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Doug
What is dadication?
Kenan
The thing that drives me every day as a dad is Dariona. We call him Dae Dae for short. Every day he's hungry for something, whether it's attention, affection, knowledge. And there's this huge responsibility in making sure that when he's no longer under my wing that he's a good person. I want him to be able to sit back one day and go, we worked together, we did a good job. That's dadication. Find out more@fatherhood.gov Brought to you by the U.S. department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council.
Doug
Hello and welcome to this car pod.
Kenan
I am Kenan.
Filippo
I'm Filippo.
Doug
And today there's a lot to cover. Let's start with the big one, the new Mercedes AMG GTX which has just been announced. It is this thing, bright orange, it has 1340 horsepower. It's a four door sedan. It'll do 223 miles an hour. The downside is it is electric and it looks like this.
Filippo
It's not beautiful.
Kenan
I would describe it as a bottom dweller. Fish.
Doug
Yeah. No, it's got a mouth.
Filippo
Here's my impression, it looks very Maserati from the front.
Kenan
It does look like big grand tourism.
Doug
They look like fishes too. Look, the rear picture is actually quite. The front picture has been circulating but the rear picture is actually quite a bit more enticing. I don't know if you can pull that up, but there's a cool rear image where it's like got a. A big old. Yeah, yeah. The tail lights look cool. Anyway, the point is it's a 1300 horsepower electric sedan. Now we had talked about. They previewed this. Yeah, Pull that up. See that looks kind of cool. Right? Is there no back window?
Kenan
I mean.
Doug
No.
Kenan
And it says AMG over where the window would be, which is a great feature.
Doug
Yikes. So it's for a certain type of clientele. Anyway, the point is. The point is, is that AMG on the back digital between the lights.
Kenan
Yep, that does look digital.
Doug
That's a digital badge. That's rare. The point is this is obviously intended to be a competitor for the Lucid Air Sapphire, the Taycan Turbo S et cetera. Those cars aren't really the biggest sellers.
Filippo
No. I will say there's some interestingly news hidden within this. It's some new battery technology for Mercedes. It's on an 800 volt electrical architecture, which I don't think other Mercedes are. They claim that it can charge 248 miles of range in five minutes. You have an 850 kilowatt charger, which obviously doesn't exist in the real world, but like, if it did charge you.
Kenan
Of your own nuclear power plant, you could charge it really fast. That's very helpful, Mercedes.
Filippo
I do hope this is them taking a bunch of battery technology and motor technology for performance that then Michaels down.
Doug
The line, did you see that there's going to be recycled rubber from GT3 racing tires in the interior? Did you see see that? Part of the news story.
Kenan
But like, I kind of like it, but I also roll my eyes hearing that.
Doug
No, this is sustainable, regardless of all that. And I think it's. Obviously the power number is amazing. I don't think it looks bad. I think it looks a little weird. It's a little bit of a shame that it's going to cost. They haven't announced pricing, but it's going to cost what, $300,000. This market segment is not exactly alive with the sound of Music, you know what I'm saying?
Filippo
What does a Taycan Turbo GT cost? Because that's what this competes 251.
Doug
This has like 200 more horsepower than that. But those are expensive cars and they're not. I mean, is there a huge market for people who want thousand 1300 horsepower, fully electric cars? The automakers are discovering increasingly that there's not Right. Like the RIMAC Nevera and the Pininfarina Batista. Like they're all starting to discover, hey, people don't actually want at this price point, car enthusiasts don't actually want full electric. I have a suspicion this might go down that road too, no matter how exciting it may seem with recycled rubber and an AMG digital badge. I mean, I'm going to have fun reviewing it, but yeah, I do think.
Filippo
It'S a smart decision to have a standalone Halo model in a lot of ways for what EV technology is. The issue with the Taycan Turbo GT is that it looks like every other Taycan. Not really, but to everybody else does the lucid air. Sapphire is a lucid air. Aren't you starting.
Doug
Aren't you starting to realize though, ultimately that the enthusiast EVs are just not hitting like the i8, the Dodge Charger EV. Obviously the Taycan has been successful, but the depreciation is enormous, which suggests to me that they're having to push huge money on it to get it even out the door. And then it falls rapidly in the secondary market anyway because there's not a lot of demand. And isn't that going to be this car too? And any other enthusiast tv.
Filippo
Here's what. Every automaker pretty much has backed themselves into a corner where they've stopped development of new engines. They can't actually put that much more power out of their existing 4 liter V8. And so you got to release things that are electric right now. That's all they have in production or.
Doug
All I'm going to tell you is this. They might have more X's, but last week we talked about the ZR1 regular X, single X, not two Xs. They got a lot of power through a big old gas engine. All I'm saying, and I bet you that car sells fast.
Kenan
Admittedly I'm stuck in 2011 where XX's Ferrari's program and that's really exciting. But you know, I don't know. These will be cool when they're 130 grand like a year later, which is a little odd.
Doug
They'll be cool when they're 70 grand two years later. I mean, I just, I. My personal opinion is I think it's. I actually think it's cool. I bet it's going to get a ton of hate online because that's what happens. But I think it's pretty cool. I just think the enthusiast electric car, especially at this price point, I'm not sure there's really a market. We're going to see these and they're going to, they're going to be the official promo car for this event and that race and whatever. But like I'm not. There's actually people out there who's that interested in these cars. And I just think if the manufacturers want to go electric, electric cars should be little sedans and crossovers that people like Filippo buy.
Filippo
I get the thought of a Halo car for this. I doubt they're planning on selling many or any. I will also say it looks not very pretty and that's a mistake.
Kenan
And also, also how, how do you debut like the new technology and traditionally it's been with a Halo car that then trickles down. So like the formula makes sense. But I agree that I just think things so different now. Manufacturers should probably rethink how they approach stuff like this.
Doug
You know how I debut new technology in a gull wing rebodied as a modern car. Think about it. Mercedes Benz. Think about it. Give us our next news story, please. We have to move on from the fish car. Ah, yeah. Yes.
Kenan
So recently there was a car spotted out wearing camouflage. This allegedly is going to be the Lexus lfr. This is supposed to be the replacement for the lfa and it was seen driving around Big Bear Lake.
Doug
What's interesting, can I stop here? Who was it seen by? Who was it seen by?
Kenan
This was seen by an individual who I believe reads Motor Trend and sent it to them.
Doug
And they.
Filippo
There have been a bunch of spy photos that have gone to all the promises. But Johnny I think may have seen this one himself. I'm not sure, but Johnny, I want.
Doug
To talk about Johnny for a second. Johnny Lieberman, who is Kenan's hero, okay. He posted this picture on his Instagram and that's how I know about this car. Johnny has a YouTube channel. I'm not promoting the channel because I'm not allowed to, but for the last 12 years I've gone on Farah's podcast every Christmas. You know about this and I've said, why doesn't Johnny Lieberman have his own YouTube channel? And now he's launched it and it's called Johnny's Cars or something of that variety. And he's got one video out and you should check it out. Johnny is a friend of the show. And by that I mean he has never been on the show. Told me that he listens to the show, submitted anything for the show, but I remember in my phone Driving with.
Filippo
Johnny is the name of the channel.
Doug
Driving with. My mistake. Driving with Johnny. All right, so the let's.
Kenan
In this photo, we were driving with Johnny because he spotted.
Doug
You know why I don't want to.
Kenan
Talk about this because I know exactly why.
Doug
Go ahead.
Kenan
You don't want to talk about. Because this isn't the production car. It's not really news until it's a real thing. They're just driving this around and.
Doug
But why specifically do I feel that way about this car? Do you remember? You might be too young, but I remember when the LFA, I.
Filippo
Was about.
Doug
1997 and then 15 years later the car actually came out. So I'm thrilled that Lexus is thinking about this and I can't wait to discuss it upon its real debut in 2040 when it's down 3,000 horsepower compared to rivals.
Kenan
Yeah, exactly. The interesting thing to me is that you can clearly see it in the picture. There are four exhaust pipes, meaning it will have an engine of some kind. We don't know what. It's rumored that it will be a Twin Turbo V8. We'll see.
Doug
But that's a Twin Turbo V8 with a plug in cannon. Do you still respect it?
Kenan
Sure, I suppose. I mean, I like the LFA a lot more, but you know, what are you going to do? But nonetheless, yeah, it's driving around, it's out there. Who knows if, when we'll see this.
Filippo
It's interesting that they're investing any effort in another Halo car.
Kenan
In another Halo car.
Doug
It is kind of especially because ultimately they realized with the LFA that it would be smarter to downscale the Halo which they did with the lc which I think has actually done an okay job of being a Halo car. Not a great job but an okay job. But the Halo car for the brand really ought to be the lx. Right. Like Mercedes Halo car ultimately is the G Wagon despite all of their attempts to make it other gtxx right. Like Lexus. Lexus really ought to like lean into the LX being their Halo. But they keep trying with these sports cars that, that, that hit to a small audience.
Kenan
Well it is interesting. They've been hinting at that they may turn this into a GT3 car. So they might be something they want to then take racing which I could see being pretty cool.
Filippo
They've been a big sponsor for some races lately. Bunch of ad reads for Lexus where they had race like an RCF car. Unfortunately they no longer have an RC for sale. Like the Lexus. RC is dead.
Doug
Right.
Filippo
But you know, I don't know it.
Kenan
It, it could be something cool remains.
Doug
It's a cool, the concept of it is cool. But another automatic plug in situation. We're going down NSX territory.
Kenan
Going down NSX territory. So it'll be a car you love then. You love.
Doug
Yeah, I'm actually softening on the, the new nsx. I just want, Can I tell you what I want? I want three pedals and a V8.
Kenan
Welcome to my world.
Doug
So sue me. You see what 911 are selling for in the secondary market?
Filippo
Yeah, V8 famously enthusiasts want.
Doug
Well, you get the point. I'll settle for a flat six if it's got 7 million horsepower. All right, move on to the next news story. If Lexus will do a flat six, we'll take that too.
Kenan
Okay. All right, moving on.
Doug
This is not a news story. We're going to cover this.
