166. Good times are coming!
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Part
headers
Headers are exhaust manifolds (often aftermarket) that route exhaust gases through a tuned set of pipes. They can improve exhaust flow compared to restrictive factory manifolds and are commonly paired with a downpipe and full exhaust for a cohesive setup.
Part
power steering pump
This pump helps your steering feel easier by pushing fluid through the steering system. If it’s not working, the steering can get hard and you may also see leaks.
Part
power steering line
This is the hose that carries the power-steering fluid. If it bursts, the fluid leaks out fast and your steering loses power assist.
Part
jack stands
A jack stand is a sturdy support that holds the car up safely. It’s what you put under the car so you can work without the car sitting only on a jack.
Term
TDI swap
TDI is a type of Volkswagen diesel engine. Swapping in a TDI usually aims for strong low-end power and better mileage.
Term
wheels
They’re talking about wheels—basically the rims on the car. Changing wheels is often done for looks, but it can also affect how the car feels on the road.
Car
Honda Pilot
A Honda Pilot is a family SUV. Here it’s just the boring, practical car the speaker drives every day—especially once it gets high mileage.
Concept
daily driver
A “daily driver” is the car you use for everyday commuting and errands. The discussion contrasts the boredom of a high-mileage daily driver with the excitement of having a fun car to drive when the weather cooperates.
Term
Bluetooth
Bluetooth lets your phone connect to the car without wires. The speaker is saying their old car can still get Bluetooth features using an adapter.
Term
cassette adapter
It’s a little gadget that lets you plug in your phone and play music through a car that still has a cassette player. The audio quality can be surprisingly good with the right adapter.
Concept
project car
They’re treating the car like a project they’re going to improve. Instead of leaving it alone, they’re planning upgrades and prep for the next season.
Term
stance
Stance is basically how the car sits—how low it is and how the wheels line up. It affects the look, and sometimes the daily-driver practicality too.
Brand
Toyo
Toyo is a tire brand. They found brand-new Toyo tires in the exact size they needed, which was surprising because that size is usually hard to get.
Company
Tire Rack
Tire Rack is a website/store people use to buy tires. It’s useful because it helps you figure out what tire sizes fit your car.
Term
195 40 16
That number/letter string is the tire’s measurements. It tells you how wide the tire is, how tall the sidewall is, and what size wheel it fits. If you pick the wrong size, it may not fit or may rub.
Term
spark plug wires
Spark plug wires deliver high-voltage current from the ignition system to the spark plugs. For older or specific engine setups, the correct wire set (length, terminal style, and routing) can be hard to source, which is why the speaker is emphasizing availability.
Term
automatic
Automatic means the car changes gears by itself. Some people don’t like it as much because it can feel less fun or less connected than a manual.
Term
4 motion
4Motion is Volkswagen’s name for all-wheel drive. It means power can go to more than just the front wheels, which can help traction and confidence.
Car
Ford F-150
The Ford F-150 is a super-popular U.S. pickup truck. They’re mentioning it because it’s one of the biggest sellers, which shows why other brands want a piece of the truck market.
Term
fuel lines
Fuel lines are the hoses/pipes that carry gasoline from the tank to the engine. After long storage, old fuel lines can clog or leak, so replacing or cleaning them is often part of getting a car running again.
Term
big block
“Big block” means a bigger, more powerful V8 engine. The speaker is saying this car didn’t originally have the biggest engine option.
Term
coil over
Coilovers are suspension parts that combine the spring and shock together. They let you adjust how high the car sits and how firm it feels.
Company
Summit Racing
Summit Racing is a major U.S. retailer for performance and restoration parts, especially for older American cars. The mention highlights how owners can source hard-to-find components online.
Term
small block chevy
A small-block Chevy is a popular Chevy V8 engine family. Because it’s so common, there are lots of parts and build options, which makes it easier to build cheaply.
Term
floor mats
Floor mats are the rubber or fabric pieces that protect your car’s carpet from mud and spills. The discussion is basically about how some people charge a lot of money for them just because they’re branded.
Concept
undercarriage
Looking under the car helps you spot problems like rust or leaks that you can’t see easily from the outside. It’s one of the best ways to judge how well the car was cared for.
Car
C7 Corvette
The C7 Corvette is a specific generation of the Chevrolet Corvette. It’s the kind of car people often associate with performance tuning companies.
Concept
market is what someone's gonna pay for it
They’re saying the real price is whatever someone is willing to pay. Even if a seller lists a high number, the market decides what it’s worth.
Concept
low miles
Low miles generally means the car hasn’t been driven much, so it may have less wear. That often makes buyers more willing to pay more.
Concept
engine swaps
An engine swap means putting a different engine into a car. The big question is whether the emissions equipment still matches what the law requires, especially if your area checks emissions.
Concept
emissions-control systems
Emissions-control systems are the parts that help a car pollute less. If you swap an engine and don’t keep the right emissions parts, the car may not meet legal requirements.
Concept
carb certified
“CARB certified” means the California emissions agency has approved something as meeting emissions rules. The speaker is comparing engine swaps to whether they have an official approval path.
Term
octane
Octane is how resistant fuel is to “knocking,” which can happen when an engine ignites too early. Higher-octane fuel is often used to help engines run more aggressively without knock.
Term
EPA
The EPA is a U.S. government agency that sets rules to reduce pollution. Here, the speaker is talking about how EPA rules affect fuel and emissions.
Concept
charity car event
They’re describing a car event where people drive or show up, and the money goes to charity. So you get the car experience, but you’re also helping a good cause.
Concept
show car
A show car is a car that’s cleaned up and prepared to look its best at events. People bring them to be admired and sometimes judged.
