Okay, dive in. 360. You brought it here. It's loud.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. And it's like my primary daily driver.

[Matt Farah]

Jewish racing gold. Everything about it is excellent.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it's all perfect.

[Matt Farah]

And yeah. Beater Ferrari. Which is such a funny thing to say.

[Vinny Russo]

Such a funny thing to say. So I actually. The fun thing about this car, I love telling people, is I sold my 1993 Mazda.

[Matt Farah]

Read the sign.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, God, I'm so sorry. I'm Italian. I'm gonna have to sit on my hands. I'm gonna have to sit on my hands.

[Matt Farah]

I'll put the sign right in front of you.

[Vinny Russo]

To be fair, there's a sign that says, please don't bang on the table. It startles the microphones. And I looked at it and I acknowledged it, but I just can't help myself.

[Matt Farah]

The problem is when it's not voluntary, people just do it. They don't even know they're doing it. Even broadcasting professionals like yourself.

[Vinny Russo]

These chairs, ergonomic. I feel like they just need like hand straps. You know, just talk like this.

[Matt Farah]

Yo, we should do a Patreon show. Oh, this is it. You know how AYG has hard feelings on the Patreon? It's the same two guys doing a different show, which is probably very hard. If you did a show with someone, would you be able to do a different show with that person? Podcasts, probably. That would be Hard because I'm not an actor.

[Vinny Russo]

I'm just like myself. So if it's just me being me in two situations, so what if our.

[Matt Farah]

Other show, our side show for Patreon, is Straight Jackie Radio. That's where we tie the guests up. Straight jacket.

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know how to express myself without my hand.

[Matt Farah]

Until they've completely free cut Samson's hair, it'll be our, like, hot ones. Straight Jack Radio.

[Vinny Russo]

Terrified now. I didn't even make it a long time. It was like. No, no, we were seconds into it.

[Matt Farah]

You can spin the chair and do the A.C. slater. No, the chair is good for that.

[Vinny Russo]

I would have brought a hat with the brim to go backwards.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, this is. Look. I'm Vinnie. Yes. Sorry.

[Vinny Russo]

We have another look. Cooler.

[Matt Farah]

We have another Vinnie.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. 360 it is. Champagne, people. For those who haven't seen it, and you should, either on Vinnie's YouTube channel or on his Instagram vin_tra. It's fucking Jewish racing gold. Which makes it the best Ferrari 360 of all time.

[Vinny Russo]

I actually did a post or something explaining because people are so mad, but I was like, the 360 came in three different silvers. One was like a blue silver. That kind of sucks.

[Matt Farah]

It's more blue than silver. Yeah, yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

The gold silver, which kind of sucks. And then a silver silver, which is beautiful. Yeah, yeah. And I got the gold one.

[Matt Farah]

I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Maybe I'm colorblind. I'm sorry. I'm colorblind. This to me, doesn't look like gold silver. It just looks like. It looks like Prius gold.

[Vinny Russo]

It's. That's the thing is it is the most pedestrian color you could ever get because it's not a beautiful silver. It's just like a color that a car came in that no one cares about.

[Matt Farah]

My mom had an RX300 in this color.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah. It's the RX300 color.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. That's why I call it Jewish racing gold.

[Vinny Russo]

Because all 90s Lexus, I call it retirement racing gold.

[Matt Farah]

Same thing. Because you're not Jewish. You can't do that. I can do that, but you are.

[Vinny Russo]

Welcome to call it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

But yeah, I sold my 93 RX7 for more than this car.

[Matt Farah]

And I cash back to go to a Ferrari.

[Vinny Russo]

Crazy deal.

[Matt Farah]

That's literally the meme.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That's the fucking, you know, guy look in the Fast and Furious. He's like, more than you can afford now. Super, super, right?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Except for I.

[Zach Klapman]

It's the Radwood Nostalgia.

[Vinny Russo]

I had a Mark 4 supra, and I sold it for tens of thousands of dollars, more than this car is still worth. But it.

[Matt Farah]

That's great. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So I. I thought it was silver. Silver. I think the proper name is something. I don't remember it. Nurburgring Silver.

[Matt Farah]

Argento. Nurburgring.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So I thought it was a great sounding boom.

[Vinny Russo]

It's as beautiful as it is.

[Matt Farah]

And I thought it was that a newspaper classified. You'd be like, argento, yeah. Sold.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. And this is Grigio Ingrid.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. That's a no. Ingrid. It's named after a woman from the 1930s, the Depression era, who drinks Pinot Grigio.

[Vinny Russo]

It's this depression era goal. Oh, God. So I thought it was silver, like the. The. The silver. Silver color. And I drove up there and I immediately pulled up and I was like, oh, boy, that's ugly.

[Matt Farah]

Did the. Were the photos a little.

[Vinny Russo]

They were, like, taken in different soft light. Like, if you see it in pictures like this, it looks silver. Pretty silver.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So. Yeah. So I drove up.

[Matt Farah]

There's like, a rose in this slide.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. So I went up there, thought it was silver. It had this, like, disgusting Crema interior, and this thing was just in horrible shape.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And I felt really bad because the guy who I bought it from was super nice. He was like, such a rad dude. He had a 991 GT3 and this, and he was like, liquidating his cars to take care of his mom or something. It was like. I was like, hey, man, look, I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in this car. Like, I was like, it's just really, like, rough. I don't, you know, I don't know. All this stuff looks expensive to fix. Like, I don't really want it, whatever. So I left, and he wound up hitting me up many, many days later and was like, hey, just checking in if you're interested. I'm like, I'm not.

[Matt Farah]

Hey, listen, no one else is interested either.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah. So he had the car listed for 66 grand, and I was like, you know, I just don't. I would rather buy one for like, 70. That's nice. And, like, red or yellow or something cool.

[Matt Farah]

There's enough 360s where you can get the one you want eventually.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. So he was like, well, make me an offer on the car. And I thought about it and I was like, man, I can't even do it. I can't do it.

[Matt Farah]

I can't how about a Mazda RX7? And you give me 20k?

[Vinny Russo]

So. Because people always think I love buying and selling cars and people think I'm a low ball and asshole, but I'm like, I don't actually do that. I think that's really jerky. So I was just like, I'm not, I'm just. I don't want it. It's fine. I'll find another one, like you said. So we went back and forth and.

[Matt Farah]

I was like, I'm a lowballing asshole. Have you read the Art of the Game?

[Vinny Russo]

I'm just. Well. So he kept asking me, he was like, what do you want to pay for the car? And I was going to be disrespectful. It's going to be just a disrespectful offer. And he was like, throw it at me. I was like, 40 grand. Wow. And he was like, oh, I can't do that. How's 55? And I was like, no. And we've battled back and forth. Not battled, but like soft text messages where I was just like, I'm not really interested. And we settled on 47,000.

[Matt Farah]

Amazing.

[Vinny Russo]

47 grand for a 42,000 mile Ferrari 360 that came with $22,000 in service records. Timing belts, power steering, stuff like brakes, bushings, mufflers.

[Matt Farah]

Was he the first owner? No.

[Vinny Russo]

No. You ever see that meme? That's like, first owner, third owner.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Like a BMW. Yeah. I'm the 10th owner of this car. Wow. I'm the 10th owner. Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. 10th owner, baby.

[Matt Farah]

But think about it this way. Nine people and you said yes to that color. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

It's crazy.

[Matt Farah]

So on the one hand, it's like. You think of that as like a bad color.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

On the other hand, a lot of people were like, I'm in.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, that tells me that 10 people just really want to own a Ferrari no matter what.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like you didn't want, like the fact you told this guy, I don't really want it. And he was like, but nobody else does. You're the only person that's not.

[Vinny Russo]

No one else wanted it. I was the perfect person for this car because the guy I bought it from was not a DIY guy. So everything, I mean, stack of receipts, all from Beverly Hills Ferrari. So this guy was taking what this was pile of shit to the dealer, to the dealer and paying dealer prices. So he's just getting destroyed on it. Meanwhile, like, I've done everything to it myself, so it's pretty easy.

[Matt Farah]

But did you find as you started taking it apart yourself that the dealer had had really kind of like hosed him and not done a good job?

[Vinny Russo]

I didn't need to take it apart. I looked at the receipts. I read all the receipts, and it's like he bought a stock muffler, and it was like 2,500 bucks for a muffler. And then like eleven hundred dollars install. You're like, oh, my God. Like, you could just see that from here. Yeah. It's like there's just a couple bolts. You just, you know. So. Yeah. But for me, the price of maintaining it has been great. I've done motor mounted and oil change.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And I did brakes, but these are really.

[Matt Farah]

This was. This is like Ferrari's LS400. This is like the first car where they were like, all right, listen, guys, you know.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

We're gonna need to, like, take a little shorter siesta and give a few more about these cars that we're putting together.

[Zach Klapman]

Luca went in like 94. 93. And he's like. He drove the 348. 48. He's like, yeah, this thing sucks. Yeah, fix it. So 94, they fixed it, and it gave a lot of the. A lot of parts from the 355, but, like, it was the change.

[Matt Farah]

You want a 94. 348.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

They're like, I.

[Vinny Russo]

355 is cool. It's definitely like, the reason this car is hated so much is it's exactly like the 911s.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

This is the 996Ferraris. So it's like you followed up the 355, which was like the most beautiful Ferrari in, like, the attainable world. And then. Which would be like the993. And then you come out with this.

[Zach Klapman]

You. I. I think these are gorgeous cars. Headlight person. So that's. I think. I think the era change might have offended people, right. The 355.

[Vinny Russo]

Because, I mean, look at the affinity for the 996 headlights. Now, like, people aren't so offended by it, but I think the front of these cars are pretty soft. They're a little like, especially from what Ferrari was, is all like hard angles.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Sharp edges. And then you come out with this, like, bubbly, happy little thing.

[Matt Farah]

I think it's aged really well, though. It's a just a tasteful, like a good looking. Better than the 430.

[Zach Klapman]

Better than 430.

[Vinny Russo]

You think so?

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah, I think so. Oh, that's interesting for me. The 430, the proportions are where the intakes are huge, but the headlights got smaller. I just think this is more balanced.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, that's an interesting one. I mean, the 430 Scud is an ultimate dream car for me. I'm, like, blind to buy it. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, they're nice. I just. I personally think these look better.

[Vinny Russo]

Interesting.

[Matt Farah]

So you did do a manual swap yourself?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, I did everything myself. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And that was. That was easy enough, right?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So if you know how to wrench on cars.

[Vinny Russo]

Which. If you know how to wrench on cars. Well, I did that with a shop. Okay. At their supercars down in Costa Mesa. Okay. Literally, my friend put me in touch with them, and an EAG wanted, like, a dedicated installer, so I was like, we'll work together. Because I couldn't do this in my garage. There's just the sheer amount of parts that have to come off of the car is, like, incredible. So, yeah, I mean, you got to take the whole. The back bumper, the whole under tray, the transmission, which, like, means you got to take everything in the engine bay out, the whole interior. Like, it's a lot.

[Zach Klapman]

But was the technical ability drastically different than things you had done previously, or was it more about space?

[Vinny Russo]

No, actually. It's so easy. It's one of the easiest cars I've ever worked on, simply because there's so much room. Like, the way it's built is you can get to everything.

