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014 | LA Auto Show 2025: EV Test Drives, Movie Cars & JDM Icons
014 | LA Auto Show 2025: EV Test Drives, Movie Cars & JDM Icons
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About this episode
A detailed recount of a visit to the massive LA Auto Show, highlighting the scale difference from the San Diego show, the presence of EV test drives including drifting Ioniq models, and a special JDM and movie car display featuring iconic vehicles like the Fast and Furious Supra and Need for Speed M3 GTR. The hosts discuss the absence of Tesla, the rise of brands like Lucid and Scout, and the evolving auto show experience with more digital engagement and family-friendly activities. They also touch on notable vehicles like the Corvette ZR1X and Charger EV, and share personal impressions and logistical tips for attending.
Topics:
la auto show experience
ev test drives
jdm and movie cars
auto show scale and layout
tesla absence
electric vehicles
family activities at auto shows
corvette zr1x
charger ev
car culture and community
Cars:
BMW M3
Cadillac Escalade
Chevrolet Camaro
Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Silverado
Chevrolet Silverado EV
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Charger
Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
Ford Excursion
Ford F-150
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford Mustang
Ford Pinto
Genesis GV60
Honda NSX
Hummer EV SUV
Hyundai Genesis
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Ioniq 6
Hyundai Palisade
Kia EV9
Lamborghini Aventador
Lamborghini Huracan
Land Rover Range Rover
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren
Nissan GT-R
Porsche 911
Porsche 918 Spyder
Porsche Carrera GT
Toyota Celica
Toyota FJ Cruiser
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Supra
This week on Cool Cars with Chris, we’re going full throttle into the LA Auto Show 2025 — and you won’t believe what Courage saw.
From drifting electric Hyundais indoors to spotting movie cars from Fast & Furious and JDM legends, this episode is packed with everything you’d want from one of the biggest auto shows in the U.S.
We also compare it to the San Diego Auto Show, talk about family-friendly features, hidden rooms, million-dollar cars, and why Tesla didn’t show up.
🎟️ Ticket prices, discounts & insider tips
🏙️ LA Convention Center layout vs. San Diego
🚗 Why the LA Auto Show is at least twice the size
🧒 Activities for kids (yes, it’s family-friendly!)
🎬 Fast & Furious Supra, M3 GTR & JDM builds
🔋 Hyundai’s Ioniq 5N indoor drift ride-along
💰 Multi-million dollar exotics: NSX, SLR, Carrera GT
⚡ Lucid, Rivian, Scout EVs — but where’s Tesla?
🏎️ Corvette ZR1X breakdown: hybrid power meets legacy muscle
📸 Behind-the-scenes auto show nostalgia and stories
Get the full breakdown of the LA Auto Show 2025 in this episode of Cool Cars with Chris, where we dive into everything from EV test drives and electric car drift rides to rare JDM icons and movie cars like the Fast and Furious Supra and the M3 GTR from Need for Speed. We explore the all-new Corvette ZR1X hybrid, the powerful Hyundai Ioniq 5N, and emerging electric vehicles from Lucid, Rivian, Scout Motors, and more. Whether you’re into car culture, auto shows, electric sports cars, or comparing the San Diego vs LA Auto Show, this podcast episode has it all. Learn about family-friendly car events, EV performance, and insider tips on auto show parking, ticket discounts, and navigating the LA Convention Center. We also cover the evolution of mid-engine Corvettes, the hype behind electric SUVs, the growing presence of car brands at auto shows, and what it's like attending as a YouTube car content creator. If you're searching for car podcast episodes, EV show coverage, or best cars of 2025, hit play and enjoy the ride.
00:00 – 🎙️ Intro: LA Auto Show Preview & San Diego Connection
00:38 – 👋 Meet Courage: YouTuber & Auto Show Adventurer
01:34 – 🎟️ Ticket Prices & SoCal In-Club Discount
02:00 – 📏 San Diego vs. LA Auto Show Size
02:26 – 🏢 LA Convention Center Layout Explained
03:55 – 🚗 Brand Drop-Offs & Display Quality
05:00 – 📲 No More Swag Bags? Everything’s Digital
06:00 – 🧒 Kid-Friendly Zone: VW Crafts & Mini Racetrack
07:20 – 🚙 Off-Road Test Drives: Toyota Memories
08:30 – 🛣️ Family Road Trip: The Drive from Temecula
09:33 – 🅿️ Parking Problems & LA Sketchy Lots
11:00 – 💡 Ticket Tips & Kids Get in Free!
13:07 – 🗺️ Finding Your Way: Bring a Map!
14:24 – 🔋 GMC, Hummer EVs, and Escalade IQ
15:15 – 🎬 Hidden Room: Fast & Furious & JDM Cars
17:07 – 🔧 Are They Real Builds or Just for Show?
20:23 – 💰 Million-Dollar Room: NSX, SLR, Carrera GT
22:25 – 🖊️ Shelby Signings & Exotic Displays
23:26 – 🧨 ZR1X Corvette: Electric + Flat-Plane Monster
25:09 – 🧠 Why Chevy Went Mid-Engine with the C8
29:15 – 🚫 Tesla Skips the Show: Was That a Mistake?
31:44 – ⚡ EV Overload: Lucid, Rivian, Scout & More
35:04 – 👀 Tesla’s Image & Why People Still Buy Them
38:25 – 🍕 Food, Bathrooms & Family Amenities
40:25 – 👶 No Wagons Allowed? Family Logistics
41:50 – 🎢 Hyundai Drift Ride-Along in the Ioniq 5N
44:12 – 🔄 Indoor Drifting: Safe or Sketchy?
48:07 – 🗓️ Show Runs Through Nov 30th – Plan Your Trip!
49:00 – 🤷♂️ Why San Diego’s Auto Show Feels Smaller
51:00 – 📷 OG Auto Show Memories & Final Thoughts
Filter:
|
Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Toyota FJ Cruiser
"...road course. I did the Toyota truck and I did the FJ cruiser on the on the course. And ever since then they st..."
Car
Land Rover Range Rover
"lots of like Ferraris Lamborghinis and a lot of Range Rover parked down there in like that bottom area. So I ..."
Car
Cadillac Escalade
"I was taking a look at that. We looked at the Escalade IQ and the Hummer EV in person was pretty cool to..."
Car
Hummer Ev
"...ook at that. We looked at the Escalade IQ and the Hummer EV in person was pretty cool to see."
Car
Toyota Supra
"...y had this, this area where they had the original Supra from the Fast and the Furious."
Car
Nissan Gtr
"but they, they had the M, the M3 GTR from the most wanted series with the big wing, th..."
Car
Lamborghini Huracan
"...ke a big YouTuber. He has this really crazy built Huracan with like, with like these glass panels in the fr..."
Car
Slr Mclaren
"that they displayed. They had a, they had a SLR McLaren, a mick condition NSX, the nineties,"
Car
Honda NSX
"...y had a, they had a SLR McLaren, a mick condition NSX, the nineties, like early 2000s NSX."
Car
Porsche Carrera GT
"...had actually a little section too when they had a Carrera GT and a Porsche 918, just like right as you kind of..."
Car
Porsche 918 Spyder
"...tion too when they had a Carrera GT and a Porsche 918, just like right as you kind of enter to like the..."
Car
Porsche 911
"... West Wing. And then they had like a lot of their 911 STs and things like that."
Car
Lamborghini Aventador
"...d, you know, they had some, you know, Lamborghini Aventadors and, you know, F12 Berlinetta Ferraris and things..."
Car
Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
"Lamborghini Aventadors and, you know, F12 Berlinetta Ferraris and things on display. And all those car..."
Car
Ford Mustang
"... usually it's like a few Lamborghinis and vintage Mustangs and vintage Corvette things like that."
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
"...few Lamborghinis and vintage Mustangs and vintage Corvette things like that."
Car
Ford Pinto
"...buddy who had one of those and it was basically a Pinto. It was basically a Pinto with a Ford with a Must..."
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
"you know, even like the second gen Camaro, it was the second gen, I believe. Yeah, second g..."
