The Ugliest Supercar Ever, Best License Plates Designs, and a Big Automotive Regret!

Summary

Podcast Summary: THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! Episode: The Ugliest Supercar Ever, Best License Plates Designs, and a Big Automotive Regret!
Release Date: February 28, 2025
Hosts: Doug DeMuro, Filippo, Kenan, and C

---

1. News Segments

a. Audi A6 Avant Leak (00:04 - 01:09)

The episode kicks off with a discussion about a leaked, blurry photo of the Audi A6 Avant ahead of its official debut. Filippo expresses skepticism about the leak's significance, noting that the image doesn't provide any new information. Kenan counters by highlighting the uncertainty surrounding Audi's model releases.

Filippo [00:29]: "This gives us no new information at all."

b. BMW M4 VR46 Limited Edition (01:50 - 05:00)

The hosts shift focus to BMW's announcement of a limited edition M4 VR46, honoring MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi. They delve into the car's unique features, including its striking lime green graphics and special chassis tuning. The edition is priced around $155,000 and includes exclusive experiences like a barbecue at Rossi's residence and a driving experience at the Muzano Racing track.

Kenan [04:10]: "They did some chassis tuning with it. Special camber, different springs, and roll bars."

Filippo humorously questions the practicality of meeting Valentino Rossi:

Filippo [04:31]: "Where does this man live? I assume Italy."

The hosts discuss the exclusivity of the edition, with only 46 units being produced.

c. Kia EV4 Design and Engine Sounds (06:14 - 08:19)

Next, the podcast covers Kia's upcoming EV4, which features an unconventional triangular wheel design and the integration of artificial engine noises to enhance the driving experience. The technology, previously seen in the Ionic 5N, will be available across all trims but will be more prominent in performance models.

Filippo [07:08]: "This is definitely going into other cars."

Filippo shares his appreciation for the engine sound feature, considering it one of the best EV enhancements.

d. Genesis GV90 and Suicide Doors (08:19 - 10:05)

The conversation moves to Genesis' largest SUV, the GV90, showcased at the Semato show. A notable feature is the inclusion of suicide doors on one of the trim levels, a design choice seen in models like the Lincoln Continental and Bentley Huracan.

Filippo [09:29]: "Is that the last scene of the Sopranos?"

Despite initial skepticism about the design, Filippo expresses excitement for the GV90's potential to round out Genesis' SUV lineup.

e. Lucid CEO Resignation (10:05 - 16:00)

A significant development in the electric vehicle sector is discussed as Peter Rowlandson, founder and former CEO of Lucid Motors, steps down. The hosts speculate on the reasons behind his resignation, considering the company's underwhelming sales and production numbers. Despite retaining a high-paying consultant role, Lucid faces challenges in meeting its ambitious growth targets.

Filippo [12:37]: "Whatever the Lucid situation is, interesting."

Kenan emphasizes that the layoffs at Cars and Bids (sponsored segment) may not directly reflect the broader car market's health but rather internal strategic misalignments.

f. Mercedes Retains V8 and V12 Engines (15:14 - 19:28)

Mercedes-Benz announces its decision to continue producing select V8 and V12 engines, particularly for models like the S680 Maybach and legacy vehicles such as the SL65. This move marks Mercedes as one of the few German manufacturers still maintaining a V12 engine in its lineup.

C [17:18]: "We are thrilled to see V8s and V12s sticking around."

Filippo criticizes the longevity of these engines as counterintuitive to the industry's shift towards electrification but acknowledges their performance heritage.

g. Japanese Company Value Progress's Ugly Supercar (19:28 - 21:20)

The hosts introduce the "Beast," an unusually styled supercar produced by the Japanese company Value Progress. Based on the Lamborghini Diablo, the Beast combines aggressive design elements with a 5.7-liter V12 engine and a five-speed transmission. Despite its stark appearance, Filippo appreciates its engineering but admits it falls short aesthetically compared to other supercars.

Filippo [20:01]: "This is the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life."

The discussion highlights the car's one-off production status, making it a unique but polarizing addition to the supercar market.

---

2. Talk Cars Segment

a. Cletus McFarland’s Ultimate Race with Nissan Altimas (22:38 - 35:11)

Cletus McFarland hosted a race featuring 100 Nissan Altimas, showcasing their durability and performance despite their reputation for being less glamorous. The race included diverse models, some modified, and involved high-stakes maneuvers to manage issues like fuel leaks.

Filippo [24:35]: "If you haven't watched the video, go watch it."

Kenan and C discuss the chaotic yet entertaining nature of the event, emphasizing the Altima's unexpected resilience on the track.

b. Ferrari Owners Club Drive Experience (35:11 - 43:43)

C shares his experience attending a Ferrari Owners Club drive, where he drove a 355 and interacted with other enthusiasts. The event included a scenic drive to a winery, allowing members to showcase their Ferraris and enjoy camaraderie.

C [26:22]: "It was a really special car. It's still beautiful, it sounds so good, and it's so cool."

The hosts reflect on the challenges of maintaining classic Ferraris, citing issues like improper servicing and high maintenance costs.

c. Bugatti Chiron at Cars and Coffee (43:43 - 39:00)

A Bugatti Chiron made an appearance at a Cars and Coffee event, drawing significant attention from enthusiasts. The hosts discuss the rarity and prestige of the Chiron, noting its limited use and the high value impact even minimal mileage can have on its resale price.

Filippo [35:20]: "It was wild."

Kenan and C highlight the exclusivity and admiration surrounding the Chiron, contrasting it with more frequently seen supercars like the Lamborghini F50.

d. Organized Crime Lord's Ideal Car (64:38 - 72:01)

In a lighthearted hypothetical discussion, the hosts debate what car a crime lord would drive to project power and respect. Suggestions include the Cadillac Escalade, Range Rover, and Mercedes SL65 Black Series, each chosen for their imposing presence and luxury credentials.

Filippo [67:35]: "You’d be driving an Escalade. Driving a black Escalade."

The segment blends humor with automotive preferences, showcasing the hosts' diverse tastes.

---

3. Market Report

a. Layoffs at Cars and Bids (47:49 - 51:40)

The hosts address recent layoffs at Cars and Bids, clarifying that these workforce reductions stemmed from a mismatch between the company's growth strategies and the evolving market conditions rather than a downturn in the overall car market.

Filippo [51:04]: "It's not necessarily the market is bad."

Kenan adds that while the car market remains robust, specific segments like flipping newer electric vehicles have become less profitable, necessitating strategic pivots.

b. Special License Plates Showcase (51:40 - 71:59)

Filippo and Kenan present a detailed tour of some of the most unique and visually striking special license plates across various U.S. states. Highlights include:

• New York Lunar Lander Plate: Features a dramatic space-themed design, fetching around $600 on eBay.

  Filippo [54:06]: "Look up the New York Lunar Lander license plate, please."

• Hawaii's Special Plates: Known for their vibrant, full-color designs depicting local flora, fauna, and landscapes.

  Filippo [55:00]: "Hawaii is the coolest special plate."

• Oklahoma Support Education Plate: Depicts a schoolhouse in a tumultuous setting, representing a unique approach to commemorating educational support.

  Filippo [55:57]: "It's on fire and there's a tornado coming."

• West Virginia Turtle Plate: Praised for its intricate yet illegible design, making it challenging for law enforcement to read.

  Filippo [59:52]: "This is high quality West Virginia stuff."

The segment balances appreciation for creative designs with critiques of less successful plates, such as Montana's rural fire plate deemed poorly designed.

c. Vehicle Sales on Cars and Bids (43:43 - 60:09)

The hosts examine recent high-value sales on Cars and Bids, noting surprising trends such as the strong performance of the BMW M2 Competition despite its relatively older generation and higher mileage.

Filippo [39:34]: "We just sold this M2 Comp 54."

They discuss how market preferences are shifting, with enthusiasts favoring certain models over others based on performance and rarity. The segment underscores the importance of understanding current market dynamics for optimal sales.

d. Audience Questions (60:09 - 70:31)

Filippo and Kenan address questions from their audience, focusing on topics like best special license plates and worst automotive hot takes. They emphasize selecting high-quality questions over popular ones to maintain the podcast's standard.

Filippo [53:05]: "Here's what I'm gonna start doing. Beginning with the next pod, I'm not gonna take the highest upvoted anymore."

e. Worst Automotive Hot Takes (70:31 - 71:54)

The hosts share their "hot takes" on various automotive topics. Filippo candidly states his controversial opinion that markups in car pricing are acceptable, sparking a discussion on dealership practices and manufacturer strategies.

Filippo [60:52]: "My worst hot take is that markups are okay."

Meanwhile, Kenan and C offer differing perspectives on BMW’s F80 M3 and Lamborghini models, debating design merits and engine performance.

---

4. Conclusion and Final Remarks

In the concluding segments, the hosts reflect on the episode's discussions, reiterate their appreciation for special license plates, and share light-hearted interactions about their personal automotive preferences. They encourage audience engagement through the Cars and Bids community and hint at future topics to explore in upcoming episodes.

Filippo [71:48]: "Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, for participating our finest podcast cast ever made."

---

Notable Quotes

• Filippo [00:29]: "This gives us no new information at all."
• Kenan [04:10]: "They did some chassis tuning with it. Special camber, different springs, and roll bars."
• C [17:18]: "We are thrilled to see V8s and V12s sticking around."
• Filippo [20:01]: "This is the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life."
• Filippo [55:00]: "Hawaii is the coolest special plate."
• Filippo [60:52]: "My worst hot take is that markups are okay."

---

Conclusion

This episode of THIS CAR POD! with Doug DeMuro & Friends! provides an engaging dive into the latest automotive news, including exclusive car releases, design innovations, and industry shifts. The hosts offer insightful critiques, share personal experiences, and interact with their audience, making it a comprehensive listen for car enthusiasts seeking both information and entertainment.

Transcript

[Filippo]

Hello and welcome to this car pod Canon. I'm Filippo and it's time for the news. Starting with a blurry picture. A blurry picture of an Audi. This is a news story we're doing. The Audi A6 Avant has leaked ahead of its debut. But, folks, the sedan model is already out. The leak is like, we knew what the. Is this a news story?

[Kenan]

Again, two reasons why it's a news story.

[Filippo]

Okay, I'm very curious.

[Kenan]

One is that nobody knows what Audi models have been revealed or not. Let's be honest.

[Filippo]

Okay?

[Kenan]

First of all, it's a fact. The Q6 is for sale. Nobody knows.

[Filippo]

Okay?

[Kenan]

The A6 Avant might come to the US. There's a real chance of that because it is here now.

[Filippo]

Yeah, I think there is a good chance of it, considering they currently sell it.

[Kenan]

And the RS6 Avant will obviously be based on the A6 Avant.

[Filippo]

Okay, so what we have is a blurry photo of an all black one that looks a lot like the current one and a lot like the wagon version of the sedan as we expected it. I bet Audi's like, can't believe this thing leaked. That's how German would feel about this. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here like, yeah, this is.

[C]

We will track down the perpetrator, show that they are punished.

[Filippo]

And they will. They actually will. But the truth is, this gives us no new information at all.

[C]

You know what it looks like? It looks like a picture of the current one that someone actually leaked water onto. And then, like, it's different.

[Filippo]

It's slightly different, but it looks exactly like we'd expect the new one to look.

[Kenan]

When the i5 came out, you said that you'd buy one, maybe a Touring.

[Filippo]

If they came to the US with an i5 touring, I would buy.

[Kenan]

If they come to this with an EV A6 Avant, would you buy it?