LIVE
What is up welcome to the people's car podcast my name is Ryan Bielman and sitting right next to me is
Danny Mercado what's up what's up man going on so we just got done with Easter yes moving into the
spring pretty stoked about that it doesn't feel like it it surely doesn't it's supposed to be about
20 tonight it's what it's like welcome spring hello it's 20 degrees tonight I got destroyed on some
kind of sickness I don't know what the hell it was right on I'm still not I don't know you know
flu COVID whatever is it the same thing probably whatever was I the hiv monster I got I got so
fucked up but what was weird was I could breathe the whole time I never had a problem breathing
but I don't have any smell right now okay um each night I got like the craziest like night sweats
I got the chills I had a fever it was like head to toe just shit and I don't get sick often
when I get sick dude I get like sick sick yeah yeah um well I'm glad you're feeling better yeah
yeah feeling better um so that was kind of that um so that's what that's what's new with you well
yeah there's a couple things there's uh you know we haven't been on here for a good two or three weeks
so uh we did you and I went down I don't think we talked about this right no we did not so uh we
went down to sebs and I have the the mark two I wanted him to kind of go through and the reason
being is because I know Seb and um his shop like he has an endless amount of parts yeah south to
for actually allowing us to go in to see his world and because he's got a lot of cool stuff
yeah we were kind of blown away with some of the stuff that he has um and but it's just a great
place to be like yo like anything you find like I know you have spares upon spares right right
and you know just like kind of getting that car ready for the season um doing a timing job throwing
a cam in there um so like for instance I had a tectonics tuning exhaust that I bought yeah
and I wanted him to set that up and you know he was kind of looking over the whole thing and he was
like so I have an old autotech like bozel downpipe cool um he's like you know headers like do you
want them set up and stuff and I was like dude if you have me he's like yeah they're barely
touched so he sent me a photo he's like I figured you'd want to you know just like let's create a
whole exhaust system yeah definitely and uh so he sent me a clip of that sounds fantastic nice um
I'm excited for the mark two to get going I uh also a couple days after well I don't know if you
want to say anything about oh this yeah absolutely so um I decided to follow you down right and it's
to get to his shop from where we're at yeah so I took my mark four uh three two swapped wagon
and did fine for like 95 percent of the way down and then the power steering pump decided to take a
shit like what 15 minutes from his shop it like exploded yeah I heard like all sorts of crazy noises
all of a sudden like I see the power steering pump leave the chat fly off the side of the car and
roll down like a freaking hill and I was like oh shit so now I have no serpentine belt or nothing
driving the accessories or a water pump or nothing so like we fucking and it happened literally like
it couldn't have happened in a better spot yes because we are almost sebs yes and uh Coles
German auto sports right is that Coles German auto yeah German auto um that's but yeah so we're
down there and well I actually missed a turn and I slam on the brakes and we back up a little bit
I take a right and then that's when your shit just exploded you're needed all over taking right
you're like wait a minute so I was like yeah fucking so I just keep driving I know like
I've got to keep this car going right I have no battery or limited battery now because all
turns aren't charging it can overheat it so like it was rolling hills to get to his place
and every time we got to a rolling hill turn it off let it coast in neutral
at a stop sign turn it back on get some speed right and we did that for 15 minutes we did
actually it was funny because we thought we were a lot close so when you get down to quote
unquote sebs area yeah you think you're you're closer than you are but he's actually like
kind of far further away than we think like we get off 81 we're still traveling for like
half an hour yeah it's not like we're off the highway that's for sure no because he's in the
middle of like uh it was a mires town area yeah so it is it's back now it is beautiful back there
um and we are lucky enough to get as many hills as we did so we yes you were kind of just coasting
behind me like quite a bit uh but we got there um and you know it was again dany pulls in
you tell said what happened and of course him being uh the great dude that he is he's like well
couldn't happen in a better spot yeah so we can fix it yeah so he he was nice enough to uh
throw a power steering pump on for me while we're in the midst of like bring your car down there um
and so fast forward to that week um I was I took the car to work a few times and I was coming home
and I wind up like just exploding the power steering line had a huge hole just pissing
off fluid everywhere and so I had a so then I had to limp it home from um about an hour away
to get home and it was fine because I just had no power steering when did that happen
that was the following week oh so like that we took the car down that friday yeah and then that
following tuesday thursday it was the next it was the next week yeah so I had to uh I got a I
got a I had a power steering line for it yeah so it took me a little bit to put it in um it's a
little harder to do in the you know all-wheel drive mark four as opposed to just being a regular mark
four but it was fine got it in and everything seems like it's good to go now okay so the car
just been fighting me like this car is great and sucks at the same time because it's like again
it's the older car yeah it's a swapped car yeah and it's just like little things like the power
steering pump and then the power steering line and then you know the oil pan before and then like
just these little things that keep happening the the mounts from the motor mounts decided to
let go and because I guess the bolts weren't new bolts that are used maybe it was reused or
maybe the still holes for the actual mount I remember that was the it was like the next night
after we had that whole oil pan failure and uh you send me a picture you're like does anything
look a little strange here and I was like holy shit yeah the engine is fucking tilt the down to the
right towards the passenger side those mounts are fucked yeah so like the hard mount on the block
itself though the holes were stripped out and it's very common to mark fours anyone with the tech
knows that and seen as before so I was able to get a nice used mount and so far it's been
not going well it's been pretty good so little by little I'm just sorting things out on the car yeah
I put my center console in finally got the interior kind of buttoned up so it's where it
I want it to be for now a few other things I want to get done to it but uh yeah breaking down the
set was the best place to break down with 100% um it's it's funny because shout out to Seb
he doesn't even have a lift he does everything with jacks jack stands on the ground old school
crazy yeah I was amazed by that it's like not even like a little scissor lift or anything like
everything he does he does with jacks it's wild and that's a shop like he's been doing this forever
for years yeah it's wild that is impressive I mean he's got like basically three different spots
there's yeah you know but uh not one dude how about the you know I don't want to like blow
blow up too much but um there was like a a double cab that oh in the shop yeah that was getting
worked on that was getting motor swapped on yeah motor swap he's getting a a tdi like swap inside
a an old like vanagon style uh double cab like it's like hunter green just so cool
synchro double cab yes synchro the thing is uh I think the synchros were naturally they sat higher
um and you know it's just got some like meaty tires it just looks mean it's really solid too
100% I think I think that so it's like I guess some old guy um yeah he he's you know kind of stopped by
and noticed that said does a bunch of stuff and said hey like this is what I want and said was like
you know well yeah well this might be what it costs if you really want to go through and he's like
go through it and he said the guy's like an older gentleman so that that's pretty cool especially
because it's not like something that's really on social media or that's like you know in tune to
like a lot of this stuff that's going on yeah he's just doing it for him just do it for him which is
great exactly that's the best the way you're supposed to that's the way you should be doing it
yeah 100% um not for clout just just correct because you want to so I I told him that um
I reckon I remember a video that I saw and I can't get it out of my mind once I saw it
but it was from decades ago and it was like a typical crash test video oh yeah and they took
those like they took vanigans and they took like the just don't think I guess they called them
double cabs and whatever at that point but it was the the newer generation of stuff and they were
doing basically the the head on like 40 mile per hour crash tests right and those things crumple
up like a piece of paper oh dude you're going right through that front windshield you're not even
going through the windshield you're going through the back windshield because your everything compresses
both like and that's a double cab right or you're going into the like rear wheel and the car in front
of you yeah pancake yeah it is crazy to watch um it did have a lot of room inside I was surprised
about how much room was in the back seat area yeah it does they do yeah because it's like
how even in the front like a modern four-wheel truck like three there's two seats on one side
yeah and then the driver's seat like there's that little space and then two seats together so