Car
Chevrolet Silverado
"...automakers, and now have their EV lines, like the Silverado EV, the, you know, the,"
Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
"I know Ford is thinking about getting rid of the lightning, surprisingly, but, you know, they were still"
Car
Ford Excursion
"Yeah. So they did have like the Jeep excursion thing that they do where you can ride along and"
Car
Kia EV9
"situation they actually had so they had like the EV9 they had like the big SUV where you could"
Car
Toyota Land
"display they had like an old like you know Toyota Land Cruiser like the 80s like the 80"
Car
F-150 Raptor
"...nco I was like the Bronco especially like the the Raptor Bronco the Sasquatch and all that"
Car
Hyundai Genesis
"actually from Hyundai and then the other from Genesis actually which I know you shared"
Car
Genesis GV60
"which I forgot exactly what it's called like the GV60 magma I think they're calling it"
Car
Dodge Charger
"...dai side I also will say though I really like the Charger EV I'm just putting it out there"
Car
Chevrolet Silverado EV
"drive a Charger EV when I rented the Silverado EV was because it was in the shop and"
– 🎙️ Intro: LA Auto Show Preview & San Diego Connection
– 👋 Meet Courage: YouTuber & Auto Show Adventurer
– 🎟️ Ticket Prices & SoCal In-Club Discount
– 📏 San Diego vs. LA Auto Show Size
– 🏢 LA Convention Center Layout Explained
– 🚗 Brand Drop-Offs & Display Quality
– 📲 No More Swag Bags? Everything’s Digital
– 🧒 Kid-Friendly Zone: VW Crafts & Mini Racetrack
– 🚙 Off-Road Test Drives: Toyota Memories
– 🛣️ Family Road Trip: The Drive from Temecula
– 🅿️ Parking Problems & LA Sketchy Lots
– 💡 Ticket Tips & Kids Get in Free!
– 🗺️ Finding Your Way: Bring a Map!
– 🔋 GMC, Hummer EVs, and Escalade IQ
– 🎬 Hidden Room: Fast & Furious & JDM Cars
– 🔧 Are They Real Builds or Just for Show?
– 💰 Million-Dollar Room: NSX, SLR, Carrera GT
– 🖊️ Shelby Signings & Exotic Displays
– 🧨 ZR1X Corvette: Electric + Flat-Plane Monster
– 🧠 Why Chevy Went Mid-Engine with the C8
– 🚫 Tesla Skips the Show: Was That a Mistake?
– ⚡ EV Overload: Lucid, Rivian, Scout & More
– 👀 Tesla’s Image & Why People Still Buy Them
– 🍕 Food, Bathrooms & Family Amenities
– 👶 No Wagons Allowed? Family Logistics
– 🎢 Hyundai Drift Ride-Along in the Ioniq 5N
– 🔄 Indoor Drifting: Safe or Sketchy?
– 🗓️ Show Runs Through Nov 30th – Plan Your Trip!
– 🤷♂️ Why San Diego’s Auto Show Feels Smaller
– 📷 OG Auto Show Memories & Final Thoughts
Select text to request an explanation
This coming up weekend, it is the San Diego International Auto Show happening at the Convention Center this weekend.
But before we get to that, Courage decided to go up to LA and check out the Los Angeles Auto Show.
So on this episode, you'll hear all about his trip to Los Angeles to check out what it was like to be at the massive LA Auto Show.
You'll hear all the cool things, what he did, what it was like, all of that and more on this episode. Let's go.
Okay, we are back with Courage.
Courage the amazing, wonderful YouTuber of himself, big time in the car of space.
Big time went all the way to Los Angeles to see the Los Angeles.
Is it international car show? How do you say it over there?
I don't know. Although they have a lot of cars that are companies that come out.
But I think they just call it the LA Auto Show, I believe.
Yeah, I've been to the one in San Diego every single year. It's been down here.
And so the one in Los Angeles just happened to record this episode right now.
And you decided just out of a whim just to head over there?
So yeah, like similarly to you, I've gone as a San Diego one pretty much every year since I've been out here.
And I would talk to a few people about the LA Auto Show, but it was spurred particularly by some folks in the in community.
It was like, oh, you should go and like we actually got a discount.
We got like a 10% discount through the SoCal in club.
What does it cost for tickets? Is there expenses?
There were like 20, 20. Well, with the discount, it was 21 bucks. So I think it was $25.
That's not bad.
Yeah, for an adult. Not bad at all. Yeah, I definitely worth it.
Okay. Yeah, man. So I know the one in San Diego is about the same price, but it's much, much smaller.
I heard the one in LA is like, is like massive.
Oh yeah. Yeah. And if you talk about costs, because they're about the same cost, but it totally different scales.
I mean, you know, San Diego's, I enjoyed it.
And it was always kind of like this sort of tradition around like New Year's time to go to the San Diego Auto Show.
But, you know, being that I had never gone to the LA Auto Show, I was kind of blown away at just the scale of the show overall.
So where do they have the thing physically at in Los Angeles?
Yeah. So it's at the LA Convention Center, which is right across from the crypto arena in LA.
That's where the Lakers play, right?
I think so. Yeah.
Yeah, I see. I stayed there. I mean, I stayed across from there, but yeah, I know exactly where that is.
And the LA Convention Center, I'm not too familiar with exactly where that. I've probably seen it.
I've probably driven by it.
Yeah.
And now is it bigger than the San Diego Convention Center about the same size?
That's an interesting question.
I'm not sure because San Diego's Convention Center is like, it spans like a couple of blocks in terms of like from the start.
Because if you're familiar with San Diego, I know you are.
But just people listening is, you know, it sort of overlooks a little bit of like the coastal area.
There's like a little bay area there.
And it's a really long convention center that spans like a couple of blocks near like the gas lamp area.
But it has only has two levels and it's not very, I guess it's not very wide.
Like there's two levels and a lot of times really the auto show is only in like one part of that.
So with the LA auto show, I felt like it was a lot larger of a space because they had totally different sections.
They had like a West Wing, a South Wing.
There was another part that I don't even think we made it to.
And there's just a lot of different.
Maybe Chevy and like that's it.
So did this one have like all that kind of stuff too?
Or is it just purely like a SEMA show?
Yeah, no.
And I apologize.
My neighbor just this part, but if you can hear that, that's him leaving with his loud motorcycle right now.
So I apologize if you can hear that.
But yeah, it was, it was about it.
Definitely.
I've noticed the drop off as well, you know, even with the San Diego, a San Diego auto show.
I remember when BMW and Mercedes came out and, you know, to the point where they had stopped
and it was like a lot of like Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, you know, that, that realm.
And I think it was really the same.
I heard, I talked to a couple of people there at the LA auto show and they said the same thing
that, you know, there was a year where it was, you know, just flooded with brands, all kinds of brands.
And that was really, you know, you just, you, you couldn't make it to everything in one day
because there were just so many brands to the point now where it's, it's definitely condensed a bit.
Although, you know, I think that now it's sort of worked a little bit more in the favor of the show
because the ones that are still there really invest a lot into their boots or their,
I guess you can say they're displaced.
Now, did they even give out paperwork anymore?
Because I remember they used to be like, for years, I'd go over there with a little,
like a little baggie they give you, like Toyota, a little baggie out.
And like you fill your bag, fill off all of like the cool like swag.
It was stickers, it was decals.
And I think Sion was there to give out keychains and stuff like that,
and they have all these like big pamphlet manuals.
But over the last how many years, everything's gone digital where it's like to scan the website
or look at the website or whatever.
Is it like that they're two at the LA show?
That's it.
And I do think that their biggest goal a lot of times is just to be totally honest,
they really just want to get your information so that they can follow up with you.
Oh yeah.
Do a test drive.
What do you test drive?
Yeah, sure.
Fill us out.
That's your email.
Exactly.
Every single time.
Every single time.
Yeah.
Toilet dealers, Alexis dealers, Jeep dealers, they all got my email from all the different
test drives, all the different things.
And I get it, you know, from that perspective that, you know, again,
what they invest in these displays and putting this all together, it's a lot of money.
Like some of the things that they had, like Volkswagen had this one like thing that was totally,
it was totally tailored to kids, which is really interesting.
But they had them, they like had guys that were giving kids out, like when we got there,
they would, even if you had like three kids, like they give each individual kid this little box
that had this car that you could just kind of put together.
And it was just like one screw that you could kind of screw in with a hex bolt.
Oh, I think I've seen that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They give you, they give all the kids the cars, they let them like sit there and
actually color it and like design it and do little things to it.
And then they just let them like, you know, race on this little racetrack,
this little downhill racetrack that they have.
And, you know, even that, you know, just the fact that like every time I was watching them,
because we were there for probably an hour, because the kids just did not want to leave.