[Filippo]

Listen, I love a lot of Audis and I like things Audi, and I like Audi. And I recently had an Audi. I do not like the A6 as much as I like the E class and the five series. I'm sorry, it's not as good of a car. The materials inside are not as good. The driver assist is not as good, the tech is not as good. And it's a harsh rider. It's a harsher rider.

[Kenan]

We'll find out how it is when it's revealed on Monday.

[Filippo]

All right, next news story. Come on again, give us a. Oh, yes.

[C]

So just when you thought that the M4 couldn't get uglier. So I like the way the M4 looks personally. But BMW has announced that they are going to make a VR46 version. This is the limited edition version they're going to do of the M4Cs. Now, VR46 stands for Valentino Rossi, the famous motorcycle racer.

[Filippo]

Of course.

[C]

Don't know who who this was. Correct.

[Filippo]

Oh, well, well, well known, yes. Here in the community.

[C]

Can you give us one detail on Valentino?

[Filippo]

He's one of the most famous Moto GP. You know, he's the most famous MotoGP.

[Kenan]

Can you define MotoGP?

[Filippo]

All right, here's MotoGP. I'm going to explain it for those who don't know motorcycle racing at a track and what happens is they race like nine laps and then they can't do pit stops. So that's the end of the race. I'm not wrong.

[Kenan]

I was really hoping.

[Filippo]

I'm not wrong. This is true.

[Kenan]

I was really hoping you would like, lean dramatically in your chair.

[C]

Oh, yeah, dude. Yeah. Knee down.

[Filippo]

Valentino gets that knee right on the ground. That's how he wins so many races. It's why he has a BMW that.

[C]

Looks like a Mustang 115 Grand Prix. He won, by the way. But anyway, his number.

[Filippo]

So he's done 900 laps in his career. It's amazing.

[C]

His number was 46 and he's turning 46 this year. He also races for BMW now in M4 GT3, and so they decided they would make a limited edition version of.

[Filippo]

This car for him. Wait, do motorcycle racing skills translate to car racing?

[Kenan]

Sure.

[C]

You know, he did a video with Lewis Hamilton where they swapped back. Like, they both swapped. Like, he got to drive the Formula one car. Lewis got to drive the bike. Lewis drive the bike. It does translate. He was pretty good in a Formula One car.

[Filippo]

What about Lewis?

[C]

Lewis was surprisingly good on a bike. I would be. I cannot believe their insurance company allowed that to happen. He was actively racing for Mercedes. Lewis was racing for Mercedes. It's like, wow. But they were so far ahead in the points anyway, it didn't matter. He could have just taken a nap for the rest of the rest of the season. But, yes, it does transition.

[Filippo]

This is a special edition version.

[C]

Yes. So they're going to only build, you guessed it, 46 of these. And it has some truly horrific graphics.

[Filippo]

It's wild.

[C]

The wheels have these, like, lime green Vs on it. I'm guessing only one spoke.

[Kenan]

Well, yeah, because you need it to be a V. Otherwise it's a lot of these. Okay, Maybe.

[Filippo]

Okay. Are the giant 46 on the side, like a NASCAR like this is a character in the cars.

[C]

The roof is signed in lime green.

[Filippo]

But tell us the best part. Tell us about what you what the winner gets. Yes.

[C]

Well, to real quick, to be clear, there are some like actual upgrades they've made to this thing. So they've done some chassis tuning with it. It's got special camber and like different springs and roll bars and stuff. So they actually did like real stuff with this.

[Kenan]

But it's some chassis tuning not for the regular M4, but the big. Just this one.

[C]

Just this one. Only 46 of them too. I'm sure that will be easy parts to get later on in this car's life. But the big thing is that if you buy this car, one of the things they let you do is you get to go to a barbecue at Valentina Rossi's house.

[Filippo]

Okay, I have a couple questions about this. First off, question number one, where does this man live? I assume Italy.

[C]

Yes, that's correct.

[Kenan]

Okay, can I look up Valentino Rossi address, see what comes up?

[Filippo]

Is it all expenses paid or what's going on there?

[C]

I believe that's the. So it's a two, it's a two day thing because you then get to do a BMW M driving experience at the Muzano racing.

[Filippo]

Okay, can I ask the obvious question?

[C]

Uh huh.

[Filippo]

Is Valentino cooking and if so, what? And if so, can I request sausage? What does this cost?

[C]

You're gonna buy one of these?

[Filippo]

Well, if I get to meet one of my all time icons, Valentino Rossi. Valentino. Yeah, Rossi.

[C]

Checking the spelling. Supposedly BMW didn't release an exact number, but I have the things I read was about 155 grand.

[Kenan]

How much is the normal number?

[Filippo]

155,000. United States for this?

[C]

For this.

[Kenan]

Will it be sold in the U.S. i believe so. Are any getting allocated here? Because there's only 46. And honestly MotoGP not the most popular racing here.

[Filippo]

Well no, the races are so short you show up late.

[C]

Well also, you know, it's popular with motorcycle fans generally. This is not a motorcycle you might have observed.

[Filippo]

In fact, it's a $155,000 car that looks like that.

[C]

And also I wonder if people know him for his racing career, like motorcycle racing career, realize that he drives cars.

[Kenan]

Now none of them do.

[C]

I don't think you knew that.

[Filippo]

I think they probably realize that he barely drives cars, right?

[C]

Most people, the association I make with him is that he the motorcycle thing. That's what I think of. So it is kind of an unusual pairing. Like I Said they're going to make 46. We'll see if they can sell 46. But nonetheless, one of the more bizarre.

[Kenan]

BMW Limited Editions 43 will be to employees of BMW that are begged to purchase them.

[Filippo]

But yeah. Okay, give us the next news story, please. Oh, some sort of ugly Kia.

[Kenan]

Not ugly.

[Filippo]

Okay, sorry, sorry. Yeah.

[Kenan]

That is a render of a Kia EV4. I think that they've shown design, but it's not been seen in person.

[C]

The wheels are triangular.

[Kenan]

Although I want you all to know, a lot of Kia wheels now, Kia or Hyundai are doing an EV day. That sadly is right after this podcast. So we'll sadly miss some additional news. But here's why this is interesting. Yeah, you're familiar with the Ionic 5N that has these like fake noises as you drive.

[C]

That's pretty close.

[Filippo]

It didn't seem fake to me. It seemed. It seemed as real as the day is long. Right.

[Kenan]

This will also have that technology.

[Filippo]

That's interesting because couple of things. Was it only going to be in a performance model.

[Kenan]

So all of them will have it. This is from like some leaked news from. From. From Kia. All them will have it. Only the performance trim will have the rev, the fake rev limiter. The rest will have the noises.

[Filippo]

But interesting. So all EV4s are going to have the engine noises, apparently. Wow.

[Kenan]

I think what they actually said is that it will be available.

[Filippo]

I. Well, available in the sense that the way it worked in the ionic 5N was it wasn't standard. You had to go into some sort of menu to turn it on. So. Which is probably the case here. But that's interesting because I still feel that that's one of the best EV features I have ever been a part of. And if they bring that into regular cars, I mean, this is definitely going into other cars.

[Kenan]

What's interesting is that the way that they pitch it and some of the news around it is less about the enthusiastic part because Frankly, a basic EV4 is not an enthusiast vehicle. It's to help the transition for people.

[Filippo]

Familiar to cars, to gas cars, that's fine too. I gotta tell you, I thought it was really great and I thought it really improved engagement and made it more fun. But also like, did add some familiarity. I'm into it as long as it doesn't end up looking like this.

[Kenan]

I think this looks great.

[Filippo]

The wheel, I agree with the car looks great. Door handles would be nice because it'd be nice to get in. But the wheels, the wheels are triangles and in my world, wheels are circular.

[Kenan]

Well, I think the tire is still circular.

[Filippo]

Oh. Then how does it mount the wheel? The tire. If the tire is triangular and the wheel is circular or vice versa.

[Kenan]

Magic.

[Filippo]

Magic. That's what Kia is really doing. Now. That's misdirection. It's like Trump. Like, they say one thing, and they're doing something else. You know what I'm saying? Oh, okay. Get to the next news story. Okay. Oh, wow. All right.

[Kenan]

We're continuing with the South Koreans with Genesis. This is the Genesis GV90.

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Kenan]

Or version of a shown at Semato show. Ignore the driver's seat. What's notable about the GV90, which will be their largest SUV.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

Is that they have said that one of the trim levels of it will have suicide doors. So doors like this, where the back opens.

[C]

To be clear, for those who can't see, Philippe was saying ignore the driver's seat. That's because it's facing the wrong direction.

[Filippo]

Nor the fact that the driver's seat is facing back.

[C]

For what's wrong.

[Filippo]

We don't know that for what it's wrong.

[Kenan]

This is probably a South Korean model. So the driver seat might be facing forward.

[Filippo]

This could be the passenger seat in Korea. What side of the road do you think they drive on?

[Kenan]

I clearly am wrong about it. I assume they're on the left.

[Filippo]

I don't remember.

[Kenan]

I assume they drove on the left side of the road.

[Filippo]

Oh, I went to Thailand too. It's hard to.

[C]

Filippo. If that. If the driver's seat were on the other side, there would be a seat here, and there isn't.

[Filippo]

No. Korean cars drive on the. On the normal.

[Kenan]

Yeah. All right.

[Filippo]

On the correct side.

[Kenan]

Would it not be nice if you could swivel your driver's seat around?

[Filippo]

I am curious about. Actually, the thing that I'm most curious about. This. Will it have the mobster Italian restaurant style trim? Leather. You agree with me, right? Like the leather trim.

[C]

Is that the last scene of the Sopranos?

[Kenan]

Almost certainly, yes.

[Filippo]

Tony gets into a GV90 and then the screen goes black.

[Kenan]

Almost certainly. But the suicide doors, the rear doors that are hinged in the back. Only the Cullinan does that.

[Filippo]

No, the Lincoln. The Lincoln Continental coach door of the SUVs.

[Kenan]

Only the Cullinan does that. Here's another one.

[C]

The Ferrari Purosangway has Piro.

[Filippo]

Songy Song does it. Yes.

[Kenan]

We consider that a hot hatchback.

[Filippo]

Soggy Puros does it. Now this is doing it, too. Copycat. Theoretically, copycat. These wheels have also been stolen from the gls. Maybach.

[C]

No.

[Kenan]

No, they've been stolen. And then rotated.

[Filippo]

And then rotated a little. Yeah. To be honest, in all reality, I'm excited for the GV90 because it's going to be. It must be legit. Like, I bet it's going to be cool. I wonder if there's a GLS rival pry. Right.

[Kenan]

I bet they're doing that. And also trying to. This will probably be the Maybach.

[Filippo]

I don't really care about a coach door example. It doesn't matter to me. But I am excited for this car as Genesis rounds out the SUV lineup, partially because the other three Genesis SUVs are all fantast.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Except for the one that isn't fantastic. Which one is it? Which one am I talking about? Come on.

[Kenan]

Kenan, can you name any of the current Genesis SUVs?

[Filippo]

Come on, which one?

[C]

GV70. Yep.

[Filippo]

Oh, that's right.

[Kenan]

Your uncle has.

[Filippo]

Which one? Do I not. Yes. Which one?

[Kenan]

I assume you don't like the GV60.

[Filippo]

No. The GV80 coupe. Do you know that exists?

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Fair. That's real fair. Also, the other thing I'm excited for is to figure out what this is.

[Kenan]

Yeah, I. I assume that's fans.

[C]

I assume it's climbing.