[Matt Farah]

Like, behind all the panels, there's like.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, you take spaces, you take off some panels, you take off the bumper, and you're like, literally, everything is accessible. Yeah, it was. It was a really easy swap. But what was annoying is when I got the car, first thing I did, took it to DDE and I was like, I'm gonna do a burnout. And I just smoked the clutch, and I was like. And everyone's like, oh, you're not gonna be able to drive. That thing's never gonna shift again. I did, like, 7,000 miles on it with that clutch. Pulled the trans out, replaced the clutch thing. Brand new stock clutch. The stock clutch is brand new. Yeah, it's fine. But, yeah, swaps super intuitive. So for everyone who doesn't know it's a manual transmission shifted automatically.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So you just remove all the solenoids. I have a video of it. I really dumb. But I take all my videos off. It's on here. I take all my videos off my grid, and I put them on my reels page only. So if you go up, you can just Hit reels. But there's. It's just. It's probably down a bit, but there's a actuator with solenoids and stuff. There it is. That's my dyed the interior video.

[Matt Farah]

That actually was kind of interesting. Yeah, I'd be. I. I'm so taking interiors apart. To me, I'm so afraid of rattles and that I'm never gonna go back together.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I just dived into. It's the next video that shows the actuator or the one after it does. Oh, no, it's the pinned one. I'm sorry. I'm being an idiot. It's the first one up top. That's like, first drive, I think.

[Matt Farah]

That one.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah. This is. This is what the thing is when I. That pretty much is what shifts a manual transmission automatically. Yeah, it's just, like, valves and solenoids.

[Matt Farah]

Hydraulic lines connected to some shit at either end.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Dude, I got so hustled on that, so.

[Matt Farah]

What do you mean?

[Vinny Russo]

Well, I pulled this thing out.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And I didn't want to keep it. And I was like, I'm not gonna throw it out. So I, like. Someone hits me up, and they're like, hey, would you sell the unit? And I'm like, yeah. He's like, how much? I'm like, I don't know. Like, throw me an offer. He's like, 500 bucks. I'm like, sure. Done deal.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, no.

[Vinny Russo]

So I sell it, and then it was for sale on eBay for 2,500 bucks.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, my God.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I was like, them things are expensive.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, they're really expensive. Yeah. I just thought I was helping out, like a follower. I was like, damn, someone in my audience needs one. Like, I'm down. You can have it, you know? Like, hell, yeah. I'd rather pass it along. And instead, it just got sold.

[Matt Farah]

So funny.

[Vinny Russo]

Or maybe it never got sold. It might just still be on ebay.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, Bo. You want me to buy it back?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, hit him, but give you four.

[Matt Farah]

Feet, meet him in the alley, and.

[Vinny Russo]

Punch him in the face.

[Zach Klapman]

I figured he worked at Ferrari Beverly Hills. He's just gonna, you know, install it on somebody's car for five grand, dry.

[Vinny Russo]

Ice, blast it, put it in someone else's car.

[Matt Farah]

When we were doing the rental cars, the 430 ones, those things would go out and, oh, boy, were they expensive and intense to fix.

[Vinny Russo]

The thing is, like, if you could just remove that whole unit and the. The thing, like, just the one piece. Like, if you could Just remove it and put it back in. You could do it in, like, two hours, but I'd imagine you have to, like, buy all that crap individually. So, I mean. Yeah, if you're replacing that stuff new, it's gonna get super expensive.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And it's so nice. Those cars with sticks are. They're fun.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, they're really nice. It's. I mean, I joke, but it's not my daily driver, but I drive it more than any car I have. I put. I bought it in March, February, I don't know. And. And I bought my truck around the same time. I put 3,000 miles on my truck and, like, almost 12,000 miles on this thing.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, damn.

[Zach Klapman]

That is a lot.

[Vinny Russo]

Ridiculous.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's so. Those cars are really good.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it's a good, like, touring car, you know, because unlike some of the more sporty cars, like that kind of suck on the freeway and stuff, like, this thing just eats up miles. It's pretty comfortable, like. Yeah, yeah, it's great because driving around here is just a lot of freeway.

[Zach Klapman]

Your video was inspiring because, I mean, I would love to own a Ferrari. They're expensive. But the manual swap, we talk about it all the time. Is a much cheaper way to get into a really good Ferrari. Because if people just don't want the automatics as much.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. And I think, like, the biggest thing for cheap guys like myself is for what the manual swap is expensive. There's like, three or four different companies that make it, and they're all like 12 to 20 grand. Ish. Plus you got to pay someone to install it or do it yourself. But.

[Matt Farah]

But the difference between an auto and a stick, I think, is exactly 150 grand or something.

[Vinny Russo]

No, no, no. The. The Ferrari market's so lame because, yeah, the manual. Original. Manual car will be. Let's call it 140 grand.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

A converted manual car will be, like 110.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So there's a difference. But I think if you bought an F1 car and swapped it for the cost of the swap, you're pretty much, like, break even. Because the car will be worth 20.

[Matt Farah]

Grand more if you already own the car. Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

But you're still probably spending less overall than you would if you bought a manual car.

[Vinny Russo]

Right?

[Zach Klapman]

That's the. That's the game.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Because, yeah, people just want the original stuff.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, Ferrari. Ferrari people, for sure.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

They don't put up with modified cars.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, yeah. This car. One, I won't sell it. People hit me up all the time to buy it and I'm like, just. I don't want to get rid of it. I still really enjoy it. It's also, like, a sweet spot for me in terms of fun and expensive and cool. Like, the driver feeling of it is great. But I could also park it. Like, I went to Blue Bottle and almost got smashed into by, like, a Prius that was trying to parallel park in front of me, and I was like, that's okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that was my 328. I was like, the sixth owner. It had been painted four times and 45,000 miles. And, like, yeah, it wasn't like a beater, but it was enough of a beater that I, like, park it wherever I'm like.

[Vinny Russo]

And I like that I have. You know, I still have the GT3Rs, which I'm shocked that I still have, but I don't want to drive that anywhere. I'm so worried about it. It's like my baby. I'm so scared to do anything with it, so I hate it. And honestly, it makes the car so not fun for me.

[Matt Farah]

You have to pick. That's why they. That's why things like, you know, the Colorado grand and whatever. It's like, they have these, like, you know, curated experiences now to give people reasons to drive their special cars that are other than, like, just around where you live.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. You know, I think about you the time because we.

[Matt Farah]

Because my M3.

[Vinny Russo]

No, we talked about this up at Newcomes once, because I was like, I don't know. I think I'm gonna sell this thing. Like, I hate how much it's gone up in value, and it kind of takes away the ownership experience to me because I don't want to drive it all the time. And you said, well, it's not a car you drive all the time. Like, it's an occasion car. You drive it when you want to enjoy it. I was like, ah, it seems so lame. Like, I don't want to just. And then I thought about when you.

[Matt Farah]

Have, like, seven cars.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You can have an occasion car.

[Vinny Russo]

And I was like, you know, I don't need another car like the 360, because the 360 is my car to drive everywhere.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

You know, when I want to get.

[Matt Farah]

A new car, it should, like, add a function or, like, it shouldn't replace the function of something you want to keep.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Repeat for function, you know?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah. I've been sell. I sold off a bunch of cars because I want to do that. I want, like, you know, something for everything. Yeah. One of all you don't need two of the same.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Because cars are hard to maintain. Yeah. And like.

[Zach Klapman]

And insure and park.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, Insure and park and maintain. Fix and know things about.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

If you're not going to find a reason to use it a bunch, then it's kind of a waste.

[Zach Klapman]

Do you still track the GT3 or are you hesitant to do that also?

[Vinny Russo]

No, I mean, I do. I. I used to go to the track a lot and now I don't, which is a really fun thing to think about in the world of like, I'm now a YouTuber, but I have less free time than I did.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Because when I had a job, I used to just go to like SDC days all the time because I would just be like, oh, I got to answer a couple emails and like, I'll just not. Not show up to this call and like, it'll be fine, you know?

[Matt Farah]

You know, now if you go to a track day, it's work. You got to make videos and.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, except for track videos suck. No one wants to watch them.

[Matt Farah]

They do. So take it to the track. Stay the trash.

[Vinny Russo]

Stay on the track.

[Matt Farah]

Where I won't watch the video you've made.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Everyone wants racing content, except no one will watch it. I made one of my favorite videos. I got to race touring car this year. Yeah. So I got to race touring car and I was really excited about it. Well, I was actually terrified. But we made a really good video and it was all well thought out. I like scripted the whole first half of it so it was like concise. We did not show any racing. It was just like, my experience video is great. Worst performing video I've ever made.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Brutal.

[Vinny Russo]

Just the worst performing video.

[Zach Klapman]

We've had to learn these lessons. It's so unfortunate.

[Matt Farah]

We've learned similar lessons.

[Zach Klapman]

When we do a track day video or something. It's basically for us.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

It is like, it's like a charity to ourselves. We have. No one's gonna watch this. It might not even break even for gas. But we get to go to the trace track.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. 100% almost of our track related content.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. We did a GR86 versus GR Corolla video and it's like these are the two most popular enthusiast cars under this price point right now. We did a road thing and a track thing and we raced each other like it had stakes and all that shit. Did not do great.

[Vinny Russo]

I wonder what it is. Is it just not, like.

[Matt Farah]

Just doesn't translate that well to, you know, showing speed, showing Excitement, I guess.

[Zach Klapman]

I think it's hard to. It's hard to film it. I mean, unless you have a big team, you've done that stuff like this versus that does a really good job of cutting around, showing speed. But you have a big infrastructure for those.

[Vinny Russo]

Drag racing is also. Drag racing does great.

[Zach Klapman]

It's simple.

[Vinny Russo]

I mean, look at car. Wow. But like, you know, I think drag racing content is really simple because it's also like instant gratification. You're like, quick run it done easy.

[Zach Klapman]

Simple to define that who won the thing. But you still. I think for me, if I'm gonna watch the video, I need it to shot well also. So I have that story told. But road course is tough.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah. And I think road course is tough because quarter mile, everyone knows like 10 seconds is fast or. And then. Or like car beats car really quickly.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Whereas like, you know, people are like, I do a sub to a button willow. And you're like, if you don't live in 150 mile radius, no one even knows what that is. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

There's a. Unless you're at the Nurburgring, I suppose.

[Vinny Russo]

But even that I don't even.

[Matt Farah]

I think Misha does. Does a lot of views, right?

[Zach Klapman]

He does a lot.

[Vinny Russo]

Misha's chann. I was thinking about this the other day. Probably also crushes because if you're going to watch, you're going to watch the lap, which is like, you know, seven to 10 minutes. So like your watch during probably really high.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. You're already like the audience is looking for that.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Like you're not going to sign up and then like scrub through the lap. You know, you're going to watch the whole thing straight through.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, he is. He's brave.

[Vinny Russo]

He's a genius. He also once told me that he's like, like, like 70 videos ahead or something. And I was like, wow, you're my idol.

[Matt Farah]

When I was driving people's personal cars, at one point I was something like 20 or 30 ahead. Yeah. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Sick.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

That's a nice life.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, it was until it wasn't. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like you just like wake up one day and you're 70 ahead. Like I've made. Oh yeah, you have to make that many.

[Vinny Russo]

Make 70.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

While putting out videos at a certain.

[Matt Farah]

Point I did and Misha probably may or may not, but I ran into what I felt like was a wall, which people have heard me say so many fucking times. But it was great until it wasn't.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, but making videos is hard. I mean, I missed last week, and then I'm gonna miss this week because just, like, holidays and, like, people aren't around. And actually, a funny thing with this situation is people don't respect YouTube as a job with, like, a schedule.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

You know, so, like, I was planning on making a video, and someone just, like, backed out on me, and I'm like, that fucking sucks. And I was thinking about doing it today, and then I saw my calendar, and then you text me, and I was like, I'm not gonna flake on Matt. Because I hate that people don't respect people's time who do, like, this type of thing.