you you can properly have like a group of six people sitting together definitely sitting that
hundred percent which is kind of cool like I would love to find that and rock that around
but then it's like huh this is not the most safest vehicle to have around the road yeah you never
want to get into uh anything with that like my dear tag to um tally would not I would probably be
be very hurt yeah because they even have feeling tempered glass like if a deer were to go through
the the charmed glasses goes through your neck yeah and you're fucking done um but so it was a few
days after that that I okay so there's um the one dude he's some people follow him he's kind of like
a mark one guy he's in Canada and he was selling zenders and I thought it'd be like a perfect period
correct look for the mark two yeah 15 inch zender wheels um what I want to do is bring them to the
powder slayer and get them to color match to the body of the car I'll be sick I want them white
but so I I messaged him I'm like dude I want these I want these wheels you don't you don't see him
come up very often and uh for some reason I just pictured him being just north of us because I
thought this dude it's like jack's jack speed shop or whatever he calls jack's something like that
and he fucks around with mark mark ones and I guess maybe mark twos or whatever but like usually
mark ones and I just pictured him being north of us and I thought he's been to madness so I was like
he has to be just not that far away so I'm like sending me the money I pay pal and everything
else and then he's like where are you at and I'm like Pennsylvania he's like I'm gonna have to ship
these to my dad's place in Toronto and I'm like oh okay um so I actually called my dad up and my
dad sometimes is down just for going for a ride I'm like hey you want to go to Toronto tomorrow
and he was like why and I'm like I'm going to get 35 year old wheels you know what I mean 40 year
old wheels for my mark two and he's just like all right he he could care less he's like whatever
but he's like all right as long as I can you know smoke a cigarette on the way he's good to go yeah
so uh we hop in the car we go up there uh it was about an hour north of um Niagara Falls
and we did we so guess what that was the first time I was ever in Canada really yeah I
nice I got I've never been to Canada I've never even been over the border even slightly it was so
anti-climatic it's not even funny yeah because you're like you know hyped up for you crossed the
border it's like oh dude it looks like I'm staying in New York you just like yeah you just go up north
until you hit the border and it really is just kind of their architecture is a little different I
will say that yeah what I will say is like we were kind of on the east coast and we did see I don't
know is that Lake Ontario I don't know whatever it was like there and what I found interesting was
all their big buildings are more of like an exoskeleton base like and I don't know if you
know what I mean by that but all the main beams and everything are on the outside okay where all
of our stuff is always covered up yeah and there's this kind of more like like an exoskeleton that's
all how I can describe it um but yeah there were some weird shops and shit we were you know I was
kind of looking at I'm like I don't even know the names of some of this stuff right so we get there
when we get to the dad's this guy's dad's house he shipped the wheels over and uh I throw him in the
car and I said how far away is your son I don't even I thought you know just a couple hours away
he's like last time I drove there it took me 32 hours I was like Jesus Christ he's damn near
so you know how big Canada is yeah I had no idea um so I I was lucky enough to get the wheels
it was a fun little trip it took about six hours up and about six hours back yeah I mean in a long
run that was definitely the better way because now like how would you have gotten these wheels
from there the shipping would have been insane so we did look at shipping and for within Canada
it only cost him a hundred dollars to ship to his father's place that's fantastic but from his
place to my place it was crazy it's like a thousand dollars yeah it wouldn't have made any sense
right um literally cheaper to go up and spend 12 hours there around trip to get them and yeah
so we're lucky enough where I don't know if you guys have checked the uh the Canada dollar versus
the US dollar but we're still um fortunately way above their dollar oh yeah um so like if he said
it was like 1500 bucks to the wheels so I came out to like a thousand bucks for us you know what
I mean it's like or 1100 bucks or whatever it was so it was a pretty good deal just as long as you
know you make the you make the trip and you make something out of it and it was fun but uh so I'm
excited to get the mark two going that's all I'm saying mark two mayday it's coming up is coming up
before you know it yeah yeah um that's a little new location too yep new location so everybody
look out for that can't wait to see everybody there when are you getting to mark two back
you have a timeline you know what I really told Seb just like he was like do you want it for mark
two mayday and I was like yeah yeah yeah and so I am in no rush yeah I have the mark one um plus
weather's been shitty the weather's been total shit but I will tell you this and I said this last
time dude I this this season was like the roughest to get through yeah I almost sold the mark one
even and I was just fucking like dude seriously it's just now that you know I took it out a couple
times when it was you know you get that little window oh yeah of the fake spring the fake spring
goes 70 degrees out we're like oh this is great spring isn't be fantastic it's so it's so amazing
what a ride and a fun little car will do for you definitely because like you you need that outlet
yeah and that's what's fun about like just having cool little cars like this it's like you get out
and you just rip it around a little bit and you're like yeah you know this is great so that's what I
wanted to talk to about for a second so you have um obviously you have a shit little cars right now
and you have your r32 wagon that you've been driving back and forth to work correct yeah
and you at least have that outlet it's true so the last year or two I have been just
hammering away my my shitty daily car has been a 2012 fucking Honda
not prelude pilot yeah pilot and the things got like 300,000 miles and that I was telling my wife I
was like yo I'm like there is no fun to be had and I'm driving dude I'm serious and I'm driving
kind of like you like I'm driving an hour to work every day yeah so when you do that if you don't
have even if it's a shitty car but at least you have fun in your own it's a shitty rock box yeah
yeah like if even if it was like say uh say it was a 2-0 mark for Jetta yeah just like even
automatic like something something that would be a little bit more fun than an old tired Honda
because you could even have it like you know lowered and have some wheels on it exactly that's
what I mean so right I I was just saying like I need to get something something fun just to even
if it's a piece of shit yeah just something nor I drive to work and I'm not like bored out of my mind
you know that's a good point I mean obviously not the weather's getting a little better you
could rock the mark two to work or one once in a while but it's like a daily driver that you're
gonna get in and just have a little fun with going back for to work because that's where we spend
most of our time I know it's so stupid it yeah dude sometimes I think about that I'm like we spend
all of our time driving back and forth to work and I'm not even enjoying right it's two plus hours
of the day and it's like at least have something you can enjoy right it's like free even for me like
having you know older cars obviously that's like getting my little Bluetooth to setup adapter to
put into like my monsoon stereo this was like the most amazing thing the little things yeah
because I have like this quote-unquote modern technology in this car that's old that shouldn't
be able to do like bluetooth and stuff right and it's like this is awesome I listen to my Spotify
still rock this 2000 whatever four or one you know yeah which car I'm taking um but no it's
something that we said about that does your wagon have both a tape and a CD player the Passat does
okay not your mark 4 wagon no the mark 4 has a newer um uh the mark 5 style stereo that um just
has the CD but and which is cool because it does have a built-in bluetooth in that I still like
the cassette look of it so I'm still contemplating whether to keep that radio or not because it's
kind of a salt after radio because it's like yeah it does have like bluetooth capabilities
but I might just swap it out for a monsoon because I like having like the cassette adapter
it's just like the look of it yeah yeah I get I totally get it you know you know it's funny about
early on bluetooth though the early bluetooth sucks yeah it's not the best in the world it's not
and sometimes you really do have like some major connectivity problems yeah and if anyone knows
anything about even like uh sound equipment or whatever like early bluetooth speakers they are
such a bitch to connect oh yeah oh it's just fucking bullshit that's how it's come a long way
we've experienced that a lot even with like jbl style speakers that was supposed to be pretty good we
still couldn't connect yeah um it's funny because the torag has bluetooth that's a 2013 right and
when you hook up to it everything hooks up fine but it's your volume has to be way up on your on
your phone and then like the volume on the radio has to be up and it's just you can tell the quality
is not very good where I'm putting this cassette adapter in my b5 and a half assort and it's just
as good as having it like on the radio the sound quality is amazing on it that's awesome this is
stupid cassette adapter I can't like talk enough about it because it's like this is like my mind