But you saw them like when they started running out of like these cars,
they'd like had this huge box full of like more cars that they would then like get out
and get ready for more kids to come.
And just like all the things that they're investing in this sort of experience
that they're trying to build to make the brand more memorable.
I sort of understand why they want to find a way to convert that into
interested buyers at the end of the day.
Yeah.
I think a lot of them do that.
I mean, one year there was a rock climbing wall.
One year I was here, the kids did that.
Yeah.
They had these little electric like, like, I don't know what you call them,
like little babies, you know, electric, you know, Jeep cars.
They were like going around a track.
My kids did that when they were really little.
And, you know, of course the test tracks.
I remember one year I did the two years.
I did the actual off road with the Toyota where they had to you drive.
Not they drove.
I got the drive.
Oh, wow.
It was a dirt off road track at the back of the convention center,
the back parking lot is being dirt off road course.
I did the Toyota truck and I did the FJ cruiser on the on the course.
And ever since then they started doing the Jeep track inside and
they would, you would be a ride along.
They would actually drive.
And then they took that out and made it as hunt this electric like,
you know, cone course kind of a thing.
Yeah.
But so how long did it take you to get over there?
What time of day do you leave?
They're really early or what?
That's a great question.
They're late or something?
We did.
We didn't leave Sandy or Temecula area until like around 1130.
I believe 1145.
Yeah.
You got kids.
You got to get in the car.
It's hard.
I get kids in the car.
My oldest, I know we texted about this a little bit.
My oldest was just live it.
Like he did not want to go.
He knew it was going to be a long car ride.
And he was just, he was like, leave me home.
Like I'll stay home and I'll watch TV.
And I'm like, that's not happening.
Like we're going.
And so we, we had a whole deal just leaving the house.
And turns out, I mean, he had an awesome time.
He was the one who was telling us he didn't want to leave.
How ironic is that?
Yeah.
So yeah, it was, it was a fun experience leaving.
But yeah, going there, it took us right about two and a half
hours to get there.
And, you know, we, you know, traffic in it really traffic
and sort of Riverside or well, not Riverside, but in like
Lake Elsinore area going towards like Coronado or
Corona, we get like a little pocket of traffic because
there's a lot of people that are coming from like
San Bernardino and Riverside that are trying to go
like to the coastal cities.
And so you get a real bottleneck there.
And then obviously anywhere near LA is always packed with
traffic.
So yeah, it took us two and a half hours to get there,
which it wasn't bad.
We got there at right around like two o'clock.
It was a Saturday, right?
It was a Saturday.
Yeah.
And what time did they, what time did they close that
Saturday?
Cause sometimes they close earlier or whatever.
I don't know.
I think it was around eight or nine.
We left at like right at like six 30 or something.
So we were there at good four and a half hours.
And you think you saw enough?
No.
Cause I saw posts and things on Instagram and stuff that
we didn't even see.
Man, that sucks.
So you get there around two o'clock, you said?
Yeah.
Okay.
So you get there, is there a parking garage?
Where do you park when you get over there?
That was another thing.
Parking was very confusing.
I, and maybe it's a little better.
Maybe I know the lay of the land a little bit more
with San Diego's auto show, but it was not very clear
where you could park.
There was, there was one parking spot, like a parking
lot area that was sort of directing us to it.
And when we got there, let's just say it was not a
place that I wanted to park my car.
You guys have got like tagging cars and graffiti
or something.
It just did not, it was not conducive to like a
safe environment, like parking lot.
There's no actual parking garage there.
Do you park cars there?
There probably is, but they did.
It just wasn't well marked, especially for people
that don't know the lay of the land there.
Like there's something to go every year.
So they probably know, but we ended up parking in this,
I guess it's like a shared parking structure for like
an apartment complex there.
Like one of those like high end apartment complexes
where they actually have like valet parking for the
people that live at the apartment.
What kind of apartment is that?
Yeah.
If you can tell, like as you're driving by,
like this is one of those like real like upscale
like apartment, you know, types of, I mean,
I imagine it's literally right across the street from,
you know, the crypto arena.
It's fun.
I think it stayed a place over there.
And I remember that when we parked our car in valet down
the bottom, it'll get it or whatever.
I don't know.
We were down there at the basement area and there were
lots of like Ferraris Lamborghinis and a lot of
Range Rover parked down there in like that bottom area.
So I imagine that I think it was like a slash apartment
building slash like, I don't know what it was.
You got the penthouses.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So you parked the car there.
Yeah.
And it was directly across the street.
Oh, it's even better.
It's right there.
Yeah.
Take a little hike in the million miles to get to
find your car to get to the place, you know.
Yeah.
So did you see already about the tickets?
You have them already on you online digitally.
You had to buy them in person.
We did digital.
And as I mentioned, we actually got a 10% discount
and we partnered with Hyundai, which was pretty cool.
They gave us a 10% discount.
So, you know, just a couple of bucks off,
four or five bucks off the ticket, but, you know,
it was definitely pretty cool and to do that.
Did the kids get it free or like that?
Yeah.
So kids were free.
Oh, even better.
I think it's, it's under six, I believe.
Oh, nice.
She has something like that.
Yeah.
The San Diego one, I think it was like Sundays was
the kids.
Yeah.
That's right.
And that's usually the days we end up going is because of
maybe I should go Sundays too, just because it's like,
it's like, what do you want to do this weekend?
You know, kind of a thing.
You know, it's not a lot.
Usually it's like a lot.
I always wanted to go, but it's kind of been a last minute
thing sometime.
So I was like, let's go on Sunday.
Let's make a Sunday day out of it.
But so you go down there or up there, I guess,
and then you park the car and you get into the place.
Now, when you get into the building,
is it, is it kind of what it's in the ego where it's
like, you're kind of hit it off.
Like, where do you want to go?
Or is it like, it's kind of like set up in a way where
we have to kind of follow this path.
No, you, I, this is one where if you're going,
I would recommend having a map to know where things are.
Because when we, so there's actually two different,
I believe two different entrances that you can come in.
There's one, I don't know if the one we came in
is the main entrance, but it would be sort of weird
if that was the only entrance because to get
to the other side where we were,
we saw a lot of the like Hyundai and Toyota
and some of the other brands.
It's a pretty long walk to get over this like sort of bridge
that takes you from the west lot or the west room
to the south room of the convention center.
But it's, there's a lot to it.
Like the, the moment we walked in GMC and,
and Hummer and Chevy had sort of a display
and we got kind of distracted there.
We spent a good like 20, 25 minutes just like,
were you checking out the truck you drove?
Yeah, they had one. Yeah.
They had the GMC version, but yeah, it was there.
You're like, I drove this, check this out.
I don't know where these buttons are.
I know I was driving this thing.
100%. Yeah.
I was taking a look at that.
We looked at the Escalade IQ and the Hummer EV in person
was pretty cool to see.
That thing's just a monster of an SUV or of a truck.
It's ridiculously overpriced too.
It is. 100%.
I mean, it is a flex.
It is like, look at me.
I guess the first one was to think about it.
It was.
It totally was.
They didn't depart from that, from that characteristic,
I would say.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
But they're saying, well, at least we're green now.
So suck it, you know, because there was like a point
of gas on the thing was, but, but that's cool.
The kids got to play with that stuff.
Get the driver seat and like push buttons
and pretend they're driving and all that kind of stuff too.
Yeah. No, they, they enjoyed that.
The, the cool, the cool part, honestly,
when we first got there, though,
before we even made it into any of like the main rooms,
though, was we, we actually had to take a restroom break.
Funny enough.
The long car drive. I would too.
Yeah. Yeah.
We got in and we got distracted with all that stuff.
And they were like, yeah, we should,
everybody's got to go to the restroom. Let's go.
And so we start walking towards the restrooms on this
like West end of the building.
And they, there's this one room where they had converted
it into almost like, it looks like it's a parking garage
because they actually had like the flooring,
like as if like there were park,
like, you know, parking spots and things like that.
And it was a whole JDM style,
like kind of car show type thing that they,
they had kind of built in this little section,
right? Where the bathrooms were.
But then as you, there's, there's two little sections.
And this is where I say,
we spent literally an hour in this area
before we even made it into like the main displays
was like, they had the little JDM car show area
on the, on like a far side away from all of it,
not even clearly directed.
They had this,
this area where they had the original Supra
from the Fast and the Furious.