Filippo
Yes, because there is actual news on this.
Doug
Welcome to the news where we talk about stuff that's going to happen in 2034.
Filippo
Okay.
Kenan
Okay.
Filippo
For a long time we've known that Mazda was Talking about an RX7ish thing or some other sports car in their lineup. Their chief technical officer said that there will be likely another rotary sports car that will be a separate model. Not just like A version of that Max 5 Miata and it would be, they said it will be a good Successor for the RX7.
Doug
What have you heard more? There's going to be another recession coming or that Mazda will come out with a new rotary powered sports car. I've been hearing that since the last one 13 years ago.
Filippo
Remember the plans like a rotary Mazda 6 and a diesel Mazda 6 in the US and everything else Mazda promised.
Doug
Anytime Mazda feels like they're losing enthusiasts on social media they just drum up the idea that they're going to make a rotary again. And people like oh they're going to do it this time. They're going to do it. It's like the mid engine Corvette which was a rumor for 50 years.
Kenan
And the things they said about this, they, they did confirm this will be a six speed manual rear wheel drive, lightweight construction car and that the rotor will serve as a generator for the electric system to run the car. But I don't know. I don't know. We'll certainly see.
Doug
I'll believe that when I see it.
Filippo
Yeah, you can say a lot of things.
Doug
You can say Mercedes, Mercedes Benz confirms that they're making a 1300 horsepower electric four door sedan. Mazda talks about making another rotary sports car. We'll see. Give us our next news story. There's not enough to cover here. This is not, I don't believe that's news until it's real. Ah yes. Our next news story comes from Hertz. Filippo, you know about Hertz? Hertz is a rental car company and Hertz, sometimes they got this thing now where they're going to scan the cars for, for issues. So when you turn them back in, if you scraped it or dented it or whatever, they'll do a scan as opposed to you sitting there in the sun at Nashville airport arguing, arguing with the Hertz attendant as to whether you did the damage or not to the, to the Chevy Tahoe LS that you've rented. Okay, so now they're doing this. They said they've already got it at Hartsfield in Atlanta.
Filippo
Yeah, they're launching it at the Atlanta airport. I'm into it. So for a long. Nobody else will be. By the way. I think I'm going to be alone in this. But for a long time one of two things has happened. If you rent from like a region, like a local place, the, the employee goes out there and like marks the car with you and like that's fine. But then you're kind of relying on whatever like the person of that regional One. And in north. In, like, small town North Carolina, then the person in Massachusetts.
Doug
Previous one, right? Yeah.
Filippo
Alternatively, at, like, an airport or a large location, you just pick it up and drive away. And they've looked at the car beforehand. They'll look at the car when you come back, and you have no visibility into anything. And it's so dependent on each individual person who was trained for 30 minutes on, like, a webinar on how to do it. I would kind of prefer that there's images from every single angle of the car and, like, an actual proof of. This is what the car looked like before you picked it up. This is what the car looked like after you picked it up.
Doug
People think they're going to use this to screw you. And they would. To be clear, they could. I mean, if it gets too obsessively detailed, then people will stop renting from them. So they have to be careful. But, like, if they have. If they have full 360 pictures from before and after, it's going to be pretty clear what happened. Now, this is a good example of why you should do what I always do when I rent cars, which is buy the insurance. Buying rental car insurance is generally perceived among the populace to be a scam. However, when you have rental car insurance, you can crash the rental car, and I do often. The feeling of having rental car insurance is so nice. The last time I crashed a rental car, which was the last car I rented, I just. I ran into the thing and I was like, I don't really care. I'm good. And then I just moved on with my day. Filippo, do you agree with me?
Filippo
No. I've literally never been in any kind of motor vehicle accident, nor do I intend to, but I didn't.
Doug
I want to be clear. I didn't hit a person or a vehicle. I ran into a cement. Oh.
Filippo
So something that was there, not moving, quite visible. Yeah. Okay, that's better.
Doug
I was trying to get into a tight parking spot, and I was like, you know what? I got to get tight. And I got tight. You know what I'm saying?
Filippo
And now the next person that rents that vehicle won't be subject to the fines because they will know that you were responsible. And that's great.
Doug
Yes, exactly.
Filippo
I will say part of this story was also that somebody got charged. Like, they were like a little bit of a. Some wheel, some curbing on the wheel. And the AI machine also said it's going to cost this much and this much and this much to fix it, and they thought it was outrageous. But that's exactly what happens as is, it's somebody plugging it into a computer and reporting it out. Like, that's not new.
Doug
Yeah, that's exactly. And honestly what happens as is sometimes you get charged for stuff you didn't even do. So at least in this case, I mean, people get into. You get into knockdown, drag out fights with people. Thirteen hundred dollars and oh, that was already on there. And now you got some proof.
Filippo
I will say in the past you could also game it by going to the employee that looked least engaged. But now you maybe can't. And that's unfortunate.
Doug
And this may put a stop to Kenan and my favorite thing, which is when we need tires. Kenan. I mean, I don't know if we should reveal this, but when Kenan and I. Kenan and I have shared a Ford Taurus for a while and when we need tires, we go rent a Ford Taurus from Avis and then get new tires.
Kenan
Hey, man, maybe, you know, all of a sudden it looks like I have new tires.
Doug
AI is going to detect that we did that. Oh, no.
Kenan
Damn.
Doug
And we, we have never siphoned fuel. We've never siphoned fuel.
Filippo
Well, because you have to return it.
Doug
No, you prepay and then you take the fuel in the airport parking lot.
Filippo
I. I will say the one thing that is notable is Hertz has been in the news a lot for stealing cars from their customers. There have been a bunch of news stories and legitimate legal issues where somebody has rented a car and then had it towed away. And Hurt says that they stole it. So it's a little questionable of how their systems work.
Doug
Okay, that's a drawback, by the way. That's a big drawback. If you rent a car, you want to have the car for the duration of your rental. You do not want the car to be taken from you mid rental.
Kenan
Yeah, correct. You have to hold the reservation. Anybody can just take them.
Doug
When I crashed that minivan in Italy, like, I still wanted the van. Like, I wasn't. Yeah. All right, let's move on to the next story.
Filippo
Here at this car pod. We're friends on and off camera. One of the best parts of our week, every week, is our group car dinner. It's a tradition we never miss. And this week's sponsor cash app has made the one awkward part of the night splitting the bill so much easier. Because, let's be honest, splitting the bill used to suck. Everyone pulling out their wallets, trying to do the math while the waiter hovers, arguing over who's going to pay. It was always weirdly stressful, but once we all got on Cash app, everything changed. Now one of us just picks up the tab, sends out the requests and boom, everyone paid days before we hit the road. No awkward IOUs. No I'll get you next time. Just clean, quick and done. And you can send payments down to the penny. We're always making dumb little challenges like Kenan. I'll pay you $3.17 if you parallel park in one. Try with cash app. I can. I haven't, but I can literally send exactly $3.17 on the spot. It's instant, it's specific and honestly, it just makes stuff more fun. They've also got built in protections. If something looks off like you're about to send money to the wrong person, the wrong Ken and Rolson. Cash app will give you a heads up. It's like your money's got a personal bodyguard. If for whatever reason, you don't already have Cash app, go download it now. Sign up. Enter our code Carpod C A R P O D in your profile. Send $5 to a friend and you'll get $10 just for getting started. For a limited time only new cash app users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real? There's no catch. Just download Cash app and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code carpod Carpod in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's Cash app so far.
Doug
Oh my God. What is this?
Filippo
My favorite news story. This is a 2026 Nissan Armada Armada Nismo, which is real. A couple of things that will excite Canon. Power is up. The normal armada has 425 horsepower. This has 460. If you go to the Middle east, the Nissan Patrol, which is the same car, Nismo actually has 35 more horsepower but we're limited. Wow, 35 more horsepower than that for some reason. It has an aggressive body kit, as you can see, 22 inch wheels, a retuned suspension and steering system. It is also lower than the regular one by some minimal amount. That means that ground clearance only 8.9 inches now.
Kenan
It's just insane. Why would you make a like. This is.
Filippo
This car is exclusively for the Middle East. It will be sold in the US but it is for the Middle East. They've made that really clear. Like they have said that their customers in the Middle east markets have requested this for some reason.
Doug
You go There people do it, people mod them, but it is a car. I'm disappointed in myself because I've reviewed the one. Well, I reviewed the regular one, but I haven't posted the video yet and now I've been upstaged. You may not.
Filippo
You have.
Doug
Well, now I obviously have to review this because it's so appealing. So the Middle eastern one has four 495 horsepower, Ken. And that's more than. That's 430. Now would you rather have and I bet they're the same money. Would you rather have. This.
Filippo
Is $70,000 is what they expect. Pricing has not been confirmed, but something in that 70 would be a bargain.
Doug
Because the Sequoias are expensive. Now there's no tr. There's no GR Sequoia, but damn it, there should be. So this is real. When is it coming to dealers, Felipe?
Filippo
It should be landed in the fall.
Doug
In the fall. Ken, are you gonna make a deposit?
Kenan
Absolutely not. That is. It isn't quite a vehicle, I guess good for the Middle East. It is people ripping around.
Filippo
It is quite a vehicle.
Doug
It is weird that they're doing this. They're making. They have an off road version which they should and everyone does. Yeah, it's weird that they're doing like a street performance. Right.
Kenan
By the way, a vehicle that weighs as much as a small car.
Filippo
One other reason you'll be excited. This is the highest output of the VR35 DDT engine is in the diesel Armada in the Middle east, not here.
Kenan
I did not know that and now I do.
Doug
All right, give us our next news story. That's real, that's tangible, that's something you can touch. Oh, Thomas and James.
Filippo
Yeah. We love our friends at Throttle House, soon to be Top Gear Grand Tour or whatever it is. But this is not. The story is not about them. It's about the Rolls Royce Spectre which is this all electric Rolls Royce. Yes. Rolls Royce said in an interview with the drive last week that the Rolls Royce Spectre is getting really young owner. So the average age for somebody that is new to Rolls Royce and buying a Spectre. So where the Specter is their first car, first ROLLS Royce is 35 years old.