is boggled how this has such great sound quality yeah more so than anything else it's like more
quote-unquote modern that has bluetooth hookup it's it's insane so cool yeah um so this um yeah this
mark four wagon has been fighting like I said um there's a few things I do want to do to it um
to try to get it ready for more summer season so to speak yeah um I do have a set of the rc
wheels I don't want to put back on there I need to get a set of caps I need rc caps and it's so
dumb that like how much money they usually can get a set of rc for like 400 bucks with the caps
not so the caps are 400 bucks I know and it's like they're just the fucking caps yeah I need to set
rc caps anymore I can't find them because it's like you can but there are a lot probably it's hard
and I don't understand what people did with them it just took the caps off and said fuck off with
the caps and just like threw them out because like you see a shit ton of rc wheels for sale
would it be marketplace ebay with no caps and there's no caps it's like dude I think it's because
usually when people don't care about wheels or like first you know how the mark four turned
like that fell into that whole like scumbag zone mark four oh yeah yeah real like just pieces of
shit yeah because the first 10 years of mark four like saved from all right so early 2010s yeah it was
like this is like the pinnacle and all of a sudden like these cars started turning into like roster
out ship ox yeah but but specifically let's talk about mark four's and meth heads because I don't
really know what the correlation is there because I don't feel like that really happened in mark
three era but I feel like this is what I think happened I feel like they were especially amongst
other cars of their time being say a corolla or a Honda or whatever a mark four Jetta is way
more of like a luxurious car sure but when that quote unquote luxurious car hit the masses as a
point where like now it's you know got 150,000 miles on it maybe some of these people are still
thinking holy shit like this is a nice car but like it seems like some of the worst fucking people
acquire mark four's you know what I mean I think it has to do with also and I love mark four yeah
like the low point of mark four's you can get a GOI Jetta with you know it's 150,000 miles
for like 2,500 bucks yeah and it's like a full fucking GOI with like the VBSR season everything
and still had the caps on so this you know whoever meth had got it and his fuck off the
caps into the woods or something and like well that's what I mean sort of for crack money I just
don't think they care like say say the wheels had to come off for any reason right they're like
fuck these guys they're why are they gonna put them back on they don't give a shit they don't
they don't even realize that like it does complete the look they don't care so like now I'm just
trying to find caps yeah I know they're like not gonna break the bank I'm like it's like I gotta
set a risk to shit out of those wheels too and they swap those wheels a lot those wheels went all
over the place the other cars so the more and more wheel moves it's kind of like a piece of wood
how many times is a piece of wood before it gets burned exactly I mean how many times is an RC
wheel get moved before the cap is gone yeah exactly like I do have a set of brand new
Aristos in the box that I was really gonna put on the car but the car doesn't warrant those
brand new wheels got you the wheels are too nice for the car I was gonna put the Aristos on there
I don't want to have a use set they're like in good condition yeah so I'm probably gonna sell
those off if anyone's interested in a brand new set of Aristos I have something brand in the box
would you ever think of putting on steves oh the 17 inches already is yeah they also know
the steves um I do like the steves they're hard to find now yeah yeah and like I was able to find
you know a set of 17 long beaches for a good price a clean set of long beaches are very hard to
find too yes they are and like water just beat up and they're made just to run in the winter time
now you know about the Torre long beaches right yes like they're the ones like people
they look like long beaches yeah they're they're bigger yes they're actually good on them oh yeah
I don't want to run adapters though that's the only difference with those yeah um even like any of
the newer uh even Atlas wheels look nice on mark four so I'm again I don't want to have to run
adapters um or like spacers what about what about um what about Audi TT wheels yeah I thought about
those those would look good on that car um so there was a set of uh uh fat fives yeah and I was
like oh you know what they're looking on there and and you know I do have this set of lobster claws
that are the Porsche lobster claws so like in the winter time I don't want to run any kind of
adapter or anything or spacers I could run a regular wheel on the car um for summertime I don't care
like sometime it's fine so I might just sort of lobster claws on her since I already have the
adapters and I had the wheels and it's like well you don't have adapters for five by 100 though
um no I do oh you do yeah my adapters are I so I have the 501 12 adapters yeah because you
ran them on the PSOT yes but I do have a set of 501 100s from years ago okay that I had so
they were for the the b3 wagon okay yeah so I have a set of 501 100 adapters also for the car
well that would be cool um yeah I mean it would I mean lobster claws are they were kind of made
for mark four they were and like I think it's so great like the argument of like those are the
worst ugliest wheels ever made or they're the best you know looking wheels from mark four ever made
it's like I love both sides of that I think it's great especially on a silver car I think the lobster
claws look so good on the wagon yeah I always have it all depends on the color of the car too because
some colors it's like and it isn't it depends see this is what sucks about this being your daily
because it depends on stance as well true like those look good on a slammed car absolutely but like
also you're driving an hour to work every day which kind of sucks oh dude I I smashed a pothole
on 84 just coming across the board from Pennsylvania to New York with my b5 and a half PSOT and I have
the 18 inch um beetle twist uh thunder wheels twister twister wheels on there and like it
bubbled my tire probably bent my rim and it's like I didn't even see this fucking thing and it wasn't
like it just it's you know obviously now that's getting warm around and stuff like you see all
the prod holes that have yeah of course developed and it was like what the fuck and I don't care
about the wheels because I only pay like 350 for them or whatever but it's always still sucks it's a
fucking point yeah my tires are like brand new on it and I gotta find another tire and I'm like
I'm not going to buy a new tire for it because now the tires all three of the ones are like
80% tread so yeah I have to try to source like I have this thing about sourcing used tires I have
the same amount of tread so I'm trying to find the same tire and everything and go from there um
you know what's funny I actually forgot to say this when you're talking about tires when I was uh
when I was looking for tires so I wanted a 195 40 15 yeah and you know how like all these sizes
are going away yeah so I just went on a tire rack and just said fuck it threw it in dude there's
like brand new Toyos that are on tire rack they're they're sitting out the garage really they're
brand new 195 40 15's Toyos no shit yeah because those tires were so hard to find these are
extends uh or whatever they are okay and it's like a an all season but it's like a sport tire
okay yeah um as far as I know like it's gonna be a good tire I you know it's a Toyo and I couldn't
believe it I was gonna make a post about it I never I never ended up doing it but um now's on
tire rack it's dude tire that's great calm yep that's really cool so I I don't know if if other
people know about that or not but they're you know and I keep wondering like these tire companies
have to understand that every once in a while they got into a push yeah because people are people
are asking for it you know there's a bunch of people how many there's still like think of all
the cars like even all the civics and all the other stuff that are out there that people
are holding on to there's still probably hundreds of thousands of people that need 15s yeah oh there's
a lot of demand for there's no way there's not yeah because everybody that you know has these
smaller wheels that's what they want to run yeah so they they are still out there popping up
and they were on tire rack I'm just letting you know that's cool I actually been looking for tires
for my um the truck 16 inch wheels for the pickup truck the the split sea brings that I have for it
what size do you want to run 195 40 16 okay so yeah I mean type it in I dude I've tried to
so these tires six months ago where you could get them fairly easily now that they fucking
disappeared well I can't find shit they may pop back up you know what I mean just another run of
well luckily I remember Chad from PA had a post about these tires yeah and he had a brand new set
of 195 40 16s got you that um he was trying to unload so um shout to him I'm gonna go pick those
up sooner or later so I have a set of tires um so I get up there to get them yeah nice so it's
it's crazy how tires will like you'll see tires they're like okay yeah you can get these you can
get it from like whatever you know cheap no-name brand that's from Korea or China and then all
of a sudden they're just gone yeah and like you're going to eBay it's like oh I found a set of Nat King
whatever's and they're like oh they're shipping from Italy yeah exactly okay that's gonna be $500
shipping or whatever and it's like come on dude I know it's wild yeah it's it's crazy anytime you
see anything now you just gotta buy it when you see it even though you might not need it right then
but like down the road when you change a setup or change a style you're gonna be like fuck I should