[Matt Farah]

Part of what stopped me driving other people's cars was the rate of flakery.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Started to get unacceptably high.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Cause people look at YouTube and stuff as, like, oh, you're just having fun. So, like, you can do this whenever. And you're like, no, I have to schedule things. Like, I have, like, a. It's like a business you have to do. So, like, you have to stay according to plan. We dealt with it at Hoonigan all the time. People just, like, wouldn't show up to this first. And you're like, we got 40 people.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Three hours away. Like, we're depending on you to be here.

[Zach Klapman]

That must have been wild. I feel like I could smell those videos when I'd watch, and the lineup would just be a little bit interesting. It seemed like something subbed in or you guys would say it.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And you make the most of it, right?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So that I. I could see. It's annoying, but I could see how somebody would flake on me. I'm just, like, a dude. But, like, to flake on a production is insane.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. And that's the way I am right now. It's like, I'm just a dude. So people be like, oh, yeah, we could shoot on Monday. And then Monday comes, and you're, like, texting. And then we're like, oh, dude, my bad. I forgot I have a. The tires are bald. And you're like, what the. You knew I was coming. Why didn't you tell me this last week?

[Zach Klapman]

One of the worst things about the one takes, because I started doing the fan cars, Matt bowed out, was, you're up in the canyons where there's no cell service. So you could sit there for 40 minutes just, like, waiting for me.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And sometimes there was a time where literally I waited, I think, 40 minutes, and I was like, okay. It's 41 minutes, I'm going home. And as I drive down, the guy shows up and like, I'm happy. Cause now I didn't waste my day. But I'm also fucking pissed because I, like, my brain had gotten ready for the shoot and then accepted that it wasn't happening and, oh, at least I can go home and I'll have an earlier morning and now I have to do it again. I'm in a bad mood, all that stuff.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Which is always.

[Matt Farah]

Now you have to talk to the dude who's a stranger, fundamentally.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Other than three.

[Vinny Russo]

And you're not allowed to be in a bad mood on content because you're doing a fun thing, you know, so.

[Matt Farah]

And you're allowed to be in a bad mood if only if it's funny for the audience. If you're like, really miserable.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because people love your misery. Of course.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Well, I'm trying. I've been trying to solve this problem of. With the Bentley, right. Because people. Why is it interesting to anybody? Because people want to see how much money I have to spend to keep this old car going. Right. But like, we want a new daily driver that'll be interesting to people. But I don't. I don't want it to be that miserable. So where's the misery coming from?

[Vinny Russo]

Misery has to come from.

[Matt Farah]

The money has to come from depreciation. So it's going to come from depreciation.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. You should just buy like a Maserati Quattroporte.

[Matt Farah]

Well, I've sent a deposit and I might be actually flying halfway across the country and about facing and driving home in a.

[Vinny Russo]

You're not going to say it's okay.

[Matt Farah]

2022 Taycan Cross Turismo. The cheapest one for sale in the country.

[Vinny Russo]

That seems like a good buy.

[Matt Farah]

Which. Yeah. Which is. Has 25, 000 miles on it. And it is literally half price. 50% depreciation in two years and 20,000. 25,000 miles. That's insane. And this is loaded.

[Vinny Russo]

Nice. You want to know what I looked at recently? Because I'm a big car market follower. Just the other day I was like, huh? Remember Tesla Model S plaids were like. People were buying those for like 170 grand.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So I was like, what are those looking like? So I went on, bring a trailer. And I looked at the previous sales.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

You can buy like a reasonable mileage plaid for like 38 grand. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Thousand horsepower for 38 grand.

[Vinny Russo]

But think about if you bought one of those for 172 years ago and now it's worth. Worth 40.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. You're like, imagine a Model X plaid.

[Vinny Russo]

I know they made those.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

You want something? No one should ever care.

[Matt Farah]

They end at the same floor. But the pla. The Model x starts like 25 grand even higher.

[Zach Klapman]

And it has more mechanical problems because the doors.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I put a deposit on this thing. And after this podcast, we're going to be doing paperwork, which I think means I have to fly to Detroit and turn around and drive two, 300 miles home. They use unused sight unseen purchase.

[Vinny Russo]

Are you getting it from like a Porsche dealership?

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Vinny Russo]

So here's the thing that's, that's like perfect. You're not getting it from like Jim's Corner used car exotic rentals or something.

[Matt Farah]

It's in a Porsche store in Detroit. Now here's the. Here's the fun bit from. From day of signing four year unlimited mile, bumper to bumper.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, I love that unlimited mile.

[Zach Klapman]

That's insane.

[Matt Farah]

Boy, are we gonna push that one.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

You know, I was thinking about doing something similar because I have a Elantra N. Yeah. Which was like part of this big thing we did for Hyundai. And so I was like, I'm gonna get one of these cars. It's cool. And it has a 10 year warranty and all that. And I'm like, it's great. And the car is really good.

[Zach Klapman]

Yep.

[Vinny Russo]

I just, it feels similar to when I had a cayenne diesel. Like, I just don't feel like I could get out of it. I'm like, I look at it, I'm like, it's nice, but it doesn't feel like my car doesn't feel like you. Yeah. It just doesn't, like, fit me. So I think I want to sell it, but I was thinking about trading and it's a CarMax and getting something ridiculous with a CarMax warranty.

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Vinny Russo]

Because, like, they have a crazy warranty process too.

[Matt Farah]

They do. Doug abused it for years. Yeah. CarMax changed their policy because Doug abused it so beautifully.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Because like, I would get an E63 or something cheap that rules and then just never deal with it.

[Matt Farah]

Yes. Warranty is good.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. There's so many cars I'd want to own that I wouldn't have with a warranty, like a B5S4. One of my favorite cars of all time. I would never own it unless someone else could take care of it on their dime.

[Matt Farah]

I told you about my General Manager's 997.2 manual. Turbo 911.

[Vinny Russo]

That's a nice car.

[Matt Farah]

That is still under Porsche extended warranty.

[Vinny Russo]

No way. To 997 years old.

[Matt Farah]

He bought some super special on sale warranty that lasted like 10 years.

[Vinny Russo]

I love that.

[Zach Klapman]

And what's funny is he says it doesn't need much and it runs.

[Vinny Russo]

No, they're great.

[Zach Klapman]

So of course Porsche got their money, you know.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, but man, like, yeah, there's so many cars. I just would never want to own out. Yeah, I mean, I had a gen 2 raptor and it was the crappiest vehicle I ever owned in my life.

[Matt Farah]

Eric had one of those too, and they lemoned it.

[Vinny Russo]

Mine should have been a lemon. I had a warranty on it. It was a 2017. And I joked that I got free storage at the dealer because my truck was at the dealer every other week. I kid you not, I owned it for like less than a year. Yeah, they needed a transmission.

[Zach Klapman]

Whoa.

[Vinny Russo]

A rear end. Like the diff just started whining and was like gonna explode. Turbos, cam, phasers.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, no.

[Vinny Russo]

Oil pan, gasket.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, no.

[Vinny Russo]

Some other like, random stuff. The car was always in the dealer. It was horrible. And like, you know, you've owned some nice cars. You take your Porsche to the dealer, they treat you nice, they give you a loaner, like a new loaner. You bring your. I used to bring my bicycle in the trunk and then ride home from the dealer because it was close enough. Because they don't even give you a ride. They don't even pay for your Uber. They're just like, oh, thanks for bringing your crappy truck back. And.

[Matt Farah]

Our Mach E when it was new had a lot of like software bugs and shit. But fortunately we live walking distance from a Ford dealer. So we were, we were walking to a Ford dealer.

[Vinny Russo]

It was horrible. And I loved it so much that I sold it it and I bought another one.

[Matt Farah]

Don't you have like a first gen? First gen, yeah. So those are like unkillable.

[Vinny Russo]

The best.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So I sold the 2017, I bought a 2020 and I was like, I'm just gonna buy a warranty from a Ford dealership. And I went there and they couldn't warranty it. And I was like, oh, I'm getting rid of this thing. So I sold it and I got a gen one. It's been great. The gen one is like the workhorse. It's pretty much a work truck with cool bodywork.

[Matt Farah]

So I had a 11, whatever the first year of the 6.2 liter was. That's what I had.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it was.

[Matt Farah]

It was great. It was just huge.

[Vinny Russo]

But yeah, it's. It's massive. It's the only thing I don't like about it, but I like having a.

[Matt Farah]

Truck, so having a truck is helpful for one.

[Vinny Russo]

You have to do stuff is good.

[Matt Farah]

You do more truck shit than I do. Totally get it. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

You camp, you do all that stuff.

[Vinny Russo]

I mean, I don't do as much of it anymore, but, you know, I'm stoked to try.

[Matt Farah]

We're gonna go to King of the Hammers this year with Ford. They invited us out and they're getting us the Ranger Raptor, which I'm kind of excited to try. The Ranger Raptor.

[Vinny Russo]

Sick.

[Matt Farah]

It's like the size of the 90s. F150. It's a good size.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. It's all you need.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. You've never been to koh?

[Matt Farah]

No. Very excited. Very.

[Vinny Russo]

It is.

[Matt Farah]

What should I pack?

[Vinny Russo]

Depends on the weather. I went out there one year and.

[Matt Farah]

It was not close. I know it.

[Vinny Russo]

Close to 10 degrees. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

What, like, do I bring? Do. Do we bring like. Like drugs? Yeah. Like, what kind of contraband are we talking about?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, whatever you want. So the thing is, is it's probably like. I don't even know how to say it. I guess it'd be like Burning man, but for like. Like off road bros.

[Matt Farah]

Right. I figured that.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So.

[Vinny Russo]

So it's like you do whatever the hell you want.

[Matt Farah]

I kind of figured it was like water world, but in the desert. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. It's like insane. My favorite thing is you go out there and people are just driving, like the most ridiculous stuff. You're like, I didn't. Weird. Did all of Temecula come out?

[Zach Klapman]

Never seen shocks so long, though. Yeah. Triple shock. The longest travel.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. It's wild. So good luck.

[Matt Farah]

All right?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So maybe no drugs. Okay. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Bring some drugs. I don't know, whatever.

[Matt Farah]

Just have an escort.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Don't get lost in the desert. Yeah. Don't get lost in the desert. Don't do a bunch of peyote in it. Like on the course.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. Wondering about the meaning of life. Wait, guys, I figured it out.

[Matt Farah]

Stop. Most people forget that fear and loathing. He was going to an off road race.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, God.

[Matt Farah]

It's not quiz.

[Vinny Russo]

Off road race is honestly kind of scary because we did Baja a bunch. And the scariest thing about it is, like at a racetrack, you have edges of the track and then you have the track and you're like, oh, Just stay off the track or like close to it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Off road racing, your track is undefined in a lot of areas. It's like you could be like a mile off course just like ripping through the dust, you know.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Did you ever do the Baja race? I know you guys covered it.

[Vinny Russo]

We chased it twice. So we did like all of it, but we didn't race any it. That was the goal. But then we ended up not making it to the goal.

[Matt Farah]

It's also the only race where you can sort of like be in it without being in it.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. You don't have to buy a special dar.

[Matt Farah]

Probably you can too.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Citizens are in that race.

[Matt Farah]

Just drug smuggling truck in Dakar.

[Vinny Russo]

That is a great hide in plain sight is final, boss.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you know boss, the entry fees are only like we can get right through.