They had the,
I'm not sure if you're familiar with like the Need for Speed
game series and things like that,
but they, they had the M,
the M3 GTR from the most wanted series
with the big wing, the blue and silver M3,
they had that on display.
And then they had like Alex Choi is like a big YouTuber.
He has this really crazy built Huracan with like,
with like these glass panels in the front along
like the headlights and like all this,
this just totally over the top designed Huracan,
but they had that all in display on this little section.
That's like, you could easily miss it.
It wasn't defined at all.
Did they have the,
I thought I saw Hans like Sylvia S15 with the,
with the orange and blue livery.
And then they had some other just,
they, I don't know if they're movie cars,
but they were just, you know, kind of just, you know,
very modified, you know, Japanese JD cars.
I'm really curious about these movie cars.
What I'd like to know is that are they truly modified
or are they just cosmetically modified?
Oh yeah. That's a good question.
None of them had their hoods open.
It's like a regular engine with like, you know,
it's like modified.
You know, the Z, I would say the 350 and probably the Sylvia,
they probably have to be at least suspension wise because
you could tell with the 350 that it had like,
the way the wheels were turned,
they had to have like upgraded the steering rack
for like one of those like drift rack, you know,
setups where you get a bunch of steering angle.
So I would imagine if they went as far to do that,
that probably there's some other modifications.
The funny thing was that even though like pretty much
everything, they were pretty well cleaned and everything.
Of course they have a guy coming through with a rag
and like some, you know, spray, spray wax
or whatever they got.
And even that same angle one,
that guy is there.
We just constantly,
they just come spraying and wiping, spraying and wiping
because people get their fingerprints all over them.
And just that were those ones behind ropes,
you couldn't get too close enough.
So yeah.
A lot of those cars are kind of, you know,
roped off. They don't want you getting too close.
The other room I was going to say about the 350 though,
they, the 350 had a, had like almost like a plastic bag,
like take over the driver's side window.
And so that, that was a little weird to me.
Like I said, it was immaculately detailed,
but then like it had a plastic bag over the driver window.
It's like, okay, like that's not something that
it's supposed to be that version.
Cause it was in the Japan, you know,
it's supposed to be in Japan.
Should be right side drive.
Right?
That's true too.
Actually. Yeah.
So maybe it was the passenger.
It was, it was on what,
it was on the left side of the car.
But yeah, you're right.
It probably, that probably was the passenger side.
The other side was so tenant that you can't even see in it.
So yeah.
That's a Hollywood secret, you know,
they, they take all the cars, front windshield, everything.
So you can't see the driver who actually is driving the car.
Yeah.
It's behind the wheels.
It kind of like it's a little Hollywood magic.
You know, speaking of right side cars yesterday,
I kid you not yesterday on the freeway,
I was hitting on the up,
I think it was on a 52 freeway.
Anyway, I see this car coming behind me.
It's kind of a lower Toyota.
It looked like a, I wasn't too familiar.
It wasn't like a sports coupe.
It was like a Toyota.
What's that?
I mean the older Celica or something.
I don't know.
It didn't look too old.
It didn't look too new either.
Anyways, the guy was on the right side.
He was driving on the right side of the car.
The guy driving it.
I looked at it twice.
I'm like, what, that guy's on the wrong side.
Oh, will he crap?
Look at that thing.
It's just out of Japan, whatever it was.
And, and he had it on the right side.
So that's very interesting.
But anyways, back to the auto show.
So you're there at the auto show,
walking around from booth to booth, just in awe.
The kids are probably just jumping around from car to car.
Every car you can get their hands on.
They probably jumped in, right?
Yeah.
One, one quick thing I want to add on that little section there,
though, is there was a room there that was sponsored,
I guess, by this company.
I don't, I'm not sure the company and I won't shout them out
because they aren't doing anything.
But they, they, they had this particular room that I think
was tied to like a casino or something of that sort.
They had, there were, I was just super well,
just like with the lighting, perfect and everything.
They had a, they had three cars from the Peterson museum
that they displayed.
They had a, they had a SLR McLaren,
a mick condition NSX, the nineties,
like early 2000s NSX.
Oh nice.
Yeah.
And then I can, I'm blanking on the other car
that they had it on the far left.
I have pictures of it, but I can't remember.
And then they had a couple of race cars kind of here
and there, like actual, like, you know,
Le Mans race cars and things like that.
But this one room, like I said, it's like, you know,
a hundred million dollar room where you just walk in
like unsuspecting of what you're about to behold
in terms of the cars that are in it.
And again, like this was all before we actually made it
to the actual show.
It was, it was pretty cool.
Porsche had actually a little section too
when they had a Carrera GT and a Porsche 918,
just like right as you kind of enter to like the,
the West Wing.
And then they had like a lot of their 911 STs
and things like that.
But yeah, like the, the special rooms,
I think is really what made the LA auto show for me
at least stand out so much more than the SD one.
It's like one big room with like different,
like little, little exhibit.
You kind of like wander through it from exhibit to exhibit.
And you kind of just like wander through
like a big open space.
Like it's all open concepts.
So you're saying there,
they're kind of like apartment,
they have different compartments.
Just little compartments.
Yeah.
Like, you know, even, even on your way to like the,
the West Wing,
which is the first little section that we went in
where Kia was more of like the dominant brand over there.
They were like the moment you walk in the door,
like they had a Kia and a Ford booth.
And so that was their little section there.
And then some other automakers.
If you, if you go to the right,
right before you went into the door,
there's another little room that, you know,
had a guy that I don't know if it was like
Carl Shelby's like, you know, son or like relative
or, or somebody that was tied to, you know,
just Shelby automotive, he was signing pictures
and signing posters for people.
I didn't get one because I just got distracted
by a whole bunch of other things going on.
And, you know, they had some, you know,
Lamborghini Aventadors and, you know,
F12 Berlinetta Ferraris and things on display.
And all those cars are roped off.
I'm assuming we can't get to those.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So any, yeah,
anything in the special rooms were, you know, really,
you know, they have, they have some of those
in San Diego too.
They have a little section of one in where it's like
specialty cars.
You know, usually it's like a few Lamborghinis
and vintage Mustangs and vintage Corvette
things like that.
And they're all behind the rope.
You can't really even like get close to them
or whatever and all that kind of stuff.
And even like the actual automakers,
like, you know, in their displays,
like they have certain cars that they,
you know, they don't want you to actually
like, you know, really interact with or
they're locked.
Like you, especially like pre-production cars
or anything like that, you know,
there were a few of those where they had some
pre-production models of cars that you couldn't
actually get in, but you could get up close
and see some details and things like that.
You know, I didn't even get to Chevy.
I'm not even sure which room Chevy was in,
but I saw that the ZR,
the ZR1X was on display.
That's the electric version of the Corvette.
So that's, yeah, the one with the,
so basically with the ZR1 with the flat
plane crank V8, but then also with
electric motors. Yeah.
Man, they're just stacking too much on there.
It's like, it's like when you go get the
the yogurt, the yogurt place and you get
all the stuff you want to throw on top,
all the sprinkles and cookies.
I instantly knew you were going to say something
about food. I was like, which,
what food references are you going to be?
But, you know, it's like, it's like,
like, hey Mason, they charge you by the
weight. Why, why are you putting like
those rock candies on there?
I mean, they're like so heavy.
You know, it's like a $20 yogurt all of a
sudden, you know.
The interesting thing about that though,
with the, with the ZR1 and the ZR1X
particularly is I remember a long,
a long time ago, not to go on a tangent,
but I remember that when the ZR,
when the, the e-ray first came out,
they, and the Z06,
they, they had talked about the
e-ray in the sense where
like they, they knew that the
construction, like some engineers and
some people had like, you know,
basically talked about how the,
the Corvette chassis, the platform
for them to, to basically
have an all wheel, all wheel
drive solution for
both like the Z06, but then
when the ZR1 came out,
it also had the same construction
like center tunnel design where
they could all, they, they ultimately
could make it all wheel drive if they wanted to.
And it was really interesting
when the ZR1 came out
that people were like, oh well
there, the natural progression is for them to
just use, utilize the same thing they did
with the e-ray from the Z06
and just make an all wheel drive version
with an electric motor. And
that's literally just what they did.
They, they just took the same platform
and then just slotted their electric
motor in the front and made the ZR1X.
And, and it was like, you know,
it was pretty, I'd say it's pretty
genius on their part that they,
you know, they knew that this was just
how we were going to progress this forward.
We were going to build this in a way where
like we're going to give the internal
combustion guys what they want.