[Kenan]

VIP situation.

[Filippo]

Duct.

[C]

That's just a duct.

[Filippo]

Give us. Yeah, just not neca.

[C]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Okay, Filippo, take us through this one. All right, here's a man conspicuously wearing a watch.

[Kenan]

A gentleman named Peter Rowlandson.

[C]

Yeah, it's a day dealer.

[Kenan]

He's the founder, Lucid. Until yesterday, he was also the CEO of Lucid. Yeah, he has stepped down.

[Filippo]

Stepped down.

[Kenan]

Fact of yesterday, he will still retain some highly paid consultant position. By highly paid, I mean about 120 grand a month to be a consultant for them. But he has stepped down. Now, Lucid has not produced or sold the number of cars that they plan to.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Kenan]

And initially, in my mind, I saw this news and I thought, okay, the board is forcing the CEO out because it's been doing well. Stock. Lucid Stock is down 13% today. 14% today.

[Filippo]

Well, he is a. He is a founder. Leaving is always a tough thing for them.

[Kenan]

Which does make me wonder if the market reaction is a little bit not what the board expected or if this was actually his choice. He's been around there for a while. He made the Model S. He's been focused on midsize or large electric sedans for a long time.

[Filippo]

What do we think about Lucid's future here? Is this. Is this a thing that's going to happen?

[C]

I mean, don't you feel like it's been in question for a pretty long time?

[Filippo]

I feel like that. I feel like it's still in question. Faraday. I really want it to be Nikola Fisker.

[Kenan]

So what they did say in the. In their press release, and I want to read this verbatim because I find it amusing, what he said was, now that we have successfully launched the Lucid Gravity, I've decided it is finally the right time for me to step aside from my role to Lucid Doug.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

Were you aware that they launched the Lucid Gravity?

[Filippo]

No, they haven't yet, but apparently they're going to say they did.

[Kenan]

Their current coo, by the way, will step in as an interim CEO and then they're going to launch a search.

[Filippo]

Whatever the Lucid situation is Interesting. I'm very curious to see what happens. The cars are excellent. I got a neighbor who's got one that's getting bought back after a lot of problems. So there's that. But now they got Gravity and maybe that'll do. Okay. Last week we established on the pod that it looks like a minivan. The brand is teetering. Do you agree?

[Kenan]

Talked about the fact that they want to be more of a supplier supplier.

[Filippo]

Than a car company, which it's a.

[Kenan]

Tough position for him to be in.

[Filippo]

Because it's not a question that I'm just very curious about and I don't quite understand. Why Is it that hard to make electric cars? Yes is obviously the answer. But, like, it's a battery, I think. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like, half of the stuff that you have to develop when you're like, Mitsubishi built the Eclipse and sold them. These guys don't even have to come up with the engine. Right.

[C]

Exactly. The whole point of electric cars is they're much more simple to build their own.

[Filippo]

All these EV companies fail.

[Kenan]

But that's because Lutz's approach was we want to be the leaders in motor technology and battery technology, and they developed everything in house.

[Filippo]

So they are capitalized by the Saudis.

[Kenan]

They have, and that's why they're still existing. Let's be honest.

[Filippo]

Despite just losing, losing money. Losing money, losing money.

[Kenan]

They want to double the number of cars that their 2025 forecast doubles their number of 2024 cars.

[Filippo]

Well, with the Gravity, that might be possible, although it seems rather expensive.

[Kenan]

Yeah. Also, I did get an ad today for a Lucid Air 599, a month lease.

[Filippo]

Wow. I wonder if there's regret over at the Lucid company of leading with a luxury Sedan of leading with cars at $100,000 price point. The market wants $60,000 SUVs. The market wants the Rivian RJ. The Gravity will be Tesla Model Y. The gravity is going to be they're.

[Kenan]

Working on a midsize SUV.

[Filippo]

599Amonth is actually right there. That's priced right.

[Kenan]

They're, they're. Their next project that is already underway is a midsize missile suv.

[Filippo]

Probably should have been their first project. But hey, I'm not running the car companies. Nobody ever calls me even though I'm always right. Are you ready for your next cool car? Sell your enthusiast car on cars and bids. Trading in your car to dealers means you aren't getting the market value for your car, leaving you with less cash for your next fun car. Just look at our recent sales of these cool cars compared to trade in values. This was a trade in offer and this was the cars and bids result. This is a trade in offer and this is the cars and bids result. This was a trade in offer and this was the cars and bids result. Get started now and sell your car on carsandbids.com and join the best community to sell your enthusiast car. Give us the next news story please.

[C]

Oh yes, this one. This is one that's exciting. So Mercedes has announced, seven year old Mercedes, like we've been talking about for weeks and weeks and weeks now, Mercedes has announced that they are going to keep two internal combustion engines around that are important to us. One is the V8, the four cylinder.

[Kenan]

And the C63 turbo six cylinder in my right.

[Filippo]

Nope.

[C]

So they are going to keep some of the other but they're going to keep the V8 and they're going to keep the V12. That's the 6 liter bi turbo V12 and they're going to keep making engines for Pagani but they've said that they're going to keep the V12 in select market.

[Kenan]

What's that in?

[Filippo]

It's in all the Paganis. No, no, no. S 680 Maybach.

[C]

Yeah, S 680 Maybach.

[Kenan]

That's it.

[Filippo]

It might be it right now. Is there an SL65 still? No, there's no more G65. No Gls.

[Kenan]

All right, so they're making a V12 solely for the S680.

[Filippo]

Well, but you know they'll come out with some other stuff.

[Kenan]

Maybe they'll put in the C class too.

[Filippo]

Listen, that motor, it's actually pretty impressive because that motor's been around for 20 years. Came out in 0605 for the SLCL and S65. One of the great engines.

[C]

One of the great engines and one of the other things is that that means that they are the only manufacturer, the only German manufacturer who still has a V12 in the lab because BMW got rid of it. Audi doesn't make a W12 anymore. So like they're it.

[Filippo]

And Bentley is out. Right. So that whole Volkswagen group is lost. 12 cylinder engines. Right.

[C]

It's just the S580. So you want a V12, S680, whatever the S580 is.

[Kenan]

A V8 probably, but so.

[C]

Yeah, but isn't that amazing?

[Filippo]

Well, I mean it's another example of what we've been talking about day in and day out on this podcast of another automaker that's maybe a little bit cagey about committing fully to EVs. So there you go.

[C]

They are working, they said Also for the V8, they're working on hybridization. So I imagine that means the C63.

[Filippo]

That makes sense. That's a good point. This C63 was so poorly received and they list.

[C]

Yeah. By you, by everybody.

[Kenan]

V8, C60. Yeah, well, or sorry, at least a V6 maybe. V8. You know what they ought to do?

[C]

Sounds like it's going to be a V8.

[Filippo]

You know what they ought to do? V12, that C63. Throw that six liter in the C63. This is like when lucid should have listened to me. Now Mercedes Benz should listen to me.

[C]

We have a C43 in the office. I'm looking at.

[Filippo]

Use the language that he would understand and tell Dieter to put his V12 in a.

[C]

Put the V12 engine back in the car. Put it in the smallest car. Big engine, small car. Just a fantastic thing to drive.

[Filippo]

It is a fantastic thing to drive, actually.

[C]

Imagine the distribution.

[Filippo]

You know what, funny actually. I've driven a lot of cars with that engine. I'm not in love with that engine. I hate to say it, but it's.

[Kenan]

Such a cool engine.

[Filippo]

The engine works great in the Maybach I. The W. It is not for the W. No, the.

[C]

No, the Zonda was always more excited because it had that naturally aspirated punch thump. Like. But the. It's like you don't want to wait for the. The wind, which it's ironically named after. Like, that's not the.

[Filippo]

The. The engine is. Is not intended for a supercar. It's intended for high speed autobahn cruising. It works great in an S680. It works great in an S65 and an SL65 in a Huayra, which is supposed to be like high performance sports car. It's an engine where you put your foot down and go high speeds. Not necessarily. You accelerate very quickly. Like, it's not sustained, it's not athletic, it's heavy and it feels heavy. Substantial. I love the powertrain, but it works. I drove it in the SL65 black series also. And it's not the best motor in that car either.

[C]

It makes sense because that car is so hardcore in every other regard. And then the engine is. And the transmission is the lowest.

[Filippo]

It's not the fast.

[C]

That's exactly GT Focus Turbine. Like, it's like a jet engine. It's a jet engine in a commercial aircraft. It just builds and builds and builds. And in a sports car, what you want is a fighter jet. And it's just.

[Filippo]

That's exactly right.

[Kenan]

Can I connect two stories? Oh, what we just talked about.

[Filippo]

Valentino Rossi, they're going to put the V12 in his motorbike. Dang.

[Kenan]

One of Lucid's announcements a year or two ago was that they were going to provide Aston Martin real electric motors. Yeah. Aston Martin has since said they're not going to, but now Aston Martin could buy some V12s.

[Filippo]

Well, yeah. And Aston Martin's already. This engine is already in Aston Martin vehicles.

[Kenan]

I thought there was no more V12.

[Filippo]

Well, they make the V8. The V8 isn't the V8 Vantage. It's this V8.

[Kenan]

So maybe they'll put a V12.

[C]

That's good news for Aston Martin. That's great. But nonetheless, I'm thrilled to see V8s and V12s sticking around.

[Filippo]

Another automaker says no to EVs. Okay, give us our next not no to EVs. I'm sure Mercedes will make. Oh, my God.

[C]

Something.

[Filippo]

Hell is this?

[C]

Can you. Well, can you. Okay, so both of you know what this is based on.

[Kenan]

If you're watching, go comment right now with what you think this is based on.

[Filippo]

This is the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life.

[C]

Well, I agree. So.

[Kenan]

So out of Japan, seen those headlights on a bus.

[C]

Out of Japan, there's this company that has decided to build a supercar based on an Italian supercar that we know and love, and that is the Lamborghini Diablo. This company is called. I'm not kidd. Making it's Value progress.

[Filippo]

Value progress.

[C]

And they're making a car called the Beast. That's what they've named this thing. They're based in Fukushima. This is the second worst disaster to come from that city. And it is absolutely horrific. It really is. It looks like somebody took a Diablo and put it through a shredder and like collided it with like a Cadillac of some kind. And then it is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. Now they said that they want to quote, surprise people with modifying the supercar and boy, howdy, did they do that.

[Kenan]

Surprise and scary.

[C]

Now it still uses a 5.7 liter V12, made it to a five speed transmission.

[Filippo]

That's the Diablo used.

[C]

Exactly. They haven't told us which 5.7. They haven't told us which version of the Diablo this is based on whichever.

[Filippo]

One they could get. Right.

[C]

What you gotta imagine was a. I.

[Filippo]

Know they claim there's gonna be more, but this is a one off. First off, no one else is gonna buy one. But also they're not making all this bodywork twice. No one's gonna be able to replicate this.

[C]

Honestly, if they could replicate that twice, very impressive.

[Filippo]

Value progress, dude. It'd be value progress.

[Kenan]

For what it's worth, they did say it was a one off.

[Filippo]

Thankfully, they said it was a one off. Oh, what a shame it doesn't share.

[Kenan]

A single body panel of the Diablo.

[Filippo]

No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't though.

[C]

But this, this came across my like, feed and I, I truly think of all the vaporware vehicles, this is the ugliest.

[Kenan]

Can do me a favor, pull up a photo of the rear.

[C]

Oh, yes. The rear of this thing is.

[Filippo]

Oh, my God, that's the rear. I'm looking at it right here. That is insane.