have bought those 100% and it's like happened more so than not even like like basic stuff that you
take for granted it's like you know eight valve stuff and I'm looking at sourcing eight valve parts
and stuff for like this GCC swap I'm doing for the pickup truck and stuff is still readily-ish
available because it's an eight valve but just things that like you kind of take for granted
it's like oh I'm just gonna get a spark set of spark plug wires from you know nice set of red
spark plug wires from wait a minute nobody has any anymore luckily tiktok's tuning still has
them for a hundred bucks in stock which is good right but it's like everywhere had these before
you know whether it be auto tech or Euro sport or you know bomb render or any of these companies
now it's like there's all this stuff is just not there and I know a lot of it has to do with
the where they're sourcing their stuff from and a lot of these companies just don't do it anymore
they retired or went out of business or whatever so it's like I get it why people do hoard parts
and why it's hard and why the prices are insane for stuff yeah dude so I gotta say a shout out
for Kevin Brennan he's gonna be at the Slop Meet on Saturday so VW Slop Meet is on Saturday
April 11th down on Fork River New Jersey there was a Facebook marketplace post at this guy
I don't know if he bought this house and had a garage but he was cleaning out the garage
and had some mark one parts in the garage okay he had a peanut butter dash like really nice condition
and then there was a set of brown rabbit floor mats oh I saw the floor mats and it's like
holy shit I saw this on marketplace I messaged a guy it was like two hours before two hours it
was posted two hours prior and I messaged him I'll take it I'll be down I'll come down whatever
and he's like dude someone just came and got him I'm like motherfucker so like I see Kevin post it
I was like this is fantastic because he bought him and he's bringing him to the Slop Meet
and I was like dude I'll take the dash yeah and he's like awesome so it's like you just saved
me a trip to going from Philly because I'm already going down to Jersey for the Slop Meet yeah that's
awesome so it's like I didn't have to do this like five hour round trip to Philly yeah which is
awesome so like shout to him for like actually picking up these parts and posting them for sale
you know it's funny about parts and you want them and then somebody else gets them remember
that whole story about Zornig and the thing with the so I he just posted a photo of them kind of
like it looks like just kind of you know not necessarily permanently putting on his rabbit
but putting that kit like fitting it up to see what it looks like yeah and he's holding it with
his middle finger and it's pointing towards the camera and I can't help but think that that's not
for me that's fantastic so fuck you dude that's great speaking of Zornig he just got a set of
the the visors that arty media has been working on and that these are fantastic these are like
really nice arty media ink yes like what a great idea because all the mark one visors sun visor
are roached they're terrible yeah because like they get puffy and then like the the glass sucks
in it and it's like you know it's falling apart whether it be a cloth one or vinyl one doesn't
matter they all just like get beat into the ground because they're just old so for him to take you
know thinking outside the box and taking this idea and running with it I think it's great because
now you can get a nice set of visors you can personalize them to like if you want a rabbit
symbol or something move your motor swap has or whatever it's like this is great absolutely and
he's also working on center consoles now too which is going to be really cool so shout to him for
doing what he's doing for sure I definitely want to get a set of visors probably a couple sets actually
because I know the ones in the rabbit convertible are like shitty puffy ugly right um and the truck
actually I'm missing one why is there in a pickup truck I kind of forgot about it I'm looking at the
truck and I'm like huh what is this need I need a visor in here still so um there was a guy on ebay
that like and again finding like peanut butter interior stuff is kind of hard I found a set of
deluxe um window cranks in their mismatched collars and shells again whatever it's like
they're they're pretty cheap so there was a guy in ebay that is 3d printing like the plastics for
and also 3d printed the the window crank uh um actual round portion that you actually used to
roll it up with that has like stainless steel um backing on it and everything so like you just
clip it back into your window crank and they look they look fantastic so I was able to source a set
of those from that guy I think it's uh Diego Todd on ebay um but it's cool to see like people
producing parts for like you know these little things that you wouldn't think about that you
can't find anymore yeah so it's a lot of little things and the truck the truck is slowly progressing
but again we're going back to Seb shout out to Seb because he's working on the harness for the
truck for my um g60 swap that I'm doing on it nice and um I want to have that hopefully
up and running in the next month or so so we'll go from there nice yeah that's awesome um
I've seen a couple things that are about kind of like newer uh newer cars that I don't even know
it's true or not but just reading some you know Volkswagen news here in there yeah did you see
anything about a Passat R I did and it's like it's so disheartening to see something cool like that
sure because it looks fantastic it does it looks badass it looks like it really is like an R Passat
not just you know um a Passat with like an R line box yeah like it almost looks like an RS Audi
something or yes yes and like if it comes out that's great it's something we'll never see I don't
think we'll ever see it yeah it's like uh it would be a Volkswagen Passat R it's a B9 and it says
basically it sheds its decade old family wagon image for a performance focused rebirth and
just reading through it a little bit says power comes from a top tier 2.0 liter TSI
quote unquote medium GTI engine I don't know what they mean with that with hybrid options
cranking out 272 horsepower lower suspension 19 inch leads wheels and uh sprawling 15 inch
cinema digital cockpit which who gives a fuck you know about any of that but I mean it looks
badass and it'd probably be like okay to yeah you know commute yeah but like other than that
honestly it's like even it's not even disheartening I'm gonna take that back because I would never
buy that I would never buy anything that's brand new right and maybe that car if we got that car
it's 10 years old I would consider because even like so like I was thinking to myself what newer car
if I was gonna buy a newer car for a daily driver would I get and the only one I was I came up with
for my personal self was a Passat GT I dude I would rock a Passat GT and they're like 10 grand
right now eight grand like you can get one for very reasonable priced with decent miles on it yeah
yeah and that's a like it's a nice looking daily sucks it's all excuse me sucks it's automatic but
right it would be and it sucks it's only front wheel drive yeah that's so lame about that car
they really drop the ball and I especially when you can get like a Camry or any other sedan
of the same years all will drive yeah you got the VR6 you got like like kind of a cool interior
and everything else yeah a couple accent bits outside and then they're just
folks like it always does shit like that it made no sense to me because it's like oh yeah and we
have four motion everything yeah it's like you literally make this in chattanooga with the atlas
yeah but not this car but you can put the four motion drive chain right into this car it's all
mbq or whatever technology how do they not know that like honestly how the fuck do they not know
that something that simple yeah it's literally like you said mqb or whatever it was at that point
it's literally an atlas just with a different skin on it that already has all wheel drive and
they're like nope right and you know what I'm very curious actually you know we're talking about this
how hard it would be able to swap up a side g2 and put an old drive system in it yeah it probably
wouldn't be that that hard no probably wouldn't you get a smashed up atlas from the fucking show part
and off you go yeah because everything should in theory technically bolt right up bolt up yeah
I would think so too but who the fuck knows um I was reading a little further and now we've talked
about this for years too but um this was uh I forget what site it was but it was the pickup
truck segment is particularly particularly lucrative one that in the United States the
Ford f-150 the Chevy Silverado are seemingly locked in as first and second place in a list
of best-selling vehicles and then it basically says naturally the automaker wants their own
slice of this lucrative pie at the 200 or at the 2026 New York auto show Hyundai had one of their
little I guess body on frame pickups or something like that and then the Volkswagen group of America's
CEO did say that he would not rule out the idea of a pickup Jesus if you're not going to rule out
bring it already we've been talking about this for like decades it seems like we really have
but I also think that with the with the resurgence of the ranger and with the resurgence of even
dodgy code it's supposed to be coming back out now really yeah I didn't know that yeah because dude
like even the the little like the colorados yeah the GMC canyons ridge they sell the ridgelines they
all sell dude Santa Fe I think you're right Hyundai something I think it's Santa Fe I don't know it's
something like that I could be wrong but but like why I mean how do you not capture that Santa Cruz I
think it is yeah you may be right I don't know who gives a shit but um you know like the the big
three I didn't know Dodge was thinking about doing it yeah um it only makes sense it does it only