Doug
Wow, that is really young.
Filippo
That's really, really young. Apparently on average, considering what those cost.
Doug
Isn'T that like a 400 plus thousand dollar car?
Kenan
Yes, I believe so.
Filippo
Yep. Apparently the average Rolls Royce owner is now only 42. That they used to be around. Around 60 years old. Like 10 years old.
Doug
That surprises me too. I'm sure. The Cullinan has helped with that. Surprises me.
Kenan
Yes.
Filippo
Yep. And it just. I suspect their goal was that these would sell. And they clearly are selling to young consumers in a way that I don't associate with Rolls Royce. 40% of Spectre buyers are new to Rolls Royce. Their first Rolls Royce.
Doug
I gotta tell you, we talk a lot about how EVs aren't the biggest sales cars, especially at the price point. I do see when I'm in California, I do see a lot of Spectras around. Because when you really think about it, like the world of ev, this is perfect for the world of ev. It's quiet, torque for days, seamless.
Kenan
Yeah, I've always felt that. I felt that this is the perfect app because the engine, when you drive a Phantom, it's like the. As you do, the V12 really isn't part of the experience that you appreciate the smoothness and refinement, but you don't hear it.
Doug
In fact, they're intentionally trying to engineer it out, essentially, which electric allows you to do totally.
Kenan
And the car weighs a ton already, so it's like you're not really looking to conserve weight necessarily.
Doug
Of all the EVs I've driven, like, obviously the desirable, the Model Y and the Mach E are really good, but, like, this is one of my favorite EVs I've driven. I think it is just a perfect application, really well done. I think an SUV would probably be a smart move, but I don't know how well they actually sell. I see them depreciating and with offers, but that's kind of true of all roles as Cullinans have lost a lot of value, but it's an appealing car. And if it's gotten young people to Rolls, they're probably really into that.
Filippo
They must be thrilled. And by the way, if you're 35 and don't own a Rolls, Roy Spectre, do better.
Doug
Do better. Do better. Kenan, do you have any advice for non Rolls Royce Spectre owners?
Kenan
Well, I mean, you can always get a used Phantom on cars and vids. Start there.
Doug
I'm not ready to move on from this new story. We got Thomas and James there, and I want to talk about Stradman. I want to talk about Stradman. Oh, now Stradman's not related to Thomas and James. I don't know if they've ever even met. Okay, they may have never even met, but Stradman is selling his Koenigsegg. And, and, and do you have any thoughts on that?
Filippo
Yes.
Kenan
Good. I Mean, it was inevitable, right? Like, the amount of money he was paying for that car and how unreliable it is is seemingly all Koenigseggs are like. It's just. It's not a surprise at all. That's less newsworthy than the Nissan.
Doug
I've said many times that Stradman is my guilty pleasure. Like, I love watching him, that is Switch to whistle and diesel. I'm not guilty about Stradman anymore. I'm just open about it. Whistling is like guilty pleasure, right? But Stradman selling the Koenigs, that is big YouTuber news, folks. Mark it in your calendars as soon.
Filippo
As it happens, because it's obviously famously easy to sell. A $3.1 million used car that was previously owned by a YouTuber. Should be an easy, easy sale. That will happen tomorrow. I have no doubt.
Doug
The Koenigsegg market is strong. Like Ox.
Filippo
There aren't that many. That's gotta help.
Doug
All right.
Filippo
He did drive me real miles in the time he owned it. Like, he got to experience it. He said in his video, where he announced it, that he's hopeful to eventually own another one, which I do believe he truly is.
Doug
But the best thing to do with Koenigsegg is to sell it. I hate to say this, and. And I don't know if I'm revealing any secrets here that I shouldn't be, but I know a few people who own Koenigseggs have endless problems. And it's not like you can go down to your local Koenigsegg dealer or in Filippo's case, to a shade tree mechanic down the street who does brake jobs in. In the parking lot of his apartment complex and ask for servicing.
Filippo
I mean, you can ask the guy. He'll do it. He'll do anything.
Doug
They fly a fellow in from Sweden whose name is Lars probably, and he's got to work on it. And they're. They're difficult. That's the drawback of building everything, every single component in house. It's a cool idea in theory. In practice, it leads to a lot of issues. And Stratus had a considerable amount of issues with his car. And they're difficult buys and difficult sells and difficult owns.
Filippo
Yep.
Kenan
And that's Koenigsegg.
Filippo
Also. 35 grand a month is quite a carrying cost.
Doug
Yep.
Kenan
Squadron Baby.
Doug
35.
Filippo
That much because he's leasing it. So it's a fixed monthly payment.
Doug
What do you drop those five grand a month on?
Kenan
I mean, I would buy $35,000 cars every month. That Sounds nice to me.
Filippo
You can have the nicest C39 and 5 every month.
Kenan
No.
Doug
All right, move on. We got more news. We can't have more news. There must not be any more.
Filippo
One more news.
Doug
I'm not talking about the Ferrari boat. I'm not discussing it. Move on to the next.
Filippo
Move on. Move on. Move on.
Doug
Oh, Corey announced they're doing a boat. It's not interesting. Move on.
Kenan
But I have such a good job.
Filippo
Ferrari also sells jackets and hats and keychains.
Kenan
No, I want to do is please do the joke.
Doug
Do it and do the joke, and we will laugh, and then you have to move on.
Kenan
Okay. Do you want me to go back?
Doug
No, you've got to cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go back. But we're not going to re edit this, so go back. All right, all right. What's the next news story? Kenan? I can't wait. All right. Oh.
Kenan
All right. Despite this looking like some sort of fly, Ferrari has announced that they're going to build a boat. A racing boat. They're taking their racing racing pedigree and applying it to not land water. Some would say that maybe they should make sure their wings are screwed together so they don't get disqualified for le mans or, I don't know, try to win a race in my lifetime. But instead they've decided, no, we're going to build a boat. They are running out of stuff to do. This is just one of the most ridiculous things I've seen, and I'm just.
Doug
Can I buy the boat? Is Stradman gonna buy this boat? Is that why he's.
Kenan
You can't buy the boat? And they're not even sure what they're gonna use it for. They're gonna go test it, and they said, if it's eligible for something, we'll do it. More useful consumer advice on products from the company that we love in Italy.
Filippo
It's big. The project is being led by people like Giovanni Soldini, who's an experienced Italian ocean sailor.
Doug
I'm just reading this on some.
Kenan
He is. Yes, yes. He's reading what I hyperlinked, but great. It looks like a fly, and it's going to say Ferrari on it. It's not going to be built. The Ferrari factory.
Filippo
Matteo Lanzavakia has been the CTO of Ferrari hypersale since 2022.
Doug
Can I say something about this? Can I say something about this? I really liked the 612.
Kenan
Me too.
Filippo
Okay.
Kenan
And the 599.
Filippo
Excellent. I'm thrilled to hear it.
Kenan
Focus on cars.
Doug
Can we move on? Do we have more to talk about?
Kenan
That is all.
Doug
All right, that's great. All right, we move on to the talk car. The news is over. Thank God. We move on to the talk cars segment now. In this segment, we're going to talk about cars. Now the talk cars segment is brought to you by Kennan.
Kenan
I thought it was brought to us.
Filippo
By Johnny Lieberman, but it's brought to us by Kennan. But specifically the video he did with the BMW.
Doug
You know what? Actually, actually, the talk car segment today is brought to you by the border division of the California Highway Patrol. Kennan, can you pull up the picture, please? The border division of the California Highway Patrol. Good to see you guys out there. All right, let's move on to the talk car segment. Kenan, what do you got for us today?
Kenan
So, quite a few things. So the first thing I would like to talk about is a car that we have live on the site that I'm very, very excited about. It's not that Mercedes thing, it's this car. So we have an E9 BMW Batmobile. The E9 3 liter CSL Batmobile. A legitimate series or is it serie? It's the first of the second series. So it's the one you want that had the body kit and it's live on cars and vids. I did a video on it. You should go watch it. It was a lot of fun to put together. But this car, this car is unbelievable. It's the non city package. So which is important in the CSL community of which Filippo is a part. Clearly, clearly. But it has all the lightweight stuff that BMW intended. It has the body kit, it has the M colors, it's has a nice restoration. And I got to drive it and it was lovely. And I just, I can't believe we have this car on the site. Like this makes me so happy because it's so this is a legitimate icon, something I have like bowed down at the altar of and just in awe of. And to get to drive one and then to have it on cars is like a threat.
Doug
Yeah, E9 is incredibly cool. The Batmobile is incredibly cool. Very, very, very special. I want to give a shout out to Kenan's video.
Filippo
Not the Kennen made a video about.
Doug
This car which is on the cars and bids YouTube channel, I think. And Kenan made a video about the car. And it's incredible. It's like really high quality. You know my videos. It's not like that. It's good. It's actually good. And the Video is obviously coinciding with the auction, which is we're trying to sell this automobile here to some lucky Batmobile owner. It's just a very, very high quality video for a very, very special, high quality car. And it's very, very much worth going to watch the video because it's really, really cool, and the car is really cool. It's a worthy video of a very special car.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenan
Well, thank you. And credit to Sean and our production team that helped put it together. I mean, it was just a thrill. Like, it all comes together very nicely.
Doug
And look at this video.
Kenan
Yeah, the video.
Doug
You say credit to Sean. Is he the fellow who told me to get rid of the hats? Is that the same Sean?
Filippo
No, no, no.
Kenan
Different Shaun. Different Shawn.
Doug
Different Shaun. Very beautiful video. Please go watch the video. Check out the auction. You know, I've always felt this car was cool. I haven't paid a lot of attention to it until this. Now it's live, and I went through all the pictures. Damn, what a thing. Hey, Ken, what are those seats like? I was thinking about this when I was looking at the pictures there. Are they tight?