[C]

Progress, beast things I never thought I would type in. Yeah, the rear.

[Filippo]

Oh, that is. This is. No, no, pull up. This, this is one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life.

[C]

It looks like a jet engine rear ended. A. You remember in cars, like when the truck is driving along and they have all those modified cars, like, pull up and the one has the speakers on it and like starts to play soft music and slow it down. That's what this thing looks like.

[Filippo]

You know what this is? This is the first car that has made the Lamborghini Veneno not look ugly. If this was next to a Van Veneno, people would be like, the Veneno has restraint. Can I ask? Wow, what a tasteful vehicle.

[C]

I mean, yeah, Mansory would be envious about, man.

[Filippo]

Sorry's looking at this going, oh, they got new ideas. Value progress outdid us again.

[C]

Damn. Back to the balance.

[Kenan]

Why start with the Diablo?

[Filippo]

Yeah. Because they had one.

[C]

Because they had. They had one. That's exactly why.

[Filippo]

All right, let's move on to the talk cars segment. Talk cars. Talk cars. We're going to talk about cars. And in this segment. Talk about cars. And by the way, this segment is brought to you by Kennen. Kenneth. He does impressions. First thing I want to talk about is the Cletus McFarland Ultimate Race. Do you guys know Cletus McFarland?

[C]

I know.

[Kenan]

Of course I know. He has a racetrack.

[Filippo]

He's a YouTuber. He has a racetrack. He's in North Carolina. I don't watch a lot of Cletus videos.

[Kenan]

I assumed he was in Florida.

[Filippo]

I kind of feel like when it comes to YouTubers in the south, you have to choose between Cletus and Whistlin. And I'm in the. I'm a whistling.

[Kenan]

Whistlin lives in Indiana.

[Filippo]

He lives in Tennessee. Okay. Don't come and talk to me about my Whistlin. All right.

[C]

Forget about obsessed garage. But we'll move on anyway.

[Filippo]

Or Ed, honestly. Or Tavaresh. I got a text from Tavaresh, by the way, the other day. Want to shout out Tavaresh Got a text from Tavaresh. He said, hey, man, how you doing? I'm like, what is this? Did you reply? Yeah, I was like, I'm good, Freddy. What? What's up?

[C]

No response?

[Filippo]

No, he did eventually respond.

[C]

That's good.

[Filippo]

He was like, just making content. I'm like, is this. Are we doing something with this? Did you tell him to check in? I guess he did. Anyway, Cletus McFarlane did a race with Nissan Altimas. Cause the Nissan was kind of known for being like the car that the most. A crazy driver's drive. Like anybody qualifies for one. They all have bad templates and body panels that are messed up. So he did a race where he had like 100 Nissan. Whoa. This was real. You haven't watched this video?

[Kenan]

No. Also variety of Altima.

[Filippo]

Great variety of Altima. Some are not Altimas. I have to say, I was watching the video. There's an Elantra or two in there. There's a couple Maximus.

[C]

Maximus.

[Filippo]

But generally speaking, it's ultimas of all gens. There's even a couple first gens.

[Kenan]

Somebody had a coupe.

[Filippo]

Yeah, there's a bunch of cubes.

[Kenan]

You're right. There are some.

[Filippo]

Okay, there's first gen. Cletus himself drove an 06 Altima Ser, which was the only Good Altima. I'm just gonna say it.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

Do you think I'm wrong? No, actually, all the V6 ones are pretty good.

[Kenan]

And the first. The second gen was pretty great, objectively.

[Filippo]

But yeah, the second gen. No, the. The second. The 97 to 01.

[Kenan]

No, the one after that.

[Filippo]

The 02. Yeah, but that's what he had. He had the ser. That was the best.

[Kenan]

That one in general was great.

[Filippo]

Anyway, the point is Ultima race. If you haven't watched the video, go watch it.

[Kenan]

Who wins?

[Filippo]

I don't know. I don't remember. I was so. I was so enamored with the video. I. There were several parts of the video I rep several times, including at one point, a fuel leak is developed in one of the vehicles and they're worried about it. And so rather than try to stop the fuel leak, there's a race going on. They flip the car over so the. So the fuel doesn't continue to leak and then they just continue racing. I mean, not with that car, but with other.

[Kenan]

That's brilliant.

[C]

That's basically clarifying.

[Filippo]

This is grade A concept.

[C]

This is pretty solid. I have to. Who was driving these cars? Was it. People showed up.

[Filippo]

I was actually kind of interested in it because some people, like really race card them, like pulled out headlights and stuff, and other people, like just drove. Like they showed up with their Altima and all the cars got destroyed. I mean, you can imagine this is like a tiny oval and there's like 200 Altimas on the track. Anyway, it was great content. And whistling. You got company.

[Kenan]

Right?

[Filippo]

Whistling doesn't have a racetrack.

[Kenan]

No, no. Cletus does.

[Filippo]

Cletus does.

[Kenan]

All right, Wait, he's in North Carolina.

[Filippo]

Cletus is in Florida. I'm wrong. He's in Florida. He bought the. He was in North Carolina, but he bought a racetrack in Florida. Right. Whistlin is in Tennessee. Ed is in Georgia. Freddie's in Florida.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[C]

You are here.

[Filippo]

I'm here. Right. Thousands of miles from any of these crazy folks and who he is. But I like to watch the content. He's in Wichita, which is the South.

[Kenan]

I really thought you were gonna say indent.

[Filippo]

Wichita is the beginning of the South. Cause Oklahoma is the South. Right. And Wichita is like just. Just up here. Like, if Hoovy does some bad stuff, he goes and hides in Oklahoma for a couple days. So they don't. So, like, the heat dies down, you.

[Kenan]

Know, there's some advice for you or.

[Filippo]

Anybody in Wichita, honestly. Okay, moving on to our next talk cars Topic, I'm afraid of what Kennan's is, but go ahead.

[C]

Yes. So this past weekend, I went on a Ferrari owners club drive. I've been a member since I was 16.

[Kenan]

You don't own a Ferrari.

[C]

You don't have to. To be a member of the owner's club, which I always felt called the Ferrari owners club.

[Filippo]

But you don't have to be an owner to be in the club. But anyway.

[C]

But I. But, yes, but I was an owner who had one, and I drove mine in the club as well. Went on a drive out to the desert, which was a lot of fun. We then went to a winery, which was great. And we had about 30 cars that show up. So. 30. Mostly Ferraris. I think there were like five or six cars that weren't Ferraris, including my M5. But we would stop periodically. And all three times I ended up behind someone different. But the cars were the same. It was a 355 and a 550. And I gotta say, it's like, after all the pain I went through with mine, which we were both present for, that is a really special car. And it's still Wallen. It just is so beautiful and it sounds so good and it's so cool.

[Filippo]

I'm glad for you.

[Kenan]

You can get the vast majority of that experience, which is seeing it and hearing it, without owning it.

[C]

All the cars started, all of them finished, which is an achievement in a Ferrari owners club drive. But it's just you wrote on this.

[Filippo]

List that you think it's the most. In our dock. You wrote that you think it's the most special exotic car per dollar.

[C]

I do. I stand by that. Yeah.

[Filippo]

The problem is, it's just so heartbreaking to own well to 60. 60.

[C]

I didn't say to own the 360.

[Filippo]

Well, to buy. I agree with. Although Pantera is up there, too. You ever look at a Pantera?

[C]

Pantera's good, but, you know, they mount the. Didn't they mount the. It's in a hundred.

[Filippo]

Pantera's cool for the money, but 355. I agree, but, like, it's so heartbreaking to own the 360 is just like. It's uglier. It's not as emotional. You have to buy a 360. Like a human being has to buy a 360. Like, if you're looking at these cars, you look at the 355. You lust after the 355. You want the 355. You buy a 360 I know several rich people, ultra rich people like ultra ultra rich who couldn't continue owning a 355 because they were too expensive to run, I think.

[C]

So what I learned from my ownership experience with mine was that mine was serviced and serviced a lot. And so I bought it. It had the big stuff done, the valve guides, the headers, the ecus for the cats. Like it had all that stuff done. The problem was the shop that serviced it didn't do it well. I think the biggest thing with the 355 was that it became they had issues. Admittedly when it left the factory they became cheap. They were sorted out by shops that did not know what they were doing. Then they became valuable and now anyone who wants to use one, it's very difficult.

[Filippo]

Now to Kenan's point, the fellow he sold the car to who's in like South Dakota, I sorted it out with.

[C]

A competent shop that knows the platform really well and has. And he texted me the other day and said hey, just wanted to let you know, done like 5,000 miles, haven't had a problem.

[Filippo]

5,000 trouble free miles.

[C]

I think that's what I told him.

[Kenan]

Out of trouble.

[Filippo]

How sad is this?

[C]

Close.

[Filippo]

How sad is this? Kenan made the car good so someone else could enjoy.

[Kenan]

We all accept you and I accept the reality of this.

[Filippo]

Right.

[C]

This is his name. Yeah.

[Kenan]

Kevin is you and I know the reality here, right.

[Filippo]

That if he gets another one he will make it good again and then sell it. Well, no, no, no.

[Kenan]

The reality is like maybe the car still has some issues but Kevin's a little more tolerant.

[Filippo]

I think there's no question about that. Kevin allows the car to have issues and Kenan wouldn't like it's probably still leaks oil and Kenan would have fixed.

[C]

It that I would have liked at the end. But I agree with you.

[Filippo]

I think Kevin is willing to drive the car and deal with. However, the point still remains.

[C]

But he's also in South Dakota. I don't think he has much of a choice. I don't know if Ferrari checks it.

[Kenan]

Out, if he sorted out and if it would happen the exact same.

[C]

In my opinion, the only way to own one of these cars is I think you want to buy one with low mileage. You want to buy one that's been sitting for a really long time, then you want to take it to your mechanic like have some who's good, someone who is good, who really knows the car, have them do the big service on it and then you have a shot.

[Filippo]

The problem is I just can't imagine putting 40 grand which. Which would be sitting for a while up update into this car.

[C]

Probably like 25 I think is probably.

[Filippo]

What an engine out major is like 15.

[C]

Well, no, and you gotta.

[Filippo]

You gotta do valve guides, then you gotta do just to do the MCUs. Then the loyals leaking and then Kevin from South Dakota calls and says the leather top is flapping. I don't know what.

[C]

Well, I replaced the top, but that's the tonneau cover.

[Kenan]

40.

[Filippo]

40'S right. 40 is right.

[C]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

It's a lot of money to put into just a V8 for a serial production V8 Ferrari.

[C]

Yeah, but look at that. Look at it.

[Filippo]

I coupe agree it's beautiful.

[C]

Well, mine was lovely, but it just. There's something. That car is.

[Filippo]

Can you get the Barbie one while we talk about this? Yeah, of course.

[C]

I don't really even know how to describe it. It's just. It is so special and to see it out there is just like.

[Filippo]

I agree. God, that is a beautiful. Go back to that last. Damn.

[C]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

That almost makes you want the convertible now. You know who had the convertible is Barbie. Yes. When Kenan bought his car, I got him this. And it's a Barbie version of a 355 badged as the 355 GTS even though actually it's a spider.

[C]

And they used f. They used the correct script, but not for Ferrari.

[Kenan]

Just the F355NGTS separate trademark.

[C]

No, no, this was an official trademark.

[Filippo]

Well, yeah, but this was officially licensed. I mean it's very, very well done. And it's even got seat belts so that Barbie can have a safe ride.

[C]

I think hers was a manual Rosa Corsa too.