But we're going to always kind of have that
ability now to add on to it with the
electric, the electric side, the hybrid
side, and then make this
crazy hypercar monster
that the ZR1, the ZR1X
is, which is just an insane thing.
That's crazy. Now
what is the price point for that thing?
You know? It's definitely over
two, for sure. I don't know
exactly, but. I mean people say it's
crazy expensive, but you look at some of these
Ferraris, you know, they're, they're that
like that's a cheap one. If you think about it,
like somebody like that, you know, and
you know, it's
it's like, what do you do with that?
You know, like, I mean,
do you just like put on display
or do you just take it to a track? Like, you know,
and just see how fast you're doing it.
You driving down the street and trying to enjoy it
like you're just going to jail. Like it's
just, it's not a matter of if it's when
like when you're going to push it in the
wrong spot and just go to jail.
I mean, YouTubers probably, you know, jump
with a chance to do that. And sometimes
YouTubers are getting crazy, not you, of
course, but some of the crazy ones are getting
crazy with their, with their cars and the
different stunts they're doing and
and just trying to overtie. It's like
they've almost done everything possible.
Like I don't know what you can do now, you
know, but I just think, I think
electric cars are fine. Listen, they have
a place, but having an engine, like a
real nice sound engine just sounds great.
Yeah. And I would
I love the new Corvette, the new C8
dude, I want to want the engine in the back
and all that. I mean, they don't sound
like an exotic, you know, they sound like a
muscle, you know, like a Corvette.
Yeah. Well, it's
really interesting too. Like, you know, I
actually really, again, I did
a video on this a little while back and
it was spurred off by like this guy
that does a lot of videos
for Hagerty, Jason Kamisa.
And, you know, he did a video on
like on all of the generations
of ZR1 and like the special
Corvettes. And he
talked like briefly about
why the C8
had to become sort of
a mid-engine platform sports car
slash supercar because there
was just a certain point, there's a certain
point where a rear-wheel-drive
front-engine car
just cannot perform at the level
that a mid-engine rear-wheel-drive
car can or all-wheel-drive car can.
And he was
talking basically like if you see
any like any clips of like
a C7 ZR1 which
was, you know, I think it was
like 750 horsepower
manual rear-wheel-drive
supercharged. Supercharged.
Yeah, supercharged car like
trying to put that power
down in any scenario just
leaves you, you're just leaving a cloud
of smoke everywhere. And,
you know, it's sort of known as a bit
of a widowmaker because
it's just to control that on
a track is it takes a really kind
of skilled person to do. But
then they show a clip of the
C8 ZR1
literally just being able to outlaunch
the C7 ZR1
and it literally has
1,000 horsepower to the
C7 700 horsepower.
So like in theory
you're thinking well like a car with
1,000 horsepower is going to have even worse the time
getting off the line. But it was
just really cool to hear his explanation of why
a mid-engine rear-wheel-drive
car was where they
had to go to now kind of
push all of this like platform
forward in terms of performance
and you know
Chevy was willing to do it because it wasn't like
they were trying to hold on to this like
oh the Corvette is this and we can't change
it. They've always wanted to
chase performance and the only
natural way to do it was to do that
with the C8. Yeah, I heard that they were
in designing, trying to design
a rear-engine Corvette
for years. Yeah. And it
was just happened to be the right time I guess
and they put something together and
yeah, that's the
far, I'm not a big fan of Chevy
I mean, but that's a Chevy
but that's a Chevy would buy.
Yes, the Corvette would be the one I buy. Yes.
Yeah, out of all, yeah, I'll take it.
Some people are like, they don't like
certain car brands but it's like the one car
that that brand makes. I get it.
That'd be the one, you know, I think for me
it would be the Corvette. And I'm like that
with the Mustang where I'm like, you know, I'm not
like a huge four guy but I mean, I will
take a Mustang like
any day, almost
any generation except for the Mustang
2 maybe. Yeah, Mustang 2
but I did hear there was a couple of versions
that had like the V8 in those things
I heard. Yeah, they did
some of the later ones. Yeah, but
I had a buddy who had one of those and
it was basically a Pinto. It was basically a Pinto
with a Ford with a Mustang badge on it.
So it was. Well, both of them did that too.
Chevy and Ford had that
era where they like, you know, they were like
yeah, we're going to pull like from some European
like small car routes and I mean
you know, Ford had the Pinto so they had
that ability to do it but
you know, even like the second gen
Camaro, it was the second gen, I believe.
Yeah, second gen Camaro, you know, they had
like the Berlinetta
edition.
There was like, I think it was a four
cylinder or maybe it was a V6 but
it was supposed to be more of like a luxury
car.
It wasn't like they weren't at all really kind
of looking at like the usual like
pony car, muscle car, demographic.
They were like, you know, we want to make like a
really plush like luxury car
out of the Camaro
and they, I feel like
both Ford and Camaro had, or Ford and Chevy
had just kind of a weird time where they
just didn't quite know where they wanted
to take the second generation of their cars
and so they like, they either
borrowed a Pinto chassis and built
something off of that or they tried to turn
a Camaro into a luxury car and
they finally found their way
back a little bit and
you know, again, Ford
ultimately kind of won out the war because
the Mustang's still here and the Camaro's not.
So, you know.
Well, maybe they'll bring it back, you never know.
Dave, we had that point in 2000s.
Yeah, so you're right.
So, cars come and go and
sell a auto show.
Now, was there any car manufacturers
that were not there?
You're like, where's this brand at?
I sort of was surprised
that Tesla
wasn't there. Why would they be there?
They never go there.
I don't think of them as like a car.
It's a car brand. I don't think of them as like
an enthusiast's car brand. I don't know.
The only reason that I say that, and you're
right, like they normally don't do
that kind of stuff because just what their
model is, like, I mean, they technically
make their own auto shows with the way that
they have their sort of
mall-based kind of
displays and things like that.
Right, what if you buy them at a store or something?
They don't even go to a dealer.
Yeah, like that, I get that 100%.
The main reason I feel
like it was surprising was because
again, brands like Lucid
were there, Rivian
was there, Rivian's been there, so that's
not a huge surprise.
Scout was there.
Oh, I want the Scout so bad, dude.
Yeah, Scout had a really cool display
outside of the whole thing as you're coming
in that we kind of wish we would have had
a chance to spend a little bit more time
in, but yeah, Scout was there.
And then obviously just the automakers,
the main automakers, and now
have their EV lines, like the Silverado
EV, the, you know, the,
I know Ford is thinking about getting
rid of the lightning, surprisingly,
but, you know, they were still
at the same location and
I feel like
it was sort of a missed opportunity
mainly for Lucid to be there
and Tesla not to be there.
Because they're both EV companies, you're saying?
They're both EV companies, they're both, you know,
US based EV companies
and, you know, now for people
to start to really kind of, you know,
learn more about Lucid and, you know,
now they have this electric
EV minivan
quote-unquote SUV, they want to call
it an SUV, but it's basically a minivan
but they go zero to 60
in like 3.5 seconds.
You know, the fact that they have
these sort of game-changing
EVs now
makes me wonder why Tesla
is so confident
in the way they've already been doing things
that they wouldn't step
into the mix now and start to,
you know, bring themselves back
in so that people can get acclimated
with their cars.
I think Tesla doesn't care.
Honestly, they're like above it.
They're like, would you go for that?
We are so above your little
pathetic little auto show.
That's cute, kids.
We're Tesla, okay.
We've done our things to do.
And I 100% can see it.
Like, me personally,
I think it's a mistake, but again,
I'm not Tesla,
I'm not the guys that are running the show
and so maybe they, I know
there's a different outlook on it.
People are going to buy Tesla
no matter what.
If Tesla is at the auto show,
it's not going to convince anybody to buy Tesla.
I think if somebody sees a Tesla,
knows a Tesla, Tesla is so well known
and the brand,
the car company, the cars are everywhere.
This is here in Southern California, it seems everywhere.
I don't think
and I'm sure you can,
I think you can order from their website.
I don't think you need to go into the store.
It's convenient to buy it all.
I personally like to test drive a car
before I buy one.
Maybe I'll just old-fashioned that way.
I don't know if I can do the whole vending machine
with a caravan experience.
I don't know if I can do that.
I want to physically drive the thing,
pop the hood, see what I got in the engine,
that kind of stuff.
But some people don't.
Some people just want to buy whatever, order.
Same thing with phones and stuff too.