Kenan
Completely unusable. Yeah, they're the hardest seats in the world to get into. They look like it's a cross between. Like, you can tell this is supposed to be a seat, but they're the most aggressively bolstered things in the world. Yeah, but they're more like the 70s idea of a lounge chair. Like, it's. It's not with bolsters. Yeah, it's like. Yeah, exactly. This is like if Eames designed a racing seat.
Doug
This is it in the days before, like real sports seats, where they figured out how to do it right. This is kind of what you had. Honestly, it's a pretty cool, aggressive sports seat for the early 70s. This is better. I mean, you get into a 60s Ferrari and you. You have like a chair, but yeah, you weren't slight.
Kenan
I didn't slide around in this thing. But getting in and out was really difficult, which I had to do a.
Doug
Lot because the bolsters are so high. It needs like a fold away bolster.
Kenan
Well, that and the steering wheel comes out so far and it's such. So large in diameter, like squeezing between it, there's not a lot of room. But the seats were wild. And the look of the car is crazy. I have to say, driving it around Orange county, which is specifically like Newport Beach, Crystal Cove, like Laguna Beach. That area sees a lot of crazy cars. Everybody freaked out over this thing. People like, we had to get gas in it. And everybody came out of the gas. They were like taking pictures of it. Like, I was stunned at how much attention it got. Some people knew what it was, some people didn't. But, like, it was.
Doug
People said Batmobile.
Kenan
Well, people are like, yeah. Like, they knew it was like a csl. Like there's something like that. But then there are a lot of people, like, what is that? Like, they just never seen it before and it looks ridiculous.
Doug
We have a lot of very special cars on the site right now. And recently, honestly, generally, yeah. But this is, this is one of the more special ones.
Kenan
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Doug
And on that subject, Kenan, can you talk to us about. You got another BMW thing here. This isn't just because Kenan is obsessed with BMW. Kenan, tell us about the Z8.
Kenan
Yes. So it's. It's not live on the site yet, but it will be soon. So I recently drove a BMW Z8 when we were in New Orleans. It's one of the cars that's coming shortly in a series that we filmed a couple cars there and it's perfect. That's the car I've been searching for forever.
Filippo
I'm stunned by this. Great.
Kenan
Yes. Nobody's surprised by that. But the thing is, it's like it isn't. It was really negatively reviewed in its time because it was like supposed to be a sports car and it was like BMW just doesn't do Halo cars all that well. The CSL was great and it was built for homologation purposes, which was fine. The M1 that came after it like as a Halo car was a sales failure. Then the 850 CSI sales failure.
Doug
Yeah. No, you're right. The Z8 continue it. The Z8 had its issues in its day, then the i8 was their next Halo car, which also was a huge dud. BMW has never been able to figure this out.
Kenan
No, I think the Z8 relative to what it was is probably the most successful of them. But it also was never followed up by anything. The car was so good and I really enjoyed driving it. And to your. To the point, like it wasn't that it wasn't like a sports car or a supercar. It is the one of the best cruises I've ever experienced. Like you just want to cruise top down.
Doug
What did you like? It's your same powertrain. I mean, I think one of the things that I like about that car, obviously it's beautiful. The interior I think doesn't get enough credit for how special it is. It's very special because it has some very unusual and special design elements that I think go well above and beyond that. They really could have done parts bin and they really did not. I think it's cool as hell in its day. It was, it was thought to be maybe a little too soft for a supercar and it has never appreciated greatly because of that, however, as all these cars now are outclassed in terms of speed by everything I imagine it's, it's. The experience is, is, is cool. Like what, is that what you enjoyed? Like the, the sort of cruising around in an M5 convertible?
Kenan
Yes. I mean there are a number of things. So yes, the powertrain is great. It also weighs 500 pounds less than the M5 and so it was, it wasn't slow. But it is interesting because yeah, like you said it 400 horsepower is the same as the Ferrari 360. And so people didn't know where it fit. But yeah, the interior stuff was really special. I taught you that you squeeze the headrest to raise and lower them, which I think all BMW should have that it makes so much sense. But as someone who just appreciates that era of BMW and it just combines the exoticness of the top down experience with all the special touches, the metal strakes on the steering wheel, it makes you feel special. The M5 does too. But it's a completely different thing. And so that car, true, it's a very different car.
Doug
The M5 is special, but the Z8 is like, it's special on a totally different level. It's just that they didn't go all out for performance and so it has never really caught on with the market. The market has always viewed it as a bit of a cruiser. But I don't, I'm not surprised. It's a Canon car. I've considered getting one off and on over the years only because I think they're, they're kind of bargains. You can get in and out of them for about the same money and they're relatively reliable in the sense that like that motor is well known. You know, it's not like, like it's known how that, what, what goes wrong, et cetera, et cetera.
Kenan
Yeah, I'm used to it. Bring it on. I will say that was the final point on this. It was interesting to drive because the one I drove has like 23, 24,000 miles, something like that. It was interesting to drive a transmission that I'm used to with that low of mileage on it compared to mine, which mine's worn in like a nice baseball glove. But that thing was crisp and perfect. Like it was like that's how it would have driven.
Doug
Like that is probably one benefit of the Z8s over a lot of the M5s. They're probably just generally nicer. Like the stuff hasn't whatever breaks on the M5s at a hundred thousand miles have gotten there.
Kenan
They're special. So people took really good care of them or just didn't use them that much, to be honest. Which means you have seals and things you have to deal with. But generally, generally speaking, it lived up or tail lights.
Doug
Do you want to tell about the tail lights?
Kenan
The tail lights. Allegedly. And I haven't confirmed this, but you.
Doug
Claim there's no allegedly. Go on the Z8 forums. Dude, you're not spending time on the Z8 forums.
Kenan
I will cross reference the part on Real OEM and take a look and make sure for sure that it is as expensive as you said. But allegedly, each tail light, each individual neon tail light, because they use neon for some reason is ten grand. So.
Doug
No, no, no, no. It's ten grand for the payer, it's ten grand.
Kenan
Oh, never mind. I just said that's not something.
Doug
Here's the thing.
Filippo
That's what tail lights cost now.
Doug
Well, the difference. There's two big differences, Filippo. Number one is these fail because the intent was that they would use Neon. LEDs hadn't really. We weren't sure where we were going after halogen, BMW decided to P near neon lights with this car. Obviously LEDs became the thing instead. Everything else went with LEDs. The only car that ever had neon, they fail pretty regularly. I'm on the Z8 forms right now and it says 4919 with tax for one tail light. That does not include install. So it's 10 grand for a pair plus install.
Filippo
You're buying a car, it's fine.
Doug
I'm not looking to spend ten grand on tail lights.
Kenan
Well, don't have then.
Doug
Filippo just thinks. Filippo just thinks stuff should be expensive. You know, back in my day, day, you pay more, you get more. I will say to be. To be fair, remember when the Z8 came out, BMW was like, we're going to have a hundred years or whatever. That was their thing. Yep.
Kenan
I could tell you from experience based on the engine, that is a lie. They just lied.
Doug
Total lie. All right. They just wanted to prop up a resale question.
Filippo
When do we reach the point where a low mile or equivalent mileage M5 is the same as the Z8 because like, like a really low mile, 10,000 mile M5 at this point is 150. I don't know. They never come up for sale at that low miles. Like a 5000 mile E39.5 has that surpassed a 5000 mile Z8? It's probably close.
Kenan
It's not as dumb as it seems. On its face.
Doug
Thank you.
Kenan
But it is, I think it is where I thrive. I think it is probably close and the person who wants them wants both.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenan
But I don't know. That's an interesting point. We'll have to see continues to evolve.
Doug
I want to talk about Filippo. The last talk cars that we're able to talk about. Well, we'll, we'll do two. We got to talk. You can tell us about your 10,000 mile GTI experience. Go ahead.
Filippo
Yeah. I've had the GTI that I bought on cars and bids about five months ago. We've driven that 10,000 miles. Bought it with just about 13,000 miles. We crossed 23,000 this last weekend.
Kenan
It's impressive.
Filippo
It's a lot of miles on that car. It's been wonderful. There was a squeak that was happening that was driving me insane. And then I tightened the headlight light and the squeak went away. How this occurred I have no idea. But it, it did. But now we're good. The squeak was the headlight rub moving just a tiny bit and rubbing against the bumper. And I, I don't know. Whatever. I, I tighten it in my, my mother in law's driveway and it's good now. Sounds good. But I am considering I've had it for 10,000 miles. New used car prices, because my car's only 2 years old are on up. So here, here's the thing. I've been looking around and I've been offered to sell the car for amount that makes me money. Bought the car for 21 grand. The used car market's really hot right now, especially for just like off of brand new cars. Because of tariffs, the values have gone up for the, up for those cars specifically. And I, I could make money. I could sell it for like 24, 25 grand out already. That's four grand more than I paid. 20 I all in. I'm at 24 and I've driven at 10,000 miles and I could sell it for 24 and 10,000 three miles is real.
Doug
Yeah, but it's a vehicle that currently provides utility. You'd have to replace it. Unless I replace it.
Filippo
But I could replace it with something fun like a 997 or a 991 or a C7, some of that.
Kenan
Or you, I don't know, could have just bought that car in the first place and have to go through this.
Filippo
But Instead I drove 10,000 miles for free.
Doug
Have you sold your Fiat or not? Not.
Filippo
No. I really need to, but. God, haven't got around.
Doug
There's Nobody who does. Who is less of a thing. Doer. This is. So you're trying to get rid of the car you just bought because you can get out of it. Not by. You can't, like, make a bunch of money you can get out of it without losing zero.
Filippo
I doubled the miles and I spent nothing.
Doug
That's.
Filippo
That's not bad.
Doug
Can I tell you something? You bought your home, like, two and a half years ago, right? I bet you could sell that for what you paid. Get out of it.
Filippo
You sell it for more. And man, do I think about it.
Doug
You get out. Get out of it for two and a half years. Pay nothing. Pay. It's pretty good. That's pretty good. I got two and a half years of living out of that house. Didn't pay a thing.
Kenan
Now, I would be thrilled if that were the case. If this were a crazy car and you had the experience and it cost you nothing like my F355 did. But instead, you got to drive around in GTI with a. With a stereo that didn't work and a headlight that squeaked.