[Vinny Russo]

Just wave us in. I love that.

[Matt Farah]

All right, so what else is in the garage? You got the truck. We've got this champagne Ferrari.

[Vinny Russo]

I got that.

[Matt Farah]

You sold your nsx? Did you get rid of that?

[Vinny Russo]

No, I sold that.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, I sold it a long time ago.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Vinny Russo]

Sorry. I regret it.

[Zach Klapman]

How many cars do you have total?

[Vinny Russo]

Right now I'm down. I sold a bunch of stuff. So I have the 360, the 997 RS, which I don't think will ever leave.

[Matt Farah]

I think it shouldn't. It doesn't get much better than that car. You know how much money it would cost to replace that car with something better?

[Vinny Russo]

It's the only reason I haven't sold it. Because if I sold a 997 RS I can never buy another one. Correct. I could sell the 360 and then regret it and be like, I get another 360.

[Matt Farah]

No, no. If you got out of it, that's it.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The only thing you can do is buy a sharky motor.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Which I recommend.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it'd be fun. They're not like doing them in California anymore though. I talk to Alex all the time.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's just paperwork.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Vinny Russo]

But so I got the, the360, the997Rs. And then in the Elantra N Raptor I have is 300 sport cross we're gonna build.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, you do?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, we gotta do a 1J GTE in it. It's got a six speed already. It's got all the suspension parts.

[Matt Farah]

You bought a manual? It was swapped.

[Vinny Russo]

It was swapped. They bought it from a friend. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And do they do with it when they swaps in those? Is it like an oem quality swap.

[Vinny Russo]

No, it's a piece of. I hate it. Yeah, it's the worst. It has a 350z6 speed in it, and it right now, it's the worst car on the planet. It's a 180 horsepower, 2J GE. Yeah. With 240,000 miles. And then a race car drivetrain. So the clutch sucks. It, like, has, like, slappy drivetrain lash. Like, it makes a ton of noise.

[Matt Farah]

Decisions in that car.

[Vinny Russo]

Brandon Kato, who worked at Hoonigan. Oh, yeah, Horrible car. But I'm gonna one J GTE swap it. So if it makes, like 600 horsepower, it'll be way more livable with all of the annoyances. Because then at least you're like, oh, like, it drives like a race car.

[Zach Klapman]

Right now you have all the cons and none of the pros.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, God.

[Vinny Russo]

You want to hear a horrible story?

[Zach Klapman]

Absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

Those were like, nice.

[Vinny Russo]

Let me give you a horrible story. So I committed to getting rid of that car, right? And I was like, I'm gonna sell it. So I list it for sale and I put. I bought it for 14 grand. So I'm like, I'm gonna list it for 15 grand so someone could lowball me and I'll take 14. I'm not going to make money on a car I bought from a friend. So I'm like, 14 grand. 15 grand for another 3,000 bucks, which is what I paid for the motor. I'll give you a 1J GTE. And this guy reaches out to me and he's like, hey, I want the car. Blah, blah. We know so many mutual people. We're basically friends this and that. I'm like, okay. He calls me, we talk for like an hour. And I'm like, yeah, I have the motor, but I also have a trans. I have a swap harness. I have all this stuff. Stuff. And he's like, oh, I want all of it. I want all of it. I'm like, you got it.

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, boy.

[Vinny Russo]

It's 19. 500 bucks. He's like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Continues to chew my ear off about how he knows Brian Scotto and, you know, worked on sets with Jeff Swartz. So basically we're friends. And I'm like, cool, man. Whatever. This guy throws me a thousand bucks deposit before sema, right? So then I'm like, all right, man. I'm driving out to sema. Like, I could take the is and I'll just drop it off and then you could come pick up the motor and stuff whenever you want. Want. He's like, no, I'll come out there. Okay. So weeks go by. I found the perfect car I wanted to buy, but I didn't want to have too many cars. So I'm like, I found a left hand drive swapped Evo 5 in yellow. Sick car. So I'm like, I told the dude, I'm like, hey, I got a deposit on the is, but I'm not buying a car because if this falls out, I just, I wouldn't even have a space. I don't even know what I'd do with this thing. So I wait, that car sells. I'm kind of bummed. So I like start pressuring the guy and I'm like, hey man, it's been now a month and a half. Like, what are you doing? He keeps dragging his feet. So I'm like, hey, I found a chaser out by you. Send me another two grand so I know you're serious. I'll drive the car and the motor out to you. And he's like, okay. So I bought a set of wheels out there that he had picked up. And I go and I tell this dude I'm gonna come out and buy his car. So I go drop it off. I friggin bring this thing out to Las Vegas for him on a drive it or trailer.

[Matt Farah]

Not that this either.

[Vinny Russo]

This part of the story gets even more annoying. But the car didn't fit on the trailer. So he was like, I'll fly out and pick up the car, just bring out the engine. And I was like, fine. But when I get there, you have to pay me in full for the whole thing. I'll give you the title, give you the keys, you just have to come pick up the car. He's like, deal. So I'm like, all right, I'll do it, I don't care. And I'm trying to make a YouTube video. So I'm like, I got to end the story of this car, go pick up another one. I had filmed the whole thing already, drive out there and this guy fucking low balls me.

[Zach Klapman]

Yo, you guys had an agree? Well, he agreed on the price.

[Vinny Russo]

He on the price, gave me a deposit, everything.

[Zach Klapman]

So you wait till you're out there.

[Vinny Russo]

And he actually with an engine in the back of my truck, a transmission, all the parts.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a shit.

[Vinny Russo]

And he's like, he hands me the money and he's like, there it all is, 18 grand. And I'm like like, what's 18 grand?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh no. Well, he had given me the difference or. But it added up to 18 grand. And I was like, we agreed on 19 5. And he's like, no, your ad said this and this. And I'm like, bro, are you kidding me? I was so mad that I didn't even keep his deposit. I literally took all the money, and I just threw it in his trunk. And I was like, I'm getting the out of here. He's like, wait, wait, wait. I want the car. Let's make a deal. And I was like, I don't want to sell you the car.

[Matt Farah]

We just made a deal.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I was like, two months. Yeah. I was like, I just wasted a day. Hey, I don't care. You don't deserve this. And you drove to Vegas, and I just drove home. And I was like, you know what? This guy. I hate people like that. Worst type of person.

[Zach Klapman]

That's really.

[Vinny Russo]

He's like, we know all the same people. This and that. I'm like, you're an idiot. They all said, you're an idiot. I don't care. So I left anyways. So I had committed to. So in spite, I'm building this car.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, my God.

[Vinny Russo]

So it's getting a 1J swap. And then I have a Mark II GTI VR6.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Those are great.

[Matt Farah]

That's a pretty. So you've actually got a whole bunch of different little niches.

[Vinny Russo]

The Mark 2 GTI is. That was my childhood dream car. So for me, I'm like, I had to build it, but it's gonna live in New York for most of its Life. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Because Mark 2 GTIs belong on the Southern state.

[Vinny Russo]

They belong on the Southern State, But. Well, my brother has. Doesn't even have extra space for it, but he'll take care of it. He's got E46. I'm three. A really nice one.

[Zach Klapman]

Nice.

[Vinny Russo]

But, yeah, I just. I always wanted that car. So I partnered with FCP Euro, and we did a little build on it.

[Matt Farah]

Nice.

[Vinny Russo]

So we did the swap at their shop. We rebuilt the motor, like, put it all in, and I was supposed to go back and drive it over Christmas, but it snowed. I know. You forget about that.

[Matt Farah]

That's why we left.

[Vinny Russo]

I know. You're like, man, I don't want to be inconvenienced by weather anymore. This sucks.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

I met Jade from FCP at car. We're. And we're just talking about E46 stuff. And I was like, oh, man, these cars are just. They're fun, but they're problematic. And he goes, you know, we had to do all these DIY videos for fcp. So I just gave them my car and they changed and fixed everything and made all the content so mine actually doesn't have any of these problems. And I was like, well, good for you.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, they're all. All E46M3s are so problematic.

[Matt Farah]

When are you going to get yours? It's not done.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, they hit all these snags. But then I also had to order more trim parts, which arrived today.

[Matt Farah]

I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

I'm gonna go over there today.

[Matt Farah]

So wrapping his car instead of painting it was the, quote, easier solution.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, we were just talking about. Because I'm wrapping. I'm having my shooter editor, Jolly's JZX90 wrapped and we brought it there. Has a fiberglass hood and bumpers. Like, you know, it's a body kit and, like, the body's not perfect. And they're like, yeah, we're gonna have to block all this and we gotta fix this and that. And I was like, nah, it's okay. Like, it's just like, it doesn't have to be perfect. They're like, ah, we don't want to.

[Matt Farah]

Put out 60, bro. 60.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. They're like, we don't want to put stuff out there that's not, like, quality, though, so it's gonna take like a month. I was like, holy shit. I know. You guys would just, like, slap it on.

[Zach Klapman]

No, like, they. They want all the panels to look really good so that you don't see.

[Matt Farah]

It because it doesn't have any paint left on it. They sanded all the paint off the car.

[Vinny Russo]

Good for them for doing a nice job. Yes. But bad for us having.

[Zach Klapman]

Bad for the timeline. I understand completely.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Wild.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I respect the desire to do something nice.

[Matt Farah]

I also, I, you know, it's bad as well for me because this Taycan, unfortunately, only bad thing. It's white.

[Vinny Russo]

That's nice.

[Matt Farah]

Not for video.

[Zach Klapman]

No.

[Matt Farah]

Black would be worse. But white is the second worst.

[Zach Klapman]

White looks good at night, but not.

[Matt Farah]

Not in, like, thumbnails.

[Zach Klapman]

No.

[Matt Farah]

So there's a video in, like, making my car more YouTube. Thumbnail friendly. Changing the color.

[Vinny Russo]

Are you going to put a yellow outline on it? I'm going to put Jake Paul's face on the door.

[Matt Farah]

Be the Jake Paul mobile.

[Vinny Russo]

I hope you're kidding. But also sort of hope you're not.

[Matt Farah]

You wouldn't roll out. You wouldn't roll around LA in the Jake. No, no, we can't. You can't do yellow, but there. But you could do something. You could Do a nice, a nice color that would just be brighter than white.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah, white sucks.

[Zach Klapman]

Is there a car that's on your to buy list? Like, do you have a Mount Everest that you want to try to attain?

[Vinny Russo]

My Mount Everest is the 997Rs100. So it's almost weird for me in the world where I'm like, I've achieved what I wanted like car wise. I never thought I'd own one of those. So no, I think after that just kind of like enjoy as many cars that I want. So this year or 20, 24, 5, I want to do a series where I trade up from a Civic to a Lamborghini.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

In like X amount of steps. So I want a goal is to get like a Giardo or something. Something. But people will think like Lamborghini. They'll be like, damn, he's gonna get like an Aventador. And I'm like, no. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh.

[Vinny Russo]

But I think it'll be fun because I think I could turn like a ten thousand dollar Civic into a cheap Lamborghini. And like I said, you could turn.

[Matt Farah]

A $10,000 Civic into at least a $32,000 Lamborghini. That doesn't run.

[Vinny Russo]

No, it's gotta run.

[Matt Farah]

It has to run. There's rules.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, I actually didn't think about that. But yeah, there has to be rules. It has to be like a running, driving like car. I'm not gonna God bless all of these YouTubers that could rebuild cars. But I'm not doing it.

[Matt Farah]

Okay?

[Vinny Russo]

I'm not doing. I can't get into that.

[Matt Farah]

So no Copart.