If you go to the phone store,
you figure it's good, it's good, whatever.
I mean, that's a good point
because I mean, there's people,
if you just take the phone,
the phone sector for example,
there's certain people that it doesn't matter
what's going on with Apple,
they're going to get the new iPhone.
They're not even thinking about
what another phone
brand is doing.
It's not even on their radar.
I guess you can say, yeah, like Tesla's
in a spot where there's people
they are even thinking about
like what the
comparable EV is going to be.
It's like, if I was going to get a Tesla,
I'm just going to get a Tesla.
Oh, totally.
I don't think that might be the laurels
they're resting on.
Right, until their
market share gets eaten up by Lucid
or Rivian or
whoever else or whatever else.
But there are so many
EV cars you can choose from.
Not just Tesla,
but like you say like Hyundai's got a bunch,
Kia's got a bunch, Ford's got a bunch,
Chevy's got a bunch, I think Volvo
and they all got a bunch of their EV
versions of stuff.
So even with all that,
Tesla's like, nah, we're good, we don't need them.
Man, that's a good
place to be, man.
It's good to be at the top, you know,
I mean, I'd say I've never owned a Tesla,
you know, I've driven one, you've driven one.
They're nice cars.
They're not nice, I'm sure.
They're great, they've got a great network,
they've got the great charging network,
they've got the great updates doing the thing.
They're probably
really, really great customer service,
I'm sure, where you can like, you know,
text them out of the app and get it fixed
immediately, I don't know.
So they have this whole ecosystem.
So I think, another thing too is I think
it's kind of cool, it's a cool vibe
to say you drive a Tesla.
And it's like, remember when Starbucks
cup, it was like a status symbol.
Yeah.
And the same thing for like an Apple, like a MacBook
computer, like, you know.
I don't think that hasn't faded yet.
I mean, you know, Apple
products in general just have this
like, you know, just think about them
versus like anything else where like,
yeah, like there's a standout product
here and there, but you know,
they haven't quite garnered
that like loyalty factor,
I feel like as Apple has,
you know, I will say with Starbucks though,
they got a real fierce competitor
coming down there, coming down their side
of things right now in the coffee space.
Oh, definitely. Yeah.
A lot of them are dead now. I'm not saying dead.
A lot of them are not as busy as they once were.
And so they're closed in places.
I mean, they were on every corner for a while.
There was this one, if you're familiar
with Mission Gorge Road in San Diego,
I'll think freeway.
I remember a while ago, there was literally like
three Starbucks within like walking distance
over there. I kid you, you know,
that whole block section over there.
I was like, yeah, be crazy. There's one here, one there, one there.
I think they closed most of them down.
There might be one left, but it was like four or whatever.
Then one little section, that's crazy.
But anyways, back to the auto show.
So you're walking around, checking different things out.
Do you guys have anything to eat while you're there?
Was there anything to eat or anything?
Yeah. The food select, they had, you know,
chicken tenders, fries for the kids,
whole little pizza set. Yeah.
And again, this was just the food court we went to.
The other side, there was another whole food court.
No way. That's great. So yeah.
You're dialed in with food there.
And they had the bathrooms where they, in the convention center,
had to leave to get to the bathroom.
No, no. They had an overabundance
of bathrooms as well. Like each main entrance
had a bathroom.
And then like when we first came in,
there was a bathroom. Again,
the bathroom was leading us to this
multi-million dollar, you know, car collection,
which was pretty cool. But yeah,
they super set with like bathrooms.
And I'd say, you know, overall
the facility was just, you know,
was pretty top notch.
Like the only slight downside,
I guess you can say is that
the west side where we first got in
is there's a pretty long walk
to get to the south side.
Like a big long, like, you know,
just kind of one of those like
almost like airport corridors kind of thing.
Oh, right. Like a walkway.
They kind of just keep walking forever kind of thing.
And it's up, it's uphill if you're going from
the south side as well. So
we weren't allowed to bring our like wagon.
Like they don't let you bring like
big wagons and things, which I can totally
understand why. But when you got a
two and a half year old
and a six year old is lazy
a little bit, like
you're either going to carry them
or you're going to hear them complaining about walking
a lot. But you know that, again,
that's just a small downside.
Those strollers roll out either?
They do. Like you can bring a small
stroller and like if you have a double stroller
like I think they would let that slide
but they were specifically
discriminant in their directions
about wagons. Like
where they consider a wagon like, yeah,
like, you know, wagging with the four wheels on each side.
Like they said that you couldn't bring
that. That was like, they were pretty
like, don't do that. The strollers
you could bring. So I don't know if they
had a particular incident in the past
and they just, you know, have wrote those
off completely. But San Diego Auto Show
lets us do that all the time. So
I was a little surprised by that.
Huh. Interesting.
But fascinating.
Yeah. So I'm sure the kids are tired
of walking around. No, but
I mean, they, you know, again, they
enjoyed themselves. Like there was enough
there was a lot to entertain both
like, you know, the adults and
the kids, which again is a huge
shout out to them because, you know,
the San Diego Auto Show was
maybe like a, you know, yes, they could
get in the cars and kind of check them out.
And there was maybe like some little things
here and there that the kids could do. But,
you know, they they could get bored pretty
quick because there wasn't a lot tailored to
that. Or someone who's not really
into cars or that you get bored
really, really quick. Cause we brought
yeah, we brought somebody that was
really into cars the last time it went
a couple of years ago. And literally
we we were checking out like we were
under our second exhibit and he was already
bored when I go home. Yeah, like already
bored. And like, we haven't like
we haven't like, like
surface. Yeah. Right.
We haven't seen anything. We just got here.
We just got here, you know, like so
we I guess it depends
on anything. Like if someone drag me
something, I don't want to go see or be at
I might get bored with it too. So I
get I get that, I guess. But
so you saw as much as you
could. Now, did you go for any of the
cool ride alongs like at all?
I did. What you got? What did you do?
Yeah. So they did have
like the Jeep excursion thing that they
do where you can ride along and
go up the little really steep hill
and metal, metal ramps
and things like that. We didn't
get to do that because, you know, just
with the family didn't allow kids to do
that. But because
they because they had that display where
the kids like spent the whole hour just
like racing their cars down the road and
things like that. My wife kind of hung
back and watched them and it was a good
break for her so you could just kind of chill and
watch them and kind of she did a little
trivia game actually that they were playing
for the Paris while they were there, which
is pretty cool. I got a chance to sneak
away to Hyundai's booth
where they had
the Ioniq 5 in
and the Ioniq 6 in
on basically on ride alongs
within the convention center.
Those are all electric, right? There's no
exhaust, no smoke or like that. Yep. All
electric and yeah. So
and they had like a nice little
course built out and
you know just kind of a little, it's not
really a circle but it was like a path where
they could go like in a circle. They go, they take
your way on twice and then they come back
and they switch out, they switch out folks
from there. And I had a chance
to, I was like looking at some of
the merch and things like that for a while
and I came back and like the
staff there, like their particular marketing
staff was like super, they were super
chill. Like I was one of the ladies was
like yeah, like make sure you go with
this guy because he'll actually
he'll get on it for you
and make sure you get in that car.
And so I came up and I
filled out the waiver which we talked about this before
but the main thing that they
want to do is an email grab
and they do want to know like
what cars you're potentially interested in
like your timeframe of buying. Of course.
And I get it.
They're spending so much money on this
overall display and everything
and the cars out and everything so I get it.
Like they want to kind of translate some of that
into some actual traffic but
the Hyundai
situation they actually had
so they had like the EV9
they had like the big SUV where you could
go for a ride and they have a nice
straight away where they can gun it and you can
feel like the electric acceleration
but with the Ioniq cars
the 6-in and the 5-in
they actually had some guys behind the wheel
that were drifting the cars
at the building.