Filippo
The Boulder fix and the car is. Is. Is excellent. But, like, I shouldn't. Shouldn't I have an actual fun sports car?
Kenan
Yes, you should. But you should have done that first.
Doug
But I didn't.
Filippo
And now we're driven 10,000 miles.
Doug
Miles. We begged you the first time to do it. Oh, you were so talking.
Filippo
I wasn't ready.
Doug
I went on this long rant in some group text thread about people and, like, where they want to go with cars and where they end up with cars. And you're such a great example. Like, the reason some of these cars are special, like a 911 or Corvette is because, like, a lot of the guys who talk about getting them end up on a gti, and that's what happened here. And now you're still talking.
Filippo
Fix my errors.
Doug
Well, fine. Then do it. I'll let you get out of the gti. I'll let you get out of the Abarth. If you go out and get a 997. Do it.
Filippo
Or 991 cab or a C7 or maybe a Boxster.
Doug
Whatever. You know what? You know where that ends up. You know where that ends up. Kenan.
Filippo
No, no, no. That obviously ends up with an. An. Nd1 Miata for 12 grand.
Doug
Yeah, right. It's exactly. I'm gonna go to 997. How many. How many? Do you have any idea how many people have come to me over the years? I'm going to get an AMG wagon. Two months later, I follow up. Well, what'd you end up getting? GLE base. I got at least a GLE base. Okay. We got to move on.
Filippo
I'm surprised that there's not more support of this. There should be more support of maybe getting a cool car.
Doug
I'm supportive. But you were maybe going to get a 997 or a C7 when we launched this podcast, and you ended up with a gti. Now you're sitting about selling GTI to go back. We can't take it.
Filippo
You guys have convinced me I'm just going to keep the gti guy. I was told I couldn't talk about buying a car till I bought a car.
Doug
Filippo, getting a 997 or a C7 is not like changing the world. Like, you can go get one. Like, they're pretty easy to buy and own. Like, it's not like you're buying a Diablo and you have to do, like, PPIs crossed globally. Like, just buy one and sell it. Then later, it's just fine. It's normal.
Filippo
Maybe I should. I would have if I got more support, but so goes.
Doug
What do you want?
Filippo
What?
Doug
What? Get it. Get it. Oh, we begged you. You said 997 in North Carolina. I begged you to buy it.
Filippo
I should have bought it.
Doug
In retrospect, go listen to podcasts on the site. I begged you to buy. We had two nice in the Southwest manual C7. You know what?
Filippo
But now I can get out of my GTI for what I. For more than I am all in.
Kenan
Because for him, for you, the thought of ownership, the exercise is what you enjoy, and then you enjoy the money part of it. It's the actual ownership you don't care for.
Filippo
Yeah. I will say the thinks that each mile I drive is worth 73 cents. Gas is probably 20 cents of that. I've made money. He makes a dozen miles for every.
Kenan
Mile I've driven is 73 cents.
Doug
He cares for the ownership only in as much as he thinks about, like, the. The cost and cost basis. Like, he doesn't. I think that he. He enjoys driving. Listen, Filippo. I know Filippo since he was a child. He's had every sports car, right? He had a Miata. He had this. What else did you have, Filippo, before you had the 500 bar? He's never really actually liked any of them. He had a manual X5. And what he enjoys is, like, thinking about it, getting it, getting out of it. The whole financial aspect, that's fine. But Filippo, we cannot be tantalized any further on this podcast. Me, Kenan, the border division of the California Highway Patrol. We cannot continue. Thank you very much. Yes, yes, a nice day.
Filippo
All right, fine.
Kenan
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Filippo
I've got one more topic though, which is a legitimate announcement. We are doing a very exciting collaboration with imsa, the race series. We are going to be at Road America on the weekend of August 1st. Ken and I. Ken will be there. I'll be there. We will have a really cool cards and coffee during the IMSA race. I'm really excited for it. Check out the Link below to learn more. Potentially buy tickets if you're in the area and have a cool car. More info info to come, but I wanted to release it early here on the podcast.
Doug
The coolest thing about this is that it is for the first time since. Since Filippo was a small boy, he is returning to his homeland.
Filippo
I'm so excited about that part, specifically. I spent so long in Wisconsin. I haven't been to Wisconsin in eight years since My Sister's Wedding. It's time nine years since when you.
Doug
See Filippo at 10 race. When you see Filippo at this race, go up to him and say, hey man, go Packers. Like, Filippo's a big. He's actually got a steak. He's got a.
Filippo
He bought an ownership stake, as every good Wisconsinite does.
Kenan
For the record, we're going to eat cheese curds. Can we go back to your childhood home?
Filippo
I will absolutely not go back to the home where I lived. I'm not planning on Madison on this trip, although I would love to. We'll see.
Doug
Chief Georgia, are you able to pull up a street view of the home or do people we know still live there?
Filippo
No, nobody I know lives there, but it seems like a bridge too far.
Doug
Okay, there's a lot to discuss in the market report segment today, and Ken and I both want to discuss the same thing, although I want to take it a little bit further, which is is last week. We keep talking about this, but I want to hammer the point because I want to keep seeing them on the site. Good swaps bring all the money. Last week we had some amazing swaps, both of which I wanted to buy, neither of which I bought. That is an E34.5 series. BMW did an E34 M5 touring, which that looks like it is. However, this was still in the day when M was supposed to be the sporty, lightweight performance brand. The M5 actually had a six cylinder, but the regular 5 series offered a V8 and they didn't make the M5, the real flagship until Kenan's car. This car solves all of that. It takes the drivetrain from the E39 M5, the very next M5, and the manual transmission puts it in this car. And they didn't rice it out. They didn't make it look stupid. It looks great. This interior is so cool.
Filippo
So cool. Go. Go to the next photo with the seats. Yeah, look at that.
Doug
Everything about this car oozed cool. This thing came in. I saw the reserve number. I thought to myself, that is gonna sell for way more. It is just Too damn cool. And it did it. What did it sell for?
Kenan
Like 35, 37, 750. I mean that's. That's serious money for.
Doug
I think it's a bargain. Honestly, even at 37, 750, you can't do it for less. And it's hard to find a good E34 touring donor anymore. Those cars are gone. Yeah, that's true. Especially with a. With a cool interior like that. And they did it right. They just left on throwing stars. They didn't over modify it. It is. Is cool as hell. That car is really special. And it takes the best. Two things about the the 5 Series. The E34 was the best looking 5 Series and the E39 had the best powertrain. And it puts them together in one great car. Yep, that's cool. But the obvious other one was this E46M3 touring.
Kenan
Yes. Now this car, this car was interesting in that. So the E46M, not only does it have an E46 drivetrain, engine, transmission, differential, all that, it also has the bodywork for an M3. Now unlike the E34, which was left pretty much as it was, this one actually had the E46 M3. Got wider fenders in the front and the rear. This car had those done. And all the bodywork took forever. The owner was telling me it took a year, a year to get this done. Including this rear part here, which like the. The door is flared accordingly with the arch like the. For the gas cap. I mean, real effort was put into this. In addition to the full interior, which he was telling is impossible to get. Like the black carpeting to get is really hard. Most of these had tan interiors. Like, to find it is unbelievably difficult. Walk me through.
Doug
I never thought about that. Yeah, the wagons, they were all like dark blue over tan, like every.
Kenan
Exactly every 23 hours precisely. So to find that stuff really, really difficult. The interior is done by the same person who did Doug's RS2 interior. So it's done very nicely. I mean, it's a really nice car. And yet again, also sold for serious money. 66 grand.
Doug
I want to say one thing here. This car was on the other auction site site and it was being sold by a friend of a friend. I didn't know the owner of the car, but I knew somebody. We had a mutual. And I said, you know, it didn't sell, it didn't bring much money and it didn't do well. And it had been modified. Obviously the car is modified, but it had been Lowered and all that. I said, you know what he really ought to do is make it look like a stock car, like an M3 that would have come out of the factory. And he did that. He made those changes, put on OE wheels, did a couple other things, took off some other modded parts. It took a couple of months and he made it look like that. And it was a really, really great decision. I actually think it would have probably gotten a little more if he had gone to the lower with the smaller wheel and raised the ride height a little. Like you're selling this car at this point to a real BMW enthusiast who wants it to be basically oe. I wonder in my life if I will regret not buying this car.
Kenan
I'll bet you won't. And I'll tell you why. He said he's going to do more of them and he will sell them on the site. So they're coming. So your chance is not over yet, my friend, but nonetheless special.
Doug
And, and the thing about the car that made that one particularly so cool is like that's the era that everybody wanted. But they only in this gen, they only did a coupe and a convertible M3, which for people who have any needs of practicality, you were screwed. And the E46 is like the most beloved M3, right? The E36s were cool, but they were smaller and less powerful. The later cars were also cool but less reliable, et cetera. They finally got four doors. If you wanted a four door variant, you can't get an E46, but here's your window. Anyway, the point of this whole segment was, was good swaps bring money. And these two cars are another great examples of like well done, really good swaps. Now I do want to talk about the Tesla Galaxy. Pull that up. Did you see this come across, Kevin?
Filippo
That was so cool.
Doug
It was so cool.
Filippo
Just do Galaxy.
Kenan
Yeah, this was very interesting.
Doug
This sadly did not sell, which I was so disappointed about. This is a Ford Galaxy. It is a 1964 Ford Galaxy, but it's a Tesla drivetrain, right? I mean it's got Tesla wheels from.
Filippo
A Model 3 performance.
Doug
And so I, maybe there's not a lot of people who are interested in this. We were just Talking about how EVs and performance cars and, and enthusiasts don't really mix. But I thought it was cool as hell. Like the idea of it is cool as hell and a Galaxy, it's not like you're losing like some really cool powertrain, you know.