[Filippo]

It's a three pad.

[C]

Yeah, mine wasn't, but Rosso Corsa over.

[Filippo]

Red over tan gated. This is the one you want. Previously owned by Barbie, ladies and gentlemen.

[C]

But I also. I also think I realized I want a later one and I want one in the color I wanted. I wanted Rosa Corsa. And famously I bought this car. The. The dealer I bought it from made it look like Rosa Corsa. It showed up and it was not. It was a.

[Filippo]

It was a blue color, but it.

[C]

Was a good color. I have to say. Rosa Barchetta is lovely.

[Kenan]

So.

[C]

But I still, I just, I. I just like. It's. I've had enough time now. I guess that it may. It's not that I forgot. It's like I just burned for how you can't, you can't. But the wedge ear Ferraris are all the best for my favorites.

[Filippo]

You can't. It's too. This car is too difficult to own. To have to own one of these and use it like you want to use it. You have to have a budget that is absolutely massive.

[C]

It has to be. I. So there are a couple other things. I think it has to be, like, a fourth car. Like, this isn't a car you have as your second sports car, which is how I had. And I Dr. In the nine months I owned the thing, I put 2,500 miles on it. Three months it was in the shop. I drove the car a ton.

[Filippo]

That's the problem. I think that if you actually want to enjoy the car, you can't. You have to have just a massive budget. And I'll tell you what the real issue is. As a guy who has a pretty big budget for cars, I wouldn't have the tolerance to deal with this, because my whole thing with cars is I want to buy them, drive them, own them, get out of them for about even money. That you can't do that with one of these.

[Kenan]

He made money. For the record.

[Filippo]

Kenan made money because he presented it beautifully and did all this work, but he almost didn't make money. And it's still. And he's got out by the skin of his teeth, which is great. And I wouldn't guarantee it. And the longer you own this car, the less likely you are to make money because you start doing another major and you start doing headers for the seventh time, and the next thing you know, you're 80,000 million dollars into a car that's worth 46.

[Kenan]

And you drove to San Marcos, like, 20 times, and that's 20 times.

[C]

It was not 20.

[Kenan]

No, no. But you would 12 a year.

[C]

Okay, But. But to my. To my other point, though, my friend Ryan and gary, who've had a 355 for 20 years now, by the way, in, like, a couple days, they've had that car for 20.

[Filippo]

A tip, no less.

[C]

Yeah, Tip Spider. Like the least desirable version of. It's the car I grew up around. I adore it deeply, and it is a really nice one. The only issues they ever had was when the alternator was nicked by somebody who was servicing the car and did it improperly. The only time the car's ever gonna.

[Filippo]

Break down when they were trying to load in at La Jolla Concours and the transmission wouldn't go into gear.

[C]

That was another bad service. The latch on the trunk was not done. I tightened a bolt by hand.

[Filippo]

Fixed it. Man. If you gotta tighten bolts, that's. I don't have to do that in my Camry.

[C]

It's all bolts. But I mean, but genuinely, that car has not. That car really has not given them problems in 20 years.

[Filippo]

How much money have they put into that car?

[C]

A ton. I think, counting. They did a breakdown over 20 years. It's about 100 grand is what they put into that car.

[Filippo]

100 grand plus a purchase price, which.

[C]

Was 105, I think.

[Filippo]

105. So they're $205,000 into a car. It's worth what?

[C]

I think something like that.

[Filippo]

60, 65. That's not a great proposition, to be totally honest.

[C]

No, but if that could have a.

[Filippo]

Ford GT and they just spent nothing on it.

[C]

Yeah, but then. But Ryan's scoffing right now, listening to this thing. I would never own a Ford.

[Filippo]

I would rather own a. For tip. For the tip Spider. But.

[C]

But I will say this. The 550 in front of it, also.

[Filippo]

I was like, also appealing car and disgust as being pretty reliable. Although I've started to get a little into 550s and I. The forums say the 575 is the more reliable of the two.

[Kenan]

But then you have a problem, you.

[Filippo]

Have a tip tip or you have a conversion or you pay up for a stick. There's no. I've thought about this every way. There's no good angle unless you're willing to just deal with tips and.

[C]

Yeah. Which is. It's. It's. I've driven the tip one I drove that we sold on the site was honestly not bad. I was actually quite surprised at how well it shifted and how like it. How well it knew to do downshifts and things. Like, it was actually.

[Filippo]

It was so good.

[C]

It was more than 575.

[Filippo]

Looks so much better than 550. It's wild to me. Like, I would honestly rather have a 550 because of the. But it looks so much better. The five spokes, the tighter corners, the. Just little stuff.

[C]

Yeah, I disagree. I like the 550 more, but I like the Fangs and I like the fog lights. And this one doesn't have fog lights much.

[Kenan]

Ferrari talk.

[Filippo]

All right, fine. Give us some Bugatti talk. Filippo.

[Kenan]

This past weekend at the Carson coffee that we attend, Kedin was not there.

[Filippo]

But I drove through it with the fc.

[Kenan]

A Chiron showed up.

[Filippo]

Bugatti Chiron.

[C]

Wow.

[Kenan]

And everybody flocked to it and stood in the street, blocking the street till I left.

[Filippo]

It was wild.

[C]

We See some pretty crazy stuff with great frequency. Kurt GT Countach.

[Kenan]

I've never seen this level of attention. Like, obviously a Countach.

[C]

We see those, right?

[Kenan]

And this got way more attention than the F50 does when it shows up.

[C]

Up, I think, because you've seen it a lot.

[Filippo]

Yeah. But the guy who has the F50, who runs the cars and coffee, he shows up fairly often. And so almost everybody's like, I don't go over to the F50 anymore. I went to the chirong. Now I was being driven by Houston Crow, which is one of Kenan's idols.

[C]

Not so.

[Filippo]

But like, we're gonna leave that one alone.

[Kenan]

It just. I was. Obviously, it's a special car.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[Kenan]

At the same time.

[Filippo]

No, it's a special car.

[C]

It's a. Dude, it's a special car.

[Filippo]

If I had infinite money, the first thing I would do. The first thing I would do. Well, first off, I would buy you into slavery. But the second thing I would do is buy a Sheron. I would just be like, I'm in. I'm Sheron. And I would daily it, and I'd come up to your house. I pull up and say, hey, man, I'm here in my Sheron. You'd be like, that's. But. But me and my wife are coming. I'd be like, deal, Deal. Sit on one of you. Gotta go in the trunk. We're driving the Sheron tonight.

[Kenan]

It's obviously a special car. Very special car.

[Filippo]

No, dude, it's the coolest.

[C]

It's really cool.

[Kenan]

I'm just surprised by the differential level of attention it got.

[C]

You don't see a car outside of car week. I can't think of the last time I saw one. Actually, it was the year before.

[Filippo]

They're incredibly expensive. They drive and own and run. Are they? Yeah. People.

[Kenan]

I thought the sheeran was better than the Veyron.

[Filippo]

As much as people like to talk in these circles about how that, you know, I got a chiron, they're afraid to drive it because they're afraid that it'll get damaged, but they're also afraid to lose value on miles. Because when these things come up with miles, they don't bring sticker anymore. They bring a lot less than sticker, really. And a 10%, 20% hit on a Sheeran is $600,000, and that's a lot.

[Kenan]

The secondary market is that.

[Filippo]

The secondary market is. Oh, with miles. Because you can find them all day long with zero. All day long. There's a. If you want a shoe run with no Miles today there's five available. Sticker or above? Yeah, sticker a little above, which is pretty good actually, for a car like that. Those BS Lamborghinis, like the new Countach, sell way under sticker because they're stupid. The Chiron is not thought of as stupid, but they're findable. And so if you actually want to use yours, you better be mega rich because you got to be okay with losing $600,000 if you put on 5,000 miles. Miles. And that's a. That's a tough. You don't see him. Nobody drives them. When was the last time you saw she on the road? I don't know that I ever have once.

[C]

I mean, truly on the road.

[Kenan]

I don't know.

[C]

My best experience was car week. I was going up. I've gone up 17 mile. And you know, like, if you go from Carmel, you know, you go up and you kind of have to. There's like road turns. You have to wait. I waited. It was Wyra. Wyra. Chiron. Chiron. Cheer on Chiron. Wyra. It was. It was. Which. That's where we can.

[Filippo]

Some good cars and some bad cars. Yep, yep.

[C]

Some Chirons and some cars, but it. It is, man. 5,000 miles on a showroom would be incredible. It is an amazing car.

[Filippo]

It would be amazing to do. The problem is the people who own those cars, a lot of them really are thinking of it as a very special occasion, very special investment. They take them on drives with other Bugattis. They take them to car week. That is not a car you just drive around.

[C]

No.

[Filippo]

And so it's very uncommon that people do do miles on them. You never see them at cars and cars.

[Kenan]

That makes sense.

[Filippo]

I found it to be very special. Even to this day, when I see one and I see a lot of stuff and I drive a lot of stuff. When I see a Chiron, I'm like, like, wow. That is serious. A wow. They run too. I'm like, oh, holy crap.

[C]

Maybe even more so just because of how much harder it is.

[Filippo]

They're just very special cars.

[Kenan]

Just seems I. Something about the styling and the. The known reputation for being drivable makes it seem more pedestrian than it is.

[Filippo]

It is a little bit pedestrian. You think of it as a Bentley in a way, but, like, it just isn't. It's just a tremendously special hypercar.

[Kenan]

It still got all the attention in the world.

[Filippo]

I'm telling you, it is the one. I would get it if I had. If I had infinite money and just would needed like A just a In your face daily.

[C]

Oh my God, it'd be so cool.

[Filippo]

I'd get a chiron and I would never talk to either of you, ever.

[Kenan]

You would have bought me into slavery. Oh, you don't talk to me then.

[Filippo]

No, I would. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Who would I buy you from? Probably yourself. Probably yourself. I think you would be like, you know what you're offering enough. I will do it. I will go into slavery. Okay, so next up, it's time for the market report. The market report is brought to you by the Cars and Bids act app. Not Cars and Bids. Regular. Okay.

[Kenan]

Brought to you by Bolt.

[Filippo]

Don't go on their website. God no.

[C]

It's the same entity. To be clear, just use the app.

[Filippo]

Only the app. Okay, let's talk about the market. What are we seeing in the market? I had one that was really surprising to me. Go on the. Oh no, we're on the website. Go to the type in M2.

[Kenan]

I. I also had this on my list, you see.

[Filippo]

No, no, go to this last one. We just sold this M2 Comp 54. How is this happening? The M2 comps are still bringing all the money. You know that's a six year old car. And you know what, you know what really surprised? This car sold for $54,000 with, with miles. Not zero miles, but not like.

[C]

But low. Yeah, a little couple of months.

[Filippo]

Still sold for 54. What was sticker on this? It wasn't that much higher than that.

[Kenan]

I don't know that we have it.

[C]

No bill, cheap. But yeah, yeah, no, I could go.

[Filippo]

Back now, just type in M2 again and then sort by lowest, lowest price.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Filippo]

You can buy regular M2s. Admittedly most of these are autos, but you can buy regular M2s or this Autozam for 27, $30,000. That's it. But the comps, the market has really decided that the comps are like really, really, really desirable cars. Which by the way, I agree with.

[Kenan]

Especially unmodified sticks. Although that one had mods, but like relatively unmodified sticks.

