The Renault Wind is a small convertible car made by Renault. A convertible means you can drive with the roof down for open-air driving. The episode mentions it in a wordplay way, but it’s fundamentally a compact open-top model.
Slide pin brakes are a type of brake caliper that moves on small guide pins to squeeze the brake pads against the rotor. People like them for upgrades because they’re common and easier to fit.
“GM brakes” means brake parts that come from General Motors cars. They’re talking about how easy those parts can be to use when building or upgrading something else.
“Four-barrel” usually means the engine uses a carburetor with four barrels to mix fuel and air. It’s a specific performance setup, not just a generic engine description.
The Oldsmobile F85 is an older car model made by Oldsmobile. People bring it up when talking about classic cars from past decades. In the episode, someone is asking whether the F85 is actually a car.
Four-wheel drive powers all four wheels, which helps when traction is poor. The hosts say it’s meant for off-road or slippery conditions, not normal dry-road driving.
All-wheel drive powers more than just the rear wheels, and it can adjust power when the road is slippery. The hosts are comparing it to four-wheel drive and how each behaves on dry vs. off-road surfaces.
A “50/50 split” means the car sends about half the power to the front wheels and half to the rear wheels. They’re using it to compare how 4WD and AWD distribute power.
The Ford Mustang is a sporty Ford car that comes as a coupe or convertible. People talk about it a lot because it’s fun to drive and many owners keep it in good shape with regular maintenance. In the episode, it sounds like the tires were replaced after someone bought it.
The Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-size car from Chevrolet. Some versions were made to be faster and more performance-focused, which is why people still talk about it. In the episode, it’s mentioned while discussing racing-era cars and model names.
Car
Pontiac Torinos
Pontiac was a car brand that made vehicles, including some that were built for performance. People mention it when they’re talking about racing and how different brands competed. In the episode, Pontiac is brought up in connection with the GTO and racing history.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. It’s designed for fast, fun driving, and it can be sensitive to damage from impacts. If you curb the wheels, it can bend or scrape them and lead to tire problems.
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Emily BB29: welcome to the Brainbuster.
Rose BB29: It's loaded with the stuff. It's built upon the stuff. But this year we moved the brake pedal a half inch over to the left, so technically it's not the same car anymore.
Rose BB29: Yeah Remember Homer goes to college with the nerds? Homer goes to college with the nerds, and he really likes them, but Homer thinks he's a jock, and Marge is like, "Homer, they're nice boys, but clearly they're nerds." And like Home-- yeah, Homer thinks, Homer thinks he's a cool guy, but it turns out he actually fits in with
It is exactly what I just imitated. "Uh, well, it was a moderate change. Th- the next year it was actually something a little bit different." my annoying radio guy voice
Rose BB29: you prefer another que- maybe you prefer somewhere like Taco Bell.
Now, Jess wrote, and Jess was like, "Oh, I asked some coworkers," 'cause that's the idea of the Brain Buster, is you ask other people. Yeah. Right? You don't, you don't Google it. Now, what's the fun in that? We're trying to use our brains. We're, while we still can, before the robots come along and replace us all, and we are nothing but dust in the wind when they incinerate us, and they realize that human beings have no porpoise on this earth. We were the problem. Can't, we can't let
Emily BB29: Mm-hmm. So then
Rose BB29: Yeah. Event- yeah, yeah, eventually, eventually they're just sort of like, "Eh, you can get a lot of stuff with this car." But it was, could cost more money. You could apply it, again, to the, to the coupe, the hardtop, and there were supposedly 10 four-doors made. Supposedly
Rose BB29: fours and then one two. Get four valve stem caps, four quarts of fluid in your transmission, and two gallons of gas. It's quite a bargain. Or a two-row radiator. How's that? However you want to mix it up, they'll give you some stuff.
Rose BB29: talked about that article I read a long time ago where a guy was talking about, he's like, "You buy a car, you don't realize you've entered a 100 years long blood war." Oh, a Ford guy's here.
Rose BB29: uh, I just think like the GM brakes, like the slide pin brakes are super easy to put on other kits.
Emily BB29: Yeah, it's true
Okay, so Ryan says 400 four-speed dual exhaust, but I think that should be 400 four-barrel dual exhaust. Because the three-speed be- in '65, the 400 is the, is the moniker in '65, and then it came with a three-speed standard. Three on the tree even. So I think Ryan's a little funky on the mix-up there.