Kenan
That'S the thing. I, I have long felt that there for cars where the engine is not a major part of the experience. Like, like F355. You want to hear the engine. It's like the Courage gt. You want to hear the engine. It's about the lfa. It's all about the engine. The cars where it really wasn't about that. Evs make a lot of sense if you just want to drive around in a car that looks really cool, but you don't want to deal with the old car problems of dealing with carburetors and like fuel inefficiency and stuff like that, or you live in like a city that you know, is really strict on emissions, like in city centers and things. Boom. I mean that's a, that's a great solution. You get the analog feel and look, look with not a whole lot of the drawbacks. It's like the next stage of resto modding for car.
Filippo
So into it. Truly so into it.
Kenan
Yeah, I agree. I think it's cool.
Doug
Good swaps. I love a good swap. I love a good swap. Designed build.
Kenan
Maybe over a weekend with a couple of cold ones.
Doug
That's right. We have to move on to the questions, folks. We have to move on to the questions. The questions are very important. The questions are brought to us by the border division of the California Highway Patrol. Ken, can you pull up that picture? There you go. There it is. Questions. Look at that, the questions. Now remember, you can ask us a question. You go to carsandbids.com you click on the community tab. Okay? And we have a little post there that says ask us a question. Ask us a question. This week we got maybe more than we've ever gotten before. I don't know if that's true, but there were 250 comments in that thing. Folks, I appreciate it. I appreciate your comments. We're going to do some good questions. There were some good ones. And we'll start with a question from Rider 17. I've seen a reel recently about the Corvette ZR1X and people were arguing whether it was a supercar or not. My question is what is the criteria for a car to be considered a supercar? Is it more than just performance? With EVs having high performance 0 to 60. This is like an age old argument that I'm not sure we're going to settle right now here. But I've always felt that there was an exotic rarity component to it in addition to performance and value.
Filippo
And it's not just how many they made. There's like something else beyond there's something.
Kenan
It'S a certain X factor which of course doesn't help to define it. But like it is like an. There is like something, something to it.
Doug
There'S something intangible that you can't say. I will tell you. To me the ZR1X is kind of in, probably in that territory when you consider how rare it's going to be, how much it costs, costs, how rare, how the market will treat it. I also like shy away from the supercar definition anyway. In my mind that supercar kind of has to be mid engine, which would eliminate a lot of really special cars. I think the term exotic car is what I always use. And to me the ZR1X is an exotic car. And I felt exotic was true of every ZR1. The C6ZR1 to me was an exotic. The C7, ZR1 etc. That's like how I feel. I don't feel with the CO6.
Filippo
The. I think it, it can't be just the high performance version of a sports car. Like I think the entire model lineup needs to either be a supercar or not.
Doug
No, no, no, no, no. I can, I can give you 5,000 examples.
Filippo
Give me one GT3G. You.
Doug
You're telling me a 996 GT1 isn't a supercar?
Filippo
Correct.
Kenan
There. Nice. There you go.
Filippo
Correct.
Doug
You tell me a CLK GTR isn't.
Filippo
A supercar when you remove everything that makes a clk a clk except for like the window, headlights, taillights. No, the, the, the, the ZR1X is less changed than that.
Doug
Well, okay, what about a GT2RS? What, what about supercar? Oh come on. They made a hundred of them and they cost a half million dollars. That's crazy.
Filippo
Rarity is not enough.
Kenan
I actually kind of agree with you in the case of the 911.
Filippo
Well, I knew you would agree with that.
Doug
You're not going to take the 996 GT1. That's not a super, that's just a sports car.
Filippo
That's just, it's an exotic car.
Kenan
Certainly take h. The, the turbo hybrid.
Doug
NSX is a supercar, but the 990, that. Oh wow. Okay. See there's this problem. It's hard to answer this question. There's a lot of not really sure abouts. I totally disagree that the top model can't be. I think it absolutely can be if it solves certain things. To me a CLK DTM is an exotic. A CLK GTR is an exotic. Obviously exotic.
Filippo
I'm with you.
Doug
You're with me on ZR1 being an exotic.
Filippo
Yeah.
Doug
All right. Well, there was. We go.
Kenan
I don't know. It feels too homegrown for me.
Filippo
I've anti America. That is what it is.
Kenan
Absolutely. GT get out of here.
Doug
Well, the Ford GT is a supercar. Yeah.
Kenan
4 GT is a legitimate supercar. It's. It's like that court justice that like I. I know it when I see it and that. That's how I feel about supercars.
Doug
You don't think. But the Ford GT has just a V8 that's like modified and based, but.
Filippo
It'S like a standalone model that is so special. And that's why I'm going for the can't be top line up. Like there's something about it being purpose.
Kenan
Built that's an aluminum extruded chassis. It's a very. It's a. It's a very Macintosh stereo.
Doug
Yeah. It's crazy to me that purpose built. Okay. CLK GTR doesn't count. Wow. Well, hey, you know.
Filippo
No, no. CLK GTR ab. It can count because it's not really a clk.
Kenan
But then people get talking about a.
Doug
Hypercar Venom doesn't count.
Filippo
I'm sorry, what version of the Hennessy Venom is.
Kenan
He's Lotus is what he's going to say.
Doug
Lotus. The Lotus Elite.
Filippo
Ow. Doesn't count.
Doug
What do you mean? I remember that SSC getting rolled over, which was the best thing that could have happened to it. All right, next question. The answer is we don't know when. We can't agree on it ourselves, Ryder. And that's why you can't agree on it either. And neither will your friends. And you can talk about it until you're blue in the face or you can move on to the next question from connor.t72. Many car model nameplates have been around for decades. Which new nameplate from the last 10 years do you think will be in use in the 2018? What a great and interesting thought exercise. It's hard to know because it's hard to know where the market will go. But the 1880s aren't that far away. There are definitely cars that were around 50 years ago, maybe even some that are around 75 years ago. Like the Suburban, the Corvette. Like there will be cars in the 1880s when we're dead that are still around. Do you realize that true.
Filippo
What are. I don't know. It's going to be the true or.
Doug
Not the Mustang, the Corvette, the stuff.
Filippo
That resonates those have been around for a while already. So it's not. These are like other new names plates. I could imagine something like Model 3 existing for a long time.
Doug
The A class.
Filippo
Yeah, probably. I'm trying to think of just what new name plates exist because a lot of manufacturers have changed a lot of their naming or have gone back in the last decade and res two decades, especially to older names.
Kenan
Yeah. Which I like.
Filippo
Ford, for example, went like through a bunch of different things before ending back up at Taurus miata.
Doug
Right.
Kenan
The 500.
Filippo
The 500. It's exactly what I was thinking of. Miata is a good. Is a good guess. Of course it's not called the Miata markets.
Doug
You won't get let me get away with anything that's not brand new. It's hard to know. It depends a lot on what happens to the market. But there will definitely be car name plates that continue. Like some of these car brands are almost more valuable than their manufacturers from a nameplate perspective.
Filippo
And son.
Doug
Yeah, E Tron, obviously well known nameplate that like very, very high quality Mercedes EQ. EQs.
Kenan
EQ technology. Just with.
Doug
Yes. Yeah. Right. G580. You want a nameplate that'll be around in the 2000 and 80s. G580 with EQ technology. Stronger than time.
Kenan
That'll be the 2080 edition.
Doug
Okay. It's an interesting question. You can give us your thoughts if you want. Next question from Florida, Mante Manti. Manthese. Anytime the RS2 comes up on the pod, you can see there's some pain behind those eyes. And by pain I mean contempt. Is there a story there? Kenan, why don't you tell the story of the RS2. I owned this car. It's a 1994 Audi RS2 Avant. I own this car.
Kenan
I own this car. It was very special. Looks amazing. Very slow and had some electrical issues, but it is out. It was not fast.
Filippo
Here's what happened. Happened.
Doug
I brought my first son home from the hospital in this car.
Filippo
There you go. Doug has decided that he didn't like his experience with the RS2 primarily because he had the wrong expectations. Just like he had the wrong expectations of the Ferrari 360 that he owned. He wanted it to be something it was never going to be and therefore he's disappointed.
Doug
That's astute. I think that's. I think that's correct. And by the way, I don't blame myself necessarily for that. Like it's the way you go into it. I, I did have the wrong expert. I think you're exactly right. Right. However, the car didn't deliver on what I was hoping it would be. Ultimately, I think one of the problems with. I will tell you this, the Rs2 and the A Class were unbelievably informative of my automotive life and in a way that my friends are really regretful about, because I don't buy cars anymore. And I had always wanted an A Class and I had always wanted an RS2. I bought both of them. They were both disappointments. They both cost me a lot of money. I think the RS2, I probably broke even. But I realized, like, it's just. It isn't worth it unless you're going big for a car that is really, really, really special. The RS2 is beautiful. It has a very special part in part in Porsche's history and an Audi's history. But ultimately was an early 90s car with a lot of plastic and a lot of stuff that didn't work all that well or didn't work right ever. The door locks, the windows. I. When I sold this car, I was incredibly disclosionary of all of its flaws. And everybody's like, this car is so flawed. I've watched other RS2s come up where people did not disclose, and I could tell from having owned one that it had a lot of the flaws mine had. These cars had problems. They weren't well built and they don't. They're just plasticky early 90s cars that happen to have a history. And if you want the driving experience and enjoyment, it's not there. I enjoyed looking at the car. There is maybe not a car I have ever owned, truly, including the Countach, where when I parked it, I turned around and looked at it more than the RS2. I loved the cup wheels. I loved the color. I had always idolized the car, but the actual act of driving it. And one of the things that I've discovered, I go away for the summer, I'm here on the east coast, and when I come back to California in the fall, one of the things I've discovered is if I haven't thought about the car or if I haven't missed the car, it's gone. It's just. It's gone, like, within a few months. And I think I sold this in, like, October, November.
Filippo
Let me ask you a question. Question.
Kenan
Another blue car.
Filippo
You. Yeah. Have. Have we thought about the Ford GT outside of this podcast?
Doug
Never selling that car. I love that. Wait, wait, I want to amend that because everybody's like, I'm never selling. I Will sell that car one day. But I have no plans to sell anytime soon. I will tell you, Ken. And if you find me an F40, I will get that. Which is our next question. Our next question here from just a racer, Doug. This is your F40 branded title. Spun out and hit a fence. And hi, Miles, it's waiting for you. Can you pull up this F40? It's at specialty car Collection. Your friends in Los Angeles, you know them? You remember them?