[Filippo]

I'm really surprised by this because what we all talked about was that the 1M was the car and it was always gonna retain value. And it has and it does. We sold one of those today too. But the market seems to think that the M2 comp is as good. And I agree. I think that one of the drawbacks of the 1M is that the M2 comp exists. It's like a better, tighter, even more impressive car. And it's interesting for me to see that There are these M2 comps that are still pulling. Still pulling money after all the kids.

[C]

The benefit of the 1M is that it has substantially lower production.

[Filippo]

It does. But if you're a driver and you want a really good car, this is a really good car. And to be honest, it's better than the 1M to drive. It just is. Is.

[C]

Well, sure, the 1M is more special, but it is better.

[Filippo]

But the point is, I think the market is. One thing I'm very curious about is how the market will view the CS over the years.

[C]

I agree.

[Filippo]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Cs ends up getting valued higher than the 1m. Even though it's not a 1m. And even though there was a base car, like we just sold this one for 68, which is the tip. One not which is a tip. I bet the CS. I bet the CS is. The market really, really, really falls in love with the CS more than the 1M, which I never thought. I always thought the 1M because of its low production numbers would be the dream one. I bet that this one emerges. The market seems to really like nice M2.

[Kenan]

So the end of generation is always.

[Filippo]

Yeah, but the thing about the 1M was they only made this number and it was all the one M's, Right. There was no cs, there was no comp. There was no long product.

[C]

Yeah, but the thing about this one is it got an actual M engine and it got like all the. It's a more bonafide M car than the M2A.

[Filippo]

And this particular one was a really special.

[Kenan]

Sold the one M today for almost the same as that M2 comp.

[C]

Yeah, look at that. But they do. They certainly.

[Filippo]

1M is still bringing more money for sure. There's no question about it. And the market likes it better. Etc. But I'm surprised how well M2 comps are holding considering that they're not that rare. That they're not like this car, which was like a really, really unusual rare car. And I think that I have a suspicion that will hold. Not for regular M2s. And that's the funny thing. There's a. There's a gap that I think will.

[Kenan]

Continue for tip M2s, not tips only.

[Filippo]

The man for 29 is also pretty cool. Cool or that's a cool car.

[Kenan]

40 grand M2 comp with an automatic, which is also notable.

[Filippo]

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, man.

[Kenan]

That's a. Also the current M2 is just big.

[Filippo]

Filippo, give us A market report.

[Kenan]

Yeah. Can we talk about. Can you just go to like, the website, Kenan, just like pull it up.

[Filippo]

Oh, not the app.

[C]

We have some good. We have some right now.

[Kenan]

Incredible cars. Liber. Now, these will all be done by the time people are watching, but scroll down a little bit to car sending and up. Like, they're just. Every single car is a banger.

[Filippo]

Yeah. No, there's a lot of good stuff. That gold repeat is crazy this night.

[Kenan]

M2, like, it's just truly wild.

[Filippo]

This is probably one of the best lineups I've ever seen, which is especially surprising to me considering that it's February. GT3RS. Nice 4C, another GT3. Whatever. The Honda SMX Lowdown. Yeah. MKNDR, which has a Miata motor in it. We got an Cobra R. I threw that wagon. I Miev. Ladies and gentlemen. This was cool.

[Kenan]

This is an excursion conversion.

[Filippo]

Yeah, this is an excursion conversion of an F of a super duty NSX Type S, which is a really special car.

[Kenan]

A really nice Huracan like Rs6. Also C5Rs, also a Saab 900 SE with the Sensonic transmission, which is a manual without a clutch.

[Filippo]

Did you know about this?

[C]

Oh, so this is like Vallejo.

[Filippo]

It's like Vallejo. It's like Porsche Sport O Matic. It's a manual without a clutch. Wow.

[C]

That must be off.

[Kenan]

I want to drive it.

[Filippo]

Oh, it must so badly. Is it in Florida? Where is that?

[C]

Looks like it.

[Filippo]

Yep. Yep.

[C]

Jacksonville Duval Diddy.

[Kenan]

I don't know if that was sold in the U.S. how bizarre.

[Filippo]

Yeah. I would love whoever buys this. Bring it out here. The guy who's gonna buy it is the guy who bought my Defender. My yellow Defender. He loves.

[Kenan]

But truly, every car. The cars we have this week are.

[Filippo]

Just one of our best lineups of all time, which is especially impressive considering that it's February, which is usually like winter. Doesn't bring out the best cars. But I'm very optimistic for what spring and summer will bring us. If we got nice stuff like this RS6 Avant, another M2 Comp Stick, which will probably do well also.

[Kenan]

I know what else. I know what else is coming. There's some good.

[Filippo]

You see this? Click on this. We got a Tommy K. You remember these from Gran Turismo.

[Kenan]

We. We talk about.

[C]

I didn't play, but I'm familiar in.

[Kenan]

One of our special editions.

[C]

I know the kids legend.

[Filippo]

Yeah, dude, Tommy K. When I was playing Gran Turismo, I couldn't understand what this was. And they had a car. They had they mostly modded other cars like this, but they had a car, I think it was called the zz. Pull it up.

[C]

Okay.

[Filippo]

I hope you sold one. Oh, good copy paste. That's brilliant. You're right. Go to. Go to images. It was like a. It was like a Renault sports fighter.

[C]

Yeah, it is.

[Filippo]

It was like a Renault sports fighter thing. So cool. Zz Dang.

[C]

That is in yellow. That totally looks like a sports.

[Kenan]

Yeah, dang. It's cool.

[Filippo]

Okay, let's move on to our final market report which is Bentley related. Pull it up. Canon.

[C]

We recently sold a Bentley Mulsanne on the site which is one of my all time favorite luxury sedans. It is so stately and just impressive. And this One sold with 31,600 miles for 79. Five, which to me it's still a lot of money, but that feels like a ton of value considering this was a really especially.

[Filippo]

Go back to that page you were just on. It's especially good numbers when you think about when we first were like two years ago, we sold, we had one bid to 112 which was a 17. Here we are, the numbers are coming down now. I will say I agree with you that it's good value for the money. However, this car has not depreciated like the others. Like an arnage is a 20 car Mulsanne. The market actually is like we're not gonna let this fall.

[C]

I think that's because this hasn't aged like. Like the. The Arnage looks old and it looked old in 2010, it looked old in 2003.

[Filippo]

I remember it. I was there. I remember. But that was the seller.

[C]

But that was the appeal.

[Filippo]

At the time that was part of the appeal.

[C]

But now you know, aside from the.

[Filippo]

Steering wheel, which again is one of the worst ever fitted to a luxury car. Dude, I would drive this car all day long.

[C]

Oh man. I. Yeah.

[Filippo]

Imagine the flexing on Filippo. You could do with this place.

[C]

Yep.

[Filippo]

This little buzzy 500, right?

[C]

Yep. True. Truly two completely different spectrums of the automotive world there. I love these picnic tables. Yep.

[Filippo]

These are so cool.

[C]

When I was having a bad day, maybe I shouldn't say this, but when I was having a bad day at the exotic car dealership I worked at, I would always go find a Bentley and close the door and I would work in the back of a Mulsanne cuz it's just so nice back there.

[Filippo]

Let me tell you something. The difference between a Mulsanne and a Flying Spur, if those of you want to know at home 60 grand.

[C]

The difference is this difference between rich and wealthy.

[Filippo]

That's so true. The difference is this. When I see a flying spur on the road, I'm like, oh. When I see a Mulsanne, I speed up, get the camera out, take a picture. That's the difference between us two cars. As a passenger, I should say, my.

[C]

Oral surgeon, who did my wisdom teeth daily driver was a Mulsanne.

[Filippo]

You're kidding.

[C]

What? Yeah. White Mulsanne.

[Filippo]

Ohio. Ohio. Mulsanne's worth more than his house. White Mulsanne, the color of.

[C]

No, I actually. I knew where he lives. It was not worth wearing his house.

[Filippo]

The color of teeth. He got a white one because he wanted to remember what got him there on the first.

[C]

Super nice Hubble.

[Filippo]

Okay, next up, we're gonna move on to the questions. Questions, questions, questions. Now, questions are brought to us by these microphones. You can eat them Now.

[C]

Audio listeners love that.

[Filippo]

Now you can ask us questions. You go to carsandbids.com, you click on the Community tab, and then there will be a post there, and it says, ask us questions. And then you can ask us questions. Now, one of the things I've noticed that's become annoying about the questions is the first person to watch the pod asks, like 48 questions, and then their questions get upvoted the highest. So here's what I'm gonna start doing. Beginning with the next pod, I'm not gonna take the highest upvoted anymore. Don't you think you should see one dude asked, like, seven of today's questions? Cause they were the highest upvoted. Cause he posted, like, at the same time, he was like, what do you think about the galaxies? And it was like, I don't have opinions about the Ford. No. Like the interstellar. Get that answer ready. Cause it's. No, I'm kid. The point is, we're going to start taking questions based on how good they are. So, like, if a question came in that was as bad as this G Wagon behind me, we wouldn't take that question. We would only want good ones.

[C]

This is our producer's G Wagon, by the way. Newly acquired, very proud of it.

[Filippo]

Can the wheels be seen on screen?

[Kenan]

No, sadly. There you go.

[Filippo]

Move out of the way. Yep. Yeah.

[C]

They are atrocities.

[Kenan]

I. I really enjoyed that. Cut away from that camera.

[C]

No.

[Filippo]

We found out this is the Walmart brand. 17. Okay, questions. First question coming to us today. I don't have the dock up. My God. Coming to us today from Wyatt R. This is a real. This is a Legitimate question. I saw that layoffs were happening at Cars and Bids. Is this a sign that the health of the business is. He wrote winning. What was he supposed to do? Waning. Waning, I think. And if so, what is causing Cars and Bids to struggle? You know, it's interesting, this article from Autopian kind of chalked. We did do some layoffs at Cars and Bids bits, which is sad. It's hard. Layoffs are the worst thing in the world, obviously, for the people who are gone, but also for us. We lose people that we love, the people we've worked with for a long time. It's like a really, really, really difficult thing to do. And it happens when strategy doesn't necessarily align with reality and those situations occur and they're difficult. And there are difficult choices that you have to make in business. And personally, I hate it. And I remember when I. When I worked at my YouTube channel, it was just me. We didn't do any layoffs. But nonetheless, they are sometimes a reality of the situation. And it is legitimately a hard thing to have to do as a person who runs a business. It's not something I want to do ever again, but sometimes it's a reality that we face. When you look at your financial situation and, and you know where your business is, it's sometimes inevitable. The question is more, though, what is the reason for it? Truthfully, I think like I said before, it was more of a mismatch of strategy and reality than the car market. The article from the Autopian kind of attributed it to the car market, sort of. The car market is not as slow as I was expecting it would be, given how frothy it was in 2122. The car market is doing okay. Prices are certainly down, but the market is not absolutely in this. This is an zero. Cars are still selling, they're still doing okay. Money is still coming in. It was just in our. In terms of us for layoffs, I think we had just grown a little bit too fast for the size that the business needed to be. But do you think that the market is struggling and that's a cause of it? It's not how I view it.

[Kenan]

The market overall, I think, is still quite healthy, but it's changed. And the strategies that really worked for us two years ago for growth were ones that we invested in and didn't really make sense as the market has. Has changed. So, like new cars in 2022, 2023 were a large chunk of our revenue and volume because you could flip a rivian Do Tesla, whatever.

[Filippo]

Yep.

[Kenan]

And now you really can't.

[Filippo]

Right.

[Kenan]

When we invested in something that would like worked well for that doesn't really make sense in the current market. That's why the market is cool overall.

[Filippo]

But it's shifted and we had legions. That part of the market has shifted and cooled and that has.