But Johnny Olds nailed it, 'cause he goes with the '65 definition, 400, four-barrel, dual exhaust, right? And then 221forlife is ready to split hairs over the topic. Oh, yeah. What year started as four-speed, four-barrel, dual exhaust? It wasn't a model unto itself, right?
Emily BB29: I did. I went back and gave it to him.
Emily BB29: Okay. Oh, so it was two different... The F85 is a car? Yeah. Oh, okay I think I mostly hear about the Cutlass 442. Yeah. Yeah. So the trim package. Okay. Well, I sound like a ding-dong right now, so I'm gonna be quiet.
Emily BB29: Yeah, so it's a lot of different things. Yeah. Um, what year was that first one? Was that '65 you said? '64. '64, okay. One of those is '64. So those are, those are really the only true 442s then, kind of. Yeah.
Emily BB29: It's interesting. It's interesting. Uh, Jess said, uh, all-wheel drive will go to the wheels that need it, and all-wheel drive can split the power between front and rear, whereas four-wheel drive is a 50/50 split front and rear. One wheel in the front turns and one wheel in the back turns. And then, uh, Ryan Shevlin said four-wheel drive is selectable, all-wheel drive is not.
Okay. Whereas a four-wheel drive can only... It just splits it down the middle. It's like the same amount of power goes to the front as goes to the back.
Rose BB29: specifically what I was thinking, was that if you were out wheeling and you broke your-
Emily BB29: Yeah. Oh, it's super sophisticated. It's a very sophisticated,
Emily BB29: I would like to own a, a four-wheel drive someday too. So four-wheel drive , as Ryan and, um, Rizzo said, is activated by the driver electronically or manually. Um, and it is not really for use on dry pavement. That will fuck it up. You don't wanna be rolling around in four-wheel drive if you're just going to the mall or going to pick up some decorative pillows.
Emily BB29: But, um, it'll, they, you're, you're not supposed to do four-wheel drive on the dry pavement, though. Am I wrong in- Four-wheeling? Four-wheeling. You're not supposed to four-wheel the dry pavement. But they are meant for off-road climbing, crawling, deep mud, and deep snow. Okay. So they'll totally shine in those, whereas an all-wheel drive is usually, um...
Everybody's spotting them, and they're flagging their way through. I'm for that. Like, I do think that that... I, I don't think that things like that are meaningless. Like, I think that, like, being like, "Yeah, I cri- climbed my truck through this butt crack of a rock," like, I'm into that.
Emily BB29: you get m- I mean, you rode through on the back of the truck is what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah. You were in the back of a truck riding through? Yeah. Yeah. Scott rode, president of our van club, Scott Hodge
Rose BB29: We didn't... It, it's a tractor. Oh. We pa- Massey 165. We just took that down. I mean, I can think of, yeah, Christmastimes where, like, Dad pulled me on the sled behind it fishtailing with the tractor. But, like, scary stuff first of all, but, like, we didn't have a, we didn't have a four-wheeler.
Rose BB29: Hmm. Well, hey, what's your question for next week? My question for next week: What do the letters, okay, thinking about Pontiac and GTO battling it out with the Le Mans and the, and the 442, what does GTO stand for? We're going back to some,
Rose BB29: yeah ... with the GTO, uh, the 442. I mean, not to say the Chevelle's not nothing, not to say that the Torino's not nothing. Uh, and, you know, I guess the Mustang
Emily BB29: Desperate. Brand new tires after buying, uh, used tires for, uh, quite a while, because as everybody who listens to this show knows, I have a tendency to curb. Not the Corvette, but I have a tendency to curb the Honda all the time. Um, and anyway, I finally was sick of them going flat, and so I was like, "I'm getting myself some brand new
Emily BB29: I hope so. I think so too. I think everybody's gonna be on my side.
Emily BB29: is up on YouTube and I'm not making a public announcement on the Instagram until I get 50 episodes up. I'm going through the entire, uh, Car Crush catalog, which is, uh, I think this will be our 190th episode
About this episode
The hosts kick off a Brain Buster trivia segment that quickly turns into a drivetrain deep-dive, comparing how all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive distribute power and when each is appropriate. The trivia also sparks a debate over muscle-car specs, including what the correct “400” setup should be for a classic Cutlass 442 discussion. Later, the show pivots to a GTO acronym question, then Emily explains why she finally bought brand new tires after repeatedly going flat from curbing her Honda.