Kenan
I do, I do. John from Specialty car Collection.
Doug
Yeah.
Filippo
Ken's done a video or two asking.
Doug
Me about this car. So let me tell you the story. This F40, they got two that you want. The cheaper one. Keep going. No, that's not it.
Kenan
It's not the 90.
Doug
No, keep going. Scroll, scroll. There you go.
Kenan
Listen.
Doug
There it is. They. They're asking what now? 22 for this car.
Filippo
It's not listed.
Doug
Okay, so here's the deal. This car was on Gas Monkey Garage. Kennan, you remember this car?
Kenan
Oh, I remember it very well.
Doug
Some time ago in Texas, this car was driving at an event and it spun out. It not only hit a fence, as is posted in this question, but it also hit a building and many other things. I've seen pictures of it directly post accident. It wasn't pretty. It's not as bad as you might think. It wasn't pretty. Gas Monkey Garage got. Got a hold of the car. Richard roll when that was going on. And they restored the car. But they also made it like cooler, like they made it black. It was black with wheels and lowered and big turbos and all this stuff. Pull up a picture of the Gas Monkey.
Kenan
Oh, yeah.
Doug
At some point after that, the car was brought back to stock. Because now these have become so valuable. When Gas Monkey owned the car, it was maybe a half million dollar car. That's what they had. Somebody brought it back to stock. So I did actually send a note over to the folks who have this F40 because it's a cheapy as F40s go. With a mere $2.2 million ask. The drawback with this car for me is that it is actually not a low mile car. It has 11,000 miles in the F40 community. There are cars in Europe that have approaching 100,000 miles. And so this car is not particularly low or not particularly high rather, which. So it's pretty valuable still. But most importantly, it's a US Car, which is the real drawback of this car. The US Cars bring a lot more money. And so this is a cheap US car. It's probably the cheapest US F40, but if it were a Euro, it would be under two and then we'd be having a conversation. Nonetheless. It's out of my wheelhouse. Kenan, what do you think?
Kenan
Yeah, I mean, it is a driver. I mean, all the work was documented. You can watch it like, I've watched the series. Like, it was repaired many times. I mean, the frame was bent. They had to completely do that. They had to cut parts of it out, weld parts of it in. I mean, it's been under the knife and then, you know, who knows who set it back to being red and, like, correct. And so, like, there are. There's. This will forever be the cheapest. I suspect you.
Filippo
Yeah.
Kenan
But nonetheless, I mean, I would love for you to have an F40. You're not going to do it and it's fine. And I think that's okay. The Countach is plenty of. The courage is amazing. The F40 will be the one that got away.
Filippo
Wow.
Doug
Flippo. Are you sad about that?
Filippo
Not at all. Truly don't care.
Doug
Speaking.
Kenan
You cursed him. That's what it was. You cursed him. You bought him a Ferrari to like to say, congratulations, you're gonna get an F40. Bomb this F40 model. And guess what? He never did it.
Filippo
He decided not to.
Kenan
It's your fault. Your fault.
Doug
Your to. Listen, it's a complicated story that one day we should devote a whole podcast to. But, yes, I believe that Filippo played a role in it with his curse. I believe that some things are just.
Filippo
Not mentioned to happen.
Doug
And I didn't do it in part because of the curse. There is a hex. Speaking of. Next question from Kay Sherves. Doug, do you let other people drive your special cars? Countach, Courier gt, et cetera? Apparently the Throttle House guys want to review a Courier gt. I wonder if Doug would let them review it. A couple of months ago, we had. Was it Hammond? Richard Hammond wanted to come and drive the courageous. I said no.
Kenan
Well, I mean, probably good. He has a reputation for, you know, having issues with driving cars.
Doug
I used to let everybody drive my cars all the time, but the cars have gotten so valuable that I don't. I don't. I think it's best they don't. And it's not because I'm. I'm selfish or want to gatekeep them or whatever, you know, it's. It would. If something happened, it would be a really bad day for everyone involved. Like, not very few of. I. I don't hang out with other people who have finances like this level. I don't think that anybody I know could afford to replace any of these cars. Obviously, they're insured, but that brings up a whole thing. You know, this Countach is very special. This particular one, the crew gt, with all the work that's been done on it. Do you find another one? I think it would get bad. Mostly what I hear from people is that they don't want the E450. Mostly what I hear from people is they don't want to drive my special cars. Don't. Is that true?
Kenan
100% accurate.
Filippo
I've driven. I mean, Ken has driven. Some of yours. I've driven. That's your driver.
Kenan
I've never driven a car of his. Defender. That's it.
Doug
You never drove the Ford gt?
Kenan
No, absolutely not. I've driven them before, but I don't need to drive.
Filippo
I will say I have driven Doug's cars. Not all of them. And it's purely in the. The G cab, and it's purely in the situation of this car needs to move from here to here for some purpose, and it's not for driving enjoyment. It is truly for transit, and that's fine. I don't mind, like, great. I don't have any interest in driving any of your cars or somebody else's car and driving general in any aggressive fashion.
Doug
I feel a little bad about it because I want people to. I want people to experience the Ford gt and I want people to experience the Countach. Most of the time when I take them out, though, we're like going on a drive and most people are driving something the special they want to drive on the drive. And so. But I want people to experience those cars. I want people to experience the courage as well. I truly think that if everyone drove that car in our group, they would all come away thinking it's the greatest car they've driven. However, I think that the risk to everybody is just so significant that it kind of.
Kenan
No. It would impact the trajectory of the rest of everybody.
Doug
Yeah, it would, honestly, in a not great way. Now, Sean drove the Countach. None of you can. You never drove the Countach still.
Kenan
I never drove the Countach because the day you were going to go photograph it, I was feeling ill and woozy and like I had vertigo. And so, like, that's not the car you want to drive when you're not feeling good.
Filippo
You've started up the car you've drove.
Kenan
I moved the car. Yeah. I have the caretaker for the car. While Doug is on away on the East Coast. And so I run it through a warm up sequence every three weeks. And I take, I take to look after the car. I check it for leaks, check its oil level. I do all the things, you know, around the car. I would ver. This the only car of yours I would like to drive the. All the other like the Courage gt I don't want to deal with. The Ford GT is. I've driven them before and it's a wonderful car, but it's, it's. I'm fine with that. I don't want to drive the. I've driven the All Terrain. I take that. I've driven the All Terrain and that is a very good car. And I have no interest in the.
Doug
I feel bad about it because it was always used to be a thing of mine. I would always let my friend drive.
Kenan
But I don't. The other thing is like it's, it's. Because it's. It would just. It's not gonna be a. It wouldn't be a pleasant experience anyway because it's yours.
Doug
And I'd be overly careful if something happened too. There's another aspect of it which is like we'd have to make videos. Like if one of my cars got damaged, that would there. You couldn't not make a content about that because people know these cars are out there. So then you'd have to be like Canon, crash my whatever. And that would suck too. And it's just nobody wants to go down this road.
Kenan
Always think of the content. Thank you. But yes, I agree with that. I don't want that reputation and I certainly am not going to crash the countach.
Doug
I'm going to do two more very quick questions. Two more questions. Number one, from Caliber Orp. From Caliber Orp. Wait, three more very quick questions. And the last one's for Kenan. This one's for Sean. Your producer Sean has some interesting cars. Those who follow him on Instagram know. No. Yeah. Is Sean open to making videos of his cars on the Cars n vids channel? Off roading the g, taking the 360 to the track, using the Alfa as a grocery getter. Let me tell you about Sean. Sean is our producer. Okay. He doesn't touch the equipment. That's for the people who are like the camera folks.
Filippo
Competent.
Doug
Yeah. He doesn't appear on screen. Right. Somehow he's figured out a way to make a living in this industry but without, without doing any technical stuff with the equipment or with actually being talent, I don't know how. So he's out there Somewhere doing this. It makes no sense to me. But Sean. So Sean is like, he's like ephemeral. He's like around somewhere, right? No, we love you.
Filippo
He has stated that he has no interest in being on camera and he just wants to enjoy his cars and park them crookedly at these entrances.
Doug
The craziest thing about Sean is that he does the stuff that would be good content, but he does it contentless. Like he, he drove his 360 from San Diego to Monterey, took it on Laguna Seca and drove it home. And there's no. He just did it. It wasn't for content. He just did it because he wanted to. He took his G wagon out to the desert without a support vehicle just to do it and drive off road. And just so we don't know. Sean is a mystery. He's a mystery.
Filippo
One time he raced a Toyota Previa in his Alpha and blew the engine. What happened to Sean?
Doug
That is true. He was racing thing in Mexico, as you guys know, a Toyota Premia and as he was losing the motor in his Alpha blew.
Kenan
No, it was on the Seka. It was down the corkscrew. He got on that straight after that he powered out of the corner and it just pop went the head.
Filippo
To be clear, he was racing a mid engined supercar in a lot of ways.
Doug
Next question from costafilh0 Doug, will you buy the successor to the F40 allegedly built by Ferrari in collaboration with Lewis Hamilton? If it has a manual transmission, doesn't cost 10 million million, would you sell any of your cars to do it? Yeah, in the right circumstances I would love that. Like if Ferrari actually created a car that had a manual transmission, was limited production, was not a hybrid and was really cool and for whatever reason I was asked to buy it. Like I don't think I would be on that list. I would probably seriously consider that. I would consider an SP3 if it was affordable. Like true. Truly my understanding is they're 5 to 7 million. I would consider an SP3 at a much lower number, but they're not affordable.
Filippo
So as somebody who saw an SP3 the other day, don't.
Kenan
We did see an SP3 driving on.
Filippo
The PCH the other day and it was not.
Doug
It's cool as hell.
Kenan
It's so cool, you know. Oh my gosh, Filippo, it's a V12, any V12, non hybrid.
Filippo
I like cars.
Kenan
It looks like a concept car.