[Kenan]

We had to adjust.

[Filippo]

We had to adjust. Yeah. No, I think that's a good point. I think that the, I think that the market, it has definitely. There have been some changes in the market and so, you know, we have to adapt to it. But, but I agree with your point. It's not necessarily the market is bad. Like looking at this, the aggregate is strong. As I look at the car market right now, I think it seems normal to me. Yeah, I think it seemed crazy before.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

And I've seen really tough markets in like in 09 and this isn't that I think I go to dealers and they tell me it's the worst thing they've ever seen right now. But dealers have a tendency to exaggerate that sort of thing. My sense is that the market is okay.

[Kenan]

Right. It's.

[Filippo]

It feels. And based on what I'm seeing car values at, it seems normal. Like I'm seeing cars depreciate again. I'm seeing cars sell for what I would expect they would.

[C]

Well, it might be bad for dealers who bought cars, bought inventory at that high price at the time and now are stuck. I mean but that's busy. Sometimes you have to cut your losses.

[Filippo]

I also think there's a lot of dealers who especially this is true of new car dealers who base their, their baseline on their best days. Yeah, I go to new car dealers and insistence. Oh, we were. It's things are just so. They're so far off. It's like. Well, they're far off of what? Well, they're off 21. Well, yeah, they're off the all time high.

[Kenan]

They're trying to sell a Jaguar F.

[Filippo]

Pace and like those, those dealers have always had it tough even at 21. Okay, next question. Kenan, I'm sorry, we've got a lot. You guys aren't going to be answering. I'm going to take over from here. All right, next question from clapped out E88. What is the best special plate, special license plate that first comes to mind for you guys. You guys mentioned all sorts of special license plates I've never heard of. What is the one that comes to mind? Okay, I'm going to take you on a little tour today of some of the Great special license plates in our world. Now, I would love that there are some US States that have. That have better ones than others. And I'm going to tell you right now straight up your really good states. Your really good states.

[Kenan]

Did you prepare notes for this?

[Filippo]

I did. Hawaii, Arkansas. You don't have to type anything just yet, but we'll get there. Hawaii, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Oregon. Those are your really good.

[Kenan]

North Carolina.

[Filippo]

The problem with North Carolina is a lot of the plates. You just use the regular design in the picture.

[Kenan]

Interesting.

[Filippo]

And you can do punctuation in North Carolina, but that's not what the question is. Okay, I'm going to tell you some of the ones. Did I mention West Virginia on this list that I just gave West Virginia counts too? I'm going to tell you some of the ones that I want you to look up some of the special ones. First off, one of my all time favorite license plates. Look up the New York Lunar Lander license plate, please. Let's start there. Let's just start with the New York Lunar Lander plate and we'll go on to more beautiful ones.

[Kenan]

If you are a human listening to this because the podcast.

[Filippo]

Thank you so much for watching. We appreciate New York Lunar Lander. When these come up on ebay, they sell for 600 bucks. I want one. Okay, now let's move on to beautiful Kenan. I'm going to blow your mind with a few of these. Okay, look up, first off, look up Hawaii's special plates. Nobody knows these exist because nobody's. You don't see cars from Hawaii. Here in San Diego, we see cars from Hawaii a lot. Hawaii is the coolest special plate. This is one of them. It has some old boat. Some Hawaiian is going to tell me I'm insensitive, but it has some old. But it's incredibly beautiful. There's one with some sort of fowl. Oh, and there's a volcano one. They are full picture, full color, absolutely gorgeous. Which is especially nice because Hawaii's regular plate, which is very boring, it just has a rainbow and it's black and white, came out in 1991. They did that for 40 years and then this showed up and it's the coolest thing in the world. No, go back, go back to these. Pull up this. Pull up the volcano one.

[Kenan]

That's beautiful.

[Filippo]

Look at that. It's cool. Literally never when you go to Hawaii, if you're on the big island, you see tons of these because that's where the volcanoes are are. And then go back. This one is really the most beautiful one with the, with the boat. Okay, so Hawaii's got some good. Here's a couple more I want you to look up for all of us. Look up the Florida State parks license plate with the kayak on it. I generally do not like Florida specialty plates because I find them to be illegible and kind of poorly designed. But you're in the kayak. You're in the kayak.

[Kenan]

Think about that gorgeous plate.

[Filippo]

That's great. Okay, now I want you to look up the Oklahoma support educate. We're going to take kind of a darker turn for the next couple. The Oklahoma support education license plate. Okay, now you think, okay, there's going to be like a picture of a schoolhouse. Well, there is, but it's a schoolhouse that's looming on the prairie with this dark. This is actually, that's like the, the graphic. This is like what it actually looks like. And it looks like a schoolhouse that's about to be wiped out by a torn abandoned schoolhouse that's about to be wiped out by a tornado. It really does.

[C]

It actually might be on fire inside already.

[Filippo]

It's on fire and there's a tornado coming and hell is breaking loose in this schoolhouse. But by God we support education.

[Kenan]

You're not wrong about anything.

[Filippo]

You think. Now on the dark turn I want you to look up the Rhode Island Gaspy days license plate. That's G A S P E E. That'll pull up from this. Yeah.

[C]

Okay.

[Filippo]

This is a surprising one. You ever see a. Never see a full on inferno on a license plate. Well folks, you have now I don't know what the gas B days are, obviously didn't do any research about that, don't really care. But there is a picture on this license plate of a ship that is completely on fire. And I'm not talking there's a small fire, this thing. People are dying in front of our very eyes while these people drive around with their license plate in.

[Kenan]

In 1772 local patriots burned the British Revenue Schooner, the HMS Gaspee.

[Filippo]

Now you could solve the fight, solve the fire if you had the Montana rural fire license plate. Pull up the Montana rural fire license plate. Now this actually we're taking a little detour because I think this is one of the worst special license plates ever made. And it's that one there. This. If, if only the Gasby days had this license plate which appears to just be a photograph taken outside of a fucking fire station also.

[C]

And the text from Montana with the like just drops.

[Kenan]

We wouldn't want them to Put this fire out. This fire started the Revolutionary War.

[Filippo]

This fire started the rev. We should know about this. We wouldn't have wanted to put this one out, but if you needed to, there was a square body Chevy pickup on this license plate. This. How did they come up with this design? They were like, hey, hey, Susan, do you have the digital camera?

[C]

See, I think it was. I think this was supposed to be the title card for a horrible show from the 70s.

[Filippo]

Montera. What it looks like. That is exactly what it looks like. That's so true. It would have been some crappy 70s comedy. And this was like the final thing when the, after the, the, the names of the characters had gone across.

[Kenan]

Now, okay, I think you get one.

[Filippo]

More on the subject of the dark turn we've taken. I want you to look up the Arkansas Martin Luther King license plate. This one is going to blow your mind. All license plates, as you know, have holes at the bottom and at the top.

[C]

Oh, man.

[Filippo]

This is one of the wildest things. However, click on this. The Arkansas Martin Luther King plate. Had they put the holes in the bottom, there would be a hole in Martin Luther King. And so this license plate, and only this license plate has only two holes on the top. That is an interesting little tidbit for it. You do see these driving around in Little Rock. Now, speaking of Arkansas, the Arkansas State parks license plate is probably my very favorite of all.

[C]

Wow. Okay.

[Filippo]

Yeah. On the West Virginia turtle. We got to talk West Virginia turtle too. This one.

[Kenan]

Oh, that is a pretty.

[Filippo]

Look at that for what it's worth.

[Kenan]

Just for people going to their state website to order it. I imagine some of these are no longer in distribute.

[Filippo]

This had better still be available. It's got a Craftsman slash stone hut on it. It's got big trees, it's yellow writing for God knows what.

[C]

That is a gradient from day to night.

[Filippo]

The R in Arkansas is a leaf, for God's sake. Okay, the last one, last one. I swear, maybe a bird. Last one. West Virginia turtle license plate. I'm not even gonna talk about the Tennessee Silly Fish or the Tennessee Sax Cat. I'm not gonna talk about them. I'm just gonna talk about the West Virginia turtle license plate. Type in turtle.

[C]

Yeah, there we go.

[Filippo]

Folks, if you live in West Virginia, and I'm gonna be honest with you, if you're listening to this podcast, you don't, you don't live in West Virginia, but if you do, wait, I want to see the one with numbers on it, because I want to see not only how it how they do it, but how illegible it is. This is what you do. If you live in West Virginia, you want to run from the cops, you can have this plate. No one can read it. And you have a turtle on your license plate.

[Kenan]

This is on a screen, and it's a sample one. And I still don't know what the second character is.

[C]

I know that it's.

[Filippo]

This is both illegible. This is both illegible. And you get a turtle on your license.

[Kenan]

Is that tu?

[C]

That's Tu, buddy. Tu from four zeros.

[Filippo]

This is. This is good stuff right here.

[Kenan]

This is good stuff.

[Filippo]

This is high quality West Virginia stuff. West Virginia's got a lot of great license plates. Couple of states. Do you know what? Pull up the Tennessee sax cat. He's going to get mad if I do anymore.

[Kenan]

But I want you to know that last week, 101 people from yesterday watched our podcast.

[Filippo]

No way. Hey, if you're in West Germany, go order this right now. Illegible. You can run from the cops. Tennessee sax cat license plate. The thing I like about this particular one, there was a cat playing the saxophone. And I got to tell you, folks, I've been to Tennessee a bunch of times. I have never seen a cat playing. He's wearing sunglasses, too. Okay, it's dark, it's bright. Where did they get the cat? Why is it is a cat playing the saxophone?

[Kenan]

I played so much.

[Filippo]

Okay, next question.

[Kenan]

Thank you for moving on, although I appreciate that so deeply. You have no idea.

[Filippo]

Next question from opens. Max question for everyone. What are each of your worst automotive hot takes? Mine is that markups are okay, which has been.

[Kenan]

No, I agree with you.

[Filippo]

Which has been hated and debated forever and ever. But I just am a capitalist.

[Kenan]

I'm pro manufacturer taking that money.

[Filippo]

But yeah, yeah, wow. You're anti dealer taking that money. Wow. He's a manufacturer. I'm just people. It's so funny. In 08, oh, I got the best deal, 25 grand off. Meanwhile, dealer wants to mark up a car. A grand. How can they screw us like this? It's like. Well, this is kind of how it works.

[Kenan]

I really like weird middlemen, arbitrage opportunities. I find that odd. And so.

[Filippo]

Yeah, okay, that's not necessarily a hot take.

[Kenan]

No, no, it's not.

[Filippo]

You got a better one? Kenan, give us a hot take.

[Kenan]

No, no. What hot takes do we remember?

[Filippo]

Give us a hot take.

[C]

Although people are starting to feel more this way now. I never thought that the F80M3 or the G80M3 looked bad. Always thought it looked fine. I had never had any issues with it.

[Kenan]

I remember when I came out, you liked it.

[C]

Yeah, that was fun. Now people are telling me, you know, it doesn't bother me so much. It's like, yep, that's how BMW design language usually works.

[Filippo]

It's a great car.

[C]

Comes out, it's initially reviled, and then it becomes like, it ages.

[Kenan]

Wait, hot take.

[Filippo]

What was your hot take?

[Kenan]

You have some.

[C]

Well, you do have some. I can name some of yours.

[Filippo]

Me.

[C]

Maserati. Gran Turismo is ugly.

[Filippo]

Although, did you see the red one? I don't know if it's live right now. We got a red one coming up and I looked at it and I'm like, you know, maybe it's not ugly after all this time. There is a bright red one. It's not live yet, but it's coming. It is absolutely cool looking.