makes sense not everybody wants some people can have a turbocharged four cylinder fucking cool
pickup truck yeah and that that would be a fun daily driver that'd be great and useful yes you
use it for truck stuff the colorados I'm see like around our area I'm seeing all over the
the zr2's my body has a zr2 work it's cool they are they're fucking cool and like I want to like
you know buy one new because sticker shock but like for use the r2 yeah dude they're like almost
70,000 yeah it's like this is ridiculous but for you years older I think it's four years old now
yeah and you can get those reasonably priced yeah very capable truck yeah dude um so I guess
this would be kind of like an American segment here um oh you want me to hit it yeah let's hit
what's up so I was up in my buddy's garage and he just wound up getting a 70 challenger from Texas
now it's not a 70 challenger you would think of like being rust free from Texas it needs a lot
of work okay um it has like a motorhome 440 in it um it's was originally like a dark green
it's yellow like really shitty yellow paint job but it's kind of cool because he got it
like it was like a family thing like it's uh his son-in-law uh it's his family's car and his
son-in-law is not into cars at all he's just you know whatever with it so the grandfather was like
you know come down yeah you know you want the car you can have the car we'll talk about price and
everything he takes his uh duly down with the trailer goes down to Texas and picks up this car
and the grandfather was like listen if it's staying in the family you can just have it
so like he was able to pick this 70 uh challenger up who who got this my friend Mike
there's a border trailer for oh yeah yeah okay yeah so he brought the 70 challenger up
and like he just did a few things on his car car's been sitting for like 15 or 20 years
and he just went through the motor they had a new car but like in the trunk
everything else pretty much stuck on on the motor he cleaned up the gas tank
ran some fuel lines and like it's fucking fire right up no shit so like i was like up there i'm
like this is pretty badass um so are you and him gonna be rocking yellow mole parts around
no he's actually going to be spraying that go mango so it's like orangey reddish color okay um
which is kind of cool because the car was originally a 318 car it wasn't like a big block car anything
from the factory low option car green green interior like kind of shitty so it's kind of a
blank slate for him so he got a front disc brake conversion for it nice um he's going he's going
pretty like balls and wall out on this thing and it's like with me like with my moped part now i'm
like man my car yes i do have the numbers matching original engine it's not in the car right it's
like now i want to do a front disc brake conversion because i have drums all around oh yeah and it's
like just even to do an upgrade for like the stock look of it and like i was on like marketplace
i see the whole like front case members swap or tubular fucking arms and control
or um uh coil over or something like man you can really go down to wrap a whole
hundred percent and it's like it's not cheap but what's nice about like american muscle stuff
it's all there yeah like we're like scrounging the internet to find like these pure correct hard
to find like mark one mark two just folks like parts in general and you can go like the fucking
summit racing and order anything you want for any vintage mot par for hundred percent
Chevy anything um it's crazy that like how these other manufacturers for
european cars are like Volkswagen in general don't see the market for this stuff because like
there is a market and i'm not saying it's a big market it's not like how the american stuff is
at all but still it's like but the market's even smaller because it's hard to get parts yes yes so
the market would probably be bigger if it was easier to resurrect absolutely we talked about this
before the wheels yeah yeah exactly dude i've been talking to oram about his do you know he has an
obs right now so he's got a short bed single cab obs chevy and he's like having the time of his life
for the fucking thing he's putting it together and dude he is literally that's another reason why like
man i just i love him and i've always wanted one and you know we're talking about like american
segment well he you can get anything online dude anything he looks for and it's not expensive
you can go you literally get an lmc truck uh booklet brochure and you can order every single
body panel interior panel anything for this thing yeah and i mean that car's 30 35 years old yeah and
again that's just like you said man it's that's it and it's funny because like a lot of people have
done like it's frustrating what we go oh it's it's so stupid because like we really put ourselves
through hell because of stuff that we can't get anymore where you can get something like that
and just do anything you want for it have all the parts there in three days yep like it's funny
because everyone is like especially in the chevy stuff everyone's big into like the ls swaps and
new motor stuff and everything but like if you want to do a budget build and do like a 383
stoker in like a truck like that and have 450 horsepower you can do one for a few thousand
bucks because now like before those motors were like the tits like they were top motor top like
horsepower for like a small block chevy and they were you know a lot more money now people just
give them away yeah i see on marketplace three three stroke a thousand bucks i'm like what the
buck for like a very capable motor so it's like you can really do a nice chevy build on the cheap
yeah um especially if you get something rush free from down south i've seen obs short beds from like
you know somewhere like some rush free areas 4500 bucks with six owner in it yeah you know if it's
original truck with like not a small block they're cheap i know even like dodge i always i saw this one
post the guy had a dodge short bed it was um a 78 and i didn't even notice it was a thing i never
even thought about this until like looking at this post and it's like this guy has like a six owner
and it's a straight six that's what these the or actually those came with the slant sixes
and has like a turbo on the slant six oh yeah that you never thought of that no my brain never
even thought about it because like i'm thinking of like newer stuff and like you know Volkswagen
stuff as opposed to like old school like technology with just making it modern yeah dude even like so
that's like a whole sub-genre in its own yeah so i i i got i went down the a couple years ago i went
down the rabbit hole of like older c10s just the straight sixes and people throwing turbos on
them yeah they sound amazing they do the engine can take it because it's just a fucking anchor
yeah it's just ready to do anything they're not making a bunch of horsepower but like it makes the
sounds that you can fucking burn a little rubber and have some fun and yeah i'm a super cheap because
like you can very strong super cheap you can destroy them like anything junkyard turbos yeah
right a turbo kit on that yeah and just make it for your own personal like yeah benefit and like
you can really have some fun with something for cheap yeah and i'm not saying that it's not cheap
to do some you know builds but still like it's not no but you're right i think i think what we
kind of get a little gassed on is the fact that we're just we're so used to oh just like you
said kevin brenner right he goes down he picks up these floor mats everybody that has those floor
mats wants five hundred dollars oh right it's insane where before it's like this fucking floor
mats like you can you can go to whatever summit and and get fucking eight dollar floor mats for
obs you know what i mean i gotta set a brand new rubber floor mats for my road owner that say
rotor on them they're like the original looking mat yeah and they're like 110 bucks so it's so
stupid it's like what the fuck i know it does it gets frustrating after a while yeah that's one
thing that's nice about having a car like that is that i can get anything for it yeah and it's very
simple to work on they're so simple older cars are just so it's like i almost forget how to work on
this stuff because like i'm so used to working on stuff it's so like pan the ass harder intricate
and it's like oh yeah this is just you know four wires or whatever you know so speaking of hard
things to come by and that are expensive yeah what do you got there so this popped up a couple
weeks ago on one of the facebook um group sites mark one mark two mark three classifieds it was
the new speed mark two and it's kind of like broke the internet a little bit when this car
popped up because this guy just posts my a7 calaway gti prepared by new speed
what do i hear as far as rarity and value so i remember that popping up i don't know if this guy
knows what he has well he well i think he kind of does kind of but doesn't but maybe trying to
feel everyone out like yeah what is something like this go for nowadays and i guess if someone's
looking to sell something or move on something sure you want to kind of gauge the interest of what
two people would want or say and this car was for sale a few times i think streetside classics had
it for sale um then it was on i think it was on one of the auction sites before as well well it
was it was definitely on a couple times was on the uh the blog that unfortunately i don't think is
run anymore but i used to check it all the time like german cars for sale german cars
auto blog for german cars for sale auto blog or something like that yes yes what a great website
that was yeah whoever took the time to constantly write articles about like cars that were for sale
that were rare and everything else whoever did that wasn't making fucking money right and they did
for years yeah it was like one of the few sites that i was able to get on at work right and i would
check it out so kudos to whoever ran that site good for you and then this car it does have