Doug
Whether or not it looks nice, it certainly looks striking, which is to me one of the classifiers for wanting a special Car. I don't necessarily need it to be beautiful. I want it to be striking. And it is. It has three very special things. Super low production. The V12 from the LaFerrari without the hybrid BS. That's a huge deal. And it's a convertible, which the LaFerrari essentially wasn't. I mean, they made apertas, but they were even more expensive. And it's kind of the dream. Like, it kind of is like what you'd want.
Kenan
You know, it's technically because the engine is the same family that has been used since the Enzo. You could say that it has an Enzo engine, if you prefer to say that compared to the LaFerrari.
Doug
Think about that. That is, after all these years, probably the best car to use that engine is that. One final question. This one is for Kenan. This is a three part question, including one for Filippo and one for Doug. But I'm only going to ask the Kenan one to start controversy. Kenan, you've talked a lot about different cars you're looking at getting. Have you settled on your second vehicle and when are you going to purchase it?
Kenan
I. I have. I have not. It's just everything I'm looking for, I. I can't find. It's just like. Or it's like, I don't know. First time Vipers have really had a spike in value recently. Like 50 is like what they've gone up to from 35 where they were like bought. Yeah, if only.
Doug
Yeah, if only.
Kenan
Big words coming from you.
Doug
I bought.
Filippo
I bought a car.
Kenan
Okay, you bought it. You bought a car you didn't want.
Filippo
I do want it. I'm into it.
Kenan
I haven't. No, I haven't. Come to the trouble is like, all the cars I want, like, really want are about a hundred thousand dollars. I just don't want to spend a hundred thousand dollars on a car. I know it sounds absurd, but it's true. Like the, the boxer Spider is in that range of Ferrari 575 or 612 is in that range. Like, it's like they're. They're just a lot of cars that are really expensive.
Doug
Do you want to let your. You, do you want to let yourself waste away having never had you say that.
Kenan
I owned my dream car when I was 27 for an afternoon.
Doug
Don't you want to do more? Don't you want to do more?
Kenan
I do want to do more. It's just like, I just. I don't know, it's like I admittedly I've sunk too much financially into the M5. And that is unwise as that has taken a lot of my car budget allocation. Although I've been very good on spending this year. But I don't know. It's like the. I don't know, because the cars I want are so much more, like, really are passionate about. Are so much more expensive.
Doug
Expensive.
Kenan
And so it's hard to like, scratch that. It's for sure for me to be.
Doug
You could be driving. If you hadn't spent so much on the M5, you could be driving an Evora IPS right now. Wow. If only Flippo's like, what is the Evora ips?
Kenan
Although I would take familiar with the.
Filippo
Vora answer, I'd say yellow is a pretty good.
Kenan
Even a normal one is nice.
Doug
It was the automatic. Yeah, that's what they called the automatic.
Kenan
I don't think we sold.
Filippo
I don't think we have.
Doug
Not a lot of interest. Okay, so the answer is. Kenan's not buying a car. Filippo's only buying a car if he can sell his car for what he paid for it. And I'm not.
Filippo
I need to get more.
Doug
What kind of podcast is this? We need Nick on here. He buys a car every afternoon.
Kenan
That's true.
Filippo
So true.
Doug
Okay, do we have anything else? This is the greatest podcast we've ever done. Do you guys have anything else?
Filippo
It really is the greatest one we've ever done.
Doug
I agree with that.
Kenan
It was very enjoyable. We miss you a lot. Can't wait to see you.
Doug
You know who I miss is the border division of the California Highway Patrol. Great.
Kenan
Luckily for you, there they are. Men and women who work for Always Watching.
Doug
Always Watching. All right, goodbye, everyone.
Kenan
Goodbye, Sam.
Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends!
Episode: Mercedes AMG Reveals Ugly 1340HP Sedan, Next Lexus Supercar Spotted, RX-7 Rumors?
Release Date: June 27, 2025
The episode kicks off with an in-depth discussion about the newly announced Mercedes AMG GTX, an electric four-door sedan boasting a staggering 1,340 horsepower and a top speed of 223 mph. Host Doug DeMuro highlights both its impressive performance metrics and its controversial design:
Doug [00:38]: "It is this thing, bright orange, it has 1340 horsepower. It's a four-door sedan. It'll do 223 miles an hour."
However, the car's aesthetics drew mixed reactions from Kenan and Filippo, who collectively deem it unattractive and liken its appearance to a "fish" or "bottom dweller":
Filippo [00:59]: "It's not beautiful."
Kenan [01:02]: "I would describe it as a bottom dweller. Fish."
Despite its bold design, the AMG GTX incorporates sustainable features like recycled rubber from GT3 racing tires in its interior. Filippo points out Mercedes' advancement in battery technology, featuring an 800-volt electrical architecture capable of charging 248 miles of range in five minutes—a claim he notes is currently impractical due to the absence of an 850-kilowatt charger in the real world.
The trio expresses skepticism about the market viability of such a high-priced electric sedan, estimating its cost around $300,000 and questioning the demand for a 1,300-horsepower electric vehicle at that price point.
Doug [03:16]: "But those are expensive cars and they're not... There isn't a huge market for people who want thousand 1300 horsepower, fully electric cars."
Transitioning to the next topic, the hosts discuss a recently camouflaged Lexus LFR spotted near Big Bear Lake, believed to be the successor to the famed LFA. This revelation was brought to their attention by Johnny Lieberman, a mutual friend and YouTuber.
Kenan [06:25]: "The interesting thing to me is that you can clearly see it in the picture. There are four exhaust pipes, meaning it will have an engine of some kind."
Rumors suggest the LFR may feature a Twin Turbo V8 engine, sparking debates about its alignment with traditional supercar aesthetics and performance expectations. Doug expresses disappointment that Lexus continues to push high-performance electric models despite limited market success, drawing parallels to Maserati and other niche automakers.
The conversation shifts to Mazda's potential return to rotary engines with rumors of a new RX-7-inspired sports car. Filippo references Mazda's past promises and the technical challenges associated with rotary engines:
Filippo [11:00]: "Their chief technical officer said that there will be likely another rotary sports car that will be a separate model."
Kenan adds that while the new model is expected to be a six-speed manual with rear-wheel drive, skepticism remains regarding Mazda's ability to deliver a reliable and high-performance rotary vehicle.
Doug [11:48]: "I'll believe that when I see it."
In a segment on rental car advancements, the hosts discuss Hertz's new AI-powered car scanning technology introduced at Hartsfield in Atlanta. This system aims to streamline the process of identifying damages when returning rental cars, potentially reducing disputes between renters and attendants.
Doug [12:30]: "That's exactly what happens as is sometimes you get charged for stuff you didn't even do."
Filippo praises the innovation but also points out potential pitfalls, such as erroneous damage claims and the dependency on technology accuracy.
The hosts delve into the details of the 2026 Nissan Armada Nismo, a sportier variant exclusive to the Middle East. With an increase in horsepower to 460 HP and an aggressive body kit featuring 22-inch wheels, the Armada Nismo is tailored to meet specific regional demands.
Doug [19:56]: "So the Middle eastern one has four 495 horsepower, Ken. And that's more than. That's 430."
Kenan remains cautious about purchasing due to its regional exclusivity and the possibility that it may not resonate well outside its intended market.
A significant highlight is the discussion on the Rolls Royce Spectre, an all-electric model that is shifting the brand's demographics towards younger consumers. The average age of Spectre buyers has decreased to 35 years, with 40% being first-time Rolls Royce owners.
Filippo [21:46]: "Apparently, the average Rolls Royce owner is now only 42. That they used to be around. Around 60 years old. Like 10 years old."
Doug acknowledges the suitability of the Spectre in the EV landscape, citing its quiet operation and seamless torque delivery as perfect attributes for an electric luxury SUV.
Doug [22:32]: "It's like the next stage of resto modding for car. Into it. Truly so into it."
The episode also touches on YouTuber Stradman selling his Koenigsegg, highlighting the challenges of owning such an exclusive vehicle. Issues like maintenance difficulties and high carrying costs are cited as reasons for the sale, despite the Koenigsegg's strong secondary market.
Doug [24:13]: "And they're difficult buys and difficult sells and difficult owns."
In the Q&A segment, the hosts tackle the intricate question: "What is the criteria for a car to be considered a supercar?" They debate various factors including performance, rarity, design, and brand prestige. Notable points include:
The discussion moves through examples like the Corvette ZR1X, Ford GT, and BMW Z8, illustrating the complexity in categorizing supercars.
Doug [57:04]: "The ZR1X is less changed than that... It is out of my wheelhouse."
Kenan showcases a live listing of an E9 BMW Batmobile, praising its authenticity and restoration quality. The discussion delves into BMW's history of unsuccessful Halo cars, contrasting them with the more beloved E39 M5.
Kenan [28:49]: "This car, this car is unbelievable. It's the non city package."
Kenan and Doug express admiration for the Z8, noting its superior handling and unique design despite BMW's mixed success with high-performance models.
Doug [36:36]: "The experience is cool. Like what, is that what you enjoyed?"
The hosts highlight successful car swaps on their platform, emphasizing the value and demand for well-executed modifications. Examples include:
Kenan [51:02]: "They're coming. So your chance is not over yet, my friend."
The episode features sponsored segments from Cash App, Brooklyn Bedding, and Chubbies, integrated seamlessly into the discussions. Additionally, Filippo announces an upcoming collaboration with IMSA at Road America, inviting listeners to join their Cars and Coffee event during the race weekend.
Filippo [48:27]: "We are going to be at Road America on the weekend of August 1st."
As the episode wraps up, the hosts reflect on the diverse range of topics covered—from high-performance electric sedans and exclusive supercars to innovative rental car technologies and profitable car swaps. They encourage listeners to engage with their content and participate in upcoming events, maintaining the podcast's community-driven ethos.
Kenan [78:49]: "It was very enjoyable. We miss you a lot. Can't wait to see you."
This episode of THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! delivers a comprehensive exploration of current automotive trends, market dynamics, and community insights, enriched with candid opinions and expert analysis from the hosts.