[C]

I wonder if we. We don't really sell them in colors like this.

[Filippo]

Yeah, but this, this is like mc. It's. It's mod. Like, it's not modded, but it's like a later version with.

[C]

Modded from the factory.

[Filippo]

Modded from the factory, yeah. But this is like. Like an 09 red. And it was like, wow.

[C]

You feel that the Prowler looks best with the bumpers.

[Filippo]

Yeah.

[C]

Yes.

[Filippo]

And the Ford gt.

[Kenan]

I don't disagree.

[C]

Ford gt. Yeah. That's why a lot of people think that the Ford GT looks best shaved. I think is the.

[Filippo]

Shaved is what we say in the community.

[C]

In the community. But we're talking about the rear bumper specifically. So this. A lot of people think that without that, which I actually am one of those people who think it looks best without it.

[Filippo]

And so is the designer. He told me. But I just personally think that, like, the way it was presented is how it is in my mind. Mind. And you start to mess with it. And you start like these wheels. Mess with it. You mess with it. I want to get to two more questions.

[Kenan]

My hot takes are always correct. So they're. They're not.

[C]

There's one with it removed.

[Filippo]

Yeah, it looks.

[C]

I think it looks much better.

[Filippo]

But you don't have any hot takes.

[Kenan]

I feel like my hot takes are usually spot on and correct and people accept them right away.

[Filippo]

He usually.

[C]

He usually agrees with himself.

[Filippo]

Okay. Okay, two more. Quick. Number one rank from. Oh, yes, yes. Remember last week we did the Ferrari.

[C]

You can't bring this on me again. I was flustered. I take it back. The 348 is not the worst.

[Filippo]

Never. Okay.

[C]

But my least favorite.

[Filippo]

This is different. Now rank the V12 Lambos. This is tough. This is just as hard, IMO. That is event or last, for sure.

[C]

Yes. Kos first.

[Filippo]

Okay. Wow. Damn. I agree with that.

[C]

It defined the way all of them look.

[Filippo]

It defined them and a lot of other super.

[C]

Like Countach first, I would think. And this is favorite or best?

[Filippo]

I think.

[C]

What does the question say?

[Filippo]

It just says rank them, but I think it's. I think it's both. Both. Favorite should be best. So I think it's Countach Mercy. Wow. Miura is there.

[C]

I know Miura is there, but Miuras catch on fire. That's all they do. They look pretty. They catch fire. They don't catch fire to find a segment. All right, walk us through your day with that, Miura. What did you think about the entire day?

[Filippo]

I drove around in the Mira and then it caught on fire. Burned to the ground. No, I'm kidding. It was totally fine.

[C]

But you thought it was going to.

[Filippo]

I did.

[Kenan]

Did.

[C]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

At every point. Every point.

[C]

We have watched one together at Amelia Island.

[Filippo]

Catch on fire. That's true.

[C]

I happen to see it two years in a row. It's just like. I think that if. If it. What?

[Kenan]

Cat fire Both ears?

[C]

No, different ones. Not kidding. It's. And. And it shares its gearbox oil with the engine. It's just bad.

[Filippo]

The Mercy ahead of the Miura just.

[C]

No, I. I think. I do agree. I think that I'd have to. But I. It is. I don't want to know.

[Filippo]

No, no. Trust your gut. All right, fine. Countach Mercy. Mura. Diablo revuelto Aventador. Ooh. Wow.

[Kenan]

Barely above the Ventador.

[Filippo]

I love the Revalto. Honestly, all those cars are great.

[C]

They're all great. I mean, you're talking about, like. Yeah, they're all like. It's tight up there.

[Kenan]

I'm surprised you're putting Diablo that high.

[Filippo]

Diablo was third to last. I mean, I like the. My problem with the Diablo has always been that as cool as it is, and I've thought about getting one so many times, and then I look at it and I'm like, the Countach is just cool. The Diablo drives better. It was more modern. But, like, the Diablo was an iter. The Countach was the. The Diablo was an iteration on the right.

[C]

I know. It's not. Although the Countach is not the first V12 Lamborghini. It is, like, started. It's what Lamborghini is. All designs from Lamborghini go back to the Countach and supercars.

[Filippo]

In general, like when you think supercar, you think wedge Countach. Insanity wide crazy.

[C]

And the thing with the Diablo was it's. It's the middle child syndrome. It was. The Countach was. Was crazier looking and just more insane in general. The Mercy was much better to drive and so it's like kind of.

[Filippo]

And better engineer and better engineered.

[C]

And although more so, more similar to the Diablo in a lot of ways than people think.

[Filippo]

I agree with that. People realize.

[C]

But it was in the middle and. And that's why it deserves to be in the middle here, I think. It's just.

[Filippo]

I agree. So that's the list. It's Countach, Mercy, Diablo Revuelto and Aventador. Yeah.

[Kenan]

Wow.

[C]

Aventadors are cool to be. I like seeing them around, but all tips.

[Filippo]

LMO2 would be pretty high on that list if we threw that in. Oh, here's a good one. This is a great last question from Kiel Keel. Don't look at the question. Don't look at it. You have to be surprised. Say you were the kingpin of a large organized crime ring and drowning in cash. What car would you drive or be driven in to best suit your crime lord? Order. Brilliant question. Also well written.

[C]

What versions of German or American cars are we going to pick? You and I once did a video, a Sunday video on this YouTube channel a long time ago. We picked all American or German. They were all Marauder.

[Kenan]

But like, if you're a jerk, do you. You don't need to look more menacing.

[Filippo]

No, you want to look. You want people to respect you. Dude, you got. You want respect. Why do you think the president drives around in a black Cadillac? Because when he shows up, people know he means business. Is you have respect. So isn't it an Escalade? What is the answer?

[Kenan]

I don't know. I'm thinking.

[Filippo]

Isn't it an Escalade?

[Kenan]

No.

[Filippo]

Why is it not an Escalade?

[Kenan]

An Escalade iq Maybe because then you'd be silent.

[Filippo]

Okay. No. What would you drive or be driven in? You're a drug lord. You're a kingpin of a crime organization. What are you driving? You're driving an Escalade. Driving a black Escalade.

[Kenan]

You just want the Sopranos. That's all you're getting at.

[Filippo]

They had the cars were good in that show.

[Kenan]

Give me something better than Lincoln Continental coach door.

[Filippo]

Oh, if you're an old drug lord. Midwestern drug lord, aging, doesn't have the control he once did over the family. Continental coach door.

[Kenan]

I like how small we're all thinking when like. But what about The Bentley Dominator.

[Filippo]

A 90s SUV from. Are you implying something about the Brunei royal family?

[Kenan]

No, no.

[Filippo]

Are you trying to say that there are drowning it, make it political.

[Kenan]

You can buy from them?

[Filippo]

I think it's.

[C]

I mean, I. Mine is mine. Yeah. Any of the, the 80s big bike. But I also think the Pullman, the 600 grocer is like, you're not driving.

[Filippo]

A classic car because you're getting shot at by rival gangs, dude.

[C]

Oh, E38 protection.

[Filippo]

E38. It's a 25. This is ridiculous. You guys won't take the question seriously. I'm the only one here who's answering the question.

[Kenan]

I don't think that escalator is the. I accept your premise that it should be a large full size suv. I'd go to a Range Rover before I went to an Escalad.

[C]

What was this? The car that Richard Hammond drove in Top Gear. It was in South Africa.

[Filippo]

Oh, yeah, yeah. That we run over stuff.

[C]

Yeah, that would be.

[Filippo]

You know what, you know what also SL65 black.

[Kenan]

Oh, you can't turn. Was that the problem with them?

[Filippo]

No, that car, it did, it did have a steering wheel so you could, you could change direction.

[C]

The thing with it was it makes so much torque that it, it, it has trouble putting the power down.

[Filippo]

Dude, that SL65 black looks like a car. You show up in an SL65 black, you're showing up to kill somebody. I'm not trying to be. It's just what you're doing while you're pulling one up. Oh, wow.

[C]

The rear is where it looks the most sinister.

[Filippo]

Yep. But only black.

[C]

But only in black.

[Filippo]

Oh, click on that one. It has Swiss plates. Although note Swiss plates, like make a car instantly. Not sinister.

[Kenan]

It's like they're a rich banker. Not.

[Filippo]

They're a rich banker. It's like, okay, I'm afraid of this person. Oh, they're from Bern. Well, okay, it's just a tall, lanky guy with a lot of money who wants to look cool. Swiss plates on an SL65 black is like the equivalent of like buying a Harley and like being in a Harley group. But like, really? You're a pediatrician.

[Kenan]

What about a S600 from the, like with like the spindly wheels? Yeah, it's a $10,000 car now, by the way.

[Filippo]

Yeah. And that in itself has some like, I'm, I'm a, I'm a ghetto.

[C]

But this car also, when you start it and goes, yep, it's like, that sound like you just know. It's like you just.

[Filippo]

You don't mess with somebody. You told somebody to get in line and then got in the car, started up and you drove out of there.

[C]

Hit that button on the start on the shift.

[Kenan]

Yeah.

[Filippo]

That's a serious one of these cars. I don't know.

[Kenan]

But probably an S599.

[C]

No, no.

[Filippo]

Although kind of. There was a guy in Atlanta who was like, kind of a drug lord, and he had a 599 and a 612. Oh, yeah.

[C]

Black colon.

[Filippo]

Okay, this is the end of our podcast. Unless Filippo has any final. Do you have any license plates for us, Filipo?

[Kenan]

There were a couple. Can I say these are not my favorite license plates, but they're two fun facts.

[C]

Facts.

[Filippo]

Okay.

[Kenan]

One is for people that don't know a current California license plate is designed by Pierce Brosnan, and I feel like people need to know that it's a spade. Neuter your pets. 1.

[Filippo]

Fine. Pull up the California pets plate. You. That's the only one you get.

[Kenan]

No, no, no. I get one more.

[Filippo]

Pierce Brosnan did design this and it.

[C]

Is just like, mama mia. Not his finest work. It is.

[Kenan]

There's a dog, there's a cat, there's a bone.

[Filippo]

I actually love Pierce Brosnan.

[C]

I do too.

[Filippo]

You know, his son follows me on Instagram, has an E30M3. A really nice E30M3. Paris is his name.

[C]

Wow.

[Kenan]

And then for just the humor of it, North Carolina has a I'd rather be shagging license plate.

[Filippo]

It does. Dance.

[Kenan]

Say dance, Shaggy.

[Filippo]

Type in shagging. Yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. You don't see him often. There it is.

[Kenan]

I lived in North Carolina for three years and saw one once. Okay, special day.

[Filippo]

Kenan, do you have any. Remember the Gasby days? One? Weren't you surprised?

[Kenan]

I was.

[Filippo]

Ship on fire. I was. Who didn't think that was coming? Yeah. They could have commemorated that event in a lot of ways, but they chose like, the most hardcore moment of the Gaspee event.

[Kenan]

Yep.

[Filippo]

Okay. Kenan, do you have anything for us?

[C]

Drive faster. Get there sooner.

[Filippo]

Ethereum 5 didn't come up today on the pod, but I'll tell you right now, I didn't say it. Silver, not titanium. Silver.

[C]

Oh, I did say it once. I said it once.

[Filippo]

Shadow line wheels.

[C]

I said it only once cuz it was the car that I drove for the FOC thing.

[Filippo]

Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, for participating our finest podcast cast ever made.

[Kenan]

Certainly the best one this.

[C]

Goodbye.