[Vinny Russo]

No Copart. All right. I mean, between like Matt Armstrong and Goon Squad and like Tavarish. Yeah, like we.

[Matt Farah]

No, we can't do that. We're regular. Didn't one of them guys not. Is it Goon? Did they just bought the, The Senna. The Senna, which was actually. I mean, I think the. I think Freddy's P1 is worse cuz the center was just crashed, not like flooded.

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know.

[Zach Klapman]

P1 is a MacBook that fell in the ocean.

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know Freddy personally, but I've watched some of those videos and I'm like, what the hell is this guy doing?

[Matt Farah]

I. I ask myself that all the time.

[Vinny Russo]

And then Matt Armstrong bought the GT3RS from a river. And you're just like. And they all like do it and get it done. And I'm like, y'all are crazy. Like, yeah, so I can't compete.

[Matt Farah]

There's no such Thing as totaled. It's just a math problem that doesn't come out to a number that's above zero.

[Zach Klapman]

I mean, Freddie started doing this sort of when he wrote for Jalopnik, so. That was 15 years ago. Yeah, like, you need that kind of experience to take on this shit.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, they're all. I mean, they're all Goon squad. Literally. I started watching them a long time ago. Those guys are just, like, heavy, like, frame damage, body guys who just started a YouTube channel, and now they're, like, killing it. I love also fun fact about them. My favorite thing about their channels. You don't know their names. Really?

[Zach Klapman]

I never watched their channel.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, dude. Their channel rules. But you don't know their names, really.

[Matt Farah]

The whole thing, it's intentional.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Why?

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

To keep them humble.

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know. You just don't know their names. It's great. I love that about that matter.

[Matt Farah]

People just yell at them. Goon squad.

[Vinny Russo]

It's crazy. But, yeah. People building cars on YouTube is crazy. I couldn't imagine.

[Matt Farah]

I. I don't want to do that. No. I don't even want to be, like, mildly inconvenienced.

[Vinny Russo]

I love that. I want that to be my life motto.

[Zach Klapman]

That is the best answer for. If someone says, do you work on your cars? Or they make a comment, you go, I don't even want to be.

[Matt Farah]

No.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I want a loner.

[Vinny Russo]

I can't own a Ford.

[Matt Farah]

I had. I had one. I'd buy another one. I would buy another Mach E. But we're gonna go. We're gonna go. We're gonna find out for if it used Taycan at. Did I say half price, dude?

[Vinny Russo]

Half price. I'm all about half price.

[Matt Farah]

This thing had a fucking MSRP two years ago of $139,000. 64 grand.

[Vinny Russo]

How do people. That's like.

[Matt Farah]

That's more than half.

[Vinny Russo]

I told Zach that earlier. Real wealth is buying assets that don't hold money. Because you're like, I am so rich. I can just buy this car and lose 70 grand in two years.

[Matt Farah]

That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

It's ridiculous.

[Matt Farah]

Bentley and Aston Martin. First owners are the richest. There's lighting on fire because we were. I was driving that Bentley hybrid, which is so sick. The new one.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And it was like, the difference between someone who could spend and the MSRP was 406. Okay? The difference between 406 in Bentley and 406 in Porsche. When it's your Porsche, people are like, Making an investment. Right. Bentley people. That's just your car.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, that's your regular car. People always think that when they're like, you know, people who don't get cars think I'm so financially irresponsible. And I hate the whole, like, invest in cars thing. That's a whole other topic that I don't understand how. Whatever. But, you know, like, having a 360 and, like, a Raptor and, like, the Porsche and stuff, you're like, these cars all will either incrementally go down or kind of stay where they're at.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So you're like, you could enjoy this and not spend a ton of money. Whereas, like, my neighbor who has two Tesla Model X's, I'm like, y'all probably spend three grand a month in car payments, and at the end of it, you just throw it in the ocean.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Like, those plaid owners that lost $140,000.

[Matt Farah]

There's a pretty decent bit of math to be done that could justify a low cost of enjoyment of those cars. You know what I mean? Of your cars. Oh, yeah. Fucking Model X. Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

I was like, what? What enjoyment?

[Matt Farah]

No, no, no.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. You don't.

[Matt Farah]

Like a yolk. No. Your car. Your cars. If. Especially if you can do, like. Like, the basic stuff that a dealer would charge a ton of money for, you're doing that.

[Vinny Russo]

Like, I mean, me and my brother growing up, like, we didn't have money, so we pretty much just tried to own cars for free.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So, like, we wouldn't flip cars, but we would always joke that we just stay ahead of the depreciation curve. So you'd buy a car, you drive it for, like, nine months, keep it nice, like, maintain it and stuff, and then get rid of it, because then you could get into something else before the mileage and stuff. Like. Like, hits your car's depreciation.

[Matt Farah]

So it's always been 92,000 miles.

[Zach Klapman]

You started doing that in, like, high school or college or college.

[Vinny Russo]

Probably. Like, my third car, like, once I got my. I think my third car was a STI, and I bought a.05 STI with 20,000 miles on it for 20 grand, which was, like, pretty sick.

[Matt Farah]

An STI is a great third car.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think it was my third. I had a Mark 3 GTI that I bought for, like, 4,000 bucks. I traded that for a Mark 4 GTI. Oh, it's fourth car. And then I traded that for a Mark 5 GTI, and then I sold that and bought the STI. But yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So then you came to your senses.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, once I did that, we were like, oh, you know, like you're a daily driver so you're putting a ton of miles on and you're like, damn, this car is going to like tank in value. So we sold it, bought something else, kind of did that. And we realized that you could pretty much like stay ahead of the curve, but you have to be willing to get rid of the cars that you like. Like I have a friend, he's always like, I wish I could do what you do. He's like, I just can't get rid of cars.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

You know, so yeah, you just got to be like willing to kind of like jump through and like you said, not being inconvenient. It's the most inconvenient thing ever.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, most selling cars is a work huge inconvenience.

[Vinny Russo]

People's full time job. I have a really high threshold for inconvenience.

[Zach Klapman]

So there's like you drove to Vegas with an engine and then turned around.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, I'm a huge inconvenience person because I'm like, if I can make money inconvenience, like I'm dumb. I don't know.

[Matt Farah]

I just tell myself I could do my own thing for an hour and earn enough money to pay the person who's going to do the thing right on my car.

[Vinny Russo]

See, I don't think I'm there yet. Yet.

[Matt Farah]

No, no. You think the mechanic, the value of mechanic is worth more than the value of vin. I completely disagree with that. I think you are.

[Zach Klapman]

Depends on what's being done.

[Matt Farah]

I think you're undervaluing yourself maybe compared to Ferrari of Newport Beach.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Beverly Hills Ferrari. I don't know. I definitely earn less than a tech, but. Or they're hourly, but yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, or if you can wrench on something and turn it into a real. That actually makes money or whatever.

[Matt Farah]

If you're, if you're a. For if anyone out there is a Ferrari dealer, technician anonymously send us a note and tell us what you make. Just curious.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, I mean I meant like their hourly like getting like billable.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, the billable.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it's probably a lot. What do they. They probably charge like 250.

[Matt Farah]

Probably 250. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know. I can't. I don't think I would ever like itemize what I make per hour. I'm sure.

[Matt Farah]

I think you probably could afford it if you did. But yeah, still, I understand.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. But I won't.

[Matt Farah]

But what does A Ferrari technician make. What do you think? What do you think he gets of that?

[Vinny Russo]

Or she? 100 grand a year now. Gotta be more. Probably one probably Beverly Hills. Cost of living in LA. Probably like 150. Yeah, if you're good.

[Matt Farah]

Right. Charged me. They charged me eleven hundred dollars for a CTEC battery tender that had the magnet for the 488 on it. I hope twelve hundred Ferrari branded. You can't use any other tender. That's like the. That's how you connect it.

[Zach Klapman]

I hope Google AI is wrong because it says that the average salary for a Ferrari technician in the US is $48,000 a year.

[Vinny Russo]

That's got to be wrong.

[Zach Klapman]

Now that might be including mom and pop shops or something like that. I don't know. That's probably wrong.

[Matt Farah]

Otherwise maybe there's a scandal.

[Vinny Russo]

I don't know. Come work for Matt's business. He'll pay you 50 grand a year.

[Matt Farah]

I'll pay you more than that to park card. And we do.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, you have to here. I mean the cost of living in LA is insane.

[Matt Farah]

You do? Yeah. And health insurance and everything. Zach, what do we have going on on the Patreon? A bunch. Wow.

[Zach Klapman]

Reddit says it sucks to work as a Ferrari tech.

[Matt Farah]

Really? Yeah, I think that's right. 48K. What if they pay the Ford guys more?

[Zach Klapman]

This guy said he went to Ferrari from BMW and he's getting paid the same money.

[Vinny Russo]

Don't techs make money off of. Off of like knocking out jobs?

[Matt Farah]

I think they do, yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So it's got to be like scalable probably. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, let's go to the Patreon because we have a lot and of course I wanted to give you some James May gin.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, awesome.

[Matt Farah]

For joining us on he. They sent us a case, so.

[Vinny Russo]

James May.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, he came and did the show and then sent us all this gin. And it's so good.

[Vinny Russo]

40 alcohol by volume.

[Matt Farah]

It is, yeah. 80 proof. That's gin. That's normal.

[Vinny Russo]

Okay. I'm not a gin drinker, but my girlfriend likes gin. You should really try.

[Matt Farah]

Try some of that. That's. That's really good. We, me and Marco from TLG had a little gin tasting session the other night. It was very good. Yes, I love that. Patreon.com the Smoking Tire podcast if you want in onto the Patreon action. We had a lot of new people joining in the fall, November and December, big months. It was great. Thank you guys for your support going into the new year. And of course, if you want to ask Questions of us or our guests. If you want to get the show ad free. If you want to get the show ahead of time, if you want to watch the live stream, if you want an extra podcast every month and more. Patreon.com the Smokingtirepodcast is where you do it.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Love it.

[Matt Farah]

Curated by Zach Tim A says. What are the best, some of the best OEM plus mods that can bridge the gap between a base car and its higher models. For instance, Pelican Parts sells the Porsche OEM magnetic Visox shift paddles for a thousand bucks compatible with every PDK992. That would be cool.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That's a thousand well spent, I think.

[Vinny Russo]

Could be. Yeah. I also think like just the basics because best example I have of this, my friend has a. Or you know, Alex Bernstein. He's. He had a C2S and it just had suspension, wheels, tires, exhaust and like a shifter.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And it was nowhere near comparable to a GT3, but it offered a great driving experience. So I think like you just do the basics, like making a car. OEM plus isn't going to make it the same as like you're not going to make your Cayman s into a GT4. But. But you could make it more fun to drive.

[Matt Farah]

But you could if you had let's. The Cayman S is a good example. You could do lightweight wheels and good tires. You can do bigger brakes. You can do the gear ratios. You can do light flywheel and exhaust.

[Vinny Russo]

Gear ratios and light flywheel is expensive. But I just like good tires, good brakes, like suspension, exhaust, all that stuff's gonna make your car better.

[Matt Farah]

But gear ratios, I would consider OEM plus. Right. Cause you're not like messing up anything else.

[Vinny Russo]

It's a big investment though.

[Matt Farah]

It is, yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

4K Libya. That's war zone reference. Matt talked about the first time he'd seen a Countach before. What is the car or moment that you realized how much you love cars?