And I like we came in initially
and we were looking at like all of the in-cars
which you know big shout out to them
because they brought out every single in-car
they have including this special edition one
that they're bringing to the states next year
and so we were checking all of those out
and we started hearing like you know
like skid marks like not just like
from cars that are just trying to turn on
like slippery floors but like
you know actually like tire spinning and
we're like what's going on and so we peek
around the wall where all the rest of the in-cars
are and it was just as like
this Ioniq 5-in was
drifting around this corner
and so I went on I got a chance
while the kids were playing and doing their car thing
to take a ride around
and yeah dudes like
you know he put the 5-in
all the way into like rear-wheel-drive bias
and you know they gun it down
the straight away and they make their turn around
and as they're going around this like
you know basically you turn section
he just lets it go
he drifts it around
and he takes you around twice around the course
and each time you're going around this U-turn section
he'll drift it and
I just thought that was the coolest thing
that they're just like at a point where
you know they know the safety factor
and everything is like good enough for them to be able to do it
but you know they're letting you experience
kind of this like fun section
of electric cars
by drifting them indoors
that's great now what kind of like pavement
on
yeah like the slick like if you
if you've ever been in like yeah like those conference
you know those those convention centers
like they just like leaving skid marks all over those
things or what no it surprisingly
doesn't really like I'm sure like there's probably
like little fine marks maybe they find a way
to like get rid of that or something
it's kind of what if they're doing drifting you know you're
gonna be like leaving tire marks usually you do
so I think it works if it's slippery
enough though like it's it's sort of
like that effect if you were ever when you
were a kid if you ever like took
your RC cars and you take
like the rear tires off
of them and and you
would like you when you take the rear
tires off then you could like by
giving it gap like giving it little throttle
you can actually cause it to drift around
on like a slippery like wooden floor
or something like that okay okay
I feel like it's kind of the same effect is
like if the floor is slippery enough
the tires like even with just a little
bit of input are gonna start to spin
and so they you know you're
able to like get a chance to spin around
without like as much effort as it
takes on like a regular like asphalt
you know situation so
they they seem to have a pretty dialed I
was I was impressed where you know he
would just go in he just kick it in
just swing it around with a tire slick
already though I don't know
I mean they they're they're going
pretty like continuously around like
they're stopping for like
maybe two minutes at most and then
just going back around the circle and
there was no smoke coming off of it was there
no like yeah no it's they don't they
don't it's not like you know you're not
getting a big smoke cloud it's not a real drift
it's not like it's like you know you're burning
you say it's it's a you know over exaggerated
slide maybe I guess yeah okay
but you're but you're getting sideways
which is the important thing nice nice
guys imagine like tires
being just like skid marks and like
smoke you know come out the rear tires
and like everybody get like dusted out
cloud of smoke in the convention center
you go around the corner
yeah well that's pretty cool
man that's pretty awesome I wish I could have gone
I keep seeing the flyers for it on Instagram
and I followed the LA I think it followed them on
Instagram the LA auto show and
I was like yeah that's I'll check out tickets
and I thought I saw like
I thought the tickets were like $100 for tickets
maybe it was like a weekend package or something
I don't know yeah I didn't I only saw
one option it was yeah like around 25
bucks or something like that
maybe it was something like like group like
maybe it was like a big like VIP
experience or something I don't know I mean
I was their websites looking at different things but
so so is it over now like
is record this that the auto shows over this weekend
no so I mean
depending on when this comes out but they
they do they I guess they run
this for two weeks versus
like the San Diego auto show I think is usually
four days yeah about four days so
you know maybe this is
a good little like blur for next year
because they they seem to do it around the same time
but this year they're doing it from
the 21st to the 30th
so you know that's you know they got
all pretty much a full two weeks of
of events and a lot of the people there
are going to be there the whole
size wise we're going to compare
to like how much bigger than San
Diego's is this overall at least
double at least double so take
two of what San Diego puts together two
of those okay
there's a possibility is more and I
would definitely lean towards the side that
it's probably more than that but
at least double is is I think
a safe estimate I wish I said anyone
to just get back into it and get back into
like yeah first I like to have more
variety of cars there and also
like a lot of
I don't know it just seemed like it got became
like a just one end of the convention
standards like all selling you crap and a lot
of the crap they sell you it's not even car related stuff
it's like solar for your house and like
other stuff you know
and unfortunately yeah you know
I think the unfortunate thing
is that LA really has like
a pool with like the car community
in general and
and I think that that's like that's
the reason why you get a lot of
like the again that whole
JDM section that
was you know all fully modified
JDM cars you know from
a lot of the shops that are
in the area like they
they you know have cars that they just kind of donate
for the show you know even
even some of the main
actual like manufacturers like Toyota for example
in their
display they had like an old
like you know Toyota Land Cruiser like
the 80s like the 80
I don't know the series and things
but they had like an old like
mint condition like 80s
Land Cruiser on display
as well as like you know kind of an early
Toyota Celica and
you know for sure that they came from people
like there were probably any area that were like
you know we we want to you know kind
of show people like the history of Toyota
so like do you mind displaying your car
here like I think the
LA kind of
lends a little bit more to you know a
lot of these like you know mod
shops and like you know tuning
shops and you know just this
car culture that's there that allows them
to have these more like specialized
sections versus like
in San Diego you know we have
some but we don't have as much
of those like specialty shops and
things like that where you know
they're just leaning on the manufacturers
to try and bring that experience but
unfortunately the manufacturers got
a limit on how much they really want
to spend and invest in the show
and and so you you know
unfortunately you you you get a
lot more of a watered-down experience
I feel like on the San Diego side
yeah and I still go every
year you know and I still do it
but like I said it's like
where it used to be like you needed
like a full day to see everything in
the San Diego thing now it's like a couple
hours you're good blow through it yeah
yeah and you go through it and you might
sit in the car you want to sit in you
know and you might check out because I used
to go there I kid you know with my digital
camera and burn through two memory cards
taking pictures of everything
I mean everything I mean every single
car was there I took a picture of it
everything that was there and so it's
it everything they pictures everything and I
get all the flyers no brochures for
everything I should it was like a full
on event for me when I were to go and I
loved it I loved it so much every single
year we go there but I said lately it
has been kind of a disappointment it's
been kind of like a yeah
you know I mean it's like I mean some of
the cars you want to sit in maybe
want to check out the new Mustang but
the thing some of the new stuff's I
mean there like the new new whatever's
coming out I mean there they've got
the dealership to check out yourself
so
yeah no I mean I definitely
agree it's like
you know you you
the experience used to be pretty
pretty top-notch and you know again
that was even before I started like
filming and doing things but like you
really didn't need a whole day
you know really the like experience
you know sometimes you might go back multiple
days just because there was so much to see
the you know but now it's
like yeah you knock it out and you know okay that was great
like you know but I mean
with the LA show like
again like you know I mentioned multiple
times like I saw posts of things that
like I didn't even know like that was
there I didn't
see Chevy I didn't see Chevy while we
were there like you know I I didn't
see the there was like a low rider exhibit
that I didn't see no way you
know there there was just
it just and there was the whole outside
section where we didn't even get to stop
at like the scout the scout
section do what I want to scout I want to
check do that that's like the only EV I really
really want really yeah scout
because it looks that's like the small like
EV truck and they got a truck and they
got an SUV they're not that small they're like
mid-sized I think and they just
look like like the Bronco I was like the
Bronco especially like the the Raptor
Bronco the Sasquatch and all that
so they kind of have that
style going on with the scout
but it's not a Bronco it's
it's just something different it's an EV and all
stuff so I think it's kind of cool
I dig them I've never seen one in
person I'm only on YouTube of course but
so you did see them in person yeah
yeah about I actually saw one
when we went out to moderate car week
this year too they they brought
some out to just some random
coffee shop like cars and coffee that
they did out there they were pre-production
like the lady didn't even really like
let you see too much of the interior
because they were still like pretty early
production but they had a couple out
on display out there at the
show and they had a whole band that
was playing out that they created this whole
like kind of almost beach side
ambiance type thing and you know
a couple little displays so yeah no they
were out there full force
yeah it doesn't come out to like 2027
I heard I'm thinking like it's a cool car
and everything but like it was announced
like two years ago it was announced
or whatever it was announced I'm like by then it comes out
wouldn't forget all about it that's been one of
the biggest like the biggest unanimous
comments is that they just they
announced it so long ago
and the the potential
production is going to be so far out that
when it finally comes out
you know people are just
probably going to be the lost interest or
like something else is going to have come out
in that time frame that just like draws
their attention away from it