everything still with it like all the the the period collect correct parts yeah he actually even
said he still has the wheels even though it has a set of black i don't know what kind of wheels
they look like maybe ponings or something but um yeah he has actually the original wheels for
the white wheels um now this car was for sale in the low 20s to the right buyer maybe on to bring
your trailer's format you probably bring at least that if not more i would say i would think probably
mid 20s more so if the car presents well you know the paint's still good on it and everything else
because like you can look under the undercarriage of the car when it was for sale online and it's
it's not i'm not saying it's tired but it definitely could be refreshed um it just looks
like someone enjoyed the car yeah it hasn't been like ground off restored or anything like that so
it's a good honest car but to command more money i think you would want to just update some stuff
and clean some stuff up sure paint some stuff yeah um it's crazy that this car is just hanging around
it is it's crazy that there are cars like that that are out there yeah um you know it's also crazy
that Callaway being basically kind of a household name
to people who think they're like a a Callaway Corvette yes and it's it's just funny that like
they they don't most people don't even know i was there's this guy that i work with that he
he wants to vet a vet in a worse way i know a c7 vet yeah right and and he knows about the name
Callaway we were just talking maybe a week ago or something about Callaway and i'm like do you
realize that they actually you know created kits back in the day for old water-cooled volkswagons
he was like get out of here like he he did not believe it yeah um because that's how the first
experience i had with like knowing the Callaway name was reading a hot rod magazine when i was a
kid and seeing the Callaway Corvette yeah and i was like this is the coolest thing i've ever seen
in my life this is so freaking awesome yeah i didn't know anything about turbos or anything like that
but like the power that we're getting out of this car compared to what it was stock was just amazing
the yeah and like the look of the Callaway Corvette but like yeah it's crazy that people
there's so many people that know Callaway they have no idea they had anything to do with volkswagons
i know it's pretty neat for like a long time too because if you look at when they were doing this
it was a amount it was a period of what almost 10 years yeah probably if you think about it like
it's it wasn't like it was you know just overnight thing it was a while for a while so you can you
can still get parts for you know well after like the like the mark two obviously was the last platform
made parts on for but um you can still readily available even into the early mid 90s yeah so
it's cool to see that this is still around and because like you never know we don't we talked
about like where are these cars at and where do they go and like next you notice this thing
this pops up with this guy that hasn't shown this car or anything and just randomly this post on this
you know classified site i'd love to do a video series like a youtube video series of like where
have these cars gone yeah and really kind of like i mean it would take a lot of time and effort to
track cars down oh and then be have the owner actually be willing to you know videotape it
maybe go on you know video also saying like yeah a little bit whatever they may know about it but
man there are so many cars out there and there's so many probably well-known cars that are in the
in different owners like houses that they don't even know about the cars yes they just kind of
like yeah they thought it was like something cool they know it's cool and they bought it but they
don't know any backstory or anything about it and it was that like that car that's just tucked away
in someone's garage could be someone else's absolute dream car absolutely and they've been
wondering where it's been for the last three decades yeah i mean there was this um gti
that's for sale right now it's a mark for gti um it's a really nice um gti it's a silverstone gray
car that has a whole shit ton of pure and correct parts from the mid-2000s i was done
it's got a set of champion motorsport uh Porsche wheels on it and it's funny because i remember this
car i remember parking next to this car at water fast and i want to say it was 2006 or 2007 that car
took first place at water fresh and we took second place next to with our gti and like the car for
sale right now it has like 21 000 miles on it and the guy's asking like 28 000 or 25 000 something
like that and people are laughing their asses off you know it's a mark for a gt 2500 box or
whatever they don't realize like the parts of this car the wheels alone are probably 5000
dollars the source those wheels right now right like the car is fantastic um yeah i think it's
worth what it's asking probably not i mean but again to build that car you're probably talking
close to that price and and mark forward had 21 000 miles on it where do you see that right
and even like it's all like you don't yeah lionel's car lionel's mark four it's back for sale again
i saw that and he's actually asking a very reasonable price for us 82 yeah it's like eight
grand so um it's it's interesting because you see stuff come out and the market is what someone's
gonna pay for it yeah you know would i pay 20 grand for mark four if i was looking for a car i was
done and that was you know ready to go with low miles like that's like a quote unquote show car
yeah maybe i'll throw money on it like that dude there's always going to be people that are putting
up the laugh face on marketplace like anybody could ask any price for any car no matter how
fucking old it is no matter how mint it is no matter whatever and someone's gonna put up that
little laugh face oh i mean it's like they won't say anything else there's no context yeah it's just
like fuck you dude and it's it's crazy because like that most people ask way too much or something
but like dude sometimes it's worth it yeah and that car seeing that car in person and knowing
that car from back then right right right it's like dude you don't even know what the fuck you're
talking about sure and it's like it's it's cool to obviously see it's still around but yeah where
are these cars because there's so many cars that were in the show scene that just came and went and
and you know it's funny too there are cars that were really important to you yeah and maybe nobody
else yeah and i really think that's cool too like you know there of course there are like the the
panty dropper ones that like people like oh yeah everyone remembers that car but there are the cars
that you once were you know you say waterfest like you were parked out in the spectator parking
and someone parked next to you and you you like talked to some guy for 20 minutes about a really
rad car that came in and you'll never forget that car yeah and it might go for sale one day and he
might ask a little bit too much but you're willing to pay for it because like it meant something to
you at the time right you know what i mean and thinking about like all right even with this mark
four that's for sale right now you're gonna go buy a mark i don't know eight eight point five gti for
forty forty five thousand dollars is twenty twenty five grand really that much and the grant
payment things not really now and it depends on how you're gonna keep it and how you're gonna use it
and i would buy a mark for 180 any day over a mark any mark knew anything right i just don't
i don't like any of the marketing stuff at all yeah um so for me i i would be a no-brainer
because i hear you for the price point it's just i can't i can i can never bring myself to buy
anything that's like that expensive i got a buddy of mine was that working special no that's why he
has this you know ram larmy four door 1500 nice truck black black interior and whatever
and he's like oh yeah you know you know paid 48 000 use for like 48 000 use jesus fucking christ
now granted like if you're able to do and i have the means and that's that's awesome but
it's like how many books like is it gonna buy with 48 that's always the problem too
yeah dude so like it's funny because he parked next to me and he's that's like a whole different
problem dude it's like it's like you you could you could actually use something for so much
practicality with your family and everything else and then you're like what could i do folks
with this money yeah i'm looking at the truck and then i'll go yeah i got my $1,700 shipbox you
got from copart here that you know my b5 and a half facade i drove you know yeah it's like
i don't know it's funny because i mean obviously people aren't just paying cash for like that kind
of stuff they've got a car payment and stuff and and they're you know obviously paying you know
paying it off or whatever so it's like i guess what do you want to pay a car payment for yeah
exactly um so talking about the american stuff a little bit i just wanted to touch base on this
a little bit there was a post that came on uh instagram and this is something that has been
a topic um for a while now it was it's this was um in the court system for a bunch of years
and it you know sema's been fighting this but it's like it's talking about engine swaps and what
epa is fighting or what they're gonna allow you to do or not do and all the the avenues has been
exhausted for i guess appeals in the courts so now it's basically deemed that any engine swaps
that don't have their original emissions on them are quote unquote illegal now now do we know if
epa is gonna like push this or not because this was previous administrations that have done this and
it seemed like the epa is starting to get more lenient on stuff yeah that's kind of a weird
space right now because this is something that's been in in the works for years so what they're
saying is um what the epa is saying is basically any vehicle that has an engine swap that doesn't have