[Vinny Russo]

Whimsical question. Yeah. It has to be a 70 chevelle for me. My dad wanted a 70 chevelle his my entire life. So it's all I heard about growing up as a kid. We'd always look at those on like, you know, know we look for him in like the bylines and stuff. Remember those like the picture newspapers that you would get? Oh yeah, yeah. He wanted one so bad. You always had model cars and stuff. We always talked about cars. So that is like the car for me. I'm actually going to do a project with that car this Year. So I'm gonna bring it out to California. I'm gonna, like, rebuild it for my dad.

[Matt Farah]

Cool.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And it's like. It'll be like an OEM plus rebuild, so not gonna do, like a restoration, but it's gonna, like, modernize it a bit and just make it a good driver. Driver. So I'm excited for that.

[Matt Farah]

Great.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Dre in Houston. Any injuries occurred on any builds?

[Vinny Russo]

Injuries? No. I've been pretty lucky. Although I was cutting the fenders on the Ferrari recently, and the grinder, like, I was cutting something towards me. The grinder, like, jumped at my face, and I literally was like, wow, I'm never doing that again. I almost just like, sliced my face with a cutoff wheel. So I've been pretty lucky. I'm gonna softly knock on wood about that.

[Matt Farah]

You can bang on the table if it's like, literally for effect, you know? Yeah, I know. It is. Finkel, if you had to keep only one car of your recent projects, would it be the Ferrari or the gti?

[Vinny Russo]

It'd be the Ferrari. I just use it the most. And as much as I love the Mark 2 GTI, I don't know, something like, it's so dumb to say, but, like, just driving a Ferrari is cool.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it is.

[Zach Klapman]

You know, I think what's funnier is that you said you use the Ferrari really often, and the GTI was designed to be used every day for every task.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. And I'm sure that'll be fun too.

[Matt Farah]

But, like, it shouldn't be controversial for someone to go, would you rather keep your Volkswagen or your Ferrari? And for you to go, hmm, I think the Ferrari.

[Vinny Russo]

But notice that, like, if I had to keep one car, one fun car, it would not be the GT3I RS. It's too special. I wouldn't enjoy it.

[Matt Farah]

Universatility.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I need the versatility if I'm gonna have one.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, the one. The one car. It's that 400 horsepower, mid engine, manual transmission. Doesn't ride too stiff.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

See also Lotus Evora. See also a bunch of other cars. Nsx.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Elgato. What? Drivers era cars are still slept on. Vice versa. What is overrated? 300 ZXs are still a little slept on.

[Vinny Russo]

Are they good?

[Matt Farah]

They're nice. A nice one is really nice. Nice one drives well.

[Vinny Russo]

I think ones that are slept on. That's tough. I mean, the car market boomed so much in recent years that, like, what's left? That's like a good deal. I mean, C6Z06s are still, like, affordable. Those are great cars. You know, I think, like, you could still get a E46 M3, E92 M3 for good prices. They're higher than they were. C7.

[Matt Farah]

C7 grand. Sports are really nice.

[Vinny Russo]

I can't think of anything that I think is, like, slept on. It's sort of the problem with our culture today of, like, everything is blown out. Like, there's no secret. You know What? Get a C5Z06 for like, 20 grand. Those things are sick.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, you can get really nice luxury EV with a very long warranty for half price right now.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, that might be what might cool down. I think it's like kind of every. Everything. Everything that's not limited low production, so. Or like overly special. Like your NSX never gonna go down. GT3RS never gonna go down. I. I will say, like, cars like the E92, like E90, M3, E46s that were up, you could see them coming down because they made sure 40,000E90 and E92M3S. So, like, they're not rare. They just kind of went up. So I think, like, like, cars will simmer back down. You could even see it in, like, the Porsche market. And like, this regular C2.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like, regular 911s are pretty reasonable.

[Vinny Russo]

Right. They're coming back. And I think it's cool to see that because it's actually a good time.

[Matt Farah]

To buy a 997. My friend was just looking. Yeah. Like a Carrera or Carrera s. It's a good time to get in on one of those.

[Vinny Russo]

I think.991 GT3s.991.1 GT3s are going to be it. I mean, I just saw one listed the other day for 101. Had 50,000 miles, lightweight buckets, front axle, lift, steel brakes.

[Matt Farah]

Is that a replacement engine car?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, probably.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. That's great.

[Vinny Russo]

For 100k. I mean, that's a sick car.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's a lot of car for 100,000 bucks.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, I don't think those will go much lower than that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I mean, dude, I just. So in. In preparation for this, this likely closing Taycan purchase today, I rented one on Turo.

[Vinny Russo]

Wow. That's so responsible of you.

[Matt Farah]

For my wife to drive. She wanted to try. Try it. And so I rented a base Taycan Rear Drive, a 2021 had 49,000 miles on it.

[Vinny Russo]

49,000 Turo miles.

[Matt Farah]

Turo miles. And. And it was. It was $370 for four days.

[Vinny Russo]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

What?

[Vinny Russo]

That's so. For 40 cheap, under 100 bucks a day. Yeah. Sick.

[Matt Farah]

It was great delivered by the way. That much delivered to my home.

[Vinny Russo]

What the heck.

[Matt Farah]

So I and pick and so I drove this thing around and she drove it around. I gotta say, base Taycans are so slept on. This thing was still quick. It felt like driving a Cayman in the canyons. That with the rear drive only the steering is the best of all the taycans. And I'm telling you, this still felt like $100,000 car. Even though to buy a car like this would probably be $52,000.

[Vinny Russo]

That's sick. I love that I could just never own an evil because I don't have charging at my house.

[Matt Farah]

You have a driveway and a garage. You could easily solve that problem.

[Vinny Russo]

It's like 8,000 bucks.

[Matt Farah]

No, it's not.

[Vinny Russo]

How much is it to install charging?

[Matt Farah]

It's not. The charger itself is like 3 or 400 bucks.

[Vinny Russo]

What does it charge off of?

[Matt Farah]

It's 240. So you have an electrician run a 240 line somewhere. It's probably like. I bet it's like not even 1500 total to wire your house for an evil.

[Vinny Russo]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

It's not. I mean I'm not.

[Vinny Russo]

Not like slow charge. Right.

[Matt Farah]

Mine charges at 11 kilowatts, so my. Our Mach E was like 83 kilowatts. So at 11 it charges in about 7 hours if it was totally dead.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh wow. Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Level two.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Totally good.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

You should. You should get one at your house because like eventually you will have an electric car. I don't know.

[Vinny Russo]

You were pretty resilient to being dumb.

[Matt Farah]

They're pretty nice, dude. They're pretty nice for running around.

[Vinny Russo]

I like it. Running around town. I just.

[Matt Farah]

They're nice.

[Vinny Russo]

I had. I had a couple EVs just like press loaners Hummer EV. And that doesn't.

[Zach Klapman]

That's not a good one.

[Vinny Russo]

5N.

[Zach Klapman]

That's a good one.

[Matt Farah]

You were there on the launch.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, they're fine. But I just like the charging infrastructure just isn't there for me currently.

[Matt Farah]

Well, yeah, we will figure it out. If I drive to Detroit and then. Or fly to Detroit and then have to drive this thing fucking back using to hell.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I had one of the worst experience of my life was road tripping in an ev. So good luck. The. The last when was three months ago.

[Matt Farah]

Where did you go?

[Vinny Russo]

Monterey and back.

[Matt Farah]

Oh well that's. That should only be a one stop each way.

[Vinny Russo]

It was in a car with low Range.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it was a Kia EV6 GT.

[Vinny Russo]

No.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, was it?

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, it was Ionic 5.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

They only get like 200 miles.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. The range isn't very good on those.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Unless you're going like 68, which nobody does. Not on the 5.

[Vinny Russo]

No. Yeah. Yeah. But we had. We ran into a bunch of. Was nothing wrong with the Hyundai's. It was just running into a bunch of, like, dead chargers. Chargers that don't work.

[Zach Klapman]

Lines of chargers.

[Vinny Russo]

Lines like, just nonsense, you know? And we were, like, not prepared for it. I'm sure it gets better as you get better at it, but in my.

[Matt Farah]

Experience, it's gotten better in the last 12 months than it was. It was, like, bad.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And now it's. It's like. Okay. And I have friends who road trip EVs all the time and don't seem to talk about very many problems.

[Zach Klapman]

You can run it, but if you're on a tight schedule, like, you know, we. We did that. The lucid drive.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

We had to wait for the charger to open up when we got to Kettleman City.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

And it's like, all right, if you're on a tight schedule, shoot, schedule something, and you have to add 20 minutes on top of the 25 or 30 minutes to charge. It can just have an effect.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. It's tough.

[Matt Farah]

So 2,300 miles.

[Vinny Russo]

Good luck.

[Matt Farah]

The car should have.

[Vinny Russo]

What's the range on that?

[Matt Farah]

It should be. It's about 300.

[Vinny Russo]

Okay. So in the cold, I'm sure you'll get, like 110.

[Matt Farah]

True.

[Zach Klapman]

You put snow tires on and find an ice race. I'm telling you, dude, it will be the best.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Well, we can. That can be a thing we do. If they do this ice race thing again in Aspen, maybe we just drive to Aspen.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. It was a cool event. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, did you go.

[Vinny Russo]

I was there last year.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, did you drive something?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

What did you drive?

[Vinny Russo]

Golf. All.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, cool.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Was it. Was the track really cool?

[Vinny Russo]

I think they need to allow studs because unstudded ice racing is very slow.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes, it is.

[Vinny Russo]

So it's not exciting to watch. Yeah. And our car didn't have snow tires. It had, like, all seasons, so really, like, just. It was about just managing understeer. But Tanner Faust gave us some driving lessons, which was sick. I just wish we had more time to learn.

[Matt Farah]

He's so cool. I love Tanner.

[Vinny Russo]

I never really, like, I didn't know how to drive in snow. I mean, I grew up in New York and Used to, like, fuck around. But Tanner was like. To both me and the other guys there, he was like, you guys are driving like high school kids in a parking lot. We're like, no shit. That's the only experience I have doing this. So it's really fun because he would like, you don't counter steer in all wheel drive. Like, you just like, chuck it in and then you just keep the wheel pointed straight even though you're going that way.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So like coming from a rear drive person, I would always be like, wanting to counter steer and he would like, slap my hand straight. And then also initiating into turns like the huge. So early when you're like, slowest huck. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

You're like all scandies.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

It just feels so unnatural. I was bummed because I wish we had more time because, like, driving lessons from Tanner fast. Like that sounds expensive. Sounds like something I shouldn't have. Access.

[Zach Klapman]

I bet almost no one can get that because he's so busy.

[Matt Farah]

Did you know, by the way, Sorry. I went to Finland to drive the electric Cayman race car thing. And they also Let us drive GT4 Club Sports on studded tires on the ice track, which, if you're wondering if that was the best car experience I've ever had, it was much better than the other.

[Vinny Russo]

Sounds like it. Yeah, I would imagine so.

[Matt Farah]

But what they have in. But it was very. It was short. It was. I was only there for one day and it was short. But one thing they do is they. Apparently if you're a VIP enough, you can hire through Porsche like Hurley or Jorg Bergmeister or whatever. No way to be flown to the ice track to teach you private lessons.

[Vinny Russo]

Wow. You know what? In summary, Zach, this is something we might not know. In summary, money could get you anything.

[Zach Klapman]

Kids, if you're listening, take money. It gets you access to almost any your dreams are possible. Is basically the lesson.

[Matt Farah]

Bad gardener. What are some I can't believe we put this together moments at Hoonigan. That might be more of a Scottish.