right they only got two vehicles are betting the farm
on it they're building a whole factory and everything
so yeah it's it's not like
they can easily pivot to something else like
Ford's trying to do with the lightning you know
they're kind of make a smaller version of the lightning
here right that's going to be like as miniature
a mini lightning I guess or
or a mid-sized lightning or yeah
they want to make like
I think the full-size electric is kind of like
the thing they're like and doesn't we don't like this
so they're going to try and make it like a
like kind of a Rivian size like Rivian competitor
like that size kind of
kind of a car or a truck
so we will see what they do you know whatever
I mean yeah
I mean the cars are cool
I mean EVs seem to work out pretty well I mean
they're pretty reliable from what I heard
I mean I've never owned one but
you're still like our motors
I selected with it
it just depends on the kind of car you're going to do
I mean if you want something just for transportation
point A point B
maybe you know I guess
electric was good to go whatever but
that range anxiety like I said it's a real
thing and I think I think
kind of driving far
like anywhere or anything
I'd probably you know
but also filling up the electric
I'm sorry juicing up the electric
battery like you got to pay for that Chevy wasn't
cheap either yeah no I was I was talking
to a guy today about that that wasn't
that was about the same as
getting gas and I didn't even
fill up all the way so
you know if I filled up all the way I would say
it was pretty apples to apples
comparison in terms of price so
you know you're not again you have
the benefit of charging at your house
you pay for that
for that yeah
convenience factor of being able to charge
your house but you know you're still paying
for that so yeah
but thing is it's just castations everywhere
there's castations everywhere man it's all
like it's all like you live so far away
there's no gas station
it's possible but I mean
but even towns like Victorville gas
stations yeah I guess
you're in that limbo between like when you
if you live in like Gorman or something
out and like going on the five going
like up north or down south like
in that like little area where like the
grapevine is and you get those
sections where you don't get
gas station on the grapevine though there's two there are
yeah mm-hmm yeah so there's no excuse
they're like they're like 30 40 miles
apart or something like that I feel like
but I'm with the prices for those gas
stations you know they gouge you know
what are you gonna do
I've seen some ridiculous stuff on
some of those like
back when gas price like gas prices
I mean they're still like relatively high but
back when they were like high everywhere
like it was like you know they were
high fives and then you would see like
seven dollars a gallon at like
some of those stations it was
just the craziest thing there's this gas
station that I deliver to
that is in Chula Vista area
and it's it's one of
stations where you're coming from like East
Lake area you're getting to the freeway it's the
only gas station before you hit the on-ramp
like only gas station for the on-ramp and
it's got a they're always like way over
price like yeah
and I'm like the only reason why they do
that is because they're like literally
like you're coming from like East Lake to the freeway
it's like the last station
the only gas station before you get on
the on-ramp yeah it's like right there
it's like in and out you can swoop in
and swoop out and it's right there but
the prices are like always like crazy high
that's kind of what it is I guess you know
supply and demand location that kind of
stuff you know so but hey Courage man
this has been so great having you on the show again tonight
and bringing you on by and your cool
trip to the LA at Los Angeles
auto show LA auto show I guess yeah
and all those fun times now
did you find any car you wanted to buy that was there
yeah
good question I
I mean I'm just gonna start sounding
like a like a Hyundai
guy now and I'm
not even doing that intentionally but
there were two cars that they brought out one
actually from Hyundai and then
the other from Genesis actually
which I know you shared
some things from Genesis on your
Instagram page you know
that they brought out they
well the Hyundai had the
the new Hyundai Palisade
but it's the XRT version
that's the SUV version right
yeah it's an SUV but
but it's the off-road version
so they have like an off-road trim
and so it comes with like these big
beefy tires it's got
a bit more ground clearance
got a couple of like you know kind of
off-road kind of bits and pieces
and things like that but then it's a three
row SUV which you know just
kind of fits they did bring out Genesis
brought out some of their like magma
you know cars which there
that's what they're calling like their performance
side of Genesis
and they brought out like their
which I forgot exactly what it's called like
the GV60 magma
I think they're calling it
and that car is basically sort of like
an IONIQ 5 in but
like more like
luxurified but then also some other
crazy features on top of that
and they did a pretty cool job with that too
so I mean those
those are the two on the Hyundai side
I also will say though I really like the Charger EV
I'm just putting it out there
I saw one on display I got a chance
I think it's a cool thing
well you said it here first man
now does it feel any different
than the regular Charger
or Challenger EV or Charger EV?
Challenger EV
well because now like
weirdly enough like the Charger EV
like they make a four door
Charger EV
and a two door Charger EV
so they've sort of combined the Challenger
and the Charger as one thing now
and you know they have a two door
and a four door version of it
but the
they are making a six pack
version of the Charger now
with a straight six with a twin
turbo Charger straight six
so it's on 2JZ
exactly yeah
which you know yes it seems weird in a Charger
but I mean it's
it's a pretty powerful engine
and you know and it sounds
pretty cool too I mean it's weird
to see it in something that
you know I say to this day like
say what you want about the EV platform
side of the Charger I think they nailed
the design like
if they would have started with
if they would have just made a gas powered
V8 version of the Charger
and kept the
design that they have now
I think they would have had a winning ticket completely
but you know now
that they've actually put a gasoline
you know even if it is a straight six engine in it
I think that it's a cool package
you know yes it's not the Charger
Challenger that we were used to but
I still think they have the same
presence when they're rolling down the street
like they did a really good job
with the design of it and the interior is really nice
who knows I mean
you know I told you the only reason that I didn't
drive a Charger EV when I rented
the Silverado EV was because
it was in the shop and
why would an EV that's only two years
old be in the shop I don't know
so maybe it's
yeah so maybe we got
the same similar you know Fiat Chrysler
you know Dodge reliability
even in the EV form
but outside of that
like I think it's a pretty cool package
well that's cool man I mean
you can see yourself driving one of those things it's pretty cool
I mean I dig them too I mean I'd probably
I probably I don't know if like well
it depends if I have choices of other cars
I have to think we've got choices
I don't know this one likes the better this one
I think some of us
stick with our brands you know
if you're a Ford guy or a Toyota guy
or Chevy guy whatever guy you are
even though some car might be
slightly better in other ways have different
features in other ways well I'm a Chevy guy
so I'm gonna stick with whatever Chevy makes
you know and things like that so
I get that I think if you go to an auto show
like the LA auto show or San Diego auto show
you kind of like will jump right into your
brand like I did the same thing oh
that's my brand car I'm gonna jump into that
area like your Hyundai area and just be like
love a check on the Hyundai stuff I got
this is my cool people this is my club
you know yeah I'm home
yeah so they made
it feel that way too for sure
but but yeah no I get you
I I think it does you know
the challenge to is again with like a lot
of brands dropping out like you know there's
certain there's certain brands that I would love to see
that I would have loved to see there
they weren't there like I mean I would love to see
some new offerings from BMW from
Mercedes you know
Jaguar doesn't really exist anymore for some weird
reason but you know they got a lot
of things going on car they had
yeah you know seeing the F type
and you know even they had the XF
and you know other you know other
cars like that you know they're they're kind
of out of the scene but you know
with them dropping out you know you sort
of your list stores starts to dwindle
a little bit but you know out
out of just like the cars that were there
the brands that were there and then the brands
that I think really are like really
putting focus on like their
their new cars in a positive
direction you know those were the ones
that really stuck out to me like
you know Dodge is trying to really like establish
itself now kind of a newer
identity but still
you know make something compelling and I
you know I commend them for it
you know Hyundai is is making their name
Hyundai Genesis is making their name
you know from you know from a name
in the past it wasn't maybe
as as
I guess you could say as honorable
like you know people just talk all the time
about old Hyundai's reliability
and things like that but you know
they've really made some shifts and it's just
cool now to kind of see them coming to their
own where they're just super confident
about like the decisions they're making
in the direction of their company so those
were my standouts like I said maybe a little
bit of bias in it but you know they
they stood out to me for sure
well that's great man I would do the exact same
thing too man was there any cool
hack that you got from the auto show
any souvenirs yeah yeah
I actually did get a
in in jacket like a
what like a windbreaker no way
I have been wanting to get one because
they they have them at the dealership
nearby me but I just have been
just putting it off and and they were kind of
weird to where they only sell them through the service
department so I just like
you know that was just never timed
it right but the lady that worked
there that was just super nice and
you know she actually gave me like a free bag
along with it and some other things too
but but yeah stag me a jacket
that jacket over there I wish I would have got
the signed posters that the
the Shelby guy was signing
like I said I'm bummed that I missed out
on that because that would have been a cool
little thing that to kind of collect from that event
but the the main thing
was the jacket the jacket and the experience
I guess you can say oh that's great
man I'm sure lots of photos too
lots of photos a lot a lot of photos
and and maybe just a small plug
is there definitely will be a video coming out
of my channel there you go
look out for that
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