the emissions setup on it factory emissions setups on it are basically illegal now
granted you have to be in an area that does emissions testing most of the like classic car
stuff it's exempt because they don't get emissions tested if you have classic or if you have antique
plates you don't even get inspections right now if it's newer stuff that you are because i know people
um will just register a car as a regular vehicle throw regular plates on it and it's an exempt car
because you know for years or whatever it is you don't have to get emissions tested but i guess
if you're in an area that's doing emissions and you're not making it an antique or classic setup
to not do inspection um are they gonna push that this car doesn't have emissions control systems on
and i granted it's like most of these swaps especially in older vehicles are far more efficient
than what the motor was coming out because like a lot of these cars especially all right take 50s
and 60s and maybe in early 70s cars sure they were running leaded fuel yeah it's so it's like
i don't know there's no way this is any worse off as emissions wise being a modern burning motor
no matter what is coyote swap ls swap even if it's a you know vr swap in a mark too or whatever
cases right two five swap in a mark one um is this kind of like almost like that carb certified
shit yes so what they said is reality most swaps now require expensive car certification so
carb certifications how are you gonna get that on a older car if you if if you don't have to worry
about if it's an antique registered car you don't have to worry about did you ever see
back in the day like when you were on vortex and you were searching you know see what was
out there and you saw like a car a carb certified mark to like swap yeah see that i i don't remember
anything i do do you i don't know that yeah i remember parts like parts are saying like
i remember like when like say auto tech or new speed or whatever came out parts of say carb
certified no like like like a certified like swap like say you were saying like a vr six or a 1a
turbo that was in a mark two that was actually then like brought through the whole process and
carb certified for which would make sense and like say say california for instance yeah if you're
doing a 1a t swap in a mark two or mark three it's fairly easily to to get everything and keep all
the mission stuff on there yeah um nothing you would want to because a look of it or whatever but
i mean you it's it can be done yeah um i'm not sure how the new stuff is for one fours um i mean
who knows yeah it's it's it's i guess every state it's it's it's a subjective to obviously if the
e pays and come knocking on doors of people are doing these swaps or if it's going to like get
bumped back to the states to basically say hey listen it's up to you whether you're going to
police this or not yeah dude it's it's weird the whole thing is weird because like we didn't elect
an EPA to to actually push any kind of any kind of law you right you know i mean like is it is it
quote unquote law or is it just a directive that you know an EPA regulation yeah regulation well
yeah you know that's such a weird gray area you know what i mean and it's very interesting because
and i don't i don't want to get on a rant here about you know green and all that stuff but like
cars in the grand scheme of things don't matter even the millions of cars we have on the roads
they don't matter because you still have cows shitting well yeah sure you still have cows shitting but
i was talking to the guy at um the look at chair ridge airport that we have over here about fuel
and i was like you know what octane you guys run what do you have because i want to see if they have
fuel that um was high octane to like just run it in like my roadrunner and he's like we run jet fuel
that's leaded and i was like oh i can't i can't i could run leaded fuel my old motor not the motor
it's in there right now because it's not set up for i mean i could run leaded but i wouldn't want to
um just because it's not really available either but um he's like every jet that's in the sky every
plane has to run leaded fuel and the epa he said years ago try to crack down it said try to make fuel
or the planes and jets go to unleaded he said you'll just have planes falling out of the sky
you need that high octane leaded fuel for these motors to run efficiently and to get the power
that they need so you've got jets in the sky or every day there's thousands of these jets in the
sky burning just across our you know skies then you've got cruise ships i always heard one single
cruise one single like large cruise ship is the same as eight like eight million cars running
yeah so it's like you have all these other things trains and yeah you can planes and ships it's big
business the fucking military right now it's like they're doing their thing right now in the middle
just lighting up the sky with whatever so it's like they can get fucked like the epa can get
fucked seriously because like the emissions is a bunch of bullshit because if anyone cared about
anything when it comes to like the atmosphere we would stop using boats we would stop using planes
we would just go to fact the fucking horse drawn carriages so i don't know i don't know what this
is gonna in the grand scheme of things indirectly doesn't affect us because luckily we live in
counties that don't do emissions at all so we can run straight pipe whatever
and it's just a visual check as long as you have a visual cat on your car you're fine but
i don't know um i'm over that rant that's all i have for that um a couple things coming up
obviously um the vw nauti swap meet april 11th down jersey so also coming up is going to be
um down now this is down in uh north carolina it's a little north carolina it misfits meet
all right weekend as well april 10th to the 12th it's also a camping event which is great
that's a great area to cruise around and like just just enjoy driving speaking of that wookie's
in the woods yeah so he's in the woods wookie's the woods coming up the following week um
what's great about wookie's in the woods is obviously so it's april 17th and 18th and
since 2012 they have for charity raised $315,000 that's awesome so it's even if uh
you're going for experience but you're you're going to benefit charity as well which makes
that event so incredible um at the end of the month new member dustoff april 26th wow dustoff
already happened yes so pre registration is already open for that and crazy they're also taking
legends class applications so these are like your your really high-end show cars that are you know
your your top dog so to speak cars sure so taking legends class applications um if you want to get
involved in that so also something local to us um hooky day hooky day new york tuesday april 28th
is going to be going on from 9 a.m. till whenever it finishes they're leaving from woodsboro new
york which is actually like right down the street from my job it's near odysville new york near
middletown and they're going to brooks house of barbeque in onyanda so that's a nice little
ride that's like a hour and a half ride i believe sure um to go up from for their first starting
off to where they're ending out and we went to brooks barbeque years ago into cool barbeque spot
in onyanda new york so if you want to get away from work and just run your car out there and
have some fun uh hooky day is coming up and then uh that's all we got coming for now like um before
eight probably four may so right we're hitting april here um oh one more honorable mention
sunday april 26th bears season opener um is going to be happening as well that's going to be at
thomas bull park is that the same park we went to like two years ago yeah so that was a good time
good time uh cool location yeah um so bears cars season opener um yeah so we have some exciting
stuff coming up that we can look forward to awesome i can't wait to finally start getting out there
man yes me too i it's like this this winter was just rough and even right now this spring has
just been it's been shitty so i know but we're there it's it's we're so close and it's like
i need to get shit done i've just been behind on getting stuff taken care of i need to get stuff
done um i'm a little overwhelmed so i just need to pace myself yeah and just get things taken care
of because like the the work life home life balance of doing things it's like sometimes you
just like you know you're with family yeah you're enjoying family time and like you don't want to
like cut that off or cut that shorter like i'm going to be in the garage and just work in the
garage and it's tough dude yeah because like we we had a family up all weekend and doing stuff and
things and um yeah that's fun times to you know that's fun to do also yeah for sure yeah it's always
uh the the the balance even getting together with you yeah doing this you know like it's tough
sometimes it is tough but hey we're here um can't wait for this season to finally start yes can't
wait to start seeing you guys out there at all the shows come say hi and uh you know tell your
friends about the podcast and send it on you know their way thanks for listening we will catch you
next time
About this episode
Ryan and Danny kick off with a rough sickness update, then dive into real-world wrenching stories: Danny’s Mark 4 swap wagon had a power steering pump explode near Seb’s shop, followed by a later power steering line leak and more mounting/oil-pan drama—yet it’s gradually getting sorted. They tour Seb’s parts-heavy, old-school jack-stand setup, talk rare VW/Audi swap culture, and swap stories about sourcing hard-to-find parts (including 15-inch Zender wheels via a Canada trip). The conversation also covers daily-driver “fun” psychology, the market for rare Callaway GTI/Mark II cars, and EPA engine-swap legality debates, plus upcoming VW events.
Original notes
Spring is here and we cant wait to get out there! Check it
The People's Car
Ryan Beilman
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75:45