[Vinny Russo]

You know, I think kind of all of it. Like, Hoonigan was definitely one of those things that existed beyond, like, existed despite not being able to exist. I mean, like, we made YouTube content in a yard no bigger than like, your parking lot.

[Matt Farah]

Just drove by the other day. I was like, wow.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. We had companies pay us millions of dollars to make like, ridiculous shows. Like, everything about it was back in the good days. Like, everything about it was like, I can't believe this is actually happening thing. You know, I used to joke with Scotto all the time. Because he would come up with these insane ideas as he does, and then we would all be like, you know, this just doesn't sound possible. But then over the years, we would work towards it and, like, then do it. And it was like, the Rolls Royce, the Donk, like, all these, like, building battle shows and stuff. It's all that we spoke about, but it seemed like it would never happen. And then, like, you pick up momentum, and then you're like, I was the one doing all the deals and stuff. And we'd be like, oh, wow. Now this company actually paid us to build the Donk, and. Oh, this company is having us do the Rolls Royce, and. Oh, we could actually do this show where we build a set and create two different segments for teams and build these crazy cars and take them racing. Like, so. Yeah, it's. I don't know. All of it was kind of like, wow, I can't believe that happened.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's awesome. He was just here saying, know. Talking about the. The cars themselves and.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Kind of wish we could snag some of them.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it's a bummer, man. I mean, you know, I don't know if we have to talk about it, but, like, some of the cars got left places.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And then when all this happened, a couple of the people reached out and they were like, hey, we still have this vehicle. What do we do? Or who should I contact? And I'd be like, keep it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Because it's gonna get stuck in a warehouse somewhere. And just recently, pictures of the 632 Camaro surfaced, and I was like, fuck, I'm so bummed. This was Chevrolet's development vehicle through the 90s. Like the car they developed parts for.

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Vinny Russo]

Sitting outside Buena park under a cover.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And you're like, man, that sucks. Like, that's such a piece of history for them. I wish they could keep it.

[Matt Farah]

We could buy it.

[Zach Klapman]

I need it.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, you don't want to buy any. Never buy cars built off YouTube. Except it's not mine, because I just modify them. I don't build them.

[Zach Klapman]

So, yeah, buy his cars.

[Matt Farah]

Anything on the next page, Zach? Oh, here we go. Let's see.

[Zach Klapman]

Go to the question.

[Matt Farah]

The question. Okay. Scotto thought that VIN had the most successful and interesting channel out of all the Ex Hoonigans, which is true. He did say that. How do you attribute that? And are you having any fun?

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, hell yeah. Well, one. Thanks, Scotto. So I think the reason why my channel performs pretty well, given its size, is is I don't make like my content isn't super self serving, which I think like a big thing for YouTube. Like some people think YouTube is like go do fun stuff and make a video about it. And it's like, I don't really think that's true for new YouTubers. I think maybe like the Adam LZs, the TJ Hunts, like the old school people who have that like vlog model, you know? Cause you were never a vlogger. You always made like a show concept. Yeah, but I think like vloggers old day were like, come with me to have a crazy life now. I think people there's too much of that and I don't want to compete with Adam lz. He's got crazy everything right.

[Matt Farah]

He has a drift course outside.

[Vinny Russo]

So for me, I think I take a step back and I'm like, what video can I make that people will enjoy? And sometimes I deviate from it because I need to fill a gap. But like next year specifically, I want to like make videos that people will like. So rather than doing like nonsense and just hoping people watch it, I'm like, what do I think people will like to watch? Watch and then I make it or like, what can people learn and then I can make it. So am I having fun? Yeah. Is it less fun than if I was just like, we're going to the track, boys. Let's go. Another track day with the team. 5,000 views, but I'm just going, but so I'm having less fun than doing whatever the hell I want. But I mean like, you guys live the life. Like work is hard and work sucks some days. But at the end of the day, like we have way cooler jobs and most people.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's not bad.

[Vinny Russo]

Like I, you know, there's some days I don't want to make videos or like I have to shoot that day and I'm just like not in the mood or feel like shit or think I suck. And I'm like, have no confidence to make a video. And then you do it. You're like, you know, like, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And then it's your best performing video of the year if it's the case of me and shitting on a cybertruck.

[Vinny Russo]

Yep, still one of my favorite videos you've ever made on things is fun.

[Matt Farah]

Once a year you should really take a dump on something.

[Vinny Russo]

It's very, very good for this on my Patreon.

[Matt Farah]

So Nathan Reynolds says, yeah, it's the year is 2004 and you're seeking a track day exotic special 996 GT3Rs or Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale.

[Vinny Russo]

360 Challenge Stradale all day. Sorry.

[Zach Klapman]

Yes.

[Vinny Russo]

I mean, if your pockets could afford it. Like, I think the challenger dolly is incredible.

[Matt Farah]

Someone had a manual swapped one that was. I drove one. Oh, you did?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. My friend Barrett, he's. He's like close with the Ryan Friedman guys. He's got a manual saw up Challenge stradale the best 60,000 miles. It is incredible. It's so nice.

[Matt Farah]

That's the right car.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. It's crazy that I drive that and then drive mine and you could feel the money difference. Like mine is a car, but it's still kind of crappy. Like you get in a challenge Stradale and it like everything is alcantara and none, you know, and you're like, damn, this is sick.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah. Here for Matt's cats. Can you. How do you work an exhaust for a smaller displacement engine to give it some character without being too loud or farty sounding?

[Vinny Russo]

Quiet. Yeah, Keep it quiet. I have a Hyundai Elantra N. It sounds okay. The best exhaust for it is quiet. Like, if your car sounds like shit, just don't make it loud.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Sometimes you can get away with focusing on intake sound. Like induction. I. I think E46s with exhaust sound bad. I just don't like that most.

[Vinny Russo]

Not all.

[Zach Klapman]

But I think the induction sound is good.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

So I would just do that.

[Vinny Russo]

I agree. Zach is 100% right. If your car. Like if with an exhaust, your car sounds stupid. Keep it quiet.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Like it's true.

[Matt Farah]

Or if your car has a traditional automatic slush box, don't put an exhaust.

[Zach Klapman]

I think there's just some. Sometimes there's just innate qualities to the sound that you can't really fix or change with the muffler.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. The IS 300. That's easy. Although. Yeah, 100%. The IS 300 is A2J. But it's na slow, makes no power. Mine has an intake on it. And honestly, it sounds good. Like, the engine sounds so throaty that you're right. Like the intake noise is enough. Like you don't need.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah. I had a VR6 jetter for a while. I put an intake on it. I thought I was the king of the world, man.

[Vinny Russo]

And you kind of were.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, you were right there. Tuddy's last heater. That's an AYG reference VIN. Favorite trip or event from 2024.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, my God. This is where you realize I have the memory of an absolute goldfish.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Like, what did I do to pull up your calendar?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I would say probably my favorite trip was either my race at Road America, because my parents came out and my girlfriend was there and Ron and Jolly, and we had, like. And it was my birthday, and we had, like, a great weekend. I didn't crash my car in the first place.

[Matt Farah]

Racing at Road America's superb experience. Road America is the best.

[Vinny Russo]

Road America's great. So scary, though.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So fast.

[Zach Klapman]

We haven't even talked about your race season.

[Vinny Russo]

Well, in short, my race season debuted at Road America in the rain. What a what? What a place to learn how to race. There's so many sections on that track where you're just top of fifth gear, and you're like, I'm going so fast for so long. And you have so much time to think about how fast you're going.

[Matt Farah]

And it's also a lot of time to consider your speed.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, it sucks. But I won an award at that race for, like, hard charger, most positions advanced, because I was a really confident passer, because I would just fucking outbreak people into turn five in the rain.

[Zach Klapman]

That's impressive, too.

[Vinny Russo]

I got lucky. So racing is weird because rain is considered when it's, like, drenched and you have to run rain tires. Otherwise it's just kind of wet. So I was on slicks, like, in the sort of wet, which is terrifying.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, that's not great.

[Vinny Russo]

But I also learned that I have no desire to become a race car driver because I'm not rich. So I watched a dude on my team Friday, during practice, he got outside of the dry line at the Kink, which is for everyone who doesn't know fifth gear. Flat out. You lift off the gas, get grip on the front, turn in and accelerate. So you're going fast as.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Went off and. Oh, sorry, I left out the most important part. The wall is one foot from the trackout curve. Not kidding.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

So he crashed his car, scrapes up the side, mess up the suspension and stuff. $12,000 in damage.

[Matt Farah]

How many hours later did a new car appear? His.

[Vinny Russo]

No, no, no. His crew chief. This dude, Alex, total G. Had to have come from, like, the World Rally space, fixing this thing in the pouring rain. Just hurricane. And he's just laying in a puddle, just changing suspension arms and stuff. I'm like, hell, yeah. Next day, race one. BMW spins out in front of him. He T bones this thing, totals the car, 88,000 bucks. His dad comes out and is just like, that's racing.

[Matt Farah]

I'm like a hundred G's.

[Zach Klapman]

100 G's.

[Vinny Russo]

100 G's plus. Well, no. @ the race, Jeff Ricca, the team owner, was like, we won't charge him, like, the whole price because he's like, you know, I'll pull the motor tech out of it. I'll do this. Like, I'll find ways to make it more affordable for them. But, like, could you imagine going on a trip that already cost, like, tens of thousands of dollars and then like, getting 60k in damage 2?

[Matt Farah]

But then we learned that a dude.

[Vinny Russo]

In a GT3 car, which is top dog class, had a blowout. So the tire exploded, ripped up the fender liner, all the sensors and stuff in the wheel well. 60 grand. Imagine having a $60,000 blowout. Like, and that was without hitting the wheel, without crashing.

[Matt Farah]

You haven't crashed.

[Vinny Russo]

And that was one of those, mom. I was like, oh, I could never afford to be a race car driver. Like, you have to have crazy wealth or it has to be a huge business write off.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Luckily for us, Hyundai was like, our deal with Hyundai was basically, we don't have to worry about damage as long as it's not blatant negligence. Like, if it's raining and you dive bomb in a corner and smash up a bunch of cars, well, yeah, you're going to be liable. But, like, if someone crashes into you or if you just go off track, like, we'll handle it. So we were very fortunate because I knew I was like, I'm not, like, I'm not that aggressive. I'm not gonna go and like, total my car.

[Matt Farah]

Like, listen, I can't afford to fix this.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Like, I don't have that.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I just was like, man, imagine like a 60 or $80,000 weekend.

[Matt Farah]

Dude. People are doing this in Ferraris.

[Zach Klapman]

Ferrari challenges.

[Matt Farah]

Ferrari challenge is insane.

[Vinny Russo]

Crazy. Yeah. So the money in racing is just wild.

[Zach Klapman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

But it's so. Oh, fun.

[Matt Farah]

It is.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

If I was like, series was it?

[Vinny Russo]

That was SRO Touring car. Yeah. So I want. I was hoping we would do some of it this year, but again, this is like pulling the curtain back on YouTube is if Hyundai was like, hey, you could race a full season of touring car. I tell them no, because you couldn't do anything.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And I would have to take a week off every month essentially to go racing. And I'm like, I can't make the same video, you know, seven times.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And. And, you know, I mean, as you guys know, like, taking a week off of something that has to come out on a Schedule is like, pretty much not possible. It's rough.

[Zach Klapman]

It just compresses the next week or the week before. So you get double videos. You make double videos. And then, yeah, it's tough.

[Vinny Russo]

So I'm like, I wouldn't do it. But racing is so fun. I love it so much. I wish I could do it more.

[Matt Farah]

It is. And, like, I've found ways. Like, I do it for fun sometimes. Like, I'll buy my way onto a, you know, a spec E36 or whatever team.

[Vinny Russo]

And I'm do two races this year, confirmed one with Garagistic, like a BMW brand in OC. They have an E36 touring car. We're gonna do an enduro. Cool. And then chase Bayes out in Alabama. We're gonna do 12 hours at Road Atlanta.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, that'll be fun.

[Vinny Russo]

GT86.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, great.

[Vinny Russo]

And that stuff is great. That'll scratch my itch for the whole year. Okay, yeah, yeah, easy.

[Matt Farah]

There's a lot of floorboard in the 86 at Road Atlanta. That back street is gonna be long. You're gonna be.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh, God, yeah. Honestly though, I'd be happy to go slow on that trait. Oh, yeah, no, it's fine. Like, I don't know, there's so much mental fatigue when you're just like, do it. Like in a super fast car. The straights are not a time to relax. In a slow car, you're like, okay, give me a good breather.

[Matt Farah]

When I did one lap of America, which was really fun. Maybe that is.

[Vinny Russo]

They still do it.

[Matt Farah]

They do still do it. It's really hard, too. It's hard. It's exhausting. It's really fun.

[Vinny Russo]

I should do another 360.

[Matt Farah]

You should. It'd be fun. Lee Keane did it the year I was there, and he had an R35 GTR with Ray car with aero motions wing, like active arrow. And he was like, he was so far ahead of everybody else that everybody would just come to the track to watch, you know, his lap. And this was like in the early days of like, really good in car video. So he had video running. So after I was friends with him, so afterwards I would look at his in car video. And during the straightaways, while running like a blistering lap, he'd be like, changing the radio stations and like, blasting, like, just shuffling through shit that had nothing to do with the car.

[Zach Klapman]

That's because compared to wheel to wheel or qualifying, he's like, this is 87% of my brain power or whatever.

[Vinny Russo]

I love that. One of my Friends. Jeremiah Burton from now big time. Used to be Donut. You should have him come on here. But he crashed during touring car because he was playing with his motec street and trying to change something and missed a breaking zone.

[Matt Farah]

No, there's. I don't have that. I don't have the ability while actually racing to do some unrelated. Dude, that's.

[Vinny Russo]

There's so much going on. It's like sensory overload that. So the cars that I was racing had, like two settings. One of them. Setting one keeps traction control and, like, very minimal. They're like, use this for the first lap, lap and a half while your tires are still cold. So it'll prevent you from spinning out, but immediately change it after they're warmed up. So you get. Because it, like, delays. Throttle. I did like two races with a completely. On setting one. Because you just forget.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And you have to, like, hit it and then hold it and then wait for, like a light to flash and then release. Which sounds easy, but would you have, like, cars everywhere and stuff? Like, your brain just can't do so much at once, dude.

[Matt Farah]

Even like during press launches sometimes when I'll be having to, like, make a video while on, like a group press track, you know, and it's like I'm trying to get the right settings in and I'll do the whole shit and then be like, wait, I didn't even have it in the right mode.

[Vinny Russo]

Like, you know, it's funny because just recently I make these shows. It's like one car, three different price points. So I did like GTR. I did Skyline GT GTT and a GTR. I've done like, base C6 Grand Sport and a ZR1.

[Matt Farah]

That's cool.

[Vinny Russo]

And I. I look up all my facts and I get all my info and I know most of the crap, but, like, you get all the right stuff. But then when you, like, present and are like, filming and driving and doing all this stuff, like, I said a couple things wrong.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

And I didn't catch it in the edit. You know, and people just, like, eviscerate.

[Zach Klapman]

They light you on fire and you're.

[Vinny Russo]

Like, do you know how hard it is to do all this stuff at once?

[Zach Klapman]

Oh, it's the worst feeling in the world.

[Vinny Russo]

Because I know exactly what you mean. Like, you're getting in a car and you're setting up cameras. You got a timeline. You're, like, getting in there driving it.

[Matt Farah]

You're like, tom Hanks isn't fiddling with the fucking lights for a reason. He has a Job to do that isn't lights.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But on YouTube, your job is all of it.

[Vinny Russo]

Your job is lights.

[Matt Farah]

Your job is everything.

[Vinny Russo]

Everything.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. My job is like, wait, did I hit speed on the audio recorder? You know? And they're like, fucking go.

[Vinny Russo]

And I'm like, it's so funny because I was just thinking about making a video because it's going to be my one year on YouTube coming up in the next, like, few weeks, and I wanted to make a video about, like, surviving YouTube and then doing a thing that's like that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

Where like, no one realizes all the jobs that go into it. And that's pretty funny from a big company. Like who? Like, where you had people who did things. Like, we hired TV level producers and showrunners and people to do stuff. And then you do it on your own and you're like, oh, I did this whole podcast. I forgot to plug in the mic because I never ran audio before in my life.

[Zach Klapman]

I've done that. You do a car review and then you get done and you look down at the audio recorder and I'm just like, fuck. Because I hit three buttons. But I hit that one twice because I thought I'd hit it before. And I'm like, well, do I fix the GoPro audio or do I review the car again? Angry. Now I know the facts better, but I'm mad.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, dude. Or. And when it's done, you know, Right. Which is most of the time, you then go, but what are all those other people doing? I was just able to do all this completely by myself. The fuck is your job?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Why do you need to be here? Straight up, like, oh, our friend made it, was making a documentary and just like came in here with like two camera guys and a sound guy and whatever. And he was asking, I was like, I. I don't know what. What these people need to be here for. We're filming you on iPhones for all the time.

[Vinny Russo]

Like, I think I try hard on YouTube, you know, whatever. And then you watch Cletus and you're like, cletus has the best business model ever. But it's also because he's like, so deep into it that he's just doing insane stuff.

[Matt Farah]

He's very committed.

[Vinny Russo]

He films on his cell phone. And I was with Jeremiah the other day when Cletus broke his record by putting the body on the Corvette. You know his.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah, his Corvette that had no body.

[Vinny Russo]

No body. He put like a fiberglass body on it and it went like half a second faster.

[Matt Farah]

No, turns out arrows, which is like sevens.

[Vinny Russo]

He's like running sevens. And I was with Jeremiah. I was on the phone with him and he was like, I can't believe he posted this. He was like, I talked to him today and he was at the track. He's like, so he did this today. He posted it at like 4:45 on a Wednesday, and by like 8pm it had, you know, a million views. And you're like, like, wow, that's crazy. Yeah.

[Zach Klapman]

Cuz like, if the content you're documenting is.

[Vinny Russo]

It's good, then it doesn't. Production value doesn't even matter. Just him with a cell phone. Just like.

[Zach Klapman]

But he's. If you're doing the crazy. Yeah. That's wild.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Wow.

[Zach Klapman]

Like the videos that go viral because the moment is so insane. Even when the cameraman, like, pans down and most of the comments are like, cameraman, you had one job to do. It's like, yes. But everyone's still watching this because the.

[Vinny Russo]

First 10 seconds, the thing is crazy enough. Yeah. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Mm. Awesome. Well, happy New Year, bro. Yeah, thanks for coming in. Yeah, thanks for spending our last pot. This one's gonna be up for a while because Zach and I are taking off the month of January.

[Vinny Russo]

Nice. I was debating doing that my first.

[Matt Farah]

Time ever doing it.

[Vinny Russo]

I did it last year because I hadn't even planned to do YouTube and I just quit my job, so I went on vacation. Yeah. So I wanted to take off this January, but then I up and I missed two weeks of content, so I'm like, well, now I don't get to take off. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So we're gonna. We're taking off podcast for the month of January.

[Vinny Russo]

Enjoy. That's.

[Matt Farah]

Hopefully. Hopefully I'll have something to talk about because I'll have driven an electric car across the country.

[Zach Klapman]

There's a lot, man.

[Matt Farah]

There's a lot of travel. GT3 launch in January too. The new GT3.

[Vinny Russo]

Oh. I don't get invited to any of that stuff. Get me in.

[Matt Farah]

It's an uphill road to get there. You know what gets me in?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Road and track. The smoking tire. I don't think would qualify for things like that.

[Vinny Russo]

The Road and track does 992.2. Okay. Not hybrid yet, right?

[Matt Farah]

No, the GT3s will be the last to go hybrid.

[Vinny Russo]

Okay, cool.

[Matt Farah]

I suspect the Turbo s will. Hybrid.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And it'll be a monster.

[Vinny Russo]

Do they have to be so fast? What are you doing?

[Matt Farah]

I talked someone out of a Turbo s last weekend and into a GTS, which I think is all the. That's all the 911 you really need.

[Vinny Russo]

I went for a ride. What is the new Lamborghini thing? The V12.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, the Revuelto.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That's all right, isn't it?

[Vinny Russo]

I went for a ride in that in Angeles Crest and I was like, get me the out of this thing. No, I was like this. Like you. You're like, it feels like we're doing 300. Like you're doing 300 miles an hour. It feels like you're doing like 50.

[Matt Farah]

It's pretty insane, isn't it?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The ride quality and everything about that car, pretty amazing.

[Vinny Russo]

Cars are nuts.

[Zach Klapman]

They're amazing right now.

[Matt Farah]

50, right?

[Vinny Russo]

No, no, no. Oh, McLaren.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Vinny Russo]

No.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, we need to make one. Because once you try that, everything else is lame as hell. Once you've been in a 750.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. I just don't know.

[Matt Farah]

They're the best.

[Vinny Russo]

I just can't understand how fast cars are. Like, I. I drive my RS up the mountain and stuff and I'm like, going 60 feels like you might die. And I love that about it. And then you go in these new cars and you're like, I feel nothing.

[Matt Farah]

And it's so fast in my NSX70 feels like 100 because I'm sitting on the ground. Yeah, the McLarens, I think you the. The sensation of speed is accurate, but the power to weight is so obscene. And the way that power is delivered, you will get wheel spin, like in fourth, which is a lot.

[Vinny Russo]

I went in Damon Senna.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, like that. Yeah, the 750 is just like that.

[Zach Klapman]

The Senna is just louder inside because there's just rocks hitting the wheel wells and all that shit.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, yeah. But that thing was bonkers. Also, they're at the old Hoonigan studio, which Compton.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, really?

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah. So we went out in the Senna. And then you're like driving back past like income homeless RVs and like tent camps everywhere. And we're just in this like 2 million dollar flame throwing, carbon fiber thing. And I'm like, cool. What is this world?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, but you should. You gotta. We gotta find a way to get.

[Vinny Russo]

You try one of them. Sign me up.

[Matt Farah]

All right, people. Happy new year. TST 2024. Think we're. I think we're out of here.

[Vinny Russo]

Hell yeah.

[Matt Farah]

My man. Enjoy the. Enjoy the Dr. You should try it.

[Vinny Russo]

I'm excited for you to get your car done.

[Zach Klapman]

Me too.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Congrats on a year on YouTube. That's awesome.

[Vinny Russo]

Thanks.

[Matt Farah]

Killing it.

[Vinny Russo]

Thank you.

[Matt Farah]

Daily driving Ferraris That's a good move. I like that move a lot. I want to try your seats, actually.

[Vinny Russo]

Before we get out of here. I want to see.

[Matt Farah]

I don't want to see your interior dye job. I didn't come down and look before, but we're looking at it.

[Vinny Russo]

Yeah, let's go look at it. Let's go. Yup. Around.

[Matt Farah]

All right, everybody, we love you. See you in 2025. Bye.